innovation – NC State News https://news.ncsu.edu News from NC State University Wed, 22 Nov 2017 10:06:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.3 Function in Fine Form https://news.ncsu.edu/2017/03/hunt-library-spectrum/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2017/03/hunt-library-spectrum/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2017 20:31:59 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=434041 At first glance, the James B. Hunt Jr. Library has no shortage of style. Inventive integration of technologies, bold application of shapes and hues, and striking contemporary architecture capture visitors’ attention and provoke their curiosity. The building is compelling and disruptive by design.

But a closer look at the Hunt Library’s most eye-catching and celebrated features reveals meticulous planning and ongoing, forward-thinking development of the space. It’s obvious that innovation, collaboration and sustainability are the driving factors behind the research center that has become the new face of NC State.

Turning the Page

For proof that this is a new kind of library, most look no further than the bookBot. The Hunt Library’s state-of-the-art automated shelving system can store up to 2 million volumes, and robots retrieve any book requested through the virtual browsing program in just five minutes. Massive windows and a popular hands-on demonstration give visitors a glimpse of the action in Robot Alley.

“People like the bookBot because it’s neat, but it’s actually essential for the library,” says Chris Tonelli, director of communication strategy for the NCSU Libraries.

Rows of book bins within the bookBot at NC State's Hunt Library.
The bookBot’s 18,000 bins can store up to 2 million volumes in a climate-controlled environment.

The bookBot was the Hunt Library’s answer to students’ and faculty members’ most common request — more space. This high-density organization model sorts books by size, rather than subject. The method maximizes storage capacity and allows the library to concentrate its considerable collection into one-ninth the area required by traditional bookstacks.

By employing a cutting-edge robotic book delivery system, the Hunt Library has left ample room for students and faculty to immerse themselves in technology such as interactive computing, multimedia creation and large-scale visualization. And having so much of the building’s footprint dedicated for people, rather than stacks, has allowed the library to provide a wide variety of collaborative spaces. They include nearly a hundred group study rooms, a venue for practicing presentations and quiet reading lounges housing recent engineering, computer science and textiles journals, as well as books published by NC State faculty.

Sitting Pretty

Visitors enter the Hunt Library into an airy, three-story lobby. From every angle, bright colors, unusual forms and high-style elements compete to be observed and analyzed. Even with so much to to take in, one design choice always seems to stand out.

“The chairs are always a topic of conversation,” says Tonelli.

There are around 80 different types of seats throughout the Hunt Library, in about as many varieties as one could imagine. Near the turnstiles, there’s a winding wooden bench that the library’s youngest guests enjoy using as a tunnel. In the game room on the third floor, there are plastic stools resembling giant tops that tip and rotate as users shift their weight. Many of the building’s lounge chairs have accompanying footstools, because students are encouraged to get comfortable — even if that means putting their feet up.

An NC State student lounges in a Ball Chair at the Hunt Library.
The Hunt Library is home to scores of chair styles — so every visitor can find a seat that suits them.

“We hope everyone can find a nook or cranny in the library that fits their work style,” adds Tonelli. “This is such a diverse campus in terms of approaches, personalities and cultures — and we want everyone to feel like they have a place here.”

The chairs of the Hunt Library have received a great deal of acclaim. They’re mentioned in several of the awards the library has received. A group of industrious and enthusiastic graduate students created a detailed blog in their honor. And Gwen Emery, director of library environments for the NCSU Libraries, penned CHAIRHUNT, a user’s guide to the library’s chairs describing their beautiful sculpture, essential facts and historical significance.

It may seem impractical for the NCSU Libraries to have chosen iconic pieces like the Egg Chair, the Shell Chair and the Womb Chair by designers such as Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner and Eero Saarinen. But the selections are well-made, time-tested designs that reinforce the library’s inviting atmosphere — and which will require less maintenance and fewer replacements over the years.

Future Perfect

The Hunt Library’s irregular, angular silhouette — without a brick in sight — is unlike any other structure on campus. The building’s facade hints at the future direction of NC State. Yet the most modern aspects of the space are its environmentally sustainable and technologically flexible elements.

An exterior shot of the solar fins of NC State's Hunt Library.
Building features like the exterior solar blades help contribute to a 31% reduction in energy usage.

The library has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. Natural light floods in through special windows that reduce heat gain. External aluminum fins also help to control temperature and glare. Additional features include a chilled beam and radiant panel HVAC system, rooftop solar panels that help to supply hot water to the building and efficient plumbing fixtures to reduce water usage. About one-third of the materials used in construction were recycled.

Aside from the obvious eco-friendly decisions made, the Hunt Library was carefully designed to adapt to the rapid pace at which technology evolves. The ceilings and floors in the high-tech spaces are hollow, so components can be moved in and out as demands change.

“Technologies need refreshing,” says Tonelli. “That’s the fun part about collaborating with students and faculty. In addition to our expectations for how people will use the library, they invent new ones. Our users are a constant source of ideas and innovation.”

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Based on those conversations, virtual and augmented reality projects are up next for the Hunt Library. While there are already devices available for visitors to check out and use on their own, the library has plans to provide designated areas and workshops for those technologies.

“We can’t rest on our laurels,” says Tonelli. “Our users need for us to stay a step ahead.”

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ORIED Announces Inaugural GRIP Winners https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/12/oried-announces-inaugural-grip-winners/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/12/oried-announces-inaugural-grip-winners/#respond Wed, 14 Dec 2016 15:54:56 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=414891 Four NC State research teams have been selected as the inaugural winners of the Game-Changing Research Incentive Program (GRIP), a three-year, $2.3 million seed-funding initiative designed to stimulate interdisciplinary and collaborative research in the Triangle. The four awards, up to $575,000 each over the three-year period, are provided by the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development, RTI International and the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Sciences.

GRIP is intended to support visionary research ideas for vexing global challenges that will result in large-scale funding, award-winning research impacts and first-class interdisciplinary graduate education and training.

More than 300 NC State faculty were part of 59 teams that submitted proposals for this initiative, along with colleagues from RTI International, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. The awarded projects span the varied fields of 3D printing, genetic discovery and prediction, elementary and secondary science education and water sustainability.

Title: Water Sustainability through Nanotechnology: Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the Solid-Water Interface
Principal Investigators: Jacob Jones, David Berube, Douglas Call, Jan Genzer, Detlef Knappe, Yaroslava Yingling, Mohammed Zikry, Susan White (NC State); Young Chul Choi, Khara Grieger (RTI);  other participants from NC State, RTI, UNC and Duke.
Synopsis: An interdisciplinary team assembled by the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network, the Water Resources Research Institute of the UNC system and RTI propose a fundamental and comprehensive research development effort in nanotechnology-enabled systems for water sustainability.

