July 22, 2011
College of Engineering, North Carolina State University
2010-2011 Education and Technology Fee Expenditure Report
Section I. Categorized ETF Expenditure Summary.
Category
Professional Support Staff
Student-Worker Staff
IT Infrastructure
Non-IT Infrastructure
Facilities
Discipline-related events
Other/Miscellaneous
Unspent
Total
Amount Spent
$ 335,167
$ 248,730
$ 641,865
$ 622,103
$ 69,256
$ 10,735
$ 108,152
$______56
$2,036,064
% of Total Allocation
16.5
12.2
31.5
30.6
3.4
0.5
5.3
0.0
100%
Section II. Justification/Purpose of Expenditures – Strategic Overview In keeping with
section title, information in this section presents an overview of what is happening in each
category within the College of Engineering and is a representative sample of information
contained in departmental expenditure reports.
a. New/Transformative Initiatives Undertaken with ETF Funds. For a college the size of the
College of Engineering, the ETF allocation received represents a small portion of the total
budget necessary to simply maintain the laboratories that represent the critical component of the
engineering student learning experience. Even so, several departments have found ways to use
their ETF allocation to create new or transformative experiences for their students. Some
examples are:
Electrical and ComputerEngineering:
One of our key goals over the past couple of years had been to provide increase support and funding
to our “hands-on” courses – resulting in the creation of new teaching labs, the expansion of seating in
others, and the purchase of a great number of instruments:
 1008 EB2 – replaced the ten mixed-signal oscilloscopes (almost $11,000) in the Embedded
Systems Teaching Lab, fulfilling an unfunded onetime ETF proposal submitted earlier this
year. Plus we spent an additional $10,500 on long needed upgrades to other instrumentation
throughout the lab. Hosts 4 courses with over 235 students annually.

1032 EB2 – spent almost $25,000 to completely renovate the Mechatronics Teaching Lab;
installed new, larger workbenches and purchase entirely new instrumentation, allowing us to
recycle (all were claimed for other usage inside the department) ten rather old (we’ve had
alumni visit after 20 years gone recognize them) racks of instrumentation. Currently hosts 2
courses with 40 students. Upgrades will allow us to add additional courses to this teaching
lab.

225 MRC – Spent $13,000 on an LCR meter required to complete upgrades to the laboratory
utilized by ECE 557 (an additional $30,000 was secured via onetime funding – details
below). Currently hosts 1 course with 10 students. New instrumentation will allow
development of future experimental modules for the undergraduate nano course (ECE 445)
which would add another 20 students.

Replaced the computers in four of our teaching labs -- Analog and Digital Circuits Teaching
Lab, Distributed Controls Teaching Lab, Robotics Teaching Lab, and our newly created
Biomedical Instrumentation Teaching Lab.
Chemical and Biological Engineering:
Acquisition of Two New Teaching Experiments. Undertaken to meet rising undergraduate
enrollment in 2010 and beyond and to improve and upgrade the teaching of the lab courses, CHE
330 and CHE 331. The acquisition of the two new teaching experiments–Boiling Phenomena
Experiment and Fluidization Phenomena Experiment–will substantially expand the laboratory
capacity of CHE 330 that is the bottleneck for student enrollment in the CBE program. With
these two new experiments deployed in 2011-2012, the laboratory course enrollment can
increase by up to 40% (from 100 to 140).
Computer Science:
NetLabs Virtual Computing Network: Laboratory experiments accompanying instruction in
computer networking courses require access to diverse networking hardware (“switches”) and
complex systems of programs (“software”) to set policy and utilize such hardware. Of late,
increasingly the functioning of networks is driven by software, running on commodity hardware.
This has also prompted an explosion of such software systems, and it is desirable that our
graduates have exposure to a large number of such systems. Many such systems are available
freely or as open-source alternatives, but require comparatively powerful computers and network
switches.
CSC networking faculty have developed or adapted a series of such software environments that
the students can use to have experience with a "network-in-a-box", with end stations,
intermediate nodes, switches and routers operating as virtual machines inside compute-powerrich servers. At this time, the list of such environments includes: OpenFlow, SILO, Mesh
Wireless, Networking kernel, Motorola Droids (Google/Android). We plan to add the GENI
control frameworks such as ORCA in the near future.
