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Project Updates for collection: Living Lab Facilities / Programs

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  1. Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, new staff

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

    All, Big news of last week is the abandoned bikes. Bike Project folk and I were able to take an inventory of the bikes that are available and given the number of bikes—fewest in my tenure!—we are not partnering with Working Bikes this year. I communicated as much last week and no hard feelings. If anything, they’re happy to hear we have less bike waste—and they would know, they’ve got a 3 story building full of bikes.

    This week we have a couple new staff members starting here. We’ll do some off-hours training with them.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 40
    Sales: $1,030.50
    Memberships: 18 for $540

    Tires/tubes: 27 for $212

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  2. Unclaimed abandoned bicycles donated to the Campus Bike Center

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

    Following the deadline day to claim impounded bicycles, Sarthak Prasad reached out to Jake Benjamin, campus bike center coordinator, to inform that these bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign. See the email below:

    Hi Jake,

    The deadline to claim impounded bicycles have passed, so you can start checking the bicycles in the barn now. These bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project. I have the serial number information for almost all of those bicycles in the spreadsheet as well. We had about 240ish bicycles to start with and 24 bicycles were returned this year.

    Thank you,

    Sarthak

  4. Weekly Update: Busy times, Light the Night, abandoned bikes

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

    All, Pretty standard week. Busy with some wait time on stands/repairs most days. Had a Build-a-Bike completed—always a good thing. My team and I did Light the Night on Tuesday at the Ikenberry Quad area. First time in a new location always gets us some looks and questions. Not as busy as we hoped but again, it’s not yet familiar to folks. No word yet on numbers. 

    We were dangerously overloaded on scrap by Friday, but Todd pick it up over the weekend—always appreciated.

    This week I’ll do inventory of the abandoned bikes to see what’s worth keeping. Of note: Easily the fewest abandoned bikes in my tenure. I think my first year there were over 500 bikes left over. Maybe bike shares are really helping that issue (and maybe creating others)?

    This week I’ll have two new staffers start. It’s apparently midterms, so reinforcements are paramount.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 62
    Sales: $1,122.50
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 20 for $600
    Tires/tubes: 26 for $192

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  5. Green Research Committee 4th Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Research Committee
    Green Lab Program

    September 20, 2023 Green Research Committee Meeting 4

     

    Present: Stephanie Hess, Tim Mies, Jennifer Fraterrigo, Paul Foote, Jeremy Neighbors, Shari Effert-Fanta, Lisa Moore, Morgan White, Chad Stevens, Sabrina Summers, Maisie Kingren, Daphne Hulse

     

    Absent: Mitchell Bryant

     

    High-level overview (Jeremy leads)

