Lee College of Engineering

UNC Charlotte has received a $750,000 grant to help attract and support military veterans in earning graduate degrees in STEM disciplines, with particular emphasis on advanced degrees in mechanical engineering.

UNC Charlotte was awarded a $999,591 grant from the National Science Foundation to support high-achieving, low-income engineering students as part of the NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program.

The UNC Charlotte program, Engineering Academic Pathways, includes scholarship funds and programming to promote success among low-income students. Applications for the scholarships are being accepted, and the first awards will be made for fall 2019.

Rob Creighton, president and CEO of Windlift, based in Raleigh, will talk about airborne wind energy at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 20, in EPIC, G287.

Scott Smith, professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department, has received the William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The members of IEEE-USA, an organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, have elected Jim Conrad of the William States Lee College of Engineering to serve as president for 2020. Conrad, a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, will serve as president-elect in 2019.

Students in the course Energy Analytics have been competing very successfully in international energy forecasting competitions for a number of years. This fall, the course instructor decided the Lee College of Engineering would host a competition of its own, and 142 data scientists from 26 countries have formed 81 teams for the first UNC Charlotte BigDEAL Forecasting Competition 2018.

As the lead engineer on a $2 billion airport improvement project, UNC Charlotte alumnus Ashton Watson is involved in all types of engineering, on all types of capital jobs, with all types of stakeholders.

“Creating and Developing More Diverse Engineering Leaders” is scheduled for 3 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center.

The Lee College of Engineering is hosting this free educational and networking event, which is open to all UNC Charlotte students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community. Registration is required at Eventbrite.

Researchers at UNC Charlotte have been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Smart and Connected Communities program to co-develop technology to support public safety. The $1.9 million, four-year grant will develop an optical sensing platform that uses artificial intelligence to detect and prevent street crime without the use of profiling.

UNC Charlotte’s Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) was awarded a $942,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop an innovative solution related to curbside charging of electric vehicles.