Academic Affairs

Nineteen finalists for the Charlotte Venture Challenge (CVC) have been selected from among 95 entries, and one start-up company will receive the $25,000 grand prize as the winner of the 12th annual event on Wednesday, May 1. Category winners will share $50,000 in prize awards funded by the Hauser Family Fund.

April is North Carolina Science Festival time, and UNC Charlotte will hold a series of public lectures entitled “Research Journeys” to educate and inform the community about a variety of science topics.
Sean Caroll from the California Insitute of Technology (Caltech) will be the featured guest lecturer for the series. He will present “The Particle at the End of the Universe” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 10, in EPIC, Room G256.

The J. Murrey Atkins Library will host its Undergraduate Research Conference on Friday, April 19. This conference is a University-wide showcase of research projects being completed by undergraduates from all levels and from all colleges/departments at UNC Charlotte. The deadline for undergraduates to enter the competition is Monday, April 1.

Scott Klemmer, an associate professor at Stanford University, will present “Teaching a Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) with Peer and Self Assessment” at 3:30 p.m., Thursday, March 28, in the College of Health and Human Services, Room 161.

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County will host a forum in uptown Charlotte on Tuesday, March 26, to tell the public about powerful sources of data and how to use them.
There are more tools than ever for finding and using data in innovative ways, but most people don’t know they exist or don’t know how to use them. Enter Charlotte Data Day, a free, public event.

Registration is open for the conference “Bridging the Gap Between Academic and Entrepreneurial Capital: Strategies for Success for Women and Under-represented Minorities,” scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, at UNC Charlotte Center City.
According to the UNC Charlotte ADVANCE Faculty Affairs and Diversity Office, which is co-hosting the conference, this event is designed to “educate female and minority faculty and students and interested community members about how they can translate their intellectual capital into entrepreneurial capital in innovative ways.”

Pamela Shue, assistant professor in the Child and Family Development program in the College of Education, was awarded a UNC-China Technology Learning Grant by UNC General Administration. It will fund the development of a global understanding course focused on early childhood education in collaboration with partners at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in Beijing, China.  

The Charlotte Venture Challenge business innovation competition is accepting applications from early-stage entrepreneurial companies; the deadline is 8 p.m., Friday, March 1.
The Charlotte Venture Challenge (CVC) has become the premiere start-up competition in the Southeast attracting more than 117 entries in 2012. Organized by UNC Charlotte’s Charlotte Research Institute and Ventureprise, the competition has a history of showcasing the region’s most successful early-stage companies. Teams will compete for $75,000-plus in prize money, including a $25,000 grand prize.

Carolina HealthCare System’s Levine Cancer Institute and UNC Charlotte will enter into a joint project to advance translational and clinical research in the field of pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer.
The collaborative effort, called the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Project (CPCP), aims to foster more working relationships between physicians and scientists at both institutions by offering funding for innovative research ideas, submitted to and reviewed by a committee of their peers.

Jing Xiao, professor of computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, has been named an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow effective Jan. 1.

She is being recognized for contributions to robot compliant motion and haptic interaction. Xiao’s core work addresses the physical interaction between a machine and objects it manipulates, which impacts the application of robotics and haptics in autonomous assembly operations, tele-operations, virtual prototyping and virtual training of surgical operations.