Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 80, No. 01 2003

SUMMER 2003

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Tech's Alumni Artists

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GEORGIA TECH CLUB

DOTTT MLSS THIS GOIJDEN (l>PORTlJNITY.

A new chapter in the rich heritage of Georgia Tech is about to niifbkl.

From dream to reality, The Georgia lech (Hub continues to move forward, Architectural plans are being refined, golf course layouts arc receiving final modifications and more and more lech alumni and friends arcrecognizingthe value of otiee-in-a-lifelimc opportunities to enjoy membership and advantages of living in the heart of the "Traditions" community.

The Georgia lech (dub will feature a Rees Jones-designed championship golf course, a.Stan Smith tennis center, a Lifestyle center complete with spa. health and fitness complex, a golf learning center, and clubhouse. The "Traditions" community will offer a limited number of homesites and custom homes. Additionally, the (JeorgiaTech (dub will provide Spacious accommodationsformembers' overnight stays in eomforiable Founder Gottages conveniently located near the clubhouse, Located on 600 rolling acres north of Atlanta, this exclusive club and community will eater to Georgia Tech alumni and supporters while providing (inancial support for the Institute For membership and real estate information, please contact the Georgia Tech (dub.

G E O R G I A T E C H CLUB Membership Office - 2475 North Winds Kirkwuv, Suite 200, Alplutreiia. (iA 30004

404-240-7225 or 800-281-078] • wvvw.eoariiu:echchib.cotn

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I ©©[^©00 W. Howard Ector, IM 1940

(1917 - 2001)

• Atlanta Touchdown Club Award - Most Valuable Player in SEC; member of ANAK, ODK, Senior Class President.

• Secretary, National Alumni Association; Manager, Athletic Association.

• President, Alumni Association; Athletic Board; member, Athletic Hall of Fame.

• Dean Griffin Community Service Award, 1995; Joseph M. Pettit Distinguished Alumni Award, 1998.

• U.S. Army Air Force Pilot, World War II. • VP, Trust Company of Georgia and Senior VR Georgia International Life Insurance Co. • Leadership roles: Boy Scouts; First Presbyterian Church, Marietta; Kennesaw College Foundation; 1992 Marietta Citizen of the Year.

• Married 60 years to Ellen Bradshaw Ector.

• Two daughters, one son.

Gifts to Georgia Tech: • 55 consecutive years of giving to Roll Call; Alexander-Tharpe Fund; Robert Ferst Center for the Arts.

• Retirement assets and insurance policy for the W. Howard Ector and W. Roane Beard Outstanding Classroom Teaching Awards.

For 60 years, Howard Ector supported Tech's academic and athletic programs while also giving generously of his time and talents. He was a founder of Georgia Tech's Roll Call in 1947, and he initiated the program to have Boy Scouts serve as ushers at football games.

Through his countless contributions, Howard Ector's legacy and his love for Georgia Tech live on.

W. Howard Ector is one of 799 Founders' Council members who have made bequests or life income gifts of at least $25,000 to support Georgia Tech's future.

0§ PHGDEJOD IT® S®!?!?®®tT ©2002 The Coca-Cola Company. "Coca-Cola" and the Contour Bottle design are registered trademarks of The Coca-Cola Company.

CONTENTS Alu Magazin ®

Vol. 80, No. 1

Summer 2003

Journey of the Steel The bright yellow bridge spanning the 1-75/1-85 Downtown Connector in Atlanta was fabricated in Florida by Tampa Steel Erecting, a company headed by Tech alums Bob and John Clark.

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Friend to Frogs Ron Holt put his design skills to work to fashion a way to photograph the shy — and sometimes deadly — tree frogs at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Rational Imagination Charles Kohlhase has experienced the ultimate cosmic journey during a 44-year career devoted to space exploration. Koldhase's journey through life also has included noteworthy contributions as a photographer, digital artist, author, educator and environmentalist.

The Sculptor Barry Woods Johnston has carved out a multidimensional life as a combat artist, architect, inventor, classical musician and as an acclaimed sculptor. His career as an artist took shape at Georgia Tech.

Forgotten Waters David Kaufman paddled into historic territory when he began exploring Peachtree Creek and its tributaries to unlock the mystery of the forgotten waterway. Tinresult is a book that will be published this fall.

Cover: The creations of sculptor Barry Woods Johnston are featured with the artistic work and photography of fellow alumni Charles Kohlhase, Ron Holt and David Kaufman in this ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

— Photo by Laura Sikes

Departments

Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, Publis,

John C. Dunn, Editor Neil B. McGahee, Associate Editor § Maria M. Lameiras Assistant Editor Kimberly Link-Wills, Assistant Editor Andrew Niesen and Rachel LaCour Niesen, Design

Editorial Advisory Board C. Meade Sutterfield, EE 72 Vice Presidedt/Commonicntions Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of trustees Executive Committee Private equity investor

7 Feedback 11 Tech Notes

J. Gary Sowell, IE 73 Alumni Association Board of Trustees Retired director BellSouth Technology Group

Environmental Advances State Losing High-tech Jobs Catherine Ross Leads Quality Growth Center Remembering Medal of Honor Recipients Neural Signals Tech Weathers Budget Cuts

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Robert T. "Bob" Harty Executive Director Institute Communications & Public Affairs

Faculty Profile Tom Barnwell: Fine-tuning Education

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John D. Toon Manager Georgia Tech Research News and Publications Office

Photo Finish Lavender Blue

Advertising Jeff Colburn (404) 894-9279 F-i i mil: jolt my. colbum@alumni. gatech. edit

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine (ISSN: 1061 9747) is published quarterly (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) lor Roll Call contributors by the Georgia lech Alumni Association, Alumni/Fa: House, 225 North Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA 303320175. Georgia lech Alumni Association allocates $10 I rem a contribution toward a year's subscription to its magazine. Periodical postage paid at Atlanta,GA., and additional mailing offices. Š 2003 Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Main Number (404) 894-2391 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Georgia lech Alumni Magazine, Alumni/Faculty House, 225 North Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175. Editorial: (404) 894-0750/0761. Fax: (404) 894-5113.

E-mail: editor@alumni.yatech.edu; gtalumni.org

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Homecoming Weekend - October 2-4

BE THERE! Alumni Seminars at Tech's New Global Learning Center

Buzz Bash - Tech's All-Alumni Party

Reunion Parties for Classes of 1953,1963,1978

Alumni Tailgate Party Prior to Tech vs. NC State Game

FeedBack Legacy Preference After reading the Viewpoint column by Joseph P. Irwin (Spring ALUMNI MAGAZINE), I

could not wait to write my first "letter to the editor." Let me begin by saying his points are excellent. His reasoning and policy are sound.

It is refreshing to see a university that views its students and alumni as customers.

Maybe our universities in Illinois would not be so dependent upon state funding if they would take this view, rather than a view of "enhanced diversity."

While neither of my two sons chose Georgia Tech for their college educations, I would have been disappointed if they had not received some preferential treatment regarding admission.

Dale A. Brandt, IE 63 Vernon Hills, III. Underground Search My mother agrees with Malcolm Wells' philosophy about an earth-sheltered home ("Underground Architecture," ALUMNI MAGAZINE Winter 2003).

She has read his books and has dreamed of building an earth-sheltered home for 30 years. She wants to build one in north Georgia.

Many builders don't seem to know what we're talking about. Most of the time we hear,

"Do you mean a fallout shelter?"

The setback, in addition to the lack of information by builders and being regarded as "crazy radicals," is the fact that this kind of structure seems to be limited only to the very wealthy.

We are an average family, with an average income. We simply cannot afford a $500,000 custom-designed home, which is what everyone we have talked to has said is our only option.

Can you please help us?

We've searched the Web and found very little useful information. Most sites seem limited to trying to sell people on the idea of an "earth home," but there is no helpful information beyond that.

Erin McRaven Maysville, Ga. Architect and author Malcolm Wells, CIs 47, of Brewster, Mass., says that underground construction costs vary.

Because many contractors are edgy about tackling this unusual way of building, they at first often submit inflated estimates.

Wells, who has built more than 100 earth-sheltered homes, says the construction of an underground house is the same as the construction of any house, but because of its beefy structure and premium waterproofing, usually runs about 10 \ percent more than an above-ground house of

ViewPoint Progressive Pricing

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he Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has approved tuition hikes for all 34 schools in the system. The four major research universities — Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia and Georgia State — have been approved for larger increases than the balance of the system. This is in direct response to rising costs and declining state support and it's most appropriate.

Those of you who have children in college (I have two on the way over the next six years) may disagree. But remember, tuition only provides slightly more than one-third of the cost to educate a student. Higher education at Georgia's public universities is a bargain compared to other states. Tech continues to be the landmark bargain in our public and private peer group.

Sure, that's little consolation when you're staring at a bill with an additional $500 in unanticipated costs or $2,000 more if you come from out of state. The environment we're in mandates progressive pricing.

The alternative is decline. You're seeing this at many colleges across the country. In fact, many colleges are closing their doors. If you can't reinvest, you can't attract students or faculty. If you can't support your curriculum, you can't provide the education.

The environment we're in also mandates progressive cost control. Universities have a somewhat notorious reputation for inefficiency and redundancy. This is a direct result of the decentralized nature of higher education. You're beginning to see these institutions — especially public universities — respond to this call. Declining endowments are "shaking the trees." When this happens, people respond by becoming more innovative and efficient. These two themes will permeate higher ed for quite some time to come. This will help balance the equation.

Joseph P. Irwin Vice President and Executive Director In a self-portrait, Malcolm Wells displays his underground home.

Summer 2003 • GEORGIA TECH 7

the same size and comparable finish.

The savings on fewer exterior finishes and a less complicated roof just don't equal the extras, he says. His Web site is www.malcolmwells.com.

Transportation Crime "Trains, Planes and Automobiles" is a slick article in a slick publication printed on a dark background that makes reading difficult for us 60-somethings (Spring 2003).

No amount of high technology will solve Atlanta's transportation problems. Any remedies are 30 years too late. What once was a great city is now a mass of congestion, with traffic everywhere.

We came to town for a wedding on a recent weekend and stayed in the l-85/Pleasant Hill Road area. Malls, stores, service stations everywhere — and this is more than halfway to Athens. I swore in the mid'90s that I would never come back to Atlanta again. I restate that promise.

Those responsible for Atlanta's undisciplined growth should be serving time.

Noel Malone, ChE 57 Kingsport, Tenn.

Appearance, Quality M a t c h The Spring 2003 edition of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE looks

great. I really appreciate your use of such high-quality paper, which makes the color photos (and advertisements) appear clear and brilliant. The articles have always been terrific. The appearance matches that quality and enhances the image of the Institute.

Thanks for a great publication.

Lawrence F. Kahn Associate Professor School of Civil & Environmental Engineering Boyd Would Be Proud I very much enjoyed Robert Coram's article on John Boyd and the letters by Morton Eldridge and others that followed. Allow me to offer one more perspective on Boyd's work.

As an anti-air warfare analyst for

G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

the Navy in the late 1980s and early '90s, I struggled to understand qualitative presentations of air combat maneuvering. Energy-Maneuverability analysis was a breath of fresh air, a quantitative measure of air-to-air performance that appealed to my physicist background.

EM is more than a fancy diagram for comparing and contrasting aircraft.

It tells a pilot which

speeds and altitudes are preferred and those flight conditions that should be avoided. It permits the fighter pilot to categorize aircraft by capability, leading to concrete answers for tactical questions (One-circle or two-circle fight? "Turn and burn" or extend to bring forward quarter weapons to bear?). EM theory is the key to modern dog fighting.

I know little of Boyd's development of EM, but I can set the record straight regarding the historical context. There was widespread disappointment in U.S. air-to-air successes in the first half of the Vietnam War (up to the bombing halt in 1968), as documented by the Ault Report and elsewhere. The Navy's response was to implement intensive air combat maneuvering training, which led directly to the establishment of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, aka Top Gun. When air combat resumed in 1972, the overall Navy kill ratio increased from 3.7-to-1 to 13-to-1.

If Boyd had a fault, it might have been a preoccupation with air combat maneuvering at the expense of beyond-visual-range missile employment. It is true that during the Vietnam War unreliable hardware, confusing switchology and restrictive rules of

engagement made success with radarguided missiles the exception.

However, by the Gulf War in 1991, radar-guided missiles accounted for most of the kills.

And where are we today? Training syllabuses still contain significant air combat maneuvering. Next-generation fighters like the F-22 and the F-35 still carry guns, have tear-drop canopies for good visibility and are designed with the dog fight in mind. However, these same fighters are designed principally for low-radar signatures, not for super maneuverability or operation at extremely high speeds and altitudes.

And the radar-guided advanced medium-range, air-to-air missile is the primary weapon.

My understanding is that in the recent Iraq war the Iraqi air force did not fly a single sortie. It seems we may have anti-air warfared ourselves out of business. And I think John Boyd would be very, very proud.

Gregory A. Showman MS EE 94, PhD EE 00 Marietta, Ga.

We Welcome Your Letters The ALUMNI MAGAZINE

welcomes letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for clarity, space and content.

• Mail correspondence to: Georgia Tech Alumni Publications 190 North Ave. NW Atlanta, GA 30313 • Our fax number is (404) 385-4637 • Our e-mail address is editor@alumni.gatech.edu

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Another Look at Atlanta's Architects The sampling of architecture by Georgia Tech alumni that gives Atlanta form and substance, which was featured in our Spring edition, could easily have provided a larger sampling of form and substance. Atlanta's showcase of Tech architects is well worth a second took.

FABRAP's Many Landmarks The Tech ties of Finch Alexander Barnes Rothschild and Paschal Architects are strong. Bill Finch, Miller Barnes and Caraker Paschal were all Tech graduates. I attended one year in 1936 before transferring. Finch and I served on the faculty as design critics and, more recently, I originated and directed the Continuing Education Program at the College of Architecture.

During our years of practice, FABRAP designed many Atlanta landmarks: the Coca-Cola headquarters tower, the Coca-Cola technical building, the original Coca-Cola USA building, the campus plan and park across North Avenue, the Russell Federal Building, the First National Bank tower at Five Points and the original Georgia Power building at Peachtree and Baker streets (recently unfeelingly modified). In an equal joint venture with Skidmore Owings and Merrill, FABRAP designed the Southern Bell (now BellSouth) tower on West Peachtree and the original Phipps Plaza.

On the Tech campus we designed the Student Center, the Chemical and Industrial Engineering building, the Chemistry building and, with Heery, the SAC 70 building. In an ongoing joint venture with Heery, we designed the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and the Five Points MARTA station. Finally, FABRAP designed the Fulton County Administration Center on Pryor Street.

In 1985, we merged with Rosser and no longer function as a separate organization. But this firm, which erected these many landmark buildings in the last half of the century, played a major role in building modern Atlanta. And our Tech ties are impeccable.

Cecil A. Alexander, CIs 39 Atlanta

Airport Architects I enjoyed reading the article in the Spring 2003 issue, "Architecture of Atlanta." I was happy to see my Old firm listAtlanta's Hartsfield Airport in 1981 ed as one of the top 25 and being headed by a great Tech man, Tom Ramsey. Stevens & Wilkinson has a much longer Tech leadership history, however.

My father, Preston Stevens Sr., was an architecture student starting in 1914 and until World War I interrupted his studies, and those of many others, a couple of years later. Upon his return, he elected in 1919 to found our firm with another

Tech man, Flippen Burge. My dad was chairman of the board for many years and I, a Tech Architecture grad, also spent my career at S&W and retired as chairman.

One omission in the article, to my way of thinking, was any mention of the world's largest airport, Hartsfield in Atlanta, a design job S&W proudly continues in today after 36 years.

Thank you for your splendid work in highlighting the careers of Tech grads. Maybe my real claim to fame was being listed in alphabetical order in Tech classes, which often put me in the seat next to astronaut John Young.

Preston Stevens Jr., Arch 52 Atlanta

Banner Waves at Heery I truly enjoyed the "Architecture of Atlanta" article in the Spring 2003 ALUMNI MAGAZINE. I understand the list on page 43 was derived from the Atlanta Business Chronicle, which limits the number of names each firm can submit for this annual list.

Because Atlanta is both the corporate and Southeast region headquarters for Heery International, Georgia Tech alumni who make up the management team in our local Atlanta office were not identified. For the record, Heery has many Tech graduates within its 1,000-person firm. While I head the Atlanta office, our chief financial officer is John P. "Jack" Hill, IM 70.

We have also exported many Tech men to manage other Heery offices — Theodore "Ted" Sak, MgtSci 74, IE 77, manages our West region and James "Jim" Isaf, Arch 77, leads our Northwest region. The Tech banner continues to wave at Heery International 15 years after the departure of its founder, George Heery, Arch 51.

Glenn M. Jardine, ME 77 Atlanta

Summer 0)03

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Environmental Advances

Nicole Cappello

Ford ES&T Building enables quest for innovative research

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an we meet the needs of the people living on the planet Earth today without jeopardizing the wellbeing of future generations?"

Tech President Wayne Clough asked that "perilous question" at the dedication of the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building on May 16.

Clough says the $58 million structure, the largest academic building on campus, will enable Tech to make "a larger and more meaningful contribution to generating the innovation that is needed to help sustain the Earth's life support systems and at the same time improve the quality of life for the planet's growing population."

The Ford Motor Co. made a $10 million commitment to the construction of the 287,000-square-foot structure, the second of four buildings to open in the Institute's interdisciplinary Life Sciences and Technology complex.

It contains classrooms and research facilities for the schools of Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences as well as the disciplines of environmental biology and chemistry.

Edsel B. Ford II, who serves on Ford's board of directors, says the company is committed to helping solve environmental problems. He shared the podium with Clough, Thomas C. Meredith, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, and Tiffany R. Stark, ChE 03.

The Ford ES&T Building received a combination of state and private funding, with $38 million coming from the state of Georgia, $15 million from private donors and $5 million from the Georgia Research Alliance.

Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough, left, speaks with Edsel B. Ford II, who serves on Ford's board of directors. The company committed $10 million for the Ford ES&T Building's construction. The building, above, the largest academic building on Georgia Tech's campus, was dedicated on May 16.

Summer 2003 • G E O R G I A T E C H

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State Losing High-tech Jobs in Economic Slump

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he economic downturn has cost Georgia its national lead in hightech job growth, a new Georgia Tech study shows.

Analysis of federal and state employment data shows that over the past two years, Georgia has lost hightech employment more rapidly than the national average — a total of 21,000 jobs between the end of 2000 and the end of 2002.

As recently as 2001, a study by the industry organization American Electronics Association ranked Georgia ahead of all other states in growth of this industry sector. High-tech jobs are important economically because of their generally high wages.

"Georgia did well in adding hightech jobs in the boom years of the 1990s," says researcher Philip Shapira, a professor in Tech's School of Public Policy. "But following a peak at the end of 2000, Georgia's high-tech jobs total has declined in every subsequent quarter."

Despite losing high-tech jobs overall at a rate faster than the nation, several sectors within the technology arena have actually gained employment. Jobs in engineering and architectural services, research and testing services and drug manufacturing grew in Georgia between 2000 and 2002.

"Georgia has special capabilities in these areas," says Jan Youtie, a researcher in Georgia Tech's Economic Development Institute who co-authored the study with Shapira and public policy doctoral student Jue Wang. "We have a critical mass of engineering capabilities and research capabilities; it's the third-largest sector with over 31,000 jobs in 2002."

The study indicates that Georgia's competitive advantage lies in research and service-related technology sectors.

Three service industries make up more than 70 percent of Georgia's high-tech sector: telecommunications services, computer and data processing services, and engineering services, In 2002, high-technology firms employed nearly 7 percent of Georgia's workforce, or 222,000 employees.

The Georgia Tech study also shows that high-tech services is a larger employment sector in Georgia than high-tech manufacturing, with services accounting for about 177,000 jobs and manufacturing accounting for approximately 44,000 jobs. The services sector also accounts for higher wages than high-tech manufacturing.

Georgia's specialty is in knowledge-intensive high-tech services rather than manufacturing, according to Youtie. "High-tech services in Georgia

are often overlooked despite outperforming high-tech manufacturing in employment scale and average wages," Overall, Georgia's high-tech industries paid very well compared to the average private sector firm.

Average weekly wages for employees in Georgia high-tech establishments in 2001 were $1,192, compared to $684 for all private-sector employees. That has magnified the economic impact of the employment losses, Shapira says.

While national employment levels in high-tech sectors stabilized during the second quarter of 2002, Georgia's high-tech employment levels continued to drop, according to the study.

Georgia's decline began one quarter before national employment levels began to drop and continued to fall by 1.6 percent between the first and second quarters of 2002, Nationally, employment levels in high-tech firms began dropping in 2001, with 560,000 jobs lost nationwide between January 2001 and December 2002.

Overall, Georgia lost 6 percent of its high-tech jobs from 2000 to 2002.

High-tech manufacturing lost 11 percent of its jobs, while high-tech services lost 5 percent of its employment.

Catherine Ross Leads Quality Growth Center Catherine Ross, who served as the first executive director of metro Atlanta's transportation and clean air agency, has been named director of Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development to study land use, community design, transportation and air quality throughout the Atlanta region. Ross was also named to the Harry West Chair for Quality Growth and Regional Development, the College of Architecture's first endowed chair.

