News and Notes From the College of Engineering and Technology Winter 2024
Showcase highlights research collaboration
Researchers in the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) highlighted their work on military projects that can save lives and save money as part of the CET Research Showcase.
Dr. Harry Ploehn, dean of the college, told a room full of ECU faculty and students, military officials and legislative administrators that the event celebrated collaboration. He said when expert faculty from across campus team with the military and bring in students hungry for real-world experiences, problems get solved.
“If we do those three things well, then good things are going to happen, both for our partners who need solutions to their problems and for our faculty and for our students,” Ploehn said.
Since 2022, CET faculty members
have secured nine grants totaling $4.1 million from the Civil Military Innovation Institute (CMI2), a nonprofit designed to provide quick and effective solutions to support military personnel.
The projects discussed during the showcase highlighted collaboration among various departments within CET as well as faculty from outside of the college.
As an example, Dr. Ciprian Popoviciu, assistant professor in the Department of Technology Systems, is working with professors in physiology, chemistry and biology to assess the quality of whole blood that is airdropped to help service members wounded in battle.
“To have the opportunity to help in any small way the people who are in the battlefield, who are risking their lives, it is truly not only an honor, but
such an exciting thing, such a driver for us to do a great job,” Popoviciu said.
Dr. Carol Massarra, assistant professor in the Department of Construction Management, collaborated with computer science and technology systems faculty on a project to support building maintenance solutions.
“It’s important to give back to people, so this is one way to do that,” she said. “… We’re finding a solution to a problem that exists in the community, and I think that’s very rewarding for us to be able to help.”
Other projects highlighted included an effort to improve sustainability and ecosystems through managed plant systems at Fort Liberty and development of a database system to help with operations for the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
Dr. Carol Massarra, assistant professor in the Department of Construction Management, speaks during the CET Research Showcase. (Photo by Ken Buday)
Ceremony honors 77 CET scholarship recipients
After working an overnight shift at Bristol Myers Squibb, Essence Anderson doesn’t see the work end. The Clayton resident cares for her parents and siblings, and then hops online to take classes as part of East Carolina University’s Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology program.
“I want to be in upper management,” said Anderson, whose BSIT concentration is in bioprocess manufacturing with a minor in industrial management.
Anderson was one of 77 College of Engineering and Technology scholarship recipients recognized during the Robert and Betty Hill Recognition of Excellence Awards Ceremony.
“It is very important to have that financial support so I don’t feel pressured to slow down the educational pathway I set for myself while trying to balance home life and school,” she said.
Anderson received the Dr. Barry DuVall, Timothy M. Gomez and U.S. Coast Guard Master Chief Roger M. Gomez Teachers Choice Scholarship. She met Gomez for the first time during the ceremony.
“Mr. Gomez is really amazing,” Anderson said. “... He understands what I as a recipient need and go through on a day-to-day basis.”
Dr. Harry Ploehn, dean of the college, said $116,000 in scholarships were awarded during the ceremony, and he thanked donors for understanding the needs of so many students.
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“To engage in student organizations, to engage with on-campus activities, team competitions, prepare to get internships, figure out their path in life, they have to be able to have the time to do that,” Ploehn said. “Scholarships are vitally important to take the stress off and give them the freedom to explore and develop themselves. It’s so important.”
Nick and Megan Lasure attended the ceremony with their daughter, engineering major Molly Lasure.
“Her mother and I are both very
proud. She’s a very hard worker.” Nick Lasure said.
Molly Lasure, a junior from Greenville whose concentration is in biomedical engineering, received the Engineering Alumni Scholarship.
“I’m thankful for the scholarship,” she said. “It definitely eases some stress, and it’s definitely an honor to be selected.”
Dontrez Hobbs, a senior computer science major from La Grange, already has a full-time job offer to be a data analyst. He’s also part of the accelerated master’s program, so receiving the Shiv and Rajni Ajmera Computer Science Scholarship will go a long way.
“It’s pure gratefulness,” he said of receiving the scholarship. “I’m happy they chose me.”
Scholarship recipient Essence Anderson speaks to donor Timothy Gomez during the Robert and Betty Hill Recognition of Excellence Awards Ceremony. (Photo by Ken Buday)
Gao becomes new chair of construction management
Dr. Jerry Gao became the new chair of the Department of Construction Management this summer and wrapped up his first semester in December.
“I saw the match between my philosophy and experience, and the ECU and construction management missions, and I thought I’d love to be aboard and explore how to better serve students and produce a better workforce for the construction industry,” Gao said.
He came to ECU after 18 years as a faculty member at North Dakota State University, where he also served in departmental leadership roles. He also worked as a graduate program coordinator.
He worked as an assessment coordinator for the American Council for Construction Education. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering.
