Posts tagged student
CU potty project gets a “download” of green
Aug 14th
CU-Boulder team wins nearly $780,000
‘Reinvent the Toilet’ grant from Gates Foundation
‘Reinvent the Toilet’ grant from Gates Foundation
An interdisciplinary team of student and faculty engineers from the University of Colorado Boulder has won a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its proposal to develop a solar-biochar toilet for use in developing countries throughout the world.
The grant is part of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, or RTTC, initiated by the Gates Foundation to address a sanitation challenge affecting nearly 40 percent of the world’s population.
CU-Boulder, which was awarded one of four grants in the second round announced today, will receive nearly $780,000 from the Gates Foundation over a 16-month period starting Sept. 1. CU joins last year’s grantees Caltech and Stanford as the only U.S. universities to receive an RTTC award.
The ol’ outhouse
Environmental engineering professors Karl Linden and R. Scott Summers will join with chemical and biological engineering professor Al Weimer on the project.
Biochar is a highly porous charcoal made from organic waste. The idea proposed by the CU team involves using concentrated sunlight delivered through a bundle of fiber-optic cables to heat and decompose toilet waste for reuse in improving agricultural soils.
“This project integrates areas of expertise at CU in solar-thermal processes, disinfection and biochar that would not typically work together and creates a great team to tackle such a complex and important problem as sustainable sanitation solutions in developing countries,” said Linden, who is the principal investigator on the project.
Environmental engineering graduate student Ryan Mahoney and postdoctoral researcher Tesfa Yacob, who received his doctorate in civil engineering from CU-Boulder in May, along with Richard “Chip” Fisher, a professional research assistant in Weimer’s chemical engineering group, also will be involved. Two expert consultants round out the team, one focusing on solar-thermal design and one on sanitation and hygiene in developing communities.
An upgrade
A preliminary analysis indicates that a household-sized system for a family of four could be developed at a cost of 5 to 10 cents per person per day. An intermediate-scale system for community facilities also will be evaluated as part of the grant.
Linden and Summers are working on other environmental engineering projects for developing communities, including investigating hydrothermal biochar production and low-cost water filtration and treatment technologies. Weimer will add expertise in the area of solar-thermal processing and reactor design, which he has tested extensively for the development of alternative fuels.
“This project is also very student-driven,” said Linden. “Students with classroom and field-based experiences in our Engineering for Developing Communities program have provided some excellent ideas, expertise and enthusiasm to make this project possible.”
Environmental engineering doctoral students Josh Kearns, Kyle Shimabaku and Sara Beck are also contributing to the project.
New CU students to get help moving in
Aug 14th
CU volunteers to help new students
move in Aug. 21 and Aug. 23
move in Aug. 21 and Aug. 23
Volunteers from a variety of campus groups will be available to help new students move their belongings into residence halls at the University of Colorado Boulder Aug. 21 and Aug. 23 as New Student Move-In begins next week.
New students will move in Aug. 21 through Aug. 23 with the majority of freshmen moving in on Aug. 23, according to Kambiz Khalili, executive director for Housing and Dining Services.
The volunteer movers will be stationed near all campus residence halls to help students and their parents move belongings into the halls as quickly as possible.
Volunteers from the Residence Hall Association, returning residence hall students and students from several student groups will wear CU Welcoming Assembly 2012-13 T-shirts identifying them as move-in staff. Residence Life staff members will wear building-specific T-shirts with the residence life logo and a 2012 marking.
The volunteers will be available to assist new students primarily on specified New Student Move-In dates including Tuesday, Aug. 21, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 23, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Other groups supporting volunteers at Move-In include Boulder Free Ride, Society of Woman Engineers, Mile 21-a cappella, Boulder Campus Ministry, G.O.R.D, Verve Hip Hop Team, Secular Students and Skeptics Society, Timmy Global Health, UMAS y MEChA, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, Canterbury Colorado, Campus Fire Ministry, CU Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council.
Students who attended an orientation session in the summer will move in on Aug. 23. All new students are required to move in by 5 p.m. on Aug. 23 but returning students can move into residence hall rooms anytime from Aug. 23 through the weekend, said John Fox, associate director of Residence Life.
“We’re excited to welcome our new incoming students and to help them adjust to life as college students,” Fox said. “This is a significant moment in the lives of incoming students and their families and we strive to make this experience memorable and successful.”
Information tables with handouts for new students also will be set up in key locations. On both Tuesday and Thursday, information tents will be set up at Williams Village, the Kittredge complex and the Regent Administrative Center near Farrand Field.