All of these require the ability to save and load images, and map virtual interfaces to real
networking interfaces and connect to real switches. Previously students had to run the system on
their own laptops, which severely limited them. The purchased equipment resides in the
networking labs in flexible configurations, and obviates that problem for the large body of our
students.
The new facility allows students to have a broad range of experiences, in addition to the specific
experiments that can be performed by procuring dedicated equipment. It will be more futureproof, since the hardware (servers and switches) will be commodity and it will be possible to
upgrade them over time in small increments, and upgrading to new software systems as they
become prominent in the world of practice will require orders of magnitude less time, effort and
cost. Thus our students will have much more up-to-date and relevant instruction and hands-on
experience. It will also be possible for the equipment to be “reset” between use by various
students and student groups – since the system is virtual, even after a disastrous misconfiguration or mistake by one student, the “base state” will be possible to restore in a matter of
minutes (whereas in a system with dedicated and/or special purpose hardware, this may require
days of highly skilled effort by instructors, TAs, or lab support personnel). Thus the students
will have the advantage of a highly resilient and available lab.
Student utilization will average 550 undergraduate and graduate students each year, as below.
Number of students per section is averaged over year.
CSC 401 – 2 sections, 50 students each
CSC/ECE 570 – 4 sections, 60 students each
CSC/ECE 573 – 3 sections, 50 students each
CSC/ECE 575 – 2 sections, 40 students each
Android-Ready Phones: After successfully using Android phones in CSC216 in the Spring and
Summer of 2010, we expanded our investment in the number of Android devices available to
students. Programming mobile devices has immediate student impact because most students use
cell phones and smart phone everyday, and mobile programming provides interesting design and
complexity problems. By CSC216, students know the basics of programming, specifically in the
Java programming language, and how to use APIs. The Android SDK is a robust Java library for
developing mobile applications and would be applicable in teaching key CSC216 concepts
(inheritance, abstraction, interfaces, and polymorphism) within a concrete and emerging
programming paradigm.
Additionally, students would be exposed to the end-to-end
development process with a concrete product. Thanks to ETF funding from 2009, We purchased
30 ADP1s for use in Spring of 2010. A gift of 30 Motorola Droids from Google was able to
double the number of devices we can use in CSC216. However, there were not enough devices
for each student to use one. Instead, students were put in teams, and one phone was checked out
to a team member for the semester. There were two limitations to that situation:
Teaming was not appropriate at the CSC216 level. Additional devices could support paired or
solo assignments, and research into the appropriateness of teaming/pairing in CSC216.
We are potentially limited to projects that can run on a single device rather than projects that
allow for communication between two or more devices.
Additional devices will help support the larger enrollment of CSC216 students in the fall, smaller
teams, communicative applications, while maintaining backup devices and devices for the
teaching staff for the course.
Mobile application development is an emerging paradigm in computing. Most students carry
smart phones, and the phones they do carry tend to have advanced functionality. With the
provided ETF funds, I was able to purchase 28 Nexus One Android phones for student use
within CSC216.
CSC216 is the second semester programming course within the Department of Computer
Science. Students enter the course with the fundamentals of programming (procedural
decomposition, conditionals, loops, arrays, and file I/O). CSC216 builds on the intro course by
introducing advanced object-oriented (OO) programming concepts like inheritance, abstraction,
interfaces, and polymorphism. Students are also introduced to linear data structures (array-based
lists, linked lists, stacks, and queues), recursion, and finite-state machines.
By introducing mobile application development via the Android platform, students were able to
apply the learning objectives of CSC216 on “real-world” programming projects. Mobile
applications are typically small, which makes them feasible assignments within the CSC216
course. Additionally, students were able to apply other software engineering principals during
development: teaming, testing, design, version control systems, and using a 3rd party API and
library.
The Nexus One phones were additionally used in the College of Engineering’s High School
Summer Programs Computer Science Workshop during the weeks of June 20th and June 27th.
Fifty-nine students participated in the two one-week workshops and developed Android
applications using AppInventor. The students demoed the apps they created for family and
friends at a poster session at the end of the workshop.
The Nexus One phones allowed for development of more complex applications that take
advantage of the latest versions of the Android operating system.
CSC216 students in the Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011 were assigned projects that required the
students to write Android applications to evaluate the course learning objectives. While there
was some difficulty with students understanding of the Android libraries, overall the use of
Android phones maintained the current level of student learning in CSC216, especially in the
Spring 2011 semester.
