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ESF Students Among 2011 SU Showcase Fellows

04/21/2011

Five SUNY 糖心vlog of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) students will be among the Syracuse University Showcase Fellows who present their original research and projects relating to sustainability at SU Showcase 2011. The event, to be held in the Schine Student Center May 2, is called "Sustainability for a Livable Future."

The ESF students and their counterparts from SU were chosen to share their projects because of their timely and relevant topics. The academic works range from food and green buildings to the media's influence on creating sustainable behaviors.

Both the campus community and the general public are invited to visit the Schine Student Center May 2 to explore the SU Showcase attractions. The names of this year's fellows, with brief descriptions of their projects, are listed below with the Showcase themes.

ESF presentations at the event are:

  • Aquaponics鈥╞y Kevin Phu, Dorian Kessler and Michael Amadori; developing a pilot-scale aquaponics unit that combines aquaculture with hydroponics. Their work falls under the theme of Sustenance (food, water, health).
  • The underrepresented student's access to sustainability in the post-secondary education experience鈥╞y Andrea M. Webster;鈥╱nderstanding the relationship between race and socioeconomic status and access to sustainability education. Her work falls under the theme of Lifestyles (sustainable behaviors, attitudes, policies).
  • Sunspace growing and heating research project鈥╞y Brad DeFrees; testing the feasibility of constructing a low-cost greenhouse structure that will both allow winter gardening and reduce heat loss from a house. His work falls under the theme of Energy.

SU presenations are:

SUSTENANCE (food, water, health)

  • Food and sustainability on campus: Eating green on the Orange campus鈥╞y Lorenz Chiu, Samantha Birsen and Anna Wu;鈥╩easuring and influencing student perceptions of sustainability and meat consumption.
  • Health for all: Development of an infrastructure-appropriate system for sterilizing medical consumables in rural equatorial regions鈥╞y Thomas Law; developing a prototype solar-powered steam sterilizer with an integrated vacuum drying system for medical use in remote areas of the developing world.

 

STUFF (recycling, reuse, rethinking materials)

  • Reimagining trash鈥╞y Elisabeth Terrio; connecting objects with reuse potential with people who will reuse the objects for repurposed products for small businesses.
  • Multifunctional portable thermos mug鈥╞y Bochao Wang and Li Han;鈥╠esigning a prototype solar-powered portable mug that can be stretched and folded easily.
  • Low-impact art: Costuming an opera鈥╞y Timothy Westbrook;鈥╟reating costumes by using as much post-consumer material as possible.

LIFESTYLES (sustainable behaviors, attitudes, policies)

  • Can green TV make us greener? The appeal and effectiveness of environmental TV programs at promoting pro-environmental behaviors among individuals with different attitudes鈥╞y Katelyn Kirnan; determining the effects of environmental TV programming on attitudes and beliefs.
  • Sustainable tourism: Oxymoron or just an incredible challenge?鈥╞y Roman Yavich;鈥╮esearching the sustainability of tourism development from the various viewpoints of the stakeholders of this industry.

INFRASTRUCTURE (urban and built environment)

  • Myco-tecture鈥╞y Scott D. Bascom;鈥╥nvestigating the potential of using Mycelium from fungus as a sustainable building material.
  • Green roofs: How they affect water quality鈥╞y George Segre; studying the green roof on the Syracuse Center of Excellence building in order to quantify the effects of a green roof on water quality.

ENERGY

  • Energy-harvesting door鈥╞y Byron Golub; developing a mechanical attachment that can harvest the energy that people use when they open normal swing doors.

THE ANTHROPOCENE ERA (human impacts on natural ecosystems)

  • Respiration in soil microbial communities鈥╞y Peter Chuckran; investigating the factors that could affect CO2 respiration rates of soil microbes, which can shed light on feedback loops affecting climate change.
  • Permafrost in a changing world by Rachel Valletta; researching the effects that melting permafrost can have on both a global and regional scale, including those that extend beyond mere scientific research and have major societal and economic impacts.

ART FOR A LIVABLE FUTURE (an art exhibit in Menschel Gallery)

  • Das meer鈥˙y Elin Sandberg; creating artwork that combines plastic with clay, paper pulp, weaving, basket coiling and wood to produce a hand-netted, recycled cloth oceanic algorithm.

In addition to being featured at SU Showcase, the fellows will have their work published on the Showcase website as part of an online anthology of student research on sustainability.

SU Showcase 2011 will kick off with a morning "teach-in" on climate change. Dave Eichorn, meteorologist and ESF environmental studies graduate student, will conduct the teach-in breakfast presentation on the changing climate of Central New York.

For more information visit http://sushowcase.syr.edu/Registration_2011.html.