Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ): Syracuse CoE Vision and Accomplishments

An IEQ vision for a Sustainable Future

Syracuse CoE members envision collaborating to create a broad variety of innovations that will revolutionize the design and operation of buildings, vastly improve the IEQ they provide to occupants, and reduce their impact on natural ecosystems.

In particular, we envision creating energy- and resource-efficient systems that create and maintain IEQ, including adapting to control by individual occupants and operating in harmony with changing outdoor conditions. 

Nested IEQ Systems

The Syracuse CoE envisions innovations at three distinct, “nested” scales: 1) whole building; 2) zone, containing one or more occupants (such as a room or a group of several rooms); and 3) individual occupant. 

We envision reconfigurable networks of IEQ systems operating in concert to reduce energy consumed for conditioning buildings and to improve occupant comport, performance, and health in homes, schools, offices, and health-care facilities.

The Syracuse CoE IEQ vision directly addresses the full range of issues and concerns with current state-of-the-art technologies. Click here for the Overview and Background on IEQ. 

Syracuse CoE IEQ R&D Capabilities

Since 1998, Syracuse CoE members have collaborated to create an infrastructure for IEQ research and development that now is one of the best in the world. Capabilities include access to premier facilities  available at nine academic institutions that are members of the NYSTAR-awarded Strategically Targeted Academic Research Center for Environmental Quality Systems  (EQS/STAR Center).

Syracuse CoE IEQ R&D Projects

Since 1998, Syracuse CoE members have secured more than $25 million in federal and state funding to support a broad portfolio of targeted research and development projects. 

Projects feature collaborations that involve individuals from multiple academic and professional disciplines addressing topics in multiple areas, including: contaminant source characterization and control, ventilation systems, filtration technologies, personal environmental control systems, and human health and performance. The Syracuse CoE’s strategically targeted academic research projects  in IEQ are coordinated through the EQS/STAR Center. 

Syracuse CoE IEQ CAP Projects

Since 2001, the Syracuse CoE has provided eight grants to seven companies through its Commercialization Assistance Program  for products that address IEQ concerns.
Commercialized products include a DNA-sequencing technology for the rapid detection of mold , an innovative air terminal  that improves IEQ while also reducing energy consumption, and a mobile isolation unit for hospitals .

Intelligent Green Buildings

The achievement of the vision of “intelligent” green buildings that employ a reconfigurable network of nested IEQ systems to achieve gains in energy efficiency and IEQ requires significant advancements in the development of systems that “Sense, Analyze, Interpret, and Decide (SAID).

The New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research  (NYSTAR) has provided funding to Syracuse University to develop significant improvements in systems that control energy use and environmental quality in buildings, and enable New York-based companies to benefit from subsequent commercialization.

Click here  for more information on SAID and Intelligent Green Buildings.