Air pollution threatens health and the environment. Many university campuses in Ghana lack real-time air quality data. To address this, we built a low cost mobile IoT system for the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). The system uses ESP32 for wireless communication and PMS5003 sensors to track particulate matter levels (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10). These feed into a mobile application that displays live data, stores readings offline with SQLite, and issues alerts. TensorFlow Lite supports on device predictions, giving one hour forecasts of pollutant concentrations. The application also pulls information from external APIs to provide regional and national context. Design focused on usability. Students and staff asked for clear visualizations and simple health alerts, which guided interface development. Field tests showed the sensors detect key pollutants and integrate smoothly with the local infrastructure. The system is more than a monitoring tool. It supports UENR’s sustainability goals, raises awareness of public health, and provides hands-on learning for students in engineering and environmental science. By connecting affordable sensors with mobile AI, the project shows a scalable way to track air quality in a resource limited settings.
Research Area
Mobile App Development: Mobile App Development research in Computer Science and Information Technology focuses on the design, development, and optimization of software applications for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This area covers a wide range of topics, including user interface design, cross-platform development, mobile operating systems, performance optimization, and security.
One key aspect of research in this area is the development of efficient algorithms and frameworks that enable seamless cross-platform compatibility. Researchers explore ways to create apps that function smoothly on multiple operating systems, such as Android and iOS, using a single codebase, reducing development time and costs. This is often achieved through the use of frameworks like React Native, Flutter, and Xamarin.
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are critical components of mobile app development research. Scholars in this field investigate how to create intuitive, responsive, and engaging interfaces that improve usability and enhance the overall user experience. This includes studying interaction patterns, accessibility, and how users interact with mobile apps across different devices and environments.
Project Main Objective
To design, build, and deploy a mobile application for the UENR campus that integrates data from custom-built IoT sensor network, achieving a data-to-display latency of less than 5 seconds and providing real-time AQI visualizations to enhance community awareness.