A Message from the Dean

At this time of the year, with both the holiday season and the end of fall semester fast approaching, it seems like everyone and everything asks for more: more time, more money, more sympathy, more reports, more meetings, more resources, just more. The shortening of the day raises angst levels in untold ways, and patience and energy may begin to run low in everyone. Just remember though, we are all subject to the same circumstances.

There is much we confront daily, especially this time of year, which makes us question the worth of our work. The answer can be found in the faces of our students as they cross the stage on December sixteenth, in those quiet moments as we embrace our families, and in an unseen smile of gratitude resulting from a random act of kindness. So, lighten up. Take pleasure in the holidays as respite from routine and a chance to reacquaint with your families and friends. Enjoy the sense of completion that comes at end of a task. Think of the end of the year in terms of a job well done, a challenge met and mastered.  

This season, let us give thanks for all the good fortune we have received in the past year and forgive and forget all the tribulations and slights we have encountered. May the joy of the holidays renew our commitment to working toward our goals in the New Year. Please, celebrate and be safe.

Features

Caterpillar Donates to Construction Management

Caterpillar Inc. has made a $100,000 gift to benefit the construction management program at East Carolina University. The funds will be placed in an endowment that will help construction management program develop into a national leader to benefit the construction industry.

Scott Cooper, senior project engineer for Caterpillar Inc. and a 1990 graduate of ECU, made the check presentation at the ECU-Duke football game on September 3, 2005. Cooper said, "The ongoing partnership between Caterpillar and East Carolina, especially through an endowed fund, will add great value to the education of future construction professionals and help to positively transform the economy of our region."

Caterpillar Inc. has previously donated more than $250,000 worth of construction equipment for use by the construction management department and East Carolina University.

Li Presents at ICTSMA

Dr. Kai Li, assistant professor of technology systems, presented "Collaborative Detection of Spatially Correlated Signals in Sensor Networks" at the 2005 International Conference on Telecommunication Systems, Modeling and Analysis (ICTSMA) Conference held November 17-20, 2005, in Dallas, Texas.

Agarwala Presents at Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering (ANNIE) Conference Proceedings

Ranjeet Agarwala, technology systems faculty, presented "Diagnosing Periodontal Disease Based on Non-Intrusively Obtained Data Using Artificial Neural Networks" at the Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering (ANNIE) conference held in St. Louis, Missouri November 7-9. His paper concentrated on the application of biologically inspired systems to medicine. This conference was based on an engineering system design using neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary computation, data mining and artificial life. Papers included in the conference proceedings were published by ASME Press as a hardbound book. 

Lunsford Selected to Participate in NCEES Study

Dr. Philip Lunsford, assistant professor of technology systems, has been selected to participate in a study sponsored by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). The study, known as the Fundamentals of Engineering Standard-Setting Study, is part of a process followed to evaluate score requirements for the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering examination. NCEES selected a panel of nearly 100 engineers to participate. The panel is comprised of individuals from a diverse range of engineering disciplines, geographic locales, ages, genders, ethnicities and areas of practice.

IIE Features Mehta Article

The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) published "Design Competitively" written by Dr. Merwan Mehta, associate professor of technology systems.

The article discusses the benefits of designs that are created to ease manufacturing and assembly. It can be found at http://www.iienet.org/magazine/magazinefiles/IENOV2005%20mehta%20p26%2Epdf.

Duffrin presents Foodmaster Initiative

Dr. Chris Duffrin co-presented with Dr. Melani Duffrin "The Foodmaster Initiative: Building Tomorrow's Workforce," at the First International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality in Rose Hall, Jamaica on October 13, 2005. The Foodmaster Initiative is a project that uses food and food activities as a math and science teaching tool in children between the ages of seven and fifteen. Its focus is hands-on activities that explore foods in a scientific and creative manner to develop applied learning of basic math and science principles.

Students in the News

Rhodes Wins Honors Research Assistantship 

Daniel Rhodes was selected to receive an Honors Research Assistantship for the academic year 2005-2006.  The purpose of the assistantship is to gain valuable experience in research by working one-on-one with a professor as a mentor.  Rhodes will be awarded a stipend upon completion of his responsibilities and a favorable evaluation from his research professor at the end of the academic year.

Epsilon Pi Tau Presents Online Initiation

On November 8, 2005, East Carolina University's Beta Mu Chapter of Epsilon Pi Tau (EPT) presented the second online initiation for the international honorary. The online initiation was offered for distance education students, with a traditional on-campus initiation for local students. The entire initiation was captured by streaming video using a webcast from the global classroom. ECU's chapter serves as the only known honor society that performs an online initiation. 

As the International Honorary for Professions in Technology, EPT serves members who practice technology as executives in business and industry, technicians and engineers, teachers serving in elementary through high school, and students, instructors and professors in two and four year colleges and universities in more than eighty-four countries of the world. Membership in this fraternity is limited to a small percentage of people in the field. 

New initiates include Eddie Bibbs, John Bossick IV, Paul Bova, Sara Burton, William Carr, Megan Clontz, Jason Cook, Laura Czuba, Adrian Fisher, Gordon Giles, Kyle Glenn, Joseph Hogaboom, Nicolle Johnson, Michael Ladd, Michael Lassiter, Katharine Polvinale, David Quinn, Daniel Sass, Brian Sigurdson, Benjamin Simpson, Mark Smith and Nicholas Zulovich.  

The initiation team included Joel Battle, Lindsey Street, Ralph Holliday, JoyeLynn Burnett, Katy Griffin, Brian Fardo, T. C. Powers, Matthew Saunders, Ms. Amy Frank, Dr. James Dautremont, Dr. Craig Sanders and Dr. Paul Kauffman.  EPT extends a special thank you to Emily Jones, Rory Koster, Jason Gurd and Marla Avery, who provided us with the capability to produce this online initiation.   

An article concerning the process and success of the online initiation has been accepted by The Journal of Technology Studies for publication. The article was written by Dr. Craig Sanders and Katy Griffin and will be presented at the March 2006 ITEA conference in Baltimore.

Faculty & Staff Notes

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

Mark Angolia joins the college as faculty in the Department of Technology Systems. He comes to ECU with twenty years of manufacturing experience in engineering, quality, operations and materials management. Mark received his master's of engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and is teaching courses for both Industrial Distribution and Industrial Technology.

Ranjeet Agarwala joins ECU as faculty in the Department of Technology Systems. He joins us from Texas A&M University, Kingsville, where he taught for four years in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are in the area of controls, artificial life, evolutionary algorithms, design and manufacturing. He has a degree in mechanical engineering

Cynthia Wadford joined the College of Technology and Computer Science in May as the administrative secretary for the advising center. She comes to ECU after serving as head registrar at J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, NC for the past six years. Prior to that time her professional experiences include working at Wintergreen Primary as a teacher's assistant, Pitt Orthopedic Office, and Cal-Maine Foods as the safety coordinator and executive assistant to the national sales director. Cynthia has two wonderful children, Alex, who is an honor student at South Central High School and plays in the Christian band Worship 103 and Andrew, who is an athlete at A.G. Cox Middle School. Cynthia has been married twenty-one years to Alton Wadford who is the director of Weekend College at Pitt Community College.

Coming Events    

Dec. 6                       Engineering Robotics Competition, 6 p.m., Science and Technology Building

Dec. 16                    TECS Recognition Ceremony, 4 p.m.

Dec. 17                    Commencement

Jan. 6                       Classes begin

Technology & Computer Science Humor

To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Have a favorite technology or computer science joke?  (Let's keep it clean!)  

Send it to nexus@mail.ecu.edu for a future issue of The Nexus.

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.