Dr. William J. Craft

Photo of Dr. Craft

Dr. William Craft
NC A&T University
McNair Hall
Greensboro, NC 27411
(336) 334-7620
Ext. 116
craft@ncat.edu

Dr. Craft has served as North Carolina A&T’s Space Grant director since 1995.  He holds the Ph.D. degree in Engineering from Clemson University and his current research interests include thermal stress and materials modeling with applications to high-displacement actuators.  His most recent patent relates to a thermally-compensated high resolution pressure sensor issued April 8, 2008.
 
Dr. Craft has participated in a number of space grant initiatives including a student design project that focused on building relationships with the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, PARI (www.pari.edu) through one of our senior engineering capstone design projects.  Through this effort, teams of engineering students from A&T improved the balance of two existing 26-meter (85-foot) dish radio telescopes at PARI.  Other space grant projects have included collaborative teacher workshops involving NASA’s Langley Research Center, the National Institute of Aerospace, and both North Carolina A & T State University and North Carolina State University.  For a five year period, math and science 6-12 grade teachers in North Carolina have competed for the chance to attend two-week workshops both at our two campuses and at NASA Langley in Hampton, Va.  They learned a great deal about research activities at our campuses and at NASA directed to space exploration efforts and how to engage their science and math students in understanding some important principles of space travel in their classrooms.

Dr. Craft is a licensed professional engineer, and he serves as an item-writer for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and an engineering evaluator for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, ABET. He has been involved with the National Institute of Aerospace since its inception.  He has served as a visiting professor to North Carolina A&T State University from Martin Marietta Aerospace, and he has served in a number of capacities at the University including fourteen years of service as Chairperson of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  His current appointment is as Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies.

Representative Publications

  • Heung Soo Kim, Jaehwan Kim, Joshua Ampofo, Craft, et al, Modeling Elastic, Viscous and Creep Characteristics of Cellulose Electro-Active Paper, Mechanics of Materials - under revision.
  • Heung Soo Kim, Jaehwan Kim,Woochul Jung, Joshua Ampofo, William Craft and Jagannathan Sankar, Mechanical Properties of Cellulose Electro-active Paper under Different Environmental Conditions, Smart Materials and Structures. 17 (2008) 015029, January, 2008
  • Jaehwan Kim, Ph.D.; Woochul Jung, MS; John Shelton, MS; William Craft, Mechanical Properties of Cellulose-based Electro-Active Paper, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, revision completed
  • Wesley Agustin, Michael Alberter, Clayton Collins, Calmeese Howard, Minh Phan, J. Don Cline, Leonard Uitenham, and William Craft; Balancing a Radio Telescope as a Capstone Design Project, ASME paper 43806, IMECE2007, November, 2007
  • Erik James, William Craft, et al, Nickel-Titanium Shape Memory Alloy Motors and Electromechanical Devices, ASME Technical paper 15119, IMECE2006
  • Paul Tatum, William Craft, et al, Multidisciplinary Topics in Senior Capstone Design Courses – Radio Astronomy, ASME paper 13358, IMECE, 2006
  • Mannur Sundaresan, Yong-Kun Park, Jaehwan Kim, William Craft, Jag Sankar, and Sang Choi, Laser Scanning Vibrometer Studies of Electro-Active Papers, Nov., 2005  - ASME IMECE, 2005
  • John Shelton, William Craft, Jaehwan Kim, Jamil Grant, Jag Sankar, and Sang Choi, Fatigue Properties of Electro-Active Papers for Biomimetic Actuators, Nov., 2005 & published in the proceedings - ASME IMECE, 2005
  • Gupta, Rahul, Waters, Cindy K., Kelkar, Ajit D., Craft, William J., Sankar, J., and Kumar, D., “3-D Non-Linear Finite Element Modeling of Thin File Subjected to Nano Indentation,”  2004 ICCE International Conference, August 2004
  • Craft, W. J., and Christensen, R. M. “Thermal expansion coefficients of 2D laminated composites and 3D randomly oriented fibers, “ Journal of Composite Materials, Vol. 15, Jan. 1981.
  • Raju, I. S. & Craft, W. J., "Analysis & Sizing of a Mars Aerobrake Structure," AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol 30, No. 1 Jan-Feb 1993.
  • W. J. Craft and M. K. Richardson, “Stresses in an Elastic Quarter-Plane Containing a Circular Inclusion,” Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 37, No. 2,  1970.

Synergistic Activities

  • ABET program evaluator for US Domestic and International Programs
  • Mechanical Engineering Committee item writer for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
  • Session Organizer for ASME for IMECE (International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition 2004, 2005 and in prior years).
  • ASME Regional Vice President, Region IV from 1999-2002.
  • Chair - subcommittee on Minorities and Women for the Congressional Workforce Study of the National Institute of Aerospace
  • ASME Distinguished Service Award, Membership in: ASME, Pi Tau Sigma, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi.
  • Reviewer for NSF Graduate Applications and Curriculum Development Grants - multiple years
  • External examiner for multiple dissertations, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.  Involved in international agreements with Universities in India, Ghana, and South Korea.
  • William Craft and Rahul Gupta, Patent - "Pressure sensor having two materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion configured to reduce temperature dependence", US Patent # 7,355,718 April 8, 2008.

           
Collaborators & Other Affiliations

1) Served as North Carolina- A&T’s University representative to the National Institute of Aerospace proposal-writing team of six universities (includes: GIT, Virginia Tech, NC State University, The University of Maryland, and University of Virginia from 2001-2002.  This team prepared the original proposal leading to the creation of the National Institute of Aerospace.  This involves both research and teaching.
2) Board of Directors for the Greensboro, NC Industries of the Blind.  I head the HR committee for the board.  This has been a broadening experience and has contributed to an appreciation of the special needs and problems of the blind and visually impaired people – 1997-2005 & 2007-.
3) Developed a proposal leading to the creation of an ABET-accredited engineering physics program at North Carolina A&T with the Physics department and NASA Headquarters.
4) Served continuously since 1995 as A&T’s space grant director.  We have substantial experience in collaboration among space grant institutions in North Carolina.