PBL Shines At State Conference
A-B Tech's Chapter of Phi Beta Lambda received five awards and made presentations at the state Fall Leadership Development Conference in Greensboro Nov. 3-4.
The chapter was recognized as a Gold Star Chapter and received first-place awards for Largest Chapter Membership Professional Division Western Region and the President's Award for Membership Recruitment. The chapter also won a second-place award for Largest Local Chapter Delegation Western Region and third-place for Largest Chapter Membership Professional Division.
Members attending were Micah Dickinson, Michael Fann, Jason Grey, Dana Huskins, Jane McMahan, Sergei Nazarenko, Michael Smith and Kathy Woods. Advisers Kathy Toler, Business Administration instructor, and Kathie Doole, Business Computer Technologies instructor, accompanied them. Eric McGarvey also attended as a professional member.
Toler, Woods and McMahan presented a session on the Career and Membership Achievement Program and McGarvey presented Creative Problem Solving and Business Etiquette.
Manufacturing Leadership Awards Net Prize For Incubator Client
Mike McCarthy, executive director of Corporate and Economic Development, (right) presents the Innovative Product and Process Leadership Award to Lisa Roberts, CFO, and David Thompson, president of Embedded Processor Designs, Inc., an A-B Tech Small Business Center incubated company.
A client of A-B Tech's Small Business Incubator received an award during the 2005 Industry Appreciation Event Nov. 9 at the Renaissance Hotel.
Embedded Processor Designs, Inc. (EPD) received the 2005 Innovative Product and Process Leadership Award from Western Carolina University and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.
A-B Tech is a sponsor of the Industry Appreciation Awards and was also a scholarship sponsor for continuing education for manufacturing leaders. This year's A-B Tech scholarship recipient was Borg Warner Turbo Systems Commercial Diesel Assembly Area.
"The Innovative Process and Product Award by Western Carolina and the Chamber looks for the newest and greatest product," said Russ Yelton, Small Business Center director. "The company that wins gets not only recognition, but assistance from Western Carolina University."
EPD will be given the opportunity to contract with WCU for complimentary assistance to bring its innovative product to full scale through the university's Center for Integrated Technologies. The company also received a scholarship from Blue Ridge Community College.
EPD submitted its InfoCube paging system to the competition. The InfoCube is a wireless paging system with a graphical display and user interface, which in addition to announcing when a patron's table is ready, entertains during the waiting time through games, trivia, movie show times, house menu specials and news.
For restaurants, it also maintains the average wait time for patrons, number of pagers used and number of people who walk away. Locally, it is being used at Stone Ridge Tavern.
"We're excited not only for EPD, but for the opportunities the product and technology will bring to the community," said Lisa Roberts, CFO for EPD. She operates the company with President David Thompson. "I felt like our technology matched the criteria for the award."
Judges evaluated each application with respect to three criteria: potential for beneficial impact to Western North Carolina, technological significance opening up new dimensions in performance, and uniqueness and creativity of the product or process.
"The paging system brings state-of-the art paging technology to the area. No other paging system today has the ability to entertain patrons with a graphical display and remotely update firmware and content," said Roberts.
Mike McCarthy, executive director of Corporate and Economic Development, was the lead judge for the 2005 Manufacturing Leadership Awards. Doug Jones, coordinator for Customized Training and Quality Initiatives, and Ken O'Connor, Director of Focused Industrial and New and Expanding Industry Training, were also judges.
LRC Book Giveaway
Library Assistant Tammy Ward gives Student Andrea Patterson her copy of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling. Patterson's name was drawn from about 100 entries in the LRC's inaugural Library Book of the Month contest. The November drawing was for The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis.