Opening of the UT Field Lab

Today the UT Field Lab, formerly Living Innovation Lab (LILa) was formally opened. It was great to see so many people visit the site and learn about our experiments. I even got several prospective building occupants to agree to help out with our upcoming measurements. Speaking of upcoming, what does our part of the site look like now? Part one of construction is completed! The roof now has a fall protection barrier installed. We are still waiting for the staircase, but as it is steel, it requires drilling into the ground for anchoring which takes somewhat more time to arrange. For now, here is the new roof. And our new UT FIeld Lab jackets!

 

The terrain also had some last day upgrades with new signage and QR codes to link to more information.

My setup was rather empty as the outside of the building, but I brought in as much visualization as possible. There were touchable layers of a green roof, examples of all the exterior sensors, and a simplified 3D Lego demonstration of the different types of roofs and walls to examine. Along with slides, this gave a better representation than merely the barren walls existing now. 

The event was well attended. I only wish there was more time for us to visit each other's research sites. More details and interviews and a video with the main leads at the UT news websites.