Innovation

Engineering an AI-ready future

Hanna Nordwall — Thu, 21 May 2026 17:51:26 +0000

Engineering an AI-ready future Hanna Nordwall Thu, 05/21/2026 - 11:51

Caitlin Rockett

CU Engineering strives for an intentional approach to incorporating AI in its research and teaching mission

When it comes to engaging with artificial intelligence in education, CU Engineering is “unique,” said Sriram Sankaranarayanan, associate dean and professor of computer science. His Office of Digital Education places “a lot of focus” on how his colleagues incorporate AI into curricula.

“If the future requires students to be good at using AI and also good engineers,” he said, “then we train students to be strong in both.”

Across the college, PhD students use AI to build interactive diagrams from static textbooks, researchers study its biases and costs, and students are enrolling in a new professional master’s program focused on AI. Faculty have created space to help one another learn about AI, while others encourage students to use it to refine papers and iterate ideas.

Illustration by Hanna Nordwall

The why of AI in the classroom

Diane Sieber, an associate professor in the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics and Society, runs the Generative Futures Lab, an informal space where faculty, staff and students can explore AI. She developed a framework to help instructors decide what level of AI use is appropriate for different assignments.

“We even made icons for syllabi, ranging from ‘full AI use encouraged’ to ‘AI use restricted,’ with explanations for each,” Sieber said.

Alvaro Velasquez, assistant professor of computer science, has already seen the benefits of AI in graduate-student writing. “They write the paper, and by iterating with AI, they refine it to a point where it’s actually very, very well written,” he said.

For students with AI anxiety, Sankaranarayanan asks they “treat this as a challenge.”

“Try to gain expertise beyond what AI can replace,” he says. “Think broadly about opportunities and the skills you need to thrive, so you don’t feel victimized by a changing technological landscape.”

Making STEM accessible through AI

“I have a very bullish idea of what AI can do and how it can help us. I understand why people are cautious, but universities are supposed to look at the long arc of history.”

— Daniel Acuña

Many faculty see AI as a tool for broadening access to STEM education. Velasquez believes AI could eventually help close gender and socioeconomic gaps by functioning as a personalized tutor.

To that end, ATLAS Institute Assistant Professor Ryo Suzuki is developing tools such as Augmented Physics, which uses AI alongside augmented and virtual reality to turn static textbook diagrams into interactive simulations.

“Now, imagine if AI could not only respond in text but also generate animated explanations in real time, going beyond text to make learning engaging, visual and playful,” Suzuki said.

Thomas Breideband, associate director of the NSF National AI Institute for Student- AI Teaming, works with an interdisciplinary community of researchers to study how AI can support collaboration in learning environments — particularly in middle and high school, where STEM participation gaps often emerge.

“Collaboration is a critical 21st-century skill, but it is very rarely explicitly practiced,” Breideband said. He and his colleagues are currently working with schools to integrate AI-enhanced curriculum units in classrooms.

AI in the lab

Researchers also interrogate AI. In Associate Professor Daniel Acuña’s lab, his team uses AI techniques to study how large language models absorb “prestige bias” from language used to describe scientific research.

“Instead of saying, ‘scientists found X,’ journalists say, ‘Harvard scientists found X,’” Acuña said. Because LLMs learn from that same data, Acuña hopes his work can help highlight — and eventually correct — those patterns.

Velasquez is tackling another challenge: AI’s immense computational cost. His research on neurosymbolic AI seeks to end “gatekeeping” and "monopolization" in AI.

“When it comes to natural language generation, it comes at a tremendous cost,” Velasquez said. “The neurosymbolic AI community has seen cases where we can use 100,000 to a million times less data.”

New AI degree program

The newly launched Professional Master’s in Artificial Intelligence merges technical skills with ethical considerations.

“If one of our graduates is hired by a company like Walmart, they should be able to analyze consumer data to decide what products to buy and how to manage inventory,” Sankaranarayanan said. “But they should also be able to say, ‘This approach preserves privacy, complies with regulations and is ethically sound.’”

