Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 85, No. 04 2009

Geor nstitute's 11th Leader Assumes the Helm

^ech pring 2009

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Second only to family and faith, my experience at Tech was the single greatest influence in preparing me for life's challenges."

Kurt S. Nelson CE 1971 Houston, Texas • Grew up in Long Island, New York.

• At Tech, served as chapter president of Phi Gamma Delta; studied in Russia and Eastern Europe as part of a Russian student exchange program.

• Hired shortly after graduation by J. Ray McDermott Inc. as a field engineer for the oil and gas company's first North Sea project.

• Most of his thirty-four-year career with McDermott spent on international assignments, including London, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, and West Africa; retired as senior vice president of sales, marketing, and strategic planning.

• In retirement, enjoys big game fishing and diving from his sport fishing yacht, mostly in the Caribbean and the west coast of Central America.

Gifts to Georgia Tech • Irrevocable estate provision to establish the Kurt S. Nelson Endowment Funds for need-based scholarships and also for the unrestricted support of the Institute. In recognition of the unrestricted endowed support, the Dndergraduate Living Center-West will be known as Kurt S. Nelson Residence Hall.

Thoughts on Giving to Tech "Second only to family and faith, my experience at Tech was the single greatest influence in preparing me for life's challenges. Consequently, I have a strong desire to give back to the institution that gave me so much. Another motivation is my concern that the country currently faces an increasing threat from the trend of fewer young people choosing science and technology career paths. I hope my support can, in some small way, reverse this decline."

Georgia ©®onfi)©flO 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

Kurt Nelson is one of Founders' Council's 1,004 members who have made bequests or life-income gifts in support of Georgia Tech's future.

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FEATURES I SPRING

II. u) The Saxon Advantage Company president Jeni Bogdan didn't even know she ran the largest woman-owned business by revenue in the country until a photo crew from Inc. magazine came knocking last year.

2009

D6 President Peterson COVER STORY G.P. "Bud" Peterson arrived on campus April 1 to ascend the Hill as the 11th leader of Georgia Tech. Cover photo by Larry Harwood.

LJL Bollywood Calling

4 4 i Building Inventive Minds

Nagesh Kukunoor ditched an engineering career to pursue his dream of filmmaking. Eleven years and 11 films later, Kukunoor collapses each night "in absolute happiness and exhaustion."

Architecture education began at Georgia Tech 100 years ago. Over the past century, graduates of the Institute's program have influenced design on campus, in Atlanta and around the globe.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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DEPARTMENTS I SPRING

2009

7 From the Publisher Association President Joe Irwin says the selection of Tech's new leader was an "inspired choice."

8 Feedback Readers respond to "The Nuclear Question," and a 1940 graduate explains why his class was best.

1 0 Tech Notes Around campus, hamsters are producing power, and the Silent Drum is making beautiful music.

1 4 Alumni House The freshman class is shaping up as plans are made for the highlight of fall: Homecoming.

5 4 Q&A Ian Bogost isn't geeking out on retro chic when he takes a serious look at the Atari game system.

5 8 Life Jackets Banker Jimmy Trimble looks at the economic crisis, and astronaut Eric Boe looks at outer space.

6 2 Research Jie Xu has developed a portable detector that can identify salmonella and other contaminants.

61: Yellow Jackets Minghao Wang is one of only three Division I golfers from China, and there's only one Mewborn Field.

6 / Almanac The spring of 1969 brought both Wonderful Ed's Day and a protest that involved the burning of books.

NASA

Georgia Tech "

Alumni Magazine Volume 85, Number 4

7 2 Photo Finish Ancient Egypt came back to life at the Atlanta Civic Center for the Gold & White Honors program.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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VIEWPOINT Georgia Tech Alumni Association Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, Publisher Kimberly Link-Wills, Managing Editor Van Jensen, Assistant Editor Leslie Overman, Assistant Editor Ryan Giusti, Design Eric Turner, Student Photographer

Alumni Association Executive Committee William J. Todd, IM 71 Chair C. Meade Sutterfield, EE 72 Past Chair Joseph W. Evans, IM 71 Chair-electIP inance 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

Advertising Holly Green (404) 894-0765 â&#x20AC;˘ E-mail: holly.green@alumni.gatech.edu

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

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

Periodical postage paid in Atlanta and additional mailing offices. Š 2009 Georgia Tech Alumni Association Main Number (404) 894-2391 Postmaster: Send address changes to Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313 Editorial phone (404) 894-0750 Fax (404) 385-4637 E-mail: editor@alumni.gatech.edu

An Inspired Choice This is a special time for Georgia Tech as we welcome Dr. Bud Peterson and his wife, Val, to our community. We'd like to thank the search committee chaired by alumnus Willis Potts and Chancellor Erroll Davis of the Board of Regents for their work in selecting Bud to lead Georgia Tech into the second decade of this new century. By all accounts, this is an inspired choice. My own interactions with Bud and Val have reinforced why the search committee was duly impressed.

While we look ahead to continued progress and innovation at Tech, we also take a look in the rearview mirror at our history, because it is upon that foundation that the future rests. From humble beginnings, the nature of Georgia Tech was practical. Practicality was a mandate for survival.

There was a bit of contempt at the beginning because technical education was viewed as nonclassical and thus without great merit to society or to those who received it.

That myopic view of course is long gone as in this century and the last and the next, technology has become ubiquitous in our daily lives. When Georgia Tech was established, the South was war-torn and destitute. The agrarian society had transformed into the industrial society. That was a profound sea change. Georgia Tech was built with this foresight in mind.

The ability to build things from microelectronic machines to companies is paramount to the progress of the United States and the world. This application orientation has served us very well and is indeed one of the unique traits of a Tech education. But it also sowed the seeds of today's entrepreneurial spirit, our research enterprise, our commercialization orientation and our interdisciplinary approach.

So we say thanks to presidents Hopkins, Hall, Matheson, Brittain, Van Leer, Harrison, Hansen, Pettit, Crecine and Clough. As Georgia Tech's first awarded degree was in mechanical engineering, we now warmly welcome Dr. Peterson, a mechanical engineer, to the helm.

Joseph P. Irwin, President

FEEDBACK A Great Life I thought you might like to hear from a member of the Class of 1940 (my gosh, 69 years ago).

The Class of '40 had to be one of the greatest classes in Georgia Tech history. My roommates in the early years were Bobby Beers, the original scatback of football, and John C. "Whack" Hyder, the greatest basketball coach. There were many more who made great contributions, not only in science but also in their military service.

My four years at Tech were the best of my life, and the things I learned during those years were the major contributors to any success I had â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in ^ ^ Ifct. both military and John Gaines in the civilian life. In all the 1940 Blueprint multitude of things I learned, there is one seemingly inconsequential item that I have always remembered. It came from an instructor in mechanical drawing. I'm not sure of his name, but his motto was: "If you are going to build something, build it hell for stout." I followed that advice in anything I designed.

Thanks, Georgia Tech, for a great life.

John Gaines, ChE 40 Prairie Village, Kan.

from Lt. Col. Glen Jackson, ChE 9 1 , in February. Jackson was departing Iraq for his home in

Bad Advice

deploying from his home in Newnan, Ga., to serve a year with the 602nd Engineer Detachment,

Passing of the Clock

Major Thomas McBroom Sr., ME 85, MS ME 87, left, took possession of a Georgia Tech clock Martinez, Ga., after serving a year with the 763rd Engineer Detachment in Tailil. McBroom was

The article on nuclear power in the

also in Tailil. The detachments' projects include developing water treatment facilities, conduct-

ALUMNI MAGAZINE ["The Nuclear Question,"

ing environmental surveys and building infrastructure and schools, all in Iraq's southern

Winter 2009] was excellent. The problem is that nuclear engineers and nuclear power plant operators do not understand reprocessing. They listened to bad advice at the outset of nuclear power and have never completely learned what to do.

Clinton Bastin, ChE 50 Avondale Estates, Ga.

provinces. Currently, the 602nd is in the Dhi-Qar province working on a $7 million project to pro-

Towers Confuse Public I enjoyed the article by Van Jensen in the Winter 2009 issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. It covered all the issues and benefits of nuclear power generation, existing

8

vide clean water to Nasiriyah and four surrounding cities. The clock originally was given to Jackson by Reid Inglett, ME 89, a co-worker at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.

and under development, very concisely and in terms easily understood and comprehended. However, it perpetuates the Three Mile Island hangover of identifying nuclear power plants with the highlighting of hyperbolic cooling towers, both in the artist rendering and the photo of Plant Vogtle.

This confuses the public, as they identify any power plant with this equipment in

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

their skyline as being nuclear. The public still associates the mere water vapor emanating from these cooling towers with the escape of radiation because of the media coverage of these prominent structures from the Three Mile Island incident [that occurred on March 28, 1979], Richard J. Mattie, ME 75 Norcross, Ga.

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VA

TECH NOTEpS Sand Stymies Robot Rovers A daunting set of engineering challenges faced scientists seeking to put the Opportunity rover on Mars in 2004, from safely landing it to designing its geological-testing equipment.

But there was one engineering feat they couldn't manage: overcoming the red planet's sandy surface.

In April 2005, Opportunity became stuck on a ridge of sand, and the rover couldn't get free for months.

But When Was the First Root Canal?

Faithful dentists can pray to the patron saint of their craft, Apollonia, for luck. If they want to thank the source of their business, they'll have to look to a 500-million-year-old fish.

The first teeth in a vertebrate appeared in the long-extinct conodont fish. Tech scientists recently discovered the set of genes that governed the creation of those teeth. They believe the same genes still control formation of teeth in modern vertebrates, humans included.

While investigating the rapidly evolving cichlid fish of Africa's Lake Malawi, a group of Georgia Tech researchers identified the gene set. Cichlid fish have both oral and throat teeth, and the researchers discovered one group of genes that controls both sets of teeth.

"Among the Lake Malawi cichlids, some species have a small number of teeth total — maybe about 100 — while other species of the same size possess The cichlid fish has teeth in its more than 2,500," says Todd throat and on its jaw, a trait that led Streelman, an assistant professor Tech scientists to discover the of biology. genes that govern tooth formation.

Understanding the "core dental network" of genes will be useful to potential scientific advances in human dentistry, Streelman says.

"One interesting difference between fish teeth and human teeth is that fish teeth are replaced throughout life, probably by modifying when and where genes from this core set are active," he says. "We'd like to understand how fish use this 10

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

gene network to replace their teeth. This information might inform the field of human dental stem cell biology and the related effort to engineer biological dental implants."

Let's see Apollonia do that.

Costa Rica Trades Up With Tech's Help In 1502, Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on what is now known as Costa Rica. The area was far from the Spanish trading hub of Guatemala City, though, and had little connection to the developing international marketplace.

Now, 507 years later, Costa Rica is set to play a crucial role in the study of international trade at the Institute. The Georgia Tech Trade-chain Innovation & Productivity Center-Costa Rica is the newest addition to the Institute's worldwide network of centers for facilitating trade.

An anonymous donor provided $2.5 million in initial funding for the center. It will be directed by Sebastian Urbina, IE 04, Econ 04, MS IE 06, from an office in San Jose.

The center — created in partnership with the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Corporation and Chamber of Industries — will allow Tech and Costa Rican universities to conduct research on improving international trade through physical and digital infrastructure. Its main focuses are improving productivity, promoting innovation and providing education.

So while Costa Rica might not have played a big trading role in Columbus' day, it will have a big impact on trading of the future.

A Cure for the Common Cold?

Mom may have said rest, chicken noodle soup and Vitamin C were the only ways to get over the common cold, but a Georgia Tech alumnus is developing a more complete — and complex — cure.

A new study of "locomotion on granular surfaces" from Georgia Tech researchers using what they call a SandBot has shown the speed and rotation of a robot's limbs or wheels must be set specifically to avoid slipping into sand, which can become liquid-like.

"When a robot rotates its legs too fast or the sand is packed loosely enough, the robot transitions from a rapid walking motion to a much slower swimming motion," says

Daniel Goldman, an assistant professor of physics. in studying the motion, Goldman and his team examined the interaction between animals' feet and sand. They did not, however, use sand, instead pitting the SandBot against an 8-foot-long track covered with poppy seeds.

The research has implications not only for space exploration but for robotic vehicles traversing Earth's deserts, which are equally treacherous, if easier to get to.

Stephen Liggett, More than $15,000 APhys 11, director of the was awarded in prizes, University of Maryland's and about 30 inventors Cardiopulmonary Gefrom around the world nomics Program, recently entered the competico-authored a study in tion, held at Georgia the journal Science anTech's Center for Music nouncing that his team of Technology. Among the researchers completed panel of judges were the genomic sequence of Eran Egozy, co-founder the 99 strains of rhiand chief technical offinovirus that cause the cer of the video game SLABS Touch Pads provide musicians with an expressive interface that can be mapped by softcommon cold. development company ware. The instrument was designed to be musically expressive and easy to play at the entry level.

"We generally think Harmonix Music of colds as a nuisance, but they can be debilitating in the very Systems, which produces the Rock Band series, and Wired young and in older individuals and can trigger asthma attacks writer Eliot Van Buskirk. at any age," Liggett says.

Second prize went to a robotic guitar created by Eric Rhinovirus infection has direct and indirect health care Singer of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, and costs of about $60 billion per year in the United States and is third prize was presented to SLABS Touch Pads, created by the cause of half of all asthma attacks.

David Wessel, faculty co-director of the Center of New Music The research revealed 15 groups of rhinoviruses, which and Audio Technologies at the University of California at Liggett says explains the failure of any attempt to create one Berkeley. drug to treat all colds. This more complete understanding of "It was a very open and competitive group of people the genomic structure will allow researchers to develop more with some very high-quality instruments," says Jaime Oliver, specific treatments. creator of the Silent Drum and a doctoral student at the University of California at San Diego. "Good competitions have a feedback effect, and 1 wouldn't be surprised to see this one having an effect in the number and quality of instruments The misleadingly titled Silent Drum, a creation that conthat are developed in the following years." verts shapes and shadows into sounds, won top honors in the first year of the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition in late February.

Supported by Richard, IE 56, and Margaret Guthman, the It sounds like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel: competition previously was for piano performance and was hamsters wearing electronic gizmos and running on wheels, reorganized this year to promote the discovery of new uses of their scurried movements generating electricity that's converttechnology in music. ed into a power source.

Silent Drum Wins Music Prize

Harnessing the Hamster Battery

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

11

TECH NOTES While a hamster power plant likely isn't in the world's future, Georgia Tech researchers have created technology to harness biomechanical energy. In the case of the researchers' hamster, it's a jacket featuring nanogenerators. For people, it's a small device on a finger that generates a current as the person uses a personal digital assistant.

