Lee College of Engineering

The Energy and Environmental Assistance Office has released the June winners of its annual raffles, an incentive to faculty and staff members to help improve Charlotte air quality during the summer ozone season.

Through their research in developing advanced machining analytical models, Tony Schmitz and his students are bringing science to the art of high-speed manufacturing.
“We’re making manufacturing more efficient by applying a physics-based understanding of the processes involved,” said Schmitz, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and associate of the Center for Precision Metrology. “This is smart machining for use in intelligent manufacturing.”

The UNC Charlotte Energy and Environmental Assistance Office again is offering incentives to faculty and staff members to help improve Charlotte air quality during the summer ozone season.                                           

For the third year, UNC Charlotte is joining in the N.C. Air Awareness “Race to the Beach,” a public outreach and education program from the N.C. Division of Air Quality.
The University’s Energy and Environmental Assistance Office is sponsoring the campus’ participation in this initiative, designed to encourage clean commuting, such as carpooling/vanpooling, riding the bus or LYNX light rail or biking to work.

Investing in future engineering leaders is the goal of a new merit-based scholars program, made possible by the family of Craig and Darla Albert.
The Albert Engineering Leadership Scholars Program will emphasize applied learning, campus involvement and professional development.

UNC Charlotte’s rocket team, comprised of engineering students, won the prestigious “Vehicle Design Award” at the NASA University Student Launch competition recently held at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Tooele County, Utah.
The 49er team was one of 31 university teams from across the country to enter the competition. Twenty-two of the teams made it to Utah, and of those 17 made it to the launch pad.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has awarded seven new research grants totaling almost $1.4 million to faculty researchers in the Lee College of Engineering’s departments of Engineering Technology and Construction Management (ETCM) and Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).
Tara Cavalline (ETCM) and Brett Tempest (CEE) were awarded $227,000 to determine concrete material properties and other performance data to be used in design of new concrete pavements.   

The Lee College of Engineering’s Materials Characterization Lab is now in the Cameron Applied Research Center. The facility provides faculty and student researchers with analysis of advanced materials, as well as sampling services, training, shared instrument usage and expertise at an affordable cost.

Na Lu, an assistant professor in the Engineering Technology and Construction Management Department of the Lee College of Engineering, has won a $400,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award to further her research to develop cost-effective thermoelectric materials for high-temperature power generation through waste-heat harvesting.

The University’s Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) and three other major universities are collaborating with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) workforce development grant under the Grid Engineering for Accelerated Renewable Energy Deployment (GEARED) program.
This five-year project, approaching $6.5 million, will be managed by EPRI and includes Georgia Tech, Clarkson University, the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, and 10 utility companies from mostly the eastern United States.