Millennial, Vol. 3, No. 3

Official Magazine of the Charlotte Research Institute

vol. 3 no. 3 Fall 2013/Winter 2014

innovate

research that will light the future of business, technology, and industry

UNC Charlotte has a long history of connecting with the region and the state of North Carolina. The Charlotte Research Institute is our business partner organization – growing applied interdisciplinary research and connecting our results with corporate, institutional, and entrepreneurial partners.

Great ideas at UNC Charlotte lead to globally relevant research like the new bioinformatics approach for understanding antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The multidisciplinary team working on Urban Eden, a sustainable house for the Solar Decathlon competition, used a very creative approach to design and build new systems for sustainable housing. These and many other stories in this edition of the Millennial illustrate the ground breaking basic and applied research that is happening at UNC Charlotte and the Charlotte Research Institute.

This work is happening in a very collaborative environment that puts our faculty and students in daily contact with corporate, institutional, and entrepreneurial partners. Ventureprise offers a steady stream of programs to help entrepreneurs harvest great ideas, find and learn from hundreds of potential customers, and generate innovations that can impact the economic community and society.

UNC Charlotte offers a wide spectrum of programs for engagement including Stars Students and our camps on campus. Public lectures, our Science and Technology Expo, and our monthly Innovation Connections are all on the upcoming calendar. We hope to see you here soon!

PORTAL Partnership, Outreach, and Research to Accelerate Learning

The four story 100,000sf building is making its presence known in the northern district of the UNC Charlotte campus! Whether seen from North Tryon Street (Route 29), the new UNC Charlotte 49ers football stadium, or the nearby campus shuttle stop, PORTAL has clearly taken its place at the main gateway to the Charlotte Research Institute. PORTAL is now open for business. Stop by and discover UNC Charlotte’s new industry-university partnership powerhouse today.

millennial

2

2013/2014

contents vol. 3 no. 3 Fall 2013/Winter 2014

features

we make research happen 9 Patent Corner 16 More than Science: Closer Look at P2E

4 Perilous Resistance 14 Safe Text 19 International Collaboration & CIRP Recognition 22 Close Up: NanoDiagnostic Technology, LLC 24 Ventureprise: Transforming Innovation & Entrepreneurship 28 Spotlight: Barry Rowan 37 Electric Green at Center City

catalyst for knowledge

10 Stars Service Learning 13 Education that Sustains 41 Camps on Campus Official Magazine of the Charlotte Research Institute

20 Urban Eden Overcomes 30 Grants: Expert Training

events

23 2nd Annual Venture Challenge Pitch Day 29 NSF I-Corps 32 Charlotte Life Sciences, A Regional Review 36 First Football Game: Welcome to the Neighborhood 40 University Business Partner Receptions 42 Upcoming

vol. 3 no. 3 Fall 2013/Winter 2014

innovate

research that will light the future of business, technology, and industry

on the cover

Corporate, institutional, and entrepreneurial collaboration with UNC Charlotte faculty and student researchers yields innovative solutions on a regional, national, and global level.

Official Magazine of the Charlotte Research Institute

Editorial Staff

Editorial Director Chip Yensan, lyensan@uncc.edu

Creative/Design SPARK Publications, info@SPARKpublications.com

Copy & Editorial Assistants Karen Ford, kjford@uncc.edu Julie Fulton, jfulton4@uncc.edu Kendra McMurray, kmcmurra@uncc.edu Robyne Vickers, rvicker4@uncc.edu

Photography Cress Photography, www.cressphotography.com Copyright 2014 Charlotte Research Institute at UNC Charlotte is the PORTAL for business-university partnerships. UNC Charlotte’s research capabilities represent a vital economic development tool for business attraction and is a geographically distinct part of UNC Charlotte located on the University’s Charlotte Research Institute Campus.

2013/2014

3

millennial

Perilous

resistance Bioinformatics and Biophysics Researchers Collaborate and Innovate to Uncover the Root of Rapidly Developing Antibiotic Resistance

millennial

4

2013/2014

G

lobal health issues can seem vast, with diseases spreading from country to country, continent to continent, shifting and changing as they infect new populations and encounter changing conditions.

Pathogens may infect millions, but if we really want to understand why, then we have to go small, looking at the genes that define the character of the microbes, and even smaller still, looking at the structures of the proteins those genes produce…

That’s where the problem becomes really, really complex: impossibly large numbers of microbes passing through millions of people, their genes changing, and the structure of their proteins – impossibly complex molecular machines themselves with important properties deriving from their structure — shifting and changing into a kaleidoscope of intricate forms, some of which give the microbes new capabilities.

Sometimes, those new capabilities make the bugs deadly. But how and why? It’s both a massive data analysis issue and a complex molecular biophysics problem. It requires new, interdisciplinary science, but there are very important real-life implications and applications that make it all worthwhile.

Take the problem of antibioticresistant bacteria, which have been emerging at an alarming rate. In some of the scariest of these pathogens, the mechanism responsible for the bacteria’s ability to defeat antibiotics is a complex protein molecule embedded in the bacterial cell wall — the enzyme beta-lactamase.

2013/2014

5

millennial

“Biology is an inherently comparative science.

From Darwin’s finches to modern molecular biology, we frequently learn most through comparisons.

In this work, we extend the comparison paradigm to computational biophysics by leveraging the speed and accuracy of the DCM.” —Dennis R. Livesay Computer generated diagram of protein provided by Dr. Livesay.

The rapid evolution of b-lactamase is the key factor responsible for the growing antibiotic resistance of some of the most terrifying microbes on the planet – pathogenic bacteria which are becoming rapidly immune to most, if not all, of our drugs. Through bioinformatics, we can trace the genetic changes responsible, but actually understanding what those changes are doing to the properties of the hugely complex beta-lactamase molecule is another matter.

The enzyme and its antibioticdestroying effects are not new.

Beta-lactamase has evolved over the millennia as a defensive weapon, a molecular machine for chopping up chemical weapons deployed in the wars bacteria fight against each other. These are the same chemical weapons that we millennial

6

2013/2014

have since “discovered,” modified slightly and now call “antibiotics.”

We tend to imagine that our medical innovation here is new, but because this chemical warfare has gone on for billions of years, the protein can be found in subtle variants in many, many bacteria.

Some of the variations in beta-lactamase are ancient, but some are very recent, as the molecule has experienced intense evolutionary pressure in the last century due to human over-use of antibiotic compounds. However, it is still somewhat of a mystery what specific structural or chemical changes in the protein have allowed its recent rapid changes in counter-antibiotic capability.

Now, new research appears to have uncovered the mechanisms involved, both in the protein’s longterm evolution and in the specific changes responsible for the rapid development of resistance against antibiotics. In a finding published July 18 in the online edition of

PLoS Computational Biology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte researchers Dennis R. Livesay, Deeptak Verma, and Donald J. Jacobs show significant evolution in the structural characteristics and physiochemical properties of beta-lactamase across bacterial families, but also find that these evolutionary characteristics do not appear to be specifically related to different versions of antibiotic resistance.

Instead, the researchers found that relatively minor changes in the structure of the enzyme’s active site – the area of the protein that couples with the antibiotic molecules and disables them – are capable, independent of changes to the larger structure of the protein (its “global properties”), of adapting the enzyme to new antibiotics.

Though it was not the result the researchers were hoping to discover, the finding does have large implications.

“It’s actually a cautionary result because it highlights that these mutations are not being restricted too much by the global properties of the enzyme,” said Livesay, a faculty member in bioinformatics.

Livesay notes that different families of bacteria have evolved significant physiochemical differences in their beta-lactamase molecules, but that these structural differences have still allowed resistance to the same new antibiotics to develop nonetheless.

Livesay’s team studied the structure and properties of class-A beta-lactamase proteins, one of four “families” of the protein that have evolved in bacteria and other organisms. They analyzed about a dozen proteins – those in the group whose structures have previously been described – and defined the intricate physiochemical properties of each of the proteins’ structures, while comparing the individual protein structure characteristics they discovered with the phylogenetic trees of the bacteria they came from.

Central to their approach was the Distance Constraint Model (DCM), a program developed by Jacobs, a UNC Charlotte physicist, and Livesay. The DCM allows detailed but also relatively fast analysis of the protein structure’s physical properties. The DCM’s efficient and accurate structural analysis allowed the researchers to make complex structural comparisons between many different (but related) molecules – an analysis that would otherwise require vast amounts of processing power. The analysis allowed the researchers to pinpoint specific differences between the proteins, such as differing amounts of rigidity/flexibility in specific parts of the protein’s complex structure.

“Biology is an inherently comparative science. From Darwin’s finches to modern molecular biology, we frequently learn most through comparisons. In this work, we extend the comparison paradigm

Graphic (below) represents the process of

antibiotic resistance.

Before selection

After selection Final population

Resistance level low

high

to computational biophysics by leveraging the speed and accuracy of the DCM.” Livesay said.

“We started by asking a very simple question: do the physical and chemical properties vary in a way that directly reflects the divergence of the family?” Livesay said. “What we did was calculate these properties and ask if those in the same evolutionary outgroups have similar properties and are

those in different outgroups likely to have different properties?”

“We did some simple calculations and we proved conclusively that the physiochemical properties are varying in statistically significant ways with the phylogeny. This is really cool,” he noted, “because it demonstrates that evolution is manipulating chemistry in a straightforward way.”

The next step was for the researchers to compare the genetically linked structural properties of the proteins to different varieties of antibiotic resistance in the bacteria. Livesay notes that antibiotic resistance in bacteria has long been studied and, in fact, used as an alternative form of classification.

“We wanted to see if we could link the properties we calculate to these activities. And it turns out, no, we can’t,” Livesay said. “Frankly, I was a little disappointed when we first saw that. What’s happening is that within a lineage the global properties change very little, but the severity of their response to antibiotics can be huge.”

Though the properties of the protein vary from one bacterial family to another, the researchers concluded that the entire betalactamase group has general structural characteristics that prevent the protein’s basic physiochemical properties from affecting the enzyme active site, where antibiotics are attacked.

“This enzyme is a rock,” Livesay noted. “It’s atypically rigid -- much more rigid than most proteins. So how does the enzyme become active against an antibiotic it wasn’t active against before? Well it had some chemical groups that were simply in the way, meaning steric clashes would restrict what antibiotics could fit in the active site of the enzyme.”

The implication is that the general rigidity of beta-lactamase allows relatively simple genetic 2013/2014

7

millennial

changes – changes affecting only the structure of the active site – to cause new antibiotic resistance without otherwise affecting the behavior of the protein.

“It doesn’t require any wholesale change in the protein’s global properties to manipulate this local chemistry, so it turns out that these mutations are evolutionarily cheap,” Livesay said. “You can evolve these slight changes in the active site against any background of the global properties. A very small number of gene changes and a very small number of amino acid changes in the protein are involved.”

Since the larger structure of the protein does not interact with the behavior of the active site, Livesay stresses, it means that the same kinds of antibiotic resistance can re-occur across a broad range of bacteria from different families, though they have evolved differences in betalactamase structure.

The ease with which the enzyme can evolve and adapt to new antibiotics, combined with the fact that some bacteria carry the betalactamase gene on a plasmid (a

separate ring of genetic material) that can be swapped with even unrelated bacteria, and the huge selective pressure caused by human overuse of antibiotics, all combine to create our current nightmare of widespread, rapidly developing antibiotic resistance.

