E3 Future Learning Environment – E3 Project TCD

The project · from brief to prototype

What happened, step by step.

01

Challenge

What will the learning environment for technology students at Trinity College Dublin look like in 2025? E3 brings engineering, computer science and natural sciences into one new building to teach across schools.

02

What the team learned

Students need to feel they belong in a space and control it. They need group-work rooms they can book and more hands-on access to equipment, as industry wants job-ready graduates.

03

What they built

A concept for a culture of collaboration: an E3 app to book smart rooms, maker spaces and equipment; rooms run by paid student ambassadors; T-Coins, a virtual currency to book spaces or pay for peer learning; and sensors in smart rooms.

Full project text

The team’s original texts from the project page.

The E3 project is a €700M project in TCD leading to a 50% increase in technology students and a new kind of learning. The team developed a learning environment centred on multi-disciplinary project-based education with flexible space, student custodianship and smart facilities based around ‘T-coin’ – a virtual currency which could be earned and spent in a way that reinforced the values and culture of E3.

Challenge

What will the learning environment for technology students look like in 2025? – The prompt given to the E3 Team.

The mission was broad, ambitious and challenging, covering not just an upgrade to what is currently done, but it also seeks to generate new research avenues and educational paradigms fit for this changing world.

Solution

The final concept sees students from the School of Computer Science, the School of Engineering and the School of Natural Sciences working together and collaborating in a smart learning environment.
Smart rooms will give students an exciting new way to work together and to share their work. These rooms will be managed by student ambassadors, giving the students control and ownership over the spaces.

An E3 app was developed to allow students to book slots in the smart study rooms, maker spaces or trials with new equipment. The app includes a platform where students can share their skills and knowledge with the student community.

Impact

Developing a student led peer to peer
collaboration culture will support Trinity’s educational plans for more project-based learning and at the same time, develop a single student community across the 3 schools of E3 (Engineering, Computer Science, Natural Sciences).

E3 graduates will be used to a collaborative working environment, with direct similarities
to industry. With a new culture of collaboration Trinity’s future technology graduates can be ready to hit the ground running.

The data collected from the collaborative spaces has the potential to improve how students learn. This data will be a powerful tool to the university.

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