From a new dean to a hundred years of engineering, 2023 was certainly a year to celebrate.
It’s almost time for the new year, but the achievements of the College of Engineering community will be remembered long after 2023 draws to a close. We’re taking a look back at some of the biggest highlights of the year:
100 years strong
The COE celebrated its 100th anniversary on May 28, 2023. After 100 years of engineering, the College has more than 11,000 students and is recognized as one of the preeminent public colleges of engineering in the U.S.
Happy 40th anniversary, MEP
The Minority Engineering Program (MEP) also celebrated an anniversary this year. Goals of the program include increasing the number of minority students who attend the COE, increasing retention rates of minority students at the college and increasing graduation rates. Celebrations were held November 10-12.
Another anniversary: The Pulstar Reactor
Of the four nuclear reactors built and operated on NC State’s campus, the PULSTAR Reactor is the only to withstand the test of time. It celebrated 50 years earlier this year.
Meet the embedded counselors
As a way to lower the barrier to entry for mental health services and decrease stigma around mental health, the COE hired Miranda Liu and Hannah Lavasque as the college’s first embedded counselors. They provide intentional support for the COE community on top of the services provided by the main counseling center. This is part of the College’s and University’s work to develop better support for students after several student deaths in the spring amidst a nationwide mental health crisis on college campuses.
Day of Giving
NC State’s annual Day of Giving event raised over $34 million for the University, which is 151% higher than our first year in 2019. There was also a 55.2% increase in gifts and a 22.4% in donors. The COE came in second place for donations raised after the College of Veterinary Medicine. In total, the COE raised over $22 million for the full year.
Faculty highlights
Jim Pfaendtner joined the COE community as the Louis Martin-Vega Dean of Engineering. Pfaendtner is the 10th permanent dean to lead the College of Engineering and comes from the University of Washington (UW), where he served as the Connie and Steve Rogel Endowed Professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Afsaneh Rabiei, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Zlatko Sitar, Kobe Steel Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, were among the 95 emerging academic inventors named senior members of the National Academy of Inventors.
Nathan Crook, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his proposal, “Enhancing Probiotic Yeast Colonization for Stable in Situ Biomanufacturing.”
Sindee Simon, department head of CBE and Distinguished Professor, was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Simon was elected for her contributions to materials physics and chemistry.
An NC State team was awarded a $2.1 million Department Of Energy grant for their research into nuclear energy. The team consists of Florian Laggner, assistant professor; Amanda Lietz, assistant professor; and Steven Shannon, professor. They plan to use the grant to hire undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers; purchase the necessary equipment to do their research; and more.
Four College of Engineering professors were among the most cited researchers in the world. The researchers included Aram Amassian, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Amay J. Bandodkar, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering; Michael D. Dickey, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; and Robert Heath, Lampe Distinguished Professor in ECE.
Student highlights
Meriem Laroussi, a 2023 master’s graduate in industrial engineering, and Amy Isvik, a Ph.D. student in computer science, won Fulbright scholarships this year to travel to Rwanda. Fulbright provides approximately 8,000 scholarships per year, with NC State students claiming 11 of them.
Senior Katie Traynelis received the Goldwater Scholarship for her undergraduate research on understanding the specificity of an epigenomic writer called p300. An estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors applied for the 2023 scholarships. Fifty-seven of the 413 scholarship recipients are majoring in engineering.
The current mission to transport a sample of the Bennu asteroid, named by electrical engineering sophomore Mike Puzio, has come to an end. Puzio said of the whole experience, “It’s only pushed me to see that there’s more than just the world, that space is so much more and that space is for everybody.”
Alumni highlights
Christina Koch is on her way to the stars. The physics and electrical engineering graduate will be the first woman to fly to and orbit the moon as one of four astronauts selected for NASA’s Artemis II mission.
Brandi Smith, mechanical engineering ’02, and Eric Snider, nuclear engineering ’86, oversaw the development of the next generation of nuclear ballistic missile submarines for the U.S. military. The submarines are designed to operate undetectably and are fueled by a nuclear reactor.
Meredith Biechele received The Society of Women Engineers’ Rising Technical Contributor Award during a ceremony in Los Angeles the final week of October. She was especially excited to win an award acknowledging the contributions of women in engineering, as engineering remains a predominantly male field.
Shelby Neal, engineer and CrossFit athlete, became one of the top-20 fittest women in the world. She finished 18th out of 40 women at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games, the highest level of CrossFit competition.
