Design and Development Centre

Design and Development play an important role in the Department's teaching and research. The Design and Development Centre (Development Centre) is consisted of two open plan design offices and a workstation room. The Development Centre occupies a total floor area of 320 m2, providing 80 student workstations with fast desktop computers. A dedicated student file server is linked to all PCs using Windows 10 Operation System. Supporting hardwares include HP laserjet printers, HP colour printers, HP colour plotter for large drawings, scanner, LCD projectors and multimedia facilities.

Many computer softwares have been acquired to facilitate teaching and research. Examples include AutoCAD, HevaComp, EnergyPlus, EcoTech, DIALux, FPETOOL, Matlab, Paladin DesignBase, HvacLoadExplorer, BMSOnline, PCSOL, TSOL, HKDLC99, OTTV, TrueView, SketchUp, SPSS, FLUENT, ANSYS … etc.

The Department’s laboratories and Design and Development Centre facilities are developed and maintained for teaching and research with continuous effort and emphasis, which strive to enhance the teaching of all the programmes in the Department.

Laboratories and the Development Centre will be accessible to students in Weekday evenings and Saturday afternoons at peak times of student project submission, subject to advance booking and arrangement.

Design and Development Centre is located in ZN802 of the Z Block. It provides computing facilities for BSE students. This center is for both teaching and student self studying purpose.
Hardware :
80 x Intel Core i5 Level PC system
A0 Plotter
LaserJet Printer
Ink Jet Printer
Scanner & Mutlimedia Workstation

Besides the PC systems, a PolyU Cloud Storage system and student servers with Cloud Computing Infrastructures is setup for students to store their works and used for assignment submission. All PC systems are connected to the internet and the campus network. Students can use the facilities for their projects and searching information

The Department uses a wide range of software for teaching and research, from entry level business and Design & Development applications to specialist computer modelling and analysis software.

The main items include:

General Application Software

AutoCAD 2022 - for drafting and designing of architectural layout and building services systems
MS Office 2019 - for word processing spreadsheet and powerpoint presentation
MS Project 2019 - for project management
MS Publisher 2019 - for preparing material such as newsletters, brochures, flyers.
NOD 32 - for PC system virus protection
BandiZip - file archive utility.
Artweaver - photo editing software
XnView - image viewing and processing software
Acrobat - for create and viewing PDF files.
CDBurnerXP - CD/DVD burning software

Engineering Simulation Software

Building Services Library (BSL) - For the AutoCAD environment, offering a comprehensive library of symbols and routines. BSL to link to HevaCAD, allowing design from the concept stage to final working drawings.
ASCOS - Analysis of Smoke Control Systems program

BECON - An in-house design simulation package, for HVAC system design and evaluation. The package includes OTTV, HKDLC and other sub-routines for evaluation of budding load and performance.
FACET - A sophisticated package for the design of a full range of building services systems
Electrical Distribution and Transmission Systems Analysis (EDSA) - A set of programs for electrical distribution system design and analysis
Energy Plus - For anlaysing building cooling loads for HVAC system design
Micro-DOE2 - For analysing energy use in buildings and associated heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems
Dialux - For lighting simulation and design software
CCSIM - An in-house design simulation package, for cooling coil model
BLAST (Building Loads Analysis and System Thermodynamics) - to perform peak load calculations and hourly simulation of buildings, air-handling systems and central plant
LIBRA Thermal - A finite element analysis program for solving heat transfer problems
NISA Fluid 3D - For analysing a wide range of two and three dimensional flow problems using finite element technique
HevaComp - Design software covers a range of building services systems. This package includes HevaCAD and BSL Library-HevaStar
FLOVENT - A computational fluid dynamics package for simulating flow field induced by heat sources
FLUENT - A CFD code for a wide range of flow modeling applications
PHOENICS - A computational fluid dynamics package for simulating flow field induced by heat sources
PVSOL - The Photovoltaic dynamic Simulation Programme.
TSOL - The Solar Thermal System simulation Programme.
RADIANCE - A suite of lighting simulation programs
TASEF - A finite element package for simulating the thermal fire resistance of building materials.
BMSOnline - A Simulated Living Environment of Air-conditioning and BMS for Practicing Online Controls
EcoTech - Energy simulation software
FPETool - Fire engineering calculations software
SPSS - Statistical analysis software
MatLab - Multi-paradigm numerical computing environment.