Announcing the 2024 ECE Alumni Awards
We are incredibly proud to announce the 2024 inductees to the ECE Alumni Hall of Fame. We also celebrate the third recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Award—showing some of the best of our amazing alumni.
November 1, 2024 
Charles Hall
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University is proud to announce the 2024 inductees to the ECE Alumni Hall of Fame. We also recognize the third recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Award.
At an induction ceremony on November 1, 2024, at Hunt Library, members of the ECE Advisory Board welcomed five members of this ninth class of inductees and ushered into the ranks of the Alumni Hall of Fame.
This class of recipients included national leaders and innovators from all walks of engineering life that are emblematic of our graduates.
We have inducted 105 exemplary alumni into our Alumni Hall of Fame since its inception in 2015, celebrating the accomplishments of our outstanding graduates who use their education to excel in a profession, career, or service.
The Outstanding Early Career Award is presented to one alum each year who has attained significant achievement early in their career and who shows promise of further contributions to the field.
Our alumni and community are at the core of the Department, representing the agents and ambassadors who have made groundbreaking contributions in the study of electrical and computer engineering and beyond.
We offer a special thank you to the ECE Alumni Hall of Fame Committee. We truly appreciate the diligent efforts of the ECE Alumni Hall of Fame Committee in the review and selection process. The Department is the fortunate recipient of their commitment to alumni engagement. Our sincerest gratitude is bestowed to the following members for their time, dedication and invaluable service: Clay Gloster, Danette Allen, Deepak Rajpal, Eric Grant, Sarah Rajala, and Spencer Johnson.
Photos from the event are freely available here.
To learn more about how you can nominate outstanding alumni for induction, please visit the Alumni and Community Awards. Nominations for next year’s induction will be accepted through May 2025.
Dilip Bhatia
A graduate of North Carolina State University with his degree in Computer Engineering, Dilip Bhatia is based in Morrisville, North Carolina, where he resides with his lovely wife and their three children. As VP, Chief Experience Officer, Dilip leads all facets of Lenovo’s ‘Total Experience’, including Customer Experience (CX), User Experience (UX), and worldwide Digital Experiences for customers, partners, and employees (EX). Ranked on the Fortune Global 500, Lenovo is the world’s largest PC company and serves millions of customers every day in 180 markets. By delivering data-driven insights to every business unit, Dilip’s teams continually listen and learn from feedback helping the company move from being a product-centric organization to one that puts the customer at the center of everything it does. His UX teams work collaboratively on research and to recommend innovations for next-gen product design and intuitive software and services for all consumer, commercial and SMB devices, including the iconic ThinkPad X1 family that Dilip helped launch prior when he was GM of the ThinkPad Business Unit. He also served a four-year stint in Beijing on international assignment as the Executive Director of Product Marketing for ThinkCentre Commercial Desktop line of offerings. Dilip has over 25 years of experience at both Lenovo and IBM in various roles and serves as executive sponsor for Lenovo’s disability & neurodivergence advocacy employee resource group, A.B.L.E., A Better Lenovo for Everyone. Dilip celebrates diversity and accessibility through leadership of the Product Diversity Office that works with product teams overcoming any inherent design bias on Lenovo’s mission of Smarter Technology For All. Dilip holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Follow @DilipBhatia on X.
Joe Britt
An engineer and entrepreneur now living in northern California, Joe Britt received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from NC State in 1991.
Prior to attending NC State, he graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) in 1987.
From a young age, Joe was passionate about all things electronic. At NC State, he focused this passion on digital system design, microprocessor architecture, and VLSI design.
After graduating, Joe joined Apple Computer and moved to California, where he worked on the development of the first generation PowerPC Macintoshes. This work whet his appetite for building great consumer products that would positively impact the lives of millions of people.
He then was one of the first employees at a small startup called Catapult, which in the mid 1990s built a modem product called XBAND for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game consoles. XBAND added network play capabilities to existing popular games, and was the earliest system of its type.
After Catapult, Joe was the first employee of WebTV networks, where he built the operating system for one of the first internet-connected television set-top box platforms. Created in 1995, WebTV gave users access to the emerging World Wide Web from their existing TVs at a time when most homes did not have internet access. WebTV was acquired by Microsoft in 1997, where Joe was a Senior Engineer until the end of 1999.
In December 1999, Joe co-founded a company called Danger, Inc., which created a new consumer mobile phone platform most commonly known as the T-Mobile Sidekick. Launched in 2002, with its distinctive rotating screen, it became an icon of pop culture, frequently seen in movies, music videos, and TV shows. The Sidekick was the first smartphone to offer multitasking, HTML web browsing, email, instant messaging, an app store, and a flat-rate mobile data plan. Danger was acquired by Microsoft in 2008, where Joe worked as a Partner Engineer until 2010.
In 2010 Joe joined Google, where he was a Director of Engineering for Android, leading multiple advanced product explorations and development projects.
Joe left Google in 2014 to co-found Afero, with a mission to deliver enterprise-grade secure connectivity for devices too resource constrained to run a traditional operating system. Afero’s secure IoT platform powers connected consumer products from partners like The Home Depot.
Joe loves to invent, and holds over 100 US Patents.
Arshed Javaid
M. Arshed Javaid is a distinguished business leader and engineer, currently serving as the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Parraid, LLC, a company specializing in telemetry data systems and mission-critical communications. Parraid was spun off from Smartronix, Inc. in 2019, where Mr. Javaid previously held the roles of President, Chief Operating Officer (COO), and founding partner.
With a career spanning over 35 years, Mr. Javaid brings a diverse skill set across several fields, including electrical and hardware engineering, software development, database management, manufacturing, procurement, marketing, and business management. His leadership at Smartronix was pivotal in establishing the company as a key player in the IT and engineering services industry. Under his guidance, the company achieved recognition for its rapid growth, particularly in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and beyond.
Throughout his career, Mr. Javaid has combined technical expertise with strategic business acumen. He has overseen critical functions such as accounting, human resources, legal, program finance, and quality assurance. He also spearheaded workflow optimization, resource allocation, and corporate governance initiatives. His experience with ERP software implementation and mergers and acquisitions further showcases his broad understanding of business operations.
Before founding Smartronix, Mr. Javaid played an essential role in Department of Defense programs as a lead software engineer on the Central Identification of Friend and Foe – Ship Self Defense System (CIFF-SD) for the U.S. Navy. His contributions to mission-critical defense systems highlight his engineering excellence and impact in national defense.
Beyond his corporate roles, Mr. Javaid has held leadership positions on the boards of financial and historical institutions, including serving as a Director of The Community Financial Corporation and The Community Bank of The Chesapeake until its merger with Shore United Bank in 2022. Additionally, he has been a trustee at Historic Sotterley, Inc. since 2004.
Mr. Javaid is a proud alumnus of North Carolina State University, where he earned three bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering. His educational journey at NC State laid the foundation for his remarkable career, making him an inspiring figure for students pursuing both technical and business paths.
Xu She
Xu She is a Senior Director of Engineering at Lunar Energy. He is a widely recognized industry leader in power electronics and has made significant contributions to pioneering technologies and products in the renewable energy and energy storage sectors. He has published over 75 papers and holds more than 40 patents. In recognition of his technical contributions, he has received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2017 IEEE Industry Applications Society Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award, the 2021 IEEE Region 1 Industry Technological Innovation Award, and the 2022 IEEE Rudolf Chope Research & Development Award. He is the industry committee chair and distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronics Society.
Dr. Xu actively supports and advocates for the FREEDM Systems Center. His influence has inspired his wife and cousin to become FREEDM alumni, and he has also hired several NCSU alumni to his teams.
Steven Whisenant
Forty-nine years of experience in the electric utility business including design and analysis of electrical power systems for nuclear generating stations, transmission substation design and analysis, distribution operations, power quality, Project Management in Nuclear, Power Delivery and Transmission, Asset Management and management of Research Projects including the Center for Advanced Power Engineering Research (CAPER).
As a Principal Engineer, responsible for development and management of Department R&D annual plan and led several initiatives: Development of remote monitoring system, Probabilistic Risk Assessment Tool for Planning and Operations, and Automated Fault Analysis process. Served on several NATF Working Groups. Responsible for design and maintenance of Recovery Plans associated with NERC CIP-014 Physical Security of substations. Served as Chair of the IEEE Surge Protection Devices Committee and several Working Groups.
Wilson White
Wilson L. White is the Vice President of Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google, where he leads a global team supporting the Platforms and Devices business units. He also oversees Google’s government affairs operations in the Asia-Pacific region and manages strategies for core product areas and emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.
With over 20 years of experience as an engineer and technology attorney, Wilson has advised lawmakers, regulators, and thought leaders globally on tech policy issues. An angel investor and innovation advocate, he has a strong track record in representing inventors and advising startups. Since 2015, Wilson has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland, teaching in the technology entrepreneurship program. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from NC State University and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
At Google, a company impacting the lives of billions globally, Wilson’s work influences the development and regulation of transformative technologies, ensuring they benefit society at large.