The center, an educational research arm of the College of Architecture, will be housed at Technology Square and examine issues that impact Atlanta and the Southeast. It will serve as a national and international model for advancing such regional concerns as community design, improved air and water quality, education, transportation and overall quality of life, Ross says. "These are not only issues that are important to us. People all over the world are struggling with the same problems, and we have a great chance of actually addressing some of them here." Ross, who began her duties July 1, was the first executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, a state agency created by the Legislature in 1999 to help the 13 metro Atlanta counties out of compliance with clean air standards to develop new transportation plans and initiatives to meet or exceed federal requirements. Ross' chief duties will be to organize the center's mission and activities, building research and issue teams to address problems and develop solutions.

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G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

TpnhNrvtec: Nicole Cappello

7 5 Years Ago Georgia Tech's textile department conducted atmospheric studies in the summer of 1928 to help Atlanta and the textile industry. An apparatus was mounted atop the textile building to conduct smoke tests and study weather conditions. "The smoke nuisance that has confronted Atlanta for some years has been its most perplexing problem," the alumni magazine said. And weather conditions in the state had contributed to an "untold loss in depreciation of fabric goods in department stores and textile manufactories."

Joining Marine Gen. Ray Davis, ChE 38, at the dedication of plaques recognizing Tech's Medal of Honor winners are Bill Byrd, President Wayne Cough and Joe Byrd IV.

Memorial Plaques Ceremony celebrates four Medal of Honor winners

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arine Gen. Raymond G. Davis, one of America's most decorated soldiers, and three other military heroes were recognized in a ceremony May 19 dedicated to Georgia Tech's Medal of Honor recipients.

Memorial plaques herald the heroism of Davis, who led a battalion under withering fire during the Korean War to rescue a rifle company and seized and held a pass that provided an escape route for two other Marine regiments; Army Air Corps Maj. Thomas McGuire Jr., who during World War II became America's second-leading fighter pilot of all time; Navy Capt. David McCampbell, the Navy ace of aces during World War II; and Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood, America's soldier-statesman who helped capture the Apache chief Geronimo and later helped kick off Georgia Tech's football tradition.

The plaques create a wall of honor leading to the plaza entrance of the Wardlaw Center on campus and were given by Joseph P. Byrd III, GE 38, of

Lufkin, Texas, inventor of the Mark II oil field pumping unit and a retired lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve.

At the ceremony, Davis said, "I know I speak for all Medal of Honor recipients in thanking Joe Byrd for his vision, his determination and his commitment. I know everyone will be very proud of what we have here."

Byrd, who was unable to attend the ceremony, was represented by his sons, Joseph P. Byrd IV and Bill Byrd, IE 69, both of Atlanta.

"My father always admired his friend and classmate, General Ray Davis, one of America's great fighting men," Bill Byrd said. "My father is also an admirer of President Wayne Clough and hopes this memorial will be of importance to this wonderful institution."

The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat, above and beyond the call of duty.

5 0 Years Ago The cost of a Tech education for a Georgia resident in 1953 was $1,115 for the year. Tuition and fees totaled $207, room and board was $750, ROTC (required) $58, and books and equipment $100. For out-ofstate residents, the cost for the year totaled $1,415. Blake R. Van Leer was president of a campus that had grown from five acres, two buildings and 130 students to 92 acres, 75 buildings and nearly 4,000 students.

2 5 Years Ago May 3 was a great day to serve eggs sunny side up.

Georgia Tech observed Sun Day, an event that included a student solar cooking contest.

Participants had to prepare lunch by building a system that used the sun to cook food. Sun Day caught the media glare too, and ABC featured the event on "Good Morning, America."

Summer2003 ' G E O R G I A T E C H

13

Tech Notes

Neural Signals Rodent brain cells move this robot

By Neil B. McGahee

A

s robots go, it's not much to look at — a hockey pucklooking thing with some wires and circuit boards connected to it — but the Hybrot is the first robot controlled by cultured brain cells.

Steve Potter, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tech and Emory University, and his research team in the neuroengineering lab used cultured rodent brain cells to act as the robot's brain and control its movement. Potter believes researchers eventually will be able to establish a living network system that learns like the human brain.

"We have a couple of bigpicture goals," he says. "From the engineering side, we hope some of the things we learn about how brain cells learn, remember and forget can be applied to computers. In the future, computers might learn the things you tend to do and automate them so you don't have to keep doing the same things over and over.

"On the biology side, we hope to take the things we find out about learning and memory and apply them to disorders where humans have lost motor control, memory or information processing abilities. We hope someday to use it to address significant human problems like Alzheimer's and dyslexia.

"The goal of the lab is to study learning and memory in a system where we can see the cells that are doing the learning," Potter says. "In animals this isn't possible because the cells are within their body, so I created a system for studying learning and memory in a petri dish. The system involves taking brain cells from the cortex of mouse or rat embryos and placing them in an in-vitro environment."

Cells from the cortex are placed on a petri dish embedded with 60 micro-electrodes and are kept alive for up to two years using a sealed-dish culture system developed and patented by Potter.

"We can listen to those cells and talk to them," Potter says. "Brain cells, more accurately neurons, are electrically active and we can record the activity these cells produce when they are talking to each other.

14

G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

"Cells communicate with each other two ways — by electrical impulses or action potentials or, more commonly, by neurotransmitter molecules. Action potentials are used to move information signals down axons from one end of a neuron to the other, sort of like a trans-Atlantic cable. If a series of cells are controlling your legs, action potentials may be sent all the way down the spinal cord and ion channels in the axon act as boosters for the signal," he says.

"When the signal gets to the end of the neuron, it releases neuro-transmitters that are sensed by the next cell and that's the way cells communicate. We listen to the action potentials with our electrodes and the neural activity is recorded and transmitted to the robot."

Potter says the researchers observe neural signaling patterns and document changes in the cells using high-speed cameras and voltage-sensitive dyes in conjunction with laser microscopy.

"We're looking for evidence the networks are growing and learning over time," he says. "If you're going to study learning, you have to determine what learning is. A dish of cells growing alone can't do any learning because it doesn't behave.

You don't know if something is learned unless it changes behavior, so we allow these cells to behave by letting them control animats, a kind of simulated animal."

Potter says the group's effort is to devise ways to translate neurocellular signals to the robot.

"If you're working with animals you have to use whatever circuitry the animal has, but because we are creating this animal from the ground up, we can use whatever translation we want," Potter says.

"We listen to the activity the cells produce on their own and look for recurring patterns. That is a motor command and we can adapt that signal to make the Hybrot, say, move a step forward. Another behavior pattern may make the Hybrot turn left. We have some real-time software crunching these activity patterns quickly so we can have the Hybrot moving in less than a tenth of a second after receiving the signal.

"We call it the Hybrot because it is a hybrid of living and robotic components," he says. "We hope to learn how living neural networks may be applied to the artificial computing systems of tomorrow."

TechNotes

Tech Weathers Budget Cuts, May See More

G

eorgia Tech officials are dealing with major cutbacks in state funding and are preparing for the possibility of further reductions.

Although the governor and the Legislature had to cut $180 million from the University System and $18 million specifically from Georgia Tech due to a slumping economy, they did make good on their commitment to fund enhancements to the University System's funding formula — $81.5 million to cover a 7 percent increase in credit hour enrollment and $6.7 million to operate and maintain new facilities throughout the University System — in the fiscal 2004 budget. The formula funds were on the top of Georgia Tech's priority list, says Andrew Harris, the Institute's director of government relations.

many course offerings as they had planned," Harris says.

The passing of Senate Bill 73, which allows colleges and universities to carry over technology fees, continuing education fees and indirect cost recoveries from one fiscal year to the next, will allow Tech to allocate resources more efficiently, Harris says.

"This allows us to plan better in being able to carry over funds from one fiscal year to the next," he says. "We haven't lost a great deal of funds due to year end lapse, but often times we expend funds without proper planning.

If we can carry funds over, we can expend these funds in a much more planned and prudent fashion."

The carryover measure will sunset in 2006, but may be extended if the University System can demonstrate

Although Tech and the University System are faced with a diminished budget, they were spared further cuts due to lobbying efforts by University System Chancellor Thomas C. Meredith, Board of Regents officials, alumni, students and institution presidents, including Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough, Harris says.

However, the potential still remains for further cutbacks.

"There is a good possibility for a special legislative session in September that could result in even deeper cuts. There is a probability of additional reductions across the board and in specific programs," Harris explains. "There are more clouds on the horizon."

The Georgia Tech Regional Engineering Program was allocated $1.4 million of a $3.7 million request, which still will allow GTREP to move into its new facilities in Savannah and begin operations. The program allows students in southwest Georgia to earn Tech engineering degrees without leaving the area.

"The impact of a lower allocation is that GTREP may not be able to hire as many additional faculty or have as

good fiscal management and operating responsibility, according to the Senate

bill.

Rescheduled for next fiscal year's budget was a request for $3.5 million to equip the Klaus Advanced Computing Technology Building, which is not slated for completion until fiscal year 2005.

Other passed legislation of interest to higher education included a Senate resolution to establish the Improvement of the HOPE Scholarship Study Committee.

The 20-member committee will assess the HOPE scholarship program.

About 4,900 of the approximately 11,000 undergraduate students at Tech receive HOPE funds in a typical year, according to Tech's financial aid office.

The committee will recommend changes by Dec. 31.

Kara Szcvepaniec

Alumni Rate Tops About 800 alumni attended the 56th annual Presidents' Dinner on May 30 celebrating the Roll Call drive to generate $7.4 million in unrestricted funds for Georgia Tech. Posing with the Ramblin' Wreck are, left to right, Alumni Association President Robert L. Hall, IM 64, Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough, CE 63, MS CE 64, and Georgia Tech Foundation Chairman H. Hammond "Buck" Stith, CE 58. Clough told the group, all of whom had contributed $1,000 or more to the Roll Call campaign, that of the nine public universities that rank with Tech in the nation's top 10, none matches the level of financial support from Georgia Tech alumni. "You are the number one group of alumni in the United States."

Summer 2003 • G E O R G I A T E C H

15

Htisuk fa

n behalf of the Georgia Tech

Alumni Association we would like to thank more than 26,000 donors who raised over $7.4 million for the 56th Annual Roll Call.

M

ith the support from our alumni,

faculty, staff, friends, parents and students, Georgia Tech continues to remain a top competitor with the U.S. News & World Report rankings as well as making Tech one of the most respected learning institutes worldwide!

ROLLClLL Your Gift Enhances the Value of Every Tech Degree GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION •

56th ANNUAL ROLL CALL

Get a head start on the 57th Annual Roll Call by becoming a donor today!

(404) 894-0756 or (800) GT ALUMS Donate online at www.gtalumni.org under Give Back to Tech,

.Vision for T

The reality of Technology Square Technology Square - a $ 180 million multihuilding complex that hurdles Atlanta's Downtown Connector and extends the Georgia Tech campus across eight acres of Midtown real estate - was the vision of the Georgia Tech Foundation.

T

echnology Square is home to Georgia Tech's College of Management, a Global Learning Center, a Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, the Economic Development Center, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, retail shops, restaurants and a parking deck. Across the street is the Advanced Technology Development Center.

Technology Square is more than an expansion of the Georgia Tech campus. It connects the campus to Atlanta's technology corridor.

And it's the engine that will drive the development of a high-tech business community in Midtown, says Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough.

"Georgia Tech has influenced Atlanta economically with the number of high-tech businesses it has attracted," says Clough. "And we want and expect more to come. But you need a geographic center, a highly visible entity that stands for Atlanta's high-tech corridor, and that entity is Technology Square, The millions of people who travel down the 1-75/85 highway will see and identify this area as the technological heartbeat of Atlanta."

Years from now, people may look back on Technology Square as

the benchmark of yet another identity for the city — as a crossroads for ideas, innovation and new technology — but the opening of Technology Square this summer is the fruition of a plan that began many years ago. The decision to purchase derelict land across the interstate was finalized in 1995.

A nonprofit that handles contributions and investments for the Institute, the Georgia Tech Foundation bought the eight acres for $11.9 million in 1997.

John Aderhold, EE 45, IE 67, a trustee emeritus of the Georgia Tech Foundation who has been instrumental in the World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome, says Technology Square is a project that "not only feeds what is going on in Atlanta and Midtown, it ties it all together, from the Atlantic Station project to the downtown development. Activity begets activity. This is a step in a journey that started a long time back and still has a long way to go, but it is a big step, a beautiful step."

The Georgia Tech Foundation is planning ahead and helping prepare for Georgia Tech's success every step of the way.

i

A.J. Land Jr., Chairman H. Hammond Stith Jr., Past Chairman Don L. Chapman, Vice Chairman/Chairman Elect Hubert L. Harris Jr., Treasurer John B. Carter Jr., President and Chief Operating Officer

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Alumnus Bob Clark's company, Tampa Steel Erecting, built the beams that will support Atlanta's 17th Street bridge.

; Gary Goettling tlanta's new 17th Street bridge would be difficult to miss even if it wasn't painted bright yellow. The masLsive 830-foot-long, 137-foot-wide steel span is taking shape over 21 lanes of the 1-75/1-85 Downtown Connector.

When completed by the end of the year, it will link Midtown with the 138-acre Atlantic Station development.

The $38 million bridge includes four automobile lanes, bike pathways, pedestrian sidewalks and room for a future rail line.

It's the first bridge built over the Downtown Connector in 20 years, but it was part of the regular workload at Tampa Steel Erecting, the Florida company that fabricated the structure.

"We'll make any kind of bridge," says Georgia Tech alumnus Robert J. "Bob" Clark Jr., president of Tampa Steel.

"The only thing that limits our ability to perform is the customer's ability to pay," laughs the 1961 civil engineering graduate. His brother, John Clark, CE 69, works for Tampa Steel as vice president and director of engineering.

Tampa Steel's other high-profile fabrication and erection projects include the signature "Spaceship Earth" geodesic here at the entrance to Epcot Center, the Florida Aquarium Tampa and the 39-story One Tampa Center.

Founded in 1945 by the Clarks' father, Robert Sr., the family-owned company decided to concentrate on bridges 20 GEORGIA TECH* Summer 2003

about a dozen years ago. That decision was followed by a $2.75 million plant expansion in 1994 and an additional $6 million investment since then.

"You have to be able to pick up 100 tons in your shop and move stuff around," Bob Clark says. His 95 employees work in a 150,000-square-foot facility situated on 25 acres.

"We'll make any kind of bridge. The only thing that limits our ability to perform is the customer's ability to pay/' The company receives orders for bridges from all over the country, particularly Northern states, according to Clark.

Several Tampa Steel projects have received awards from the National Steel Bridge Alliance, including a ramp on 48th Street at FDR Drive in New York City, a bridge at mile marker 159 on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, Storrow Drive bridge in Boston and the Casco Bay drawbridge in Portland, Maine.

Like the 17th Street bridge, some Tampa Steel projects use color.

"We shipped a brick-red drawbridge to Portland, Maine, and made a bunch of blue railroad girders that went to Bridgeport, Connecticut," says Clark. "We see all kinds of things."

Fabrication of the 17th Street bridge followed a conven-

Massive steel beams weighing in exce tions in Tampa (left) and loaded by cranes i Atlanta. A total of 18 beams support the bridge.

Summer 2003 • GEORGIA TECH

Steel workers install beams for the new 17th Street bridge over the I-75/85 Connector in Midtown Atlanta. The bridge is scheduled to open Dec. 31.

tional process that began by breaking down the design drawings into detailed fabrication drawings and specifications for the structure's individual components, Clark notes.

The parts were grouped by size and thickness to maximi/e the number of items cut from a single sheet of steel, thereby reducing waste as well as determining the amount of steel to order from the mill. For the 17th Street bridge, 8 million pounds of steel were ordered from Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore and shipped by rail to Tampa.

Guided by the fabrication drawings, the massive steel

pieces that weigh 100 tons each," he says. The largest beams measured 14 feet square and 100 feet long, necessitating the use of a special 19-axle tractor-trailer with pivoting axles in its midsection and rear to negotiate cornering, The loaded vehicle totaled 262 feet in length — 38 feet shy of a football field, Clark notes — and weighed more than 400,000 pounds when loaded.

The rig was followed by another tractor to provide a helpful push when climbing over south Georgia's hills, but

sheets were cut, shaped and welded into the various bridge components. The bridge was completely assembled inside

"YOU have tO fabricate the bridge Sections ... ^eii Send the Sections OUt tO the final

the company plant, then broken down for shipment by truck

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to the job site in Atlanta.

"That's the only way you can do it," Clark explains.

"You have to fabricate the bridge sections and then bolt them all together to make sure everything is right, then send the :tions out to the final destination for field assembly." It ;es a lot of bolts — about 44,000.

Among the 17th Street bridge's unusual features are its "variable depth girders" that give the bottom edges of the span a scalloped look, according to Clark.

For most of his customers, Clark can deliver the huge bridge girders by barge from the port of Tampa. But landlocked Atlanta called for other means. Over a period of about three months this past spring, each of the bridge's 48 girders ere trucked to the job site.

"We made six pieces that weigh 115 tons each, then 12 2 2 GEORGIA TECH • Summer 2003

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destination for field assembly. We made six pieces that Weigh 115 tons each, then 12

nipppc. t h a t WP12T1 1 DO t o n s P3Ch " * ^ even getting into the state was a challenge. Florida would not allow the heavy vehicle to use its interstate^ so the girders were hauled from Tampa over winding U.S. routes to pick up 1-75 at Valdosta, Ga. At the 17th Street job site, the girders were arranged in six parallel lines exactly 11 feet 8 inches apart. Metal forms welded between the girders will support the bridge's pavement.

Finishing touches, including a canopy over the walkways and decorative lighting, will be added by the time the bridge is expected to open on Dec. 31. OT

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*

Rational ImaGiNaiioN Charles Kohlhase balances rocket science and art

By John Dunn

T

he International Astronomical Union named an asteroid — 13801 Kohlhase — for Charles Kohlhase on Jan. 27. "It is in an eccentric orbit — appropriately — between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter," Kohlhase says dryly.

It is a fitting tribute to the man who calls the exploration of space the ultimate adventure and has gained international recognition during his 44-year career with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has devoted much of his attention to the exploration of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

It also comes just after the 25th anniversary of the epic Voyager Grand Tour mission that sent two spacecraft to Jupiter and Saturn and the outer planets. In January Kohlhase appeared in "The Cosmic Journey," a two-hour special on A&E celebrating the Voyager anniversary.

Charles Kohlhase, Phys 57, above, design manager for Voyager and Cassini missions, has received acclaim as a photographer and digital artist. At left is a work titled "CalTech."

Kohlhase, who received a physics degree from Georgia Tech in 1957 and resides in Pasadena, Calif., was mission design manager for the Voyager and Cassini missions and was involved in the earlier Mariner and Viking Mars missions.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration awarded Kohlhase its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for his mission design and project engineering contributions to the scientific successes of the many planetary missions during his career. "It was an emotional moment" when he learned of the award in May, Kohlhase says. "I am deeply touched."

While Kohlhase has been on the cusp of space exploration, he has also garnered recognition as a photographer, digital artist, author, educator and environmentalist.

Kohlhase celebrates the creative experience in both scientific and artistic endeavors. The creative process, he says, forms and begins to flourish during childhood, is cultivated as a student, manifested in professional life and endures into a person's senior years.

Summer 2(103 • G E O R G I A T E C H

25

A pair of vertical red boats grabbed Kohlhase's attention in a moment of serendipity and creativity. With camera in tow, Kohlhase had been walking on the beach when he took a shortcut under the Santa Monica pier and came upon this arresting scene.

"It is wonderful to experience this process," he says.

"One is not aware of the passage of time when immersed in a creative venture."

It was his grandmother, Kohlhase says, who whetted his creative and adventuresome spirit in childhood, stimulating "right-brain thinking" by telling him adventure stories, encouraging him to read and exposing him to the beauty of nature, painting and architecture.

"Reading is a marvelous way to be inspired by many different creative people," he says.

An uncle taught him to build model airplanes. A high school teacher gave him an appreciation for math and the ability to reason.

It was Georgia Tech, he says, that completed his leftbrain thinking with math and physics. He graduated with honors and was president of Tau Beta Pi. He went on to earn his master's of engineering degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.

"This art-science combo has been of enormous benefit. I frequently solve problems by combining the solid equations of rocket science with the visual imagery of the orbits around other planets, the vector diagrams, the layout of spacecraft subsystems and the multipath, branch-tree diagrams essential 26

G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

to assessing countless mission outcomes and their probabilities," he says. "I also love to create nifty outreach images for the public to foster their understanding and excitement about our robotic exploration of the solar system.

"Science has always been necessary for survival of the body, with art essential for survival of the spirit. A culture cannot be truly great without the presence of both. In a sense, we need balance between the sequential logic of the left brain and the holistic insight of the right brain.

"The key is rational imagination," Kohlhase says. "A solid education and unbridled imagination are essential — allowing one to think both within and outside of the customary box."

Kohlhase joined JPL in 1959 as a junior engineer and gained recognition soon after. When he gave a presentation to a small design group in the spring of 1960 about sending a spacecraft to Mars, JPL director William Pickering, accompanied by Wernher von Braun, one of the world's foremost rocket engineers and a leading authority on space travel, dropped by to listen.

