Cogen Fellows
The 2022 Cogen Summer Interns and Fellows. This could be you!

Energy Institute's Cogen Summer Internship

Summer 2023
May-August

The Energy Institute is partnering with local companies to create internships for the summer of 2023. The 10-week program is geared to help students gain real world experience & further their education. The program is jointly funded (50% by the Energy Institute and 50% by outside companies or labs within the Energy Institute), but the entirety of the work will be with the outside company or EI lab. Applicants can designate which companies or labs they would like to work with in their application. The participating companies and labs are listed below.

Regardless of the choice, interns will be expected to work 40 hours per week and compensated $25 per hour.

Applications have CLOSED. Thanks to all who applied. For further questions, email Jason.Quinn@colostate.edu.

Collaborating Companies and Labs

Founded in 2021, AtmosZero is developing drop-in solutions to decarbonize industrial process heat. Accounting for 25% of global energy demand, industrial heat is produced almost exclusively from fossil fuel combustion, resulting in more than 7.5 GT of CO2 emissions per year. As global attention increasingly focuses on the urgency of our climate transition, AtmosZero is focused on solutions that are better for the environment and industrial bottom lines.

This summer, AtmosZero will be undertaking the construction and testing of our prototype first-of-a-kind industrial heat pump. This means we will be extremely busy and are looking for one or two interns who are excited to get their hands dirty learning about and participating in the early stages of taking engineering innovation to market. You should be excited about experimentation and iteration.

Each intern will work under the direction of our staff R&D engineers and will be expected to work their hours (generally 9-5 Monday to Friday). You will be encouraged to provide feedback on your particular areas of interest and we will work with you where possible to provide opportunities for deeper dives. As an early stage startup, we highly value self-driven individuals who are excited to make a major impact in the fight against climate change.

Intern 1: Construction & Testing

Responsibilities:

  • Commissioning and operating test facility
  • Design of air-coupled test loop
  • Construction of air-coupled test loop

Intern 2: Simulation & Instrumentation

Responsibilities:

  • Cycle analysis
  • Instrument calibration and testing
  • Prototype wiring
  • Testing control hardware

Montava is a planned community set in northeast Fort Collins that will focus on New Urbanism. New Urbanism is a planning and development approach based on the principles of how cities and towns had been built for the last several centuries: walkable blocks and streets, housing and shopping in close proximity, and accessible public spaces. In other words: New Urbanism focuses on human-scaled urban design. Montava will occupy 1000 acres in Northeast Fort Collins, 3 miles from downtown Fort Collins and 4 miles from CSU.

We expect to start construction of the project this summer and are excited to offer a position that will expose an intern to all parts of the business while becoming a integral member of the team. The candidate will need to be flexible in their day and may spend the morning in the office in meetings and the afternoon on the project site performing basic land maintenance tasks.

The internship role will offer experience across all forms of real estate development including project site work, office work, local government meetings, budgeting, scheduling, plan review, contractor and sub-contractor management, land use code review, legal document review, field and site maintenance, door knocking, relationship building with adjacent communities.

Seeking a student in either Construction Management or Civil Engineering preferred

Experience/Responsibilities: 

  • Manual labor with some technical skills
  • Document and file/organize photos from the site visits
  • Garden management (We operate a small test plot on site studying vegetation)
  • Read and create visual interpretations of the city code.
  • Land use code research
  • Contract/legal document review
  • Attend meetings, networking events, meals with our partners (as schedule allows)
  • Door knocking for water shares
  • Contractor/sub-contractor meetings, site visits and coordination.
  • PDF, Excel, Word, Miro experience is desired
  • Candidate will need to have access to their own reliable transportation with insurance.
  • We hope to find a candidate with a willingness to identify, communicate, and propose remedies (through process or technology) to operational inefficiencies.
  • The ability to self-manage and complete tasks on schedule is a must.

