Lifetime Achievement

ECU computer science teaching assistant professor receives award

Brian Dietrick, teaching assistant professor in the East Carolina University Department of Computer Science, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Cincinnati School of Information Technology.

“I honestly feel that it’s probably one of the highest honors that I could ever receive, so I’m very, very proud,” Dietrick said.

He graduated from the school at the top of his class in 2001. He went on to work in various software development and leadership roles in global companies.

Brian Dietrick, teaching assistant professor in the ECU Department of Computer Science, accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Cincinnati School of Information Technology. (Contributed photo)

“I’ve worked in health care. I’ve worked in education. I’ve worked in manufacturing. I’ve worked in agriculture. I’ve worked in finance, in the quality control industry and preventative maintenance industry. I’ve worked in lots of different industries, and I’ve written software for all those different industries,” Dietrick said. “Some of my software is being used in probably every country in the world because I worked for large companies, and I would develop a piece of software and then they would literally deploy it in every factory they have around the world.”

He came to North Carolina to work at Wilson Medical Center and earned his master’s degree from ECU. He was drawn to the Department of Computer Science and began teaching as an adjunct faculty member in 2023 before moving into a full-time teaching position this fall.

“I made the decision that ECU is where I’m going to spend the rest of my career because I love teaching, I love learning and I love programming,” he said.

Dietrick said he was teaching class when he got a phone call from an Ohio number. Concerned that the call could have something to do with his family, he stepped outside to answer it.

“It was a person in charge of alumni, and he said he wanted to let me know that I was nominated and I had won this award. It was an awesome feeling,” Dietrick said. “When I graduated, I was the information engineering student of the year, and now I got this alumni lifetime achievement award. It’s like bookends.”

At ECU, Dietrick teaches data structures; software architecture and design; requirements of engineering; explorations and computing; and software project management. In all of it, he brings his experience in industry to the students.

“I hope that they find value in the material, the lectures, the demonstrations that I do from my experience practicing and observing this work in industry,” he said. “I hope it connects the dots for them.”

He not only wants to help students succeed, but also wants to see ECU’s Department of Computer Science grow.

“What I would love to see is have ECU be a sought-after software engineering and computer science department. That’s really my goal,” he said. “I want to introduce some things here that not only add value but are able to produce students with skill sets that are competitive. I want to stay current, and I want to give students both breadth and depth so that they can immediately look like heroes in the workforce. I just would like for my students to share some of the exact same successes that I had when I was in the same situation.”

Dietrick said he knows ECU is where he’s supposed to be.

“I’m just excited to be here,” he said. “I’m excited to produce the next generation of IT, computer science and software engineering talent.”