Kohlhase recalls going to the board "on wobbly legs and with shaky hands" picking up a piece of chalk. "I drew two sun-centered circles, with the close end of the transfer ellipse

f •"J I J£tt •dfS Ml

H "This art-science combo has been of enormous benefit. I frequently solve problems by combining the solid equations of rocket science with the visual imagery of the orbits around other planets. Science has always been necessary for survival of the body with art essential for survival of the spirit." tangent to Earth's orbit at departure and the far end tangent to Mars' orbit at arrival," he says. "The next 30 minutes passed in a daze."

During the next 15 years, Kohlhase worked on the Mariner Mars 1964 and 1969 missions, and was navigation development leader for the follow-up Viking mission to Mars.

In late 1974, Kohlhase was named mission analysis and engineering manager for the Voyager mission that sent two robotic spacecraft to Jupiter and Saturn, with one continuing on to Uranus and Neptune. He guided the work to choose the best flight paths out of 10,000 possibilities, then charted precise flight paths for the two spacecraft, designing "gravity assists" from the planets during flybys for a "slingshot effect" to keep them on course.

Recognizing the importance of explaining to the public how the Voyager flybys worked, Kohlhase got computer graphics pioneer James Blinn to render realistic animations to visually illustrate the procedure.

"Jim and 1 worked as a team, with him creating the software and special effects needed, and myself using that software to model the spacecraft maneuvers and science observations during each flyby," Kohlhase says.

The Winds of Saturn The Great Lakes of Titan The Vast Icy Rings A Very Special Robot

Top — The Roman god Saturn lifts the veil of mystery from the Saturnian system as the spacecraft Cassini arrives in this 12-by20-foot mural designed by Kohlhase and executed by eight artists ages 8 to 17 from the Los Angeles Academia de Arte Yepes.

Above — Kohlhase patterned this popular postcard and poster series after the magazine Amazing Stories with artist Craig Attebery and colleague Mary Beth Murrill.

Summer 2003 • G E O R G I A T E C H

27

Top — "Far North" is a photograph of a fallen tree at the edge of a glacial bay. The image was taken at 4:30 a.m. during June at Alsek Bay in southeast Alaska during a 170-mile trip down the Alsek River and was in the 1994 Best of Photography Annual.

Above — "Nature as Art" is a photograph inspecting a half-inch portion of a tiny leaf.

Right — "Siblings" captures barn owl fledglings in a canyon near Pasadena, Calif.

Opposite — "Centurions" is a photo taken in the inland rural area near Ventura, Calif., under the foreboding sky of an approaching storm. The continuous rise and fall of the oil-pumping rigs reminded Kohlhase of Roman centurions eternally on duty.

28 GEORGIA TECH • Summer:w\

The result was so successful that Walter Cronkite used the animations in a space program documentary. When Public Broadcasting Service television presented its "Cosmos" series, Carl Sagan turned to Kohlhase and Blinn to create the computer graphic special effect sequences.

"Training in math — particularly probability theory and computer programming — helped me to logically see all outcomes for any problem and then pare them down to the few that really mattered," he says. "You establish the objectives and assumptions up front, then work the problem systematically to its conclusion. I almost always knew within minutes whether a colleague's work of months was correct or not.

"I was absolutely passionate about this work, often waking at dawn with the answer to a problem from the day before," he says. "Leading the design of the Voyager Grand Tour mission was the happiest experience of my professional life. It offered tons of inspiration to a person already selfmotivated. It forever locked in an attitude of 'carpe diem' — seize the day."

Such schedule-driven time and energy demands required diversions.

"I escaped whenever possible into wilderness travel, photography, model building, writing for popular magazines, golf, creating books and games, teaching, digital imagery and steadily easing into the world of the arts," Kohlhase says.

His favorite photographic themes are wilderness landscapes and wildlife, followed by old places eroded by time and urban cityscapes from the rundown to the magnificent.

"I truly love the wilderness," he says. "I logged 15,000

"The great wilderness areas must never be destroyed for any reasons whatsoever — not for SUV fuel, not for ores to be mined, not for political compromise, not for any reason at all. We should all be Earth stewards, not Earth destroyers." miles on one pair of Italian hiking boots over a 15-year period, including local hikes in the San Gabriels, the High Sierras and even remote Patagonia. I was never without a camera and, like John Muir, believed in 'taking only pictures, leaving only footprints.'

"The great wilderness areas must never be destroyed for any reasons whatsoever — not for SUV fuel, not for ores to be mined, not for expensive vacation homes, not to solve population excesses, not for trade advantages or increasing market share, not for political compromise, not for any reason at all. We should all be Earth stewards, not Earth destroyers," Kohlhase says.

During the past 45 years as a photographer and the past 10 years mastering digital imagery, he has seen his photos and art published in Sierra Magazine, as the cover design for Creation Engine magazine, exhibited in several one-year installations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, featured in the 1994 Best of Photography Annual, displayed in the Pacific Design Center Showcase IdeaHouse and included in both public venues and private galleries.

Summer 2003 'GEORGIA TECH 2 9

Right — Kohlhase, left, and Cassini program manager Richard Spehalski hold a DVD containing more than 600,000 signatures from 81 countries. Kohlhase's disk design includes the flags of 28 nations and the symbolic wing feathers from a golden eagle.

Below — Kohlhase uses computer programs to create artistic, futuristic scenes of what Mars exploration could be like far in the future. This image, "Canyon City, Mars," depicts an otherworldly family gathering scene in which a space-suited father and daughter tend to a sheltered cactus.

Opposite — "Dawn Patrol" is a composite of conventional photography and 3-D modeling, with the artist flying the closest hovercraft. The pyramidal and cylindrical structures are the Pacific Design Center of Los Angeles rotated 90 degrees on its side, and the distant saucer is a time exposure of a carnival ride at night.

Kohlhase is enthusiastic about digital art. "I enjoy creating contemporary sculpture, architectural designs or science fiction and fantasy scenes," he says. "Many artists are finding the computer and its remarkable 2-D and 3-D capabilities essential to extending the limits of their work."

Kohlhase was commissioned to create a Mars scape for the 60th birthday celebration of Carl Sagan in 1995.

Three years later, he was appointed by the Planetary Society as director of PlanetTrek, a project to design and install a solar system scale model within the city of Pasadena over a distance of about five miles.

In 1999, his digital sculpture "Fugue" was selected for the Gallery 825 Southern California open art competition. In 2001, he created a 3-D model of a future colony on Mars set in the 22nd century.

He has built scale-model aircraft, cars and boats, some of museum quality, which require 200 to 400 hours to build. "I still have most of these models, but regret to a degree the investment of time that can never be recovered," he says.

In 1989, Kohlhase was named science and mission design manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its large moon Titan, an international venture involving NASA, the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency and many separate U.S. and European academic and industrial partners. JPL is managing the mission for NASA, which launched the two-story robotic spacecraft on Oct. 15,1997, for a July 2004 rendezvous with Saturn.

While Kohlhase is celebrating his lifetime accomplish30 GEORGIA TECH

Summer 2003

ments as a rocket scientist and as a photographer/artist, at age 67, he says there are five additional careers he would enjoy pursuing — a couple of which could help save our endangered planet.

"The theoretical age limit for humans is about 120 years, unless the 'doubling gene' works out. To have a prayer of making it for that long, one must live at high elevation, reduce caloric intake, exercise regularly and drink plenty of water.

"I'm not doing too well on some of these parameters, but I would choose five 10-year careers if I really had 50 years left. They would include that of architect, Earth steward (environmental protector), digital artist, U.S. president — if I didn't have to run for office — and principal investigator for a novel National Science Foundation proposal in work.

Realistically, I plan to immerse myself in those creative areas that are fun and rewarding."

The role of environmental protector, he believes, is critical.

"If you take the global view, the Earth is being trashed at an alarming rate. I'm afraid it's unstoppable.

"The greatest problem facing Earth today is the tragic and criminal destruction of biodiversity, with species becoming extinct at 1,000 times the rate of only 150 years ago. Add to this the dramatic decline in world fishery stocks, wilderness areas, usable topsoil and fresh water, coral reefs, air quality and the non-sustainable, natural resources demanded to support 6-billion-plus humans and you have a problem

that will lead to massive social disruptions in the next 25 to 50 years," Kohlhase says.

"The demand to use up the Earth's natural resources, to satisfy what humans want rather than what they need, is depleting the Earth faster than it can take care of itself."

Kohlhase officially retired from JPL in March 1998.

"I really intended to retire and do artwork and spend more time with family," he says. But in 2000, JPL invited him to return as an on-call, employee consultant to join the Mars Program Systems Engineering Team, which conducts engineering studies for the future missions to explore Mars. He agreed. Since then, he's been working on the team, which has international membership, about two days a week, while also assessing any special issues requested by the Mars program office.

Twin Mars exploration rovers were scheduled for launch on June 8 and June 25. A sophisticated Mars reconnaissance orbiter equipped with a high-resolution camera is planned for launch in 2005. A large Mars roving science laboratory will be launched in 2009, and a challenging Mars sample return mission may be launched as early as 2013.

Kohlhase is also on a review board for the Kepler project, which is searching for Earth-size planets around 100,000 other dwarf stars.

"We will eventually have a colony on Mars, but it's a long time in the future," he says. "Sending humans there is very expensive. It probably will have to be art international mission to keep the costs down for any one country."

"We will eventually have a colony on Mars, but it's a long time in the future. Sending humans there is very expensive. It probably will have to be an international mission to keep the costs down for any one country."

Meanwhile, robots are getting better and more sophisticated, Kohlhase says. "The better the robots get, the less the need to send humans to Mars, except people relate to people.

"The drive may be as much pride and emotion as scientific. There was a lot of excitement when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. There will be a lot of excitement when the first humans arrive on Mars."

It is the future that captures Kohlhase's imagination and he expresses it in his art.

"My knowledge of science and technology drives me to imagine the future of human life, both on Earth and on other worlds, surrounded by its architecture, its advanced machines and perhaps a few surprises from the past," Kohlhase says.

"I yearn to turn my imagination loose for a journey without limits."

Additional images of Charles Kohlhase's futuristic digital art and wildlife and landscape photography may be viewed by logging on to http://artshow.com/kohlhase, QT

Summer 2003 • G E O R G I A T E C H

31

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The

Sculvf or Barry Woods Johnston carves out multidimensional life

By Kimberly Link-Wills

arry Woods Johnston is intense — intensely passionate about his art, music, architecture, theology and humanity, a word he uses often in conversation.

Johnston, Arch 69, uses his hands and soul to illustrate human emotions in bronze. He is a concert pianist.

He is an inventor who holds more than a dozen patents. In his spare time he analyzes Bach's compositions, studies Chinese and takes dancing lessons. He was a combat artist in Vietnam and has been an architect.

Commissioned for the lobby of Evanston Women's Hospital near Chicago, this 7-foot-tall sculpture celebrates the spontaneous delight of new motherhood.

Summer 2003 • GEORGIA TECH 33

Barry Woods Johnston sketched battlefield scenes as an Army artist during the Vietnam War. The Army then sent him to Hawaii to complete seven paintings, including "Thong Due Special Forces," provided courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Army.