According to Livesay, the current finding thus has larger implications.

“Our findings on class A betalactamases are actually a much more terrifying result than one might expect,” he said. “It highlights that not only are their genes on mobile elements that are being transferred and shared, it turns out that these mutations are not being constricted too much by the physiochemical properties of the enzyme. That is presumably also contributing to the fact that beta-lactamases in general have adapted so quickly.”

Going forward, the team is currently analyzing the beta-lactamase genes that lead to carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections.

“Class B beta-lactamases are the

most dire, the most scary,” Livesay said. “These genes are highly mobile, on mobile elements and they are plastic and very active. They can be resistant to almost all the antibiotics we have. The enzyme can recognize in the active site all these different things, under different pH’s. It’s extraordinarily promiscuous. As such, CRE infections are very difficult to treat, leading to mortality estimates as high as 50% for infections that used to be treated with penicillin.”

There’s an old saying in biology: “life will find a way.” Through the complex processes of the evolution of life, bacteria have found complex and efficient ways to fight each other, and now the ingenuity of modern medicine as well. But really, modern science is no different – present it with a problem, no matter how complex, and science too will find a way, using the tools at hand, learning and adapting, as Livesay and Jacobs are doing.

This research was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

There’s an old saying in biology: “life will find a way.” Through the complex processes of the evolution of life, bacteria have found complex and efficient ways to fight each other, and now the ingenuity of modern medicine as well. But really, modern science is no different – present it with a problem, no matter how complex, and science too will find a way, using the tools at hand, learning and adapting, as Livesay and Jacobs are doing.

millennial

8

2013/2014

? patent n Patent Corner

You can

that

A brief overview of patent eligibility in the United States

I

n the 1980s, a high profile Supreme Court case (Diamond v. Chakrabarty) concluded that “anything under the sun made by man” should qualify for patent coverage in the United States. Since that time, we have seen a wide variety of patents being allowed including patents on genetically modified organisms, gene sequences, computer software, and even business methods. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is very liberal in determining what can be patented compared to most other patent offices around the world.

In order to qualify for a patent, an invention must meet three basic hurdles which are; (1) the invention must contain patent eligible subject matter (for example the invention must be man-made and not naturally occurring), (2) the invention must be new, useful, and not-obvious, and (3) the invention must be explained in enough detail so that other people can reproduce the invention without a lot of guess work. Many academic researchers will be surprised to learn that you don’t have to include any data or evidence supporting your idea in a patent. Unlike an academic paper, there is no requirement that the technology disclosed

in a patent will actually work or is based on sound scientific principles. In fact, you don’t even have to build a working prototype to file your patent application.

It is frequently the case that a researcher will find patents on

an essential purpose and provide a mechanism by which the university can legally transfer ideas out of the university and into the commercial marketplace.

Brad Fach is the Associate Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at UNC Charlotte. He is a registered patent agent with the United States Patent and Trademark office and has been filing patents for over 13 years.

Mr. Fach has filed over 500 patent

At UNC Charlotte, patents serve an essential purpose and provide a mechanism by which the university can legally transfer ideas out of the university and into the commercial marketplace. inventions years before they are actually made or physically reduced to practice.

Many argue that the patent office’s liberal stance on patent eligibility allows for poor quality patents that only hinder innovation and do not serve the public’s best interest. Supporters of the patent system argue that strong and enforceable patents on a wide range of inventions (including business method patents) are needed and without them it would be difficult to find companies and investors willing to fund technology development.

At UNC Charlotte, patents serve

applications in multiple technology areas ranging from biotechnology to consumer products and software. He specializes in intellectual property development, management, and commercialization, industrial relations, industry-based sponsored research, strategic partnerships, economic development, and University spinouts.

For more information on ways to make patent research easier and more effective, contact Brad Fach at: bfach@uncc.edu or 704-687-8018 and ask about a full tutorial on patent researching.

2013/2014

9

millennial

SERVICE LEARNING UNC Charlotte’s STARS Students Shine a Light through Community Engagement

T

he college years are busy ones, indeed. Whether in the midst of completing a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree, students have a plethora of activities to juggle. In addition to class time, some college students manage full or part-time jobs, research projects, a family life, involvement in campus clubs, and of course, a social life. There is no longer one standard college experience. With so many timeintensive commitments, adding community service to an already active schedule may seem to some not only like a low priority but also unrelated to their studies.

Scott Heggen and Carla Bendezu, two students of the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI), take a different stance.

The CCI students are both members of Students in Technology, Academia, Research, and Service Computing Corps, a national non-profit organization that strives to introduce underrepresented populations to the computing field. Aside from only generating interest, STARS Computing Corps, as it’s better known, also seeks to build a larger, more diverse, and more competitive computing

workforce. A distinguishing characteristic about the Corps is its full utilization of both the community service and service learning approaches to problemsolving. Despite their similarities, the terms “community service” and “service learning” have important differences. While both address a societal need, community service is typically a short-term volunteer effort designed to only benefit the group receiving the service.

Service learning, in contrast, is

professional and leadership skills at their volunteer posts, members have access to research experience for undergraduates (REU), internship and co-op experiences, as well as networking opportunities. Through her involvement with the STARS Computing Corps, Bendezu earned her first REU, which inspired her to consider taking her studies further. “At the beginning, my goal was finishing my undergraduate degree; now I have discovered how much I like research and the possibilities to pursue and obtain a Ph.D. in the future,” she says. Besides being a member of the general STARS program, Bendezu also participates in the STARS Leadership Corps, a college-based offshoot that may very well be the driving force of the general Corps’ success.

UNC Charlotte is one of approximately 40 colleges and universities that has a STARS Leadership Corps (SLC) as a student-run organization. SLC is based on four principal values: technical excellence, leadership, civic engagement and service, and community. Scott Heggen, a current Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant, leads the SLC as its president. His extensive

UNC Charlotte is one of approximately 40 colleges and universities that has a STARS Leadership Corps (SLC) as a student-run organization.

millennial

10

2013/2014

often a longer-term, more detailed volunteer effort since it seeks to identify, understand, and remediate the issue and its causes.

Most importantly, service learning emphasizes mutual benefit for all parties involved. This is the key that makes the STARS Computing Corps successful. Corps members, like Bendezu and Heggen, have just as much to gain as the young people they instruct.

In addition to developing

experience in the computing field makes him an apt leader for the club. Prior to his arrival at UNC Charlotte, Heggen taught at Western Carolina University in its Engineering and Technology Department. As president, he has the task of recruiting other college students to join the SLC and coordinating various volunteer projects. In line with the club’s commitment to community outreach, Heggen dedicates a great amount of his time to teaching students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School about computer science. Through a partnership with Citizen Schools, an organization that promotes extended learning days for public schools, Heggen conducts a ten-week long apprenticeship that instructs students on how to create their own cell phone apps.

At the program’s end, the students demonstrate their knowledge by teaching the material they learned to their family, friends, teachers, and even city representatives.

“You’d be amazed at what these kids know after ten weeks,” Heggen remarks. “They use technical terms from the apprenticeship, they explain complex concepts like GPS and accelerometers, and they speak about the topic without any visual aids. They know the concepts and how to talk about them in an intelligent manner.”

Computer science major and SLC member, Bendezu, also volunteered with Citizen Schools for two semesters. In the two apprenticeships that she led,

Light My Fire Photography

2013/2014

11

millennial

students learned how to make their own video games and to build smart phone applications.

Like Heggen, Bendezu also noticed improvement in the students’ technical knowledge and comprehension of computer science concepts. However, the improvement was more than a simple observation. “Every program that is run by the STARS Computing Corps starts and ends with surveys,” she explains. “These surveys help the organization to understand if the workshops are working or not, and also provide the compendium of our yearly work.”

Pre-workshop surveys feature questions regarding the students’ comprehension of and appreciation for technology as well as their future aspirations.

Furthermore, the surveys indicate to instructors the quantity and depth of material that is suitable to be taught.

Post-workshop surveys, in particular, are considerably insightful since they relay information about the workshops’ general impact. After analyzing the questionnaires, Bendezu and other instructors are better able to determine what content needs revision for the workshops to better serve the students. Comparison between the two sets of surveys confirmed Bendezu’s observations of her students’ progress.

The road to success was anything but smooth.

Accommodating the sessions with available resources was one issue she recalls: “Last semester, we encountered a security issue with the computers that the middle school made available to use.

Each week I had to implement new strategies to ensure each workshop was a success no matter what obstacle would arise.”

Eventually, she and her classroom overcame the security matter by using a different software. millennial

12

2013/2014

The SLC members at UNC Charlotte spend many hours dedicating themselves to a variety of volunteer projects.

For Heggen, a major problem was “Stigma. …students automatically assume it’s going to be another boring lecture, another boring activity, another boring hour of learning.” To combat this, he and other SLC members leave the stuffy suits and ties at home to make themselves as easy to relate to as possible. By the end of it all, the students and their instructors have overcome the obstacle together, and are comfortable with each other. Heggen observes that by the program’s conclusion, his

students are “self-learners,” and take the initiative to learn about new things.

The SLC members at UNC Charlotte spend many hours dedicating themselves to a variety of volunteer projects.

The recipients of their efforts have much to gain from their experiences with the STARS Computing Corps, as do the SLC members themselves. For Bendezu, the personal growth she noticed pertained not only to her students, but also to her own progress. After her involvement with the organization, she finds her outlook about effective leadership and the traits needed to lead well largely redefined.

Ultimately, her involvement with the Corps helped her “to become a better person, leader, and to fully comprehend the broader aspects…encompassed within computer science.”

Bendezu wasn’t the only one whose thoughts changed after getting involved with the Corps: Heggen also had his own revelation about the traits involved in being a good programmer. He now recognizes how being an effective communicator and dependable team player matter just as much as having the technical skills.

Most of the non-technical skills that he’s acquired, he says, is because of his participation in the program. “Comparing myself now to when I entered the Ph.D. program and joined STARS, you’d think I was two completely different people. I came in looking to write code, but I’ve left wanting much, much more.”

Learn more about the STARS Program and the STARS Leadership Corps by contacting Scott Heggen at sheggen@uncc.edu or by visiting www.diti.uncc.edu/starscomputing-corps.

U

niversities are multidimensional entities that serve, not only their students, faculty, and staff, but also the community around them.

Most might assume that this means the education of future workforces, academic and business collaborations, or the advancement of scientific research. These are all true though not a complete list and certainly not enough when considering what a university can do for civic outreach.

It’s a sad fact, but most Americans don’t think about the homeless until nighttime temperatures plummet below freezing, if at all. Many who do have the less fortunate on their minds, typically only consider volunteering their time to help at shelters, or donate to food banks during the Season of Giving. The call for food and volunteers during the other eleven months goes largely unheard.

What image comes to mind when you think of the homeless?

Stereotypes of impoverished and underprivileged populations are largely to blame for lack of awareness and action, especially in university students who are largely from privileged backgrounds.