Cloud Computing Technology Teaching Laboratory: In May 2010 we completed initial
equipment installation and testing of our new Cloud Computing Technology Teaching
Laboratory. During this past academic year we continued the development of our lab. The
CCTT lab is a departmental teaching resource based on Virtual Computing Laboratory
infrastructure that is used to provide a hands-on virtual laboratory facility for teaching our
students about Cloud Computing technologies, multi-core, virtualization, related security,
operating systems, etc.
As technology changes our course content is changing. These changes are quite encompassing –
they cover our undergraduate and graduate courses. We are currently lagging behind our peers in
ability to teach students about the latest technologies because we do not have access to the latest
range of multi-core and virtualization resources within VCL. We are proud to have closed that
gap with the establishment of our VCL-based CSC Cloud Computing Technology Teaching
Laboratory (a virtual facility accessible from anywhere and anytime).
The facility uses the latest suite of Nehalem chip based IBM blade technology with considerable
amount of memory. Specifically, we installed a additional chassis of 14 HS22 blades running in
10Gbps communication matrix. The equipment is integrated into VCL and the CSC CCTTL is
available on-demand to CSC instructors and students.
This virtual laboratory is having a tremendously beneficial impact on our students – ranging
from sophomores to seniors. It provides knowledge and skills that will keep our students
competitive and employable in the context of the new generations of information technology and
computer science advances.
The CCTTL equipment is used in at least 7 undergraduate and graduate courses. Courses
include:
CSC 246: Concepts and Facilities of Operating Systems for Computer Scientists
CSC 501: Operating Systems Principles
CSC 405: Introduction to Computer Security
CSC 548: Parallel Systems
CSC 440: Database Management Systems
CSC 450: Web Services
CSC495c: our new Cloud Computing course
CSC/ECE 506: Architecture Of Parallel Computers
Student enrollments using the equipment in one year averaged 526.
Industrial and Systems Engineering:
With the advent of low cost methods of design and manufacture, much innovation has been seen
across all of the core engineering disciplines. Those interested in realizing their designs are turning to
IEs (notably this department) to offer advice and gain insight into the many manufacturing methods
that are currently available. The ISE Department serves a vital role in bridging the design and
engineering communities. With such interest and growth already seen in mass customization, the
department is realigning its manufacturing course sequence to better serve students. Faced with
decreasing budgets and increasing enrollments, one way to serve more with less is to ensure labbased equipment is: i) affordable, ii) multi-purpose/multi-tasking, and iii) scalable. To this end,
present and near-term procurement strategies will continue to keep these objectives in mind when
leveraging ETF-based investments. This year’s base allocation was supported by a one-time
allocation used to create a new laboratory (Additive Manufacturing Extension Laboratory) that will
highlight the use of three-dimensional printing technologies. The lab will serve students from across
the College, allowing them the ability to design and prototype products. A key component of
creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, this equipment will allow current students, summer camp
attendees (largely high school students) and freshmen an opportunity to experience this technology
first-hand. Borne out of space issues occurring in the existing Rapid Prototyping Lab, a teaching
laboratory maintained by the ISE Department, AMEL will be used in both teaching and research
domains, serving over 350 First Year College and ISE students requiring such resources for course
study and group project needs.
The reach of ETF funding is broad. The ISE Department delivers four manufacturing-related
undergraduate and at least five graduate courses each semester that benefit from ETF allocations.
Technology supporting classroom instruction, group and individual projects in the following
courses leverage ETF on a yearly basis:
ISE 216 Mfg. Engineering Practicum
ISE 316 Mfg. Processes
ISE 416 Mfg. Automation
ISE 498 Senior Design Project
ISE 514 Product Engineering
ISE 515 Process Engineering
ISE 544 Occupational Biomechanics
ISE 589 Intro. to Medical Device Design
ISE 589 Direct Manufacturing
ISE 716 Automation Engineering
ISE 741 Occupational Safety Eng.
ISE 789 Mfg. Planning & Control
ISE 789 Nano/micro Scale Fabrication
ISE 789 Computational Geometries
~48 students per year
~40 students per year
~40 students per year
~45 students per year
~10 students per year
~30 students per year
~30 students per year
~10 students per year
~20 students per year
~30 students per year
~20 students per year
~10 students per year
~10 students per year
~10 students per year
ISE 789 Mfg. for Medical Devices
~10 students per year
for Design & Mfg.
Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering:
A description of the major acquisitions made during the 2010/2011 academic year is listed below.
ETF funds are being used to maintain and improve laboratories that expose students to modern
engineering tools through hands-on experiences. In the field of Civil, Construction, and
Environmental Engineering, this includes a combination of experimental and computing laboratory
experiences. To maximize the impact of ETF funds on the department’s teaching program, funds that
remain after expenditures for routine supplies and maintenance are pooled to fund one or two major
improvements. When possible, ETF funds are combined with outside donations to maximize the
impact on the department’s teaching program. Example initiatives that were funded by a combination
of ETF and outside funds over the last years include the implementation of a computerized
classroom, the overhaul of the construction engineering computer laboratory, the implementation of a
new construction engineering laboratory, and the acquisition of materials for a sensor network.

Seven large format computer monitors and mounting brackets ($10,466) were purchased with
ETF funds. Six monitors are located in the Mann Hall lobby and the undergraduate student
lounge to allow students to work on group projects. One monitor is located in Mann 109,
where the monitor is used with laboratory exercises involving the use of microscopes and
image analysis software.

For the Transportation systems area, ETF one-time funds ($40,000) were used to purchase 10
BluFax traffic surveillance devices. The devices will be used in undergraduate and graduate
transportation systems courses, including the capstone design class. Approximately 270
undergraduate and 80 graduate students will benefit from the availability of the traffic
surveillance devices. Affected courses: CE305, CE400 (capstone design), CE401/501,
CE402/502, CE403/503, CE506, CE701, CE702, and CE706.

For the Transportation systems area, ETF funds ($21,204) were used to purchase (1) two
omnidirectional cameras, (2) two RTMS G4 traffic detectors with pole mount solar system for
operation, (3) a mast for mounting traffic detectors, and (4) two intersection count boards.
Approximately 270 undergraduate and 80 graduate students will benefit from the availability
the new equipment. Affected courses: CE305, CE400 (capstone design), CE401/501,
CE402/502, CE403/503, CE506, CE701, CE702, and CE706.

For the Structural Engineering lab, ETF funds ($15,332) were used to purchase materials and
equipment for the construction of two additional lab stations that were required to
accommodate increased enrollment in CE324 (Structural Engineering Laboratory).

ETF funds ($30,768) were used to purchase four Geo/Jac systems for the undergraduate
geotechnical engineering laboratory (CE342). With the new equipment, CE342 students have
access to modern equipment used for testing soil compressibility.

For the Environmental Engineering lab, ETF funds ($4,964) were used to support six pH
meters with solid-state probes. The pH meters are replacing aging units equipped with glass
probes that were prone to breakage and needed to be replaced frequently.
Biomedical Engineering.
ETF funds were used to purchase an artificial muscle-tendon system which is operated by the
electrical signals measured from muscles (EMG). The system include 8 channels for EMG
measurement, a software and hardware package for real-time robotics development, a 4
proportional pneumatic control valves for controlling the artificial muscles. The equipment will
primarily be used to develop a new Bio-Robotics course.
Bio-Robotics is an emerging area of growth in the engineering sector. It is an excellent
topic for teaching Biomedical Engineers because it involves the intersection of controls
engineering, biomechanics, electronics design, mechanism design and physiology- all
areas of core emphasis in the BME undergraduate curriculum. Perhaps more relevant is
the myriad ‘real-world’ problems that can used to motivate student interest. Hands-on instruction
based around topics ranging from: prosthesis design and optimization, direct brain/muscle
interface, wearable robotics, assistive devices for the disabled and even ‘avatar-like’ gaming
systems can be employed using the system.
In addition to the Bio-Robotics course which is in development, the equipment was used as part
of a lab exercise for BME 201 (20 students in spring, 55 per year in the future) and as a teaching
demonstration for outreach as part of the Engineering in Medicine Summer Camp.
Nuclear Engineering.
