Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Vol. 94 No. 4, Winter 2018

DEMYSTIFYING ADMISSIONS

A L U M N I

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

( )

OR M I N U T E S LESS

THESIS IN THREE

M A G A Z I N E

DECISIONS, DECISIONS ROMAN REIGNS' TOUGH REMATCH

VOLUME

94 NO.4 WINTER

FORKS IN THE ROAD

WHEN FACED WITH DIVERGENT PATHS, RAMBLIN’ WRECKS USE THEIR RESILIENCE TO TURN DETOURS INTO OPPORTUNITIES.

2018

“It’s extremely important to our family to continually give back and to show gratitude for the many ways in which our lives have been blessed and enriched.”

— Ricky, IA 1996, and Lisa Novak For Ricky B. and Lisa Novak, gratitude is an action. The first

on numerous real estate and tax topics, and has written for a

member of his family to attend Georgia Tech, Novak describes

variety of industry publications. The Atlanta Bar Association

his undergraduate years as a crucial period in his life. “Tech

has awarded Novak both the Distinguished Service and

taught me many life lessons that helped mold me into the

Member of Distinction Awards.

person I am today,” Novak said.

After graduating from Tech, Novak continued his education

The Novak family’s gift is a bequest provision that establishes the Novak Family Scholarship Endowment Fund,

at Emory University, where he earned a JD with a concentration

for students pursuing degrees in the Ivan Allen College

in tax, real estate, and international law. Novak completed

of Liberal Arts; the Novak Family Basketball Scholarship

additional coursework at the Jagiellonian University School of

Endowment Fund; and the Novak Family Football Scholarship

Law in Krakow, Poland and at Yale University.

Endowment Fund.

Novak is a co-managing partner of Atlanta-based Strategic Group of Companies, a diversified consulting and private equity firm that focuses on both real estate and tax mitigation,

In addition, the Novak estate plan will support the Josh Buehler Memorial Scholarship for Cheerleading.

Novak credits his time at Tech for much of his career

including 1031 Exchanges, federal and state tax credit and

success and hopes his family’s generous gift “can help make

deduction strategies, Opportunity Zone investments, and real

even the smallest difference in the Institute’s academic and

estate private equity. He is a nationally recognized speaker

athletic programs.”

Founders’ Council is the honorary society recognizing donors who have made estate or life-income gifts of $25,000 or more for the support of Georgia Tech. For more information, please contact: 404.894.4678 • founderscouncil@dev.gatech.edu • gatech.giftplans.org

Courses

Certificates

Degrees

Online & On-site

pe.gatech.edu/alumni2018

NEVER JUST A

WORKER BEE CONTINUE YOUR SUCCESS STORY

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 94, No. 4

Reflecting on a Year of Success and New Paths Ahead AS WE ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK upon a new year, it’s an appropriate time to take stock of the great blessings accorded to all of us at this great institution. First and foremost, we want to thank you, our alumni, for your great passion and loyalty to Georgia Tech.

The North Avenue Trade School wouldn’t be what it is today without the advocacy, service, philanthropy and leadership that you provide.

No university can achieve its aspirations without the robust, continuous and passionate support of its alumni. In this issue of the Alumni Magazine, you’ll read about our new Gold & White Honors recipients, seven extraordinary individuals who have made waves in their careers, given back to their communities and carried the torch proudly for Tech for many years.

Believe it or not, the Alumni Association is now completing its 110th year of existence supporting the Institute and its alumni. It’s been an extraordinary history and bodes well for the future of Tech. Over the course of 2018, we had a remarkable year in many ways, and you can see some of the results in our enclosed Alumni Association Annual Report (page 83).

Looking forward, the Board of Trustees, our staff, students and other constituents worked together to put together a new, five-year strategic plan that will give your Association renewed focus on key areas for improvement and growth. Of note, we didn’t modify our mission—“to serve and promote the Institute and our alumni to foster lifelong participation and philanthropic support for Tech.” We did add a new vision statement, however: “We aspire to listen and understand the needs of our alumni in order to best serve, inform and engage them so that they will answer the call from Georgia Tech in whatever form it may come.”

On top of the Association’s value

4 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

PUBLISHER Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 VP MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS Dawn Churi EDITOR Roger Slavens ASSISTANT EDITOR Melissa Fralick DESIGNER Karen Matthes

framework of res p e c t , h o n e s t y, accountability, loyalty and our ongoing co m m i t m e n ts to learning and excellence, we’ll be adding some new strategic priorities. In the new year and beyond, you’ll see us up our efforts to improve our organization’s innovation, collaboration, flexibility, resourcefulness and market focus that will help guide our thinking and actions.

Speaking of key values, Georgia Tech alumni are famous for two more: resilience and adaptability. Robert Frost famously wrote “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood … and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

This issue explores the fascinating stories of several Tech graduates, faculty members and students who have hit such forks in the road and the choices they’ve made.

The magazine even delves into Institute research about the decision-making processes at play once we encounter a crossroads in life (page 50).

Thanks for reading, and thanks again for supporting Tech. All world-class universities have five critical characteristics: great leadership, extraordinary students, amazing faculty and researchers, terrific facilities, and last and certainly not least, outstanding alumni support.

Go Jackets!

COPY EDITOR Rebecca Bowen STUDENT ASSISTANTS Erting Zhu & Chandler Witucki EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Bird Blitch, IE 97, Chair David Bottoms, Mgt 01, Past Chair Sheri Prucka, EE 82, MS EE 84, Chair-Elect/Vice Chair of Roll Call Brent Zelnak, Mgt 94, Vice Chair of Finance Shan Pesaru, CmpE 05, Member at Large Magd Riad, IE 01, Member at Large Jocelyn Stargel, IE 82, MS IE 86, Member at Large Tyler Townsend, IE 98, Member at Large Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, President & CEO BOARD OF TRUSTEES Michelle Adkins, IM 83; Clint Bailey, TE 97; Lee Baker, IE 90; Carlos Barroso, ChE 80; Amrit Bhavinani, CM 09; Trevor Boehm, ME 99, MS ME 04; Jeff Bogdan, Mgt 88, MS MOT 98; Rita Breen, Psy 90, MS IE 92; Randy Cain, IE 91; Katie Davidson, Mgt 89; Sam Gude, MBA 08; Julie Hall, Phys 99; Scott Hall, ME 96; Cathy Hill, EE 84; Tim Holman, MS EE 88, PhD EE 94; Keith Jackson, Mgt 88; Plez Joyner, EE 89; Ross Mason, IE 92; Juan Michelena, TE 85; Angela Mitchell, PTCH 04; Jerald C. Mitchell, MBA 11; Alex Muñoz, Mgt 88; Anu Parvatiyar, BME 08; Blake Patton, IE 93; Amy Phuong, IA 05, MBA 14; Bert Reeves Jr., Mgt 00; Amy Rich, MBA 12; Jean Marie Richardson, Mgt 02; David Sotto, BME 09, PhD BioE 15; James Stovall, CS 01; Kristen Thorvig, STC 98; Betty Tong, ME 93, MS ME 95; David Touwsma, IE 97; Brian Tyson, EE 10; Stephenie Whitfield, Bio 93; Bruce Wilson, EE 78, MS EE 80 ADVERTISING Joseph P. Irwin (404) 894-2391 joe.irwin@gatech.edu GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN: 1061-9747) is published quarterly by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313. Periodical postage paid in Atlanta and additional mailing offices. © 2018 Georgia Tech Alumni Association POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313.

TELEPHONE Georgia Tech Alumni Association (404) 894-2391

JOSEPH P. IRWIN, IM 80 PRESIDENT & CEO GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Cover Illustration by Charlie Layton

TABLE OF CONTENTS D E PA RT M E N T S

BACK TO SCHOOL

Victoria Dean is one of many Ramblin’ Wrecks who have switched gears to pursue their passions —which sometimes includes getting an advanced degree (or two) at Georgia Tech.

Features

64

50

58

64

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

ONE MAN, THREE STORIES

FORKS IN THE ROAD

Georgia Tech researchers weigh in on how people go about making up their minds when faced with tough choices.

Kiera Patterson

Ronald L. Johnson, MS OR 85, shares how he left Chicago’s rough West Side on a path that led to West Point, the NBA and Georgia Tech.

When faced with life’s road bumps, detours, pit stops and unexpected destinations, Yellow Jackets rise to the challenge.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 5

D E PA RT M E N T S

WELCOME, COACH!

New Yellow Jackets football head coach Geoff Collins promises to bring a lot of energy to the sidelines and on the field next season.

36

6 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics

TABLE OF CONTENTS

10 Around Campus

38 In the World

12 Demystifying Admissions Tech’s Rick Clark talks about what it takes to get in.

16 Three Minute Thesis Grad students boil down their complicated research into quick pitches.

22 Talk of Tech 28 Tech Research

40 A Portrait of the Artist Megan Fechter, BA 17, took a sharp turn after graduation.

44 Jacket Copy 46 Dollars & Sense Rich Staten, AE 88, proves the versatility of a Tech education.

The latest news and views from Georgia Tech

Ramblin’ Wrecks generating buzz beyond the Institute

70 Alumni House

30 On the Field

The scoop on Tech’s studentathletes and alumni 32 Ultimate Cage Match Joe Anoai, Cls 06, better known as pro wrestler Roman Reigns, discusses his battle with leukemia.

36 New Era for Tech Football

All about what’s going on at 190 North Avenue 72 Our Magnificent Seven Meet the 2019 Gold & White Honors recipients.

80 Nationwide Support Kudos to top Alumni Networks and leaders.

83 Annual Report 88 Ramblin’ Roll 94 In Memoriam

102 Tech History

Memories and artifacts of Tech’s storied past 102 Tech’s Brilliant Sculptor A look back at the work of a prominent sculptor and Tech professor.

106 Back Page

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 7

FEEDBACK ONE TODDLER’S CRITIQUE As I was reading the last issue of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine (Fall 2018, Vol. 94 No. 3), my almost 2-year old grandson marched over and took it from me. He then sat down and started doing a page-by-page review of the magazine. When he got to the Alumni House section and saw the giant inflatable Buzz

A PIECE OF HISTORY WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET I read with great interest the story “An Imperfect Storm” by Melissa Fralick (Fall 2018 issue) because Lt. Sam Levy was my father’s commanding officer onboard the ill-fated HMS Otranto back during WWI. My father, Victor Morris Perrin, survived the shipwreck by jumping from an upper deck of the converted British ship Otranto onto the brave British Captain Craven’s British destroyer HMS Mounsey.

My father never told me much about the experience, but he did explain why his left shoulder gave him so much immobility and pain. Due to the high waves in the storm, he tried to time his jump to hit the deck of the Mounsey as the Mounsey was going down into a wave trough, to lessen the impact on contact.

However, he timed it wrong and the Mounsey was rising on his impact with the deck. Because of the high winds, his body rotated in the air and he landed on this left shoulder.

Below deck was full, so my father

in the two-page panoramic photo spread, he stopped his flipping, looked at the giant Buzz for a minute, then let out a loud “Grrr!” (I think that’s his highest form of approval.)

He’s definitely future Tech material.

Go Jackets!

BOB “BONGO” KNAPP, PHYS 80 MADISON, ALA.

wrapped his arms and legs around a ship railing or some such to keep from being washed overboard. When the Mounsey reached Belfast, my father had to be thawed and pried from the railing.

He was hospitalized because of his shoulder and probably got frostbite, but because the warfront needed bodies, he was shipped to France where he and his fellow soldiers tried to find warmth and food, sleeping in barns and catching chickens.

Fortunately, Armistice was negotiated shortly thereafter. That’s all my father ever told me about the incident. But a few years ago, I discovered R.Neil Scott’s book Many Were Held by the Sea, which as you well know, details the entire HMS Otranto experience.

VICTOR DON PERRIN, IE 56 CREVE COEUR, MO.

Thanks so much to Melissa Fralick for writing the article (Fall 2018 issue) about the tragic fate of the HMS Otranto and of so many young soldiers aboard. I would never have known about the upcoming 100th Anniversary event on Tybee otherwise.

My uncle, Cecil Rogers, perished during this event. His body was never found, but a grave marker was nevertheless placed at the cemetery. My grandmother went to the gravesite afterward at the invitation of the government, quite an

undertaking for a farmer’s wife in Quitman, Ga., who never had electricity in her house as long as she lived.

Thanks again to the magazine, editors and writers for all you do for Georgia Tech and us old alumni.

HOWARD ROGERS, CHE 57 VIDALIA, GA.

NEED MORE POLICYMAKERS LIKE SAM NUNN TODAY The story “Preventing War and Preserving Peace” about former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and his work with the Nuclear Threat Initiative by editor and writer Roger Slavens was outstanding.

We certainly need more folks like Sam in the public square. We need policy makers who understand the art of compromise and the need to have everyone at the table.

The article also brought back some personal memories. I once worked with a U.S. representative from the Atlanta area—Ben Jones, aka “Cooter” from The Dukes of Hazard TV show. And Sam was the one Ben and the rest of us all looked to on national security issues.

I can still remember Sam saying that he had never heard a thorough discussion in the U.S. Senate about strategic reasons for taking action. He lamented that policymakers generally think short term, not long term—what an important lesson.

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH? Send letters to: Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or editor@alumni.gatech.edu. Share your personal news, birth and wedding announcements (with photos!), out-and-about snapshots and in memoriam notices at gtalumni.org/magazine.

8 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

arts@tech What I remember most, however, was Sam being so down to earth. I’ll never forget the time I got to talk to him oneon-one—not about politics, but rather about the Yellow Jacket basketball team and star point guard Dennis Scott.

Enjoy the Arts on Campus!

January 12

Manual Cinema:

JIM (JOE) WATKINS, IM 65 PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C.

The End of TV

I have to admit that I don’t often read the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine—perhaps it’s because I graduated before the computer age began. However, I read this last issue from cover to cover. It’s the single best issue of the magazine that I ever remember receiving, thanks in large part to the stories on Sam Nunn and the HMS Otranto, in particular.

Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

January 25-26

Komansé Dance Theatre: Skid February 9

Fifth House Ensemble:

Journey LIVE Gameplay Concert

WILLIAM R. MARWICK, ME 51 TULLAHOMA, TENN.

February 16

Mark Nizer

4D Comedy Juggler

Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (Required by 39 USC 3685) Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Publication No. 014-073 Frequency: Quarterly.

No. of issues published annually: Four. Annual subscription price: None. Publisher: Joseph P. Irwin Editor: Roger Slavens Owner: Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313 Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security No. of Average holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, copies of No. of mortgages or other securities: None Tax Status/The purpose, function and single issue copies each nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal published issue during income tax purposes: Has not changed in the preceding 12 months. nearest to preceding filing date 12 months Extent and nature of circulation a. Total No. Copies

86,054

140,952

b. Paid Circulation (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 354

(2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541

(3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Cariers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales & Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS

(4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS

85,053

140,129

None

None

None

None

None

None

c. Total Paid Distribution

85,053

140,129

d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541

(2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541

None

None

None

None

(3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS

None

None

(4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail

701

523

e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution

701

523

f. Total Distribution

85,754

140,652

g. Copies not Distributed

300

300

h. Total

86,054

140,952

i. Percent Paid

99.2%

99.6%

This statement of ownership has been printed in the Vol. 94, No. 4 issue of this publication. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete.

February 23 Callas in Concert–

The Hologram Tour February 23, 2019

Through cutting edge technology and extraordinary theatrical stagecraft, this first of its kind live concert brings famed opera star Maria Callas back to the stage as a hologram through breathtaking state-ofthe-art digital and laser projection for a live full concert experience featuring original recordings digitally remastered. Accompanied live on stage by the Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra.

Callas in Concert

with the Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra

March 8

Robbie Lynn Hunsinger:

Music Technologist in Concert March 29

Maya Kodes:

The Virtual Singer

Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 President & CEO, Georgia Tech Alumni Association

details and more events at

arts.gatech.edu 404-894-2787

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 9

Around Campus 10 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Courtesy of SpaceX

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 11

On Dec. 3 at 1:30 p.m., SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a payload that included Georgia Tech’s R.A.N.G.E. CubeSat. The successful launch marked the first time that an Institute-built satellite has made it into space (though there are several more in the pipeline). Thousands of miles away in Room 442 of the Guggenheim building on Tech’s campus, professor Glenn Lightsey joined dozens of aerospace engineering students to watch a livestream of the blast-off. Congratulations to professor Brian Gunter, the driving force behind the Ranging and Nanosatellite Guidance Experiment, and his team of students for their two years of effort to get the CubeSat off the ground and into the heavens.

SOARING INTO SPACE

AROUND CAMPUS

Demystifying Admissions

BY RICK CLARK, DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION

Georgia Tech’s leader on applications, enrollment and building a stellar first-year class separates fact from fiction—and the past from the present—to explain how it all works.

THERE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN a more interesting or rewarding place to serve as the director of admission in the last decade than Georgia Tech.

In that timeframe, first-year applications for admission have more than tripled from just over 10,000 in 2008 to more than 35,600 in 2018—an unprecedented increase not only in Institute history, but also around the country.

As a result, we have changed everything about how we “do admission.”

We have continually refined (or reengineered) our selection process, reorganized our staff and adopted new technology platforms to better serve students and campus. In fact, last year our team received the Institute’s “Process Improvement Excellence Award” as recognition for these innovations.

The landscape of higher education has also shifted dramatically in the last decade. In 2008, we were in the middle of the “Great Recession,” and the press and public began severely questioning the value of a college degree in general—and specific majors in particular. Since that time, many

universities have closed their doors, abandoned lagging academic programs and grappled with how to remain relevant in the 21st century.

In contrast, Tech has thrived. We sit in an enviable and powerful position, because we are exactly who we were created to be in 1885: a place committed to improving the human condition and creating a better future through “Progress and Service.”

During this time, it has been an honor (and a lot of fun) to preach “The Good Word” to potential students and usher in the next generation of Yellow Jackets.

I attribute much of our enrollment success to you, our alumni. You are unquestionably our best ambassadors.

As influencers in your workplaces and communities, you proliferate the Georgia Tech brand by inspiring students and their families to consider us for their undergraduate degree. While nearly one-third of you graduated in the last decade, this is an ever-changing place, so I wanted to answer some of the common questions I hear from alumni.

“Atlanta is a huge part of our recent success. Students are increasingly drawn to all that cities offer, such as restaurants, entertainment, a rich culture and a large, diverse population.”

12 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Rick Clark has led Tech’s admission efforts since 2008.

Q

WHY HAVE APPLICATIONS INCREASED SO MUCH IN RECENT YEARS?

Our popularity is a combination of factors. Again, coming out of the recession, families started putting a lot more emphasis on return on investment (ROI). Tech’s ROI consistently ranks among the best in the country according to publications such as Money, Kiplinger’s and Forbes.

With an average starting salary of $70,000—more than $20,000 higher than the national average—Tech is on the radar of families nationally and internationally in unprecedented numbers.

Atlanta is also a huge part of our recent success. Students are increasingly drawn to all that cities offer such as restaurants, entertainment, a rich culture and a large, diverse

FIVE-YEAR APPLICATION GROWTH YEAR

APPLICATIONS

RATE

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

25,872 27,270 30,537 31,504 35,613

33% 32% 26% 23% 23%

population. As the city grows and improves, Tech benefits. New and exciting additions in our backyard like the Atlanta BeltLine, the AT&T Foundry and the up-and- coming Coda Building (as well as everything that springs up around those types of developments) make Midtown Atlanta more attractive than ever to prospective students. As an Atlanta native, I earnestly believe there has never been a more exciting time to be here than now.

Tech’s popularity is also linked to the rise of STEM at the K-12 level. As schools put more emphasis on and resources behind their science, math, technology and robotics curricula, it generates a bigger and more talented pipeline of students. This is certainly one reason that computer science is now our largest single major, and it also explains why places like the Scheller College of Business are so popular and rising in national rankings. Today’s students understand the necessity of understanding and integrating technology in all fields and sectors.

Lastly, you cannot discount the fact that we now accept both the Common Application and the Coalition Application today compared to providing a Tech-specific application that many alumni likely remember submitting.

These applications—introduced in 2013 and 2017 respectively—streamline the admission process for students.

While applicants still complete Georgia

Q

Tech- oriented, short-answer responses, they no longer have to fill out their name, address, birthday, etc. for each individual university.

This does make it easier to apply, and students in 2018 applied on average to three more colleges than they did in 2008.

JUST HOW DOES TECH MEASURE ADMISSION SUCCESS?

Perhaps we should start by explaining that we do not define success by the number of applications we receive or the percentage of students we deny admission. If I miss anything about 2008, it is that we were accepting two out of every three applicants (although having Josh Nesbitt under center for the Yellow Jackets was also nice.) Thankfully, neither President G.P. “Bud” Peterson nor Provost Rafael L. Bras have ever played the “rankings game” in admission by asking us to chase applications in order to reduce our admit rate.

Instead, we assess success based on student performance. Tech’s first-year to second-year retention rate is 97 percent. (Compare that to the national average of 65 percent). Currently, there are only 25 universities in the United States with retention levels that high.

“Look to your left, look to your right” is now a reference to the person that may ultimately help you co-found a startup or become a fellow InVenture Prize team member. I attribute much of this success to former Tech President G. Wayne Clough, who set us on the right path by doubling down on the Institute’s commitment to student support.

Another key performance indicator is the average first-year GPA, which for students who began in the fall of 2017 set an Institute record-high of 3.45. Alumni often question if this is

simply grade inflation. The short answer is no. This is Georgia Tech. We have always enrolled smart, capable students. The difference is that now there is a strategic and unified effort by academic advisors, residence hall staff, student affairs folks and faculty to help students immediately plug into the campus support system.

We also monitor our four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates. Currently, all are at record highs (47 percent, 85 percent and 87 percent, respectively). While we would like to see these continue to increase, our bigger focus in the undergraduate experience is on teaching students how to think and adapt; helping them gain valuable knowledge and skills; and providing them opportunities to expand their global network. While some colleges are intent upon ensuring students are gone in four years, our goal is to prepare them for 40 years of success.

Q

WHO IS THE IDEAL TECH STUDENT? I do not think the typical Tech student has changed that much since 2008— perhaps not even since 1888. We have always attracted smart, hard-working, innovative, entrepreneurial students

FIVE-DECADE ENROLLMENT GROWTH (ALL STUDENTS: UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE)

1980 1990 2000 2010 2018

11,261 12,240 14,804 20,726 32,721*

*INCLUDES ONLINE MASTER’S DEGREE STUDENTS

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 13

AROUND CAMPUS TECH UNDERGRAD SNAPSHOT (2018-19 ACADEMIC YEAR)

15,572

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

38% FEMALE

35

MAJORS IN 6 COLLEGES

97%

RETENTION RATE (FIRST YEAR TO SECOND)

$70K

AVERAGE STARTING SALARY

52%

OF UNDERGRADUATES HAVE AN INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE who love to ask, “Why?” Having personally taught GT1000, sponsored clubs on campus and employed hundreds of Tech students, I know this firsthand. They incessantly ask questions. But importantly, our students never stop with simply pointing out problems. They always follow

the “Why?” with “How?”— as in “How can we improve this?” Or “How can we make this more efficient or cheaper or more accessible?”

The ideal Tech student still possesses a rare combination of intelligence, passion and humility that allows them to continually learn and collaborate. They like to be challenged and stretched—and to be around others who do so as well.

Q

WHAT DOES TECH LOOK FOR IN APPLICATIONS? Until 2009, we were essentially using a formulaic admission process to make decisions. Talking to students about admission was easy because everything was clear. “What is your GPA? What is your SAT?” At that time, essentially, if you had around a 1250 or higher SAT and a 3.7 or higher GPA, you were in. It was like running track.

We set a hurdle and students jumped it or they did not. We ran the formulas, plugged decision codes into our system, and voila! Change the toner, print the letters, grab a coffee, lick some stamps and call it a freshman class.

As both the number and quality of applicants has risen sharply and our first-year class size has remained relatively stable, we have shifted to a holistic admission review process.

Essentially, this means that we now look at far more than just academic factors. Last year, two-thirds of Tech applicants scored over 1400 on the SAT. Most are taking incredibly tough courses and rank in the top of their class. (Yes. It is a humbling job to spend months reading applications of students who are much brighter at 17 than I will ever be.)

The truth is that based on grades and scores alone, we could easily admit 75 to 80 percent of applicants.

Since Institute data shows that test scores are not the sole predictor of success on campus, and because so many students are closely grouped in the higher ranges academically, our admission

14 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

committees move extremely quickly past these to consider other factors.

These committees, which also includes faculty review, now look at a student’s high school context, the classes they had access to, the level of rigor they selected, and how they did in those courses. Essentially, we are asking: “Does this student like to be challenged and respond well when they are?”

Outside the classroom, we ask applicants to complete an extra-curricular section on the application and to review their contributions within their community. We are asking what impact and influence they have had in their schools, on their teams or clubs, within their families, with nonprofits, at their jobs or in their research.

A common misconception is that we want each student to be “well-rounded.” The truth is that we do not expect them to have “done it all.” Instead, we are asking. “Will this student be missed when they leave?” “Have they left an indelibly positive mark?”

Ultimately, we want students who will challenge and stretch their peers on campus and beyond once they graduate. We are not concerned with whether they had a specific title, but rather if we see evidence that they are making people around them better. In order to find this, we also closely read their essay and short answer responses, as well as their recommendation letters from teachers and counselors.

Decisions are also a function of institutional priorities such as class size and demographic composition. Our target for the first-year class of 2019-20 is around 2,950. With over 20,000 applications submitted in our early-action round alone this fall, we expect our overall admit rate to drop under 20 percent for the first time in Tech’s history.