    • Full-time GR Coordinator
      • Reduce, reuse, and recycle campaign headed by the new coordinator.
    • Centralized location for chemicals
      • Tim: are there concerns or risks with transporting.
      • Stephanie: opportunity for reuse. Repurpose bottles. ECE, MRL, SCS (no space here though). Various locations that we can split up. Lot of labs have bottles that they use up
    • Grad student to help coordinate reduce, reuse, recycle. Additional student supports the GR coordinator with tasks as needed.
      • Morgan: need a full-time staff person for GR. But it is not enough. Need a student or two at least, to help support the staff. Without at least 2 paid students, you won’t get far. 40 hours’ worth of student time? During the school year, sometimes 2 students doing part-time still is not enough.
      • Jen: maybe consider what we need first for the program, before determining how many students to include (and staff). Start modest with our first proposal, with the expectation that we will build over time.
      • Paul: typically hire 2-5 students, some stay through the summer, to help with his energy-specific lab programs.
    • Where will this GR program reside? OVCRI office, with input from Madhu, Susan, and Ehab.
      • Morgan: is it in DRS or is it in iSEE? Both are under VCRI, so that makes sense. It is about sustainability with research. Include requirements in the job description to directly communicate to various stakeholders: research,
      • Paul: green research is all about change and adapting, which isn’t necessarily DRS culture. iSEE is always rolling out new initiatives and is very fluid.
      • Lisa: DRS works with regulation; sustainability is not regulation. Thought DRS first, but then looked into iSEE and thought that GR can be more easily built out under iSEE.
      • Morgan: happy to host it under F&S, but it makes more sense to have it under VCRI.
      • Jen: PI who has a lab perspective: already have a relationship with the audit. Potential to have a partnership with DRS in this new way.
      • Chad: safety is paramount over sustainability, so agree with Jen.
      • Stephanie: conversation with Daphne showed that breaking down barriers between units is very possible.
    • GR ambassadors (Jeremy)
      • Every department would have GR ambassadors, encourage it at the lab level. Would work routinely with the GR coordinator to roll out
      • Training curriculum, system for communicating what’s going on, what metrics we have, what results we’re seeing.
      • Behavior of labs and groups. Reduce, reuse, recycle campaign.
      • Shut the sash, use of equipment timers, can implement on day one.
      • Promoting some type of certification. Implement GR in other ways. Lab assessment tools (UIUC based internal, or MyGreenLab).
      • Certification would be a longer-term goal with the GR coordinator.
    • Incentives
      • Recognition is the primary way
      • Stephanie: faculty peer pressure, you want to be that person that is recognized for these initiatives. Susan promote some of these people might be good, too.
      • Chad: could there be monetary award for the research group for their future research. $2500 not a lot, $10K much more head-turning.
      • Tim Mies: Illinois Professionals (highlights), HR. Would that model work for this?
      • Stephanie: working with Patty to work on awards for safety (Oscars for safety). Could work well with research.
    • Communication and education
      • Well-developed education and outreach program for what we will do.
    • Safe energy conservation plans
      • Form task forces to address the two different processes in the charge:
        • How to hibernate labs
        • How to deal with renovation projects
      • Fully funded capital projects, facilities with significant infrastructure deficiencies, facilities without significant infrastructure deficiencies. Would need to be very collaborative. Building-by-building basis.
      • Morgan: 1.5 years to complete a campus facility assessment. December of 2024 all info will be up to date. It won’t cover all portions, because it’s more visual. How are the fume hoods being used?
      • Stephanie: Wondering the same question.
      • Chad: We don’t want to shut off a fume hood forever. There’s always going to be some revolving research based on grants, etc.GR coordinator could look into high-efficiency fume hoods. Need to have campus support for green energy.
      • Shari: Agree with Chad, with Paul’s team coming in, they can see where improvements can be made. Incur energy savings but not lose the capacity. Finding unique ways to do that. Install the newer technology, like low-flow, high-efficiency will go a long way in meeting iCAP goals. Need help with things that are outside the department’s DOR.
      • Paul: Agree with everyone. Shut down almost all hoods at the top floor of Soybean. Morrill Hall needs a lot of help with renovations. Helped get them out during a pilot program. There are other places that use them 24/7 and they are clean and well managed. We see it all.
    • Additional resource for kick-off
      • GR coordinator, communications team, IT support

  6. Weekly Update: Bike to Work Day, Light the Night

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I was out sick all last week with some combination of flu/cold/sinus infection. My staff handled operations in my absence. However, there were some issues tracking visit numbers, unfortunately.

    Last Thursday was Bike To Work Day. Some very awesome people stepped up and filled in for me. Sounds like it was a banner year! Congrats to all involved.

    Tomorrow evening is Light The Night. We’ll be hosting at a different location this year. Should be a better spot for folks to get their lights.

    We were inundated with donations last week. I’ll bring in staff off-hours to help scrap the junk bikes and reorganize this week. Hopefully we’ll have our space in better shape by our open hours on Wednesday.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 8*
    Sales: $1,242.50
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $215
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $40
    Memberships: 17 for $510
    Tires/tubes: 9 for $55

    *See above issue with visit numbers.

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  8. 2023 Competition Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    ReImagine Our Future

    Dear Friend of the Reimagine our Future student sustainability competition,

     

    We are writing to provide a brief update about Reimagine our Future.

     

    As you know, the aim of this competition is to harness the creativity and intelligence of undergraduate students, challenging them to develop ideas and solutions that will contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and encouraging them to feel empowered as engaged problem-solvers.

