BERC Innovative Solutions
- A proposed graduate solutions center, managed by the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative and its strategic partners, that will leverage the reputation and myriad resources of UC Berkeley to pioneer innovative, implementable solutions to the problem of climate change from multiple perspectives through engagements with clients from industrial, political and commercial sectors on a project-by-project basis. Team members: Sarah Barker-Ball, Max Baumhefner, Avery Cohn, Howard Chong, Jerome Fox, Louise Gibbons, Joseph Levin, Michael Martin, Maria Schriver, Ryan Stanley
- Climate, Energy & Sustainability
- 2008
Application of Bayesian Networks to Infrastructure Risk Management
- The project team is developing a decision-support system for emergency response, recovery prioritization, and risk-management efforts relating to civil infrastructure systems. Ultimately, a prototype decision-support system that integrates advances in information technology, computer science and civil engineering will optimize decision-making in near-real time under uncertainty and with limited and evolving information. Team Members: Michelle Bensi, Armen Der Kiureghian, Daniel Straub
- Information Technology for Society
- 2008
Poverty Reduction in Panama
- We are launching a project to decrease the cost of light in Soloy, Panama, where families spend a large portion of their income buying disposable batteries to power flashlights. If we reduce the amount of batteries that are bought, we increase disposable income. Thus by making the flashlights significantly more efficient, we have an effective poverty reduction program. The flashlights that are currently being used have an incandescent-type lightbulb. Such a lightbulb is grossly inefficient, especially compared to the latest technology, white light emitting diodes (LED). We therefore decided to retrofit the flashlights already used by community members with the efficient LED bulbs. This has the potential to save families $80 or more per year, a significant saving in a region where people typically live on $1 - $2 a day. Team Members: Kimberly Lau, Anna Zaniewski, and Jed Duersch
- Global Poverty Alleviation
- 2007
The Interfaith Action Initiative
- The Interfaith Action Initiative (IAI), seeks to increase the opportunities for interaction between students of different faiths at UC Berkeley. We believe that open dialogue and collaboration are increasingly important in order to build a strong campus community around issues central to students of all faiths. We also believe that collaborative projects could plant seeds that have a profound impact on how students perceive religious traditions—their own and others—as they leave campus. Team Members: Carson Baucher, Jonathan Blake, Daniel Saver, Hosna Sheikholeslami
- Improving Student Life
- 2007
iCare
- iCare: Direct Person-to-Person Charity for Natural Disaster Relief Is a new IT system that directly pairs individual donors and recipients of aid via the principles of peer-to-peer delivery and swarm distribution. Team Members: Anand Kulkarni, Urvashi Gupta, and Ephrat Bitton
- Information Technology for Society
- 2007
The Berkeley Project
- The purpose of the Berkeley Project is to build a legacy of service and a strong, sustainable partnership between the students of the University of California, Berkeley and the city and residents of Berkeley. To this end, the Berkeley Project holds a yearly event, called Berkeley Project Day, where thousands of Cal students unite on one day to fulfill the pressing needs of the community through a variety of service projects, all of which are within the City of Berkeley. Fully student operated and supported, the Berkeley Project not only provides crucial assistance to the public, but also aims to create a lasting culture of service among its participants. Submitted by Angela Ngo
- Improving Student Life
- 2007
Berkeley Arsenic Alleviation Group
- The Berkeley Arsenic Alleviation Group aims to design a process that utilizes ARUBA, Arsenic Removal Using Bottom Ash, a material developed by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to effectively and affordably remove arsenic from groundwater in rural Bangladeshi communities. In addition, we are developing a business plan for the implementation of the proposed process. Our technology and business plan aim to benefit poor Bangladeshis in rural villages, while still realizing a profit for the business, as financial sustainability is the key to long-term success. Team Members: Johanna Mathieu, Tasnuva Khan, Kosar Jahani, and Mehmet Seflek
- Global Poverty Alleviation
- 2007
Haath Mein Sehat
Haath Mein Sehat (HMS), Hindi for “Health in Hands,” is a student organization at UC Berkeley that has worked to address water, sanitation, and hygiene issues in urban slums in Mumbain and Hubli, India since 2004. Moving forward, HMS will concentrate its efforts on hand hygiene among children as a way to tackle diarrheal … Continue reading “Haath Mein Sehat”
- Team Members: Jasmine Wang, Jin Liu, Chris Anderson, Vaibhav Birda, Kara Nelson, Isha Ray
- Global Health, Safe Water Enterprises
- UC Berkeley
- 2011
Cellscope
- One of the most basic—yet powerful—tools in all of science and medicine is the microscope. This project is focused on designing equipment to turn the camera of a standard cell phone into a diagnostic-quality microscope. Cell-phone microscopy enables visualization of samples, followed by capture, organization, and transmission of images critical for diagnosis. This technology is applicable in a wide range of applications beyond diagnostic medicine.
- Scaling Up
- 2010