Scholarship and Academic Life

Performing artist CarlosAlexis Cruz is the 2014 McColl Award winner. An assistant professor of voice and movement in the College of Arts + Architecture, Cruz received the honor for the project “Nouveau Sud, Nouveau Cirque,” which translates to “New South, New Circus.”

UNC Charlotte researcher Margaret Quinlan and colleagues recently won a regional Emmy Award for “The Courage of Creativity,” a documentary series that explores the role that artists and creativity can play in people’s well-being in health-related contexts.
The series earned its award from the Ohio Valley Regional Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the arts/entertainment category, at the 50th Emmy black tie gala at the Hilton Columbus Downtown.

The UNC Charlotte Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in conjunction with the IEEE Charlotte section, is sponsoring a presentation on the Raspberry Pi from 11 a.m. to noon, Friday, Aug. 8, in EPIC, Room G287.

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.

Logan Creech, Klint Mullis and Elrica Metayer, graduates of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program, recently won two national student design awards in China. Their project “Ribbons: Redevelopment of Xiangmen Historic Area in Suzhou,” received an honor certificate in the third International Landscape Planning and Design Competition, co-organized by the Journal of China Construction and the International Landscape Design Industry Association.

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.

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.

The middle class meltdown, the transformative effect of Apostle Paul upon Christianity, President Lincoln’s relationship with the U.S. colored troops and portrayals of slavery in children’s literature are provocative topics being featured in the 2014-15 Personally Speaking Series.
Four researchers from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will reveal the stories behind their books during the lecture series, co-sponsored by the college and J. Murrey Atkins Library. Each talk is free and starts at 6:30 p.m., with a reception following.
The 2014-15 speakers are:

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 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.