Download “Improvements in Indoor Air Quality for Disease Mitigation” by Anastacia Michigan, EIT, with contributions by David Marsh, PE and Bradford White, PE.

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This technology-driven solution gathers key data from restrooms and utilizes it to fit the needs of each client, including:

• Restroom user throughput
• Restroom user feedback
• Automatic cleaning alerts
• Smart stall occupancy
• Passive custodial staff monitoring

At any given time, data from these sources is collected and uploaded via a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. It is then sent to the TRAX® Mobile and Desktop applications for users to view and study. Therefore, when implemented, this new smart restroom technology has the ability to help staff safeguard their restrooms, while also enhancing the passenger experience, streamlining operations, and influencing future design.

The ultimate goal of this technology is to help businesses maintain their facilities and keep them at the standards that are expected of them. With new technologies and opportunities to gather data being discovered at a rapid pace, as we begin to implement these solutions, the future holds the possibility of connecting everything within a restroom and pulling real-time data on every aspect and asset available.

Arora Technology Group (ATG) is a strategic partner for TRAX®, providing assistance, application development, and deployment of these solutions.

The post TRAX® Analytics and Arora Technology Group Strengthen Airport Sanitation Standards appeared first on Arora Engineers.

I was at a college fair my senior year of high school looking for computer programming degrees at the different colleges there when someone from University of New Haven waved me over to his table. He saw my fire department shirt and stated that their university had degrees dealing with fire. I obviously wasn’t attending the fair looking for fire degrees but I took the degree flyers he was holding up and dropped them into my bag. Later that night, I was going over all the degree flyers I had picked up that day and reviewing each one when I started researching these fire degrees New Haven offered. I had never heard of degrees in fire protection engineering in the fire service, but once I discovered them, the combination of my passion for firefighting and the engineering discipline, it was a perfect match for my career path.

I attended Delaware Technical Community College that fall and graduated a few years later with my Associates degree. I began working for a sprinkler and fire alarm contractor for several years but was constantly pushed by my fellow designers to I continue my formal education for a bachelor’s degree and move to the engineering level of fire protection design. At the end of 2019, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology.

2. What do you enjoy most about your job? What motivates you?

I enjoy most about my job is being able to see parts of society that the public never gets to see. This could be the inside of a power generating plant, the assembly line of a bread factory, or the airside of an airport with airplanes right next to you.

My motivation each day is the importance of engineering especially fire protection engineering. There are many disasters each day in the world where there was failure to keep the public safe where good engineering could have prevented it. Fire protection and life safety aren’t daily thoughts of the average person until a disaster occurs. I draw my motivation each day to ensure the public and building occupants will be safe and can go about their daily lives never worrying about their safety in the built environment.

3. What makes you a unique, successful employee?

I believe their no greater trait of a successful employee than passionate for what he or she does. I am very passionate about my work each and everyday to ensure I am creating quality designs. Even after working all week, I love to read books and articles on fire protection engineering when I’m home.

4. What are some of the challenges you face day-to-day?

A challenge I face daily is the respect for the value of fire protection engineering and how it is important on every project. There is a lot of education that is needed in the construction industry to rise the awareness of fire protection engineering discipline and how it can enhance each project.

5. What are your favorite types of projects to work on?

I enjoy projects where there are high fire hazards or risks so the fire protection design plays a larger role in the overall project’s design. These project’s designs must incorporate more complex systems to mitigate the hazards. Examples of these kind of project include chemical plants, military facilities, and refineries.

6. What are your career goals?

My career goals are to obtain my engineering in training (EIT) certification in 2020 then eventually obtaining my professional engineer (PE) license once I meet the required number of experience years.

7. What do you like to do for fun?

I like volunteer as a firefighter/EMT in my community which I considered fun. Outside of that I like to go fishing, whitewater rafting on Class V rapids, kayaking, and hiking.

The post Employee Spotlight: Bryan Baker, Fire/Life Safety Designer appeared first on Arora Engineers.

