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  • Strategic Collaborations:
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Student Projects Focus on Real-World Sustainability.

Working with teenagers to promote energy awareness, helping the Stanford community make the link between the food we eat and sustainable agricultural practices, and establishing a solar-powered computer lab in Mwange, Zambia, are three of the five student projects funded by the Woods Institute.

“We are very excited about these projects,” said Woods Institute co-director Jeffrey R. Koseff. “They show an incredible breadth of interests and creativity, and an impressive commitment to sustainability—ensuring we are able to meet the resource needs of people today without compromising the ability to do so for future generations.”

To be considered, the projects must involve Stanford students; focus on at least one of four environmental areas: conservation and sustainable land use, energy and global climate systems, freshwater or oceans and estuaries; have an education and communication component, broad university relevance and involvement, a long-term focus and other funding sources. The institute has committed up to $10,000 per year for student-group projects.

“One of the institute's most important roles on the campus is to support and encourage students' interest in addressing real-world environmental issues in a multidisciplinary way,” said Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson Jr., Woods Institute co-director. “The student-project funding provides a terrific way to do that.”

For example, in 2005 the institute helped fund summer internships for the Andaman Islands (India) Project, organized by Stanford's Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW http://esw.stanford.edu/). The project focused on the community of Nanjappanagar, off the coast of Sri Lanka, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami. Student interns helped villagers rebuild using environmentally sustainable practices and materials.

ESW worked closely with a non-profit New Delhi organization, Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS). Students from Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Biological Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Systems/Energy Engineering, Human Biology/Product Design, Mechanical Engineering and Public Policy participated in the project. A final project report notes, “ESW-Stanford considers this project a success. We feel we were able to effectively leverage our skill and resources to provide concrete help to the affected community... .”

Information on project funding
NOTE: Proposal deadlines are Nov. 15, 2007, and April 16, 2008

• Criteria for student group project funding 2007/08 (pdf)

Student projects newly funded by the Woods Institute:

• Fall 2007 Student Project Grantees (pdf)