Off

Off

When Connor Winter (MechEngr’16) decided to pursue a Certificate in Engineering Management in conjunction with his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, it put him on a path that would lead to the founding of his own startup company, .

The concept of ShoeSense is to pair a wearable sensor with a smartphone app that provides advice on what type of running shoes to wear, insight into the user’s running gait and exercises that will help improve their form.

The genesis of the company was Winter’s knack for utilizing the resources at his disposal while an undergraduate at CU Boulder.

Winter, who ran track and cross country as a student-athlete, pursued an independent study at the Locomotion Lab on campus, where he conducted a statistically driven analysis on how the right, or wrong, pair of shoes can drastically affect the biomechanics of a runner and their overall performance.

Taking that data, Winter developed a sensor that leverages the computational powers of an accelerometer, which measures the rate of change of velocity of an object, and a gyroscope, which measures angular velocity and an object’s deviation from its desired orientation.

Measuring the step of a runner 400 times per second, the sensor uses three axes of motion – vertical impact, braking force, and the acceleration of your foot laterally – to develop metrics that an end-user can use to improve their running style or avoid injury.

For example, the vertical impact of a single step when you run can amount to six to 10 times your body weight. That can build up over time and cause injury. However, it often takes four weeks for an injury to manifest. If the sensor measures an incremental buildup of excessive loading on a runner’s legs, the app will tell you in advance that you are at risk of injury and suggest a day off. 

“The sensor can’t just give you numbers,” Winter said. “It has to give you a path to make better decisions as a runner.”

While at CU Boulder, Winter worked with Venture Partners, an office that helps to commercialize research done on campus. Through their training program in Intellectual Property (IP) Management, Winter patented his shoe sensor.

But that was just the beginning of Winter’s journey to founding ShoeSense. “It’s one thing to come up with an idea or product,” Winter said. “But it’s another matter entirely to bring that idea to market.”

The Certificate in Engineering Management aims to provide tools to understand the business framework in an engineering and technology environment. Winter found the class Entrepreneurial Product Development the most useful for him. In the class, Winter pitched his shoe sensor idea, and it was one of the few selected for the class to develop a business plan around throughout the semester.

Upon graduation, Winter took his product and his business plan and ran with it.

launched their website in December. A customer pairs up with a running specialist from the company, who helps them first determine what type of shoe is ideal for their stride and body type, according to the metrics. They then develop a training regimen designed to improve their overall performance as a runner. The customers range from a 60-year-old jogger to a 20-year-old professional marathoner.

As the streams of data come in, Winter is always looking for ways to refine the metrics. And as often has been the case, CU Boulder helped give him the resources to succeed.

While using the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering's summer internship-for-credit program, Winter took on an intern who has become the company’s principal data analyst. Since then, the customer base of ShoeSense has continued to grow.

“CU Boulder has been such an integral part of the experience of creating this company,” Winter said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Off

As a Senior Mechanical Engineer with the (NREL), alumna Alicen Kandt’s goal is to inspire people to embrace more resilient and sustainable energy options.

Kandt (MSMechEngr’04) has spent nearly two decades at NREL helping state, local, federal and international stakeholders assess energy opportunities. She helps these partners identify ways to make their buildings more energy and water efficient, their communities more resilient and their operations less carbon intensive.

Kandt’s path to becoming a mechanical engineer was unique and interdisciplinary. Rather than starting her education with engineering right away, she first earned a bachelor’s degree in math with a minor in English from the University of Puget Sound.

“After a short stint as a technical writer for a trade magazine, I decided I wanted to work in something more applied and impactful,” Kandt said.

This choice led her to attend the University of Colorado Boulder for graduate school. She earned her master’s degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2004 and continues to be involved in the engineering community as an alumnus.

Read more about Kandt’s experiences as a mechanical engineer and how her work has a valuable impact on our world.

Tell us about your background. What inspired you to become a mechanical engineer? 

I attended a non-profit career fair at CU Boulder, and NREL was there. I got an internship that began right when I started graduate school in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. It was perfectly timed because I could directly apply what I was learning in school to my internship, and likewise, I could tailor my coursework to topics I was intrigued by at NREL.  

How does your work with NREL help society? 

The work I do helps society by identifying and implementing pathways to support decarbonization and energy system transformation, ultimately supporting the fight against climate change and the building of resilient communities and organizations around the globe. 

What are some of the projects you’ve been a part of that you are most proud of? 

One of my favorite projects was in support of the recovery efforts at El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, after the forest was heavily impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. I got to visit El Yunque, tour the damaged facilities, and even got to visit the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Iguaca Parrot Aviary – an aviary for the endemic and critically-endangered Puerto Rican Parrot. The aviary has a bird safe room where the birds are housed during hurricanes. I helped identify the critical energy loads of the aviary and analyze the optimal solar and battery energy storage system to help the aviary maintain critical services in the event of an electrical grid outage. The system was just recently installed and commissioned! 

What was your favorite part of being Buff? 

I live in Boulder and enjoy being engaged in alumni programs, mentoring, and speaking to students about careers in clean energy and the impact of helping to transform our energy system. I also love attending CU Boulder sporting events with my family! 

What advice do you have for current mechanical engineering students? 

Get an internship, at least one, preferably one during each summer of school to start homing in on a focus area and building a broad network. And be open to a non-linear career pathway; sometimes it takes trying one thing to discover something else may be a better fit. 
 

Off

Alumnus Craig Sampson (MechEngr’82) is the founder and leader of the Chicago consulting firm . He will be delivering the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s keynote speech during the Graduation Recognition Ceremony on Saturday, May 7.

As mechanical engineering students walk across the graduation stage, alumnus Craig Sampson (MechEngr’82) wants them to embrace the unknown.

Sampson, an innovator with a career spanning more than three decades, has found that much of his success was cultivated by pursuing the paths that did not always have a clear destination, but inspired excitement instead.

“So much of design and so much of life is embracing the unknown,” said Sampson. “That doesn’t mean we don’t know or will never know the answers, but it does mean that it’s up to us to figure it out. I like to lean into the unknown, the possibilities.”

Sampson is the founder of – a consulting firm based in Chicago that is dedicated to finding solutions based on human-centered design. The independent firm helps companies innovate and create new products, new services and new businesses.

Sampson’s career in design started while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Toward the end of his CU Boulder career, Sampson began taking design classes as an independent study. After graduating with honors, he attended Stanford University for graduate school, earning a master’s degree in product design.

Sampson spent much of his career with the global design and innovation company . He founded and lead IDEO’s office in Chicago and IDEO’s Global Healthcare Practice.

“The big arc of my career is one of ever-expanding interests,” said Sampson. “Just because you have a lot of technical acumen doesn’t mean you can’t also be a creative professional that cares about things like art, history culture and psychology. There is a Venn diagram in design thinking that includes technical feasibility, business viability and human desirability. You need all three to truly innovate. I love swimming in the center of those three – Technology, Business, and human-centered Design – and that’s why I named my company TBD Innovation.”

Along with leading TBD Innovation, Sampson is also a graduate design instructor at the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University.

Sampson said he is excited to get back on the CU Boulder campus. He grew up in southeastern Colorado, so Boulder and the entire state will always have a special place in his heart. He said the view of the flatirons always felt like a touchstone to orient himself in the world.

“One time I was driving in Chicago and there was a storm coming from the West,” said Sampson. “It was a sunny day but there was this big wall of clouds coming in, and for a split second out of the corner of my eye it looked like mountains to the West. I felt a little bit of butterflies at the thought. That’s when I realized I really miss Boulder.”
 

Off

Mechanical engineering alumnus Sreyas Krishnan has played a critical role in (ULA) latest , which carried another weather satellite into space on Tuesday, March 1.

Krishnan (BSMechEngr’12, MSMechEngr’16) supported the production and launch for the rocket’s first stage propulsion systems as the primary Booster Propulsion Tiger. This meant that he tracked the rocket through assembly, test and launch, and provided technical support throughout the process.

The weather satellite will track destructive wildfires, lightning, Pacific Ocean-based storms, dense fog and other hazards that threaten the U.S. West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska.

Serving as a Booster Propulsion Tiger is one of the many roles Krishnan takes on as a Propulsion Systems Design Engineer at ULA. He said the job allows him to constantly learn and see new things to expand his knowledge base. It is a career path that he has been dreaming about since he was a kid whose parents are also University of Colorado alumni.

“CU Boulder was my dream school growing up in South Denver, so being a Buff is everything to me,” Krishnan said. “One of my early inspirations to work in aerospace was Dr. Kalpana Chawla, who was the first woman of Indian descent to go to space. She was also a CU Boulder alumna. She meant a great deal to me as the son of Indian immigrants and CU grads.”

Once he was at CU Boulder, Krishnan just had to choose the major that would propel him to his dream career. He shared with us why mechanical engineering was the path he took and how valuable his education and experience as a Buff has become.

Tell us about your background. What inspired you to become a mechanical engineer?

I was always interested in physical systems as a kid, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to study mechanical engineering until a couple months into my freshman year at CU Boulder. My Intro to Engineering course took us on a field trip to in Boulder and I was able to catch a glimpse of the Kepler Telescope while it was still onsite. I knew immediately that mechanical engineering was the major for me. I was so inspired by the idea that I could help design, develop or operate immensely complex physical systems. Not long after that, I started working on projects with the (COSGC), including a high-altitude balloon payload and a 3U CubeSat bus, which set the stage for my future career path.

What is your day-to-day like at United Launch Alliance (ULA)?

The Delta IV Parker Solar Probe in Cape Canaveral.

My role as a Propulsion Systems Design Engineer at the Centennial, Colorado design center has two different flavors.

• Component Engineer: I am the certified responsible engineer (CRE) for all the solenoid-operated valves used on ULA rocket propulsion systems and a CRE-delegate for several other flight-critical components like vent valves, pneumatic regulators and pressure vessels. I like to call this a ‘whatever, wherever, whenever’ role because you are responsible for the entire lifecycle of a component from pre-assembly to in-space operation. Over the years, this role has touched almost every discipline covered in the mechanical engineering curriculum, has allowed me to wear a ton of different hats and has provided me with the opportunity to learn from some incredible people. In addition to product ownership, I also led the development and qualification programs of six flight-critical components used on the new Vulcan Centaur rocket alongside my industry partners. These programs are exciting but very demanding since propulsion system components need to perform flawlessly through a multitude of challenging environments such as extreme temperatures, shock, vibration and heavy usage to ensure mission success.
• Tiger Team: I support production and launch for the first stage propulsion systems of the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. This involves following each vehicle through its assembly, test and launch while helping to resolve any issues that occur along the way. This role also brings me out to the launch sites in Cape Canaveral, Florida and Vandenberg, California to complete final inspection walkdowns inside and around the vehicle, then provide on-console engineering support in the ‘back room’ of our Launch Control Center on the day of launch.

My favorite mission so far was the , which we launched for NASA on a Delta IV Heavy rocket back in 2018.

How have the mechanical engineering skills you gained at CU Boulder helped your career?

The engineering program had an enormously positive impact on my career. As an undergraduate from 2008 to 2012, CU Boulder provided me with numerous opportunities to spend quality time in the CAD lab and machine shop in support of various engineering projects for COSGC, as well as regular course work such as Component Design and Senior Design. I credit this experience with giving me a fundamental understanding of design and manufacturing concepts.

That said, my time in CU Boulder’s Graduate Design Program from 2014 to 2016 was on another level. In those two years, I worked on an incredible array of projects. We built an autonomous, nerf-dart firing robot, a vascular closure device prototype, a single-pill dispensing pill bottle lid and even a . However, the project that literally propelled me towards my current role was a ULA-sponsored, 3D-printed thruster design project called Additive-Manufactured Aerospike Reaction Control System (AMARCS). That was my first exposure to fluid/propulsion systems design, and I was HOOKED! 

What advice do you have for current mechanical engineering students?

Take advantage of every opportunity afforded to you by the school – there are a ton of them! That means picking your professors’ brains at office hours, signing up for interesting extracurricular projects, doing lab research and learning new hard skills. This is your best opportunity to fully immerse yourself in a broad base of knowledge, so use it as leverage to become the best version of yourself.

Build meaningful connections with people and don’t be afraid to ask for help. As you go through various highs and lows, both in your coursework as well as in life, those people will help you persevere. It takes effort to maintain those relationships, but trust me, it’s worth it!

Develop critical thinking skills in a relatively low-consequence environment. Learning to gather data and documenting well-reasoned interpretations of said data is an essential skillset for any confident decision maker.

HAVE FUN!!! Boulder is amazing. Don’t graduate with regrets about missed opportunities.
 

Off

Off

Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. The versatile degree allows for students to become cross-functional engineers, the leaders in interdisciplinary industries aiming to improve society.

Alumnus Michael Lewis (MechEngr’00) took interdisciplinary to the next level. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and working at for a year, he discovered another way to help people – through medicine.

Lewis is now a surgeon in the Children’s Heart Center at in Sweden. While the path he took with his engineering degree was nontraditional, Lewis credits the opportunities at the University of Colorado Boulder for setting him up for success.

Read more about Lewis’ career from mechanical engineer to pediatric heart surgeon in the Q&A below.

What inspired you to study mechanical engineering before medicine?

I didn’t think I was going to be an engineer right away. I originally wanted to study psychology but quickly learned that wasn’t for me. I also loved music, so I changed my major to classical guitar for a few semesters. I think I must have set the record for credits and classes!

