Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 66, No. 03 1991

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Alumni

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Eve's^ecret > Helicopter Research.

Magazine

WINTER 1991

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VOL.

66 NO. 3 A l u m n i M a g a z i n e

FUBUCAHONS COMMIT/TCE Chairman Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr., NS'46 Chairman. Sawyer-RileyCompton Inc., Atlanta William "Guy" Arledge, IM 71 Manager A dvertising, BellSouth Corp., Atlanta McKinley "Mac" Conway Jr., GE'40 President. Conway Data Inc., Norcross, Ga. Hubert L. Harris Jr., IM '65 President, lnvestco Services Inc., Atlanta McAllister "Mac" Isaacs III, TCX'60 Executive Editor, Textile World. Atlanta Perry Pascarella Vice President-Editorial, Penton Publishing, Cleveland. Ohio George A. Stewart Jr., AE '69 Vice President-Marketing, Development, Dittler Brotheis Inc., Atlanta James M. Langley Vice President External Affairs. Georgia Institute of Technology. Atlanta John B. Carter Jr., IE'69 Vice President and Executive Director, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta Wayne J. Parker, IM 74 Associate \ ice President/ Associate Executive Director. Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta

1991

03NTEJVIJS

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

^NTER

Mastering a Coniplicated Beast

11

Tech scientists seek ways to increase stability and safety in the unwieldy helicopter—a bird that shouldn't fly, but does.

Written by Mark Hodges COVER: Rob Mitchell directs the team of innovative engineers that make Disney World the number one vacation spot.

Read about his work, beginning on page 20.

Photo courtesy Disney World

Engineering the Disney Magic

20

Disney's magicians don't pull rabbits out of hats, they pull printouts out of computers. And a Tech engineer directs them.

Written by Gary Goettling

Eve's Secret

36

Studies into the mitochondrial DNA reveal surprising details about the first humans. • Written by Karla Jennings

DEPAIOiMFrVlS Letters Recycling; Homecoming; Summerscape; Tech's co-op program.

5

Technotes

6

Olympics video and planning; free parking; new degrees; Tech research among the best; Richmond Tech Club.

Innovators William George IE '64; Michael Levy EE '69-

39

Math P u z z l e

44

Research Paperwork pollution; the shape of silence; a non-Hollywood "film"; stabilizing boats.

47

Profile Barbara Blackbourn: A vision for video.

50

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

is published quarterly for Roll Call contributors by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Send correspondence and changes of address to: GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Alumni/Faculty House, 225 North Avenue

NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175 • Editorial: (404) 894-4646 Advertising: (404) 894-2391 • Fax: (404) 894-5113 © 1991 Georgia Tech Alumni Association GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

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We've helped families for over a hundred years. And we'll help yours.

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LETTERS Recycling Resources Editor: Thanks for the fine job being done to ensure that each issue of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE is of

high quality and is informative to readers with interests other than the bond we all have—a love of Georgia Tech!

I would like to receive recycling information and reference s< airces on behalf of The Woodlands Community Association, which represents almost 30,000 residents. I am interested in contacting the non-profit National Recycling Coalition, the Environmental E( >rum of Georgia Tech, and Tech's Property Control Division, all of -which were mentioned in the article -Waste Not, Want Not" [Fall GEORGIA TECH

Homecoming '90 Was Wonderful

Tech Co-Op Program Largest in Country-

Editor: My first visit to Georgia Tech since graduation— during Homecoming weekend 1990—was wonderful. The campus looked terrific and the people were as friendly as ever. I was especially impressed with the treatment I received at the Alumni/Faculty House. I'm proud to be a Tech graduate.

Wayne Trimmier, EE '86 Arlington, Texas

Editor: As an employee of Georgia Tech and also as" an alumnus, I look forward to receiving the alumni magazine. This professional publication does an excellent job of highlighting activities on the campus as well as accomplishments and achievements of members of the Georgia Tech community. I especially appreciate your recognition in the Fall 1990, issue of Paul J. Mitchell, "Mr. Peanut Butter," as a former Georgia Tech co-op student.

There were at least two other individuals mentioned in that particular issue who have connections with the co-op program: Tyrus Royal, onehalf of the "Buzz" duo, is enrolled as a co-op student, and Charles A. Muench, who graduated from Tech in I960 with the cooperative designation on his diploma.

Possibly an issue in the future may want to highlight the successes of students who have participated in the cooperative program, since we constitute approximately 30 percent of the undergraduate student body and are the largest voluntary cooperative program in the U.S.

SummerScape Update Editor: I read with interest the excellent Fall 1990 GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

article on Georgia Tech's "mad" scientist, Craig ALUMNI MAI ,AZINE].

Anderson, and his presentation for seventh- and G. Fred Reeves BS '54 eighth-grade students The Woodlands, Texas participating in Tech's • For information from the SummerScape program.

Please give me information National Recycling Coalion SummerScape. tion, enclose a stamped, self-addn >ssed business-size John F. Rinehart, ARCH envelope with your request 74 to.- National Recycling CoaOrlando, Fla. lition, 110130th St. NW, Suite 305. Washington, DC • SummerScape is a two20007, Attn: Holly week summer science proWinfrey. 'Ihe Property Con- gram at Georgia Tech that trol Division mailing adis designed to tap the natudress is: Ceorgia Institute of ral curiosity and enthusiTechnology. 225 North asm of middle school stuAvenue.. Xilanta, GA dents. For information, 30332-0. iO. >. The Environ- write to: mental Forum mailing ad- Myrna L. Goldberg, dress is: Programs Area, Academic Affairs, Georgia Georgia Institute of TechInstitute of Technology, nology, 225 North Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30332-0330.

Atlanta. GA 30332-0458.

Or call (404) 894-8994.

Tbankyou to the official sponsors of the •

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE •

• Acme Business Products • Ball Stalker • C&SBank • The Coca-Cola Company • Delta Air Lines • Diamond Brostrom • First Atlanta • Hyatt Regency Ravinia • Lanier Plaza Hotel & Conference Center • Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta • Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead • Technology Park/Atlanta • Wyndham Hotel

Thomas M. Akins, IE 74 Director, Cooperative Division Georgia Tech GEORGIA TECH • Letters

5

TECHNOTES Video Offers Olympic Tour ^k mi*'T^ant to tour the % m / 1 9 9 6 Olympic • •Village? Check out the training, housing and dining facilities? Catch some of the entertainment?

Don't want to wait until 1996?

No problem.

Thanks to a high-tech, wide-screen, multi-media video—developed by Georgia Tech's Multi-Media Technology Laboratory in support of the Atlanta Organizing Committee's successful Olympic bid— you can "experience" the Olympic Village and enjoy a personalized tour.

Alumni, campus visitors and residents of Georgia can view the panoramic, multi-media presentation thanks to a major fundraising effort by the Alumni Roll Call's Phoenix Club members.

The club raised $200,000 through contributions made to the 44th Roll Call campaign, which enabled Tech to purchase four interactive video systems: two new systems identical to the presentation Tech developed for the Tokyo Olympic bid, and two like the original interactive systems Tech developed for the International Olympic Committee meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1989.

Both systems use a combination of graphics and computer graphics merged with live video footage to achieve a realistic look at the Olympics.

6

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

An interactive videc»—combining computer graphics and actual site footage— offers alumni an opportunity to experience the 1996 Olympic Village at Tech.

Both systems are currently on display at the Wardlaw Center.

The Phoenix Club consists of members who make an annual gift of $10,000 or more to the Roll Call, of which $7,500 is set aside in a permanent account in the donor's name.

Once the permanent account reaches $15,000, donors can designate use of the endowment.

To "experience" the

Olympic presentation at the Wardlaw Center, contact Tammy Tuley at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0182 or call (404) 894-8835.

Roll Call Contributors Land On Free Parking Membership has its privileges, and at Georgia Tech that means landing on "free parking" is not left to chance.

Olympic Planning Underway President John P. Crecine has announced formation of the 1996 Committee to "plan for and anticipate the changes and opportunities the 1996 Olympics jwilll present to Georgia Tech."

The committee is comprised of 49 members representing administration, students, faculty and alumni, and will be organized into task forces to deal with such topics as housing and construction.

One of the group's first priorities will be to devise a plan to minimize disruption of academic and research activities while the campus is serving as the OlympicVillage.)

For contributors to the annual Alumni Roll Call, current membership cards are the ticket to one of Georgia Tech's mc )st valuable commodities—a parking space.

Georgia Tech is honoring current Roll Call membership cards with free parking privileges in the monitored parking areas, said Dr. Richard Fuller, vice president for operations. The current membership cards are for the 43rd Roll Call, which ended June 30. and the 44th Roll Call, which began July 1 and ends June 30,1991.

"These parking privileges are an excellent way to reward Roll Call donors and provide better seivice to our alumni," said Stacey Sapp, IMGT '80. director of Roll Call.

The membership cards can be used for normal parking privileges, the exception being sp< >rts events sponsored by the- Athletic Association.

TECHNOTES

New Degrees OK'd by Regents Georgia Tech's first-ever degrees in humanities and social sciences have been approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

The Ivan Allen College of Management, Public Policy and International Affairs will offer a bachelor's in history, technology and society, and another in science, technology and culture.

An undergraduate degree in international affairs and a graduate degree in public policy are also being considered by the Regents, with a decision expected by the end of the year.

Tech Research Effort Ranks Among Best Georgia Tech ranks 19th among the top 100 U.S. colleges and universities in total and federally financed research and de-

velopment expenditures in 1988-89, according to the National Science Foundation Fiscal Year 1989 data.

In fact, Georgia's three major research universities—Tech, the University of Georgia and Emory University—expended a total of $385,330,000 in research funding for the year.