Title: Computer Science for All K-12 Students
Principal Investigators: Glenn Kleiman, Eric Wiebe, James Lester, Tiffany Barnes (NC State); Kimberly O’Malley (RTI)
Synopsis: The proposed project will establish NC State as a national center addressing this critical need to provide pre-college students with foundational knowledge and skills in computational thinking. The partnership of NC State’s Friday Institute, College of Education, Center for Educational Informatics (CEI) and Department of Computer Science, along with the RTI Center for Evaluation and the Study of Educational Equity, is uniquely positioned to take a broad-based, systemic approach to addressing this challenge by fostering state-of-the-art educational innovations, conducting design research in partnership with K-12 schools, developing and implementing scalable and effective approaches to preparing teachers, and working with state government and business leaders to make NC a model in bringing computational thinking and digital-age workplace skills into K-12 education.


Title:
 3D Printing of Fibrous Tissue Engineered Medical Products: A New Paradigm for Tissue Biofabrication and Therapeutics
Principal Investigators: Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Frances S. Ligler, Benoit Maze, Matthew B. Fisher, Rohan A. Shirwaiker, Kyle G. Mathews (NC State); Shawn D. Hintgen, Jeffrey T. Spang, Bruce Cairnes (UNC-Chapel Hill).
Synopsis: 3D printing is driving major innovations in many areas, such as engineering, manufacturing and medicine. While currently used primarily to manufacture prototypes and small products, recent innovations have enabled 3D printing of biocompatible materials, cells, and supporting components on fibrous structures to form complex functional living tissues. However, there is need for mass customization. This proposal seeks to extend the recent innovations in 3D printing and bio-printing by developing a fiber-based printing system that underpins the essential need for mass customization technologies, and open up new interdisciplinary areas of research for healthcare, engineering and other applications.

Title: The NC State/RTI Program In Genetic Discovery and Prediction
Principal Investigators: Fred Wright, Alison Motsinger, Jung-Ying Tzeng, Zhao-Bang Zeng, Yi-Hui Zhou, Marie Davidian, Spencer Muse, Siddhartha Thakur (NC State); Carol Hamilton, Wayne Huggins, Rebecca Boyles, James Balhoff, Stephen Hwang and Michelle Krzyzanowski (RTI).
Synopsis: This proposal seeks to create a multi-faceted three-year program in genetic discovery and prediction, initially organized around a demonstration and feasibility pilot for a highly ambitious effort the team calls the “1000 GWAS Project.” The project will compile an unprecedented number of publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS, representing hundreds of thousands of patients). These studies have been used to identify genetic variants that predispose humans to disease and can be used to predict patient outcomes. The project will re-analyze the combined data using the latest methods for genetic analysis and quality control, combined with new linkages to standard measures for phenotypes, as well as data on clinical covariates and exposures. Finally, the project will feed back into public repositories, providing an open-source analysis pipeline and community resource for ongoing research. The unprecedented data compilation and comprehensive analysis will reveal subtle and more complex interactions between genes, environmental exposures and resulting disease and treatment outcomes.

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Castellano Named Goodnight Distinguished Chair https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/photochemist-castellano-named-goodnight-innovation-distinguished-chair/ https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/photochemist-castellano-named-goodnight-innovation-distinguished-chair/#respond Thu, 08 Dec 2016 15:47:00 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=413701 https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/photochemist-castellano-named-goodnight-innovation-distinguished-chair/feed/ 0 Celebrating Innovation, Entrepreneurship https://research.ncsu.edu/otcnv/2016/10/nc-state-celebrates-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/ https://research.ncsu.edu/otcnv/2016/10/nc-state-celebrates-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/#respond Wed, 12 Oct 2016 19:05:29 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=398931 https://research.ncsu.edu/otcnv/2016/10/nc-state-celebrates-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/feed/ 0 Successful Innovation: A Field Guide to the Psychology of Change https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/07/psychology-of-innovation-2016/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/07/psychology-of-innovation-2016/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:47:11 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=378311 The word “innovation” gets thrown around a lot, often in regard to the development of new products or services. But what predicts how people will respond to new things or ideas? And what can we do to encourage people to accept and adopt the new?

These are complex issues, and they have been the subject of extensive research over the last several decades. In fact, the vast literature of innovation research can be a little overwhelming.

That’s where NC State’s Stacy Wood comes in.

An expert in the field of consumer psychology, Wood leads the Consumer Innovation Consortium and serves as Langdon Distinguished Professor of Business Management in NC State’s Poole College of Management. As one of the top scholars studying consumers and innovation, she was invited by the Journal of Consumer Research to write an overview of the literature on consumers and innovation. “The Psychology of Innovation” is a concise and readable guide to the innovation literature that addresses a host of fundamental questions, including:

  • How fast will people adopt a new product or practice?
  • When are people more positive about innovative products or services?
  • Can we influence people to be more innovative?
  • How have the internet, social networks and technology influenced consumer behavior in regard to innovation?

The Psychology of Innovation” is published online by the Journal of Consumer Research – and, as part of a special initiative to share knowledge, is open access with free access to five cited papers. Check it out if you want to learn how to promote innovation and influence people to accept or adopt new things…from products to practices and beyond.

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Study Identifies Ways to Share Key Data Between Researchers, Business Practitioners https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/07/researchers-business-practitioners-2016/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/07/researchers-business-practitioners-2016/#respond Thu, 21 Jul 2016 13:56:34 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=378051 Academic researchers study many aspects of business, but business practitioners rarely make use of that research. A multi-university research team reports that researchers and practitioners share more interests than either group realizes and outlines ways that the two groups can collaborate more effectively to address shared challenges.

“There’s a big gap between science and practice, and our goal with this study was to look at both why that gap exists and how we can eliminate it,” says Jeff Pollack, co-author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of management, innovation and entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University.

Fundamentally, the researchers found that there are two key issues that contribute to the gap between researchers and practitioners – and those two issues are essentially two sides of the same coin. First, there is a perception that there is little overlap in the interests of researchers and practitioners, which acts as a disincentive for them to work together. Second, generally speaking, the two groups know very little about each other – meaning that neither group has a clear understanding of what the other group thinks is important.

