Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 85, No. 01 2008

H. T. Marshall Retired Staff Decatur, Georgia • Born in Eatonton, Georgia. Earned his bachelor's degree in English from Mercer University.

• Served as an aircraft engineering officer in World War II. • Holds a law degree; is a CPA and worked as a public accountant in Atlanta and Rome, Georgia, for 1 7 years.

• Served on a committee that wrote an accounting manual for the University System of Georgia, and was then charged with implementing the system.

• Thirty-year career with Georgia Tech; named Tech's first director of Internal Auditing.

• Avid runner, finishing three marathons after age 65, with a best time of 3 hours and 22 minutes.

• Member of and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Decatur.

• Married to his late wife for 63 years.

Gifts to Georgia Tech • Gift of his home through retained life estate from which the sale proceeds will establish the Holcombe T. Marshall Endowment Fund for the unrestricted support of the Institute.

• Roll Call donor for 25 years.

Thoughts on Giving to Tech "During my thirty years at Georgia Tech, I developed a true love for the school. Since my wife and my son have passed away, leaving my home to Georgia Tech seemed like a natural choice. Being able to give my home, get a current tax deduction, and still live here for the rest of my life is what makes this plan work for me."

H. T. Marshall is one of Founders' Council's 973 members w h o have made bequests or life-income gifts of at least $25,000 in support of Georgia Tech's future.

Georgia Tech

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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 www.development.gatech.edu

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Bicycling Beyond the Divide

Cover Story David Bottoms, 29, rappels down Atlanta's Viewpoint building. As athletes and entrepreneurs, TV personalities and scholars, designers and inventors, Tech's young alumni are making names for themselves, helping those less fortunate, serving their country and contributing to the Institute's reputation for producing smart, talented and innovative graduates.

Cover Photo: Gary Meek

Inspired Leader Wayne Clough, who concluded his 14-year tenure as Georgia Tech's president and began a five-year commitment to head the Smithsonian Institution, offered a memorable farewell to students and alumni in a series of spring events.

Daryl Farmer, a Brittain fellow and writing teacher in the Ivan Allen College, won a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for his autobiographical tale of the transformation of a 20year-old college dropout who embarks on a 5,000-mile bicycle journey into an out-ofshape 40-year-old who attempts to retrace his route.

Journalism 2.0 Traditional media is fast becoming as obsolete as 35-millimeter film, VHS and pay phones. The College of Computing and the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center hosted a two-day symposium on computation and journalism that challenged participants to understand how technology impacts people and society.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Volume 85, Number 1

DEPARTMENTS

i: Viewpoint

Tech Notes

Interview

Pacesetters

Almanac

Faculty Profile

A Banner Year

• Clough Commons • New Architecture Dean • Lost Class Ring Resurfaces • Create a Buzz • Management Alumni Saluted • DeMillo Will Step Down • Crecine's Passion Remembered • Tennis Champ • Dual Degrees Offered in Italy • Alumni in China

Dan Radakovich — Tech's director of Athletics — talks about what's on the minds of alumni.

Rosalind Picard: Opening Doors for the Autistic

After a two-year battle waged by a small group of men who refused to let it die, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association was awarded a charter by the Fulton County Superior Court on June 20, 1908.

Paul Verhaeghen: 'Cheddar Melting on Grits'

Feedback Our readers write

In Quotes Comments in the media from the Georgia Tech community

Pacesetters John J, Young: 'A Chance to Make a Difference'

Photo Finish Breathtaking Descent

Thomas Earnest is just one young Georgia Tech alumnus making his mark in the world.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Sit back. Relax Let us take care of your meeting details.

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 • www.gatechcenter.com

VIEWPOINT Georgia Tech Alumni Association 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 William J. Todd, IM 71 Chair C. Meade Sutterfield, EE 72 Past Chair Joseph W. Evans, IM 71 Chair-elect/Finance Al Trujillo, AE 81 Vice Chair for Roll Call Scott Jennings, ME 89 LeShelle May, MS OR 89 Edward L. Underwood, IE 71 Members At Large Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 President

A Banner Year It was a terrific fiscal year at your Alumni Association. At its conclusion, I want to say thanks to all of you — our most loyal and supportive alumni.

We've celebrated our 100th anniversary this year through our events, our communications and special activities. The publication of our book, "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," and its companion DVD kicked it all off, and if you haven't purchased a copy, you should. It's a great, enjoyable recap of Georgia Tech and its alumni.

Very attractive banners now mark the campus in key strategic areas recognizing the centennial as well. At an extraordinary edition of our annual Presidents' Dinner at Epps Aviation, Chair Meade Sutterfield toasted the anniversary and feted Dr. Wayne Clough and his wife, Anne, on their years at Tech.

In June, our young alumni held their first reunion and at center stage was Rappel for Roll Call. Thanks to Jim Borders of Novare, our young alumni had the opportunity to rappel from the Viewpoint, a magnificent 36-story condominium and retail complex on Peachtree Street, by raising $1,000 each for Roll Call. It was an exhilarating day in support of Tech.

Jim Shea (404) 894-0764 • E-mail: jim.shea@alumni.gatech.edu

This fall, you'll see Buzz Around Town. We've commissioned 25 fiberglass Buzzes to be professionally decorated by artists in support of various student and alumni groups. We'll be auctioning off the Buzzes later in the fall after a period of display. You can get one too if you like.

But you have to act fast because they're going quickly.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine

Without your loyal and continued support, Georgia Tech would be a mere shell of the institution it is today.

Advertising

(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.

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 • Summer 2008

FEEDBACK Gridiron Success You can't imagine how excited the alumni are about having a new football coach. Many of my friends agree that there should be a contractual clause for beating Georgia in the coach's contract. Bonuses for a win and two strikes and you're out.

I loved reading your article introducing Paul Johnson, the new commander and chief of our gridiron team. But there was one thing missing. As an engineering grad, I know Tech's successes stem from the use of intellect and engineering — not brawn. It seems that your article touched on this in Coach Johnson's career but never outright said it.

Bobby Ross took what was not the best talent and won a national title on his knowledge of how to use what we have to win. He engineered it. I hope Coach Johnson can do as the others have done in your same issue: Use engineering to win.

"I'm a helluva engineer," as the song goes, so let's live up to the reputation.

Eric Broadwell, AE 85 Roswell, Ga. End of an Era When I received the Spring ALUMNI MAGAZINE announcing

that President Wayne Clough was leaving Tech to head the Smithsonian Institution, I looked up the issue that announced when he started as president. The Fall 1994 edition read: "The New Era Begins."

It was interesting to me how the two magazines dovetailed together. In one he talked about a strategic plan

"What an amazing man and what a unique time in the life of Georgia Tech....

Dr. Clough will be remembered as a hardworking, gifted leader who was very approachable and always had time for students.

I'll miss my next-door neighbor and good customer."

—Tommy Klemis

that "needs to be linked with an overview as to what the role and future of our institution is within Georgia and the nation." The last issue covered his remarkable accomplishments and legacy.

What an amazing man and what a unique time in the life of Georgia Tech.

When the Olympics brought the world's focus to Atlanta and Georgia Tech, one of our own became the visionary, he gathered the right people to expand our campus with state-of-the-art facilities and he took our focus globally.

He has the gift of bringing people together in that he has walked the campus as a student himself, been a teacher, a dean and provost.

Dr. Clough is one of my health-conscious customers.

He always orders a chargrilled chicken salad. He's been a Junior's Grill customer since the early 1960s. I don't know

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Now I learn that Dr. Clough is changing responsibility — leaving Georgia Tech to go to the Smithsonian, another institution close to my heart. Because of the wonderful things he has done for Tech and the duration of his time as president, he has absorbed through osmosis the heritage of this great Institute even as he helped make it better. And it is that heritage he will carry with him on his journey to the Smithsonian to help make it a far better national asset.

what he ordered back then, but I'm sure he didn't care about fat grams as much.

Dr. Clough will be remembered as a hardworking, gifted leader who was very approachable and always had time for students.

I'll miss my next-door neighbor and good customer in the Carnegie Building, Tommy Klemis, CIs 71 Owner, Junior's Grill Bragging Rights I had the distinct pleasure of meeting President Clough at the reception for the 30-year celebration of the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Huntsville, Ala., on Feb. 26.1 had done some remote sensing Earth atmosphere work with them in the early '90s and was extremely impressed. I felt I could not fail to attend the reception. It was a fun and wonderful time of remembrance for many.

I have some family connections who are University of Kansas graduates and they constantly tell me how great their basketball team is. As the final games were played with the Kansas Jayhawks taking the crown, I could hardly hear myself think in the face of all the bragging that was going on. But the arrival of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

with Dr. Clough's portrait and comment about taking the top job at the Smithsonian gave me an idea.

I scanned the cover and sent a copy to them. I told them we did not win the national basketball championship; we won, instead, the Smithsonian!

Jim Kennedy, AMath 61 Huntsville, Ala. Fact 14 False The Tech-Navy football game that you mentioned as fact 14 of the "100 Facts and Feats, Triumphs and Tragedies" in the Spring issue was played on Oct. 21, 1944, not on Oct. 31, 1943.

Edmund A. Waller, IM 53 Gainesville, Ga.

Your Gift Enhances the Value

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"... and I know that with passion, persistence and my Georgia Tech education in Aerospace Engineering, I can one day make it a reality. Generous alumni who give back to Tech are a very real part of making a young qirl's dreams come true!" a | Sarah McNeese, AE ' 0 9 President's Scholar

Roll Call makes dreams come true for Georgia Tech students like Sarah.

Thank you to the generous alumni, faculty, staff, parents, students and friends who contributed over $84 million to the recently completed 6l5t Annual Roll Call. Your gifts provide exceptional educational experiences to Sarah each day, as the President's Scholarship program, her world-class instructors and innovative Aerospace Engineering curriculum all rely on unrestricted Roll Call funds.

Your Roll Call contribution is an investment in Georgia Tech and in students like Sarah, but also in the value of every Tech •degree.

Get a head start on the 62 nd Annual Roll Call by making your gift today!* Give online securely at www.gtalumni.org or send your gift to: Roll Call 190 North Ave Atlanta, GA 30313-9806 (800) G T - A L U M S

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Lfr I N Q U O T E S ^ I knew my entire life what I wanted to do was study architecture. To me, the built environment has such power to kind of enhance the quality of all of our lives, and so for me, that's what I was always passionate about.

the wire's conductivity, which is something we can measure. If the conductivity changes, that indicates blood pressure is changing.

— Zhong Lin Wang Regents professor and director of the Center for Nanostructure Characterization, who has designed an implantable nanowire that measures blood pressure fluctuations constantly enabling patients to track their vital stats from home, in Popular Mechanics

— Vern Yip MS May: 94, M Arch 95 host of "Deserving Design" on HGTY in The Washington Post

Overall, you can control what you spend even in an environment where food prices are escalating fast.

You can save without sacrificing quality.

— Goutam Challagalla associate dean in the College of Management, who recommends that consumers make a list of needed food items before they go shopping and stick to it, in the Associated Press

II Like Picasso, I still view myself as that little boy, he's still alive down there and he doesn't realize what's happening to him so he just keeps going.

If all the trucks in the United States trucking fleet used the same scheme and reduced fuel economy by 1 percent, each 1 percent represents 200 million gallons of gasoline.

— Bob Englar Tech research engineer whose team devised relatively simple flow control techmques and aerodynamic improvements on trucks that improve fuel efficiency by 12 percent, on 1 lAlive.com

The climate change problem is an energy problem.

— Marilyn Brown public policy professor, at the first Georgia Climate Change Summit, in the Macon Telegraph

II

— John Portman The nanowire we use has Arch 50, in the Atlanta Business Chronicle two important properties: It's both a semiconductor and piezoelectric. That means But architects aren't really that if there's an external technology innovators. mechanical force that bends the nanowire, such as blood — Chuck Eastman professor in the colleges of vessel contractions, it creArchitecture and Computing, ates an electrical field inside about why many architects have the wire. The presence of disregarded building-information this electrical field affects modeling, in The Economist

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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The idea that cities could attract the Olympics by promising lavish facilities probably began after 1906, when the eruption of Mount Vesuvius put an end to a plan to have the 1908 Games in Rome.... Since then, cities have been keen to use the Olympics to leverage other civic improvements, on the premise that if

It's not a good time to own your own rig. It's a tough life even when the economy is reasonably good.

— Chip White chair of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, concerning the impact of fuel costs on independent truckers, in The New York Times

you're spending billions to refurbish a city you should at least invest in buildings that have long-term utility.

That's why the legacy of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta isn't any of the athletic buildings but a major new park and housing for athletes that became new dormitories for Georgia Tech.

— Phil Goldberger writing in The New Yorker magazine

If I was to make a list of my heroes in chemistry, I would never name myself and I would never think that somebody else would either, so when I saw this, I was tickled pink.

— Philip Jessop of Queen's University whose research team, which includes Georgia Tech's Charles Eckert and Charles Liotta, developed a "green" chemical for separating water and oil that was hailed by Canadian Chemical News as one of the top 20 chemical discoveries, in the Kingston Whig-Standard, Ontario, Canada

Get used to it. Identity formation is a key part of what kids go through and these sites offer that opportunity, as well as all the other things — like interacting with peers and working toward goals — that kids like to do. We're going to see it more and more.

— Amy Bruckman College of Computing associate professor, who studies how children interact with computers, m The New York Times

II Suddenly, what was once a suburban place has an opportunity to be developed in a much more urban way — higher densities, more of a mix of uses, more of a sense of a main street or a town center. And frankly, there is a growing market for that.

— Ellen Dunham-Jones director of the architecture program, about mid-1960s developments such as Executive Park in Atlanta, which started off as office space in the suburbs, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 0 We got rid of our core curriculum and replaced it with a curriculum called Threads, thinking that we were being very innovative and students would respond. Well, the good news is the students responded; we had a 40 percent increase in enrollments the first year that we introduced this. The bad news is we had a 40 percent increase the first year that we introduced it.

We can't compare to men's basketball and it's going to be a matter of time before we outdraw men's basketball.

Our players have seen a tremendous growth of support.

— MaChelle Joseph Georgia Tech women's basketball coach, in Atlanta magazine

— Richard A. DeMillo dean of the College of Computing, in the Chronicle of Higher Education

The visit has been used to rub shoulders rather than ruffle feathers.

— Wang Fei-Ling professor of international affairs, discussing the motivation behind China's President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan, on TheWaUStreetJournal.com

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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Georgia Tech Global Learning Center A PROFESSIONAL MEETING AND LEARNING FACILITY

(404) 385-6203 • www.gatechcenter.com

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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TECHNOTES

Clough Commons Board of Regents approves naming of undergraduate learning facility The state of Georgia approved a fiscal year 2009 budget that includes $10 million toward construction of an Undergraduate Learning Commons that will be named for Wayne Clough.

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The Board of Regents has approved the naming of a planned Undergraduate Learning Commons in honor of former Tech President Wayne Clough.

The project has been in the works for nearly a decade and represents dough's commitment to undergraduate education during his 14-year tenure. The naming request was announced to the Georgia Tech Foundation board June 5 and approved by the Board of Regents June 11.

Clough, who is an alumnus of Tech, was genuinely surprised and a bit overwhelmed when he learned that private fundraising for the commons was nearly complete, said Barrett Carson, vice president for Development.

The process was put in motion after Georgia Tech's budget request before the General

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

Assembly was approved May 14. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law a $21.2 billion fiscal year 2009 budget that includes $10 million toward construction of the Undergraduate Learning Commons and $6.4 million to renovate the Hinman Building.

"The prosperity of the state of Georgia and our University System are inextricably linked.

The state's investment in Georgia Tech has been well placed and I am proud of the Institute's remarkable accomplishments," Perdue said.

Dene Sheheane, Mgt 91, the Institute's director of government relations, explained, "The overall budget increase for the University System was nearly 8 percent. Funds for enrollment growth, salaries and facility repairs were granted at or near full request amounts. It was

an exceptional year for higher education.

"Truly this was a team effort from the chancellor, Board of Regents, governor and General Assembly. Higher education was made a priority this year for the state of Georgia," Sheheane said. "The governor and state lawmakers clearly appreciate their investment in Georgia Tech and what that means in terms of a ripple effect to the state, the economy and quality-of-life issues."

The Undergraduate Learning Commons is an $85 million project that is planned as an academic centerpiece for Tech undergraduate students.

Tt will be located in the surface parking lot adjacent to the Georgia Tech Library. The state will provide $60 million and private resources will contribute $25 million, Sheheane said.

"The $10 million allows us to complete the design, engineering, site prep and even utility locations. Next year we hope to secure the construction funding," he said. The facility is scheduled to open in 2011.

The College of Architecture will receive $6.4 million to renovate the historic Hinman Building and portions of the east and west architecture buildings. The total costs will amount to $10 million, with the balance being raised from private contributions. The architecture project will provide more than 42,000 square feet of new instructional and research space.

