Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 66, No. 01 1990

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The 1990 Georgia Tech Alumni Directory is now available. As the most up-to-date list of all living alumni, it will be an invaluable resource.

Only the number of directories ordered will be printed, so send your request for either a

• **.

hardbound or softbound copy right away—and relive those Rambltn' Wreck memories with old friends.

Theim GeorgfaTech Alumni Drawing together good friends and good memories*

(BORGIA TECH VOL.

STAFF John C. Dunn, editor Gary Goetding, associate editor Gary Meek, Margaret Barrett photography Everett Hullum, design Wayne Parker, advertising

66 NO. i

Alumni Magazine

. SUMMER 1990

CQIVIFNTS Technology at Home

h\ **.

15

Technology Park's Charles Brown makes high-tech companies feel at h o m e • Written by Sam Heys

DreamMakers

23

Tech inventors and their "better mousetraps" • Compiled by John

Dunn

A Student's Notes from Soviet Georgia PUBUCAIIONS COMMITrEE George A. Stewart Jr. '69, chairman W. Guy Arledge 7 1 Hugh A. Carter '64 Jack J. Faussemagne '65 Frank H. Maier Jr. '60 L. Gordon Sawyer '46

34

Life's different, and the same, for students • Written by David

Nelson

Renewal in Rome

38

Under a government program and with a strong Tech influence, 27 "Main Streets" are experiencing revivals • Written by Lisa Crowe

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine is published quarterly for Roll Call contributors by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

Send cot tespondence and changes of address to: GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Alumni Faculty House 225 North Avenue NW Atlanta. GA 30332-0175 Editorial: (404) 894-4646 Advertising: (404) 894-2391 Fax: (ilk) 894-5113

Parker Petit of Heatthdyne, p. 27

T)EPAiaiMENii$ Letters

On the Cover: The father of night vision, Oscar Cleaver, EE '28, was also a genius in lighting, working on stage productions and the movie, "Gone with the Wind."Learn more about Tech inventors' contributions to American life beginning on page 23.

Illustration by Tim Williams

5

No fair comparison; Wyckoff remembered; NCAA trip.

Technotes Alumni Association repeats as #1; Antarctic tours; speedy Ramblin' wrecks; recycling; yearbook frisbees; Crecine on research panel; a van needed.

6

Research 46 Biomass from wood scraps; leaky heart valves; chaos in chemical reactions.

Profile.....

Ivan Allen: The man too busy to hate.

50

© 1990 Georgia Tech Alumni Association

GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

A CLASS BY OURSELVES. You'd be surprised how many tech grads you meet at Scientific-Atlanta.

Which we think says all that needs to be said about the quality of our people.

And the quality of our technology.

If you're interested in creating communications systems and equipment that redefine the limits of possibility, talk to us. We think you'll find we're a class act.

To learn more about Scientific-

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Atlanta's career opportunities, send your

I

resume to: SCIENTIFIC-ATLANTA, Central Employment, RO. Box 105027, Dept. TT, Atlanta, GA 30348 An Equal Opportunity Employer.

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

A

Scientific Atlanta

JETTERS

Comparison Between Carter, Reagan Unnecessary Editor: As an admirer of Sen. Sam Nunn. I am compelled to comment on his unnecessary and totally political comparison between President Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter ["A Conversation with Sam Nunn," Spring 1990].

I am personally convinced that both presidents did the very best job they could, and that fortunately or unfortunately, Reagan made an impact that changed the course of this nation and Carter did not.

If the Japanese are willing to return some of our U.S. dollars to us by paying Reagan for speaking, more power to him and us. If Carter can get such an offer, he should accept it willingly and bring some more U.S. dollars back to us. If Carter wanted to, he could even use these funds to purchase supplies and material for the people of Africa or, even better in my opinion, to provide funds for the street people of Atlanta and Richmond.

S. Joseph Ward, IM '51 Richmond, Va. No Comparison Editor: I am very upset with the article in your maga-

the Spring 1990 edition of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

zine comparing Ronald Reagan with Jimmy Carter ["A Conversation with Sam Nunn," Spring 1990].

What kinds of men and women are graduates of Georgia Tech? Are they usually men and women who are successful in business, or are they people who give their time and knowledge as volunteers in hospitals and shelters for the homeless?

If Reagan, at age 79, can still get paid $2 million, I say, more power to him.

Reagan was one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had.

How dare you compare him to Carter?

Dora S. Sowell Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.

Sam Nunn, Content Made Excellent Issue Editor: I wish to express my thoughts regarding the excellence of the content of

Like many others, no doubt, I am deluged with a wide variety of publications attempting to state the many problems facing our nation today and outlining their solutions. All recite the same half-baked ideas and the same vague solutions.

The interview with Sam Nunn and the comments of various foreign students went a long way toward pin-pointing the problems confronting us in today's world. These articles filled in many missing gaps and provided a more precise appreciation of those problems. I look forward to receiving future editions of the alumni magazine.

Philip W. Hutton, Cls '27 Hampton, Va. Wyckoff Remembered As Inspiring Teacher Editor: What a delight it was to read the article in the alumni magazine that brought us up-to-date on Dr. Hugh A. Wyckoff ["At 100, Wyckoff Thanks Lucky Genes," Spring 1990].

I well remember him as one of my favorite teachers, and the excellent biology laboratory course he

â&#x20AC;˘i

taught. I am sure that I am but one of hundreds of students who not only learned important technical information from him, but were also inspired to pursue careers in the public health field.

Dr. Dade W. Moeller, CE '47, MS SANE '48 Associate dean for continuing education Harvard School of Public Health Boston NCAA Basketball Trips Were Enjoyable Events Editor: The Georgia Tech Alumni Association and Athletic Association did a good job in arranging the NCAA basketball trips. A lot of credit should go to Alumni Executive Director John Carter and the Athletic Association's Kevin Bryant for their efforts under sometimes-difficult circumstances. It surely was a lot of fun.

Charles D. MoseleyJr., IE'65 Atlanta

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI

MAGAZINE welcomes letters from readers. Send correspondence to Editor, GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Alumni/Faculty

House, 190 North Avenue, Atlanta. GA 30332-0175.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ letters

5

TTiCHNQTES

Coining Back for Seconds For the second year in a row, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association has received the Grand Gold Medal Award, honoring it as the top alumni association in the country. The award is presented by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, based in Washington, D.C. The Grand Gold Medal, which was announced by President John P. Crecine at the Presidents' Dinner on May 11, carries a $1,000 prize sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. Fund.

Alumni Association President Oliver H. Sale Jr., ME

'56, and Executive Director John B. Carter Jr., IE '69, accepted Crecine's congratulations at the annual dinner.

The award recognizes the the most outstanding alumni relations program in the country.

Entrants in the annual competition were judged on the basis of "good planning, careful budgeting, effective use of resources, and evidence of successful results" in their respective alumni programs.

"To win the Grand Gold Award once is incredible, but to win it

Presidents' Dinner Fetes Contributors

twice in a row is unbelievable," said Carter.

He added that alumni involvement with Tech was a major factor in winMore than 650 Georgia ning the award.

Tech contributors attended "We involve 50 percent the Presidents' Dinner on of our May 11 at the alumni in Alumni Win Top at least Waverly Award for one acHotel in Second tivity a Marietta. year," he The annual Consecutive Year said. black tie "And 30 affair honpercent of our alumni con- ors contributors of $1,000 and more to the Roll Call. tribute to the Roll Call in Faculty/Staff Fund consupport of academicsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to the best of our knowledge, tributors at the Thousand Club level and above were that's tops in the nation among public institutions." also recognized.

At the beginning of the program, President John P. Crecine announced that for the second straight year, the Alumni Association had won a Grand Gold Award for excellence in its alumni relations programs. President Oliver H. Sale Jr., ME '56, and Executive Director John B. Carter Jr., IE '69. accepted Crecine's congratulations on behalf of the Alumni Association.

The Georgia lech Band and Georgia Tech Orchestra provided musical entertainment for the event.

Students from the Georgia THE SECOND TIME AROUND. Tech Student Foundation, Alumni Association President Oliver Sale displays a gold plate signifying the Student Alumni AssociaAlumni Association's Grand Gold Award. He is flanked by Tech President John tion and the Ambassadors P. Crecine (left) and John Carter, Alumni Association executive director. were also in attendance.

Technotes coiilitiuedpage 8 6

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer

90

JKHNOT1S From Page 6

Antarctic Voyage Heads 1991 Tours The list of tours for next year has been finalized, according to Janice Sangster, director of tours for the Alumni Association.

