Message from the Dean

Welcome to first edition of The Nexus, a newsletter for the faculty and staff of the College Technology and Computer Science.  The dictionary defines a nexus as a connection, connected group, or focus.  My hope is that our Nexus will serve all these definitions by providing a connection for everyone in the College to everyone else.  The motivation for establishing the newsletter is quite simple.  The size of our college and the diversity of activities going on within it limit the information that can be conveyed by word of mouth and departmental faculty meetings.

Our goals are to provide a central place to share announcements impacting the College and the people in it; a mechanism to share the good news and accomplishments of the individuals who make up the College including births, marriages, papers published, conferences attended, grants and contracts received, student accomplishments and noteworthy visitors; in other words, it’s a place to share and communicate what is going on in the College.  If you have ever stumbled across of information about a colleague’s award or heard through the “grapevine” of events in the College and said, “I didn’t know that.  Why didn’t someone tell me?”   Well, The Nexus is here to tell you.   What you must do now is take the time to share your information, stories, jokes, announcements and accomplishments with the rest of us here in the College.  The Nexus is for you and depends you.  Help us make it that connection to all in the College.

Features

TECS Pizza Party

The College of Technology and Computer Science showed its appreciation for its students with a pizza lunch on October 7. 

Nearly 300 students attended the event, which was held outdoors on the 10th Street side of the Science and Technology Building.  In addition to the tasty pizza and beautiful fall weather, students enjoyed a special treat: being served by the faculty from the TECS departments. 

Special thanks go to Bonnie Eshelman for coordinating the pizza lunch.  She thanks Randy Godwin and Steve Mockbee for their assistance throughout the event. 

A cookout for students is being planned for the spring semester.  Watch future issues of The Nexus for more details.

Chancellor Ballard Visits TECS

Chancellor Steve Ballard visited the College of Technology and Computer Science on September 29. 

A tour of several laboratories on the first and second floors of the Science and Technology Building, guided by Dean Ralph Rogers, gave Chancellor Ballard the opportunity to witness firsthand the college’s tremendous potential for a strong future.

Dr. Ballard became chancellor of East Carolina University in May of 2004.  He came to Greenville from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he was provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs since 2001.

ICT Faculty Present Workshop at Community College Conference

Four Information and Computer Technology program faculty members from the Department of Industrial Technology presented a workshop on the distance education delivery of remote labs at the 2004 Community College Conference. 

Phil Lunsford, Tijjani “TJ” Mohammed, Xin “Howard” Tang, and Lee Toderick gave presentations on computer and network security issues involved in teaching labs via distance education. 

Held October 10-12 in Greensboro, the conference was presented by the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS).  The event brought together the long-running Instructors Conference with other activities that serve the state’s 800,000 community college students.

Planning Project Featured in Pieces of Eight

A project undertaken by Alan Burne, a lecturer in the Department of Planning, and his students was featured in the October 1, 2004, issue of Pieces of Eight, the newspaper for ECU faculty and staff.

“Class Develops Greenways Plan” describes how in the coming months Burne and his students will assist Pitt County in assessing its undeveloped and recreational spaces.  

To read the article by Erica Plouffe, visit http://www.news.ecu.edu/poe/1004/poe1004.pdf.

Lighthouse Children Visit TECS

A group of fifteen children from The Lighthouse Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility in Jacksonville, NC, visited the College of Technology and Computer Science on October 11.

The facility provides disabled and abused children aged ten to sixteen with educational programs that teach life skills.  The ECU visit was coordinated by Murray Korn, visiting instructor of industrial technology, and provided the children their first experience on a college campus.

The day’s events began with a classroom session led by Korn and fellow industrial technology faculty members Leslie Pagliari and Jim Toppen.  The children then enjoyed lunch with ECU football players Richard Koonce and Chris Moore and a campus tour.

The visit concluded back in the Science and Technology Building, where activities in the distribution lab included forklift operation and an overhead crane contest. 

Wubneh Article Published in RURDS

An article written by Mulatu Wubneh, professor and chair of the Department of Planning, was published in the March 2004 issue of the Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies (RURDS).

“The Impact of Manufactured Housing on Adjacent Residential Property Values: A GIS Approach Based on Three North Carolina Counties” was co-authored by Guoqiang Shen of the Department of Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma.

Students & Alumni News

MSOS Students Take Honors at Regional Safety Conference

Two students enrolled in the master's of science in occupational safety program presented their research at the American Society of Safety Engineer’s Region XI Professional Development Conference.  The event was held September 22-24, 2004, in Myrtle Beach, SC. 

Celeste Caskey earned first place among 15 students from seven universities for her original research entitled “Assessing Environmental Contamination of Cytotoxic Drugs.”  Michael Ladd took fourth place for his research critique “Deadly Legacy,” which deals with the estimated risk associated with occupational asbestos exposure.

