In addition to the Chinese government and US embassy, the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is now on the list of organizations that measure Beijing’s air quality. IBM announced on Monday, July 7, that their research laboratory will be partnering with the Beijing Municipal Government on a 10-year project to measure and decrease Beijing’s air pollution.
Although IBM has 20 years of experience with weather, Beijing’s pollution presents a difficult case because its pollution comes from so many different sources. IBM aims to apply and build upon their advanced technologies such as optical sensors, cognitive computing and existing data to create a system to predict the path of Beijing’s pollutants 72 hours in advance.
The ultimate goal of IBM’s ambitious project, known as ‘Green Horizon,’ is to help China create a plan to reduce pollution throughout China and adopt better environmental practices throughout their industrial industries. Newsweek reported that Xiaowei Shen, director of IBM research in China, said in a press release that “You not only have to build a model that can predict. You have to provide a decision system so that people can take proper action.”
Beijing has already spent over USD $160 billion (approximately RMB 984 billion) on decreasing the dangerous Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) particles by 25% by 2017.
Information via China Daily, Newsweek, PR Newswire, and IT ProPortal.
Photo by RYTC (FLICKR)
Leah Sprague is a high school senior and beijingkids’ intern for July. After living in Seattle for two years, Leah is super excited to be back in Beijing, where she lived from 2009-2012. When not at the office, Leah can be found biking or subway-ing around the city, soaking up everything before she leaves again in August.