“In general, student stereotypes mirrored those reported in the literature-that homeless individuals tend to be unmotivated and workadverse, abuse alcohol or drugs, or be mentally ill,” Dr. Kimberly Buch and Dr. Susan Harden write in their co-authored report titled “The Impact of a Service-Learning Project on Student Awareness of Homelessness, Civic Attitudes, and Stereotypes Toward the Homeless.” (http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/ index.php/jheoe/article/view/573) According to the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness,

that

Education

Sustains According to the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, there were a total of 1,122 people homeless on January 30, 2013.

360

women

24

738

children

men

1,122 people there were a total of 1,122 people homeless on January 30, 2013. Of those, 738 were children – more than half, 360 were women and 24 were men. A Child’s Place reports that there were 4,770 homeless children enrolled in the CharlotteMecklenburg school system in the 2012-2013. When you consider that parents typically don’t view their children’s suffering with ambivalence these stereotypes seem not only inaccurate but irresponsible.

The need for change in the present situation for so many is overwhelming, and can only be possible through education and action.

Dr. Kimberly Buch has been a facilitator of engaged learning for decades, long before engaged learning became a popular term in the mid-‘90s. She believes that education happens both in the classroom and far beyond and that real and meaningful learning is something that doesn’t end when the classes are over. She encourages students to challenge the way

A Child’s Place reports that there were 4,770 homeless children enrolled in the CharlotteMecklenburg school system in the 2012-2013. they understand and interact with their world. In that regard, it’s easy to see why she became involved with Urban Ministry’s efforts to relieve the suffering of Charlotte’s homeless, and Stop Hunger Now’s mission to fight hunger globally.

Going beyond simply encouraging students to get involved, “Dr. Buch has been instrumental in getting the service learning designation applied to courses across campus that facilitate community outreach by students,” says Dr. Cynthia Wolf Johnson, associate provost for Academic Services. Given that the requirements of service learning courses require student engagement to meet real needs that have been identified by the community, having this designation on transcripts is appealing for students who seek to impress potential employers.

For many of the students and faculty involved in service learning the benefits that come from service continued on page 15 2013/2014

13

millennial

4.6 Seconds is enough time to change your life forever.

D

Safe Text

millennial

14

2013/2014

o you text and drive? If your answer is no, then you’re either with the half of the population that actually doesn’t or you’re not being honest. That’s right, nearly half of the population says they text while driving. Just like with drunk driving admonitions, people have seen the Public Service Announcements (PSAs) informing them about the dangers of this multitasking with driving, the testimonials of people who have survived fatal accidents they caused because they were reading or responding to some inconsequential text, and the statistics.

It’s not that they didn’t learn anything from the PSAs, it’s that they think it’s just one text. That what happens to others couldn’t possibly happen to them. But then that one text turns into two and then there’s another and another. And while they’re responding to the request to stop by the grocery store or the party invite, they’ve swerved out of their lane several times, their speed becomes inconsistent, and they’ve missed that the vehicle in front of them has slammed on the breaks to try to avoid an accident. It’s an all too common scenario that starts off with something quick and innocent but can instantly turn into tragedy or at the very best an inconvenience to the others on the road.

What excuse would be good enough to give a victim of a text related accident?

The fact is that we can’t rely on PSAs to get through to people why texting while driving is so dangerous. PSAs serve as educational tools and they’re only as effective at reaching people as every other commercial out there. People see them, they hear warnings, and then once it’s over they go about their business as usual. Do you remember the contents of the last anti-texting PSA or what the commercials were that came before and after it? Probably not.

A better way to get through to people may be AT&T’s It Can Wait program. This program provides not only the general information on why one shouldn’t text and drive, but also a simulator akin to what teens play in arcades. Consisting of a chair, a monitor, floor pedals, and a steering wheel you might think you’re sitting down to a

continued from page 13

More than 100,000 wrecks involve texting drivers.

– National Safety Council

You are 23X more at risk of a crash when you text.

– VirginiaTech Transportation Institute

“texting took a driver’s focus away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds--enough time...to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.”

– Jennifer Guevin, CNET

New Drivers: “61 percent of teens admit to risky driving habits.” Forty-six percent of that 61 percent say that they text message while driving.

– AAA & Seventeen Magazine

session of Gran Turismo®, until they hand you a cellphone.

Participants quickly realize how completely impossible it is to both focus on the driving simulation and to read and respond to texts. In this safe environment, far removed from the urgencies and stresses of real life, participants are confronted with how little control they have over their vehicle when their attention is elsewhere.

"Texting while driving is a deadly habit that makes you 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash," Bill Soards, President, AT&T-Colorado, said. "Awareness of the dangers of texting and driving has increased, but people are still doing it. With this expanded effort, we hope to change behavior. Together, we can help save lives."

In September, UNC Charlotte teamed up with AT&T’s It Can Wait program to provide students, staff, and faculty alike the opportunity to experience what the PSAs warn about. Chancellor Dubois said he was proud that UNC Charlotte was the first among North Carolina universities to join other state institutions in this initiative. "At UNC Charlotte, we are committed to making a lasting difference in our students' lives and serving our community," he said.

"Usually we focus on academic achievement, personal growth, and setting goals for the future, but nothing is more important than student safety."

While it may be too early to tell if this program makes a significant impact in decreasing text related vehicle accidents, it has successfully earned the attention and support of the other major cellular carriers as well as many federal, state, and local agencies.

To learn more about AT&T’s It Can Wait program and to play their online simulator, visit their website at www.itcanwait.com

learning go far beyond a few lines on a transcript. For instance, student testimonials given at the end of the semester in the Citizenship and Service Practicum course prove both that the students enter the class with a set stereotype of what homelessness is and that through working directly with the homeless that the truth is drastically different.

Drs. Buch and Harden’s article highlights several student testimonies, including one student who says this about what they thought about homelessness prior to taking the Citizenship and Service Practicum course: “I thought they were lazy and some wanted hand-outs. They were dirty and not like ‘us.’ Now I’m sorry for feeling this way,” and then how they viewed homelessness after their service learning experiences: “Just like us. Very educated people and were once successful. Not everyone brought this on themselves.” These courses have the ability to provide lessons to expand the minds of all individuals involved. The potential of really knowing that one’s understanding of a situation can be completely different than the truth of reality is a lesson that can yield limitless possibilities well into the future.

Stereotypes of impoverished and underprivileged populations are largely to blame for lack of awareness and action.

Dr. Buch’s dedication to her students’ past, present, and future has earned her well-deserved recognition in the form of the highest teaching honor bestowed by UNC Charlotte, the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. “Our students’ learning and development should be the true measure of our success not our own engaging, entertaining or even enlightened teaching,” says Dr. Buch. It’s not just lip service, she proves it through action and we’re lucky that the fruits of her labor will remain evident in students and alumni for their entire lives.

Dr. Kimberly Buch is a professor of the Department of Psychology. To learn more about her work, email her at kkbuch@uncc.edu.

2013/2014

15

millennial

than

More

T

his past July marked the beginning of the Plant Pathways Elucidation Project (P²EP), a collaborative initiative which brings together researchers and students of all collegiate levels to meet industry needs in the production of healthier and more durable food crops. P²EP is an agriculturally and nutritionally based initiative that aims to identify, document, and map the chemical reactions known as pathways, that produce compounds that can result in differences in phenotype, which could be yield, and resistance to disease. Once mapped, the expected result is that farmers and agricultural companies alike will be able to select the plants that carry the trait of interest and breed them to produce a plant that is more likely to express the given trait. The research generated from the P²EP will essentially “provide breeders with the tools to more efficiently choose which crops have those traits based on these markers,” says Dr. Cory Brouwer, director of UNC Charlotte’s Bioinformatics Services Division and one of the P²EP’s leaders.

While botanical and agricultural studies are not new activities the prime point of distinction between the P²EP and the other studies is its scope of focus. Most studies focus on high yielding commodities like corn and soybeans, which accounted for 4.3 and 4.6 percent of agriculture sales for North Carolina in 2011 according to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

P²EP currently studies strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, and oats, which only took in a small fraction millennial

16

2013/2014

Science:

A Closer of those sales in NC for the same year. These lesser yielding crops are the focus of study because they all have high nutritional qualities such as antioxidants for example, and because they were already being studied at the North Carolina Research Campus.

There are multiple elements that make P²EP unique. Its emphasis on understudied crops marks one distinction. However, it’s the program’s creative focus on

delivering high quality nutritional understanding through the collaborative efforts of researchers and students to meet real industry needs and potential capital growth.

P²EP and GMOs Although the project produces a range of benefits for its participants and for plant breeders, the nature of the project may also bring to mind questions about genetically modified organisms or GMOs.

Adriano Schneider

Look at P²EP According to Dr. Brouwer, “The results from the P²EP are upstream of the GMO process,” he states. He explains that the aim is to better understand nutritional pathways so that agricultural workers can easily identify and breed more nutritious plants made up of the same pathway. The offspring would then express the characteristic more strongly than its parents. In this way, the process still fixates on natural variation. The only distinction of

the process is that “what we’re doing is in the lab and not in the field,” Adriano Schneider, doctoral student of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, explains.

One may also inquire as to whether the project’s results may decrease the quantity of GMOs in the market, a speculation that Dr. Brouwer, Jaime Sheridan (another doctoral student working on his PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology), and Schneider all find improbable.

“We’re not going to substitute them. It’s not the goal of the project to substitute them,” continues Schneider. “When you talk about GMOs, you think corn and soybeans.

We’re not competing against them.”

P²EP was intentionally designed to serve as a unique educational opportunity for students of all collegiate levels.

Because conducting research in this field is such an intensive 2013/2014

17

millennial

endeavor, P²EP is divided into subprojects and each sub-project is responsible for a different aspect of the larger research project. So as to ensure greater efficiency, students work on teams, each of which has its own assigned sub-project.

Teamwork has many advantages and for these Ph.D. students, team assistance with their research is a luxury that escapes most doctorate students. “As a Ph.D. student, you get so much more done [with a team],” reflects Sheridan. Doctorate students also have the responsibility and challenge of being team leaders of their sub-projects with each team leader responsible for five students assisting them with their project. “One of the biggest challenges is how to get people working together, getting to the same goal,” Adriano Schneider remarks. “With P²EP, you have students coming from several different universities trying to solve several different issues. […] When they come to the program, they need to know all that I already know.” Schneider is working towards his doctorate in biotechnology and plant breeding. The role of team leader provides doctorate students with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their leadership skills.

Team leaders work with graduate and undergraduate students, the latter of whom assist as interns.

For some undergraduate students, internships can be uninspiring experiences, with little potential to be included in meaningful work.

Sheridan and Schneider both work toward fostering an inclusive and hands-on learning environment for interns. “Another benefit for the interns is that they have been involved in almost every aspect of my project and understand the time and organization to carry out a

Ph.D. project, which is an essential skill if they decide to continue their education at the graduate level,” Sheridan adds.

While student teams focus on the identification and documentation of the plant pathways, which involve three general research areas: genetic mapping, genetic sequencing, and annotation, the P²EP initiative goes well beyond simply doing research in a lab. Student researchers benefit not only by furthering the cause of

educational backgrounds, learning styles, and personalities that have to be reconciled in order to progress as a group. Furthermore, for team leaders, managing subprojects while keeping in mind the costs of funding can be stressful.

“I had an expensive part of the project in my hands,” he recalls.

