Projects
Biodigester Design Project
Animal waste, human waste, and food scraps can be turned into useful biogas (60-70% methane) for cooking or heating water and odorless fertilizer through bacterial digestion. We are researching existing projects and developing a prototype to build at the University. Eventually, this system will be implemented in the developing world in conjunction with other BLUElab projects. This project has the potential to quantify, expand, and improve a process that already provides clean cooking fuel in rural communities in countries such as China, India, and the Philippines.
Project Leaders: Jeff Schloemer (schloemj@umich.edu) and Erin Bachynski (ebachyns@umich.edu)
Orphan Care Center in Malawi, Africa
Ann Phillips is a local teacher that has put together a group of people planning to build orphan care centers in Malawi, Africa. The group is collaborating with Joyce Banda, a winner of the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger. They would like BLUElab's help in designing the layout of the orphan care centers, creating a way to cook food at the center without burning wood, designing a system for running water, creating sustainable electricity, and inventing entrepreneurship opportunities for the children.
Project Leaders: Jim Lewis (jimlewis@umich.edu) and Merry Shao (mshao@umich.edu)
Student Outreach in Detroit
BLUElab is organizing an outreach program with middle school students in Detroit. These students will be coming to the University of Michigan to take part in three workshops that BLUElab creates. Likely topics for these workshops include alternative fuels, pollution, and sustainable design. We will also be helping these students create their own design competition by working with them in Detroit.
Project Leader: Genevieve Lampinen (generose@umich.edu)
Sustainable Development in Hagley Gap, Jamaica
BLUElab is collaborating with Students for Jamaica and the Blue Mountain Project. Students for Jamaica is a group of UM medical students that help staff a health clinic in Hagley Gap every year. The Blue Mountain Project is a non-profit organization that provides housing, food, and transportation to student groups that visit Hagley Gap. BLUElab's role will be to create a source of clean water, fix a collapsing bridge, and to provide a sustainable source of electricity to the health clinic and Blue Mountain Project buildings.
Project Leader: Mike Berger (mjberger@umich.edu)
Sustainable Housing Project Initiative
In both developed and developing countries, housing is a serious issue to be contended with, for both people and the environment. The goal of the project is to develop a system of housing that incorporates cultural, environmental and economic factors in a variety of locations around the world. The end products of the Sustainable Housing Project Initiative will be design proposals that can be submitted to the EPA's P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet competition. The project(s) will be submitted under the Built Environment Category by the deadline in December 2007.
Project Leader: Eva Ward (emward@umich.edu)
Gallery Exhibit and Lecture Series
Annually, BLUElab creates an exhibit in the Duderstadt Gallery and hosts a lecture series. The Gallery Project allows students to express their creativity while raising awareness of sustainability related issues. The Lecture Series brings speakers to campus that talk about everything from biodiesel to the policy of global climate change.
Project Leaders: Erica Green (greeneri@umich.edu) and Katy Bellairs (kbellair@umich.edu)