UF engineers are teaching robots to tackle one of the world’s growing waste problems. Sara Behdad, Ph.D., an environmental engineering professor at the University of Florida, is leading an NSF-funded project to teach robots how to safely disassemble discarded electronics and recover valuable components.
As electronic waste continues to grow, recycling and remanufacturing these products can expose workers to hazardous materials and make it difficult to recover components efficiently. Behdad’s team is developing self-learning digital twins that can help robots adapt to the complexity of discarded electronics—potentially making e-waste recovery safer, more efficient and more sustainable.