Introduction

The College of Engineering kicked off AY24-25 with a leadership planning session that included drafting a College of Engineering strategic plan, designed to be flexible and our guide for prioritization of resources and effort for the next several years. The new strategic plan is aligned with, and supports, the University achieving the goals established in the Wolfpack 2030 strategic plan.

Progress was made across all of the college’s goals across the academic year. We made notable progress on key scholarly initiatives in Applied AI in Engineering and Computer Science and Battery and Energy Storage Systems, while also improving our focus on operational excellence and performance improvement. The throughline connecting all of our activities was making progress on Engineering Expansion and continuous improvement in student success. Enrollment surpassed 12,200 students in the Fall semester supported by modest growth in Engineering Academic Affairs and the COE Wellness and Engagement teams, which provide critical vehicles that support students both in and out of the classroom. By the end of the academic year, the college graduated more than 2260 students across our nine departments.

The pace of proposals and awards continued an upward trend, even in the face of a challenging federal research funding environment. Our investment in faculty and facilities increased to match the growth in enrollment and research dollars.

Philanthropically the college received two historic gifts which expanded financial support for the Biomedical and Civil, Construction and Environment Engineering departments. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, more than 900 students received tuition support from 416 scholarship funds.

Key Initiatives

Engineering Expansion

Measured against the baseline of 10,461 students, established at the onset of Engineering NC’s Future, the college enrolled 12,200 students, resulting in 44% of the growth goal being achieved. Four departments – Computer Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and Industrial Systems Engineering – account for 75% of the growth in enrollment. Enrollment has increased in all College of Engineering departments since Engineering Expansion launched in 2021.

While increasing enrollment, the College is tracking student to faculty ratio as a key performance indicator. The goal is for the student to faculty ratio to maintain at or below its baseline level for each department. The hiring of a combination of twenty-one tenure / tenure track and professional teaching track faculty brought the number of faculty in the college to 330. Maintaining faculty hiring has ensured the student to faculty ratio has improved across all departments. Investments have also been made in key staffing areas such as research administration, advising, and student support programs.

Using funding allocated through Engineering NC’s Future for facilities updates, the College completed several projects this year to update research spaces for multiple departments. Graduate student spaces were also updated for Mechanical & Aerospace and Electrical & Computer Engineering. These investments, totaling more than $2M have resulted in improved spaces for applied research student use. Multiple projects, with an estimated total budget of $13M, are in process across Centennial to improve classrooms and build new teaching labs. Mann Hall renovations continued with occupancy planned for next year.

Applied AI in Engineering and Computer Science

Initiated in the second half of the 23-24 AY, the Applied AI in Engineering and Computer Science initiative moved forward quickly over the last twelve months. To introduce the initiative collegewide, the Applied AI in Engineering and Computer Science symposium was held last September. The all-day event included prominent tech alumni keynote speakers, an industry round table, and working sessions to hear from faculty on AI research, teaching, and lab requirements. More than 140 faculty, staff and students attended the symposium. Among the many highlights of the events, nearly 100 student research posters were displayed, highlighting the breadth of research already occurring in AI across the college.

Building on the success of the symposium, the Dean’s Distinguished Seminar Series: Applied AI Futures, featuring prominent researchers from across the country launched in November.

Across the Fall and Spring semesters, the college hosted Dr. Markus Buehler from MIT, Dr. Maria Gini from the University of Minnesota, and Sergei Kalinin from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The extremely successful seminar series provided an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to learn more about foundational and applied research in AI.

Beginning with the fall 2025 semester, all engineering students will have an opportunity to take a newly developed elective course to provide the foundation for AI tools in discipline and research. A second elective will be introduced in the spring semester. Developed by faculty in Computer Science, topics in the courses will be taught with a throughline of ethics, responsibility and using AI for the practice of engineering design. A new program, rolling out next year, will provide release time to faculty who want to further their knowledge of AI, including how to include it in the courses. This program, along with support from Computer Science, will make it possible for faculty across the college to bring AI into the classroom.

To support research and teaching in Applied AI across the college, an experimental AI workspace has been created. This workspace provides computers with high end GPUs for faculty and students to use for simulations, AI models, and research on eSports gaming.

Operational Excellence

To more effectively pursue operational excellence initiatives, the Director of Special Projects, Planning & Strategic Initiatives role was elevated to the position of Assistant Dean for College Operations. The team led by this AD, has partnered with College Communications, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science to pilot a new operating model for departmental communications. Typically, each department has their own communications leader and team with minimal connection to the college communications team. In the piloted model, one departmental leader is responsible for leading a smaller communications team that supports both ECE and CSC. Assignments and resources are managed to allow each department to receive the benefit of video, photography, and writing expertise. The leader is dotted line reporting to College Communications, resulting in more cohesive communications. In addition, this team has started to support other areas of the college with video and photography expertise. Moving into the next year, the college is examining ways to expand this model to realize additional benefits.

A major milestone was achieved earlier this year as the Operations team in partnership with the Finance team deployed zero based budgeting for most of the Dean’s administrative units. The budgeting process, automated through Smartsheets, requires Associate and Assistant Deans to build a budget up from zero and requires justification, aligned to unit goals, for requested expenditures. A similar process has been implemented for units to submit additional budget requests throughout the year.

A process is being deployed in July to centrally manage the request for new faculty and staff roles across the college. The process supports the new budget guidance that pulls the budget for faculty and staff back to the college when a vacancy occurs. This new method will realize significant cost savings and allow college leaders to add resources in high need / high demand areas, as well as result in better reporting of roles and budget needs across the college.

Select College Accomplishments

Empower students for a lifetime of success and impact.

Undergraduate enrollment and student success continues to be very strong in the College of Engineering. The demand for enrollment continues to grow with over 13,500 applications for Fall 2025. First year, first time cohorts have grown from 1571 in Fall 2021 to 1850 anticipated students in Fall 2025, an increase of almost 18% over four years. Transfer students continue to be strong through our community college, 4-year 2+2, dual degree partnerships and C3 admissions. In spring 2025, 110 new transfer students enrolled in engineering from these sources.

Retention and graduation rates continue to improve. Data for the last available year shows first year retention increased 2-points to 96.3%. Meanwhile, 4-year graduation rates increased more than 7-points to 63.4%, and 6-year graduation rates remained steady at around 86%.

The College has an unwavering commitment to student success, demonstrated through continued investment in programs that support the development of our students. Annually a $15M budget, funded by the Engineering Enhancement Fee, provides the most impactful experiences for as many COE undergraduate and graduate students as possible. The Engineering Your Experience (EYE) program impacted a total of 1433 students during the 2024-25 AY, a 9.8% increase over the previous year. Through EYE, 618 students received financial support to attend 104 different professional development conferences, and 193 students were supported to attend 17 different student design competitions. Technical certifications continue to increase with 31 students approved. Immersive Study Abroad and Alternative Service Break (ASB) experiences are on the rise with 208 students and 103 students respectively participating. The college continues to have strong partnerships with NC State’s Global Training Initiative (GTI) group and Career Development Center (CDC), supporting almost 200 students to participate in their programs.

Six hundred and twenty-five students participate in the Engineering Village or the newly launched Centennial Engineering Village. Over the last academic year, more than 50 of these students had an opportunity to participate in high impact experiential learning trips. The trips included meeting the CEO of Novotech Patent Law in in Washington DC along with a visit to the National Academy of Engineering, a spring break trip across four southeastern states to explore a variety of engineering careers, with a stop in Asheville where they saw firsthand how local companies are supporting their community in the wake of Hurricane Helene, and lastly, a trip focused on sustainability efforts in Greensboro, NC.

Now in its fourth year, the paid Undergraduate Research Experience (REU) Summer program has expanded to include Fall and Spring semesters. For the 2024–2025 academic year, the program awarded eight scholars in Fall 2024, eight in Spring 2025, and awarded 18 REUs for Summer 2025—supporting a total of 34 scholars this fiscal year.

The College’s impact on undergraduate and graduate success extends across the state through the Engineering Online (EOL) program and the 2 + 2 program. During the last academic year, two additional programs, including one in the high demand field of cybersecurity were added to Engineering Online. An academic advisor was added to the EOL program to work with non-degree seeking professionals returning to the classroom to boost their success as they upskill for the workforce.

