WE SENSE OUR CITIES SUNNYSIDE • MOTT HAVEN • NYC EST. '26 We Sense Our Cities GasMap NYC
Student-led · Queens & The Bronx, NYC

The city's air maps stop at the neighborhood.
We're measuring the block.

We're a team of NYC students installing low-cost gas sensors and building GasMap NYC, a publicly accessible map of the block-by-block gas spikes and local air hazards that regional air quality systems miss.

Donate Get involved
Kento Smith at the Washington Monument, National Mall
Founder

Kento Smith

Founder, We Sense Our Cities

Born and raised next to traffic-heavy areas in Queens, Kento founded We Sense Our Cities and leads sensor prototyping through the Cooper Union Summer STEM program, working with mentors to make sure the final sensor design is accurate enough for residents and city teams to actually trust.

Outside the lab, Kento is a student-athlete at The Beacon School in Manhattan and trains with a scholar-athlete program in the Bronx. He's been featured on Spectrum News NY1 for his commitment to balancing rigorous academics with being a dedicated competitive athlete, serving as a role model for his peers.

Mission

Our student-led team promotes community safety by installing gas sensors in Sunnyside and Mott Haven, linked to a publicly accessible map, GasMap NYC, and empowering residents through sensor-building youth STEM workshops.

Rollout Timeline

Every milestone below is built and installed by our 40 student volunteers.

50
sensors installed
by month 5
100
sensors installed
by month 7
200
sensors installed
by month 10
What We Do

A public map for the air data your city misses

Under We Sense Our Cities, our grassroots student-led organization, we're building GasMap NYC: a public site and app tied directly to data collected from our own sensor network.

While city-wide air quality systems provide regional data, they miss block-by-block gas spikes and local air hazards that impact resident health. Our goal is a 10-month timeline to install 200 gas sensors in air-pollution-heavy Sunnyside and Mott Haven communities, working alongside local environmental organizations to teach residents the protocols for reacting to gas influxes.

By partnering with local businesses to host sensors on their storefronts, GasMap NYC equips communities with the knowledge needed to advocate for their health, while giving city teams the block-level data to mitigate local gas hazards.

For businesses

Host a sensor on your storefront. It's small, low-power, and gives your block real coverage on the map.

For residents

Join a workshop, learn what's actually in your air, and know how to respond when a reading spikes.

Regional Monitoring (today)

City-wide sensors report broad, neighborhood-level averages, too coarse to catch a spike on a single block.

GasMap NYC (in progress)

A dense, storefront-hosted sensor network reporting block-by-block, so residents see the air outside their own door.

Inside the Workshops

No prior experience necessary Snacks are provided

Each workshop bridges a common gap by combining hands-on hardware design with real-world environmental science. Students build and wire a working air quality sensor from scratch, while simultaneously exploring how the specific pollutants they are tracking impact human health and community well-being. They leave with the skills to build a sensor from scratch and the scientific literacy needed to interpret its data.

A sensor is only as useful to a community as its builder's understanding of what it measures, which is why every session treats the science and the circuitry as equally important.

The Toolkit

Students build with breadboards, jumper wires, and ESP32 microcontrollers, wiring them to a mix of quantitative and qualitative sensors. They then use the free Arduino IDE software to program the ESP32, allowing them to view sensor readings and track data in real time.

The Wrap-Up

Every session closes with students presenting their sensors to the group, walking through what they built and what their readings show.

Our Story

Built by the kids who grew up breathing it

We Sense Our Cities is made up of students from Sunnyside and the neighborhoods along Queens Boulevard, and from the South Bronx. As kids who grew up next to traffic and the scent of gasoline, this initiative finally lets us, and our surrounding community, access real information about what chemicals actually reside in the air we breathe every day.

Our team of 40 student volunteers is preparing to deploy low-cost, high-precision sensors to close that data gap affordably. We've already lined up future partnerships with local youth initiatives, like NYJTL, to host safe, controlled workshops teaching young STEM minds how to assemble sensors of their own.

Prototyping

Our prototypes are currently in development through Kento's research in the Cooper Union Summer STEM program.

Mentorship

Mentor guidance from the program ensures the final sensor design is highly accurate for gas identification.

Workshops

Upcoming partnership with NYJTL to teach local students how to build and deploy their own sensors.

Volunteers

Manny & Summer

Two of the forty student volunteers building and deploying sensors.

Manny and Summer, volunteers at Sensors for Cities

Manny

"Honestly, I've learned more about circuits, and about my own block, building these sensors than I have in 17 years of living here."

Summer

"Now when my friends ask what's actually in the air we're breathing, I can tell them. And it's nice we get to do something about it together."

38 more student volunteers building and deploying sensors behind the scenes

Volunteer teams

Most roles run 1–3 hrs/week. We offer both virtual and hybrid roles, so it's easy to fit around school.

Outreach

Signs up local businesses to host sensors and engages residents through canvassing, flyering, and community events.

Workshop

Builds the sensor-assembly curriculum and facilitates hands-on workshops for students and residents.

Media

Runs social media content and pitches local press to tell the story of the project.

Tech, Data & Research

Builds and maintains the GasMap platform, quality-checks sensor hardware, and monitors live readings for anomalies.

Fundraising & Grants

Writes grant applications and manages donor outreach and fundraising campaigns.

Operations & Logistics

Tracks parts inventory and coordinates scheduling for sensor installs and maintenance.

Volunteer Experience

Recruits and onboards new volunteers and supports team culture and retention.

Adult Supervision Only for ages 18+

Provides on-site oversight at workshops, outreach events, and installs to help ensure student volunteers stay safe.

Get Involved

Help us cover the next block

JOIN THE TEAM

Apply to volunteer

Want to help build sensors, run workshops, or grow GasMap NYC? Fill out our short student volunteer application.

Apply now
FOR BUSINESSES

Host a sensor

Let us mount a low-power gas sensor on your storefront. It takes up almost no space, needs no maintenance from you, and puts your block on GasMap NYC.

Host a sensor
FOR STUDENTS & RESIDENTS

Join a workshop

Learn to assemble a gas sensor from scratch, understand the readings, and know the protocol for what to do when one spikes.

Ask about workshops

Fund the next sensor

Can't host a sensor or join a workshop? A donation goes straight to hardware, install materials, and keeping GasMap NYC live block by block.

Donate now