He said the support he received from his instructors when he was a student prompted him to seek a career as an educator.
“In every stage of my school time,
I had a moment with my teachers that triggered my motivation and energy to work hard and to be the right person doing the right things,” Gao said. “The influence from my teachers was priceless. I thought maybe I could do the same thing to influence more people, so I decided to teach.
“Particularly, I love to teach in higher education because this is a perfect place where I can use both my teaching philosophy and construction knowledge to help young people, while their energy can in turn help me stay hungry for more knowledge.
“I know I can build some amazing buildings or bridges with my own hands; however, I enjoy the feeling that I can help more people know how to build those. It’s just like the old saying — teaching people how to fish is far better than giving fish to people.”
Gao spent his first months learning administrative processes and meeting with students, faculty, program supporters and industry representatives. He said he appreciates the support and welcoming environment.
Dietrick receives lifetime award
Brian Dietrick, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Cincinnati School of Information Technology.
“I honestly feel that it’s probably one of the highest honors that I could ever receive, so I’m very, very proud,” he said.
He graduated from the school at the top of his class in 2001. He went on to work in various software development and leadership roles in global companies.
“I’ve worked in lots of different industries, and I’ve written software for all those different industries,” Dietrick said. “Some of my software is being used in probably every country in the world because I worked for large companies, and I would develop a piece of software and then they would literally deploy it in every factory they have around the world.”
He began teaching at ECU as an adjunct faculty member in 2023 before moving into a full-time teaching position in fall 2024.
“I made the decision that ECU is where I’m going to spend the rest of my career because I love teaching, I love learning and I love programming,” he said.
Dietrick not only wants to help students succeed, but also wants to see ECU’s Department of Computer Science grow.
“What I would love to see is have ECU be a sought-after software engineering and computer science department. That’s really my goal,” he said. “... I’m just excited to be here. I’m excited to produce the next generation of IT, computer science and software engineering talent.”
Dr. Jerry Gao is the new chair of the Department of Construction Management. (Photo by Ken Buday)
Brian Dietrick
are among the 44% of students in the College of Engineering and Technology who are on nontraditional paths to get their ECU degrees. Though they didn’t enter ECU right after high school, all believe they have made the right decision to attend college now and earn degrees that will help them in their careers.
Students break tradition in educational path
In the College of Engineering and Technology, 44% of students are considered nontraditional in that they didn’t come to ECU right after high school graduation. Some may have opted for military service, while others entered the workforce and now seek a degree to enhance their careers. Some may be looking to change careers.
What they have in common is belief that furthering their education is important for their careers and coming to ECU later in life was a good decision for them.
Ana Harmon
More than two decades had passed since Ana Harmon attended school — and that was in her native Mexico.
She works as an international logistics coordinator at Walex Products in Wilmington and decided ECU’s distribution and logistics program would help her career.
“I was particularly drawn to ECU because the distribution and logistics program aligned perfectly with my current role and career goals,” Harmon said. “The program’s flexibility — combined with the reasonable tuition costs — allowed me to pursue my degree while working full time. This balance between work and education was crucial for me, and ECU provided the ideal environment to achieve that.”
As a nontraditional and distance education student, Harmon said ECU has provided great support.
“My experience at ECU has been fantastic,” she said. “... Overall, the balance of academic rigor and personalized support has made my time at ECU both rewarding and fulfilling.”
Garret Freeman
Garret Freeman first came to ECU in 2012 but questioned his major. A decade later, he found his passion — this time for engineering — and is back at ECU to finish what he started.
He was working at a radio station when COVID-19 hit.
“I couldn’t financially support myself,” Freeman said. “When COVID happened, it was a bit of a shell shock to me, but it also opened up an opportunity to go back to school.”
The PIRATES engineering scholar is involved in two student organizations and relishes the relationships with professors and students, some of whom can be a dozen years younger.
“That’s always the funny part,” Freeman said. “When they find out, they’re always like, ‘Dude, you’re so much older than us.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I was here in 2012, probably when you all were in middle school or something.’”
Marvin Godoy-Diaz
Marvin Godoy-Diaz graduated high school in 2015, deciding to join the National Guard before going to college. He was set to come to ECU in 2022 when he was deployed, delaying his arrival another year. Now
he’s in the construction management program, where he hopes to follow in his father’s construction footsteps.
“I would like to be able to be hired by a residential construction company in North Carolina or possibly surrounding states and be able to learn and grow confidence in the industry to where I can eventually move on and start my own residential construction business,” he said. “I want to form it with my family and be able to provide and give back to my community as a construction industry professional.”
Weston Nelson
Weston Nelson graduated from ECU in 2015 with a degree in marketing and supply chain management. However, he said his job in the tourism industry left him wanting more, so he’s back at ECU, this time as a computer science major.