The 1991 offerings include a cruise to Antarctica Feb. 1-15, and an Elbe River cruise July 13-26 For more information about the tour program, contact Janice Sangster Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Avenue, Atlanta. GA 30332-0175.

with an Eastern Europe itinerary.

Other tours available to alumni include a TransPanama trip Feb. 26-March 8; "Wings Over the Nile" March 2-14; a Lisbon to Venice cruise aboard the Crown Odyssey May 4-18; a "Dutch Waterways Adventure" J u n e 2-16, featuring three nights in Paris and three nights in Geneva; and an Eastern Canada cruise from New York to

Black Grad Students Form Organization The newest campus group to b e chartered by the Student Government Association is the Black Graduate Student Association. The purpose of the organization, as expressed in its bylaws, is to "promote the cohesiveness and success of its members at Tech."

The document states further that BGSA plans to raise cultural awareness and enhance the technical development of its members, and provide academic and social support.

Montreal Sept. 9-19 aboard the Royal Princess.

Details about the 1991 travel opportunities will b e

published in future alumni publications and will also b e sent to prevk >us tour participants.

Speedy Ramblin' Wrecks A whole lot of shaking, rattling, and rolling was going o n as the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering chapter of Pi Tau Sigma, the ME honorary society, hosted the first annual Georgia Tech Ramblin' Wreck Design Contest o n May 12.

The competition featured 27 entries from area high school students.

The object of the contest was to create a vehicle that could travel d o w n a 40-foot-long inclined ramp in the shortest time.

Vehicles could not exceed 18 inches in any di-

rection, weigh more than 10 pounds, contain electrical or incendiary devices or toxic chemicals, have remote control or contact during the race, be bought commercially, or b e pushed or held during the release.

Stephen Kim, a student at Fayette County High School, w o n first place honors and a S75 prize.

Several mechanical engineering faculty members were also on hand to talk to the students about Georgia Tech and engineering as a career.

Technotes continued page 11

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Officers Oliver H. Sale Jr. '56 president B. loe Anderson '50 past president Shirley C. Mewborn '56 president-elect/treasurer lolm C. Staton )r.; '60 vice pn :sidei it act it â&#x20AC;˘itics H, Hammond Stithjr. '58 vice president-communications G. William Knight '62 '68 vice president-Roll Call fohll B. Carter )r. '69 vice president/executive director lames M. Langley vice president

8

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer

90

Trustees Thomas A. Barrow Jr. '48 James D. Bliteh III '53 Hugh A. Carter Jr. '64 Stanley L. Daniels '60 II. Guy Darnell Jr. '65 Joseph T. Dyer '69 II. Allen Ecker'57 '58 Edwin C. Eekles '52 Jack J. Eaussemagne '65 Hal W. Field '51 Frank B, Fortson 71 Samuel 0 , Franklin III '65 Thomas B, Gurley '59 P. Owen Herein Jr. 70

Brian D. I iogg '61 James R. Jolly '64 G. Paul Jones (r. '52 James R. Lientz |r. '65 Frank II. Maierjr. '60 Ronald L. Martin '68 Robert E. Mason '60

Patriae M. Perkins-Hooker '80 lames Richard Rolrerts III 69 L. Gordon Sawyer Sr. '46 V. Hawley Smith |r. '68 W. Clayton Sparrow Jr. '68 Francis M. Spears 7 3 '80 George A. Stewart '69 II. Milton Stewart Jr. '61 S. Joseph Ward '51

EVERY TIME YOU CHARGE, MAKE A

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Carry the prestige card that shows your Tech colors and benefits the schoc > 1! The Alumni Association/C&S VISA and Mastercard.

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In addition to providing you all the great benefits of conventional MSA and Mastercard credit cards, the Georgia Tech Prestige Card also shows your support of your alma mater.

To receive your application for your special Georgia Tech VISA or Mastercard, call the Murnni Association. Then show off your Tech colors every time you use your credit card.

C&S National Bank, which issues the card, will donate one

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Georgia Tech Charitable Life, Inc. ensures a lot of Tech's future for just a little money. Through the Charitable Life program, you can arrange for Tech to be the beneficiary of a $50,000 life insurance pohcy for premiums as low as $2.81 per day or less, depending on your age.

You can use this cost-effective method to support the Georgia Tech Foundation, Inc. and/or the Alexander-Tharpe Fund, Inc. Your gift helps guarantee a generous endowment for Georgia Tech.

Tuition at Georgia Tech turned out to be one of your best investments; now, make a good investment in the future of Georgia Tech through the Charitable Life program.

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Year.

ujjHdHNonas From Page 8

Forum Promotes Recycling The Environmental Forum of Georgia Tech hopes to expand its recycling program this fall, according to mechanical engineering student and forum member Todd Smiley. For the past year, the student group has maintained receptacles (>n the parking lot side of the Student Center for glass, computer paper and aluminum.

Newsprint is collected at a bin located behind Caldwell Residence Hall.

The current setup is too small to handle the amount of materials that Tojind out what's happening at Georgia Tech, call the 24-hour Buzz Hotline.

students and staff bring, according to Smiley. The forum hopes to establish a permanent, centrally located recycling site with larger bins that would b e more visible than the steel drums that currently serve as receptacles, he said.

"We would also like to increase residence halls' participation by having bins located in or near the

dorms," he added.

Forum members are also working with a local office waste recycler and faculty and staff at Tech to draw u p a proposal for campus-wide collection of white office paper and computer paper.

The Environmental Forum meets every Thursday at 11 a.m. in room 320 of the Student Center.

Yearbooks Are Versatile Noting that college yearbooks generate excitement for a few days but then are relegated to gathering dust on a bookshelf, the Technique has offered several ways to get the most value from the annual. The following list is from "90 Uses for Your '90 Blueprint."

1. Beer keg stand.

2. Frisbees for pit bulls.

3. Space shuttle tiles.

4. Personal flotation devices.

5. Wedding gift for ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend.

Tech's Crecine Named to Research Panel President J o h n P. Crecine has been appointed to a committee of seven university presidents that will direct a year-long congressional-university colloquium.

The colloquium will review U.S. government policies and procedures relating to science research facilities, according to U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford (D, N.C.), cochairman of the colloquium. The group will also study the tendency in Congress to eamiark science and research funds for designated universities without competitive review.

Technotes continued page 12

Thank you to the official sponsors of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE • Acme Business Products • Ball Stalker • C&SBajik

• The Coca-Cola Company

• Delta Air lines • Dodson International Air • First Atlanta • Hyatt Regency Ravinia

• Hyatt Regency Suites • Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta • Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead

Scientific-Atlanta Technology Park/Atlanta Wyndham Hotel

GEORGIA TECH • Technotes 11

qfECHNOjvTfi From Page 11

A v a n away from self-sufficiency written by omger pmhokter Larry Howard was 16 years old when, in 1970, h e dove into Lake Lanier and hit his head o n a stump. Since then, he has relied on wheelchairs, adaptive aids, and a customized van for mobility.

The accident hasn't prevented Howard from leading a productive, semiindependent life. A computer programmer, he works at Georgia Tech's Center for Rehabilitation Technology (CRT), where engineers are designing systems to remove some

of the barriers that can frustrate disabled people.

The CRT staff creates systems and devices such as "AbleOffice," a modular workstation that helps mobility-impaired people perfonn basic office tasks.

Howard's design recommendations have b e e n invaluable, according to CRT Director Jim Toler.

Howard is a C5 quadriplegic, and has limited hand dexterity and some upper-body strength. He can use a mouthstick to push electronic buttons.

When Howard began using AbleOffice, his productivity increased by 25 percent in just two weeks.

The system also provides him with greater self-sufficiency, important for Howard, w h o lives with his parents but realizes that he will be cm his o w n someday and must be able to support himself.

Although Howard has b e e n greatly assisted by one form of technology, the failure of another has jeopardized his ability to work. Howard's specially-

equipped 197a van is no longer operable, and he has been forced to work at home. CRT is now collecting tax-deductible contributions to help pay for a n e w van, valued at about $15,000 (a donated vehicle is also welcome).