     

    Registration is now open for the 2023 competition, and we have some exciting developments to report.

    Students from nine participating higher education institutions can enter the competition this year either as individuals or as members of teams. (Students from any higher education institution anywhere may be on a team that enters the competition provided that team is led by a student from a participating institution.) An up-to-date list of the participating institutions is here.

    This year we added two special awards for the best submission dealing with some aspect of climate change and for the submission that went furthest in implementation.

    Also, Mike Yao, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor with appointments in the College of Media and the Gies College of Business, will serve as a mentor to the winning entrants, irrespective of their home institution, as they attempt to develop and implement their proposal.

    The important dates for the 2023 competition are available here.

    If you are an advisor on student projects, you may receive – any time between now and November 19th - a request for advice from one or more students who are planning a submission in your area of expertise or interest.

    If you are a judge, we will ask for a few hours of your time during November 20-24 to help develop the list of finalists.

    Special thanks to those who are playing both roles!

    Our list of advisors and judges includes specialists from various universities, companies, and institutions and from many backgrounds, fields, and disciplines. This broad-ranging list encourages submissions from students in many areas.  We expect to continue to add to this list.

    Thank you again for your ongoing help with this sustainability competition and for bringing your unique background, skills, professional history and more to this project. If you have advice or suggestions about any aspect of the competition, please let us know.

     

    Yours sincerely,

    Leon Liebenberg (Teaching Professor, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, UIUC) 

    Warren Lavey (Adjunct Professor, College of Law, School of Earth, Society & Environment, and College of Medicine, UIUC) 

    Robert McKim (Emeritus Professor, Department of Religion, UIUC) 

     

    (Reimagine Our Future co-founders and coordinating committee)

  9. Weekly Update: very busy week

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Another doozy of a week. Long wait times for stands, cash offers to “hold” bikes, and my favorite: “When will you get a new shipment of bikes?”

    This week promises to be a little better with more staff on board, and presumably fewer folks coming for their registration sticker. We’ll also have our first Friday Ride of the semester. Weather looks good for it!

    Tonight is the Bike Project Members’ Meeting. I’ll mention it to all the new members we sign-up today.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 142
    Sales: $2,631.38
    Bikes (refurb): 5 for $855
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $100
    Memberships: 28 for $840

    Tires/tubes: 37 for $263

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  10. Weekly Update: Students are back, Illini Frenzy

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, The semester has officially started! People are knocking on the doors at all hours, we’re almost out of sale bikes, the 529 registrations are a near constant, and there’s a wait for stand time by 3p every day. Demand is never higher than this time of year.

    On Saturday, we had the Illini Frenzy, and our spin-a-prize bike wheel was a huge hit. Something Pavlovian about the act of spinning a wheel. Even when we were out of all our freebies, people spun it anyways, and a line formed almost immediately. I’ll need to work out a couple of things with it, but I think it’s a keeper for outreach events and the like.

    On Friday, Daniel and Rick—two experienced volunteers—came by to lend a hand—and boy did we need it! Many thanks to them. Also, thanks to Todd for grabbing scrap over the weekend.

    This week I’ll try to throw some bikes together during our off hours, send out some offer letters for new hires, and do some trainings for our new/returning staff.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 156
    Sales: $3,127.75
    Bikes (refurb): 13 for $1,840

    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 21 for $630
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $84

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  11. Sustainability LLC iCAP presentation

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Living Learning Community (SLLC)

    On 08/16/2023, Morgan, Daphne, Sarthak, Quinn and Hrushikesh attended/ hosted Sustainability LLC iCAP presentation for the upcoming and aspiring undergraduate students to provide them information about all the aspects of iCAP and other entities. Additionally it was also a great mode of communication to connect with the young minds and get to know their vision regards the same cause.

  12. Weekly Udpate: Interviews for CBC

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Short week for me as I was out Wed – Fri last week. My staff covered in my absence.

    In the couple days I did work, we got the rest of the bikes out of the barn and began some Tetris-like work in reorganizing our space and bikes. Got a deluge of applications since I was out, which is great. I’ll schedule interviews for this week.

