Tuesday, May 29, 2012

What is urban: Discoveries of a ‘munching tour’

Mary Newsom is associate director of urban and regional affairs at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. The following article was written for PlanCharlotte.org.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/25/3267804/discoveries-of-a-munching-tour.html#storylink=cpy

Discoveries of a ‘munching tour’ | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

49ers Pigskin Fever in the Air

(Pictured here are 49ers head coaches Brad Lambert [football], Cara Consuegra [women's basketball], Alan Major [men's basketball] and Loren Hibbs [baseball].)

By Paul Nowell

The only ingredients missing at this pep rally were the tailgaters, the marching band and cheerleaders, as UNC Charlotte officials confirmed the Charlotte 49ers are moving back to Conference USA.
The move affects all of the university’s 17 sports teams, but the sport that was on everyone’s mind won’t take the field for another year – football.

"We have yet to take a snap on McColl-Richardson field, yet to play our first game, yet to have even our first practice — but because of who we are, because of what we’ve done, and because of the great community we live in — we have the unique opportunity to become one of the first programs in history to go from no football to FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) football in the minimum time allowed by NCAA regulations,” Chancellor Philip L. Dubois told a jammed news conference last week.

The 49ers football team will kick off its inaugural season in 2013 as an independent FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) program and will compete in its first FBS season in Conference USA in 2015. Charlotte will be bowl eligible for football in the 2016 season.
 
“We not only found a conference to play in – but we found an FBS Conference,” said Director of Athletics Judy Rose. “A top 10 basketball conference.  A conference that includes regional rivals, and holds national attention and it’s a conference that has an in-state opponent to fight for bragging rights.  It’s a strong conference across the board.”

Conference USA, which is adding four other schools, will have a 13-team membership that includes Charlotte, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, North Texas, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UTEP and University of Texas at San Antonio.

An extra bonus is that another conference member is East Carolina. ECU fans are among the most fanatic in the state, if not the country. The atmosphere in Greenville on a football Saturday should be viewed as the standard for Charlotte to emulate.

“Charlotte-East Carolina should evolve into a big-time rivalry,” Charlotte Observer sports columnist Tom Sorensen wrote after attending the announcement. “If the 49ers want a primer, they ought to drive to Greenville. The Pirates have among the best fans, facilities and traditions in North Carolina.”
Charlotte was a member of Conference USA from 1995-96 to 2004-05.  The 49ers joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2005-06 and will remain in that league through the 2012-13 season.

“We enjoyed our time in the Atlantic 10 but we needed to find a permanent home for our football program.  We found Conference USA -- and it feels great,” said Rose.
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Paul Nowell is media relations manager in UNC Charlotte's Office of Public Relations.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Five area students among Levine Scholars

Five area students among Levine Scholars at UNCC | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper

49ers: Made in the "C-USA"


Seeking the "best promise for the future," the Charlotte 49ers are moving to Conference USA.

In a press conference held on-campus in the Student Union on May 4, UNC Chancellor Philip Dubois announced to a boisterous throng of students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends that the University has accepted an invitation to join Conference USA, in all sports, beginning in the 2013-14 academic year.

"The invitation to join Conference USA is momentous in what it can do for our University," Dubois said. "As stewards of this University, it is incumbent upon us to provide the best leadership for today and the best promise for tomorrow. We have the unique opportunity to become one of the first programs in history to go from no football to FBS football in the minimum time allowed by NCAA regulations."

Conference USA is an FBS Conference that will provide a home for all 17 of the 49ers sports, including football. The 49ers football team will enjoy its inaugural season in 2013 as an independent FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) program and will compete in its first FBS season in Conference USA in 2015. Charlotte will be bowl eligible for football in the 2016 season. Each of the 49ers other 16 sports will begin play in Conference USA in 2013-14.

"In adding football, it was imperative that we find a conference to compete in – and today we struck gold," said Director of Athletics Judy Rose. "We not only found a conference to play in – we found an FBS Conference. It’s a strong conference across the board."

Conference USA, which is adding four other schools, will have a 13-team membership that includes Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, North Texas, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UTEP and University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).
Charlotte was a member of Conference USA from 1995-96 to 2004-05. The 49ers joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2005-06 and will remain in that league through the 2012-13 season.

UNC Charlotte’s on-campus football stadium is under construction. It will initially hold more than 15,000 and is designed for expansion to more than 40,000.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Geocache Giveaways on Campus

UNC Charlotte’s 2nd Exam Time GEOCACHE GIVEAWAY started today. First one to find them gets a box full of goodies. The 1st Geocache was found in about 15 minutes. Make sure you're following @UNCCharlotte and stay tuned for more updates. Stress relief and rewards at exam time. Good times!

49ers Big News Will Stream Live


Big News is brewing about the Charlotte 49ers' conference affiliation. The press conference will be streamed live at http://video.uncc.edu/content/live-stream

Here are the details:

WHAT:         Press Conference to discuss Charlotte 49ers conference affiliation
WHO:          Participants will include Chancellor Dr. Philip Dubois, Director of Athletics Judy Rose and Board of Trustees Chair Gene Johnson. (49ers head coaches, including basketball coaches Alan Major and Cara Consuegra and football coach Brad Lambert will be in attendance and available for interviews.)
WHEN:        Friday, May 4; 11:30 a.m.
WHERE:       UNC Charlotte Student Union Bldg, Multi-Purpose Room, 3rd Floor
PARKING:    Union Deck, Visitors Parking

The event is free and open to the public.
The event will be streamed online at
and will also be shown live on
Time Warner Cable Channel 22.


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Prof's Cancer Diagnosis Technology Wins Grand Prize


(Picture here is Pinku Mukherjee and her CanDiag colleague Rahul Puri.)

UNC Charlotte researcher Pinku Mukherjee’s firm, CanDiag Inc., is the grand prize winner of the Charlotte Venture Challenge.

The company has developed a novel technology that accurately detects early breast cancer. Mukherjee said winning the grand prize of a $50,000 convertible-debt note from Vaterra Capital, would “pave the path for further clinical validation and regulatory approval to offer women an early detection breast cancer blood test. The anticipated impacts are greater peace of mind to women from a more accurate test and improved survival with early detection.”
Health care costs should be lowered due to the reduction of expensive testing, she added.

Eighteen finalists vied for the grand prize. Winners of each Charlotte Venture Challenge category received $10,000. They include: InfoSense Inc. from Charlotte in the new energy and high tech category; Deal Cloud, a Charlotte-based entry in the IT and informatics category; Asheville’s Mobile Potential in the consumer products and services category; and Qualiber Inc. from Chapel Hill in the life sciences and biotech category.

Instruct Health from Queens University won the student category, and Bamboo Apparel of High Point topped the social enterprise category, which was presented in partnership with Queen City Forward.

From the finalists, nine teams were selected to give a final five-minute pitch from the judging panel to determine the grand prize winner. The judges were Marjorie Benbow, N.C. Biotechnology Center; John Cambier, Idea Fund Partners; Paul Grim, Sunbridge Capital; Rajeev Kulkarni, 3D Systems; and Mike Marvin, MDM Advisors.

In total, the 18 finalists, including the grand prize winner, received prizes totaling $113,500 with additional in-kind services provided by Ventureprise (formerly Ben Craig Center), Packard Place and MailVu. Challenge officials noted that this year’s increased prizes attracted a greater number of applicants for the competition; nearly 120 enterprises from the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee submitted entries.

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