Research

A researcher in the Fire Safety Engineering Technology program of the William States Lee College of Engineering is leading a new multi-institutional study designed to reduce wildfires and mitigate damages due to ignition or fire spread by wind-blown fire embers.

Sponsored by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP), the $420,000 “Fire Ember Production from Wildland and Structural Fuels” project will bring together researchers from seven institutions. UNC Charlotte’s portion of the project is $219,000 for laboratory testing research.

Undiagnosed sleep disorders may be sabotaging students’ academic success, according to a study by UNC Charlotte psychology professor Jane Gaultney.

Gaultney presented the study at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies’ Conference and published the abstract in the journal Sleep. Her research found evidence suggesting that college students with sleep disorders may run a higher risk for lower GPAs, less motivation and possibly even more dire consequences.

Xinghua “Mindy” Shi, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, is the latest beneficiary of funding from the SPRINT Program (São Paulo Researchers in International Collaboration).

After weeks of research, graduate students in the UNC Charlotte course “Knowledge Discovery in Databases” have analyzed diverse data sets related to sharks and have discovered certain patterns emerge.

There appears to be a correlation between the frequency of shark attacks and the phases of the moon, with attacks more prevalent around the time of the full moon. Other factors like tourism, crab population and sea temperature also appear in decision trees and rules that were part of the research process.

Three undergraduate students were honored for outstanding posters at the fourth annual Summer Research Symposium as part of the Charlotte Research Scholars program. More than 100 students competed in the competition presenting on a broad range of topics of scholarly inquiry.

A new UNC Charlotte College of Education study shows teaching struggling students reading strategies through U.S. history class can improve both reading skills and understanding of the subject itself.

Health care executive Susan DeVore and real estate developer Fred Klein will join UNC Charlotte’s leadership as new members of the Board of Trustees.

Gov. Pat McCrory appointed DeVore and Klein each to a four-year term, beginning July 1.

When people consider biodiversity, they often think of far-flung Amazon rainforests or vibrant coral reefs in tropical seas. While biodiversity ranks high on the global scale, it also is vital to the health of humans and the environment at the local level, something that UNC Charlotte doctoral student Angelique Hjarding is addressing through her research and creation of the Butterfly Highway project.

Chair of the Africana Studies Department Akin Ogundiran has been named a National Humanities Center Fellow for the upcoming academic year. He will join 36 other distinguished scholars from 32 institutions across the United States and eight foreign countries working on a wide array of projects as part of this competitive, prestigious fellowship program.

Four UNC Charlotte Lee College of Engineering students recently won a 3D printing design competition sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office. They were part of a team that also included one other college student and an active duty Army representative