William Bullock has agreed to provide interim leadership for the Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), and Dr. Manohar Kulkarni will serve as the PI for the project.
Professor Bullock is the Director of the Design for Energy and Environment Laboratory (DEE Lab) at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), the host agency for SEI. The DEE Lab conducts collaborative product design and development research focusing on sustainable, energy-efficient products and product systems. Multidisciplinary teams of research faculty and students from design, engineering, and marketing address leading-edge challenges in semester-long projects. Projects provide an opportunity to address problems with a fresh, independent perspective outside the typical corporate routine. Through sponsored projects, members have the opportunity to work with and assess potential hires. Professor Bullock has taught classes on e-waste issues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has served as the project director for the International E-Waste Design Competition. See the SEI Current Projects page and the competition web site for more information. Professor Bullock has also served as SEI Education and Research Coordinator for the past year.
Dr. Kulkarni served as chair and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of North Dakota from 2004 until his appointment as ISTC Director in April 2010. Kulkarni earned his doctorate at the University of Missouri, Columbia, his master’s at the University of Iowa and his bachelor’s degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, all in mechanical engineering. He served as professor of mechanical engineering and energy processes at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, from 1993 to 2004. While there he established and directed the Energy Management Center at SIUC. Prior to that, he worked as a senior research engineer at Johnson Controls, Inc., Milwaukee, for seven years while serving as an adjunct associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. For more information on Dr. Kulkarni, see the GLRPPR Blog.
Professor Bullock and Dr. Kulkarni will work to continue the efforts of SEI to develop and implement a more sustainable system for designing, producing, remanufacturing, and recycling electronic devices. This change in leadership occurred after Dr. Tim Lindsey, former SEI Director, left ISTC to pursue other interests.
If you are interested in participating in SEI, please feel free to contact either Professor Bullock or Dr. Kulkarni for more information. A concept paper describing the purpose of the SEI is also available online.