Big Data for Better Design
Big data, the ability of computers to process and analyze large data sets to gather insights, is being used to evaluate existing student spaces on higher education campuses and make the case for alternative design solutions that ensure campuses are equipped with the student spaces they really need.
“Data for its own sake is not very important. You have to understand how to pair it with other data sets, best practices for learning environments, and institutional benchmarks, in order to make it meaningful,” says Laboratory Planning Principal June Hanley.
Consulting Managing Principal Scott Foral agrees, saying “Until we can relate data elements together, it doesn’t become information. When we can start associating information together, then we can start to take some action on it, and it becomes knowledge. When we can start using that to predict things and start to really move forward, then we are into understanding. When we start to apply ethics and other principles to it, then we are at wisdom.”
An article by Tradeline, featuring Hanley and Foral, shares examples of how the pair used big data to demonstrate the College of Staten Island was 37% over capacity and that UT Southwest Medical Center in Dallas needed 50-person classrooms instead of large lecture halls. Read the full article "Big Data For Better Design."
