Exploiting an engineering building as a unique distance-learning tool

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, the custom design and construction of a 34,500 square foot laboratory and classroom facility from the ground up provided a unique opportunity for engineering educators to use the building itself as an educational tool. This curricular concept and accompanying building data system at the ITL laboratory is called 'Building-as-a-Leaming-Tool,' or BLT. The web-based BLT software system continuously monitors more than 300 building systems sensors, enabling engineering faculty and students to use the BLT system as a distance-learning tool to take the 'pulse' of the building from anywhere in the world (see http://blt.colorado.edu).