Category: Pop-Up Clinics

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Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning Begins IGG Coordination

Starting in January 2019, the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL)  began coordination of the Illini Gadget Garage (IGG) project). CITL is a hub of innovation and hands-on support for those who want to discuss and work with higher education trends, models, projects, and resources. They hope to incorporate the IGG into their efforts to collaborate with campus units and other thought leaders to spark new ideas, strategies, and knowledge to shape 21st century teaching and learning. In Spring 2019, our workshop manager, Amanda Elzbieciak will continue to work with CITL to engage UI students in volunteering, coordinate workshops to learn skills relevant to device repair and maintenance, and explore new opportunities to incorporate the collaborative repair at the heart of the IGG project into unique experiential learning activities on campus.

The IGG was launched with funding from the UI Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in collaboration with the School of Art + Design and the iSchool. We’re grateful to ISTC’s Sustainability Specialist Joy Scrogum, Professor William Bullock of Art + Design and Professor Martin Wolske of the iSchool for their efforts to establish the IGG project, as well as to the SSC and other corporate and individual sponsors for their support.

But most of all, we’re grateful to all the individuals who have worked with our staff and volunteers to troubleshoot and repair their devices, keeping them in working order and out of the waste stream! We’re looking forward to continuing to save resources through collaborative repair, fighting waste one device at a time! According to our records, as of December 2018, we’ve diverted an all-time total of 905.2 lbs. of materials from the waste stream through repair and recycling! Together we’ll make that statistic grow even more this year.

Check this web site site and our social media accounts for more information on upcoming events;  the first pop-up of the semester is Tuesday, Feb. 5th!

If you have questions about your devices, stop by one of our upcoming pop-ups at CITL’s Innovation Studio (172 Armory Building, 505 East Armory Avenue, in Champaign), or send us an email at illinigadgetgarage@gmail.com.

Collaborative repair at CITL

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Updated Impact Stats and Fall 2018

Welcome back to campus, Illini–or just welcome to those of you who are just beginning your University of Illinois experience! And thanks to those of you from the broader Champaign-Urbana community who stopped to chat and learn about our project at the Taste of Champaign last weekend. It was great to hear positive comments on the idea of collaborative repair (i.e. we help you help yourself through “do-it-together” rather than “do-it-yourself” repair and we don’t just fix things for you–that’s what makes this an educational project for everyone involved!). We’ve already had some folks set up appointments for assistance, so kudos to everyone who has decided to try the “repair rather than replace” option we espouse.

A quick update on our impacts–see the recently revised infographic at https://drive.google.com/file/d/11XV_2jO3KNf7437oQ3IlXoc4HtIjGNZ_/view.

Our all time total for pounds of materials diverted through repair assistance and collections of special materials for recycling (e.g. batteries and CDs/DVDs and their cases) is 740.88 lbs!

How much is that, really? According to the web site “The Measure of Things” presented by Bluebulb Projects, that’s three-fourths as heavy as a grand piano, or about two-thirds as heavy as a polar or grizzly bear. See https://www.bluebulbprojects.com/MeasureOfThings/results.php?amt=740.88&comp=weight&unit=lbs&searchTerm=740.88+lbs.  Great job everyone! Let’s keep growing that number!

Maybe by the end of the semester, we can have a whole polar bear–we could call him the Repair Bear! 🙂 Or maybe instead we’ll just look at this cute, non-dangerous picture of a polar bear and reflect on how cool repair, reuse, and recycling makes us feel.

Image of polar bear floating on back in a pool of water, holding a black ball.
Photo by Cburnett, CC BY-SA 3.0

We’ll continue to operate by appointment in Fall 2018; send us an email, Facebook message or give us a call at 217-300-5629. You can also fill out our diagnostic form with some basic info on the device and issue you’re facing and one of our staff or volunteers will be in touch. We’ll also have pop-up repair clinics in various locations on campus and off (we’ll shoot for at least one on and one off each month) to help you fit troubleshooting and repair into your busy schedule. And we’re planning some educational workshops to help you learn relevant skills like soldering, how to maintain your device, the basics of how electronics work, etc. Again, keep your eye on this web site, our calendar, and Facebook for details!

Want to get involved? Send us an email to learn more about volunteer opportunities. No prior repair experience necessary, nor any particular academic background, just a desire to learn, to try new things, and help other people. Come join the Illini Gadget Crew and be part of the Fixing Illini! Can’t donate your time? Consider a small monetary donation to help support continued, free-to-the-public programming, like battery collections or pop-ups throughout the community. You can donate online at http://www.sustainelectronics.illinois.edu/SEIdonation.html. Thanks for your support!

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Illini Gadget Garage Pop-up Repair Clinic at Champaign Public Library, July 12

On Thursday, July 12, come to the Champaign Public Library from 1-3 PM for assistance with troubleshooting or repairing your electronic devices. Staff will be set up in the Busey Bank Conference room on the library’s second floor. Feel free to stop by even if you just have questions, or if you want to schedule an appointment to come into our campus workshop at a later date to work on your device.

See the Facebook event for details. We’ll be at the CPL once a month during the summer for pop-ups. For additional information on pop-ups, see our Facebook page or our Upcoming Events page.

