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Project Updates for collection: Living Lab Facilities / Programs

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  1. Weekly Update -- Updated Hours & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Last week of November was slow, as best I can recall, and sales corroborate that. We’re working through the kids bikes we have and will hopefully get more donations in the coming weeks.

     

    We’ve got a half dozen regular bikes on the sales floor but with the wintry snowy weather we’re experiencing, I don’t see those moving quickly. Have another half dozen that need final approval.

     

    This week we begin our M/W/F hours, which we’ll keep til the end of the semester and into next semester, as the colder weather tanks our demand.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 48
    Sales: 492.50

    Memberships: 9 for $270

    Tires/tubes: 16 for $95

     

    Thanks!

  2. 2025 Finalists and Ceremony Announcement: Reimagine Our Future

    Associated Project(s): 
    ReImagine Our Future

    This year’s competition drew a record 312 participants from 13 universities, with 62 judges completing the first-round evaluations. A group of 13 finals judges is now reviewing the finalists to determine the top award recipients. We are deeply grateful to all these volunteers for their generosity of time and for helping make this competition a success.

    A list of finalists appears below. Warm congratulations to the 13 finalist teams on their exceptional submissions, and sincere congratulations to all participants for your thoughtful fact sheets and compelling ideas. The competition was especially strong this year. Your work is both inspiring and forward-looking, and we hope you will continue to develop these ideas in pursuit of a more sustainable future.

    The 13 finalist teams will briefly present their projects on Saturday, December 6, 2025, between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (U.S. Central Time).  The ceremony will be held entirely on Zoom to accommodate our many participating institutions.

    FINALISTS IN THE 2025 REIMAGINE OUR FUTURE COMPETITION
    (In alphabetical order of the team leaders’ last names)

    Anastasiia Albut, Kseniia Zviahintseva, Anastasiia Lichna – International Humanitarian University Ukraine

    Andrea Jimena Arias-Diaz, Ricardo Robles-Fletes – National Autonomous University of Mexico  

    Isabella Bird, Katie Kan, Emily Herbst – University of Birmingham

    Briana Harris, Kevin Bustamante – Waubonsee Community College

    Matthew Kwong, Isaiah Kim, Amina Mandzukic, Aarushi Tiwari, Kaushal Siruvuri, Lionel Yan, Andrew Low, Adi Jha – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Henna Naveed – University of Birmingham

    Tricia Newman – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Angel Ofori-amanfo, Victory Ndibe-Onwuka, Elohor Oghorodi, Lukas Akyildiz – University of Birmingham

    Akhil Raizada, Logan Justiniani, Anna Aler, Arush Chatterjee, Arnav Pande, Gianna Niecestro, Sarina Shah, Jack Visnjevac – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Brooke Rember, Olivia Fleury, Niamh Mclaren-Moreton, Phoebe Hill, Emily Thomas – University of Birmingham

    Zaara Tariq Saeed, George Hodgson-Wilde, Xiaojie Deng, Julia Thornton – University of Birmingham

    Ayush Thaker, Vidipta Roy, SaarthakJain, Marcus Lam – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign  

    Crystal Zhao, Marlo Decapo, Valeria Echavarri, Yashwanth Nagarajan, Torin Schroeder – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  3. Land and Water Team November Monthly Meeting Minutes and Notes

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Prairie Restoration at Florida & Orchard
    Bee Campus USA
    Rainwater Management Plans

    The Land and Water Team met for its November monthly meeting on Friday, November 21, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM on Teams. This month, the team listened to a student conducting research on the usage of gray water systems in Illinois and other states and institutions. This research will help the team gain support from other organizations to potentially amend the Illinois plumbing code to permit the use of gray water in toilet flushing systems. The team was also updated on the status of the Florida Orchard Prairie maintenance, which will be taken care of by Red Bison, who is eager to work on this project. The team also discussed the pros and cons of maintaining our Bee Campus USA certification, which requires significant funds and effort to improve pollinator status, a task that is largely already accomplished by various campus groups. Attached are the meeting agenda and notes. 

