Last March, Professor Solomon Bililign donated thirty SPS30 Sensirion sensors, with the goal that apart from Arba Minch University at two other universities teams would start building PM sensor systems. A team at Debre Birhan University (DBU) constructed their first working sensor system. The team consists of Abebe Tsegaye, Abreham Lakew and Matiwos Zenebe, staff of Electrical and Computer Engineering. With their sensor system, PM2.5 data from the SPS30 Sensirion, together with time from a DS3231 real time clock, is stored on an SD card.
The DBU team received ten of the donated SPS30 sensors. They received build instructions and the sensor system software from me. The have added all other components and work from their own time and budget. It is a promising sign that the university team has done all this without any external project funding. While any future upscaling might make fund applications relevant, the DBU team is already showing and increasing their expertise. This makes any future fund applications more likely to succeed, but also shows that DBU can act independently.
The DBU team will install sensor systems at outdoor locations in Debre Birhan. They will install the first systems at campus and the university hospital. Other locations are planned close to industry and next to roads.