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As Airly, we create a diverse team full of extraordinary personalities. Our new intAIRview interview series aims to show our team members from a professional and more private side. Time to find out who is behind the mission to repair the air.
Today, intAIRview’s guest will be Marcin Szwagrzyk, our Geospatial Data Analyst.
Who are you and what is your role at Airly?
In Airly we, along with my colleagues from the Data Science Team, are providing insights, reports, and knowledge based on data. We do a lot of different things, from the reports and stories for marketing and sales teams to some technical analysis for the Innovation/production teams
What drives you to work with Airly?
People – their engagement, energy, and positive attitude – towards the work and towards everything else
In what ways data science can help in tackling the air pollution problems?
To tackle air pollution it is necessary to know the current air quality at each location and time. Because the air pollution is spatially and temporarily diversified, we need a lot of data from many pollution sensors – furthermore, we often combine this with external data sources – such as weather forecast data. Those datasets are simply too big and the studied problems are too complex to be analyzed in a traditional way – using for example excel spreadsheets.Therefore Data Science and its set of tools allows us to achieve this without any limits. And using methods such as machine learning allows us to go beyond the usual thinking patterns and to discover new dependencies and phenomenons.
You have got a PhD degree in Geography. What fascinated you in this field of science?
Geography is about relationships between humans and the environment and about the spatial scope of natural and social phenomena. So, whatever you are fascinated by – it is probably more or less in the field of geography. Moreover, being a geographer gives you a great skill set for traveling.
Can the topography affect the air quality course?
Yes, many cities located in valleys and lowerings – such as Kraków, Brasov in Romania or even large regions like the Po valley in Italy undergoes problems with air pollution because the topography ‘traps’ the air along with the pollutants near the ground.
What are you passionate about outside of work?
Traveling and outdoor activities – trail running, hiking, climbing. I started learning paragliding and definitely need to continue it.
What is your next biggest dream?
Last year I was looking at maps and I found an interesting place – a Kinburn Spit (Ukraine) – and I became obsessed about going there. On 09.2021 we flew to Odessa with the intention of going there, yet due to poor weather we changed our plans and went to Chisinau instead. In February 2022 Kinburn spit fell under Russian occupation – so now one of my biggest dreams is that the occupation of this place ends and we will eventually go there.