During the Spring 2014 semester, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students will have the opportunity to take a special topics course related to sustainable electronics.
The class introduces the environmental and social impacts associated with technology at each stage of the product life cycle (design, manufacture, consumption, and disposal/recovery). Electronic products will be used as a case study and provide the framework for discussion of complex legal, economic, social, and environmental considerations.
Planned outcomes are to provide students with:
training in the sort of “systems thinking” required to recognize and address potential environmental and social impacts associated with technologies they use and develop.
an introduction to the concept of the product life cycle and life cycle analysis
an opportunity to hear from experts in the fields of sustainable electronic product development, electronics recycling and end-of-life management
an appreciation for the perspectives of various stakeholders
an appreciation for the complexity and breadth of issues surrounding electronics
the inspiration to apply concepts of sustainable product design, use, and end-of-life management in their personal lives and careers.
Students will complete weekly assignments, typically involving responses to required reading material. A brief mid-term paper and a final project will also be required.
Day & location: Mondays, 10:00-11:50 a.m., Room 1302, Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science
To register, UIUC students should look in the online course catalog under ENG 498 or TE 498, Special Topics. For more information, contact Joy Scrogum at jscrogum@illinois.edu.
See the previous post for the press release announcing the winners of the 2013 International Sustainable Electronics Competition, including project descriptions. The winning videos are featured on the competition web site and the SEI YouTube Channel. For your convenience, see the embedded player below. Congratulations to the winners and to all this year’s participants. You are all winners for considering the environmental and social impacts of electronic devices and for considering possible solutions to green various aspects of their product life cycles. Keep monitoring the competition and SEI web sites for information on future competitions or similar educational initiatives.
One Hazelwood Drive, Champaign, IL 61820 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joy Scrogum, Co-coordinator, Sustainable Electronics Initiative, ISTC, Champaign IL (217) 333-8948
NINE STUDENTS HONORED FOR FRESH IDEAS IN SUSTAINABLE ELECTRONICS
International Sustainable Electronics Competition Awards 2013 Winners
CHAMPAIGN, IL – (Dec. 6, 2013) Old smart phones don’t have to be doomed to silence in a drawer or a landfill. According to two winners of the 2013 International Sustainable Electronics Competition the phones can keep track of your cattle, or be tiled together to form large-scale electronic displays.
The Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI) at ISTC has held the annual competition since 2009 to prompt dialogue about the environmental and social impacts of electronics and to contribute to the body of knowledge that advances the practice of environmentally responsible product design, manufacture, use, and disposal for electronics. The competition is open to college and university students and recent graduates.
The winners in the Product Category (items intended for sale) were:
E-waste Meets Farming, smart phones remanufactured as cow collars (Platinum, $3,000) Michael Van Dord, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia;
Mion, a multi-purpose dynamo lighting system (Gold, $2,000) Mikenna Tansley, Jiayi Li, Fren Mah, Russell Davidson, and Kapil Vachhar from the University of Alberta, Canada;
Cellscreen, a large scale display system made from old phone displays (Silver, $1,000) Sam Johnston, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
One platinum level ($3,000) winner was named in the Non-product Category (concepts valuable for artistic, educational, policy, or similar content):
ENERGENCIA, an educational program based on a children’s game kit encouraging the use of recycled materials and renewable energy concepts by Stephanie Vázquez and Pedro Baños of Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Puebla, Mexico.
“The world must find ways to end the tide of e-waste in the environment,” said Craig Boswell, U of I graduate and president of HOBI International, an ISO 14001 certified electronics recycling and asset management company. “This competition, and these brilliant young winners, help us advance the dialog about environmentally responsible product design, manufacture, use, and disposal of electronics,” he added.
Boswell was one of an expert panel of six judges consisting of industry professionals, recycling experts, and the competition founder, William Bullock, professor of Industrial Design, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The cash prizes were funded by donations from Arrow Electronics, Professional Field Services, and ISTC.
Other jurors were: Jason Linnell, executive director, National Center of Electronics Recycling; Bill Olson, director, Office of Sustainability and Stewardship, Motorola Mobility, LLC; Lynn Rubinstein, executive director, Northeast Recycling Council; and Kyle Wiens, CEO, iFixt and Dozuki.
Joe Verrengia, director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Arrow Electronics, participated in the ceremony, noting “We understand more than ever now that the end of life of all of those electronics is often very short. We need to come up with something better to deal with that. Competitions and incubators can develop those ideas that hopefully help the world, help Arrow, and maybe be a source of really smart new workers in the future.”
