General News

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has won the 2014 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for its successful decade-long efforts to improve student learning and outcomes as measured by the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

Almost 50 years in the making, the history of The William States Lee College of Engineering at UNC Charlotte is one rich in educating engineers and technologists who have gone forward to make significant contributions to their professions and communities. The impact of these contributions are the legacy of the college.

It took large-capacity trucks, a massive crane, heavy-lift rigging specialists, dismantled doors and cuts made into the walls, and the end result is UNC Charlotte now has one of the largest coordinate measuring machines in the world. Hexagon Metrology has loaned a Leitz PMM-F 30-20-16 coordinate measuring machine to UNC Charlotte for four years. The new machine will be a key component in the Siemens Large Manufacturing Solutions Laboratory, a new lab built on the expertise of the Lee College of Engineering’s Center for Precision Metrology and Energy Production and Infrastructure Center.

Dr. Chris Evans has been named the new director of the Center for Precision Metrology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, taking over for Dr. Bob Hocken who retired in June 2014.

The William States Lee College of Engineering has presented its 2014 Excellence in Teaching Awards to Dr. Tara Cavalline of Engineering Technology and Construction Management for undergraduate teaching, and Dr. Matt Whelan of Civil and Environmental Engineering for graduate teaching.

A gift from Craig and Darla Albert has established a new merit-based scholarship program to be awarded by the Honors College for the purpose of developing future engineering leaders.

Through their research in developing advanced machining analytical models, Dr. Tony Schmitz and his students are bringing science to the art of high-speed manufacturing.

Entrepreneurial spirit is a source of strength and pride at UNC Charlotte. To teach students the skills they need to succeed as entrepreneurs, the Lee College of Engineering has a new course that has already led to multiple successes in winning competitions, licensing technology and starting new businesses.

From junior design, to a new entrepreneurial course, to senior design, and now on to running their own company, the Electrical and Computer Engineering students now known as Red Wire Logic are storming through the world of technology startups.

Having taken the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship, Dr. Ivan Howitt is learning to apply his research, understand business, change directions, decrease scale, increase production and live without a steady paycheck, all in the cause of developing a superior sewer rat.