New Architecture Dean Alan Balfour has returned to Georgia Tech as the new dean of the College of Architecture.

Balfour, who directed Tech's architecture program from 1977 to 1987, filled the vacancy left by the March 2007 death of Thomas D. Galloway. For the past 13 years, Balfour has been dean of the architecture school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He began his new role at Georgia Tech on July 1.

During his presentation to the faculty in > »

Alan Balfour has been named the new dean of the College of Architecture.

Lost Class Ring Resurfaces Off Coast of Florida After 50 Years Fifty years ago, alumnus David L Perry was water-skiing off Crandon Beach in Miami when he lost his 1952 Georgia Tech class ring.

that his 20-year-old son began digging and found the golden ring with a red stone buried in more than a foot of sand.

An electrical engineering graduate, Perry remembers the overcast day in 1957 very well. He was on water skis standing in cool, waistdeep water, waiting to be pulled up.

In addition to the Georgia Tech relief work, the ring bore the Sigma Chi insignia and the inscription D.L Perry inside. Balmori was determined to return the Georgia Tech ring to its owner.

"My hands were shrunken from the cold," he recalls. The boat took off, pulling him out of the water and "there went the ring."

In May, Jorge Balmori, a geography teacher in Miami, and his two sons were searching for underwater treasures with a metal detector about 100 feet offshore and the device went off.

Balmori told the Miami Herald

With the assistance of fellow geography teacher Dennis Rodrigues and help from the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Balmoris found Perry, a retired Boeing aerospace manager and Naval Reserve captain, living in the Seattle suburb of Maple Valley.

When he learned the ring had been found, Perry "was dumb-

founded, but I knew it was my ring.

I remembered losing it."

The event had received so much publicity that FedEx had its own video crew there to record the delivery. Local news media also featured the event.

"The ring is in great shape," Perry reports."! take my hat off to Jorge Balmori and Dennis Rodrigues. I hope sometime soon to meet this goodhearted pair. It's hard to believe that they would go to all that trou. ble to find

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TECHNOTES "The world city of the future is of enormous concern to me. This college has within its culture all the major fields of knowledge that can be applied to this problem."

— Alan Balfour

April, Balfour discussed his vision, stressing collaboration between the disciplines — music, industrial design, building construction, architecture and city planning — both within and outside the college.

"The world city of the future is of enormous concern to me," Balfour says. "This college has within its culture all the major fields of knowledge that can be applied to this problem."

Utilizing partnerships within the college, Balfour says the Institute and practitioners in the disciplines will help Tech's graduates be ready for any challenge, whether local or global.

"Graduates must have complete mastery of the tools of digital technology, they must be empowered to predict the impact of their designs — at the social level as well as the energy and resource level — and they must view their knowledge, creativity and skill as being relevant to global as well as local practice."

Balfour received his education at the Edinburgh College of Art and Princeton University and is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2000 he received the American Institute of Architects/Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, the highest recognition given to a North American architecture educator. His World Cities series of books seeks to explore architecture and urbanism of cities around the world, including Shanghai, New York and Berlin.

Create a Buzz Atlanta will be abuzz this fall as a swarm of Yellow Jackets invades the Georgia Tech campus and the city.

As part of its yearlong centennial celebration, the Alumni Association is inviting members of the Tech community to paint, decorate and adorn fiberglass sculptures of the mascot

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Management Alumni Saluted The College of Management recognized the vision, achievement and leadership of its alumni during its fifth annual awards celebration in the spring.

Inducted into the Hall of Fame were John A. Williams, IM 64, and Stephen P. Zelnak Jr., IM 69.

Williams, who has directed and coordinated the development, construction and management of real estate projects since 1966, is the founder of Post Properties and current chief executive officer of Williams Realty Advisors.

Zelnak has served as CEO and president of Martin Marietta Materials Inc. since 1993 and company chairman since 1997. Based in North Carolina, Martin Marietta Materials is the second largest producer of crushed stone, sand and gravel in the United States.

Named to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni were C. Whitney Knoll, IM 70, senior managing director of Staubach Capital Markets, and Edwin A. Wahlen Jr., IM 70, managing partner of Cravey, Green & Wahlen.

The newest member of the Council of Outstanding Young Alumni is W. Derek Porter, Mgt 95, co-founder and chief technology officer for Firethorn.

Computing Dean Stepping Down Richard DeMillo, dean of the College of

Buzz for display around campus and the Atlanta area during the fall semester in Buzz Around Town.

For a $1,600 taxdeductible gift, alumni, faculty and staff may sponsor one of 25 5-foot-tall Buzz replicas. Students and student organizations may sponsor a Buzz for $800. The Alumni Association will match selected sponsors

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with artists, who will help them bring their Buzzes to life.

The sculptures will be put on display in the fall and later will be auctioned off with the majority of the auction proceeds being directed to the Georgia Tech organization of the sponsor's choice.

• Information: gtalumni.org /BuzzAroundTown

Community Remembers Pat Crecine's Passion John Patrick Crecine "wanted with a passion to help create the vision and energy to capture what he saw as Tech's great potential."

Architect John Portman was among those expressing tributes to the late Georgia Tech president's vision at a memorial service at the Alumni/Faculty House.

Crecine died in May. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young also paid tribute to Crecine, whose accomplishments include restructuring the Institute's colleges, which embroiled his administration in controversy; initiating an exchange program with Metz, France, that has become a satellite campus, Georgia Tech Lorraine; and helping attract the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to Atlanta.

"I used to say about Pat he did everything right and made everybody mad," Young said to congenial laughter. Crecine "saw technology not just in intellectual terms, he saw it in economic terms. And he understood where the 21st century was going," Young said.

When Billy Payne proposed bringing the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to Atlanta, Young, who was then mayor, said most people thought it was "a pipe dream."

"When Pat heard about it, he said, 'It's good, let's do it,'" Young said. "Very few people at that stage believed that it was possible."

Georgia Tech developed an interactive, multimedia presentation that gave dreams substance, Young said.

"When we went to make our presentation, people thought we actually had the stadium, this Olympic village and everything that anybody could conceive of through the computer-aided design. We had put that down and it was fabulous. But it only existed in the minds and hearts of the people here. That was one of the turning points in the growth and development of the entire Southeast region."

Charles Liotta, Regents professor of chemistry, said some of the decisions that Crecine made "helped usher Georgia Tech into the 21st century as a leading academic institution. One of the important things that he did was to form three new colleges.

"This was a visionary decision," Liotta said.

Portman recalled his initial meeting with Crecine.

"I'll never forget my first impression. There was no normal, idle chitchat. He fired one question after another.

Pat was a prober, motivated and enthusiastic."

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

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TECHNOTES Computing, has announced his decision to step down and return to the faculty by Nov 1.

"I leave the dean's office at a high point in the college's history," DeMillo says. "We are now ranked in the top 10 and are poised to climb even higher."

Before joining the college in 2002, DeMillo, PhD ICS 72, was the chief technology officer for Hewlett-Packard, for which he had worldwide responsibility for technology and technology strategy.

DeMillo says the College of Computing has "become an international leader in undergraduate education. I hear from hundreds of faculty

Tennis Champ

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Georgia Tech All-American Amanda McDowell completed her run through the NCAA women's singles championships by capturing a straight-set win over Baylor's Zuzana Zemenova in the finals to become the first Yellow Jacket tennis player to earn an individual national championship.

McDowell finished her remarkable sophomore campaign with a 45-8 singles record and notched 84 singles wins through her first two years at Tech.

In early June, McDowell was named the National Player of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and became the first female athlete in Tech history to be recognized as the top player in the country.

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

and students from around the world who are grateful that Georgia Tech took on the challenge of renewing how we teach computing. Our enrollments continue to rise and this year we will enroll the largest number of women and minorities in the college's history."

DeMillo plans to return to the faculty as a distinguished professor of computing and management.

Interim President Gary Schuster says that during DeMillo's six-year tenure as dean, he "established a culture of budgetary and fiscal responsibility."

"Rich's creative approach to undergraduate education provides a model for the rest of the Institute. Beginning in the earliest days of his tenure as dean, he reached across administrative and cultural divides to facilitate the establishment of a common basis for computing education for all Georgia Tech freshmen, continued the development of the joint undergraduate degree in computational media and implemented the widely acclaimed Threads curriculum," Schuster says.

"I know Rich has a commitment to commercialization and economic development and has strong beliefs that the truly great computing programs also influence the industry in profound ways," he says. "This is evidenced by his work to renew the local angel and venture communities, to foster successful startups and to advance our IP management infrastructure."

Dual Degrees Offered in Italy Georgia Tech is partnering with two leading Italian universities, the Politecnico di Torino and the University of Trento, to offer dual master's degrees in electrical and computer engineering and computer science beginning this fall.

The new degrees represent the first dual graduate programs in these disciplines between American and Italian universities.

Both degree programs require four semesters of course work, half at Tech, the rest in Italy.

The Politecnico di Torino is a member of the Consortium Linking Universities of Science and Technology for Education and Research.

Georgia Tech is the only U.S. institution that is an honorary member of CLUSTER. Angela Delia Costanza Turner, executive adviser to Georgia Tech's Office of International Education and president of the Italy-Atlanta Foundation, is a major proponent of the new

degree programs. "We hope to encourage the Italian business communities in both Italy and the United States to sponsor scholarships," she says. "The program has huge potential and will help educate our next generation of computer scientists and computer engineers."

"Georgia Tech has long worked with key industry partners in Italy. This new affiliation [between Tech and two Italian universities] will afford students the opportunity to experience competi-

Alumni Travelers Felt Chinese Earthquake A group of 22 Georgia Tech Alumni Travel tourists was in China when the devastating earthquake hit at 2:30 p.m. May 12.

"We had just arrived at the Chongqing airport on our way to meet our riverboat for a cruise down the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges Dam. Chongqing is about 160 miles southeast of Chengdu, the area worst hit by the earthquake," explains Ginger Amoni, director of Accounting for the Alumni Association and host of the tour. "We all felt it strongly enough that we knew at once that it was an earthquake."

Neither the local tour guide nor the Tech Alumni group could make contact by telephone with anyone in China or in the United States to report that none of them had been injured.

tive and complementary

"Cell phones were down or overloaded for about four hours afterward," says Amoni, who was finally able to get word to the Alumni Association late that night that everyone was OK. The group took up a collection and once they reached Shanghai donated the funds to the Chinese Red Cross in the name of Georgia Tech alumni.

"The tour guide told us several days later that she was amazed by the response of the Chinese people," Amoni says. "This was the first time that Chinese people were donating their time and money to help others. In the past, they would not have heard of the disaster so soon and with such complete details.

And no one had disposable income in the past to donate to others." GT

approaches to engineering solutions in a crosscultural environment." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gary May Chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

G e o r g i a T e c h Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2008

17

30UN As athletes and entrepreneurs, TV personalities and scholars, designers and inventors, Tech's young alumni are making names for themselves, helping those less fortunate, serving their country and contributing to the Institute's reputation for producing smart, talented and innovative graduates.

By John Dunn, Kimberly Link-Wills and Leslie Overman 18

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

3ER30 Jeremy Farris and Lisa Hofler Like-minded Husband and Wife

J

eremy Farris and Lisa Hofler are a brain power couple, Hofler, ChE 04, has completed her third year of medical school at Emory University. In the fall, she'll begin a master's program in public health in global epidemiology focusing on women's health.

As part of the dual-degree program, Hofler will complete her final year of medical school after she finishes the one-year master's course work. She intends to work in surgical oncology.

Hofler, 26, who was the 1,000th President's Scholar to graduate from Tech, also is the national coordinator of Medical Students for Choice for the Southeast.

Hofler, who earned a perfect score on the ACT before enrolling at Tech, was profiled in 2004 in Tech Topics, which reported that as an Institute student, she was on the women's crew team, helped found a local sorority, held an undergraduate research assistantship and was an assistant on the Grady Hospital staff. She also was a member of College Democrats, the Society of Women Engineers and SWARM — and maintained a 3.9 grade point average.

Her husband also has received his share of press. After being named a Rhodes Scholar for 2005, Farris, IntA 04, was quoted as say-

ing, "The purpose of an education isn't to get you a job. The purpose of an education is to change you, to make you sufficiently human."

Before he even arrived at Tech as a President's Scholar in 2000, Farris, 26, won a best of category award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his discovery of a pathogen that could control kudzu. As a result of the award, he was selected as an American delegate to the 2000 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Science Forum in Singapore.

Farris and Hofler married in the summer of 2005. "We met in 2000 at the hiking trip the President's Scholar program offers for entering freshmen," Farris says. "We did not date during our time at Tech but were very good friends."

Farris, only the third Instituteproduced Rhodes Scholar, modestly reports what he has been doing since graduating from Tech.

"I'm just a graduate student reading for a doctorate in political philosophy at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship," Farris says. "I am also a visiting scholar in Georgia State University's department of philosophy."

Farris will return to Tech in August as a lecturer in philosophy, science and technology in the School of Public Policy. — KLW >»

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

19

Beau Cleland

Alfredo Aponte

Army Team Player

Bringing the Modern-day Salon to the South

B

eau Cleland is nearing the halfway mark in a 15-month tour in Iraq as an Army field artillery captain in the 10th Mountain Division.

"For this deployment I was assigned to a military transition team, which is an advisory team attached to an Iraqi army unit," says Cleland, HTS 03. "I've held just about every advisory position at some point so far, from logistics to operations and tactics and now as the acting team leader and adviser to an Iraqi battalion commander who leads about 750 men."

In April, Cleland and the team relocated from Baghdad to Sadr City, "where things have been less than peaceful," says the 27-year-old, who previously served a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

A President's Scholar at Tech, Cleland was a walk-on football player who worked his way up to the travel squad during his junior year. He convinced coach Chan Gailey to award him a scholarship for his senior year.

"I lettered twice but was never a starter,"

Cleland says. "I got hurt in practice and missed a lot of my senior season, which was pretty disappointing."

During that last year at Tech, Cleland began applying to law schools. "My twin brother and I started discussing what we really wanted to do with life after college. Neither of us could really see ourselves settling into some lame corporate desk jobs and we'd always been interested in the military. So we checked around and the Army had a program for college grads who hadn't done ROTC where you could apply to attend officer candidate school.

"I was a lineman at Tech so after my last game I went on a diet, lost 60 pounds, interviewed, was accepted and by August I was heading to basic training," Cleland says.

Cleland is unsure whether he will ever pursue a corporate desk job.

"As for law or grad school, I haven't really made up my mind yet," he says. "I've been sort of preoccupied with what's going on over here." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; KLW

I

n mid-April, a standing-roomonly crowd of academics, . artists and hipsters packed Octane, a coffee bar just a few blocks from the Georgia Tech campus. They weren't there to hear an acoustic set from a local band or to participate in open mike night. They had gathered for a Sunday evening slide show.

Alfredo Aponte, ID 07, a designer with Echo Visualization, is an organizer and cocurator of Pecha Kucha Atlanta.

Like a show-and-tell for grownups, the event allows everyone from architects to hairdressers to step up to the mike and discuss their professions, projects or passions.

A strict format keeps each PowerPoint presentation from becoming a bore: A presenter may discuss 20 slides at 20 seconds apiece for a succinct six minutes and 40 seconds of stage time.

Pecha Kucha, which now takes place in more than 120 cities across the globe, first hit the scene in 2003 in Tokyo.

Created by Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein of Klein Dytham Architecture, it began as a way for architects and designers to network and discuss their projects. It takes its name (pronounced peh-chak-cha) from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation.

The Pecha Kucha concept arrived in Atlanta courtesy of Georgia Tech associate professor of architecture Mark Cottle.

Upon returning from a trip to Japan, where he participated in the original Pecha Kucha, Cottle enlisted the help of fellow architecture associate professor Sabir Khan, who had once collaborated on another project

20

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

Saira Amir Ms. Georgia Tech Goes to Washington by Way of Honduras

S

aira Amir planned to head off to law school after getting out of Tech.

Serving as vice president of student government and being named Ms. Georgia Tech during her senior year, the President's Scholar was primed for a postgraduation life in Washington, D.C. But as commencement approached, she decided to take time off before committing to several more years of school. "I wanted to do something meaningful; I also wanted to live abroad," she says. "The Peace Corps seemed like the perfect means to satisfy my two desires."

In the summer of 2006, a month after graduating with a bachelor's degree in public policy, Amir left to serve a two-year stint in Honduras.

Amir, 24, has spent most of her assignment focusing on tourism development for a small mountain village about an hour from the country's capital, Tegucigalpa. "We look at tourism development as a means by which to attract outside investment and revenues," she says.

She is designing a tourist information Web site for the town but says that the majority of her work deals with education and training. "I advise different citizen groups and businesses on topics like effective advertising and providing quality products and services," says Amir, who also has led seminars on business fundamentals and acted as an English tutor to the town's middle schoolers.

with Klein Dytham Architecture, and former student Aponte to establish an Atlanta chapter.