See below for a more complete description of the winners and their entries.
Product Category
Platinum ($3,000): E-waste Meets Farming. This project tackles e-waste through the reuse of discarded but internally (circuit board and CPU) functioning smart phones in the manufacture of cow collars. A cow collar is a device worn by cattle on dairy farms which can store information about the individual animal wearing it. It can also send that information to a central hub to be backed up, and communicate with machinery on the farm so that the cow is fed correctly and milked for the correct amount of time, etc. Cow collars can warn farmers of sickness or other health concerns for individual animals by monitoring activity and conditions through the inclusion of a GPS and accelerometers. The advantage of reusing smart phones in cow collars is that all the necessary components are assembled in a very compact and highly functional way. The phone has GPS, accelerometers, wireless technology, printed circuit boards, and software compatibility. Furthermore phones damaged beyond the point of being internally functional can also be used for the manufacture of cow collars, by being recycled via normal streams. The resulting materials, such as plastics, can be used in the construction of casing and external collar components. This concept was submitted by an undergraduate in product design engineering, Michael Van Dord, from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.
Gold ($2,000): Mion. Mion is a multi-purpose, dynamo-powered bike light for people living in disadvantaged communities. Their lack of an adequate source of lighting makes it difficult to perform evening tasks, including children’s studies, resulting in a significant barrier to human development. Mion is designed with consideration for the people living in these communities and who are lacking traditional furniture. Its organic form provides multiple lighting angles when placed on a flat surface, one focused and one ambient. This allows for optimal lighting, giving the user an option between more open or focused coverage. Mion uses the energy provided by a dynamo: a small motor that generates electricity using the propulsion of a bicycle wheel. The dynamo uses rotating coils of wire and magnetic fields to convert mechanical rotation into a pulsing direct electric current through Michael Faraday’s law of induction. In the long term, a dynamo is both cheaper and more ecological than a battery-powered system. When Mion is clamped onto the bike frame, it uses a direct energy source from the dynamo, charging its reserve AA batteries while also having the ability to provide light during the evening hours. Its detachable clamp allows the user to bring the lighting fixture wherever needed. In addition, the reserve, rechargeable AA batteries, may be removed and used within other products. These batteries become a significant object in themselves as the lack of reliable electricity can lead to other issues with day-to-day activities. Each part of Mion is made from recycled electronic waste. The internal components of the light and dynamo are repurposed parts from old electronics such as desktop computers, cameras, and cell phones (including LEDs, magnets, copper wire, and gears in the dynamo). Both the housing unit for the light and the dynamo casing are made of recycled plastics which can be reclaimed from electronic devices. Mion was submitted by a group of design students (Mikenna Tansley, Jiayi Li, Fren Mah, Russell Davidson, and Kapil Vachhar) from the University of Alberta in Canada.
Silver ($1,000): Cellscreen. The Cellscreen is a large-scale, coarse display intended to function as an advertisement or public display. The Cellscreen itself can be thought of as a tile which forms the base unit from which many different configurations can be made. Each tile is comprised of disused cell phone displays which form the display matrix. The premise is that a run of tiles can be produced from one set of screens at a time due to the large volume of cell phones that are disposed of. For example, there might be a range of tiles comprised entirely of iPhone 3g screens. Grouping screens by type is intended to circumvent any issues that might arise from display quality when mixing and matching screens from different manufactures and for compatibility. Cellscreen tiles comprised from older devices, such as early color screens, might be well suited to large scale advertising whereas those from newer devices with high pixel density and touch functions might be suited to other applications, such as information kiosks. Cellscreen is targeted toward manufacturers and suppliers of cell phones encouraging them to reclaim their obsolete products for reuse in a new product. Cellscreen was submitted by Sam Johnston, an undergraduate in product design from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.
Non-Product Category
Platinum ($3,000): ENERGENCIA. ENERGENCIA is an educational program based on a game kit in which children can build their own toys using recyclable materials, reusable electronic devices, and renewable energy concepts to create projects that can move, turn lights on, etc. These projects employ reusable, reclaimed electronic components like small engines supplied in the game kit. The other recyclable materials like cardboard, cans, and plastic bottles can be obtained by children themselves to complete a project. Through the projects made possible by the game kit children learn about alternative energy sources and develop environmental awareness and positive environmental behaviors. The students who submitted this concept developed theories related to the ideal age range of children for which this kit would be effective, and they investigated these ideas through a hands-on workshop for children conducted in cooperation with teachers from schools at the American School of Puebla. This concept was submitted by undergraduates Stephanie Vázquez and Pedro Baños of Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Puebla in Mexico.
