AirSENCE Joining the University of Toronto to Start “Measuring Air Quality to Manage Canada’s Investment in Sustainability”

We’re excited to announce the start of an NSERC Alliance Missions funded joint project between the University of Toronto and A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) to manage Canada’s investment in sustainability through measuring air quality.

Canada has embarked upon a dramatic transformation to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The net-zero transformation must be monitored and evaluated in near real-time so that the knowledge gained can guide change and support continuous improvement. This two-year project aims to evaluate applications of low-cost sensor-based devices that measure both air-quality and greenhouse gases (e.g., AirSENCE) and to identify potential advantages of integrating them into Canada’s existing fragmented measurement infrastructure. The performance of AirSENCE will be further enhanced through in-lab research and validated through field deployment in a wide-range of locales such as urban traffic zones, neighbourhoods near freight hubs or airports, and indigenous communities. The synergies achievable by fusing data from low-cost monitors with data from space-based, mobile and government measurement infrastructure will also be explored.

Through this joint project, AUG will expand its AirSENCE product lines (AirSENCE-INDOOR and My-AirSENCE) to penetrate the residential and personal user market that has emerged due to increased interest in indoor air quality created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project will also enable practical guidance on how to integrate low-cost monitors into air quality measurement infrastructure, and provide new knowledge needed to guide Canada’s economic recovery and investments in sustainability. After all, we can manage what we can’t measure.