In addition, as a public university, we are committed to serving our state, so we intentionally select around 60 percent of our undergraduate students from the state of Georgia, 30 percent from out of state and 10 percent

from outside the country. Last year, to achieve that desired geographic makeup, our admit rate for students from Georgia was 37 percent—significantly higher than our non-Georgia admit rate (19 percent).

Q

DOES LEGACY MATTER IN THE ADMISSION PROCESS?

Roughly 6.5 percent of our nearly 36,000 first-year applicants last year had a legacy connection to Tech. We define legacy as having a parent, sibling or grandparent who attended Tech or who currently serve as a faculty or staff member. The legacy admit rate was 15 percentage points higher than our overall average. I understand that some readers may argue, “Well, that’s just DNA at work!” We do value the impact that legacy students have on their class and the overall Georgia Tech community. In the current first-year class, nearly one out of every five students has a legacy connection.

Because the majority of legacy applicants are not admitted as first-year students, we created the conditional pathway. This is an opportunity to start college elsewhere, earn a 3.3 GPA or higher in specified classes, and then enter Tech as a transfer student the following fall. Interest in this pathway continues to grow, and over the last three years we have enrolled nearly 400 students through the Conditional Pathway Program.

THE FUTURE OF ADMISSION AT TECH Over the next 10 years, we will continue to expand Tech’s reputation, relevancy and reach by enrolling talented students from around our state, nation and world. My biggest concern when we look at accomplishing this is the cost of a Tech degree. Georgia residents currently pay just over $29,000 annually, including tuition and fees, as well as housing and meals.

Faculty member Julie Champion studies how (For thoseantibodies qualifying, a portion ofcancer. this can human can be used against be covered by the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship.) Out-of-state students

now pay over $50,000 annually with all costs included. On average, our undergraduates leave with approximately $30,000 in student loan debt.

Increasingly, we are losing incredibly talented admitted students who are unable to afford Georgia Tech (or unwilling to take on significant student loan debt) to other universities. Scholarships funded by Tech alumni, including donations for unrestricted funds through Roll Call and programs like the G. Wayne Clough Promise Scholarship, are certainly part of the solution. The Promise Program provides Georgia families with a household income of under $33,000 a pathway to a debt-free Tech degree.

However, as the quality of our applicants goes up, so too does the quality of the colleges we are competing against (see below right). While on average Tech meets less than 40 percent of a family’s demonstrated financial need, many of our competitors are not only ranked higher, but they are also providing more robust financial packages— many meeting 100 percent of demonstrated family need.

S tat i s t ics s h ow that over the last decade, students from middle-income fami l i e s a r e s te a d i ly disappearing from our student body. I am deeply concerned by that trend.

A good example of how changing the financial conversat io n ca n increa s e reputation and quali ty i s t h e At l a nta Public Schools Scholars (APS) Program, which we star ted several years ago.

This program offers

guaranteed admission to valedictorians and salutatorians from the system and covers their costs if they fall short of retaining the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship. Before the program began, we were only receiving 50 applications from APS schools. Last year we received nearly 200 applications from the system and were able to enroll more APS valedictorians and salutatorians than any other university in the nation.

Last year, we rolled out the Georgia Tech Scholars Program, which grants guaranteed admission to valedictorians or salutatorians from all across our state. This program was effective in helping us attract students from more of Georgia’s 159 counties, and ultimately Tech enrolled more top students than any other school in our state. I’m hopeful that at some point in the future, we’ll be able to add a financial component to this program that mirrors the APS Scholars Program.

TOP 10 OVERLAP UNIVERSITIES FOR ADMISSION

#1 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY #2 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

#3 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY #4 CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY #5 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN #6 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA #7 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES #8 CORNELL UNIVERSITY #9 DUKE UNIVERSITY #10 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 15

STUDENT NEWS

Thesis in Three Minutes (or Less)

BY ROGER SLAVENS

Can you take a complex work project and explain it in clear and compelling fashion in under 180 seconds?

These award-winning Tech grad students did.

THE THREE MINUTE THESIS (3MT) is a competition that began 10 years ago at the University of Queensland in Australia as a challenge for student researchers to learn to convey their often arcane, complicated projects in such a concise and clear way that virtually anybody could understand.

Today, more than 200 universities across the world participate in the competition, including Georgia Tech.

“It’s not just about students giving their presentations, but also it’s a process that helps them develop a vital professional skill,” says Marla Bruner, the Institute’s director of graduate studies. “It will help them in every avenue of their life, whether they’re out presenting their research to employers and policy makers or guiding the next generation of students into

science careers.”

Tech has held its own 3MT competition since 2015, and there’s a short, straightforward set of rules that students have to follow. Students must be currently enrolled in a master’s or doctoral degree program at Tech, and they have to be actively engaged in research to be eligible to compete.

“A competitive candidate should have a well-conceived research project, compelling data and a novel story to share,” says Jeff Garbers, who served as the master of ceremonies and works as a principal at Tech’s VentureLab, an incubator that helps students and faculty turn Tech research into startup companies.

“During the competition, each contestant has three minutes (obviously) to present their research using only

16 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

one, single static slide. The presentations are spoken-word only, and they cannot use songs or dance or poems or props.”

Finally, if anyone exceeds the 3-minute limit—there’s a countdown that clock presenters can watch—they are automatically disqualified.

Cash prizes of $1,000, $750 and $500 were given to the top three finishers at the master’s level. The overall winner at the PhD level netted $2,000 and will represent Georgia Tech at regional 3MT competitions in the spring. The two other top doctoral presentations earned $1,500 and $1,000, while a People’s Choice winner earned $500.

Four of the top 2018 3MT presentations are showcased on the following pages.

3MT DOCTORAL THESIS WINNER:

NUSAIBA BAKER, BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING “Oral Delivery of DNA-enzyme Nanoparticles Ameliorates Inflammation in a Murine Model of Ulcerative Colitis” “YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM is an amazing thing. Every day, your immune cells are traveling throughout your body looking for foreign invaders, and if they find one, they destroy it on the spot.

But with an autoimmune disease, your immune cells can no longer tell the difference between what’s foreign and what’s its body’s own tissues.

An example of this is ulcerative colitis, where the immune cells actually destroy the entire lining of the large intestine. Patients with ulcerative colitis experience pain, inflammation, weight loss and even cancer.

Unfortunately, the incidence of ulcerative colitis is on the rise, and current therapies are just not doing the trick. They face two big problems. The first being that a lot of them are given by injection and like any of you, injecting yourself weekly or even daily would make you not want to take that medication. Second is that the strategy of these drugs is to dampen and put the entire immune system to sleep, which does the job of turning off that inflammation, but it leaves the body susceptible to infection and the patients can actually get sicker than they were to begin with.

My project aims to solve both those problems. First, I’m developing an orally deliverable, nanoparticle-based drug.

This drug travels throughout the digestive tract until it reaches the large intestine and

Christopher Moore

3MT

is activated by the inflammation going on in the large intestine.

Not only that, but because of the way I’ve designed these nanoparticles, we actually trick the immune cells into eating them up, thinking that they’re something that they should engulf.

A l s o, I a c t u a l ly coat these nanoparticles in tiny strands of DNA , and what these DNA do is that Director of Graduate Studies Marla Bruner (left) presented the they attach to the inawards to the 3MT competition winners like Nusaiba Baker. flammatory signals causing this disease and break them down. Now this is revoluBecause I am able to take this specific tionary because not only are we targeting and targetable drug to solve the question specifically the cells that are causing this inof inflammation and colitis, we can also apflammation, but also we are breaking down ply this to other autoimmune diseases that the signals that are causing the symptoms have similar symptoms. I’m really excited to before they’re even released into the body. share my work with you because I truly beIn a recent study that I did on the mouse lieve that this research will really change the model of ulcerative colitis, when I delivered way we deliver drugs to patients with authese drugs orally, not only did the mice retoimmune diseases while also improving solve their symptoms of colitis but they their quality of life and increasing their lifesstarted gaining weight and looking like norpans—allowing them to live happier and mal mice. But this is only the beginning. healthier.”

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 17

STUDENT NEWS

3MT DOCTORAL THESIS RUNNER-UP: FRANSISCO QUINTERO, MATERIALS SCIENCE

3MT

“Solid Lithium Batteries and How To Deal With A Diva” “WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME that you charged your phone? Last night? This morning? OK, maybe you need to charge your phone now.

Have you ever wondered why you need to charge your phone so often, or what we can do to make the charge last longer? I’m going to try to answer those questions, and don’t worry, the answer is not to stop watching YouTube videos or playing Pokemon Go. The answer comes from within—the battery.

First, let’s have a look at how a battery works. A battery is made of a negative side, a positive side, and a liquid in the middle.

When you use your phone, what happens inside your battery is like a game. Tiny lithium balls move from one side to the other through the liquid in the middle. But, why do you have to charge your phone every day?

The reason is the negative side. You can think of it as the source of lithium balls. The more lithium balls you have in the battery, the longer the charge will last. The negative

side of the battery in your phones is made of the same material as the tip of a pencil. It can only keep enough lithium balls for one day. If you had pure lithium instead, you could have 10 times more lithium balls. This means that you would have to charge your phone every 10 days instead of every day.

But it’s not so simple. Pure lithium is a big star of the battery game but also it’s a problematic diva. If you put it in contact with the liquid in the middle, your battery will explode. Now, to fix that, we replace the liquid with a solid. But again, remember that pure lithium is a big diva. If you put it in contact with the solid, the solid will start

18 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

changing and it will break. So, how do you deal with the diva?

Here’s where my thesis comes in.

My strategy to deal with the diva is to put a mediator between pure lithium and the solid. This mediator is a material that can stand the strong personality of lithium and remain unchanged.

Using this strategy, we found a material that actually works. No explosions, no cracks, 10 times more charge.

Soon, when someone walks up to the stage and asks you when was the last time that you charged your phone, maybe the answer will not be so obvious.”

Christopher Moore

3MT MASTER’S THESIS WINNER:

EUGENE MANGORTEY, AEROSPACE ENGINEERING “Predicting the Duration and Coincidence of Ground Delay Programs and Ground Stops” “SO MANY OF US have had to deal with flight delays. And how many times have you asked yourself, ‘Is my flight delay really going to last two hours, or is it going to be just 30 minutes or will it last three hours?’ My research is aimed at helping airlines and passengers solve this problem.

Whenever an airport is faced with inclement weather or aircraft congestion or runway closures, for example, traffic management initiatives are instituted. Two of these are ground delay programs and ground stops. A ground delay program lasts for a long period of time and during this time flights can depart—they just leave later than expected. On the other hand, ground stops last short periods and during this time flights are grounded and cannot take off.

My thesis has two objectives. The first one focuses on how ground delay programs and ground stops work, as well as their durations.

When conditions are projected to be bad at an aiport, a ground stop or ground delay program can be proposed, after some time becomes active and then is canceled when conditions improve. However, sometimes conditions can change suddenly, which means the duration of the stop or delay also changes—but airlines and passengers do

not know this is going to happen. So the first objective of this thesis focuses on more accurately predicting the duration of ground delays and ground stops, as well as updates to their duration.

The second objective focuses on the coincidence of these two events. As I said, with a ground delay program, flights can take off— just later than expected. But imagine taking off from the airport after a delay, and then finding out that conditions have worsened and your flight either has to return or be diverted somewhere else. This is inconvenient for both passengers and airlines.

So the second objective focuses on predicting the coincidence of ground delay programs and ground stops, as well as their duration.

That way, flights can stay on the ground instead of taking off only to return. These two objectives can be achieved using data fusion by

fusing weather, flight and air traffic data. Machine learning techniques will then be applied to this data to develop better prediction models. Different machine learning techniques will be used to develop these prediction models, and their performance will be evaluated to identify the most efficient machine learning technique for developing these models.

The expected benefits and contributions of these prediction models should help airlines and passengers plan more appropriately for ground delays and stops. Using them, an airline will know if it should let a flight take off even if conditions could get worse or if it should keep it grounded. Meanwhile, airline passengers can plan further trips appropriately. It would also help Federal Aviation Administration analysts and researchers plan traffic management initiatives much more efficiently.”

3MT

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 19

STUDENT NEWS 3MT PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER:

MEGAN TOMKO, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

3MT

“Academic Makerspaces: Sites of Learning for Women Students” “IN ONE DECADE, the number of maker spaces increased nearly 14-fold worldwide.

So while these spaces are a growing worldwide phenomenon, there’s a lack of empirical evidence that shows the value of making experiences and maker spaces for the professional development of STEM students in higher education.

Yet universities like Georgia Tech have poured millions of dollars into building staffing and outfitting academic maker spaces at their respective campuses. The lack of empirical evidence stems from the fact that these spaces are not the traditional classroom setting. They’re labeled as informal, interactive, collaborative, self-paced and problem based.

These types of characteristics do not lend themselves well to controlled quasi-experimental studies and call for the need of a methodology that matches the complexity of these environments. In my research, I use a variety of qualitative research methods to study the impact of these spaces specifically on the lived experiences of women students who are active users of the different maker spaces at Georgia Tech.

So this means that these are first-hand accounts of people who seek out the space for more than just class-based projects. Now the benefit of qualitative research methods are that they highlight the context and they feature the voices of participants, which is highly useful when looking at understudied environments like maker spaces and underrepresented populations, like women.

I focused on women’s experiences because there still remains a low population of women students who are using these spaces and in general in the STEM fields. I think that Terry Nordoch, who is a volunteer at a feminist maker space in Pittsburgh, puts it perfectly: ‘There are still these unspoken societal rules that assign gender to the making and designing of things.’

So, in my research, one of the techniques that I use in order to understand these women’s experiences is a three-step interview

20 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

protocol where I ask the students to talk about how they got involved in the space, what it’s like to be a part of the space and how they see this impacting them.

One of the students actually came in premed and, after having a class that involved the maker space, she decided that she wanted to do design for a living. I’m also able to extract the types of learning that are associated with the space. Modalities such as learning by doing, learning by working with others, the learning outcomes such as content knowledge, cultural knowledge, creativity, confidence, communication skills and management skills, along with the pathways for entry into the space—why did they come in and why did they stay?

In the long run I expect to have transformative insights for pedagogical learning and also initiatives for women in STEM because this is still a big problem.”

Christopher Moore

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association partners exclusively with Liberty Mutual to help you save $782 or more a year on auto and home insurance.1

Join thousands of satisfied customers with Liberty Mutual Insurance.2 Discounted Rates—You could save up to $782 a year on auto insurance and receive additional discounts on home insurance.

Exceptional Service—Whether you’re in an accident or just need some advice, know we’ll always be on call for you.

Superior Benefits—Enjoy a number of superior benefits, such as 24-Hour Claims Assistance, Accident Forgiveness3, Roadside Assistance4 and Better Car Replacement.™5

For a free quote, call 888-618-2146 or visit Libertymutual.com/gtalumni Client # 5906 This organization receives financial support for offering this auto and home benefits program.

1 Average combined annual savings based on countrywide survey of new customers from 1/1/15 to 1/29/16 who reported their prior insurers’ premiums when they switched to Liberty Mutual. Savings comparison does not apply in MA. 2 Based on Liberty Mutual Insurance Company’s 2014 Customer Satisfaction Survey in which more than 81% of policyholders reported their interaction with Liberty Mutual service representatives to be “among the best experiences” and “better than average.” 3 For qualifying customers only. Accident Forgiveness is subject to terms and conditions of Liberty Mutual’s underwriting guidelines. Not available in CA and may vary by state. 4 With the purchase of optional Towing & Labor coverage. Applies to mechanical breakdowns and disablements only. Towing related to accidents would be covered under your Collision or Other Than Collision coverage. 5 Optional coverage in some states. Availability varies by state. Eligibility rules apply.

Coverage provided and underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance and its affiliates, 175 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116. ©2018 Liberty Mutual Insurance Valid through December 13, 2018.

TALK OF TECH

The Fruits of Recycling Campus Wastewater

BY KENNA SIMMONS

EVEN IF YOU DO YOUR BEST to eat local, chances are most of the fruits and vegetables you consume come from far away—especially if you live in a big city. Water and land for growing crops are hard to come by in urban areas. Finding more sustainable methods for growing produce in urban areas would have enormous benefits.

A pilot project by Georgia Tech’s Yongsheng Chen, a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, aims to use wastewater from the campus to do just that.

“The overarching goal is trying to figure out a way to use wastewater nutrients to grow produce in urban areas so we can decentralize vegetable production,” Chen says. A $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will fund the

creation and operation of a hydroponic growing system using domestic wastewater extracted from the Georgia Tech campus sewer system. It is the largest USDA award Georgia Tech has ever received.

“Currently we treat wastewater by taking all the nutrients from it,” Chen says. “Then we have to use an energy-intensive process to synthesize and add fertilizer to the food production process.”

The proposed anaerobic membrane biological treatment process will transfer organic contaminants into biogas and remove pathogens such as E. coli to ensure food safety, but the nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potasLeading the pilot project for the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering are (from left) postsium, for example) will remain. By using a smart doctoral fellow Bopeng Zhang, professor Yongsheng Chen and research assistant Thomas Igou. membrane or nanomaterials to extract trace contaminants like endocrine disruptors, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals, the nutrients that are left can be pumped through a vertical hydroponic system to grow produce without adding fertilizer. The project will monitor water and produce quality and measure contamination from chemicals and microbes continuously.

The overall goal, said Chen, is to show that using the nutrients and water resources from domestic wastewater in an urban controlled environment agriculture system is socially, environmentally and financially sustainable and can easily be replicated in other cities. The project will closely track nutrient requirements, energy needed to produce, handle and transport the fruits and vegetables, and water needs to determine what resources are needed to support this kind of system.

22 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

TECH RANKS 34TH AMONG WORLD UNIVERSITIES

AVERY SELECTED TO LEAD ATDC GEORGIA TECH HAS SELECTED John Avery, EE 86, as its next director of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC). A serial entrepreneur who was involved in four startups, Avery assumed his position Nov. 6. Most recently, he was engineering group manager of Panasonic Automotive Systems’ Panasonic Innovation Center on Tech’s campus.

A unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²)—Georgia Tech’s outreach and economic development arm—ATDC works with more than 800 technology startup entrepreneurs each year across Georgia.

Founded in 1981, ATDC has become one of the most successful, longest-running and largest university-based startup incubators in the country.

Avery, who sits on the board of the Midtown Alliance, is a familiar presence at ATDC, having served as a mentor to its startups since July 2018.

“I am deeply honored to join ATDC and lead this amazing team,” Avery says. “ATDC’s work has resulted in the creation of great, disruptive Georgia companies in health, financial services, hardware and numerous other sectors. I look forward to continuing ATDC’s momentum of success and legacy of impact.”

The announcement follows a comprehensive, four-month national search for a new leader at ATDC following the departure of Jen Bonnett, who left in June 2018 to become the Savannah Economic Development Authority’s vice president of

Péralte Paul

innovation and entrepreneurship.

In taking the permanent appointment, Avery leads a team of 26 full- and part-time staff and advisers who run ATDC’s various initiatives—including its financial, health and retail technology verticals. They also support statewide activities and coach technology entrepreneurs in Georgia. Avery reports to Chris Downing, EI²’s vice president and director.

“John is an outstanding leader and successful entrepreneur who understands the startup journey and commercialization process, with vast relationships in the startup and business communities,” Downing says. “We’re pleased to welcome him to EI² and see him bring ATDC, one of the nation’s premiere technology incubators, to even greater success in its mission of helping entrepreneurs build great companies here in Georgia.”

At Panasonic, Avery oversaw the innovation center’s development projects in next-generation automotive systems, including infotainment, bio-sensing, machine vision, deep learning and heads-up displays. A tech startup veteran with broad experience in data and wireless voice technologies, he was co-founder and chief technology officer of Convergence Corp., a maker of software that connects wireless devices to the Internet. He holds six patents and owns Onboard Now, a developer of software for embedded devices such as smart phones, Web-enabled cameras, and industrial controls.—PÉRALTE PAUL

A NEW RANKING of world universities places Georgia Tech 34th among 1,258 institutions evaluated on five criteria including teaching, research and the impact of publication citations. The 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings also lists Georgia Tech 21st among the 172 U.S. institutions it included.

According to the rankings, research was Georgia Tech’s strongest criteria, where it placed above 90 percent of other world institutions evaluated. Georgia Tech also ranked highly in teaching, citation impact, industry income and international outlook.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 23

TALK OF TECH

The Business of Medicine Georgia Tech and Morehouse School of Medicine have teamed up to prescribe a new joint MD/MBA Degree.

BY SUSAN AMBROSETTI

INSURANCE. Contract negotiations.

Data analytics. Leadership.

Whether going into solo practice or working for a large hospital, future physicians will need these and other business skills to be successful. To help meet that need, Georgia Tech and Morehouse School of Medicine are partnering to offer a joint, five-year MD/MBA degree.

Students enroll and complete their first three years as medical students at Morehouse School of Medicine before entering Tech’s Scheller College of Business for a rigorous one-year, three-semester MBA program. The final year, students return to Morehouse to complete their fourth year of medical studies.

Allison Rowell, who worked as a registered nurse at Grady Health System and at Piedmont Hospital, is one of the program’s first two students to enroll.

“I want to leverage MBA training with my unique clinical background to develop solutions to assist health care organizations in achieving greater resource efficiency without sacrificing the quality of care,” Rowell says.

“As a clinician, I will be able to apply my understanding of medicine in the context of cost-effective, value-based health care delivery systems.”

Rowell said that as health care delivery systems become more complex and the market shifts toward valuebased care, organizations recognize the advantages of placing clinicians in leadership roles.

“My MD/MBA training will prepare me to pivot into this type of role after gaining experience as a practicing physician,” she says.

Joining Rowell in the new program is Ogechi Nwoko, who worked briefly as a clinical research coordinator for a contracting company that conducted clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies.

She has always been drawn to health care, and some of her closest role models were physicians, so she enrolled at Morehouse School of Medicine.

“I wanted a career that would not only be a challenge but would allow me to make an impact in my community,” MD/MBA students Allison Rowell (left) and Ogechi Nwoko Nwoko says. “I chose to pursue an MBA at Georgia Tech because the more I learned about medbe entrepreneurial in their mindset,” icine, the more I realized that I wanted says Scheller’s Dean Maryam Alavi. to have an impact that reached be“Our curriculum not only develops yond my community. Learning—and managerial and financial acumen, but eventually practicing—medicine is an also develops tech savvy and entreprehonor and a privilege.” neurial thinking. This combination of By offering this dual degree, Moreskills enables our MD/MBA students house School of Medicine and Georgia to thrive and excel as physicians.”

Tech’s Scheller College of Business are Both students received full fellowpreparing students to provide highships that were jointly funded by the quality healthcare in a smart, efficient Scheller College of Business and Moreway. house School of Medicine. They began “Tomorrow’s physician must be their MBA work this semester, with an business savvy, possess a lot of finanintended graduation of 2020 for both cial and managerial acumen, and also degrees.

24 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Justin Chan Photography

‘HACKGT’ FAST-TRACKS STUDENT INVENTORS FOR THE UNINITIATED, a hackathon is an exercise in collaboration. People get creative through the power and potential of technology—and teams consider a problem or an idea and then develop websites, apps and other high-tech solutions to address it. Think of it as a high-tech invention marathon.

It is no surprise that for the past five years Georgia Tech has hosted one of the largest collegiate hackathons in the U.S., or that dozens of companies have lined up to sponsor the event, including Facebook, Lyft, GM, Disney, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and NCR, among others.

This year, more than 1,000 participants from 80 different universities and institutions gathered on the Tech campus for HackGT. Over three days in October, as student teams worked nonstop on formulating their ideas and developing their projects, HackGT offered workshops and fireside chats with event sponsors and industry mentors to share their guidance and expertise.

New to the world of hackathons? No problem. Georgia Tech’s student organizers say they wanted to create an environment in which everyone felt welcome. Forty-four percent of the attendees at this year’s hackathon were newcomers.

Winning projects were selected at the end of three days—and they were unfailingly impressive, especially given the time constraints.

Four students from four different

universities developed a tool they call Vocapture. It uses computer vision to identify objects to help English learners expand their vocabulary. The technology incorporates a smartphone camera to provide real-time text identifying the objects in view. (In one demonstration, “chair,” “desk,” “table,” and “door” appeared when scanning a classroom.) The team noted that 2 billion people will be learning English by 2020, and hoped a tool like this

might give them an advantage in honing their language skills.

Meanwhile, a student from Auburn University spent his hackathon weekend developing a bot to write a freestyle rap on any given topic. WikiBeat uses natural language processing to scan for information from the internet and matches phrases up into couplets, then lays down a beat to match the generated lyrics.

—STEVEN NORRIS

ANTÓN NAMED AS TECHNOLOGIST ADVISOR TO U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COURT ANNIE I. ANTÓN, ICS 90, MS ICS 92, PHD CS 97, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing, has been named a technologist advisor to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

Starting this month, Antón will assist the court in a part-time role. She is the only academic among the three technologists.

The FISC may receive assistance from an “amicus curiae” (friend of the court), who has expertise in privacy and civil liberties, intelligence collection, communications technology or other relevant areas.

“I am honored to be asked to assist with foreign intelligence cases that involve national security, cybersecurity and privacy,” Antón says. “Technologists play a vital role in helping the courts understand how complex systems operate in practice, in order to assure that systems comply with law.”

Antón served as chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing from 2012 to 2017. Two years ago, in 2016, she served as one of 12 members of President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 25

TALK OF TECH

A Quarter Mile in Less Than 11 Seconds—and Less Than $2,018

BY POLLY OULLETTE

Wreck Racing students engineered an old BMW into an award-winning, race-ready hot rod.

