Semlab works as a more flexible, collaborative research space
Leaders of Stanford’s Work Anywhere Task Force point to linguistics Professor Stanley Peters’ Computational Semantics Laboratory (Semlab) as an example of a more efficient and innovative use of an academic space.
BY JESSE BOYETT ANDERSON
Three years ago, Stanley Peters' laboratory occupied five different offices spread over two floors of Cordura Hall. Today, the linguistics professor works in an open, airy lab spanning one end of the second floor of Nora Suppes Hall, which houses Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI). The new environment, Peters said, provides a flexible workspace for the seasonal changes in lab staffing, affords privacy while encouraging collaboration and has fundamentally changed the way he conducts his research.
"There are ways to facilitate communication between lab members working on diverse projects when the projects are separated spatially," said Peters, whose Computational Semantics Laboratory is nicknamed Semlab. "However, since moving into this lab space, people have begun overhearing the conversations of other working groups. Science is in the air."
Now, there are slices of multiple projects in several people's brains. The shared intellectual activity across projects has created a synergy that, Peters said, has enabled his research group—which studies semantics at the intersection of linguistics and computer science—to tackle one of the trickiest problems in their field: building a robot that can understand a conversation between two or more people and act on that information.
Such technology could be useful in an urban search-and-rescue situation, such as the aftermath of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis last month. Robots could be sent into areas that are too dangerous for humans, while teams of people discuss where to go and what or what not to do in order to save as many lives as possible.
In an optimal situation, the robots would be able to extract specific action items from the group conversations and then divvy up the tasks among themselves. Such efficiency would save time in situations where every second counts.
Because researchers studying different aspects of this problem now sit together and overhear each other's conversations, Peters said they can do groundbreaking research into human-robotic interactions.
Such collaborative work meshes well with the original vision for this space. Keith Devlin, executive director of CSLI, describes three main goals in the creation of the integrated setting.
"We wanted to house a large interdisciplinary group in a flexible space that encouraged collaboration," Devlin said. "We asked all of the people who might use it what kind of spaces they felt would be suitable."
The feedback from these discussions resulted in the space that Semlab now occupies. Banks of windows line three sides of a central area subdivided by chest-high carrels into 10 workstations. Five partially enclosed office spaces provide privacy when needed, while a conference room can be blocked off from the central work area by closing two soundproof frosted-glass pocket doors.
"As a space planner, I was taken by this work area," said Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain, senior director of capital planning and space management in the office of Land, Buildings and Real Estate. "When I first saw it, I thought it could be a great model for some of our newer projects."
Dyer-Chamberlain co-chairs the university's Work Anywhere Task Force, which is guiding a campus-wide initiative to rethink workplace routines regarding where and how work gets done—primarily be evaluating space allocation, but also by culling best practices such as Semlab. Most of the task force's current efforts support the previously announced relocation of all groups and offices now housed at 651 and 655 Serra St.
Because of Stanford's role not only as an institution of higher learning but also as a major employer, top administrators say academic departments and programs can contribute to this university-wide drive to work around space constraints.
Dyer-Chamberlain said it is fairly common for a faculty member to work in multiple locations on campus like Peters did. "I see it as a particularly good model for a collaborative group of faculty, students, postdocs and visitors who need to work together on a daily basis," she said, adding that Semlab is a great model for interdisciplinary workplaces. "I think the mix of meeting, office and open space all together is a flexible model and very interactive."
Jesse Boyett Anderson is a freelance science writer.