| March 24, 2005 |
Vol. I, No.4
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The spring season is often associated with themes of growth, birth, and renewal, and this spring at ECU certainly reflects those ideas. In the coming weeks, we will inaugurate our chancellor and announce our new provost and our new vice chancellor for research and graduate studies. ECU has hired new football and basketball coaches. Changes are taking place right here in our college. (Read about them below in "College Updates.") Our college is garnering national recognition and reputations in programs such as construction management and information and computer technology while increasing our numbers of students and graduates. Our engineering program is completing its first year. As a university, we are moving to that often heralded "next level." All of this presents new challenges that may test our patience and cause us to ask questions like "Why do we have to change?" and "Why can't things stay the way they were?" The answers to these questions are, for better or worse, rather simple. We are changing because the world and environment we share is changing - and changing at the most rapid pace in human history. Competition for resources and markets is unrelenting, whether for students, state dollars, jobs, raw materials, or distribution lines. Meeting the challenges created by these realities requires the cooperation, participation, and commitment of all of us. None of us is immune to the stress change can create. We can only hope that others recognize that change affects us all, albeit differently, and that tolerance is necessary of us all. As we confront the new challenges we face, let's remember that others are also dealing with change. ECU Named NSA National Center of Excellence in IA Education East Carolina University recently was designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency (NSA). ECU is one of only eight universities in the nation to be awarded this designation for the years 2005-2008. ECU's achievement will be recognized on June 7, 2005, in Atlanta during the annual conference of the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Information. The Department of Technology Systems' Information and Computer Technology curriculum, which enabled the university to meet the requirements for the center, has been approved as meeting national security telecommunications and information systems security standards and also will be acknowledged at the conference. The National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE) Program is an outreach program designed and operated initially by the NSA and now jointly sponsored by the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security in support of the President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. The goal of the program is to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education in information assurance (IA), and producing a growing number of professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines.
Under this program, four-year colleges and graduate-level universities are eligible to apply to be designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in IA Education. Each applicant must pass a rigorous review demonstrating its commitment to academic excellence in IA education. During the application process applicants are evaluated against stringent criteria. Designation as a CAEIAE is valid for three academic years, after which the school must successfully reapply in order to retain its CAEIAE designation. TECS Spring Career Fair a Success By Bruce Maxwell, Associate Director & TECS Liaison, Student Professional Development.
More than 300 students, 133 recruiters from 52 companies, and faculty and staff attended the TECS Spring Career Fair on February 16 in the Science and Technology Building. This fair was unique in several ways. For the first time, the fair represented the whole college with employers seeking students from multiple program areas, including construction management, industrial technology, manufacturing, industrial distribution, urban planning, and computer science. Several new features were added with this fair:
Results from the employer evaluation collected at the end of the fair reported that employers enjoyed the number of faculty, administrators, and students attending and the preparedness of the students. Eleven percent of employers reported having more than 100 entry-level job openings to fill this year. Seventy-seven percent felt the fair exceeded their expectations. Student evaluations reported that the majority of students attending the fair were seniors looking for permanent positions after graduation who heard about the fair from in-class announcements. Eighty-three percent said they felt the fair was very effective and rated their level of contact with employers as "very high." College Updates The College's new Unit Code has been approved by the Faculty Senate Code Committee and forwarded to the Faculty Senate for approval. Kudos to the code subcommittee, including Carol Collins, Dave Batie, Chuck Coddington, and Harold Stone, and to the college's faculty for working together to make decisions harmoniously. After approval by the Faculty Senate, the new code will be forwarded to the Chancellor for his approval. If these approvals are granted, the code could be in effect by the end of the semester. Dr. Chuck Coddington, professor of technology systems, was elected Faculty Senate Alternate. The Department of Planning is "planning" to move to the Department of Geography. Both departments and their deans have approved the move, and contingent upon the working out of some resource issues, the change will occur during the summer. The following searches are ongoing: associate dean, chair of computer science, two advisor positions and an administrative assistant for the Advising Center, five engineering positions, two technology systems positions, and two construction management positions. The College's Advising Center is scheduled to move to the first floor of the Rawl Building at the end of the semester. Smith Selected for Teacher-Scholar Award
Dr. Ronnie W. Smith, associate professor of computer science, was selected by the college's honors and awards committee as the College of Technology and Computer Science's Teacher-Scholar for 2004-2005.
Dr. Smith will showcase his teaching and scholarship April 5 in a symposium honoring Teacher-Scholars from each of the university's colleges. The symposium, which will take place from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. in the Mendenhall Great Rooms, is open to the public.
