BTU

ATLAS students learn design skills through the lens of the apocalypse

Michael Kwolek — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 16:53:27 +0000

ATLAS students learn design skills through the lens of the apocalypse Michael Kwolek Fri, 04/11/2025 - 10:53

Michael Kwolek

With the popularity of post-apocalyptic narratives like “Fallout” and “The Last of Us” along with ongoing coverage around global climate turmoil, we are culturally primed to ponder our place in the world—and the skills we could bring to an apocalypse (zombie or otherwise.)

At the ATLAS Institute, we approach challenges as engineers and designers, and one class in particular aims to impart practical skills on students with an eye toward becoming more capable in such times of crisis.

Assistant teaching professor and BTU Lab director Zack Weaver’s new course, Hacking the Apocalypse, teaches undergraduate and graduate students how to apply design thinking to address basic survival needs. This semester’s focus is water: students are tasked to research, design and build novel systems for collecting, storing, treating and distributing water using fabrication techniques and Arduino-based electronics.

Weaver elaborates on the origin of the idea: “I was looking at geopolitics, economics and the way I applied the technologies that we teach in the [Creative Technology and Design] program with a lot of pragmatism and practicality. In my own classes, when I'm assigning prompts, it's often whimsical—it's meant to spark play and creativity.”

Water is a surprisingly complex topic, touching on geology, chemistry and climatology as well as law, ethics and politics—before you even consider the engineering, technology and design challenges associated with harnessing and using it. In fact, the class has attracted students from several different majors.

In developing the course curriculum, Weaver says he “found some really interesting reading on water policy and all kinds of design/build projects for collecting and storing water—things like rain barrels and even dew collection in the middle of the desert, which sounds impossible.“

Watershed moments

Students took a field trip west of campus to the Mountain Research Station, hosted by Jen Morse (MRS climate, water, snow technician), to learn about 51�Թ��’s watershed and the complex monitoring systems they have in place to measure snowpack, humidity, flow rate, water quality and other data.

Elizabeth Saunders, Creative Technology and Design master’s student (social impact track), shares her impressions: “The experience was eye-opening, especially learning about the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research Program and the Mountain Climate Program, which has been collecting climate data from the Colorado Front Range since 1952. One of the most fascinating facts I learned was that the air samples collected from the station serve as the global standard for air quality research. This underscores just how pristine and significant this environment is for understanding atmospheric changes on a worldwide scale.”

Students were surprised to discover the facility uses similar sensor technology to what they receive in the physical computing kits they buy for class. Weaver notes, “The Arduino platform makes things inexpensive and friendlier than a lot of commercial electronics,” though at the cost of reduced durability and accuracy.

The increasing accessibility of such technologies undergirds much of the popularity in DIY culture and maker spaces like the BTU Lab, and is indicative of the can-do spirit that defines the ATLAS community.

photo credit: Graham Stewart

Wave of innovation

Students also visited the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools (SVVSD). Weaver notes, “The Innovation Center might be one of the best technology STEM programs in a public school in the world.” They offer flight simulator training, a full aeronautics program, entrepreneurship, competitive robotics, and more.

The Innovation Center even works with 51�Թ�� County Parks and Recreation to survey watersheds and test water quality and conserve the Northern Leopard Frog in Colorado’s Front Range.

SVVSD biosciences teacher, Jayme Sneider, led ATLAS students in experiencing what water quality testing looks like at scale, demonstrating what they test for and how. The class then focused on replicating that work on the DIY level to develop open source alternatives to expensive commercial technologies.

A cascade of expert insight

The class recently hosted Mark Giordano, Professor and Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Giordano previously held multiple roles at the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize—the "Nobel Prize for Water." He shared insights on water, emphasizing the importance of understanding its physical and social aspects to address global challenges.

Giordano detailed how climate change has two main impacts on weather events: intensity and frequency. “We expect that when it rains in the future it will rain even more, and then there will be longer periods between when it rains again.”

Water scarcity is a growing concern that manifests in many ways. Contrary to common assumption, Giordano noted that as much as 90% of our water goes to agriculture, not drinking water or sanitation. We may also believe water scarcity is an issue exclusive to arid places, but we have seen in recent years how inadequately-maintained infrastructure in American cities like Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, can create clean water scarcity even in places with abundant supply.

