The seed grant program is in its fourth year, and continues to demonstrate the value in fostering new collaborations in research between the two institutions. For academic year 2023-24, we have seven seed projects. Complete project summaries can be found on: nexus.mines.edu/seed
Megan Holtz, Assistant Professor, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Nicholas Bedford, Research Professor, Chemistry Alan Sellinger, Professor, Chemistry and Geochemistry H. Sebnem Duzgun, Professor, Mining Engineering Michael Wakin, Professor, Chemistry and Geochemistry John McCray, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Amy Landis, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Katie Johnson, Professor, Electrical Engineering
Nexus at Mines takes on a new role: NIST PREP
Elliot Padgett, Researcher III-Chemistry, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Jack Ferrell, Research Engineer, Carbon Utilization Susan Habas, Bioenergy Science and Technology Nicole Taverna, Researcher III-Data Science Rimple Sandhu, Staff Researcher, Computational Sciences Scott Struck, Water Systems Research Engineer Alberta Carpenter, Integrated Modeling & Economic Analysis Scientist Elizabeth Gill, Research Engineer, Wind Energy
A strengthened partnership between Colorado School of Mines and the National Institute of Standards and Technology provides professional development opportunities and outreach work.
Mines faculty and students can continue to feel encouraged in their pursuit of collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), located in Boulder. In April, Nexus wrote a proposal for and was awarded another five years and $13 million to run the PREP (Professional Research Experience Program) at Mines, for 2023-2028. The prior award year's total was $2.1M for 2017-2022, making this a significant increase in funding and opportunity for Mines. Along with student funding, the PREP program provides professional development opportunities and planning for its participants. PREP researchers receive career and performance plans and resources, have outreach requirements and are offered special instruction to Mines resources for diversity, inclusion and accessibility and as available through the Trefny Innovation Center. PREP outreach is tied in with the Nexus' Rocky Mountain MESA group, which provides a rich experience of engineering design mentoring by Mines students to minority and prioritized populations. The NIST PREP program pays Mines researchers, students, postdocs, and potentially even faculty, to research and work at NIST labs. Coverage includes tuition, stipend, fees and insurance as well as travel. Any of the NIST labs may house a Mines PREP researcher, they have research campuses in Boulder, Colorado and Gaithersburg, Maryland. NIST has a 208-acre campus in Boulder, with five large laboratories doing groundbreaking work in research falling under one of these broad areas: Communications and Technology Engineering lab Information Technology Materials Measurement Physical Measurement lab PREP researchers may work solely on the Mines campus as well. “We only need to seek out and find those collaborations, those ideas and work that coincide and could work well together,” said Ryan Richards, the new PI on the Mines NIST PREP program. To get involved or learn more about NIST PREP at Mines here or email at nistprep@mines.edu.
Fall 2023 | ISSUE 3
Diversity, Inclusion & Access + STEM Outreach
Left: RM MESA students, 2023 National Champions of the MESA National Engineering Design Competition (NEDC). Right: Chris Keller, Google software engineer and RMMESA industry advisor, instructing teachers on a coding activity.
Nexus New Projects!
Above: Some of the great RM MESA staff, teachers and Mines student mentors for 2023-24, on Sept. 23, 2023.
Nexus finds itself in very exciting times on synergistic research, education and outreach fronts. The April announcement of the expanded $13M Mines/NIST PREP program and the relaunch of the Mines/NREL/NIST Distinguished Lecture series brings new enthusiasm to our unique ecosystem. Additionally, the 2023 cohort of Nexus seeds bring new Mines/NREL research teams on board with projects ranging from enhanced geothermal systems to biomass waste electrocatalysts. In outreach, our Rocky Mountain MESA program yielded the national winner! Once again, our teams had an amazing summer working with the Rocky Mountain Camp for Kids with Dyslexia and introducing 10 modules on a broad range of STEM topics to the 8- to 13-year-old campers. The Summer Workshop on Energy Education for Teachers (SWEET) had another fun summer, bringing together Mines and NREL researchers with local high school teachers to integrate renewable energy topics into their curriculum. Finally, both Mines (through Eric Toberer’s Materials Research Education Undergraduate, REU) and NREL (Student Training in Applied Research, STAR) ran summer programs bringing students from across the country to Golden for immersion in the rich research programs offered here.
