The University of Kentucky campus spans over 900 acres and is home to more than 100 buildings, each with its own set of unique needs. Behind the scenes, a dedicated team of 13 programmers and engineering technicians helps keep it all running smoothly.
The Controls Engineering Team in Facilities Management operates and maintains a sophisticated Building Automation System that continuously monitors everything from temperature and humidity to energy usage, air quality, lighting schedules, and life safety systems. Their reach extends beyond the academic campus to include UK HealthCare facilities, making their work critical to both campus life and patient care.
The scope of their responsibilities doesn’t stop at the main Lexington campus. Their network includes Good Samaritan Hospital, Eastern State Hospital, UK HealthCare locations throughout Lexington, and even the UK Research and Education Center in Princeton, Kentucky. Across the state, the team ensures the smooth operation of critical systems at countless UK facilities — each requiring constant monitoring, attention and precision.
The backbone of UK’s building automation is Tridium, a software platform for building, integrating and managing diverse open systems and devices. UK operates the largest Tridium system in North America.
"Each building has a control system where programming is done locally to control that building. The information is fed to Tridium where we can manipulate the program for that building,” said Bobbie Tincher, utilities systems manager. “We have placed controllers on equipment throughout the buildings, those controllers talk to the UK network and a server pulls the data in.”
The controls monitor offices, conference rooms, research labs, classrooms, patient and treatment rooms, bathrooms, hallways, public areas, libraries, dining areas, residence halls, exterior building lights and safety lights, parking garages and much more.
“Building automation is not just a luxury compared to physically checking on each piece of equipment for correct operation,” said Mike Kyrylczuk, facilities applications systems analyst. “It is also a strategic asset that enhances sustainability, improves operational efficiency, ensures comfort for everyone on campus, and supports long-term planning and budgeting.”
In addition to overseeing daily operations, the Controls Engineering Team is responsible for upgrading old equipment. All of the programming is done in-house with the team installing and integrating new controls into the system. They are also constantly updating software, firmware and physical equipment to ensure optimal performance.
“The graphic user interface gives customers access to a dashboard for specific spaces where they can view real-time data, track trends, monitor alarms and help maintenance teams troubleshoot issues,” Tincher said.
The team also runs a hotline for maintenance employees and contractors, ensuring support is always available. Their collaboration spans many areas across UK, including the UK Police Department, UK HealthCare, Capital Project Management, Information Technology Services, Utilites and Energy Management and research laboratories.
One specialized system the team manages is UK HealthCare’s pneumatic tube system, a vital operation that automatically delivers medicine and lab materials throughout the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital.
“The impact we have on patient care drives us,” Kyrylczuk said. “Nobody wants a room not working correctly as patients are being treated. This includes getting meds and labs sent through the tube system to ensure the care patients receive is optimal.”
UK’s building automation network has almost 6,000 devices reporting to its controls network with more than 380,000 hard wired points connected to over 6.5 million graphics/trends/alarm links. The Controls team fields about 150 work orders a month.
“Building automation and controls is an important strategic asset in the operation, maintenance, monitoring and energy management of our campus buildings providing state of the art technology for a smart campus,” Tincher said. “With a small team, we are able to maintain such a large campus by holding each other accountable, being engaged, dedicated and always striving for improvement.”
Antoine Mack (left), controls engineering technician, takes a triage call while Andrea Adams (right), controls engineering technician, works on one of the UK HealthCare dashboard graphics.
Jennifer T. Allen
A nurses in the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital utilizes the pneumatic tube system.
Air handling unit graphic for Pavilion A lobby unit at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital.