Forty-seven students graduated with River Hawk Experience Distinction (RHED) cords this year, the most in the program’s six-year history. Students can earn a RHED credential in leadership, entrepreneurship, global engagement, community engagement or sustainability.
The National Science Foundation has recognized Asst. Prof. Xinfang Jin of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with its prestigious faculty early career development CAREER award. Jin is researching ways to greatly increase the production of hydrogen and the long-term storage of energy.
Students in the Radiation Safety and Control course received practical experience assessing, measuring and evaluating simulated radioactive contamination in a controlled environment.
Six sustainability-focused entrepreneurs and startups from across the region competed in the third annual Clean Green Challenge at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub.
UMass Lowell researchers are gearing up to expand their efforts targeting offshore wind energy as part of ARROW, a collaborative project with UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and other partners that will accelerate research and the deployment and scale-up of domestic offshore wind energy.
Xinfang Jin has been awarded a five-year $648,431.00 U.S. National Science Foundation Faculty Career Development award to strengthen her expertise and position her as a leader in multiphysics modeling with microstructures of heterogeneous materials for energy applications.
Chemical engineering Assoc. Profs. Dongming Xie and Hsi-Wu Wong were awarded a three-year, $463,000 grant by the National Science Foundation to develop technology that would help reduce waste polyethylene plastic through upcycling.
The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy granted fellowships to mechanical engineering major Caralyn Conrad, industrial engineering Ph.D. student Mahsa Ghandi and Art and Design Assoc. Prof. Kirsten Swenson.
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Asst. Prof. Fanglin Che of the Department of Chemical Engineering as one of 93 rising scientists and engineers from across the country to receive its prestigious Early Career Research Program Award.
Funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant, minority community college students will have an opportunity to learn about nuclear science at UMass Lowell’s Radiation Laboratory.
Environmental Defense Fund fellow Dillan Patel has worked with UML’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy over the summer to help create a community outreach plan for a geothermal pilot project.
A team of researchers led by Plastics Engineering Asst. Prof. Aboutaleb (Amir) Ameli was awarded $2.7 million to develop technologies for recovering plastics and natural fibers from mixed, nonrecyclable solid waste that would otherwise go to landfills.
Five projects created by members of the UML community received Sustainability Engagement and Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) funding from the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.
Five teams, including three from UMass Lowell, took part in the Innovation Hub’s inaugural Clean Green Challenge, a pitch contest focused on sustainability for entrepreneurs and startups from across the region.
A ceremonial planting on South Campus signified UMass Lowell’s new role as a certified arboretum – a place where trees and other plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes.
UMass Lowell was the first site selected for National Grid’s geothermal pilot project, which will heat and cool buildings in the area with utility-scale networked geothermal energy.
The Department of Energy has awarded a team of researchers led by Asst. Prof. Subash Sharma and Idaho National Laboratory a $486,000 grant to design and analyze sparging systems for tritium removal from fusion energy liquid breeder blankets.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently recognized Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Asst. Prof. Maria L. Carreon with a prestigious faculty early career development grant, called the CAREER award.
A team of university and U.S. Army researchers, led by UML Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Assoc. Prof. Assoc. Prof. Juan Pablo Trelles, has developed a way to extract hydrogen from plastic waste that can be used as clean fuel.
Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Murat Inalpolat and his team are developing and implementing a continuous, sound-based sensor system for monitoring the structural health and integrity of offshore wind turbine blades.
Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross’ lab group found that nanoparticles combining post-transition and noble metals absorb higher energies of light. Their discovery is highlighted in Matter, a scientific journal published by Cell Press.
While the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission this week walked back a report saying the agency would seek to ban household gas stoves due to health concerns over emissions, a UMass Lowell expert on the issue maintained “adequate evidence” of ill-health effects exists to take action.
Prof. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Asst. Teaching Prof. Akshay Kokil were awarded funding totaling $1 million by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology for projects that aim to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and the environment each year.
Students taking the newly launched Climate Crisis and Society course worked in partnership with the city of Lowell on a climate resilience project. The work inspired them to develop their own climate projects.
Three students and three faculty members traveled to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27, the United Nations climate summit, where they were the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts.
Do net-zero pledges mean the world is on track to protect the climate? So far, the answer is no, because if, when, and how net zero is reached matters.
With the help of a student research team, Transene Company is offering etching solutions to its semiconductor customers that don't contain the toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
UMass Lowell researchers have teamed up with local organizations in search of effective strategies that will encourage underserved communities to participate in energy efficiency programs.
Funded by a two-year, $363,211 Office of Naval Research grant, Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross is exploring new materials that can make the alternative fuel hydrogen in a variety of pH conditions.
The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy awarded fellowships to plastics engineering major Abby Mastromonaco, entrepreneurship Ph.D. student William Zhou and Chemistry Asst. Prof. Juan Artes Vivancos.
The National Science Foundation-funded project Cool Science hosted its 10th annual Extreme Weather Art Competition for students in grades kindergarten through 12th. The winning posters are now displayed on transit buses in the Merrimack Valley and Worcester areas.
The IRA includes a wealth of home improvement rebates and tax credits to help Americans cut their energy use, and Prof. Burek helps highlight which improvements homeowners and renters can make to have the greatest effect with significant savings.
The National Science Foundation has recognized Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Marianna Maiaru with the agency’s most prestigious faculty early-career development award, for research that could lead to improvements in the performance of everything from booster rockets to sports equipment.
The Office of Sustainability and the University Library created the Sustainable Publishing Fund to help researchers, like Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Fanglin Che, publish their sustainability-related work in open-access journals.
The New England Consortium at UMass Lowell will provide safety training courses for hundreds of students looking to work in the offshore wind industry, thanks to a $300,000 state grant administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
UMass Lowell was once again designated a Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation — and is on track to become classified as an arboretum this fall by the nonprofit organization ArbNet.
UMass Lowell has been recognized with the first Outstanding Radiation Safety Program award by the Health Physics Society, an international nonprofit organization of more than 5,000 scientists, physicians, engineers and other professionals.
Prof. David Ryan was recently awarded a patent for catalytic hydrogen production alongside co-inventor Mahesh Jayamanna '16. This invention could help power electric vehicles.
Seven projects led by students, faculty and staff received a share of the university’s annual $50,000 Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund.
Asst. Prof. Yuzhang Lin was recently awarded a five-year, $500,000 faculty early-career development grant by the National Science Foundation to conduct a study that will help better predict and visualize power distribution capacity and consumers’ power demand in real time.
Sixty-five students from Greater Lowell and Shawsheen Valley technical high schools and their teachers got an overview of UML’s computer science and cybersecurity programs and some hands-on experience at the university’s Cyber Range during a recent visit to campus.
Art Assoc. Prof. Ingrid Hess is traveling to some of the world’s most beautiful places to make artwork that educates children about the natural world and environmental sustainability. She’s won grants, fellowships and artist residencies to visit national parks in Costa Rica, Australia, the U.S. and more.
Hosted for the first time by UMass Lowell, the Student Sustainability Leaders Symposium brought together more than 100 students from 18 colleges and universities across the Northeast to share their work and explore opportunities for collaboration and partnerships.
UMass Lowell remains the highest-rated campus in Massachusetts for sustainability with a STARS Gold score of 83.37 from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Researchers led by Chemical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong was recently awarded a three-year, $1.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to help reduce waste plastic films.
A competition-based initiative to get students thinking about their residence hall energy usage won the third annual Rist Institute for Sustainability & Energy Climate Mitigation Challenge, which asks students to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.
With construction work complete on two new canal bridges along Pawtucket Street, students are enjoying shorter trips on two of the university’s busiest bus lines — and improved paths for walking and biking.
UMass Lowell, which ranks No. 1 among colleges and universities for well-being and work according to the Sustainable Campus Index, has created an Office of Student Life and Well-being to better integrate wellness across campus.
As part of his internship with local startup company Tertill, mechanical engineering major Max Prescott tested its solar-powered weeding robot at the Rist Urban Agriculture Farm on East Campus.
UMass Lowell received a Leading by Example award from the state’s Department of Energy Resources for its collaborative efforts with fellow honorees UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and Salem State University to decarbonize their campuses.
UMass Lowell has received a Leading by Example award from the state Department of Energy Resources for its work completing a comprehensive decarbonization study to determine its path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a team of researchers from UMass Lowell and Oak Ridge National Laboratory a $400,000 grant to develop machine learning-based approaches for simulating molten salts used in advanced nuclear reactor systems.
An interdisciplinary group of faculty members from UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative attended the recent United Nations global climate summit, aka COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, where they observed progress being made — but also missed opportunities.
Fifty students from Lowell High School and Greater Lawrence Technical High School, along with their teachers, learned about plastics recycling and environmental sustainability during the Plastics Sustainability Forum, held recently at the Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center on North Campus.
More than 6 tons of appliances, electronics, batteries and more were collected at Fall into Recycling, a popular waste diversion program that contributed to UMass Lowell being named a Top 10 Zero Waste Campus by the Post-Landfill Action Network.
The university has installed eight solar-powered streetlights along the new Northern Canal Overlook on East Campus — one of the city’s busiest areas for foot traffic. The lampposts were funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Lowell Green Community Partnership, an alliance between UML and the city.
The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded 2021-22 fellowships to Assoc. Prof. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Cordula Schmid, Analytical Chemistry Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Farrell and chemical engineering major Andrew Parker.
An interdisciplinary team of UML faculty, led by Assoc. Profs. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Chris Hansen, have received a nearly $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award for a new graduate student program focused on developing sustainable materials and chemicals that won’t harm water resources.
Science education can help slow the pace of global warming, because people who understand climate science can make informed decisions, says Education Assoc. Prof. Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier. Lohmeier does research on using artwork in informal settings to educate the public about climate science.
Assoc. Prof. Kelsey Mangano, a nutrition researcher, says that the health of the planet and our own health go hand in hand – and that by improving one, we can improve the other.
Returning students will notice several changes across campus this fall, including the new Global and Professional Studies Center opposite University Crossing, refurbished instructional and research labs, and the addition of outdoor amenities such as hammocks, Adirondack chairs and covered bike racks.
UMass Lowell, in partnership with the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, has received a $241,300 grant from the Commonwealth to develop academic pathways that increase the participation of underrepresented populations in the offshore wind industry.
“Integrating Climate Change into the K-12 Classroom,” a free professional development workshop hosted by EEAS Assoc. Teaching Prof. Lori Weeden and the university’s Climate Change Initiative, showed teachers how they can address the topic through a variety of educational lenses.
Through an ongoing partnership with a local nonprofit, the university last month installed 500 growing containers for herbs, vegetables, and flowers covering the 2,300-square-foot mezzanine roof at O’Leary Library on South Campus.
A new rooftop garden of 500 herb, flower and vegetable plants has taken root at O’Leary Learning Commons on South Campus, the latest piece of UMass Lowell’s Urban Agriculture Program — a collaboration between the Office of Sustainability and Mill City Grows.
Hammock gardens, Adirondack chairs and patio heaters are just some of the amenities the university is adding to improve outdoor spaces for when students return to campus in the fall.
Transportation engineering graduate student Jenna Howard ’19 is leading the design of UML’s Pawtucket Greenway project through her work as a transportation infrastructure designer for the civil engineering firm TEC.
The Lowell Green Community Partnership, an alliance between UMass Lowell and the city, awarded its first $50,000 in grants to five joint university-community projects that advance urban sustainability initiatives.
Researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering used a drone equipped with an infrared camera to help Facilities Management identify energy inefficiencies in campus buildings and heating systems.
