Mar. 23, 2026 - Alumni Newsletter | Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering

Mar. 23, 2026 - Alumni Newsletter

Community Headlines

Brewing engineers: Inside �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s new food engineering program

Faculty member Carmen Pacheco is the architect behind the Food Engineering Graduate Certificate, one of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder's most innovative academic ventures. Launched in 2024, the program was designed to introduce engineering students to the science behind their favorite foods and career opportunities in the food industry, but it can also reinforce scientific concepts that students can apply to any engineering discipline.

Nicole Xu and grad students posing next to a jellyfish tank

Xu selected to receive a 2025 Packard Fellowship award

Assistant Professor Nicole Xu has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering. The award provides some of the nation’s most promising early career scientists and engineers flexible funding to test novel ideas and lead research that drives real-world impact.

Longji Cui holding up a piece of technology to the camera

ME researchers and alumni among this year's Lab Venture Challenge winners

Assistant Professor Longji Cui and ME alum Jafar Makrani (MMechEngr'25) have each won $125,000 in startup funding along with their respective teams as part of this year's Lab Venture Challenge competition. Their startups, Synergia and Agami Zero, specialize in developing cutting-edge technology that offer cost-effective, clean energy solutions.

James Overberg sitting in the CU-branded custom sauna that he designed

ME undergraduate designs custom sauna for athlete recovery

Student-athlete James Overberg has designed and developed a custom sauna that is crucial for helping endurance athletes recover from intense exercise. The new technology is now a permanent part of the Endurance Lab located in the Ford Indoor Practice Facility where it will assist Colorado student-athletes for years to come.

students on a stage holding up large check awards after a competition

Mechanical engineering students shine at the 2025 CSC Finals

Mechanical engineering students Jack Mulvaney, Josh Shrewbridge, Hayden Dondlinger, Kai Groudan, Duncan Laird and Gregory Reilly shined at this year's Colorado Sustainable Challenge, receiving nearly $8,500 in awards during the two-week hackathon-style event designed for anyone passionate about solving problems and building a solution to impact sustainability.

a classroom shot showing people sitting next to each other taking notes

Student feedback drives major ME curriculum changes for fall 2026

Starting in fall 2026, the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering is rolling out two major curriculum changes—guided by student feedback—that aim to rebalance credit allocation and streamline degree requirements. Janet Tsai, associate teaching professor and associate chair for undergraduate education, said the changes will help improve student learning experiences for all current and prospective students.

Research and Innovation Stories

A photo showing a factory with large clouds of smoke puffing out into a sunset sky

Global collaboration to limit air pollution flowing across borders could save millions of lives

A first-of-its-kind study, led by Professor Daven Henze and collaborators at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, assesses how health benefits of aggressive climate policy travel across international borders. The researchers say that ambitious climate action to improve global air quality could save up to 1.32 million lives per year by 2040.

A photo showing a hand holding a small clear bag of blood

Donated blood has a shelf life. A new test tracks how it's aging

Roughly 6.8 million people donate blood in the United States alone, helping save millions of lives, according to the American Red Cross. But just like groceries sitting on store shelves, red blood cells age over time. That's why Associate Professor Xiaoyun Ding and medical collaborators at �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz have created a new chip device to help give blood centers and hospitals a reliable way to monitor the quality of red blood cells after they sit for weeks in storage.

A photo with a dark, black background showing blue and orange fire embers

Wind tunnel research could help predict how wildfires spread

PhD student Laura Shannon, alongside Professors Greg Rieker and Peter Hamlington are setting fires inside wind tunnels to gain a better understanding of how fire spreads across different terrain. The team says their findings could help keep communities safer in a world where climate-driven wildfire is becoming more common—and more dangerous.

Alaa Ahmed working alongside others in her lab

Why do we get a skip in our step when we’re happy? Thank dopamine

Professor Alaa Ahmed is leading a study that highlights the central role that dopamine, a brain chemical associated with reward, seems to play in making people move faster when they want something. The findings could one day help scientists understand and even diagnose a range of human medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and depression.

A person holding a soil sensor above a patch of dirt and leaves

A window underground: New sensors measure emissions from soil in real time

Soil is comprised of an intricate network of bacteria and other microbes that humans depend on, but this complex environmental system is constantly shifting, making it difficult for scientists to measure. Associate Professor Gregory Whiting and his team of researchers are developing reliable, inexpensive and easy-to-deploy sensors that monitor soil in real time to help farmers optimize their use of fertilizers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money in the process.

Surgery operating room where the CAP-LIFT cannula is being used

Researchers redefine hip arthroscopy with breakthrough surgical device

Research Professor Jacob Segil collaborated with Dr. Omer Mei Dan from the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine to create a redesigned surgical instrument called the CAP-LIFT cannula. The device was recently launched in October, and within the first few weeks used in over 100 successful surgeries.

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