Today, the digital world is literally at our fingertips in our everyday lives to live, research, and explore. Higher education is at the forefront of a digital transformation on all fronts. Not only does your educational institution play a vital role in preparing students for tomorrow’s workforce, but today’s students also are a digitally savvy generation who expect a seamless, intuitive experience as part of a connected campus community.
A digitally connected campus is one that leverages the power of digitalization to deliver that intuitive, campus experience – a truly Smart Campus –that is digitally connected to the next generation,
for the next generation.
Today’s students base their choice of institution on their perception of the campus experience, as well as the institution’s purpose and value. As you strive to be the campus of choice and deliver the optimal campus experience, where students can do their best learning, living, and exploring, this requires today’s campus to deliver a more digital now “ed space.” Likewise, faculty and staff also have their own expectations for their workspaces to allow them to focus on their purpose of teaching or research, as well as promoting the mission of the institution. The time to embrace the benefits of digital transformation is now, which allows your institution to leverage the latest technologies to increase excellence while decreasing costs.
Making investments in technology and smart infrastructure may seem out of reach, yet today’s higher education leaders recognize the value in modernizing campus infrastructure that offers immediate efficiency and operational benefits while creating the right foundation for a smarter tomorrow.
Challenges to achieving excellence:
- Modernize infrastructure and systems to make facilities more competitive and predictable
- Digitalize to make operations seamless and leverage technology for greater efficiency
- Incorporate technology into research + academic programs
However, aging campus facilities and infrastructure, along with deferred maintenance, continue to complicate efforts to effectively achieve your campus’ mission and meet the needs of your community. Still, students, faculty, and staff deserve excellence from their institutions – including excellence within these facilities, from classrooms and research areas to dormitories and other shared campus spaces. Alumni want to return and celebrate their campus days and success – even contribute to the campus’ future financially.
The need for creating a roadmap to a smart campus has never been clearer; it’s one that harnesses the power of smart buildings and digitalization to be more connected, efficient, and sustainable. For example, a smart campus today is one that is automated and smart, from optimized comfort and lighting that’s delivered wherever and whenever needed, along with wayfinding for open yet secure living and learning areas. Smart campuses also adopt renewables and electric vehicle (EV) charging via a microgrid that enables greater resilience to help achieve campus decarbonization commitments. With the changing needs of tomorrow’s workforce skills, even the built environment can be put to work by demonstrating real-world solutions, research, and hands-on learning opportunities.
A digitally connected, smart campus not only enables more efficient, sustainable operations, but also provides a rich educational opportunity for students and faculty. Your state-of-the-art facilities flex as a real-world living lab providing experiential learning and collaboration spaces. Today’s smart campus is digitally connected to the next generation, for the next generation.
By taking the right steps today, we can transform our educational infrastructure so that it’s smarter, safer, more sustainable, and even more resilient so that it can support top-notch academic programs and innovative research facilities. In turn, this can translate into enhanced efficiency, improved comfort, and lower cost of operations.