2000

December 6, 2000

Alcoa Foundation Gift Supports Engineering and Computer Science Summer Institute

Dean Nino A. Masnari receives a gift from Bruce A. Cox, Badin Works Manager of Alcoa Inc. From left to right: Tommy Gibson (ChE ?74); Bruce Cox; Nino A. Masnari, dean of engineering; and Sarah A. Rajala, professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate dean, Office of Academic Affairs.

The Alcoa Foundation has given a $30,000 grant to the College of Engineering at NC State University. The grant will support the Engineering and Computer Science Summer Institute, which is a new program to introduce middle school and underclass high school students to engineering and computer science.

Bruce A. Cox, Badin Works Manager of Alcoa, Inc. of Badin, presented the gift to the College November 10, 2000.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said, "This commitment by the Alcoa Foundation is an investment in tomorrow's computer science engineers. By supporting the Engineering and Computer Science Summer Institute, Alcoa is supporting the educational activities of some of the brightest and most energetic young people of the state of North Carolina."

Technical Contact: Dr. Sarah A. Rajala, sar@eos.ncsu.edu, (919) 515-3693

October 13, 2000

NC State Professors Singh and Hughes Receive NSF Grant

Dr. Munindar P. Singh, associate professor of computer science, and Dr. Brian L. Hughes, associate professor of computer and electrical engineering, have each received awards from the National Science Foundation for research projects at NC State University. Singh's project, funded at $476,574 by the NSF Information Technology Research program, concerns computational principles of trust, and Hughes' project, funded at $308,807, deals with differential modulation in space and time.

September 28, 2000

CP&L Grants $333,000 to College of Engineering

NC State University Chancellor Marye Anne Fox receives a grant from CP&L Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer William Cavanaugh III.

Carolina Power and Light Foundation, Inc. has recently awarded a grant to North Carolina State University. Of the $391,000 donated this year, $333,000 will go to the College of Engineering. A large proportion of the grant is designated for programs in the Department of Nuclear Engineering.

CP&L has shown strong support to NC State and Nuclear Engineering over the years. This year the grant will support three essential programs: the Young Scholars and high school outreach programs to attract the most promising students to the undergraduate program, the undergraduate and graduate recruitment and retention programs, and renovations to Burlington Nuclear Engineering Laboratories.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said, "We greatly appreciate the support CP&L has shown the College of Engineering. This support will greatly enhance current programs and new opportunities within the Department of Nuclear Engineering."

The donation will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation, Inc.

August 15, 2000

NC State Textile and Electrical Engineers Collaborate in Research Funded by DARPA

Combining textiles and electronics for applications in robotic systems is the thrust of a joint research project undertaken by the colleges of Textiles and Engineering at NC State University.

In an emerging research area called "computational fabrics," the project was recently awarded funding in the amount of $499,839 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Principal investigators of the collaborative research are Dr. Abdelfattah M. Seyam, professor of Textile and Apparel Technology Management, and Dr. Eddie Grant, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (CRIM) at NC State. On this project Grant will collaborate with his electrical and computer engineering colleagues, including Dr. John Muth, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

According to the researchers, fibrous textile structures are used in many engineering applications, such as cables, filter media, scientific and weather balloons, and reinforcement for composites.

Seyam points out that these textile structures have the ability to withstand high levels of stress and strain and offer many opportunities in the fields of electronics and power systems. A goal of the research is to incorporate electronic components in these structures to produce interconnected systems.

In particular, the researchers will be exploring new manmade fibers and new technologies to assemble flexible surfaces for planar-processed robots.

Seyam is an authority in the area of fiber and polymer science. Grant and Muth recently helped develop a robot designed to crawl through complicated courses of piping.

The long-range objective of the project is to demonstrate how design and assembly principles from electrical and computer engineering can be integrated with state-of-the-art textile manufacturing processes to produce "smart textiles".

August 15, 2000

Pratt Family Endows Scholarships in College of Engineering

Ryan C. Pratt presented a gift of $31,500 from the Pratt Family Foundation, Inc. to establish scholarships in the College of Engineering at NC State University. Pratt, a May 2000 electrical engineering graduate of NC State, is an RF Design Engineer with RF Micro Devices in Greensboro. The gift will fund scholarships for students pursuing an undergraduate degree in electrical and/or computer engineering, with first preference to students from Guilford county.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of the gift, "This commitment by the Pratt family is an investment in tomorrow's leaders. This scholarship will allow some of the brightest and most energetic young people to attend NC State and will strengthen the university's commitment to increasing scholarships that will attract top scholars to NC State."

