NSF-IRES: U.S.-Bangladesh collaboration to improve air quality

Overview

This project will provide U.S. undergraduate and graduate students a ten-week summer opportunity to gain international research experience in emerging air quality issues in the megacity of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The project will take place in collaboration with students and faculty at the University at Albany, Stanford University, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and the University of Dhaka.

Students will get hands-on experience on low-cost sensors and remote sensing technologies to advance their understanding of air quality problems and potential solutions. Students will work on individual research projects and have unique opportunities to enhance their professional growth, peer-mentoring skills, networking and develop their competencies in intercultural communication, self-awareness, professional adaptability, and leadership in a culturally diverse group.

The experiences and lessons learned from a megacity’s impact on air quality can be valuable for the IRES students to study large U.S. urban centers confronting similar air pollution challenges.

Program structure

The project will train 24 U.S. students under a ten-week summer program over the 3-year period. Each year a cohort of 8 students (5 undergraduates and 3 graduate) will participate in four sets of activities:

• pre-departure preparation during the Spring 2023 (virtual) for research meetings and language training
• 2 weeks pre-departure virtual training activities (May 22 – June 2)
• 7 weeks research activities in Dhaka, Bangladesh (June 12 – July 28)
• 1 week (in-person) post-trip follow-up activities at UAlbany (July 31 – August 4)

Key activities include a streamlined two-week air quality short course, travel workshop, and research ethics compliance training during the 2-week pre-departure virtual training. The pre-departure training during the Spring 2023 will include bi-weekly research meetings to introduce students about low-cost sensor technologies, performance evaluation and air quality sensor data analysis, as well as weekly meetings for culture and language instruction. The 1-week post-trip follow-up will include report writing, presentation of their research findings and international experiences and field trips.

Financial Support

• Stipend: $3,500 for undergraduates and $4,200 for graduate students
• Travel: support for international and local travels
• Subsistence: Housing and meals provided

Calendar

• Application Deadline: February 1, 2024
• Notification to selected participants: February 15, 2024

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bangladesh is known for its vulnerability to climate change, consistently ranked as one of the most polluted countries. With more than 20 million people, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is an example of the most polluted megacities in the world.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) is the oldest and leading institution for engineering study in Bangladesh. The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering of BUET is a leading academic department in the country due to the outstanding graduates it is producing, its various research activities, and its extensive involvement in countless crucial national development projects. The Environmental Engineering Laboratory of the Civil Engineering Department is well-equipped with advanced facilities for water, wastewater, and ambient air quality research. It is a 2800 ft2 laboratory space located on the 3rd floor of the Civil Engineering Building. The Mentor Dr. Provat Kumar Saha has full access to all the facilities in this lab as a full-time faculty member of the department. Instruments in this laboratory include, among others, an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, a TOC analyzer, and a modern Spectrophotometer. Air quality measurement instruments include gravimetric samplers for particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), Condensation Particle Counter for measuring ultrafine particles, and Real-time, Affordable, Multi-Pollutant (RAMP) monitor for low-cost sensor-based measurement of PM2.5 and trace gases (CO, NO, NO2, O3).

University of Dhaka

The Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka is the leading research organization for atmospheric chemistry in Bangladesh. Dr. Salam has been leading the atmospheric science research with 25 group members and has been working on various aspects of air quality in Bangladesh with highly sophisticated instruments, e.g., Cimel sunphotometer (Robot), Aerosol Robotic network, NASA-USA. It has been measuring the intensity of sun at seven different wavelengths since 2013. It changes the direction automatically with the moving of sun and also upload data automatically to the AERONET website. Dr. Abdus Salam’s group has many other monitoring instruments (e.g., BAM 1020, Air Photon) and also several low-cost sensors (e.g., Air Visual). U.S. students will get the opportunity to learn from these long-term measurements in the highly polluted megacity of Dhaka.

Eligibility

This opportunity is available to undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields at U.S. institutions with following requirements:

1. U.S.-citizen or permanent residents and must have full COVID-19 vaccination record
2. Grade point average (GPA) of 2.7 for undergraduate and 3.0 for graduate applicants
3. Must commit to being in Bangladesh for 7 weeks during summer 2023
4. Available to attend Spring 2023 (virtual) for pre-departure preparation (research meetings and language instructions)
5. Agree to participate in a follow-up research activity for Fall 2023

Students who are underrepresented minorities, women, first-generation/low-income students, Hispanics, and veterans as well as persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Preference will be given to juniors/seniors and graduate students major in Environmental Engineering or a related discipline (e.g., Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Chemistry, and Engineering in general).
 