Water is a political issue, with implications around where it originates, where it flows and who claims ownership over it. Giordano elaborated, “You need clean water to live. You need it every day. It's not particularly expensive in most parts of the world to provide the minimal amount of water it takes to live a healthy life. Investment in basic water has really high returns, and yet over and over and over, we see it not being not being provided.”

A wellspring of water projects

Students are tasked with developing a water-related project over the course of the semester leveraging the tools and techniques they learn in class. They focus on one or more key areas: treatment, distribution, storage, power and collection.

ATLAS undergraduate student Rystan Qualls explains, “I’m working in the distribution group. We’re making a water distribution system that will allow a community in the apocalypse to send water to various sites like a garden or to the showers.”

Saunders details her project: “This semester, I am researching plant resilience and decay in extreme environments, with a particular interest in graywater and saltwater agriculture. My project seeks to answer the question: ‘How quickly can I kill plants so the future Utopian people don’t?’ While the phrasing is unconventional, the research focuses on identifying environmental stressors that lead to rapid plant degradation, with the broader goal of developing strategies for sustainable plant growth in challenging conditions.”

Other student projects range from a storm runoff irrigation system to a 3D-printed moisture evaporator to a smart rain barrel and even a 3D-printed steam engine prototype.

Flow of information

Hacking the Apocalypse - Fall 2025

Hacking the Apocalypse will run again in Fall 2025 with a focus on food.

Students will research, re-create and design novel systems for growing containers, soil mediums, soil and water quality monitoring, and indoor/outdoor urban agriculture systems utilizing fabrication techniques and electronic input/output systems based on the Arduino platform.

ATLS 4519/5519 Hacking the Apocalypse: Food (3 credit hours)

Learn More

Weaver describes his ambition for Hacking the Apocalypse: “Each class is supposed to end in documentation of the projects to a degree that you can hand it off to lay people who don't have to be particularly highly trained to understand it. This is ‘Book One.’”

The goal is to follow this semester with versions of the class focusing on other basic needs—food, clothing and shelter—before returning to water. “Then that water class will inherit everything the first class did, and their expectation will be a different set of design challenges where they have to incrementally improve or iterate on what people did before.”

As for takeaways from this semester, Saunders says, “My research in Hacking the Apocalypse builds upon my background in water policy and sustainability, as well as my ongoing work with FLOW [a legal organization dedicated to protecting the Great Lakes Basin.] My work in this class has given me hands-on experience in water purification, sustainable irrigation and the challenges of resource-limited environments.”

As the semester concludes, Weaver observes, “I'm rediscovering the whole world. I've engaged with it becauseI'm outdoors all the time. But I never understood the planet from a systems perspective, and this is just blowing my mind.”

ATLAS students can now add “apocalypse preparedness” to the engineering, design and creative skills they develop here. Though Weaver does clarify, “It's not an apocalypse class. It's about if you do certain things, you avoid the apocalypse. I'm trying to tell the students it's a utopian class.”

photo credits (unless otherwise noted): Ashley Stafford

At the ATLAS Institute, students tackle real-world challenges through design. Hacking the Apocalypse, a course led by Zack Weaver, teaches undergraduate and graduate students to apply design principles to address a surprising topic: apocalypse preparedness. Using Arduino-based electronics and fabrication techniques, students develop novel water collection and treatment systems.

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T9 Hacks challenges students to invent healthcare solutions

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:37:15 +0000

T9 Hacks challenges students to invent healthcare solutions Michael Kwolek Tue, 02/11/2025 - 10:37

Michael Kwolek

For many of us, healthcare is top-of-mind. The healthcare industry offers major opportunities for applying technology to improve access, care and outcomes. Now 51�Թ�� students can design solutions of their own.

T9 Hacks, a student-led organization at ATLAS, creates an annual opportunity for newcomers to participate in a hackathon aimed at addressing timely and relevant challenges. The hackathon format empowers participants to work together to rapidly conceive, design and develop a response to a specific prompt.

As a key source for interdisciplinary research and academics across campus, the ATLAS Institute is the perfect place to host T9 Hacks each year. Student teams are encouraged to leverage their technical skills and express their creativity in exploring solutions.

