Faculty Research Awards

The William States Lee College of Engineering is leading critical investigations with key research faculty at an increasing rate, as demonstrated by a 25+ percent increase in research funding in the past year ($13,660,952 in 2021-2022 to $17.8M in 2022-2023). Likewise, UNC Charlotte overall is continuing to demonstrate innovation leadership and growth, being ranked fourth in the nation for patents per research dollar.

UNC Charlotte has been awarded a Strategy Development Grant of $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.

Countries around the globe, including the U.S., are racing to be carbon neutral by 2050. The key to success will be balancing the need for clean energy with the need for security. A team of researchers across the UNC system, led by UNC Charlotte, is working to build a more secure and reliable power grid, thanks to funding through the UNC System Research Opportunities Initiative

Amir Ghasemi, Assistant Professor in the William States Lee College of Engineering, earned the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award in June of this year to support his investigations in the area of human-robot interaction.

EPIC again leads the way to energy solutions. Mike Mazzola, Executive Director of EPIC, was recently awarded an NSF Engines Development Award for $1 million.

In Hong Yang, Assistant Professor in the William States Lee College of Engineering, earned the prestigious NSF CAREER Award in January of this year to support his investigations in neuromodulation, which is one of the fastest-growing areas of medicine. Yang’s proposal entitled “CAREER: Magnetic Stimulation and Myelination” was awarded $450,710 for a five-year study beginning 2023.

Three engineering graduate students are researching impactful projects by leveraging the highly competitive and prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship award from the National Science Foundation. Chris Neff, Electrical Engineering, Patrick Bounds and Marc Duemmler, both Mechanical Engineering, are graduate students in the William States Lee College of Engineering and Fellows in the NSF program. These three students are among only 2,000 students selected nationwide to receive the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship from more than 16,000 applicants.

Dr. Bala Muralikrishnan, College of Engineering alumnus, has been named a 2021 Arthur S. Flemming Award recipient. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”), in the U.S. Department of Commerce, nominated Dr. Muralikrishnan to be recognized for his outstanding service in the federal government.

A project co-led by Dr. Mona Azarbayjani, associate professor of architecture, and Dr. Hamed Tabkhi, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I (STTR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

UNC Charlotte will develop a Center for Additive Manufacture of Advanced Ceramics to address the expanding needs of advanced manufacturing in North Carolina with the support of a 2022-24 University of North Carolina Research Opportunity Initiative (ROI) grant. The award positions UNC Charlotte — and the UNC System — to become national leaders in the burgeoning field of additive manufacture of advanced ceramics, often referred to as 3-D printing, which makes possible the manufacture of advanced ceramic components for a number of industries at reduced cost and with increased design freedom.