Engineering & Nursing Project Summaries
SPRING 2027
Leena Shevade and Heather Polidori
Sustainable Engineering
College of Engineering
Fitzpatrick College of Nursing
Classroom lighting is an important but often overlooked component of the learning environment. Beyond providing adequate visibility, lighting conditions can influence alertness, fatigue, visual comfort, attention, engagement, and perceived learning. This interdisciplinary research project will investigate how naturally occurring lighting conditions in university classrooms relate to undergraduate students’ learning experiences and well-being.
The study will use a prospective observational, repeated-measures design across classrooms in Villanova University’s College of Engineering and M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. Participating classrooms will represent diverse lighting environments, including differences in daylight availability, artificial lighting, room size, window configuration, and lighting controls. During scheduled class sessions, the research team will document environmental conditions such as illuminance (lux), correlated color temperature (CCT), daylight availability, blind position, and the use of artificial versus mixed daylight-electric lighting. Students will complete brief surveys assessing perceived learning, alertness, sleepiness, engagement, visual comfort, lighting quality, glare, brightness, and overall classroom satisfaction.
The project integrates engineering approaches to measuring the built environment with nursing and educational perspectives on human health, cognition, and learning. Data will be analyzed to identify relationships between classroom lighting characteristics and student outcomes while accounting for factors such as sleep quality, time of day, classroom type, and academic discipline.
This pilot study will also evaluate the feasibility of combining objective environmental measurements with student-reported outcomes in authentic classroom settings. Findings may help inform evidence-based classroom design strategies that support both student well-being and energy-efficient building operations. The research will establish a foundation for future interdisciplinary studies involving controlled lighting interventions, virtual-reality classrooms, eye-tracking technologies, and healthy and sustainable learning environments." "How does the classroom environment affect the way students learn, focus, and feel? This interdisciplinary research project investigates how classroom lighting conditions influence student alertness, engagement, perceived learning, sleepiness, and visual comfort.
The selected first-year student will work closely with faculty researchers from engineering and nursing and will be actively involved throughout the research process. Responsibilities will include assisting with classroom data collection, including measurements of illuminance, correlated color temperature, daylight availability, and other lighting conditions. The student will also support data organization and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) to ensure environmental measurements and survey data are accurate, complete, and consistent.
How does the classroom environment affect the way students learn, focus, and feel? This interdisciplinary research project investigates how classroom lighting conditions influence student alertness, engagement, perceived learning, sleepiness, and visual comfort.
The selected first-year student will work closely with faculty researchers from engineering and nursing and will be actively involved throughout the research process. Responsibilities will include assisting with classroom data collection, including measurements of illuminance, correlated color temperature, daylight availability, and other lighting conditions. The student will also support data organization and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) to ensure environmental measurements and survey data are accurate, complete, and consistent.
As data collection progresses, the student will participate in data analysis and interpretation, exploring relationships between classroom lighting conditions and student-reported outcomes. The student will also contribute to the research writing and dissemination process, including literature review, development of figures and tables, preparation of research presentations, and drafting portions of conference abstracts or manuscripts.
No prior research experience is required. We are looking for a curious, dependable, detail-oriented student who is willing to learn and interested in sustainable engineering, building design, data analysis, human-centered design, health, or education.
This position provides an opportunity to experience the complete research process—from collecting and evaluating data to analyzing results and communicating research findings.
How do classroom environments affect the way students learn, feel, and perform? This interdisciplinary research project examines how classroom lighting conditions influence student alertness, engagement, perceived learning, sleepiness, and visual comfort.
The selected first-year student researcher will be actively involved throughout the research process, working alongside faculty from engineering and nursing. The student will participate in classroom data collection, including environmental measurements such as illuminance (lux), correlated color temperature (CCT), daylight availability, and classroom lighting conditions. They will also assist with data organization and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) to ensure that environmental measurements and survey datasets are complete, consistent, and reliable.
As the project progresses, the student will contribute to data analysis and interpretation, including exploring relationships between classroom lighting conditions and student-reported learning, alertness, engagement, and visual comfort. The student will also participate in the research writing and dissemination process, including literature review, preparation of figures and tables, development of research presentations, and contributions to manuscripts or conference abstracts.
No prior research experience is required. We are looking for a curious, dependable, detail-oriented student who is interested in sustainable engineering, building design, data analysis, human-centered design, health, psychology, or education and is excited to learn how interdisciplinary research is conducted from data collection through publication.