Millions of people In the US use drinking water with potentially unsafe levels of heavy metals. Heavy metal contamination of water can be due to leaching of lead and copper from plumbing, anthropogenic activities including mining, industrial and agricultural, among others. In this planning grant engineers, computer scientists, and social scientists will work closely with community stakeholders (residents, community leaders, regulators, utility managers) from the socioeconomically diverse communities of Lowell, Lawrence, Dracut, Westford, and Chelmsford, in Massachusetts, to explore the feasibility of a smart, community-engaged water-quality monitoring and warning system based on user-friendly handheld Electronic Tongue (E-Tongue) devices capable of detecting drinking water contamination. These devices will provide reliable water quality data, and empower citizens to test their own water, aggregate data from their community, and act when a problem is apparent.
Cloud-based machine learning algorithms will take the responses from the individual E-Tongue devices and produce predictions about how widespread the problem is, whether the problem is local or systemic, and what other locations may have been contaminated. Further, these predictions would be valuable, for example, in helping to determine which residents in the surrounding area should receive alert notifications to test their own water quality. It could also help notify the local government of the potential need to take action. Through a series of workshops, the project will incorporate and be informed by the perspective of residents in areas such as the effective presentation of the water quality data, privacy concerns community members may have about sharing their water quality data, and the factors that affect the adoption of the technology by the community.
Abstract
Pradeep Kurup
Pradeep Kurup graduated in 1985, with a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from the University of Kerala, India. He received his M.Tech. in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (1987). He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (1993) from Louisiana State University (LSU). Subsequent to his doctoral research he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering at LSU. In 1994 he joined Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC/LSU) as a Research Associate IV. He was soon promoted to Research Associate V, and nominated to the Graduate Faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering at LSU (1996). In 1997, Kurup joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell as an Assistant Professor.
He was tenured and promoted to an Associate Professor in 2001, and subsequently promoted to a Full Professor in 2005.
Kurup is the recipient of the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (1999-2003), for his integrated research and education plan on developing AInnovative Technologies for Expedited Site Characterization in the New Millennium He was also awarded the 1999 CERF Career Development Award by the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF, ASCE). Kurup's research has been supported by Federal & State agencies (National Science Foundation, Federal Highway Administration, National Research Council, Louisiana Department of Transportation). He has developed collaborations with industry, academia and state agencies (Geoprobe Systems Inc., Fugro Engineers Inc., Netherlands & USA, SAGE Engineering, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Federal Vicosa, Brazil; Louisiana Transportation Research Center & Louisiana State University, Massachusetts Highway Department and Lowell High School).
Kurup's area of specialization is geotechnical engineering. He has vast expertise in advanced experimental techniques (laboratory and in-situ) and in analytical modeling (constitutive modeling, finite element analysis, and artificial neural networks). He is also specialized in instrumentation & data acquisition for geotechnical systems and has directed and assisted in several in situ testing projects. He has done extensive research in the areas of site characterization & monitoring, application of novel sensing technology to geotechnical & geo-environmental engineering, calibration chamber testing, soil-structure interaction, and "Seeing-Ahead Techniques" for trenchless technologies. Kurup has published his research contributions in several peer reviewed journals and noteworthy conferences proceedings. He has also made numerous presentations at national/international conferences & symposiums.
Kurup is an active member in several professional societies in the academic field including the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society for Testing and Materials, American Society for Engineering Education, International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Massachusetts Teachers Association, United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Engineering Research, International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics, Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, Indian Geotechnical Society, and the Institution of Engineers (India). Pradeep Kurup is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Louisiana.
Performance Period: 10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
Institution: University of Massachusetts Lowell
Award Number: 1952147
Core Areas:
Health and Wellbeing,
Water, Energy, and Food
Project Material