David Turcotte is an authority on sustainability and environmental justice who is leading efforts to improve the quality of life for people in their homes and workplaces. A member of UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, Turcotte can discuss how the phenomenon impacts the incidence of asthma and hazardous-materials cleanup responses as a result of extreme weather events.
With the collaboration between UMass Lowell’s Office of Sustainability and its Athletic Department serving as a model, the America East Conference has created a sustainability network that gives its 10 member institutions an opportunity to share best practices and advance green initiatives.
UMass Lowell was named “Innovator of the Year” at the first-ever Casella Sustainability Leadership Awards for the new and creative ways that the university sustains resources and diverts waste destined for landfills.
A plan to boost ridership on Lowell’s city buses won the second annual Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy Climate Mitigation Challenge, which asks students to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.
Environmental Science Prof. Juliette Rooney-Varga, director of UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, says we must depolarize the politics of climate change — an issue that President Biden has made a top priority in his new administration.
UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, in partnership with the Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department and the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, is hosting a virtual spring seminar series featuring experts from across the country.
Mechanical Engineering Prof. and Dept. Chair Christopher Niezrecki has been named the 2020 Distinguished University Professor for exemplary teaching, research and service to the university.
Using centralized building management technology, Facilities Management keeps fresh, outside air flowing in classrooms, labs, offices and residential halls on campus, which helps prevent the possible spread of COVID-19.
The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded its inaugural fellowships to Asst. Prof. of Economics Kelly Hellman, plastics engineering major Kerry Candlen and chemical engineering major Maria Fonseca-Guzman.
UMass Lowell has received a $100,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to develop a campus-wide renewable energy master plan that will help advance the university’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
A new honors seminar that helps students think critically about different sources of energy is inspiring research involving renewables, including projects at UMass Lowell’s Haiti Development Studies Center.
The Pawtucket Greenway, a collaboration between UML and the City of Lowell that will connect South and East campuses with a continuous, shared-use pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists, got a boost from a pair of state grants.
UMass Lowell is No. 16 on Sierra magazine’s “Cool Schools” list for 2020, the university’s highest ranking ever in a survey that assesses colleges’ performances on everything from sustainability-focused courses, carbon-neutral energy and land policies, eco-friendly dining halls and student engagement.
By taking simple steps like turning off unneeded computers and lights and adjusting air conditioners during peak periods of energy demand, UML faculty and staff helped the university reduce its projected utility bill by $180,000 for the coming year.
Environmental science students from the Kennedy College of Sciences led free educational sessions on Zoom for middle and high school students who, like them, are stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The university is advancing its sustainability and cost-saving goals through new partnerships and programs with its utility provider, National Grid, doubling both its electric vehicle charging stations and its incentives for energy efficiency.
As food insecurity grows because of the coronavirus pandemic, the university’s Urban Agriculture Program is helping to provide fresh, healthy produce to the community through its partnership with Mill City Grows.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a two-year, $1.4 million grant to Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Murat Inalpolat to develop and test a new, sound-based sensor system for monitoring the structural health and integrity of wind turbine blades.
Graduate students from the Francis College of Engineering’s Solar Energy Association are helping the community by inspecting the city of Lowell’s solar-powered parking meter kiosks as part of an extracurricular service-learning project.
This month the City of Lowell and the university announced the Green Community Partnership — an alliance committed to driving down the carbon footprint of the Mill City.
Three student projects proposing ways to reduce the university community’s carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks received the first-ever Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy (RISE) Student Innovation Awards and a share of $1,000 in prize money.
Faculty and student researchers examined what the state must do to incorporate renewable energy sources into the electrical grid to reduce carbon emissions in “The State of Grid Energy Storage in Massachusetts,” a report commissioned by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
The commonwealth of Massachusetts recognized UMass Lowell for its sustainability efforts across campus with a 2019 Leading by Example award, which Chancellor Jacquie Moloney accepted at a State House ceremony.