I remember sitting down at two distinct points in my life, trying to figure out what I liked and wanted to be. The first time was in the student union at CU Boulder. I knew I loved math, science and problem-solving, and applying those studies to real-world issues. That led me to engineering. I figured mechanical engineering was very broad and that I could use that education in various industries.

The second talk I had with myself was in my apartment in Boulder. I thought to myself, “Is there anything else I like doing?” I realized I like being with people and solving problems for humanity. That’s when the lightbulb went off. I knew I wanted to be a doctor. I volunteered at the student health center and realized it was something I could do.

Even with that realization, I still wanted to use my engineering degree. I worked for Boeing as a design engineer for a year and successfully sent two projects to space. It was great and I thought I was well prepared to work, but I knew wanted to pursue medicine. I attended , completed my residency and fellowships in the Midwest and on the East Coast, and finished in 2014. My family moved to Sweden where my wife and I now both work at Lund University Hospital.

Want to learn more?

  Connect with Michael Lewis

What is the value of having a mechanical engineering degree as a surgeon?

If you have ever been in modern medicine – specifically inside an operating room – you can see that there are mechanical engineering needs all over the place. Everything from the heart-lung machine to the sutures that we use have been meticulously engineered. You really become aware of how useful and necessary these tools are to improve and save the patient’s life.

Plus, the basic physiology of the human body and the cardiovascular system is better understood when thinking about the changes in fluid dynamics with temperature or the changes a heart goes through with pressure and volume. My mechanical engineering education has been incredibly useful for developing my skills as a doctor and pediatric heart surgeon.

Both engineering and medicine aim to solve societal challenges. Do you view your interdisciplinary career path through that lens?

Every day. There are times when that idea can get lost in the stress of the work, but then you get a letter from a parent or child that you have operated on. You get a note from a medical student or nurse that you have helped. You see that you’ve made a difference.

I am a bit of an idealist and I think that’s what has made it possible to take this long loop to becoming a doctor. That is why I chose this career and continue to do it today.

What advice do you have for current mechanical engineering students?

Sit down and talk with yourself about what you want out of life. Irrespective of how narrow or broad you want to be as a mechanical engineer, there are options out there for everybody. That will play into every choice you make personally and professionally. Think about where you want to live, how you want to spend your time and what sort of projects do you want to work on. Make a list of the things that are important to you and start there.
 

Off

Technology first prototyped in the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Senior Design course has been named one of the .

Alumnus Kevin Martin’s (MechEngr’16) robotics and apparel company has built a machine that 3D-weaves yarn into a seamless pair of jeans tailored to fit individual buyers. The machine uses topographical weaving to produce the pants in just ten minutes.

Martin hopes the technology will help reduce global carbon emissions by making the design, manufacturing and consumption of apparel intentional.

“The big north star that we kept coming back to is our climate,” Martin said. “Climate change is probably going to be the most pressing issue of our lifetime. Apparel is one of the dirtiest industries in the world because clothing that is never sold ends up in landfills or gets burned. We felt like there was a big opportunity to drive change.”

His company’s mission is to implement sustainable practices to ensure each piece of fabric that goes into making a pair of jeans is not wasted – which means each pair is made-to-order.

Ordering a pair of jeans from unspun starts with a 3D body scan. Customers can use their iPhone to scan themselves. The scan captures 30,000 data points for the robotic weaving machine to create the perfect fit.

The 3-D weaving machine is the technology that was originally developed in Senior Design. Martin, who graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2016, and his unspun co-founders sponsored a 2017 capstone project to build their first prototype.

“I don’t know that unspun would have actually existed without the Senior Design team,” Martin said. “We needed a prototype and they crushed it for us.”

After that capstone project, Martin advanced the prototype with help from a National Science Foundation grant and venture capital investment. Unspun is now on version three of the machine, which is what earned the TIME Best Invention 2021 accolade.

“The greatest feeling this year was to unveil the machine for the first time after not being able to talk about the hardware for four or five years,” Martin said. “To say to the world that we have developed this new method of apparel manufacturing called 3D weaving and it works.”

This is the second time unspun has made TIME’s Best Inventions list. The company was also given the honor in 2019 for the software that designs their custom denim jeans.

Martin, who grew up in Colorado Springs, said his interest in robotics started in high school. He built remote control airplanes and created his own version of a drone by attaching cameras to them. He then started a company building upon that drone technology.

At CU Boulder, Martin pivoted the startup company to cable cameras, allowing the system to move around on wires and be safer for indoor filming.

