Engineering students at the University of Colorado Denver soon will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience testing outdoors gear with precision machinery in a newly created “innovation laboratory” through a partnership with Outside Interactive Inc., the Boulder-based media company that is home to more than 30 online platforms, including Outside magazine. Officially called The Outside Lab at CU Denver, its mission will be to provide a space where faculty, students, Outside editors and entrepreneurs in the outdoors industry can test skiing, running, hiking gear and other outdoors equipment using highly sophisticated machinery. Outside will use laboratory findings to enhance gear review features across its platforms by introducing objective testing data to augment subjective field tests, while students will gain valuable experience operating in a laboratory setting, the university said. Outside CEO Robin Thurston, photographed at offices of Outside Interactive in Boulder.