Biography
Dr. Chip W. Ferguson is a Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
College of Engineering, 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鈥檚 Innovative Scholarship Award; The
Chancellor鈥檚 Meritorious Award for Engaged Teaching; CET鈥檚 Board of Governor鈥檚 Faculty
Teaching Award; CET鈥檚 George Reeser Outstanding Faculty Award (1 of 4 in 25 years);
CET鈥檚 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鈥檚 Best Paper Award. Dr. Ferguson鈥檚
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
