A team of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students led by a first-year MBBS student, Ayesha Samdani, won ‘The Judges Choice Award’ in the NASA International Space Apps Challenge-2020 for presenting a solution in response to NASA’s Challenge ‘A One Health Approach’.
The team’s presentation stated, “An unintended but welcome consequence of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus, has been improved air quality.”
Ayesha and team members, Mohd Zakir Husain (MBBS), Aman Ahmad Khan (MBBS), Faisal Jamil (B.Tech) and Abdullah Samdani (BA LLB) formulated an analysis on air quality of the pre and post lockdown periods in the Indo Gangetic region of Northern India.
Their study highlighted how improvement in air quality benefited the health of people.
They also coded an Air Quality Index (AQI) Calculator to measure AQI of a certain region. The calculator can provide guidance to common people on pollution-related health issues.
Congratulating the students on the achievement, Prof Shahid Ali Siddiqui, Principal, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) and Prof Shakeel Samdani, Dean, Faculty of Law said that the work of these AMU students is formative as it provides a clear comparison of average concentration levels during the months before the lockdown and the time period during the lockdown restrictions, showing a reduction in SO2 level.
The event was judged by ISRO and NASA scientists including Tazeen Siddiqui of NASA.
