Faculty Highlights
Read faculty highlights from the online edition of the Fall/Winter 2018 NC State Engineering magazine.
Ducoste receives Blessis Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award
Dr. Joel Ducoste, professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE), received the 2018 George H. Blessis Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award. He is a recognized expert in modeling water and wastewater treatment processes using Computational Fluid Dynamics.
The award recognizes faculty members who consistently and willingly give their time and effort to advising, counseling and mentoring students and assisting student groups. Ducoste has served as a faculty member at NC State for 20 years. He is known for not only being supportive, but also for being a mentor in and out of the classroom, and a highly knowledgeable instructor.
Chi, Haugh receive Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Awards
The 2018 Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Awards were presented to Dr. Min Chi, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, and Dr. Jason Haugh, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Chi was awarded the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award, which recognizes young faculty members who have accomplished outstanding research achievements during the preceding three years.
Chi’s research has helped pioneer the use of techniques from Reinforcement Learning to improving the decision making of Intelligent Tutoring systems. Her research addresses both how we should induce effective pedagogical strategies and how to empirically evaluate the resulting policies to improve educational outcomes.
Haugh received the Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award, made to a senior faculty member for research achievements over a period of at least five years.
During his time at NC State, Haugh has quickly risen to the rank of professor and is well known as a talented educator and leader. He has broken new ground by bringing quantitative fluorescence microscopy and computational image analysis as a central approach in his lab.
Carbonell receives highest UNC System honor
Dr. Ruben Carbonell, Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been honored with the O. Max Gardner Award, the most significant university wide honor given to faculty members by the University of North Carolina System, for his contributions in engineering, health care, education and public policy.
Carbonell and colleagues published two landmark papers reporting for the very first time the removal of the infectious prion protein responsible for the transmission of mad cow disease in humans from whole blood.
As director of NC State’s Kenan Institute, Carbonell established the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership, an innovative program to nurture teacher-leaders through a yearlong mentorship with university faculty and industry partners aimed at developing novel curriculum tools to bring groundbreaking research to K-12 students.
Additionally, Carbonell was a co-principal investigator in the proposal that led to the March 2017 launch of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL)
Three receive NSF CAREER awards
Three young faculty members in the College have been chosen to receive Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The NSF CAREER award is one of the most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. Each award provides more than $500,000 in funding over five years.
Dr. Kathryn Stolee, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, for her project, “On the Foundations of Semantic Code Search.”
Dr. Landon Grace, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, for his project, “Exploiting the Dynamic Dielectric Behavior of Water to Understand and Predict Polymer Composite Damage Progression.”
Dr. Fernando Garcia Menendez, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, for his research project “A Modeling and Educational Framework to Support Air Quality Management in a Smoky Atmosphere.”
Bryant, de los Reyes, and Dietrich receive Outstanding Teaching Award
Three faculty members in the College received Outstanding Teacher Awards for 2017-18: Dr. Matthew Bryant, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Dr. Francis de los Reyes, a professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE); and Dr. Casey Dietrich, an assistant professor in CCEE.
The award recognizes excellence in teaching at all levels and is a prerequisite for being considered for the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Alumni Distinguished Professor Award.
Bryant’s research seeks novel solutions and new devices that contribute to the advancement of emerging technologies in areas including ambient energy harvesting, fluid-structure interaction, and robot actuation and mobility.
De los Reyes’ research interests are in the areas of environmental engineering; water and wastewater treatment; environmental biotechnology; and water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Dietrich develops computational models for wind waves and coastal circulation and then applies these models to high-resolution simulations of ocean behavior.
Return to contents or download the Fall/Winter 2018 NC State Engineering magazine (PDF, 3MB).
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