{"id":190152,"date":"2022-09-12T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T18:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=190152"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:42:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:42:28","slug":"white-houses-office-of-science-and-technology-policy-recognizes-uconns-indoor-air-quality-initiative-fighting-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/09\/white-houses-office-of-science-and-technology-policy-recognizes-uconns-indoor-air-quality-initiative-fighting-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"White House\u2019s Office of Science and Technology Policy Recognizes UConn\u2019s Indoor Air Quality Initiative Fighting COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn Health nurse practitioner Marina Creed<\/a>\u2019s University of Connecticut cross-campus do-it-yourself indoor air purifier project continues to gain momentum \u2014 all the way to the White House.<\/p>\n

Creed\u2019s patients in UConn Health\u2019s Multiple Sclerosis Center are among the more vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19. Motivated by her role as both a clinician and a parent, last year she initiated a cross-campus public health initiative to get what are known as \u201cCorsi-Rosenthal Boxes\u201d into public school classrooms.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marina Creed, APRN, right, helps 5th-graders at Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School in Hartford, and their teacher Mary LaFountain, build an air purifier on Sept. 8, 2022. The finished purifier, called “Air Force One” was delivered to the White House in Washington D.C. on Sept. 9, 2022 (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The boxes are an uncomplicated combination of easily obtained supplies that can be assembled in minutes. The components \u2014 a box fan, pleated air filter panels, cardboard and duct tape \u2014 add up to less than it costs to travel to Washington, D.C., where Creed presented members of the Biden administration\u2019s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) a DIY air purifier by the UConn team and Hartford school children.<\/p>\n

On September 9 she and UConn School of Engineering\u2019s Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\u00a0 Kristina Wagstrom<\/a> visited a fifth-grade science class at Hartford\u2019s Noah Webster Microsociety Magnet School, where they presented a STEM lesson that included the assembly of two DIY purifiers.<\/p>\n

One, decorated in the school\u2019s color, red, stayed in the classroom; the other, decorated as \u201cAir Force One\u201d and signed by the class, would be on its way to the White House the next day.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kristina Wagstrom, right, UConn School of Engineering’s Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Marina Creed, APRN, left, ask 5th-graders at Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School in Hartford questions about air quality and pollution on Sept. 8, 2022 (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was an incredible opportunity for our team to showcase this important intervention made by Hartford public school students to the Office of Science and Technology Policy and gift \u2018Air Force One\u2019 to the team within the executive office of the president,\u201d Creed says. \u201cIt was wonderful to see the children\u2019s STEM lesson come to life. The unit is inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and we hope it will make its way into the West Wing for the president and first lady to appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DIY air filtration kits have been shown to be comparable to manufactured portable HEPA filters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to see how excited the students were to work on something that would have real impact,\u201d Wagstrom says.<\/p>\n

Creed says their UConn team\u2019s research includes using state-of-the-art cloud-based air quality monitoring sensors to capture critical data showing the intervention\u2019s effectiveness in improving indoor air quality in real-world settings. The sensors, called MODULAIR-PM<\/a>, are provided by Quant-AQ, an air quality startup in Somerville, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marina Creed, APRN, helps 5th-graders at Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School in Hartford build the “Air Force One” air purifier on Sept. 8, 2022. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe evidence is clear \u2013 clean indoor air keeps students healthier and happier. We are excited to learn more about how these students put this evidence into action to benefit their community,\u201d said Dr. Erica Kimmerling, Senior Advisor for Public Engagement at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. \u201cThe \u2018Air Force One\u2019 air filter will not only help provide clean air to the staff at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy but it will be a great conversation starter to help spread the word about the ways people can improve indoor air quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creed was honored to be gifting the device to the White House OSTP alongside a major advocate of the DIY Corsi-Rosenthal intervention, Kimberly Prather, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Members of President Biden\u2019s OSTP accepting the gift were Kimmerling, Dr. Georgia Lagoudas, senior advisor for biotechnology and biodefense, and Dr. Stephanie Guerra, assistant director for national security and biodefense.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Collaborating West Coast and East Coast researchers, Dr. Kimberly Prather of USCD and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Marina Creed, APRN of UConn Health, delivering the DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box air purifier gift of “Air Force One” made by Connecticut public school children to the White House OSTP on Sept. 9, 2022 (Photo Courtesy of Marina Creed).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the spring, the Office of Science and Technology Policy held a webinar titled \u201cClear the Air of COVID-19.\u201d Creed emailed the office to explain her indoor air filtration project, and in reply received an invitation to give a 30-minute briefing. As a capstone to the briefing, Creed, whose hometown is Washington, D.C., offered to bring a box made in the community by school children. The response to that was an invitation for a formal delivery to the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was humbled that our work is being noticed at the federal level, and I am eager that our project will result in widespread improvements in public health through low-technology, low-cost, energy-efficient STEM projects that fifth grade school children can do,\u201d Creed says. \u201cIt was heartwarming to know that a private citizen like myself can take an idea inspired by direct patient care and continue to push for the fruition of the vision that I have had, which is that these should be in every classroom in the state of Connecticut, if not throughout the country. It felt great to know that there’s federal support behind this initiative that we are working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support isn\u2019t only coming from the federal government. In August the UConn Foundation announced a $300,000 grant funded through cryptocurrency<\/a> from Balvi, an investment and direct giving fund established by Vitalik Buterin, the co-creator of Ethereum, to back the Indoor Air Quality Initiative. In May, Creed was recognized with one of UConn\u2019s 2022 Provost\u2019s Awards for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The filtration systems are named for their creators, Richard Corsi, dean of engineering at the University of California-Davis, and Jim Rosenthal, CEO of Texas-based company Tex-Air Filters. Since last year Creed has been working to get them into Connecticut schools, and to teach students how to make them as part of a science and health lesson.<\/p>\n

The students who helped create \u2018Air Force One\u2019 at the Webster Magnet School were impressed.<\/p>\n

\"AirForce_220908a032\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a032<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a050\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a050<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a072\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a072<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a104\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a104<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a211\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a211<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a124\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a124<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a161\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a161<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a221\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a221<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a200\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a200<\/div><\/div>\"AirForce_220908a219\"<\/a>
AirForce_220908a219<\/div><\/div>\"IMG_2097\"<\/a>
IMG_2097<\/div><\/div>\"IMG_2087\"<\/a>
IMG_2087<\/div><\/div>\"CAQF7429\"<\/a>
CAQF7429<\/div><\/div>\"PYGG9310\"<\/a>
PYGG9310<\/div><\/div>\"WWDI2720\"<\/a>
WWDI2720<\/div><\/div>\"IMG_2096\"<\/a>
IMG_2096<\/div><\/div>\"OSTP<\/a>
OSTP from WH 3<\/div><\/div>\"OSTP<\/a>
OSTP photo from White House<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>