Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 72, No. 01 1995

A NEW PRESIDE FOR TECH The Final Fron A Global View of Business Susan Bonds Meets Indy Jone Journey to the Earths Core

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ALUMNIKJUAGA2IN E

Volume 72 Number 1 SUMMER 1995

f The Final Frontier Georgia Teeli alumnus J. Wayne Littles leads fVASA's next step into spaee.

Written by Hoyt Coffee A Time for Celebration In three days of celebration, festivities and fun, alumnus Wayne Clongh is inaugurated the 1 oth president of Georgia Tech, Wriiit'it byjohn Dunn Photography by Gary Meek and Stanley Leary

Business with a Global View Professor John Melntyre has helped lead Tech's international business center to designation as a highly respected National Resource Center.

Written by Mark Clothier

Page 3d

Susan Bonds' Adventure A Tech grad engineers the1 Indiana Jones™ saga into Disneyland's wildest ride.

ii ritten byjohn Dunn

Departments

7

Technotes Buzz buggy; Kingin' in $1 million; Memorial honors Vietnam vets; Taking top honors; Pi Mile winners; Truly in Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame; Dean White appointed to Science Board

47

Pacesetters Gordon Dickens: A Thriving I lobby Wayne Knox: Managing the Consequences John C. Bacon: Remote Computing Andrew Lewis: Apple Picks Daystar

59

Research (letting to the Core of the Matter

62

Profile James 1). Meindl: Forecasting the Future of Microelectronics

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GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

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

Cover Photo: Send correspondence anil changes of'address to: Hot dog!Lynn Boyd GEORGIA TK it ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Alumni Faculty chows down on a House, lis North Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA Varsity chili dog during 30332-0175 • Editorial: (404)853-0760/0761 fcsiii Hies celebrating the Advertising: ( 104) 894-9270 • Fax: (404) 894-5113 • e-mail: editor("?ahimni.gatcch.edu Inauguration ofPresident (.1. Wayne (Hough.

0 1995 Georgia 'Tech Alumni Association • BSN: 1061 97 17

GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

loiipn

GmmM ALUMNI ^ M

AG A Z I NE

John C. Dunn Hoyt Coffee Gary Meek, Stanley Leary Everett Hullum Robb Stanek

editor associate editor photography design advertising

Akmmi Association Boaixi of Trustees Officers H. Milton Stewart, IE '61, President Frank H. Maier Jr., IM '60, Past President Hubert L. Harris Jr., IM '65, President Elect/Treasurer Francis N. Spears, CE 73, MS CE '80, V'ice President/ Activities Jay M. McDonald, IM '68, Vice President/Communications N. Allen Robertson, IE '69, Vice President/Roll Call

Trustees Charles W. Bass, IE 70 Charles G. Betty, ChE 79 G. Niles Bolton, Arch '69 Daniel H. Bradley, IM '61 Lucius G. Branch, GMgt 71 H. Preston Crum, Arch '67 Albert W. Culbrethjr., IM'68 W. Elliott Dunwoody III, Arch '52 Dwight H. Evans, CE 70, MS SanE 73 Phil Gee, IE '81 Sherman J. Glass Jr., ChE 71, MS ChE 72 Marion B. Glover, IM '65 Robert L. Hall, IM '64 L. Andrew Hearn Jr., EE '57 Gabriel C. Hill III, Text '57 Douglas R. Hooker, ME 78, MS TASP '85 Calvin D. Johnson, MSci 73 Douglas W. Johnson, IM '65 Sharon Just, CE '89 John E. Lagana, IE '68

Robert H. Ledbetter Sr., IM'58 David M. McKenney, Phys '60, IE '64 Gary S. May, EE '85 Francis B. Mewborn II, Cls '56 Jean A. Mori, ME '58 Thomas J. Pierce Jr., ChE '61 Linda A. Podger-Williams, CE'81 Warren D. Shiver, ME '64, MS ME '66 W. Pierre Sovey, IE '55 Emily H. Tilden, IE 78, MS IE 79 Rene L. Turner, IE '83 Charles L. Wallace, IM '64 Warren O. Wheeler, EE '63 Janice N. Wittschiebe, Arch 78 Vincent T. Zarzaca, IE '55, MS IM '66 Stephen P. Zelnack Jr. IM '69

GeormM Home of the 1996 Olympic Village 4

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

Turf Talk Editor: I enjoyed the recent issue [Spring 19951 of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. I was surprised, and pleased, to read that Grant Field is being returned to a grass playing field!

What prompted the decision to tear up the artificial turf? What is the cost?

Are any new technologies being used in the new field? Is this a prelude to completing the horseshoe at the end of the field? I'll bet I'm not alone in wanting to know more about this change.

Joseph A. Perignat Father of Kenneth Perignat, civil engineering student Doylestown, Pa. Editor's Note: You're absolutely right!

In the years since Astroturf became popular as a low-maintenance playing-field surface, it has become quite unpopular with athletes who suffered "turf burns" and other injuries.

Replacing the turf with grass at Tech, a $1.5 million project, was grueling work. Here's how the process was explained by Mike Hess, Georgia Tech's head groundskeeper and the green thumb behind all the ball fields on campus.

When McGovern Construction Co. went to remove the old Astroturf, they had to tear out a layer of rubber padding, three to

four inches of asphalt and a layer of gravel. Then they dug the field down to 15 inches below the old level before they started to install the new grass.

Using the same type of earth-moving equipment you see in major road construction, workers graded the surface smooth, then dug one-foot by one-foot trenches for drainage. The trenches and the space between them were lined with fabric, and drain pipes were installed in gravel beds.

All of that was covered with a three-inch layer of washed stone, followed by a "root-zone" mix of peat and sand, which was checked out by Test Diagnostics to ensure the proper infiltration and percolation rates. The surface was compacted and graded smooth with a laser-guided system. The grading equipment had a laser-detecting eye on its blade and a computer that adjusted the height of the blade, so all the tractor operator had to do was steer while the computer spread a perfect surface with a 12-inch crown in the middle for rain runoff.

A Rainbird sprinkler system, capable of spraying 400 gallons of water each minute on the field, was installed for watering the roughly 71,000 square feet of 419 Bermuda grass sod. After a 45-day growing-in period, the newly green field will be turned over to Georgia Tech

Letters building in Atlanta. getting course credit, getI produced the plan, ting paid for the work and sold stock, obtained writing my' first technical financing and got construc- paper. AlJ from the same tion under way. At the research project. same time, I received class Thomas F. McGowan, credit (an "A"), the project MS IM '85 received an Atlanta Urban Atlanta Design Commission award and I (and the rest of the THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE shareholders) made welcomes letters from all money. alumni, faculty and friends of Georgia Tech.

Clearly, I had not the Address correspondence time to take a regular class to: and do the real estate Editor project. Yet by doing both Georgia Tech Alumni simultaneously, it was Publications Alumni/Faculty House Head football coach George O'Leary gets some tips on the care of possible.

Atlanta, GA the new field from Owen Schultz of McGovern Construction.

I accomplished much 10332-0175 the same thing 20 years Fax (404) 894-511.1 for safekeeping.

Chief of Security earlier, performing my e mail: editoriSiahtmni.

The horseshoe of flower Review master's thesis work for an f>a tech.edit planters at the south end industrial research firm, Office of the Chief of of the field was removed, Public Affairs and an area of Astroturf Headquarters, Departput in place, to give athment of the Army letes training at the >{1^^M^kmSSi Washington, D.C. Wardlaw Building a place to stretch their legs without getting on the new grass.

LODGING. Some kind of planters will Editor: TRAVEL, likely be installed to reGene Griessman's article HOME COOKING place the old horseshoe, Time Tactics [Spring 1995 WITH ONE RESERVATION!!! but they are still in the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGACURRENT YEAR / LOW MILEAGE LOADED WITH ROOF AIR. planning stage.

GENERATOR, COLOR TV, ROOF AWNING, MICROWAVE AND MORF ZINE] had excellent ideas. I have one to add to his list.

NEW & USED A great time saver is doing more than one thing at the SALES Editor: same time.

SERVICE I enjoyed Hoyt Coffee's While working on a PARTS & Internet feature [Spring master's in industrial ACCESSORIES 1995 Alumni Magazine]. I management at Georgia found the sidebar, "Wired Tech and simultaneously to the Wild West," particuworking full-time at the larly helpful. I have passed Georgia Tech Research Init on to several people in stitute, I took a self-study my organization as a concourse. The goal was to cise, easy-to-read descripproduce a business plan tion of Internet security for a real-estate venture.

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Tf iNntPK Buzz Buggy

G

eorgia Tech's entry in "The Great Moon Buggy Race" stunned the competition at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in I luntsville, Ala., in April, taking first place in the annual event and cutting last year's winning time in half.

The team of six mechanical engineering students who designed, built and raced the human-powered buggy assembled the contraption and ran it through the paces over a 1.4 mile obstacle course in 10 minutes and 45 seconds

to outrun entries from seven other universities.

Pilots Robert Becker and Nadine Joseph powered the vehicle through the same cratered lunar landscape used to test the real moon rovers for the Apollo missions. The buggy, designed under the direction of mechanicalengineering instructor James Brazell last fall, was built of metal tubing and used the same kind of transmission and wheels found on mountain bikes.

It has a pivot joint in the middle to keep it upright

Ringin' Up a Million

T

he Ringin' Wrecks of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association present a $1 million check supporting the 48th Roll Call's $5.7 million goal to Jay M. McDonald, vice president for Roll Call. Under the direction of Phonathon

through the rugged terrain.

Entries in the race had to meet specific design criteria set by NASA. The moon buggies had to dismantle and fit in a fourcubic-foot space and be light enough to be carried by hand at least 20 feet.

The team—Becker, Joseph, Joel Sensenig, Ward

Sokoloski, Saul Rodriguez, Jerry Stamey and Craig Woolsey—will receive an expenses-paid trip to Kennedy Space Center to view a space shuttle launch for the win. They'll also get a credit toward their senior design project requirement.

The team from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, last year's winner, took second place in the competition, and the University of Puerto Rico team was third.

Coordinator Marian Sullivan, the Ringin' Wrecks, a group of about 40 students, surpassed the historic million mark in their fund-raising effort for the first time. Throughout the fiscal year, the students have called alumni and friends and asked them to contribute to the annual Roll Call, Tech's largest source of unrestricted funds.

GEORGIA TECH • TecbNotes

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Memorial Honors Vietnam Vets

Taking Top Honors

The Georgia Tech community joined Atlanta veterans and businessmen May 25 to dedicate a memorial in honor of Maj. Peter P. Pittman, an Air Force pilot who was killed in action over North Vietnam on May 12, 1967. Pittman, a I960 Georgia Tech graduate with a bachelor's degree in industrial management, was a recipient of the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart (below with a photograph of Pittman). The bag-pipers in the background played "Amazing Grace" during the ceremony on the Administra-

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GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

tion Building Quadrangle.

