Dr. Cranos Williams received his PhD in 2008 and MS in 2002 from NC State University. Additionally, he received his BS from North Carolina A&T State University in 2001. Dr. Williams's primary interests are in the inter-disciplinary research area known as systems biology. Particularly, Dr. Williams is focused on the development of engineering-based systems approaches that integrate biological information at multiple scales for the purpose of modeling and controlling biological processes at the tissue, cellular, and biochemical levels.

Dr. Srdjan Lukic received his PhD (2007), MS (2004), and BS (2002) from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.  Dr. Lukic's primary research areas are in power electronics and power systems, including power management ICs and power semiconductor devices.  He is also heavily involved in the Advanced Transportation Energy Center at NC State.

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Brandon Cochenour has been awarded the Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship.

Brandon is currently an Electrical Engineer with the Department of Defense, and has been employed by the Navy at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station since 2004. There, he has been involved in the research and development of next generation laser-radar systems using novel RF-photonic techniques for laser imaging and communication systems underwater. In 2006, he was awarded first place in the graduate student poster/paper competition at the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society conference for his work in underwater optical communications. He was awarded as a Top Navy Scientist and Engineer of the Year in the Emerging Investigator category, which was presented by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for R&D in 2007.

Under the SMART fellowship, Brandon will pursue PhD studies in Electrical Engineering this Fall at North Carolina State University, where he plans to focus on optical communications and RF-photonics. He received the B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College in Easton, PA (2003), and the M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (2008).

The SMART fellowship is a highly competitive program established by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support undergraduate and graduate studies in the Science and Engineering disciplines in return for future service in a DoD laboratory. This year, approximately 200 scientists and engineers received the SMART award out of over 2,000 applicants.

William Cox has been awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship.

William earned his BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2006 and 2007 respectively. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Electrical Engineering at NC State University under the direction of Dr. John Muth, in the area of underwater freespace optical communications. He is a founding member of the Underwater Robotics Club and writes about robotics at GoRobotics.net.

The NDSEG fellowship was created as a means of increasing the number of U.S. citizens and nationals trained in science and engineering disciplines of military importance.  The Department of Defense (DoD) plans to award approximately 200 new three-year graduate fellowships in April 2009.  The DoD will offer these fellowships to individuals who have demonstrated ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering.

Founded in 1893, the American Society for Engineering Education is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology.

Dr. Kolbas has been a member of the NC State faculty for twenty three years and was formerly Head of the ECE department from 1995-2000. After receiving his Ph.D. in Physics in 1979 from the University of Illinois, he was employed by Honeywell as a Senior Research Scientist until joining the NC State faculty in 1985. His primary research interests are in Nanoelectronics and Photonics including III-V Materials and Devices, Optical Materials and Photonic Devices. He has published more than 140 manuscripts in refereed journals and is a member of IEEE, the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Phi.

The Dean extended his appreciation to Dr. Trew for his leadership and the many positive contributions that he made to the ECE department during his tenure as department head. "In addition to the recruitment of a number of outstanding new faculty, his own research efforts and professional contributions have provided the department with significant recognition enhancing the stature of both the department and the College nationally and internationally. Bob will continue as the Alton and Mildred Lancaster Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and we look forward to his research and teaching contributions for many years to come."

Dr. Alex Huang wants the grids to be ready.

Huang, the Progress Energy Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Directs the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC), a research group on Centennial Campus that wants to boost the capacity of existing power grids and integrate them with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.  Developing this technology is difficult; the giant grids handle millions of watts of power.

"For a university to do experimental research in this area is not easy," Huang said.  "And NC State is a leader in this area."

Huang's work focuses on power electronics, technology that converts electric power into a form that consumers can use or that can be injected into the grid.  Power electronics can enable grids to carry more power so utilities get the most out of their existing transmission-and-distribution infrastructure.

The group is also looking at ways to move alternative energies onto the grid.  SPEC is working with a utility in Oregon to integrate wind-produced power into the network using Emitter Turn-off Thyristor (ETO) technology, which improves the speed and efficiency of power electronics systems.  The technology, developed in the past several years with support from the Department of Energy and a number of utilities, can switch on and off at megawatt levels at 1000 times per second.  Last year SPEC also became the first group to demonstrate a silicon-carbide-based ETO device that can potentially switch 10 times faster than silicon ETO.

Huang also looks ahead to a day when hybrid plug-ins-vehicles running on gasoline and batteries that plug into power grids-might be widely used.  His team is looking to develop electronics that operate at higher temperatures for vehicles and examining ways to manage a power grid unaccustomed to lots of charging and discharging cars.

Huang will be a key player in the Advanced Transportation Energy Center, which will conduct research to advance more widespread use of plug-in hybrid vehicles.  North Carolina Governor Mike Easley announced the creation of the new center in February; it will be located on Centennial Campus.

"This is a totally new challenge and new opportunity," Huang said.  "And you need power electronics and information technology to manage it."

The gift will create two named professorships, one each in nuclear engineering and electrical and computer engineering, and will establish an endowed K-12 educational outreach fund to promote the continued development and diversification of the future engineering workforce. These endowments will help produce highly qualified engineers familiar with the core concepts of clean energy generation.

Duke Energy officials will formally present the gift to the college later this year. The investment will be made over five years.

"At NC State, we are grateful for our partnership with Duke Energy," said Chancellor James Oblinger. "As 2008 is the Year of Energy at NC State, this gift reflects our record of activities that fuel economic development and our commitment to a universal need commanding attention - clean energy generation and sustainability. Endowed professorships enable us to increase our ability to have significant impact in this area by helping to attract and retain the top faculty and to produce cutting-edge research that yields innovative solutions."

In recognition of Duke Energy's gift and its longstanding support for the college, NC State is naming a high-profile space on the NC State campus. The west atrium in Engineering Building II, home to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will be renamed the Duke Energy Atrium. The gift also includes funds to renovate two conference rooms in the college, and those will also bear the Duke Energy name. Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, delivers energy to about 4 million customers and is one of the nation's largest electric power companies. The company has a long history of successfully recruiting NC State engineering graduates into its workforce.

"Duke Energy is proud to support North Carolina State University's College of Engineering with this gift," said Ellen Ruff, president of Duke Energy Carolinas. "We are fortunate to have a large number of engineers from NC State working throughout our company, including many in senior management positions. This gift supports both our workforce development strategy and our strong interest in supporting the development of carbon-reduced energy sources. In addition, we view the College of Engineering as an engine of economic development within our state."

