Innovation in education technology design is pushed forward by the desire to overcome or even anticipate that human factor.
system can communicate with the BMS to shut down the HVAC, so it isn’ t running inefficiently. We anticipate the rate of automation to accelerate even more, contributing to greater system integration and communication.
Another trend is concerned with upgrades to what are considered“ passive” controls, such as key cards or access codes, that are vulnerable to hacking. The industry is moving toward biometric verification, where some aspect of an individual’ s biological identity verifies who they are. This can be a fingerprint, retina scan or full facial recognition. The industry is also moving toward triple authentication— which would be:
• Something you have— such as key card or credential
• Something you know— a pin number
• Something you are— the biometric aspect
By doing this, the security system will begin to play an even more autonomous role. The“ human factor” remains the challenge. For example, a person with legitimate access is followed through the door by an intruder. There are technologies to prevent this scenario currently on the market, like using a photo beam to count the number of people entering. But K-12 budgets are restrictive and place these technologies out of reach for most schools. We anticipate that as these new technologies expand and become cheaper, they will become ONVIF( Open Network Video Interface Forum) compliant and more affordable for K-12 districts. ONVIF specifications, which most manufactures design to, is a standard written into most K-12 design specifications.
MEP design is less active in directly addressing school safety from human actions. MEP designers take care to place infrastructure in inconspicuous locations and protect it from tampering through barriers like fences around electrical equipment. These systems were once“ hidden” because they’ re not esthetically pleasing, but today the reason veers primarily towards stopping tampering. However, at this point, MEP design doesn’ t yet design specifically to prevent equipment disabling or, for example, using active deterrents to drive away introducers. MEP design looks to evolve to not only incorporate the technology backbone and system designs but site design as well, taking into consideration fences and other barriers around the campus during site design.
MEP’ s safety focus has been toward fire / life safety— which has been working remarkably well. In fact, a child has not been lost to fire in a school since the 1950s. These systems are mature technology that doesn’ t require major design upgrades, but the systems are currently being integrated with security systems such as surveillance and emergency and evacuation communications. For decades, fire / life safety systems have been the highest priority systems, which could not be overridden. With the increase of school shootings, a mass notification system( voice over, emails, phone calls, SMS texts, LCD signage, etc.) can override the fire alarm system in the instance of false alarms. Instead, the mass notification system would instruct occupants to shelter in place, rather an evacuate.
Emerging technologies and new design trends promise to better secure our students. It’ s up to the design industry to inform school districts of the all the possibilities and to create the most secure building systems that they can. As districts begin to adopt new technologies and security protocols, governments must ensure that all schools have the resources to implement these potentially life saving measures. And as citizens we must ensure that there is a political will to give school the resources they need to keep students safe. This is one issue where everyone has a part to play.
We interviewed P2S Senior Security System Designer, Steve Burman, and K-12 Mechanical Engineer, Gareth Owens, for this piece.
1. Source: CNN, https:// www. cnn. com / 2018 / 03 / 02 / us / school-shootings-2018-list-trnd / index. html 19