Adrian Burke
STARTRAM: Sensor Technology for AV狼论坛 Rural communities Targeting Remote Atmospheric Monitoring
UAF Junior
B.S. Computer Engineering
Adrian is a 2024-2025 Community-Engaged Learning Award recipient.
Sensor Technology for AV狼论坛 Rural communities Targeting Remote Atmospheric Monitoring (STARTRAM) aims to evaluate a wide range of atmospheric sensors for remote deployment in the AV狼论坛n climate and their applications as educational tools for the Teaching Through Technology (T3) program鈥檚 network of high school sites in rural AV狼论坛n communities.
How is your project going so far this semester?
Progress has been made in both the quantitative and qualitative areas of study. An on-grid outdoor deployment of the sensors over winter break generated datasets to evaluate their cold-weather performance. Additionally, I worked with the PULSE project to conduct a workshop at North Pole High School to get feedback and introduce students to reading the weather sensor data into data collectors via radio. This workshop helped us identify existing hardware and software issues with the radio interface as well as understand how students will learn with it. The next steps are to format and analyze the winter data, as well as work towards a combined remote deployment at AV狼论坛 Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) solar test site.
How did you find out about URSA and what encouraged you to submit an application for
funding?
My mentor for this project, Dayne Broderson, had been getting me thinking about potential
URSA proposals for a few months before we chose this one. The STARTRAM project ended
up emerging from the gaps that we found while we were working with T3 in the summer
of 2024, when a student weather station project generated questions about sensor reliability
and year round viability. We were also influenced by the opportunities and objectives
posed by AV狼论坛 Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) research, including expanding capabilities
for data collectors and addressing gaps in PM2.5 measurement when sensors fail in
cold temperatures.
How does your URSA project relate to your career or personal goals?
Through this project, I am diving into data interfaces & analysis, which will further
my ability to contribute as a researcher and to support researchers with computer
systems. For example, the Modbus serial interface not only allows me to read data
from weather stations, but is also a jumping off point for energy metering. The data
pipelines being developed in service of this grant may have additional applications
in ACEP systems and beyond. Additionally, this project will contribute resources for
curriculum development for T3, a program that I participated in as a high schooler
which eventually led to me joining UAF.
If you could share one piece of advice with students interested in pursuing URSA in the future, what would you say?
Do not be afraid to get early and frequent feedback on your project from your mentors as well as project stakeholders and other subject matter experts. Many times throughout this process, even brief conversations, have shown me a new and useful perspective on something I was stuck on or have highlighted something that I felt confident in but was actually going the wrong direction with. I had opportunities to present my work at various stages of completion, and this allowed me to refine my message by developing the presentation and narrative alongside the project activities themselves.