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Welker receives Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award

alse6588 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:19:33 +0000

Welker receives Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award alse6588 Mon, 03/30/2026 - 15:19

The �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Graduate School has announced that Assistant Professor Cara Welker has earned one of this year's Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Awards. The award honors faculty members for their outstanding contributions either to mentoring individual graduate students, improving the overall climate of graduate education within their program, or improving the graduate program itself.

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PhD student wins prestigious physics contest with endless avalanche experiment

alse6588 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:10:17 +0000

PhD student wins prestigious physics contest with endless avalanche experiment alse6588 Mon, 03/30/2026 - 14:10

PhD student Rylan Hodgson recently created a video that won the American Physical Society's (APS) 2026 Gallery of Soft Matter contest at the APS Global Physics Summit. The video demonstrates a unique view of the dynamics of granular flow with a rolling drum experiment that could one day be used to reveal key information about the mechanics and behavior of avalanches.

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ME senior project turns waste heat into clean energy savings

alse6588 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:17:34 +0000

ME senior project turns waste heat into clean energy savings alse6588 Wed, 03/25/2026 - 13:17

Alexander Servantez

From craft breweries to steel manufacturing plants, many industrial facilities rely on cryogenic gases for processes such as cooling, materials testing or energy transport.

But before those gases can be used, they must be vaporized with electricity-intensive equipment that can cost companies tens of thousands of dollars each year.

A team of seniors in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering are working on a new solution. For their senior capstone project, the group is developing a heat-exchange device that captures waste heat circulating through refrigeration systems.

The project could help facilities drastically reduce energy consumption and operating costs, providing them with a sustainable new alternative.

“Think of a local business with a small facility like Avery Brewing. We found that they spend over $20,000 a year just to heat those cryogenic gases electrically,” said test and systems engineer Zachary Weiner. “Our device would cut that cost completely and recovering waste heat makes for a great green energy alternative.”

Members of the team chatting with local brewing industry professionals during a research visit.

However, the idea didn’t come together overnight. As part of the Senior Design program’s Engineering for Social Innovation (ESI) track, the team was responsible for developing their own project from scratch without being assigned to industry-sponsored prompts.

After extensive research, the team decided to explore waste heat recovery in the brewing industry. It wasn’t until they visited some local breweries and distilleries that the project truly came into focus.

“All the engineers we met with on our visits were so interested in our early concept and that’s what really inspired us,” said manufacturing engineer Ian Mcleod. “Some of these small and mid-sized businesses are trying to cut costs and be more sustainable so they can prevent them from closing down. Our passion in this project is about helping them save energy and remain open.”

The problem is simple: cryogenic gases are liquefied and stored at extremely low temperatures to maximize storage and enable easier transportation. In order to be used in industrial facilities, though, they must be vaporized into gas.

To do this, most places today use an energy-intensive electric pressure builder that draws directly from the power grid. But the group’s new heat-exchange device is different.

Instead of using electricity, the device takes in a hot, refrigerant liquid called glycol. In breweries, glycol is already being chilled and circulated through cooling systems to keep tanks and other equipment at safe temperatures.

Test and systems engineer Zachary Weiner working on the senior design project in the Idea Forge.

By using glycol, the team says the device can repurpose its existing heat rather than relying on new energy from the grid.

“We are essentially saving energy that would be taken out anyway through the glycol cooling process,” said project manager Gavriel Fox.

The group is currently working on a test article for their heat exchanger model. They plan to showcase the small-scale design and validate their simulations at this year’s Engineering Expo event in April.

But Engineering Expo is only part of the journey. The team will also be competing in the New Venture Challenge (NVC), where they will refine their business model and pitch the technology as a scalable solution for multiple industries.

“Our device is relevant wherever there is bulk gas that needs cooling. It can be oxygen in hospitals, nitrogen in oil and gas industries or even argon in commercial steel facilities,” said logistics manager Asaiah Gifford. “We see breweries as our market entry space. If the device works in breweries, then we know we can expand from there to much larger industries.”

If selected to compete at the NVC finals in April, the group will have capped off a year-long project with an exciting finish. And while the process has been stressful, the team says the experience has been equally rewarding.

“We have a great team and this project has pushed us to become independent thinkers with agency,” said Fox. “We’ve even become better engineers with a strong foundation of business knowledge.”

Join us at Engineering Expo 2026!

Everything �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder engineering students learn culminates in capstone design projects, presented at the annual Engineering Projects Expo. Explore amazing new inventions and technologies created by our next-generation of engineers!

Who: K-12 students, prospective �鶹��Ѱ��Engineers, and community members are all encouraged to attend.

When: Friday, April 17 from 2 to 5 p.m.

Where: Ford Practice Facility, 2150 Colorado Ave., Boulder, CO

Parking: Available in Lot 436 and the Regent Parking Garage for $5.

Many industrial facilities rely on cryogenic gases for processes such as cooling, materials testing or energy transport. But before those gases can be used, they must be vaporized with electricity-intensive equipment that can cost companies tens of thousands of dollars each year. A team of seniors are working to address that problem by developing a heat-exchange device for their senior capstone project that captures waste heat circulating through refrigeration systems.

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From left to right: Ian Mcleod, Gavriel Fox, Jasmine Bieniek, Keiron Hannula, Asaiah Gifford and Zachary Weiner

ME undergraduate designs custom sauna for athlete recovery

alse6588 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:22:49 +0000

ME undergraduate designs custom sauna for athlete recovery alse6588 Tue, 03/03/2026 - 15:22

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.