To address these issues in detail, a team of researchers from NC State, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Iowa conducted surveys of 929 business practitioners and 828 active researchers in business disciplines. The researchers also conducted in-depth interviews with 16 academics in the business field and 22 practitioners, ranging from “C-suite” executives and managers to government officials and legal advisors. The surveys and interviews focused on the needs and goals of the study participants.

The interview and survey data were consistent with each other, and identified clear areas of overlap.

“There are many more areas of common interest than either researchers or practitioners were aware of,” says George Banks, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of management at UNC-Charlotte. Specifically, both groups expressed significant interest in eight particular business challenges:

  • Reducing or eliminating pay inequality;
  • Reducing or eliminating workplace discrimination;
  • Reducing or eliminating unethical business practices;
  • Expanding opportunities for continuing education;
  • Leveraging technological innovation to improve job availability and quality;
  • Improving employee morale;
  • Reducing the carbon footprint of businesses and products;
  • And enhancing the quality of customer service.

“To be clear, we didn’t give people a list of topics to choose from,” says Brad Kirkman, co-author of the paper, General (Ret.) H. Hugh Shelton Distinguished Professor of Leadership and head of the Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in NC State’s Poole College of Management.

“These shared interests are subjects that researchers and practitioners brought up independently again and again when asked what they felt were the biggest challenges facing their fields.”

“Interestingly, many of these challenges aren’t focused on gaining a competitive advantage, but rather on addressing fundamental business practices that apply to multiple stakeholders in the domain of management,” Pollack says.

The researchers also outlined four steps that could be taken by business schools to improve collaboration on these shared areas of interest.

First, the researchers urge the academic community to promote research findings. For example, faculty can work with university media offices to disseminate findings to reporters and the public.

Second, the researchers call for the creation of a new journal that is specifically focused on providing management professionals with practical advice they can actually use.

“We argue that peer-reviewed research can be both academically rigorous and relevant to practitioners – and we need a new journal that appreciates this,” Pollack says.

Third, the researchers call on members of the business research community to use social media and other online platforms to reach out directly to business professionals.

Finally, the researchers suggest that business schools change the way they evaluate their faculty.

“Currently, evaluations of professors look at research, teaching and service,” Kirkman says. “We propose that faculty also be evaluated based on ‘practical impact.’ That term may be defined differently in different places, but we think of it broadly as encompassing actions that researchers have made to reach business audiences – whether that is by publishing books for a popular audience or working with businesses to help them craft business plans.”

The researchers have already identified more than 160 businesses that are interested in working with the research community. “And that number is growing all the time,” Pollack says. More information about these potential business/research partners is available from the authors.

“We are in the early stages of using these findings to implement change,” Pollack says. “But we have every reason to believe that this change is inevitable, and that it will benefit both researchers and the business community.”

The paper, “Management’s Science-Practice Gap: A Grand Challenge for All Stakeholders,” is published online in the Academy of Management Journal. Co-authors include Jaime Bochantin of UNC-Charlotte, Christopher Whelpley of VCU, and Ernest O’Boyle of the University of Iowa. The work was done with support from the Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in NC State’s Poole College of Management.

-shipman-

Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.

“Management’s Science-Practice Gap: A Grand Challenge for All Stakeholders”

Authors: George Banks and Jaime Bochantin, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Jeffrey Pollack and Bradley Kirkman, North Carolina State University; Christopher Whelpley, Virginia Commonwealth University; and Ernest O’Boyle, University of Iowa

Published: July 19, Academy of Management Journal

DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0728

Abstract: Despite multiple high-profile calls—across decades and from multiple stakeholders—to address the widening gap between science and practice, the relevance of research conducted in the management domain remains in question. To once again highlight this issue and, more importantly, identify solutions, we explore the grand challenge of the science-practice gap by applying stakeholder theory. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted a series of interviews (n = 38) and a focus group with academics and practitioners (e.g., executives, entrepreneurs, government officials) in order to develop a set of theoretical models and propositions that extend stakeholder theory. We supplemented our inductive theory building approach with a survey of academics (n = 828) and practitioners (n = 939) and a qualitative content analysis to identify 22 grand challenges (i.e., eight shared, eight uniquely academic, and six uniquely practitioner). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and illustrate multiple directions for future research to build permanent bonds—not just temporary links—between science and practice.

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A Legacy of Entrepreneurship and Innovation https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/a-legacy-of-entrepreneurship-and-innovation/ https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/a-legacy-of-entrepreneurship-and-innovation/#respond Fri, 24 Jun 2016 20:22:30 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=371191 https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/a-legacy-of-entrepreneurship-and-innovation/feed/ 0 Smart Research Keeps Produce Fresh https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/05/smart-research-keeps-produce-fresh/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/05/smart-research-keeps-produce-fresh/#comments Tue, 10 May 2016 15:02:08 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=352581 An apple a day keeps the doctor away — and SmartFresh, an award-winning technology developed at NC State and used around the world, keeps those apples fresher for more days.

SmartFresh technology puts ripening on hold while produce is packed and shipped, extending its life on supermarket shelves by up to several extra weeks and reducing food waste. The product leaves no chemical residue, and apples treated with it remain flavorful, crisp and visually attractive while retaining their nutritional value. In addition to apples, it is used commercially on flowers, as well as some other fruits and vegetables.

This application of the compound behind SmartFresh was discovered in the 1990s by two NC State professors and researchers, the late Edward Sisler of the Department of Biochemistry and Sylvia Blankenship of the Department of Horticultural Science.

For years, the pair had been studying ethylene, a hormone that influences ripening and death of plants. In doing so, they found that 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), a hydrocarbon molecule, is similar enough to ethylene to allow it to interact with ethylene receptors and extend the freshness of the fruit, vegetable or plant to which it is applied.

Blankenship says the discovery was a result of many years of work and much trial and error.

“We realized in the course of our experiments that we had done something significant,” she says.

The technology was first licensed in the mid-1990s to a company that used it to preserve flowers before a new company, AgroFresh, was established in 1999 to develop 1-MCP as a commercial product for fruits and vegetables.

Over the last 15 years, the product has become more widely utilized throughout the world. SmartFresh is currently registered for commercial use in 40 countries worldwide, and 2015 sales were reported at $164 million.

It has also won prestigious international awards and has been called one of the most important produce industry innovations in years. In 2009, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization cited SmartFresh technology as the global standard for product quality and safety.

For her work on the research that led to SmartFresh, Blankenship won the NC State Office of Technology Transfer’s 2015 Innovator of the Year, an award giving annually to a faculty, staff or student inventor.

“SmartFresh is a technology that’s been widely adopted, (and) that’s a great measure of success,” says Kelly Sexton, director of NC State’s Office of Technology Transfer. It has also been a financial success, bringing in more than $25 million in licensing revenue to the university over its lifetime.

