Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 68, No. 01 1992

SUMMER 1 9 9 2

ALUMNI M A G A Z I N E

ALSO INSIDE] Heating the Traffic • Telecommuting Trends • Technology Takes Center Stage

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OFFICIAL iFONSOA ALUMNI MAQAUHi

(komaTecb ALUMNIOM AGAZINE Volume 68, Number 1 •

Features

STAFF John C. Dunn, editor Gary Griettling, associate editor Gary Meek, Margaret Barrett photography Everett I lullum, design Dudley Williamson, advertising

FlJBUiIATIONS COlVLMrTTEE Chairman Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr., NS '46 Chairman, Sawyer-RileyComplon Inc., Atlanta Members William Guy" Arledge, IM 7 1 Manager/Advertising, BellSouth Corp., Atlanta McKinley "Mac" Conway Jr., GE '40 President. Conway Data Inc., Norcross, Ga. Hubert L. Harris Jr., IM'65 President. Investco Services Inc., Atlanta McAllister "Mac" Isaacs III, TEX'60 Executive Editor, Textile World. Atlanta Perry Pascarella Vice I 'resident-Editorial, Penton Publishing, Cleveland, Ohio George A. Stewart Jr., AE '69 President. Stewart Consulting Group, Dunwoody, Ga. James M. Langley Vice President External Affairs. 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

SUMMER 1992

Iff

How Big Is Your Pond? ...s.

14

For Tech alumnus Robert Frank, it's the wide-ranging world of economics.

Written by Gary Goettling COVER: Automobiles are among Americans' favorite status symbols, and few buy merely for transportation.

Economist and Tech alumnus Bob Frank explains the impact of consumerism in a wide-ranging interview beginning on page 14.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PHOTO BY ULRIS HiLDRLTH

One for the Road

22

Scientists at Georgia Tech Research Institute are exploring n e w and better ways to move people along the fast-lane.

Written by Lea McLees

Home Sweet Office

28

O n e w a y to solve the traffic problem is not to drive. O n e w a y not t o drive is t o work at home, The future is telecommuting.

Written byjeanie Franco Hallem

Technology Takes Center Stage

34

Tech's n e w Arts Theatre offers state-of-the-art equipment.

Written by Alice Murray Wright

Departments Letters

6

Technotes 9 Tops in minority engineers; Secretary of education?; Semester system; Homecoming reminder; Fine Arts director; Distinguished prof award; Olympic housing; Schroeder resigns; Design excellence.

Research Stereo sonic; Smart sewing; Space-age materials.

41

Pacesetter John E. Pippin: Civilian Battle Plan

45

Profile Prof. C.S. Kiang: Technology for the Future

50

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

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ITT SHERATON.THE NATURAL CHOICE.

Historical Footnote Editor: I am confident of great success, knowing that the problem-seeking method of architectural programming is being used for the planning of Olympic facilities ["Mind Over Matter," spring 1992]. The Texas firm which developed the method shortly after World War II was Caudill Rowlett Scott. The methodology was shared with the profession in tire primer Problem Seeking by William Pena of CRS, and at numerous presentations.

CRSS Architects, mentioned in the article as providing extra programmers, is the contemporary name of the original firm.

William A. Wilde, ME'63 Denver

Still Skeptical Editor: Include me among the 70 percent of people who do not accept as immutable and final the findings of the Warren Commission, despite the article about alumnus Rufus W. Youngblood ["Eyewitness to the Death of a President," spring 1992].

First: My personal hands-on, down-to-earth experience with: firing and marksmanship instruction on military-type bolt-action rifles is ample assurance to me that no person with no more tested skill than that attributed to Lee Oswald could have fired three aimed shots in three sec6

onds. I trained with a U.S. Army model 1903 30-caliber rifle primarily, but have also fired a German Mauser 8mm rifle. Both are much superior to Oswald's weapon.

Second: Newton's First Law negates the theory of the "magic bullet." I refer to the one found in the Dallas hospital in pristine condition and identified as having passed through both Kennedy and Connally, but certainly not in a straight line.

Third: President Kennedy was facing away from the source of Oswald's fire. The movie made by a bystander shows the president's head being driven backward by the third shot which could have occurred only as a result of fire from an opposed source. Again we impute Newton's wisdom.

Youngblood certainly detracted from his credibility when he attempted to explain away the precipitate haste in removing the body from the legal jurisdiction of the state of Texas to a Washington, D.C. military hospital for autopsy as a "mere technical violation" of the law, and to have it questioned is "nitpicking."

During the 60 years of my adult life, confidence in the integrity of official pronouncements from even the highest official sources has been grossly eroded.

As a soldier, I subscribe to the necessity of secrecy in

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1992

plans and military operations, but I have also seen far too many cases where it was imposed to cover mistakes and for no better reason than to protect careers, both civil and military.

The president's fateful trip to Dallas was made as a politcal fence-mending operation. A new election was coming up and rumors hinted that Vice President Johnson would not be re-nominated. The "natives" had become restless. Political liaisons are matters of convenience and are not engraved in granite, but that does not assuage the pain, suffering and humiliation of a jilted spouse. Texas politics were reckoned to be hardboiled, even to the point of physical.

Youngblood's primary function and duty as a member of the Secret Service at that time was to protect the person of the vice president—if necessary, with his own body as a shield. This he did in the finest traditions of the Service. In so doing, his capabilities for other observations were limited by the positions he was then obliged to assume.

For those of us who are doubters, there is a smorgasbord of guesses to feast on. It is almost certain that none of us will be as sure of our estimated solution as Youngblood and certain others are of the veracity of the Warren Report. I am

willing to concede the personal honesty of their opinions. I believe, however, that the number of individuals who really knew anything is very limited and that their numbers were diminished during the investigations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. There is no valid reason to expect any satisfactory answers to the obvious questions that have been raised. Too much time has passed with too much opportunity to scatter and bury embarrassing tidbits from the voluminous files of the reports.

However, as much as many of the Warren Report supporters wish to see the subject closed, it will not be put to rest unless a real "corpus delicti" emerges that can be suitably interred with honors. As the fiery fren2y burns, the paltry bucks that are being generated should be regarded as serendipitous by-products instead of fuel for the flames.

J. Everett Hicks, COM '34 Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.)

Spartanburg, S.C. EDITOR'S NOTE: We welcome and encourage letters from readers. Please address correspondence to: Editor Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Alumni/Faculty House Atlanta, GA 30.332-0175

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TechNctes Written b y Gary Goettling

Tech Tops in Minority Engineers igures released by the hngineering Manpower Commission for 1990-91 show that for the sect >nd year in a row, Get >rgia Tech produced more minority (black, Hispanic and Native American) engineers than any other school in the country. Tech ranked No. 2 in the total number of engineers produced, behind the University of Illinois. Tech also held the second spot in the total number < >f graduating female engineers.

The commission statistics for the year also revealed: • While 333 U.S. institutions grant engineering degrees, only 23 accounted for 30 percent of all new engineers.

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Georgia Tech ranks first in the nation in its production of minority engineers.

• The number of undergraduate engineering degrees awarded has de-

Secretary of Education?

G

ee >rgia Tech President John P. Crecine and datasystem entrepreneur H. Ross Perot have known each other for many years. Most recently, both men server I on the board of Apple founder Steve Jobs' NExT computer company. Does Perot have what it takes to be president?

"He's very smart. He's honest. He has an uncanny knack 1 < >r getting to the essentials of any complex situation, Crecine said. "He knows how big systems and big organizations work. You couple that with his can-do attitude, and I think Mr. Perot is . . . a very attractive possibility."

Might he be offered a job in a Perot presidency, perhaps as secretary of education? Crecine laughs at the suggestion. "I've already got that jolt—here!"

clined for five consecutive years, dropping to 63,986 for 1990-91.

• The number of master's degrees awarded annually has risen steadily

over the past 10 years, to 27,754 last year.

• Of 5,680 doctorates awarded in engineering, only 43 went to blacks, and 551 to women.

Change for a Quarter?

A

12-member ad hoc L committee is investigating the feasibility of adopting a semester system at Georegia Tech.

The Tech campus appears divided on the issue, which has been raised numerous times. A major concern would be the impact of semesters on the co-op program. Tom Akins, director of the coop division and a member

of the coirrmittee, points out that all top co-op schools use the quarter system.

"Under semesters, cooping causes a series of interruptions," he said.

"What happens over the summer? It's workable, but it doesn't mesh well for an academic system."

The committee plans to poll students and faculty and release a recommendation in the fall.

GEORGIA TECH • TechNotes

9

TechNotes Continued from previous page

1 I HAKKITT P H O T O

Fine Arts Director Search

T

he Division of Fine Arts may have a director by the beginning of fall quarter, according to Bucky Johnson, director of the Music Department and chair of the search committee. Nearly 70 applications for the position have been received, he says.

The committee may use a video process, wherein semi-finalists for the job would be taped during an interview, and the tape then forwarded to the committee for review. The

video approach would allow close scmtiny of a larger number of applicants without the expense of bringing all semi-finalists to campus. From that group, about three potential directors will be brought to campus for final interviews, Johnson says. He expects the process to last throughout the summer.

