Research

Five new faculty members joining the ME department for Fall 2025

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 18:24:15 +0000

Five new faculty members joining the ME department for Fall 2025 Alexander Jame… Tue, 09/09/2025 - 12:24

Alexander Servantez

The Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder is welcoming five new faculty members this fall semester.

From responsive biomaterials and unique teaching environments to additive manufacturing, these talented scientists and engineers bring a wealth of knowledge and passion to our teaching and research missions. Please join us in welcoming them to our college and campus community!

Jun Li

Assistant Professor

Li received a Bachelor of Engineering from China’s Zhejiang University in 2016. He then earned a PhD in materials science and engineering in 2021 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He is joining CU Boulder as an assistant professor in both mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering.

Li’s research integrates responsive biomaterials and advanced manufacturing into wearable and implantable devices that have the power to tackle a wide range of challenges in both healthcare and sustainability. In many cases, these devices can mechanically mimic tissues and organs to enable biological functions and also incorporate electronic capabilities that provide healthcare solutions, including sensing and electro-stimulation.

Li says the aging global population is driving an urgent need for advanced healthcare materials and devices that can restore body function, expand life longevity and improve the overall quality of life. His research developing novel, responsive biomaterials and devices can provide solutions to address those challenges.

He also says his research fits right into the spirit of community at CU Boulder. “I am excited about the science, technology and opportunity ahead at this campus surrounded by the beautiful mountains to help shape a better future,” Li said. “Sko Buffs!”

Katherine Ramos

Assistant Teaching Professor

Ramos came to Rady Mechanical Engineering as an assistant teaching professor after spending some time at CU Boulder’s Integrated Design Engineering Program. Prior to that, she worked as an Instructor at the University of Notre Dame, which is also where she received a PhD in mechanical engineering in 2021 and a master’s degree in the same discipline in 2018. Her engineering journey started, however, at the University of Texas El Paso where she completed a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical and materials engineering in 2014.

Ramos says her work focuses on creating student-centered learning environments in engineering education by integrating creative teaching strategies and real-world applications. Her teaching philosophy prioritizes alternative grading practices, inclusive pedagogies that foster equitable learning environments and objectives-based grading—a method that emphasizes mastery learning and multiple assessment opportunities to support student success.

Outside of the classroom, Ramos also serves as the department’s associate chair for community engagement and outreach. She says she is excited with her multi-purpose role within the department and is focused on making a positive impact on the ME community.

“Joining the ME department allows me to bring my passion for hands-on, project based learning into courses where students can connect theory with practice and experience what it’s like to work as an engineer,” Ramos said. “I’m also excited to have the opportunity to support a larger community of students and collaborate with colleagues who value innovation and inclusion in engineering education.”

Max Saccone

Assistant Professor

Saccone received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Engineering in engineering sciences in 2017 from Dartmouth College. He then received a PhD in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2022. Before joining CU Boulder as an assistant professor, Saccone worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.

His research focuses on manufacturing processes and materials design strategies that are accessible, flexible, and tunable to create precision materials that address gaps in conventional manufacturing approaches.

The Saccone Group additively manufactures (3D prints) microscale objects by using polymer precursors as scaffolds, reactors, or reactants in conversion processes that can yield materials ranging from metals to ceramics to carbon. These materials have applications ranging from energy materials to biomedical devices to lightweight structural materials.

By studying the dynamic processes that convert polymer composites to inorganic materials, Saccone says his research group can design more efficient reactors for manufacturing at scale, and develop processes to make materials faster, where and when needed, and with structures and properties customized to the final application.

Put simply, Saccone said “we design processes that enable the fabrication of three-dimensionally structured materials that were previously impossible to produce.”

Leila Saleh

Assistant Teaching Professor

Saleh is another faculty member who isn’t new to Boulder. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, she earned both a PhD and master’s degree in chemical engineering at CU Boulder. She continued on as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis Medical School, but now finds herself back at Boulder as an assistant teaching professor.

Saleh’s work exists at the intersection between immunology, materials science and engineering. Throughout her graduate student journey, she identified pathways crucial to understanding and harnessing the foreign body response to biomaterials. During her time at the St. Louis Medical School, Saleh worked to design a programmable, self-regulating biological therapeutic platform for rheumatoid arthritis.

Now, Saleh teaches full-time, primarily in courses centered around chemistry and materials science with a focus on hands-on learning and the ethical practice of engineering. Outside of the classroom, she also serves on the mechanical engineering undergraduate committee, where she works to support learning and student success within the department.

“I’m excited to be back,” Saleh said. “CU Boulder shaped me as a scientist, mentor and instructor, so it’s so nice to give back and be a part of this wonderful community again.

Kelsey Scalaro

Assistant Teaching Professor

Scalaro received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno. After five years working in the aerospace industry, Scalaro returned to Reno and earned a PhD in engineering education in 2024. She also served as a postdoctoral scholar at Cornell University with the STRIDE laboratory performing engineering education research focused on education-based practices, identity and instrument development.

While Scalaro is no longer pursuing a tenure-track research agenda, she is still heavily interested in understanding how to better educate and prepare undergraduate engineering students through the lens of applied sociology. Her particular focus is on the development of an engineering identity and how educators can provide time-oriented support that meet students where they are in their program.

Scalaro is also interested in understanding how engineering identities are supported and sustained as students enter industry and begin their careers as mechanical engineers. By applying qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to analyze these identities, and emphasizing longitudinal work, Scalaro believes professors can better tailor their pedagogical and programmatic practices to support students from a variety of backgrounds as they come to see themselves as an engineer.

“I’m super excited to draw on my industry experience and teach component design, as well as support nearly four teams in Senior Design,” Scalaro said. “And of course, I’m excited to see what skiers mean when they say Colorado snow is great!”

The Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder is welcoming five new faculty members this fall semester. From responsive biomaterials and unique teaching environments to additive manufacturing, these talented scientists and engineers bring a wealth of knowledge and passion to our teaching and research missions.

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ME undergraduate student works to address methane crisis in summer project

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 18:06:04 +0000

ME undergraduate student works to address methane crisis in summer project Alexander Jame… Fri, 08/29/2025 - 12:06

Alexander Servantez

Alex Hansen stepped foot in a landfill this summer for the first time to study the consequences of methane emissions. What he saw sparked a growing interest in climate change research and environmental data analysis.

Hansen, a rising senior in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, spent his summer break in CU Boulder’s Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR).

Alex Hansen (right) working alongside graduate student SPUR mentor Gabriela Cortes (left) in the Hannigan Air Quality and Technology Research Lab.

The program aims to increase undergraduate research engagement and interest by pairing nearly 125 engineering students from across the college in research labs with faculty members and graduate mentors. For 10 weeks, students foster unique, hands-on research experiences—like a trip to a landfill in Los Angeles—and develop crucial skills that serve them well beyond their undergraduate journey.

For Hansen, it was a special curiosity that led him to the SPUR program. One that started from a simple conversation.

“I spoke with someone I ran into one day a while back who worked at a landfill. He was telling me how dangerous methane is and how important it is to burn off methane,” said Hansen. “I was just so fascinated by it all. When I saw the project description on the SPUR website, I knew it was something I wanted to learn more about.”

And dangerous is an understatement. Methane, one of Earth’s most potent greenhouse gases, is one of the primary contributors to climate change. Its atmospheric lifespan may be shorter than other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, but it can trap significantly more heat per molecule, making it extremely hazardous to human and environmental health.

According to the UN Environment Programme, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It’s also responsible for nearly 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times and is a key culprit for the formation of ground-level ozone, which causes one million premature deaths every year.

It’s a spiraling issue, but Hansen says his SPUR project titled “Characterizing Landfill Methane through a Low-Cost Ground-Based Sensor Network,” looks to attack the crisis by addressing some of the world’s most prevalent methane emissions sites.

“Landfills are one of the largest emitters of methane in the United States,” Hansen said. “I believe waste is about third for methane emissions across the entire world. If we are able to study a landfill and learn more about the way methane spreads in the atmosphere, maybe we can find a way to make improvements to landfill infrastructure and lower emissions.”

To do this, Hansen and his lab mates in Professor Michael Hannigan’s Hannigan Air Quality and Technology Research Lab started working with a network of 24 low-cost air quality sensors called L-Pods that were deployed across a landfill in Los Angeles at the beginning of 2025.

The L-Pods are equipped with two metal oxide sensors that collect air pollutant data and another sensor that tracks temperature and relative humidity. The data is then stored locally and transmitted to the cloud every 10 seconds for ongoing monitoring.

These unique sensors may not be as individually powerful as the industry-grade technology used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but they are cheap and efficient. This allows the group the ability to position more sensors across a landfill than they previously could, giving them a precise methane reading that represents a much larger region.

Hansen showcasing the inner workings of an L-Pod air quality sensor.

Hansen spent a majority of his summer SPUR experience helping the team analyze the data gathered from the sensors. But he was able to see the sensors in action firsthand at the Los Angeles landfill where they are deployed.

It was crazy seeing how much trash we make and the operations needed to contain it all,” said Hansen. “And these low-cost sensors were awesome to see, too. We can add so many more positions and measure way more often than traditional measuring devices. It’s super exciting to see the data we collect in real-time and how impactful it is.”

Hansen’s journey through the SPUR program ended with a final presentation at the end of July. It was a chance for him to share his learning and reflect on his summer.

In many ways, he said it was a rollercoaster ride filled with highs and lows. Some seasoned researchers might call that the typical research experience.

But Hansen also said it was valuable and fulfilling. So much so, that he might be eyeing a future career in research.

“Being in the lab was definitely a learning curve at first. Just learning the terminology and trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible was tough,” Hansen said. “But there’s so many opportunities to make a big impact in research. I’ve learned so much from amazing people this summer and I am definitely curious about pursuing research in a master’s program after graduation.”

Rising senior Alex Hansen spent his summer break in CU Boulder’s Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) studying the consequences of methane emissions. His work analyzing data gathered from unique methane detection sensors can one day help researchers address the methane crisis at some of the world's most prevalent methane emissions sites.

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CU Boulder advancing artificial intelligence research for real-world applications

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:06:30 +0000

CU Boulder advancing artificial intelligence research for real-world applications Alexander Jame… Tue, 08/26/2025 - 14:06

Professor Sean Humbert is one of many CU Boulder faculty members making important artificial intelligence (AI) discoveries. With the help of his lab group and other CEAS collaborators, Humbert is developing algorithms and autonomous systems that can process sensor data within milliseconds to operate in places and situations where direct human engagement creates unacceptable risk.

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‘Cyborg jellyfish’ could aid in deep-sea research, inspire next-gen underwater vehicles

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 20:18:23 +0000

‘Cyborg jellyfish’ could aid in deep-sea research, inspire next-gen underwater vehicles Alexander Jame… Wed, 08/20/2025 - 14:18

Assistant Professor Nicole Xu first became fascinated with moon jellyfish more than a decade ago because of their extraordinary swimming abilities. Today, Xu has developed a way to harness their efficiency and ease at moving through the water in ways that could make some types of aquatic research much easier.

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Beyond Arrakis: Dune researchers confront real-life perils of shifting sand formations

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 19:25:46 +0000

Beyond Arrakis: Dune researchers confront real-life perils of shifting sand formations Alexander Jame… Mon, 08/18/2025 - 13:25

Associate Professor Nathalie Vriend is leading a research effort exploring how sand dunes evolve over time, shifting and surging across the landscape. Her team ultimately wants to answer a pressing question: Can humans efficiently shift or even halt the flow of the planet’s largest dunes?

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ME grad student probes industrial pollution in Mississippi neighborhood

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 21:55:39 +0000

ME grad student probes industrial pollution in Mississippi neighborhood Alexander Jame… Fri, 07/25/2025 - 15:55

Caroline Frischmon is a graduate student leading a critical study documenting industrial pollution near the Cherokee Forest subdivision in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Her findings show that industrial activities are leading to negative impacts on human health and the residents of the neighborhood are looking to take action.

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How slashing university research grants impacts economy, national innovation

Alexander James Servantez — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 20:37:30 +0000

How slashing university research grants impacts economy, national innovation Alexander Jame… Thu, 07/10/2025 - 14:37

Federal funding cuts in the billions have impacted dozens of universities in the U.S. Read from Professor and Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Massimo Ruzzene on why this research is important for everybody.

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Bruns researches cybernetic human advancement with New Frontiers Grant

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 17:51:14 +0000

Bruns researches cybernetic human advancement with New Frontiers Grant Alexander Jame… Fri, 06/20/2025 - 11:51

Associate Professor Carson Bruns has received a $50,000 grant through CU Boulder's New Frontier Grant Program. The funding will allow Bruns and a couple of key collaborators to develop a new suite of body-integrated technology that can help monitor health, help with mobility challenges and enable peak performance in a range of daily activities.

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Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:42:54 +0000

Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant Alexander Jame… Mon, 06/16/2025 - 09:42

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns was recently awarded a seed grant from CU Boulder's Research and Innovation Office to turn agricultural materials into bio-based plastics that can be more easily recycled, composted or even used as fertilizer.

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New discovery could make a risky heart failure treatment safer

Alexander James Servantez — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 18:36:49 +0000

New discovery could make a risky heart failure treatment safer Alexander Jame… Thu, 06/12/2025 - 12:36

Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) designed to improve blood flow throughout the body can aid nearly 26 million people globally struggling with heart failure. But these implantable devices come with risks. New research by Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee suggests that studying patient blood flow patterns could help determine who’s at risk of dangerous side effects from LVADs and lead to improvements that could make them safer.

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