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Project Updates

  2. Energy Source Options Final Design Report 5/6/22

    Associated Project(s): 
    Explore Options for 100 Percent Clean Campus Energy

    The attached document is entitled Energy Source Options Final Design Report. Which is a report done for ME 470 Senior Design. 

    The report details research on the use of compressed CO2 as a refrigerant. The goal of the report was to determine if this system would be viable option for providing green energy on campus.

    Attached Files: 

  4. Weekly Update: Kids bike give away; Build-a-Bike

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last week we were able to fix up and give away 10 kids bikes to ISCU (Immigrant Services of Champaign-Urbana). Great to pass along valuable bikes to a valuable cause, and nice to clear some space in the Bike Center. We also virtually sold out of bikes, as we were down to a single for-sale bike on Wednesday. Fixed up 2 more for Friday but that’s likely not going to cut it, so we’ll move to finish a few more builds this week.

    We had one person start on a Build-a-Bike on Friday. Hopefully should be done today or Wednesday.

    Numbers:

    Visitors: 31

    Sales: $1,289.80
    Bikes (refurb): 4 for $$675

    Memberships: 7 or $210
    Tire/tubes: 3 for $24

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  8. 2022 TEACHAD Webinar: Case study from the Michigan State University South Campus Anaerobic Digester

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Foodwaste
    Anaerobic Digester at Beef and Sheep Study
    Develop Local Carbon Offset Program [ARCHIVED]

    Dana Kirk, Associate Professor at Michigan State University, presented a webinar on May 31, 2022 titled "Universities go green! A case study from the Michigan State University South Campus Anaerobic Digester", which also featured Marcello Pibiri, Senior Research Engineer at Energy Resources Center UIC.

    In case you missed the live webinar or if you would like to view the recorded session again, go to https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/7048417514261610508. You can register with your name and email to watch the recording. Also attached is the presentation by Dana Kirk from this webinar.

    Marcello and his team at ERC organize the New Technical Education & Analysis for Community Hauling and Anaerobic Digesters (TEACH AD) Program to educate people about Anaerobic Digesters.

    Attached Files: 

  9. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - June 24, 2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal
    • Michael will look into automation options for filling in the Menu Settings Parent Item (for breadcrumbs) automatically from the Project Parent field
    • Michael will also look at possibilities for expanding the menu length, beyond the built in limit that drupal includes by default
    • The menu settings
    • Is there a way to make sure every project has "sticky at top of lists" automatically? Michael will check - Drupal treats them all as a node, so he can see if Projects can start with "sticky" by default
    • He fixed the image rotation issue
    • On the header layout, he added a view gallery link and moved the project name to align with it. The view gallery link on header layouts shows up even if there are not images associated - so what should we do?  We can add help text for the layout options, to note how it works (related to images, and possibly other things) - we added this in this meeting.
    • Add a third layout called "Fancy Project Layout" - mirror the Header Project Layout and keep the Gallery in the Fancy Project layout, but remove it from the Header layout
    • We also looked

  10. Composting and Cover Crops on Dairy/South Farms

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainable Land Management Committee

    The following is an email conversation discussing a meeting which covers the Dairy/South farms.

    Good afternoon,

     

    As a reminder, we will be meeting tomorrow at 2:00 PM to discuss moving forward with composting and cover crops at the dairy farm/South Farms. The meeting details are below. If you can no longer participate, please let me know.

     

    Best,

     

    Jennifer

     

    Good morning,

    Nice meeting with everyone yesterday. Do not hesitate to contact me if there are opportunities to collaborate on hypothesis-driven extramurally funded research related to sustainable systems for integrated livestock and crop production. I will be pleased to participate or more likely connect you with appropriate PIs in animal sciences.

     

    Emily, I will appreciate it if you can direct me to some resources on the COMET program.

    Best wishes,

    Rod

  12. Weekly Update: Closed for Juneteenth, Donations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Short week with the observed Juneteenth holiday on Friday. We’ve steadily been receiving donations but most of them are doomed for the scrap pile. But at least we’ll get some decent parts off them.