"This technology can convert any mechanical disturbance into electrical energy," says Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in Georgia Tech's School of Materials Science and Engineering.

Wang's team has been developing the nanogenerators — consisting of zinc oxide wires encased in a flexible polymer substrate connected to a Shottky Barrier — since 2005 with support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the Air Force and the Emory-Georgia Tech Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.

Beyond powering BlackBerry devices, Wang says the technology could be implanted into the human body to harvest energy from muscle movements or blood vessel pulsations to power internal medical nanodevices.

Testing the technology on a hamster came at the suggestion of Wang's daughter. The biggest challenge was creating a

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Regents professor Zhong Lin Wang's daughter proffered the idea of attaching nanogenerators to a hamster, converting the rodent's scampering into electricity.

jacket tight enough to stay on but loose enough for the hamster to be comfortable.

"We believe this is the first demonstration of using a live animal to produce current with nanogenerators," Wang says of the hamster-harnessing project.

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A L U M N I HOUSE

Decision Time Admissions director says getting in is 'more competitive this year than ever before'

By Kimberly Link-Wills

G

Rick Clark

14

eorgia Tech's fall freshman class is taking shape as the May 1 acceptance deposit deadline nears.

"Our applicant pool this year is larger than it's ever been â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by a sizable amount," said Admissions director Rick Clark. "Last year we were up 7 percent at 10,300 applications.

We've had well over 1,000 additional applications this year.

"This is not going to be coupled with enrollment growth. Our freshman class size will not change. The simplest principle of economics is going to make it more competitive this year than ever before in that supply has not changed and demand definitely has."

Clark told the Alumni Association board of trustees in February that the 2008-09 freshman class numbers 2,650 students. Vying for spots for enrollment this fall are applicants from all 50 states and 79 countries. The average SAT score range is between 1900 and 2100. On average, the applicants have taken four to five advanced placement classes in high school.

"It's not like they're just sliding through high school taking the easy classes and coming into Georgia Tech unprepared," Clark said. "That's one of the big things we've been looking at more than ever in order to make some tough decisions.

How are they getting to that 3.8 [GPAj? "If we based our admissions decisions solely on (1PA and SAT, we would either have to take kids who are 4.0 or 2100 and higher or we would have to bump up the class size," he said. "The bigger issue is what can they contribute. What we want to see is that they've chosen to push them-

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

selves. Our staff is spending a lot more time reading files than ever before."

Interest from legacy students, those with family connections to the Institute, also has increased, he said.

"If we admitted every single legacy student who applied, that would be half of our class. It does come to the point where we have to make some tough decisions," Clark said.

Clark's office has seen a 30 percent spike in applications from Maryland and Virginia this year, and he proposes that Tech have a Washington, D.C-based recruitment officer.

"If you get 14 additional nonresident students paying $37,000 for four years, that's $2 million. If you pay somebody $45,000 a year to work out of a D.C office, it's a pretty good return on investment," he said.

Budget cuts have reduced the ability for Clark and his staff to travel and personally encourage out-of-state high school students to enroll at Georgia Tech. He called Tech alumni throughout the country "an extension in large part of the admissions office. [Alumni) can talk with parents and students who are either applying or have been admitted and emphasize to them the value of a Georgia Tech education."

The Admissions staff works with the Alumni Association to find hosts for receptions for accepted students. "That personal touch really does go a long way," he said.

Those interested in hosting an event may contact Mora Hostetter, the Alumni Association's manager of Student Recruiting and Scholarships, at (404) 894-0749.

Homecoming Intertwines Classics With Tenure of New President Hokies in the Homecoming gridiron Tradition is the theme for the matchup. The Jackets finished the 2008 2009 Homecoming, the first under regular season with a 9-3 record, and President Bud Peterson, Ooorgia Tech Alumni Johnson scored the ACC Coach of the From Oct. 15 to 17, Homecoming . • • <, ° , . , , o .Year honor. events will combine traditions of the "Homecoming is a special time at past with those of tomorrow. They Georgia Tech," Johnson says. "Our will include Peterson's first State of H O M E C O M I N G 2 0 0 9 schedule this year is unique, with just the Institute address, Buzz Bash, the one October home game, and it dictates 50th reunion of the Class of 1959, 40th that our Homecoming game comes reunion of the Class of 1969 and the against the two-time defending ACC 25th reunion of the Class of 1984. The champion Virginia Tech. parade and induction into the Old Gold Society are, of course, stalwarts of Homecomings past, present and future.

"Playing a Frank Beamer-coached team is always a challenge, but it's one our team will be excited about. And it's cerPeterson says he and his wife, Val, "are really excited tainly a great opportunity for our fans to see a great college about our first Georgia Tech Homecoming and experiencing one of Tech's great traditions. It's going to be a terrific weekend football game," Johnson says. and a great opportunity for us to meet and welcome our alumLearn more about Homecoming 2009 at gtalumni.org/ ni back to campus as we celebrate the spirit and pride of Tech homecoming. Online registration will be available this summer. together."

Individual Web pages — gtalumni.org/1959, gtalumni.org/ 1969 and gtalumni.org/1984 — have been set up for the mileOpportunities to meet and mingle with Institute alumni stone reunion classes and include information on class gift will include the traditional tailgate party on the Tech Tower campaigns, hotel accommodations, committee members and lawn Oct. 17. Following the pregame food and festivities, the classmates who are planning to attend.

Paul Johnson-led Yellow Jackets will take on the Virginia Tech

TRADITION

Free Photos, Fun on Tap for Pi Mile The Dean Griffin Pi Mile 5K Road Race will have two new features this year.

The 37th annual race, which will be run April 18, will offer free photos for runners for the first time. Participants can use their entrant numbers and finishing times to download photographs of themselves after the race ends.

It also will feature official T-shirts designed by a Georgia Tech student. The winning shirt was selected from contestants in the first ever Pi Mile T-shirt design contest.

Online registration for the Pi Mile is open until April 15. To register or to obtain more information on the race, visit http: / / gtalumni.org / pages / pimile.

Thrilling Presidents' Dinner on Deck While last year's Presidents' Dinner featured a B-17 bomber, the 2009 event will have the same awe-inspiring appeal on a smaller scale. Think Lamborghini.

The May 15 dinner at AmericasMart Building 2 West in Atlanta will have a cutting-edge automotive theme. Members of Roll Call's Leadership Circle are invited to the black-tie gala.

Leadership Circle donors provide critical unrestricted

funding that supports every academic area at the Institute. Roll Call contributions fund, among other things, scholarships for outstanding students, groundbreaking research, innovative facilities and faculty enrichment. Become a donor at gtalumni.org/pages/rollcall.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

15

THE SAXON ADVANTAGE Company president Jeni Bogdan is driven to excel

By Kimberly Link-Wills Photographs by Gary Meek

J

eni Bogdan's first business, selling handmade paper flowers in fifth grade, grossed $5. In 2008, The Saxon Group Inc., the heavy industrial construction company Bogdan has owned and operated since its launch in 1991, brought in $83 million in revenue.

Business has blossomed so rapidly that Bogdan, Mgt 89, MS MoT 97, didn't even know she ran the largest woman-owned business by revenue until she was profiled in Inc. magazine last year.

Business, specifically the construction business, is in Bogdan's blood. During high school and college breaks, Bogdan worked for her father's industrial construction firm, first in clerical positions, then as an assistant project manager. Although Bogdan always knew she would run her own business, she did not enter the construction industry immediately after earning her Georgia Tech bachelor's degree.

"I started a nonemergency transportation company where we had wheelchair-equipped vans and we took elderly and disabled and indigent people to doctors' appointments.

I ran it out of my parents' home," Bogdan says.

"I'd line up all my vans down my parents' driveway.

The drivers would come there in the morning to get their vans. I drove, my mother drove," she says. "In less than a year, we had six vans paid for. We had contracts with a bunch of local hospitals. It was a great service."

Funded primarily through Medicaid, Bogdan's business fell victim to budget cuts. Consulting work she'd done for her dad's business to help pay the bills became her full-time job.

She was assigned to manage a supercollider project for

Pennsylvania-based Air Products and Chemicals, which proposed that a woman-owned business on board could give the company a strategic advantage in winning contracts. Then Jeni Smith, she launched the company in January 1991 and married Jeff Bogdan, Mgt 88, MS MoT 98, in April of that year. The couple, who met and began dating as Tech students, now have three boys, ages 12,10 and 4.

Madam President

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ogdan is reluctant to discuss discrimination she may have faced as a woman in a male-dominated industry.

"I try so hard for it not to be that way," she says.

She will tell only one story, recalling a pre-bid meeting she attended. All the other bidding companies sent male representatives. Everyone was asked to provide a business card. The person collecting the cards skipped Bogdan.

Bogdan laughs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; now. "I didn't say anything and waited until after the meeting and gave them my card."

She also resists any comparisons to a superwoman who easily manages motherhood and the helm of a 700-employee business.

"I'm really lucky. One of my sisters has two boys the same ages as two of mine. She's always helped me with them. She picks them up from school. She's phenomenal, she's wonderful," Bogdan says.

While Bogdan is on the road at least once a week, she makes it a priority to be home for her children's sporting and school events.

"My typical day I take my two oldest children to school, then I wait in the drop-off line at the preschool with Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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/y

THE KEY TO IT ALL IS THE PEOPLE I

HAVE WORKING WITH ME, PEOPLE WITH GOOD CHARACTER AND A GOOD WORK ETHIC. IT'S SO IMPORTANT. you've made. I don't want to look back and say, 'Oh, I missed my 4-year-old's tea because I was at a conference.'"

Healthy Outlook

B The Saxon Group hit pay dirt when it won a contract to work in Nevada, above, for Newmont Mining.

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my 4-year-old, then I usually come into the office and do my e-mail and return phone calls and have a meeting or two," she says.

"1 try to focus on the big things that we need to do as a company to make sure our existing clients are happy while at the same time positioning the company to be ready for the next opportunities we want to pursue."

"My kids are involved in a lot of sports, and that is my favorite thing to do, to go to their games. I don't miss those," Bogdan says, adding that she had scheduled a site visit that week around a class party at her youngest son's preschool. "It's a priority. At the end of the day, you don't want to regret any decisions that

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

ogdan visits Saxon job sites around the country because she believes it is vital to the company's success for its president to be visible and to meet with workers on location.

"It's important to me to actually see our folks and check with them and see how they feel about how things are going. I used to know every single person who worked for us — every single person. I don't get that chance now to meet them all, but I try to go out and talk to as many as I can," she says.

Employees' welfare is at the heart of The Saxon Group. "Every single person that works for us has company-paid insurance. I wanted to do major medical. To me, that's when you need insurance. I went out and talked to our employees, and they said, 'No, Jeni, that's not what I need. 1 need something if I have strep throat or my wife has a sinus infection or my child has an ear infection that I can take them to the doctor — everyday stuff.'

"That's not what I wanted to do for them.

It's not what I thought was right. But after talking to them and having meetings, that's what we did and what we do for everybody," Bogdan says of the medical reimbursement program.

Saxon has an outstanding safety record.

In 2005 and 2008, the company was presented the National Safety Excellence Award by the Associated Builders and Contractors.

"That was probably one of my proudest moments," Bogdan says, pointing to a photograph of the 2005 awards ceremony in Hawaii.

"I don't know what I would do if somebody was hurt on one of our jobs. If I didn't think we were doing everything we could to protect them ..."

The Saxon Group drives home the importance of teamwork through a company softball team and bowling league. And they cheer on a company-sponsored driver in the Automobile Racing Club of America stock car series, Bogdan says, pointing to a mangled bumper emblazoned with the company logo jutting from a wall in Saxon's offices in Suwanee, Ga.

employees (technically three since Bogdan's mother wasn't paid in the beginning) to 50 and has continued to grow exponentially.

"The key to it all is the people I have working with me," says Bogdan, who surrounds herself with "people with good character and a good work ethic. It's so important."

Her team has been with her to experience such highs as the winning of Saxon's first $20 million contract. "We just thought we were it. We were so excited," Bogdan says of a celebratory dinner.

Those same people were with her during slower times in the late '90s.

"That's when I really learned you've got to have a five-year plan. You have to look ahead at what industries are going to continue to grow.

The plan changes, but it gives you a direction," Bogdan says.

We Just Thought We Were It'

A

bout 30 Suwanee-based Saxon employees moved from a renovated house not far away in Sugar Hill to the new building in November.

"We kept things pretty lean" when the company was started in 1991, Bogdan says. "There were four of us in a little tiny office. It was me and my mom and a copy machine. There were two other people who ran the job sites."

That first year, Saxon grew from four

Sound Structures, Strong Relationships

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ith about $300,000 in business the first year, Bogdan was able to repay a loan she had secured from her father.

"Over the years, he's let me make my own mistakes for sure, but if I ask him, he'll give me advice. He gives me a lot of valuable advice."

Today, the walls lining hallways and conference rooms in Saxon's headquarters are covered with photographs of the company's industrial Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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Saxon Group workers install the framework for a heat recovery steam generator at Georgia Power's Plant McDonough.

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projects. She points to a picture of a scrubber being installed at Georgia Power's Plant Bowen in Cartersville, Ga. "It's taking an existing power plant and making it environmentally friendly," Bogdan says of the fiberglass vessels designed to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.

She moves on to a photo of a jet-bubbling reactor. Saxon has completed three of four it was hired to build, with each contract priced at about $40 million. Another photograph depicts riser piping, a $12 million contract, Saxon installed for a cooling tower at Plant Yates near Newnan, Ga., a couple of years ago. Still more pictures show the company's current work for Southern Company and Orlando Utility Corp. on a power plant in Florida.

"It's pretty cool to see the creative process going. That's the exciting part, finding new ways of doing things. That's what has helped our company grow. We're known for thinking outside the box to come up with a better way to build it," Bogdan says.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

Bogdan's ability to build strong relationships with her clients has helped The Saxon Group grow as well.

"The last five years have been really big for us. That's been primarily because Southern Company has been so good to us. They have a really good program trying to encourage minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses to grow, and we've been involved in that program from early on. They made sure that we could do the work and gradually gave us bigger contracts."

The Saxon Group has focused its energies on power plants, refineries and cryogenic projects, but now is looking ahead to transmission and distribution as well as nuclear.

"As the population continues to grow, they've got to get the power to the consumers, to the businesses, so the transmission and distribution is putting the power lines up, doing the substations, doing everything to get the power where it needs to go. It's not a far stretch

IT'S PRETTY COOL TO SEE THE CREATIVE PROCESS GOING. THAT'S THE EXCITING PART, FINDING NEW WAYS OF DOING THINGS. from what we're doing now," she says.

Bogdan does feel the weight of responsibility as the employer of more than 700 people.

"Continuing to make sure the company grows and employing all these people, that's what keeps me up at night, making sure we're making the right decisions that will affect all these people and their families. That's important."

Picking Winners

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he expects to become responsible for an additional 100 workers in 2009. Also this year, The Saxon Group will financially assist an employee to pursue a master's degree at Georgia Tech. The company supports the Institute as a sponsor of the baseball team and basketball games and as a contributor of laptop computers for prizes awarded during games.

Big Tech sports fans, the Bogdans have season football and basketball tickets. Bogdan's office shows her loyalty, from a coach Paul Johnson-signed football to a nearly 4-foot-tall Buzz carved out of wood.

Behind the office building is storage for Bogdan's side business, SPW Equipment. Several key Saxon employees are owners in the business.

She shows where her loyalties lay with SPW Equipment, launched a couple of years ago. The initials are for her sons, Smith, Paul and Will.

The equipment — everything from dump trucks to water trucks, cranes to forklifts — is deployed from Suwanee to Saxon Group job sites.

More storage may be needed in The Saxon Group lobby as Bogdan continues to rack up awards. Entrepreneur magazine recognized her in 2008 as the owner of one of the top 20 fastestgrowing women-owned companies in North America. Also last year, CatalystMag.com named her to its list of 25 top entrepreneurs.

When Inc. magazine wanted to set up a photo shoot last year, Bogdan says the editors wouldn't tell her she was being singled out as the proprietor of the largest woman-owned business by revenue in the country.

Bogdan wasn't eager to draw attention to herself when a photo crew turned up at Saxon's former cramped quarters. She laughs — now — at her embarrassment.

"They brought this huge yellow backdrop.

We didn't have any room in our little renovated office. So they went to the cabinet shop next door with all these men in there doing their work and cleared out an area. I thought I was going to die, to be honest with you."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

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ZJOO Nagesh Kukunoor ditched an engineering career in America for fame and fortune in India's film industry

By Leslie Overman

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

Director Nagesh Kukunoor, MS ChE 91, on the set of his movie Aashayein, returned to his native India 11 years ago to break into Bollywood.

he camera zooms in for a close-up of the fingers of Varun Naidu as he wipes clean the rim of a drinking glass with a handkerchief.

"Foreign bastard," playfully mocks one of the friends seated across from him at an outdoor cafe.

"He can't help it," says another in Varun's defense. "He can't handle the high-quality Indian germs anymore."

The scene from the 1998 independent film Hyderabad Blues is one of many in which Varun, vacationing in his hometown of Hyderabad, India, after 12 years of work and play in America, appears more like a tourist than a native.

Throughout the film, he questions the customs, traditions and even the cuisine he grew up with as a child, criticizing his best friend for flipping through photographs of the town's eligible young women in search of a wife, arguing with his parents as they urge him to find a bride and

T

pleading with his mother to stop placing bowl after bowl of his once-favorite curry in front of him, because he's now concerned about its saturated fat content.

About midway through the film, a bothered and bewildered Varun stands on the rooftop of his childhood home.

Sipping a cup of coffee and looking out over the village, he wonders, "Where the hell is home? It's probably where you're most comfortable, but where?"

The story of Varun, torn between two countries and two cultures, in many ways is that of the actor who played him, Nagesh Kukunoor.

Eleven years and 11 films later, Kukunoor, MS ChE 91, who also wrote, directed and produced Hyderabad Blues, says, "I'm not sure if I have actually stopped asking that question as to where I truly belong, because there's still one foot in the states and one foot here in India."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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X

" JTWfr

A former chemical engineer who more than a decade was made and marketed on a shoestring budget of about ago left a lucrative career in the states to pursue a longtime $40,000, money he raised in a 10-month stint as a chemical dream of becoming a filmmaker in Bollywood, India's engineering consultant in the United States. Shot in just 17 equivalent to Hollywood, Kukunoor now splits his time days, it was a family affair for the Kukunoor clan, with the between homes in Mumbai and Los Angeles when his hecfilmmaker's aunt chipping in with costumes, his parents tic schedule allows. Filming three doing the daily line production movies back to back in 2008 and and his mother cooking meals for now in postproduction on two of the cast and crew. them, he hasn't set foot on U.S. "The joke was that I stopped soil for more than a year. filming when 1 ran out of cash, Kukunoor now is working and it was almost like that. Now on what he calls "probably the if you gave me a million dollars most complicated edit" of his to make Hyderabad Blues, I could film career thus far with Eight by almost say with certainty that I Ten, a thriller/whodunit about a would make a crappier film," man with the ability to peek into Kukunoor says. people's pasts. It's the first of "The emotions and everything three movies he will release this that went into that film at that year and the first of his career to point, they've all changed. I'm not feature action sequences. the same person I was back then," Surprisingly, action is unfahe says. "I would probably take miliar territory for the director, eight takes to make sure that the who hopes to make a film in actor got it right as opposed to every genre "before the sun sets" just setting up one master and Kukunoor wrote, directed, produced and starred in his first tea and whose past projects include running the camera and moving everything from a prison drama on to the next." ture-length film, Hyderabad Blues, as well as its sequel. to an underdog sports story.

Part drama, part comedy, part "Dramas and comedies, since I've done them I can look fish-out-of-water tale, Hyderabad Blues turned out to be the at a scene and do the breakdown automatically," Kukunoor little Indian film that could. It was screened at about 10 film says. "With action, it's not even in seconds or minutes, it's in festivals internationally and had lengthy runs in Bangalore, milliseconds. With things like that, to see how a scene will Mumbai and Hyderabad theaters. It was such a hit that cut is very challenging. Until I actually did it, I didn't realize Kukunoor revisited the role of Varun for Hyderabad Blues 2 it takes a special kind of skill for great action." in 2004.

It also takes a substantial amount of funding â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Eight by The Hyderabad Blues movies were much more successful Ten has a budget of about $10 million, the biggest Kukuthan a short film Kukunoor made while taking a screenwritnoor's ever had. ing class in Atlanta.

"Ten million dollars in Indian money is huge," he says.

"One of the first things that I was told was, 'When you "A really good-sized, well-paced, well-shot film could cost first start writing scripts, write about something you know you about 3 million, maybe pushing 4." well,'" Kukunoor says. "I, of course, ignored it and wrote a Hyderabad Blues, Kukunoor's first feature-length film, thriller, which was terrible. Luckily, I heeded the guy's 24

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

" I'm not sure if I have actually stopped asking that question as to where I truly belong, because there's still one foot in the states and one foot here in India. / / advice, and my second script was Hyderabad Blues. It was very easy to write. A lot of it came from my own experiences."

A 2005 New York Times article about India's independent film industry credited Kukunoor's hit with kick-starting "Hinglish cinema," in which characters speak a mixture of the Hindi and English languages.

Now, Kukunoor says he is "very much a quote-unquote Bollywood filmmaker," as he's been filming exclusively in Hindi since 2005, when he released his sixth feature, labal, the tale of a deaf and mute farmer's son who dreams of playing for India's national cricket team.

"It was a rural story set in India, and I knew I couldn't use English," he says. "It was made entirely in Hindi.

Ironically, that opened up a huge market. It worked very well at the box office."

Whether they're filmed in Hindi, English or Hinglish, Kukunoor's movies are a departure from typical Bollywood fare, in which beautiful women draped in gold-, fuchsiaand crimson-colored saris sweep across the screen and characters frequently break into choreographed song-and-dance sequences en masse.

While he grew up on a "stable diet of Bollywood films," Kukunoor says it was the big-budget Hollywood movies that made it to India in his youth that inspired him to become a filmmaker.

When his family got a VCR in the mid-1980s, Kukunoor says "a whole new world opened up" to him. Seated in Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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" 7 quit my job cold turkey and went to India to try to get into Bollywood.... I realized I was a complete misfit, ft front of the TV for hours at a time, he sometimes watched as many as four movies a night.

A Steven Spielberg fanatic, he first became interested in making movies when he saw the director's first Indiana Jones flick. "If Raiders of the Lost Ark is the first one that triggered this impulse in me, believe it or not, Terminator 2 was the movie that finally pushed me into filmmaking. I walked out of that film, and I said I wanted to be a filmmaker.

"That was '91," says Kukunoor, who confesses that a poster for the Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster hangs on a wall in his home in India.

"The funny part is that a lot of the filmmakers that I admire, my films are entirely different from theirs," Kukunoor says.

While he always dreamed of one day breaking into the movie business, Kukunoor was pragmatic when it came time to go to college, deciding to study something that would ensure a stable and successful career.

"For most middle-class Indians, the way out and up has always been through a really solid education. In India, the

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

two professions that are held in fairly high esteem are doctors and engineers. In a sense, we were an ideal family, because my brother became a doctor, and I'm an engineer," says Kukunoor, who chose to go into the field because he was good at math and science.

Kukunoor believes he acquired a love for the United States vicariously through his father, who in a more than 30year career with UNICEF often spoke fondly of the country.

After graduating with an undergraduate degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad, Kukunoor headed to Atlanta in 1988, attending Georgia Tech on a full academic scholarship.

He first approached filmmaking like an engineer, consuming all of the information he could and reading every book he could find on the subject. But it wasn't until he entered the work force that he sought creative outlets. In 1994, while working with an air pollution consulting firm in Atlanta, Kukunoor began taking screenwriting and acting classes in his free time. In performing, he "began to understand the nuances of what went into filmmaking."

"Very naively, I figured I could do something with that, and I quit my job cold turkey and went to India to try to get into Bollywood. Within the first couple of weeks of being there, I realized I was a complete misfit," Kukunoor says.

"The way people work here is very different from the way we're used to people working in the states."

Kukunoor's first Bollywood gig came when he was recruited by a producer in need of someone fluent in both English and Hindi to help out on a shoot. Given a call time of 9 a.m., he showed up early on the set hoping to make a good impression on his first day, while the rest of the crew and actors trickled in hours later.

"It's something that was sort of distressing at that point, but in hindsight almost 11 years later I realize that it's something that I still haven't gotten used to," he says. "At least now that I run my own set, I can make times and people stick by them."

Kukunoor, who now leaves producing duties to his partner in SIC Productions, continues to write and direct all of his films and acts in them when a part suits him. Of all of his roles in front of and behind the camera, the multitasking Kukunoor thrives on directing.

"Without a doubt, directing is at the very top of the food chain, because as a director you can meddle in everyone's job, and it would still be OK. No one is going to tell you to buzz off, because you're the director," Kukunoor says.

"There's no other job for which I would wake up for two, sometimes two-and-a-half months at a stretch at 5:30 or 6 in the morning and then work 12- or 14-hour days and collapse in absolute happiness and exhaustion and then do it again the next day," he says.

Despite his initial frustration with Bollywood, Kukunoor is content to be part of it now that he's calling the shots. And he doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.

Kukunoor believes he has many more stories to tell in India that could appeal to international audiences. In fact, Kukunoor already has six scripts completed that he hasn't yet filmed.

Kukunoor isn't sure he could fall back on engineering at this point. He confesses that about three years into his filmmaking career his "brain decided to dump about every chemical equation" he'd ever learned.

Still, Kukunoor says that many of the skills honed in Georgia Tech classrooms and labs do come in handy on movie sets.

"The most amazing thing that I learned as a grad student — and which is why one of the first couple of quarters at Tech was one of the worst in my life — was you had to do a lot of things yourself," he says.

"There is no wrong or right in filmmaking, you just sort of follow your own instinct. You go somewhere, and it could be wrong or right, you won't know until six months later when the public sees it and either likes it or hates it."

Since making Hyderabad Blues, Kukunoor says his advice to aspiring filmmakers has always been "just do it."

"There's nothing that can prepare you for what happens on a set or during the making of a film," he says. "Still today, I absolutely without a moment's hesitation can say that was and will always be the biggest learning experience of my life — and the most amazing one at that, because before Hyderabad Blues I was a chemical engineer and after that I was a filmmaker."

Now working overtime in the editing room, Kukunoor isn't sure to which project, or genre, his instinct will direct him next.

"I badly need to come back and soak up some Arizona and California sun, and then I'm heading off on a cruise to Alaska," he says. "I need to do this and then have the next script talk to me."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

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Apj^j

Larry Harwood

Georgia Tech's 11th leader answers Alumni Association chief's questions about his life, career and aspirations for the Institute

I i Interview by Joe Irwin

The Board of Regents unanimously voted to hire G.P. "Bud" Peterson to take the reins of the Institute.

Before beginning his Tech tenure April 1, Peterson was the University of Colorado at Boulder chancellor.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in San Francisco and moved to Prairie Village, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, when 1 was 3 years old. I lived in Prairie Village until I left home to go to college.

As a boy, you probably didn't dream of being a college president, did you?

Neither of my parents went to college. In high school, I was not sure if I would attend or finish college. I definitely did not ever think or dream of being a college president. I loved sports and lettered in three sports in high school. As a child and even a teenager, I actually had aspirations of becoming a professional athlete. Eventually reality set in, and

I realized I had better find a way to become gainfully employed.

My best friend's dad was an engineer, and during my junior year in high school he took us to Kansas State University's engineering open house. I was just amazed at all of the things I saw there.

The most amazing thing, and something 1 remember to this day, was a movie of a machine that could peel a grapefruit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not just the outer peel but the individual sections.

Back in 1969, there was not a lot of visual recognition technology, just this incredible mechanical device. I'll never forget that experience. I knew then that I wanted to be a mechanical engineer.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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orked with the staff and sei adership team to develop a list of all that need and hope to accomplish in the first DO days. It is a pretty long list/'

How did you get the nickname Bud? I was named for my dad, who was George P. Peterson Sr., and there was often confusion. My parents started calling me Buddy when I was about 11. It morphed into Bud and just stuck. I have never felt like a George, and only my mother called me George — mostly when I had done something wrong and was in trouble.

One of the great myths of Georgia Tech shares your name. Are you familiar with George P. Burdell?

I have not had the opportunity to meet him yet but look forward to the day I might. I have seen his resume, and it is really outstanding.

How will the move to Atlanta affect your family?

Everywhere I have been, Val has been very involved and has found a niche or group of projects that she throws herself into. In New York, she served on the board of a science museum for children, the YMCA board of directors, the board of the Troy Savings Music Hall and numerous other programs. In Colorado, she was president of the Colorado chapter of ARCS, a national foundation that provides scholarships for students in science and engineering, and she started a very successful scholarship program for young people who age out of the foster care system. Only 10 percent of these kids go to college, and only 1 percent graduate.

These pursuits were in addition to teaching yoga, sewing — she sews many of her own clothes — and a whole host of other activities. Her boundless energy and long list of activities make me feel like a slacker. She will no doubt find plenty to keep her busy at Tech and in Atlanta.

