Community in Westside build their own air sensors

An intergenerational family workshop of children and adults making and programming low-cost air quality sensor units took place during the Galway Science and Technology Festival on 16 November in the Westside Resource Centre.  The event helped participants of all ages to better understand the causes and consequences of the present global climate and ecological crisis and the opportunities that exist to come up with solutions.

Dr Liz Coleman, Lecturer, Physics, School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway and the Project’s Scientific lead, said:

“It’s a huge part of our work to bring current research to the public, to share the science with the community, to inform but also to arm the public with the knowledge, the methods and the data to enforce change within their communities. The quality of our air, and more broadly, the state of the environment has an impact on everyone, so any real solutions will require everyone’s input and the more equipped everyone is – with knowledge, with skills, with ideas, the more likely we are to find solutions that will work for cleaner air, a healthier city and a thriving environment.”

The workshop was led and developed by Brendan Smith, Eoin Jordan, and Alex Acquier from the University of Galway’s Insight Centre for Data Analytics, and Dr Liz Coleman from the Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies.