Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 66, No. 02 1990

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eeh's Mad' Scier Also Inside

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C^ORGIATECH VOL 66 NO 2

STAFF

Alumni Magazine

CONTENTS

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

Waste Not, Want Not

PUBUCAHONS COMMITTEE

Dream Makers: Part B

L. Gordon Sawyer '46, chairman George A. Stewart Jr. '69

FALL 1990

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12

Tech scientists are exploring ways to turn today's garbage into tomorrow's worthwhile by-products. • Written by John Toon

Battle of the Byte

22

A Tech grad tackles "computerphobia" in the marketplace.

Written by Gary Goettling

,

An encore of inventors from Tech. • Written by John

27

Dunn

Georgia Tech's "Mad" Scientist

36

Craig Anderson is angry that students aren't taught more about science and math—and he's doing something about it. • Written by John Dunn

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

Send correspondence and changes of address to-.

GEORGIA TKCII ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Alumni, faculty House 225 North Avenue NW Atlanta. GA 30332-0175 Editorial: <i()4) 894-4646 Advertising: (404) 894-2391 Fax: (40-D 894-5113

O n t h e Cover: Craig Anderson is "mad" because loo many school-age children think science is dull. He's out to prove them wrong. Read about his efforts, beginning on page 36.

Photo by Gary Meek

Letters Defending Nunn and Carter; black students assocation questioned.

5

Technotes Roll Call goal; alumni dance; Summerscape; seeking a '90s renaissance; summer camp for Buzz; Arthur Murray at Tech; an AIDS program.

7

Research

45

The importance of trees; robots; exploring feelings; fiber-reinforced plastics.

T e c h n o l o g y Transfer Chemical vapor deposition; semiconductor electron wave devices.

48

Profile Charles Muench: The color of money.

50

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GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

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JETTERS

Despite Setbacks, a Positive Influence Editor: In the summer issue of the alumni magazine, two letters were published, both critical of Sen. Sam Nunn's comments about Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

It would be in order to register the fact that some of us agree totally with

GEC)i<caA

Sen. Nunn, and believe that Carter was a far more positive influence on this country than Reagan. Despite his setbacks as president, Carter's devotion to humanitarian causes as an ex-president totally eclipses Reagan's obsessive acquisition of wealth.

Frank W. Smith, EE '47 Chattanooga, Tenn.

A Question of Liability?

Editor: A "TechNotes" item announcing the chartering of a Black Graduate Student Association appeared in the summer issue.

I worked for the federal government for many years. I think I understand civil rights laws very well.

But I believe that black

graduates have no right to organize an association restricted to color or race.

Furthermore, the magazine has no right to publicize their organization.

I encourage you to research your legal liability under civil rights laws for publicizing this organization. I am quite sure that you would be quickly attacked if you announced the formation of a "White Graduate Student Association" to promote the success of only white Tech graduates.

Having been equally accepted into any and all activities and organizations at Tech, why should black graduates need to organize an exclusive association?

Beryl Grubaugh, BS '50 Scottsdale, Ariz.

Tuwaner Hudson-Lamar, co-founder oftheBGSA, responds: "Although the purpose of the Black Graduate Student Association is to serve as a support group for a group of students who are sparsely spread throughout the Georgia Tech community, membership is not restricted to 'color or race.'

Article 111, Section 1 of its bylaws state: Any Georgia Tech student shall be eligible for full membership in theBGSA.'" EDITOR'S NOTE:

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI

welcomes letters from readers. Send correspondence to Editor, MAGAZINE

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI

Alumni/Faculty House, 225 North Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175.

MAGAZINE,

Thank you to the official sponsors of the WmK • Acme Business Products • Ball Stalker • C&S Bank

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GEORGIA TECH • Letters

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eorgia Tech's 44th Annual Alumni Roll Call kicks off its 1990-91 fiscal year with a $4.4 million campaign goal.

Frank H. Maierjr., IM '60, vice president for Roll Call, says more than 1,000 volunteers will be involved in the Roll Call campaign.

The annual Roll Call supports academics at Georgia Tech, creating opportunities for President John P. Crecine to introduce special initiatives not possible otherwise because of restrictions on the use of state money, explains John B. Carter Jr.. IE '69, Alumni Association vice president and executive director.

Roll Call money is used to award student scholarships, including Presidential scholars and fellows, to fund research centers and recruiting facilities, to acquire equipment for faculty and staff, and to support alumni programs, clubs, publications and special events, Carter states.

The theme of the drive is "Roll Call is making a world of difference," says Stacey Sapp, IMGT '80, Alumni Association director of Roll Call.

"Roll Call makes a big difference at Tech in many ways," Sapp says. "For example, it has funded more than 330 scholarships for

top students during the past three years, assisted" more than 155 faculty members purchase computers, and provided the

development of undergraduate instructional centers and laboratories in electronics and manufacturing." â&#x20AC;˘

SciTrek Swinging On Friday night, Oct. 26, the best dance party in town may be at SciTrek, the science museum of Atlanta, where the Swinging Medallions will perform in concert for Georgia Tech alumni and friends.

The event, which begins at 7 p.m. and runs until midnight, is a collective reunion for the classes of 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985, but all alumni are invited to attend, according to Gail White, director of programs for the Alumni Association. The cost of $18.50 per person includes admission to the show and hors d'oeuvres. A cash bar will also be available.

For more information call White or Beth Bates at the Alumni Association, (404) 894-2391.

Technotes continued page i

Olympics At Tech The 1996 summer Olympics, which were awarded to Atlanta on Sept. 18 by a vote of the International Olympic Committee, will leave an indelible mark on Georgia Tech.

The campus will serve as the Olympic Village for the event, set for July 20Aug. 6. 1996. Tech will benefit from a new residence hall and other facilities that will be built for the event.

The next Tech Topics will contain a section describing Tech's important role in the Olympics.

Buzz holds an Olympic torch while Georgia Tech students and staff cheer from the elevated walkway over North Avenue.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Technotes

7

T«T7i

pLOtNOTrS From Page 7

Seeking Renaissance for the '90s

Summer Camp Champ

F

F

ormer President Jimmy Carter, architect John Portman, and Steven Jobs, the founder of Apple Corp., are featured speakers at EDUCOM's conference on information technology hosted by Georgia Tech on Oct. 14-17 at Inforum in Atlanta.

The theme of the conference is "Preparing for the Renaissance: Computing and Communications for Technology, Science and the Arts." EDUCOM is a non-profit consortium of more than 600 colleges and universtities concerned with computing and communications issues in higher education.

Carter, Cls '46, will address the role of the U.S. and its universities concerning global communications. Portman, BS '50, will speak about the vision of

Former President Carter an architect, and Jobs, president and founder of NeXT, will speak on interpersonal computing for the decade ahead. Other featured speakers are Robert Allen, chairman and CEO of AT&T, and Donna Cox, a computer artist and associate professor at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Program chair John Gehl of Tech's College of Computing said EDUCOM '90 will have sessions dealing with issues of policy, management, instruction, and research and technical development.

or a week this past summer, the campus of East Tennessee State looked like the staging area for a cartoon zoo when dozens of brightly colored lions, tigers, turtles, birds and other species of college mascot converged on the Johnson City, Tenn., university.

The occasion was the annual summer camp for collegiate cheerleading squads and mascots. And when it was over, the more than 80 mascots attending the camp had voted Georgia Tech's inimitable Buzz the best. The instructors who run the camp held their own election for the best mascot, and once again Buzz flew away with the honor.

Unlike most college mascots, the physical demands of playing Buzz are

such that two people, each clad in identical costumes, alternate in the role at most sports events. This year, students Tynis Royal and David Piech share the job.

"No one is supposed to know the difference between the two Buzzes," says Bobby Williams, cheerleading coach and spirit coordinator. "Tyrus and David spend a lot of time learning to act and walk exactly alike."

Tecbnotes continued page 11

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers Shirley C, Mevvborn EE '56

president Oliver 11. Sale Jr. ME '56

past president John C. Staton Jr. IM '60

president-elect 'treasurer 11. Hammond StitH |r. CE'58 rice president, act/rides G. William Knight IE '62, MSIM '08 rice president comtnuniaUons Frank H. Mater Jr. IM '60 rice president Roll Call fohn B. Cartel |r. 11' '60 rice president 'executive director James M. Langley rice president

8

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

Trustees Kay Elizabeth Adams IMGT '74 Theodore Arno 11 TEXT '49 James D. Blitch 111 IE '53 Stanley 1„ Daniels ARC! 1 '60 II. Guy Darnell )r. IM'65 Joseph T. Dyer IE'69 Edwin C. EcklesARCH '52 Jack J. Eaussemagne IM '65 Frank B. F'ortson EE 71 Albert E. Gandy IE '56 Don I>. Giddens AE '63, MSAE '65, l'HD'67 fereW. Goldsmith IV IM '56 Thomas B. Gurley EE '59 , Hubert 1.. HarrisJr IM '65

P. Owen Herrin [r. IM 70 Brian D. HogglM '61 G. Paul Jones Jr. ME '52

[venue Love-Stanley ARCH 7 Jay M. McDonald IM '68 Thomas 11. Muller Jr. IE'63 Michael Percy CLS '68 Patrise M. Perkins-Hooker IMGT '80 James Richard Roberts III IM '60 Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr. NS '46 W. Clayton Sparrow Jr. PHI'S '68 Francis N. Spears III CE 73, MM E '80 George A. Stewart Jr. AE '69 11. Milton Stewart lr. IE '61 1 (award T. Tellepsen Jr. CE '66 S.Joseph Ward IM '51

/ 3

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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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TECH COLORS!

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

half of the $12,00 annual fee to the Alumni Association. And every time you use the card, a portion of the purchase amount will also be contributed.

In addition to providing you all the great benefits of conventional VISA 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 Alumni 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

404/894-2391

TUdHNOTBS From Page <

Dancing the Night Away m ,'orbes magazine, in its JL "Flashbacks" section, turned up a 70-year-old glimpse < >f Georgia Tech student Arthur Murray that appeared in the publication's April 17, 1920 issue.

James C. Ryan, EE '37, of New Orleans, called it to our attention.

"When 1 announced that I had decided to give up my S 100-a-week job to To find ont what happening: at Georgia lech, call the 2'/-hour Buzz Hotline,

return to college, my family and friends ridiculed the idea, impressing upon me that my brains were all in my feet," Murray is quoted. "They said I was

foolish to become a freshman at college again. I dia not heed their advice [and] enrolled as a student in the commerce department of the Georgia School of

Technology. I am now a sophomore and am teaching dancing during spare hours. For the past year this work on the side has brought me $15,000."

Aid for AIDS: Tech Plans Education Program Acquired Immune DefiI J L ciency Syndrome (AIDS) may not monopolize headlines today, but the deadly condition remains a serious public health concern.

At Georgia Tech, President John P. Crecine has appointed a committee to

study the present and future impact of AIDS on the Tech community, and to develop a campus-wide approach to dealing with the disease.

The committee's recommendations include an education program directed at students, faculty

and staff. Such a broadbased program is believed to be the first of its kind among Georgia universities.

Details about the program will be presented in a future issue of Tech Topics. â&#x20AC;˘

The [he Ballroom at our grand hotel debuts January 1991. Downtown, in the heart ofAtlanta. Boasting 6,500 sq.ft. of magnificent meeting space, elegantly appointed with crystal chandeliers,fineart and antiques.

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Waste Not, Want Not...

Before Earth evolves into a giant trash bag, Georgia Tech seeks solutions to the planet's waste problems Written by John Toon Photographed by Joe Schwartz Illustration by Joe DiNicola

â&#x20AC;˘

s a nation, we re a wasteful bunch. We cook our microwave dinners, then toss the box, cellophane wrapper and silver crisping tray into the trash. We wash our leftover pesticides down the drain, use products manufactured with hazardous materials, and flip on air conditioners run by electric powerplants that generate millions of tons of coal ash each year. Our eating habits leave food processing companies with mountains of organic waste.

Decades of this throwaway lifestyle have filled our landfills, contaminated groundwater supplies, fouled waterways, and left former industrial areas piled high with things we no longer want. We have finally found, as one news magazine recently explained, that there is no "away" anymore.

For the decade of the 1990s, two symbols may be fitting. One might be New York's infamous "garbage barge," its international odyssey in search of a dumping place, dramatically illustrating our solid waste problem. The other could be a simple trademark: three arrows completing a loop of recycling, reprocessing and re-use, showing how one person's waste becomes another person's resource.

Whichever symbol history uses to record the 1990s depends on people such as Bob Bachus, Mike Saunders, Wendall Cross, Jim Walsh, Tom Tomabene, Eugene Ashby and others. As Georgia Tech researchers, they are applying technology to waste issues we once thought we could ignore.

Solving the Problem by Not Creating It 1 he most effective way to deal with the hazardous waste problem is not to produce it in the first place," says Dr. John Nemeth, director of the Environmental Sciences and Technology Laboratory (ESTL) at Georgia Tech.

Though not workable in all industries, efforts to reduce wastes at their source can pay big dividends. One example is the oil-based paints used in metal-finishing operations.

Cleaning the paint sprayers requires solvents that must be disposed of as hazardous wastes, posing costly disposal problems. But some metal finishers have successfully switched to Continued page 15

12

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1990

Ik

I

LI

Y latex-based paint, allowing water to be used in cleaning the sprayer without creating a hazardous waste.

"They have to look at what they are doing and decide if they can use another material," explains Jim Walsh, senior research engineer in the ESTL. "You find another way to do it so you won't generate hazardous waste in the first place."

Through Georgia's Environmental Protection Division. Tech recently won two grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to carry out "pollution prevention" audits for Georgia industries, conduct demonstrations and help train EPD inspectors on pollution prevention.

Carpet companies make strong contributions to Georgia's economy, but the dyes they use could pose pollution problems. Dr. Wayne Tincher and others in the School of Textile and Fiber Engineering have worked for years on techniques to help the industry reduce pollution by recycling rather than discarding dye baths. Dye bath re-use cuts pollution by onethird while reducing the amounts of energy, water and chemicals used.

After dyeing a batch of carpet, the used dye bath is analyzed for its remaining chemical content. With the help of a computer, that content is compared to the "recipe" needed for the next batch. The missing chemicals are replenished, and the bath used again. In tests, says Tincher. a single dye bath was used 17 times.

Waste or Resource? A New Perepective Kesearchers in the School of Biology have patented a reactor which generates methane gas as it digests food- and beverage-processing wastes, solving a waste problem and providing a renewable source of fuel that could help conserve fossil fuels.

Variability of the waste stream is one of the significant problems facing any waste technology based on biological activity. If waste concentrations are too low, the microbes may not have enough nutrients to live. If waste concentrations are too high, the population of microbes may not be large enough to efficiently process the wastes.

Dr. Thomas Tornabene and Dr. Jack Jones have developed a hybrid reactor designed to accommodate these fluctuations. For high con-

centrations, the anaerobic reactor uses a traditional "flocculated bed" in which the sediment and accumulation of microbes fall to the bottom of the vessel. For lower concentrations, the reactor passes the wastes through a film of immobilized cells designed to handle those levels of nutrients. Working together, the two methods can remove up to 98 percent of the waste materials which cause biological oxygen demand for rivers and streams.

Variability of waste constituents can also be a problem. Dr. Tornabene says the reactors and microbes must be tailored to the specific waste stream.

"We have a system that can take a waste stream, clean it up, and make products from it," he says. "The impact on cleaning up the environment is so compelling that we ought to make a major effort in this direction."

Millions of tons of coal must be burned each year to keep our electric lights burning, refrigerators and air conditioners humming, ovens cooking and washing machines running.

But burning that coal leaves ash which can account for up to 10 percent of fuel's original volume. Dr. Robert Bachus in Tech's School of Civil Engineering is helping a group of Southeastern utility companies find new uses for that ash, literally turning one person's waste into another person's resource.

"If you look at the constituents of these materials, they would fall into the category of a mineral resource for silica and alumina," he explains. "We are trying to find beneficial uses for this material."

Because of its unique composition, coal ash is already widely used in concrete and Portland cement for construction. Highway departments in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi have demonstrated various uses of ash in highway construction projects. Producers of cement block, roofing shingles, bricks, asphalt paving and other building materials are examining the potential of coal ash in their products.

But before the material can be more widely used, certain obstacles must be overcome.

These include the variability of ash from plantto-plant (which is largely a function of coal type, and combustion conditions), the conservative attitude of the construction industry toward new materials, and the stigma of coal ash as a by-product or waste product.

Bachus believes the successful uses are

l-i

"The impact on cleaning up the enviroment is so compelling, we ought to make a major effort in that direction."

LEFT: Through

a process of heating and compressing coal ash, Frank MacConochie creates a material resembling a ceramic, lighter than concrete.

Continued page 16 GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ The Garbage Dilemma

15

"We are pursuing a procedure that can't be done with principles we know."

helping overcome these obstacles, leading utilities and end users to see coal ash as a valuable mineral resource with desirable properties.

UPPER RIGHT: Julie

The Municipal Waste Problem

Cassels of Tech's Environmental Engineering program studies wastewater (far right} for arnnionia content The project seeks to learn the biochemical processes that degrade nitrogen compounds.

16

Ihe ultimate destination for most of the trash we throw away is a landfill. But our nation's landfills are rapidly choking on the volume of this waste, while a combination of environmental concerns and costs prevent the construction of new landfills.

Researchers in Tech's Environmental Engineering Program have been studying a new kind of landfill that operates as its own treatment system. Instead of serving as a simple dumping ground, such a landfill would use biological processes to break down wastes in a process similar to a sewage treatment plant.

It works by recycling the leachate: liquids which collect at the bottom of a landfill as rain and other moisture percolate through it, explains senior research scientist Dr. Wendall Cross. This leachate, carrying micro-organisms along with their food and nutrients, is pumped back to the landfill surface, recirculating the food and nutrients, which break down to make the degradation more uniform and complete.

Leachate recycling significantly accelerates the degradation of organic materials, breaking down in five years what takes 30 or 40 years in existing landfills. The rapid process may also produce commercial amounts of methane gas, partially offsetting its higher costs. A full-scale test landfill is beginning operation in Delaware and should provide more information about the concept.

Ideally, municipal landfills should not contain hazardous or toxic materials such as pesticides or metal sludges. Those materials do get into municipal landfills, however. Cross has

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1990

studied their effect on his test landfills, finding that they can retard the biological degradation process in the special leachate recycle landfills and stop it altogether in traditional landfills.

Despite their problems and the potential of resource recovery activities, incineratk >n and other disposal methods, Cross believes landfills will be part of solid waste disposal for years to come. But he says they will have to be designed, built and operated as waste treatment and recovery systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;more expensive than current landfill operations.

Over the past 20 years, federal clean water standards have forced cities to improve their wastewater treatment plants. New regulations will further toughen standards by requiring the removal of nitrogen and phosphoms compounds. Dr. Michael Saunders, professor and coordinator for the Environmental Engineering program in the School of Civil Engineering, is working with a Gwinnett County treatment facility which is using some innovative engineering to meet tough standards for removing nitrogen-containing compounds.

Most municipal wastewater treatment plants release ammonia and nitrates into waterways.

