Webinar Series

Failure is Not an Option: Techniques for Autonomous Robots at the DARPA Subterranean Challenge

When engineers in the robotics research community think of what we'd like autonomous agents to tackle in the future, we often target "dull, dirty, and dangerous" tasks. However, despite a sustained boom in robotics research over the last decade, the number of places we've seen robotics in use for these tasks has been uninspiring. In this webinar, hear from Associate Professor Chris Heckman as he explores his team's recent investigation into where the limits of robotic autonomy are for the highly sought-after application to subterranean emergency response operations.

ChatGPT: Fear, Hype, or Hope? Education and Research Practices and Ethics in the Generative AI Era

Hear from leading experts on the technical areas underlying ChatGPT and other generative AI, the uses of generative AI in university and K-12 education, and the ethical and societal issues associated with generative AI tools. Featured faculty speakers include: Professor Jim Martin (Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science), Associate Professor Diane Sieber (Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics & Society), and Associate Professor Tom Yeh (computer science).

Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster Resilient Housing

Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity, and sense of security. Yet, many houses remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and other hazards, affecting communities in the near and long term. In the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico, a large portion of housing stock is built informally, where building codes and regulations may not be followed. Professors Javernick-Will and Liel argue that how builders and residents perceive housing safety influences how housing is designed, built, and maintained. 

Can seashells, fish fins and other biological materials inspire better engineering for the future?

Current progress in materials science allows us to manipulate the chemistry and micro-architecture of engineering materials towards desired properties. Still, no matter how skilled we are at these techniques, we cannot compete with the advanced materials made by nature for eons. In this webinar, Professor Francois Barthelat will explore how nature can teach us new tricks to improve the design and capabilities of engineering materials.

Efficient Wind Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities to Enable a Clean Energy Future

Wind energy is recognized worldwide as cost-effective, environmentally friendly and is among the fastest-growing sources of electrical energy. In this webinar, Professor Lucy Pao will provide an overview of wind energy systems, discuss challenges in the design and operation of wind turbines, and highlight how the performance of these systems has been improved in recent years.

A Seemingly Unstoppable Virus: Can Humanity Ever Overcome HIV?

No universal vaccines exist for infectious diseases like HIV and influenza, largely due to the high frequency with which the pathogens that cause these diseases acquire mutations in their surface proteins. Hear from Assistant Professor Kayla Sprenger as she describes our efforts to address this challenge for HIV using a variety of computational methods that include homology modeling, molecular simulations, mathematical modeling, and machine learning.

Design Thinking with the Idea Forge

The Idea Forge is a prototyping facility focused on workforce development; we are a flexible, cross-disciplinary collaborative space where students can imagine, design, create, and test their ideas. We leverage formal learning, co-curricular learning, and connections with community and industry to prepare students for the practice.

Computer Science Research Pioneers: Human Computer Interaction

Professor Gerhard Fischer and Professor Clayton Lewis were two pioneers in developing the concepts and methods that formed the influential field of human-computer interaction. They worked together at CU for thirty years starting in 1984, making CU Boulder one of the centers of education and research in Human Computer Interaction, Design, and Lifelong Learning. During this webinar, professors Fischer and Lewis will reflect upon their time together at CU and how their work contributed to the progress and current challenges of their fields.

How Recent Experimental Advances Have Helped Reveal the Complex Chemistry of Combustion

Under the high-temperature and high-pressure conditions of a combustion engine, hundreds of chemical species may be undergoing thousands of chemical reactions at any time. In this webinar, Assistant Professor Nicole Labbe will highlight recent experimental advances in the detection of molecular combustion products, and how she implements those advances in tandem with our computational chemistry efforts to inform the design of the next generation of transportation fuels.

How CU Boulder is Engineering Global Prosperity

The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering supports students working in dozens of countries and combines education, research, and partnerships to positively impact vulnerable people and their environment. In this presentation, Director Evan Thomas will share how The Mortenson Center is working towards a vision of a world where everyone has safe water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure.

Computer Science Research Pioneers: Neural Networks & Deep Learning

Dr. Mike Mozer and Dr. Paul Smolensky were pioneers in developing the concepts and techniques that have led to the recent surge of successes in artificial intelligence and deep learning. They worked together at CU in a six-year period around 1990, making CU one of the centers of neural network research at that time. 

Leadership and Curiosity: Why History’s Greatest Leaders Were Readers

Is leadership a teachable art? In this webinar, Engineering Leadership Program Director Shilo Brooks will discuss this question, and why many of the most successful leaders in the history of science, politics, and the arts were deeply curious and broadly educated people of wonder and imagination.

CU Engineering Interdisciplinary Research Themes​

In 2018, the College of Engineering & Applied Science faculty defined six unique Interdisciplinary Research Themes that built off our strengths, aligned with future opportunities, and could provide transformational societal impact.

"Toward Genetically Programmable Architecture" with Associate Professor Wil Srubar

Associate Professor Wil Srubar shares the recent success of highly interdisciplinary researchers in biochemistry, microbiology, materials science and structural engineering in applying synthetic biology toolkits to engineer bacteria to create useful minerals and polymers and form them into living building blocks that could, one day, bring buildings to life.

The ATLAS Institute

ATLAS is an Institute for Radical Creativity and Invention. With academic programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and faculty and student engagement campus-wide, ATLAS is a community of technology visionaries and virtuosos.