RSO Sponsor

These projects were sponsored by a registered student organization

Optimization and Integration of Anionic Surfactant-Degrading Bacteria into Aeroponic Lettuce Systems

Project Description

Vertical Farming at Berkeley is requesting funds in order to research detergent-degrading bacteria to purify water for their farm. Their future goal is to supply fresh produce to eateries like Cal Dining.

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Project Application

Project Poster (coming soon!)

Genomic Screening for Mold-Resistance Genes in Oyster Mushrooms

Project Description

Vertical Farming at Berkeley is seeking funds to support research on oyster mushrooms, which are alternative food sources that can reduce food inequity. They will be researching how to create a mushroom resistant to the Trichoderma mold, and hope that their strain can eventually be used in campus dining halls as a meat alternative.

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Project Application

Project Poster (coming soon!)

FAST Sustainability Show

Project Description

Fashion and Student Trends (FAST) seeks funds to support a sustainable fashion show's transition to more ethical and eco-friendly resources. They will source sustainable make-up, fabric, and materials as well as compostable or reusables for food distribution.

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Project Application

Project...

BIPOC Earth Day Festival: Celebrating 10 Years of SCEC

Project Description

In Spring 2025, it will have been 10 years since the founding of the Students of Color Environmental Collective (SCEC), a campus student organization that has helped pave the way for environmental justice conversations on UC Berkeley’s campus. In celebration of this anniversary and in an effort to honor BIPOC voices and labor in the environmental movement, we intend to host a BIPOC Earth Day Festival. It will take place in Spring 2025 just a few days before Earth Day (likely August 19th, 2025) and will be a half-day outdoor event featuring guest speakers, eco-...

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...

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...

Island Justice Fellows Program at the Critical Pacific Island Studies Collective

Project Description

The Island Justice Fellows Program at the Critical Pacific Island Studies Collective (CPISC) enables UC Berkeley students to contribute to environmental justice practice, research, and campus community engagement opportunities concerning issues facing Pacific Islander (PI) communities, both residing in the Pacific Island region and in the diaspora in California. This year-long fellowship programs supports a team of graduate and undergraduate students to address multiple gaps on the UC Berkeley campus: (1) the lack of institutional support for...

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...

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...

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...