ABB, a multinational organization that focuses on power and automation technology, has donated $1.2 million to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to support power engineering research and education at N.C. State.
According to Ben Hughes, executive director of development and college relations for the College of Engineering, the $1.2 million initiative will be used to establish a professorship and student scholarships.
“This $1.2 million mainly comprises of $632,000 from ABB for a span of five years, which will be used to establish professorship, lecture series and student scholarships mainly focusing on power engineering. The student scholarship program will award five $6,000 scholarships per year to students taking power engineering classes,” Hughes said. “The lecture series will feature scholars from ABB talking about developments in power technology and the smart grid.”
“The ABB has a longstanding relationship with N.C. State, and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department specifically,” Hughes said. “We also expect that the proposed professorship will be supplemented by matching grants from the UNC Distinguished Professorship by the state of North Carolina and the C.D. Spangler Foundation, which is a non-profit public benefit organization.”
Barry Dillon, spokesperson for ABB, said the driving force for this initiative was to expand the already strong relationship with N.C. State.
“Our main purpose is to pipeline the talent from N.C. State who are trained and well-educated in power engineering, which is a strong need for us. Purpose of providing scholarships is to facilitate cutting edge research in power engineering,” Dillon said. “We also plan to start a center for smart grid excellence this year on campus, which will be focused in research of smart grid technologies.”
According the Hughes, ABB is looking for talented students from various levels.
“They are looking at all levels of students in general, but specifically undergrads and perhaps some master’s students,” Hughes said. “The main selection criteria will be academic excellence, power engineering experience either through courses or work experience and good communication skills and willingness to pursue summer internships with ABB.”
According to Daniel Stancil, head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, ABB is looking to hire a number of students for their cutting-edge research.
“They [ABB] need more students than we have. It is a great opportunity for the students. We are looking toward some of the scholarships till the end of this semester but the program will really kick off starting next semester,” Stancil said.
“In the past, power engineering has not been a very attractive field to pursue education. But now, power engineering is gaining widespread importance due to the growing need of renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy,” Dillon said. “This will be a hot and exciting field in future.”
“The need is more, but the supply of students do not meet the demands of the industry. It is thus a great opportunity for young talents to work in a booming field,” Dillon said.
According to Hughes, this donation not only encourages students to think of ABB as a possible employer but also to look for other players in this field.
“I am sure this donation and initiative will encourage students to enter power engineering fields where there are other strong players like Duke Energy, Progress Energy and Siemens Corporation,” Hughes said.
Stancil said the applications for these scholarships will be advertised by end of this week.
“There will be an application process which students will go to be eligible for these scholarships. We have set up a small committee of faculty members in our department,” Stancil said. “They will process these applications and make selections of eligible candidates. The information about the applications will be published in next day or two.”
ABB has their North American headquarters in Cary. It also has their power division, a research and development branch at N.C. State’s Centennial Campus.