Moser Energy Systems is a world-class provider of innovative, low-emission, grid interactive distributed energy solutions for Oilfield Services, Commercial, Industrial, and Military applications with an office and laboratory space at the Powerhouse Energy Campus.

We are currently developing and validating new products at Powerhouse that will be used to support a nation-wide network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers and provide mobile microgrid generators for back-up and emergency power. Our products utilize power-electronics, battery energy storage, and traditional generator sets. We are seeking a self-motivated and organized undergraduate or graduate student to work in the laboratory to help Moser design engineers develop and validate new control algorithms to demonstrate EV charging and microgrid applications. 

We are looking for students majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Junior or senior year undergraduate students or graduate students (any year) with the following experience.

Experience:

  • Coursework in electrical power and three-phase circuit analysis
  • Soldering, building and prototyping electrical circuits
  • Electrical measurement equipment
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Programmable logic controllers (PLC) is desired but not required.

Solas Energy provides commercial advisory consulting services to the renewable energy industry. We specialize in project development and project management consulting services, climate change policy analysis, and asset acquisition/divestiture services for utility scale wind and solar power projects. With experience in renewable energy and climate change dating to the late 1990’s, Solas Energy provides consulting on a variety of projects in the U.S. and Canada to utilities, developers, contractors, and equipment manufacturers.

We are looking for a bright, motivated, and conscientious university student located in Fort Collins to work on a full-time basis during the CSU 10-week internship program. This position will primarily be working to support senior management on utility scale and small scale solar and wind energy projects in the U.S. and Canada.

The Project Engineering Intern will assist in performing basic administrative and project controls functions to support both the company and the company’s clients. Some of the administrative functions for the company include assisting in preparing proposals and preparation of marketing materials, managing data sites and other duties as required. It is expected that the Project Engineering Intern will be billable to clients approximately 50% of the time and will perform functions such as research on renewable energy policies by State, review of land agreements and documents, document controls, scheduling, cost estimating, reporting, procurement support, contract support, and other duties as needed by clients. The Project Engineering Intern will work from the office in Fort Collins at the CSU Powerhouse.

The Project Engineering Intern will receive on-the-job training and will become highly familiar with utility scale solar and wind energy projects, bidding processes, contractors, development methodologies, and market pricing.

Duties:
• Presentations, marketing, and research – create professional PowerPoint presentation from raw data and text; assist in the development of marketing materials; conduct internet-based research.
• Proposals – assist in responding to requests for proposals and estimating pricing.
• Development assistance – support development of a renewable energy projects as needed.
• Contract review – fact check client contracts against source documents.
• Bid assessment/analysis – assist in the assembly of bid documents for construction contracts; the qualification of contractors, pricing analysis, the application of analytic tools to effectively chart relative capabilities and pricing. Confirm understanding with subcontractors as required.
• Support applications for government small business designations and contracting efforts.
• Other Administrative tasks as assigned.
• Authorized to work in the US.
• Driver’s license required.

Qualifications:
• Passion for renewable energy.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and flexibility in terms of assignments.
• Strong communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills; problem solving techniques; ability to take direction.
• General understanding and ability to use project scheduling software and methodology; Microsoft office suite; and strong Excel/Spreadsheet analysis; Teams.
• Familiarity with contracting procedures, project contracts, engineering practices, construction techniques, wind, and solar plant technologies.
• Strong attention to detail; focus on accuracy, consistency, and quality of work; high degree of integrity & reliability.

Education/Experience:
• Working toward degree in Construction Management, Engineering or other similar degree, or MBA student with technical/energy background.

Required Skills:
• 2nd year or greater Fort Collins based university student enrolled in engineering or construction management. GPA 3.0 or higher.
• Moderate to advanced proficiency with MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access
• Familiarity with MS Project and/or ability to learn and utilize new software quickly
• Demonstrated analytical skills and attention to detail
• Superb organizational and time management skills
• Professional written and personal presentation communications skills
• Self directed, capable of working on an assigned deliverable result with minimal direction.
• “Can do!” attitude and the ability to work independently effectively
• Reliable transportation to meet with employer and attend client meetings.