"This generous gift will improve our academic stature, get more young people interested in engineering, and accelerate our energy research efforts," said Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering. "We are grateful for Duke Energy's long history of support and their continued interest in engineering education at NC State."

The endowed professorships - the Duke Energy Professor of Nuclear Engineering and the Duke Energy Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Power Program - will help the college attract high-achieving research faculty and students in areas of interest to Duke Energy, which is working to reduce carbon emissions. The nuclear program helps develop energy technologies that produce far less carbon than fossil fuels, and the power program leads a multi-university effort to study the integration of renewable energy sources into the nation's electrical power grid. Carbon emissions have been cited as a chief contributor to global warming.

The Duke Energy Dynamic and Diverse Engineering Workforce Fund will support collaborations with Duke Energy to expand the college's efforts to improve math and science education, promote careers in energy-related engineering, and improve the diversity of the future engineering workforce.

"The College of Engineering and NC State value our longstanding relationship with Duke Energy," said Ben Hughes, executive director of the NC State Engineering Foundation Inc. "The partnership has produced a strong recruiting relationship and valued research and K-12 engineering outreach efforts."

Originally published in the NC State Newsroom - View Original Article

Team STELLAR, which stands for Space Technology for Exploration, Lunar Landing, and Roving, was formed in October of 2007 by the leadership of several organizations that have been working together on various other projects for over two years. These organizations included Insight Technologies, The Advanced Vehicle Research Center, several key NC State University faculty members, as well as the NCSU Mechanical Aerospace and Engineering Department.

The X Prize Foundation, the organization that is offering the $30 million prize for the competition, imagines a time when the moon would be used to collect solar energy via solar panels and power the cities of Earth.

They also see the potential for a  launch pad being established on the moon that would be used as a central location of exploration into the further reaches of space.

The Rover they will create for the competition will utilize a proprietary design. It will be fitted into a Landing vehicle, which will be fitted into a transfer vehicle, to be integrated into the payload of a launch vehicle. In addition, one of the partners in Team STELLAR, an NSF I/UCRC called the Advanced Space Technology for Research and Engineering Center (ASTREC) is interested in supporting the establishment of a communication satellite network in lunar orbit to support this and other missions.  NCSU students will also be given to opportunity to give a hand with this big project, however there are other tasks that will require outsourcing to private companies.

The idea of a prize for reaching air and space travel breakthroughs is hardly new.  A prime example of such a contest is the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh.  Lindbergh was incited by a $25,000 prize that was offered by Raymond Ortieg, a French businessman. Because of his effort and and the efforts of others like him, the air travel industry became the huge business that it is today.

Aviation experts are unsure what effect the first successful moon launch will have. Nevertheless they are certain that the advanced mathematics behind space travel are soon to change.

Returning to the moon has certainly been in the plans for the United States and other countries, yet it could take as long as a decade from now.

The deadline for the private competition is set at 2012. Competitors of the competition will be first in line when the government seeks subcontractors for its own efforts in returning to the moon.

Other members of the team include Richard Dell Sr., Richard Dell Jr., Gordon Jeans, Jeff Krukin, Dr. Andre Mazzoleni, and Grayson Randall.  The team is a project of the North Carolina non-profit Advanced Aerospace Resource Center.

Photo By: A. Collis, X PRIZE Foundation

According to Larry Sumney, president of the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world's leading university-research consortium for semiconductors, "Transistors are already so small you can't see them.  Eventually we will reach the point where they won't work because there is only room to move one electron, which is not reliable. You will need a different way to move information."

NC State Professors Veena Misra and Ki Wook Kim are researching two such ways.  Dr. Misra and graduate student Steven Novak are working on domain wall logic, which uses the spin and charge of electrons for logic and memory operations, via magnetic fields.  Dr. Kim is researching alternative substrates such as graphene, which can conduct electricity up to 100 times faster than silicon.

Both Dr. Misra and Dr. Kim are funded by the SRC's latest round of grants, totaling $11.2 million across three dozen universities.  The Semiconductor Research Corp. is located in Durham, North Carolina.

Adapted from the News and Observer - View the Original Article

The award was presented in conjunction with the USDLA 2008 National Conference in St. Louis, Mo. Miller had previously received the state award from the North Carolina Distance Learning Association.

"As a premier leader for the entire distance learning profession, we are honoring Dr. Tom Miller," said Dr. John G. Flores, CEO of USDLA. "He has raised the bar of excellence and we are truly honored by Dr. Miller's contributions to the distance learning profession."

Since 1982, Miller has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State, where he holds the rank of Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In his role as vice provost for DELTA, Miller is responsible for strategy, deployment, and implementation of the university's learning technologies and distance education programs. DELTA coordinates the funding and production of all distance-based credit programs and courses for the University, and promotes high-quality education by extending the reach of the faculty and collaboratively applying expertise in technology and pedagogy in an efficient, effective, and service-oriented environment.

Miller has taught courses in digital systems, computer architecture, microprocessor systems design, and C and C++ programming. He instituted and directs the NC State University Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. He is a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NC State, and the recipient of the 1995 Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator award from the IEEE. He earned his doctoral degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1982.

The USDLA Awards were created to acknowledge major accomplishments in distance learning and to highlight those distance learning instructors, programs, and professionals who have achieved and demonstrated extraordinary results through the use of online, videoconferencing, satellite and blended learning delivery technologies. Winners will be recognized in an edition of USDLA's Distance Learning Today quarterly supplement during National Distance Learning Week, which begins Nov. 10.

USDLA is a non-profit association located in Boston, Mass. It promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity.

By Amy Anselm, NCSU Engineering Communications

Originally published in Engineering News at NC State - View Original Article

This year's honorees are Drs. Nino A. Masnari, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Troy Nagle, professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Raymond E. Fornes, professor of physics and associate dean for research in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

The medals will be presented during the university's Honors Baccalaureate and Celebration of Academic Excellence, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, in the McKimmon Center.

  The Holladay Medal is named for Col. Alexander Quarles Holladay, the university's first president. It recognizes the contributions of faculty members in teaching, research and service. Winners receive a medal and a framed certificate, and their names are inscribed on a plaque in the NC State Faculty Senate chambers.