Congratulations, Celeste and Michael!

Faculty & Staff Notes

College Unit Code Update
On September 30, 2004, the voting tenured faculty of the former SIT voted to approve the proposed code developed by the TECS college code committee by a vote of 4 for approval and 1 absence. On October 5, the voting tenured faculty of the Department of Computer Science voted to dissolve their current code unit and approve the proposed code for the College of Technology and Computer Science.   The concurrences of the appropriate unit administrators and the dean of the college were forwarded to the faculty senate office on October 13.

The following outlines the next set of events in the development and approval of the code.  The request is first to merge two coded units (the former School of Industry and Technology and the Department of Computer Science) with the newly drafted College of Technology and Computer Science unit code before the educational policies and planning committee on Friday, November 12, at 2:00 p.m. in 105 Rawl.  If the merge is approved, EPPC will present a report to the Faculty Senate on December 9.  If approved by the Faculty Senate, Chancellor Ballard will then be asked to consider the merge.

Once Chancellor Ballard has acted on the merge, the college’s proposed unit code can be forwarded to the unit code screening committee for review.  The chair of this committee will then set a meeting to review the code.  If the code is approved, the committee will then present a report to the Faculty Senate (probably in March 2005), with approval going on to the Chancellor.  Once Dr. Ballard acts on the code, the process is finished and the proposed unit code for TECS will become operational.

Welcome
The College of Technology and Computer Science welcomes these new faculty and staff.  Look for more new faculty introductions in the November 15 issue of The Nexus.

Dr. Arun Aneja joins the college as a Research Associate Professor after more than 25 years in research and development, management, production/operations and process/product engineering with the DuPont and Monsanto companies.  He holds a PhD in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Duke University.  The inventor of four major products (CoolMax Alta®, Supriva, MicroSect and Thermastat), Dr. Aneja holds 22 patents and has published numerous articles nationally and internationally in both technical and business related disciplines.  He recently was named a member of the editorial board of the Research Journal of Textile & Apparel.

Dr. Michael Behm joins the Department of Industrial Technology as an assistant professor and coordinator of the Occupational Safety program.  He earned a PhD in public health (occupational safety and environmental health) from Oregon State University this year.  He has worked in industry as a corporate safety and health specialist and as an ESH coordinator.  His research interests include design for safety, occupational safety and environmental management, and corporate sustainability. 

Carla Jones joins the Office of the Dean as a part-time communications resource.  Her primary duty is to produce The Nexus, the TECS newsletter.  In her “other life,” she is assistant vice chancellor for communications.  She earned her master’s degree in English at Old Dominion University, where she worked as director of communications for the College of Engineering and Technology before joining East Carolina.

Dr. Keith Williamson joins the Department of Industrial Technology as an associate professor and coordinator of the new engineering program.  He received his PhD in mechanical engineering from Tufts University after a first career as an engineer for the Department of the Navy.  Dr. Williamson comes to ECU from Old Dominion University, where he was an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Virginia Center for Urban Education.  His research interests lie in the areas of materials science and engineering education.  

IRCC Update

The Information Resources Coordinating Council (IRCC) is the campus-wide committee that advises the university’s chief information officer.  The council is composed of representatives from across the campus; Dr. Eric Connell, assistant professor of construction management, represents TECS.

Connell reports the following issues from the September IRCC meeting:

• Faculty and staff must upgrade their passwords to more secure passphrases by October 16.  More information is available at http://www.ecu.edu/itsecurity/.
• Eventually there will be a change from POP to IMAP for email, which will make our email more secure.
• Spam is being controlled by the MailMarshal program, which faculty and staff can modify for their individual needs.
• Students use only about 10% of current email functionality.  The university is moving to a different type of email to save more than 50% of expense without a significant difference in functionality for the majority of students.
• The IRCC will meet again in October. 

For more information about IRCC, contact Eric Connell or visit http://www.ecu.edu/ircc/.

TECS ‘Partners Up’
Thanks to faculty and staff who have turned in their pledge forms for the State Employees Combined Campaign’s “Partner Up” program, ECU’s only sanctioned charity fundraiser.

Coming Events

Technology & Computer Science Humor

A Dictionary of Useful Research Phrases

• “While it has not been possible to provide definite answers to these questions….”  (An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published.)
• “It is believed that….”  (I think….)
• “It is generally believed that….”  (A couple of other people think so too.)
• “A number of different approaches are being tried.”  (We’re still guessing.)
• “A major technological breakthrough”  (It works okay, but it looks very high tech.)

Did you know?
The Nexus needs you!  Please submit news items (honors, awards, events, etc.) and humor for the November 15 issue of the college newsletter to Carla Jones at jonesca@mail.ecu.edu by November 8.