THE 1980S-ERA BMW whips around the autocross track, deftly maneuvering between orange cones and eventually flying across the finish line. More than 30 Georgia Tech students watch intently, hoping that a year of hard work and long nights has paid off.

These students are part of Wreck Racing, a budget racing team made up of dozens of students from across Tech’s majors. The biggest event of the year for them is the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine challenge, which requires them to build a car on a budget the same as the year of the competition: This year, the team had only $2,018 to transform an average production car to a race-ready machine.

“The toughest part of the process is getting started and finding that initial design direction,” says Lawson Sumner, an undergraduate student in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and president of Wreck Racing. “Every new car and every new competition year begins with a blank whiteboard and a room full of members with big ideas.”

Each year, students challenge themselves to use their engineering and design skills to accomplish a specific goal. This year’s target was building a car that would be able to drive a quarter mile in less than 11 seconds.

That meant creating a vehicle with a big engine, strong axles and the

Georgia Tech’s Wreck Racing team finished first in concourse, third in autocross and earned second place overall at the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine challenge.

ability to excel at straight-line speed.

Drag racing was just one aspect of the competition. Autocross was another, which focuses on handling and maneuverability on a flat track. The final aspect was called concourse, in which the team is judged on the overall engineering and presentation of the car.

Staying under $2,018 is just as tough as one would imagine. This year, it meant buying an old BMW for $400 from a used car dealership, digging through junkyards and scouring sites like eBay and Craigslist for cheap parts. What they can’t find, Wreck Racing makes themselves.

“We’ve been working on it for about

26 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

a full year start to finish,” says Jordan Rich, former press secretary of Wreck Racing and industrial design student. “We took the whole thing apart and basically went through systemby-system and rebuilt everything to make it a faster race car.”

Wreck Racing is housed in the Georgia Tech Student Competition Center on the corner of 14th Street and Northside Drive, a huge complex that allows automotive and robotics teams the space and equipment they need to engineer elaborate machines. Wreck Racing uses this facility to custom build the whole suspension of the car, as well as many other components.

COMING HOME: HOW TECH HELPS VETERANS TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE The members meet at least twice a week to work on their car, utilizing the theoretical knowledge they learned in their classes for this practical application. Engineers of different majors allow students to specialize on different systems in the car, with electrical and computer engineers focusing on the electrical systems, while mechanical engineers might look at how loads affect the suspension of the car.

“As a mechanical engineer, my school curriculum in physics, statics, and CAD design created a basis for me to develop skills to build a vehicle,” Sumner says. “All of our E28 BMW’s suspension components we developed with Solidworks CAD software and tested in simulation using Solidwork’s suite of Finite Element Analysis tools. Understanding how loads and stresses transfer through the parts helped me to model components that would meet the necessary strength requirements.”

When it came down to competition day on Oct. 12, the team found out that the drag racing contest had been cancelled due to track maintenance issues. They made the best out of the autocross and concourse contests, and were pleasantly surprised with the vehicle’s performance in handling.

The team placed first in concourse, third in autocross and earned a second place overall result. These Ramblin’ Wrecks were particularly happy to win the award for the best engineered car.

Wreck Racing members plan to use the BMW for another two years and already have ideas for making a number of improvements. They received two turbochargers from a Caterpillar generator as a donation, which should make the car even faster than before. Other tweaks will be made, and the hope is that the car will perform even better each consecutive year.

THROUGH AN INNOVATIVE employment training program, Tech is helping veterans make a meaningful transition to civilian life in Georgia. In 2013, Georgia Tech Professional Education launched a program that prepares veterans, active-duty service members, and military spouses for jobs in the civilian world.

The award-winning Veterans Education Training and Transition (VET²) program is the first of its kind in the U.S., and it’s already changing lives in Georgia. After five years, more than 900 have graduated— and 87 percent of them have been offered employment by participating companies.

For the first week, Georgia Tech’s VET² program puts participants in the classroom, where customized content is provided by employers. Next, participants proceed to their three-week internships.

The companies that hosted or hired veterans and service members in 2018 through VET² are an impressive group, including the likes of Sikorski-Lockheed Martin and Georgia Power. VET² is free to service members and corporate sponsors, and it’s approved as a state workforce development program by the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

—STACY BRAUKMAN

VETERANS IN GEORGIA GEORGIA HAS THE FOURTH LARGEST POPULATION OF VETERANS NATIONWIDE:

770,000

OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS,

60,000

VETERANS ARE EXPECTED TO COME HOME TO GEORGIA.

VETERAN EMPLOYMENT FIVE YEARS AGO, VETERANS’ UNEMPLOYMENT WAS NEARLY DOUBLE THAT OF CIVILIANS. TODAY, IT IS

4%

TO INCREASE THEIR CHANCES OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT, VETERANS AND SERVICE MEMBERS MUST REFINE AND TRANSLATE THEIR SKILLSETS TO THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE.

WHY IT MATTERS TO GEORGIANS

87 %

OF VET² GRADUATES RECEIVE FULL-TIME JOB OFFERS FROM PARTICIPATING COMPANIES, AND THE PROGRAM HAS A 94-PERCENT COMPLETION RATE. SOME OF THE MANY PARTICIPATING COMPANIES INCLUDE GULFSTREAM, COCA-COLA, COMCAST, MITSUBISHI HITACHI POWER SYSTEMS, SAVANNAH AIRPORT COMMISSIONS, AND THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, AMONG OTHERS. ENROLLMENT HAS DOUBLED EVERY YEAR SINCE THE PROGRAM’S INCEPTION, AND

THE AVERAGE HOURLY WAGE FOR GRADUATES OF THE PROGRAM AT PLACEMENT IS

PARTICIPANTS HAVE GRADUATED.

THE STATE AVERAGE IS $10.70.

921

$29.72

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 27

TECH RESEARCH

When 3D Printing Meets Origami

BY ELIZABETH THOMSON

BY MERGING THE ANCIENT ART of origami with 21st century technology, researchers have created a one-step approach to fabricating complex origami structures whose light weight, expandability and strength could have applications in everything from biomedical devices to equipment used in space exploration. Until now, making such structures has involved multiple steps, more than one material, and assembly from smaller parts.

“What we have here is the proof of concept of an integrated system for manufacturing complex origami. It has tremendous potential applications,” says Glaucio H. Paulino, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a leader in the growing field of origami engineering, which uses the principles of origami, mathematics and geometry to make useful things.

The researchers used a relatively new kind of 3D printing called Digital Light Processing (DLP) to create groundbreaking origami structures that are not only capable of holding significant weight but can also be folded and refolded repeatedly in an action similar to the slow push and pull of an accordion. When Paulino first reported these structures, or “zippered tubes,” in 2015, they were made of paper and required gluing. In the current work, the zippered tubes—and

28 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

complex structures made out of them—are composed of one plastic (a polymer) and do not require assembly.

To make the new structures, the researchers first developed a new resin that, when cured, is very strong. “We wanted a material that is not only soft, but can also be folded hundreds of times without breaking,” says Jerry Qi, a professor in Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The resin, in turn, is key to an equally important element of the work: tiny hinges. These hinges, which occur along the creases where the origami structure folds, allow folding because they are made of a thinner layer of resin than the larger panels of which they are part.

The work was reported in a recent issue of Soft Matter, a journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

A COOL NEW FUEL CELL FUEL CELLS haven’t been known for practicality and affordability, but that may have just changed thanks to a new cell that runs on cheap fuel at comparatively low temperatures—which slashes materials costs.

This cooler methane cell has high potential to someday electrically power homes and perhaps cars, say Tech researchers who led its development. In a study in the journal Nature Energy, the researchers detailed how they reimagined the entire fuel cell with the help of a newly invented fuel catalyst.

The catalyst makes hydrogen fuel from cheap, readily available methane. And improvements throughout the cell cooled the operating temperatures that are customary in methane fuel cells dramatically, a striking engineering accomplishment.

Methane fuel cells usually require temperatures of 750 to 1,000 degrees Celsius to run.

This new one needs only about 500, which is a notch cooler than automobile combustion engines, which run at around 600 degrees Celsius.

That lower temperature could trigger cascading cost savings in the ancillary technology needed to operate a fuel cell, potentially pushing the new cell to commercial viability. The researchers feel confident that engineers can design electric power units around this fuel cell.

“Our cell could make for a straightforward, robust overall system that uses cheap stainless steel to make interconnectors,” says Meilin Liu, who led the study and is a Regents Professor in Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering. “Above 750 degrees Celsius, no metal would withstand the temperature without oxidation.”—BEN BRUMFIELD

PICKING THE RIGHT CANCER DRUG FOR THE RIGHT PATIENT THE SELECTION of a first-line chemotherapy drug to treat many types of cancer is often a clear-cut decision governed by standard-of-care protocols, but what drug should be used next if the first one fails? That’s where Georgia Tech researchers believe their new opensource, decision support tool could come in.

“By looking at RNA expression in tumors [through machine learning], we believe we can predict with high accuracy which patients are likely to respond to a particular drug,” says John McDonald, a professor in Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and director of its Integrated Cancer Research Center. “This information could be used, along with other factors, to support the decisions clinicians must make regarding chemotherapy treatment.”

In a study using RNA analysis data from 152 patient records, the system predicted

the chemotherapy drug that had provided the best outcome 80 percent of the time. The researchers believe the system’s accuracy could further improve by taking into account additional patient records along with information such as family history and demographics.

Open-source coding allows many experts across multiple fields to review the software, identify faults and recommend improvements, says Fredrik Vannberg, an assistant professor in Tech’s School of Biological Sciences. “Most importantly, that means the software is no longer a black box where you can’t see inside,” he says. “The code is openly shared for anybody to improve and check for potential issues.”

The research, which could add another component to precision medicine for cancer treatment, was reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

—JOHN TOON

Want to read more about Georgia Tech’s cutting-edge research? Sign up to receive the Institute’s monthly research e-newsletter or twice-yearly Research Horizons magazine at www.rh.gatech.edu/subscribe.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 29

On the Field

30 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 3 2018

MAKING WAVES

Every October, the annual Head of the Charles Regatta draws rowers from around the world to compete in the sport’s biggest two-day competition.

This year, the Georgia Tech Crew Team brought home first-place gold in the Collegiate 4+ event, a first for the Yellow Jackets ‘student-funded, studentrun club program, which in total includes more than 95 men and women athletes. The “Fours” squad (pictured inset) beat NCAA D1 varsity teams from Boston College, West Point, UCLA and Notre Dame in the process.

Volume 94 No. 43 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 31

ON THE FIELD

A Cage Match with the Highest Stakes

BY BILL CHASTAIN, IM 79

Former Tech football standout Joe Anoai, Cls 06—better known as professional wrestling star Roman Reigns—finds himself in a rematch against leukemia that he’s determined to win.

BULGING MUSCLES, GOOD VS. EVIL STORYLINES, AND SMACK TALK galore define World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on most nights.

Roman Reigns delivered a sobering contrast during the telecast of WWE Raw on Oct. 22, 2018. That’s when Reigns—aka former Yellow Jacket defensive lineman Joe Anoai— announced that he would be vacating his heavyweight Universal Championship title to concentrate on his health.

Anoai’s leukemia, which he first battled at age 22, had returned.

The following day, a surprisingly upbeat Anoai talked to the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine about his journey, the major fork in the road he’s now encountered twice, and the path he must follow to return to the grand life he’s made for himself through professional wrestling.

First, the battle.

Anoai, now 33, was diagnosed with leukemia 11 years ago, shortly after

leaving Tech to pursue a career in the National Football League. The news hit him at the worst possible time. He didn’t have a job or a home, he had little money and his wife was pregnant.

Fortunately, the leukemia quickly went into remission through initial treatments.

He feels he’s better prepared for the fight this time around, and he wants to make his situation clear: He’s only stepping away from wrestling temporarily to battle this recurrence of cancer—he’s not retiring.

“I think with my great support system, and the love of my family and close friends, it’s going to be a lot easier than last time,” Anoai says. “But that’s the main thing, just get healthy and get back to work. … I know everything is going to be all good again.”

Anoai believes he’s just begun to scratch the surface where “entertaining and performing” are concerned. “That’s still a big part of me,” he says. “I feel like

“It’s like the situation when people describe home, and it’s not the house, it’s the people that make it home, the family,” Anoai says. “That’s what we have at Georgia Tech. I think that’s just a part of the culture.”

32 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

I still have a long life span for my career, so I’m eager to knock this thing out of the park and get back to my normal schedule.”

The road to his stellar, still-young career as one of the WWE’s brightest stars began at Georgia Tech. And being a Yellow Jacket meant far more to Anoai than just football. Looking in the rearview mirror, he believes the people he met at Tech gave him the drive to excel and persevere whatever life threw at him.

“It’s like the situation when people describe home, and it’s not the house, it’s the people that make it home, the family,” Anoai says. “That’s what we have at Georgia Tech. I think that’s just a part of the culture.”

Anoai notes “you immediately know you’re a part of something” when you first step onto the Tech campus.

Galina Becker, Mgt 09, is inarguably the most important person Anoai met during his days at the Institute. She ran track at Tech and went on to have a successful career as a fitness model. Becker and Anoai had a lot in common—both studied business management and both were athletes. What started as a platonic friendship eventually turned into romance, and today they are married and have three children.

“She’s not only my wife, she’s my best friend,” Anoai says.

Anoai started on the defensive line for the Yellow Jackets for three years.

Courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Roman Reigns debuted as a professional wrestler in 2010.

He relinquished the WWE’s Raw Universal Championship belt this fall to battle a recurrence of leukemia.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 33

ON THE FIELD

Anoai played defensive lineman for the Yellow Jackets.

In 2006, his teammates voted him a captain for what was his senior year, and he went on to earn first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors as the team under Chan Gailey won the ACC Coastal Division.

“Playing for Tech when I did, it was such a good time and on such a good team,” he says. In total, Anoai registered 29 tackles for loss and 12 sacks during his career at Tech.

Success in the pro pigskin ranks, however, proved to be more difficult.

Anoai wasn’t selected in the 2007 draft, but signed as an undrafted player with the Minnesota Vikings. He was released in late spring, then the Jacksonville Jaguars picked him up, only to drop him a week before the start of the season.

Undeterred, Anoai played for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League in 2008, starting three games. He hoped to build up a playing resume that would get him back to the NFL, but ultimately pro football wasn’t in the cards for him. Still, he left the sport positive that he’d given it his all.

“I’m always going to be satisfied with

the effort that I put in,” Anoai says. “It was an extremely complicated time in my life, when I was getting toward the end of my football career and I had been fighting my first battle with leukemia.

But I think everything happens for a reason. So I don’t hold any grudges or negativity toward my football career. In a lot of ways, it saved my life.”

What came next didn’t come out of the blue. Professional wrestling had been a part of the Anoai family tree for decades, originating with his father (Sika) and uncle (Afa) who wrestled together as the Wild Samoans back in the 1970s and 1980s, when the sport started to pick up in popularity.

When his leukemia went into full remission, Anoai decided to follow suit, even though he was joining a profession that is by and large considered “entertainment” and not a “real sport.”

“Football and professional wrestling have their obvious differences, but what keeps them sustainable is that they’re both entertaining,” Anoai says.

“It’s all about the views and how many eyes are watching the product. The NFL and even the NCAA are businesses, and if people are not entertained by watching them, they wouldn’t be held on the shelf that they are. So the change from football to wrestling really wasn’t a big issue for me. The main part was getting out from a defensive lineman mindset and trying to

transition to becoming the quarterback, the main guy.”

Professional wrestling’s entertainment label doesn’t make the pursuit any less demanding.

“It’s still extremely athletically demanding, though I never really had any trouble learning any of the maneuvers or how to handle myself in the ring,” Anoai says. “Coming from a wrestling family gave me a huge advantage— I’ve been watching and studying their moves for years.”

But the physicality and athleticism involved aren’t the most challenging aspect of wrestling.

“When it comes down to it, the physical is a small part of the wrestling, probably 30 percent,” Anoai says. “The cerebral aspect is the most important part, about 70 percent, because you have to always be on your toes to promote your character inside and outside of the ring, especially for the live performances, regardless if they’re on TV or not.”

When Anoai found himself on the path to wrestling stardom, he lacked only a catchy name to take into the ring.

As he was cutting his teeth in the ring, he tried Joe Anoa, Leakee and then “Roman” Leakee, but none of those names stuck. Corey Graves, now a WWE commentator, urged him to stay with Roman and helped him figure out what to pair with it.

“In this roller coaster of life, you lean on each other and that’s why people bond so closely, and I think that’s why Tech is such a great community,” Anoai says.

“It’s a tight-knit community, just like in wrestling—you have to be cut from a certain cloth to succeed in both.”

34 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

FROM TECH LINEMAN TO WWE SUPERSTAR A BRIEF TIMELINE OF JOE ANOAI “ROMAN REIGNS”

1985 ATTENDED GEORGIA TECH

2007 PLAYED FOR THE EDMONTON ESKIMOS OF THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

2010 ADOPTED ROMAN REIGNS PERSONA FOR WWE

2014 WON WWE RAW HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

2018

BORN LEATI JOSPEH “JOE” ANOAI IN PENSACOLA, FLA.

2003 2006 NAMED ALL-ACC DEFENSIVE LINEMAN FIRST DIAGNOSED WITH LEUKEMIA

2008 DEBUTED AS PRO WRESTLER FOR FCW AND RECORDED FIRST WIN

“I was telling Corey I had no clue what to call myself and the pressure was on,” Anoai says. “I had thought of ‘Rains’ as a last name, and he said, ‘How about changing the spelling so it’s ‘Reigns’—like a king?’ The sound and the flow just sounded nice to me, and it kind of played into everything with my developing character.”

Thus came the birth of Roman Reigns—a persona that was first devised as a villain, but over time turned into a hero as he swiftly moved up the ranks of pro wrestling and eventually became a WWE champion.

Anoai has enjoyed his wrestling career for many of the same reasons he cherished his time at Georgia Tech, in particular the relationships.

“I’ve just made so many good friends in the WWE and beyond,” Anoai says.

“This business is a crazy business. It’s hard to understand for people, especially athletes. You’re always competing.

You’re always going at another athlete as hard as you can and you’re always trying to win.”

But ultimately it’s not the winning of matches and titles that’s most

important to Anoai. It’s entertaining the fans.

“When your performance is good, when you’ve moved the audience and you have them standing up at the end of the match—that’s winning.” he says. “We’re all winning—even if you’re the wrestler who just lost the match. Everybody is winning because the crowd has become lost in the story that we’re telling.”

Prior to the 2018 football season, Georgia Tech Athletics asked Anoai to come back and help unveil its new Adidas football uniforms and gear. “I was very flattered,” Anoai says. “It really made me happy to come home to Tech and be back in that family again.”

Anoai remains grateful for his years at Tech, and he’s hopeful about continuing his relationship with the school.

“In this roller coaster of life, you lean on each other and that’s why people bond so closely, and I think that’s why Tech is such a great community,” Anoai says. “It’s a tight-knit community, just like in wrestling—you have to be cut from a certain cloth to succeed in both.”

In less than 5 years, Roman Reigns became one of the WWE’s top superstars.

2012 MARRIED TO GALINA BECKER, MGT 09

2015 RELINQUISHED WWE RAW UNIVERSAL CHAMPIONSHIP AND STEPPED AWAY FROM RING TO FIGHT RECURRENCE OF LEUKEMIA

Courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 35

ON THE FIELD

Collins Named Georgia Tech Football Head Coach

BY MIKE FLYNN

GEOFF COLLINS, an Atlanta-area native and a former Georgia Tech football staff member who has led Temple to two bowl games in two seasons as the Owls’ head coach, has been named the 20th football head coach in Georgia Tech history.

Collins compiled a 15-10 record in his two seasons at Temple, including an 8-4 record and 7-1 mark in the American Athletic Conference this season, when the Owls’ only conference loss came at No. 8-ranked and undefeated UCF. His 15 victories at Temple are the most ever by a head coach in his first two seasons at the school.

Last season, Collins’ Owls won the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl with a 28-3 victory over Florida International, good for Temple’s first bowl win since 2011. This year, the Owls earned a berth in the 2018 Independence Bowl, where they will face Duke.

Prior to becoming head coach at Temple, Collins was one of the nation’s most respected defensive coordinators,

THANKS P.J.!

serving in the role at Florida (2015-16), Mississippi State (2013-14), Florida International (2010) and his alma mater, Western Carolina (2002-05). He is the only coach to ever be nominated for the Broyles Award, given to college football’s top assistant coach, at three different schools (Florida International in 2010, MisAthletic director Todd Stansbury, IM 84, with Geoff Collins (right) sissippi State in 2014 and Florida in 2015). recruiting coordinator).

Collins’ 26-year career also in As a recruiter, he helped the Yellow cludes a pair of stints at Georgia Jackets land the highest-rated recruiting Tech, first as a graduate assistant and class in program history in 2006, and the tight ends coach under head coach next year helped Alabama sign the No. 1 George O’Leary from 1999-2001, then class in the nation, which included runas recruiting coordinator under head ning back Mark Ingram, who went on to coach Chan Gailey in 2006. His coach- become a Heisman Trophy winner and a ing experience also includes stops at star NFL player.

Fordham, Albright, Alabama (where Originally from Conyers, Ga., in the Athe was director of player personnel), lanta metro area, Collins, 47, is married to and the University of Central Florida the former Jennifer Haynes. They have a (where he was linebackers coach and , 2-year-old daughter, Astrid.

IN NOVEMBER, PAUL JOHNSON RETIRED AS GEORGIA TECH’S WINNINGEST FOOTBALL COACH IN MORE THAN FIVE DECADES.

9

11

3

BOWL APPEARANCES

SEASONS

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES

82-59 RECORD (.582 WINNING PERCENTAGE) 4TH WINNINGEST COACH IN GEORGIA TECH FOOTBALL HISTORY 4TH WINNINGEST ACTIVE COACH IN NCAA DIVISION 1 FBS (AT RETIREMENT) 3 -TIME ACC COACH OF THE YEAR (2008, 2009, 2014) #1 IN ACC RUSHING YARDS AND TOP 10 NATIONALLY EVERY YEAR CBS SPORTSLINE NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR IN 2008

36 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

In the World 38 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Jannifer Hong

ABSTRACT THINKING Megan Fechter, BA 17, took a winding road after graduation that led her to leave a career in marketing to start her own business as an artist.

Volume 94 No. 43 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 39

IN THE WORLD

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman

M

BY MELISSA FRALICK

Soon after “getting out” of Tech, Megan Fechter, BA 17, left behind a burgeoning career in marketing to pursue her passion for painting.

MEGAN FECHTER thought she had a clear plan for the direction her life would take.

She majored in business administration with a concentration in marketing to prepare for a career in corporate America. She worked hard at Georgia Tech, and shortly after graduating, she landed her dream job in marketing for Deloitte.

“The big plan for me was always to be a marketer,” Fechter says. “I love people. I love sharing things that I’m passionate about, which in essence is marketing. And Deloitte was exactly where I thought I was supposed to be. It was the job I had worked for, it was the job that I dreamed of.”

But it wasn’t long after she started her career that Fechter realized somewhere along the journey, the goal line had shifted.

She didn’t feel as fulfilled in the business world as she hoped.

She didn’t feel as fulfilled as she did when she was painting.

Fechter had started painting with watercolors as a creative outlet during her junior year at Tech. She was good at it, and people around her encouraged her to nurture this newfound hobby. The first artwork she sold was a painting of the Ramblin’ Wreck. Before long, she started selling prints and doing custom paintings for friends and classmates.

“Every painting came with a story,” she says. “And half of the stories I would receive would bring tears to my eyes because I was so overwhelmed and happy that I could help someone share this.

“A colleague of mine at Georgia Tech ask me to paint a picture of her red front door. She and her husband immigrated from Colombia and Mexico, and the door belonged to the house

40 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

that they never thought that they could have. She wanted the painting as a symbol of the progress they’d made as immigrants in the United States. That’s an amazing story, and I was honored to be part of it through my art.”

Fechter continued to paint after she began her job at Deloitte.

Each week at work, she found herself counting the days until the weekend, when she could go home and paint and capture stories and memories for people through her art. She soon realized that the work she was doing on the side may in fact be what she wanted to do full time.

“I felt like there really was a calling for me and it was pretty undeniable,” Fechter says.

Fechter’s parents were not immediately sold on the prospect of their Tech-educated daughter leaving her new position with a well-respected company to start a career as an artist.

Her parents encouraged her to stay with her job for a few years, and then reassess. But Fechter was convinced that she needed to make a change and soon. As months went by,

“Tech has the ability to push you really beyond what you think you’re capable of,” Fechter says.

Jannifer Hong

Megan Fechter, BA 17, recently took an unexpected fork in the road and started her own business, Painted Parcels. She’s seated here in front of some of her abstract acrylic paintings.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 41

IN THE WORLD

Fechter says her Georgia Tech education has helped her establish her art business.

Fechter’s clientele continued to grow, and her desire to paint full time had only intensified.

“And then, I had just walked home from work three miles in the pouringdown rain,” Fechter says, “contemplating leaving the life I built behind to pursue a radical career change as an artist. When I called my mom to tell her what was on my heart, her response was everything a young woman would hope to hear from her lifelong role model: ‘OK, girlfriend, show me your business plan.’”

With her family’s support, Fechter made the decision to leave her job after

just six months to go in a completely new direction.

Though she was certain about her desire to pursue art full time, the decision did not come without obstacles. She wrestled with the financial implications of leaving her steady job for the constant hustle of life as a freelancer.

“The decision really came down to the human connection, my overall happiness and finally feeling a sense of distinct purpose in this world,” she says. “That made the choice quite clear.”

Though she left the corporate world behind, Fechter says her Institute

42 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

education has been vital for getting her art business, Painted Parcels, off the ground.

