| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 6, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 6, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1645226 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Karl Rockne
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | August 15, 2016 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $99,613.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $99,613.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1960 KENNY RD COLUMBUS OH US 43210-1016 (614)688-8735 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Office of Sponsored Programs Columbus OH US 43210-1016 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
BD Spokes -Big Data Regional I, EnvE-Environmental Engineering |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
1645226
May
As sensor technologies rapidly evolve, they become more accessible for citizen scientist use; however, use of these sensors with incomplete understanding of their capabilities and limitations can result in data that may be unreliable due to operational biases. The key aim of this work is to deploy low-cost air quality sensors that provide high-quality data, resulting in better estimates of personal exposure to air pollutants. Specifically, this work will focus on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP), namely carbon monoxide, ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter (PM). The project will be conducted through collaboration with a team of citizen scientists comprised of local high school students near Columbus, OH. Jointly, the citizen scientists and research team will develop training modules for teachers or other students in order to reach a broader audience at Hilliard City School District.
It is recognized that there are limitations of current technologies targeted for use in citizen science, the PIs' hypothesize that low-cost air quality sensors can be utilized by citizen scientists to provide reliable air quality data within micro-environments where they live, work and play. Initially, this will require careful guidance from the PIs, but in the future, limited oversight will be needed as training materials are developed. The PIs have developed a project plan with the following objectives: 1. Engage and recruit citizen scientists to fabricate and deploy a Wi-Fi-enabled, low-cost air quality sensor network, 2. Monitor ambient air quality with the sensor network in the Hilliard City School District in Franklin County, OH. 3. Develop and deploy a cloud-computing solution to provide publically-available, near-real-time air quality data based on this sensor network. 4. Develop outreach activities to engage high school students about local air quality within their neighborhoods where they live, play and go to school. The overall research plan is organized into a series of tasks. Task 1 is the fabrication of the air quality monitors by the citizen scientists, Task 2 is the use of these monitors to conduct outdoor air quality measurements as a sensor network, and, Task 3 is the interpretation and visualization of the data collected. This work will contribute to the development, refinement, and practical application of low-cost air pollution sensors with an emphasis on deployment of local sensor networks by citizen scientists. By providing a cloud-computing solution to process the data collected by the sensor network, the PI can account for biases and outliers, thus mitigating some of the concerns related to data reliability, validity, and trustworthiness. This project will benefit society while promoting teaching, training, and learning. The deployed network of air quality monitors will provided estimates of personal exposure to air pollution within key micro-environments in the Hilliard City School District in Hilliard, OH, thus enabling better practices for prevention or management of acute asthma exacerbation for district residents. This award received co-funding from CISE Directorate Big Data Hubs (BDHubs) Program.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Dr. Andrew May and Dr. Ayaz Hyder, both of The Ohio State University (OSU), completed their project "Incorporating Citizen Science into Real-Time Sensor-Based Estimates of Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposure" supported by the NSF. This combined May's expertise in Environmental Engineering with Hyder's expertise in Environmental Health Sciences. For this project, we worked with Hilliard Davidson High School (Davidson) and groups of students with their Engineering Design and Development course during academic years 2016-17 through 2018-19; although the project has ended, we are continuing these efforts during 2019-20. To date, these fourteen students have served as our citizen science partners.
Beyond engaging with citizen scientists, the goals of this project were to monitor air quality within Hilliard, OH using low-cost sensor technologies; to develop cloud-based software that provides publically-available, near-real-time data; and to develop outreach activities to serve the local community. Our air quality measurements of interest are mostly derived from transportation sources (at least in Central Ohio), namely particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
The motivation for this study is that air pollution, by the nature of its myriad sources, can vary substantially throughout a geographic region, but air pollution within that region may only be quantified at a small number of sites that are deemed to be “representative”. This is akin to assigning the same demographic information (e.g., age, race, income) to everyone within a geographic region, which we know can be highly variable. Hence, a network of air quality monitoring sites distributed throughout a geographic region can capture this spatial variability.
This project was feasible due to recent developments within the field of digital electronics, primarily including: 1) the development of low-cost, miniaturized computers (i.e., Raspberry Pi's); and 2) the rapid market penetration of low-cost sensors for measuring the air pollutants listed above. Both of these factors contribute to the ability to deploy a network of sensors across a geographic region to monitor potential differences in air quality. Moreover, the pre-engineering curriculum at Davidson provided us with citizen science partners who had proficiencies in computer programming, engineering design, and digital electronics, among other skills.
Briefly, the sensor package was developed along with instruction manuals by students at OSU. We provided the Davidson students with components and the instruction manuals and gave them the tasks of 1) assembling the sensor packages; 2) developing an enclosure to protect the sensor package from the weather; and 3) presenting to their local community as outreach. The second task was directly relevant to the Engineering Design and Development course, as each subsequent year picked up and improved upon the previous year’s design. However, this iterative approach has led to delays in data collection by the sensor package at Davidson, and we do not yet have any sensors deployed at other district buildings. Nevertheless, we have been able to develop a website that hosts the sensor data (including some functionality for web-based data manipulation and the ability to download data). The website also pulls in local data from the closest US EPA monitoring station for comparison. The website is publically-accessible at https://airhilliard.bmi.osumc.edu.
Arguably, the most significant outcome of this project was the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers. This project directly supported one graduate student and three undergraduate students at OSU, while two additional undergraduate students were also involved in various capacities; these students represent the environmental engineering and chemical engineering disciplines as well as computer science and public health. Moreover, to date, we have worked closely with fourteen high school students from Davidson. Most, if not all, of these students have enrolled or plan to enroll in a four-year engineering program, and some of these students have been able to engage in undergraduate research early in their academic career.
Outcomes from this project (e.g., the data collected) are translatable across different courses and different grade levels. For example, in the near future, the teacher whose class we have been working with at Davidson will complete course materials related to the data that can be incorporated at various points across the Grade 7 through 12 curriculum. Some of this is more “general” (e.g., for middle school science courses), while some is more applicable to specific courses (e.g., high school statistics). Furthermore, this project has resulted in spin-off project with other school districts in Central Ohio (Dublin City Schools and Worthington City Schools). In Dublin, we are pursuing a similar project with a high school engineering course, while in Worthington, we will provide data that students can use to understand air quality trends.
Last Modified: 10/28/2019
Modified by: Andrew A May
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