Dr. Nino A. Masnari has served NC State for more than 28 years as faculty member, department head, research center director, and dean of the College of Engineering. Highlights of Masnari's 10-year term as dean of the College of Engineering include substantial growth in undergraduate and graduate enrollments - especially enrollments of minority and female students; a fourfold increase in scholarship funding; a tripling in the number of National Science Foundation CAREER awards by engineering faculty; a tripling in college research funding; a doubling of the college's endowment; and the implementation of a plan for the transfer of the College of Engineering to the Centennial Campus. During his term as head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the department's undergraduate enrollment doubled and its graduate enrollment tripled. In 2007 he received the Award of Merit from the NC State Alumni Association. A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Masnari's research interests in semiconductor devices and circuits, electronic materials processing, fabrication technology, ion implantation, microwave solid-state devices and circuits, bipolar magnetic transistors, microwave tubes, electron beams, and plasma physics led to 47 journal articles and more than $60 million in research funding. He has supervised 14 doctoral and 28 master's degree students.

Dr. Troy Nagle has dedicated 23 years of teaching, research and service to NC State. As founding chair of the joint NC State-UNC Chapel Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering, he led the development of the first joint department in the UNC system. During his term of office, the department has achieved an accredited undergraduate biomedical engineering program at NC State and 80 graduate students at NC State and UNC-CH in the department's joint graduate program. Prior to his work with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Nagle was an early leader in the development of the NC State computer engineering curricular program. His research expertise in medical devices and microsensors, digital signal processing, design for testability, and digital control systems has led to more than 60 refereed journal articles, a number of co-authored books, edited volumes, and book chapters, 11 issued and pending patents, more than $4 million in research and instructional funding, and formation of two medical device start-up companies. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), serving as president in 1994 and currently as editor-in-chief of its new IEEE Sensors Journal. He is also a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and a registered professional engineer. He has received the NASA New Technology Award and the IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award for technical contributions to the institute. He has directed eight doctoral and 23 master's degree students.

Dr. Raymond E. Fornes has served NC State for 38 years as a faculty member and administrator. Under his leadership as associate dean for research in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, research funding increased fourfold to nearly $30 million annually. Fornes serves as the NC State counselor to the Oak Ridge Association of Universities and as the university liaison to Oak Ridge National Laboratories. He initiated the first Undergraduate Research Symposium at NC State. His research and administrative interests have led to off-campus assignments at the American Enka Research Laboratories, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories/California Institute of Technology, the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering/Institute of Medicine, and the policy division of the National Research Council. His primary research interest in polymer physics with emphasis on structure and properties of polymers and the influence of environmental factors on polymeric systems has led to more than 120 publications and one edited volume and nearly $8 million in research funding. His awards include the Fiber Society's Distinguished Achievement in Fiber Science Award. He has supervised 24 Ph.D. students.

Previous ECE award winners include Dr. Michael Littlejohn in 1998 and Dr. John Hauser in 2003.

Originally published in the NC State Bulletin - View Original Article

Dean Keltie reported that the selection committee consisted of faculty colleagues as well as students and all were impressed with her dedication to student success as demonstrated through her advising activities. According to Keltie, "This is a very nice and very well-deserved recognition and I thank you for all that you do to benefit our students."

The George H. Blessis Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award recognizes faculty members who consistently and willingly give their time and efforts to advising, counseling, and mentoring students and assisting student groups. The students they have reached have, to a large extent, helped establish the reputation of NC State as a major university and a center of excellence in teaching and research. This award is also a continuing memorial to George H. Blessis, whose interest in undergraduate education and advising serves as an example to many faculty members. Candidates are nominated by departments and selected by the COE Teaching and Advising Awards Committee. The award is made in the amount of $1000.

Cecilia Townsend won the award in 2006 for her undergraduate advising efforts in the ECE Department.

Provost's Fellowships and University Graduate Research Fellowships are one-year awards that provide competitive recruiting supplements for outstanding new doctoral students. In addition to the financial award, Fellows will be supported and nurtured through interdisciplinary learning and leadership development opportunities.  Prospective students cannot apply directly for these fellowships, but are nominated by their respective graduate programs.

Each doctoral program has been allocated two $4,000 Provost's Fellowships, as well as one $5,000 University Graduate Research Fellowship.

The $4,000 supplements are used to recruit new doctoral students who will enroll beginning in the upcoming academic year. These awards must are used as a supplement to a standard departmental/program Teaching Assistantship, Research Assistantship, or Fellowship/Traineeship.  The $5,000 supplement is used to recruit a new doctoral student who will enroll beginning in the upcoming academic year, and who will be appointed to a Research Assistantship.

The College of Engineering at North Carolina State University ranked 30th among the nation's engineering schools in annual rankings of graduate programs published in March by U.S. News & World Report. It was the highest ranking for the College since 2002.

The College ranked No. 34 last year.

Among public colleges of engineering, the College ranked 19th, up from 20th last year.

Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering, told faculty and staff that the jump in the rankings was "the direct result of the efforts of all of you."

"You have believed in the excellence of the College," Martin-Vega said, "and you have worked together to move us closer to achieving our ultimate goal of becoming the top public college of engineering in the nation."

Among Atlantic Coast Conference schools, NC State moved up from fifth to fourth. The College edged Duke University as the top graduate engineering program in North Carolina.

The College of Engineering at NC State is among the largest in the nation with more than 7,500 undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. students enrolled. The College annually ranks among the nation's top ten in bachelor's degrees awarded, total number of engineering degrees awarded, and bachelor's degrees awarded to women and African Americans.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed the top spot in this year's rankings, followed by Stanford University and the University of California-Berkley.

US News came up with the rankings after gathering data from 192 engineering schools across the country. The magazine ranked schools based on peer and recruiter ratings, GRE scores, acceptance rates, student-to-faculty ratios, research expenditures, and other factors.

Prospective students often consider the rankings as they decide which school to attend.

Originally from the COE Newsletter - View the Original Article - Subscribe

Chair - Alex Harrison
Vice Chair - Azeem Ansari
Secretary - John Krier
Treasurer - Drew King

This group is already working hard to bring new and exciting changes to the student branch for the upcoming semesters.

NC State is one of five universities from the United States, Canada and Germany selected to receive grants for the Jazz project. At NC State, the grant will support research to enhance the Jazz platform to include distributed pair programming between members of a team. As a part of the project, NC State will also develop an educational environment that is more representative of the collaborative environment found in many sectors of the IT industry today.