Despite it all, most participants agree that the experiences are worth the setbacks.

This program presents the opportunity for students to have mentors of various occupational backgrounds, including those who represent private-sector businesses as well as faculty researchers of diverse schools. This is the kind of exposure that employers value when seeking to hire.

“Academia is not known for interdisciplinary research,” Dr. Mary Ann Lila noted at the 12th annual Charlotte Life Sciences Conference.

“Industry is demanding interdisciplinary research.

This project is giving students an incredible opportunity to have that in their careers when some of us haven’t had that in our own careers.” Dr. Lila is director of N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute and on the P²EP leadership team. Moreover, scientists conducting these studies hope to discover how these pathways operate and how they can benefit human health.

This program presents the opportunity for students to have mentors of various occupational backgrounds, including those who represent private-sector businesses as well as faculty researchers of diverse schools. This is the kind of exposure that employers value when seeking to hire.

millennial

18

2013/2014

this new initiative, but by also gaining exposure to interdisciplinary research that their more seasoned mentors and professors may not have.

Reaping the rewards of the P²EP also means working through the challenges, as there are many.

“The scientific experiments, themselves, were challenging. It is challenging to troubleshoot a failed experiment, and to teach interns how to figure out why it failed and how to adjust the methods to re-do the experiment,” says Sheridan. For Schneider, the issue is different. The collaboration in the laboratory does not always begin as smoothly as one would hope. Researchers have different

Dr. Cory Brouwer is the director of UNC Charlotte’s Bioinformatics Services Division.

To learn more about P²EP, visit their website at P2EP.org or contact Dr. Brouwer by email at cbrouwer@uncc.edu or by phone, 704-250-5764

International Collaboration & CIRP Recognition T he 1940s was a time of massive upheaval and change worldwide. Following the conclusion of World War II, nations recognized a need existed to advance technology and the understanding of sciences and production, not just locally, but on an international scale.

An initiative spurred on

by Messrs E. Bickel of Switzerland, D.F. Galloway of the United Kingdom, P. Nicolau of France, and O. Peters of Belgium led to the foundation of the College International pour la Rechereche en Productique (CIRP) in 1951.

Today with objectives that include promoting cooperative scientific research amongst its members and collaboration between academic faculty, researchers, and industry leaders, CIRP facilitates an essential link in the scientific, manufacturing, and industrial communities.

At any given time there are only about 600 CIRP members world-wide due to a highly rigorous, invitation-only selection process.

Only those individuals at the top of their fields are considered for membership. Even more of an exclusive honor is the election of CIRP Fellows. Of the 600 members,

fewer than 180 members are Fellows, the remaining are a mix of Associate and Corporate members and Research Affiliates.

New Fellows announced during CIRP’s General Assembly meetings are honored with a lifetime membership to the

prestigious institutions like MIT, Purdue University, and Cornell University to name just a few.

However, unlike most other universities in the world who have only one or two Fellows, UNC Charlotte hosts five American Fellows, one German Fellow, and an Associate Fellow from Ireland. Dr. Robert Hocken, Dr. Kevin Scott Smith, Dr. Matthew A. Davies, Dr. Christopher J. Evans, Dr. Friedrich G. Goch, Dr. Brigid A. Mullany and Dr. Wilhelm are all CIRP members currently working at UNC Charlotte.

UNC Charlotte is known for breaking new ground through The William States Lee College of Engineering programs that address real-world industrial concerns and cutting edge, innovative research. For almost 50 years, The William States Lee College of Engineering has been one of the finest engineering colleges in the southeast due in part to the teaching and research and a philosophy of teamwork and application. UNC Charlotte is fortunate to have the CIRP Fellows above working together in their common goals to study, design, research and build together.

Today with objectives that include promoting cooperative scientific research amongst its members and collaboration between academic faculty, researchers, and industry leaders, CIRP facilitates an essential link in the scientific, manufacturing, and industrial communities. organization. August 2013, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dr. Robert Wilhelm was presented with his Fellowship and became one of only 15 American Fellows.

America has 10% of CIRP members from all categories.

Fellows can be found at

2013/2014

19

millennial

UrbanEden

vercomes

I

t’s easy to recognize the recent achievements earned by the team involved in UrbanEden, UNC Charlotte’s answer to the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 challenge. They placed 3rd along with another team in the juried Engineering Contest in a global competition of 19 academic teams. They also won the prestigious People’s Choice award which was calculated based on public on-line voting. With competition from 29 colleges and universities from the United States, Czech Republic, Canada, and Austria including Stanford University, University of Southern California, and the Vienna University of Technology these awards were hard fought and well earned.

Engineering student, Gengbei Shi shared some of the engineering amenities that contributed to UrbanEden’s success and provided

unique problems for students to tackle. To make the structure as environmentally friendly as possible, taking into consideration the source of materials and how well they contribute to energy

simplistic as it sounds. The house also features a radiant heating and cooling system that coordinates capillary tube mats imbedded in the geopolymer concrete with rooftop fintube panel systems and a movable PV solar power rack on the roof. There is also a slew of electronics and machinery required to make these different parts work together. And if the interconnectedness of these systems wasn’t enough of a challenge, engineering students also had to work and compromise with the needs of the design and architecture students who required shared space between the two disciplines to be visually appealing.

Creating a sustainable house for the Solar Decathlon was, by nature, its own set of challenges.

To compete, teams had to design and create a solar powered, energy-efficient house that is attractive, healthy to live in, and

Creating a sustainable house for the Solar Decathlon was, by nature, its own set of challenges. To compete, teams had to design and create a solar powered, energy-efficient house that is attractive, healthy to live in, and affordable.

millennial

20

2013/2014

efficiency, the team chose to make the majority of the structure out of a geopolymer concrete. Because of the nature of that material and the amount that they were planning to use the team had to ensure both quantity and consistency – not a task that proved to be as

affordable. But just building the structure wasn’t where the challenges ended; they then had to deconstruct their entire project to some degree, pack it up, ship it within a limited amount of time, and then rebuild it on site. The last two steps, the shipping and rebuilding, presented unique problems to overcome that could not have been prepared for before hand.

When the shipment of the UrbanEden house was delayed two days due to transportation issues, the team had to scramble to assemble their house on uneven event grounds with much less time than most of the other teams.

Gengbei said that once the house arrived on Solar Decathlon grounds that UNC Charlotte team members all chipped in regardless of their disciplines to help where needed, often working from 7 am to 2 am in the few days leading up to the opening of the public viewing of the houses. Cortney Albert, an Interior Design student team leader for UrbanEden, echoed Gengbei’s statement, saying that Arts & Architecture students helped Engineering students, and vice versa until the house was in the best possible shape.

It would be easy to imagine that the atmosphere during the competition build days would have been tense and closely guarded between the teams as they prepared their houses for judgment but this was not the case as Cortney was happy to report. She said that just about everyone faced difficult challenges in the shipping and rebuilding of the houses above and beyond what teams had anticipated so there was a real sense of comradery as teams shared tools and even scaffolding to get their houses built for the competition.

“Everyone experienced problems once they got there

Wade Bruton

so we all had that in common, but because of the shipping difficulties we were the last team to get started. The pressure we felt to get the project completed on campus was tense but completely different once the house arrived in California,” Cortney mentioned during a phone interview.

While the team hoped for a better placement than the 3rd place in the engineering portion of the competition, there was no better award to indicate that all of their hard work paid off when UrbanEden was announced as the People’s Choice. Cortney said, “That was the most important award because it’s proof that UrbanEden is the sort of place people want to live in.”

Wade Bruton

More information about UrbanEden, including details about the US Solar Decathlon, can be found at urbaneden.uncc.edu.

Gengbei Shei is a student of The William States Lee College of Engineering and Cortney Albert is a student of the College of Arts & Architecture. Requests for additional information are welcome through the contact form on their website - urbaneden.uncc.edu/contact 2013/2014

21

millennial

NanoDiagnostic Technology, LLC J

un Wang, Ph.D., president of NanoDiagnostic Technology, LLC has taken an intercontinental trip to get where he is today as a company owner and new business partner on the Charlotte Research Institute campus.

His journey to establishing his own company began in China where he was a chemical engineer for the Institute of Environmental Protection. By August of 2000 he moved on to become a department of Chemistry Visiting Scholar at the University of Rostock in Germany, and in 2001 he made his way to the United States west coast to become a postdoctoral researcher in the department of Chemistry and Pharmacology at California State University in Los Angeles, California. After having served from 2005 to 2012 as senior scientist for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with the Department of Energy in Richland, WA he moved southeast to Charlotte where he established NanoDiagnostic Technology, LLC. Jun Wang’s company primarily operates the Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing Companies, LLC developing a handheld biomonitoring device which incorporates a functionalized nanoparticle and a lateral flow test strip to detect environmental exposure to organophosphate in a blood sample. On August 15, 2013 Wang received a $100K SBIR/STTR Award for research on a functionalized nanoparticle-based

handheld device for rapid and sensitive detection.

Organophosphate (OP) pesticides are highly toxic compounds used to control insect populations in a number of agricultural and landscaping applications. The widespread use of these toxic chemicals has generated serious environmental health risks. It is

phosphorylated cholinesterase (OP-ChE) as a biomarker of OP exposure. In phase I, Wang has three specific aims: (1) develop Z (IV)-functionalized fluorescence nanoparticles (Zr-FFNPs) that bind to OP-ChE, (2) develop a Zr-FFNPbased new immunoassay for detecting OP-ChE, and (3) adapt the Zr-FFNP-based immunoassay to a lateral flow test strip system for detecting OP-ChE. His research will determine the detection limits, response time, dynamic range, and other key performance metrics of the device using blood samples in vitro dosed with three typical pesticides to prove the feasibility of the hand-held biomonitoring device for sensitively detecting OP exposure. Phase II will further develop a specialized hand-held biomonitoring device for detecting exposure to OP. The device will be validated with blood dosed in vitro with a wide range of OP pesticides and blood samples from students in schools near farms and family members of workers who are involved in the use of OP pesticides.

The portable biomonitoring device developed under this program will provide a point-of-care tool for rapid, sensitive, cost-effective, and realtime detection of environmental exposure to OP pesticides.

Organophosphate (OP) pesticides are highly toxic compounds used to control insect populations in a number of agricultural and landscaping applications.

The widespread use of these toxic chemicals has generated serious environmental health risks.

millennial

22

2013/2014

vital to sensitively and accurately biomonitor environmental exposure to OP pesticides and assess their health risk. However, simple, rapid, and quantitative diagnostic technologies and devices for detecting environmental OP exposure are not available. Wang’s Small Business Innovation Research Project is poised to develop a handheld bio monitoring device incorporating a functionalized nanoparticle and a lateral flow test strip for simple, rapid, costeffective, and quantitative detection of environmental exposure to OP using a blood sample.

This project takes advantage of

To welcome Dr.Wang and learn more about NanoDiagnostic Technology, LLC and his research, his office is located at UNC Charlotte in Bioinformatics, room 245 or he can be reached at jun.wang@nanodiagtech. com or by phone at 704-687-7891.

