OUR TEAM
A cross-campus collaboration for circular action
CAPPUCCINO is led by researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, bringing together expertise across engineering, materials, chemical engineering, and medicine.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Meet the CAPPUCCINO team
The project leadership team coordinates CAPPUCCINO’s research, education, innovation, and civic-engagement activities across the University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Together, the team supports collaboration across disciplines and helps build a broader community of practice around spent coffee grounds, campus material streams, and circular economies.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Project Leads
The project leads represent the two CAPPUCCINO partner universities.
Project Lead
Dr Ilija Rašović
School of Metallurgy and Materials
University of Birmingham
Dr Rašović serves as a CAPPUCCINO project lead representing the University of Birmingham. He helps guide the project’s cross-campus work in circular economies, research, innovation, education, and engagement.
Project Lead
Dr Joe Bradley
Grainger College of Engineering
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr Bradley serves as a CAPPUCCINO project lead representing the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He helps coordinate the project’s interdisciplinary collaborations, symposium activities, and development across partner institutions.
SUPPORTING LEADERSHIP
Project Co-Leads
The co-leads contribute disciplinary perspectives from chemical engineering and medicine to the project’s wider circular-economy work.
Project Co-Lead
Dr Kylee Goode
School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Dr Goode serves as a CAPPUCCINO co-lead at the University of Birmingham and contributes to the project’s collaborative work across research, education, innovation, and civic engagement.
Project Co-Lead
Dr Japhia Jayasingh Ramkumar
Carle Illinois College of Medicine
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr Ramkumar serves as a CAPPUCCINO co-lead at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and contributes a health and medicine perspective to the project’s interdisciplinary work.
OUR PARTNERSHIP
Two universities, one collaborative network
CAPPUCCINO connects complementary expertise, students, researchers, and communities across the United Kingdom and the United States.
UoB
University of Birmingham
CAPPUCCINO participants at Birmingham contribute expertise from areas including metallurgy and materials, chemical engineering, education, innovation, and community engagement.
UIUC
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
CAPPUCCINO participants at Illinois contribute perspectives from engineering, medicine, food systems, sustainability, education, innovation, and community partnerships.
BEYOND THE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Growing a multidisciplinary community of practice
CAPPUCCINO is broader than its four-person leadership team. The project has invited students, researchers, educators, community members, entrepreneurs, businesses, and other stakeholders to participate in its symposiums and collaborative activities.
Contributors have brought perspectives from materials science, chemical engineering, food processing, medicine, business, education, sustainability, entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and other fields.
This open, multidisciplinary structure helps the project examine circularity as a technical, environmental, educational, social, and economic challenge.
Who Contributes?
- Faculty and researchers
- Graduate and undergraduate students
- Community organizations and local residents
- Entrepreneurs and responsible businesses
- Sustainability and civic-engagement practitioners
- International academic and community partners
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Learning through design and collaboration
Students have participated in CAPPUCCINO activities through interdisciplinary learning, design thinking, idea development, and business-pitch exercises.
The project’s student symposium invited participants to learn about possible uses for spent coffee grounds, identify human-centered opportunities, develop ideas, and communicate those ideas through short pitches.
Student Symposium
Pitch a business idea
The June 2025 student symposium focused on possible applications for spent coffee grounds and used design thinking to connect sustainability challenges with human-centered product and service ideas.
- Learn about potential uses of spent coffee grounds
- Apply design-thinking methods
- Prepare a business or project concept
- Present and discuss ideas with others
CONNECT WITH CAPPUCCINO
Interested in contributing to the project?
CAPPUCCINO welcomes perspectives from people working in research, education, sustainability, enterprise, community engagement, and related areas.