Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 84, No. 03 2008

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"My gifts to Tech reward excellent teaching and help raise the status of senior faculty members committed to the role of teaching undergraduates/'

Geoffrey G. Eichholz Regents' Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Atlanta, Georgia • Native of Hamburg, Germany; expelled from Technical University Berlin after Kristallnacht.

• Undergraduate degree in physics, PhD, and DSc, University of Leeds, England.

• From 1951 to 1963, head of the Physics and Radiotracer subdivision of the Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys.

• In 1963, hired as the first faculty member in Georgia Tech's new School of Nuclear Engineering; retired as Regents' Professor in 1988.

• Wrote Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power, 1976; author of or contributor to ten other books; holder of three patents.

• Georgia Tech Outstanding Teacher Award, 1973; Fellow of American Nuclear Society; Fellow and recipient of the Robley T. Evans Commemorative Medal of the Health Physics Society.

• In retirement, teaches history and geopolitics at the Senior University at Emory and Mercer Universities.

Gifts to Georgia Tech • With a gift in 2004, established the Geoffrey G. Eichholz Faculty Teaching Fund.

• Charitable gift annuities designated for the Eichholz Faculty Teaching Fund after his death.

Thoughts on giving to Tech "The importance of good classroom teaching and turning out well-taught students can often be overlooked. My gifts to Tech reward excellent teaching and help raise the status of senior faculty members committed to the role of teaching undergraduates. Charitable gift annuities, and the income I receive from them, were the best way for me to make a substantial, enduring gift while preserving my resources."

Georgia lech For more information on supporting Georgia Tech through a bequest or life-income gift, please contact: Office of Development • Gift Planning • Atlanta GA 30332-0220 • 404.894.4678 • founderscouncil@dev.gatech.edu

Geoffrey G. Eichholz joins Founders' Council's 951 members who have made bequests or life-income gifts of at least $25,000 in support of Georgia Tech's future.

Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech A Centennial History of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association This fascinating book and DVD set marks the 100-year anniversary of your Georgia Tech Alumni Association and will make the perfect gift for any Georgia Tech graduate. The hardback book includes a foreword penned by Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as a Photomosaic of the Ramblin1 Wreck composed of 2,600 images of alumni, friends, leaders and legends of Ramblin1 Wreck history. A 24minute DVD, produced by our award-winning Living History Department, provides historic pictures, movie and news clips and colorful narration that complete the history of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

"Tech's celebration of the Association's centennial anniversary is a time for remembering the many wonderful highlights of the past and for using that past as a springboard to the incredible future opportunities that lie ahead." — Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough

http://gtalumni.org/site/Page/Shop Order the centennial history through the Alumni Association for $39.95, plus shipping and handling. For more information, call 1-800-GT-ALUMS.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Ramblin'Wrecks From Georgia Tech UntTHWlM

Centennial Celebration Cover Story Wheeling the centennial year of the Alumni Association off to a roaring start are, left to right, Joe Irwin, president; Meade Sutterfield, chair; Janice Wittschiebe, past chair; Bill Todd, chair for FY 09; and Tech President Wayne Clough.

Is It Live or Is It AR?

From Lab to Market

By blending digital creations with our view of the world, augmented reality is set to transform the way we entertain and educate ourselves.

TI:GER teaches students to commercialize technology. A collaboration between Georgia Tech and the Emory Law School, the program is nationally recognized for its success in developing entrepreneurs.

Britain's Nuclear Chief

Cover Illustration: Bob Braun

Starts, Sputters and Smokers An excerpt from the new book "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech" describes the hesitant beginnings of the Alumni Association and profiles the organization's early leaders.

Bill Coley leaves retirement and the United States "up for the challenge" of tackling energy obstacles in the United Kingdom.

White, Gold and Irish Green Georgia Tech Ireland opens doors to economic opportunity in an ambitious research initiative involving students, faculty and companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Viewpoint

In Focus

Interview

Pacesetters

Faculty Profile

Celebrating a Century

• Flower Power

• Painless Vaccine

Marilyn Somers: A Centennial Story

Roger Andresen: Mapping Out a Game Plan

Bonnie Heck Ferri: Digital Logic

Feedback

Tech Notes

Bookshelf

Our readers write

• PECASE Winners • Green Carpet Standards • Theory of Everything'

'A Contract with the Earth': A Tech Technology Solution

In Quotes Comments in the media from the Georgia Tech community

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A Watercolor

by Tom Ventulett

Photo Finish Pacesetters Niles Bolton: Designed to Sell

Alumni Almanac

• Science Fellows • Bright Idea for Funding • Petascale Computing • Executive MBA • Humanitarian Relief

Pacesetters Edward Morgan: The Little Engine That Could Not

Anak is founded; building and enrollment jump; Silicon Valley takes note of Tech; and the Alumni Association promises Depression-era grads: "We'll stay with you, regardless."

About Face: The Georgia Tech Alumni Association represents thousands of people, including those who submitted their photographs to illustrate they are Ramblin' Wrecks in a computer-generated work of art.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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To sign up for Gas South natural gas service, call 1-866-563-8129, or visit www.gas-south.com/affinity, and use promo code 1885. Already a Gas South customer? No problem! Visit www.gassouth.com/affinity and register your account to support the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

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VIEWPOINTS

Georgia Tech Alumni A s s o c i a t i o n Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, Publisher John C. Dunn, Editor Kimberly Link-Wills, Managing Editor Leslie Overman, Assistant Editor Everett Hullum, Design

Alumni Association Executive Committee C. Meade Sutterfield, EE 72 Chair Janice N. Wittschiebe, Arch 78, M Arch 80 Past Chair William J. Todd, IM 71 Chair-elect/Finance Joseph W. Evans, IM 71 Vice Chair for Roll Call Thomas Davenport III, IM 84 Terry Graham, IM 69 Sonya C Rush, ChE 81 Members At Earge Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 President

Advertising Maris Ozug (404) 894-0766 • E-mail: maris.ozug@alumni.gatech.edu

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine (ISSN: 1061-9747) is published quarterly (Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring) for contributors to the annual Roll Call of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. NW, Atlanta, GA 30313.

Georgia Tech Alumni Association allocates $10 from a contribution toward a year's subscription to its magazine.

Periodical postage paid at Atlanta, GA and additional mailing offices. © 2008 Georgia Tech Alumni Association Main Number (404) 894-2391.

Celebrating a Century In 1908, there were no zippers. No refrigerators. No radios. No color TV. No air conditioning. No telephones. No electric power. No freeways.

No antibiotics. No duct tape. The list goes on. There was a newfangled machine called a Tin Lizzie but more commonly known to us now as the 1908 Ford Model T. Why does this matter? Well, when you consider that the Georgia Tech Alumni Association will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year, you get a sense of how things have changed. It's been a century of remarkable change. Here's what hasn't changed. "The object of this Association shall be to promote the cause of technical education in Georgia and the South and to establish and maintain scholarships; to aid in the development of the Georgia School of Technology; to promote the mutual interest of the members of the Association."

This was the mission as stated on those charter papers in 1908.

Sure, we've changed the words a bit, but the spirit of what this Association is all about hasn't changed. And maybe that's why we're celebrating a century of service to Tech and its alumni — this mission is clear and ongoing.

We had fewer than 400 alumni back then. Today, we have almost 118,000. There were 541 students including 125 apprentices. Today, we have 18,736 students. There were 45 faculty and staff members. Today, we have 900-plus faculty and 5,300-plus staff. The football team went 6-3. Baseball went 1-5. Basketball went 10-11.

So join us this year as we celebrate 100 years of serving and promoting Georgia Tech and our alumni. It's a remarkable tribute to those who came before us and those who will follow. And under the category of shameless promotion, get yourself a copy of our great book, "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," which is a centennial history of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. It comes with a bonus DVD. I know that you'll enjoy it.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. NW, Atlanta, GA 30313.

Editorial phone (404) 894-0750/0760.

Fax (404) 385-4637. E-mail: editor@alumni.gatech.edu; gtalumni.org.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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>>FEEDBACK

Thanks for Guilt Trip Many thanks for the guilt trip set upon me and my fellow Georgia Tech alumni from your Fall magazine article on Judith Curry and her "Meteoric Rise." I fully expect to read the rebuttal article to Ms. Curry's opinions on man-made global warming in the next issue of our beloved apolitical ALUMNI MAGAZINE,

I often attempt to uncover the quid pro quo when true scientific research eventually becomes junk science, and Ms. Curry's responses to the questions and your title "Meteoric Rise" certainly help unravel the tangle. What was formerly uninteresting has now become popular (atmospheric science), and Ms. Curry has certainly benefited personally from this popular environmental movement by her own admission. Her department also has directly benefited from her own promotion of manmade global warming.

Her answer to the "how have we contributed to global warming and what do we do to stop it" question was telling: Yes, we contribute by burning fossil fuels. But like all of her ilk, no real solutions are presented.

I suppose the requisite solution to her hypothesis will be left up to us Georgia Tech mechanical engineers to ponder, especially those of us who make a living liberating said carbon from its

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under-earth dungeons. Alas, the proposed solutions by the likes of Ms. Curry so far only seek to limit the industrial revolutions of Third World regions experiencing the economic growth that we experienced 200 years ago.

political correctness, where hype and exaggeration are presented every day as fact, your interviewer threw Ms. Curry numerous softballs without once diving deeper for some substance behind the claims.

I guess the natural skeptic in me that was dormant before my years at Tech needs to quiet down. The rational half of my brain that knows that man-made greenhouse gas includes my exhaling should begin listening to the emotional half that ignores the most prevalent naturally occurring greenhouse gas water vapor and the solar cycle as the primary cause of the current proposed warming trend.

"Pay no attention to the twothirds of the Earth covered by water and please no longer linger on the name Greenland as we contemplate ditching our refrigerators and air conditioners," sayeth my pre-Tech illogical youth.

The claim that "overwhelming scientific evidence is that the Earth is warming and that humans are contributing to a significant part of it" is still very much in dispute. I only needed one Google search to find numerous sites and articles that refute man-made global warming. To print such a claim without follow-up leads me to believe that reporters are sent out ill-prepared or perhaps Ms. Curry's ideas are appealing to the editorial staff.

So what is my quid pro quo, you say? Maybe the quality of life for my wife and three small boys is my motive. Maybe it is guilt over seeking a better life than my forefathers who physically worked themselves into an early grave. Only time will tell.

John C. Brunson, ME 94 Lawrenceville, Ga.

Kudos to Curry Another great ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

To Judith Curry (re: "Meteoric Rise"): Excellence in education in technology is the aim, and you are providing an example of what Tech is doing. Keep it up.

J.R. Anderson, ME 58, MS IM 62 Germantown, Tenn.

I expect more from any publication with Georgia Tech on the cover. The majority of your readers are engineers or scientists. I believe presenting such an unbalanced view of a scientific subject is damaging to the credibility of the Institute.

Space-age Graffiti The mention of the Sputnik satellite in the Fall issue prompted a recollection. I believe in the hall of the physics building there was a large poster from GE that illustrated the proposed "world's first orbiting satellite" to be launched by the U.S. and included weight, perigee and apogee.

Shortly after the launch of Sputnik I, some thoughtful student crossed through the data on the poster and penned in that of Sputnik.

Canton, N.C.

the interview with Judith Curry in

Why Go to Mars?

the Fall ALUMNI MAGAZINE. In an

The article "Missions Accomplished" in the Fall ALUMNI

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Recently I read that it had to be done as a matter of saving civilization. That does seem to be a stretch. Another line of

Scott Ellis, IE 89

I was very disappointed to read

age of environmentally driven

MAGAZINE was quite interesting.

Many articles about NASA get into the matter of a manned trip to Mars. I have never read such an article without having the question raised in my mind: What is the real purpose of such a flight?

Suwanee, Ga.

Charles Hand, IE 58

Reporter Threw Softballs

"The claim that 'overhelming scientific evidence is that the Earth is warming and that humans are contributing to a significant part of it' is still very much in dispute," says one reader.

We Welcome Mail The ALUMNI MAGAZINE welcomes

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

Mail/e-mail to: Georgia Tech Alumni Publications 190 North Ave. NW Atlanta, GA 30313 Fax: (404) 385-4637 editor@alumni.gatech.edu

THERE IS STILL M I D

thinking is that NASA is there and they have to have something to keep working on. We know from past experience that it is hard to stop a government program once it gets firmly established.

I wish that someone would lay out the need for such a program. It doesn't seem to have the same degree of the unknown as existed when Columbus and other early Earth explorers set out on their voyages to the unknown. It would be an extremely expensive, long-term program.

We have many problems on Earth that need to be solved.

Would the space project provide some perceived direct benefit to mankind that we can't do without? It is hard for me to imagine a large group of cheering and excited people saying, "Thank God, someone is finally going to Mars."

If there are more concrete answers to this question, I would really enjoy reading about it in your magazine — or should I say our magazine?

Billy Wallace, EE 46 Stillwater, Okla.

Great Co-op Testament In reading the Fall issue of the

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE,

I was pleased to see our co-op and internship programs mentioned in the "Tech Notes" section about the latest U.S. News rankings. The magazine has been ranking "Academic Programs to Look For" for a total of six years, 2002-07. It is with a tremendous sense of pride that Georgia Tech's co-op and internship programs have been ranked for all of these six consecutive years. This is a great testament to our high quality of students and faculty.

Having the nation's largest totally optional co-op program, a sizable undergraduate professional internship program, the nation's largest graduate co-op program and a rapidly growing work abroad program (all at a Tier I research university) make Georgia Tech's Division of Professional Practice unique when compared to peer institutions.

Not only am I personally proud to be a Georgia Tech coop alumnus but extremely pleased to be a part of this effort at my alma mater!

Thomas M. Akins, IE 74 Executive director Division of Professional Practice

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Taking the QTLN& out of job hunting and recruiting!

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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Studies that have been carried out over the past 100 years show there is very little evident > » MlNQUOTESJJ

tJi If you are probing a cell to get a bit of information, how do you know that the cell is not going to respond by changing the information it reveals the next time you probe it? If you are probing a molecule, can you assume that the molecule will return to its original configuration before you test it the next time? We didn't think about this until we had been doing these

kinds of experiments for more than 10 years.

— Cheng Zhu Regents professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, on sciencedaily.com

Some people are waiting for the idea that is obviously the winner right out of the box. And there certainly are big ideas, but my experience is these

ideas are built, they're not just born. They usually come from putting other things together, refining ideas, letting it mature.

And the bigger your idea and the more different your idea is, you never have consensus at the start... because they are all sitting there with the current mind-set.

— Danny Strickland Chem 70, chief innovation and technology officer at The Coca-Cola Company, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

To my knowledge, this is the tirst longterm study of this sort. It is groundbreaki n g . . . and helps to forward humanrobot interaction studies significantly.

People tend to react anthropomorphic ally to the unit. They thank, they praise Roomba and they even reprimand Roomba if it doesn't behave.

— Ron Arkin • Regents professor and director of the College of Computing Mobile Robot Laboratory, about toddlers bonding with a state-of-the-art robot introduced in a classroom over five months, on nationalgeographic.com

— Ja Young Sung Georgia Tech student on a research team studying why people become attached to a vacuum robot, giving it names and even dressing it in clothes, on NPR

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igazine • Winter 2008

could substantiate any energy savings due to the advent of daylight-saving time. dam bneiion director of research programs Strategic Energy Institute at Tech, onAtlantaWXIA-TV11Alive.com

Handoffs from one leader to the next are tricky because of the politics and intrigue that surround them, the complex nature of the CEO position and the dynamic nature of companies. For that reason, they represent a time when the company is vulnerable.

The Internet is like a big wonderful house that was built in the 1970s. It's really important to you and you love it, but it may not do things you need it to do today. And while I'm not saying the house has termites, there are signs of decay.

— Nathan Bennett

associate dean and chair of the computing science and systems division, College of Computing, in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Georgia Tech management professor and co-author of a column on "Best Practices in Succession Planning" on Forbes.com

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The field is surviving; it's stressed, but it's hanging in there. The good thing is we recently devised a way to capture water from an underground spring and divert it for use on the field.

— Wayne Hogan associate athletics director for external relations at Georgia Tech, about watering grass at Grant Field during a drought, in the Associated Press

If Florida is the only group in the world doing anything, you're not going to make a

dent in this. But some of the things that Florida is doing really could lead the way.

— Judith Curry chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, concerning legislative efforts in Florida to curb greenhouse gas emissions, in The Washington Post

— Ellen W. Zegura

E-mail is the Trojan horse of office productivity.

— Thomas "Danny" Boston • economics professor at Georgia Tech and owner of the EuQuant research firm, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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What they're doing is coming to terms with reduced future profitability.

— Charles Mulford Georgia Tech management professor concerning General Motors taking a $39 billion charge on a tax offset, in The New York Times

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Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Tom Ventulett, BS 57, Arch 58, now spends more time at an easel than at a drafting table. Ventulett shared some of the floral watercolors he has painted at a show he and his wife hosted during which 85 of his works sold for between $400 and $500 apiece. All proceeds were donated to the Southeastern Flower Show. The Ventuletts are honorary chairs of the 2008 show, scheduled for Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. The American Institute of Architects recently awarded Ventulett the Bernard B. Rothschild Award for distinguished service to the profession of architecture in Georgia. A visiting professor in the College of Architecture, he and his family also endowed a distinguished

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Painlei Vaccini

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

Researchers Mark P*i r, left, of Georgia Tech and Richard Compans of Emory University are using National Institutes of Health grants totaling about $11.5 million over five years to develop a flu vaccine delivered through painless microneedles in patches applied to the skin. "Potentially, individuals could administer the vaccine to themselves, perhaps after receiving it in the mail," says Compans, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory's School of Medicine. Prausnitz, a professor in Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, says, "The possibility of replacing a hypodermic needle with a microneedle patch should significantly impact the way that other vaccines are delivered." The research could have implications for immunization programs in developing countries, where eliminating the use of hypodermic needles could make vaccines more widely available and address the problem of disease transmission caused by the reuse of conventional hypodermic needles. "We expect microneedles to be less painful than conventional hypodermic needles because they are too small to significantly stimulate nerve endings," Prausnitz adds. GT

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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TECHNOTES Two Alumni Receive Young Scientist Honors Two Tech graduates with doctoral degrees have received national early career awards: Elliot Moore, below left, for his work in electronically analyzing speech and Chekesha Liddell, below right, for her studies of control over light waves. Both scientists' work was recognized at a White House ceremony.

20

Two Tech alumni, Elliot Moore and Chekesha Liddell, are among the 20 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The award winners were honored at the White House in November.

Moore, EE 98, MS EE 99, PhD EE 03, is an assistant professor at Tech's Savannah, Ga., campus. He teaches electrical and computer engineering and conducts research in applying digital signal processing to speech analysis. Ultimately, Moore's work could provide the means for electronically analyzing speech to detect certain emotions or stress. He could improve existing methods for detecting deception as well as add a useful dimension to human-computer interaction.

Moore was the first Savannah-based Tech faculty member to win a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. He won that award in 2005 for a project titled "Extraction and Integration of Voice Source Features into the Acoustical Analysis of Spoken Affect."

Liddell, MatE 99, PhD MSE 03, is an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Cornell University, where she studies how nonspherical particles can be induced to arrange themselves into structures that promise a significantly higher level of control over light waves than traditional optical materials.

Engineering strong light-matter interactions

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

through the design of new structures enables advances in a number of critical technologies.

Among them are structuring solar cell component materials and their interfaces at fine scales to improve the efficiency of next-generation solar-toelectric energy conversion devices and structuring porous silver and other metal-ceramic composite materials to increase the sensitivity of chemical and biochemical sensors to target molecules including proteins, DNA or pesticides.

A New Green Carpet Standard Don't call it "green" carpet, call it sustainable carpet. A new standard for assessing the environmental friendliness of carpet was announced at the 2007 Greenbuild International Conference in Chicago.

Matthew Realff, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, served as chair of the committee that developed the standard.

"The LEED standards for buildings suggested that standards were an effective strategy for encouraging competition and providing an objective way of evaluating sustainability claims made in the marketplace," Realff says.

The new sustainability standard addresses chemicals and materials used in manufacturing carpet, the energy used in production, the use of recy-

TECHNOTES>> cled or bio-based content methods of disposal and/or reuse and the overall environmental performance of manufacturers.

This new standard aims to help consumers sort out the complex sustainable attributes and encourage manufacturers and their suppliers to seek out or develop environmentally preferable processes/ practices, power sources and materials.

The Green Label certification program developed by the Carpet and Rug Institute that required carpets to meet emissions criteria for volatile organic compounds and other chemicals is part of the new standard.

Silver, gold and platinum certification levels will be awarded to manufacturers. In addition, some categories mandate that specific requirements be met to achieve the higher certification levels.

Surfer's Theory of Everything' David Finkelstein doesn't discount a new theory of the universe proposed by a free-spirited surfer with a doctorate in physics who says the concept came to him in a dazzling inspiration.

Garrett Lisi, who spends most of the year surf-

ing in Hawaii, reported the theory in a New Scientist paper, "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything." Lisi earned a doctorate in theoretical physics in 1999 at the University of California in San Diego.

Finkelstein, professor emeritus in Georgia Tech's School of Physics, was editor of the International Journal of Theoretical Physics from 1977 to 2005.

"My brain exploded "Some incredibly beautiful stuff falls out of with the implications Lisi's theory," Finkelstein says. "This must be more than coincidence and he really is touching on and the beauty something profound." of the thing."

Lisi's theory is based in the elegant, intricate — Garrett Lisi shape known in mathematics as E8, a complex, eight-dimensional pattern with 248 points first found in 1887 but only fully understood by mathematicians in 2007.

E8 encapsulates the symmetries of a geometric object that is 57-dimensional and is itself 248dimensional.

Lisi told the media his breakthrough came when he noticed that some of the equations describing E8's structure matched his own. "My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing." >» Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

21

>>TECHNOTES Lisi realized he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8's 248 points. Twenty gaps remained, which he filled in with notional particles, including those some physicists predict to be associated with gravity.

It may be possible to test Lisi's theory, which predicts a host of new particles, using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher near Geneva, which will begin operation in 2008.

While the theory has created excitement among physicists, many have publicly expressed the view that Lisi's "Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" is a very, very long shot.

Four Faculty Named Science Fellows

Tech's Judith Curry, Randall Engle, Cheryl Leggon and Rick Trebino, top to bottom, have been honored as American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows.

22

Four Georgia Tech faculty members — Judith Curry, Randall Engle, Cheryl Leggon and Rick Trebino — have been named American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows.

"Overall, it adds to the prestige of the Institute when you have a number of fellows named," says Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Curry was recognized for her work in both the relationships between global climate change and hurricane intensity and for her contributions that led to understanding feedbacks in the Arctic system. She was named a fellow in the American Geophysical Union in 2004 and the American Meteorological Society in 1995.

Engle, the School of Psychology chair and associate dean for the College of Sciences, says the distinction "helps us to convey that there is a science of psychology that plays a crucial role in the community of scientists."

Engle was recognized for his work in understanding the nature of working memory and individual differences.

Leggon, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy, says, "My orientation to research has always been policy and practice in terms of making a difference in individual lives as well as transforming institutions. This is not only important nationally but globally as who is not 'at the table' is as significant as who is."

In 2006, Leggon was elected to membership in Sigma Xi, an honorary scholarly society.

Physics professor Trebino credits the work of many in receiving the honor. "It means that many grad students, postdocs and others who have

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

worked with my group over the years have done a very nice job making my ideas — as well as their own — happen."

He was honored for the development of techniques and devices for measuring ultrashort laser pulses. Trebino is a 2006 fellow of the American Physical Society and a 1999 Optical Society of America fellow.

AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society. The 471 new AAAS fellows will be honored at the Fellows Forum in February.

Bright Idea for Early-stage Funding Thomas Edison often receives credit for inventing the electric lightbulb, though his real accomplishment was in making it commercially successful. That focus on commercializing innovation is now providing the foundation for a new venture bearing Edison's name at Georgia Tech.

Launched by a multiyear grant from the Charles A, Edison Fund — named for the inventor's son, a successful businessman and former governor of New Jersey — the Georgia Tech Edison Fund will provide seed funding for early-stage technology companies that have a close association with the Institute.

"We will focus on startups at the very early stage, because that's the hardest money for an entrepreneur to find," says Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech's chief comercialization officer and manager of the new fund.

The Georgia Tech Edison Fund has already made its first investment in Pramana, a member company of the Advanced Technology Development Center that is commercializing Internet technology developed in the College of Computing.

"

Fleming says the Charles Edison Fund and Georgia Tech are natural collaborators. "Edison means innovation, invention and creativity — all of which are things we are trying to do. This helps us get our message across very quickly." The collaboration is Edison's first university partnership.

Edward Allman, IE 48, a longtime member of the Charles Edison Fund board of directors, played a key role in advocating the funding to establish the Georgia Tech Edison Fund. "Georgia Tech was founded on a tradition of taking theory and applying it to the real world in ways that make people's lives better. Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, which reminds me of what life was all about at Tech."

Petascale Computing David Bader, associate professor of computing and executive director of high-performance computing at Georgia Tech, has edited the first published collection on petascale techniques for computational science and engineering.

"Petascale Computing: Algorithms and Applications" is the first work released through Chapman & Hal/CRC Press' new computational science series.

"My goal in developing this book was to inspire members of the high-performance computing community to solve computational grand challenges that will help our society protect our environment and improve our understanding in fundamental ways, all through the efficient use of petascale computing," says Bader.

Featuring contributions from the world's leading experts in computational science, the book looks at expected breakthroughs in the field and covers a breadth of topics in petascale computing, >Âť

"My goal was to inspire members of the high-performance computing community to solve computational challenges that will help our society [and] protect our environment." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; David Bader

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

>>TECHNOTES including architectures, software, programming methodologies, tools, scalable algorithms, performance evaluation and application development.

New Executive MBA The College of Management now offers an executive MBA in management of technology for rising professionals in tech-heavy fields.

Recently approved by the Board of Regents, the degree is an evolution of the master's in management of technology started in 1995.

The 19-month program is designed for techni-

"My training as an industrial engineer has informed every assignment I have undertaken. I think in terms of processes and optimization of the systems I am working in, with the largest system of course being the global system."

cal and business professionals who are ready to transition into upper management and strategic management roles. They can earn their degrees while continuing to work full time, says College of Management Dean Steve Salbu.

A sister program, the global executive MBA, has seen exponential growth in popularity as more professionals recognize that the boardroom is as likely to be in India or China as in Georgia or New York. Established in 2005, the 17-month program enhances traditional course work with international perspectives on finance, operations, economics and marketing, GT

A Career in Humanitarian Relief Shireen Khan, IE 93, became interested in international development when she was working at AT&T. "I was spending all of my free time on community service activities and I was keen to have an international assignment. I thought I might do well to focus on humanitarian efforts as my main job," she says.

So Khan moved to Ghana, where her first assignment was managing an emergency food security project.

"My training as an industrial engineer has informed every assignment I have undertaken," she says.

The job in Ghana involved organizing a logistics and distribution system to deliver seed to farmers.

After earning master's degrees in business and international affairs from Columbia University in 2002, Khan moved to Afghanistan to work with the United Nations and other agencies in the economic development arena.

Following the devastating 2004 tsunami in Asia, she served as the local economic recovery adviser to the U.S. government representative for Aceh Reconstruction to find solutions for business recovery.

Currently, Khan is a global leadership fellow at the World Economic Forum, for which she promotes public-private partnerships to achieve international development goals, Khan says she believes that Tech's H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering will help make a significant impact around the world.

"While the field of humanitarian relief is becoming more sophisticated, each new complex emergency presents new challenges in administering aid," she explains. "Focusing the brainpower and expertise of the Stewart School of ISyE on improving humanitarian relief efforts has the potential to save many lives, ease suffering and reduce waste."

When the Outcome of Your Meeting Matters

Plan Your Next Corporate Meeting With Us Book your next corporate meeting, conference, or training seminar at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.

Georgia Tech Global Learning Center A PROFESSIONAL MEETING AND LEARNING FACILITY

(404) 385-6203 â&#x20AC;˘ www.gatechcenter.com

CENTENNIAL T he Georgia Tech Alumni Association celebrates 2008 as its centennial anniversary an occasion for yearlong festivities and events in recognition of the organization's 100 years of history. "This is a momentous occasion, a momentous anniversary that covers a phenomenal period of history" says Joseph P. Irwin, president of the Alumni Association.

"Our history includes two world wars, the Great Depression, the establishment of Atlanta as a center for high technology, the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the ushering in of a new millennium and the emergence of Georgia Tech as a world-class university," Irwin says. "In all of this, Georgia Tech has been at the forefront."

The occasion began with the publication of a centennial history of the Alumni Association, "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech." It is written by John Dunn, Gary Goettling, Kimberly Link-Wills and Leslie Overman. Everett Hullum, the longtime designer of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI mm MAGAZINE, also created the look of the book.

"The history of the Alumni Association

sounds like a subject guaranteed to attract insomniacs," says Dunn, editor and vice president of Alumni Communications.

