UVA modelers and software designers help build ‘immune systems’ for healthier buildings
UVA team is part of multi-institution, interdisciplinary effort funded by ARPA-H
University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science
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Madhav Marathe is a professor of computer science at the University of Virginia and executive director of the Biocomplexity Institute.
view moreCredit: UVA Biocomplexity Institute
Computer science professor Madhav Marathe is leading Biocomplexity Institute researchers at the University of Virginia to develop the “brains” behind a next-generation system designed to make buildings smarter, safer and healthier for their occupants.
The work is part of a national project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, involving eight U.S. universities and three industrial partners.
The project, called BRAVE for Bioaerosol Risk Assessment interVention Engineering and led by Virginia Tech, earned a contract for up to $40 million from ARPA-H’s Building Resilient Environments for Air and Total Health program. This ARPA-H “BREATHE” program focuses on sensor-based systems that monitor and respond to changes in indoor air quality as a way to revolutionize public health.
“Indoor air quality is an important and often overlooked public health issue,” said Jennifer L. West, dean of UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. “The Biocomplexity Institute team will be able to make a real impact on people’s lives by bringing their diverse expertise in artificial intelligence and computational technologies to bear on a multifaceted problem.”
For UVA’s part in the BRAVE project, Marathe, executive director of the institute, and his team are building risk assessment and decision-making software for an intelligent indoor air system that can detect and respond to airborne threats, such as pathogens, in real time.
BRAVE’s collaborators think of it as an immune system for the building that perceives the threat and mounts appropriate defenses — such as increased ventilation, UV lights to kill mold or bacteria in the ducts, or even evacuation.
“Our team will build artificial intelligence-assisted multi-scale models and decision-support systems that translate raw sensor data into actionable insights,” Marathe said in a Biocomplexity Institute news release.
“This means not only detecting the presence of pathogens but also understanding the risk they pose in real time, and helping buildings respond intelligently to keep occupants healthy.”
UVA researchers, drawing on the institute’s core expertise and working with Signature Science LLC and the University of Michigan, will combine epidemiological modeling, AI and real-time data streams to create a system that can anticipate and mitigate outbreaks before they spread.
Virginia Tech’s team, under the direction of University Distinguished Professor Linsey Marr in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will oversee the BRAVE project, including three subsets grouped by technical area: 1) Biosensors, led by Washington University in St. Louis; 2) fast modeling modules, led by UVA; and 3) engineering interventions, led by the University of California, Davis.
The BRAVE system will be piloted in childcare centers, settings that are often hotspots for respiratory infections. The UVA-developed software and decision-support system will help determine when and how to activate interventions, balancing health outcomes with energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
SwRI expands capabilities in large-scale heat exchanger testing
Large-Scale Heat Exchanger Test Facility can test thermal performance of heat exchangers and cooling equipment at heat loads up to five megawatts
Southwest Research Institute
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Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has significantly expanded its heat exchanger evaluation capabilities. The Large-Scale Heat Exchanger Test Facility (LS-HXTF) supports testing up to five megawatts of heat loads, something few organizations offer, as well as a wider range of testing.
view moreCredit: Southwest Research Institute
SAN ANTONIO — November 17, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has significantly expanded its heat exchanger performance evaluation capabilities with a new facility designed to industry standards, the Large-Scale Heat Exchanger Test Facility (LS-HXTF) that supports testing up to five megawatts of heat loads as well as a wider range of thermal performance testing.
Heat exchangers efficiently transfer heat between two or more fluids without mixing for a wide variety of heating and cooling applications. The market is growing rapidly and is expected to reach more than $30 billion in the next 10 years, largely driven by the data center cooling industry. As artificial intelligence applications become more widely used, data centers become more vital, as does the technology needed to cool them efficiently.
“SwRI offers customized heat exchanger testing to clients, with a wide range of unique and complex testing requirements with applications spanning several industries such as data center cooling, energy and defense to name a few,” said SwRI Research Engineer Dr. Ashok Thyagarajan. “We’ve now increased our testing capacity at the new facility tenfold to five megawatts with a vision to upgrade capabilities further in the immediate future. Additionally, we have expanded the scope of testing beyond just heat exchangers.”
SwRI now also performs testing and validation of coolant distribution units (CDUs), crucial components that distribute cooling fluid to information technology equipment, as well as other critical components, such as secondary side pumps, which pump the cooling fluid to the racks. Additionally, the LS-HXTF can now replicate real-world conditions, including loss of utility cooling with advanced control systems.
The new facility can be reconfigured and customized to accommodate equipment testing energy storage systems, power plants, or defense-related systems. This adaptability makes the LS-HXTF a critical asset not only for data centers but for broader thermal engineering research as well.
“Testing at this scale is challenging because it requires specific expertise to simulate and measure thermal behavior accurately at megawatt scales. Few laboratories can configure and adapt equipment to test both individual components and system-level solutions,” said SwRI Research Engineer Dr. Eugene Hoffman.
The LS-HXTF one of only a handful of facilities worldwide that can combine infrastructure, expertise and cutting-edge technology to provide unique insights for thermal performance testing for the data center cooling and related industries.”
For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/energy-environment/fluids-engineering/data-center-cooling-testing-research.
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