Funded Projects and Events

Greenhouses equipped with sensors can increase crop yield efficiency by reducing resource usage such as water, fertilizer, and lighting. Current monitoring systems for protected agriculture are expensive, energy-demanding, and require frequent human intervention. We propose a chance to leverage existing greenhouse control systems by creating an ultra-low power open-source sensing node that is powered by and communicated to via the existing supplemental lighting commonly found in protected agriculture. This approach will yield reduced costs in both power consumption as well as labor.

The key technologies that we will develop to achieve this goal are Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Radio Frequency (RF) backscatter. Traditionally, VLC has used the high-speed toggling of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to send a wireless signal to a solar panel receiver. The main benefit of using VLC is that it functions as both a source of energy for the low-power sensing node as well as a channel to send data or commands to the node. Furthermore, in our case, the LEDs can also be used as the aforementioned supplemental lighting for greenhouses. RF backscatter is a passive communication technique that modulates and reflects RF waves instead of generating, which enables wireless communication that operates at orders of magnitude lower power than traditional WiFi or Bluetooth. By using LiFi to send data to the sensor nodes (downlink) and RF backscatter to transmit data from the sensor nodes (uplink), we can implement a novel ultra-low power wireless sensor network that will be ideal for greenhouses.

Our work primarily aims to improve the techniques used in VLC to further enhance communication range and resilience to noise by developing a chirp spread spectrum -based modulation technique. This modulation technique will be more robust in greenhouse environments where there is significant noise (in the form of sunlight) as it encodes data in the phase of the signal rather than its amplitude. In addition, our work involves deployment of this VLC/RF-based wireless sensor network in the UCSC Coastal Biology Greenhouses to go beyond the lab bench and directly benefit actual greenhouses.

Team:

• Jack Lin, Graduate, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Yawen Guo, Graduate, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Matt Kaltman, Undergraduate, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Firouz Vafadari, Graduate, Computer Science and Engineering

Problem
Moving away from fossil fuels to increase our reliance on renewable energy sources is one key step in meeting climate goals. However, renewable energy facilities can negatively impact ecosystems (Naugle, 2011), including birds via impact collision fatalities (Conkling et al., 2022). Bird diversity declines negatively impact the ecosystem services they provide: pollination, seed dispersal, insect and rodent control, decomposition, and cultural importance (Whelan et al., 2015).

Proposed Solution
Living Solar Panels aims to be the first living-cactus electricity farm. The farm plot will demonstrate the ability of Living Solar Panels to provide carbon-negative and biodiversity-friendly electricity. The plot will serve as a living testbed to explore how much electricity can be harvested from 20 living cactus stems, as well as providing undergraduate learning opportunities. Because cacti absorb and sequester CO2, Living Solar Panels could become a carbon-negative renewable energy source, thereby decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric carbon while avoiding potential impact collisions to birds.

Why cacti?
Living Solar Panels harvest electricity from the electrical potential that naturally forms across a cactus stem as a consequence of the Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) photosynthetic pathway. Plants that undergo CAM uptake carbon dioxide (CO2) during the night, not during the day like most plants (Gibson and Nobel, 1986). CAM plants store nighttime CO2 as malic acid, and during the day, it is broken down to release the CO2 for use in photosynthesis. Because cactus stems are opaque, light cannot penetrate through the stem, thus each cactus side photosynthesizes independently (Gibson and Nobel, 1986). The malic acid is broken down at a faster rate on the side intercepting the most light, raising the pH. The side in the shade breaks down the acid more slowly and has a lower, more acidic pH. This creates a concentration difference across the cactus stem, resulting in an electrical potential that causes protons (charged hydrogen ions, H+) to move across the stem (Nobel, 2020). The H+ difference can be measured as a voltage and could be harvested as electricity.

Methods
The demonstration plot is located at the UCSC farm and contains 20 prickly pear cactus (Opuntia streptacantha) stems. Power will be harvested using an innovative “patch” that we will build and attach to the stem surfaces. It will continuously monitor voltage and current and will be attached to a battery that it will charge. Each patch is attached to a WiFi-enabled microcontroller for remote monitoring and so UCSC farm visitors can view data in real time. Two quantum light sensors will also be attached to the microcontroller to monitor intercepted light on each side of the stem. We will use this data to model larger scale cactus electricity farms under varying light levels. We will harvest electricity and collect data for two 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

California jails are overcrowded and under-resourced. While this poses a problem in and of itself, mass incarceration impacts an individual’s life long after their release, facing barriers to employment, catching up to rapid technological innovations, and navigating through the social discrimination of formerly incarcerated people. Community re-entry is so difficult that within three years more than 65% of all formerly incarcerated Californians return to jail. High recidivism rates not only impact those returning to jails, but also their families and communities, with a higher likelihood that families will live in poverty and further disrupt their community structures.