The Materials REU, directed by Eric Toberer (Physics) and managed by Toberer Research Center Manager Emily Freed and Nexus staff, is an interdisciplinary program focusing on developing new materials by harnessing the power of accelerated simulations and experiment. Students from external universities come to Mines for 10 weeks in the summer and are paired with a professor and associated graduate student to conduct hands-on, cutting-edge experimental and/or computational research. The Materials REU program has been running consistently at Mines since 2009. This year, 11 students came, working on individual projects. See the 2023 project list here. Faculty advisors included Annalise Maughan (CH), Eve Mozur (MME), Eric Toberer (PH), Jenifer Shafer (CH), Diego Gomez Gualdron (CBE), Alex Pak (CBE) and Vladan Stevanovic (MME). Check out their video! Hear directly from students about their experience with the REU- materialsreu.mines.edu/video.
Another great year for the Materials REU!
Rocky Mountain MESA kicked off another academic year on Sept. 23, with a teacher training and fall kickoff. Teacher advisors and student mentors met, learned MESA curriculum and prepared for the coming year. After winning nationals for 2022-23, there is a lot of excitement and energy among the group this year, led by Executive Director Cynthia Howell, via nexus@mines.edu. Volunteers are needed. Contact us to participate!
Events and Outreach
Rocky Mountain MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement)
Letter from the Directors: Ellen Morris (NREL co-lead) and Ryan Richards (Mines co-lead)
Learning about enzymes: Potato Lactase Lab Pegboard Superconductor The science of photovoltaic and solar cells Fun with surface tension and complex fluids Constructing filters for water purification Mechanics of fluid! Vacuums: Low Pressure Experiments Water Splitting and Fuel Cells Machines Lend a Hand: how levers, pulleys, and gears can make certain jobs easier! Exploring Crystals!
This summer, like every summer since 2019, Mines and NREL faculty, scientists and staff developed a unique, two-day workshop dedicated to local STEM-focused high school teachers and the latest science and technology in renewable energy. Teachers come from a variety of locations, schools and disciplines, so they approach the integration of renewable energy into their classrooms in different ways, but the excitement around learning the content is consistent. The workshop is a great way to bring the latest research from NREL and Mines to high school teachers and students. Supplies, instruction and new equipment are provided to the teachers, to prepare them to teach their students about the most pressing energy and materials science challenges. Co-planners includes Tom Mason and Meaghan Pearson in NREL's STEM Education Outreach office and Nadia Auch in NREL's University Partnerships office and Mines professors Carolyn Koh (CBE), Brian Trewyn (CH) and Ryan Richards (CH).
MINES/NREL Nexus 2023 seed funding awards
Rocky Mountain Camp for Kids with Dyslexia
Summer Workshop on Energy Education for Teachers (SWEET)
Mines faculty once again generously provided two weeks of camp instruction for the Rocky Mountain Camp for Kids with Dyslexia, throughout the weeks of June 26 and July 24. Faculty volunteers and their research groups delivered a unique STEM activity each day, specially designed for kids with dyslexia. The camp serves about 40 students each year from across the country. About 25 percent are from out of state. Ages range from 7- to 13-years-old, and all kids have been diagnosed with dyslexia. Camp takes place for five weeks in June and July at the Evergreen Country Day School in Evergreen, Colorado. Support for faculty volunteers comes from a camp counselor present and available, as well a help from Sarah Richards, Bright MINDS Program Teacher from Alameda International Jr./Sr. High School, in Lakewood, Colorado. Nexus helps administer the program, providing logistics, recruiting and coordinating volunteers and working with the Rocky Mountain Camp staff on delivering it each year. The Mines faculty and research groups who participated include: Meenakshi Singh (PH); Carolyn Koh (CBE); Anuj Chauhan (CBE); Timothy Strathmann (CEE); Cristian Ciobanu (ME); Svitlana Pylypenko (CH); Megan Holtz (MME); Michael Wakin (EE); Christian Beren (CH); and Ryan Richards (CH).