“The royalty revenue has been the highest that we’ve ever had,” Sexton says.

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Get a Sneak Peek of NC State Startups at Lulu eGames https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/04/egames-2016/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/04/egames-2016/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2016 17:07:02 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=348311 NC State student and faculty entrepreneurs will showcase their innovative products and new ventures Thursday, April 14, at the annual Lulu eGames startup competition. The event will be held in the Talley Student Union, with startups demonstrating their concepts at 5:30 p.m. Media coverage of the event is invited.

Examples of products and services developed by NC State entrepreneurs include a “smart” coffee roaster, an off leash dog park/restaurant concept and a smartphone application that enables users to access data in the absence of any 3G, 4G, LTE or Wi-Fi network.

Other innovative prototypes range from a wearable device designed to keep you safe in an emergency to Trakex, technology poised to revolutionize the trucking sector by measuring cargo more efficiently — saving millions of dollars and significantly reducing carbon emissions.

An awards ceremony to honor the winners will be held immediately following the demo, featuring pitch presentations and an audience Q&A with first place finalists in each competition category. The audience will be able to vote for their favorite to win the $1,000 Audience Choice Award.

The Lulu eGames will award more than $60,000 in prize money across five different categories, including the Daugherty Endowment Challenge for companies who have licensed NC State intellectual property and the B Corp Champions Challenge for students building new ventures that use business as a force for social and environmental change.

The annual competition is sponsored by Lulu.com and is made possible by a gift from its founder, Bob Young.

The Talley Student Union is located at 2610 Cates Avenue in Raleigh. Additional information about the event is available at ei.ncsu.edu/egames.

The NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative is a campus-wide program that supports student entrepreneurship and innovation. We empower students to create meaningful change by turning ideas into action. To learn more, visit ei.ncsu.edu.

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How a Team of Engineers Is Trying to Save Dairy Farmers Time (and Money) https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/04/rfid-dairy-2015/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/04/rfid-dairy-2015/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2015 14:08:31 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=245111 Tucked away in the corner of a laboratory in Raleigh, five electrical engineers are engaged in an unlikely pursuit – finding a way to make the U.S. dairy industry more profitable.

The team is poised to launch a proof-of-concept project that, they hope, will demonstrate how a wireless tracking system can improve the health and productivity of dairy cows.

“Our goal is to help farmers survive and ensure their operations are economically viable,” says Anthony Laws, an undergraduate at NC State who signed on to the project as part of his senior design class in electrical and computer engineering.

At the heart of the project are radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, which can be equipped with sensors that allow them to transmit information back to a reader. RFID systems use centralized readers to collect data from relatively small, lightweight tags equipped with radio antennas. In an RFID system, an electronic reader broadcasts a radio wave with a specific frequency. When an RFID tag receives the transmission it absorbs energy from that transmission, enabling it to respond to the reader by the way that it reflects the radio wave.

RFID tags are widely used in Europe to track cattle, but U.S. farmers have been reluctant to adopt the technology. The NC State team is introducing new technology that they hope will show U.S. farmers how much they have to gain by using RFID tags.

Here’s how the new system would work. Each dairy cow would have an RFID ear tag, and RFID readers would be placed at the dairy’s milking station and at a nearby weighing station. (Cows are weighed after being milked, allowing farmers to track weight fluctuations that may be indicative of health problems.) The readers would transmit data to a remote system that records when cows enter and leave the milking station, as well as how much each cow weighs. That data is then transferred to a computer where farmers can access it.

The concept was developed by William Carr, a retired professor from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and founder of a company called RFID Sensor Systems. But Carr came to NC State for assistance in turning his concept into reality.

To that end, Carr brought in four NC State seniors: Laws, Youn Chu, Bryan Campbell, and Andre Ramos.

Chu and Campbell took Carr’s concept and developed the components necessary to put it into action, modifying off-the-shelf technology to meet the needs of the project. Ramos established a wireless network to retrieve data from the RFID readers. And Laws and Ramos developed software to store and display that data so that it was accessible to farmers.

The students see multiple benefits from the system for farmers.

“The system gives farmers easy access to information that allows them to monitor the health of their cows and ensure that the cows are being milked on schedule,” Laws says.

“It also saves time, since farmers don’t have to make the time to record all of this data themselves,” Chu adds.

“And it also makes the data more reliable, since the information is recorded automatically – eliminating the possibility of introducing human error,” says Ramos.

The system also notifies farmers if a cow is staying too long in the milking station, if the cow is exhibiting significant changes in when it comes to the milking station (which can be a sign of health problems), or if its weight changes significantly (another possible sign of health problems). In addition, the system can notify farmers if a cow that requires medication enters the milking station, so that the farmer remembers to give the cow the necessary treatment.

The researchers plan to conduct a pilot demonstration April 25 at the Howling Cow Dairy Research and Teaching Farm, near NC State’s Raleigh campus.  The engineers are working with Dan Poole, a researcher in NC State’s Department of Animal Science, as they prepare for the system demonstration.

“Ultimately, this system could be expanded to record and track a variety of other data, such as how much milk each cow is producing,” Laws says.

“And all of this data could be accessible via a variety of technologies, such as smartphone apps,” Campbell adds.

Carr agrees. “This is a step toward the farm of the future, incorporating agriculture into the ‘internet of things,’ and monitoring everything from feed to milk production to the condition of cattle in the field.”

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A Safer Way to Deal With Raw Sewage in the Developing World https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/04/rogers-excrevator-2015/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/04/rogers-excrevator-2015/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:01:13 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=240581 In 2011, an engineering student came up with an idea to help people in the developing world deal with raw sewage. His goal was to use technology to help save lives by limiting people’s exposure to the pathogens in human waste. Four years and several countries later, he’s still working on it – and the technology is beginning to come into focus.

Here’s the basic problem: in many parts of the developing world, people don’t use toilets. Instead, they use pit latrines, which quickly fill up with raw sewage and have to be emptied by hand. Emptying those pit latrines means coming into contact with human waste – and whoever has to empty those pits runs the risk of contracting a disease.

Rogers, (in rear, holding the equipment) field-tested the Excrevator with collaborators in Malawi. Photo courtesy of Tate Rogers.
Rogers, (in rear, holding the equipment) field-tested the Excrevator with collaborators in Malawi. Photo courtesy of Tate Rogers.

