Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 67, No. 04 1992

SPRING 1992

V J A L U M N I MAGAZINE

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GeormTech ALUMNIOM AGAZINE Volume 67, Number 4

• SPRING1992

Features

STAFF

IS

John C. Dunn, editor Gary Goettling, associate editor Gary Meek, Margaret Barrett photography Everett Elullum, design Dudley Williairison, advertising

PtJBUCATIONS COMIVIITIJEE Chairniaii Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr., NS'46 Chairman, Sawyer-RileyCompton Inc., Atlanta Members William -Guy" Arledge, IM 71 Manager Advertising, BellSouth Corp., Atlanta McKinlev "Mac" Conway Jr., GE'40 President. Conway Data Inc., Xorcross, Ga. Hubert L. Harris Jr., LM '65 President. Investco Services Inc., Atlanta McAllister "Mac" Isaacs III, TEX '60 Executive Editor, Textile World. Atlanta Perry Pascarella Vice President-Editorial Pentou Publishing, Cleveland. Ohio George A. Stewart Jr., AE '69 President. Stewart Consulting Group. Dunwoody, Ga. James M. Langley Vice President External Affaiis. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta JohnB. Carter Jr., IE '69 Vice President and Executive Director, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta Dudley C. Williamson, IMGT 74 Associate Vice President/ Associate Executive Director. Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta

Eyewitness to the Death of a President

14

Former Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood, IE '50, looks back on his exciting a n d historic 20-year career.

Written by Gary Goettling COVER: In the comfort of retirement in Savannah, Ga., Rufus Youngblood recalls his Secret Service career, and the last trip of the Kennedy presidency.

PHOTO MARGARET BARRFTT

Mind Over Matter

24

Planners for the '96 Olympics in Atlanta are relying o n old-fashioned brain-power as well as computers.

Written by Lisa Crowe

The Physics of Six Flags

30

Physics lessons that leave students screaming for more.

Photo essay by Gary Meek Written by Gary Goettling

The light Stuff

40

Tech researchers illuminate a n e w path to data processing.

Written byfohn Toon

departments Letters

5

Technotes Tech cracks top 10; Housing changes; Upbeat forecaster; Habitat home; Tech joins center; Football anniversary; Starts with B; Fash retires; MBA or MoT?; Seating changes; Info, please; Alumni on council.

7

Innovator Clifton Dukes, TEX '42: time and measurement.

49

Pacesetter Bob Balentine, IM '55: steady course.

52

Research 55 Construction simulator; Computer graphics; Environmental simulation; Educating robots.

Profile Prof. Uzi Landman: A symphony of numbers.

58

GEORGIA TECH AXTJMNI 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) 853-0760/0761 Advertising: (404) 894-9270 • Fax: (404) 894-5113 © 1992 Georgia Tech Alumni Association GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

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Letters Danger on the Home Front?

Editor: Regarding Carlton S. Hulbert's concern about the electn magnetic fields from high-voltage transmission lines [Letters, winter 1992 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine]: I understand that the effects of such fields on people are not known, and therefore more research is needed.

However, it is known that electromagnetic radiation is a function of the amount of current (lowing, and distance from the wires. Voltage is not a factor. You do get a static charge from the voltage, but that does not affect the electromagnetic radiation.

People are very close to the wiring in their homes, the range circuits of which may carry 40 to 50 amps.

So if magnetic radiation is harmful, we may need to be more concerned about our home wiring than transmission lines.

J. Rid lev Reynolds Jr., ME '26 Decatur, Ga.

Wreck Was Wrecked and Repaired Editor: A note on the article about the Ramblin' Wreck [winter 19921: The car was owned by Delta pilot Ted Johnson and was re-built by a neighbor, Ken Johnston, the owner at that time of Junior's Grill. He was a master craftsman and manufactured some of the parts himself.

One clav Ted had an

accident with the future "Ramblin' Wreck," when he hit a dump truck on Stewart Avenue. He drove the "Wreck" home; the dump truck had to be towed to the garage.

I had been a student at Tech from 1951 through 1953, but entered pilot training in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. In 1959, while working as a Delta Air Lines pilot, I re-entered Tech part-time. My automobile for school was a 1930 model A Ford and Ted enlisted me to help repair his car. I replaced one fender and running board, bumper, grille, and a badly mangled horn. Shortly after that, he sold the vehicle to Tech.

My son has since graduated from Tech and we attend football games together. It gives me a great thrill to see the "Wreck" and to know that I had a piece of the action.

George D. Bass Jr., IM '55, '62 Griffin, Ga.

Malone Received Quality Education Editor: I read with interest the article concerning Dr. Thomas Malone, president and chief operating officer of Milliken [winter 1992 Alumni Magazine].

One item not mentioned in the biographical information about Dr. Malone was that he chose a quality method of educa-

tion while at Georgia Tech, working several quarters as a co-op student with Hercules Powder Co. It may also interest you' to know that Milliken is one of our stronger supporters of cooperative education, with approximately 20 students employed.

Thomas M. Akins, IE 74 Director, Co-op Division Georgia Tech

minutes.

The guard force of the hive went berserk, flying about in furious spurts in all directions, looking for the culprit. I kept a safe distance, but stayed close enough to watch. Eventually, almost all of them, one by one, attempted to fly into the entrance to the hive. They were taking a stand on some final protective maneuver.

Jacket Mascot An At that point, I began to Admirable Choice regret what I had done. As Editor: an old soldier, I appreciI have often wondered ated the devotion and why the Georgia Tech ath- bravery that marked their letic team mascot is a yellast effort. Brave little fellow jacket—that is, until lows. Georgia Tech, you now. Based on a recent chose well your mascot. experience, I think the Lt. Gen. (ret.) Dan choice was an admirable Raymond one.

U.S. Army Corps of This fall, as I was in my Engineers yard sawing a large timber, • Columbus, Ga. I was attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Gen. Fortunately, I am imRaymond, a West Point mune to insect stings, so I gradi tate, plays golf u nth had no problem on that Yellow Jacket James A. score, b u t . . . a couple of Byars, TE 3 J of days later, I noticed the Columbus. jackets were still there, circling the entrance to the Correction nest, which was a hole in A Pacesetter article on the ground. Since their Aleksander Szlam, EE 74, nest is on the path to my winter 1992 Alumni boat dock, I decided I had Magazine, incorrectly said to do something about this he graduated from Georgia hazard. I doused the enTech in electrical engineertrance with wasp spray. ing in five years. Szlam, The effect was nil. founder of Melita InternaI decided to resort to tional, received his drastic action. I went home bachelor's degree in elecand poured about a pint of trical engineering from gasoline into the hole and Tech in three years, graduthe surrounding area. It ating with high honors. burned for about 15 GEORGIA TECH • Letters

5

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TechNotes Written by Gary Goettling

Tech Cracks Top 10

G

eorgia Tech ranks â&#x20AC;˘ among the top 10 engineering schools in the country, according to an annual survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report.

Tech has risen steadily in the rankings each of the four years the survey of professional universities and colleges has been conducted, this vear entering the top 10 for the first time with a No. 10 showing.

In addition, Tech tied Purdue for first place in the specialty of industrial

and systems engineering.

The U.S. News rankings are based on measures such as job-market success of recent graduates, faculty-student ratio, plus the universities' reputations among deans, professors, corporate CEOs and business leaders.

Housing Changes The Georgia Tech housing office is considering "theme" housing and more co-ed residence halls as

ways to make campus living more enjoyable, according to Terry Sichta, director of housing.

Theme housing is an arrangement whereby students with a shared interest such as membership in a particular club all reside in one area of a residence hall.

Currently, Woodruff residence hall is the only co-ed dormitory on campus, but others may soon follow suit. Two configurations under review are single-sex floors, and halls

divided in half between male and female residents.

Sichta said that he hopes the housing changes will be implemented by fall quarter.

Upbeat Forecaster Lawrence A. Kudlow, chief economist and senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York, delivered the annual Tennenbaum lecture in March.

Kudlow, who served in Continued

next

page

Home Sweet Home Members of the Georgia Tech chapter of Habitat for .

Humanity install siding on the group's first house, located on Boulevard in the Edgewood section of Atlanta. The 1,100-scju a re-foot structure was dedicated on March 11, capping two years of planning and fund-raising by the students. The 100-member chapter donated eight con-

secutive Saturdays to building the home, which will be occupied by a single mother and her three children.

Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization that sponsors home-building projects for low-income wage earners. The Georgia Tech students hope to begin work on their second Habitat project next year.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ TechNotes

7

TechNotes Continued from previous page

Kudlow: Economic forecast strong Japanese power overrated about his 1992 choice, but liked the "intelligent suggestions on capital formation and small business" made by Democrat Paul Tsongas. He also said that Japan's power and influence have been overrated, and noted that "since 1986, we've more than doubled our exports to Japan."

iM

Techjoins Center

Lawrence Kudlow: U.S. on a long-term path to the greatest economic prosperity in history.

