News Archives

2021-2022

Dr. Letitia Hubbard wins WEPAN Educator's Award


Dr. Letitia Hubbard won the Educator’s Award for excellence and innovation in STEM education work for girls and/or women at the primary or secondary level at Equity in STEM convening in Washington, D.C. on June 2, 2022


The Educator's Award honors an engineering educator for exceptional achievement in increasing the participation and retention of women in engineering.

Congratulations 2022 Engineering and Computer Science Departmental Award Winners

NCSSM team receives honorable mention for their sustainability-focused project

Congratulations to Team ReFridge for their Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Sustainability Innovation Award Honorable Mention! It was so difficult to choose just one national winner that the judges recognized four additional schools with honorable mentions for their outstanding sustainability-focused projects!

For the first time, Samsung partnered with the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) for the Solve for Tomorrow contest. As part of the Solve for Tomorrow contest, the Sustainability Innovation Award recognizes outstanding student-driven solutions that use STEM to address environmental issues.

Credit: Keethan Kleiner (Daily Unicorn)

Congratulations NCSSM NSBE Jr. Try-Math-A-Lon (TMAL) team

Congratulations to the NCSSM NSBE Jr. Try-Math-A-Lon (TMAL) team for placing first in the Upper Division competition (11th-12th grade) at the annual NSBE National Convention. Competition team members included Anderson Adu-Poku, Toby Aneikwensi, Hanna Closs, Abel Getachew, and Daniel Unah.

Congratulations to NCWIT Aspirations in Computing award recipients

Congratulations to the following 2022 NCWIT Aspirations in Computing (AiC) award recipients! These students were selected from more than 3,500 applicants from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. overseas military bases, and Canada. The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing (AiC) honors 9th-12th grade women, genderqueer, and non-binary students for their computing-related achievements and interests, and encourages them to pursue their passions. Award recipients are selected based on their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing, as demonstrated by their computing experience, computing-related activities, leadership experience, tenacity in the face of barriers to access, and plans for post-secondary education.

Divya Chawla: Affiliate Winner

Archita Khaire: National Honorable Mention

Melody Lee: National Honorable Mention

Sherry Liu: National Honorable Mention

Isha Mahadeshwar: National Honorable Mention

Suhani Ramchandra: Affiliate Winner

Helen Wu: Affiliate Honorable Mention

Allison Zhang: Affiliate Honorable Mention

Text Credit: Keethan Kleiner (Daily Unicorn)

John Kirk

On Thursday, Jan. 13, John Kirk was awarded the NCSSM Outstanding Teacher Award, one of two high honors for teachers at NCSSM. This award recognizes a long history of service to students through excellence in teaching, supporting student activities, and overall contributions to the mission of the School.

Garrett Love

Garrett was recognized for and Exceptional Contribution Award for Scholarship related to the amazing work he has done as a contributing author in three publications this past spring, stemming from his participation as computational modeler and teacher trainer with the CompHydro consortium project and his support of technology for online and remote teaching.

Students place in Technology Student Association regional competition

Thirty students from NCSSM competed in the Technology Student Association (TSA) regional competition on Saturday, Feb. 26 at Cary High School. The following students placed in the top three in their event:

Biotechnology Design, 3rd place team: Keisha Bansal, Amishi Gupta, Rhea Modey, Anjalie Nelatoor, and Anushree Ramanujam

Biotechnology Design, 1st place team: Prabuddha Ghosh Dastidar, Akhil Malakapalli, Pratham Patel, Naveen Ramasamy, Naveen Ramesh, and Anirudh Veeramalla

Board Game Design, 2nd place team: Ciara Everly, Mandy Gao, Eric Guan, Gwen Tripp, and Ivan Zheng

Coding, 2nd place team: Melody Lee and Ivan Zheng

Coding, 3rd place team: Jacob Van Meter and Ganning Xu

Computer Aided Design, Engineering, 1st place: Sid Rau

Music Production, 3rd place team: Aniruddh Doki, Rhea Modey, Pratham Patel, Naveen Ramasamy, and Naveen Ramesh

