Students

Engineering students compete in national hospital design competition

Susan Glairon — Tue, 19 May 2026 20:43:58 +0000

Engineering students compete in national hospital design competition Susan Glairon Tue, 05/19/2026 - 14:43

Susan Glairon

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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New flight simulator lab for engineering education

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 18 May 2026 20:09:57 +0000

New flight simulator lab for engineering education Jeff Zehnder Mon, 05/18/2026 - 14:09

Jeff Zehnder

Flying the (virtual) skies

Jackson Clark pushes to full throttle, pulls back on the yoke, and eases into the right rudder pedal as he soars through the sky on a clear day – all without leaving the Aerospace Building.

In a room packed with the latest in flight simulator technology, students are testing out virtual aircraft, not to become licensed pilots, but to study the engineering of aircraft design.

The Undergraduate Flight Simulation Studio is a new facility at the University of Colorado Boulder, giving students in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences hands-on aeronautical experience.

“You can teach with a book or on a MatLab plot, but students don’t really understand until they fly it,” said Charles Hoke, an associate teaching professor who led development of the center.

Funded with major support from aerospace engineer, attorney, and passionate ��ӽ紫ý advocate Richard F. Schaden, the facility has seven simulator bays stocked with flight yokes, rudder pedals, and aircraft throttles, complete with the myriad switches, buttons, and lights that comprise actual plane cockpits.

Students also have the option of wearing virtual reality headsets for a 360-degree experience.

“As a pilot, I have flown in flight simulators over the past 35 years to demonstrate compliance with the performance, stability and control of aircraft as they were designed,” said Schaden, who visited the lab for an official unveiling May 7. “Now, here in the lab, students can experiment with design changes to see the effects on the performance, stability and control as modified by them as engineers. This allows the students to experience immediate engineering feedback in ways that may be more precise than they could achieve through wind tunnel tests ”

The lab allows students the chance to test classroom projects and new aircraft concepts. It also offers the ability to show how small changes in existing planes alter their airworthiness.

You can teach with a book or on a MatLab plot, but students don’t really understand until they fly it." - Charles Hoke

“Standard flight simulators are for pilot training,” Hoke said. “That’s not useful for engineers. We want to get into the guts of these things, change the parameters, and learn about aircraft dynamics.”

The lab will be a standard component of sophomore-level courses, impacting over 300 students per year. It will also be available for clubs and other projects.

Students have already been able to use the facility to test plane designs they developed as part of spring semester capstone senior projects. By loading 3D models of their aircraft into the simulator, they were able to collect high fidelity data on drag and aerodynamic performance for analysis

“It has been really cool to see senior project teams come in and use the tools,” said Clark, an aerospace master’s student who helped build the facility. “It’s incredibly immersive and shows the vision for this lab is immediately being applied.”

Hoke also emphasized the simulator’s value as a learning tool.

“When teams design an airframe, they get the chance to fly at Boulder Model Airfield, but you’re lucky to get 1-2 flights. With this simulator, they could fly their designs for hours and hours and get more data for analysis. When I came to ��ӽ紫ý, I made it my mission to create a facility like this. It’s very exciting to see it come to life.”

Jackson Clark pushes to full throttle, pulls back on the yoke, and eases into the right rudder pedal as he soars through the sky on a clear day – all without leaving the Aerospace Building...

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27 ��ӽ紫ý engineering students earn presitigious National Science Foundation fellowships

Jeff Zehnder — Wed, 13 May 2026 22:19:27 +0000

27 ��ӽ紫ý engineering students earn presitigious National Science Foundation fellowships Jeff Zehnder Wed, 05/13/2026 - 16:19

Jeff Zehnder

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has bestowed 27 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards to University of Colorado Boulder engineering students.

The national awards recognize and support outstanding grad 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.

��ӽ紫ý is ranked 14th among all U.S. universities and eighth among public institutions.for NSF GRFP fellowship recipients for 2026, with 40 awardees across all majors.

Learn about each CU Engineering recipient below

The National Science Foundation has bestowed 27 Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards to University of Colorado Boulder engineering students...

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Two CU Engineering undergrads earn national Student Employee of the Year recognition

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:54:50 +0000

Two CU Engineering undergrads earn national Student Employee of the Year recognition Charles Ferrer Wed, 04/08/2026 - 10:54

Arianna McCarty, senior in chemical & biological engineering, received the National Student Employment Association award in leadership and Braden O’Brien, senior in electrical & computer engineering, was named the overall student employee of year and category winner in technology & innovation.

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ME outreach program brings big engineering dreams to small rural towns

Alexander Servantez — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:56:29 +0000

ME outreach program brings big engineering dreams to small rural towns Alexander Servantez Wed, 04/01/2026 - 15:56

Associate Research Professor Daniel Knight and Professor Michael Hannigan are leading an outreach program that connects ��ӽ紫ý students with rural high schools to introduce hands-on engineering experiences in the classroom. The initiative, known as the Science and Engineering Inquiry Collaborative (SCENIC), serves 12 schools and nearly 700 high school students across rural Colorado each year, turning local questions about air and soil quality into real-world research projects.

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Cyber team reaches national cyber defense competition after first place regional finish

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 16:50:33 +0000

Cyber team reaches national cyber defense competition after first place regional finish Charles Ferrer Wed, 04/01/2026 - 10:50

A team of computer science students earned first place at the 2026 Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, marking the team’s first time qualifying for its national cyber defense competition.