If CRT obtains a van, the state will pay for wheelchair lift and driving modifications. For information, contact Tom Gannaway, CRT, Centennial Research Building. Suite 311, Atlanta, GA 30332-0130; (404) 876-8580. •

Let 26,000 Georgia Tech Alumni and Friends Know Your Business. t T-iAVJI I Vx>h. \ wo I n i<y>i HJ-L dJTiPfr. A T I fb

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J Whether your business is a service or a product, the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine can help you get the word out. The Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine is received quarterly by thousands of people interested in knowing about your business. With the wide

12

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 90

variety of our readers, wonderful things can happen by placing an advertisement with us.

For more information on letting us promote your business, please call Wayne Parker at (404) 894-2391.

TAKING CARE OF THIS GENERATION. AND THE NEXT / i

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At Home T

ture inside Atlan'he ta's perimeter. amazing And unlike Techthing nology Park, it about Technolhas had Brown's ogy Park," says name on it from its president, the start.

Charles R. "Technology Brown, "was Park was inthat more than tended to show 25 years ago that technically there were oriented service people who unindustries could derstood how operate profitthe economy ably in this area," In promoting an environment was going to says the 52-yearin which high-tech can thrive, Tech grad old Brown, who become serviceoriented—and Charles Brown has been a n innovator as became presithat Atlanta was well as an entrepreneur. dent in 1978. "It g< )ing to be very was a protoimportant to that type." changing It was an idea conceived in the 1960s by economy." Brown, a 1962 graduate in building Tech alumni who were concerned by the numconstmction, stands at the wall-to-wall window ber of Tech graduates who were having to in his 31st-floor office across from Lenox leave the state to land a job—an exodus they Square. Below him is the brown, upturned called "the brain drain." earth of the next, would-be Technology Park.

The impetus for its creation came from Its name is Lenox Park. alumnus Paul Duke, a 1945 mechanical engiYes, Technology Park has grown up and neering graduate, then a member of the Georhas its own offspring. But whereas Technology gia Tech National Advisory Board. In 1967, he Park was high-tech gone suburban—all the convinced 16 other investors to raise $1.7 milway to then-uninhabited Peachtree Comers— lion to develop a high-tech business center that Lenox Park is a bold, new, mixed-use advenContinued next page

WRITTEN

BY

P H O T O G R A P H Y

SAM BY

GARY

HEYS MEEK GEORGIA TECH • Technology Park

15

would raise funds for the Georgia Tech FounCouncil of Georgia, Brown is a relentless dation and supply local jobs for graduates in booster of Atlanta—Technology Park recently high-tech fields. won the Governor's Award for its contribution to Atlanta's economic development. "Every Duke's goal was to create a planned comdog has its day, every place its time, and munity where people could live, work and there's no doubt now is the time and this is play in the same quality-controlled environthe place," Brown says with a salesman's conment. He coaxed top developers from across viction. Although architecture lured Brown to the nation to bring their projects to Peachtree Tech, he left with a mastery in the art of the Comers. But after a promising start in 1971, deal. the recession of the mid-1970s drove land prices down, and Technology Park came "My parents had money put aside for me to within weeks of go to college, being closed by but they said the banks. they sure would appreciate me Enter Brown, not using it," who says Techsays Brown, nology Park was whose father actually beginAT*"!

Sn* > • . * • was an office ning to turn manager and around before mother a his arrival. Rel teacher. gardless, it has *% taken off under He sold his leadership. cars, wholesalTECHNOLOGY PARK S ENTRANCE. RIGHT: THE HOME O F HAYES MICROCOMPUTERS. More than 6,000 ing them, selling them to other students or anyone he could, people now work in the 40 buildings dotting buying them at auction, selling them at aucthe 600-acre development in northwest Gwinnett County. They are employed by 70 compa- tion. He also sold socks. White socks. He calls nies, including Scientific-Atlanta and Hayes Mi- them his most profitable enterprise ever, "including real estate, as far as time spent." crocomputer Products Inc. Georgia Trend magazine calls the 52-yearrown attended Tech in the late 1950s old Brown one of the state's 100 most influenand early '60s. T-shirts, jeans and white tial people, and one of the top four in the field socks were the uniform of the day. His of commercial real estate. He was hailed as the stepfather was a traveling salesman in north man who "brought the office park concept inGeorgia and Alabama, the empire of the textile side the perimeter" with Lenox Park, which mill outlet. "One clay he came home with won the 1989 Design of the Year Award from some white socks," Brown says. "He said he the National Association of Office and Induspaid 50 cents a dozen for them. I said, 'I'll take trial Parks.

Brown lives in Duluth with his wife, Brenda all you can get.'"

Eventually, the mills were sending the socks Jones Brown, an accomplished organist and directly to Brown's dorm room—200 to 300 pianist. Their two sons, Jeff, 23, and Scott, 19, dozen at a time. They were "seconds" and are Mercer University and Furman University unsized, so Brown would sort them until he students, respectively. Brown serves on the board of trustees of the Georgia Tech Founda- had a dozen pair and then wrap a rubber tion, the Atlanta Arts Alliance and the Gwinnett band around them.

"I'd go into a fraternity house and start takFoundation. ing orders," he says. "I'd pay 50 to 75 cents a Immediate past chairman of the Business

B

Continued next page i

Uf!-J

The 52-year-old Brown has been, hailed as the man who "brought the office park concept inside the rj^rimeter."

16

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

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dozen and sell them for anything I could getâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; $1.75, $2.75, $3 a dozen. I was making 200 to 300 percent."

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ow, among other things, Brown sells Tech. A major contributor and fund raiser, he was chainnan of the class of 1962's fund drive that raised $3.6 million during the Centennial Campaign, a record among all reunion classes (14 other classes, for example,, raised a combined $11.4 million). He personally sold Puggy Blackmon on becoming Georgia Tech's golf coach after the two worked together on the 1982 World Junior Cup Tournament at the Atlanta Athletic Club. (Blackmon's golf teams at Tech are conUNISYS HEADQUARTERS. RIGHTS JOHNS CRETK ONSTRUCTION. sistently ranked in the top 20 nationally.)

Brown arrived at Tech via a circuitous, if creative, route. During his senior year at Chattanooga High School, he wrote the University of Tennessee. The letter read: "I'm a graduate of a Tennessee high school and I want to be an architect. I notice you don't have a school of architecture and I know it takes a while to get one. So I just wanted to let you know I was going to be there in the fall so you could get started on one."

Brown remembers the reply: "They told me they weren't going to build a school for me, so I wrote them back and told them, 'Well, at least you ought to pay for me going to Georgia Tech.' And do you know they wrote back and said, Well, you may have a point there.'"

Brown's out-of-slate tuition at Tech was paid by the state of Tennessee. Three decades later, he speaks of his days as a Tech student with a self-deprecating sense of humor. "I tell people I took Calculus 808," he says. "That's Continued page 20

-

John's Creek and Lenox Park are two developments now under construction.

18

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1990

GEORGIA TECH • Technology Park

19

tional working conditions because they move to where they can d o their best. If you want talent and the economic value it brings, you had better create a quality environment."

It's n o w known as Technology Park/Atlanta .and is a subsidiary of Denver Technological Center, which is o w n e d by the London shipping firm European Ferries, PLC. "The Georgia Tech Foundation did two important things," says Brown. "First, it decided Technology Park needed to h a p p e n and allowed it to.

And then, a decade later, the foundation turned it loose so it could grow."

Lenox Park is :rown just one of jumped Technologyinto real Park's two deestate, dabbling velopments unin single-family der construcconstruction just AMONG HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES, A LOW-TECH QUACK HELPS PROVIDE AN APPEALING SETTING. long e n o u g h to tion. John's Creek, the other, combines office, lab and learn he'd have less hassle in commercial real light manufacturing in a low-density environestate. He was as project manager of the ment. Straddling the Fulton-Forsyth countyAtlanta Hilton in the mid-1970s w h e n Technolline, John's Creek is projected to have 2,000 to ogy Park called. "I went from 500,000 square 3,000 employees by early next year. Low-denfeet per acre at the Hilton to 10,000 square feet sity housing, retail stores, and a 300-acre golf per acre at Technology Park," he says. "The course are included in the 1,700 acres. tenants were also different, but I had gone to school with them so I understood them.

Located on 165 acres, Lenox Park has been in the works for eight years and may take an"People used to ask me where w e ate at other 10 to complete. It will include 1.5 milPeachtree Corners. Heck, most people brought their lunch back then. The service industry was lion square feet of accessory retail space. Built o n the old Standard Club golf course, the dejust getting going, and w e had a lot of ambivelopment will feature a 25-acre lake, a parktious people. Whether there was a nice restaulike atmosphere, and a monorail connecting it rant d o w n the street didn't make that much to the Lenox MARTA station, a half-mile away. difference."

