Project managers project positive community change
May 08, 2012
Project Positive Charge's Recycling Robots
Hands-on experience in project management is now delivered with community impact through social engagement and sustainability at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. And in one case it has meant the advent of recycling robots.
In Beedie Professor Blaize Reich’s project management class, undergraduate students were asked to take on a project of any shape or size to develop the project management skills taught in the class. After being split into groups, the students were given free reign to choose the focus of their project.
One of the groups, Project Positive Charge, opted to use their project to address sustainability issues on campus. Students Alex Tsao, Frank Lo, Henry Lam, Robin Orford and Rebecca Wang set up ten robot-themed recycling boxes around Burnaby campus for old batteries and cell phones and have since seen their project recognised in several competitions.
“We were looking for a way to encourage recycling among students on campus and came up with the idea of a robot theme for the boxes to grab people’s attention,” explains Tsao. “Although SFU had a long-established paper and plastic recycling program, we were conscious that no electronic waste recycling program existed on campus. We set a target of 220lbs of batteries originally, but ultimately surpassed that, collecting over 250lbs of batteries and 61 cell phones.” Keep reading…
Tags: BBA, Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam, project management, SustainableSFU