The faculty and staff in the 2+2 program at UNC – Asheville worked diligently through the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to ensure students in the program would not fall behind. The semester was extended one week, and faculty provided an expanded level of support to students as they completed their course materials. Over 90 percent of the students affected by the hurricane were able to return and complete the semester.

The College added several programs to support the success and retention of graduate students. Several professional development workshops for PhD students were developed and implemented on topics ranging from “Navigating the PhD process”, “Relationship building with your advisor and committee,” “Identifying and developing core career skills,” “Building your personal advisory team for success,” to “Time management.” Job search workshops were prepared and delivered to both MS and PhD students in the College. In collaboration with the Graduate School, communications-based programming for graduate students was provided.

Departments across the college contributed to the success of students through corporate sponsored senior capstone projects, alumni – student mentoring programs, resume review workshops, and a variety of career fairs. The College sponsored career fair in the fall drew 6802 students, including 584 non NC State students, and 292 companies. A smaller, one day spring event, drew more than 2100 students and 187 companies.

Ensure preeminence in research, scholarship, innovation, and collaboration

Departments and administrative units, working together, continued to achieve milestones in research and scholarship, enabling the pursuit of cutting edge research, excellence in teaching, and the opportunity for more students to learn through research.

Embracing the mantra that research is teaching, the College regularly allocates funding from Enhancement Fees for each department to provide Research Experience for Undergraduate Awards. Participants in this program are expected to conduct research one-on-one with mentoring support from a faculty advisor. Students are introduced to all aspects of research and become familiar with the ethical issues of research. This program is fundamental in shaping career development for students. More than 500 students were selected for this program during FY25. In addition, the Enhancement Fee was used to fund graduate assistantships, paying for their salary, tuition, and student health insurance (GSSP). These assistantships offer a way for our graduate students to engage in research projects, gain hands-on research skills, and practical experience.

The Office of Faculty Development and Success (OFDS) in the college continued to evolve the New Faculty Orientation Workshop (NFOW). NFOW is now a multi-day onboarding experience designed to help new engineering faculty build strong foundations for research, teaching, and mentoring. Sessions covered course design, advising strategies, research planning, and campus resources. The evolving design of NFOW now includes more prescriptive guidance to help faculty intentionally build components of their research programs from the start, contributing to long-term success and faculty retention.

Thirteen early-career faculty participated in the NSF CAREER Workshop Series, a multi-phase program to assist faculty in developing competitive proposals. The series included proposal development sessions, a PI panel, one-on-one coaching, and sessions led by Dr. Kristi Cole, whose CAREER Writing Retreat focused on research aims, broader impacts, mentoring plans, and submission readiness.

Building on its record setting success in the number of proposals and research awards in AY23-24, Through April, faculty across the College submitted more than 900 proposals, at a value of $503.9M with April-to-date awards at more than 550 grants valued at more than $176.3M. This is an incredible achievement in light of the uncertainty in the federal funding landscape. Several faculty members did have grants cancelled during the Spring semester, but the financial impacts have been limited to a comparatively small number of areas.

Expand and advance our engagement with and service to North Carolina and beyond, defining the standard for a 21^st century land-grant university.

The College has prioritized investments in extension and engagement activities across the State to support K20 programs, rural communities, and our industry partners.

The Engineering Place (TEP), the College of Engineering’s K–20 outreach, engagement, and extension hub, is a national leader in engineering education. TEP, along with collaborations with COE faculty, engages students through hands-on programs that spark interest, build foundational knowledge, and strengthen the K–12 pipeline to support high school recruitment. Graduate and undergraduate engineering students support this work while gaining valuable leadership and communication training, preparing them for careers as socially engaged engineers. Last year TEP:

• Delivered 87 events, reaching 4,144 K-12 students and 372 K-12 teachers, while providing 406 opportunities for NC State undergraduate students to engage in K-12 outreach.
• Fulfilled 72 faculty and 383 student supply requests. Student organization outreach supply requests grew to 27 programs, doubling their K–12 impact to over 1,200 students.
• Operated 26 summer camps with an attendance of 855 students.
• Helped deliver five partner camps to increase outreach in rural communities, providing engineering programs across the state, serving an additional 671 students.
• Engaged 19 local K-12 educators as part of the summer camp team, helping them learn how to effectively integrate engineering education into their classrooms. An additional 75 teachers attended learning sessions provided by the TEP at three state conferences.

The Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) is among our most industry-specific targeted efforts housed within the COE. This year, BTEC achieved significant milestones in 2024-2025, solidifying its role in developing skilled biomanufacturing professionals and advancing industry innovation across the state of North Carolina.

BTEC experienced record-breaking academic program enrollment, with 586 individual NC State undergraduate and graduate students taking courses, 60% of whom were from the College of Engineering. This academic year, BTEC proudly surpassed a cumulative total of over 1,000 graduates who have earned a certificate, minor, or master’s degree in biomanufacturing. These graduates consistently achieve a near 100% placement rate, reflecting the strength of our program, with most securing excellent opportunities within the local biopharmaceutical industry. Beyond academic programs, BTEC’s professional development offerings continued to attract a broad audience, with over 700 professionals from North Carolina, across the U.S., and internationally attending courses and industry-led seminars.

BTEC actively supported the biomanufacturing industry through its services and research initiatives. The bioprocess and analytical services program successfully completed 10 projects for industry clients. Furthermore, BTEC conducted research funded by organizations including the National Institute for Innovation in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing (NIIMBL), the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), and the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF). This research spanned critical areas, from scaling up microbial fermentation and enhancing control of mammalian cell culture processes for biopharmaceutical production, to modeling protein precipitation for product recovery. Notably, BTEC is concluding its final year of a significant $27 million, six-year collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark, funded by the NNF.

More broadly, in 2024–25, the College of Engineering’s Academic Affairs and Industry Expansion Solutions (IES) offices continued their dedicated support of Rural Works!, a flagship internship program that connects NC State engineering and computer science students with meaningful summer opportunities in rural North Carolina. The program focuses on Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties, placing students primarily with small- to medium-sized manufacturers where they contribute to real-world projects in operations, design, project management, and supply chain management.

Summer 2025 marked a record-breaking year for Rural Works!, with 150 students interning at 90 unique companies across 42 counties. The steady growth of the initiative over the years highlights its increasing impact: from 19 internships in 2019 to 45 in 2021, 60 in 2022, 91 in 2023, 147 in 2024, and now 150.

Employers gain access to a highly qualified talent pipeline, increase their visibility through university partnerships, and benefit from student contributions that address real business needs. In the summer of 2024, participating companies reported an average economic impact of $191,600—underscoring the tangible value Rural Works! interns bring to their organizations.

The program’s model is built on shared investment. University resources and employer partnerships come together to generate exponential returns. Students gain confidence, experience, and connections; employers grow their capacity and talent pipeline; and communities across North Carolina see strengthened local economies and workforce development.

Rural Works! continues to demonstrate how strategic collaboration can drive student success, employer growth, and economic development, fulfilling the land-grant mission of NC State by investing in the future of rural North Carolina.

In addition to the support IES provides to Rural Works! they also served as a connection point between the college and partner companies across the state. IES had a direct impact on new product design, manufacturing improvements and testing for many companies during the last year. Through IES connections and the connections of their industry advisory boards, nearly every department in the College now has a senior capstone project requirement. Through participation in this program, companies gain access to the creative solutions of multiple teams of senior engineering students.

Nuclear energy and related technology is another key area of the North Carolina Economy. Over the last year, the Nuclear Engineering department, along with other representatives from NC State University, collaborated with the state and industry partners to complete a feasibility study for a new advanced reactor at NC State. The new reactor, if ultimately approved, will be the centerpiece of a vibrant “new nuclear” ecosystem centered in the state of North Carolina that will bring new STEM opportunities to the state.

Foster a climate of equality, belonging and wellbeing in all we do.

All academic departments and administrative units led or participated in activities over the last year to foster a climate where students, faculty, and staff can reach their full potential. From cultural luncheons to student celebrations to mentor programs, these activities created opportunities for members of the College to create a community for all.

