College of Engineering and Applied Science

Five CU Innovators Changing the World

Anna Tolette — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:04:07 +0000

Five CU Innovators Changing the World Anna Tolette Mon, 07/07/2025 - 14:04

CU Boulder is teeming with innovation, curiosity and thought leadership. And the people who comprise the university — CU Buffs — make global impact.

We’re highlighting five stellar Buffs — CU Boulder students, alumni and faculty whose work is relevant, leading-edge and promises to create ripples out into the world. Their stories were written by five equally outstanding CU affiliates, who personally know and understand the importance of their work.

As journalist Tom Costello (Jour’87) wrote in his essay on his NBC colleague Savannah Sellers (Jour’13), she “breaks through.”

Many Buffs are breaking through — they bridge traditional silos, strive to think differently, and take huge risks. And just as many credit the university for equipping them to pursue their passions. CU Boulder is more than its stunning location — this university is the people who push for more.

Idowu Odeyemi (PhDPhil’27)

Charting New Paths as a Rising Philosopher

Idowu Odeyemi came to CU Boulder to refine his philosophical acumen while carving a path for young Africans like him who aspire to study philosophy.

Beyond his research, he said, “I want to challenge and expand the traditional boundaries of the discipline so that the philosophical community must either engage with African thinkers or justify why not.”

Idowu’s work — centered on oppression and blame — delves into how oppressive systems like patriarchy, colonialism, Nazism and slavery affect moral agency. He invites us to consider haunting questions such as why a battered wife doesn’t simply leave while her husband is out, illustrating how the threat of severe harm to one’s welfare can override considerations of morality and compel individuals to remain in oppres-sive circumstances.

Consider a battered wife who faces an oppressive double bind: resisting her abuser risks her safety, while compliance perpetuates the very system that oppresses her. This leads to an untenable situation where she is damned if she revolts, and damned if she doesn’t. In Idowu’s view, this dilemma complicates blaming oppressed individuals for not revolting.

Another facet of Idowu’s scholarship introduces the term “epistemic disgust” — a neglected psychological response that prompts us to reject certain beliefs and utterances because they repulse us. If someone says, “All white men smell like hot dog water,” for instance, many listeners feel revulsion that blocks such an utterance from entering our belief system. Idowu’s ground-breaking theory on how disgust can shape belief formation was published in the prestigious journal Episteme.

He also ventures beyond academia: His essay “On Accent and Confidence” in Isele Magazine was nominated for the 2025 non-fiction prize and recognized as one of the 50 notable essays from Africa in 2024, and another piece, “Living in America, Leaving Nigeria” (published by The Republic), was named among the 18 notable essays by a Nigerian in 2023.

As a graduate student, Idowu has published four peer-reviewed papers in leading journals — an achievement typically expected of faculty. Recently, he delivered a philosophy colloquium at the University of Missouri — uncommon for a graduate student. He was a Harper PhD Fellow at the Benson Center, a fellow at the Center for African and African American Studies and, in 2023, a fully funded fellowship took him to the University of Oxford. This summer, he will be visiting the National Archives in London through a research award from CU Boulder’s Center for African and African American Studies.

Through Idowu’s compelling research and prolific achievements, he exemplifies how CU Boulder’s nurturing environment fosters tomorrow’s transformative thinkers.

CU Boulder philosophy associate professor Ajume Wingo serves as Odeyemi’s advisor. Ajume is a member of the royal family in the Nso kingdom, located in the northwest region of Cameroon. In addition to being widely published in political and social philosophy, he is the founder of several NGOs, including PridePads Africa and Pathfinders4peace.

Photo by Alastair Norcross

Savannah Sellers (Jour’13)

Serious, Fun, Whimsical — and Never Dull

As the face of “the Generation of Now,” Savannah Sellers co-anchors the streaming morning newscast of NBC News NOW, then reports for The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. She demonstrates how a journalist can break through a saturated news market and reach a new generation of consumers who crave accurate information on their own terms.

While transitioning from CU Boulder to NBC News in New York could have been daunting, Savannah quickly established herself as smart and determined, yet easy-going and relevant. This rare combination made her a natural choice to help lead NBC’s outreach to younger viewers, where they are — on social media.

She helped map a new look and pacing for NBC News. The target age: 20-to-40- somethings who want news on the go for their 24/7 lifestyle. Almost immediately, the audience was there. The newscasts moved fast. They were serious, fun, whimsical — and never dull.

Savannah took Snapchat viewers to Parkland, Florida, hours after a former student murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Her coverage was raw and real. A record 18 million people tuned in: mostly kids seeking information about a tragedy affecting other kids they didn’t know, but who were their age.

She has documented America’s heroin epidemic with an Emmy award-winning Nightly News series, revealing that the victims are not always stereotypical drug addicts — they could be your own neighbor or family member.

She has detailed and explained the confusing fight over banning TikTok, the app-of- choice for her younger audience, led honest discussions on diversity, equity and inclusion, and shared the deeply personal and painful struggle she and her husband have faced with fertility.

To meet Savannah is to discover a person of tremendous warmth, charm and insatiable curiosity who wants to know your story — what motivates you, and why. Those are the traits of a great broadcast journalist.

As one NBC exec put it, “She breaks through! She pops!”

It delights me to see a fellow CU alum become such a trusted voice and valued colleague at The Peacock. Go Buffs!

Tom Costello (Jour’87) is the senior correspondent at NBC News. With nearly 30 years of experience at CNBC and NBC News in London, New York and Washington, D.C., he reports daily across all NBC News platforms.

Photo by Nate Congleton

Dania Arayssi (MPolSci’22; PhD’26)

Vital Work in Transnational Politics

Dania Arayssi doesn’t just care deeply about the big social and economic problems that affect people’s everyday lives — she rigorously studies them and takes action.

Before coming to CU Boulder, she participated in the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) at the U.S. State Department and earned multiple advanced degrees. She then founded the Gleam of Hope Group, which works with thousands of young people and women to address food and health needs. For many, these accomplishments would constitute an entire career. For Dania, this was just the beginning.

Dania brought her passion for understanding pressing socioeconomic and political issues to CU Boulder in 2021. Her dissertation work centers on remittances, money sent by those working abroad back to their families in their home countries. Remittances are an important source of income for families around the world. Dania’s research seeks to explain how these remittances affect people’s incentives to be politically active. Does the added economic security make people more likely to pressure the government for change? Or does economic security dampen any potential dissent, making people less likely to vote or protest? What issues do people who receive remittances care about the most?

Dania uses a rigorous combination of interviews, focus groups and original survey data to study these questions in her home country of Lebanon. Her work helps us understand how diaspora communities affect politics around the world. In an era of transnational politics, her work is vitally important.

Dania represents the best of CU Boulder. After completing her dissertation, she plans to work at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, D.C. During these politically contentious times plagued by myriad challenges, I personally find enormous hope that CU alumni like Dania will be out in the world contributing their expertise, knowledge and wisdom.

Sarah Wilson Sokhey works as an associate professor in CU Boulder’s Department of Political Science, a faculty associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science and the founding director of the Studio Lab for Undergrads in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her current research focuses on the local provision of public services in Ukraine during wartime. In 2024, she was inducted into the President’s Teaching Scholars Program, one of the highest CU teaching awards.

Photo courtesy Dania Arayssi

Jun Ye (PhDPhys'97)

Using Quantum for High-Tech Innovation

My friend and colleague Professor Jun Ye is an ever-flowing fountain of scientific and technological innovation.

One of the greatest laser scientists in the world, he and his students have built several generations of record-setting optical clocks. The technology has advanced to the point where Jun’s clocks would gain or lose less than a second in the whole age of the universe. These highly accurate clocks are tied into technology improvements to support better navigation, communication and the ability to sense unseen things (for example, small changes in gravity associated with objects buried underground). Additionally, his lab created the world’s first nuclear clock.

Through his research at JILA, Jun uses lasers to detect slight traces of unusual elements in gas samples. His group is now examining the air exhaled by people with various diseases to find tiny traces of certain chemicals associated with a particular disease. If this works, one day cancer testing might be as easy as puffing some air into a soda straw.

Much of his research is built around using the properties of quantum mechanics to do high-tech research — precision measurement, secure communication, exotic material design — that eludes the reach of “old-school” classical mechanics.

Perhaps as impactful as anything else he does, Jun has trained an entirely new generation of elite scientists and engineers, who are now the beating heart of Colorado’s, and the nation’s, high-tech industry. When I visit high-tech Colorado companies, it often seems that the technical leadership are CU Boulder alums who earned their degrees while working in Jun’s group.

On top of his research, Jun is working with me on a joint project to understand why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. It sounds like a very abstract topic, but it is part of a bigger question: How are the conditions in the universe such that the development of humankind is possible? I feel very privileged to collaborate with Jun. I’ve learned a lot from working with him. Sometimes I wonder if the man ever sleeps!

Eric Cornell has been at CU for 34 years and wears many hats. He teaches first-year physics for the CU Boulder Department of Physics; he is a JILA fellow; and a scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2001, he and CU Boulder professor Carl Wieman won the Nobel Prize in Physics for creating Bose-Einstein Condensation, the “world’s coldest stuff.”