Standing behind the monument (right to left) are Pittman's widow, Libby; his son, Matt, who was an infant when Pittman was killed; and his daughter, Heather, who had not yet been born. The monument and plaque, sponsored by the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association, is dedicated to "all alumni who served their country in Vietnam and Southeast Asia."

'he Georgia Tech chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) took top honors at this year's national convention, being named National Chapter of the Year for the fourth time. Six Tech students were named NSBE Fellows, netting $1,500 each in scholarship support.

Electrical engineering student Ayodele Embry, immediate past-president of the Tech chapter and a Truman Scholar, was named the 1995 Distinguished Fellow. Biology student Monyette Childs, current president of the Tech chapter and a Truman Scholar as well, received the Fulfilling the Legacy Scholarship. Electrical engineering doctoral candidates Marquis Jones and Valerie Poindexter received Emerging Technologies awards.

Tech's Office of Minority Educational Development (OMED) received the Charles A. Tunstall Award for outstanding minority engineering program.

OMED partner S. Gordon Moore was named national chairman of NSBE. Tech students Jeffrey Robinson and Errika Warren were named national vice chairman and public-relations chairman, respectively.

Gary May, an assistant professor in the school of electrical and computer engineering and a newly elected Alumni Association

trustee, is the chairman of the National Advisory Board. Augustine F.sogbue of the school of industrial and systems engineering is a member of the National Advisory Board and the Region III Advisory Board.

The National Society of Black Engineers is the largest student-run organization in the country, with more than 8,000 members and 230 student chapters.

Pi Mile Winners early 300 runners took part m the 24th annual George C. < Tiffin Pi Mile Road Pace during spring quarter.

Finishing first in the 3.14159-mile race around campus was Jon Van < )rder, a chemicalengineering graduate student. Van ()rder (right), track and crosscountry runner at Lehigh University, completed the run in 15 minutes, 20 seconds.

Susan McWhorter, director of packaging development at Thi' CocaCola Co., finished first among female runners witli a time of 18 minutes, 41 seconds.

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Tec otes Truly inducted into Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame

By Maiy Cofer r

V

ice Admiral Richard Truly, a former naval aviator, astronaut and administrator of NASA, was among four prominent natives inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame in Warner Robins.

Truly, AE '59, returned to his alma mater in 1992 as a vice president and director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Joining Truly in the ceremony May 6 at the Museum of Aviation was fellow inductee Lt. Col. Fitzhugh "Fitz" Fulton Jr., who piloted the Boeing 747 "mother-ship" while Truly flight tested the space shuttle proof-of-concept vehicle in the 1970s.

Also inducted were Air Force Maj. Roy D. Bridges and Marine Corps Maj. Henry T. Flrod. The Aviation Hall of Fame was created to recognize the individual Georgians who made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of aviation and space flight. It has 27 members.

Commissioned as an ensign after completing Naval ROTC training at Tech, Truly graduated from Naval flight training in I960. He flew F-8 Crusaders on hundreds of missions, including some during the Cuban missile crisis, before entering the

Aerospace Research Pilot School. In 1965, he was tapped to be an astronaut, and four years later, Truly joined NASA to work on the Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and space shuttle programs.

After two shuttle flights in 1981 and 1982, Truly was named the first commander of the Naval Space Command. He was recalled to NASA to rebuild the shuttle program after the Challenger disaster, and President George Bush appointed him NASA administrator.

Dean White appointed to Science Board

D

r. John A. White, dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, has been confirmed by the Senate to serve on the National Science Board.

President Bill Clinton nominated White to the National Science Board, an advisory and oversight group for the National Science Foundation. The Senate confirmed White's appointment on April 6.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, White is widelyknown for his extensive writings on industrial engineering and the manufacturing process. He has also served at the National Science Foundation as assistant director for engineering (1988-91) and as acting deputy director in 1990-91.

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Perspective The Cost of Patents

By Curtis L. Harrington

I

nventors seeking patent protection for the first time generally know little about patent laws, how much a patent should cost or who to go to for help.

Most inventors apply for either a design patent, which protects the aesthetic design of such items as lamps and athletic shoes, or a utility patent, which protects a manufactured product (the way a machine works) or a chemical substance (the way a chemical process works).

Don't scrimp on the drawings in a design patent because they are the heart of the case. Good patent design drawings cost about $85 each, and excellent drawings cost about $150 each.

The filing fee for a single standard claim is $150 for an inventor who has less than 500 employees. Because of the relatively small amount of time involved in preparing a typical patent application, most attorneys charge a fixed fee of about $500. An inventor should be,able to file a design patent application with two'sheets of high quality drawings for less than $1,000.

Submitting a utility patent is far different and more complex. In addition

14

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

to the drawings and filing fee, the application includes a background summary, description of drawings, detailed description and claims written in a rather specialized language. While the drawings cost per sheet is comparable to the design patent, the filing fee is $365. But because the description of the utility patent is more extensive and complex, attorney fees can vary broadly.

The three main technology categories are chemical, mechanical and electrical. Attorneys who have a general technical background can prepare mechanical patents, while electrical engineering patent attorneys can usually handle either electrical or mechanical cases.

Chemical engineering patent attorneys can usually handle both chemical and mechanical cases. But the inventor should be certain that the patent attorney drafting the application understands the invention thoroughly and is technologically competent. If the attorney is not familiar with the invention's technical aspects, it is the inventor who pays for the attorney's learning curve.

A patent attorney's fee is determined by education and experience. An experienced attorney commands a higher hourly fee, but

Fty5

No, it's not a bomb. It's an original patent diagram for a lipstick holder . . . well, somebody had to think of it. can be expected to complete the case in less time, reducing the other factor in the overall cost.

One objective measure of cost is dollars per page of the patent application, including the claims and abstract, although the number of pages will not be determined until the case is finished. On average, patent cases seem to cost about $100 per page.

Adding to the patent after the first draft of the application can significantly increase its cost.

Once preparation has begun, integrating additional materials is more difficult.

An inventor can reduce costs by presenting all materials, drawings, descriptions and models to the patent attorney at one time. A simple two-stage procedure is the most efficient. The first step is a meeting in which the

inventor must explain— and the attorney understand—the invention. In the second stage, the inventor makes collections to the first draft of the application.

Another way that inventors can cut costs is to request a fixed fee for preparing the case based on the two-stage procedure, with the understanding that no additions will be made.

Inventors must also consider the time of completion. Most patent attorneys charge a premium for rush work. Inventors should get an estimate of cost before discussing timing, in order to ferret out a timing costdifferential.

Patent attorneys should have a schedule of services and standard charges to let potential clients readily assess the cost-vs.-benefit advantage of the firm. • Curtis L. Harrington, MS ChE '77, a partner with Hawes & Fischer in Newport Beach, Calif., is a member of the Lone, Beach Bar Association Board of Governors and Japan American Society of Southern California. In addition to his Georgia Tech degree, he has a Juris Doctorate, master's in electrical engineering and master's in business administration.

His practice areas include patent, trademark, copyright and trade-secret law.

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'A Georgia Tech alumnus J. Wayne Littles leads NASA's next step into space

By Hoyt Coffee Photography by Gary Meek ISM I II I I M i m i c ) \ s

here was a time when the biggest obstacle to putting â&#x20AC;˘ something into space was gravity. Nowadays, increasing complexity, soaring costs, budget cutting and political grandstanding exert more drag on the nation's space programs than any natural force. Meeting these challenges and keeping the United States on course to the final frontier means coming to grips with new realities in government and industry in the '90sâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially if your job is to loft skyward a 443-ton behemoth that's bigger than a football field. That job now belongs to J. Wayne Littles, ME '62, w h o was J. Wayne Littles, associate administrator for Space Flight, visiting the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., now leads the U.S. effort to huild and staff an International Space Station.

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named associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight at NASA headquarters last November. A significant element of Littles' mission is to manage the construction and deployment of International Space Station Alpha, a multinational program that grew out of President Ronald Reagan's controversial Space Station Freedom project.

I

t's a challenge," says Littles, who also holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California and a doctorate from the University of Texas. "The space station program was restructured about 18 months ago [about when Congress came within one vote of scrapping the project]. There had been a program going on for a while. We determined that we needed to restructure and reorient the way we were managing it while looking at a cheaper way to do it."

NASA is under increasing pressure to slash its budget, roughly $14.5 billion in 1995, although it currently gets less than one percent of federal outlays and is the least-funded of major federal agencies. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin led an effort last year to cut the space budget by $35 billion over five years, and President Bill Clinton told Goldin to cut yet another $5 billion by the year 2000. Republicans in Congress are seeking even more austerity for the agency with a plan to reduce NASA appropriations to $11 billion by 2002.

Goldin said that would mean cutting NASA's staff from the current 21,060 to 17,500, about the same number as worked for the agency in 1961. NASA contractors would lose some 25,000 workers. , ^.

"If those cuts go through, all bets are off," Goldin said during.a May news conference.

"We will have to consider shutting down a combination of enterprises, programs and centers."

Congress voted last year to cap spacestation expenditures at $2.1 billion a year, less than 15 percent of the NASA budget, through completion in 2002. To help contain costs on the $30 billion project, NASA put it in the.

18

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

Equipment, experiments, even bathrooms, are contained in these composite modules that can be added to the station's laboratories or habitats as needed.

RIGHT: Engineers had to custom design tools to build the space station, such as this high accuracy milling machine.

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hands of a single "prime" contractor, The Boeing Co., which has responsibility for many of the routine operations once performed by civil-service personnel.

"From what I've seen, that is working very well," Littles says. "As a matter of fact, that's one of the things that we're going to be doing a lot of in the future. We're not going to be as involved in things like operations as we have been in the past at NASA. We're going to be looking more and more to industry to take over that role."

Littles—who heads not only the space station project, but the space shuttle program and four space centers as well—says it is imperative for industry to take a leading, and profitable, role in day-to-day space activities to keep current programs alive, freeing NASA to "focus on those things that lead us to the next generation of projects."

"For instance, at Cape Kennedy, where we assemble the hardware and launch it, and at the plants where that hardware is produced, we have a significant involvement," he says. "A lot of that has become routine. So we plan to back out of that and give more of that responsibility to the contractors while we do basic research and development work. Of course, we will continue to be knowledgeable of problems and issues associated with the hardware in getting it ready to fly."

NASA will need considerable focus over the next seven years to orbit and assemble the most complicated piece of equipment ever sent into space. Station components are being fabricated now in Building 4708 at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where booster rockets for the Apollo program were built. Ferrying the hundreds of tons of aluminum cylinders, connecting trusses and modular equipment racks into an orbit 220 miles overhead will require 27 shuttle flights and 46 launches of Proton and Ariane rockets by NASA's international partners. The first section to go up will be a 20ton, 43-foot-long .."space tug" provided by Russia, which joined the project last year.

"The Space Station Freedom program had always been an international program," Littles says. "We had the Japanese, their partners in the European Space Agency, and the Canadians providing hardware. With the Cold War going away, the new space station project presented a good opportunity to do some 20

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

Twice in 1995, U.S. space shuttles are scheduled to dock with the Russian space station Mir (as illustrated above).

