CU News
News from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
CU-BOULDER STUDENT SHANE BALDAUF WINS NATIONAL UDALL SCHOLARSHIP
Apr 22nd
Shane Baldauf, a sophomore in architecture and planning at the University of Colorado Boulder who is dedicated to ‘green’ and affordable housing, has been awarded a prestigious Udall Scholarship.
The $5,000 scholarship from the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation is awarded to U.S. sophomores and juniors with a commitment to careers related to the environment, Native American health care or tribal public policy. He will be recognized at an August ceremony in Tucson, Ariz., attended by other recipients, policymakers and community leaders.
Since setting foot on the CU-Boulder campus with a Boettcher Scholarship, which covers tuition and living expenses for four years, Baldauf has committed to using the time he would have spent working to pay for college for volunteering. His volunteer work with Flatirons Habitat for Humanity has enriched his interest in sustainable building practices and civic engagement.
“Not only is ‘green’ construction good for the environment, but homes that perform more efficiently benefit the occupants too,” said Baldauf. “If you think about it, the people who most need affordable housing are also the ones who need the lowest utility bills, and we’re working to provide that situation through Habitat for Humanity houses.”
Baldauf co-founded the company BOULD, which implements a program called HabitatPro. The program helps integrate U.S. Green Building Council benchmarks called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards into Habitat for Humanity construction. Through HabitatPro, professionals and students working and volunteering grow from experiential learning opportunities.
“Students can come out and gain unique, hands-on experience by building LEED homes, while also earning LEED professional credentials,” said Baldauf. “These Habitat houses are some of the most sustainable being built anywhere, and the experience gives participants a leg up in the building design and construction job market.”
Since 1996, eight CU-Boulder students have been recognized with a Udall Scholarship.
“Having yet another CU student recognized by the Udall Foundation is a wonderful testament to our students’ commitment to work on environmental issues and community development,” said Deborah Viles, top scholarship director at CU-Boulder. “Shane has shown exemplary skills and dedication as a student and he will undoubtedly make significant contributions to society in his career.”
An independent review committee selected this year’s class of 80 Udall Scholars. Baldauf was chosen from a pool of 510 candidates nominated by 231 colleges and universities across the country.
For a listing of all the 2011 Udall Scholars and honorable mentions, as well as more information about the Udall Foundation and its programs, visit http://www.udall.gov.
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DOZENS OF CU STUDENTS TO DISPLAY SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS ON APRIL 25
Apr 22nd
University of Colorado Boulder senior Kendra Stone spent part of the past semester in one of her classes tutoring Boulder High students, some of whom were struggling in the classroom due to a language barrier, while others were excelling but needed to overcome other obstacles.
Stone, a senior molecular, cellular and developmental biology major, is one of dozens of CU-Boulder students who will have booths at an event highlighting local service learning projects they completed this spring as part of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric’s “Writing Initiative for Service and Engagement” project.
The free, public event will be held Monday, April 25, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the University Memorial Center, room 235. Anne K. Heinz, associate vice-chancellor for outreach and engagement, will give the keynote address.
“During the semester, I helped students with biology papers who were explaining complicated processes, while also helping students who could barely speak English write simple essays,” Stone said. “Throughout this experience I gained a deeper appreciation of the education I have received. It also has motivated me to keep furthering myself and to keep giving back as well.”
Each semester about 350 CU-Boulder students participate in community-based writing courses through the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, contributing well over 5,000 hours of their time to local community and nonprofit organizations, according to CU-Boulder Senior Instructor Sally Green, who teaches a course that partners her students with Arapahoe Ridge High School and Boulder High School students.
“This experience gives students the opportunity to develop and apply their communication skills in authentic contexts,” Green said. “They complete valuable projects for their community partners and gain an understanding of social, environmental and economic issues which informs their entire college education.”
In Green’s service learning class, “Writing on Science and Society,” her students tutor Boulder at-risk high school students in math and science for a total of 15 hours throughout the semester.
“They bring their own recent experience as high school students and their expertise and enthusiasm about their subjects to the tutoring experience,” Green said.
Students who take Program for Writing and Rhetoric service-learning courses learn about a number of issues including sustainability, food, education, the elderly, poverty and hunger while gaining practical experience in grant writing and document design. They also work with an array of organizations: schools and afterschool programs, community gardens, homeless shelters, organic farms, food banks and Boulder Parks and Recreation.
“Through the coursework, we want students to gain an understanding of a social issue, community dynamics, problem solving and written advocacy,” Green said.
After graduation on May 6, Stone will work as a research technician in a campus laboratory. She then plans to apply for medical school, with the long-term goal of being a surgeon.
More than 13,000 CU-Boulder students participate in some form of community service each year, and more than 3,500 are engaged in academic service learning, a teaching strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction. For more information about CU-Boulder’s civic engagement efforts visit http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/civicengagement/.
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CU ROLE IN DREAM CHASER SPACECRAFT TO CONTINUE UNDER NEW NASA GRANT TO SIERRA NEVADA CORP.
Apr 22nd
Faculty and students at the University of Colorado Boulder will continue to play a significant role in the development of the Dream Chaser, a commercial spacecraft that will be used to carry astronauts to low Earth orbit, thanks to a new $80 million grant from NASA to Sierra Nevada Corp.
The Louisville, Colo.-based aerospace company was one of four companies to receive grants this week from NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program. The grant is a follow-on to Sierra Nevada’s NASA grant of $20 million for the Dream Chaser last year.
Roughly the size of a business jet, the 30-foot-long Dream Chaser is slated to launch vertically on an Atlas V rocket and land horizontally on conventional runways, similar to the much larger space shuttle. The spacecraft is based on NASA’s earlier HL-20 lifting body design.
As part of its continuing development of the Dream Chaser, Sierra Nevada will fund “human rating” research led by CU-Boulder Professor David Klaus of the aerospace engineering sciences department, according to Jim Voss, a CU faculty member and vice president of Sierra Nevada. Human rating research is aimed at developing a methodology for evaluating safety and operational aspects of spacecraft intended to transport crew.
“This is a great industry-academia collaboration that combines providing design input for the Dream Chaser to Sierra Nevada with four related thesis topics being pursued by Ph.D. students in our program,” Klaus said.
Sierra Nevada also will sponsor and fund a continuation of the CU-Boulder graduate student project involving Dream Chaser displays and controls, Voss said. The graduate project is focused on cockpit design and ergonomics evaluation to determine the best placement and type of controls to be used by the crew. The students are being advised by Voss and his colleague Joe Tanner, both of whom joined the CU-Boulder faculty after retiring as NASA astronauts.
Klaus, who heads the aerospace department’s bioastronautics focus area, has set up a laboratory in CU-Boulder’s Engineering Center housing three mock-ups of the spacecraft. One is a full-scale model of the Dream Chaser based on the earlier HL-20 design that is on loan from NASA to Sierra Nevada; another is a 15 percent scale model unit that was used for flight testing last December, and the third is the cockpit section being used to evaluate the layout for instrument displays and controls. A “public day” is being planned so that the community will have a chance to view the project.
“The University of Colorado and Sierra Nevada Corporation have formed a partnership that allows use of the tremendous intellectual resources of students and professors to help develop a commercial human spacecraft, the Dream Chaser,” said Voss. “I’m really pleased to continue the work that was started last year and look forward to more student involvement with this exciting project.”
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