Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON) announced today the Middle East’s first proof of concept project for its integrated Healthy Buildingssolutions portfolio at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. These advanced technologies will support HBMSU’s strategic goal of creating a healthier and safer environment for building occupants through the deployment of integrated air quality, safety and security solutions along with advanced analytics that monitor both the building environment and building occupants’ behaviors.

Honeywell’s solutions help support business continuity, and minimize the risk of disease transmission and the spread of other pathogens. Thesolutioninstalled at HBMSU enhances indoor air quality,and also integrates security systems that analyze facility usage with thermal screening, social distancing and mask detection analytics.

“As the first accredited smart university in the UAE, we are committed to providing our learners, faculty and administrative staff with an environment that conforms to the highest standards of health, security and safety on our campus and support business continuity, said Dr Mansoor Al Awar, chancellor of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University. “The launch of the first Honeywell project in the region demonstrates the effectiveness of integrated solutions for healthy buildings and is compelling evidence of the high international confidence in our University. It highlights HBMSU’s commitment to adopting best practices that support sustainability within the education sector as well as harnessing the most advanced technology to provide better learning environments for innovators and creators of the future.”

“In the current environment, there isa greater need for building operators and managers to reassure occupants. Our Healthy Buildings Solutions at HBMSUwill enable multi-level assurances forstudents and staff as they return,” said George BouMitri, president, Honeywell Building Technologies Middle East, Turkey and Africa. “We’re proud to partner with HBMSU as the first pilot project in the region and support its continued drive for sustainability and establishing regional best practice.”

The deployment contributed to the International WELL Being Institute (IWBI) accrediting HBMSU with itsWELL Health Safety Rating. It is the first university in the UAE and Middle East to achieve this milestone. HBMSU met all requirements for criteria including cleaning and sanitization procedures, emergency preparedness programs, health service resources, air and water quality management, and innovation.

Delivering Healthy Buildings Solutions that create safer buildings

Honeywell’s Healthy BuildingsSolutionsfocus on two main elements: facilitating safety and security and improving indoor air quality.

The key technologies deployed at HBMSU include:

• Thermal cameras to detect elevated body temperature in building entrances, and deep learning video analytics with real-time alarms for non-compliance with masks and social distancing policies. The latter can be used by building owners and operators to adjust interior infrastructure and minimize close-contact hotspots.
• Indoor Air Quality sensors measuring temperature, relative humidity and of contaminant concentration, with realtime reporting to the Building Management System for adjustment of filtration, ventilation and other air quality parameters.
• Electronic Air Cleaner (EAC) with UV-C disinfection technologies, applied directly on existing building HVAC systems,this helps to improve air quality in two ways. EACs trap particles while UV lighting helps inactivate attached pathogens.

Central to these building systems, the Healthy Buildings Dashboardanalytics provide real-time alerts to building owners and operators for dynamic decision-making of non-compliance issues or dealing with infection-related incidents. The dashboard can be provided to occupants in a simplified view to provide visibility into what is being done to improve the building environment’s health and safety.

The technologies were applied to HBMSU’s existing building management system which uses a third-party system, demonstrating the platform’s open architecture and hardware agnostic capabilities.

The proof of concept project is an extension of Honeywell’s collaboration with HBMSU to be its preferred technology provider. In early 2020 at HBMSU, the company launched Honeywell Forge Energy Optimization, a cloud-based, closed-loop, machine learning solution that autonomously and continuously studies a building’s energy consumption patterns and automatically adjusts to optimal setpoints for the building without compromising occupant comfort levels. During the pilot deployment demonstrated an initial 10% in energy savings, along with a reduction in complaints related to overcooling.