Climate, Energy & Sustainability

Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)—According to a new report, American research universities like the University of Colorado in recent decades have become engines of innovation for state and regional economies, thanks in large part to the federal Bayh-Dole Act, which incentivizes technology commercialization.

The ATLAS Institute—Plastics are an increasingly intractable global environmental and health concern, and bio-based alternatives have yet to see widespread adoption. Carson Bruns aims to change all that with a new line of research focused on turning agricultural materials into bio-based plastics that can be more easily recycled, composted or even used as fertilizer.

CU Connections—The University of Colorado has secured the No. 18 position on the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) 2024 Top 100 U.S. Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents list, reinforcing CU’s standing as a national leader in research, innovation and real-world impact. At CU Boulder, 53% of the campus’s patents have been licensed commercially.

CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science—A team of engineers and material scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder has developed a new technology to turn thermal radiation into electricity in a way that literally teases the basic law of thermal physics.

Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN)—A structural engineer, Wil Srubar (CU Boulder Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering) recruits biologists, chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and a host of engineers to his lab, where they design biomimetic building materials.

U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—“EPA congratulates PAGE Technologies on receiving this grant award,” said EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker. “The company’s development of low-cost, handheld printable sensors for water quality monitoring will deliver an innovative, new tool for safeguarding water quality and public health."

FY 2023-24 was another tremendous year for innovation and entrepreneurship at the CU. University researchers, inventors and creators began working with Venture Partners at CU Boulder to advance 144 breakthrough innovations, and 36 CU startups were launched through Venture Partners based on campus discoveries.

Composites World—Mallinda Inc., a CU Boulder spinout and global developer of vitrimer resin systems, announces the commercial launch of Vitrimax versatile hot melt (VHM) resin, a vitrimer-based composite resin system. According to the company, this technology combines the optimal mechanical properties of thermosets with the processing flexibility of thermoplastics, while enabling economic recyclability and reuse for high-performance composites.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute—Model Predictive Control (MPC) is an established control technique that is popular in the general control systems community. The MPC approach could have significant impacts on how wind turbines are controlled, not only improving their efficiency, but also reducing structural stress on the turbines and extending their lifetimes.

PR Newswire—Sionic Energy, a CU Boulder spinout and a recognized leader in electrolyte and silicon battery technology for next-generation lithium-ion batteries, announced that the world's lithium-ion battery producers no longer have to rely on graphite. Designed for seamless integration into existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing processes, Sionic's Silicon Battery Platform maximizes silicon material performance with regard to energy density, extended cycle life, and rapid charge rates.