THE NEXUS

Welcome to the first edition of The Nexus for this year. As is usual for our College, change and growth are constant companions. For starters, we have a new editor for The Nexus, Jennifer Lynn Bowles. Jennifer will collect and compile our TECS stories and news for this year. Please help us continue to make The Nexus a successful and useful part of the TECS environment.

You will see many new faces around the College this fall. Over the summer approximately twelve new faculty and staff arrived in the College. That is almost an 18% increase in our size. Student Credit Hours (SCH), the general coin of the realm in academic administration, are up 10% over the previous year. Our success in securing external funding in the form of grants and contracts is up over 200%. The number of refereed publications is up over 100%. All of this change and growth reflect the commitment and hard work of everyone in the College. These are important achievements. And more are to come.

There are so many good and great things going on in this College that I really cannot list them all. Many are just ideas that are starting to gain momentum. Some are fully underway and achieving successful results. Members of the College are engaged in efforts to help and improve the community. Student organizations are engaging in national competitions. Faculty members are pursuing interesting and important research. Students are getting a great education. I know about a lot of these things; you know some of these things. But, there are still many things we do that go unnoticed and uncelebrated. We, you and I, must make the effort to convey what is going on to everyone else. The Nexus is just one vehicle - participation in professional conferences, writing papers about what you do, organizing others with common pursuits, and just plain bragging about your achievements can go a long way in promoting our interests. I have been told that if you can do it, it's not bragging.

This is the year we let the world know we are here and have something to say. Let's begin by telling Jennifer and then by telling anyone who will listen. This isn't bragging; we are doing it.

The College of Technology and Computer Science showed its appreciation for its students with a pizza lunch on October 13. Over 300 students attended the event, which was held outside of the Science and Technology Building. In addition to tasty pizza, 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. The TECS Spring Fling is being planned for next semester. Future issues of
The Nexus will provide details on upcoming events.

Dr. Merwan Mehta, associate professor of technology systems, will lead the value stream mapping workshop for the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Lean Management Solutions Conference in December. Mehta looks forward to teaming with Patrick Lucansky of VIP Group, and Vern Spaulding and Tony Suda, both of ESE Inc., to conduct this year's clinic. For the workshop, they plan to employ value stream mapping, a visualization tool that uses lean principals to allow engineers to find and remove excess waste built into a system, which attack support and administrative processes, Mehta said.

"Many companies are already doing the manufacturing processes," he said. "The further challenge is to tackle support processes." The workshop will introduce the concept of process mapping for non-manufacturing processes, which is typically difficult to understand.

According to Mehta, participants in the workshop take part in actual processes at Florida Natural beverage plant and are expected to take what they've learned with them to apply value stream mapping to their own processes.

The 2005 Lean Management Solutions Conference will be held December 4-8 in Orlando, Florida.

Congratulations to Dr. Tarek Abdel-Salam, assistant professor of technology systems, who was granted a Frontiers in Education (FIE) 2005 New Faculty Fellowship. The purpose of the new faculty fellowship program is to promote the involvement of young faculty in the Frontiers in Education Conference so that they will be exposed to the "latest and greatest" in engineering educational practices. They will also have the opportunity to exchange information with leaders in educational innovations.

Each year FIE invites new engineering and computer science faculty to submit applications for possible selection as new faculty fellows. Fellows are chosen based on conference papers, nomination letters from department chairs, deans, or dissertation chairs, and curriculum vita. A rigorous peer-reviewed application process is used. The review panel of engineering and computer science faculty includes assistant, associate, and full professor levels. The fellowship provides a $1,000 grant for conference travel expenses.

Dr. David Batts, Department of Technology Systems assistant professor and coordinator of the technology systems transfer program, spoke at the 2005 International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning (ISETL) Conference held October 13, 2005, in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Dr. Batts's presentation was titled "Teaching Online: Use of the "Principles" in Online Classes."

The purpose of the ISETL is to encourage the study of instruction and principles of learning in order to implement practical, effective methods of teaching and learning, to promote the application, development and evaluation of such methods, and to foster the scholarship of teaching and learning among practicing post-secondary educators. Society members are drawn from numerous areas, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, nursing, business, and education. They all share a commitment to improving the quality of their teaching and the quality of students' learning.