"You want to say 'Please try and suppress your yawn.' We have tried not to write a sleepy little book."

The book's title reflects the emphasis on Georgia Tech alumni, those who have directed the affairs of the Alumni Association, and many who have played a significant role in the history of Atlanta, Georgia and the nation.

"Georgia Tech alumni have been essential to Atlanta's growth as a high-technology center and Tech President Joseph M. Pettit played an important role in that development," Dunn says.

"Georgia Tech played a critical role in bringing the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to Atlanta that has not been fully appreciated," Dunn adds.

"Multimedia and interactive technology is common now, but in 1989, through President John P. Crecine's initiative, Georgia Tech faculty produced a spectacular state-ofthe-art presentation featuring Atlanta as the host city of the 1996 Summer Games that

24

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine

CELEBRATION absolutely wowed the International Olympic Committee.

"The multimedia presentation was so much fun, it surely went a long way in winning over the collective mind-set of the committee, which had set its heart on returning the Olympic Games to Greece for the 100th anniversary. Billy Payne was the visionary for the Summer Games in Atlanta, and Georgia Tech alumni were everywhere in the background."

The Alumni Association's role has always been that of best friend of the Institute, so the history of the Alumni Association is in step with Georgia Tech. The history of the Association is the story of Georgia Tech alumni, many of whom have become legendary.

The idea of a book came out of a centennial committee meeting in late 2006, Dunn says. "The task fell to me, and I quickly enlisted some very talented people to help make it happen. It was a team effort of researching, writing, editing and proofreading. There is a great deal of satisfaction of being part of this kind of effort."

The observance will be marked by 100th anniversary banners, billboards on Interstate

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75-85, a street naming and dedications. It will be an evident theme in all annual Alumni Association events and activities such as the Alumni Career Fair, Pi Mile, the Presidents' Dinner, and Homecoming, says Renee Queen, vice president of Marketing Services for the Alumni Association.

A centennial wooden bowl will be created by the Moulthrop family, whose works are prized by collectors, from an elm tree in the Basil Garden that was felled by a windstorm. The family craft of wood turning and bowl making was started by Edward Moulthrop, who taught architecture and physics at Tech in the 1940s. The work was continued by his son, Philip Moulthrop of Marietta, Ga., and grandson, Matt Moulthrop, MBA 04.

Other activities in the works, which will be promoted on an Alumni Association centennial Web site, include a centennial cruise, a trip to New York City with the Georgia Tech marching band, also celebrating its anniversary in 2008, and "some creative opportunities around campus for alumni and students," Queen says. "Everyone should stay tuned for an exciting year." GT

Starts, Sputte HE GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY'S FIRST ALUMNUS, HENRY L. SMITH, WAS ALSO THE FIRST

Excerpted from "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," published by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, © 2007

person to rally other graduates to found an alumni association.

A motivator in the effort to establish an alumni association was school president Lyman Hall, a West Point graduate and professor of mathematics under Isaac S. Hopkins, the school's first president. When Hopkins resigned in 1896, Hall was named to the office.

Smith and George Gordon Crawford, both college graduates, were admitted in the middle (or junior) class in 1888 to pursue mechanical engineering degrees, which they earned in 1890. Smith was presented the first diploma the school issued.

"It was the greatest honor I ever received, and I received it through chance," Smith told Robert B. Wallace Jr., longtime editor of the alumni magazine and author of "Dress Her in White and Gold." "George Crawford and I got together before graduation and agreed that this decision was too important to make on an alphabetical basis, so out came a coin — it was a 50 cent piece — and I won the toss."

Both Smith and Crawford were actively involved with their alma mater.

Crawford became president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company of

V

and Smokers The founding of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, as told in its newly published history, "Ramblin'Wrecks From Georgia Tech','was not what you would call a masterful feat of engineering. The idea was good, but it took a lot of determination and quite a bit of tinkering.

Birmingham, Ala., and was recognized as "The First Citizen of Alabama." In 1919, he was named to Georgia Tech's board of trustees.

Smith became a superintendent at Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta, where he worked for 10 years.

From early on, alumni meetings were held annually in conjunction with the school's commencement exercises. R.H. "Pud" Lowndes, a 1903 mechanical engineering graduate who was active in founding the Alumni Association, speculated that as early as 1894, alumni assemblies were held to spark interest among the freshly minted, Atlanta-area graduates into organizing an association.

A brief article appeared in the June 18,1897, edition of The Atlanta Constitution announcing that at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 23, Georgia Tech alumni from all over the state would meet in their first reunion to form "the first alumni association of the school." The article added, "There are over a hundred graduates of the school living in this city."

On June 24,1897, The Atlanta Constitution reported the success of the meeting: >»

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Mischievous Mascot The Yellow Jacket is one of Georgia Tech's most familiar and oldest symbols, The earliest known reference to the Yellow Jacket appeared in 1905, a year after John Heisman became Tech's football coach, The earliest known illustrated Yellow Jacket appeared in the Atlanta newspapers in 1906 (above).

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Yellow Jacket was incorporated on the cover of the Georgia Tech alumni magazines right along with the official school seal, In 1985, the Yellow Jacket got a contemporary look, Tech wanted the new mascot Buzz to project a personality — the same bold-as-brass, mischievous and irreverent character that has championed athletic events, enlivened social activities and invigorated academic pomp and ceremony and now has become the impish Buzz beloved by alumni,

30

"For several months past, Capt. Lyman Hall, president of the School of Technology, has been interesting the alumni of this institution in organizing an association.

"At a meeting held yesterday morning, his hopes were realized and an association formed, strong in every respect. To celebrate this good beginning, an elegant banquet was given by the newly organized association at the Kimball house last night.

"Around the beautifully decorated tables were seated several of the very first year's graduates of the Technological school. They ranged on down to the eight graduates who received their diplomas yesterday and who were elected members of the alumni association last night.

"Gathered around the banquet board last night were men from every section of the state. It was not a local association by any means that was formed, but its charter members are from the different counties through the state.

"Mr. H.L. Smith was elected president of the alumni association, M.W. McRae vice president and E.B. Merry secretary and treasurer."

McRae and Merry were 1893 classmates. Murdock McRae played left end on the Georgia Tech football team that Leonard Wood coached and led to the school's first victory over the University of Georgia 28-6 on Nov. 5,1893.

Wood, a lieutenant and Army surgeon stationed at Fort McPherson near Atlanta, had already received the Medal of Honor for his participation in the capture of Geronimo in 1885. He would go on to be the colonel commanding Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, governor general of Cuba and a major general. Reliable accounts state Wood took a course in Tech's wood shops in 1893 as an opportunity to manage and play for its football team.

In a speech at the organization's meeting in 1899, Smith observed, "For the first few years, we cannot expect our association to become the wonder of this generation; neither can we, nor will we, remain insignificant, for this sentiment does not find a lodgment in the heart of him who is molding for himself a future of usefulness. We must be known, we must be felt, and to be such requires the individual effort and the concerted effort of each and every alumnus."

A primary role of the association would be "to secure positions for all of our alumni and to assist in the promotion to higher positions those already employed, helping each other over the rough places," he said.

"There are more avenues opening up to us every day — the foundries, machine shops, electric lighting and railway," with an array of jobs available for "men of brain and activity." But, Smith warned, "These places are being filled every day by Northern men, because we have not heretofore proven our ability to cope with the assignments of the positions.

"The Georgia School of Technology, of which this association is the offspring, is sending her alumni into the same territory from which we have been drawing our supply [of technically trained talent], and they are filling the most responsible positions that is theirs to give. When this fact is brought prominently before the Southern manufacturer, if he is wise, he will see the turning of the tide and quickly avail himself of it."

For whatever reasons, the ambitious organizational effort was not sustained. Smith moved to Dalton, Ga., to found with his brother the M.D. and H.L. Smith Co., which manufactured tents as well as overalls and flour and meal bags.

Alumni in Atlanta and around the state continued the practice of meeting annually on commencement day and electing officers.

At the close of the school year in June 1903, A.R. Colcord, an 1892 mechanical engineering graduate who was serving as president of the alumni association, gathered about 60 alumni for a banquet at the Piedmont Hotel for the purpose of passing on the leadership. It was the first alumni association meeting attended by Lowndes, a new gradu- > »

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Gridiron Genius In addition to being a brilliant football tactician who championed the forward pass and ushered in football's modern era, coach John Heisman had a flair for the dramatic. During the offseason — when he was not coaching football and baseball at Georgia Tech — Heisman performed on the Atlanta stage, often cast as the heavy Even off stage, he spoke in the somewhat flamboyant diction of an actor.

Heisman, known as "Heis," did not like to lose, and, during his 16 seasons as Tech's football coach, from 1904 to 1919, he never had a losing season. The Yellow Jackets were 102-29-7 under Heisman, and his 1917

team was declared national champion.

But in the spring of 1916, Heisman's baseball team trav-

eled to Cumberland College in Lebanon, Term., where it was ambushed. The Cumberland squad, loaded with ringers from a Nashville professional team, humiliated Tech 22-0.

The next fall at Grant Field, Heisman engineered the most dramatic score in football history On Oct. 7, 1916, Tech defeated hapless Cumberland 222-0.

In the game, which Heisman agreed to shorten to 45 minutes, Tech scored 32 touchdowns and 30 field goals, carried the ball for 978 yards and never threw a pass. Neither team made first down; Tech scored within four downs on every possession, Heisman's 1908 team is pictured above; despite

the introduction of the Yellow Jacket mascot in 1905, his winning style resulted in team nicknames like the Tech Tornadoes and Golden Tornadoes, Heisman left Tech in 1919 and returned to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, where he had earned a law degree. He never duplicated the success he had enjoyed at Georgia Tech.

He retired from football in 1926 and became director of athletics at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York.

After his death on Oct. 3, 1936, the trophy the club presented annually to the player judged the best in the nation was renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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The Engineering of a Song Just how long Georgia Tech men — and, more recently, women — have been singing about drinking their whiskey clear has been the subject of some debate, The Georgia Tech Alumnus tried to set the record straight in the fall of 1948, when it quoted H.D. Cutter, an 1892 graduate, Cutter told the Alumnus that "without a shadow of a doubt" the first Georgia Tech version of the song "Ramblin' Wreck" was written by his classmate, WR "Billy" Walthall, "It may be well to note further that 'Ramblin' Wreck' was adapted from a college song that originated prior to 1892; however, the versions by Mr. Walthall and others of later classes finally evolved into the song as it is today" the Alumnus said, The song was said to be based on"Son of a Gambolier," with the chorus: "Like every jolly fellow/I takes my whiskey clear/For I'm a rambling rake of poverty/And the son of a gambolier."

The words to Georgia Tech's version of the song were published what is believed to be the first time in the 1908 Blueprint under the heading "What Causes Whitlock to Blush." And "certain words too hot to print" were replaced by long dashes.

About 1912, the story goes, M.A."Mike" Greenblatt, hired by Tech students to serve as bandleader, wrote the score. Later, when Frank Roman became director of the Georgia Tech band, he wrote the musical score for his adaptation of the song, He obtained a copyright in 1919.

The song has been broadcast and recorded countless times.

Two notable performances: The Glee Club sang "Ramblin' Wreck" on Ed Sullivan's show, and Gregory Peck sang the song in the movie "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," One other footnote: Daniel W Boone Sr, a direct descendant of the frontiersman of the same name, was responsible for installing the Moeller organ in the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in 1929. To test the organ, he sat down and played "Ramblin' Wreck," "'Ramblin' Wreck' is correctly known as Georgia Tech's own and, in addition to its national fame, everyone who shared in its origin and development is due gracious thanks and the best of all honors," the Alumnus said in 1948, I'm a Ramblin1 Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer, A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer Like all the jolly good fellows, 1 drink my whiskey clear, I'm a Ramblin'Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer, Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold, And put her on the campus, to cheer the brave and bold.

But ifl had a son, sir, Til tell you what he d do, He would yell, "To Hell with Georgia," like his daddy used to do, Oh! 1 wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar 3,000 pounds, A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it round, I'd drink to all good fellows who come from far and near, I'm a ramblin', gamblin', hell of an engineer.

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Charter President Inl905J.B.McCraryanl891 graduate in mechanical engineering and president of an Atlanta engineering firm, organized a smoker — dinner followed by cigars — at his own expense to plan for a "permanent alumni association." The next year, when alumni met for the purpose of organizing that association

McCrary — to no one's surprise was elected its first president.

ate. Lowndes, who would later become a faculty member, served as secretary and treasurer of the Association when it was granted a charter in 1908. At that time, he gave a brief history of the association since 1903 from his own recollection. "That being my first year as a member of the association, I have a pretty close record of its history," Lowndes wrote.

"I do not recollect that any business was transacted other than a kind of unanimous expression to have Mr. Colcord continue his presidency. Mr. Colcord, however, tendered his informal resignation and expressed his desire to withdraw."

The next year, there was a called meeting of the floundering organization "seemingly at the insistence of F.C. Turner," Lowndes said. Turner, a member of the class of 1899, organized a committee, which scheduled a banquet at the Piedmont Hotel in June 1904.

"In 1905, the banquet was held as usual, but with the resignation of Mr. Colcord the business end of the association had waned, for no other officers had been appointed," Lowndes reported.

Two months later, the school confronted its own crisis. President Lyman Hall died in office on Aug. 16,1905. Nine days later, Kenneth G. Matheson, head of the English department, was named chair of the faculty and acting president.

In the fall of 1905, J.B. McCrary, ME 1891, president of an Atlanta engineering firm, recognized that if an alumni organization was to survive, it needed structure and leadership.

He organized a smoker — dinner followed by cigars — at his own expense.

Lowndes said the smoker was attended by a number of "more or less enthusiastic alumni" who recognized the need to establish "a more permanent alumni organization."

"Many vital matters were discussed and tentative officers were elected and several committees appointed," Lowndes said.

The next year, the initiative to establish a viable, organized alumni association took a strategic direction.

HE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MEETING ON JUNE 2 1 , 1906, WAS CALLED ON A WHIRL-

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wind day in the life of the school. Acting President Matheson was named ^•president by the board of trustees. Combined with that, the school held its graduation ceremonies at 8 p.m. at the Bijou Theater, and immediately afterward, an alumni banquet was held at 10 p.m. at the Piedmont Hotel.

The banquet toastmaster was Hal G. Nowell, a mechanical engineering graduate from 1894, attorney and a member of the Georgia Legislature. Included among the banquet guests were Georgia Gov. Joseph M. Terrell, Matheson and Tech founder Nathaniel E. Harris, chairman of the board of trustees.

The organizational efforts of the smoker paid dividends. The Atlanta Constitution announced that a 3 p.m. meeting was to be held at the Piedmont Hotel "for the purpose of organizing a permanent alumni association."

