Search Results

As the United States nears its hottest time of the year, scientists are launching a research project into whether the public health impacts of extreme heat will be amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both heat waves and the novel coronavirus disproportionately affect the elderly and people with preexisting health conditions. However, the guidance for at-risk residents during the pandemic – to stay home and avoid crowded public spaces – runs counter to recommendations during heat waves that residents who lack air conditioning spend time in air-conditioned public spaces. (The first survey results are available here.) "Social distancing reduces risk of COVID-19. However, social isolation – especially without adequate cooling – increases people’s risk of heat-related illness," said Olga Wilhelmi, a geographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) with expertise in societal risk and extreme heat. "It's important that we understand these intersecting risks because they can compound to produce significant health impacts." Read more>>>

How dangerous is it to ride the bus? To teach and/or attend class? What’s my risk in a public demonstration? University of Colorado Boulder atmospheric chemist Jose-Luis Jimenez has released a pilot tool that may help us answer some of these questions, or at least provide some informed guidance. The COVID Airborne Transmission Estimator is now publicly available online, said Jimenez, who is a Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Fellow and professor of chemistry at CU Boulder. It will be updated as more and more is understood about COVID-19 airborne transmission, and the tool is still somewhat tricky for a non-expert to use. Jimenez is an expert in the chemistry and dynamics of particles in the air. He normally focuses on pollution particles, but for the last several months, he and many colleagues around the world have been focused on COVID-19 virus-containing particles, which spread through the air. He drew on those colleagues to informally review his Estimator, which is based on published methods and data. The model assumes that people practice physical distancing of 6 feet, so that droplet transmission does not play a role. If this is not the case, there would be additional risk besides that estimated with the tool. Read more>>>

The National Institute of Standards and Technology Public Safety Communications Research is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity, the NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program Augmented Reality competition (PSIAP-AR). PSCR seeks applications for activities to enhance augmented reality (AR) capabilities in support of first responder operations. NIST anticipates funding up to $5,000,000 in multiple new awards. Funds are expected to range from $300,000 to $600,000 per year per project. Project performance periods may be up to two to three years. NIST will host a webinar to provide general information regarding this NOFO, offer general guidance on preparing applications, and answer questions on August 12, 2020 at 10 AM MT. See more info>>> See the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for details.

There's still time to catch all of the fun at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Camp Cleantech Innovation in the Wild virtual series, hosted by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center.  Register now to tune into the Grid of the Future Session on August 13 and hear from Avra Durack, Director of National Grid Partners, see tech demos from ESS, Switched Source, and LaderaTech, and meet Joona, the baby rhinoceros at the Denver Zoo! View the full lineup of speakers and demonstrations for all five sessions here.

The Emirates Mars Mission launched on July 19, 2020 and the $200 million Hope mission will arrive in Mars orbit in early 2021, then study the Red Planet from above for at least one Mars year (a little less than two Earth years). To finish the project in just six years, the United Arab Emirates partnered with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder to assemble and test the spacecraft in facilities on campus. Teams from both countries worked side-by-side to make it a reality here in Colorado and in the UAE. Check out the conversation with Chancellor Phil DiStefano and Professor Allison Anderson, PhD, about what CU Boulder is doing to help us get there. The mission will provide a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of the Martian atmosphere, team members have said. Key to that goal is Hope's unique equator-circling orbit, which will give the probe a new perspective of the Red Planet's thin, carbon dioxide-dominated air.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium Regional Awards highlight outstanding regional T2 professionals and often pave the way for National Awards recognition. The application process for the Regional Awards programs is easier than you might think, with the online platform, the process is streamlined for pain-free uploading, confirmation and judging. You can still log back in later to polish up your submission before the deadline. All of the criteria questions, point values and word limits are on each region's submission portal page for easy prep. Deadline to Apply for the MidWest Region is August 3. More info>>>

NIST will hold a workshop series kickoff webinar focused on exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trustworthiness on August 6, 2020 from 1:30pm – 4:00pm. This workshop kicks off a NIST initiative involving private and public sector organizations and individuals in discussions about building blocks for trustworthy AI systems and the associated measurements, methods, standards, and tools to implement those building blocks when developing, using, and overseeing AI systems. The second workshop will be held August 18, 2020 from 9:00am – 5:00pm and aims to develop a shared understanding of bias in AI, what it is, and how to measure it. Future workshops on other technical requirements of trustworthy AI will be announced. All workshops for the immediate future will be virtual and are open to the public at no cost. You must register in advance. READ MORE>>>