Brown has become something of a technolWhat Brown found most attractive about ogy match-maker, attracting high-tech compaTechnology Park were the living conditions, so nies to settle in the stimulating surroundings he figured others would like them, too. "The of Technology Park. It has b e e n a match with quality of life is important to these companies mutual benefits, which, Brown believes, is a because it allows them to recruit and retain winning combination well worth repeating. • good people," h e says. "Creative people add economic value toHfociety, and it's almost a requirement that they be provided with excepSam Heys is an Atlanta writer.

5-391.

I\ .

202 four times. For me, it was graduate calculus. I had to take it to graduate."

After earning his building construction degree in the College of Architecture, Brown spent only six weeks in the career. The late D. A. Polychrone, a Tech architecture professor, gave him his first job, short-lived though it was. "I told him," says Brown, "'I've spent five years of my life studying this stuff and I'm sure not going to waste the rest of it by practicing it.' And he said, T m glad you said that because I was just getting ready to fire you because you're the worst architectural engineer I've ever seen.'"

B

Technology Park's aesthetically pleasing environment—acres of greenery and lakes with duckshas proved a hire for creative companies.

20

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

This shouldn't be the way you turn on your copier. i.i

AND you shouldn't need a Masters of Engineering from Georgia Institute of ^ Technology to keep it in proper running order.

But these days, if you don't know how to rewire your Coronas or replace your exposure ALL

SERVICE

lamp, chances are your copier's down again. Now rather than accept copier breakdowns as inevitable, you have a choice. You can pick up the phone and call your service technician for the umpteenth time.

Or call your local Acme rep resentative for the very first time.

Before we show you the technology behind Ricoh's latest copiers, we'll inform you of the facts that stand in front

of them.

Like the fact that Ricoh is one of the largest manufacturers of copiers and facsimile in the world. And the fact that Ricoh engineers work to make certain that when you're on a deadline, your equipment's not on downtime.

Finally, we'll discuss a little something called commitment from Acme, a company with one of the most extensive service networks we hope you never use.

So, if you're having trouble keeping your spirits up every time your copier's down, DO WHAT THE GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION DID. Call Acme and ask about Ricoh. (Or call Tech's Admissions office, and ask for a student loan.)

With Ricoh products, Acme's 18 years experience and 18 offices throughout the Southeast, ACME IS YOUR SAFE CHOICE IN COPIERS AND FACSIMILE!

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INVENTORS FROM TECH Compiled by John Dunn • Photographed by Gary Meek

DREAM MAKERS T

Wallace Coulter and bis brother, Joe.

he fanciful image of the inventor, puttering in his basement workshop during his spare time to make the discovery that will improve the world, can be as real as it is romantic.

• For proof, look no further than Wallace H. Coulter, a member of the class of 1934, whose discovery of the Coulter Principle and invention of the Coulter Counter has provided medical and industrial researchers with a fast, accurate method of counting cells and small particles.

• Coulter's initial experiment was conducted in a Chicago basement with rublrerbands, cellophane and a sewing needle. More than it) years later. Coulter Electronics is the technological leader in hematology diagnostics with annual revenues of more than SsOO million. An estimated 50,(KM) Coulter Counters are in operation in U.S. labs and Coulter has 20 separate companies around the world. • Hut the inventor may just as well be a harried student. aggravated at continually having to adjust windshield wipers during a rainstorm. Vision, coupled with genius and perseverance, can make the dream reality. Inventors often see when others do not. • Georgia Tech has its share of inventors among its alumni, professors and students. Some of their inventions have become household names, others serve industry, while others may remain novel concepts. • Take Tom Fallon's automatic windshield w ipers: While at 'lech, Fallon, EE <S6, pursued the invention as a senior project. I sing an infrared based system, he developed a device that automatically adjusts the speed of the wipers, depending on how hard it rains. In addition to earning an "A" for the project, Fallon sold the concept to a Detroit company. • It hasn't been marketed . . . yet. But maybe someday Fallon's invention will join a host of others from Tech. hike those on the following pages.

GEORGIA TECH • Inventors from Tech

23

THE

DREAM

M A K E R S

New inventions often come as solutions to what seem like—but usually aren't—simple problems.

Coulter's Discovery Launches an Industry volumetric impedance % V Tallace Coulter has calls upon the principle of • • b e e n described as "probably the closest thing displacement as a measure of volume. Blood cells are to an American backyard suspended in a conductive garage inventor you will fluid into which electrodes find wearing the mantle of are placed. As a blood cell captain of industry." passes through an aperture A member of the class between the electrodes, it of 1934, Coulter studied displaces its own volume electrical engineering at of electrolyte, and there is Tech before becoming a a measurable change in sales engineer, selling Xray equipment to hospitals the electrical resistance of ' the system. The change in the Far East. During becomes a precise meaWorld War II, he worked sure of cell volume and in electronics and electromakes possible three-dimedical instrumentation in mensional evaluation.

New York and Chicago.

Discovery of the prinIn October 1948, Coulciple led to Coulter's inter discovered the Coulter vention of the Coulter Principle, the most widely Counter, an instrument used method for counting that counts and sizes bioand sizing microscopic logical cells and industrial particles suspended in a particles at a rate of sevfluid, and launched an ineral thousand a second, as dustry that has changed opposed to the the world of diagnostic time-consuming medical research. manual method Coulter's principle of

used by a lab technician with a microscope. Coulter's first patent was approved in 1953, and he and his brother, Joe, an electronic engineer, began the one-on-one production of the Coulter Counter cell and particle analyzer.

In 1958, the brothers incorporated Coulter Electronics and Coulter Sales Corp.

The corporation has evolved into an industry dedicated to automation of the hematology laboratory, and the Coulter companies have continued to be the industry leader. Wallace Coulter is chairman of the board and Joe is president of Coulter Corp., a worldwide company with more than 5,000 employees working in

manufacturing facilities and sales, service and education operations.

Coulter used his principle and the first cell analyzer to spawn an array of instrumentation, reagents and controls, not just in hematology, but also in industrial fine-particle counting, chemistry, and other related lab instrumentation. The research led to the discovery of new parameters of cell opacity, which opened new avenues for cell classification and analysis.

Coulter's expansion of biomedical research efforts in development of monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry systems represents the beginning of the integration of three previously distinct disciplines: hematology, immunology and flow cytometry.

The Affordable Sponge

T

he sponge developed

by Gerard E. "Red" Murray is probably in your home. A 1939 chemical engineering graduate, Murray and his associates developed an affordable cellulose sponge out of material available in the public domain in 1946.

The product, the OCelo cellulose sponge, is

24

the top-selling cellulose sponge in the world and is sold in every country. Murray sold his patent to General almost 40 years ago, and O-Celo continues to manufacture the product.

"The O-Celo plant started ;out with 3,000 square feet and now cov

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

keeps logs and lumber from splitting as they dry. One of the 10-CELoi SPONGE UU 4 l £ C RUBBER ^ | leading sealants in the logging and lumber industry, it is manufactured

by U-C Coatings ers 150,000 square Corp., which Murray feet," he says. Murray also founded in 1971, and of developed Anchorseal, a which he is chairman of wax-emulsion sealant that the board.

Ironing Away Carpet Problems

A

Intelligent Modems

D

ennis C. Hayes, a physics major and member ol the class of 1973, developed the first "intelligent m o d e m â&#x20AC;&#x201D; modulator demodulatorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a high-tech device that breaks clow n the distant e barrier between comput ers. As a student, Hayes

participated in the co op program, working for AT&T Long Lines. As an employee of financial Data Sciences, he worked

on the first four-bit microprocessor for commercial use and later, at National Data Corp.. he managed operations of the communications network staff.

I le recognized the need for a device to enable personal computers to exchange data with other computers over telephone- lines, and knew the device had to be easy to use to gain acceptance in the business

office. Working alter hours at home, he built the first intelligent, microprocessor-controlled modem. The user could now issue c o m m a n d s from the computer to the modem using the Hayes Standard AT Command Set. In 1977, I laves formed l laves Microcomputer Products Inc., which has b e c o m e the leader in the microcomputer m< idem market.

fter his retirement ..from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1961, Charles D. Burgess, a m e m b e r of the class of 1933, went into the retail carpet business in Macon, Ga. He decided that there ought to b e a better w a y of fitting carpet sections together than the tedious method of handsewing, and in 1966 h e began working o n the problem.

