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天美传媒 Boulder students win big at collegiate hydropower competition

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 22:32:51 +0000

天美传媒 Boulder students win big at collegiate hydropower competition Alexander Jame鈥� Wed, 06/18/2025 - 16:32

Alexander Servantez

A powerhouse group of graduating seniors from the 天美传媒 made waves in a sustainable challenge that鈥檚 all about energizing the future.

The 天美传媒 Hydropower Team took part in this year鈥檚 Hydropower Collegiate Competition, where 12 teams from universities across the country were tasked with developing unique energy solutions using fresh, moving water鈥攐ne of the Earth鈥檚 oldest forms of renewable energy.

The 天美传媒 Hydropower Team holding up their award-winning testing apparatus on competition day.

But they weren鈥檛 just participants. They were overwhelming winners, earning first-place honors in a variety of contests within the competition, including the highly coveted Overall Best Team award.

鈥淲e had a great group and a really good workload sharing system,鈥� said Logistics Manager Miles Salzer. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 really sure how we were going to do or what the outcome would be. There were a lot of challenges, but we overcame them and we鈥檙e proud of what we were able to accomplish.鈥�

The competition, sponsored by the Department of Energy and the Water Power Technologies Office, was launched in 2022. It allows teams to showcase their engineering prowess by conceptually designing plans for either an electricity generating power dam or a functioning closed-loop pump storage facility.

The team chose to tackle the closed-loop pump storage facility鈥攁 novel hydropower solution that features two independent reservoirs that transport water back and forth, much like the sand in an hourglass. The system is also hydrodynamically sealed, preventing water from exiting the system.

CAD Engineer Jack Printup says this new pump storage concept is currently growing in popularity as a clean energy and sustainable alternative, but there are still some environmental risks involved.

鈥淚t鈥檚 basically a big water battery that lasts longer and is more consistent than other nonrenewable sources, but like nuclear plants, they can cause some damage to the area around it,鈥� Printup said. 鈥淥ur task was to choose and develop a site for our pump storage facility that was safe and could be implemented in the real world.鈥�

天美传媒 Hydropower team members Sascha Fowler (left) and Pisay Suzuki (right) working on their testing apparatus in preparation for the competition.

But the competition doesn鈥檛 just focus on technical design. Judges also assessed the team鈥檚 ability to manage their facility鈥檚 finances and cybersecurity.

They even measured the group鈥檚 ability to use digital tools to increase community awareness or quickly pitch their plan to a panel of 鈥渋nvestors鈥� in an environment reminiscent of the hit TV show 鈥淪hark Tank.鈥�

Luckily, Salzer said the group was perfectly equipped to handle the interdisciplinary obstacles with a well-rounded force of their own. The team featured students from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Environmental Engineering Program, the Department of Computer Science and even the Leeds School of Business.

鈥淚 think the different backgrounds made our group really unique,鈥� said Salzer. 鈥淗ydropower鈥攁nd renewable energy in general鈥攁re large and complex infrastructure projects. One of our team鈥檚 biggest strengths compared to other teams was our varied skill sets that allowed us to handle all of the challenges.鈥�

Most importantly, however, the competition is designed to help college graduates develop skills, connections and interest in the hydropower industry.

Printup says increased activity and engagement in hydropower can be crucial, and this competition really sparked his passion.

鈥淭here are spurts in the hydropower industry鈥攜ou build a large plant and then 60 years later it needs to be refurbished or new facilities need to be built,鈥� Printup said. 鈥淚鈥檓 going into hydropower to continue developing this incredible technology, but also make sure public safety is at the forefront.鈥�

The 天美传媒 Hydropower Team had a strong showing in this year's Hydropower Collegiate Competition, bringing home multiple awards including the best design award, the cybersecurity award, the best quick pitch award and the highly coveted first-place honor in the overall competition.

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From left to right: Maximilian Schmid, Pisay Suzuki, Jack Printup, Patrick Liu, Luke Shaw, Sara Leschova, Charlie Loewenguth, Sascha Fowler, Miles Salzer, Tristan Wrable and Landon Natrass.

Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:42:54 +0000

Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant Alexander Jame鈥� Mon, 06/16/2025 - 09:42

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns was recently awarded a seed grant from 天美传媒 Boulder's Research and Innovation Office to turn agricultural materials into bio-based plastics that can be more easily recycled, composted or even used as fertilizer.

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New discovery could make a risky heart failure treatment safer

Alexander James Servantez — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 18:36:49 +0000

New discovery could make a risky heart failure treatment safer Alexander Jame鈥� Thu, 06/12/2025 - 12:36

Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) designed to improve blood flow throughout the body can aid nearly 26 million people globally struggling with heart failure. But these implantable devices come with risks. New research by Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee suggests that studying patient blood flow patterns could help determine who鈥檚 at risk of dangerous side effects from LVADs and lead to improvements that could make them safer.

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Robots and chemistry isn鈥檛 just a fun combo. Bruns says it鈥檚 the future

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 22:02:21 +0000

Robots and chemistry isn鈥檛 just a fun combo. Bruns says it鈥檚 the future Alexander Jame鈥� Fri, 06/06/2025 - 16:02

Alexander Servantez

Carson Bruns is working to lend chemists a hand鈥攍iterally鈥攂y bringing collaborative robots into chemical wet labs.

Bruns, an assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at 天美传媒 Boulder, is leading the charge on a project that he and his team like to call 鈥渞obochemistry.鈥� Their goal is to create robotic sidekicks that can assist chemists with burdensome or unsafe tasks that they may encounter in a wet lab on a daily basis.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, chemists and materials scientists held nearly 100,000 jobs in 2023 and overall employment is expected to grow eight percent over the next 10 years.

But unlike other large and growing industries, Bruns says chemical research and development has remained devoid of robots, often leading to injuries and considerable risks in the workplace.

鈥淭here are a lot of potential benefits for introducing robots into a chemical lab that haven鈥檛 been explored yet,鈥� said Bruns, who is also affiliated with the ATLAS Institute, Biomedical Engineering Program and Materials Science and Engineering Program. 鈥淥ur angle involves trying to reduce work burdens and safety risks, develop robots that collaborate with humans instead of replacing them, and increase accessibility so that even people with disabilities can perform chemistry.鈥�

Middle school students exploring the intersections of robotics and chemistry during one of the "robochemistry" interactive workshops led by Bruns and his team.

The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is in collaboration with researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and 天美传媒 Boulder鈥檚 Department of Computer Science. It started with an extensive observation-based task analysis that allowed Bruns and his team in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab to develop a strong understanding of the various tasks that chemists were performing regularly in a wet lab.

After observing, interviewing and surveying their chemist test subjects, Bruns and his group were able to identify an array of different tasks that can potentially benefit from human and robot collaboration.

鈥淲e learned right away that chemists don鈥檛 really like doing a purification task called dialysis that is very common in a wet lab. It鈥檚 repetitive, it takes a lot of time and sometimes chemists have to come back to the lab in the middle of the night to change dialysis bags, which they don鈥檛 want to do.鈥� Bruns said. 鈥淚t seemed like a great case for a robot, so we built a robotic system automating the dialysis process.鈥�

Bruns says his team of researchers has a list of other potential benefit areas, as well, including simple tasks like stabilizing a flask or offering a third hand to hold something for chemists when they need it. They are even trying to find solutions for more complex safety issues so that chemists can stay far away from violent and dangerous reactions.

But that鈥檚 not where the project ends. There is also an outreach portion aimed at improving science education and enhancing youth interest in science.

Led by PhD student Diane Jung, Bruns and his team ran a four-day interactive workshop series at a local middle school in Boulder. These workshops invited middle school students to build robots with Legos and use them to perform various chemistry experiments鈥攕omething that鈥檚 already happening in Bruns鈥� lab.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been building ordinary automation tools out of Lego because it鈥檚 cheaper and reconfigurable. When you don鈥檛 need it anymore, you just disassemble it and build it into something else,鈥� said Bruns. 鈥淪o we thought we could use this Lego thing we had going on in our lab already to appeal to a younger audience and show kids the fun and evolving intersection between chemistry and robotics in real time.鈥�

During the workshop series, Bruns noticed various groups of students approaching experiments with unique perspectives and ideas. He said it was inspiring to see young kids actively engage with the science in front of them.