Photo courtesy Jun Ye

Steve Swanson (EngrPhys’83)

Space Commander Gains and Gives Respect

Steve Swanson was one of the most highly respected members of the NASA astronaut office during the Shuttle and Space Station Programs in the 1990s and 2000s.

Steve and I met in the late 1980s when we were both in the aircraft operations division at Johnson Space Center. I was an instructor pilot in the space shuttle training aircraft. Steve was a software wizard and the flight simulation engineer responsible for managing the computer that enabled a Gulfstream II business jet to fly like a space shuttle. We were both interested in becoming astronauts. I was selected in 1992, and

Steve was named an astronaut in 1998 after obtaining a PhD in computer science from Texas A&M University.

Steve excelled right away in the astronaut office and was selected as one of the four extra-vehicular activity (EVA) crewmembers to install one of the four solar array elements of the station. It was considered an honor to be chosen for such a significant mission on his first flight — he was clearly a rising star!

I began working at CU Boulder thanks to Steve. He talked to me after his post-flight trip to Boulder to visit with the students and return items he had flown for the university. CU asked him to consider a professor position in the CU aerospace department, but he wanted to fly more for NASA and so asked if I might be interested instead.

Steve also led the EVA team to install the final solar array element two years later. His final mission in 2014 was serving as a station crewmember and the mission commander.

That fall, I was proud to arrange a live video conference in the Fiske Planetarium so Steve could talk to the students while he was on the Space Station. Today, Steve shares his experiences at Boise State University, leading and advising student teams participating in NASA’s Artemis Challenges, inspiring them to do great things in science and engineering.

Joe Tanner is a retired NASA astronaut, Navy pilot and CU Boulder teaching professor. During his 16-year career as an astronaut, he flew four missions on the space shuttle, one to the Hubble Space Telescope and two to the International Space Station. He also mentored astronaut Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr’17) when she was a CU student; Gillis traveled to space in fall 2025 with SpaceX.

Photo courtesy NASA

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From quantum science to journalism, these five CU Boulder students, alumni and faculty are making bold, world-shaping contributions.

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Summer 2025

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Sustainable Spinouts: Innovation in Action

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:20:54 +0000

Sustainable Spinouts: Innovation in Action Anna Tolette Mon, 03/10/2025 - 14:20

Heather Hansen

Imagine strolling down a sidewalk made from algae or building a wall with the help of microbes grown in a bioreactor.

This extraordinary image may sound futuristic, but the technology is already here, thanks to Prometheus Materials, a sustainability-focused CU Boulder spinout giving concrete blocks a makeover with the help of environmentally-friendly bio-cement-making bacteria, algae and microbes.

CU Boulder civil, environmental and architectural engineering professor Wil Srubar founded the Longmont-based company in 2021 with CEO Loren Burnett and a cross-disciplinary team of CU Boulder collaborators, including civil, environmental and architectural engineering associate professors Mija Hubler and Sherri Cook and the late Jeff Cameron, formerly of biochemistry.

The impetus for the research group formed several years earlier around a call for proposals from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) focused on developing new technologies for the military.

“It sounded impossible, a bit like a Frankenstein objective of bringing building materials to life.”

“Our charge from the DoD was to grow a material that had both biological and structural function,” said Srubar. “It sounded impossible, a bit like a Frankenstein objective of bringing building materials to life.”

But the challenge was right for Srubar, who leads CU Boulder’s Living Materials Laboratory, where researchers aim to create construction materials that are in harmony with the natural world.

“We had been thinking about these concepts for some time,” he said. “But this was the first government investment in this particular area that really catalyzed an entirely new field.”

After two years of “spinning their wheels,” said Srubar, the team had a breakthrough in the lab when they made the first sample of engineered living materials that fulfilled DARPA’s requirements. Srubar said this success required looking back — way back — to life on Earth before humans. They were inspired by formations called stromatolites, stony structures built by microscopic photosynthesizing organisms known as cyanobacteria, which are among the oldest living lifeforms on the planet.

“We know nature has built really strong, tough materials,” said Srubar.

By studying the composition of coral and seashells, for example, the team figured out how to make lab-grown versions of the natural phenomena.

“You apply principles of biomimicry, you bring that process into the lab and beautiful things can happen,” he said.

Now Prometheus Materials, named for the legendary Greek god who introduced fire and other technologies to humans, is making sustainable building materials with a process that combines microalgae with other natural components to form zero-carbon bio-cement and bio-concrete with the major goal of reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry.

