Over the past twelve months, practitioners in design and construction fields have grappled with the realities of a global pandemic and its far-reaching impacts on our indoor environments. Acknowledging that COVID-19 is primarily spread as an airborne virus, this discussion will review how MEP design can help mitigate those risks. We provide a base understanding of how viruses including COVID-19 are transmitted and review actionable items for reopening and long term strategies for pathogen control.

We will focus the discussion to assist participants in:

• Understanding the three primary transmission methods of COVID-19 & typical preventative measures

• Understanding infectious dose & viral load

• Understanding short term HVAC approaches to reduce transmission (including ventilation & filtration)

• Understanding long term solutions for pathogen control including air sanitization

• Understand other MEP design contributors to pathogen control

Speaker:

David Van der Vossen

As Senior Vice President, David Van der Vossen brings a vast array of design experience to his projects. During his tenure with the company, Dave’s role has evolved – from his entry level position as a drafter in 1993 to his current SVP role where he is responsible for overseeing company operations. In his corporate role, Dave works closely with Zack to assist with corporate business functions and with individual office leadership to ensure implementation of quality control measures, client service, profitability and team training. His business and broad engineering background brings a unique skill set to the company, and he upholds the firm’s commitment to community engagement through not only providing direct design support to many local non-profits, but also by actively participating in local organizations such as the Greater Salisbury Committee, Salisbury Environmental Task Force, Boy Scouts of America and ACE Mentoring. Most recently, Dave oversaw the firm’s COVID-19 research, education and response, providing free seminars to over 60 groups and 800 individuals on aerosol transmission of COVID-19 and how to reduce it using HVAC systems. He is currently focused on opening the firm’s newest office location in Wilmington, NC.