How long have you been married?

Val and I met our freshman year at K-State. We dated for three years and were married in May of 1974 while we were still in college. This May, we will celebrate 35 years of marriage.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

You and your wife have four grown children.

Where do they live?

The oldest, Sean, 32, lives in Ashburn, Virginia. Number two, Brennan, 30, lives in Winchester, England. He just moved there a few months ago. Our daughter, Emily, 28, is in Troy, New York, and the youngest, Keith, 26, is in Sunnyvale, California.

How did you come to be foster parents, and how have your foster children affected your lives?

When Val and I lived in Salina, Kansas, we lived in the country. We had a milk cow, chickens and a big garden. We were pretty far away from any neighbors, except the folks who lived right across the lane from us. They were foster parents, and our oldest son, who was 4 years old, used to play with their foster son, who was about the same age.

Some years later when our youngest went to school, Val, who was a stay-at-home mom who worked part time, decided that she liked caring for children and was very good at it.

She suggested that we get licensed by the state of Texas to provide a home for foster children. By the way, when she tells the story, she says it was my idea.

Our biological children were very actively involved. In fact, several times Val and I decided to stop fostering because it was very hard to give up a child who had lived with us for three years or so. But each time our own kids would say that they wanted to bring in another foster child.

They shared their rooms and their parents' attention. Our foster kids instilled within us and within our own children a strong spirit of volunteerism. I have no doubt that our kids are better people for having been so involved in the lives of the nine foster children we had. There is no question that they enriched the lives of the foster children who lived with us.

We are still in touch with some of our foster children and have continued our involvement with several of them, helping them with school or buying a house. One young woman who lived with us for about a year when she was 6

etics have always been an importani part of my life, and I think they are a very important part of the life of a university like Georgia Tech/'

found us after she graduated from high school. She is now married and has two children, and she named her second child after our second son, Brennan.

How do you relax? Do you have any hobbies?

I have always really liked to read, but so much of what I do in my job these days involves reading documents and materials related to the job that I don't do as much "pleasure reading" as I would like. Val and I like to hike, and when I have time, I build furniture and garden. These days I enjoy cooking on the weekends when we are not out. 1 have also tried to continue my involvement in heat transfer research, which is very important and almost therapeutic for me.

Two catches stick out in my mind. One was a 50-yard pass against Oklahoma in 1973.1 was tackled on the 2-yard line and did not score. But perhaps the most memorable catch was actually the one I did not make against Mississippi State. It was the only pass thrown to me during a college game that I touched and did not catch. Five seconds before the end of the half, I dropped what would have probably been a touchdown. Later the press asked me if the sun was in my eyes or if the left-handed substitute quarterback had been a factor or if I was worried about stepping out of bounds. I told them the truth, which was that I dropped the ball, plain and simple. While painful, that experience helped me learn to take responsibility for my actions and to not try to make excuses.

What book is on your nightstand?

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Tom Friedman, who recently appeared at CU-Boulder and wrote some very positive things about Georgia Tech in his book The World Is Flat. Right now, I am trying to identify some historical books on the South to learn more about this region and its history.

Do college athletics programs hold a special place in your heart?

Athletics have always been an important part of my life, and I think they are a very important part of the life of a university like Georgia Tech. They give the Institute national name recognition. When folks are standing around the water cooler at the office on Monday morning, no one ever seems to say, "Gosh, did you see that great physics lecture last Saturday?" They talk about athletics. Athletics are also a way for alums to bond and connect with the school. It is a great way to get them back on campus.

You had 30 catches in your football career at Kansas State. Which is the most memorable?

Actually, a more typical game experience was getting pounded. We ran a pro set with a flanker and two tight ends, and sometimes we would split the weak-side tight end out wide. As the weak-side tight end, my blocking assignment was typically against defensive tackles or defensive ends or trapping linebackers, most of whom were much heavier than I was.

What lessons did you learn on the football field that you have carried through life?

Athletics had a tremendous influence on my life, and I joke with Val that it "made me the man I am today." There are so many of life's lessons to be learned in athletics â&#x20AC;&#x201D; teamwork, perseverance, hard work, how to deal with adversity â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and studying mechanical engineering while playing Division I college football taught me how to utilize my time efficiently. So athletics had much more of an impact than you might think.

Who have been your mentors?

A number of people have helped me in my career. Ken Gowdy, who was the assistant dean at Kansas State when I was an undergraduate, had also received a degree in mechanical engineering and played football. He kind of watched over me and guided me through some difficult times. He later offered me a faculty position at Texas A&M in the engineering technology department so I could support my family and work on a PhD at the same time.

Val and I had our fourth child about the same time that 1 started my PhD program, and we both felt that it was important for her to be at home with the children. Having a faculty position rather than just a graduate student stipend made that possible.

As a young faculty member and later as an administrator, I greatly admired Ray Bowen, who was president at

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

33

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and go over time, but the alumni of any institution serve as the anchor, a 'constant' that is always there with u s / ' Texas A&M for many of the years I was there. He had impeccable integrity and was a very straightforward person who addressed problems head-on and was always very direct, open and honest. Watching him handle some of the most difficult problems imaginable, such as the collapse of the bonfire in which 12 students perished [in 1999], was a true learning experience. Five of the 12 students were engineering students.

1 was in the dean's office at the time, so I went to five funerals in three days. He was at all of them, right in the middle of what was a very difficult situation. He handled it with a grace and poise that 1 have always admired.

Leadership transitions are challenging. Are there certain things that you must accomplish to effectively assimilate and understand the culture of Georgia Tech?

Val and I have a great deal to learn, and I intend to do a lot of listening and not too much talking. 1 have worked with the staff and senior leadership team to try to develop a list of all that I need and hope to accomplish in the first 100 days. It is a pretty long list.

There are three things I have always believed help to make one successful in these types of positions: First, learn as much as possible about every aspect of the institution to help you identify potential pitfalls, problems and efficiencies and understand the culture, which is very important. Second, hire the very best people possible and give them the freedom to do their jobs. It is not possible for one person to do everything, so having confidence in the people that work with you is very important. And third, you have to be a little lucky. I am hoping to be able to do all three.

When you arrived in Colorado, the university was reeling in the eyes of the public from the Ward Churchill controversy and the state of the football program. Choosing to walk into this situation and leading the university out of it required significant courage. Are there critical strategies you deployed to successfully resolve those issues?

We put together a very strong leadership team, discussed what it was that we wanted to accomplish and turned them

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

loose. We used a strong team approach to change the culture there and address problems promptly, openly and very directly. There were a tremendous number of very good people at CU who were doing some very positive things, but there were some overarching structural problems and issues.

The university was stuck in a reactive mode, and we worked very hard to change that and to be much more proactive.

When I first arrived on campus, we talked at cabinet meetings each week about what things or issues could derail us. As time went on, we did it once a month as a bit of an ongoing risk analysis. Finally, we developed a strategic plan that gave the university community something to look forward to and to focus on while at the same time providing a positive framework to resolve the existing problems without those issues occupying the entire consciousness of the CU campus.

What did you know about Georgia Tech before you interviewed with the search committee, and what attracted you to the Institute job?

Every engineer knows and respects the name Georgia Tech. It has a great reputation, and it is consistently ranked in the very top tier nationally and internationally. Having been at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which is in many ways quite similar to Tech, I was very familiar with the people and programs. To be chosen to lead an institution like this is a very humbling experience. As an engineer, this is, of course, a great professional fulfillment. But as someone who has spent a majority of his career as an educator, it also presents an opportunity to continue to have an impact on higher education nationally.

Georgia Tech is a marvelous institution with a wonderful history and one that has made remarkable progress in the past two decades. I look forward to continuing to build on the great legacy established by Wayne Clough, his predecessors and the campus community. Val and I are looking forward to meeting and getting to know the entire Georgia Tech community.

Today, a university president must be an expert at garnering financial support. What are the most

Rob Felt

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it tenets of successful fundraising?

Successful fundraising takes time. It is really all about building relationships, and one must be committed to spending the time that it takes to do that well. It is also necessary to have a very clear idea of what you are raising money for, and it takes a lot of time and study to get up to speed on that.

People support things that they feel are well managed and feel passionately about. It is this second part that is hard â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to try to engender passion in the alums and other supporters of the Institute. Obviously I will be spending more time learning about the Institute initially, and the time devoted to fundraising will increase dramatically over the first three months. But in terms of percentage of time, as much as it takes.

Your experiences at Colorado, Rensselaer, Texas A&M and Kansas State have shaped your philosophy about alumni relations. Do you have any thoughts that you'd like to share about the importance of alumni support?

The faculty, staff and administrators come and go over time, but the alumni of any institution serve as the anchor, a

"constant" that is always there with us, integrating their activities and support into the day-to-day operations of the institute and connecting with the university of the past and the future. They contribute to the success of the institute in incalculable ways, giving us their vision, time, talent and support. Many are parents or grandparents of our students and future students. Here at Georgia Tech, they have contributed mightily to the continued progress and growth.

When people ask me what my vision for the Alumni Association is, I respond that I want the Alumni Association "to help us convert former students into alumni who are engaged in the Institute, who feel connected to it and who are proud of it."

At some of the institutions I have served, and I am sure this is true at Georgia Tech, the alums have been wonderful donors of scholarships so that more of our students could have the benefit of a college education. They have also been caring mentors, helping with the educational process outside of the classroom. They help to ensure there is a way students can get to the airport to fly home or there are enough tutors or there are emergency phones on campus. They also sit on

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine * Spring 2009

35

Georgia Tech's Past Presidents

Isaac Hopkins

Lyman Hall

Kenneth Matheson

Marion Brittain

Blake Van Leer

Ed Harrison

Arthur Hansen

Joseph Pettit

Pat Crecine

Wayne Clough

advisory boards, ensuring our curricula encompasses the latest trends in the professions. Alumni input is extremely valuable and keeps us on track.

During your time at CU, management of its Alumni Association was transferred from the Foundation back to the university. What was the reasoning behind that move? Has it been successful?

When 1 accepted the position at Colorado, the situation was very different than what exists today at Georgia Tech. In addition to some of the issues that gained national headlines, the Foundation had just undergone an audit. The Alumni Association had been under the management of the CU Foundation for 11 years, and after careful consideration, I made the decision to move the CU Alumni Association back to the campus. The objective had more to do with connecting and aligning the Alumni Association more closely with the goals and direction of the university than with organizational changes.

We also wanted it to connect with our students from the very first time they stepped onto campus. We implemented a process as part of the fall freshmen convocation, whereby representatives from the Alumni Association welcomed the incoming freshmen and invited them to get connected and 36

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

stay connected to the university by establishing a relationship with the Alumni Association from the start of their college career. This had not been done for many years. We also revived a long-standing tradition and invited the Alumni Association board chair to welcome the graduates into the Alumni Association at commencement and encourage them to be active members. We tried to communicate to them the Alumni Association's role in terms of the many career, social and networking opportunities available through their involvement with the Alumni Association.

In essence, we renewed a long-standing tradition that harkens back to June 4, 1882, when six graduating students met on the afternoon of CU's first commencement to create the Alumni Association. The rich and colorful history of this organization is inseparable from the history of the university, and the recent changes allowed them to be inseparable again.

The global economy has everyone worried. The next few years will be difficult for higher education. You experienced this at Colorado and set a new direction by developing a strategic plan.

Will you undertake a similar effort at Tech?

These are challenging times for Georgia Tech, the state of Georgia and the nation. As engineers and scientists, we

understand that it is easy to do more with more. What is difficult is to determine how to do more with less. Gary Schuster did a great job of guiding the Institute as interim president, but now we must look ahead and take the necessary steps to respond to the economic challenges and identify and develop new revenue streams. At the same time, we must not lose sight of what is most important — that we not diminish the quality of the education and research programs.

With respect to strategic planning, I first need to understand what exists and how well the current goals and aspirations are understood and embraced by the university community. I have been told that "we are in the seventh year of a five-year strategic plan at Georgia Tech." The world is a much different place than it was five or six years ago, and we, as a community, need to sharpen our focus and make sure we are all headed in the same direction. In my mind, one

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

of the key questions that must be addressed is: What is it that will differentiate the graduates of Georgia Tech, now and in the future, from the graduates of Caltech, MIT and Stanford or, perhaps more importantly, from IIT in Bangalore, Seoul National in Korea or Tsinghua in Beijing?

Tech has made terrific strides in multidiscipiinary areas — energy, sustainabiiity, engineering and medicine, computation and science. As you assess these new opportunities, are there obvious expansions that you see now? Are there other areas on which Georgia Tech should focus?

Even with all of the studying I have been doing about Georgia Tech, I still have so much to learn. I can only provide a qualified answer based on what I know today. First, there are the obvious responses — energy, the environment, bio-

Campus Reaction to the Hiring of Peterson Among the most urgent issues for him is the budget situation, of course. Other key issues for the near future are deciding about the [capital] campaign, working with the deans to develop new revenue streams and regaining momentum that has been lost the past couple of years.

Don Giddens Dean of the College of Engineering The new president has an exciting opportunity to shape the future of the Institute, a future in which Engineering likely will further improve its standing in part from its own strength and in part by drawing on increasing strengths of the other colleges. The mission of the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech is to provide the scientific foundation for technological innovation. We look forward to working with Bud Peterson to bring about a closer integration within Georgia Tech, one that defines the research university of the 21st century.

Paul Houston Dean of the College of Sciences

That is precisely our focus and a strength of the Ivan Allen College and Georgia Tech. His emphasis on leveraging our unique attributes is prescient to enriching the intellectual exchange across science, technology, the humanities and social sciences â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an approach that is foundational to strengthening the Institute and its influence in the regional, national and global arenas.

Sue Rosser Dean of the Ivan Allen College He is a past colleague and friend. I was dean of architecture during the six years he served as provost at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a man of great enthusiasm with a strong moral character. Georgia Tech has found a leader exactly appropriate to its future.

Alan Balfour Dean of the College of Architecture

As a leader, an educator and an engineer, he has worked to shape policies and solve problems based upon understanding the contexts of technological development.

I'm thrilled with the appointment of Bud Peterson. He was my first choice after reviewing the written descriptions of the candidates, my first choice after meeting him at the search committee and my first choice after meeting all of the other candidates. He will relate well with many constituencies, including alumni and students, and I think he will be very effective in fundraising.

He will unite the Georgia Tech family and take the Institute to the next level, building on the legacy of Dr. Clough, while using his significant strategic planning skills to chart a course that will have his own imprint on it.

Bill Todd Chair of the Alumni Association

sciences. At the end of the last century, a good friend who was an electrical engineer told me that there were two kinds of engineers: electrical and nonelectrical. If that is true, then in the first half of this century there will still be two kinds of engineers: bio and non-bio.

In addition, Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned to help address and resolve the world's energy crisis and the resulting changes to the environment. I realize that there is already a great deal under way, but this is a huge effort and one in which Georgia Tech can play an international leadership role in addressing our energy future and the "new energy economy."

From a more general perspective, Georgia Tech is at the forefront of innovation and discovery in a time in our nation's history where both are great necessities. Students who graduate in this century will need broader skills than they did in the last one. New discoveries will be created at

the intersections and boundaries of existing fields of study in both the sciences and engineering. As a result, in order for our graduates to compete globally and be good global citizens, they will need to be well grounded in the fundamental sciences, much more broadly educated and aware of the world and have ample opportunity for interaction in the process of making new discoveries.

The issue of how to position Georgia Tech for entry into the Association of American Universities came up repeatedly during the interview and vetting process. CU was an AAU member and that gave me a better perspective on what this might require. Membership in the AAU will necessitate that we expand the breadth of our offerings, particularly in the arts, social sciences and humanities, but also in the sciences.

This is a tricky balance because of the tremendous reputation Georgia Tech has for preparing engineers who are "ready for

Nothing compares with word-of-mouth as a signal of quality, and President Peterson gets nothing but raves from all who have worked with him. What a terrific opportunity for us.

Steve Salbu Dean of the College of Management

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

39

Larry Harwood

the work force," but I am confident with the can-do attitude that exists here at Tech, we can accomplish all of the above.

Will you continue to teach and conduct research while president?

Throughout my time in administration, I have tried very hard to maintain some sort of research program and interactions with graduate students and postdocs, and I hope to continue doing so at Georgia Tech. I currently have two funded projects, but I am a co-principal investigator, and I doubt that I will try to transfer them to Georgia Tech. However, I do anticipate hiring a postdoc and one student to continue some of the work I currently have under way, and I plan to move my heat transfer lab from Colorado to Georgia Tech. While I hope to continue my research program, teaching is much more difficult because of the restrictive schedule it requires, so that is probably unlikely. Research, as I mentioned before, is a form of relaxation, and the time constraints are much more flexible, so I can do it when it fits into my schedule.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

Engineering is one of the defining characteristics of the Georgia Institute of Technology. How does it benefit Georgia Tech to have a trained engineer as its president?

Running a university is a very challenging and complex job. Engineering education trains one to think critically and analytically, and that has served me well. I am actually rather surprised that there are not more engineers as college presidents. The process of methodical problem solving so fundamental to engineering is equally as effective in solving issues that confront a university president as it is in solving mathematical equations.

My engineering skills have served me well as an administrator in higher education in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

With respect to Georgia Tech, I am not sure that I would say that "it takes one to know one," but being an engineer will, I hope, help me to understand more quickly the culture that exists at this great institution.

Peterson's Football Coach Makes Call:

'You've Got a Winner, I'll Tell You That'

By Van Jensen Bud Peterson didn't pile up record-breaking statistics as a tight end at Kansas State from 1972 to 1974. He managed only 30 catches for 359 yards and not a single touchdown.

Yet Peterson's coach and a teammate at Kansas State both say he was one of the standout players on those Wildcats teams.

"He maybe didn't have a lot of catches, but we didn't throw the ball a lot," says Steve Grogan, the Wildcats quarterback who went on to play for the New England Patriots for 15 seasons and lead the NFL team to Super Bowl XX. "He worked harder than anybody. Bud's one of my all-time favorite guys," Grogan says.

Vince Gibson, who retired in 1982 after 25 years as a college coach, came to Kansas State in 1967 for his first head coaching job. He recruited Peterson from Kansas City, seeing potential in the tall teenager as not just an end but as a leader.

Within a couple of years, Gibson's Wildcats had gone from winless laughingstocks to contenders in the elite Big Eight conference. He says much of that occurred because of Peterson's influence on the team.

"You've got a winner, I'll tell you that," Gibson says. "He's been a winner at everything he's done.

"He didn't have great speed. But he was a great blocker.

Everyone cared about Bud and liked him a lot," Gibson says.

Gibson can't recall any specific plays Peterson made. "It's been too many years ago," he says, but remembers any time Kansas State needed a big catch, Peterson would make it. But no touchdowns?

"Well, like I said, he didn't have the greatest speed," Gibson says with a chuckle.

"I knew he was going to be successful in anything he did," he says. "I thought he'd end up being an engineer or doctor. He'll be a s> tremendous asset at Georgia Tech."

Grogan echoes that sentiment, saying Peterson's approach to football made it clear he would excel at whatever he tried.

"He was a smart football player," Grogan says.

"He understood what his job was and everybody else's. You could rely on him to do exactly what he was supposed to do. And you couldn't say that for everybody on the team."

Grogan's favorite memory of Peterson doesn't have to do with football, but it's still something the Georgia Tech community surely will appreciate.

Midway through college, Peterson bought a junked-out Austin Healey Sprite and set about repairing it in the scant extra minutes outside of class and football practice.

"To get two of us in that car, it was pretty tight," Grogan says. "It was in need of a lot of repair, and he worked on it all the time.

"It got up and running, but it didn't look very good," Grogan remembers. "We were struggling college kids, so we didn't mind."

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100 Years of Architecture at Georgia Tech

Building Inventive Minds

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

The skyline of Atlanta in the mid-1990s would have looked much different, bottom of the page, without the influence of architects educated at Georgia Tech.

By Teri Nagel, ID 03, with Elizabeth Meredith Dowling, Arch 7 1 , Robert C. Craig and George B. Johnston

T

his year marks the centennial of architectural education at Georgia Tech, an extraordinary legacy of design influence evident around the globe. Led by a new dean, Alan Balfour, the College of Architecture began the fall semester by reflecting on individuals who left their imprint on the community through their contributions as students, faculty and administrators and assessing how their legacy would shape the future.

In any organization, no matter the size or location or function, there is a spirit that ebbs and flows through its people and projects. It is the organization's ethos, the voice and vibe, shaped by distinct decisions, moments and personalities.

In a college, students come and go, sometimes come back and go again, and the same is true of the instructors.

A retrospective of Georgia Tech's College of Architecture traces one student's determination to start an architecture school; a professor's poetic buildings on Tech's campus; young professors full of ideas and ideals; philanthropic alumni; and college students managing a nation's growing pains.

Together, they informed directions, affected individuals and generated ideas.

Other universities, beginning with the 1865 founding of Boston Tech, later named the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, already were teaching architecture when Tech took up the subject in 1908.

"The actual initiation of the architecture program at Georgia Tech does not owe its start to the thoughtful deliberation of the college administration," says professor Elizabeth M. Dowling, Arch 71, "but to an enthusiastic 20-year-old civil

engineering student, Ernest Daniel 'Ed' Ivey. In 1907, Ivey met with Georgia Tech President Kenneth G. Matheson to discuss the creation of an architecture program. But rather than actively supporting a new curriculum in architecture, Matheson placed upon Ivey the burden of finding a group of students interested in the subject.

"Ivey did succeed in finding 20 students who wanted to pursue this educational direction, and the program was initiated in 1908," Dowling says.

Studio work was closely aligned with the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the French system of architectural education guided by details, scale, proportion, composition and rendering.

The French connection would endure with the appointment of a young Francis Palmer Smith as the first department head in 1909. Smith had finished his studies only two years earlier at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied under Paul Cret, the French critic later credited with having the most profound influence on American architectural education.

Classes were held in the top floor of the Electrical Building and, by 1912, the Department of Architecture had grown to 42 full-time students and three faculty members.

Architecture courses of this period often were organized around a series of competitive projects, with juried awards and the promise of national notoriety for student winners and their schools. Tech quickly rose among the top architectural schools, and beginning in the 1920s, its students often placed among the best in the most prestigious drawing competitions.

In 1925, the same year Harvard-educated Harold BushBrown became director, the Department of Architecture

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Designing Tech received the distinction of being the first program in the South Bush-Brown's 30-year tenure ultimately would be shaped to be elected to the highly respected Association of Collegiate by war and economic crisis, postwar prosperity and, especialSchools of Architecture. The same year, the American Institute ly, a defining shift in design philosophies. Later, Bush-Brown of Architects designated it as an accredited school. In 1927, the would recall, "I had no idea that the gradual changes we were Department of Architecture at Georgia Tech was the largest of experiencing would turn into an architectural revolution." its kind in the South, with more than 1.00 students and seven Architectural education was faculty members. largely a product of local concerns Then-President Marion in Atlanta, the state of Georgia and Brittain's efforts to improve the the South, corresponding to the miscurriculum in the 1920s and the sion of the Georgia School of earlier inclusion of the Department Technology. During the Great of Architecture into the existing Depression of the 1930s, students strictly technical Institute curricuwere hard-pressed to purchase suplum in 1908 helped Georgia Tech plies and conserved paper by drawsecure membership in the Southern ing on both sides. Enrollment Association of Colleges and plunged to only 66, and as the Secondary Schools for the first time nation prepared for World War II, in 1925. classes shifted to architectural engiGeorgia Tech was the only Philip T. Shutze's "A Monumental Staircase, 1911-1912 neering.

Southern university to be admitted In a June 1942 report to at the time.

President Brittain for the Board of Regents, quoted in In fact, historians August Giebelhaus and Robert McMath Engineering the New South, Bush-Brown stated, "The governin Engineering the New South wrote that the addition of an ment, it appears, is looking forward to conditions of the postarchitectural degree "combined applied art as well as technical war situation. ... This means establishment and adoption of a skill" and allowed the Georgia School of Technology to step master plan for future development [at Georgia Tech] as an "outside the niche it occupied as a first-rate technical school initial and major step." 'second to none in the work it undertakes to do' to take its Bush-Brown established a hierarchy of projects based on place among the premier academic institutions in the New the needs of the campus. The most immediate priorities South."

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

" I had no idea that the gradual changes we were experiencing would turn into an r architectural revolution. '

involved equipment upgrades, more land and new buildings to house the architecture, chemistry, physics and textile engineering programs. Other projects in the developing master plan allowed for a new mechanical engineering building, a main campus library, hospital facilities and additional dormitories. The long-term planning incorporated the prospected needs in future growth of the campus.

The Board of Regents authorized Brittain to engage the Department of Architecture, under Bush-Brown's direction, to draw up a long-range development plan, paid for with profits from Tech's radio station, WGST. Space became Bush-Brown's largest concern. Enrollment reached 462, with drafting boards and drawing tools cluttering the top floor of the Physics Building, where the department had moved 20 years prior. Students "in doubt or those whose scholastic record indicates a low average" were "advised to seek other fields and thereby avoid disappointment and waste of time" in the course catalog of 1948-49.

As a partner in the firm of Bush-Brown, Gailey and Heffernan, professor Paul M. Heffernan, or P.M. as he was called by students and colleagues, contributed to the designs of the Hinman Research Building, the Smith, Glenn and Tower dormitories, the old west stands of Grant Field, the Bradley Building, the School of Textile Engineering, the Price Gilbert Library, the State Highway Laboratory â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the Architecture Building. His designs were called "progressive" and widely talked about among architectural circles.

The Architecture Building itself affirmed the new "future project" of modernism. Even students noticed the unprece-

dented meeting of a past steeped in tradition and the Beaux Arts with a bold statement of forward movement in design.

Merill Elam, Arch 71, observes that the Architecture Building "is a critical and powerful part of the pedagogy of the study of architecture. It was the poetics of this building that P.M. Heffernan wrote that was most powerful."

Elam said Heffernan knew he was "placing the public face and public DEVELOPMENT PLAN zone of this building to the south, facing the Hill, the historic center of the mw ~~"r-"n campus, as an invitation, and stabbing the building into the ground as if it were a dam, a kind of resistance from the Hill at the same time it is an invitoj^f^-iv-*Hon to the Hill."

The 1950s are considered by many the heyday for architecture in the ^ f ^ i ^ ' ^ S i #: United States. For Tech's architectural 'tlfS' school, it began with a new building ^*kyj M ,. and reached the classroom with - 2 GEORGIA

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expanded course offerings. Tech ^^^^^^^^^^^^m Harold B recruited trailblazing faculty to estabUSh-Brown's camlish programs in building construction, pus redevelopment plan. city planning and industrial design.

Hin Bredendieck, a seasoned German designer, left the New Bauhaus in Chicago to become the first director of the industrial design program. He "wore only shades of gray to make his wardrobe easier to manage," recalls Irwin Schuster, Arch 57, an early industrial design student. "He lamented that Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

47

at times he could not express himself better in that he was forgetting German and was not as facile as he wished to be in English."

To establish the city planning program, heavyweights John Baus, director of city planning at Harvard, Frederick J. Adams, director of city planning at MIT, and Howard Menhinick, director of regional studies at the Tennessee Valley Authority, all came to teach at Georgia Tech.

When Frank Lloyd Wright lectured in 1950, he graciously made himself available to meet students at the Heffernan House on Fifth Street. They lined up around the block to meet Wright, as some recall, and when senior John C. Portman, Arch 50, had his chance, he asked, "What advice do you have for architects today?" Wright answered plainly and without hesitation, "Read [Ralph Waldo] Emerson."

In 1956, with the retirement of Bush-Brown, Heffernan was named director of the school. He had been teaching at Tech since 1938 and was already known for his modern designs built on campus.

Accelerating Its Evolution By 1966, Heffernan's department was "dangerously lacking in dynamism," as cautioned by the National Architectural Education Board, and "basking, as it were, in the stability established during the long leadership of the previous director."

It was a turning point. A committee chaired by professors Arnall T. "Pat" Connell and Joe Smith quickly produced a detailed proposal to phase out the five-year undergraduate curriculum and place more emphasis on graduate studies with a four-year undergraduate degree and twoyear master of architecture degree. According to the propos al, the structure would "better prepare architects to serve society within the framework of a changing profession, and that will enable the school to contribute to the creation of knowledge needed for the development of a better designe physical environment." The Institute also championed this shift and helped recruit five new faculty members, all with unique sets of strengths and fresh research agendas.

"An architect, an architectural researcher, a landscape

architect, an urban designer — we all started in the fall of 1977," says Douglas C. Allen, now a professor and senior associate dean. "It's unusual in the first place to add that many at once — we made up 15 percent of the faculty.

Certainly it had an impact. I'd like to think it was a positive one."

A surge in enrollment to almost 1,000 students and strengthening alliances among disciplines led to the formation of the College of Architecture in 1975. William Fash became the first dean in 1976. Fash would lead in tandem with Alan Balfour, the newly elected director of the architecture program.