This is so important because making concrete — the most ubiquitous human-made building material on earth — generates massive amounts of CO2 and contributes significantly to climate change. Global cement manufacturing produces 11 million tons of CO2 every day (roughly equivalent to emissions from all the cars in the world), or about 8% of the world’s total CO2 emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, demand for cement in the U.S. alone is expected to double by 2050.

As the company realizes its transformative role in the construction industry, it has raised $8 million in private funding in the past year and was awarded a role in a $10 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) that will fund collaboration between a trio of national labs. Within this partnership, Prometheus will join other institutions in the field to establish methods for measuring, reporting and verifying CO2 removal and sequestration in cement and concrete materials.

Environmental Stewardship

Prometheus is just one example of CU Boulder’s strong network of researchers bringing innovations out of labs and into companies that have real-world impact — the university is a national leader and spinout powerhouse, launching 35 companies in fiscal year 2024 and over 100 since 2016, according to Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. Since 2000, the university has launched 44 sustainability-focused spinouts, including a dozen new companies in just the past few years, said Rees, who leads Venture Partners at CU Boulder, the university’s commercialization arm for the campus.

According to Rees and Srubar, several factors combine to make CU Boulder so effective at generating these kinds of companies: research expertise, commercialization resources, market need and an eagerness to improve our world.

“There’s such a history of environmental stewardship here at the University of Colorado, and in Boulder specifically, and that’s very much a part of our institutional fabric,” said Srubar. “We do sustainability research really well and it’s one, if not the pillar, of our education and research mission at the university.”

Rees agreed: “It’s a function of our research prowess in that area. There are many highly talented researchers who care deeply about the climate crisis, and so that’s where they’ve oriented their research.”

Those innovations could be used in lots of different ways, but Rees shared, “The innovators are saying, ‘We want to apply these technologies to really important problems.’”

For Srubar and others, the drive to make the world a better place is strong.

“It all begins with a vision and a belief that, first, the world is not static; it can become whatever you dream,” he said. “Understanding that you have the power and the potential to affect change is what really fueled me and our team.”

Rees also sees market need as critical to driving sustainability-focused ventures.

“There is an abundance of funding opportunities and demand from the market to have these types of solutions,” he said. “You’ve got the push from what CU Boulder is really good at, and you’ve got the pull from a true need for these types of solutions across different industries.”

“You’ve got the push from what CU Boulder is really good at, and you’ve got the pull from a true need for these types of solutions across different industries.”

Driving Meaningful Change

Another company with CU Boulder beginnings is the well-established, Boulder-based LongPath, founded in 2017 by Greg Rieker, chief technology officer and CU Boulder associate professor of mechanical engineering, with colleagues Caroline Alden (PhDGeol’13), Sean Coburn (PhDChem’14) and Robert Wright, former CU Boulder senior researcher.

LongPath harnesses quantum technology to detect fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas operations, innovation that benefits industry and investors — and the planet. The company’s breakthroughs in laser technology and quantum sensing, rooted in CU Boulder’s Nobel Prize-winning optical frequency comb technology, created a leak detection system to do what previous approaches could not: continuously detect invisible-to-the-eye natural gas escaping from pipes on-site at oil and gas facilities.

Finding and patching those leaks is a triple win — in industry cost savings (from $820 to $980 million per year), and improved air quality and public health. LongPath’s technology can identify natural gas leaks that sicken and displace thousands of people each year and cut greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane.

Today, LongPath’s Active Emissions Overwatch System is live at oil and gas operations in several states, covering hundreds of thousands of acres. Rieker and his team see the impacts of those systems growing each day, and he estimates that each system saves between 40 and 80 million cubic feet of methane annually.

“Every time we deploy a new system, it really is impactful,” he said, adding the team still celebrates every large leak located. “We’ll nail a big one for a customer, and that’s exciting.”

Similar to Srubar, LongPath’s founders were motivated by protecting the environment.

“Many academics measure impact in terms of papers published or citation rates. I always wanted the impact of my work to be more palpable,” said Rieker. “In 2024, LongPath stopped more than 6 billion cubic feet of methane emissions and counting. That’s impact, and that’s why we launched.”

“Many academics measure impact in terms of papers published or citation rates. I always wanted the impact of my work to be more palpable.”

Wil Srubar of CU Boulder's Living Materials Laboratory

Recently, the company received landmark financial backing from the DOE for a loan of up to $189 million to accelerate the scale-up of the company’s monitoring systems.

Another game-changing company making significant strides in sustainability is Louisville-based Solid Power, founded in 2011, based on technology developed by CU Boulder mechanical engineering professor Se-Hee Lee and professor emeritus of mechanical engineering Conrad Stoldt (Chem’94).

Similar to Srubar and Prometheus Materials, Stoldt and Lee answered a call from DARPA. Their challenge was to double the energy density of a rechargeable battery.

