Texas A&M hopes to launch an online 3D model of campus that could help students navigate the campus and more (2024)

As Texas A&M University students started their semester Monday, many find themselves in the age-old struggle of navigating the nearly 5,200-acre campus, hoping to find the one building they need for their daily classes.

Xinyue Ye, professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, envisions a future where students can use a 3D model of the campus to plan their routes to classes beforehand.

“We’re testing the prototype, but we look forward to utilizing it soon. Not in this semester, but maybe the semester to come,” he said. “We want to build a work portal for our university admin and also our students for more testing.”

In collaboration with researchers from the College of Architecture and the Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology, the project hopes to create a 3D model of campus that goes above and beyond what GPS technology can do. When calculating distance and how long it will take students to get to their classes, the digital twin is also planned to take into account rush hours, the amount of students in one building at a time and the exact location of the classroom.

Other Texas A&M faculty who have collaborated on the project include Galen Newman, professor and head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning; Patrick Suermann, interim dean of the College of Architecture; and Shannon Van Zandt, professor of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and coordinator of Urban & Regional Sciences Ph.D. program.

Ye said many students utilize GPS services like Google Maps when deciding commute time, but these programs cannot accurately estimate the time it takes to get to each class.

“In other words, most of Google’s mapping, they will tell you which building your class is located in, but they cannot tell you where your classroom is,” he said. “[Google Maps] does not know what your time budget is.”

In order to create the digital 3D campus, Ye said they’ll collect data from the university’s office of the registrar and the Geographic Information System (GIS) data portal. This data includes information about class schedules, building codes, geographic coordinates, building heights and other relevant information. After gathering all the necessary data, the department hopes to create a web-based visual analytics system that will allow users to interact with the online program and its features.

Students will be able to access the program through their Howdy account and can give feedback on the prototype in the future. Ye said they hope to use student responses to improve the program.

The overall goal, Ye said, is to give students a more accurate idea of what their daily commutes may look like, identify less crowded areas based on real-time data about building occupancy and ensure each student can reach a class in time before they register.

“I think this program will also help the University prepare better. For example, if you come to campus around noon, you will find a really long line in the dining service area. We know how many students will be around the dining areas around that time,” he said. “Knowing where students are generally, we know places we need to pay more attention to and, in case of emergency, we know where the people are.”

Ye said one of the unexpected challenges of the program was privacy concerns because the program will know how many students will be in a building at a time. In response, the team is planning on including many anonymization techniques to keep data secure.

“We need to access data from the registrar office, or enrollment information. … In other words, census data so we know exactly how many students will be taking a class or a course. This student level data will be absolutely protected. We are not going to monitor each student and we only need this data for knowing each location and the amount of time spent,” he said.

The 3D model will need constant updates as more students attend classes at A&M each year and the campus continues to be a dynamic environment, Ye said.

“My hope is that it can be used, eventually, in other A&M campuses as well. We have many sister institutions who could use this technology,” he said. “The campus is our daily life and many students spend most of their time on campus. … When this becomes available, it will help us be more connected to the university.”