    Got a few bikes in the queue that should make the sales floor by end of week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 22
    Sales: $568.19
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $215
    Memberships: 7 for $210

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  13. Ammonia Sampling Research

    Associated Project(s): 
    iSEE Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) Projects

    On Oct 20, 2021 Christopher Tessum reached out to Morgan White to discuss two projects he and a collaborator were working on.

    The follow is a segment of that email:

    A collaborator and I are thinking about submitting two proposals to the ISEE campus as a living laboratory program, and when I discussed them with Jeremy Guest he mentioned that it could be good to reach out to you first to see if one or both of them would be something that F&S would be okay with being implemented.

     

    The first project is to develop a new method to estimate traffic related air pollution exposure using deep learning based on traffic camera footage. We would plan to collect video footage and air pollution data with equipment in a compact vehicle parked along the busier roads around campus. There would be someone in the vehicle monitoring the equipment at all times.

     

    The other project would involve using passive samplers to collect ammonia air pollution measurements. These passive samplers have no sound, no light, no smell (please see the attached picture), and need to be placed on things like utility poles, fences, signs, trees, etc. We already have permission to place them at the research farm and animal science facility, and would like to find about 10-15 locations throughout the rest of campus.

     

    If you would be willing to share your thoughts about whether there would be any issues from the perspective of F&S for either of these projects, we would greatly appreciate it. If you would like to meet to discuss further that would be great too. Thank you for your consideration!

     

    Morgan replied to Christopher, providing a few suggestions of people to inform of their research plans. 

    On March 14, 2022  Mei Tessum sent Morgan White and update on their projects. Mei explained that the researchers did not receive funding from ISEE but obtained other funds to proceed with their research. The researchers attached an ammonia sample to a light pole outside of the CEE building. She also stated that more samplers would need to be put around campus and asked Morgan for further advice. Mei attached a photo of this sampler which is attached to this thread.

    Morgan replied to Mei stating that they would need to contact the Architectural Review Committees (ARC) for permission to make temporary or permanent installations.

    On June 21, 2022 Bradley Klein responded to Mei Tessum, stating that the ARC had reviewed their request and had the following comments and questions:

    We want to approve specific locations. 

    It is not acceptable on the Main Quad. 

    How long will these be installed? 

    Remove when complete. 

    Mount higher up to avoid tampering.

    Mei replied to Bradley and the ARC's questions with the following:

    1. We would like to put those samplers at following locations: outside of the CEE building, ABE building, Illinois water survey building, Oak Street Library building, National Petascale Computing Facility building, Printing Services South Building, Spurlock Museum building, and UIUC Surplus building.
    1. We will NOT set any samplers on Main Quad.
    1. Samplers will be set up for a year, so by the end of June 2023 all the samplers will be completely removed. 
    1. Because we are measuring the air pollutant at the breathing zone level, we will have to set the samplers about 5.5-6ft above ground. We will put our contact information on each sampler shalter. 

    All the samplers have no noise, no odor, no light, and will be maintained biweekly.

     

     

    Attached Files: 

  19. Save Soil Movement - June 2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Monitor Soil Health

    Ayush Gupta shared the following message: there are walkathons happening across 60 cities for the Save Soil movement in the States in June. Check it out here and consider participating if you happen to find yourself in one of the cities.

    https://www.consciousplanet.org/walkathon?mkt_tok=MTcyLUVFVS0xOTAAAAGE8zVRsrjyXQ5nVug3pTNsAodzSzhsF8biyXjk-RPUhF6kySegwdhhlpGrm9QbEscE5WZjkujeo47tWtq2Z-UVScbjilsNh1qbL1noUOZ3Y2COy_s

  20. Water bottle reduction at the Union

    Associated Project(s): 
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Per J.B. Bailey, the Assistant Director for Programming, the Union includes marketing on all events that the Union has water filling stations near where the event is occurring and encouraging students to bring their own bottles to fill up there. The goal is that this will allow us to reduce the amount of disposable cups we provide at our events where drinks are provided. The board has also discussed not providing plastic water bottles as give-a-ways moving forward. 

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