Students

During COVID-19, Associate Teaching Professor Terence Fagan demonstrated the power of “democratized innovation” by producing clear face masks for medical workers. This sparked his interest in the Fab Foundation’s Super Fab Labs. While standard Fab Labs focus on small-scale prototyping, SFLs provide expanded capabilities for industrial R&D and “concept-to-production” workflows. At the time, only five existed globally.

Following years of strategic planning with Rob Keynton, dean of the William States Lee College of Engineering, Fagan’s vision for a Charlotte SFL materialized. Keynton secured funding via Engineering North Carolina’s Future, a 2022 General Assembly initiative. Fagan enhanced the SFL model by integrating a specialty focus on advanced manufacturing, effectively bridging the gap between initial prototyping and full-scale production.

Jairus Cook isn’t just graduating from UNC Charlotte with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He has designed and built his own college experiences and network that have supported his journey. An engineering student, scholarship winner, four-time intern and organization leader, Cook now has a meaningful community that he wants to share with future Niner Engineers.

UNC Charlotte’s BATT CAVE invites all Niner Engineers to The Battery Show South 2026, which will be held on April 22–23 at the Charlotte Convention Center. This two-day event brings together engineers, researchers and industry leaders across the battery, electric vehicle and energy storage sectors. Attendees will find a valuable opportunity to explore cutting-edge technologies, attend technical sessions and engage in high-impact networking. 

Niner Engineer Felix Ekuful was selected as the winner of the 2026 international American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers student competition.

Jorian Khan knew what he wanted to do when he was searching for graduate schools, but he didn’t know what to call his desired field of study.

He just knew he wanted to improve his coffee.

In September, 20 UNC Charlotte students shook hands and began relationships with professionals from Bobcat Company, the world’s leading manufacturer of construction compact equipment. Each Niner received a $3,000 scholarship, becoming the first students to benefit from a new partnership between UNC Charlotte and Bobcat. 

On Friday, October 17, more than 100 high school students filled Duke Centennial Hall for Manufacturing Day 2025, an immersive, career exploration tour. This four-hour event directly connected students with hands-on learning, advanced technological demonstrations and networking possibilities that cultivate their interest in the field of manufacturing.

When fall 2024 arrived at UNC Charlotte, five senior Niner Engineers didn’t just get a textbook assignment — they were handed an actual production problem by Bosch Power Tools. The challenge: design a new system to reduce quality defects and ergonomic risks in a packaging process at the company’s Lincolnton, North Carolina, plant.

Highly skilled Niner Engineers are key to North Carolina’s continued rise in technology, energy and advanced manufacturing. Support for their education comes from Engineering North Carolina’s Future, an initiative backed by a $41.2 million investment in the University by the North Carolina General Assembly.

The investment, beginning in fall 2022 to the current fall semester, has yielded record-breaking student enrollment at the W.S. Lee College of Engineering and other significant advances.

Chideraa Ndubuisi ’25 MPH is driven to improve human health. Through research — and an unquenchable appetite for learning everything he can about medicine, public health and environmental systems — he is exploring, analyzing and drawing conclusions about the levels of microplastics and halogenated organics, particularly brominated flame retardants, in municipal wastewater treatment processes.