The Serari Security Kit (SSK)

Air pollution has threatened the Environment-Health-Climate nexus. Several air pollutants affect climate patterns and the health effects are shocking. WHO accounts for 11% global deaths to air pollution partly from ambient sources like transportation. In Uganda, automobiles contribute to 75% of air pollution. Nonetheless, qualitative and quantitative data is scarce to influence key policy and decision frameworks on automotive air pollution. Therefore, the SSK team seeks to offer a portable and reliable handheld device for real-time testing, quality monitoring and forecasting of automotive air pollution, with emphasis on three dangerous emissions of Sulphurdioxide, carbonmonoxide, and nitrogendioxide from automobiles. The technology uses the artificial intelligence of things to generate, transmit, interpret, forecast,disseminate big data and assess public opportunities.This will influence policies and generate benefits including air quality improvements, public behavioral change towards environmental protection, save lives from air pollution-related non-communicable diseases and slow down near-time climate change.

Air pollution is a global threat to Environment-Health-Climate nexus. The pollutants influence the accumulation of greenhouse gases, acidic rains, and ozone layer depletion. According to WHO, air pollution is responsible for 11% (7 million) global premature deaths with ambient air pollution contributing to 3.7 million globally, 700,000 in Africa, and 211,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, Zhang et al (2018) concluded that accumulative exposure to air pollution impedes human intelligence. In Uganda; polluted air is characterized by indoor and mostly outdoor fumes from road transport. Motorization in Uganda is high with over 1,228,425 vehicles and 405,124 motorcycles of which, 95% of this fleet are poor standard imported vehicles. These automobiles account for over 90% of cargo freight, passenger movement and 75% of air pollutants hence risking over 1.5 million lives in Kampala city alone. WHO estimates that non-communicable diseases related to air pollution in Uganda accounted for 185,457 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)  and 13,000 deaths in 2017. Until now, tracking automotive air pollution is futile; making qualitative and quantitative data limited to influence the development of control policies and decision frameworks hence creating the need for real-time tracking devices for automotive air pollution.

Uganda has 256 urban centers and five cities including Kampala. The 2014 national census report indicates that, cities have an urban population of about 7.4 million people and a higher concentration of automotive. About 92% of this population are poor road users and live in places where air pollution exceeds safe limits. Therefore, they are prone to short-term and long-term non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Our ultimate objective is to reduce exposure risks in such populations by providing quantified data to check emissions and influence policy formulation, kick starting with Kampala city (1.5 million people). The implementation idea is to partner with key government institutes like the National Environmental and Management Authority (NEMA), to track pollutant concentrations from automobiles using our kit. Automobiles with unacceptable concentrations are sidelined off the road. The data collected and public feedback before and after the tests is shared to the public and authorities to create awareness, indicate pollutant free zones and also influence behavioral change to environmental protection. Artificial intelligence is innovatively used to consider the influence of public opinion in its assessment of emission reduction strategies given that some are deemed more socially acceptable than others.

The Serari Security Kit (SSK) is a portable handheld device for real-time testing, quality monitoring and forecasting of automotive air pollution. ‘Serari’ means space in Hausa, a Nigerian language, and therefore our innovation is a ‘space security kit’. The aim is to provide real-time automotive air pollution data that will encourage the public and policymakers to formulate control policies, forecast and understand future pollution trends. The innovation is simple and combines the internet of things (IoT) devices and multiple artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to work together. During operation, an official stops the automobile, which is then accelerated without movement. The kits sensor cap is then directed towards the car exhaust. The sensors send emission signals showing concentration levels of Sulphurdioxide (SOx), nitrogenoxide (NOx) and carbonmonoxide (CO) gases to the Kits display screen. The innovation focuses on the above three most dangerous pollutants however, it will increase its coverage to capture other gases including particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). During testing, the concentrations captured by the sensors are matched with the standard levels for comparison using AI models. Concentrations out of the threshold level trigger an alert to the personnel in charge. Here, the automobile is forced off the road, fined and requested to perform a mechanical servicing.  Our kit is accompanied by a smartphone whose functions are customized for temporal storage of data (in case of need to print results) and direct network communication linkage and instantaneous data transfer to our data center using the IoT network. Policymakers, research agencies and academia use such data to understand pollution trends and influence control policies such as adopting energy-efficient and clean vehicles, clean fuels, traffic management, vehicle bans, and road transport modal shifts in Ugandan cities to include sidewalks, bicycle lanes, exclusive pedestrian zones, etc.  The solution also incorporates a mobile-based platform (Serari-App) and a local USSD code to disseminate data, concentration maps, air pollution and traffic tips, automobile maintenance tips to the general public upon subscription as well as get their feedback. Such information will empower users with knowledge about the polluted zones, pollutant free routes around the city and also influence people’s daily habits towards environmental protection such as encourage walking instead of using automobiles for short drives around the city.