"I wanted to go into something creative and architecture was a field I was interested in — and still am. It was going against my nature to be at Tech. It's only tenacity that got me through."

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Art critic Steve Mirabella described Johnston as a "sculptor of philosophical bent and deep feelings. He is also a conscientious craftsman dedicated to workmanship worthy of his early training. Johnston's oeuvre has been described in terms of lovingly rendered details of gesture and pose dominated by architectural design and a liquid sense of line."

The son of a writer and an engineer, Johnston arrived at Georgia Tech from Huntsville, Ala., in 1959.

"1 wanted to go into something creative and architecture was a field I was interested in — and still am. It was going against my nature to be at Tech, there's no doubt about that.

It's only tenacity that got me through," says Johnston in his Baltimore studio.

The young man received "help psychologically" through his involvement with All Saints Episcopal Church on North Avenue, where Johnston sang in the choir and was president of the Agnes Scott-Tech Canterbury Association.

His fascination with the human form grew. "That was one of the unusual and wonderful things about the Tech program under (Architecture Dean Paul) Heffernan. They did sponsor a figure study program. It really was an important aspect and allowed me to have an introduction at Tech. I became aware that I had this ability."

After finishing his fourth year at Tech, Johnston left the Institute for the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. "I went to art school geared up with the same level of analytical capability that got me through Tech. I spent a lot of time studying the human figure. 1 used that analytical approach working with models. I was able to get a better sense of my own humanity through this process. Tech is such an abstract environment. The pressure is very dehumanizing."

During his two years at the academy, the Vietnam War erupted. Despite his objec-

"I went to art school geared up with the same level of analytical capability that got me through Tech. I spent a lot of time studying the human figure. I used that analytical approach working with models. I was able to get a better sense of my own humanity through this process."

"Wedlock," commissioned for the entrance of Lafayette Center in Washington, D.C., stands 19 feet 6 inches tall. Conceived vertically, "Wedlock" engenders alignment and unity, while transferring energy inward and outward.

2003 • GEORGIA TECH 35

"Shakespeare in a sense is our English mythology.

He's been the closest to creating a mythology in the West for English-speaking people that is equal to if not greater than Greek mythology or Roman antiquity. It's a great subject for a lot of stories that are separate from Christianity but very Christian in the sense of the substance, the view of humanity. They have the same understanding of humanity that you would find in biblical understandings."

Moved by Shakespeare's "King Lear," Johnston sculpted this piece by the same title. The sculpture depicts King Lear, in his madness, staggering through a raging storm, his cape flying wildly in the wind. Having rejected his loving daughter Cornelia, King Lear tragically realizes the consequences of his foolish alliance with his conniving older daughters.

tions to the war, Johnston felt an obligation.

"I promised my draft board I would put in two years of military service. I could have easily avoided the military. I was six months short of being 26," he says.

At Tech Johnston had been a member of the World Student Fund Committee, which had a motto of promoting "world peace through world understanding." Because of his anti-war sentiments, Johnston opted not to use his ROTC training to enter the Army as an officer.

"I was able to go through the military for two years as an artist and an arts and crafts specialist. 1 set up a craft shop at Fort Benning, Georgia, and I did a number of small commissions. Then I was selected as a combat artist and sent to Vietnam."

Johnston spent two months sketching displays of heroism, bloodshed and camaraderie on the Vietnam battlefields. The Army then sent him to Hawaii to finish seven large paintings, now part of military collections.

"The military took a lot of pride in those paintings," he says. "They were about what a soldier was going through, the struggle. They had a moral base to them."

When his Army stint was over, Johnston returned to Philadelphia for his final year of the arts program. "But when I went back to the academy and looked around, it seemed stagnant. I decided to go back to Tech and finish up."

Like his promise to fulfill his military obligation, Johnston had promised his father that he would complete the architecture program. "I'm glad that I fulfilled those promises. They kept me in focus."

Johnston returned to Tech a changed man. "My grades went way up. I just didn't have the energy to join the antiwar demonstrations. I did sympathize with a lot of their feelings and it was a very difficult decision. I just focused on my art in that period."

After two more quarters, Johnston earned his degree and moved to New York for a job with a top architecture firm.

"I love architecture. I've done a fair amount of design work. I've used my Tech education quite a bit," he says. "I have 14 to 15 patents. I have an engine design that right now is being placed on the market. I have a structural design patented for church roofs. I have a recent invention for a way of cleaning up streams by raking off floating trash. Those are the kinds of things that came out of my Tech experience. In every sculpture that I do, the architecture comes into play in terms of the abstract design aspect."

While he loved architecture, Johnston was unable to satisfy his need to create art in a structured work environment.

"It became more and more evident that I had to make a decision. We are so specialized in terms of our professional orientation. I couldn't seem to walk a line between the two."

After less than six months as a working architect,

Johnston headed to Europe. "That's when I really began to take a direction."

Johnston's parents understood his need to pursue his art.

"My father could see the way I could create a portrait. He really saw the humanity in what I was trying to do. My father was very analytical, but he was a very empathetic person. That is a quality 1 inherited from my father. To be able to get a likeness of somebody comes out of that empathy. When you work from a model, you're actually feeling what the other person feels. Even though I'm not in the pose, I still feel physically the same stress the person feels. I am sore in the same way."

He also inherited qualities from his mother. "My mother had intense energy and very strong Christian values. The Bible is a great resource for tremendous insight into humanity" Johnston spent two years in Florence studying figure drawing with Nera Simi, plaster casting with Enzo Cardini and stone carving at Romanelli Studios. His passion became sculpture because it is "more closely related to geometry and architecture, the three-dimensional aspect and the spatial relationships."

He also spent three months studying theology and philosophy with Francis Schaeffer, the American author of "Escape From Reason" and "A Christian Manifesto" who had established a spiritual retreat in Switzerland.

"That was a big help because it gave me some kind of philosophical basis and theological basis," Johnston says.

Man's philosophical and theological struggles surface time and again in Johnston's work. American Arts Quarterly says Johnston "takes in the beauty and the truth of life along with the lies and the perversions, the joy, anguish, acts of betrayal and kindness. Within his soul Johnston ruminates upon the great bewildering human morass, then with effort and some grief, he transforms this raw matter into an object of beauty to comfort us. The best way to view a work by Johnston is to receive it as an act of compassion and a generous gift. His art can make the harsh world more comprehensible and sometimes even fill it with grace."

Johnston pushes himself toward deeper understanding of humankind through such sculptures as "Chaos," a work completed in 1991 that "expresses the atmosphere of angst and desperation prevalent in our modern times," according to a catalog chronicling his work. "The individual is shown suspended between barbs of brutal abstract forces, accentuating his disparity."

Still other sculptures are lighthearted like "The Bather," a sensuous woman flinging droplets from her hair as she emerges from beneath the surface of the water, and "Mother & Child," a celebration of new motherhood commissioned in 1989 for Evanston Women's Hospital in Illinois.

He also uses Shakespearean characters, including "King Lear" staggering through a storm with his cape flapping in the gale.

"Shakespeare in a sense is our English mythology. He's been the closest to creating a mythology in the West for English-speaking people that is equal to if not greater than Greek mythology or Roman antiquity," he says.

Summer 2003

GEORGIA TECH 37

Johnston appreciates Shakespeare's "human insight into relationships. It's a great subject for a lot of stories that are separate from Christianity but very Christian in the sense of the substance, the view of humanity. The reality of it is they're very deep, they have the same understanding of humanity that you would find in biblical understandings."

He plays no favorites between subjects. "I prefer whatever gives human insight, whatever gives insight into the human heart and soul."

The best results come from "an enlightened client.

The money is always going to try to connect itself with what the vision is. The ideal commission allows you to use your imagination."

Johnston says he achieved the best results at the Lafayette Center on 20th Street in Washington, D.C., where he was just given "a space" as his assignment. The finished product, standing more than 19 feet tall, is "Wedlock, a two-year project completed in 1980.

"It was a very tall space. I realized the best way to get the most vertical effect was to have the two figures, male and female, come from opposite directions, which metaphorically is interesting in itself. Putting the two figures together represented form and freedom, structure and spirit to me. I reversed the logic by putting the male above the female to counter the stereotypes. The whole point was to have the male figure more of a protector. It had to look like he was floating. It transcends physical reality even though it is very realistic."

Problems can arise when politics come into play, he says.

"I did another job recently that would have been comparable in size and scope for a Christian organization in California. It is called 'Faith, Hope and Love.' The problem was that the client wanted changes that were unacceptable to the city. The client wasn't willing to take responsibility that they were the ones who imposed these changes. When it came down to the crunch, they basically abandoned me for somebody who was easier to work with."

"Faith, Hope and Love" remains at Johnston's studio. An 8-and-a-half-foot version is available for $90,000. The 16-anda-half-foot sculpture intended for the California client is priced at about $170,000.

Johnston says a sculpture is done when he stops thinking.

"You never allow yourself to work when you're not thinking. It's got to be a constant process of interest.

As long as I see something that is of interest then I'll address it. Otherwise there's no point. It's not about working on the surface. I don't even think 38 GEORGIA TECH* Summer 2003

about the surface when I'm working. I try to think about what it is, what the relationships are. The finishing is a natural thing that will happen in that resolution process."

Johnston is in his studio thinking every day. "Sometimes I'm working on paper. Sometimes I'm at the drafting table.

Sometimes I'm working in clay."

The studio is quiet. "I can't listen to music and work on sculpture, although a lot of times I'm listening in my head to the music I'm learning on the piano. I'm actually practicing the pieces that I know. Mostly I'm thinking about what it is, what those relationships are and playing with them.

It's about focus. I have a quiet environment so I focus."

He doesn't, however, focus on a sculpture 24 hours a day, seven days a week until it is finished. "I have several things going. I have a personal life. My wife and I are doing tango dancing. I'm also studying Chinese right now.

"Music has been a big part of my experience," says Johnston, who has been playing the piano since age 9. "I've performed a few recitals. I even cut a CD of impromptus of Schubert. I'm very interested in Bach.

I've done a lot of compositional analysis. I look at ***•> it in the same light as I would the study of geometry."

Johnston's favorite sculpture is "the next piece.

I can gladly part with any of them. I am not connected to the actual material. The piece that I'm working on is the one that consumes my attention. I try to keep moving on to different insights. 1 don't want to create something that is a regurgitation of what I've already done.

"You want to allow for new possibilities, even if it would be more effective in a marketing sense to create something that is going to be marketable and just push that idea. I think a true artist tries to get to a deeper level and touch on as many frontiers as possible." GT Johnston's "Chaos" expresses the atmosphere of angst and desperation prevalent in our modern times. The individual is shown suspended between barbs of brutal abstract forces, accentuating his disparity.

to

FROGS Ron Holt leaped at chance to photograph garden's creatures

By Neil B. McGahee

urrounded by the lush greenery of the Atlanta Botanical Garden's rain forest

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display, Ron Holt squirmed to get his bulky Nikon digital camera eye to eye

with a tiny dash of orange and blue clinging to a bromeliad.

