Smart Cities and Clean Air: What I Learned at Yunex Traffic

In August 2025 I completed Yunex Traffic's Smart Mobility and Environmental Sustainability virtual work experience via Springpod. Yunex Traffic is one of the largest providers of intelligent transport systems in the world. The programme explored how digital technology improves urban air quality and traffic efficiency.

What Yunex Traffic Does

Yunex Traffic designs and operates intelligent transport systems (ITS). This includes traffic signal controllers, adaptive signal control software, vehicle detection sensors and urban traffic management centres. Their systems are deployed across hundreds of cities and directly influence how millions of road users move every day.

The connection to IoT is direct: sensors collect data at intersections, cameras detect vehicle types and counts and software makes real-time decisions to optimise traffic flow. Modern traffic management is a distributed IoT system operating at city scale.

Zephyr Air Quality Sensors

The most technically interesting part of the programme was the Zephyr air quality monitoring system. Zephyr sensors measure nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) in real time. These pollutants are directly linked to respiratory health and are regulated under UK and EU air quality standards.

For the programme I created an infographic demonstrating how Zephyr sensors are deployed in urban environments to monitor pollution hotspots, how the data is transmitted and how local authorities use it to make decisions about traffic management and emission reduction schemes.

Engineering and Project Management Roles

The programme gave insight into different career paths within a company like Yunex Traffic. Software engineers build the traffic management platforms. Electrical and systems engineers design and maintain sensor hardware. Project managers coordinate deployments that span multiple local authorities and contractors. The collaboration between these roles is what makes a city-scale system actually work.

The Infographic Project

The main deliverable for the programme was an infographic explaining how Zephyr air quality sensors work in an urban environment. The Zephyr sensor measures nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) using electrochemical and optical methods. The data transmits in near real time to a cloud platform where it is visualised on maps, compared against air quality index thresholds and used to trigger adaptive traffic management responses.

Building the infographic forced me to understand the full data pipeline from sensor reading to policy action. A sensor reading below a threshold is just a number. Connected to traffic signal timing algorithms, it becomes a tool for reducing vehicle idling at junctions and improving air quality in school zones. That connection between hardware sensing and public health outcome is exactly the kind of system I want to work on.

The Engineering Roles

The programme gave insight into different career paths within Yunex Traffic. Software engineers build the traffic management platforms and the adaptive control algorithms. Electrical and systems engineers design and qualify sensor hardware for outdoor deployment across all weather conditions. Project managers coordinate city-scale deployments spanning multiple local authorities, contractors and certification bodies. The collaboration between these roles is what makes a system that operates 24/7 in a real city actually work reliably.

What I Took From It

Smart city technology is not abstract. It is physical infrastructure that directly affects air quality, journey times and road safety for real people every day. The engineering that goes into a traffic signal controller or an air quality sensor network is not glamorous in the way a consumer product might be, but the scale and impact are significant.

This programme confirmed my interest in IoT at scale: systems where sensors, connectivity, real-time data processing and measurable real-world outcomes are all connected in a continuous feedback loop. That is the kind of engineering I want to build.