"The person is more important than the date, but we are moving as quickly as we can," t Johnson adds.

1992 Distinguished Professor Award recipient Uzi Landman and Tech President John P. Crecine.

Distinguished

D

Homecoming Reminder Homecoming weekend of Oct. 30-31 is fast approaching. Reunions will be held by the classes of 1932, 1937, 1942, 1947, 1952 1957, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1987.

The class of Old Gold, comprised of alumni who graduated in 1941 and earlier, will also meet. For more information, call Catherine Martin at the Alumni Association at (404) 853-0758.

r. Uzi Landman, Regents' professor of physics, received the 1992 Distinguished Professor Award at the annual Faculty/Staff Honors luncheon on May 28. Dr. Ronald Fox of physics and Dr. James Hartley of mechanical engineering were named Outstanding Teachers, while Dr. Russell Callen of electrical engineering re-

Company ceived the Outstanding Service Award. Dr. Narl Davidson of engineering received the ANAK award.

Gail White, director of programs and tours tor the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, and Pam Trube, Tech's assistant director for development and special events, each received a Professional Achievement Award from the Georgia Tech Foundation.

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers li. Hammond Sliili |r. CI'. '58

Trustees

Kay Elizabeth Adams IM 74

president lolin C. Staton Jr. IM '60

past president G. William Knight IK '62, MS IM '68 president-elect treasurer Frank H. Mater Jr. IM '60 vice pnpklcnl/'aclirilics 11. Milton Stewart IK '61 / â&#x20AC;˘kvpresklenl/conuuuiiicalious Hubert L Harris lr. IM '65 rice president/Roll (kill lohn B, Carter lr. IK '69

vice president/executU v director James M. bmgley

vice president, external affairs^

A 10

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer

1992

Theodore Arno 11 TEXT '49 A.K. Beachamjr. IK'60 William Hagood Bellinger KK '63 James W. Bowyer CK '64, MS SANK '66 Richard II. Brtidfield ARCII'60 Carey H. Brown IK '69 PredL. Cook TCI 1 71, PhD 75

David R. Jones IM '59 lvalue Love-Stanley ARCH 7 Govantez L. Lowndes IK '83 Jon Samuel Martin IM '64

Jay M. McDonald IM '68 Charles D. Moseley Jr. IK '65

Thomas H. MuUerJr. IK'65 G. David Peake IK '61 Michael L, Percy Sr. TEXT '08

Thomas I-'. Davenport Jr. IK '56

J. Lamar Reese Jr. IM'55

Charles K. Kasleyjr. IM '86 Albert K. Candy IK '56 Don P. Giddens AK '63, MS AK '65 PhD AK '67 Thomas B. Gurley KK '59 Janice Carol Harden IK 71 Paul W. Heard Jr. ME '65 P. Owen Haifa Jr. IM 70 J.Scott I lowell ISyK 75

Neal Allen Robertson IK '69 B. Jane Skellon IM 77 Haywood F. Solomon Jr. IM 70 Louis Terrell Soveyjr, IK '52 Neal D. Stubblcficld MK 70 Howard T. Tellepsen Jr. CK '66 Harry B. Thompson III IK '60 Philip S. Vincent IK '66 S. Joseph Ward IM '51

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TechNotes Continued from page 10

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• Acme Business Products • Billet it i I it- & CO.

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Olympic Housing

A

fter months of planLning and negotiation, most of the issues regarding the siting of Olympic housing facilities appear to have been resolved.

Construction is set to begin next year on the main Olympic dormitory complex on the four-acre southeast quadrant of the North Avenue-Techwood Drive intersection. The Atlanta firm of G. Niles Bolton Associates, whose president is a 1968 Tech architecture graduate, has been awarded the contract for the 2,000-bed complex.

The facility will house 4,000 athletes and officials during the 1996 Games, and then be turned over to Georgia State University for student dorms. Another 11,000 Olympic partici-

pants will be housed at Tech in existing dorms, and in five new residence halls. The process leading to awarding contracts for the design and construction of the new halls has recently been completed.

At the time Atlanta won the bid for the 1996 Games, the Olympic dorms were envisioned as twin skyscrapers at the entrance to the Tech campus. Since then, Olympic and Institute officials have reached consensus on a less-imposing approach to housing.

Good News, Bad News

T

he good news is that construction will finally begin next year on the main Olympic dormi-

tory complex at the corner of North Avenue and Techwood Drive.

The bad news is that Junior's Grill is already there.

But fear n< >t, g< >urmands, for the demolition of Junior's will be only a temporary hitch in a 44year-old tradition, assures proprietor Tommy Klemis.

If the Board of Regents approves, the gr< >und floor of the new building will house retail (read Junior's) space, Klemis says.

During the two-year construction period, students will have to forage at other eateries unless a temporary on-campus site can be negotiated. "We have no intention ol leaving the Tech community permanently," Klemis says.

Construction will begin next year on the Olympic dorm complex at North Avenue and Techwood Drive. The site will include the location of Junior's Grill—but relax, the campus institution will be relocated rather than closed.

12

GEORGIA TECH • Summer

1992

TechNotes

Schroeder Resigns

vice president of student sen/ices.

D

Housing Changes

r. Charles Schroeder, wh< > was named vice president (>f student services in January, resigned from thru p< >st last month.

In announcing the resignation, President John P. Crecine pniLsed Schroeder's abilities, but noted that "it has become clear that, through no one's fault, the organizational 'fit' and teamwork necessary for Tech to achieve its ambitions for student quality of life have not emerged."

Plans are being made to re-open the search for a

l Y ? " ith improvement of Ww student retention a high-profile priority at Tech, the Housing Department has announced three new residence options beginning in the fall.

Nearly 600 students in Cloudman, Glenn and Towers residence halls will participate in "The Freshman Experience," designed to help them adjust together to Tech life by providins academic advise-

ment, tutoring, a comprehensive meal plan and an introductory psychology course. Upperclass "peer leaders" on each hall will> offer counseling and serve as information resources.

Also, the first floor of Smith Hall has been designated the "International House," where students from other countries will be paired with American roommates.

An experiment in selfgovernment will be initiated at McDaniel Hall, a.k.a. Techwood. Housing officials hope that a greater degree of independence for the hall's 350 residents

will foster a more cooperative living environment.

Design Excellence

T

'he Fuller E. Callaway Jr. Maufacturing Research Center at Tech has received an award of excellence from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission.

The facility, which opened in November, was designed by the Atlanta firm of Lord, Aeck & Sargent, headed by Larry Lord, Arch '65. This past April, the center was the cover story in Progressive Architecture magazine.

A special rate for Tech fans only. Weekends through- ^nSSL appointed room at the heart of downtown Adanta. For out football and basketball seasons. Afterward, relax {Ymtfi reservations, call 404-659-0400 or 800-241-3333 and with a drink. Or enjoy sumptuous dining in The Res- PuSffs? ask about the Yellow Jacket Weekend. And for just $105 taurant or The Cafe. Then settle back in a luxuriously ra^jfer a night, you can stay at a legend when you cheer one on.

THE RITZ-CAPJTON ATLANTA

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ TecbNotes

13

How Big Is Your Pond?

For Tech alumnus Bob Frank, it's large e n o u g h to h o o k e c o n o m i c understandings w i t h a psychological lure

By Gary Goettling Photographed by Chris Hildreth/Cornell University

T

he rich really are getting richer, says Georgia Tech alumnus Dr. Robert H. Frank, the Goldwin Smith professor of economics, ethics and public policy at Cornell University. Frank is currently studying what he calls "winner-take-all" markets, a phenomenon in which "a handful of the top participants in a given area reap a disproportionate share of the'total rewards."

Long associated with the multi-million-dollar contracts in the sports and entertainment industries, Frank argues that the trend has affected many other professions in recent years, promoting inefficiency in the economy and financially draining the middle class.

"The wages for ordinary workers have actually fallen during the same time that the winners in the economy have been enjoying such high income growth," he says.

"People have a real sense of apprehension about the future because it is threatening to get worse."

Frank is one of a small-but-growing number of economists who approach their subject in terms of its psychological and sociological underpinnings.

"Economics, properly understood, really is about how people make choices when there's not enough of something to go around," he says. "How you would think about problems like that without thinking of human nature and psychology is beyond me."

Unperturbed about his "renegade" status among his peers, Frank is confident that "in time the profession at large will see the wisdom of taking a broader view of what people do."

Going against convention isn't new to Bob Frank. The Miami native entered Tech with the goal of becoming a civil engineer^ but "I took a course from Professor Carl Biven, and he really got me excited about economics. I did some independent reading on it, and decided to take economics in graduate school."

After earning a mathematics degree from Tech in 1966, he enlisted in the Peace Corps,] and spent the next two years teaching math and sciencedn Nepal.

"I was nervous at the prospect of living in a remote,

poor country for two years, but I thought it would be an enriching experience," he says. "It was very rewarding— quite enlightening and instructive—although a lot of the things I did may have caused more harm than good. In my spare time I did a lot of community development projects. Those were so unsuccessful that I probably set village progress back by decades."

Upon returning to the U.S., Frank enrolled at the University of California-Berkley, where he earned a master's in statistics and a doctorate in economics. He has been a member of the Cornell faculty since 1972.

During 1978-80, he went on sabbatical to serve as a chief economist for the Civil Aeronautics Board, which was then in the process of deregulating the airline industry.

"When people hear I was in that job, the reaction is generally, 'Oh, you had something to do with that.'

"A lot of people have the impression that airline deregulation didn't work," Frank says. "Sometimes the service is less convenient, but the system is still adjusting to the higher level of traffic. Airports are too small for the amount of traffic we have now, and until more airport capacity is built, there will be bottlenecks. That's the price you pay for trying to serve more people. The fact that we are serving more people at lower prices still has to be counted as a big plus."

F

rank has written three books, the first of which, Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behai <ior and the Questfor Status, takes its name from a Ladies' Home Journal cartoon. A witch, magic wand in hand, is bent over a frog, who says to her: "I changed my mind.

I'd rather be a big enchanted prince in a small pond than a small enchanted prince in a big pond."

The approach is typical Frank. Cartoons, anecdotes and down-to-earth examples illustrate economic concepts, making the "dismal science" interesting, relevant— and even fun. Frank's efforts are abetted by his unique approach to the subject, and his original and provocative insights.

Continued

14

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1992

on page

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Winner-take-all markets are troubling on the grounds of fairness because people who differ in ability by small amounts earn vastly different rewards."

(Another cartoon, this from Playboy. Two well-heeled businessmen, brandy snifters and cigars in hand, are conversing. One says: "Oh sure, I like to feel loved—but what really gives me a bang is to feel envied.")

"So many of the existing texts seem dry and don't excite a student's interest in the guts of the subject," Frank explains. "By tying the content to everyday experience, you can engage students in a way that will free an enduring interest in economics."

His other books are Passions Within Reason (1988) and Microeconomics and Behavior (1991).

With equal piquancy, he chides fellow economists for fostering the discipline's intimidating reputation.

"It's become a highly abstract mathematical field— even the entry-level mathematical technique is forbiddingly complicated," Frank says. "Economists don't look forward to their professional journal arriving in the mail anymore. The papers in it are just a mishmash of symbolic manipulation, and no one is deeply involved with the essence of the subject. It's a shame."

There seems to be widespread uneasiness about the economy. Is its performance being judged by an outdated or unrealistic standard? A generation ago, with one wage-earner, a middle-class family could o w n a home, two cars, and send all the kids to college. Are those days gone forever?

It's a complicated question because more than just economic pressures have led to the change in family patterns. More and more women yearn to have independent career opportunities, and that's not going to change even if we get richer overnight. It may be reasonable to hope that if we had a more sensible tax structure, two-earner families might be able to cut down on the hours each partner works so there could be more time for family involvement. But returning to the one-breadwinner setup doesn't loom in the future, as far as I can tell.

It's a shame that so many parents feel they have to work 50- or 60-hour weeks inf)rder to afford the basic necessities for their families. It would be much better if we could structure the tax system so that two people working three-quarter time or half-time each would be able to do the job. If we make sure that the basic necessities—food, good education and health care—are available irrespective of economic position, we take a lot of that pressure off. .i

Is the gap between rich and pooryyidening?

It has very clearly widened in the last 10 years or so.

16

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1992

In the '80s several tax changes lowered the rates on the highest income-producers, and there's been a very large shift of economic growth from low-income to high-income households. Low-income households now have less disposable real income than they did in 19~2, whereas, overall, the country is richer than it was then.

Aren't lower tax rates supposed to encourage growth?

That's the traditional view, and it has been acted on more and more at the policy level. We've seen a reduction in marginal tax rates over the past 10 or 12 years to the point where ours are by far lower than those of any other modern industrial country.

I think people are unhappy that taxes paid by the rich have fallen relative to those paid by middle- and lowincome citizens, but they're afraid to complain for fear they'll be accused of not understanding economic efficiency or the imperative of economic progress. But low marginal tax rates actually abet a "prize" economy, a "winner-take-all" economy, and there are a lot of negative consequences to that.

What do you mean by "winner-take-all' economy?

More and more of the economy is becoming like a lottery—contests that people engage in for very high rewards. Winners do extremely well, but the people who don't make it are falling further and further behind. There are many examples of winner-take-all markets—top corporate management, law, medicine, entertainment.

The clearest examples are in sports. On the |t>rofessional tennis tour there are maybe a thousand competitors. The top 200 or so are almost indistinguishable in terms of talent, and yet the top five or six who consistently end up in the major tournament finals earn many millions of dollars a year. The No. 200-ranked player barely gets enough income to cover expenses. You have big prizes to lure people into the competition, and their presence means that they are not producing something valuable in other sectors of the economy.

You see it with kids practicing jump-shots on the playground with the hope of starting in the National Basketball Association and making $5 million a year, but a lot of these kids—the overwhelming majority of these kids— would be better off doing their math homework.

Among many of the top U.S. businesses there is a free-for-all bidding scheme, where high-profile managers are in intense demand by different firms, and their salaries get bid up to a very high level. The rest of the

Americans are spending too much o n consumer products, Frank says. people, by contrast, don't earn nearly as much, relatively speaking. In Japan the salary gap is much narrower between the top of the totem pole and the bottom. You don't see intense bidding where top executives are constantly transferring from one company to another.

Winner-take-all markets are troubling on the grounds of fairness because people who differ in ability by small amounts earn vastly different rewards. These big-payoff markets are also inefficient for the economy because they attract people away from more useful pursuits such as science and engineering and teaching.

more of our capital equipment is being purchased by foreign nationals, which by itself isn't bad. There's nothing wrong if a Hollywood movie studio sells its assets to a Japanese company. We get the money, but we are not investing it in productive assets. We are buying Nintendo games and other consumer goods instead of investing it for the future. Productivity .has grown very slowly. The share of our national income that gets paid to the foreign nationals who own our assets will grow and grow if this trend continues. That's the long-term threat, the way the economy is organized now.

State-run lotteries, which have become extremely popular in recent years, may be literal examples of winner-take-all situations.

People seem attracted to big prizes even when the chance i >l winning isn't very big. A lottery has an unattractive payout ratio in comparison with other forms of gambling. You can play slot machines and blackjack in Las Vegas < >r Atlantic City, and the house take is about 2 percent to 5 percent. In a lottery, the state takes 50 percent of the total bet. What state lotteries offer that casinos don't offer is a huge payoff. People are intoxicated by the sum. They imagine the consequences of having that much money, and they're willing to gamble just for the ability to say they have a chance. I think that same logicis what keeps kids on the basketball courts shooting for a spot in the NBA. What other trends do you see in the economy?

We are saving very little, for one thing. More and

What changes need to be made?

The tax mechanism is our most powerful instrument.

The Federal Reserve can control the money supply, which has a big effect on the rate of inflation. By and large, it has followed a responsible course. The president and Congress have not begun to make imaginative use of tax policy to help guide the economy.

A tax should be used to discourage harmful behavior and reward beneficial behavior. We should be taxing pollution, but we shouldn't be taxing savings. Greater taxation of the highest rewards in many specific winner-takeall markets is also likely to enhance economic efficiency.

What do you think of a national sales tax instead of an income tax?

Most Western democracies have a tax like thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it's called a value-added tax in Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and it is much better than income tax. We are spending too much and saving too little, and often the spending doesn't help sustain Continued next page GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Economics, Frankly Speaking

17

f [ Status drives people to allocate W w their income in very different ways.

They save less, spend more on things that are easy to compare with their neighbors.'

economic growth in any meaningful way. Think about a young man's purchase of a diamond ring to give to his fiancee. What is he trying to do? Well, he's trying to give her a token of his commitment. The jeweler tells him that he has to spend two months' salary on a diamond ring— that's the rule of thumb. If he spent $50 on a synthetic diamond, that wouldn't be a very effective token because $50—big deal. If we taxed real diamonds at, say, 5,000 percent, he could still spend two months' salary on one and it would be a real token of commitment, even if the stone is smaller. How big a stone you need depends on how big everybody else's stone is—but with a hefty tax, no one else would have a big stone. The government could then use the tax money to fund cancer research or day-care centers—things that would serve the economy better than just being able to have a bigger stone for an engagement ring.

In Choosing the Right Pond, you argue that the quest for status is an important driving force in the economy.

The notion that people care a great deal about where they stand in society is not new. What's new in my work is that I've taken that concern and explored more fully than anyone has in the past what the consequences of it are for the actual choices people make.

How do the dynamics of status work economically?

Let's say that you'd like to be the most highly ranked person in the firm where you work. The higher you rank, the more pleasure you take from that. That creates a problem because only half the people in any group can be in the top half. The question is, if some people are going to be in the top half of the group, how do you get the others to remain in the bottom half? Why don't the people in the bottom quit and form their own group?

Of course, the bottom half doesn't quit. For that to happen, the more-productive members of the firm have to share their pay, so to speaky with the less-productive ones. If you are a less-productive worker, you're going to get paid literally/more than the value of what you contribute to the. firm's operation. That's in compensation for the fact that you have low status within the company.

In some circumstances, the sharing of wages is very powerful. I've seen cases where one worker produces literally 8 or 10 times more than another, yet is paid only 5 percent more. , Status is associated with consumerism. Some people 18

GEORGIA TECH • Slimmer 1992

want to own a certain make of car, for instance, or want to a new car every year.

Yes, that's another major area, where concerns about status affect behavior in terms of the things pec >ple buy— something of a consumption arms race.

What do you look for in a car? It provides transportation, but apart from that basic feature are considerations of status. Every consumer good has a relative-status feature with it. If you get pleasure from driving a nice-looking car, you may feel chagrined at having to drive the rustiest, most beaten-down car in the neighborhood, so you'll buy a new one. That kind of concern drives people to allocate their income in very different ways.

They save less, spend less on insurance and other unobservable goods, and more on things that are easy to compare with what the neighbors own.

Also in Pond, you say, in essence, that there cannot be winners without losers.

That's one of the starting premises of the I re >< >k. If you have a contest with a winner, you have to have a loser.

I begin the book with a story of a baseball broadcast.

Phil Rizzuto and Bobby Mercer were announcing a Yankees-Brewers night game. Rizzuto went over the record book and noticed that the Yankees won only about 40 percent of their night games—they were doing much better during the day. Then Mercer found that the Brewers also had a low percentage of night wins. Rizzuto said, "Holy cow, all teams really have a hard time playing at night!" The two men had an animated discussion about how hard it is to see under the lights, and how difficult it is to hit sliders at night—that sort of thing. What they missed was that if you look at the records for till teams in games played at night, it has to be .500. For every team that wins a night game, some other team loses. That same principle has to be satisfied in the economy. There are 50 percent in the top half of the income distribution, so there must be 50 percent in the bottom half.

Sportscasters notwithstanding, that seems obvious in baseball. How does that apply to econoinics and status?

Think about a parent's desire to provide the best education possible for her children. In our society, the thing to do is buy a house in the best possible scht x >1 district Continued

next

page

People are attracted to big prizes even when the chance of winning isn't very big. That same logic keeps kids more focused o n sports than homework.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Economics, Frankly Speaking

19

a

Economists think they can explain the world by reference to greed. When economists insist that self-interests are the only ones that matter, they make a mistake."

you can afford. To scrape together extra cash to do that, there are a variety of things you might consider. One of them is to take a dangerous job because it pays better.

For that reason, government limits the exposure to risk that people are allowed to take in the work place窶馬ot because companies might take advantage of their employees, but because there's a race for economic position that will push them into taking too many risks if we don't regulate. Sometimes we end up in situations we don't like because of the quest for status.

explain how people who pursued unselfish goals could compete successfully with people who were selfish.

It's not my claim that selfish interests don't matter. Of course they do, a great deal. Economists pride themselves on being so tough-minded that they can explain the world only by reference to greed. When ec< momists insist that pure self-interests are the only ones that matter, they make a mistake. Consider a person who has got a quart jar of pesticide to dispose of. The law says that you have to drive to the toxic-waste disposal center located in the next county in order to dispose of it properly. That person, without any risk of detection and punishment, could take the jar and pour it down the drain. Nothing would happen to her. No way she would be penalized.

Yet many people will not do that. It would be the wrong thing to do, and they're concerned about living up to their obligations as citizens. They'll get in the car and at considerable time and expense will drive to the next county and dispose of it properly. You can't explain that kind of action with the narrow self-interest model.

In Pond, you wrote that poverty is relative; that poor Americans would still be the envy of the middle-class in most Third World nations. If you can't have rich without poor, if you cannot eliminate poverty, w h y bother with social programs?

You can push the idea that poverty is a relative thing too far. If you had your choice of being in the bottom 1 percent of income distribution in a very rich country or in a very poor country, you'd have no difficulty in making up your mind which to choose. It's better to have more income than less, even if you are relatively poor in both cases. There's a lot to be said for raising the standard of living for everyone, even though some people will always be worse off than others. It's true some people in a relative sense will always be poor, but we can do better than we do now by making sure that being poor isn't as miserable a state of affairs as it is at the moment. Also the degree of quality matters. If some have far more than others, there's more tension and social unrest than if the dispersion of income isn't so great.

What happens w h e n self-interest is at odds with the greater good? For example: Many people are disenchanted with the way the political system is handling economic problems. Yet fewer people are voting, and those w h o do, keep returning incumbents to office.

There's a deep inconsistency in voter attitudes. They want the deficit cut, but they are unwilling to accept higher taxes or reduced benefits, when the benefits are their own. In the last analysis, it's a failure of leadership.

Hie premise of Passions Within Reason is that people have motivations other than pure self-interest. How does that square with the drive for status you articulate in Choosing the Right Pond?

The starting point for most economists is to assume that people are selfish. It's certainly true that people have a strong self-interest motivation. After all, it's very hard to make your way through the world if you don't have some concern for your well-being.

But I believe that how you think about self interest is important. In Pond, I argue that one of people's selfish concerns is to rank high relative to those they compete with. They are not so much concerned for their absolute level of achievement, but their relative level of achievement. And I don't think that is in any way inconsistent with the self-interest motive that most economics stresses.

In Passions, I explore selfish motives less narrowly to

In the 1984 presidential election, Walter Mondale called for higher taxes, and look what happened to him. Bruce Babbit said essentially the same thing four years ago.

So did Paul Tsongas in this most recent primary season. He said, "I'm going to tell you the hard truth," and a lot of people responded warmly to that, but then voters in the South and Midwest began to turn on him for fear their own benefits would be cut.

If we had a strong leader who would say that we all have to pay slightly higher taxes and accept slightly lower benefits in order to get the budget balanced, people would ultimately respond. We just haven't had anyone with the force of vision and leadership capabilities to deliver that message. People are selfish up to a point, but with good leadership they will respond to calls to heed the public interest. 窶｢

20

GEORGIA TECH 窶｢ Summer 1992

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22

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1992

One for the Road Tech engineers will give the old advertising slogan suggesting you "leave the driving to us" new meaning w h e n their Intelligent vehicle Highway Systems (TVHS) concept becomes reality.

By Lea McLees

I

t's Monday evening in Atlanta, where a financial analyst has just arrived by plane for an important Tuesday meeting with a client. Having worked all day and taken a late flight, she is tired and hungry—Chinese food sounds tempting. At a brightly lit airport kiosk, she punches the FOOD button on a computer keyboard and types C-H-I-N-E-S-E. A computer screen immediately lists hours, prices, addresses and reviews of the nearest Chinese restaurants, audibly offering to supply directions and transportation information on additional screens.

Tuesday morning she hops into her rental car and types her downtown destination on a computer keyboard located to the right of the steering wheel. A color screen displays the best route, showing how to avoid the latest accidents, stalled cars and sluggish thoroughfares. A voice from the device issues commands— "Turn right here, please,"—as she drives, getting her to the meeting with 15 minutes to spare.

Continued next page

Los Angeles, using technology to enhance the surface-street infrastructure itself, uses a $7 rnillion computerized traffic control and monitoring system that is widely regarded as a model of its kind.

GEORGIA TECH • Beating the Traffic

23

D

evices such as the airport kiosk and the dashboard computer are part of the Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS) concept.

The technology furnishes travelers and transportation managers with more and better travel information, says Michael Meyer, director of Georgia Tech's Transportation Research and Education Center. In addition, monitoring and control technologies will allow metropolitan-level responses to disruptions in traffic flow.

"The coming-of-age of transportation technologies will soon make the commute for the average person a truly high-tech experience," predicts Meyer, also a professor in the School of Civil Engineering.

T

he need for research into better transportation systems becomes obvious during rush hour in metro areas all over the United States.

Americans own about 135 million cars. During top travel periods, 66 percent of these vehicles are traveling less than 35 miles per hour.

The solution is not more roads, says Lowell Evjen of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

"We cannot just keep adding lanes to our freeway system," Evjen says.

"We've got to make the lanes we have more efficient."

Intelligent-vehicle highway systems technology is joining the ranks of the most important research areas of the 1990s, says Don Wilmot, director of program development for GTRI. "There is a high level of skill portability—the technologies already exist," Wilmot says. "Transportation is an expanding marketplace, and new money is coming on the table." A $151 billion transportation bill was passed by Congress in late 1991, establishing highway and transportation programs over a six-year period. Much of the money would be supplied by taxes on motor-vehicle fuels.

The funding will meet a longstanding need, Meyer says.

"A large percentage of that money is going for transportation research and transportation planning at a level we never had the resources to do before," says Meyer.

The bill includes money for Georgia to develop transportation improvements related to the Olympics,

Vehicular Homicide, 2021?