Georgia Tech has joined a new cooperative research and education effort aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the U.S. textile industry. The federally funded program, called the National Textile Center-University Research Consortium, will support development of improved composite fabrics, new fabric-barrier systems, and new electronic-based production technologies.

Other members of the pro-

the Reagan administration as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget, said, "I believe we are on a longterm path to the greatest economic prosperity in the histoiy of civilization."

Although he was a volunteer in George Bush's 1988 campaign, Kudlow said he was undecided

tions at the stadium.

The changes include a complete reassignment of seat locations based on the Athletic Association's point system, and a reduction in the number of opponents' tickets.

The reapportionment will provide many seasonticket holders with an opportunity to improve their seats, or to consolidate their seats in one location.

For more information contact Susan Phinney at 894-5768.

gram are Clemson, N.C. State and Auburn.

Football Anniversary This year marks the centennial of Georgia Tech football. Tech's illustrious gridiron tradition was off to a rough start in 1892, losing its first game to Mercer University by a 12-0 score. The Technologicals, as the team was known then, did not post its first victory until the following year—a 28-6 victory over Georgia in Athens.

Starts with Bee

Seating Changes

Although them were many worthy candidates for the head football coach position, Bill Lewis may have had an advantage— his first name starts with "B." Ever since William A. "Bill" Alexander started calling the plays in 1920, the first name of every

Construction of the Bill Moore Student Success Center on the west side of Bobby Dodd Stadium will displace 2,640 seats in the top 10 rows of the lower West Stands, necessitating changes in seating alloca-

Conltimed page 12

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers John C Staton |r. IM '60 president Shirley C. Mewbom EE '56 past president ll. Hammond stith fr. CE '58 < president elect treasurer

Trustees K.iv Elizabeth Adams l.M 74 Theodore Arno 11 TEXT'49

At. Beacham |r. IP '60 William Hagood Bellinger PP. '63 James 1). Bliteh III IE '53 II. Guv Darnell |r. IM '65 Thomas P. Davenport |r. Hi '56

G. William Knight IP '62, MS IM 'AS

vice president activities Prank II. Maierjr. IM '60 ri< e president communications II. Milton Stewart IP <>i vice president'/Roll Call |nhn B. Carter Jr, DE '69 vice president 'executive director James M. Iangle\

i

vice president, external effair^ '

8

1

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

David R, Jones IM '59 G. Paul Jones Jr. MP '52 [venue Low Stanley ARQI 7 7

t rovantez I.. Lowndes IP '85 Jon Samuel Martin IM '64 lav M. McDonald IM '68

Thomas ll. Mullerjr. IP '65 Michael L. Percy Sr. TEXT '08

FosephT. Dyer IP '69, MS iCS 71

Patriae Perkins-Hooker IM so

Albert P. Gandv IP '56 Don P. Giddens All '63, MS All '65.

PhD All '67 Thomas B. Gurlev 111 '59 laniee Carol Harden 111 74

Neal Allen Robertson IP '69 Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr. NS ' id Louis Terrell Sovey It. Ill '52 W. Clayton Sparrow Jr. PIIVS OH

Hubert L. Harris lr. IM '65

Neal 1). Stubblefield ME 79 Howard T. Tellepsenjr, CP '66

Paul W. Heard Jr. MP. '65 P. ( )uen llenin Jr. IM 7 0

Harry B, Thompson III IK '()() S.Joseph Ward IM'51 1

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TechNotes Continued from page 8

New school of management degree program offered

Dean Fash

Retires

College of Architecture Dean William Fash has announced his retirement effective June 30, or sooner if a replacement is found. Fash joined the faculty in 1976 as the first dean of the architecture college. He will continue as coordinator for faculty and curriculum development for the architecture program.

Tech football coach, with the exception of Pepper Rogers, has started with B: Bobby Dodd, Bud Carson, Bill Fulcher, Bill Curry and Bobby Ross.

Information, Please A new information booth will be opening on the second floor of the Student Center this summer. It will also serve 'as the ticketing facility for the recently opened Georgia Tech Theater for the Arts.

The booth will include several bulletin boards to display campus news, a large campus map, and a pair of computer terminals 12

that will function as an electronic message system for students.

The booth is a prototype of communications centers that will be installed at several campus locations for the 1996 Olympics.

MBA or MoT? A new certificate in management of technology is being offered to graduate students in the Ivan Allen College of Management, Policy and International Affairs. Under development since 1989, the program is designed to combine knowledge of

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

current technology with a comprehensive understanding of the principles required to manage that technology. The curriculum includes courses, weekly seminars and a project in which students work as part of a multidisciplinary team to solve a real problem posed by a technology-based firm.

The teams are supervised by a faculty member and a representative of the host company.

The certificate may evolve into a master's degree option as an alternative to the MBA for technical professionals.

Alumni on Council A Governor's Advisory Council on Science and Technology Development has been named by Gov. Zell Miller to create a technology policy for the state of Georgia. The 18-member body includes four Tech alumni: James C. Edenfield, IE '57, president and CEO of American Software Inc.; Dennis C. Hayes, Cls '73, chairman of Hayes Microcomputer Products; DavidS. Lewis Jr., AE'39, retired chairman of General Dynamics; and Jay McDonald, IM '68, of McDonald, Withers & Hughes. Georgia Tech Professor Robert M. Nerem, who holds the Parker H. Petit chair for engineering in medicine, also serves on the board. •

Thankyou to the official sponsors of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE •

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By Gary Goettling Photographed by Margaret Barrett

THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT Ruins W. Youngblood has more than a passing interest in the assassination of President Jolin F. Kennedy. Like millions of Amerieans, the 1950 industrial engineering graduate remembers exactly where he was and what he was doing on Nov. 22, 1963. He was riding in a motoreade in downtown Dallas.

Continued next

page

ss to Assassination 15

Secret Service agent Ruius Youngblood served under five presidents.

But his most

s the special agent in charge of the vice presidential Secret Service detail, Youngblood rode in an open Lincoln convertible with Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Texas Sen. Ralph he prcsidcntal motorYarborough and a driver. Only a cade just moments Secret Service follow-up car sepaL after the first shot is rated him from the president's limoufired. Secret Service agents sine, and the violence that unfolded begin to react as President there with graphic finality on a warm John Kennedy slumps in the Dallas afternoon 28 years ago. hack seat of the lead car, his Who killed Kennedy? It's a quesarm ahove his head. In a splittion Youngblood has been asked second, YoungbkxHl, in the hundreds of times, and his firm third car, leaps across Vice answer defies popular opinion: "Lee President Lyndon Johnson, Harvey Oswald." using his hody to shield "I support the findings of the WarJohnson from further shots. ren Commission. [Conspiracy theorists] have had investigation after investigation, and nobody has come up with anything concrete. Nothing."

"I don't think any Secret Service Actor Kevin Costner "should have guy fired his weapon down there stuck to dancing with wolves," that day. I could look ahead and see Youngblood says tartly, referring to [George] Hickey, an agent in the the movie "JFK." Although he says president's follow-up car, who had that he has not seen the Oliver Stone the AR-15 [rifle]. He stood up and film, he is familiar with its premise, looked, but didn't see anything to which implicates Lyndon Johnson fire at." and the Secret Service in a massive Kennedy's body was removed conspiracy to assassinate President from Parkland Hospital by the Secret John F. Kennedy and cover up the Service and flown back to Washingcrime. Stone, he notes, "is making a ton aboard Air Force One, technically whole bunch of money from it," a in violation of Texas law which motive that he believes drives'bther states that homicide victims must be conspiracy proponents as well. autopsied in-state. Many conspiracy proponents point to that as evidence Youngblood has not read any of of Secret Service complicity in an asthe dozens of "conspiracy books" sassination cover-up. that promulgate theories ranging from CIA plots to French hit-men, "That's nitpicking," Youngblood but he is generally familiar with their says. "I was telling Johnson that the assertions. In particular, he labels as safest thing for us was to get out of "ridiculous" an upcoming book that > there and get back to Washington. blames the assassination on "friendly\ He said that we were not leaving fire" from a Secret Service agent. without Mrs. Kennedy, and she L

is a warm afternoon in Dallas.

16

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

<SjfÂŤlbi

wasn't leaving without her husband's body. There was nothing sinister about it. Some people are just trying to make something up thai isn't really there."

Youngblood is particularly bothered because "children gix nving up are not going to know what to believe because apparently the adults don't know what to believe," he says, a reference to polls which indicate that over 70 percent of the public does not support the lone-gunman conclusion in the Warren Report.

The bi-partisan Warren Commission did a thorough investigation of the crime, including the subsequent killing of Oswald, and reached the most reasonable and logical conclusions, Youngblood says. Acknowledging that there are some "honest skeptics," Youngblood believes that more people would concur with the

commission's findings—if they read them.

'Td say that 90 percent of the public has never read [the summary],'' says Youngblood, who keeps a bound c< >py of the report on a living-room bookshelf. And although he has nt>t read all 26 volumes himself, he lias read the two-inch-thick summary, and reviewed the other volumes.

