Actual Campus Research Articles

Campus Microgrids within the South African Context: A Case Study to Illustrate Unique Design, Control Challenges, and Hybrid Dispatch Strategies

South African universities boast a remarkable solar photovoltaic (PV) resource as a primary renewable energy component. Due to high peak demand tariffs and inherent prominent heating and cooling loads, fast and granular demand response programs are well established within typical campus grids, with electrical networks adapted towards hosting centralized PV plants and emergency diesel generation. With unreliable utility supply and aging infrastructure comes a natural landscape and niche application for campus microgrids (MG) in South Africa. One such case, the University of the Free State’s QwaQwa satellite campus in the Phuthaditjhaba district, is no exception to this, as it has sufficient solar PV generation, but it also has an unreliable utility component. This paper investigates a possible MG for the UFS QwaQwa campus with an emphasis on Hybrid PV-Diesel dispatch strategies, specifically, to ensure uptime during the loss of grid supply and decrease fuel usage. The proposed centralized diesel-PV MG system achieves a diesel cost reduction of 21.55%, based on simulated results using actual campus load data from 2019. The approach improves electricity availability, supplying 100% of all campus demand, compared to 70% under a de-centralized approach.

A novel data-driven multi-energy load forecasting model

With the increasing concern on energy crisis, the coordination of multiple energy sources and low-carbon economic operation of integrated energy system (IES) have drawn more and more attention in recent years. In IES, accurate and effective multi-energy load forecasting becomes a research hotspot, especially using the high-performance data mining and machine learning algorithms. However, due to the huge difference in energy utilization between IES and traditional energy systems, the load forecasting of IES is more difficult and complex. In fact, in IES, load forecasting is not only related to external factors such as meteorological parameters and different seasons, but the correlation between energy consumption of different types of loads also plays an important role. In order to deal with the strong coupling and high uncertainty issues in IES, a novel data-driven multi-energy load forecasting model is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a feature extraction method based on Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) for multi-energy load of the IES is developed, which reduces the dimension of the complex nonlinear input data. Then, considering multi-energy coupling correlation, a combined TCN-NBeats model is proposed for the joint prediction of multi-energy loads, aiming to improve the prediction accuracy through ensemble learning. Finally, the numerical case analysis using the multi-energy consumption data of an actual campus verifies the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed data-driven multi-energy load forecasting model.

Research on the Path of Training Athletes in Chinese Universities Under the Background of Integration of Sports and Education

The purpose of this study was to realize the cognition and practice of sports education concepts from all walks of life in China, and eliminate the barriers of traditional systems and mechanisms, it will point out the direction for the training of Chinese competitive sports reserve talents to get out of the predicament and move towards high-quality development. The cultivation of reserve talents for competitive sports in China has gone through three stages: “combination of sports and education,” “combination of education and sports,” and “integration of sports and education.” Through analysis, it is concluded that the problems encountered by high-level sports teams in Chinese colleges and universities in the process of talent training. First, the sports department mainly cultivated reserve talents in the past, and the evaluation of athletes paid more attention to medals and honors. However, the main focus of the work of the education department is to enhance the physical fitness of the students and promote the physical and mental health of the students. Secondly, the lack of investment in training by universities leads to low coaching level and ability of coaches, which is the main factor restricting the training of athletes. Finally, in actual campus life, athletes spend most of their time in daily competitions and training, and their cultural performance is not good, which leads to their inability to truly master the cultural knowledge of their chosen major during their studies, it is challenging to choose a career as an elite in related industries after graduation. First, the main body of implementing the training of competitive sports talents in the new era in the sports department and the education department. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the coordination, communication and cooperation between the two departments to realize the sharing and sharing of resources between them. Secondly, universities should provide athletes with diversified teaching projects and practice forms. The teachers’ team is divided into two categories: physical education teachers and physical education coaches. Teachers are responsible for daily classroom teaching work to achieve the goal of coordinated development of physical exercise and cultural learning. The coach is responsible for sports training, through scientific and systematic training to enable students to reach a specific level of competition. Finally, universities should adopt learning planning guidance for athletes to help them complete their learning tasks, improve their cultural literacy, and enable them to master sports skills without delaying their normal study life.