“The biggest initial challenge [of freelancing] is that you’re completely alone,” Fechter says. “No one is there to guide you through the process. You’re creating your own schedule, drumming up your own business and making career decisions independently.

“In my few short months as a business owner, I’ve had to put every class I took in the Scheller College of Business to the test. From finance, to accounting, to marketing and business strategy, I couldn’t

Jannifer Hong

Fechter at her Georgia Tech graduation

be more grateful for my time at the Institute for preparing me.”

Today, Fechter is working out of a studio space at the Goat Farm Arts Center, a community for artists located in West Midtown Atlanta. At this early stage in her career, she supports herself mainly through custom paintings for clients, the majority of whom she connects with through her Instagram page.

She says word of mouth and social media have been crucial for her business. For example, she’s recently painted several engagement photos for clients whose other betrothed friends have contacted her to paint their engagements as well.

Her art includes a variety of styles, from playful watercolors to abstract acrylic paintings and pen and ink drawings of Atlanta landmarks.

“The overall style of all these pieces, no matter what the focal point is, is simple,” Fechter says. “There’s always pops of color and I want to evoke a sense of peacefulness, always. I think it’s important for a piece of art to make someone feel at home, to feel familiar, to feel calm.”

She credits her experiences at Georgia Tech—particularly competing as a finalist in the 2015 InVenture Prize Competition—with building the confidence she needed to take the fork in the road and pursue life as an artist.

“Tech has the ability to push you really beyond what you think you’re capable of,” Fechter says.”

Fechter’s work includes a variety of media and styles, inlcuding colorful abstract paintings in watercolor and acrylic, as well as line drawings of Atlanta landmarks.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 43

JACKET COPY

Recently Published WHEN ATLANTA TOOK THE TRAIN DAVID H. STEINBERG, STEVE STOREY AND LLOYD NEAL, IM 75

When Atlanta Took the Train tells the story of Atlanta’s bygone era of passenger train travel, illustrating the people and the trains upon which they traveled. The 144-page coffee table book presents the history of the city’s railroad travel with more than 200 black-and-white photos and ilHISTORY lustrations. The book tracks the growth of Atlanta and the large downtown train stations that were built to serve the city, featuring photos co-author Lloyd Neal took in the early 1970s during his time as a student at Georgia Tech. Neal witnessed the final year of private passenger train operation in Atlanta in 1970—before the federal government took over most inter-city passenger train operations through the formation of Amtrak. He then continued covering the Southern Railway and the Georgia Railroad until they ceased passenger operations in 1979 and 1983, respectively. His photos include the popular steam excursions operated by Southern Railway until the early 1990s.

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT HURTING MEN’S FEELINGS

WALKING THE WORLD (A TRILOGY)

Being an ambitious woman can be tricky. In this fast-paced business world, female leaders need to make sure they’re not perceived as pushy, aggressive or (heaven forbid) competent. In her humorous guide, How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings, Tech alumna Sarah Cooper cheekily illustrates how women can achieve their dreams, succeed in their careers and become leaders—all without harming the fragile male ego. Cooper milks comedy from her experiences working for companies like Yahoo! and Google. She’s also a stand-up comic and blogger.

Former electrical engineer Terrence K e r o’s t r i l o g y about human migration tells the HISTORICAL FICTION story of how hunter-gatherer clans left Africa some 80,000 years ago, eventually migrated to Siberia, and walked across the Bering Land Bridge to North America during the last Ice Age. The third novel in the series opens in 2015, when Hanna Koskinen, an anthropologist and expert in human migration, finds DNA data identifying the hunter-gatherer clans that first migrated to the Americas.

There are conflicting theories about when those first migrations occurred, creating a riddle that Hanna must solve. Interspersed with the narrative of her research and a budding romance are stories imagining the heroism and tragedies of those first people and their descendants.

SARAH COOPER, MS DM 01

TERRENCE KERO, EE 64

BUSINESS HUMOR

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE— IT’S ALL ABOUT FAITH BOB NANCE JR., AE 67

MEMOIR

Aerospace engineer Bob Nance shares with readers the many lessons he’s learned through science and faith. Nance begins his story as a flight controller in NASA Mission Control during the moon landings, where he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom as part of the Apollo 13 Missions Operations Team. He also details his experiences as a business owner during good times and bad, and as a father of a son in desperate need of a liver transplant. Through it all, he learns to recognize the blessings we receive each day, even when we are too busy trying to do things our way.

44 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

ADVANCE YOUR CAREER. GROW YOUR POTENTIAL WITH AN ENGINEERING MASTER’S As an engineer, your problem-solving skills allow you to easily consult with clients and lead teams. You also have the technical expertise to communicate with designers and product engineers.

But what if you could do more?

At the College of Engineering, our top-ranked master’s programs offer the academic rigor and hands-on experience for you to take your career to the next level.

Start your journey at coe.gatech.edu/masters

DOLLARS & SENSE

A Major Change in the Flight Plan

I

BY TONY REHAGEN

Rich Staten, AE 88, proves that a Tech education can be versatile for virtually any career by moving from designing fighter jets to marketing soft drinks.

IN 1995, RICH STATEN DECIDED to change his flight plan in midair. After seven years of designing fighter jets for General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, Staten had already made a lifetime’s worth of contributions to developing advanced aircraft like the F-22 Raptor and the NASA High Speed Civil Transport. Then he pulled the eject lever on a career in the aerospace industry to hopefully land softly in the field of consumer products marketing. He was just 29.

Staten discovered that a Tech degree in aerospace engineering was more than a suitable parachute. And since landing at The Coca-Cola Company, he has rapidly risen through the corporate ranks and collected 82 global patents for Coca-Cola as an inventor of beverage products, packaging, merchandising and equipment technology that have made a sizable impact on the global beverage industry and his company’s bottom line.

The Alumni Magazine spoke with Staten, who now works as a director of strategic planning for Coca-Cola, to discuss the challenges of a career shift, how his time at Tech prepared him for the change in trajectory, and to ask his advice for anyone pondering a professional leap into the great unknown.

YOU WERE PRACTICALLY BORN TO BE AN AEROSPACE ENGINEER. I was born on Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Ga. My father was a career U.S. Air Force officer and he started out on a path

46 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

to be an engineer. So I guess you could say I was destined to be an aerospace engineer. And when I was in high school in Ohio, I participated in an engineer-for-a-day program with Wright Aeronautical Labs, and I was captivated by the full-scale fatigue tests of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. I was like, “Wow! This is what aerospace engineers do!”

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO TECH? I had a cousin with engineering degrees from Georgia Tech, Duke and Virginia Tech who recommended the Institute.

Several other engineers who worked with my father also suggested Tech—those were very strong endorsements.

HOW DID TECH PREPARE YOU TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THAT BIRTHRIGHT? Well, my original goal was to be a career Air Force officer, but fate intervened when I hurt my knee in an ROTC basketball game. After that, my Air Force career path was not viable anymore, so I was bound for the private sector.

When I “got out” of Tech, I was still able to pick the job I

“When I ‘got out’ of Tech, I was still able to pick the job I wanted. Because of Tech’s reputation, I had a wide range of aerospace career choices, from space systems to fighter jets to airliners—you name it,” Staten says.

Sheretta Danielle Photography

Tech alumnus Rich Staten holds dozens of patents for technological and marketing innovations at The Coca-Cola Company, where he works as a director of strategic planning.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 47

DOLLARS & SENSE

wanted. Because of Tech’s reputation, I had a wide range of aerospace career choices, from space systems to fighter jets to airliners—you name it.

YOU CHOSE FIGHTER JETS. WHAT WERE YOUR BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THAT FIELD?

“I then started taking courses in fields I’d never been a part of, like economics and marketing, and they really captivated me,” Staten says. “ It made me think about other industries. I’d been around aircraft my entire life, but I was intrigued about finding other places to put my energies.”

When I was at General Dynamics, I was part of the development of the A12 Avenger II, the Navy’s stealth attack aircraft. It was a flying wing— an aerodynamicist’s dream. My biggest accomplishments at GD were the windtunnel testing of the A12 and developing software for stealthy wing designs. At Lockheed Martin, I led the aerodynamic design of the F--22 Raptor’s nose, wing and tail sections and did aerodynamic research on the NASA High Speed Civil Transport, a supersonic airliner which is starting to come back in the news.

WHY DID YOU LEAVE A CAREER WHERE YOU HAD ACCOMPLISHED SO MUCH? Getting my MBA was part of advancing my career into engineering management at Lockheed Martin. I then started taking courses in fields I’d never been a part of, like economics and marketing, and they really captivated me. It made me think about other industries. I’d been around aircraft my entire life, but I was intrigued about finding other places to put my energies. I wound up with an additional master’s in marketing and a PhD in strategic management of innovation.

HOW DID YOUR EXPERIENCE AT TECH HELP EASE THE TRANSITION? Experience with team projects is very valuable. And working alongside very high-caliber students—all of whom have very important roles on senior design projects—translates well to places like Lockheed Martin or Coca-Cola, which

hire high-quality people. The analytical skills that I learned at Tech also applied.

As did the time-management skills I developed through all the demanding classes that I took. At Coke, I immersed myself in the consumer products industry by looking for new opportunities.

And I started to apply that Tech mindset of problem solving: Instead of looking at a challenge as a barrier, consider it a problem that needs solving or as an opportunity that needs to be advanced.

I began to see opportunities for innovation and applications for research.

Whether it’s research from a wind tunnel or from consumer surveys, it’s still data that you can interpret for insights.

WHICH OF YOUR INNOVATIONS AT COCACOLA IN PARTICULAR STAND OUT TO YOU? I’ve been fortunate to have many patents that have been granted globally, from machine technology to beverage products to merchandising to packaging. Most are in other continental markets, such as Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America. Of course, some are in North America. One that’s pretty common here in the U.S.—the one my daughters get a kick out of seeing in virtually every movie theater—is the three-barrel frozen beverage dispensing machine. The industry had been using two-barrel machines for years and the challenge was to get more product in the same-sized machine footprint—a 50-percent increase

48 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

in availability. My early experience in aerospace electronic controls played a key role; the technologies had evolved enough since then to make this new solution financially viable.

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER ROLES YOU’VE HELD AT COCA-COLA? I began in engineering, and was part of several account teams before working myself up through roles in planning management, innovation strategy and marketing strategy. I’ve been lucky to work across the company and on exciting events like the Olympics and NCAA Final Four. I’ve even worked on beverage systems for top sports stadiums, including Tech’s own Bobby Dodd. No matter the role, being able to innovate to meet customer needs is very exciting.

ANY ADVICE FOR OTHERS THINKING ABOUT SWITCHING CAREERS? First, take stock of your current skills.

Then research the opportunities where your existing skills will apply. If you see gaps in those skills, be prepared to invest in yourself with additional training or even a degree. Tech started me on the path to achieve all of that. The time management, the analytical skills, the working with teams and the problem solving: You’re never dissuaded from continuing to work on challenges and opportunities. Those are skills that apply to every career.

A Smart Meeting Facility with Built-in Technology.

That’s so Tech!

Choose the Global Learning Center on the cutting edge of campus.

Visit us for a site tour. pe.gatech.edu/glc/alumni2018

MEETINGS. CONFERENCES. TRAINING.

S N O I S I S C N E D CISIO E D 50 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 3 2018

S S

When you come to that fork in the road, how do you choose which way to go?

Let these Georgia Tech experts shed some light onto the forces at play when we’re faced with decisions both big and small, how the brain works through them, and the ways artificial intelligence can help.

by Erin Peterson

EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIVES is filled with decisions—some small, some monumental. Should you drive through that yellow light? Is it time to let your company know a colleague is taking liberties with the expense account? How should you choose whether or not to take that

life-changing opportunity that’s halfway across the world?

In the following pages, we share the insights of eight Georgia Tech experts who understand decision-making at every level, from inside our brains to inside the boardroom.

They share the quirky decisions that humans make—and the surprising ones that robots make.

They might not to be able to give you the exact answers you seek, but they just might be able to help you with the process of getting there.

Volume 94 No. 43 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 51

S DECISIONS DECISION

HOW AI HELPS HUMANS MAKE CHOICES AND VICE VERSA

THERE’S NO QUESTION that much of the population is looking forward to a world fueled by artificial intelligence. Over the years, we’ve watched Deep Blue defeat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, trusted our email software to filter out the most egregious spam and phishing messages, and used Alexa and Siri as our personal assistants. Eventually, artificial intelligence projects powered by companies like Waymo and Uber might allow us all to hand off our driving duties for good. At Georgia Tech, we even pioneered the first AI teaching assistant to help students succeed in class.

Ayanna Howard, chair of the School of Interactive Computing, says such advances have often led us to place greater confidence in robots than maybe we should. Studies have shown, for example, that people will defer to a robot’s faulty suggestion, even in highstakes situations such as an emergency evacuation. “If they trust them, humans tend to defer their decisions to robots,” she says.

Howard, who has spent her career exploring both the possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence, says these findings illuminate just how important it is to make sure that machines can make decisions wisely.

There are plenty of cautionary tales about the failings of artificial intelligence, says Charles Isbell, professor and executive associate dean for Tech’s College of Computing. From the well-publicized Amazon hiring algorithm that turned out to have a bias against women, to systems designed to predict an inmate’s recidivism rate that primarily predict race and neighborhood residence, machine learning isn’t always better.

“Computers make us more efficient at making bad decisions just as well as they make us more efficient in making good decisions,” Isbell says.

If humans and machines are imperfect in their decision-making, is there a better option? Isbell says yes.

It turns out that humans paired with artificial intelligence can do far better work than either one alone.

For example, teaming a mediocre chess player with a chess AI system creates a chess-playing powerhouse

"If they trust them, humans tend to defer their decisions to robots," Howard says.

52 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

that is better than artificial intelligence or a human grandmaster alone.

“Machines can simulate millions of moves a minute and imagine futures faster than any person,” Isbell says.

“But they can’t necessarily figure out that it’s important to have pieces in the middle of the board or that pawns should be clustered together. Humans can help

AI EXTRA CREDIT

+++++

Curious about how artificial intelligence can lead to decisions with devastating consequences? Isbell recommends Cathy O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, an engaging book about the strengths and flaws of mathematical models and artificial intelligence.

eliminate a billion useless moves and save an exponential amount of time.”

Howard, meanwhile, says that injecting cold, calculating AI systems with a bit of human empathy can help make them more effective. She knows first-hand from building AI systems to support therapy for children with autism and cerebral palsy.

A therapy program, for example, might ask a patient to move quickly to hit a target on a screen. If the patient only partially completes the task, he or she can still get a bit of positive reinforcement from the robot along with helpful guidance. “The machine might say, ‘Great job, you hit one of the targets! Next time, move a little faster,’” she explains.

If the guidance works, the machine learns the appropriate form of interaction and tucks that information away for later use. If it fails to evoke the anticipated reaction, it can go back to the figurative drawing board.

In the end, Isbell says, diversifying our intelligence by making the most of both human perceptiveness and raw computer power can accelerate our progress on some of society’s most vexing problems.

“Human and AI strengths complement each other, and our weaknesses complement each other,” he says.

“Decision-making is better when we combine those completely different strengths.”

UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HIGH-STAKES DECISION-MAKING IF YOU GO TO THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE with a laundry list of mysterious symptoms, your doctor is likely to choose a medical test or two to help zero in on a diagnosis. You might reasonably assume that those test suggestions are based on his or her careful, logical assessment of the information you provided.

But according to research done by Tech Associate Professor of Psychology Rick Thomas, doctors—just like the rest of us—are influenced by what are known

HOW YOU CAN MAKE BETTER DECISIONS WHEN EVERYTHING’S ON THE LINE Rick Thomas says three rules of thumb can help us make the right decision when it counts the most.

+ Give yourself time. It turns out that there really is

some scientific validity to sleeping on a tough decision. “With more time, you’ll end up generating a richer set of alternatives than if you make a snap judgment,” Thomas says.

+ Stay focused. Big decisions demand that we make the most of our brain power, so try to tackle your toughest decisions when there aren’t countless other distractions competing for your attention.

+

Take another’s perspective. In group decision-making, like work projects, it’s easy for people to take their own priorities into account first. When you can take the perspective of someone else in your group who might have different interests, you might come to a different conclusion. “It’s an approach that helps you think about a problem in a different way,” he says.

S DECISIONS DECISION

as primacy and recency (bias) effects. “The first few pieces of information and the last few pieces of information tend to have a greater influence on diagnostic behavior than information that happened in the middle of a sequence,” Thomas says.

The stakes for such basic psychological quirks turn out to be surprisingly high when it comes to making medical decisions: That unequal weighting may lead to less useful test suggestions, a longer timeline to a successful diagnosis, and higher costs to patients who need more testing.

Thomas serves as director of Tech’s Decision Processes Lab, where he and his team use eye tracking, EEG and statistical modeling to understand how experts in high-stakes professions—including doctors, intelligence analysts and pilots—make decisions. He

"A deeper understanding of what is influencing test selections may help scientists develop processes that allow doctors to choose more wisely," Thomas says. and his researchers also develop tools to help people and AI systems arrive at better choices.He says that the more we understand what influences a person’s decision-making, the better chance we have of seeing and correcting errors.

In the case of doctors and test selection, a deeper understanding of what is influencing test selections may help scientists develop processes that allow doctors to choose more wisely. “In theory,” Thomas says, “that might mean creating a decision-support system, such as an artificial intelligence agent that could help give doctors advice.”

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 53

MAKING ETHICAL CHOICES TAKES BRAVERY

S DECISIONS DECISION

FROM FACEBOOK’S shady political dealings to the many #MeToo coverups that have been brought to light after percolating for decades, there’s no question that many businesses and leaders need to make some ethical overhauls before their unscrupulous deeds or policies catch up to them.

It’s easier said than done, says Steve Salbu, Cecil B. Day Chair in Business Ethics and former Scheller College of Business dean. “Business incentives can create cultures where employees aren’t comfortable reporting ethical lapses—or are ill-equipped to do so,” Salbu says.

Without protections in place, whistleblowers can lose their status, miss out on future opportunities, or even get booted from their jobs. Often, it’s easier just to decide to go with the status quo rather than to stand up for what’s right.

Similarly, employees might let their ethical code slide if a fat bonus is on the line, or if they see fellow coworkers making ethically dubious choices. “Being ethical often takes courage,” Salbu says. “If it were easy, most people would always do the right thing, but with pressures that encourage unethical behavior, doing the right thing requires bravery.”

AS A WHOLE, ENTREPRENEURS are a bright and remarkably perceptive group. But after years of working with them, Merrick Furst, distinguished professor in the College of Computing and the founding director of Tech’s Center for Deliberate Innovation, uncovered a surprising truth: Almost all of them had blind spots that were sabotaging their businesses.

“If you notice you have an important decision to make, for example, you can work on it. There are probably lots of tools available,” he says. “But what if you don’t even notice that decision point in the first place? People don’t notice that they’re not noticing something.”

“Not noticing that you’re not noticing” sounds like a brain-twisting Zen koan. But Furst says illuminating those dark corners of entrepreneurial attention is essential. Too often, entrepreneurs are focused on common problems—make a product, find a customer, raise money—but don’t realize that they need to solve a far bigger issue, such as discovering a truly authentic demand for a product or service.

So how can entrepreneurs (or any of us) begin to

54 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

"Being ethical often takes courage," Salbu says."If it were easy, most people would always do the right thing, but with pressures that encourage unethical behavior, doing the right thing requires bravery."

WHY START-UP INNOVATORS STRUGGLE WITH BLIND SPOTS

S DECISIOIONNS IS C DE

notice all of the important things that have flown under the radar?

It starts, says Furst, by building a culture designed to pick up on things we might otherwise miss. He compares the process to working in a woodshop. “You might not notice that you’ve forgotten to measure things before you cut them if you’re in the kitchen” he says. “But if you’re in a woodshop—where there are signs that say ‘measure twice, cut once,’ where there are rulers everywhere, and where you’ve hopefully had some training—you’ll probably remember to measure before you cut.”

Creating a culture that focuses on finding blind spots is similar to creating that woodshop.

It’s advice that perhaps we all could take, whether we’re trying to launch a new venture or not. Uncovering your own blind spots may be as simple as asking someone to share their candid assessment of how you are thinking, if you (and they) can bear it. “Assume they’re being reasonable,” Furst says. “A practice like that is much better than doing nothing at all.”

HOW NOT TO MAKE AN IMPORTANT DECISION A comic by roger slavens

S DECISIONS DECISION

illustrations by charlie layton

SOMETIMES IT MAY SEEM nigh impossible to make an extremely critical choice in life. Like whether you should switch

careers (give up the cushy desk job to go on the professional karaoke circuit?). Or where you should take the family on holiday (wintering in Greenland to score those sweet off-season deals?). Or who gets the last slice of Hawaiian pizza (we hope it’s not us—seriously, pineapple on pizza?). But Georgia Tech experts agree that no matter how tempted you are to shirk your responsibility or indulge your superstitious nature, you shouldn’t use any of the following methods when the stakes are truly sky high.

SHAKE UP YOUR TRUSTY MAGIC 8-BALL

DRAW STRAWS TO DECIDE WHO’S DOOMED

(It’s Never Steered You Wrong)

(Nobody Wants to Change the Baby’s Diaper)

FLEX YOUR RHYMING SKILLS BY PLAYING EENY, MEENY, MINY, MOE

HAVE A ROCKPAPER-SCISSORS THROWDOWN (Fun Fact: Created in China, Big in Japan Where It’s Known as Janken)

(But Be Careful of That Tiger!)

GIVE UP AND FLIP A COIN (We’re 50 Percent Sure You’ll Like the Outcome)

PICK FROM A HAT IF YOU’VE GOT MULTIPLE OPTIONS (Pro Tip: Leave Paper Slips Blank to Cheat)

GET CRAFTY WITH AN ORIGAMI FINGER PICKER THING (Channel Your Inner 9-Year-Old)

GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE BY CALLING A PSYCHIC HOTLINE (Never would have guessed they’d still be around!)

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 55

3 WAYS THE BRAIN WORKS TO MAKE CHOICES

S DECISIONS DECISION

1

H O W M E M O R Y P L AY S A R O L E

Plenty of our memories are easy to retrieve without a moment’s hesitation: a first kiss, a major achievement, where you were on 9/11. But other memories take time to retrieve. Who was the vaguely familiar person who said hello to you at the grocery store last night? What did you have for dinner two days ago?

As you sift through context clues to figure out the answer—you might not remember that two-daysago dinner, but do recall that you went to a movie that night, so maybe you reheated leftovers, like pizza?—your brain will see increased activity in areas including the inferior temporal, frontal and parietal regions, according to the research of Tech Professor of Psychology Mark Wheeler.

Once those regions reach a certain level of activity, you’ll also feel a sense of recognition that persuades you that your memory is correct. (“Yes, it was definitely pizza.”)

“When we’re deciding if a memory is accurate, we might have a very strong sense of something that’s accompanied by lots of detail, and sometimes it just ‘feels’ like the right thing,” Wheeler says. In other words, that feeling of confidence is more than just an ephemeral emotion: It’s determined by very real activity in the brain.

2

T H E P E R F E C T M E N TA L S TAT E F O R S N A P J U D G M E N T S

To make good, quick decisions in uncertain environments—whether or not to drive through that yellow light, for example—it’s important to be paying just the right amount of attention to the appropriate things.

Deep in our brain’s cortex, we have a mix of excitatory and inhibitory neurons that help us do that. “These neurons are connected to each other, and there’s a constant interplay between them to keep things in an optimal state,” says Bilal Haider, assistant professor of bioengineering.

So if you’re driving home from work on autopilot one evening, you might see a stoplight turn yellow and hit the brakes, even if you could have easily made it through. Perhaps you’re simply in a low-attention state where you don’t feel the urgency to make a quick

56 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

decision. The next day, however, you might be driving the same route and hit the same yellow light—but you know you’d like to make it home to catch the tail end of a football game on TV. So you’re paying attention closely and safely sail right through the light. “The only thing that’s different is the context in your brain that says you need to detect and respond to the stimulus in one way one day, and another way on another day,” Haider says.

You might be able to imagine a third scenario in which you’re driving a friend who’s in labor to the hospital. She’s anxious, you’re anxious, and you might be too agitated to make a good decision about an otherwise easy call on that yellow light.

For Haider, the point is that balance is essential in certain types of decision-making. “There’s a sweet spot in the middle where you’re calm and alert,” he says. “You’re not too disengaged to act, but also not paralyzed by the consequences. Because those two extremes are when the decision-making suffers.”

3

D E C I S I O N - M A K I N G M I S TA K E S M AY S I G N A L A L Z H E I M E R ’ S OR OTHER DISEASES

To understand how brains work during the decision-making process, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Annabelle Singer sends rats through mazes and measures their brain activity. After successful runs, the rats tend to show specific patterns of neuronal activity in their hippocampus that suggest that they are “replaying” their route. They encode it into their brains so that they can remember the right choice to make at every fork in the path.

As the rats get better at knowing the best routes over time, Singer and her team see these same neuronal patterns in the rats before they start a successful run—suggesting that they may be “pre-playing” the successful route.

Because rats’ and humans’ brains share so many similarities, Singer’s work is helping shine a light on how decision-making works in humans—and what it might tell us when things go awry. We’re not navigating mazes, but we do have to make our way around the world every single day—and when that goes off track, there may be a specific area in the brain we need to be paying attention to.

“The hippocampus is implicated in many different diseases, including Alzheimer’s,” Singer says. “And one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s is that people get lost in a familiar place.”

Singer’s work may help us pinpoint the brain-linked glitches that signal bigger problems—and help develop treatments that can make an impact before a disease has progressed.

HELLUVA ENGINEER. HELLUVA MBA. As an alum, you know that solving problems means tackling issues from every angle.

At Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, we equip you with the knowledge you need to tackle a whole new set of challenges, from operations and finance to commercialization and strategy. Our globally-ranked MBA programs feature specialized curriculum designed to prepare you to thrive in today’s innovative, entrepreneurial world of business – all right here, at the university you know and love. Learn more at GaTechScheller.com

TECH SAVVY. BUSINESS SMART.

One MAN

three

STORIES As Told to Roger Slavens PHOTO by josh Meister

58 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Growing up poor from a broken family on Chicago’s West Side, Ron Johnson, MS OR 85, wasn’t always sure he was going to make it out alive.

After being challenged by his JROTC commander in high school, Johnson went on to graduate from West Point and steadily moved up the ranks to become the deputy commanding general of the United State Army Corps of Engineers over a stellar 32-year military career.

But that was just the beginning.

After retiring from the Army in 2008, he joined the National Basketball Association as its first-ever senior vice president for referee operations. He was personally recruited by then-NBA commissioner David Stern to restore the game’s integrity after an ugly series of officiating scandals.

And then, satisfied that he had put NBA referees on a more reputable path, he joined Georgia Tech, where he’s a well-loved, award-winning Professor of the Practice in industrial and systems engineering and a faculty leader.

But we’re going to let him share these three tales himself. He’s just as much a natural-born storyteller as he is a natural-born leader.

Volume 94 No. 3 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 59

STORY

1

“

FROM CHICAGO’S WEST SIDE TO WEST POINT (AND BEYOND) I WAS A SMART KID—SOMETIMES EVEN A SMART ALECK—and I was wiry. But the West Side of Chicago was kind of a tough neighborhood. You either had to be able to defend yourself or run fast.

I was somewhere in between. I could talk a lot of stuff, just to be tough, but luckily nobody could catch me.

“Still, growing up, I was robbed at gunpoint, robbed at knifepoint, shot at just passing by as I walked to a friend’s house. I’d seen just about everything.

But at the time I didn’t think I lived in a bad area. Or that I was poor. That was simply life as I knew it.

“I was raised by a single parent, my mom, and we were supported by government welfare. My older brother, my younger sister and I all had different dads. And they weren’t around to help. If it weren’t for my grandparents, in particular, and some teachers who saw promise in me—especially my JROTC instructor and chief warrant officer Donald M. Lesch—I probably would be in jail now or dead.

“I went to high school at Lane Tech— it’s called Lane Tech College Prep High School now. It was a pretty good school. The most famous alumnus is not Ron Johnson, but instead a guy named Johnny Weissmuller, who was the original Tarzan. Isn’t that something? His name is still up in our pool.

“I was a great student, but pretty shy, pretty quiet, mostly focused on books because that’s where I got my positive

strokes. I made some money working in a bank, and during the summer, I worked at the high school swimming pool as a lifeguard(1).

“I became the highest-ranking guy in my junior ROTC program at Lane Tech. Got selected to Boys State [a summer leadership program sponsored by The American Legion], and served as the lieutenant governor and the regimental commander there. I even got to shadow politician Paul Simon, who at the time was the lieutenant governor of Illinois. [He later became a U.S. representative and senator for the state, and ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.]

“But that wasn’t the end of it. I was also involved in theater, chorus, all of it.

“So, to my mind, I think I had a pretty happy, normal childhood. Until my junior year in high school when I visited a buddy’s house for dinner. The whole family sat down to dinner together and talked about how their days went. That was the first time in my life that I actually realized I was poor. It also opened my eyes to how families could be.

“It didn’t bother me at the moment— I just thought that was the way the Ron Johnsons of the world lived. I didn’t think I was missing anything.

But it was so different, as time went on, I became more aware that that’s how families should be. That had not been my experience.

“My home life changed substantially after my grandfather died because he was the breadwinner in the family. My grandma went back to work as a maid in a hotel, bringing home her scraps.

My mom didn’t work. So the rest of my support came from the government.

“We also moved a lot—I think that was preparing me for life in the Army.

But we moved so much because there was no Section 8 housing at the time.

There was housing that landlords were willing to rent to people like us on welfare. When Mom didn’t pay the light bill or the gas bill, the landlord would evict us and we had to go find some other place to live, sometimes with people I didn’t really know.

“Later on, after I went off to West Point, I’d come home for Christmas break and find fewer and fewer of my friends around. Many of them were locked up or they were dead. After a while, I didn’t even enjoy coming back home any more. It didn’t feel like home any more.”

“Now, the only reason I went to West Point is because of Donald Lesch. He was this crusty, old, white, mean warrant officer who took me aside one day and said, ‘You’re a pretty good cadet. You should think about going to West Point.’ And I told him, slipping back into my tough-talking ways: ‘Guys like me don’t go to West Point. I’m from the West Side. West Point’s for punks.’

“And then he said, ‘If you don’t think you can make it, then maybe you shouldn’t go.’

“That was all he needed to say. I thought to myself, ‘Man, you can’t say that to me. I’ll show you.’ At the time, I didn’t realize what he was doing.

“

IF YOU DON’T THINK YOU CAN MAKE IT, THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T GO. “So of course I applied to West Point.

I wrote Frank Annunzio, who was my congressman. I had never met him before. But no one from my neighborhood was applying to a military academy and he was happy to supply a nomination. I had good grades and plenty of academic awards, and I had proved my leadership in JROTC. I didn’t know if I’d get accepted into the academy, but I did.

“There were moments early on at West Point where I thought about dropping out, but I couldn’t—because of my JROTC instructor Donald

1. ”Later, when I attended West Point, I actually swam intramurals, which kind of threw cadets and staff for a loop. ‘What’s that brother doing in the pool?’ they’d ask. ‘What’s he getting ready to do?’ But I developed my swimming skills pretty early.”

2. “Don will be buried in Arlington Cemetery on Feb. 13, 2019. My son was born on Feb. 13, 1989. I’ve requested to be the general officer representing the Army at his funeral, but I’m still waiting on that approval. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it. I want to be the one to give the flag to his granddaughter.”

60 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Lesch. I could not quit and give him the satisfaction.

“Let me talk about Don Lesch for a minute. Time passed on. Whenever I’d visit home from the academy, he always checked on me and I spent a good amount of time with him and his wife, Elaine. Years would go by and every time I got promoted, I sent them an autographed picture of myself. They’d frame it and put it up on their mantle piece, alongside photos of their fleshand-blood children. If you asked Don who all those people were, he’d say ‘Those are my kids. And Ron is my son.

“Don just passed away in October(2).

“At West Point, I don’t know if I was ready for the challenge, but I performed well as a cadet academically. The military stuff didn’t bother me because I’d learned so much in JROTC—we were the largest brigade in the city of Chicago. Don Lesch and his military instructors set really high standards for us. So the discipline, punctuality, looking good in my uniform, the ability to give oral presentations—all that stuff was a standard that I established as a freshman in high school.

“But West Point was tough for everybody at first because you’re constantly moving, constantly working. The most difficult part for me was not being able to eat as much as I want, when I wanted, and not being able to sleep as much as I want, when I wanted it. Strangely enough, I think it fit me and who I wanted to be.

“Was I ever at a point where I wanted to quit? Yes. Probably once a week.

But then I’d think about Donald Lesch.

And my friends back on the West Side of Chicago—I didn’t know what they’d say to me if I gave up, but I didn’t want to find out.

“At first, I was going to study to be a doctor. I enjoyed AP Biology at Lane Tech, and at one point—for fun— a high school friend of mine and I would compete to see who had memorized the name of every drug in the

Merck Manual. That friend, Gary Cohen, is a doctor now.

“But then in my second year at the academy, I took a solid mechanics course and I became fascinated with it.

And that’s when I knew I really wanted to be an engineer. I probably would’ve been a terrible doctor(3).

“After I graduated from West Point, I spent the next 25 years as a combat engineer, leading thousands of soldiers.

I didn’t join the Army Corps of Engineers—which is a separate command for construction—until I started my second tour as a 1-star general toward the end of my military career.

“No maneuver force can advance on the ground without engineers. Now the bad guys, they don’t want you coming to their front with the speed that our Army would have. They also don’t want you coming to their flank or from their side. So they place obstacles around their positions—ditches that can stop tanks, land mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and more.

“Combat engineers clear the way.

We remove obstacles or find a path through to our objective. In non-combat operations, we help locate and get rid of leftover mines.

I did this for years—mapping, bridging (fixed-span and wet span), horizontal construction, air fields, roads, vertical construction, buildings, plumbing, utilities. I commanded soldiers with every engineering capability in the Army.

“After years of leading soldiers in the field, I was selected to be a general officer and named the commandant of the engineer school at West Point, which is like being a college dean at Georgia Tech. In this role, I was responsible for the training and development of engineer soldiers from basic training all the way up to battalion and brigade commander training.

“And then I finished my military career as the deputy chief of engineers, which is the second-highest-ranking engineer in the Army. If you look at the Army Corps of Engineers as an architectural engineering firm, the chief

of engineers is the CEO, and the deputy chief is the COO for the organization. I helped a corps that was 35,000 strong, though only 400 or so are military.

The rest are all civilian—scientists, engineers, public affairs, information technology, even park rangers(4).

“My career in the military was truly that of a problem solver, just like any engineer. I was sent in to fix things— whether it was a better way to manage an Army installation or help after Hurricane Katrina. Inevitably, that’s why the National Basketball Association hired me.”

IN BRIEF:

RONALD L. JOHNSON HOMETOWN: Chicago CURRENT RESIDENCE: Atlanta FAMILY: Son, Ian Johnson MAJOR CAREER ROLES:

Retired Major General U.S. Army; Deputy Commanding Officer and Deputy Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (32 years); Senior Vice President of Referee Operations, National Basketball Association (4 years); Professor of the Practice in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Faculty Leadership Fellow, Georgia Tech (6 years)

MILITARY MEDALS:

Distinguished Service Medal (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), Bronze Star, Legion of Merit (with four Oak Leaf Clusters), Combat Action Badge, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Army Staff Identification Badge, Recruiter Badge

PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC AWARDS:

2003 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Government Service; 2005 inductee into Georgia Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni; 2008 Black Engineer Lifetime Achievement Award

SERVICE BOARDS:

Member of Georgia Tech President’s Strategic Advising Group; Member of Executive Advisory Board for Mission: Readiness; Member of National Workforce Solutions Advisory Board, Trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation; Trustee of Goodwill Industries (former Secretary); National Trustee for the Boys and Girls Club of America; Former Trustee of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association; Former Member of Leave No Veteran Behind Board of Directors; Former Adviser to the Rushman-Micah Foundation

3. ”Because I get all personally wrapped up in making people do what they’re supposed to do and making sure they don’t give up. I do that with my students and it probably drives them crazy. As a physician, you don’t have that much control or influence. Once they leave the office, you’re limited in how you can follow up with them to make sure they’re following instructions to get better.”

4. ”If you go out for a hike or visit a park on vacation, you might see a ranger wearing an Army Corps of Engineers patch because that’s who they work for.”

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 61

STORY

2

“

FROM THE ARMY TO THE NBA ABOUT A YEAR-AND-A-HALF BEFORE I RETIRED FROM THE ARMY, they sent me on a mission to speak at an NBA rookie camp to tell my story and to give these young men a chance to meet some real-life heroes: three young soldiers who had been previously deployed in the Middle East.

“So I spoke to that rookie class of basketball players about being something bigger than just themselves.

How kids look up to them. How they’re role models whether they want to be or not. And then I had them meet the soldiers I brought with me—one lieutenant and two enlisted men who were about the same vintage as the players.

These soldiers talked about their journeys and challenges as young men in the Army. It was a great, eye-opening exchange for them. A wonderful day.

“I didn’t realize it at the time, but after NBA Commissioner David Stern had introduced me at the event, he apparently stayed in the room to listen.

“Months later, on March 31, 2008, I retired from the Army. And on April 3, I interviewed for a position at Lockheed Martin, received a job offer and accepted it. I was going to start as vice president of performance excellence for the company in July.

“In May, however, David Stern’s secretary called my home. My son, Ian, had left a note on the kitchen countertop that read something like, ‘Hey, David Stern’s trying to reach you. You need to call him back.’ I thought it was a joke because we’d just been watching

the NBA playoffs. But then he told me it was for real.

“So I return the call, and David asks me, ‘Now that you’re retired, what are you going to do?’ I told him about Lockheed Martin, and he said, ‘I betcha they’re going to pay you a lot of money.’

I told him it was indeed a good salary.

But then he tells me: ‘Don’t do it.’ “‘Do you know something about Lockheed Martin that I don’t know?’ I ask him. And then he gets to the point: “I have a wild idea I want to talk to you about. But not on the phone. I need you to be in my office tomorrow.

“The next day I was in his office in New York City. I meet with him, and we’re just talking about things in general—nothing about his wild idea. And then he offers to send me and my son to a playoff game in Boston. So we do that. It’s a great time.

“And then he brings me back for another talk. And then a third. And then he brings in [then-deputy commissioner] Adam Silver. And then [president of league operations] Joel Litvin. And they send me to more playoff games.

Finally, I ask ‘What is this all about?’

“Stern tells me the NBA is going to create a new department—referee operations. ‘And I want you to be the guy that leads it,’ he says. At the time, the league was dealing with a number of officiating scandals(5) and the fans and players had lost almost all confidence in the referees. A report was put out that the officials had no real leader and no one to be accountable to. David wanted that leader to be me.

“So he was excited, very happy.

“That was, until I told him, ‘No.’ “He couldn’t believe it. He got mad and started cussing at me. I explained I had already made a commitment and intended to keep it. ‘You’re a retired Army general who can’t make a decision?’ he taunted at me.

“Joel Litvin stepped in to diffuse the situation and told me to go home and think about the offer. They next day Joel called me and asked ‘What can we do to convince you?’ I had looked online to see the cost of housing in New York and it was ridiculous. I told him I

didn’t think I could live there. So then he tells me they’re going to fly me up for the weekend and hook me up with a real estate agent—the entire trip paid for. So I go and walk the neighborhoods and check out a number of apartments, and find a place where I thought I could live. It was expensive as hell, but with the amount of money they had offered me, it was possible.

“In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I got excited about the job. It was kind of a dream job. And they had worn me down. I changed my mind and on the Monday I got back home to Washington D.C., I told them I’d take the job. Stern told me that it was the best news he’d heard in his life.”

“Stern also told me he didn’t want someone who knew all the basketball officiating rules. He wanted a leader and problem solver. However, he lied.

I soon found out that you do have to know all the rules because you have to field angry calls from team owners and general managers about referee problems all the time.

“When I met the refs, I found a group of highly dedicated yet extremely defensive young men and one woman(6).

And the reason they were so defensive is because they never were praised for their work—their job was out there for the world to see and all everybody noticed were the mistakes they made.

“NBA basketball refs have a tough job. And I had it tough managing them, because others in the sport were more worried about what the press would report when mistakes were made or that an owner like Mark Cuban was going to call up and throw a fit. Meanwhile, throughout my career I have always managed by exception—meaning that I’m going to assume that it’s in the norm for these officiating professionals to get most things right. That was a big disconnect with some in the league.

“When you’re given a mission in the military, there’s no compromise. You accomplish the mission, end of story. But for me and my role in the NBA, my mission was virtually unachievable. And

5. ”The big one was when NBA referee Tim Donaghy was investigated by the FBI for making calls that affected the point spread of games he had personally bet on. He pled guilty and spent time in prison.

6. ”I was very fortunate to work with Violet Palmer, the first female referee to ever officiate an NBA game.”

62 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

He was well known for being especially tough on NBA officiating and he was one of my worst critics. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked me. ‘You can’t leave— everything was just getting better.’

And a lot of my referees still email me and call me from time to time. I miss them, I miss the pay, but I don’t miss the job. It’s thankless work.”

3

STORY

that is to have my people officiate up to 14 games a night and do so perfectly each and every night. But that’s never going to happen. Referees are going to make mistakes in every game—the game is just so fast—and sometimes they’re going to blow a call that affects the outcome. It’s just inevitable.

“So my approach was to accept that mistakes were going to be made, but to get better and better over time using military-like repetition and deep diving into video of past games. We started to use some of the vast pool of data the NBA collects to measure referee performance. I could tell you every call every referee’s ever made and I can tell you whether they got it right or wrong.

And I could tell you non-calls too, when they’ve swallowed the whistle.

“I shared the data with my officials— as well as the video of them making a specific error from multiple angles—so that we could work together to reduce their mistakes. For example, we looked at the data and the video evidence to improve their ability to be in the right place at the right time to make the right calls. These technologies really helped us improve referee performance.”

“Another thing I did was to talk and listen closely to my referee leaders, the crew chiefs. We had weekly conference calls so they could tell me what was going on, if there were any problems they saw, and so on. I also entrusted them with some of the decision-making. Why should I be the one to pick the refs who should work the playoffs?

The crew chiefs knew far better than me who deserved that honor.”

“And after a little more than four years on the job, after I had set up better training and processes, and after I helped restore some integrity to officiating, I knew it was time for me to move on to something new. When I was in the Army, I was often brought into a new area to solve a problem—to listen and learn and apply all that I knew to improve the situation—and then I would be moved to solve another one somewhere else. That’s how I felt when I decided to leave the NBA. “One of the reasons why I knew I had made a difference was that Mark Cuban called up after hearing the news.

A WELCOME RETURN TO GEORGIA TECH

“

I THOUGHT THE NBA WAS GOING TO BE MY DREAM JOB, but teaching at Georgia Tech has turned out to be everything I wanted and more. Having taught at West Point, I knew that I wanted to return to higher education.

And having had a great experience getting my master’s degree at Tech, I knew it was a perfect landing spot for me.

“I moved down to Atlanta in December 2012 and started work as managing director of the Tennenbaum Institute of Enterprise Transformation at the start of the new year. I was also named Professor of the Practice in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE). When I first got here, I served as a leadership ethics coach for senior design. These students form teams and take a semester-long journey to identify a need, design a product or process, and they solve the problem. They sometimes have group interaction issues, and that’s where I came in to help.

“Subsequently, I started teaching the capstone probability and statistics course to all engineer majors here at Georgia Tech(7). Before they can graduate, all these young men and women take one semester of a course that covers all probability and stats.

“My first time teaching the course I had 271 students in one section at the Tennenbaum Auditorium. But having taught at the military academy, where the ratio was more like one professor to 14 cadets, I didn’t feel comfortable with that. So I went in and met with the ISyE chair and told her, ‘This current setup doesn’t work. I don’t know what students are doing in my class because it’s too big. Give me three graduate students. I’ll share all my lecture slides and notes and the syllabus.” Since then, we’ve been doing small sections—usually six sections of about 70 students a semester. We’re meeting a higher demand, and it fosters a better interaction with students I think.”

“I always knew at the end of my career I was going to teach. And to be here at Georgia Tech teaching amongst the faculty whose credentials I could never, ever match is just phenomenal. I love the intellectual challenge that the students bring to me—you never know what they’re going to ask and these are tough subjects. With students of this caliber, you have to be prepared.

“Unlike the NBA, I truly would do this work for free. But I like clothes, I have bills, I have to buy fuel for my car.

I get retired pay from the military, but you know what I mean?

“During my tenure at Tech I’ve also been a faculty senator. Now, I’m the chairman of the Student Honor Committee. I’m a Faculty Leadership Fellow, too—coaching student leaders at Tech rather than mentoring them. There’s a big difference. And I was in the inaugural class to become a Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Fellow, which I think now is in its third cohort.”

“I was just named the 2019 Educator of the Year at the college level for the Black Engineer of the Year Awards.

Part of it is for my work here at Tech, but I was nominated by a nonprofit in D.C. where I help tutor young men and women to improve their SAT and ACT scores so they can get into one of the military academies. I do this for free.

“Going to school at Georgia Tech was the best thing to ever happen to me, and now the fact that I’m back and teaching in the same building where I took classes is just incredible. It is a dream come true.”

7. “Except for ISyE students who take a full semester of probability and a full semester of stats.”

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 63

FORKS I N

T H E

R O A D

Opportunities and challenges often present themselves unexpectedly as you walk your path through life.

Thankfully, being a Ramblin’ Wreck prepares you with the know-how and resiliency to make informed decisions and embrace your choices.

A CHRONIC AND PAINFUL INJURY, that keeps you from being your normal self but sparks the drive to help others suffering a similar fate. The opportunity to step away from your comfort zone to apply your expertise on a very big, very real global stage. A nagging doubt that you’re not following the right pursuit but you can’t figure it out yourself. The excitement of giving up a steady job to follow your passions even if you’re scared to take that leap of faith.

64 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 3 2018

These are just four of countless hypothetical forks in the road which we may encounter in our lives. However, in this instance, these happen to be actual decisions that four Yellow Jackets—a professor, two students (one undergraduate, one graduate) and an alumna—have recently faced. Read on to find out more about the tough choices with which they were confronted, and how they’re all the better for digging down deep to make them.

FORK IN THE ROAD

//

FROM DOUBTFUL STUDENT TO E N T H U S I A S T I C T E AC H E R RENA INGRAM, MS CHEM 17 WHEN SHE WAS GROWING UP, Rena Ingram was fascinated by TV detective dramas, especially CSI. Yet she didn’t want to be a cop. For Ingram, it was the science behind the sleuthing—the gathering of evidence, the lab work that helped nail the bad guys—that got her attention.

“I had a keen interest in those types of shows,” she says, “especially when I took chemistry in high school.”

Ingram and chemistry proved to be a successful mixture, one that she thought would include a résuméboosting PhD at Georgia Tech. Once at Tech, however, she faced a mystery of her own: Why was she so unhappy? Is this level of stress normal? If she gave up, what would her family and friends think?

Counselors in Tech’s Office of Graduate Studies say what Ingram experienced is common among graduate students. “They may feel they are failing even though they are simply taking a different path,” says career development advisor Robbie Outz.

With the help of Tech services and programs, including counseling from mentors, Ingram refocused her goals. Instead of staying for a PhD, she opted to graduate from Tech in May of 2017 with a master’s in chemistry and embarked on a career path that still takes advantage of her field of expertise.

Ingram went to Marietta High School just up the road from Tech to take part in a collaborative teaching program made possible by a $30,000 Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship. Meanwhile, she’s also pursuing a master’s in teaching at Kennesaw State University.

When she started at Tech, she believed that five years of work toward a PhD would allow her to apply for a good crime-solving job with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But once her doubts that she was on the right path surfaced, she wondered if teaching was the

better pursuit for her.

Her advisor, M.G. Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, knew something was wrong.

“Second thoughts are the product of an active mind,” Finn says. “It’s often difficult to balance the desire to change with the need to persevere, but that’s where mentors can help. Ultimately, of course, it’s the student’s decision.”

Ingram made that difficult decision after her first qualifying examination. The panel members could tell that she didn’t want to be there, Ingram recalls. “They said I presented really well, but the work I put into my project could have been better. Their focus was in telling me that I wasn’t happy.

“So we talked, they left the room, I cried for a minute, and then I walked into M.G.’s office and said I want to be a teacher.”

Finn was delighted. A career in chemistry, he says, “doesn’t have to be research. We need great high-school teachers too.”

Ingram may still eventually try for a PhD, but in education, not chemistry. In the meantime, she wants to have the same impact on her students that her chemistry teachers had on her. She’ll have plenty of chances to do that—as part of her fellowship, Ingram has committed to teaching science classes in underserved Georgia schools for three years. —RENAY SAN MIGUEL Volume 94 No.4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 65

FORK IN THE ROAD

//

P U T T I N G ACA D E M I C KNOWLEDGE TO GOOD USE IN THE REAL WORLD MICHAEL BEST, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND INTERACTIVE COMPUTING WHEN GEORGIA TECH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Michael Best landed in Macau in 2015 to lead a new United Nations University initiative, the project consisted of him, an accountant, and a fading neoclassical mansion once owned by Portuguese writer and art collector Manuel de Silva Mendes.

But by the time Best returned to Georgia Tech late this summer, he had left in place a staff of 20 and a thriving research institute focused on improving gender equality in technology, striving to help save exploited workers from slavery, and making better the working lives of U.N. peacekeepers in Africa and beyond.

He brought back more than accomplishments and memories, however. He returned with a heightened appreciation for the United Nations, and of how Tech can help solve complex problems on the world stage.

“There’s nothing at the U.N. that is a single-discipline problem,” Best says. “They don’t just need a social scientist.

They need a social scientist who understands emerging and frontier technologies. They don’t just need a computer scientist. They need a computer scientist who understands national security issues.”

When U.N. officials selected Best, his mission was to establish the United Nations University Institute on Computing and Society, dedicated to understanding the intersection of information and communication technologies and international development. The proposal was right in Best’s wheelhouse, given that he’s one of a relatively small number of scholars who focus on how computing and communications technologies can impact economic, social and political development.

Best arrived in Macau in the spring of 2015, and spent his first months working on three fronts—repairing the Silva Mendes house, hiring staff, and creating the vision for a host of projects. The breadth of management responsibilities was a new experience for him. “I’ve always had a lab here at Tech and a handful of students and maybe a few other consultants, but nothing like this,” he says.

One of his first projects was to help co-found the Equals Global Partnership to highlight the

66 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

gender gap in worldwide technology and develop policy changes to help reduce it. An early report they published showed a complex landscape shaping gender equity issues in the information and communication technologies field, with barriers often related to issues such as infrastructure availability, financial constraints, or socio-cultural and institutional contexts.

Best’s team also worked with U.N. peacekeeping forces on a project examining their communications technologies. They found that peacekeepers—especially women—rarely carry emergency communications gear because of its bulk, and proposed a project to combine four devices into one.

Finally, the group worked with anti-trafficking groups on an app that could improve the ability of first responders to identify and help victims. A language barrier often exists between investigators and trafficked people, Best says, so the app allows workers who may be exploited to answer questions in their own language and ask for help.