Youngblood is seated on a cloth sofa at the comfortable rancher in Savannah that he shares with his wife, Peggy, and a Siamese cat named OOK. "That stands for OutDoor Kitty." smiles the 68-year-old Atlanta native. The home is sprinkled with reminders of his alma mater, from the Georgia Tech license plate on the Toyota van parked at the head of the driveway to the small matted Tech Tower print in the foyer.

Color photographs of children—the

couple has four—and grandchildren are scattered throughout the spacious living room. Atop a cabinet rests a gray scale model of a B-17, similar to the aircraft in which Youngblood had flown as a waistgunner during World War II.

Y

* oungblood eases back on his couch to reflect on the circumstances that carried him from North Avenue to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1946, fresh from military service with the Eighth Army Air Force, Youngblood enrolled at Georgia Tech, finishing the four-year industrial engineering curriculum in only three.

"I was already married then and I had a kid and I had to work, so I wanted to get through and get out," he recalls.

After graduating from Tech, Youngblood found a job with a consulting mechanical engineering firm, but soon a recession hit the profession and he was jobless again after only a few months.

"I liked law enforcement and investigation," Youngblood says. "I'd even thought seriously about joining the FBI and went down to talk with them."

When told that agents had to be either accountants or lawyers, Youngblood prepared to enter Mercer University's law school.

"I got some law books and I read them," he says, "and they bored the hell out of me. I didn't want to be an attorney."

He turned next to the Georgia Tech Alumni Placement office for help, which offered a promising lead: "The United States Secret Service is seeking qualified applicants

GEORGIA TECH • Eyewitness to Assassination

17

for Special Agent positions, starting salary $3,825 per year."

The job didn't require a law-enforcement background, just a college degree. "You did have to take a Civil Service examination and a Secret Service examination, which was primarily an aptitude test."

Later, as Youngblood began his climb through the Secret Service ranks, he attended Treasury Department Enforcement School and the service's own training program.

On March 26, 1951, Youngblood was sworn in as a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service, beginning a career that would last 20 years through five presidencies.

At the time Youngblood was a rookie agent, the Secret Service, which comes under the auspices of the Treasury Department, had two basic functions: to investigate counterfeiting and other crimes involving government obligations, and to pro-

tect the president. The second mission has since been extended to include the vice president, presidential candidates, former presidents, and visiting heads of state.

Youngblood spent most of his probationary period in the Atlanta field office working on check-forging cases. In June 1951, he got his first taste of the protective-duty side of the service when he was assigned to escort Vice President Alben Barkley on an Atlanta visit.

When Barkley stepped down the ramp at Atlanta Airport, "there was one green agent there watching everything that moved," Youngblood laughs. "As far as I was concerned, the place was crawling with potential assassins, and I was ready for them."

The next year, while on a 30-day assignment to Washington, Youngblood had his first encounter with a president.

He was standing at his post out-

side the Oval Office when the door opened and Harry S. Tinman stepped out into the hall, arms laden with papers and books. The president asked the young agent if he would help carry the material upstairs. "Why certainly, Mr. President," said the startled Youngblood, who realized that he was violating orders.

But how could he refuse?

I

* t was hardly an auspicious beginning, but the assignment convinced Youngblood that protective duty would be more interesting than investi> gative work, and his request for a transfer to Washington was approved.

Besides the "glamour'' of meeting famous people from every conceivable endeavor, what was so appealing about protective duty?

"First of all, it's nor glamorous," Youngblood corrects. "It might be for

Presidential Snapshots HARRY S. TRUMAN: He was an immaculate dresser, probably a carryover from his days when he was a haberdasher. He was also one of the most brilliant historians I ever ran across. He did a lot of reading of history as a hobby. It was always quite interesting to listen to him.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: 1 thought of him as my

commanding officer. I felt like we had won World War II together, lie spent a lot of time in Augusta on the golf course, and since I was a Georgian familiar with the area, I would often accompany him on those trips.

JOHN F. KENNEDY: I think he was the epitome of charisma. I don't believe we used that word very much back in those days, but I think that if anybody had it, he had it. He was energetic, and it was a pleasure to work around him.

18

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Of all the presidents, he was probably the most professional politician. Politics was his hobby. He was also the most down-to-earth human being who was in the White House during my time there. Little things bothered the hell out of him.

He said to me once that the big decisions didn't bother him, but some of the little bitty things. . . . He would tell you how to turn a screw clockwise or counterclockwise.

RICHARD M. NLXON: I was not assigned to him for any length of time, but I did have a couple of short temporary assignmentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including a campaign visit to Atlanta in I960.

1 liked Nixon when he was vice president, but when he came in as president, time had done something to him.

the first few months, but that diminishes. But it is a good education. You are where history is being made.

"A lot of people wrongfully assume thai a Secret Service agent on protective duty is principally a bodyguard. That is an aspect of what you do, but one of the main things is to make advance arrangements for presidential tours. That is a wide-

ranging thing that takes you all over the world. It is quite interesting."

Youngblood notes that the objectives of a president and his Secret Service agents are often at odds.

"The problem is that you have two missions in direct conflictâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you have a political mission and a security mission. Neither one embraces the other, so you attempt to do what-

ever you can to provide a secure environment.

"For instance, the armored car is one of the things we accomplished, but it took an assassination to get one. That's terrible. We had tried before for many, many years, but the presidents thought they'd be criticized for spending the money.

"You could put the president in a secure building like the White House and let him talk to people through bars or over a telephone and not be exposed to the public. Even I don't want to see that. That is not what we should do in this country.

"Actually, one of the safest things a president can do is go into a crowd as long as it's unplanned and unpublicized. The worst thing is to go sit at something outdoors like a football game for a couple of hours," he says.

The biggest headache in providing Secret Service protection overseas is. "getting cooperation from the embassies," according to Youngblood. "They have a lot of protocol, and they would sacrifice security for protocol. A lot of times you have to compromise a little bit, but you get it worked out."

Some presidents have at first resisted Secret Service protection as an invasion of privacy, "but soon they realize they have more privacy by virtue of having us than they would if they didn't have us.

"We don't interfere with their personal life," he adds. "When [President Johnson's daughters] Luci or Lynda had dates, we didn't go in the car with them. We would follow them in another car. We would be at restaurants where they went, but we didn't sit at the table with them.

"When Tniman sat down to play poker with his cronies, we took him to the place and we were there to

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Eyewitness to Assassination 19

bring him back, and we were guarding the building while he was there, but we didn't go in and intrude on the poker game."

Secret Service agents are characterized by tact and discretion, and even after 20 years Youngblood is sparing in his descriptions of the personal side of the presidents he served.

"Eisenhower was really great for relying on a table of organization," Youngblood says in response-to criticism that the 34th president spent more time playing golf than making decisions. "Ypu also have to remember that the country was a lot more peaceful during his administration.

The problems we had during the Eisenhower administration and the Truman administration are almost nij when compared to the problems we\ are confronting today."

20

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Wasn't Truman known for his euphemistically termed "salty" language? "He wasn't near as salty as LBJ," Youngblood chuckles mischievously without elaboration.

"Truman was extremely punctual.

You could almost set your watch by him. On the other hand, LBJ was the kind of guy who said he'd rather be 10 minutes late than one minute early.

"All of them were vain insofar as their appearance before the publicwas concerned. Ike was probably the least vain of the bunch.

"I really liked them all," he insists.

"They all had good points and bad points, and they often get the blame when things go wrong, but they don't get credit for the good things they do."

But of all the presidents and vice presidents he served, Youngblood

was closest to Johnson.

"I had been with him all over the world from early in his vice presidency. I've seen the good and the bad.

"The guy would chew me out for something the Air Force did, and chew out the Air Force ft >r something I did—that sort of thing. He never would apologize, but he would turn around and do something nice for you. But he would never say, 'Look, I'm sorry I fussed at you.'

"Sometimes I tried to argue with him—I should say that I tried to reason with him, because he was going to get his point made, regardless."

Youngblood likes to tell the story about a White House phone call he received at home one night. Clutching an imaginary receiver, he murmurs, "Yes sir . . . yes . . . yes sir . . .

The slower pace of retirement leaves plenty of time for family, Mends—and memories. crapbooks chronicle Youngblood's career in the Secret Service.

He taps his finger on a photograph of a solemn young man standing in front of the White House, a few steps behind President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mamie Eisenhower. "I was 26 years old when this picture was taken," he says.

"You know it was a long time ago—I had hair then!"

A (ieorgia native, Youngblood frequently accompanied Eisenhower on golfing trips to Augusta.

yes, Mr. President." When his wife asked what the call had been about, Youngblood said, "Oh, he just chewed me out for something I wasn't really guilty of."

"Well." she replied, "it used to be that you got chewed out by the vice president. Now you're getting chewed out by the president. You've come up in the world!"

Frustration over the Vietnam war exacted a heavy emotional and physical toll on Johnson, Youngblood remembers. "He couldn't sleep at night, and would go over to the Situation Room where they had constant flow of information, to see what had come in."

Youngblood, who made trips to Vietnam with Johnson as vice president and again as president, believes that "he had too much bad advice."

Youngblood maintains close ties

t

to the Johnson family, and has accepted an invitation to the LBJ Ranch to help celebrate Lady Bird's 80th birthday on Dec. 22.

back to 1963 and the tragedy that staggered the world—and put Rufus Yourigblood's name in a hundred reporters' notebooks.

Up until the time the presidential motorcade turned onto Elm Street, "it » n 1971, at age 47, Younglooked like just another very successblood retired from the Secret ful political trip," Youngblood reService as deputy director. members. "They wanted crowds, and "One of the good things you learn at Georgia Tech is math- they got crowds." i ematics," he says. "I figured As the procession crawled into that if I kept working, with the costs Dealey Plaza, Youngblood glanced of commuting and all, that I'd be get- up at the clock on the roof of the ting only about 40 percent of my sal- Texas School Book Depository. It ary. But if I retired, with the pension flashed 12:30. Less than a minute to I'd be getting 60 percent." the freeway, and only five minutes to the Trade Mart, he thought. That inThere were also some not-toostant, piercing through the shouts of subtle hints coming from the White the thinning crowd, and the stutterHouse. Youngblood, who had aling and backfiring of police motorways enjoyed a close relationship cycles, Youngblood heard the shatwith presidential assistants—Demotering crack! of a rifle. His reaction crat and Republican—sensed a "drawas immediate and instinctive. matic change" in the tenor of the Nixon administration.

"Get down!" he yelled. "GET "Haldeman and Ehrlichman—I DOWN!" And in the time it takes to didn't cotton to them. They weren't pull the bolt of a Mannlicher-Carcano exactly my bosses, but they wouldn't rifle, Youngblood had vaulted over invite me to meetings and things like the back of the limousine seat onto that. So I just couldn't see any sense Vice President Johnson, pushing him in staying on any longer." to the floor of the Lincoln convertible and shielding Johnson's body with In 1973, Youngblood finished a his own. book about his career titled 20 Years Johnson, in his statement to the in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents. The publisher, Simon and Wan-en Commission, said that Schuster, sent him on a publicity tour Youngblood reacted immediately after the first shot and was sitting on that included appearances on "The top of him by the time the second Tonight Show" and "Today." Youngshot and fatal third shot were fired blood, who spent two years on the into Kennedy. project, was disappointed in sales.

"They [Simon and Schuster] sent Youngblood's heroic action me on this tour when the book earned him the Treasury Departwasn't even in stores yet," he recalls. ment's highest honor, the ExcepHe says that the publisher concentional Service Award, presented by trated its attention and resources into President Johnson on Dec. 4, 1963promoting another title that year.

In his own testimony before the "My book was up against Joy of Sex. Warren Commission, Youngblood I didn't have a chance," he shrugs. said: "As we were beginning to go Inevitably, the conversation drifts down this incline, all of a sudden

I

GEORGIA TECH • Eyewitness to Assassination

21

Tragedy for the nation has offered profit for others. vciitually the enormity of it all caught up with him, and when he returned home after the longest day of I his life, "I really broke down," Youngblood says. there was an explosive noise. I quickly observed unnatural movement of crowds, like ducking or scattering, and quick movements in the presidential follow-up car. So I turned around and hit the vice president on the shoulder and hollered, 'Get down,' and then looked around again and saw more of this movement, and so I proceeded to go to the back seat and get on top of him."

From his position, Youngblood noticed "a grayish blur in the air above the right side of the president's car" right after the third shot.

"There were shouts from ahead, then the cars in front of us lurched forward toward the underpass. I yelled to our driver, 'Stay with them, and keep close!'"

From his uncomfortable sprawled position on the back seat, Johnson asked what had happened. Youngblood replied that the president had been shot, and that they were headed to the hospital.

"My God! They've shot the Presi-

dent!" exclaimed Sen. Yarborough, who shared the back seat of the limousine with the vice president. Lady Bird Johnson, seated between the two men, cried out, "Oh no, that can't bd" ^L iter arriving at the hospital, J ^ ^ t h e vice president t ^^k climbed out of the car, X M ^ A nibbing his stiff M ^^k shoulder, giving rise flXLi ^ 1 ^ ^ to early erroneous press reports that Johnson had also been wounded in the attack. Still unsure if a larger plot to assassinate all top government officials was being deployed, Youngblood worked quickly to sequester Johnson.

"President Kennedy was practically dead when they arrived at the hospital," Youngblood says. "He had a little pulse, but for all practical purposes he was gone. At the time, I didn't know how badly wounded the president was, but I did know that if he was incapacitated in some

Ikes Rogue Golf Cart

G

olf carts were just coming into vogue in the early fifties, and Ike • often enjoyed driving his own cart. One warm spring afternoon on Augusta National, Ike tooled his can up to the edge of the green where his ball lay just off the putting surface. The moment he took his foot off the accelerator it was apparent that something was wrong, as the cart continued on under full power, Faced with a long downhill run to a creek, Ike made his decision and bailed out. But the driverless cdrt circled back sharply, and for a few tense moments a strange procession moved across the lush fairway—the president of the United States in the lead, mnning for all he was worth, a rogue golf cart at his heels, and half a dozen Secret Service agents tearing along in pursuit. There was some shouted discussion as to whether the thing should be shot, just as three agents overtook it and, like a dogie at a rodeo, bulldogged it over onto its, side. , v—From: 20 years in the Secret Sen See.

22

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

way, then Johnson was next in line, so I acted accordingly."

All accounts of the events immediately following the assassination, up through the time when the airplane carrying a new president and a slain president touched d< >wn at Andrews Air Force Base, single out Youngblood for maintaining his composure and professionalism in the face of absolute pandemonium.

Eventually the enormity of it all caught up with him, and when he returned home after the longest day of his life, "I really broke down," Youngblood says.

Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand, did not receive universal high marks for his performance after the assassination, mostly from people who felt that he had jumped into the presidency with more enthusiasm than appropriate or necessary. "I'm really surprised at a lot of the things that have been written." Youngblood says. "Some nasty things have been said about him, and the guy could not have been any more c< tnsiderate toward the president's family and the president's staff. I mean, not only on that day and the flight back, but through the ensuing months and even years. They didn't treat him as nicely as he treated them."

Youngblood is still d< >gged by the Kennedy assassination—n< )t so much by the past as the present; by the outrageous speculation and accusations of people who literally spent years dissecting decisions made in a few chaotic minutes or seconds.

Once upon a time it may have hurt, and sometimes it still makes him angry. But mostly he is just tired of it.

"I wish they would just put it to rest," he sighs. "But they won't—not as long as someone can make a buck off it." •

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GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Mind Over Matter Olympic planners are relying on oldfashioned mental processes—aided by a computer printout now and then—to prepare for the '96 Games

By Lisa Crowe

^though Atlanta's 1996 Sumi mer Olympics will be the Jargest and most complex event ever staged in the Southeast, the mammoth planning process itself is conspicuously low-tech, favoring color markers instead of plotters, and scratch pads instead of terminals.

But don't be fooled.

"We are using a sophisticated process, but instead of relying on gizmos we are relying on the use of the mind, which after all is the greatest of all computing devices," says Mike Sizemore, a 1966 Tech architecture graduate.

Sizemore is a partner in Sizemore Floyd Architects which, in a joint venture with the

Sizemore Floyd partners review Olympic plans. From left, Mike Sizemore, ARCH '66; Tom Sayre, ARCH 76; Jeff Floyd, ARCH 70.

construction-cost estimating and scheduling firm of Cordell W. Ingram Inc., has won the job of planning the entire $500 million physical structure of the 1996 Olympics.

Tech alumnus W. Jeff Floyd Jr., ARCH 70, also a Sizemore Floyd partner and director of the Olympic project, knows the job is awesome and the stakes are high.

"We are projecting that through television, four billion folks—40 percent of the human race—will see these events," he says.

The project's chief tool is a planning methodology called "visual programming," which defines the problems that the architectural design must address. It involves talking, listening and a lot of what Sizemore calls "hand-holding."

Visual programming starts out with goal-setting sessions. Programmers explore the image that a client Continued next page GEORGIA TECH • Olympic Planning

25

Walls covered with hand-drawn charts and graphs signal the planners' progress. wants to project, the mission of the project, how it will fit into its surroundings, and its budget and schedule.

After concrete goals are established, programmers start collecting facts. They research information on infrastructure, financial resources, transportation, parking, pedestrian traffic and design standards.

The process then moves to an exploration of alternative concepts.

Programmers and clients examine different options and determine what the client actually needs. Each potential element of a project is evaluated on a cost-versus-benefit basis.

Atlanta 1996 TM.CIW.HCXX;

F

or the Olympics project, the visual programming process begins with "a systemwide analysis to determine how the parts relate because it is one very large, interdependent system," Sizemore says. "Then we look for elements that are common throughout all the venues, such as medical and security needs."

