Facing a critical obstacle to better predictions of vehicle pollution, a research team from NAU turned to an untapped data source: Arizonans. And to encourage data collection, they’re kickstarting a monthlong competition for middle and high school students throughout the state.
Led by professor Kevin Gurney, members of the Gurney Lab in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) built the mobile app Hestia Traffic, which has both manual and AI-enabled versions. Anybody can use Hestia Traffic to collect crucial data about the size and distribution of vehicles on roads throughout Arizona.
“Existing information about vehicles on roads was simply too coarse for the type of modeling we are doing,” said Helen Rowe, an associate research professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability and lead scientist on the project. “The traffic app provides information at the scale of individual roadways, where people experience pollution and extreme heat.”
After preliminary collection of data and beta testing, the team is now turning to K-12 students—and creating a friendly competition—to assist with data collection.
“We’ve created a new curriculum to inspire the next generation of community scientists,” said Edgar Ochoa, a sixth-grade teacher at Ed & Verma Pastor Elementary School in Phoenix and the lead in propagating the competition to teachers across Arizona. “This curriculum will inspire the next generation to engage and participate in science, collecting data that improves our understanding of natural and built environments.”
Participation also gives students experience and skills with technical tools that will benefit them throughout their education and in Arizona’s increasingly tech-focused workforce.
“The project allows students to learn by hands-on interaction with the world around them while still using the technology that has become such an integral part of their lives,” said Anna Kato, a research scientist in SICCS who helped design the app.
The statewide competition will recognize the individual student and school that can earn the most “points” through the app. The competition runs from Oct. 20 to Nov. 21, and all students from 6th to 12th grade are eligible to compete for the individual award. To further engage the entire school community, teachers, other school staff and parents can earn points that will go toward each school’s total. The goal is to encourage as many people as possible to gather data for their community.
The project is part of a larger U.S. Department of Energy-funded initiative across Arizona called the Southwest Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (SW-IFL), which addresses extreme heat, air pollution and climate change in Arizona cities through research led by the three public universities in Arizona, two national laboratories and various industry partners.
Gurney, a co-lead of the SW-IFL project, has authored more than 175 scientific publications, including a recent U.S. National Academy Report, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Decisionmaking.” He has been involved with the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol for more than 25 years and is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.