Understanding and developing appropriate technologies for sustainable living through hands-on research, experimentation, and community science.
As beginners building practical knowledge across multiple domains, we document, test, and adapt low-tech solutions using our nursery as a living laboratory for environmental and biological systems. We run extended experiments under real living conditions rather than in controlled laboratories, including crisis-response protocols for system failures and environmental stress.
Core research areas
#Community environmental monitoring and citizen science
#We are building hyperlocal monitoring capabilities with DIY equipment, citizen science methods, and validation against satellite and public data.
Research focus
Building accessible laboratory and monitoring capabilities for plant biology, soil science, and environmental observation using DIY equipment and citizen science approaches. Our nursery is a primary living laboratory for documenting microclimate patterns, plant performance, soil health, and ecological relationships. We combine community-generated ground-truth data with open geospatial data, including satellite imagery and weather patterns, to create high-resolution models of hyperlocal environmental systems that larger institutions miss.
Big-picture questions
- What environmental patterns exist at neighborhood and microclimate scales that larger institutions miss?
- How can citizen science contribute to broader environmental understanding while building hyperlocal knowledge?
- What does it mean to validate satellite imagery with ground-truth observations from the people who live there?
In practice
- Building effective community-scale monitoring with accessible, repurposed, and DIY equipment
- Finding tools that help community members collect scientifically valid data without feeling like lab technicians
- Figuring out which plant varieties, growing techniques, and ecological relationships perform best under our local conditions
- Learning to cross-reference nursery observations with existing research
Integrated low-tech and living systems
#We design and test closed-loop systems in which biological organisms work with resource infrastructure, using proven appropriate technology adapted for local conditions.
Research focus
Designing and testing integrated living systems where plants, mushrooms, larvae, beneficial bacteria, and other organisms work with water, energy, waste, and nutrient infrastructure in closed cycles. We adapt proven appropriate technologies from projects such as Low-tech Lab's Biosphere Experience through hands-on building and extended testing, focusing on systems that use local materials and can be maintained by community members.
Traditional practices
We also research and document practices from the Indian subcontinent. These knowledge systems address similar challenges of resource cycling, seasonal adaptation, and community maintenance. Traditional water harvesting, agriculture, food preservation, and waste management can inform and integrate with modern appropriate technology.
Big-picture questions
- What does it mean for every output in a system to become someone else's input?
- How do traditional practices from the Indian subcontinent encode ecological knowledge relevant to the same challenges we are exploring?
- Which marginalized or lost practices could be revived for current conditions?
- How can traditional ecological knowledge be documented and integrated without extracting it from its context?
In practice
Resource cycles
- Trying closed-circuit water systems that integrate food production with climate control
- Cultivating spirulina for thermal regulation, mushrooms on local organic waste, and black soldier fly larvae for waste processing
- Adapting biogas production and dry sanitation for monsoon conditions and urban density
Energy and infrastructure
- Testing human-powered systems such as pedal generators and combined washing and exercise equipment
- Exploring solar cookers and 12V networks for basic needs
- Studying vernacular construction and passive cooling through mud architecture, courtyards, and jaali screens
Knowledge and maintenance
- Running experiments for 3-6 months with daily-use validation and protocols for system failures
- Studying water harvesting systems such as stepwells, johads, eri, and kunds
- Learning from mixed cropping, seed saving, seasonal calendars, and companion planting
- Experimenting with food preservation and fermentation using local ingredients
- Finding local materials and maintenance approaches that help systems last
Human-nature-technology symbiosis
#We explore how computing can support direct ecological engagement and traditional environmental knowledge. This includes technology for nature, biology as computation, and bio-digital interfaces in which living organisms participate in information processing.
Concepts being explored
- Bioelectricity and the bioelectric code
- All cells, not only neurons, generate and sense electrical signals. These bioelectric circuits guide body development and regeneration. Ion channel manipulation can reprogram developmental outcomes. Planaria regeneration experiments offer a homelab-accessible way to observe this biological information processing.
- Biodata sonification
- Plants, fungi, and other organisms produce continuous electrical activity through changes in galvanic response and conductivity. DIY circuits using an Arduino, electrodes, and galvanometers can convert these signals into sound or MIDI data, making otherwise invisible changes easier to observe.
- Biological computing
- Living organisms can act as computational substrates. Slime mold (Physarum polycephalum) can solve optimization problems through its growth patterns, including finding short paths through mazes and recreating efficient transport networks. These experiments are accessible with agar and oat flakes.
- Interspecies communication and animal-computer interaction
- Animal-computer interaction considers animals as technology users with their own agency. Examples include bio-acoustic interfaces, touchscreens for non-humans, and soundboards through which animals can initiate communication.
- Biological information storage and memory
- Living systems carry information through mechanisms such as DNA storage, bird song transmitted across generations, and slime mold anticipating periodic events without neurons. These systems raise questions about how memory and computation work without centralized control.
Big-picture questions
- What computing approaches support seasonal and cyclical rhythms rather than constant interaction?
- How might urban residents feel connected to local ecological rhythms through their devices?
- What can fault-tolerant, self-repairing, parallel, and energy-efficient biological systems teach us about computing?
- How do living organisms store and process information without centralized control?
- When does data exchange with an organism become communication?
In practice
Ecological interfaces
- Designing interfaces that surface monsoon patterns, flowering cycles, and bird migrations
- Building monitoring tools that encourage people to go outside and observe rather than only checking dashboards
- Finding a balance where technology supports direct engagement with nature instead of replacing it
Biological experiments
- Building simple biodata sonification setups for plants and fungi
- Running planaria regeneration experiments to observe developmental biology and bioelectric pattern formation
- Using slime mold as a living optimization solver for maze and network design problems
- Creating capacitive interfaces that respond to plant touch
Research connections and references
#Resources
- Low-tech Lab
Documentation of solar cookers, water filters, biodigesters, and other technologies. Also see the Biosphere Experience.
- Appropedia
Open-source tutorials for appropriate technology and sustainability projects.
Labs
- Genspace
A community biology lab model for accessible biotechnology and citizen science.
- UC Santa Cruz Agricultural Experiment Station
Agroecology research and campus living laboratories.
- Saket Lab
The Koita Centre for Digital Health lab at IIT Bombay develops statistical methods for questions in human disease biology.
- Levin Lab
Research on bioelectricity, morphogenesis, and developmental biology as computation, with accessible papers and talks on the bioelectric code.
Organizations and initiatives
- Radiant Earth Foundation
Open geospatial data and machine learning for earth observation.
- NCF India
- Green Hub India
- Centre for Science and Environment
Documentation of traditional water harvesting and environmental practices across India.
- Honey Bee Network
Grassroots innovation documentation and traditional knowledge preservation.
- Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
A database of traditional knowledge from Indian systems.
Events
- CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
An HCI venue with a Critical and Sustainable Computing subcommittee. Also see SHCI and HCBI.
- ACI Conference
An animal-computer interaction research community with work on designing technology with animal users.
Products
- PlantWave
Circuits for converting plant electrical signals into sound, with open-source schematics available for Arduino-based builds.