Once the overall requirements are determined, five teams of planners are assigned to about five venues each, and the task of collecting

The torch-lighting ceremony and track-and-field activities of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles were held in the Coliseum. Each Olympic city presents unique challenges to site planners. In Atlanta, "we're going from zero to 90 miles per hour pretty quickly," says Tech alumnus Mike Sizemore.

specific data about each Olympic installation begins.

The information about each event site is fed back into the overall planning, "so it's a cyclical process, going from the particular to the general," Sizemore says.

As the intensive programming proceeds, the resulting ideas and options are reduced to hand-drawn charts and graphs that are stuck on the conference room walls. By the time the walls are covered, programmers have identified the client's key goals, collected pertinent tacts, tested promising concepts, come up with a possible budget, and developed the statement of the problem which the architectural design must address.

The system had its beginnings in Texas shortly after World War II, when a firm designing schools for the opening wave of baby boomers developed a method of quickly planning cost-effective options. It essentially meant that architectural planners asked a lot of smart questions, and hung around the site until they got all the answers. Sizemore and Floyd have refined this technique and used it successfully in several hundred projects.

Architectural programming is not a glamorous process, and many prefer to skip it altogether and go right into design, often with disastrous results.

"Watch out for the cocktail-napkin sketch," cautions Sizemore. "Beware of this architect. He has given the solution without knowing where the problem is.

"Then the architect falls in love with his plan, the client loves it, and they both find out too late that it doesn't work. With our method, we Continued

26

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

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Olympic planners are completing "project bibles" listing features of each venue.

find out what clients really need and what they can get, as opposed to what they wish they had. Then -we do the design."

Atlanta 1996 TM.OlWAUOt

O

lympic planning is a tough I job, no matter how good your system. Floyd is supervising the programming of 27 sports venues, and the housing for 16,500 athletes and officials. His group is also responsible for the planning criteria for security, transportation and food service for the athletes, 15,000 media representatives, and all those people who are expected to buy up to eight million tickets. And you sure don't want any of them waiting in long concession lines or wandering around lost because it all happens in the sweltering August heat, a time of year in which locals traditionally retreat into arctic air conditioning.

Although it is possible to get guidance from past Olympic games, each city faces its own logistical challenges. In 1984, Los Angeles had most of its venues in place, so the primary job was linking them all together. In 1988, Seoul, South Korea, sank massive amounts of money into new constniction. When Barcelona, Spain, got the 1992 Games, it was already the self-proclaimed sports capital of Europe, and many topnotch venues were already built.

In Atlanta, "we are going from zero to 90 miles per hour quickly," Sizemore says. Some venues will be temporaty. but for those that are permanent, the goal is to create structures that will fit into the future life of the site.

"Our focus is on how we can do great Olympic facilities that will help, not impede, later development," says Sizemore.

This means that the visual planning must be conducted with both the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) and the owner of each venue. The Sizemore Floyd/ Ingram joint venture has called upon CRSS Architects Inc. of Greenville, S.C, for extra programmers to keep up with this tremendous job.

Olympic planners are now completing "project bibles" that list the basic features of each venue, including operational needs, siting, security entry, square footage, medical and office space, and the special needs of each facility. ACOG, assisted by Sizemore Floyd/Ingram, will then start selecting other architects for each individual project.

Still to come is the "look" of Atlanta's Olympics. The Los Angeles theme was Hollywood, Tinsel Town, and the materials were deliberately temporary like a movie set: banners instead of fixed signs, plywood instead of concrete or brick. In contrast, South Korea, seeking to shake its image as a Third World country, went for impressive, monumental structures.

Atlanta's theme hasn't been defined, though judging from the new logo, "Georgia forest green" may figure prominently.

It will all come together, Floyd says reassuringly. Perhaps it's like that corny old line—How do you eat an elephant? Sizemore Floyd/Ingram is going at it one bite at a time. • Lisa Crowe is an Atlanta free-lance writer.

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GEORGIA TECH • Olympic Planning

29

Em

S

econdary school students from Georgia and Tennessee are getting scared to death of physics —and loving every minute of it.

With the help of Georgia Tech's Pipeline Program, which promotes interest in math and science among school children, a group of Georgia middleschool students spend a summer afternoon at Six Flags amusement park near Atlanta, where volunteer instructors help them learn about physics through the nerve-wrenching experience of rides such as the Great American Scream Machine.

The trip is part of a fiveday summer space camp co-sponsored by the Georgia Tech Space Consortium, Atlanta Public Schools and the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School.

Tech professors helped design the overall camp program, and Tech students provide teaching assistance. Last year, 88 middle-school students participated in the Six Flags excursion.

Tom Gourman, a teacher at Mays High School in Atlanta, devised the physics curriculum, which he describes as "Mr. Wizard goes to Six Flags."

Gourman and several students built simple devices such as accelerometers that the students carried onto the rides.

"We wanted them not only to understand the physical principles involved, but to actually do some measurements," he says.

The students recorded their observations in work-

books, which also contain questions about specific physical events. Among the topics investigated were gravity-induced stress, the Doppler effect, free-fall effects on a liquid,

to take physics out of the textbook and put it into the students' world'," he i says.

The students are grouped into "lab teams" and directed to five or six rides. Each student carries a notebook containing a series of questions, plus basic data about each ride.

"They have to make "•*" some sort of measurement, or good guesses, and then answer specific questions, and provide an explanation based on what they have done," Taylor explains.

The exercises range from calculating the carousel's frequency of rotation to expressing the centripetal force acting on the Looping Starship.

Taylor stresses the importance of observation in physics. "I warn my students that if they spend hours punching numbers into their calculators or doing arithmetic, they've missed it—they're not doing the right sorts of things. Ideally, the calculations should take only about five minutes per ride."

Although the Six Flags assignment is not a test, "it is a big part of their grade," he says.

Taylor laughs that former students have accused him of "ruining" amusement parks. "They say, 'Every time we go to an amusement park, we think about physics.'

"I think that's great!" •

and how differential velocity affects trajectory.

The students were particularly impressed by the effect of gravity on two objects of different weights, Gourman says.

Several of them took turns riding the Free Fall, accompanied by a plastic bottle containing a feather and a lead ball, secured inside the compartment with Velcro tape.

"Inside the bottle, you've cancelled all the aerodynamic effects on the feather, so the feather and the ball get to the bottom of the bottle at exactly the same time," Gourman says.

The amusement park also becomes a physics laboratory for the high school students of Dr. George Taylor, who received a doctorate in physics from Tech in 1970.

Taylor is a physics teacher at The Baylor School in Chattanooga, On the following pages, the Term. Every April for the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine presents its own past few years, he and a physics lessons, as interbusload of students have preted by the action at Six made the two-hour drive Flags. to Six Flags "in an attempt

Newton's First Law Up and Down on the Roller Coaster:

Every body perseveres in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except when it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.

Stressing Gravity on the Water Slide

Theforce of attraction F between two bodies of masses m. and m2, separated by distance X, is directly proportional to the product of the masses, and inversely proportional to the square of their separation distance.

GEORGIA TECH • Physics of Six Flags

33

Law of Accumulation, Production and Transport Splashing, Crashing along Thunder River

The rate of accumulation of a substance within a space is equal to the rate of its production within the space, plus the rate at which it is transported into the region.

Newton's Second Law Into the WUd Blue Yonder on the Air Racer

The rate of change of linear momentum with time is equal to the force applied, and takes place along the straight line in which thatforce acts.

Newton's Third Law Bang, Bam, Bash on the Bumper Cars

Every action is always opposed by an equal and opposite reaction. ry

34

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

I •

8 •

Whirling Around on the Night-time Carousel The moment of inertia of a body irilb respecl lo any axis is Ihe sum of the products

oblaiiied

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INDUSTRY ISSUES & EVENTS FROM INFORUM

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s a new Corporate Sponsor, but lifelong friend, of Georgia Tech, we at INFORUM would like to use our space in Tech Topics and the Alumni Magazine to describe how the two organizations work together.

INFORUM, located in the heart of downtown Atlanta and just a few blocks from the Tech campus, is an innovative project that offers technology companies a special environment to market and sell their products and services. Designed by Georgia Tech alumnus John Portman, INFORUM also provides superior offices for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and leading companies like Lockwood Greene Engineers.

Two floors of INFORUM are a state-of-the-art conference and convention center with: . 450-seat business theatre 23,000 square foot General Assembly room 18 meeting rooms (including an Executive Board Room) . 100,000 square foot Exhibit Hall Even before INFORUM's conference and convention facilities were complete in September, 1989, Georgia Tech was scheduling or planning to participate in events there. Today, the list of Georgia Tech-related programs at INFORUM is long and growing, including the President's Dinner on May 8, honoring Georgia Tech's generous benefactors.

But the INFORUM/Georgia Tech alliance only begins with events.

Georgia Tech is the only university to have a Marketing Center at INFORUM. Here the Institute, like 16 other high tech companies, demonstrates its "corporate capabilities."

Featured in the Marketing Center are the two interactive multimedia projects that Georgia Tech developed to help to bring the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta.

Georgia Tech faculty are often speakers for our Executive Breakfast Briefing Series, which is designed to keep executives up-to-date on hot issues and hot technologies.

Another "Tech tie": Two of the companies with marketing centers at INFORUM —AccuTech Cable and Dickens Data Systems — were founded by Georgia Tech alumni Barry Heidt and Gordon Dickens.

And Georgia Tech Vice President for Information Technology F.L. (Bud) Suddath is a member of the INFORUM Advisory Board, a group that has done much to shape the programs of INFORUM. We think that all of these connections and the many yet to come make INFORUM and Georgia Tech a true Techlanta Team.

To learn about how you, as a Georgia Tech graduate, can take advantage of INFORUM's Conference and Convention Center, technology marketing centers. Technology Briefing Service, Executive Breakfast Briefings, or business office opportunities, just call Brian Hogg (Tech Class of '61), Executive Vice President and General Manager of INFORUM, at 1-800-343-5048.

OFFICIAL SPONSOR

n •

T E E H B

ALUMNI MAGAZINE

The

light Stuff

Georgia Tech researchers iUurninate a new path to information processing

By John Toon Photographed by Gary Meek

E

lectronic computing is beginning to choke on its own success.

Over the past 40 years, computers have revolutionized our world, first using relatively crude transistors and now very large-scale integrated circuits that hold thousands of devices on silicon wafers the size of a fingernail. Increasing the number of devices on a chip lowers the cost of electronic equipment, boosts its speed and reduces its size. But the growing number of devices also creates an electronic traffic jam as data tries to reach different processing locations within the same wafer.

"As computers become larger and more complex, the limitation is not how big a chip we can make, but how many inputs and outputs we can get on and off the chip," explains Dr. Richard Higgins, director of Georgia Tech's Microelectronics Research Center. "Not only are you limited in the number of inputs and outputs, but you have to send information through something as primitive as a mechanical connector.", Continued next

page

Student assistant Mark Jones adjusts laser beams for a holographic switching experiment being conducted by Dr. Carl \erber and Dr. John Uyemura. The unit is able to receive both electronic and optical inputs.

40

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

Georgia Tech researchers are exploring new technologies that bypass mechanical limitationsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with light. Electrons interact strongly with one another, meaning circuit designers must provide separate wires for each electronic signal. As chips hold more devices, the required interconnection wiring takes up more and more space. But the photons that make up light don't interact strongly with each other, meaning signals carried by light can cross paths without affecting each other. More importantly, large numbers of optical signals can be carried in the same path without mixing or interfering. This ability to carry many signals in parallel offers a tremendous advantage to device designers struggling to break information logjams.

Clearing an Information Logjam

U

sing a novel fabrication technique known as "epitaxial lift-off," a team of researchers at Tech's Microelectronics Research Center is developing a low-cost method for placing tiny lasers, light modulators and detectors on silicon circuits. These devices can send information from virtually any location on a chip to another chip or, by bouncing the beam off a mirror, even to locations on the same chip. This work of Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst, Dr. Mark G. Allen and Dr. Martin Brooke will expand information flow by giving circuit designers a simple and inexpensive way to bypass electronic connecting points traditionally located on the edges of wafers.

"There is goin'g'to be a shift in computer architecture from predominantly serial to massively parallel, and when you look at massively

Tech scientists Harold Engler Qeft), Dr. Allen Garrison (middle) and Dr. Daye Hartup adjust an optical processor tjiat can analyze several signals simultaneously.

42

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

Holographic patterns can be used to guide an array of laser beams which carry information to devices o n electronic circuits.

parallel systems" optics begins to have a lot of advantages," saysjokerst.

More complex is a holographic interconnection scheme used by electrical engineering professors Dr. Carl Verber and Dr. John Uyemura: Twin beams of shimmering green light flow through a maze of carefully aligned mirrors and lenses before converging on a tiny clear crystal of lithium niobate. The beams cross deep within the crystal's microscopic facets, projecting a complex pattern of light and dark spots on a white card behind the crystal.

Verber and Uyemura use the holographic patterns to guide an array of laser beams which carry information to light-detecting devices on an electronic circuit. The scheme produces a unique hybrid device able to receive both electronic and optical inputs.

Today most electronic processors are compromises. That is, they are configured with enough flexibility to handle a range of operations. Using the optical inputs, the two scientists can send signals to light-detecting cells on the surface of a processor. These cells then reconfigure the processor's operation, optimizing it to handle a specific job.

The two scientists also use the holographic technique to feed many optical signals to an electronic circuit simultaneously, steering an array of optical beams to light detectors located on memory cells on the circuit.

The ability of this hybrid opto-electronic device to load many bits of information at once could help resolve a long-standing problem: how to connect optical computers producing many parallel streams of information with electronic computers.

"Electronics is intrinsically serialâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it does one thing at a time, so when you want a faster computer, you buy one with a faster clock rate," explains Uyemura. "Optical computing is parallel, and it is hard to interface a parallel system to a serial system. But no matter how fast you can process something optically, you still must get it into an electronic system so someone can use it."

Continued next page GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Optimizing Optics

43

44

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Wave guides covered with chemically sensitive film can detect changes in light beams resulting from a chemical reaction.

/ .1

An Optical Jekyll and Hyde

S

imply transmitting information optically is not enough. To make a "smart" device requires that optical data be switched and processed, tasks that are easy enough for electronic computers.

But here, one of the advantages of light aims against device designers. Since photons do not interact with one another, they cannot be made to trip a switch like electrons. One

Georgia Tech researcher Nile Hartman studies a wave guide, â&#x20AC;˘which is used in developing unique optical sensors.

solution is to direct the photons through special materials that change when they absorb a photon. These changes can then be used to reroute succeeding photons. But in absorbing a photon, the material also absorbs energy, which in turn generates heat. When many photons are absorbed, the heat gain can adversely affect the properties of the material, notes Dr. Chris Summers, director of Georgia Tech Research Institute's Physical Sciences Lab. "In optical devices, you induce an optical change in the index of refraction, and that causes switching," he explains. "But the devices absorb a lot of optical power, so they heat up.

Since their refractive index depends strongly on temperature and changes in the opposite direction to the electronic effects, the next light-pulse Continued next page

The Optical Holy Grail

F

I-

or all the innovative uses of light under development at Georgia Tech and elsewhere, one application has long been the photonic version of a I loly Grail: all-optical computing. Handling the operations of a computer through optics offers many attractions, including speed, parallelism, and the ability to process signals carried by optical fibers without conversion.

In January 1990, researchers from AT&T Bell Laboratories announced they had built the world's first digital optical processor, a development they described as an important step toward production of an all-optical computer. Coupled with earlier work, the news generated considerable excitement.

But many Georgia Tech researchers lx*lieve business pressures on AT&T, and the difficult materials issues involved in making optical switches and modulators, may limit near-term progress in optical computing.

"Although it has a fair amount of glamour associated with it, optical computing is probably not where the action is going to be over the next decade or so," says Dr. William Rhodes. "People have been trying to do optical computing for some time, and I just don't foresee it happening for the next decade or two."

To make optical computing a reality, designers have to tiy different approaches.

"When you talk about building an optical computer, the whole concept changes," notes Dr. John Uyemura. "We can't mimic an electronic computer in optics."

So in the meantime, Georgia Tech scientists are pursuing areas where the massive parallelism of optics offers special advantages. And should the optical computer one day become a reality, it will likely be through the interconnects, processors, switches and other devices built by Georgia Tech scientists and engineers.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Optimizing Optics

45

•

f

A

46

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Development of a single chip capable of performing several visual-processing functions will help machines emulate nature.

I* MARGARtT BARkhn PHOTO

in the optical train is treated differently."

Materials researchers are exploring ways around this optical Catch-22, but until new materials are developed, switching light will require other techniques.

One such method employs optical gratings, patterns of lines which differentially bend the light-pulses passing through them. The amount of bending relates to the light's wavelength and the dielectric properties of the grating material.

But because the dielectric properties can be changed electrically, gratings can be used dynamically to steer light-pulses to specific locations—or even to block certain wavelengths, Dr. Thomas Gaylord explains.

Other switching can be done by ferroelectric liquid crystals, most familiar for their use in electronic displays. In a project being done by Gaylord, Dr. Timothy Drabik and Nile Hanrnan, phase changes prompted by electronic or optical signals alter the ferroelectric crystals, re-directing incoming light pulses.

Yet another optical switching scheme proposed by Verber could speed long-distance communications. Long-distance telephone calls now travel mostly on optical fiber. Every time they are re-routed, they must be converted to electronic signals for switching. Once past the switch, they are converted back to their optical form. Each conversion introduces a delay.

Verber proposes to split off a portion of the optical signal at each switch. That small portion would be converted into an electronic signal and used to direct operation of the switch, leaving the main signal in its optical form.

