9H Applied Engineering Projects

The 9H Research Foundation gives students opportunities to work on real-world applied projects. This is the best way to prepare students for a competitive career in Wyoming's industries. In the last five years, 9H has funded $1,000,000+ worth of UW student awards, internships, competitions, prototypes, projects, and scholarships.

With student input from senior design projects, 9H built a 500-kW solar facility with 1,152 panels on 5 acres outside Laramie, powered local ranches through 9H's partnership with Carbon Power and Light, generated public data for student research, and funded Wyoming student projects, scholarships, and internships through electricity sales.

In 2022, a team of four UW students identified weed species using drone-mounted sensors, image processing software, and machine learning techniques and explored the use of drones for precise herbicide application and mosquito breeding abatement.

In 2023, student interns designed, project-managed, and installed a geothermal stock tank, beta-tested an autonomous drone program on a Wyoming ranch, and produced a techno-economic analysis of the 9H solar facility.

In 2024, 9H hired two UW student interns to develop a robotic platform and software to scan cattle and estimate their weight.

In 2025, two UW mechanical engineering interns designed, developed, and built a culvert inspection robot prototype that was presented to the Wyoming Department of Transportation and tested on local ranches.

In 2026, two 9H interns from UW working with UplinkRobotics designed, built, and field-tested a long-range live-video and remote-control system for inspection crawlers. The custom link carried video, telemetry, and driving commands, reached 622 yards line of sight versus 528 yards for a commercial system, and included an on-screen display plus a production-ready controller board.

You can support these real-world learning opportunities through your gift on Giving Day. A gift of $8,000 funds a full-time student intern, and all gifts go directly into the pockets of students.

Thank you!