British Columbia Institute of Technology
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Living Labs at BCIT

BCIT has been using our campuses as living labs of sustainability since 2006 when the Living Lab was identified as a strategic initiative for campus planning, to be incorporated into the Institute’s Campus Master Plan. The Living Labs of sustainability initiative is a pan-institutional, collaborative approach to hands-on learning that uses the campus as a vehicle to engage the community of students, faculty and staff in solving real-world challenges. At BCIT, Living Labs: 

• foster skills development through access to campus infrastructure and information,
• demonstrate leading edge technologies and equipment, and
• present opportunities to conceptualize, design and implement solutions that advance the state of practice.

Link Magazine

Link Magazine is a hub for student ideas and culture at BCIT. Published in print and online, their content is produced by a team of student editors and contributors across BCIT’s five campuses. Link magazines are printed eight times annually and distributed for free at all campuses and other community events. They publish stories about inspiring and influential students at BCIT, plus essays and features on just about any topic that connects readers to the world around them - from games and gadgets, to the environment, politics and pop culture. It provides Broadcast and Media Communications students the opportunity to learn and gain experience in print and web media. The Winter 2024 issue included articles on:

• The Need for Cultural Hubs
• Vancouver’s Housing Crisis
• 2SLGBTQ+ History at BCIT
• Repair, Resell, Reuse

Explore all issues of the Link at https://www.linkbcit.ca/magazine/

Evolution 107.9

Evolution 107.9 is a non-commercial, educational, campus radio station licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to BCIT. 

Evolution 107.9 serves as a training ground for Radio Arts & Entertainment and Broadcast & Online Journalism students wishing to pursue a professional career or a vocational activity in the media industry. Through interactive class lectures and labs, students gain expertise as writers, producers, reporters, anchors, video journalists, and more. The station also operates as a public service to BCIT, Burnaby and Metro Vancouver audiences, offering programming in “the public interest” and information about various BCIT campus events and issues. Evolution 107.9 is committed to soliciting and providing access in a non-discriminatory, progressive fashion to those traditionally underrepresented in the media. This includes, but is not limited to, women, cultural, ethnic and racial minorities, people of various sexual orientations, seniors, youth, children and the disabled. https://commons.bcit.ca/evolution1079/about/

BCST 3310 Media Lab 1is a fieldwork course where students are exposed to, and responsible for, the various key positions relating to the operation of the radio station Evolution 107.9 FM which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each job rotation is an important factor in the operation of Evolution 107.9 FM and Evolution 1079.com, allowing students to apply concepts related to media convergence. Students  receive weekly individual critiques from an instructor as they rotate through various shifts across term 3. This fieldwork course prepares students for BCST 4410 - Media Lab 2 in Term 4.

BCST 4410 builds on the experience gained in first year and intensifies student learning within the context of a television newsroom, producing a weekly newsmagazine program. Students research and develop their own television stories that are focused and timely, and are also given opportunities to be on-air hosts and show producers. Students produce a mix of stories they will shoot and edit themselves and others that will be shot and edited by students from the BCIT Television program. They feed the BCIT News website with video, photos and written content, as well as regularly posting to Twitter and Facebook. Evaluation is based on their produced stories, their role as web editors or producers (if applicable), their on-air performance and professionalism. 

YVR

In 2021, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) partnered with the BCIT Centre for Internet of Things to obtain technical expertise and provide Living Labs for students and faculty to research new processes and technology from a wide variety of applications. The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to the Internet, all collecting and sharing data. Connecting all these different objects and adding sensors to them adds a level of digital intelligence, enabling them to communicate real-time data without involving a human being. The IoT is making the fabric of the world around us smarter and more responsive, bridging the physical and digital worlds.

Two examples of Living Labs projects that have provided students with invaluable hands-on experience to help solve a sustainability challenge at YVR are: 

1. Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Project
2. Transportation Demand Artificial Intelligence Model

1. Environmental Monitoring & Analysis Project (EMA) 

YVR is located on Sea Island in the Fraser River estuary with an elevation of three metres. It is vulnerable to rising sea levels, storm surges and high flood levels in the Fraser River. As part of the airport’s need to address climate change and rising sea levels, more accurate data is required to monitor the watershed off Sea Island. 