By 1997, space shuttles will link with Mir seven-to-10 times, and American astronauts will spend a total of two years on Mir in blocks of 90 days at a time.

RIGHT: NASA engineers are using full-size mockups of the space station to test their design.

cooperative work with Russia. '"the Russians have done fantastic things in space. Of course, they have the Mir space station that they are operating. And a lot of their hardware in the program is beneficial in a lot of ways. It made it a broader international program. It also saved us some money because they now are providing hardware to the program and some capabilities that we would have had to develop ourselves."

P

|hase one of the project, already under way, involves experi-

ments and astronaut training aboard the 103-ton Mir space station. In February, the shuttle Discovery rendezvoused with Mir, coming within 40 feet of the craft, and in March, astronaut Norman Thagard began a historic three-month stint aboard the station. Plans call for the shuttle Atlantis to dock with Mir in June with a new contingent of astronauts. That event will mark the first time Russian and U.S. spacecraft have docked since the ApolloSoyuz mission in 1975. Two additional missions this year will allow NASA to deliver new equipment to Mir so astronauts can test space-station .assembly techniques.

"One of the big things coming out [of phase one] is that we're developing procedures with our Russian partners and operating with them on a real-time basis," Littles says.

"Our control center in Houston and the Russian control center in Moscow are working together in these missions. And, frankly, that was one of the objectives of this program.

Working together and understanding how we think and how we operate, and understanding our procedures and theirs, are very important parts of the program.

"During the rendezvous, we had a problem with one of the shuttle's thruster jets leaking.

Our control center and our engineers and operators were able to work with the Russians to solve the problem, and we carried on with the mission."

The Russian "space tug," an Americanowned habitat and energy module designed to prevent Alpha from crashing back to earth the way Skylab did in 1979, is scheduled for launch in November 1997. By that time, the United States will have paid Russia $600 milGEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ The Final Frontier

21

lion for hardware and access to Mir, according to the Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C. The space station's other international partners won't receive any funds for their contributions to Alpha, says Marcia Smith, space policy analyst for the research service.

R

ussia also will provide service docking, life-support and re-

search modules; a Soyuz space capsule for use as an escape pod; a "progress resupply vehicle" that will be used to ferry fuel and other resources for astronauts aboard the station; and 20kilowatt photovoltaic arrays to supply electricity for scientific experiments.

Japan's space agency, NASDA, is providing a pressurized laboratory module, as is the ninemember European Space Agency. Canada's contribution is a remote manipulating system, a 55-foot-long robot arm much like the one used to haul payloads out of the shuttle cargo bay.

NASA is supplying the superstructure that holds the various modules together, the primary photovoltaic power supplies, communications equipment, docking stations, thermal shields, a laboratory and a habitation module complete with galley, toilet, shower, medical facilities and Velcrostrip sleep stations for six astronauts.

When completed in 2002, Alpha will be 361 feet wide and 290 feet long with 42,000 cubic feet of space. Its four photovoltaic "wings," each 112 feet long and 39 feet wide, will provide 110 kilowatts of electrical power.

Astronauts and scientists will begin working aboard Alpha, barring any delays, after the fourth materials launch in May 1998. Then the international partners, with the exception of Russia, will have their first long-term platform for space-based research.

"This country has been limited in recent years," Littles says. "The science we could do had to be done in relatively short periods of time. And there were some limitations that went along with that.

"When we get the space station there and 22

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

Topped by a giant solar array that provides power for experiments and life support, International Space Station Alpha will host astronaut-scientists from a dozen nations (above).

RIGHT: An end-cone for one of the station modules, where the shuttle will dock, is being readied at NASA in HuntsviUe.

The New Privateers Doing business in space may be the key to the space business

By Hoyt Coffee

J

r u s t as the Yankee Traders and I privateers of past centuries turned | vast, forbidding setts into routes of commerce, private Industry may hold the key to space exploration and exploitation in the century to come.

Faced with the huge cosl of space (light using existing vehicles, and the public's distaste for taxes, most governments are unable or unwilling to commit the resources necessary to render space readily accessible.

"You have to evolve. You can't ion tinue to be in the mode where It's just the government doing this," says J. Wayne Littles, associate administrator for NASA's Office of Space Flight. "You have to get it out of the government mode one of these days, and I see a lot of good things going on now to encourage that."

Scientists and engineers are already looking at the next-generation spate shuttle, as are the bean counters in Washington. Littles says the result of these early studies could lead to privatizing the shuttle—or replacing it with a more commercially viable vehicle. Tests are currently under way to determine just what form the orbiter of the future will take.

"We need to go to some vehicle which can really give us economical, routine access to space," says Littles, ME '62. "There's no question that what we have today, whether it's expendable launch vehicles or the shuttle or whatever, is just too expensive. It is fundamentally important to this country to have ready access to space that's affordable so that we really can develop space and use it for the benefit of mankind."

NASA engineers at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico are testing an experimental "single-stage to orbit" vehicle (SSTO) dubbed the Delta Clip-

per. The "test-bed" vehicle, designed primarily by McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, lifts off vertically like any other rocket. Hut it lands unlike any other, except those in the science fiction films of the '50s—tail first.

"SSTO is one of the things that we're exploring with great interest," Littles says, "It wouldn't have boosters that fall off or two or three stages. You actually would lift off with a vehicle, and it would go to orbit intact and then return.

There are a lot of studies that have been done over the years, and it now appears that the technology is going to be here in the next few years to be able to do that job."

NASA has entered into "cooperative agreements" with private firms to develop an SSTO "technology demonstrator" for a reusable launch vehicle called the X-33. The government-industry partnership is also engineering the X-34, a reusable orbiter that would Inlaunched from a high-flying jet such as the L-10U. The X-34 would be used to put small payloads into orbit. The technology for an X-34-type craft is already being scrutinized in the form of the Pegasus rocket, which is launched from beneath an L-1011.

"A decision on which vehicle to develop will come in '96," Littles says.

"Then that demonstrator vehicle will be developed and flown before the end of the century to demonstrate the technologies that will be required to achieve the single stage to orbit.

"This is an effort where industry has taken a lead. There are some things that we're doing to support that program, but it's fundamentally an industry program that we're putting some money into and providing some technology ami design support. That's the best way for these things to go. It's not going to be a government vehicle." •

GEORGIA TECH • The Final Frontier

23

we're operating it full time, we'll be doing science on a continuous basis: things that we've done in short bursts, the kind of science that can really benefit mankind, not just in this country, but in the world."

Within the microgravity environment, and with direct access to space, researchers will focus on developing new materials and processes to benefit earthbound industries, accelerating technology development and conducting medical research, perhaps the most promising of planned activities.

"There are some really exciting things that can come out of the research that's going to be done, and that fact is supported by stuff that's already been done," Littles says, noting that NASA life-sciences researcher Dr. Dan Carter had already made great strides in medicine while working aboard Spacelab, which was taken into orbit in a shuttle cargo bay.

"There will be concentrated efforts on such research, and not just by the government.

What we want is for the industry that's going to be using those capabilities, that has a need for them, to get involved commercially and use this laboratory as a base to develop products and science to support the things we do here on earth.

That's one of our primary objectives."

F

'or those with an eye on the future of space flight, Interna-

tional Space Station Alpha's primary purpose is one that looks not downward, but out into the far reaches of space. For those people Alpha is just a dress rehearsal, a prelude to the final frontier.

"What we're going to be doing on the space station, the long list of things related to science and those kinds of things, is preparing us to take that next step," Littles says.

"We're going to be getting more data on longterm effects of space on the crew and determining what things can be done to mitigate those effects. We're going to be preparing ourselves as we fly the space station and develop science and technology to take the next step)—whether that's going to Mars, which I would love to see in my lifetime, or whatever it is.

"There are endless opportunities." • 24

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

J. Wayne littles 7 wouldn't change a thing'

By Hoyt Coffee

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Engineers test the full-size, underwater mock-up of two space-station modules where astronauts will practice the weightless construction techniques they will use to put International Space Station Alpha together in orbit. The 1.32-million-gallon water tank, called the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, can hold anything that will fit in the cargo bay of a space shuttle.

'hen NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin needed someone to run the agency's most important projects and Space centers, he didn't have to lo> >k tar to find the right person lor the job.

Alter all, J. Wayne Littles was already deputy director of the Marshall Space Might Center in Huntsville, Ala., and NASA's chief engineer. And he had been working with NASA in one fashion or another for more than .SO years.

"Dr. Littles brings great experience and leadership to the Office of Space flight and will continue to play a major role to ensure America's leadership in space, and to help NASA build an e.\< iting future on this new frontier," tioklin said at a news conference to announce Littles' promotion to associate administrator.

In his new role Littles is responsible lot the Space Shuttle project, International Space Station Alpha and four major installations: Marshall; Kennedy Space Center, Flu.; Johnson Space Center, Texas; and Stennis Space Center, Miss.

"I've been in this business since I graduated from Georgia Tech in 1962," says Littles, ML ()2. "Alter 1 graduated I went to work with Rocketdyne in the propulsion area. Since then, I've been involved in a wide range of extremely fun and fascinating activities."

Horn in Moultrie, Ca., in 1939, Littles graduated from Moultrie High School in 1957.

At Georgia Tech, he was elected to the Phi Eta Sigma, Pi Tau Sigma. Tau beta Pi and Briaerean honor societies. Littles earned his master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1964, while working with Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, Calif. He received his doctorate from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1969. by then, he had already worked as AD aerospace engineer on the Saturn launch vehicle program and as a research engineer in Huntsville.

"The first program I was involved in with

forever will be in the limelight." he explains.

"What we do is of interest not only to Congress, but also to the public and to news

media. And everything we d<> is wide open,

NASA was the Skylah program, which is interesting because that was our first space station," he says. "We put Skylah up in 1973. I was involved through the entire operation. I was co leading one of the teams that worked the routine operations during roughly the year that skylah flew, When Skylah reentered, I was involved in that as well. So 1 was involved from birth to death on that one."

Littles joined the space shuttle team in L980, becoming chief of an engineering analysis division with responsibility for stress analysis, Structure analysis, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and related activities.

"That was before it flew the first time," he says, "So I've been involved with the shuttle program in one capacity 01 another since before we flew the first mission."

Littles says the shuttle project provided him with both the low point and one of the highest in his long association with space llight: the Challenger accident, "Obviously, it was a tragedy, a terrible thing to have happen," he says. "But the support for the space program, the broad support, remained during that time. And I think it actuallv increased for a period of time. The return to flight after the Challenger accident was probably one of the most satisfying moments in my career."

The probe into the accident also gave Littles a taste of the kind of attention America's space program has generated since before President John F. Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon in the 1960s, "This agency is now. has always been and

Despite the stress and strain of a NASA career, Wayne Littles says he "couldn't have had more fun."