"After a long dry period, there was real excitement in the air," says Manuel Cadrecha, Arch 77, M Arch 79.

Space soon re-emerged as a serious issue, and a new building would be added to the west of Heffernan's Architecture Building.

"The process for the design of the new addition yielded many raw emotions," associate professor George Johnston says, referring to a student-led revolt against the building design proposed by Hugh Stubbins, Arch 33.

The commission ultimately was resigned and awarded to the firm of Cooper Carry, led by Jerome "Jerry" Cooper, Arch 52, M Arch 55.

Johnston recalls, "The building was described in print as 'hard edged' but also by a visiting accreditation team as a 'fine [example] of the architecture of its time,' worthy of respect for the 'formal and ideological values implicit in the building.'

"It is a corduroy building compared to the bow tie and tweed jacket next door. It is the west wing to the east wing, left wing to the right wing. Internal spatial boundaries are implicit, fluid, contestable, negotiable — a liberal, participatory democracy. It is a didactic building, meant, according to architect Jerry Cooper, to 'hit you on the back of head' with its anatomical lessons of structure, enclosure and systems."

Defining Design Agendas Johnston also recounts dramatic debates of the time. "In 1985, controversy swirled around the public judging by invited critics of the SGF Competition, an in-house challenge to excellence and design free-for-all endowed by patron Herb

Cohen in 1974. According to the Atlanta Constitution's arts and architecture reporter Catherine Fox, 'passions flared and jurors and students [came] to verbal blows/" he says. The event climaxed when one New York architect refused to critique one studio because the students' project was "not architecture."

"The aftershocks of that event had ramifications then, and they still reverberate in the echo chamber of the west wing atrium," Johnston says. "Esoteric things ... became the focus of graduate theses and master's projects. Critical and sometimes self-indulgent approaches to problems of expression and representation were intertwined with urban speculations and critiques of speculative development."

Balfour also delighted in the avant-garde. "There was a conscious attempt by me to create events in this school that would be noticed," he says.

Social engagement and activism illustrated the passion of an aspiring architect in the 1980s. Architecture students organized the Mad Housers and took their ingenuity to the streets to secretly build free shelters for Atlanta's homeless.

Thomas D. Galloway succeeded Fash upon his retirement in 1992. A city planner, Galloway was orderly and efficient. He strategically aligned a diverse set of academic programs and research initiatives, including music, through a vision that would fully engage the college with the expanded academic, research and service missions of the Institute.

"Galloway," says colleague Allen, "picked up what was already here and professionalized it, putting a strong infrastructure in place that would endure."

Galloway's recruitment of Ellen Dunham-Jones as director of the architecture program fortified a strength in urban design and set the stage for a partnership with the city and regional planning program that would impact Atlanta.

When Galloway died unexpectedly in 2007, the College of Architecture encompassed six academic programs and six interdisciplinary research centers. Allen, a 30-year veteran of the college, was appointed interim dean. During his tenure, former students, faculty, staff and friends of the college worked together to endow the Douglas C. Allen Lecture to annually bring a top design luminary to the stage of Heffernan's auditorium in the East Architecture Building.

Balfour returned to Georgia Tech when he was appointed

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

49

dean in the summer of 2008. In the years since he first left Tech, he held leadership roles at top architectural schools including the Architectural Association in London, Rice University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Faculty, students and alumni say they are inspired by Balfour's compelling rhetoric on cities and culture and his enthusiasm for continuing the college's trajectory to excellence.

Impact of Inventive Minds

George Heery, Arch 51, arguably invented the notion of construction program management. His ideas evolved to embrace real estate and "strategic facilities planning" as well as "bridging," a method designed to reduce risks, costs and postconstruction problems for owners.

Portman literally invented a building type â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the atrium hotel. Portman also is attributed with leading a revolution in architectural practice in the 1950s when he won the approval of authorities to serve the dual role of architect/developer, which previously was prohibited.

Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates was credited with reinventing the convention center when it was named the American Institute of Architects 2002 Architecture Firm of the Year.

Cooper Carry and Associates and TVS redefined the idea of the "corporate skyscraper" in the 1980s.

Through such structures as the Buckhead Library, Elam and Mack Scogin, Arch 67, opened the eyes of a new generation to avant-garde design and how to ground it in observations of the vernacular South.

Tech graduates invented building types and gave dramatic shape to the modernization of the South. While this can be seen in classical institutions designed by early renowned graduates like Philip Shutze, Arch 12, or Art Deco public and industrial buildings, it is perhaps most visible in Atlanta's skyline. Historians have noted the influence of architectural education at Georgia Tech, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, on the city's distinctive skyscrapers, few of which have not involved Tech grads.

The silhouette has been fortified by greater attention to sustainability, as is evidenced by transformative ideas like Atlantic Station and the Atlanta BeltLine, both of which had their beginnings in College of Architecture graduA Century From Now Thomas D. Galloway, a city planner, was recruited to ate studios. In large part because of "Institutions of higher learning gain succeed William Fash as th i college dean in 1992. these ideas, Atlanta's national reputatheir distinction and unique authority tion is moving from the poster child for through the ability to anticipate the urban sprawl to a test bed for urban innovation. need for new knowledge and new tools," says Balfour when Certainly, Georgia Tech's impact was evident much earlier. talking about forming a vision for the next 100 years. "In this Developed in the mid-1950s, the academic village of early year of looking back on our distinguished 100-year history we modern buildings at Georgia Tech, including the textile engimust also look to the future and commit all our knowledge, neering, architecture and library buildings, is described as one passion and pleasure in the human condition to forming a betof the most significant ensembles of modern architecture in the ter world 100 years hence."

South. These buildings were fashioned in part by Georgia Tech Forces, he says, such as continual growth in world populaarchitecture professors, including former directors Heffernan tion, increasing movement of people into cities and rapid and Bush-Brown. resource consumption must inform the college's direction.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

"The college must seek to promote changes in the buildest sense as problem solving. It is evidenced in the variety of ing, design and engineering professions, actively aiming to cre- seven book titles out this year, including Retrofitting Suburbia, ate a new breed of multidisciplinary professionals. Out of this which sees dying shopping malls as a major opportunity for will come not only a productive convergence between all the redevelopment; Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness; disciplines present in the college but new degrees across disciand Constructing the Modern Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of plines leading eventually to new professions better able to Building New York City in the Twentieth Century. define and address the chalEarlier this year, Eastman lenges of an increasingly compresented a Webinar to the plex society," Balfour says.

American Institute of Allen, who teaches a Architects on interoperability. course on the history of the The college also will work urban form, says architecture, with Cooper-Hewitt, the construction and engineering National Design Museum and clearly are moving toward a Smithsonian Institution in a more integrated future. design workshop built around "That has profound "Design for the Other 90 implications on the disciPercent," which shines light on plines. The boundaries a movement to design lowbetween and among the discicost solutions for the 5.8 bilplines are blurring, enabled in lion people — 90 percent of part by dissatisfaction of the world's population — who clients and the digital revoluhave little or no access to food, tion which makes integration clean water or shelter. possible," he says.

The centennial year also In a conversation about has yielded a distinct spirit of After stints at the Architectural Association in London, Rice University and the future of building inforreconnection and rejuvenation Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Alan Balfour returned to Tech in 2008. mation modeling, whereby among the community. data is integrated with 3-D models for both design and construction, professor Chuck Eastman and Architectural Record deputy editor Charles Linn discussed new industry standards that force some of the ageold silos to be breached.

"The kind of thinking that makes the Internet such a powerful place will filter down into the architecture, engineering and building construction professions, and it will be a lot easier for people coming up in our profession to recognize the power that comes from collaboration as opposed to the power that you gain by being mistrustful and creating mistrust," Linn says.

Professors in the College of Architecture are increasingly recognized on a national stage for teaching design in its broad-

"Five programs by discipline — music technology, city and regional planning, industrial design, building construction and architecture — and a distinct doctoral program that spans disciplines: They are all good programs with distinguished graduates nationally and internationally, and they all could be better," Balfour said at an alumni event. "It is my task to make that happen, to provide leadership and, where appropriate, vision, such that this college advances in reputation and influence in all fields.

"This celebration and the [Heffernan design] archive are very important not only to the college and to the architecture, design and planning and construction community, but to Atlanta, the state and indeed the entire Southeast," he said.

"The transformation of the post-Civil War South from an

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

51

" A cloud of hung fabric columns ... will create a new inverted landscape overhead, a kind of 21st century chandelier on growth hormones. rr agricultural to an industrial economy and then to a powerhouse on the global stage of the service and distribution industries is due in no small part to the Georgia Institute of Technology, and this is no small reason to celebrate," Balfour said.

Celebrating in Style A stylish fete that will be held in the courtyard between the East and West Architecture Buildings on the evening of April 25 will reunite alumni and friends of the college.

"Function Forming Fashion" has been conceptualized, in the illustration at right, as a site-specific architectural installation by artist and visiting assistant professor Tristan Al-Haddad, Arch 01, who says the piece "will invade and infect" the College of Architecture buildings to culminate the centennial celebration.

"Two orders of responsive space will be created as a scaffold for transforming the event into a ubiquitous performance of interactivity and dialogue between user and environment," says Al-Haddad. "The inside of the building will be invaded by a cloud of hung fabric columns that will create a new inverted landscape overhead, a kind of 21st century chandelier on growth hormones.

These glowing columns will be charged with wireless sensing technology that will track the movement of users in the space and will drive an immersive interactive audio-visual landscape of algorithmically generated interlocking motifs."

This interior vertical order will then give way to the horizontal order of the courtyard tent space.

"In the courtyard between Heffernan's original brick building and Cooper Carry's concrete addition, a reactive tensile membrane will create a continuous translucent canopy of sensual, doubly curved surfaces," Al-Haddad says. "This reactive self-forming membrane will be both pushed and pulled, up and down, left and right, as it negotiates its own internal material logic with the desires and stimulations of the bodies that occupy its interior."

Al-Haddad says this space will generate a continuous feedback loop between body and space. He describes it as "the new womb of architecture's rebirth in the 21st century."

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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DISCOVER

Q&A

Ian Bogost:

Taking the History of Atari Seriously

By David Terraso

Ik HU

Racing the Beam, The Atari Video Computer System, a book by Georgia Tech associate professor Ian Bogost, takes a look at the development of the first popular video game platform through the lens of six game cartridges to show how the developers of those games, for better or worse, laid the groundwork for the industry Atari helped spawn. Those games are Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall! and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

The book is the third by Bogost on video games and the first he's co-written with MIT's Nick Montfort. With this book, the pair begin a new series, Platform Studies, published by MIT Press, which will examine the role that various video game platforms have had on the industry and the culture at large.

Bogost and Montfort will edit the new series.

Why did you decide to write about the Atari VCS?

It's an extremely important piece of video game history, yet no one has written seriously about it in video game research — or really even in popular culture. So to go back to the very first popular home video game system and look at it in detail, that was one of the reasons.

The second was to encourage historical

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

Ian Bogost is an associate professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture.

studies of games and game systems more generally, for reasons that go beyond nostalgia. It's worth doing this not just to geek out on retro chic, hipster stuff. Rather, we ought to take the history of video games as seriously as we would take the history of any cultural object. The influence of the Atari VCS and its games on later titles — including today's games — is significant,

extremely significant in our opinion and not obvious.

Did the limitations posed by the Atari have a big influence on how things were designed?

For sure. You see, any computer imposes constraints of some kind. But the Atari is a ridiculously bizarre computer, even compared to its contemporaries. There are lots of reasons for this. Some of them are financial, some of them have to do with the technology that was available at the time, some of them have to do with randomness and arbi-

trary decisions. When the Atari VCS was being designed in the mid-1970s, no one had any idea or thought that it would turn out to be as important as it did. Nor that it would be on the market for as long as it was — until the 1990s.

What did they think?

They thought they were making a video game machine that would play a few games derived from popular coin-ops for a couple of years in the marketplace. But arguably, it ended up being the foundation of home

"The influence of the Atari VCS [pictured below] and its games on later titles — including today's games — is significant, extremely significant in our opinion and not obvious."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

55

Q&A video gaming — and not only that but the foundation of many conventions and genres present in the games that we still play today.

How did that happen?

The video games of the early '70s were tavern games, really. This was still before video arcades became popular. But [Nolan] Bushnell, Atari's founder, saw taking this stuff home as an opportunity for Atari to reach a broader audience. So the company introduced a version of Pong for the home. But then, once you bought one home Pong machine, you don't need another one. So they could only sell one product to each household; it seemed like a missed opportunity. So Atari set out to create an interchangeable cartridge system; They would sell the system once and then sell many cartridges, like razors and razor blades. This is really the foundation of the way that the first-party publishers like Microsoft and Sony see video game sales today.

But still, Atari had no idea later programmers would use the machine in the ways they did. The techniques they developed influenced later games in interesting and important ways. And somehow through a kind of strange telephone game of influence, games that were made under the constraints of the Atari wound up underwriting conventions of later games in ways we now take for granted.

For example?

One example we talk about in the book is the "adventure" game. Adventure, from 1978, was the first graphical adventure. It was an attempt to transfer the text-based adventure Colossal Cave, which was played on PDP minicomputers. The designer of VCS Adventure, Warren Robinett, was enamored with Colossal Cave and insisted on somehow taking the experience that he enjoyed in that game and making it work on the Atari VCS. He did this by reimagining text commands and areas of space as movement onto and off the television screen. It was a pretty remarkable feat in 1978.

But it also led to later versions of the same genre of graphical adventure: games in which you have a character who moves around a space larger than the screen, who has tools that he can use and objects that he can pick up. The adventure game arguably remains one of the top genres of games today. Sure, they look pretty different — they're 3-D now, and much more complex — but they still owe a debt to Robinett's Adventure, whose features were influenced strongly by what the Atari VCS hardware could do easily.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

Which were some of the first games to copy that idea?

There was a Raiders of the Lost Ark game for the Atari several years later which took the same principles, the same fundamentals that Robinett had developed and made them much more complex, arguably better. Ultima borrowed from it too. The Legend of Zelda is probably the most obvious in importance. And from there, the genre just spirals out of control.

But the way that Adventure had to introduce the player and the marketplace to these conventions that now are old hat is kind of interesting. If you look at the manual for the game, even the idea of moving a character to the edge of the screen and then the screen changing as if you were moving to a new screen — it wasn't obvious. It had to be explained in intricate detail. But by the time we get to Zelda, everyone knew how this convention worked. Those conventions get built up over and over, one on top of another, both as technology changes and as other kinds of design choices become conventional.

So Adventure is an example of the fundamental work

we tried to do in the book: to show how the hardware platform — the machine itself — had a strong influence on the way that programmers made things for the machine.