NC State engineering professor Bob Borden presented an undergraduate class with this problem in 2011, and a student named Tate Rogers had a possible solution. Rogers proposed the development of a hand-held tool that used a gasoline-powered auger (like a giant corkscrew) to pump the waste out of the pits into portable containers. The twisting of the auger would act like an Archimedes’ screw to move the waste.

A lot has happened since Rogers brought his idea to Borden. The two of them brought together a larger team of researchers, including Francis de los Reyes (who has given a TED Talk on sanitation as a human right) and Tarek Aziz, to work on the project. In 2012, they received a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation to work on the prototype and test it in South Africa. In 2013 they got a second grant from the Gates Foundation to work on the technology that they now called the “Excrevator.”

That second grant allowed Rogers to do additional field testing in India, South Africa and Malawi. And he learned a lot.

“The Excrevator works well with waste,” Rogers says. “But there is an issue when it comes to dealing with garbage.”

The problem is that human waste isn’t the only thing that ends up in pit latrines. As Rogers puts it, “If you can imagine it being in a pit latrine, we’ve found it.”

Pit latrines can be filled with solid trash (like this one in South Africa), which can clog the Excrevator. Photo courtesy of Tate Rogers.
Pit latrines can be filled with solid trash (like this one in South Africa), which can clog the Excrevator. Photo courtesy of Tate Rogers.

Stones and solid objects don’t pose much of a problem. But plastic bags and clothing can get pulled into the auger, clogging it completely. To address this problem, Rogers and the rest of the Excrevator team have had to develop a variety of solutions.

“One way to deal with the debris is to fish it out, so we’ve developed tools to make that safer and easier,” Rogers says. For example, they developed a strong, retractable claw at the end of a pole that can be used to snag and pull out Excrevator-clogging fabric or plastic.

They’re also developing a powered “macerator” that can grind or chop up any debris, so that it can pass through the auger. Tracey Sisco, a civil engineering master’s student at NC State, has been completing laboratory testing on different mechanisms for handling trash.

“Every pit latrine is different, so we are developing a suite of tools that can be used to deal with whatever obstacles you run into at any given pit,” Rogers says. “And all of the tools – the Excrevator, the macerator, and a related vacuum system – can be run by one power source, called a Powercube.”

Rogers is now a research associate at NC State, and works part-time on waste management research at RTI International, but he’s still working on the Excrevator – and he has high hopes that it can make a meaningful difference in the near future.

The Excrevator team is now applying for a new grant, which would allow them to continue testing and fine-tuning the technology.

“Based on our fieldwork, we have a really good understanding of the challenges surrounding waste handling in the developing world,” Rogers says. “And we’re optimistic that we’ll have reached a point in the next couple of years where we can move from prototype development to begin scaling up manufacturing for widespread use.”

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CNN Money Lauds NC State Innovators https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/02/cnn-money-lauds-nc-state-innovators/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/02/cnn-money-lauds-nc-state-innovators/#respond Wed, 18 Feb 2015 18:17:52 +0000 https://news.ncsu.edu/?p=224891 Kudos to CNN Money for highlighting “5 startups that are reimagining the world.” And kudos to NC State for driving the innovation behind three of the five.

Matt Tomasulo, who earned a master’s of landscape architecture in 2012, is working to get people walking in cities from Santa Fe, N.M., to Atlantic Beach, N.C. His startup, Walk [Your City], has sold more than 5,000 customized signs that say things like, “It’s a 12-minute walk to downtown” or, “It’s a 5-minute walk to the library.”

While working as a teaching fellow in architecture at NC State, Ginger Dosier discovered a type of bacteria that turns into cement when mixed with sand, nutrients and calcium. Her startup, BioMASON, is marketing an environmentally friendly alternative to kiln-fired bricks.

A group of NC State alumni, including Ryan Chan and Scott Bolin, founded Tethis, a startup that has licensed an NC State technology that could make industrial wastewater reusable.

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NC State’s Centennial Campus Named Top Economic Engine https://news.ncsu.edu/2014/11/aplu-iep-award/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2014/11/aplu-iep-award/#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:19:48 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=194391 What do you give the research campus that has everything? In the case of Centennial Campus, nothing fits better than an award honoring the campus as one of the nation’s most innovative and productive economic engines.

That’s exactly what North America’s oldest higher education association delivered to NC State on Tuesday, just a month shy of Centennial’s 30th birthday.

APLU, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, announced the four winners of its second-annual Innovation and Economic Prosperity University Awards, including – in addition to NC State – Georgia Tech, the University of Massachusetts Boston and the University of Houston.

A Self-Sustained City

NC State was singled out for the “Place” award, given in recognition of “its reinvention of the very notion of what a research park should be.” Judges lauded the university for “creating a self-sustained city” on Centennial Campus, where residential and retail establishments are located near NC State research labs and industry facilities to spur collaboration.

Students talk in between classes in the College of Textiles on Centennial Campus.
Students talk in between classes in the College of Textiles on Centennial Campus.

The award also praised the ultramodern Hunt Library – the centerpiece of Centennial Campus – calling it “a smart library for the 21st century.” The Hunt Library is home to the Institute for Emerging Issues, a center founded on the belief that citizens should be engaged in wrestling with issues affecting the social and economic prosperity of the state.

UMass received the “Talent” award for building an integrated biomedical research and training facility, Georgia Tech won the “Innovation” award for its transformation of empty city lots and abandoned warehouses into an innovation neighborhood, and the University of Houston took the “Connections” award for building an Energy Research Park.

NC State’s research chief, Terri Lomax, said the “Place” award makes perfect sense for a campus where collaboration between students, faculty and industry partners often spills out of labs into restaurants, coffee shops and greenways across the 1,200-acre park.

“There’s no place like Centennial Campus,” she said. “This is the place to live, learn, work and play – all in one location.”

The Hunt Library anchors the academic oval on Centennial Campus.
The Hunt Library anchors the academic oval on Centennial Campus.

It’s also known for a novel partnership model that makes it easy – and economically viable – for businesses to work with faculty on groundbreaking research.

Centennial Campus houses several offices focused on helping entrepreneurs and faculty commercialize discoveries, including the Office of Technology Transfer and the Technology Incubator.

“NC State’s Centennial Campus proves that when people collaborate across disciplines in an environment that rewards innovation, amazing things happen,” Chancellor Randy Woodson said. “It’s no wonder that NC State has been tasked with leading some of the federal government’s most important collaborative research efforts.”

Among the federally sponsored research projects currently under way at NC State is a $140 million advanced manufacturing institute, a $60 million big data laboratory and a $25 million effort to combat the spread of nuclear weapons.

