The theme of the 2003 conference, “The Front Porch: Shifting from Individual to Community,” was one of Southern inspiration. As the front porch of one’s home is seen as an opportunity to transition from private life to public life, it was the ambition of the organization to make the conference an event in which those in academia and industry could transition from their professional lives at the universities and companies to the broader scholastic community and world.

(Left to right) Nancy Cassill, Professor; Erin Parrish (back), Assistant Professor, University of Alabama, Former Doctoral Student; Priya Devarajan, Former Masters Student; *Brienne Powell (back), Nancy Fair, President of ITAA, NCSU Graduate; **Beth Newcombe (back), Traci May-Plumlee, Assistant Professor, **Erin Powell (back), **Necia Tou, **Carrie Moser (front), **Amanda Lewis (front), ****Shana Bruer (back), **Genessa Fratto, **Lisa Fratto, ***Lynsey Cesca, ***Hope Nowell, ****EunJung Kim, Nancy Powell, Associate Professor

*Senior, Textile Management Apparel (TXM)
** Masters student, Textile Management Technology (TMT)
*** ITT Scholar and Masters student, Textile Management Technology (TMT)
**** Doctoral student, Textile Technology Management (TTM)

The NCSU students (graduate students in Textile Technology and fellows of the Institute of Textile Technology (ITT) program), attended research and industry presentations in areas pertinent to their graduate research topics. Students particularly enjoyed hearing industry presentations from Berrye Worsham, CEO Cotton Incorporated; Mark Mesura, Strategic Planning, Cotton Incorporated, and Robert Morris, Georgia Port Authority. According to Lisa Fratto, a first year MS student conducting research on intervehicular clothing for NASA astronauts, “the conference was an amazing experience for me because my background is not in textiles. Being able to sit in on sessions in a variety of areas, talk to different presenters and look at research being conducted through the poster session was helpful in not only expanding my knowledge of research currently being conducted, but in motivating me in my own research.”

The interaction with faculty from other universities was extremely helpful in building a network of knowledge to call upon when graduate students begin conducting their own research. The interaction is also successful in creating awareness of other research areas. Amanda Lewis, a first-year MS student, said that, "I knew that there were a variety of areas in which I could concentrate my research, but I had no idea how broad studies in textiles and apparel could actually be. It was interesting to attend research seminars to learn different approaches to research problems.”

An opportunity was presented on the first night of the conference for all graduate students to congregate, interact and learn about each other’s areas of interests. Students from around the world attended the conference. Fratto said, “the interface was educational in learning about research, but, maybe more importantly, taught us about cultural differences and backgrounds.”

The goal of the conference “transitioning to the broader scholastic community and world” was undoubtedly accomplished!

College of Textiles
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Last Site Revision:
January 16, 2004