@work on the economy: 

 

 

 

 

UNCC:  Meeting Today’s Demand From Industry to Produce Energy Leaders of Tomorrow  

 

It’s a pretty sure bet that in the economy of the future, there will be jobs in healthcare, haircuts, hamburgers and…. Energy.  But while we know a lot about what those first three industries will look like going forward, developing the energy solutions and jobs of the future is going to take an unprecedented collaboration between top researchers and leading businesses.

 

That’s where EPIC, UNC Charlotte’s Energy Production and Infrastructure Center, comes in.  Created four years ago in response to a request from Charlotte’s leading energy companies, , EPIC makes sure UNCC students have the hands-on skills they need to work in the energy industry of the future, and connects businesses to leading-edge university research.

 

In creating EPIC, Duke Energy, Siemens and Westinghouse and other corporate energy giants worked with UNCC to define the qualities that UNCC students would need to succeed in the niche energy sector.  They also provided funding and scholarship to support the successful network of future leaders.  “…. It’s because of these energy leaders that we are here today,” said Dr. Johan Enslin, Director of EPIC. 

  

EPIC combines the college’s engineering programs, including electrical, civil and mechanical, with concentrations in energy and real-world industry practice.  The 200,000-square-foot building provides students with hands-on engineering experience and state-of-the-art facilities.  It also provides an advantage for students for future employment in a highly competitive job search environment.     

The local industry leaders say the program is an important tool to draw both engineers and energy companies to the area.  "I see EPIC as a place I can turn to when I need a new and creative solution," said Dayna Herrick, the Workforce Development Manager for Duke Energy's Nuclear Generation Department, and a member of the EPIC implementation team.

 

"It's an energy think tank. EPIC is where theory meets reality." Jim Little, senior vice president of Nuclear Energy Programs with URS Washington Group, and a member of the EPIC board of advisors.  "The U.S. will be rebuilding its energy infrastructure in the near future," Little said. "The pipeline of talent for this effort will come from our educational system. EPIC is a great opportunity for strengthening this educational system, and we're very interested in providing our support and guidance to make it successful."

 

The campus, as well as the region, is hoping to become knows as “the” energy capital of the United States.  The program is not only important economically, but is vital to the region, the state and to the country.  For more information about EPIC, please click on this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXSva5T-JHA&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

 

@work in the community:

 

 

 

  Saving  a Billion 

 

 

 $1,000,000,000. A billion dollars. That’s how much the state’s leading energy user, the UNC system, could save if it takes aggressive actions to cut energy consumption. Those savings could then be used to hold up academic quality and hold down tuition.

 

How to do that was the topic of the Appalachian Energy Summit, which brought together faculty and staff from across the UNC System’s 17 campuses last month at Appalachian State University.

 

The Appalachian Energy Summit was facilitated by physicist and environmental writer Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, author of The Oil Endgame and one of Time Magazines "100 Most Influential People" of 2009.

 

One of the primary objectives of the 250 faculty and staff from across the UNC System’s 17 campuses was to find innovative ways to reduce the $226 million that UNC schools spend every year on energy.

 

 “If we are able to reduce energy usage by a billion dollars over the next 20 years that is money that’s available for other needs that our state has,” said ASU Sustainability Director Ged Moody.

 

In addition to the monetary benefits of reducing energy usage, the conference was also an opportunity to develop cooperation and leadership on energy issues across UNC campuses.

 

"I really wanted to learn how we could stop (energy waste), stop the bills from going up. We're coming together to see how other campuses do their own thing,” Said Anneliese Hitcho, environmental studies major at UNC Greensboro and an energy management intern at Fayetteville State University. 

   

@work in the world:

 

 “The Dragon and the Dogwood”: New Report Recommends Increased UNC Engagement with China

 

 

When a group of eight UNC Board of Governors members and President Tom Ross returned from a fact-finding trip to China in March, they recommended that the University develop a strategy to increase connections between UNC and China.

 

The group noted China’s increasing strategic and economic importance in North Carolina (Chinese is our biggest source of imports, and exports to China have quintupled in the past decade, to $2.6 billion a year) and the world and the critical importance of students knowing more about the country and its people: they wanted concrete recommendations for increased engagement. The resulting report, “The Dragon and the Dogwood: A Way Forward for the University of North Carolina and China,” is based on board observations and recommendations, as well as suggestions from UNC campuses.

 

The report, available here, identifies four categories where UNC should increase efforts if it is to graduate students who are “globally ready.”

 

Pipeline: In the past few years, many UNC campuses have begun teaching new courses in Chinese language and history, and thanks to the work of the Center for International Education and others, more K-12 students are studying Chinese, but a recent analysis found that still only a small minority of students studying abroad are studyingin China (about half go to Western Europe; just 3.6% to China). The report recommends the University take steps to increase both Chinese language and history study to ensure that more students have some working knowledge of China upon graduation and that more consider study in China while in school.

 

Partnerships: UNC campuses have large numbers of partnerships with Chinese institutions (87), but many of those are not well-developed, with faculty or student exchange, joint degree programs, and other collaborative arrangements. The report recommends strategies the system could use to strengthen its relationship with Fudan, a long-time systemwide partner, as well as other emerging partners, and that campuses seek to focus their efforts on 1-2 partners, using a variety of strategies.

 

Programs: The report finds that a number of UNC faculty members already have close connections to fellow scholars in China, and recommends that campuses support more UNC faculty research and scholarly collaboration with Chinese colleagues, to strengthen UNC-China partnerships and equip scholars with deeper knowledge of China that they can use in the classroom.  The UNC system should seek to bring together a variety of groups with North Carolina interests in China to determine if there are economies of scale or synergies of interest.

 

People: Chinese students represent the largest percentage of UNC international students (21%, followed by India at 19%), and their interest in high-quality US education is projected to continue to grow for the forseeable future. The report recommends that UNC schools work together to continue to recruit Chinese students as part of a larger strategy to increase the numbers of international students on campus (for a look at the larger approach, go to http://studynorthcarolina.us). Increased internationalization of campuses exposes native-born students who can’t study abroad to the world and helps some of the world’s “best and brightest” get to know the state and its people. Whether they stay and start businesses or return and look to do business with North Carolina, a UNC education can be a valuable calling card for the state.

 

The report makes clear that a “China strategy” is not the same as a larger “international strategy,” but that China is a good place to start. As UNC Board of Governors chair Peter Hans notes: “It is in our interest to be actively engaged in understanding the possibilities that lie ahead.” In developing a broader international approach, a good first step is to begin work that will bring the Chinese “dragon” and the North Carolina “dogwood” closer. 

 

 

Fact of the Month

 

Last year UNC System campuses reported 22,000 students worked in internships or on projects for 2,600 businesses, contributing almost 1.5 million hours.

 

  

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