In Uganda, road transport is the most inevitable part of daily life and yet it is the greatest air pollution contributor. Monitoring of outdoor air quality (PM2.5) is done at places like the American Embassy with stationed sensors hence excluding important sources like automotives. Furthermore, inspection of automotives is contracted to SGS (Standard Global Services) by the government, of which only 7 centers are available in Uganda. This is catastrophic considering over 1.2 million vehicles have to move to the centers for inspection. This leaves Ugandan cities and lives in jeopardy. Eliminating automobiles or fuel combustion from roads is also completely not a viable solution, therefore making post-combustion pollution testing techniques most effective. Our roads and space need a solution that cannot stop people from using their automobiles but instead provide a routine measure to monitor or caution their emissions that are harming the environment and public health in silence. Imagine a portable hand-held device just big enough to check the standard of your automotive emissions in real-time without calling for the distance to inspection plants and routine costs. The imagined device is the Serari Security Kit (SSK). The solution innovatively combines IoT devices and AI technology to provide real-time testing, quality monitoring and forecasting of automotive air pollution. It’s ability to offer quantified and qualitative data, map out air polluted routes, offer safer traffic routes, air pollution control tips and automotive maintenance tips to the public makes it more unique from the available solutions in Uganda.

The Serari Security kit has a main body whose outing is made of plastic with umbrella-like adjustable support that connects the sensor cap to the body. The choice of plastic is to reduce weight, size, costs and also ease production in case of 3-D printing. Inside the body is a 15 V rechargeable battery and a circuitry network of electronics (diodes, resistors, capacitors) and silicon integrated circuit (IC) or a particle photon micro-controller having algorithms and models that support the functionality of the kit and the sensors. The sensor cap houses three gas sensors of nitrogen dioxide (NO2-A43F model), sulphur dioxide (2SH12 model) and carbon monoxide (MQ-7 model). The HC-05 Bluetooth module in the kit connects to a 64 GB smartphone directly linked to our database via a wireless IoT network protocol. The AI algorithms of big data analytics and cognitive computing are used to get insights on the data immediately and create models that can estimate levels of pollution without requiring massive computational power or intense numerical analysis. The innovation also uses machine learning-based algorithms such as artificial neural networks, genetic algorithm-ann model and decision tree to give real-time analysis, quality monitoring, concentration maps and forecasting of the pollutants. Forecasting of air quality is needed in order to take preventive and evasive actions. Furthermore, AI is used to build a profile of each air pollutant based on the type and model of vehicle, road, distance covered, time, day and month of the year.

Unlike the available few solutions in Uganda, our innovation provides real-time automotive air pollution data that is quantitative and qualitative. At the point of testing, an alert is triggered if the concentrations are above the standard acceptable levels and therefore an immediate action is taken. The vehicle or motorcycle is fined or banned from further operation until its fully inspected, serviced and approved to be back on the road. This means that polluting sources are directly eliminated from traffic routes basing on the data provided by our innovation hence creating safer spaces and healthy cities. The big data generated is further shared and used by policy makers, research agencies and academia to influence air pollution control policies and Eco-friendly mitigation strategies. Additionally, through our Serari App and a local USSD code for non-smartphone users, the general public is constantly updated on air polluted routes and areas, safer routes, air pollution forecasted trends, air pollution tips, etc. while also ranking and evaluating the public's feedback using AI algorithms. Such information is vital to divert traffic routes and also influence behavioral change such as adopting physical walking rather than driving for shorter distances within cities. All these functions of our innovation support efficient air quality monitoring, cleaner environments, reduced expenditure on air pollution mitigation and climate protection from greenhouse gases.

According to the Ministry of Works and Transportation, Uganda’s total road network is estimated to be 129,469 Km long. Of this, the community access roads constitute 50%, District roads 26%, urban roads 7%, national roads 17% and 95% of the cargo freight and population use roads. Kampala has a population of about 1.5 million and 50,000 vehicles that come in every day into the city. Therefore, about 1,425,000 lives are threatened by automotive air pollution in Kampala alone. Saving these lives will depend on the number of kits distributed. Our solution is currently in the prototyping phase however the plan is to finish prototyping, testing, calibration, ethical approvals, patents, production, and product awareness campaigns in the first six months of the first year. In the remaining six months, we shall undertake a pilot study with the support of authorities, starting with 100 kits stationed along different routes to inspect at least 10,000 automobiles in Kampala metropolitan area. These kits will give us substantial data that will be shared by authorities to force pollutant vehicles off the road as well as share safer routes and influential behavioral tips to 50,000 people via texts and our mobile application by the end of the first year. In the next two years, we shall increase the number of kits to 1,000, expand to three more cities, inspect 50,000 automobiles and serve 1,000,000 lives. In five years, we shall roll out 5,000 kits, expand to 20 district urban centers and serve about 3,030,000 million lives.

