The CU Hearing Research Laboratory is recruiting participants for a research study on how our ability to hear interacts with our ability to listen (focus our attention) in difficult listening situations, such as distorted or noisy speech. We are interested in whether measures of attention and memory can help us choose hearing aid settings that make speech more clear. You may be eligible if you are age 18 years or older with normal hearing or with hearing loss in both ears. Please contact us if you may be interested in participating in this study. Contact the Hearing Research Lab at hearlab@colorado.edu or call 303-492-0067 for more information.

Strategic Relations and Communications is seeking first and second year undergraduates to participate in a 60-minute focus group on Feb. 18, Feb. 19, Feb. 20 and Feb. 22. The focus groups will be conveniently held in the CASE building.

We want to hear your opinions about different CU Boulder offerings and programs. Participation is confidential, and all responses will be anonymous.

As a token of appreciation, we are offering each participant a small campus cash deposit to their account.

Find a date and time that works for you and reserve your spot. Participation will be on a first-come, first-served basis—so sign up today!

March 19 is the deadline for a chance to win $500 in the 20th annual Thompson Writing Awards.

The contest is open to all CU Boulder students at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Prizes are $500 in each of five categories: fiction, memoir, poetry, academic non-fiction and creative non-fiction. 

Enter your writing in any or all of the categories. Your work may touch on any theme relevant to the American West—past, present or future. To name some examples: growing up in a Western town; visiting a Western place for the first time; Native American history; immigration; mining; public lands; myth and stereotype in movies and books about the West; ranching; prairie dogs; wolves; wild horses; wild fires; water, dams and drought; tourism.

Visit our website for details, the entry form, and to read winning entries from past years. Contact us with your questions at academics@centerwest.org or 303-735-1399. 

We are looking for a student to co-lead a fun and supportive student group called Biphoria.

Biphoria is for CU students who identify as bisexual, pansexual, queer, fluid and their allies! The goal of this group is to create a community to provide support, address bisexual stereotypes and the "perpetual closet," increase bisexual visibility and foster friendships.  

Meetings are bi-weekly, 3:30 p.m. Thursdays, starting Jan. 31.

If you are interested in helping to co-lead this student group, please contact anna.m.scott@colorado.edu.

Do you have programs, services, courses, events or messages that you want or need to promote to get more attention? Put your message on the University Memorial Center's digital signs!

Create your own eye-catching slides, animations or videos that cycle on three different UMC digital signs in front of hundreds of students and UMC visitors every day. It's environmentally friendly, low-cost and cuts down on print materials.

Visit the UMC website for more details and information on other opportunities within the UMC to help get the word out to the CU Boulder community.

This study is about how typical artificial indoor lighting versus a simulation of a natural sunset influences the timing of the human body clock. The body clock controls 24-hour patterns of physiology such as sleep and hormone release. This work will have important implications for determining how implementation of new lighting technology can be used to promote sleep. We are looking for healthy men and women, ages 18-45, to participate in a study lasting approximately 15 days consisting of wearing an activity tracking watch at home, and two laboratory visits of about 7 hours each at the CU Boulder Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory. Compensation up to $200. For study details, email sleep.study@colorado.edu and ask about the Simulated Sunset study.

CU Health Promotion is recruiting students to participate in focus groups to better understand students’ perceptions around marijuana use. Participants and their answers are confidential. 

We are looking for both people who use and do not use marijuana to share their thoughts. These focus groups will take place the first week of March. Groups will run 60–90 minutes, and participants will receive a $20 Campus Cash card for their time. These cards can be used for food (dining centers, grab-n’-gos and Starbucks), at the book store, for laundry and for printing. The results of the focus groups will be used to help us craft communication materials and improve programs offered to students. 
 
Please sign up online if you are interested, and you will be contact by the end of Feb. 21 with more information. Please contact kathryn.dailey@colorado.edu if you have any questions.

Interested in your moods and brain? Participate in a paid neuroimaging study to understand your own emotions and the emotions of others on the CU Boulder campus in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience (IRB# 17-0358).

Earn between $15 and $25 per hour to participate in studies involving answering questions about your thoughts and feelings, watching brief videos, playing computer games and having an MRI brain scan taken. Study includes up to three separate visits (first is 4–5 hours, second is 3 hours, third is 1–2 hours). Option for additional paid follow-ups.

To qualify, you must be between the ages of 18 and 55 years old and either have:

• Diagnosis of bipolar disorder
• History of depression
• No history of mental health conditions

Please fill out a brief survey to apply.

If you have questions, please contact us: gruberpeplab@colorado.edu or 303-735-7547.

The National Safety Council (NSC) defensive driving course, offered by CU Transportation Services, is recognized for its leading edge curriculum, defensive driving strategies, hazard recognition exercises and learner retention strategies.

