Smart Campus Integration and Testing Hub
The Smart Campus Integration and Testing Hub (SCITHub) is a world-leading facility that will advance Smart and Sustainable building research. Supported by an IT backbone and innovative Intelligent Structural Panel structure, all systems - heating & cooling, ventilation, lighting, building envelope, security, IT, and communications - are connected, making it the world's first 100% digitally integrated building.
SCITHub consists of three key areas: an Operations, Visualization, and Data Centre (OVDC), the Affordable Living Integrated Residential Testbed (ALIRT), and the Smart Building Analytics Living Lab (SBALL). The OVDC contains an Amazon Outpost to consolidate all data and stream it to a dedicated Canadian secure cloud environment and contains a visualization suite providing access to all SCITHub systems and equipment. Next, ALIRT is a mockup of a single family residential unit, equipped with 5G-enabled technologies and two parallel zero-carbon HVAC systems, supporting Smart Home technology development, testing & validation, and optimization. Finally, SBALL contains four independently-controllable test cells, each connected to the three zero-carbon HVAC systems (air-source VRV, water-source VRV, and water-source heat pumps) to permit side-by-side controls optimization testing. An open-office area with a PoE testbed completes SBALL. The building has renewable energy testing capacity, with a solar-ready roof, low-voltage microgrid, and ground-source heat pump to eliminate the need for fossil fuels.
This facility is in pre-construction and it will support four lines of investigation for researchers:
- Integrated Smart City and Smart Campus Management
- Smart and Ongoing Commissioning and Optimized Asset Performance
- Advanced Building Energy Simulation Approaches
- Human-Building Interaction and Improved Occupant Experience
The SCITHub emerged from an ongoing pan-Canadian collaboration established at TMU in 2016 to improve the performance of building portfolios in operation through the study of University building campuses. Faculty at eight participating universities have ongoing research projects to use existing buildings (both on- and off-campus) to support Smart Building and related research—and have agreed to share their collected data and resultant applications with one another. As the world’s first 100% digitally-enabled building, all building systems and services can be co-optimized and accessed remotely by these researchers and future lab users through a robust and secure common data environment, supporting researchers at TMU and across Canada to build the best buildings for people and the planet.