Dr. Demetrius T. Paris, Tech's vice president for research and graduate programs, said Georgia's research universities expended a larger amount of research funding than the North Carolina Research Triangle universities—North Carolina State University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Those schools expended a total of $382,078,000 in research funding during FY 1989Georgia Tech led the way for all six universities with a record-setting

$174,664,000 in total expenditures.

Also in FY 1989, Tech ranked fifth among the top 100 U.S. colleges and universities in industrysponsored R&D expenditures, earning $21,346,000.

Other schools in the top five in research expenditures include Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, University of Michigan and North Carolina State University.

Yes, Virginia...

Alumni with the Greater Richmond, Va., Georgia Tech Club met with more than 100 high school juniors at a recent "college night" program in Richmond. Among alumni extolling the virtues of Georgia Tech to prospective students are Turner Plunkett (left) ChF '82; his wife Jane Wcxxly Plunkett, IE '84; and Joseph Ward, IM '51, a trustee with the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

Tech's Ricltmond club is participating in college-night activities in four of the city's school districts.

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers Shirley C. Mewborn EE '56 president Oliver II. Sale Jr. ME'56 past president John C. Statonjr. IM '60 president-elect/treasurer H. Hammond Stithjr. CE '58 i ice president/activities G. William Knight IE '62, MSIM '68 / ice president/communications Frank 11. Maier Jr. IM '60 vice president/Roll Call John B. Carter Jr. IE '69 ; ice president/executive director James M. Langley vice president

Trustees Kay Elizabeth Adams IMGT 74 Theodore Arno II TEXT '49 James D. Blitch III IE '53 Stanley L. Daniels ARCH '60 H. Guy Darnell Jr. IM'65 Joseph T. Dyer IE '69 Edwin C. Eckles ARCH '52 Jack J. Faussemagne IM '65 Frank B. Fortson EE 7 1 Albert F. Gandy IE '56 Don P. Giddens AE '63, MSAE '65, PhD '67 Jere W. Goldsmith TV IM '56 TTiomas B. Gurley EE '59 Hubert L. Harris Jr IM '65

P. Owen Herrin Jr. IM 70 Brian D. Hogg IM '61 G. Paul Jones Jr. ME '52 Ivenue Love-Stanley ARCH 7 7 Jay M. McDonald IM '68 Thomas H. Muller Jr. IE '63 Michael Percy CLS '68 Patrise M. Perkins-Hooker IMGT '80 James Richard Roberts III IM '69 Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr. NS '46 W. Clayton Sparrow Jr. PHYS '68 Francis N. Spears III CE 73, MSCE '80 George A. Stewart Jr. AE '69 H. Milton Stewart Jr. IE '61 Howard T. Tellepsen Jr. CE '66 S. Joseph Ward IM '51

GEORGIA TECH • Technotes

7

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

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

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Year.

Mastering a Complicated Beast Written by Mark Hodges Photographed by Gary Meek

"The helicopter is extremely useful But producing a Mgh-speed, smooth aircraft is a big problem."

^ T ^ R / Tr hen Leonardo da ^ ^ ^ K / Vinci sketched out his ^ ^ / ^ y vision of a living ma• • c h i n e , he had something like the modern helicopter in mind. It's easy to understand why Leonardo's imagination moved this way. An aircraft that can lift off and set down vertically has compelling advantages of flexibility in its favor.

These advantages notwithstanding, rotary-wing vehicles have been slow to develop in the 20th century, at least compared to fixed-wing aircraft. One reason is that the bulk of aerospace research funds has been devoted to fixed-wing airplanes. But equally important is the complexity of rotary-wing flight itself. Not only are the aerodynamic forces that affect helicopters far more difficult to understand than those buffeting jets, but also the structure of the helicopter is prone to unsettling vibration.

"The helicopter is an extremely useful air item," says Georgia Tech researcher Charles Crawford. "However, the only way it achieves its forward-flight capability is through tilting the tip-path plane of the rotor forward. And rotors just don't like to fly through the air sideways. So producing a high-speed, smooth aircraft has always been a big problem."

Georgia Tech researchers are playing a leading role in this effort through the Center of Excellence for Rotary Wing Aircraft Technology (CERWAT). In 1981, in a nationwide competition of universities, the U.S. Army selected Georgia Tech's School of Aerospace Engineering to operate its lead center of excellence. With this designation came a $5 million grant over five years that has allowed Tech to establish a comprehensive program of graduate education and ' research in rotary wing aircraft tech- • nology. In 1987, CERWAT's funding

renewed at approximately the same level for another five years, and today 14 faculty and 30 graduate students are involved in the program.

CERWAT's role is not to address product-specific development tasks, but rather to explore basic research questions that U.S. rotary wing aircraft manufacturers and government laboratories aren't equipped to handle. The results are available for the entire industry.

"Helicopters are very complex machines," says Professor Daniel Schrage, the center's technical director, "so one of the big goals is always to try and simplify them."

The center's efforts toward simplification involve research in four key areas: aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, structures and materials, and flight controls and mechanics. It has been the rule, rather than the exception, for this work to involve broad interdisciplinary collaboration.

To one of the center's participants, Professor Dewey H. Hodges, this encouragement of cross-fertilization is a welcome trend.

"The helicopter is a complicated beast," he explains. "It's one of the most complicated pieces of technology known to man. Everything that you do with a helicopter tends to require a multidisciplinary effort, so it's no place for a person who's narrowly focused in one discipline."

Understanding Aerodynamics i ir

flow causes problems for all . aircraft, but it's particularly

To test flight stability, graduate student David Hooke experiments with different types of rotors. Lasers measure air flow, helping researchers learn how shapes react in flight situations.

Continued next page

12

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

9. f

:

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'

"We are many years away from being able to model the aerodynamic flow field to the degree necessary."

troublesome in rotary-wing flight.

Unlike jets, helicopters must fly in their own wake. An aerodynamic feedback loop develops in which the blade pushes air down on the fuselage, causing it to vibrate in a way that affects the performance of the rotor blade itself.

This phenomenon makes aerodynamic analyses so complex that engineers can't be sure how their designs will work in practice. Since helicopters carry multi-million-dollar price tags, consequences of failure are far from trivial, and the industry eagerly awaits better methods of predicting rotary-wing aerodynamics.

In attacking this problem, Professor Howard M. McMahon and Assistant Professor Naryan M. Komerath designed a simplified version of a fuselage-and-rotor system. They knew that the experimental model fell far short of representing the complexity of real-world aerodynamics,

but they hoped to get a better grasp on simple principles, then step up to a more sophisticated awareness of the interactional aerodynamics problems involved.

The researchers set up their rotorcraft experiment in a wind tunnel, then began studying the interactions between fuselage and rotor in a simulation of foward flight under unsteady air loads. To make measurements, scientists injected mineral-oil droplets into the wind-tunnel air, then mapped the flow field with a laser Doppler velocimeter.

Explains Komerath, "One characteristic of helicopter air flows is that you see very strong vortices, which are like tiny tornadoes, and you can see the cores of the vortices very clearly. Once we know how the vortices move, it becomes much easier to calculate velocities."

The study, which began in 1983, has generated favorable results.

Military and Civilian 'Copters

H

elicopters have long played an important role in civilian and military activities. For the armed forces, they are essential for transporting and supplying troops in war zones where fixedwing aircraft can't land, and for carrying out reconnaissance missions by flying close to the ground, below radar detection. In addition, they serve as weapons platforms that generate a staggering amount of firepower.

In the civilian world, helicopters hover over major urban highways, reporting traffic patterns to the public. They also allow hospitals to transport patients over gridlocked expressways, let banks quickly collect and deposit funds, and give corporations a way to whisk top executives between offices, airports and remote industrial plants.

Today's best helicopters fly at speeds ranging from 115 to 200 miles per hour. In another few years, the military is set to field a tilt-rotor aircraft that travels up to 350 miles per hour.

With these new capabilities, rotorcraft will continue to be an important part of military strategy, and they could take on some of the burden of civilian air transportation in the United States. Japan already has acted on the potential of commuter travel Via helicopters, and is planning to l develop up to 3,000 vertiports.

14

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 1991

"About a year and a half ago, we reached the point where we could calculate the flow around that simple configuration," Komerath says.

Work on this project continues at a higher level of complexity, and the researchers hope eventually to develop useful design codes for predicting interactional dynamics.

Dealing with Vibration

A

nother concern in rotorcraft L design is aeroelasticityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;how much the aircraft bends and shakes in flight due to unsteady aerodynamical conditions. Any machine that travels as fast as a helicopter and has as many moving parts, must vibrate to some extent, but too much vibration can shorten vehicle and component life and even lead to catastrophic failure. To meet the rising demand for faster helicopters, engineers must improve their knowledge of aeroelastic phenomena.

Vibration is caused by aerodynamically induced stressesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for example, when air loads excite the rotor blades and are transmitted to the fuselage. Another contributing factor is "resonating" components. Cliff McKeithan, CERWAT's director of external relations, compares this phenomenon with the vibration of guitar strings. Just as low E vibrates when high E is struck on a guitar, so too can helicopters become the victims of sympathetic vibrations. The fuselage of a helicopter has certain frequencies at which it begins to vibrate dangerously out of control. Designers must take care not to specify rotor-blade configurations that resonate at just those frequencies.

Many aeroelasticians and aerodynamicists continue to wc >rk in relative isolation from one another, but lately researchers have found this

With a video flight simulator, graduate student Dan Wolfe tests rotor response in different situations. separation to be limiting.

"More and more," says Dewey Hodges, "we find that helicopteraeroelasticity people are becoming more aerodynamics oriented." They have discovered, Hodges believes, that better aerodynamic models, in addition to improved blade modeling, are needed to solve the main problems in aeroelasticity.

