ECU research leads to $6 million agreement to improve Army Reserve facility management nationwide

ECU research leads to $6 million agreement to improve Army Reserve facility management nationwide

A research collaboration between ECU and the U.S. Army Reserve is moving from the lab into active use with a new 10-year agreement that could exceed $6 million and improve how Army facilities are monitored, maintained and managed nationwide.

ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers and Maj. Gen. Matthew S. Warne, deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC), signed the intergovernmental services agreement during a ceremony at ECU's Science and Technology Building, marking a significant step in a partnership that began as a research effort in 2023. Faculty, students, researchers and Army Reserve personnel came together for the signing, marking the next step in bringing the project to Reserve facilities across the country.

"This is a proud moment for each of us here at ECU because it reflects exactly the kind of work we believe a great public research university should be doing," Rogers said. "ECU has an opportunity and a responsibility to put the expertise of our faculty, the talent of our students and the power of research and creativity together to solve real-world problems. And today we're taking what we've learned and we're moving toward something much larger."

The partnership began in 2023 as a research development project, initially funded at around $1 million by the Army Research Lab and managed by the Civil-Military Innovation Institute as part of the Catalyst-Pathfinder program. Researchers during the prototype phase worked directly with soldiers at Fort Bragg and in Winterville, as well as at locations in Massachusetts, Texas, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico, to develop and test the technology.

The ECU-developed system not only helps schedule routine maintenance, but also uses remote, wireless sensors to monitor environmental conditions that can affect facility health, including conditions that can contribute to mold growth. This helps identify potential problems before they become larger and more costly issues. The information is presented through a dashboard that gives Army Reserve personnel a clearer picture of the condition of facilities and helps them make decisions about where maintenance and investment are most needed.

"We are going through some critical decisions we need to make on our own infrastructure where we can best support our troops," Warne said. "This system can be expanded and gives us flexibility at the highest levels to consider in our decision making to say, 'This is where we're going to invest our money'."

"Our soldiers want to come to a reserve center or a training facility that's functioning," he added. "We expect them to have that same level of professional workplace that they have in their civilian careers."

The intuitive dashboard is available for soldiers in Reserve divisions and commands coast to coast, including the 63rd, 81st, 88th and 99th Readiness Divisions, and 1st and 9th Mission Support Commands.

For ECU, the project also demonstrates the value of bringing different areas of the university together to solve a practical problem.

The ECU research team included faculty and students in construction management, technology systems and computer science, along with the School of Art and Design.

"Projects like this are illustrations of how the university's technical expertise, our students' capacity and our partners' needs can come together to produce a result that will have real impact," said Dr. Sharon Paynter, senior vice provost for research and innovation.

Paynter also highlighted the value of bringing STEM disciplines together with the humanities, arts and social sciences.

"By combining technical expertise with skills in art, design and communication, the team can translate complex information into tools and resources that are easier to understand, more accessible to a broader audience and, ultimately, more useful in real-world settings," she said.

The agreement represents another step forward for ECU as an R1 research institution, a designation representing the highest level of research activity recognized by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

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