1205-13 -30-
The Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the home of the State Scientific Surveys: Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, and Illinois Sustainable Technology Center. For over 160 years the Surveys have applied cutting-edge science and expertise to keep Illinois’ economy, environment and people prosperous and secure. www.prairie.illinois.edu
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) was established in 1985 and joined the Prairie Research Institute with the other surveys in 2008. Its mission is to encourage and assist citizens, businesses, and government agencies to prevent pollution, conserve natural resources, and reduce waste to protect human health and the environment of Illinois and beyond. www.istc.illinois.edu
Another year of the International Sustainable Electronics Competition (formerly the International E-waste Design Competition) has passed, and the jurors have completed their evaluations of this year’s entries. This year’s winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), the host agency for the Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), on December 5, 2013 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST. Brief descriptions of the winning projects will be given and the associated project videos will be shown. Cash prizes will awarded to winning teams in two categories: Product and Non-Product.
SEI wishes to thank all of the students who participated. All of the participants are winners in the sense that they are actively thinking about ways to solve real world problems and foster a more sustainable system for the design, production, use, and management of electronic devices. It is always inspiring to see students from around the world applying their ingenuity to issues that affect the global community.
This year’s winning videos will be posted to the competition web site after the ceremony, and will also be feature on the SEI YouTube channel.
Professional Field Services (PFS) is one of our Silver level sponsors for the 2013 competition. SEI spoke with Erin Elmiger, PFS Director of Business Development and Client Relations, recently about what the company does and their thoughts on sustainable electronics issues.
SEI: What does Professional Field Services do, and how does that relate to sustainable electronics?
Erin Elmiger: PFS (www.professionalfieldservices.net) is passionate about efficiency and helping organizations work smarter. We connect with consumers directly to provide personalized service to retrieve obsolete, EOL electronics. We then deliver these items to organizations that can properly and securely dispose, refurbish and recycle. PFS retrieves the end-of-life (EOL) products directly from the consumer’s home and delivers to those organizations that design, produce, reuse, remanufacture and recycle electronic devices etc.
SEI: Can you explain what the term “reverse logistics” means?
Erin Elmiger: Employing 1100 representatives in 200 cities nationwide and serving over 15 years in the end user returns business, PFS are experts at deploying retrieval specialists to a consumer’s home in partnership with our service provider clients. We understand how to help our clients recover outstanding delinquent returns (payments and/or consumer leased equipment) directly from their customer base. Based on our extensive reverse logistics (RL) experience, PFS can apply our resources & operations infrastructure to recover other end of life equipment residentially or commercially, for the purpose of final disposition. We can also support the timely return of other delinquent assets for a variety of service provider organizations (aging warranty parts and replacements, e-commerce returns, etc.).
For PFS, reverse logistics is the return process for delinquent, EOL or obsolete electronics. PFS helps organizations who desire EOL products by interacting directly with the consumer and expediting the return process quicker and more efficiently than engaging huge shipping vendors. Organizations can outsource this entire process to PFS and feel confident that the job is getting done.
SEI: In your company’s business experiences, have any issues emerged which clearly require further research, education, infrastructure, or policy to improve the sustainability of the end-of-life management of electronics?
Erin Elmiger:
Education for consumers (e.g. not to throw items out).
A larger network of recyclers would, of course, help.
Government or other incentives (or regulations) which would result in higher recycling or return rates.
Provide financial incentives for companies and service providers to focus on the value of residential recycling vs. the more dominant business of large scale business-to-business (B2B) recycling
SEI: Is there anything that electronics manufacturers could do to make your job easier?
Erin Elmiger:
Educate consumers
Provide incentives to consumers to recycle the right way
Partner with PFS directly or with local agencies in conjunction with PFS, to provide a direct residential recycling solution
SEI: What do you think is an example of an important fact about electronics management and distribution that consumers in general, or your customers more specifically, don’t realize?
Erin Elmiger: Consumers may not realize how important it is to properly dispose of unused electronics in a secure and safe way. Important data that may still be in disk storage, pose a serious data security risk to consumers if not disposed of correctly and safely.
Consumers must learn to properly recycle dangerous materials found in most electronics and to be diligent about keeping these items out of our community landfills, and preventing the improper disposal by other 3rd party service providers that could be shipping these electronics out of the country, posing a global risk.
