Forget Oil. New Wildcatters Are Drilling For Limitless ‘Geologic’ Hydrogen

Big energy companies like Shell, BP and Chevron are joining a consortium created by the U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado School of Mines to study geologic hydrogen, but a handful of ambitious startups are already on the hunt
June 26, 2023

Understanding America’s technological tit-for-tat with China

Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy, co-authored this opinion piece on the high-stakes efforts by the U.S. and China to gain and maintain advantage across several technological and manufacturing capabilities.
June 25, 2023

Commodities: The pros and cons of getting cobalt from Idaho

Elizabeth Holley, associate professor of mining engineering at Colorado School of Mines, appeared on BNN Bloomberg to discuss the prospects of cobalt mining in the U.S. amid heightened demand for EV batteries.
June 22, 2023

Attending to the bumps in online learning

Sam Spiegel, assistant vice president for online education, wrote this opinion piece about the common misconceptions of online learning that can lead to "bumps" in the human-technology interface.
June 19, 2023

The energy transition has a labor problem

By 2030, half of the current U.S. mining workforce — about 221,000 workers — is expected to retire and will need to be replaced, not to mention the workers needed for new lithium mines in Nevada and elsewhere. Yet the country’s 14 university-level mining engineering programs saw their combined body of graduates drop by half in the last five years, to a paltry 172 graduates this year, said Steve Enders, a professor of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.
June 16, 2023

Rainy weather may be cause for sinkholes

“When you look at damage to a building or a road or something, most of the time you can track it back to something to do with water,” said Paul Santi, a professor of Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.
June 14, 2023

The Ore Cart Arrives: Golden launches free downtown circulator shuttle

Whether it’s downtown visitors who need a little help getting around or Colorado School of Mines students wanting to access the RTD rail lines, the four-wheeled solution has arrived.
June 8, 2023

Colorado School of Mines breaks ground on child care facility for staff and students

Executive Vice President of Colorado School of Mines Kirsten Volpi says the project will fill a need for employees, while strengthening the school. "In order to be able to help with retention to help recruit more diverse faculty in particular women ....
June 7, 2023

How Much Do Students Pay to Attend Your Class?

Justin Shaffer, teaching professor of chemical and biological engineering, wrote this opinion piece about how calculating the specific cost per minute of instructional time can make instructors —and students—reconsider how they approach class time.
June 7, 2023

How a 10-Story Wood Building Survived More Than 100 Earthquakes

After a half hour, inspectors deem the building safe to enter. On the third floor, Shiling Pei, the TallWood Project’s principal investigator, examines the walls and floor. “This is exactly the results that we’re looking for, which is no structural ....
June 5, 2023

TREASURE HUNT: The first U.S. nationwide geological survey in a generation could reveal badly needed supplies of critical minerals

Yaoguo Li, a geophysicist at the Colorado School of Mines, is developing a Department of Energy (DOE) grant proposal to prospect for hydrogen source rocks with the USGS data. “We have not done anything yet,” he says. “But I can see there’s so much we ....
June 1, 2023

At long last, the glorious future we were promised in space is on the way

"We knew these were the right ideas decades ago," said George Sowers, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. "It is gratifying to see folks coming around."
May 25, 2023