Currently the majority of pair programming is done by programmers working physically next to each other. The Jazz platform will allow programmers to collaborate virtually over long distances. The platform takes its name from the idea that multiple programmers working together on a project are like a group of musicians playing together in a band.

The decision to invest in more collaborative education for software programmers comes at a time when it has become popular for programmers to work together on projects. This trend is a dramatic shift away from the early days of the software industry when software development tools were designed to help make individual programmers more productive. In the industry today, collaboration produces higher quality software and reduces the risk associated with a single programmer taking all the information about a project if that person leaves the company. In addition, many programmers simply prefer to work alongside others rather than working alone.

Dr. Laurie Williams, associate professor of computer science, and Dr. Michael Devetsikiotis, professor of electrical and computer engineering, are collaborating on the project.

"Most programmers enjoy pair programming over working alone," Williams said. "What we are doing with the IBM grant is providing support for two programmers to do pair programming even if they are not physically next to each other but collaborating over the Internet. The two can speak to each other using a Voice-over-IP tool, and they can both see the same thing on the screen and actually work together on one copy of the code. So, the two can collaborate on code development even though they are not near each other."

Williams said collaborative software development is a great way to keep many young people interested in computer science. She said that people born after 1982 are more likely to prefer working with a group over working alone, and that many students appreciate the ability to work virtually.

"Students want to leave their dorms or apartments less and less to come to our labs to work. The distributed pair programming support we will develop will allow two students to collaborate on a programming project in the comfort of their own homes," Williams said.

Reprinted from Engineering News at NC State - View the original article

The North Carolina State University professors will collaborate on the research with Spectrolab, a subsidiary of Boeing that manufactures high-efficiency solar cells for the space program. Spectrolab scientists have developed a multijunction solar cell with an efficiency rating of 40.7 percent, according to company officials. The NC State research team aims to boost the efficiency rating of the Spectrolab cells to 45 percent.

Multijunction gallium arsenide solar cells are far more efficient than silicon cells, which have yet to reach 20 percent efficiency. Silicon cells, however, are much cheaper to produce, and this cost differential is the main reason multijunction gallium arsenide cells are used mostly in space. El-Masry said the efficiency gains achieved through this research project are expected to lower the energy costs sufficiently to make the gallium arsenide cells more competitive for earthbound applications.

To increase the efficiency of the cells, El-Masry said, the research team will seek to develop a fourth layer for three-layer Spectrolab cells.  Each layer of a multijunction cell is tuned to convert specific wavelengths of the solar spectrum into electricity. The extra layer to be developed by the team would receive the now unused 1.0-to-1.4-electrovolt portion of the spectrum.

Most of the money for the research grant is from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar America Initiative to improve solar cell technology. The department is funding 11 solar cell projects around the country totaling $13.7 million.

 Reprinted from Engineering News at NC State - View the original article

Teaching assistants are evaluated for the University GSA Outstanding TA Award based on their assignments, responsibilities, performance, and student interaction.

Poovey has been a member of the University Honors Governing Board and the TINKER Research Group, as well as a recipient of a Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Award.

Daniel has managed to strike a balance between his coursework and physical activities, excelling as a member of the NCSU men's tennis team and being named on the ACC Honor Roll for his efforts in the classroom.

The Jerry J. Collier Scholarship provides funding to an entering graduate student who was a varsity undergraduate athlete at NC State University.  Schinke will receive a $6000 annual stipend for an academic year, with the potential of renewal for one additional year.

They are Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and NC State engineering and business students spent spring break learning about what makes them tick. The students headed to California's Bay Area as part of the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program (EEP), which immerses students in a business environment where they roll out startup companies and products.

The program sends a group of students to Silicon Valley each year to chat up successful alumni and soak in the West Coast culture that has spawned some of the world's most influential companies. Visits to Apple, Google and Facebook were part of this year's itinerary.

The trip was led by Dr. Tom Miller, the EEP director who is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and vice provost for distance education and learning technology, and Dr. Stephen Walsh, a teaching associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the program's entrepreneur-in-residence. Miller, who started the EEP program in 1993, has watched more than 450 students complete it.

The 2008 trip began with a guided tour of the Stanford University campus led by engineering alumnus Saket Vora, a master's student at Stanford. Vora, who attended last year's EEP trip, urged students to learn as much as they could about Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial, business-friendly spirit.

"They should figure out why this place is what it is," he said. "See how they think out here." Later that evening, students traveled to nearby Half Moon Bay to dine with Tony Blevins, vice president of corporate procurement for Apple. Blevins, a 1989 graduate in industrial engineering, took the students on a walk along the beach and shared his experiences at Apple over a dinner of grilled hamburgers.

More than anything else, Blevins said, his job was about managing relationships. So he was impressed that the students took time over spring break to meet people who could help their careers.

"I'm an absolutely incredible fan of this program," Blevins said later. "The quality of the students has just been so impressive, and each year it gets a little bit more impressive."

Students visited the Apple headquarters the next day, hearing from Blevins and Joe Fisher, a 2001 NC State graduate in electrical engineering who helped develop the company's iPods.

The group ate lunch at Apple's giant cafeteria before heading to Rosum, which has developed a system that uses television signals for tracking people and objects. The students heard from alumnus Todd Young, a 1988 electrical engineering graduate who has worked at Palm, Ford Motor Company and Bell Laboratories. He also founded an education software-and-services company.

"Know yourself. Know what you're good at," said Young, Rosum's vice president of marketing. "If you're not talking to people. You're missing out on a lot."

Then the students visited Jaxtr, a year-old startup that links phones to the Web. That night, they talked about technology with alumni over spaghetti and meatballs at a downtown Palo Alto restaurant.

Alumnus John Steensen, a 1973 computer science graduate, was part of the group. He has held senior management positions in Oracle and Computer Associates. Now, he's the president of Spatial Dynamics Corp.

Said Steensen, "Figure out what your track is, go after it, and don't let anybody get in your way."

Students visited more companies over the next two days. They wandered past the pool tables and swimming pool at the sprawling "Googleplex" in Mountain View, hearing from alums who now work at what's been called the world's most innovative company. At Facebook, they watched twenty-something engineers whiz around the office on skateboards and learned about the company's blistering growth.

Later, students visited Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the legendary venture-capital firm that helped start iconic companies such as Google, Amazon and Netscape. Addressing the group was Randy Komisar, a partner in the firm who brought along one of the co-founders of CoolIris, which transforms sites like Google Images and Flickr into three-dimensional slideshows.

