How Stanford University Is Using Occupancy Data to Rethink Ventilation, Scheduling, and Space Use

This NexusCon 2025 presentation explores how occupancy data can move beyond dashboards and actually change how buildings operate. Ryan Sen, VP of Business Development at Acuity, Inc., and Gerry Hamilton, Director of Facilities Energy Management at Stanford University, walk through how Stanford is applying real-time and proxy occupancy insights across classrooms, labs, and offices.

The core problem they tackle is familiar: buildings ventilated, lit, cleaned, and scheduled as if they’re full—when they rarely are. The discussion is grounded in campus-scale experimentation, not product demos.

Behind the paywall, you’ll hear what Stanford learned after years of room-level experiments—including why occupants hate setpoint changes but are surprisingly open to schedule optimization. Gerry and Ryan unpack what worked, what failed, and how confidence thresholds matter when spaces are high-risk, like labs.

They also dig into the unglamorous challenges: structuring messy occupant data, integrating proxy systems, and building workflows that automation systems can actually consume. If you’re trying to turn occupancy data into operational change—without alienating occupants—this recording is full of lessons worth stealing.

‍Watch the full recording inside Nexus Pro →