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The mechanical engineering department at the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø has been awarded a five-year, $900,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a new program where graduate students will research and design devices for improved treatment of heart disease.

Surging student interest in energy issues has sparked the creation of a unique new environmental studies graduate curriculum set to begin this fall at the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø. The energy specialization within the environmental studies master's degree program will include core courses and electives in classes such as "Solar Technology," "Environmental Economics" and "Renewable Energy Policy."

The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø has received a $960,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue the program through 2007. The McNair Program prepares selected CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø undergraduates to study at the doctoral level. It is a federally funded program primarily designed to prepare low-income, first-generation college students to pursue a Ph.D. Colorado Congressman Mark Udall's office recently notified McNair Director Ramona Beal of the welcome news.

University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø student artists are hoping their class project, a work comprised of miscellaneous trash collected from students' favorite Â鶹¹ÙÍø walkways, will send a message to those inclined to litter. "We hope that others might be made aware of the trash people have thrown away in Â鶹¹ÙÍø along some beautiful places to walk," said Professor George Rivera, instructor of CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø's "Art and Contemporary Society" Maymester course.

The National Science Foundation has granted $1.5 million to a team of CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø scientists and graduate students who are working with the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Valley School district on a program designed to improve science, math and literacy in area schools.

Some of the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø's engineering outreach programs will be leaving campus this summer to provide better access for K-12 students and teachers across the state. Presented by the acclaimed Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, the weeklong "Kids Invent Toys" workshop will be offered at Alicia Sanchez Elementary in Lafayette today through June 20, and then at the Western Colorado Math and Science Center in Grand Junction July 14-18.

Kids age four to 16 can still get in on the fun of the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø's CU Science Discovery summer program of classes and wilderness camps. Space is still available in a number of the nearly 200 weeklong classes offered, including "Kids Chemistry," "Lego Structures," "High-Tech Expeditions," "Marble Madness," "Science Magic," "Physics for Fun," "Model Rockets," "Kid Pix," "Electronics for Girls," and many others.

University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø Chancellor Richard L. Byyny has announced details of campus budget reductions resulting from a $16.7 million shortfall in state support. With the latest round of budget cuts, the permanent funding base of state support for CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø has been reduced by about $30 million in the last 18 months, cutting state funding for the campus by nearly 29 percent. State funds now comprise less than 8 percent of the total Â鶹¹ÙÍø campus budget.

Twenty undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø have received the prestigious Jacob Van Ek Award for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university and Â鶹¹ÙÍø communities. The recipients were honored last month along with faculty members they named as mentors. The award was established in 1973 to honor Jacob Van Ek, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø from 1929 to 1959. Van Ek died in 1994 at the age of 97.

Despite greatly increasing food production for humans, the growing use of nitrogen as a nutrient is affecting people's health far beyond just the benefits of growing more crops, according to a new University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø-led study. Study leader Alan Townsend of CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø's Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research said changes in the global nitrogen cycle, while beneficial in increasing crop growth, appear to pose a growing health risk. Roughly half of the inorganic nitrogen ever used on the planet has occurred in the past 15 years.