The Presidential Initiative is intended to foster excellence and preeminence in urban and place-based research and creative work at CU Denver through offering funding, coordinating faculty across campus, communicating outcomes, enabling connections with partners in the community, and serving as a resource for sharing data and best practices. In so doing, it is intended to both increase the impact of CU Denver’s urban and place-based research and creative work, and to attract and fund faculty and students interested in this domain. While focused on urban issues generally, the Initiative emphasizes work relevant to the Front Range, particularly when it has implications nationally or internationally.
The Initiative funds projects that address critical and timely topics related to cities, such as: Social and Environmental Justice, Equity and Inclusion, Affordable Housing, Plan Making, Public Spaces, Global Cities, Smart Cities, Urban Informatics, Artificial Intelligence for Cities, Infrastructure, Transportation and Mobility, Climate Adaptation, Green Infrastructure, Air and Water Quality, Urban Ecology, Biomimicry, Green Real Estate Development, Public Health, Water and Energy Use, Natural Hazards Mitigation, Environmental Policy, Public Finance, Historic Preservation, Creative Industries, Placemaking, Community Development, Arts and Urban Revitalization, Healthcare Access, Economic Development, Behavioral Economics, Education Policy and Practice, Public Policy and Governance, Public Safety, Public Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Urban Design, Construction Management, and much more.
The 2021 Request for Proposals for seed grants is now closed. Full descriptions of the projects awarded in the 2020 round of funding are given from the links below.
2021 Award Recipients
Developing protocols to better characterize and utilize networks of low-cost air quality monitors to inform public health and urban planning
Date: 11/1/2021
Principal Researchers: Priyanka deSouza and Ben Crawford
Unit: Department of Urban & Regional Planning and Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences
Project Abstract: Low-cost monitoring networks are increasingly being used to supplement regulatory networks and to aid in a neighborhood-scale understanding of air pollution levels. However, the variability and uncertainty inherent in the measurements from such devices presents many challenges. Little is known, for example, about the lifetime of such sensors under different site conditions, or what the sensitivity of overall spatial and temporal trends from low-cost monitoring networks is to different calibration algorithms. Finally, the utility of low-cost monitoring networks in detecting wildfires and evaluating indoor-outdoor filtration rates for different urban typologies has been under-characterized. The former use-case is especially important as many smartphone apps draw on data from low-cost sensors to issue public health warnings about wildfire smoke. Our study aims to fill in these gaps using a dense national network of low-cost sensors deployed in various environmental conditions. It aims to apply these findings to the network: Love My Air consisting of low-cost monitors deployed in public schools in Denver.
Priyanka deSouza Bio: Priyanka deSouza (Lead PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research focuses on 1) developing new methods to fill in the gaps of air pollution data using low-cost sensors and satellite data, 2) understanding the health impacts of air pollution and climate change exposures on vulnerable populations, 3) investigating the political economy of air pollution to understand barriers to effective regulatory action. Priyanka has a BTech and MTech in Energy Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, an MSc in Environmental Change and Management and an MBA from the University of Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Priyanka has also served as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Program and the World Health Organization.
Ben Crawford Bio: Ben Crawford (PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Geography and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Colorado Denver. His research focuses on investigating atmospheric processes in urban areas, including air pollution, using data from sensor networks, satellites, and models. Before coming to Colorado in 2019, Ben was a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his graduate studies at the University of British Columbia.
Photo Credit: Clarity.io
2020 Award Recipients
Developing protocols to better characterize and utilize networks of low-cost air quality monitors to inform public health and urban planning
Date: 11/1/2021
Principal Researchers: Priyanka deSouza and Ben Crawford
Unit: Department of Urban & Regional Planning and Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences
Project Abstract: Low-cost monitoring networks are increasingly being used to supplement regulatory networks and to aid in a neighborhood-scale understanding of air pollution levels. However, the variability and uncertainty inherent in the measurements from such devices presents many challenges. Little is known, for example, about the lifetime of such sensors under different site conditions, or what the sensitivity of overall spatial and temporal trends from low-cost monitoring networks is to different calibration algorithms. Finally, the utility of low-cost monitoring networks in detecting wildfires and evaluating indoor-outdoor filtration rates for different urban typologies has been under-characterized. The former use-case is especially important as many smartphone apps draw on data from low-cost sensors to issue public health warnings about wildfire smoke. Our study aims to fill in these gaps using a dense national network of low-cost sensors deployed in various environmental conditions. It aims to apply these findings to the network: Love My Air consisting of low-cost monitors deployed in public schools in Denver.
Priyanka deSouza Bio: Priyanka deSouza (Lead PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research focuses on 1) developing new methods to fill in the gaps of air pollution data using low-cost sensors and satellite data, 2) understanding the health impacts of air pollution and climate change exposures on vulnerable populations, 3) investigating the political economy of air pollution to understand barriers to effective regulatory action. Priyanka has a BTech and MTech in Energy Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, an MSc in Environmental Change and Management and an MBA from the University of Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Priyanka has also served as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Program and the World Health Organization.
Ben Crawford Bio: Ben Crawford (PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Geography and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Colorado Denver. His research focuses on investigating atmospheric processes in urban areas, including air pollution, using data from sensor networks, satellites, and models. Before coming to Colorado in 2019, Ben was a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his graduate studies at the University of British Columbia.
Photo Credit: Clarity.io
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