Overview of survey results taken December 15, 2006. Responses from 44 people (out of 44!)

Our hope in opening the RAD Lab was that people would both be here more and that people from different areas of expertise would get together to innovate across disciplines, either with formal meetings or serendipitously when, say, getting a coffee. In the 10 weeks since the lab has opened, have you had such interactions, either in a formal meeting or informally?

• ~ 10% Never
• ~ 0% Once
• ~ 5% Twice
• ~ 60% A few times
• ~ 25% Many times

Testimonials on interactions.

Change since RAD Lab opened:

• 30% come in the same amount as before
• 35% come in the a little more than before
• 35% come in the a lot more than before

Below are what people like about the RAD Lab, which I categorized roughly by topic in order of popularity. As many people make multiple points, I count number of times its mentioned in any comment, and the I picked a category to put each comment, usually because it was mentioned first. Thus (17,10) means mentioned 17 times, and I placed 10 comments as primarily in this category. Click to see each set of comments.

• Easy Access to Others (17, 10)
  • Being able to talk to other students easily and more often is excellent. Same for professors but to a lesser extent since they are usually not there (but it's still much better than before the RAD Lab). It's better socially too. Free drinks, great monitors are a nice touch.
  • The ability to interact with other people.
  • Easy access to students, and their easy access to me. I no longer schedule student meetings, and let them come get me when they want to talk. I end up spending much more time with my students, and the time is more fruitful.
  • Lot of opportunities to interact with other people.
  • I get to see other people. I feel more activity at Soda. The environment is better for working on papers (grab a meeting room, grab a diet coke, walk over and easily talk to people). It is nice to have different areas where you can work.
  • Easy to locate/talk to colleagues. Easy to find an expert in another area to ask quick question. Shared work area promotes sense of being part of a team. Meeting room facilities are best I've ever had - less time futzing with equipment, more time working.
  • Easy interaction between people. Nice workspace.
  • Open, everybody pops out here and there, easy to interact

• Pleasant Space (14, 10)
  • Open space. Nice working environment. Easy collaborations from the proximity. Plenty of board space for impromptu discussion. Good free coffee (and now juice! - I hate soft drink by the way, that's why I put N/A above). Now we are only missing great healthy snacks to keep us working more all the time (like at Google)! I like the big screens. I like the environment setup. The sense of community with the social, meetings, etc.
  • Open environment, the awareness of who is around, the closeness of professors, the meeting rooms work great.
  • Some things about the environment are conducing to meeting with others and working – high visibility and access to other people, meeting rooms, etc. I like that the sysadmins are generally available. I like that if I need to see my advisor, I don't need to walk up two floors to see if he is in – I just need to stand up.
  • The open space. The meeting rooms are available most of the time. The soda+juice+tea is a huge plus. Convenient+clean kitchen.
  • Great space, brilliant people, access to faculty, excellent perks, glad I'm in the lab.
  • Quiet, pleasant space. Availability of interesting people to talk to. Coffee and soft drinks. Don't have to go to 6th floor. More stimulating conversations in last 2 months, than prior year.
  • Open space and refreshments
  • Open space. Desk. Easy to discuss things with other grad students. White board. Meeting rooms. Coffee machine.
  • It's flexible, informal/casual, and comfortable.
    1. No closed doors, everyone readily available
    2. The white boards everywhere (with pens, big innovation!)
    3. The screens (my laptop screen feels small now)
    4. Clean (no accumulated junk from generations of past students)
  • Cozy space, easy interaction
  • Open space, light, meeting rooms, lounge
• Free Food/Drinks (10, 2)
  • Free juice drinks
  • Has a kitchen, with free drinks :) o Open area, easy to deploy research equipment. No need to knock on office doors and beg for permission. o Many whiteboards.
• Meeting Rooms (8, 1)
  • No phones on desks, but phones in conference rooms.
  • Refreshments.
  • Isolated printer (less noisy)
• Big Displays (6, 2)
  • Definitely LCD display!!
  • The big monitors have increased my productivity tremendously while writing code. Have 6 big size windows simultaneously open is great even while grading programming assignments for TA work. It's great to have someone to chat with after hours of continuous work.
• White Boards (3,0)
• Sense of Community (2,0)

When asked to rate specific features of the lab, from highest average rating to lowest (Great, Good, Neutral, Irriating, Terrible):

- Big displays (Average rating Great) - Soft drinks (Great) - Refrigerator (Great) - Coffee machine (Good+) - Printer (Good+) - Meeting room availability (Good+) - Light at your desk (Good) - Noise at your desk (Good-) - Blinds (Good-)

While the average rating for the blinds and light were good, they had the 9 of the 10 ratings of “irritating.” The range on rating noise was neutral, good, or great.

We asked “What are issues that could be improved in the RAD Lab?” We got 21 responses, but compared to above, there is surprisingly little repitition in the concerns or suggestions. There are 4 comments of light and blinds mentioned above and 2 about visitors having to knock at the entrance. I put those at the top, but its probably best to just read the comments yourself to lead to a discussion about what can we do make things better in 2007.

• ~ 60% Normally in lab, + weekends/evenings at home
• ~ 25% Primarily in lab, but reserve 1 weekday at home
• ~ 5% Primarily at home, come in for meetings or 1 day a week
• ~ 10% None of the above

* Distribution of number of days per week poeople spend in the RAD Lab, self-reported vs. impression of labmates

FIX TABLE {| border=“1” align=“center” !Days !Self report !Labmate impression

* See plot of use by time of day and day per week . Highlights: Noon-4: >80% Mon/Wed, >70% Tue/Thu, ~ 60% Fri 5PM -7: 67% Mon/Wed, ~60% Tue, ~ 50% Thu Saturday: >20% Noon to 4 Sunday: >20% Noon to 2

• ~ 30% Networking grad students
• ~ 25% Machine Learning grad students
• ~ 20% Systems grad students
• ~ 15% Faculty
• ~ 5% Staff
• ~ 5% Postdoc/Other

* Add an extra row of chairs to board room * More people need to sign-up for Tuesday presentations