But through complex biochemical reactions with alternating aerobic and anaerobic microbes, operators of the facility are manipulating the process to eliminate both compounds, turning them into harmless nitrogen gas which is released into the air.

"What we are pursuing is a procedure that

we as engineers say can't be done by the system with the fundamental principles we know," he says. "We have some preliminary data showing that this could be a major advance in the removal of nitrogen from wastewater."

How Do You Measure It? 1 ougher treatment standards require technology able to identify and measure chemical compounds at smaller and smaller concentrations. In 1986, chemistry Professor Dr. Richard Browner developed a device which interfaces two existing chemical analysis techniquesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

The resulting device, dubbed "MAGIC" and marketed by the Hewlett-Packard Co., greatly expands chemical analysis capabilities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently developing a method for pesticide analysis using this technology.

Working with scientists from the University of Georgia, he more recently developed an interface to combine yet another detection techniqueâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;infrared spectrometry. The second device has been licensed but not yet marketed.

Innovative Disposal Techniques Oince the potential cancer hazard of asbestoscontaining materials became known, thousands of tons of the fireproofing material have been removed from buildings. Though the danger to building occupants may be eliminated, the asbestos remains a hazard. It must be placed into special landfills which are costly and subject to closing by tough environmental regulations.

In a joint research effort with the U.S. Army's Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and two private companies, Tech's C( instruction Research Center and the Georgia Tech Research Institute will be evaluating a novel method for destroying asbestos.

The project will use a plasma-arc torch operating at 2,000 degrees Celsius to melt the asbestos into a harmless glassy material.

"With plasma temperatures reaching up to 7,000 degrees Celsius, you can essentially melt anything," explains Dr. Louis Circeo, director of the center. "You can completely ionize, gasify or melt any materials in the plasma, breaking them down into their basic components."

The project could ultimately lead to a portable torch unit which could be used on the site of an asbestos-removal project. Circeo also sees promise for using the plasma arc torch for destroying toxic wastes, reducing the volume of low-level radioactive wastes and vitrifying contaminated soil.

Groundwater contamination from spills of liquid chemicals or fuels has been a tough problem to solve. The chemicals and contaminated groundwater may be pumped from the ground for treatment, but because the contaminants may remain preferentially adsorbed to soil particles, pumping often provides only a partial solution.

In a project for the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Saunders has explored the possibilities of in-situ bio-remediation using microbes to treat the chemicals deep within the soil. Many strains of microbes can break down toxic materials such as gasoline, but deep in the soil the microbes may not have the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow.

The necessary oxygen and nutrients may be injected into the soil, but that could lead to harmful chemical reactions or encourage the growth of competing organisms which could clog the underground pores and stifle the beneficial organisms. Using samples of contaminated soil and a laboratory device used for simulating subsurface conditions, Dr. Saunders and other scientists have been modeling the planned bio-remediation efforts. Their work could help match microbes and nutrient-addition techniques to specific contamination problems, giving environmental engineers another tool with which to fight pollution.

"We are providing the kind of research that is needed to apply this technique in practice," says Saunders. "We can test it without creating the problems of a full-scale test."

Landfills will have to become waste treatment and recovery systems.

ABOVE LEFT: Kim

Gnoffo records data from experimental landfills operated to test leachate recycling techniques and assess the effect of toxic materials on biological degradation.

Continued page 18 GEORGIA TECH* The Garbage Dilemma

17

Radioactive waste disposal requires an assessment of the potential for materials to move into groundwater aquifers.

RIGHT: A Tech researcher studies the radiation at a hazardous waste dump.

Poultry has become more and more popular, replacing other meats on the dinner tables of health-conscious Americans. That's good news for Georgia's poultry industry. But the growing appetite for poultry also has a down side: more wastes from poultry houses and wastewater from processing plants.

The traditional method for treating these wastewaters is the dissolved-air-flotation system, a physical/chemical process that leaves "skimmings." Containing oils, grease and other leftovers from chicken processing, the proteinrich skimmings can often be rendered into chicken feed or used as fertilizers. But in some cases, they must be treated and disposed of as wastes.

Researchers in Tech's Agricultural Technology Research Program are developing an anaerobic-packed bed reactor, which uses microbial action to treat the wastewater. Filled with chopped tires, which provide a home for the hard-working microbes, the reactors can process in 15 hours what requires 15 days in low-rate anaerobic systems, according to research engineer Chuck Ross. And compared to dissolved-air-flotation systems, they leave just one-tenth as much sludge for disposal.

As they develop the new reactors, the ATRP researchers are attempting to improve older dissolved-air-flotation systems developed to remove the skimmings from process water.

Moreover, thermally enhanced de-watering systems have been developed at Georgia Tech to reduce the volume of these waste skimmings by 50 percent. Removing enough water could permit the skimmings to be incinerated or used as fuel.

To handle litter and other wastes from poultry houses, the researchers are studying a decidedly low-tech solution: old-fashioned composting.

Nuclear Wastes: A Long-Term Problem .<America's efforts to develop atomic weapons during the 1940s and 1950s generated large amounts of liquid radioactive wastes which have been stored in tanks awaiting proper disposal. Solidifying the wastes into inert glass for burial appears to be the most viable disposal option, and Georgia Tech researchers are helping make that process a reality.

Essential to the process is a chemical known

as sodium tetraphenylborate, which until recently was available only in small quantities.

To meet the need for large amounts, a Georgia company known as AFF Inc. asked Dr. Eugene Ashby and Dr. Bill Tedder for help. The chemists studied several alternatives for synthesizing the chemical, and helped scale up a process for commercial production.

In April, AFF opened a chemical manufacturing plant to produce 500,000 pounds of sodium tetraphenylborate each year for the Savannah River Plant's program aimed at solving the nuclear waste problem.

Once the glass is produced, it will be placed into much safer storage, and ultimately into permanent underground facilities designed to keep the radioactive materials from ever reaching the biosphere. But ensuring that the radioactive materials don't leach out of the glass requires tight process control in its fonnulation and mixing with the wastesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a difficult process because it occurs in a hostile environment of high temperature and extreme radiation.

Dr. Alfred Schneider, now professor emeritus in Tech's nuclear engineering and health physics program, invented a procedure for continuously monitoring the glass. A tiny helium bubble is injected into the molten mixture, and by measuring the time required for its travel through the mixture, Schneider can determine the viscosity and density of the glass.

Knowing these key properties could help the operators ensure the quality of the glass.

Disposal of radioactive waste requires an assessment of the potential for the materials to move into groundwater aquifers over long periods of time. Research by Dr. Geoffrey Eichholz, also a professor emeritus of nuclear engineering and health physics, suggests that fear may be exaggerated.

"The usual assumption is that radioactive materials are inevitably carried into the ground water and move with it into the water table," he says. "We have shown that this is not often an unrealistic model, but one that tends to overestimate the impact. Realistic movement is a lot smaller than a lot of models based on saturated soils would suggest."

Especially in clay soils, radioactive materials tend to adsorb to soil particles which hold them in place. And in areas such as the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina, the sandy soil does not retain water most of the time, Continued page 20

18

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1990

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reducing the changes of long-term dissolution of wastes, he says.

Americans have often been accused of blindly placing their trust in technology to solve critical problems. But as Georgia Tech researchers continue their work on waste

avoidance, disposal, re-use and recycling as solutions to our mounting waste problems, perhaps that trust will turn out not to be greatly misplaced. • John Toon is a writer in the Research Communications Office of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come (and How!)

Recycling makes good sense—and good dollars as it saves a future for the next generation

20

1 he occupants of three Georgia Tech buildings will find new folders on their desks this fall, but that won't mean more paperwork is on the way.

The folders will be part of a new recycling effort aimed at reducing the amount of computer and white office paper thrown away at Georgia Tech.

The program, scheduled to spread campus-wide within a year, will be operated by a local company, Recycall Consulting Services Inc. "There's not a lot of money to be made in recycling," says John Stone, director of Tech's Property Control Division. "But it's good for the environment, and that's why we are doing it."

Each occupant of the Administration, Carnegie and Library buildings will be asked to put their used computer and bond paper into the folders, which will function as desktop sorters.

From there, the paper will be emptied each day into intennediate containers, and finally into large bins for collection by the company. Proceeds from sale of the paper will make the effort self-supporting.

Stone says Tech already recycles used tires, batteries, and scrap metal, bringing in $10,000 to $15,000 a year.

The Environmental Forum of Georgia Tech is a student orga-

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

nization working on recycling efforts. The forum collects cans and bottles for recycling each week at a small area behind the Student Center, but hopes to gain a larger, permanent location to expand its campus efforts.

Although the amount of material recycled has been relatively small, forum member Steve Donkin believes the effort has raised campus awareness of environmental issues.

"There is a lot of interest out there," he says. "People are initiating their own recycling, starting it in their halls of the dorms."

Though most recycling focuses on cans, bottles and certain papers, virtually all materials can be recycled if the market is there, explains Andrea Sussman, communications director for the non-profit National Recycling Coalition. Mostly, "it's a question of whether someone is doing it," she says. "Most plastics are recyclable, but few communities now have plastic-recycling programs."

The varied demand for recyclable materials means recycling programs vary significantly from one region to another. If materials must be transported great distances to

a recycling plant, those transportation costs may make recycling uneconi >mical, Sussman notes.

Media attention focused on Earth Day, clogged landfills, and other environmental questions have changed public opinion on recycling, leading many communities to initiate programs The most successful, she says, are those which pick up recyclables at the curbside.

What can citizens do to expand recycling efforts?

"We have to increase the demand for the L-nd products of recycling," she suggests.

"Recycling isn't complete until we close the loop. Recycling is complete when a product made from recycled content is back out on the market being used.

