A Poolesville High School 10th grader is a National STEM Champion. He is one of only 55 students to be honored in June at the upcoming National STEM Festival in Washington, D.C.
Sathvik Dasari, who lives in Clarksburg, created a low-cost mobile air quality monitoring system. It combines sensors and machine learning to identify neighborhood-level pollution levels. His device can be deployed to different locations as needed to collect more localized air quality data.
He was chosen as a winner by EXPLR, which invites students who are aged 13 to 19 to created “real-world, career-connected learning through digital content.
At this summer’s festival, Dasari’s project will be showcased along with the other winning entries.
Focused on Air Quality Early
Dasari has been interested in STEM topics since he was young and launched rockets with his family, He focused in on air quality when he was in seventh grade and realized how the Canadian wildfires were affecting this area.
“Everything was like orange,” he said of the air around his home. While he was looking, his mother checked her phone which showed that it was not safe to go outside in much of Maryland.
Dasari started seeing what he could do to make a low cost air quality monitor that was more accurate and more specific to a particular area.
While the Environmental Protection Agency’s monitors cost “$50,000 at least,” his winning model cost less than $250, he said. It is portable and uses low-cost sensors, he explained.
Not satisfied to stop there, the high school student has been taking his monitor to different locations in the county to see if socio-economic factors play a role in air pollution.
His conclusion. “It’s a lot worse in the lower income areas,” he said referring to the amount of dust particles. Downtown Silver Spring has more particles than Potomac, he said, attributing that partly to Silver Spring being closer to highways and dense traffic.
National Stem Festival
The National STEM Festival has an acceptance rate of less than 5% and is a very competitive program. Students from 47 states and four U.S. territories entered their projects.
“The 2026 Champions have raised the bar for what we thought was possible at this level. They’re already building the technologies, cures, and systems America needs,” said Jenny Buccos, Founder & CEO of EXPLR and Co-Director of the National STEM Festival.
The National STEM Festival takes place June 24 through June 27 in multiple locations throughout Washington, D.C., including June 27th’s Open Build Day at 1850 K Street NW.