2nd Annual Charlotte Venture Challenge Pitch Day

12 New Business Innovations Presented

T

he 2nd Annual Charlotte Venture Challenge Pitch Day featured 12 innovative pitches by early-stage entrepreneurs to a 15-person judging panel from Charlotte’s leading corporate and entrepreneurial innovation-driven enterprises. Pitch Day served as a testing ground and leads into the 2014 Charlotte Venture Challenge competition.

The event was organized by UNC Charlotte Research and Economic Development, the Office of Technology Transfer, and Ventureprise, Inc. Presenters included UNC Charlotte undergraduate students, UNC Charlotte research center technologists, and Charlotte community entrepreneurs. The goal of the event was to accelerate the growth of new technologies by exposing innovators to business executives, entrepreneurs and mentors.

The competition took place at UNC Charlotte on the Charlotte Research Institute Campus. Each presenter offered a rapid-fire pitch and then responded to questions from the judging panel.

Judges included executives from Lowes Inc., Electrolux Inc., Wells Fargo Inc., Belk Inc., MasterCard Inc., Husqvarna Inc., Ingersoll Rand Inc., SPX Inc., Bank of America Inc., Microsoft Inc., Flextronics Inc., Midrex Inc., Areva Inc., T2 International Inc., and CEM Inc. The category winners included: Student category winner Thomas McGurkin, Ben Godsell, Alex Esposito, Kashif Subhan, Nathan Smith for their portable solar traffic light; Research Center Technology category winner Ryan Rutledge for soil remediation technology; and community entrepreneur Dan Cedone for the Boomerang water bottling system.

Cash prizes made possible by the Hauser Family Fund were awarded to the 1st place winners and runners-up of each category.

Student Category:

1st Place Team Solar Traffic Light Thomas McGurkin, Ben Godsell, Alex Esposito, Kashif Subhan, and Nathan Smith ($1000) 2nd Place Team RedWire Logic Neil Taylor, Joshua Tyler Cox, Peter O’Connor, and Justin Hinson ($500) 3rd Place Team Dryer Adapter Russell Fox ($250)

Research Center Technology Category:

1st Place Team Soil Remediation Ryan Rutledge ($1,000) 2nd Place Team Computational Imaging Mehrdad Abolbashari ($500) 3rd Place Team Video Collaboratory Vikash Singh ($250)

Community Innovators: 1st Place Team Boomerang Water Dan Cedone ($1,000) 2nd Place Team RRR Tool Solutions Gordon East ($500)

For more information, call Devin Collins at (704) 250-5753.

Visit www.CharlotteVentureChallenge.com 2013/2014

23

millennial

Ventureprise…

Transforming Innovation & Entrepreneurship

By Paul Wetenhall

T

he economic vitality of our country is built upon the pillars of innovation and entrepreneurship. The Charlotte region’s long-term competitive position will be strengthened by innovators and entrepreneurs who find great success here.

Ventureprise™ is the non-profit, public-private partnership funded by UNC Charlotte that has extensive experience offering initiatives that can make that happen.

UNC Charlotte’s new PORTAL building enables Ventureprise to develop transformational collaborations between entrepreneurial, corporate, and academic resources. The expected outcome will be more innovation-driven enterprises that create jobs and wealth.

millennial

24

2013/2014

Ventureprise Long-Term Commitment Forward-thinking business leaders and UNC Charlotte partnered over 25 years ago to create the Ben Craig Center business incubator. Although Charlotte’s large companies were growing rapidly, they recognized that long-term, sustainable job growth comes from new ventures.

Since 1986, the world has changed dramatically.

“It’s because, when you look through history, entrepreneurs are the source of the most radical, disruptive innovations that have made modern life what it is… it is through innovation and growth that our living standards advance.”

Joseph Schumpeter The City of Charlotte population of 370,000 has more than doubled while UNC Charlotte’s 10,000-student enrollment has nearly tripled.

The Apple Mac and the Windows operating system, new concepts at the time, have evolved into tablets, smartphones and more. And, it is amazing to recall that Tim Berners-Lee had not yet defined the “World Wide Web”!

Charlotte has seen many entrepreneurial support initiatives since 1986. Ventureprise, formerly the Ben Craig Center, is the one that has operated continuously. From 1986 through 2013, it served 135 resident client companies and hundreds more through seminars, advisory services, and affiliate programs.

Today, Ventureprise, Inc. is a venture development organization with a strong history and the mission to build a vibrant Charlotte regional community of innovation-driven enterprises.

Although Charlotte has a booming business community, the entrepreneurial sector needs to be strengthened.

Charlotte Entrepreneurial Opportunity Although Charlotte has a booming business community, the entrepreneurial sector needs to be strengthened. A good reference point is the annual Inc. magazine ranking of America’s fastest growing private companies.

The most recent Charlotte result (2011-2013) of 1.2 “top 500” companies per million people is a disappointing 77% of the national average (1.6 per million). The magazine’s broader measure of the “top 5000” companies yields a stronger outcome: Charlotte USA

17.2 companies per million people per year

United States

15.9

The 54 Charlotte-area companies that made the 2013 top 5000 list employ 23,121 people and generate $6.4 billion revenue. This demonstrates the substantial economic impact of these small, fast-growing companies. Clearly, Charlotte must attract and support the talent that can enable the region to become an entrepreneurial leader.

Clearly, Charlotte must attract and support the talent that can enable the region to become an entrepreneurial leader.

2013/2014

25

millennial

Peter Drucker provided an actionable definition when he wrote that innovation is “change that creates a new dimension of performance.”

This clearly associates innovation with value.

Innovation…Meaningless Word, Vital Concept High growth entrepreneurs often use innovation for competitive advantage. But, innovation, innovate, innovator are words that are used so freely that their meaning has been devalued.

Venerable management thinker, Peter Drucker, provided an actionable definition when he wrote that innovation is “change that creates a new dimension of performance.”

This clearly associates innovation with value.

Joseph Schumpeter, the 20th century economist, originated the term “creative destruction” to describe an economic outcome of innovation. Robert Litan, formerly of the Kauffman Foundation, built upon Schumpeter’s work when he wrote: “It’s because, when you look through history, entrepreneurs are the source of the most radical, disruptive innovations that have made modern life what it is… it is through innovation and growth that our living standards advance.”

Ventureprise offers comprehensive initiatives to find the most promising talent and ideas, make connections, launch ventures, and accelerate business growth through InnovationDriven Enterprises (IDE).

It serves both the campus community of faculty and students and the broader regional community. millennial

26

2013/2014

The Ventureprise mission is grounded in the reality that innovation—in technology, business models, or business processes—is the critical component for economic improvement. Innovation produces value for customers, wealth for entrepreneurs, and a productive economy for society.

PORTAL Power The evolving Ventureprise mission has converged with the February 2014 opening of UNC Charlotte’s PORTAL building.

Ventureprise offers comprehensive initiatives to find the most promising talent and ideas, make connections, launch ventures, and accelerate business growth through Innovation-Driven Enterprises (IDE). It serves both the campus community of faculty and students and the broader regional community.

UNC Charlotte’s Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) will continue to

Ventureprise operates within an ecosystem that begins with the Innovator (or Inventor) and the Entrepreneur. provide business counseling support for the region’s broader group of small and medium enterprises.

The PORTAL building is the Charlotte location where student, faculty, entrepreneur, and corporate talent will come together to develop innovative solutions.

Specific Ventureprise initiatives include: Innovation Connection—an ongoing series of small-scale events to create new connections between thought-leading academics, entrepreneurs, and corporate innovators with the objective of identifying needs and launching promising collaborations; Charlotte Venture Challenge and Pitch Day— competitions that engage students and the community to identify early stage, high potential ideas, begin validation, and create connections; Charlotte Venture Launch—a multi-week, highintensity effort for innovators and inventors to assess if an idea is worth pursuing—designed using National Science Foundation (i-Corps) customer discovery principles; Accelerator—Startup and early stage (less than $2 million revenue) companies located in PORTAL

In addition to services for the regional community, Ventureprise provides UNC Charlotte students the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship and innovation. experience a highly collaborative workspace that leverages University resources and includes quality guidance provided by the experienced Ventureprise staff and proven mentors.

Ventureprise operates within an ecosystem that begins with the Innovator (or Inventor) and the Entrepreneur. Adding the key resources shown in the adjacent diagram creates a venture that can be effective in global markets.

Marketplace

by-doing experiences and connections to real world entrepreneurs.

Innovate +Interact + Ignite A university-private sector partnership that began in the 1980s has matured into Ventureprise, Inc., the region’s non-profit venture development organization. Charlotte’s entire entrepreneurial support community has grown to offer multiple services and shared workspaces.

Charlotte’s entire entrepreneurial support community has grown to offer multiple services and shared workspaces.

Ventureprise, operating in UNC Charlotte’s brandnew PORTAL building, focuses on innovation-driven enterprises from start-up through revenue of $2+ million. It is the one location that offers a state-of-theart facility, intellectual property expertise, University resource access, and proven business advisory services.

These efforts operate within an entrepreneurial ecosystem that includes five major components: 1) talent that generates innovative ideas, often within research enterprises (academic or other), 2) entrepreneurial talent that can leverage resources to build new ventures, 3) risk capital, typically angel and venture capital investors, 4) large organizations that become customers and/or partners, and 5) skilled and well-connected supporters including attorneys, accountants, incubators, and other advisors.

In addition to services for the regional community, Ventureprise provides UNC Charlotte students the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship and innovation. Qualified students can participate through: Student Business Incubator—PORTAL location and guidance for exploring real business opportunities; Internships—work in early-stage growth companies located in PORTAL; Engagement and Connection—participation in Ventureprise programs that offer learning-

Ventureprise, operating in UNC Charlotte’s brand-new PORTAL building, focuses on innovation-driven enterprises from start-up through revenue of $2+ million.

The substantial University commitment matched with the expertise of Ventureprise and community partners may ignite the entrepreneurial boom that drives Charlotte economic vitality for years to come.

To learn how you can participate as a client company, mentor, or sponsor, contact Marilyn Carpenter, Venture Development Director at 704 687-0900 or visit www.ventureprise.org.

2013/2014

27

millennial

policy. Because the position manages such a large group of employees, the COI manager must have an impeccable sense of judgment. While his former job title may sound somewhat disconnected from his current role, Rowan feels that his time as a laboratory manager has much in common with the work that he does now. “As a laboratory manager, I felt that one of my primary roles was to effectively communicate between the researchers and administration [which] required a significant amount of coordination with research compliance, grants and contracts, purchasing, and other management staff,” he explains.

Over time, as Rowan spent more time fulfilling administrative tasks, he also “became well versed in several areas of research compliance” and “realized that [his] research perspective was a valuable asset and jumped at the opportunity to pursue a new career in research compliance.”

Rowan is thoroughly invested

Barry Rowan R

owan joins the Department of Research and Economic Development as the new Conflict of Interest (COI) Manager.

A native of eastern Pennsylvania, Rowan moved to Charlotte following a ten-year career as a laboratory manager of oceanography and cancer research facilities in California. As the COI Manager, Rowan is responsible for identifying and mitigating potential and current conflicts of interest for University faculty and EPA staff, particularly those conflicts that involve funded research projects.

Conflicts of interest arise when an employee’s ability to support millennial

28

2013/2014

the University’s interests, to remain objective while carrying out University responsibilities, or to execute the University Employment Responsibilities is impaired due to his or her association with an external individual or organization or due to external professional activities.