The Gateways Project proposes a new innovative model towards education through digital storytelling and near to peer mentoring, in which these workshops are facilitated by our undergraduate UC Santa Cruz Everett Fellow team members. Each year, the Everett Program recruits a cohort of 20-30 student fellows, who manage the non-profit and collaborate on tech for social justice projects. Fellows sign on to work with Gateways, allowing for a sustainable flow of student labor and interest for long-term continuation. Through their projects, students learn about a variety of digital storytelling methods including filmmaking, story maps, social media campaigning, and graphic design. They will then have the opportunity to connect with incarcerated community members, learn with them, and pass on the knowledge that they gained as students and fellows in an innovative university program.

Team:

• Katheline Vanegas, Undergraduate, Sociology with GISES
• Nadia Vazquez, Undergraduate, Business Management Economics

Modern strategies to manage the mental repercussions of Trauma show that non-pharmacological treatments potentially have the same if not better efficacy than pharmaceutical treatments alone. Several studied treatments that produced strong results focus on stabilizing desynchronized brain activity and emphasizing body awareness. Among these treatments are gamified neurofeedback and Yoga [1]. While these treatments can be transformative for patients, access barriers are high. A patient must be able and willing to see a therapist, perform physical exercises in front of others, and the class size must be small and explicitly catered to Trauma.

Meanwhile, Telehealth has become an effective, common vector for physical therapy and is necessary if personalized treatments such as Trauma-Sensitive Yoga are to scale to a large population efficiently. The proliferation of a variety of sensors to consumers (cell phones, cameras, controllers, video game systems) and the cultural growth of video games suggest an opportunity space to allow Trauma survivors to receive interactive, individualized, embodied therapy without having to overcome these obstacles. With this in mind, we aim to create a gamified experience of a Trauma-Sensitive Yoga routine that is accessible to anyone with a web browser and webcam.

Team:

• Samuel Shields, Graduate, Computational Media
• Ramon Rubio, Undergraduate, Network and Digital Technology
• Maxim Kuznetzov, Graduate, Computational Media
• Likha Pulido, Undergraduate, Computer Engineering

This project aims to leverage cutting-edge machine learning and data mining techniques to build a virtual assistant for farmers. The aim is to provide farmers with instant access to information that would not otherwise be easily accessible or available to them. Much of the valuable agriculture information on the internet seems to be dense, highly technical, and hard to find. Information about specific agricultural questions is relatively sparse compared to the information accessible in other domains. One motivation of this project is to inform farmers about how to make sustainable choices that are not only good for them economically, but also good for the world. The team wants to use state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques to create a tool that will bridge the information network gap between the untapped useful information and working farmers.

Team:

• Brian Mak, Graduate, Natural Language Processing
• Wendi Tan, Undergraduate, Math
• Brady Yung, Undergraduate, Computer Science

Global Environmental Justice Observatory (GEJO)

The Global Environmental Justice Observatory (GEJO) seeks to explore and improve understandings of the interdisciplinary problems and applications of environmental justice and serve as a resource for students, academics, and the general public. A problem the team has identified within the academic environmental justice community is that much of the research being done has access restrictions. GEJO seeks to address this issue with its open-access website, which features its two main programs: the GEJO podcast (“Liminal Spaces”) and the Global Environmental Justice (GEJ) Journal. The GEJ Journal consists of undergraduate student research papers and theses exploring topics related to environmental justice. These papers are reviewed by the student-led editorial board, who work closely with the student researchers to refine their work leading up to publication. The goal of this journal is to present a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to environmental justice than is found in mainstream conversations, as well as to promote high caliber undergraduate student work. Funding will be used to develop the existing program and website as well as to host an art show featuring environmental art created by students, which will also be photographed and highlighted on the website.

Team:

• Caitlin Schilt, Undergraduate, Environmental Studies
• Christina Vagnoni, Undergraduate, Sociology
• Vishnu Nair, Undergraduate, Marine Biology
• Sachi Powelson, Undergraduate, Anthropology and Sociology
• Alcides Fuentes, Undergraduate, Latin American and Latino Studies and Environmental Studies.

San Quentin COVID Archive: Stories from the Inside

The heart of this project is an online community zine featuring original artwork and writing from the currently incarcerated community at California prisons reflecting on their experiences surviving the COVID-19 outbreak. Digital storytelling is a way for incarcerated people to have agency in an environment in which agency is constantly taken from them. This archival project gives them access to the technology and tools they need to share their stories with people outside of prison. Furthermore, the project amplifies their experiences through various digital and print media across social media platforms to increase civic engagement that advocates for policy change. The goal of this project is multifold: to document emergent and unique cultural practices amidst the ever-shifting reality of COVID-19 behind bars, document the organizing that took place in response to COVID, create space for artistic expression and dignified storytelling by those directly impacted, shift public perceptions of incarcerated people, and educate the public on the urgent need for prison decarceration in order to save lives.