Best is proud of the work his team did in Macau. But after nearly four years away, he found himself eager to return to Tech. Now that he’s back, he’s working with faculty to incubate a Center for Computing and Society at Georgia Tech. The idea is at least partly inspired by Best’s time in Macau. “We’re hoping to build a real research initiative, develop some resources and funding around it, and in that sense, bring some of the core intellectual energy that we helped to incubate in China back here to Atlanta.”

—MICHAEL PEARSON

FORK IN THE ROAD

//

SPINAL INJURY LEADS TO BIOMEDICAL CALLING MORGAN KELLER, UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FIVE YEARS AGO, Morgan Keller started feeling pain in her spine. Doctors found a herniation of her L5/S1 lumbar disc, and it started to degenerate through high school until it started to get more intense her first year as a student at Georgia Tech.

“For all those years, I tried every non-invasive treatment I could—physical therapy, electric stimulation therapy, and various lumbar steroid injections,” Keller says. “But my pain continued to dictate more and more of my day-to-day life.”

After many years of searching for the right doctor and right treatment, Keller finally found a surgeon at Emory University Hospital who had a passion for tackling puzzling cases like hers. This summer, she finally was able to have anterior lumbar interbody fusion (known as ALIF) surgery.

The operation was a huge success, providing Keller with welcome relief and a gradual return to her life before her spine problems.

“I have no more pain from my disc and have started to get back to being more active, thanks to physical therapy—which is now helpful,” Keller says.

The years-long search for a solution also provided her with a new calling.

Once afflicted, she began to learn more about the medical industry and her specific condition. “I witnessed firsthand that there is so much work still to be done in our world to improve medical treatment,” Keller says. “I was absolutely fascinated by the science of the available treatments and technology, and I loved learning more about anatomy and the fascinating complications of my condition from my doctors.”

In particular, her eyes were opened to the infinite possibilities of materials science. “Every piece of technology in our world is currently limited by the materials we have at our fingertips,” she says. “We continually need materials with increasing strength and durability to use in the body.”

Indeed, her surgery was only possible due to the engineering of a range of materials, including titanium and various polymers, to build a fusion cage implant for her spine. “When we improve on the materials used in science and technology, and specifically in the medical industry, the possibilities are endless,” she says.

Throughout high school, Keller had a passion for STEM studies, and specifically chemistry—she thought she wanted to be a chemist or pharmacist. She also wanted to make a difference in the lives of everyday people. “But I didn’t know enough about engineering yet to see that materials science and engineering would be a perfect way for me to blend my passion for chemistry, innovation and helping others,” she says.

Now, as a materials science and engineering major, Keller is pursuing a concentration on biomaterials. “My goal is to create longer-lasting materials that can withstand time in the body, so that more people like me can have sustainable treatment options and have a higher quality of life,” she says.

Next summer, Keller hopes to intern for a biomaterials company where she can continue to learn more about the opportunities for materials science in medicine. —ROGER SLAVENS

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 67

Victoria Dean with her father, Samuel

FORK IN THE ROAD

//

L E AV I N G A B U R G E O N I N G CAREER TO P URSUE A PA S S I O N F O R B E T T E R I N G THE WORLD VICTORIA DEAN, PURSUING DUAL PHD IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AND MBA VICTORIA DEAN had been working as a petroleum engineer for a few years when she hit her proverbial fork in the road. She enjoyed her burgeoning career, following in her dad’s footsteps.

“I worked in a couple of different field types—both offshore and on land,” Dean says. “I worked in the Barnett Shale on fracking jobs with Chesapeake Energy as an intern in Kern River doing stream floods with Chevron. I also worked on the Genesis platform—Chevron’s first deepwater production operation— in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Dean explains that rigs are where active drilling is occurring, and a platform is a structure that stays put after the drilling is done and oil production continues for years.

Working on oil platforms, in particular, is long, grueling work. But that’s not why she left Chevron to pursue graduate studies at Georgia Tech. “And it’s not because I wasn’t enjoying my time at Chevron,” Dean says. “I really enjoyed working there, especially the time spent with my supervisors, mentors and co-workers (who have also fully supported my switch). And I’ve 68 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

always been inspired by the company and its leadership when it comes to caring about people, being committed to safety and in tune with both natural and social environments.”

But two big-picture problems with the world have long nagged on Dean’s conscience.

“I couldn’t shake two things that were constantly on my mind,” she says. “One was inequities in education, and the other was the role that limited access to clean water played in environmental health and safety for marginalized communities.”

In the education space, she knew she would need to earn her doctorate if she wanted to be regarded with the gravitas she needed to evoke change. And on the environmental front, she lacked the formal education needed to really understand the root of the issues she wanted to solve.

Tech was the perfect fit for Dean, even if it required a big leap of faith to move from a steady job she was just starting to figure out into a return to school to follow her dreams. She never wanted to have to go through life wondering, “What if?”

She’s currently pursuing a joint PhD/MBA program, at the Institute. And she’s working in the lab of Joe Brown, the Carlton S. Wilder Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, to help research and tackle global water and sanitation issues.

“I have no regrets to date on this big decision I made,” Dean says. “My plan honestly wasn’t as thought out as my parents probably would’ve liked it to be before moving to a state I’ve never been to and studying in a field at a graduate level in which I have no prior experience. But Georgia Tech has proven itself to be a great incubator for my so-far-half-thought-out hopes and dreams. And having the opportunity to pair my environmental studies with an MBA in the Scheller College of Business has brought even more clarity on avenues I’d like to explore as future career paths.”—ROGER SLAVENS

My experience as a Stamps President’s Scholar has enriched my time at Georgia Tech in more ways than I could have imagined. Besides finding my best friends and role models in the Stamps program, I also gained mentorship from incredible faculty. I would like to thank all the Roll Call donors for making this experience a reality for me and other students at Georgia Tech

Anna Romanov

3rd year, Biomedical Engineering Major, T&M Minor Roswell, GA | Stamps Scholar

Continue the tradition and make a difference for outstanding students, world-class programs, top-notch instructors and state-of-the-art facilities.

Give to the 72nd Roll Call, Georgia Tech's Fund for Excellence gtalumni.org/giving

ROLL CALL, GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | 190 NORTH AVE, ATLANTA, GA 30313 | 404.894.0756

Alumni House

HOMECOMING IS FOR FAMILY Tech alumni swarmed campus for Homecoming and Reunion Weekend Oct. 11-13. Festivities including the annual Ramblin’ Wreck Tailgate, music by the Yellow Jacket Marching Band and the announcement of Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech.

70 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Picture This! Photography

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 71

ALUMNI HOUSE

Magnificent

Seven

Meet the class of 2019 Gold & White Honors recipients—alumni and friends who represent the best of Georgia Tech.

PROFILES BY ROGER SLAVENS PHOTOS BY KAYLINN GILSTRAP, DAVID WOOLFALL AND NATHAN HIRSCH

FOR ROUGHLY 133 YEARS, Georgia Tech has educated, fostered and empowered some of the most influential people in the United States and the world at large. Not only are they engineers and designers, but they are also pioneers in business and technology, and leaders in government and education.

The Alumni Association has been proud to formally recognize the many Yellow Jackets who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements in their fields and generous contributions to society since 1934.

That year, L.W. “Chip” Robert Jr., CE 1908—for whom the Alumni House is named—was bestowed the very first

72 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

alumni award for his success in industry and public service, which included helping to run U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1933 to 1936.

Now officially called the Gold & White Honors, these awards recognize career accomplishments, service to society, dedication to their communities and generosity to Tech. Let’s introduce you to the next seven Yellow Jackets who the Alumni Association has singled out for their successes with its top awards. Their achievements will be celebrated in Atlanta this coming February at the 2019 Gold & White Honors Gala.

TYLER TOWNSEND, IE 98 MANAGING PARTNER, TOWNSEND WEALTH MANAGEMENT

DEAN GRIFFIN COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD This award recognizes alumni who have performed exemplary community service in the following ways: service in a long term volunteer capacity; impact on the quality of life of others; leadership and creativity in dealing with societal problems; and serving as a source of inspiration for others.

Kaylinn Gilstrap

GROWING UP IN A RAMBLIN’ WRECK household and as a huge Yellow Jackets sports fan, Tyler Townsend never considered going to college anywhere else but Georgia Tech. After “getting out” with an engineering degree, he worked in Atlanta for a software development company.

But eventually the lure of joining the family business—Townsend Wealth Management founded by his father, Ken Townsend, ME 64, in Columbus, Ga.—was impossible to ignore. He started on the ground floor and moved his way up to managing partner for the small firm, where he oversees daily operations. As much of a pivotal role as he has played in helping people plan for their retirements, Townsend has made an even bigger impact in serving his community. He’s president-elect of the Rotary Club of Columbus, and serves on the boards for the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley and the Columbus Museum.

He co-chaired a commission to make recommendations for the city’s revenue structure to be fair and sustainable while promoting economic growth. “Columbus is a very generous place,” he says. “It grew up as a mill town but has evolved into a major force in the financial services community.

I’ve been fortunate to be part of its success.”

Townsend still frequently makes the trek up I-85 to attend Yellow Jackets games with his wife, Eleanore, and their two sons, as well as to participate in Alumni Association events.

He’s an at-large board member of the Association and no stranger to being recognized for his contributions to Tech, having won the Association’s Outstanding Young Alumni award in 2012.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 73

ALUMNI HOUSE LIZZIE DONNELLY, IE 08

THE OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD The award is given to young Georgia Tech alumni—those who have not reached their 40th birthday by the date of the awards gala— who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and service to Tech, the Alumni Association, the community and their profession.

74 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

IF YOU’VE EVER MET one of the Student Ambassadors at Georgia Tech, you quickly realize just how far the Institute’s best and brightest will go.

For Lizzie Donnelly, that’s meant geographically far—specifically, all the way to London, where she’s currently on leave taking care of her toddler son after serving as development manager of The London School of Economics and Political Science. The job was the perfect marriage of her undergraduate studies in international affairs and her discovered love for higher education administration. “I truly loved being an Ambassador and working as a student assistant for the Alumni Association during my time at Tech,” she says. “It opened me up to a very different field, and I knew that’s where I wanted to build my career.” Soon after “getting out,” she embarked to Clemson to earn her master’s degree in higher education, and then she landed at Georgetown University, where she served as an assistant director, first for alumni class programs and reunion campaigns, and then major gifts and fundraising. While working in Washington, D.C., she became very involved in the Georgia Tech DC Alumni Network, where she served as Roll Call chair from 2012-13 and president from 2013-15. She also is a past president of Tech’s Young Alumni Council, and helped launch the GT GOLD newsletter.

When her husband, Alex Donnelly, Mgt 08, took a job in London, she quickly landed at the London School of Economics, where she worked to develop relationships and lead fundraising efforts with alumni, parents and friends across the globe—a perfect blend of her passions for international travel and higher ed.

David Woolfall

JERRY MCTIER FORMER GEORGIA TECH DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL AID IT’S FITTING THAT JERRY MCTIER spent the bulk of his career in higher education helping families afford to send their kids off to universities like Georgia Tech. He grew up in Savannah a huge Yellow Jackets fan—“mainly because everybody else rooted for Georgia”—and wanted to attend the Institute. However, at the time, coming from a family of modest means meant a Tech education was not in the cards. McTier instead earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and political science from the University of North Georgia and a master’s in education from West Georgia University, then embarked upon a long career working in higher ed. After successful stints at Oglethorpe and Georgia State, McTier was hired by the Institute in 1994 to help fix its “chaotic” financial aid department. And like a true “helluva engineer,” he arrived with a problem-solving mindset. “Most every problem in business is a communication problem,” he says. “The first thing I did in taking over the office was to improve how we spoke to each other, and then how we communicated to students and families.” A deep commitment to customer service always drove McTier, and by convincing his staff that it should always be job No. 1, he turned things around quickly at Tech. In total, he estimates he helped more than 90,000 students find nearly $3.2 billion in tuition assistance during his 20-plus-year career at the Institute. He was also “the man behind the curtain” in getting President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough’s Promise Scholarship Program up and running, filling a key gap in the Institute’s support system for low-income families. For all his work, in 2002 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Georgia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

But the biggest reward of his tenure at Tech, he says, has been seeing the kids he helped get into the Institute finally “get out” and succeed.

Kaylinn Gilstrap

THE HONORARY ALUMNI AWARD This award bestows a long-due honorary degree to those who didn’t earn a degree at Georgia Tech but have devoted themselves to the greater good of the Institute.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 75

ALUMNI HOUSE

JACK J. FAUSSEMAGNE, IM 65 RETIRED FOUNDING PARTNER OF THE RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL CO.

THE JOSEPH MAYO PETTIT DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD 76 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

USING THE MANAGEMENT EXPERTISE he developed over a long career in the hospitality and development industries—including the revitalization of the Ritz-Carlton brand—Jack Faussemagne has helped orchestrate many of the radical changes that have been made on Tech’s campus the past 20 years. “I’m particularly proud of helping to make the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center a reality,” he says. Faussemagne has served as a key member of the Georgia Tech Facilities Board since 2002, for which he was appointed chair in 2006. “I’ve helped oversee $315 million of upgraded facilities across campus, ranging from building amazing high-tech buildings to redoing outdated electrical systems,” he says. “Now I’m excited about being involved with the new $110 million student center project.” Faussemagne is also an emeritus member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board and has served on the boards of the Alumni Association, Alexander-Tharpe Fund and the SigEp National Housing Corporation. When he came to Tech from Texas without knowing a soul, he thought he was destined to become an engineer. However, Faussemagne quickly (and astutely) found out his talents were more suited for business (blame organic chemistry). After getting his bachelor’s degree in industrial management, he briefly worked for Lockheed-Martin before earning an MBA at the University of Pennsylvania, and then moved through number of job experiences. “I had a professor who said ‘You’re always worth more to your next employer than you are to your current one,’” Faussemagne says. “So early on I tried not to stay longer than 2 years with any single company so I could keep climbing upward while constantly learning new things.” His career path solidified when William B. “Bill” Johnson, Cls 59, hired him to help operate some Waffle House and Holiday Inn franchises. “Bill wanted someone with experience in commercial development, hotels, accounting and construction—and I was the rare person who had done it all,” he says.

“The rest is history.”

Kaylinn Gilstrap

RONALD L. “RON” JOHNSON, MS OR 85

PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING THOUGH HE RETIRED IN 2008 from the U.S. Army as a major (two-star) general after 32 years of service to his country, Ron Johnson wasn’t nearly done building his already impressive career (see page 58). The former deputy commanding officer of the Army Corps of Engineers—who at one time supervised 70,000 engineer soldiers—caught the interest of David Stern, former commissioner of the National Basketball Association. Stern wanted Johnson to use his leadership and analytical skills to head up a newly created position and overhaul the league’s refereeing operations, which had been plagued by scandals. As a senior vice president with the NBA, Johnson put in place a more regimented system of training and accountability, and vastly improved the credibility of pro basketball officiating. Still not done seeking new adventures, he was recruited to come back to Georgia Tech to first serve as managing director of the Tennenbaum Institute of Enterprise Transformation and then became a Professor of the Practice in industrial and systems engineering. As you might expect, Johnson has been as effective at Tech as he was at his previous posts. He recently was named educator of the year at the college level by the Black Engineer of the Year Awards—not only for his ability to connect with students at Tech, but also for tutoring young men and women nationwide to improve their test scores so they can get into U.S. military service academies. Johnson is a former trustee for both the Georgia Tech Foundation and Alumni Association, and served on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. He has two endowed scholarships in his name at Tech (and another at West Point, too). Beyond the Institute, he has served on the boards of Leave No Veteran Behind and Goodwill Industries, and was recently selected as a national trustee for the Boys and Girls Club of America. His awards are plentiful. His military honors include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit. He was inducted into Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 2005, and won the Black Engineer Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He lives in Atlanta and is the proud father of 29-year-old son, Ian, a combat engineer and paratrooper with the Army’s 82nd Airborne.

Kaylinn Gilstrap

THE JOSEPH MAYO PETTIT DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 77

ALUMNI HOUSE

ROGER KRONE, AE 78 CHAIRMAN AND CEO , LEIDOS INC.

THE JOSEPH MAYO PETTIT DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD This is the highest award conferred by the Alumni Association and honors alumni who have provided outstanding support of the Institute and the Alumni Association throughout a lifetime, while also providing leadership in their chosen professions and local communities.

78 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

ROGER KRONE ALWAYS KNEW he wanted to be an engineer, though his mother thought that meant he wanted to work with trains. His father—a World War II bombardier—is the one who sparked his interest in completely different modes of transportation. “We’d often go to a local playground near the airport and watch the planes take off and land,” Krone says. “It was the 1960s, and the aviation and aerospace industries were the exciting, high-tech fields everyone wanted to get into. Everyone wanted to be a pilot or astronaut or engineer.” He came to Tech because it had a flying club and a wellregarded aerospace engineering program, but also Krone was eager to move away from Ohio for an adventure. Tech’s tough culture of academic rigor helped him excel. “It turned me from an average student to a regular on the Dean’s List,” he says. After “getting out,” Krone embarked upon a stellar 30-plus years in the aerospace industry, working his way up through positions in engineering, finance and program management for the likes of McDonnell Douglas, General Dynamics and Boeing, until becoming Boeing’s president of network and space systems. In 2014, he was named CEO of Leidos Inc., a leading defense, aviation, information technology and biomedical research company. Though he’s based in Virginia, Krone has done a great deal in recent years to support his undergraduate alma mater. He first got involved with the Georgia Tech Advisory Board in 2007, including a one-year term as chair, and has been a member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board since 2014. “I enjoyed getting to know how these groups worked and how much of an impact they can have on supporting students and research,” Krone says. He also helps run the Krone Foundation with his wife, Helen, and their three grown children. In 2017, the Krones gave the lead gift for Tech’s cutting-edge Engineered Biosystems Building, which is named in their honor. Somehow he still manages to find time to fly his plane (he’s a commercially licensed pilot), run in half marathons and cheer on the Yellow Jackets.

Nathan Hirsch

J. PAUL RAINES, IM 85 FORMER CEO OF GAMESTOP

PAUL RAINES WAS KNOWN FOR surprising people in the best of ways. He spoke perfect Spanish—though he grew up in Atlanta, he was born in Costa Rica and spent his summers there. He had the uncanny ability to recall names and family histories of his employees, no matter their position level. And in times of success, he always gave the credit to the people around him. “Though he was a confident and visionary man, Paul always acted with grace and humility,” says his wife, Claudia Raines. “Even when he was dealing with a brain tumor.” He died at the age of 53 in March 2018 after a four-year battle with cancer, but he’s left an incredible legacy of business leadership, service and familyfirst values. After graduating from Tech with a degree in industrial engineering, his career included leadership at a number of top companies, including Kurt Salmon Associates, L.L. Bean, Home Depot and GameStop. He oversaw more than 2,000 stores and $70 billion in sales revenues as a top executive for Home Depot. Later as CEO of GameStop— the world’s largest video game retailer—he led acquisitions of AT&T and Cricket stores, as well as online collectibles retailer ThinkGeek and Simply Mac, an authorized Apple reseller.

He was a proud Yellow Jacket, and urged his daughter, Victoria, BA 16, and son, Julian, a third-year business major, to follow in his academic footsteps. He also gave generously to Tech, serving on the Georgia Tech Foundation Board from July 2013 until his death, as well as on the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and College of Engineering advisory boards. Paul and Claudia also supported two scholarships for American students with Hispanic backgrounds—one need-based for tuition and the other geared for studying abroad. “We also supported other education-based causes in the U.S. and Costa Rica,” Claudia says. “Our parents didn’t have a lot of money, but they sacrificed to make sure we were well-educated. It’s been important to us to try to help those in similar situations.”

Above all things, she says, Paul was deeply committed to his family. “He always did everything he could to spend as much time as possible with the kids and me,” she says. “He worked hard to make sure we had a good and secure life.”

THE JOSEPH MAYO PETTIT DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

The Raines family (below) shares a happy moment at daughter Victoria’s graduation from Georgia Tech in 2016. Pictured are (from right to left) Paul, Victoria, wife, Claudia, and son, Julian, now a third-year student at Tech.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 79

ALUMNI NETWORKS

Supporting Tech Nationwide

BY JANET KINARD, TE 97, MS ME 99

We give kudos to our top networks—and the alumni volunteers who drive them—all across the country.

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IS BLESSED to have an astounding number of Alumni Networks and Affinity Groups throughout the United States and beyond—more than 100 of them believe it or not—and there’s no way we’d be this successful in spreading The Good Word without the efforts of our incredible volunteers.

While we deeply appreciate the work of all the alumni who put so much time and effort into promoting the Institute and raising scholarship funds, we still like to single out the best of the best. Every year, our volunteer leaders return to Atlanta to participate in the annual Leadership Georgia Tech conference, where they learn new skills and share best practices.

At the end of the program, we recognize the year’s top networks, programs and leaders. Many of the awards include prize money to help these networks sustain their excellent work. Kudos to the winners of the 2018 Alumni Network awards!

2

80 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

1 3

2018 Leadership Georgia Tech Network Award Winners Though many of you msy be hundreds and thousands of miles away, we can still feel the impact of your school pride and service here at Ma Tech.

4

1. OUTSTANDING NETWORK, LARGE (2,000+ alumni): DeKalb Network 2. OUTSTANDING NETWORK, MEDIUM (1,000–2,000 alumni): Suncoast Network 3. OUTSTANDING EVENT, LARGE (2,000+ alumni): Houston Network for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts 4. OUTSTANDING EVENT, MEDIUM (1,000–2,000 alumni): North Alabama for their annual Pi Mile Race 5. OUTSTANDING EVENT, SMALL (under 1,000 alumni): Columbus, Ga., Network for their Scholarship Banquet 6. OUTSTANDING OUTREACH: Golden Isles Network for their Thirsty Third Thursday gatherings 7. NETWORK VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR: Ben Jones, North Metro (Atlanta) Network 8. NETWORK EXCELLENCE AWARDS: Colorado (Denver) and Portland, Ore., Networks

6

5 8

7

WANT TO GET IN ON THE FUN ? Join in with fellow Yellow Jackets at a regional Alumni Network or Affinity Group! Learn more at gtalumni.org/networks.

Volume 94 No. 43 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 81

ALUMNI EVENTS

Save These Dates

FEB. 21, 2019— GOLD & WHITE HONORS GALA

MARCH 19, 2019— CAREER CONFERENCE AND JOB FAIR

APRIL 13, 2019— 47TH ANNUAL PI MILE ROAD RACE

At our annual awards gala, seven of Georgia Tech’s most extraordinary leaders will be recognized with the Gold & White Honors, the Institute’s highest recognition. The event also raises money for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s award-winning student programs.

The Career Conference and Job Fair is an alumni-only opportunity to strengthen your skills in expert-led professional development workshops and grow your Georgia Tech network.

At the Job Fair, alumni can find their next great career move with employers looking to hire top Tech talent.

Join fellow alumni and friends to run the Pi Mile Road Race—one of the longest continually held 5Ks in Atlanta. For the 47th year, the race will take you through Georgia Tech’s beautiful campus for a fun morning of fitness with Buzz, the Ramblin’ Wreck, music and lots of Yellow Jacket spirit.

82 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 92 No. 93 No.34 3 2018 2017 2016 2018

Annual Report 2018 (Fiscal Year)

Once again, the Alumni Association boasted record participation in events, programs, giving and more, completing another successful year of engaging Tech alumni. Find out all the ways we bolstered the Institute’s academic mission while building strong bonds among past and future generations of Yellow Jackets.

ALUMNI BY COUNTRY, TOP 5 (OUTSIDE U.S.) FRANCE

#3

160,358

#1

INDIA

#2

GERMANY

#5

ALUMNI BY STATE, TOP 5

ALUMNI BY GRADUATION DECADE 2010S

FLORIDA

#2

43,966

6%

#1

2000S

ALUMNI BY COLLEGE

42%

ENGINEERING 96,305 – ­ 60%

TEXAS

#4

BUSINESS 23,276 ­ – 15%

5%

COMPUTING 13,003 ­– 8% SCIENCES 12,754 ­– 8%

CALIFORNIA

#3 6%

Percentages reflect total alumni worldwide.

Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.

#4

CHINA

TOTAL TECH ALUMNI AROUND THE WORLD

GEORGIA

S. KOREA

N. CAROLINA

DESIGN 9,291 – ­ 6%

3%

LIBERAL ARTS 5,076 ­– 3%

#5

36,065

1990S 26,863

1980S 22,387

27%

S 10% 1970 15,839

22%

6%

17%

3%

14%

1%

1960S 9,599

1950S 4,765

1940S 870

50%

OF GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI HAVE GRADUATED SINCE 2000.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 83

ANNUAL REPORT

Letter from the Chair DEAR FELLOW ALUMNI, it was a great honor for me to serve as chair of the board of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association during fiscal year 2018.

Georgia Tech is an amazing place of discovery, learning, growth, innovation and, of course, progress and service.

It’s such an exciting place to be, and as alumni, to be from.

The spirit of our school is rooted in those characteristics that truly define Tech alumni—analytical thinking and problem solving, a strong work ethic, creativity, passion for excellence and learning, and perseverance.

During the year we accomplished a lot together. Our thrust was on three main initiatives: 1) improving our network strategy, engagement and satisfaction; 2) increasing young alumni engagement; and 3) preparing a 5-year strategic plan for the Association. I’m pleased to report that we accomplished almost every one of our underlying goals tied to these initiatives—and we’re still working hard on the handful of metrics that remained outstanding.