Three Decades of Innovation

Centennial Campus is one of the nation’s oldest and most successful university research campuses, housing more than 60 corporate and nonprofit partners and more than 70 NC State research and academic units, as well as a magnet middle school, residential housing and 18-hole championship golf course. The campus is home to the College of Textiles, the College of Engineering, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Graduate School.

The initial gift of state land for Centennial Campus was announced by then-Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. in a public ceremony on Dec. 19, 1984. Centennial’s first corporate tenant, energy giant ABB, moved on campus in 1991.

Driving Economic Prosperity

APLU designated 14 universities, including NC State, as IEP Universities in 2014 because of their commitment to and success in driving economic engagement. IEP is shorthand for innovation and economic prosperity. From this elite group, four were selected to receive the awards announced Tuesday. To participate in the awards program, these select universities conducted an institutional self-study and solicited input from their external stakeholders. Each university identified three areas of institutional strength in economic engagement, and described programs in these areas. As part of the self-study, the universities also identified areas for growth and improvement.

There were eight finalists for this year’s awards, the four winning institutions plus Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, the University of Illinois and Virginia Tech.

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Think and Do https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/09/think-and-do-2/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/09/think-and-do-2/#respond Tue, 10 Sep 2013 14:32:54 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=19641 To solve the great challenges facing our world, you need more than good ideas. You need practical solutions.

At NC State, that reality guides everything we do. We bring the best minds together, encourage them to think boldly and put their ideas to work in the real world. That’s thinking and doing.

See the promise of our approach for solving some of the world’s most pressing problems: the threat of a changing climate to stable food sources, the challenges inherent in delivering products around the world and the need for more sustainable energy.

NC State. Think and do.

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A Culture of Innovation https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/06/a-culture-of-innovation/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/06/a-culture-of-innovation/#respond Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:32:55 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=14241 NC State’s culture of innovation gives rise to unparalleled achievements and groundbreaking initiatives across the university.

Learn more about how the innovators and innovations of tomorrow are being shaped today at NC State.

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The Innovation University https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/04/the-innovation-university/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/04/the-innovation-university/#respond Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:42:05 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=9731 Economic growth and strength depend on the ability to innovate. For 125 years, North Carolina State University has been at the forefront of innovation — in our educational methods, in industry partnerships that drive discoveries to the marketplace, in research that improves lives.

Learn more about how the innovators and innovations of tomorrow are being shaped today at NC State.

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The Big Picture: Helping Companies Make Products We Actually Want https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/02/wms-innovation-model/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/02/wms-innovation-model/#respond Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:00:37 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=2103

Researchers have developed a model that will, hopefully, help companies develop innovative products that people actually want to use. The model is a first step towards capturing the behavior of both companies and consumers, so that we end up with more iPods and fewer Edsels.

This concept may sound obvious, but companies have difficulty grasping it. Companies constantly try to develop new products and services that capture market share. We knew that. Consumers constantly try to evaluate recent innovations to determine whether they’re useful, and how much they’d be willing to pay for them (if at all). We knew that, too. But, to this point, business researchers have attempted to understand these two processes separately: product innovation on one hand, and customer evaluation on the other.

Now a team of researchers from NC State, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and University of Wyoming has developed an integrated model that tries to capture both sides of the equation.

Their conceptual model illustrates the interaction of innovation and customer response, which will hopefully help companies adapt their innovation processes to make them more efficient, forward-looking and successful.

But not so fast – there are at least as many questions as answers.

The model is published online and in the March issue of the Journal of Product Innovation Management as part of a paper that lays out the researchers’ ideas for integrating customer and product innovation dynamics. The researchers spend much of the paper identifying issues that need to be explored in order to flesh out their model and give companies a better idea of what exactly is going on.

One of the most interesting issues identified in the paper is what researcher and paper co-author Jon Bohlmann calls a customer-of-customer or “downstream customer” perspective. It has a place in the conceptual model, but there’s not a lot of data or “best practice” findings that can be plugged in to that variable.

The term downstream customer is like a food chain of customers. It basically means all of your customers’ customers, and their customers, and so on. So, if you manufacture computer chips, your customers are probably electronics manufacturers. Their customers (who are YOUR downstream customers), might include other manufacturers, retailers, etc. Those companies, in turn, will sell the finished product to consumers. And those consumers are your downstream customers too.

But there are some big questions here: How can a company research the perspective of the entire continuum of downstream customers? And, more importantly, how could they use that information to out-innovate their competitors?

Here’s the thing: no one really knows. It hasn’t been studied in any sort of systematic way. But it could be a valuable source of information for companies that are making strategic decisions about where to focus their innovation efforts. That’s what makes a downstream customer perspective valuable – you can use it to do something. After all, it makes sense that understanding where your downstream customers are coming from would help you predict trends – and position yourself to take advantage of those trends. But now we need to figure out if that’s true, and how to best utilize downstream customer information. For example, research is needed to see if companies that actually pursue a downstream customer understanding can actually boost their bottom line.

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When running is easier than walking https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/01/running-walking/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/01/running-walking/#respond Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:29:57 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=6580 It is sometimes easier to run than to walk.

That sounds like a sphinxian riddle, but it’s actually a truth of human motion. As the human body reaches a certain speed, it becomes easier to run than to keep walking.

Researchers in NC State’s Human PoWeR (Physiology of Wearable Robotics) Lab believe they’ve discovered the reason for that apparent paradox. As a walker approaches a 4.5-mile-per-hour pace, running makes better use of an important calf muscle, making a jog more energy-efficient.

“The muscle can’t catch up to the speed of the gait as you walk faster and faster,” said Dr. Gregory Sawicki, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. “But when you shift the gait and transition from a walk to a run, that same muscle becomes almost static and doesn’t seem to change its behavior very much as you run faster and faster, although we didn’t test the muscle at sprinting rates.”

Read more about Sawicki and his team’s research.

Smart bandages. Color-fast outdoor fabrics. Soft memory. See some of our faculty’s innovative research at work.


Discoveries by NC State researchers have transformed paleontology, technology, energy and more.


2011 was a big year for NC State research, with new insights into disease prevention, astronomy, parenting and a host of other topics.


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Register for Free Simulcast of Shelton Forum https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/11/register-for-free-simulcast-of-shelton-forum/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/11/register-for-free-simulcast-of-shelton-forum/#respond Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:10:49 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=12635 Faculty and staff can watch the Shelton Leadership Forum—featuring Tom Brokaw, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst and Gallezes Inc. founder Verne Harnish—at a free simulcast Friday in the Talley Student Center. Register online for specific sessions or the entire forum.

