Scholarship and Academic Life

Erik Byker, an assistant professor in the Cato College of Education’s Department of Reading and Elementary Education, has been named a Global Teacher Education (GTE) Fellow.

A six-member team of Lee College of Engineering students recently took first place in the fall semester Senior Design Expo for its completed work on the “Ingersoll Rand Pneumatic Pump Energy Harvesting Unit.” During the expo, 30 teams presented their finished two-semester projects, and 50 teams presented their first-semester design concept posters.

Charlotte and Mecklenburg County will soon have a better understanding of the needs of older adults in the area following “Meck50+,” a study led by UNC Charlotte and funded by the Southminster continuing care retirement community.

Public understanding of the counseling profession lacks clarity in places, but many perceptions also are encouraging, according to new research co-authored by UNC Charlotte counseling scholars.

Bailey MacLeod, an adjunct professor in the College of Education, and counseling doctoral students Jim McMullen and Emily Teague-Palmieri, in conjunction with a colleague from the Wake Forest School of Medicine, recently released the new study, which canvassed 300 participants in hopes of better understanding what the public knows about professional counselors.

UNC Charlotte public health sciences professor Jessamyn Bowling recently participated in a community briefing on bisexuality. Held by the White House Office of Public Engagement to honor and recognize the contributions and experiences of the U.S. bisexual community, the briefing was part of a series of events connected to Bisexuality Awareness Week.

The UNC Charlotte College of Education is officially home to one of the nation’s top foreign language teacher educators. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has selected Scott Kissau to receive the Anthony Papilia Award, an honor presented to one person annually for excellence in teacher education. The award recognizes a teacher, educator or author who has significantly influenced the lives of countless students and practicing teachers.

Even before Flipper, dolphins fascinated many people. They loved that the mammals were friendly and intelligent. Dolphins seem to enjoy interacting with swimmers and have been known to protect people under attack by sharks. Despite humans’ familiarity, most people are not well informed about how dolphins evolved, how they function and how they have interacted with humans for millennia.

The Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company is on campus through Friday, Sept. 30, for the company’s first-ever “reconstruction residency” in the Department of Dance. Capping an 18-month research project led by Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones, the residency brings the Taylor 2 dancers from New York City to Charlotte to teach students in master classes and to bring back to life a work not seen in more than 50 years. That dance, “Tracer,” will be performed in a concert scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Sept. 30, in the Anne Belk Theater of the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts.

A team of four UNC Charlotte students was recognized with the People’s Choice Award in the 2016 Teradata University Network (TUN) Data Challenge, an international data analytics competition.

Laxmi Narayana Atluri, Sri Harsha Degala, Vrushali Sawant and Freddy Cabrera, all graduate students in data science and business analytics, demonstrated their findings at the 2016 Teradata PARTNERS Conference and Expo, and won the support of 3,500 of the world’s most advanced data and analytics experts and business leaders.

Is the economic forecast partly sunny or partly cloudy? Both, said UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton. On the bright side, North Carolina’s unemployment rate is now lower than the U.S. rate, and the economy continues to grow. However, the economic expansion is slowing down, Connaughton stated during the Babson Capital Management/UNC Charlotte Economic Forecast.