Students have been reading Komisar's book, The Monk and the Riddle, so they were excited to see him in person.

"There never was one mention of getting rich or going down that path," said Justin Milam, a senior in electrical and computer engineering. "It was all about what you want in life to be happy and to fulfill your own dreams."

Many former EEP students found that success. Donnie Barnes was among the first employees of Red Hat and retired from the company at age 27. Scot Wingo co-founded Stingray Software and AuctionRover.com, the latter of which sold for $166 million. He credits the entrepreneurs' program for his success.

But there have been failures, too. Many of the Silicon Valley alumni spoke about the long hours and frustrating moments that preceded their ultimate successes.

"Just being able to remember what they've struggled with and what they've gone through will help me in my future," said Jennifer Webster, a junior in electrical and computer engineering.

The trip's final day began with a visit to Applied Signal Technology, where co-founder and NC State alumnus Jim Collins explained the company's digital signal processing systems. He challenged the students to start their own companies.

"If you're young, take that chance," Collins told the group. "Do something new. Do something different."

Then the students went to Danger, Inc., which develops software of mobile devices. Like other alumni, Chief Technology Officer Joe Britt, a 1991 computer engineering graduate, took a winding road to his current job. He worked for Apple, 3DO, Catapult Entertainment and Web TV before co-founding Danger in 1999.

Britt scored a big success earlier this year when Microsoft agreed to buy Danger. He's been a favorite stop for the EEP students for the past several years.

"I wish there had been a program like this when I was at State," he said.

Article and Photos by Nate DeGraff

Article reproduced from Engineering News at NC State - View the Original Article

Norris will speak at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 14, at the McKimmon Center on NC State's campus. A reception will follow at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP for the lecture, go to www.ncsu.edu/els.

Norris is president and chief executive officer of Fuel Tech Inc., which produces technologies to help power plants run cleaner. In 2007, the company was ranked 12th in the Fortune Small Business list of America's 100 fastest growing small public companies and was featured on the cover of the July/August issue of the magazine.

Norris attended NC State on a football scholarship and graduated with a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering in 1971. After serving 10 years in the U.S. Air Force, he joined Duke Power Company in 1982 - eventually rising to senior vice president of Duke Energy Corporation and chairman and CEO of Duke Energy Global Asset Development in 1998. Norris left Duke Energy in 1999 to serve as president and COO of the American Bureau of Shipping Group before joining American Electric Power (AEP) as senior vice president of operations and technical services, which included responsibility for the operation of all of AEP's non-nuclear wholesale assets. Norris joined Fuel Tech in 2003, and was named the company's president and CEO in February 2006.

The Entrepreneurs' Lecture Series is designed to showcase outstanding innovation and entrepreneurship among NC State alumni and partners. The lecture series is co-sponsored by NC State's Office of Public Affairs and the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program (EEP).

ECE student Frank Myers received Honorable Mention recognition.

The National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship pays for a graduate education for students that demonstrate exceptional potential in the fields of science and engineering.  The three-year award includes a $30,000/year stipend and covers all associated student fees such as tuition, fees, and health insurance.

 

Joy Johnson	Amit Lakhani
Erin Summers	Frank Myers

 

Read more about the other winners at NC State Featured Stories

One of Baliga's inventions is responsible for eliminating the need for more than 100 gigawatts of power, which translates to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of about 1 trillion pounds per year. Now, he is working to make his footprint even smaller by pursuing new inventions that further improve energy efficiency.

In 1980, Baliga launched a revolution in efficient energy use when he invented the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) - a semiconductor that controls the flow of power from the energy source to whatever device needs the energy. The IGBT improves energy efficiency by more than 40 percent in an array of products, from cars and refrigerators to light bulbs and cardiac defibrillators.

The energy saved by the use of IGBTs in electric motors and energy-efficient light bulbs alone equals 100 gigawatts, meaning that new one-gigawatt, coal-fired power plants won't need to be built to match the former demand. There are economic benefits as well - to the tune of $2 billion for each plant that does not have to be built.

The United Kingdom group Carbon Footprint estimates that the average American has a footprint of 44,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, At that rate, Baliga's negative carbon footprint offsets the impact of more than 22 and a half million other Americans every year.

Now Baliga, the director of the university's Power Semiconductor Research Center, is watching as another of his inventions, a semiconductor made of silicon carbide that is significantly more efficient than the IGBT, is beginning to gain widespread acceptance in consumer products.

The concept came to Baliga in the early 1980s, but limitations in the state of materials science at the time prevented him from pursuing that line of experimentation. As a result, Baliga joined the faculty of NC State in 1988 so that he could test his theory alongside some of the finest materials engineers in the country.

The move paid dividends - in 1991, Baliga was able to prove that his concept could work, significantly boosting worldwide research funding in the area.
"The worldwide acknowledgement of the importance of the idea was apparent from the initiation of major research programs in the US, Europe and Japan in the 1990s," Baliga said. "I am very pleased to see that many companies have launched products within the last five years making the technology available to consumers."

And Baliga is also finding commercial success with a silicon semiconductor he invented in 2004 to make power supply to computer microprocessors more efficient. This invention has already been adopted by many computer manufacturers and is being marketed for widespread application by a number of computer companies, including Dell and others.

Who knows how much further his carbon footprint will shrink?

By Matt Shipman, NC State News Services

Article reproduced from NC State Featured Stories - View the Original Article

The College of Engineering at NC State will celebrate the establishment of the new Secure Open Systems Initiative (SOSI) at 10 a.m. Friday, April 4, in the Progress Energy Conference Center in Engineering Building II on Centennial Campus. The event will feature a demonstration of what can happen when outside forces invade an open system, as well as a live video feed from the new on-campus lab where some of the research is being conducted. Media coverage is invited. (Map) (Get directions)

"This initiative will contribute to our national security and economic health by making vital computer systems more secure," said Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering. "We are pleased that this important work is being conducted on NC State's Centennial Campus."

The center opens during a period of increasing popularity for open computer systems, which can be modified by outside users and work in a variety of computing environments. Centennial Campus played an important role in this growth as the site of open-source giant Red Hat. More than a dozen NC State faculty members have been focusing research on software security, network security, software engineering, and new networking technologies, which are related to the SOSI initiatives.

