Xeriscaping is a form of gardening in which plants that are more drought tolerant are incorporated into a garden, reducing water usage. Under persistence water shortage, such as in SW United States, xeriscaping can be significant water conservation strategy. In order to promote wider use of Xeriscaping in home gardens, we developed a Xeriscaping App that
Our goal is to create a device that helps reduce the amount of e-waste produced by extending the battery life of single-life electronics through trickle charging. By avoiding overcharging electronics, its battery is able to sustain longer periods of use without adverse effects. View the full poster here
We addressed the California energy ‘duck’ curve problem with a more intelligent and efficient household thermostat. Our goal was to alleviate the strain on the electrical grid during times of peak energy demand by redirecting demand to a more favorable time during the day. Our strategy was to create a smart thermostat that would utilize
Our group was interested at how cells proliferate within different biomaterials, specifically a matrix/collagen solution compared to normal collagen. Full poster: TheProliferationProblem
Wood-pulp paper production negatively impacts the environment due to its reliance on deforestation for material and its production by polluting paper mills. Using fungi for paper pulp can potentially reduce the strain that wood-pulp paper production puts on the environment by utilizing a more sustainable natural resource with biodegradable and antimicrobial properties. Our team devised
Although global change is negatively affecting endangered sea turtles, populations are decreasing at a rate faster than research and conservation efforts. We propose here a contribution to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery by mining a database collected in long-term field research/conservation sites. By organizing and analyzing a 5-yr data set from the Pacuare Reserve
Our grand challenge is to evaluate whether or not emerging satellite remote sensing tools can be used to infer plant function, particularly with respect to plant water content. We studied patterns of plant water content inferred by Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) from NASA’s SMAP mission and plant water use inferred by Evapotranspiration (ET) using NASA’s
Portable water filtration and storage device. View the full poster here
Water management is crucial for New Mexico as it is one of the driest states. Inefficient allocation of water only worsens water scarcity. Satellite data can measure variables we need for our 3 domains. For ag, evapotranspiration (ET) is compared between pivot and non-pivot irrigation. Evaporative stress index (ESI) is used to measure severity of
Since the beginning of the Spring Semester, our main focus for our GCI project was to create a game that emphasized the importance of political corruption and gerrymandering. American politics itself IS a game, which involves chance and controversial transactions throughout a typical campaign. The goal of this board game is to not only be