Inside the Competitive Edge

This issue highlights initiatives that are making a difference for Coloradans in today's challenging economic times.

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Academic opportunities meet workforce demands in tough economic times

CSU's Division of Continuing Education offers programs that can help strengthen organizations and the professionals that run them.

By Caitlin Shenk

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CSU launches new school, prepares educators for today's challenges

The new School of Teacher Education and Principal Preparation creates a streamlined structure to support CSU's model educator-preparation programs and address the shortage of teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

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Ram Response provides information to help Coloradans save money, survive economy

Colorado State University Extension has centralized resources online in response to tough economic times.

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Sustainable CSU start-up expands clean-burning cookstoves to meet world demand

Envirofit International's new cookstove line will help decrease dangerous indoor air pollution, which affects half the world's population.

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Students at heart of latest Envirofit technology

A "spirit of collaboration" among faculty and students at CSU's engines lab led to the newest clean-burning stove technology that reduces indoor air pollution — and saves lives — in the developing world.

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Atomic maneuvers could transform computer, cell-phone technology

CSU research at the atomic level could lead to smaller and faster electrical devices.

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Solar energy initiative

Colorado State University, in partnership with the Governor's Energy Office, recently installed photovoltaic cells on CSU's Engineering Building as a greenhouse gas reduction measure, a move that demonstrates the University's ongoing commitment to sustainability. The project will add to recent efficiency upgrades, including new fluorescent lights, a closed loop-chilled water system, and a CO₂-demand ventilation system, says Carol Dollard, energy engineer for CSU's Department of Facilities Management. The grant program is administered by the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association and is funded by the Governor's Energy Office.

18.9
Kilowatts in project’s solar array

25,000
Kilowatt hours per year project is expected to produce

18.3
Metric-ton per year reduction expected in Engineering Building's greenhouse gas emissions

$35,000
Matching funds provided by Governor's Energy Office 2009 Solar Rebate Program

32
Cities, utilities, and non-profit partners included in the grant program

Nailing it

"This is like putting nails in the wall and taking them out, only the nails are atoms."

—Vakhtang Putkaradze, Colorado State University professor of mathematics, explaining the new atom-based research by CSU and Kyoto University that ultimately could result in smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient computers and cell phones

Hope floats

"We also are driven by the hope that we can identify new targets for rational anti-cancer drug design."

—Jennifer DeLuca, Colorado State University assistant professor of biochemistry and a 2009 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences, on her four-year research project into how cells divide

Vital vocation

"Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible."

—April Mason, Colorado State University dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences, about the new School of Teacher Education and Principal Preparation that prepares educators for current K-12 challenges

Cookstove capers

"These benefits significantly improve the lives of customers in the developing world, while having a net positive impact on the global environment."

—Ron Bills, chairman and chief executive officer of Envirofit International, about the company’s expansion of its line of clean-burning cookstoves, which reduce deadly indoor smoke and toxic emissions, thereby saving thousands of lives annually in the developing world

Table talk

"Rather than work in an ivory tower somewhere, everyone's sitting around the table."

—Morgan DeFoort, Colorado State University graduate students and co-director of CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, about the latest clean-burning cookstove technology developed collaboratively by faculty and students, which boasts reduced pollution emissions without increased costs

Reaching to Russia

Colorado State University's College of Business in July extended its Distance M.B.A. program to the government of the Republic of Tatarstan, one of the most economically developed regions of Russia. The college is offering the custom leadership-based M.B.A. to select government officials, which will combine the distance-based master's curriculum with several on-site specialized courses to be delivered in Kazan, the capitol of Tatarstan. Each on-campus class is taped to DVDs and sent the next morning. Colorado State's College of Business is well-respected. In February, BusinessWeek magazine named the college among the top undergraduate business programs in the country and the top program in Colorado. The magazine also ranked CSU's marketing and business law programs in the top 10 among the nation's best business colleges.

Divide and conquer

Jennifer DeLuca, a Colorado State University assistant professor of biochemistry, is one of only 17 nationally and the only Colorado scholar to be named a 2009 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences — an award for early-career scientists who display outstanding promise in advancing research about human health. DeLuca will receive a $240,000 four-year grant for her research into how cells divide, a process known as mitosis. DNA-carrying chromosomes typically divide equally into two identical daughter cells, each with an exact copy of the original chromosome after division. Cells that don't divide equally or contain too many or too few chromosomes can upset the normal balance of genes, which can result in the development of cancer and the formation of birth defects. DeLuca aims to identify proteins that drive this segregation process. "If we can find the proteins that are responsible for chromosome segregation, new targets for cancer therapeutics can be identified." Tumors are made up of rapidly dividing cells, so to kill a tumor, targeting mitotic cells is a good place to start, explains DeLuca.

Biomass boiler

Colorado State University has partnered with the Colorado State Forest Service to install a biomass boiler heating plant on CSU’s Foothills Campus to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut energy costs. The heating plant will burn wood chips rather than rely solely on natural gas to provide hot water for the Judson M. Harper Research Complex. The Forest Service typically produces about 10 tons of wood chips per acre through its forest restoration and management programs. The boiler can burn more than 1,300 tons of wood chips each year. Heating with wood chips costs about half the price of natural gas, resulting in a savings of approximately $60,000 in utility costs annually at CSU, says Carol Dollard, energy engineer at Colorado State. Using biomass is a significant step in achieving lower greenhouse gas emissions because it eliminates the need for fossil fuel-based energy sources and prevents rotting trees from being burned during wildfires or prescribed burns. Biomass energy produces 96 percent fewer emissions than natural forest fires and 97 percent fewer emissions than prescribed burning.