2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

BOARD # 464: United We Achieve: Mutual Support Provided by a Cohort of Institutions under the NSF EPIIC Program

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

In 2023, the four institutions of Kettering University, University of Northern Colorado, University of the Incarnate Word, and Western Carolina University formed the EMERGE cohort (Enabling Meaningful External Research Growth in Emergent Technologies) under the inaugural NSF Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) program. Each institution in the cohort had its own plans and activities; however, the cohort also had a set of joint activities, and was encouraged under the program to provide mutual support and assistance to each other. In this paper, we set forth the goals for the cohort activities, discuss the success of the year one cohort activities, and indicate what additional benefits the cohort provided that were not planned in the grant proposal. Recommendations are provided for other institutions that may want to form similar cohorts,
under this program or others.

Authors

Dr. Diane L Peters P.E. http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8177-8145 Kettering University [biography]

Dr. Peters is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University.
Dr. Michael Frye University of the Incarnate Word [biography]

Michael T. Frye, Ph.D. is a Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of the Incarnate Word, in San Antonio, TX. He is the PI and Director of the Autonomous Vehicle Systems Lab.
Dr. Andrew Ritenour Western Carolina University [biography]

Andrew Ritenour is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering + Technology at Western Carolina University (WCU). In addition to teaching in the field of electrical engineering, he coordinates the senior engineering capstone program which is a multidisciplinary, two-semester course sequence with projects sponsored by industrial partners. Within this role, he focuses on industrial outreach and the teaching and assessment of professional skills. Prior to joining WCU in 2018, he spent a decade in industry managing and developing innovative technologies across a broad spectrum of applications: SiC and GaN high voltage transistors for energy-efficient power conversion, radio frequency (RF) surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters for mobile phones, and flexible paper-like displays for e-readers. He holds 31 patents related to semiconductor devices and microfabrication and has published in IEEE and AIP journals and conferences.
Prof. Isaac Wanasika University of Northern Colorado [biography]

With 15 years of academic teaching and departmental leadership, Isaac has breadth and depth of unique attributes and has been responsible for the orchestration of an entrepreneurship ecosystem, innovative programs, acquiring external funds such as NSF EPIIC grant and leadership at the Monfort College of Business. Isaac has 12 years of Fortune 500 corporate experience in Strategy, Leadership, and B2B operations. His current role as Board Director of a public company provides a unique perspective of real-world business challenges and the intersection of academic theory and practice.

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