Fredda Clisham washes her hands at a bathroom sink—something she’s done thousands of times in her 96 years.

But this time, it’s different. This time, Clisham, an Ann Arbor resident, is washing her hands in front of a two-way mirror in the bathroom of the U-M HomeLab, a new lab built at the U-M Institute for Social Research geared toward helping researchers study how people interact with their environment—and with each other.

The HomeLab, housed within the U-M BioSocial Methods Collaborative, looks and feels like a complete apartment. It has every fully functioning convenience, including a stove, microwave, refrigerator and washer and dryer, that a home has. But unlike a home, the lab is outfitted with technology that allows researchers to observe how people live their lives.

The HomeLab was built using funding by the University of Michigan Provost, the Institute for Social Research, and the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research.

Read the full University Record article here.