Lowndes observed alumni assembled for the "first bona fide business meeting of which any record remains." Probably to no one's surprise, McCrary was elected president.

H.H. Miles, ME 1893, was chosen vice president and Lowndes was named secretary and treasurer.

The alumni undertook a hefty agenda. Committees were assigned to draft a constitution and a petition for a charter "believing that more may be accomplished by an incorporated body."

The constitution stated that all graduates were eligible to become members of the association by paying $2 annual dues (approximately $40 in today's currency according to the American Institute for Economic Research). Anyone who attended Tech at least one year and left in good standing could be an associate member, but without voting rights. >» Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

33

It took a week to prepare the petition, and on June 28,1906, four alumni signed the charter application: McCrary, W.H. Glenn, who also graduated in 1891, J.W. Little, ME 1893, and W.R Walthall, ME 1892. But it would be two years before the petition was filed and a charter was finally granted.

EANWHILE, AS THE NUMBER OF ALUMNI GREW OUTSIDE OF ATLANTA, THE

Father of Tech Football In 1893, Leonard Wood, a lieutenant and Army surgeon stationed at Fort McPherson near Atlanta, coached and led the team to the school's first football victory over the University of Georgia on Nov. 5.

Already a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his participation in the capture of Geronimo in 1885, Wood took a course in Tech's wood shops in 1893 as an opportunity to manage and play for its football team.

Thomas W Raoul, an 1893 graduate who played on the team, remembered Wood as "the father" of Tech football. He was also a supporter of the National Alumni Association, writing in 1919, "I shall be very glad indeed ... to tell the country of what a sound institution Tech is and how valuable and far-reaching is its work in the South."

34

concept of an alumni association gained national appeal. Local alumni in Macon, Ga.; New York City; Pittsburgh; Chattanooga, Term.; and a handful of other cities initiated satellite alumni associations. Forty alumni in New York met at Murray's restaurant on 142nd Street on March 7,1908.

The New York alumni explained their purpose in an article appearing on March 18, 1908, in The Atlanta Constitution that carried a resolution stating, "That we notify the Georgia School of Technology and the Alumni Association thereof of our existence. That the object of this association is the promotion of social intercourse among the graduates of the institution, the promotion of their professional welfare and the extension of the knowledge of the school and its advantages. That we lend a helping hand to all graduates and students of the institution who come within our reach."

The New York association elected J. Howard Williams, ME 1901, secretary and created an executive committee made up of C.E. Fairbanks, 1892; J.G. Rossman, 1892; S.F. Jeer, 1893; EC. Furlow, 1897; G.J. Merritt, 1901; S.L. Snowden, 1903; EC. Morton, 1905; and P.V. Stephens, 1905.

In Atlanta, the alumni association experienced confusion in its efforts to get the charter.

In the 1907 minutes, Hal Nowell explained that the charter had been filed in the office of the clerk of Fulton County Superior Court, but "the committee, due probably to lack of funds, had failed to publish the matter as required by law and therefore, the charter had not been obtained."

The charter was granted on June 20,1908.

There was nothing spectacular about the document, no bold proclamation reading "Charter." It is a simple, inauspicious legal document, a copy of which is in the Georgia Tech Library archives. But it gave the new association life.

After starts, stalls, sputters and a two-year wait, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association finally found its footing. GT

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

Insubordinate Seniors The Georgia Tech Class of 1901 was almost the class that wasn't, On Jan. 1, 1901, the first day of class following Christmas break, the entire senior class of 18 failed to return to campus. They had conspired to extend their holiday an extra day and celebrate New Year's with their families.

Seventeen of the seniors returned to earn their degrees and rallied together as the "Insubordinate Seniors," returrhngto campus every five years to be photographed on the steps of the Administration Building.

When the seniors returned on Jan, 2, President Lyman Hall called them into his office, one by one, and told them they were guilty of insubordination and that they were suspended until Feb. 2, 1901. They were required to return in the fall to graduate, and diplomas were held until completion of classes.

Upset parents protested to the school's Board of Trustees and appeared before faculty pleading for leniency but the disciplinary action stood.

When the class observed its 60th anniversary in 1961, only one of the group, Julian P Benjamin of Jacksonville, Fla,, was able to attend and was photographed on the steps of the building along with group photographs taken at previous reunions.

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>>INTERVIEW

ACentenrrialStory The making of'TechTone News,' a documentary celebrating 100 years in the life and times of Georgia Tech alumni

By John Dunn Photo: Scott Dinerman

Fans rush to congratulate Bobby Jones, winner of the Grand Slam of golf; Dean of Students George C. Griffin chats with a student in his office walled with photographs in a scene sure to bring back a rush of nostalgic memories; a co-ed at Tech is so rare that when she strolls across campus she attracts a photographer's attention; and three black men enroll at Georgia Tech and break the racial barrier.

They are historic events featured in "TechTone News," a DVD celebrating the Georgia Tech Alumni Association's centennial observance. It was produced by the Living History program under the direction of Marilyn Somers.

Somers wrote the script for the history and Scott Dinerman, STC 03, Living History's videographer, edited the 24-minute DVD and created the graphics and special effects. Kirk Englehardt, director of communications at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, narrated the feature, which is done in the style of old Movietone News reels.

The "TechTone News" DVD is a companion to the centennial histo-

For our narrator we chose Kirk Englehardt, who we've worked with many times. I asked him if he could do Ed Herlihy. I was looking for that very serious voice. I think he did a super job and he had a great time. And it was recorded all in one session, which I thought was amazing because we had tons of script.

Were there other challenges?

The headlines were a challenge — to write not the way I might want to write but to write in the spirit of a Movietone News reel. I listened to a lot of them. And we did a lot of research to find out what was typical of a headline at that time. The newspaper archives came in so handy. The grandiose headlines were the times and they did that. I just let my imagination run wild with that and had a really good time actually, It was a fun thing to do, It was important because it sets up the news clip.

Somers talks about the making of the centennial "TechTone News" documentary.

How did you approach producing the centennial DVD? As a storyteller, I look for the story.

Even though this is a story that is 10 stories because it highlights events from each decade, you want it to have continuity, You can't be too random. But each decade is a story.

When did you come up with the Movietone News concept?

We were brainstorming early on and it was the first concept that came to mind. I thought it would really work out well and I thought it might be fun because we have some of these old film clips. I knew I had a clip of Winston

36

Churchill when he came here in the 1930s. I was picturing in my mind some of the footage of former presidents and personalities.

I started referring to it as Tech's Movietone News. An alumnus suggested dropping the word "movie" and simply call it "TechTone News," And that's what we did.

What were you looking for?

I clearly knew what the music had to sound like. Movietone music is Movietone music. We went

Were you forced to rely on historical photographs?

No, we didn't want to have to depend on photographs. We wanted to use moving images.

We used quite a few motion picture clips.

Was archival footage readily available?

Not usually. We did a lot of online searches to see what was out there. The University of South Carolina is the recipient of the Fox Movietone News archives, We were able to negotiate a very reasonable contract with them and get selections of some epic events that happened on the Georgia Tech campus. All we had were photographs.

through a real search but we found it.

Does this classify as a documentary?

What about the voice?

Absolutely. It's history from the beginning to the future because

The other thing was the narrator.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

One hundred years covers a lot of history.

It required a lot of research. This goes back before we were even recording the history. We reviewed printed histories and what was published in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. We started exploring and finding lots of neat stuff — written material. We wanted to figure out what things happened in each decade. There were a tremendous number of events. It would be easy to slip into institutional history and not alumni history. You have to ask what happened that directly was associated with alumni. I started out with timesheets. We listed all these things and went back by process of elimination -~ what directly involved alumni. Then we would see what we had in the way of motion picture clips or video,

Was the research difficult?

ry, "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," published by the Alumni Association, and is included with the book.

the story continues and doesn't end.

The research was fun and the detective work was lots of fun.

Sometimes it was frustrating. I always try to make decisions based on the true history. I'm always going to choose true history over something that is politically correct.

Did your research turn up any surprises?

When we started peeling back the layers, we discovered more of Tech's history than we knew. We knew we could get good photos of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He came to Georgia Tech to dedicate the Techwood Project. We knew that we had the Techwood building, but I didn't know that two of our alums had negotiated to get that dorm for nothing. It was a $250,000 building at the time — in the 1930s — and it was Flippen D. Burge and the senior Preston Stevens. They were the architects

and the builders on the project and they negotiated with the federal government so that Georgia Tech would benefit. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any archival film on Techwood.

Were there other surprises?

I knew Charles Lindbergh had come to Georgia Tech. I thought he was celebrating his transAtlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis. I didn't realize that Dr. Marion Brittain had specifically invited him because Dr. Brittain was actually looking to secure the Guggenheim award for the aeronautical engineering program. He was a prescient and a forward thinker. Everyone I had interviewed who knew Dr. Brittain always talked about what a fine old gentleman he was, which didn't make me think of him as a progressive. But he was. I gained a much greater respect for him. He was building for Tech's future.

Lindbergh was a freshly minted national hero at that time.

When Lindy came to Georgia Tech, it became more of an Atlanta event, but he came to the Tech stadium. The priority was for alumni to come out and they came in greater numbers than they had ever come before. There were alums working at Georgia Power who got involved and for the first time put a loudspeaker system in and put lights in the stadium just for that event. It was cool.

How about the famous Rose Bowl run of Wrong Way Riegels?

We show it all. I understand the Rose Bowl considers it the most famous play in its history. Roy Riegels was playing for California and recov-

ers a Tech fumble, but he runs the

The DVD has a fast pace.

wrong way. When he realizes his

We cover the Alumni Association

mistake, Georgia Tech tackles him

history in about 24 minutes with

at the 1-yard line.

clips of Bobby Jones, George

Did you find anything on drownproofing?

wars, the admission of women,

We did. Drownproofing was an experience that was uniquely Georgia Tech. We found some rare footage of Freddy Lanoue teaching drownproofing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; students with their feet and hands bound, bobbing in the water.

Freddy Lanoue is in it. He's everybody's favorite. He turned into such a legend.

and the era of Wayne Clough.

Griffin, Bobby Dodd, two world

You have John Young on the moon?

Yes, bounding across the moon's surface. It was a historic moment.

And we have film clips of every president of Georgia Tech since 1908, but not all of them are included. We have a lot of video on Jimmy Carter, but I wanted to show his inaugural walk when he was sworn in as president. The Carter Center was very helpful.

integration, the Olympic Games

How do you edit 100 years of history?

I started out with 20 things for each decade and then I looked at

what I could match to film. The deciding factor for us was always film and trying to find an interesting angle. Some of the choices were not what we would have chosen if we had all the liberty in the world. But they were decided by what made a huge impact and what we had in the way of film clips. We believe it's an entertaining, historical documentary of the Alumni Association and some of its wonderful alumni, G T

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Is It live or IsItAR? By blending digital creations with our view of the world, augmented reality is set to transform the way we entertain and educate ourselves

By Jay David Bolter and Blair Maclntyre Photo: Gary Meek

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here are two ways to tell the tale of one Sarah K. Dye, who lived through the Union Army's siege of Atlanta in the summer of 1864. One is to set up a plaque that narrates how she lost her infant son to disease and carried his body through Union lines during an artillery exchange to reach Oakland Cemetery and bury him there.

The other is to show her doing it. You'd be in the cemetery, just as it is today, but it would be overlaid with the sounds and sights of long ago. A headset as comfortable and fashionable as sunglasses would use tiny lasers to paint highdefinition images on your retina — virtual images that would blend seamlessly with those from your surroundings.

If you timed things perfectly by coming at twilight, you'd see flashes from the Union artillery on the horizon and a moment later hear shells flying overhead. Dye's shadowy figure would steal across the cemetery in perfect alignment with the ground, because the headset's differential GPS, combined with inertial and optical systems, would determine your position to within millimeters and the angle of your view to within arc seconds.

That absorbing way of telling a story is called augmented reality, or AR. It promises to transform the way we perceive our world, much as hyperlinks and browsers have already begun to change the way we read. Today we can click on hyperlinks in text to open new vistas of print, audio and video media. A decade from now — if the technical problems can be solved — we will be able to use marked objects in our physical environment to guide us through rich, vivid and gripping worlds of historical information and experience.

The technology is not yet able to show Dye in action.

Even so, there is quite a lot we can do with the tools at our disposal. As with any new medium, there are ways not only of covering weaknesses but even of turning them into strengths — motion pictures can break free of linear narration with flashbacks; radio can use background noises, such as the sound of the whistling wind, to rivet the listener's attention.

Along with our students, we are now trying to pull off such tricks in our project at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. For the past six years, we have held classes in AR design at Georgia Tech and for the past three we have asked our students to explore the history and drama of the site.

We have distilled many ideas generated in our classes to create a prototype called "Voices of Oakland," an audio-only tour in which the visitor walks among the graves and meets three figures in Atlanta's history. By using professional actors Jay David Bolter is co-director of the Wesley Center for New Media at Georgia Tech and a professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture. Blair Maclntyre is director of the Augmented Environments Lab and a professor in the College of Computing.

40

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

to play the ghosts and by integrating some dramatic sound effects (gunshots and explosions during the Civil War vignettes), we made the tour engaging while keeping the visitors' attention focused on the surrounding physical space.

We hope to be able to enhance the tour, not only by adding visual effects but also by extending its range to neighboring sites, indoors and out. After you've relived scenes of departed characters in the cemetery, you might stroll along Auburn Avenue and enter the former site of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Inside, embedded transceivers would allow the GPS to continue tracking you, even as you viewed a virtual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a sermon to a virtual congregation, recreating what actually happened on that spot in the 1960s.

Whole chapters of the history of Atlanta, from the Civil War to the civil rights era, could be presented as interactive tours and virtual dramas. Even the most fidgety student probably would not get bored.

By telling the story in situ, AR can build on the aura of the cemetery — its importance as a place and its role in the Civil War. The technology could be used to stage dramatic experiences in historic sites and homes in cities throughout the world. Tourists could visit the beaches at Normandy and watch the Allies invade France. One might even observe Alexander Graham Bell spilling battery acid and making the world's first telephone call: "Mr. Watson, come here."

An Embryonic Science he first, relatively rudimentary forms of AR technology are already being used in a few prosaic but important practical applications. Airline and auto mechanics have tested prototypes that give visual guidance as they assemble complex wiring or make engine repairs. Doctors have used it to perform surgery on patients in other cities.

But those applications are just the beginning. AR will soon combine with various mobile devices to redefine how we approach the vast and growing repository of digital information now buzzing through the Internet. The shift is coming about in part because of the development of technologies that free us from our desks and allow us to interact with digital information without a keyboard. But it is also the result of a change in attitude, broadening the sense of what computers are and what they can do.

