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The University of Colorado Boulder welcomed a freshman class of 5,869 students, a slight increase by 0.4 percent over last year, and in the process achieved the most academically qualified and diverse incoming class in the campus’s history. Fall 2014 census figures show a total enrollment of 29,772 degree- and licensure-seeking students, 447 students more than last year. A total of 3,083 Colorado residents enrolled as new freshmen in the fall class, as well as 2,786 from out of state and a record 386 freshman international students, a 41 percent increase from last year.

A NASA mission to Mars led by the University of Colorado Boulder is set to slide into orbit around the red planet Sept. 21 to investigate how its climate has changed over the eons, completing a 10-month interplanetary journey of 442 million miles. The orbit-insertion maneuver will begin with six thruster engines firing to shed some of the velocity from the spacecraft, known as the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN mission. The thruster engines will ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the spacecraft, allowing it to be captured into an elliptical orbit around Mars.

Most homeowners are willing to take part in cost-sharing that helps pay for wildfire risk mitigation on their properties, but some of those with the highest wildfire risk are the least likely to participate in those programs, according to a collaborative study by the University of Colorado Boulder and partnering institutions.

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, or UROP , is one unique program that offers CU-Boulder students an opportunity to follow academic curiosities in every field. Designed to provide grant-writing experience, connect students to faculty and explore interests beyond the classroom, the program is open to all CU-Boulder undergraduates.

The public is invited to attend a watch party at the University of Colorado Boulder on Sunday, Sept. 21, when NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, designed to understand past climate change on Mars, inserts itself into orbit after a 10-month journey to the planet.

Continuing its commitment to improving America’s drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 9 announced more than $8 million in grants to create two national centers for research and innovation in small- to medium-sized drinking water systems.

After spending nearly six months on the International Space Station, University of Colorado Boulder astronaut-alumnus Steve Swanson is slated to drift back to Earth in a Russian space capsule Sept. 10 before banging down on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

Two University of Colorado Boulder student aerospace engineering science teams have won prestigious international and national awards for the design of real-world space missions to Mars and the moon.

U.S. Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonin Scalia will deliver the fourth annual John Paul Stevens Lecture hosted by the Byron R. White Center and the University of Colorado Law School on Wednesday, Oct. 1. The event will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. A limited number of seats are available to the lecture for the general public at no cost. To register for tickets visit the center’s website at byronwhitecenter.org .

Tweets sent during last year’s massive flooding on Colorado’s Front Range were able to detail the scope of damage to the area’s infrastructure, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder. The findings can help geotechnical and structural engineers more effectively direct their reconnaissance efforts after future natural disasters—including earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes—as well as provide them data that might otherwise be lost due to rapid cleanup efforts.