Since its first meeting in November, Pecha Kucha Atlanta has drawn a diverse mix of presenters, who have spoken on such topics as Atlanta traffic, the African art collection at Atlanta's High Museum, designer cupcakes and cocktail design. Podcasts of many of the presentations are available on iTunes.

"What is amazing is how everything unfolds spontaneously through the evening," Aponte says. "As organizers of Atlanta Pecha Kucha, our goal, which is unique to any other Pecha Kucha, is to ensure a diverse, rich mix of presenters. In other words, I can assure you that on any given night, you will never see more than two presenters who are similar in discipline."

A summa cum laude

graduate, Aponte served as president of the Industrial Designers Society of America student chapter on campus in 2006 and was named the IDSA National Student Merit Award winner for the Southern district in 2007.

The 27-year-old appreciates the opportunities that working with a small design firm like EchoViz affords him.

"Its size, energy and involvement provide the opportunity for me to work directly with some of the most innovative players in today's design fields," he says.

Now on a summer hiatus, Pecha Kucha Atlanta resumes Sept. 14 at Octane and will be held on the second Sunday of each month thereafter. Aponte has yet to present, but come fall, that may change. "Let's just say it may be too soon to tell, but I do have a few ideas that I am playing with to present." — LO

Calling the Peace Corps "an eye-opening experience," Amir says she is not the same person she was two years ago. "Back then, I was sure that through hard work and determination I would be able to change lives for the better. To say I was idealistic is an understatement.

"In this line of work, perseverance is often not enough. People in this country have lived life a certain way for generations and are skeptical of change. Political corruption is the norm, and Hondurans have suffered a long history of injustice and exploitation. It is no wonder that most people are unwilling to risk the little they have in order to try something new."

Amir returns to the United States in August to enroll at Georgetown Law School.

She admits that she is looking forward to returning to the luxuries taken for granted in the past, especially washing machines, air conditioning, high-speed Internet and sushi. But it will also take some time to adjust to the American way of life.

"I won't ever be able to buy a Starbucks latte in good conscience again, knowing that $4 is more than most Hondurans make in a day." —LO >»

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

21

I

David Bottoms Alumni Advocate

D

avid Bottoms comes from a white-and-gold tradition that he has embraced and enhanced. "I have been going to Georgia Tech alumni and sporting events for as long as I can remember," says Bottoms, Mgt 01, whose collegiate career follows in the footsteps of his dad, Gary Bottoms, IM 75.

Bottoms, 29, is a member of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association board of trustees, past chair of the Association's Young Alumni Council, president of the Georgia Tech Alumni Club of Marietta/Cobb County and president of the 1st and 10 Board of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association.

the military, and the Marietta Rotary Club. He serves on the boards of the Good Samaritan Health Center and Tommy Nobis Center.

A President's Scholar, Bottoms was involved in a number of campus activities as a student, including Ambassadors, the Student Foundation, Omicron Delta Kappa and Anak society.

"The reasons that I am motivated to participate and give back to Tech and the Alumni Association are numerous," Bottoms says. "As a student, my involvement with Alumni Associationrelated organizations, such as Ambassadors and the Student Foundation, helped me understand the value of the Alumni Association. My experience as a President's Scholar helped me understand the importance of Roll Call.

Bottoms is vice president of benefits and communications at The Bottoms Group, an employee benefits and insurance brokerage firm in Marietta, Ga., founded by his grandfather, J.H. Bottoms.

"As an alum, the ability to support Tech while staying connected to Tech and my friends is a great benefit," he says.

He and his wife, Brittney, live in Marietta.

He is a member of the honorary commanders of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, which pays tribute to local servicemen and women in

"Alumni involvement is critically important as Tech strives to provide future students with the same quality educational experience that past students have received." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; JD

Pratyush Lai Skilled Juggler

F

or Pratyush Lai, entrepreneurship is a family tradition dating back generations in India.

To follow in his forebears' footsteps as a successful business leader, Lai is earning his MBA through the College of Management's Evening Program.

"Growing up in that environment, I saw the passion and commitment that goes into running your own business," Lai says.

He co-founded the Adept

Group with his brother two years ago to provide a range of design, engineering, graphic, packaging and sourcing services.

In addition, Lai continues to serve as the product development engineer at Sportime International, a position he's held since 2002, when he graduated from Tech with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

For Lai, holding two jobs while taking evening classes isn't

exactly fun and games, even though his work at Sportime is.

He helps develop the physical education equipment that Sportime distributes to schools around the world.

The company's products include games and equipment designed to help physically and neurologically challenged children participate in regular activities and improve their functioning.

Lai collaborates with teams that include occupational and physi-

cal therapists to develop these products.

"One of the most fun projects I've worked on was a minigolf game for kids with speech problems," Lai says. "They get to blow a foam golf ball around a tabletop course using a straw.

While they're having fun, they're actually generating wind in their vocal cords to improve their speech."

Lai says his father, who started his own metal can manufactur-

ing plant in India, has been a great role model for doing the right thing.

"He once had an extortionist demand money at gunpoint, but he wouldn't bend on principle," Lai says, adding that his father's employees respected him so much that they put themselves in harm's way to dissuade the shooter.

"My father taught me that you don't do business just to make money." — Brad Dixon >»

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

23

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Mario West

Clint Zeagler

Talent, Work Ethic, Intensity

Country-fried Fashion

"Not a lot of people expected me to have the success that I've had," says Mario West, a former Georgia Tech basketball standout under coach Paul Hewitt who now plays for the Atlanta Hawks.

W

"I didn't do it all by myself. First, I would have to thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to attend Georgia Tech. I had great family support from my parents and I had a wonderful basketball coach," says West, Mgt 06, a dean's list student who also has taken classes toward a second degree in economics.

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"To go to Tech and graduate — also to start my pro career in my hometown, for my home team — is just a great feeling. This is something everybody dreams of and I'm very fortunate to have this opportunity."

West was the Douglas County High School Player of the Year in Douglasville, Ga., but was a walk-on at Georgia Tech in 2002. He was red-shirted, earned a scholarship and by his senior year was team captain. At the end of Tech's 2006-07 season, West earned the Michael Isenhour Inspirational Award and the team's Excellence Award. West also won the State Farm Slam Dunk contest held during the week of Final Four playoffs.

At 6-5, 210 pounds, West made the Hawks as a free agent and played with such intensity and energy at the Hawks training camp that he earned the nickname Truck.

"I've been around this league a long time and I don't think I've ever seen a guy play as hard as Mario plays," said Hawks head coach Mike Woodson. "He pushes guys in practice to play hard and if you don't play hard he embarrasses you in terms of just knocking the hell out of you. He is contagious, he wants to do right, he wants to learn, he's coachable. That's a guy you want on your basketball team."

Playing professional basketball was never a given and while he says earning his degree required discipline and hard work, West adds, "My Georgia Tech experience prepared me for the real world. A degree is so important because it gives you options in life and corporate America."

West says he is grateful to the Hawks organization "for believing in me and giving me a chance. My main focus is my career and that's basketball right now." — JD

ith the tagline "Revival," Pecan Pie Couture's fall 2008 line of T-shirts conjures up visions of weekends in the South, with afternoons spent on the front porch sipping sweet tea and evenings feasting on a home-cooked supper with family.

A Yankee could develop a Southern drawl sporting a T-shirt with "Well Just Bless Your Little Heart" printed across the front in large, white type. Whether it's filled with squash casserole or sweet potato pie, a pie dish surely holds a meal baked with love as the words "The Holy Southern Casserole" hover above it on another shirt.

The collection is the fifth line of T-shirts from the Atlanta-based Pecan Pie Couture, launched by fashion designer and Tech alumnus Clint Zeagler in 2006.

"I named the company Pecan Pie Couture because it's got that tongue-in-cheek Southern reference to it, but it's also got that irony of juxtaposition of pecan pie, which is this Southern staple, and couture, which is high French fashion," Zeagler says.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in industrial design from Tech in 2004, Zeagler studied in

Italy's fashion capital, Milan, and received a master's in fashion design from Domus Academy.

The 28-year-old has twice been voted Best Local Clothing Designer by the readers of Atlanta's Creative Loafing newspaper. In 2007, he was named one of The Atlantan magazine's Men of Style.

Pecan Pie Couture doesn't just take its inspiration from the South — all of the materials for its shirts also are made there.

"Our T-shirts are a hundred percent Southern," Zeagler says.

From cotton harvested in the South to the natural dyes that are applied to the shirts by hand, each step in the creation of a Pecan Pie Couture original is made on Southeastern soil.

When he's not designing new shirts for the runway, Zeagler is dreaming up ready-to-wear technology. He returned to Tech in the spring of 2007 to teach a course on wearable designs in the College of Architecture's industrial design program. For the fall 2007 semester, he partnered with College of Computing associate professor Thad Starner to teach a course on wearable electronics and mobile and ubiquitous computing. — LO >»

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

25

Ed Bohan Super Car Renter

S

upercar Rentals' policies state that drivers must be at least 25 years of age before they can get behind the wheel of one of the Atlanta company's Ferraris or Lamborghinis.

Jenny McDonagh Navy Triathlete

J

enny McDonagh, AE 05, qualified in May for Team USA, made up of the top triathletes from throughout the armed forces, to compete in the World Military Triathlon Championships in mid-June in Otepaa, Estonia. This isn't the first time McDonagh, a lieutenant junior grade, has made a run for Navy honors. She was on the All-Navy cross country team in 2006 and 2007, representing the Navy versus the other services in the Armed Forces Cross Country Championships.

"This year I was part of the All-Navy triathlon team. I competed in the Armed Forces Triathlon Championships on May 31 in Ventura, California, and placed high enough to make Team USA," she says.

In June, McDonagh, 26, trained with Team USA in California, across the country from her base in Charleston, S.C., where she is stationed at the Navy's Nuclear Power Training Command.

"I teach reactor dynamics and core characteristics to officers that are going to be operating nuclear reactors on aircraft carriers and submarines," says McDonagh, who also is in charge of the base's physical fitness program for some 250 officers.

A President's Scholar at Tech, McDonagh earned a master's degree in aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

She also excelled in athletics at Tech, where she was a member of the cross country, track and swim teams as Jenny Lentz. Her husband, Neil McDonagh, Mgt 05, was on Tech's cross country and track teams as well. He now runs a running and triathlon shop in Charleston called Trysports. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; KLW 26

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

But that rule doesn't apply to company president and CEO Ed Bolian, PubPol 08, who is only 22.

share that love with people who were otherwise unlikely ever to experience the thrill of driving an exotic Italian sports car," Bolian says. "I noticed the successes and failures of similar firms in Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and felt that Atlanta was a prime market for this type of service with no real competition for my product.

"The idea came out of a love for cars and a desire to

"I spent about four years refining the business plan, doing

market research and locating financing and insurance before I was able to launch the company," he says.

The car doors opened for business two years ago — when Bolian was a Tech sophomore.

"Class scheduling permitted me to have four-day weekends most of my time at Tech and that allowed me to run the business while still maintaining a full course load and graduating on time in

eight semesters," Bolian says.

For $6,000, a member of the over-25 set with a clean driving record can rent Bolian's Lamborghini Gallardo for a week; $3,990 will get you the Ferrari 360 Spider for a three-day weekend.

For one weekend day of driving to impress behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Murcielago, expect to shell out $1,960. Hit 1-85 for a half-day ride in Bolian's Ferrari 612 Scaglietti for $1,200.

One-day rentals Monday through Thursday of the Bentley Continental GT that Bolian expects to add to his fleet this summer will be $1,400.

"The business is growing at the rate that I expected," he says.

"We have overcome a lot of challenges but the business has yielded a great return on my investment. My current call volume and Internet traffic is sufficient to prebook most cars for a

fairly substantial amount of time prior to purchase to make the investment much safer."

As Supercar Rentals' business has blossomed, so has Bolian's romance with an elementary school teacher named Megan Bucket. They're planning a June 2009 wedding. The announcement did not include details about which of his cars Bolian would drive to the ceremony. — KLW >>>

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

27

Tim Nichols Figuring the Fun Factor

T

im Nichols' job — user research engineer — is a serious one: to ensure players of Microsoft games have fun.

Nichols works/plays in the Gamers User Research group at Microsoft.

"The group supports practically every game title published

by Microsoft Game Studios, from both first- and third-party developers," says Nichols, MS Psy 01, PhD Psy 06. "We focus on the whole game, from the opening tutorial to that epic final boss fight. We want to measure users' experiences across the game — what is fun, what isn't fun, why it isn't fun. The 'why' can be the tricky part."

Nichols works closely with designers to understand their visions for their games and then assesses how closely users' actual experiences match those visions. "While a game is under development, developers have all kinds of questions about how

their game plays. 'Do people feel really powerful and awesome at this point in the game?' 'Will I be blowing gamers' minds if I add in all these new systems two hours into the game?' 'Are they going to be ready to learn something new?'

"This is when the job gets really interesting — and fun," Nichols says.

"I have to figure out how to turn those questions about 'sense of power' and 'comprehension of game systems' into testable research questions. How do you measure how powerful someone feels while in combat? What's the best way to test whether someone has sufficient understanding of the game that adding a new layer of complexity will enrich the experience rather than throwing the game and player into utter confusion?"

Since joining Microsoft in 2006, Nichols has worked on such games as Mass Effect, Ninja Gaiden 2 and the Viva Pinata franchise. His gaming days, however, date back before his tenure at Microsoft. His profile on the Gamers User Research Web site says time spent playing the game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind delayed his departure from Tech by at least six months.

Somehow he made time while at Tech to co-author a chapter on design for aging in the third edition of the "Handbook of Human Factors in Ergonomics." Nichols also conducted research focused on implicit learning, attention and cognitive aging.

Nichols, who turns 30 in October, says that at Microsoft, in addition to meetings and problem-solving sessions, his typical day includes "collaborative user testing of recently released titles."

That sounds an awful lot like playtime. — KLW

28

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Ik k

Reeve Ingle Fast Out of the Gate

A

s an undergraduate, Reeve Ingle, EE 08, completed four co-op work terms with the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and an internship with the Department of Defense and was named the 2007 Student of the Year by the Cooperative Education Division of the American Society of Engineering Education.

Ingle is back at the Johnson Space Center this summer and will begin doctoral studies in electrical engineering this fall at Stanford University.

"This summer I am working on digital signal processing algorithms for an advanced sensor technology based on radio frequency identification," Ingle explains. "RFID is traditionally used for inventory and tracking purposes, but by using sophisticated signal processing techniques, we are able to compute temperature, strain and other environmental metrics from the received RFID signal.

"These sensors have the benefit of being extremely rugged and capable of withstanding very harsh environments," he says.

As a co-op student at NASA, Ingle worked on a variety of projects, including the design of a dashboard display unit, development of a radio frequency spectrum map for a robot rover as well as electrical systems drawings for a space station experiment module and the investigation of methods of cleaning clothing in space.

He also trained to be a backroom flight controller at the Mission Control Center, wrote a technical report on space exploration research and presented it to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2005 and was the only co-op student selected to support NASA robotics field testing in the fall of 2006.

Ingle also studied in Mexico City and Madrid and conducted undergraduate research at the Georgia Tech Optics Lab. He was actively involved with the Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi Honor Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Christian Campus Fellowship. He volunteered as a host for Connect with Tech, a weekend for prospective students, and served as a committee chair for Tech Beautification Day and TEAM Buzz.

Ingle has received more good news since winning the national co-op honor. "I was excited to learn that I was awarded a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship and a National Defense Science and Engineering fellowship," he says. "Both of these will be extremely beneficial in helping fund my graduate study and research."

David Moeller Grabbing Opportunities

G

i

ladiator Garageworks has grabbed the Claw, pitched on the television series "American Inventor" last summer by two Tech alums. While the Claw did not win the top prize on TV, the exposure paid off, with Gladiator GarageWorks announcing the acquisition of the bicycle storage device in February.

The Claw, a replacement for a ceiling or wall hook, latches onto a bike tire with just a vertical motion depressing a central plunger. It releases the bike in the same manner.

"I can't disclose the numbers of our agreement, but it should be

This is a banner year for the 29-year-old Moeller, a President's

on the market by September at the latest. It will be called the Gladiator Claw," says co-inventor David Moeller, ME 02.

Scholar at Tech who earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in June and went to work for a startup test preparation company called Ivy Insiders in Boston.

Moeller and co-inventor Craig Forest, ME 01, won the New York City regional leg of the "American Inventor" competition but failed to advance in the semifinal round. They did, however,

receive $50,000 to help ready the Claw for market.

When announcing that it would release the Claw, Gladiator Garageworks said it was the first major U.S. manufacturer to commercially market a product introduced on "American Inventor."

Gladiator displayed Moeller and Forest's prototype at the International Builders Show in February. — KLW >»

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

29

Jamye Hickman Pet Product Ergonomist

Jamye Hickman designs products for pets that are engineered for people.