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

alse6588 — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 20:09:04 +0000

Why do we get a skip in our step when we’re happy? Thank dopamine alse6588 Fri, 02/27/2026 - 13:09

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.

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What causes snow slopes to collapse? Vriend explains, with tips for surviving

alse6588 — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:48:14 +0000

What causes snow slopes to collapse? Vriend explains, with tips for surviving alse6588 Thu, 02/19/2026 - 13:48

Avalanche deaths are rare inside the boundaries of ski resorts, but the risk rises in the backcountry. Thirty backcountry avalanche deaths were reported in the U.S. during the 2022-23 season, 16 the following year, and 22 in 2024-25. In this article published by The Conversation, Associate Professor Nathalie Vriend explains what happens in an avalanche and techniques for surviving one.

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

alse6588 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 17:44:38 +0000

Global collaboration to limit air pollution flowing across borders could save millions of lives alse6588 Fri, 02/13/2026 - 10:44

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.

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Student feedback drives major ME curriculum changes for fall 2026

alse6588 — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:52:20 +0000

Student feedback drives major ME curriculum changes for fall 2026 alse6588 Wed, 02/04/2026 - 09:52

Alexander Servantez

Mechanical engineering students at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder can expect some big changes to their curriculum coming soon.

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.

Here’s a breakdown of what students can expect starting fall 2026:

1. Splitting MCEN 1025 into two courses

The first change involves MCEN 1025, currently a four-credit computer-aided design (CAD) and fabrication course required of all mechanical engineering undergraduate students.

Students performing fabrication work in the Idea Forge.

The course will be split into two courses:

A three-credit CAD class (MCEN 1026) that will include classroom lectures and activities centered on learning the basics of CAD software.
A one-credit fabrication class (MCEN 2026) that will allow students to perform hands-on fabrication work in the Idea Forge machine shop.

Student feedback indicates the change will help resolve scheduling issues and improve flexibility—especially for transfer students—as they move through their college journey.

Tsai said the new class structure will also help create a clearer progression of hands-on experiences for students throughout the curriculum.

“The nice thing about the fabrication course is that it will be a 2000-level class,” Tsai said. “Currently, students take MCEN 1025 during their first year and have a year-long gap before their next hands-on course. But starting in the fall, there will be opportunities for hands-on, project-based learning in every year of the curriculum.”

2. Adjusting credit allocations across multiple courses

The second change tackles a student concern about class workloads not matching credit hours.

Many students expressed that certain classes were much more time consuming and difficult than the course’s allocated credit hours suggested. In order to address this issue, the department is restructuring credit allocations to better represent the amount of time and work students should expect in their courses.

Starting in the fall, students will no longer be required to take a three-credit standalone Math/Science Foundations class. The department will also be eliminating the lab component in MCEN 1030: Introduction to Engineering Computing and reducing the course’s credit hours from four to three.

Students studying in the Discovery Learning Center.

This frees up four total credit hours that the department will allocate to four other three-credit classes in need of adjustment. The classes that will receive an increase in credit hours are:

MCEN 3025: Component Design
MCEN 4026: Manufacturing Processes and Systems
MCEN 4043: System Dynamics
MCEN 4045: Senior Design I

Tsai believes the changes will help streamline degree requirements and stay compliant with registrar guidelines without adding or removing any credit hours. If students get caught between the old and new requirements, they will work very closely with them to ensure they can graduate on time.

“Right now, first- and second-year students are being advised of these changes so that they can schedule accordingly,” said Tsai. “Most juniors and seniors have achieved a majority of the old curriculum so they are still on track. But there are a couple of students in the middle that we are working on moving credits around with and they will definitely graduate just fine.”

Both of the changes were guided by a series of department-led student town hall meetings that began during the fall 2024 semester. The events served as a direct venue for students to voice any concerns they have regarding department leadership, programming or education.

“We believe it’s very important to hear directly from our students,” Tsai said. “So far it’s already led to a lot of great ideas and solutions that leadership and students are looking to build upon together.”

For example, the department is working to create a student advisory board, which will include students with a wide range of journeys and experiences. Tsai and her team are reviewing student-submitted applications to find a cohort that can help represent the student ecosystem and foster healthy discussion.

Above all, Tsai wants mechanical engineering students to know their changes and efforts are always implemented with their best interests in mind.

“These credit changes are something that we’ve been talking about for a long time and will greatly benefit our students,” said Tsai. “We want to show them that we are actively listening to their feedback and evolving to ensure they are getting credit for their work and receiving the best hands-on experience possible.”

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.

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

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:08:11 +0000

Donated blood has a shelf life. A new test tracks how it's aging Alexander Jame… Wed, 01/21/2026 - 10:08

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.

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New materials, old physics – the science behind how your winter jacket keeps you warm

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:43:25 +0000

New materials, old physics – the science behind how your winter jacket keeps you warm Alexander Jame… Mon, 01/05/2026 - 13:43

Assistant Professor Longji Cui is a materials expert who develops high precision instrumentation and computational techniques to explore energy transport, conversion, and dissipation at extreme scales. In this article by The Conversation, Cui explains how even something as simple as winter jackets that keep you warm during chilly days are a testament to centuries-old physics and cutting-edge science.

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