It is the duty and responsibility of consumers to recycle e-waste responsibly as there is recurring value in reclaiming, re-using or re-purposing the non-renewable materials found in these electronics.
Safely and properly recovered EOL assets could mean the sustainability of many electronics. This helps to support an important “after market” industry for our local, national and global economies.
PFS can make it easy and convenient for the consumer and service provider to dispose of EOL electronics by offering a home retrieval and disposal service. In addition to end consumers, PFS is also able to save local and regional agencies and larger industry service organizations, time, money and resources spent on aggregating valuable assets from their local communities. For some companies, it may mean a financially viable residential recovery program versus an exclusive B2B recycling business strategy.
SEI: What do you hope participants in the International Sustainable Electronics Competition will take away from the experience of entering the competition?
Erin Elmiger: Participants in the competition have the ability to influence many aspects of electronics usage and disposition of products in the future. Students can provide valuable insight and advice for all steps in the electronics supply chain. We hope to make this process more visible to all of the key stakeholders and work to increase recycling and return rates across the country.
Thanks, Erin! See http://www.ewaste.illinois.edu/sponsors.cfm for a list of this year’s competition sponsors. Note that logos, links, and descriptions of services provided above are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as endorsements by the competition, the Sustainable Electronics Initiative, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, the Prairie Research Institute, or the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In his role at Motorola, Bill drives go-to-market strategy for green mobile device products and technologies, and has championed the adoption of ECOMOTO principles across several Motorola business units. ECOMOTO focuses on the realization of environmentally sound, seamless Motorola mobile products and seeks to deliver sustained business impact through green materials and innovative ecodesign practices as can be found in the world’s first carbon free phones built with post consumer recycled plastic: W233 RENEW and MOTOCUBO A45 ECO and the world’s first “green” android phones introduced in 2010 – CITRUS and SPICE.
Bill started the ECOMOTO initiative during his previous role in Motorola Corporate Research, where he headed labs dedicated to International and Environmental Research. Bill’s team in Europe conducted testing on hundreds of Motorola products to ensure they met environmental regulatory requirements of the EU (WEEE/RoHS), American and Asian markets. His lab in China worked closely with manufacturing, engineering and the supply chain to achieve improvements in factory productivity, yield and product reliability.
We value Bill’s input because he is directly involved with innovation everyday and understands what it takes to get a great concept to market in today’s world. With 23 U.S. patents and more than 40 publications, Bill is a guru in his field. Thanks, Bill, for all of your support!
This post was written by ISTC staff member Kirsten Walker.
The International Sustainable Electronics Competition welcomes back Jason Linnell of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). This is Jason’s second year as a juror and we are grateful to him for his continued commitment to this educational initiative. The National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 2005 that is dedicated to the development and enhancement of a national infrastructure for the recycling of used electronics in the U.S.
As Co-Founder and Executive Director of NCER, Jason oversees research on electronics recycling data and policy, as well as management of the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse (ERCC), (which also happens to be administered by fellow competition juror Lynn Rubinstein of the Northeast Recycling Council). Under Jason’s direction, the NCER manages and oversees the statewide network of collectors and recyclers for the Oregon State Contractor Program. Prior to forming the NCER in 2005, Jason served in the Environmental Affairs Department for theElectronic Industries Alliance, a trade association for electronics manufacturers and suppliers. At EIA, Jason led industry negotiations on electronics recycling policy efforts and helped developed the industry’s first comprehensive consumer education initiative on electronics recycling options.
Jason’s experience with electronics manufacturers, suppliers, recyclers, policy makers, and consumers make him a particularly well-rounded juror capable of assessing entries in the Product and Non-Product categories that address a variety of issues throughout the life cycle of electronic products. We’re pleased to have his expertise on the jury again this year.
.
The Sustainable Electronics Initiative at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center is pleased to announce that registration is open for the 2013 International Sustainable Electronics Competition. Participants will explore ideas to address the social and environmental impacts of electronics, and contribute to the body of knowledge that advances the practice of environmentally responsible product design for current and future technology products. Entries can be made in one of two categories—“Product” and “Non-product”–with criteria that incorporate the ideas of reuse and prevention throughout. This allows for students of all disciplines to participate in ways to reduce the generation of electronic waste and extend electronic product life cycles.