We are very excited to launch our initiative, 2020: Rethinking Infrastructure! The goal of this campaign is to work together as a team to reinforce Arora’s mission statement, Improving the Quality of Life by Rethinking Infrastructure. Each month we are prompting employees to explore two words that we believe connect our mission, vision, and core values. We then have a call to action where employees send us pictures, videos, and stories that we will anonymously compile and promote to illustrate how we are living our values.

For April, we contemplated React and Reset.

• React: We have all had to react, rather quickly, to the overwhelming changes in the world and the dramatic impact they have had on our lifestyles. In our response to this pandemic, we are trying to highlight the notion that it is not the changes that are important, but how you react to those changes that matter. Will we choose positivity and perseverance over fear and hopelessness? We hope that as an organization we have demonstrated our determination to push forward and remain optimistic for the future, and we hope that you are able to do this in your individual lives as well.
• Reset: As we focus on positivity and perseverance, we can look at this as the ideal time to reset. We can reset our workspaces, how we connect with one another, our focus, our goals, our mindset and any number of things that deserve a second look. As an organization we have completely reset how we function as a group and how we collaborate digitally around our work. In some ways, it has made us stronger and better connected, as we work extra hard to communicate with one another and make our presence known. We have also had to reset our goals and decide how to best focus our efforts during this time, which can lead to significant innovative endeavors and considering rewarding avenues we may not have in the past.

We received some fantastic responses, as seen in the collage above! Next up for May, Reduce and Recycle.

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Arora is very excited to announce that we have made the 2020 ENR Top 500 Design Firms list for the second consecutive year, moving up from #482 in 2019 to #459 in 2020! The annual Top 500 Design Firms list ranks the largest publicly and privately held US architecture and engineering firms, based on the “design-specific revenue” of a firm and its subsidiaries.

The full rankings were published in the latest issue of Engineering News Record (ENR), along with highlights from a number of exciting projects from the top designers, including a 600,000 square foot, $450-million office building on the South Boston waterfront. Arora, working with Commercial Construction Consulting, Inc.(C3), was selected to provide mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, fire alarm, and special systems engineering and construction phase services for this project. The new, 18-story Class A office building is located on a land lease of the Massachusetts Port Authority’s (Massport) Parcel A2 in the burgeoning Seaport District of Boston.

As part of developer Boston Global Investors’ (BGI) design team, Arora worked closely with the other design team members including the architect, Sasaki, and the project’s structural engineers, Thornton Tomasetti. The building’s unique lot provides and will retain public sightlines to all four sides of the building. Given this, BGI and Massport sought to build a signature building that complemented the buildings around it, but at the same time stood out. The design of the building met this challenge by implementing large arches, curved facades, multi-level outdoor plazas and open space, and a building floor plate that expands as the building ascends.

The project consists of three main components:

1. An office building located on the main portion of the site, which will be approximately 600,000 square feet with an open lobby, retail and event space at the first two levels, a co-working/performance space at the third level, and tenanted office space on the remaining floors.
2. A community and innovation space on the Triangle Parcel, consisting of approximately 15,000 square feet of flexible space for community meetings, education, training, incubators, and public performance space.
3. The landscape and public realm of the entire site.

Arora is very proud to be ranked among such a prestigious list of architects and engineers, and to be included in this very exciting, innovative project.

The post Arora Reaches ENR’s 2020 Top 500 Design Firms appeared first on Arora Engineers.

Could Your Digital Foundation Support the Smart Airport of the Future?

In our Geospatial Practice blog, Arora asked the question could your digital foundation support the smart airport of the future?

We discussed The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) and the ever-changing, tech-centric airport operational and management environments. The future of these domains increasingly relies on understanding how to build bridges to not only harmonize and leverage datasets, but to serve as a standardized platform for improvisation that supports strategic aims and tactical decision-making.

There are several actions airports can take to establish the foundation for a smart airport future, including:

• Consider the Future
• Initiate Collaboration*
• Conduct an Assessment
• Build a Roadmap
• Leverage Requirements

The previous blog described how airports can “Consider the Future,” encouraging airports to consider core strategies that focus on the future in concert with digital literacy and recommending specific technologies in which an airport might best find a return on its investment.