Tax laws can be > hanged to favor recycled products, and governments can lake action to mandate re use. But in community recycling programs, the efforts of each person can count.

"We hear a lot of people say there is no recycling in their community,' she adds.

"The only reason is that nobody has started it II somebody started a program, other people would start participating in it."

Putting People First Makes First Atlanta Second ToNone.

FIRSTATIANTA Second to None

Š1986 The First National Bank of Atlanta Member FD I C

n OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Getting Computerphobia Out of the Workplace Written by Gary Goettttng

22

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

S

teve Shelton encounters anxiety, fear and outright hostility on a weekly basis.

His job title is systems group manager, but he's also a psychologist, confessor, teacher and salesman.

Shelton's work pushes the Computer Age into places where it often isn't welcome, and in the process he has become adept at dealing with an intractable byproduct of automation—computerphobia.

"You can imagine what it's like to come in with your hot new computerized system to the 'good old boys' in a scale house who've been using a pencil and paper to do their work for the past 50 years," he laughs.

Shelton, IMGT 76, works for Scale Systems Inc., a Norcross, Ga., company that develops and installs scalebased data collection and processcontrol equipment throughout the Southeast.

Shelton says one of the first systems he installed, in central Georgia, involved a classic battle.

"The scalemaster down there just fought me and fought me and fought me," Shelton remembers. "He was the oldest guy there and he was petrified of me. He was embarrassed—

he got nervous on the keyboard and he just wouldn't listen."

Finally, Shelton scheduled a Sunday afternoon training session.

"He told me he didn't get any sleep Saturday night he was so worried about this thing," Shelton laughs, "but he wasn't nervous when nobody else was around." Learning to use the new computer wasn't so difficult after all, Shelton says. "It just took some personal attention."

S

helton's experience illustrates a problem for many businesses: Despite 20 years of automation, a sizeable portion of the workforce is still afraid of computers.

While anyone who has st niggled with an incomprehensible software manual knows the frustration of doing a job within a job, the attitudes of computerphobics are rooted in fear and intimidation. They are afraid of the unfamiliar technology and intimidated by the jargon. They are afraid they won't be able to master a computer, thereby creating a mental block that justifies the fear. Their competence is at risk, adding to the anxiety and fueling new concerns over job security.

"It's fear of the unknown, fear that they're going to lose their job or that it's not going to make their job easier," says Shelton.

No one knows how many computerphobics are out there: thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of workers whose high jobstress level is a direct result of their resistance, and inability to cope with, a sophisticated technology they do not understand. These people are sometimes difficult to identify in the workplace. Computers have made their lives more difficult—they work harder in an effort to hide their reluctance to use the technology.

A common type of computerphobic is the person whose resistance is measured by the painfully long time he or she takes to grasp basic computer operations. These people strive only for the rninirnum competence necessary to do the job.

They work through a computer, rather than with one.

"Most people who are on a computer probably use less than 20 percent of its capability," says Verlene Leeburg of Leeburg and Associates, a computer-training firm in Denver.

"They learn what they have to in or-

der to get their job done, but never go back and learn anything else."

In re-defining their relationship to their job, these people deny an important resource to the business: innovation. They do not attempt creative approaches to problems or seek new ways of doing things because they are uncomfortable with computers. The potential of the technology is wasted, and the employee's professional development proceeds with glacier-like speed.

On the other hand, just as automation is not appropriate for every job, computers are not the best answer for every worker. "Because it's such a wonderful technology, we have the impression that everyone should be on a computer to make him or her more productive, but that's not true," Leeburg asserts.

"There are some people who will never understand them and should never, ever be on a computer."

The ability to become proficient with a computer is a learned skill, although—as with any other endeavor—some people demonstrate more of a knack for it than others do. Nor is computerphobia strictly related to age. Most workers over 50 Continued page 24 GEORGIA TECH • Computerphobia

23

Most people on a computer use only about 20 percent of its capability

tend to be computerphobic, but their fear is more closely tied to longevity in the workplace. In fact, the likeliest candidates for computerphobia—the most likely to resist any kind of change—are long-time employees who have been at the same job or in the same department for a number of years, regardless of their age.

The work environment or corporate culture also plays an important part in the occurrence of computerphobia. In some companies, employees are excited by change and are eager to exploit the opportunities it can create. In others, change is surrounded by fear.

Newly automated companies or ones still planning computerization are particularly vulnerable to computerphobia. In the case of the latter, the problem may be exacerbated if rumor is easier to come by than fact—again, the job-security issue.

Even businesses that have used computers for years—especially large organizations or those with high turnover—are likely to contain pockets of hard-core computerphobics.

American industry has pegged its future on a multi-billion-dollar investment in hardware and software that it hopes will pay off with increased productivity.

The challenge for managers is to maximize the benefits from that investment, and to eliminate computerphobia from the workplace. There are several steps that can be taken: • Training. After making a hefty outlay for hardware and software, management is often reluctant to spend money for training. Leeburg cites the extreme example of a large oil company that completely automated one of its regional offices and 24

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

then said, in effect, "Here it is, use it.

And by the way, we want everything done today." She says that she was called in to provide training at the company only after a staff member finally buckled under the intense pressure and committed suicide.

"I see a lot of people stressed out by this technology, and it's really sad," says Leeburg. "Sometimes management thinks that if you can type, you can use a computer, which is not tme," she adds. "They don't want to spend the money on training because they have no idea of what it entails to sit down and learn a software package."

Y

et computer experts agree that the key to overcoming a fear of computers is in training.

Whether the training is conducted by an outside firm or an in-house expert, sessions should be communicated in everyday language, not computerese, and should be tailored to the applications that will be used in that particular setting.

Shelton says that his company emphasizes two points at its training sessions: First, that you don't have to be able to type to operate a computer, and second, that nothing's going to blow up if you hit the wrong key—the software will guide you through any errors.

They also use a "hands-on" approach.

Continued page 26

Tech grad Steve Shelton pushes computer technology into places where it often isn't welcome. As a result, he has learned to deal with an intractable byproduct of automation—computerphobia.

GARY MEEK PHOTO

GEORGIA TECH • Computerphobia

25

Manager should stress how computerization benefits employees, rather than the company.

"We'll show them a couple of keystrokes, but then we make them start hitting the keys," he says. "It takes about two days to change a guy from being petrified of a computer to being, well, at least not afraid of it. Within a couple of months, the fellow is just so proud of it that he wants to demonstrate it for other people."

• Employee Involvement. "If at all possible, you want your people to participate in the decision on what machines and software to get,'" advises Dr. Hodges Golson, IM '67, president of Management Psychology Group in Atlanta. "There's a psychological principle that says participation leads toward involvement, and involvement leads toward commitment."

G

aining the active cooperation of employees, instead of simply their compliance, will result in a workforce more motivated to learn the new technology, Golson adds.

To that end, the manager's approach should stress how computerization benefits employees, rather than how it benefits the company.

• Develop Incentives. "My preference is for a set of incentives and positive rewards rather than punitive, negative measures, but both will work," says Golson. "You mighfset up a productivity contest—make it a social sort of thihg so there's a stigma to not becoming computer literate. Or you might try paying some people by the piece so those who learn the system and get documents out quicker realize some financial benefit."

• Re-define work. Computers often make the old boundaries be26

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

Steve Shelton says that an important part of overcoming computerphobia is to get the user to work the keyboard as quickly as possible.

tween jobs obsolete. When re-designing jobs and the distribution of work, the new jobs should be balanced and equally—or nearly equally—desirable. Office politics and turf wars can exacerbate existing problems with, and may even contribute to, computerphobia.

• Leadership. If top management sometimes seems oblivious to the problem of computerphobia, it's because many CEOs are terrified of computers.

"Sometimes, with executives, computerphobia is worse the higher up you go," says Golson. "They've got so much invested in being in control. When they sit down in front of a screen and realize they don't have the computer skills, they don't want to leam—they don't want to show any weakness."

Golson's observation is supported by a survey of 500 CEOs done last year by Personal Computing magazine. The poll found that only 21

percent of respondents used a computer either at home or at work, and that most members of that group spend less than an hour a day with a computer. CEOs age 50 and under are twice as likely to use a computer than those over 50, according to the survey.

Top management needs to demonstrate leadership by setting an example in overcoming computerphobia. Corporate executives should demonstrate their willingness to commit the additional resources necessary to achieve full implementation of new technology, and to understand that patience is also a necessary ingredient for success.

Computers will remain an underutilized resource for those businesses that do not address the issue of interaction between people and technology. After all, chips and programs make a computer work, but its relationship with a human operator is what makes a computer useful. •

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The Ring You Left Behind is Still Available at the Geongia Tech Bookstore.

For information on your official Georgia Tech class ring by Josten s, send to the Georgia Tech Bookstore, 350 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0453.

JOSTENS A M E R I C A S

•% " > v % v % V % V % T M

C O L L E G E

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G «•

%< % - • - •

LEFT A. Georgia Tech Seal counted cross stitch kit. Frame not included. $10.95 B. Georgia Tech Tower counted cross stitch kit. Frame not included. $14.95 C. Georgia Tech Block T with Buzz logo counted cross stitch kit. Frame not included. $10.95

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

DREAM MAKES Faitn In the sunnner edition Q/GEOKGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, we profiled a

number < >/'inventionscreated by Georgia Tech graduates and professo) s, and asked readets to tell us of others, the response has been so positive that we offer this f >llow-up.

Bloomfield's Robot

I

t's by no means Robo cor>—it's more like R2-D2 on patrol. John Bloomfield's company lias invented a robot sentiy which roams the house at night looking for intruders, checking for gas leaks or for smoke, and is ready to sound an alami and call the polite.

