Researchers deepen industrial, educational and community partnerships on annual bus tour

Researchers deepen industrial, educational and community partnerships on annual bus tour

"ECU is an open-door school," he said. "People can come to the Water Resources Center and find out about water resources, how students can participate in water research and how we can help the community advance in economic transformation through this precious resource."

Several schools and departments around campus were represented by a faculty member, a dean or both. They included the College of Engineering and Technology, College of Business and the School of Dental Medicine, among others, and the departments of chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, public health, education, English and more.

"One of the needs our industry partners have identified is the challenge of retaining talented employees," said Stephanie George, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Technology. "We must make sure our curriculum is aligned with the workforce needs of our region, then we can offer young people from the region the education employers here require.

"Those employees are the most likely to stay here and make their lives here."

The bus stopped in Beaufort, Craven, and Carteret counties on Day 1. On Day 2, it swung west to Onslow, Duplin and Greene counties, covering about 300 miles in all.

Between stops, faculty and staff cradled three-inch binders in their laps loaded with information about their next tour stop, key staff they might meet and recent historical detail, such as Greene County Middle School in Snow Hill was rebuilt in 2011 with $18.4 million following an EF3 tornado.

Generations of Pirate Alumni

At that school, Pirates were accompanied by Junior STEM Scholars to maker spaces and science classes, and learned about paracurricular offerings such as Gizmos & Gadgets and a pitching competition based on the popular "Shark Tank" television show.

"This is so special - to have a busload of ECU professionals stop, come in and see the work that we're doing with all hands on deck," said Antonio Blow, the district's director of student services and a Pirate alumnus, who visited at the end of the tour to discuss and update behavioral health services delivered at the school in partnership with the university.

Along with one military base, nine more businesses, nonprofits and schools were toured:

• ECU Health Beaufort Hospital
• Iconic Marine Group and Fountain Powerboats
• The Flame Catering and Banquet Center
• Moen
• Carteret Community College
• North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores
• Marine Corps Air Station New River
• Duplin Winery
• Greene County Middle School
• Yamco Industries

At most stops, operators, directors or owners shared a personal connection to Pirate Nation. Perhaps it was a sibling, a parent or grandparent, they themselves or all of the above who graduated from ECU.

"My parents both graduated from East Carolina. My grandmother. It's a family deal," said Dave Fussell, president of Duplin Winery and ECU Board of Trustees member who is a graduate himself.

Expanding the research enterprise

Following a barbecue lunch, Fussell took the group on a tour of the winery. Asked if there was a university department he could imagine a partnership with in the near future, he said marketing.

"Marketing is key. You can make anything but selling it is very, very difficult," he said. "We have a new program [here] that is really focused on the marketing end of the business, and I think that it would be good if I could send some of my folks to campus to learn it at that high level."

At Moen, the American manufacturer of kitchen and bathroom faucets and other plumbing supplies, David Albanese led one group around the New Bern assembly plant. Albanese is not only an associate manufacturing engineer at Moen but a current industrial engineering technology student at ECU. He was part of the Craven Community College transfer program after finishing the mechatronics engineering technology program. In December, the U.S. Navy veteran expects to earn his bachelor's degree and drop the "associate" in his title at Moen.

"The online program [at ECU] has been great because it's given me an opportunity to still work full time here and raise my family, coach soccer, and still squeeze time in to take classes and work toward my degree," he said.

"And it's been really nice to see some of the things we're learning in class firsthand here [at Moen], you know? We're learning about the 6S [framework], the 5 Whys - those are things that we do here, and I have the ability to explore it."

Branding a sweet potato spirit

After about 275 miles, the bus rolled into the streetside parking lot at Yamco in Snow Hill. Visitors may be forgiven for not wondering what gets made here and likely would be blown away by the truth. Yamco is a processor of sweet potatoes - of which North Carolina growers are collectively No. 1 in the nation - along with pumpkins and other produce.

With industrial equipment like tumblers, dicers and blanchers, the company processes several tons of tubers daily. Its stock is then bought by the likes of Kraft, Gerber, even Sam Adams for use in brewing, along with local food brands. The tour group sweated its way past hot vats and equipment before arriving in a cool room surrounded by oak barrels and distilling tanks.

Yamco is in the process of making a new bourbon-inspired spirit with sweet potato as the mash, aged in charred white oak and distilled to 160 proof to preserve flavorful congeners. The spirit, said the company's director of processing operations, Bill Heafy, has "legs" just like a fine wine.

It's not ready for sale yet. At a minimum, it needs a good name.

One of the tourgoers, Keith Wheeler, who directs the university's Office of National Security and Industry Initiatives, told Heafy the project sounds like an ideal test case for a partnership with the university's Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.

The potential for such a partnership, like the product itself, surely has legs.

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