Multi-camera joint spatial self-organization for intelligent interconnection surveillance

The construction of smart city makes information interconnection play an increasingly important role in intelligent surveillance systems. Especially the interconnection among massive cameras is the key to realizing the evolution from current fragmented monitoring to interconnection surveillance. However, it remains a challenging problem in practical systems due to large sensor quantity, various camera types, and complex spatial layout. Aimed at this problem, this paper proposes a novel multi-camera joint spatial self-organization approach, which realizes interconnection surveillance by unifying cameras into one imaging space. Differing from existing back-end data association strategy, our method takes front-end data calibration as a breakthrough to relate surveillance data. Specifically, this paper first initials camera spatial parameter by sequence complementary feature integration. Through integrating complementarity and redundancy among sequence features, our method has robustness under scene dynamic changes and noise. Then, we propose a multi-camera joint optimization method based on common monitoring coverage correlation analysis to estimate a more accurate relative relationship. By leveraging the two strategies, the spatial relationship and visual data association across monitoring cameras are returned finally. Our system organizes all cameras into a unified imaging space by itself. Extensive experimental evaluations on an actual campus environment demonstrate our method achieves remarkable performance.

Research on Campus Network Equipment Environment Monitoring Based on Internet of Things

The working environment of equipment has a great impact on the performance of equipment; therefore, it needs to be monitored and managed effectively. Based on the Internet of things (IoT), this study analyzed the monitoring of the campus network equipment environment. A monitoring system was designed, the design methods of software and hardware were analyzed, and the system was tested. The test results showed that the sensor used in the system had high accuracy, the temperature error was ± 0.5 ℃, the humidity error was within 0.5% RH, the data transmission performance was good, the transmission delay was between 8 ms and 9 ms, and the average packet loss rate was 0.7%. The test results verify the effectiveness of the designed system, and the system can be popularized and applied in the actual campus network.

대학생 운동참여 관련 배경변인에 따른 자기효능감 및 의지적 운동몰입 차이 해명

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of background variables on major research variables (self-efficacy and physical activity commitment) to understand the pattern of college students’ participation in physical activity and to provide evidence for promoting more of that participation.<BR> Method: Using purposive sampling, 465 questionnaires were collected from undergraduate students at a private university. Of these, 418 final effective samples were analyzed using frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. To answer the designated research questions of this study, five MANCOVAs were utilized.<BR> Results: The key findings are as follows: First, male students’ self-efficacy and physical activity commitment levels were higher than those of female students. Second, there was no difference in self-efficacy by grade level, but the group’s physical activity commitment level in the sophomore group and above was higher than in the freshman group. Third, the student group participating in the sports clubs had a higher level of self-efficacy and physical activity commitment than the other groups. Fourth, compared to the group of students who participated in physical activity for less than 1 month, the levels of self-efficacy and physical activity commitment were higher in the groups participating for 1–6 months, 7 months–2 years, and 3 years or more. Fifth, the better the students’ exercise ability, the higher the level of self-efficacy and physical activity commitment.<BR> Conclusion: This study found that the background variables affected levels of self-efficacy and physical activity commitment among those participating in physical activity in a college. The results also confirmed that active participation in physical activity could lead to an improvement in individual self-efficacy and physical activity commitment, and reconfirmed the need for measures to improve the physical activity rate of freshmen and female students. In addition, highlighting the usefulness of having sports clubs on the actual campus itself was another meaningful finding of this study.

