General News

Successfully completing wave tank testing during the spring and summer, the WATER BROS team that includes UNC Charlotte faculty, alumni and students, has moved to the final stage of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waves to Water competition. The team will now begin using an additional $100,000 in funding to fabricate and test its prototype for converting seawater to potable drinking water using only wave energy. The prototype will be demonstrated during final open-ocean trials at the North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute in April 2022.

The William States Lee College of Engineering welcomes five new faculty members to the fall 2021 semester.

The Charlotte Business Journal has named Dr. Jun Xu, an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department, as one of its 40-Under-40 Young Professionals for 2021.

WE Engage!, the college’s program focused on creating community and confidence in our female engineering, engineering technology and construction management students, started the fall semester with a continental breakfast for our new and continuing students.

A freezing-weather problem that results in billions of dollars in road maintenance costs across the entire United State is now being studied in a laboratory in North Carolina. A team of researchers from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UNC Charlotte is bringing its expertise in the use of organo-silanes (water-repellent additives) to create hydrophobic soil to solve the problem of frost heaving. The team members have a variety of experience and skills directly related to the issue, even though a number of the them have never seen frost or snow.

As part of a military veterans STEM program between The William States Lee College of Engineering at UNC Charlotte and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, three undergraduate engineering students from Tennessee have come to Charlotte this summer to gain a first-hand experience with engineering research.

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.

In an article in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) online “Mechanical Engineering Magazine” and in an ASME podcast discussion, Dr. Steve Schmid of UNC Charlotte and Dr. Shreyes Melkote of Georgia Tech explore and discuss the essentials of a strong manufacturing sector supporting America’s military operations and global commitments.

The UNC Charlotte 49er Rocketry Team won first place overall in this year’s NASA Student Launch competition. The team of Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering Technology students placed first in both the payload and altitude portions of the competition, and third in safety.

Dr. Robert (Bob) Hocken, Professor Emeritus of UNC Charlotte’s Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department died on June 2, 2021. Dr. Hocken was an international leader in the field of precision engineering, an award-winning educator, and a much-loved professor and colleague. One of the founding fathers of engineering and scientific research at UNC Charlotte, Dr. […]