research

BATT CAVE, UNC Charlotte’s research center, is embracing — and guiding — the future of battery technology.

The “Engineering North Carolina’s Future” initiative, backed by transformative investments by the N.C. General Assembly, has ignited a surge of teaching and research excellence at UNC Charlotte. As part of its plan to use this investment, the W.S. Lee College of Engineering has expanded its capabilities with an initial recruitment of three new faculty members.

Sarah Stellwagen, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences within the College of Science, had an issue. The microscopic spiderwebs she researches are best studied in their native environment—or at least under the right conditions, which include temperature and humidity. But it wasn’t easy to get accurate readings with her microscope in the lab, whose temperature is often stuck at around 70°F with humidity that can fluctuate dramatically depending on the weather.

UNC Charlotte’s William States Lee College of Engineering, in conjunction with Charlotte Douglas International Airport, has established a one-of-a-kind partnership, the Charlotte Aviation Innovation and Research Institute, or Charlotte AIR. This new research institute is designed to explore solutions for the aviation sector and airport infrastructure industry through innovation and workforce development.

The William States Lee College of Engineering is leading critical investigations with key research faculty at an increasing rate, as demonstrated by a 25+ percent increase in research funding in the past year ($13,660,952 in 2021-2022 to $17.8M in 2022-2023). Likewise, UNC Charlotte overall is continuing to demonstrate innovation leadership and growth, being ranked fourth in the nation for patents per research dollar.

Hamed Tabkhi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is working with community stakeholders and researchers from the criminal justice and criminology, electrical and computer engineering, and civil and environmental engineering departments and the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science, to “co-create and co-design” solutions to public safety with AI.

Qiang Zhu, associate professor of mechanical engineering, leverages informatics, computational research and modeling to advance the understanding of organic materials, directly leading to greater ability to generate clean energy. Zhu earned both an NSF CAREER Award and a Department of Energy Early Career Award which are furthering his studies at William States Lee College of Engineering.

“This is another incredible success story that we have to continue to build on,” said U.S. Senator Thom Tillis as he joined several other legislators and industry partners on a tour of BATT CAVE on Monday.

It isn’t the secret, subterranean headquarters of a masked superhero and a turbocharged car, but the North Carolina BATT CAVE Research Center may very well transform the future of battery technology and the vehicles that use it.