Belk College of Business

Jessica Barton is taking on a new challenge this year as the first-ever communications officer for the UNC Charlotte Staff Council.
“One of our goals is to reach out to more staff members to increase awareness about Staff Council events and initiatives,” said Barton, who is a business analyst for the Belk College of Business. “I plan to explore how to use other forms of communication beyond email, such as the digital displays in buildings, and we are in the process of reworking the Staff Council website, too.”

The First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal Committee is soliciting nominations for the 2015 award. This award recognizes outstanding scholarship, creativity and/or research among senior full-time faculty members. Each year the University with support from First Citizens Bank presents this award in order to recognize and foster the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and creative endeavors.

UNC Charlotte’s UrbanEden, built for the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, placed third in the people’s choice voting for the annual Matsumoto Prize for Modernist residential design in North Carolina.
The Matsumoto Prize is named in honor of George Matsumoto, a founding faculty member at the N.C. State University School of Design (now College of Design) who is well known for many exemplary mid-century Modernist houses he designed across North Carolina.

UNC Charlotte recently hired three individuals to support the Data Science and Business Analytics initiative, which is an industry-University-state partnership led by the College of Computing and Informatics and the Belk College of Business with strategic input from the College of Health and Human Services and other academic units.
Mark Armstrong, Rick Hudson and Shannon Schlueter are the industry/University program coordinator, senior project manager and data scientist, respectively, for the DSBA initiative.

The World Cup has an economic effect on participating countries, according to an analysis of 50 years of nations’ economic data that examined their World Cup success during the same time period.

Peiqin Zhang, a doctoral student in computing and information systems (business information systems and operations management track), will defend the dissertation “Essays on IT Governance: Measurement and Impacts” at 2 p.m., Monday, June 9, in Friday Building, Room 212. Ram Kumar and Kexin Zhao are the dissertation advisors.

The UNC System Board of Governors has approved UNC Charlotte’s request to offer a Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree in Data Science and Business Analytics (DSBA) starting in fall 2014.  This groundbreaking curriculum is the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the College of Computing and Informatics and the Belk College of Business, as it links the science and business of data.

University leaders note the curriculum will produce talented graduates to meet the 21st-century demands of business and industry.

Congressman Patrick McHenry (10th District) and Brett Keeter (’99), congressional district director and former UNC Charlotte Alumni Association president, recently visited campus to learn more about UNC Charlotte’s Data Science and Business Analytics initiative.

In addition to meetings with Chancellor Philip L. Dubois and Bob Wilhelm, vice chancellor for economic development and research, McHenry and Keeter observed several project demonstrations related to Big Data at the University’s Charlotte Visualization Center.

Sanjaya Mayadunne, a doctoral student in computing and information systems (business information systems and operations management track), will defend “Competitive Store Closing During an Economic Downturn: A Mathematical Programming Approach” at 12:30 p.m., Thursday, May 1, in the Friday Building, Room 381. Cem Saydam and Monica Johar are the dissertation advisors.

The North Carolina economy can expect continued growth in 2014, said UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton today in his quarterly forecast for the state .