Fanshawe College

IoT Data Lake

The College’s overarching goal was to streamline their data management process by consolidating disparate IoT platforms into a single accessible platform for measurement and research.

Fanshawe College needed a comprehensive data lake for all campus IoT data, beginning with two solar panel arrays. Their existing process involved physically going to each building’s measurement platform to download its data, merge the information in Excel format and perform a manual analysis.

HH Angus served as smart building consultants to the project, providing digital design services. We reprogrammed the PLCs (programmable logic controllers) of the solar panel arrays, enabling data transmission to AWS IoT core. The resulting data is now stored in a data lake where it is presented with analysis on a centralized dashboard, providing a unified and efficient solution to the College’s data management challenges.

One of the challenges of the project centered on communications and technical access. Collaboration with multiple academic and IT departments proved challenging due to communication issues with various stakeholders involved in the original solar panel array. To address this, our team coordinated multi-department troubleshooting meetings, fostering a collaborative atmosphere that was focused on progress.

Also, gaining access to the PLCs for essential programming changes became complicated due to staff turnover at the client. An unintended consequence of this was that new staff members were unfamiliar with the PLCs. To remedy this, our team assumed more of a technical advisory role than had been anticipated originally, to the point of involving technical support from the PLC manufacturer to assist the College’s technicians. Solving these issues underscores the project team’s adaptability in overcoming unexpected challenges.

SERVICES
Smart Building Consultants 


PROJECT FEATURES
Comprehensive data lake for all campus IoT data | Centralized dashboard provides data analysis and data management | Status: Completed 2023, with ongoing maintenance contract


LOCATION 
London, Ontario


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Hardware-free data retrieval from solar panels | Reprogrammed PLCs for AWS data transmission | Advanced data analysis with local utility rates


Collège Bois-de-Boulogne

Server Room Air Conditioning
Pavilion Saint-Paul

One of the challenges of this project was to replace the main and redundant cooling systems in the server room while maintaining operations and minimizing impact on the College.

HH Angus’ scope of work for this project included analyzing the mechanical and electrical infrastructure of the server room, and proposing permanent corrective solutions. It also included implementation of solutions to provide redundancy for the mechanical infrastructure to guarantee full operation of the servers in the event of a critical power emergency or failure of the server room's main cooling system.

In order to analyze the existing installations, we performed site visits and surveys, and interviewed technicians responsible for the server room to gather as much information as possible about the existing installation, including any ongoing issues. We also reviewed and analyzed plans for the existing installation and performed a condition assessment - chilled water and glycol piping, insulation, ventilation ducts, electrical systems serving the equipment, and control systems - and took measurements in the mechanical and server rooms to ensure the new equipment could be properly installed while still providing space for maintenance work.

Following our analysis, we produced a report outlining the scope of work to refurbish the server room's cooling systems (main and redundant systems), ensuring the installation complied with current codes and standards. We produced mechanical and electrical drawings and specifications, including proposed solutions and equipment selection, and consulted with vendors to identify optimal solutions to meet the client’s requirements. During the tender process, we reviewed bids submitted by the contractor and provided recommendations to the College.

The intention was to complete this work over the summer when classes were not in session. Due to COVID-related delays in production of the necessary equipment, the work could not be completed on the original schedule and had to be undertaken when students were back in class. We worked very closely with stakeholders to avoid disruption to the students, with some work being completed before and after class or on weekends.

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering


PROJECT FEATURES
Analysis of mechanical and electrical infrastructure | Recommendations for permanent corrective solutions | Infrastructure redundancy in the event of critical power emergency | Status: Completed 2022


LOCATION 
Montreal, Quebec


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Analysis of existing equipment and installations | Design of new cooling systems


Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) 

‘Smart Campus’ Strategy, Planning and Technical Requirements

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) engaged HH Angus to develop the ‘Smart Campus’ strategy, planning and technical requirements. These deliverables will guide NAIT forward as a leading polytechnic in Canada to attract students, donors and researchers, while supporting environmental causes and the student experience.