"We want to have the whole thing done optically," Verber says. "The aim is to build a communications system in which the data go from the transmitting mode to the receiving Continued

Dr. Steve Deweerth displays the vision electronics that will guide small robots. He is developing circuits which receive images pixel-by-pixel, process them and send out motor-control signals—all on a single chip.

GEORGIA TECH • Optimizing Optics

47

AT&T researchers caused considerable excitement w h e n they announced that they had built the first digital optical processor.

mode, and remain in optical form throughout."

Switching and logic operations take time, which means that a very slight delay must be built into the switch to give the electrons time to do their work. To do that, Verber is designing a fiber-optic "holding pattern," a kind of dynamic optical memory which holds the signals in a loop until they are needed.

Helping Machines to See

C

ommunications and computing are not the only places where Georgia Tech is tapping the power of light.

Optics also offers benefits for image processing and image recognition, abilities important to many Tech labs.

Dr. William Rhodes, director of the Center for Optical Science and Engineering, is integrating an optical image processor with a digital computer to gain the best of the optical and electronic worlds. Though use of the analog optical processor might ordinarily create noise and accuracy problems, Rhodes' device handles data from each image pixel simultaneously, and without degrading the performance of its host.

Improving image processing will require increased speed to make the resulting data available in real time. Dr. Steve Deweerth is developing circuits which receive images pixelby-pixel, process them, and send out motorcontrol signalsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all on a single chip. The technique is useful for solving certain visual computation problems, and a prototype is being used to help a vehicle follow a light source, emulating the sensory systems found in nature.

Through the work of Georgia Tech scientists, the Infonnation Age is poised to embrace a new set of capabilities, as the solutions to many vexing problems are brought to light. â&#x20AC;˘ i

John Toon is a writer in the Georgia Tech Research Institute Communications Office.

48

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

Georgia Tech scientist Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst adjusts a special furnace used to deposit galliuni arsenide, an optical materiaL

Devising Better Measures

By J o h n Dunn

T

Ihe method Atlantan Clifton A. Dukes Jr. has devised to measure the globe makes a world of sense, and the calendar he has proposed is so precise that the average error per year is only one second.

So, why are his proposals still gathering dust in the archives after 30 years?

Dukes, a 1942 textile engineering graduate, observes that the world is comfortable with historical precedent, even if it means grappling with the differences between latitudes and longitudes, or having the first day of spring occur on as many as four different days.

Dukes, who is retired from the 1 )el ense Logistics Agency of the Department of Defense, came up with a concept ()i measuring spherical coordinates that was copyrighted in l°6l.

The Department of Defense paid the expenses for his 1902 patent of transparent overlay shells for terrestrial globes, which uses his spherical coordinates.

The patent states that the three-dimensional shell overlay "makes it possible to define any given locus on the globe either by the conventional coordinate system or by a novel system wherein the meridians of longitude are replaced

by parallels of latitude (and wherein interpolations are made possible by a system of halved great circles atnning from east to west)."

While latitude and longitude were adequate measurements for the civilized world when it was cen-

tered around the Mediterranean Sea, Dukes observes, "the ancient world' was only concerned with those areas around the temperate zone—not how to measure a globe."

While latitude and longitude measurement offers advantages to a navigator,

Tech grad Clifton Dukes: The key to new measurements of the globe and of the time it keeps are wrapped up in measuring great or dirriinishing circles in both, vertically and horizontally.

Dukes says* it "lends itself poorly to the determination of geographical loci for use in automatic dataprocessing systems."

He adds, "There is no reason to measure one way from diminishing circles, and the other from great circles. What you want to do is either measure off great circles— which is probably the best—or off diminishing circles in both directions, vertically and horizontally."

The patent, he says, was a means of protecting the monograph on the measurement of spherical coordinates. "As far as I know no globes were ever made using my overlay shells."

In 1964, Dukes received a copyright on a 128-year calendar based on the old Julian calendar because it contains the closest relationship between the tropical year and a solar-day calendar year.

"A calendar, to be useful for civil purposes, should contain a specific number of whole solar days [24 hours] and it should be so synchronized with the average tropical year that the days recur year after year as inflexibly as possible on the same tropical day," Dukes explains.

Dukes says his calendar confines the time for arrival of the first day of spring (vernal equinox) Continued next page

GEORGIA TECH • Innovator: Dukes

49

Innovators The lust calendur reform was made 410 years ago within the smallest limitations.

Keeping a calendar accurate is a historical problem. That's because the tropical year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds.

The Roman calendar used before 45 B.C. was based on a 365-day tropical year, which resulted in an error of one day every four years. The Julian calendar, intended to correct the Roman calendar, had exactly 365 days and six hours. An extra day was added to the calendar ev-

ery four years.

The tropical year was still 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than the Julian calendar, resulting in a one-day error every 128 years.

By the year 1582, the cumulative error between the Julian calendar and the tropical year was approximately 10 days, prompting Pope Gregory XIII to introduce his reforms and, according to Dukes, "It was an inadequate job.

"The result of juggling 'leap years on a century basis in the Gregorian cal-

endar is that within a 400year period the tropical year may be as much as 33 hours, 16 minutes and 18 seconds longer than an average Gregorian year, or as much as 18 hours, 43 minutes and 20 seconds shorter," he says.

"In order to have the least error in a calendar for civil purposes, the average Julian year must be the basic year," he argues.

"The logical question then arises. When should a correction be made? The logical answer is w h e n the error between the tropical

year and the average Julian year most closely approximates a whole solar day."

Since that occurs every 128 years, d o it then, Dukes says. "The result would b e an average error with the tropical year of only one second per year."

The cumulative error of his calendar would amount to one day every 86,400 years, he says. "That's about as accurate as you can get."

Will his ideas ever become accepted? Dukes thinks they will. Time, he believes, is on his side. â&#x20AC;˘

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GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

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Pacesetters Steady Course

I

n early 1987, when Balentine credits his many Wall Street firms company's success to a were hawking packmix of conservative busiaged products at the ness philosophy, a netexpense of personal work of professionals, perservice, Bob Balentine sonal service and a carechartered his own course. fully crafted long-term Balentine, a 1955 indus- strategy. trial management graduate, "Successful investors and his son, Robert Jr., identify trends and take founded Balentine & Co. advantage of what the in Atlanta, an investment markets—bond and advisory firm dedicated to stock—allow them to do," providing "impeccable Balentine adds. "They service" to a wealthy identify a long-term trend clientele. and implement the strategy."

The firm has experienced steady growth Balentine, who dethroughout its five-year scribes himself as "pruhistory. The slate of serdently aggressive," says he vices has been expanded makes decisions based on to include corporate fithe answers to obvious nance and pension-fund questions: "Does it make management. Assets under sense? Is it simple enough management have more to be understood? Does it than tripled and are now fit the client's needs and approaching $400 million. objectives?"

And the firm has achieved Although he is a Wall this against a background Street refugee, Balentine of industry volatility. has a strong affinity for the industry.

"Consistent and steady The respect is mutual. wins the race," says He is serving on the NaBalentine, who serves as tional Association of Secuchairman of the firm. rities Dealers Board of "We don't do anything Governors, the enforcefancy; we just help people ment arm of the Securities with their financial needs." and Exchange CommisBalentine has earned sion. He is past vice chairrecognition for his work. man of the Business For the past four years, he Committee, District 7, and has been featured in past chairman of the Local articles profiling the Firms Committee of the nation's top-10 investment Securities Industry advisors—twice in Money Association. magazine, and twice in Town & Country magazine.

Balentine has taken an Georgia Trend magazine active role in his commuhas also highlighted the nity. Ha has served on the Atlanta firm in its statewide board of, directors of the top-10 review.

Salvation Army for more 52

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

than a decade. Housing for the working poor is an issue of critical importance to Balentine. He and his firm participate in a program sponsored by F.C.S. Urban Ministries which builds affordable houses

in the Summerhill area of Atlanta.

"We treat people the way we like to be treated,' explains Balentine.

"That is the sum and substance of Balentine & Co." •

"Consistent and steady wins the race," says Bob Balentine, who serves as chairman of Balentine & Co., an investment advisory firm headquartered in Atlanta. "We don't do anything fancy; we just help people with their financial needs."

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ITT SHERATON.THE NATURAL CHOICE

Research Construction Simulator yA computer visual Z ^ L simulator is being ^ L J L . developed by researchers at Georgia Tech to help construction managers organize people, materials and machines.

The Construction Visualizer (CV) would allow managers to simulate construction processes at a particular siteâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to plan equipment and material placement, for example.

The simulation would provide information in three dimensions and real time, and include input from all key planners involved in the design and construction processes.

The dynamic nature of construction operations dictates that site needs change quickly and frequently. By simulating the entire construction project on a computer, the design

Using one CV option, the material hoister, or elevator, used on a construction project could be simulated.

team can move back and forth through the process and make changes in response to problems that arise, and experiment with "what-if' scenarios.

By including information from all parties involved, the simulation offers the added benefit of improving communication among the client, architects, engineers, contractors and workers.

CV is being developed in C programming language, and uses a UNIXbased workstation to display several different construction situations.