We are already seeing how computers integrate artificially manipulated data into a variety of workaday activities, splicing the human sensory system into abstract representations of such specialized and time-critical tasks as air traffic control. We also have seen computers become a medium for art and entertainment. Now we will use them to knit together Web art, entertainment, work and daily life.

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Using AR technology, whole chapters of the history ofAtlanta, from the Civil War to the civil rights era, could be presented as interactive tours and virtual dramas. Even the most fidgety student probably would not get bored.

Think of digitally modified reality as a piece of a continuum that begins on one end with the naked perception of the world around us. From there it extends through two stages of "mixed reality." In the first one, the physical world is like the main course and the virtual world the condiment — as in our AR enhancement of the Oakland Cemetery. In the other stage of MR, the virtual imagery takes the spotlight. Finally, at the far end of the continuum lies nothing but digitally produced images and sounds, the world of virtual reality.

Any AR system must meld physical reality with computer-modeled sights and sounds, a display system and a method for determining the user's viewpoint. Each of the three components presents problems. Here we will consider only the visual elements as they are by far the most challenging to coordinate with real objects.

The ability to model graphics objects rapidly in three dimensions continues to improve because the consumer market for games — a U.S. $30 billion-a-year industry worldwide — demands it. The challenge that remains is to deliver the graphics to the user's eyes in perfect harmony with images of the real world. It's no mean feat.

The best-known solution uses a laser to draw images on the user's retina. There is increasing evidence that such a virtual retinal display can be done safely However, the technology is not yet capable of delivering the realistically merged imagery described here. In the meantime, other kinds of visual systems are being developed and refined.

Most AR systems use head-worn displays that allow the wearer to look around and see the augmentations everywhere. In one approach, the graphics are projected onto a small transparent screen through which the viewer sees the physical world. This technology is called an optical see-

through display. In another approach, the system integrates digital graphics with real-world images from a video camera, then presents the composite image to the user's eyes. It's known as a video-mixed display. The latter approach is basically the same one used to augment live television broadcasts — for example, to point out the first-down line on the field during a football game.

This comparison with augmented-live television highlights the problems that must still be solved. TV broadcasters can fix their cameras in precisely known positions and track their orientation with high-quality built-in encoders. And they can delay the video signal by a few dozen frames to gain time to clean things up. Because millions of people are watching, it makes economic sense for the television broadcaster to employ a team of technicians to monitor and adjust the system. Whoever wishes to bring AR to museums and historic landmarks — let alone less-traveled paths — will have to find less expensive ways around such problems.

The biggest technological challenge is to track position and orientation. Just how good the tracking must be depends, of course, on what you want to do with it. In the Oakland Cemetery example, it would be acceptable to place the ghosts within, say, 10 centimeters of their graves. However, a mechanic depending on AR to replace tiny components in a jet engine would need greater precision. The system might indicate the tiny components by highlighting them in a color; if they are just a few millimeters wide, clearly the system must have millimeter-level accuracy. Distance is just as important — the farther away you look, the more an error in the angle of the line of vision will become obvious.

For the display to have a chance of appearing perfectly aligned, the orientation error must be less than the visual angle of one pixel on the display. A typical display today might have a field of view of 24 degrees and a horizontal resolution of 800 pixels, meaning that an orientation error greater than 0.03 degree would result in perceptible misalignment between the virtual and physical objects.

To track things outdoors over a wide area, orientation sensors typically use magnetometers, inclinometers and inertial sensors. The magnetic components can, however, be thrown off by the presence of magnetic fields, iron or other ferric material. In smaller areas that can be surveyed or fitted with an infrastructure — fixed antennas and printed markers — the absolute accuracy of the sensors can be excellent.

A major research goal is to dispense with such an embedded infrastructure by devising automatic ways to find and track "natural features" — say, an uncataloged tree or boulder. That way the system could handle whatever comes up, without any prior knowledge of the territory Particularly promising are technologies that combine wearable cameras with inertial sensors. > » Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

41

Palettes of Behavior t is just as important to develop easy-to-use tools for AR. Without them, designers are not likely to enter the field.

For our work on the Oakland Cemetery project, we used a programming system, created in the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, called DART — Designer's Augmented Reality Toolkit.

DART was built to facilitate rapid prototyping so that designers can quickly visualize and test their ideas. We believe that DART can help contribute to the development of AR as a medium for art and creative design.

DART provides extensions to the Adobe Director multimedia-authoring system that allow it to coordinate threedimensional objects, video, sound and tracking information — the entire AR experience. It can track marked objects in a live video feed and react to real-time data streaming in from sensors, a wide variety of which can be made to work together seamlessly through the Virtual Reality Peripheral Network, an open-source system developed at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The VRPN also makes it easy to integrate DART programs with those written in other languages.

DART has palettes of behaviors — that is, the actions of a computerized system as it responds to stimuli, as when a video camera follows a person's movements. It is not our intention to provide a collection of behaviors so complete that it would satisfy the needs of all AR application designers; such an effort would be doomed to failure. Rather, we have designed the behaviors to provide a modular and extensible framework that designers can easily appropriate for their own needs. Anyone developing a new AR application can edit the DART behaviors.

We are by no means the first to promote this combination

I

of techniques as a new medium of expression. Designers and artists have been experimenting with precursors of the idea for years, although without using fully developed tracking technologies or head-worn displays.

Since its founding in 1979, the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria, has featured digital artists such as Myron Krueger, whose work has involved embedding computer monitors in art installations or projecting images on large screens or the surfaces of rooms or buildings, often in real time. The Canadian installation artist Janet Cardiff has created a series of audio tours in which the user wears headphones and walks along a predetermined path as Cardiff's voice fashions an audio landscape.

In addition, curators and designers have been moving toward mixed and augmented reality as they seek to enhance the visitor's experience in museums, historic sites and theme parks. One famous example is the audio tour of Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay in which the user wears headphones and embarks on an evocative walk through the empty cells and hallways, accompanied by a reconstruction of the sounds and voices of 50 years ago. However, the tour is a linear experience. The user must follow the path dictated on the CD; there is no tracking of the user's location.

Can You See Me Now? ome of the most compelling work uses mobile phones to combine Internet-based applications with the physical and social spaces of cities. Many such projects exploit the phone's GPS capabilities to let the device act as a navigational beacon. The positional information might let the phone's holder be tracked in cyberspace or it might be used to let the person see, on the phone's little screen, imagery relevant to the location.

Blast Theory, an experimental art and technology group in Brighton, England, has been one of the leaders in such enterprises. Its participatory game event Can You See Me Now? — designed in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham — pitted online participants against runners in the streets of a real city.

In one installation, in the center of Sheffield, the runners carried handheld computers that showed them the same map that the online participants had in front of them; the computers also bore GPS receivers that

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With mobile devices, video and computer games are entering the physical environment, as in Bragfish, created

by Georgia Tech I students to enable players to steer their own boats, cast lines and catch virtual fish. let the online people follow along. The runners tried to reach points in Sheffield that corresponded to the virtual positions of as many online participants as possible, thereby "catching" them. An open-mike audio channel connected the runners to the online players, giving the online players a sense of being in a shared physical space, no matter how far from Sheffield — or even England — they really were.

Meanwhile, new phones are coming along with processors and graphics chips as powerful as those in the personal computers that created the first AR prototypes a decade ago.

Such phones will be able to blend images from their cameras with sophisticated 3-D graphics and display them on their small screens at rates approaching 30 frames per second.

That's good enough to offer a portal into a world overlaid with media. A visitor to Oakland Cemetery could point the phone's video camera at a grave (affixed with a marker, called a fiducial) and, on the phone's screen, see a ghost standing at the appropriate position next to the grave.

Developing AR Diaries ideo and computer games have been the leading digital entertainment technology for many years. Until recently, however, the games were entirely screenbased. Now they too are climbing through mobile devices and into the physical environment around us, as in an AR fishing game called Bragfish, which our students have created in the past year.

Players peer into the handheld screens of game devices and work the controls, steering their boats and casting their lines to catch virtual fish that appear to float just above the tabletop. They see a shared pond, and each other's boats, but they see only the fish that are near enough to their own boats for their characters to detect.

We can imagine all sorts of games for children and adults in which virtual figures and objects interact with surfaces and spaces of our physical environment. Such games will leave no lasting marks on the places in which they are played. But people will be able to use AR technology to record and recall moments of social and personal engagement.

Just as they now go to Google Maps to mark the posi-

V

tions of their homes, their offices, their vacations and other important places in their lives, people will one day be able to annotate their AR experience at Oakland Cemetery and then post the files on something akin to Flickr and other social-networking sites. One can imagine how people will produce AR home movies based on visits to historic sites.

Ever more sophisticated games, historic tours and AR social experiences will come as the technology advances. We represent the possibilities in the form of a pyramid, with the simplest mobile systems at its base and fully immersive AR on top. Each successive level of technology enables more ambitious designs but with a smaller potential population of users. In the future, however, advanced mobile phones will become increasingly widespread, the pyramid will flatten out and more users will have access to richer augmented experiences.

Fully immersive AR, the goal with which we began, may one day be an expected feature of visits to historic sites, museums and theme parks, just as human-guided tours are today. AR glasses and tracking devices will one day be rugged enough and inexpensive enough to be lent to visitors, as CD players are today. But it seems unlikely that the majority of visitors will buy AR glasses for general use as they buy cell phones today; fully immersive AR will long remain a niche technology.

On the other hand, increasingly ubiquitous mobile technology will usher in an era of mixed reality in which people look at an augmented version of the world through a handheld screen. You may well pull information off the Web while walking through Oakland Cemetery or along Auburn Avenue, sharing your thoughts as well as the ambient sounds and views with friends anywhere in the world.

The New AR World t the beginning of the 20th century, when Kodak first sold personal cameras in the tens of thousands, the idea was to build a sort of mixed reality that blended the personal with the historic ("Here I am at the Eiffel Tower.") or to record personal history ("Here's the bride cutting the cake."). AR will put us in a kind of alternative history in which we can live through a historic moment — the Battle of Gettysburg or the "I have a dream" speech — in a sense making it part of our personal histories.

Mobile mixed reality will call forth new media forms that skillfully combine the present and the past, historical fact and its interpretation, entertainment and learning. AR and mobile technology have the potential to make the world into a stage on which we can be the actors, participating in history as drama or simply playing a game in the space before us. GT

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Copyright 2007 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from the August 2007 issue of Spectrum magazine.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

43

>>BOOKSHELF

A Tech Technology

Solution The authors of'A Contract With the Earth' pen plasma torch into their new book In a chapter devoted to entrepreneurial environmentalism, coauthors Terry Maple, a Georgia Tech professor of conservation and behavior, and Newt Gingrich, a former congressman, give a favorable nod to plasma arc technology studied at the Georgia Tech Research Institute

by Louis Circeo. They write:

As you drive south on the Florida turnpike, anticipating the magical properties of Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys, you are startled by massive mounds of trash heaped much too close to this modern roadway — higher than you would ever expect a landfill to reach. Above the heap, hundreds of shorebirds circle, punctuated by the dark silhouettes of the ubiquitous black vultures so common to this region.

Something is wrong with this picture.

How did this happen and what can we do about it? Neither speed nor insulation in the most modern vehicle will keep the foul, inescapable odor at bay. Landfills are proliferating state by state at a rapid pace. Some are visible from the roadside, while others are tucked away beneath our personal radar. Whether landfills are a ticking time bomb or a medical emergency, the challenge they present leaves a provocative and lasting image.

In a fascinating example of innovation, entrepreneurs and governments have discovered a

good use for municipal solidwaste landfills, in which landfill gases are converted into a type of green energy encouraged by government subsidies and tax credits that are attractive to investors. By collecting and dispersing landfill gas for home heating and electricity, green energy investors expect to operate a profitable business at the landfill site.

Landfills are commonplace in America; more than 2,000 municipal sites have been registered.

Currently, our citizens generate some 230 million tons of solid waste annually. About half of this tonnage ends up in landfills.

Landfill gas contains mostly methane and carbon dioxide, which are greenhouse gases, so there is good reason to try to limit or to exploit these emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency promotes the use of landfill gas as a renewable, green energy source and has established partnerships around the country with its Landfill Methane Outreach Program.

New technology is taking shape in St. Lucie County, Fla., as local government has opted to vaporize garbage at temperatures of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, as

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hot as the surface of the sun. The $425 million facility will turn trash into gas and rock byproducts from the application of plasma arcs. By 2008, the county expects to use this method to vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage per day.

The entire landfill, now a mass of 4.3 million tons, should be completely eliminated in two decades.

Geoplasma, an Atlantabased company, foots the bill for the plant and has promised to use the byproducts, known as slag, as a marketable commodity used in constructing roads and highways.

The gas produced at the site will run turbines, creating some 120 megawatts of electricity sold to the grid. The facility will operate year-round, nonstop, on one-third of the power it generates. About 80,000 pounds of steam will be produced daily, which has been promised to a local juice company. Some of the production materials, estimated at 600 tons per day, will be sold for road construction.

Geoplasma's solution exploits the inherent power of the landfill as it eliminates, or at least slows, landfill expansion.

E.O. Wilson, one of the world's leading biologists, has argued that the world's "natural capital" (arable land, groundwater, forests, marine fisheries and petroleum) are finite resources.

Overharvesting and habitat destruction degrade the value of these assets. Wilson warns that at present rates of habitat destruction, half the world's plant and animal species could be lost by the end of the century. This catastrophic loss of biodiversity would be a severe blow to the natural economy. Greener human habits

Louis Circeo (above), a Georgia Tech scientist, has suggested that large plasma facilities deployed nationwide could theoretically generate electricity equivalent to 25 nuclear power plants.

This appears to be a significant opportunity. In 2003,

Americans generated 236 million tons of trash, with an estimated 140 million tons dumped directly into landfills.

but government and industry will have to be ever more entrepreneurial to turn the tide and renew the Earth. A commitment to innovation will be the key to our success. GT "A Contract With the Earth," published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, includes this acknowledgement: "We are especially indebted to Dr. Wayne Clough, who provided insight into the frontiers of environmental technology and access to cutting-edge research unfolding at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Provost Gary Schuster, Vice Provost Anderson Smith, professor Ed Loveland, professor Lawrence James and professor Bryan Norton also provided advice, guidance and new opportunities to learn."

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Britain's Nuclear Chief Bill Coley leaves retirement and the United States 'for the challenge'

By Richard Northedge Sunday Telegraph Photo: Jim Winslet

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ill Coley was brought up in North Carolina, married his high school sweetheart, was a pillar of his church and sat on the boards of local charities. He spent 37 years with the state's power company and retired to spend more time with his family and golf clubs.

