Research

Gina Ramoz recently joined UNC Charlotte as biosafety director in the Office of Research and Economic Development.
With nearly 30 years of scientific experience working in clinical, research and academic laboratories, Ramoz will manage the biosafety program for the University’s rapidly growing and evolving research and academic environment.

Philip Payne, chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Ohio State University, will kick off this year’s Health Informatics Seminar Series; his talk is scheduled for 4 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 20, in Fretwell Building, Room 126.
An internationally recognized leader in the field of clinical research informatics, Payne has authored more than 140 publications focusing on the intersection of biomedical informatics and the clinical and translational science domains. He received his Ph.D. with distinction in biomedical informatics from Columbia University.

UNC Charlotte chemistry major Alexis Brown is spending her summer participating in a groundbreaking program at the North Carolina Research Campus, exploring the plant pathways of food crops such as blueberries, oats and strawberries.  And more.
“We are trying to create the super broccoli,” she said.

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute has been accepted into the National Neighborhood Indicator Partnership (NNIP), which is a collaborative effort by the Washington D.C.-based Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood information systems in local policymaking and community building.
Membership in the network opens participation in conferences and other learning opportunities as well as participation in cross-site research projects.

Shaoting Zhang, an assistant professor in the College of Computing and Informatics Department of Computer Science, has received a 2014 Ralph E. Power Junior Faculty Enhancement Award.  Presented by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU),  the award provides seed money for research by junior faculty at ORAU member institutions. These awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities.

The top three student poster presenters were selected at the third annual Summer Research Symposium, the culminating event for the Charlotte Research Scholars program. More than 80 undergraduate students competed in the poster presentation on scholarly topics across a number of disciplines.

The winners were Jenna Brown, Nadia Clifton and Hunter Reavis.

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.

Research is an integral part of the University’s mission, and Lauren Beastall endeavors to assist Lee College of Engineering faculty members in pursuit of funding for basic and applied research projects.
“I view my role as one that helps facilitate the research of the faculty members, as well as to assist staff in the post-award administration of the grants,” said Beastall, director of contracts and grants for the Lee College. “Our goal is to ease the administrative burden for our faculty as they complete the grants process and to make it as easy as possible.”

The Center for STEM Education has received third-year funding of $881,904 from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to continue to offer professional development for K-2 teachers in six school districts with the goal of improving students’ understanding of math concepts.

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.”