newsbriefs

ICTD grad Joanne Reid competes in second Winter Olympics Biathlon

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 21:19:55 +0000

ICTD grad Joanne Reid competes in second Winter Olympics Biathlon Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 01/31/2022 - 14:19

When the 2022 Olympic Games open in Beijing, China on Friday, an ATLAS graduate will be among the U.S. athletes, competing for her second time against the best of the best.

Joanne Reid (ICTD '17) will compete in the biathlon, a winter sport that combines rifle sharpshooting with Nordic skiing. The mentally and physically challenging sport is wildly popular in Europe, but less known in the United States.

It's Reid's second time competing in this sport in the Olympics. One month after receiving a graduate degree in Information and Communication Technology for Development (renamed Social Impact) from CU ��«��Ƶ’s ATLAS Institute, Reid was named to the 2018 US Winter Olympic team for biathlon and later competed with Team USA in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Since then Reid has placed in World Championships held in Poklijuka, Slovenia (2021); Antholz, Italy (2020) and Ostersund, Sweden (2019). She also placed in the IBU (International Biathlon Union) World Cup in Antholz, Italy (2022) as part of a relay team; the 2022 IBU Cup (Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia) and the 2019 US Biathlon National Championships (Jericho, Vermont).

Reid isn’t the first Winter Olympian in her family—far from it. Her mother, Beth (Heiden) Reid, and her uncle, Eric Heiden, both competed in speed skating in Lake Placid in 1980. While Beth came away with a bronze, Eric won five gold medals, which remains the most gold medals won by any Winter Olympian at a single edition of the games.

Competing on the CU Buffs ski team 2010–13, Reid distinguished herself in Nordic skiing as the 2013 NCAA freestyle champion. She didn’t take up biathlon until 2015, inspired when her grandfather passed down his biathlon rifle to her. Three years later, she qualified for the olympics team.

Reid focused the culminating project of her ATLAS graduate work on sport—specifically, on the challenges faced by today's female athletes who compete and train in an ever-present media and social media spotlight.

When the 2022 Olympic Games open in Beijing, China on Friday, ATLAS graduate Joanne Reid (ICTD '17) will be among the U.S. athletes, competing against the best of the best in the biathlon, a winter sport that combines rifle sharpshooting with Nordic skiing.

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Stephanie Wanek shares fulfilling work, passion for ATLAS community, with alma-mater

Anonymous — Wed, 19 May 2021 22:23:56 +0000

Stephanie Wanek shares fulfilling work, passion for ATLAS community, with alma-mater Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/19/2021 - 16:23

Stephanie Wanek has been a longtime CU ��«��Ƶ staff member, including with the ATLAS Institute and National Center for Women in Info Tech/NCWIT. In this interview with her alma mater, the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York City, Wanek shares her love for the university and for working at ATLAS, and how the institute's engineering programs in Creative Technology & Design train the next generation to solve today's big problems–such as climate change, humanitarian issues and alternative energies.

"Sometimes change starts with a bunch of people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives coming together and tinkering around with an idea," she said.

Read the full interview

Photo: Elliott Whitehead

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ATLAS PhD students compete for NVC 14 "Audience Choice Award"

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 16:26:21 +0000

ATLAS PhD students compete for NVC 14 "Audience Choice Award" Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/13/2021 - 10:26

Update April 15, 2021: Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a researcher in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, won the NVC 14 Audience Choice Award detailed below, adding $1,000 to the $11,000 she has raised for her startup, Chembotix, over the last month.

On April 13, vote for your favorite startup, including two teams headed by ATLAS PhD students, during the culmination of the New Venture Challenge 14 season at CU ��«��Ƶ's NVC Championships! The winner will take home a $1,000 "Audience Choice Award."

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, and Darren Sholes, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the ACME Lab, will compete along with others for the Audience Choice Award. Both Shara and Sholes won highly competitive NVC14 awards recently, with Shara taking home $5,000 during the New Venture Challenge 14 Female Founder Prize after presenting her research, Chembotix, a robotic automation platform to dramatically speed up chemistry research and development. Sholes won first place in NVC's newcomer competition, walking away with $5,000 for LoopSketch, a program that makes it possible for musicians to remotely collaborate.

During the online event, six other finalists will also pitch their business ideas online to a panel of judges and an audience for the opportunity to win more than $100,000 in prizes. To make it to the NVC 14 Championships (NVC skipped 13 for superstition's sake), the six startup finalists competed in two previous competition rounds against more than 110 ventures that took part in this year's program.

ATLAS students who have successfully competed in past NVCs include the EdBoard Technologies team co-led by Cody Candler, MS-CTD '20, and Ruhan Yang, MS-CTD student, winning fourth place and taking home $12,500 in NVC 12. Ted Thayer, MS-CTD student, and two team members won fourth place and $7,500 at the NVC 11.

For 13 years, the NVC has been CU ��«��Ƶ’s premier, cross-campus entrepreneurial program and competition, giving aspiring entrepreneurs the chance to build a startup through outstanding support and mentorship. Participants represent majors and departments from across the university. From undergraduates to graduates, PhD candidates to postdocs, and faculty to staff, everyone is invited to pitch their idea or watch and support.

Register Now to watch the NVC 14 Championships!

When: Tuesday, April 13 at 5:30 p.m.
Where: via Zoom

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."

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ATLAS PhD Student Shanel Wu discusses their smart textiles work in Gist Yarn podcast

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 21:34:58 +0000

ATLAS PhD Student Shanel Wu discusses their smart textiles work in Gist Yarn podcast Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/12/2021 - 15:34

Shanel Wu, ATLAS PhD student, discusses their work with smart textiles, weaving, computational craft and hardware hacking in this fiber arts podcast.