We also raised over $10.2 million from more than 33,000 donors through Roll Call, Georgia Tech’s Fund for Excellence. I personally want to thank you all for your collective generosity. Roll Call truly is one of the great strengths of Georgia Tech. It is a fitting tradition of our alumni to give back to the Institute—for most of us, the experience at Tech was transformative in our lives.

Investing in the future of Tech through Roll Call gives Insitute leaders the ability to provide millions of dollars

23,897 Alumni Donors for the

71ST ANNUAL ROLL CALL FOR A PHILANTHROPIC PARTICIPATION RATE OF 15.3% (10% is the national average.) Tech historically ranks among the Top 3 U.S. public research universities in philanthropic participation.

691,644 ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT:

alumni and friends directly participated in Alumni Association events, engaged with us via social media, used our mobile apps and more.

84 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

in scholarships and fellowships, to take advantage of innovative opportunities and to lead the way in achieving our aspiration of “defining the technological and research university of the 21st century.”

We added more than 5,000 new graduates in FY18, which means that Georgia Tech’s global network of alumni now exceeds 160,000. And the Association’s student programs, designed to teach the current generation of Yellow Jackets how to be loyal alumni prior to graduation, excelled at a world-class level and set (once again) a record number of student donors.

The Association’s mission is to serve the Institute and its alumni, and we continue to focus on how we can best accomplish our lofty goals. We thank you for your service and loyalty to Georgia Tech!

Sincerely yours, David Bottoms, Mgt 01 Alumni Association Chair FY2018

ONCE AGAIN, AN ALL-TIME RECORD WAS SET OF

$10,280,912 from 33,492 total donors to the Association’s 71st Roll Call.

SUPPORTIVE ENGAGEMENT: Indirect engagement and

communications such as reading the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine and visiting gtalumni.org, reach an all-time high of

26,406,247

ASSOCIATION FINANCES FISCAL YEAR 2018 REVENUES

BUDGET ACTUAL VARIANCE

GT Foundation Georgia Tech Advertising & Sponsorships Career Services Tours Merchandise Sales (Net of Cost of Sales) Royalties Event Registrations Other Sources of Revenue Gold & White Honors Gala/Contributions

$4,743,300 643,933 390,000 255,000 115,000 18,000 15,400 233,844 180,842 498,000

$4,743,300 $0 641,994 (1,939) 282,230 (107,770) 148,701 (106,299) 154,347 39,347 12,853 (5,147) 15,494 94 251,623 17,779 205,483 24,641 480,660 (17,340)

Total Revenues

$7,093,319

$6,936,685

EXPENDITURES

($156,634)

BUDGET ACTUAL VARIANCE

Administration & HR Technology Career Services Communications Alumni Relations & Tours Roll Call Campus Relations Event Management Marketing Services Business Development

$1,788,813 736,330 285,200 709,877 344,900 661,700 599,013 1,179,236 552,850 235,400

$2,062,483 760,547 326,055 647,446 339,098 564,896 404,363 1,105,922 529,589 69,689

$273,670 24,217 40,855 (62,431) (5,802) (96,804) (194,650) (73,314) (23,261) (165,711)

Total Expenditures

$7,093,319

$6,810,088

($283,231)

Excess (Deficiency) of revenue over expenses

$0

$126,597

ASSETS

2018

$126,597

2017

Cash and Cash Equivalents

$509,690 $379,723 Accounts Receivable less Allowance for Doubtful Accounts of $3,000 in 2018 and $3,000 in 2017 126,473 65,256 Prepaid Expenses

71,321 61,785 Inventory 9,032 10,077 Investments 277,773 0 Property, Plant and Equipment, net 296,577 319,432 Antique Ramblin' Wreck

12,500 12,500 Total Assets

$1,303,366

LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS

$848,773

2018 2017

LIABILITIES Accounts Payable $309,650 $210,076 Accrued Expenses 350,071 383,867 Total Liabilities

$659,721

UNRESTRICTED NET ASSETS Expended for Property, Plant & Equipment 309,077 Available for Operations 334,568 Total Unrestricted Net Assets

Total Liabilities and Net Assets

$643,645

$593,943 331,932 (77,102) $254,830

Volume 94 No. 3 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 85 $1,303,366 $848,773

ANNUAL REPORT

Impact & Engagement ALUMNI NETWORKS & AFFINITY GROUPS The Alumni Association serves more than active Alumni Networks and Affinity Groups across the U.S. with representatives in 35 countries.

100 ALUMNI COMMUNICATIONS

15,308

13+ MILLION

alumni and friends participated in over 700 events in FY18, including campus faculty visits, new student send-offs, game-watching parties and more.

social media interactions with more than 126K followers

632,700

Approximately

total annual audience for the Alumni Magazine in print and online

$380,000 60

in alumni scholarships raised by

GEORGIA TECH STUDENT FOUNDATION

Alumni Networks and Affinity Groups were given to more than 150 students

Over the span of 32 years, the initial GTSF funding of $100,000 has grown to

$2,500

(from 2,000 applicants). The average scholarship amount was

$1.4 MILLION with more than $700,000 given back to fund student-proposed initiatives.

Together, SAA and GTSF were proud to donate just over

$35,000

SAA membership reached

6,935

with all members donating to Roll Call.

ALUMNI TRAVEL

CAREER SERVICES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT In FY18, Career Services presented

6

In FY18, a record

professional development programs, including the Georgia Tech Executive Leadership program, which attracted 22 participants nationally and internationally.

591

Those who travel, give:

72%

of alumni travelers donated to Roll Call in FY18.

In 24 hours

1,410 $154,685 46 states donors raised

for Roll Call across and 15 countries for the second annual #GTgives event held on Pi Day, March 14. This included 632 new donors and a $110 average gift.

STUDENT ALUMNI ASSOCIATION At the CASE ASAP District III Conference, SAA was named Outstanding Student Organization, and the outgoing SAA VP of Spirit, Tradition and Pride Rani Tilva, BA 18, was named Outstanding Student Leader. Ramblin On’ also won Outstanding Student Advancement Program.

to the Gift to Tech, which every year goes to a campus initiative voted on by students.

alumni and guest travelers embarked on 43 tours facilitated by the Alumni Association. 53% were repeat travelers with Tech.

GIVING DAY

In its 35th year, the Annual Career Fair was renamed the Alumni Career Conference and Job Fair with a stronger focus on professional development programming. Four different workshops were offered on salary negotiation, personal branding, career switching and working with a recruiting agency. 91 employers and 363 alumni attended.

86 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

ALUMNI EVENTS A record

1,519

runners participated in the 46th Annual Pi Mile Road Race.

644

Leadership Circle Donors were invited and attended the 2018 President’s Dinner Celebrating Roll Call

$481,154

was raised at the 2018 Gold & White Honors Gala for the Alumni Association’s award-winning student programs.

8

extraordinary alumni and friends were presented with the Tech’s top alumni awards.

Leadership Circle is the cornerstone of Roll Call, Georgia Tech's Fund for Excellence. It provides Tech with unrestricted opportunities for exceptional students, world-renown faculty, first-class facilities, and cutting-edge programs. Creating Tech graduates who are limitless in their ability to achieve, forge new innovative paths and open doors of possibilities for the next generation.

With your generous support to the 72nd Roll Call at the Leadership Circle level, you can continue the legacy of excellence for years to come.

Give to Roll Call, Georgia Tech’s Fund for Excellence today at gtalumni.org/giving

GIFTS CAN BE MAILED TO: ROLL CALL, GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | 190 NORTH AVE, ATLANTA, GA 30313 | 404.894.0778

RAMBLIN' ROLL

Georgia Tech Engineers Restore WWII Patrol Bomber ALLEN ARSENEAU, EM 67, AND JOHN GOODPASTURE, EE 66, are restoring a 1942-vintage PV-1 patrol bomber for display in the Orlando Sanford International Airport.

Both are retired from aerospace careers and are contributing their time and expertise as volunteers with the Naval Air Station Sanford Memorial Committee to bring the airplane to museum-quality display.

The PV-1 was the first Navy type to be deployed at Naval Air Station Sanford in 1942. This particular airplane was made that year, a fact known both from the documentation and from the signatures of the original women riveters written inside the wing, dated July 1942.

The project began when the PV-1 first arrived—disassembled—at Sanford from locations in California. The airplane arrived as buckets of bolts and parts. Wings, fuselage, engines and gears of many types and configurations all had to be sorted and arranged fo r rea ss e m b ly a f te r ca re f u l restoration.

It became evident that more than a quick touch up was needed. The lower fuselage and wing skins, and many other areas, were severely corroded.

1960s Henry Falvey, CE 60, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Society on Dams. The Association of State Dam Officials also awarded Falvey the

Other components were missing entirely, like a wing tip and both stabilizer tips. The interior had insulation made from asbestos, all of which had to be removed for safety.

After a clean-up and dozens of panels having been drilled out, matched and reinstalled—using all those rivets—it still looked incomplete. What was needed was to construct many of the missing and non-restorable parts.

Goodpasture and Arseneau have

made development and construction of these missing parts their central focus. As a mechanical engineer with a background in metal and composite aircraft structures, Arseneau led the team in creating the missing components. Such reconstruction could only be done by referring to old photographs, measurements taken on a similar PV-2 at Pensacola, Fla., and the original assembly drawings.

Joseph Ellam Award.

treatment. Martin brings more than 30 years of finance and operations experience to SpeciCare, including CFO positions at Russell Athletics and various other multimillion-dollar companies.

Bob Martin, IE 69, has been named president and chief operating officer of SpeciCare.

SpeciCare is a leading provider of living tissue tumor storage that is shaping the field of functional precision medicine for cancer

88 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Anibal Gomez, IE 65, is vice president of

Universidad De Margarita Unimar In Venezuela.

1970s Billy Murphey, AP 79, MS GeoS 84, is Georgia’s state climatologist and chief meteorologist.

Roger Bryant, EE 76, MS MoT 96, was elected chairman of the board for the Utilities Technology Council. Bryant is an IT project manager at Southern Company Services in Atlanta. UTC is the global association at the nexus of the energy, utility and telecommunications industries. Representing energy and water providers of all sizes and ownership structures, UTC advocates for the information and communications technology needed for the safe and reliable delivery of these vital services.

OUT & ABOUT HERB SCALES, IM 76, poses with his son Patrick Scales, the long snapper for the Chicago Bears, and STEVE RAIBLE, IM 76, on Sept 17, 2018, before the Bears vs Seahawks NFL Monday Night Football Game. Herb Scales and Steve Raible played football together at Georgia Tech in the 1970s. Raible went on to play football for the Seattle Seahawks and now works as the “Voice of the Seahawks” and a news anchor for KIRO7 TV in Seattle.

1990s Jason Dunn, CE 94, was promoted to vice president of project management for BRPH Architects & Engineers in Melbourne, Fla. Dunn was also voted to the Board of Directors.

In this role, Dunn is responsible for executive leadership for the firm’s project management discipline, and for setting corporate direction and standards for project delivery and execution for all project managers.

Heather Rocker, IE 98, was promoted to managing principal of SEI-Atlanta. Rocker serves as half of the management team for the business and technology firm, named one of Atlanta’s top places to work. Rocker was also named to the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2019.

Yancy Riddle, MS MSE 98, PhD MSE 01, is an entrepreneur whose company, NearShore Technology, has been named by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in 2018. The company has doubled in size since its inception five years ago and serves customers including Google, Microsoft and Oracle.

SWINDLE INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME LT. COL. ORSON GEORGE SWINDLE III, IM 59, has been inducted into the 2018 Class of the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame.

Upon graduation from Georgia Tech in 1959, Orson Swindle was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Marine Corps. He earned his Navy wings in 1964 and flew the F8E Crusader on 204 missions in Vietnam, his last flight being on Nov. 11, 1966, when he was shot down and captured.

Swindle was held as a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam for more than six years, undergoing hours of intense torture and questioning. Swindle shrewdly fabricated false and plausible details that the enemy interpreted as factual, proving to be of exceptional value to the survival of his fellow prisoners. Despite threats of death and hostile treatment, Swindle nonetheless assumed complete care of a wounded fellow prisoner.

For his courage under relentless harassment and prolonged torture while enduring inhumane living conditions, Swindle was awarded two Silver Stars (POW), two Legions of Merit (POW), two Bronze Star Medals (POW), two Purple Hearts, 13 Air Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor Device (POW) and the Prisoner of War Medal.

Undaunted by his harrowing experience as a prisoner of war, Swindle returned to flying after repatriation, this time in the A-4 Skyhawk. His final assignment was at the USMC Logistics Base in Albany, Ga., before medical retirement in 1979.

Swindle continued to serve in the public sector for several years, twice in presidential appointment positions. Now living in retirement in Colorado, he continues to participate in Georgia Tech, Marine Corps and U.S. political activities.

Volume 94 No. 43 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 89

RAMBLIN' ROLL

Richard Tyler, IE 90, was promoted to the role of director of real estate for Rollins, responsible for more that 550 locations across the U.S. and Canada involving leases, build outs, relocations and new branches.

2000s Victor Borowsky, Mgt 01, has been named a top financial adviser by Northwestern Mutual.

Jeff Haymore, M CRP 05, is now an attorney in the growing zoning and land use practice of law firm Pursley Friese Torgrimson. Haymore was previously an attorney with the city of Atlanta and, bringing more than 13 years of experience litigating zoning and land use matters in the city’s legal department.

Leslie Leighton, MS HTS 07, was appointed visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Georgia State University. Leighton is teaching courses in American history and the history of public health and medicine.

Antoinetta McKay, Mgt 08, self-published her first children’s book targeted toward preschool and early elementary children, called Happy Birthday, Tulip & Violet! The book introduces readers to Tulip and Violet, twin girls born on Earth Day, whose parents love to spend time with their children and enjoy teaching them about how to take care of the Earth.

2010s Aaron Glover, MS QCF 12, MBA 12, joined Accenture as a senior manager responsible for leading the firm’s Financial Crimes Advanced Analytics practice and projects.

Glover was awarded the CFA charter in August 2018 after passing a series of three exams from CFA Institute.

90 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. No.342018 2018

BEN DYER NAMED ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE BEN DYER, IE 70, has joined the law firm Morris, Manning & Martin in the newly created role of entrepreneur in residence.

“Ben has unparalleled knowledge about every step of founding, financing and growing businesses,” said John Yates, who chairs MMM’s Technology Group. “While some venture funds, business schools and incubators have EIRs, very few law firms do. The fact that MMM is the only law firm in Atlanta with an EIR gives us another unique and practical resource for our attorneys and clients.”

Dyer is a member of the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia, whose prestigious members are selected for their impact on the state’s tech industry. Dyer’s successes include founding Peachtree Software, which sold to MSA; Comsell, which News Corp acquired; and Intellimedia, funded by Cox Enterprises. His financial experience includes C-level leadership posts with a seed stage venture capital fund, a bank and an investment firm.

Until recently, Dyer was entrepreneurial adviser and entrepreneur in residence at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught in the Longhorn Startup Program.

He also chaired the Qualifying Committee for the SXSW Accelerator. In late 2017 he returned to Atlanta to become a partner at

the TechSquare Labs incubator, which he quickly helped turn into a significant corporate innovation center focused on logistics. He advises or serves on the board of four early-stage firms focused on data sciences, IoT, digital health and electronic physical security. He is also an emeritus member of the board of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, which he has chaired.

In 2006, he received the Joseph Mayo Petit Alumni Distinguished Service Award, which is Georgia Tech’s highest alumni honor. He has also served as president of Tech’s Alumni Association.

WANT TO SHARE YOUR NEWS? Send your Ramblin’ Roll submissions to: Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or editor@alumni.gatech.edu. You can also submit your personal news, birth and wedding announcements (with photos!), out-and-about snapshots and in memoriam notices online at gtalumni.org/magazine.

MATT KUCHAR GIFTS PRESIDENTS CUP DONATION TO CAMP TWIN LAKES MATT KUCHAR, MGT 00, awarded a portion of his donation from the 2017 Presidents Cup at Liberty National to Camp Twin Lakes.

The donation from the former Yellow Jacket standout and professional golfer will help the camp serve nearly 10,000 children and teens across Georgia at their three fully accessible campsites in Rutledge, Winder and Warm Springs.

In 2012, Matt Kuchar and his wife, Sybi, Mgt 99, started hosting the annual Camp Twin Lakes Golf Tournament, which has since raised more than $1.7 million to provide transformative summer camp adventures for thousands of Georgia kids who are not able to attend typical camps.

“In 2018 alone, Matt’s support has enabled us to provide weeklong therapeutic camping experiences for 90 children with serious

illnesses, disabilities and other life challenges,” says Camp Twin Lakes COO Dan Matthews. “With help from our donors, Camp Twin Lakes is able to subsidize 70 percent of the cost of each camper, and most of our campers attend camp at no cost to their families.”

Founded in 1992, Camp Twin Lakes’ mission is to provide yearround camp experiences for children with serious illnesses, disabilities and other life challenges to help each camper grow in their confidence and experience the joys of childhood.

Camp Twin Lakes provides year-round, fully-accessible, and intentionally designed camp programs that teach campers to overcome obstacles while creating shared experiences with other children who face similar challenges.

GREGORY RECOGNIZED

BY JAPANESE GOVERNMENT

ALEX GREGORY, TE 70, was conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, by the government of Japan for his contributions to promoting mutual exchange and friendly relations between Japan and the United States.

The government of Japan bestows decorations upon foreigners who have made notable

contributions to enhance bilateral relations.

Gregory was recognized for his work as the former chairman and CEO of YKK Corporation of America and chairman emeritus of the Japan America Society of Georgia.

YKK Corporation of America is one of the world’s largest zipper manufacturers and distributors, as well as one of the first Japanese companies to set up operations in Georgia in 1970.

Gregory joined YKK in 1973 as the weaving department manager and was the first American YKK employee in Georgia. In 2001, he was named president of YKK Corporation of America.

In 2004, Gregory became the first nonJapanese group officer for YKK Corporation in Japan. From 2008 to 2010, he served on

YKK Corporation’s Board of Directors in Japan as the company’s first non-Japanese director. In 2011, he was named Chairman of YKK Corporation of America’s Board of Directors.

Over the past four decades, Gregory has served as a bridge between the Japanese and American communities in the Atlanta area.

He is a long time board member of the Japan-America Society of Georgia, where he was chairman from 2006-07. He serves as chairman emeritus of the society today.

Gregory was instrumental in the growth and success of JapanFest in Atlanta and served as co-chair of the festival from 1996 to 2001. He is a life member of the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center, where YKK funds a Japanese intern through the Yoshida Scholarship Foundation.

Volume Volume9494No. No.3 42018 2018| |GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE| |9191

RAMBLIN' ROLL BIRTHS

2

1

3 1. David Hern, Mgt 08, MBA 12, and Kathleen Salome Hern, EAS 07, PhD EAS 13, welcomed son Isaac Richard Hern in January.

2. Walter Moore, PFE 10, and wife Megan welcomed son Gabriel William Moore on Dec. 16, 2017. The family lives in Atlanta.

4 Grandfather: William Moore, CE 78.

3. David Horwath Jr., CE 05, and wife Lisa welcomed son Tyler Michael Horwath on Dec. 3, 2017.

The family lives in Columbia, Tenn.

4. Chris Rettkowski  and wife

92 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 92 No. 4 93 3 2017 2016 2018

5 Melissa welcomed son Hudson James on Sept. 17. Chris is the Director of Facility Services for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

5. Steven Romej, CmpE 04, and Michelle Romej, IE 04, welcomed daughter Ella Romej on March 4. Steven is an iOS

developer and Michelle is an anesthesiologist at Emory. The family lives in Atlanta.

6. Fitrah Hamid Golden, CM 12, and Christopher Golden, ChBE 13, welcomed daughter Zoe Halimah on Aug. 27. The family lives in Clinton, Tenn.

The Wealth Manager Alumni Are Buzzing About JOHN A. HANSON, CFA 11 Industrial Engineering PH: 404-822-1370 jhanson@riverstoneadvisors.com

6

WEDDINGS

Experience Excellence Encounter Creativity Embrace Peace of Mind

Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center ‌ where innovative meetings thrive John Zapatka, ChE 89, and Gaye Bayri on July 23 in EskiĹ&#x;ehir, Turkey, and a second ceremony in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Aug. 11.

Zapatka works for Wolters Kluwer as a business content analyst. The couple splits time between Arizona and Turkey.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 93

800 Spring Street, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30308 (404) 838-2060 sales@gatechhotel.com

IN MEMORIAM

Christopher Allen Nisbet Rankine III: Researcher and Musician CHRISTOPHER ALLEN NISBET RANKINE III, CMPE 05, MS IS 08, OF ATLANTA, ON JULY 19. Rankine was born in Boston and grew up in New Orleans. He loved computers, music and band, and excelled in all of his school subjects. He graduated from Georgia Tech with two degrees and earned a master of business administration from Georgia State University.

While at Georgia Tech, he was involved in almost every aspect of the Yellow Jacket Marching Band.

He was at every function, welcoming new members and encouraging people to get involved in the organization he loved. Rankine was also a member of Student Government Association.

Rankine was employed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute as a research engineer and scientist. He was a tinkerer, an innovator and an inventor who was passionate about his research. He was cyber-savvy, network-savvy and mechanically savvy.

This technical combination was

Editor’s Note: We have changed the format for the In Memoriam section of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. We will include an abbreviated version of each obituary in print, while publishing the full obituaries on our website. To read more, please visit gtalumni.org/magazine.

continually recognized by his sponsors, including Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) and most recently the U.S. Navy. He thrived at field tests with sponsors.

These field tests included demonstrations of macro cellular systems and subscriber boxes that he configured at the network and application layers, fieldable jamming systems and fieldable-networked software defined radio systems, all of which

1940s Walton E. Bedinger Jr., CE 41, of Greeley, Colo., on Aug. 23.

Billy S. Bell, EE 48, of Brookhaven, Ga., on Sept. 5.

Stanley Corwin, ME 44, of Iowa City, Iowa, on Aug. 23.

Edward S. Cummings Jr., ME 49, of Charlotte, N.C., on

94 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

he designed and built. He was quick on his feet and got things done in the field like on one else could.

Rankine loved Atlanta and Georgia Tech. He designed and built a soap box car in the shape of a “T” for Tech, which he drove in the Homecoming Parade and the Red Bull Soap Box Derby Race in Atlanta. He continued his love of music as a member of Atlanta’s Seed and Feed Marching Abominable band.

Oct. 11.

Melburn Jacob “Mel” Hibbard, Text 49, of Rome, Ga., on Sept. 9.

Sam N. Hodges Jr., CE 43, of Atlanta, on July 26.

Kenneth T. Houck, BE 46, of Augusta, Ga., on Aug. 12.

Henry G. Kalb Jr., IM 48, of Atlanta, on Aug. 13.

C. Veazey LeCraw, ChE 49, of Smyrna, Ga., on Sept. 28.

Robert Mainor, Cls 45, of Smyrna, Ga., on Sept. 26.

G. William “Bill” Rogers, AE 45, MS IM 58, of Bluffton, S.C., on Sept. 12.

Leon S. Socol, AE 48, IE 49, of Atlanta, on July 17.

1950s Joseph J. Aiello, EE 53, of Winter Park, Fla., on Aug. 29.

William R. Bridges Jr., Cls 52, of Atlanta, on Oct. 7.

Thomas C. Bush, ME 51, of Roswell, Ga., on Sept. 27.

Ernest G. “Jerry” Bylander, Cls 54, of Bartlesville, Okla., on Sept. 5.

Joel Price “J.P.” Campbell, EE 54, of Hueytown, Ala., on Oct. 6.

Robert J. Carlson, IE 50, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on Oct. 17.

Thomas Gerald “Gerry” Chapman, ME 56, of Acworth, Ga., on Oct.18.

Robert S. “Bob” Duggan Jr., EE 51, MS EE 56, of Atlanta, on Jan. 8.

James J. Duhig Jr., ME 59, MS ME 63, of Sandy Springs, Ga., on Sept. 27.

Abraham A. “Abe” Esral, ChE 53, of Atlanta, on Aug. 30.

Thomas S. “Tom” Freeman, EE 56, of Hendersonville, N.C. on Oct. 19.

Howell E. “Hal” Graham Sr., IM 52, MS IM 55, of Ooltewah, Tenn., on Sept. 25.

Arthur Lee Hay Jr., ME 51, of Donalsonville, Ga., on July 27.

Ulysses Virgil Henderson Jr., Chem 51, PhD Chem 54, of Roanoke, Va., on Aug. 14.

Donald D. Hill, CE 54, of Roswell, Ga., on Aug. 10.

Charles Tyler Jackson Jr., MS EE 50, of Maitland, Fla., on July 15.

Russell D. Leverette, IM 54, of Saint Simons Island, Ga., on April 30.

Fowler Hall Low, IM 54, of Cookeville, Tenn., on Oct. 13.

Charles J. Martin, ChE 59, of Charleston, S.C., on July 22.

LARRY RUBIN: POET AND PROFESSOR LARRY J. RUBIN, OF ATLANTA, ON JUNE 26, 2018. Rubin was a poet and professor who taught English at Georgia Tech for 40 years.

Over the span of his career, Rubin published hundreds of poems in literary magazines and four volumes of selected verse.

Rubin was born in 1930 in Bayonne, N.J., and reared in Miami Beach, Fla. He studied briefly at Columbia University and earned degrees in journalism and English at Emory University. Having received a Smith-Mundt Award from the U.S. State Department, Rubin taught American literature during the 1961-62 academic year at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków in Poland. He also spent three years as a visiting Fulbright scholar—at the University of Bergen in Norway in 1966-67, at the Free University of West Berlin in 1969-70, and at the University of Innsbruck in 1971-72.