But most importantly, he saw the kids have fun.

鈥淭hinking back to young Carson when he was a kid鈥攊t always just seemed very fun to me,鈥� Bruns said. 鈥淚 had positive role models in my life who also believed science was fun, so that was our goal with this part of the project. To help kids have a more positive association with the idea of science and engineering.鈥�

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns is leading the charge on an NSF-funded project that he and his team like to call "robochemistry." Their goal is to create robotic sidekicks that can assist chemists with burdensome or unsafe tasks that they may routinely encounter in a wet lab. But that's not all: this unique blend of bots and beakers can also inspire youth interest in science.

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New study shows road emission policies could save 1.9M lives by 2040

Alexander James Servantez — Thu, 22 May 2025 20:45:25 +0000

New study shows road emission policies could save 1.9M lives by 2040 Alexander Jame鈥� Thu, 05/22/2025 - 14:45

A new global study featuring Professor Daven Henze reveals that implementing smart policies that address road transport emissions can improve health outcomes across more than 180 countries and 13,000 urban areas.

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Tiny robot team could be a gamechanger for safety inspections

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 21 May 2025 15:29:25 +0000

Tiny robot team could be a gamechanger for safety inspections Alexander Jame鈥� Wed, 05/21/2025 - 09:29

Alexander Servantez

One slithers. One crawls. Neither looks like much on their own. But together, they form a super team鈥攐ne that might just change how we inspect the most complicated machines in the world.

Kaushik Jayaram, an assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at 天美传媒 Boulder, is working to build the next generation of robot inspection tools by studying some of nature鈥檚 simplest creatures.

This robotic duo is about as odd as it is ingenious: tiny, insect-inspired robots paired with inflatable vine-like robots that grow like plants and curl like snakes. These high-tech helpers can navigate a complex maze of machinery and squeeze through the tightest of spaces鈥攍ike the guts of a jet engine鈥攖o potentially perform non-destructive evaluation faster, cheaper and better than ever before.

The tiny mCLARI robot, developed by Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram and his team in the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory.

鈥淚f you look at the infrastructure around us, there are a lot of buildings, bridges, dams and machines that have all of these little nooks and crannies,鈥� said Jayaram, who is also affiliated with the BioFrontiers Institute, the Biomedical Engineering Program, the Robotics Program and the Materials Science and Engineering Program. 鈥淭hey need very careful, regular inspection and maintenance, but there鈥檚 just no easy, cost-effective way to get in.鈥�

Jayaram said there is also an element of public safety involved. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly 15% of aviation accidents are caused by mechanical malfunction.

In just this year alone, the National Transportation Safety Board has reported 94 aviation accidents, 13 of which have been identified as fatal incidents.

鈥淲hen it comes to tasks such as flying, where human safety is paramount, we need aircraft technology and machinery to work 100% of the time,鈥� Jayaram said. 鈥淥ur research is one of the efforts to address these concerns using the advantages of robotics.鈥�

The work, in collaboration with Laura Blumenschein at Purdue University, has drawn interest from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. They鈥檝e awarded the two researchers a three-year, $1.4 million grant to prove these small robots can work together to produce big results.

But as unlikely as this robotic team might seem, Jayaram believes they have the perfect blend of 鈥渙ffense鈥� and 鈥渄efense鈥� to get these dirty and delicate jobs done.

First on the roster is Jayaram鈥檚 mCLARI microrobot. This tiny machine鈥攚eighing in at less than a gram鈥攃an climb, squeeze through cracks the size of a penny and move with a millimeter precision.

However, due to its small stature, it struggles to carry any extra weight. Large batteries and electronics are incompatible with the little robot, and without them it cannot travel long distances or maneuver tight spaces effectively.