And that could have been the end of a life of little interest outside Charlotte and its suburbs. Except that Coley, EE 66, is now the man with his finger on the United Kingdom's nuclear button. He was plucked from retirement, flown to Britain and made chief executive of British Energy, the company operating the country's eight nuclear power generators.

But with a little digging it turns out Coley's U.S. career ended with a cloud hovering overhead. After a lifetime becoming Mr. North Carolina, he abandoned everything to start a new life in London.

The U.K. government has sanctioned a new generation of reactors and, as owner of the sites already zoned for nuclear use, British Energy is best placed to build them. Though old enough to have a free bus pass, the gray-haired Coley will be leading a controversial program to cut the country's carbon emissions.

Not that the no-nonsense Coley has time for that sort of controversy. "If you believe that climate change is an issue and you believe carbon is an issue, I

cannot see how you cannot be favorable to nuclear energy," he says in his soft Southern drawl.

He rattles off carbon-footprint statistics that show nuclear is better than other sources of power. Worst on his list is coal, but it was at the coalfired Marshall Steam Station in the Carolina foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains that Coley started his career.

Duke Power employed Coley as a junior engineer during the spring and autumn, while he worked toward an electrical engineering degree in summer and winter.

The 250-mile journey to the Georgia Institute of Technology was a rare trip beyond his home state but few colleges operate the sandwich system.

"I was able to work my way through university," he says. "And it puts a practical side into engineering. There's a difference between doing a degree in engineering and being an engineer."

The subject was Coley's hobby. As a child he designed and built hi-fi systems and alarm clocks and attended adult evening classes. "I used to get into trouble occasionally," he volunteers, explaining how one Halloween he wired up the water meter box outside his parents' home with a speaker attached to a microphone indoors. It is hard to imagine this affable granddad as a mischievous teenager but he chuckles childishly when he says, "It frightened a few kids."

An interest in guidance and control

systems made him consider joining the nascent U.S. space program but the spells working with Duke proved a stronger pull. The day after he graduated in 1966 he began work at the power station and two months later he married Jane, the girl he had first dated at school in Belmont six years earlier.

Power President t Duke, he moved from electrical operations to customer servicing and ran its nuclear plants. He joined the board in 1990 and seven years later Duke merged with PanEnergy of Houston, making it America's 14th-largest company. If Coley expected to be chief executive of the enlarged group, he now denies it worried him, but he was made president of the power company.

There was an upstart competitor called Enron, however. Coley disliked everything about his rival. "There was a period of time when you went to Wall Street and the biggest thing we had to do was explain why we were not like Enron," he says. "I never bought their stock and part of that is because I did not understand their business model.

"The way Enron wound up was not good for anybody in the business.

There were some specific issues in the form of new regulations, but the general problem of Enron was the perception it created of the business — not just in the U.S. but all over the world. It created a negative view of business." > »

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Yet it turns out that Duke had an accountancy problem of its own. Like U.K. utilities, it is allowed to set prices to produce a rate of return set by its regulators. A whistle-blower revealed Duke had allocated costs of the unregulated operations to the regulated business, thus depressing the latter's profits, allowing it to charge higher prices. The misreporting added up to $124 million.

Coley retired shortly afterward from the company he loved.

Why? The enjoyment diminished after the run-in with the regulator, he admits. He blames the post-Enron environment. "It's less fun when you have to put up with all sorts of media issues," he says.

Duke reached a settlement with its regulator and was not prosecuted, he emphasizes, but adds, "After 37 years, I said, T do not need to do this and I can afford not to do it.'

"Inevitably you start thinking about your mortality â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what have you contributed? It was a conscious deci-

"We're doing something that is absolutely vital to the future of this country. People take our product for granted, they take ilectricity for granted. We're concerned about making sure future generations have adequate supplies."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

sion. I've always spent a lot of volunteer time in the community raising money," he says. "We've given a lot of money over the years to charity. We've focused on that. We've two principal charitable efforts â&#x20AC;&#x201D; our church, my university and Jane's university. We said those are places where we can contribute and make a difference.

"I'd done 37 and a half years with the company. I bought a house at Pinehurst in 2000 which was to be my retirement home and had it renovated.

My thought was I was going to play a lot of golf."

The thought did not last long, however. He retired in February 2003

and by May was invited to become a non-executive of British Energy, the United Kingdom's largest power generator. He also took part-time roles at U.S. companies — an aggregates business, a phone operator and Peabody, the coal empire once part of Hanson. But the U.K. company was different. The former nationalized industry had been rescued from insolvency the previous year with the government retaking 65 percent ownership and creditors swapping their debts for the remaining equity. The shares had only just been relisted when Coley joined.

Vital Production ihen within two years British Energy's chief was ousted and L Coley was elevated overnight from non-executive to chief executive.

Suddenly he and Jane were mothballing their Charlotte and Pinehurst homes and moving to London.

"1 would never have done it if Jane had not said she's up for the challenge

as well," he drawls. "We've been married 41 years and in all that time I've worked nights and holidays and weekends and she's never complained about it."

She is studying European art and exploring her Scottish Presbyterian ancestry. The Scots connection is good for a company headquartered in Livingstone and with reactors north of the border. He is less sure of his own family origins but jests, "I'm certain that we probably stole sheep."

They have a flat in Kensington, two Tube stops from the London office — just as the Charleston house was a 10-minute commute from Duke's head-

quarters. Though they still have the U.S. properties, Jane now calls London home; he has switched his support from American to British football and donated his season tickets for the Carolina Panthers to good causes.

The severance with his home country extends even to canceling British Energy's registration with the SEC to avoid filing U.S.-based accounts.

He may not be around to see new nuclear plants completed but Coley hopes to announce partners by March.

"My ideal scenario is no more than five years in the planning stage and a construction period of five years or less," he says.

"We're doing something that is absolutely vital to the future of this country. People take our product for granted, they take electricity for granted. We're concerned about making sure future generations have adequate supplies."

And he has no regrets he is doing it in Britain rather than North Carolina.

"The reason I agreed to do this is because 1 thought it was significant — not for money but to make a contribution, not just to British Energy but to the industry," he says, GT © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007 Photo: Sluitterstock

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

>>>PACESETTERS

Mapping Out A Game Plan Where in the world are Cameroon and Santiago?

You can find out. Roger Andresen has defined the borders to make learning fun.

By Leslie Overman

50

Don't know much about geography? Studies show that most U.S. citizens do not.

In an international geography contest in 2002, Americans placed second to last on overall geographic knowledge. To most people, relearning what they memorized in grade school may not seem like all fun and games, but one Tech alum is trying his best to make it that way.

Roger Andresen, ME 96, is the president of A Broader View, an Atlanta-based design firm he founded to promote geographical awareness through a line of educational toys and games. The company's first product was The

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

Global Puzzle, which Andresen created in response to the United States' poor performance in the 2002 geography competition.

The 600-piece puzzle is unlike most jigsaw puzzles in that the pieces are shaped like countries, states and provinces. While working on the puzzle, children and parents alike get a geography lesson.

In a world where schools are judged by how well their students perform on standardized tests, the importance of geography is often overlooked, Andresen says. "Math, science and English get put ahead in order for kids to score well on

tests, while geography gets put behind, but geography is important for so many reasons. I think Americans get caught up in so many useless things, like pop culture, that just aren't as important."

Andresen had already been toying with the idea for The Global Puzzle when he learned of the United States' standing in the geography contest. He quit his job as an engineer to bring the puzzle to market.

The first-time toy maker learned everything he needed to know on creating the puzzle from the Internet. He acquired a license for a map of the world, located manufacturers, learned

about design and even figured

distribution and marketing,

Andresen says the company runs

out how to put a box together.

Andresen realized he had the

like a "virtual organization," with

right channels in place to launch

hundreds of people, including

Upon hitting store shelves in 2003, The Global Puzzle started

many more products. Fellow Tech

sales representatives, manufactur-

receiving media attention.

alum Kevin Cooper, ChE 95, a for-

ers, attorneys and accountants,

mer material scientist for Motorola,

hired when needed to work on

vision appearances, quizzing

came on board to lead research

various projects.

CNN and MSNBC news anchors

and development for A Broader

by asking them to point to places

View.

Andresen made several tele-

like Cameroon and Kiribati on the

The company's mission is to

Andresen credits Tech with helping him meet people with whom he can collaborate on prod-

puzzle's map. The success of the

add innovation to stagnant market

ucts. An active alumnus, he's a member of the Georgia Entrepre-

puzzle, which is available at major

segments. Since Cooper's arrival,

retail outlets and www.abroad-

it has launched more than 30 new

neurs Society, a nonprofit organi-

erview.com, spawned a continents

products, including a line of ani-

zation at Tech devoted to provid-

puzzle for younger children and

mal-shaped sippy cups, animal-

ing services and support to entre-

another in which players match

themed sunglasses and color-

preneurs.

exotic animals to the regions of

changing safety mats.

the world that they inhabit.

After developing worldwide

Although A Broader View only has five full-time employees,

"The network here at the Alumni Association and Georgia Entrepreneurs Society is just

great," Andresen says. "If I need legal advice, I'll call up the Entrepreneurs Society and find a Tech alum. We always help each other."

Andresen has teamed up with Tech alumnus Jeff Galloway, EE 98, a light and electronics specialist, for his next toy, a stuffed chameleon. "He's got a wavelength sensor on his stomach, He's able to read whatever color he's sitting on and then match that color via an internal LED lighting system throughout his entire body," Andresen explains.

It's Andresen's latest bright idea to adapt to large markets, G T

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

FromLab to Market TLGER teaches students to commercialize technology

By Brad Dixon Photography: Gary Meek

A

fter losing several family members and a close friend to cancer, Matthew Rhyner set out on a mission to help doctors detect the silent killer in its quietest stages. Rhyner, who earned a doctorate in biomedical engineering in December through a joint Georgia Tech and Emory University program, has developed nanotechnology that can find tumors with as few as 10,000 cells through the injection of illnesshunting imaging probes into the body. Current medical practice can only uncover cancers with at least 1 billion cells, a stage when the disease is much harder and costlier to treat.

"In order for this research to impact people, it needs to be moved out of the lab into the marketplace," says Rhyner, who became involved with the Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results program to help make his dream of improving cancer diagnosis a reality. > Âť

fÂť

Lynn Capadona, PhD Chem 04, opposite page, works for NASA as a systems engineer. Matt Rhyner has developed technology to improve cancer diagnosis.

TEGER, a collaboration between Georgia Tech and Emory Law School, is nationally recognized for its success in developing the next generation of entrepreneurs. Housed in the Georgia Tech College of Management, TEGER is the first program of its kind to bring together PhD, MBA and law students in the classroom and research lab to advance earlystage research into real business opportunities.

Bridging Disciplines

S

tudents who win acceptance into the highly competitive TEGER program are assembled into four-member teams consisting of one MBA and two law students who focus on the commercialization of a PhD student's

"I want to be involved in the whole process of getting a product from the idea stage market," says Bryan Bell, standing, who works on a team with Stephen Yang.

research over a two-year period. Doctoral students from all of the science and engineering disciplines at Georgia Tech are eligible to apply for TEGER. Rhyner got help moving his patent-pending nanotechnology closer to market from his TEGER teammates: David Madden, MBA 07, and Meadow Clendenin and Tom Rafferty who received Emory law degrees in 2007.

They convinced successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists judging Georgia Tech's 2007 Business Plan Competition of the great commercial potential of Rhyner's nanotechnology by placing first in the contest. They also finished in the top three of Nanochallenge 2006, an international business plan competition held in Venice, Italy.

While awaiting regulatory approval for clinical use of its products (a process that could take years), Rhyner's company plans to initially sell his nanotechnology to other researchers, a $600 million market. This technology also eventually could be used to determine if localized cancer has spread through metastatic lesions after removal of the primary tumor — a method of detection that is currently unavailable — as well as detect other diseases.

Rhyner, who is now seeking investors and a CEO for the company, believes his participation in TEGER has been instrumental in preparing his nanotechnology for market. "My team has been tremendous, helping me communicate better — not just as a scientist — and develop strategies for marketing and mitigating intellectual property risks," he says.

Teammate Madden adds, "The TEGER program was the single most influential experience of my MBA education. The professors involved are very knowledgeable about everything involved in bringing new technologies to market."

TEGER teaches students that the main hurdles to commercializing research are seldom technology-related. More often they involve legal issues and problems interfacing with the public and market.

Law students participating in TEGER deal with intellectual property issues while MBA students lead the business analysis of possible market applications for PhD students' research. Taking classes together, they learn to maximize commercial potential by considering market goals at an early stage of innovation. They also gain understanding of how possible market uses can influence research direction and priorities.

"I really enjoy the opportunity to work closely with a team, which is not part of the typical law school experience," says 2007 Emory graduate Jawad Muaddi. "TEGER helps me appreciate the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems."

Bryan Bell, a dual-degree student who's due to finish his doctorate in bioengineering and MBA in 2008, says that TEGER has helped him move beyond the often insulated /orld of science to consider the commercial potential of his

Jeff Gross, BME 07, developed technology to improve diabetes treatment. He keeps in touch with his TEGER teammates, standing, left to right, D. Scott Anderson, a 2005 Emory Eaw School graduate; John Stallworth, who received an MBA from Tech in 2005; and Kamran Salour, Emory 05.

orthopedic implant technology and learn how to explain its meaning to lay audiences.

Bell, who has always aspired to work in industry, says, "Whatever kind of company I go to work for, I want to be involved in the whole process of getting a product from the idea stage to market."

TEGER students, who currently number about 60 a year, engage in consulting projects for startup companies associated with Venture Lab, which helps commercialize technologies developed at Georgia Tech. They also benefit from assigned business and legal mentors as well as meetings with industry representatives at biannual TEGER advisory board meetings.

Advisory board member Richard Crutchfield says he realized during his years in leadership at Equifax that universities were failing to produce graduates who understood the steps involved in delivering high-tech products to market.

"We were forced to hire people from other companies because we couldn't hire them right out of college," says Crutchfield, who retired as Equifax's executive vice president in 2001.

He believes TEGER is succeeding where other universities

are falling short. "I think it's one of the most innovative programs that Georgia Tech offers right now," Crutchfield says.

Winning Approach reated in 2002 by strategic management professor Marie Thursby, who'd previously worked on tech transfer programs for Purdue University, TEGER is increasingly winning national recognition for its pioneering educational approach.

Its prestigious honors to date include the 2003 Price Institute Innovative Education Award from the Stanford University Technology Venture Roundtable on Engineering Entrepreneurship Education; 2005 National Model Specialty Program in Entrepreneurship from the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Students for Free Enterprise; and the 2006 Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division Innovation in Pedagogy Award.

