$1.25 Million Grant to Protect Hawaiʻi Using 3D Printed Environmental Hazard Sensors

Hawaiʻi faces a wide range of environmental hazards, including wildfires, drought, flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, and water contamination. These risks are becoming more severe as the climate continues to change, raising urgent questions about how to protect both the islands and the people who live there. One part of the solution lies in data collection, which makes it possible to track environmental changes and identify early warning signs before disaster strikes. To support this effort, the National Science Foundation has awarded $1.25 million to researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Georgia Tech to develop environmental hazard sensors capable of delivering life-saving data in real time.

The goal of the project is to create a low-cost, open-source electronics printer for creating sensors that are faster, more affordable, and locally produced. This will bring advanced monitoring tools within reach of communities across the state. These sensors can be 3D printed in mere minutes and deployed the same day to gather actionable data for both organizations and residents. They have the potential to track water quality, detect soil contamination, and more, while connecting to a compact, AI-enabled handheld device (smaller than a smartphone!) that processes and uploads the data to the cloud.

Professor Tyler Ray with a sensor (Photo Credit: The University of Hawai’i)

The Technologies Used to Create Environmental Sensors

To design the system, the team is exploring a family of 3D printing technologies for printed electronics, including aerosol jet, inkjet, and direct-ink-writing, selecting the method based on each application’s needs. “This is integrated into a hybrid approach that uses either FDM or SLA, or conventional machining, if geometries are required beyond a simple flat sheet,” principal investigator and UH Mānoa College of Engineering Associate Professor Tyler Ray explained via email.