Kira Velez, T9 Hacks president, notes, “Our goal is for students to walk away with not only new technical skills but also a sense of confidence in their ability to solve real-world problems. We hope they learn the value of collaboration, creativity, and pushing beyond their comfort zones to bring ideas to life.”

The 24-hour hackathon, sponsored by Medtronic and ATLAS, starts on Friday, February 14, and runs through the following afternoon.

This year, teams will design and build solutions focused around healthcare, choosing from three categories: AI in health, cybersecurity and patient safety.

Velez explains, “Healthcare is a field where technology has the power to make a real difference in people’s lives. We wanted to challenge participants to think critically about how they can use their skills to improve patient care, accessibility, and innovation in the medical space. Given the increasing role of tech in healthcare, we felt this theme would be both timely and impactful.”

The T9 Hacks mission is to “create a welcoming and safe place for women and traditionally underrepresented students to explore hackathons” to bolster broader participation in hacking culture, but is open to all CU students. It’s simple: the more creative minds on a problem, the likelier we are to uncover transformational solutions.

“T9 Hacks is more than just a hackathon—it’s a space designed to be inclusive and welcoming, especially for those underrepresented in tech. We focus on creating a supportive environment where participants of all skill levels can collaborate, learn, and build something meaningful.”

To learn more and register for this year’s hackathon, visit the T9 Hacks website.

T9 Hacks Hackathon
February 14-15, 2025
Check-in starts at 4:30pm on Friday, 2/14

Event is free and includes food, swag & prizes!

The 2025 T9 Hacks hackathon empowers students to work together over 24 hours to tackle a pressing design challenge. This year’s event, sponsored by Medtronic and the ATLAS Institute, focuses on healthcare in three tracks: AI in health, cybersecurity, and patient safety. Open to all, T9 Hacks aims to expand the audience for hackathons and bring a broader set of creative minds together to solve problems.

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ATLAS Expo 2023: Our Biggest One Yet!

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 22:48:24 +0000

ATLAS Expo 2023: Our Biggest One Yet! Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/26/2023 - 16:48

Michael Kwolek

If you go

Who: All are welcome

What: ATLAS Expo

When: Thursday, May 4, 2023, 4–6p.m.

Where: Roser ATLAS Center, 1125 18th St., 51�Թ��

Cost: Free!

ATLAS Expo is back and, with over 120 student research projects included, it promises to be the biggest and most exciting Expo we’ve ever had.

This annual event highlights innovative work by graduate and undergraduate students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science studying Creative Technology and Design (CTD). Those attending the event can go hands-on with a rich array of games, interactive experiences, art installations, electronics and more.

Radical creativity and invention are the key concepts that bond the ATLAS community. It’s a place where engineering, computer science and design meet art and expression—all of which will be on full display at Expo this year.

“As engineers and designers, we’re often heads-down in research. Expo is always exciting because our research labs and CTD students get a chance to show off the brilliant work they have been immersed in all year,” said Mark Gross, ATLAS Director.

From practical solutions to immersive experiences, ATLAS students will showcase a staggering range of concepts at Expo. Here is a small sample of what to expect:

Scopaesthesia by Miles Lewis, Logan Turner and Sam Lippincott — An interactive installation featuring animatronic eyes powered by computer vision to merge the effects of scopaesthesia induced by human eyes with an awareness of digital surveillance.
Solar Stones by Kai Hughes, Chris Gaines and Caileigh Hudson — 3D tactile replications of stellar rock carvings made by the Ancient Puebloan people in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, developed in collaboration with NASA's PUNCH team and FISKE planetarium.
The Rental Set by Annika Mctamaney — An open-source project using CNC technology to help renters own stylish, hardware-free furniture that is easy to move homes with and fun to create.
Storm Drain by Timon Hume — An atmospheric game level that takes the player deep inside a maze of dark pipes where they try to survive long enough to retrieve something valuable that has been washed away.
Notes on Growing by Brie Musser, Riley Meere and Zander Gilbert) — An interactive audiovisual experience designed for students to meditate on the time and effort they put into their college career and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
HookBook by Ryan Monteleone and Tomas Garcia — A mobile-first web application designed for fishermen that makes logging personal catches & accessing lake reports, efficient and simple.
A Parting Gift To My Perfect Self by Nancy Yoder — A stop-motion animation abstracting one’s personal journey of overcoming chronic perfectionism through the use of collage.
Rally by Jordan Evans, Olivia Blankenship — A social app that flips the script on social media, encouraging face-to-face interaction and the making of memories rather than isolation and app addiction.
spect by Frank Chytil and Anna Lowrimore — An installation featuring live footage of the audience’s eye on an arrangement of CRT TVs, evoking the reflection and dissection of oneself that occurs with digital interaction.