Under the University’s Conflicts of Interest policy, University Policy 102.2, Rowan not only has the responsibility and authority to identify and manage COIs, but he must also interpret and evaluate situations that may not neatly fall under the types of conflicts encompassed in the

in research, even in his off time.

Outside of work, he enjoys photographing nature. Some of his works have been published

by National Geographic. Most recently, the “Urban Carnivores” exhibit at the G2 Gallery in Venice, CA also featured Rowan’s photographic works. As a true aficionado of research, Rowan’s dedication is sure to further the causes of the Research and Economic Development department and UNC Charlotte.

To welcome Mr. Rowan give him a call at 704-687-8270 or send an email to browan1@uncc.edu.

NSF I-CORPS T here have been a total of 152 teams across the U.S. with federally sponsored research over the past two and a half years to gain acceptance into the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) Program. There have been a total of six teams from North Carolina Universities to participate of which three of came out of UNC Charlotte.

The NSF I-Corps program has reinvented how federally-sponsored research commercialization takes place specifically by focusing on entrepreneurship. The program teaches scientists and engineers to identify valuable product opportunities in their academic research. Each team requires student participation where they benefit from entrepreneurial training and business mentoring.

The selection process is highly competitive with only a small percentage of applicants actually gaining acceptance after an extensive interview process.

Three teams from UNC Charlotte compete in the NSF InnovationCorps Program the most from North Carolina Universities

boot camp is a go/no go decision on the technologies commercialization potential. The three teams from UNC Charlotte described here were each

The National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program has reinvented how federally-sponsored research commercialization takes place specifically by focusing on entrepreneurship.

Once selected for the program, researchers qualify for customer discovery funding to visit potential customers and for extensive training in business model development.

The end result of the eight week

able to conduct over 100 customer interviews in just eight weeks’ time and the first team that went through the program has already secured a NSF SBIR grant to continue moving the technology forward.

Video Collaboratory Technology (Fall 2013)

The Video Collaboratory is a private, web-based system with unique interaction techniques designed for small groups of people to effectively and creatively collaborate while working around video artifacts. The team included principal investigators, Dr. Celine Latulipe, associate professor, College of Computing and Informatics, Sybil Huskey, professor of Dance in the College of Arts and Architecture, and Dr. David Wilson an associate professor of Intelligent Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics.

The student entrepreneurial lead on the team was Vikash Singh, a doctoral student in Computing. The continued on page 31 2013/2014

29

millennial

Expert Training

Certificate Program in Grants and Contracts Administration A year ago, Lesley Brown, the Director of Proposal Development, wrote an article for the Millennial Magazine (Winter 2013, page 33) attesting to the popularity of UNC Charlotte’s outreach programs, the Certificate Program in Grants and Contracts Administration. The training program is offered by the Office of Research Services and Outreach through the Learning and Development unit of Human Resources. Current enrollment for the 2013-14 academic year is the largest in the program’s five year history, with 23 participants from the Colleges of Arts + Architecture, Computing and Informatics, Education, Engineering, and Liberal Arts and Sciences. The remaining participants come from departments under Academic Services, Facilities Management, and the Graduate School.

The 28-hour certificate program is offered to any UNC Charlotte employee who provides administrative and financial support to faculty and staff who manage grants and contracts. If there are seats remaining after regular enrollment, those interested in taking the

certificate program to further their general education are accepted. Final selection of participants is made

by Ellen Zavala, director of Research Services and Outreach, after applicants attend a required orientation session, generally offered a month before classes start.

Current UNC Charlotte employees who are subject matter experts in their fields cover the following topics: proposal development and those who may touch a proposal from the inception of an idea to proposal submission; processing proposals through NORM for campus approvals, running reports on proposal submissions and awards received, and getting set up for new awards; contracting; research compliance such as human and animal subjects, export controls, biosafety concerns, and conflicts of interest; the Office of Management and Budget OMB Circulars A-21, A-110, and A-133 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_ default); hiring postdoctoral associates and other research faculty and staff, time and effort reporting; and those who use BANNER to navigate research encumbrances and expenses.

Pictured in order from left to right are the 2013-14 participants: Florence Parkhill, Kerin Westin, Tatyana Miller, Shalisha Kennedy, Peter Szanton (partially hidden), Monica Alston, Aubrae Collins, Noella Paquette, Ellen Zavala (Program Director), Shena Cunningham, Belma Blanco, Vicky Harris, Cheryl Almond, Sara Watson (partially hidden), Laura Craig, Pamela Eudy, Michele Wallace, Tonya Johnson, Matt Zeman, and Patricia Teal. millennial

30

2013/2014

continued from page 29

This academic year classes began on October 9, 2013 and will run through March 26, 2014. A reception honoring this year’s participants will be scheduled for sometime in the spring when they, along with their supervisors, Department Chairs and Deans, will be invited to celebrate their program completion. After a time of mingling and enjoying refreshments, the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, Robert (Bob) G. Wilhelm, will address the group and present each person with a framed certificate to hang on their office wall.

2013-14 participants:

(Pictured on previous page) Florence Parkhill, Kerin Westin, Tatyana Miller, Shalisha Kennedy, Peter Szanton, Monica Alston, Aubrae Collins, Noella Paquette, Ellen Zavala (Program Director), Shena Cunningham, Belma Blanco, Vicky Harris, Cheryl Almond, Sara Watson, Laura Craig, Pamela Eudy, Michele Wallace, Tonya Johnson, Matt Zeman, and Patricia Teal. Not pictured: Micki Crowder, Michelle King, Laini Pound, and Andrea Strong.

2012-13 participants:

Jeremy Alajajian, Amanda Breeden, Kim Davis, Pam Emmons Kathy Harmon, Dodie Hart, Quincey Hinson, Andria Jones, Oksana Kyper, Lori McMahon, Velda Pruner, Sheri Rice, Angela Smith, Linda Smith, Rebecca Urquhart, and Angie Williams.

2011-12 participants:

Marvaleeta Blye, Vikki Cherwon, Andrea Core, Carol Correll, Jennifer Eklund, Shashi Gnanasekaran, Beverly Guessford, Carol Hartley, Tammy Hartsell, Kelly Koher, Robin Moose, Lynne Osborne, Amy Palmer, Joye Palmer, and Ida Stavenger.

2010-11 participants:

Carolyn Aguiar, Sandra Anderson, Lori Brown, Marion Cantor, Marian Castle, Teresa Cleveland, Linda Gray, Tracee Jackson, Susan Jayson, David Landrum, Lydia Lawson, Jill Morgan, Jerri Price, Lisa Shepard, Margaret Williams, and Joanne Zhang.

2009-10 participants of the pilot program:

Cornelia Auten, Tracy Breslin, Janie Cox, Kathy Edwards, Dee Ellington, Betty Greco, Cyndi Hovis, Elizabeth Mace, Wendy Meier, and Linda Spurrier.

For additional information regarding the Certificate Program in Grants and Contracts Administration, contact Ellen Zavala at eezavala@uncc.edu or 704-687-1881.

For information on the Learning and Development 2014 Catalog, please see http://hr.uncc.edu/learningand-development.

business mentor was Devin Collins, assistant director/Entrepreneurship & Business Development, Charlotte Research Institute.

Improvements in III-Nitride Materials and Devices through Superatmospheric Epitaxy (Summer 2013)

The principal investigator developed a highpressure MOCVD for III-Nitride Semiconductor devices. The technology had applications in optoelectronic devices, in particular, the “deep green” light emitting diodes (LEDs) due to the new high quality HP-MOCVD semiconductor materials. The principal investigator on the team was Dr. Edward Stokes, professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The entrepreneurial lead was Graduate Student Matthew Conway. The business mentor was Keith Evans, CEO of Kyma, Inc.

High Performance Natural Fiber Composites for Structural Applications (Fall 2013)

The principal investigator developed a new class of natural fiber reinforced composites with robust mechanical properties that could play a significant role in addressing current energy and sustainability challenges. With excellent mechanical properties, these biobased composites could provide a sustainable solution to replace chemically treated wood and petroleum based (fiberglass) composites in many applications, such as civil infrastructure constructions; building panels and automobile parts. The principal investigator on the project was Dr. Na Lu, assistant professor in Engineering Technology and Construction Management. The entrepreneurial lead was her Ph.D. Student Shubhashini Oza. The business mentor was Devin Collins, assistant director/ Entrepreneurship & Business Development, Charlotte Research Institute.

The success UNC Charlotte technologies have experienced through NSF I-Corps has led to a new initiative to be kicked off this Spring called Charlotte Venture Launch. The initiative is a six-week intensive customer discovery program modeled after NSF I-Corps which will be available to community and university entrepreneurs.

The program will be run by Ventureprise and if you are interested in learning more email devin.collins@uncc.edu 2013/2014

31

millennial

Charlotte Life Sciences,

A Regional

I

n partnership with the North Carolina Research Campus and many regional businesses and institutions, UNC Charlotte and the Charlotte Research Institute made a long-term commitment to the growth of the life-sciences sector. Bioinformatics, health care, medical devices, nutrition, and advanced agriculture all now provide new opportunities for research, business, and collaboration. With the intention of accelerating new collaborations to improve the quality of life the Charlotte Life Sciences Conference (CLSC) offers a platform

for life science innovations in research, science, and technology to academic researchers, corporations, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders.

In the Charlotte region, the life sciences industry remains a significant driver of innovation and economic development.

According to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the number of biotech companies has increased by eight times over the past decade, from five to 43, in the region. Additionally, the number of support companies has mushroomed from 10 to 362 during this time.

2013 HIGHLIGHTS:

Ronnie Bryant, president and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Partnership opened the 2013 conference with a broad perspective and overall review of Life Sciences in the region.

Healthcare: There has been a great deal of merger and acquisition activity in the healthcare sector.

Hospital systems are growing

and acquiring or being acquired, including Carolinas Healthcare, Novant, Caromont, Community Health Systems, Tenet Healthcare, Catawba Valley Medical Center, Stanly Heath, Lake Norman Hospital and area Veteran Affairs clinics and hospitals. Novant was recognized for addressing two health outcomes: eliminating ventilatorrelated pneumonia and requiring

Ronnie Bryant, CFO and President of Charlotte USA poses for a picture with Dr. Robert Wilhelm, Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development.

millennial

32

2013/2014 2013

Paul Wetenhall discusses the challenges of developing research-based companies with Dr. Pinku Mukherjee and Taffy Williams at last year’s Charlotte Life Sciences Conference.

Charlotte Life Sciences Conference (CLSC) offers a platform for life science innovations in research, science, and technology to academic researchers, corporations, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders. all employees receive the flu vaccination. Carolinas Healthcare was recognized nationally for its nursing care. CHC went global when opening a virtual portal to treat patients in Belize.

The Levine Cancer Institute and UNC Charlotte joined forces to create the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Project to foster collaboration between physicians and scientists at both institutes.

Presenting her research and its commercialization aspects was UNC Charlotte’s Pinku Mukherjee, PhD, founder, CEO and chief scientific officer of CanDiag, Inc. along with Taffy J. Williams, PhD, president and CEO of Colonial Technology Development Company and director of CanDiag, Inc. The collaborative efforts of all, bringing hope to the market.

