The Living Link Lab
The Living Link Lab is our research testbed inside UVA's Link Lab, a 17,000-square-foot shared research space in Olsson Hall where more than a hundred faculty, students and staff work. Built with a National Science Foundation research infrastructure award (2018 to 2022), it lets us follow how a working office and the people in it change over days, seasons and years, instead of relying on a few hours in a test room.
About 240 wireless sensors, plug-load meters and location beacons record the space, and studies add wearables, surveys and cameras only when participants consent. The same infrastructure supports research across UVA, classes that work with real building data, and partners who want to test devices or run studies in a working building. Building the Living Link Lab describes the award, what the testbed has shown and the papers.
Explore the Living Link Lab
- Research Projects: the projects that have used the testbed's space, sensors and data.
- Sensors and Data: every type of device, how many there are, what each one reports and how readings reach the database.
- Data Access: dashboards, the time-series database and how to get an account.
- Teaching and Education: courses and student projects built on the testbed.
- Work With Us: run a study, test a device, pilot a human-subject study or partner with us.
- FAQ: taking part in a study, privacy and data.
The Testbed at a Glance
17,000 Square feet
The Link Lab's shared research space in Olsson Hall, instrumented as one testbed.
10 Device types
Air quality monitors, temperature and humidity, CO₂, light, motion, occupancy and door sensors, plug-load meters, location beacons and gateways.
240 Devices at launch
Sensors, meters and beacons in the original deployment; most sensors are battery-free and run on harvested energy.
2018 Year it began
Built with an NSF research infrastructure award (2018 to 2022).
Inside the Living Link Lab
The testbed's sensor map, its floor plan and one of its sensors.
Sensor map. The testbed's 3D model of the Link Lab, with each sensor's ID at its location.
Floor plan. The Link Lab's layout, with the water lines and valves that a fall 2025 student team mapped.
Plug-load meter. A PowerBlade, which reports a device's power draw every second.