“It’s been really great coming back to it,” he said. “There are a lot of things to get used to, but overall it’s been a wonderful experience.”
He said he’s taking advantage of resources more than in his first stint at ECU, resources that he said make returning to school easier for adults.
“Don’t be afraid that you can’t go back to school. Don’t be afraid that it’s too late,” he said. “If you have the resources — which there are resources out there to help if you don’t — but if you have the resources and the ability to better your life, go do that. I don’t think it’s ever too late.”
From left, Ana Harmon, Weston Nelson, Marvin Godoy-Diaz and Garret Freeman
Symposium sparks ideas for STEM educators
Turns out, Kool-Aid® isn’t just something kids drink on a hot day. It can provide a path for youth STEM education.
Educators from across the state came to the College of Engineering and Technology to enhance their STEM teaching strategies during the first Engineering and Technology Symposium: Pathways to Enhance K-12 STEM Education.
In the Science and Technology Building, teachers separated grape Kool-Aid® into red and blue liquids through chromatography, smiling and laughing at their results.
“I really enjoyed this. I’ve never done anything like this before. It was cool,” said Lindsey Stalls, STEM coordinator at Eastern Elementary School in Greenville. “I like the visual of it. I think the students would love it. I think they would be really engaged.”
Chromatography is a process to separate components of a mixture. It is particularly important in the pharmaceutical industry, where exact measurements of substances are crucial to good health care.
“This is a concept I’ve taught many times, but I’ve never been able to give students a really good visual of it, so this was a new way of seeing something I’ve taught,” said Nicole Scuron, STEM coordinator at Lake Forest Elementary School in Greenville. “I think it would really engage students.”
The symposium featured workshops, keynote speakers, panel discussions, display tables and hands-on activities that allowed teachers to discover innovative methods to integrate real-world technology applications into their classrooms. Networking with fellow educators and ECU College of Engineering and Technology faculty provided more opportunities to enhance K-12
“It’s been incredible. From the keynote to the sessions, we’ve gained so many ideas to take back to our students.”
Nicole Scuron, STEM coordinator at Lake Forest Elementary School
student education in science, technology, engineering and math.
Shana Deans, a STEM instructor at H.J. MacDonald Middle School in New Bern, attended a session designed to teach students how to build houses out of cardboard. A leaf blower is used to subject the houses to a simulated hurricane, offering students instant feedback on their construction design and techniques.
“I have always wanted to do something with hurricanes in my class, but I just had not figured out
what,” Deans said.
High school teacher Carol Riddle attended a session that focused on robotics, hoping to learn a few things after she started a robotics team at Bethel Christian Academy in Kinston. Riddle said robotics offers far more lessons to students than just how to build cool robots.
“If something breaks, they don’t know how to fix it. They don’t know how to problem-solve,” she said. “Robotics can teach them how to problem-solve and also teach them leadership.”
Nicole Scuron, right, STEM coordinator at Lake Forest Elementary School in Greenville, conducts a chromatography experiment with Lindsey Stalls, STEM coordinator at Eastern Elementary School in Greenville, during the Engineering and Technology Symposium: Pathways to Enhance K-12 STEM Education in the Science and Technology Building. (Photo by Ken Buday)
New center helping to transform the region and support research
Dr. Ciprian Popoviciu, assistant professor in the Department of Technology Systems, manages the new Center for IoT (Internet of Things) Engineering and Innovation (CIEI) in the College of Engineering and Technology. The center develops and manages the Platform for IoT Open Networks (PITON) that allows users to easily deploy and manage sensors in support of research, education, civic projects and business.
As an example, the center is working with Classic Seafood Group, a fish farm in Ayden. The center is deploying sensors that measure water oxygen levels and temperature in the business’ catfish ponds. Lack of oxygen in the water could result in the deaths of fish.
“Having continuously monitoring data loggers will allow us to better see trends in the dissolved oxygen fluctuations from pond to pond,” said Noah Gwynn, the farm’s manager. “This information will be helpful to understand water quality changes and promote fish health. Also, being able to remotely monitor our ponds will reduce labor costs as we currently check them manually. Manually checking the ponds is time and labor intensive, so this was exciting knowing a more efficient way could be done.”
The farm will no longer need to be staffed 24 hours a day. Instead, the sensors provide real-time data that allows workers to respond when needed.
“This data will hopefully also provide peace of mind as management will be able to know the oxygen levels of
our ponds at any point in time while also not having to be at the farm,” Gwynn said.
Popoviciu recognizes that technology can be a barrier for some in eastern North Carrolina, but that’s where ECU comes in. “Our mission is to make things easy,” he said. “They do not need to know how to configure sensors or networks. We’re trying to make everything easy to deploy and easy to manage.”