The Angus Connect team led a multi-disciplinary Smart Campus consortium of consulting firms that brought together deep expertise in digital solutions and engineering disciplines. Some of the exciting aspects of the Smart Campus project included a campus integrated command centre, IoT sensor rich environment, energy management, smart building standards with BIM and Digital Twins, a future state network architecture including a spectrum management plan for Wi-Fi and cellular, with a focus on 5G-enabled devices. The incorporation of these emerging technologies will assist NAIT in achieving its organizational goals.

This project required a broad engagement of stakeholders and subject matter experts; a consulting team of 24 subject matter experts and project management joined forces to prepare a smart campus strategy.

Key services provided and deliverables included:

  1. Smart Campus Design Guidelines, documenting how smart features should be incorporated throughout the design
  2. Integration Design: Integration Requirements, Use Cases, and  Integration Matrix to inform a future Smart Campus Integration Hub architecture and Master System Integration responsibilities
  3. Analytics: Analytical Model development to inform future Digital Twin insights
  4. Governance

It quickly became apparent that setting up the right decision makers and creating an advisory committee would be key to a well thought out strategy. Our team led the governance, oversight and direction setting with the committee, and, the project was managed through virtual engagement.

SERVICES
Stakeholder engagement | Desktop studies | Strategy & Roadmap development | Governance | Integration design | Analytics


PROJECT FEATURES
Post-Secondary | Visioning workshops | Technical requirements | Modeling | Standards and operating procedures | Completion: Q4 2022 (Est)


LOCATION 
Edmonton, Alberta


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Smart campus strategy | Planning | Technical requirements


Young creative business people meeting at office.

 

Visioning Workshops

The Angus Connect team has deep experience in organization-wide and campus digital strategy & visioning, technology specifications, smart buildings technologies, command centres, networking infrastructure design and integration, and energy management. Our consultants  facilitated visioning workshops with the Steering Committee and senior leadership to understand the needs, goals and objectives of the organization. These sessions included discussion of best practices, industry standards, and showcased current and emerging technologies through the use of case studies. From these sessions, our team was able to synthesize the vision, principles, key evaluation criteria and future state (opening day) initiatives.

Systems Architecture

Additional workshops were held to gain a better understanding of the current systems and network architecture, with attendant discussions on gaps/pain points and ongoing projects. Using the outputs from the visioning workshops and the systems architecture workshops, our team developed a conceptual model of systems architecture with a basis of design report to guide the client from their network today to the network they need for the future Smart Campus. 

Internet of things

Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology

Garriock Hall Mechanical Retrofit

Located on the King City campus, Garriock Hall renovations are part of Seneca’s on-going expansion. The retrofitted heating system provides improved comfort for the campus’ 5,200 students.

HH Angus was engaged as prime consultant for a retrofit at one of the campus’ main academic buildings. Our scope included replacement and upgrade to:

  • Twelve fan coil units, complete with additional coil elements
  • Approximately 30 hot water cabinet unit heaters located throughout the building, along with additional Building Automation System (BAS) integration
  • Dual-duct terminal boxes for approximately 2/3’s of the building. The terminal boxes themselves were upgraded from pneumatically controlled to digital controlled complete with BAS integration.
  • Domestic hot water system
  • Pool heating system

The project used low temperature heating water from a ground-source heat pump system. This increased the physical size of the replacement heaters, which required accompanying structural and architectural modifications.

Domestic hot water preheat was implemented to take advantage of the low temperature heating water from the heat pump system, and was implemented as part of the domestic hot water system replacement and upgrade. The upgrades included a new high efficiency condensing water heater paired with a heating water to domestic water heat exchanger.

The pool heating system was not operational prior to the project. It was made functional and upgraded to take advantage of the low temperature heating water available from the heat pump system, by replacing the heat exchanger and adding additional controls. 