His solution was the development of a carpet tape used to seam sections of carpet together.

In 1968, Burgess received patents on his thermoplastic seaming tape and an iron, used to activate the hot melt.

That same year h e went into partnership with Griffin Industries.

Burgess died April 4, 1990, in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., at age 80.

The Burgess system of carpet seaming revolutionized the procedure of carpet installation.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Inventors from Tech 2 5

THE

DREAM

M A K E R S

The inventions, from a new lubricant to less-polluting smokestacks, are all advances in traditional ways of doing things.

The Product Became the Company

T

'he late Reginald S. Fleet, a 1916 mechanical engineering graduate, and his brother, Preston, were the largest stockholders among seven founders of the WD40 Co., which was incorporated in 1953 as Rocket Chemical Co. The firm developed WD-40, a lubricant and rust-arresting compound, as its only product, and in 1970 changed its name to WD-40 Co.

Hair-Curling Experience

T

'he late Arnold F. Willat, a 1907 electrical engineering graduate, taught electrical engineering at Stanford before starting his own manufacturing business in San Francisco to manufacture two of his highly successful early inventions—a type of phonograph needle and a telephoneand-electrical cord coiler.

In the 1920s, he manufactured hot-permanent wave machines for a large distributor. In 1932, he invented cold permanent waving and revolutionized the cosmetics industry.

26

'Sandwich' Recipe Targets Acid Rain Source iter working on the ingredients for 10 years, Dr. Jack Winnick has cooked up an electrochemical "sandwich" that could eliminate sulphur dioxide, the chief component of acid rain, from coalfired industrial smokestacks.

Because the technology is in the final stages of development and projected to be comparatively inexpensive, Winnick has received world-wide interest in his patented process.

"It's a whole new idea of treating flue gas," the chemical engineering professor says. Many coalburning plants use liquid chemicals as scrubbers to remove sulphur dioxide, resulting in large quantities of waste sludge. "It's a mess; it's expensive," says <Winnick.

For the past decade, Winnick has been developing a process that would create an electrochemical separation of sulfur dioxide from smokestack emissions, using an electrolytic cell sandwiched between two gas-

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

diffusion electrodes.

"We use an electric field to attract the sulfur dioxide out of the gas," Winnick explains. The flue gas containing sulphur dioxide flows by a charged plate that draws the sulphur molecules through an electrolytic membrane. The fully oxidized molecules come out as highly concentrated sulphur trioxide that could yield such byproducts as sulfuric acid or oleum—chemicals used to make fertilizer, paints, detergents and explosives.

The flue gas, cleaned of sulphur dioxide, can be safely released into the atmosphere.

Winnick estimates his technology could reduce the cost of scrubbing a typical 500-megawatt power plant by 75 percent.

In lab tests, the process has exceeded 99 percent efficiency, he says.

Winnick has identified the materials to make three of the four main components in his device, but the ideal material for the electrolytic cell matrix still hasn't been identified.

He estimates that it will take two more years until his research, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, is completed and the device can be tested in a pilot-scale model.

I N V E N T O R S

FROM

T E C H

V

Cutting Edge

A

plea from an execu- * tive with a major drugstore chain put Dr. Raymond Vito, professor in the School of Engineering Science and Mechanics, onto a very basic "cutting edge" technology.

The executive was concerned with on-the-job injuries employees suffered using utility knives to open

boxes of merchandise.

Vito and Russell Boehm, ESM instrument maker, designed a utility knife with an automatic safety feature. The knife, using single-edged razor blades, was designed for opening cardboard boxes.

The blade is never exposed when the knife is not in use.

SmallTalk

M

ichael Levy introduced the world to the first hand-held electronic language calculator in the late 1970s. Levy, a 1969 electrical engineering graduate, designed the first pocket-size language-conversion computer, which was unveiled by Lexicon in June 1978. The first Lexicon language computer could translate English reciprocally into 13 languages.

Levy is now president of the company.

High-Tech Health Care

T

he death of Parker H. Petit's six-monthold son in 1970 of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), commonly known as crib death, changed Petit's life. A project manager at Lockheed-Georgia Co. in Marietta, Ga., Petit, ME '62, MS EM '64, began working on devices to monitor the breathing and heart rates of infants. In 1971, Petit quit his job and founded Healthdyne,

where he developed the world's first home physiological monitoring device, now used worldwide in the management of infants at risk for SIDS. The Marietta-based firm has evolved into an international corporation with more than 1,600 employees. Healthdyne has become a leading supplier of high-tech services and devices for the home and health-care market.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Inventors from Tech

11

THE

DREAM

M A K E R S

Some inventors make only one new discovery—for others, one leads to another and another.

Staying Power Magnified Opportunity

T

he product that became Elmer's Glue-All turned out to b e Ashworth Stull's wedding present to himself. Stull, a 1937 chemistry graduate, founded American Resinous Chemical Corp. and personally conducted the research effort to plasticize polyvinyl acetate, which became the "white glue."

In August 1942, after attempting some 800 experiments, Stull was on the verge of giving up. On the afternoon before his wedding day, h e decided to carry out one final experiment before dropping the project, getting married and going on his honeymoon.

When he returned from his honeymoon, Stull recalls, "that was the only stable product among 800." He sold his company to Borden Inc. in the mid1950s and Ash Stull's white glue became "Elmer's Glue-All."

R

ick Steenblik, a 1980 r mechanical engineering graduate n o w working with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, has develo p e d two creative inventions that so far have not realized commercial success. His latest invention, however, a n e w kind of microscope, has a waiting market.

When Steenblik unveiled a spiral solar reflector in 1981, it was featured o n the covers of Science & Mechanics and Science News magazines.

He invented the Georgia Tech Spiral Fresnel Reflector while still a student.

Based on Fresnel principles, the coiled solar energy device was believed to have virtually unlimited applications, including cooking, water heating and pumping, absorption, refrigeration, pottery firing and crop

I I

28

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

drying. It is also believed to have industrial uses such as thermal or photovoltaic p o w e r generation.

But the spiral reflector has not taken off commercially.

Another Steenblik invention is a pair of 3-D glasses that use color to create a 3-D image from two-dimensional color graphics, photographs or illustrations.

Technically called chromostereoscopy because the stereoscopic image is created by manipulating color, Steenblik is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to perfect the o p tics for mass production.

The glasses could b e used to give a 3-D effect to special television programs or cartoon shows, computergenerated images, laser shows and textbooks.

Steenblik's latest invention—a low-cost, high-performance microscope— could b e a marketer's dream come true.

Steenblik believes the microscope would b e practically indestructible, have superior optics, and b e so affordable that every child in a science classroom could have a personal microscope.

Steenblik hopes to introduce the instrument before the e n d of the year.

I N V E N T O R S

FROM

T E C H

GEORGIA TECH • Inventors from Tech

29

THE

DREAM

M A K E R S

New inventions reinforce the adage: If the mind can conceive it, someone will figure a way to execute it.

Bright Lights, Einstein and Night Sight

O

scar P. Cleaver literally wrote the book on stage lighting and devised an automatic lighting system for theaters. After earning an electrical engineering degree from Tech in 1928, Cleaver began work on his master's degree in electrical engineering at Yale University, with a minor in the School of Drama.

He developed an automatic lighting system for the theater, the modern version of which is used by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He is coauthor of Stage Lighting, which became the "bible" on professional stage lighting. As an engineer with Westinghouse Electric Co.,

he developed the lighting system used by the company in a spectacular lightand-fountain display that was a major attraction at the 1939 World's Fair. The same year, he was sent to Hollywood to assist in solving lighting problems involved with the filming of the motion picture epic "Gone With the Wind."

He was assigned as the company representative working with a team of renowned physicists including Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, and was present at the first atomic r chain reaction experiment at the University of Chicago. His next assignment was as an assis-

tant working on the Manhattan Project, which chose the Bloomfield, N.J., Westinghouse plant to study the separation of U238 from uranium ore.

After the successful separation of U-238 in 1942, he was sent to the Oak Ridge, Tenn., separation plant as the company liaison, where his involvement required being inducted into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a captain. Cleaver, who retired as a colonel, in 1963 became the civilian technical director of t h e Engineer Corps Research and Development

Laboratories, and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense as the "Father of Night Vision."

Cleaver said that night vision technology has not only aided the military, but the FBI, Secret Service, policeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and sophisticated crooks! Beneficial uses of the technology have been advanced in medical diagnoses and experimentation, and as an aid to individuals with night blindness.