“The metrics they wanted to reach were unheard of,” said Stoldt, but he and Lee accepted the challenge anyway. “We saw it as an opportunity… and we sat down and determined that, at least on paper, the only rechargeable battery technology that could meet the specs for the program was a solid-state battery.”

Lee and Stoldt partnered with Douglas Campbell, a small business and early-stage product developer, and chief technology officer Joshua Buettner-Garrett to start Solid Power. Along with then-mentor Dave Jansen, the team negotiated a commercialization agreement with Venture Partners (known then as the CU Technology Transfer Office), making the company an exclusive licensee to the university’s intellectual property.

What began as an idea Stoldt said was “bootstrapped” in CU Boulder labs, Solid Power is now an industry-leading developer of next-generation all-solid-state battery technology. As their name suggests, solid-state batteries (SSBs) differ from conventional batteries in that the electrolyte powering them is a solid material instead of a gel or liquid. That gives SSBs many advantages over lithium-ion batteries now widely used in electronics, toys, appliances and — critically — electric vehicles.

Solid Power’s design bests lithium-ion cells on safety, cost, durability and battery life — attributes long sought by consumers and automakers. Their technology swaps the flammable liquid in lithium-ion cells with a solid, sulfide-based electrolyte that is safer and more stable across a broad temperature range. Solid Power’s cells also easily outpace the conductivity and energy density of today’s best rechargeable batteries. The result is a smaller, lighter cell that is cheaper and has a longer-lasting charge.

Solid Power, which went public in 2021, employs many Forever Buffs and boasts major partnership deals with BMW and Ford, along with a new 75,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Thornton.

Their continued innovation was recognized with a recent $5.6 million DOE grant to continue developing its nickel- and cobalt-free cell, and, late last year, the company began award negotiations for up to $50 million in DOE funding. With this project, Solid Power intends to launch the world’s first continuous manufacturing process, allowing the company to produce its critical electrolyte material more quickly and at a lower cost.

From Lab to Marketplace

With the burgeoning success of Prometheus and others, Srubar hopes to inspire other researchers to make the leap to the marketplace. To that end, he was recently named Deming associate dean for innovation and entrepreneurship, a new role in the College of Engineering and Applied Science focused on building bridges between labs and the marketplace.

“This is something I’m so passionate about — shining a light for those inspired and driven by a vision to see change in the world and to follow that pathway of commercialization,” Srubar said. “I think CU Boulder’s reputation will continue to grow in this space, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

“I think CU Boulder’s reputation will continue to grow in this space, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Emerging ventures at CU Boulder

PAGE Technologies: Co-founded in 2023 by Elliot Strand (MMatSciEngr’21; PhD’23) and Payton Goodrich to commercialize a low-cost platform to transform agricultural and environmental monitoring, enhance fertilizer use efficiency, improve water resource management and advance climate resilience efforts.
eat meati: Within months of beginning to collaboratively research mushroom root (mycelium) together as PhD students, Tyler Huggins (MEngr’13; PhDCivEngr’15) and Justin Whiteley (MMechEngr’14; PhD’16) knew they’d found a nature-based way to create meat alternatives.
Tynt Technologies: Founded in 2020 by Michael McGehee (CU Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineering) and then-PhD students Tyler Hernandez and Michael Strand. After developing the initial technology for energy-efficient windows at Stanford, they moved to CU Boulder to complete their work and found the company. Tynt allows users to fully control the light and solar heat entering a home, turning panes from clear to opaque with the touch of a button.
Latimer Controls: Founded in 2022 by Simon Julien (ApMath’21; MS’22) and Zachary Jacobs (ChemBiolEngr’21) to bring to market their innovative solar energy control system that solves the issue of intermittent renewable power. The technology was co-invented by Julien, working as an undergraduate and master’s student in collaboration with Bri-Mathias Hodge (Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering), Amirhossein Sajadi (Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Mana Battery: A CU Boulder startup founded on discoveries from Chunmei Ban’s laboratory (CU Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), is developing best-in-class sodium battery technology with the potential to replace lithium-ion batteries.
Green Steel Environmental: a CU Boulder startup founded on technology discovered by Mark Hernandez (Environmental Engineering) uses waste from steel manufacturing to replace hazardous chemicals from wastewater treatment.

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Illustrations by Daniele Simonelli

From engineered "living" sidewalks to quantum-fueled leak detection systems, several CU spinouts are bringing earth-focused breakthroughs to the marketplace.

