Factors that influence students' satisfaction with their physical learning environments

Purpose- To identify personality types between different university disciplines, and to establish whether there are differing requirements in the design of physical learning environment. Also to identify features of the physical learning environment that can support a sense of community. This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between student’s personality and preferences of features of the built environment. Design/methodology/approach- Quantitative questionnaires were distributed in three university disciplines based on the variables personality, elements of the physical learning environment and features that could support a sense of community. Findings- The analysis revealed that there is differences in preferred features within the physical learning environment for the three university disciplines within a large UK based University. It can also be seen that there is differences in personality profiles between these three university disciplines. Features of the environment that could support a sense of community have been also identified . Research implications- Those who are responsible for the design and refurbishment of Higher Education Institutions may find this research useful to improve the facilities for students. To support the development of appropriate physical learning spaces through the understanding of students requirements . Originality/value-This paper presents a new perspective on how the development of Higher Education Facilities can be designed to increase student experience by identifying specific features of the physical learning environment students prefer. Keywords- Higher Education; Physical learning environment; Personality; Community. Paper type- Research pape

Critical Strategic Issues For The Integration Of Facilities Management Into The Development Process

Purpose: This paper identifies the critical strategic issues for the integration of facilities management (FM) into the development process (DP). It explains the factors that limit the integration and recognises the best practices applied in the property development industry in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a qualitative research approach through semi-structured interviews from the FM and property development industry in the UK. Findings: The study discovered that the recognition of FM in the property development industry is encouraging. However, FM has been given a low priority in the property development industry, resulting in Facilities Managers being inadequately integrated into the development process. Research limitations/implications: Practical implications: Social implications: Originality/value: The paper suggests that it is imperative to understand these strategic issues to promote best practice in the industry that improve the position of FM in the property development industry

A smart adaptive lighting system for a multifunctional room

Young professionals and millennials who live alone or are living in small groups and seek practicality, trigger the trend of smaller, modular and micro houses and apartments which are faster and cheaper to build. Multifunctional or flexible room is one of the important parts of the home. This particular room needs well-designed lighting for comfort. It should give an adequate illuminance for every activity and even pattern of light. This paper presents the factors for developing the smart adaptive lighting system which can provide lighting comfort for the occupants. The simulation is being done in 5 scenarios in the LJMU BRE 2010 house model using DIALux Software with the dimmable type of LED independent luminaire. The proposed system structure uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) and big data processing as the main components. The design employs an Artificial Intelligence (AI) sub-system which has the capability to predict and adaptively regulate the illumination level based on the occupant needs or routine. The simulation shows that this system is able to give even lighting pattern for luminance values 200, 250, 300, 500, and 750 lux which are needed by the occupants. With the possibility of user-defined lighting values, this system can be developed to accommodate the needs of special groups of occupants such as the elder or disabled groups. © 2019 IEEE

Developing a Reliable Shallow Supervised Learning for Thermal Comfort using Multiple ASHRAE Databases

The artificial intelligence (AI) system faces the challenge of insufficient training datasets and the risk of an uncomfortable user experience during the data gathering and learning process. The unreliable training data leads to overfitting and poor system performance which will result in wasting operational energy. This work introduces a reliable data set for training the AI subsystem for thermal comfort. The most reliable current training data sets for thermal comfort are ASHRAE RP-884 and ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II, but the direct use of these data for learning will give a poor learning result of less than 60% accuracy. This paper presents the algorithm for data filtering and semantic data augmentation for the multiple ASHRAE databases for the supervised learning process. The result was verified with the visual psychrometric chart method that can check for overfitting and verified by developing the Internet of Things (IoT) control system for residential usage based on shallow supervised learning. The AI system was a Wide Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is simple enough to be implemented in a local node. The filtering and semantic augmentation method can increase the accuracy to 96.1%. The control algorithm that was developed based on the comfort zone identification can increase the comfort acknowledgement by 6.06% leading to energy saving for comfort. This work can contribute to 717.2 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year which is beneficial for a more sustainable thermal comfort system and the development of a reinforced learning system for thermal comfort

Preventing or inventing? Understanding the effects of non-prescriptive design briefs

© 2016, The Author(s). This paper discusses observations of an architecture and environmental engineering undergraduate design studio project assigned to 4th year students at a UK university. In the UK, most architecture courses are characterised by a high proportion of design studio teaching supported by varying amount of technical modules that include environmental and construction learning. Recent scholarship on sustainability education in architecture, discusses the necessity for new approaches that enhance transdisciplinarity, autonomy and independent decision-making. However, despite increasing importance to both practice and policy, few empirical or theoretical examples account for the implications or experiences of such an approach. This study presents the experiences of an architecture and environmental engineering design studio whereby studio activities are closely interlinked with technical engineering enquiry and experiment. Specifically, the research examines the challenges and opportunities students face when assigned a design project that attempts to translate independently derived briefs into novel architectural environmentally engineered interpretations. The analysis draws on a series of ethnographic narrative and visual observations carried over a period of 6months. The implications of the findings are threefold. First, the analysis shows the opportunities an integrated cross-disciplinary approach can offer, where the gap between creative and technical domains is narrowed. Second, the study presents some of the challenges faced by increased autonomy and lack of prescription that students encounter. Third, the paper contributes to an emerging agenda of sustainability education in the built environment by offering valuable insights into the benefits and difficulties cross-disciplinary approaches pose to architectural education

Spider–Plant Interactions: An Ecological Approach

Spiders are among the most common animals in diverse terrestrial environments, and display a variety of lifestyles and foraging modes. This chapter represents an overview of our knowledge of spider–plant interactions. Spiders are strongly influenced by plant architecture, rather than being randomly distributed in the vegetation; structures such as rosette-shaped clusters of leaves or glandular trichomes are particularly common in plants that have associations with spiders. Spiders derive benefits from plants such as shelter and access to insect prey. In turn, they can protect plants against herbivory. However, they may also consume or deter pollinators, imposing a cost that can exceed their benefit to the plant. Specific spider–plant associations are mutualistic if spiders provide protective or nutritional benefits, thus improving plant fitness, and if plants provide shelter and suitable foraging sites to spiders. We examine several case studies of spiders living in association with plants, and describe spatial/temporal adaptations in spider–plant relationships