Project Background
Outdoor heat and air pollution are growing threats to human health in cities across the American West, and they are even more harmful when they occur simultaneously. To protect people, communities need to know what individuals are feeling and breathing on the ground and as conditions change from hour to hour.
Accurately characterizing personal exposures to heat and PM is foundational to developing co-exposure mitigation strategies. Building on a pilot summer 2025 field campaign, we will monitor individual exposure to summer heat and air pollution and additionally conduct direct physiological measurements to document how people respond to real-time urban environmental stressors. Specifically, we will:
- Collect data on summer ambient temperature, relative humidity, pressure, physiological stress, and microenvironment characteristics along designated routes in Salt Lake City using multiple sensors.
- Clean and organize sensor data and visualize exposures across the study area.
- Begin to formulate urban heat mitigation planning and management strategies.
Please note that HAPPIEST projects have additional eligibility requirements. All applicants MUST be from the University of Utah.
Student Role
The SPUR HAPPIEST students will assist with summer fieldwork data collection, data management, and data analysis. The students will work alongside Ponette-González and Daher (Division of Occupational & Environmental Health), faculty collaborators, graduate students, and potentially citizen scientist volunteers.
Student researchers will be part of a larger data collection team. Students will participate directly in field data collection by wearing sensors and walking along designated routes in the city. Students will organize, conduct preliminary analysis of, and visualize sensor datasets under the direct supervision of the project mentors and graduate student. Students will not only assist with personal exposure monitoring, but they will also contribute to exposure mitigation and adaptation planning suggestions based on the analyses.
During this process, we expect that students will be mentored not only in learning spatial data collection methods using wearable sensors, but also in developing the skills to organize and analyze data using programs such as GIS, Excel, JMP or R. Training will be tailored to each student's needs and goals. Additionally, students will collaborate to present their work in the form of a conference poster.
Student Learning Outcomes and Benefits
With support from the research team, students will be involved in the entire process of this cutting-edge personal exposure research: from data collection to analysis to presentation. By the end of the project, students will:
- Gain knowledge and understanding of climate change-related topics, such as compound exposures to heat and air pollution.
- Obtain hands-on research experience in field data collection using low-cost wearable sensors as well as physiological monitors.
- Learn and employ quantitative methods in scientific research.
- Create, manage, and conduct preliminary analyses of scientific data.
- Work as part of a collaborative team of students and faculty.
- Communicate scientific findings to peers during group meetings as well as in a scientific setting.
- Learn how to collect research data that can be used to inform urban environmental policy.
- Practice translating research findings into strategies for sustainable land use planning.
- Present findings at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) or other local/regional conference.
Apply Here
Alexandra Ponette-González
Associate Professor
Architecture & Planning
City & Metropolitan Planning
As a mentor, my goals are to enhance student independence, self-confidence, appreciation for interdisciplinarity, and experience engaging in diverse forms of communication. I practice a multi-mentoring model, in which multiple mentors work to support multiple mentees. Mentoring is an ongoing exchange between team members. I work with students to develop a research plan and timeline that is both realistic and tailored to their interests, styles, and needs. We communicate frequently, recognizing that research is an iterative process that requires ongoing assessment of ideas and goals, and we celebrate the "small victories". My experience as a researcher has taught me the critical importance of establishing concrete, short-term goals that are attainable and, when accomplished, affirmative. Importantly, I remind student collaborators that while frustrating, "mistakes", "mishaps", setbacks, and delays are just one more component of the research process, often the one from which we learn most.
I am passionate about supporting the professional development of student collaborators. I champion students by providing opportunities to present their research and creative works to other students, at conferences, and exhibitions. For example, I previously collaborated on an integrated faculty-student science-art project entitled 'Pollumage' that explored bird feathers as biomonitors of urban black carbon pollution. This project resulted in a campus exhibition, which included raku pottery and artistic photographs produced by a visual art student. Finally, I believe that research should be balanced with fun. I organize social gatherings, including potlucks, ice cream socials, and movie nights to help build community and support.