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"UNC Charlotte students have always been known for their grit, determination, and business savvy. This partnership will leverage these attributes and strengthen their entrepreneurial mindset.” -Dr. John Daniels, Vice Chancellor of Research

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As North Carolina’s urban research university, UNC Charlotte is a diverse and inclusive institution with local-to-global impact that transforms lives, communities, and industries through access and affordability, exemplary bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional programs, scholarship, creative work, innovation, and service. UNC Charlotte's vision is to be a globally recognized, emerging top-tier research university driving discovery and innovation, while advancing student access and social mobility, nurturing talent, fostering excellence, and ensuring equity.

William States Lee College of Engineering
Our vision for the College of Engineering at UNC Charlotte is to be globally recognized for innovative research, meaningful mentorship and a theory-to-practice education that creates thought leaders and enhances social mobility. Our goals are to:

1. Empower students with the intellectual and professional skills to succeed and thrive in a changing world.


2. Grow a lifelong, inclusive, and connected community for all.


3. Elevate global research prominence in strategic areas.

Why We're In KEEN
The College of Engineering values partnering with KEEN to impact our academic community in the following ways:

• Curriculum: We are at a critical juncture in our college’s future, resulting in our shifting to a Common First Year curriculum to provide engaging courses for all our engineering programs. These changes spread vertically through the programs, impacting sophomore, junior and senior year courses, giving faculty in each course an opportunity to make critical decisions about course delivery and content. KEEN’s invaluable resources, workshops, and best practices will enable faculty to not only impart technical knowledge, but integrate critical concepts on creative, innovative and entrepreneurial thinking into our curriculum to inspire our students.


• Faculty: The KEEN Engineering Unleashed platform and network provides our faculty with opportunities for cross-institutional collaboration, professional development and to broaden their pedagogical knowledge. This will enable and invigorate faculty to be more creative in the classroom and develop new methodologies to enhance the quality of education for our students as well as other students in the network.


• Students: KEEN’s incorporation of experiential learning opportunities in the classroom through engineering application activities, design challenges and entrepreneurship competitions will enrich our academic programs. These hands-on experiences will amplify our students’ ‘real-world ready’ ability for applying classroom knowledge to actual industry problems, foster innovation and prepare them for successful engineering careers. Partnering with KEEN closely aligns with our mission to empower students to tackle complex challenges, create innovative solutions, and drive positive change in their communities.

Showcase
ASCE competition teams: UNC Charlotte's American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) chapter won 1st place in the national ASCE Innovation Contest. In addition, our student chapter won 10 awards at the 2024 Carolinas ASCE Student Symposium. Charlotte's chapter placed No. 1 in the Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge and Sustainable Solutions competitions, No. 2 in the Surveying competition and No. 1 overall out of the nine competing universities.

Current Work

• Common First Year (CFY) Curriculum. Initially, six courses will be infused with entrepreneurially minded learning: Four new first year courses, and the Senior Design Capstone 2-course sequence. Curriculum development for CFY is currently taking place and the courses will begin being delivered in Fall 2025. Curriculum modification will flow through the programs as the CFY is implemented and each discipline’s plan of study and courses are evaluated and modified.


• Many of our facilities have been recently updated to include modern equipment and spaces that are optimized for active learning. For example, the senior capstone project is conducted within a newly renovated, state-of-the-art workspace called the Industrial Solutions Lab.


• The College is also building a Super Fab Lab to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, self-guided design and fabrication. Examples of similar facilities around the country (notably, the Student Innovation Center at Iowa State) have a strong focus on entrepreneurism that is inculcated in the lab activities. We anticipate focusing on a similar program with the Super Fab Lab.