The Zimmerle group led by Dan Zimmerle of Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center (METEC) focuses on improving methane detection, quantification and modeling systems to help advance programs that reduce methane emissions. METEC accomplishes this through testing and training at the METEC Foothills location and through its extensive Research Program. This internship is an immersive experience at METEC. Interns will have the opportunity to garner valuable experience working as a member of METEC with research scientists on real-world projects.
Primarily, interns will work in the discipline they are assigned. Research scientists will provide training and mentorship to interns.

Responsibilities:

  • Work with team to accomplish assignments
  • Maintain close contact with METEC operations, maintenance, and engineering to identify and implement electrical equipment repairs and reliability improvements
  • Support research scientists to design control systems at METEC
  • Support research scientists with programming, preferably some experience with Python (Pandas, Bokeh, Pyarrow,
  • Testing frameworks, and Jupyter) and Git automation
  • Support research scientists with evaluating performance of instruments, conducting experiments at METEC
  • Proactively provide supervisor and team with updates and feedback on any assignments
  • See projects through to completion, meet deadlines

Qualifications:

  • B.S. in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Systems Engineering
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Willingness to learn

As an intern at NoCo Clean Cities, you will be working on a net load metering project that predicts solar and electric vehicle (EV) adoption on the grid, your main responsibilities will involve analyzing energy data and developing predictive models.

You will work closely with the project team to collect and process data on energy consumption, solar installations, and EV adoption rates in the area. You will use this data to build and refine models that can predict future solar and EV adoption trends.

To do this, you may use statistical modeling techniques and machine learning algorithms to analyze historical data and identify patterns and trends. You may also need to consider factors such as government policies, economic conditions, and technological advancements that could impact adoption rates.

Once you have developed accurate predictive models, you will use them to create net load profiles that account for both traditional and renewable energy sources on the grid. These profiles will help energy providers better manage their grid operations by anticipating changes in energy demand and supply.

Other tasks you may be involved in include data visualization, report writing, and presenting your findings to the project team. You may also be asked to collaborate with other interns and team members to develop new tools and techniques for data analysis and modeling.

Preferred Field of Study: Computer Science

Preferred Year in School: Junior+

Desired skills:

  • Some commonly used languages for data analysis and modeling include Python, R, and Google Sheets and or SQL.
  • Python is a popular choice for data analysis and modeling due to its simplicity, versatility, and large community of users. Python has a number of powerful libraries for data analysis, including Pandas, Numpy, and Scikit-learn, that can be used to develop predictive models.
  • R is another widely used language for data analysis and modeling. It is especially popular among statisticians and data scientists due to its built-in statistical functions and graphical capabilities.
  • Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet program that can be useful for managing and analyzing small to medium-sized datasets. It is easy to use and can be accessed by multiple users from different locations. If the data for the project is stored in Google Sheets, the intern may need to have some knowledge of how to extract and manipulate data from Sheets using tools such as Python’s pandas library.
  • SQL (Structured Query Language) is a programming language used to manage and manipulate data in relational databases. If the project involves large datasets stored in a database, the intern may need to have some knowledge of SQL to extract and manipulate the data for modeling and analysis.

Additional Information: 

  • Data analysis and modeling: The intern should have a good understanding of statistical modeling techniques and machine learning algorithms, as well as experience working with data analysis tools such as Python or R.
  • Energy knowledge: The intern should have a basic understanding of energy systems and how they work. Knowledge of solar energy and EV technology is a plus.
  • Communication skills: The intern should be able to effectively communicate their findings to team members and stakeholders, both in writing and verbally.
  • Teamwork: The intern should be comfortable working collaboratively with other team members, as this project will require a lot of coordination and cooperation.
  • Critical thinking: The intern should be able to think critically about the data and models they are working with, and be able to identify and solve problems as they arise.
  • Project management: The intern should have some experience managing projects, as they will be responsible for delivering work on time and within scope.