Cleaver also was responsible for development of the military's first laser laboratory, initiating the military's first scientific investigation of the laser, which resulted in the development of the ruby (crystal) laser.

Household Bleach

Shhhhhh...

T

S

he late frank Mayo, Cls '23, was a chemical engineering student at lech when he discovered how lo make chlorine stable. But it wasn't until he hail financial difficulties and had to drop out of Tech in 1923 that he began profiting from his discovery, As a dairy farmer, he found that he knew how to make a better, more stable chlorine lot sanitary purposes, and he was soon selling his product to other farmers. He strengthened his bleach and sold it to laundries and cotton mills, and developed household bleach, Today Mayo Chemical Co. manufactures approxi mately one million gallons of sodium hypochlorite bleach per year lor companies such as Clorox and Puree.

30

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1990

teve Dalton, a junior electrical engineering student from San Antonio, is inventor of a modem noise filter and president of his own company, Spinnaker Development Group. His product, the DigiFilter, is manufactured

by BALLCo Inc.. of Snellville, Ga., which has a patent pending. Dalton says the noise filter allows modems to function on telephone pairs that previously could not be used for reliable data transfer.

I N V E N T O R S

FROM

T E C H

V

Saving Energy and Money

D

uring the energy crunch of the 1970s, Glen P. Robinson Jr. took early retirement as chairman of the hoard of Scientific-Atlanta, the world leader in antenna instrumentation and satellite communications, and founded E-Tech, a company dedicated to developing energy technology.

Robinson. PHYS '48, MS

PHYS '50, holds 35 patents in the fields of solar energy, antenna systems and energy management. A fonner research engineer at Tech, he was one of the founders of Scientific-Atlanta in 1952, and served as its president until 1971, when he became chairman of the board.

"I like small companies, and I like to pioneer in

new areas," Robinson said of his decision to start afresh 12 years ago.

E-Tech's first product was a water-heating electric heat pump that took heat and moisture out of the air, and replaced it with cool, dehumidified air. The device cut traditional electric water-heating bills by half. Its commercial and industrial ap-

plications include laundries, kitchens, hospitals and nursing homes.

One of the firm's latest products is a cost-saving heat pump for indoor swimming pools that also serves as a dehumidifier.

The heat pump operates by removing humidity from the air and recovering heat, which is then used to help heat the pool.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Inventors from Tech

31

THE

D R E A M

M A K E R S

New cinema systems and oil-well pumps are but two of the hundreds of inventions front Tech people.

Not All Grasshoppers Jump " V V T h e n oilmen talk • • a b o u t grasshoppers, they're talking business.

Specifically, they're talking about Joseph P. Byrd's mechanical grasshopper: the Mark II, a beam-type oilfield pumping machine that has become the industry standard. Byrd, a 1938

general engineering graduate, invented the Mark II more than 30 years ago.

During the 1976 U.S. bicentennial celebration, the Mark II was selected for permanent exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution. Although the pump in the Smithsonian is the smallest unit in the line, it

is one of the largest manmade items in the museum.

The largest Mark II is nearly 50 feet in height and is capable of producing 8,000-9,000 barrels of oil a day.

There are more than 25,000 units operating in oil fields around the world.

That's Show Biz

T

he late communications pioneer Hazard E. "Buzz" Reeves, a 1928 mechanical engineering graduate, developed one of the first systems to synchronize sound recordings directly onto film.

In 1937, he founded a firm to make acetate recording blanks for the music industry, which has since become a major manufacturer of magnetic tape. In 1946, he became a founder of Cinerama and developed the stereophonic sound system for the wraparound screen invention.

Paper Industry Legend

E

,' ,• • .• > . .

.

Something Missing?

Do you know of an inventor with a Tech connection whose invention should be recognized? Let us know for a future article. Send the name of the individual, the Tech connection and a brief description of the invention to Editor, GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Alumni/Faculty House, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175.

32

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

J. Justus, a 1948 mechanical engineering graduate, became a legend in the pulp and paper industry, receiving 122 U.S. patents for his inventions as well as many others in foreign countries.

Now deceased, Justus was still a Tech student when he applied for his first patent—a design for an electrical dynamic brake for a diesel locomotive.

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A Student's Notes From Soviet Georgia Written by David C. Nelson 34

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1990

/,i

David Nelson, a junior building construction major in the College of Architecture, was one of 250 Americans who participated in the Georgia, USA, to Georgia, USSR, Friendship Force exchange from April 18 through May 1. While the Americans were guests of families in the Soviet Georgia capital, Tbilisi, an equivalent number of Soviet Georgians were hosted in Atlanta.

EDITOR'S NOTF.:

S

oviet Georgia—Sakartvelo— is situated between the Caspian and Black seas, and has a Mediterranean climate not unlike Atlanta's. It's people have dark hair and dark complexions, and are proud of their independent heritage. They are not Russians, and quickly c< >rrect anyone making that common generalization.

The he >spitality of our hosts astounded every member of our delegation, for two weeks, we were the central focus in their lives. They took me to see 16 cathedrals, the opera, museums, and on elaborate tours of Tbilisi and the surrounding area. If I admired anything in their home, they would offer it to me. If I picked up an item in a shop, they

would buy it for me. They showered me with gifts on a daily basis, some of them belonging to their families for generations.

My host family consisted of Mareb, an architect; Nina, a medical instructor; Sandro, an 18-year-old architectural student; and Irene, a four-year-old girl.

I visited the academy where Mareb is a professor and Sandro is a student. I also spoke with several of Sandro's friends, all of whom study at other colleges in the city. Most of them spoke a limited English vocabulary, so I was able to patch together a reasonable idea of collegiate life in Sakartvelo.

After completing 13 years of primary education, including two years of English, students either enter the work force or apply for acceptance to a university. After passing an exhausting battery of examinations, GEORGIA TECH • A Student's Georgian Experience

35

Although Polytechnic University offers courses similar to Tech, life for students is much different in Soviet Georgia. they begin their first year of study.

Tbilisi has several institutes of higher learning, including the Polytechnic University and the Art Academy, which I visited. The Polytechnic University is large and its variety of technical studies is similar to those at Georgia Tech. The Art Academy is smaller and more selective, emphasizing creativity and artistic ability. Its graduates become leading artists and architects of Tbilisi.

The curriculum of both schools is inflexible and time-consuming. Students follow an exact schedule of classes until they graduate. English is a popular major with young women, but students of other disciplines must attend lessons given by private tutors to learn foreign languages.

They take no physical education courses, but the men frequently participate in organized sport clubs.

Students attend lectures every day except Sunday, and arrive for their classes at 8 o'clock each morning.

Many stay until after 5 p.m. At the Art Academy, the architectural students leave early, but only because there is no space for them to work at the college. They must continue their work at drafting tables in the corners of their homes.

Nearly all students live at home with their families, but there is a student village that houses students from different colleges. Many of the sport clubs practice at sports facilities located in this^ complex.

I

t is common to many young in Sakartvelo; I met many couples not yet in their twenties. If the couple are still students, they usually continue to live with their parents until gradua36

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1990

tion. Getting a new home is difficult and timeconsuming, even if both members of the couple are employed.

Many of the students approaching Tech graduation and the Two Georgias expressed Linda Martinson, Tech vice president for planfears of unemning, budget and finance, was one of the 250 ployment or people participating in the Friendship Force unsatisfactory exchange between Atlanta and Tbilisi, Georgia, employment.

U.S.S.R. (above left with her host family). During Knowing the her visit, Martinson met with representatives of best commisthe Georgian Technological University, including sions would the director of physics. There, she set the groundbe going to work for a future joint venture between Georgia established Tech and its Soviet Georgian counterpart. architects, the architectural students competition for dwindling job opfeared that their immediate future portunities and lamented about the would be spent designing low budget, high-rise projects for the govern- poor pay they would receive for their years spent studying. They ment. They felt confident in their were astounded when I told them training but knew that sub-standard the average starting salary for a construction materials and corrupGeorgia Tech engineer was S32,000. tion would be their future obstacles.

When employed, they will make The artists were concerned with enough to feed and house themfinding any job. Sakartvelo cherishes selves, but their average pay will be its creative talent, but it also has an around 400 rubles per month, a sum abundance of talented artists. Since equivalent to $67. the government restricts the export of art and the local area is saturated My trip was the opportunity of a with artists, it is difficult for them to lifetime. I plan to return to find a niche. Many spoke of travelSakartvelo again, to see the many ing west to Europe or America, but friends I made on my short trip to few wanted to leave their birthplace Soviet Georgia. And, with the permanently. changes rocking the Soviet Union, it may be possible for some (>f them to Other students had similar apprecome to Georgia Tech to study. â&#x20AC;˘ hensions. They worried about the

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^c

City planners envision new life for ghost towns.

