Internships

Sriya Kotta ’26

Major

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Project Title

Fine Spatio-temporal Variation in Intra-urban Heat Stress in U.S. Cities; Relevance of Polluting Fuel Used in Informal Eateries in Indian Cities

I worked on two projects within the Urban Nexus Lab, whose overall goal is to advance sustainable, healthy and equitable cities through knowledge co-production and nexus modeling of key transboundary infrastructure and food systems. In the first project, I investigated intra-urban heat stress by analyzing data from PurpleAir sensors in Minneapolis. During a field trip to the city, I visited several sensor sites in order to calibrate the PurpleAir sensors with other sensors used in the lab. We discovered that the sensors need a new correction factor and are now working to develop this. We also devised a methodology for fine-scale heat stress measurement in other cities. In the second project, I studied emissions from the informal food sector in Surat, Gujarat. This often-overlooked sector may contribute significantly to the country’s emissions and air pollution. To quantify this, I compared the informal food sector, household cooking and other industries by analyzing national datasets like the Socio Economic and Caste Census and the Economic Census datasets. Working with the Urban Nexus Lab was an enriching experience as it allowed me to connect with exceptional researchers and professionals and gain valuable insights into urban sustainability.