In CERWAT, Hodges and Professor David Peters have collaborated on a project to determine whether a better aerodynamic model can enhance the predictive accuracy of aeroelasticity codes already in existence.

"It makes a difference," Hodges says. For instance, the correlation between theory and experiment "goes haywire" when attempts are made to predict rotor-blade flap-lag stability at high thrust.

"With a good unsteady-aerodynamics theory," Hodges says, "you can improve that prediction by a tremendous amount. But I still think we are many years away from being able to model the aerodynamic flow field to the degree necessary for rotorcraft to be designed on a rational basis in all flight regimes."

This project has benefitted from

Peters' dynamic-flow theory, an analytic tool that allows the engineer to understand how air is drawn through the rotor and interacts with the rotor blades. Knowledge of this complex inflow aids in understanding both the aerodynamic and aeroelastic traits of a design configuration.

CERWAT serves as a bridge between the worlds of aerodynamics and structural dynamics. Indeed, Peters believes that a synergism of all disciplines involved in rotary wing flight is necessary.

"With a normal airplane," he says, "you can have one group of people who study the structure. You can have a different group of people who study lift. And you can have a third group studying control. But in a helicopter, these are all so connected to each other that no one group can study it by themselves. You have to do everything at the same time. The aerodynamics, the structures and the controls all come from the rotor."

Peters also has devised a blade-lift theory based on a method developed

by French engineers for understanding fixed-wing aircraft aerodynamics.

As modified for rotary-wing aircraft, this theory, when combined with the

dynamic inflow theory, allows designers to use a common set of mathematical equations to predict a variety of critical rotorcraft functions such as trim, stall and lift. In essence, Peters' approach creates a common language for understanding phenomena that are normally the province of different disciplines, enhancing greatly the possibilities of meaningful disciplinary integration.

"All the pieces can now talk to each other," Peters says. "This is one of the most exciting things we've done in the past four years."

A New Generation of Materials

D

ewey Hodges' work spans the fields of aeroelasticity and structures. He began his career 20 years ago by showing that a nonlinear structural dynamics model is necessary to account for aeroelastic instabilities. In the mid 1970s to early 1980s, he developed a theory and accompanying computer code to analyze aeroelasticity in the newly available bearingless rotor. Today, he is in the middle of a long-term effort to model the characteristics of composite rotors. The promise of comContinued GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Helicopter Research

15

"Engineers need to improve their ability to model composite rotor blades."

posites is well documented: Not only can they be lighter and stronger than metals, but fabrication also can be tailored so that they exhibit unusual and desirable properties not found in conventional materials.

For example, a composite can be made that twists in one direction as it extends. Such a property could be extremely valuable in a rotor blade, which must be feathered during every revolution in forward flight. A composite rotor blade could be created that twists to the angle desired as the number of revolutions per minute changes.

Such tailoring of materials could save fuel, increase payload and reduce operating costs.

But Hodges believes that before

these benefits can be fully realized, engineers need to improve their ability to model composite rotor blades.

He has undertaken this challenge in a CERWAT project that focuses on the development of a nonlinear beam theory. In this effort, he will look for innovative uses of composites in rotors that do not compromise aeroelastic stability.

Making 'Copters Crashworthy

A

ll aircraft, including helicopters, . are susceptible to accidents, and Georgia Tech researchers have developed composite fuselage structures that they believe can enhance the chances of passenger survival in low-altitude mishaps. In a recent

CERWAT project, professors Sathya Hanagud and James Craig have designed structural components similar in shape to the corrugated materials found in shipping boxes. These sine web composite structures, as they are called, would be located beneath the cabin floor of a rotorcraft.

Though crushed at impact in an accident, they would absorb energy and reduce the force felt in the passenger compartment. Hanagud refers to this as "breaking, in controlled fashion."

The sine web material is made of curved pieces of a graphite-resin composite. The curves offer strength and resistance while allowing the material to be compactly stored.

In another project, Hanagud and Continued page 18

The Helicopter Saga' A War-Born Craft

L

eonardo da Vinci was not the only great inventor who was fascinated with vertical flight.

Thomas A. Edison, convinced that airplanes required too much engine power and takeoff room to ever be practical, also dabbled in helicopter research.

"If I were to build a flying machine," Edison told a reporter in 1909, "I would plan to sustain it by means of a number of rapidly revolving inclined planes, the effect of which would be to raise the machine by compressing the air between the planes and the earth."

Two years previously, the first man-carrying vertical (light was achieved by Frenchman Louis Breguet, whose four-rotor machine lifted two feet off the ground. A few months later, another Frenchman, Paul Cornu, piloted a rotorcraft for several minutes at a height of one foot, and a forward speed of six miles per hour.

But problems with stability and control were extremely complex, and most powered-flight investigators turned their attention to airplanes.

Research into vertical flight was continued by a handful of enthusiasts around the1 world, and by the eve of World War II, most of the problems with heli-

16

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

copter flight—rotor systems, torque control and engine power—had been resolved.

It was Russian inventor Igor Sikorsky who bn >ught all the developments together and "inventeil" the first practical and useful helicopter. In 1941, his VS-300 craft achieved 92 minutes of fully controlled flight, and the modern Iielicopier was born. More than 400 helicopters were built to serve the Allied war effort.

In 1947, aeronautical entrepreneur Larry Bell developed the Bell Motlel 47—the world's first helicopter certified for civil use. With its distinctive plexiglass bubble cockpit, the Bell 47 became everyone's idea of how a helicopter should look. Bell 47s ferried wounded American soldiers in the Korean conflict, and also starred in the 1950s television show "Wlurlybirds."

The development of turbine engines in the only '60s greatly increased helicopters' efficiency and expanded their range of military and civilian applications.

Helicopter development is far from complete. New technology and research will enhance the viability of vertical flight and encourage greater public acceptance of it. As helicopters become faster and more reliable, they may yet assume the pre-eminent role that Edison envisioned for them more than 80 years agi >.

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Smart structures also show promise for monitoring the "health" of a helicopter's airframe.

Craig are using several analytical tools to model helicopter airframe vibrations and reduce those vibrations through design of appropriate active and passive control techniques. The modeling tools include structural dynamic system identification techniques and multi-body system dynamic techniques. "Smart structures" concepts are being developed to detect and reduce vibration.

Embedded in "smart structures" are a variety of sensors, actuators, controllers and signal conditioners that can continually report information on vibration levels and structural integrity to a computer control system on board the helicopter. The Tech researchers have used piezoceramic sensors and actuators to detect vibrations in non-rotating beams, then nulled them out through the transmission of compensating signals. They are determining which components of the airframe can be controlled with this technology.

Smart structures also show promise for monitoring overall "health" of a helicopter's airframe. "They can provide early warning of failures or redefine the helicopter's mission in case of failures," Hanagud says.

Research aids chances of passenger survival in low-altitude mishaps. operation in the helicopter-design process.

CERWAT has taken steps to correct this problem, through its support of master's and doctoral-level studies.

Undergraduate and graduate students alike receive deeper exposure to aerospace-systems design, and the Tech program is arranged to accentuate interdisciplinary cooperation.

As a result, McKeithan believes, in the past five years Tech students have only once failed to take first place in the American Helicopter Society's student design competition.

Design Education The Future of Rotorcraft

T

he complexity of the helicopter isn't the only reason that its development has been slow. Traditionally, American engineering universities have given relatively little emphasis to design education. As a result, graduating engineers usually need at least several years of on-thejob training before they can make meaningful design contributions for the helicopter manufacturers that hire them. Even after these appren-1 ticeships, many never fully appreci- ^ ate the need for interdisciplinary co18

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 1991

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s daunting as the shortcomings . of helicopters sometimes seem, rotary-wing specialists such as David Peters find encouragement in looking back at the past.

"Twenty years ago," Peters says, "when I started in helicopters, you couldn't predict anything. One time, my boss sent all the helicopter companies some data for a helicopter, and he said, 'You come and tell me how fast it'll fly, and how much vibration it'll have.' Everybody sent

back their predictions, and they were all 100 percent different. No two were anywhere near alike.

"Today," he adds, "we're gotten to the point where we can predict the stability of a helicopter, but we still can't predict the vibration part.

But you can see the progress through the years."

Peters says that engineers have solved 80 percent of the stability problem, but only understand 20 percent of what is necessary to deal with undesired vibration. "In another 10 years," he says, "we may be able to predict vibration a lot better."

Once that problem is worked out, he adds, it may take researchers another 20 to 30 years to reach a thorough understanding of the fatigue mechanisms at work in helicopters.

As Peters' assessment shows, rotary-wing aircraft technology is still far from mature. Under the best of circumstances, this "complicated beast" won't be tamed until well into the 21st century. â&#x20AC;˘ Mark Hodges is editor qfResearch Horizons, published by the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

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ÂŤINEERING THE

ISNEYcJ/J^GIC The magicians at Walt Disney World don't pull rabbits out of hats; they pull printouts out of computers

Written by Gaty Gexdriing

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The nightly "IllumiNations" light spectacular at Epcot Center's World Showcase is run by a single human operator and a bank of 30 computers. The show uses lights, fireworks and three 25-watt lasers that are bounced off mirrors and used for imaging.

I'.I'OKCIA

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kob Mitchell is always on vacation—not I his, but other people's. As director of engineering for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., Mitchell has a principal role in creating the unique and spectacular k attractions that lure an estimated 25 million vacationers'^ka year to Disney's three theme parks: the Magic ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Kingdom, Epcot Center and the Disney/MGM Studios.

Most people are surprised to learn what he does for a living. "They have engineers at Disney?" laughs the 1971 industrial engineering graduate.

