Honors & Awards
In 2017, a former team of mechanical engineering alums developed an adjustable, heated bench system for their senior capstone project that helps NBA players stay warm and ready for action when their number is called during games. Today, the project has turned into a commercially-licensed technology that has achieved over $1 million in sales, been installed by four total teams across the world鈥檚 top basketball league and been nominated for the Sports Business Journal鈥檚 2026 Best Technology Collaboration award.
The Office of Outreach and Community Engagement (OCE) at 蜜桃传媒破解版下载 has awarded five Public and Community-Engaged Scholarships (PACES) to faculty and students from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. These awards connect research, creative work, and teaching and learning activities for faculty, staff members and students across campus with partners from Colorado communities and beyond.
Chunmei Ban has received a Fulbright Global Scholar award to explore the future of energy storage through next-generation battery technologies. The award will support collaborations with researchers in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Germany, where Ban will study safer battery materials, investigate emerging non-lithium battery alternatives and strengthen global partnerships in battery research and education.
Asaiah Gifford, a mechanical engineering student graduating this spring, has been selected by the Colorado Engineering Council to receive this year鈥檚 Silver Medal Award. One of the state鈥檚 top honors for undergraduate engineers, the Silver Medal recognizes students who embody the values of academic excellence, personal integrity, professionalism and community service.
Nine students from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering have earned graduating student awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science in 2026. These awards honor seniors who are nominated by faculty, staff or fellow students for their outstanding contributions to the college and campus community.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recognized Blake Maly, a graduate student in the听Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at 蜜桃传媒破解版下载, with a Graduate Research Fellowship Program award. These major awards honor and support outstanding graduate students from across the country in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields who are pursuing research-based master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees.
The 蜜桃传媒破解版下载 Graduate School has announced that Assistant Professor Cara Welker has earned one of this year's Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Awards. The award honors faculty members for their outstanding contributions either to mentoring individual graduate students, improving the overall climate of graduate education within their program, or improving the graduate program itself.
PhD student Rylan Hodgson recently created a video that won the American Physical Society's (APS) 2026 Gallery of Soft Matter contest at the APS Global Physics Summit. The video demonstrates a unique view of the dynamics of granular flow with a rolling drum experiment that could one day be used to reveal key information about the mechanics and behavior of avalanches.
Assistant Professor Nicole Xu has been selected as a 2026 RIO Faculty Fellow. The program supports faculty in achieving their research and innovation goals and promotes collaboration through tailored training, experiential learning and leadership development opportunities.
Mechanical engineering students Jack Mulvaney, Josh Shrewbridge, Hayden Dondlinger, Kai Groudan, Duncan Laird and Gregory Reilly shined at this year's Colorado Sustainable Challenge, receiving nearly $8,500 in awards during the two-week hackathon-style event designed for anyone passionate about solving problems and building a solution to impact sustainability.