SO when there's a problem, everybody knows about it. It makes headlines, and people ask questions, so we're kind of under a micro scope. And it's the way it should be.

"Now. there are occasions when there might be something that gets, from our perspective, a little bit blown out of proportion.

Thai's a part of life, and you live with it. If you let those things perturb you unduly, you probably wouldn't last very long."

Looking to the future, Littles admits that he's not looking terribly far. The task at hand is to restructure management of the shuttle program, with an eye toward getting private industry more involved in day-to-day opera tions and freeing NASA resources for more research and development.

"There are efficiencies that can be gained by restructuring that program, but it's an ongoing operation, anil we have to make sure that we maintain' the safety and integrity of the system we have while we're changing it and backing it off ourselves," he says.

Then there's the move to Washington.

Vfter nearly 30 years in Uuntsville, Littles and

his wife, the former Bebe Blalock, also from Moultrie, are house-hunting for the first time in quite a while. The move also puts them farther away from their children: Jay Littles is

working on a doctorate at Georgia Tech. He already holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering and a master's In engineering science and mechanics. The Littles' daughter, Louise Strutzenberg, graduated from Tech in 1988 and now works for NASA in Uuntsville.

Add it all up. anil what does it mean to the elder Littles?

"I think if I could start over, anil I could lav out a great thing to do in life, I wouldn't change a thing. It's a fascinating area to be in now. I could h a w probably gone somewhere and made more money, but I couldn't have had more fun." â&#x20AC;˘

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ The Final Frontier

2 5

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Reserved ' Seating

A Time

Celebration During three dayrof festivals and ceremonies, Wayne Clough is inaugurated as president of Georgia Tech

By John Dunn Photography by Gary Meek and Stanley I.eary

i h e investiture of (i. Wayne (tough as (ieorgia Tech's ÂŁ lOfli president combined, tradition and vision to .project (ieorgia Tech as a world leader in education, research and technology. .

Riding in the nimble seat of the Rambling Wreck, (tough and his wife, Anne, led hundreds of students, faculty, staff and alumni from the (ieorgia lech campus to the Fox Theater, where thee were joined by thousands more attending the May 12 inaugural ceremony.

C

oming home was an underlying theme of the inauguration as lech officially welcomed its first alumnus as president. A native of Douglas, (ia., (tough received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering from (ieorgia Tech in 1964 and 1965. respectively.

He earned his doctorate from the

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University of California, Berkeley.

Opening the inaugural ceremony, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller touched on the theme of coming home.

"Most inaugurations mark the start of a brand-new relationship," Miller said.

"This occasion marks the resumption and expansion of a relationship. We are glad to have you at the helm as Georgia Tech strives toward the 21st century.

W

elcome home! Welcome back to the state of Georgia; welcome back to Georgia Tech," Miller said heartily, adding â&#x20AC;˘:-s<that Clough "brings with him an understanding of engineering both of technology and of the human being."

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, University System 28

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

The celebration of G. Wayne Clough's inauguration as president was kicked off by the music department's annual Masterworks Concert (top) and the opening of an inaugural exhibit at the library.

Shirley Mewborn, EE '56 (above), examines one of five re-created dormitory rooms on display. The fun continued at a festival for faculty and staff that featured Varsity cliili dogs and a congratulatory cake.

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Chancellor Stephen R. Portch and Georgia Tech Alumni Association President Frank Maier were also among the inaugural speakers.

Portch invested Clough as president and presented him with the traditional Presidental Medallion.

I

n his address, Clough said, "Looking to the future, our preeminent challenge will be to enhance our technological excellence while demonstrating a careful regard for the human dimension of our work. This charge is far greater than that of simply supporting our nation's highly developed technological culture."

Clough said that the state is moving forward in education and that the 1996 Olympic Games will focus world-wide attention on Georgia Tech, circumstances that present a "historic opportunity."

Georgia Tech, he said, must continue to give a high priority to teaching, to excellence in research and to assisting in the state's economic development.

A Chinese dragon (opposite page) escorts President Clough to a campus festival held in his honor. In a carnival atmosphere, fun was the order of the day. Groups performed in music and song, and students challenged each other in competitive games (above).

Clough presided over a cake-cutting ceremony, participated in a look-alike contest and (above left) took a wild ride on a gyro.

The inauguration featured the premier of two multimedia presentations, accompanied by a live symphony orchestra, that celebrated the history and future of Georgia Tech. The productions by James GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ A Time of Celebration

31

Oliverio, composer and artist-in-residence in the College of Architecture music department, included a sight-and-sound look at the school's history through its nine previous presidents, and a futuristic piece that included an original score, synchronized lighting, digital sound and 3-D computer animation.

A skeletal hcheinotn tr<>n, the Fernbank Museum's Great Dinosaurs of China exhibit towers alxrve the faculty and stall attending a buffet honoring Clough. On another occasion during the week's festivities, Clough hams it up with Buzz

In the evening, the Cloughs were joined by their two children—Matthew, 26, and Eliza, 21—for the Presidents' Dinner at the Inforum. The event was hosted by Clough as president of Georgia Tech; Maier, president of the Alumni Association; and John H. Weitnauer, president of the Georgia Tech Foundation.

I

naugural events began with the May 10 opening of a library exhibit that relates to the "coming-home" theme. The exhibit authentically recreated campus dormitory rooms representing five different eras dating back to 1905.

The music department's annual Masterworks Concert on May 10 was dedicated to Clough's inauguration and featured the Symphonic Band, Chorale & Vocalities, Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble in performances at the Georgia Tech Center for the Arts. The concert band, conducted by Bucky 32

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

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Johnson, was joined by guest artist Mark Yancich, principal timpanist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. They performed "Timpani Concerto No. 1—The Olympian," written by Oliverio.

A

r Andrea Strauss conducts the Georgia Tech Symphonic Band (above) during the inaugural program at the Fox Theater. A humorous remark made during the welcoming addresses draws a hearty laugh from President and Mrs. Clough (right) and Dr. Thomas Gallaway, chairman of the inaugural committee and dean of the College of Architecture.

BELOW: Dr. Stephen Portch bestows the Presidental Medallion FAR RIGHT: Gregory Colson conducts the Tech Chorale.

2

campus festival held under the west stands of Bobby Dodd Stadium on May 11 featured a President Clough look-alike contest amid a carnival atmosphere that featured a Chinese dragon, a live band and the Varsity's famous chili dogs.

Besides sampling a huge inaugural cake, Clough climbed aboard a gyro for a gut-wrenching taste of applied physics.

In a tamer event later that day, several hundred faculty and staff members crowded into the Fernbank Museum for a buffet in honor of Clough.

The festive atmosphere continued throughout the days of inaugural events.

"Celebration has been a real theme: celebrate the president, celebrate Georgia Tech, celebrate its future, celebrate ourselves," explains Thomas D. Galloway, dean of the College of Architecture and chairman of the inaugural ceremony.

The purpose, Galloway adds, was for the inauguration to be "simple and appropriate, not overbearing or ostentatious." •

34

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

I

Business with A Global View

By Mark Clothier Photography by Gary Meek

W

'hen Georgia Tech was named a Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) in September 1993, it was suddenly thrust among the elite of the nation's graduate business schools.

The designation as a national resource center meant that Georgia Tech had captured one of 25 coveted three-year grants, amounting to $250,000 per year, and gave the graduate management school instant credibility.

The most recent U.S. News& WorldReport rankings of America's best graduate business schools put Georgia Tech in the top 10 percent at No. 26—and No. 6 overall of schools without corporate sponsors.

Dr. John R. Mclntyre, the 46-year-old director of the Georgia Tech center, engineered and administers the program.

Mclntyre, a professor of management and international affairs, has been at Tech since 1981. He is a specialist in international business strategy, technology transfer and exportimport management.

"We were already a quality program," Mclntyre says. "The grant was a recognition of that. It is a competitive grant and one that is extremely hard to get—every graduate business school worth its salt wants one.

"It shows that we have all the ingredients in place and now are putting the pieces together and delivering a diverse, rich and complex international-business-center set of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels," he says.

Mclntyre says the grant has given Tech and the state of Georgia the opportunity to create programs and launch research initiatives to help establish ties T6 national and international markets. ,.

A major focus is the development of new graduate courses, business-outreach activities for executives, travel-study grants for faculty and students, and a program of focused research. , The geographic focus last year was \ Europe, specifically Germany and France,.and 36

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

this year it is Japan—a timely choice given the trade battles looming between Tokyo and Washington. Next year, it is China.

As part of the program's regional business-outreach responsibilities, the center sponsored a "state-of-the-art" conference in May focusing on Japan's system of "technical standards," which are blamed for keeping its market closed to foreign products.

The intent of the day-long gathering was to help U.S. companies learn how to adapt products to the Japanese market as well as understand how standards sometimes act as fronts for trade barriers.

The center also sponsored the visit of former Prime Minister of Sweden, Carl Biltdt, and co-hosted with the Georgia Tech Finance Faculty an address by 1990 Nobel Prize winner for Economics Milton Miller on the dynamics of Chinese economic development and future growth. Upcoming is a "Negotiating with the Japanese" executive seminar— including topics about which many U.S. companies are unfamiliar.

"The fact of the matter is that over 60 percent of U.S. exports are done by less than 50 multinationals, and in a country that has some 750,000 firms with an earning of $1 million plus, an impressive number of them are not exporting," Mclntyre says.

"A lot of people are afraid of exporting.

They think it's complicated—it really isn't; it just takes a different frame of mind."

The center also places an emphasis on international-business education.

"We teach teachers of international busiManagement professor John Mclntyre, director of the Center for International Business Education and Research, has been at Georgia Tech since 1981. Designation as a National Resource Center is a highly competitive award. "Every graduate business school worth its salt wants one."

Now in its second year, the Center for International Business Education and Research brings to Tech "instant credibility" in global economic issues. The academic focus of the center's first year was Europe.

ness," he explains. "We have seminars and workshops for faculty members interested in updating their knowledge of international business and life."

The grant also finances the development of new graduate-level courses on internationalbusiness-related topics such as international operations management, multinational finance and export/import management.

As part of the language-education mandate, Mclntyre has worked closely with the Department of Modern Languages in the creation of the Quality Interactive Language Learning (QUILL) program, a generic software system of authoring tools and presentations for language teachers to create interactive material using Apple technology.

It uses audiovisual vignettes to illustrate or give examples of a term or phrase. So far, the program has been adapted for French and German, and plans are under way to develop it for Japanese.

The authoring aspect gives teachers the freedom to create their own custom-made exercises for their students, and the interactive part allows immediate feedback for students during practice sessions.

that's not something we necessarily want to get into "Japan right now is the No. 1 economic power investing and selling in China, and we're competing with Germany and France for certain very lucrative markets there. Practically all of the infrastructure—hydroelectric power and telecommunications—is in need of help and presents opportunities."

On Oct. 30, Tech will sponsor a conference on doing business in China.

The grants are awarded in three-year cycles, and Mclntyre says Tech has a solid chance of receiving another resource-center award in 1996.