Department of Industrial Technology Changes Name to Department of Technology Systems Chancellor Steve Ballard recently approved a proposal to change the name of the Department of Industrial Technology to the Department of Technology Systems. "We have selected 'Technology Systems' as more descriptive of the content and focus of our department's BS degree and more appropriate for our MS programs," said Dr. Paul Kauffmann, chair of the department. "In addition, the new name more accurately reflects the background of our faculty." "Industrial technology" was chosen as the name of the ECU department several years ago and at that time was an accurate name for the programs offered. However, during recent years the department and its faculty have evolved to meet the opportunities of emerging careers, technologies, and regional economic development by looking at problems in terms of systems. The name change is consistent with recent changes at ECU's peer institutions; for example, Brigham Young, Bowling Green (Ohio), Purdue, and Illinois State all have changed their departments of industrial technology to technology or technology systems. The department offers six BS programs: design, manufacturing, industrial distribution and logistics, industrial technology, information and computer technology, and engineering. The department also offers MS programs with a content focus in advanced technological areas such as digital communications, network management, information assurance, manufacturing, industrial distribution and logistics, occupational safety, and performance improvement. $100K Grant for Residential Construction Curriculum Dr. Douglas W. Kruger, chair of the Department of Construction Management, received a $100,000 grant from the National Housing Endowment at their December 3, 2004, meeting. The grant is for the development of a residential construction track in the construction management program. The National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of the National Association of Home Builders, provides funds to address long-term industry concerns at the national level, including assisting colleges and universities in the development of housing-related curricula and activities. ECU's construction management program is the largest construction management program in the southeast. It is the only CM program in North Carolina accredited by the American Council of Construction Education and one of only forty accredited programs in the country. Current undergraduate enrollment exceeds 400 students. Engineering Program Adds Two Concentrations As part of the continuing growth of ECU's engineering program, two new concentrations have been approved for the bachelor's degree in engineering. The new concentrations, engineering management and bioengineering, join the degree's original concentration, systems engineering, to offer future students an array of options to meet the emerging demands of the workplace. The BS in Engineering degree provides students a common core of engineering skills that will enable them to be system-based problem solvers. The concentrations, which will take the form of 24 hours of junior and senior level courses, will enable specialization in one of the three areas. Although the concentrations will be listed in the catalog this fall, the classes for the new concentrations will be offered after the program adds faculty and grows. The bachelor's degree in engineering with a concentration in systems engineering enrolled thirty-nine students in its inaugural class in fall 2004. It is the first engineering program in North Carolina east of Interstate 95 and the only systems engineering concentration in the state. Offers of admission are being made to the second group of engineering students who will begin their studies at ECU this fall. Mehta Awarded $42K UMR Contract
Funded by the Economic Development Administration, the project is titled "Creation of Next Generation Industrial Clusters Based on New Generation Agricultural Cooperatives." Dr. Mehta will work with "industrial clusters" to utilize the agricultural cooperative model in a mutually supportive industrial model that will provide greater flexibility and market share for small industries. Dr. Mehta joined ECU in fall 2004. He has been involved with the manufacturing industry since 1981 and received his PhD in engineering management from the University of Missouri-Rolla. His research interests include flow improvement through lean manufacturing systems, the pursuit of quality through six-sigma principles and world-class manufacturing concepts, and product design for rapid processing from concept to manufacturing prototype.
The Office of the Dean welcomes Kirsten Fletcher, who serves as an administrative secretary and handles budget and personnel. She comes to the College of Technology and Computer Science from the ECU Office of Grants and Contracts.
April 5 Teacher-Scholar Symposium (including a presentation by Computer Science's Dr. Ronnie Smith), 1:30-3:30 p.m., Mendenhall Student Center, Great Rooms April 8 Third Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Symposium, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Mendenhall Student Center, Second Floor April 19 TECS Spring Fling, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., outside the Science and Technology Building (10th Street side) April 22 TECS Honors and Awards Banquet (more details to come) May 7 TECS Graduate Recognition Ceremony, 2 p.m., Wright Auditorium TECS Spring Fling
The college's Spring Fling, the annual spring semester celebration for our students, is scheduled for 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on April 19 outside the Science and Technology Building (10th Street side). Faculty and staff volunteers are needed to make this a successful event. If you'd like to help out, please email Bonnie Eshelman in the Office of the Dean at eshelmanb@mail.ecu.edu.
TECS Graduate Recognition Ceremony
The College of Technology and Computer Science Spring Graduate Recognition Ceremony will take place May 7 at 2 p.m. in Wright Auditorium. Faculty are encouraged to participate and are expected to wear regalia. If you do not own regalia, make plans to rent or borrow. If you have regalia but cannot attend the ceremony, please loan it to a colleague who does not have regalia but would like to participate. Technology & Computer Science Humor Engineer Identification Test You walk into a room and notice that a picture is hanging crooked. You: A. Straighten it. B. Ignore it. C. Buy a CAD system and spend the next six months designing a solar-powered, self-adjusting picture frame while often stating aloud your belief that the inventor of the nail was a total moron.
Have a favorite technology or computer science joke? (Let's keep it clean!) Send it to jonesca@mail.ecu.edu for a future issue of The Nexus.
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Contact Us Science & Technology Building Suite 100 East Carolina University Greenville, NC 27858-4353 USA 252.328.9600 |