1. What type of organization best describes you?
The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) is the number one public university and the premier science and technology university in Ecuador.
2. Describe your organization.
ESPOL was created on October 29th, 1958 as a higher education institution. The 724 ha main campus, Campus Gustavo Galindo, is surrounded by a protected forest (La Prosperina) and located on the outskirts of the biggest city of Ecuador, Guayaquil. ESPOL has 8114 students and approximately 900 educators that study and work on this campus, with a variety of science and engineering fields being the primary fields of study.
3. Describe your project.
Recently, a series of fires have taken place in the protected forest of La Prosperina which have severely affected the air quality of the surroundings including the campus where ESPOL is located. These latest events have caught the attention of the authorities and researchers at the University and have increased awareness regarding the importance of knowing the current outdoor quality on the campus in order to determine how safe it is for the students, staff and faculty to continue their regular activities at the campus.
For this reason, it is important to establish a good and reliable air quality sensor network at the campus which will fulfill two main purposes:
- Aid ESPOL’s authorities in their decision support process to determine the best strategies to protect student and faculty health, especially when fire events take place.
- Strengthen research in air quality by being able to establish a continuous record of measurements that will enable the determination of the air quality on the campus on a daily basis, determine potential sources of air pollution and compare with other sites in the city of Guayaquil where air quality is being monitored.
4. Which PurpleAir model(s) are you interested in and how many would you want for your project?
Ideally, we would like 5 PurpleAir Classic Plus devices.