Because open systems are accessible by the public, they can be vulnerable to hackers and malicious attacks. SOSI will help advance the trustworthiness and security of those systems, making it easier for the Department of Defense to adopt more open source software and systems into its operations. The initiative will develop a highly secure computational, networking and software test-bed "cloud" in which NC State researchers and external partners will be able to conduct experiments, verify and validate their results, and develop prototypes. The institute will be a repository for research results and testing tools, and will foster start-up technology companies during early stages of business development. Partners will include Red Hat, IBM and Cisco.

"The growth in open-source software has created a demand for cutting-edge research that makes open systems more secure," said Dennis Kekas, the executive director of the NC State Networking Technology Institute who is leading the new initiative. "This initiative will help meet that demand."

The keynote speaker at the event will be U.S. Rep. David Price, who represents the 4th District of North Carolina and helped secure the $3.5 million in federal funding that started SOSI. The open systems demonstration, which will feature robots developed by students, will be conducted by Dr. Mladen Vouk, Associate Vice Provost for Information Technology and Head of the Department of Computer Science.

Reprinted with permission from Engineering News - View the original article

"Forgetfulness is a huge problem, especially among the elderly, but so is taking the medication at the wrong time, stopping too early or taking the wrong dose," said Maysam Ghovanloo, assistant professor of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who began the work two years ago in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University.

"Studies show that drug noncompliance costs the country billions of dollars each year as a result of re-hospitalization, complications, disease progression, and even death."

The MagneTrace system incorporates tiny round magnets into pills and capsules coated with an inert, insoluble polymer. The magnets will pass through a patient's digestive system quickly, and are weak enough not to clump together while in the body. The necklace takes advantage of the same magnetic sensors that are used in GPS units, spaced in pairs about its circumference. The sensors are driven by a control unit with a wireless transceiver that sends data to a smart phone or computer to log the time and number of pills taken. This information can then be forwarded to the patient's physician or family.

The device was tested with an artificial neck made from a length of PVC pipe packed with plastic drinking straws. The MagneTrace necklace was about 94 percent correct in detecting magnetic pills, and it produced about 6 percent false positives when pills were passed through areas outside of the correct detection zone; two numbers that Ghovanloo believes he can improve.

By monitoring actual ingestion, MagneTrace outpaces other drug compliance devices that are normally non-ingestion monitors. "Other devices just tell the doctor if a pill bottle was opened. These devices are not smart enough to tell how many pills, if any, were removed from the bottle, nor if the pill was actually ingested by the intended patient," said Ghovanloo.

MagneTrace can't be tricked because the algorithms it uses are smart enough to only look for the pill as it passes through the esophagus.

This technology provides a convenient, yet low cost method to help individuals adhere with their prescribed medication regimens and help researchers and pharmaceutical companies conduct more accurate clinical trials on new drugs.

The Distinguished Lecturer Program provides ComSoc chapters around the world talks with experts on topics of interest and importance to the ComSoc community. All distinguished lecturers are outstanding in their fields of specialty. Collectively, the Distinguished Lecturers possess a broad range of expertise within the area of Communications.

Alex Huang, an NC State professor who has already been involved in the development of hybrid technology, will be working closely with the new center. He views it as an opportunity to combine the talents of researchers and leaders in the car and utility industries, all with federal and state support. NC State has applied for grants from the Department of Energy. The grants, combined with the funding of Duke Energy and Progress Energy, will allow the center to work on an affordable battery which can be recharged from electrical outlets found in any home.

Currently, the batteries cost more than $10,000, making it difficult for the average driver to commit to using it. Bringing the cost down will allow the batteries to be made widely available, and could put a serious dent in the dependence of American motorists on oil. The first prototype that ATEC hopes to develop within the next five years will be able to go up to 40 miles between charges. ATEC will then move on to improving the battery and increasing the range to 100 miles.

Sources:  News & Observer, Daily Tar Heel

Today's cell phones primarily use lithium ion batteries, often called Li-ion batteries. These batteries are rechargeable and are based on lithium ions moving between an anode and a cathode. While in use, the ions move from the anode to the cathode. This process is then reversed to charge the battery.

Some proponents of alternative-energy vehicles have proposed using lithium-ion batteries as a source of power. On the surface, this seems like a good proposal, since the batteries are a relatively clean source of power, and can also be recharged. However, Dr. Huang highlighted two potential problems with li-ion batteries in a recent interview with the News & Observer.

Lithium-ion batteries, says Huang, are primarily used in small electronic devices, and the power that they produce is proportional to their size. This means that a car powered by one of these batteries would be almost entirely battery, with no space for passengers or cargo. Secondly, the cost of building a lithium-ion battery of that size would be prohibitive, since the battery itself could cost up to $100,000. So while it is true that lithium-ion technology is an interesting idea for powering alternative-energy cars of the near future, the current batteries are simply too weak and expensive to make this a feasible option. Perhaps with future innovation, this will become a viable alternative.]]> http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/rss_article.php?id=10368 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 Town Crier v2 2008-02-22 Dr. Hatice Ozturk, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has recently been awarded the "Pride of the Wolfpack" Award.  This recognition comes for her efforts in developing a sustainable assessment plan for ABET accreditation visits that serves as a national example of excellence.  Dr. Ozturk is also a core member of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering for UNC and NCSU.  She received her Ph.D. from NC State.

Other "Pride of the Wolfpack Award" winners in the College of Engineering are Debbie Allgood-Staton, David Black, Brian Carty, Micah Colon, Kimberly Conley, Saida Fatmi, Christine Franek, Dan Green, Julia Greenwald, Rachel Limberg, Edie Nowell, Toni Pascucci, John Royal, Lara Shields, Anita Smith, Andrew Stein and Chad Stinner.

Reprinted with permission from Engineering News - View the original article

Proposals for the Jazz Faculty Grants were judged on the basis of originality, importance, openness, the educational use of Jazz, and the ability of the researchers to do extensive research in this area.

Jazz is an open-source platform that provides support for collaboration between a team of software developers.  Williams and Devetsikiostis' research will focus on distributed pair programming between members of a team in the Jazz environment.  Their research will also examine remote virtual collaboration and ways to make Jazz available on an as-needed basis.

Williams hopes that increasing the ability of developers to work in teams in this type of environment will attract more women and African-Americans to the computer science and IT industry.   Most importantly, though, NC State students will be among the first to gain exposure to Jazz; before many of the industry's leaders.