Music Production, 1st place team: Alexander Gopichand and Hrishika Roychoudhury

Prepared Presentation, 2nd place: Hrishika Roychoudhury

Technology Bowl, 2nd place team: Sid Rau, Dhruv Ranganath and Vishakh Sandwar

Technology Problem Solving, 1st place team: Melody Lee and Rhea Modey

Video Game Design, 2nd place team: Melody Lee and Helen Wu

Webmaster, 1st place team: Max Caza, Dhruv Ranganath, Jacob Van Meter, Ganning Xu, Allison Zhang, and Daniel Zhang



Student team named Samsung Solve for Tomorrow State Winners

Congratulations to the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow State Winners: Sherry Liu, Connor Mitchell, Timothy Laskoski, John Barnes, David Bradley, Aryan Goyal, and Ryan Krasinski! Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a national competition where students use STEM to improve their communities. The students' ReFridge app uses Optical Character Recognition and Natural Language Processing to reduce food waste. They will proceed to compete to become national finalists. -Keethan Kleiner

Ryden Program for AI named NCSSS Innovative Program of the Year

At the annual National Consortium of Secondary STEM School conference, NCSSM received the Innovative STEM Student Program Award for the school's Ryden Program for Innovation and Leadership in AI. "The NCSSS Innovative STEM Student Program of the Year award celebrates unique student programs engaging students in STEM that are planned and executed by Institutional Member schools." Congratulations to the Ryden Program on receiving this honor!

Watch the video submitted for the award here.

Dr. Garrett Love named as Educator of the Year by NC Tech

On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, the NC TECH consortium announced the winners of the 2021 NC TECH Awards at an in-person event. Dr. Garrett Love, instructor in NCSSM's Online and Open Enrollment programs and Durham Chair of Engineering and Computer Science, was named Tech Educator of the Year.

“He has an incredible ability to use technology to create learning experiences that deepen students’ understanding of the fields he teaches," says Dr. Joe LoBuglio.

Read his story and watch Love receive the award in this short video.

-Text Credit: NCSSM Communications

NCSSM NSBE Jr. Student selected as NSBE Ambassador

NCSSM senior, Abel Getachew, was selected to be a NSBE Jr. Ambassador. As an ambassdaor, Abel will:

  • Serve as a voice for the NSBE Jr. Demographic on the Pre-College Initiative (PCI) Committee

  • Create workshops and programs that align with the PCI Vision

  • Help improve the effectiveness of the NSBE Jr. Toolkits

NSBE Jr. Ambassadors also receive free registration to the National Convention.

Congratulations Abel!

NCSSM students win first place at BMES competition

NCSSM students Prabuddha Ghosh Dastidar and Connor Mitchell placed first out of 20 students at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) High School Expo and Poster competition at the annual meeting in Orlando, FL. Their poster submission describes their invention of novel 3D printer, ARTHETA-0, that uses polar coordinates to print stents made of a Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) material.

You can view their BMES webinar entitled "Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printing in Invasive Cardiology" here.

Dr. Hubbard selected as a UNC System Faculty Fellow

Dr. Letitia Hubbard, NCSSM Instructor of Engineering and Mentorship, has been named a UNC System Faculty Fellow for 2022, a first for NCSSM. The fellowship through UNC’s Division of Academic Affairs is both a recognition of Dr. Hubbard’s accomplishments in the classroom and an investment in leadership that will carry the 17 constituent members of the UNC System forward. The focus area for 2022 Fellows will be “Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning.”

“Dr. Hubbard is exceedingly deserving of this honor,” says Dr. Katie O’Connor, NCSSM’s Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs. “I am delighted she is representing NCSSM in this position.” Read more

-Text Credit: NCSSM Communications

Computer Science Chair Pilots First Course from Morganton Faculty

The chair of computer science, Dr. Larry Hodges, taught Human and Computer Interaction from Morganton to a remote class in a Durham classroom as classes started in our residential program. This is our first course from Morganton faculty and an exciting pilot of the technology and processes that could lead to more cross-campus opportunities. A big thank you to Dr. Garrett Love, chair of engineering, who has worked with Larry over the summer to put everything in place and who is facilitating the course in Durham.