Orientation and social activities for new residence hall students will be held the evenings of Aug. 21 and Aug. 22. On Aug. 23 all first-year residence hall students will be required to attend a hall meeting with other students from their floors to get acquainted and to learn about policies, services, the roommate agreement and other activities planned for the week. After the hall meeting, all first-year students will attend the Ice and Dice activity at the Student Recreation Center on campus.
For a complete schedule of CU-Boulder new student welcome activities visit http://www.colorado.edu/inthemix.
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Pac 12 Football Media Day: Colorado Buffaloes
Jul 24th
by David LaRose, Rant Sports
Jayne Kamin-Oncea- US PRESSWIRE
The Pac 12 conference held it’s annual media day today in Los Angeles, California with all 12 teams being represented by their head coach and an offensive and defensive player. The Colorado Buffaloes were represented by 2nd year head coach Jon Embree, OT David Bakhtiari and FS Ray Polk.
Here’s the takeaway from what the coach and players had to say:
1) Colorado’s goal is to return to a bowl game. The Buffs finished last season with some momentum, winning two of their last three games and winning their first road game in over four seasons. They had the toughest schedule in the country a year ago but this season there is the possibility of getting off to a strong start and potentially scratching out some victories later in the season to secure a bowl game berth. They will be very young, which is concerning because they don’t know how quickly incoming freshmen will adapt to the next level. However, if the younger guys quickly get the hang of things they have the potential to make it to their first bowl game in five years.
2) There is cautious optimism concerning Paul Richardson’s return this season. The star wide receiver tore his ACL in spring practice and was initially ruled out for the entire upcoming season. However, since his surgery Richardson has been moving well and ha slowly started to participate in more rigorous drills. It’s still unclear if he will be back this season but it’s looking like that could be a possibility due to his rapid healing. In my opinion I don’t think he should play this season even if he is cleared by the doctors and training staff. I think it would be in his best interest to sit out a year, take a medical redshirt and come back fully healthy next season when the Buffs will be more improved. With that said, Colorado is lacking offensive weapons so having Richardson in the starting lineup would be a plus.
3) The quarterback competition is going to be a three-man race this fall. No surprise there as this is what we have known since spring practices. Connor Wood, Nick Hirschman and Jordan Webb will be the three guys competing to become the signal caller for the Buffs this fall and it is expected to be an intense battle. Hirschman broke his foot before spring practices started so that allowed Wood to have all the first team reps in practice. It ended up helping both players because, as Embree said, Hirschman needed to work on the mental part of his game while Wood needed more practice reps. Incoming Kansas transfer Jordan Webb will be able to play this season because he enrolled at CU as a grad student, already having graduated from Kansas with eligibility left. Word around the Buffs program is that Webb may be the front runner to win the competition due to his previous starting experience. Although he didn’t put up gaudy numbers in Lawrence he still has a full season of experience under his belt and that can come in handy when trying to lead the youngest team in the country.
4) The CU-Utah rivalry is mostly media driven. Sure it’s easy to assume that CU and Utah will become rivals due to their geographical similarities and the way CU beat Utah in Salt Lake last year, preventing the Utes from representing the South division in the inaugural Pac 12 Championship Game. But that’s not necessarily the case according to the players. Both Polk and Bakhtiari said that they want their rival to be the best team in the conference and Utah isn’t really that team yet. The Buffs and Utes had an intense rivalry back in the 1960′s but a lengthy hiatus put a halt to that. It’s not to say that the two teams won’t eventually become rivals but as of right now CU is still trying to find its place in their new conference so their new rival is still to be determined.
5) The Buffs will be very young and inexperienced at almost every position this fall. Anytime a program loses 28 players to graduation they are expected to be very young the next season and that’s certainly the case for CU. At almost every skill position the Buffs will be inexperienced, especially in the offensive backfield. The QB situation is still undecided, Tony Jones is an effective runner but hasn’t played a significant amount up to this point and there is plenty of room for incoming freshman to play significant minutes at wide receiver. The same thing can be said for the defensive backfield. Five incoming players will be battling for positions at cornerback and strong safety alongside Polk. Yuri Wright is probably the highest touted incoming defensive back but positions are still up for grabs and any one of those players has a chance to win them.
The college football season is quickly approaching and now that the Pac 12 media day is over, Colorado is only 13 days away from opening fall camp!
Source Rant Sports
