„Our goal is to mainstream environmental data”
/in News/by Barbara LofererFrage: Herr Tarraf, wie sind Sie auf die Idee für Hawa Dawa gekommen und was zeichnet Ihr Produkt aus?
Karim Tarraf: Ich habe mehrere Jahre in der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit gearbeitet. Die Erfahrungen, die ich während des frustrierenden Konzernjobs gemacht habe, gekoppelt mit den prägenden Erlebnissen im arabischen Frühling 2011 haben mich zum Gründen motiviert. Ich wollte nochmal die Bank in der Universität drücken, um dort Ideen zu entwickeln, mit denen ich ein Startup aufbauen kann. Wichtig bei diesem Schritt ist mir der social impact, also eines der großen gesellschaftlichen Probleme anzugehen – seien es Umwelt- oder soziale Themen. Read more
Hawa Dawa employs former Head of Sensor Development at Konux
/in News/by Barbara LofererHawa Dawa selected to join the ESA Business Incubation Programme
/in News/by Barbara LofererHawa Dawa was selected as one of the businesses to be supported by the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Programme in order to support them in integrating satellite data into their air quality models. The programme runs for 18 months and offers expert mentoring and coaching from the technical partners of the managing company, Anwendungzentrum GmbH, including the German Space Agency (DLR), financial support and office space.
Smart Quarter in Munich North: powered by Hawa Dawa
/in News/by Barbara LofererMunich’s north is becoming a “smart quarter”.
The EU initiative “Civitas Eccentric” is upgrading the Domagkpark and Parkstadt Schwabing neighbourhoods into environmentally sustainable districts. The project is part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 initiative, which uses integrated mobility concepts to reduce traffic and alleviate the parking situation. In addition to Munich, the cities of Stockholm, Madrid, Turku and Ruse are also among the project cities Read more
Air Quality Measurement: a fascinating lineage
/in News/by Barbara LofererCairo: ideas through the smog
Our CEO and co-founder, Karim Tarraf, grew up in Cairo – a city displaying all of the typical traits of an emerging economy when it comes to air quality and health. His vision was to be able capture and visualize air quality data in such a way as to make it accessible to the population in developing countries, enabling cities and affected citizens take action to curb air pollution, improving health and quality of life.
Raw Meat & Canary Birds
Here at Hawa Dawa we follow an interesting lineage; from raw meat used in the 9th Century to detect the lowest levels of ambient pollution and thus situate a hospital; to canary birds who fell out of usage for detecting carbon monoxide in mining in the 1980s. In 2018, we’re not leaving it to chance: our data is gathered using a combination of proprietary IoT networks of gas sensors in the field and highly complex machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence. The output is a reliable, comprehensive, real-time ‘heatmap’ of air pollution. A map that enables cities to be innovative, dynamic and targeted in the measures they employ to combat pollutant levels. No one else is offering this combination of bottom-up and top-down measurement: a viable, low-cost, digital alternative to costly official stations; a new digital value chain based on the commodity of environmental data.
Looking to the future in 2018
We are proud that almost 13 centuries after the first physicians recognized the value of understanding where and how air pollution affects lives, Hawa Dawa is able to offer the first reliable digital solution to measuring air quality, providing actionable insights to enable citizens, cities and companies understand and mitigate for the dangerous and costly effects of air pollution.
