The College of Engineering and Applied Science began hosting webinars in early 2020 with the goal of providing online learning across various topics. These webinars feature faculty experts whose research is shaping the future of the world we live in, along with accomplished alumni who are leaders in their respective industries.
In addition to the live webinars, recordings of past sessions are available to access anytime. Contact the Alumni Engagement Team at engalumni@colorado.edu if you have ideas for future webinars or if you are interested in presenting.
For more ways to get involved,听view our
Featured Webinar
Faculty Research Spotlights
When engineers in the robotics research community think of what we'd like autonomous agents to tackle in the future, we often target "dull, dirty, and dangerous" tasks. However, despite a sustained boom in robotics research over the last decade, the number of places we've seen robotics in use for these tasks has been uninspiring. In this webinar, hear from Associate Professor Chris Heckman as he explores his team's recent investigation into where the limits of robotic autonomy are for the highly sought-after application to subterranean emergency response operations.
Hear from leading experts on the technical areas underlying ChatGPT and other generative AI, the uses of generative AI in university and K-12 education, and the ethical and societal issues associated with generative AI tools.听Featured faculty speakers include: Professor Jim Martin (Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science), Associate Professor Diane Sieber (Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics & Society), and Associate Professor Tom Yeh (computer science).
Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity, and sense of security. Yet, many houses remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and other hazards, affecting communities in the near and long term. In the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico, a large portion of housing stock is built informally, where building codes and regulations may not be followed. Professors Javernick-Will and Liel argue that how builders and residents perceive housing safety influences how housing is designed, built, and maintained.听
Current progress in materials science allows us to manipulate the chemistry and micro-architecture of engineering materials towards desired properties. Still, no matter how skilled we are at these techniques, we cannot compete with the advanced materials made by nature for eons. In this webinar, Professor Francois Barthelat will explore how nature can teach us new tricks to improve the design and capabilities of engineering materials.
Wind energy is recognized worldwide as cost-effective, environmentally friendly and is among the fastest-growing sources of electrical energy. In this webinar, Professor Lucy Pao will provide an overview of wind energy systems, discuss challenges in the design and operation of wind turbines, and highlight how the performance of these systems has been improved in recent years.
No universal vaccines exist for infectious diseases like HIV and influenza, largely due to the high frequency with which the pathogens that cause these diseases acquire mutations in their surface proteins. Hear from Assistant Professor Kayla Sprenger as she describes our efforts to address this challenge for HIV using a variety of computational methods that include homology modeling, molecular simulations, mathematical modeling, and machine learning.
The Idea Forge is a prototyping facility focused on workforce development; we are a flexible, cross-disciplinary collaborative space where students can imagine, design, create, and test their ideas.听We leverage formal learning, co-curricular learning, and connections with community and industry to prepare students for the practice.
Professor Gerhard Fischer and Professor Clayton Lewis were two pioneers in developing the concepts and methods that formed the influential field of human-computer interaction. They worked together at CU for thirty years starting in 1984, making CU Boulder one of the centers of education and research in Human Computer Interaction, Design, and Lifelong Learning. During this webinar, professors Fischer and Lewis will reflect upon their time together at CU and how their work contributed to the progress and current challenges of their fields.
Under the high-temperature and high-pressure conditions of a combustion engine, hundreds of chemical species may be undergoing thousands of chemical reactions at any time. In this webinar, Assistant Professor Nicole Labbe will highlight recent experimental advances in the detection of molecular combustion products, and how she implements those advances in tandem with our computational chemistry efforts to inform the design of the next generation of transportation fuels.
The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering supports students working in dozens of countries and combines education, research, and partnerships to positively impact vulnerable people and their environment. In this presentation, Director Evan Thomas will share how The Mortenson Center is working towards a vision of a world where everyone has safe water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure.
Dr. Mike Mozer and Dr. Paul Smolensky were pioneers in developing the concepts and techniques that have led to the recent surge of successes in artificial intelligence and deep learning. They worked together at CU in a six-year period around 1990, making CU one of the centers of neural network research at that time.听
Is leadership a teachable art? In this webinar, Engineering Leadership Program Director Shilo Brooks will discuss this question, and why many of the most successful leaders in the history of science, politics, and the arts were deeply curious and broadly educated people of wonder and imagination.
In 2018, the College of Engineering & Applied Science faculty defined six unique Interdisciplinary Research Themes that built off our strengths, aligned with future opportunities, and could provide transformational societal impact.
Associate Professor Wil Srubar shares the recent success of highly interdisciplinary听researchers in biochemistry, microbiology, materials science and structural engineering in applying synthetic biology toolkits to engineer bacteria to create useful minerals and polymers and form them into living building blocks that could, one day, bring buildings to life.
ATLAS is an Institute for Radical Creativity and Invention. With academic programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and faculty and student engagement campus-wide, ATLAS is a community of technology visionaries and virtuosos.听
Professional Development
Hear from fellow CU Engineering alumni on tips and tricks for navigating life and career opportunities in those first few years post-graduation. Panelists from the GOLD Board share their own experiences as recent alumni entering the workforce, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Included panelists represent careers in research, aerospace engineering, systems design, and supply chain management.
The Graduates of the Last Decade Board produced a three-part professional development series for recent alumni. Each session will be focused on a different professional development theme. These events are aimed to help you identify and learn more about potential options that may be of interest to you.听The final session in this series for recent graduates will focus on how to find, develop and leverage professional mentors. Hear from a panel of alumni who are actively working in industry and can provide insight into the importance of maintaining mentoring relationships and actively participating in professional organizations.
The Graduates of the Last Decade Board produced a three-part professional development series for recent alumni. Each session will be focused on a different professional development theme. These events are aimed to help you identify and learn more about potential options that may be of interest to you. The first topic focuses on what drives young alumni to return for an advanced degree (MBA/MS/PhD) and how the additional schooling impacts job prospects. This recording features a panel discussion between three recent alumni, each with a variety of advanced degrees and different paths that led to their pursuit of those degrees.
The Graduates of the Last Decade Board produced a three-part professional development series for recent alumni. Each session will be focused on a different professional development theme. These events are aimed to help you identify and learn more about potential options that may be of interest to you. The second session will focus on training and learning opportunities that recent alumni can complete to bolster their technical or managerial skill sets. The panel features three alumni who have completed one or several extracurricular skill building courses (PE, LEEDS, technical courses, training programs, etc.)
Alumni Spotlights
As climate change threatens our environment and housing prices continue to skyrocket, how can we create homes and communities that are both sustainable and affordable? A group of CU Boulder students set out to find a solution in 2017 by creating a highly efficient house powered entirely by renewable energy. Their efforts were recognized this year when they won first place in the 2021 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Build Challenge, an international collegiate competition in which teams compete to design homes powered by renewable energy.
As we move from stabilizing our economic decline to economic recovery and growth, we expect government investments in infrastructure and alternative delivery authorization to play a critical role. This panel of alumni experts will explore public private partnerships (P3) trends and the associated demands for alternative delivery solutions.
Honoring the outstanding achievements of our 2020 and 2021 alumni award recipients, Dean Keith Molenaar and the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder present the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards.
Scott Flaska (Mechanical Engineering '14), Senior Manager of Football Analytics with the Denver Broncos, discusses his career path since graduating from CU Boulder听and how he landed in the world of football technology and research.
Engineering Buff Brewers
Jason zumBrunnen (ChemEngr'97), owner of Ratio Beerworks, discussed the journey into the craft beer world, how engineering has helped him make improvements to the brewery and talked about a few of his favorite beers.听听
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Steve Kaczeus (MechEngr'82), owner of Bootstrap Brewing Company in Colorado and his family听discussed their journey into the craft beer world, how they are using engineering concepts to make improvements to their process, and听their transition into听producing hard seltzers.听听
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Engineering alumni Eric Serani and Jason Slingsby, owners of FlyteCo Brewing along with听Aerospace Instructor Bobby Hodgkinson听discussed the journey into the craft beer world, gave听an inside look at their Denver brewery and taproom.
COVID-19 Response
Alumna Anna Blakney explores the preclinical development of a self-amplifying RNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein encapsulated within a lipid nanoparticle as a vaccine.
Professor Mark Hernandez provides an overview of the most modern methods for determining the identity, distribution, and abundance of the airborne microbes that we encounter indoors and the persistence of airborne viruses.
The Massachusetts Manufacturing Emergency Response Team was established to implement critical path work streams necessary for Massachusetts manufacturers to produce needed FDA compliant medical devices and supplies at scale.听
Even though many SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infections produce no symptoms or mild symptoms, they are still capable of passing the virus to their contacts.
Increased residential electricity consumption and decreased commercial electricity consumption due to stay-at-home orders and social distancing is dramatically changing the way the grid operates.听
Dr. Miller will summarize some of the recent scientific information that has been accumulating to support that COVID-19 transmission occurs via the airborne exposure route and steps to听minimize airborne transmission risk in buildings.
Family-Friendly Activities
Prototyping is less about building and more about answering questions. What is this going to look like? How will it work for a user? This applies for software, hardware, processes, and everything in between. In this workshop, you鈥檙e going to build something with your own two hands and learn how the process we teach you is infinitely translatable to your next big challenge.
Calling all future engineers! This overview of the new, online K-12 engineering modules features an introduction to Tinkercad's 3D Design & Arduino circuit simulator, Onshape CAD, and Coding.听
The entire听family will be able to follow along in this fun, hands-on webinar where you'll learn how to create your own 3D design keychain and听a creation of your choice.