How to Apply

1. Complete an online application form.
   
   Undergraduate Application
   
   Graduate Application
    
2. Submit copies of transcripts (a copy of unofficial transcript is fine).
3. Provide one reference (e.g., your academic advisor). If shortlisted, we will contact for recommendation letter.
4. Upload your resume.
5. Provide a statement of purpose. Describe your academic and career goals, research interests, and how you believe the IRES program will help achieve your short- and long-term goals.
6. Provide demographic information

IRES participants will work on research projects collaborating with the foreign mentors and students. The Principal Investigator and foreign mentors will offer numerous research topics at undergraduate and graduate levels. This helps students choose their individual research topics based on their interests. The nature of proposed research activities falls under a unifying research topic i.e., improving air quality in a megacity by leveraging recent advances in low-cost sensor and remote sensing technologies. The projects will be structured in such a way that both undergraduate and graduate students can feel confident that they can complete the proposed tasks successfully in due time. A brief description of sample research projects is given below:

• Sample project 1: Development of a calibration framework for low-cost PM2.5 monitoring system in a megacity of Bangladesh. While low-cost sensor-based air quality monitoring shows great potential for spatially dense and community-scale air monitoring with a reasonable cost, their calibration and data inversion are the most critical aspect. The response of the low-cost sensors is highly sensitive to ambient temperature, humidity, pollutants mixture. High pollution loadings, local weather, and infrastructure conditions in polluted cities in developing countries present unique challenges for low-cost sensors calibration, deployment, and maintenance. The proposed work will develop calibration models and a standard operational procedure for low-cost PM2.5 sensors under a megacity-specific conditions.
   
• Sample project 2: Coupling low-cost air sensors and satellite data for mapping brick kiln pollution in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is the fourth largest brick producer globally with about 7000 brick kilns and produces about 23 billion bricks annually. Traditional energy-inefficient brick manufacturing kilns in Bangladesh and across South Asia kill thousands of people every year. Accurate mapping of the pollution scenario is the first step for developing science-based solutions and tools for addressing the brick kiln pollution in Bangladesh. We propose to combine low-cost fine particulate mass sensor and satellite-based observations for mapping surface PM concentrations in the brick-kiln pollution impacted areas in Bangladesh.
   
• Sample project 3: Developing a low-cost approach for evaluating kiln level emissions in Bangladesh. Each year the global radiative forcing generated by the black carbon and greenhouse gases emanating from brick kilns in South Asia is equivalent to the climate impact generated from the entire US passenger car fleet. Recent estimates suggest that air pollution generated by brick kilns results in over 60,000 premature adult deaths annually in South Asia. We propose a set of iterative field measurements collaborating with Stanford University researchers to work towards developing a practical low-cost approach to evaluating pollution generated by individuals and groups of kilns.
  Saving Lives and Combatting Climate Change - YouTube


• Sample project 4: Air pollution mapping in Dhaka City using low-cost sensors. Air pollutants in urban areas vary spatially and temporally. Numerous studies have identified that a central monitoring approach cannot capture the pollution gradient in urban areas and pollution concentrations can vary substantially within a few hundred meters. In recent years, the mobile and distributed monitoring with data science and machine learning approaches have been shown a great promise for high spatial resolution urban air pollution monitoring and exposure estimates. We will develop an empirical model and high spatial resolution air pollution mapping using lower cost sensor measurements and advanced statistical modeling approach.
   
• Sample project 5: Understanding residential indoor air quality exposure in Dhaka using multipollutant sensors. Climate change can affect the air we breathe in both ambient and indoor environments. While government and regulatory agencies have focused to tackle urban ambient air pollution, little attention has been paid to assess the quality of air in our homes. To fill this gap, IRES participants will measure air pollutants in residential homes to get experience in assessing indoor air quality in a polluted megacity of Dhaka. Several criteria air pollutants e.g., fine particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO) and climate-driven pollutants e.g., black carbon and caron dioxide (CO2) will be measured using low-cost sensors.
   
• Sample project 6: Monitoring exposure to air pollutants and greenhouse gases in public transportation in Dhaka city using low-cost sensors. Traffic jam is a known issue in Dhaka city due to the lack of proper planning, lack of road as well as public bus, poor traffic managements, old vehicles, reckless driving, and less skilled driver. In Dhaka city, public bus is a crucial means of transport and passengers are espousing huge pollution due to the long hours staying inside the public bus due to traffic jam. We will focus to quantify the exposure of particulate matter and trace gases of the passengers in the public bus for the first time in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We will use multipollutant sensor monitors for measuring particulate fractions (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10), gaseous pollutants (CO, NO2, O3), and greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4).
   
• Sample project 7: Evaluation of satellite-based models in estimating the surface PM2.5 over Bangladesh. For assessing PM2.5 exposure and associated health impacts, there is a need to estimate accurate surface PM2.5 concentrations. Many studies have been applied machine learning (ML)-based models to estimate surface PM2.5 concentration by using satellite-retrieved aerosol optical depth (AOD) and ground-based measured PM2.5 concentration. However, there are some uncertainties associated with ML-based models leading to potential bias in estimating surface PM2.5. IRES students will apply ML-based models such as artificial neural network (ANN) and random forest to evaluate the accuracy of estimated PM2.5 concentration in Dhaka using hourly satellite-retrieved AOD data and ground-based measured PM2.5 concentrations.
   