The online degree option through Coursera is up and running, while the on-campus version begins in fall 2026.

Educators agree that they must be intentional in their approach to teaching AI.

“Technology has a very mixed record,” said Sankaranarayanan. “People fear losing jobs, and that is a valid fear, but it doesn’t have to go that way. That’s where education becomes extremely important.”

CU Engineering strives for an intentional approach to incorporating AI in its research and teaching missions

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Hip to be an innovator

Hanna Nordwall — Thu, 21 May 2026 16:45:40 +0000

Hip to be an innovator Hanna Nordwall Thu, 05/21/2026 - 10:45 Alexander Servantez

Engineer and doctor take medical device from CU accelerator to commercialization

Jacob Segil and Dr. Omer Mei-Dan were enjoying a celebratory dinner in 2018 when the idea for their newest commercialization success struck.

“We were celebrating the sale of our first company at a restaurant. Mei- Dan grabbed a napkin and just started sketching an idea for a new project,” said Segil, a research professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. “He said he wanted it this way, with these features, and we just got to work on it right away.”

Segil and Mei-Dan, a surgeon and professor in the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, are the architects behind a redesigned surgical instrument called the CAP-LIFT cannula.

The device has completely transformed arthroscopic procedures in the hip region, making them safer and more efficient. In fact, Mei-Dan said the next-generation cannula has been a catalyst for hundreds of successful hip arthroscopy surgeries nationwide since its launch in August 2025.

But like many engineering projects, achieving real-world impact doesn’t just happen overnight.

“It began as a self-funded project on campus, where we were building prototypes and trying to envision how it could be used in surgery,” Segil said, pulling out a clear bag filled with different iterations of the CAP-LIFT cannula. “Each one of us would bring different perspectives to the table so that together we could make the best product possible.”

When the two finally came up with the right design, they submitted the technology and won CU Boulder’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) in 2020. Segil said the annual innovation competition, which supports top projects throughout the CU system with large grants to help translate research into successful business ventures, was a crucial early milestone in their endeavor.

From there, Segil and Mei-Dan used the LVC award to help push the device into human trials. By working alongside the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board, the two were able to produce units that could be used directly by Mei-Dan in the operating room, improving surgical safety and efficacy right away while beginning to collect real-life data.

“We were testing the different iterations of this product for the past five years in my practice,” Mei-Dan said. “The clinical yield was so significant I no longer wanted to perform a procedure without it. I’ve probably used it in over 1,000 total cases.”

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Downstream data

Hanna Nordwall — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:43:17 +0000

Downstream data Hanna Nordwall Wed, 05/20/2026 - 08:43

Susan Glairon

Researcher using AI to improve and personalize flood prediction

When Zhi Li was young, flash floods regularly swept through his village in China.

Once while he was swimming in a river, the water rose suddenly, submerging 10-year-old Li and pushing him downstream. Though massive amounts of rain had fallen upstream, where Li swam the sky remained a clear, deceptive blue.

“It was so quick,” said Li, an assistant professor of civil engineering who joined CU Boulder in fall 2025. “I had no clue there would be a flood.

Fortunately, a stranger pulled him to safety. The experience inspired Li to devote his life to flood research. “Floods don’t necessarily happen where the rain falls,” Li said. “In my community, many lives were taken by floods. It was devastating.”

Improved simulations

In the United States, the National Weather Service issues weather forecasts and warnings based on expected rainfall and whether the precipitation is likely to overflow nearby rivers, streams or dams.

At Li’s Flood Lab at CU Boulder, his simulations draw on NWS rainfall predictions and detailed terrain data, including ground permeability, land use, soil type and vegetation cover. By combining U.S. Geological Survey terrain maps with AI, his models predict flooding with far greater precision and speed than the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s traditional physics-based models.

