Rate My Professor Andy Ritenour

Engineering professor Andy Ritenour is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering + Technology at Western Carolina University, where he also serves as the Program Director for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology B.S. program. Prior to joining WCU in 2018, he accumulated a decade of industry experience managing and developing innovative technologies across diverse applications, including high voltage transistors for energy-efficient power conversion, radio frequency (RF) surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters for mobile phones, and flexible paper-like displays for e-readers. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007, an S.M. degree from MIT in 1999, and a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Virginia in 1997. In his role at WCU, Ritenour coordinates the senior engineering capstone program, which is a multidisciplinary, two-semester course sequence featuring projects sponsored by industrial partners. This initiative focuses on industrial outreach, teaching, and the assessment of professional skills essential for engineering careers.

Ritenour's research specializations include smart structures, additive manufacturing for electronic devices, microelectronics such as SAW devices, and sustainable energy. He holds 30 patents in semiconductor devices and microfabrication and has authored publications in IEEE and AIP journals and conferences. Among his key contributions are the paper 'Flexible active-matrix electronic ink display' (Nature, 2003; cited over 770 times, co-authored with Y. Chen, J. Au, et al.), 'Epitaxial strained germanium p-MOSFETs with HfO2 gate dielectric and TaN gate electrode' (International Electron Devices Meeting, 2003; cited nearly 200 times), 'Ge diffusion in Ge metal oxide semiconductor with chemical vapor deposition HfO2 dielectric' (Applied Physics Letters, 2005; cited over 165 times), and numerous patents such as US Patent 7,116,318 on backplanes for display applications (2006). These works highlight his significant influence in advancing semiconductor technologies, flexible electronics, and high-performance MOSFETs, bridging academic research with industrial applications.