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Vanderbilt University

Tennessee, USA

Pavegen and Tribal Planet worked to create a deeper engagement with Cisco’s brand and enhance its reputation in a fun and memorable way at its headline annual event.

We helped engage Cisco’s audience of IT specialists with its Social Impact programme in a lasting and engaging way.

 
Tribal Planet created ‘Network to Light’ – three unique Pavegen installations, app-enabled, designed to capture the footsteps of event attendees. This energy was then to be donated as electricity credits to power schools in Nepal.

 

Via Tribal Planet’s Citizen Earth app and screens, attendees could track their steps and see how much energy they were personally creating, simply by walking over the tiles. Daily winners would be announced via the app leaderboard and screens on-site.

Cisco’s goal was 1 million steps. The installation really caught the imagination of Cisco LIVE audiences,

The team doubled that target, capturing the energy of over 2 million footsteps.

A new kind of campus interaction

In 2025, Vanderbilt University became the latest forward-thinking institution to bring Pavegen technology to campus. Situated in the heart of Nashville, the university installed a 60-tile walkway powered by 18 generators - creating an eye-catching, interactive experience where every step sparks curiosity and connection.

Designed to engage both students and visitors, the installation is more than a feature on campus pathways. It represents a shift happening across the education sector: moving sustainability from something students read about to something they feel under their feet.

 

Inspiring The next Generation

The Challenge

Universities face a unique challenge:
How do you take big, global topics like climate action and make them meaningful to students with different backgrounds, interests, and motivations?

For Vanderbilt, the goal wasn’t just to showcase innovative technology - it was to create a sustainability experience that could be:

  • A hands-on learning moment students engage with every day

  • A visible symbol of the university’s commitment to climate action

  • A real-world technology system bridging engineering, design, data, and environmental impact

  • A memorable feature for tours, student life, and community pride

Pavegen delivered exactly that, and this is how. 

The Approach

To bring Vanderbilt’s vision to life, Pavegen designed and installed an interactive kinetic walkway right at the heart of campus:

  • 60 kinetic tiles

  • 18 generators

Each footstep produces energy, triggering a glow underfoot - transforming an everyday pathway into an engaging, sensory experience.

Students can see the direct result of their movement in real time, creating an instant emotional and educational connection to renewable energy.

 

Screenshot 2025-11-21 at 16.17.02

 

GAMIFYING
SIEMENS PURPOSE

Pavegen is based in King’s Cross, in the heart of London’s tech revolution. We’re just a few minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and St. Pancras International Stations. Our research and development centre operates in Cambridge, the innovation hub of the country.

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Lasting Impact

By integrating an interactive walkway into a high-traffic area of campus, the installation turned these goals into reality, making sustainability:

Immediate: Students experience impact with every step, creating a direct connection between personal action and environmental outcomes.

Memorable: The kinetic tiles illuminate and respond to movement, transforming a familiar path into a moment of curiosity, surprise, and play.

Measurable: Real-time data becomes a powerful learning tool, ready to be woven into coursework, research projects, and campus-wide sustainability reporting.

What Vanderbilt envisioned, Pavegen made tangible - elevating an everyday walkway into a living demonstration of innovation. It’s a space where students can not only learn about sustainability, but actively participate in it. The installation fosters a culture of engagement, inspires conversation, and supports the university’s long-term mission to champion smarter, cleaner futures.

A pathway became a platform - for learning, for exploration, and for empowering the next generation to step into sustainability with confidence.