Near the beginning of the shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Minnesota began to plan for safe return to classrooms. An HVAC working group led by Facilities Management has been working to improve heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in classrooms and other group spaces to fight the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The Center for Filtration Research (CFR), led by MSI PI David Pui (Regents Professor, Mechanical Engineering), is part of this project, doing research into how HVAC systems contribute to the spread of particles that could carry the coronavirus. An article about this project appears on the Office of the Vice President for Research’s Inquiry blog: Mid- Pandemic, UMN Research Guided Changes to Make Classrooms Safer.
Regents Professor Pui leads both the CFR and Particle Technology Laboratory; both labs use MSI for computational work associated with their research.