The eKitchen: Creating Opportunities for Community-based Sustainable Computing Education through Action Research

From increasing rates of e-waste production to astonishing datacenter carbon emissions, the ecological effects of computing are staggering. Computer engineering and computer science students need to understand the social and environmental context of their work, and to develop practical skills required to build more sustainable solutions. Learning sustainable development skills is challenging in a traditional university classroom: meaningfully building these skills and mindsets requires holistic, student-centered approaches, including situative, experiential, and community-centered strategies. While educators and universities have begun to integrate sustainability into curricula, we propose another approach, building a community of learning through collaboration with students and the wider community. The eKitchen is a university-based community of practice, whose purpose is to give students opportunities to develop hands-on skills in electronic repair and sustainable computer engineering, reduce e-waste on campus, and advocate for sustainable computing through public outreach, workshops and community partnerships.