Plagues of purple sea urchins have eradicated 90% percent of Northern California’s kelp habitat, which is a key combatant of climate change. Ranching urchins for their prized roe is an effective removal solution. Unicado will convert this marine pest into a gourmet delicacy as a packaged food product, ranching sea urchins with an upcycled food waste feedstock. This venture can restore balance to California’s kelp forests through sustainable aquaculture production of a delicious and guilt-free uni product that’s carbon neutral. Consuming purple urchin creates a win-win scenario-good for both people and the environment.
Increasing global population requires 70% more food production by 2050, predominantly cultivated in developing countries and areas with an arid climate. Irrigation consumes more than 80% of the world’s fresh water. Traditional irrigation practices suffer from evaporation and percolation loss of freshwater and existing efficient technologies are very expensive and not economically viable for developing world. The purpose of this innovation is to develop and implement an economically viable technique and devices to reduce irrigation water loss and apply them to micro-irrigation to help small farm owners in the developing world. The proposed infiltration system inserts under drip emitters mimic SDI and delivers water to the root zone. Then engineered perlite/peat-moss topsoil beds suppresses evaporation loss by locking water in the pores and a percolation control layer at the root zone uses charcoal amendment to retain water and improve root health/plant yield, ultimately working to reduce the water footprint of agriculture in arid regions.
Approximately one third of people with autism are nonverbal, resulting in a rising need for a user-friendly, socio-culturally relevant means of assistive technology to help them communicate. PIC.ME: Personalized Interactive Communication Made for Everyone is an app that can be downloaded onto a personal smart device, such as a smartphone or tablet, for people with exceptional needs, such as autism, or other language disabilities. Users can personalize pictures used for picture exchange communication that are culturally and socially relevant to their lives, record vocalizations for words and sounds to match pictures, and practice language and social skills with games. This app will not be limited to people with autism, but will be accessible for any person living with a disability that causes a loss of the ability to effectively communicate. PIC.ME will not only make assistive technology more available to all, but it will make the right of communication more equitable for all.
Sophisticated technologies, such as virtual reality’s (VR) immersive experiences, allow one to build effective tools to challenge implicit discriminatory bias. This project includes: 1) An art installation: two participants experience stories of racial and gender discrimination in VR. Personal and bio-medical data from the participant’s reactions are collected and visualized. Participants are encouraged to record their own story of injustice and discrimination. 2) A data visualization design project organizes and analyzes the personal, biomedical data and audio recordings, draws objective conclusions and elaborates strategies for corrective measures. The virtual forest is a source of narratives, collaborations and interactions, a data visualization space, and artistic experience in VR. In order to create a culture of inclusion and tolerance, the main goal is to make an impact by allowing participants to “see” their discriminatory bias and feel compassion toward minorities.
Indigenous communities are an important part of Latino migration to the U.S., but they have been historically overlooked. An estimated 100,000 indigenous people from Mexico, primarily Mixtec, make up the farmworker population in California. A sizeable Mixtec community can be found in Oxnard, Ventura County. There have been attempts by the community to preserve their language, but the number of children learning Mixtec in Oxnard is declining. In addition, the lack of technology used to teach Mixtec creates barriers as well, as youth in the community struggle to see how Mixtec fits in to their tech-centered lives. This project addresses these needs by creating a webpage with teaching resources for the community. By promoting the use of the Mixtec language, the team will bridge the gap between generations and create tighter bonds between members of the community.
50% of Cambodian American refugees meet criteria for depression, yet only 9% who receive any form of treatment receive therapeutic care. Cambodian American refugees have faced social isolation and mental health issues for over twenty years since resettling. Project គូរ (Kour) connects elderly Cambodian American refugees with culturally related art activities as a means of combating trauma. Sessions take place over the course of twelve weeks, where participants will receive social support, community bonding, and a platform to tell their stories. Each session culminates with an art showcase, inviting the Khmer American community to relate to a shared history via personal narratives. This showcase acts as a fundraiser to promote and finance other mental health interventions for the refugee community.
The US egg industry generates roughly 44,000 tons of poultry manure every day. This waste is a significant contributor to water and air quality pollution. As the egg industry is concentrated in localized regions around the country, current manure management strategies have led to over-fertilization of nearby cropland. To avoid these problems, OrganicMatters dries manure at the site of poultry production to maximize nutrient preservation. Dry manure is then transported to a central facility where it is processed into a stable pellet that can easily integrate into the existing fertilizer market. OrganicMatters can increase the feasibility of manure use as a fertilizer for organic farmers. Our product can meet the demand of diverse agricultural customers across a wide range of crops and applications. Appropriately dried poultry manure is a very balanced, high nutrient fertilizer that satisfies both conventional agriculture and the organic sector.
SkinIQ is developing a mobile software platform and algorithm for the long-term surveillance and diagnosis of potentially cancerous skin lesions. At the moment, even the best methods of diagnosis still lack the sensitivity and specificity needed to accurately classify and distinguish one type of skin lesion from another. Furthermore, there has yet to be a widely accepted tool that connects patients across the world to their own general practitioners and dermatologists in a cost effective and innovative way. SkinIQ solves this problem using a proprietary deep-learning algorithm trained on thousands of images that tracks and tags dangerous skin lesions for doctors and patients. Additionally, SkinIQ uses non-invasive molecular profiling to sequence moles that have been tagged as concerning. SkinIQ hopes to provide a highly accurate diagnostic tool and platform that will decrease discrepancies in the diagnosis of melanoma and pervasive skin diseases.