3,784,000 cars in 1950 138,000,000 cars in 1987" 182,000,000 cars in 2020 (est.)

Numbers do not include trucks. I mses and farm vehicles.

—Zero Population Growth

as well as intelligent-vehicle projects, Meyer says.

"All sorts of people tire putting together possible IVHS demonstration projects," he states.

T

ransportation research is catch ing the interest of many Georgia Tech faculty and research staff members. At least 80 Georgia Tech faculty and research staff from varied disciplines have become associated with the Transportation Research and Education Center, formed in April 1991 nd already one of the largest such centers in the country.

Among the most promising applications for Atlanta is a traffic management system—a central control center that would monitor conditions of all transportation options in the city. The center would dispatch the information to motorists to help them plan their routes. Atlanta would be ideal for such a demonstration, Meyer says, because it is the center Continued on page 26

Designing Highways

L

annted by the high costs of new-highway construction, a number of U.S. municipalities are testing new technology to find a short cut to their traffic congestion problems.

In < )rlando, Fla., the TravTek project has equipped 100 vehicles with computers that keep drivers apprised ol traffic conditions, and display the most efficient route to a given destination on a digital map.

The maps also include information on services and tourist sites. Information is relayed to the vehicles via a dedicated radio frequency from a computerized traffic information center, road sensors, and video cameras stationed at key intersections.

Similar experiments are underway in Chicago, Michigan and along a l'i-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Ireeway in California.

T

he California Department of Transportation has

taken a different approach in l.os Angeles, using technology to enhance the surface-street infrastructure itself. The result is a $7 million computerized traffic control and monitoring system that was installed in 198 i, and has been upgraded many times since.

Sensors buried in the road relay information about traffic speed and volume to a central control room, whcie computers operate the traffic-light cycles based on ac tual traffic flow, minute by minute. Inside the control loom, located five stories below City Hall, elect ionic maps of downtown Los Angeles rise above phalanxes of computers and control panels. The colorful, detailed maps provide an instant look at the current traffic picture. Direction arrows change color as the signals change—orange means the signal isn't working. Octagons scattered around intersections correspond to ,^~"\ the locations of sen_ .—1^^^-

sors, and are also color-coded—blue for tinder 200 vehicles per hour, green for 200-500, purple for 500800 and red for more than 800.

The information enables engineers to monitor trouble spots and override the computer's control if necessary to expedite logjams. That capability is especially useful for special or unusual traffic patterns, such as thjose after a football game.

The system proved its worth on the final day of the 1988 Olympics, when at 1:30 p.m. controllers noticed that traffic was stopped on all four lanes of the Harbor Freeway southbound to the Coliseum. The Highway Patrol was dispatched to the scene, and reported that a helicopter had crashed onto the roadway, while officials worried that the closing ceremony might be delayed, traffic engineers altered the synchronization of Street signals in the area to accommodate automobiles re-directed from the freeway.

By 3:48 p.m., the Harbor Freeway was back in operation—in plenty of time for the 5 o'clock Olympic finale.

—Gary Goettling

of so many types of transportation— planes, buses, subway trains and cars.

The kiosk system would also work well in Atlanta. It could rely on multimedia devices much like those developed as part of the city's bid for the 1996 Olympics, and provide information on lodging, entertainment and other topics, in addition to transportation, Meyer says.

The kiosk and dashboard computers may sound futuristic, but Georgia Tech already has the technology, Evjen says. Georgia Tech researchers exploring intelligent-vehicle systems could set up a two-way communications link between commercial vehicles and their organization's central command, he says.

"We've done that for the military for years," he adds. "We have all that technology right here. We've just never applied it to this field." n setting up a traffic-management system, GTRI's Communications Laboratory could move information collected by sensors at roads, traffic lights, toll bridges and other sites to a central processing center and send it to motorists, says lab director Eric Barnhart.

"The key area will be wireless communication, using radio signals," Barnhart says. "But the spectrum is already crowded. Consequently, methods to transmit information for rVHS might involve overlaying with

I

Technology Takes its Toll

T

ake one ol Georgia's busiest roads—Highway 100 -and extend it Into one of Atlanta's most congested areas—Buckhead.

Add a few traffic-stopping toll booths, ami you've got the potential lor gridlock of Guinness-Book proportions.

But Department of Transportation engineers believe they can avert disaster through the use of innovative technology that will allow commuters to pay the 50cent toll while scooting past the

collection booth at .55 miles per hour.

When Georgia's first toll road opens next summer, frequent users will be able to rent a transponder that mounts unobtrusively on the front bumper of the vehicle.

When the automobile passes through the collection area, a radio beam activates the transponder, which relays vehicle identification information back to the transmitter's computer. The computer then automatically deducts 50 rents from the automobile's pre-paid account. Engineers are currently working on a warning system thai alerts drivers when their accounts fall below a certain level.

The two left-hand lanes of the toll plaza will be reserved for transponder-equipped vehicles, and cash payment lanes will be on the right.

Similar toll-collection devices arc used In Colorado, Texas and California.

—GeuyGociiltng

digital mobile cellular or personal communication networks. We might transmit a nnpressed data or even imageiy i >n a cellular network, or something similar."

Other possibilities include allowing IVHS communication through small microcellular phones people could cany with them or have attached to their cars, interfacing them to computers in the vehicles.

During the last 10 years, the communications lab has established a strong background in developing spread spectrum—the use of larger bandwidths to reduce interference;— and adaptive wireless communication, primarily for Department of Defense initiatives.

"The basic skills and disciplines involved in communications engineering are easily portable from defense to the IVHS area," he says.

G

TRFs Computer Science and Information Technology lab could design s< >l tware that would analyze the sensor inputs collected by Barnhart's lab. The software would list and rank travel and traffic management options, says lab director Randolph Case.

"That is a capability we can definitely weave into IVHS work," he says. "It builds on software we have previously developed for optimizing traffic monitoring and management."

Case's lab is also looking at artificial-intelligence planning tools that might anticipate when problems could occur—during certain weather

conditions or peak travel times, for example;—and automatically recom-mend ways to handle them. \ Several transportation research projects are in the bidding stages right now and more are planned, Meyer says, many of them TVHS-related. GTRI also has been invited to participate in a national demonstration program developing new traffic management systems. The five-year Federal Highway Administration program would involve traffic signal controls that change with developing travel conditions in real time. The coalition representing Atlanta will include the Atlanta Regional Commission and metro county and city representatives.

"If we are successful, the work we would do would involve five or six different labs and also the schools of civil engineering, city planning and architecture," Evjen says. "The rest of the team would include the Georgia Department of Transportation and local governments."

Georgia Tech scientists are also interested in applying electro-optic sensor technology to the problem of fog hazards on roads. Senior Research Scientists Ed Patterson and colleagues

in GTRI's Electro-Optics Laboratory would like to feed data on fog conditions along highways from sensors to computers that would activate variable-message road signs, letting motorists know of dangers ahead.

Such an application might prevent multiple-vehicle accidents, such as recent fog-related pileups in Italy, one on 1-75 in Tennessee in 1990, and a serious California accident caused by a dust storm, Patterson says. n the meantime, Meyer expects no marked changes in the way humans get from place to place in the next 20 to 30 years. Wheeled vehicles will be the norm, but transportation research may change the way our vehicles work.

"The energy source, the control of those vehicles, and what happens inside them may be very different," Meyer says.

"The 21st-century technology for the movement of people and goods is here today. We need an institutional commitment and creativity to see that such technology is introduced as quickly and efficiently as possible. Georgia Tech will be at the vanguard of such an effort." •

I

Lea McLees is a writer with the Research Communications office of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

\ /yysV;//S/SA^SAZ

MARGARET BARRETT P H O T O

Atlantan Lisa Volmar is among a growing n u m b e r of Americans w h o "telecommute" to workâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and love it.

Home Sweet Office Perhaps "workaholics" should beware of working at home, but for everyone else, the benefits of teleconunuting are hard to beat

By Jeanie Franco Hallem

E

ver since Lisa Volmar began working out of her Roswell condominium, she hasn't eaten a single meal in the dining room. That's where paperwork ends up, stacked in neat pilesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the overflow from the tidy, plant-filled sunroom office that she shares with her husband, Thomas Stephens.

Tools such as modems, fax machines and remote-access networks allow a small but growing number of employees like Volmar to "telecommute" to work by providing access to information any time, anywhereâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even across international datelines.

"Here I can customize my environment and spread things out," says the 1986 industrial engineering graduate. She can control her workday and space, keeping interruptions to a minimum and also leaving time for her new husband.

As product and business development manager for Hayes Microcomputer Products, Volmar needs large

chunks of uninterrupted time to concentrate on projects. That's not possible in a traditional office, typically a cubicle with little privacy where most of the day is spent putting out fires.

"At home I can turn on the answering machine and turn the ringer off or forward all calls to my voice mail," she notes.

Although Volmar spends a lot of time working from her workstation at home, she still goes into her Norcross office about once a day.

