Which division are you and your team entering?Main Division
Idea NameAiryCherry
Team Member Name(s)Serena Allen
Lev Afonine
Karthik Vangeti
Pranav Kulkarni
Emanuel Marquez
Shashwat Jadhav
Idea SummaryAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is responsible for over 6,700,000 premature deaths per year and extreme environmental degradation. The AiryCherry scales down a tried-and-true industrial-level technology to combat airborne particulate matter (PM) pollution through a filterless outdoor electronic air purification device. Our technology will help remove the nearly 800,000 metric tons of particulate matter currently in the atmosphere.
Policy-based solutions are the current approach to PM pollution reduction. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars go into reducing PM pollution each year but, by nature, the government programs are slow to act and often contradict local ways of life. One example of government policy is enforcing burn bans and the reduction of wood-burning stoves, which happen to be the primary sources of heating for communities in the Arctic. The AiryCherry serves as a simple, but effective and affordable innovation that will be quick to implement and efficient in reducing PM pollution in the world.
Overall, the AiryCherry is an innovation that would benefit people of all ages, but particularly those who work and play outside in cities like Fairbanks, Alaska, which have incredibly high levels of particulate matter (PM) pollution. The low costs of the AiryCherry in comparison to current solutions (such as long-term government policies) would also help low-income community members, who tend to have worse health conditions and access to medical facilities. These poorer communities are generally located in the more polluted areas of urban communities, and therefore would greatly benefit from the affordable air purification services of the AiryCherry. The overarching goal of the AiryCherry is to act as the first technology that counteracts the harmful environmental and health effects of particulate matter in a manner efficient and affordable to the Arctic community.