College of Textiles

ANNUAL REPORT 2000-2001

Changes in Service Environment

The past year has continued to be challenging for the textile industry. Almost every week there is a new announcement of a plant closing, major merger, acquisition, or consolidation. Although total shipments, production, and exports increased; the number of jobs continued to decline. Despite these challenges the textile industry remains the largest contributor among basic manufacturing industries to U.S. gross domestic product ($76.3 billion compared to $75.5B for aerospace, $72.9B for paper and $64.7B for automotive - 1998 figures, latest available). The industry has had enormous productivity growth. For example, loom productivity has increased over 500% in less than 25 years (14% in 1999 alone). These changes in the industry and the media coverage of job losses and plant closings especially in North Carolina continue to make recruiting students a serious challenge.

Many of the textile companies have cut back research and development activities and reduced laboratory and other service facilities. These cuts present new opportunities to the College of Textiles to provide both fundamental and applied research and a wider range of testing and lab services. Many of the companies are also realizing that they must invest in their human capital and have announced major new efforts in training for all levels of employees. This gives the college new opportunities in providing short courses, in-plant courses, and distance education.

A potential legislative action that could have a significant impact on the College of Textiles is the current bill allowing North Carolina universities to join the SREB Academic Common Market for graduate students. Since all of the graduate degrees in the college qualify as unique offerings, this could give us dramatic new opportunities for recruiting American graduate students throughout the region. If this action is successful and leads to North Carolina universities joining the ACM at the undergraduate level, the college would be able to attract top quality out-of-state students from the entire region.

Compact Plan: Major Initiatives from our Compact

A major initiative in the College of Textiles has been the establishment and funding of Centennial Scholarships. In 2000-2001 we awarded 12 Centennial Scholarships (three were joint Park-Centennial). The first class had outstanding results their first year. Four students had a 4.00 GPA and the median GPA for the class was 3.848. For 2001-2002 we offered ten scholarships - all were accepted. Funding exceeded goals in our Compact Plan. In addition to the candidates selected as Centennial Scholars we offered ten NCTF Scholarships and ten Prestige Scholarships to the next twenty ranked candidates.

A High-School Teachers Workshop was funded by the North Carolina Textile Foundation and organized and led by a faculty committee in June 2001. Twenty-five participants registered for this 2.5-day workshop. Congressman Etheridge and Chancellor Fox addressed the workshop participants and high school teachers on the final day. Feedback from workshop participants has been outstanding. We started a Freshman Mentoring/Research Program with five freshmen engaged in faculty research programs. A college honors course was initiated with 19 participants. The course was taught by two outstanding young faculty representing the two academic departments.

We have moved aggressively in developing our "digital library" concept and putting digital materials online for faculty and extension specialists use. We have created a working framework for the course development, created and filled a new position for full-time support to faculty members in using the new technologies, and have converted our largest classroom to a digital studio to allow real time digital taping of all courses.

We have expanded the international opportunities for students and have agreed to develop a masters program with AUTEX (eighteen European universities offering textile degrees) where we will host international students for one semester of a four-semester program and our students will have the opportunity to enter the international programs in the participating universities.

In 2000/2001 we developed the format, delivery system, and software to put our academic courses, short courses and in-plant courses online and/or on CD-ROM. All of our basic short courses have now been converted to use this system of delivery. We have now conducted four short courses using this system (two in Textile Fundamentals, one in Basic Textiles, ad one in Short Staple Manufacturing). We have also delivered two other in-plant courses using our new technology. We have upgraded classrooms, labs, the library, and student lounge with wireless communications; created new computer labs for special classes; created a new digital studio; added servers; and upgraded other computer labs.

The inaugural meeting of the Center for Research in Advanced Fibrous Structures (CRAFS) was held in January 2001 with almost 40 companies represented. These companies confirmed the need for a research center focused on technical and medical textile markets. We are currently preparing the request for Permission to Plan for a new Center for Computational Fabrics and Textiles. We have received $500,000 in funding from DARPA for research in electro-textiles jointly with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The Anni Albers Scholars dual-degree program (B.S. in Textile Technology, B.A. in Art and Design) with the College of Design was launched on January 6, 2001 with 14 students. A special section of DF 101 (Design Fundamentals) was taught jointly. A design lab was converted to a studio environment. The initial response to the program by students, faculty and industry has been outstanding.

Diversity: Initiatives and Progress

The College of Textiles continues to have a good record in diversity. We have 24% female faculty, 14% faculty of color, and 19% international faculty. We also have 48% female students, 25% of color, and 11% international. In almost all of these areas we have improved in the past few years. Dr. Brenda Allen taught a Freshman Advancement Seminar for twelve African American students and provided special assistance and information to over 180 African American students. Dr. B. S. Gupta developed and taught a course titled PHI 205, "Moral Community - The Struggle for Freedom and Justice in America." In this course he addressed many issues involved with diversity.

Instructional Program Advances

The Colleges of Textiles and Design launched the Anni Albers program. The initial class of 14 students started in the Spring semester. Details of an MS Textiles with specialization in Textile Design have been finalized and this program will move to the curriculum process during the next academic year. Work on the reciprocal minors with the Department of Paper Science has resolved most of the issues surrounding this offering. These minors should be approved during the next academic year.

