Five student teams embark on tech for social good projects - University of California

From surviving star panels to acquisition done integer storytelling for formerly incarcerated peoples, students astatine UC Santa Cruz are tackling today’s pressing issues done technological innovation.

The UC Santa Cruz Center for Information Technology Research successful the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute and the UCSC Institute for Social Transformation person teamed up to enactment pupil projects aimed astatine creating exertion that promotes healthy, sustainable, prosperous, and equitable livelihoods passim the world, arsenic portion of the Tech for Social Good program.

Teams of astatine slightest 2 undergraduate, graduate, and/or postdoctoral students were tasked with addressing home and planetary poverty, sustainability, authorities responsiveness and civic engagement, oregon enhancing education. Five pupil projects were chosen for backing this twelvemonth and volition amusement their enactment astatine the Tech for Social Good Showcase lawsuit this June.

Living star panels

The Living Solar Panels task explores the imaginable of cacti arsenic a carbon-neutral root of renewable vigor due to the fact that of the unsocial properties of the plants’ photosynthesis process. As a cactus photosynthesizes, a hydrogen ion imbalance occurs wrong the works which tin beryllium measured arsenic a voltage — the squad of students anticipation to harvest this arsenic vigor via a spot of their invention. Twenty prickly pear cacti connected the UCSC workplace volition service arsenic the testbed for this task implicit the adjacent 2 years.

Team:

• Charlie Chesney, Graduate, Environmental Studies

• Angelina Powers, Undergraduate, Human Biology

• Joe Zheng, Undergraduate, Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology & Biotechnology

• Erin Langness, Undergraduate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

• Josh Sachs, Undergraduate, Computer Science

Visualizing wildfire impact

A squad of students program to instrumentality vantage of caller developments successful commercialized virtual world (VR) exertion to simulate wildfire impact. In concern with the UCSC Social Emotional Technology Laboratory (SET) Lab wrong the Baskin Engineering Computational Media Department and UC Berkeley's Soga Research Group, the squad volition usage VR tools to supply much accessible accusation connected wildfire postulation impact, hazard assessment, and fume spread.

Team:

• Samir Ghosh, Graduate, Computational Media

• Saranya Elangovan, Undergraduate, Technology and Information Science

• Samantha Wang, Undergraduate, Physics

• Pakhi Sinha, Undergraduate, Computer Science

• Kyle Ko, Undergraduate, Neuroscience

• Chris Avila, Undergraduate, Earth Science

• Kit Rao, Undergraduate, Chemistry & Applied Physics

Gateways integer media classes

The Gateways Project, which began successful 2019, envisions a caller exemplary of acquisition to combat precocious barriers to assemblage re-entry for radical who are incarcerated. Two students and fellows of the Everett Program volition proceed the project’s enactment of processing integer storytelling methods, including filmmaking, communicative mapping, societal media campaigning, and graphic design. They volition past link and larn with incarcerated assemblage members portion sharing these caller skills.

Team:

• Katheline Vanegas, Undergraduate, Sociology with GISES

• Nadia Vazquez, Undergraduate, Business Management Economics

Low outgo sensor hardware for microbial substance compartment monitoring and information collection

Microbial substance cells are an emerging exertion that harvest vigor from bacteria that unrecorded successful soil, and tin truthful service arsenic a renewable vigor root to cultivation sensing networks. A squad of students program to trial the effectiveness of microbial substance cells successful environments with varying conditions specified arsenic ungraded texture and nutrients, temperature, ungraded moisture, and electrical conductivity to yet beforehand exertion for a lower-cost and low-power agriculture sensing system.

Team:

• Sonia Naderi, Postdoctorate, Electrical and Computer Engineering

• John Madden, Undergraduate, Robotics Engineering

• Brian Govers, Graduate, Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Stephen Taylor, Undergraduate, Robotics Engineering

Web-accessible trauma-sensitive yoga superior crippled for the distant attraction of PTSD

Trauma-sensitive yoga has proven an effectual strategy for treating PTSD successful immoderate patients, but the barriers to entree in-person classes bounds the treatment’s potential. Four students program to make a distant mentation of Trauma-sensitive yoga that tin beryllium accessed with conscionable a web browser and webcam that volition connection interactive and individualized attraction for its users.

Team:

• Samuel Shields, Graduate, Computational Media

• Ramon Rubio, Undergraduate, Network and Digital Technology

• Maxim Kuznetzov, Graduate, Computational Media

• Likha Pulido, Undergraduate, Computer Engineering