Dr. Michael Behm, assistant professor of technology systems and graduate coordinator of the occupational safety program, was the invited keynote speaker to the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Professional Development Conference held May 5, 2005. His presentation, "Making the Business Case for Safety," focused on a method he developed to assist safety professionals in quantifying the costs and economic benefits of occupational safety investments.

The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) published "Process Value Mapping: Wring More Waste Out of Business Processes." The article, coauthored by Dr. Merwan Mehta, associate professor of technology systems, and Dr. Robert Sickler of the Missouri Enterprise Business Assistance Center, will be featured as a web exclusive.

The article discusses value stream mapping, which can be complemented immensely by process value mapping where material flow and information flow are intermingled, or where the product in the process is simply information.

Dr. Michael Behm, assistant professor of technology systems and graduate coordinator of the occupational safety program, spoke at the Capital Project Coordinators/Facilities Operations Conference held October 3-5, 2005, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Dr. Behm's presentation was titled "Designing for Safety in Construction."

The Capital Project Coordinators/Facilities Operations Conference was sponsored by the University of North Carolina Office of the President. Attendees included facilities vice-chancellors and others in similar positions and their staff from across the University of North Carolina system.

Students from the master's of science in occupational safety program presented two research posters at the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Professional Development Conference held in June in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Participating students included Celeste Caskey, Richard Hillman, Kim Rowe, John Russell and Fashikie Smith. The research titles were "The Importance of Sustainability Reporting to Occupational Safety and Health" and "The Effect of Internal Rewards on Safety Performance."

The conference featured 300 exhibitors and more than 200 educational Kimberly Rowe presents reasearch to ASSE

sessions focused on integrating safety at all levels, measuring the added value of safety and expanding professionalism and influence in the organization.

Formed in 1911, the Des Plaines, Illinois based ASSE is the largest and oldest professional safety organization in the world. It is committed to protecting people, property and the environment. ASSE has more than 30,000 occupational safety, health, and environmental professional members who manage, supervise, research, and consult on safety, health, transportation, and environmental issues in industries, government, labor and educational organizations.

Graduate student John Russell of Liberty Mutual Group and the master's of science in occupational safety program presented his study, "Global Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Approach to Crisis Management," to the 17th World Congress on Health and Safety at Work. The Congress was held in the U.S. for the first time in Orlando, Florida, on September 21, 2005.

According to Russell, many companies have written some sort of emergency plan, but few have taken the time to think through potential crises, their aftermaths, and how to prepare employees to both survive a crisis and to recover. In his study, Russell argues that every company should have a crisis plan to prevent or reduce the human and environmental impact of a disaster. This ensures that all employees know what to do before, during and after a crisis. It minimizes a significant interruption in normal business operations and allows companies to comply with local, state and federal business regulations requiring a written plan.

"Crisis management is vital to a company's success since it is essential that organizations protect their employees, operations, customers and reputation from emergencies and disasters," said Russell. "As we are seeing with Katrina, crises can significantly affect the stability of a company, its reputation and ability to survive a major catastrophe. I predict that those companies who had thoughtful plans in place will recover with less disruption than those that had not thought this potential storm through."

Russell urges companies to start their planning processes by selecting a team of diverse individuals who can help think through all potential risk scenarios. The key elements of the plan that the team will put in place include:

"An emergency plan is only as good as the information it is based upon and the ability of the company to implement it," said Russell. "A written plan that assumes certain response capabilities without practice or training may be ineffective. Additionally, the plan must be kept current so that it accurately addresses the company's needs."

The assessment phase of the plan should look ahead to anticipate problems. This includes reviewing hazards, vulnerabilities, resources, emergency management and preparation, evacuation plans, fire safety, facility security, workplace violence, potential natural disasters and terrorism threats. The remainder of the plan should cover response planning. This includes communication, program maintenance, emergency response and claims procedures.

The recovery portion of the plan should anticipate the establishment of emergency operations, loss mitigation, and continued operation of the business under challenging circumstances. Additionally, the crisis plan should anticipate the use and support of technology.