"People don't realize how big a challenge engineering is within the Disney company," says Mitchell, who also has a master's in management from Rollins College. "Unlike a lot of other parks and entertainment companies, we do almost all of our design in-house.

"The challenge doesn't stop when the facility is built," he adds. "We're continually trying to improve it, make it more reliable, improve the quality of the show. Almost all of the shows have been improved through the years to make them more reliable and a better experience for our guests."

Mitchell heads a staff of about 140 engineers and designers organized into three areas: ride and show engineering, facilities engineering and industrial engineering.

The first two groups are concerned with the development and maintenance of the park itself and its attractions, and the third group provides internal consulting.

"I think we've got one of the best engineering organizations in the world," he says. "We've had good luck in attracting very strong, competent engineers. We attract a very energetic type of engineer—I'd say our energy level is extremely high.

"We've been fortunate to find a mix of recent graduates from schools like Georgia Tech, and more-experienced engineers who have spent many years working in various areas of engineering. We have engineers in virtually every discipline—civil, mechanical, structural, electrical, machine design—you name it."

The skills may sound familiar, but the end products are anything but ordinary. The ability to take people on a ride across a primordial swamp past fighting dinosaurs, or through 2,000 years of history, or 20,000 leagues under the sea requires a tremendous amount of creativity.

"A lot of engineering jobs are monotonous, and require repetitive and uncreative thdught," Mitchell says, "but this one is just the opposite. • \

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"One of the things that appeals to our engineers is the opportunity to apply their creativity to their work. Our company requires a tremendous amount of creativity in the designs that we provide. Most of them are one-of-akind, first-time designs. We're building something that's never been built before almost all the time.

"Disney is a perfect match for engineering," he adds.

"I can't think of a better place for an engineer to work."

Actually, Mitchell wanted to work for Disney long before he thought he'd become an engineer. He had visited Continued

The Magic Kingdom brings Walt Disney's cartoon world to life through the use of irnaginative design and engineering, and an obsession for details.

Walt Disney World: The Empire a Mouse Built Acreage: 28,000 total—6,000 developed—located 20 miles southwest of Orlando, Fla. Employees: 31,500 Epcot Center: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, opened Oct. 1, 1982. Divided into two areas: World Showcase, which features pavilions representing 11 nations, and Future World, which contains theme areas focusing on discovery and Scientific achievements. Major attractions. Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, World of Motion, Journey into Imagination, Computer Central, Horizons, The Living Seas and Wonders of Life.

Magic Kingdom: 45 major adventures on lOO-acre site. Seven lands with attractions, restaurants and shops based on themes of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy: Adventureland, Liberty Square, Frontierland, Main Street U.S.A., Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Mickey's Slarland.

Disney-MGM Studios/Dlsney-MGM Studios Theme Park: A working iV-and-film Studii > as well as a theme park. Production facilities opened 1988; tour and entertainment facilities opened 1989.

Pleasure Island: A six acre nightclub theme park featuring six nightclubs, shops and restaurants.

Theme Resorts: 14 hotels, a campground and a vacation villa, with five more hotels under construction. Total accommodations: 12,773.

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the original Disneyland at age 12, and recalls thinking then that Disney would be the "ideal" place to work.

The Monticella, Ark., native says that when he was looking for a college, "I Wanted to go to the best engineering school that I could, but stay fairly close to home.

Georgia Tech was a natural choice."

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HE GEORGIA TECH YEARS: SPORTS, STUDY, MILITARY AND A BRIDE FROM ASC

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s a student, Mitchell was in the Navy ROTC program L and was a member of Sigma Chi, ODK and the Scabbard and Blade military honorary.

Although a three-year letterman on Tech's gymnastics team, Mitchell's real passion was kayaking. A three-time national champion in the one-man kayak, Mitchell was introduced to the sport while in high school. He honed his skill on the Chattahoochee River while attending Tech, and earned a spot on the U.S. national team.

During his years in Atlanta, Mitchell also met his wifeto-be, Karen, who was a student at Agnes Scott College in Decatur. The two married soon after college, and now have three children: Robbie, 12, Todd, 9, and Christy, 5.

A post-college stint in the Navy didn't hinder his sports involvement. "I spend my military career racing kayaks for the Navy around the world," he explains.

"Those three years in the Navy were a great experience."

In 1972 he was picked for the U.S. Olympic team and raced in the one-man kayak event at Munich.

Mitchell is pleased that his sons have shown an interest in making Olympic competition a family tradition.

"I'm training my two boys now for the Atlanta Olympics, and I think they both have a chance to make the U.S. kayaking team, particularly the 12-year-old, who will be 18 in 1996."

The Mitchells now live in a lakefront home in Clermont, Fla., where they enjoy windsurfing, sailing, skiing and, of course, kayaking.

And where does someone who works for Walt Disney World go on vacation? "We like to get to the national parks," Mitchell says. "We're about halfway to our goal of visiting every one of them."

Continued next page

"Body Wars" sends Disney World guests o n a specialeffects voyage through the human circulatory system aboard a "rninlaturized" medical body probe.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Engineering Disney

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Mitchell's boyhood dream came true 15 years ago when he joined Disney World as an industrial engineer developing preventive-maintenance programs. He worked his way up to director of industrial engineering, then to general manager of the Magic Kingdom and transportation maintenance. In 1989, he was named to his current position: Inside the Wonders of Life pavilion, a queue of "guests" (as tourists are called by Disney employees) wait patiently for a chance to experience one of Epcot Center's newest and most popular attractions.

"Body Wars" imparts the physical sensation of a roller coaster using special-effects film techniques along with a little adaptive engineering by Mitchell's department.

The premise is a trip through the human circulatory system. A 70 mm film, produced by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic and directed by Leonard Nimoy, is projected before an audience strapped into four 26-ton flight simulators. When the motion of the simulators is A dancer performs in front of the Japan pavilion at the World Showcase. Her musical accompaniment is controlled by a mainframe that runs music programs 100 times a day for Epcot's entertainers.

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synchronized with the visuals on the screen, the effect is awesome. is When Disney engineers bought the simulators, they knew they faced a big challenge, Mitchell says. Typically, pilots handle the equipment gingerly; their objective is to avoid "crashes" or violent movements of any kind.

"We took just the opposite approach," Mitchell explains. "We put the simulators through as much stress as we possibly could. Needless to say, they required quite a few enhancements to the technology that was available."

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ROM THE MIND OF DISNEY, IMAGINATION CONHNUES TO FLOW

L

ike a magician who guards the secrets of his art, the Disney Co. is tight-lipped about how most of its magic is performed. But Mitchell relents a bit after repeated pestering about an unusual attraction—the Epcot Center fountain where segments of water leapfrog over the sidewalk. "It's all in the nozzle," he smiles.

New rides and shows originate at California-based Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), which was established Continued next page

—

A Byte-size Heartbeat for Disney World

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omputers bring Disney World to life. Virtually

i very mechanical motion, light, sound and audio-animatronic gesture is controlled by computer—scores of them.

At Epcot's Central Computer Room, Jeff Smith, manager of central systems, points to a humming Data Gene: mainframe. "Every show has one of these," he s.i.

They contain the animation dala that moves the .ii If • animatronie figures."

The computers also contain the sound bites, narration, lighting cues and vehicle motion signals for a parti attraction.

Eai Ii clement of a show contains a time code. By reading, the codes, the computer is able to "keep audio, in: nation and film projection all exactly in syne," says Smith. "That's how the show all comes together and s it look like- it is controlled by one system."

At .mother computer bank, blinking red lights indicate i tat music is being played at the pax ilions of

Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

"This system runs the background music for the small entertainment groups that perform sets throughout the International Showcase," Smith explains. The system runs automatically for the 100 or so performances held each day at Epcot.

At a large console sit the only two human operators in tin' room. "This is the main maintenance console for the park," Smith explains, "Let's say the hostess in France has a problem—a show's not running right or a urinal is backed up, She has one number to call, and it comes in here, where the problem is logged and a crew is dispatched to fix it." The computer also monitors fire and security systems, along with many of the mechanical systems in the park—hydraulic pumps, air pressures, electrical-panel contacts and the like.

The system is so sophisticated and efficient, Smith says, "we can usually gel a problem fixed even before the guests know something is wrong."

GEORGIA TECH • Engineering Disney

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ENGINEERING

by Disney himself and serves as a kind of "think tank" for the theme park side of the company. Their sketches and ideas end up in Mitchell's area for refinement and the nuts-and-bolts engineering work—the bridge between imagination and reality, as Walt Disney might say.

"Our role is to dovetail with WDI, and try to develop new ideas as well to fit into their shows," Mitchell says.

"We spend quite a bit of time trying to maintain and improve the quality of our shows. We're constantly evaluating new technology and how it can be applied to our company."

The engineering department has recently added its own research and development group, according to Mitchell, and is experimenting with new techniques in shows and support materials that could have a significant long-term impact on the Disney theme park.

"You can't just let a park like this sit and stay the same from one year to the next—you've got to keep improving it," Mitchell says. "Walt said that you've got to be continually growing and changing. The whole company is rooted in his philosophy of constant innovation."

-/HE DISNEY ENGINEER: PERSONAL CREATIVITY BLENDED WITH GROUP INTERACTION

T

o Mitchell and the other Disney engineers, an extremely important aspect of their job is to blend their work with that of the other professionals who together create the seamless Disney "experience." This approach not only influences their designs, but necessitates close interaction with a variety of other disciplines.

Disney World, like its sister parks in California and Tokyo, derives its format from the motion-picture business. Each attraction focuses on a theme, and every ride has a meticulously arranged beginning, middle and ending. The parks are designed to move guests from one area to another without jarring contrasts. Using light, color, sound, landscaping and even the feel of the pavement, visitors shift from one "scene" to another.

