Higher Education has attempted to grapple with the efficient utilization of space for decades. The issues adding to the challenge vary from internal politics to the lack of reliable or complete data sources for decision making. Many techniques and tools can be used to try and assess or quantify the use of space. No single one seems to offer the solution. The University of New Hampshire leadership recently engaged with a software vendor to try and find a new technological approach to solving the space problem. We are currently implementing the use of this software platform that utilizes AI for the mapping of devices via wireless access points and uses the data collected for the assessment of space utilization. That’s the claim anyway. This talk will go over the challenge of the university’s leadership expectation for a technological “easy button” as well as implementation challenges associated with this solution. Join us as we attempt to hold a software contractor/consultant accountable for their claims in relation to leadership expectations and whether the solution holds up to the sniff test when compared to traditional tools used to asses space utilization.
