Overview
Professor Compton’s diverse career includes global business leadership, engineering product design & development, program management & research leadership in industrial products, medical devices and energy solutions while at GE Healthcare, GE Energy, Eaton Corporation & independent consulting for small companies/startups. He has led industry research projects involving: digital & analog electronics design, novel control systems, power electronics efficiency improvements, industrial machine learning applications, and renewable energy solutions. He became a certified Six Sigma Quality Master Blackbelt and has achieved several patents.
From 2015-2020 he was the Director of NC State’s Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Senior Design Capstone Program encompassing 200+ students. This ECE program helped startups, research centers, and industry sponsors solve design problems by student teams developing products involving: Internet of Things (IoT), Medical Devices, Machine Learning, RF Design and Renewable Energy applications. He developed & taught leading systems engineering design principles in the course, expanded the cross-discipline project diversity, upgraded the electronic design lab infrastructure and improved alignment of the program to industry sponsor & ECE Advisory board goals.
He served as the Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board for NC State’s Future Center for Renewable Energy (FREEDM) from 2014-2015. He also served as an engineering subject matter expert judge at NC State University's Annual Graduate Research Symposium since 2015.
He has previously advised graduate students in the Duke Masters of Engineering Management Program's (MEMP) Industry Practicum course and summer internship programs in areas such as: Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Optimization and Electronics Product Management Strategies.
He recently collaborated with energy industry leaders to develop the new MEMP graduate business/technical course "Clean Energy Practicum". The lecture/project course (offered in the Spring) teaches practical engineering, economic and environmental considerations by giving student teams the opportunity to solve a real-world energy transition challenge alongside industry sponsors. Professor Compton also currently serves as a graduate student academic cohort advisor to graduate students in the MEMP program.