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Spring 2025

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Full STEM Ahead: CU Engineering Steps Up

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:53:21 +0000

Full STEM Ahead: CU Engineering Steps Up Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 13:53

Jeff Zehnder

In the midst a national growing need for engineers, Dean Keith Molenaar (ArchEngr’90; MCivEngr’95; PhD’97) has led faculty, staff and students in the co-creation of a new strategic vision for the College of Engineering and Applied Science, committing to expanding its role in the high-tech economy and further emphasizing a goal of engineering gender parity in the college.

How is the College of Engineering and Applied Science changing at CU?

This is a time of disruption for higher ed across the nation. Some universities are struggling with enrollment, and people are questioning the value of a four-year degree. But our record here is stronger than it’s ever been. For the second year in a row, we welcomed the largest classes of both undergraduate and PhD students ever.

You’ve put a major emphasis on recruiting more female engineers. Why is this important for the college?

Historically, the engineering profession has been male-dominated, and that puts us at risk of creating solutions to problems that don’t represent our broader society. Inclusion is a pillar of everything we do and integral to our impact. We need a more diverse workforce to solve the complex technological and infrastructure challenges of today’s world.

Where do gender parity efforts start at CU?

It starts early. The current vision builds on long-standing efforts by CU Boulder and national groups to expand access in science and math for girls in K-12. By showing up in early education, we’re giving students confidence that they can make an impact on society by being an engineer. And it’s paying off. Last year, 41 percent of our first-year engineering undergraduates were women, putting us #1in the nation in terms of gender parity among 167 public colleges of engineering, according to the American Society for Engineering Education.

You’ve been focused on fusing engineering with business. What impact has that had?

We’re beyond the traditional metrics of publishing papers as a primary metric for success. Patents are important. Economic impact is important. We need to focus on the implications and implementations of our work, not just the work itself. It’s inspiring the next generation of graduates and PhD students to be entrepreneurs. CU launched 35 companies last fiscal year through the Venture Partners program, placing us second among all universities over the last decade.

You recently created a new position within the college: Assistant Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

And we quickly selected Wil Srubar for the position. He’s a crucial addition to our college. He has both fundamental engineering and applied business experience — he’s started three companies already. The new position is helping us with translational work, moving things out of the lab and into companies through patents or startups.

The college is dramatically scaling up its economic impact for Colorado, with a particular focus on translating research into business success.

In a time of disruption, we need leaders. CU Boulder is a flagship of Colorado’s success — and the college of engineering is an economic driver in all that. There’s something special going on in Boulder. There have always been pockets of innovation and entrepreneurship in the college, but we’re evolving to focus more across the board on economic impact. We have a responsibility to help the state grow in a sustainable and equitable manner.

In 2021, CU built the Rustandy Building, connecting the Engineering Center and the Koelbel Building, home to the Leeds School of Business. What was the thinking behind this fusion?

Our partnership [with Leeds] is paramount, and the connection between business and engineering on campus is both an idea and a physical reality. We’re scaling up. The donor-supported project physically joined the buildings, adding 45,000 square feet of new classroom and collaboration spaces. It is a joy to see the energy in this shared space and make me hopeful for Colorado’s future leadership in high-tech industries.

How do you measure success for the college?

We compete with universities across the nation and continue to come out at the top. But while it has been great to climb in the rankings, we don’t chase that. People are seeing what we’re doing here. We’re leaders in AI, aerospace and sustainability, among other areas. We contribute to national defense and national security. Our faculty are highly sought after for leadership positions across the U.S. and participate in national conversations that shape the future of technology. Those are the indicators I look at.

How does engineering fit in with the rest of the campus?

Our rankings and national reputation come because we’re part of a comprehensive university — it’s one of our key advantages. We’re educating holistic engineers. They need to understand historic, political and business aspects of their work. To serve society well as engineers, we must have deep partnerships with the other colleges, schools and institutes across campus. We are fortunate to be part of a comprehensive campus, and we strive to contribute to our campus mission every day.

Interview by Jeff Zehnder, condensed and edited for clarity.

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Photo by Jesse Morgan Petersen

Dean Keith Molenaar has led faculty, staff and students in the co-creation of a new strategic vision for the College of Engineering and Applied Science, committing to expanding its role in the high-tech economy and further emphasizing a goal of engineering gender parity in the college.

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Fall 2024

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Major Change: Five Fresh Degrees

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:43:34 +0000

Major Change: Five Fresh Degrees Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 13:43

Kelsey Yandura

Did Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film boost Birkenstock sales? Does a high-fat diet increase anxiousness? How are business leaders addressing “Zoom fatigue” among employees? Can a jellyfish-inspired robot track climate change?

The questions facing industry professionals today can range from complex to straight out of a science fiction novel. To keep up with and prepare students for the ever-evolving times, academic institutions need to constantly reevaluate course content and degree offerings.

