The Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) of India had shared a vision of developing scale-enabling International Centres of Excellence (CoEs) that can translate “promising sustainable technologies and business models, into day-to-day products and services, that are used and accessed by millions, globally”. In this view Center of Excellence – “Advanced Technologies for Monitoring Air-quality iNdicators (CoE -Atman) was proposed and established at IIT Kanpur.

As one of the “Atma-Nirbhar” initiative from the government, the CoE proposal from IITK focuses on building indigenous low-cost sensor manufacturing and Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning capabilities within the country to help with the goal of improving the air quality in all the urban and rural cities/towns and villages of India. At the core of the CoE proposal “ATMAN” was the incubation of critical air quality monitoring technologies, including but not limited to the following: i) Next Gen Atma-Nirbhar PM Sensors; ii) Use of Air Quality sensors for Real-Time Source Attribution and iii) AI/ML for nation-wide AQ monitoring networks.

In the initial phase, the CoE will be supported by a group of philanthropic funders including the Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Open Philanthropy and the Clean Air Fund. CoE Atman is also exploring collaboration with Government agencies and domestic philanthropies, corporates including CSR funding.