low-cost design of a novel temperature and sound monitoring sensor box
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Overview
Most urban environmental monitoring systems are too sparse or expensive to capture conditions at the neighborhood scale — leaving residents exposed to heat and noise hazards that go unmeasured and unaddressed.
As part of my Master’s thesis at the Environmental Sensors Lab at Northeastern University, I developed a solar-powered sensor box that measures temperature, humidity, and sound every minute and uploads data via LTE in near-real time. At under $500 per unit, it makes dense community-scale deployments feasible where commercial devices cannot. 55 units are now deployed across Boston’s Blue Hill neighborhood, generating continuous environmental data to support resident advocacy and more equitable urban planning.
What I did
- Designed the full hardware system — enclosure and electronics integration — through iterative prototyping and bench testing
- Validated sensor accuracy, power consumption, solar charging performance, and weather resistance across 5 prototypes
- Built a standardized manufacturing workflow in an on-campus machine shop, producing 55 units with 100% QA/QC pass rate
- Led field deployment including LTE connectivity validation and ongoing reliability checks across all deployed units
Results
- 55 units deployed across Blue Hill, Boston — June 2025
- Zero mechanical failures observed through April 2026
- Data actively used by community partners for environmental advocacy
