News
ECAR returns from successful trip to West Bengal, India (June 2009) ECAR:
Two members of the ECAR team recently returned from West Bengal, India after a very successful partnership-building trip. A workshop on arsenic was given in the severely arsenic-affected district of Murshidabad. The workshop was attended by over 100 local community members, University professors, government officials, and NGO members, among others. A second workshop held in Kolkata was equally successful. The visit resulted in several very fruitful partnerships and emerging partnerships, including a collaboration with Dr. Joyashree Roy of the (Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata). The meeting was written up in the Times of India (read more here).
WEDC Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene International Conference (May 2009) ARUBA:
The ARUBA team presented their paper "Design strategies and preliminary prototype for a low-cost arsenic removal system for rural Bangladesh" at the 34th WEDC International Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of the conference was "Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: Sustainable Development and Multisectoral Approaches." Download the presentation (PDF, 2.6 MB).
ECAR presents poster to Muhammad Yunus at 6th Annual World Health Care Congress (April 2009) ECAR:
The ECAR team presented a poster at the 6th Annual World Health Care Congress in a special "Extremely Affordable Health Innovations" poster session in Washington D.C. on April 14-16, 2009 (Poster as PDF, 8.3 MB). During the session, the poster was visited by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
ARUBA and ECAR have joined forces under BAAG! (January 2009):
We are excited to announce that the Berkeley Arsenic Alleviation Group (BAAG) now includes TWO arsenic removal technologies developed at LBNL - ARUBA and ECAR. Both research teams are headed by Dr. Ashok Gadgil and have a long history of collaboration with each other.
UNC Safe Water Symposium (November 2008) ARUBA, ECAR:
Both the ARUBA and ECAR teams presented papers at a symposium at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill entitled 'Safe and Sustainable Drinking Water in Developing Countries: Where Science Meets Policy.' See the ARUBA paper (PDF, 216 KB) or view the ARUBA presentation (PDF, 1.1 MB). See the ECAR paper (PDF, 264 KB) or view the ECAR presentation (PDF, 808 KB).
Cleantech to Market (September 2008) ARUBA, ECAR:
We are working with a Cleantech to Market (C2M) team of graduate students in business, public policy, and public health. C2M is a partnership between LBNL and BERC that aims to bridge the gap from lab to market for commercially viable technologies developed at LBNL. Click here for more information.
ECAR and ARUBA Work in Cambodia! (July 2008) ARUBA, ECAR:
In July 2008, the student Berkeley Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation (BEAR) team took an ECAR prototype device that they designed as well as some ARUBA to Cambodia for field testing. ECAR was just as successful in Cambodia as in Bangladesh! The team documented their fieldwork in Cambodia in a Khmer-BEAR blog. ARUBA was found to be approximately as effective as in Bangladesh!
Third Bangladesh Visit (May-August 2008) ARUBA, ECAR:
The summer of 2008 five team members traveled to Bangladesh to develop a community-scale prototype based on ARUBA and launch a socioeconomic/health study. We found ARUBA treatment to be scalable, and constructed a 400 liter prototype arsenic removal plant, which is currently undergoing testing. View our trip report (PDF, 256 KB). A member of the ECAR team tested the continuous flow ECAR prototype (developed by the BEAR student group - see below) using real arsenic-contaminated well water. The prototype reduced arsenic to safe levels in every case and useful feedback was obtained to inform the newest prototype design. ECAR-centered results of the trip were presented at the annual SULI program poster session for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in August 2008 (PDF, 368 KB).
UC Berkeley Bears Breaking Boundaries Contest - 1st Prize (May 2008) ECAR:
The ECAR team has won first prize in the annual Bears Breaking Boundaries Contest for our White Paper titled "Arsenic Free Water in Cambodia" submitted to the Social Innovation category!
Sustainable Products & Solutions (SPS) Program Grant Award (April 2008) ARUBA, ECAR:
Both the ARUBA team and ECAR teams have been awarded separate Sustainable Products & Solutions (SPS) Program Grants from the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley to support our public health and socioeconomic study in Bangladesh over summer 2008 and to perform further field testing using ECAR!
USEPA P3 Phase II Award (April 2008) ECAR:
The ECAR team was awarded a 2008 P3 Phase II Award: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The ECAR team beat 47 other national student teams who were judged during the USEPA's 4th annual National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington D.C. (view photos at the EXPO). The team was interviewed at the EXPO in front of their main poster (PDF, 1.3 MB) and supplemental poster (PDF, 676 KB).