CU Boulder’s leadership strategically approaches the challenges of continuous modernization in higher education by examining both what and how students learn. This allows the university to remain on the leading edge of education while empowering students to navigate a fast-changing world.

“Our degrees don’t focus on a finite set of competencies, but on teaching students how to learn and lead,” said Katherine Eggert, vice chancellor for academic planning and assessment at CU Boulder. “What our graduates learn today may be outdated by tomorrow. They’ll need to acquire new skills quickly from the moment they start their careers.”

The university’s academic strategy is centered on equipping students with adaptable, real-world skills in programs that embrace multidisciplinary approaches, foster collaboration and generate creative solutions to complex problems.

Here are five of the latest undergraduate and graduate degree paths CU Boulder has unveiled over the past four years.

Corporate Communication (MA)

CU Boulder Online

When Kiana Junior (MCorpComm’25) graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition, job prospects in her field of study were dire.

“I took the first job I could, which happened to be in the real estate industry,” said Junior. Three years later, she’s bounding ahead on a totally new path: working as a brand communicator and pursuing her master’s in corporate communication at CU, a fully online degree program introduced in 2020.

In the field of corporate communication, professionals study the way companies and organizations communicate with internal and external audiences to share information and manage brand perception.

“It’s the practice and art of distilling information with integrity and consistency,” said Junior. “Consumers and employees expect transparency and social responsibility from corporations, now more than ever — especially when it comes to social responsibility, environmental compliance and diversity.”

The curriculum is designed to be student-centric. “The students learn from a mix of university faculty and current and distinguished practitioners who are working in the field,” said Tobias Hopp, director of the program. “It’s a dynamic educational experience.”

The results speak for themselves.

“I could read something in class one day and take it to work the next day,” said Junior. “It’s directly applicable every single week.”

Business Analytics (BS)

Leeds School of Business

Businesses have access to more data than ever — but it’s what they do with this data that provides value. Streaming site subscriptions, airline loyalty memberships, coffee shop sales and nail salon customer reviews — each of these datasets can provide a wealth of information for the respective businesses.

That’s where business analytics comes in: using data to glean insights, inform strategic decisions and recommend meaningful changes within a business. This fast-growing field of study became a new undergraduate focus within the Leeds School of Business in 2022.

“It’s about critical thinking with data,” said Kai R. Larsen, professor of information systems at Leeds. “Datasets are only getting bigger. We tried to imagine what a major would look like so that students could really understand the story behind the numbers.”

Business analytics students learn how to translate and distill hard numbers into helpful information. It is designed to be paired with another area of emphasis within the business school, such as marketing, finance or accounting.

“The beauty comes from how to put all these parts together,” said Larsen. “Not only understand the problem, but be able to analyze and also distill the information into something that’s valuable.”

Public Health (BA)

College of Arts and Sciences

After wildfires in California in 2008, Colleen Reid, an associate professor of geography at CU Boulder, began studies to understand how wildfire smoke affects population health. Recently, she has been collecting data to understand how wildfire smoke gets into homes and schools and may affect children’s health in the Denver metro area. Reid hopes school districts can use the findings from her work to protect children from future high air pollution events, such as wildfires. Her work demonstrates the importance of careers in public health.

Starting in the fall of 2025, CU students will have the opportunity to pursue similar lines of work through the new public health major (BA) — a discipline focused on protecting and improving the health and well-being of communities and people. The field examines the underlying determinants of health within populations. For this new major at CU, students will learn about public health through courses within many different disciplines, including biology, statistics, geography, physiology, sociology, psychology and more.

“Public health goes beyond just individual bodies,” said Reid. “Seat belts are public health. Parks are public health. Climate change policy is public health. Food safety inspections at restaurants are public health.”

CU’s public health program plans to equip students with the tools to address the needs of today’s world — making strides to not only solve health problems, but also prevent them.

Biomedical Engineering (BS, MS, PhD)

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Earlier this year, a CU Boulder-led team made strides in the quest to develop naturalistic materials that can repair and replace human tissue. Their breakthrough focused on creating a “Band-Aid for the heart,” and the process consisted of 3D printing adhesive, elastic materials that are strong enough to support tissue mechanically.

This work, which can lead to revolutionary uses such as internal bandages and cartilage patches, demonstrates the innovative possibilities in biomedical engineering. By connecting engineering principles to the fields of medicine and biology, professionals in this discipline create enhancements to health care.

“A biomedical engineer on a team can form a crucial bridge between the clinicians and the engineers,” said Jessica McLaughlin, a teaching assistant professor in CU’s biomedical engineering (BME) department. “It’s critical to have someone at the table who can speak both languages.”

