10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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Hands-On Aerosol Science and Technology Workshops in the Colorado Front Range
SHANTANU JATHAR, John Volckens, Christian L'Orange, Nicholas Good, David Leith, Sherrie Elzey, Aaron Avenido, Tim Johnson, Andrea Tiwari, Colorado State University
Abstract Number: 1319 Working Group: Aerosol Education
Abstract Colorado State University (CSU) has recently grown its academic and research programs in air quality, climate and human health with 25 faculty and over 50 researchers across 9 departments conducting research in air quality and/or aerosol technology. To supplement aerosol-related coursework offered at CSU and support graduate training in aerosol research at CSU, we organized a series of three-day intensive workshops for researchers in the Front Range of Colorado in the summers of 2015 and 2016 at the CSU Energy Institute. The goal of these workshops was to provide beginners with a hands-on introduction to aerosol measurement while giving seasoned practitioners an opportunity to review the theory and application of aerosol instrumentation. The 2015 workshop was organized around aerosol size and mass measurement and had ~29 participants. The 2016 workshop was organized around personal aerosol exposure measurement and had ~24 participants. Most of the participants at these workshops were graduate students and researchers from CSU although there were a few outside participants from the University of Wyoming, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and University of Colorado Denver.
The first two days of each workshop consisted of three sessions. Each three-hour session included a short theory lecture followed by a demonstration or an exercise. Demonstrations were conducted in small groups of eight to ten people and exercises consisted of a small team of three to five people performing an aerosol measurement. In an example exercise from 2015, teams were introduced to filtration-based particle sampling and were later asked to assemble, calibrate, and deploy a filter train to measure particles in an indoor or outdoor environment at the workshop site. An example demonstration from 2016 was one where mid-priced aerosol monitors (e.g., DustTrak, microAeth, UPAS) were setup in different rooms where an instructor, through hands-on interaction, discussed instrument operation and data acquisition. On the final day of each workshop, TSI Inc. organized a full-day workshop that featured their suite of instrumentation to measure aerosols from combustion sources such as diesel engines, cookstoves, and open burning. The TSI workshop included three modules and followed a similar pattern as the first two days: a short theory lecture followed by a demonstration. The demonstrations were interactive where participants were allowed to vary the source type/mode of combustion fuel, actively operate the instrumentation, and change instrument modes/parameters.
Taken together, these workshops introduced students to a wide array of topics within aerosol science and technology: theoretical background, sampling practices, analytical considerations, instrument selection for various applications, instrument operation, and data analysis. Participant counts and engagement in both years suggest that these workshops provide value to the aerosol research community along the Colorado Front Range. Feedback solicited from the 2015 workshop was used to improve elements of the 2016 workshop. Our goal would be to continue to organize this workshop to support aerosol-related activities at CSU and the Front Range in Colorado in the future.