News Brief
CCSF 2009 Poster Competition Awards
October 24, 2009
The Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future announces the winners of its first poster competition for CCSF-funded research. Twenty teams were judged by over one hundred attendees, on criteria like Clarity of Message, Impact of Display, and Creativity. The top three winners were selected by a team comprised of CCSF leadership and eminent Cornellians: Sheryl WuDunn, Knight Kiplinger, David Picket, and Hansen Clarke.
Prize winners
First Place - $5,000: Forecasting Disease and Economic Consequences of Climate Change
Investigators: C. Drew Harvell (E&EB), Laura Harrington (ENTOM), Kelly Zamudio (E&EB), Stephen Ellner (E&EB), Art DeGaetano (E&AS), Carla Gomes (CIS, AE&M), Katherine McComas (COMM)
Projected increases in global temperatures driven by increasing carbon dioxide are expected to trigger new outbreaks of disease in diverse communities and biomes. Accurate projections will require remote sensing tools to detect the spatially explicit accumulation of thermal anomalies and project expected disease responses. Our goal is to form a Disease and Climate Network at Cornell University that will conduct research and promote external collaborations to address the critical challenges of climate change on species diversity, conservation and health.
Second Place - $3,000: Environmental, Energetic and Economic Potential of Biochar
Investigators: Johannes Lehmann (C&SS), Norm Scott (B&EE), Brent Gloy (AE&M), Antonio Bento (AE&M), Stephen Younger (CFNP), Janice Thies (C&SS), John Gaunt (C&SS), Lindsay Anderson (B&EE), Drew Lewis (CUAES), Francis Vanek (C&EE)
This project seeks to quantify the economic, energetic, and environmental potential of biochar at scales from local to global, through an interdisciplinary team based at Cornell. Biochar is the stable, carbon-rich product produced by thermal decomposition when biomass is heated in an anoxic environment (pyrolysis). First studied in the fertile Terra Preta soils of the Amazon, it can also be produced today in modern bioenergy systems. Its potential uses are directly linked to major global issues of sustainability such as climate change, energy production, fertilizer use efficiency and soil health.
Third Place - $1,000: Vibro-Wind Technology: Alternative Wind Energy Systems for Buildings
Investigators: Francis Moon (M&AE), Ephrahim Garcia (M&AE), Hod Lipson (M&AE), Charles Williamson (M&AE), Wolfgang Sachse (T&AM, M&AE), Kevin Pratt (ARCH)
The focus of this project is to investigate the principles and feasibility of 'vibro-wind power' i.e. harvesting energy from the wind as it flows around commercial and residential buildings as an alternative to conventional rotary wind turbines. The basic science involves energy extraction from bodies induced to vibrate due to the action of fluid flow and vortices around flexible structures. Our approach will be to consider the effects of wind on single or multiple interacting flexible structures, such as cantilevers mounted to a surface with a wide range of length scales from the millimeter to the meter scale.