Dr. Bret Windom has been a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at CSU since August 2016. At the Powerhouse Energy Campus, he and his team of graduate students and undergraduates perform their research in the Chemical Energy Conversion Laboratory. The Windom Group is looking to add two interns for the summer.

  • Project 1: Will support ongoing work in biofuel synthesis projects (sustainable aviation fuel and bio-derived diesel blendstocks). Work will include conducting synthesis reactions, fuel characterization/analysis through analytical measurements and fuel property measurements, as well as distillation/separation/purifications of fuel products. Preferred a rising junior/senior student in mechanical or chemical engineering. Experience: Hands on work/wet lab experience would be nice, but not required.
  • Project 2: Will support efforts on the current installation of a 120 kW electrolysis facility. Work will include system level design and plant control, subcomponent sizing and installation and system level verification testing. Preferred a rising junior/senior student in mechanical or electrical engineering. Experience: CAD, Labview, and/or hands on experience with wiring would be nice to have but not required

Accordion Content

City of Fort Collins

Fort Collins Utilities (Light and Power) provides electrical service to more than 80,000 customers both residential and commercial in Fort Collins. Most Fort Collins homes, businesses and schools are equipped with advanced electric meters. Advanced meters, also known as smart meters or digital meters, provide two-way communication between the meter and utilities through radio frequency (RF) waves, allowing accurate, timely meter readings and the ability to turn on and off service remotely. FCU installed smart meters in 2015, which provides 15-minute interval load data on each of its customers.  This provides a data set with over 16 billion+ records, and is a tremendous asset that can be utilized to analyze customer usage trends and impacts on the power grid. This analyses is exceedingly gaining importance due to the cities 2030 climate future plan which promotes distributed energy resources across the city (example beneficial electrification and adoption of electric vehicles and solar)

https://www.fcgov.com/

https://www.fcgov.com/utilities/smart-meters

https://ourcity.fcgov.com/ourclimatefuture

 

The intern will primarily work on the following

1)Examine and implement strategies to manage large smart meter data sets

2)Perform distributed energy resources, power grid and customer impact analyses under the direction of senior engineering staff

3)Present analyses results

 

Qualifications:

B.S. in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Systems Engineering (Sophomore, Junior, or Graduate Student)

Some experience in coding (Python) and some big data experience.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Willingness to learn

Job Description: In collaboration with the She’s in Power Power Up program to advance women in the clean energy field and the COGEN internship program, we are encouraging female students to apply. If a female applicant is selected, she will participate in the She’s in Power program from May – September which includes mentoring, professional development, and networking activities among our participants. Please read through the She’s in Power Program Guide. Prieto is looking for an intern to support us in our 3D battery research. We propose that the intern conduct a systematic study of cathode materials and formulations based on sheet resistance measurements and particle size analysis.



Preferred Field of Study: Chemistry, Material Science, Chemical Engineering, Physics


Year of Education: Sophomore, Junior, Senior


Experience: Hands-on lab experience, analytical chemistry 

The Energy Institute is launching a new initiative focused on STEM education and outreach. This internship will directly work with the Energy Institute STEM coordinator to develop education and outreach materials for K-12 students. There are two projects that the intern can choose to support.

Project 1: Mobile STEM Truck

This project is focused on developing energy and carbon solution based modules that can travel in the truck to various outreach events. An example of an existing module is the wind energy exploration module. This module includes a small wind tunnel and supplies that students build their own wind turbine and then test it in the wind tunnel.

Project 2: Lobby Display

This project will develop a lobby display to be deployed at Powerhouse or the SPUR campus. The intent of the display is for it to be an interactive energy demonstration. Both projects have a lot of flexibility in terms of scope and the intern will work directly with the STEM Outreach Coordinator.

Qualifications:

  • Open to all STEM majors.
  • Open to all levels of school.
  • Creativity is the most important trait desired followed by strong work ethic.