News
With only the sun powering its new technologies, UNC Charlotte’s UrbanEden will be an innovative, sustainable, efficient and eco-friendly house that is at the same time attractive and comfortable. Part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition, UrbanEden is a joint project of UNC Charlotte’s colleges of engineering, architecture and business.
Having helped establish UNC Charlotte as a research university for the past 25 years, Dr. Ray Tsu, the “Superlattice Man”, is retiring. Not one to stop working or contributing completely, though, Dr. Tsu will begin three years of phased retirement in spring 2013, after which he says he still plans to provide consulting for university research.
Computers have come to the electric grid, and the Duke Energy Smart Grid laboratory at The William States Lee College of Engineering is educating the engineers who will be running this improved grid and performing research to achieve top efficiency in the new digital world.
A double major in Electrical Engineering and Physics, Ritchie began his co-op program in September 2008. He graduated from UNC Charlotte in December and is now completing the remainder of his co-op work with the Program Engineering Group in Duke Energy’s Fossil-Hydro Division.
Dr. Bird’s education includes a bachelor’s degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and a master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. His doctoral research was in the field of magnetic suspension for high-speed vehicles.
“It’s impressive to see how many people on this campus are involved in renewable energy and how many are using sunlight as a source of that energy,” said Dr. Michael Fiddy, director of the UNC Charlotte Optoelectronics and Optical Communications Center.
The designer and instructor of the class is Dr. Gary Wilson. “The number-one objective of the course is to integrate heat transfer, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics into the design of a system,” he said.
In the Introduction to Electrical Power Systems class, Electrical Engineering Technology students are experimenting and learning as they use machines that precisely mimic real power generation and motor systems, just on a smaller, safer scale.
Through wireless sensor networks that can be deployed quickly and safely, Lee College of Engineering researchers are helping keep power plants running through the continuous monitoring of vital equipment and systems. The research is being led by Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Dr. Asis Nasipuri.
“EPIC is about regional growth and advancement in the energy industry,” said Dr. Steve Patterson, director of EPIC and a distinguished professor in the Lee College of Engineering. “Clearly one strength of EPIC is the outstanding energy engineering assets of the region in which we live.” Regional energy corporations include AREVA, Duke Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), The Shaw Group, URS Washington Group, Westinghouse, Siemens and Metso Power.