Research

Toward safer self-driving cars

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:57:17 +0000

Toward safer self-driving cars Jeff Zehnder Mon, 04/20/2026 - 09:57

Jeff Zehnder

Majid Zamani is designing safer self-driving car technology with math.

An associate professor of computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder, Zamani is working on a European Research Council (ERC) proof-of-concept project that uses mathematical models to guide autonomous vehicles, rather than relying on testing to capture every possible crash scenario.

“Existing autonomy software are not formally proven to work all the time,” Zamani said. “Waymo taxis carry sensor suites worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and are marketed as self-driving, yet they do not always operate autonomously. At times, they become stuck and require remote operator intervention, a limitation that can undermine public trust in the system.”

The issue is edge cases. Existing autonomous driving software incorporates results from millions of miles of travel, but cars still encounter new situations regularly. While humans easily adapt to unforeseen road conditions, machines do not.

When those incidents arise, automakers update their software to address the new scenario, each time adding more lines of codes. Some vehicles now exceed 100 million lines of computer codes, Zamani said.

“One might say that 98 percent of the challenge of autonomy has been solved, leaving only 2 percent unresolved. But that remaining 2 percent is still enormous. When measured against the millions of miles driven each day, even a small fraction of failure cases translates into a significant real-world problem,” Zamani said.

What if there was a better way?

Utilizing an ERC grant awarded through his visiting-professorship at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany, Zamani wants self-driving cars to rely on concrete physics and mathematical formulas rather than endless testing of scenarios.

“These are Newton’s laws. We understand the relationship between velocity and acceleration, and we can calculate how long it will take a car to stop once it detects an obstacle. The mathematics is clean, and if we succeed, we can certify the system’s effectiveness,” he said.

Zamani and his team are focused specifically on lane changes and have made significant progress. Through the grant, they plan to soon test their work on an embedded NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin platform using MORAI, a high-fidelity driving simulator that mimics real-world conditions.

“We have proven that our software is formally correct. Now we need to demonstrate it in practice,” he said.

Designing self-driving cars around mathematics and logic may seem like the obvious approach, but it requires substantial computation, which is one reason current systems do not fully rely on it.

“Imagine a busy intersection in a large city, with bicycles, pedestrians, traffic signals, other vehicles, and road conditions that shift with the weather. A mathematically grounded system must decide in real time how to respond, but the sheer number of interacting variables makes the problem extraordinarily complex, even though many of those interactions are ultimately governed by physics,” he said.

The team is developing methods to make its physics- and mathematics-based approaches more scalable. That includes both refining its algorithms and exploring neural networks and other machine learning techniques.

“Sometimes, a very small change in the model architecture can lead to an algorithm that scales much more effectively,” he said. “It is challenging, but we have made meaningful progress. Implementing the MORAI high-fidelity simulator is an important step toward showing that what we promise is possible and demonstrating provable safety in complex autonomous driving scenarios.”

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Using aerospace technology to study glacier melt in Greenland

Jeff Zehnder — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:15:35 +0000

Using aerospace technology to study glacier melt in Greenland Jeff Zehnder Thu, 04/16/2026 - 16:15

Jeff Zehnder

Alia Khan is integrating field-based biogeochemical analysis with NASA’s next generation satellite sensors to quantify how biological algae blooms, mineral dust, and wildfire smoke are darkening the Greenland Ice Sheet and accelerating its melt.

Khan, an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been awarded a four-year, $857,000 NASA grant to develop tools to improve sea-level rise projections.

The work is focused on Greenland, home to massive amounts of frozen water in a large land-based glacier, also known as an ice sheet, that is nearly two miles thick in some places.

Increasing melt rate

“There are growing dark spots on the Greenland Ice Sheet,” Khan said. “While fresh snow is the most reflective surface on Earth, the ‘bare ice’ exposed during summer melt is naturally darker. When light-absorbing particles like algae and dust accumulate there, they further reduce reflectivity and cause the ice to melt even faster. Currently, this darkening isn't fully captured in most Earth system models, meaning we are likely underestimating future sea level rise.”

The enhanced darkening of the ice sheet is caused by the combined impact of soot, mineral dust, and seasonal ice algae blooms. These particles significantly increase heat absorption, creating a feedback loop that intensifies surface melting as the Arctic warms.

“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense, sending plumes of soot to settle on the ice,” Khan said. “At the same time, retreating glaciers leave behind fine dust that the wind blows back onto the surface. These particles, along with algae fueled by increased meltwater nutrients, are transforming the ice sheet from a reflective shield into a heat-absorber.”

