Initiative 2: Harnessing technology to deliver the future of education, today
VU ran a series of proof of concepts using Cisco technology to trial and better understand how technology could deliver a COVID-safe return to campus, create intuitive navigation services, and help VU optimize the use of its physical spaces.
Technology partners
Cisco, Cisco Meraki and MazeMap
Business challenge
The impact of COVID-19 on university campuses has been long-lasting. The acceleration of remote working—alongside blended learning—has led to more staff and students working and learning at home. This has drastically reduced demand for traditional spaces such as lecture theatres and has created pressure on universities to differentiate the campus experience.
VU wanted to understand how spaces—one of universities' largest fixed costs—were currently being used and what opportunities existed to improve utilization through digital services supporting campus activation. This included services supporting a safe return to campus (social distancing, hygiene requirements, and other COVID-safe restrictions), intuitive navigation around the campus, and immersive working and learning.
As campuses are reimagined for the future, VU also wants to understand how the data it gathers across its network of campuses can be used to monitor environmental conditions and create an automated platform for reducing the university’s environmental footprint.
Network solution
To capture data on space utilization, VU installed Cisco Meraki smart cameras, which provided secure insights into people activity in and out of the demo space. This was amplified through deployment of Webex by Cisco devices in meeting rooms, providing an intelligent meetings solution, deep analytics on room utilization, and environmental monitoring, all in one.
Data from Cisco Meraki smart cameras and Webex devices was then integrated with Cisco Wi-Fi 6 access points and Cisco Spaces (formerly Cisco DNA Spaces) to provide a unified telemetry platform with rich insights into the use of spaces and environmental conditions.
The analytics generated through this solution were used to deploy a suite of digital services enabling a safe return to campus. This included integration of Cisco Spaces with MazeMap, delivering a rich and engaging presentation of occupancy and environmental data to students and staff, and activation of active feedback features on Webex devices to inform users if room occupancy exceeded recommended levels.
Business results
By taking advantage of the deployed technologies' sensing capabilities, VU discovered new insights into asset performance, environmental conditions, and customer behavior that would assist with future campus design and deployment of new location-based services across the campus network. As part of the proof of concepts, VU could facilitate capabilities including:
- Analytics on room occupancy and dwell time, including tracking average room occupancy vs. max occupancy. These functionalities allow VU to make more informed decisions about room allocation, enforce COVID-safe density limits and automate heating and cooling based on utilization patterns.
- Analytics on who is using the campus and how frequently including student and guest presence across locations, visit time and visit duration. This allows VU to identify "dead spots" on campus that need to be activated and to measure engagement with external visitors.
- Analytics on people movement, including location heat maps that demonstrate how people are moving through campus spaces. This helps inform future changes to campus design, including encouraging freer flow of people.
- Analytics on device usage including calling devices, digital signage and whiteboarding. This helps VU to measure the return on investment from different devices and provides an evidence base for future investment in technology.
- Analytics on audio and video call quality, including the amount of uptime and frequency of call quality issues. This provides a real-time measure of the extent to which VU’s IT environment is meeting the needs of users.
- Analytics on environmental conditions including ambient noise, temperature, humidity, and air quality. This provides a real-time measure of the extent to which VU is providing a safe and comfortable teaching and learning environment for students, staff, and visitors.
- Interactive campus applications that help students and staff to identify how busy spaces are and to locate on-campus services and facilities. This helps to drive visitation to on-campus facilities, such as retail and hospitality, while also providing a frictionless on-campus navigation experience.
Early trials of analytics services deployed across the campus demonstrated significant potential. VU was able to capture data that will be critical to facilitating a richer and more collaborative on-campus experience for staff, educators, and students. The data is easily accessible (including via online portal for Cisco Spaces data) and can be integrated with other systems such as MazeMap to ensure that the campus is comfortable, easy to navigate, safe, and efficient to operate.
Going forward
VU’s proof of concepts demonstrate the feasibility of using Wi-Fi data to generate insights into space utilization and drive the design of digital services that activate the campus. While initially developed at VU’s Footscray Park campus, the solution—as well as the digital services built on top of it—has the potential to play a major role at VU’s City Campus. The deployment of SD-Access at VU’s City Campus provides the underlying technology infrastructure to run the solution and associated services at scale.