A lthough telecommuting contributes to workaholism, it eliminates driving, which reduces expenses and one's mental wear and tear. Even more important are the benefits to the environment: An Arizona study found that 134 telecommuters drove 97,000 fewer miles, reduced travel expenses by $10,000, saved the environment from 1.9 tons of pollutants, and reduced stressful driving by 3,700 hours.

"Employers ask: How do I know the employee is working when he's

JZJL

Continued next page

ARY MEEK P H O T O

at home?" says telecommuting consultant Michael Dziak. The solution is simple: "You have an agreement with the telecommuter to have something deliverable like a report. Going into the office is not something you need to do every Tuesday: you do it when necessary."

"Employees give more when they feel they're trusted," says Dziak, who estimates that telecommuting can increase an individual's productivity up to 60 percent.

The plus to the employee is obvious: flexibility. You can work when you want, especially at peak hours.

"You're empowering the employee to become part of the organization through decision-making," says Dziak.

O

bviously, not everyone can telecommute; supervisors need to be around their employees. And some people thrive on the daily interaction with co-workers. Dziak advises employers interested in a telecommuting program to select employees based on their performance and their ability to work independently.

Last year, 5.5 million Americans telecommuted. Unfortunately, only a fraction of them live in Georgia.

"Atlanta's a big black holeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;hardly anybody's doing it here," says Dziak, who hopes to introduce telecommuting programs at 90 companies by the end of 1993Hayes is already a client. Other "catalyst employers" include Georgia Power, BellSouth, the Environmental

Tech professor Alan Porter suggests the "data superliighways" of telecornrnunlcations can help revive economically depressed areas.

Protection Agency and Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

It behooves Atlantans to adopt such a program, say experts. The city's has spent $1 billion since 1980 in an effort to reduce contaminants in the atmosphere, yet pollution levels still violate EPA standards. If the city doesn't meet the criteria of the Clean Air Act amendments by 1996, Atlanta may lose federal funding.

According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, the average automobile releases one pound of ozone-causing pollutants for every 19 miles driven.

And 75 million vehicle-miles are rolled up on Atlanta roads every workday. Clearly, fundamental change in the way many people view their jobs may be the best answer, says Dziak. The good news: About 20 percent of commuting

Atlantans already have the ability to telecommute, he says. His goal is to get 200,000 cars off the road before the Summer Olympics come South.

"We want our city to be the city for the 21st century," says Dr. C.S. Kiang, Institute professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "I'm not pessimistic: I see change happening. You have to depend on an infrastructure of things like fiber optics. When they're in place, you can do it."

Kaing's interest in telecommuting stems from his investigation of ways to reduce automobile pollution. He directs the Southern Oxidant Study, launched in 1988 to improve air quality by identifying ozone formation mechanisms.

To make telecommuting acces-

sible to employees, technology must come home, says Kiang. Education will prompt such change, he adds, "when people learn that it's more economical to conserve energy than spend it. When you save, it becomes a win-win situation."

A

t Volmar's home office, she takes L a call from an attorney at Hayes' law firm. After hanging up, she smiles, "She had no idea where I was." That's the way Volmar likes it.

"People think that if you work at home, you're not really working, so I don't tell everyone I work here."

Volmar suggests establishing a buffer zone—a separate phone line, at-home answering machine, and voice mail at work—to keep personal and professional lives apart.

"You do steal time for little errands," she admits, "but you're not in rushhour traffic. That's when it becomes a career instead of a job." If she takes time off to measure diningroom table pads, she'll stay up nights to get her work done.

Volmar, who often communicates with Hayes' offices in Australia, Hong Kong and San Francisco, says that "telecommuting extends my job" by providing the flexibility to work with people in different time zones at their convenience. She can get answers to questions at night, and have them ready for the

Atlanta headquarters in the morning. solve the problem, Porter says.

Such speedy responses will be Many of the unemployed workers routine by the year 2000, predicts Dr. • are soldiers' spouses who already Alan Porter, a professor of industrial 1 enjoy free benefits; such cost savings and systems engineering and public would boost a company's bottom policy. As a member of the The line, he adds.

Georgia Research Alliance, Porter is a Another plus to companies: Teletechnology forecaster. He calls fibercommuters try harder. "They [Hayes] optic networks and modems "data get more out of me this way," says superhighways" and suggests bringVolmar. /., ing telecommunications to economiIt was quite an adjustment at first, cally depressed areas. she admits. "Before I began telecomFor instance, the Gulf War practimuting, I was good at compartmencally wiped out the economy of talizing my life. When I left the Hinesville, Ga. "When the 24th infan- office, it was like a purge valve. I try departed," says Porter, "Liberty walked into the house and the stress County's economy collapsed, and 35 went away quickly. Now I wake up businesses went bankrupt." and think about work more." • Using telecommuting to employ those out-of-work Georgians at com- Jeanie Franco Hallern is an Atlanta panies based in other states could free-lance writer.

House Rules

D

iscipline is a must for a telecommuter, says Lisa Volmar, who has telecommuter] two years as a product and business development manager for Hayes Microcomputer Products. She credits Iteing goaloriented as key to her success, and offers these tips: • Have clear objectives. Evaluate them later and ask for more time at home if you need it.

• Install a buffer lxitween you and others, such as voice mail or an answering machine.

• Don't advertise that you're working at rjome.

• Make sure your office has a door.

• Don't ask to telecommute until your manager knows you well.

• Don't feel guilty about working at home.

• Enjoy your freedom and flexibility.

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By Alice Murray Wright Photographed by Alan David hen its curtain time at Georgia Tech's new Theatre for the Arts, technology takes the stage.

Computer chips toil away, using the precision of electronic data transmission to make the lights dim o n cue and the sound reach into every corner of the theatre.

Outfitted with advanced sound and light boards, plus the latest in acoustical design features, the 1,200-seat theatre adapts to the specific requirements of varied performances.

Since opening in April, the facility has hosted such wide-ranging artists as internationally known pianist Andre Watts, violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the Atlanta Ballet.

"The theatre was built to be a multi-purpose, flexible

A super-sensitive audio system allows controllers to send a sound to 96 different locations in the theater. space," explains Rich Steele, acting director of the Student Center, which is adjacent to the theatre. To manage the theatre's versatile and demanding sound requirements, a total of 120 microphone jacks have been placed throughout the facility.

The theatre's sound is run from a top-of-the-line mixer, 40-channel sound board with an additional 24channel sub-mixing board. "The system will allow you to send a sound to any one of 96 different locations in the theatre," Steele explains.

The sound system also has a monitor mix-patch bay on stage, as well as the main audio mix location in the rear of the theatre's seating area. The theatre also has digital audio tape equipment that Steele says produces "incredible sound quality."

Acoustics in the theatre are managed by 64 adjustable ceiling panels, which are reflective on the bottom and absorptive on the top.

T

he computerized lighting system can handle 400 lighting cues per Lighting keeps pace with ballet show, each of which dancers Tony Parkes and Deborah will produce a different Bale (above). Phil Albert (right), look on the stage. Lighting designers with the Atlanta Ballet, views a ter- can store an entire show's lighting minal screen as a computer concues on a floppy disk, then run the trols the lighting instruments. De- show from the main control in the signers can store an entire show's theatre's rear/center projection booth. lighting cues o n a floppy disk.

The latest in pen-based computer lap-top systems is available for lighting designers, Steele says, explaining that designers will be able to decide on the lighting style and look of a show using the lap-top computer, and then enter the information into the main lighting system.

For film and audio/visual presentations, the theatre will be equipped Continued page 38 36

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1992

to

GEORGIA TECH • Technological Drama

37

The Tech theater's computer-controlled lighting douses Atlanta Ballet dancers with pinpoint accuracy. with a front/rear projection screen and two 16mm projectors with crossover capabilities.

A hydraulic orchestra lift accommodates 45 musicians. The theatre has a tunnel allowing musicians to access the orchestra pit without being viewed by the audience. The hydraulic system will raise the floor of the orchestra pit to stage level to provide an additional space on stage for more performance flexibility.

Accessibility was a prime coffsideration throughout the theatre's design and construction process, Steele says, adding that Tech has made a commitment to become a leader in providing accessibility for persons with disabilities. The theatre seating is on a single level with a center aisle and handicap seating available, as i well as accessibility in all doorways and restroom facilities.

38

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1992

The theatre's 52-foot-wide, 20foot-high Proscenium is backed by a 60-foot-high fly tower to handle theatrical backdrops. The stage area has a 47-line set under-hung rigging system, and the scenery shop has 18foot-tall, roll-up doors to the stage.

A loading dock was designed to assist touring productions, and there is a separate electrical panel just for road shows.

n

n addition to the main theatre, the building also will house the performance space for DramaTech, which moves into its new space during the summer. The student group will present its first production next Nov. 6-21 with the Southeast premiere of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins."

The DramaTech space has been

designed as a 200-seat black box theatre located directly behind the stage area of the main theatre. Steele says a specially designed, sound-baffling wall separates the two areas so that performances will be able tc > go on simultaneously in the two theatres.

