An Engine Like No Other

The Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine will help address climate issues while growing related industry in the state.

Costly natural disasters are increasing around the world. According to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 2023 was a historic year for costly disasters, with 28 weather and climate disasters — surpassing the previous record of 22 in 2020 and tallying a price tag of at least $92.9 billion.

But what if research and startups could advance climate resilience technology while substantially driving economic development, essentially helping solve two problems at once? That’s exactly the idea behind the Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine (CO-WY Engine) — one of 10 groundbreaking initiatives nationwide selected to receive funding from the National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines program. With an initial award of up to $15 million over two years and potential funding of up to $160 million over 10 years, the CO-WY Engine is set to be at the forefront of environmental and climate technology innovations.

“This initiative is not just an investment in our future but also a strategy to harness innovation and foster collaboration,” says Mike Freeman, CEO and principal investigator of the CO-WY Engine. “By creating new job opportunities and strengthening our economy, the engine acts as a catalyst for transformative growth, turning regional challenges into opportunities for prosperity.”

In addition to UW, the collaborative effort includes major research institutions such as the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, the University of Colorado – Boulder, the University of Colorado – Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Northern Colorado. In Wyoming, the state’s community colleges, the Wyoming Business Council, the Department of Workforce Services and UW’s High Plains American Indian Research Institute also play critical roles. Moreover, UW is partnering with the National Center for Atmospheric Research – Wyoming Supercomputing Center to support this extensive project.

“UW can be known for developing these new industry sectors,” says Parag Chitnis, UW’s vice president for research and economic development and a co-principal investigator on the project. “We identified five areas of focus: water, fire, methane, analytic tools, and carbon sequestration and capture. Our efforts address these areas and help communities, entrepreneurs and industry take advantage of new markets as they emerge.”

For example, new technologies may also help predict where fires are more likely to start or years when water levels will be lower.

“Predictive tools are really needed by communities, so the engine is about developing tools for monitoring, modeling and monetizing environmental data,” Chitnis says.

Funding is set aside for software development and patents as well as seed funding for startups. For example, Bart Geerts, UW professor of atmospheric science, garnered $300,000 for a research project on atmospheric data analytics in conjunction with UW Assistant Professor Stefan Rahimi and Colorado State University Associate Professor Kristen Rasmussen. The award was announced in October as part of $3M in funding for CO-WY Engine by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

“Climate resilience problems are at the forefront of needs to be addressed throughout the U.S., especially in the Rocky Mountain region,” Geerts says. “In this first year of funding, we will build a framework that can deliver tailor-made projections of long-term changes in climate parameters, especially precipitation, snowpack, flooding events and droughts.”

Other research projects with practical applications are also being funded. UW and community college students can learn software development and take advantage of paid internships through the engine, and K–12 students across the state will benefit from expanded robotics programming that is currently available in Laramie. (Read more here.)

Chitnis adds, “Economic growth in these industries can provide high-paying jobs for graduates in the state as well.”

New King Air Atmospheric Research Aircraft

UW’s Department of Atmospheric Science accomplishes state-of-the-art research in areas including cloud physics, aerosols, air quality and energy exchange thanks to the new National Science Foundation UW King Air Atmospheric Research Aircraft and unparalleled access to the NCAR – Wyoming Supercomputing Center. The department and new plane will play a key role in the CO-WY Engine’s research. 

“No other university around the country has an airborne research facility of the scale as the NSF UW King Air,” says Jeff French, an associate professor and head of the UW Department of Atmospheric Science. “Having such a facility at UW now means we are the only university where graduate students can go and have hands-on experience working with airborne instruments. Access to that type of expertise is one of a kind in our field.”

Learn more at www.uwyo.edu/atsc/uwka.