Influence of solar radiation on the energy consumption of large buildings on a university campus

This paper reports the numerical study on the influence of solar radiation on the energy consumption of large buildings on a university campus. The actual campus is located in the south of Portugal, in a Mediterranean type environment, and consists of 6 educational buildings. These six buildings have a total area of 27,599 m2 and 595 compartments, where 6,529 opaque surfaces (doors, walls, etc.) and 983 transparent ones (windows) were identified. This study aims to assess numerically how solar radiation transmitted on windows affects the energy consumption of the Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems, controlled by the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) index, of each of these buildings, and the thermal comfort level of the occupants. Software developed by the authors is used to simulate the thermal behavior of buildings with complex topology. This software evaluates indoor air quality inside the spaces, thermal comfort of the occupants, thermal energy consumption of the HVAC system, and solar radiation distribution outside the buildings and inside the compartments, among others. The HVAC control system based on the PMV index applied in this work was designed to maintain the PMV comfort index within category C of ISO 7730, with a maximum of 15% of people dissatisfied. In order to evaluate the indoor comfort level of the occupants, the totals of cold and warm uncomfortable hours were calculated. Two different weather conditions, typical of the region, were set as inputs for the simulation performed in this study: a typical winter day, and a typical summer day. The outputs obtained were the daily evolution of total solar radiation transmitted on windows, total uncomfortable hours for the occupants, and total HVAC system energy consumption for each building. The results obtained show that, for typical winter conditions, an increase in the transmitted solar radiation on windows causes a decrease in HVAC system energy consumption, and also in the number of uncomfortable hours, which is a favorable situation. On the other hand, for typical summer conditions, it is observed that when transmitted solar radiation on windows increases, HVAC system energy consumption, and the total number of uncomfortable hours increase as well, configuring an unfavorable situation. It is also found that the values of solar radiation transmitted on windows are higher in winter than in summer conditions. In summer, the lowest values of solar radiation transmitted on windows occur at noon. The last two observations lead to the conclusion that, overall, these buildings have correctly positioned passive shading elements, a technique that contributes to an adequate solar passive architectural design.

Research on Low-Carbon Campus Based on Carbon Footprint Model

This paper uses the carbon footprint model to study the carbon emissions of low-carbon campuses. Based on the actual campus conditions, the campus carbon cycle is investigated through field surveys and interviews to discuss the school’s carbon balance and obtain the water, electricity and domestic waste of Tianjin University of Technology. The conclusion that the carbon emissions are large and the emissions of people and cars are small, carbon emissions governance needs to be greatly improved based on the carbon footprint model of low-carbon campus research.

Campus sustainability

PurposeProposing an integrated model based on multiple theoretical approaches, such as the theory of planned behavior, the model of goal-directed behavior and self-determination theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine factors influencing college students’ campus recycling intention and actual recycling behavior.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey method was used to test the proposed model with college students. A total of 434 students participated in the survey.FindingsThis study found that self-determined motivation, attitude toward recycling, perceived behavioral control and negative anticipated emotion had direct effects on campus recycling intention, while recycling intention and self-determined motivation influenced students’ actual campus recycling behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study may not be generalizable to the broader population. Respondents’ self-reported assessment of their recycling behaviors may also be a drawback of the study. However, the study provides statistical evidence testing the proposed model of campus recycling.Practical implicationsThe study’s findings provide communication planners for university recycling and sustainability departments with communication and message strategies to enhance college students’ recycling behavior.Originality/valueThe study proposes a more comprehensive, tailored model that integrates other compelling theoretical models, to address college students’ sustainability engagement on campus.

Assessing the nearly zero-energy building gap in university campuses with a feature extraction methodology applied to a case study in Spain

Public universities face the challenge of retrofitting the actual campus buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB). In this study, a novel methodology for evaluating historical energy use and renewable energy production for all the buildings of a university, including hourly, daily and monthly data assessments is presented. This analysis is useful as a baseline for comparisons with future energy retrofits and enables determining the current gap between actual energy indicators at building and campus levels and the established limits for NZEB non-residential buildings in the European Union. The methodology is applied to a case study at the University of Lleida, a typical average-size university in Spain. Results show a wide variation in energy use among campus buildings, ranging between 50 and 470 kWh/m2 year. Constant or slightly increasing energy use and decreasing trends in renewable energy generation are observed. The daily electricity profiles have shown similar patterns among buildings and substantial potential energy savings during unoccupied periods. In the NZEB analysis, the average non-renewable primary energy use is about 4 times higher than the maximum estimated Spanish threshold range of 45–55 kWh/m2 year. Deep energy renovation strategies are, thus, needed for universities to meet EU NZEB targets.

