Emily Bedell’s PhD research was centered around the development and validation of a remotely reporting sensor for detection of fecal contamination risk in drinking water. The sensor uses tryptophan-like-fluorescence sensing to output data correlated to fecal contamination. She worked with a team of grad and undergrad students to design a prototype of the sensor that was installed on Boulder Creek in the summer of 2021. The data from the sensor was input into a machine learning model along with other important data sources to predict fecal contamination risk levels (low, intermediate, high, and very high) established by the World Health Organization. The sensor was able to distinguish between not high risk and high risk contamination with an accuracy of 83%. Impacts on the sensor’s signal from other water quality parameters like turbidity, pH, temperature, biofouling, and mineral scaling were also established in the lab to determine its operational limits. The outputs of this work were published in Water Research and Sustainability.
Emily holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Nevada, Reno, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from CU Boulder. For her masters research work she completed a study on unmanned aerial vehicle-based structure from motion biomass inventory estimates. In this research she quantified the impact of riparian restoration projects on biomass growth using a small quadcopter UAV. During her PhD Emily also worked with IRC WASH in Fort Portal, Uganda on a water quality and infrastructure assessment. Emily also worked for two years at Suvelope Solar, a small solar hot water company in Reno, NV where she manufactured, designed, and installed solar hot water systems in residential and commercial settings.
Emily’s work is driven by the fact that equitable access to clean drinking water and effective sanitation is a human right essential to all peoples’ health and livelihood. She strongly believes communities should be a driving force behind infrastructure improvement decisions, which is only possible through strong relationships built with care and intention. Solutions need to be implemented with genuine and equitable collaborations, and only then will we be able to ensure WASH access to historically exploited and oppressed communities globally.
Education
- PhD in Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
- MS in Mechanical Engineering, Portland State University
- BS in Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno
Publications
- Bedell, E.; Harmon, O.; Fankhauser, K; Shivers, Z.; Thomas, E. (2022) A continuous, in-situ, near-time fluorescence sensor coupled with a machine learning model for detection of fecal contamination risk in drinking water: Design, characterization and field validation, Water Research, 118644, ISSN 0043-1354, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118644
- MacDonald, L., Thomas, E., Javernick-Will, A., Austin-Breneman, J., Aranda, I., Salvinelli, C., Klees, R., Walters, J., Parmentier, M. J., Schaad, D., Shahi, A., Bedell, E., Platais, G., Brown, J., Gershenson, J., Watkins, D., Obonyo, E., Oyanedel-Craver, V., Olson, M., … Linden, K. (2022). Aligning learning objectives and approaches in global engineering graduate programs: Review and recommendations by an interdisciplinary working group. Development Engineering, 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.deveng.2022.100095
- Bedell, E.; Sharpe, T.; Purvis, T.; Brown, J.; Thomas, E. (2020) Demonstration of Tryptophan-Like Fluorescence Sensor Concepts for Fecal Exposure Detection in Drinking Water in Remote and Resource Constrained Settings. Sustainability, 12, 3768; https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3768/htm
- Bedell, E.; Leslie, M.; Fankhauser, K.; Burnett, J.; Wing, M.G.; Thomas, E.A. (2017)Unmanned aerial vehicle-based structure from motion biomass inventory estimates. J. Appl. Remote Sens., 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.11.026026
- Patent Pending: Thomas, E. et al. (2020). Alarm threshold organic and microbial fluorimeter and methods (US 2020/0355612 A1). US PTO. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/patent/US-2020355612-A1