His approach can pinpoint where floodwater will pool at a one-meter resolution, detailed enough to show whether an individual building is likely to flood, compared with FEMA’s 10-meter resolution.

Li said achieving one-meter resolution using FEMA’s traditional approach would require extensive expertise and about a year of computation. Using AI, he can simulate an entire county in just two to three hours at a far lower cost.

“Drilling it down to single households is only possible once you have an AI product like this,” Li said. “It was unimaginable in the past.”

To improve model accuracy, Li checks his results with local experts who know which areas are most vulnerable to flooding. This human insight serves as a guardrail for AI, which can sometimes “hallucinate” false warnings.

Personalized warnings

Li’s research also involves changing how flood risk is communicated. Instead of the traditional top-down approach, issuing a single warning message for an entire county, he envisions a customized alert that starts with individual households and scales up to neighborhoods, communities and counties.

“Floods don’t necessarily happen where the rain falls.”

“There is evidence that during floods, some of the people with language barriers were unable to evacuate in time and lost their lives,” Li said. “Personalized warnings can help ensure critical information is clearly communicated so people can act quickly.”

His goal is to use data from the American Community Survey, an annual U.S. Census Bureau report on household demographics, to generate personalized warnings in each resident’s preferred language about whether their home will likely be affected. Evacuation guidance would also reflect a person’s mobility needs and access to transportation.

Flood prediction for all

Li is also developing an AI-powered assistant to democratize access to flood modeling. The approach aims to remove technical barriers that limit flood modeling to experts. Anyone would be able to see an area’s overall flood risk based on historical events. Users could interact with the model in a ChatGPT-style chat to explore flood risk maps by region.

The platform will eventually include real-time alerts and interactive simulations to empower communities to better understand their flood risks during an event without waiting for official warnings.

“I hope the model can be used anywhere in the world to reduce flood damage and provide accessible information to people at risk,” Li said. “That goal has always guided my research.”

Measuring the cost

Li also has a vision for measuring a flood’s total impact to human health, ecology, agriculture and the urban economy as a way to mitigate flood costs.

Comparing it to the total gross domestic product (GDP) that is used to evaluate countries’ prosperity, he envisions creating a “gross flood damage” value to help policymakers determine the amount of government aid for a community and how to reduce flood impact in future years.

Invisible costs, such as a loss of income due to flooded agricultural and other work spaces, would also be included.

Researcher using AI to improve and personalize flood prediction

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High time

Hanna Nordwall — Tue, 19 May 2026 21:06:53 +0000

High time Hanna Nordwall Tue, 05/19/2026 - 15:06 Charles Ferrer

Scott Diddams
Professor and Lead Researcher

CU Boulder faculty and alumni are pushing quantum science to new heights — literally

A team of scientists is attempting something no one has done before: Measuring Earth’s gravity at 14,000 feet using one of the most accurate clocks ever built.

Optical atomic clocks are instruments so precise they can detect tiny differences in the flow of time caused by Earth’s gravity.

“One of the most exciting things about quantum right now is that we’re finally moving from lab experiments to real-world environments,” said Scott Diddams, professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering and a lead researcher on the project. “We’re taking the best clock devices and testing them in entirely new ways.”

A portable optical atomic clock was transported this summer to the peak of Mt. Blue Sky — one of Colorado’s famed Fourteeners. Diddams and his colleagues then started to compare the time to another clock 9,000 feet below in Boulder through a one-of-a-kind free-space and fiber optic laser link.

Their ultimate goal: Make the most precise determination of whether a clock at higher elevations ticks at a faster rate than ones closer to Earth. If so, comparing how time flows between two elevations can unlock how we better understand our planet.

“This is about understanding the earth.”

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity tells us that time will pass more slowly under the influence of gravity, known as the gravitational redshift.

The Mt. Blue Sky collaboration includes Diddams, NIST physicist Andrew Ludlow (PhDPhys’08); NIST physicist Laura Sinclair (PhDPhys’11), who enabled the frequency comb time transfer; and NOAA geodesist Derek van Westrum (PhDPhys’98), who provided millimeter-level benchmark measurements.

