On November 7, PML collaborator Ulyana Pena of the University of Colorado Boulder and Science in the Wild sets off for northern Europe, and she is taking our microplastics work with her. From November 14 to December 3, she will sail with the PONANT Science program aboard Le Commandant Charcot, collecting seawater samples from the Norwegian coast to the far reaches of the Baltic Sea. Those samples will come back to our lab in Charlotte for analysis. Science in the Wild is a participatory science initiative that runs field expeditions around the world built on education, research, and adventure.

I am proud of this one. Some of the most valuable science we do starts with someone willing to stand on a cold, pitching deck in November and filter seawater carefully, sample after sample. Ulyana is that person, and our lab is lucky to have her as a partner.

The ship and the route

Le Commandant Charcot is a 150 meter Polar Class 2 icebreaker with a hybrid LNG and battery power plant, operated by PONANT since 2021. It is the flagship of PONANT Science, a program launched in 2021 that brings researchers aboard expedition voyages to reach waters few labs can sample on their own. The ship carries two onboard laboratories, which makes it an excellent platform for careful water sampling.

The voyage begins in Bergen, Norway, and runs south past Stavanger and the Lysefjord to Kristiansand. From there it rounds Skagen at the northern tip of Denmark, passes through the Danish straits, and enters the Baltic, calling at Visby, Stockholm, and Tallinn before reaching Helsinki.

A second leg then loops through the Baltic from Helsinki to Stockholm, Visby, Gdansk, Riga, and Tallinn, returning to Helsinki. Together, the two legs span the Baltic Proper and reach into the Gulfs of Finland and Riga.

Why the Baltic matters

The Baltic is one of the most useful places on Earth to study plastic pollution. It is a shallow, semi-enclosed, brackish sea bordered by nine countries, with a large, densely populated watershed draining into it. Water exchanges with the open ocean only slowly through the Danish straits, so what enters the Baltic tends to stay there.

That makes it a natural laboratory. Particles from rivers, cities, shipping, and fishing all accumulate in a system small enough to sample meaningfully. For a microplastics lab, samples from the Baltic offer a valuable contrast to the open ocean and Arctic waters we have sampled before.

From seawater to the lab bench

Ulyana will collect water samples along the cruise track using Niskin bottles, which seal a discrete volume of seawater at a chosen depth. Because the route runs from the North Sea coast of Norway, through the Danish straits, and deep into the Baltic, the samples will capture a gradient from salty open water to the brackish, enclosed inner sea. Once the samples reach PML, our team will isolate and characterize the microplastic particles they contain: how many there are, what polymers they are made of, and what they look like.

That last question is where our lab has focused much of its recent effort. Our work suggests that a particle’s geometry matters for its biological effects, not just its size or chemistry. Fragments that break apart along jagged fracture lines may behave very differently from smooth spheres or fibers. Using image analysis and shape descriptors such as convexity and solidity, we can quantify those differences and connect them to toxicity.

Baltic samples will let us ask whether the shapes we find in an enclosed, heavily used sea differ from what we see elsewhere. Our Ph.D. student Md Shah Nawaz Arafin, who leads our microplastics and PFAS sampling, will work with the new data alongside our existing ocean datasets. The Baltic results will also be added to GOCOS, our open-source platform for monitoring PFAS and microplastics across the world’s oceans.

Science travels on partnerships

No single lab can sample the whole ocean. Our microplastics program reaches as far as it does because collaborators like Ulyana carry our protocols into waters we could not reach on our own. Every bottle she fills extends our map a little further.

Thank you, Ulyana. Fair winds and following seas. We will share what we find once the samples are back in Charlotte and the analysis is done.

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This summer, the Performance Materials Laboratory (PML) had the pleasure of hosting Derek Heidenfelder as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student. Derek spent the summer running density functional theory (DFT) calculations on advanced semiconductor materials for energy applications, using the UNC Charlotte supercomputer to carry out his simulations.

