Experiences - Loisaida Inc.
October 2022 - Present | New York, New York
I work part-time at Loisaida Inc. during my semesters at Cooper Union. The organization offers flexible times to work and I love their mission and values. I am part of the Ecolibrium team whose goal is to reach zero emissions in New York City. We are focusing our attention specifically on East Village where we have begun construction and design of environmental sensors aimed to give us a better understanding of the emissions in East Village. My job is to design the enclosure for this environmental sensor and my work includes CADing, 3D printing, material science, and the efficient sizing of the environmental sensor enclosure.
Paul Garrin
Paul Garrin is Ecolibrium’s Founder & Coordinator. I have to give him a shoutout, and although technically he is my boss, I see him as more of a great mentor. Over time, I’ve gotten to know Paul’s past and everything he has done in his incredible life. Although Paul is a Cooper Union alumnus of Art, he is self taught and highly knowledgeable in technology and all things related to engineering. If you want to learn more about him, I emplore you to check out his wiki here.
Particulate Matter Sensors
Particulate matter, is a mixture of airborne solid/liquid particles that can be inhaled and may cause serious health problems. Our goal is to use real-time optical particle counters (OPCs) in the field to track and gather data using IoT for outdoor air quality in New York City.
Image Credit: Sensirion AG
The most common form of OPCs use laser scattering to monitor air quality. These devices involve the passage of particles through laser beams, which are scattered onto a photodiode which detects and provides real-time measurements of particulate concentration. This concentration is relayed to us, and if we have enough of these sensors spread out in the field (nyc). We can create a data map of air quality to make informed judgements and help improve air quality.
Our build includes an ESP32 which serves as the microcontroller and microprocessor, essentially the brains of the operation. This ESP32 is then connected to and powers a whole host of sensors including a SEN5x which measures particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), oxidizing gasses, such as nitrogen oxide compounds (NOx), as well as humidity & temperature. We plan on confirming and adding more sensors later in the protype process after having tested an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in the field first.
CAD Designs
Here is the early design prototype of what the enclosure will look like.
MUDBUG
I’m also working on a similar IoT remote sensing unit at Cooper Union. We call it the Multi-Use Data-Acquisition Bio-Unit or MUDBUG for short. If you want to learn more about it, here is our website.