The theme of the forum is promoting innovation and entrepreneurship through values-based leadership.

  • Whitehurst will speak about leadership in the information age from 8:45 to 10 a.m.
  • Harnish will speak from 10:15 to 11 a.m.
  • Brokaw will talk about the greatest generation from 11 a.m. to noon.
  • A 2 to 3 p.m. session on living the entrepreneurial dream will include Harnish and other local entrepreneurs who will share their success stories.

The forum is offered through the Gen. H. Hugh Shelton Leadership Center administered by the provost’s office.

A complete listing of sessions and speakers is available online.

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Breaking Down Innovation https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/07/breaking-down-innovation/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/07/breaking-down-innovation/#respond Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:18:13 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=4885 Innovation in any field entails some risk. But for large-scale construction projects, mistakes can put lives in danger. That why people from all over the world bring their innovative construction designs and materials to NC State’s Constructed Facilities Laboratory (CFL) – to test their ideas before using them in construction projects. And to test construction materials and designs, you need to break things. In a big way.

For the past 10 years, the CFL has been one of the busiest research facilities in the United States to focus on structural engineering and innovative construction materials and systems. The lab is currently engaged in over 20 funded research projects, and their work has been financed by agencies ranging from the National Science Foundation to the North Carolina Department of Transportation – as well as a host of private companies and foreign countries from Korea to France.

“The key is innovation,” says Dr. Sami Rizkalla, director of the CFL. “New materials and techniques can make projects safer and more cost-effective. But before we use them, we need to know they are safe.”

The CFL designs experiments that test materials at full scale. For example, instead of testing a small sample, they have the tools and expertise to test a 42-foot reinforced concrete wall panel – subjecting it to extreme conditions to see how much abuse it can take before it breaks. Once they know the limits of new designs and materials, engineers can use them with confidence.

The CFL gives students an opportunity to get hands-on research experience.

And the CFL is equipped to test just about anything. CFL experts can simulate earthquakes, expose a structure to extreme temperatures, and see just how much weight a structure can take. “We can easily apply two million pounds of force,” says Greg Lucier, the CFL’s lab manager.

More importantly, CFL’s faculty and staff know how to use its tools to simulate real world conditions. For example, they can simultaneously expose a bridge piling to extreme heat or cold, the pushing and pulling of wind, salt water, and an extreme load of weight. That’s important, because it tells bridge builders exactly how the structure would behave in extreme real-world conditions.

The CFL team has worked on innovative structural designs and materials used across the country: from the reinforcements used in the foundations of the Freedom Tower in New York, to the massive wooden “glulam” beams in the new terminal at RDU airport. CFL has even worked with electric utilities to develop means of reinforcing existing nuclear power facilities.

For budding structural engineers, NC State may be the place to go. While the CFL work is primarily done by graduate students and faculty, there are definitely opportunities for interested undergraduates. It’s a great way to break into the field.

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Smart grid central https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/06/smart-grid-central/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/06/smart-grid-central/#comments Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:23:49 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=4586 Call it the “smart grid.” Call it the “Energy Internet.” Whatever it’s called, NC State engineers are revolutionizing the way we use energy.

Researchers at NC State’s FREEDM Systems Center are developing what can be called the “smarts” of the smart electrical grid — devices and networks that will one day seamlessly connect rooftop solar panels with batteries that store energy in the basements below. At the same time, electric cars will charge in millions of garages, and consumers will sell extra electricity they generate back to the power company.

Click to Enlarge
Investigate what the house of the future will be like.

Solar Panels – Solar panels and other renewable energy generators provide supplemental energy for the house. Excess energy is strored in the on-site battery.

Wireless communication – Consumers make changes to their home energy system on the Internet. A consumer who leaves for work but forgets to turn off the air-conditioning, for example, could do so from a smartphone or workplace computer.

Smart appliances – Redesigned appliances communicate with the grid and adjust usage according to overall energy demand.

Plug-in hybrid electric car – Cars charge up at home. They can also store energy and send it back to the house or the grid.

Energy router – An energy router box outside the house monitors energy use and communicates with other homes and utilities. It changes high voltages to lower voltages, limits short circuits and provides unprecedented power quality. It also manages the smart appliances, solar panels and on-site battery.

NC State’s groundbreaking smart grid work helped prompt the White House to choose the university to be the host for a roundtable discussion on the smart grid and energy with members of President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The session will be led by Jeffrey Immelt, chair of the council and chairman and CEO of GE. Executives from Southwest Airlines, Comcast Corp., NextEra Energy and many of the region’s leading smart grid companies are also scheduled to attend.

Session participants, including local energy experts and business leaders, will discuss ways to create jobs in the energy and smart grid industries through partnerships with academia and state and federal government agencies. The information gathered during the meeting will be shared with President Obama during the council’s Monday afternoon session in Durham.

The council meeting is another high-profile success for NC State’s smart grid research efforts. In April, a new type of transformer under development at the FREEDM Systems Center was named to MIT Technology Review’s 2011 list of the world’s 10 most important emerging technologies.

The devices, called smart solid-state transformers, represent a big step forward toward developing the smart energy grid of the future. Today’s grid, which has changed little since the days of Thomas Edison, only lets power flow in one direction — from the power company to the consumer. But as the cost of renewable energy technologies comes down and plug-in electric vehicles become more widespread, the grid will need an upgrade to handle the flood of devices that will not only consume energy, but push it back onto the grid.

The FREEDM Center’s smart transformers are built to manage power more effectively than today’s transformers. They will precisely control voltage, frequency and other electrical properties as they communicate with the rest of the grid. The devices will also help utilities incorporate lots of renewable energy into the grid with fewer blackouts or power surges.

Stephen Cass, special projects editor for the Technology Review, called the devices “a major advance for smart grids, allowing the flow of electricity to be controlled and rerouted in a manner similar to how data is routed around the Internet.”

FREEDM, which stands for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management, was formed in 2008 by a five-year, $18.5 million Engineering Research Center grant from the National Science Foundation.
The center benefits from its location in the Triangle, one of the nation’s top smart grid hubs. A recent Duke University study counted nearly 60 smart grid companies in the region. They include the power systems giant ABB, which is developing a Smart Grid Center of Excellence just down the road from FREEDM on NC State’s Centennial Campus.

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Poole Dives Into Exec Education https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/04/poole-dives-into-exec-education/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/04/poole-dives-into-exec-education/#respond Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:59:19 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=7804 The Poole College of Management is making waves with its new approach to executive education, following a model more typically seen at university teaching hospitals than business schools. At a meeting with business leaders last week, faculty members spelled out the benefits of the new approach, which helps companies – especially in the technology sector – manage innovation.