Computer Graphics A 3-D optical digitizer developed at Georgia Tech's Multi-Media Technology Laboratory could bring sophisticated computer animation and special-effects capabilities to desktop computer systems, say researchers.

The device scans complex three-dimensional objects and generates detailed computer descriptions, which serve as a foundation for computerized manipulation to produce dramatic images. The descriptions are encoded in standard .DXF format files, and may be quickly imported into existing electronic sculpting software.

The Tech invention is a substantial improvement over current optical scan-

ners because it can handle finer detail, thus eliminating the tedious and timeconsuming touchup work now done manually with pen digitizers, and can handle objects as large as the human figure.

In addition, Tech researchers believe their prototype can be commercialized and sold for only about one-eighth the price of current scanners.

The 3-D optical digitizer is an outgrowth of the innovative work done by Tech researchers in creating the Olympic video, which played a major role in Atlanta's successful bid presentation for the 1996 Olympics.

Environmental Simulation Engineers can tap a powerful new computer simulator to improve the performance and lower the operating costs of wastewater treatment facilities.

The simulation system is derived from software Georgia Tech researchers originally developed to help the Air Force troubleshoot its complex military electronics equipment.

A key component is a sophisticated electronic circuit simulator capable of generalized problemsolving.

This capability is exploited to determine the growth activity of microbes; the effect of adding a more concentrated Continued next page GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Research 5 5

Research Continued from previous

page

Wastewater treatment faculties demand complex food stream to a wastewater reactor; or what may happen if toxic chemicals get into the reactor.

As water quality standards have become more stringent, systems to treat municipal and industrial wastewater have grown increasingly complex.

Computer models of their operation must consider more than 13 interrelated variables.

Since wastewater treatment systems operate under constantly changing conditions, engineers must consider the dynamic

nature of many of those variables, such as sudden surges of water from thunderstorms.

The simulator allows engineers to more fully consider all design options for treatment plants, and enables facility operators to examine how an existing system would behave under various conditions.

And because it could simulate the complete operation of a proposed new facility, the system could be used by regulatory agencies to ensure the validity of a new design.

simulations

Educating Robots Georgia Tech researchers have developed a software-based system that helps robots improve performance by learning from their errors.

The system uses algorithms integrated into a robot's existing learning controller, and improves the machine's performance faster than the alternative of replacing or modifying the controller itself. It is a less-expensive upgrade because it involves only

software changes instead of major hardware modifications.

Scientists conducted trials with an IBM 7545 robot equipped with the new software. The robot compared its arm movement to an ideal path and corrected it a little each time.

After only five cycles it was performing as well as its physical limitations and sensors would allow. Most existing learning-controllers require about 100 repetitions before maximum improvement is obtained, researchers said. â&#x20AC;˘

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GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

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Profile A Symphony of Numbers

By J o h n Dunn y ^ s a music student at yL^kihe Israel Hebrew J L J L . Conservatory in Tel Aviv, Uzi Landman's ambition was to become a composer and conductor.

In his fourth year of study, Landman was conducting a community orchestra performance attended by the young, musically acclaimed Daniel Barenboim.

Barenboim heard errors and word got to Landman.

"I heard him conduct and perform, and I realized that I would do a very good thing if I would get out of conducting," Landman says and laughs. "I

think both of us made good choices."

Landman, who learned to play the accordion because his family could not afford a piano, abandoned boyhood aspirations and began playing professionally, paying his way through college in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics, which he earned in 1966.

The following year he earned his master's in chemical physics and in 1969, his PhD in theoretical chemistry.

Based on the fourth floor of Howey Building, Landman now conducts a symphony of numbers,

The Landman File 1969: Receives PhD in theoretical chemistry, Israel Institute of Technology.

1970: Visiting assistant professor of chemistry, University of California at Santa Barbara.

1971: Research assistant professor of physics, University of Illinois, Urbana.

1975: Senior fellow, Department of Physics and Astronomy, LIniversity of Rochester.

1977: Associate professor, School of Physics, Georgia Tech. Becomes professor, 1979.

1984: Named Nordita professor, Chalmers University of Teclinology, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Goteborg, Sweden.

1985: Named professor (part time), Department of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University.

1988: Regents' professor, School of Physics, Georgia Tech.

1988-89: Associate dean for research, College of Science and Liberal Studies, Georgia Tech.

1991: Institute professor and editor, Journal of Computational Material Science\

58

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1992

using computer-based simulations to bring harmony to his investigation of microscopic origins of macroscopic phenomena.

A Regents' professor in physics and Institute professor, Landman heads a research group in Tech's Computational Materials Science Center that has earned international renown for its work in the broad spectrum of materials systems and computer simulations of complex physical and chemical phenomena. He has produced pioneering research in the field of quantum and classical molecular dynamics.

"The computer is wonderful," Landman says enthusiastically, his thick voice carrying the accent of his native Israel. "You give it a complicated mathematical computation and it executes at tremendous speed. We are involved with the solution of an enormous number of coupled equations; the motions of atoms and electrons in materials systems are all coupled to one another."

Computer simulation has progressed beyond "counterfeiting reality," Landman says. "We now can actually predict phenomena before the experiment is done, or we can explain observations with great precision.

"In simulation, you have full control of the theoreti-

cal model that goes into the simulation. You play God with the system. You can add or subtract an interaction. You can eliminate a certain part and see its effect. You see the sum total of all this influence."

Landman has excelled in several areas of materials and condensed matter, most recently in tribology â&#x20AC;&#x201D;research concerning the design, friction, wear and lubrication of interacting surfaces in relative motion, such as bearings.

"We were the first to bring to the foreground a realistic, detailed atomistic theory of friction and wear processes," Landman says.

"We start from the mundane phenomena of friction, which usually is in the hands of engineers, and we end up with atomistic mechanics and physics," he adds. "That's what I find is the fascination. You can apply yourself to engineering, technological problems, as well as to fundamental physical problems and have a good time with it."

It is research that has very practical applications.

"If you want to build a better tire," he says, "you need to understand what makes it wear. And what makes it wear are chemical and physical processes that occur on a microscopic molecular scale. So you have to ask, 'What is it in the tire's molecules?'"

MARGARET BARRETT P H O T O

Tech physicist Uzi Landman: Pioneering research in computer simulations He has done extensive research on lubricants.

"You're n< >t going to develop lubricants that work under veiy extreme conditions and won't break down, unless you really understand what it is in the structure of the lubricant that makes it live longer— that makes it lubricate."

Other research has involved the causes of radiation damage to live tissue.

"To understand the nature of the damage and how to inhibit it takes microscopic research of the nature of electrons in fluids. We start with irradiating a tissue, causing it damage, and we end up studying the quantum mechanics of electrons and reactions in aqueous media—because a good part of us is water."

His work in tribology and other materials problems has been noted in Scientific American, for which he is writing an article, Science, and the British journal, Nature.

A few months ago, a Japan Broadcasting Corp. film crew inteiviewed Landman and his research group at the computer simulation lab, focusing on the group's work in nanotribology, surfaces and interfaces for a production titled, "The Nano-Space."

Landman's group has also made computer-generated videos. "We innovated a number of ways of visualizing the results of simulations," Landman adds. "Visualization and animation are becoming integral parts of our research. Through this view of the microscopic world, you give kids a sense of excitement. If you visualize something, you can relate to it. It's not all buried in some heavy mathematical formula."

L

andman came to Tech in 1977 from 1 the University of Rochester. His only stipulation was access to a good

portion of the Tech computer. Over the years, as much as 80 percent of all the computational resources on campus have been devoted to Landman's group, which now uses off-campus resources.

"All of the simulations that we do are very largescale simulations," Landman states. "Computer resources are limiting us. Although we are big-time users of various national facilities, we really need our own supercomputer."

Landman teaches graduate courses dealing with condensed matter of solid-state physics, but he also teaches entry-level courses in physics.

"It's a challenge to get students really involved, to give them the sense of excitement—that this is a worthwhile intellectual endeavor. That it has value to all of us, not only as something that will improve our technology, but something that will enrich us as intel-

lectual human beings.

"It's an educational challenge to go before 150 students, not all of whom wish to be there," he adds.

"You have to perform, and I like to perform. I like to make them laugh. I like to make them enjoy it. I like for them to feel that they really are understanding the way nature works."

Although he started out in chemistry, in the early 1970s he transferred to physics.

"Many areas are so interdisciplinary that it does not matter to me what the label is—chemistry, physics, biology, engineering.

The phenomena is the interest. If it happens to be in mechanical engineering, that's fine. If it happens to be in the ivory towers of theoretical physics, that's fine, too—as long as it is of interest and we can actually advance the field.

"It may be naively fearless—we attack very difficult, complex problems.

And that may be the strength of this group.

We're very open. We're looking for problems that seem to be unsolved; problems that have such intricacies that they don't seem to have an explanation," he says.

"The funny thing is that quite often, after long and complex studies, the principles underlying the solutions to many hard problems are rather simple." •

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Landman

59

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