UBC-Rogers Partnership Climate Project at Microsoft Research Summit

Dr Naomi Zimmerman of Mechanical Engineering is the lead on the “Intelligent Transportation Data Platform and Environmental Sensing for Sustainable Cities” research project supported by the UBC-Rogers Partnership.  In this project, vehicular traffic on the UBC campus is correlated with air quality, and the sensed data are communicated by the Campus As A Living 5G Lab testbed.

Dr. Zimmerman recently had the opportunity to discuss her work in the panel discussion, “Towards Climate-Smart Cities: IoT Networks for Air Pollution Sensing,”  at a recent Microsoft Research Summit, The scope of the summit follows:

Across global cities, policymakers are seeking to combat climate change through initiatives like low-emissions zones and fleet electrification. The most immediate local benefits of these policies – reductions in health-hazardous air pollutants – can now be rendered visible in real time through advances in IoT. In this session, Microsoft Senior Researcher Madeleine Daepp hosts four experts on lessons learned and research needed for actionable hyperlocal air monitoring. The invited speakers will bring complementary perspectives from academic-led networks in Pittsburgh and Vancouver (Naomi Zimmerman), city-led efforts in Denver (Michael Ogletree), and public-private partnerships in Chicago (Scott Counts), as well as coordinating a “network of networks” across Global South cities (Dan Westervelt). Looking forward, the panel will discuss needed advances, both technological and social, to realize the full benefits of dense environmental sensing in cities around the world.