Pierre Ngo, the district's Energy and Project Manager is certainly not short of good ideas! In addition to developing a system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time weather data to conserve water (read about it here), he has recently worked on two other innovative projects.
Emergency Alert System
To help enhance school safety, Pierre has worked with Vanessa Heal - Emergency Preparedness Manager - and developed an emergency alert system that is currently being piloted at Heath Elementary.
Traditional emergency alerts rely on the school's public announcement system. This poses a problem for students who are hard of hearing, or for students and staff that are in high noise environments where the PA system is difficult to hear.
"Hiring an external organization to implement a visual alert system across the school would have been really expensive," said Pierre. "I decided to try and build a solution in-house." Pierre's back ground is an Electrical Engineer with specialty in Energy Management, Automation and Controls.
Vanessa and Pierre developed a colour-coded strobe light alert system that communicates three key emergency situations:
- Red - Lockdown
- Green - Evacuation
- Yellow - Hold and secure
When school office staff make an emergency alert announcement, they also press one of three colour-coded buttons on a control panel in the office. This activates the strobe lights and automatically sends an email to the school's Principal, the district's Emergency Preparedness Manager and Pierre.
The strobe lights are installed in key areas such as the gym, music room, workshops, and classrooms used by students that are hard of hearing. All staff have been trained to understand and respond to the light signals, ensuring a coordinated and inclusive emergency response.
"Student and staff safety remains our priority. This system has the potential to save lives in an emergency," Pierre concluded.
Strobe light
Advanced Warning System for Emergency Generators
Recognizing the critical importance of reliable emergency power and operational/maintenance concerns brought up by his Electrical foreman Frank, Pierre developed a proactive monitoring system to ensure the district's emergency generators are always ready when needed. These generators provide essential backup power to schools and district sites during outages.
Pierre designed and built a custom microprocessor-based monitoring system tailored to the district's diverse fleet of generators (new and old) - some of which run on propane, others on diesel fuel or fed from Fortis natural gas. The system:
- Automates weekly exercise runs: Every Friday, each generator is run for 15 minutes. If it fails to start, a power detection relay triggers an automatic email alert to Pierre and the electrical team to notify them there is an issue.
- Monitors fuel levels: The system calculates runtime against fuel levels and sends an email warning that fuel is running low.
- Detects failure to start/operate: The system also sends a warning email if it determines the generator tried to start but failed which could mean it either has a battery issue or charging problem.
Pierre not only engineered the hardware but also wrote the software that powers the entire system. "It's a fully automated, pre-emptive solution that ensures emergency generators are always ready without the need for constant manual checks," he explained. "If you can dream it, you can build it". Of course, generators will still need other regular mechanical maintenance such as oil, coolant, battery and automatic transfer switch maintenance but having an intelligent system that can predict low fuel levels and maintenance issues before they become an operational problem is taking the next step into the future.
Pierre has once again proven that innovation, dedication, and a deep understanding of real-world challenges can lead to transformative solutions. His innovations are enhancing emergency preparedness and reliability across the district.