Bloomfield, a 1977 industrial engineering graduate of Tech, is president of

Bloomfield Research and I )e\ elopment in Hilton Continued next page John Bloomfield and his inventions: From venetian-blii id hooks to sentry rolxrts and voiceamplified gas masks, execution follows ideas.

GEORGIA TECH • Inventors from Tech: Part 2

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Bloomfield, like most practical inventors, wants to create products that not only work, but are also affordable.

Head Island, S.C. His firm, staffed with 12 engineers, is a creative workshop with a lot of irons in different fires.

The robot, however, may become his most-publicized invention.

The NBC "Today" Show featured Bloomfield's prototype guardian robot in a five-minute segment. The robot has caught the attention of other national news organizations as well.

Approximately the size of a portable vacuum cleaner, the robot can quietly patrol about the house or take its post monitoring a baby in a crib.

Bloomfield has used the robot prototype as a pool guard that signals an alarm inside the house if his fiveyear-old daughter strays into the area. The robot, which Bloomfield calls Securite, a roaming robot guardian, is being manufactured by Samsung, the Korean electronics giant, and is scheduled for unveiling at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January.

B

loomfield spent $1 million developing the robot. "Our objective was not only to make a robot work, but make it affordable," Bloomfield says. "We're talking about selling it for $695 retail.

"I think it's going to take off like gangbusters.

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GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

This thing is really neat. In the evening or whenever, you turn it on and go to bed. It will roam all night long around your house. If it detects something wrong, it has a variety of outputs. It can b e e p by your bedside, it can sound a loud alarm, it can trigger an external loud alarm, it can call police with an auto-dialer. It's really amazing. It's like a sentry all night long.

"We know in the future we're going to have robots in the home and in the office," Bloomfield adds.

"We think we might have the first one that really makes sense."

Bloomfield focuses most of his firm's energy into research and development. "We don't d o any of the marketing or manufacturing of anything we create ourselves," Bloomfield says. "Manufacturing saps your engineers of all their creativity. You find yourself constantly putting out fires in the manufacturing process, and you don't get to the creative part of it."

O n e of Bloomfield's most creative efforts may revolutionize the real-estate market. Bloomfield, in partnership with Qualex of Raleigh-Durham, N.C.— majority-owned by Fuqua Industries of Atlanta—has developed Digilist, a computerized, video multiplelisting system for real-es-

Bloomfield i n his lab: Robots for everyone?

tate firms.

Digilist will be unveiled at the National Realtors Convention in New Orleans in mid-November.

"It is a very complex system with a lot of data managing and a lot of software," Bloomfield states.

"What makes this unique is that there is nothing to remind anybody—the customer or the realtor—that it is computer based.

"There is no keyboard.

We put everything into a small hand-held remote control. All the menus come upon the screen so they can dance through this thing. It's something they are familiar with, and they don't get locked tip with the computer mentality.

"There's a big 35-inch television screen, a CD player for background music, a VCR to record a session for the customer to take home and review later. It's got a tape driver

for downloading modems.

"We developed a system for Qualex labs as well, because the film will go to the Qualex labs and be digitized and captured and compressed there.

It's a pretty sophisticated system."

Digilist will allow customers to preview homes on the market, pulling up available houses in the customer's price range that meet the customer's preferences, with between 12 and 15 pictures per house.

"We've created a game out of it," Bloomfield explains. A financial screen is available for mortgage and qualifying information, including a projection of monthly payments "It's not so much a tool to sell houses as it is a tool to eliminate houses. When you eliminate, you eliminate a lot of time and driving around."

With an $85,000 price tag, Bloomfield accepts

I N V E N T O R S

FROM

T E C H

"/ owe a lot to Jerry Hittfor not being a bureaucrat, for seeing some potential in me, and for allowing me the chance."

that Digilist is not for everyone "This is for the successful realtors w h o need to manage time and save time.''

A n o t h e r Bloomfield inX J L vent ion—designed in partnership with ILC Dover, sole manufacturer of Skylab, Shuttle and Apollo spacesuits is a voice amplifier for gas masks. The amplifier snaps into gas masks and projects a voice speaking at normal decibels to a distance of 100 meters.

The lour year-old project was rejuvenated due to the international crisis following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and concern over Iraq's previous use of chemical weapons, Bloomfield says. The U.S. military services, the Israelis and the Egyptians have all expressed interest in acquiring the voice amplifiers, he says. In addition to military masks, designs for commercial masks with voice amplifiers would serve such purposes as firefighting.

Bloomfield has been an inventor since his boyhood days in Augusta, Ga. "My first invention was when I was 14 years old— a little venetian-blind hook that I made for a penny and sold door-to-door for a dime," he recalls. The "S" shaped hook allowed the opening i >l the top or bot-

tom half of Venetian blinds, and an Augusta hospital gave him a large order. In a newspaper article about him at the time, he expressed tin interest in attending Georgia Tech.

Bloomfield worked at tin Augusta airport in exchange for flying lessons.

He was soloing at age 15 ttnd received his pilot's license on the day he turned 16.

He dropped out of school and worked various jobs including crop dusting and construction before deciding tit age 21 to enter Georgia Tech.

Bloomfield camped in the office of Director of Admissions Jerry Hitt. He was admitted tis tt special student in the summer of 1973. "He told me, 'I'll give you tt chance. If you do a C average or better, we'll count that on your record and I'll admit you as a regular student.' He added, 'I'm going to watch you closely after that, too.'

"I o w e ti lot to Jerry Hitt for not being a bureaucrat, for seeing some potential in me, and for allowing me the chance."

To pay his way through school, Bloomfield bought a machine for striping parking lots. "I started painting stripes because I could d o that at 2 or 3 in the morning."

O n e of Bloomfield's larger customers told him

he wanted the parking lot sealed before it was striped and Bloomfield bid on the job.

"I didn't even know what the stuff was, but I found out vety quickly," he recalls. He figured material and labor cost and "everything it would take. I submitted a bid and got the job."

Bloomfield started doing sealing and paving jobs, hiring Georgia Tech students to spread the sealant at 50 cents per fivegallon bucket, about $5 an hour.

After Bloomfield handled a job for a leading restaurant in Buckhead, the manager contracted with him to handle valet parking. "I hired some guys at Tech, clean-cut guys with good manners.

In the evening hours some of them were making $75 or $100 a night in tips."

Word got around and soon Bloomfield had contracts to handle valet parking at six of Atlanta's finest restaurants.

"At one time I had 200 Georgia Tech students working for me," Bloomfield says. When he graduated, Bloomfield was earning $36,000 a year and working 10 hours a week.

After graduation, he designed a customized houseboat which was the talk of Lake Lanier. Bloomfield also designed and

built the Chattahoochee National River Park, a twoyear project.

For the next six months, Bloomfield, his wife, Debbie, and their daughter, Carolina, "drove from Miami to New York looking for a place to light."

They settled on Hilton Head Island, where Bloomfield designed a glass-bottomed boat.

D

uring his wife's second pregnancy, he came u p with the concept of an Auculscope, a hand-held electronic diagnostic device similar to a

stethoscope. His researchand-development firm was founded in 1984 to develop the device, which

has adjustable frequencies enabling doctors to selectively conduct a cardiovascular or diagnostic examination by tuning into frequency sounds made by the body. Respiratory sounds, for example, are heard on a higher frequency than heart beats.

I

t was the invention of a toy robot in 1986, however, that brought Bloomfield his early financial success. The robot, which sold for $10, was an electronic voice synthesizer that allowed kids to talk like a robot.

The toy took on a new purpose for a South Dakota man w h o lost his Continued nextpage

GEORGIA TECH • Inventors from Tech: Part 2

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"We don't run around here trying to make a ton of money all the time. It's nice to do it every once in a while."

larynx to cancer. When the man's $300 prosthetic device—which makes vibrations against the throat that can Ire shaped into words—quit operating, he found the toy robot worked surprisingly well.

That story was carried by the Associated Press and created a new demand.

"We redesigned the whole thing and made it a serious medical product, tooled up and marketed that," bloomfield says.

"We're the only organization in the world now that has an inner-oral speech aid. We send them till over the world."

B

loomfield says a good idea does not necessarily mean success. "The first tiling we start thinking about is how much is it going to cost to put it together—to get it to a pro-

totype stage? And what about product liability?

We've thrown a lot of good ideas in the trash can knowing that product liability Insurance would cost a fortune. We see a lot of good ideas for which there is just no way to get good, solid, proprietary protection—meaning some kind of patent protection, "because of years of doing what we do and falling into just about every pit-hole I could think of, we've learned the hard way. It took years and years to develop the network we now have. Network is the key word: People of different expertise and business relationships all over the world working to get something done successfully.

"A lot of things have to be considered to make a success out of something.

Carl Kah (seated) and Timothy Demming: Inventing a way to make "rain" when the rain doesn't falL

30

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

We are better at doing that because we have failed SO many times. When I want to know about somebody's talents, I ask them what they've failed at because they won't do that again.

That's more valuable than success in many cases."

Bloomfleld says money is not his primary motivation.

"We don't run around here trying to make a ton of money all the time. It's nice to do every once in a while. Hut we are concerned about money because it enables us to continue to do thi' things that we love."

The Rain Maker

C

arl I.. C. Kah Jr., a 1953 chemical engineering graduate of Tech, is Florida's "rain maker." lie is president of EC-Rain Manufacturing Corp., a company that manufactures sprinklers, control timers, and valves for residential and commercial irrigation systems. I le was selected as Florida's 198S Small-Business Person of the 'tear and represented the state in a Rose Garden ceremony hosted by President Reagan at the White House. A lifetime resident

of the Palm Beach County area, Kah returned there alter his military career and joined Pratt <S Whitney Aircraft, where he served as deputy program manager for the Air Force reusable rocket engine, the predecessor to the space shuttle engine.