Continued next page

A Disney World guest explores a winding tunnel of neon brilliance at the "Image Works," a hands-on "creative playground of the future" that is firmly anchored in the present-day Journey into Imagination pavilion at Epcot Center. The pavilion also features a "ride through the creative process."

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GEORGIA TECH • Engineering Disney

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"The interesting part, from an engineering point of view, is the quality level," Mitchell asserts. "We maintain the highest standards of quality in all our design. You can't find that kind of standard anywhere else in the entertainment business."

The philosophy that no detail is too small even extends beneath the Magic Kingdom, where a maze of tunnels contains metal shops, carpentry shops, dressing rooms and a host of other support functions. "Up there," says Mitchell, pointing to a cluster of pipes and cables running along the ceiling, "are the utilities. When something needs to be repaired, we can do it from down here and don't have to tear up the street or the grounds."

The dozens of souvenir shops above are always packed with merchandise, yet no one is ever seen making deliveries. That's because everything is transported through the tunnels. The costumed Disney characters move from one end of the park to the other via the tunnels, to avoid the incongruous sight of, say, a Mickey Mouse in colonial dress skipping past Tomorrowland.

Nor would one see Donald Duck—or anyone else for that matter—hauling a bag of trash to a dumpster. The reason, Mitchell points out, is a network of pipes about three feet in diameter that also hug the tunnel ceiling. It's a pneumatic waste-disposal system with access portals at all of the Kingdom's facilities. The trash is sucked out through the pipes to a central disposal area where it is separated for recycling.

IRA RADITION AND EXCELLENCE: DISNEY HALLMARKS FOR THREE DECADES "WVTalt Disney World is very nearly that—a self-con• • tained, self-sustaining world. Almost anything, from 120-foot-long ferry boats to audio-anamatronic robots to ride systems, can be built at the Disney shops.

The Central Shops are located just a few miles from the theme parks amid a compound of corrugated-steel The Wicked Witch of the West is one of a new generation of audio-animatronic figures with unnerving realism and more sophisticated movements, thanks to a new technology that was originally invented for medical prosthetic devices. The witch and 58 other characters perform for "The Great Movie Ride," at Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park.

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Trevor Larsen, ME '88, MS ME '90, is among the newest Tech alumni to join Disney's engineering staff. buildings, sequestered from the outside world by a tall chain-link fence. It has the blue-collar look of any other light-industrial manufacturing facility, except for the miniature antique-car replicas parked on trailers and the freshly painted waste receptacles warming in the sun— splashes of brightly colored Disneyania. Over the door a sign is posted: Home of Excellence.

"If you can put it on a piece of paper, we sure as hell can build it," says Arnold Lindberg, director of manufacturing.

Lindberg is a living link to the Disney tradition. He started working for the company in 1954 and figures he's among the top four or five employees in seniority.

"I knew Walt Disney well," says Lindberg, who helped build Disneyland in California, then moved to Orlando when it was little more than swamps and dunes, to begin planning Disney World. "When he entered the studio gate in the morning, the first place he went was right to the machine shop to see what was going on. He stopped and talked to us, asked questions, gave directions."

O^TKZILUONS OF HANDS AND FEET: COPING WITH PROBLEMS OF REPAIR AND RENOVATION

I

n the late '60s, when Disney moved to Florida to begin work on the World, there were no manufacturing facilities in central Florida that could handle the huge task, Lindberg says, so Disney built its own.

The shops still do fabrication work but the shops' primary role now is to maintain the entertainment and reContinued GEORGIA TECH • Engineering Disney

31

ENGINEERING

sort complex. Fighting the wear and tear from 25 million pairs of hands and feet makes renovation an ongoing project, Mitchell says. "Everything the guests can touch is repainted at least once a year. Virtually everything is either refurbished or replaced at the first sign of wear."

To keep Disney World from showing its age, the shops employ nearly 2,000 craftsmen—everything from animation technicians to electricians, and metal workers to carpenters.

C/ERY FEW DISNEY EMPLOYEES THINK OF THEIR WORK AS "JUST A JOB"

T

he cavernous, 300,000-square-foot shops building is organized by craft. In one area, painters apply delicate strokes to a magnificent carousel horse destined for Euro Disneyland, the theme park under construction near Paris, France, and set to open in 1992. "We are also building the shows for Euro Disneyland," Lindberg adds.

Against a wall, a life-like horse stands motionless, its side open to reveal a tangle of red, blue, yellow and black wires. On a wood platform are scattered foam rubber characters in various states of repose—forms for fiberglass fabrication. In fact, Disney craftsmen excel at fiberglass work and have developed proprietary technology that enables them to work the material into startling realism with extraordinary detail.

"You can take almost anything, from its conception to its completion, and never have to move it outside the building," Mitchell says.

Lindberg and Mitchell describe the steps involved in creating or repairing an item—and like everything else about the Disney operation, it is a meticulous, scrupulously detailed process. "It costs a little more money to keep those kinds of controls," Lindberg says, "but the beauty of it is that you can go home at night and rest assured that it isn't going to fall aj5art.

"The Disney magic was created by Walt Disney," he adds. "He set the standards, he set the pace, and it has been up to the rest of us who worked with him to continue with his philosophy. It has been successful—there is no question about that."

Lindberg checks the time because he has a design meeting to attend. He's wearing—what else?—a Mickey Mouse watch. i If it sounds like Disney employees lake their work

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home with them, it's because they get emotionally caught up in the work, says Mitchell. "Very few people who work here think of it as just a job," he adds.

"One of the main reasons I enjoy working here so much is that it's a family experience," Mitchell says.

"When I go home, the whole family wants to kn< >w what's being done, what's being built.

"It might sound hokey," he continues, "but providing the highest quality in entertainment to millions c >f people every year is something that really binds us together— and we all have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for this company and its principles." •

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omputers bring Disney World to life. Virtually every mechanical motion, light, sound and audio-animatronic gesture is controlled by computer—scores of them.

At Epcot's Central Computer Room, Jefi Smith, manager of central systems, points to a humming Data General mainframe, "lively show has one of these," he says. "They contain the animation data that moves the audio-animatronic figures." Computers also contain sound bites, narration, lighting cues and vehicle motion signals for a particular attraction. latch element of a show contains a time i <«le. By reading the codes, the computer keeps audio, animation and film projection all exactly in sync.

At another computer bank, blinking red lights indicate that music is being played at the pa\ iIi< MIS of Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

"This system runs the background music FM the small entertainment groups that perform sets throughout the International Showcase." Smith explains. The system runs automatically for the 100 or so performances held each day at Epcot.

At a large console sit the only two human operators in the room. "This is the' main maintenance console for the park," Smith explains. "Let's sa\ the hostess in France has a problem—a show's not running right or a urinal is backed up. She calls in here and a crew is dispatched to fix it."

The system is so sophisticated and efficient. Smith says, "we can usually get a problem fixed even before the guests know something is wrong.

Georgia Tech, A Photographic Portrait

The Institute has long sought to create an official pictorial book that would document the beauty and vitality of Georgia Tech. We are pleased to announce that principal photography is now complete and Georgia Tech, A Photographic Portrait is a reality. Filled with outstanding original photographs, this volume is sure to bring back many wonderful memories of your educational experience in Atlanta. Its rich and sensitive images will move you to observe and appreciate our fine institution as never before. For anyone who has attended Georgia Tech and remembers the part it has played in shaping lives and fulfilling dreams, no book will be more appreciated, or have greater personal significance, than this evocative pictorial essay.

To create this unique work the Alumni Association has commissioned acclaimed photographer Tommy Thompson who spent countless hours walking the campus, cameras in hand, patiently observing the Institute and its people. In all, Tommy Thompson took over 10,000 individual photographs of the Institute so that its people, architecture, all the important moments that make it unique, have come before his lens to be captured in stunning images. Of these, only the finest, the most beautiful and evocative, have been selected by the book's pictorial editorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;two-time Pulitzer winning photographer William Strodeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for inclusion in Georgia Tech, A Photographic Portrait.

Georgia Tech, A Photographic Portrait is a large, coffee table size book (9 1/2" x 11 3/4"), comprised of 112 pages of prem i urn heavy coated paper. The exterior is attractively covered in fine library cloth with the title fully embossed. Even the typeface has been specially chosen to enhance the richness and quality of the book. And to preseve and protect this handsome volume, it is covered by a heavy, full-color dust jacket.

This heirloom volume will not only be a joy to own, but will also be a pleasure to give. For alumni and friends alike, Georgia Tech, A Photographic Portrait will make a much appreciated gift for a birthday, holiday, or any occasion you wish to make memorable.

Issue price: $39.00 plus $4.75 for shipping and handling. On shipments to Pennsylvania only, add 6% state sales tax.

To order by American Express, MasterCard, or Visa, please call toll-free 1-800-523-0124. Calls are accepted weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Eastern time). All callers should request Operator 518JP. To order by mail, write to: Georgia Tech Alumni Association, c/o P.O. Box 670, Exton, PA 19341-0670, and include check or money order made payable to: Georgia Tech, A Photographic Portrait.

Eve's Secret Gehetics and the Origin of Women Written by Karla Jennings Illustration by Mac Evans

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echnological research into the mitochondria of the human cell—the energy powerplant— may reveal some family secrets w o m e n have kept through the ages. And those secrets are raising eyebrows.

Does the human mitochondria reveal w h e n and where h u m a n beings arrived o n the scene of history?

Dr. Douglas C. Wallace, w h o s e research into the mitochondria has been probing for answers, says the evidence is there, passed along from mother to daughter throughout the centuries.

