Welcome to DORED!

The Division of Research and Economic Development (DORED) is the administrative unit that manages N.C. A&T’s research enterprise. We invite you to learn more about how research at N.C. A&T advances education, fosters community engagement and catalyzes economic development.

Recent News

Collins Named Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor of Outreach and Economic Development

Please join DORED in congratulating Dr. Laura Collins on her new role as Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor of Outreach and Economic Development. She replaces Wayne Szafranski, who retired from N.C. A&T after 13 years of service. Laura has been N.C. A&T’s Director of Intellectual Property Development for eight years and spent the 10 prior years as a patent agent with an IP law group in San Diego, supporting patent litigation, patent prosecution, and IP business strategy counseling for clients. In her new Interim AVC role, Laura will lead the economic development and technology transfer efforts for DORED, including shepherding collaborations and agreements (e.g. NDA/MTA) with university collaborator and the business sector. Laura has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill, completed her post-doc at San Diego State University and taught as an adjunct professor at San Diego State University, University of San Diego, and San Diego Mesa College. In addition to her role on campus, Laura currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship.

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N.C. A&T’s “Energy Days” Event April 9 & 10

More than 100 scientists, N.C. A&T faculty, graduate students and staff will be on hand to guide more than five thousand students and members of the public through this year’s Energy Days event. Duke Energy, the primary event sponsor, will feature a drone demo inside the BB&T Football Stadium showing how the utility uses drones to help communities recover from storm damage. They will also perform a safety demonstration which educates citizens about the dangers associated with downed power lines. Read more...

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DORED Bids Farewell to Wayne Szafranski

Wayne Szafranski, DORED’s Assistant Vice Chancellor of Outreach and Economic Development is leaving the university after 13 years of service. Wayne received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in chemistry from Clarkson University in New York. His career path included stops at the Eastman Kodak Company, Ciba-Geigy and Konica Minolta. He moved to Greensboro 30 years ago with his wife and two daughters, joining the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship in 2005. He came to N.C. A&T as director of Technology Transfer in 2007, and became its Assistant Vice Chancellor of Outreach and Economic Development in 2010. Wayne’s next role includes business development responsibilities for Gateway Research Park’s South Campus in Greensboro. Godspeed Wayne, and thank you for your service!

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Anwar Harnessing Social Media to Study Opioid Epidemic in North Carolina

Dr. Mohd Anwar is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina A&T State University. Dr. Anwar is a current RTI University Scholar who began collaborating with Dr. Kevin Conway (SRD) and Dr. Steven Cohen (DSDS) in the fall of 2018, to study the extent to which social media data can be harnessed as an indicator of the opioid epidemic. With more than 50,000 opioid-related overdose deaths estimated in 2017 in the United States, the opioid epidemic has emerged as a major health crisis. Read more…

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Ofori-Boadu Receives NSF CAREER Research Award

Dr. Andrea Ofori-Boadu, assistant professor of Construction and Construction Management in N.C. A&T’s Department of Built Environment within its College of Science and Technology, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. The award period starts on March 15, 2019 and ends February 29, 2024, and is expected to total $559,991. The NSF CAREER award program is a foundation-wide activity that offers NSF's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty like Ofori-Boadu who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the missions of their organizations. Read more…

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Homaifar Named Langley Professor

Dr. Abdollah Homaifar, professor in N.C. A&T’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is the newly appointed Samuel P. Langley Distinguished NASA Langley Chair Professor at the National Institute of Aerospace. The Langley Professorship, funded by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is dedicated to an N.C. A&T faculty member who works at the institute and leads university-based research and technology thrusts of substantial interest to NASA. Under this prestigious award, Homaifar will continue to focus his attention and research on the development of tools for Autonomous Unmanned Systems, bringing together top researchers to address grand challenges and investigate problems of significant national interest. Read more…

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 N.C. A&T Uses Drones to Bring “Smart Agriculture” to the Aggie Farm

A team of N.C. A&T researchers led by Dr. Ali Karimoddini received a three-year, $600K grant from the National Science Foundation to fly a team of drones above the university’s 492-acre farm, located off McConnell Road on the east side of Greensboro, for crop health monitoring, a revolutionary step toward smart agriculture. Unlike traditional crop management methods that use farmers or ground vehicles for assessing crop health status, using autonomous technology to perform aerial monitoring of agricultural fields saves time and money, while preventing damage to crops. Read more…

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Dr. Beni Using UAVs for Flood Mapping and Management

Dr. Leila Hashemi Beni, an assistant professor in the Geomatics Program in the Department of Built Environment in the College of Science and Technology, is using unmanned autonomous vehicles as remote sensing mechanisms to develop flood mapping in the state of North Carolina. Supported by a three-year, $300K grant through the National Science Foundation, Beni’s project is designed to gain a fundamental understanding of UAV data processing and to develop a research program on remote sensing data processing for environmental management. The NSF grant provides programming support for research experiences impacting both high school and undergraduate students, whose research will be further integrated into new undergraduate and graduate curriculum at the university. Read more…

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Other Resources

• The DORED Newsroom Blog
• 2018 News Archive
• 2017 News Archive
• The N.C. A&T Aggies News Room
• DORED Brochures