And that the games born of that material influence went on to have a strong influence on later games, sometimes in direct ways and sometimes in indirect ways.

Would you say that a lot of the limitations provided by the computer led to creativity?

Yeah, the reason that this machine was so successful, so popular for so long and that so many different kinds of games were made for it is because it can do so little. It's a very simple computer. And rather than becoming a limitation, it forced programmers to constantly reinvent ways of making things new on the machine. Everyone had their own style. Someone like David Crane, who made Pitfall!, his whole approach to making games was about trying to get this computer to do something it hadn't done before. Others had different strategies.

Why was Atari so much more successful than other video game systems of the era?

In some ways, it was just luck. They were in the right place at the right time, with the right backing after Warner bought them to create and market an interchangeable cartridge home video game system that proved flexible enough to remain popular for a long time. They were able to become really aggressive and to develop this idea of home video gaming well. In a lot of ways, that selling point is exactly the same as the one Nintendo has been using with the Wii. Is this interest in Atari just nostalgia?

It was important to us to rescue the Atari from the cesspool of nostalgia. It's not that nostalgia is inherently bad, but we wanted to combat the idea that the Atari VCS is a useless thing, a relic, a throwaway retro fetish object. That's an attitude that I think is too prevalent in technology and media in general.

One of the reasons I like to program the

Atari is to understand what that practice was like. I try to treat Atari games as a form in their own right, rather than as 'geekery' or an attempt to develop my tech chops. It's a living creative practice that involves specific activities. Understanding what they are is both interesting and gratifying.

Do you think playing these games of yore, like we can with Wii's virtual console among others, is going to change the way we look at them?

It's great in part because it means that those games are just more readily available.

The analogy I always use is that of a dad sitting his kid down to watch John Wayne Westerns. The handing down of cultural memory is only possible if the works are available and can be viewed. But we have to remain vigilant about understanding the connection between these old games and the hardware that originally played them. There are some aspects of the Atari and the Nintendo Entertainment System that you can't completely recreate in emulation, let alone on a modern 50-inch LCD television.

Actually, in this regard, one of the Georgia Tech computer science capstone class groups is working on a set of revisions to the Atari VCS emulator to try to recreate some more of the appearance of those old TVs.

The Platform Studies series of books ushers in "a new era in digital media scholarship."

Tell me about the Platform Studies series that this book belongs to.

Nick and I are editing the series of which Racing the Beam is the first book. The series invites books about computer platforms of all kinds — from video game systems to personal computers to programming languages. We seek work that explores the relationship between hardware and software systems and creativity.

We've entered a new era in digital media scholarship, one in which people are really combining the two worlds of computing and the liberal arts, in which people have a depth of experience in both technical and cultural matters. So I'm excited about providing an avenue for such work. We're really just at the beginning of it.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

SI

LIFE JACKETS

Foretelling America's Financial Future Banker believes 'it's going to get better a lot more quickly than it did during the Great Depression'

By Kimberly Link-Wills

J

immy Trimble doesn't carry a crystal ball when he speaks Trimble returned to The New York Times article, which at Georgia Tech Club meetings around the country. Inquoted Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute, stead, he arms himself with a PowerPoint presentation to who said, "If they fail, the government will have to step up help explain "The Credit Crisis: Why It Happened and and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the What's Next." thrift industry."

An Alumni Association trustee, Trimble, Mgt 91, is the diIt was like Wallison was looking into a crystal ball, he said. rector of private banking at Fidelity For the past 40 years, Trimble noted, Bank, headquartered in Atlanta. it has been common practice for mortDuring a February presentation to gages to be bundled into what are known the Columbia/Midlands, S.C., Georgia as mortgage-backed obligations — or "I am amazed by the number Tech Club, Trimble read from a SepMBOs — and sold to large institutional tember 1999 article in The New York investors. of quality, creative ideas that Times: "In a move that could increase "Some of the mortgages in these people are coming up with right bundles were subprime mortgages," home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the said. "The folks who were buynow, in large part because they Trimble Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the ing them started to see some cracks in the credit requirements on loans that it foundation of these investments that had were making $400,000, will purchase from banks and other never had cracks before. It's like the sun $500,000, $600,000 the last lenders." not coming up when it's supposed to The article said Fannie Mae had come up. They started taking losses so couple of years but aren't getting been under political pressure to exthey said, 'Time out, time out, we're not pand mortgage loans in the low- and putting any more money in there.'" a paycheck right now. They've moderate-income sectors and from Without these investors, there was got to get creative." stockholders to continue to grow profless money for mortgage funding. Conits. In addition, banks, thrift institustruction dried up and partially develtions and mortgage companies were oped lots and houses were left standing "pressing Fannie Mae to help them in the wake. make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers," he read.

"That's one of the reasons community banks are struggling. It's not because they were holding subprime mortgages.

"This article is from '99," he pointed out. "Back then you It's because they got stuck when the music stopped," he said. had to put the words 'so-called' in front of 'subprime.' Today Also in the mix were the subprime borrowers themselves. you don't have to say 'so-called' because everyone knows "Your average subprime borrower was willing to pay a what subprime means."

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

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Jimmy Trimble, Mgt 91, is the director of private banking at Atlanta-based Fidelity Bank, an Alumni Association trustee and a member of the Speakers Bureau. The Alumni Association maintains a list of speakers and an online submission form to request an appearance at a Georgia Tech Club meeting at gtalumni.org/pages/speakersbureau.

higher mortgage rate in exchange for lower approval standards which allowed them to get that mortgage. You're thrilled to get that house. It's your first house. It's the American dream," Trimble said.

"The big problem was that lending standards had been lowered so much that many of these new homeowners and real estate investors got in over their heads. They felt stuck and didn't know what to do, so many of them just walked away."

Trimble said investments called "derivafes" made the situation much worse.

"If subprime mortgages were all we had to worry about, it wouldn't have been nearly as bad, but the problem was intensified many times because of all of the side bets that were placed on these mortgages.

"When the subprime market cratered, so did all of these related investments."

Today, Trimble said, entrepreneurs are a major key to economic recovery.

"I am amazed by the number of equality, creative ideas that people are coming up with right now, in large part because they were making $400,000, $500,000, $600,000 the last couple of years but aren't getting a paycheck right now.

They've got to get creative."

The rainbow isn't visible in the sky just yet, according to Trimble.

"If I had to guess when we will get back to feeling normal again, when we can invest in something and expect a return and trust people and kind of know what's going on, I would say 2011, maybe 2012. That's just my gut. I'm no economist.

That's just based on what I'm looking at and sensing," he said.

"The new stimulus plan has some tax incentives that could really spur a lot of first-time homebuyers into buying starter homes. That could help start a turnaround."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

59

LIFE JACKETS

Eric Boe's Big Dreams Carry Him to Space

By Leslie Overman The Endeavour members also In a recent visit to his alma mater, worked on a water-recycling system astronaut Eric Boe showed off some to enable the space station crew to photos of the Earth taken during the reprocess wastewater. space shuttle Endeavour's 16-day mis"This is kind of our joke," said sion to the International Space Station Boe as he presented a slide in which in November. two astronauts stood side by side As breathtaking as the images holding plastic bags filled with water. were, Boe recalled during a speech at "We're taking yesterday's coffee and the Student Center in February, they turning it into today's coffee. can't compare to the experience of "It's actually plumbed so that it gazing upon the planet from the heavgoes from the toilet and the condenens. "The pictures never do it justice. sate and goes into this machine and The panorama, the blues. You can gets converted into water and goes really just tell the Earth is alive and straight into the galley. Other than the it's glowing. It's amazing." yuck factor, the water is perfectly Boe, MS EE 97, who piloted healthy," he said.

Endeavour, was one of three Georgia The mission marked the fulfillTech alumni aboard the shuttle. ment of a childhood wish for Boe, Serving as mission specialists were who urged Georgia Tech students to Shane Kimbrough, MS OR 98, and "dream big." Growing up, Boe said Sandra Magnus, PhD CerE 96. he hoped to someday become an Describing the crew's first few astronaut but didn't imagine he'd moments in orbit, Boe said, "You do a ever have the opportunity. couple of high fives and hug each "I remember my parents calling other, go, 'Cool,' and then it's right to me in when I was 5 to watch the work." moon landing and watching it on a NASA/Kim Shiflett The Endeavour crew's work Eric Boe and his fellow crew members aboard Endeavour did black-and-white TV," he said. "1 just included servicing the rotary joints "a couple of high fives" in space and then got down to work. kept thinking about it, and as time that turn the station's solar arrays and went on and my career progressed, I dropping off supplies and equipment kept going, 'I still have the opportunity to do this. I think I'll to help prepare the station to double its accommodations to apply.' And I was lucky enough to get accepted." house six people.

A former Air Force pilot who flew 55 combat missions "One of the big parts of our mission was to basically take over Iraq, Boe was selected as a NASA pilot in 2000 and a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house that's the space station assigned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. and make it a five-bedroom, two-bath. We brought up an He said he was "extremely fortunate" to be picked on his extra bathroom, brought up extra sleeping quarters, an extra first try. "We have people in our office that applied five times. kitchen," Boe said.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

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Piloted by Eric Boe, the shuttle carried fellow Tech alumni Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus. Alan Poindexter, AE 86, was a spacecraft communicator at Mission Control.

So if they gave up on the third time, they never would be an astronaut."

Boe said he believes the world now is in the Roaring Twenties of space exploration.

"After World War I, we had airplanes and we had pilots, but we didn't really have a great mission. ... If I ask you, 'What is an airplane good for today?' all of you could give me probably 20, 50, maybe 100 reasons why we use airplanes," he said.

"Space will be the same way. Someday, we'll look back and say, 'Why weren't we going to space?'"

Boe said NASA could send astronauts back to the moon by 2019. A new "Apollo-like" crew exploration vehicle with a capsule designed to carry six people to the space station and four to the moon is expected to be completed by 2015.

Whereas crew members aboard Apollo spent about a day at the moon, Boe said astronauts on the next lunar mission could spend up to two weeks there on their first visit and set up for a long-term stay after that.

But with the space shuttle scheduled to be phased out

next year and a new administration in the White House, the direction of the space program is uncertain.

Boe said support and enthusiasm for the U.S. space program no longer matches that of the days of the Apollo missions.

"A lot of people think that NASA's budget is huge, but it's really about half of a percent of the entire national budget," he said. "Really whatever the country wants us to do with the space program is what we're going to be doing."

Still, Boe is optimistic about the space program. "We're going to go to the moon at some time. We're going to Mars.

Someday, a lot of the stuff you see in science fiction will be reality."

And he said he's envious of future space explorers.

"We're at a really cool time in history with technology. A lot of things are coming together, and really one of the big challenges we have is ... getting our hands around this information and figuring out a way to organize it in a constructive way. A lot of you are going to be the ones to solve those problems."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2009

61

RESEARCH

Jie Xu: Salmonella Detective

By Van Jensen Nearly 700 illnesses and nine deaths from salmonella infection have been traced to contamination at Peanut Corporation of America plants, with people in 45 states and Canada affected since January. If Georgia Tech Research Institute scientist Jie Xu has her way, the scope offuture outbreaks will be much smaller. Xu, PhD Own 00, has developed a small, portable detector capable of identifying salmonella, as well as chlorine, avian influenza and a host of other contaminants, that could help health inspectors and emergency responders auickly identify infections and warn of potential outbreaks.

How did you become involved in detection research?

The optical biosensor has been under development since I joined the Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory in 2001.

Georgia Tech's Agricultural Technology Research Program funded the salmonella detection aspect. The goal is to develop a rapid-detection method to identify bacteria species and concentration in poultry products. I was hired to develop and optimize the detection method and make the sensor more sensitive.

What are the challenges in developing a salmonella detector?

Ideally, the sensor device needs to provide the detection limit below the infectious dose to protect consumers. For salmonella detection, it requires a very sensitive transducer because of its low infectious dose, as few as 20 to 50 cells.

With the goal to limit any enrichment and/or preconcentration steps, it's a challenge for a sensor-based detection system. Lack of viability testing remains a second major limitation for sensors based on the immunoassays in the applications for food testing. A false positive from the dead bacteria detection could cause an expensive result.

The complexity of a food matrix is the third challenge.

Questions for how to prepare samples, when to test and what to test have to be answered before the sensor can be used in the real applications.

How can a detector be used and what impact could it have?

The sensor device is a universal platform. It is inexpensive, portable and able to detect both chemicals and biological agents simultaneously and within minutes. It can be used to provide real-time analysis for end users, including poultry processors, public health inspectors and emergency medical service workers, who may be able to use it to keep isolated cases from spreading into an outbreak.

62

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

I NC l l l l l l K I

What brought you to Georgia Tech?

I was invited to professor Lawrence Bottomley's group in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry for a short visit when I was a graduate student in China in 1994. When I came to Georgia Tech, I was impressed by the people, facilities and opportunities here and then made a decision to attend doctoral school here.

Outside of work, what hobbies do you have?

I like to read novels, watch movies and play ping-pong â&#x20AC;&#x201D; although they are luxuries to me now. 1 am occupied right away by my two lovely kids when I get home from work.

What are you reading now?

I am reading the Harry Potter series with my son.

What can't you leave home without?

1 have to kiss my kids before I leave.

Georgia Tech Alumni Associate

W/J

wJHI/li it.

Meetings of the Women's Alumni Network Nadia Bilchik is a well-known news anchor, speaker, trainer and communications consultant on several continents. She has anchored for the CNN Airport Network, and has hosted various feature programs for CNN International. Nadia's unique, fun and practical approach to communication skills comes from her experience interviewing and consulting with world renowned figures, celebrities and corporations.

Developing Personal I ^Lr ^^ *t~r I • ^^ TT— 7/?e Afr///ry to Persuade and Influence with the Use of Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

with Nadia Bilchik Nadia received a Licentiate in Speech and Drama from Trinity College, London, and a Masters in Drama and English from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

APRIL 2 2 , 2 0 0 9 6-6:30 p.m.

Check-in and hors d'oeuvres 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Program 7:30-8 p.m.

Networking

Questions?

Tiffany Norman

404-894-7283 tiffany.norman@alumni.gatech.edu

Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Qeorgia Tech Return Address

labels Additional

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Logo Choices:

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00 for 120 Color Labels Includes Shipping and Handling Your Purchase Supports Qeorgia Tech Programs!

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Fill out this order form and send to: Qeorgia Tech Alumni Association 190 North Avenue Atlanta, QA 30313

www.gtalumni org/merchandise

YELLOW JACKETS

Inspired by Tiger Minghao Wang pursues rematch with Woods

By Van Jensen

T

here's a perception of Chinese athletes being pushed into sports as youths and enduring rigorous yearround training programs.

For Minghao Wang, now a freshman golfer at Georgia Tech, that wasn't the case at all. He started playing golf late while growing up in his native Shenzhen, China, at age 11 when his dad thought Wang might enjoy the game.

"The game came very naturally to me, and it was always fun," Wang says. "[My dad] really liked playing with his friends, and he wanted me to experience it. Then I really liked to play tournaments, just getting better and better.

"It's not about someone pushing you; it's about you pushing yourself."

It also, in Wang's case, is about chasing Tiger. As a 12-year-old, Wang was selected by his club in Shenzhen to play five rounds with golfing superstar Tiger Woods, who then was making his first trip to China.

"We didn't talk," Wang says. "Back then, I didn't speak that much English.

But it was very fun to play with him, to see how he shaped shots."

Wang also was inspired by the crowds closely watching Tiger's every move. From there, Wang knew he also wanted to be a profes sional golfer.

"When you see someone better, you want to work as hard as possible to beat them," he says.

Soon after that encounter, Wang's family relocated to Orlando, Fla., where he continued to excel as a golfer, winning the 2005 Florida high school state championship, ranking among the top 50 junior golfers in the country and qualifying for the 2008 U.S. Amateur tournament.

64

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

In choosing Georgia Tech to play golf in college, Wang, one of three Division I golfers from China, says he knew of the Institute's strong golfing tradition and continuing success. "I really liked the golf program and respected the academics," he says. "I knew the reputation, and it has lived up to that."

Wang, a management student, and his teammates on the top 10-ranked Jackets practice four to five hours per day.

While Wang hasn't yet cracked the top five golfers on the team, he has traveled to some tournaments, finishing 20th at the Isleworth-University of Central Florida Collegiate, 29th at the Southern Highlands Collegiate, 43rd at the Brickyard Collegiate and 69th at the Puerto Rico Classic.

Wang's strong competitiveness is perfectly at home at Tech, he says.

"We have a great practice facility, but the main thing is that Tech's players are very competitive," he says.

"You're going against the best collegians every day."

In doing so, Wang says he learns constantly from his teammates, particularly on his short game.

"Seeing how the other players adapt to shots, that will help me learn the strategy of the game," Wang says. "The courses in Florida and Georgia are very different. It's more undulating, and there are more trees here. It's a lot more than just hitting the ball straight."

If Wang can continue improving through college, he says he'll take a shot at the PGA Tour. And he wants a rematch with Tiger.

Photo: Sam Morgan

'Shirley Would Be So Proud'of Mewborn Field The field, at Eighth and Fowler streets, sits on what was Alexander Memorial A beautiful day Coliseum parking and, and two Yellow Jackets before that, an intramural wins made for a persports field. fect opening of Shirley Tech won the first game Clements Mewborn over Tennessee-Martin draField, named for one of matically, 2-1 on a late home the first female gradurun, clinching coach Sharon ates of Tech and the Perkins' 100th win at the first female Alumni Institute. The team won her Association president.

101st by a 7-5 margin.

Mewborn, EE 56, The field can hold 1,500 died in 2003 of cancer. spectators in its seats and Her husband, Duke two berms. Rain that drains Mewborn, Cls 56, was Van Jensen off the field is collected in a the principal donor for The marching band played as the Tech softball team stepped onto Mewborn Field. cistern, which can provide the $5 million park. He spoke during the March 10 opening ceremony. more than two weeks' worth of water to the outfield grass.

The stadium was built in just a year, and workers were laying "Wow, what a facility," Mewborn said. "Shirley would be bricks up to an hour before game time. so proud."

By Van Jensen

Alumni Affinity Groups connect alumni who share common interests from their Tech experiences.

Find yours today and get connected!

Visit http://gtalumni.org/pages/affinitygroups for more information.

Georgia Tech Alumni

upporting Music At Georgia Tech During this school year, Georgia Tech Music students and faculty have benefited from the use of quality new Yamaha Pianos, Yamaha Disklaviers, and Yamaha Clavinovas. These superb instruments have been loaned to us at no cost by Yamaha Corporation of America. This generous program has allowed us to use outstanding pianos on a daily basis; pianos that are well beyond our budget capacity. At the end of this school year, these instruments will be made available for purchase at very reduced prices for Georgia Tech Alumni, Faculty, and Staff. These pianos are less than one year old, have been meticulously maintained, and come with a new warranty. Please support the Georgia Tech Music Department Frank Clark, Ph.D. with your purchase. Having quality pianos is essential to Director & Professor providing the best education for our Georgia Tech students.

Music Department

Preview Appointments for GT Faculty, Staff, & Alumni. Call 678-985-2612 Now to schedule your Appointment

Event will be held at the Couch Music Building Friday & Saturday May 1 & May 2 Financing, delivery, and warranty services will be provided by England Piano, the local authorized Yamaha piano dealer. Any remaining pianos will be sold to the general public on Sunday, May 3.

Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Georgia Tech Music Dept.

ŠYAMAHA

ALMANAC

R.J. Thiesen, secretary of the National Alumni Association, received a letter dated April 19,1929, and signed "Aâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;T.E., 1903."

The letter was in response to a notice that the alumnus' magazine subscription dues had not been paid for a number of years.

Enclosed with the letter was a check for $24 to pay for his Alumnus subscription for 12 years, "say 10 past and two future."

He wrote: "Quoting your letter of Feb. 15 to the delinquent alumni, 'You are proud of the Golden Tornado, national champions, we know,' well, you bet we are, and the success of the team of 1928 was surely most gratifying to all the old ramblers."

The alumnus went on to add, "I am still too keenly interested in Tech affairs and Tech men to ever want to be cut off the mailing list of the Georgia Tech Alumnus, so when you threaten to 'discontinue,' I have to get busy and send in a check."

Georgia Tech ASK 69

In the spring of '69, firefighters and television crews headed to campus when a group of enraged students held an impromptu book burning in Peters Park, setting fire to more than 100 copies of the Blueprint, below.

Students' complaints with the yearbook included its emphasis on social problems on campus, the omission of the Homecoming queen and errors aplenty, including a mix-up with fraternities. Also destroyed in the bonfire were some copies of the June 6 edition of the Technique, in which an assistant editor criticized the athletics program, and several IBM course cards, "a symbol of the students' distaste for the computerized nature of registration," the Georgia Tech Alumnus reported.

Wonderful Ed's Day was observed April 9,1969, in honor of outgoing President Edwin Harrison. More than 3,000 people gathered near the Tech Tower, above, to pay tribute.

The photograph at left from Alumni Publications' file cabinet depicts Tech students gathering on May 30,1984, to witness and document an annular solar eclipse.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2009

67

100 Business Club Tech Alumni Making the Tech Connection GIFTS MORI UJGGAG€&

PEACH ESTATE ^ = ^ RGALTY

CHARLES W. HARRISON Real Estate Consultant 346 Candler Road SE P.O. Box 170500 Atlanta, GA 30317 404-370-1820-off ice

Georgia Tech Headquarters for luggage, briefcases, leather goods, travel acessories, pens and distinctive gifts.

404-556-1931-cell 404 370-1829-fax CBR5x5@gmail.com

Atlanta - Huntsville - Birmingham Orlando - Naples - Jacksonville - T a m p a - Nashville Knoxville - Chattanooga - M a c o n - Augusta Charleston - Greenville - Spartanburg

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TBC

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T H E BENEFIT COMPANY Executive 6 Employee Benefit Planning

1-800-678-MORI

Atlantis Plumbing, Inc Michael Whitman Master Plumber G T C E Alumnus

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Direct: 678-904-9330 Fax: 678-904-9301 Toll Free: 800-837-0650 Cell: 404-372-4887 cbrown@benefitcompany.com

THE B A L D W I N GROUP George Nathan 200 Brandon Place Atlanta, GA 30328-1236 770.671.0300 gnathan@baldwinscheduling.com Construction Scheduling for projects up to $1 Billion

SSHEElEl mis HD me.

Looking for a great career?

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Richard Wittschiebe Hand 15 Simpson Street Atlanta, GA 30308 Phone: 404-688-2200 Fax: 404-688-2400 janice@rwhdesign.com

WITTSCHIEBE H A N D

Providing, planning, architectural and interior design professional services since 1984.

Mary Beth Lake for all of your real estate needs. iOV-D

www.marybethlake.com 404-495-8238

Industrial Design, 2004 Alpha Chi Omega GT Ambassador

For more information, please contact Holly Green at holly.green@alumni.gatech.edu or 404-894-0765.

Tech 100 Business Club Tech Alumni Making the Tech Connection L O O K I N G FOR CAREER C H A N G E R S TO TEACH MATH & SCIENCE

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Bruce Cook

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2625 Cumberland Parkway • Suite 200 • Atlanta, Georgia 770.803.3100 • FAX 770.803.3110 • 1.800.774.BEST COBB COUNTY M SCHOOL DISTRICT

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M E T R O P O L I T A N ATLANTA

lutions, In The Smarter

ZIEGLER TOOLS INC,

Ziegler Tools, Inc. 6215 Fulton Industrial Blvd.

Atlanta, GA 30336 404-346-5666 www.zieglertools.com

Buying

King Harrison IV D i r e c t o r o f M a r k e t i n g , IT

Fine Cedar Shoe trees Quality shoe care & Cedar products Shop online - Open 24 Hours

www.CedarMade.com Financial Services JERRY COX, CLU, ChFC Atlanta Planning Group 3715 Northside Parkway, #200-490 Atlanta, GA 30327 Investments, Estate, and Life Insurance Planning for Personal and Business Needs

(404) 816-1153 Ext. 304 Fax: (404) 814-1703 Securities offered through Investors Capital Corporation, Member NASD/SIPC

Marietta Office P.O. Box 70488 Marietta, Ga 30007 king4@k3s.com www.k3s.com 770-863-9578

For your industrial tools and supplies, please call us.

CedarMade. com

Solution"

Accelerate your body's ability to heal with oxygen Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps heal and improve quality of life in patients with conditions including: • Chronic wounds associated with diabetes, infection and circulation problems *

Delayed effects of radiation therapy 678.303.3200 • www.hyox.com 2550 Windy Hill Rd., Suite 110, Marietta, GA 30067

Frank Beacham Attorney at Law Georgia Tech Alumnus, BME 1985

Brinson, Askew, Berry Seigler, Richardson, & Davis, LLP www.brinson-askew.com

P.O. Box 5513 615 West First Street Rome, GA 30162-5513

Telephone: 706-291-8853 Atlanta Line: 404-521-0908 Telefax: 706-234-3574

fbeachamS'brinson-askew.com

For more information, please c o n t a c t Holly Green a t holly.green@alumni.gatech.edu or 4 0 4 - 8 9 4 - 0 7 6 5 .

Tech 100 Business Club Tech Alumni Making the Tech Connection

HUNTER

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Hunter Technical Resources provides the (x\sl IT recruiting services Atlanta has to offer, We will quickly produce resources to match your specific needs. With unmatched back office support and a ti ill package < if benefits, Hunter makes it possible tor our people to focLLS on your problem. Contact Clint Bailey at 4()4 459 7373 to learn more; or visit

Delaine Ross, CPT, RKC (404) 380-1111 delaine@gymcondition.com www.gymcondition.com 659 Aubum Ave #157- Atlanta, GA- 30312

vvwvw.htrjobs.com

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RETIREMENT PLANNING SERVICES +

The image people.

Al Cutbreth, Jr., CFP®, CLU

SCREEN PRINTING - EMBROIDERY • BANNERS & SIGNS AD SPECIALITIES • TEAM UNIFORMS

Visit us online www.servicesplus.btz • email: al@servicesplus.biz 100 Commercial Court, Suite B Savannah, GA 31406 TEL (912)920-1914 i n FAX (912)356-1000

K. Farrar Wood-MGT 1985 Georgia Area Developer 770-643-0200

2459 Heritage Village #12 Snellville, GA 30078 TEL (770)979-1301 FAX (770)979-6669

'

SIX ATLANTA LOCATIONS www.instantimprints.com

W h a r t o n Certificate In Retirement Planning

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FRANCHISES AVAILABLE

Atlanta Fine Homes

Jae Kim, Broker/Realtor

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INTERNATIONAL REALTY

To market or to find a distinctive home requires uncommon knowledge and resources.

Office: (803)454-1600 (Vll:(X03)34X-3052 www.JaeKimHomes.com JaeKim@Remax.net

Bill Ransom FOUNDING

PARTNER

404.974.4433

The Real Estate Leaders

RansomTeam.com

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George H Bergmark III Partner gbergmark@b2bcfo.com

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P.O. Box 76025 Sandy Springs, GA 30358-6025

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Fax: 404.393.6921

For more information, please contact Holly Green at holly.green@alumni.gatech.edu or 404-894-0765.

Tech 100 Business Club Tech Alumni Making the Tech Connection

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Teresa M. H. Ebbs, IE '01 Director of Operations

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Payroll services that power productivity,

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C h r i s Pappadakis Principal & CEO

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1984-2009 - Celebrating our 25th Anniversary

9 chris@acupaysolutions.com

1718 Peachtree St., Suite 599 Atlanta, GA 30309

750 Hammond Drive • Building 10. Suite 200 Atlanta. t»A 50328 * www.acunays.oliitions.com

RAY SUTTON

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Arke Systems Innovate Without Boundaries

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Dorian E. Grant

Owner Phone: (404)550-9955 Fax:(404)795-0413 email: info@goodriddancejunkremoval.com www.goodriddancejunkremoval.com

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HEAVY INDUSTRIAL CONTRACTORS

Jeni Bogdan The Saxon Group, Inc., Industrial Contractors 249 North Price Road, Sugar Hill, GA 30518 770-271-2174 FAX 770-271-2176 JBogdan@TheSaxonGrouplnc.com For more information, please contact Holly Green at holly.green@alumni.gatech.edu or 404-894-0765.

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Ancient Egypt came back to life at the Atlanta Civic Center in February for the Gold & White Honors.

Newly named Distinguished Service Award recipients are Wayne Clough, Allen Ecker and Wade Mitchell.

Commended for community service were John Burson and Tom Coleman. The Outstanding Young Alumna is Heather Rocker. Named honorary alumni were Anne Clough, Theo Silas and Greg Stathis.

Photo tiy Eric Tumor

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Successful meetings. Positive results.

Everything you should expect and more... .. .including a SPECIAL SAVINGS PLAN for our Georgia Tech Family and Friends. earn more at www.gatechcenter.com/offer/gtalumni

Georgia l e c h Global Learning Center

Conveniently located in Midtown Atlanta 404-385-6203 Âť www.gatechcenter.com 84 Fifth St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30308-1031

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