Holt, ID 81, has taken more than 7,000 photos of the smallest and most colorful

creatures in the garden's collection — poison dart and tree frogs from the rain forests of Central and South America.

Summer 2003 • GEORGIA TECH 3 9

T

here are about 200 frogs in the collection representing 30 species/' Holt says. "They range in size from one to five centimeters."

Holt took up photography as a way to augment his career as an industrial engineer and designer, but he soon began photographing other things that interested him, particularly nature. He volunteers his photography talents to the garden and Zoo Atlanta.

Holt calls himself the "ghost volunteer" since he is usually there early in the morning, very late at night or on weekends.

"The plants and animals here are not on a schedule," he says. "So it may be hard to predict when a plant will bloom or an animal will be active."

In 1996, he traveled to Costa Rica hoping to photograph tree frogs in their native habitat but an unusually persistent El Nino had turned the jungle brown and there were no frogs to be found.

Frustrated, Holt returned to Atlanta determined to raise his own frogs just as he had done a few years earlier with Monarch butterflies. Holt contacted the botanical garden's tropical collections curator Ron Gagliardo for advice.

"I liked Ron's work and 1 could tell the safety of the frogs was important to him," Gagliardo says. "We had tried to take some pictures of our frogs, but the photographer was kind of rough with

40 GEORGIA TECH* Summer

2003

Lady's slippers, above, were photographed

by Ron Holt, below, at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. In addition to capturing nature's beauty, Holt photographs the garden's tree frogs, including the one on the opposite page. He has had to tap into his design skills — and survival skills — when working with the frogs, some of which are deadly.

them. The next day several died from the stress, so we had made a decision not to let anyone else photograph them."

Holt convinced Gagliardo that he could photograph the tiny amphibians without hurting them. He tapped into his product design skills to create a

screened enclosure with a lazy Susan turntable that keeps the frogs from jumping onto the hard concrete floors — a major source of injury in past shoots.

The partnership has worked well.

The garden hasn't had a frog death or injury in the last six years thanks to Holt's invention and he has a movable photographic feast of subjects.

Photographing the frogs, however, hasn't always been pleasant for the photographer.

"All amphibians have some level of toxicity, but there are three species here that are really deadly," Holt explains. "There is enough toxin in their skins to kill 10 adults. Once while I was shooting I accidentally touched a frog then wiped my eye. In seconds my eye was swollen shut."

Gagliardo says Holt sometimes uses his engineering and design skills to fool Mother Nature.

"A few years ago we needed more frogs," Gagliardo says. "They just weren't breeding very well since the pattern of rainfall stimulates their mating activities, so Ron created the 'rain chamber/ which can simulate the rainy season. The frogs breed instinctively in the rain believing food sources are more abundant and will support their tadpoles.

"Ron is a tremendous asset to the garden," Gagliardo says. "He is experienced and enthusiastic and we're the recipients of the rewards." GT

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David Tulis/Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Forgotten Waters Peachtree Creek's mysterious past reveals Atlanta's history

By John Dunn

W

hen I first met Dave Kaufman he had on a wet suit and he was getting ready to launch his canoe into a river of raw sewage," Atlanta journal-Constitution reporter Bo Emerson writes in the foreword to Kaufman's book, "Peachtree Creek, Atlanta's Forgotten River."

"I have come to know Dave as a careful researcher and a clever writer with a meticulous style appropriate to a Georgia Tech-trained engineer," Emerson says. "If you didn't see him in action, or on his Norton 750 Fastback motorcycle, Dave might seem like Mr. Scientific Method, a number cruncher and nothing more. But underneath his methodical exterior, Dave Kaufman is a fanatic."

Kaufman is persistent, for sure.

As a 13-year-old boy living in Decatur, Ga., he was exploring the South Fork of Peachtree Creek when he discovered the ruins of Decatur's 1906 waterworks, where the waters of South and Burnt forks were impounded to provide the city's drinking water.

Kaufman became intrigued by the sense of romance and

42

G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

mystery surrounding the creek and its forgotten past.

During his student days at Tech, Kaufman took an industrial design course that required a photo essay as a term project. He decided to photograph hydropower plants and investigated rivers in north Georgia and North Carolina.

"It was therapeutic," Kaufman, ME 85, says. "I ended up with several hobbies — canoeing, photography and exploration."

And the mystery of Peachtree Creek continued to fascinate him.

"I'd see this creek on Clairmont Road, then I'd see it on Northside Drive, at Market Square and Woodward Way and other places throughout Atlanta. I wondered how it tied together — where it came from and where it went to. I started doing a little research and, not knowing what I didn't know, I decided I would pull all this together and write a book," Kaufman says.

"I figured this project would take a couple of years," he adds and laughs. It has been a 13-year undertaking. "It's sort of an endless trail. It's hard to decide when you've done enough research to cover the topic adequately."

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Ex-Confederate soldier William R. Wallace built a sawmill at this site on Nancy Creek near Chamblee, Ga. The property was later sold to Dr. Luther C. Fisher, one of the co-founders of Crawford Long Hospital, who established a series of gardens known as Flowerland at the location.

Opposite: Dave Kaufman exploring Peachtree Creek in 1993.

Top: Low water flows over the remains of the Houston Mill dam on the South Fork. In the bottom photo, a few inches of rain sends a torrent of water three feet deep thundering over the old mill site.

This fall the journey finally comes to trail's end when the book is published by Hill Street Press in Athens, Ga. It will be a full-color, coffee table book priced at $32.50. And the fall printing means the book will be available for the holiday season.

"It's a nontraditional history," he says. "1 began writing this book not knowing how history is supposed to be written.

I started with the watershed and looked at the development.

What features were here that attracted people? How did they evolve as the urban environment evolved?"

Kaufman knew he needed to ferret out historical information, talk to people familiar with the creek and personally explore the 131 square miles of watershed drained by Peachtree Creek and its tributaries — South Fork, North Fork, Main Branch and Nancy Creek — which finally spill into the Chattahoochee River.

44

G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

Kaufman interviewed the late Franklin Garrett, Atlanta's official historian who professed that, except for the Indian village of Standing Peachtree and the Civil War battle that was fought along it, he wasn't aware that much had happened on Peachtree Creek.

But as they talked, Garrett began to identify significant events and people connected to the waterway and Atlanta's formative years.

"Franklin Garrett's initial response stemmed from the fact that, as with many historians, he studied history in terms of socio-political and economic evolution. He knew a great deal about the history of Peachtree Creek, but had seldom thought of Atlanta's history in terms of the interaction of the populous and its watershed. The fact that the watershed was here was part of Atlanta's natural history," Kaufman says.

Atlanta attracted settlers because of a combination of land and water. "People were drawn to the area because of the water resources — drinking water, hydropower," Kaufman says. "One of the things I wanted to find out was how this pristine creek came to be relegated to a sewer.

"I went out and talked to people who were descendants of the original settlers. I toured numerous archives across the country. And finally, I went out canoeing to do my fieldwork," he says.

In 1990, Kaufman launched his red, 17-foot Old Town tandem canoe into the raw waters and began navigating the waterway.

"I knew navigating the creek was going to be difficult," Kaufman says. It was also dangerous.

"You want to do your homework and be careful. The water rises quickly and falls quickly. I scouted it quite a bit before I actually got in it. There are a lot of manmade obstacles and there are some pretty nasty spots and there's some stuff in there no one wants to go swimming in."

The combination of natural and manmade obstacles — bridges, sewer pipes and trees — is to be expected. But Kaufman encountered some surprises — two pianos, a pair of Ford pickup trucks, a motorcycle, a number of lawn mowers and a few kitchen sinks. There are places where concrete slabs laced with rebar tentacles have been dumped into the creek.

"You name it and it has been thrown in there," he says.

Kaufman's exploration has been thorough.

"I entered Peachtree Creek far into its headwaters in the suburbs, from Dunwoody to the north to Tucker and Norcross to the east," he says. "Climbing over sewer pipes and logjams I explored it at water level. From arrowheads and pottery shards to mill ruins and grand estates, I began to develop an understanding of its evolution."

Kaufman found that winter was the best time to canoe the creek because the trees had no foliage, which enabled him to see the ruins of old mills.

During the cold winter, he usually wore a wet suit, hat, gloves and a pair of old tennis shoes.

"Whenever you want to get in the creek, you want to make a beeline for it," Kaufman advises. "Usually you'll see a security guy grabbing his pager running after you calling, 'Hey, hey!'"

People were generally friendly, Kaufman says, even if they couldn't believe what they were seeing, he says.

One Christmas Eve when the temperature in Atlanta dropped to 28 degrees Kaufman was canoeing the last part of South Fork.

"I came out at Piedmont, I climbed up the bank and 1 walked over to the Tower Liquor store in my wet suit to use a pay phone. People coming out of Tower Liquor just gawked in surprise."

On another occasion, the creek had flooded Woodward Way, where Kaufman encountered an exasperated woman who asked him, "Where does all this water come from?"

Kaufman responded, "Well, there's a fork that starts up in Tucker ..."

Suddenly angry, the woman cut him off. "Why can't those people in Tucker do something else with their water?" she demanded.

Some of the feeder creeks have been covered by the infrastructure but they can still create problems. Tanyard

"I'd see this creek on Clairmont Road, then I'd see it on Northside Drive, at Market Square and Woodward Way and other places throughout Atlanta.

I wondered how it tied together â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where it came from and where it went to.

I started doing a little research and, not knowing what I didn't know, I decided I would pull all this together and write a book.'

In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration built this bridge over Burnt Fork Creek at the Decatur Water Works, where part of the grounds were turned into a recreation area.

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At left is the dam and generator house built in 1924 at Lullwater Estate.

Above, David Kaufman stands at the tranquil spot along Peachtree Creek overlooking Houston Mill.

Creek, for example, crosses beneath North Avenue and flows under Grant Field and through Georgia Tech as it makes its way to Peachtree Creek. In June 1993, two people were killed when a parking deck on 14th Street collapsed into a large sinkhole at the Orme Street trunk sewer in the old Tanyard Creek bed. An automobile drawn into the rushing torrent was washed a mile downstream through the culvert.

Kaufman has experienced more than a few interruptions during the writing of his book, including joining a 1992 expedition to Greenland to salvage a World War II P-38 aircraft buried in ice, an expedition organized by Pat Epps, ME 56, and Richard Taylor, M Arch 64 (GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE Spring 1995). And Kaufman has been building a career. He was vice president of marketing, business development and product management at Elastic Networks, a startup company that was acquired by Paradyne in 2002.

