June 12, 2001

Multifaceted Research and Teaching Programs Wave of the Future at NC State

Major universities such as NC State are often on the cutting edge of innovation in research and education.  These days that frequently means teams of researchers and teachers from a variety of disciplines work together on a single project.  This multidisciplinary approach takes many forms at NC State; several programs in the College of Engineering exemplify the diversity of innovative approaches.

Special topics classes at NC State frequently feature interaction with industry.  Open to students at all academic levels, special topics classes explore the potential feasibility of innovative courses.  One example is a course offered jointly by the Colleges of Design and Engineering in which students interact with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California and CargoLifter, an company that manufactures dirigibles.  The course is taught by College of Design faculty members Bryan W. Laffitte, associate professor of industrial design, and James D. Tomlinson, research associate professor, as well as Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State.  The goal of the course is to design an airship that could be transported to Mars in a spacecraft and then inflated to travel over Mars to look for water and signs of life on the red planet.  According to DeJarnette, the instructors hope the course will introduce students to the team approach that characterizes real-world engineering and design processes.

When NC State engineering students reach their final year in school, they may participate in a senior project.  These projects frequently take students away from the sheltered world of NC State and into the world of industry.  For example, William F. Hunt III, extension specialist in urban stormwater in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and Dr. John R. Stone, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, are guiding senior students in civil engineering as they work on a project designing permeable, environmentally friendly parking lots.  According to Stone, "The most interesting things to do with the students are real, current issues in the community.  You're getting the students involved in a real-life project with consultants, professionals and community stakeholders.  This is a philosophy of ‘guided design,’ in which you take an actual project — sometimes one that's already been done so a solution exists — and guide the students by inserting the professional solution and community reaction periodically in the course to pull the students back on track if they're diverging."

Another approach to senior projects is exemplified by an internship program in the Industrial Extension Service in the College of Engineering in which seniors in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are placed with businesses in western North Carolina.  This year several students are working with a company in Asheville, MAG Holdings Inc., that manufactures lightning-retardant cables; these students are doing advance prototype testing at airports in Florida.  Another project involves testing precision lightning strike locator systems at airports.  In all there are eight projects guided by Byard Houck, project coordinator in Industrial Extension Services.  According to Houck, “Students like these projects because they’re not made-up projects but rather real-world inventions that are patented and in some stage of marketing.  Our students are testing these prototypes and getting respect and recognition for their work.  The project is working well for everybody.”

Students who continue their education in graduate school will find that the academic world, like the industrial world, involves collaboration and multidisciplinary activities.  Gone are the days of lone academics producing important research projects; these days most projects are like the research being jointly conducted at NC State, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the University of Toronto and the Department of Radiology at the University of North Carolina.  Dr. Kuruvilla Verghese, Dr. Mohamed A. Bourham and Dr. Joseph M. Doster, faculty members in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at NC State, along with Dr. Dale E. Sayers, professor of physics, are working to improve the quality of mammograms using a new imaging modality known as diffraction enhanced imaging or DEI.  According to Verghese, this long-term DEI research has four major components:  (1) designing and testing the x-ray source, (2) development of the x-ray optics, (3) designing methodology for recording the images and (4) developing patient interfaces.  Each of these components has been delegated to a different member organization of the team.  Team members from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at NC State, for example, are developing a new type of x-ray source for the project.  Scientists at ITT and BNL are responsible for x-ray optics, while Sayers from NC State is working with researcher Martin Yaffe from the University of Toronto on image recording.  Finally, medical researchers at UNC are in charge of designing patient interfaces and overseeing clinical trials.  This multifaceted research collaboration may sound too complex to be productive, but the opposite is true, according to the NC State researchers.  Each member provides precious expertise, and in the final analysis, all aspects of the research fall into place like the pieces of a puzzle.  Key ingredients, the researchers say, are coordination and team work.  The ultimate goal is to translate this research effort into an imaging system that can be used as a breast cancer screening tool in hospitals around the world.

From special topics classes, to senior projects, to essential medical research by senior scientists, multidisciplinary work is a way of life these days.  The innovative work of NC State students, educators and researchers provides a glimpse of the diversity present in contemporary cutting-edge research.

-- rudd --

Technical Contacts:  Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette, 919/515-5243, dejar@ncsu.edu, Dr. John R. Stone, 919/515-7732, stone@eos.ncsu.edu, Byard R. Houck Jr., 919/515-1869, byard_houck@ncsu.edu, Dr. Kuruvilla Verghese, 919/515-3929, verghese@ncsu.edu

Media Contact: Linda E. Rudd, 919/515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu