December 18, 1998

Kimley-Horn Holds Annual Student Day for NC State Engineering Students

Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc., an engineering consulting firm in Cary, held its annual Consulting Experience Day for NC State Students in September. The event is open to junior and senior engineering students interested in civil and environmental engineering consulting. This year, 27 NC State students toured the firm's facilities and attended presentations and question-and-answer sessions conducted by Kimley-Horn engineers.

NC State students who would like more information about the 1999 Kimley-Horn Consulting Experience may call Nina MacDonald, human resources, Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc., (919) 677-2000.

December 17, 1998

ECE Seniors Display Work at Design Day

From pipe-crawling robots to light-seeking "bugbots," NC State University's Talley Student Center was humming with activity on Thursday, December 3. Students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's senior design class displayed their projects at the annual fall ECE Design Day.

Professors, industry representatives and parents viewed the students' engineering projects designed to address real-world engineering challenges from a variety of industry sponsors.

"The senior design class is the culmination of the students' undergraduate education," says Dr. William Allen, director of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Design Center.

Student projects addressed engineering problems in a variety of areas including computer architecture, network and World Wide Web applications, medical technology, robotics, cellular and wireless communications, digital cameras and aids for disabled children.

December 17, 1998

SiWEDS Center Holds Seminar, Marking First Year

The Silicon Wafer Engineering and Defect Science (SiWEDS) Center, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (NSF I/UCRC), held a seminar at NC State University November 13. The seminar, "Silicon Wafer Engineering and Defect Science: An Overview of a New NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center," marked the center's first year of operation.

Unofficially established in February 1996 to conduct research in and to educate students about silicon wafer technology, SiWEDS grew from meetings involving university researchers, major silicon wafer manufacturers and integrated circuit device processing experts. The center became a formal NSF I/UCRC in December 1997 with a five-year support grant from NSF. Dr. George A. Rozgonyi, professor of materials science and engineering, is the center director.

SiWEDS member universities include Arizona State University, University of Arizona-Tuscon, University of California-Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NC State University, University of South Florida and Stanford University. Industry sponsors include Komatsu Silicon, MEMC, Mitsubishi Silicon America, Nippon Steel Corp., SEH America, Sumitomo Sitix Silicon and Wacker Siltronic.

More information about SiWEDS is available on the Web at www.mse.ncsu.edu/siweds.

December 8, 1998

Baliga Receives Ebers Award

Dr. Baliga

Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center at North Carolina State University, has received the 1998 J.J. Ebers Award from the Electron Device Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Established in 1971, the Ebers award is the highest honor conferred by the IEEE Electron Device Society. Baliga was selected for his "fundamental and sustained contributions to power semiconductor devices." The award was presented December 7 at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting held in San Francisco, Calif. A society within the 320,000 member international IEEE, the Electron Devices Society has approximately 12,000 members in 94 chapters worldwide.

An internationally recognized authority in the area of power semiconductor devices, Baliga holds 98 patents and has authored more than 500 scientific publications and 10 books, including the basic text on power semiconductor devices used in most major universities in the U.S., Europe, India and Japan.

During his career, Baliga has pioneered the creation of new discrete devices based on combining MOS and bipolar physics with the invention of the IGBT, which is in production by more than a dozen companies worldwide for power control in electric vehicles, air conditioning and home appliances. He also originated the development of power devices from silicon carbide material.

Baliga's most recent development, the Trench MOS Barrier Schottky Rectifier (TMBS), is a semiconductor component that can significantly increase the efficiency of power supplies used in computers and extend the life of batteries in portable electronic devices.

A member of the NC State University College of Engineering faculty since 1988, Baliga has received numerous awards and honors during his career. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a recent recipient of the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest academic award presented by the 16-campus system of the University of North Carolina. In 1997, Scientific American listed him as one of eight heroes in the semiconductor research field.

Baliga lives in Raleigh with his wife, Pratima, and their two sons, Avinash and Vinay.

December 8, 1998

NC State Engineers Receive NSF/Lucent Technologies Fellowship

Dr. Barlaz

Dr. Ranjithan

North Carolina State University researchers, Dr. Morton A. Barlaz of Raleigh, associate professor of civil engineering, and Dr. S. Ranji Ranjithan of Cary, assistant professor of civil engineering, are co-recipients of a National Science Foundation/Lucent Technologies Industrial Ecology Research Fellowship.

The fellowships are awarded to researchers whose research or teaching focuses on helping industry design processes that prevent pollution and create environmentally friendly products. Awardees receive up to $50,000 per year for two years to support their research and teaching efforts.

Barlaz and Ranjithan's proposal, "Development of an Integrated Systems Model to Explore Environmentally Beneficial Alternatives for Product Manufacturing and Waste Management," was one of 11 proposals selected from a field of 50 submitted. The project will "develop an emissions inventory of a product over its complete life cycle, from the processes involved in product manufacture through the management of the product as a waste at the end of its useful life."

Barlaz, an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow from 1992 to 1997, received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1978 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He received his master's degree in 1985 and his doctoral degree in 1988, both in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Earlier this year, Ranjithan received an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. Ranjithan received his doctoral degree in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992. He earned his master's degree in industrial engineering and management in 1985 from the Asian Institute of Technology, and he received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 1981.

December 3, 1998

Leming Appointed to Represent Faculty

Dr. Mike Leming, assistant professor of civil engineering, has been appointed by the American Concrete Institute Board of Direction (ACI) as the ACI faculty representative for the university.

December 3, 1998

Strenkowski Receives Blackall Award

Dr. John S. Strenkowski, professor of mechanical engineering, has received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International's Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award for two papers published in ASME's Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. The award recognizes the best paper or papers relating to the design or application of machine tools, gages, or dimensional instruments. Strenkowski, who co-authored the two papers with Dr. Shounak M. Athavale, technical specialist at the Ford Research Laboratory of Ford Motor Company, was presented the award during the 1998 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Anaheim, Calif., Nov. 15-20. Strenkowski is the first NC State researcher to receive the Blackall award since it was established in 1954.

November 18, 1998

Rigsbee to Head Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Dr. Rigsbee

Dr. J. Michael Rigsbee, professor and chairman of the Department of Materials and Mechanical Engineering at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has been named head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University.

His appointment was announced by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean of the College of Engineering, following approval by the NC State University Board of Trustees. The appointment is effective November 16.

An NC State alumnus, Rigsbee succeeds Dr. John J. Hren, who has served as department head since September 1985. Hren will return to teaching and research in the department.

Rigsbee has more than 110 publications and holds two patents. His research interests include the "atomic-level" design of non-equilibrium alloys using physical vapor deposition techniques and the application of electron optics-based microstructural and microchemical characterization techniques.

As chairman of his department at UAB, Rigsbee managed the merger of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. During his tenure as chairman, the department's annual research budget doubled to more than $2 million.

Prior to joining the UAB faculty, Rigsbee was on the faculty at the University of Illinois for 14 years and served for one year as a program director in the Metallurgy and Ceramics Programs at the National Science Foundation. He also has experience in industry, having served as a senior research metallurgist with Republic Steel Corporation.

A Durham native, Rigsbee earned his bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering in 1969, his master's degree in materials engineering in 1971 and his doctoral degree in materials engineering in 1974, all from NC State University.

November 5, 1998

Manning Selected for AFIT Program

The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) held their semiannual selection board meeting October 30. Ten out of all Air Force active duty and ROTC cadet applicants were selected to participate in AFIT's graduate studies program. Melissa Manning, a senior in aerospace engineering and a member of AFROTC Detachment 595 at NC State University, was one of those selected to participate in the AFIT program.

To compete for selection, applicants must apply and be accepted to a graduate program, then apply for and be offered scholarship money to pay for tuition. Other considerations in the selection process were GPA, major course of study, and proposed thesis work.

Through the AFIT program, Melissa will be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and placed on active duty prior to starting graduate school in January. The Air Force will pay her active duty pay as she completes her master's degree work in aerospace engineering. Upon completion of the master's degree, Melissa will be assigned a career field and stationed at an Air Force base.

November 2, 1998

State Engineering Professor Receives R.J. Reynolds Award

Dr. Gardner

Dr. Robin P. Gardner of Raleigh, professor of nuclear and chemical engineering and director of the Center for Engineering Applications of Radioisotopes at North Carolina State University, received the 14th R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension in a ceremony held at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28, in 1202 Burlington Engineering Laboratories at NC State. The award presentation was followed by Gardner's lecture, "Radioisotope and Radiation Measurement Applications."

The award, established in 1981 by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. of Winston-Salem through the N.C. Engineering Foundation, honors an engineering faculty member who has demonstrated superiority in activities that relate to the university's three-fold mission of teaching, research and extension. The recipient is given a $25,000 prize distributed over five years.

An internationally recognized leader in radiation measurement applications and Monte Carlo simulation, Gardner has made numerous contributions to radiation detection methods and simulation techniques. His doctoral thesis research established a new treatment of the comminution process involving particle population balance methods that has subsequently been accepted as the standard in the minerals processing industry.

Recent developments based on his research are being applied to the in vivo X-ray measurement of lead in human bone and the in situ prompt gamma-ray measurement of coal. Other accomplishments include the establishment of the first industrial research center at NC State University, the Center for Engineering Applications of Radioisotopes (CEAR), and the initiation of the American Nuclear Society's Industrial Radiation and Radioisotope Measurement Applications (IRRMA) series of topical meetings.

A fellow of the American Nuclear Society, he has received numerous awards for his contributions and has served as regional editor for three scientific journals. He has directed the research of 31 doctoral and 32 master's degree students and has published more than 225 papers in scientific journals.

Gardner received his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from NC State University in 1956 and 1958, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. degree in fuel technology from The Pennsylvania State University in 1961.

November 2, 1998

Littlejohn Awarded Holladay Medal 11/2/98 - from NC State University News Services

October 22, 1998

Wahls Receives Award

Dr. Harvey E. Wahls, emeritus professor of civil engineering, has received the Outstanding Civil Engineer Award from the North Carolina Section of The American Society of Civil Engineers.

October 22, 1998

Chokani Elected Associate Fellow

Dr. Ndaona Chokani, associate professor of aerospace engineering, was elected Associate Fellow of the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

October 22, 1998

Stephenson Elected to Top Post

Mr. Thomas W. Stephenson, director of the Industrial Extension Service, has been elected president of the American Industrial Extension Alliance.

October 22, 1998

Narayan Honored as Senior Fellow

Dr. Jagdish "Jay" Narayan, Distinguished Research Professor of Materials Science, has been honored as a senior fellow of the Materials, Metals, and Minerals Society. It is the society's most prestigious honor.

October 10, 1998

Alumni, Friends Enjoy Tailgate

Stephen Roberts, head of industrial engineering, and granddaughter, Meghan Emily Picquet, IE Class of 2017, enjoy Tailgate.

More than 700 alumni, friends and staff enjoyed the annual Engineering Tailgate event at Carter-Finley Stadium October 10, prior to the NC State/Georgia Tech football game. Blue skies and warm temperatures were a nice bonus for a day that allowed friends to meet and remember old times at "State College" while enjoying barbecue and all the fixin's.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox brought greetings. Door prizes donated by the North Carolina Engineering Foundation, the NC State Bookstore and the Alumni Association were presented to alumni. The NC State Band stopped by and helped build up team spirit and enthusiasm for the game to follow. Current student projects and activities were also on display. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon's events. Our thanks to MCI/Worldcom, the exclusive sponsor of this event for the third year.

