Yucatán

Project Leader(s):
Alex Tomlinson (alextoml@umich.edu)
Zuly Pasillas (zulypas@umich.edu)

Project Location(s): Maní, Yucatán, México

Current Focus: After their recent trip to the Yucatán Peninsula for a needs assessment, the Yucatán team will spend this school year on idea generation, design, and prototyping of a solution to the need of more consistent cooking with biogas.

Mission: TThe BLUELab Yucatán Team is committed to developing and implementing sustainable designs to address energy needs with attention to social responsibility. Our mission is to build partnerships in order to empower rural communities to restore their environment, improve their health outcomes, and achieve economic sustainability. We believe that simple, green, and inexpensive solutions can have large impacts.

Vision: Our vision is a Yucatán where all families have affordable, reliable, and humane access to water, food, and energy so as to enrich their daily lives while improving the resiliency and sustainability of their communities. Members of the team will have the experience and confidence to advocate for sustainability and human-centered design practices in their professional lives.

Team History: The Yucatán Team has been in place for over a decade, formerly known as Biogas International. The team originally worked in Liberia, but soon moved to Mexico through a partnership with RAMP Carbon and later Sistema Biobolsa. Today, our partnership with the International Institute for Renewable Resources (IRRI). In its recent history, the team has conducted a community and partner assessment trip in Yucatán in the summer of 2018 where they learned about installed biogas applications and ran tests with sensors developed last year.

Achievements:
College of Engineering Travel Grants 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Chevron Fellowship Award 2016

Partner Organization: IRRI Mexico

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