In 2022, students from the School of Energy and School of Computing and Academic Studies joined forces with IoT and the YVR Innovation Hub to collaborate on building a water monitoring system. The purpose of which is to automate the collection and analysis of water quality in the channels around the airport.

Utilizing expertise from multiple disciplines, the project team designed and implemented:

• A smart device using C programming to connect a wide range of sensors to an Arduino
• Communication and power design addressing NB-IoT cellular communication and power consumption by the device, ensuring data is sent to the cloud
• AWS cloud architecture to store the incoming data (mentored by external experts from Rackspace and Onica)
• Web-based dashboard enabling the operator to monitor and track changes in real-time
• Mechanical and electric design and fabrication of a working prototype

These stations will enable higher accuracy of measurements and enhanced sampling rates that will reduce labour costs while improving the quality of the data. The data is collected 24/7 and is stored in the cloud. When combined with sensor data installed into weather models and tide data, it provides a complete set of data for monitoring and analytics and predicting the flow of water around YVR.

The water monitoring station prototype was installed with student involvement in Guichon Creek on BCIT’s Burnaby campus and went through several months of testing. Data monitored includes pH balance, conductivity, diffuse oxygen, water temperature, turbidity and Total Distributed Solids (TDS).

https://commons.bcit.ca/news/2022/11/vr-innovation-hub-iot-water-monitoring-station/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2sNd-laKho&t=32s

Other impact area(s): Water and Coordination and Planning

2. Transportation Demand Artificial Intelligence Model

BCIT Business Information [CP1] Technology Management students collaborated with IoT and YVR to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model that could predict transportation demand. They specifically looked at how to identify the number of taxis and carshares required every hour.

The students explored several hypotheses based on historical datasets of taxi utilization. They developed an AI model by analyzing data gathered from the number of incoming flights alongside the number of taxis entering YVR every hour.

Through this work, the students are helping the airport to better serve passengers through reduced taxi wait times and to better manage traffic while supporting YVR’s Net Zero Carbon 2030 goals.

https://commons.bcit.ca/news/2023/04/bcit-students-develop-an-artificial-intelligence-model-for-yvr/

Other impact area(s): Transportation and Coordination and Planning

CityStudio Vancouver

CityStudio [CP2] Vancouver was founded in 2011 to accelerate sustainability in higher education and provide students with direct opportunities to work in and with the City of Vancouver on urban challenges. BCIT is a key academic partner, supporter and funder and as of summer 2022 had involved 1561 BCIT students in the first ten years of partnership. In the 2021/22 academic year, 153 students researched, developed and created 41 innovative projects in collaboration with 6 faculty members and 10 City staff on topics related to existing infrastructure updates, sustainability communication with residents, and the development of internal training platforms in response to the City of Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan and others. Most of these projects utilized the local community as a living laboratory to advance sustainability. Each term BCIT matches CityStudio projects with BCIT courses and students. 

One example from 2021/22 is the As Green as the Trees project. The Vancouver Parks Board’s pursuit of the “Emissions-Fee Landscaping Equipment” B.6 motion have resulted in a transition towards purchasing electric or zero-emissions small landscaping equipment instead of gas-powered ones. Unfortunately, many service locations that house electric equipment lack sufficient infrastructure to support the quickly growing electric inventory. Students from the BCIT Business Operations Management Program were tasked with finding a solution for the lack of electrical charging infrastructure of service locations. The student team’s goal was to provide a framework and guidance allowing for the new equipment to be used effectively and efficiently by optimizing existing resources while minimizing the need for capital intensive electrical system renovation. Their solution proposes taking maximum advantage of the full 14-hour overnight charging window by introducing modular circuits allowing for staggered charging. It is a low-cost universal solution able to be implemented at any service centre or yard where the Vancouver Parks Board stores electrical equipment.

