Energy Institute at Colorado State University

Energy Institute at Colorado State University The Energy Institute at CSU is dedicated to developing solutions to energy & climate.

How is the impact of a consumer good or service calculated? A techno-economic analysis (TEA) can help determine economic...
08/29/2026

How is the impact of a consumer good or service calculated? A techno-economic analysis (TEA) can help determine economic viability. An environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) can help calculate the total environmental impact. Smith Pittman wants to go further to quantify the social impact.

At a recent Speaker Series, Smith presented her efforts to develop a way to calculate the total social benefits and burdens. Smith hopes the new social impact assessment can be used along with TEA and LCA to create a more complete understanding of the sustainability of products. These tools, used together, can help evaluate proposed processes prior to resource investment.

Smith is a bioprocess engineer at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) and a 5th year Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on developing computational and quantitative methods for complex bioprocesses, including process modeling, TEA, LCA, and quantitative social impact assessment (QSIA).




Colorado State University Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
Colorado State University Department of Mechanical Engineering
Colorado State University Research
Colorado State University Graduate School

08/27/2026

By combining high-pressure water and abrasive sand, our waterjet can cut through metal in a wide range of thicknesses!

Located at the Colorado State University Energy Institute, the Rapid Prototyping Lab gives researchers and innovators access to tools like waterjet cutting to design, test, and build climate solutions at scale.


Colorado State University Research

AI is transforming research, enabling faster discovery and innovation. This necessitates adaptation to stay on the cutti...
08/25/2026

AI is transforming research, enabling faster discovery and innovation. This necessitates adaptation to stay on the cutting edge. For today's speaker series, Jon Loftin, Senior Customer Success Engineer at MathWorks, shared with our community ways to incorporate agentic AI into workflows. Thank you, Jon, for sharing with our community specific examples that increase ability, taking us into new areas of discovery. Jon holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Texas Tech University, has years of teaching experience, and a research focus on building efficient integration techniques in finite element methods.

MATLAB

Welcome new students! Come tour the Powerhouse Energy Campus! At the Energy Institute, we’re developing real-world energ...
08/24/2026

Welcome new students!
Come tour the Powerhouse Energy Campus! At the Energy Institute, we’re developing real-world energy and carbon solutions to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges. Explore the state-of-the-art facility and learn how we take science to solutions to scale.

To sign up for a tour visit our website: https://energy.colostate.edu/tours/

Thank you to everyone who joined the Student Cyber Assessment for National Security and Critical Infrastructure Workshop...
08/21/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined the Student Cyber Assessment for National Security and Critical Infrastructure Workshop.

This multi-day immersive event provided college students with interactive experiences, networking opportunities, and the chance to learn from industry professionals.

The workshop wouldn't have been possible without our co-hosts: CSU Department of Systems Engineering and the Front Range Consortium .

Mark your calendars! EnergyFest is coming back to the Powerhouse on September 26th from 10 am to 1pm. There will be inte...
08/18/2026

Mark your calendars!

EnergyFest is coming back to the Powerhouse on September 26th from 10 am to 1pm. There will be interactive exhibits, demonstrations, tours, and more! This event is free and suitable for all ages.

To learn more, visit the QR code or learn more at https://energy.colostate.edu/energyfest/

EnergyFest is powered by Efficiency Works and Platte River Power Authority

If you look at the floor on the second floor of the Powerhouse, you will see over 175 tiles of CSU alums who contributed...
08/15/2026

If you look at the floor on the second floor of the Powerhouse, you will see over 175 tiles of CSU alums who contributed to the Powerhouse community.

These tiles display the students’ names, thesis or dissertation titles, graduation years, departments, and advisors and pay tribute to their achievements. The tiles are made by student employees of the Rapid Prototyping and Applied Engineering Lab in the Powerhouse Energy Campus.

Colorado State University Graduate School
Colorado State University Research

Congrats to our Cogen Summer Fellows! This 10-week program helps students gain real-world experience while furthering th...
08/14/2026

Congrats to our Cogen Summer Fellows! This 10-week program helps students gain real-world experience while furthering their education. This year's cohort included 16 students working on real-world energy and carbon problems from energy storage, precision sensing, to industrial steam.

Thank you to our partners for making these opportunities a reality.

Most of the air around us is made of nitrogen (roughly 78%). That's great news, because plants need nitrogen to grow. H...
08/14/2026

Most of the air around us is made of nitrogen (roughly 78%). That's great news, because plants need nitrogen to grow. However, plants can't access gaseous nitrogen; they need it to be "fixed" in solid or liquid form. Not enough fixed nitrogen occurs naturally to meet the needs of agricultural producers, so they rely on industrial production to meet the required nitrogen supply. Those industrial processes, while effective, are resource intensive.

Benjamin Lancia & Liam Seitz are both researching more energy-efficient ways to produce fixed nitrogen. For today's speaker series, they presented on "Electrifying the Nitrogen Cycle: From Atmospheric Nitrogen to Resource Recovery."

Benjamin is a 3rd-year PhD candidate, and Liam is a 2nd-year PhD student in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Their work, in the Renewable Energy and Conversion Story lab at the Powerhouse Energy Campus, has the potential to save electricity, reduce water pollution, and decrease waste while helping meet the world's growing fertilizer needs.

Colorado State University Research
Colorado State University Graduate School

Last week, Summer at the Powerhouse continued with a tour of Jack's Solar Garden. This was a great opportunity to learn ...
08/11/2026

Last week, Summer at the Powerhouse continued with a tour of Jack's Solar Garden. This was a great opportunity to learn about agrivoltaics and their research taking place!

Thank you Jack's Solar Garden + Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center for hosting us!

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430 N College Avenue
Fort Collins, CO
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