Eight UCSC Collaborative Community Engineering Demos

Come to this Meetup to see and hear what this year's UCSC IDEASS students have been creating at the Santa Cruz Wharf and elsewhere in the community.

Our meetup on Wednesday April 4, 2012, 6:30pm, will be a joint event at the Cruzio Building for both the SC New Tech Meetup and the MakersFactory Meetup.

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/d/5/7/2/event_103554642.jpegOur topic is:

Eight UCSC Collaborative Community Engineering Demonstrations

Details:

Eight UCSC Collaborative Community Engineering Demonstrations (UCSC Students bring Energy Measurement to the Wharf)

Moderated by:

James Barsimantov, Ph.D. (IDEASS Instructor and Principal at EcoShift) and Tamara Ball, Ph.D. (IDEASS Instructor).

Today's university students are solving real-world sustainability issues through collaboration with expert researchers, community leaders and multidisciplinary teams. Come to the Meetup to see and hear what this year's UCSC IDEASS students have been creating at the Santa Cruz Wharf and how you might be able to participate in next year's program. Join the discussion of how, through partnership and effort, we can all contribute to our community's economics through sustainable project design and implementation.

IDEASS: Education with Impact
The UCSC Impact Designs: Engineering and Sustainability through Student Service (IDEASS) program gives students the inspiration, confidence, practical skills, and mentorship they need to address civic challenges in the 21st Century. Inspired by a growing student demand for programs in sustainable design and engineering that focus on the built environment, IDEASS is a needed complement to existing coursework and internships that focus on environmental science or ecological research and activism.

Participants learn how to apply ecological theory and research and apply appropriate technology to develop feasible solutions. They gain the chance to work closely with experienced professionals, researchers and other sustainability leaders in the community towards tangible impacts while gaining the skills and building the connections that will earn them a place in the emerging green technology work force. Students completing IDEASS learn what it takes to move past initial visions and propositions and successfully plan and complete creative solutions on a professional level.

The program also represents a robust collaboration among the UCSC Sustainable Living Center, the Center for Sustainable Energy and Power Systems (CENSEPS) in the Baskin School of Engineering, UCSC Environmental Studies Department, and the Campus Sustainability Office, all of whom have had recent successes in growing efforts in sustainability education at UCSC. Individual projects involve students from multiple disciplines and therefore use diverse approaches to address sustainability concerns, such as technological innovation, education & behavior change, participatory planning, and sustainable design.

Examples of projects being initiated for the 2011/2012 academic year include:

1. Remote and distributed water monitoring system for a local business.
2. Mitigating impacts at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk through
   the redevelopment of prize structures for boulevard games.
3. Soquel Water District rainwater-to-toilet catchment designs
4. QR Codes for mobile phone apps for a self-guided (web-based)
   Eco-Tour on the SC Municipal Wharf.
5. Electric vehicle charging station for SC Municipal Wharf
6. Bicycle traffic monitoring, Technology and Policy
7. Solar tube Installations at the Natural Bridges Green Career School
8. Dashboard displays for interactive energy monitoring
   and more..

Re Photo above:

IDEASS, newly installed sensors record the energy activity and provide a vital feedback loop on the Santa Cruz Wharf