Pl(ai) Lab: Transforming a Trailer into a Research Lab

Project In Progress

Goal:
Lead a team of students, alongside Olin alumnus Jeremy Skoler, to transform an unused twelve foot by five foot trailer into a fully functional mobile research lab for the Pl(ai) Lab. The vision is to bring inclusive technology research directly into surrounding communities by creating a flexible and accessible space that supports ethnographic research, interviews, and product testing. This includes an interactive exercise game for older adults on an iPhone, a conversational AI assistant, a voice assisted medical form system, and many new projects the lab continues to develop. At the heart of the work is transforming the space from a bare trailer into a controlled research environment.

Challenges:
Turning such a small footprint into a neutral and professional research area has required careful technical and creative decisions. The space must be inviting and comfortable while avoiding anything that interferes with testing. Materials affect acoustics, which impacts our voice technologies. Lighting changes user behavior, so it must be soft enough for comfort but consistent enough for research. Storage and layout choices affect accessibility and safety. Working inside a moving trailer adds even more constraints, including vibration, temperature changes, and limited wall structure. I have focused on mechanical design, CAD modeling, layout development, and manufacturing coordination. This includes creating full scale tape mockups to test accessibility and movement, designing modular fixtures, and translating sketches and ideas into detailed CAD assemblies ready for fabrication.

Outcome:
The outcome so far has been a set of deep learnings about how to design a research ready space inside a moving and limited volume environment. We are discovering how to make the trailer accessible while also meeting the testing needs of multiple projects, each with different spatial and sensory requirements. We continue to balance cost, aesthetics, and function while keeping the build simple enough to maintain. Lighting, comfort, acoustics, and user flow all require ongoing iteration, and we keep solving new challenges each day. Even in progress, the work has already helped our team understand how to design flexible research environments and how to transform a simple empty trailer into a reliable tool for inclusive technology research.