Infrastructure Elements for Smart Campuses: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Sustainable development can be attained at a microlevel and having smart campuses around the world presents an opportunity to achieve city-wide smartness. In the process of attaining smartness on campuses, the elements requiring attention must be investigated. There are many publications on smart campuses, and this investigation used the bibliometric analysis method to identify such publications produced over the last decade. A matrix of 578 nodes and 3217 edges was developed from 285 publications on smart campus construction and procurement. Fifteen cluster themes were produced from the bibliometric analysis. The findings revealed that China contributed 48.4% of all published articles on the smart campus. The findings presented a framework from the cluster themes under the four broad infrastructure areas of building construction or repurposing, technology and IT network, continuous improvement, and smart learning and teaching management. The implications of the findings identified that IT project management, traditional procurement strategy, and standard forms of contracts such as the New Engineering Contract (NEC) and the Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT) are applicable in the procurement of smart cities.

A Systems Thinking Model for Transitioning Smart Campuses to Cities

“…The concept of a smart city is based on the principle of smart infrastructure, where there is an interconnection of digital components to generate and use data intelligently to improve the performance of systems through the efficient use of resources (UN, 2016). The core infrastructural elements needed for smart city solutions include but are not limited to a sustainable environment, comprehensive IT digitalisation, efficient waste management, energy management, effective urban mobility, e-governance, telemedicine/education and constant electricity supply as identified by Omotayo et al (2021) as presented the framework of Figure 1. Some of the smart city infrastructures within a city allow smart campus development within the same city.…”

“…Smart campus initiatives are based on the concept of IoT and its relative interaction with educational buildings through smart network grids (Omotayo et al, 2021), utilising and controlling a large volume of data remotely in the process. The initiative is premised on the construction of smart buildings or the repurposing of old campus buildings to create a sustainable environment essential for academic activities (Chen et al, 2017).…”

“…The initiative is premised on the construction of smart buildings or the repurposing of old campus buildings to create a sustainable environment essential for academic activities (Chen et al, 2017). The study of Omotayo et al (2021) revealed that IoT-smart building interaction necessary for the smart campus is driven by 5G and 6G flagship, smart grid, artificial intelligence, fog computing, green computing, repurposing, energy management, smart teaching and learning. Using the technology of IoT and smart classrooms, social benefits arising from the management of resources within the university ecosystem as well as the efficient and effective citizen and e-governance services to the society emerge (Zhang L. et al, 2020).…”

Toward a Dynamic Capabilities Framework for Engendering 4IR-Enabled Circular Economy in a University of Technology

“…This has mainly been the case in developed countries. In such climes, these technologies have been used in facilitating the development of smart campuses (Omotayo et al, 2021) and engendering remote and asynchronous learning (Oke and Fernandes, 2020).…”

“…They have also been applied in the development of smart campus operations in a manner that facilitates resource efficiency on these campuses. In another study, Omotayo et al (2021) articulated the use of these technologies within the university setting for achieving the smart campus network grids, smart buildings, effective learner management systems, campus equipment management services, energy management systems, performance measurement, management and forecasting among others.…”