In its inaugural grant cycle, the JHU Campus as a Living Lab program is awarding grants for 10 sustainability research and teaching projects to advance its mission of leveraging JHU to test scalable innovations. Faculty, student, and staff reviewers selected for their sustainability expertise assessed over 35 proposals to investigate sustainability across JHU’s many schools and divisions, including the Homewood Campus and East Baltimore Campus.
RESEARCHERS:
Engineering researchers will install sensors in the wetland beside Olin Hall to collect data and monitor its effectiveness in reducing stormwater runoff and trapping contaminants. The project will result in student research to inform potential improvements.
Awardee: Ciaran Harman, Associate Professor, Environmental Health & Engineering & Earth Planetary Science, Whiting School of Engineering
Staff Partner: Randy Widomski, Grounds Manager
Researchers will develop and install biosensors in JHU’s sewer lines to quantify methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, to accurately estimate the impact on the university’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Awardees: Ruggero Rossi, Assistant Professor, Environmental Health & Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering; Sarah Preheim, Associate Professor, Environmental Health & Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering
Staff Partner: Thomas J Rosson, Associate Director, Engineering & Utilities, Facility Operations
COURSE INSTRUCTORS:
The course will train environmental educators on the educational characteristics of teaching about climate change, sustainability, planetary health, and environmental justice, as well as strategies to help students prioritize environmental issues.
Awardee: Hunter Gehlbach, Professor, School of Education
Staff Partner: Julian Goresko, Director of Sustainability
As part of a Multidisciplinary Engineering Design course, a team of students will design an automated system to weigh and identify food waste in JHU dining halls. The project will inform Hopkins Dining as to the relationship between recipe selections, menus, and efficacy of food waste reduction initiatives.
Awardee: Alissa Burkholder Murphy, Senior Lecturer, Whiting School of Engineering
Staff Partner: Graham Browning, Dining Sustainability Manager
In this Multidisciplinary Engineering Design course, students will design a modular rainwater collection, storage, and distribution solution for garden irrigation on JHU’s Homewood campus and a Baltimore K-8 school, in order to teach students about design approaches to stormwater management.
Awardee: Nusaybah Abu-Mulaweh, Senior Lecturer, Whiting School of Engineering
Staff Partner: Randy Widomski, Grounds Manager
Students in this course will explore the resilience and ecological benefits of urban forests on campus through hands-on fieldwork and develop recommendations to enhance campus greenspaces and protect local water resources.
Awardee: Jerry Burgess, Associate Teaching Professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences
Staff Partner: Randy Widomski, Grounds Manager
In this course, students will identify climate action behaviors on the JHU campus and apply behavior change theory to create climate communication campaigns to be showcased on campus through lectures, seminars, screenings, and workshops.
Awardee: Saraniya Tharmarajah, Instructor, Health, Behavior & Society, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Staff Partner: Claire Runquist, Senior Sustainability Specialist for Engagement & Community-Building
STUDENTS:
A public health student researcher will create a dashboard visualizing emissions from university business travel to raise awareness, inform strategies, and suggest strategies to mitigate associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Awardee: Rose Weeks, DrPhD Student, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Faculty mentor: Dr. Daniel Ali, Public Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Administrative partners: Amy Page, Director Travel & Expense Programs, Procurement; Beth Blauer, Associate Vice Provost for Public Sector; Christopher McCullough, Senior Administrator, BPSH
An engineering student researcher will develop a feasibility plan to forecast the increasing power demands of the new Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Institute by exploring approaches including on-site renewable energy, energy storage, and power purchase agreements from local clean energy sites.
Awardee: Ziting Huang, PhD Student, Whiting School of Engineering
Faculty mentors: Benjamin Hobbs & Mahdi Mehrtash, Whiting School of Engineering
Staff partner: Bena Zeng, Energy Engineer, Facilities & Real Estate
A medical student researcher will develop a pilot laryngoscope recycling initiative, educate and survey operating room staff, and measure the amount of reduced hospital waste and cost savings.
Awardee: Melanie Alfonzo Horowitz, MD Student, School of Medicine
Faculty mentor: Nick Dalesio, School of Medicine
Staff partner: Moriah Barr, JHHS Sustainability Project Manager
Get Involved
The new Campus as a Living Lab program was envisioned and proposed by the Sustainability Leadership Council and launched with fiscal support from the President’s office and administrative support from the Office of Sustainability. All projects through the program help JHU meet the new ambitious goals set through the JHU Climate Action & Sustainability Plan.