    Attached Files: 

  4. Weekly Update -- Crankgiving, Kids Bike Giveaway, Future Events, & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    All,

    This past weekend was the Bike Project’s Cranksgiving event, which we helped promote. The event raised over $2,000 worth of food/supplies for Wesley Food Bank and the McKinley Pantry at Garden Hills.

    Elsewhere, I’ve got most of the abandoned bikes separated in each of the containers but not yet fully organized. Will continue work on that this week.

    Next up will be our Kids Bike Giveaway event. I’ll get a count of current inventory between here and the Bike Project in urbana this week, and begin refurbishing them.

    This will be our last week being open M – F as we are closed for Fall Break and will be M/W/F after the break.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 58
    Sales: 490.25
    Memberships: 6 for $180
    Tires/tubes: 13 for $103

    Thanks!

  5. Weekly Update -- Cranksgiving & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Snow! First significant snowfall of the year. Made for a messy commute in, but always better than driving.

    This upcoming weekend is the Bike Project’s event Cranksgiving, a bicycle food drive. We have a bike trailer set up for canned food donations this week. Weather’ll be great for the event—projected to be 70°!

     

    We’ll continue to tackle donations this week and get some more bikes done for our various programs.

    The numbers:

    Visitors:
    Sales: $823.50

    Bikes (Refurb): 1 for $170
    Memberships: 11 for $330

    Tires/tubes: 13 for $105

     

    Thanks!

     

  6. iCAP Engagement Team November Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Certified Green Office Program (CGOP)

    The iCAP Engagement Team met on Thursday, November 6th, 2025 from 4:00pm-5:05pm via Microsoft Teams. The team shared updates about the status of OneIllinois engagement, Greener Campus, and the ZeroWaste Training Module. The team also discussed a possible Newsletter post for E-Week regarding sustainability and the Certified Green Office Program.

    The meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  7. Weekly Update -- Future Events & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Deceptive time of year: cooler temps usually mean fewer folks in, but that did not prove out. We were all-stands-full for a good bit last week. This week feels like just about peak foliage, which is a great time to ride a bike!

    Additionally, this week we’ll be tackling the abandoned bikes and preparing for our Kids Bike Giveaway event. We have ~5 kids bikes done already here at CBC. I’ll do inventory at Urbana and meet with Marketing folks to get the word out.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 89
    Sales: $595

    Memberships: $10 for $300
    Tires/tubes: 16 for $146

     

    Thanks!

  8. Weekly Update -- Kids Bike Giveaway & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    I was out Friday and Monday so this is a day late. I was in Berkeley, CA which has roundabouts at all of their side-street intersections. (Hint, hint.)

    Pretty uneventful week otherwise. I’ll continue work on the containers and begin prep for our Kids Bike Giveaway event, which’ll be on 12/20. Look for flyers/advertisements for that next week.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 106

    Sales: $157.50
    Memberships: 15 for $450
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Tires/tubes: 12 for $101

    Thanks!

  9. Weekly Update -- Bike Parts & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Things are a tick slower now that the temps have dipped. I’ve been pulling from the abandoned bike containers for parts, mostly tires and saddles as those have been most in-demand. We have two bikes on the sales floor with a handful in the queue.  Our supply of checked-over Build-a-Bikes is returning to an acceptable number as well.

    This week I’ll tackle the containers of bikes and work to get them organized between bikes we’re keeping and those we’ll have scrapped.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 96

    Sales: $1,224.39

    Memberships: 19 for $570
    Tires/tubes: 39 for $353

     

    Thanks!

  10. Weekly Update -- Abandoned Bikes Retrieval & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    All,

    Last week was the conclusion of the bike retrieval period for abandoned bikes.  We got three claims in the 11th hour, which was good. I’ll begin organizing the leftovers this week, with help from my staff. We are critically low on some used parts, so this is fortuitous timing.

    Elsewhere, I have two new staffers starting this week—just in time for October!

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 94
    Sales: $1,319.25
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $100
    Memberships: 24 for $720
    Tires/tubes: 28 for $153

    Thanks!