While at Pratt N Whitney, he patented a concept for an irrigation sprinkler system which he sold to Toro Corp.

In 1974, Kah resigned from Pratt & VX hilney to start his own company based on some < >l his 25 issued patents. Since then, Kah observes, K Rain has become Florida's largest manufacturer of irrigation equipment.

Silence Is Golden

S

teve Walker, inventor of a modem noise filter, is a electrical engineering junior from San Antonio and president of Spinnaker Development Group I lis product, the Digil'ilter, is manufactured by bALLCo Inc., of Snellville, Ga., which has a patent pending. Walker is a student member of Tech's National Advisory board and is also active with Tech's olympic committee.

I N V E N T O R S

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"U.S. industry and I missed a real opportunity to compete with the off-shore electronics industry,"says Greneker.

patent model as represent.i live of the prototype of the cordless phone. Before he dix-s, however, Greneker says he is watching to see what the future may hold for his invention.

Chemistry Behind The Laser

Gene Greneker and Porta-Fone: The freedom of phoning and a private line, too. cordless phone by the year 2000.

Greneker says he is disappointed that imports took over the market because "I l.S. industry and I missed n 1969, a decade lx*a real opportunity to comfore it became a pete with the off-shore household utility, electronics industry."

Gene Greneker developed and patented a prototype Greneker, who still has cordless telephone that he live yeats left on the Portacalled the "Porta-Fone."

Fone patent and the line"Potential investors were seizing and signaling circuits it employs, says his not very imaginative," says deviee offers something Greneker, a principal reexisting cordless phones do search associate with the notâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;privacy.

Georgia lech Research InStitute who received his 'The market is now master's degree from Tech established and there scxrn in 1976. will l x a new demand for a system with greater privacy The c< irdless telephone against unauthorized monimarket mushroomed 10 years later, 1 mt it has a mar- toring of conversations," Greneker says. ket claimed by imports, Greneker < >l >serves. It is His Porta-Fone system, estimated that one in every he says, is "ideal for use in four American households the next generation of 'sewill have at least one cure' cordless telephone

A Private line

I

T

he chemical laser is credited as being the brainchild of Dr. Kurt E, Shuler, proles sor and former chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego.

Shuler, who has twice served on the Nobel Prize Nominating Committee for Chemistry, is a 1942 chemical engineering graduate erf Georgia Tech. He earned his doctorate from Catholic University of America in Washington,

systems." because there arcless than 10 frequencies allocated in the 49 MHz. band lor cordless telephone operation, often neighlx>rs can overhear each other's ' conversations using another cordless phone. Anyone using a "scanner" type monitoring system can listen to any of the presentgeneration cordless telephones. Greneker notes that the Internal Revenue Service prosecuted a tax D.C., and did postdoctoral case using data gathered by work at Johns Hopkins monitoring portable teleUniversity. phone frequencies without "As for chemical lasers," having to obtain a court writes Alexander Kohn in order for a wire tap. his book, Fortune or FailAlthough Greneker's inure, Missed Opf>ortuuities vention may yet pioneer a and Chance Discoveries, generation of "secure" "the person whose mind cordless phones, it has alwas the hatching ground ready obtained a place in for this idea was Kurt E. history. The Smithsonian Shuler, professor of theoInstitution has asked retical chemistry at La Greneker to donate his Jolla, Calif. In the period

Continued next page GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Inventors from Tech: Part 2

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Shuler theorized building a chemical laser. "But I obviously didn't build one. I didn't run the mile in less than four minutes, either."

1950-65, Shuler had studied the- rotational, vibrational and electronic excitation of product molecules resulting from the chemical reaction involving combustion. He published some 50 papers on these subjects, In 1965, Shuler, together with K. A. Brueckner and W. K. Bennett, organized a symposium on chemical lasers, which at

that time existed in concept only. In this symposium, Shuler presented a paper co-authored by his junior colleagues, T. Harrington and J.C. Light, in which they summed up what was then known about the chemical reactions that might lead to

excited products. Shuler listed six reactions that involved dissociative-excitation transfer, \i exchange reactions leading to vibrational excitation, and 15 reactions producing electronically excited products, Many of these reactions have since been shown to yield operational chemical lasers.

Shuler says he was intrigued about the concept of using chemistry to "drive a laser."

"My own research, together with that of some of my co-workers, had been Involved in looking at energy distribution and chemical reactions. "it was a rather obvious

32

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1990

idea to see if you could get what is known as population inversion in chemical reactions and check them, which is precisely the kind of research 1 was doing, from there, the next thing was to look and see what would be involved in making a chemical laser.

"I was certainly the first to organize a conference on chemical lasers and to discuss the possibility of making one. This was also before the four-minute mile had been run. I predicted in the introduction to the meeting that just as sure as anything, somebody would run the mile in less than four minutes and someone would build a chemical laser, I gave many examples of reactions that might lead to chemical lasersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;essentially all of them did lead to a chemical laser.

"But since I am a theoretician and not an experimentalist, I obviously didn't build one. I didn't run the mile in less than four minutes, either."

Mr. Peanut Butter

P

aul J. Mitchell is not a household name, but the product lie "fixed" is. Mitchell, a 1958 chemical engineering graduate, is the- man w h o

Paul Mitchell a n d o n e o f his millions o f youthful admirers: G o o d taste a n d it's healthy, t o o .

invented both a "fix" and later, a process, for stabilizing peanut butter.

Mitchell has always had a knack for fixing things.

As a boy growing up on a 100-acre cotton farm near Griffin, Ga., Mitchell found he could usually figure out a way to improve the o p eration of a contrary piece of farm machinery. He worked his way through Georgia Tech as a co-op student and after graduation was employed by the du Font Chemical Co. in Wilmington, Del, The company acquired patents

on several of his inventions, including a permancnt textile water repel lent compound In 1945, the National Peanut Council hired Mitchell as a research director to stabilize peanut butter, and he returned to Griffin.

Peanut butter manufacturers were using hydrogenated fats and oils in the preparation of peanut butter, resulting in peanut butter having an inconsistent quality and taste. Additionally, while on the store shell, the oil separated from the pea-

I N V E N T O R S

FROM

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"The 'perfect' briquette came from this flash of solid engineering," says Li, "God was good, I sowed the whole problem."

nut butter, by September, Mitchell had developed a process to make the hydrogenatecl peanut oil into a liquid.

H e patented the process and licensed it to Proctor and ciambic, which marketed it as a peanut butler "FIX." While the FIX produced a much higher quality of peanut butter, there were still inconsistencies.

Mitchell started his o w n lab in Griffin, and in 1948, he developed a process to stabilize peanut butter to a uniform consistency.

Unfortunately, Mitchell involved several outside organizations when preparing data lor a patent and his process fell into the public domain.

Mitchell, w h o became manager ol the StoweWooclward Go. in Griffin, has patents on seven of his inventions, and another two d o / e n industrial inventions to his credit.

It is his process for stabilizing peanut butter, however, that has had a worldwide impact.

Instant Money

F

on I.i, a 1936 civil engineering graduate of Georgia lech and native of Canton,

China, is a man w h o discovered a secret that turned out to be a gold mine.

In the mid-1970s, Li relates, he discovered a process for recycling metallized waste known as "fines"—high carbon chips no larger than 5 millimeters —that results from the direct reduction process of ironmaking.

An employee of Miclrex Corp., he was assigned to assist Dr. Wolfgang Pietsch in the organization's Charlotte, N.C., laboratory.

"The problem was how to recycle these millions of dollars worth of waste." recalls I.i. "Here was a brillimit doctor ol engineering

and me, a pick-and-shovel CPU, trying to work out a research problem that was battling engineers in the U.S., Germany and Japan."

Waste "lines" readily reoxidize and self-destruct.

"Mother nature wants to put back the oxygen that man removed through the reduction process," Li says.

I.i and Pietsch were searching for a formula to make the waste material resistant to reoxidation, sale for transport, and capable of being made into re-usable

ing and working, and o n e morning, I was leaning on a shovel, spitting out dirt and thinking, there's something unusual about this process.

"I realized it was more of a civil engineering

problem than a metallurgical problem. The perfect' briquette came from this Hash of solid engineering.

God was good, I solved the whole problem."

Li's formula for binding results in briquettes thai are resistant to reoxidation and sale for transport, that cam be fed into an electric arc furnace, and utilizes a "fines" as received without any waste. "We call it instant money— from

waste it goes back into the furnace and becomes a melt that is liquid steel. It's money in the bank."

I.i says the binder formula he discovered is a

proprietary item with Midrex, which he promised not to disclose when he left the corporation in 1973.

I.i, w h o at age 80 lives in Glen Head, Long Island, N.Y., was 64 when he made his discovery. "It's not an invention," he says,

"it's an application of a civil engineering principle that I acquired when I went to Georgia Tec h." •

briquettes.

After five months, I.i recalls, Pietsch went to Germany on business. "I kept work-

GEORGIA TECH • Inventors from Tech: Part 2

33

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Credit card orders can also be sent by mail — please include full account number and expiration dale. Allow 4 to 6 weeks

36

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

Georgia Tech's 'Mad' Scientist Craig Anderson is angry that kids don't learn enough science.

His approach is stimulating, informative, captivating—and fun.

Written by John Dunn • Photographed by Gary Meek£- Margaret Barrett

"Kids are naturally interested in everything.

They are interested in learning."

C

raig Anderson is often asked by second- and third-grade students if he is a mad scientist.