The Polymer and Textile Chemistry Program faculty modified the physical chemistry requirement in the Dyeing and Finishing Operations and Management concentrations. The introductory dyeing and finishing laboratory was upgraded with new dyeing machines, new padders, a reflectance spectrophotometer and a solution spectrophotometer. The Textile Engineering faculty developed a complete new set of lab experiences for TE 205. In TE 440, a new course, the students developed an on-line customer response system for a textile company. TE 404 was completely redesigned and now focuses on Six Sigma Quality. TE 401 and TE 402 were completely redesigned to give students broader senior design experience. The lab portion of TMS 211 was taught on-line. The MS/TE Option B degree has been approved by the department faculty and awaits action by the College and University committees.

Research

The National Textile Center continues to be successful with this year marking the 10th year of support from the Department of Commerce. NTC provides the college about $2.3 million per year in research funding. The Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center is operating successfully on state and industrial funding with over 30 members. It is in the midst of creating a state-of-the-art melt-blown / spun-bonded pilot line in the Partners I building that will be an international showplace facility for producing a wide variety of high-performance nonwoven fabrics.

The Thermal Protection and Comfort Center continues to serve industry with what is arguably the finest facility in the world for assessing protection and comfort issues. TPACC has a new contract with NIST for investigation of the effects of moisture on thermal protection. The Hosiery Technology Consortium is completing a successful program that included technical development and quality standards development. In particular, the relations between hosiery manufacturers and retailers have been improved considerably through the activities of the Consortium. The Textile, Apparel, and Business Intelligence Consortium received funding last year from the North Carolina Textile Foundation to prepare a study on the competitive status and future trends of the U.S. textile industry. The resulting report has been received favorably by industry, and a number of copies have been purchased. It has performed contract work for Reliance Industries (India), Toray (Japan), and has potential contracts with ATMI and CANAINTEX (Mexico).

A research initiative in Computational Fabrics and Textronics, joint with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department has received substantial seed money from DARPA for investigations into use of electrically conductive fabric structures in a variety of applications. A promising new Center initiative for the University that would contain a major textile component, is the Army Center of Research for Nanoscience for the Soldier. Work on this proposal is just starting, and the College has the lead in one of the four specified initiatives - Textiles and Materials.

Extension

The Applied Research Program remains very strong and growing. The satisfaction level of the quality, cost and delivery of this program to our clients remains extremely high. The textile industry's economic challenges have had a major impact on our education programs with a decline of participants over the past three (3) years for both of our major education programs - the In-Plant Training Program and the Short Course Program.

We have made tremendous strides in our Distance Education efforts. We have digitized our instructional materials for all our programs and have offered numerous Short Courses and In-Plant programs using the digital format. We will begin to market our Distance Education programs - both fundamental courses and customized, in-house programs - during Fall, 2001.

Faculty and Staff

Dr. Roger Barker spent the spring semester at the University of Otago in New Zealand as the William Evans Fellow. Dr. Jon Rust was named Outstanding Teacher in the College of Textiles for 2000-2001. Dr. Harold Freeman continued as Co-Editor of Dyes and Pigments and Dr. David Buchanan continues to serve as Editor of Textile Progress. Dr. Keith Beck was appointed to the Publications Board of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. Dr. David Hinks serves as the academic editor of Colouration Technology. Dr. Jeff Joines was selected as Area Editor for fuzzy evolutionary optimization in the Journal of Fuzzy Optimization and Decision Making.

Mr. Wade Carter and Ms. Fusako Purser received Awards for Excellence and Mr. Mike Ferguson and Mr. Don Bailey received the Outstanding Extension Award. Ms. Barbara Williams, Dr. Roy Johnson, Mr. Leon Moser and Mr. Cliff Seastrunk were inducted as charter members of the Academy of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension.

Students

Two students, Bradley Cummins and Matthew Robison, were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. At the May Commencement Michael Gerbera and Lori Sloan were two of the 51 NCSU valedictorians. Sara Draper, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Keith Beck and Dr. Brent Smith won first place in the AATCC Herman and Myrtle Goldstein Student Paper Competition.

Fund Raising

The North Carolina Textile Foundation received a total of $1,393,000 of which $493,000 was from outright cash contributions. Deferred gifts totaled $900,000. The total University College support was $4,295,424 through the third quarter (95% of goal). The Foundation provided over $1,300,000 in support to the college in 2000/2001.

Administration

Dr. A. Blanton Godfrey became dean on July 1, 2000; Dr. William Oxenham became Associate Dean for Academic Programs on May 1, 2001, and three senior faculty members retired (Drs. Livengood, Winchester, and Grady). We lost five EPA and SPA staff members through promotions to other jobs on campus. Six new faculty members joined the college during 2000/2001.

Recommendations and Concerns for the Future

The main concern for the future remains the uncertainty in the state funding of the universities. A second concern is the rapidly changing textile industry. The globalization of the industry, the rapid consolidation of many areas, and the continued pressure on profits create uncertainty among prospective and current students and puts increased pressure on applied research and other extension activities. These changes are creating many challenges and opportunities. The college will have to act quickly to take advantage of the opportunities and minimize the effects of other changes.

The early success of the Anni Albers Scholars Program and the planned MS concentration in textile design create concern for space needs in the future for these studio-intensive programs.