I presented my work on low-cost research methods at the 21st International Symposium on Sustainable Water Resources Development (June 9-10, 2023). This symposium is organized by my institute (Arba Minch Water Technology Institute) and the Water Resources Research Center (WRRC).
Arba Minch University faced budget cuts, which reduces opportunities for local staff to conduct research. Reducing research costs expands research opportunities at this time, because many staff members are idle. Therefore, my focus on low cost research by using Do-It-Yourself (DIY) measurement setups and students as data collectors (student science) caught the attention of the research director of the WRRC. He invited me to present about these two cost-saving methods on the symposium. See here the slides of the presentation.
Apart from presenting, I could display different instruments on tables. I showed all components that go into the low-cost PM2.5 sensor system. Participants could try to register the highest CO2 concentration by blowing into an CO2 measurement instrument. Also, the recently launched awtiCode was on display, and participants could leave suggestions and questions for Python code.
