{"id":7147,"date":"2022-01-05T13:37:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T13:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/?p=7147"},"modified":"2022-01-05T13:39:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T13:39:14","slug":"uwe-works-alongside-children-in-easton-to-monitor-local-air-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/uwe-works-alongside-children-in-easton-to-monitor-local-air-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"UWE works alongside children in Easton to monitor local air quality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"><em>Photographer Anya Agulova <\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Academics and students from a number of UWE Bristol departments are collaborating with the local community in Easton to investigate, on a granular real-time level, air quality and traffic&#8217;s impact on the local high-street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. Mark\u2019s Road in Easton is a high-street bucking the trend, with new shops popping up in an amazing and unusual Covid recovery. The local community\u2019s clear commitment to investing in their high-street isn\u2019t limited to popping into local shops &#8211; residents are beginning to be interested in how traffic affects the street they\u2019re proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the last few years air quality sensors that measure pollutants as small as 2.5 microns\u00a0have begun to pop up all over the world, and St. Mark\u2019s Road has been part of this. Although you wouldn\u2019t notice on walking down the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe sensors need to be waterproofed, so we put them into the drainpipes &#8211; nice and easy and out of the way,\u201d said Stuart Phelps from <a href=\"https:\/\/baggator.org\/\">Baggator<\/a> (a community organisation offering a range of innovative programmes for young people in the local area) who has been the driver behind much of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Easton Data Garden is growing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s not very glamorous, but these hidden sensors are providing real-world information that are inspiring local residents. Particularly the weekly children\u2019s science and technology club \u2013 the \u2018Easton Data Garden\u2019  \u2013 which UWE Bristol have been heavily involved in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Minecraft-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"7283\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Minecraft.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/?attachment_id=7283\" class=\"wp-image-7283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Minecraft-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Minecraft-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Minecraft-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Minecraft.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 85vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">UWE Bristol&#8217;s Inspire team took a Minecraft activity into Easton Data Garden in 2021 (Photographer Anya Agulova)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Eng-Curi-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"7282\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Eng-Curi.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/?attachment_id=7282\" class=\"wp-image-7282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Eng-Curi-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Eng-Curi-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2021\/12\/Easton-Data-Garden_Eng-Curi.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 85vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">UWE Bristol staff inspired children about what an engineer can do (pack of engineering top trump cards) and then gave them an engineering challenge (Photographer Anya Agulova)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe data gathered from the sensors on St. Mark\u2019s Road gets the kids thinking about what that means in the real world,\u201d explained Stuart. \u201cSeeing this information in real-time is changing their view of science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the children are about to take part in workshops, alongside academics from UWE Bristol and the University of Bath, to build new sensors for installation in more pieces of drainpipe on St Mark\u2019s Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New sensors from the University of Bath and the European Space Agency, will give a detailed real-time readout of nitrogen dioxide (a significant greenhouse gas), carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia and ozone. These will be installed alongside traffic monitors \u2013 supplied by UWE Bristol\u2019s Digital Engineering Technology Innovation (DETI) Inspire project, which links to the EU citizen science\u00a0project\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/we-count.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WeCount<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWorking with Baggator and the Easton Data Garden is a fantastic example of local residents leading on citizen science in their own area,\u201d said DETI Inspire lead, Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe young people and their mentors came up with this&nbsp;exciting idea to use digital engineering to link local air quality monitors with traffic counting sensors, providing a real-time picture of how traffic impacts air quality on a granular scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are really excited to see how this develops and are looking forward to supporting their science learning and community development!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s a lot of great data to look at and residents, and particularly the children in Easton Data Garden, want to see the results and identify any problems on their high-street. Again, UWE is stepping up to the \u2018mark\u2019, with several teams of students working on projects to help highlight St. Mark\u2019s unique data set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">UWE students get visuals on the data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This includes a UWE Computer Science and Creative Technology student team undertaking the creation of a bespoke St. Mark\u2019s Road website \u2013 where local news sits alongside local air quality data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Stuart\u2019s not stopping there. He has a vision for this website to be viewed from a St. Mark\u2019s shop window, with real-time data coming in from sensors mounted directly above the shop. And again, a student digital design team under UWE Bristol\u2019s Dr Mic Palmer\u2019s direction, are developing a bespoke display screen for residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Future of St. Mark&#8217;s Road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the next few weeks, children from the Easton Data Garden club will bring their families along to workshops to build the sensors. Installation will happen soon after, all ready to start feeding delicious data into the website UWE students will deliver at the end of January. And viewed at the local corner shop!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All the while, local Easton children will be working alongside academics, asking questions about the effectiveness of real-world interventions, like, how do rumble strips impact on traffic speed and then air pollution? This will be the first time citizens have combined these technologies to directly test the impact of interventions on their streets &#8211; a necessary step to improve high streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Stuart, almost the most important impact of this project, is the interactions made possible between the academics and children in Easton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe kids here wouldn\u2019t normally have exposure to University and the people who work there, this project means they are getting to have those interactions\u201d explained Stuart. \u201cAnd the children are interested because it\u2019s relevant to them, and because the academics are genuinely listening to what they have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Work alongside UWE academics is also a key part of another strand of Stuart\u2019s work \u2013 supporting the local Muslim community to celebrate the end of Eid with a huge light display (called the Grand Iftar). Children in Easton Data Garden are again collaborating with UWE Bristol academics to design light patterns to be displayed on\/in the Jamia Masjid Mosque dome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ll be updating on the results coming out of Easton Data Garden in the next few months and later on in 2022 you can expect to see some amazing images from the Grand Iftar celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See more about Easton Data Garden (&amp; UWE Bristol\u2019s involvement!) in the video below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Growing Easton&#039;s Data Garden\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9PLQYanbUfQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photographer Anya Agulova Academics and students from a number of UWE Bristol departments are collaborating with the local community in Easton to investigate, on a granular real-time level, air quality and traffic&#8217;s impact on the local high-street. St. Mark\u2019s Road in Easton is a high-street bucking the trend, with new shops popping up in an &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/uwe-works-alongside-children-in-easton-to-monitor-local-air-quality\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;UWE works alongside children in Easton to monitor local air quality&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":7281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,151,52,15,24,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deti","category-diversity-and-inclusion","category-engineering-our-future-people","category-events","category-outreach","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7147"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7471,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions\/7471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}