Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 75.88
Liaison Deborah Steinberg
Submission Date Dec. 17, 2024

STARS v2.2

Carnegie Mellon University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Deborah Steinberg
Green Practices and Sustainability Manager
FMCS
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Campus Engagement

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Campus Engagement?:
No

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Campus Engagement:
---

Public Engagement 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Public Engagement?:
No

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Public Engagement:
---

Air & Climate 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Air & Climate?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Air & Climate:

The junior level civil engineering project aims to establish a sensor network to monitor air quality and address questions about air quality on campus and in the region. Monitoring and improving air quality for both indoors and outdoors are crucial for community well-being. Students installed 18 Purple Air® sensors around campus, collecting data every minute over four weeks. They were tasked with preprocessing, cleaning, analyzing, and visualizing this data to make conclusions. Learning objectives included gaining familiarity with PM2.5 sensors, accessing and visualizing large data sets, strategically placing sensors, calibrating them, executing the measurement plan, collecting data, and interpreting it to answer research questions.


Buildings  

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Buildings?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Buildings:

The Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW) is a living laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University dedicated to advancing innovations in building enclosure, mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, and interior systems, as well as their integration for individual productivity, organizational adaptability, human comfort and health, as well as the highest level of environmental sustainability. The IW is home to the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD). Faculty and graduate students housed within CBPD have developed several diagnostic devices and user interfaces to assess and communicate building performance information to occupants both on and off campus. Here is an example of a recent student project: 

An Automatic Mobile Sensing Platform for Indoor Environmental Quality Assessments

The student built an Indoor Environmental Quality robot in the IW. Traditional methodologies for assessing IEQ from both objective and subjective perspectives present certain limitations. To address the aforemen-
tioned challenges associated with conventional IEQ assessments, this thesis introduces an innovative automated mobile platform to facilitate simultaneous, continuous, and autonomous evaluation of IEQ conditions.

 


Energy 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Energy?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Energy:

The Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW) is a living laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University dedicated to advancing innovations in building enclosure, mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, and interior systems, as well as their integration for individual productivity, organizational adaptability, human comfort and health, as well as the highest level of environmental sustainability. The IW is home to the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD). Faculty and graduate students housed within CBPD have developed several diagnostic devices and user interfaces to assess and communicate building performance information to occupants both on and off campus. Here is an example of a recent student project: 

CoBi: Bio-Sensing Building Mechanical System Controls for Sustainably Enhancing Individual Thermal Comfort

The student used the IW to conduct human subject experiments and control system implementation experiments. For his dissertation he researched "human physiological responses to establish an adaptive thermal comfort controller, which can be triggered by an individual’s unique and changing bio-signals for automatic mechanical system controls."  Basically, he identified which points on the human body are good places to put a sensor and then the sensor would identify whether or not a person was hot, cold, or comfortable so that the HVAC system could be controlled automatically. Thermal control innovations for building mechanical systems are critically needed to demonstrate that meeting the physiological needs of occupants can actually save energy and improve environmental quality while enhancing user satisfaction.


Food & Dining 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Food & Dining?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Food & Dining:

The first-year writing course, Writing About Public Problems, asks students to write a proposal to remedy a perceived problem. Many students choose to write about campus-issues. Recently, proposals have focused on proposing solutions related to carryout containers used by campus dining locations. Students learned about challenges related to infrastructure, food safety, and composting, which informed the ideas and solutions they proposed. Some students turned their proposals into action and are collaborating with dining staff to develop improved signage for waste collection bins.


Grounds 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Grounds?:
No

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Grounds:
---

Purchasing 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Purchasing?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Purchasing:

In response to a deep need for more inclusivity and fairness in institutional purchasing, students supported The Center for Shared Prosperity at Carnegie Mellon University to establish an Equitable Procurement Program (EPP) aimed at fostering equality, diversity, and social responsibility. This initiative emphasizes transparent, unbiased, and inclusive procurement practices to benefit a wider range of suppliers, focusing particularly on a cohort of ten black-owned restaurants and caterers in the Pittsburgh region. 


