It was a great experience. Kapur has spent the last three years leading one of the most significant corporate transformations in recent industrial history: the separation of Honeywell into three public companies. Honeywell Technologies focuses on automation and industrial controls, Honeywell Aerospace on aviation and satellite technology, and Solstice Advanced Materials on specialty chemicals and materials. Honeywell Technologies alone employs more than 50,000 people worldwide, including about 1,100 here in Charlotte.

What the Conversation Covered

The discussion centered on three themes that matter to anyone working at the intersection of technology and industry:

• Leading a global industrial company through a major portfolio transformation and separation
• The role of automation, AI, and innovation in U.S. manufacturing competitiveness
• Navigating complex global supply chains, regulatory environments, and economic uncertainty

A Conversation That Connects to Our Work

Much of what was discussed lines up closely with the research we do in the Performance Materials Laboratory. Our work in aerospace materials, advanced coatings, and clean water technology depends on understanding what industry actually needs. It was especially meaningful to hear about the creation of Solstice Advanced Materials and the continued focus on aerospace, two areas where materials science sits at the center of the business. Kapur himself once led Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies, where he built a sustainable technologies platform for the energy transition, so his perspective on how materials innovation turns into business value was particularly relevant to our lab.

Having spent 25 years in industry before joining the university, moving from the shop floor all the way to the CEO role, I always appreciate hearing how another leader frames the challenges of running a large organization. Kapur began his career as an electronics engineer and rose through Honeywell over more than three decades. Some lessons never change: the importance of people, the discipline of execution, and the need to keep investing in technology even when the near term is uncertain. Other lessons were new, especially his view of the industrial world moving from automation to autonomy, with systems that make decisions and operate on their own.

What I Took Away

I left the lunch with several clear takeaways. First, innovation at scale requires strong partnerships between industry and universities. Companies need the fundamental research and talent that institutions like UNC Charlotte provide, and universities need industry to help turn discoveries into real products. Second, the global context matters. Decisions about materials, manufacturing, and energy are increasingly shaped by international trade, policy, and supply chains, which is exactly why organizations like the World Affairs Council of Charlotte are so valuable to our community. Third, leadership is about clarity. The ability to explain a long term vision simply and convincingly is what carries an organization through change as large as splitting one company into three.

These are lessons I plan to bring back to my students. Our graduate and undergraduate researchers will be the engineers and leaders of the next generation, and understanding how industry leaders think about automation, AI, and manufacturing is an important part of their education.

Thank You

Thank you to the World Affairs Council of Charlotte for hosting such a thoughtful and well organized CEO Series program, and to Vimal Kapur for sharing his perspective with the Charlotte community. Events like this strengthen the connections between our university, local industry, and the wider world, and I look forward to the next one.

Learn more about the event on the World Affairs Council of Charlotte website.

The post Lunch with Vimal Kapur, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell Technologies, at the World Affairs Council of Charlotte appeared first on .

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.

The post From the Baltic to the Bench: Ulyana Pena Samples for Microplastics appeared first on .

What does it take to build a career in aerospace, and what are employers looking for right now? Students in the William States Lee College of Engineering can hear it directly from people working in the field this Wednesday.

Dr. Roger Tipton, director of the Performance Materials Laboratory, will moderate Careers in Aerospace, a live panel discussion on Wednesday, September 30, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM Eastern on Zoom. The panel is open to all College of Engineering students, from freshmen through seniors, and graduate students are welcome.

Meet the panelists

• Greg Kerchmar, Lead Propulsion Test Engineer, Relativity Space (UNC Charlotte Mechanical Engineering alum)
• Joshua Pannell, Mechanical Engineering, NAVAIR (UNC Charlotte Mechanical Engineering alum)
• Andrew Mastrogiovanni, Assistant Director, Talent Acquisition, PSA Airlines

The panel covers three very different sides of aerospace: commercial space launch, naval aviation, and the airline industry. Greg and Josh will talk about how their UNC Charlotte education prepared them for their current roles and what they wish they had known as students. Andrew will share the skills and majors recruiters look for, how new hires are onboarded and trained, and what the hiring outlook looks like.

Aerospace is a core focus of research in the Performance Materials Laboratory, where we develop advanced materials and coatings for demanding aerospace environments. Events like this help connect what students learn in the classroom and lab with the careers waiting for them.

