Fall Mini-Grants

These projects were part of our mini-grant program, which involves a shorter application, shorter project timelines, and a total funding limit of $5,000 per project. 

Apparatus for Continual Crop Supervision and Intervention in Hydroponic Vertical Farms

Project Description

Modern agriculture is highly inefficient, with traditional growing methods wasting resources as compared to methods like hydroponics. While hydroponics significantly improves efficiency with yield and water usage, it can still be highly laborious. In the case of strawberries for example, many new roles emerge such as pollination, pruning, and continual supervision. This project aims to solve these restricting issues by integrating computer models to offload a significant chunk of work to robots -- thereby improving the proposition hydroponics can offer. VFB has...

BioCleanse Waste Cooking Oil Purification and Pretreatment System

Project Description

The Biofuels Technology Club (BTC) is part of the College of Chemistry, and has a mission to help UC Berkeley achieve a zero-waste campus. By producing biodiesel from waste cooking oil generated by the campus dining halls, the club has a goal of eventually powering campus fleet vehicles with low-carbon, renewable fuel. While BTC is pursuing a high output production facility, initial treatment steps are required to purify the oil coming from the dining hall fryers so that the impurities do not interfere with the chemical conversion processes at our production...

Basins of Relations

Project Description

This project focuses on capturing roof rain water for the Convent house within the Berkeley
Student Cooperative (BSC). Each winter, 236,000 gallons of roof rainwater exits the property
entering the Berkeley Marina. This two-day workshop will redirect rainwater into rain gardens
and tanks to support 1) groundwater recharge 2) water tank storage during drought and 3) install
a perennial food gardens to mitigate local climate extremes by providing:
1. Microclimate: vegetative cover mitigating extreme heat,
2. Food Security: mediterranean perennial...

Solar Motor Pumps

Project Description

The people of Bharog Baneri, a village in Himachal Pradesh, India, rely on several unreliable sources of freshwater. The nearest city to Bharog Baneri is located forty-five minutes away. Wells and handpumps in the village have dried out, while the government supplies limited amounts of water for the village. Unfortunately, these supplies of water can be very far from homes, some almost requiring some homes to walk over an hour up steep slopes to bring fresh water home. Due to climate change, Bharog Baneri has been experiencing more severe dry periods. It...

Dining Commons Post Consumer Food Waste

Project Description

We are proposing to run a pilot program at Crossroads Dining Commons in which post consumer food waste will be weighed using a leanpath scale, affixed with a Spark device that displays real time information on a monitor within student view. This two phase pilot will include weighing waste with no spark display to gather a baseline, and then an intervention of spark display data during the second phase of the pilot. Survey data will be gathered throughout both phases to gather insights on student perceptions and habits relating to food waste. This data,...

Healing Through Gardening

Project Description

Located at Lothlorien, one of the 17 Berkeley Student Cooperative houses, this project aims to foster healing connections between students and the land through a series of educational workshops and a habitat restoration project. This will be a collaborative project, involving the stakeholders (housemates) through every step of the process, emphasizing participatory design and knowledge sharing. The series of educational workshops will involve hands-on restoration, plant identification, medicinal plant uses, and creative archiving. Lothlorien houses 55 berkeley...

The Pollinators of Campus Native Wildflower Gardens

Project Description

Our project aims to compare the presence and abundance of pollinator species at the native plant garden at mak-’amham (Cafe Ohlone) with other non-native gardens on the UC Berkeley campus. Two surveys will be conducted in March and April to capture species diversity, to promote sustainable gardening by showcasing how the native plant garden supports diverse pollinator populations, contributing to healthy ecosystems and food sovereignty. The project underscores the cultural and ecological significance of mak-’amham, supporting Ohlone identity and...

Oak Woodland Restoration Project

Project Description

The Oak Woodland Restoration Project at UC Berkeley’s Hastings Natural History Reservation aims to restore rare, threatened blue oak (Quercus douglasii) woodland habitat impacted by the October 2024 ...

Hives @ Haas

Project Description

We are working with campus Facilities (Theron Klos) and campus Risk (Morris Lever) to install a hive on the east side of the Student Services Building of the Haas campus. We are hoping that TGIF will help us upgrade to two hives. Additionally, we are asking for funds to build a pollinator garden to assure that the bees and other insects have access to food. Towards that, we would use these funds in part for tools to build and maintain the garden. Finally, our partner on this project, Bee Campus USA, would like to purchase educational books to use in their...

Berkeley Student Native Plant Nursery

Project Description

Community-led greening projects can benefit through the establishment of a low-cost, accessible native plant nursery that will also serve as a demonstration site where members of the local and student community will learn how to: responsibly harvest native seeds; create plant specific soil or “soil-free” potting mixtures; propagate plants from seed; identify native plants; troubleshoot native plant care. This space will also “bridge the gap” between native ecosystem restoration projects and the local indigenous communities whose ancestors were the original...