Charlotte-based Honeywell announced Monday that it’s investing $10 million in UNC Charlotte. The funding will help create a new “Innovation Hub” to boost STEM education on campus.
With the new investment, UNC Charlotte plans to transform its Burson Hall facility into the “Honeywell Innovation Hub.” The 155,000-square-foot facility devoted to STEM education will feature engineering labs, classrooms and research spaces outfitted with more than $1 million of Honeywell’s automation technology.
“You now have the opportunity to have a truly immersive environment here where you can learn on the state-of-the-art and the sophisticated programs and automation that we have in,” said Eric Seidel, Honeywell’s senior vice president and chief commercial officer. “So again, I think that’s a huge, huge competitive advantage for the university.”
The facility will serve Charlotte’s colleges of engineering and computing, and is expected to open in 2027. Honeywell’s investment will also support 48 scholarships for high-achieving students in STEM fields over the next 10 years. It also will fund four distinguished faculty positions for the school’s engineering and computing programs and research projects.
The first six scholarships, totaling $180,000, were awarded Monday.
Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur said the investment will be an asset to the Charlotte region, providing a new pipeline for local tech talent to lead on engineering, computation and AI.
“What we believe is that this program becomes a feeder to the whole bigger process,” Kapur said. “And as companies grow, they need more people. It becomes a virtuous cycle that companies grow and they're able to leverage the capacity which is available here.”
The investment builds on several recent developments that have helped raise UNC Charlotte’s standing in recent weeks. Earlier this year, the university earned R1 distinction from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Ed, the highest possible rating that denotes a university’s commitment to funding research.
It also recently launched bachelor’s and master’s degrees in artificial intelligence.
“Great cities have great universities,” UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon Gaber said. “This is a great city, and so we are the city’s great university, and we continue to push that to make sure that the city recognizes that.”
Gaber said Honeywell and UNC Charlotte have worked together in the past, with Honeywell working with students on various projects and internships. But within the past six months, conversations about a larger investment that would allow Honeywell to “invest in UNC Charlotte to really help build talent and showcase the work that they’re doing.”