The scholarship will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation.

July 31, 2000

Joint MCNC-NC State Research Project on Coalitions Awarded $1.5 Million by DARPA

Participants of a coalition - an alliance of people, factions, parties or nations who collaborate to achieve a significant task or mission - are usually from widespread geographic areas. The functions of a coalition in this computer-networking age are heavily dependent on basic information technologies. But how can a dynamic coalition, one whose members join or leave over the course of a mission, be provided with a more adequate and efficient pathway on the internet and how can the pathway be made secure?

These are the challenges facing a team of researchers with expertise in networking systems who are from North Carolina State University and MCNC.

Dr. Gregory Byrd, NC State assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Fengmin Gong of MCNC's Advanced Networking Research Group are principal investigators of the research project named "Yalta: A Collaborative Space for Secure Dynamic Coalitions." MCNC Director of Next-Generation Internet Research Daniel Stevenson is serving as consultant.

The MCNC-NC State joint project was recently awarded funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the amount of $1.5 million over the next three years. The agency is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense.

"We chose the name Yalta after the site where the famous World War II coalition was held attended by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin," explained Byrd recently.

Byrd, who joined the NC State faculty last year, has been involved in research related to high-performance parallel digital systems and high-performance network security.

The main focus of the Yalta project, he said, is to develop efficient technologies for the support of successful coalitions and, in particular, to provide critical infrastructure services for information security within dynamic coalitions.

The initial approach to the studies is to advance the state of the art for shared-space computing technologies. The primary aim is to create a secure, collaborative space for dynamic coalition functions from shared space technologies already developed in the computing research community.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to provide the means for supporting large coalitions, with up to hundreds of members, in a secure public internet environment.

July 7, 2000

Norwood Gift Establishes Chi Epsilon Endowment Fund in Civil Engineering

From left to right: Jim Nau, professor of civil engineering, Nino A. Masnari, dean of engineering, A.P. "Buck" Norwood (CE '49) and Kimberly Grau, president of the A.P. Norwood chapter of Chi Epsilon.

Alfred P. Norwood of Pittsboro has endowed a $25,000 gift to the College of Engineering at NC State University. The gift will support the activities of the Alfred P. Norwood chapter of the Chi Epsilon honor society in the Department of Civil Engineering. Norwood, who received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from NC State in 1949, is a retired registered Professional Engineer. After working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for 24 years, he most recently worked for the firm of Rose and Purcell, Inc.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of Norwood's gift,"This commitment by Alfred Norwood is an investment in tomorrow's civil engineers. By supporting the Chi Epsilon honor society, he is supporting the educational activities of some of the brightest and most energetic young people at NC State."

July 7, 2000

Robert M. Barefoot Scholarship Established in Chemical Engineering

Quint Barefoot of Greensboro has endowed a gift of $25,000 to NC State University's College of Engineering. Barefoot's gift will establish the Robert M. Barefoot Scholarship in honor of his father. The scholarship will be awarded to chemical engineering students on the basis of merit and need.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of Barefoot's gift, "This commitment by Quint Barefoot is an investment in tomorrow's leaders. This scholarship will allow some of the brightest and most energetic young people to attend NC State and will strengthen the university's commitment to increasing scholarships that will attract top scholars to NC State."

The scholarship will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation, Inc.

July 6, 2000

NC State Receives $500,000 Scholarship Donation from Nortel Networks

Click here to read about it --From NC State News Services

June 30, 2000

$500,000 Gift Endows NC State's Engineering Entrepreneurial Program

Donald (Donnie) J. Barnes, a l995 NC State alumnus in computer engineering who retired early this year from his first entrepreneurial venture as a 27-year-old millionaire, is sharing his success with NC State's College of Engineering.

With his wife, Ashley, a l995 NC State alumna with a degree in industrial engineering, Barnes has pledged a $500,000 gift for the endowment of the college's Engineering Entrepreneurial Program (EEP).