As CEO of PupCentric, Hickman, MS Psy 04, markets her Everything But the Dog Carry-all to pet parents on the go. Her Web site, www.pupcentric.com, describes the E.B.D. Carry-all thusly: "Think of it as a doggy diaper bag ergonomically designed with functionality and style."

Available in a variety of fash-

ionable colors with optional embroidery, the bag contains collapsible — and matching — food and water bowls, a freezable gel pack and blanket and has pockets for everything from waste bags to vet papers. Earlier this year, PupCentric released CwickUps, canine waste pick-up bags that are available in patterns that coordinate with the carry-alls. The slogan: "Why does poop have to be drab?"

"PupCentric does not factor specifically into my doctoral research. However, I use principles of ergonomics when designing my line of pet products," says the 29-year-old Hickman, who expects to receive her doctorate in psychology from Tech in December.

"I had to pack her bags just like my own. I couldn't keep her toys, food and other necessities organized or at reach when in the car. I couldn't find a product on the market so I decided to make one in April 2006," she says. "I grew up sewing as a hobby so this wasn't a far stretch for me."

The idea for the carry-all came to Hickman during a trip to visit her parents in North Carolina with her dog, Zoe-Joe, in tow.

Hickman found a pattern maker in Canada, refined her design and sought funding.

"I had difficulty securing funding through traditional sources so my parents became the first financial backers of my company," she says.

"The finished product debuted at the H.H. Backer Pet Industry Trade Show in October 2006 and in December 2006 my products were featured in a pet industry trade magazine."

In 2007, the E.B.D. Carry-all was awarded the Editor's Choice Award by Pet Product News International for its innovative design.

Now with distribution warehouses in Atlanta and Nevada, PupCentric products can be found at retailers across the country, from Paws & Claws in Trussville, Ala., to A Bone to Pick in Davidsonville, Md., to Barkz in Kirkland, Wash. Catalog and online retailers include YourBreed Clothing Co. and The Pawhaus.

After receiving her doctorate, Hickman plans to remain in Atlanta as the PupCentric CEO while working as an adjunct university instructor.

"My goal is to have my company running itself by 2011," she says.

"I'd like to move back to North Carolina to become an assistant professor, work with my father designing ergonomically correct independent living facilities for older adults and, in my spare time, write children's books with my mother." — KLW

Mike Fischetti BBC Children's Show Host ike Fischetti's passion for theater — and for a young woman from England — led to a job hosting a children's show on the BBC. "The story of how I got from Georgia Tech to England is a slightly long but romantic one," says Fischetti, ID 03, who worked throughout college at various theaters around Atlanta.

"Even my senior thesis was based on how industrial design is incorporated into the theater world.

"After graduating I went straight into my first job as a set designer/scenic painter at Stage Door Manor in Loch Sheldrake, New York," he says, pointing out that the performing arts training center boasts such alumni as Natalie Portman, Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Braff. "I went looking to prove myself, envisioning that I would dive right into the heart of the theater scene. Instead, I met a young woman who dove straight into my heart."

The young woman was taking a break from her university studies in England and spending the summer in the United States. Eventually, Fischetti was able to acquire a visa and an engagement ring and join his sweetheart in Great Britain.

"We settled down in London and I set out to get a job in the media industry. A month of unpaid work at the BBC ended with me receiving a full-time position as a prop maker on a longrunning children's program called 'Xchange,'" he says. "From there I moved on to several different shows, ranging from live BBC Saturday morning kids' shows to a late-night Japanese-based game show in which college students compete in various tortuous and grotesque tasks for cash.

"In 2007, an opportunity came about to host a children's art show called 'SMarf and the course of my life changed dramatically. My life's ambition suddenly became completely apparent to me — to create the ideas, craft the artwork and then present my passion for art and design to children via a nationally televised art program."

Fischetti says his Georgia Tech education has helped him get ahead at the BBC. "From the art history, sustainability, graphic design and industrial design studio courses right down to the styles of sketching and rendering and the materials I used to make final designs, each skill that I learned and honed throughout my five-year stay at Georgia Tech has prepared me for the work I am doing every day," he says.

"Certainly, if nothing else, the incredibly long hours and late nights at Tech prepared me for the nonstop work of the real world." - KIW >» Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

31

company president Ben Hamilton, AE 05. They also were ImagineAir's first two pilots. Six more full-time pilots were hired after the business got off the ground.

Frank Park, Aaron Sohacki, Ben Hamilton Straight Shot to Success

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ince being cleared for takeoff in April 2007, ImagineAir has booked more than 600 flights to hundreds of airports throughout the Southeast.

The metro Atlanta air taxi service was launched by CEO Aaron Sohacki, Mgt 06, and 32

"We are changing the way people think about regional travel," Hamilton says.

Chief technology officer Frank Park, CS 04, MS InfoSec 06, wrote ImagineAir's software program, which enables passengers to schedule personalized flights just hours prior to takeoff and immediately spells out the mileage, flight duration and cost.

When a flight request is submitted, the online reservation system sorts through potential routes in seconds and comes up with the best options.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

"We are offering a product that was previ-

ously available only to the rich and famous," says Park, who also is a doctoral student at Tech. "By utilizing advancements in technology, it is now affordable to a much larger segment of the population, just like computers in the '80s and cell phones in the '90s."

ImagineAir opened the hangar doors at Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville, Ga., for business with two brand new Cirrus SR22-GTS planes, equipped with plump leather seats and satellite radio. Now with five aircraft and 15 employees, ImagineAir expects to soon take delivery of its first Eclipse 500 jet, a sixseater capable of speeds of more than 400 mph.

The three ImagineAir executives — all turning 25 this year — met through the Yellow Jacket Flying Club. Sohacki and Hamilton both were club officers and instructors. Park earned his wings through lessons with the club.

KIW

Rajiv Saigal Spinal Cord Researcher, Future Physician

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wenty-nine-year-old Rajiv Saigal gives multitasking new meaning. While pursuing a doctorate in medical engineering through a joint Harvard-MIT program, Saigal also is earning a medical degree through Tufts University.

Saigal, who earned an electrical engineering degree at Tech in 2000 before heading to Aalborg Universitet in Denmark for a master's in biomedical engineering, already has a curriculum vitae filled with honors and awards, research and teaching experience, papers and abstracts he has written and even a patent pending for methods and compositions for the treatment of open- and closed-wound spinal cord injuries.

"I will be completing a PhD in medical engineering this fall. In the course of my PhD, I became interested in medicine and completed the first two years of med school curriculum while doing my research," says Saigal, who also earned a fifth-degree black belt in tae kwon do in his spare time. He applied for and was accepted to Tufts with advanced standing and is the first PhD student the university has accepted directly into the third year of med school.

Saigal hopes to work as both a scientist and physician and plans to begin a residency in neurosurgery in the summer of 2009.

"Long term I imagine getting a faculty position at a medical school, operating as a neurosurgeon and running a laboratory specializing in spinal cord injury research."

He explains his research — and chops a board in half with his hand — on an MIT promotional video. "People who are paralyzed could be electrically stimulated to allow their muscles to move again. That idea was really fascinating to me," says Saigal, who was part of a team that developed a polymer that was implanted into a lab rat.

"We saw this rodent walking around that was previously paralyzed. It was sort of that 'a-ha' moment that we had finally achieved something that wasn't achievable before."

Saigal looks forward to the possibilities.

"That would be the most exciting day of my life, to see some of the things we're working on in the lab make it inside a patient."

He is the recipient of research fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Whitaker Foundation.

A President's Scholar at Tech, Saigal's honors as an undergraduate included receiving the J. Erskine Love Philanthropy Award and an Intel Foundation scholarship and being named the Omicron Delta Kappa Leader of the Year and Mr. Georgia Tech.

A Tech education was "profoundly helpful in teaching me how to think critically, in introducing me to a community of talented students and mentors and in building a solid engineering knowledge base that I still utilize today," Saigal says. — KLW

Troy Matteson Pro Golfer

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etting to play at this professional level is a very surreal dream. Each week I get to tee it up with guys that I have grown up watching on TV," golfer Troy Matteson writes on his Web site.

Since 2006, Matteson, CE 03, has won more than $3.7 million on the PGA Tour.

With earnings from the Nationwide Tour, which he joined after graduating from Tech, Matteson has pocketed more than .3 million as a pro.

"Each week brings new challenges to the table as far as course conditions, how I feel about my game at that point and traveling from point A to B," Matteson writes. "However, at 28 years old I consider myself very lucky to be playing amongst the best of the best golfers in the world."

In 2002, Matteson became only the third golfer in Georgia Tech history to clinch the NCAA championship. Previous champs were Charlie Yates in 1934 and Watts Gunn in 1927. The NCAA title was Matteson's fourth win of the season and that tied the school record of David Duval, CIs 93. Matteson also was named the Arnold Palmer National Player of the Year and a first-team AllAmerican.

Matteson recorded his first collegiate victory during the 2001-02 season with a win at the Taylor Made/Waikoloa Intercollegiate. He followed that with wins at the Puerto Rico Classic and the Las Vegas Collegiate and thus became the first golfer in Tech history to win three straight starts. — KLW >»

e c h Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

33

Kristi Miller Tennis Pro f risti Miller, the most decorated women's tennis play,er in Georgia Tech's history, graduated in May summa cum age and in June launched her pro career as one of 10,000 competitors in the U.S. Tennis Association at the Women's Pro Tennis Classic in Houston.

"When you turn pro you kind jsbf work your way up from the botB p , " says the 23-year-old Miller. l|he was hardly lost in the crowd, was ranked 12th nationally in pegiate rankings and was

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

Brandon Swafford Amateur Rapper, Professional Record Producer anchored in the top 10 throughout her Tech career. During 2006, she reigned as the best, earning the Honda Award for the top women's tennis player in the nation. She was Tech's first All-American in women's tennis, The women's tennis team winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament in Athens, Ga., her junior year was the greatest moment of her Tech career, she says. "It was like a home crowd in their huge stadium and it was so much fun to win it with my friends."

Members of the women's tennis team are close and have developed a sense of trust for one another, she says. "It's amazing to have other girls respect you and push you to be better who are also your best friends."

Miller's new Atlanta apartment will serve as her base while she competes professionally, "I'm going to be playing smaller USTA pro circuit tournaments this summer in the United States and then, hopefully, in the U.S. Open and then some tournaments in Mexico and Australia this fall," she says, Miller, who majored in history, technology and society, says she tried to

"prioritize everything" as a student to maintain her academic standing and her tennis schedule. "I enjoy school and picked a major that I really liked, so while it's tough to always motivate yourself to study, it wasn't as bad as studying something I hated. As far as tennis at a Division I school, it's almost like a job, "You have to be extremely efficient," she says. "A normal day for me used to entail two to three hours of class, possibly a one-hour individual lesson, team practice for two and a half hours and on three days a week weights and conditioning. At night I would have to study and do homework."

Academics were a draw to Tech, Miller says, but, "the main reason was for the coach, Bryan Shelton. I have nothing but respect and trust for him, I knew if I was going to play tennis, he would get me there." — JD

I

n their hit YouTube music video spoof, "M-train," Georgia Tech rappers gtg491y and gtg562h are approached by a bum, just outside their dorm, who suggests that they rethink their pursuit of engineering degrees and pick up change-of-major forms.

"If you stick with what you've got, you're going to end up just like me — flunking out of Tech and living on the street," he insists.

His advice: Take the M-train, or major in management.

The video, which was posted to the Web site April 23 and has been viewed more than 85,000 times, has made gtg491y, aka Daniel "DBay" Baily, who will be graduating with an industrial engineering degree in August, and gtg562h, alias Brandon "Swaff" Swafford, ID 07, celebrities among the North Avenue set.

The pair have received shout-outs from former Tech President Wayne Clough and Alumni Association Chair Bill Todd at various campus events, and their video was even screened at the Alumni Association's quarterly board meeting in May. When he's not laying down his own tracks, the 24-year-old Swafford is in the studio with other musicians. By day, he works as a record producer and mix engineer at The Rockporium, a recording studio in Canton, Ga., where he and Baily recorded the "M-train" track in two 10-hour sessions.

"When producing, I'm working hand in hand with the band, calling all the shots, making the artist do takes over and over until it's the best performance I feel I can get from them," Swafford says. "As a mix engineer, I'm mixing all the tracks together to make them sound the best they can for the final product."

On his MySpace page, Swafford says he enjoys recording "just about any genre" but specializes in Christian and rock music. "I don't produce songs with profanity simply because that doesn't represent who I am," he adds.

While the popularity of the YouTube video may not have made DBay and Swaff household names, it has resulted in some double takes from passersby.

"I don't really think of it as fame, but people definitely have recognized me out in public and asked if I was the guy from the M-train video," Swafford says. "It's very rewarding when they say how much they've enjoyed it or how it helped them get through finals week. ... DBay and I never expected to have the kind of response we've had."

Swafford has also received some offers to produce films, including one about the Georgia Tech Alumni Associa tion's Rappel for Roll Call event, which was held June 14.

He is the first in his family to attend Tech — but he won't be the last. "My sister, Jessica, will be starting as a freshman this summer, and yes, she's taking the M-train," he says. — LO >» Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine^

WE LCOME TO REFUfiiLFAMILlr SERVICES Alex West Encouraging Mists to Change the World

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or most college students, Friday and Saturday nights are reserved for frat parties, double dates or trips to the movies.

But for Alex West and his friends, many of them were spent on the streets of downtown Atlanta, handing out sandwiches, blankets and winter coats to the city's homeless.

"The idea was to get local artists to crawl the streets after many homeless shelters closed," says West, who graduated from Tech with a degree in computational media in 2006.

Those outings were some of the first service projects of WonderRoot, an organization founded in 2004 by West and a couple of high school friends. Dedicated to "uniting artists and community to inspire positive social change," WonderRoot now helps struggling local artists by providing low-cost production facilities and performance space while at the same time encouraging them to give back to Atlanta through service projects.

WonderRoot artists now spend their weekends teaching art workshops for youngsters and painting outdoor murals throughout the city. "So many children have weak, if any, school arts programs. We go into schools and teach children everything from bookmaking and poetry to photography and painting," West says.

After obtaining nonprofit status in 2006, WonderRoot began a fundraising campaign to

raise money for a permanent home. In May, it opened its 4,000-square-foot Community Arts Center on Memorial Drive in Atlanta that is replete with a recording studio, darkroom, digital media lab, ceramics studio, performance space and state-of-the-art equipment. For a $10-a-month membership fee, local artists may use the facilities and equipment on a firstcome, first-served basis.

"My ultimate goal for WonderRoot is to build a solid and noticeable independent art scene in Atlanta," West says. "I hope WonderRoot will be influential in shaping the art culture that will support the rapid growth Atlanta will be seeing over the next 30 years."

For the past year, the 24-year-old hasn't had much time to devote to his own artistic pursuits. During his time at Tech, he made a

Daniel Barbalho, Bart Sasso Idols of Industry

few films and explored interactive and responsive art. He also spent a summer in California working as a software developer for Disney's research and development department, where he "did cool things with video and robots."

West, who would love to start his own video game company by the time he hits 30, now is the lead developer for Rival Industries, a startup interactive media company for which he designs and creates embedded software for Internet protocol television set top boxes.

He works from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., skipping lunch, so he can help out at the WonderRoot office from 4 to 8 p.m.

West says he has been "slowly getting back into filmmaking," and if next year affords him more free time, he hopes to make a Super 8 mm film on track bikes. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; LO

F

or former Georgia Tech roommates Daniel Barbalho and Bart Sasso, what began as a mere hobby to get over their postgraduation restlessness has become a business.

Barbalho, ID 03, Sasso, Mgt 02, and co-owner Eric Kelly are the masterminds behind Esperanza Atlanta, which churns out T-shirts inspired by the city.

"It was honestly just something to escape how unexciting the real world was after college," Sasso says. "We both had OK jobs and work was fine, but we were both very creative, entrepreneurial people and that itch just wasn't being scratched."

So the two invested in a cheap screen-printing machine Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2008

found online and began making their own T-shirts. When strangers began approaching them to ask where they'd gotten them, Barbalho and Sasso set up a makeshift factory in the former's garage to print a small run of shirts.

Esperanza shirts are now available in boutiques throughout the city and were even featured in Atlanta magazine's Best of 2007 issue.

In their new line of shirts, the designers give shout-outs to Atlanta neighborhoods and landmarks, including Little Five Points and Buford Highway. The KoolAid man gracing the front of Esperanza's Sweet Tee is filled not with fruit punch but with the

Thomas Earnest Global Student

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or now, Thomas Earnest is on U.S. soil — but not for long.

Earnest, who earned a bachelor's degree in international affairs at Tech in 2007 before heading to Egypt for six months, has received a Fulbright scholarship to spend a year in Tunisia.

Currently, Earnest is in Washington, D.C., working on Capitol Hill as a staffer for Rep. Phil Gingrey, Chem 65. In the second half of 2007, he was in Cairo for intensive Arabic language study.

