星空传媒

Water Production from Air Powered by Solar Energy

As a key component of KU鈥檚 campus sustainability initiative, KU research team developed and commissioned a entirely sustainable freshwater source based on water production from air, powered by solar energy. This campus sustainable water from air project supports the global water security roadmap and tackles the pressing challenges faced by the UAE in terms of ensuring abundant and clean water resources, while also emphasizing the importance of sustainable water management practices.

Located at Building 4 of SAN campus鈥檚 rooftop (developed by KU research team) and the Masdar Institute Solar Platform (acquired from a collaborating industry partner), two solar-powered atmospheric water generation systems are set up based on two different technologies.

This project demonstrates the production of water in an entirely sustainable way that has net-zero emissions and energy requirements. Two systems are set up and commissioned at KU鈥檚 two campuses, to extract humidity from the air and produce fresh, potable water, powered only by solar energy. It not only offers a solution to water scarcity challenges but also sets a precedent for the realization of a more sustainable source of water, emphasizing the crucial role of clean energy.

Power Saving - Awareness Campaign

In order to decrease the use of energy, the University is encouraging the community to switch off lights, equipment, and laptops when they are not in use.

In a joint effort by IT, Facilities Management, EHS, and Marketing & Communications, stickers have been placed in all offices and labs to encourage faculty, staff, and students to switch off the electricity before leaving the offices and labs.

• Phase 1: Stickers placed in all labs (completed August 2023)
• Phase 2: Stickers placed in offices and meeting rooms (completed October 2023)

Power Saving During Academic Breaks

It has been observed that there are many electrical equipment that are not switched off during weekends and summer and spring breaks. This leads to unnecessary increase in energy consumption. In addition, there are buildings that are not fully utilized during the summer break.

EHS, Facilities Management, and the Research office are studying the feasibility of switching off equipment and closing low-utilized buildings during the University鈥檚 low season to reduce electricity consumption.

Recycle, Reduce & Reuse

To reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, and to ultimately reduce carbon footprint, EHS and Facilities Management are studying different initiatives to increase programs relates to recycling, reducing, and reusing waste.

Currently, various recycling bins were placed across the University, including a Reverse Vending Machine (RVM).

Other initiatives that are being considered:

• Additional recycling bins and programs
• Recycling of used clothes
• Awareness sessions and campaigns

Composting Program

Acknowledging the urgent requirement to minimize food waste sent to landfills, the Student Services Department (SSD) has adopted a thorough strategy to integrate environmental accountability into KU's existing waste management scheme by introducing a composting initiative.

The SSD has established the following action steps to effectively implement the composting initiative:

• Mapping out sources of food waste (complete)
• Site allocation for a composting machine (complete)
• Purchase of automatic in-vessel composting machine (in-process)
• Pre-composting activities
• During composting activities
• Post-composting activities

Let鈥檚 Go Green - Sustainable Bottles

In alignment wit UAE Strategy 2050, the University recognized the crucial need to replace the plastic water bottles with reusable water bottle. Plastic bottles cause great harm to the environment and do not align with sustainability practices.

In a joint collaboration between Marketing & Communications, Facilities Management, EHS, and Human resources, the University distributed reusable bottles to its community in two phases to promote a more environmentally-friendly campus.

• Phase 1: 750 bottles were distributed to faculty and staff (completed in Oct. 2023)
• Phase 2: Distribution to students (to be completed in Dec. 2023)

Sustainable Procurement

Recognizing the pressing need to align our operations with sustainable practices, the Procurement & Contracts Department (PCD) have undertaken a comprehensive approach to incorporate environmental responsibility within KU鈥檚 supplier engagement.

Tender Process Transformation
PCD is introducing three key components to the tender process:

• Environmental Responsibility Criterion
• Evaluation Criteria for Sustainability
• Environmental Sustainability Principles

Supplier Declaration of Commitment to Sustainability
To reinforce our collective commitment, we have introduced a Supplier Declaration of Commitment to Sustainability. This document signifies our supplier鈥檚 genuine dedication to environmental sustainability, solidifying a partnership founded on shared values.