Transportation 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Transportation?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Transportation:

CMU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)’s research and education efforts are centered around four key focus areas, each aimed at addressing critical challenges and advancing our understanding of civil and environmental engineering. One is the Sustainable Energy and Transportation Systems (SETS) focus area. An education focus in SETS provides students with the expertise to tackle complex challenges in energy and transportation. Many of the projects in SETS start with a focus on Carnegie Mellon's campus and the Pittsburgh community. 

Recent examples of projects include:

A Digital Twin Virtual Testbed for Sustainable and Equitable Autonomous Food Delivery

This project aims to develop a digital twin virtual testbed for simulating food delivery using trucks, sidewalk robots, and drones. This tool will help state and local agencies set equitable policies on sidewalk right-of-way, pricing, and safety regulation, and enable food delivery services to assess how different distribution models impact costs, fresh food access, energy use, emissions, and profitability across various neighborhoods.

Optimizing Mobility Subsidies an infrastructure in Multimodal Transportation Networks

Researchers look to optimize the allocation of mobility subsidies and infrastructure investments across urban areas to address spatial biases in current network designs. By leveraging a flexible multimodal network computational model, the research aims to ensure equitable access to essential services through improved distribution of shared bikes, e-scooters, and transportation network vehicles.


Waste 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Waste?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Waste:

Students enrolled in the course, Intro to CEE in fall of 2023 and 2024, participated in a project titled Recover/Upcycle: The Circular Economy. To effectively manage waste, understanding local waste streams becomes crucial. In this project, we addressed student curiosity for seeking out new information about hard-to-recycle waste streams at our university. This involved making connections while analyzing our campus and local Pittsburgh needs, applying creative problem-solving to ambiguous challenges, and developing solutions aligned with Cradle-to-cradle principles. The value proposition lies in transforming waste into wealth while minimizing environmental impact. This project researched opportuities for hard-to-recycle materials that are commonly found on Carnegie Mellon's campus. Students engaged with campus staff and presented them solutions and suggestions for diverting these materials from the landfill. 


Water 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Water?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Water:

The capstone experience for Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) undergraduates consists of problem-solving project courses to synthesize technology-policy issues with social science analysis. In the EPP Projects Course, students experience working on unstructured, real-world problems that, for proper treatment, require teamwork and contributions from diverse disciplines. This course often uses campus and Pittsburgh as the focus of its topic.

In Fall 2023, this course was titled "Mitigating Flood Risks and Impacts in Pittsburgh's Four Mile Run". Pittsburgh’s topography and urban development over time have resulted in several areas of the city having high flood risk. One of these areas is Four Mile Run, in which Carnegie Mellon's main campus is located. The projects included a policy analysis that involved modeling rainfall and water flow, stormwater monitoring, predicting flood levels under different technical solutions, understanding the economic viability of different options, and incentivizing flood prevention options, among other topics. 


Coordination & Planning 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Coordination & Planning?:
No

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Coordination & Planning:




Diversity & Affordability 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Diversity & Affordability?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Diversity & Affordability:

All Dietrich College first-year students are required to take a Grand Challenge Seminar, which focus on real, complex global problems like climate change, food insecurity or racism. 

In Fall 2024, one of the seminar courses was titled "Equitable Access and Success in Higher Education: A CMU Case Study". Students in the course collaboratively engaged with primary source material to develop a final creative project that considered the history of various affirmative action initiatives at CMU and made connections between these earlier efforts and today’s current programs. 


Investment & Finance 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Investment & Finance?:
No

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Investment & Finance:
---

Wellbeing & Work 

Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Wellbeing & Work?:
Yes

A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Wellbeing & Work:

Scottie Sound Bath is a pioneering endeavor in wellness and innovation, driven by the passionate minds of music entrepreneurship students at the School of Music in collaboration with Student Affairs and Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation. Their mission is to introduce the transformative power of sound baths to the university community and to facilitate further scientific investigation into the healing power of music. The goal is to add an enjoyable research-based modality to CMU’s menu of self-care offerings.


Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s living laboratory program is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.