Data on space utilisation
The Engineering and Systems department can use dynamic infrastructure data to determine the utilisation of buildings, rooms or impersonal workspaces for students. This provides a basis for the efficient use of space. All data is anonymous and completely safe from a data protection perspective.
Why is ETH evaluating space utilisation?
The amount of space available at ETH Zurich for research, teaching and administration is not keeping pace with the growing number of researchers, students and staff. Therefore, existing space must be used more efficiently.
Currently, ETH does not collect or evaluate space utilisation data across the board, but only on a project-specific basis.
What are the benefits of this analysis?
Evaluating space utilisation data enables efficient planning and allocation of buildings, rooms and impersonal workspaces for students based on actual usage.
Potential applications include allocating lecture halls and seminar rooms of various sizes according to the number of participants, providing guidance on finding available workspaces for students and meeting rooms for staff, and scheduling cleaning cycles and opening hours based on usage.
What data is collected?
The Engineering and Systems department uses three sources of dynamic infrastructure data: the number of network connections, motion detectors, and people flow sensors.
The number of connections at each Wi-Fi access point can be determined. This information can be used to estimate the number of people in the area.
- Advantage: Data is available without the need for additional hardware. Historical data is also available, depending on the building.
- Disadvantage: The data is only approximate. It is generally not possible to assign Wi-Fi connections to specific rooms.
- Privacy: IT Services completely anonymise the data and aggregate it over time. Only the number of connections per access point and time period is reported. It is not possible to identify individual devices or persons.
The motion detectors are part of the ROOMZ platform. They report at regular intervals whether a room is free or occupied.
- Advantage: Data is collected using inexpensive, battery-powered sensors. The aggregated evaluation remains available for each sensor for two years.
- Disadvantage: Dedicated hardware is required. The data is not processed in real time.
- Privacy: The data collected is completely anonymous. It is not possible to identify individuals. The sensor only registers movement, just like the lighting control in the bathroom, basement, etc.
People flow sensors register how many people pass through a certain area within a given timeframe. Only a few of these sensors are in use at ETH, for example, at the entrance of Audimax.
- Advantage: They provide precise information on the number of people passing through a section or entering and leaving a room within a certain period of time (with an accuracy rate of 97 to 99 percent).
- Disadvantage: Special sensors are required at each passage. No historical data is available.
- Privacy: The data is completely anonymous and aggregated over time. Technically, the sensors are based on low-resolution stereo cameras. However, these do not store or forward any images. Instead, they only use them locally to calculate the number of people passing through the area. The recordings are then immediately deleted. Therefore, the data transmitted by the sensor is limited to the number of entries and exits per time period.
How is the data displayed?
Space utilisation data may be visualised and displayed on a dashboard using the appropriate tools. There is an interface available for ETH researchers analysing the data, for example in the context of living lab projects.
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This example from the OCT building shows the visualisation with Roomz Viewer (in planning). The tool makes it easier for employees to find an available meeting room or phone booth. The underlying data is provided by motion detectors in the meeting rooms, but it is not in real time. Visualisation: ETH Zurich / ROOMZ -
Visualisation of space utilisation data from the main building: dynamic infrastructure data enables efficient allocation of lecture halls and seminar rooms. This data is based on the evaluation of the number of network connections and a few people flow sensors. Visualisation: ETH Zurich / Eliona
Contact
ETH Zurich
Engineering and Systems department