Join here: Zoom Link

The post Careers in Aerospace: Industry Panel for UNC Charlotte Engineering Students appeared first on .

First, our team is presenting work on biocomposites. The Performance Materials Laboratory has been developing sustainable biocomposites, and CAMX is the right room to share that work with the people who design, build, and buy composite materials.

Second, we are up for an award. I am proud of the effort behind this research, and I am grateful to the students and collaborators who made it possible. Being recognized at a conference of this scale is a credit to the whole team.

I spent 25 years in industry before joining the university, and I still believe the best research happens when the lab and the factory floor talk to each other. CAMX brings both together, and I plan to spend as much time listening as presenting. If you work with composites, biobased materials, or advanced manufacturing, I would love to connect.

If you will be at CAMX, please reach out or find me in Atlanta. I will share more after the conference.

The post Taking Our Biocomposites Research to CAMX 2026 appeared first on .

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.

The post REU Student Derek Heidenfelder Wraps Up a Great Summer in PML appeared first on .

The Performance Materials Laboratory (PML) had a wonderful showing at this year’s UNC Charlotte Office of Undergraduate Research Symposium, where undergraduate researchers Shamar Lindo and Liam Eckhart presented their poster on extracting nanocellulose from hemp hurd agricultural waste. Their work was coauthored by Ali Alkhabbaz and PhD candidate Md Shah Nawaz Arafin, who served as their research mentors throughout the project.

The work sits at the heart of our biocomposites research program, exploring how nanocellulose derived from hemp hurd, an agricultural byproduct, can be used to develop sustainable, high performance biocomposite polymer materials as an alternative to petroleum based options. Shamar and Liam spent the semester in the lab extracting and characterizing fibers, evaluating purity and thermal stability, and laying the groundwork for the biocomposite formulations and stress testing that will follow. Ali and Arafin were closely involved every step of the way, guiding the experimental approach and helping Shamar and Liam build the skills they needed to carry the project forward.

Presenting a research poster to a room full of faculty, peers, and visitors takes real preparation and confidence, and Shamar and Liam handled it with poise. Fielding questions on the spot about your own data is one of the best tests of how well you understand your work, and both of them were more than up to the challenge. That confidence does not happen on its own. It comes from strong mentorship, and Ali and Arafin deserve real credit for the time and patience they invested in these two undergraduates.

I could not be prouder of everyone involved. Shamar and Liam’s curiosity, persistence, and growth as researchers reflect exactly what makes undergraduate research at UNC Charlotte so valuable, and Ali and Arafin’s mentorship reflects the collaborative culture we work hard to build in PML. This is great experience for the whole team, and I look forward to seeing where this work goes next.

Congratulations to Shamar, Liam, Ali, and Arafin on a job well done.

The post PML Undergraduates Shine at the UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Symposium appeared first on .

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.

The post Performance Materials Lab Celebrates Madhava Aditya Bharadwaj Pinapati’s Acceptance to Brown University appeared first on .

Mechatronics II builds directly on the foundations established in Mechatronics I. Students move beyond individual subsystem concepts and begin designing, building, and testing fully integrated systems. The course demands that students think across disciplines simultaneously, which reflects the way engineering problems actually present themselves in industry and research.

My approach to the course is grounded in a few principles I have carried throughout my career. The first is context before content. Before we dig into any technical material, I want students to understand why it matters and where it shows up in the real world. The second is consequence-driven learning. We do not learn system design in the abstract; we learn it by building things that either work or do not, and then figuring out why. The third principle is professional formation. Technical skill is necessary but not sufficient. Engineers who can communicate clearly, work collaboratively under pressure, and make defensible decisions in the face of uncertainty are the ones who make a lasting impact.

These principles are not theoretical for me. I spent 25 years in industry before joining the faculty at UNC Charlotte, working across roles from manufacturing engineering to executive leadership. The problems I ask students to solve in Mechatronics II are informed by that background. The stakes in the classroom are intentionally realistic.

If you are a current or prospective student with questions about the course, feel free to reach out through the department.

The post Returning to the Classroom: Mechatronics II, Fall 2026 appeared first on .

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.

The post Welcome to Charlotte: The 2026 REU Cohort Arrives on Campus appeared first on .

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.

The post Oak Ridge National Laboratory Visits UNC Charlotte: Dr. Cait Clarkson Brings the Future of Sustainable Manufacturing to Our Department appeared first on .