ThermoComfort Feedback

Having launched on Monday, October 13, ThermoComfort is a web tool that lets students quickly share how comfortable they feel in campus spaces, helping make study areas cozier while cutting back on wasted energy. The brainchild of Aayana Roy, the Sustainability Campaign Co-Coordinator with the Associated Students of Madison, ThermoComfort attempts to make thermal discomfort experiences visible and to connect thermal comfort directly to smarter, more sustainable building management. Aayana notes, “Seeing this idea grow into a real, student-facing tool is easily one of the most exciting experiences of my freshman year. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity of a pilot project, thanks to Kelli Hughes and her incredible support, and to Ian Benton, Lisa Play, and Pamela O’Donnell for making it come to life! I can’t wait to see how students engage with it.” 

ThermoComfort as a tool:

• Generates active engagement on thermal comfort needs
• Grows awareness about the energy waste associated with it
• Gathers support for advocating for better building management system
• Gains data for further research into designing adaptive and predictive control systems (learn more from the technical appendix towards the end)

This has long been an area of interest for Aayana. She reports, “As a freshman, I found myself shivering in study rooms one morning and sweating in them by afternoon. Or often fatigued and unfocused because the fresh air flow rate was inadequate for occupancy levels.” Due to a database of comment cards received, she discovered that she is not alone in this experience, for years, students have been voicing these frustrations in ways that were hard to measure or act upon:

• “I’d be nice if there were some warmer areas and colder areas for different body types. Doing an all-nighter here it felt too hot and I had to be close to the windows to try to cool off…” [anonymous, Nov 2016]
• “Many people have been complaining that it is too hot on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the library. If the heat could be turned down a little I am sure you would make many people happy. Thanks” [anonymous, Nov 2011]
• “…2nd floor PC lab is hot enough to make Libya feel like Siberia.” [anonymous, May 2007]

When classrooms and study spaces are uncomfortably hot or cold, students lose focus, health can suffer, and energy is wasted as heating or cooling runs unnecessarily.

Aayana felt both frustrated and curious and wondered — What if we could make invisible thermal discomfort experiences visible? That spark is what led her to ThermoComfort.

In January 2025, during the heart of winter, she began actively working on this issue as an ASM Intern. From there, ThermoComfort grew from an idea into a comprehensive student-friendly web tool that empowers patrons to share their feedback and help campus make smarter energy choices. In this process, her consultation with Alex Frank from the Office of Sustainability introduced her to UC Davis’s TherMOOstat, which pioneered the model of student-centered comfort reporting. ThermoComfort builds on that with a key new feature: real-time, zone-specific visualization of user comfort in the Trends Dashboard.

Now, in collaboration with College Library and as a Sustainability Campaign Co-Coordinator with the Associated Students of Madison, she is thrilled to launch ThermoComfort’s first pilot project.

How It Works

ThermoComfort is a web-based feedback tool you can use in less than 15 seconds. Users will access the survey tool from QR codes localized in the rooms that are being surveyed.

• Tap whether you feel too hot or too cold—it’s quick and anonymous.
• Your feedback instantly appears in a real-time dashboard with three features:
  • A real-time dashboard with the map of College Library showing how nine rooms across three floors feel to students.
  • A clothing layer display (coats, sweaters, t-shirts) that helps put comfort levels in context.
  • A list of spaces most often reported as too hot or too cold, flagging where problems keep happening.

Mission

Aayana truly believes student comfort matters: for learning, health, and sustainability. ThermoComfort won’t change the thermostats overnight, but it does something important: it makes student experiences visible and supports energy-saving decisions.

The goal is simple: give students a voice in how campus spaces feel and use that feedback to guide smarter, comfort-focused HVAC adjustments.

Over time, this can:

• Show building managers exactly where discomfort repeats.
• Flag potential HVAC maintenance needs.
• Cut back on wasted energy while making study spaces more comfortable.

Pilot Goal

The first one-week pilot in College Library has a clear goal:

Engage students in sharing their comfort experiences and create a real-time snapshot of hot and cold spots to guide next steps.

Aayana is excited to see how this first pilot shapes the way we think about comfort and energy use on campus.

What’s Next?

If successful, ThermoComfort could expand to classrooms, libraries, and other campus buildings to make student comfort a central part of how we save energy and design better learning spaces.

Aayana also credits Alex Frank from Office of Sustainability for helping her structure this idea and introducing her to UC Davis’s TherMOOstat model. She extends her gratitude to Makenna Kull (her ASM intern coordinator, Spring 2025), Prof. Allison Mahvi, Prof. Mike Wagner, Melina Nugyen (former ASM Sustainability Chair), Ashley Hagen (current ASM Vice Chair), Prof. Victor Zavala, Pete Nemmetz, Ian Aley, Kari Borgmeyer, Nick Motl, Parth Brahmbhatt (ongoing CBE PhD), Prof. Styliani Avraamidou, and of course, most importantly, her mom, dad and baby brother, and the many others she may have missed, for their guidance in the process. Thank you all for believing in this idea.

FAQs