Dual duct terminal boxes upgrades included replacing the terminal boxes to implement Variable Air Volume (VAV) control. In a few areas, existing single duct VAV terminal boxes were replaced with those equipped with reheat coils to facilitate occupant comfort.

The project timeline was aggressive, with engineering design starting late May 2019 and tendering in late August 2019. The project took advantage of the 2019 Christmas break to complete the majority of construction in order to minimize impacts to the occupants.

Image courtesy of Google Maps

SERVICES
Prime Consultant | Mechanical Engineering


PROJECT FEATURES
Twelve fan coil units | ~ 30 hot water cabinet unit heaters | Additional BAS integration | Dual-duct terminal boxes, upgraded from pneumatically controlled to digital control, complete with BAS integration | Domestic hot water system | Pool heating system


LOCATION 
King City, Ontario


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Heating plant uses ground source heat pump to deliver low temperature heating water | Compressed project schedule to meet heating season deadline | Unique dual-duct HVAC system being modernized and upgraded for re-use


Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

TecNano Academic Building

TecNano is a proposed new academic building that combines a variety of lab spaces containing co-working environments. The intent is to support a highly interactive and collaborative research experience within the biotech lab building.

Tecnológico de Monterrey is a multi-campus private university in Monterrey, Mexico. The university has grown to 36 campuses throughout Mexico, with the Monterrey campus serving as its flagship institution.

HH Angus was engaged to provide ICAT (information, communications and automation technology) design services for a proposed new building, the TecNano Academic Building. The IT design scope included a main data centre with a subsidiary data centre dedicated to Multiomics. The IT design was based on a stacked central riser, with main and redundant facility entrances from the street and from the rear, connecting to the campus backbone.  Wi-Fi would be available throughout the building, with lab benches and overhead carriers providing wired data connections.

The building design required an innovative solution to locating the IT backbone. We designed a riser in the exterior channel up the north side of the building to facilitate the open-air atrium as well as a stacked riser.

The security scope included access control, CCTV, duress alarms, and a central guard station with CCTV monitoring. The facility was designed with medium to high security measures, and featured dual factor credentials for specific lab entrances. There was one clean room with anteroom, and several isolation and pressurized anteroom labs, all requiring interlock and high-speed overhead doors.

Physical security also presented challenges. Intended to be welcoming, safe and secure, the facility was designed to be open to the campus on the North side and to act as a gateway to the campus from the street on the South side. We provided glass high-speed entrance portals for entrance circulation. The solution also had to function well in Monterrey’s extreme environment. Working with the architect, we provided a safe, secure, and high-speed portal that would be protected from the elements by the atrium ceiling high overhead.

The AV systems included a public auditorium with distance learning and lecture capture, video conferencing-enabled faculty boardroom, as well as AV-enabled student meeting, study, and huddle spaces. Digital signage in IP-65 enclosures provided wayfinding at the entrance for the facility and campus

The TecNano Academic Building laboratory types included:

Nanophotonics

Molecular Simulation

Metallomics

Advanced Optical Microscopy

Nanostructure Synthesis

Micro and Nanofabrication

Multiscale Manufacturing

Materials Characterization

Synthetic Biology

High Throughput Bioprocesses

Microrobotics

Tissue Engineering and Bioprinting.

SERVICES
ICAT Consultant - Security, Audiovisual and Communication Design


PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 25,500 m2 | Status: Design Completion 2018


LOCATION 
Monterrey, Mexico


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Biotech laboratory building, including clean room and nanotechnology labs | International collaboration – Client in Mexico, Architect in United States, ICAT and Vertical Transportation consultants in Canada


Model of TecNano Academy Building

Innovative solutions

An interesting challenge affected the communications design, specifically the outside plant design.  When the local municipality rejected street closures to install a communications duct bank for carrier entrance cabling, we surveyed the site, the facilities, and routing together with TecNanao IT, and designed a campus-internal route to meet the carriers’ entrance to the East. While it is a much longer route, it is also simpler to permit, as it was not located within the municipal right-of-way.

Image credits: FGP Atelier