SCC-PG: Community Based Approach to Address Heavy Metal Contamination in Drinking Water using Cloud-Connected Smart Electrochemical Sensors

在美国，数百万人使用的饮用水可能含有不安全的重金属。水的重金属污染可能是由于铅和铜从管道系统中浸出，人类活动包括采矿，工业和农业等。在这项计划中，工程师、计算机科学家和社会科学家将与社区利益相关者密切合作。来自马萨诸塞州洛厄尔、劳伦斯、德拉库特、韦斯特福德和切姆斯福德等社会经济多样化社区的居民、社区领袖、监管机构、公用事业管理人员，探讨智能、这是一个社区参与的水质监测和预警系统，基于用户友好的手持式电子舌（E-Tongue）设备，能够检测饮用水污染。这些设备将提供可靠的水质数据，并使公民能够测试自己的水，汇总来自社区的数据，并在问题明显时采取行动。基于云的机器学习算法将从单个E-Tongue设备中获取响应，并预测问题的普遍程度，问题是局部的还是系统性的，以及其他可能受到污染的位置。此外，这些预测将是有价值的，例如，在帮助确定哪些居民在周围地区应该收到警报通知，以测试自己的水质。它还可以帮助通知当地政府可能需要采取行动。通过一系列研讨会，该项目将纳入并了解居民在以下领域的观点：水质数据的有效呈现，社区成员对分享水质数据可能存在的隐私问题，以及影响社区采用该技术的因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响评审标准。

Millions of people In the US use drinking water with potentially unsafe levels of heavy metals. Heavy metal contamination of water can be due to leaching of lead and copper from plumbing, anthropogenic activities including mining, industrial and agricultural, among others. In this planning grant engineers, computer scientists, and social scientists will work closely with community stakeholders (residents, community leaders, regulators, utility managers) from the socioeconomically diverse communities of Lowell, Lawrence, Dracut, Westford, and Chelmsford, in Massachusetts, to explore the feasibility of a smart, community-engaged water-quality monitoring and warning system based on user-friendly handheld Electronic Tongue (E-Tongue) devices capable of detecting drinking water contamination. These devices will provide reliable water quality data, and empower citizens to test their own water, aggregate data from their community, and act when a problem is apparent. Cloud-based machine learning algorithms will take the responses from the individual E-Tongue devices and produce predictions about how widespread the problem is, whether the problem is local or systemic, and what other locations may have been contaminated. Further, these predictions would be valuable, for example, in helping to determine which residents in the surrounding area should receive alert notifications to test their own water quality. It could also help notify the local government of the potential need to take action. Through a series of workshops, the project will incorporate and be informed by the perspective of residents in areas such as the effective presentation of the water quality data, privacy concerns community members may have about sharing their water quality data, and the factors that affect the adoption of the technology by the community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.