Uiscope 2022: Device-Enabled Citizen Science Project on Water Quality

Uiscope™ (“uisce”, Irish for water, and “scope”; pronounced ish-scope) is a citizen science project collaboration between Tyndall National Institute and the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC. The main objective is to provide non-specialists with an easy-to-use water quality monitor that measures key quality parameters in tap water. This device-enabled CS project is one of very few such projects worldwide. By utilising advanced fabrication methods, an inexpensive, sensitive Irish-made water monitoring device will be produced (2-7). Importantly, this device will require very limited training to use, no reagents/chemicals, and it outputs results to the user’s mobile device and a dedicated dataportal. The key advantages of Uiscope are:
– Device-based data gathering gives an immediate connection to scientific research, enabling engagement and participatory enquiry into related STEM topics.
– Data can be compared across different users, times, and locations, providing an opportunity for non-specialists to consider new projects and analyses.
– Apart from the EPE potential, this project also broadens data collection beyond ‘traditional’ data collection, and thus has huge potential for future development beyond this project.

The Uiscope 2022 project lays the foundation for a national Uiscope programme through a limited, pilot-scale roll-out in 2021-2 involving students/teachers from three Secondary schools in the Cork Area with a rigorous assessment and evaluation of all aspects of participation and engagement.