A UMass Lowell researcher who works to alleviate asthma in senior citizens has received $1 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to advance his work.
The National Science Foundation recently recognized Asst. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong of the Department of Chemical Engineering with a prestigious faculty early career development grant, called the “CAREER” award. This highly competitive annual program selects the nation’s best young university faculty-scholars “who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.”
UMass Lowell has dedicated Perry Hall Plaza, a new greenspace that is the latest step in the university’s work to further enhance the the beauty and sustainability of the campus.
UMass Lowell today announced it is establishing the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy to bring together the university’s numerous efforts in areas from clean energy and energy resiliency to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and water use.
Brian Rist, a member of the college’s class of 1977, offered the largest singular gift in UMass Lowell history and was recognized for his charity with the establishment of the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.
The Office of Sustainability held its first Sustainable Move-In event on campus, collecting 62 large trash bags of plastic foam and enough cardboard to fill four large dumpsters.
Rover the River Hawk, an Industrial Capstone Senior Design project that Engineering students are building to clean debris from the city’s canals, received a Green Design award from the Lowell Sustainability Council and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.
The university’s waste reduction efforts ranked fifth in the 2019 Sustainable Campus Index, up five spots from the previous year. The university’s Urban Agriculture Program was also highlighted in the index, which is published by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
The UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, in conjunction with the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the College of Education, hosted a professional development workshop for two dozen area K-12 teachers on incorporating climate change education into the classroom.
Reactor system fundamentals and technology and advanced reactor designs were just some of the topics discussed at this year’s Intercontinental Nuclear Institute (INI), an annual summer fellowship program organized by UMass Lowell and the Czech Technical University in Prague.
Students donated more than 14,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, food and personal items during this spring’s Sustainable Move Out Donation Drive, which benefitted a half-dozen nonprofit organizations across the community.
From grazing sheep to battery-powered lawn mowers, Grounds Operations Manager Erik Shaw is coming up with innovative ways to maintain the campus grounds – and help boost the university’s sustainability efforts.
A team of researchers from UMass Lowell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and China Agricultural University in Beijing has developed a new, sustainable way of converting wet biological waste into diesel-compatible fuel, using heat and water.
Faculty, staff and students dropped off more than 6 tons of personal electronics, appliances and more during April’s two-day Spring Into Recycling event, run by the Office of Sustainability and Information Security.
The university’s Climate Change Initiative hosted members of the state’s House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change for a roundtable discussion on climate science and policy at which faculty members shared scientific research and expertise to help inform policy decisions.
Rows of kale, Swiss chard and collard greens are growing on the new Green Roof vegetable garden at University Crossing, a collaboration between Mill City Grows and UML’s Urban Agriculture Program, Student Government Association and Office of Sustainability.
The university celebrated a $50 million renovation of Perry Hall, which is home to academics, research and industry partnerships in fields including biomedical, chemical and environmental engineering, as well as biomanufacturing and clean energy.
The university marked two major milestones at its Earth Day celebration: the completion of its $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program and its latest STARS Gold rating, which moves UML into the top 10 nationally.
UMass Lowell and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) celebrated the completion of the university's $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program (AEP) at a ceremony Monday.
Six of the 12 projects to receive a share of the $50,000 Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund this year were led by students, the most in the fund’s three-year history.
The River Hawk Shop now gives customers recyclable paper bags instead of single-use plastic bags, a move that will eliminate around 10,000 plastic bags from the waste stream each year.
A team of researchers from the Chemistry Department has found a way to safely, cleanly and efficiently produce hydrogen gas that can be used to power the next generation of electric vehicles.
UMass Lowell was named one of the 10 best academic institutions to pursue a degree in renewable or sustainable energy systems, according to Solar Power Authority.
UMass Lowell – a leader in information technology, security and criminal justice education and research – is introducing a new online program for information technology professionals who want to update their skills on the latest standards in cybersecurity on their own or for employers who want to ensure their workforce and operations are fully prepared to counter any threats.
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