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Signo Uddenberg
- Apr 5
- 1 min
Measuring the Health of Your Spaces
We spend more than 90% of our days indoors but we have very little information on the health of those indoor spaces. That's why in 2017 we worked with a Bay area school to measure the health and energy performance of one of their newest buildings on campus. We installed a range of sensors in 8 classrooms to measure environmental variables such as: CO2 Concentration Levels (~ air quality) Air Temperature & Humidity (~ thermal quality) Decibel Levels (~ auditory quality) Lighti
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Signo Uddenberg
- Mar 17
- 1 min
Step Inside of Science...like really!
The New York Times has been running some really cool science stories this year, and a recent one on the benefits of fresh air ventilation in classrooms got their Virtual Reality (VR) treatment! Check it out here Scroll to the bottom and you'll see a QR code to try out. At MKThink, we're constantly measuring our environments to understand how they affect our behaviors and performance. We're both conducting our own research and leveraging the very good research being done aroun
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Signo Uddenberg
- Mar 9
- 1 min
COVID and the Acceleration of Smart Environments
A lot has gone wrong over the last year, but there've also seen a lot of silver linings. One of those silver linings is the acceleration of "smart environments" that can sense and respond to the needs of people and environment -- keeping people safe and healthy and reducing resource use. A recent article in IOT World Today noted how sensor giants like Schneider Electric are working to roll out smart systems in their new factories to reduce waste and keep workers safe and heal
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Signo Uddenberg
- Feb 2
- 2 min
The Future of Spatial Intelligence
Our environments impact how we think, feel and act. From the air we breathe to the colors of the walls, it all matters. And that's why "spatial intelligence" is an important and emerging field. What is Spatial Intelligence? The understanding, measurement and connection of the physical, "spatial", world to outcomes in other areas we care about, such as human cognition, environmental sustainability and so forth. Through Spatial Intelligence we are trying to understand how air t
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Signo Uddenberg
- Feb 2
- 1 min
LiDAR and the Future of Spatial Awareness
Many new technologies are being deployed to make our lives safer and more convenient. One of those technologies is LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, which uses lasers reflected off of surfaces to measure distances. In a recent article in engineering.com, journalists explore how LiDAR is starting to be used to protect pedestrians from traffic accidents. "According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Agency, a pedestrian is struck and
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Cristina Greavu
- Feb 1
- 2 min
The Y: Gotta Know: Healthy Response to Toxic Wildfire
Sample image of the AirAngel dashboard shows the “target” condition in green (healthy for everyone), “boundary” condition in yellow (sensitive populations are more likely to feel discomfort) and “amiss” condition in red (exertion and prolonged exposure will cause significant discomfort). Indoor and outdoor environments are being measured at select locations. Chief Operating Officer at the Y of San Francisco Jamie Bruning-Miles faced a major challenge during the wildfire seaso
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Signo Uddenberg
- Jan 31
- 1 min
High-Performance Buildings, Human Impact
We recently authored an article that was published in Facility Executive magazine. An introduction to the article is copied below. To see the full article, please visit the Facility Executive website here. Today’s buildings are designed to be high-performance places for high-performance people, but they frequently fall short of their goals. A 2008 seminal study¹ by L.T. Kohn, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” examined human error in the medical field and foun
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M.R. Miller, FAIA
- Jan 30
- 2 min
Back to work: Will permission equate to adoption?
In some form, non-essential people are going back to workplaces that were recently closed. It’s inevitable, and for many necessary. Workplaces are not only needed to protect jobs and save companies, but also possibly for an employee’s mental and social well-being. Also, people actually like going to a work as a study of 1000 participants shows. The C-19 era has now changed how we work and will fundamentally change the way we work going forward. On the bright side, we have lea
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Mark R. Miller
- Jan 30
- 1 min
What? Why?
You may notice me hanging out around San Francisco’s during the latest COVID-19 surge. I have been at the San Francisco Zoo, Stanford University, and the “Y” (YMCA) of San Francisco. Currently I am visiting a sample of Safe Streets San Francisco, and am also fortunate to have a sibling currently visiting O‘ahu and helping out there. I am the Air Angel, an experimental test rig whose role is to help stand sentry to provide insights to protect the human health of our public spa
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Signo Uddenberg
- Jan 25
- 4 min
Keeping People in Their Homes: Fannie Mae's National Energy Efficiency Research
Fannie Mae has been looking for innovative ways to keep people in their homes. From educational programs to homeowner friendly financial products and low-interest loans, they have been aggressively looking for ways to help homeowners navigate the sometimes turbulent financial waters. In the last few years those programs have begun to look at energy efficiency as one way to reduce a homeowner's monthly financial burden. And in 2018, in partnership with MKThink and Google, they
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Signo Uddenberg
- Jan 25
- 1 min
Why Embed in a Philippine desert Forward Operating Base?
Because Saving Realized Energy Saves Lives: A study between 2006-2009 estimated that 1 in 9 casualties in the war in Afghanistan occurred during refueling missions to forward operating bases. Since the results were published the US Navy has led a concerted effort to reduce energy use on forwarded operating bases as well as to generate more energy onsite. As part of that effort, our team was engaged to investigate the actual energy use at these bases and the conditions that i
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