Hostos Community College

Prof. Biao Jiang

Building a Cloud-based Noise Monitoring System to Investigate Noise Pollution in the South Bronx: An Industry-approach to Physics Teaching and Learning

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Hostos Joint Dual Engineering Program

Mission:The mission of the Joint Dual Engineering Program of Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College with The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering is to provide for our multicultural and underrepresented student population a strong foundation of knowledge in science and mathematics as well as provide them with a high quality general education background.

General Goal:

To better prepare our students to earn advanced degrees in STEM fields.

Challenges

Future engineer needs more engineering experience;

Need to know more state-of-art technology;

Modern projects with affordable budget (many thanks

to CUNY Career Success Course Innovation Program);

Time needed to execute large project;

Course Details Credit Course

This project will design and implement a cloud-based noise monitoring system into a calculus-based General Physics II course PHY220.

Revised Course Plan

The pilot project started 2 years ago, and 8 students were recruited to work on this topic. The Career Success Course Innovation Grant provides the chance to offer this project to a classroom setting. Two senior students are hired as interns.

Number of Students Enrolled: 34+24

Career Success elements include

Career readiness: Interviewing, and Solving Complex Problems

Core/foundational skills: Critical Thinking, Leadership, Professionalism, and Oral/Written Communication Skills

Applied/experiential learning: Allow student to outreach community schools, senior housing, hospital, government agencies and companies to listen to their opinions of noise pollution and design their experiment according to the feedback.

Employer/industry involvement, input: Selected students will be offered research internships at different universities.

EL Project Background

The effect of population growth in New York City has lead to an increase in noise pollution in the community (1).

Noise pollution is a big challenge for technology, politicians, and decision-making society actors to solve. New York City is projected to grow from 8.2 million persons in 2010 to 9 million in 2040, an increase of 783,000 or 9.5 percent (2).

Scientific evidence suggests that constant exposure to high levels of noise can lead to anxiety, hearing loss, cardiovascular diseases among other health issues (3,4,5).

Furthermore, side effects of sound disturbances caused by trains and urban traffic can have a negative impact on the health of residents, the process of recovering hospital patients and the student’s ability to focus.

Experiential Learning Overview• Design and implement a cloud-based noise monitoring system into a calculus-based General Physics II course, which includes sound and noise as part of the course content, to expand the collection of Bronx noise data.

• Students will develop their content understanding, scientific inquiry skills and ability to propose solutions to real-world problems.

• Students will effectively use current industry methodologies such as team-based product delivery, programming, data analysis, project management, cloud technology, embedded system, and produce a tangible product or action.

Major Components of EL ModulePhase 1: Planning & acquiring background knowledgePhase 2: Data collection & preparation for data analysisPhase 3: Data interpretation & final reports

Phase 1: Planning & acquiring background knowledge

Weeks 1 to 3: Students are introduced to the definition of noise pollution.

Weeks 4-5: Students generate testable hypotheses based on noise pollution in the South Bronx, that could be tested using the type of data collected by our Cloud-based Noise Monitoring System (CNMS).

A series of workshops are offered to consolidate industry specific skills including programming, data analysis, project management, cloud technology and embedded system during these first five weeks. These workshops will be developed during the lab time. Considering that student in General Physics II class has completed courses such as C++ Programming, Calculus III, Statistics and Electric Circuits, student bring adequate skills to build CNMS.

Phase 2: Data collection & preparation for data analysis

Week 6-9: Students start to build the CNMS unit(s) and deploy CNMS in the location(s) specified by the students.

During this time, students begin working with datasets related to the topics being covered in class. They will learn to interpret graphical data, and use them to answer questions or evaluate hypotheses. These exercises will serve as scaffolding for the final phase of this research project.

Phase 3: Data interpretation & final reports

Weeks 10-11: Students begin to download data off the server for analysis.

Students give an oral presentation in front of college dignitaries and community-based organization leaders when final report is completed, their research findings and constructive suggestions will be heard, and questions and recommendations from community leaders will be documented.

Project Implementation

Project Implementation

Data stored on Cloud

Defining Success

Objectives and Measures:

Student Feedback

Survey of Experiential Learning Outcome

Internship Opportunities

Employer/Industry Feedback

Thank you very much!

Reference

1. Environmental issues in New York City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_New_York_City. (accessed Apr 2018).2. The City of New York. (2013). New York City Population Projections by Age/Sex & Borough, 2010–2040. pp. 2.3. McAlexander, Tara P., Robyn RM Gershon, and Richard L. Neitzel. (2015). Street-level Noise in an Urban Setting: Assessment and Contribution to Personal Exposure. Environmental Health. BioMed Central.4. Neitzel, Richard L., Robyn R M Gershon, Tara P. McAlexander, Lori A. Magda, and Julie M. Pearson. (2015). Exposures to Transit and Other Sources of Noise among New York City Residents. Environmental Science and Technology. American Chemical Society. 5. Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Occupational Noise Exposure. United States Department of Labor. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/noisehearingconservation/. (accessed Apr 2017).