This episode of The Future Built Smarter examines modern high performance computing facilities and the opportunity to use their waste heat as an energy source.

“High performance facilities for computing are different than what most people would consider a data center,” says Brandon Fortier, IMEG's Director of Science and Technology. “Data centers serve general purpose IT needs for a building or a company, things like web hosting, cloud storage capabilities, et cetera. High performance facilities for computing serve more of a scientific or other research need. They use significantly more computing power because they're doing things like climate modeling or machine learning for AI.”

Such energy-intensive AI deep learning computing requires an intense amount of cooling, which generates a significant amount of waste heat. In the right locations—such as on a healthcare, higher education, or federal campus, as well as private research campuses—this heat can be recovered and pushed into district energy systems for use in the heating of neighboring buildings, greatly supporting overall sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction goals in the process.

“These high performance data centers definitely produce a lot of heat,” says Ken Urbanek, a client executive in IMEG’s Denver office. “On the other hand, that's a great energy source. Let's grab that source energy from that data center and push that into the campus.”

Ken provides several real-life examples of leveraging such an energy source, from an East Coast university that is planning to condition millions of square feet across its campus to more niche examples such as conditioning greenhouses in colder climates and even warming a pond at a trout farm.

“There are a lot of synergies out there,” Ken says. For a campus, he adds, “as you're looking to decarbonize and you're looking at various options, part of that exercise should be if a data center makes sense… There's not a research facility, whether it's on a healthcare, academic, or other campus, that probably can't find a business case to say, ‘How can we utilize advanced AI to help further our research?’

Now you just have to say, ‘Where on this campus can we find 10, 15, 20 megawatts of power?’ In your decarbonization plan, you might be pulling that energy anyway. And better to put it into AI and utilize it for research than to put it into heat pumps or some sort of electric generation system.”

This episode of The Future Built Smarter explores the evolving landscape of healthcare design and engineering with guest Eric Vandenbroucke, Vice President of Healthcare at IMEG. “2025 started with a lot of optimism, but it’s definitely been a roller coaster,” he says.

Despite uncertainty in the market amid potential federal reductions in Medicare reimbursements, Eric says many healthcare clients remain focused on sustainability initiatives. “Healthcare contributes about 5 percent of global emissions,” he says. “Owners are committed to reducing their carbon.” Resiliency and future proofing are also critical. From extreme weather to human threats, resilience demands a layered approach, including redundant power, onsite water storage, and cybersecurity. Vulnerability assessments set the stage for creating future-proof plans. “The biggest thing we can help clients with is understanding the state of their building or campus and what its vulnerabilities are,” Eric says. “Healthcare facilities need to be operational—period.”

Security is a top concern as well, especially in the wake of increasing threats like active shooter incidents. “We take a holistic approach,” says Eric, stressing that security requires much more than just cameras and guards. Key additional components of an all-encompassing security plan include employing the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and personnel training, including tabletop exercises. "No one wants to deal with these events, but being prepared makes a huge difference," Eric says.

Technology, of course, is the main driver of innovation for healthcare facility operations, clinical operations, and delivery of care—all of which need to communicate with each other and be interoperable. “We’ve moved beyond siloed systems to a smart system approach,” says Eric. “Alarms, patient monitoring, building automation systems, command centers, medical records, real-time location solutions, robotics—all of those things and more have to work together.”

As for artificial intelligence (AI), Eric says, “Where we are at right now in the industry is just the tip of the iceberg. Our clients are now using AI for clinical documentation, predictive analysis, optimizing their revenue cycle, using chatbots for scheduling, triage, and patient education. On the AEC side, AI is going to be a big tool for design assist. At IMEG we've developed our own AI system that helps us increase our design efficiency and accuracy. We've also developed many tools within Revit and Power BI to help with that efficiency and accuracy, and with coordination. And we continue to grow and expand the use of our virtual reality and augmented reality tools. It’s all very exciting.

“Technology and trends are going to continue to influence healthcare care moving forward. That’s one of the cool things about healthcare: It’s never the same. It's always evolving.”

This episode of The Future Built Smarter features Robbie Jones, an IMEG project executive and mechanical engineer who led the firm’s design of the new Advanced Engineering Building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas—ENR’s 2024 Best of the Best Project in the higher education/research category.

The Advanced Engineering Building (AEB), located in the university’s “Innovation Corridor,” is designed to foster innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration within UNLV’s Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering. The AEB supports growing enrollment, education, and research in robotics, cybersecurity, biomedical engineering, energy and water, and artificial intelligence. The three-story, 52,000-sf building features wet and dry labs, classrooms, a maker space, an outdoor aviary for drone testing, and a flexible auditorium or “flexatorium” that can be used as a lecture hall or event space.

IMEG provided MEP and technology design for the facility, which also will aid start-ups in Nevada’s growing tech industry. To ensure the MEP design would meet the needs of the university, Robbie, a UNLV engineering graduate, met with several engineering department faculty members—some of whom had been his professors when he was a student.

“Never in a hundred years would I have thought that I would be designing an engineering building for UNLV,” says Robbie. “I was excited about doing it, and it was a cool thing for me … kind of a feather in my hat. I've done some billion-dollar gaming projects, and I think this is one of my favorite buildings.”

Read the IMEG case study to see photographs of the AEB and learn more about the engineering design. For a tour of the building, watch this UNLV video.