The endowment will be used for programmatic support of EEP. This program was initiated in 1993, under sponsorship of the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED), to teach engineering and computer science students skills in product development, organization, management, finance and marketing. These skills are aimed at helping students start or join small entrepreneurial high-technology companies.

As a student, Barnes participated in EEP for seven semesters. Soon after graduation, he became the fourth member of the high-tech group forming the Red Hat Software company.

Since his retirement, he has been developing a horse farm near Chapel Hill where the couple now live. His wife holds a position with Nortel Networks in the Research Triangle Park.

In presenting the gift to the college, Barnes noted that participation in EEP "was the key to getting me where I am today."

He said further, "To be able to foster a program that encourages technological innovation and growth is important to me, and Ashley and I are pleased to lend our support to the expansion of educational opportunities in entrepreneurship."

Dr. Thomas K. Miller, associate dean of engineering for Distance Education and Information Technologies and EEP director, expressed his appreciation for the support his former student is giving to the program.

"Technology is the driving force behind the new economy. Opportunities for engineering and computer science students to found or join high-tech start-ups have never been greater. Donnie's and Ashley's generous gift will help us build a world-class program in technology entrepreneurship," he said.

Dr. Miller added, "In addition to his monetary support, Donnie will contribute to the program as an advisor and a lecturer based on his entrepreneurial experiences."

"We are very grateful for this gift from these young, extraordinary engineering alumni," said Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean of NC State's College of Engineering. "This endowment will help us move forward in enhancing an entrepreneurial program that can provide the talented people needed for new high-tech endeavors that boost our economy."

The funds will be administered through the NC State Engineering Foundation. Ed L. Hand, associate director of the foundation, noted, "Donnie and Ashley are among the youngest alumni in the Triangle area to give such a major gift to their alma mater."

He said the gift "exemplifies their dedication to engineering education."

June 15, 2000

IBM Sponsors FIRST Project with $35K Gift

David Ferrell (center), IBM director for University Relations and Recruiting, presents a $35 thousand check to Dr. Nino A. Masnari (second from right), dean of NC State's College of Engineering, as a gift from IBM to the NC State Engineering Foundation in support of resources needed in designing and building robots for a national robotic competition sponsored by the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) project founded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. IBM, NC State's College of Engineering and Southeast Raleigh High School are partners in the project to raise awareness among high school students of the impact that science and mathematics have on technology. Others at the presentation are, from left to right, Nicole D. Wark, IBM University Staffing, John Modest, Southeast Raleigh High School principal and Dr. Sarah A. Rajala, NC State associate dean of engineering for academic affairs.

June 7, 2000

Rodgers' Gift Establishes Civil Engineering Scholarship

B.D. and Patricia Rodgers of Charlotte, have endowed $50,000 to NC State's College of Engineering. The gift will establish the B.D. and Patricia Rodgers Scholarship, a merit-based scholarship for civil engineering students. Mr. Rodgers, chairman of Rodgers Building Inc., is a 1949 graduate in civil engineering.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of Rodgers' gift, "This commitment is an investment in tomorrow's leaders. This scholarship will allow some of the brightest and most energetic young people to attend NC State and will strengthen the university's commitment to increasing scholarships that will attract top scholars to NC State."

The scholarship will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation, Inc.

May 22, 2000

William E. Clark Memorial Scholarship Established

Donald M. Scoggin of Rockwall, TX, has endowed a gift of $25,000 to NC State University's College of Engineering. Scoggin's gift will establish the William E. Clark Scholarship in memory of his stepfather. The scholarship will be awarded to electrical and computer engineering students from eastern North Carolina.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of Scoggin's gift, "This commitment by Scoggin is an investment in tomorrow's leaders. This scholarship will allow some of the brightest and most energetic young people to attend NC State and will strengthen the university's commitment to increasing scholarships that will attract top scholars to NC State."

The scholarship will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation, Inc.

May 15, 2000

Westinghouse Gives $10,000 to College of Engineering

Peter K. Harden (right), vice president of regional sales at Westinghouse, presents a check for $10,000 to Sarah A. Rajala (left), associate dean for academic affairs, and Mohamed Bourham, professor of nuclear engineering. The Westinghouse gift is designated for unrestricted use by the college.