Quantum impacts

Here are just a few of the ways quantum sensing could help us understand our globe:

Tracking water movement: Changes in groundwater alter the mass beneath Earth’s surface and its gravitational potential. Precise gravity measurements could allow scientists to detect water flow for improved flood monitoring.
Sensing Earth’s surface: Earthquakes redistribute land mass, creating tiny shifts in gravity. Atomic clocks may detect changes, offering new insight into tectonic activity.
Watching magma rise: As magma accumulates beneath a volcano, the increased mass changes local gravity. Clock-based sensing could provide a clear picture of subsurface dynamics.

What makes this endeavor remarkable is that we’re seeing how atoms inside an optical clock can reveal the gravitational pull on Earth — bridging the micro and the macro worlds.

“There’s not a lot of precedent for making measurements at this level,” said Ludlow, who developed the portable optical clock. “Then we’re adding into the mix that one of the clocks has to be up on a mountain top exposed to some harsh conditions.”

These optical clocks can measure changes in the Earth’s gravity down to just one centimeter in elevation, important in telling us where water flows, how land shifts and how the Earth responds to natural forces. Right now, that one-centimeter precision corresponds to measuring time at the 18th decimal point.

Although the team’s first trip to the Fourteener mainly tested whether the technology could survive the harsh mountain conditions — and it did — the researchers also successfully linked the Mt. Blue Sky clock to its twin in Boulder.

Next year, they will continue capturing detailed time comparisons at these extreme elevations, hoping to operate at the same precision as in the lab.

“This is about understanding the Earth,” Diddams said. “If we’re able to tell where water flows or what’s going on under the surface when we can’t directly see it, that’s something quite exciting. This can ultimately impact lives and property.”

While it may be obvious in Colorado that Mt. Blue Sky stands higher than Denver, Diddams noted that the position of the highest ground is much more challenging to determine precisely in flat coastal regions over long distances. A shift of even a few centimeters in elevation can determine whether floodwaters move toward communities or away from one.

“These clock-based tools can open up how we use powerful quantum-based measurements,” Diddams said. “We don’t know exactly what that’s going to yield, but we think it will give us new ways to measure the shape of the Earth.”

CU Boulder faculty and alumni are pushing quantum science to new heights — literally

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Could 3D-printed livers make transplant lists a thing of the past?

Susan Glairon — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:46:21 +0000

Could 3D-printed livers make transplant lists a thing of the past? Susan Glairon Tue, 03/24/2026 - 08:46

CU Boulder researchers and partners at MIT, Harvard and Columbia are working to recreate the human liver’s complex structure in the lab. With support from a $25 million ARPA-H grant, the team aims to develop 3D-printed, transplantable liver tissue made from human cells that the body won’t reject.

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Climate financing boosting water access for millions in developing nations

Susan Glairon — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:02:54 +0000

Climate financing boosting water access for millions in developing nations Susan Glairon Wed, 10/29/2025 - 10:02

Evan Thomas, director of CU Boulder’s Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and Resilience, is pioneering climate-financed clean water programs that have brought safe drinking water to over 5 million people in Africa. Using carbon credits to fund long-term maintenance and real-time water quality monitoring, the center aims to reach 3 million more people by 2030.

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CU Boulder ranked No. 1 for launching startups based on university discoveries

Michelle Wiese — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:15:14 +0000

CU Boulder ranked No. 1 for launching startups based on university discoveries Michelle Wiese Mon, 10/27/2025 - 09:15

The University of Colorado Boulder reached a historic milestone, launching 35 new companies based on university intellectual property during fiscal year 2024, more than any other U.S. campus that year. In addition to holding the No. 1 spot for that year, the achievement also places CU Boulder No. 2 for the most startups launched in a single year by a U.S. campus.

