After months of intensive work of preparation, we can now proudly announce the public launch of eight Citizens’ Observatories (COs) for outdoor air quality. This is the last part in a series of COs in CITI-SENSE. 12  COs for indoor air quality in schools have started their work in spring this year, as well as four COs for personal comfort (see Newsletter no 9).
The COs for outdoor air quality make use of both static and portal sensors that provide near real-time air quality information in eight European cities (Barcelona, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Haifa, Ljubljana, Oslo, Ostrava, Vienna). The data is made visible through widgets and mobile applications. Citizens have the opportunity to provide feedback and share information through a mobile application or internet based questionnaires and web portals. The CITI-SENSE Citizens’ Observatory web portal is connecting all local initiatives. More information will follow throughout the next months. 

Seven students from Vič high school, Ljubljana, Slovenia, demonstrated their skills at the international high school competition Genius Olympiad 2015 in Oswego/NY, USA, ranking the school second best in the world. Two pupils participating in CITI-SENSE activities in Ljubljana had developed a mobile application for displaying air pollution in cities. After returning home with a silver medal, they now are eager to develop the application further. We congratulate the silver medal team and are looking forward to seeing their innovative solutions!

The 6th Annual European Data Protection & Privacy Conference will be organised on 10 December 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. More information is available HERE.

The 5th International WeBIOPATR workshop and conference “Particulate Matter: Research and Management” will be held from 14-16 October 2015 in Belgrade, Serbia. The aim is to provide an arena for scientists and regulators for information exchange about issues related t o atmospheric particulate matter. The topics cover sources and their contribution, ambient and indoor levels, effects on health and ecosystems, and traditional and advanced monitoring techniques and assessment methods. Abstract submission and registration are open now; submission deadline is 20 July 2015. More information is available HERE.

We congratulate also CITI-SENSE member Matevz Vucnik from the Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, who won the Outstanding Student Poster (OSP) Award contest at the EGU General Assembly 2015. The event was held in Vienna Austria from 12 to 17 April 2015. He has  presented the poster entitled “Portable air quality sensor unit for participatory monitoring: an end-to-end VESNA-AQ based prototype”. The poster is describing the CITI-SENSE architecture from the sensor to the Web visualization application.