  11. Weekly Update -- Light the Night & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Light the Night
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Last Wednesday was Bike To Work Day! It was a success. Had good weather and good turn outs at the stations I visited.

    Light The Night is tomorrow evening. Should be good weather—if warm—for that, too!

     

    We are busy but it’s not mayhem anymore—that’s a plus!

     

    We are low on used tires, as is common this time of year. I’ll roll over to the Urbana shop to see if they have any to spare.

    The numbers:

    Sales: $1,735.35
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50

    Memberships: 38 for $1140
    Tires/tubes: 31 for $286

  12. September 2025 Tree Committee meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Tree Campus Higher Education
    Red Oak Rain Garden
    Campus Tree Inventory

    The Tree Campus Advisory Committee met to review the overall program and committee membership. 

    • The new Campus Landscape Architect, Bridgette Moen, joined the committee. 
    • Team members discussed potential additions to the committee, including students, faculty, and staff.
    • Justin Vozzo shared a status update on the tree grant.
      • Picking up several trees - 90 planted total this year
      • Ryan is heading up the F&S side, Stirling is helping to manage the contracts
      • Justin is hosting some tree plantings across the state, Urbana and in Macomb
      • Two events each spring and fall for next tw o years
    • The South Arboretum Woods rehab has several plants being added, and there are student employees funded by the SSC.
    • The Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG) is doing another plant installation this fall, and works with volunteers. They also installed interpretive signage.
    • The Urban Wood Reuse program is going well.  The new mill is here, and they are working to hire more students.
    • The Committee began reviewing the goals in the 2024 Tree Care Plan.
      • The Tree Keeper Inventory is complete for F&S, and it is still in progress for the Arboretum. 
        • There is also the ARC GIS inventory - which pulls from Tree Keeper
        • Ongoing to keep it up to date
        • Tree surgeons are responsible for logging them into the system
        • Assistants are responsible for logging the stump removals - the sub-foreperson goes in to remove it and change it to open or vacant site
        • When it is removed it is no longer counted in the inventory
        • When a new tree is planted - working with the vacant sites and updating those, planning and potential planting spots and adding the new tree in there
        • We need to identify opportunities to update the existing inventory
          • Longer-term - should do an update - including the diameters of the trees - should update that, changes over time
          • Might need to be a tree expert - how to appropriately update it regularly - tree health - arborist or someone who knows a lot about trees
          • Potentially it could be through dendrology - students could potentially do DBH measurements and baseline health questions
          • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Justin is working on developing an arboriculture class, could do some tree inventory as part to that class 
        • ​​​​​​​Set a goal in 2025 Tree Care Plan to develop a comprehensive plan for handling tree inventory updates: get a plan together for how to do a regular update and comprehensive update.

  13. Weekly Update -- Build-a-Bike, Staffing Updates, and Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Busy as all get out. Sold all but one small bike for sale and moving Build-a-Bikes as fast as we can. Hope to have a few more prepped this week as demand for those is always high once we sell out of the refurbs.

    More staff will be available this week, which should help with the craziness.

     

    Returning abandoned bikes and getting some business out of that, which is welcomed. Plenty of folks that are retrieving their bikes are unaware of our space/offerings.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 234
    Sales: $1882.45

    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $250

    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $100
    Memberships: 23 for $690
    Tires/tubes: 48 for $351

  14. EV Charging Stations Updates

    Associated Project(s): 
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)
    Increase use of EVs and other Alternative Service Vehicles

    Email from Phillip Krein:

     

    I wanted to update you on our EV charge infrastructure project. Tim Abrahamson supported us today from about 12:30pm to 2pm to gather circuit information in parking structures C10, C7, and B4. I owe Mike Brown an updated design report for our next-generation boxes, and of course we will not mount any new units until all is approved and Dave can inspect the setups. In the meantime, we learned the following:

     

    In lot C10, four of our boxes can be supported without changes. The most likely plans place one each at the east and west columns on Level 2 and one each on those columns on Level 3.

     

    In lot C7, it appears that five boxes can be supported.