September 28, 1998

Honorary Doctorate Degree to Be Conferred on Elmaghraby

The University Claude Bernard Lyon I, in Lyon, France, will confer an honorary doctorate degree on Dr. Salah E. Elmaghraby on October 7. The formal ceremony will be held in the Astree Amphitheatre Culturel on the campus of UCBL and will be attended by dignitaries from the Ministry of Education in France, the University Rector and Deans, and other invitees from the academic and scientific world.

Dr. Elmaghraby is a university professor and is affiliated with Operations Research and Department of Industrial Engineering.

September 14, 1998

NC State Engineer Receives Presidential Award for Excellence

Dr. Winser Alexander of Raleigh, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State University, has been awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Administered by the National Science Foundation, the prestigious award honors outstanding mentors and role models in the sciences.

Alexander is one of 10 individual honorees who received the presidential award at the White House on Thursday, September 10, in Washington, DC. Eight institutional awards were also presented, making a total of 18 awards for this year.

President William J. Clinton greeted the awardees in the Oval Office prior to the awards ceremony. Clinton was the featured speaker for the event. As part of the award, honorees each receive a $10,000 grant to support mentoring activities at their institutions.

Before joining the faculty at NC State in 1982, Alexander served as chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. His areas of research specialty include digital signal processing, special purpose computer architecture and image processing.

In addition to teaching and conducting research at NC State University, Alexander spends two days each week serving as a visiting professor at NC A&T State University. He will split his time between the two universities during this academic year to help NC A&T develop stronger research and doctoral programs in electrical and computer engineering. He has been highly successful in influencing African-American students to continue their studies in graduate school.

"As a mentor, I teach by example and by finding ways to keep students motivated and focused," says Alexander. "I spend time with my students, one-on-one, each week, helping them understand what is expected of them in their graduate programs."

Alexander received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from NC A&T State University in 1964. He earned his master's degree in engineering in 1966 and his doctoral degree in electrical engineering in 1974 from the University of New Mexico.

The awards ceremony is held in conjunction with "Mentoring for the Development of a Scientific and Technological Workforce of the 21st Century--A Symposium" to be held September 10 and 11 in Washington, DC. Symposium attendees include invited leaders from national scientific associations and educational institutions, government officials and leaders from science and technology industries.

September 14, 1998

Hren Chairs 11th International Vacuum Microelectronics Conference

Dr. John Hren, professor of materials science and engineering, chaired the 11th International Vacuum Microelectronics Conference (IVMC) held in Asheville, NC, July 19 through 24.

Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the conference brought together 190 researchers from 17 countries. Demonstrations of device prototypes included camcorders with vacuum display chips and flat-screen displays as bright as conventional television screens.

Vacuum microelectronics are miniature versions of vacuum tubes. The technology can be applied to communications systems, creating high frequency currents using lighter weight materials, and to video-based technologies, creating brighter images on smaller displays for computers, televisions and even virtual reality goggles.

September 11, 1998

NC State Engineer Receives NSF CAREER Award

North Carolina State University researcher, Dr. S. Ranji Ranjithan of Cary, assistant professor of civil engineering, is the recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The award is the highest honor given by the NSF to young university faculty in science and engineering.

As part of the award, NSF will provide approximately $200,000 in funding and opportunities for additional matching funds over the next four years. Ranjithan will use the award to support his research project, "Development of a Computer-Based Methodology to Assist in Environmental Systems Analysis and Decision Making and Its Applications in Watershed Management." It is a study to enhance the analysis of complex environmental systems and develop a methodology for watershed management.

"Along with economic growth comes residential and commercial development," says Ranjithan. "Eventually, watersheds will be affected by the growth. I am interested in finding ways to minimize the problems associated with development within sensitive watersheds."

As part of his research, Ranjithan will build an interactive computer-based education tool to train students in systems analysis and watershed management using mathematical and computer modeling facilitated by graphical user interfaces to examine environmental consequences of different management choices.