COVID19 - Digitalisation tool for managing and optimising occupancy of educational spaces

From a human point of view, managers of academic institutions have deeply explored how students and teachers would feel about going back to the academic activity and how they might behave differently. Users have a new challenge when using shared spaces, as occupancy is limited and the demand for space is virtually the same. From an engineering point of view, they have already looked at whether we can virus-proof spaces and improve resilience in this and future pandemics. Both of these have implications for how much space organizations might need to keep on providing services under a minimum of quality, how must they manage those facilities and ultimately how much occupiers can or choose to afford. To reduce the impact of COVID-19 outbreak conditions on use of academic spaces (free use or planned use), it is important for all, managers and students, to plan and therefore avoid inefficiencies. At this point, a Spanish Southern SME has developed a cloud-based platform to enhance data-driven decision making by monitoring the real use of spaces and comparing it with the planned activity present in ERPs This solution analyzes the patterns of use of spaces, calculating the rates of use and facilitating decision-making in operation and planning, based on real data. The solution uses a web-app that can be used from desktop and mobile devices and a series of sensors that monitor occupancy and feed information to the platform. Making use of these components, the solution facilitates the manager in making strategic decisions and improves the student's experience when using the free-use or planned-use spaces. Some functionalities provided by this tool are: 1. Planning monitoring Know in detail the fulfillment of the scheduled activity, improving the use of spaces and the quality perceived by the students. 2. Infrastructure / space monitoring Real time occupancy information, Audit of occupancy, utilization rates, WiFi quality and real-time monitoring of the cleaning service level. This IT solution is compatible with Sigma, Universitas XXI, Google Calendar, Untis, CSV files and other scheduling ERP's How it works 1. Sensorization Multi-parametric sensors are deployed and installed in a simple and easy way. These in-house developed sensors by the Spanish SME and AI, the presence, quantity and distribution of people in the spaces is detected, as well as hourly patterns of use of the same. 2. Information visualization Information is collected, processed and displayed in real time through a web panel, with which the manager can make critical decisions about the use and availability of the infrastructure. The information obtained by the sensors in the spaces is integrated with the planning. 3. Cloud analysis The information obtained by the sensors in the spaces is collected and processed by our servers, where it is possible to integrate other sources of information such as ERP, calendars or intelligent building systems (BMS). Use cases This IT solution can be used for the intelligent management of several type of spaces like: Free use spaces: * Libraries. * Study rooms. * Dining rooms. Planned use spaces: * Classrooms. * Meeting rooms. * Laboratories. * Co-working spaces. * Flexible workplaces * Assembly halls. * University offices. For example, one feature for free use spaces is that students can visualize (through a panel installed in the space) in real time the occupation and the time that each position has been reserved (documents, laptop on the table, but no person sitting on the chair), encouraging efficient use. Through a panel installed in the space, the According to use cases listed, the Spanish SME is interested in partnering with academic entities for commercial agreement with technical assistance. They are also interested in getting in contact with local IT partners for license agreements, to commercially exploit and distribute the solution to academic entities coming from licensee efforts