  We introduce a near-IR monitoring campaign of the Local Group spiral galaxy
M33, carried out with the UK IR Telescope (UKIRT). The pulsating giant stars
are identified and their distributions are used to derive the star formation
rate as a function of age. We here present the star formation history for the
central square kiloparsec. These stars are also important dust factories; we
measure their dust production rates from a combination of our data with Spitzer
Space Telescope mid-IR photometry.