Wallaces study of the h u m a n mitochondria has triggered the "Eve" controversy. He and other geneticists assert human beings may b e descended from one female w h o lived only about 200,000 years ago. It's a shocking statement to paleoanthropologists. w h o insist that the fossil record shows the h u m a n species to b e far more ancient.

The debate is a case of bugs versus bones; so far, the bugs appear to b e winning.

The excitement surrounding the research led to Wallace being the inaugural lecturer for Georgia Tech's recently-established New Century Lecture Series. Speaking o n "Mito-

chondrial Genes and the Origins of Women," h e began a series in which Tech will invite u p to four outstanding researchers a year to give public talks. Wallace's relentless curiosity about mitochondria has brought him other honors as well. At age 43, h e is a professor of biochemistry and associate professor of pediatrics, neurology and anthropology at Emory University, and one of the country's outstanding molecular biologists.

Wallace's work has revealed many surprises about h u m a n mitochondria.

Until the last three decades, little was k n o w n about mitochondria beyond biology class cliches: they are the energy "factories" of the cell while DNA is the "blueprint" of life.

When Wallace was a Yale graduate student in the early 1970s, mitochondrial DNA had been discovered but little characterized. Many assumed this DNA was relatively unimportant because it was so small.

Intrigued by the idea that the mitochondrion was simple enough to b e completely understandable, Wallace began studying it.

"It outwitted me, that's for sure," he said. "I did not learn what I thought I was going to learn."

He and his collaborators at Stanford University unwrapped a profound surprise about mitochon-

dria; all the mitochondria a human inherits comes from the mother's egg. The mitochondria is passed from mother to daughter, but not to sons.

JLhe evolutionary implications of this discovery excited Wallace and his co-workers, especially since mitochondrial DNA has a rapid mutation rate, making historical analysis feasible. Nuclear DNA averages a mutation only once approximately every 50,000 years, but mitochondrial DNA averages a fixed mutation approximately every 4,000 years—lightning transformations in evolutionary terms.

"We showed in the late '70s that the mitochondrial DNA in humans was maternally inherited," he said, "then started surveying different human populations to characterize the naturally occurring variation."

Collaborating with Luigi CavalliSforza of Stanford University, Wallace analyzed mitochondrial mutations in h u m a n blood samples collected worldwide. They found a high correlation between the nature of the mutations, ethnic groups, and geographic locations, indicating that all humans are descended from a small group of proto-humans originating in either south Asia or sub-Saharan

Dr. Douglas Wallace's lecture at Tech revealed questions for which there are n o answers.

Yet GEORGIA TECH • Mitochondria Research 35

GARY MEEK P H O T O

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Doug Wallace: His visions of Eve suggest a new view of humankind.

Africa about 200,000 years ago.

These early humans passed down only one strain of mitochondria, which possibly originated in a single female whom researchers dubbed "Eve." Wallace and Cavalli-Sforza's evidence, which they published in 1983, initiated the Eve controversy.

A he geneticist's theory that Homo sapiens evolved fairly recently from a small group triggered howls from proponents of one major evolutionary theory that different groups of Homo erectus split up about a million years ago and went their separate ways, independently evolving into modern humans of different races.

"Some are still upset about it.

Some are not," he said. "I think my data's more compelling than theirs, but I'm not very aggressive in trying to proselytize my theories."

Wallace does not say Eve was the only Hominid female alive—she may have had thousands of contemporaries, but their mitochondrial strains died out. Authorities say such losses could easily occur. If a woman has

only sons, her mitochondrial line ends. If her daughters have no children or only sons, again the line ends. With generations spanning about 200,000 years, one line might easily propagate as others fade out.

Wallace notes that "Eve" could have been a mother-daughter combination, sisters, or a few dozen closely related females. However many women were "Eve," we are all their descendants.

Some speculate that Eve's mitochondria gave early humans a survival edge, an idea Wallace dismisses, saying the mitochondria just got lucky on their evolutionary ride.

"My view is that there was a population of individuals that was isolated and did accumulate mutations that increased cerebral cortex capacity," he says. "For whatever reason, it was advantageous, but it occurred slowly, through a series of mutations, until there was a time when those individuals were so different that they could no longer cross-breed with other Hominids.

They were a separate species."

He and scientists Theodore Schurr

and Scott Ballinger of Wallace's lab recently completed a study of mitochondrial lines in American Indians that further supports the correlation between different mitochondrial strains and different cultural or ethnic groups. Their study of three American Indian groups in North. Central and South America suggests that the groups descended from four primary maternal lineages migrating from Siberia to Alaska. He thinks further research could answer enigmas such as the ancestral origins of Pacific islanders. Subtle mitochondrial variations might even give insights about how various groups adapted to their ancestral environments.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised if there aren't polymorphisms in the mitochondrial DNA of arctic people and tropical people that give them different capabilities in colcl-versuswarm climates, in high-fat versus low-fat diets, and in high-versus-low altitudes," he says.

Wa,allace thinks that the mitochondrial energy production has a role to play in such diverse kinds of neurological disease as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and certain kinds of heart, muscle and renal diseases.

"Probably most important is that mitochondrial energy production seems to decline with age, and one possibility is that it plays a major role in aging," says Wallace. "The question is, what's the molecular basis of that? So if aging is the most common mitochondrial disease, then mitochondrial genetics might prove to be very important in medicine."

Those are the words of a man who, after decades of unraveling mitochondrial mysteries, remains fascinated by secrets yet to be told. • Karla Jennings is a free-lance writer in Atlanta.

Wallace does not say Eve was the only hominid female alive—she may have had thousands of contemporaries, but their mitochondrial strains died o u t 36

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

The Cell Search i

Presidential Scholar Andrew Chung n o w studies under Wallace

R

ock music throbs in the background as Andrew Chung, in jeans and T-shirt, sits at his lab bench and scans a radiograph comparing the "footprints" of a human and a rodent DNA-binding protein.

A 1986 graduate from Tech with double degrees in applied biology and electrical engineering, Chung is now a graduate student at Emory University, working under Dr. Douglas Wallace.

He pours over microscopic images, searching for traces of a protein that may be functioning in both the nucleus and mitochondria, helping their respective DNAs work together.

He believes the protein is so ancient that it will be found in many living cells, from bacteria to humans. His mentor, Dr. Wallace, named the genetic sequence that the protein recognizes the oxbox" for its role in oxidative ph( xsphorylation. This is the process by which a cell produces most of its chemical energy in ATP, the energy currency for all life on Earth. The protein that binds to the oxbox is a transcription factor that helps turn on genes whose products catalyze chemical reactions—in this case, reactions involved in providing the cell with ATP. "I find this genetic sequence all the way down the evolutionary ladder," he says. "The major significance of this protein is that it may be a communication line between the nucleus and the mitochondria."

Chung was attracted to Wallace's laboratoiy because of its reputation for ground breaking microbiological research. I les fascinated with how an embryonic cell transforms itself to meet its specialized function, such as extruding its own nucleus to become a red blot >d cell.

"How does it know to do that?"

he asks. "What is happening at the level of gene expression?"

Chung's microbiological searches began when he accepted one of Georgia Tech's first President's Scholarships in 1982. His mind was on Tech even before he was offered the scholarship.

"Georgia Tech is a no-nonsense school. When you go there, you can tell," he says. "Students are very serious about what they're doing."

G

>hung took a double major because he liked biology, but also wanted the strong analytical background electrical engineering provides. He is convinced his training in digital signal processing will help him understand how a cell "knows" how to combine its genetic "tools" to create a vast array of proteins. To him, the subtle interplay among genetic factors to regulate gene expression is like the interplay among electronic digital signals through which a compact disc player turns binary data into music. Borrowing an electrical engineering term, he and his colleagues are essentially constructing a genetic "truth table" to define how the cell works in terms of binary data, allowing researchers to predict what the cell's response will be, given different combinations of active chemical tools.

While at Tech, Chung wrote poetry, co-edited the campus literary magazine, and jogged. After entering Emory's PhD/MD program, he was managing editor of the medical school newsletter until he sacrificed that to meet heavy class and laboratory demands.

For now, he's absorbed with exploring the oxbox element's significance.

"Andrew's studying a very impor-

Tech graduate Andrew Chung: Working with Wallace offers "a very exciting area of research." tant phenomenon, which is how the nucleus-and the mitochondria interact with each other," says Wallace.

"The nucleus and the mitochondria are not going to stay together for almost two billion years and get along as well as they have without having any way of coordinating and communicating with each other, so that's a very exciting area of research."

Wallace isn't bothered that Chung's research is quite different from the body of Wallace's anthropological work. In fact, he prefers workers who pursue their own research interests, seeking independently minded graduate students who balance flights of creativity with experimental validation and are thrilled at making original discoveries.

"I like to get people around me who share that excitement," Wallace says.—Karla Jenn ings.

GEORGIA TECH • Mitochondria Research

37

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INNOVATORS Rubles, Dollars and Patience

By John Dunn m m / T n e n the Soviet m M / Union ordered • • 20.000 oxygenators from Medtronic of Minneapolis last spring, they did it the old-fashioned way—with hard currency—meeting the terms of the firm's president and chief operating officer, William W. George, IE '64.

The really good news for George and Medtronic is that the best may be yet to come. The Soviet Union has 280 million people and, as George observes, "a health system that is not well developed and not well served.

"We'd like to help them build their medical system and get into more modern technology. We're prepared to provide that technology to them."

As a result, George believes his firm could become the USSR's leading supplier of medical items.

Conducting business with the Soviet Union requires a long-term effort, George says, adding, "You really have to hang in there for the long term and build the relationship and be prepared to suffer the ups and downs. You can put an awful lot of management time in it for limited results. You're not going to get a lot of results in the short-term. I consider that we were rather lucky."