The renaissance that is currently taking place in the nuclear power industry has created an
increased demand for nuclear engineers and a corresponding increase in enrollment in the
nuclear engineering program. The department has used a combination of recurring and one-time
ETF funds as well as matching grants from industry and federal sources to begin to upgrade and
expand teaching laboratory facilities. The Plasma and Thermal Hydraulic laboratories have been
upgraded with new computers, multichannel analyzer cards, analog to digital cards and digital
oscilloscopes. Radiation detection equipment was acquired to support spectroscopy and
coincidence measurements. Amplifiers and proportional counters were also acquired.
b. Actions Taken to Improve Efficiency/Return on Investment of ETF Funds. Throughout the
college, departments receiving ETF funds continually seek ways to stretch and multiply the effects of the
ETF investment. Some examples are:
1. Collaboration: Several engineering departments work together to collaboratively acquire or
use expensive laboratory equipment. BME chose to work out an agreement with MAE to use an
existing MAE lab that contained test equipment that had been requested for purchase by a BME
faculty member rather than buying another set. MSE and CBE collaborated on the purchase of a
Scanning Electron Microscope to be used by students in both departments. ECE and CSC jointly
support and use the Master of Science in Computer Networking laboratory. Collaboration
between MSE, CBE and ITECS resulted in the consolidation of two Eos computing labs into one
student computing area located in previously underutilized space. This resulted in much better
space utilization and a lowering of Eos laboratory support requirements.
2. Competitive Pricing: We continue to use all source available to us to locate the lowest price for
equipment including Marketplace, surplus, and 2nd hand sources. When possible, we negotiate for
bulk and/or educational discounts.
3. Departmental Matching/Donations: Many departments match ETF allocations with funding and
equipment donations from industry and private sources, thus increasing the reach and usefulness of
ETF dollars. Many of these matches are identified in our request for one-time ETF resources.
4. Use of “industry standard” equipment: Where possible, departments purchase and students use
test and fabrication equipment that is “industry grade.” The intent is to make the student experience
more meaningful and useful as they learn to use equipment they will actually encounter once they
have entered the workforce in their chosen field. This equipment tends to be more robust, resulting in
greater reliability and more compatible with equipment that may be donated by industry.
4. Leveraging Technological Advances: Increasingly, older analog laboratory instrumentation is
being replaced by digital or software based instruments. While acquiring these new instruments
requires substantial investment, these investments pay off in reduced maintenance costs and generally
longer life cycles. Additionally, many of these instruments are accessible via web interfaces. This
enables many more students, to include distance education students, to access and control these
instruments. In the case of BME, students located at UNC-Chapel Hill are able to observe and
manipulate instruments physically located at NC State. This reduces the need to duplicate
instruments in both locations and saves students travel time and expense to participate in labs.
5. Complete Lifecycle Management: All departments aggressively pursue equipment lifecycle plans
that repurpose older equipment in various ways. For instance, when ITECS replaces older computers
in Eos Computer Labs, those computers are then offered first to COE departments for their use and
any that are left over are offered to other colleges. While those computers may not be suitable for
computer labs they are useful for conducting experiments, equipping student workspaces and for
spare parts for other machines. Many displaced UNIX lab machines are currently being used to
increase the resources of the Virtual Computing Lab. Only when machines are completely useless are
they sent to surplus.
6. ETF Resource Management: This year the College of Engineering implemented a new ETF
management process that enabled us to do a better job of ensuring ETF resources were spent.
Departments were required to spend or obligate their ETF resources by April 1. Any
unspent/unobligated resources after April 1st were consolidated at the college level and reallocated to
one-time projects. As a result, unspent ETF resources totaled $55.81 this year.
c. Unmet ETF-Eligible Needs. The College of Engineering continues to experience substantial
growth in most of its programs. This growth places a strain on all teaching facilities but in particular
results in overcrowding in discipline-specific teaching labs, increased consumption of materials and
supplies to support the labs, increased maintenance costs to keep durable equipment in operating
condition and a more rapid degradation of machinery and instrumentation due to more continuous
use. All of these factors result in a need for more resources to accommodate our students’ learning.
In particular the Nuclear Engineering department is experiencing a rapid growth in enrollment due to
the resurgent interest in nuclear power. This has resulted in a need to replace outdated equipment and
equip new teaching labs to accommodate said growth. Some examples of currently unmet needs
follow:
BioMedical Engineering:
With the move to Engineering Building III complete the department now has the space to expand
their teaching laboratories to better accommodate their students. The department has identified
roughly $85K in laboratory equipment that it needs to acquire and for which ETF would be a suitable
resource.
Chemical and BioMolecular Engineering:
$35,000 is needed to develop a biochemical engineering experiment, the first of its kind in the CHE
curriculum.