Computational materials research requires a different kind of patience and precision than working at the bench. Derek dug into the fundamentals of DFT methods, learned to navigate high performance computing resources, and applied that knowledge to modeling how semiconductor materials behave at the atomic scale, work that has real relevance for the next generation of energy technologies. He approached every challenge with curiosity and a genuine eagerness to understand the physics behind his results, not just the numbers themselves.

Derek did an amazing job this summer. He picked up complex computational tools quickly, asked thoughtful questions, and consistently pushed his own understanding further. It was a pleasure having him in the lab, and his contributions to our semiconductor materials work will carry forward as we continue building out this area of PML’s research.

Thank you, Derek, for a great summer. We wish you continued success and look forward to seeing where your research journey takes you next.

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It is with great pride that I share some exciting news from the Performance Materials Laboratory (PML): Madhava Aditya Bharadwaj Pinapati has been accepted into the graduate program at Brown University.

This achievement is a testament to Madhava’s dedication, intellectual curiosity, and the countless hours he has invested in his research and coursework. Brown University is one of the most selective and highly regarded institutions in the country, and admission into its graduate program reflects the strength of Madhava’s academic record and the promise reviewers saw in his potential as a researcher.

During his time with PML, Madhava brought a consistent work ethic and a genuine enthusiasm for materials science to everything he did. Watching a student grow from someone learning the fundamentals of the lab to someone ready to take on graduate level research is one of the most rewarding parts of running this laboratory. Madhava’s path to Brown is the direct result of the effort he put in day after day, and it is well deserved.

On behalf of everyone in the Performance Materials Laboratory, I want to say how proud we are of Madhava. This is a significant milestone, and it is only the beginning of what I expect will be a distinguished research career. We are grateful to have played a part in his journey and we look forward to seeing all that he accomplishes at Brown.

Congratulations, Aditya. We could not be prouder.

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Nine undergraduate researchers begin their summer at UNC Charlotte, joining research groups across the College of Engineering. One joins the Performance Materials Laboratory.

There is something about a first day that never gets old. Nine undergraduate researchers arrived on campus this week to begin the summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at UNC Charlotte, and the energy they brought with them was already evident at the opening gathering in front of Duke Centennial Hall.

The group will spread across several research laboratories in the College of Engineering, each student matched to a faculty mentor and a project suited to their academic background. For one of them, that match brings them to the Performance Materials Laboratory here in EPIC Hall, and we are glad to have them.

“Research is not a straight line. It is the willingness to follow a question further than anyone else has gone.” says Dr. Roger Tipton

The REU program is one of the most valuable pipelines in undergraduate engineering education. A focused summer in a working research environment does something a classroom simply cannot: it puts a student in front of a problem that does not yet have an answer. That shift in perspective, from solving assigned problems to asking original ones, tends to reshape how a young engineer thinks about their entire field.

For the student joining PML this summer, the work ahead connects directly to active research in advanced materials characterization. The lab does not expect mastery on day one. What we ask for is curiosity, rigor, and a willingness to be wrong and learn from it quickly. Those habits, built over a single focused summer, tend to last a career.

To all nine members of the 2026 cohort, and to the one joining our group in particular: welcome to Charlotte, welcome to the lab, and welcome to the work. The questions you will be chasing this summer are worth chasing, and we are glad you are here.

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The UNC Charlotte Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science welcomed Dr. Caitlyn Clarkson from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility today for a Spring 2026 seminar that gave our faculty and students a front-row seat to some genuinely exciting applied materials science.

Dr. Clarkson’s talk, “Large Scale Additive Manufacturing of Biobased and Biodegradable Precast Concrete Tooling,” explored how large-scale additive manufacturing (LSAM), a material extrusion process, can be extended beyond its traditional role in low-volume, high-precision concrete formwork into high-volume applications like manholes, catch basins, curbs, and pavers.