Team:

• Karina Diaz Alvarez, Undergraduate, Psychology
• Milo Santamaria, Undergraduate, Sociology
• Edward Estrada, Undergraduate, Politics.

From the cars we drive to the phones we use; plastics are a never escaping commodity embedded in our daily lives. Globally, plastics have revolutionized the electronics, packaging, and transportation industries; however, due to their persistent nature, plastics have become pervasive in destroying the environment. Two researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara reported that greenhouse gas emissions over the plastic life cycle are likely to quadruple by 2050. This would cause a climate impact equivalent to around 189 coal power plants. In 2017, the United States produced 35.4 million tons of plastics where 14 million tons were specifically dedicated to the packaging industry. PET, the most common plastic used in packaging, is only recycled at a rate of 29.1% in the US. Due to the implementation of single-stream recycling in the U.S., the cost of recycling is more expensive relative to the cost of manufacturing new plastic because cleaning and preparing the plastic requires increasing amounts of water, energy, and effort. These factors contribute to offshoring thousands of tons of plastic to countries that continue to mismanage the waste. Furthermore, microplastic pollution causes health risks, as they can easily contaminate the food chain globally. Virtually every person is affected by plastic waste, particularly people in developing nations because they rely heavily on waterways. Our founders are children of immigrants from developing countries — Guyana, India, Vietnam, and Mexico — who have witnessed the extreme environmental impacts of this problem. The U.S. alone landfilled 2.68 million tons of plastic in 2017 — inevitably contributing to environmental pitfalls across the globe3.

Another equally important issue we are facing is the use of non-renewable resources in the form of fossil fuels/crude oil. Though the use of fossil fuels and the growing plastic waste issue don’t seem related, one is entirely dependent on the other — drilling, mining, and burning fossil fuels is necessary for plastic production. Additionally, the act of finding, unearthing, transporting, and using fossil fuels has left polluted waterways, ruined wildlife habitats, and has created toxic air pollution problems. To address these concerns, many government and private sector organizations are developing alternatives to fossil fuels such as ethanol and butanol biofuels. A recent study comparing the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) between bio-butanol and standard gasoline found that there was a reduction of 30-35% of GHGs with the use of bio-butanol. With our plastic-to-biofuel pipeline, we directly address the recyclability and the ability of upcycling PET plastic waste into usable end products. We have developed a theoretical metabolic process for breaking down PET by genetically engineering the bacteria, E. coli, to produce specific enzymes that can depolymerize PET. This will yield the chemicals Ethylene Glycol (ETG) and Terephthalic Acid (TPA). We will also engineer a specific yeast strain with a well-derived gene cluster to further process the ETG. This gene cluster is known to produce enzymes that convert ETG into acetaldehyde. The acetaldehyde can then be metabolized within the same organism to produce the final product of 1-Butanediol (Butanol).

California’s correctional facilities have also become hotspots for COVID-19, with over 18,000 Covid confirmed cases, leading to the suspension of programming and visitation for the past seven months (CDCR, 2020). Long term exposure to these conditions only increases the vulnerability of people incarcerated, already suffering from long term health, economic, and social problems while in these facilities and post-release. As COVID-19 continues to spike across the country, prisons and those inside are often last on everyone’s minds, despite disproportionate infection rates and lack of proper facilities or support. Currently incarcerated persons will have an even more difficult time finding work post-release without the necessary educational services and rising COVID infections in prisons makes this population the most neglected and under-served community.

Prior to COVID, the Gateways Project taught graphic design inside two Santa Cruz County jails. Although that work has been paused, we are ready to begin teaching tele-classes in 2021 and have expanded our efforts to include recently released folks as well.

This year, Gateways is addressing two key issues to maximize our impact. Our education initiative provides comprehensive digital design classes to incarcerated individuals in Santa Cruz County as well as recently released folks throughout the Bay Area. Additionally, we have also partnered with the StopSanQuentinOutbreak Coalition to help teach tech and expand their organizational capacity. These initiatives not only benefit the job, health, and reentry outcomes of incarcerated students, but also increase community engagement in advocating for the rights, dignity, and lives of those currently incarcerated.

The jail education initiative consists of a 12-week course covering topics such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, WordPress and HTML. Providing computers including Adobe Software gives students at Santa Cruz County facilities opportunities that have never before been offered. Gateways’ curriculum also integrates personal development and interpersonal communication, preparing students with a set of in-demand technical and practical skills necessary to secure employment and excel in new workplace environments.

In partnership with the StopSanQuentinCoalition, we aim to establish a coalition website, develop standardized social media templates, and implement a weekly newsletter as a means to create a unified platform for sharing resources and uplifting incarcerated voices. This social media remodel increases content visibility and recognition, amplifying the ongoing advocacy of the coalition across the state. Having performed a needs assessment with coalition leaders and pitched the project to all coalition members with mock-ups and color schemes, we will be going forward with website development and social media marketing starting winter quarter.