Emerging Sensor Technologies and Data Analytics for Air Quality Monitoring

 The World Health Organization reports that “the combined effects of ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution cause an estimated seven million premature deaths every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.” The primary sources of air pollution are dominated by anthropogenic actions including road emissions, industrial emissions, home heating, and construction sources. 

Further, the National Institute of Health estimates that airborne pathogens (such as fungi, viruses, and bacteria) carried in bioaerosols, are estimated to be responsible for approximately 5 to 34% of indoor particulate matter air pollution. These bioaerosols can be associated with certain human diseases, such as pneumonia, influenza, measles, asthma, allergies, gastrointestinal illness, and SARS Covid-19. 

The workshop will examine how new sensors, software, and practice can better address many of these global air pollution problems. For example, new, low-cost sensor networks can provide previously unfeasible real-time monitoring of toxic sites, and new mathematical models calculate inferred downstream values from upstream measurements. In addition, new biosensors, specifically designed to monitor SARS Covid-19 signatures, and others designed to measure airborne pathogen toxicity will be discussed. 

The event is being organized by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the University of Cambridge in the UK. It will be an update to the first event held in 2019 and will again include academic researchers, plus state and regional regulators, and executives and scientists from industry. A panel discussion will follow the formal presentations.