He said PITON perfectly embodies ECU’s mission to help transform the region, providing the technology that can lead to success in a variety of projects across communities.
“ECU is an anchor institution for this community, for eastern North Carolina,” Popoviciu said. “If we provide the technology, we eliminate that perception that technology is complicated or expensive. If we eliminate that barrier, and we bring in the expertise that ECU has in water management, air quality, farming or whatever, that can really create amazing opportunities.”
Students provide storm relief to western North Carolina
Hurricane Helene devastated parts of western North Carolina in September, and students in the College of Engineering and Technology responded.
ECU industrial technology student Cameron Smitherman saw the full scope of Helene’s destruction as a member of the National Guard’s 13B field artillery unit. He was called up and flew in Chinook helicopters delivering relief supplies just days after the storm.
“We flew over Lake Lure, which was full of floating debris washed down from Chimney Rock, a town in which most standing structures
are now either gone or unlivable,” he said in October. “Several small towns are covered in a foot of mud left behind by the flash floods, and stagnant water is still evident in some places.”
“Often, we were the first contact these people have had since the storm,” Smitherman said.
However, Smitherman noted one thing about the people receiving assistance. “They often said they didn’t need it all and directed us to nearby communities who did,” he said.
Also, the Associated General Contractors student organization in the Department of Construction Management spearheaded a relief drive across campus, collecting non-perishable food, clothing, water and other necessities for storm victims.
Dr. Ciprian Popoviciu, assistant professor in the Department of Technology Systems, points out locations of data sensors in the Center for IoT Engineering and Innovation in the Science and Technology Building. (Photo by Steven Mantfilla)
Industrial technology student Cameron Smitherman was called up as a member of the National Guard to support Hurricane Helene victims in western North Carolina. (Contributed photo)
BITS AND BYTES
Ryan receives grant to extend acoustics research
Dr. Teresa Ryan, interim chair, professor and director of engineering research in the Department of Engineering, has received a three-year, $1.06 million grant from the Office of Naval Research to expand her research into acoustics.
Since 2015, Ryan has researched ways to improve outdoor sound propagation predictions, most notably along coastlines. This new
Dr. Teresa Ryan
grant — “Acoustic Characterization of the Sea-AirLand Boundary” — is a continuation of that work.
“It is taking an important next step in understanding how not only meteorological factors such as wind and temperature can affect
Agreement provides path for students at JSCC to obtain degrees in technology
Students in Duplin County now have an easier path to an ECU degree thanks to the signing of a bilateral agreement with James Sprunt Community College.
The agreement provides guaranteed admission into the Bachelor of Science in industrial technology program for JSCC students who graduate with at least a 2.0 GPA with an Associate in Applied Science degree in industrial systems technology.
“It’s essential to our mission that we actively collaborate with our community college partners because students and families need to know that there are multiple pathways toward careers in industrial technology,” said Dr. Harry Ploehn, dean of the college. “Being able to start that pathway at the local community college and then continue to ECU for a four-year degree is a very realistic, very cost-effective pathway. These kinds of bilateral agreements are important because they help make families and students aware of that pathway and the collaboration between the community college and the university.”
Computer science offers peer support
The Department of Computer Science began a new Peer Academic and Career Coaching (PACC) program the fall.
Upper classmen in computer science and software engineering serve as mentors to freshmen or new transfer students in those same degree programs.
Mentors provide information on everything from classes to internships and answer questions about available college and university resources.
The goal is to help new students become better acclimated to the degree program and campus life.
how much sound carries over long distances, but also shore characteristics whether urban, sandy, forested, etc.,” Ryan said.
“This work is a key piece of the scientific puzzle in understanding the wide variations in how loud a distant noise source can seem, especially in the near-shore environment, where the noise of the shore itself can have a masking effect.”
Robotics team finishes in second place
A team of technology systems, computer science and engineering students placed second in the Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) national robotics competition Oct. 28-31 in Las Vegas.
In the last five national competitions, ECU has placed no worse than third, including a first-place finish in 2019. The team also placed second in 2023.
Cyber club places in top 2% of the nation
ECU’s Cyber Competition Club finished in the top 2% of the country during the National Cyber League’s national cybersecurity competition. Nearly 5,000 teams competed, and with ECU’s club growing to more than 30 members in the past year, two Pirate teams took part in the event.
The 72-hour competition tested everything from network penetration and cryptography to web exploitation and reverse engineering.
ATMAE club students stand with their second-place robot. (Contributed photo)
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The Big Picture
Fall 2024 engineering graduate Miranda Dyer gets a congratulatory hug after commencement. She was one of the college’s 320 fall graduates. (Photo by Ken Buday)