General News

UNC Charlotte and a major healthcare data company have launched new technology that will help hospitals organize and analyze patient statistics.

Community Focus is an automated, cloud-based software program developed by UNC Charlotte and Premier, Inc., as part of a partnership started last year. It will help health systems manage patient data at the community level and make it easier for hospitals to isolate groups to find ways to improve public health.

The answers to the big questions by their very nature provoke strong reactions. The debate over the right way to find those answers is no less contentious. Out of this landscape has emerged the discussion over the relationship between science and religion. Can they coexist? What role do they have in public policy? What should be taught in schools?

The Charlotte 49ers will make their debut on the FBS level in front of a nationally-televised audience. Charlotte, which will make its move to the FBS as a member of Conference USA this fall, will have its season-opener at Georgia State broadcast on ESPNU.

“This is another great step for our program,” said 49ers head coach Brad Lambert. ”We’re excited to have our first game in the FBS on national television. This works out great for Niner Nation—for those who will make the trip to Atlanta and those who will catch us on ESPNU.”

In 2011, Larry Mellichamp was working on a book about native plants, when he envisioned an addition to the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens that would showcase such specimens. That dream became reality when the campus and greater Charlotte communities gathered Sunday, May 31, to formally open the Mellichamp Natives Terrace Garden.

The wooden and brick terraces of the one-fifth-acre Mellichamp Garden provide examples of how homeowners can use native plants in their landscaping.

John Reeves, Blumenthal Professor of Judaic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has received a prestigious American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship for 2015-16 to work on the project “Illuminating the Afterlife of Ancient Apocryphal Jewish Literature.”

This year, ACLS made 70 awards to faculty of all ranks and independent scholars to support research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The organization received more than 1,000 applications in this cycle, making the program once again the most competitive in ACLS’s portfolio.

Tim Keane, who earned a bachelor’s degree in geography and a master’s degree in architecture from UNC Charlotte, has been named commissioner of planning and community development for the city of Atlanta.

Keane had served as director of planning, preservation and sustainability for the city of Charleston since 2009 and previously served as director of planning for the town of Davidson.

The Mecklenburg Soil and Water Conservation District has honored UNC Charlotte Urban Institute Associate Director Mary Newsom and the institute’s “KEEPING WATCH on WATER: City of Creeks” project with its Urban Conservation Award.

The Soil and Water Conservation District is a local organization that works with residents, agencies and business owners to plan and direct programs for the conservation and development of natural resources.

The North Carolina economy is in its sixth consecutive year of economic growth in 2015, UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton reported in his quarterly forecast for the state.

Connaughton, in his Babson Capital Management/UNC Charlotte Economic Forecast, highlighted five areas of the economy to watch in the near term:

UNC Charlotte is hosting the 43rd Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) and the 10th American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC 2015) from Monday, June 8, through Friday, June 12, at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. This combined event is the premier international forum for applied research and industrial applications in manufacturing and design.

Robin James, associate professor of philosophy, had the work “Resilience and Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism and Neoliberalism” published by Zero Books. Recently, James was interviewed by Dave O’Brien for the New Books in Critical Theory website.

James notes in the podcast she uses music, particularly popular music, to “do philosophy.” She added music was a way for her to think through political questions related to gender/social inequality and value/philosophical concepts.