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Students visit UCL’s state-of-the-art research laboratory in East London
2 November 2022
PEARL (Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory) is a unique facility to explore the ways in which people interact with their environment.
Smart Energy and the Built Environment MSc students visited PEARL, on the London East site in Dagenham.
PEARL is used to help better understand how environments and people interact. It includes facilities to site vehicles, outdoor spaces, and buildings with simulated lighting of different colours and intensities and noises from birdsong to explosions.
PEARL enables researchers to study in detail how people interact with the environment and each other, by enabling us to test detailed differences in the environment – such as space, colour, lighting, sound – under controlled conditions, so that we can obtain rich data for use in the design of real urban systems.
The students enjoyed a guided tour from the expert PEARL team, explaining all parts of the facility and encouraging them to consider the challenge of improving environments for their occupants in greater depth. Many aspects of the research taking place at PEARL relates to course material in Smart Energy and the Built Environment MSc.
Smart Energy and the Built Environment MSc
Smart energy technologies and services in buildings, towns and cities can have the power to our energy system, making it more whilst ensuring resilience and security of supply, and controlling costs. This new Master's from UCL Energy Institute trains students to be at the forefront of this revolution in smart energy and the built environment. Find out more about the programme.