To inspire peer institutions to adopt its model for teaching and research, TEGER workshops are being conducted to educate other universities about the program, thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. >Âť

C

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55

Stressing the importance of programs like TkGER, Kauffman Foundation CEO Carl J. Schramm says, "In a global economy, where researchers around the world are gaining on American universities, more must be done to rapidly and effectively move technology from the halls of academia to the front lines of U.S. commerce."

Through TkGER research, many alumni say they gained an entrepreneurial mind-set that benefits them in a wide variety of careers. Meanwhile, the list of TkGER projects getting turned into real businesses keeps growing.

Open for Business hen David Beck, MBA 05, enrolled at Georgia Tech, he already knew he wanted to start his own business right after graduation. He just didn't know what kind. Taking full advantage of the Institute's entrepreneurial environment to find the right business opportunity, he worked on commercializing promising sensor technology developed by a mechanical engineering PhD student through the TkGER program.

Winning first place in the "most fundable" category in the 2005 Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition confirmed

W

A doctoral student in mechanical engineering, Dimitri Hughes aspires to manufacture environmentally friendly automobiles, ve been very passionate about starting my own business for a long period of time."

to Beck and his colleagues that they were on the right track with their company, Sentrinsic. The award goes to the team deemed most ready to enter the marketplace by the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists judging the competition.

Since then, Sentrinsic has made considerable headway in the marketplace with the position sensors it designs, manufactures and sells for industrial automation and robotics. Position sensors are essential for automated systems, guiding moving parts, such as robotic arms, where they need to go.

Sentrinsic's patent-pending technology offers customers highprecision sensors at half the cost of competing technologies, says COO Beck, who runs the company with CEO Mike Orndorff, MBA 05, and CTO Haihong Zhu, PhD ME 05.

"Simply put, our products are better, smaller and less expensive than anything else out there," he adds.

Sentrinsic is growing fast in the Advanced Technology Development Center, Tech's startup incubator. The company's increasing list of customers includes a Fortune 500 company, Parker-Hannifin, and Sentrinsic continues to attract investors and win grants from organizations like the Georgia Research Alliance.

"TkGER was a great help in navigating the university commercialization process, understanding intellectual property issues and identifying and attracting the people we needed to get on board to make it happen," Beck says.

Corporate Entrepreneurship unning a startup is far from the only way for innovative types to experience entrepreneurship. More and more established companies recognize that they must foster an entrepreneurial culture to ensure continued innovation. The buzz word for this approach is "intrapreneurship."

TkGER alumna Elizabeth Gadsby, PhD BC 04, considers herself an "intrapreneur" in her role as a research manager for Kimberly-Clark Corp. Even though she's working for a Fortune 500 company, she regularly draws upon her TkGER training to evaluate the market potential of new health and hygiene products and protect intellectual property.

During the TkGER program, her team strategized commercializing her technology for improving drug development. While the team's efforts revealed that this particular technology didn't have great commercial prospects, Gadsby says she still learned a tremendous amount. "TkGER is a very beneficial program, and I think it has made me a much more valuable employee."

Lynn Capadona, PhD Chem 04, says TkGER enabled her to expand her career prospects beyond the laboratory.

"TkGER was a perfect way for me to diversify," she says. "It definitely jumped out at potential employers."

She went to work for NASA as a chemical engineer, putting her TkGER training to use by working with outside com-

R

science, but also experience with market assessment as well as communicating with CEOs and others on the business side," says Gross, whose job focuses on strategy and mergers and acquisitions. "TEGER helped me understand the importance of market research, due diligence and industry analysis before taking technologies to market."

In the TEGER program, Gross worked on commercializing technology designed to improve the success of a procedure enabling people with type-1 diabetes to control their sugar levels without requiring daily insulin injections. Now reserved for the worst cases, this risky procedure involves transplanting healthy islet cells, which produce insulin, from the pancreases of genetically matched cadavers into diabetes patients. Gross' technology tests whether islet cells are of sufficient quality to warrant transplantation.

Because this early-stage technology is years away from use on humans, Gross and his teammates moved on to other opportunities after graduation. But Gross plans to stay involved as his academic adviser continues with the islet cell research.

When the time comes, his TEGER teammates also are Members of the team that won Tech's business plan contest in 2007 are, interested in lending a hand with commercialization. left to right, Matt Rhyner, ChE 02, PhD BME 07; Emory graduates Tom "We stay in touch in hopes that we can get something Raffcrty and Meadow Clendenin; and David Madden, MBA 07. going again when this technology comes along," Gross says. panies interested in commercializing technology developed at the agency. "I met all the time with people who needed to know the best routes to take technology past the conceptual stage," she says.

Capadona says through TI:GER she strategized the commercialization of her early-stage research on new optical data storage technology. While her academic adviser at Tech continues on with that line of research, Capadona continues to grow professionally at NASA. She recently transitioned into a systems engineering position allowing her to assist with the development of NASA's crew exploration vehicle Orion, which will replace the space shuttle.

"I have been exposed to the full life cycle of technology here at NASA," Capadona points out. "From conducting very early-stage research, to handling technology transfer with outside entities, to witnessing full-phase implementation on Orion, my experience has been enhanced by my ThGER training."

Opportunity Knocks eff Gross, PhD BME 07, says his TEGER experience opened doors professionally. He credits the program with helping him land a job as a senior management consultant with Easton Associates, a leading global health care consulting firm.

"Easton liked the fact that I had not only a PhD in

I

Thinking Big fter graduating from the University of Virginia in 2005, Dimitri Hughes knew he wanted to pursue both his PhD in mechanical engineering and his interest in business, so he was excited to discover TEGER. "I've been very passionate about starting my own business for a long period of time," he says.

Hughes, who aspires to manufacture environmentally friendly automobiles, is now working on software technology that could help lower vehicle emissions. Designed to improve the efficiency of partial oxidation fuel reformers, this software could vastly decrease research and development expenses in the auto industry.

"This technology will be used," he insists. "I'm very confident of that."

After earning his PhD in a few years, Hughes plans to first gain experience in the auto industry, then start a consulting business related to environmentally friendly power systems before eventually owning his own auto company.

Hughes says TEGER is helping him reach his goals.

"TEGER is without any question the most rewarding experience I've had so far at Georgia Tech," he says. "The program helps engineers and scientists understand what place their work has in greater society. You get to step back and look at your research holistically, making your PhD experience more rewarding and fulfilling." GT

A

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>>PACESETTERS

Designed to Sell Niles Bolton practices a business-sawy, international approach to architecture

By Leslie Overman Photo: Gary Meek

When architect Niles Bolton watches television, he's not so much engrossed by a show's characters as he is the backdrop of the scene — the buildings, the color palette, the landscaping.

"I find when I'm watching those programs, I'm looking at the spaces and other things around it. Have I been there?

Have I seen it? What did they do?" says Bolton, Arch 69, "Where trends used to last 30 or 40 years, now they're changing in 10 years because of the Internet, because of movies and because of TV, If there's a new building in California, a TV show is going to have a chase scene up and down its escalators and through the space, and now everybody across the country sees that new space versus it finally being published in an architectural magazine."

The ever-changing landscape of architecture poses a predicament for designers, How do you design a building that won't be classified as passe or dated by the time it goes to market? How do you predict what people will want or require from a space several years down the road? How much money should you spend on a building that may be renovated or demolished for something bigger and different within 10 years?

Bolton opened his own firm at a time when most architects couldn't find work and the country was littered with buildings that wouldn't sell. To ensure the success and longevity of his own business, he developed a philosophy.

"We practice what we call 'marketecture' — designing for the marketplace versus just architecture," Bolton explains.

"We're doing buildings, spaces and places that the public has to want and need. If you do a project and people don't want to use

it or are not comfortable in it, then the project is not successful."

Bolton is the chairman and CEO of Niles Bolton Associates, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and urban design. With additional offices in Alexandria, Va., San Jose, Calif., and Shanghai, China, the firm has designed projects — from apartment buildings and condominiums to restaurants, university residence halls, department stores and transit stations — in more than 42 states and 14 countries.

Niles Bolton Associates has been ranked by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as sixth among the top Atlanta firms; by Building Design and Construction magazine as one of the top 40 architectural firms in the United States; and by World Architecture magazine as the 72nd largest architectural firm in the world.

The firm owes much of its success to the long-term planning that associates put into their projects long before any ground is broken.

"I think as much as anything what we're typically doing is helping somebody think two or three years out what they want to do with a piece of property or where is the market going to be or what needs the area will have," Bolton says. "That's what's exciting — to take a client and decide how far out ahead they want to be. Do they want to be on the leading edge or the bleeding edge? What's their risk tolerance? A lot of it is really reading clients."

Many scrapped designs or unsuccessful projects are the result of poor planning and programming, says Bolton. "We get into the engineering of space and time that the lE's might be

involved with to try to say, 'How do you make a space function and work well? Is it comfortable for people? How does the space change during the day as sunlight enters?'"

Bolton is very familiar with the obstacles faced by architects designing the ever-popular mixed-use facility — he's been building them for about 25 years.

"When you're doing mixed use, and you're going to have housing above and restaurants below, have you thought about where the odors and exhaust are going to be vented? Where are the Dumpsters going to be? Are you locating service courts so that residents don't hear the garbage truck coming in at 4 in the morning or so you don't smell spillage in the summertime?

"We get excited about being over an outdoor cafe when we're in Europe on vacation or in Hilton Head staying for a couple of days, but do you want to live above that noise all the time?"

Bolton asks.

Bolton was just 28 years old when he opened the firm in 1975. He had returned from Vietnam three years earlier to a struggling economy and a field that was experiencing major setbacks, "In '75, 50 percent of the architects were unemployed," Bolton recalls. "We had markets where we had 'see through' office buildings, vacant apartments, unsold condos, and nothing was renting, selling or leasing. That's where we came up with marketecture, because we realized people had designed buildings without thinking, to our minds, as much as they should have about who was going to use them."

Bolton and his two colleagues, one his former college roommate, Bill vonHedemann, who now is a partner with the

firm, first set up shop in Bolton's home. He wanted to take a new approach to architecture.

"I wanted clients that I would work for continuously or somebody who needed services all the time," Bolton says. "If you've got attorneys and you've got accountants, they work for you all the time. Whenever you have a need, they are there. I wanted architecture to be that way."

Under that principle, the company has prospered. Niles Bolton Associates now has 20 partners and more than 190 staff members with projects around the world.

"That idea of having a continuous working relationship with companies has really held up for us," Bolton says. "People leave those companies and go somewhere else and start a new company, It's almost like being able to do a family tree of your clients and your history of working with them."

Bolton, who is a former Georgia Tech Alumni Association trustee and now serves on the Georgia Tech Foundation board and the College of Architecture's development council, hopes that the next generation of architects will get an education in the business side of architecture.

"You're going to have a short career if you can't understand the financial side of it and where your clients are coming from," Bolton says. "Most of my clients tell me architects are notoriously bad business people.

They look at themselves as being the starving artists, because they don't manage their business like a business. They're always waiting for the next commission."

Still, Bolton isn't in the business to be the biggest architectural firm. "It's about having fun and loving what you're doing.

Because when it's not fun, I'm not going to be here anymore." G T

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Georgia Tech alumni and friends on a trip to Ireland take a carriage ride to Muckross House, Photo: John Mullis/JOM lll-Macon

White, Gold and Irish Green

By Carol Carter

G

eorgia Tech now has a presence in Ireland — and the white and gold nicely complements the Irish green. Georgia Tech Ireland is the Institute's first applied research facility outside the United States, located in the city of Athlone on the Shannon River in central Ireland.

GTTs offices in a 115-acre industrial park are strategic and convenient, with a close proximity to Galway the Irish center of biomedicine; Cork, the center of the pharmaceutical industry; and Dublin, the center for information communication technology.

"We're globalizing our research and development activities," explains GTI chairman Thomas J. Malone, ChE 63, PhD ChE 66.

In collaboration with Irish industry and research universities, GTTs goal is to enhance the commercialization of research, according to Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough. The relationship — which Clough has said opens doors of economic opportunity between Georgia and Ireland — will involve Tech students and researchers as well as Georgia companies.

GTI receives support from the Irish Development Authority, the Irish government's industrial development agency. Through its network of offices in Ireland and overseas, the agency's core mission is to attract high-quality foreign direct investment.

Within five years, the value of GTTs portfolio of research and industry partnerships is projected to > »

Georgia Tech Ireland opens doors to economic opportunity in an ambitious research initiative involving students, faculty and companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

UNITED KINGDOM

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

61

At Glendalough, a picturesque chapel goes back centuries; the Shannon riverfront at right reflects the modem city ofAthlone, the location of Georgia Tech Ireland.

"People say that we're only creating 50 jobs in Ireland. But it's the amplification effect that we're really after....

There will be a lot of companies that provide services and products in these markets. That is where the job growth is going to be."

top $24 million. With five employees now — led by general manager Krishan Ahuja, Regents professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering — GTI is expected to employ 50 researchers when fully operational.

"People say that we're only creating 50 jobs in Ireland," says GTI executive director Stephen Cross, who also is a Tech vice president and Georgia Tech Research Institute director. To some, that doesn't sound like a lot. "But it's the amplification effect that we're really after. GTI is not going to be that large. The communities of interest we create are going to have to find new markets, and there will be a lot of companies that provide services and products in these markets.

That is where the job growth is going to be."

A Firsthand Look eorgia Tech alumni, on an early fall tour of Ireland led by Cross, got a firsthand feel for GTI. Among those on the alumni trip was Bill Collins, ME 57, MS IM 63, who called the venture "a good fit."

"I was impressed not only with the people selected to work with Georgia Tech at GTI, but also with the fact that the Irish government is. behind the venture," Collins says.

Cross says GTI is a catalyst that will bring research to companies and companies to research.

GTI will focus on test beds that could involve the

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

entire country of Ireland. Cross calls them "test beds of a national scale."

Cross says one could think of a test bed as a laboratory that addresses industrial-size problems.

"Often in the chemical industry, before building a new oil refinery, they will build a pilot plant. It won't have the capacity to do what they want the oil refinery to do, but they will test out new processes and chemical additives on a small-^ er scale and make sure that they can scale it up for a full-sized industry solution."

4

£•>

Planning Digital Advances TI is building a test bed for Internet protocol television in Ireland. The next big thing in the multimedia world, IPTV enables customers to receive TV, video signals and other multimedia services over their broadband Internet connections.

The IPTV test bed will connect many of the universities in Ireland, various nonprofit organizations and the Georgia Tech campus, Cross says.

"We will have kids in the universities in Ireland and Georgia Tech building applications for this.

