Rate My Professor Andy Ritenour

Andrew Ritenour is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering + Technology at Western Carolina University, where he joined in 2018. Prior to academia, he spent a decade in industry managing and developing innovative technologies across diverse applications, including high voltage transistors for energy-efficient power conversion, radio frequency surface acoustic wave filters for mobile phones, and flexible paper-like displays for e-readers. Ritenour earned his Ph.D. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 and 1999, respectively, and a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Virginia in 1997. At Western Carolina University, he coordinates the senior engineering capstone program, a multidisciplinary two-semester course sequence that pairs student teams with industrial sponsors on real-world projects. This role emphasizes industrial outreach, as well as the teaching and assessment of professional skills essential for engineering practice.

Ritenour's research interests include smart structures, additive manufacturing for electronic devices, microelectronics such as surface acoustic wave devices, and sustainable energy. He holds 30 patents related to semiconductor devices and microfabrication and has published extensively in IEEE and AIP journals and conferences. Key publications feature the highly influential 'Flexible active-matrix electronic ink display' in Nature (2003), which has garnered significant citations, along with patents like 'Backplanes for display applications, and components for use therein' (US Patent 7,116,318, 2006) and 'Processes for forming backplanes for electro-optic displays' (US Patent 7,223,672, 2007). Earlier contributions include 'Epitaxial strained germanium p-MOSFETs with HfO₂ gate dielectric and TaN gate electrode' (IEDM, 2003) and 'Ge diffusion in Ge metal oxide semiconductor with chemical vapor deposition HfO₂ dielectric' (Applied Physics Letters, 2005). His work demonstrates substantial impact in the fields of display technologies, power electronics, and semiconductor devices, bridging industry innovation with engineering education.