Patcharin Jongjai 2020/04/07 , ( 370 views)
After conducting immense research on the development of an air quality control system, the Faculty of Engineering at UBU helped launch the Air Quality Monitoring Network Project which is aimed at measuring the air quality within UBU’s campus. Six Quality Monitoring Stationswere set up around the campus in the following areas: the UBU Canteen near students’ dormitories, UBU Drug’s Store,the Faculty of Engineering (the main station), the College of Medicine and Public Health, and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Each station contains a sensor that will help detect the PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 concentration values and will display the real-time information online.
The research team that helped develop the system are Assistant Professor Dr. Griengsak Kaewkulchai, Vice Dean for Administration who serves as the head of the project, Assistant Professor Dr. Worakarn Wongsaichue, Head of the Department Electrical and Electronics Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering who serves as the network controller and coordinator, Assistant Professor Dr. Atipong Suriya, Director of Office of Computer Network and Acting Director of Office of Academic Resources who serves as a committee on data analysis and report and Mr. Piyawat Koteprom, master degree student who serves as a co-researcher.
The network consists of three main parts that all play an important role in achieving the objective of the project: Weather and Air Pollution Meter, Communication Section (NB-IoT or LoRaWan) and Data Analysis.The project will be carried out in multiple phases. For phase one of the project, the network will only be implemented on UBU’s campus. In future phases of the project, the network will be developed to cover a wider area around Ubon Ratchathani and Thailand.
Assistant Professor Dr. Worakarn Wongsaichue has reported that, nowadays, Thailand has been paying much attention to dust and smoke problems as it has negatively impacted the health quality of many people around the country. The problems have become increasingly severe, especially in large cities with heavy traffic and industrial areas. Furtthermore, the North of Thailand has been experiencing forest fires which have created higher dust values making it even more dangerous for peoples' health in this particular area. In order to solve this issue, cooperation is needed among all sectors as well as time. In the meantime, it has been suggested to take self-protection measures such as wearing a face mask to reduce the inhalation of small dust particles or by avoiding open-air activities. Using an air purifier can also be an effective way to combat air pollution. However, with these items being in high demand, there have been a large amount of supply shortages making it difficult for people to proactively confront air pollution. Therefore, the UBU Research team used this dilemma as motivation to create the Air Quality Sensor Network which esan IoT system to provide an alternative solution to the air pollution issues. The network can cover various areas around a community and can report real-time data about the PM Levels via an online wesbite. The research team hopes to use the gathered information to further develop models that can predict weather condtions and monitor farmland fires. They also hope to develop sensor nodes that will use solar energy so that it can be installed in remote areas. The team is looking forward to firstly implementing the network on UBU's campus, and then expanding it to other areas.
UBU hugely thanks Assistant Professor Dr. Griengsak Kaewkulchai and his team for devoting their time to improve the health quality of UBU community members.
Revised and translated by: Jarinda Boonjan
Original (Thai) version by: Tippawan Valuvanathorn
English revised by: Thaviny Shaipitisiri
Photos by: Tippawan Valuvanathorn