George is referring to

the Soviet decision, after about a year, to purchase the oxygenators, a product that provides oxygen to the blood when a patient is on heart bypass.

Interest in the oxygenators was strong in the Soviet Union, where approximately 20,000 open-heart surgeries are performed each year. But negotiations stopped at the end of 1989 because no hard currency was available.

"One of the problems in dealing with the ministry of health in any Eastern European country is that they don't generate hard currency," George explains. "Some people have taken other goods in barter, which normally doesn't work out. And some people take soft currency, which is not convertible. In our case, we held out until we got an arrangement in hard currency. We were pleasantly surprised when the order came through.

The Ministry of Health was able to get some hard-currency credits out of the Maritime Administration, which does generate hard currency because of its shipping."

Medtronic's business associations with the Soviet Union go back to the Brezhnev era, when the . firm provided pacemakers to the Soviets. Brezhnev himself had one of the pacemakers, observes George, whose own busi-

WiUiam George: Serving Soviet health needs. ness dealings with the Soviets span more than a decade, beginning when he was an executive with Honeywell.

"Ten years ago I was frustrated because our Defense Department was making it so difficult to do any business with the Soviets," George recalls. At the time, any business arrangement that involved technology or aided the Soviet economy was viewed with suspicion, he adds.

"Honeywell hung in there and was rewarded in the late '80s with orders."

George was president of space and aviation systems business at Honeywell when he became president of Medtronic in March 1989- He is responsible for the company's cardiovascular businesses and its worldwide sales and distribution.

A varsity tennis player when he was at Tech, George still plays regularly.

He and his wife, Jenny, have two sons, Jeff, 16, and Jon, 14, both of whom he has coached in soccer.

George's Minneapolis Westside soccer team—on which Jon played—was a contender for the state title, losing in the state championship game.

On his trip to the U.S. last June, Gorbachev went to Minneapolis where he met with George and other top business leaders.

"I was quite impressed with what Mr. Gorbachev had to say," George says.

"He has received a lot of criticism inside his own country, but I think he has a clear vision of what he is doing in trying to shift the country from a centralized communist regime to a market-based economy.

"That's a pretty large undertaking. Mr. Gorbachev has a tough row to hoe, but I certainly support what he is attempting to accomplish.

More "Innovators," next page

GEORGIA TECH • Where Are They Now?

39

INNOVATORS Continued from page 39

Technology for the Goach %*-7m

MICHAEL P U C E P H O T O MICHAEL

By John Dunn

M

ichael Levy projects a market of more than $300 million for the sports video technology his company has developed, a technology that has turned the "instant replay" into a science.

Levy, EE '69, is chairman and chief executive officer of Sports-Tech International of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and president of Lexicon Corp., which owns 57 percent of SportsTech's common stock.

Levy's company has developed the Sports-Tech Video Editor, a computerized video editing system designed for coaches that enables video tapes of sports games to be broken down for detailed analysis.

The system is marketed to professional, collegiate and high school programs, and Levy has an enviable sales force to promote the products—his customers.

At the end of its first full year on Aug. 31, 1989, Sports-Tech had generated revenues of %AA million; on Aug. 31, 1990, revenues topped $6 million.

"We have the best system for computerized video-tape editing," Levy says. "In football, coaches want tapes broken down to show all the thirddowns on one tape, all the first downs on another, all the second downs on another. They want to see all the stunts, goal-line stands

Michael Levy: A video system coaches can't beat. and all the blitzes together.

Our system allows that to be done quickly and automatically."

Sports-Tech's customers resemble a Who's Who of college and professional teams, including 14 National Football League teams, nine National Basketball Association teams, 93 college football teams— among them Georgia Tech and Georgia—and 12 college basketball teams.

The success of the Sports-Tech system is such that the firm only has two full-time sales people on its staff of 20. The demand for the product is generated through direct mail,

demonstrations at sports conventions, and customer endorsements. Not bad for a product that started off as a flop.

"We had a product that we thought was really a great product for sports," Levy says. "It was a video disc-based interactive system that would allow coaches to have instant access to any plays in the game that they wanted to look at. The interesting thing is that the product was a failure.

"The coach could actually sit there . . . hit a few buttons on the touch screen that would bring plays up instantly on the

video. But the downfall of that system is that most coaches don't want to learn how to use a computer. They would rather have somebody give them tapes that have eveiything in the right order. That's where we made the mistake.

"We found out about another product that six NFL teams were using that looked like it could be interesting. In June 1988, we acquired the rights to that product and made a number of important modifications to it. We ended up developing the best computerized video-tape editing system—so the editor can quickly get tapes to the coach."

The proof of the pudding for Sports-Tech is that coaches who have had the system are unwilling to do without it. Every coach who has had the editing system and moved to another team, has purchased another system, Levy says.

The biggest market could be high school football programs. While college and professional computerized systems cost between $50,000 and $250,000, the Video Analysis System for high schools, a microcomputercontrolled manual editing system, averages 812,000.

Levy says the 15,000 high schools playing football are potential customers for his video system, and he estimates that they could spend up to $20,000 Continued page 42

40

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

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INNOVATORS Continued from page 40

Levy's Key: Being First with the Right People over the next five years acquiring and upgrading systems.

"That represents a $300 million market," Levy says.

The international market includes Olympic sports and European professional sports, such as soccer and basketball.

A native of Miami, Levy says he attended Georgia Tech because "I was looking for the best engineering education. It was one of the best choices I've ever made. I've never regretted it."

Levy is one of the pioneer designers for microcomputer technology. In

1972, as an engineer with Harris Corp., Levy designed a microcomputerbased system for electric utility supervisory control.

Because microcomputer chips were not yet available, he designed the system using data sheets. "We had the system designed and waiting for the chips," Levy says.

In 1973, Levy joined Milgo Electronics (now Racal-Milgo Inc.) in Miami where he developed the company's first intelligent communications-term inal products and became manager of engineering. He was also involved in pri-

vate projects, including designing computerized pinball machines and pool tables, talking bathroom scales, and other projects for which he has acquired a number of patents.

He and a business associate started Lexicon in the mid-70s, and Levy developed a pocket-sized electronic language computer capable of translating English reciprocally into 13 languages. Levy has been president of Lexicon since 1979. In 1987, Sports-Tech was founded.

"I look for new trends and try to be the first at something when I get a

chance," Levy says. "It's hard to come up with the right ideas. You can pick up a lot just by reading— USA Today, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal, for example. The key is getting the right people working for you. I try to get people to work for me who are good at details. I try not to get too bogged down in the details myself.

I try to look at the big picture, to make sure we're headed in the right direction, and to look for opportunities. I try to get people to work for me who are good at implementing the plans." •

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GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

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M I N D OVER MATH Integrated Crossmath Puzzle

1

2

18

By Dr. J o s e p h P. Vidosic, Regents professor of mechanical engineering, emeritus.

6

7

1 10 113

12

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1 15 18

17

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IN GENERAL 1. A monomial answer is placed in one box.

2. A polynomial answer is entered a term per box.

3- A numerical answer is entered one digit per box.

4. The number of significant figures is determined by the number of boxes available for the answer.

5. A negative or positive sign of a term must be included with the term (the positive sign may be omitted as understood).

4

3

1 25

26

1 29

28

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30

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I. How much is 11.567 x 10 ?

5. Iff(x)is 10x6 + 13x 5 -3x 4 + 18x3, how much is f(2)?

8. How much is 51/18 - 25/8 + 656/36?

9. What are the coordinates of point (-8, 3) reflected across the x = -2 line?

10. What is the number if its log to base 10 is 1.73239?

II. How much is 5.6861 x 104 - 228.36 x 102?

13. What is the area of a 9.85foot-wide path running completely around a 50 x 30 feet rectangular field?

15.Howmuchis 3 V8^? l6.Howmuchis 10238021?

18.What is 1 + cotct + j esc a simplified?

20. What is the measure of the smaller of two complementary angles if the larger exceeds the smaller by 46°?

21. What is the length of the perimeter of the triangle of 3 -Down?

22.How much is:f{g(x)l when x = 4 if f(x) = 2x + 3 and g(x) = x2 + 1?

24. What is the largest angle that satisfies 2sin43- 7sin9 + 3 = 0 between 0 and 360 degrees?

25.Whatis(2x 2 -3y 2 )(2x 2 + 3y2)?

27. What does (x + 3)3 equal if expanded?

44

1 32

1 31 34

29. How much is (3x2 - 5x + 6) subtracted from (8x4 9x3 + 7x2 - 16)?

31. What is (x + x2)(x - x2) -x simplified?

32. What is the diameter of a circle whose area is 132.7 square units?

33. What are the roots of x2 l 4 x = -45?

34. What are the coordinates of the vertex of the parabola y = x2 _ 3x 183 To" " 8 " 16 35-How many combinations are available using numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 taken two at a time?

36. Which positive number is 42 units less than its square?

37. What is 5 + V-2/3 simplified?

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

1 33

36

35

DOWN 2. What is the angle measure that is supplementary to 66°?

3. What is the area of an isosceles triangle having a base of 132 feet and sides 110 feet?

4. How many degrees are 13 radians?

6. How much is the area of a circle having a 45-inch diameter?

7. How much is (2x2 - 3x + 4)(5x- l l ) i f x = 5?

11. How much is V2(-9)(-50)?

12. Since the Fahrenheit-Celsius relation is P = 9/5 C° + 32, how many Celsius degrees are 86" Fahrenheit?

13-How long is the circumference of 6- Down?