The College’s Office for Engagement and Wellbeing and other members of our team provided valuable opportunities for community building and support of students, staff and faculty throughout the academic year including:

• A Thanksgiving holiday celebration that provided a warm holiday meal to 120 students, primarily international graduate students. Social events such as this and others, also bring essential information for students to learn about academic support, financial aid, food security, and career development.
• Our “Engineering Your History” series and annual college Global Showcase continues to provide opportunities for all in our college to expand their cultural competency and wellbeing through exploration of culture, food and heritage through an interdisciplinary lens.
• Key collegewide celebration events POP Back and LDOC were held on The Oval on Centennial campus, welcoming more than 5,000 students, staff and faculty. We engaged with WCOT, CHASS and COEd to expand participation to other colleges in upcoming years.
• Mentors in the Engineering Village facilitated peer-led study groups, 3D printing workshops and hosting community check-ins while offering consistent wellness support. The Engineering Village suite served as a central space for building community, where residents could engage in informal learning, decompress, and access mentorship in a supportive environment that blended academic rigor with emotional wellness.

Several programs launched last year to create engagement and wellbeing opportunities for faculty. Twenty-seven faculty members had an opportunity to participate in the NC State Story Lab, where they explored how to communicate their teaching, research, and mentoring values. Four faculty received individualized coaching, fostering connection and professional growth.

To foster belonging for new faculty three informal social events (Fall Mixer, Spring Reunion, and Ice Cream Social) were hosted, with over 45 attendees participating in community-building and cross-departmental networking. The CARE Coalition, a two-year leadership program co-developed with NASEM and WEPAN was launched. The initiative trained 45 faculty and staff to identify caregiving-related barriers and implement micro-initiatives to shift departmental culture. Post-forum feedback showed increased awareness, commitment to action, and motivation to advocate for caregiving faculty and students.

Improve university effectiveness through transformative technologies, cutting edge processes and actionable data.

Across the College, we kicked off several operational excellence initiatives of varying scope and scale over the last year. The goal is to improve operational processes while continuing to be centered on customer service across the college. The effort kicked off through the creation of the College’s Strategic Plan and with the development of KPIs for Department Heads to use as they plan hiring and programmatic needs. Every department and administrative unit completed at least one operational excellence initiative.

During the spring semester, the Operations and Finance teams in the Dean’s Office introduced new processes for the Dean’s Administrative Units to request new staff positions and backfills. The process includes a requirement that all positions show how the positions support college priorities and strategies. This new process will provide an important step in resource allocation and give the opportunity for the college to direct resources to the highest priorities.

In addition to the new hiring process, almost all of the College’s administrative units used a new zero based budgeting process to prepare and present for approval, AY25-26 budgets. Using this method, each unit builds up personnel needs and operational expenditure requests, each justified by demonstrating how the costs are needed to reach the unit’s and college’s strategic goals. Through the budget planning process, new roles were allocated for the most impact while also identifying opportunities to manage expenditures on travel, training, and technology assets better. Over time this will save significant funds and identify new areas of collaboration across our large administrative infrastructure in the COE. Examples of ways we are already streamlining operations including centralizing and standardizing professional development expenses and centralizing procurement of computer equipment.

The Dean’s Suite sponsored a senior Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) capstone project during the spring semester. The group of seniors was tasked with meeting with all departments to gain an understanding of pre-award research grant administrative processes. Several differences in how departments staff were identified as well as pain points throughout the process. Several recommendations were made by the team to improve the process, including the creation of a large language model (LLM) to provide support to faculty and research administration staff when preparing NSF proposals and a program to identify issues with proposal budgets. The college is continuing to assess the opportunity to implement these solutions at scale.

The COE Office of Faculty Development and Success designed and implemented the COE OFDS Faculty Portal, a centralized system that streamlines access to funding applications, award nominations, recognition submissions, and general feedback, helping faculty connect more easily with OFDS resources. A critical portion of the portal was created to improve faculty award nomination tracking and coordination, building timelines, templates, and a searchable internal database to improve recognition workflows and highlight engineering faculty accomplishments across the college.

