This audio was created using Microsoft Azure Speech Services
At a charity event this past weekend, I had the pleasure to meet an 18-year-old relative of a good friend. This teenager was in her senior year at an American high school, and I could sense her excitement about going off to college this fall. Our conversation made me go back a few years (or more!) to my own university experience; since then, I’ve thumbed through old photo albums, reached out to close Baylor University friends to plan a reunion, and thought about the actual campus where I spent four wonderful year of my life.
Today, when I brainstormed a few topics to write about for this blog, and I kept going back to the thought of the university campus. In a past role at Schneider Electric, I spent nearly three years studying the dynamic of higher education buildings and the environments these facilities foster. How can educators provide the best learning places for students? What is the fine line that university administrators must walk between providing attendees a safe campus and offering students freedom?
Sometime during this period when I—and university officials that I had the pleasure of meeting around the world—often debated these questions, the thought of using an integrated infrastructure to maximize both energy efficiency and security came about often. This theory resulted in the concept of creating an efficient campus that becomes an optimal learning environment; saves money; and protects people, property, and our planet.
When university—and other enterprise-wide campuses—are designed or renovated with this purpose in mind, building operators are able to gain sustained results over time. In the higher education space, students are calling for green buildings, parents require a safe campus, and researchers need reliable facilities. By partnering with an expert in energy management and security in the university space, higher education leaders can create an efficient campus that enables them to focus on their core mission of education.
After taking this walk down memory lane, it’s time for me to come back to present-day life. As the end of another school year here in the US soon comes to an end, I wish all graduates luck as the move on to another chapter in their lives and the rest of us a safe and comfortable place to live, work, and play.
Conversation
Brandy Moore
12 years ago
My belief is that as campuses get more complex through the utilization of technology for energy savings, security, education and more, integration is going to become the norm rather than a future “high-tech” solution. The campus administrators I talk to aren’t in a position to add much in the way of staffing so tools to make the existing teams more efficient are necessary.