(263a) DIY Air Purifier: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

This presentation introduces a structured approach to engage engineering students in research through a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Undergraduate research enables students to apply classroom concepts to research concepts. Undergraduate students can benefit from a structured introduction to research practices to help them contribute to research projects. The project presented here helps students learn to follow an experimental protocol, develop proficiency in Excel, and apply data analysis skills to answer a real-life research study question in a classroom setting. 400 first-year engineering students engaged in a service-learning project to build Corsi-Rosenthal (C-R) Boxes, a cost-effective DIY air purifier designed to reduce respiratory aerosols and improve indoor air quality. Students aimed to determine if C-R Boxes would perform consistently (regardless of who built them). Students worked in teams of four in the First-Year Design Laboratory for two weeks to build these air purifiers and test their efficiency in reducing indoor particulate matter levels. We developed an interactive Excel workshop where students practiced processing and plotting data using a sample dataset. Students then participated in a two-hour lab session to collect data on how their C-R Boxes affected air quality following a strict experimental protocol. Using the knowledge gained in the Excel workshop, students analyzed and plotted the collected data. The combined data collected by the student team is included in a publication currently under preparation. This CURE motivated first-year students to think about research early in the undergraduate curriculum and demonstrated how scientific inquiry can be integrated into a first-year engineering course.