CU Innovators News

Forbes—Professor Kristi Anseth is known for developing tissue substitutes that improve treatments for conditions like broken bones and heart valve disease. She recently made key discoveries about sex-based differences in cardiac treatment outcomes. Anseth is also among the few innovators elected to all three national academies: Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

̽����Ƶ Chemical and Biological Engineering—Georgia Tech associate professor and 2025 Schmidt Polymath Saad Bhamla will join ̽����Ƶ’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the BioFrontiers Institute this August. Known for pioneering ultra-low-cost scientific tools and bio-inspired devices, Bhamla plans to collaborate across campus and spin out new companies leveraging ̽����Ƶ’s innovation ecosystem.

̽����Ƶ Environmental Engineering Program—Mark Hernandez is serving as a commissioner of the newly launched Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air to elevate indoor air as a critical public health priority and drive coordinated global action and solutions.

CUbit Quantum Initiative—Svenja Knappe (̽����Ƶ Mechanical Engineering) is collaborating with scientists from the CU Anschutz Medical Campus to advance the use of quantum sensors into real-world health applications. These quantum sensors could aid in more effective diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of brain disorders.

Technology Networks—Daniel Acuña, a ̽����Ƶ computer scientist and founder of ̽����Ƶ startup ReviewerZero, led development of an AI tool that analyzed ~15,200 open-access journals and flagged roughly 1,400 as potentially problematic, with over 1,000 confirmed to exhibit questionable publishing practices.

Eleven teams of University of Colorado entrepreneurs, faculty researchers and graduate student innovators will compete for a combined $750,000 in startup funding grants in this year’s��Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) Showcases at the Dairy Arts Center. Judges from Venture Partners at ̽����Ƶ’s entrepreneurial network will hear Shark Tank-style pitches across two nights, one for innovations in biosciences and another for physical sciences and engineering.

̽����Ƶ College of Engineering and Applied Science—Imagine a future where electric vehicle charging stations or AI data center power supply systems can be built like LEGO bricks—small, stackable units that can expand as demand grows. Luca Corradini, associate professor in the ̽����Ƶ Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, is embarking on such a project.

Infleqtion’s star continues to rise as Colorado’s quantum hub grows. The company of firsts, spun out of ̽����Ƶ as ColdQuanta, seems to be everywhere these days, including outer space, while commercializing pioneering research to address needs across several critical markets including positioning, navigating and timing, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution, and accelerated quantum computing.��

̽����Ƶ Today—Sanghamitra Neogi, an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences department, is exploring ways to protect semiconductors and microchips from heat damage. She specializes in nanoscale semiconductors, which are so tiny their parts are measured in nanometers (billionths of a meter).

The New York Times—̽����Ƶ entomologist Sammy Ramsey is leading international efforts to combat the Tropilaelaps mite, a newly identified parasite threatening honeybee populations worldwide. His research highlights the urgent need for global biosecurity measures to protect pollinators essential to food systems and ecosystems alike.