Breathing Easier in Sarajevo: BH Futures Foundation partners with CityOS Air to help the citizens of Sarajevo solve air pollution issues through education and awareness.
Valuable partnership formed with CityOS Air to empower students with the skills and knowledge to help spread clean air across Sarajevo.
BH Futures Foundation is delighted to announce a strategic partnership has been formed with CityOS Air to join the clean air movement and take action against air pollution. CityOS Air is an open source project, which aims to help the citizens of Sarajevo to solve their air pollution problem. To support CityOS Air as well as the greater social goal of the clean air project, BH Futures Foundation will donate components to build several CityOS Air devices (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cejd8QkIXEQ).
According to the World Health Organization, Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), experiences some of the worst air pollution in Europe, reaching an all-time high in 2016, even surpassing levels in major cities in China. In response to this information the CityOS team decided that ‘[they] want to contribute to the reduction of pollution by collecting reliable and relevant data on the sources of pollution and making it publicly available for the community and scientific use’. In order to achieve this goal CityOS built their mini stations using laser sensors that would collect data on pollution. Recognising the value in these devices, CityOS have made publicly available all of the designs, source codes, ways to build devices, partners, suppliers and created extensive tutorials on every aspect of their system to clean air. The devices are automatically connected to the grid networked designed by CityOS and the air quality results can then be viewed by the public in a state of the art 3D map of Sarajevo.
BH Futures Foundation and CityOS Air will be collaborating to ensure that the youth of BiH are educated about measuring and preventing air pollution and improve conditions of the environment and health. Adna Cosic and Kristina Mladenovic, recipients of BH Futures foundation scholarships will also be invited to attend this exciting opportunity in BH Futures Foundations’ continuing duty to their academic and career progressions.
Several CityOS Air devices are to be built by Bosnian-Herzegovinian students at two workshops that will be hosted at International Burch University in Sarajevo with the guidance of Dr. Dejan Jokic and Ceco Gakovic. Students will keep their devices and place them on their balconies, collecting valuable information for the tracking of air quality. Ceco Gakovic, founder of CityOS Air, BoD member and advisor, has been part of many successful San Francisco Internet and mobile start-ups. Ceco and his teams have specialized in social networks and built web and mobile platforms for some of the world's largest brands like: U2.com, Madonna.com, NFL, NHL, NBA, National Geographic, Martha Stewart Omnimedia and numerous professional sites around the world. BH Futures Foundation would like to thank Ceco and his team for the collaboration that will take place in the coming months, that will help not only students but also numerous citizens in Sarajevo.
“We are more then thrilled to be working with Ceco and the CityOS team. BH Futures Foundation supports concepts that are not only tied to education, but the vaster good of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian population. We truly believe that the CityOS mission to improve life in Sarajevo through encouragement active participation in the elimination of pollution is fantastic!
Our foundation is always on the lookout for organisations with similar values to ours that we can support with the end goal being the creation of improved opportunities for the youth of Bosnia & Herzegovina.” said Edhem (Eddie) Custovic, Founder of BH Futures Foundation and Engineering Academic at La Trobe University, Australia.
Gakovic and Custovic established a collaborative approach in December 2016 at the IEEE Student & Young Professional Congress in Sarajevo.
BH Futures Foundation and CityOS Air will be collaborating to ensure that the youth of BiH are
educated about measuring and preventing air pollution and improve conditions of the environment and health. Adna Cosic and Kristina Mladenovic, recipients of BH Futures Foundation scholarships will also be invited to attend this exciting opportunity in BH Futures Foundations’ continuing duty to their academic and career progressions.
Gakovic and Custovic both appeared on BHT Morning Program on 2nd of December 2016 to talk about how they are planning to improve the lifes of young people in Bosnia & Herzegovina. You can see the interview here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDqzU_EVOI
About CityOS Air
CityOS is an open source project that would like to empower people with the skills and knowledge to help spread clean air across Sarajevo. CityOS Air invites all those who want to breathe clean air, those that care about health of their children, the elderly, their family and neighbours to join the clean air movement and take action against air pollution. CityOS is aware that most conditions on the planet have changed for the better and are successful only after going from the unknown into awareness, from guesses into measurements and eventually from passivity into active participation. CityOS Air have built everything you need to get started: read their community materials and you will quickly become an expert on this subject, then using your own air kit you will be able to measure pollution yourself and become part of our air quality monitoring network. Learn more about CityOS Air at http://docs.cityos.io/docs/cityos-air-story