RAEL Home Mission About RAEL Lab Members Projects
Publications RAEL News Public Outreach Support RAEL Contact Us

 

WORKSHOPS

Organized as a joint effort between RAEL and ESW-B* to

promote sustainability knowledge in the Berkeley community

 

Are you interested in participating/organizing a workshop?

then contact:

Annette Loveless (alove@socrates.berkeley.edu)

Fermin Reygadas (reygadas@berkeley.edu)

*Engineers for a Sustainable World - Berkeley is a student group interested in engineering issues surrounding appropriate technologies in development. For more information visit the ESW-B website.

COMING WORKSHOPS

Participatory Methods for Sustainable Community Development

Saturday, April 9th, 10am to 3pm
Stephens Lounge in the MLK Student Union

Join us for this exciting workshop to learn and practice participatory methods. We all know that we're supposed to include the community in planning and implementing projects, but how do we actually put this into practice? Come learn how to use pictures, open-ended stories and other simple but powerful activities to encourage learning. Develop your skills to open up dialogue around community problems and empower people to solve their own problems. We will come prepared with examples from water and sanitation, but also focus on how to modify the basic techniques for use in different situations. Bring your favorite teaching/learning activity to share!

To register or request more information, please email Sarah Stafford at:
sssarah@berkeley.edu

 
Participatory workshop in Borgne, Haiti.

 

RAEL is located in 4152 Etcheverry Hall, right next to the southside elevator.

Click here for a map and directions of how to get to Etcheverry Hall.

PAST WORKSHOPS

BioDiesel

Saturday, February 26th, 10am to 4pm
3107 Etcheverry Hall, UC Berkeley
Number of participants: 25

This homebrew workshop is a quick-moving, hands-on class, where you will make several small batches of biodiesel, learn safety and basic lab processes, test oil and biodiesel for quality, and work with ethanol and discuss acid-base biodiesel processes.

Students will also make a full size batch of biodiesel in a homebrew reactor, we will demonstrate washing processes, demonstrate purification of glycerol and it's uses, discuss biodiesel reactors and demonstrate methanol recovery equipment, discuss solar heating for the process, discuss heat exchangers, use of vacuum for energy savings, dewatering of waste vegetable oil, safe glycerol/waste oil burners for process heat, biodiesel co-ops and production groups, and more.

For more information contact:
Annette Loveless
alove@socrates.berkeley.edu

 

Biodiesel-Powered Bus.

UV-Tube

Saturday, January 29th
RAEL (4152 Etcheverry Hall), UC Berkeley
Number of participants: 18

Join us for this fun and interesting workshop about water purification systems using ultraviolet light (UV) designed for developing regions using expertise and materials locally available.  Participate in designing and constructing such systems and bring new ideas to this exciting project!!!

10:00-11:00   Learn the basics of water disinfection using ultraviolet light.

11:00-12:00   Brainstorm ideas and designs for UV water purification systems.

12:00-12:30   Lunch break (potluck).

12:30-2:00     Help construct UV systems that will be used for tests in Berkeley, Haiti and Mexico.

Feel free to participate in any or all of the workshop sections!

For more information contact:
Fermin Reygadas
reygadas@berkeley.edu

 

Florentino Mota, a community outreach worker in Mexico, installs the UV Tube.
 

Water Filter Design

Sunday, November 21st: 1-4pm
RAEL (4152 Etcheverry Hall), UC Berkeley
          Number of participants: 10

A team of Berkeley students is designing a low-cost water filter for the Bheram Slum community in Bombay, India.  We are looking for your expertise or simply your creativity and motivation to help us generate some design ideas.

At the Workshop We Will:
-Present background on the project and the community
-Give a short tutorial on available low-cost filters and how they work
-Breakout into design teams
-Reconvene to present ideas and develop a bill of materials for the best designs

For more information contact:
Ashley Murray
amurray@ce.berkeley.edu

 
Slow Sand Filter

Solar Desalination

Saturday, October 30th: 11am
RAEL (4152 Etcheverry Hall), UC Berkeley
          Number of participants: 15

Fermin Reygadas (ESW-B Agua SALud project member) will give a brief presentation on the current state of the technology, its potential applications and barriers.

Then students will form groups and participate in designing and building Solar Distillation Units.
The Agua SALud team plans to go back to Baja California Sur next summer to asses the viability of introducing Solar Distillation Units in remote communities.

During the workshop, Mouhsine Serrar (smile@sunsmiles.org) a member of RAEL, will give a brief presentation of some project opportunities in Solar Cookers and Water Desalination for next summer in Morocco.

For more information contact:
Fermin Reygadas
reygadas@berkeley.edu

Diagram of a Solar Desalination Unit