Anderson's that kind of guy. He overpowers an audience with his enthusiasm for science, technology and engineering while conducting attention-grabbing experiments, breezily relating scientific facts, inserting humorous anecdotes and explaining why Thomas Alva Edison wasn't really the "dweeb" he appears to have been.

And the audience—whether a civic club, high school students, or participants in a teacher workshop)— finds itself enthralled. This can't be science—this stuff is fun!

Anderson, a 1974 textile engineering graduate, is nothing less than a crusader.

"We in America are experiencing a critical shortage of people choosing technology as a field," Anderson says. "My demonstrations show students how important technology is to our way of life. I try to excite them about technology and science.

"I also look at it from an economic sense. We know that students Continued next page

Anderson entertains, enlightens and inspires students in Georgia Tech's SummerScape program, which gives seventh- and eighthgraders a fascinating look at science and technology.

Anderson uses a "tornado tube" to create a vortex, a natural phenomenon of spiraling wind or water that is an important consideration in aerodynamics, engineering and architecture.

GEORGIA TECH • Tech's "Mad"Scientist

37

Mm

JC^

v

f

"Engineering is the profession of taking science and putting it to work.... This is not only my profession, this is what I think is important in life. *

V

Anderson demonstrates a practical application of technology with a beaker full of sodium acrylate,

which absorbs 700 times its weight in water and is the main constituent of disposable diapers.

are highly motivated when they think they can make a buck. In my demonstrations, I talk about people who have realized a large monetary returnâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;people who have taken basic science ideas and literally turned them into very handsome livings."

O

"If I can make a machine that makes twice as many pencils, I can make pencils cheaper. I can pay my people more and I can make more profitâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;everylxidy wins.

That's why engineers are so incredibly imp< >rtant in society."

n this particular day, k Anderson is making I his presentation to "seventh and eighth graders participating in Georgia Tech's SummerScape program. As the kids fill the seats in the physics building lecture room, Anderson takes center stage.

"When we talk about the schools of engineering here at Georgia Tech," Anderson begins, "there are none here to teach you how to drive a train." The kids laugh.

"Engineering is the profession of taking science and putting it to work," he continues. "It can be as elaborate as the space shuttle or as simple as mirrors."

He picks up a pair of parabolicshaped mirrors. He is off and running, taking the kids with him as he discusses the parabolic curve, illu-

Anderson uses magnets and alurninurn tubes to demonstrate scientific laws related to magnetic fields.

Students watch a neodymium magnet float down a fourfoot aluminum tube.

The magnet is the most powerful in the world for its size, and takes more than 10 seconds to descend.

Continncd next page GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Tech s "Mad" Scientist 3 9

"The teacher has to he excitedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like, I am so happy to be here.

Teachers do themselves and everyone else a disservice when they tell their students, T hate this job.'" sions, sound, satellites and the use of parabolic sound-dishes on the sidelines to make football more exciting for television viewers. He uses the parabolic mirrors to project a threedimensional illusion: a piece of candy appears to float in mid-air. As the mirror is passed from child to child, fingers grasp at the illusion of floating candy.

"We're going to talk about poly-

mers," Anderson tells the now-excited group of about 80 students.

"We're going to talk about cryogenics. We're going to talk about magnetism."

For the next three hours, Anderson leads them through the wonders of science, making clouds, defying gravity, and having fun.

Anderson's presentations are so effective that students view him as something of a celebrity. Last year, just before Christmas break, he gave presentations for two weeks in South Metro-Atlanta area schools. He and his wife, Pam, thought it would be a good time to squeeze in some Christmas shopping, but when they went to Southlake Mall, they were besieged by students of all ages who recognized him and came dragging parents and friends in tow to meet him.

Anderson pushes a sharpened pencil through a sealed sandwich bag filled with water, but it doesn't leak.

He is demonstrating the configuration of polymer molecules and how highdensity polyethelyne plastic, which is used to make some sandwich bags, seals around punctures to remain airtight

"Some people gel paid $4 an hour and some people get paid $2,000 an hour.

What's the difference 1 between the guy who flips hamburgers and the guy who operates on a tumor?

You could hire somebody for $4 an hour to take (>ut the tumor. The trick is keeping you alive."

H

e has been a champion of engineering, science and technology since receiving his undergraduate degree. He was hired as a recruiter for the School of Textile Engineering, and convinced Dr. Denney Freeston to let him make science presentations to generate interest among high school students. Later, Anderson and his wife operated a gift shop in Macon with such success that they became financially independent.

Two years ago, Mercer I Iniversity in Macon recruited Anderson to be an engineering-education specialist.

Last year, the university was awarded a three-year grant by the National Science Foundation to encourage students to pursue careers in math Continued next page

Anderson nails home a point about cryonics by using a banana dipped in liquid nitrogen.

< ,i:< >Ki HA TECH •

•*!

42

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

"Myfirst day of graduate school, I was feverishly taking notes. About halfway through, the professor threw an eraser and beaned me right on the head Chalk dust went everywhere. He said, 'Craig put that damned pencil down. Tloe name of the game now is to learn....

Listen to what I'm saying. Let's have a little interaction.'I thought, this is the way school should be taught from the beginning." and science. Anderson works with science and math coordinators for school systems throughout the state of Georgia, holds teacher workshops, and speaks to civic clubs and other organizationsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;at no charge.

During the past two years, Anderson says he has given science presentations to more than 100,000 people, approximately 67,000 of them high school students.

"I'm a promoter of the first order," Anderson says boldly. "I think students should study more science and mathematics because that's where the jobs are."

"Students should study more science and matliematics because that's where the jobs are."

A parabolic dish such as those used o n the sidelines of a football game collects and amplifies sound. If the dish volume is set too high and is too close to the microphone, an ear-splitting squeal is produced, much like fingernails scraped against a chalkboard.

l-i

nderson is not offended when children ask him if he's a mad scientist. But he marvels that at such a young age children could already have such a strong misconception about scientists.

Anderson goes about changing that misconception.

"Kids are naturally interested in everything," he says. "They are interested in learning. I want them to know that by studying science, they can have the world by the tail." â&#x20AC;˘

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RESEARCH

Lost in the Ozone Again Major cities now have another reason to retain their trees and green spaces. Rising temperatures caused by the "urban heat island" effect— which is related to the loss of green space—may be boosting production of ozone-forming hydrocarbons in major U.S. cities.

Urban ozone pollution is produced by a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon compounds in the presence of sunlight.

In September 1988, a team of Georgia Tech scientists reported in Science that natural hydrocarbons from trees play a larger role than originally believed in creating the ozone pollution that plagues many U.S. cities, suggesting that control strategies aimed at nitrogen oxides might be more effective. At the time, critics argued that if the theory were correct, urban areas could control their ozone problems by cutting down their trees.

A follow-up study has found that reducing the number of trees in urban areas may raise temperatures, promoting tin increase in the production of natural hydrocarbons.

The rising temperatures also speed up the photochemical reaction which produces ozone from hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, and boost the emissions of man-made hydrocarbons, primarily from the evaporatk >n < >f fuels.

"Observations indicate a strong link between urban ozone and temperature: When temperatures are high, ozone concentrations also tend to be high." said Dr. William Chameides. director of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,

who co-authored the study with research scientist Carlos Cardelino. "Interestingly, there is also a link between hydrocarbon emissions and temperature. When temperatures are high, both natural and manmade emissions of these compounds also go up.-" Costly federally mandated emissions controls on motor vehicles and industrial sources theoretically should have reduced hydrocarbon emissions in the Atlanta area by 50 percent over the past 15 years.

That reduction, in turn, should have cut ozone concentrations.

But actual measurements of ozone show little or no decrease during that time. Chameides argued in the 1988 paper that the large volume of natural hydrocarbons produced by trees and other plants creates a huge reservoir of the reactive chemical which is not substantially reduced by the controls on manmade hydrocarbons.

He believes ozone-control strategy may have to shift its focus to nitrogen oxides, the other side of the chemical reaction. Measurements in remote locations have found relatively low concentrations of naturally produced nitrogen oxides, suggesting that control of man-made sources of these compounds may be feasible, he said.

Limiting nitrogen oxides would require different pollution controls on motor vehicles, and new controls on large combustion sources such as electric power plants.

Chameides also believes that cities must consider the environmental impact of future land-use decisions.

He believes cities should adopt strategies to retain tree cover, helping maintain air quality by limiting the extent of the urban heat island.

Robots Demonstrate 'Survival Instinct' Instincts and reflexes of living creatures are providing the blueprint for a new generation of robots that could someday navigate hazardous waste sites, nuclear power plants, coal mines, deep seas, or even distant planets, without remote-control assistance.

Using a model of the hormonal systems that control "fight-or-flight" decisions in mammals, researchers at Georgia Tech have demonstrated feasibility for a robot capable of making "instinctive" survival decisions such as seeking shade to cool internal systems or altering travel plans to save fuel.

Ultimately, the Tech group hopes to equip Georgia Tech's mobile autonomous architecture-driven robot—"George"—with sensors capable of transmitting infonnation about a variety of internal scenarios such as dangerous temperature levels or dwindling fuel reserves. Solution options could then be programmed into "receptor schemas" Continued page 46 GEORGIA TECH • Research

45

RESEARCH Continued from page 45

linked to a subsystem that makes routing decisions.

In the past, many robots have been designed to make methodical decisions based on an elaborate representation of a particular environment. But programming an entire "world" is complicated, and the robot must sift through a great deal of irrelevant information before taking action. By studying the mammalian endocrine system and other biological models, scientists hope to learn exactly what cognitive events or visual signals trigger and modulate particular movements.

The Machine Knows What You're Feeling At Georgia Tech, researchers are studying the component of speech produced by the periodic opening and closing of the vocal cords at the upper part of the larynx. Called the "glottal waveform," this opening and closing provides excitation to generate sound, which is then filtered by the vocal tract and shaped by the mouth and lips to form words.

