Room sensors trial

Footfall sensors will be placed in a small number of teaching rooms in Clerici as part of a trial to improve the environmental performance of our buildings.

During Semester 1 of the new academic year, the University will be implementing a pilot scheme at Headington Campus to help ensure we are making the best use of our buildings and improve their environmental performance. 

As part of the trial, up to 30 footfall and environmental sensors will be temporarily installed in seven Clerici teaching rooms, as well as two staff office areas in the Buckley building.  

This type of system, which is already widely adopted by a number of universities and many other organisations, is designed to be unobtrusive and is anonymous in its data gathering.

The data gathered by the sensors will enable the University to better respond to space requirements and particularly as the University brings together its Oxford-based activity onto the Headington Campus over the coming years. 

Greater understanding of our use of campus spaces will also help the University to meet its sustainability commitments.

The sensors, which anonymously detect the presence of people and count them in and out of spaces, will be placed at the entrance to rooms on campus. 

It then relays real-time information on occupancy to wireless receivers, which in turn forward the data to a secure, cloud-based storage facility. This facility will only be accessible to a small number of designated and trained University staff and no personal data will be recorded.

The system is specifically designed to be re-deployable and it is expected that the sensors will be used in other spaces on campus in future, following the initial trial period during Semester 1.