DramaTech has its own entrance, box office area, storage space and public restrooms, although the two theatres will share backstage workshop space, dressing rooms and the traditional green room, where actors wait to go on stage.

But whether the performance is being presented on Drama'l'ech's stage or in the Theatre for the Arts, the facilities have been designed so that technology will always play a leading role. â&#x20AC;˘ Alice Murray Wright is a Decaturhased writer.

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Research Stereo Sonic

A

A tirr tiny four-room house

sits quietly among delicate dogwood trees, flanked on one side by an 8-1 n-20-foot bank of stereo speakers.

The surrealistic scene isn't a backdrop for a college frat parly, but a Georgia Tech Research Institute study to measure the effects of sonic booms on humans and buildings.

The 12-month study addresses an issue important to development of supersonic high-speed civil transport vehicles, says Dr. Krishan Ahuja, head of GTRI's acoustics branch and a pit lessor of aerospace engineering.

Currently, there is no way to assess human responses to sonic booms heard indoors, Ahuja says.

"There is some indication that people find sonic booms relatively more objectionable when they are indoors, because of the associated vibrations of objects and buildings."

In this study, the effects

of sonic booms of various shapes emitted outside a house will be determined on human subjects seated both outside and inside the structure.

Smart Sewing

R

esearchers at Tech are developing electronic "ears" to help automated sewing machines supervise their own work.

The sensing devices would allow sewing machines to detect problems before they cause defects in manufactured apparel.

The goal is to improve the quality and lower the cost of clothing by eliminating defects and reducing the amount of labor that goes into each item.

Tech scientists have already demonstrated the feasibility of a device that monitors the wear of sewing machine needles by listening to the sound made by the needles each time they pass through

In research to improve garment manufacturing, GTRI's Bernard Gunn studies acoustical energy pattterns that detect sewing-machine needles wear.

fabric. When the sound intensity reaches a pre-set level, the device would summon a human operator to replace the needle before it damages garments.

Other research goals include detecting misaligned fabric pieces, broken thread, improperly-set thread tension, and even chipped or broken needles.

Space-Aging Materials

E

lectro-optic components exposed to the rigors of space for nearly six years aboard NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) show some unexpected changes that could affect future spacecraft design, according to Georgia Tech scientists.

"Organic materials like paints and polymer films, along with mirrors and filters made by depositing dielectric films, are degraded in space," says Dr. Don Blue, principal research scientist with GTRI. "We were surprised because we really didn't anticipate anything of significance would happen to these components during the few months they were expected to be in orbit."

Certain filters are used to help satellites receive laser signals by screening out all but the color of light produced by the signalling laser. Researchers found that six years in space shifted the fre-

quency of light admitted by the filters, and reduced the amount of light transmitted.

These filters were made by cementing together plates within which a thin film stack had been deposited. Blue believes that age and space exposure affected the cement and the layers, and he suggests that space scientists should consider these color shifts and transmission losses in planning future missions.

"It's good to be aware of this potential loss of performance," he says.

"Just a few angstroms of frequency shift could be important. The shift is small, but significant and unexpected."

Holographic crystals, which have the potential to store large amounts of computer data, did not appear to be damaged, although the holograms originally stored on them have been degraded due to mission length.

"Study of bulk crystalline properties is important for understanding the space-worthiness of electro-optic crystals, which could be used in ultra-high-capacity space data storage and retrieval systems," says Dr. William R. Callen. a professor in the School of Electrical Engineering. "This is particularly significant in view of several planned commercial ventures using electrooptic crystals such as lithium niobate in holoConlitmett next GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Research

page 41

Continuedfrom previous page

The LDEF study produced graphic mass memories."

Some components carried on LDEF did not seem any the worse for wear.

Infrared detectors performed as well after their return from space as they did when first installed on the LDEF test tray back in 1978. A silicon-based infrared detector still performed as designed, despite a crater caused by the impact of space debris, Blue says.

And though scarred by the impact of micrometeorites, light-emitting diodes still worked well.

As expected, gas lasers

surprises

containing helium did not work because the helium leaked out. Even on the ground, Blue notes, gas lasers must be periodically refilled.

The researchers were surprised to find that six years in space appeared to improve the performance of black paints used for thermal control and lowreflectivity coatings. Preliminary study shows the ability of the paints to absorb far-infrared emissions seemed to improve, possibly due to the creation of new light-absorbing sites

Researchers study components retrieved from space. by the breakup of paint binders and pigments.

The filters, mirrors, diodes, lasers and other components were part of a tray assembled in 1978 by Tech researchers studying the effects of space on

electro-optic con 1 pc >nents.

The tray, carried aloft in 1984, was originally scheduled for a nine- to 12month visit, but the Challenger disaster ft >rced LDEF to wait nearly six years for its return to Earth.

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

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GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1992

Yellow Jackets get special savings at the Wyndham Midtown Atlanta. For just $59 on weekends and $77 weekdays* you can relive those college days.

Only blocks from campus, we offer luxuriously appointed guest rooms and superb service. Popular dining and entertainment. And the state-ofthe-art Midtown Athletic Club. Call now for reservations at (404) 873-4800 or 800 822-4200.

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Pacesetters Civilian Battle Plan ALAN S. WEINLR P H O T O

By William Smith ' hen the Penta' g< >n suddenly canceled the Navy's A-11 attack fighter a year ago. flcctromagnetic Sciences Inc. was stuck with millions of dollars worth of antenna-positioning devices that it had manufactured for the aircraft. "It was incredibly traumatic.' said [Georgia Tech alumnus] John E. Pippin, the c< impany's 64year-old chairman and chief executive. He had to lay off 100 employees, an eighth of his work force.

Yet Electromagentic Sciences, a manufacturer of wireless c< >mmunications and transmission equipment, managed to recover from the A-12 cancellation and posted record sales last year. And in the wake of a loss fc >r the year in 1990, the company recorded its highest profits since 1988.

How did a small company rooted in a declining military industry regain profitability so quickly?

The main reason is that Electromagnetic Sciences began preparing for a Defense Department cutback years ago by developing civilian products.

The ex impany adapted battlefield communications and missile-guidance technology to the warehouse, providing inventory-tracking systems for a variety of customers, including Ford,

Alumnus John Pippin targets conunercial products with battlefield technology.

Kellogg and Georgia-Pacific. Hand-held devices that transmit information to a central computer allow workers to update inventory figures without leaving their forklifts. "We recognized even in the heyday of the defense buildup that if we were going to be a long-temi viable company, we needed access to other markets," Pippin said.

With the end of the cold war, thousands of United States companies are now undergoing similar transformations. Many have taken only tentative steps, while others have hastily acquired civilian businesses to adapt them-

selves to changing markets. As military spending shrinks, so do the ranks of contractors: the Defense Department counted 29,233 contractors in 1990, down from 35,508 in 1985.

Electromagnetic Sciences' record demonstrates the advantages of patience and commitment. The company spent years pursuing an expensive, oftenfrustrating, in-house effort to cultivate civilian technology. But it also was lucky enough to have a product that was adaptable to non-military use.

In 1987, the company derived 23 percent of its $65 million in revenues from sales to the commer-

cial sector. Last year, the figure reached 60 percent and revenues had risen to $75 million. Five years from now, Pippin said, he expects 80 percent of revenues to come from commercial orders.

LXE, the company's commercial products unit, was started about 1982 in an out-of-the-way corner of Electromagnetic Sciences' laboratories in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, and these humble origins amounted to a big advantage in the long run.

"If you develop something internally, you ultimately end up knowing a lot more about the business than if you just Continued page 41

45

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer

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Pacesetters Continuedfrom page 45

The difference is that we're selling products, not technology bought something that was already in place," Pippin said. "If your background is military" and you suddenly buy a commercial operation, you may not be comfortable."

A military contractor .Cm. that wants to sell commercial products must have much more savvy in marketing and sales. Many of Electromagnetic Sciences' products were classified and the company had to be secretive. To manage LXE, Pippin recruited several executives with commercial-sales experience, including Malcolm Bibby, who came from a Ciba-Geigy subsidiary that makes contact lenses.

"The main difference with LXE is that we're selling products, as opposed to technology," Pippin said.

LXE chose to develop inventory-tracking systems because executives saw they could apply the same basic technology that went into the parent company's military communications and missile-guidance systems. With the LXE system, warehouse workers punch keys or scan bar codes to enter information into terminals that are roughly akin to hand-held palmtop computers. The terminals constantly communicate with central computers by means of radio waves.

At $50,000 to $100,000 to equip a 50,000-square-

foot warehouse, LXE is more expensive than other systems. But it is among the most advanced because it receives and transmits information instantaneously.

Customers say the system gives warehouse workers the advantage of computer power wherever they go. Mick Havala, manager of parts operations at a 3-1 millionsquare-foot Ford Motor Co. warehouse in Brownstown, Mich., said the system helps him manage a facility the size of 55 football fields—the largest building under one roof in North America, he said.

The LXE system, which was installed in 1985, cut labor costs by 15 percent, he said. "The older system was labor-intensive," he explained, because it entailed several steps.