    Likely will get very busy this week as students return. I’ll build bikes as I can.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 20
    Sales: $1,021
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $480
    Memberships: 8 for $240
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $52

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  13. Monthly Meeting with Jake

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    On 08/07/2023, Sarthak and Hrushikesh had a monthly meeting with Jake.

    Meeting Notes:

    - Actively promoting Bike Registration to students or commuters visiting and using the Campus Bike Center.

    - Campus Bike Center should have printer QR code sticker/ flyer for Bike Registration.

    - Bike Friendly Application will be submitted on 08/08/2023.

    - Light the Night Event near Ikenberry Hopkins Hall and ARC.

    - Bike Lights including the screw fitting types will be used for the events.

    -  Bike Safety Quiz is recommended to be promoted by the Campus Bike Center.

    - Merchandise purchase order is placed.

    - How to use Outdoor Pumps video can be made by the Campus Recreation marketing team.

    To do for Sarthak:

    - Find out Campus Bike Center Built-up area for UIC recommendation.

    - Try to get the merchandise before August 20th for the Campus Bike Center events.    

  14. Weekly Update: Calm before the storm, getting ready

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, These days feel like the calm before the storm. Starting to get phone calls and emails from families and folks looking for bikes as they plan to come to town. We’ll sell out of our supply of bikes before the semester begins, if past demand is any indication.  We’ll work on getting a few more B-a-Bs prepped and ready to go, as demand looks to increase in the absence of refurbished bikes.

    I’ll be out of the office Wednesday – Friday this week. My staff will cover open hours on those days.

    The numbers:

    Sales: $572
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $345
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 6 for $43

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  15. 8/3 Meeting to discuss location at Hope Village

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illinois Solar Decathlon

    Illinois Solar Decathlon President Rachel Chen met with Marty Smith to discuss the possibility of having the current next solar decathlon home built at the hope village project. Marty discussed possibilities for a separated subdivision of homes. But the more likely option would be to construct a library or community building than a single family home. Either of these options would be more likely during the next building cycle for solar decathlon.

  16. Weekly Update: Less abandoned bikes, Kids' Bikes

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

    All, Slow visitor-wise, but busy otherwise. Moved almost all the bikes out of the round barn, and the very last of them I’ll get this week. Sounds like we’ll have less bikes from the round up than in years’ past, something I am happy for. Hopefully, it means more people are caring about and actually riding their bikes—a guy can dream!  Irrespective of the reason, less bikes means less grunt work, and that’s a huge plus in my book.

    We are still up to our ears in kids’ bikes, as the ones we have are not coming together as I’d like. Lots of short-supply parts are needed. I’ll need to dedicate some off-hours time to this as these kinds of projects are not well-suited to student staff/volunteers, apparently.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 25
    Sales: $890.34
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $535
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 5 for $50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  17. Weekly Update: Abandoned Bikes, potential new hire

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Calm and slow week. All the abandoned bikes out front of the Bike Center were removed. We had a few people in wondering where their bikes had gone, so there’s some “educational” opportunities around the process still.

    As the abandoned bike removal process is underway, we still have around 30 bikes to get out of the round barn, which we’ll tackle this week with the help of Bike Project volunteers.

    I’ll be interviewing a potential hire this week who’s a PhD student from the Netherlands. I’m eager to get their perspective on ways we can improve our community—or ways we’re already doing well!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 32
    Sales: $569.45
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $325
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 5 for $ 50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  20. Weekly Update: e-bike questions

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I’m having more and more conversations with folks about e-bikes. One older woman I spoke with last week said the nearest place able to service her e-bike is in Springfield, IL. Anecdotally, folks don’t seem aware of just how big and dangerous e-bike batteries are from an insurance perspective and thus why bike shops can’t work on them. I see myself having a lot of similar conversations over the next few months…

    We’re hovering around 20 bikes on the sales floor, but we’ve got almost 20 kids’ bikes taking up real estate, too. Plan this week is to fix a dozen or so of those and move them along, hopefully to some of the groups/orgs we’ve worked with in the past.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 21
    Sales: $711.65
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $400
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $60
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 7 for $98

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

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