The Digital Lab

Michael Maucher, Waldner, Inc.

Our world is changing in line with universally accepted megatrends – Globalization and Sustainability; just to name two of them. But also Technology has moved into almost every aspect of our everyday life. We can turn lights on and off from our phone, open doors from our computer and even watch the latest movies and sporting events wherever whenever we like. Does this stop at the doors of our research facilities? No, it does not.

Scientific research and teaching facilities are facing ever changing requirements: the desire to manage, monitor and meter demand down to the last point of use is already part of state of the art laboratory design. User involvement plays an increasing role in exploiting the maximum level of energy conservation in modern facilities. Due to new interface technology (usability with gloves and chemical resistance) panels have already a frequent presence in laboratories. It will only be a matter of time before we will talk about BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) or the lab on your IPhone also for lab environments. Lastly, global trends like the merger of work and life, or social networking start influencing our todays working environments as well as forward looking facility design studies.

There is no question that we are looking at the inception of the digital lab – a development that will lead to a completely new way of how science and teaching will be done in the not too far future.

Interestingly, the above is much more commercialized for the domestic sector already. Everyone knows smart or digital homes but why is this not the case for high tech facilities? The answer may be complex and dependent on many factors – it should, however, not take us down the wrong conclusion – the digital lab will come!

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