Dr. Tabares-Velasco and Dr. Marcus Bianchi of NREL, were one of eight teams awarded seed funding from Nexus, the Mines-NREL partnership aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two organizations. Tabares-Velasco and Bianchi’s award was for developing an NSF proposal on future dynamic materials that will ultimately change the way buildings interact with the grid. The focus of the project is to combine materials and building science with optimization techniques that will guide new development of building materials and systems that will ultimately allow the building envelope to store and release thermal energy when needed, reducing the need for heating and cooling systems. Read more about the program and the other awardees on Mines Newsroom»