Performance Estimation of Fault-prone Infrastructure-as-a-Service Cloud Computing Systems and their Cost-aware Optimal Performance Determination

The cloud computing paradigm enables elastic resources to be scaled at run time satisfy customers' demand. Cloud computing provisions on-demand service to users following a pay-per-use pattern. This novel paradigm enables cloud users or tenant users to afford computational resources in the form of virtual machines (VMs) as utilities, just like electricity, instead of paying for and building computing infrastructures by their own. Performance estimation of clouds is one of key research challenges and draws great research interests. For this purpose, we develop a comprehensive stochastic framework for estimation of performance of IaaS clouds with fault-prone instantiation and retrials of faulty instantiation. Our proposed approach is capable of analyzing several performance metrics under variable system conditions. A comparative study based on an actual campus cloud is carried out and its corresponding confidence interval validation suggests the correctness and accuracy of theoretical performance results. To optimize cloud performance, we also formulate the developed stochastic model into an optimal responsiveness determination problem with the aim of minimizing averaged system responsiveness with rejection rate and system cost constraints. An intelligent algorithm is introduced to obtain near-optimal solutions.

개선된 Floor Field Model과 다른 피난시뮬레이션 모델의 비교 연구

본 연구는 보행자의 물리적 특성(크기, 모양, 자세 등)을 적용한 개선된 플로어 필드 모델(Floor field model; FFM)을 소개하고, 개선된 모델과 널리 알려진 다른 피난시뮬레이션 모델과의 비교를 통해 FFM의 한계점 파악 및 개선된 모델의 특징을 분석하고자 한다. FFM은 셀룰라 오토마타(Cellular automata)를 이용한 대표적 미시적 관점 보행 모델이지만 보행자의 크기, 모양, 자세 등의 물리적 특성을 세밀하게 반영하지 않는다. 이로 인해 보행자들 간의 충돌, 마찰 등의 현상을 모델링하기 어려우며 결과적으로 다른 모델들과 비교하였을 경우에 매우 짧은 대피 시간을 산출하고 있다. 본 연구는 물리적 현상을 반영할 수 있는 개선된 FFM을 제시하며, 개선된 모델과 기존 FFM, 시뮬렉스(Simulex), 패스파인더(Pathfinder) 등 다른 모델들과의 비교 실험을 수행하였다. 실험은 실제 캠퍼스 건물의 일부 공간을 대상으로 진행되었으며, 대피 인원의 변화에 따른 대피 양상의 비교와 각 출구별 대피 양상의 비교가 수행되었다. 이를 통해 FFM에서는 반영되지 않던 물리적 현상들이 개선된 모델에서는 상용 모델 수준으로 적용되는 점과 특히 시뮬렉스와 유사한 형태의 대피 양상을 보임을 확인하였다. In this study, we propose an improved Floor Field Model(FFM) that considers the physical characteristics of pedestrians, i.e., body size, shape, and posture. Also we analyse limits of FFM and features of improved model compared with existing evacuation simulation models. FFM is a typical microscopic pedestrian model using CA, but it does not reflect the physical characteristics of pedestrians. Because of this, FFM is difficult to modeling phenomena such as collision, friction between pedestrians. As a result, FFM calculates a very short evacuation time when compared with the other models. We performed a computational experiment to compare improved model with other models such as FFM, Simulex, Pathfinder in an actual campus building. We carried out a comparison of evacuation aspect according to the change in number of evacuees. Also we compared evacuation aspect by exit. Finally, we confirmed that improved model reflects physical phenomena which were not reflected in FFM. Especially, experimental results were very similar to the Simulex.