Pharma: In the pharma subsector, Countervail Corporation was awarded a $5.4 million grant for further development of AverTox, a neuroprotectant against the toxic effects of nerve agents through

BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority). Ei out of Rowan County continues to add jobs.

BioMedical Devices: The Charlotte region holds the

complex catheter systems, permanent implants, and bioabsorbable components for less invasive vascular and surgical applications, opened a Charlotte branch in 2013 and

2013 CLSC Poster Competition participants and judges pause for a photo opportunity.

largest cluster of biomedical device companies in the state and continues to grow. Medical Murray, specializing in design, development and contract manufacturing of unique

was a featured presenter at the 2013 CLSC. John Frauen, MD, founder and CEO of Softjoint, Inc. along with Tanner Hargens, regional vice president of Medical Murray, Inc. and CTO 2013/2014 2013

33

millennial

Daniel Bracey of Wake Forest University won first place for his poster on “The Endogenous Peptide Angiotensir.

Second place went to UNC Charlotte Greg Benedetto for his “Targeted Approach at Ovarian Cancer Therapy” poster.

UNC Charlotte, NC State, other academic and industry partners launched a $1.5 million initiative to engage college students from across the state in education and research. of Softjoint, provided an insightful perspective into the commercialization of innovation and the true value of forming strategic partnerships.

in Catawba and Groninger USA, LLC in Mecklenburg have all seen steady growth.

Laboratory Services: Octapharma Plasma is expanding, investing

Shaida Moghaddassi posed for a picture in front of her poster during a brief pause between judging sessions.

Edison Nation Medical continues to introduce new products in collaboration with Carolinas Healthcare System. Structure Medical in Iredell County, Sarstedt millennial

34

2013/2014

$39.2mm in its South Charlotte location and adding 45 jobs.

Physicians Choice Laboratory Services moved into a new 100,000 square foot facility at Rock Hill’s Riverwalk Business Park.

Agriculture: Agriculture is the largest industry in the state.

The Charlotte region is the third in farm revenues out of seven regions in the state. Given that we are the smallest region, with only 11 NC Counties, and the most populated, our productivity per square meter is among the highest due to what our farmers choose to grow, great innovation at the Piedmont Research Station in Salisbury and also at the North Carolina Research Campus.

North Carolina Research Campus: The campus added new laboratory spec space, rented it all and has now entered another cycle of building out additional space. Another expansion project underway is UNC Charlotte’s Bioinformatics Services Division on the third floor of the David H Murdock Core Laboratory Building.

UNC Charlotte, NC State, other academic and industry partners launched a $1.5 million initiative to engage college students from across the state in education and research. The Plant Pathways Elucidation Project (P2EP) centers on how plants, including fruits and vegetables, benefit human health.

UNC Charlotte’s Samantha Dodbele was a runner up for her poster on “Novel Selected Targeting of UPPS from Pathogenic Symbiotic and Benign Bacteria through Structure, Analogues and Dynamics.”

24 undergraduate and graduate students from 10 NC colleges and universities were brought to the Kannapolis campus for the program.

This project is a perfect example of the collaborative efforts of university and corporate partners. Presenting at the 2013 CLSC for the P2EP were Mike Todd, executive director, NCRC; Cory R. Brouwer, PhD, director, Bioinformatics Services Division, NCRC; Mary Ann Lila,

Runner up, Shaida Moghaddassi, was also recognized for her poster titled, “Modification of the Bovine Genome for Large-Scale Production of Recombinant Human Serum Albumin.”

the allied health and life sciences: 942 Bachelors 446 Masters 482 Professional Doctorate 23 Doctorate 1893 Associates (Community Colleges) A phenomenal number indicating phenomenal growth in the sector.

Featuring some of the region’s most talented students and their research, the 2013 CLSC Graduate Student Poster Competition

Joining UNC Charlotte and the Charlotte Research Institute in sponsorship were Carolinas Healthcare System, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Charlotte Chamber, Rowan Cabarrus Community College, Aerotek, UNC Charlotte’s Office of Technology Transfer, Additon, Higgins, Pendleton & Ashe, P.A.; Cabarrus Regional Chamber, Hammer & Associates, City of Kannapolis, and Pedigo Law.

The life sciences cluster, whether agriculture, healthcare, pharma, industrial biotech, biomedical devices and life sciences informatics is growing--it is growing strong. director, Plants for Human Health Institute, NC State, NCRC; Jessica Schlueter, PhD, assistant professor, Bioinformatics and Genomics, UNC Charlotte and Nicholas Gillit, PhD, director of Nutrition Research, Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory, NCRC. The David H. Murdock Research Institute received a $50 million gift from its founder, David Murdock, in support of operations over the next eight years.

The growth and these highlights would not have occurred had it not been for the foresight and critical investment by our educational institutions. We produced over 3000 graduates in

featured 10 finalists. Under the leadership of Benika Hall and Sheetal Ghelani, PhD, the students presented to distinguished judges and conference attendees throughout the day.

First place went to Daniel Bracey of Wake Forest University. Second Place went to UNC Charlotte’s Greg Benedetto. Runners-up were Samantha Dodbele of UNC Charlotte and Shaida Moghaddassi of Wake Forest University.

Judges for the competition were Marjorie Benbow, Devin A. Collins, Marcy Corjay, PhD; Sheetal Ghelani, PhD; Jennifer Montague, PhD; John Richert, and Blake E. Vande Garde.

The life sciences cluster, whether in agriculture, healthcare, pharma, industrial biotech, biomedical devices and life sciences, informatics is growing.

For more information, please contact Clare Cook Faggart, Life Sciences Program Manager.

ClareFaggart@uncc.edu 704-250-5760 2013/2014

35

millennial

First Football Game

Welcome to the Neighborhood

O

n August 31, 2013 the Charlotte Research Institute campus at UNCC Charlotte experienced activity unlike anything ever experienced there before – or anywhere else on campus for that matter. It was the first regular season home game of the newly established 49er football program and an event long remembered by all in attendance. From the southern and eastern reaches of campus came UNC Charlotte students by the hundreds, led up the path to the new 15,000 seat Jerry Richardson Stadium by the UNC Charlotte drum corps. 49er fans and alumni gathered in tailgating areas to celebrate the long awaited arrival of football at UNC Charlotte.

The pre-game activities including fireworks and a field covering American flag fired-up the 16,630 standing room only Niner crowd to a deafening pitch. The team did not disappoint the fans, bringing its A-game and scoring on each of its first eight offensive possessions and going on to defeat Campbell 52 to 7. Go Niners!

photos by Wade

millennial

36

2013/2014 2013

Bruton

Wade Bruton

Electric

at

Green Center City

L

ast summer, UNC Charlotte Center City celebrated the installation of two electricvehicle (EV) charging stations at its Nissan Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony. The charging stations represented the culmination of UNC Charlotte’s partnership with Nissan North America and Levine Properties.

Nissan North America offered the stations to UNC Charlotte Center City as a gift in part of its targeted effort to promote interest in the new electric Nissan LEAF and to expand the availability of EV charging stations earlier in the year, the project moved forward collaboratively. Levine Properties contributed by providing site and wiring infrastructure. Following

the ceremony, attendees had the opportunity to ride in one of Nissan’s LEAF vehicles.

The charging stations located at

referring to the stations. Coughter is the executive director of UNC Charlotte Center City. While use of the charging stations is free, drivers do have to pay a fivedollar fee to park in the lot. However, the stations’ presentation wasn’t the only cause for celebration; the ceremony also served to honor one of UNC Charlotte’s very own.

Dr. Jy S “Jay” Wu, director of the Ph.D. program in Infrastructure and Environmental Systems (INES), was recognized for his work in the area of Renewables and Energy Efficiency. Dr. Wu was one of the leading voices who assisted in fostering the partnership between UNC Charlotte Center City, Nissan North America, and

Drivers may charge their cars for up to two hours, free of charge and thus far, the stations have been well utilized.

North Brevard and East 9th Streets are available for public use. Drivers may charge their cars for up to two hours, at no cost and thus far, the stations have been well utilized. “Every night last semester, students’ cars were parked there,” Jerry Coughter reports,

2013/2014

37

millennial

Levine Properties. “Particularly, we were looking for relevant research activities at UNC Charlotte, and INES had come to the focus of their [Nissan’s] attention,” Wu recalls. UNC Charlotte is one of the few universities that offers the INES program at the doctoral level. The program focuses on addressing challenges that arise in urban settings, especially those that result from the interaction between the environment and essential infrastructure facilitating social and economic development.

Dr. Wu is frequently at the forefront of initiatives that aim to advance UNC Charlotte’s progress in becoming an environmentally sustainable campus. He happily reports that the next ecologically sustainable plan the campus

Because the car is electrically powered, fuel costs are minimal.

Instead of bearing the weight of the rising gasoline prices, EV owners “tank up” at their home charging stations, which is significantly less expensive than going to the gas pump. Another factor that pleases consumers about EVs is the reduced price of maintenance, which results from the car’s fewer moving parts and fewer liquids to replenish and change. Furthermore, EVs do not generate tailpipe emissions, a benefit that has a much more significant effect in areas with high air pollution or high population density.

Despite their advantages, EVs also have their shortcomings. For instance, an electric car may be

While most Charlotte residents still own vehicles that run on petroleum, the market for electric vehicles is growing, especially in urban areas. Owning an electric vehicle has its advantages, both economic and environmental. can look forward to is the installation of storm water management features, which will primarily involve renovating and retrofitting Davis Lake to improve its “capacity for water quantity and quality control.” As for the EV charging stations coming to UNC Charlotte’s main campus, Wu confirms that “there is further conversation with Nissan.”

About EVs

While most Charlotte residents still own vehicles that run on petroleum, the market for electric vehicles is growing, especially in urban areas. Owning an electric vehicle has its advantages, both economic and environmental. millennial

38

2013/2014

the perfect solution for day-to-day transportation routines, but it is unsuited for long-distance travel.

Accompanying this handicap is “range anxiety,” or apprehension that EV owners and prospective buyers experience concerning the depletion of battery power during a trip. Moreover, the time it takes to fully recharge the battery can be extensive. To be sure, how much time an EV’s battery requires to refuel depends on the voltage of the charging station as well as the car’s battery type. Most electric cars can recharge in approximately eight hours or overnight. Additionally, how “green” the EV is also up for debate. Though EVs emit no

exhaust fumes how beneficial they are to the environment and air quality depends on their source of electricity. If charging stations acquire energy from a grid powered mainly by burning fossil fuels or natural gas, there is a limit to how beneficial the car really is. On the other hand, if the grid’s power comes from renewable sources, like solar or wind, then the EV will be better for the environment.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation is the second-leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. In nearly two decades, the production of greenhouse gas emissions generated from

Wade Bruton

transportation alone jumped by 18 percent, an increase that predominantly stems from the lack of U.S.-made, fuel-efficient vehicles and increased demand for travel. So what source is the most responsible for greenhouse gas production? That would be electricity. Electricity production generates more greenhouse gases than any other source, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels.

Of the 6,702 million metric tons of CO2 produced by the U.S. in 2011, electricity production is responsible for 33 percent of the total while transportation accounts for 28 percent. While those numbers may seem dismal, they do indicate room for wide-

ranging improvement in both the transportation and energy sectors.

