PML Director Dr. Roger Tipton will moderate a live Zoom panel with engineers and a recruiter from Relativity Space, NAVAIR, and PSA Airlines on Wednesday, September 30. 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…
Next week I will be in Atlanta for CAMX, the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo, taking place September 21 to 24. I am looking forward to it for two reasons. 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…
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
I am pleased to share that I will once again be teaching Mechatronics II this fall semester. I really love teaching this course, and I look forward to working with a new group of students as they push their understanding of integrated mechanical, electrical, and software systems into genuinely applied territory. Mechatronics II builds directly … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more