14. How much is (2.5)cot3.17°? l6.What does (sinxx + oosRx + 1) + (Vl-sin2) + tan245° + 1) equal if simplified but

37

left as three terms?

17. How much is (v2 + 5y + 6) •*- (y + 3)?

18. What is sin 4 a sin 3 a + (l(X)),/2(8)-1/3 + log 1 left as three terms?

19. How much is 0.0086 +• 0.0002?

20. What is (2x + x3 + x4) x 21. How much is 6,444x2 + 18x2?

23. What is 4frr+ (7)" - antilog 1.3424 left as three terms?

24. What is x + 12x2 + x3 x simplified?

25. What is x3(2v>7 + 3) (2\b73) expanded 3 26.What is -(3y2 + 2x)(3y2 2x) + 5 expanded?

28. What is (3x + 4)(2x-3) expanded?

29. What is a factor of (64x + 48x4 + 9)?

30. What is , 3vT25x3 + ^ — ) -5(-D simplified but left as three terms?

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RESEARCH Cutting "Paperwork" Pollution A

mechanical pulping L process used to make low-grade paper might someday provide a clean, efficient alternative to the chemically based techniques currently used to produce high-quality paper, according to Georgia Tech scientists.

Researchers hope to lower energy costs and reduce the chemical emissions associated with highyield pulp manufacturing through a carefully planned marriage of chemical pre-treatment and thermo-mechanical pulping.

Using heat and grinding mechanisms to reduce wood chips, thermo-mechanical pulping is particularly attractive because of its high yield.

"When you put 100

pounds of wood chips in a thermo-mechanical pulping machine, you get more than 90 percent back," explains Dr. Jeffrey Hsieh, director of the Pulp and Paper Engineering Program at Tech. By contrast, chemical processes are usually less than 50 percent efficient, and they may produce pollution, he adds.

Finding the Shape Of Silence Quieter jet-exhaust nozzles under development at Georgia Tech may improve prospects for an environmentally acceptable high-speed civil transport aircraft. Acoustics researchers have reoorted nromis-

ing preliminary results from a unique design that features a "two tab" exhaust nozzle surrounded by a metal sheath ejector.

Today's jet engines use a simple round nozzle— the noisiest possible configuration. To search for quieter designs, a team of engineers in Tech's Aerospace Science and Technology Laboratory experimented with a variety of nozzle shapes—rectangular, elliptical, triangular and notched. The researchers found promising results from a novel configuration in which two tabs project into the exhaust area from opposite sides of the nozzle. These protmsions slow down the jet exhaust as it flows from the nozzle, reducing the extent of the suoersonic flow region—

Tech's Hsieh with pulping equipment: More paper, less waste, less pollution

and therefore also the noise.

Although this two-tab configuration would require no basic change in jet engines, it may have the undesirable effect of decreasing engine efficiency because the tabs reduce the exhaust area. But even if the two-tab design is found to reduce thrust, it may have merit if the tabs could be made retractable.

While flying over populated areas, the pilot could move the tabs into the engine nozzles to reduce noise. Once the aircraft reached oceans or unpopulated areas, the tabs could be retracted out of the exhaust flow to gain maximum efficiency.

A'Film' Hollywood Can't Produce Scientists at Georgia Tech are refining a simple process for making catalytic thin films containing immobilized, highly dispersed metal atoms that don't reduce catalytic efficiency by forming clusters.

Based on an original computer program and rational design principles, Drs. Mark G. White and J. Aaron Bertrand hope their work will result in more efficient and durable catalysts to produce gasoline, alcohol and other substances, without generating Continued page 48 GEORGIA TECH • Research

47

RESEARCH Continued from page 47

More Efficient and Durable Gas Catalysts undesirable by-products.

"Rational design can help reduce costs in two ways," explains Bertrand, a chemistry professor. "First, your raw materials are used more effectively, and this eliminates waste.

Second, you don't have the cost of extracting all the by-products from the end product."

By experimenting with non-traditional solvents, Tech scientists were able to make catalytic thin films using standard chemical procedures. When silica and copper are stirred with a non-aqueous solvent, the

metal simply dissolves and sticks to the silica substrate in a thin film.

The research into silica/ metal catalysts may aid in the development of a material for scrubbing acidrain sources from smokestacks.

Stabilizing 'Flying' Boats Wind-tunnel simulations and analytical studies at the Georgia Tech Research Institute have helped improve the stability of racing boats, and scientists believe similar work could

result in more efficient cars, aircraft, or even highspeed cargo vessels that "fly" over the water.

Researchers have already suggested design changes which dramatically improved the stability and safety of the 2,650horsepower Miss Budweiser racing boat.

Design modifications involved adding aerodynamic control surfaces to help offset any shift in the boat's aerodynamic center of pressure.

At top speeds, hydroplane boats literally fly over the water, with only

an aft propeller, fin and rudder immersed in the water. But during a blowover, these boats pitch upward as the center of pressure rapidly moves forward along the craft.

Last year, Teel i scientists recommended adding wing-like surfaces known as "tiplets" which help the boat remain stable if it leaves the water surface.

The changes add stability while giving the driver a larger operating window.

Continued research should result in additional design improvements for a range of applications. •

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GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

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PROFILE A Vision for Video

By Charles Hyatt

introductory freshman classes or in advancedm m / T h e n Georgia level seminars, "spiraling" ^ky^/'Fech assistant up in the complexity of • • Professor Barbara analysis applied to each.

L. Blackbourn first got in"The students love it," volved with video technol- says Blackbourn. "It gives ogy to teach foreign lanthem a glimpse of real-life guages, she never exapplications of the lanpected to be where she is guage skills required in today. other cultures.

"We've always used for"We're also finding sigeign-language movies and nificant improvements in television programs to exacquisition and perforpose students to different t mance when the video cultures," says Blackbourn, augments the traditional "but applying the new inclassroom instruction," she teractive technologies to adds. language learning is very Introductory-level sturecent." dents may have just learned the words for a Today, Blackboum's number of different bever"proficiency-spiraled video ages, for example. They sequences" are the hottest are then shown a video thing in her field. Consistsequence of native speaking of short segments of ers ordering drinks in a non-scripted native speakbar. The accompanying ers in specific settings, the viewer's guide asks the video segments can be students Questions about viewed and analyzed in

The Blackbourn File • 1973: M.A. in French, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• 1973-1983: Teaches French, UW-Madison.

• 1978: Ph.D. in French, UW-Madison • 1983-1986: Visiting assistant professor of French, IFW-Madison.

• 1986: Joins faculty of Georgia Tech.

• 1988-1990: Awarded grants for development of interactive video techniques lor language learning.

• 1988: Awarded scholarship by American Association of Teachers of French.

• 1990: Named Outstanding Teacher at Tech.

Nominated for Lilly Teaching Fellowship.

50

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1991

what they've seen, and they may also engage in similar exchanges in roleplaying situations with the teacher or other students.

Advanced students may be asked to further analyze the setting, customs and surroundings in greater detail. The video can be viewed again and again with increasing proficiency.

Blackbourn says that language is more than simply a system of sounds and symbols used to describe the world; it is also a reflection of a particular culture, and as such can only be learned within a cultural context. With the video, students become active, rather than passive, participants in their education.

"I like to think of this process as building a matrix of French or French culture, implying a scientific network of immersion," Blackbourn continues. "We focus the students' attention on specific strategies and structures that are appropriate to specific cultural contexts, and force them to function within that context.

"Learning a language is fun, but it has to be stimulating and communicative," she explains. "The students have to learn to use the language to express things about themselves, and look at similarities and differences in cultures and accept those differences."

Heinle and Heinle Publishing has successfully launched the pilot program "French Alive!" and is exploring expansion into German and Spanish.

Blackbourn had the original concept design, wrote the accompanying viewer's guide, and even shot much of the video footage.

Originally from Marinette, Wis., she received her BA. MA and PhD in French from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Blackbourn received a professional development grant from the Quebec government to study in that province in 1988, and while a graduate student studied in Paris and Geneva as a Ford Foundation fellow. She is an expert on French and Italian literature. Quebec studies, and the development of curriculum to study French business and technology.

B

lackbourn came to Tech's Department of Modern Languages in 1986 from UW-Madison, where she had been a lecturer and visiting assistant professor.

In 1990, she received Tech's Outstanding Teacher Award.

"Learning a foreign language is a gradual process, so you must be sensitive to your students' needs and to the levels on which they are working. If a teacher

Tech's Outstanding Teacher Blackbourn: Iniagining the potential of video in teaching the French language. makes clear what he or she expects, students will give it back to you.

"Teaching is really a wonderful profession," she says. "I like the whole sharing process involved with teaching. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to interact with the students, and I'm delighted to be at Georgia Tech, where there is an emphasis on practical success."

Blackbourn believes that the reorganization of her department into the new Ivan Allen College is a

very positive move. "As cross-cultural, political, and economic exchange become more important, language skills and cross-cultural experiences will become more and more worthwhile."

B

lackbourn is also excited about the growing ties Tech is making with Lorraine, France, through the recently funded Summer Intensive Language Institute, set to begin next July.

Blackbourn also appre-

ciates the technological resources of Georgia Tech and is hard at work adapting her proficiency-spiraled video instruction to interactive laser disk. She feels an educational revolution is in the making with the compact- disk-interactive and digital- video-interactive technologies which are now available.

"When we can become truly interactive, we can really take off," she explains. "The students will be challenged, but they will also be able to work at

their own pace, with the technology helping to generate words and understanding. We can encode thousands of words, phrases and situations onto one disk, and even add personal computer text and analysis to the whole process.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, just think how much is possible with video." â&#x20AC;˘ Charles Hyatt is a graduate student in psychology at Georgia Tech.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Profile: Blackbourn 5 1

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