College Student Reporting Responses to Hypothetical and Actual Safety Concerns

ABSTRACTCampus violence prevention often includes proactively reducing crime through noticing and resolving concerning situations. Within these efforts, interventions aimed at enhancing reporting have been considered necessary. The current study explored several reporting influences on college students’ responses to hypothetical and actual campus safety concerns. Students were unwilling to report most (i.e., 52%) vignettes of pathway behavior, and most students who witnessed campus safety concerns did not report (i.e., 87%). Students who witnessed several concerning behaviors from a nonfriend perpetrator tended to be more willing to report, especially if personally victimized and understanding the violence risk associated with pathway behavior. Analyses supported campus-wide exhibitions of the dangerousness of various pathway behaviors and the fair, flexible authority problem solving available to struggling students.

A Campus Community-based Mobility Model for Routing in Opportunistic Networks

Mobility models are invaluable for determining the performance of routing protocols in opportunistic networks. The movement of nodes has a significant influence on the topological structure and data transmission in networks. In this paper, we propose a new mobility model called the campus-based community mobility model (CBCNM) that closely reflects the daily life pattern of students on a real campus. Consequent on a discovery that the pause time of nodes in their community follows a power law distribution, instead of a classical exponential distribution, we abstract the semi-Markov model from the movement of the campus nodes and analyze its rationality. Then, using the semi-Markov algorithm to switch the movement of the nodes between communities, we infer the steady-state probability of node distribution at random time points. We verified the proposed CBCNM via numerical simulations and compared all the parameters with real data in several aspects, including the nodes’ contact and inter-contact times. The results obtained indicate that the CBCNM is highly adaptive to an actual campus scenario. Further, the model is shown to have better data transmission network performance than conventional models under various routing strategies.

Warning response on a university campus: Anticipating message confirmation behavior among undergraduate students

An exploratory study was conducted at the University of Alberta to examine how undergraduate students might respond to an emergency alert on campus. Findings from the study were derived from an innovative methodology that used text messaging to prompt in situ observations on campus and to inform subsequent focus group discussions about students’ warning response decision making. Additional observations were also made based on a sample of messages posted on the social media platform Twitter following an actual campus alert issued in April 2010. Findings suggest that informal communication channels play a key role in shaping response decision making among students outside of classroom settings. In classroom and laboratory settings, however, faculty and teaching assistants may play a critical role in supporting confirmation of messages and influencing students’ response decisions. Recommendations for emergency planners are discussed, including the use of social media in support of official warnings and the development of “just-in-time” electronic resources for campus faculty and teaching staff.

Misperceptions of peer drinking norms in Canada: Another look at the “reign of error” and its consequences among college students

Objective Much research has documented extensive misperceptions of drinking norms and their negative effects in U.S. student populations. This study provides extensive research evidence documenting this phenomenon in Canadian higher education. Methods Data were collected in a 2003–2004 survey of students ( N = 5280) attending 11 institutions across Canada. Surveys were administered either to a random sample of students through the mail or to students attending a diverse selection of classes. Results Regardless of the actual drinking norm on each campus, students most commonly overestimated the alcohol consumption norms (both quantity and frequency levels) in every instance. Students' perception of their campus drinking norm was the strongest predictor of the amount of alcohol personally consumed in comparison with the influence of all demographic variables. Perception of the norm was also a much stronger predictor of personal use than the actual campus norm for consumption on each campus or the actual norm for compliance with campus regulations. Among students who personally abstain or consume lightly, misperceptions of the student drinking norms contribute to alienation from campus life. Conclusion The data presented here on Canadian students extends the evidence that peer drinking norms are grossly misperceived and that these misperceptions produce a highly detrimental “reign of error” in the lives of college students. The data suggest that a broad range of students—abstainers and light drinkers as well as moderate and heavy drinkers—may benefit from implementing intervention strategies that can correct or reduce these misperceptions.

Misperceiving the college drinking norm and related problems: a nationwide study of exposure to prevention information, perceived norms and student alcohol misuse.