May 5, 2000

Petty's Gift of $100,000 to Support Ben Franklin Scholars

Larry Kenneth Petty of Gastonia, NC, has endowed a $100,000 gift to NC State's College of Engineering. Petty, CEO of Petty Machine Co., Inc., is a 1954 graduate in mechanical engineering. Petty's gift will support the Ben Franklin Scholars program, which is a double degree program in engineering and the humanities and social sciences.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of Petty's gift, "This commitment by Petty is an investment in tomorrow's leaders. This scholarship will allow some of the brightest and most energetic young people to attend NC State and will strengthen the university's commitment to increasing scholarships that will attract top scholars to NC State."

The scholarship will be administered by the NC State Engineering Foundation, Inc.

May 5, 2000

Harrington Endows $50,000 to College of Engineering for Scholarship

Richard C. Harrington has endowed a $50,000 gift to fund scholarships in the College of Engineering at NC State University. Harrington, a 1977 mechanical engineering graduate of NC State, is general manager of American Residential Services in Winston Salem. Harrington's gift will fund scholarships for juniors and seniors in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning curriculum in the mechanical engineering department.

Dean Nino A. Masnari said of Harrington's gift, "This commitment by Harrington is an investment in tomorrow's leaders. This scholarship will allow some of the brightest and most energetic young people to attend NC State and will strengthen the university's commitment to increasing scholarships that will attract top scholars to NC State."

The scholarship will be administered by the North Carolina Engineering Foundation.

April 26, 2000

Engineering Firm Endows NCSU Scholarship in Honor of Retiring Founder, C. Edwin Vick

(Left to right) Bob Wright, Laura Anne Vick, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Ed Vick. Kimley-Horn President Bob Wright presents the endowment that Kimley-Horn named in Ed Vick's honor.

From Kimley-Horn and Associates., Inc.

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., a nationally ranked engineering and planning firm based in the Triangle, honored its retiring chairman C. Edwin "Ed" Vick, Jr. by presenting a scholarship endowment in his name to North Carolina State University last night.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox accepted the endowment, saying: "Ed has been the definition of what we are attempting to produce: a leader; a global person; someone who has put together the technological, the business, and the human as part of his business; a family man; someone who is building not only in engineering but in people."

The Kimley-Horn Civil Engineering Scholarship in Honor of Ed Vick was established in recognition of Vick's long involvement with the university. He served on the search committees that selected the current chancellor and the current dean of engineering. He is a board member of the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, and Science. As a Director of the Engineering Foundation, he helped obtain funding for the Engineering Graduate Research Center and chaired the Advocacy Committee. He was named the school's Distinguished Engineering Alumnus in 1991.

After the endowment was presented, Vick told the crowd of some 130 long-time associates and friends that "Kimley-Horn is my success. Some engineers are proud because they built the biggest bridge or the best traffic system ever developed. I look at my career and I'm proud I had a small part in creating Kimley-Horn. Bob, Bill, and I set out to create a firm that would last beyond our lifetimes and we did."

Vick founded Kimley-Horn in 1967 along with former NCSU faculty member J.W. Horn and fellow alumnus Robert J. Kimley. In 33 years, the firm has grown from 3 to more than 1,140 staff, with 45 offices nationwide providing engineering, planning, environmental, and landscape architecture services.

Kimley-Horn's ownership transition program, which uses incentive-based compensation to enable staff to purchase stock, was recognized in Engineering News-Record last year as the reason the firm has stayed intact throughout decades of corporate mergers in the industry.

Owned and operated by practicing professionals, the firm is ranked by Engineering News Record as 26th (by revenue) among pure design firms in the U.S. and among the top 20 in transportation, highways, airports, bridges, general building/retail; and water treatment and desalination.

February 9, 2000

Nortel Makes Annual Donation for Scholarships

Gayle Lanier, director of the Next Generation Networks program at Nortel Networks, presents a check for $62,500 to Dean of Engineering Nino Masnari. Nortel's gift is an annual contribution that supports 25 Nortel Scholars.

