During the week from 21 to 25 December there will be some work carried out in Ravelijn. Installation company Croonwolter&dros will start installing various sensors in the public areas of Ravelijn on Monday 21 December. Croonwolter&dros expects the work to be completed on Friday the 25th. In this news item you will learn more about the works and sensors. We will also explain why these sensors are being installed and to whom you can turn if you have any questions concerning the work or the sensors.
What kind of sensors are we talking about?
The “Occupational management” project of CES, LISA and CFM is part of the programme “More efficient use of COV spaces” run by CES and CFM. In this pilot, the project group aims to improve the use of the spaces available in Ravelijn by using data collected by various sensors. Motion sensors (presence and desk sensors) monitor a room. The data reveal whether a room (or a workstation in that room) is occupied or not. Person counters count the people entering or leaving a room. These counters can therefore provide an even more accurate estimate of the number of people in a room. Furthermore, Croonwolter&dros installs sound sensors to measure the noise level in a number of specific rooms. At the end of this pilot project, it is to be decided whether such sensors are to be installed in other buildings on campus as well.
Where will sensors be installed in Ravelijn?
The motion sensors will be installed in all lecture and meeting rooms, workgroup rooms, study landscapes and in the atrium of Ravelijn. In order to test which sensors work best, testing set-ups have been created in three meeting rooms (1234, 3411 and 5110) and in three lecture halls (1501, 2502 and 3334). In these rooms, the motion sensors and the person counters are placed next to each other. Ultimately, the person counters are only installed in or near lecture halls. The noise sensors will be installed at the study workplaces: in the open space on the street side (behind the oval office), in various places in the atrium and in the study landscape on Floor 3. This means you won't get sensors in your own personal office. When you really need to be in Ravelijn during the period mentioned above, you may experience some inconvenience as a result of the works being carried out.
And what about the data?
All data generated by the sensors is transferred to a sensor data platform operated by LISA. These data provide insight into the occupancy of the spaces and give answers to questions such as: in what way are the different spaces being used? When are there a lot of people in a room and when are there not so many? And do the rooms meet our requirements or can we identify - on the basis of information - the need for a different type of workspace, study area or meeting room? In addition, these data can be used for scientific research carried out at UT. For example, research into crowd control or on how we make use of our facilities during the current coronacrisis.
Your privacy is respected
You might think: but what about my privacy? The sensors are designed in such a way that your privacy is protected. Privacy by design is the project group's guiding principle. The data cannot be traced back to you as an individual. As of March next year, sensor data will also be used for purposes of scientific research. This is done in accordance with the privacy guidelines set by UT. Furthermore, research involving data recorded by the sensors is only allowed to be carried out if approved by an ethics committee.
More information
We are currently working on a website where you can find all kinds of information about the sensors, the data and the project. Do you have an urgent question right now about, for example, the works scheduled? Please contact LISA project manager, Marcella Claase (m.claase@utwente.nl, +31 53 489 9257). If you have any questions about the programme “More efficient use of COV spaces”, you can turn to Margriet Lindemann, the programme manager at CFM/CES (margriet.lindemann@utwente.nl).
