Duke students Samson Bienstock, Karimah Preston, and Tyler Rahe–all graduate students with engineering backgrounds–emphasized that with the increased number of people entering college, there’s a growing gap to be filled in the trades. Connexus essentially plans to be middle man, accelerating job placement by training graduating high school students. The last time I spoke to Lamendola, a graduate student at the Nicholas School of the Environment, his team was looking to upscale a carbon neutral method for producing synthetic methane.