“We came up with this whole plan to sneak into the Idea Forge to test it on the rafters in the evening so hopefully nobody would see us,” Martin said. “I remember sitting on the rafters when Professor Daria Kotys-Schwartz walked by and all I could think about was how much trouble I was going to be in. Instead, she said our robot looked really cool and asked how she could help. She was so supportive.”

Martin’s advice to current mechanical engineering students is to take advantage of that encouraging atmosphere. There are many resources for aspiring entrepreneurs and engineers to plug into.

“Go find those instructors and professors at the university that are doing incredible things,” Martin said. “Share your excitement with them and get their perspective. You do not need to have all ten next steps of your life figured out, but they can help you figure out the next one or two.”

Customers can order a pair of jeans on the or using the . You will need the iPhone app for the body scan. Unspun jeans cost around $200, but Martin said CU affiliates can get 20% off with the code SKOBUFFS.
 

Off

Elle Sandifer is a 2020 graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, she worked as a process engineer with to address urban sanitation challenges in Nairobi, Kenya.

Can you tell us about Sanergy and your work with the company?

Sanergy is a startup that addresses t​​he lack of sanitation services and waste management in Nairobi, Kenya. The company franchises FreshLife latrines to communities in Nairobi and then organizes the regular collection of the waste from these latrines. Rather than simply disposing of it, the waste is taken to a processing facility where 100% of it is used to make products that can be used by the local community. Some of the waste is processed using a Black Soldier Fly bio-waste treatment method that results in larvae animal feed. The rest is mixed with agricultural waste from the surrounding area to be composted and sold back to Kenyan farmers as fertilizer. 

My time with Sanergy was spent as a process engineer, which I found to be incredibly interesting and purposeful. The team I worked with was focused on the expansion of the company. We completed conceptual designs of future, optimized processing facilities while looking to improve current processes and technologies. As Sanergy is a start-up that is rapidly expanding, I was thrown into the mix immediately. A company like this means more responsibility and autonomy right off the bat, but it also creates space for innovation and welcomes learning on the job. My team’s work moved quickly and we designed three separate facilities in the time I worked there. Working with Sanergy was a great mix of technical engineering and impact-focused work. I had great co-workers and mentors and am so grateful for my time there. 

What did your path from the University of Colorado Boulder to Sanergy look like? Are there experiences you had at CU Boulder that helped you prepare for your work after graduation?

I was first introduced to engineering for developing communities through Engineers Without Borders (EWB) during my first year at CU Boulder. There are multiple teams on campus and I highly recommend checking them out. While EWB is student-led and can be slow moving due to the travel limitations of college break schedule, the drive within the team to do the best work for our partner community in Nepal had a big impact on me. My time working with EWB inspired me to figure out how I could use my degree in service to others. 

Another huge part of my path was a research opportunity that I participated in through the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship program. There are all kinds of research projects to choose from and I focused on applying for development-based projects. I worked with the United States Agency of International Development’s , assisting a PhD student in her study of collaboration on water projects in East Africa. I absolutely loved the position and continued to work with her after graduation.  

• SEE Student Grant Program
• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program  

"A very special thank you to the SEE Student Grant Program and Kat McConnell, without which my experience with Sanergy would have not been possible." -Elle Sandifer

Finding a job or internship in international development may mean that you could be working for free. During the three months before I was hired by Sanergy, I worked as an unpaid fellow, an opportunity that was made possible by the SEE Grant. I also completed an unpaid internship with a great Portland-based organization called while working as a barista. This is a difficult part of working in development, but alternative funding sources are always out there. Applying for jobs internationally can seem like a long shot, but organizations are really just looking for passionate people. I had no connection to Sanergy or Kenya when I applied, so if you find something interesting out there, go for it! 

What advice would you have for a current or prospective CU Boulder student interested in working with organizations that are doing work related to global health and the environment?

An engineering degree is powerful to have and can be used to have a real impact on problems directly affecting people and the climate. There are more technical organizations than you think working on these problems and I encourage you to seek them out when looking for internships and job opportunities. My biggest advice would be to get involved with things you are interested in outside of coursework while you are still in school. Universities have a really unique environment with innovative projects happening in all spaces and there are many opportunities that are only for current students. This will make you a stronger candidate for jobs, but more importantly, it will help you find your passion within engineering. 

I made a list of organizations or programs that I have either been a part of myself, worked closely with someone who was involved or just think are doing great work. Places that I have used as job search engines to find positions in these fields are included as well. This is not a comprehensive list, but I hope it can give students who want to explore a place to start. Please feel free to reach out to me via email or LinkedIn if you have any questions or want to chat about getting involved at CU Boulder! 

  Email Eleanor Sandifer         Connect on LinkedIn

Off