Industrial and Systems Engineering:
Inert Atmosphere Heat Treating Furnace
Unmet Need: $25,000
Processing of today’s engineering materials requires the use of surface and heat treatments in order to
enhance the performance of the wrought alloys used. In line with the Department’s goal to
incorporate materials-based laboratories within the curriculum, an atmosphere heat treating furnace is
needed to realize many functional components that are now commonplace, and to extend the research
being done in these areas. Similar to the curriculum being developed for materials testing, use of this
equipment will be prevalent throughout the undergraduate and graduate manufacturing courses and
research projects alike.
Multi-Sensor 3D Measurement and Inspection System
Unmet Need: $87,000
In manufacturing, product inspection is an important step in the production process. To ensure
0% defects, as is often a requirement in FDA, FAA and many MIL applications that every part
be inspected for compliance. When coupled with scale factors that transcend human abilities and
the ever-persistent high cost of manual inspection, machine-based inspection becomes a
necessity.
North Carolina’s economic frontier will rely on industries such as medical, aerospace and
energy. The ISE Department, positioned for meeting the need of tomorrow’s workforce,
currently performs touch-based reverse engineering and inspect-to-CAD activities in many of its
manufacturing courses, extending into research. Particular items that currently pose roadblocks
are small feature (<1mm) measurement and part resiliency. Non-contact measurement
overcomes such difficulties. These systems combine vision, laser and tactile probing and allow
for multi-mode inspection of microfeatures; capabilities not presently available in the
department. Locating a multi-sensor 3D measurement and inspection system within the College
will enable the ISE Department to teach students, undergraduate and graduate alike, about the
ever-increasing use and benefits of these technologies and will also supplement research efforts
in the areas identified above.
Item: 6-Axis Articulated Robot with Advanced Trajectory Processing
Unmet Need: $79,000
As previously stated, great transformation is occurring in North Carolina’s manufacturing sector.
Two areas that hold great economic potential for the state are the aerospace and energy sectors.
The ISE Department, positioned to meet the needs of tomorrow’s workforce, currently maintains
a state-of-the-art processes laboratory where industry-standard CNC machines for small part
production are well represented. By nature of the machines, the ability to process large parts is
lacking. Furthermore, the type of processing is limited to traditional cutting and erosion
methods, not necessarily suitable for components required in the industries mentioned above.
In 2009-2010, the ISE Department made great strides to enhance its instruction in robotics; two 6axis articulated robots were purchased with ETF funds and subsequently placed into service to
illustrate the economy of robotics in pick-and-place, palletizing, material handling and inspection. In
particular to aerospace industries, i) coating applications, ii) welding, iii) grinding, iv) polishing and
v) trimming, are still underrepresented processes in the curriculum. When complemented by the
processes already existing in the lab spaces, an example of a complete manufacturing system can be
shown and used as a teaching and research platform. It is of high value for all ISE students to
discover these attributes as they model and build real systems in the ISE’s lab spaces.
Item: CNC Turning Center with Live Tooling
Unmet Need: $106,000
The ISE Department currently maintains several CNC material processing devices that are
geared toward teaching the practices of modern-day machining of small component parts. One
piece of equipment, known as a turning center, removes material about a central axis of rotation.
Three of these devices exist in the main Processes Laboratory and are heavily utilized each
semester. One of the machines is reaching its end of useful life. The parent company has since
gone out of business, making parts procurement and service difficult. One shortcoming of all
machines of this type located in the department is the inability to process components with three
degrees of freedom. To do so, the parts must be moved from machine to machine in order to
produce asymmetrical features. This point identifies a significant gap in the technology
currently used in the Manufacturing Processes Lab.
A CNC turning center with “live” tooling allows for multi-axis machining with no change of
setup; a key benefit and crux of many teaching examples that serve to underscore setup time
reduction. Flexible/agile manufacturing is the creed of the modern-day manufacturer. The
addition of this type of machine would greatly enhance both undergraduate and graduate courses.
Nuclear Engineering:
Diagnostics and other equipment in the plasma laboratory are still needed. While the number of
students utilizing the lab was relatively small in the past, the number is increasing due to the
addition of new faculty members. The recent Nuclear renaissance created a lot of enthusiasm in
the community resulting in increased numbers of undergraduate and graduate students.
Unfortunately, adding labs for a greater number of students requires additional equipment.
