{"id":1089702,"date":"2024-10-21T04:06:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-project&#038;p=1089702"},"modified":"2024-10-21T04:06:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:06:31","slug":"project-egypt","status":"publish","type":"msr-project","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/project-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"mb-3 moray-highlight\">\n\t<div class=\"card-img-overlay mx-lg-0\">\n\t\t<div class=\"card-background  has-background-auburn card-background--full-bleed\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"background pattern\" style=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720.png 1920w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720-300x113.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720-1024x384.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720-768x288.png 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720-1536x576.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720-1600x600.png 1600w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Project_Egypt_1920x720-240x90.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<!-- Foreground -->\n\t\t<div class=\"card-foreground d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 px-g px-lg-0\">\n\t\t\t<!-- Container -->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 \">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Card wrapper -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"w-100 w-lg-col-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- Card -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card material-md-card py-5 px-md-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card-body \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"project-egypt\">Project Egypt<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Technology to enable widespread availability of greenhouse gas data and insights<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-project-egypt-focused-on\">What is Project Egypt focused on?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations have continued to grow, fueling the climate crisis. Yet, measuring GHG emissions efficiently and at scale remains surprisingly elusive due to the lack of geographically fine-grained data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"An enviromental sensor network\" class=\"wp-image-1093716\" style=\"width:547px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-1066x600.jpg 1066w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-655x368.jpg 655w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-240x135.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-960x540.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_2246991385-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Project Egypt<\/strong>&nbsp;aims to develop technology to democratize GHG data through large-scale monitoring. Our goal is to quantify emissions with at least an order of magnitude lower cost and form-factor compared to state-of-the-art solutions, paving the way for extensive deployments of GHG sensor networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Project Egypt&#8217;s vision includes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Enable low-cost emission monitoring:<\/strong>&nbsp;By designing a practical GHG sensor with sufficient resolution, we aim to allow for precise source apportionment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Wide deployment of low-cost GHG sensors:<\/strong>&nbsp;Provide real-time, hyper-local GHG emission monitoring to identify local, rural, and urban emission sources, evaluate their impact, provide measurable carbon footprint data, and monitor the effectiveness of actions over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Democratize GHG data:<\/strong>&nbsp;Making GHG data accessible and actionable for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"towards-low-cost-ghg-sensor-networks\">Towards low-cost GHG sensor networks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike air-quality sensors which are now cheap and common, GHG sensors remain expensive and bulky. Quantifying atmospheric emissions of gases such as methane or nitrous oxide, two of the potent GHG, still, requires expensive, lab-grade, complex instruments; monitoring stations are sparse. Acquiring, publishing and modeling data is a costly and time-consuming process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1705\" height=\"1542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref.png\" alt=\"Departure from an idealized path to the 2c target. UN report on Global Methane Assessment\" class=\"wp-image-1093710\" style=\"width:483px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref.png 1705w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref-300x271.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref-1024x926.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref-768x695.png 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref-1536x1389.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/methane_ref-199x180.png 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1705px) 100vw, 1705px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Methane has 80 times the warming potential of CO2 in the near-term while nitrous oxide over 280 times. Currently, satellite-based efforts are typically used to map methane emissions and detect high-emitters. Such missions are invaluable but alone they cannot provide the hyper-local and real-time monitoring of GHG necessary to evaluate and address medium to smaller local sources or intermittent emitters. Miniaturised, low-cost technology will also be key to to enable scalable emission monitoring in parts of the world with limited resrouces and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Sensor Technology.<\/strong>&nbsp;Project Egypt aims to develop miniaturized, low-cost greenhouse gas sensor technology leveraging Data-Center and Cloud technologies. Our goal is to de-risk technologies such as silicon-photonics to detect gases like methane at concentrations of a few parts-per-million (ppm) or lower. If successful, this will pave the way for increased sensor sensitivity and high-volume production using conventional CMOS fabrication infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Emission modelling through sensor networks.<\/strong>&nbsp;We are collaborating with academic partners to quantify the value of local emission measurements using a network of low-cost devices, with a current focus on methane. Traditional studies and models often rely on sparse deployment of expensive, high-resolution instruments. Our objective is to model the deployment of hundreds of low-cost devices across urban and rural areas of interest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"you-cannot-manage-what-you-cannot-measure\">You cannot manage what you cannot measure!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Project Egypt aims at revolutionizing the state of the art in GHG emission monitoring and accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The availability of real-time, local emission data will be crucial for the world&#8217;s efforts against the climate crisis. Currently, such data is not available beyond small-scale, disconnected efforts due to high deployment and operational costs. This data can help tackle emission sources, aid scientists in understanding how the changing climate affects natural fluxes of GHG for sinks and sources, raise public awareness, and lead to effective government policies to limit emissions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focusing on methane, low-cost sensor networks for emission monitoring can unlock the necessary data in critical business sectors such as agriculture enabling them to implement more sustainable practices and reduce their carbon footprint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"our-collaborators\">Our collaborators<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The climate crisis is a global challenge that no single organization can tackle alone. GHG emission monitoring is no different. To turn our vision into reality, we are collaborating with leading experts across many areas, including high-precision laser spectroscopy and low-cost air quality environmental measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Cranfield-University_logo-block_300x200.png\" alt=\"Cranfield University logo - collaborating on Project Egypt\" class=\"wp-image-1092693\" style=\"object-fit:cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Cranfield-University_logo-block_300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Cranfield-University_logo-block_300x200-240x160.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/university-of-cambridge_300x200.jpg\" alt=\"University of Cambridge logo\" class=\"wp-image-686286\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technology to enable widespread availability of greenhouse gas data and insights Greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations have continued to grow, fueling the climate crisis. Yet, measuring GHG emissions efficiently and at scale remains surprisingly elusive due to the lack of geographically fine-grained data. Project Egypt&nbsp;aims to develop technology to democratize GHG data through large-scale monitoring. Our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1091082,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"research-area":[13556,13563,198583,13552,13547],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-impact-theme":[261670],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1089702","msr-project","type-msr-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-data-platform-analytics","msr-research-area-ecology-environment","msr-research-area-hardware-devices","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-locale-en_us","msr-archive-status-active"],"msr_project_start":"","related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-groups":[768895],"related-events":[934416],"related-opportunities":[],"related-posts":[],"related-articles":[],"tab-content":[],"slides":[],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Thomas Karagiannis","user_id":34031,"people_section":"Microsoft ","alias":"thomkar"},{"type":"guest","display_name":"Jane Hodgkinson","user_id":1093698,"people_section":"External Collaborators","alias":""},{"type":"guest","display_name":"Rod Jones","user_id":1093689,"people_section":"External Collaborators","alias":""}],"msr_research_lab":[199561],"msr_impact_theme":["Resilience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1089702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-project"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1089702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095504,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1089702\/revisions\/1095504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1091082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1089702"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1089702"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1089702"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1089702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}