Faculty

Research & Innovation Office set to host virtual info session on Seed Grant Program in November

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 21:37:46 +0000

Research & Innovation Office set to host virtual info session on Seed Grant Program in November Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/14/2023 - 15:37

Designed to catalyze new areas of research, scholarship and creative work, the Seed Grant Program awards nearly $1 million annually to Boulder faculty across all disciplines. This event will be held at noon on Nov. 8 via Zoom.

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3D display could soon bring touch to the digital world

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:28:20 +0000

3D display could soon bring touch to the digital world Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/31/2023 - 09:28

The device at CU Boulder is made from a 10-by-10 grid of soft robotic “muscles” that can sense outside pressure and pop up to create patterns. It’s precise enough to generate scrolling text and fast enough to shake a chemistry beaker filled with fluid.

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Wil Srubar named as nominee for 2023 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:23:15 +0000

Wil Srubar named as nominee for 2023 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/24/2023 - 08:23

Josh Rhoten

Wil Srubar

Associate Professor Wil Srubar has been nominated for the 2023 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award for his research re-imagining sustainable building materials.

Srubar is part of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Material Science and Engineering Program at CU Boulder. His lab conducts major research into biomimetic and living materials that have the potential to drastically reduce environmental pollution caused by construction activities around the globe.

Srubar joins a list of candidates – all under the age of 40 – working to advance environmental causes around the world. The roster includes leaders in fields such as sustainable design, wildlife law, shark conservation and carbon markets. In the coming months a committee will choose three finalists for the award. Then judges will select a winner to be announced at an Oct. 26 ceremony. Winners receive $100,000 and finalists take home $5,000 – made possible by a gift from the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation.

Srubar said being included in such an impressive cohort of nominees is a true honor.

“For my living materials research and related entrepreneurial endeavors to be recognized in this way is both humbling and exhilarating,” he said. “Winning the award would bring world-renowned recognition and legitimacy to the idea that nature-based material solutions are critical to decarbonizing the construction industry and combatting the consequences of climate change.”

Srubar has been recognized for his research in a variety of venues recently. He was named to the Top 25 Newsmakers list by Engineering News Record and was the American Ceramic Society’s Cements Division Early Career Award winner in 2023. Previously, he was selected as the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society Outstanding Young Scientist in 2021 and won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2020. To date, his laboratory has received over $12 million in sponsored research funding through the U.S. National Science Foundation, Air Force Research Laboratories, ARPA-E and DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office.

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New membrane filtering technology at CU Boulder could help address water scarcity issues

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 21:18:44 +0000

New membrane filtering technology at CU Boulder could help address water scarcity issues Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/21/2023 - 15:18

Josh Rhoten

Nguyen and Straub

Researchers at CU Boulder have developed a new membrane water filtration system based around air bubbles that can help address water scarcity issues around the world.

Membrane filters generally use pressure to force water through a sieve to separate out unwanted particles and contaminants. The new membrane system is unique in that it uses a tiny layer of air bubbles to distill the water rather than sieve it. This change makes the system more permeable and better at removing unwanted impurities than the common reverse osmosis systems working today.

The new technology is described in a recently published journal article in Science Advances, and the work on campus was led by Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Assistant Professor Anthony Straub with PhD student Duong Nguyen contributing as first author.

Straub said his team’s membrane could be used in advanced water treatment systems and other applications.

“These can be utilized to purify water to a very high degree when it comes to desalination of seawater and in wastewater reuse efforts,” Straub said. “We also have ongoing work with NASA to use these membranes to recycle water during space exploration and research missions.”

Current state-of-the-art engineered membranes are all limited in their use by a universal trade-off where those with high water permeability also struggle to remove salt. That is, membranes that can process a high volume of water are also inherently limited in their ability to clean that water.

“They are also vulnerable to degradation from chemicals used in water treatment,” Straub said. “So, there are a lot of advantages to pursuing this technology and possibly integrating it into existing treatment process.”

Nguyen is originally from the coastal area near Hanoi in Vietnam where maintaining clean water supplies is still a big challenge because of contamination from industrial activities. He said he has personally seen how a lack of efficient water treatment technologies and poor water infrastructure negatively impacted people in the area.