After the seminar, Dr. Clarkson joined us for a tour of two of the department’s core research facilities: the Center for Additive Manufacturing of Advanced Ceramics and the Center for Precision Metrology. The conversations that flowed through both labs reflected exactly what makes visits like this valuable. Shared technical interests, cross-institutional curiosity, and the kind of collegial exchange that doesn’t fit neatly into a conference poster session.

We are grateful to Dr. Clarkson for making the trip to Charlotte and for sharing her work so generously with our community. The intersection of advanced manufacturing, sustainable materials, and real-world infrastructure challenges is a rich space, and today’s seminar reminded us why it matters.

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Not every student I get to watch grow and succeed works in my lab. Some of the most rewarding moments in this job come from watching people you have only briefly worked alongside go on to do genuinely impressive things. Andrew McPartland is one of those people.

On April 24th, 2026, Andrew successfully defended his M.S. thesis in Mechanical Engineering, with a specialization in Dynamics and Controls, at the William States Lee College of Engineering at UNC Charlotte. His thesis was titled “Optimizing the Location and Time for a Mobile Robot to Unmask in an Adversarial Environment.” His committee included Dr. Artur Wolek, Dr. Scott Kelly, and Dr. Dipankar Maity.

I had the privilege of working with Andrew when he served as a teaching assistant in one of my courses. Even in that supporting role, it was clear he was someone who took both the work and the students around him seriously. He was thoughtful, well-prepared, and genuinely invested in helping others understand difficult material. Those qualities do not show up just in the classroom. They show up in research, and they show up in a thesis defense.

About the research

Andrew’s thesis tackles a genuinely challenging problem at the intersection of robotics, optimization, and autonomous decision-making. The core question is this: when a mobile robot is operating in an adversarial environment, where should it position itself, and when should it reveal its presence, in order to accomplish its mission while managing the risks that come with exposure to a threat?

That framing, while rooted in robotics and control theory, has implications well beyond any single application. Autonomous systems operating in contested or uncertain environments, whether in defense, search and rescue, infrastructure inspection, or other high-stakes domains, face exactly this kind of tradeoff between information gathering and risk exposure. Solving it rigorously requires drawing on motion planning, game theory, and optimization in ways that are far from trivial.

The fact that Andrew worked through this problem under the guidance of a strong committee and came out the other side with a defensible, original contribution to the field is a real accomplishment. Graduate research in dynamics and controls is demanding, and a thesis defense is not a formality. You earn it.

A word on what comes next

Andrew leaves UNC Charlotte and will be completing his PhD at another university. He has been awarded a prestigious fellowship that will pay for his PhD. Andrew is still evaluating options and I am sure he will make a great decision.

Congratulations, Andrew. You earned every bit of this. The department is proud of you, and so am I.

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Good engineering solves real problems for real people. Marley Magnotta’s undergraduate research this semester did exactly that, and she presented it with the confidence and clarity of someone who understands both what she built and why it matters.

At the UNC Charlotte undergraduate research symposium, Marley presented her project titled “Wearable Flexible Sensors for Injury Prevention and Performance Management.” The work centers on a sensor-embedded glove designed to capture the forces a worker’s hand experiences during physically demanding tasks, with the goal of better understanding how those forces contribute to injury and how workloads can be managed to improve long-term health outcomes.

This is not a small problem. Repetitive strain injuries and cumulative trauma disorders in the hands and wrists are among the most common and costly occupational health issues across industries from logistics and manufacturing to baggage handling and construction. We often talk about worker safety in the abstract. Marley’s project takes a concrete, instrumented approach to understanding it at the level of individual hand mechanics and task-specific loading patterns.

What the glove does

Marley’s instrumented glove integrates flexible sensors along the hand to measure force distribution in real time during work activities. The device is designed for wearability, meaning a worker can wear it while performing actual job tasks rather than in a controlled laboratory simulation that may not reflect true conditions. The system provides visual feedback on load patterns, enabling both real-time monitoring and longer-term analysis of how forces accumulate across repetitive motions.