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Geoinspirations Podcast Series: Denise Powell - Reimagining what a university can be and do

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 22:09:19 +0000

Geoinspirations Podcast Series: Denise Powell - Reimagining what a university can be and do Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/25/2020 - 16:09

In this podcast, Denise Powell, ATLAS lecturer and Social Impact alumna, shares with Joseph Kerski, education manager and geographer for Esri, and Directions magazine her impressions of the ATLAS Social Impact program. For the past few years Kerski has guest lectured to Social Impact MS students, showing how GIS can be used to help them make better decisions in the field.

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E-Textiles, Smart Textiles, Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Who’s Saying What?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 19:59:22 +0000

E-Textiles, Smart Textiles, Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Who’s Saying What? Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/14/2020 - 13:59

In a project led by ATLAS PhD student, Shanel Wu, the Unstable Design Lab and LOOMIA jointly ran a survey asking those working in e-textiles how they liked to talk about their work. The results are a fascinating exploratory poke into the interdisciplinary nature of the emerging e-textiles field.

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CTD students' project featured in Hackaday

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 16:46:49 +0000

CTD students' project featured in Hackaday Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/28/2020 - 10:46

TAM students Alex Fiel and Anna Lynton took a tape measure and turned it into a clock, programming it to move over the course of the day to show the time in hours (inches). The largest challenge became minifying the electronics and keeping the overall footprint of the device to roughly the size of the real object.

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ICTD and Babatunde Adegoke featured in CU ��«��Ƶ engineering magazine

Anonymous — Mon, 06 May 2019 18:43:26 +0000

ICTD and Babatunde Adegoke featured in CU ��«��Ƶ engineering magazine Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/06/2019 - 12:43

“I have the ability to choose whatever courses I want. I am able to find answers to all the questions that I have. So when I am designing technology solutions to problems now, I have better tools to do that.”

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ATLAS PhD students honored by National Science Foundation

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 21:51:08 +0000

ATLAS PhD students honored by National Science Foundation Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/10/2019 - 15:51

ATLAS PhD student Nicole Johnson and affiliated ATLAS PhD student Abigail Zimmermann-Niefeld have been selected as 2019 National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) fellows. Shanel Wu, also an ATLAS PhD student, received a GRFP honorable mention.

Advised by Tom Yeh, Johnson's research interests include accessible STEM content, tactile graphic usability and innovations in technology that will improve alternative-media systems in education. Zimmermann-Niefeld is a research assistant in Ben Shapiro's Laboratory for Playful Computation, and she conducts research on how young people can learn machine learning and statistical modeling through using the ALPACA ML toolkit to build models of athletic and artistic activities. Wu researches the intersections of cutting-edge technology and handicraft in Laura Devendorf's Unstable Design Lab, cultivating a passion for craftwork, education and the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, opportunities for international research and professional development and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose.

According to the NSF GRFP website, NSF Fellows are "anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering" and "are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation's technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well-being of society at large."

In total for 2019, the NSF awarded 32 Graduate Research Fellowships to CU ��«��Ƶ students. An additional 14 students earned honorable mention recognition.

ATLAS PhD student Nicole Johnson and affiliated ATLAS PhD student Abby Zimmerman-Niefield have been selected as 2019 National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) fellows.

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ATLAS grad student Ted Thayer helps NIMB.LY team to New Venture Challenge win

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:46:26 +0000

ATLAS grad student Ted Thayer helps NIMB.LY team to New Venture Challenge win Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/03/2019 - 06:46

Ted Thayer, Creative Technologies and Design master's student, and two team members won fourth place and $7,500 at the New Venture Challenge (NVC) championships on April 3 for their startup, Nimb.ly, beating nearly 120 other teams that initially participated in the annual competition. Overall Nimb.ly, a revolutionary software platform that helps catering companies keep their events efficiently staffed, won $11,000 in funding, initially bringing home NVC's IT Track $3,500 first-place prize after the team pitched their business idea to a panel of judges and more than 100 people in attendance.

Six CU ��«��Ƶ startup teams advance to the New Venture Challenge 11 Championships on April 3

Software company Nimb.ly alleviates staffing problem for caterers, wins first place in New Venture Challenge 11 IT Track Finals competition

Ted Thayer, Creative Technologies and Design master's student in the creative industries track, was one of three students on the IT Track winning team for the New Venture Challenge Championships, taking home a $7,500 prize for their startup, Nimb.ly, a revolutionary software platform that helps catering companies keep their events efficiently staffed.

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newsbriefs

ICTD grad Joanne Reid competes in second Winter Olympics Biathlon

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Stephanie Wanek shares fulfilling work, passion for ATLAS community, with alma-mater

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ATLAS PhD students compete for NVC 14 "Audience Choice Award"

Register Now to watch the NVC 14 Championships!

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ATLAS PhD Student Shanel Wu discusses their smart textiles work in Gist Yarn podcast

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Geoinspirations Podcast Series: Denise Powell - Reimagining what a university can be and do

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E-Textiles, Smart Textiles, Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Who’s Saying What?

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CTD students' project featured in Hackaday

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ICTD and Babatunde Adegoke featured in CU ��«����Ƶ engineering magazine

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ATLAS PhD students honored by National Science Foundation

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ATLAS grad student Ted Thayer helps NIMB.LY team to New Venture Challenge win

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ICTD and Babatunde Adegoke featured in CU ��«��Ƶ engineering magazine