For more information on this and other projects please go to: https://citystudiovancouver.com/schools/bcit/

The Emission Reduction and Research Test Hub (ERRTH) is located on the Annacis Island campus. As an applied research facility, and one of only a few of its kind, ERRTH provides critical data needed to develop new technologies that reduce engine emissions from vehicles of all kinds. It is the home of the only Portable Emissions Measurement System on the West Coast. ERRTH tests and measures exhaust gas emissions for all modes of transportation and fuel types. Students are engaged in the research and benefit from the hands-on learning.

The Emission Reduction and Research Test Hub (ERRTH) is located at the BCIT Motive Power Centre of Excellence on Annacis Island, in Delta BC. 

Together with industry partners and all levels of government, ERRTH creates a cleaner environment by effectively measuring vehicle emissions, testing proposed solutions, and improving air quality.

Specifically, ERRTH supports new product development from proof of concept through design, testing and commercialization, and by offering objective data to governments on engine emissions. The objective is to minimize emissions while enabling the use of commercial transportation and heavy duty equipment for economic growth.

As an applied research facility, and one of only a few of its kind, ERRTH provides critical data needed to develop new technologies that reduce engine emissions from vehicles of all kinds. It is the home of the only Portable Emissions Measurement System on the West Coast. ERRTH tests and measures exhaust gas emissions for all modes of transportation and fuel types.

Students are engaged in the research and benefit from the hands-on learning.

• Also Whole Building Performance Research Laboratory - see buildings.

Whole Building Performance Research Laboratory

Whole Building Performance Research Laboratory (WBPRL) on the Burnaby campus is part of the Building Science Centre of Excellence. The WBPRL is used by Building Science students and faculty to conduct research on the dynamic interactions between building envelope components, the indoor environment and mechanical systems.

The laboratory consists of two identical 250-square foot buildings that are fully exposed to natural environmental conditions. One of the buildings is used as a reference and the other one as a test building during the evaluation of alternative design options. The building envelope components, including all the walls and the roof, are removable and fully configurable to allow testing of various building envelope systems. Each building is equipped with separate mechanical systems for heating, cooling, ventilation, humidification and dehumidification.

The WBPRL is used to evaluate various building design options in a holistic way with the objective of choosing design parameters that can lead to a reduction in energy consumption while maintaining the indoor air quality at an acceptable level for occupants’ comfort and health and prolonging the durability of building envelope components. It is valuable for research purposes as boundary conditions are realistic in magnitude, rate, sequence, and probability of occurrence.

https://www.bcit.ca/building-science-centre-of-excellence/research-facilities/

Other impact area(s): Energy and Air/Climate

Drone Technology Maps the Development of new Health Sciences Centre

The BCIT Health Sciences Centre (HSC) opened in 2022 having gone from an empty lot to a four-storey 111,460 square-feet building.

One of BCIT’s instructors captured the entire transformation using state-of-the-art remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS, aka drone) technology. Every two weeks Dr. Eric Saczuk, Coordinator of BCIT’s RPAS Hub and Geomatics Instructor, launched a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone weighing just over a kilogram to fly a set route over the site. Each flight captured more than 200 hundred still images of the project site below. These were then converted into a 3D visualisation accurate to a mere 2-3cm.

Since 2019 Eric has flown over 40 times in sunshine, snow, and clouds to create a complete record of the way the site has changed over time. Watch the timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVm-TFMq5lA

Eric explains: “The RPAS Hub contacted the School of Health Sciences because this seemed like a great opportunity to showcase drone technology in a practical setting on campus. We can demonstrate to students techniques like how to set up a flight plan to make it easier for the software to create an accurate 3D model by capturing the same area of the site multiple times to provide an added degree of accuracy.”

Flying the drones isn’t just a unique way to chart a major development. Drone technology is an important part of BCIT’s Geomatics teaching. Geomatics is the science of accurately establishing points on the earth’s surface. Students learn about the wide variety of ways to capture that data for different tasks from satellites which can cover huge areas, to field instruments that can give measurements down to the millimetre.