Team Member wins the Daniel Cubicciotti Award (April 2008) ECAR:
A member of the ECAR team was honored with the 2008 Daniel Cubicciotti award granted by The Electrochemical Society. View the invited ECAR presentation (PDF, 1.1 MB) from the April meeting of the San Franscisco Chapter of the Electrochemical Society.
ECAR on YouTube! (April 2008) ECAR:
The student ECAR team (named BEAR, for Berkeley Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation) has been featured in a YouTube Video along with Prof Ashok Gadgil. Check it out!
NCIIA Advanced E-Team Grant Award (March 2008) ARUBA:
We have been awarded our second NCIIA Advanced E-Team Grant!
Engineers for a Sustainable World Conference (February 2008) ARUBA, ECAR:
The ARUBA and ECAR teams presented at the 2008 ESW Conference in San Francisco. The ARUBA team presented (PDF, 768 KB) at a panel discussion on "Safe Water in the Developing World." The ECAR team presented a poster (PDF, 268 KB).
Safe Water and Sanitation Initiative Workshop (February 2008) ECAR:
The ECAR team gave a presentation (PDF, 832 KB) at a one-day intensive workshop sponsored by the UC Berkeley Safe Water and Sanitation Initiative.
ECAR Team Partners with UC Berkeley Graduate Class (January 2008) ECAR:
The ECAR team has partnered with a UC Berkeley Graduate class titled Design for Sustainable Communities, taught by Prof Ashok Gadgil. A team of four students from the class will work with the ECAR team all semester to design, fabricate, and test a continuous flow prototype utilizing ECAR technology. The student team has named themselves BEAR, for Berkeley Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation.
UC Berkeley Blum Center - Poverty Action Seed Award (December 2007) ARUBA:
The ARUBA team has been awarded a Seed grant from the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies. The grant is for "system refinement/adaptation and field testing for proven technologies with potential to lead to significant contributions to poverty alleviation in developing countries." See the ARUBA listing on the Blum Center Initiatives webpage.
UC Berkeley Blum Center - Poverty Action Innovation Award (December 2007) ECAR:
The ECAR team has been awarded an Innovation grant from the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies. The grant is for "initial product/system design and development of draft business/sustainability plans for poverty-related innovations." See the ECAR listing on the Blum Center Initiatives webpage.
Global Development in Action Symposium Presentation (September 2007) ARUBA:
The ARUBA team presented research as part of the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies Student Symposium on Global Development in Action (PDF, 168 KB).
USEPA P3 Phase I Award (September 2007) ECAR:
The ECAR team was awarded a 2007 P3 Award: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). An excutive summary of the team's Phase I final report is available here.
Second Bangladesh Visit (July 2007) ARUBA:
At the beginning of July two team members traveled to Bangladesh for two weeks. Our goal was to perform experiments to improve the efficiency of ARUBA. View our trip report (PDF, 96 KB).
UC Berkeley Bears Breaking Boundaries Contest - 1st Prize (May 2007) ARUBA:
The ARUBA team has won first prize in the annual Bears Breaking Boundaries Contest for our white paper (PDF, 427 KB) submitted to the Global Poverty Reduction category
UC Berkeley Big Ideas Website Listing (April 2007) ARUBA:
The ARUBA project is listed on the UC Berkeley Big Ideas Website. You can DONATE to our project by clicking on this link.
UC Berkeley Blum Center - Safe Water and Sanitation Initative Grant (March 2007) ARUBA:
The ARUBA team has been awarded a grant for summer travel to Bangladesh by the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies.
Initial Bangladesh Visit (March - April 2007) ARUBA, ECAR:
We sent two team members on an initial site visit to Bangladesh's Jessore District during March and April 2007. Our goals for this trip included on-site ARUBA testing and identication of a village for further field work as well as contaminated water collection for further ECAR testing. See the ARUBA trip report (PDF, 208 KB) and ECAR trip report (PDF, 164 KB).
NCIIA March Madness Conference (March 2007) ARUBA:
Our team was selected to participate in the 11th Annual NCIIA March Madness E-Team Exhibition (PDF, 2.9 MB). This year's conference was held in Tampa, Florida from March 22-24. See our flier (PDF, 3.4 MB), poster panel #1 (PDF, 264 KB), and poster panel #2 (PDF, 480 KB).
NCIIA Advanced E-Team Grant Award (2004) ARUBA:
We were awarded an NCIIA Advanced E-Team Grant.