IBM is a valued Super ePartner with the department and is actively collaborating with our faculty and students on numerous programs and initiatives. NC State University is one of IBM's top suppliers of new graduate talent, worldwide.

For more information on Dr. Williams, click here.

For more information on Dr. Devetsikiostis, click here.

For more information on our ePartners Program, click here.

The professors are Dr. Hamid Krim, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of Vision Information and Statistical Signal Theories and Applications (VISSTA); and Dr. Gianluca Lazzi, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

The IEEE is a professional association for the advancement of technology that was formed in 1963 after the merger of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. Its name was originally an acronym for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, but its scope has expanded into so many related fields that it is simply known as "IEEE."

Krim was honored for his contributions to "statistical signal processing, multiscale analysis, estimation and detection, and image analysis." He is known for his studies in communication and signal processing, including adaptive signal processing, image analysis, computer vision, digital communications, digital signal processing and multidimensional signal processing. He was an original contributor to, and is now an affiliate of, the Center for Imaging Science sponsored by the US Army. His current research through VISSTA involves statistical signal and image analysis and mathematical modeling with a keen emphasis on applied problems.

Krim received his PhD in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in 1991. In 1998, he joined the faculty at NC State. He serves as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and was a lead organizer of several IEEE conferences and workshops.

Lazzi was honored for his contributions to "bioelectromagnetics and implantable devices." He is known for his research in implantable microantennas, neural stimulation, biomedical electromagnetics, antennas for wireless, and multiple and vector antenna systems. He is also a collaborator on a national research project that aims to create a "safe and efficient artificial retina" which would restore partial vision to millions affected by blindness caused by disorders of the retina. His current research focuses on bioelectromagnetics, wireless microsystems, wireless electromagnetics and computational electromagnetics.

Lazzi received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Utah in 1998. He joined the faculty of NC State in 1999 and was honored with the 2006 IEEE Wheeler Award.

Adapted from Engineering News - View the original article

Progress Energy has been a long-standing supporter of NC State and the College of Engineering. This year the grant will support programs in civil engineering, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering and nuclear engineering. In addition, the grant will fund the Undergraduate Research in Energy Awards, the NC Solar Center's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Challenge and college-wide programs such as the Engineering Workforce Initiative, which includes a new lecture series.

"We greatly appreciate Progress Energy's long and generous support of Engineering at NC State. The college has no closer corporate partner than Progress Energy," said Dean Louis Martin-Vega. "This funding provides another important investment in tomorrow's engineers."

The gift to the College of Engineering will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation, Inc. 

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Brian provides "supreme quality service to students, staff and faculty at ECE Department. He can trouble shoot any computer related hardware and software problem. Usually he stays long hours with  patience and professionalism... I have been impressed with Brian's positive and skilled approach to IT support, well beyond his peers, and he has uniquely enabled me and my graduate students to be productive within the lab and at our desks."

"Andrew is the most hard working and dedicated person I know. He never complains and he is always willing to help. Andrew is a joy to work with: effective, fast, professional, and reliable. He has provided the best programs for the admissions analysis for the ECE Graduate Office, one of the largest programs at the COE. While he also works for ECE on other projects, he makes himself available anytime."

Micah has been "invaluable in setting up software for VLSI Design Class, including Cadence Virtuoso 6.1.1 software, Synopsys HSPICE, and CiraNova Pycell 4.1.1.  These packages are incredibly cumbersome to install (they can take weeks of effort), but Micah was able to do it along with juggling his responsibilities with 40 other faculty."

"ECE has remained seamless in their computer and network environment.  Dan is prompt with his responses to individual needs.  How he does it, I just don't know. His hours are endless and he goes without recognition most of the time EXCEPT when something goes wrong.  And, yet, with all this, he remains calm and collegial."

Brian Carty Desktop Support	Andrew Stein Web Programmer

Micah Colon Unix Admin	Dan Green Director of IT

The endowed professorship was established as part of Progress Energy's $1.2 million gift to the College of Engineering. The gift, announced in 2006, is the largest in the history of the Progress Energy Foundation.

"This is a wonderful and well-deserved honor for an outstanding member of our faculty," said Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering. "We are grateful to Progress Energy for their generous gift and their longstanding interest in engineering education and research at NC State."

Because of the great significance associated with the OCA, the award plaque for Beta Eta Chapter will be formally announced and presented at the ECEDHA Annual Meeting Award banquet on Monday evening, March 17, 2008, at 6:00 PM. The Annual meeting will be held March 14-18, at the Lowes Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego, CA.

A joint research work of Michael Devetsikiotis and Ioannis Papapanagiotou of the ECE Department, together with VTT National Research Institute of Finland and the University of Patras, Greece, won the Performance Modeling QoS and Reliability Symposium Best Paper Award for their paper entitled "Extensions and Comparison of QoS Enabled WiFi Models in the Presence of Errors".  In a separate competition, Ioannis also received the IEEE Travel Grant, an award won only by the 20% of the students applying for it. And on the last day of the conference, he received news that he had also won thed 50th anniversary Trivia Contest.

The IEEE Communications Society has marked the 50th Anniversary of its annual IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (IEEE GLOBECOM 2007) in Washington, DC, from 26 to 30 November.  The flagship conference has spanned the entire range of communications technologies, offering in-depth information on the latest developments in voice, data, image, and multimedia.

President George Bush extended his personal congratulations to IEEE GLOBECOM 2007 on its upcoming 50th anniversary celebration, citing the conference for its international achievement in the "development and advancement of global communications" as well as "promoting achievement and innovation in technology and engineering." President Bush declared the week of 26 November 2007 the IEEE Global Communications Week.

Campus art that moves, talks and lights up - all at a visitor's command.

Students in design and electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University teamed up this fall to create three interactive art installations for one of the university's newest buildings. The artwork will be unveiled at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the west atrium of Engineering Building II on the university's Centennial Campus.

One installation, dubbed "Mr. Sound," is an experimental theater that lets the audience play an active role. Sensors connected to floor panels and poles detect when visitors are touching them, triggering individual sound tracks created by the students. The result is a chorus of sounds that can be manipulated by the visitor.

Another piece is a series of umbrella-like fans lining a staircase. Sensors detect when visitors begin climbing the stairs, telling the fans to begin spinning as the visitors approach them. Students named it "Scyphozoa (skih-foh-ZOH-ay) volubilis."

