There is a melody to be found in evolution, a symphony of growth, if you will, and in this regard, PEARL traces its DNA to Upper Holloway, for before there was a PEARL, there was a PAMELA. The Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA) was designed to study human interactions in controlled conditions by replicating real-world environments such as urban streets and public parks, its experiments intended to create safer streets and more user-friendly

The University College London, in collaboration with The University of Hong Kong, will be conducting an experiment from 15-19 June 2026 that aims to investigate how the soundscape in underground tunnels affects users. We are currently looking for participants who meet the following criteria: Basic requirements: • Aged 18 years old or over • Using London underground for more than 2 times per month • Able to walk continuously for 3 minutes (with or without mobility aids) • Abl

We will run an experiment at PEARL on April 27 and 28 to examine how the accessibility of bus transport infrastructure affects boarding and alighting for people with disabilities when using public transport, and to identify possible solutions to mitigate the barriers we find. We seek to recruit 23 individuals over the age of 18 who meet at least one of the following criteria. Group A – a crowd of people at a bus stop, with or without disabilities. Elderly people and

Rush hour, a wheelchair user almost nudged out of their chair onto a packed platform at Stratford. At London Bridge train station, a carriage’s door slides open, alighting and boarding commuters clash as impatience swells. Pregnant women are in the mix of the phalanx, their precious extensions bumped into and ignored by the hurrying crowd. At the Dagenham East train station, an elderly woman labours up the stairs, a young man hurries past her, almost knocking her over as a we

UCL PEARL will be conducting an experiment from 12th to 18th December that aims to investigate how humans perceive floors and objects using limited, low-resolution visual information while walking. We are currently looking for male participants who are over 18 years old. If you are interested in taking part in this experiment, please click on this link . You will be asked a range of questions on a form to determine if you are eligible for this experiment. There will be a £50

Are we looking to the future with tunnel vision? PEARL was created to reconsider the future with a broader vision. Sciences give us a better understanding of the present; the arts give us a better conception of the future; engineering enables this to happen now… Why is PEARL so different from other research facilities? When people visit PEARL for the first time, they are generally and genuinely amazed. They are usually already aware of what it looks like, often from images on

An autonomous shuttle bus being tested in PEARL for its interactions with pedestrians and scooter riders in the EIT Urban Mobility Living LAPT project (Image: Bani Alvari) There is a lot of concern being expressed about how quiet electic vehicles are and what this means for pedestrian safety. I always wonder about this. Why are we worried about cars being so quiet, when there is an overarching sense that cities are too noisy? I think the answer to this is actually quite deep.

The Empathy Machine, image: Sara Adhitya Today is World Psoriasis Day and PEARL's latest ASPIRE project, the Empathy Machine , is helping raise much needed awareness of chronic illness such as psoriasis. A collaboration with Artist and Artistic Director of Creative Health Camden Antonia Attwood, the Empathy Machine is an example our how the Arts can sup the Sciences and help facilitate knowledge exchange between patients and their health practitioners. Much more is needed th

Call for Participants Open: UCL is carrying out research for Transport for London to investigate whether such an environment (see title) might provoke unintended responses and reactions in people with sensitivities to visual stimuli. Photo credit: Storyblocks We seek to recruit individuals over the age of 18 who are “sensitive to immersive visual environments”. To help us ensure we include as diverse of a group as possible, please use the link that best describes your con