Overview
Professor Compton’s diverse career includes global engineering product design & development, program management, business leadership & research leadership in electronics design, medical devices, motor controls and energy solutions while working at GE Healthcare, GE Energy, Eaton Corporation & consulting for small companies/startups. He has led industry research projects involving: digital & analog electronics design, novel control systems, power electronics efficiency improvements, new machine learning applications, and integrated renewable energy solutions. He is also 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 been an advisor for graduate students in the Duke Masters of Engineering Management Program (MEMP) Industry Practicum courses as well as advised undergrad engineering students in summer internship programs. He advised students working on industry sponsored consulting projects involving: Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Optimization and Technology Marketing Strategy.
He has served on Duke Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. dissertation committees advising students researching biomedical MicroFluidic chips and integrated circuit test-ability as well as an NC State thesis committee involving Silicon Carbide device applications.
He earned a BSEE and MSEE from Virginia Tech. He also earned an MBA from the Fuqua Business School at Duke University specializing in Finance & Strategy where he graduated as a Fuqua Scholar in the top 10% of the class.
He is also an expert consultant to industry for electronics design, power electronics applications and electronics supply chains/component engineering.
In addition, in his career he has taught and developed courses in electronics design, power electronics, product development, medical devices, six sigma quality, renewable energy & clean energy transition.