The design process required Marley to work across disciplines, combining materials selection for the flexible sensing elements, circuit design for the sensor array, 3D printing for the structural housing, and software integration for data acquisition and display. Pulling those threads together into a functional prototype is a genuine engineering accomplishment at any level. At the undergraduate level, it is exceptional.

Why this work connects to the broader mission

I spent 25 years in industry before entering academia, much of it working alongside the people this technology is designed to protect. Occupational injury is a persistent and underappreciated engineering problem. The gap between what we know about biomechanical loading and what actually gets deployed on the factory floor or the warehouse dock is wide. Instrumented wearables of the kind Marley is developing have real potential to close that gap by generating the data needed to make informed decisions about task design, training, and intervention.

Looking ahead

The project builds on prior work exploring flexible sensing in industrial contexts, and Marley’s contributions this semester have meaningfully advanced the capability and durability of the prototype. Future directions include expanding the sensor array for higher spatial resolution across the hand, improving wireless data transmission for untethered deployment, and validating the system against established ergonomic measurement standards in real work environments.

Watching Marley hold up that glove and walk visitors through how it works and what it measures was a proud moment. She did not just build something. She built something useful, and she knew how to explain why. That combination is rare, and it speaks well of where she is headed.

Congratulations, Marley. This is outstanding work.

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One of the most rewarding parts of directing a research laboratory is watching undergraduate students tackle genuinely hard problems and deliver results that advance the field. This semester, Paul Travers and John Tran did exactly that.

I am proud to share that Paul and John recently presented their research at the UNC Charlotte undergraduate research symposium, where they received well-deserved recognition for their work evaluating new materials, as candidate coatings material for hypersonic and spacecraft applications.

What the students investigated

Paul and John took on the challenge of characterizing coatings using a rigorous multi-method approach. Their work incorporated ellipsometry to measure optical properties, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for materials identification, Scanning Electron Microscopy to examine surface morphology, and thermal analysis to evaluate performance under elevated temperature conditions. The combination of these techniques gave them a comprehensive picture of how these materials behave under the conditions relevant to hypersonic flight and spacecraft re-entry.

Their findings confirmed several promising characteristics, including the material’s reflectance behavior relative to solar energy, competitive thermal performance compared to silicon carbide, and surface roughness profiles that are favorable for aerospace deployment. These are not trivial results. They represent months of careful sample preparation, instrument operation, data analysis, and scientific interpretation.

Why this matters

The aerospace industry is pushing into new performance regimes. Hypersonic vehicles operating above Mach 5 place coating materials under thermal and mechanical conditions that push conventional solutions to their limits. Identifying and validating candidate materials at this stage of development is exactly the kind of foundational work that enables future engineering breakthroughs. Paul and John contributed to that effort in a meaningful way.

A note of thanks

John Tran’s participation in this project was supported by the Office of Undergraduate Research at UNC Charlotte. We are grateful for that support and for the office’s commitment to giving students access to authentic research experiences. Paul Travers brought tremendous dedication and intellectual curiosity to this project from day one, and both students represented the Performance Materials Laboratory with distinction.

Watching these two stand in front of their poster and discuss their methodology and findings with faculty, peers, and visitors was a genuinely proud moment. They earned it.

The PML will continue advancing this research program, and I look forward to building on Paul and John’s contributions as we push toward potential applications in hypersonic leading edges, thermal control surfaces, and deep-space environments. More to come.

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The Performance Materials Lab (PML) at UNC Charlotte is excited to announce the next phase of our ongoing research into coastal water health. Our partners at the Sustainable Seas Institute (SSI) have successfully returned from their ten-day expedition through the Lesser Antilles, delivering a critical new dataset directly to our shoreside facilities.