"We've gotten the biggest bang possible out of our federal dollars," Mclntyre says.

"We're doing a lot more with less—we're one of the smaller centers and smaller business schools. We're doing seven major businessoutreach events, whereas the typical center does three or four. We've taken the federal dollars, and we've really leveraged them. he resource centers, funded under the "We are on the pragmatic side of things in Title VI program, were created as part the social sciences, and that which you do of the Higher Education Act to—among with taxpayer funds should be returned to the other things—train students to be a regional taxpayer in the form of knowledge that is source for the business community, provide relevant to business and job creation." instruction in foreign languages critical to U.S. Mclntyre's work has stressed the economic global competitiveness and to train students integration of the European Union and the and executives to be globally competitive. impact of Japanese investment in the United "In the late 20th century, you can't turn out States. He edits an annual yearbook of Japanese investment in the Southeastern United American engineers or even managers who States and is a member of the North American are not prepared for a globally interdependent and highly competitive marketplace—it's Taskforce of Experts on the European Union.

His recent research interests have led to pubalmost criminal on the part of educators to lications on the economics of free trade turn them loose without knowing languages, zones, the workings of French multinationals international economics and international in North America and the globalization of the business practices," Mclntyre says. telecommunications industry.

China presents an interesting case, The center works closely with both the Mclntyre says. It has a rapidly growing and academic and business communities in Georemerging economy. Its growth rate in gross gia and the Southeast region. It has an advidomestic product is regularly more than 10 percent and by sorpe estimates as high as 13 sory council made up of some 25 key leaders in business, economic development and percent. For comparison, the United States academia and a core faculty group made up and other advanced industrial countries usuof 30 faculty members from the full range of ally run about 2 to 3 percent. disciplines at Georgia Tech. Mclntyre says that "China needs everything," Mclntyre says, the center has received outstanding support "from infrastructure to the full range of confrom Robert Hawkins, dean of the Ivan Allen sumer goods. But it's not that simple. They College, who is "firmly committed to the indon't have hard currency for a lot of whiat they want to buy, and they like to barter; and ternationalization of curricula at Tech." •

T

38

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

This year, the Center has focused on Japan—a timely choice given the trade battles between Tokyo and Washington.

Next year, it is China: The massive Asian nation "needs everything," Mclntyre says, but is cash poor. Export there won't be simple or easy.

What's Gold and White and Read All Over? i*

The 1995 Georgia Tech Alumni Directory The directory has just been released, and here's your chance to own a copy of the most up-to-date list of all living alumni, an invaluable resource for Tech graduates and friends.

Only a limited number of directories have been printed, and many of those are already on their way to alumni who ordered before production began.

The Georgia Tech Alumni Directory Yes, I'd like to order copy(s) of the 1995 Georgia Tech Alumni Directory. standard softcover edition at $39.99. deluxe hardcover edition at $44.99Add $4.95 shipping and handling.

Georgia residents add 6% sales tax.

Enclosed is my check for SEND MY ORDER TO :

Name Street

But a few remain. They're available on a first-come, first-served basis for $39.99 for the softcover edition and $44.99 for the hardcover. To order by mail, use the coupon to the right. Or call Harris Publishing Company at 1-800-877-6554.

City

State

Zip

Phone Mail to: Georgia Tech Alumni Association Alumni-Faculty House Atlanta GA 30332-0175

Susan Bonds' Heart-Pounding, Spine-Tingling, Hair-Raising

Adventure A Georgia Tech graduate turns the Indiana Jones™ saga into Disneyland's wildest ride

By John Dunn PHOTOS © DISNEY/LUCASFILM LTD.

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ife for Susan Bonds is one spinetingling, breathtaking, cliff-hanging thrill after another. When she's I not traversing a shaky suspension I bridge over a molten lava pit or dodging enormous rolling boulders, she's confronting rats, scorpions and ill-tempered snakes.

But, hey, it's all in a day's worlo,.

Bonds, a 1984 industrial engineering graduate of Georgia,Tech, is the show producer for Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) responsible for the Indiana Jones™ Adventure thrill ride that opened this spring at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.

The adventure introduces a new generation of theme-park technology that Michael Eisner, chairman and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Co., boasts is "our biggest 40

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

new ride in 40 "Tt'c a TxnlH Irinrl

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of out-of-control experience," agrees Bonds.

"It's definitely an fl innovative tech^te nology."

In addition to ^ ^ B creating the ^^^^^^B Indiana Jones™ Adventure, WDI—the creative development, design and engineering subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co.—developed and patented the ride's Enhanced Motion Vehicles, each of which has an on-board ride-control computer. Each ridecontrol computer contains multiple programmed versions of the adventure, with

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With 160,000 options and computerguided vehicles, "It's a wild, kind of out-of-control experience," says Bonds.

"It's definitely* an innovative technology."

42

nearly 160,000 different combinations.

"The whole idea was to have a simulator that moved through three-dimensional space and acted like an off-road vehicle," Bonds explains. "That was the challenge, and that is what the ride is like. It's unbelievably great.

"I think this ride technology will be timeless," she adds. "It's never the same ride twice. There are different lines of dialog.

There are different ways you can cross this rickety suspension bridge, different ways you can go through caves and tunnels."

The Indiana Jones Adventureâ&#x201E;˘ is based on the George Lucas film trilogy.

"Michael Eisner had worked with George Lucas on Raiders of'the Lost Ark when he was at Paramount," Bonds explains. "When Michael came to Disney, one of his first initiatives was to do theme-park rides based on these very popular American action-adventure movies." \\

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

B

onds began work on the Indiana Jones project in 1992. The technology, which had been under development for about four years, was in its final stages of readiness.

She introduced Lucas to the ride when it was still in a test facility.

"He loved the ride. And that was just out in a warehouse without any story or environment or theme or anything," she laughs.

Lucas continued to follow progress on the adventure, and before the ride opened in March, Bonds took him on the finished tour.

"I think people will find it one of the most thrilling rides in the park," Lucas says. "It will be different from anything they've ever experienced. It is not a roller coaster, and it's not a simulated movie. It's a unique experience."

Bonds worked closely with LucasFilm Ltd., which was primarily concerned with story development and character portrayal.

"We covered all of the story points." Bonds says. "We made sure the dialog was consistent with the Indiana Jones charactei'. George Lucas is a very good storyteller, and he's very

insightful. He was very interested in the story and the continuation of the characters—in staying true to the characters that he brought to life. I think he is very pleased with how the movie elements translated into a themepark thrill ride."

The adventure begins in 1935 at the archaeological base camp of Indiana Jones in the Lost Delta of India where an expedition is being made into the towering, four-story Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The temple deity offers explorers one of three magical gifts: future knowledge, earthly riches or eternal youth. The choices made by the explorers represent three variations of the adventure.

But the deity warns, do not gaze into the forbidden eye—which turns out to be an impossible demand that invites disaster.

Trying to escape the wrath of the de1 ity, the explorers are hurled into the TunInel of Torment, Gates of Doom, Cavern of Bubbling Death, encounter 60-mile-an-hour winds in the Mummy Chamber, weave through the Bug Room. Snake Temple. Rat Cave, whisk through the Dart Corridor, and find themselves in a race to outdistance a huge rolling boulder.

Bonds says they studied the Indy movies, picking the best elements for the ride.

"We asked, 'What do you really want to experience?' You know, the bugs, the rats, the snakes and the big rolling boulder. We picked the lava pit, the angry god and the suspension bridge from the Temple of Doom. We chose a lot of things that you remember from the movies to get your spine tingling."

T

o match the technology with the ride, Bonds and other members of the WDI team programmed and reprogrammed the ride to create motion that has a sense of authenticity.

"We did some off-road driving to duplicate

the sensations, the bumps-and turns, and going down steps and over rboulders and the effect of sudden impacts." ' Beginning in August of 1994, Bonds says the work stretched to 20-hour days.

"Even though this is a thrill ride, there is nothing designed on this ride that did not have safety in mind," she adds. The challenge was to create the perception of danger and disaster while maintaining a safe environment.

"It's challenging to make you feel threatened when you're really not—to create this environment that appears to be falling apart, where it's very unpredictable and you don't know what's going to happen. But we know what's happening; we have to know what is happening every second."

Over the swinging bridge awaits doom for intrepid explorers on Disneyland's Indiana Jones™ Adventure, produced by Tech grad Susan Bonds.

Below: Skeletons greet adventurers in one of dozens of computer-generated "options" to the course of the latest— and most elaborate— new ride introduced in 40 years.

LEFT:

There are 16 enhanced-motion vehicles designed as military troop transports that cycle through the attraction. A new vehicle is dispatched every 18 seconds, capable of transporting some 2,400 visitors every hour.

More than 1,300 props are used to highlight the Indiana Jones saga, including the actual vehicle used for the chase scene in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. "It is fair to say that when I started at Georgia Tech, I would never have imagined ending up at Disneyland in this job and in this role," Bonds says. "It's absolutely a dream job. I am having a great time."

GEORGIA TECH • Susan Bonds'Adventure

43

With Indy for "guidance," who knows what adventure lies ahead for Bonds?

Bonds originally joined the Walt Disney Co. as a co-op student in 1980, working at WDI-Florida as an industrial engineer. She contributed to the show-ride systems of suchEPCOT pavilions as World in Motion, The Land, and Journey into Imagination.

"I got almost twoand-a-half years of [ work experience durf ing college working for f Disney," she says. "I had a chance to study the company and learn what it was all about."

After graduating from Tech, however, she joined Lockheed Aeronautical Systems. Her father, Tommy Bonds, IM '58, is director of business operations at Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems. A former Tech football player, he is also a brigadier general in the Army Reserve and is commander of the 335th Signal Command in

East Point, Ga. Her two brothers also graduated from Georgia Tech: Tommy Bonds Jr., IE '83, of Spartanburg, S.C., and Kevin Bonds, IM '89, of Atlanta. At Lockheed she worked as an aircraft engineer in new business development and later worked as a development manager in systems engineering for advanced development projects.

B

onds returned to Imagineering in 1990 as project manager for "The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter," the centerpiece to New Tomorrowland at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. She later joined the Indiana Jones™ Adventure team as project manager, responsible for defining the attraction's scope and budget. She was promoted to producer in 1993.

Bonds is currently working on future projects for Disneyland. But she may not be too far removed from the creepy-crawly critters, the rats and snakes, and the hairraising drama.

"There are plans right now to do an Indiana Jones™ Adventure in other Disney theme parks," she smiles. "That would be exciting." •

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GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

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Mail orders to: GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION P.O. Box 18430 Memphis, TN 38181-0430 Please accept my order for the following Official Georgia Tech Alumni Watch(es): Qty. Women's Seiko Quartz Watch with Leather Strap (GET-SLS) @ $200* ea.

Men's Seiko Quartz Watch with Leather Strap (GET-SMS) @ $200* ea.

Women's Seiko Quartz Two-Tone Bracelet Watch (GET-SLT) @ $265* ea.

