Departmental News

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. […]

Dean Rob Keynton of the William States Lee College of Engineering has announced that Dr. Ed Morse is the new Director of the UNC Charlotte Center for Precision Metrology (CPM). Dr. Morse is taking the place of Dr. Chris Evans, who retired as CPM Director in December 2020. “It is my privilege to announce the […]

From a class on entrepreneurship, to a Senior Design project, to working on startup companies in UNC Charlotte’s Portal Building, Electrical Engineering alumni Josh Cox and Peter O’Connor have been entrepreneurial partners for years. Now their latest venture, the internet of things company Oxit, is booming and the friends are building a team of UNC […]

Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student Nishant Ojal will be going to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after he graduates this summer, continuing work he started during an internship with LLNL last semester, which involved researching ways to improve additive manufacturing. Ojal will be defending his doctoral thesis at UNC Charlotte on July 6th. His thesis work has […]

At the invitation of W.S. Lee College of Engineering Advisory Board member Pam Fletcher, Vice President of Global Innovation at General Motors, Dean Rob Keynton got the chance to drive the Army’s new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) at the opening ceremony and tour of the new GM Defense facility in Concord, NC, on May 4th. […]