Image with circuit pattern in background saying Illini Gadget Garage at Champaign Public Library

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Illini Gadget Garage Info Booth at Sustainable Student Farm Stand, 7/5/18

Have questions about your broken electronic device or our variety of services? Ask us at our info booth right next to the UI Sustainable Student Farm Stand on the Quad where you can find a variety of tasty fruits, vegetables, and herbs. We’ll be there outside the Illini Union from 11AM-2PM. You can learn about volunteer opportunities or set up an appointment to come into our campus workshop at a later date to work on your device.

See the Facebook event for details. We’ll be at the farmstand once a month during the summer. For additional information on pop-ups, see our Facebook page or our Upcoming Events page.

Image with circuit pattern in background which says Illini Gadget Garage at the Sustainable Student Farm stand

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Pop-up at UGL Media Commons, Thursday, June 28

Have questions about your broken or damaged electronic devices? Stop in at our next pop-up repair clinic and we can assist you with troubleshooting and repairing your devices.

We’ll be at the UIUC Undergraduate Library Media Commons on Thursday, June 28 from 1-3 PM. Feel free to stop by even if you just have questions, or if you want to schedule an appointment to come into our campus workshop at a later date to work on your device.

Fill out our Diagnostic Form ahead of time to provide some information on the device and the issue you’re having. That will allow us to a do a little research on the problem so your one-on-one time is used more efficiently.

See the Facebook Event for details. We’ll be at the Media Commons once a month during the summer for pop-ups. For additional information on pop-ups, see our Facebook page or our Upcoming Events page.

Image with circuit pattern in background saying Illini Gadget Garage at Media Commons

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Pop-up at CPL Douglass Branch, Thursday, June 21

Have questions about your broken or damaged electronic devices? Own a small appliance with minor performance issues? Stop by the Champaign Public Library’s Douglass Branch on Thursday June 21, from 1-3 pm for troubleshooting and repair assistance from the Illini Gadget Garage crew! Feel free to stop by even if you just have questions, or if you want to schedule an appointment to come into our campus workshop at a later date to work on your device.

See the Facebook event for details. We’ll be at the CPL Douglass Branch once a month during the summer for pop-ups. For additional information on pop-ups, see our Facebook page or our Upcoming Events page.

Image with circuit pattern, saying Illini Gadget Garage at Champaign Public Library Douglass Branch

 

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Pop-up at Champaign Public Library Thursday June 14

Tomorrow, Thursday June 14, come to the Champaign Public Library from 1-3 PM for assistance with troubleshooting or repairing your electronic devices. Staff will be set up in the Busey Bank Conference room on the library’s second floor. Feel free to stop by even if you just have questions, or if you want to schedule an appointment to come into our campus workshop at a later date to work on your device.

See the Facebook event for details. We’ll be at the CPL once a month during the summer for pop-ups. For additional information on pop-ups, see our Facebook page or our Upcoming Events page.

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Illini Gadget Garage Clean Those Gizmos Pop-Up This Saturday

Join the Illini Gadget Garage at the Champaign Public Library (Foundation meeting room, 2nd floor) this Saturday, June 9th from 1:30-3:30 PM to learn how to bring new life into old electronics just with a bit of cleaning and TLC. A short presentation will demonstrate some of the simple ways that cleaning your devices can keep them functioning well and in use longer. After the presentation, there will be a workshop session where you can try out some of your newly learned cleaning processes on devices that you bring in. The Illini Gadget Garage staff will provide some useful household cleaning products to help scrub up those dingy devices.

See the Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/2279158958780787/.

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Clean Those Gizmos!

cleanthosegizmos

Join the Illini Gadget Garage at Champaign Public Library (Friends meeting room, 2nd floor) on Saturday, May 19 from 1:30 to 3:30 to learn how to bring new life into old electronics just with a bit of cleaning and TLC. A short presentation will demonstrate some of the simple ways that cleaning your devices can keep them functioning well and in use longer. After the presentation, we will have a workshop session where we can try out some of our newly learned cleaning processes on devices that you bring in. We will provide some useful household cleaning products to help scrub up those dingy devices.

Can’t make it? We will be presenting this again on June 9th. Check back for more details.

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Celebrate Earth Day with the Illini Gadget Garage

earthday2018-copy

The most sustainable device you will ever own is the one you currently have.

Learn what you and others can do to help keep your devices working by learning to troubleshoot and repair them. Yes, YOU can do it. No, you don’t need experience, we’re here to help walk you through the troubleshooting process to figure out what’s wrong, what parts might need to be replaced, and how to replace them. If you can solve puzzles and read recipes, then you’re about 80 percent of the way ready to jump into repairing a phone or a laptop. The other 20 percent is a combination of patience, practice, and a willingness to learn.

At the Gadget Garage, we want to keep as many devices out of landfills as we can and that all starts with YOU.

Find us at the Champaign Public Library (Friends meeting room, second floor) on Saturday, April 21st from 1:30-4:00 PM for our (day-early) Earth Day event. Find out more from us about: battery, CD/DVD, and CD case recycling; where to take working electronics you no longer want; where to recycle non-functioning electronics in the CU area; where to find local repair shops for those of you who do not want to work on your own devices; etc. We have a lot of information to offer! Stop in and help us help the Earth.

And help you of course.

Because you love it when technology works like it’s supposed to. We all do.