Purchases are being made every year at the ~$20K per year level, but additional funds will be
needed to be fully functional. The one-time allocation of $14K this year will be of definite help
while continued funds are required to repair and maintain the current high vacuum equipment to
be operational as well as for upgrading them.
There is still a need to increase the number of radiation laboratory stations especially due to the
sudden increase in the number of students in NE. There have been student requests to replace all
of the older (but functional) equipment in the radiation laboratory with new equipment. We did
procure new power sources and other parts in 2010-11 while additional funds are needed to
upgrade all lab stations.
There are several new experiments that need to be added to the thermal-hydraulics laboratory and
with the increase in student enrollment, additional laboratory stations are desired. As mentioned in
last year’s report two additional stations are needed to make the facilities suitable for the increased
enrollment while one station has been approved and acquired during this fiscal year from one-time
funding received in 4/2011.
d. Assessment of Impact of ETF Investments on Student Learning. Ultimately, the impact of
ETF investments in the College of Engineering is reflected in the college’s growing stature
among its peers in terms of a positive jump in national and international rankings of the college
and several academic departments. Further, most of the college’s ETF funding goes directly or
indirectly to the support of discipline-specific teaching laboratories. Because ETF allows us to
maintain those labs in a relatively healthy state they become attractive resources for recruiting
top-notch faculty and top-notch students. More specifically, departments assess the impact of
ETF on student learning in various ways including:
1. Student Surveys. Several departments have ETF or laboratory committees that have
developed and implemented surveys of students who use the labs. These surveys assess the
students’ satisfaction with their laboratory experience and solicit suggestions for improvements.
2. Student Success. Most departments reported using student grades in laboratory courses as
one indicator of how well the laboratory experience was supported.
3. Focus Groups. The ITECS Student-owned Computing group recruits a standing focus group
of engineering graduate and undergraduate students to provide feedback on various topics related
to SOC. Several times a year, aspects of ETF supported computing labs and other initiatives are
discussed and suggestions solicited from these groups.
4. Feedback from alumni, discipline-related industry and accrediting organizations. The college
and departmental leadership are very active in collaborating with alumni and industry to
determine how prepared our graduates are to enter the engineering profession. Information from
these interactions are fed back into curriculum and laboratory committees and helps guide the
acquisition of equipment and revision of curriculum to meet the changing needs of the “real
world.” Additionally, feedback from accrediting agencies is also input into the process to ensure
that the college continues to meet the standards set by those agencies.
All of these indicators provide us with evidence that the college and departments are doing a
good job of using scarce ETF funds to multiply and extend the teaching resources that exist
within each department. Students indicate they are happy with the modernization and expansion
of teaching labs facilitated by ETF but would like to see more done more quickly. There are
several areas where departments have identified shortfalls through preparation for accreditation
visits and have taken steps to apply current ETF resources and where necessary to request
additional resources to resolve the issues. Several departments are experiencing rapid growth in
the number of undergraduate and graduate students enrolling in their programs and need
additional resources to expand or develop labs to accommodate that growth.
e. Planning and Review Process. The College of Engineering administers its ETF resources in
a decentralized manner, the belief being that the closer to students the decision-making is the
more likely that those resources will be used to directly support students.
Each academic department and ITECS receives a predictable portion of the college’s base
allocation. Each department has an ETF committee that incorporates student members and
student input in the decision-making process. As all of ITECS ETF funds goes to support Eos
computing labs, the Assistant Director, Eos Lab Manager, student lab operators and SOC
personnel collaborate to plan for the expenditure of ETF in support of the Eos labs.
The college also has an ETF advisory committee with representatives from each department and
ITECS. This committee ensures ETF plans are maintained and prioritizes one-time requests for
forwarding to the university ETFAT.
Finally, each department prepares and submits an ETF expenditure report in the same format as
this report. Each report is reviewed by the Assistant Dean for Finance and by the college’s
ETFAT representative. Information from these reports is condensed and consolidated to create
the college’s expenditure report. The AD for Finance also monitors ETF expenditures
throughout the year and when necessary consults with the ETFAT representative to ensure
potentially questionable expenditures meet the criteria established for ETF use.
Section III: Summarized List of Expenditures by Account Code
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
(ETF) EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY FEE EXPENDITURE REPORT
SUMMARY
2010-2011
Account
51112
51117
51119
51219
51270
51311
51319
51410
51450
Total Salaries
51811
51813
51821
Description
Grad. Res. Asst.
