EBU3b Research Lab and Office Space
AP&M has basically two types of space, offices and labs. Most of the
offices are the same size. The labs are rather large and are
multifunctional - most labs have desks for grad students; some "group
stuff" space for equipment, journals, and storage; a lounge area
(typically a couch); and an area that can be used for small group
meetings.
The current building has had a strong influence on how we work. We
have formed research groups consisting of two to four faculty members
and their students. We don't accommodate postdocs or research
scientists very well. We have many M.S. students who aren't involved
in the research groups. To the extent that "architecture is destiny",
now is our opportunity to design our future.
Lab organization
The discussions last year revealed that many people favored having a
larger number of smaller rooms for the grad student desks (perhaps each
room would seat three to six students), and that the lounge and
and meeting funtions be moved away from the student desks to areas that
would allow sharing and chance encounters between multiple research
groups.
Some of the advantages would be:
- More flexibility - many labs are either overcrowded or
underutilized. It is difficult to reassign a 500 square foot space
from one faculty group to another. It would be easier if the basic
unit were, say, 250 square feet and didn't have lounge and
meeting space functionalities. It might make sense to think of desk space
as being an inherent right of (certain classes of) students, rather than
being a perk granted by the "owning" faculty member.
- More efficient use of space. The lounge and meeting areas of
many labs are used only a small percentage of the time. If they
were shared among multiple labs, they might simultaneously be
more functional and take up less area in total.
- More "random interactions". If the office/labs formed a shell
around a central core of lounge/meeting areas, then people might
mix and mingle on their way in and out of their offices, or when
they wanted a break. Meanwhile, the meetings wouldn't disturb the
office occupants.
Please send your comments.
Who gets offices and desk space?
We need to decide how many offices and how many labs to build.
The answer depends on how many people we want to accommodate
and how we want to accommodate them. This raises profound questions.
- Do we intend to give desk space to every grad student? To every Ph.D.
student? Every student (whether undergrad, M.S. or Ph.D.) that is
affiliated with a research group??
- A growing number of faculty now have people associated with their
research groups who are neither faculty or students. These
include project and research scientists, postdocs, programmers, and
(non-departmental) administrative assistants. Do we want to have
private offices for (some or all) of these people?
- Do we want to set aside offices for departmental visitors -
people from industry or other universities who want to spend a
sabbatical here, who may interact with numerous people, but who aren't
affiliated with any one research group?
Please send your comments.
Other issues
Please list other topics that we should be discussing. (These will be
given sections like the two above.)