Research

What is the Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing at CU Boulder?

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 20:36:22 +0000

What is the Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing at CU Boulder? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/24/2023 - 13:36

Jeff Zehnder

Welcome to the Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing (CIEST) at CU Boulder, an experimental facility offering geotechnical centrifuges, structural dynamics and materials testing and research for business, government, and academic partners.

CIEST is home to a massive array of cutting edge, specialized facilities to conduct small and large scale testing with equipment, testbeds and instrumentation unrivaled in the United States.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyBN4IJlK8]

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Mapping the microbe jungle on mass transit

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:36:36 +0000

Mapping the microbe jungle on mass transit Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/23/2021 - 10:36

A �鶹��Ƶ team is part of a major international effort to sample surfaces and the air on mass transit vehicles.

Two major international journals have published articles on the research, which included teams from CU Boulder engineering gathering samples on RTD light rail cars and at stations to document their public microbiological signatures.

Professor Mark Hernandez’s laboratory is a founding member of the international consortium MetaSUB, that executed the sampling campaign. Marina Nieto-Caballero, an environmental engineering PhD student in Hernandez's lab who graduated in May, led the CU Boulder student teams through the efforts over the last few years.

The program was featured in a recent article in the New York Times: Subway Swabbers Find a Microbe Jungle and Thousands of New Species.

Journal links:

Danko, D., Bezdan, D., Afshin, E., the International MetaSUB consortium with Hernandez, M. and Nieto-Caballero, M., (2021), A global metagenomic map of urban microbiomes and antimicrobial resistance, Cell
Leung, M., Tong, Q.; Bøifot, B.; Bezdan, D.; Daniel J. Butler, D. Danko, D., Gohli, J., Green, D., Hernandez, M., Nieto-Caballero, M., et al., (2021), Characterization of public transit air microbiome and resistome reveals geographical specificity, Microbiome

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Researchers study social distancing, ventilation in predicting the probability of COVID infection

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 21:47:22 +0000

Researchers study social distancing, ventilation in predicting the probability of COVID infection Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/18/2021 - 14:47

As the global pandemic developed, keeping adequate personal distance and using effective ventilation systems were emphasized to control the spread of COVID-19 – especially in confined spaces.

That is because social distancing avoids direct contact among people and reduces transmission of virus-carrying droplets from human respiration, while improved ventilation dilutes virus concentration in enclosed spaces.

Because of those dynamics in human activities and air movements, Professor John Zhai and his team wanted specific answers to questions like “what is the safest social distance” and “what is sufficient ventilation indoors?”

Zhai is a corresponding author on a paper in Sustainable Cities and Society that explores the effectiveness of social distancing and ventilation in preventing COVID-19 transmission indoors. It was published online in July and in the journal in Novemeber 2020.

Zhai, of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, said the paper considers the distributed particle sizes and associated virus output from typical human conversation, as well as the ventilation system effectiveness on the infection risk.

“The study indicated that 5.2 to 9.8 feet is a safe social distance when considering aerosol transmission of exhaled large droplets from talking, while this distance can be up to 26 feet if you are taking into account droplets of all sizes under a calm air environment,” Zhai said. “Our improved formula can help predict the probability of infection risk and determine appropriate ventilation air need for different indoor spaces such as classrooms or airplanes.”

Since publication, the work is among the most downloaded on the journal’s website. Zhai said his team is now developing a more detailed model that can predict spatial and temporal distribution of contaminant/virus in any built environment. The model will help estimate the infection risk and asses and improve new mitigating measures.

Indoor air quality is one of the primary research areas for the Zhai Lab. His team have conducted both experimental and modeling studies for a variety of applications in this field for decades. Other recent studies related to the pandemic include evaluating infection risks in various commercial buildings and developing proper mitigation strategies in public spaces, such as restaurants, by using portable air purifiers.

Read the Full Article Online

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Exploring assumptions in financing for urban water utilities in low-income countries

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 21:19:00 +0000

Exploring assumptions in financing for urban water utilities in low-income countries Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/10/2021 - 14:19

Anna Libey, a PhD student in environmental engineering at CU Boulder, is the lead author on a new paper that compares utilities around the world and advocates for more subsidization in utility operations to provide clean water.

The paper – titled “Who pays for water? Comparing life cycle costs of water services among several low, medium and high-income utilities” – was recently published in World Development and covered the news section of Engineering For Change. The work fits neatly into her research areas, which include technology evaluation, inclusive participatory design methods, and estimating costing for sustainable service delivery of water and sanitation in developing communities.

We asked her a few questions about the work, the challenges she faced getting the data and what action she recommends to ensure everyone has access to clean water around the world.

Question: How would you describe the work and results of this paper?
Answer: Our work was born out of the desire to investigate assumptions in financing for urban water utilities in low-income countries compared to where I work in Boulder, Colorado. The research highlights the disparities between the conceptions and realities of self-sufficient local financial support for water services. And it explores why cost recovery in communities without significant tax bases to fund those public service is sometimes prioritized over the human right to water.

