Open Innovation Lab (OIL)
A collaborative, standing program dedicated to open-source hardware and community-driven tech projects.
About the Program
OIL operates on a model of active contribution. We believe in building, learning, and sharing together.
Active Contributors: Members actively building, breaking, or mentoring within a current lab project maintain full access to lab resources and voting rights on project directions.
Alumni Network: We know that life, jobs, and side projects ebb and flow. If you step away from active lab projects for a season, your status gracefully transitions to Alumni. You are always welcome in our community channels and can reactivate your lab access whenever you are ready to dive back into a build.
Current Research Programs
A reliable toilet that can quickly reduce human fecal matter to completely sanitary biochar. This project aims to make the poorest people of the Earth healthier by providing a solution where Western-style sewage systems are expensive and impractical.
Our approach focuses on a sealed reaction vessel using electricity as an input to safely transform waste. The process involves drying the sample using "flashing" (rapid decompression to create steam) and then raising the temperature to produce biochar in the absence of oxygen.
View Project on GitHub