• Sample project 8: Estimation and characterization of waste burning impact in Dhaka, Bangladesh using low-cost sensors. Waste burning (e.g., garbage, agricultural residue) is one of the neglected sources of air pollution in many countries of the world including Bangladesh. Varieties of waste burning are happening in Dhaka city, e.g., open garbage burning, municipal solid waste burning, dry leaves burning, and garments cotton burning, and agricultural residue burning. IRES participants will study the particulate, gaseous and greenhouse gas emissions from waste burning in Dhaka using low-cost multipollutant sensor monitors.

For questions or any information, please email [email protected].
 

Mentors
 

Md. Aynul Bari
Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator
Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
University at Albany, State University of New York

Provat Kumar Saha
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Abdus Salam
Professor
Department of Chemistry
University of Dhaka

Stephen Luby 
Professor
Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute
and the Freeman Spogli Institute and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology
and Population Health
Stanford University

IRES Participants
2024

Zahin Ritee
Columbia University

Zahin Ritee is double majoring in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from Adelphi University and Columbia University respectively. During the summer of 2024 she worked on mapping and analyzing indoor and outdoor air pollution data of residential houses or apartments. Zahin loves singing and traveling. Her goal is to live an honest and happy life. 

Shiama Srikantan
University of California Berkeley

Shiama is a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley, majoring in Applied Math. In Bangladesh, Shiama used his prior experience in data science and public health to address the climate and air quality. Over a two-month research trip to Dhaka he worked on creating citywide maps of air pollution through mobile monitoring, developing skills in field research, python and GIS software. He hopes to use his technical skills to address environmental and public health concerns around the world. Outside of research and academics, he loves to play tennis, strum the guitar and spend time outdoors with friends and family.

Shakib Idris
Tufts University

Shakib Idris is a rising senior at Tufts University majoring in Environmental Health Engineering. During his time in Bangladesh, he focused on using satellite remote sensing technology to assess the spread of brick kiln pollution in the region. Throughout the experience, he used software such as MATLAB, python and ArcGIS Pro to perform analysis. After this research, he aims to continue environmental work on a global scale. Outside of work he enjoys traveling and exploring the outdoors.

Sadman Sakib Khan
University at Albany

Sadman Sakib Khan is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in Mathematics at the University at Albany. Sadman’s research focuses on air quality monitoring, specifically in his project titled "Understanding Air Emissions of Municipal Solid Waste Landfills in Dhaka, Bangladesh Using Low-Cost Sensors and Satellite Remote Sensing." Through this work he is investigating how landfill emissions impact the environment using innovative, cost-effective technology.

Alyssa Kamara
University at Albany

Alyssa Kamara is a May 2024 graduate of the University at Albany with bachelor's degrees in economics and public health. While in Bangladesh, Alyssa focused on measuring and analyzing data from indoor air quality in primary schools using low-cost monitors. This experience furthered her interests in children’s health, environmental contaminants and sustainable urban design. She is incredibly grateful for her experiences and the friends she made in Dhaka. Alyssa hopes to continue engaging with vulnerable communities working on public health equity, ecological disaster mitigation and environmental policy. Alyssa works as the Junior Policy Analyst for the City of Albany’s Common Council.  

Jeanchretien Goundo
University at Albany

Jeanchretien Goundo is originally from Togo and majors in Biology at the University at Albany. His project is focused on monitoring air quality in Dhaka's public transportation using low-cost sensors, measuring pollutants like PM_2.5, black carbon, NO₂, SO₂ and others in buses and trains. His findings show that buses have higher and more variable pollution levels due to traffic, while trains have more stable and lower levels. The project highlights the need for better air quality monitoring and improved policies to address pollution in Dhaka's public transport system. Goundo hopes to become a doctor, but is deeply passionate about exploring the intersection between health and environmental factors, particularly around issues like air pollution.He hopes to expand his research knowledge and skills to better understand how environmental conditions impact public health, especially in urban settings. By combining his interest in medicine with a focus on environmental health, he aspires to contribute to creating healthier communities by addressing the root causes of disease.

Kaylia Morgan
University at Albany

Kaylia Morgan is a rising senior at the University at Albany studying environmental sciences. During the Summer 2024 IRES program she worked on low-cost sensor data and develop a calibration framework for low-cost PM_2.5 monitoring system in a megacity of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Diana Castro
Cañada College, Redwood City, California

Diana Castro is a rising sophomore at Cañada College in California. During the Summer 2024 IRES program she worked on satellite remote sensing data and evaluated satellite-based models in estimating the surface PM_2.5 over Bangladesh.