Rubin had already published numerous poems in literary magazines when “Instructions for Dying” won the

Poetry Society of America’s Reynolds Lyric Award in 1961. His first volume of poetry, The World’s Old Way, appeared in 1962 and won the Georgia Writers Association’s Literary Achievement Award. The Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists named him Georgia Poet of the Year in 1967 for his next volume, Lanced in Light and again in 1975 for All My Mirrors Lie, his third book.

For his poem, “The Bachelor, as Professor,” Rubin received an annual lyric award from the Poetry Society of America in 1973.

Unanswered Calls, Rubin’s fourth book, appeared in 1997 and included an introduction by his friend and colleague, poet James Dickey, who described him “as a powerful creative current running beneath the surface of American life … and fortunate are those among us who have the intelligent sensibility to connect with him.”

After his retirement from Georgia Tech in 1999, Rubin continued to travel, write and teach adult education.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 95

IN MEMORIAM GEORGE “PETE” RODRIGUE: PROFESSOR AND MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY EXPERT GEORGE “PETE” RODRIGUE, OF ATLANTA, ON SEPT. 9. Rodrigue was a popular professor who taught electrical engineering at Georgia Tech from 1968 to 1996.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Louisiana State University and a PhD in applied physics from Harvard University.

Rodrigue worked as a research scientist for Sperry Microwave Electronics Company in Clearwater, Fla., in the late 1950s and 1960s.

He and his colleagues won multiple patents, pioneering the development of microwave technologies. He became a professor of electrical engineering

at Georgia Tech in 1968, and a Regents’ Professor in 1977. Several times he was recognized as the department’s outstanding teacher. In 1972, he was named Outstanding Teacher for all of Georgia Tech. In 1995, he was named Distinguished Educator by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTTS). A nationally recognized expert in microwave technology, he worked with organizations including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bell Labs, Hughes Aircraft, LockheedGeorgia, Raytheon, Northrup, Airtron, the Superconducting Supercollider Laboratory and Electromagnetic Sciences Inc. He was a member of EMS’ board of directors from 1969 to 1972. His true passion was his family. His legacy also continues through thousands of students he taught and mentored.

GEORGE WALTER “BUNKY” HENRY JR: PROFESSIONAL GOLFER GEORGE WALTER “BUNKY” HENRY JR., IM 67, OF ALPHARETTA, GA., ON AUG. 17. Henry was known as much for his humble demeanor and entertaining stories as he was for his golfing skills. After 64 years as an amateur and pro golfer, Henry was an instructor at the Golf Club of Georgia, where he specialized in swing technology.

He attended Georgia Tech on a football scholarship, was a record-setting extrapoint kicker, set an NCAA record, and led the Yellow Jackets in scoring in 1965. He was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame as a two-sport athlete. In 1999, Tech designated him one of the 25 greatest Tech athletes of the century. After graduating

96 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

with a degree in industrial management, he turned pro in 1967 and played with the PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour through 2001. His pro career includes winning the 1969 National Airlines Open and 63 career PGA Tour Champions tournaments w i t h t h r e e to p 10s. Twice, Henry played the Masters Golf Tournament.

He is an inductee in the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.

David Franklin McDowell Jr., Arch 54, of Wichita Falls, Texas, on Oct. 2.

John F. McGarity, IM 54, of Highlands, N.C., on Sept. 8.

Roy L. Moore Jr., Text 52, MS Text 53, of Nikiski, Ala., on Aug. 25.

Gordon Osborn, MS EE 54, of Erie, Pa., on July 26.

Perry D. Phelps, CE 58, of Greensboro, Ga., on Aug. 21.

Edward J. Shockley, AE 50, of Marietta, Ga., on July 25.

Edward H. Sparkman, ChE 52, of Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 5.

James Alexander “Alex” Summers, Arch 58, of Atlanta, on Aug. 16.

J. Chappell Summers Jr., ChE 58, of Atlanta, on Sept. 18.

Carl “Teeter” Umstead, IM 52, of Decatur, Ga., on Oct. 11.

Lamar V. Waldrip, Cls 56, of Gainesville, Fla., on Sept. 29 Lee Hampton Webb, Arch 51, of Marietta, Ga., on Sept. 7.

Conrad G. Whitfield, IM 57, of Sandy Springs, Ga., on Aug. 6.

1960s Jerry C. Adams, IE 60, of Watkinsville, Ga., on June 20.

Joseph K. “Joe” Black, EE 65, of Kathleen, Ga., on Aug. 7.

Harold E. Bradley, EE 60, of Stone Mountain, Ga., on July 31.

Robert Winston “Bob” Carter, Psy 63, of Kempner, Texas, on July 19.

Howard H. Evans, ME 64, of Aiken, S.C., on Oct. 2.

MICHAEL EDWARD THOMAS: PROFESSOR AND ADMINISTRATOR Richard E. Fall, IE 62, of Suwanee, Ga., on Sept. 7.

Emory B. Fears Jr., MS IM 60, of Forest Park, Ga., on Aug. 1.

William “Bill” Force, IM 62, of Augusta, Ga., on July 13.

Robert E. “Bob” Fountain, CE 68, of Macon, Ga., on Aug. 8.

Emory S. “Chip” Lanier III, IM 66, of The Villages, Fla., on Sept.15.

Joseph C. “Joe” League Jr., Arch 69, of Atlanta, on Sept.

24.

Charles D. Liles, AE 60, of Apex, N.C., on Oct. 13.

Rudolph W. Lippke Jr., IM 63, of Arlington Heights, Ill., on Sept. 19.

Richard A. “Rich” Lorey, MS Phys 67, PhD Phys 70, of King George, Va., on July 27.

John E. Mansfield, Cls 60, of Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 4.

Richard P. “Rick” Oscarson, AE 66, of Stuart, Fla., on June 27.

Eugene “Butch” Parker, CE 63, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Oct. 15.

Robert E. “Bob” Patrick, ME 64, MS NE 66, of Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 18.

Bruce Perry, Chem 60, of Jackson, Miss., on Oct 3.

James R. Porter, IE 61, of Lakeland, Fla., on Aug. 30.

William M. Riggs, EE 64, of Kennesaw, Ga., on Oct. 13.

Charles L. Seaman, ChE 60, of Houston, Texas, on Aug. 28.

T. Gunter Smith, IM 60, of Cooperstown, N.Y., on Aug. 24.

Tommy R. Sommer, CE 60, of Atlanta, on Oct. 1.

H. Steve Styles, IM 60, of Dawsonville, Ga., on Aug. 24.

Donald E. Willis, MS IS 68, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., on July 6.

John E. Zimmerman, CE 61, of Clarkesville, Ga., on Sept. 7.

MICHAEL EDWARD THOMAS, OF STOCKBRIDGE, GA., ON NOV. 23.

Thomas had a long legacy of service as a professor, administrator and promoter of Georgia Tech.

Thomas earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Texas and received a PhD in operations research from Johns Hopkins University.

After graduating, he joined the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Florida, where became department chair.

In 1978, he became the chair of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Thomas left the chair’s position in 1989 to join the president’s office as acting executive vice president, responsible for overseeing Tech’s academic restructu r i n g, wh ich l e d to t h e fo r m at io n o f t h r e e n ew colleges and several new degree programs. He also helped to oversee the implementation of many of these degree programs; created new promotion, tenure and reappointment standards; and managed the Institute’s budgeting process.

In 1996, he became provost and vice president for academic affairs, overseeing all academic and most administrative areas.

He later stepped down from this position to become

1970s David E. Boozer Jr., MS ICS 71, of Marietta, Ga., on Sept. 16.

Michael A. Campbell, ME 76, of Sarasota, Fla., on Aug. 28.

Thomas M. Cistola, CE 77, of Munster, Ind., on Oct. 13.

executive director of the Center for Internet Research, Policy and Application, which focused on integration of Internet-related research. He retired in 2002, but came out of retirement soon after to serve as interim chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

He was also president of the Ope ra t i o n s R e s ea r c h S o c i e ty ( n ow INFORMS) and elected as a fellow of INFORMS and AIIE. Thomas is survived by his wife, Patricia Ann Thomas, five children, twenty-two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

James “Dave” DeVenny, IM 70, of Gainesville, Ga., on July 22.

James M. “Kip” Fowler, PhD EE 73, of Huntsville, Ala., on July 24.

Rudolph W. “Rusty” Mills, IM 78, of Dunwoody, Ga., on Aug. 4.

Karen Nash, IE 79, of Jonesboro, Ga., on Aug. 22.

Robert L. Partin, Phys 70, of Hillsboro, Tenn., on Aug. 22.

William “Roger” Pickens Jr., IM 70, of Lilburn, Ga., on Sept. 17.

David J. Pierce, ME 79, of Philadelphia, on Sept. 2.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 97

IN MEMORIAM

BILLY MARTIN: TECH FOOTBALL STAR JAKE WILLIAM “BILLY” MARTIN, IM 65, OF CUMMING, GA., ON MARCH 14. Martin graduated from Gainesville High School in 1960 as an All State Team player for football and basketball, and an All American player for football his senior year. His jersey was retired at Gainesville High School in 2009.

Martin earned the nickname “The Jolly Giant” for his large stature and friendly demeanor.

He received a full scholarship to play football at Georgia Tech, becoming All American and All SEC. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears, and also played for the Atlanta Falcons and the Minnesota Vikings.

He was inducted into the Georgia

William Davis “Dave” Quay, Chem 74, of Royston, Ga., on Sept. 1.

Randolph B. “Randy” Scruggs, Cls 70, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Aug. 3.

Robert Shapiro, AM 76, of Cumming, Ga., on Sept. 14.

Morgan L. Stapleton, PhD ICS 74, of Brunswick, Ga., on Sept. 13.

Mark Lane Williams, MS NE 74, of Knoxville, Tenn., on July 18.

1980s John Eagar, BME 81, of Dunwoody, Ga., on April 2.

Friends

Sports Hall of Fame, Georgia Tech Hall of Fame and the North Georgia Historical Society Hall of Fame. He was the owner of HIS Properties and Faith Development.

Daniel A. Finelli, ChE 81, of Solon, Ohio, on July 25.

John M. Flowe III, CE 83, of Annapolis, Md., on Oct. 14.

Robert E. “Bob” Mann Jr., ChE 80, of Sandy Springs, Ga., on Aug.18.

Carol Baxter Sherburne, ChE 84, of Aiken, S.C., on Oct. 13.

1990s Eric A. Barnum, ME 94, of Seattle, Wash., on Aug. 8.

Matthew H. Brown, Mgt 91, of Cleveland, Tenn., on Aug. 12.

Sheila Pippin, CE 97, of Savannah, Ga., on Sept. 17.

Kenneth R. Shouse, MS EE 91,

98 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

PhD EE 93, of Boerne, Texas, on Aug. 12.

William J. Watson, ME 97, of Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 9.

2000s Lars D. Hershberger, CE 07, of Savannah, Ga., on Aug. 2.

R. Kevin Steely, CS 02, of Atlanta, on Oct. 13.

2010s Christopher E. “Chris” Hancock, Arch 11, of Chame, Panama, on July 10.

Lucille J. “Sam” Butts, of Covenant Towers, S.C., on Sept.

30.

Ruth M. Dutton, of Gig Harbor, Wash., on Sept. 4.

Robert P. “Bob” French, of St. Simons Island, Ga., on Aug. 25.

Janet B. Hubbard, of Cornelius, N.C., on Aug. 16.

Linda L. Johnson, of Albany, Ga., on Sept. 22.

Marianne H. Kidd, of Cumming, Ga., on Sept. 21.

Edwin P. Kohler II, of Atlanta, on Sept. 6.

Mary M. Lawing, of Dunwoody, Ga., on Oct. 5.

William C. Marshall, of Decatur, Ga., on Aug. 13.

Marie Turner Moshell, of Columbus, Ga., on July 31.

Joseph Robert “Bob” Murphy, of Atlanta, on July 17.

Louise E. Neisius, of Fleming Island, Fla., on July 14.

Evelyn M. Newberry, of Atlanta, on July 24.

Richard “Larry” Owens, of Bethpage, Tenn., on Sept. 12.

Barbara Adele Dahlgren Redding, of Tallahassee, Fla., on Sept. 21.

Henry Sharp Jr., of Lexington, Va., on Sept. 1.

Joan Elizabeth Sinclair Sites, of Atlanta, on July 12.

Helping GA Tech Alumni Members save thousands on their student loans.

“

I finally feel like I will be debt free soon, when before it felt like I was just drowning in debt with no hope of ever paying it off!

Shabnam G. | GA Tech Alumni

“

Get a $50 Bonus when you complete your refinancing.

Find out how much you could save by visiting

www.credible.com/gatech

TECH MARKETPLACE BUSINESS SERVICES

Payroll & Hr ServiceS Acupay Solutions delivers comprehensive payroll & HR services using the expertise of highly technical CPAs and accountants.

Michael Whitman Master Plumber GT CE Alumnus SERVING GREATER ATLANTA SINCE 1963 Plumbing, sewer and drain cleaning service. Repiping

MAJOR CONVERTER OF FLEXIBLE & RIGID PLASTICS Printpack has over sixty years of experience in creating the most innovative

Acupay’s solution oriented methods provide

and trenchless pipe replacement. Water heater

packages on the market today.

customers with an efficient system to best

service and leak detection. Available 24/7 and offer

Specializing in converting brand owner’s

meet their payroll processing needs.

senior and military discounts. Free estimates.

vision into value.

877-277-4719 | acupaysolutions.com payroll@acupaysolutions.com

770-505-8570 | atlantisplumbing.com atlantisplumbing@gmail.com

800-451-9985 | printpack.com

CAREER

CONSTRUCTION

FULL SERVICE FOUNDATION REPAIR Foundation Worx was started by a Georgia Tech

Let Segars Engineering tackle your next engineering challenge and score one for team

Go Jackets!

CREATE YOUR FUTURE

Engineer, and every estimator is a GT Engineering

At Cox, you don’t just have a job, but the opportunity to grow and advance across many dynamic industries. Our people are our top priority, and we support and encourage employees to learn and grow through more than one career path.

foundation and water problems by providing a

434-202-7289 | segarsengineering.com

jobs.coxenterprises.com CONSULTING & TECHNOLOGY

Alum. We pride ourselves on analyzing your customized solution. We solve your foundation problems – settlement, wall failure, water intrusion or crawl space issues. Commercial and Residential.

Jonathan Maguire | MS ISYE 01 404-662-2454 | info@foundation-worx.com www.foundation-worx.com

LAW AND FINANCE

ATLANTA SOFTWARE DESIGN CENTER Innovation is everywhere. Keysight provides solutions to accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world.

IDENTITY THEFT & LEGAL PROTECTION

The Atlanta Software Design Center focuses on Cloud, IoT,

GREATER GEORGIA CONCRETE Greater Georgia Concrete LLC serves the commercial and industrial sectors of the construction market throughout Georgia and its contiguous states providing superior structural concrete craftsmanship and hardscape solutions to the majority of the top commercial General Contractors.

Jack F. Godfrey II | ggcllc.com jack@ggcllc.com | 678-797-1901

Data Analytics and Visualization to build out an Open,

Unexpected identity theft and legal issues happen every

Scalable and Predictive software platform. Specific projects

day. With IDShield, you’ll have access to “best-in-class”

include full-stack development, Cloud portal with user

Identity Theft Monitoring/Protection/Restoration services

authentication, IoT architecture and data management, high

from the licensed fraud investigators of KROLL, the leader

performance visualization, machine learning algorithms,

in cyber security, data recovery, and personal ID risk

software framework for multi-OS deployment: desktop,

management. With LegalShield, you’ll have access to a

Cloud/Web, corporate VMs, mobile devices.

dedicated network of top-rated law firms in every state.

510-875-9869 | Jobs.Keysight.com/atl ernest.Wesson@non.Keysight.com

www.legalshield.com/info/gatechalum Ron Fincher, BSMGT ’88 | Alumni Perks Partner 770-313-1033 | rfincher@gatech.edu

100 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

low impact tree removal Let AKA Tree Removal help you with dangerous tree

The Baldwin Group is your best resource to take advantage of your opportunities and overcome your obstacles. We specialize in construction management, from concept to completion. In a time of tight budgets and quicker turnarounds, The Baldwin Group is all the experience you need. We work with you from the beginning to create a realistic project plan. Then throughout the project, we work with you to adhere to the plan so that you achieve your goal: a project completed profitably, on time and in budget.

removals, trimming, deadwooding, crane services & storm damage cleanup. 24-hour service. For more

SPECIALIZING IN YOUR PROJECTS; UP TO $1 BILLION & MORE

information, contact BS in ISYE Gerogia Tech alumnus

FRANK LANDREY, GT ALUMNI AND REALTOR Lyons Team Realtors serves beautiful Smith Mountain Lake and Central Virginia. Frank has lived in the Lynchburg/Roanoke area for 37 years. Indiana/ GT basketball roots, 31 years in business and 12 years of coaching helps him win for you.

“Fellow Jackets, let me find your perfect VA fit. Ask for my search LTR App. Tell me what you want.

Lord willing, WE will make it happen.”

Nathaniel Wilson.

404-713-4305 | akatreeremoval.com akatreeremoval@gmail.com facebook.com/AKATreeRemoval

770-671-0300 | techinfo@tbginc.net www.tbginc.net

WHEN EXPERIENCE COUNTS!

MARY BETH LAKE, REALTOR®

More than 25 years of experience in the

Award winning Residential REALTOR®

Atlanta real estate market, specializing in North

specializing in Cobb & Fulton Counties.

Atlanta. Top 1% of all agents Nationwide! Call a

Fourteen years of Atlanta Real Estate

true professional, and wife of a Georgia Tech

Experience, working by referral with fellow

about helping her clients realize their lifestyle

Alumnus, for all your real estate needs.

Ga Tech Graduates, Faculty and Friends.

aspirations whether buying or selling a home.

Maria Licata, Associate Broker RE/MAX Around Atlanta | 770-861-1009 marialicata@remax.net | marialicata.com

404-394-4519 | marybethlake.com marybeth.lake@harrynorman.com

706-968-1870 meghannbrackettweb.harrynorman.com meghann.brackett@harrynorman.com

434-944-2728 | Frank@LTR.Realtor

MEGHANN (MURRAY) BRACKETT, REALTOR® Meghann has become one of the top producing agents in the Northeast Georgia Mountains by providing bestin-class marketing, the market reach of Harry Norman REALTORS ®, Luxury Lake and Mountain, and an exceptional energy to achieve results. She is passionate

SHOPPING

NOW BUILDING IN FORSYTH, FULTON, DEKALB, GWINNETT, AND OCONEE “At SR Homes, our goal is to focus on building you a home that meets your needs both today and tomorrow. We’ll think through the details so you don’t have to.”

--Alex Tetterton, President of SR Homes

678-252-2525 | SRHomes.com info@srhomes.com

STOREY CUSTOM HOMES MAKING DREAM HOMES A REALITY

EST. 1963

A family-owned and operated business, with nearly three decades of experience and more

exceed homeowner’s expectations.

Quality Gentlemen’s Clothing.

Official Georgia Tech Alumni Association Partner.

678-957-0110 | storeycustomhomes.com Danny Storey, CE 1969 drstorey@storeycustomhomes.com

Midtown | Lenox | Park Place | Cobb 404-249-7002 hstockton.com

than 50 luxury homes built, Storey Custom Homes designs and builds custom homes that

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 101

TECH HISTORY

Tech’s Brilliant Sculptor

BY MELISSA FRALICK

Julian Hoke Harris, Arch 28, was an architect, part-time Institute professor and prolific artist whose work endures on campus and throughout Georgia.

NEXT TIME YOU FIND YOURSELF strolling around campus or through downtown Atlanta, pay attention to the details of the handsome buildings around you.

There’s a chance that the stainedglass window or architectural sculpture that catches your eye just might be the work of a Georgia Tech artist.

Julian Hoke Harris, Arch 28, was a long-time Georgia Tech architecture professor and a prominent sculptor who worked from his studio on Fifth Street to create art, medallions and sculptures that have adorned more than 50 buildings around the Southeast.

Some of Harris’ early works can still be seen on campus today. He designed the monumental stained-glass window (see photo This undated photo from Tech’s archives shows Harris surrounded by his art. on page 104) in Brittain Dining Hall’s southern wing, which features allegorical figures of the disciplines taught at the campus by “Uncle Billy” Van Houten, one of Georgia Institute when the building opened in 1928. He also creTech’s first instructors and the foreman of the Georgia ated the 10 limestone busts (page 103) adorning the Tech foundry. Today, the gate is housed inside the Stebuilding’s columns, which represent great engineers phen C. Hall Building. and scientists throughout history.

Harris’s free-standing and relief-sculptures can be In the 1930s, he designed the bronze gate (page 105) of found well beyond campus on numerous Art Decothe now-demolished Naval Armory, which was cast on e ra p u b l i c b u i l d i n g s , i n c l u d i n g t h e G e o r g i a

102 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

Brittain Dining Hall features Harris’ sculptures of great scientists and engineers who represent the disciplines at Georgia Tech.

“Keeping Away Death” was until recently displayed on the exterior of the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness in Atlanta.

“Had I known I would be a sculptor, I wouldn’t have gone to Tech—but it’s turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me,” Harris said.

Volume 94 No. 4 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 103

TECH HISTORY

The striking stained-glass window in Brittain Dining Hall was designed by Julian Hoke Harris. The building opened in 1928.

Department of Agriculture Building (Animal Husbandry and Farming, page 105) and Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta and the Georgia State Prison near Reidsville, Ga. He also made more than twenty commemorative medallions, including the official inauguration medal for President Jimmy Carter, Cls 46, Hon PhD 79.

Credited with pioneering the use of the of the jet flame in sculpting, he perfected a technique that was used to complete the Confederate Memorial Carving on Stone Mountain. His sculpture of a Madonna was the first sculpture completed entirely in that method without the use of a chisel.

Harris’ work was a unique blend of sculpture and architecture. He was awarded the prestigious Fine Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects, which “honors an architect who found in sculpture the means by which he could recapture that close interweaving of

104 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. No.342018 2018

the two arts which was known to some great epochs of the past and which raised the two to heights unattainable by either art alone.”

In a 1971 interview with the Georgia Tech Alumnus magazine, he said that his architectural education had a profound influence on his art.

“Had I known I would be a sculptor, I wouldn’t have gone to Tech—but it’s turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me,” Harris said. “My knowledge of architecture has enabled me to collaborate with 18 or 19 architecture firms on artwork for 50 buildings, to do sculptures that are in character and scale with the design of the building. And the principles of design in architecture and in art are the same.”

Though he isn’t a household name, Harris’ influence has been monumental to the art and architecture of Georgia Tech, Atlanta and the state of Georgia. You just have to know where to look.

Harris created this sculpture to adorn the Georgia Department of Agriculture building located in downtown Atlanta.

The artist at work sculpting the Harrison Hightower plaque, circa 1949.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Julian Hoke Harris was born in Carrollton, Ga., in 1906. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Georgia Tech in 1928, and then moved to Philadelphia to study sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. After graduating, he returned to Atlanta and became a licensed architect and began working as a sculptor. He became a part-time architecture professor at Tech in 1936, and continued teaching for the next 36 years while practicing his art. He lived in Atlanta until his death in 1987.

A closeup of the Naval Armory Gates featuring Harris’s signature.

Volume 94 No. 43 2018 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | 105

BACK PAGE

When Past Meets Present New “Back in Time” virtual tour of campus lets alumni view photos of key sites at the Institute, going all the way back to the Civil War.

BY MELISSA FRALICK

GEORGIA TECH FIRST OPENED its doors in 1885, and a lot has changed in the 133 years since. Even if it’s only been a short while since you graduated, you may be surprised by all the growth that’s happening on campus.

Or perhaps you just wonder what the Institute looked like in its early years.

Now, you can go explore Georgia Tech’s past through a “Back in Time” virtual tour available online at map. gatech.edu. Here photos and descriptions provide historical context on more than 40 locations around campus. Click through the tour to view archival photos of Tech’s academic buildings, dormitories, Grant Field, Tech Square (pictured here) and more.

SPRING AND FIFTH STREETS These photos show how the Intersection of Spring and Fifth streets looked back in 1961 and in 2018. For many years, this area across the I-75/I-85 interchange from the main campus was blighted and underutilized. The Georgia Tech Foundation invested $180 million to purchase property and anchor the academic, commercial and residential hub that is now known as Tech Square.

The first phase of development was completed in 2003. Preliminary plans were recently announced for Tech Square Phase III, which is slated to include office towers and street level retail, as well as an underground parking deck.

106 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No. 4 2018

INTRODUCING THE

GT ALUMNI APP FEATURES INCLUDE: GTAA Alumni ID GTAA Events Calendar Alumni Directory LOGIN

GIVE

EVENTS

Game Watching Notifications

SOCIAL

CAREER

COMMUNITY

Important News and Updates

ALUMNI ID

DISCOUNTS

CONTACT US

Social Media Connection

TO FIND THE APP, SEARCH FOR “GT ALUMNI”

Introducing the Georgia

Tech Rewards Mastercard®

Show your GT pride everywhere you shop, dine, and travel

· Earn Unlimited 1% Cash Back1 · Earn 2% & 3% Cash Back1 for purchases in select categories2 · No Annual Fee

· A percentage of all transactions go to support Roll Call, Georgia Tech’s Fund for Excellence*

*Learn more and apply online at commercebank.com/GeorgiaTech 1) A Cash Back redemption is applied as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance, but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. Values for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards, and travel may vary.

2) Merchants self-select the category in which they would like their transaction items to be listed.

Please note some merchants may be owned by other companies, therefore transactions may not be

counted in the expected category. A maximum of 2,500 bonus points will be awarded per quarter, per rewards account.

Cardholder benefits are subject to change. Mastercard is a registered trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.