Congressman Joe Neguse, the only member of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis from the Rocky Mountain West and the youngest, announced June 30 that he has secured several key Colorado climate action priorities in the Committee’s official congressional climate action report, which was released by the Committee and Speaker Pelosi to the American public June 30 as well. View remarks from Congressman Neguse at a press conference unveiling the report here, which include his strong support for federal research laboratories. Read the full report here. CO-LABS Executive Director Dan Powers joined a media conference call on July 1 to offer remarks and gratitude for Representative Neguse's Colorado Climate Way Plan. "I also appreciate the notion that the federal labs need to be safeguarded - I would point out in particular that the Federal Labs Modernization Act and the Stop Climate Censorship Act included in the Plan particularly emphasize the need to support science," Dan remarked. "The Plan addresses the need to ensure that America has the best resources and the best equipment in the hands of our best scientists to help address climate change concerns." Read Dan's full remarks here. Last summer, Congressman Neguse secured Colorado as the location for the Committee’s first and only official field hearing, where Committee members heard directly from Coloradans about priorities they wanted incorporated in the report. The Committee visited federal labs throughout the 2nd district in Golden, Boulder, and Superior, spoke with federal scientists and heard testimony from Governor Jared Polis, Fort Collins Mayor Wade Troxell and Boulder Mayor Suzanne Jones. “Since my appointment to the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis last year, I have been hard at work hearing from Coloradans, from farmers, scientists and local leaders across Colorado and crafting proposals inspired by our communities to address the existential threat of climate change,” said Congressman Joe Neguse. “I am incredibly proud of how many Colorado ideas have been incorporated into the Committee’s national strategy for climate action, including my proposals to expand zero-emission vehicles and clean energy, revitalize our nation’s conservation corps, invest in regenerative agriculture research, safeguard scientific integrity, modernize our federal labs and protect the beautiful outdoor spaces Coloradans enjoy for generations to come. In Colorado, we feel the impacts of climate change in a visceral way and we have continued to meet this crisis with action, that’s the Colorado climate way. Now, the voice of Coloradans, their ideas, actions and ingenuity will be ingrained in a new national strategy for climate action that is essential for the Congress and the nation to take up.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of its 2021 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Solicitation to develop innovative technologies that protect human health and the environment. Small businesses can apply for Phase I awards up to $100,000 to demonstrate proof of concept in the following topic areas: Clean and safe water Air quality Land revitalization Homeland security Sustainable materials management Safer chemicals See the full solicitation to learn more about these topic areas, view specific subtopics for each area and access instructions on how to apply. READ MORE>>>

Join the UCP COMMUNITY FORUM: Approaching a New Normal and the Latest Science on COVID-19 on Tuesday, June 30th, 2020 6:00-7:00 pm MT. Join Harvard professors Aaron Bernstein, MD/MPH, and Michael Mina, MD/PhD for a discussion on COVID-19, moderated by Janette Heung, Assistant Director at UCAR|UCP. The panel will elucidate the latest understanding about the novel coronavirus, identify its linkages with the health of our earth systems, and explore a path forward. RSVP and Information>>>

York Space Systems and Metropolitan State University of Denver won a U.S. Air Force contract to investigate ways to reduce the cost and speed delivery of high-quality satellite imagery. Under an Air Force Small Business Technology Transfer study announced June 23, York will pair its commercial spacecraft and open-standard payload interfaces with MSU Denver’s commercial software and tools to optimize space imagery applications. The contract also supports a plan by MSU Denver’s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science to create a Laboratory for Enhanced Space Data Analytics to house automated test software and initial analytics for imagery products. Within the laboratory, MSU Denver students will investigate promising approaches to commercial image enhancement. READ MORE>>>

The University of Colorado jumped from No. 53 to No. 20 in a recent global ranking of the top 100 universities granted U.S. utility patents for an array of inventions and innovations that can have far-reaching and positive impacts on society. The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) recently announced the 2019 rankings. All four campuses contributed to CU’s total 100+ patents, with CU Boulder contributing 60. For example, CU Boulder patent US 10,240,998 “Determining a Location and Size of a Gas Source with a Spectrometer Gas Monitor” (pictured right) was created by lead inventor Greg Rieker, a CU Boulder associate professor in mechanical engineering. Rieker, in collaboration with colleagues at CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), applied Nobel Prize-winning research on optical frequency combs to detect trace gases with extraordinary sensitivity. (This technology was a winner at the 2019 CO-LABS Governor's Awards for High Impact Research last November.) With this technology and a partnership with NIST, Rieker co-founded Longpath Technologies, a spinoff commercializing cost-effective, continuous gas leak detection. Longpath is currently preparing for commercial deployments starting in summer 2020 and are actively raising their first investment round, which will expand the commercial deployments and grow the team. Another example: After raising $260M in investment capital, Inscripta brought the breakthrough digital engineering platform Onyx™, the world's first automated benchtop platform for digital genome engineering, to market (pictured right). It lets researchers design and manufacture small quantities of new organisms, allowing scientists to create libraries of millions of precisely engineered single cells in one experiment through a fully automated workflow. READ MORE>>>