Scholarship and Academic Life

Akin Ogundiran, a faculty member in the Department of Africana Studies, recently was named editor-in-chief of the African Archaeological Review.

This journal, published by Springer, focuses on authoritative articles on African archaeology, highlighting the outstanding contributions of this region’s past as they relate to key global issues. Important topics include the emergence of modern humans, earliest manifestations of human culture and the origins of African plant and animal domesticates.

A team of mechanical engineering graduate students from UNC Charlotte’s precision engineering program won the student challenge competition at the American Society for Precision Engineering’s (ASPE) 33rd annual conference in Las Vegas.

UNC Charlotte has received a $750,000 grant to help attract and support military veterans in earning graduate degrees in STEM disciplines, with particular emphasis on advanced degrees in mechanical engineering.

A photo of a rusted shovel with a broken handle, aged by years of harsh Appalachian weather and hard work, was displayed in UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library during most of November. Seth Flynn, the creator, is a senior who is minoring in gerontology; he submitted it as part of a contest hosted by the Gerontology Program.

In partnership with the Levine Museum of the New South, Assistant Professor of Urban Design Ming-Chun Lee and UNC Charlotte students will help Charlotte residents discover the stories behind the rise and fall of Eastland Mall and its surrounding neighborhood at an event on Saturday, Dec. 8.

The event, “Being a Historian for a Day,” will take place at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Hickory Grove Branch, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A new collaborative effort called the Bridges to Baccalaureate Program is designed to help students at UNC Charlotte, Gaston College and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College complete undergraduate biomedical degrees and, ultimately, succeed in biomedical careers.

UNC Charlotte was awarded a $999,591 grant from the National Science Foundation to support high-achieving, low-income engineering students as part of the NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program.

The UNC Charlotte program, Engineering Academic Pathways, includes scholarship funds and programming to promote success among low-income students. Applications for the scholarships are being accepted, and the first awards will be made for fall 2019.

Judge William Webb, chairman of the UNC Board of Governors Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, came to UNC Charlotte Nov. 12 to learn more about the University’s programs to help its veteran students, groundbreaking research and efforts to hire more veterans.

Keeping her native land of Bangladesh close to her heart, Farida Yasmin has come to UNC Charlotte to research the woes of the soybean, which, as a critical global resource, provides more than half of the world’s vegetable oils and proteins.

The U.S. and North Carolina economies continue to accelerate, yet international trade could be entering a caution zone, says UNC Charlotte professor and economist John Connaughton.