In the U.S. we take for granted that utilities can deliver affordable water at the turn of a tap. This is possible because water services are subsidized and funded by governments through tax revenue, keeping the cost to consumers low. But we need to ask who pays for water in lower-income communities.

To explore that question, my colleagues and I in the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering compared water utility finances in four different countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cambodia and the United States. That grouping represents one high-income, two low-income, and one middle-income countries. We address the gaps in each case between budgeted capital maintenance (major repairs and replacements) and the actual funding needed to sustain services, called the life cycle cost. In all four countries, the life cycle costs of water are not adequately covered by current revenues, requiring increased subsidies from governments and donors.

In summary, we need to stop setting water utilities in lower-income countries up for failure by requiring them to be self-sufficient. It’s nearly impossible to recover just the operating costs from tariffs while keeping water affordable. And maintenance and expansion costs are definitely out of reach. So to meet the goal of having access to clean water for all, donors and national governments need to subsidize utility operations long-term.

Q: Is this a research topic you were interested in before joining the Thomas Lab within the Mortenson Center?
A: I was definitely interested in learning more about the challenges rural and urban water utilities face in low-resource contexts before grad school. I went on an Engineers Without Borders trip to Ghana as an undergraduate at Columbia University, and I quickly realized how challenging it is for small water utilities to keep their systems running. A small group of volunteers wasn’t going to be enough to engineer a sustainable solution.

Q: Was there a particular aspect of this work that was hard to complete?
A: Data collection from Kenya and Cambodia was completed through partners there, while I collected data firsthand in Boulder and Ethiopia – interviewing management and finance officers at water utilities to find what asset management data and financial records they had available.
Sorting through dusty borehole drilling logs in Ethiopia was a bit challenging! I couldn’t make any paper copies, but they let me take photos of the water utility records. My phone was about to die so I had to be fast, and half of my photos were so blurry I almost couldn’t read the numbers I needed for my life cycle costs analysis.

Q: What are the research questions are still to be answered after this paper?
A: I and many others have made the point that the current levels of funding for safe water services worldwide are vastly insufficient. Yet the question that remains is: how can we effectively utilize what is available to identify and support service providers to maintain their water systems, instead of just funding new construction without a long-term plan to maintain it? But that’s a challenge we face in the U.S. just as much as in lower-income countries!

The CU Boulder authors include Anna Libey and Evan Thomas, with Marieke Adank of IRC WASH. The Kenya data utilized in this publication was made possible in part through support provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. AID-615-A-15-00008. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government. They appreciate the support of the Millennium Water Alliance, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, AECOM, mWater, IRC, CARE, IRC Wash, SweetSense Inc., the Afar Regional Water Bureau and the county government of Turkana in Kenya. The authors especially thank James Harper, Lauren Stover, Bernadin Sang, and Styvers Kathuni for their contributions.

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Researchers fight COVID-19 with new air filtration in Denver Public Schools

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 14:34:37 +0000

Researchers fight COVID-19 with new air filtration in Denver Public Schools Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/27/2021 - 07:34

Since the summer, Professor Mark Hernandez and his team have been working in the Denver district’s classrooms to install a new generation of high-efficiency air filters.

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Mortenson Center leading work to study trail bridge use in rural Rwanda

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 13:12:57 +0000

Mortenson Center leading work to study trail bridge use in rural Rwanda Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/18/2020 - 06:12

The World Bank estimates that nearly a billion people across the globe lack access to an all-season road within two kilometers of their home. It’s a problem the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and their collaborators are working to better quantify and solve.

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CU researchers contribute to frost quake modeling research

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:23:02 +0000

CU researchers contribute to frost quake modeling research Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/16/2020 - 10:23

Frost quakes are not particularly rare, but they are harder to observe than traditional earthquakes. Professor Roseanna Neupauer was part of a recent effort to develop new models with the Oulu, Finland, 2016 quake data, the results of which are discussed in a new paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

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Sewage testing shows a country flush with coronavirus cases

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 15:33:56 +0000

Sewage testing shows a country flush with coronavirus cases Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/30/2020 - 09:33

Environmental engineering Assistant Professor Cresten Mansfeldt's research was highlighted in a CNN article about testing wastewater for evidence of COVID-19.

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Engineering leads new DOE Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program Center on particulate materials research

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 16:06:16 +0000

Engineering leads new DOE Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program Center on particulate materials research Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/14/2020 - 10:06

Professor Richard Regueiro, along with four other co-directors, is leading a new Multi-disciplinary Simulation Center funded by the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and Computing program in support of the stockpile stewardship program.

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Ultraviolet light can make indoor spaces safer during the pandemic – if it’s used the right way

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 16:23:04 +0000

Ultraviolet light can make indoor spaces safer during the pandemic – if it’s used the right way Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/09/2020 - 10:23

Professor Karl Linden's article in "The Conversation" on how to best to harness UV light to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus and protect human health as people work, study, and shop indoors.

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