Dan McGurrin, director of the new Business Collaboratories, said the university’s “amazing array of resources and activities” is at the heart of the program.

Learn More About Business Collaboratories

Business clients will be able to draw on experts and research in the college’s many Centers of Excellence, including the Center for Innovation Management Studies, the BioSciences Management Initiative and the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization program. Researchers and graduate students from other disciplines across campus, as well as industry partners, can be brought in to work with clients as needed.

Each customized program will feature six components:

  1. A focus on solving a current challenge or problem with a planned effect on identified business outcomes.
  2. A sense of accomplishment and ownership that is shared across organizational silos.
  3. Research-based, industry proven and tested processes and delivery models managed by team leaders with extensive industry experience.
  4. Access to a vast network of global partners, industry experts and academic leaders who actively participate in the development and delivery of solutions.
  5. Proven and applied assessments and tools that identify actionable areas of improvement.
  6. Serious customization that fosters collaboration, real-time problem solving and fine tuning of content.

The Business Collaboratories website was launched last week, providing details about the program.

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Off the Hook: Top Professors (3.1.11) https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/03/off-the-hook-top-professors-3-1-11/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/03/off-the-hook-top-professors-3-1-11/#respond Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:37:41 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=3907 Today is the First Annual Distinguished Professor Lecture Series event.

NC State students nominated more than 250 professors who have impacted their lives, before a Student Government committee narrowed down the nominations to a “Top 3” list and asked those professors to give 40-minute speeches on a topic of their choice.

The chosen professors are:

Again, the professors can speak about absolutely anything they’d like. It’s a great opportunity for students who would not normally have the opportunity to take their classes to hear directly from them for 40 minutes. We are expecting 600+ people, and are inviting all students, faculty members, and administrators to attend.

This is a significant honor for our professors to receive, and one that we hope will become one of the most prestigious opportunities for professors across the state of North Carolina.

The First Annual Distinguished Professor Lecture Series will be held at Stewart Theatre TODAY (3/1), beginning at 6:00pm. Doors will open at 5:30, Don’t miss this event, and spread the word!

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Thinking Outside the Brick https://news.ncsu.edu/2010/11/brick/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2010/11/brick/#comments Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:26:42 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=5183 During a stint as a teaching fellow in the College of Design a few years ago, Ginger Dosier came up with a rather strange idea. If you could harness the power of bacteria to grow bricks, she mused, how cool would that be? Instead of mixing sand and clay and firing up a kiln, you could simply feed the bacteria the right combination of ingredients, then stand back.

Even by College of Design standards, it’s a pretty revolutionary idea. The funny thing is, it works. Dosier is now at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, where she’s planning to conduct field tests in the desert with the help of local Bedouins.

Her research got a boost when Dosier won the top prize in Metropolis magazine’s Next Generation competition. The magazine praised the ecological implications of the advance.

Ginger Dosier in her lab at the American University of Sharjah.

“Tossing a clay brick into a coal-powered kiln, then firing it up to 2,000 degrees, emits about 1.3 pounds of carbon dioxide,” the magazine said. “Multiply that by the 1.23 trillion bricks manufactured each year, and you’re talking about more pollution than what’s produced by all the airplanes in the world.”

Working Across Disciplines

It’s no accident the innovation came out of NC State. Where else do you have top researchers in microbiology, materials science and engineering working on the same campus as world-class design professionals?

In fact, Dosier’s project is a testament to the value of multidisciplinary collaboration. During her two years as a teaching fellow, she audited courses in materials science and shared ideas with colleagues across campus. Two faculty members became mentors: microbiologist José Bruno-Bárcena and architecture professor Pat Rand.

With their help, Dosier pioneered a process that mixes bacteria with sand, calcium chloride and urea to form a material that resembles sandstone. Small bricks – about the size of a Lego – take about a week to grow, fueled by a series of chemical reactions. They’re as strong kiln-fired bricks and could even be engineered to match the strength of marble.

And even though she’s working as an assistant professor of architecture half a world away, Dosier hasn’t stopped collaborating with NC State scientists. She returned to campus this summer to meet with a professor at the Animal and Poultry Waste Center.

As a result, she’ll try using swine waste as a source of urea when she scales up the project.

“This project has definitely required expertise outside of my formal training,” she said by e-mail this week. “And more collaboration is needed for sure in the areas of environmental engineering for the closed loop cycle, where all of the nutrients and water are recycled into the system.”

Looks like a return trip to NC State isn’t far off.

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Lending a Hand https://news.ncsu.edu/2010/05/lending-a-hand-2/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2010/05/lending-a-hand-2/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 12:45:28 +0000 http://news.ncsu.edu/?p=2312 Research for a senior textile engineering project took students beyond your typical library visits and Google searches. Instead, it had them playing basketball games against Raleigh’s wheelchair basketball league, the Triangle Thunder, and watching the Raleigh Outlaws, the local Blind Bowlers Association’s local league, knock down some pins.

For the past year, a group of students has worked to create prototypes of products designed specifically for people with disabilities. They partnered with local members of the disabled community to find textile solutions for problems facing those with disabilities – from a more comfortable wheelchair to a new shoe-tying system.

Celebrating Innovation

The students presented their products last week in a poster board session among members of the local disabled community and industry partners. And the atmosphere of this big end-of-year project was more celebration than stress.

Some projects, such as the sensing vest that assists the visually impaired with walking by providing discrete vibrations when an object is in its path (a safe alternative to cane navigation), were tested by a smiling James Benton, who chairs the Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities in Raleigh.

Benton, who is legally blind, walked from station to station talking with all the students about their projects – many of whom he has been in contact with since the beginning of the year.

“The feedback from people like James Benton was really invaluable. He made us think about some things we hadn’t considered,” said student Kenneth Ryan. “He kept us motivated to create a product that could really be used.”

Watch a Video of the Sensing Vest

Benton spent a long time reviewing one group’s bowling assistant rail, designed to be cheaper, lighter and more durable than traditional rails. Benton, an avid bowler, laughed with students Ryland Clark and Oliver Blasberg about his upcoming bowling competition, which both students plan to attend.

The student research is just one part of NC State’s Textile Products for People with Disabilities (TPPD) program, a new venture to find textile solutions to common problems. TPPD plans to invent new products and services and improve existing ones while being committed to encouraging and assisting companies to address the needs of the disabled.

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publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf