AirQO, a Makerere University research project aiming to curb pollution in Uganda, has recently been awarded a grant to help address societal challenges. The grant amounts to USD1.3 million and has been given to the Ass. Professor Engineer Bainomugisha by Google through the Global Fund for Using Artificial Intelligence. Only 20 innovations out of 2600 applicants received the award.
The AirQO innovation was made possible through Swedish funding of the Bright Project. The Bright Project, focuses on sustainable socio-economic growth in Uganda using ICT-tools. Among other things, the project supports PhD and post-doc training and capacity building within ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development). The project is carried out in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Professor Engineer Bainomugisha from College of Computer and Information Science, is a principal investigator of the Bright project and chaiperson of the AirQO-project, which is the only innovation from Africa winning this fund.
The AirQO innovation was born out of the Software Systems Center that was established and supported by funding from Sida through the Embassy of Sweden to the Makerere - Sweden Bilateral Research Program (including 17 different projects). The prototype of the AirQO innovation of the low-cost devices have been installed on motorcycle-taxis and other locations around Uganda. By compiling the data from the devices, the AirQO-team can monitor and forecast the status of air pollution in the cities.
AirPollution kills approximately 7 million people every year, according to WHO and recent measurements revealed that the air pollution in Kampala is six times higher than WHO guidelines. Thanks to Prof. Bainomugisha and the team behind AirQO, there is now increased and better information on air pollution in Kampala that can help mapping and addressing the issue more efficiently.
The Embassy of Sweden in Kampala is proud to be working together with such innovative and dedicated individuals. Congratulations and keep up the good work!
