Latest Reports

An increase in funding streams for interdisciplinary research coupled with major advances in computational research are driving bioengineering and integrated life sciences and engineering program growth. “Increasingly, universities are engaging in interdisciplinary research—that’s where the exciting problems are, and that’s what funding agencies are funding,” says Dr. Stephen Director, provost emeritus of Northeastern University in Boston. “We have found that our existing facilities don’t easily support that.”

High-performance buildings are designed with the innovative features and advanced technology necessary to sustain peak operating efficiency, but they frequently fail to live up to their full potential, due to a number of factors: inadequate staffing; a lack of correctly configured technology; and a lack of proper instruction, capabilities, and skill sets of employees. Incorporating a process of building optimization can prevent these shortcomings.

The John J. Sbrega Health and Science Building at Bristol Community College in Fall River, Mass., unites the programs of chemistry, biology, and medical and dental education in a single facility that is designed to be net-zero in energy usage, meaning it generates at least as much energy as it uses over the course of a year. The two-story, 50,600-sf building is the first of its kind in the Northeast.

Non-residential construction spending has dropped 6 percent since the beginning of 2016. This reduction was offset by a nearly equal increase in infrastructure spending and steady residential construction. Increases in construction prices for 2016 are now trending towards 6 percent annually, depending on location, while job growth saw a slight up-tick with an average of 192,000 jobs added per month in the third quarter of 2016 versus the 171,000 jobs per month averaged in the first half of the year.

Because it’s expensive to heat and cool outdoor air drawn into a building, workspaces tend to be ventilated only enough to meet ASHRAE minimums or achieve a LEED credit. But air quality profoundly affects workers’ cognitive performance, and even modest increases in ventilation can yield productivity and health benefits that far exceed the cost, says Joseph Allen, assistant professor and director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.