This 4-hour in-person instructor-led course, taught on location at the CU Boulder East Campus Transportation Services center by an NSC certified instructor, provides the primary knowledge and skills for defensive driving and describes techniques for avoiding high-risk driving behaviors. Participants will learn that the right attitude can prevent collisions and understand the consequences of poor decision-making.

All faculty, staff and student employees on campus are encouraged to attend. If you attempt to register for the Feb. 13 class and it is full, you will be added to the waitlist and automatically notified if a spot becomes available. Conversely, a minimum of three registrants is required for class to be held, and if at least three people do not sign up, registrants will be notified of class cancellation and accommodated with a future class date.

Pre-registration for this course is required. Register and get information about future sessions.

If you go

Who: Students, faculty, staff
What: National Safety Council defensive driving course
When: Wed. Feb. 13, 5 to 9 p.m.
Where: Transportation Center, 3205 Marine St., Boulder

Hourly metered parking is available along Marine Street. Cost for meters is $2/hour payable by credit card or coins. Parking payment meters and zones are enforced 24/7.

Class fee is $125 payable only via campus Speedtype or check made out to “The Regents of the University of Colorado” (sorry no credit cards accepted for this session).

Do you want to participate in a study about cognition, emotions and resilience? Are you a teen ages 15–19? Or do you know a teen who may be interested? At the Research on Affective Disorders and Development (RADD) Laboratory, we are interested in understanding how certain cognitive abilities, such as being able to pay attention or learn actions that help you achieve goals, may help teenagers to cope with stress and stay healthy. This is a two-year study. Over the course of the study, you will have two study visits at our laboratory in Boulder, each lasting about five hours. During these visits you will be interviewed about your life experiences; you will complete some computer games that involve paying attention and learning; you will have a neuroimaging scan while you either rest quietly or play computer games; and you will answer a set of surveys on a computer. Also as part of the study, you will complete a set of online surveys and a brief telephone interview once every six months (five times total during the two-year study participation). At the end of the study, you will have a final telephone interview, lasting about two hours. You can earn up to $750 for your time and effort completing the study. To learn more, you or your parent/legal guardian (if you are age 17 or younger) can visit our website at www.raddlab.com, contact our lab directly at 303-735-8306 or email us at raddlab@colorado.edu.

The program assistant serves both the Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) and Engineering Plus (e+) programs and teams, providing prompt, polite resolution of engineering student, faculty and staff inquiries. 

Customer service is a key responsibility of the position and includes: student, staff and faculty service; problem assessment and solution; administrative support; survey processing; and financial processing and reporting. This position also serves as the ITL Laboratory building proctor, handling facility and equipment maintenance; facility scheduling and general program support. 

The Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) Program and Laboratory is an educational unit within the College of Engineering and Applied Science offering and supporting hands-on courses and workshops in undergraduate and graduate engineering to over 4,600 students during the academic year. In addition to engineering college students, the unit also serves the K-12 community through its K-12 engineering program, which includes student classes and programming, after-school engineering education and outreach, summer camps and teacher professional development workshops. 

CU Boulder employees should apply Feb. 5. View the full posting and requirements on the internal job board.

For international grad students planning to do OPT (optional practical training), be sure to apply early, starting Feb. 7, since it’s taking a minimum of three and a half months to process. Grad students must have their OPT authorization card in hand before they begin working.

Get more information on OPT, or find workshops on applying for OPT. Contact ISSS at isss@colorado.edu with questions.

The workshop by Ash Beckham will address how to become more authentic in the workplace, develop tools to set attainable goals by breaking tasks into thirds and how to be an ally in science. All races, genders, and religions are welcome to attend.

For more information, visit the WISE website or email katelyn.long@colorado.edu.

If you go

Wednesday, Feb. 13
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
SEEC Bartlett Center

Graduate students are reminded of the campus’s annual conflicts of interest reporting period, via the Disclosure of External Professional Activities (DEPA) reporting form. Emails about this important requirement were sent from the provost and vice chancellor for research to all graduate students—please check your emails.

Specific groups include but are not limited to all PRAs, research associates and research assistants (all levels), instructors (all levels), librarians, museum associates and fellows; also, non-employee graduate students if they are currently involved in the design, conduct or reporting of any research (including their own) or if they are involved in any CU employee’s affiliated company/foundation, etc. (compensated or not).

The following groups typically do not need to report: TAs, lecturers, professional exempts. However, university personnel involved in the design, conduct and reporting of research do need to submit a DEPA, regardless of job type. Email coi@colorado.edu with questions.

Sharpen your PowerPoint skills, enhance your conference talk and hone your elevator pitch in this two-day workshop.

Open to graduate students, postdocs and senior undergraduate researchers who are interested in giving scientific talks to a scientific community. Apply by Feb. 6, as this workshop is limited to 40 participants to encourage a more personalized experience.

If you go

Saturday, Feb. 23, and Sunday, Feb. 24
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days
Biotechnology Building