Dr. Chip W. Ferguson has been an Associate Dean in the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) and a full professor in the School of Engineering + Technology for over a decade. His prior leadership roles, which spanned another decade at WCU, included serving as a program director, department head, school director, and interim dean. He has received numerous awards including WCU’s Innovative Scholarship Award; The Chancellor’s Meritorious Award for Engaged Teaching; CET’s Board of Governor’s Faculty Teaching Award; CET’s George Reeser Outstanding Faculty Award (1 of 4 in 25 years); CET’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising; and the MARC Industries Inc. Association for Rehabilitation Centers Directors Award. He has led (PI) or co-led (Co-PI, collaborator) multiple grant projects totaling over 4.5 million in external funding from the National Science Foundation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Golden LEAF Foundation. In 2012, he was named a Research Faculty Affiliate at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. Dr. Ferguson also led multiple externally funded engineering design projects involving students who developed new products for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, U.S. Army Research Office, ORNL, UF Shands Cancer Hospital, MARC, and several companies, where two of the design projects resulted in U.S. patent applications. He has published more than forty articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and in 2022 he and three co-authors were awarded the Journal of Engineering Technology’s Best Paper Award. Dr. Ferguson’s past industry experience involved the design and development of hydrostatic drives and automated fluid power systems.