* This blog focuses on “Initiate Collaboration,” while subsequent blogs emphasize additional actions airports can take to solidify its data foundation for the future.

Initiate Collaboration

Whether working in a large hub commercial service airport with thousands of employees or a smaller, non-hub airport, interdependencies and information sharing require some measure of proactivity between internal and external stakeholders to gather a broad understanding of data needs and available resources (or lack thereof).

Many of us recognize intellectually that we need knowledge from others to collectively solve big problems or drive visionary concepts, yet we still lack the motivation or rarely take action to collaborate. Teamwork all too often feels inefficient, risky, low value, and political—with perspectives the believe it eats up valuable time, introduces potential for distrust, inadvertently moderates our own area of expertise (as it relates to its seeming importance, at least to us, in the corporate enterprise), or might lead to self-promotion of other parts of the organization seeking to elevate status or “save” the work they offer.

Collaboration is a way of working that attracts and involves people outside one’s formal control, organization, and expertise, to accomplish common goals. Collaboration is not about seeking consensus, nor is it intended to be a marketing tool to “sell” one department’s capabilities to another part of the organization. But it is a way, at the risk of sounding cliché, a way to “break down silos” and to discover different points of view that may not have been considered.

Acknowledge that Stakeholder Perspectives May Differ

Airports and communities served by airports have a mutual dependence when it comes to collaboration. Airports and communities that do not work together introduce the opportunity for inadvertent challenges that could be mitigated or agreed to through open communication. This interdependent environment requires airports and municipal, county, and state agencies to share information.

Much of this information is geographic in nature—identifying locations of assets, facilities, infrastructure, events, and boundaries. Airports should seek information from surrounding communities to support planning and development, airspace analysis, property acquisition, noise mitigation, environmental protection, and customer service. State and local public service departments need information from airports for transportation planning, compatible development, emergency response, and zoning.

For proper collaboration, it is helpful to set aside unhelpful assumptions and preconceptions about those with whom one seeks to interact. There are numerous stakeholders when it comes to information sharing in airport planning and community development. Each stakeholder has a different lens through which they operate. These lenses are filled with biases (which are not necessarily a bad thing) that can drive decision-making as it relates to information sharing, proper planning, and collaboration at airports.

As stakeholders come together, it is important to appreciate other perspectives. Anticipation of different perspectives lays the groundwork for proper collaboration that includes working together to come to a reasonable consensus.

How Can Airports Collaborate for Enhanced Information Sharing?

1. Work on your network and create forums

Two of the biggest barriers to collaboration are ignorance about others’ expertise and mistrust in their ability to meet your expectations or leverage the solution(s) you bring to the table. Building your network can help solve both problems.

The most successful collaboration efforts include finding forums to share experiences and to learn from stakeholder roles, responsibilities, and missions. Knowledge gathered, and networks built from these interactions, are critical in building partnerships that coalesce around a unified objective and that seek to benefit all stakeholders.

Another step to enhance collaboration is to participate in a variety of forums such as user group meetings, regional or local outreach sessions, and even broad-scale conferences. Events such as these can provide a wealth of information and experiences that can be extrapolated into further information sharing, targeted at specific stakeholders or for specific programs. If such a forum is unavailable, consider taking the lead to create a local information sharing environment.

The key is to be proactive and to take the first step—embrace introductions through meetings and initiate purposeful information sharing events such as brown bag sharing opportunities, discovery sessions (for shared IT solutions, software, licensing, etc.), or eventually, more formal presentations to management.

2. Contribute to someone else’s project

Knowing how and when to collaborate is a learning process. Working with those who have experience (even if it does not include digital literacy) before you construct a program, project, or refinement of your own helps you pick up on business processes, routines, and other tools that make collaboration efficient.

For example, airport planning, planning, and other professionals in airports and state and local government that use complex datasets, employ hardware, software, or cloud solutions. Each group likely includes employees willing to bridge organizational boundaries or can refer you to like-minded individuals. Through the forums mentioned above or other networking opportunities, there are likely opportunities to find cross-cutting projects already underway or in consideration where collaboration may be the key to not only finding a collective solution, but also to gain a big-picture perspective and/or spark ideas for future opportunities.