"As this report points out, workplace health and safety is about so much more than injuries and accidents," said Alan C. McMillan, President and CEO of the National Safety Council, a co-host of the World Congress. "But even in the case of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, prevention is one of the best means of protecting workers and businesses."

The 17th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, titled "Prevention in a Globalized World - Success Through Partnerships," is jointly organized by the National Safety Council and the United Nations' International Labor Organization and the International Social Security Association.

Graduate student Alison Berry participated in the ASSE Southeast Regional Conference held on September 20-23 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Her research was titled "Top Management Barriers to VPP Status in a Small Manufacturing Company."

Welcome
The College of Technology and Computer Science welcomes the following new faculty and staff. Look for more new faculty and staff introductions in future issues of The Nexus.

Dr. Rick Williams joins the college as an assistant professor of technology systems. He comes from Auburn University where he received his PhD in mechanical engineering and was appointed research professor. Dr. Williams also has an extensive background in industry. His research interests include boiling heat transfer, two-phase flow, granular processes, and rapid prototyping. Dr. Williams will be teaching classes within the new engineering curriculum.

Dr. Jianchu (Jason) Yao joins the Department of Technology Systems as an assistant professor. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University. Dr. Yao worked on real-time embedded controls for five years in the continuous manufacturing processes and robotics industry. His current research interests include bioinstrumentation, sensor networking, and wearable plug-and-play medical devices

Dr. Gene Dixon comes to ECU as an associate professor of technology systems. Dr. Dixon has retired from the Savannah River Site where he served in various capacities as a project engineer, manager and R&D engineer. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Dixon has provided consulting in the areas of goal setting, time management and sales management. His PhD is in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. His research interests include leadership, followers, teams, trust, organizational culture and other management.

Dr. Rita Reaves has rejoined the faculty of the college as visiting associate professor. Dr. Reaves taught technical communication courses in the college for twelve years, directed the university's writing across the curriculum program, and served as associate vice chancellor for academic programs at ECU for six years. She is currently working with engineering faculty on assessment and accreditation activities.

Dr. William E. (Ed) Howard is an assistant professor of technology systems. For the last nine years he was a faculty member at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Prior to that he worked for fourteen years in design and project engineering roles. Howard received his BS degree in Civil Engineering and MS in Engineering Mechanics, both from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His PhD in mechanical engineering is from Marquette University.

Jennifer Bowles joins the College of Computer Science and Technology as a communications resource. Her primary duty is production of
The Nexus, the TECS newsletter. She is earning her master's degree in English with a concentration in technical and professional communication.

Dr. Robert Chin, professor of technology systems, is currently deployed on active military duty. His latest update follows:

Hello all. I've been here now for almost three weeks and have shared bits and pieces with many of you at different points in time. Hopefully this will level the playing field and fill in the gaps.

I arrived here early in the morning of August 27 as part of a fully loaded
DC-10 - yes, lots of personnel. After in-processing, I spent an hour helping the other passengers unload checked baggage from what appeared to be 8'x8'x8' boxes that were brought in by forklifts and flatbed trucks. Then I spent another hour or so locating my three checked bags. According to the archives, the heat index at that time was about 114°F - relative humidity was 89% and the temperature 90°F. I was met by Col Richard Shelton, the person whose place I've taken. Together we dragged my bags through customs. After customs, he took me to my room, which was his - he'd moved into temporary quarters. I think it was about 4:30 by the time I'd taken a shower and finished unpacking what I felt I needed later that morning. I agreed to meet Rich for breakfast at 7:45 and have been working daily ever since. The days are long (not a complaint, just an observation) because we're conducting around the clock operations and the east coast is seven hours behind us. It'll become eight in October.

On any given day, my Air Force Reserve counterpart, Lt Col Carolyn Lohman, and I work "yesterday's" residual "issues" from the States and "today's" "local" issues in the morning. After lunch, we work "first-thing-in-the-morning" issues from the States, and afternoon local issues. After dinner, we're working afternoon issues from the States and early evening local issues. And because I have computer in my room, I'll normally respond to issues just before turning in, to the extent I can.

