3D Printed Engineered Structures for High Performance Direct Air Capture System

 
 

Contract Number : DE-FEE0032260

Project Description

The goal of the project is to develop novel 3D-printed sorbent structures that can capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from air via a rapid thermal swing adsorption (RTSA) process. You can find more info here.

CBP Summary

In this project, our CBP goal is to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) at TDA and in the workforce.
As part of this program, we will employ and mentor college and high school interns, hold seminars at local schools, and support early-career underrepresented engineers and scientists.

Our Partners

  • University of Miami

    UM has committed to increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM,and will utilize the Student Diversity, Outreach, and Women’s Program at the University ofMiami to recruit andpromote such students for this project.

  • SLB

    SLB believes that one of its greatest strengths is the diversity of their workforce,with people of many nationalities and backgrounds working together and sharing common objectives. SLB doesnot have a ‘nationality’ that describes its culture but operates in a truly global manner throughout theworld. SLB recruits and develops people in alignment with their business objectives and the countries inwhich they work.

Milestones Table

 

SMART Goal # Brief Description Metric Success
1 College Intern # of underrepresented candidates in applicant pool Increase # of underrepresented candidates in applicant pool compared to previous intern pools
2 Underrepresented Scientist or Engineer # of engineers and/or scientists participate Engineer or scientist participates
3 College Seminars # of attendees At least 10 students attend each seminar
4 High School Intern # of underrepresented candidates in applicant pool Increase # of underrepresented candidates in applicant pool compared to previous intern pools
5 Society Meeting # of meetings attended At least 1 meeting attended
6 High School Seminar # of attendees At least 10 students attend each seminar

 

See each goal bellow for more specific description, as well as the current progress of the goal.

Goal Description

Increase the diversity of the intern applicant pool.

Current Progress

  • Job Postings

    We listed job postings for several interns:

    1. Summer Engineering Intern
    2. Summer CAD Intern
    3. Summer Chemist Intern

    To increase the diversity of the applicant pool, we posted the Summer Engineering Intern on the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) website found here in addition to our standard websites where we post our job openings (20 sites). We hired 16 summer interns. The intern on this project had experience in 3D printing and will run our ceramic 3D printer over the summer for this project.

  • Applicant Pool

    For the Summer Engineering Intern position last year, Table 1 shows the diversity of the applicant pool. The Summer Engineering Intern applicant pool was 54% minority and 25% female with 0 veterans and 2 people who self-identified with a disability. This year we had 183 applicants so the applicant pool was much larger. However, the percentage of Hispanic/Latino applicants only increased 0.27% in 2024 compared to 2023. We expected a larger increase in Hispanic/Latino applicants since 6.01% of the applicants applied from the SHPE website (Table 2).

    Table 1. Diversity of Applicant Pool for Summer Engineering Intern

    Race Gender 2023 % 2024 %
    Asian
    • Female
    • Male
    • Decline
    • Total
    • 8.47
    • 13.56
    • 1.69
    • 23.73
    • 5.46
    • 10.38
    • 0.55
    • 16.39
    Black / AA
    • Female
    • Male
    • Total
    • 0
    • 3.39
    • 3.39
    • 0
    • 3.83
    • 3.83
    Hispanic/Latino
    • Female
    • Male
    • Total
    • 1.69
    • 6.78
    • 8.47
    • 2.19
    • 6.56
    • 8.74
    Mixed Race
    • Female
    • Male
    • Total
    • 3.39
    • 6.78
    • 10.17
    • 1.64
    • 2.19
    • 3.83
    Decline to Answer
    • Female
    • Male
    • Total
    • 3.39
    • 5.08
    • 8.47
    • 4.37
    • 6.01
    • 14.75

    Table 2. Source of Applicant for 2024 Summer Engineer Internship Posting

    Source of Applicant Percent of Total
    DirectEmployers 4.37
    google_jobs_apply 0.55
    Indeed 25.14
    LinkedIn 38.80
    Our Career Page 2.73
    SHPE 6.01
    Talent.com IA 0.55
    TDA Website 11.48
    Zip Recruiter Organic 10.38
    Grand Total 100.00

Goal Description

At least one project researcher will be from underrepresented groups in STEM.

Current Progress

  • Tracking diversity at TDA

    We met with TDA’s Human Resources and Accounting personnel to get information about TDA’s current diversity and setup methods for tracking diversity. This included tracking diversity of the current staff and applicant pools. In addition, we are tracking labor and expenses spent on the CBP activities by adding separate charge codes for these activities.

  • Current Team Members

    The diversity of the project team (8 members) for this project is currently 50% female and 25% minority.

Goal Description

There will be at least one seminar talking about the results of the project to college students in Colorado or Florida.

Goal Description

Increase the diversity of the high school intern applicant pool.

Goal Description

DEIA efforts will be shared at a meeting of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), or the National Society of Black Engineers annual convention.

Current Progress

  • Reworking Goal

    We found that both the SHPE and the NSBE annual conventions do not have technical talks. We also do not have a Hispanic or black project member. So, we decided to send project members to the American Chemical Society Conference which is in Denver this fall.

Goal Description

The results of this project will be shared at a local school. This workshop will use elements of the research project to promote STEM.

Current Progress

  • Arvada West High School Seminar

    We selected Arvada West High School in nearby Arvada which is located in a disadvantaged community. The community is disadvantaged due to low income, traffic proximity and volume, proximity to a superfund site, wastewater discharge and lack of high school education.

    We contacted 2 STEM teachers at Arvada West by email and began corresponding with Serrano Elsa, the STEM teacher at Arvada West. We initially planned that she would bring 100 students to visit TDA in early April but due to scheduling difficulties we have delayed these seminars to September.