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Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellowship (CNI)

CLICK HERE TO APPLY FOR THE UC RIVERSIDE 2021-2022 CNI FELLOWSHIP

The UC President’s Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Student Fellowship Program funds student-generated projects that support the UC system’s goal to produce zero-net greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. All 10 UC campuses plus the UC Office of the President, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory participate in the program. The program began in spring 2015, with fellows participating in a July 20 symposium in San Francisco. The program is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, and administered at each location to ensure that student efforts align with local needs. 

The University of California lost one of its most passionate, caring, and effective advocates with the passing of Regent Bonnie Reiss in 2018. One of Bonnie's biggest passions was working to mitigate the effects of global climate change, and so the UC Carbon Neutrality Student Fellowship program has been renamed the Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Student Fellows Program in her honor. Students will be known as Reiss Fellows, and their work will become part of Bonnie's long and distinguished legacy.

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2020 CNI Fellows

 

Oscar Corona
Student Engagement Fellow
Undergraduate Student, Philosophy
 
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Students selected to serve as the campus CNI Student Engagement Fellow will work with their campus sustainability office and staff to communicate about campus and UC‐wide sustainability goals and programs, to assess existing programs and efforts, and to engage undergraduate and graduate students in those efforts. In addition, engagement and communication efforts should enable and empower students to provide feedback about campus and UC‐wide sustainability programs.
 
Jubair Yusuf
Graduate Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering
 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Jubair will explore the Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) related research opportunities and enhance the scope to engage more electric vehicles in UCR campus. The optimal charging strategy also needs to be ensured to make the most use of PEVs. PEV deployment will shift the paradigm of typical fossil fuel energy usage to green energy involvement. As a result, it will reduce the carbon emission and help to reach UC CNI goal.

 
Celeste Geary

Undergraduate Student, Sustainability Studies

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Celeste will create a closed-loop composting system through student involvement. Multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals will be implemented through this project. Precious and vital nutrients from students’ organic materials will return to the soil of the R’Garden to ensure soil health. While the materials are composting, we will collect the biofuel generated and use it to heat spaces and/or water on campus.

2021 CNI Fellows

 

Michael Rodriguez
Graduate Student, Environmental Sciences, UC Riverside
 
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Michael will conduct a life cycle assessment of anaerobic digestion with Anaergia who is contracted with UC to provide biogas energy with a large food waste anaerobic digester. He will use and modify EPA's WARM tool to model carbon offsets from biogas energy generated as well as soil carbon sequestration and fertilizer offsets from its land application given its specific properties. He may also conduct a field trial of food waste anaerobic digestion application at UCR ag ops experimental fields to determine GHG emissions/carbon sequestration and if match with WARM model.
 
Alondra Martinez
Undergraduate Environmental Engineering, UC Riverside
 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Students selected to serve as the campus CNI Student Engagement Fellow will work with their campus sustainability office and staff to communicate about campus and UC‐wide sustainability goals and programs, to assess existing programs and efforts, and to engage undergraduate and graduate students in those efforts. In addition, engagement and communication efforts should enable and empower students to provide feedback about campus and UC‐wide sustainability programs.

 
Milad Izadi

Graduate Student Electrical Engineering, UC Riverside

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Milad’s project seeks to deploy optimization-based and data-driven techniques for the management of solar panels integrated into electric distribution grids. Milad is working on the solar panels installed at the campus of University of California Riverside. Solar panels do not emit any greenhouse gases or toxic waste in the process of producing electricity, and more importantly, they generate sustainable energy that can be relied on for the long-term. As a result, they will help University of California to achieve carbon neutrality.