"ou know the place—it's your old hometown. The downtown r streets are shaded with oak trees and lined with 19th century brick buildings that have the name of the store etched in stone above the door. It's where women shop, men hang out at the hardware store, and everyone gathers to watch the Christmas parade float by.

You see it in old movies all the time.

In real life, 50 years of thriving suburban residential and commercial development have The search for sucked the vitality "community out of many of sense of belongAmerica's central ing—leads people business districts— to seek alternatives sometimes leaving to crowded metrobehind only politan areas, crumbling ghost says city planner towns.

Bruce MacGregor.

One result is an In less fortunate opportu nityfor communities, new life in the old historic old downbusiness districts town buildings are of small towns. summarily boarded up or demolished to make room for highways and disparate civic projects.

But planners say there is hope for many of these older business districts.

"Now that most of the nation lives in newly designed areas, a lot of people are looking for new alternatives—looking for a sense of community," says R. Bruce MacGregor, a 1973 graduate of Georgia Tech's City Planning Department and director of planning for the Buckhead Coalition. r

Continued page 43 40

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

GEORGIA TECH • Main Street Renewal

41

Older downtowns face stiff competition from subuAan maDs. I;\ Business and political leaders are discovering that shopping malls can't speak to the history of a community, and they can't replicate the comfortable feeling of being around architecturally interesting buildings that have weathered the trials and triumphs of several generations.

"It's a sense of place—a sense of hometown that you can't re-create in a mall," says Frank Mcintosh, a consultant with Georgia's Department of Community Affairs, Office of Rural Development.

There are now 27 Georgia cities restoring their The "modern downtown areas remake" of downunder the austown Rome's old pices of the buildings "ivas a Georgia Mainreal shame," says street Program—a architect Eugene Department of Surber, "because Community you had a history Affairs-adminiof 100 years stered program covered up with that provides plywood, aluminum assistance to and plastic." towns with populations under 50,000 in revitalizing their downtowns.

That number is up from the six that participated when the program was introduced as part of a federal Mainstreet Program pilot project in 1980. Nationally, the number of Mainstreet cities has risen to 550 from 30 back in 1980.

A successful downtown revitalization project can transform a moribund downtown, as in the case of Rome, Ga. Back in 1980, the grass median that had

once divided Rome's main street—appropriately named Broad Street—had been paved over, leaving a vast asphalt gash; the sidewalks were cracked and weedy; and the historic Victorian buildings were crumbling.

"It was just plain ugly, to tell you the truth," says Eugene L. Surber, an Atlanta architect and 1964 graduate of Tech's College of Architecture who had gone to Rome as a member of a design team charged with finding ways to repopulate the district. "The buildings were great, but they had been covered up with plywood, aluminum and plastic. It was a real shame, because you had a history of 100 years of architecture—just there for you to enjoy."

Ten years later, Broad Street's generous green median is planted with oak trees and crepe myrtle, Victorian store fronts have been meticulously renovated, and the broad brick sidewalks are laced with landscaped green spaces. Clusters of shoppers wind their way down Broad Street, while less energetic types relax on shaded park benches and watch the world go by.

N

ot every town can do what Rome did. Since major department stores, chains and franchises are usually firmly planted in shopping malls, communities must have the economic power to support both a mall and a downtown.

"Typically, downtowns will attract small businesses, but they can no longer anchor major department stores," explains MacGregor, the planner who was in charge of Georgia's original Main Street cities. "Downtowns can maintain high- and low-end businesses, but stores in the middle have gone to shopping centers."

And older downtowns face stiff competition from regional malls as well as local shopping centers.

"Two-thirds of Georgia's population can drive to an Atlanta mall and back in a day," Continued next page GEORGIA TECH • Main Street Renewal

43

Revitalized downtowns focus on business and marketing as well as makeover beauty.

Revitalizing downtowns necessitates "sacrifices" by merchants, says Paul Pitts in front of the Floyd County Courthouse. • "You can't close for lunch and golf on Wednesdays."

44

says MacGregor. "The largest competition [to a revitalized downtown] is not so much local malls, but Atlanta's Lenox Square. The third largest shopping area in Fitzgerald, Ga.—200 miles from Atlanta—is Lenox."

Ironically, the primary rule of downtown revitalization dictates that a central business district look 19th century, but operate like a 20th-century mall.

"Who's putting us out of business?" asks Mcintosh. "It's the malls. So we have to find out what it is that they do differently."

One major difference between malls and downtowns is that new malls are run by a fulltime manager who oversees the operation as a coherent entity. He groups compatible shops together, keeps stores open at roughly the same hours, and markets the whole complex.

Downtowns have limited control over their varied tenants, but they, too, can hire full-time managers who can struggle to unify their disparate businesses.

"You have to respond to the needs of the market," says Paul B. Pitts, director of the Rome Downtown Development Authority and director of PRIDE Unlimited, a private sector organization devoted to Rome's downtown revitalization. "Some sacrifices must be made for the common good. You can't close for

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1990

lunch and play golf on Wednesdays anymore."

Many downtown revitalization projects have stumbled and fallen by focusing exclusively on making their central business districts attractive again while ignoring business and marketing strategies.

"Many failures are the result of what I call TBL—trees, benches and lights," Mcintosh says. "They come up with a design solution that ignores everything else."

At the other end of the failure spectrum are the central business districts that try too hard to emulate shopping malls. They introduce metal awnings and strive to cover architectural eccentricities with plywood, forgetting that downtowns are supposed to look different from suburban malls.

hen it works, a revitalized downtown can pull both businesses and people back to the central business district. Rome's 1980 vacancy rate of 25 percent has been reduced to 15 percent since the community started its revitalization project, and Pitts expects vacancy rates to plummet and all ground-level space to be filled upon the 1992 completion of a new downtown complex that will house a civic center, a sports arena/auditorium and a government building.

Last year, 50,000 people attended Rome's annual Christmas parade—a remarkable showing for a city with a population of around 30,000. Why the big turnout?

"It's cold. There's a nip in the air; the drum major's father was a drum major; there are trees and lights; the clock tower is lit up and all your landmarks are around you—and it's been going on for 60 years," says Pitts.

"Downtown has something the mall can't get its hands on. It's a special sense of place that is timeless." • Lisa Crowe is an Atlanta-based writer.

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IfNotUS,Wood After investing $4.5 million to make biomass oil from wood scraps, the United States may be forced to sell the technology abroad, Dr. Daniel J. O'Neil warns.

As director of the Energy and Ma terials Sciences Laboratory at Georgia Tech, O'Neil encouraged the development of a patented biomass conversion process known as "entrained flow pyrolysis."

Non-polluting and economically practical, the process is believed to be the world's most efficient biomass conversion system, yielding up to 60 percent oil on a dry basis (72 percent on a wet basis), from wood scraps and other agricultural refuse. Further, the process is simple and operates at relatively low temperatures. Earlier biomass technology, also developed at Georgia Tech, produces roughly 30 percent oil.

And yet, O'Neil reports, U.S. manufacturers have expressed little interest in the technology, despite rising domestic oil prices which make the Georgia Tech process commercially attractive. Europeans are more highly motivated to perfect new energy technologies since they pay about $42 per barrel for oil—twice the U.S. price, he notes. O'Neil says Georgia Tech has discussed a technology transfer with several European organizations in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Spain.

"This technology will probably be commercialized by a foreign entity," O'Neil says. "Five years from now, we'll probably end up buying U.S. technology back from a foreignowned company. That's the irony."

Europe? were converted in a Georgia Tech system operating at just 40 percent yield, O'Neil says, about 9<-i billion tons of biomass oil—the equivalent of 412 million barrels of crude petroleum—could be produced.

Mending Broken Hearts

A

What makes the Georgia Tech process so efficient? In a conventional biomass conversion system, O'Neil explains, wood scraps move slowly through a large, cross-sectional reactor, producing large quantities of charcoal. To harvest more oil and less charcoal, Tech researchers modified the process by pushing finely-ground wood particles rapidly through a high-temperature reactor.

Since the wood produces oil as a primary product and the oil has little time to degrade into gases or charcoal, O'Neil says, roughly 60 percent has been converted into biomass oil, which is suitable for use in industrial heaters, boilers, or kilns. The technique also generates lesser quantities of valuable charcoal and low-BTU gas. In the future, O'Neil predicts the process will be improved to produce gasoline and specialty chemicals.