G

No single university or organization could create this kind of capability alone. It has to be through collaboration with many organizations."

Cross says GTI knew the idea of IPTV was advancing. "We saw companies like Scientific Atlanta beginning to build equipment for this. We saw research interest in digital media. So, this is an area where many people were thinking along the same lines.

"We came in and said, Tf we create this test bed, then we can accelerate progress in this area.

We can support the research. We can support > » Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

63

the people who are developing products. We can stress test those products. We can help facilitate the development of standards in this area/" he says. "For a number of reasons, the test bed is going to help advance the field much more quickly."

One test bed could involve an Atlanta company that has announced plans to create an IPTV interface for its personal traffic guidance systems, converting network data from cell phones into traffic congestion information, which could be personalized to individual commutes.

Another test bed under consideration for GTI involves radio frequency identification. This wireless sensor technology, for example, enables scientists to keep track of endangered animals that have ID chip implants. The pharmaceutical industry, which is quite large in Ireland, would like to use RFID for tracking shipments.

"There are a lot of counterfeit drugs that come out of China," Cross says, "so the industry would like to have some way to better authenticate that drugs like Lipitor, for example, were actually manufactured in the Pfizer plant in Cork rather than being a counterfeit knockoff."

The aircraft engine industry, he says, is look-

ing at how RFID technology can be embedded into its systems to help support maintenance.

World-class Reputation ross describes the GTI test bed for RFID as, basically, a working factory. "Most RFID laboratories are electronics laboratories on a small scale at universities. This is going to be a working laboratory, available to industry and the research community, where we can bring in machinery, large robots, containers."

The origins of GTI go back to the fall of 2003, when representatives from the Irish Development Authority visited the Georgia Tech campus. "At the time," Cross recalls, "they were looking for successful models of transitioning technology, often called translational research, from those that conduct research to the benefits of industry."

The Georgia Tech provost referred the group to GTRI. One thing led to another and ultimately, Cross says, "we decided that the best thing to do would be for Georgia Tech to open an office in Ireland."

Malone says, "Georgia Tech has a wonderful multinational brand — namely, a great reputation of graduating world-class students and providing them to the companies that are successfully competing around the world."

GTI was a natural step, and it is working. When companies kept telling the Irish government and universities that they needed a world-class university that could do research with them and connect with them, they said, > »

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— Stephen Cross

Georgia Tech Ireland isn't far from Dublin, at right, the country's center for information communication technology. Krishan Ahuja, at left, was appointed GTI director and general manager in September.

Photo: Gary Meek

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tion at the heart of Ireland's economic development strategy.

"Evidence of this commitment to innovation and creativity can be seen in IDA's partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, an acknowledged international leader in applied research with a sterling reputation for working alongside industry to solve difficult problems," Dorgan says.

"Georgia Tech Ireland is a unique and innovative research institute that I am confident will become a critical component of Ireland's innovation infrastructure."

Trans-Atlantic Benefits eorgia Tech Ireland also will serve as a model for economic development in Georgia, Cross says. "Many of the Georgia-based companies that are locating in Ireland are going to benefit because they will be more competitive internationally much more quickly than they otherwise would."

A company involved in the test bed would be able to penetrate the European market with their products, which should help them be much more successful, he says.

Everything GTI does reaches back to Georgia Tech, Cross says. "It has created a great deal of interest not just at GTRI but, for instance, in the biomedical research that is being done throughout Georgia Tech."

GTI is ahead of schedule. At the outset, it was projected to take 18 months to two years to sign its first contract. "We are fairly confident that we're going to have signed four or five deals by early in the first quarter of 2008," Cross says. That would be several months ahead of the research facility's second anniversary in June, GT

G The Alumni Travel trip took the group, below and including photographer John Mullis, to the Dingle Peninsula.

"If you're going to get one university from America you ought to get Georgia Tech," according to Malone.

"So they came to us, which is very exciting, and gave us incentives â&#x20AC;&#x201D; facilities, money, support. But GTI has to stand on its own. The companies have to pay for the research. The government has to support our being there. It makes a lot of sense."

Irish Development Authority CEO Sean Dorgan says, "Successful economies of the future will be those that embrace knowledge and learn to leverage knowledge to its fullest potential. The Irish government has therefore placed the encouragement of research, development and innova-

"The celebration of Georgia Tech Ireland's first year was a highlight of the Alumni Travel trip. The travelers found it quite interesting to have an intersection with an important Georgia Tech initiative in Ireland." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Stephen Cross

u Oacapa Williams "Puckie" *Two-Sport Athlete *Holds school single season record for steals, man or woman

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

67

>>PACESETTERS

The Little Engine That Could Not Alumnus Edward Morgan engineers some help to fire up his invention

By Karen Hill

For 20-something years, Edward Morgan obsessed about why the engine he invented only fired once.

"It would smoke and burn.

One time it fired and I was so excited, I forgot what the heck I did to make it fire," says Morgan, CIs 43. "My wife and I would go to cocktail parties and I was thinking about it. I'd be all dressed up,

come home and go straight to work on it.

"It was as if I had an aversion to making it work, but I had been so close. I really lost a lot of sleep over it," Father Time finally forced him to throw in the towel.

"I ran out of gas myself, and I ran out of help," the 88-year-old says of the retirement of a talented machinist at his business, Morgan Engine Co., a Savannahbased distributor for Detroit Diesel Corp. "If I was physically able to pick up the cylinders, I'd still do the work myself."

But Morgan decided that if he couldn't solve this particular problem for himself, he could at least solve two others for other people. He donated the patent for the Morgan XL 53 rotary diesel engine to Georgia Tech in 2006, giving students at its Savannah campus an intriguing hands-on problem to solve — and giving the Institute the potential for a large source of income if students can make the engine work.

Morgan invented his lowcost, low-maintenance engine in 1985 and patented it in 1991. It features two pistons rotating around a single shaft, working at low speed and high torque. He invented it with an eye toward applications for heavy equipment or construction machinery, maybe a "standby engine for oil pumps out in the oil fields," he says.

At Tech's Savannah campus, mechanical engineering professor Jitesh Panchal put six students — Jonathan Bankston, Thomas Beal, Robert Lafond, Alex Ruderman, Andrew Scripture and Julian Stevenson — on the case first in a machine design class, followed by a class on interactive computer graphics and computer-aided design. They studied the engine timing, cylinder configuration and its thermodynamic cycle.

Ruderman says he enjoyed

68

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

"being able to have the chance to work on something new that no one really has tried yet." The most frustrating thing, he adds, was trying to simulate the engine's complex dynamics on a computer model. The actual engine has yet to be moved from Morgan's business.

Morgan says he knew of two problems that might be keeping his engine from firing. One is that the pistons work at 45-degree angles, which makes it difficult to keep the fuel atomizing properly.

Another problem is "fuel not getting all the way down in the line when the piston is coming up."

Ruderman says students found problems in getting the engine fuel hot enough to spark.

They found another problem too: Fuel combustion was creating an opposite-force effect on the pistons rather than allowing them to turn the plates in the same direction one after another.

The students made several recommendations, but didn't have the opportunity to try them out on the actual engine. That might come in later classes after the engine is moved to the Tech campus.

Their recommendations include using multiple fuel injectors; adding metal shims to the piston housing and extending them to the end of the piston heads; and reducing the angle between the cylinder and the rotating plate.

In the meantime, with this particular monkey off his back, Morgan is back at work himself.

"I've been working on a glow plug that gets awfully red hot from batteries. It would burn up all the nitrous oxide in the cylinder line and create very little exhaust.

That's what our country needs, with all our automobiles," Morgan says. "I hadn't started working on this seriously until I had given the engine to Tech." G T

Traveling Save money wnen uou use Hertz or Avis for your rental car needs.

AVIS Georgia Tech alumni are entitled to special discounts with Hertz.

Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number is

Your Discount CDP # is

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1265432 To check rates or to make a reservation visit www.hertz.com or call 1-800-654-2200

To reserve your car, visit www.gtalumni.org and click on alumni benefits.

This will take you directly to our exclusive online reservation service.

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treatment

Minimum of a 55% discount on all interstate relocations.

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

15% discount on all Georgia and Florida intrastate moves.

Guaranteed on time pick-up and delivery.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

69

>>>ALUMNIALMANAC

Years Anak, Georgia Tech's unique honor society, was founded Jan. 1, 1908, primarily through the efforts of George W. McCarty, ME 1908, its first president. Charter members, below, include Cherry Emerson, ME 1908, EE 09, and L.W. "Chip" Robert, CE 1908. McCarty served as president of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association from 1924 to 1926 and as president of the Georgia Tech Foundation from 1948 to 1950. Emerson served as president of the Alumni Association in 1947. McCarty, Emerson and Robert all received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award. Other charter members of Anak were C.H. Vaughn, L.E. Goodier, C.A. Sweet, C.A. Hendrie, C.A. Adamson, S.J. Hargrove, J.E. Davenport, W.R. Snyder and G.W.H. Cheney.

Years Times were never harder than 1933 during the Great Depression, when the Alumni Association told its members it faced a "live or die" year.

An editorial, "Shoulder to Shoulder," in the Georgia Tech Alumnus magazine's January 1933 edition urged, "Stay with us if you are employed; if not, we'll stay with you, regardless."

Years On Jan. 23, 1958, Georgia Tech broke ground on the Skiles Classroom building and launched a three-year, $10 million construction program that would include the Van Leer Electrical Engineering building, a radioisotopes laboratory, a nuclear research reactor (now decommissioned) and new dormitories as the Institute anticipated a jump in enrollment from 5,500 students to 7,000 by 1962.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

Years Silicon Valley took note of Atlanta's high-tech ambitions and the emerging success of the Advanced Technology Development Center, which provided incubator space for entrepreneurial startup companies. An article in the San Jose Mercury News, reprinted in the February-March 1983 edition of Tech Topics, said, "Georgia is trying to grow its own companies in fields such as computer software, telecommunications and medical technology. It's an unorthodox strategy. But it is stolen right from the pages of Silicon Valley.... In Atlanta, the focal point is the Georgia Institute of Technology, which is trying to provide the high-powered help and low-cost space needed to foster startup companies." GT

Limited Edition Deluxe

BABY BUZZ CLUB The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is pleased to introduce the Deluxe Baby Buzz Club.

This limited edition gift has all of the original Baby Buzz favorites, plus a wonderful CD featuring original lullabies a n d a piece entitled "Georgia Tech Medley."

Deluxe Baby Buzz includes: Canvas Bag GT Rattle

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(jeorgia Tech Return Address Labels Additional Logo Choices: Your Name Your Address Your City, State and Zip Code Actual Size of Label 2"x .625"

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G e o r g i a T e c h Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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AttitudeIntroducing the New Collector's Edition Ramblin' Wreck Do not miss this chance to own your own piece of Georgia Tech history.

This brand new edition of our 1930 Model A Ramblin'Wreck has been completely recast with a new sleek convertible design. Also a shiny new spare tire graces the right side. This is a great gift for every Tech fan—perfect for any occasion.

Order your new edition today!

Please send me . . . replica(s) of the Ramblin' Wreck $39.95 = $ Shipping ($6.00 per Wreck) = $_

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G e o r g i a T e c h Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

73

>>>FACULTYPROFILE '-** A A good teacher, says Bonnie Heck Ferri, has "thorough knowledge of the subject, ability to motivate students to learn, willingness to innovate with new topics and new educational technologies and the ability to make connections with students so that they â&#x20AC;˘ [ feel comfortable seeking advice or so they might view the teacher as a role model."

Digital Logic Professor Bonnie Heck Ferri applies technology to innovative teaching

By Karen Hill

A former student at Georgia Tech, Bonnie Heck Ferri is now recognized as one of its best teachers. She is the recipient of the 2007 HewlettPackard/Harriet B. Rigas Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Education Society.

The award recognizes female faculty who have made significant contributions to electrical and computer engineering through research, teaching and work in professional societies.

Ferri, PhD EE 88, is a professor and the associate chair for graduate affairs in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. During the fall semester, she taught at Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France, Ferri has been active in curriculum development and in applying technology to innovative teaching.

She has played an integral role in developing several undergraduate and graduate courses in controls, as well as in the introduction of computer-enhanced and Web-based instruction in courses on signals, systems and controls.

"Control systems are devices that make physical systems behave more accurately under a variety of circumstances," Ferri explains.

"Examples are flight controls in planes, cruise control in cars, temperature and climate controls in buildings and control of automation and robotics. My early work in con-

74

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 2008

trols was more theoretical, but I have become more interested in applications in recent years.

ules on power and energy generation, home automation and digital logic.

"I have worked on control systems applied to automation in the food industry, control software architecture for autonomous vehicles and control of power electronics. I coauthored a junior-level textbook on the subject of signals and systems," she says.

How does one teach digital logic? "I teach the students binary math, and we build a basic digital circuit to implement addition. In essence, I am trying to teach them how a calculator works," Ferri says.

"It was rather ambitious to teach this to such young students, but they grasped the binary logic very quickly and enjoyed playing with the circuits to add numbers."

That book, "Fundamentals of Signals and Systems," co-authored with professor emeritus Edward W. Kamen, has been adopted by more than 50 universities around the world.

Ferri receives consistently high assessments from her students. Her definition of what makes a good teacher is "thorough knowledge of the subject, ability to motivate students to learn, willingness to innovate with new topics and new educational technologies and the ability to make connections with students so that they feel comfortable seeking advice or so they might view the teacher as a role model."

Ferri also has been active in outreach programs to draw more girls into science. Through Women in Engineering, she has developed modules for a Georgia Tech camp for middle school girls that focuses on technology, engineering and computing. She's run robotics sessions for the camp, using LEGO Mindstorm kits, and developed mod-

Ferri also works as a faculty adviser for the Women in ECE student organization and joins its members in visiting high schools and hosting sessions for visiting pre-college students. Last summer, the group ran a camp for middle school girls that focused on the mechanics of robotics and programming.

Working with the camps led Ferri to another innovation: modules that can be used as "portable experiments" for college courses that traditionally don't include labs.

The work is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, "The motivation is to give hands-on experience in lecturebased courses so that we distribute the laboratory experience throughout the curriculum," Ferri says. "Students enjoy a break from lecture by doing hands-on activities that enhance the theoretical concepts." G T

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There are 2,600 faces of Ramblin'Wrecks in this Photomosaic image that replicates Georgia Tech's classic Ramblin'Wreck, a 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe that wheeled onto Grant Field for the first time in 1961 and forever rolled into the hearts of alumni. The image is computer generated from more than 2,300 individual headshots and photos and, in some cases, the computer duplicated images. The Photomosaic was created by Robert Silvers, who developed the patented technology, GT

Keith Brooking ŠAirTran Airways 2008