CU-Boulder students test their pit crew skills during the Shell Pitstop Challenge, a recruiting event on campus in mid-September.

Fall Enrollment Hits New Peak

The college has achieved a peak enrollment of 4,427 students this fall, which includes 3,064 undergraduates, 774 master’s students (including 198 enrolled through distance education), and 589 PhD students.

Women comprise 21 percent of the undergraduate enrollment (an overall increase due to this year’s first-year class being 25 percent female) and 22 percent of the graduate enrollment. Underrepresented minorities comprise 7.9 percent of undergraduates and 4.5 percent of graduate students.  >>More information

Mortenson Center Hosts Afghan Visitors

Six faculty from Kabul University and Kabul Polytechnic University are visiting CU-Boulder this year with support from a U.S. Agency for International Development grant through Washington State University. The Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities is hosting the visitors, five of whom are beginning graduate degree programs to further their engineering knowledge. They expect to complete their degrees from Afghanistan through CAETE’s online programming.

Afghanistan faces a shortage of engineering professors, and most of its faculty don’t have graduate degrees. CU Professor Bernard Amadei said the Mortenson Center has a role to play in “training the trainers” to support  rebuilding in Afghanistan. One of the visitors does have a PhD and is working on developing a curriculum for a new department of geoscience that is under development at Kabul Polytechnic.

CU graduate Avery Bang takes the visitors on an outing to Boulder Creek.

U.S.-Chinese Cooperation Workshop Focuses on Renewable Energy

A delegation of Chinese engineers and scientists visited the college Oct. 6 as part of a working meeting on U.S.-Chinese cooperation on producing electricity from renewable energy. The committee, which has met previously in China and in Hawaii, is jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academies of Engineering and Science. CU Professor Jana Milford of mechanical engineering served on the host committee, along with NREL representatives, who sponsored a site visit in Golden the previous day.

Herbst Program Offers Summer Course in China

Fifteen CU students returned in July from a summer course held at Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China. The Herbst Program of Humanities course, “Self-Awareness and Images of the Other,” offered students a glimpse into the culture and complexities of ancient and modern China through literature, visits to the Terracotta Warriors, and direct interaction with Chinese faculty and students. The trip concluded in Beijing. The program caters to non-Chinese language majors and was funded by the Freeman Foundation.  For more information on the 2010 trip, contact the Herbst Program of Humanities or Anja Lange at anja.lange@colorado.edu.

Honors & Awards

Congratulations to the following individuals on their outstanding achievements:

Faculty

Steve Nerem and Brian Argrow of aerospace engineering sciences have been named Associate Fellows in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Bernard Amadei of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering has been named an honorary member of the National Ground Water Association in recognition of his special contributions to this industry.

Rishi Raj of mechanical engineering is part of a team led by Teledyne of Thousand Oaks, Calif., that was awarded one of three National Hypersonic Science Centers through a joint NASA/Air Force competition. The National Hypersonic Science Center for Hypersonic Materials and Structures aims to revolutionize the design of hypersonic vehicles by creating a new class of hybrid, hierarchical materials that achieve substantial breakthroughs in oxidation resistance, maximum useable temperature, and maximum supportable heat flux.

Penny Axelrad of aerospace engineering sciences was selected to receive the Institute of Navigation Satellite Division Kepler Award, which honors an individual during their lifetime for sustained and significant contributions to the development of satellite navigation.

Ken Strzepek of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering led of team of CU alumni, graduate and undergraduate students from the college in performing an analysis of the water resources sector for the World Bank report, “Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change.” The study is the most in-depth analysis of the economics of adaptation to climate change to date.

Roseanna Neupauer of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering has been selected to participate in the 2009 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium at the National Academy of Engineering.  The Nov. 15-18 event in Virginia offers a unique venue for engineering faculty members to share and explore interesting and effective innovations in teaching and learning.

William Emery of aerospace engineering sciences has been elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Hanspeter Schaub of aerospace engineering sciences recently published the second edition of his textbook, "Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems" (co-authored with John Junkins).

Students

Dustin Wood, a graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences advised by Ryan Starkey, has received one of four national awards from AIAA for outstanding scholarship on Advanced Combined Cycle Propulsion.

Katie Corner, who is majoring in electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, a $10,000 scholarship announced at the recent Grace Hopper Conference.

Staff

Evan Cantor of computer science received the Employee Recognition Award for September.

New Faculty & Staff

Welcome to the following new faculty and staff joining the college:

Stephanie Rivale, Director of K-12 Engineering Education, BOLD Center

Dominique deVangel, Administrative Assistant, Chemical & Biological Engineering

Nancy Tway, Accounting Technician, Chemical & Biological Engineering

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