If half of the unused wood residues produced annually in the U.S.

new tool for assessing leaky heart valves may soon help doctors gauge problems without diagnostic surgery, says Dr. Ajit P. Yoganathan. co-director of the Bioengineering Center at Tech. Once perfected, the technique could bolster the battle against heart enlargement, certain types t >f high blood pressure and other disorders caused by leaky valves.

Used in conjunction with conventional ultrasound Doppler imaging, the new technique is believed to be the first quantitative, non-invasive method for measuring the volume of blood leaking from human or artificial heart valves.

The Georgia Tech method employs a mathematical formula and basic engineering principles to calculate the volume of leakage.

Yoganathan's unique blood-flow duplicator, a system of mechanical valves and pumps representing a human heart, has provided preliminary information to validate the formula. In both steady-state and pulsating-flow models, Yoganathan says, mathematical/Doppler predictions corresponded well with volume measurements of simulated blood flow.

Ongoing research is addressing more complicated leaks, which may Continued page 49

46

GEORGIA TECH • Summer

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Hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta means international recognition and prestige for Georgia Tech since it will be

transformed into the 1996 Olympic Village.

So, the Georgia Tech Olympic Coalition (GTOC) is engineering a spectacular effort to encounter physical obstructions that alter flow patterns.

Chaos in Chemical Reactions Chemists may have to find new ways of describing certain non-linear chemical reactions, thanks to the new science of chaos.

Developed over the past 20 years, chaos is the study of non-linear phenomena that share common characteristics, such as randomness.

Dr. Ronald F. Fox, a physicist and chaos researcher at Tech, believes that chaos may exist in certain chemical reactions.

In most chemical reactions, the component materials eventually seem to assume an equilibrium state at which no further reactions take place. However, sensitive light-scattering instruments still detect significant molecular activity. Though such activity is < >f no importance in most cases, those tiny perturbations can be magnified into large fluctuations if the system becomes chaotic.

"When you have a chaotic system, the fluctuations that are normally very small become very large," Fox explains. "There is extreme sensitivity to the initial conditions, and that sensitivity shows itself in the growth of the fluctuations." •

help the Atlanta Organizing Committee (AOC) win the Olympic bid. You can help, too!

Purchase a GTOC T-shirt or beverage holder printed with the GTOC and AOC logos that appear in this ad and show your support for the 1996 Summer Olympics. All proceeds will fund GTOC activities that support y_\ the bid.

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GEORGIA TECH • Research

49

pROEttE TheManToo BusytoHate

I

van Allen Jr. was born in 1911 in a house on Atlanta's fashionable West Peachtree Street, delivered by a black midwife because the white doctor did not arrive in time. The delivery was to have a dramatic impact later when, as mayor of Atlanta in the 1960s, Allen led the city through a period of racial adjustment.

As Atlanta's mayor, Allen was debating whether to cross racial boundaries by attending a bjack Community Chest fund-raiser. He decided to go, and the atmosphere was tense. Suddenly, to his surprise, a black woman wrapped her arms about him in a huge hug and cried, "This is my baby!" Allen was being embraced by a woman he hadn't seen in years—the midwife who had delivered him. The tension vanished and Allen knew he had made

the right decision for himself and for Atlanta.

Allen's plan for Atlanta's economic growth and cultural development helped spur one of the nation's great success stories. Under his leadership, Atlanta's civil rights movement was successful—while other Southern cities exploded with racial tension—helping Atlanta earn the sobriquet: "the city too busy to hate."

His father, Ivan Allen Sr., was an office machinery salesman who founded the Ivan Allen-Marshall Co., Atlanta's landmark office furniture chain. Allen Sr. was a Georgia state senator in the 1920s and active in the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Boy Scouts.

Allen followed his father's footsteps in the family business and is

The Allen File 1942-45: U.S. Army, Fourth Service Command.

1953: Elected president of the Alumni Association for one-year term.

1958: Receives Distinguished Service Award.

1961: Defeats Lester Maddox in mayoral primary.

1962: Inaugurated mayor of Atlanta.

1962: Eliminates restrictions on duties of black policemen.

1963: At the request of President Kennedy, testifies before Congress in support of Civil Rights Act. 1963: Appoints bi-racial commission to examine racial situation in Atlanta and recommend action.

1963: Atlanta swimming pools and parks desegregated.

1964: Convinces 14 downtown hotels to desegregate.

1965: Re-elected to second tenn as mayor.

1966: Tours riot-torn Summerhill community in effort to restore calm.

1966: Creates Community Relations Commission.

1966: Braves and Falcons move to Atlanta and new stadium.

1985: Receives Exceptional Achievement Award

50

GEORGIA TECH • Summer

90

Written by Charles Hyatt chairman of the Ivan Allen Co. He married Louise Richardson of Atlanta in 1936. Their son. Ivan Allen III, currently directs the firm.

"My father always said to get involved in civic affairs, and so I did," says Allen, whose days at Tech were early indicators of his political talents. President of the student council and the SAE fraternity, he was also elected to membership in the honorary fraternities Phi Kappa Phi, ANAK, Omicron Delta Kappa, Theta Nu Epsilon and Beta Gamma Sigma. He played on the freshman basketball team and graduated among the top five in his class.

Allen remained active with Georgia Tech and later became president of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. He has received both the Georgia Tech Alumni Distinguished Service Award and the Exceptional Achievement Award.

O

n the shelves of his downtown office, the 79year-old Allen has several scrapbooks filled with news clippings which document some of the highlights of his political life. They go back to his college days.

"I was in the old School of Commerce when the Board of Regents decided to move it to the I niversity of Georgia back in the '30s, and we had 450 students marching in protest!" recalls Allen, who graduated with a commerce degree in 1933"It caused quite a stir back then."

A scrapbook is open to the front-page photo of the event from an old Atlanta Georgian. "That was only the beginning of student protests," he adds.

MARGARET HAHRTH PHOIO

T e c h a l u m n u s Ivan Allen: As Atlanta m a y o r , h e s o u g h t peaceful, constructive c h a n g e i n turbulent t i m e s .

Allen partially credits good preparation in c o m m e r c e a n d business administration at Tech for his later success in business a n d politics. "Georgia Tech has h a d a trem e n d o u s impact o n the city of Atlanta and on the w h o l e e c o n o m y of the South." h e says. "I can r e m e m ber staying close to Tech alumni for years, and not just the p e o p l e from my class of '33, but from other years. The rapid technological change we've seen over the last 30 years and the explosive growth of jobs in Atlanta have b e e n b e y o n d any of our wildest dreams. They w e r e heavily influenced by Georgia Tech graduates o n all levels."

As mayor of Atlanta from 196270, Allen spearheaded major change in the city a n d was forced to respond to other changes b e yond his control. As president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, h e wrote a "six-point plan" for development of the city including urban renewal, schools, moderniza-

tion of transportation facilities, the construction of a public transit system, the building of an auditorium and a coliseum, a n d a "Forward Atlanta" campaign aimed at promoting the city to the rest of the country.

It w a s Allen's diplomacy in getting city business leaders to talk to black students staging sit-ins at Rich's that led to his city-wide popularity and election as mayor.

His active dialogues with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. kept Atlanta together during those tumultuous times, a n d his g o o d business a p proach to improving race relations unified opposing extremes w h e r e others had failed.

J ^ i l e n helped make Atlanta a X-«m major league city with the J L «BRL, arrival of the Atlanta Braves, a n d h e was instrumental in promoting the development of the MARTA system, the growth of Hartsfield Airport, a n d the rebuild-

ing of the Atlanta arts community after the tragic Air France accident that killed 106 of the city's cultural leaders overseas.

Allen's n a m e has b e c o m e a perm a n e n t part of Georgia Tech in the newly formed Ivan Allen College of Management, Policy a n d International Affairs. "I'm very h o n o r e d to have the n e w college n a m e d for me," says Allen. "It's building tow a r d the future and has lots of p o tential.

"Atlanta has b e e n very lucky to have Georgia Tech located right here," Allen adds.

"Her alumni have in may ways dominated the business community here, and the city a n d the institute really have g r o w n u p together. My generation h e l p e d to b u m p Atlanta u p to a n e w level of growth, a n d I guess yours will see her into the future."

• Charles Hyatt is a graduate student at Georgia Tech.

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Allen

51

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