The two-hour event kicks off at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, and is open to all. Free registration link above.

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Maker Made 2022 features work by ATLAS community

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:52:05 +0000

Maker Made 2022 features work by ATLAS community Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/22/2022 - 09:52

Zack Weaver, an ATLAS lecturer who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab, stands in front of Maker Made 2020. Weaver is a creative technologist at BLDG 61: 51�Թ�� Library Makerspace and a curator for Maker Made.

A group of six artists and technologists connected to the ATLAS community contributed to 51�Թ�� Public Library’s Maker Made 2022, which runs through March 28.

If you go

Who: Everyone is invited

What: Maker Made 2022, a gallery show celebrating the diverse and inspiring work by local makers.

When: Runs through March 28. The exhibit is open whenever the library is open.

Where: Canyon Gallery, 51�Թ�� Public Library, 9th Street and Canyon Boulevard, 51�Թ��

Cost: Free

The fourth annual gallery show celebrates the diverse and inspiring work by local makers, representing the collective energy and ambition of a community of inventors, designers, engineers, artists, craftspeople and tinkerers.

“There’s no better way to celebrate a period of creative output than a party and a show-and-tell, and that’s what Maker Made has become,” says Zack Weaver, one of the show’s curators and a creative technologist at BLDG 61: 51�Թ�� Library Makerspace. BLDG 61’s makerspace provides maker education to the public for free in an “inspiring and inclusive environment.”

Weaver, an ATLAS lecturer who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab, says inspiration for Maker Made dates back to his days as a Carnegie Mellon student of Professor Mark Gross, now director of the ATLAS Institute. Gross, along with university colleagues organized annual exhibitions, similar to the ATLAS Expo, Weaver says.

The ATLAS Connection
Creative Technology and Design graduates Luciano Mejia and Chaz Golin helped curate Maker Made 2022. Hired as "Contract Killer Creative Technologists" in late 2021, the two were major contributors to the show’s success. For exhibits by members of the ATLAS community, see below.

A group of six artists and technologists connected to the ATLAS community contributed to BLDG 61’s Maker Made 2022, which runs through March 28 at the 51�Թ�� Public Library. Zack Weaver, who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab and the show’s curator, says the inspiration for Maker Made goes back to his days at Carnegie Mellon with ATLAS Director Mark Gross.

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Podcast Episode "Open Source Hardware: Makers Unite"

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 19:46:58 +0000

Podcast Episode "Open Source Hardware: Makers Unite" Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/07/2020 - 13:46

ATLAS BTU Lab director Alicia Gibb speaks about open source hardware on Command Line Heroes Podcast, presented by Red Hat.

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Danny Rankin to speak at next TEDx MileHigh event on Nov. 16

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 15:38:17 +0000

Danny Rankin to speak at next TEDx MileHigh event on Nov. 16 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/24/2019 - 09:38

Danny Rankin spoke at the TEDx MileHigh event, "Imagine" on November 16, 2019. Rankin directs the ATLAS Institute's Whaaat!?! Lab for game design and is a mentor at ATLAS’ BTU Lab.

[video:https://youtu.be/iagWhasv6cI?si=qWEO3goVUo6rKdBC]

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OSHWA's certification platform attracts hundreds of projects worldwide

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:18:55 +0000

OSHWA's certification platform attracts hundreds of projects worldwide Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/02/2019 - 12:18

One year after its certification platform was unveiled, the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) has certified more than 250 certified open hardware projects worldwide from a variety of domains. OSHWA, directed by Alicia Gibb, who also directs the ATLAS BTU Lab, developed certification project with help from a $56,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation "to support the development of a dynamic, web-based platform to facilitate the adoption, licensing and improvement of open source hardware."

