The Design and Deployment of a Chicago Air Quality Sensing Network, Madeleine Daepp

At the November 10, 2021 Mansueto Institute Lunch Colloquium, Madeleine Daepp, Senior Researcher in the Urban Innovation team at Microsoft Research, spoke about “The Design and Deployment of a Chicago Air Quality Sensing Network.” Environmental justice leaders have long sought tools to monitor hyperlocal air pollution exposures. In this talk, Dr. Daepp will describe the collaborative effort of city, industry, academic, and community groups in Chicago to deploy a network of 115 low-cost air quality sensors. Her team developed a network design with two key priorities: (1) citywide coverage and (2) equitable allocation with community-selected sites in environmental justice neighborhoods. They evaluate accuracy through co-locations with EPA regulatory monitors, developing a calibration algorithm for fine particulate matter readings. The system enables the tracking of real-time events – including a July 4th spike and smoke from summer wildfires – as well as the detection of hotspots. This work shows how multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral partnerships can support the creation of “climate-smart” cities; however, there remains a need for ongoing collaboration with community and city stakeholders to develop actionable analysis platforms.

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