There is great potential for EVs to make a positive difference not only for the environment and consumers’ pocketbooks, but for the national economy as well. As the popularity and availability of EVs and alternative transportation options increase, U.S. dependence on foreign oil will likely decrease.

However, accomplishing that goal will depend on having the infrastructure needed to support cleaner transport options, which for Charlotte, is still a work in progress.

Currently, there are a total of 26 charging stations that the City of Charlotte provides. In addition, there are six privately operated

stations. Many city-provided charging stations are located near CATS “Park & Ride” lots, where drivers can park their cars and then take bus transport to their destinations. With UNC Charlotte Center City’s charging stations now available for public use, the Queen City has taken one more step in the right direction.

Dr. Jy S “Jay” Wu is the director of the Ph.D. program in Infrastructure and Environmental Systems (INES) and a professor of the William States Lee College of Engineering.

To learn more about his work, contact him at jwu@uncc.edu 2013/2014

39

millennial

University Business Partner Receptions

Cheese Plates and Carburetors

A

pproximately 80 UNC Charlotte Business Partners, faculty, staff, and graduate students, along with regional economic development leaders gathered on October 29th in the Motorsports Research Facility for the Charlotte Research Institute sponsored Fall University Business Partner and Faculty Reception. With a backdrop of student built vehicles, engines, active research projects, and UNC Charlotte’s own NASCAR-grade vehicle, reception attendees enjoyed networking and information exchanges while exploring this exceptional yet infrequently visited campus research facility. In keeping with the reception’s theme of connecting business partners with the talents and resources of UNC Charlotte, Motorsports Research Facility Director Dr. Mesbah Uddin was delighted to open the bay doors of his world-class facility and showcase the outstanding work being conducted there by faculty and students.

And make no mistake - this is not your grandfather’s auto repair shop. The pristine UNC Charlotte Motorsports Research Facility was a gift of the family of late NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Alan Kulwicki and supports a multi-disciplinary research program involving multiple colleges and students at all degree levels. The Motorsports Engineering Program within the William States Lee College of Engineering was the first of its kind established in 1998 and now produces one out of every 10 NASCAR engineers.

Reception attendees also had the opportunity to meet UNC Charlotte graduate student talent by way of about a dozen graduate research project millennial

40

2013/2014

photos by Cress Photography

presentations. Roll bars, reduced drag coefficients, hors d’oeuvres, and hearty professional exchange were enjoyed by all in attendance at this unique University Business Partner and Faculty Reception.

‘Tis the Season

E

ach year the Charlotte Research Institute extends appreciation to its business partners, University colleagues, and regional affiliates at its Winter Appreciation Reception – this year held on December 12 in the Grigg Hall atrium on the UNC Charlotte campus. This annual event has become a must-attend networking event for University Business Partners, faculty, staff, and economic development leaders. With images of the soon-to-open PORTAL industryuniversity partnership facility in various stages of completion scrolling behind food venues and UNC Charlotte mascot Norm the Niner posing for photos, attendees found good company, robust idea exchange, and the spirit of the season!

on

Camps Campus Camps on Campus is an exciting summer program held annually by the UNC Charlotte Extended Academic Programs. The camp hosts rising 1st through 12th graders for seven weeks on the largest university campus in Charlotte, focusing on academic and personal enrichment. The location of the program is intended to provide young students with a college campus experience and campers spend quality time in classrooms, exploring high tech labs, the outdoors, and they are given opportunities to attend field trips off-site. UNC Charlotte academic departments, faculty, staff, and experienced K-12 teachers collaborate to deliver high-caliber learning experiences in safe and fun environments for the campers.

2013 marked the 13th year of the Camps on Campus program with over 40 topics ranging from history, computers, law, healthcare, writing, art, and entertainment to name a few. Some of the most popular camps focused on Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM). Topics from 2013 included Robotics (with sections taught at the elementary, middle school, or high school levels), MEDCamp, Science: To the Bat Cave!, CSI: Campus, Lab Skills 101, Journey

Inside Your Computer, Motorsports Engineering, Linux: The Other Operating System, Geometry and Art, Math + Art, Mobile App Investigators, and Math/Microbes/ Medicine – Trends in Healthcare.

In Motorsports Engineering, campers receive first-hand experience inside the UNC

In Journey Inside Your Computer, campers explore the inside of computers, hard drives, memory, video cards, network components, power supplies and more. Campers learn how to assemble a computer from its base components, turn the computer on, and install a new operating system to make a fully functional machine.

In Robotics, campers enroll in different weeks depending on their age and skill level. Children in elementary and middle school work with LEGO® MindStorms kits to build robots which compete in races, climb poles, and battle in “Sumo Wrestling” matches.

Children in the forward-thinking camps work with more advanced robotics platforms and software tools. High school campers learn about the fields of engineering and robotic design by using the same tools that engineers in the field use. The robotics platforms also include an underwater robot!!

The location of the program is intended to provide young students with a college campus experience and campers spend quality time in classrooms, exploring high tech labs, the outdoors, and they are given opportunities to attend field trips off-site.

Charlotte Motorsports Research Building, including The Alan Kulwicki Race Shop. Campers study micro-electronics fabrication in a clean room and enjoy participating in researching racetrack structures.

Off-site field trips include a visit to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to see the professional track, cars, and teams in action.

Registration for 2014 camps begins in January. For more information or to sign up for email alerts about registration and camp updates, visit SummerCamps.uncc.edu.

Lesley Snyder, director of the Continuing Education program and Dr. Jim Conrad a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering contributed this article. For more information, please contact them at lasnyder@uncc.edu and jmconrad@uncc.edu.

2013/2014

41

millennial

UNC Charlotte EXPO Lecture Series “What’s Coming in Genomics?”

“Jurassic Park”

March 28th | 3:00 PM | UNC Charlotte EPIC, room G256 Carl Zimmer Panel Discussion

April 6th | 3:00 PM | UNC Charlotte EPIC, room G256 Discussion led by: Susan Peters, Adam Reitzel, and Jennifer Weller

“You Are Thousands of Species: Discovering the Life Within You” March 28th | 7:30 PM | UNC Charlotte Center City Carl Zimmer Lecture & Reception

“Chasing Ice” April 9th | 3:00 PM | UNC Charlotte EPIC, room G256 Discussion led by: Matthew Eastin, Martha Epps, John Wendell (WCNC), and Meghan Dahaney (WCNC)

“Tangible Creativity” April 1st | 7:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Bioinformatics, room 105 Mary Lou Maher

“History of Space” April 2nd | 7:00 PM | UNC Charlotte EPIC, room G256 Amy Sira Teitel

“Juice It Up” April 3rd | 7:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Bioinformatics, room 105 Michael Walter

“Architectural Agriculture: Science, Technology, and Math in Sustainable Communities” April 8th | 7:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Bioinformatics Thomas Gentry

“Defending Science Education in the Tar Heel State” April 10th | 7:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Bioinformatics Ian Binns

UNC Charlotte EXPO Film Series – Science Films with Expert-led Discussions “Contagion”

Star Party Get a guided tour of the universe at the UNC Charlotte Observatory April 4th | 8:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Observatory (off of Cameron Blvd and Popular Ln.)

UNC Charlotte Science EXPO In partnership with the North Carolina Science Festival April 13th | 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Lower Campus Mall (across from Student Union) • All events are free and open to the public • For more information, see http://ncsciencefestval.uncc. edu or call 704-687-5743 • Sponsored by UNC Charlotte in Association with the NC • Science Festival WFAE 90.7 fm is a Media Partner

49ers 1st Spring Football Scrimmage April 20th | 1:00 PM | McColl-Richardson Field

Annual Graduate Research Symposium April 22nd | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM | J. Murrey Atkins Library

March 29th | 7:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Center City Co-hosted by Discovery Place.

Discussion led by: Ian Binns, Karen Garloch (Charlotte Observer), and Daniel Janies

2014 Spring Senior Design Expo May 1st | 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM | Student Activity Center (SAC)

“The Invisible Man”

Charlotte Venture Challenge Finals

March 30th | 3:00 PM | UNC Charlotte Center City Discussion led by: Greg Gbur

May 1st | UNC Charlotte PORTAL Building

millennial

42

2013/2014

Dr. Robert G. Wilhelm

Kendra McMurray

Vice Chancellor Research & Economic Development Charlotte Research Institute Executive Director (704) 687-8428 rgwilhel@uncc.edu

Administrative Assistant Charlotte Research Institute Research & Economic Development (704) 687-5690 mcmurra@uncc.edu

Jim Currie

Robyne R. Vickers

Associate Director for PORTAL Research & Economic Development (704) 687-7573 jcurri13@uncc.edu

Chip Yensan

Associate Director of Infrastructure Charlotte Research Institute Research & Economic Development (704) 687-8283 lyensan@uncc.edu

Karen Ford

Events Manager Charlotte Research Institute (704) 687-5598 kjford@uncc.edu

Julie M. Fulton

Interim Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor Research & Economic Development Charlotte Research Institute (704) 687-8428 jfulton4@uncc.edu

James Hathaway

Research Communications Research & Economic Development (704) 687-5743 jbhathaw@uncc.edu

Technical Specialist Charlotte Research Institute Research & Economic Development (704) 687-5690 rvicker4@uncc.edu

CHARLOTTE RESEARCH INSTITUTE CAMPUS P. Gail Keene Business Officer & Manager CRI Campus Business Office Research & Economic Development (704) 687-8286 pgkeene@uncc.edu

Lolita Gonzales

Assistant Business Manager CRI Campus Business Office Research & Economic Development (704) 687-5697 lgonza19@uncc.edu

Pearl Brown

Business Office Specialist CRI Campus Business Office Research & Economic Development (704) 687-7733 plbrown@uncc.edu

VENTUREPRISE Paul D. Wetenhall

Executive Director / President Ventureprise Charlotte Research Institute (704) 687-8057 pwetenhall@ventureprise.org

Marilyn Carpenter

Director Ventureprise Charlotte Research Institute (704) 687-8058 marilyn.carpenter@ventureprise.org

Carolyn Smith

Administrative Assistant Ventureprise Charlotte Research Institute (704) 687-0900 carolyn.smith@ventureprise.org

CRI AT NCRC Devin Collins

Assistant Director, Entrepreneurship and Business Development Charlotte Research Institute Research & Economic Development (704) 250-5753 devin.collins@uncc.edu

Clare Cook Faggart

Program Manager Life Sciences Conference Charlotte Research Institute Research & Economic Development (704) 250-5760 clarefaggart@uncc.edu

2013/2014

43

millennial

EXPERIENCE AN ENTIRE RESEARCH CAMPUS AT YOUR DOORSTEP.

Manwell Bynum President and CEO, Connectivity Concepts, LLC

There is only one workspace in the region that provides your business a brand new state-of-the-art office building with the added perks of North Carolina’s urban research university. Open since February 2014, the PORTAL building features 4 stories of innovation and business development office space wrapped around a core atrium and multiple convening spaces. Your PORTAL office will give you immediate access to UNC Charlotte’s merited faculty, students and campus resources every day. Visit cri.uncc.edu to reserve your space today and discover how PORTAL can power up your business.

POWERED BY