Published: Dec. 20, 2017

Seeking Candidates to Monitor Indoor Air Quality at CU Boulder via IoT devices and the Cloud

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Student Opportunity

Do you have an imaginative student with a passion for the environment and programming wanting to work with the latest technology? We have a wonderful cross discipline opportunity for them!

Background

The EPA named indoor air quality (IAQ) as one of theÌýtop five environmental risksÌýto public health. There are many contributing factors to IAQ. In buildings and workspaces on the CU-Boulder campus, contributing factors to IAQ may include building materials, office furniture, HVAC systems, cleaning supplies and chemical fragrances including items such as air fresheners, laundry products and body sprays. With the recent increase in availability of a class of internet connected devices known as the Internet of Things (IOT), the ability and opportunity now exists to affordably provide employers and employees data on the quality of air in their building and empower them with this data to make decisions on how to improve IAQ for themselves, their students and their staff.

Opportunity for Motivated Individuals with Innovative Ideas

OIT is seeking self-motivated students wishing to contribute to the betterment of society and expand their skillset through real-world experience in IAQ analysis in the Computing Center building on the CU-Boulder campus. Real time monitoring of IAQ is currently being performed through IoT devices known as Foobot’s. Foobot’s are deployed throughout the building and measure various elements of air quality including particulate matter, total VOC and carbon dioxide. All data is logged automatically to the cloud making it available for analysis via APIs. OIT is looking for assistance from innovative minds to aggregate the data across all deployed Foobot’s and create a method to present it, via an app or other mechanism, for staff to see real time and historical IAQ results so employees can make informed decisions around issues of IAQ.

Technical Skillsets

The successful candidate for this position will be a self-motivated individual wanting to apply existing skills or develop new ones in API development, integration and data analysis. Knowledge of coding, API’s and application development is useful but not required.

Contact Information and Details

Students who are interested in this unique opportunity to code, perform data analytics and app development should contact Orrie.Gartner@colorado.edu for more information on this project. This is currently a volunteer opportunity but hours may be able to be used for independent study work. Required number of hours is completely dependent upon each candidate and hours are flexible with most work being able to be performed outside regular business hours.