The main objective of this project is to develop an optimal way to improve energy efficiency on the UC Berkeley campus by converting waste cooking oil to biodiesel and then using this biodiesel to power various campus operations. Biodiesel, a type of diesel that comes from biological sources, is biodegradable, non-toxic and produces 60% less carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum-based diesel. Biodiesel can be produced from waste cooking oil. This project advocates for the productive use of the 5,500 gallons of cooking oil waste on the UC Berkeley campus every year. If UC Berkeley’s dining halls each saved the waste oil that they produce into a drum or a large oil container, the oil could then be used to create biodiesel, which can then be used for sustainable campus operations.
Awards: 2nd Place
Crime Fighter
Many students who died during the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech tried to text 9-1-1 for help, but their messages were never received because police departments did not have the technology to receive text reports. Crime Fighter is a technology that revolutionizes the way we report crime. Crime Fighter is the first mobile technology that allows users to be completely anonymous and report crimes in less than 2 minutes for any situation using a text-based application for all smartphones. The technology includes the mobile application for general users and a software system for the police department and university safety services. Currently, no comparable product exists in the market, enabling Crime Fighter to lead the path to a safer community using the modern and popular technology of texting.
Requirements for a Renewables Revolution
This project identifies and analyzes the obstacles presently barring the rise of renewables, evaluates the role of the current policy favorite emission pricing, and offers design recommendations for a comprehensive U.S. renewable policy. Successful climate change mitigation requires a timely shift to renewable sources of energy, such as sunlight, wind or tides, to decarbonize today’s high-carbon electricity sector. But market pull alone is not strong enough. This paper discusses the most widely cited economic barriers and identifies and evaluates additional obstacles related to the electricity sector’s regulatory framework. The project explores a number of policy approaches and their relative chances success. In light of the plethora of obstacles to a timely transition to renewables, this project calls for concerted policy action by scientists, engineers, economists, lawyers, marketers, and educators to fuel the renewables revolution. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Science, Technology, and Engineering Policy” category.)
Green and Brown Chemists
In this video demonstration, four UC Berkeley chemists show us what to do and what NOT to do as we strive to be more sustainable.
INSTAR (INertial STorage And Recovery)
Today’s hybrid and plug-in electric automobiles are able to recover some of the energy normally lost to friction during braking. Even in today’s cutting-edge vehicles, however, a large amount of kinetic energy is still lost to braking during the typical stop-and-go urban commute. INSTAR is a system designed to greatly improve on existing technologies in order to recover the maximum amount of kinetic energy normally lost during braking. The energy recovered will be converted into usable electric energy. This recovered energy can then be used to power the vehicle, thereby increasing the travel-range and battery life of plug-in and hybrid vehicles. By increasing the efficiency and functionality of hybrid and electric vehicles in this way, the INSTAR system could make these vehicles significantly more attractive to consumers and increase adoption rates.
Mobileworks
MobileWorks provides a platform that gives underemployed and impoverished individuals in the developing world the ability to earn supplemental income by doing work through their mobile phones. The organization accepts data entry and transcription contracts from a variety of sources–government programs in India, Western crowdsourcing companies, and traditional outsourcing companies–and sends this work to workers’ phones over a locally-accessible interface, handling payment to workers and guaranteeing quality to companies. Over time, MobileWorks users have the opportunity to earn data entry certifications and lift themselves out of poverty.
Migrants for Millennium Development Fund
Every year, groups of Mexican migrants in the US pool their resources to sponsor thousands of development projects in their Mexican hometowns. Unfortunately, the positive impact that these projects have on towns in Mexico has been limited. Due to the complexities involved in designing, fundraising and overseeing implementation, many locally based projects often fail. This Fund will help to change that by empowering migrants in multiple ways. By allowing migrants to leverage their collective remittances, they will be able to transform their migrant expelling communities in Mexico into ones that offer their citizens access to education, health, economic opportunities, gender equality and a sustainable environment.
Data in the First Mile: The case for Shreddr and paper-based data collection
Local, community-based service agencies in developing countries are increasingly attempting to collect data in order to measure the social impact of their work in areas such as education, healthcare and infrastructure development. Several institutional, technological and cultural
barriers remain to achieving success in such data-collection attempts, however. Shreddr is a low-cost, on-demand data digitization program that will bridge these barriers. The program helps individuals and organizations quickly transform stacks of paper into usable data, with minimal additional investment in technology, training, or staffing. By increasing the availability of high-quality data, Shreddr aims to improve service provision in developing countries.
Future Scientist
There are many problems in various areas of the world: poverty, inadequate healthcare, and a lack of natural resources, to name a few. Yet with sufficient help, the affected communities themselves can stand up to inequality, poverty, and disease by having the ability to solve their own problems. Future Scientist was founded with the belief that science education can provide people with the ability to solve many of the problems that affect the communities they live in. Future Scientist provides immediate technical resources to those in need through community-based projects. Scaling up, Future Scientist will be focusing on two projects: developing an international medical rotation in partnership with UCSF and starting partnerships between K-12 schools in the U.S. and Peru.