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ME senior project turns waste heat into clean energy savings

Alexander Servantez — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:53:21 +0000

ME senior project turns waste heat into clean energy savings Alexander Servantez Wed, 03/25/2026 - 14:53

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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Student awarded Churchill Scholarship—the 4th in ��ӽ紫ý history

Susan Glairon — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:38:06 +0000

Student awarded Churchill Scholarship—the 4th in ��ӽ紫ý history Susan Glairon Fri, 01/30/2026 - 10:38

Chemical and biological engineering senior Arianna McCarty has earned the prestigious Churchill Scholarship, becoming just the fourth student in university history to receive the honor. The award will support a year of master’s study at the University of Cambridge, recognizing her exceptional research achievements and academic excellence.

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Conducting space research as an undergrad

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:34:50 +0000

Conducting space research as an undergrad Jeff Zehnder Mon, 01/26/2026 - 11:34

Diana Hernandez, a sophomore and first-generation student at the University of Colorado Boulder, is conducting research on space dust impacts using data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP). As a Lattice Scholar, she models impact data collected by PSP’s magnetometer instruments, which detect signals from dust collisions. This work is part of the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship and Fundamentals of Undergraduate Research Program, offering hands-on research opportunities.

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Leading hands-on Earth research planning for life on Mars

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:29:45 +0000

Leading hands-on Earth research planning for life on Mars Jeff Zehnder Tue, 01/20/2026 - 11:29

A crew of astronauts wearing spacesuits look out across the reddish horizon, the rock formations unfamiliar, with no trails to guide them and incomplete maps. They are lost, once again, on Mars.

Human exploration of the red planet will present unique challenges, and a team of University of Colorado Boulder researchers are studying real-world human decision-making for Mars through a unique, Earth-based experience.

“When humans land on Mars, poor decisions can lead to loss of the mission and loss of life,” said PhD student Erin Richardson. “This work here on Earth is studying how to best design and support astronaut teams so they can be effective.”

Mars on Earth

Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), an analog astronaut research facility in the remote Utah desert. Operated by the Mars Society, the center gives scientists and engineers the opportunity to conduct complex experiments in a simulation space habitat.

Using MRDS, Richardson and Postdoctoral Scholar Aaron Allred, both from the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, are leading a major study on team function – and dysfunction – in isolated and extreme environments.

“Our team is looking at cognitive security. How do we protect people’s ability in the face of information threats like mis- and dis-information and how do teams make decisions based on incomplete information in extreme environments,” Allred said.

Astronaut Experiments

Alongside a broader team, Allred and Richardson designed a series of experiments and recruited 18 mock astronauts to live and work at MDRS under conditions that will match actual life on Mars. That included close quarters, little privacy, a requirement to wear spacesuit simulators when leaving the habitat, and lengthy communication delays – up to 40 minutes, when speaking to Mission Control.

A crew member on an EVA looking out across the landscape.

“Decision making of teams in extreme environments is understudied. There has been some work looking at other extreme, isolated environments, like submarine crews and Antarctic teams, but what is novel in our work is the ability to run replicable experimental trials,” Richardson said.

By splitting participants into separate groups and pairings, experimental trials could be repeated to see if results varied.

Although university research involving human subjects often relies on undergraduate volunteers, for this project, Allred and Richardson were able to recruit working scientists and engineers worldwide.

“We had almost 600 applicants,” Richardson said. “MDRS is very well known, and people want to go there. We had a goal of assembling crews that were as close in education, operational experience, and age to real astronauts as possible.”

Navigation Challenges

Once the crews were on site, they took part in outdoor navigation challenges that focused on human response when dealing with incomplete and conflicting information.

“In one experiment, one person had a map, one had GPS, and we always gave one of them incorrect information,” Allred said. “The teammates had to work together to solve where to go. Doing it as extra vehicular activities (EVAs) where they’re wearing a spacesuit outdoors also imposes a time pressure and gives perceived stakes, based on how long the life support system has before it runs out.”

When humans land on Mars, poor decisions can lead to loss of the mission and loss of life. This work is studying how to best design and support astronaut teams so they can be effective." -Erin Richardson

Subjects completed daily surveys on their experience and wore sensors to track their body’s physiological response, including a functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) device to monitor brain function in real time. Team dynamics, alertness, and fatigue were also tracked.

“We’re still analyzing the data, but anecdotally, one crew stayed up super late their last night and in all three of their final EVAs they followed the wrong source of information. Fatigue is unavoidable, but measuring its impact allows us to better support operators,” Richardson said.

Research Impact

As they digest the data collected, both Richardson and Allred are excited about the potential impact of the research.

“This was an incredible opportunity to go out there and conduct experiments where there are more stressors than you can do in a laboratory while enforcing controlled experimental design in a space analog. We want to set a baseline of scientific understanding that can aid development of technological countermeasures,” Allred said.

The principal investigator for the grant is Research Professor Leanne Hirshfield in the Institute of Cognitive Science. Allred and Richardson are advised by Allie Hayman, an Associate Professor in Smead Aerospace.

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Students

Engineering students compete in national hospital design competition

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New flight simulator lab for engineering education

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27 ���ӽ紫ý engineering students earn presitigious National Science Foundation fellowships

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Two CU Engineering undergrads earn national Student Employee of the Year recognition

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ME outreach program brings big engineering dreams to small rural towns

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Cyber team reaches national cyber defense competition after first place regional finish

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ME senior project turns waste heat into clean energy savings

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Student awarded Churchill Scholarship—the 4th in ���ӽ紫ý history

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Conducting space research as an undergrad

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Leading hands-on Earth research planning for life on Mars

Mars on Earth

Astronaut Experiments

Navigation Challenges

Research Impact

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27 ��ӽ紫ý engineering students earn presitigious National Science Foundation fellowships

Student awarded Churchill Scholarship—the 4th in ��ӽ紫ý history