According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar’s long-term success “depends on the cost-effective integration of energy storage”. Already, excess solar power is often wasted, and California is only a third of the way to its 100% clean energy target. Achievement of this bold goal will require energy storage at scale to harness solar power after sunset. Meanwhile, California will have 5 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030. Recycling their batteries is expensive, but reuse is economical; over 75% of an EV battery’s original capacity typically remains at the end of its useful life in a vehicle. RePurpose Energy tests, reassembles, and redeploys used electric vehicle batteries to provide commercial solar developers with energy storage solutions at half the cost of new battery alternatives, so they can offer more electricity bill savings, and California can accomplish its clean energy goals.
Awards: 1st Place
Qloak
As a result of the current social and political climate, the LGBTQ+ community has found it increasingly difficult to find safe spaces. A study by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) shows that hate-driven violence often occurs in the privacy of communities, homes, workplaces, and shelters. By providing knowledge of spaces that have been proven to support the LGBTQ+ community, and that can serve its unique needs as necessary, Qloak is removing the burden from community members who may struggle to find their footing in heteronormative environments. Qloak serves as a hub integrating queer spaces featuring such categories as Work (jobs), Play (bars and entertainment), Spend (businesses), and Resources (doctors, counselors, etc). Cultivating knowledge of these spaces is necessary in order to foster a sense of belonging and security.
Kaloum Bankhi (Home of Kaloum): A Migration of Architecture
Kaloum Bankhi is “process-focused” and not “product focused”. The mission is to ensure every resident in Kaloum, Guinea lives in a durable home, and the approach is multidisciplinary in establishing a self-sustaining local supply chain. In order to realize this goal, the project takes a multi-faceted approach, innovating the physical design, the financial mechanism, and social systems. This house model is designed to be built in stages instead of all at once. This enables residents to remain in their own home during a progressive transformation at the householder’s pace and cash-flow. Guinean culture is celebrated with this alternative housing solution that is built by a community, for a community. Architecture becomes art, bringing social change to the canvas of Kaloum. The project envisions that the knowledge invested in the community will grow beyond the slums – an architectural migration providing durable homes for all of Kaloum.
ElectroSan – Reimagining Waste for Kenya
Globally, 1 in 3 people still do not have access to a toilet, causing over 3.6 million water related, preventable deaths each year. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people without access to safely managed sanitation continues to grow. ElectroSan is reimagining the global sanitation problem as an opportunity. If disposal and treatment of human waste can be made profitable, the generated revenue can be used towards the cost of providing sanitation services and ultimately can help alleviate poverty. ElectroSan’s ion exchange technology has been demonstrated to create a valuable fertilizer end-product from human urine. Through a partnership with a local social venture called Sanergy, ElectroSan can meet the high demand for fertilizer in the Kenyan market, addressing sanitation needs for low-income communities like Mukuru while instilling a self-sustainable sanitation solution.
Early Preeclampsia Detection Strip
In most LMICs, the average woman attends one prenatal care visit when she first realizes she is pregnant and does not return to the health care facility until it is time for her to give birth or after she experiences severe health outcomes. Preeclampsia is the second leading cause of maternal mortality; accounting for the deaths of thousands of women and babies annually. Preeclampsia is difficult to diagnose because most symptoms mimic many physiologic changes observed in pregnancy, and other complications in pregnancy, hence women are only aware of this condition if they receive routine prenatal care or upon progression of the undiagnosed preeclampsia into a more severe complication; eclampsia. The Early Preeclampsia Detection (EPED) Strip is a low-cost, diagnostic test for preeclampsia that provides a home-based method for women to self-screen for the development of preeclampsia alongside empowering and educating them to seek medical care.
UROC – Demystifying the Research Process
Currently at UC Berkeley marginalized students receive little to no mentorship or resources to conduct research. Students of color perform low rates of research and campus research programs have low acceptance rates of underrepresented students. Of the 54 undergraduate research programs on campus, 12 are directly for first-generation, low-income, historically underrepresented students – however these programs often have limited resources to offer and/or limited space. Mentorship for underrepresented students is also lacking, with university faculty consisting of few scholars of color. Through a series of workshops, UROC will equip students with key skillsets for conducting research, including: designing research questions, creating literature reviews, analyzing primary archives, and designing methodologies.
TRAM project
Smallholder farmers in low resource settings are forced to sell their crops at low prices shortly after harvest to avoid post-harvest losses, which results in low agricultural financial gains and lack of food security among farming households. A proven solution is the use of metallic silos for long-term storage of crops with less than 1% loss from pests or any other form of degradation. The TRAM project proposes to increase the distribution of metal silos among Ugandan smallholder farmers through an innovative business model that allows the farmer to get the silo at a low initial cost and complete payments through monthly installments. This project has the potential to provide safe food storage systems to 6 million households in Uganda alone and spread to the East African community and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
One Village Philippines
One Village Philippines is a multidisciplinary team of fifteen engineering students within the UC San Diego Global TIES program. This team is working together with the non-profit organization Gawad Kalinga to support its mission of alleviating poverty for communities across the Philippines by providing humanitarian solutions via engineering services. Due to limited lighting, nighttime travel is especially difficult for residents and they often feel unsafe. Additionally, power outages often occur within the community due to electrical failures. Through the development of a sustainable lighting solution, the SolarE team addresses the need for sufficient lighting throughout the village at night and catalyzes social entrepreneurship within the Filipino community by empowering villagers to produce and sell the solar light locally.
TextTrainer: a dialog system to train crisis helpline counselors
The rise of smartphone usage has changed communication patterns and paralleled an increase in individuals reporting feeling lonely and disconnected, especially amongst young adults. As a result, crisis helplines are expanding their text services to keep pace with new communication trends during a time of growing need. However, tools for training counselors remain time consuming or provide insufficient practice. TextTrainer is leveraging recent advances in natural language processing and partnerships with crisis helplines to build a dialog system to train crisis counselors on how to intervene and de-escalate crises. With this system, counselors can easily practice formulating text responses, get feedback on their responses, and gain expertise in a low pressure setting without putting any individuals in danger, thus helping crisis centers meet the rising demand for their services.