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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