The researchers ultimately hope to separate three components of speech: the word meaning, the identity of the speaker, and the emotional state of the speaker. Filtering out the individual components could lead to better automated speech processing and synthesis techniques. An understanding of speech patterns could be the basis for a process to automatically translate emotionally charged speech into a standard form more easily recognized by machines.

System Pinpoints Video Pirates When video pirate Captain Midnight beamed his message of protest

46

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1990

into the Home Box Office satellite transmission system four years ago, company officials had no effective way of determining where the signal was originating.

Engineers at Georgia Tech have developed a system for pinpointing the location of ground stations that interfere with satellites, using a variation of techniques long used for radio navigation.

The new Satellite Interference Location System (SILS) should help satellite operators more quickly locate the source of accidental satellite interference, as well as any future Captains Midnight The system could theoretically produce accuracy to within a fraction of a mile, but its real accuracy depends on the strength of the interfering signal and the amount of noise present.

The system uses a "time difference of arrival" technique to infer the longitude of the ground station, and an interferometric technique to learn its latitude.

Finally, the system uses computer analysis techniques to display the potential location on a terrestrial map.

Though Captain Midnight gained considerable notoriety for his action, most satellite interference problems occur when transmitters are turned on accidentally, or when antennas are not properly aimed.

Plastic Blocks Are No Longer Child's Play As the nation's steel bridges and water mains continue to deteriorate, scientists at Georgia Tech are assessing the strength of fiber-reinforced

plastics to see if these strong, noncorrosive composites are suitable for rehabilitating aging infrastructures.

Roughly one-fourth the weight of steel, fiber-reinforced plastic could potentially lower transportation and construction costs while speeding the development of new bridges, water systems, emergency shelters or warehouses.

Various lengths of fiberglass Isections are being tested in the School of Civil Engineering's hydraulic pressing instrument, which is capable of applying 450,000 pi >unds.

Research began in September last year, and results from an analytical phase of the project have been promising. Using strain gauges and other instruments, the short-term responses of I-sections compressed to the failure stage are measured. To determine the long-term load capacity and deflection responses of fiberreinforced plastic, researchers will perform additional tests on components subjected to compression for 18 months. â&#x20AC;˘

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Chemical Vapor Deposition With Low-Vapor-Pressure Reactants

By Robert J. Kyle

C

hemical vapor deposition of films has become a widely used industrial technique for production of specialized materials.

Some of the most important chemicals used have low vapor pressures, especially those used to make high-temperature superconducting films. These reagents have proved particularly difficult and expensive to deposit, and the speed of deposition had been awkwardly slow.

A n e w development which overcomes many of the low-vapor-pressure limitations has b e e n reported by Dr. Jack Lackey of the Georgia Tech Research Institute's Energy and Material Sciences Laboratory of the Materials Sciences Division. This invention improves the speed of deposition of these important materials by nearly two orders of magnitude. It dramatically improves the economic potential for commercial production of high-temperature superconductors and other materials utilizing low-vapor-pressure reagents.

48

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1990

The process has b e e n successfully demonstrated in several hundred laboratory runs, and it has even b e e n used to produce superconducting wire as well as to deposit films on various other substrate configurations.

The invention utilizes pneumatic powder-feeding techniques to inject quantities of the reagent powders in a hot-walled furnace where they are vaporized and react to form the superconducting c o m p o u n d on the substrate.

Existing commercial techniques necessitate careful, simultaneous control of temperature, pressure and flow rate for each reagent. Compared to present practices, the invention provides less waste of reagents at faster deposition rates with simplified equipment and controls.

A U.S. patent application is pending.

Semkxmductor Electron Wave Devices 4 n entirely n e w class of i l L semiconductor devices has b e e n proposed

by Georgia Tech electrical engineering professors Drs. Thomas Gaylord, Elias Glytsis, and Kevin Brennan. These devices, which were first revealed in October 1988, hold the potential to b e the "next generation" of electronic circuitry. Research at Georgia Tech indicates that such circuits can be reduced to about one onehundredth the size of current circuits. Even more significant, simulations have revealed switching times on the order of 100 femtoseconds, i.e., 0.0000000000001 seconds.

This switching speed corresponds to an operating frequency of 10,000 gigahertz (ten thousand billon cycles per second).

As the size of electrical circuits has been reduced, conventional semiconductor devices have been plagued by quantum-mechanical wave effectsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; internal interference effects which result from the ballistic nature of electron flow. Designers have had to either avoid or compensate for these effects.

The neve inventions utilize these wave phenom-

ena to treat electrons in ways analogous to photonsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;reflection, refraction and interference are used to create devices that are similar to optical devices used with light. The result is guided electron-wave devices which operate at high speed and allow optical-like parallel processing.

Devices currently under study include high-frequency oscillators, switches, electron waveguides, electron emitters, modulators, deflectors, filters, beam splitters, lenses and diffraction gratings.

U.S. and foreign patent applications have been filed.

This article describes new technology developed at Georgia Tech and which is currently available for licensing. Additional information on the technology described here can be obtained by letter or phone to Barry Rosenberg. Office of Technical Sen ices, (404) 894-6287.

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Written by Lisa Crowe

he designed while working on a Ph.D. at Tech.

"I got dragged into my first company by accident," Muench admits.

"I was just tinkering around, but when people saw the product, they wanted to use it."

When Muench drummed up $337,000 from LaSalle Street Capital, then the major owners of the Atlanta Braves, he abandoned his thesis— and a job at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. in Marietta—to start up Integrated Systems in 1967. Five years later, the company was sold for $1 million.

In 1973 Muench founded another Atlanta company—Intelligent Systems—that made color CRT terminals. The company went public seven years later and acquired halfa-dozen divisions, including a British

harles A. Muench never meant to make it as a highflying entrepreneur. When he received his B.S. in engineering from Tech back in I960, he assumed he'd be a company man just like everyone else.

"We didn't have much of an entrepreneurial spirit back then," Muench says. "The goal was to go out and work for a big company."

But instead of punching a time clock as a salaried employee, , Muench is cutting international distribution deals as the founder, chairman and president of Colorocs, a thriving Atlanta-based color copying firm.

Muench's first business venture was the inadvertent result of an invention—a computerized energymanagement system for utilities that

The Muench File • i960: Graduates from Georgia Tech, • 1964: Receives master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida.

• 1967: Starts Integrated Systems Inc. • 1973: Founds Intelligent Systems Corp.

• 1980: Founds I'rintaColor Inc. to manufacture and market colorprinter terminals anil Color Graphics Inc. to make four-color

Lithographic equipment.

• 1981: Named F.ntrcprcneur of the Year by Atlanta alumni chapter of Stanford,I Iniversity.

• 1982: Founds Colorocs Inc. • 1983: Named High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year by the Atlanta High lech Venture Capital Conference, • 1983: Named to Tech's National Advisory Board.

• 1985: Joins Advisory Board of Tech's School of Electrical

Engineering.

• 1985: Resigns from Intelligent Systems to serve as CEO of Colorocs.

J

50

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1990

branch, before Muench sold out in 1985.

The success of his first two companies proved Muench's business acumen, but Colorocs is the venture that could make him a major international high-tech player.

During the first year of shipments, starting in June 1989, Colorocs cornered 20 percent of the color copier market and sold 5,600 of its S 17,000 machines. Third quarter revenues for the three months ending June 30 were up 2,000 percent from the same period a year ago—from $635,000 to $13.5 million.

P

rint shops comprise 80 percent of the current color copier market, but Muench predicts that eventually almost everyone will be drawn to color copying.

"The point will come—fix >m a business standpoint—when color will be necessary," Muench said.

"Color adds spice to life; it's an attention-getter.

"It's like black and white versus color television; how many people watch black-and-white TV?" If Muench is right, the potential for company profit is astronomical.

Only one percent of the color copier market uses color copiers, and Colorocs' revenues are already soaring.

In anticipation of a burgeoning market, Muench holds 15 patents for color copiers and is developing a smaller copier priced under $ 10,000 that should be ready to sell by 1992.

Although color copiers supply the bulk of Colorocs' business, the company recently released a color printer for $30,000 and Muench is

l-i

Tech's Muench: A successful entrepreneur by accident and inclination. developing a less-expensive model, also scheduled for release in 1992.

Muench is modest about his business abilities, but he does admit to a talent for predicting the future.

"If I have a good trait, it's recognizing a market opportunity that doesn't yet exist," Muench says.

When Muench started working on color copiers back in 1982, few

people even imagined the possibility of reproducing a color brochure or photograph. It was a strictly blackand-white world; still, Muench thought the idea worthy of seven expensive years of research and development.

Muench's wife and four daughters share his faith in his forecasting abilities.

"My wife worked for all my companies and funded $200,000 in startup money for Colorocs," Muench reports. "My daughters are also big investors in the company."

Keeping ahead of a rapidly growing business keeps Muench away from his family home in Naples, Fla., and traveling much of every week.

In response to explosive sales, he has rapidly opened eight American Colorocs branches, with three more due to-open this fall; one Canadian branch; five Australian branches; and distribution systems in Europe and Asia.

The travel is hectic, but Muench enjoys the wheeling and dealing.

"How deals work is more exciting than tinkering, although I still try to do a good deal of tinkering," he says.

Muench would like to see more Tech students pursue independent business ventures.

"I'm a big promoter of teaching students how to go into business for themselves," Muench says. "If you start a company, then take it public, everyone ends up very wealthy, and the engineers tend to put some of that money into the next generation of high-tech companies." â&#x20AC;˘ Lisa Crowe is a free-lance writer working in Atlanta.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Profile: Muench

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