Hacking Sensors for Climate Change

What opportunities has the Arduino ecosystem opened up for changing the way we monitor and understand the environment? How do scientific sensor companies get away with charging 10x to 50x the cost of electronic parts? Can we still depend on NOAA and the NSF to lead the way on climate change data collection? We will explore these questions through discussion and by looking at case studies of low cost open source hardware alternatives to commercial sensors. Topics include DIY CO2 monitoring, ocean temperature and current tracking, radar based river flow gages, and measuring drinking water turbidity. We will look at sensor applications and calibration issues for science, citizen science and data based environmental design. Strategies for transitioning hardware from a single prototype to a small production run will be shared. We will also discuss the different business and production models for bringing hardware to a larger community via peer reviewed journal publication, open source licensing and for profit ventures. The focus here is on environmental sensors, but most of the issues discussed apply to hardware development in general. The workshop will include the presentation of case studies through documentation and hands on experimentation with circuits. We will conclude with a small group exercise to workshop ideas and gather interest in future collaborations.