The certification offers a new option in the landscape of Intellectual Property for hardware, and the new website includes a directory of open source projects, Gibb says. There is also an educational component for new users to understand what it means to open source their hardware.

"The certification intends to empower the open hardware community to follow the open source hardware definition with a licensing structure behind it, making it bear more weight through trademark law," she says.

Hundreds of projects from across the globe have been certified by the new certification platform of the Open Source Hardware Association, directed by Alicia Gibb.

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Meet BT-U-GO, the new tour guide inside ATLAS

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:48:18 +0000

Meet BT-U-GO, the new tour guide inside ATLAS Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2019 - 11:48

Can't find the BTU Lab? Just ask BT-U-Go. The friendly robot, built by high school student and this year's BTU intern, Isabelle Eichhorst, guides newcomers from the ATLAS lobby to the BTU Lab.

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Safecracking class teaches engineering skills, ethical hacking

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:40:09 +0000

Safecracking class teaches engineering skills, ethical hacking Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/17/2018 - 13:40

Students in a new ATLAS class are stretching their technological and design skills by taking on a challenge straight from a heist movie.

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Alicia Gibb featured in Red Hat video

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 19:01:28 +0000

Alicia Gibb featured in Red Hat video Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/05/2018 - 13:01

Alicia Gibb

Today, Alicia Gibb is an ATLAS instructor, director of the ATLAS Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab and a nationally recognized champion of the open source hardware movement, but her journey started out with a very different trajectory.

In college, she studied art education and her first job was as a librarian. It was while she was completing one of her two master’s degrees—library science and art history—that she found her calling after learning to write code and build websites.

“I just fell in love with open-source software,” says Gibb. “As librarians, we were taught that freedom of access and freedom of information is paramount to libraries and protecting it is a librarian’s duty. These same freedoms drew me to open source.”

Soon after, Gibb learned about open-source hardware (OSHW)—devices whose designs had been released to the public so that anyone could make, modify, distribute and use them—and she was similarly attracted.

This week Red Hat, a publicly-traded, multinational software company providing open-source software products, recognized Gibb's influence in the OSHW movement by releasing a documentary-style video about her. She was a keynote speaker at the Red Hat Summit in May in Boston, where she spoke to 4,000 attendees about why OSHW is crucial to innovation.

In 2010, Gibb organized the emerging OSHW conference with Ayah Bdeir, founder of littleBits, and in 2012 she formed the nonprofit, Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which aims to educate and promote the use and adoption of open-source hardware. A year ago she introduced the association’s new OSHW certification program, an OSHWA product logo that protects consumers by ensuring that certified products meet a uniform and well-defined standard for open-source compliance. This week OSHWA released a certification app.

“In Europe, people have no problem understanding the concept of open source,” says Gibb, who also spoke about OSHW in Stockholm and Croatia. “It’s very much a part of their culture. In the United States, most people don’t want to share the source of what’s making them money, but when you share, you make more money.”

Gibb ticks off the reasons why OSHW is important.

Gibb directs the Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab at 51�Թ��'s ATLAS Institute.

Historically, engineers usually don’t receive royalties or recognition for product patents owned by their employers, she said. And companies spend millions of dollars defending their patents, such as when Apple and Samsung engaged in a $400 million patent infringement suit over the design of cell phones and tablets, with costs being passed onto consumers.

“Patents themselves are expensive,” she says. “It costs $50,000 to get a patent, and if you have 50K to start a company, you probably don’t want to use it for that.”

With OSHW, the engineering community returns the favor of free hardware design by offering free product feedback. And anyone can incorporate another person’s improvements into their products.

As the founder of Lunchbox Electronics, an education-related open-source hardware company, Gibb is practicing what she preaches. Her company makes electronic components that are compatible with Legos, and consumers are free to design new parts for the toys and sell them without worrying about patent infringement.

“This is the beauty of OSHW,” she says. “The potential for innovation and creativity is limitless.

“Patents make you lazy. You depend on lawyers, and meanwhile you stop innovating. As a consumer, you want the most innovative product on the market.”

Open-source hardware (OSHW) is not a household word, even among engineers. But times are changing, and the OSHW revolution has much to do with ATLAS instructor, Alicia Gibb.

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