EAGER: AirU: Community Network to Understand Air Quality and Sensor Reliability

1642513 Kelly, Kerry E.该奖项隶属于美国国家科学基金会的公众参与科学研究项目。该项目将建立在主要研究人员（pi）现有的社区合作伙伴关系、K-12外展计划和他们的低成本空气质量传感器（AirU）网络平台的基础上，以参与和授权他们的社区了解和解决他们城市最紧迫的空气质量研究问题，并评估传感器的可靠性。它的重点是盐湖谷，这里的空气质量周期性差，有时是全国颗粒物（PM）污染水平最高的地方。该项目将汇集三个社区：高中和初中学生，他们将建立自己的传感器包并向网络提供数据；非营利组织“呼吸犹他”（Breathe Utah）将开发教育课程，并将低成本传感器引入中学；以及一个名为PurpleAir的社区组织，该组织一直在收集空气质量数据，以了解砾石坑作业对当地空气质量的影响。该方法包括：(a)让社区团体参与，以确定他们最紧迫的空气质量研究问题，(b)提高对空气质量指标的地理空间和时间分辨率的理解，(c)制定战略，利用公民科学来理解传感器可靠性，以及(d)将低成本传感器包整合到化学工程系定期访问高中中，作为其STEM推广工作的一部分。空气质素数据网络会持续在线报告空气质素参数，包括PM、NO2和CO，并会定期更新资料，让公众了解项目进展，以及更广泛地了解本地空气质素，并提供反馈机会。

1642513 Kelly, Kerry E. This award is under NSF's topic of Public Participation in Scientific Research. The project will build on the principal investigators' (PIs) existing community partnerships, K-12 outreach program, and their network platform for low-cost air quality sensors (AirU) to engage and empower their community in understanding and addressing their city's most pressing air-quality research questions and to evaluate sensor reliability. It focuses on the Salt Lake Valley, which experiences periodic episodes of poor air quality, at times having the highest levels of particulate matter (PM) pollution in the nation. The project will bring together three communities: high-school and middle-school students who will build their own sensor package and contribute data to the network; a non-profit organization, Breathe Utah, who will develop educational curricula and bring low-cost sensors to middle schools; and a community organization, PurpleAir, which has been collecting air-quality data to understand the effects of gravel-pit operations on local air quality. The approach involves: (a) engaging the community groups to identify their most pressing air-quality research questions, (b) improving understanding of the geo-spatial and temporal resolution of air-quality metrics, (c) developing strategies to leverage citizen science in understanding sensor reliability, and (d) integrating a low-cost sensor package into the Department of Chemical Engineering's regular visits to high-schools as part of their STEM outreach efforts. The air-quality data network will continually report online air-quality parameters, including PM, NO2, and CO, and will educate the public about project progress and more broadly about local air quality with regular updates and opportunities for feedback.