Teamwork across disciplines, backgrounds, and ages is encouraged. One entry per person or team (5 person maximum) is allowed. The competition is open to current college and university students as well as recent graduates from universities around the world. Registration is free. Expert jurors award cash prizes to the top three projects in each category. The submission deadline is November 1, 2013 at 4:59 Central time. Winners will be announced on December 5th.
Entries must include an original video composition uploaded to YouTube, along with supporting materials uploaded to the registration page of the competition web site. See the competition web site, www.ewaste.illinois.edu for details on registration requirements.
This post was written by ISTC staff member Kirsten Walker.
The International Sustainable Electronics Competition staff would like to welcome Craig Boswell, Co-Founder and President of HOBI International, Inc. to the 2013 competition jury. HOBI International is an IT and cellular asset management and electronics recycling company. Craig plays a key role in developing HOBI’s processes and procedures for data security, asset tracking and asset disposition services. He is HOBI’s chief industry consultant on demanufacturing, design for disassembly, and reverse logistics programs. He has also published and presented numerous papers on the recycling of electronic products and the keys to designing more recyclable products.
According to their website, “HOBI’s Mobile Device services group focuses on the resale and recycling of cellular assets. Their client list includes 3 of the 4 national wireless operators in the US, 4 major device OEMs, and many recycling partners that trust us to maximize the value of their cellular assets while protecting sensitive corporate or client data. They process for resale and recycling over 4 million cell phones per year. Their parts recovery division de-manufactures millions of cell phones per year in support of a robust repair market.”
Craig’s background includes nine years experience as an electrical engineer for Texas Instruments, Inc. As a member of Texas Instrument’s engineering staff, he managed electronics design projects and was extensively involved in development and deployment of electronics manufacturing techniques. He was also project manager for the deployment of a major shift in the production process from traditional CFC-based cleaning technologies to more environmentally friendly, no-clean solder technologies. As part of this program team, he was an active member of the IEEE Environmental Technologies subcommittee. This committee was central in developing an industry conference that brought together OEMs, academia, and environmental organizations to discuss key issues in electronics disposition technologies.
Craig is thus well qualified to assess entries for this competition, because he has approached electronics from different ends of the life cycle spectrum–both on the design and manufacturing side and the end-of-life management side. In fact, Craig presented a seminar at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center last fall called Closing the Loop on Electronics Devices–Design for Recycling, in which he spoke about how his experiences in his current role have allowed him to look back at his experiences as part of design projects and realize that some of the design choices he and colleagues made actually made recycling more difficult. Recycling is sometimes simply not a part of the consideration of engineers and/or industrial designers creating a product. Through efforts like the International Sustainable Electronics Competition, SEI is hoping to ensure that students who may one day work for electronics manufacturers go into those situations with sustainability issues like design for recycling already in mind.
Craig and his colleagues at HOBI International have made it their business to understand design issues related to electronics and curb the issue of electronics waste in a way that is profitable. His expertise and feedback will be valuable and we appreciate the time Craig is donating to the 2013 International Sustainable Electronics Competition.
We recently caught up with Damian to see how the competition has affected his educational and career aspirations. Coughlan stated, “Receiving the Silver Award in this competition has had a huge impact on my current circumstances. Since graduating with my degree in August 2012 I have received a scholarship to continue research towards a PhD. The funding is being provided by the Irish Research Council and the European Recycling Platform. I had mentioned the award from 2012 as part of my application and I have no doubt that these awards helped me considerably. I have now started the PhD in Sustainability since October 2012. I visited TU Delft in the past week to gather some feedback for my research and my presentation featured my awards which definitely helped raise my profile. My current research is looking at the subject of electronic waste [and] the possibilities of reusing the waste in a different context.”
This year, as an optional extension of the competition, the UIUC Technology Entrepreneur Center has offered to provide constructive feedback to students who opt-in as part of their submission. This advice is not a means of taking a concept to market, but is offered as a resource for entrants to explore furthering their concept with appropriate resources. When we asked Damian about his plans for Loopbook, he stated, “Regarding the Loopbook, I had considered the option of bringing it to market but currently I feel there are too many barriers to be overcome by technology before the Loopbook could be ready as a consumer product. However I do still think that it could be a great idea if it could be fully developed. I do think the option of bringing a possible product to market would be great outlet for the competition and innovation.”
We wish Damian the best in his Ph.D. studies and research. We know he will be someone to look out for in the future of innovative computing technologies.
As a reminder, registration for this year’s competition opens on September 1, 2013. See the competition web site for complete details. Registration is free, and cash prizes are awarded.