"My studies were partially funded by the Critical Language Scholarship, which is part of the State Department's National Security Language Initiative, a program to greatly increase the number of U.S. citizens proficient in critical need languages," Earnest says.

He studied in Cairo for five months and traveled throughout Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for a month. "The experience was remarkable," Earnest says. "It was invaluable and irreplaceable living and learning immersed in the Arab world, fostering real relationships with dynamic and passionate young Egyptians and seeing firsthand the problems and challenges currently facing the region."

Earnest has received another opportunity to learn more about the world through a 2008-09 Fulbright scholarship.

"In August I will be moving to Tunis, Tunisia, for a year. The first three months in the country will be spent building upon the Arabic language skills developed while in Egypt with a focus on learning the local Tunisian dialect. Following this intensive language study, I will begin the research component of my grant studying economic development in the country.

"My research will take the form of a video documentary, which will be complemented by frequent academic articles and short films that will be posted online throughout the yearlong grant period," he says.

Earnest intends to pursue a law degree after his year in Tunisia.

"I hope to use my knowledge of the law and my experiences living, studying and researching in the north Africa and Middle East region to

table wine of the South. In one of the clothing company's "Gone With the Wind" T-shirts, an irate Scarlett O'Hara asks, "Frankly my dear, what?!," in a pop-art-style illustration reminiscent of the artwork of Roy Lichtenstein. Martin Luther King Jr. pops up as the king in a deck of cards on one Tshirt, while a close-up of a handshake between a black man and a white man appears on the Too Busy to Hate shirt.

"The South has such an amazing blend of culture and history that I think anyone who was born here or has lived here for a significant amount of time can recognize how important a part of this country we are," Sasso says.

"Our clothes touch on all of it: the

old South's pageantry, the civil rights movement that shaped our country, the climate, the modernday Americana melting pot the new South has become and beyond."

Earlier this year, the Esperanza guys received some unexpected free advertising, On an episode of "American Idol" that aired in February, contestant and former Atlantan Michael Johns wore Esperanza's "Bring Back the Point" T-shirt, an homage to a shuttered Little Five Points rock venue.

Barbalho and Sasso, neither of whom watched "American Idol" prior to their shirt's cameo, were less than thrilled by the news at first. Sasso's initial reaction:

work toward developmetnYand trade policies that foster economic growth and stability in the developing world while also being advantageous to U.S. economic interests," he says.

A President's Scholar at Tech, Earnest caught the travel bug early.

He spent one summer in Europe and another studying in Brazil and Argentina.

"I truly feel that without Georgia Tech, I would not be where I am today. The academic, social and personal growth I experienced during my years on campus were vital to my professional development, and I am grateful for what the Institute has given me," Earnest says.

"Whether it's here in Washington, D.C., while working on the Hill as examine and consider legislative issues facing our country or whether it's in Egypt as a volunteer to teach English to Sudanese refugees or whether it's in Tunisia as I analyze economic development policies, I constantly draw upon the experiences I had at Georgia Tech." — KLW

"There goes the reputation we've established. Totally demolished by a bubblegum cable show," he recalls. "When the calls kept coming, we began to realize just how amazing it was that millions were seeing something we printed with our own hands."

The TV exposure not only boosted sales, it also garnered Esperanza more fans. "Our blog hits skyrocketed," Sasso says.

"We love that an entirely new group of people are now taking interest in what we're doing."

Some local companies also have taken interest and have approached Esperanza with freelance design and production work. Esperanza recently completed some promotional items for

Sara Blakely's Atlanta-based company, Spanx.

Despite the success of Esperanza, it remains a part-time venture. Barbalho is the head industrial designer for Rehrig Pacific Co., and Sasso works for Eric Chafin Home Builders Inc. "We manage to run Esperanza with all the demanding obligations of full-time jobs just like we managed having a good time on and off campus and getting great grades at Tech at the same time — with exceptional self-discipline, moderation and time scheduling. Actually, we're exhausted, but owning your own company is so exhilarating and that exhilaration is addictive," Sasso says. — LO >»

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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Chip Wade HGTVCarpenter

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hip Wade, ME 06, joined the Atlanta crew of the HGTV hit show "Designed to Sell" in 2007.

This spring he added the title of spokesman for Mohawk Industries to his resume.

On "Designed to Sell," a designer and carpenters ready a home for market in three days on a $2,000 budget.

"I love working with power tools and woodworking. The part I love the most is being intimately involved in the design process and seeing intricate, custom pieces come to life," Wade told Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles magazine.

Wade became certified in residential construction while working as a structural engineer in a home building firm after graduating from Tech. He continues to manage Wade Built LLC. HGTV publicity says Wade "comes from a line of experienced carpenters and woodcraftsmen. His interests in home renovation and carpentry began from an early age working closely with his father."

On the Mohawk Web site, Wade gives interactive presentations on flooring products, including SmartStrand carpet.

In explaining why the company selected Wade as its spokesman, David Duncan, vice president of marketing for Mohawk, told the media, "Chip combines real-world experience with extraordinary communications and craftsmanship."

Shawn Allan Ceramics Expert

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hawn Allan holds two patents and has applied for two more. Allan, 28, got the first before he had even reached the legal drinking age. Allan, MS MSE 05, was awarded his first patent as a junior at Alfred University in western New York.

Working at Sandia National Laboratories in California, he was part of a team that created "tiny mechanical components like gears from powder metals and ceramics," he says, for use in safety devices on missiles.

Allan was one of just two ceramics specialists in the department. "It was strange to have just completed my sophomore year and then be told that I was the ceramic expert at a national lab," he said in a recent interview with The Business Review of Albany, N.Y While at Tech in 2005, Allan received the Best Paper Award at the American Ceramic Society's international conference concerning research performed with professor Ken Sandhage. The group had found a way to convert the glass shells of diatoms, or microscopic algae, into ceramics. "We were performing relatively simple chemical reactions to convert the glass to other ceramics, while keeping the same shape. By doing that, we were making 3-D microscopic structures in large quantities that are impossible to make by any advanced fabrication method," Allan says.

Allan now is a senior materials engineer at Ceralink, a developer of materials processing technologies in Troy, N.Y. One of the company's current projects, which may earn Allan another patent, involves developing a speedier and more cost-effective way for manufacturing the laminated glass used in such items as windshields and transparent armor. "The way it's done now is to use large pressure vessels called autoclaves to heat and press the vinyl between sheets of glass. That method can take several hours," he says. "The method we developed uses a radio-frequency press to do the lamination in about one minute."

When he's not in the lab, Allan may be found on the slopes skiing or snowboarding, in the mountains hiking or in his yard tending to his garden. "I used to garden a lot — and worked on a farm — through middle and high school, but my years in college prevented much of that. This summer I have only my second garden in the last 10 years, but it's doing great." — LO

3 • Summer 2008

Gwen Sisto Weightlifter, Time-management Master rowing up, Gwen Sisto never saw the appeal in • playing basketball, soccer or softball — or any team sport for that matter.

"Weightlifting was the first individual sport to which I was introduced and took interest," Sisto says. "I was fascinated by the thought that I could be the absolute best at something — the strongest person in the world," Since taking up the sport in 1995, Sisto, AE 05, has competed in more than 20 meets and medaled in a national meet each year. Representing Georgia Tech, she won three silver medals in national collegiate championships and in 2006 took home the gold in her 53-kilogram weight class.

The 115-pound Sisto credits her personal trainer and husband, Ivan Rojas, a two-time Olympian, with helping her improve her technique and overall physical

preparation in recent years. Rojas represented his native Bolivia in the 1988 and'92 Olympic Games.

"After having my daughter four years ago, I was barely strong enough to lift the bar," Sisto says. "My husband started coaching me and now I am lifting three full weight classes lighter and lifting more weight."

Sisto trains one to two times per day, six days a week, for an average of about 24 hours a week spent in the gym. "There is no offseason in weightlifting. Most weightlifting Olympic champions have 500 workouts per year. We try to squeeze in workouts whenever possible," she says.

For the 25-year-old wife and mother, that's a tight squeeze, A full-time foreign military sales contract repairs manager in GE Aviation's performance-based logistics organization, Sisto also

is pursuing her master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. And in March, she and her husband launched Botev Sports, which provides sports-performance training services and markets weightlifting equipment. The company's product line includes shoes designed by Stefan Botev, a two-time weightlifting world champion and Olympic gold medalist the couple met on a training trip to Bulgaria. Sisto likens the collaboration to "having Michael Jordan design and oversee the manufacture of Air Jordans."

So how does Sisto juggle two jobs, graduate school and training and raise a family? Two things: "expert time management learned at Georgia Tech" and "synergizing aspects of your life whenever possible."

"Everything builds or feeds

into everything else," Sisto says.

Her business supports her sports endeavors and motivates her to improve her lifting, while the skills learned in course work at MIT bleed into her jobs at GE and Botev Sports. And with her husband serving as her coach and her daughter often in the wings watching her train, "weightlifting time is family time," she says.

Sisto recently returned to her alma mater to compete for one of four spots on the 2008 Olympic weightlifting team. The trials were held at the Ferst Center for the Arts in May, Sisto did not make the cut, but she still has dreams of Olympic gold.

"Every year since having my daughter my lifting has improved.

Sustainable incremental improvements will bring me to my ultimate goal of Olympic glory.

"At this point, anything is possible." — LO G T

I

Radakovich Photos: Gary Meek

INTERVIEW

Dan Radakovich: Tech's Goaltender

By Kimberly Link-Wills What question were you asked most frequently by alumni during the Coaches Caravan stops?

Beating Georgia in football was a big question.

They asked how you're going to beat Georgia?

No, they asked when.

What was your answer?

Soon.

Since taking the job of director of athletics in the spring of 2006, Dan Radakovich has quarterbacked a program designed to help players and fans achieve their goals of winning seasons and success on and off the playing fields and courts. He came to Tech from Louisiana State University, where he was the senior associate athletics director for five years. He also served sports office stints at American University in Washington, B.C., the University of South Carolina, Long Beach State and the University of Miami, where he received an MBA. He was a football letterman at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor's degree in finance. He and his wife, Marcie, have two sons, Christian, who will be a Tech freshman this fall, and Grant, a high school freshman. This spring Radakovich led a five-stop Coaches Caravan with head football coach Paul Johnson, men's basketball coach Paul Hewitt and women's basketball coach MaChelle Joseph to meet with fans and alumni throughout Georgia.

You didn't promise to beat Georgia this season?

We can't do that. The ball bounces in funny ways, but we certainly feel very, very good about Coach

able for the things that are necessary to have a winning football program. I think he's done a lot to pull together a good base that will allow us to be successful.

Johnson.

How have alumni responded to the hiring of Paul Johnson as head football coach?

There were a lot of folks who had followed his career for a long time because he had been here in the state at Georgia Southern. He was very well known and I think he's gotten a tremendous reception from all of the people we have put him in contact with. He's a very down-toearth guy. He's asked our team and our staff to become very account-

How do you deal with all the "advice" you get from Tech fans? I'm sure you get a lot.

Oh, we do, absolutely. We get a lot of advice. It's not my program, it's not their program, it's our program.

We want to make sure we're listening to the things that are important to our fans. It's good to be able to understand what they're thinking and sometimes it gives you a different perspective as you go about making certain decisions. We want to be able to respond to the things

that our fans find are important, whether it's in the football stadium, parking issues, customer service issues.

We have to always remember that we're here for the student athletes, the people who are competing right now are very important and how we can get others to come here and cast their lot with Georgia Tech. The environment in which we compete for student athletes is incredibly competitive because there are a lot of good schools out there and student athletes make their decisions about where they go to school for a myriad of different reasons. We want to make sure we put ourselves in the best light so we can get the >>>

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

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INTERVIEW

quality student athletes here so that they not only compete in the classroom but they are also very competitive on the field of play.

Is it a tough sell because of the academic rigors at Tech?

There are people who are up to that challenge and people who understand that it's not a secret that going to Georgia Tech gives you a great education and if you're going to get that great education you're going to have to pay the price as far as the academics are concerned. The student athlete who casts their lot with us understands that. Over half of our student athletes had a 3.0 or better this past semester. That's very good and we're quite proud of that.

In a nutshell, can you describe your job?

The biggest part of the job of a director of athletics is to solve problems, make sure you put the right people in the right roles and continue to try to motivate the people who are in your department. You can't ever lose sight of the fact that you are part of an educational institution and that's very important. It's not like running your own independent business, because you do have parameters that you work within and you have to find the best way to maneuver through those obstacles and to make sure that you're still allowing your student athletes and your coaches to have the best ability to be competitive.

Is fundraising a part of your job every day?

Sure, we basically are a charity.

We're a separate 501C and we receive our charitable contributions in any number of ways, not only strict philanthropic donations but also the sale of tickets and mer-

chandise. The ability to gather revenue and the ability to fundraise are always at the top of the to-do list each and every day.

Is it hard to ask for money?

No, not really. It's something that you grow into. I think people who are willing to give philanthropically really like the opportunity to sit and talk with the person directing the program. It just becomes something that you do. I really can't explain it in A, B, C form. It just happens.

What is the most difficult to deal with: finances, administration, coaches and players or Tech fans?

I would say our challenges here are very much along the financial side of things. We've had really a great groundswell of support, not only from our fans but certainly our students have come forward and helped us.

There are a lot of things that are challenges, but if it wasn't for the student athletes and it wasn't for the coaches and it wasn't for the fans, we wouldn't have a department. They are all constituents and each one of them at certain points in the year has more needs. We

have to make sure we're trying to fulfill those needs and listen.

Sometimes we can change what some of the issues are and other times we can't. We just have to make sure we can make the best of the situation.

or another has to be able to do. You don't consciously think about it. You know one of the many focuses of your job is to provide the best leadership and the best opportunities for your constituents â&#x20AC;&#x201D; your student athletes and your fan base.

Is it difficult when all eyes are on you and reporters are calling and speculating if and when you'll fire a coach or whom, you'll hire as a coach?

It probably is in retrospect, but when you're in the moment and you're working through those decisions, you really are focused on the task at hand and trying to do the best job that you can for the Institute. You may afterward step out and say, "Wow, there were a lot of different moving pieces here and we were able to pull it together."

But to be quite honest, you're so focused on the task at hand that a lot of those external things don't come into play.

Is there a lot of job burnout among ADs? There's some, absolutely, because it's not a job, it's really part of a lifestyle. You have to live this. It's rare that someone who is an athletics director can shut it off at 5:30.

At some point you have to shut it off. Your wife and children don't always want to be around the athletics director, right?

I'm not the athletics director at home.

So how do you shut it off?

That's probably not something I do

That's a trait that anyone who's running a company, running a division of a business or has a leadership role in an organization at some time

We are an important part of the Institute because of the amount of publicity we generate for the Institute. Our athletic programs strive to be able to create that opportunity within our venues for people to be able to get together and enjoy Georgia Tech and also spread the word throughout the country about Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech gives you a great education and if you're going to get that great education, you're going to have to pay the price as far as the academics are concerned.

The student athlete who casts their lot with us understands that. Over half of our student athletes had a 3.0 or better this past semester. We're proud of that.

The next president hopefully will understand that and be able to help us in various ways to move ahead.

real well. I don't have a good formula yet. I think as I continue to grow in the position I'll learn to under-

Is that an ability you acquire, to just be able to focus and not hear all the noise?

been very, very supportive of the athletics program. He was the chairman of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association. We met at least on a monthly basis to talk over different things that are on the agenda and different issues that we have. Those shoes will be tough to fill, but I would hope that the next president certainly understands the value of athletics to Georgia Tech.

stand that better.

How closely did you work with President Clough and what do you hope to see in Tech's next president?

I worked closely with him. He has

What does Amanda McDowell's national singles title mean for the women's tennis program?

Winning the team championship last year and following it up with Amanda's win this year continues to say that great women's tennis is being played here at Tech. >>>

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

43

INTERVIEW As young women are making their decisions on where to go to school, they know that if you come to Tech not only will you get a great education but you'll also have great coaching and a great opportunity to win championships. Since Coach [Bryan] Shelton's arrival, he has certainly put women's tennis on the map and I know as an alum he is tremendously proud to be able to accomplish that at his alma mater.

Is it true that tennis standout Kristi Miller graduated with a 4.0 in May and is turning pro?

Yes, Kristi is an amazing young lady. She has set the benchmark and is the most decorated female student athlete in the history of our program.

How do you convince athletes

to graduate before turning pro?

sports, in academics and in their personal lives?

It's hard. They're 18 to 22 years old.

They think they all have the ability to turn professional in their individual sports, but the numbers just don't bear it out. There are very few people who end up playing in the National Football League. If they do, their career is about 3,2 years.

The NBA is even a smaller number,

One of the great things we have here at Georgia Tech â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and it's a legacy of Dr. [Homer] Rice â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is the Total Person Program, where we have outreach and systematic programming for student athletes to talk not only about their lives here at Georgia Tech but some of the things they need to do outside of Georgia Tech once they graduate or leave Georgia Tech. Preparing them for that particular stage in their lives is something the Total Person Program does.