A Collaborative Success

Between December 30 and January 8, the SSI team navigated the volcanic waters of the Eastern Caribbean, executing a rigorous sampling protocol. Despite the challenges of open-ocean transit, they secured viable water samples from St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Les Saintes, and Guadeloupe.

Now, the baton passes to us.

We are thrilled to be working alongside the Sustainable Seas Institute on this project. This collaboration allows us to combine SSI’s field logistics capabilities with PML’s advanced analytical resources, bridging the gap between open-ocean exploration and high-precision laboratory science.

The Science: Hunting for Invisible Contaminants

With the samples now safely stored at UNC Charlotte, our team is initiating the analysis phase. We will be screening these waters for two specific, pervasive threats that are becoming increasingly common even in remote environments:

• PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances): We will utilize our advanced spectroscopy and chromatography capabilities to detect trace levels of “forever chemicals.”
• Microplastics: Our team will quantify the density and type of micro-plastics present, helping us understand how global currents transport debris through the Caribbean arch.

Context from the Field

The context of these samples is vital. The SSI team reported that the “wilds” of Dominica and the vibrant harbors of Guadeloupe offered a stark contrast between protected nature and human activity. By analyzing water from both the pristine coastlines of the “Nature Island” and the busier thoroughfares of the region, we aim to build a high-resolution baseline for understanding the impact of agricultural and industrial runoff in the Lesser Antilles.

Looking Ahead

As we fire up the instruments to process this data, we are proud to contribute to a better understanding of our global oceans. This project marks a powerful start to 2026 for the Performance Materials Lab.

Stay tuned to this page for updates as we begin to share the analytical results of this exciting collaboration.

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From December 30 to January 8, the Performance Materials Lab team will be heading into the Lesser Antilles for a multi-island expedition across St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, and Guadeloupe. This ten‑day journey will launch our new year of research and education with a focus on vibrant tropical ecosystems, coastal communities, and the changing health of Caribbean waters.

Where We Are Going

Our route will carry us north through four islands that sit along a volcanic arc, each with its own mix of reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and steep rainforest‑covered slopes. St. Lucia and Dominica are especially known for their dramatic coastlines and rich nearshore habitats, while Martinique and Guadeloupe offer a blend of French Caribbean culture and biodiverse coastal waters.

While the scenery will be stunning, our presence there is driven by a critical scientific purpose.

The Mission: Mapping the Invisible

The primary objective of this expedition is a comprehensive water quality assessment along our route. While the surface often looks pristine, near-shore environments are increasingly vulnerable to agricultural runoff, plastic micro-particles, and other contaminants.

At each island landfall—and key points in between—our crew will be deploying instruments to collect precise water samples. These samples will be carefully stored aboard our vessel and transported back to our shoreside laboratory. There, they will undergo rigorous analysis to identify contaminant levels. This data is crucial for establishing baselines and helping local communities understand the unseen pressures acting on their marine resources.

Powering the Future of Research

Science at sea requires reliable energy, and this trip serves a secondary, vital purpose: a real-world shakedown of our vessel’s newly installed power system.

Sustainable research requires sustainable infrastructure of solar panels. We are moving away from traditional reliance on fossil fuels and testing an integrated system designed for greater efficiency and a lower carbon footprint. The varied conditions between St. Lucia and Guadeloupe—ranging from calm harbors to open ocean swells—will provide the perfect testbed to ensure this new system can support the rigorous energy demands of our scientific equipment on future, longer-range missions.

The Crew: The Next Generation of Scientists

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this voyage is the crew itself. Leading the expedition as Chief Scientist is Dr. Roger Tipton, bringing years of ocean experience to the helm of the research agenda.

Follow the Journey

As we prepare to depart on December 30, we invite you to follow along. We will be sharing updates from the field as connectivity allows, offering a glimpse into the daily realities of marine research.

This trip is a step forward in our commitment to understanding and protecting our blue planet—one island, and one sample, at a time.

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