Solutions May Be Closer than You Think

Collaboration can lead to tremendous discovery related to information sharing. Forums and/or intentional information sharing can create an environment that allows for the identification of resources from other organizations while simultaneously informing others about resources available from your organization. A simple avenue for identifying resources can be a cursory review of an organization’s website. Descriptions provided in department-specific websites can include contact information or links to websites frequented by planners or by other stakeholders. Going down these rabbit-holes can unearth a treasure trove of contacts that may be located nearby—sometimes offices down the hall or in the next building on a city government campus or airport offices.

Local airport planners and community planners should have easy access to airport or government websites, and in many cases, may have access to intranets established within municipalities for the specific intention of information sharing. Many municipalities or departments leverage Microsoft SharePoint websites or on-line collaborative tools such as SmartSheet for projects that span multiple organizations or planning / project periods. In many instances, specific websites can include links to useful information such as available location-based data or pre-baked maps that can be utilized to enhance collaboration.

For example, many organizations such as State DOTs or environmental agencies have constructed ever-evolving datasets for decades, filled with useful features, attributions, and metadata. Many local planning departments include geo-referenced PDF files of parcel data or zoning maps that can be leveraged easily with airport planning materials to amplify land use compatibility opportunities or challenges. Also, organizations that are fortunate enough to already have enterprise GIS systems in place can provide controlled access to thousands of local features and data points, and in many instances, imagery and remote-sensing.

The post Could Your Digital Foundation Support the Smart Airport of the Future? Part III: Initiate Collaboration appeared first on Arora Engineers.

At the start of this new decade, we began contemplating all things “rethinking” and as we find ourselves in this new place, we certainly have put that word into action. We’ve developed ten words that we believe connect our mission, vision, and core values and as we journey together, remotely or once again side by side, we’ll be prompting employees to explore two words each month. The idea is to begin thinking and sharing what these words mean to Arora and to them personally, how they connect with our work and staff, and finally a FUN call to action!

This initiative will lead us up to our Annual Meeting, where we will put everything we’ve explored together. We’re excited to share the image shown above, which incorporates these new words and hope they begin to inspire everyone to start “rethinking.”

The post 2020: Rethinking Infrastructure appeared first on Arora Engineers.

How did you come to do what you do? Was this a lifelong goal?

Throughout school I was a very literature-oriented student. I filled all my electives with writing classes and tore through close to a dozen books a month with aspirations of being a published author. I attended Temple University in pursuit of a journalism degree, thinking my interest in writing would be enough to pique an interest in journalism, but I learned rather quickly that the field wasn’t for me. I dropped out after about two years and started working on a farm in the town where I grew up, until my boyfriend pushed me to apply to ITWorks, a professional IT training and certification program. I was never all that technologically inclined, but I took a shot and sent in an application.

What do you enjoy most about your job? What motivates you?

I think what I enjoy most about my job right now is the amount of time I get to spend really learning. Whether it’s about a new product we can try to work into our solutions, or just a deeper dive into the specialties of a fellow team member so I have a better understanding of how their abilities benefit the greater whole, I can constantly expand my own knowledge to improve myself, my team, and my work.

Personally, I think my family motivates me the most. When I dropped out of college, everyone seemed to feel the impact of it. My parents never finished college themselves and they were committed to giving me and my sister the best opportunities possible, degree included. I feel a bit like I let them down in that respect, so I want to make that up to them in whatever way I can.

What makes you a unique, successful employee?

I think my somewhat unconventional background for my field definitely makes me unique. Being a little late to the IT party forced me to approach problems in a way that someone who is more well-versed in the topic may not consider. It allows me to find common ground between the two ends of the tech-spectrum, the creator and the consumer.

What are some of the challenges you face day-to-day?

Every day could bring the introduction of new technology, including new potential hardware solutions, new possible software integrations, new feature requests that a client would like to see, or even improvements to our existing solutions and processes. The real challenge there is just understanding all the new options that are constantly coming out, figuring out how they compare to our existing solutions, and determining whether “new” is really synonymous with “better.” I find one of the biggest challenges for myself in this area is having to stop from bringing new tech to the table that I think is really neat but might not be a true product improvement.