February 9, 2000

Lambs' Endow $25,000 for Scholarships

Charles D. Lamb and Patricia D. Lamb of Richmond, Virginia, have endowed $25,000 to the College of Engineering at NC State University. Charles Lamb, a 1976 NC State alumni in civil engineering, is an engineer with Delta Airport Consultants, Inc. Patricia Lamb is a 1977 NC State graduate in mechanical engineering. The Lamb's endowment will fund scholarships in the College of Engineering.

February 2, 2000

GTE Supports Engineering Programs at NC State

From left to right: Dr. Alan Tharp, Dr. John Gilligan, Steve Toler, Dr. Robert Kolbas

The GTE Foundation has awarded a $255,000 three-year grant to NC State University's College of Engineering to support scholarships, fellowships and classroom equipment in the departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The funds will provide annually ten undergraduate scholarships for $2,500 each - five in computer science and five in electrical and computer engineering - and six graduate fellowships for $5,000 each. The awards will be made to students on the basis of financial need.

The GTE grant will also provide $30,000 each year for the purchase of state-of-the-art computers and other technical equipment for a GTE-sponsored classroom planned for the Centennial Campus.

Kent B. Foster, recently retired president of GTE Corporation and a 1965 NC State alumnus in electrical engineering, played a key role in the awarding of this gift to the College of Engineering.

The first installment of $155,000 was presented by Steve Toler, GTE Region Director of Public Affairs, to Dr. John G. Gilligan, associate dean for research and graduate programs. In attendance were Dr. Alan L. Tharp, head of computer science, and Dr. Robert M. Kolbas, head of electrical and computer engineering.

Dean of Engineering Nino A. Masnari said, "We greatly appreciate the support that GTE has shown the College of Engineering. This support will greatly enhance our ability to create new opportunities for recruiting the best students to our programs."

The funds will be administered through the NC State Engineering Foundation.

January 19, 2000

Andersen Consulting Sponsors Events

Tim McMahon, associate partner of Andersen Consulting, presents a check for $10,000 to Dean of Engineering, Nino Masnari. The money will be used for special events within the College of Engineering such as the annual Scholarship Dinner in April.

January 19, 2000

Rouskas Receives Hewlett-Packard Grant

Dr. Rouskas

Dr. George Rouskas, associate professor in computer science, has been awarded a $159,190 Hewlett-Packard equipment grant. The equipment proposal involves the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and will be used to support the networking activities of the two departments and the Master of Science in Computer Networking. This unique Master's program will focus on computer networking, distributed systems, and electronic commerce. The equipment grant includes 50 HP Kayak workstations with 19" displays and 3 Laserjet printers. Four of the Kayak XU workstations will be used primarily for running computationally intensive tasks such as simulations and numerical computations. A fifth Kayak XU with a FRAID array will act as a centralized fileserver for student accounts in the networking lab. The equipment will be located in a new networking lab facility on the first floor of the Ventures II building on Centennial Campus. This grant represents a significant first step towards building a world-class laboratory encompassing and supporting a wide range of networking-related courses. This grant is the second major equipment grant from Hewlett-Packard in the past two years.

January 11, 2000

BASF Gift to Support Departments

Gary Gibson (left), manager of mechanical design at BASF, presents Dean of Engineering, Nino Masnari, a check for $10,000. The money will go to support the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering.

January 11, 2000

Kennetts' Endow $50,000 for Scholarships

J. Phillip and Gloria K. Kennett of Colfax, NC, have endowed $50,000 to the College of Engineering. J. Phillip Kennett, a 1962 industrial engineering graduate from NC State, is the president and owner of Wood Armfield Furniture. He is the director of the National Home Furnishings Association, Southern Home Furnishings Association, and the High Point Chamber of Commerce. He is past president of the NC Furniture Retailers Association. Gloria K. Kennett is the owner of Utility Craft, Inc. She serves on the Board of Trustees at John Wesley College and has been active with the Mobile Meals organization for 27 years. The Kennett's endowment will fund merit scholarships in the College of Engineering.

January 10, 2000

Cunninghams' Endow $25,000 to College

Tom and Mimi Cunningham of Wilmington, NC, have endowed $25,000 to the College of Engineering. Mr. Cunningham earned a BS in Materials Science and Engineering in 1971, and an MS in the same field in 1974, both from NC State. The endowment will provide unrestricted support to the dean of the College of Engineering.