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Engineering students compete in national hospital design competition

sugl6437 — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:19:46 +0000

Engineering students compete in national hospital design competition sugl6437 Tue, 05/19/2026 - 12:19

Susan Glairon

Four ��ӽ紫ý engineering students competed in a national healthcare design challenge, designing a fictional cancer center for an underserved community in Houston, Texas.

Architectural engineering undergraduates Colletta Schiller, Eli Cleary, Parker Cardozo and AJ Pacheco each served as the engineer on four different student teams in the 2026 American Society for Health Care Engineering Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) Student Challenge held in March at the PDC Summit in Houston, Texas.

“It was one of the most amazing weekends of my life,” said Cardozo, a junior who was a member of the winning team.

From left to right, Colletta Schiller, Parker Cardozo, Professor Gregor Henze, AJ Pacheco and Eli Cleary stand in the lobby of the Hilton Americas hotel in Houston.

During the 48-hour challenge, students from five universities and multiple disciplines—including architecture, engineering, construction management and nursing—collaborated in an intensive design charrette to create a fictional 40,000-square-foot cancer center for Houston’s Third Ward, a community facing both high poverty and cancer rates.

The students visited a modern 400,000-foot oncology institute to view how the spaces were organized, including imaging, radiology, infusion and surgery. Judges included individuals with engineering, nursing, architectural and construction management backgrounds.

The top two teams presented their design solution at a PDC Summit conference session.

“It was an extremely rewarding experience,” said Professor Gregor Henze, the group’s faculty advisor. “Each student grew beyond their original disciplinary focus to become an integral part of their design team, strengthening the solutions they developed together. I am immensely proud of their accomplishments and learned so much myself from the experience.”

Before the challenge, participants knew only that the project would be related to healthcare, said Cardozo. Although the competition is designed for graduate students, all of ��ӽ紫ý’s engineering participants were juniors.

“I knew it would be a challenge,” Cardozo said. “I also knew that the learning experience would be great. It was far greater than I could have imagined.

“The challenge pushed me to collaborate with students from different majors the same way professionals do,” Cardozo added. “Architecture students worked closely with engineers, and engineers and architects alike had to understand the roles and needs of nurses.”

Q&A with Parker Cardozo: "Connecting my role as an engineer to the overall patient experience"

What did you learn from the challenge?

I learned it's important to understand the community’s needs, that this primarily Black community experiences high cancer and high cancer mortality rates along with lower access to insurance and healthcare. I learned to think beyond the engineer’s role and consider the architect's perspective.

Parker Cardozo

What was it like being on a team with non-engineers?

One of our team members was a nursing student. That was especially impactful because she had firsthand experience caring for cancer patients. She brought a tremendous amount of heart to the project and consistently grounded our work in the human experience.

Her perspective helped us to consider the nurses’ working environment and how to make care more effective. At the same time, she pushed us to consider how the space could reduce stress and discomfort for patients going through difficult treatments. Her focus on the human side of healthcare reminded us that this was more than just a project or a grade. Our work could have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.

Was there anything that surprised you?

Before the event, people said, ‘you're not going to get any sleep.’ I thought that was a joke. But I didn't get much. Most participants slept less than six hours during the 48-hour challenge.

Also, I didn't know what to expect. I worried how I was going to complete complex calculations or build models that would normally take months. But it quickly became clear that the experience was more about connecting my role as an engineer to the overall patient experience.

For example, patients who undergo all-day infusion treatments may experience fatigue and vertigo. For those experiencing vertigo, a loud HVAC system can be especially uncomfortable. Larger ducts help reduce noise levels.

How did it feel to win?

Hearing our group announced as the winner definitely caught us off guard. From 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Sunday, we were just trying to stay focused. About 20 minutes before our presentation, we scrapped our original idea and pretty much winged it.

What was it like to participate in a competition that was primarily geared toward graduate students?

I'm only a third-year engineering student. I had many doubts going into the competition. I had never done anything like this before.

Professor Henze told me, ‘Just focus on what you're learning in class and you’ll be alright,’ referring to the building energy systems engineering class. He was right.