Men's Seiko Quartz Two-Tone Bracelet Watch (GET-SMT) @ $265* ea.

"Plus $7.50 handling and insured shipping charge per watch. On shipments to IL, MN, TN, or TX, please add applicable sales tax to your total order.

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ENCLOSED IS MY INITIAL INSTALLMENT of $28.57 for each strap watch and $37.85 for each two-tone watch, payable by check or credit card (information provided below), plus a shipping and handling charge of $7.50 per watch.

I agree to pay the balance due in 6 monthly installments of $28.57 for each strap watch and $37.85 for each two-tone watch.'" (On shipments to IL, MN, TN, or TX, please add applicable sales tax to your total order.)

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A remarkable 100% of Georgia Tech Alumni who have obtained mortgages through The Alumni Home Financing Program say they would use the program again! You'll enjoy the same high degree of service from Prudential Home Mortgage, the exclusive providers of this program. Mortgage counselors are available from 8 a.m. to midnight (EST), Monday through Friday. So call now, and handle the entire process, up until closing, by phone from your home or workplace. And get the most value from the time and money you invest in home financing.

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* Your loan commitment will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the loan commitment letter for this program. ** Eligibility requirements for the 24-hour loan decision include: Primary purebase transactions with a down payment of 2 0 % or more, an overall good credit profile and a signed, purchase contract. Condominiums and co-operative properties are not eligible. Also, because your loan decision is not subjec ') an appraisal, you may want to consult your legal advisor to include an appraisal contingency in your purchase contract. Other conditions may apply. fNot available in all states. The 15-day close is subject to certain cond ms. Contact a originated by Prudential Home Mortgage representative for details. ©1995 The Prudential Insurance Company of America. Information in this ad is accurate as of 1/1/95 and is subject to change without notice. All loans service marks The Prudential Home Mortgage Company, Inc., the administrator of this program. The Alumni Home Financing Program is a registered service mark and Buying Power Pledge and The Priority Buyer Program of The Prudential Insurance Company of America. The Prudential Home Mortgage Company, Inc., 8000 Maryland Avenue, Clayton, Missouri, is an affiliate of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, i ng business as P.H. Mortgage Company, Inc. in Ohio. New York Office: Expressway Executive Center, Inc., Suite 100,48 South Service Road, Melville, New York 11747; Arizona BK 8408; Florida Licensed Mortgage Lender; II ois Residential Mortgage Licensee; Licensed Mortgage Banker/New Jersey Department of Banking; Calif. Broker/Lender. All California loans will be made pursuant to a California Department of Corporations Consumer Finan ce Lender license or Commercial Finance Lender license. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Pacesetters A Thriving Hobby

By Lisa Crowe

G

ordon Dickens, the founder and chief executive officer of Atlanta's Dickens Data Systems, never took a computer course at Georgia Tech when he was working on his master's degree in nuclear engineering back in 1976.

"That was before the PC revolution. If you were interested in microcomputers, you learned about them at hobby shops," Dickens says. "When I started working as an engineer, I ended up spending a lot of time at hobby shops for fun, learning about computers."

Dickens has turned his early hobby into a thriving entrepreneurial venture that manufactures and supplies peripherals and software for AIX, IBM's version of UNIX, the multiuser equivalent of the DOS operating system. Dickens Data has become a successful "one-stop shop" for both dealers and large corporations by selling both its own products and acting as a wholesaler for other products.

Since Dickens founded

Gordon Dickens' avocation has become big business.

The computer company he founded in 1981 has experienced "explosive growth" over the past decade.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Pacesetters: Dickens

47

Pacesetters Thank you to the official sponsors of the

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE Atlanta Marriott Northwest Atlanta Renaissance Hotel Avis Rent-A-Car Bank South The Coca-Cola Company Delta Air Lines Diamond Brostrom Georgia Tech Center for the Arts Jasper Jeep-Eagle/ American Cherokee leasing

LDDS Communications MindSpring NationsBank Piedmont Hospital Prudential Home Mortgage Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Ritz Carlton, Buckhead Technology Park/ Atlanta Trust Company Bank Wyndham Midtown Hotel

48

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 1995

the company in 1981, it has made a number of the media's "fast-growing company" charts.

In 1991, the Atlanta Business Chronicle dubbed Dickens Data the fastestgrowing Southeastern hightech company over the past five years; that same year, Inc. magazine named Dickens the entrepreneur of the year in its "explosive-growth" category. In 1991 and 1992, Inc. included Dickens Data in a list of 500 fastest-growing companies; and in 1995, the Atlanta Business Chronicle again recognized the company in a list of 50 fastest-growing companies in the Atlanta area over the past five years.

Dickens anticipates another growth spurt this year, with Dickens Data sales revenues reaching $45-$50 million, a 60 percent increase over last year's sales figures. The company now has around 90 employees in its Atlanta office and its Florida, Connecticut and California sales offices.

Dickens did not start out with the idea of being an entrepreneur. After gettina-.his bachelor's degree in physics from Emory University in 1975 and his master's at Tech the following year, he set out to work for others. His foray into business ownership was the natural result of what had become an afterhours fascination with mi-

A professor's ability to teach physics helped turn Dickens' life around. But when he decided to sell his own software by mail, things really began to change. crocomputers. When he talked his wife into buying their own system, he wrote a software program to develop graphics for his engineering presentations. He named it "Superplotter" and decided, for the fun of it, to market it.

"Being an engineer, I was cautious and nervous about starting a business, so I approached my company about giving them the technology in return for running the division that dealt with it." That didn't work out. So Dickens started to sell his own software on the side as a mailorder item. To his surprise, it was wildly successful.

"All of a sudden, the hobby that I loved was making moneyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;more money than I was making at my regular job."

Dickens left nuclear engineering for good and started Dickens Data in 1981. The company used the profits from its software sales to explore multiuser microcomputers.

When UNIX came out in the middle 1980s, Dickens Data was ready to cash in on its market niche. Business boomed, and Dickens worked "seven days a week and worked at home at night. On the weekend,

I would try to take < me afternoon off, but I often couldn't do that.

"I paid my dues, but finally I said that there's got to be more to life than this, and I made a decision not to do it any more."

Dickens now enjoys more time with his wife and two children, but he still puts a tremendous amount of energy into his business as sales expand and technology evolves.

"It's still like one big onthe-job training," Dickens said. "A lot of times you just have to jump out there and do it."

Although he classifies himself as a typical "type-A personality," Dickens was not achievement-oriented when he was a kid growing up in Milledgeville, Ga. His major interest during high school was his guitar, and he admits to being a "prototypic hell-raiser" during his first two years of college. He settled down to his studies only when a professor introduced him to physics.

"He presented the subject in such a way that I came to love it and embrace it as a discipline, and then I turned myself around and started doing well."

Dickens counts himself among life's lucky ones.

"I never really liked working for someone else.

Now I have my own company. It's doing well, and I am doing what I love."

Be A Driving Force In The Georgia Tech Alumni Association With Avis.

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As a participant in our new Avis Alumni Association Member Benefit program, you're entitled to our special Alumni Association rates and discounts. They will save you money on both business and promotional leisure rates. And every time you rent from Avis, a contribution will be made to the Avis/Georgia Tech Alumni Association scholarship fund. It's a great way to enjoy the value and quality of Avis.. .and make a difference.

To get you started, we're offering you savings of $10 to $20 on a weekend rental. See the coupon on the right for details.

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Coupon valid at Avis corporate and participating licensee locations in the continental U.S. weekend rental period begins Thursday noon, and car must be returned by Monday 11:59 p.m. or coupon will not be valid. Offer not available during holiday and other blackout periods. Offer may not be available on all rates at all times. An advance reservation is required. Cars subject to availability. Taxes, local government surcharges and optional items, such as LDW, additional-driver fee and refueling, are extra. Renter must meet Avis age, driver and credit requirements. Minimum age is 25. Offer expires December 31,1995.

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Managing the Consequences

By James E. Kloeppel

I

n 1981, Wayne and Isabel Knox founded Knox Consulting, a small minority-owned business dedicated to consulting sen ices in nuclear engineering, radiation protection and emergency preparedness. They worked out of their house as a strictly "Ma and Pa" shop until 1987, when they decided to expand the company into a multi-disciplinary technical and engineering sen ices company.

Today. Knox Consulting has grown into fast-paced Advanced Systems Technology Inc. The Atlantabased firm now employs more than 200 scientists, engineers, technicians and support staff in nine offices throughout the United States. With revenues approaching $20 million in fiscal year 1995, the company has been ranked by Inc. magazine as one of the 500 fastest-growing companies in America.

There are a number of reasons for the company's phenomenal growth and success. Chief among them, says Knox, is the people he works with, both customers and employees.

Knox, who received a master's degree in nuclear engineering and health physics from Georgia Tech in 1973. is CEO, chairman of the board and president.

His wife. Isabel, is secre-

tary/treasurer of the board of directors and vice president of administration.

What's it like having your wife as your "righthand man"? Knox couldn't be happier.

"Isabel is my best friend," he confides. "We share many of the same goals and objectives, from raising our family to running our business. Of course, we don't always agree. From bidding on contracts to modifying the company's iirfrastructure, our respective approaches may be as different as night and day. But because we have the same visions and goals, it generally doesn't matter which approach is used. Our relationship is more important than whose approach is followed, so one of us gracefully gives in."

Knox sees himself as more of a visionary and his wife as more of a pragmatist. "Isabel thinks differently than I do, and she acts differently than I do.

We are not the same person by any stretch of the imagination," he says. "But our differences in opinion often tend to complement our problem-solving and decision-making abilities.

It's not scary for us to disagree. What's frightening is when we both agree, because then we may not have a 'wide view' of the situation."

Advanced Systems Technology—which provides a

•':< ' • BY KATHRYN KOLB

As owners of Knox Consulting, husband-wife team Isabel and Wayne Knox have learned to divide responsibilities and to respect each other's business acumen and unique perspectives. wide variety of services in such areas as nuclear and environmental engineering, health and safety, logistics support, telecommunications, information management, emergency preparedness and mobile waste characterization—is currently undergoing a period of transition.

"In the early years, our philosophy focused upon rapid growth and diversification," Knox says. "Now we are adjusting to the more controlled growth and specialization of a more mature business."

Knox and the other company executives are taking a long, hard look at the projects they have conducted in the past, and deciding upon which to pursue in the future.

"Changing the company's marketing strategy was an easy decision to make," Knox says with a smile. "Now we must deal with the consequences."

Too many people get bogged down when making decisions, Knox says. Generally, the decisions are easy enough to make; it's really the conse-

GEORGIA TECH • Pacesetters: Dickens and Knox

51

Pacesetters

quences of their decisions that people don't want to accept.

"There are good business decisions, and there are bad business decisions.

I've made my fair share of each," Knox says. "But I've seen good things result from bad decisions, and I've seen bad things result from good decisions. So, ultimately, the decision itself doesn't matter all that much. It's how you deal with the consequences of that decision that really matters."