To achieve better healthy cities, the Serari Security Kit (SSK) team seeks to achieve the following goals as it deploys its activities in the next year of operation:

• Build a competent team, register and run a profitable company with the mission to secure the space and environments beyond borders, achieve healthy cities and reduce non-communicable diseases and death incidences arising from air pollution.
• Design, develop, test and distribute a fully customized kit for automotive air quality monitoring that is socially acceptable and economically viable to urban and peri-urban communities.
• Champion the right to the public access to information and data regarding air pollution in order to influence public involvement and healthy behavioral change among the public.

The goals within the next five years of operation include

• Accelerate adoption of Eco-friendly technologies and strategies that are clean to the environment.
• Diversify to develop technologies that monitor air quality from other sources other than automotive.

Along the path to success, we anticipate challenges and they include the following:

• Financial constraints. Most of our activities including developing the customized kit, patents, company registration, app and database development, pilot, production, marketing, and business development, team support activities, reach out to the public among others require funding of which the team hasn’t secured yet.  Until now, the team has only managed to develop an initial prototype whose development was limited to only the detection of pollutants with no exterior body, AI integration, calibration, validation, app development and product refinement due to limited funds.
• Ethical approvals and partners. We are yet to secure ethical approvals and partnerships with key stakeholders whom we presume will be vital to the success of our innovation. The implementation plan for our innovation is to use personnel from the Uganda Traffic Police or the National Environment and Management Authority or the Ugandan Revenue Authority at border posts to undertake the testing of emissions from automobiles. These authorities have the mandate to manage traffic outflow, environment and imports respectively and therefore a partnership with them is important for our success.
• Technical manpower and equipment. The goal to expand the innovation, build a competent team and company to support production growth implies that we shall need to recruit more manpower to supplement on the management team. The team will require more software developers, computer engineers, market and business strategists, sales representatives and equipment for product development.

To overcome barrier one, our plan is to seek for more funding from philanthropist programs, government and angel investors inform of grants, seed funding, and equity to kickstart our operations. Also, we shall seek partnerships with key bodies such as the Ministry of Works and Transport, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Uganda Traffic Police (UTP) which is responsible for regulating traffic in the country. NEMA has stipulated guidelines for air pollutions however for long, enforcement has been a problem due to lack of equipment to aid in the quantification of air pollution emissions mainly from sources like automotive. The government instituted a ban on the importation of used vehicles into the country however the implementation by bodies like URA at the border posts has been futile still due to lack of equipment. Used vehicles emit fumes with higher concentrations of pollutants compared to new ones. Therefore, our kit would be vital for a body like URA to check emissions of imported vehicles at border posts. Furthermore, the ministry of works and transport will need such a kit in their central or regional garages to undertake the inspection of vehicles before they are allowed onto the road. 

The team has four full team members: Isaac Oluk (team leader), an agricultural engineer with research interests in environmental sustainability, Julius Mugaga, a biomedical engineer with research interests in public health; Akino Lydia, an entrepreneur and Obua Emmanuel, a software Engineer. The team is supported by 10 Part-time staff at the Technological Signals Workshop, a local fabrication workshop in Uganda. Our plan is to contract a local electronics supplier and product developer, Innovex Uganda Ltd. Innovex is at the heart of developing Africa's next-generation embedded technologies, from IoT solutions for monitoring energy systems to custom-built drones.

Our team is very committed, innovative and multidisciplinary bringing together a skill set and knowledge in agriculture, health, engineering, business, research and developments among others. The majority of the team live or have friends or relatives that have lived in the urban communities and for long have been innocently affected by air pollution and therefore are very familiar with the problem being tackled. According to Julius, (a co-founder of the project), “I grew up in Mbuya Kinawataka, a well-known slum dwelling in the outskirts of Kampala district in the early 2000’s. Our home was just in between the busy Nakawa industrial area and a busy road outlet leading to the city. The environment we lived in was not safe at all for our health right from the food we ate, the water we drunk and worst of all the air we inhaled. On following up with the responsible authorities about the possible solution to curb at least a simple challenge like automotive air pollution, Julius was replied that, “We can fight pollution through policies, but how shall we quantify the pollutants?”. Unknown to him, the rest of the team grew up grappling with the same challenge. At University, this same challenge drove our passion and obligation to team up and create a sustainable intervention in air quality monitoring hence the solution in the Serari security kit.