The inflatable vine-like robot, developed by Laura Blumenschein, an assistant professor at Purdue University.

That鈥檚 where its vine-like teammate comes in. This robot can inflate like a party favor, allowing it to carry more weight and conform to the environment. In Jayaram鈥檚 vision, the inflatable snake can act as mCLARI鈥檚 personal Uber driver, negotiating constraints of tight spaces and dropping the tiny robot directly at the site of inspection.

Once in location, Jayaram said the mCLARI robot, fitted with cameras and miniature evaluation sensors, can gather and transmit real-time data for offline analysis. When it鈥檚 done, it can hop right back on the snake-like robot and the team can make the winding journey back home, saving hours of evaluation time and thousands of dollars in service costs in the process.

鈥淓ach of the robotic systems have their own pros and cons,鈥� said Jayaram. 鈥淏y combining the strengths of these two robots, we鈥檙e overcoming the disadvantages to create a single collaborative system that can give us quick insight into these compact and confined spaces.鈥�

But this tiny squad of robots is capable of much more than just inspection. In fact, Jayaram dreams of a day where his insect and vine-inspired robotic friends can be deployed in a variety of scenarios where being small, agile and adaptive are a premium.

Maybe one day this robotic team can play a vital role in environmental monitoring to detect high-risk wildfire zones and prevent ecological damage. Or maybe they can be used in disaster response situations鈥攍ike a collapsed building鈥攖o help save human lives.

Jayaram said the possibilities are truly endless.

鈥淭hese small, confined crevices and spaces are actually way more ubiquitous than we originally thought. Even in the medical arena鈥攊f we shrink these robots even further, make them shapeshift, and use biocompatible materials, maybe our technology can one day be crawling inside our bodies, detecting and releasing blood clots or taking measurements just like a pill,鈥� Jayaram said. 鈥淲e get very excited when we think about the future. If we can build systems that can effectively navigate the world and combine them with sensors, we can do a lot.鈥�

Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram, in collaboration with Laura Blumenschein, has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a tiny robot super team capable of navigating a complex maze of machinery and squeeze through the tightest of spaces鈥攍ike the guts of a jet engine鈥攖o potentially perform non-destructive evaluation faster, cheaper and better than ever before.

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Vance turns her house into lab to study health risks of cleaning products

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:16:38 +0000

Vance turns her house into lab to study health risks of cleaning products Alexander Jame鈥� Tue, 05/20/2025 - 13:16

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, global spending on household cleaning products have increased by nearly $50 billion. Associate Professor Marina Vance is turning her home into a research laboratory to study and explore the possible implications of the increased product usage on human health.

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We can turn bugs into flying, crawling RoboCops. Does that mean we should?

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 14 May 2025 16:44:44 +0000

We can turn bugs into flying, crawling RoboCops. Does that mean we should? Alexander Jame鈥� Wed, 05/14/2025 - 10:44

Scientists and engineers are modifying animals with mechanical parts to create next-generation biohybrid cyborg animals that can perform difficult and unappealing tasks for humans. But do humans have the right to overlook animal consciousness for personal gain? In this article by Salon, Assistant Professor Nicole Xu blazes this new terrain and explores the ethical considerations behind these biohybrid creatures using her jellyfish case study as an example.

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Burleson earns 2025 Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 13 May 2025 20:53:08 +0000

Burleson earns 2025 Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award Alexander Jame鈥� Tue, 05/13/2025 - 14:53

Assistant Professor Grace Burleson has earned the Graduate School's 2025 Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award for her outstanding contributions to mentoring individual graduate students and improving the overall climate of graduate education.

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D铆a de Ciencias inspires future engineers through hands-on STEM activities

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 12 May 2025 18:59:55 +0000

D铆a de Ciencias inspires future engineers through hands-on STEM activities Alexander Jame鈥� Mon, 05/12/2025 - 12:59

天美传媒 Boulder鈥檚 chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) welcomed Hispanic middle and high school students from across the Denver metro area for the third annual D铆a de Ciencias this spring semester. SHPE received generous funding support from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering to make this event possible.

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