For construction projects like the HSC, employing drones can improve safety, efficiency, and data availability. The images acquired can be used to quickly generate accurate 3D renderings providing elevation data about features or volume estimates in a safe and timely manner to construction managers.

Christie Paxton, Senior Project Manager for the Health Sciences Building “One of the aims of our building projects is to use them as living labs to support research and teaching at the Institute, so it’s exciting to see this fascinating way of visualising the progress on Health Sciences. We’re actually installing a drone landing pad on the roof of the new building, which we hope will support similar geomatics projects in the future.”

Centre for Architectural Ecology Elevated Lab

The Centre for Architectural Ecology has built a research base on the Burnaby campus, the Elevated Lab, which is used to educate and train students and the next generation of local professionals in leading-edge green roof, living wall, and green façade technologies. These different systems have many direct impacts on the environment and community, such as limiting stormwater runoff, insulating and protecting buildings, reducing noise pollution, limiting energy consumption, cleaning the air and introducing greater biodiversity into the urban cores. Over 200 BCIT students aided in the construction of the Lab. An article written by Sean Murphy, a student in Broadcast & Online Journalism provides a good overview: https://www.linkbcit.ca/raising-the-roof/

https://commons.bcit.ca/greenroof/

Building Data

The Facilities and Campus Development team routinely provides detailed data about building systems and engineering services to students across diverse programs including Building Sciences, Engineering, and Ecological Restoration, for the purposes of using up-to-date campus data that students can then utilize in their programs. Future building projects are also incorporating student engagement into their processes, through exposing internal building 'guts' with (for example) windows to enable students to see mechanical systems, in addition to deeper engagement to identify ways that programs can be engaged in the design process. These types of windows are located on several buildings across the Burnaby campus. 

Smart Grid Infrastructure

BCIT is actively engaged in energy research, using the campus as a living lab of sustainability. Our unique smart grid infrastructure provides students valuable experiential learning by working with the technology as well as key processes. 

For example, students in the Master of Engineering in Smart Grid Systems and Technologies (MEng SGST) program (see AC 4: Graduate Program) utilize the facilities available at the Burnaby Campus which include ubiquitous modern smart grid infrastructure and a fully operational islanded microgrid. The smart grid infrastructure is an ideal living laboratory as it includes many scaled-down elements of the future smart grid that students can work with to support their education.

The Energy OASIS (Open Access to Sustainable Intermittent Sources) project demonstrates solutions that could be employed to help reduce the impact of fast-charging on the electric grid. Given Canada’s size, and the distances covered to travel, an environmentally sustainable transportation system has to provide electric vehicles the energy they need to move people and goods across this vast geography without jeopardizing the reliability of the electric grid. The project integrates photovoltaic panels and Li-Ion energy storage for a Level-3 fast charge electric vehicle charge station within BCIT’s Smart Microgrid system. Students review data collected from the Energy OASIS to investigate operation, reliability, and sustainability challenges and issues.

More information: https://www.bcit.ca/applied-research/smart-microgrid/energy-oasis/

Other impact area(s): Transportation

• Also Whole Building Performance Research Laboratory - see buildings.

BCIT’s Natural Health and Food Products Research Group (NRG) addresses issues of product quality, process improvement and human health using basic and applied science along with state of the art technology. Their goal is to ensure that all Canadians can achieve the potential health and economic benefits offered by medicinal plants, natural health products and the food industry. Food Technology Students are required to complete an industry project during their final term of study. NRG researchers help supervise students throughout this process in the research lab when projects require the use of advanced analytical equipment and methodology.

South Campus Wetland Restoration

The Burnaby campus is the largest campus at 130.7 acres. It has a network of approximately 54 buildings located on the north end of campus. The south end of campus has a forested area with second growth trees and other vegetation characteristic of its Coastal Western Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone (CWHdm). The campus is situated in the Brunette River watershed and Guichon Creek runs from the south forest to the north end of campus. The campus grounds are regularly utilized for experiential student learning. 