Departmental operational excellence initiatives resulted in improved academic advising processes, research proposal intake, and project tracking.

Lead in developing innovative partnerships, entrepreneurial thinking and applied problem solving.

Industry partnerships and collaboration with other colleges at NC State are critical success factors for the College. These partnerships provide opportunities to contribute to economic growth across NC, to support students, and to contribute to solving the most complex problems facing society today.

Several companies visited the college last year to engage in increased collaboration with the college. BSH Home, a German company with a large manufacturing footprint in eastern NC, spent a day meeting with faculty and staff as well as touring labs across the campus. A significant part of the day focused on how the 2+2 program in Havelock can be expanded to meet the workforce needs of BSH Home. The partnership is resulting in direct hire programs for 2+2 students.

Hitachi Energy, housed on Centennial Campus, also visited the college to discuss opportunities for engagement. A proposal has been put in place which is resulting in direct sponsorship of students and activities, like POP Back, at the college.

The Dean spent considerable time this year meeting with leaders across the construction and transportation industries in NC. These conversations have resulted in a better understanding of the needs of these industries and how programs within Construction, Civil, and Environmental Engineering can support them.

For the 4th year, IES led the DoD-funded Defense Manufacturing Communities Support Program (DMCSP), aimed at strengthening the national security innovation base by supporting long-term investments in critical defense manufacturing sectors in support of the warfighter. This year, the DMCSP provided more than 20 NC entrepreneurs with access to accelerators, incubators, prototyping facilities, events, venture capitalists groups and other important resources in support of their development.

The joint program between College of Education and COE in Engineering Education continues to grow. The program is continuing to seek funding from private foundations and other sources to ensure the work to improve how engineers are educated is improved. These efforts include working to redesign the first year engineering curriculum in partnership with all of the engineering departments and the first year engineering teaching team. The new curriculum will be piloted in Fall 2025. Six students are enrolled in the MS program with several more students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate Program. Three PhD students in three different departments are working on Engineering Education PhD projects with EED advisors.

Engineering Education continued to teach a robust profile of courses, attracting students from a variety of origins. Two of those courses, EED509 Field Experiences in Engineering Education and EED511 Ethics in Engineering Education, serve as the basis for the four-week study abroad in Rwanda, which continued in May 2024. The team traveled to Musanze for two weeks to work with students from two high schools, the east for one week to work with students from two high schools, and Byimana in the south to work with one girl’s high school for one week.

Elevate the national and global reputation and visibility of NC State.

The College celebrated its 10^th year of being in the top 15 public engineering graduate schools according to US News and World Report with many departments improving their ranking over the previous year. We also boast 12 faculty members in the National Academy of Engineering, 11 National Academy of Inventors Fellows, and 31 faculty members have received CAREER Awards since 2020.

NC State’s first Millenium Technology prize was awarded to a member of the College of Engineering last year. Professor Emeritus B. Jayant Baliga was awarded the 2024 Millennium Technology Prize for his work on the invention, development and commercialization of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs).

Several events were hosted across the country to connect with alumni and to share updates on the college. Events in the Seattle, WA and Denver, CO area gathered COE alumni to meet the Dean and to learn more about the college’s priorities and successes. An alumni tailgate was hosted before NC State’s end of season baseball game against Stanford gathered faculty and staff with alumni working across NC’s construction and transportation industry. In addition to alumni gatherings, the College hosted it’s second annual reception at the recent ASEE National Conference, with more than 100 deans and faculty members from peer colleges attending.

High profile events, including the Applied AI in Engineering and Computer Science and the MetLife TTX conference were hosted at the college during the last academic year. Both events provided an opportunity for our industry partners to visit the campus, meet students and faculty, and to discuss the College’s priorities.

Critical to the success of raising the profile of the College and NC State is the effort to improve the college’s communications team. Most recently an executive director with extensive experience in communications and marketing in higher education joined the college where she is already making an impact through the redesign of the college’s ASEE booth, a website overhaul, and increased social media presence. In addition to new leadership, a pilot program to improve the support of departmental communications was completed with additional operational changes identified for next year.