News & Events

In November, CU Boulder’s Environmental Data Science Innovation & Inclusion Lab (ESIIL) hosted its first-ever virtual hackathon. Working in teams, 45 participants from around the world used environmental data science and AI to create innovative solutions, such as an app to track water quality by neighborhood.

A spacecraft the size of a cereal box has collected precise measurements of the atmospheres of large and puffy planets called “hot Jupiters.” The findings, led by a team from CU Boulder, could help reveal how the atmospheres around these and a host of other worlds are escaping into space.

The Colorado State Legislature passed a bill directing the Natural Hazards Center to assess current emergency alert practices. The resulting report identified several ways the state can address gaps in funding, resources and practice to provide more inclusive alerts for all Coloradoans.

“The current methods of trajectory design for missions that go beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon are very complicated and not intuitive. I want to change that,” said Dezell Turner, an aerospace PhD student aiming to streamline orbital design with an interactive, augmented reality tool.

The George Ellery Hale Fellowships, created by CU Boulder in partnership with NSF’s National Solar Observatory, are designed to give students the freedom to explore a mix of solar and space physics research paths with multiple mentors before deciding on a thesis project.

As far apart as Boulder and Grand Junction are, they’re brought together by a commitment to water conservation. Rooted in this shared commitment is Crossing the Divide: a program that fosters student collaboration across CU Boulder and Grand Junction’s Colorado Mesa University.

An autonomous rescue robot created by a team of CU Boulder researchers and students placed third as the top US entry and earned $500K in prize money at a Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency Subterranean Challenge competition in 2021. Two years later, the team is pushing the technology even further.

Some dark craters on the moon are never exposed to light. Ice could be hiding in these permanently shadowed regions. Paul Hayne (Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences) discusses how scientists are homing in on potential lunar ice reservoirs, which are key to setting up any sort of sustainable lunar infrastructure.

Sixteen teams of faculty, researchers and graduate student innovators competed for a combined $1.5M in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge. Judges from CU Boulder’s entrepreneurial network heard pitches across two nights for innovations in biosciences, physical sciences and engineering.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, religious relics were highly prized—not just by individuals, but also by institutions. In his Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 28, Professor Kirk Ambrose will discuss how institutions used art to authenticate religious relics, as well as condemn counterfeiting.