Water Use of Labor

Our lab conducts life-cycle assessment, where every process and material's individual environmental impact must be summed to determine a product's total impact. Usually, researchers neglect the impact of laborers throughout the process of manufacturing, installation, and maintenance. But, their impact is an important contribution. Previous work in our lab has been on the average hourly energy requirement for a laborer. This included all the energy that goes into providing roads, electricity, water, transportation, and other infrastructure. We have started research on the water use of labor, but require someone to do additional sleuth-work to find data on wastewater treatment, and agriculture flows.

Project contact: Corinne Reich-Weiser <corinne[at]berkeley[dot]edu>

Global Warming Website

The LMAS has determined its greenhouse gas emissions related to everything from the emissions required to make the furniture sitting in our lab, to the flights we take for conferences. A previous undergraduate conducted these assessments, and wrote a step-by-step guideline on how to do the calculations. This needs to be put into a website, where people can calculate their office or lab's emissions in a similar way. Experience with website design is not necessary, but a willingness to learn and try new software is a must.

Project contact: Corinne Reich-Weiser <corinne[at]berkeley[dot]edu>

MQL for the Environment:

A popular buzzword in the world of machining is MQL. It stands for minimum quantity lubrication, and is often claimed to be the environmentally friendly option for processing, because it uses fewer chemicals. However, the use of MQL causes residue ("chips") from the machining process to "stick" to the finished workpiece, resulting in time and energy consuming post-processing. This research project proposes to investigate the environmental tradeoffs of using MQL to assess if it is truly better for the environment.

Project Contact: Corinne Reich-Weiser <corinnerw[at]gmail[dot]com>

Website Designer :

We are eagerly seeking a student to help with website design and organization. Currently we would like help with our burr expert website: www.burrexpert.com This site is to be a culmination of our lab's work over the past two decades, and would be a great learning oportunity for any student interested in machining, manufacturing, or web design. We also require some assistance maintaining the lmas.berkeley.edu website you are viewing now.

Project Contact: Corinne Reich-Weiser <corinnerw[at]gmail[dot]com>