So where do I work and what am I doing? Well, I'm one of two ARC
(Air Reserve Component) advisors (Forward). The ARC Advisor (office) is a part of the CFACC's (Combined Forces Air Component Commander) Special Staff and acts as the 9 AF/CR and CG (reserve and guard advisors). In addition to acting as the 9 AF/CR and CG Forward, the ARC Advisor advocates for AFRC and ANG personnel deployed throughout the AOR
(Area of Responsibility) and advise active duty commanders and their staffs on ARC issues.

The Special Staff is housed in the CAOC (Combined Air Operations Center), which is the combined air and space component operations planning, execution, and assessment center for the CFACC. That is, the CAOC falls under the command authority of CENTAF.The CAOC is located in the Gulf region and was opened in February 2003. This particular combined air operations center is the primary theater command and control facility responsible for orchestrating the air campaign for the coalition effort in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, operations in the Horn of Africa (HOA) and in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. The CAOC effects a seamless transition of command to maintain the flow of air operations over Iraq as well as in Afghanistan and HOA.

The ARC Advisor exists because Guard and Reserve members, who deploy in support of operations, deploy under many different authorizations. These authorizations carry with them unique and distinct privileges and obligations. Some can be arcane and difficult to understand if one is not familiar with them. In turn, this can lead to frustrations when dealing with ones command structure at a forward location or back at home station. The leadership of CENTAF (Central Air Forces), AFRC, and the ANG recognized this need and tasked the CENTAF Forward staff with the creation of an ARC Advisor (formerly Liaison). The ARC Advisor was established shortly after AEF (Aerospace Expeditionary Force) Cycle 1 to provide in-theater support to senior leadership in resolving ARC unique issues. The ARC Advisor also exists to assist individual Guard or Reserve members in resolving unique ARC issues so that they can focus on the mission.

To mitigate potential problems, the ARC Advisor attempts to brief all in-coming ARC personnel on how they are deployed, what their benefits and entitlements are, how they are redeployed, and what their post-deployment benefits are. Providing timely and accurate responses to ARC member questions also helps to mitigate potential problems. All deployed ARC members have email capability and have ready access to the ARC Advisor by phone. Many of the questions and concerns are answered quickly once the facts have been compiled. Some issues require additional research on the part of the ARC advisors, and some issues require technical support from AFRC and the ANG/RC.

Because the CAOC is staffed by active duty, guard, and reserve forces members; U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and Coalition partners from Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Japan, and Qatar; and because the ARC Advisor can have a significant impact on ARC personnel performance, the assignment and work have been richly rewarding. In my next installment, I'll share a little about the living conditions and pictures of the campus.

Oh, I've been in touch with Bill Deleo and will make it a point to visit him at his location.

Nov.4 Submissions for November issue of The Nexus due.
Email your news to nexus@mail.ecu.edu.

Dec. 6 TECS Faculty and Staff Potluck, 5 p.m.-7 p.m., Science and Technology Building

Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, system manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing spreadsheets. Having reached the bottom line I took a CD from the drawer, I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store. Only this and nothing more.

Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more. But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token. "Save!" I said, "You cursed mother! Save my data from before!" One thing did the flat screen answer, only this and nothing more, just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

Was this some occult illusion, some maniacal intrusion? These were choices undesired, ones I'd never faced before. Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made impish noises. The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more. Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more, from "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

With fingers pale and trembling, slowly toward the keyboard bending, longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored, praying for some guarantee, timidly, I pressed a key. But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before. Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore, saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as hard. I pleaded with the cursed machine: I begged and cried and then I swore. Now in mighty desperation, trying random combinations, still there came the incantation, just as senseless as before. Cursor blinking, angrily winking, blinking nonsense as before. Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

There I sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted. Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor. And then I saw a dreadful sight: a lightning bolt cut through the night. A gasp of horror overtook me, shook me to my very core. The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore.

The Nexus needs you! Please submit news items (honors, awards, events, photos, etc.)
and humor for the college newsletter to Jennifer Bowles at nexus@mail.ecu.edu.