Shara

ATLAS Institute PhD candidate Kailey Shara passed her comprehensive exam on August 8. Her work on her dissertation, "Designing New Hardware for Chemical Automation," is overseen by committee members Assistant Professor Carson J. Bruns, Professor Mark Gross, Daniel Szafir, assistant professor of computer science at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Associate Professor Gregory Whiting and Professor Eric Bogatin.

First-place New Venture Challenge winner, Chembotix, was awarded $45,000 for its work on speeding up the pace of chemistry research and development. Making molecules in current laboratory settings is typically time-consuming and dangerous; Kailey Shara's automation makes the process faster and safer.

​​Kailey Shara, an ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, and her team, won third place and $1,000 for Chembotix robotic automation platform. Annie Margaret, teaching assistant professor with the ATLAS Institute, and her team, placed fourth with Digital Wellness x NoSo November.

ATLAS PhD students Katie Gach, Keke Wu, Fiona Bell, Kailey Shara and Sasha Novack, and Affiliated PhD students Gabrielle Johnson, Dreycey Albin and Varsha Koushik recently received graduate school awards.

ATLAS PhD Student Kailey Shara was an invited guest on the YouTube channel of Robert Feranec to discuss design engineering and the chemistry of printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing. In this video, Shara explains the multi-step chemical process used to electrically connect together the different layers of a circuit board.

On April 13, the audience of the New Venture Challenge 14 will vote for their favorite startup, including two teams headed by ATLAS PhD students, with the winner taking home a $1,000 "Audience Choice Award."

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, won two top prizes within several days to fund her company, Chembotix, taking home a total of $17,500. Shara won first place at the NVC 14 Female Founder Pitch ($5000) and the NVC Finals Audience Choice Award ($1000), as well as two first-place wins with CU Boulder's New Venture Launch program ($11,500).

Kailey Shara is the CEO of Chembotix, a company that is developing a robotic automation platform to dramatically speed up chemistry research and development.

A one-of-a kind class, “Studio: Design an Immersive Science Exhibit,” taught by Mark Gross, Annie Bruns and Wayne Seltzer from ATLAS, and instructors from Fiske Planetarium and the National Solar Observatory, culminated in permanent exhibits within CU Boulder's Fiske Planetarium.