Phil Warren, manager of manufacturing systems for the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. in Omaha, said LXE's equipment lets him keep in constant touch with his staff throughout an 80,000square-foot warehouse holding wire, cable and connectors.

"It allows somebody on a fork truck to scan something coming from a supplier, and the inventory is updated instantly," he said.

"They don't have to walk over to a tenninal, key it in and wait for a response."

The technology behind Pippin's system has come

a long way since he founded Electromagnetic Sciences in 1968. Armed with engineering degrees from Georgia Tech [electrical engineering, 1951; MS in electrical engineering, 1953] and a physics degree from Harvard, he had been vice president of research at Scientific Atlanta, a maker of communications and cable television equipment.

In the mid-1970s, Electromagnetic Sciences sold a crude version of LXE's tracking system to the Washington, D.C., police department. It enabled officers to signal headquarters and report crimes without using the overworked voice radio system. But the units tended to drain batteries and were too bulky for officers to carry on the beat. The contract was canceled after a few years.

E

fforts to market the system to emergency medical personnel and sales people were disappointing. But that did not stop Electromagnetic Sciences from developing the LXE paperless inventory tracking system in partnership with Milliken Inc., the textile maker, using the company's giant warehouses in Spartanburg, S.C., as laboratories.

Such efforts seemed to have little urgency in the 1980s, as the company's military subcontracting for TRW, Hughes Aircraft and

General Electric led to record profits of $7.5 million on revenues of $62.6 million in 1988.

But with the decline of the Communist threat and the subsequent cutbacks in military spending, the company barely broke even in 1989- "All of a sudden, the orders just stopped going through," Pippin said. In 1990, the company lost money for the first time since 1976.

But as LXE prospered, the results improved and the company earned $6.4 million on $75.3 million in sales in 1991The military's demand for the company's sophisticated electronics will probably continue. The company's successes included the antenna control network for military communications satellites that proved critical in Operation Desert Storm.

But Pippin says his company must defend itself against Congress's penchant for killing contracts abruptly.

"It's nearly impossible to research and develop something properly when you're working with a moving target," he said.

"We had no choice but to find a more steady line of work." • William Smith is a freelance writer in Atlanta.

Copyright © 1992 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.

GEORGIA TECH • Pacesetters: Pippin

47

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Technology Park/Atlanta is home to: Advanced Micro Devices Computer Aided Communications, Inc. Electromagnetic Sciences General Electric Medical Systems Glasrock Intel Corporation Interactive Planning Systems Iterated Systems LXE Corporation NCR ISI Systems Scientific Atlanta Software Alternatives, Inc. Spalding Software UNISYS Corporation Universal Microsystems, Inc. Wegener Communications

Technology for the Future

By John Dunn

D

r. Vernon CrawI ford, former chancellor of the University System of Georgia, calls C. S. Kiang, founder of Tech's Office of Environmental Sciences, Technology and Policy, his "No. 1" son. Crawford tells a tale that amuses the Shanghai-born Kiang.

"He was making a joke at a banquet and he said I was his adopted son. He and his wife, Helen, have two daughters; they don't

have a son. He said I am his No. 1 son." Mrs. Crawford is the daughter of Canadian missionaries and grew up in Korea. "Because his wife came from the Orient and his home has an oriental decor, he said he needed a live decoration—so he got me!

"That's his story," Kiang laughs.

"The real story is that in 1962 when I came to Tech, he was the associate direct o r of the School of Physics. In 1964,1 had tuberculosis. They put me in the

The Kiang File Born—Shanghai. China Education—B.A., physics, National Taiwan University; MS and PhD, physics, Georgia Tech.

Family—wife, Marilyn; two daughters, Mia and Lira.

Quote—I want my students to set' the relationship be tween Science, engineering, management and the envi ronment They can build on that the rest of their lives.

The challenge for them is much greater than it was for US because we are the ones charging on the credit card—using up the resources. They are the ones who are going to have to pay it back. They must feel a responsibility, a motivation, a goal—besides making money. They must have a mission more than incli vicinal benefit; it must benefit the community at large.

It is important that we think not only about knowl edge, but equity and ethics.

Professional Interests—Atmospheric chemistry, numerical modeling, environmental science, publicpolicy, international program development, phase Iran sitlon of global changes and interdisciplinary research.

Leisure Activities and Interests—Contempt >raiy Asian art, classical music.

Persons most admired—Vernon and Helen Crawford, former President Jimmy Carter, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

50

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1992

infirmary and then immediately put me in the state hospital. I was released 50 days later and I stayed at their home for a year. They literally saved my life." n 1978, when Crawford was vice president for academic affairs, he asked Kiang to start an atmospheric research program at Georgia Tech. Kiang, who had earned his master's and doctorate in physics from Tech, was head of the Atmospheric Aerosol Project for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He resigned his post and returned to Tech.

An Institute professor, Kiang is also director of the Southern Oxidants Study (SOS), atmospheric research focused on the South involving universities, government laboratories, state regulatory agencies and industry, which examines the causes and effects of photochemical oxidants. The researchers will develop pollutionmanagement strategies based on their findings.

"This is a strategic alliance," says the 52-year-old Kiang.

A five-year research and monitoring program, SOS grew out of a multidisciplinary workshop held at Tech in 1988. The 60 participants included national experts representing universities, industry and fed-

I

eral and state governmental agencies.

"We understand the physical weather pretty well, but we don't know the nature of the chemical or bio-chemical weather. If we know more, we can design better and eliminate pollutants."

Kiang hopes SOS will become a case study for the nation. For its summer research program. Kiang says, it is recruiting some of the nation's best scientists to study environmental problems across the South, including formation of ground-level ozone.

"This is very exciting," he adds. "We hope we can shed light on the (lean Air Act, not only in the South, but for national policy."

"Our technology can take care of the environment," Kiang says.

"Environment;! 1 technology is the technology of the future," he adds boldly, but frets that the U.S. may be outmaneuvered by international competitors before realizing its potential.

"Germany and Japan already have begun serious development of environmental technology," Kiang states, explaining that "environmental technology means maximum use of resources and minimum production of waste."

Instead of recoiling from the necessity of environmental regulations, Kiang says the United States

GARY MEEK P H O T O

losophy before pursuing degrees in physics, refers to himself as a "human scientist." He chose physics because it is the "father of sciences" and he hoped it would give him insight into "Western" thought and civilization.

"A human is part of nature and must be in harmony with nature," he explains. "It is very important C.S. Kiang: Blending science and humanity to create a more humane technology. for human-oriented people to go into science and to make it more human. I and its industry should be the U.S. has a clear trade prong strategy to achieve hope we can have better pro-active. "It is an opporadvantage." The U.S. share that goal: engineering and science. It tunity. If I have to spend of the export market is • Scientific discovery— the capital investment, I projected to increase from to determine the cause and should become more global and include the human am going t< > develop envi- $3 billion in 1990 to $6 bil- effect of environmental factor—the environment ronmental technology. I lion in 2000. contaminants. and society. If you can uncan sell that; I can market "Economic develop• Innovative technolthat. ment does not necessarily ogy—to solve environmen- derstand the technological impact as a whole, then mean anti-environment, tal problems identified by "If the I Inited States and environmental causes scientific discovery, com- • you'll be a great designer does not position itself, it are not necessarily antibined with advanced energy and a great engineer. will again 1< >se to internaeconomic development," and manufacturing technoltional competition," he "Scientists don't always ogy to conserve energy warns. "People want prod- Kiang observes. think about the social imucts that protect the envi"We have to think about reserves and resources. pact," Kiang adds. "If we ronment. " the environment, educadon't think about the envi• Economic develoption, economics, equity ronmental impact, it's alment—promoted internaand ethics." Kiang states. most like a Dr. Frankenreport, "Strategic Plantionally to take advantage "It's been called the five stein—creating a monster L ning for the Environof markets created by inE's. At Georgia Tech we've novative environmental you don't know how to ment," which Kiang preadded two more: energy pared with members of technology. Kiang foresees deal with. In designing for and engineering. the future, we have to go Tech's five colleges, the a global network of envicenters ft >r excellence and ronmental technology parks along with nature. That's a "Tech can become a Georgia Tech Research Inserving as catalysts for eco- new challenge for us. world leader in the new stitute, states: "The world nomic development. industrial revolution into "We've had the agriculmarket for pollution-conthe 21st century," Kiang The Electricity de ture revolution, the industrol products is estimated says. The vision given in France in Paris, which is trial revolution, and with at $228 billion for 1990 the Strategic Plan is "to be- establishing an environthe new awareness of our and $370 billion for [the come the premier technolmental technology park 30 environment, we're going year] 2000. . . . The world ogy university in the miles west of the capital through global re-industrimarket for environmental world, to design tomorcity, has contracted with alization. The Earth is a technologies is enormous row's sustainable environTech to be the exclusive dynamic system and we and growing. It is also one mentToday."

U.S. university co-partner. have to understand the of the few areas in which Kiang supports a threeKiang, who studied phi- whole process." •

A

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Kiang

51

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