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A better band-aid: New 'suspended animation' technology could revolutionize wound care

Susan Glairon — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 14:49:42 +0000

A better band-aid: New 'suspended animation' technology could revolutionize wound care Susan Glairon Fri, 10/10/2025 - 08:49

A CU Boulder research team co-led by Distinguished Professor Christopher Bowman has received up to $5.8 million from ARPA-H to develop new treatments that temporarily suspend the immune response after severe burns or tissue injuries, aiming to reduce pain, speed healing and prevent long-term damage. The approach could also benefit patients with limited access to immediate medical care.

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Frugal engineering innovator Saad Bhamla headed to CU Boulder

Susan Glairon — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:36:45 +0000

Frugal engineering innovator Saad Bhamla headed to CU Boulder Susan Glairon Fri, 10/03/2025 - 09:36

Susan Glairon

Saad Bhamla, a pioneering scientist known for studying unusual biological systems and inventing ultra-low-cost medical devices, will join the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the BioFrontiers Institute in August. His work blends biology, engineering and frugal science.

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Integrated Teaching and Learning Program launches innovative 3D printing recycling initiative

Emily Adams — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 22:21:18 +0000

Integrated Teaching and Learning Program launches innovative 3D printing recycling initiative Emily Adams Thu, 09/25/2025 - 16:21

The College of Engineering and Applied Science is taking a step toward advancing campus sustainability, thanks to the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program’s new 3D printing recycling program.

The initiative transforms plastic waste from 3D printing into reusable materials, reducing landfill impact and supporting innovative student projects.

The idea originated in an engineering classroom, where a student team led by integrated design engineering major Ian Mcleod first explored ways to repurpose failed prints and excess support structures generated from PLA filament.

With the support of ITLP engineer Kathryn Penzkover, the concept was developed into a working system and later refined by Eli Post, an ITLP summer intern who is majoring in mechanical engineering. Today, this recycling process has been incorporated into the ITLP ecosystem, and sheets of this material are free for students to use.

The process involves collecting failed or excess PLA prints, grinding them into small fragments and using a T-shirt press to flatten the fragments into durable flat sheets. These sheets serve as raw material for laser cutting projects, offering students a sustainable alternative while conserving resources.

The project has already earned recognition on campus. The student team behind the recycling innovation won both first place and the People’s Choice Award in the Student Idea Showcase at the 2025 Campus Sustainability Summit. In addition, Post published a step-by-step Instructible, allowing others to replicate the process and extend its impact beyond the university.

Further support for the project came from the Engineering Excellence Fund, which awarded a grant to help purchase the polymer shredder. The investment provided the team with a reliable way to process PLA waste into uniform fragments, making the recycling workflow more efficient and scalable.

“What excites me most about this project is that this started with students who saw a problem and decided to solve it. By backing their creativity with mentorship and resources, we are not only cutting down on waste, we are showing future engineers that they have the power to drive real change,” said Kai Amey, director of engineering education and operations for the ITLP. “Incorporating recycled plastic into hands-on engineering education turns what would have been waste into a shared resource for students. By making these materials freely available, we are reducing our environmental impact while giving students new opportunities to innovate and create.”

The ITLP will continue to expand its recycling and sustainability initiatives, ensuring that hands-on engineering education is paired with responsible stewardship of resources.

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Innovation

Engineering an AI-ready future

The why of AI in the classroom

Making STEM accessible through AI

AI in the lab

New AI degree program

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Hip to be an innovator

More success stories

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Downstream data

Improved simulations

Personalized warnings

Flood prediction for all

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High time

Quantum impacts

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Could 3D-printed livers make transplant lists a thing of the past?

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Climate financing boosting water access for millions in developing nations

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CU Boulder ranked No. 1 for launching startups based on university discoveries

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A better band-aid: New 'suspended animation' technology could revolutionize wound care

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Frugal engineering innovator Saad Bhamla headed to CU Boulder

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Integrated Teaching and Learning Program launches innovative 3D printing recycling initiative

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