How can the low-cost air quality sensor community maximize its positive impact?

Low-cost air quality sensing holds the promise to transform how we address air pollution by providing more information and more science that can drive public interest, political will, and policy toward cleaner, healthier air. Crucially, through a combination of its price point and transportability, the technology also makes it feasible for more people to do this work in more places.

However, technology alone cannot fulfill this promise. Realizing its potential requires the low-cost sensing community of people who build sensors, measure data, generate analyses, and use insights from those analyses to actively and strategically work together toward shared goals.

This presentation will explore what could be possible in the coming decade for the low-cost sensing community to accomplish, in terms of influencing policy and public engagement — and ultimately, cleaner healthier air.

The presentation will also define three actionable opportunities for the low-cost sensing community to shape itself toward that greater impact:

• Advocate for greater software, hardware, and data transparency policies, along with stronger consumer ownership rights from air quality sensing companies to better support the community — particularly those in low-resource settings
• Collaborate on open-source quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) technical and community frameworks that minimize inefficient duplication of effort and allow for adaptability across a range of sensor array sizes
• Attract and allocate financial resources to expand accessibility and utility of low-cost sensing, especially in places with high air pollution levels yet low existing air quality management infrastructure and resources