Diagnosis of urban odors
Introduction
Rosa Arias Álvarez (Hospitalet de Llobregat, May 9, 1978) is a chemical engineer and has a master's degree in Energy. Rosa is the founder and CEO of Science for Change[1] and is also the creator of the OdourCollect app.[2][3].
She graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Barcelona and a master's degree in Energy with distinction from the Herriot-Watt University of Edinburgh[4], and is an expert in odor pollution management and citizen science.[5].
In 2019 he created the emerging company (start-up) Science for Change, which promotes the active participation of citizens in science to develop services and products. It does so with an inclusive gender approach "Gender (biology)"), both in its objectives and in the company itself, where the staff is made up mostly of women.[3] At Science for Change they address social, environmental and health challenges through citizen science, participatory and co-creation strategies.
Rosa Arias developed OdourCollect, a free citizen science app, which allows the construction of collaborative odor maps based on open data provided by citizens. In this way, it can be determined if there is an odor pollution problem and intervention is necessary to control it. The app acts on a global level and also allows you to point out areas of good smells and identify their source. In this way, pleasant places are identified on an olfactory level and people can build their own smell diary, and remember what their vacations or childhood memories smell like.[4][6].
Since 2020, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA).[7] This association aims to increase the democratization of science, promote the growth of citizen science in Europe and support public participation in research processes.
She has been a scientific advisor in the "Science in Parliament" program in the Congress of Deputies in Madrid; an independent citizen initiative that aims to bring scientific knowledge closer to the legislative branch so that it can make decisions based on scientific evidence.[8] It has also coordinated the Spanish center of the HYPATIA project to attract girls to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In March 2022, she was selected as one of the "Top 100 Women in Social Enterprises" by the European Euclid Network.[3].
Rosa Arias has worked and coordinated European and national projects such as:
• - D-NOSES, together with the Ibercivis citizen science foundation, in which more than 5,000 citizens, 100 industries, 200 political leaders and 500 academics, men and women, participated in monitoring odor pollution worldwide.[9].