New Center For Environmental Sensing At Boise State Provides Opportunities For Collaboration

A new center for sensor research at Boise State University will provide opportunities for collaboration and support for university scientists and engineers who are pursuing a broad range of funded projects, from studying air quality during inversions in the Treasure Valley to using ground penetrating radar to study Arctic stream channels.

The Center for Environmental Sensing at Boise State was recently approved by the State Board of Education, and will begin operations this fall under the direction of Boise State civil engineering professor Molly Gribb.

“There are a growing number of research projects at Boise State that involve sensors, including projects in the environmental sciences, health sciences, engineering, chemistry, physics and geophysics,” Gribb said. “The Center for Environmental Sensing will allow us to more easily share information, use our laboratories more efficiently and increase our visibility.”

The new center will take over a national Web site developed under Environmental Protection Agency sponsorship that promotes development of high-tech sensors that can be used for environmental clean-up. In addition, long-range plans call for the establishment of seed grants for Boise State researchers to encourage new sensor research at the university.

Gribb is leading a $1.6 million grant from the EPA to develop multipurpose sensors for the investigation of environmental contaminants. This research project involves faculty, staff and students from three engineering departments and the biology department at Boise State to develop an ion mobility spectrometer, or IMS, sensor system for detecting contaminant vapors in unsaturated soils. In addition, sensors to detect chemical and biological warfare agents are also under development. The grant, which received EPA approval for funding in fiscal year 2005, builds on nearly $2 million in EPA grants awarded to the College of Engineering since 2002 for sensor research.

The IMS sensor could be used in situations such as an accidental spill of industrial solvents to detect and measure concentrations of vapors in the subsurface that could pose a health hazard. The device could also be used to monitor those vapors over an extended period of time.

Gribb and other members of the sensor research team recently completed a prototype for the IMS sensor. The device is placed in a cylindrical housing that can be pushed into the subsurface using a truck-mounted hydraulic jacking system. Data collected by the sensor is converted from an analog to digital signal and then transmitted via satellite to an Internet site, providing researchers with live information about the identity, concentration and location of the vapors and a means to continue to monitor them.

Other Boise State environmental sensing projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration and others. They include studies to develop portable sensors to detect arsenic, mercury, benzene, uranium and other contaminants, aircraft emission and mitigation studies, scientific expeditions to map the ocean floor using seismic reflection methods, airliner cabin air quality studies, and others.

The new Center for Environmental Sensing will also collaborate with the university’s Center for Geophysical Investigation for the Shallow Subsurface, or CGISS. CGISS is involved in a number of funded projects that involve imaging and studying the Earth’s shallow subsurface.

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