Air Quality Monitor

In my Design Brief class in the spring of 2025, my group, comprised of Angela Xu, Olivia Napoleon, Sydney Meza, and me, designed and built a low-cost, quantitative air quality monitor for Dr. Diana Grigsby-Toussaint. Over the course of two months, we researched, prototyped, tested, and iterated.

In the research phase, we interviewed Dr. Grigsby-Toussaint to find her priorities: quantitative data, an easy and secure attachment, a long lasting battery, and visually appealing. Being visually appealing was especially important, as the monitor was to be mounted in a low income community with many immigrants. With the fears of deportation due to the political climate, it was of utmost importance that the monitor did not evoke fear in residents.

Our final product was a laser-cut acrylic box housing CO, NO2, and PM2.5 sensors. Key features include a rain cover for New England weather, internal and external foam supports, labels in English and Spanish, a velcro strap attachment, a rechargable lithium battery, and cloud based data that is wirelessly uploaded.

My primary role in this project was CADing. As the team member with the best CAD skills, I created all the digital models and drawings of our box in SolidWorks, as well as the Adobe Illustrator files used to laser cut the acrylic. Sydney Meza was in charge of electronics and coding, including figuring out how to wirelessly upload the data. Olivia and Angela were primarily in charge of physically building the prototype and testing, including drop tests and water tests.