General News

Nick Dietterich knows the difference between the easy road and the tough, and as a December 2025 graduate of the construction management program, he has clearly defined which of those he prefers to take.

Jorian Khan knew what he wanted to do when he was searching for graduate schools, but he didn’t know what to call his desired field of study.

He just knew he wanted to improve his coffee.

UNC Charlotte’s commitment to advancing workplace safety and professional readiness has reached a new, competitive milestone. The occupational safety track of the M.S. in Fire Protection and Safety Management is now officially approved by the national Board of Certified Safety Professionals as a Graduate Safety Practitioner (GSP) Qualified Academic Program.

In September, 20 UNC Charlotte students shook hands and began relationships with professionals from Bobcat Company, the world’s leading manufacturer of construction compact equipment. Each Niner received a $3,000 scholarship, becoming the first students to benefit from a new partnership between UNC Charlotte and Bobcat. 

The 49er Rocketry Team is crowdfunding for a comeback season as it prepares for the NASA Student Launch in the spring. The Niner Engineers look to prove themselves once again on the national stage, redeeming themselves from a lower-than-expected finish last year.

On Friday, October 17, more than 100 high school students filled Duke Centennial Hall for Manufacturing Day 2025, an immersive, career exploration tour. This four-hour event directly connected students with hands-on learning, advanced technological demonstrations and networking possibilities that cultivate their interest in the field of manufacturing.

When the National Science Foundation named UNC Charlotte as a finalist in its Regional Innovation Engines program, it marked a significant milestone for the university’s emergence as a national hub for energy innovation. Central to this success is Grid Ancillary services with Uninterruptible Power Supply (GAUPS) technology, developed by Sukumar Kamalasadan, the Duke Energy Distinguished Professor in Engineering in UNC Charlotte’s William States Lee College of Engineering. GAUPS addresses a critical challenge facing advanced manufacturers, hospitals, and data centers across the Carolinas: costly power quality disruptions.

When fall 2024 arrived at UNC Charlotte, five senior Niner Engineers didn’t just get a textbook assignment — they were handed an actual production problem by Bosch Power Tools. The challenge: design a new system to reduce quality defects and ergonomic risks in a packaging process at the company’s Lincolnton, North Carolina, plant.

Highly skilled Niner Engineers are key to North Carolina’s continued rise in technology, energy and advanced manufacturing. Support for their education comes from Engineering North Carolina’s Future, an initiative backed by a $41.2 million investment in the University by the North Carolina General Assembly.

The investment, beginning in fall 2022 to the current fall semester, has yielded record-breaking student enrollment at the W.S. Lee College of Engineering and other significant advances.

Chideraa Ndubuisi ’25 MPH is driven to improve human health. Through research — and an unquenchable appetite for learning everything he can about medicine, public health and environmental systems — he is exploring, analyzing and drawing conclusions about the levels of microplastics and halogenated organics, particularly brominated flame retardants, in municipal wastewater treatment processes.