Project Members

  • Daniel Knight (Research Associate, Mechanical Engineering)
  • Mike Hannigan (Professor, Mechanical Engineering)
  • Evan Coffey (Sr. Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering)
  • Helena Pliszka (graduate student, Mechanical Engineering)

Students looking for specific sensor responses from air quality experiments in Mongolia using the YPod

Detailed Summary

Project Dates: 2020-ongoing

Mongolia has some of the poorest air quality in the world. Residents of the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, burn coal in the winter for heat resulting in high ambient particulate matter concentrations and public health emergencies. Through a US State Department-sponsored Fellows On-Demand collaborative visit to Mongolia in October 2019, the Hannigan Research group partnered with Public Lab Mongolia, a non-governmental organization dedicated to environmental justice and open data, to expand the Air Quality InQuiry (AQIQ) program to Mongolian youth. During the inaugural year (2020), dozens of students from the National University of Mongolia and three high schools in Ulaanbaatar participated in the program designing and conducting their own air quality experiments to address their own ideas/concerns. They presented their findings to their classmates, family, decision makers and to the general public. The program is currently expanding to five rural provinces and incorporating additional university campuses.

Partners

Public Lab Mongolia

National University of Mongolia

Funders

The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives

The US Embassy