The third installation senses when visitors come in one part of the building, prompting wood panels on an adjacent wall to open and close depending on how many people have entered the space. The panels display a blue light. The artwork is called "Wax and Wane."

The students worked all semester on the project, weathering many late nights to finish it in time.

"In the end, they were extremely happy to be part of this unique experience," said Mehmet Ozturk, a professor of electrical and computer engineering who advised the engineering students with Alex Dean, associate professor in the same department. Dana Raymond, associate professor of art and design, advised the design students.

The building that houses the artwork, Engineering Building II, opened in fall of 2005. Its 181,000 square feet of classroom, office and laboratory space represent the second phase of the plan to move the College of Engineering to Centennial Campus.

The engineering students who worked on the project are Eric Aumiller, Jason Frankie, Richard Jankovics and George Platica.

The design students are Jenna Bost, Lauren Deans, Enrique Dominguez, Julianne Gonski, Will Hagna, Dana Hartweg, Miles Holst, Maddie Langley, Lauren Pegram, Morgan Spivey and Andrea Stroud.

Also supporting the project were Tara Britt, director of administration and external relations for the department of electrical and computer engineering, who encouraged the project from its inception and assumed a pivotal role in securing the budget; and Bart Greene, director of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Design Center, who is the instructor of the Senior Design Project course in the department.

Reprinted from Engineering News at NC State - View the original article

The award program was established in honor of the late Nancy G. Pollock, who served as Thesis Editor for the NC State Graduate School for over 30 years.  During her long career in the Graduate School, Ms. Pollock reviewed over 18,000 theses and dissertations to ensure that they met the high standards set by the graduate faculty at NC State.

As the university-level winner, an award check in the amount of $1000 was presented to Zhang and he was recognized at the Annual North Carolina State University Fellowship Recognition Dinner.

The Collaboratory in 1003C EB2 is installed with the following equipment:

• Two Eos workstations with monitors - Linux and Windows
• 42-inch Plasma TV monitor
• Wall-mounted, touch-control Menu Panel
• Whiteboard
• Table and chairs
• Laptop connections
• Wireless mouse and keyboard

For more on Engineering Collaboratories, visit the web site at http://www.eos.ncsu.edu/collabs/. The room will be open for walk-in usage starting in Spring (reservations will take priority), but for now the EOS Operator in 1203A EB2 will open the door for anyone who makes a reservation this semester.

Reservations may be made here: http://www.eos.ncsu.edu/collabs/reserve/

Nagle used the desk and its accompanying conference table for a while, but when his office was moved from Daniels Hall a few years ago, his new space was too small for the furniture.  Nagle spoke to Dr. Eddie Grant about the pieces, and it was suggested that Grant's wife, Maureen, a skilled, self-taught wood refinisher and artisan, could refurbish the pieces, which needed some serious attention.

"It was a challenge," Maureen Grant said with a laugh. "Of course, Ed got me into the challenge."

So Maureen got to work.  When she stripped the surfaces and found that the pieces were composed of different types of wood, she applied different stains to create a uniform color.  Then there was the waxing - several coats for each piece.  The whole piece took about three or four weeks of work, she said.

"It looks like a totally different piece of furniture," Eddie Grant said. "And I would say it looks classier now than it did originally."

No one knows exactly how old the desk is, though Eddie Grant guesses it was probably built shortly after World War II.  More important is the story: A desk returns to the family of the man who once worked at it.

"I think it is going to a great home with the Lampe family," Nagle said. "Jimmie and I treated it with great respect!"

And it looks even better than ever.

NC State University researchers looking for the next big discovery have their sights set on getting as small as possible.

Nanoscale science - a nanometer is about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair - sits at the confluence of biology, chemistry, and physics and offers the opportunity to engineer molecular structures with unique characteristics. That's why nanotechnology is often viewed as a breakthrough science leading to a revolution in countless areas from pharmaceuticals, computers, and textiles to medical diagnostics and treatment.

NC State has received national recognition for its research, ranking third in nanotech commercialization and seventh in nanotech education in a recent survey by the industry magazine Small Times. Seeking better coordination of efforts among its various colleges, the University recently launched a campus-wide Nanotechnology Initiative and a new Web site called Nano@NC State.

"We want to think about the science and our strategic approach to research as a system rather than as individual projects," said Dr. Gregory Parsons, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering who directs the Initiative. "We want to expand our team-building and encourage more interdisciplinary nanotechnology work so we can advance knowledge, educate well-prepared graduates, and improve economic opportunities for people in North Carolina."

Research funding sources, including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, continue to devote significant chunks of their budgets to nanotech research.

"A number of agencies see tremendous opportunity for economic and societal advances based on new knowledge of technology at the nanoscale," NC State Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies John Gilligan said."NC State's strengths in materials science, engineering, textiles, and biotechnology provide several avenues for us to contribute to America's global leadership in this field."

Parsons says NC State's Nanotechnology Initiative has three main components: interdisciplinary research, education programs, and business outreach. Short-term activities include planning for new research facilities, forming an Industrial Advisory Board, hiring nanotech faculty, and expanding education programs.

Nanotech research thrusts emerging from the University's strengths include: nanobiotechnology; nanofibers and textiles; nanomaterials and structures; nanotoxicology safety and environmental impacts; nanotechnology for advanced energy; nanoinstrumentation and characterization; and nanotechnology's impact on society.

John Gilligan, NC State Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies

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The theme will be "DID YOU KNOW...?", and will include concise presentation and discussion by several ECE faculty members on the following topics:

Introduction to ECE Career Specializations
Job Hunting Resources, Internships/Co-ops
Graduate School Options and Reality
Undergraduate Research
Student Organizations
Fellowship Opportunities
Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degree Program

PIZZA will be served starting at 5:45pm. All sophomore and freshman students interested in Electrical and Computer Engineering are highly encouraged to attend. Suggestions and/or questions should be directed to Dr. Michael Escuti ( mjescuti@ncsu.edu, 919-513-7363) or Ms. Tara Britt ( tara_britt@ncsu.edu, 919-515-5085).

More than 100 electrical and computer engineering students will showcase projects from their senior design project course. Project topics include robotics, cellular/wireless communications, aids for disabled children, distance education and many other student innovations.

For additional information, contact Bart Greene, Director, ECE Design Center, (919) 515-8740 or bjgreene@eos.ncsu.edu.

Reprinted with permission from Engineering News - View the original article