Collaborative Research: DESC: Type 1: Software-Hardware Recycling and Repair Dataset Infrastructure (SHReDI) for Sustainable Computing

电子垃圾是世界上增长最快的废物流，其中很大一部分最终进入垃圾填埋场。这一点尤其令人担忧，因为电子制造使用的材料来自环境和社会保障措施不足的地区。此外，电子垃圾中有价值的材料，包括金、银、铜和铂，经常被运往焚烧或垃圾填埋。该合作项目旨在通过转变电子设计实践和优化电子垃圾物流来加强电子垃圾回收。该项目的创新之处在于开发了低成本的无线标签和计算模型，以准确量化与电子废物回收和再循环相关的成本和环境影响。俄勒冈州立大学和佛罗里达大学的研究人员将开发无线标签，根据该项目期间开发的决策模型，为回收商提供有关材料类型、数量和建议的回收过程的易读信息。该项目的影响是提高了电子垃圾的回收利用率和回收效率。此外，标签信息将允许根据生产商跟踪回收的电子垃圾，从而使公共政策能够准确地将回收成本分配给电子产品制造商。该项目还包括广泛的教育和外联活动，强调指导来自代表性不足群体的学生，并通过课程编制、K-12外联和本科生暑期研究经验增加获得研究成果的机会。该项目的研究目标是开发一个集成电路(IC)硬件系统，以及数据收集和决策支持指标，以建立一个电子设备重用和回收的量化信息生态系统。这个合作项目汇集了在集成电路设计、可持续制造、再制造和电子废物管理方面具有互补专业知识的研究人员。该项目设想利用材料内容和使用行为等关键设备数据来量化可重用性指标，并开发决策模型，以告知消费者、维修商和回收商使用结束策略。集成的硬件和建模研究任务将扩展有源射频识别(RFID)设计的边界，并为电子垃圾逆向物流施加的关键约束建立数学模型。通过利用来自RFID标签的单个设备数据，将开发决策模型，以加强再制造操作，并制定更有效地管理生产者责任的战略。通过将高度可扩展和易于部署的硬件与生命周期结束决策支持模型相结合，该项目将展示循环生态系统的可行性，该生态系统可以显著提高电子垃圾的重复使用和回收率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest-growing waste stream worldwide, with a significant portion ending up in landfills. This is particularly concerning since electronics manufacturing uses materials from regions with insufficient environmental and social safeguards. Furthermore, valuable materials in e-waste, including gold, silver, copper, and platinum, are often consigned to burning or landfills. This collaborative project aims to enhance e-waste recovery by transforming electronics design practices and optimizing e-waste logistics. The project’s novelties are in the development of low-cost wireless tags and computational models for accurately quantifying the costs and environmental impacts associated with e-waste recovery and recycling. Researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Florida will develop wireless tags that will provide recyclers with easy-to-read information about material types, quantities, and recommended recycling processes based on the decision-making models developed during this project. The project’s impacts are higher recycling rates and improved recycling efficiency for electronic waste. Additionally, the tag information will allow tracking of recycled e-waste based on producers, enabling public policy that accurately assigns recycling costs to electronics manufacturers. The project also includes a wide range of educational and outreach activities, emphasizing mentoring students from underrepresented groups and enhancing access to research outcomes through curriculum development, K-12 outreach, and undergraduate summer research experiences. The research objective of this project is to develop an integrated circuit (IC) hardware system, along with data collection and decision support metrics, to establish a quantitative information ecosystem for electronic device reuse and recycling. This collaborative project brings together investigators with complementary expertise in integrated circuit design, sustainable manufacturing, remanufacturing, and e-waste management. The project envisions leveraging critical device data such as material content and usage behavior to quantify reusability metrics and develop decision-making models to inform consumers, repairers, and recyclers on end-of-use strategies. The integrated hardware-and-modeling research tasks will extend the boundaries of active radio-frequency ID (RFID) design and enable mathematical models for critical constraints imposed by e-waste reverse logistics. By utilizing individual device data from RFID tags, decision-making models will be developed to enhance remanufacturing operations and formulate strategies for managing producer responsibility more effectively. By combining highly scalable and easily deployable hardware with end-of-life decision support models, the project will demonstrate the feasibility of a circular ecosystem that can significantly increase the reuse and recovery rates of e-waste.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.