Nine undergraduate researchers begin their summer at UNC Charlotte, joining research groups across the College of Engineering. One joins the Performance Materials Laboratory.
There is something about a first day that never gets old. Nine undergraduate researchers arrived on campus this week to begin the summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at UNC Charlotte, and the energy they brought with them was already evident at the opening gathering in front of Duke Centennial Hall.
The group will spread across several research laboratories in the College of Engineering, each student matched to a faculty mentor and a project suited to their academic background. For one of them, that match brings them to the Performance Materials Laboratory here in EPIC Hall, and we are glad to have them.
“Research is not a straight line. It is the willingness to follow a question further than anyone else has gone.” says Dr. Roger Tipton
The REU program is one of the most valuable pipelines in undergraduate engineering education. A focused summer in a working research environment does something a classroom simply cannot: it puts a student in front of a problem that does not yet have an answer. That shift in perspective, from solving assigned problems to asking original ones, tends to reshape how a young engineer thinks about their entire field.
For the student joining PML this summer, the work ahead connects directly to active research in advanced materials characterization. The lab does not expect mastery on day one. What we ask for is curiosity, rigor, and a willingness to be wrong and learn from it quickly. Those habits, built over a single focused summer, tend to last a career.
To all nine members of the 2026 cohort, and to the one joining our group in particular: welcome to Charlotte, welcome to the lab, and welcome to the work. The questions you will be chasing this summer are worth chasing, and we are glad you are here.