If you can get beyond that "near window" of a bad decision, he says, the biggest problem that you will face is simply managing the consequences of that decision.

"I'm not saying that people should be cavalier in their approach to decision-making," he explains.

"You should definitely think about things and make the best decision you can based on your available information. But make a decision.

"Then, once you have made the decision, move forward with managing the consequences, because the bulk of your time and energy is going to be spent in managing the consequences and not in making the decision."

Over the years, the couple's mutual love, admiration and respect have built both a successful business and a successful

52

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

Knox has learned that making decisions isn't nearly as difficult—or as important—as managing the consequences of those decisions. marriage. At home, Wayne and Isabel enjoy a 50-50 relationship. They equally share such household tasks

as cooking and cleaning, paying the bills and doing yard work. In the office, however, their relationship is a bit different.

"In business, you can't really have a 50-50 relationship," Knox explains.

"Ultimately, someone must make the decisions and be held responsible for those

decisions. Someone simply has to have the final authority."

So, does he have the final authority at the company?

"Isabel tells me 1 do," he quips.

James E. Kloeppel is an Atlanta freelance writer.

Remote Computing

By Jerry Schwartz

I

f it's true that "what goes around, comes around," Georgia Tech co-op students can thank their lucky stars that one Tech graduate lost his summer job in the mid-1960s.

Partly because John C. Bacon, then a junior at Georgia Tech, did not go to work for a Texas construction company, choosing instead to spend the summer with an Atlanta high-technology firm, Tech co-op students can now work at XcelleNet Inc., a fast-rising remote computing company where Bacon, now 49, is president.

"I'm a passionate believer that it's only because of schools like Georgia Tech that any community can have a really vigorous, vibrant high-tech industry," Bacon says.

A self-described "poor kid from Texas," Bacon, IE

'67, came to Tech as a means of putting some discipline in his academic life.

"I knew that I wanted a damn good engineering school. I also knew I wanted a place where I was going to have to work pretty hard. I knew myself well enough that if I didn't have a few external forces pushing me, I might not get the most out of it. I was not disappointed in either respect," he says with a chuckle.

While working his way through Tech on the "unofficial co-op program," Bacon landed a job with a developer in his home state. But the construction project on which he was set to work was slapped down by local politicians.

"Here I was—broke, facing the year without a job—so I went out to ScientificAtlanta and said, 'Gee guys, I really need to work for you for the summer.'"

That was the beginning of a 17-year relationship for Bacon at ScientificAtlanta. It gave him the chance to watch the company develop from primarily a radar manufacturing company to the satellite and cable television giant it is today.

Along the way, Bacon and Scientific-Atlanta participated in the packaging of the world's first microcomputer, the MIPS Altair, developed in an Albuquerque, N.M., garage. He also was the head of the company's first autonomous division and became a sort of internal entrepreneur for the company.

Scientific-Atlanta is a company with "a wonderful group of people," Bacon says, and adds, "I can't think of a better training ground."

After leaving ScientificAtlanta, Bacon moved to Digital Communications

Pacesetters P H O T O BY KATHRYN KOLB

With experience at Scientiflc-Atlanta, John Bacon was ready to help begin and develop Xcelkryet.

Associates Inc., one of the pioneers in linking personal computers to mainframes. Bacon was responsible for marketing the company's IRMA line of PC-to-mainframe adapters.

In the late 1980s, Bacon says, he became aware that the era of mainframe computers was fast dying.

"At the time, I was doing some of the investor relations work, and I saw that the investment community was saying that mainframes would be coming downhill. Then I started another unit inside DCA that was the first notion of linking local area networks to mainframes. It

really helped me understand that, in fact, there was a real sea change occurring out there."

That understanding ultimately led him to a 1989 meeting with Dennis Crumpler, founder and chief executive officer of XcelleNet, a company dedicated to allowing sales employees and others working in the field to have access to data residing on the office local area network.

"It was one of those fun things where everything snapped into focus. Even though Dennis, at that point, had no product really—he was sort of wav-

ing his hands in the air and scribbling on the walls—I could see what the guy was talking about. I really could tell that he had a brilliant flash of inspiration, and he had something that was a very important idea.

It was easy, then, to get a third mortgage on the house and go to work with him," Bacon says.

The Crumpler-Bacon team has led XcelleNet to a series of record-setting results.

In April, XcelleNet announced record revenue for the first quarter and a 33 percent increase in earnings. That followed a 1994 fourth quarter of

record revenue at an 83 percent;earnings growth.

XcelleNet, Bacon says, has become an expert in fixing the problems created by other companies offering remote-computing products.

"Already in this clientserver world, people are taking their LAN-based assumptions of architecture and how you deploy and build remote employee solutions, and they are stumbling out into the remote space with those assumptions, which are simply not valid. So yes, it makes a mess. And yes, we can clean up that mess."

It also has led to an impressive series of alliances for the fledgling company, including AT&T, McCaw Cellular and Toshiba, among others.

And XcelleNet's success has provided an opportunity for Tech students to work in the co-op program at XcelleNet. Georgia Tech, Bacon says, "is an important part of this company, but more importantly, it's an essential part of this community.

I'm just as high as I can be about the prospects for the Southeast, but especially for the North Georgia region as a technology incubator, and clearly most of that credit goes to Georgia Tech."

Jerry Schwartz is an Atlanta-based freelance writer.

GEORGIA TECH • Pacesetters: Knox and Bacon

53

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Pacesetters

Apple Picks DayStar

it.

PHOTO BY KATHRYN KOLB

By Hoyt Coffee

I

n your typical success story, somebody hits it rich by turning something they love into a thriving business: not so for Andrew Lewis, founder and president of the computer-design firm DayStar Digital.

"I've never liked computers," says Lewis, AE 76.

"When I was an engineer, I always had someone write my programs for me. I would use them, but I didn't like working in that environment. When I took computing at Tech, I took one course and got out of it as quickly as I could."

So what happened to lure a devout computerphobe out of a comfortable aerospace laboratory at General Dynamics and into the executive offices of a fledgling hardware company?

"I loved the Macintosh when I first saw it because it was so intuitively easy to use that I didn't have to be an expert at using a computer to use the computer, and to use it as a tool," Lewis says. "It really captured my heart. When I saw the thing, I just knew this was the future."

Lewis' 1983 vision turned out to be 20-20 foresight for DayStar.

In March, the 80-employee computer-design firm became one of four

Andrew Lewis' innovative style gained his company the license to clone Macintosh computers. companies granted a license by Apple Computer to clone the Macintosh operating system, a move Mac Week magazine news editor Andrew Gore called "a huge opportunity" for DayStar.

Don Strickland, vice president of operating-sys-

tem licensing at Apple, cited DayStar's "experience creating high-performance products for the mediapublishing markets" for the company's success in securing the license.

Lewis adds credits for a long-term relationship with Apple and a unique

market niche.

Working out of an old boot factory in tiny Flowery Branch, Ga., just past the roadside boiled-peanut stand, DayStar has been "souping-up" Macintoshes for the publishing industry since 1987. While developing hardware upgrades for

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Pacesetters: Lewis

55

Pacesetters

the Apple machines, DayStar created technology that allows the Mac to use more than one processor.

Software can then assign different program functions to separate processors, dramatically increasing the computer's speed.

"Apple asked us if they could buy that [technology] from us and integrate it into their operating system, and we said yes. So basically they licensed us to bring high-performance technology into the Mac or to work collaboratively with them," Lewis says.

"We're a lot like a NASCAR race shop for Apple. We freed Apple up not to have to do this high-end hot rod, and they can do more consumer-level machines.

So our relationship is one of collaboration."

Instead of competing with Apple in the highvolume, low-margin market, Lewis says DayStar is going head-to-head with other companies in the higher-end niche, such as Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics. The primary markets for DayStar's new Genesis MP workstation are newspapers and magazines that routinely deal with digital images as large as 40 megabytes. Companies such as Time-Life and The New York Times already use DayStar's products, which include combinations of new hardware and software for speeding up Macintoshes.

56

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

"It's kind of like putting the head of a chimpanzee onto the body of a cow," Lewis says. "There's a lot of splicing you've got to do to put that [faster] Power PC chip in there. Our skill is not just in making hardware, but in knowing the operating system. Putting multiple processors in it means a major revision of the operating system."

DayStar Digital got its start during the late 1970s in the aerospace engineering labs at General Dynamics, where Lewis was working on a laminar-flow wing design for the F-16.

"I'd really always wanted to start my own company in aviation," Lewis says. "I wanted to be a Howard Hughes or something. So I started a company called DayStar Digital. This is back in '82, and the industry was really starting to flower back then, so I just started looking for opportunities. We started off as an electronics manufacturing company doing subcontracting work."

"We built the company around the Macintosh. We realized that the quality of the-third-party peripherals we were getting wasn't that great. I had come out of aerospace, where I thought the quality of engineering was phenomenal, but the bureaucracy and all the red tape was so stifling. It was clear to me that if I could i put an engineering team

Lewis first wanted to be another "Howard Hughes or something," but he learned that Macintosh computers, not airplanes, were his forte.

DayStar was born. together of aerospace people—sort of emancipate them from the bureaucracy and put them in a West Coast-like culture with some good marketing—then I could really create something special."

Lewis says he became frustrated with Apple's performance and the company's snail-like pace in bringing new technology to the market, but he was convinced that the operating system was superior to others available. So he started doing upgrades in 1987. To get the kind of development team he wanted, Lewis "reverse engineered" DayStar.

"Most companies have a great idea, and then they go put an expansive team together, build in a lot of overhead, start developing their product, burn a lot of cash, then get in the market," Lewis says. "We put the operation in place and had it paying for itself first.

So we kind of backed our way in, and that was the intent from the very beginning, which was to build a technology company.

"We pulled out a lot of people from the aerospace industry, as well as the electronics side. And we

hired a number of Tech graduates. The bigger lesson that I learned is get a good engineering team together. What's distinguished DayStar has been that our engineering has always been superior to what's out there."

That superior engineering should mean spectacular growth for DayStar in the next few years. Sales of the $5,000 to $10,000 Macclone workstations—Apple gets $50 each—could reach $50 million this year and $100 million next year.

Cash infusions to keep up the pace could lead to taking the private company public in 1996, and the work force is expected to double to 160 employees.

Of course, every silver lining has its cloud. Lewis expects the growth to force DayStar out of its relaxed rural setting 50 miles north of Atlanta, a setting he chose so that he and his wife, Elizabeth, could raise their four daughters 'with traditional values."

"We weren't sure we would stay out here when we first located here, but the people in North Georgia are the blue-collar type, a tremendous quality of people. They're what made America great. You know, you go to the store, and you see people you've known for years, and they say 'Hi.' It's still a lot of the old America, the 'Leave it to Beaver' type of America, out here." •

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R (MTCh Gettingtothe Core of the Matter

By Hoyt Coffee

I

n 1861, Jules Verne sent an intrepid band of adventurers' on a Journey to the Center of the Earth, where they discovered vast unknown lands, great oceans and lost civilizations. Of course, modern science long ago dispelled such outlandish if entertaining notions, but researchers today are making real scientific discoveries about tlie earth's core seemingly no less fantastic than Verne's imaginings.