By Monday I was sad it was over. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I could have said no because I was scared and missed out on this opportunity, and I don't want anybody else to do that. If you want to participate, just do it.

Q&A with Colletta Schiller: "Designing to meet the needs of a community"

Why did you get involved in this competition?

I am very interested in mechanical systems engineering. While I did not know much about healthcare architecture before attending the competition, I knew it would be a great opportunity to learn about different applications of my degree and to work with different disciplines.

Colletta Schiller

What did you learn from it?

I learned to collaborate with different design disciplines and to communicate the importance of my work. I also determined how to best utilize my time while the design was being developed. Both in the team setting and, in the presentations, I had to adjust how I was communicating to highlight the main points rather than the technical aspects of engineering. I eventually focused on how design choices would impact users rather than the equipment and machinery.

What surprised you most from the challenge?

I was most surprised at how well thought-out and developed our design became. My team was able to finish with a detailed design of the building with several beautiful renders.

What was it like to present your design?

It was nerve-wracking and stressful, but incredibly rewarding. The professors and event coordinators provided a lot of feedback on effective presentation strategies and emphasized the pitch of the final presentation. The judges also provided great feedback.

What was your favorite part of the experience?

Collaborating with my teammates. Given the short time frame, we were not asked to design a full HVAC or structural system for the building, but rather to approach the design from one of three options—sustainability, resiliency or embodied carbon. At the end of the project, we were tasked to create boards describing the project, in combination with a presentation where we "pitched" our design to the judges. This was my first time designing to meet the needs of a community, and it was interesting to figure out how to pitch my work in a non-technical way.

Four ��ӽ紫ý architectural engineering students participated in a national healthcare design competition typically geared toward graduate students, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to design a cancer center for Houston’s underserved Third Ward community. The experience challenged students to think beyond technical engineering and consider patient comfort, community needs and healthcare access in the design process.

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Professor receives Fulbright award to study combined natural hazards in Chile

sugl6437 — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:36:18 +0000

Professor receives Fulbright award to study combined natural hazards in Chile sugl6437 Fri, 05/15/2026 - 10:36

Susan Glairon

Shideh Dashti, a professor of geotechnical engineering and geomechanics, has received a Fulbright award to study combined seismic and rainfall-related geohazards at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC).

As part of the prestigious U.S. State Department program, Dashti will spend four months at PUC developing tools and curriculum to help engineers better understand and prepare for overlapping rainfall and earthquake geohazards.

Chile faces multiple natural hazards—including drought, floods, wildfires and earthquakes—that increasingly occur concurrently or sequentially.

“Chile offers unique access to case histories of combined geohazards that could support our research and modeling efforts, along with advanced building codes and outstanding expertise in the field of hazards engineering,” said Dashti, who studies compound climatic-seismic geohazards.

The project aims to help shift infrastructure design and engineering education from focusing on single hazards to addressing the compound impacts of hazards on critical infrastructure.

Rainfall simulation box designed for ��ӽ紫ý’s 400 g-ton centrifuge facility at the Center for Infrastructure, Energy and Space Testing (CIEST) to simulate how combined rainfall and earthquake loading affect scaled slopes and embankments.

“The effects of compound geohazards have been understudied, partly due to the lack of well-documented field data and partly lack of related physical model studies,” she said. “They are currently not included in the training of future hazards engineers and professionals or in our codes and standards. My goal is to collect and analyze well-documented case histories in Chile that support a fundamental study of these effects.”

Perfect storm

Simultaneous seismic and rainfall-related hazards can destabilize hillsides, weaken soil and increase the risk of infrastructure failure, Dashti said. For instance, intense rainfall followed by even a minor earthquake can trigger significant landslides, while rain-saturated soil may lose strength during earthquake shaking and undergo liquefaction, behaving more like a liquid and damaging roads, buildings and other critical infrastructure.

“The aging physical infrastructure, such as the earthen slopes and embankments that support critical transportation, water, telecommunication and power lifelines in Chile and the U.S. is not ready for increasingly likely concurrent or sequential extreme events, amplifying risk imposed on our communities” she said.

Dashti was also a principal investigator and steering committee member of the National Science Foundation-funded Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER), which coordinates geotechnical data collection and field investigations following major international disasters.

In Chile she will work with colleagues to collect multi-hazard case histories, while sharing findings and best practices through lectures, seminars and workshops with Chile’s practicing geotechnical engineers.

After the four-month Fulbright Fellowship in Chile, she will use centrifuge and computational modeling inspired by the collected case histories to study how combined rainfall and earthquake hazards affect slopes and earthen infrastructure using ��ӽ紫ý’s unique experimental and computational resources. The models will help interpret real-world case studies, evaluate current engineering tools and identify conditions where existing single-hazard design approaches may be unsafe.

The research will also help determine how different rainfall conditions change earthquake risks and will support the development of preliminary engineering guidelines tailored to Chile’s hazards, geology and infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Shideh Dashti, a professor of geotechnical engineering and geomechanics, has received a Fulbright award to study the combined impacts of seismic and rainfall-related geohazards at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). The project seeks to advance infrastructure design and engineering education by shifting the focus from single-hazard approaches to addressing the compound effects these hazards pose to critical infrastructure.

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Water outages, like in Victor, are common due to aging infrastructure

sugl6437 — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:05:12 +0000

Water outages, like in Victor, are common due to aging infrastructure sugl6437 Fri, 05/15/2026 - 09:05

Assistant Professor Julie Korak discusses how aging water infrastructure is contributing to repeated water system failures in small Colorado communities like Victor and Walsenburg. Korak says smaller municipalities often face greater challenges maintaining and upgrading decades-old water systems due to limited staff and resources.

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Civil engineering PhD student earns National Science Foundation Fellowship

sugl6437 — Thu, 07 May 2026 14:49:10 +0000

Civil engineering PhD student earns National Science Foundation Fellowship sugl6437 Thu, 05/07/2026 - 08:49

Susan Glairon

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recognized Marguerite Lorenzo, a graduate student in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at ��ӽ紫ý, with a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award.

The award recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students from across the country in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields who are pursuing research-based master’s or doctoral degrees.

Awardees receive a $37,000 annual stipend and cost of education allowance for the next three years as well as professional development opportunities.

Advisor

Associate Professor Aditi Bhaskar

Lab

Hydro-Urban Bhaskar group

Research

I am researching how low-impact residential development affects water quantity and quality in the West Stroh Gulch watershed in Parker, Colorado. The findings will help clarify how urbanization is impacting hydrology in the greater Denver area.

How will your GRFP support your research?

In the later chapters of my PhD, I will use my GRFP award to study how water-wise landscaping influences wildfire propagation risk.

What do you enjoy doing outside of the lab?

I compete semi-professionally in high jump. I also like to try new plant-based recipes and learn languages.

Marguerite Lorenzo is researching how low-impact residential development affects water quantity and quality in the West Stroh Gulch watershed in Parker, Colorado. The findings will help clarify how urbanization is impacting hydrology in the greater Denver area.

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��ӽ紫ý’s Concrete Canoe Team takes on new challenges

sugl6437 — Mon, 04 May 2026 15:39:40 +0000

��ӽ紫ý’s Concrete Canoe Team takes on new challenges sugl6437 Mon, 05/04/2026 - 09:39

Susan Glairon

Mary Grace Lemkuhl raises her paddle and Claire Harvey raises her arms, while Vadim Uzchenksky paddles in the front and Graeme Schnarre paddles in the back during the co-ed canoe sprint race competition.

Cold, snowy conditions didn’t stop University of Colorado Boulder students from competing in the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) concrete canoe competition, an annual event where teams design, formulate their own concrete mixtures and paddle floating canoes made of low-density concrete.

��ӽ紫ý’s ASCE student chapter competed at the Rocky Mountain Student Symposium, held April 23-25 in Rapid City, South Dakota and hosted by South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. The group was led by ASCE co-presidents Mary Grace Lehmkuhl and Julian Kotara, and Associate Teaching Professor Chris Senseney, the faculty advisor for the Concrete Canoe team.

