Stake Your Claim

Na Lu, an assistant professor in the Engineering Technology and Construction Management Department of the Lee College of Engineering, has won a $400,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award to further her research to develop cost-effective thermoelectric materials for high-temperature power generation through waste-heat harvesting.

For a week, 39 students in a health communication topics course will attempt to live on $29 – the average food stamp benefit for a person in North Carolina.
The assignment, under the direction of Jillian Tullis, assistant professor of communication studies, is one aspect of the course “Health Communication Film and Technology.” Students were introduced to the topic through the documentary “Food Inc.,” a film that examines corporate farming in the United States.

University alumna Chee Ia Yang was selected for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ (NASPA) Graduate Associate Program (GAP), a council of graduate students whose career ambitions align with the student affairs profession.

Director of Classroom Support Steve Clark has been called a one-of-a-kind thinker and an innovator in his job at UNC Charlotte. He can add recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence to his resume.

Scott Heggen, a Ph.D. student in the College of Computing and Informatics, received a national Presidential Service Award presented by Citizen Schools.  

One way to understand what motivates and deters burglars is to ask them. UNC Charlotte researcher Joseph Kuhns from the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology did just that. He led a research team that gathered survey responses from more than 400 convicted offenders that resulted in an unprecedented look into the minds of burglars, providing insight into intruders’ motivations and methods.

The UNC Charlotte Model United Nations team recently ended the 2012-13 academic year as the most successful in the group’s history. The team earned 66 awards in the fall and spring, hosted training conferences for area high schools and colleges and attended six conferences.

As the world seeks ways to reduce energy costs and speed access to alternative energy solutions, UNC Charlotte researcher Deborah Strumsky is leading a team that will use modeling to forecast optimal investments for the array of solar energy technologies that are emerging.