Event

A Bright Idea: Connecting STEM Learning and Energy Efficiency

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Two students stand at the Light Bulb Face-Off table at UConn Engineering's 2026 STEM Family Field Day.How much can a light bulb teach us about energy use? At UConn Engineering’s 2026 STEM Family Field Day, the Southern New England Industrial Training and Assessment Center (ITAC) brought energy efficiency into the spotlight with its “Light Bulb Face-Off.”

Held October 4 at the UConn Volleyball Center, STEM Family Field Day invited families to explore engineering through interactive exhibits and hands-on activities. The event offered an opportunity to introduce younger learners to the science and engineering concepts that shape everyday life.

The Light Bulb Face-Off also reflected a practical challenge with real-world implications: understanding how lighting choices affect energy consumption. For manufacturers and other businesses, improving lighting efficiency can be one way to reduce electricity use and operating costs.

Based at UConn Tech Park’s Innovation Partnership Building, the ITAC connects engineering education with industrial applications. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the center provides eligible small and medium-sized manufacturers with no-cost energy assessments to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and strengthen productivity. Its faculty-and-student teams gain hands-on experience evaluating energy use and developing recommendations for real facilities.

By bringing energy efficiency into a family STEM event, ITAC helped connect a familiar technology with a broader engineering challenge: finding practical ways to use resources more efficiently. Activities like these can encourage curiosity about how everyday systems work—and how engineering knowledge can help solve problems at home, in industry, and throughout the community.

CyberSEED 2026 Challenges 129 Teams to Put Cybersecurity Skills to the Test

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Team of four men work on cybersecurity challenge on their laptopsCybersecurity requires more than understanding the theory behind digital threats. It takes analytical thinking, technical skills, and the ability to solve problems under pressure. Those skills were on display October 3 as 129 teams competed in CyberSEED 2026, an online Capture the Flag (CTF) competition hosted by UConn’s Connecticut Advanced Computing Center (CACC).

The annual competition brought together students from 70 colleges and universities across the country for hands-on challenges in cybersecurity, including cryptography, open-source intelligence, password cracking, digital forensics, network traffic analysis, reverse engineering, and web application security.

Teams earned points by solving technical problems and analyzing potential security vulnerabilities. The competition also included an incident response briefing, giving participants an opportunity to practice communicating technical findings and risks to an audience of stakeholders.

Bits For Everyone from the United States Military Academy took first place, followed by cu_kaazmo from Cedarville University in second and CyberLions from Pennsylvania State University in third. Teams from Purdue University, the University of Central Florida, the SANS Technology Institute, and other institutions also finished among the top 10. View the complete list of winners.

Bits for Everyone Logo cu_kaazmo logo CyberLions logo
Bits for Everyone
First Place		 cu_kaazmo
Second Place		 CyberLions
Third Place

For participants, the experience offered more than a leaderboard finish. One team from the Rochester Institute of Technology described how the competition helped deepen its understanding of cybersecurity concepts through practical application. The team also highlighted the incident response briefing as an opportunity to strengthen its ability to communicate technical risks and recommendations.

Hosted by CACC and sponsored by Synchrony, with the competition platform provided by Cyber Skyline, CyberSEED connects students with challenging, practical exercises that complement their academic studies. By encouraging participants to apply their knowledge in a competitive setting, the event helps students develop skills relevant to the evolving cybersecurity field.

The 2026 competition continued UConn’s longstanding involvement in cybersecurity education and research, bringing students together to learn, collaborate, and test their abilities against a diverse set of technical challenges.

Separations Technology Workshop Connects Research with Real-World Challenges

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Six speaker panelists sitting at the front of a conference room.From recovering critical materials to improving water treatment, separations technologies play an important role in addressing industrial and environmental challenges. At the 5th Industrial Workshop on Separations Technology, held October 1–2, 2026, at UConn Tech Park’s Innovation Partnership Building, researchers, industry leaders, startups, and investors came together to discuss emerging technologies and the challenges of bringing them to market.

Hosted by the University of Connecticut, the workshop drew 120 attendees from more than 70 companies and universities. The two-day program combined technical presentations with opportunities to exchange ideas, showcase research, and build connections across the separations technology community.

Two men standing in front of a poster session research poster.The event began with an early career workshop, followed by a networking reception featuring 20 student research posters and a startup pitch competition. Students from UConn, Yale University, MIT, Tufts University, and Clarkson University presented their work, while five startups pitched technologies addressing opportunities in water and critical materials. Hydron Desalination won the pitch competition, receiving a trophy and a cash award sponsored by Xylem.

Friday’s sessions explored applications across energy, industrial processing, critical materials recovery, desalination, water treatment, and water reuse. Presenters from organizations including PolyCera, SLB, Via Separations, ChemFinity Technologies, KMX Technologies, Xylem, Veolia, and NanoH2O shared developments ranging from advanced membranes to new approaches for recovering valuable resources.

The program also looked beyond the technologies to consider what it takes to move innovations forward. Panels on water technology, critical materials and energy, and sustainable technology financing brought together representatives from startups, established companies, and investment organizations. Additional briefings highlighted initiatives from XPRIZE, the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), and the MEMBRANE Center led by the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

Attendees also toured the Connecticut Center for Applied Separations Technologies (CCAST) at the Innovation Partnership Building, gaining a closer look at the facilities supporting the center’s applied separations research.Professor Jeff McCutcheon speaks to a group of visitors in the CCAST lab at IPB.