Healthy soils are important indicators of ecological health. They contribute to air quality, storm water management, water quality and plant growth. Students from our Forest and Natural Areas Management (FNAM) and Fish, Wildlife and Recreation (FWR) programs regularly sample soils on campus - comparing soil samples from the built area in the north end to those from the forest in the south end.

In September 2020, students from the Ecological Restoration (ER), FNAM, and FWR programs worked together in collaboration with staff to expand a wetland at the south end of the Burnaby campus near Guichon Creek. The existing wetland was very small and shallow and had been impacted by human activities, so the site was excavated to create a larger pond area. After construction, students planted native riparian and aquatic plants and the wetland filled naturally with groundwater. The aim of the project was to create a more diverse ecosystem that could support a number of birds, mammals, and amphibians while also slowing, filtering, and storing water within the Guichon Creek watershed.

The area is a unique living lab, providing students the opportunity to observe how the wetland recovers from the construction phase and thrives over time. A key component of an adaptive management approach to ecological restoration is ongoing monitoring and maintenance as well as analysis of the effectiveness of the restoration. In 2023, ER students were required to respond to a hypothetical Request for Proposal by developing a proposed monitoring plan that would assess wildlife habitat characteristics within the wetland and surrounding forested area. The students carried out many of their proposed monitoring methods including vegetation and bird surveys, water quality assessments, as well as monitoring the site using wildlife cameras. The cameras captured mallards, wood ducks, song sparrows, and a raccoon in and around the wetland. More information on the project can be found in the article and video at the link: https://commons.bcit.ca/news/2020/11/south-wetland-restoration-project/.

Other impact area(s): water

Ecological Restoration

Ecological Restoration students conduct capstone projects in their final year. Several teams of students have developed restoration plans for sites on the BCIT Burnaby campus. These plans have helped BCIT understand current conditions, and have provided recommendations for enhancing ecological values. For example, the project featured in Innovation D was based upon a student proposal. The students proposed restoring the parking lot to an upland riparian forest. Their paper was referenced during the design phase of the project where excavated fill from the Health Sciences Centre construction project was utilized to ecologically restore a parking lot adjacent to Guichon Creek.

Other impact area(s): waste

Survey students have installed markers on buildings and various structures across campus to enable a stable testing area to verify and train on surveying techniques.

Smart Grid Systems and Technologies, Masters of engineering

There is growing demand for sustainability and carbon-neutrality to be at the forefront of business strategies, innovation, and industry. Across Canada, smart grids are widely adopted to ensure safe and efficient delivery of power in an environmentally responsible manner – helping municipalities and energy providers advance their sustainability goals. 

BCIT’s campuses and the surrounding municipalities are used as living laboratories by students in the Smart Grid Systems and Technologies, Master of Engineering program (see AC-4 for more information). The smart grid infrastructure includes many scaled-down elements of the future smart grid that students can work with to support their education. They are used to demonstrate the implementation of smart city technologies and sustainable transportation and/or to identify where these technologies might have a significant impact.

• Also YVR Transportation Demand Artificial Intelligence Model - see public engagement.
• Also Smart Grid Infrastructure - see energy.

The Wood-Waste-to-Energy Project was borne out of a concept from BCIT instructors that would allow woodworking shops and studios in remote areas, many of them on First Nations reserves, to heat their building while relying less on costly and polluting fossil fuel energy sources. Implementation of this technology at BCIT improves accessibility to the regional woodworking industry, providing a hands-on example to foster broader deployment.

BCIT saw this opportunity as a way to reduce solid waste disposal, greenhouse gas emissions, and utility costs, as well as engaging faculty and students in a hands-on, living-lab piece of working campus infrastructure.

Ensuring only clean, kiln-dried lumber offcuts are used for the fuel stream is a crucial component of the air quality emissions permit. This engages students in the woodworking programs, who sort wood waste and have a hands-on connection to the fuel that heats their working spaces. Faculty and students from the School of Construction and Environment are using the project for research, determining whether alternative fuels can be safely combusted (e.g. sawdust, alternatives to glued/painted wood), and whether fly ash from the boiler can be used for horticultural purposes on campus instead of going to landfill.