A self-adhering hydrogel material for epidermal electronics

Commercial electrodes that are used to monitor human body activity are composed of metallic, flat and rigid materials, are not reusable nor sustainable, provide a limited signal transmission quality and cause skin irritation, especially for long-term monitoring sessions. More importantly they cannot conform to the skin, resulting in lower sensitivity for sensing.

We have developed a 100% natural hydrogel material that exhibits:

• Biodegradability (sustainable)
• Inherent "stickiness"
• Skin friendly/ biocompatibility
• Solid or liquid form (based on the temperature)
• High electrophysiological signal quality

Digital Underwater Diving for Environmental Monitoring

The HSURF project consists in a swarm of 20 completely autonomous and tether- less fish-like robots, which work in unison with the Floater-Sinker Platform of interest. The Floater-Sinker acts as a central link of command between the swarm and the operator and offers a direct visual window, thanks to the deployable Sinker part, to the underwater area. Through the multi- camera system mounted onboard the Sinker, an operator will be able to see, in real-time, a 360 view of the underwater surrounding and use this information to assert the state and direct the swarm in their surveying mission. In unison to that, all the camera data are saved and contribute to creating a 鈥減icture鈥� of the state of the site to monitor its evolution over time.

The Floater provides autonomy of movement and a communication channel directly to the operator, the sinker act as the eyes of the operators and also features an array of environmental sensors. The fish robots are finally used as explorers and extend the field of operation under the direction of the operator.

The specific goal of the project is a retrofitting of the Floater-Sinker platform aimed at expanding its capabilities and meeting the goals mentioned above. In particular, we aim to develop the 360 immersion feature and open the road toward 3D reconstruction of underwater sites.

The potential application of such survey tools varies largely from monitoring of sensitive underwater sites, such as coral reefs, to Oil&Gas underwater monitoring (construction and operation impact evaluation, leaks search, maintenance planning, etc.). Finally, a more immediate outcome is presented as a tool to raise sensitiveness for the topic of underwater preservation as it allows people in events to easily experience the underwater environment and the visual impact of human action in a captivating way.

Bio-derived Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs): Harnessing Natural Materials for Sustainable Energy Harvesting

The pursuit of sustainable energy technologies has propelled the evolution of a new class of energy harvesters to the forefront of research, namely Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGS). TENGS represent devices that can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy based on the triboelectric effect and聽electrostatic induction. Following the current trend towards green technologies, the new generation of TENGS, namely bio-TENGs, put emphasis on sustainability and environmental consciousness.

Our bio-TENGs device involves the following aspects:

• Bio-derived materials such as cellulose, chitin, castor oil, etc.
• Renewable and biodegradable materials
• Solution-processable electrodes (i.e., graphene, Mxene, conducting polymers)
• Flexibility and conformability

The incorporation of this technology can substantially reduce electronic waste, as the proposed devices can decompose naturally at the end of their life cycle, minimizing the detrimental impacts on landfills聽and ecosystems. This shift towards bio-TENGs not only aligns with global sustainability goals but also opens avenues for applications in biomedicine and smart/wearable electronics, underlining the fusion of performance with environmental responsibility.

Green Community Garden

As part of the Sustainability Week activities that took place from October 26th to November 21st, the Green Community Garden event was held on November 2nd where the KU community was invited to participate in planting various types of plants in the Community Garden.

16 groups participated in planting 16 trees. The types of trees planted were:

• Ghaf
• Lime
• Mango
• Indian Almond

Additionally, Cactus plants were distributed to all employees.

COP28 Model

The COP28 Model is designed to educate university students about COP28, raise awareness about climate change, and inspire meaningful climate action. The project aims to engage students through an informative and interactive event that includes exhibitions, workshops, simulations, and discussions.

The COP28 Model offers an engaging and informative platform for students to learn, discuss, and contribute to climate action efforts. Through this event, we aim to inspire a new generation of climate-conscious individuals committed to addressing the global climate crisis.

The event will be representing a smaller scale of COP28 including the blue zone and green zone. The blue zone will involve climate negotiation simulation for the students in addition to a climate debate, while the green zone will involve a bunch of climate engaging activities such as workshops, climate games, students sustainability projects exhibition, and speaking sessions.