This study examined (1) the prevalence of misperceptions of college student drinking norms across campuses nationwide, (2) the importance of perceived norms in predicting high-risk drinking, (3) the association of exposure to alcohol education information with students' perceptions of campus drinking norms and (4) the differences in high-risk drinking rates between schools where exposure to alcohol information is associated with more accurately perceived norms and schools where exposure to information is unrelated to perceptions or is associated with greater misperceptions. Multivariate analyses were used to analyze an aggregate database of the National College Health Assessment survey administered to 76,145 students from 130 colleges and universities nationwide from spring 2000 through spring 2003. Regardless of the actual campus drinking norm, a consistently large percentage of students nationwide overestimated the quantity of alcohol consumed by their peers. Students' perception of their campus drinking norm was the strongest predictor of the amount of alcohol personally consumed in comparison with the influence of all demographic variables. Perception of the norm was also a much stronger predictor when compared with the actual campus norm. Reduced levels of high-risk drinking and negative consequences were found among students attending the relatively few schools where exposure to prevention information was associated with less exaggerated perceptions of the drinking norm compared with students attending other schools. Misperceived drinking norms are a pervasive problem. Schools that do not seek to reduce these misperceptions with their prevention information are neglecting a potentially powerful component of prevention.

Descriptive and injunctive norms in college drinking: a meta-analytic integration.

Many college students overestimate both the drinking behaviors (descriptive norms) and the approval of drinking (injunctive norms) of their peers. As a result, consistent self-other discrepancies (SODs) have been observed, in which self-perceptions of drinking behaviors and approval of drinking usually are lower than comparable judgments of others. These SODs form the foundation of the currently popular "social norms approach" to alcohol abuse prevention, which conveys to students the actual campus norms regarding drinking behaviors and approval of alcohol use. However, little attention has been paid to the factors that can influence the magnitude of SODs. This research was conducted to address these issues. This meta-analytic integration of 23 studies evaluated the influence of five predictors of SODs: norm type (injunctive or descriptive), gender, reference group, question specificity and campus size. These studies rendered 102 separate tests of SODs in descriptive and injunctive forms, representing the responses of 53,825 participants. All five predictors were significantly related to self-other differences in the perception of norms. Greater SODs were evident for injunctive norms, estimates by women, distal reference groups and nonspecific questions, as well as on smaller campuses. More systematic attention should be given to how norms are assessed. In particular, SODs can be maximized or minimized, depending on the specificity of the behaviors/attitudes evaluated and the reference groups chosen for comparison.

Using Simulation in a Dangerous-Drinking Prevention Campaign

The Advanced Health Communication (AHC) Simulation models a subdivision of an actual campus organization, the Communication and Health Issues Partnership for Education and Research (CHI). To address dangerous drinking at Rutgers University, CHI created a dangerous-drinking prevention campaign, RU SURE? and designed the AHC simulation for students to participate centrally in the campaign. The simulation was incorporated into an advanced course in health communication. The three major sets of activities in the AHC simulation are (a) the design and pilot testing of campaign messages and materials, (b) the implementation of the campaign, and (c) the evaluation of the campaign. The simulation provides a structure in which students learn about a set of behavioral processes regarding campaign design and organizational behavior on the macrolevel while learning about their drinking-related behaviors on the microlevel. Participants reported learning about working in a complex organization, designing and implementing a prevention campaign, and decreasing their own drinking-related perceptions and behaviors.

キャンパスにおける距離の判断におよぼす経験および性差の効果

To examine the process by which spatial knowledge of a university campus environment is acquired, 84 students were asked to judge differences in distance between selected campus sites using three different methods: (1) a comparative judgment; (2) magnitude estimation; and, (3) map sketching. Distances estimated were those of all two point combinations of 8 points centered on the gates and buildings of the campus, Results obtained from 46 freshmen who had entered the university four to six weeks prior to the experiment were compared with those obtained from 38 sophomore students. It was found that distances judged by the magnitude estimation and sketched map techniques were highly related to the actual physical distances and the configurations produced by multidimensional scaling (MDS) correasponded well to the actual campus configuration. Males and females were found to differ significantly in terms of subject weights on the two-dimensional INDSCAL. Response speeds for the comparative judgment task were also related to the actual physical distances. The correlation for freshmen was higher than that for sophomores and the effect of experience was found to be statistically significant on INDSCAL. Collectively, these findings suggest that knowledge of campus environments is acquired rapidly and that such knowledge is subject to modification as a result of experience in the environment.