Other impact area(s): energy, air/climate

During the 1920’s Guichon Creek was still a vibrant part of the ecosystem, and people could catch fish along its banks. From 1930 to 1960 the creek was urbanized and the lower half was culverted. In the 70’s and 80’s restoration work began at the south end of the creek. BCIT, students, the River’s Institute and the City of Burnaby worked to restore the creek.

Guichon Creek transects the east side of BCIT’s Burnaby Campus and is a fish bearing stream at its south end. Near the mid-point on campus, Guichon Creek spills into a large concrete culvert and travels underground through the north-east quadrant of the campus. 

BCIT’s Campus Development Plan identifies daylighting the entire length of Guichon Creek as an important objective that supports the Institute’s sustainability goal to become ecologically restored and a functional aquatic ecosystem. 

The restoration of the creek also provides a Living Lab opportunity for students in many programs. Students work along the creek to learn and conduct a variety of assessments used in natural resources management and environmental monitoring. Among other parameters, student assess fish, invertebrates, and water quality. This work helps students deeper understand the interconnectedness of sustainability, and advances sustainability on campus by helping us identify ways of enhancing Guichon Creek.

• Also YVR Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Project - see public engagement.
• Also South Campus Wetland Restoration - see grounds

Factor Four is a large scale living lab project housed within the School of Construction and Environment. The initiative includes various buildings on the Burnaby campus, composed into the “Factor Four Area”.

BCIT Factor Four aims at a fourfold improvement in resource efficiency – the amount of wealth (services) generated per unit of resource used – within the Factor Four Area. The purpose is to use these buildings to explore whether a fourfold (75%) reduction in materials and energy use can be achieved without compromising service levels (building occupant health and comfort and educational program delivery). Our aim is to adaptively restructure the built environment to create an EcoCity fractal.

Since 2009, this initiative has achieved a 50% reduction in energy and greenhouse gas emissions across seven buildings, as well as 80% reductions in individual buildings. Over 250 students from 12 programs have been engaged in over 26 projects.

https://youtu.be/5Em75vlHDdM

Other impact area(s): energy, waste

• Also YVR Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Project - see public engagement.
• Also YVR Transportation Demand Artificial Intelligence Model - see public engagement.

DIVERSITY CIRCLES

BCIT’s Diversity Circles is an initiative through the BCIT Respect, Diversity, and Inclusion Office. Diversity Circles holds panels, workshops, focus groups, and other events for the BCIT community, to support engaging in safe and productive conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion within a model not motivated by hierarchy.

Diversity Circles events are open to all members of the wider BCIT community including students, Student Association, BCIT alumni, staff, faculty, as well as invited guests. Since 2015, Diversity Circles has held over 150 events and consultations.

Diversity Circles was launched following extensive consultation with Indigenous knowledge holders who helped the team develop an Indigenous framework and who still guide the team in supporting dialogue about diversity, inclusion, and equity.

At its core, the “Diversity Circles Framework” provides an alternative to "outcome-based" or deficit models where individuals who don’t “fit in” are “weeded out.” In contrast, a strengths-based model allows individuals to recognize and share their own strengths and gifts with the community.

Diversity Circles events connect people, flatten hierarchies, and create safe spaces for sometimes difficult, but very important conversations.

Aaron “Splash” Nelson-Moody, Diversity Circles mentor, Coast Salish artist, and carver of BCIT's House Post, created the Diversity Circles logo. In Aaron's words, "The red colour we call temlh; it represents the blood of the earth or the blood of the cedar tree so it’s a sacred colour for us here in Coast Salish territory. You could say it is sort of an inner strength. It’s not completely explained in Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and hard to translate into English but I think it refers to the inner strength that we all have. I drew out some elements of the house post into this logo. We wanted to draw on the elements of the house post and reflect on the strong values that hold up the house of BCIT."

https://www.diversitycircles.com/

https://commons.bcit.ca/news/2023/03/diversity-circles-shaping-inclusivity