But while you're here, while you're waiting to have that opportunity to play professionally, take advantage of your time here, graduate or get real close to graduating and if you can, come back and finish, because the Tech degree is going to be with you for the remainder of your life. We want to make sure those opportunities are available for them to come back and finish their degrees.

How do you encourage athletes to make good decisions in

We have gone through about a year's worth of revamping of the program to make sure that it's relevant to today's student athlete.

Today's student athlete is very different from the student athlete of 10 years ago.

We want to make sure that the programs and the things that we're doing for our student athletes are important for their life skills today.

Axe all student athletes required to go through the Total Person Program?

Yes,

How are the baseball players handling Michael Hurts'

death? (The 21-year-old pitcher was found dead in his off-campus apartment A p r i l 11, A coroner's report attributed the cause of death to morphine toxicity.)

We had counselors available to the baseball team after the tragedy. I think Coach [Danny] Hall handled it very, very well. It's not something that's going to go away quickly. It was a traumatic experience and I think they've been able to segment that aside and continue to perform not only well on the field of play but in the classroom as well.

But certainly we had counselors available for those student athletes who felt the need to take advantage of it.

Will you talk about drugs within Tech athletics?

We have a comprehensive drug testing program that we revamped last summer, looking at best practices throughout our industry, and made sure that our drug testing program is in line with some of our peers.

It's important to understand that drug testing just gives you a snapshot of that individual in a moment of time and doesn't always capture other parts of that person's being, which is why we need to

continue to educate not only their peers but our coaches and our staff so that if they see changes in people's behavioral patterns, we look to help them.

Certainly there are consequences if they continue to move into bad behavior, but the first thing we want to do is to help the student athletes deal with their problems, deal with the issues at hand. That's the most important thing.

Axe student athletes screened for drugs once a year, once a season?

It's random testing. The program is administered through our associate athletic director's office and our Total Person Program as well.

student athletes know there is support from the administration.

You said "enjoy" the sports.

Are you able to go to a game and enjoy it simply as a spectator?

I enjoy looking out there and seeing so many other people having fun. It becomes a little more difficult because you understand what's at stake. It's a lot better during the week in the fall if the football team won the previous Saturday. You like to be able to have that feeling as much as you can. It's also important to understand there are times when it's not going to work that way and you can't be to the point that you're so wrapped up that it inhibits your ability to do your job.

We have outreach and systematic programming for student athletes to talk not only about their lives here at Georgia Tech but some of the things they need to do outside of Georgia Tech once they graduate or leave Georgia Tech.

Preparing them for that particular stage in their lives is something the Total Person Program does.

How often do you go to games?

I try to make a number of them, but as I told the coaches when I got here, I have two sons and they were going into their different activities. I think as they continue to move on and get older, there will be a little more time for my wife and I to come and enjoy more Tech events.

But I try to get out there and try to make sure some of our staff members who are involved in those particular sports are there so the

You don't go in on Monday and say, "Coach, you should have done this"?

No, that's why we have coaches.

Do you ever make preseason predictions?

No, not at all. We just want fans to show up and have fun. It's important for people to understand our student athletes and our program survive in great measure with them supporting the program, G T

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

45

Leader President Clough bids farewell to students, alumni

By John Dunn Photography: Gary Meek and Rob Felt

ayne Clough concluded his 14-year tenure as Georgia Tech's 10th president / on June 30 and began a five-year commitment the next day to head the Smithsonian Institution as its chief executive.

Gary Schuster, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, has been named interim president.

May was Clough's month to bid farewell to students at commencement May 3, to alumni at the quarterly board meeting of the Alumni Association on May 16 and to the Leadership Circle donors at the annual Presidents' Dinner May 17.

Faculty and staff held a reception in honor of Clough and his wife, Anne, on May 22, recognizing the leader Schuster called "the most influential, successful and positive presidential force in Georgia Tech's history."

College of Computing

If I hadn't been President of Tech I might have been..

46

Georgia Tech

During commencement, Clough presided over the awarding of a total of 2,202 degrees.

More than 1,880 new graduates were welcomed into the Alumni Association by chair Meade Sutterfield and honorary doctoral degrees were awarded to Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway personal transporter, and former Sen. Sam Nunn, Cls 60.

"As you know, this is my last graduation as the Institute's president," Clough said. "I presided over 47 graduations, at which we awarded 51,000 degrees. That's a lot of hands to shake."

During the ceremony, students brought onto the stage various cardboard cutouts of Clough in careers he could have pursued had he not been Tech's president, ranging from pirate to wizard, from chef to Superman.

Clough told the graduates they have been prepared to "provide technological and ethical leadership in our nation — and the world will need it in the days ahead."

He added, "Nothing is beyond your reach if you have a mind to make it happen and do it in a spirit of helping others, not yourselves."

The Presidents' Dinner was held at Epps Aviation Hangar at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport courtesy of Pat Epps, ME 56, a trustee of the Alumni Association board. A B-17 bomber was on exhibit at the hangar entrance and a number of aircraft were on display at the event, which also observed the Alumni Association's centennial celebration of "A Century of Impact." >»

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President Clough told the 2008 graduates that their studies have prepared them to "provide technological and ethical leadership in our nation — and the world will need it in the days ahead."

About 51,000 Georgia Tech graduates have shaken hands with Wayne Clough at commencement ceremonies.

"Fourteen years add up to a lot of memories. All of my graduations were fun, but the first and last were special," he said.

48

The dinner â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hosted by Clough, Sutterfield and Herky Harris, chair of the Georgia Tech Foundation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; celebrated many of the Institute's achievements during the past 14 years, including ranking as the No. 7 public university in the country, increasing the number of faculty in national academies from 12 to 30 and inaugurating Tech's biomedical engineering program, which went from nonexistent to second in the nation.

Clough noted that the 51,000 graduates during his tenure equate to nearly 35 percent of the total 146,656 graduates who have received degrees from the Institute since 1890.

On a personal note, Clough said, "Fourteen years add up to a lot of memories. All of my graduations were fun, but the first and last were special. Our students provide a large stock of fond recollections, and Anne and 1 have enjoyed getting to know so many of these special folks."

Clough added that many of the building projects were "painful to bring to fruition, but the positive part is to see them in use." He highlighted the Olympic residence halls, Technology

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

Square, the Campus Recreation Center, the Biotechnology Complex, the Student Center Commons and a child care center.

Among the occasions for celebration were his 1994 inauguration, the successful completion of the Campaign for Georgia Tech and the opening of the renovated Bobby Dodd Stadium. Somber observances included the tragedies of 9/11 and the shootings at Virginia Tech, he said.

"Many fun moments over the past 14 years revolved around athletics. It was nice when people began calling me for tickets to football games after nobody called in my first year when we went one and 10," Clough joked.

"Two particularly special times were watching our women's tennis team win our first NCAA national championship last year in Athens and following our men's basketball team to the championship game in 2004," he said.

Noting the Presidents' Dinner is a tribute to leadership donors, he said, "In my 14 years, Roll Call contributions have totaled over $99 million.

"Reunion classes have contributed an overall total of almost $175 million, and their giving

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specifically for class projects has reached almost $10 million.

Class projects have helped us build scholarship programs, improve the library, beautify campus, create recreational facilities for students, restore classic landmarks like the stained glass windows in Brittain Dining Hall, support improved teaching and launch our eco commons sustainability initiative," he said.

"Georgia Tech is well positioned, strong and on the move and I believe this momentum will carry the Institute through the coming months of transition into the next era under a new president," Clough said. "It is truly a great institution of noble purpose." GT eorgia Tech Alum i Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2008

49

Save the World Inventor Dean Kamen and former Sen. Sam Nunn receive honorary doctorates, offer advice at spring commencement

By John Dunn Photography: Rob Felt

50

f you think whatever you paid for this education is expensive, compare it to the alternative — ignorance," Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway personal transporter, told Georgia Tech graduates May 3.

I

advanced society on the planet and we have a huge proportion of our kids that have a very unlikely chance of having anywhere near the careers and opportunities you have," he said.

Kamen, president of DEKA Research and Development Corp., said when commencement arrives, graduates tend to think, "I've worked really hard, I've spent a lot of money, I'm deep in debt. Now it is my time to start cashing in.

There are slightly more than 6 billion people on the planet; 4 billion live on less than $2 a day and 2 billion on less than $1 a day.

"Those days are over," Kamen advised, adding that the new graduates now have an obligation to do nothing less than save the world.

"Those people are not likely to be the ones with the resources, the education, the knowledge to fix this world. You are. This is not the time to try to figure out how to cash in. You are the hope of those 6 billion people," Kamen said.

"Fifty percent of the kids eligible to graduate from public high schools in the 20 largest cities in the United States didn't make it. We have the most technically

"The world is a mess — some of which we created, some of which we inherited. It is going to require extraordinary, smart, passionate people to fix it.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

"You have become part of a very, very small group of people that the world is depending on to change the future," Kamen said. "You have a lot of work to do."

Kamen told graduates the most relevant advice he would give them is to "pick something important to work on â&#x20AC;&#x201D; something you will have passion to spend a lot of time on. That might sound easy. I personally think that's the hardest thing you'll ever do."

Georgia Tech awarded Kamen and former Sen. Sam Nunn, who now leads an initiative to reduce the nuclear threat, honorary doctoral degrees during the ceremony, President Wayne Clough, presiding at the graduation ceremonies, jested that as a student at Tech, Nunn, CIs 60, was more interested in the freshman cake race than the nuclear race.

Nunn won the cake race and, Clough observed, it must have had a positive impact, because he has not lost a race since. After serving in the state Legislature, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at age 36 and became chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee. After retiring in 1997, Georgia Tech named its school of international affairs in Nunn's honor.

Nunn is chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, working to reduce the threats of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Nunn's address to the graduates was filled with wit and humor.

"When I entered Georgia Tech as an industrial management student in 1956, never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate that it would take me 52 years to receive a degree. By the end of my freshman year, it was apparent to all observers that I was a Ramblin'

Wreck, but there was strong suspicion that I would never be a helluva engineer.

"At the end of my junior year, I realized that three years of law school would be much easier than passing the two remaining courses which were required in mechanical drawing. So instead of becoming a great engineer or architect, I dropped into law school, I descended into the practice of law and I finally sank into the depths of politics.

"To complete my life story, after leaving the United States Senate in 1997, I returned to Georgia Tech because I discovered to my delight that you had dropped mechanical drawing and you had added women.

"You graduates already know that Georgia Tech is one of the toughest schools in the country. In the years ahead, you will find that it is one of the most respected in the world. And you will be increasingly proud of the degree you receive and the acquired knowledge and the wonderful opportunity to serve that it represents.

"One thought for all graduates: Technology and science are outrunning the world of law, the world of religion, the world of human relations, the world of governance and the world of international cooperation.

At the spring commencement ceremony, honorary doctorates were given to businessman Dean Kamen, left, and former Sen. Sam Nunn. Kamen told the graduates that "the world is a mess.... It is going to require extraordinary, smart, passionate people to fix it."

In his address, Nunn reminded the new alumni, "Bridges must be built between the world of science and technology and the world of human relations, bridges which can give shape and purpose to our technology and our science and breathe heart and soul and wisdom into our knowledge."

"Bridges must be built between the world of science and technology and the world of human relations, bridges which can give shape and purpose to our technology and our science and breathe heart and soul and wisdom into our knowledge.

"Your Georgia Tech education gives you not just opportunities to cash in but also opportunities to build bridges. I urge you to do so. So from the slowest RAT of the class of 1960, I offer my congratulations." G T

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

51

PACESETTERS

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Affective computing researcher Rosalind Picard works to unlock communication mysteries

By Pamela Babcock

52

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

to "read" the faces of focus

key role in helping Georgia Tech

her pioneering work in affective

nosed with autism who hurt

group members, researchers

attract other top-quality faculty

computing, Rosalind W. Picard

themselves or have outbursts and later learn to communicate

can look at affective clues such as whether someone smacks

and students, Freeman adds.

Over the years, Georgia Tech

verbally have indicated that

their lips, scowls or looks uncer-

has hired several graduates

these episodes never came on suddenly — despite appear-

tain.

from the MIT Media Lab as fac-

ances otherwise.

But by using new affective

environments where people are

ulty members, Prior to completing her

computing technologies,

comfortable with this being done and where they're being paid for

doctorate, Picard worked on the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where she designed very-large-scale inte-

Internationally recognized for

is passionate about helping the estimated one in 150 American children diagnosed with autism.

Picard, EE 84, defines affective computing as "computing that relates to, arises from or deliberately influences emotion or other affective phe-

Picard says people diag-

"We do this research in

researchers can give nonverbal

what they're doing," Picard says.

nomena."

The founder and director

people the means to communicate some of what's going on

"We'll read their faces and their behaviors to get a more accu-

of the Affective Computing Research Group at the Massa-

inside since there are often early indicators — such as a

rate picture of their experi-

chusetts Institute of Technology

rapid heartbeat or visual clues

Media Laboratory, Picard is focusing her work on the use of

— that all is not well.

Picard's group has created

Tech, Picard grew interested in

cameras and computer-aided devices to help unravel the

a variety of tools, including a chest-mounted camera that

digital signal processing and computer architecture and

mysteries of autism and to give

hooks up to a laptop or video recorder to help the wearer see

thought, "This is really cool stuff.

"I liked designing chips

Computing" (MIT Press, 1997). laid the groundwork for giving

how well their outward expres-

and learning about what was

machines the skills of emotional

sion mirrors their inner state.

Other tools include a wrist-worn

buried inside signals," she says,

intelligence.

noting that Georgia Tech played a major role in helping her get

Picard and her students have a penchant for wearing clothing and "goofy" hats with

people diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder new ways to communicate and live more independently.

"Right now, the technology is ripe to help enable new forms of communication for people perceived as being unable to communicate," says Picard, a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT. Picard is the leader of the media lab's growing effort in autism communication technology research, which covers both people with low verbal skills as well as those who have speech but may need help understanding social-emotional information. "We're aiming across the spectrum," she explains.

"One of the things that breaks my heart is that parents sometimes say, 'I tried this and I

device a person can wear to communicate their internal physiological states to trusted individuals.

Picard, who lives in

where she is today.

"It's always been very much a 'you can do anything' kind of place," she says, adding that Tech instilled in her a sense

cles on multidimensional signal modeling, computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning and human-computer interaction. Her book, "Affective

electronic devices attached or sewn onto them so people will learn more about what they do.

While an undergraduate, Picard was a member of the

puter science, from MIT. She's

you can invent anything."

Over the years, Picard has

skydiving club and a selfdescribed risk taker. With a fam-

been a faculty member at the MIT Media Lab since 1991 and

served on the National Science Foundation's division of Com-

also co-directs the Things That Think consortium, overseeing

puters in Science and Engineer-

several million dollars of

Georgia Tech College of

ing, gardening and bicycling

research annually, mostly from

Computing advisory board.

"She is certainly one of the

with her husband and children,

industry and government.

Clients include Bank of America, Hallmark, Time, Motorola, Google and Toyota.

"Say your company is try-

tried that,' but one day they had to send their son away to a

focus groups and people say,

bursts."

graduate career at Georgia

processing. She has authored nearly 150 peer-reviewed arti-

that "you can learn anything and

Newton, Mass., has master's and doctoral degrees, both in electrical engineering and com-

ing to get healthy food products to market and test them in

place where he could be restrained because of the out-

ences."

Midway through her under-

gration chips for digital signal

'We like this better,' and it goes to market and flops," Picard explains. By using technology

ing advisory committee and the

ily that now includes three young boys, she's since toned down her thrill-seeking pursuits.

'

outstanding, fairly young leaders

Picard works tirelessly on her autism research, because of the

in the whole field of computing," observes Peter A. Freeman,

cally improve the lives of many

dean emeritus and founding dean of Georgia Tech's College

people, both those with autism and those struggling with chal-

of Computing. "She's very

lenges common to many on the autism spectrum, such as non-

active, very innovative and just an all-around good leader."

As a member of the advisory board, Picard played a

possibilities that it may dramati-

verbal learning disabilities, sleep and movement disorders and epilepsy, G T

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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Beyond the Divide

Two Journeys into the West

By Daryl Farmer Photography by the Author

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2008 5 5

Farmer is a Brittain fellow and writing teacher in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture in the Ivan Allen College and the winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for his autobiographical tale of the transformation of a 20-yearold college dropout who embarks on a S,000-mile bicycle journey into an outof-shape 40-year-old who attempts to retrace his route.

56

Prologue

I

T WAS THE SUMMER OE 1985. Ronald Reagan was in his second term. The Eos Angeles Takers, led by Magic and Kareem, were on their way to their third championship in six years. A music festival called Live Aid played to audiences around the world in order to raise money for the world's starving children. It was a time of optimism. 1 was twenty.