We are yet to establish partnerships however we plan to seek partnerships with key bodies such as the Ministry of Works and Transport, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Uganda Traffic Police (UTP) which is responsible for regulating traffic in the country. These bodies will provide guidance and manpower to test and monitor emissions. We shall also partner with local telecom companies such as MTN or Airtel to provide data bundle waivers on our clients who use our Serari App to monitor air pollution trends or find safer routes.

Our business model is based on a fee-for-service and product approach. The direct customers or beneficiaries of the innovation will be the general public and government agencies like NEMA, URA, Uganda Police (UP), Car dealers or garages, Ministry of Works and transport. We shall provide our kits as products to such agencies to undertake effective monitoring air quality and data management as a support service from us. The public and our partners will get data through our web portal, the mobile platform for smartphone users and a local USSD code for non-smartphone uses. Customers will be required to register and subscribe to our services and these will be free for the first two months for each new user with a fee levied after. We believe the first two months will be enough to initiating users and make them to appreciate the health and environmental value of our services after which it will be part of them and encourage them to pay after. The services will include tips about current air pollution trends, polluted routes, safer routes, future trends. Mitigation strategies and advisory tips on how to maintain automotives to get minimal emissions. We believe such updates will encourage our customers to adopt healthy behavioral habits such as walking in the cities instead of driving for shorter distances. The government will use quantified data to make informed decisions and policies such as to adopt Eco-friendly technologies like clean fuels, clean vehicles, shift road designs to include walkways and bicycle lanes.

Our plan first is to seek for funds in form of grants or equity from philanthropist programs, private development partners, government to kickstart our operations. We shall get our revenues through unit sales of the kits to bodies such as the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Uganda Traffic Police (UTP). NEMA needs such kits to undertake air pollution tests in the bid to preserve the space and influence policy formation and streamline operations while URA needs these kits to test vehicles on import because Ugandan laws are becoming strict on the importation of used vehicles. We shall keep air pollution data analysis and forecast as copyright to our platform and company. Therefore, extra revenues will be generated from air pollution data sales, automobile maintenance tips to ensure zero or minimal pollution, updates and forecast trends to academia, research agencies and the general public on an agreed subscription basis through our mobile platform, data center, and local USSD code.

Three years down the road after ideation and initial prototyping, the SSK project has been struggling to kickstart despite its potential to solve one of the greatest and growing problems (air pollution) created by man himself. Originating from a developing country like Uganda, one of the key crucial factors to the failure of most innovations is limited or no startup funding, government support and mentorship at an early stage, as a result, many impactful solutions similar to SSK have always been sent to the grave. Until now, the SSK project has been grappling with limited support and availability of philanthropist programs and investors who care about the health of the environments and cities we live in. Therefore, the opportunity provided by MIT solve lies exactly in the needs of the SSK project. MIT Solve will give the project an international platform to harness and show its potential for solving the greatest problem as well as create impact. Through the partnerships, funding, and mentorship from Solve, the project will gain life and kick-start its operation, widen its scale to potential investors and partners who share the same dream as we do to scale our work across regional borders.

We would like to partner with organizations whose activities lie in our interests such as electronics and product development, marketing, software among others. For example, companies that deal in competitive sensors and power supply solutions such as Innovex Uganda, Pewatron sensors and power solutions. Our other preferred partners are government organizations in Uganda such as the National Environmental and Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda Traffic Police, Uganda Revenue Authority, among others.

With the teams obligation to ensure healthy cities in Uganda and eliminate non-communicable diseases from air pollution, the AI innovation prize will support us to implement the artificial intelligence algorithms in automotive air quality monitoring and forecasting. The AI algorithms of big data analytics and cognitive computing will be used to get insights on the air pollution data immediately and create models that can estimate levels of pollution without requiring massive computational power or intense numerical analysis. Machine learning-based algorithms such as artificial neural networks, genetic algorithm-ann model and decision tree will be used to give real-time analysis, quality monitoring, concentration maps and forecasting of the pollutants. From our Serari- App we shall use AI to disseminate air pollution concentration data and maps, locate safer traffic routes as well as generate, organize and rank feedback from the general public opinions about air pollution and proposed mitigation strategies.