EPA NON-TEACH ANNUAL LEAVE
PAY
Epa Reg -all Other
Spa-reg. Salaries
Spa Longevity Pay
Grad. Teach. Asst.
Epa Teach-all Other
Non-student Reg Wage
Student Regular Wage
Social Security
Federal Health Ins
State Retirement
Total
1,898.07
0.00
19,612.08
156,296.52
289.15
8,177.90
48,317.77
68,620.25
216,492.48
519,704.22
17,906.03
4,187.66
19,588.77
51830
51831
51871
51873
51891
Total benefits
Medical Insurance
Grad Health Insurance (ghi)
Tiaa Optional Ret
Optional Retirement Plan
Staff Benefits
14,389.44
68.30
2,608.35
2,066.78
3,378.11
64,193.44
52101
52205
52300
52301
52400
52450
52510
52590
52600
52650
52821
52823
52824
52826
52850
52870
52872
52873
52874
52875
52900
Total Supplies
Household Sup-janitorial/cln
Food Products
Educational Supply
Athletic Medical
Repair Supplies.
Maintenance Equipment
Gasoline/diesel Fuel
Other Mtr Veh Suppl
Office Supply
Data Processing Supplies
Other Comp Software <$5,000
PC Software Purch <$5,000
Server Software Purch <$5,000
External Dev Software <$5,000
Other Equip-Voice Comm <$5,000
Other DP Equipment <$5,000
Video Trans Equip <$5,000
LAN Equipment Purch <$5,000
PC & Printer Purch <$5,000
Server Purchases <$5,000
Other Supply
53112
53121
53124
53125
53129
53141
53144
Total Travel
In-state Transportation-Ground
Out Of State Trans-air
Out Of State Sub-lodging
Out Of State Subsistence-meals
Out-of-state Registration Fees
Board/nonemp Travel-trans
Board/nonemp Travel-sub
1,195.15
0.00
299.76
139.90
105.00
1,390.30
1,630.31
4,760.42
53210
53230
53272
Telephone Service
Comm-telecomm Services
Telephone Wiring Service Charg
54.16
50,695.08
2,948.60
523.86
0.00
458,273.39
69.65
14,676.77
10,658.85
30.00
4,781.70
49,070.11
2,680.42
17,162.30
11,148.54
6,631.98
5,585.00
31,579.09
26,376.46
1,372.96
29,054.24
158,549.71
6,238.77
48,695.30
883,159.10
53400
53510
53540
53550
53590
53600
53810
53811
53923
53924
53925
53926
53929
53951
Total Current
Services
Printing And Binding
Repairs Bldg/gnds
Repairs- Other Computer Equip.
Repairs And Maint-oth Eq
Repairs And Maint
Freight And Express
Computer/data Process Svs
Managed LAN Service Charge
Svs Agree-lab Svs
Svs Agree-janitorial
Svs Agree-waste Remove
Svs Agree-security Svs
Service Agreements-other
Employee Training
456.26
37,688.34
1,089.00
9,376.01
465.78
3,126.80
3,000.00
11,000.00
3,019.00
382.14
289.13
5,854.03
0.00
1,162.50
54350
54371
54420
54437
54438
54439
54513
54991
54998
Total Fixed charges
Rent Of Oth Equip-other
Rent/Lease - Server Software
Maint Contract-other Equip
Maint Agrmt - PC Software
Maint Agrmt - Server Software
Maint Agreement - Servers
Insurance-liability
Royalties
Other Fixed Charges
3,237.62
2,808.00
4,800.00
65,624.99
47,532.42
3,212.28
10,000.00
(1,160.00)
286.98
136,342.29
55110
55210
55223
55224
55226
55320
55330
55529
55570
55575
Total Equipment
Off Equip-furniture
Edp Hardware
PC Software Purch >$5,000
Server Software Purch >$5,000
External Dev Software >$5,000
Educ Equip-scientific/medical
Educ Equip-egr Draft Eq
Oth Eq - Misc.
Other DP Equipment >$5,000
Server Equipment >$5,000
0.00
0.00
7,520.00
1,000.00
12,894.67
47,756.52
41,658.00
17,300.32
40,000.00
129,112.38
297,241.89
130,606.83
Total Expenditures
2,036,008.19