Engineering for cleaner air

When Brett Stinson graduates from Portland State next month, he’ll already be well on his way to a successful engineering career, having published his Honors thesis research in a scholarly journal, presented his findings internationally, won a federal engineering challenge and landed a prestigious graduate fellowship. 

But Stinson himself is surprised about where he’s ended up. He didn’t grow up playing with LEGO bricks or a chemistry set. He doesn’t think of himself as a “science person.” And his first attempt at higher education, at a community college back home in Maryland, didn’t go so well. 

“I kind of gave up on the idea of college until I moved to Portland,” he says.

After the move, he decided to go to Portland Community College. He took several classes, trying to figure out what he wanted to do. He really liked math and started gravitating toward science. A friend introduced him to a program called S-STEM that was designed to lessen transfer shock for students transferring from PCC to PSU. 

“Being accepted into that S-STEM program really changed my life fundamentally,” he says. “It introduced me to the world of research.”

During the two year program, Stinson conducted experiments with green roof systems and later started studying indoor air quality with Elliott Gall, associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering, in his Healthy Buildings Research Laboratory. 

Stinson worked with Gall to study how well a newly renovated air handler was cleaning the air inside Harriet Tubman Middle School. The school had previous issues with indoor air pollution due to its close proximity to I-5. 

Using what he learned in his engineering courses, Stinson found a way to calculate the emission rates of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from data collected at the school. Some VOCs are harmless while others can be hazardous to human health. Stinson determined where each VOC was coming from—pollutants from outside the building, materials within the building or the occupants themselves. 

Although the study found that levels of certain VOCs were pretty high, it also determined that the air handler is “very effective” at removing outside pollutants.

“I think any school in this situation should at minimum have the sort of air handler that Harriet Tubman Middle School has installed,” says Stinson. “But very few do.”

The results of the study were collected in Stinson’s Honors thesis and were recently accepted for publication in the academic journal Environmental Science and Technology. Stinson has also presented the work in engineering competitions in Las Vegas and the Netherlands.

Since completing his thesis, Stinson has shifted gears to studying a form of air pollution that weighed heavily on the minds of Portlanders last summer: wildfire smoke. 

Stinson is working with Gall and other researchers to develop a cost effective, do-it-yourself air cleaner that people can build when traditional air cleaners and filters are in short supply. Their original design—which began as a class project and is called the Cocoon—won the first phase of a wildfire engineering challenge put on by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

“The Cocoon is basically a big piece of fabric affixed to a box fan,” he says. “The elegance of the idea is its simplicity—it’s amazing that something so simple can clean the air during a wildfire.” 

Now the team is getting ready to test a prototype of the design before they submit it to the EPA for phase 2 of the challenge. That will put them in the running to win all or part of $100,000.

“I think we have a winning design, but I don't want to get ahead of myself,” he says. 

Besides S-STEM, Stinson has been involved in several programs and student groups during his time at PSU. He was a Green Building Scholar, a McNair Scholar, a student leadership fellow and president of PSU’s chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

“I don't know how I’ve managed to maintain decent grades; I am definitely as involved as I possibly can be,” he says. “One of the best parts about PSU is that there's such a strong community."

A few weeks ago, Stinson learned that he had received a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. 

“That felt like the culmination of everything, like all my hard work finally paid off, and now I don't have to worry about money while I'm in grad school,” says Stinson. “My professors came through and wrote excellent letters, and I wouldn’t be able to do any of this stuff without having that support. I’m really grateful for PSU; I’ve had a great time here.”

Stinson, who is in a combined bachelor’s/master’s program, will finish his master’s degree at PSU next year and then plans to pursue a PhD in some form of engineering

When asked if he has any words of wisdom for current or future PSU students, Stinson says that deciding to be a student is “the first and biggest step.”

“You can do anything if you have the right mindset, if you're committed to it, if you can be disciplined,” he says. “I had no expectations of doing what I'm doing now. Pursuing a PhD? That thought never crossed my mind. I definitely didn't feel like a science person when I started, and I still don't really feel like a science person. I’m not particularly smart; I'm just really dedicated. I feel like if more people realized this, they would be more comfortable entering into STEM fields. It's often not about intelligence or natural ability, it's just about dedication.”