"There were spurts of activity and periods of downtime.

Many times I just decided to give it up," Kaufman says, but he always resumed the project. "As Richard Taylor would tell me about the Greenland adventure, 'You haven't failed until you quit.' Once I started pulling it together, I knew that it was worthwhile.

"I see Peachtree Creek as a forgotten river," he says. "It was once the source of drinking water and a source of power.

Now buildings are built with their backs to it and signs are posted along it warning: 'Health Hazard.' 'Keep Out.' "The pollution is bad. Seeing a 3-foot manhole overflowing like a water fountain — spewing raw sewage directly into the waterway is horrible. And you hear residents complain, "Hey, I've been calling the county for two years.'

"There has been a history of the watershed being neglected. The city of Atlanta started dumping sewage in Peachtree Creek in the early 1900s. One of the dams for the mills had to be demolished because of stagnant sewage.

"But it is getting better," he says.

The Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper has been instrumental in forcing the city to deal with the problem. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has acknowledged the problem and has begun rebuilding some of the infrastructure.

"The creek will never be restored to its pristine state, there's just too much damage that has been done," Kaufman says. "It will be cleaner. There will be less sewage. But you aren't going to eliminate the runoff that you get from the roadways — tires, brake dust, oil — from the millions of cars.

I don't see that being solved in our lifetime."

Kaufman has studied how some other cities have attempted to solve their water problems and is impressed with the tunnel system Chicago built to provide a reserve capacity for storm water. Extra capacity would mean storm waters would not cause Atlanta's sewer system to overflow untreated material into its water system.

"I think that's where we are headed," Kaufman says. GT

Summer 2003 • GEORGIA T E C H

47

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'The consolidation loan interest rate is calculated by taking the weighted average of the inter, on the federal loans you are consolidating, rounded up to the nearest one-eighth percent, Nelnet reserves the right to modify or terminate the interest tale reduction .it its discretion without prior notice. Terms described above are In effect os of July 1, 2003, Student loon interest lates adjust every July 1 and rernoin in effect through June 30 of the following year. Other conditions including tire length of repayment are as important as the interest rate when considering whether consolidation is right for you. Your borrower's rights may change when you consolidate your student loans; please refer to your Borrower Rights and Responsibilities statement Or contact a Nelnet loan Advisor for more information, Nelnet is a trademark of Nelnet, Inc. All lights tar .-â&#x20AC;˘ - i

For more information Call 1-800-GT-ALUMS

To qualify, borrowers musr be in repayment or in the grace period with a combined total of at least $7,500 in qualified student loan debt, and less than ° 0 days delinquent

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A New Chapter In Tech Pride.

P You've got to see the latest leader from Tech, Barnes & Noble @ Georgia Tech. Located in Technology Square, the world-class 43,000 sq. ft. bookstore offers an incredible selection of GT insignia merchandise, plus music and dvds, computer hardware and software. The bookstore features the largest selection of technical and reference titles in the southeast.

Located on the corner of 5th and Spring Streets, the bookstore is just a short ride on The Tech Trolley. Come by for coffee, to hang out or just to see what all the talk is about, it's The Smart Choice!

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ellow Jackets on the Move Another benefit from the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Preferential

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Minimum of a 55% discount on all interstate relocations.

Free Full-Value Coverage up to $50,000.

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SlL Georgia Tech •'•iit' A l u m n ' Association

THE GAMES DON'T GET ANY BIGGE Sept. 6 Sept. 20 Oct. 4 Oct. 23 Nov. 15 Nov. 29

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Junior Jackets The Junior Jackets Club is a great way for youth 8th grade and under to experience Tech Athletics!

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FacultyProfile Caroline Joe

Fine-tuning Education Barnwell has done it all at Tech

By Maria M. Lameiras

T

om Barnwell knows about making connections.

Picking a banjo, strumming a guitar or blowing a harmonica, Barnwell bonds with musicians and audiences through bluegrass music, which he plays at festivals around the Southeast.

Back in his office at Georgia Tech, Barnwell, director of the Arbutus Center for Distributed Engineering Education, is helping create a network that can connect Tech's engineering curriculum to anyone, anywhere.

On stage and on campus, he is passionate about what he is doing.

Barnwell began as a folk musician in his early days and now plays in a bluegrass group called The Next Band with his wife, Aina Jo. "Bluegrass music is a form of country music in which there are rules that allow you to come together with people you've never met and make music that is sometimes remarkable," he says.

In the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where Barnwell holds the Arbutus Distinguished Chair in Digital System Design and is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, he and his colleagues are working on what he says is the "most exciting thing" going on at Tech.

That exciting technology carries the Tech curriculum out of the physical classroom and into networked computers stationed around campus and at the Georgia Tech Regional Engineering Program campus in Savannah, Ga. Conceivably, this concept could extend Tech's reach throughout the country and the world.

"This is the first time in my life at Tech that educational issues are the

54

G E O R G I A T E C H • Summer 2003

most exciting thing we are doing. It is still research, in a way, but it is educational research," Barnwell says.

"GTREP has a mandate to teach real Georgia Tech classes to real Georgia Tech students at other campuses. We are striving to make their experience as rich or richer than the experience of studying on Tech's campus."

Using the digital network, professors can conduct a class from Tech and connect with up to 12 classrooms at the new GTREP facility or at partner institutions in Statesboro or Savannah.

Using a stylus, the professor can work equations, sketch graphs or highlight materials on his monitor and the notations will automatically be displayed on the networked computer screens or on "electronic blackboards" at the remote locations.

"Classrooms of students and teachers all over the state can communicate as well and as effectively as if the teacher were there in the room. We are also videotaping each lecture and, as soon as it is over, we are putting it on an accessible computer so any student in those classes can get it.

"You can drive the whole classroom from a laptop. You can put in all the slides and materials you need and, as you pull it up, it appears simultaneously in those classrooms. Professors write on the screen just as they would on a blackboard and can migrate between slides and other materials instantly," Barnwell says.

Students also have immediate access to assistance through 30 computer-mentoring stations located in the Van Leer building on the Tech campus.

"The stations are manned by teaching assistants and students can come in via video and share applications, exchange scans or discuss problems," Barnwell says. "This allows students wherever they are — in south Georgia or in the dorms — to get the help they need without physically coming in. We focus on GTREP in developing these technologies, but they are all useful on campus. They are a luxury here, but a valuable luxury."

The next incarnation of the technology, which was orginially developed by College of Computing professor Gregory Abowd and is deployed

FacultyProfile by the Arbutus Center, is called eClass â&#x20AC;&#x201D; previously called Classroom 2000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and will automatically capture and archive the transmitted classes in their entirety.

"Every word spoken, every keystroke made and every line drawn will be immediately available online," Barnwell says.

Through a program called InFusion, designed by Tech professor Joel R. Jackson, EE 95, students will also have the ability to search within the materials and lectures to review a particular section or a concept the professor explained.

Barnwell says the databases available already cover a variety of courses, but he foresees a time when all of the core classes taught at Tech will be available on computer via streaming media.

"If students want to remember something they learned in a sophomore class, instead of going through all their old notes, they can use a search engine to find all the places in the lecture for that class where the professor talked about what they are looking for," he says.

Although other universities are working on similar technologies, Barnwell says Tech is at the leading edge because of the scope and scale of the program.

"Others are doing this, but we are doing more of it and we are bringing a lot of specialized technology to it," he says. "It will take a decade for this to work when you factor in the technology and all of the cultural changes that go along with it, but eventually every student walking along with a handheld computer will have access to this."

While the technology could potentially solve students' scheduling problems, Barnwell says the success of the technology depends on making it accessible, reliable and usable without being daunting.

"This will give multiple alternatives for learning the same materials.

The trick is to find out how to make it work effectively and not overwhelm the user," he says.

This is not the first time Barnwell has been on the leading edge of study at Tech.

After receiving his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965, 1967 and 1970, respectively, Barnwell found himself in a less-than-favorable hiring atmosphere for engineers.

"Georgia Tech was hiring and no one else was. That was when Joseph Pettit came in at Tech and he was switching the focus from a totally teaching institution to more of a research institution," Barnwell says.

Barnwell was hired in 1971 among a core group of research faculty in digital signal processing who launched what is now a world-class department.

"Georgia Tech has been the ride of a lifetime over the last 30 years," Barnwell says. "When we came in here we didn't exactly know where we were going, but we became competent, then we got good, then we became really good and then we were the best in the world."

Barnwell was chairman of the committee that hired Ron Schaffer, now an Institute professor of electrical engineering and a renowned expert on digital signal processing who helped attract the best talent in the field to Tech.

"That discipline in the early 1970s was the 'lunatic fringe.' We were doing, very early on, what became the underpinning of the whole technological revolution," Barnwell says. "A nontrivial portion of what is now used in voice communications was developed here."

Although he now teaches primarily senior-level project courses to undergraduate students, Barnwell says his real love is mentoring graduate and PhD students.

Barnwell has seen graduate students he worked with go on to great success. Two head major university departments â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mark J.T. Smith, MS EE 79, PhD 84, a former Tech professor who took over as chair and Birck Distinguished Professor of the School of Electrical and Computer

Engineering at Purdue University in January, and Panos Papamichalis, MS EE 76, PhD 80, who was named chair of the Electrical Engineering Department of Southern Methodist University's School of Engineering in April.

Tech also gave Barnwell the opportunity to become an entrepreneur.

In the early 1980s, Barnwell, Schafer and electrical engineering Regents professor Russell Mersereau jointly started Atlanta Signal Processors Inc., one of the first companies to go through the Advanced Technology Development Center at Tech.

"It was a very uncommon thing to do at the time and I remember we went to the president to ask permission to do it," Barnwell says. "We were the first company to put a signal processor into a personal computer and that was a groundbreaking thing."

By 1986, Barnwell was ASPI president and split his time between Tech and the company. In 1991, he took a leave of absence from Tech to devote himself full time to ASPI. Barnwell's research specialty is speech coding and, in 1996, he achieved his greatest success in that area through the company with the development of the mixed excitation linear prediction coder.

"That became the military and federal standard for secure voice communication coders and is now the native coder for that application," he says.

He stayed on as president until 1995, when he and his partners decided to turn company operations over to a new president. In 2001, the company was sold to Polycom Inc., a worldwide leader in the convergence of interactive voice, video and data communications, for $5 million.

Barnwell remains at Georgia Tech for the satisfaction he gets from his work.

"That was just one of the many wonderful experiences I've had at Tech," he says. "It's just too cool a place to leave." GT

Summer2003 'GEORGIATECH 55

Photofinish Kara Szczepaniec

Lavender Blue Couples tripped the light fantastic as the Presidents' Dinner celebration of a successful Roll Call slipped into the wee hours and the band eased into the comfortable songs of bygone days.

56

GEORGIA TECH. Summer 2003

OM THE TECH TO. EL TOW;

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