BLUElab's education initiatives have included the development of a new course, the establishment of a lecture series, and collaborations with various engineering professors to include development projects and problems into existing curricula. Below you can find more specific information about our education work.

SEMINARS

2006-2007 Academic Year Lecture Series

Schedule:

• 11/28/06 - Karen Mayer - 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM, Duderstadt Gallery
  Director of Intel's Community Solutions Efforts
  Inaugural Luncheon
• 1/9/07 - Jim Bodenner - 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, 1690 CSE
  Director of Water Initiatives at International Aid
• 1/11/07 - Trevor Field - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Baer Room (2906 Cooley Bldg.)
  Founder of Playpumps International
• 3/20/07 - Steve Bertman - 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, 1690 CSE
  Professor of Chemistry at Western Michigan University

Speaker Descriptions:

• Karen Mayer. Director of Intel's Global Community Solutions Efforts. Ms. Mayer has led efforts to blend Intel's technology expertise with its commitment to Corporate Responsibility into solutions that strengthen communities world wide. Among her accomplishments, she has worked in sustainable logging efforts in Bolivia, which incorporated tracking technologies to track timber from standing stock to saw mill, to ensure every owner in the supply chain that a Bolivian wood product comes from a sustainable forest and not from illegal harvesting.
  
  
• Jim Bodenner. Director of Water Initiatives at International Aid. Mr. Bodenner, a seasoned business consultant and entrepreneur joined International Aid to launch micro businesses worldwide that will provide potable water for developing countries by having villagers take ownership of a simple and effective filtration technology as entrepreneurs. Mr. Bodenner has helped put more than 7,500 BioSand water Filters into operation in the Dominican Republic and Haiti with the aid of Rotary clubs in the U.S., Canada and the Dominican Republic.
  
  
• Trevor Field. Founder of Playpumps International. Mr. Field has spearheaded an effort to create sustainable clean water systems within poor villages in South Africa. Co-inventor of the "play pump" -- a children's merry-go-round that pumps clean drinking water from a deep borehole every time the children play, the idea proved so inventive, so cost-efficient and so much fun for the kids that it received a 2000 World Bank Marketplace Development Award.
  
  
• Steve Bertman. Professor of chemistry at Western Michigan University. Dr. Bertman has over 20 years of experience leading research in atmospheric chemistry, biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and most recently alternative fuels. His current work has focused on the development and distribution of inexpensive methods for biofuel propagation in the Kalamazoo area. Dr Bertman holds a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry from Yale University and a BS from Union College.

Archives
Fall 2005 Seminar Series
Fall 2004 Seminar Series

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COURSES

ENGR 490
BLUElab has sponsored a new course, ENGR 490: Engineering for Community, that is offered in the Winter semester. This course has a discussion-based lecture, with grades being primarily determined by a group term project.

ME 450
BLUElab has sponsored a number of projects for student work in ME 450, the Mechanical Engineering Department's senior design course.

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