Overview of MEDS Capstone projects     Overview of MESM Group projects    

Projects
Year
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vegetables for sale in a supermarket - 7N3YFR5GPL

Roadmap and Recommendations for Sustainability Reporting in Food Manufacturing

MESM 2025 Group Project: Food Manufacturing Impact Measurement and Reporting

Group Members: Akshaya Jagannathan, Madison Kilkenny, Wesley Martinez, Daphne Prodis, Brenda Vuong

Faculty Advisors: Matt Potoski

Clients: Albertsons Companies

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Health center with solar panels on the roofs

Supporting Equitable Healthcare Through Solar Energy Assessment Tools

MESM 2025 Group Project: Cost-Benefit Analysis Tools for Federally Qualified Health Centers Considering On-Site Solar Installation: A Healthcare Equity Project

Group Members: Ivette Castaneda, Kyle (Reeves) Erickson, Temesgen Gebreyesus, Sabrina Molina Ramos, Henry Strecker

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Costello

Clients: Collective Energy Company, LLC

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Coral reef with different colored corals.

ResiliReefs: Mobile Coral Restoration Labs for Coral Reef Restoration Organizations to Scale Up Operational Capacity and Impact (Eco-E)

MESM 2025 Eco-Entrepreneurship Project: Develop a product/service that accelerates coral bleaching prevention through the diving community, raising awareness and adding value to the diving experience

Group Members: Camille Kaczmar, Samantha Mislinski, Zoe Zhou

Faculty Advisors: Steve Gaines, Emily Cotter

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Woman holding a tablet with statistics data on the screen

ScopeWise: A Platform for Supply Chain Sustainability and Scope 3 Emissions Tracking (Eco-E)

MESM 2025 Eco-Entrepreneurship Project: A standardized data collection tool for sustainability reporting of Scope 3 emissions

Group Members: Lawrence Angelo (Rence) Balitaan, Jacob (Jake) Cosmo, Jacques Rebibo, Chelsea Sanford

Faculty Advisors: Charles Kolstad, Kyle Meng, Emily Cotter

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Green palm fronds

Lost and Frond: Producing a Carbon-Rich Biochar Through the Pyrolysis of Palm Frond Waste (Eco-E)

Palm fronds, common in Southern California, don’t decompose easily and overcrowd landfills. This project aims to convert palm waste into biochar to reduce landfill use, improve soil health, and sequester carbon, supporting regional waste management efforts.

Group Members: Lilli Bennett, Isabelle (Izzy) Coiro, Anna Perko, Michael Roysner

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter

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California’s Hydrogen Hub: Meeting 2030 Demand

MESM 2024 Group Project

Group Members: Kristin Art, Hannah Irish, Lillian Liu, Nadine Snyder, Seth Villanueva

Faculty Advisors: Mark Buntaine, Ashley Larsen

Clients: California Governor's Office of Business & Economic Development (GO-Biz)

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Analyzing Life Cycle Emissions of Synthetic Fertilizer and Cyanobacteria Biofertilizer for Lemon Trees

MESM 2024 Group Project

Group Members: Merina Addonigio, Betty Cheong, Jenna Leonard, Kelly Perymon, Zoe Rennie

Faculty Advisors: Bruce Kendall

Clients: The Limoneira Company

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Policy Evaluation for Decarbonization of the U.S. Iron/Steel and Cement Industries

This project developed a policy evaluation tool to assess emissions and model reductions from federal decarbonization efforts. The open-source tool helps policymakers target high-impact interventions for industrial emissions reduction, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Group Members: Jenna Anderson, Andrea Carlos, Kimberly Dobbs, Caitlin Mori

Faculty Advisors: Eric Masanet

Clients: Evergreen Action

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Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: Empowering Effective and Efficient Interventions

MESM 2024 Group Project

Group Members: Ashley Cooper, Sydney Mayes, Bella Rothenberg, Chloe Swick, Eleanor Thomas

Clients: Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Skylight)

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Assessing Riparian Woodland Response to Shallow Groundwater Availability

MESM 2024 Group Project

Group Members: Hector Leal Ibarra, Leah Makler, Vivian Phan, Leslie Serafin, Hannah Vaughn-Hulbert

Faculty Advisors: Scott Jasechko

Clients: Restoration Science LLC

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Analysis of Pre-Consumer Textile Waste within the Apparel Supply Chain

MESM 2024 Group Project

Group Members: Karina Abou-Chakra, Kira Archipov, Simone Berkovitz, Elena Perry, Rachel Spellenberg

Faculty Advisors: Matt Potoski, David Tilman

Clients: Patagonia

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Green Credit: An Online Community Solar Subscription Platform (Eco-E)

Green Credit addresses rising electricity costs for low-income Californians through a community solar subscription platform. The project connects residents to solar farms, provides education, and advocates for policies, making affordable renewable energy more accessible.

Group Members: Lindsay Edelman, Gabe Ingman, Meet Muchhala

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter

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Sunstone Energy: Solar and Battery Microgrids as a Solution to the Tribal "Energy Gap" (Eco-E)

MESM 2024 Eco-E Project

Group Members: Austin Sonnier, Marissa Sisk, Ignacio Requena, Casey Walker, Sage Davis

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter, Robert Heilmayr

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Environmental Justice, Marine Protected Areas & Ocean Access in California

MESM 2024 Group Project

Group Members: Ariel Daniels, Kennedy Flavin, Morgan Plummer, Melissa Vezard

Faculty Advisors: Anastasia Quintana

Clients: Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary

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Mapping Tree Species Drought Sensitivity Under Climate Change

Forests cover approximately 30% of Earth's land surface, absorb more carbon than all other terrestrial ecosystems, and provide trillions of dollars’ worth of ecosystem services (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005). However, climate change-induced droughts pose a significant threat to these vital ecosystems. As climate change intensifies, it is critical for our planning and management that we understand how and where trees will be the most threatened. Previous research has examined the effects of these droughts on forests at a global scale, but these large-scale analyses are not particularly helpful for land managers that often focus on specific regions and only a limited number of species. Our project addresses this gap by assessing species-specific sensitivity to increasingly severe and frequent droughts, considering the variations within their ranges.

Group Members: Briana Barajas, Rosemary Juarez, Fletcher McConnell, Vanessa Salgado

Faculty Advisors: Joan Dudney

Clients: UCSB Bren School