Seeking to explain the unusual behavior of seismic waves generated by

earthquakes and the mysteries of the earth's magnetic field, scientists have found evidence that the answers may lie at the very core of the planetâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in a single giant crystal.

"Seismologists found that the waves produced by earthquakes travel faster when they travel along the north-south pole of the earth than they do in the equatorial plane. And what we wanted to do was to understand what causes this observation," says Dr. Lars Stixrude, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences in Georgia Tech's College of Sciences.

"One possibility is that the earth's core is, in fact, K~ single crystal of iron."

As the earth was being formed from the remnants of exploding stars billions of years ago, most of the iron in this fiery soup sank into its deep interior. There it was crushed, at pressures more than 3 million times greater than those found at the surface, into an iron sphere some 1,500 miles in diameter. That inner core, which remains a solid despite temperatures believed to exceed 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, was long thought a featureless ball of matter having little or no

hi effect on the planet.

Knowing that seismic waves took about four fewer seconds to traverse the planet through the poles, Stixrude and his colleague, Dr. Ronald E. Cohen, a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, created a computer model of the earth's core. The model utilized Density Functional Theory, which uses mathematics to mimic the atomic structure of a material. Working with a Cray computer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, they compared the effect of passing seismic waves

Dr. Lars Stixrude's research into the earth's core may lead to a new understanding of the forces that shape planets.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Research

59

J)n

search

through the computer with that observed in nature.

"What we did was to use some quantum-mechanical calculations to predict the properties of iron at the very high pressures and temperatures that exist in the center of our planet," says Stixrude, whose interest in earth sciences carried him from high-school geology to a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley.

"We predicted, based on the calculations, that the inner core was made of a hexagonal structure of iron and that the elastic properties of the inner core are similar to those of a single crystal of iron."

A hexagonal crystal, one of the three known structures iron can take, is different from the cubic crystalline structure iron takes at the planet's surface. Its "anisotropy"—its tendency to let waves pass through it more easily in a certain direction—may explain why the tiny inner core can have such a large effect on seismic waves and on the earth's magnetic field.

"The earth's core is actually composed of two parts: There's the solid inner core, and surrounding that is a liquid outer core," Stixrude says. "It's that liquid outer core where the magnetic field is produced." While the 4,300mile-wide outer core may produce the magnetic field, the hard center may modify it in important ways.

60

GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

"If we understood better how magnetic fields were produced, we could understand more about the deep interior, where production is going on."

"To a very good approximation, the earth's field has the same shape that a bar magnet's has: It's a dipole field, but there are very slight deviations from that shape that the earth's magnetic field shows," Stixrude says. That shape, something like an apple sliced downward through its core, would be constant for a bar magnet. But in the earth's case, the lines connecting the north and south poles are skewed at the equator, where they should be parallel, in what's termed an inclination anomaly.

"This is a well-documented observation that people have known for a long time but haven't been able to explain," Stixrude says. "We suggested that one explanation was that the inner core might have an influence on the production of the magnetic field, might guide the production of the field somehow, might modify it so as to produce this skewing of the.field lines."

Stixrude and Brad Clement of Florida International University believe the inner core may also have something to do with a much more dramatic fluctuation of the magnetic field.

About every million years or so, the, field reverses

polarity: the north and south poles switch position. Paleomagnetists, who study the effect of the magnetic field in the geologic record, discovered this phenomenon while studying the crystalline structure of rocks. As the rocks cool from lava, for instance at the deep mid-ocean ridges where the earth's surface plates are formed, crystals line up with the direction of the magnetic field. Once completely cooled, the rocks retain their orientation and are no longer susceptible to magnetism. By dating the rocks and noting their crystalline structure, paleomagnetists can tell which direction the magnetic field took at any given time. They say evidence shows the last reversal occurred about 700,000 years ago.

"We talked about the possible influence of the inner core on this process of how the field reverses.

We know it reverses; it reverses throughout geologic history. We don't exactly know why, but we've been discovering more and more about just how it does it," he says. The reversal takes a relatively short amount of time, geologically speaking, only a few thousand years. And during the transition, the field retains its dipole shape, a phenomenon paleomagnetists have traced all the way to the south pole.

"What's interesting about that process is that

the path that the north pole takes during this reversal seems to follow two preferred paths: one through the Americas and one through eastern Asia," Stixrude says. The researchers theorize that as the poles shift, the main field produced in the outer molten core weakens, becoming more susceptible to the influence of the inner core.

The magnetic field also varies on a century time scale, never aligning exactly with the geographic north pole. It currently is centered about 12 degrees away from the geographic north pole.

"There are always fluctuations. And if you look at how much the field has changed, even over just the last few centuries, you'll find that it moves around quite a lot," Stixrude says.

So, why is it important to know how the earth's inner core affects magnetic fields?

"We know that most of the planets have magnetic fields, and stars all have magnetic fields. If we understood better how magnetic fields were produced, we could understand more about the deep interior, where this production is going on. And that's something we hope to use it for, not only to understand the magnetic field itself, which is really interesting, but to understand more about the interior, too." •

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Forecasting the Future of Microelectronics

By James E. Kloeppel A s a young ROTC of/ A fleer with the Army JL J L Signal Corps, James D. Meindl was fascinated by the invention of the integrated circuit in 1959- He has been enamored with microelectronics ever since.

"The invention of the microchip has had, and will

continue to have, a profound and pervasive impact on our lives," he says.

Especially upon his own. Meindl has spent the past 35 years pursuing the profession. Today, he holds the Joseph M. Pettit Chair in Microelectronics, a position that has special significance for him.

"When I left the Army

The Meindl File Born—1933 In Pittsburgh, Pa, Education—BS. MS. and PhD in electrical engi neering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Personal—Meindl and his wile ol At years, Frederica, have two children, Peter and Candace.

Achievements—Meindl holds the Joseph M. Pettit Chair in Microelectronics at Tech. Previously, he served (1986-1 993 i as senior vice president for \i ademic Allans and Provosl of Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, At Stanford University (1967 86), he was professor of electrical engineering and held Other posts. I le is c<> founder of Telescnsorv Systems inc., the principal manufacturer of electronic reading aids for the blind. Meindl is a Pellow of the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a membra of the American Academy of Arts ami Sciences ami the National Academy of Engineering ami its Academie Advisory Board, lie has received numerous awards, including the 1991 Benjamin Garvet lamme Medal from ASEE, the L990 IEEE Educa tion Medal and the 1989 IEEE Solid-State Circuits Medal. I le is die author of two books and over 300 teehnu al papers, and holds six patents, Leisure Interests—Although Meindl enjoys the symphony and jogs regularly with his wife, he observes, "My profession is my hobby. To be in inle grated electronics for all of its history, and to be able to look at it as deeply and as broadly as I hare, you can't beat it."

•A. 62 GEORGIA TECH • Summer 1995

Electronics Laboratories and began my academic career in 1967, I was hired as an associate professor at Stanford University," he explains. "The person w h o sent my offer letter was Joseph M. Pettit, then dean of engineering at Stanford.

When Pettit later became president of Georgia Tech, I followed his activities and had sporadic contact with him. Because our fields were the same—solid state electronics—we would intersect occasionally at professional meetings."

Since coming to Tech, Meindl has pursued an old challenge: forecasting the future—specifically, the future of microelectronics.

"One of the reasons I became an engineer," he confesses, "is because I believe engineering allows you to predict the future. I tell my students, 'If you understand the laws of physics, you can use those laws to predict how something like an electric circuit, a television or an airplane should work. Then, you can build that "something" and test it. If it works the way you thought it should, then you effectively forecast the future.'"

Meindl has developed a unique hierarchy of theoretical and practical limits.

Consisting of five levels— codified as fundamental, material, device, circuit, and system—the hierarchy

starts with fundamental laws of physics and scales up to complex systems.

Fundamental limits are immutable laws of nature that cannot be changed, Meindl says. Theoretical limits depend on the general principles of science that apply at each level of the hierarchy, while engineering issues—particularly those related to the economic manufacture of semiconductor products— determine the most important practical limits on integrated circuits. By applying his hierarchy of li in its.

Meindl can better understand the physical laws that govern what can be done on a microchip.

"You get an enormous benefit by looking at a hierarchy of limits," he says.

"The benefit is one < )f context. When you have a conversation with someone, the context carries a vast amount of information, which is unspoken.

For example, if I say. 'Em going to give you a ticket,' you might think I'm giving you a ticket to a play. But if Em a state trooper, there is a whole different eontext. So what the hierarchy does is provide a context.

It enriches your understanding and allows you to have much more confidence in your forecasts."

Meindl foresees continued growth for microelectronics. In fact, he predicts

PHOTO BY GARY MEEK

Dr. James Meindl's career in solid-state electronics, spanning the life of the microchip, leads him to forecast new developments. that a chip containing one billion transistors will be produced within the next five years, a projection that he made initially in 1983.

"When 1 started in the profession, we were building a single transistor in a chip," he says. "Today, we routinely build 50 million transistors in a chip. Moreover, the speed and reliability of today's microchip have increased substantially, while the cost per chip has remained nearly constant. There has never been a technology in history that has had the sustained rate of improvement in productivity and performance of the microchip."

Meindl wants to continue to develop his hierarchy of limits to the point "where we can feel that we

understand the potential of the technology at any given moment for the next 15-20 years ... and, hopefully, identify early some discontinuity and opportunities to leap to the next new technology."

Discontinuities, caused by unpredictable discoveries or sudden inventions, sometimes occur in technology, he says. These discontinuities fundamentally change the future.

"If you look at electronics during this century, the first part of the century was the stone age of electronics. It was the era of the vacuum tube. You had a relatively large glass bulb with a glowing, red-hot filament that took lots of power. Along came the transistor, and it eliminated

the crushing burden of heater power and large size. The transistor—and,ultimately, the microchip)— was a discontinuity.

"Someday, we will hit another discontinuity in the field of microelectronics. If you asked, 'What would be the most exhilarating thing that could happen?,' my answer would be to be around to see what that next discontinuity is, and know that you've made the leap and have a grip on the next technology."

In 1986, Meindl accepted a new challenge as provost of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He found the position both stimulating and rewarding.

"When you are a provost, you have a small pool of discretionary funds," he

explains, "and your job is to invest those funds in different faculty ventures to gain maximum intellectual return for the institution. It was very much like being a venture capitalist in an intellectual environment."

After serving as provost for seven years, Meindl again chose to contribute to science as a researcher, rather than as an administrator. He accepted a professorship at Georgia Tech.

"Working with a group of graduate students on the intellectual issues involved with what makes microelectronics continue to be so powerful is, I think, the most rewarding challenge of all." • James E. Kloeppel is a freelance writer in Atlanta.

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Meindl

63

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