Biography
Dr. Chip W. Ferguson is a Full Professor in the College of Engineering and Technology
at WCU. In other roles, he served as the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering
and Technology (CET) for well over a decade as well as program director, department
head, school director, and interim dean for another decade. 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.
Teaching Interests
Engineering design graphics, 3D constraint-based computer modeling, engineering fundamentals,
engineering statics, strengths of materials, fluid power, and new product design and
development.
Research Interests
Applied research areas include product design and development, SoTL research areas
include STEM education, undergraduate research, Project Based Learning, and Spatial
visualization skills development