Machine Learning-Informed Analysis of Remote Sensing Data to Identify Favorable Areas for Enhanced Geothermal Systems Nicole Taverna(NREL), Researcher III-Data Science and H. Sebnem Duzgun(Mines), Professor of Mining Engineering Flash activation of conductive oxide materials for low-temperature oxygen evolving anodes Megan Holtz(Mines), Assistant Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, and Elliot Padgett (NREL), Researcher III-Chemistry, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Infrastructure Perception and Control (IPC): Creating Real-Time Digital Twin of Traffic to Create Safe and Reliable Intersections Michael Wakin(Colorado School of Mines), Professor of Chemistry and Geochemistry and Rimple Sandhu (National Renewable Energy Lab), Staff Researcher, Computational Sciences Development of Biomass Waste Electrocatalysts for Localized Green H2 Generation and Sustainable Hydrocarbon Chemistry Nicholas Bedford(Mines) Research Professor of Chemistry,Alan Sellinger(Mines) Professor of Chemistry,Jack Ferrell(NREL) Research Engineer, Carbon Utilization and Susan Habas(NREL) Bioenergy Science and Technology Energy-neutral green infrastructure for treatment of pathogens in urban drool and dry weather flows John McCray(Mines), Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Scott Struck(NREL), Water Systems Research Engineer Novel methods for deconstructing plastics and sustainable plastic waste management Amy Landis (Mines) Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Alberta Carpenter(NREL) Integrated Modeling & Economic Analysis Scientist Understanding the Sociotechnical Ecosystems of Energy Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment Katie Johnson(Mines), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Elizabeth Gill(NREL), Research Engineer, Wind Energy To learn more about the Nexus seed program, visit our website; nexus.mines.edu/seed
Left: Prof. Carolyn Koh (CBE), in her lab, one of the three Mines faculty planners of SWEET, (along with Profs. Ryan Richards and Brian Trewyn (CH). Right: SWEET teachers with Stephan Graham (R), Mines faculty and SWEET presenter.
Admin contact list Ryan Richards, Mines co-lead: rrichard@mines.edu Ellen Morris, NREL co-lead: Ellen.Morris@nrel.gov Debbie Haywood, Finance Manager: dhaywood@mines.edu Kelly Hummel, Communications & Outreach: khummel@mines.edu
To be added to the Mines-NREL Nexus contact list, send an email to us at nexus@mines.edu
Invitation to participate
University partnerships at NREL
Nexus is a strategic partnership between Colorado School of Mines (Mines) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that strengthens, accelerates and enhances collaborative efforts. The mission of Nexus is to invest in the development of joint responses to grand challenges; catalyze research funding to pursue joint work; and foster the exchange of ideas and funding via research and teaching.
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Fall 2023 Events: Seed project presentations: 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 16 12 p.m. on Friday, December 1 Still via Zoom! NIST PREP Symposium Monday, Nov. 6 Engage with collaborative researchers via NIST PREP. NREL Advanced Energy and National Security Conference 14-16 November at NREL Click here to register!
NREL has a program to introduce their amazing, cutting edge research to students from specially affiliated, minority-serving university institutions (MSI). These students study clean-energy research for a full year, and are housed for a summer in Mines dorms. For 10 weeks every summer, 20 eligible students from all over the country come to Golden for an internship. As part of a year-long program introduction to conducting research in clean energy, there are 20 academic advisors from different MSIs and 20 different NREL mentors working with the students, to produce guided research work. They may even interact with Mines REU students on campus! Look out for these STARS next summer in 2024 to get more involved at Mines. NREL researchers, interested in mentoring a STAR student? Please review the program page here. Contact Ellen Morris, co-director of Nexus and Director of the University Partnerships Program at NREL: university.partnerships@nrel.gov
Keep up with Nexus on social media!
Student Training in Applied Research (STAR)