“Julian and I are super proud of this year's symposium,” Lehmkuhl said. “Although ��ӽ紫ý did not do as well as we hoped, we competed in more competitions than ever before.”

Around 25 students from the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering designed and built this year’s 300-pound canoe, “Gone Bananas,” featuring bright yellow paint and a tropical theme. The team wore colorful Hawaiian shirts while presenting the canoe to the judges. During the races, the men's slalom team placed second against five other schools. ��ӽ紫ý placed fourth overall in the canoe competition.

“The success of getting a canoe to the conference unscathed is always something to celebrate,” Lehmkuhl said. “We’ve had canoes crack during transport in the past and a few schools had canoes break during the long journey to South Dakota this year.”

In addition to the canoe competition, the ��ӽ紫ý student chapter competed in the Timber Strong category for the first time. Led by CEAE students Boden Kaminski-Willard and Hannah Berger, the Timber Strong team finished third.

The event challenges teams to construct a two-story timber structure within 90 minutes; the team finished in 81:20,1:20 over their proposed time. While some wall components were prebuilt, most of the structure was assembled during the build period. The final structure was then inspected and load-tested to verify its strength.

Hanah Berger, Boden Kaminski-Willard, Joe Osborne, Tyler Rockey, Julian Kortara and Evelyn Ingraham (not pictured) construct their wood framed structure during the Timber Strong competition.

The team also placed third in the Sustainable Solutions competition, which challenges students to deepen their understanding of sustainability and apply it to real-world engineering problems. This year’s challenge focused on developing site and energy management plans for data centers.

“The team did a great job, incorporating water loop energy recovery systems to lower the effect the center had on the surrounding environment,” Kotara said.

��ӽ紫ý also placed third in the Surveying competition.

The team is already looking forward to next year, when ��ӽ紫ý will host the regional ASCE Rocky Mountain Student Symposium.

“I’m incredibly excited for what’s ahead,” said Graeme Schnarre, next year’s ASCE president of ��ӽ紫ý’s student chapter. “Hosting the symposium will be a major undertaking, but it’s an amazing opportunity for our organization and one that will be incredibly rewarding.

“We’re planning to compete in most competitions next year, which is a huge step forward for our chapter. It speaks to the growth, dedication and momentum we’ve been building.”

Students interested in joining the ASCE student chapter and the 2026-27 team can email asce@colorado.edu and follow @cuboulderasce on Instagram.

��ӽ紫ý ASCE student chapter symposium participants hold their awards.

��ӽ紫ý’s ASCE student chapter competed at the Rocky Mountain Student Symposium, held April 23–25 and hosted by the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. In addition to the canoe competition, the team competed in the Timber-Strong category for the first time, earning a third-place finish.

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Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat

sugl6437 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 20:27:23 +0000

Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat sugl6437 Tue, 04/21/2026 - 14:27

In this article in The Conversation, Professors Gregor Henze and Sean Shaheen explain how waste heat from data centers could be reused to warm nearby buildings if the centers are carefully designed, constructed and operated.

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Modeling the Colorado River’s uncertain future

sugl6437 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:30:38 +0000

Modeling the Colorado River’s uncertain future sugl6437 Fri, 04/10/2026 - 15:30

As the Colorado River faces historic declines in flow, decision-makers are turning to advanced modeling tools to manage an increasingly uncertain future. At the center of this effort is Research Professor Edith Zagona, who leads the development of RiverWare, a widely used modeling platform that simulates how water moves through the basin. Her work includes leading a multidisciplinary team at the Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES), advancing RiverWare and other decision- support tools.

Originally developed in the 1990s at the University of Colorado Boulder, RiverWare allows states, cities and tribes to run their own scenarios through complex systems like the Colorado River Simulation System, increasing transparency and trust in water management decisions.

Read the IEEE Spectrum article

Research Professor Edith Zagona leads the development of RiverWare, a widely used modeling platform that helps simulate how water moves through the basin.

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Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies?

sugl6437 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:54:10 +0000

Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies? sugl6437 Tue, 03/31/2026 - 10:54

Associate Professor Ben Livneh, who’s also the director of the Western Water Assessment (WWA) at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), shares insights on what this “snow drought” means for water availability, how it compares to past trends and what may lie ahead as Colorado approaches peak snowpack season.

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Distinguished Professor Karl Linden recognized as exceptional mentor

sugl6437 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:16:58 +0000

Distinguished Professor Karl Linden recognized as exceptional mentor sugl6437 Mon, 03/30/2026 - 05:16

Distinguished Professor Karl Linden is one of 22 faculty being recognized with this year’s Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. The Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award recognizes the work that faculty mentors do to improve the graduate student experience.

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Women's History Month: Honoring Professor Emerita JoAnn Silverstein

sugl6437 — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:24:09 +0000

Women's History Month: Honoring Professor Emerita JoAnn Silverstein sugl6437 Thu, 03/05/2026 - 14:24

Emi Szabo

After beginning her career in psychology and community development, Professor Emerita JoAnn Silverstein returned to school and took what was then an unconventional path into engineering—eventually becoming one of the early female faculty members in ��ӽ紫ý’s College of Engineering and Applied Science and the first female chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE).

Silverstein's journey is being highlighted by the department in recognition of International Women's Day on March 8 and for Women's History Month.

“With all the current efforts to erase history that celebrates diverse contributions, Women’s History Month is even more important, as a reality check and an inspiration,” she said.

In 1982, Silverstein became one of the first women in the country to earn a PhD in civil engineering and soon after joined ��ӽ紫ý as the fourth female tenure-track faculty member in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. In 1999, she became the second woman in CEAE to be promoted to full professor. In 2002, she was elected as its first female department chair and served in the position until 2010. Silverstein held many additional leadership roles throughout her career before retiring in 2022.

Her research focused on water and wastewater treatment process analysis, and throughout her career she has championed the increased participation and positions in leadership roles of women and underrepresented groups in engineering.

"Diversity and inclusion was a career-long driver of my work and a major source of personal fulfillment," she said.

Her advice for aspiring engineers navigating challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion is to foster a community of friends and family for mutual support and inspiration.

“Don’t be ruled by fear of failure or disapproval," she said. "Enlarge your sense of humor.”

Silverstein received the Distinguished Engineering Educator award from the Society of Women Engineers in 2000 and has a Distinguished Professorship at the University of Michigan named after her, among many other accolades.

Reflecting on her journey, she credits her family as a major source of inspiration.

"As teachers and public servants, they instilled in me a strong commitment to creating positive change and serving others," she said.

During Women's History Month, we honor Professor Emerita JoAnn Silverstein, who forged an unconventional path that helped pave the way for women in ��ӽ紫ý’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.

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News

Engineering students compete in national hospital design competition

Q&A with Parker Cardozo: "Connecting my role as an engineer to the overall patient experience"

What did you learn from the challenge?

What was it like being on a team with non-engineers?

Was there anything that surprised you?

How did it feel to win?

What was it like to participate in a competition that was primarily geared toward graduate students?

Q&A with Colletta Schiller: "Designing to meet the needs of a community"

Why did you get involved in this competition?

What did you learn from it?

What surprised you most from the challenge?

What was it like to present your design?

What was your favorite part of the experience?

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Professor receives Fulbright award to study combined natural hazards in Chile

Perfect storm

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Water outages, like in Victor, are common due to aging infrastructure

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Civil engineering PhD student earns National Science Foundation Fellowship

Advisor

Lab

Research

How will your GRFP support your research?

What do you enjoy doing outside of the lab?

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���ӽ紫ý’s Concrete Canoe Team takes on new challenges

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Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat

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Modeling the Colorado River’s uncertain future

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Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies?

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Distinguished Professor Karl Linden recognized as exceptional mentor

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Women's History Month: Honoring Professor Emerita JoAnn Silverstein

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��ӽ紫ý’s Concrete Canoe Team takes on new challenges