What are your career goals?

In an effort to bridge my current skill set with my interest in writing, I think it would be amazing to be able to write the storyline and gameplay dialogue for a Roll Playing Game (RPG) at some point during my career, but that is more of a personal goal than a career goal. I’m doing my best to capitalize on any and all training opportunities that come my way and I’m actually enrolled in a two-day training course to get my CSPO certification this week. My thinking is that the more I learn, the more I will understand where my passions in this field truly lie, and then I can pursue them when I have all the necessary tools at my disposal, or at least more tools than I had before.

What do you like to do for fun?

I still read and write a lot in my free time and play video games fairly often too, mostly RPGs because, as you’ve probably been able to tell, I’m a sucker for a good story. I also enjoy cooking quite a bit. I live just a few blocks from the Italian Market in Philadelphia, so it’s fun to take a walk through the stalls and see if there’s anything that looks interesting to cook with.

The post Employee Spotlight: Emily Schroeder appeared first on Arora Engineers.

The Future of Sustainable Airport Design

In this article, experts in engineering and architecture, as well as airport executives, discuss how the aviation sector is focusing on developing a genuinely sustainable future through more environmentally friendly designs that can address current climate change concerns. According to Dr. Paul Toyne, Sustainability Practice Leader at Grimshaw, sustainable designs need to focus on more than just using materials that are environmentally friendly. Airports need to be developed with a focus on possible changes in future transportation.

He explains, “By designing future-proofed airports that can properly house and facilitate new types of aircraft, and fulfill their fueling requirements, we will ensure that airports retain their capacity to fully integrate transformations in technology in the most environmentally conscious way.” Toyne also expresses the need for future airports that will be able to withstand the consequences of extreme weather patterns.

Challenges and Opportunities

Monumentality

Dave Marsh discusses the issue of “monumentality in airport terminal design.” Dave explains, “Modern airport terminals are following the precedent of late 19th century railroad terminals and becoming ‘temples of transportation’. Each community wants its local airport to be a suitable gateway expressing their civic pride to the world.” These designs have started to include high cathedral-like ceilings and broad windows, which could be potential sources of increased energy use.

However, according to Dave, “Every problem also presents an opportunity for sustainable design. By implementing state-of-the-art sustainable design techniques, a seemingly inefficient building feature can be turned into a means of energy reduction.” Larger windows could allow for increased daylighting capabilities, while high ceilings could allow for innovative cooling air distribution methods that will reduce energy. For example, one of our current projects, a largescale terminal modernization program in the New England region of the United States includes a cathedral-style grand hall, which could be viewed as problematic for efficient energy use. Therefore, Arora is utilizing an innovative displacement ventilation system, where tempered air is supplied at the occupant level, allowing the unoccupied space to “thermally stratify.” This will lead to a 33% reduction in fresh outdoor air supply and an annual energy cost reduction of $300,000.

Central Utility Plants

Dave also believes that airport utility plants could hold the key to future sustainability improvements. Currently, many airports have older central utility plants with less efficient equipment, which limits the possibility for energy and carbon reductions. According to Dave, “Over time, as these central plants reach the end of their expected lifespans and need replacement, there will be opportunities for efficiency improvements that will reverberate across the entire site.”

Global Airport Development

As passenger projections continue to grow and the need for new airport development expands globally, architects and engineers are re-examining their design approaches to incorporate sustainability efforts whenever possible. While the initial financial and time investment may be large, the cost reduction over time and the impact on the future of our climate are worthwhile considerations in new airport design.

The post David Marsh, PE, LEED AP Featured in Passenger Terminal World appeared first on Arora Engineers.

We will be located in Cerritos Center Court, an eight-story office building in Cerritos Towne Center, a mixed-use campus complete with beautiful landscaping and public artwork. The Center is conveniently located with direct freeway access, eight miles from the Port of Los Angeles, and within 30 minutes of 3 major airports.

Visit us in our Los Angeles office:

17777 Center Court Drive North
Suite 600
Cerritos, CA 90703

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