Individually researched and presented a novel, low-cost design for a quantitative pollutant measurement device (QuPOM) in MWIR spectrum; enables accessible, precise detection of gasses such as CO2 at a local scale. Entered into team through Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, under mentorship of Dr. Saragadam.• Modeled transmission of blackbody radiation through atmospheric interference to detector from scratch in Python; incorporated relevant physical… Show more Individually researched and presented a novel, low-cost design for a quantitative pollutant measurement device (QuPOM) in MWIR spectrum; enables accessible, precise detection of gasses such as CO2 at a local scale. Entered into team through Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, under mentorship of Dr. Saragadam.• Modeled transmission of blackbody radiation through atmospheric interference to detector from scratch in Python; incorporated relevant physical phenomena, photodetector specifications, measurement noise, among others.• Leveraged high-precision molecular spectroscopic database (HITRAN) to solve inverse problem; given QuPOM readings, said solution estimates unknown pollutant concentration with high accuracy• Applied signal analysis knowledge to evaluate viable sampling rate and spectral resolution for prototype, across variety of cases• Achieved highest ranking for presentation of findings at the Rice Summer Undergraduate Research SymposiumContinuing collaboration with Dr. Saragadam and Imaging Lab into the semester; investigating feasibility of invertible MWIR renderer to complement prior project, QuPOM Show less