Throughout the workshop, discussions connected technical advances with the needs of the industries that could put them to use. Understanding those needs can help researchers and emerging companies identify opportunities for further development and more effective solutions.

By bringing together people working across research, industry, and investment, the annual workshop creates opportunities to share expertise, explore common challenges, and strengthen connections that can help move separations technologies toward practical application.

Interested in attending or participating in future workshops? Click here to join the mailing list.

Leadership Horizons Workshop Empowers UConn Engineering Grad Students

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UConn Tech Park was pleased to host the Leadership Horizons: Exploring Paths Beyond Graduation leadership workshop from the UConn Engineering – John Lof Leadership Academy on May 13. The workshop was designed to educate graduate students from the UConn College of Engineering about leadership opportunities in various career sectors (industry, academia, and entrepreneurship).

Attendees heard from guest speakers from both industry and academia, who discussed the opportunities and hurdles students may face as they move forward in their careers. Thank you to all speakers for your invaluable expertise and guidance!

Exploring the Future of Digital Twins in Manufacturing

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Group of scientistsOn November 12–13, 2024, UConn’s Pratt & Whitney Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering (PW-IASE) brought together researchers, industry leaders, and practitioners for the Workshop on Digital Twins for Manufacturing, held at the Innovation Partnership Building at UConn Tech Park. Hosted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the event served as a global platform to explore the transformative potential of Digital Twin (DT) technologies in modern manufacturing.

Participants engaged in a dynamic exchange of ideas through keynote presentations, interactive panels, and collaborative working sessions. The workshop’s agenda was designed to address pressing challenges and opportunities in manufacturing, with a focus on the development and application of DTs—virtual models that mirror physical systems to optimize products, processes, and production throughout their lifecycle.

Digital Twin technologies are revolutionizing how manufacturers approach design, production, and maintenance. By enabling real-time data integration and predictive analytics, DTs support informed decision-making and proactive solutions, critical for industries navigating the complexities of modern supply chains and innovation demands. “As the manufacturing sector evolves, DTs provide critical tools for innovation, enabling real-time data integration, predictive analytics, and proactive decision-making,” noted Dr. George Bollas, associate dean of Research for UConn’s College of Engineering and director of PW-IASE.

The workshop tackled key themes, such as improving system efficiency, enhancing resilience, and leveraging DTs for sustainability in manufacturing. Notable speakers and panelists represented a wide array of expertise, from academic research to practical applications in aerospace, defense, and energy sectors. Participants worked toward actionable outcomes, including drafting a strategic roadmap to guide the future development of DT technologies and fostering collaborations across academia, industry, and government.

By hosting this event, UConn reaffirmed its position as a leader in advancing cutting-edge manufacturing technologies. The workshop highlighted Connecticut’s rich industrial heritage, particularly in aerospace, defense, and shipbuilding, while showcasing how innovations like DTs will shape the future of these sectors.

The Workshop on Digital Twins for Manufacturing not only provided a forum for sharing knowledge but also underscored the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in driving technological progress. As digital twins continue to mature, they hold the promise of transforming manufacturing into a more agile, efficient, and sustainable industry.

Save the Date

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Co-Hosts University of Connecticut and Eversource are partnering again to continue the dialogue on pressing equitable clean energy issues in the second Sustainable Clean Energy Summit on Monday, September 23, 2024, at the UConn Storrs campus. Last year’s turnout of 400+ students, faculty and energy professionals highlighted the need for continued collaboration and exploration of the shifting energy landscape. The summit will feature the second cohort of students participating in the Eversource-sponsored Clean Energy and Sustainability Innovation Program (CESIP). As part of this program, students are researching viable solutions (technical, social, and political) to address different aspects of the grand challenge of decarbonization and economic development in meeting ambitious climate goals.

UConn is proud and eager to announce that keynote speaker Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary for Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy will kick off this year’s summit. Mr. Rodrigues brings both a technical expertise to creating a reliable and affordable power grid and serves as DOE’s senior official on the federal interagency working group for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Panels with leaders from industry, government, and community organizations will follow and we will finish with a Clean Energy Fair (again!).

Please mark September 23 on your calendar. Registration information will be sent in late July. We hope to see you there!

Questions: contact University Events and Conference Services, conferences@uconn.edu.

Engineering for Global Impact: Highlights from the Engineers Without Borders 2024 Northeast Regional Conference

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Conference meeting at the IPB
The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) 2024 Northeast Regional Conference, hosted at UConn’s Innovation Partnership Building in March, brought together over 100 engineering students, professionals, and faculty advisors. Participants engaged in technical sessions, workshops, and professional development activities. EWB-USA, a nonprofit organization, supports community-driven engineering projects globally, with 155 chapters nationwide, including 42 in the northeast.

Attendees included special guests hydrogeologist Nadia Glucksberg and geologist-environmental scientist Helena Hollauer, along with Community Engineering Corps, an EWB partner organization that helps U.S. communities lacking engineering services. A full-day poster session showcased attendees’ recent projects, and EWB-UConn discussed their sanitation and sustainability initiatives in Peru and Kenya.

“The conference brought together students and professionals that want to use engineering to make the world a better place for more people,” says Jeffrey McCutcheon, Centennial Professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. “It’s a very important change in the way that engineering is perceived, and I believe better addresses the interest of our next generation of engineers.”

EWB-UConn President Brian Machado’25 (ENG) praised the turnout and camaraderie among chapters, reflecting a shared commitment to engineering for global betterment.

Read the full article here.