Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

What are some features of a 'smart campus?'

  • By Julie Brown
  • 04/01/19

As educational institutions strive to provide a safe, comfortable, and productive learning environment, the idea of creating a “smart campus” has become more top-of-mind for school leaders, and systems integration can help achieve this goal.

By connecting once disparate systems, data can be collected and aggregated from different building applications into a centralized location. This streamlined approach allows institutions to analyze the data more easily, which can ultimately help administrators make actionable, data-based decisions to improve operational efficiencies and become more intelligent. While the systems integration process may sound complicated, accomplishing connectivity is more attainable than many may think as existing building solutions, such as lighting, can act as the building blocks for a smarter campus.

Lighting is a core component of any building, but on campus it plays a major role in the productivity and comfort of students and faculty. When integrated with other building systems, like sensors and heating and cooling systems, lighting can work as the foundation to a more intelligent and sustainable campus. By connecting with sensors, indoor lighting systems can receive insights on when classrooms are in use to turn on and modify lighting levels accordingly and outdoor lighting structures around the perimeter in parking lots can be alerted to automatically adjust to the available daylight.

Heating and cooling systems can also communicate with the lighting network and sensors to control the indoor temperature based on the weather. In both cases, systems integration can not only help a campus become smarter and more operationally sound, but the unified solutions can also uncover great energy savings.

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management April/May 2019 issue of Spaces4Learning.

About the Author

Julie Brown is an institutional market leader for Johnson Controls, Building Solutions North America (www.johnsoncontrols.com).

Featured

  • Full Sail University Announces First Student Housing Facility

    Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., recently announced that development has begun on its first student housing community, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Nvision Development for construction and long-term management of the facility, which will stand five stories and have the capacity for more than 570 beds.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.

  • Abstract tech network data connections with orange, blue glowing dots, lines

    3 Trends for Higher Education to Stay Ahead of in 2026

    As universities enter the new year, the question is no longer whether digital transformation is necessary, but how quickly institutions can convert technological potential into strategic advantage.

  • Houston K–12 District Opens New Elementary School

    The Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (Lamar CISD) recently announced the completion of a new elementary school in a western suburb of Houston, Texas, according to a news release. Haygood Elementary School measures in at 110,000 square feet, has the capacity for 854 students, and is the first of three new schools scheduled to be built in the Cross Creek West community.