New technology

To measure the impact, Khan is leveraging NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite. Launched in 2024, PACE provides high-resolution hyperspectral imagery—capturing a vast spectrum of light from ultraviolet to infrared—to reveal details of the Earth’s surface that were previously invisible to orbiting sensors.

“PACE’s hyperspectral technology allows us to tease apart the unique spectral signatures of mineral dust and living algae,” Khan said. “By mapping these specific characteristics, we can determine exactly how each one contributes to surface melt, allowing us to improve our predictions for the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet.”

Khan will combine this data with planned in-person surveys of the Greenland ice sheet using drone flights and collection and analysis of surface samples of snow and ice.

Sailboats amidst icefloes off the coast of Greenland.

“The samples will be used to validate the satellite imagery and to measure specific quantities of dust, black carbon, and algae. This includes analyzing a suite of photosynthetic and photoprotective pigments, as well as conducting DNA analysis,” she said.

Like nowhere else

Spending time on the ice sheets is a unique and rare opportunity. Accessible only via helicopter, they are places few humans have seen up close.

“There’s a pretty significant wind chill and survival gear is necessary, whether or not we plan to spend the night, but it’s such a privilege to work in a place almost completely untouched by humans,” Khan said.

The collected data and images will be used in the creation of complex new algorithms to more accurately map the dark zones throughout the melt season.

“It takes a lot of computing power, but there’s so much exciting new technology we can apply here to build models we haven’t had before,” Khan said.

As Greenland's ice loss remains a primary driver of global sea-level rise, by refining our understanding of Greenland’s melt rates, Khan’s work fills a critical gap in the climate models used by scientists and policymakers to improve future projections.

Additional investigators on the grant include Peng Xian at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Heidi Dierssen at the University of Connecticut.

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A simple shot shows promise to reverse osteoarthritis within weeks

Susan Glairon — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:05:27 +0000

A simple shot shows promise to reverse osteoarthritis within weeks Susan Glairon Mon, 04/06/2026 - 16:05

A CU Boulder-led team has developed a suite of new therapies aimed at reversing osteoarthritis in a single injection. With animal studies showing promise and funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health extended, the team could be ready for human trials by 2028.

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Kristi Anseth receives the Biomaterials Global Impact Award

Susan Glairon — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:48:45 +0000

Kristi Anseth receives the Biomaterials Global Impact Award Susan Glairon Tue, 03/31/2026 - 14:48

Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth has received the Biomaterials Global Impact Award, which recognizes distinguished research and development accomplishments in the field of biomaterials. Anseth is known for developing tissue substitutes that improve treatments for conditions like broken bones and heart valve disease.

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Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies?

Susan Glairon — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:25:53 +0000

Winter never came to Colorado. What does it mean for water supplies? Susan Glairon Tue, 03/31/2026 - 11:25

Associate Professor Ben Livneh, who’s also the director of the Western Water Assessment (WWA) at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), shares insights on what this “snow drought” means for water availability, how it compares to past trends and what may lie ahead as Colorado approaches peak snowpack season.

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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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In a South Carolina swamp, researchers uncover secrets of firefly synchrony

emad5542 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:12:29 +0000

In a South Carolina swamp, researchers uncover secrets of firefly synchrony emad5542 Mon, 03/16/2026 - 11:12

In a new study, computer scientists from CU Boulder have uncovered the mathematical rules fireflies follow to sync up their flashes. The team’s findings could one day lead to new designs for robots that move in swarms and could help scientists better understand other examples of synchrony in biology.

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Scientists develop hydrogel platform that mimics human tissue

Susan Glairon — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:49:46 +0000

Scientists develop hydrogel platform that mimics human tissue Susan Glairon Fri, 03/13/2026 - 08:49

Susan Glairon

A new light-controlled hydrogel developed at CU Boulder mimics the movement and flexibility of real tissue, giving scientists a more realistic way to study cells and disease.

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Scientists harness AI to reveal forces behind glacier surges

Charles Ferrer — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:27:27 +0000

Scientists harness AI to reveal forces behind glacier surges Charles Ferrer Thu, 03/05/2026 - 08:27

Glaciers are constantly changing and reshaping the Earth’s surface. CU Boulder researchers have developed a new machine learning tool to better understand how Arctic glaciers suddenly accelerate or “surge”.

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Why do we get a skip in our step when we’re happy? Thank dopamine

Alexander Servantez — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 20:21:34 +0000

Why do we get a skip in our step when we’re happy? Thank dopamine Alexander Servantez Fri, 02/27/2026 - 13:21

Professor Alaa Ahmed is leading a study that highlights the central role that dopamine, a brain chemical associated with reward, seems to play in making people move faster when they want something. The findings could one day help scientists understand and even diagnose a range of human medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and depression.

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