THE CHALLENGE
HVAC systems keep our buildings heated and cooled, but they’re also potential targets. Terrorists can deploy a small quantity of a chemical or biological agent in the heating, cooling or ventilation system, and dose an entire building of people with horrible stuff.
This is especially a concern for those who are in charge of buildings that house government and/or military employees — someone like Hertz Fellow Amy Alving.
The SOlution
As an office director and program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Alving started The Immune Buildings Program, which makes military buildings and the people who work inside them less-attractive targets for biological and chemical attacks.
“We started the program to deal with how you turn a building’s HVAC system from part of the bad guy’s weapons into part of our defense system,” said Alving, also an aerospace engineer.
To do this, Alving’s team developed sensors to detect when an attack might be occurring. Contaminated air is redirected after detection, reducing the building’s exposure as much as possible.
The Impact
Not only does the Immune Buildings Program make government buildings more terrorist-proof, but it also became critical in October 2001, when letters full of anthrax were sent to government buildings, with one such letter being opened, and contaminating the Hart Senate Office Building.
At the time, there was no protocol on how to clean a building once it had been contaminated — a major concern since anthrax spores can live for years. “Because in the Immune Buildings program, we had looked at trying to solve the entire problem, we were far, far ahead of anybody else in figuring out what you need to know” to clean the building, Alving said. After working with the EPA, they completed the clean up and got the building back up and running in three months.
“We started a program that dealt with how you turn a building’s HVAC system from part of the bad guy’s weapons into part of our defensive system.”
Amy Alving
Office Director and Program Manager, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
