Nuestro Aire: A High-Resolution Ecosystem for Pediatric Health
Addressing SDG 11.6 and SDG 3.4, Nuestro Aire bridges the "evidence gap" in environmental justice. While low-cost sensors only measure broad particulate counts, communities lack the forensic data to identify specific toxic sources. Partnering with El Puente, our team identified a critical need for a non-invasive, "human-centric" bio-sampling method for children living in high-risk pollution corridors.
Our solution leverages ATTRACT’s H-Cube technology, a disruptive advancement in micromechanical Terahertz (THz) imaging. Unlike traditional THz scanners that are bulky, expensive, and require cooling, the H-Cube utilizes uncooled micromechanical resonators. This allows for a device that is as lightweight as a GoPro but capable of ppm-level spectroscopic resolution.
The result is a decentralized "Airhive" network. While children "blow the whistle" on invisible threats through everyday play, the H-Cube enabled Airhives at schools and community centers provide a mass-deployable, temperature-independent diagnostic infrastructure. Nuestro Aire translates sub-THz frequency shifts into high-fidelity data, empowering youth-led advocacy with the forensic evidence required to demand specific infrastructure reform, targeted healthcare interventions, and data-driven urban planning.
The Course:
Challenge-Based Innovation course developed with IdeaSquare, the Innovation Space at CERN (The European Center for Nuclear Research) as a joint educational project with EU’s ATTRACT and the UN’s Solution Space focused on translating deep tech into everyday applications addressing Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing.
Pratt Institutes’ student team joined a cohort of 4 international, multidisciplinary student groups for a 2-week workshop at CERN as part of a 6-month course wherein students developed socially-impactful applications from emerging technology.
Presented is the outcome of the first semester, after which students developed independent capstone projects.
Student project by Ridima Jain and Charlotte Böhning with Dr. Helio Takai and Mary Lempres. In my role, I piloted this program at Pratt Institute: securing funding and institutional support, facilitating workshops, coursework, partnerships, and design development.
PHASE 1
Challenge-Based Innovation at CERN
Technology Foundation
A 2-week design-driven innovation course preparing university students to develop projects that solve complex societal problems, inspired by technological ideas that come from instrumentation development or basic research at CERN. Student teams worked with CERN for the purpose of making disruptive innovation for societal impact.
Speculation, Systems Mapping, Contextualizing Innovation
Experimental Learning, Rapid Prototyping with Deep Technology
Opportunity Definition with UN Solutions Lab
Team Building
Presenting and Communicating Ideas
Idea Generation
First Hand Exposure to Research
Direct Expert Access
PHASE 2
Applying Design Thinking to Our Local Context In NYC
Challenge Definition with Local Stakeholders
Working directly with El Puente, a community justice organization, we moved from the “big problem” of human health and wellbeing to a concrete and actionable challenge. South Williamsburg residents have the highest rates of asthma and COVID-related deaths in NYC due to air pollution. Playgrounds and schools are located directly under traffic routes, where children, the most predisposed to air pollution impacts, are breathing in invisible pollution while they play. The community asked for a accessible tool that can be used to monitor specific air quality sources to petition for healthy public spaces, particularly for children.
Problem definition from ethnography: walking the streets with community members, identifying problem sources, co-design of a preferred future and project outcomes.
Technology Identification
Through feasibility filtering, we narrowed down possible imaging and detection technology from those investigated at CERN based on strategic alignment, technical prototypability, and scaling potential. H-cube addresses the emerging need for low-cost, portable solutions for hyperspectral imaging in the terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The fabrication processes are extremely simple, cost-effective, and suitable for the production of large arrays.
Technology was evaluated using Technology Scouting (push) from research centers identifying early-stage instrumentaiton, sensors, and data processing methods and Need Identification (pull) from deep ethnographic research to identify the paint points in our social sector. We developed proof of concept models to visualize the basic interaction with technology, and met with the technology “owners” (scientists) to ensure we weren’t violating the laws of physics or the tech's actual capabilities.
Field Testing
Moving quickly from idea to testable solution, we built works-like prototypes for volunteers to test in their everyday life. El Puente distributed wearable devices containing basic sensors to community volunteers. The sensors were linked to a app design that tracked and monitored basic air quality data linked to satellite location.
These first prototypes and the interaction with them helped us understand how an advanced sensing and imaging system would work in the real world.
The Iterative Prototyping Loop
Learning through testing human interaction, we rapidly prototypes design solutions for how to engage children actively in the sample collection. We learned that, rather than creating a high-tech, passive wearable, participants wanted a low-cost, low-tech interactive tool that volunteers could take to the streets in mass and return to El Puente to scan. This meant we were developing a system comprised of a accessible, wearable method for sampling invisible pollution, a high-tech scanning device, and a dynamic pollution mapping platform.
PHASE 3
Outcome
Demo Day Presentation
While typical environmental sensors only measure broad categories like "total particulates" (PM2.5), they cannot distinguish between the specific chemical origins of those particles. The H-Cube fills this gap by bringing research-grade Terahertz spectroscopy out of the lab and into the neighborhood. Its unique resonance-based detection allows it to identify the specific "chemical fingerprints" of toxins trapped in saliva—such as heavy metals or specific industrial combustion byproducts—at a resolution of better than one part per million (ppm).
For El Puente, this provides a level of forensic evidence previously unavailable; they can now pinpoint not just that the air is polluted, but exactly which industrial or transit sources are responsible and that it is entering the bodies of thier most vulnerable population. Because the H-Cube is temperature-independent, uncooled, and as portable as a GoPro, it transforms the school-based "Airhives" from expensive, fragile labs into rugged, mass-deployable infrastructure that withstands the daily realities of a busy community center.
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