Since 2020, students at CU Boulder have had this professional pathway open to them through undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering degrees. The multidisciplinary major teaches students how to create technology to address complex health problems.

“Anyone who cares about human health should be interested in this,” said Corey Nue, a biomedical professor at CU Boulder. “As engineers, we’re really uniquely positioned to impact the field through new devices, diagnostics and therapeutics.”

Robotics (MA, PhD)

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Perhaps the most futuristic major on the list is CU’s new graduate program in robotics, which kicked off in the fall of 2023. The program combines coursework and research from a variety of engineering fields, bridging the gaps between science, engineering and artificial intelligence.

“Robotics takes everything from computer science to mechanical engineering to electrical engineering,” said Sean Humbert, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Robotics Program at CU Boulder. “These are the types of students we want to be getting — folks that want this multidisciplinary background to solve all sorts of problems.”

From agriculture and health care to security and defense, the applications of a robotics degree are endless. Students enrolled in the program can choose from more than 40 different courses taught by experts in areas like field robotics, reasoning and assurance, smart materials, human-centered robotics and biomedical robotics.

When leading the charge to bring the robotics program to life, Humbert envisioned a department built on flexibility and an eye for developing trends.

“It’s a rapidly changing field, and our terrific faculty span all of these different bins of research,” said Humbert. “We’ll be able to educate students and develop new classes as the new tools appear. It’s really exciting.”

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Illustrations by Israel Vargas

Take a peek at five new undergraduate and graduate degree paths CU Boulder has unveiled over the past four years.

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Fall 2024

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New Padding Innovation Could Revolutionize Helmet Safety

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

New Padding Innovation Could Revolutionize Helmet Safety Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/16/2024 - 00:00

Daniel Strain

Football players (and anyone else who takes hard hits) may want to breathe a sigh of relief. Engineers at CU Boulder and Sandia National Laboratories have been hard at work researching and developing a new design for padding that can withstand powerful impacts.

“If you’re riding your bike and get into a crash, you don’t know if that’s going to be a low-speed impact or a high-speed impact. But regardless, you expect your helmet to perform well,” said Robert MacCurdy, assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder. “We’re trying to develop a geometry that performs well under all of those scenarios.”

The team’s innovations, which can be printed on commercially available 3D printers, could one day wind up in everything from shipping crates to football pads — anything that helps to protect fragile objects from the bumps of life.

“Impact mitigation is something that’s important everywhere,” said MacCurdy. “It’s in highway crash barriers, knee pads and elbow pads, and in packaging equipment.”

Currently, some of the most common types of padding materials are foams, which are filled with tiny holes and channels, such as packing peanuts or stress balls. Foams can absorb a lot of force, but if you squeeze them hard enough, they will compress down into a rigid wad. MacCurdy and his colleagues wanted to develop cushioning that would provide protection, regardless of the force of impact.

The group’s new designs look a bit like the cells in a honeycomb. When you squeeze them, the cells collapse, but always following a careful pattern.

Everyday risks may soon be greatly reduced. The researchers put their designs to the test in labs, reporting that the padding could absorb roughly six times more force than standard foams made out of the same material.

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Photos courtesy Wikipedia and Lawrence Smith

New kinds of padding could make football gear, bike helmets safer than ever.

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College of Engineering and Applied Science

Five CU Innovators Changing the World

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Idowu Odeyemi (PhDPhil’27)

Savannah Sellers (Jour’13)

Dania Arayssi (MPolSci’22; PhD’26)

Jun Ye (PhDPhys'97)

Steve Swanson (EngrPhys’83)

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Sustainable Spinouts: Innovation in Action

Environmental Stewardship

Driving Meaningful Change

From Lab to Marketplace

Emerging ventures at CU Boulder

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Full STEM Ahead: CU Engineering Steps Up

How is the College of Engineering and Applied Science changing at CU?

You’ve put a major emphasis on recruiting more female engineers. Why is this important for the college?

Where do gender parity efforts start at CU?

You’ve been focused on fusing engineering with business. What impact has that had?

You recently created a new position within the college: Assistant Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The college is dramatically scaling up its economic impact for Colorado, with a particular focus on translating research into business success.

In 2021, CU built the Rustandy Building, connecting the Engineering Center and the Koelbel Building, home to the Leeds School of Business. What was the thinking behind this fusion?

How do you measure success for the college?

How does engineering fit in with the rest of the campus?

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Major Change: Five Fresh Degrees

Corporate Communication (MA)

Business Analytics (BS)

Public Health (BA)

Biomedical Engineering (BS, MS, PhD)

Robotics (MA, PhD)

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New Padding Innovation Could Revolutionize Helmet Safety

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