It is winter now, and nearly 20 years have passed. ... I sit in my small writing studio in Walton, Neb., and look at an old photo, at the lean legs that straddle the Trek touring bicycle, the still unused tent and sleeping bag strapped to the rear rack, fully packed panniers draped over each tire. The picture was taken by my mother, and I remember the moment after she snapped it, how we had each stood, not knowing what else to say, and then she hugged me good-bye. I lifted the bike, and in small stuttered steps turned and pointed it toward the street. With the tires wobbling under

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

the weight of my gear, I pedaled off the curb and rode south to the end of Crown Ridge Drive, before finally turning right and heading west on a journey that would take me through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Albert, and Idaho, across Washington, into Vancouver, before returning down the coast, through Oregon and half of California, east across Nevada, Utah, Arizona, one tire carefully set into New Mexico at the four corners (I wanted to tell people that I hadn't been to New Mexico but my bicycle had), and finally, a five-day push back to Colorado Springs, where a small group of friends, family, and neighbors had gathered on the front lawn to welcome me home. ,<s&>

Consider him, that 20-year-old boy. (Knowing who I was then, I can't think of myself back then as anything but a boy.) Naive, sheltered, painfully shy. In the year that preceded the summer, I'd quit my second college and moved back in with my parents. I was working at a downtown soda fountain called Michelle's. Two nights a week I

cleaned an office building. I opened the junior high school gym for the Park and Recreation Department. Three part-time dead-end jobs.

My father wanted me to go back to school. I drank beer instead. I had a girlfriend. Cynthia. We spent evenings drinking coffee, taking walks around Broadmoor Lake, parking in the Garden of the Gods. She told me her life goals, none of which seemed to include me. I felt an anxiety I didn't understand, a longing for something I couldn't define. So 1 did what countless other lost young men have done in this country. I headed west.

Think of the changes the last 20 years have wrought. In 1985 there were no cell phones or even phone cards. A call home required a pocketful of quarters or a voice on the other end willing to accept a collect call. There were no ATM machines. Money had to be wired or taken as an advance on a credit card during normal banking hours. Computer use required an understanding of foreign languages today more outdated than

Latin: FORTRAN, BASIC, and COBALT. ...

As for me, I'm no longer skinny, not so naive.

My blood pressure's high, and I recently broke my hand after slipping and falling on ice. I spend most of my time working and studying in an academic building called Andrews Hall, in an office with no windows. Beer is more a condiment than a meal. Exercise is a walk from my office to the library. Cynthia is a pleasant nostalgic memory.

I schedule an appointment, walk across campus to the University Health Center. I'm breathing heavily by the time I get there.

"The first thing," says the nurse, jotting a number down on her chart as I'm standing on the scale, "we have to do something about the weight problem." Weight problem. The number one piece of evidence I'm no longer the kid I was then. The first trip was not only twenty years but also 70 pounds ago.

"Of course, I'm wearing shoes," I say.

"Whatever makes you feel better," she says.

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

57

I've decided to retrace that route, to ride it again. I work at convincing myself that in some ways it'll be easier now. I know more, can better take care of myself. I'm banking on wisdom to make up for the lard.

"Do you think 1 can do this?" I ask the nurse.

"1 think you better do something," she says.

How Not to Begin

S

ATURDAY, MAY 7.1 said good-bye to Joan and my parents, wobbled down the driveway, pedaled to the end of the street. ... I rode for about a mile, but the seat wasn't set right, so 1 stopped to adjust it. After placing my tools back into the front pocket of my rear pannier, I neglected to cinch it.

As I pedaled, the strap caught in my spokes and ripped. Then I realized that my cyclometer wasn't working. Not used to the altitude, or the climb, I was already panting. I hadn't ridden for nearly three weeks, was in probably the worst shape of my life, and it was clear I'd packed too much gear. I stopped to catch my breath and tried

58

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

to decide what to do about the cyclometer. I didn't want to ride without it, and I wouldn't be near a bike shop until Breckenridge, maybe three days away. Best to get it fixed now, T thought.

I struggled to the Cliff Dwellings entrance, where I called Joan.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Never felt better," I said.

"How far have you gone?" "'Bout a mile and a half. And I've only stopped to rest twice," I said.

"Might as well pace yourself," she said.

"Can you come get me?" I said. "I'm having trouble with my speedometer."

Because it was early and the bike shops weren't open, we drove into Manitou, where we sat at an outdoor cafe sipping coffee in the sun.

Joan drove me to Old Town Bike Shop, where I bought a new cord and mount for the Sigma.

Then she drove me back to the highway. She said she'd leave for the cabin at noon, and she'd pick me up wherever she found me. She wished me luck, and then she drove away. I took a deep breath and started to pedal again.

Ute Pass was named after the Ute Indians,

who used the route to follow bison herds back and forth from the mountain meadows today known as South Park. The Utes were nomadic, and by the time the Europeans arrived, their culture had spread throughout what is now western Colorado. Later the route served as a wagon road and then, during the height of the mining operations in the towns of Victor and Cripple Creek, the Colorado Midland Railway.

As I rode, I could still see train tunnels carved into the cliffs on the southern side of what is now four-lane Highway 24. Once 1 was in the narrows, Pikes Peak disappeared from view. I pedaled slowly. Twenty years earlier the day had been warm, sunny. Now the day started clear, and I expected a midday heat. Instead, it grew colder, and clouds rolled in over the mountain, darkening the sky. Furious gusts of wind blew fine specks of sand into my eyes. The temperature dropped quickly. There was a brief flurry of snow.

I stopped to rest often.

When Joan found me three hours and just ten miles later, I was sitting on a guardrail, eating dried apricots.

"You're doing well," she said. Said it like she meant it, which I appreciated.

"This road's steeper than it was 20 years ago," I said.

We drove together to the cabin, where we were met by my parents, my brothers and sisters, their spouses and kids. Everyone brought food and gave me a send-off celebration. I was embarrassed to tell them I hadn't actually made it to the cabin on my bicycle. In fact, I hadn't even made it to Woodland Park.

That night, unable to sleep, I stepped out onto the wooden deck and stood beneath the black sky. I listened to the stillness, let it calm me.

I knew that in the morning Joan and I would take a short hike through the forest, find an outcropping of rock where we could sit and sip coffee.

The whole morning would be spent avoiding our inevitable good-bye. >Âť

1 SJS

Georgia Tech

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okay?" she asked.

"I'm not going, I decided," I said.

"You'll be fine," she said.

'D BEEN PLANNING this trip for years, but now I considered all that might happen — lightning, snowstorms, hypothermia, accidents, injury. When I'd left on that first trip, h. I faced similar fears, had put off leaving for a week, had almost decided not to go.

I thought of the mountains I'd soon ride over.

Colorado would be the most difficult part of the trip. If I could make it to Wyoming without pulling a muscle or blowing out a knee, I'd know I could do it. I walked inside, lay down next to her. The last few weeks had been filled with the frenetic pace of graduate school and of preparation for this trip, and I lamented my self-absorption, the writing and graduate school life that left her with her own dreams unfulfilled and a debt that she didn't deserve. Real men hold steady jobs and provide, I thought. They don't pedal off trying to be 20 again.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'm not going, I decided," I said.

"You'll be fine," she said. She cuddled close, and we fell asleep.

Early Sunday afternoon I watched her drive away. 1 was on my own. GT Excerpted from "Bicycling Beyond the Divide; Two Journeys into the West" by Daryl Farmer, by permission of the University of Nebraska Press, Copyright © 2008 by Daryl Farmer. Available wherever books are sold or from the University of Nebraska Press (800) 755-1105 and on the Web at www.nebraskapress.uni.edu.

60

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

61

Journalism 2.0 W hile the Internet is changing the way in which the public receives news, the underlying computational technologies are fundamentally transforming the very definitions of both news stories and journalists. Online interactivity along with the ability to link video, audio, graphics and text together in an infinitely large space are even changing what it means to be a story, according to Aaron Bobick, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing.

"A story can be an active," he says. "A story can put itself together or add some of its own components. A story can talk about points of view that go into making that story. You no longer have to think of it as a single crafted entity — and that means it starts to have computational issues; it becomes a computational 'thing.'"

The application of the Internet's multifaceted ways of communicating information carries implications for journalism, he adds.

Bobick's remarks were delivered during the opening session of a symposium on computation and journalism held earlier this year at the Technology Square Research Building. The two-day event, sponsored by the College of Computing and the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center, drew a capacity audience of 230 writers, computer scientists and media entrepreneurs from California to New York.

"Journalism has a lot to do with telling stories," says Irfan Essa, a College of Computing associate professor and the main organizer of the event. "A lot of us have been working for a long time on telling stories with new media."

The combination seemed a natural fit, according to Essa, in light of the technology-driven challenges facing the news business, "so it occurred to us that we need to bring together journalists and the people who do computation."

A technological institution like Georgia Tech 62

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Traditional media is fast becoming as obsolete as 35millimeter film, VHSand pay phones

By Gary Goettling Photos: Gary Meek and Rob Felt

may seem an unlikely forum for a conference devoted to journalism, but it follows the mandate of the GVU Center and the School of Interactive Computing, Essa says.

"One of the most important things we do is try to understand how technology impacts people and society," he explains, "journalism is a perfect example of something that impacts society and consumers and is also changing very quickly with technology. We wanted to begin educating ourselves so that whatever happens down the road, we are ready to deal with it and adapt to it."

News from Everywhere eynote speaker Krishna Bharat, PhD CS 96, talked about one of the best-known examples of the marriage between technology and journalism: Google News, which he started about seven years ago and continues to be involved in as one of Google's principal scientists.

The site's goal, he says, is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

The completely automated Google News service relies on intelligent algorithms to select the top news headlines from thousands of online, English-language sources around the world in real time, Bharat explains. The system determines the relative importance of a story based on factors including the number of times the story's topic appears in the news and the reputations of the sites on which it appears.

The list of headlines and one-line summaries displayed by Google News are links to the full articles themselves, and links to many other news sources on the topic are also displayed. These links to additional, often contrasting and unaltered perspectives on the news are valuable features, Bharat says, "because knowing what other people believe matters."

"When readers are exposed to different viewpoints," he adds, "people start thinking, analyz-

K

"You no longer have to think of a [news story] as a single crafted entity — and that means it starts to have computational issues."

— Aaron Bobick

ing and asking questions, and I think only good things can come out of that."

Google News also contains an option for users to personalize the news they see by subject.

The latest feature allows people quoted in the news to post additional comments.

He emphasized that the intent is not to replace journalists or produce content but "to be the intermediary that brings people to the content efficiently and effectively."

"The first people to put information in the public space and make it accessible were journalists," Bharat says. "We are taking what they have always been doing and simply reorganizing it."

AllVoices.com is the opposite of Google News in many respects. Sanjay Sood, chief architect of the site and one of several guest speakers who delivered a presentation under the rubric "Ubiquitous Journalism," describes a system that closely matches Bobick's introductory comment about a story that can "put itself together or add some of its own components."

It works like this: An item is posted to the site either by AllVoices.com itself or anyone with Internet access. The post can be nearly anything uploadable, including blogs, videos, news stories, firsthand accounts, unedited comments, images or even a cell phone message. Sood used the

Journalism "impacts society and consumers and is also changing very quickly with technology. We wanted to begin educating ourselves so that whatever happens down the road, we are ready to deal with it and adapt to it." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Irfan Essa

example of the collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis last August. It first appeared on AllVoices.com as a cell phone picture taken seconds after the disaster by an eyewitness in a nearby office tower.

The system searches the Web for everything related to the post's subject and aggregates them on a page, adding more information as it becomes available while inviting comments and additional contributions, particularly from firsthand observers. The result is a smorgasbord of information-source links offering a range of perspectives by both professionals and so-called "citizen journalists."

"Our model is to provide a scaffolding for citizen journalists," Sood explains. "We feel that this is a really powerful tool for people to have their voices heard, and that's what we want to do."

In the near future, "we're going to be providing all sorts of ways for people to customize and sort the data in ways that they find the most useful," he adds.

Social Networking and Blogs hether it's the news-customization option of Google News or the intrinsic user involvement at sites such as AIlVoices.com, computational technologies are

W

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

63

giving rise to an individualized and personal way of receiving news. In terms of content, the trend is driven largely by the spectacular boom in blogging and social networking.

Blogs started to catch on in the early 2000s with the availability of free blogging software. By 2005, the Web was populated with 9 million blogs, BusinessWeek reported. Recent estimates peg the total at more than 150 million worldwide, according to Technorati.com, a Web site devoted to reporting on the blogosphere.

Bloggers run the gamut from professional reporters to amateur writers who simply want to share a certain perspective or interest with likeminded individuals. But blogging often is, in the broadest sense of the word, journalism. Links to blogs are part of the fabric of interactive stories and news offered at a growing number of Web sites both by established news organizations and entrepreneurial or issue-specific entities. The implications for traditional journalism are far from settled.

"The profession of journalism is important to society, and it is changing," says Amy Bruckman, an associate professor in the College of Computing and a member of the GVU Center. "I believe some people fear that the role of professional journalists is being reduced, but I do not believe that.

Quite the opposite. I think their role continues to grow, but it has to change in some interesting and dynamic ways."

Bruckman moderated a panel presentation dealing with social computing and journalism.

"It's hard to think of a topic that's more important because the ways that we share important information affect who we are as a culture and who we are as a democracy," she says.

At first glance, popular sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com may seem to have little in common with news gathering or dissemination. Like blogs, they facilitate direct exchanges between writer and reader — more of a dialogue than the one-way communication model of, say, print media, in which reaction is limited to letters to the editor.

Looked at another way, social networks embody the ultimate in local news. Participants talk about the things most important to them — which is often each other and their weekend plans.

Journalists ignore the significance of social networks at their peril, according to panelist David Cohn, a recent Columbia School of Journa64

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

"When readers are exposed to different viewpoints, people start thinking, analyzing and asking questions, and I think only good things can come out of that."

— Krishna Bharat

lism graduate and new media entrepreneur. He notes what some might consider a generational divide: "More and more we live our lives online — or at least our social lives are happening online." Thus journalists, who once upon a time hung out at the local barbershop or coffee shop to pick up local gossip and learn what was going on, should come up with ways to get involved with social networks. In short, they need to go to where the people are — and increasingly that's online social networks.

Cohn adapted the social network structure to create a tool for journalists called Beatblogging. org. It allows reporters to create a private social network of their expert sources.

"Let's say a journalist has 30 or 40 sources who live and breathe green technology," he says.

The system makes it easier for the journalist to interact and draw upon the expertise of individual sources, but the network can also support a group dynamic not possible with the traditional one-on-one phone call.

"You can create a network where they are talking to each other, and you can either get involved in the conversation or sit back and listen," Cohn says.

Visualization Is Worth a Thousand Words isualization tools take advantage of the Web's computational power and can help journalists convey news or present background information in ways that are easy for readers to grasp quickly. John Stasko, a professor and director of the Information Interfaces Research Group at Georgia Tech, opened the panel presentations on "Sensemaking and Information Visualization" with a definition: "Visualization is a cognitive process, not just pictures," he says. "In other words, how do you take lots of information and make sense of it?"

To make the point, Stasko projected a map of metro Atlanta on a screen. The map was heavily crisscrossed with lines marking the noisy approach and departure lanes into and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport — except for the lower right-hand quadrant, which was conspicuously clear of lines. After pausing a moment to let the audience contemplate the graphic, he says, "Now you know why so many pilots choose to live in Peachtree City."

The sheer volume of information applicable to a particular story can be overwhelming, Stasko

V

notes. "My research group is uncovering ways to help people benefit from this flood of information. One central focus of a number of our projects is the creation of information-visualization tools to help people understand large data sets We also are developing a number of techniques and systems for providing people with peripheral awareness of useful information."

One such project he briefly described for the symposium audience is called Jigsaw, which provides interactive visualizations of the documents m a large collection and the material they contain Users can then search for connections among key items - people, places, organizations and so torth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; mentioned in the collection.

Fellow panelist Xaquin Gonzalez Viera assistant art director at Newsweek.com and a specialist m interactive data graphics, displayed realworld examples of visualization as a powerful storytelling tool. Among them was a graphic containing 12 timelines corresponding to development of each of the tallest buildings in the world hat have been started and completed since the WorldTradeCenterattacksofSept.il 2001 The upper left corner of the graphic was dominated by a photo of the hole at Ground Zero.

"It's way more effective than a thousandword article," he says.

"Some people fear that the role of professional journalists is being reduced, but I do not believe that. Quite the opposite. I think their role continues to grow, but it has to change in some interesting and dynamic ways." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Amy Bruckman

Historical Precedents for Change he changes buffeting journalism are more profound than simply the new computational tools available to reporters and news organizations, says Carl DiSalvo, an assistant professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture. He moderated a panel discussion of aggregation, syndication and Web services

T

While emphasizing that he is not a journalist, DiSalvo s outsider" perspective suggests to him hat some of the biggest changes will take place in the definition of news itself.