     

    In lot B4, we have chosen about all that are available (six units are in place).

     

    For Krannert, there is one signed space where a unit can be mounted.

     

    In F29 (the fire station and parking), it appears that four units can be supported, including three existing signed spaces.

     

    In lot E15, there are NO receptacles that do not interfere with a walking path or equipment access path, so no units can be mounted there.

     

    The total, including those in place, is 20 units. We are preparing 30 new units. I do have some plans for a few of them.

    Philip Krein

     

    We did observe that nearly all of these structures have potential for additional receptacle circuits, but this would require a project with wire pulls and infrastructure changes. Since we are talking about 120 V receptacles, such a project is routine, but obviously not trivial to set up and fund.

  15. Weekly Digest

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Not as busy as expecting but that gave us some time to fix up more bikes. We’re currently at capacity in the front lobby area and rearranged things in the back to accommodate some of the For Sale bikes back there.

    Got a count of the incoming collection of abandoned bikes, so once those are released to us, we’ll have a good plan for how to handle the influx.

    Interviewing for a couple positions and waiting to hear back from a few returning staff this week. And, of course, turning out bikes for the rush.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 11
    Sales: $179.50
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 8 for $44

  16. List of Buildings Modeled for Energy Use

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Models for Campus Facilities

    Professor Yun Yi provided the list of buildings that the class has modeled for energy use in the past:

    Here’s the list of campus buildings we’ve modeled for energy use. I’ve shared it with F&S. Over the past two years, we focused more on buildings with detailed HVAC systems, which allowed us to calibrate the models with actual usage data—specifically buildings 1 through 4.

     

    1. BEVIER HALL
    2. ALLEN HALL
    3. Newmark
    4. CIF
    5. Children’s Research Center
    6. Speech and Hearing Building
    7. Personal Services Building
    8. Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
    9. Temple Hoyne Buell Hall
    10. Labor & Employment Relations (LER)Harker Hall
    11. Student Services Building
    12. Irwin Center for Doctoral Study
    13. Wassaja Hall
    14. Ceramics Building
    15. Architecture Annex
    16. Uni High

     

    Best

    Yun

  19. Meeting with Mark Ginsberg, Paul Francisco, and Sterling Laylock

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy-Efficient HVAC Infection Control

    Morgan White, Sarthak Prasad, and Quinn Connolly met with Mark Ginsberg, Paul Francsico, and Sterling Laylock to discuss HVAC projects. Below are notes from the meeting:

    Techlink: Contaminant Flow Calculator and Intelligent HVAC

    • Attended by - Sarthak Prasad, Morgan White, Sterling Laylock, Mark Ginsberg, Paul Francisco, and Quinn Connolly
    • Introductions
      • Mark talked about the research
        • Partial differential equation
        • Solve issues using the software
    • Sterling is going to facilitate the meeting
      • Intelligent HVAC systems patent from Mark Ginsberg
      • License the patent
      • So people can do more using that
      • Synergy with University of Illinois and RPC's ICRT
      • Campus as a Living Lab
    • Morgan talked about the Safetraces project
      • Healthy environments for the users - during covid
      • SL connected with students
      • SL and Carl Tutt put together a funding application for SSC in collab with students
      • We don’t have a bucket of funding for these types of project
      • We would like to do another building on campus
        • Using the knowledge with Mark Ginsberg
      • The Building Envelope project for Transportation Building
        • This building is on the list of improvements
        • Blow-door tests
        • SSC project
    • MW asked what kind of opportunities there might be using Mark's technology?
      • Asked SL to start first
        • There is going to be a follow up
        • SL is going to make a recommendation to the Governor's Office
        • Seems that the Governor's office don’t have all the information - so they are asking for it now
        • It will directly benefit the private companies
        • The SB253 and SB 261 - The California Environmental reporting updates starting soon
          • Marsh McClennan is working on this
        • London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and one more stock exchange
        • Marsh McClennan Company to make contact with us - to help with this Environment reporting
          • Can be a good collaboration opportunity
          • Use of the Techlink technology
        • This company's work will not only help California's State Environmental reporting, but also extend to Illinois'
      • Demonstrate the software on university buildings?
        • SL - There is a version
          • Is there an intelligent HVAC in the building
          • MG - EPA is building a simulator at some point
            • A building inside the building
        • MG - The patent takes several years to go through
          • It was awarded at the same time as Covid
          • It was filed when Anthrax issue
        • MG - Trying on campus-
          • The instruction is simple for students
          • One - Solution exist
            • Contaminated person going to hospital don’t cause superspreader event all the time…
          • Recommendations-
            • Replace the air filter frequently
            • Keep the fan on
          • Single family house - taking HVAC from Auto to on (fan) -
            • $18 per month investment
            • Researched some time ago
          • You don’t want somebody downwind of someone
          • Buildings where this technology can be easily deployed?
            • Transportation Building?
            • Classrooms -
        • How would someone do the assessment?
          • Are you getting enough air changes per hour?
          • Are you leaving the builidng's air/fan on when the building is occupied?
            • Turn it off after 6 pm or when everybody leaves
        • The calculation of the consequence is - Advanced UG or Early Grad student could do it
    • SL - Licensing for the technology
      • Small business could use this technology - Phase 2?
      • Phase 1 -
        • Proof of business model?
    • MG -
      • By U of I standard - everything is siting on soft money
      • Nation wide hunt for the tech transfer for his product, and perhaps monetize them
      • MG can keep SL informed but that is how he wants to go
        • Nation wide search himself or hire a specialist
        • Big candidate
          • Big HVAC companies
          • Architecture/Architecture Design companies
            • Benteley Software- company
      • The prospect of
        • What is considered a starter and non-starter
    • There is not a direct benefit to MG?
      • We want to see if we can pay for MG
      • We don’t want to just do this for students to get some experience, we want to learn about the campus and campus buildings too…
    • MG - in terms of monetizing, it is not dependent on if U of I could get some money in the door
    • MW - Which type of buildings?
      • We have some students in Masters in Energy Planning
      • Leon Liebenberg
      • SSC funding - 1 year project
      • Energy efficiency and Air quality
      • We need to make sure that there is someone other than SP and MW advising the students
      • Campus side
        • Students/researchers - propose something they want to do
        • We want to know what would be helpful
    • MG - He has been cooperating with some professors there
      • He will work with some professors who are here currently
      • Right verbiage
      • What I want vs what would fit in student's education
      • Ty Newell - Horizon House
      •  
    • PF - IHSI might be a good connection also
      • Toni Jacobi or Craig Bradshaw
      • Craig Bradshaw is the head of ACRC
    • MW - What we are trying to offer
      • We can help with if we are allowed to use a building for this project
      • Introducing people in faculty and researchers
    • MW - Would you like to do a demonstration project on U of I campus?
      • Yes
      • He will talk to a few people and he will get back to us.
    • We want to start with a small building - Atmospheric Building
    • MG - we can work with some office spaces
      • Not classroom heavy spaces
      • Preferred - Office heavy spaces - some classrooms in the same building are fine
      • Noyes Lab - complicated
      • AITS building
      • Levis Center
      • Orchard Downs
      • North of Green street
      • Transportation Building
      • TBH or Mumford Hall
      • MEL
      • Maybe one of the PRI surveys
      • Formerly SEDAC building
    • Not comfortable with locations with a lot of people at the same time
    • Maybe get together with MG a couple of times a year to maybe tour these places
    • MG - will send a summary email as well

     

     

     

    • Circle back every two weeks?
      • SP will schedule the follow up meeting -
        • Next virtual and then following could be site visits
      • Maybe a site visit as well

     

    Created with OneNote.

  20. Weekly Digest: repair stand mats, bikes for sale

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Things are picking up here and will likely only get busier as we are fully into August now. We’ve still got around 20 bikes available and a few more in the queue. B-a-Bs are similar numbers. We received some non-slip mats for under the repair stands, which I will install this week.


    The numbers:
    Sales: $471.65

    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $160
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 2 for $10

    Jacob Benjamin

    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

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