“A passion for both securing water resources and improving water quality for my community – and globally – is what led me to pursue a degree and research into water purification membranes at CU Boulder,” he said. “The university has a strong reputation in this field with many faculty that are the top researchers in water treatment and reuse, including my advisor professor Straub. I have learned a lot from him, both in conducting research and in terms of professional development during my PhD training here.”

Straub said the university has a strong history in water reuse research – primarily through the Membrane Science Engineering and Technology Center on campus and ongoing activity in the Environmental Engineering Program. He added that the team used the Colorado Shared Instrumentation in Nanofabrication and Characterization facility on campus to complete the highly interdisciplinary work.

“We have been trying to create this type of membrane for years,” he said. “We will now look at ways to scale it up and potentially integrate it into existing approaches to water treatment.”

Read the paper online

Researchers at CU Boulder have developed a new membrane water filtration system based around air bubbles that can help address water scarcity issues around the world.

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Weeks later, potentially harmful chemicals lingered in homes affected by Marshall Fire

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 17:23:23 +0000

Weeks later, potentially harmful chemicals lingered in homes affected by Marshall Fire Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/06/2023 - 11:23

Potentially harmful chemicals generated by the Marshall Fire in late 2021 may have lingered inside some Boulder County homes for weeks after the disaster—hiding in small particles of dust that residents could have mixed back into the air when they vacuumed carpets or turned on fans, according to recent research.

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CU Engineering celebrates 8 NSF CAREER award winners in 2023

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 18:35:46 +0000

CU Engineering celebrates 8 NSF CAREER award winners in 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/25/2023 - 12:35

Staff

Eight faculty members from the College of Engineering and Applied Science have received CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation in 2023. The total continues an impressive trend with the college, which had 12 in 2021 and six in 2022, said Dean Keith Molenaar.

"The �� has a research culture and infrastructure that provides new faculty with the opportunity to flourish," said Molenaar. "These seven faculty members are truly extraordinary, and I am elated with the well-deserved recognitions they are receiving. I look forward to seeing the impact of their work and supporting their growth as leaders in our community."

As of 2023, the College of Engineering and Applied Science has received over 100 NSF CAREER Awards. These awards — the most prestigious support of early-career faculty the NSF offers — provide approximately $500,000 over five years for those “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

Past CAREER winners from the college come from all six departments and a represent a wide range of research disciplines. Over the last five years, the college has achieved 74% growth in external research funding while also launching internally funded research teams that are advancing knowledge in the areas of resilient and sustainable infrastructure; engineering education and AI-augmented learning; autonomous systems; multi-functional materials; hypersonic vehicles; and quantum engineering.

Here’s a look at the projects from the winners in our college this year:

Eight faculty members within the College of Engineering and Applied Science have received CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation in 2023.

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Bottenus lands prestigious research award from Boettcher Foundation

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:15:00 +0000

Bottenus lands prestigious research award from Boettcher Foundation Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/22/2023 - 12:15

Assistant Professor Nick Bottenus of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering has been awarded a Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Award for research advancing the state of ultrasound molecular imaging.

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Researchers narrow down list of potentially hazardous asteroids

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 16:16:04 +0000

Researchers narrow down list of potentially hazardous asteroids Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/13/2023 - 10:16

Researchers from CU Boulder and NASA have completed a census of hundreds of large asteroids orbiting near Earth—gauging which ones could come precariously close to our planet over the next thousand years.

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New AB Nexus awardees advance innovative research collaborations

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 19:54:26 +0000

New AB Nexus awardees advance innovative research collaborations Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/12/2023 - 13:54

The intercampus program supports multidisciplinary research partnerships between CU Anschutz and CU Boulder.

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Hanspeter Schaub earns CU Boulder’s highest award for teaching and research

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2023 19:56:18 +0000

Hanspeter Schaub earns CU Boulder’s highest award for teaching and research Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/30/2023 - 13:56

Schaub, a professor and chair of the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder, was recently honored with the Hazel Barnes Prize. The award recognizes outstanding teachers who also have distinguished records in research and scholarship.

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