"The kinds of things that get reported will be very different," he says, referring to the unregulated, inexpensive accessibility of the Internet and its empowerment of a more egalitarian form of news reporting by amateurs and citizen journalists. It's not going to change radically overnight but new kinds of journalism and new kinds of ' reporting are possible."

What's not new, he adds, is change itself, noting that journalism has weathered many other new technological approaches to storytelling from cable television to video camcorders It's a historical perspective shared by symposium speaker Mitch Gelman, senior vice p r u d e n t and executive producer for CNN.com.

Using wars as benchmarks, he observes that

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

65

World War 1 was the exclusive venue of newspaper correspondents, and Edward R. Murrow's radio broadcasts from London during the next global war represented a coming of age for radio.

The Korean conflict was vividly portrayed in the great magazine photo essays, while Vietnam elevated the importance of TV news. The first Gulf War belonged to cable, and the present conflicts may cement the new status of the Internet and its associated technologies as a news source.

"In each case the other has not gone away, they've just been enhanced — the storytelling has been made more complete for the audience," Gelman says.

Nowhere are the pressures from the new media felt so strongly as in the newsrooms of America's newspapers.

Shawn Macintosh, director of culture and change for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — her title alone underscores the immense transition taking place at big-city dailies — addressed some of the paper's efforts "to straddle this transition from the old media to the new media."

It's a task complicated by the fact that a newspaper is also a manufacturing enterprise.

"Pressmen are not used to mixing it up in the hallways with search-engine optimization experts," says Macintosh, noting that the paper makes more deliveries in the Atlanta area each day than UPS. Singling out the Atlanta newspaper as a "leader in the development of an online edition" 66

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Because the Internet empowers a more egalitarian form of news reporting by amateurs and citizen journalists, changes are inevitable for journalism. "It's not going to change radically overnight, but new kinds of journalism and new kinds of reporting are possible."

— Carl DiSalvo

when ajc.com was launched three years ago, the former editor described her job as helping the paper become "more embracing of innovation, more adaptive of technology and able to move our resources more quickly."

Like other U.S. newspapers, the JournalConstitution faces declining circulation and ad revenues. Readership for the online edition, however, is growing, she says, explaining that its content is different from the print newspaper. She declined to go into specifics regarding the newspaper's research into the differences between online and print customers.

Ajc.com makes extensive use of video, images and links to blogs and other text to present the day's news. In addition, some of the sections formerly available in print have been moved completely online.

Reorganization of the newsroom from 16 departments to four, for example, reflects the streamlining — and the personnel layoffs — produced by financial pressure but also shows the efficiency brought about by computerization, according to Macintosh.

"I know there's a lot of hand-wringing about the newspaper business," she says. "I'm not worried about it. I couldn't be more excited about the demand for news and information. I think the challenges are going to require partnerships between technology and journalists, and I think they're going to require incredible collaboration and smart thinking and creativity." QT

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

67

PACESETTERS

'A Chance To Make a Difference' John J.Young exemplifies the rewards of public service for both himself and the country

By Gary Goettling Photography: Rob Felt

John J. Young Jr.'s remarkable public service career has charted a rapid upward trajectory, just like the model rockets he launched as a boy and the ballistic missile systems he helped engineer as an adult.

ness of systems engineering as a career.

The Moreland, Ga., native and 1985 aeronautical engineering graduate was appointed in 2007 by President George W. Bush as undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the thirdhighest civilian post at the Pentagon. In May, Young was the guest speaker at the dedication of a new Center for Collaborative Systems Engineering Research on the Georgia Tech campus.

"Every graduate forges their own path on to a career they enjoy," said Young. "Not only is public service a ing path, but there is an acute demand for the unique skill set that you learn here as engineers.

"The formation of the center is good news," he said in an interview prior to the event. "It's desperately needed." He noted that Pentagon studies suggest a more rigorous and thorough systems-engineering approach would significantly improve the performance and success rate of many military programs. At the same time, he added, the United States is facing a dramatic and troubling decline in the number of systems engineers as the work force ages into retirement and the number of new graduates is insufficient to take their places.

Young's caree to date reflects an impressive level of public service

The Georgia Tech center, a joint effort between the College of Engineering and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, intends to emphasize engineering fundamentals and applied research for solving problems associated with increasingly complex systems not only in the military arena but in the civilian realm as well. At the same time, it is hoped that the center's high-profile work will boost the attractive-

68

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

In his public remarks before the gathering of students alumni and faculty, Young addressed the virtues of public service.

"Public service gives you a chance to make a difference."

at the highest levels of the military. In 2001 he was appointed assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition by the president. As the Navy's senior acquisition executive, Young implemented a number of organizational and business practices to increase

the effectiveness and efficiency of Navy and Marine Corps procurement and research programs.

Another presidential appointment moved him up to the directorship of defense research and engineering, where he served as the principal adviser to the secretary of Defense on

technical matters and also as the department's chief technology officer. Young's responsibilities included oversight of a $70 billion research enterprise that consisted of basic and applied research, development of prototypes and oversight of the military's service laboratories as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Defense Technical Information Center.

In his present role as under- >>>

PACESETTERS secretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Young advises the secretary and deputy secretary of Defense on all matters relating to the Department of Defense Acquisition System. His weighty portfolio embraces research and development; advanced technology; developmental test and evaluation; production; logistics; installation management; military construction; procurement; environmental security; and nuclear, chemical and biological matters.

Young told his audience that most people come to government with backgrounds in political science, public policy, law, humanities and political campaigns. And while their contributions to policy and decision making are important, a critical perspective is often missing.

Policymaking would be optimized "if scientists and engineers, with their unique technical training and perspective, are guiding America's decisions and policies in an era where technology is a major factor in our economy, security, international relations and daily lives," he said.

"I can honestly say there is nothing more satisfying than serving the people of the United States."

70

"In big and small ways," he continued, "engineers and scientists need to participate in the government process to ensure programs are well managed, to ensure solid technical insights are brought to bear on problem solving and to ensure the nation's policies foster development of technology and technical talent."

He cited an example from the Iraq war of the effectiveness of an engineering approach to problems. It involved the U.S. troops' reliance on Humvees, which left them vulnerable to deadly attacks from improvised

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

explosive devices planted along the roadside. The solution, according to Young, has been the rapid purchase and deployment of mine-resistant, ambushprotected vehicles, or MRAPs. The $24 billion program is on a scale not seen since World War II. Production of MRAPs rose from dozens a month to more than 1,000 per month by December of last year, to 1,200 a month by March, and "we are maintaining that pace."

In addition, "we took steps to ensure there was sufficient tire and steel production to support this program," along with a spare parts supply chain and the necessary training in MRAP operation and maintenance.

"Most important of all," he added, "we took steps to save the lives of people who volunteered to give their lives for America's security."

Following his remarks, Young was presented with a presidential citation in recognition of distinguished service by Tech President Wayne Clough.

The award was all the more meaningful for Young because the seed for public service sprouted while he was a student at Tech. He had long been interested in all things aeronautical, particularly advanced fighter jets and missiles, and toyed with the idea of one day working in Washington. When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor spoke on campus in 1985 as part of the Institute's centennial lecture series, Young was in the audience.

"She urged us to get involved not just in engineering the systems that the nation needs but to get involved in the policy aspects of those systems â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that resonated with me."

Young spent a quarter in Washington, D.C., as an intern to Sen. Sam Nunn, CIs 60, and "that further got the idea of public service in my blood," he says. "I decided to combine my interest in engineering with a desire to be part of the public policy process from a technical point of.view."

As a co-op student, Young worked for General Dynamics, now Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, in Fort Worth, Texas. He was involved primarily in the F-16 program and advanced fighter technology efforts. It was during one of his work quarters that Young met his future wife.

"Barbara was a student at Texas Christian, and we met out there and dated," he says. The relationship persevered during Young's on-campus quarters, aided no doubt by the packages of cookies and other treats she sent to Young's Georgia Tech mailbox. "She was really great about doing that," he says.

The couple married after Young graduated from Tech.

They are the parents of two teenage sons, Nathan and William, and an 11-year-old daughter, Kathryn.

Following a stint at BDM Corp. in Huntsville, Ala., Young received a full scholarship to Stanford University, where he received a master's in aeronautics and astronautics in 1987.

Young credits his Tech experience with both his admission and the financial award. "I think Stanford respected the work experience I got as a co-op," he says, "and they also respect a Georgia Tech education."

Young returned to Georgia to join the technical staff at Rockwell Missile Systems in

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Duluth, followed by a move to the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in 1988.

While at Sandia, he was selected as an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics congressional fellow. He served with the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and then joined the committee's professional staff.

During his tenure with the committee, Young served as the staff analyst for Department of Defense procurement, research, development, test and evaluation programs. In addition, he was responsible for reviewing Defense Department aircraft procurement programs as well as the activities of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

When Young interviewed for his first Pentagon job early in the Bush administration, he ended up speaking with Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, who, as chance would have it, had run the Fort Worth division where Young had worked some 15 years earlier.

"I knew him but not well," Young says. "He certainly wouldn't remember me running through his office a few times as a co-op student.

"He felt strongly that the person running Navy acquisition had to be an engineer-manager, and then the fact that I had worked on the Hill and knew that part of the business — which definitely affects how the Pentagon operates — was kind of a trifecta for him. So based on the interview and those other things, he recommended me to the president to be the Navy acquisition executive, and from there it has continued."

England, who has since moved up to the post of deputy secretary of Defense, brought a business approach to running the Navy, according to Young, and expected the same of his subordinates.

"There are things done well in business that we should continue to do," Young explains.

"We're going to have to be more efficient overall because we have to get the cost of systems down."

Terrorist groups aren't encumbered by a Pentagon-size military bureaucracy, he points out, "so we're going to have to continue working on speeding up the delivery of systems to make sure the nation's safety and security are protected in the future."

Come January, Young will be out of a job when a new president takes charge. "This is the first time a transition will occur in a time of war," he observes. "It has to be handled with great care. Once we have a new president-elect, Secretary Gates will be very open and cooperative with the transition team so things go as smoothly as possible.

"A lot of people come to the Pentagon at the end of their careers, but I'll be looking around for a job. I have three kids who have to go to college so I'm going to keep working," he says.

"My experiences have been incredible — it is truly an honor and privilege to come to work every morning," Young says. "I can honestly say there is nothing more satisfying than serving the people of the United States and specifically the men and women of our armed forces." O T

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The Georgia Tech Alumni Association invites you to enroll your child in the

BABY BUZZ CLUB All club members will receive Canvas Bag • Buzz Hooded Towel • Buzz Rattle • Buzz Bib • Sipper Cup Enroll by returning the order form and your check for $39.95 +8% tax ($3.20) (in Georgia only)and $6.00 for shipping and handling made payable to

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Ordered by: Name: Teleohone #:

Merch:$39.95

Gift card should read:

S&H:

$ 6.00

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Send to: Baby's sex: D Male

TOTAL $

D Female

Shipping Address: (No P O . Boxes please)

Payment Information: D Visa

Georgia Tech Alumni Association 190 North Avenue, NW Atlanta, GA 30313

72

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

D MC

Credit Card #: Exp. date: Sianature

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Georgia Tech became the first American university to reach an agreement on a wide-ranging exchange program with the China Association of Science and Technology, which coordinated all scientific and technological issues within the People's Republic of China.

Tech President Joseph M. Pettit and Wang Shuntong, executive vice chairman of the Chinese association, signed the agreement on June 8,1983.

Tom Hall, IE 59, was a senior when selected to be one of 36 American college students participating in the first student exchange program between the Soviet Union and the United States, starting in June 1958. The October 1958 alumni magazine featured his Russian diary, including photos he took that managed to elude the cold-war Russian security and sketches he drew capturing the experience.

L.W. "Chip" Robert, CE 1908, was named assistant secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. He founded Robert and Co., an Atlanta-based engineering and architectural firm, in 1916, and it grew to be one of the leading firms in the nation. A star athlete at Tech, Robert was quarterback of the football team and earned 15 letters in football, baseball, cross country and track and field. The Alumni-Faculty House was named for him in 1979.

Robert, right, laughs with Tech alumnus and Hollywood producer K Fran!

Freemai

After a two-year campaign by a small group of alumni who refused to let it die, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association officially opened for business with a charter signed by Fulton County Superior Court on June 20,1908. The original mission statement read: "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; and to promote the mutual interest of the members of the Association." GT

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

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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-arid perfect for any occasion. Order your new edition today! http://gtaIumni.org/site/Page/Shop/

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FACULTY

PROFILE

Scientist, author Paul Verhaeghen is as content as

'Cheddar Melting on Grits'

By Leslie Overman

"Omega Minor," Tech professor Paul Verhaeghen's second novel, was published in the Netherlands and his native Belgium in 2004 and in Germany two years later. After receiving rave reviews from critics, spending several months on best-seller lists and

From the start, Paul Verhaeghen was both a budding scientist and a storyteller. As a child, when he wasn't reading books on astronomy or gazing at tadpoles swimming in mason jars, Verhaeghen could be found hard at work penning "quirky little stories." Now an associate professor of psychology at Georgia Tech, Verhaeghen also is an award-winning novelist. He recently spoke with the ALUMNI MAGAZINE about the miracle of getting published, the attention "Omega Minor" has brought him, the difficulty of landing a job in Europe and the shelf life of memories.

racking up a bevy of literary awards, the nearly 700page tome was translated from Dutch into English by the author and hit U.S. bookstore shelves in November. Hailed by Time magazine as a "sprawling, provocative, nuclear nightmare of a novel," the book's action skips back and forth from the 1930s and'40s to the 1990s, with scenes played out everywhere from pre-and post-wall Berlin to the Los Alamos National Laboratory to Auschwitz to Boston. In May, Verhaeghen picked up the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for the

Did you ever imagine "Omega Minor" would receive the acclaim it has from the literary community?

I do realize I got tremendously lucky. Nobody in this country is really lusting for a Flemish novel in translation.

To get published in any language is a miracle, to get translated into American is even more unthinkable, to get good reviews ... is fantastic. Now if we could only get The New York Times to review it, and people to read it, I'd be happy.

Do Americans respond to the book differently than Europeans?

Anglo-Saxon reviewers highlight the sex a lot; the continental European readers seem for some reason much more interested in the moral questions that arise from the novel. It's also a bastard novel, perhaps because I am a bastard of the two continents. This bastardization seems to make it a book without a country — Europeans say it's very American, Americans say it's so European.

translation and donated the prize money to the American Civil Liberties Union.

You received your doctorate from Belgium's

But here I am, happy as a chunk of cheddar melting on grits.

Your research focuses on cognitive aging and working memory theory. What is working memory?

Working memory is the workplace of the mind; it's the mind's RAM, if you want.

Human beings live in a small moving time window of about seven seconds or so; that's all we are aware of unless we load some permanent memories in that window. I am interested in what happens when we need to temporarily hold on to some fleeting piece of information and retrieve it later — we call that "focus switching."

A day-to-day example would be having a conversation, realizing you want to make a point and then waiting to find the opportune moment to make that point while the conversation rattles on. The problem with aging is not that you forget that there is something you wanted to say, or even knowing where you stashed it, it's that the information has often disappeared by the time you go to retrieve it.

Does your research show up in your stories?

"Omega Minor" is, in essence, a book about memory — the tension between what happened and what is remembered. We are what we remember, and that is true for both individuals and societies.

University of Leuven in 1994, and you've been living in the United States since 1997. What brought you

Do you know if any of your students have read the

here?

novel?

One of the things you, alas, learn as a professor is that the student-professor relationship is so fundamentally asymmetrical in its power dynamics that you cannot take at face value anything your students tell you, either about yourself or about your work, unless it is preceded by an expletive, G T

Simple: Someone offered me a job. In Europe, with its small and tightly controlled linguistic communities, it's near impossible to find a job outside your, home country.

The system in Belgium is such that it is even hard to find a job outside your alma mater. Given my then adviser's excellent health, it seemed prudent to apply elsewhere.

78

How did you end up at Georgia Tech?

I spent about 10 years at Syracuse University. Last year, I got restless for a number of reasons, including falling in love with someone who was only visiting town. So we looked around. I never dreamed Tech would have me, it's one of the top places in the world for the kind of research I do.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008

Photo: Melissa Bugg

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

79

Young alumni raised $1,000 each vault over the side of Viewpoint, a Midtown Atlanta skyscraper, and rappel down its side to sure footing 36 stories below.

Buzz, below right, gives two thumbs up to the annual giving promotion: Rappel for Roll Call. J Evans, IM 71, below left, chair-elect of the Alumni Association, made the descent with a big smile. Below center, Kyle Williams, left, assists Stephen Holland Jr., IntA 01, as he goes over the edge. Joe Irwin, president of the Alumni Association, was among those who rappelled down the building, GT Photos: Gary Meek

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