Summer 2019 Blog 2: Bluelab away at Mae Chan

May 16th – May 17th

While the team was away testing our prototypes in Mae Chan, Alli and I stayed back at CMU (Chiang Mai University) to help Purplelab members think of ideas for their Air Quality project and discuss student life at UM and CMU.

On our first day with the Purplelab students, Alli and I presented on student life at U of M including what students do for fun, where we study, and what food we eat. Afterwards, we all researched air quality topics together. We learned about HEPA (high efficiency particulate absorption) filters and ESPs (electrostatic precipitators) and how they can potentially be combined to create a more efficient filter. We capped the day off with a very filling, Thai dinner at a local restaurant that one of the Purplelab students, M (yes, the letter) brought us to. If you are ever offered som tam (spicy papaya salad), be warned that it is not for the faint of heart — prepare your taste buds for some heat.

On the second day with Purplelab we spent the day learning Arduino, which is a cool (and much easier) name for micro-controller circuit boards. Purplelab is planning on using Arduino to program an air sensor to determine the air quality around the filter and make sure that it is working properly. Turns out that coding in Arduino is just like programming in any other language, but any code you input into Arduino can control a smaller gizmo. I would highly recommend looking into it if you’re interested in coding and technology; it’s not very hard to find a beginner’s kit online and get started.

And that’s the recap of what Bluelab did with Purplelab in CMU while the teams were testing in Mae Chan, thanks for reading!