Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Vol. 95 No. 2, Summer 2019

“I’ve been bleeding white and gold since I was 6 years old, when I went to my first Georgia Tech game.”

— Arline B. and Scott L. Alexander, IMGT 1976 Sometimes the perfect giving opportunity presents itself.

and supporter.” Alexander says his father wanted him to go to

“I read an article about Tech’s research on manufacturing heart

Tech. “I’m an only child, and I couldn’t disappoint my parents,”

valves with 3D printers,” said Scott Alexander, “and my wife

he said.

Arline and I decided to come visit.”

The Alexanders have called Denver home since 1985,

Arline, who is retired, attended Georgia State University and worked for Invesco and JP Morgan. When Alexander’s work

and Alexander is a past president of his local Georgia Tech

schedule allows, the couple travels for fun. “We don’t have kids,

Alumni Club. “We have a scholarship here in Colorado, and

so we spend a lot of time visiting friends and family members

we send one student per year to Tech,” he said.

around the country.”

Long employed in the lighting industry, Alexander

The Alexanders learned more about research in the Wallace

is the global director of a company that specializes in

H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering in November

outdoor lighting products. “I’ve worked for several lighting

2017, and the experience struck a chord with them. “Arline is a

manufacturers in the U.S., and I’ve been in the industry for

two‑time heart valve replacement patient,” he explained. “Right

over 25 years,” Alexander said.

now, heart valves are all generic, but if people can design a

Both Alexander and his wife are from Georgia. “My wife’s

heart valve that is customized for the recipient, that’s amazing.”

father was a graduate of Tech High in the 1930s,” Alexander

Through a deferred charitable gift annuity, the Alexanders are

said. “He wanted to attend Tech, but joined the military

able to support potentially life‑saving research, while also

instead. He was a longtime Tech football season ticket‑holder

receiving fixed payments for life.

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 • giftplanning@dev.gatech.edu • plannedgiving.gatech.edu

32,000 ft 2 of Smart Meeting Space in the Heart of Atlanta’s Innovation Hub.

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/alumni

MEETINGS. CONFERENCES. TRAINING.

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

PROGRESS AND SERVICE, SINCE 1885

I

I N T H E S E M I N A L H I S T O R Y of Georgia Tech, Engineering the New South, authors and former faculty members Bob McMath and Gus Giebelhaus make clear that the Institute was created and founded to serve the state of Georgia and its people. The original 19th-century vision was to create an industrial economy to lift the postwar South from poverty to economic prosperity. The pathway was to educate a class of engineers, and it has clearly been wildly successful. Indeed, the mission of Tech—“Progress and Service”—is still being realized today.

As a fifth-generation Georgian and a Tech alumnus, it gives me a great sense of pride that the Institute has been and continues to be such a force for good in growing the state’s economy. Even though I was born and raised in Atlanta and have lived my whole life near downtown, I can truthfully claim that I’ve been to all 159 counties. Through quail hunting in south Georgia, trout fishing in north Georgia and participating in the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) for 10 years, and during many other excursions and activities, I have seen the entire state and met a wide range of its people.

So it warms my heart when my Scheller College of Business students follow through on their Tech educations by returning to their hometowns and serving their communities in laudable ways. One is well on her way to completing her residency in pediatrics and returning to

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE VOL. 95 | NO. 2 INTERIM PRESIDENT & CEO Bill Todd, IM 71

VP MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS Dawn Churi

EDITOR

Cartersville to practice as a primary care physician. One will eventually wind up back home in Bainbridge to provide preventive care to an underserved population once she completes her medical training. Another plans to take her accounting degree and her new CPA credentials to eventually serve as the chief financial officer of the small local hospital in Hartwell.

And yet another has taken a classical route with his mechanical engineering degree, starting a technology-based company right in Tech Square with the assistance of ATDC and employing other bright young stars, creating new wealth.

This is precisely what the founders of Georgia Tech had in mind.

Developing the state’s economy—and its workforce—is not only a drive that resides in the DNA of the Institute, but also a responsibility for taking action. As you’ll see in this special issue of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, our faculty, students, staff and alumni are actively engaged in making Georgia a much better place, from using logistics expertise to make our ports among the best in the world to leading public policy and educational efforts to providing vital new technologies and startup ideas that spur growth and keep our top talent right at home.

Enjoy the issue!

BILL T ODD, IM 71 INTERIM PRESIDENT & CEO GEORGIA TEC H ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Roger Slavens

STAFF EDITOR Melissa Fralick

DESIGNER Karen Matthes

COPY EDITOR Barbara McIntosh Webb

STUDENT ASSISTANT Andrew Elliot

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Chair Brent Zelnak, Mgt 94 Past Chair, Finance Bird Blitch, IE 97 Chair of Roll Call and Gold & White Jocelyn Stargel, IE 82, MS IE 86 Vice Chair of Engagement Shan Pesaru, CmpE 05 Member at Large Rita Breen, Psy 90, MS IE 91 Member at Large Garett Langley, EE 09 Member at Large Sheri Prucka, EE 82, MS EE 84 Member at Large Magd Riad, IE 01

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Michelle Adkins, IM 83; Clint Bailey, TE 97; Carlos Barroso, ChE 80; Amrit Bhavinani, CM 09; Trevor Boehm, ME 99, MS ME 04; Jeff Bogdan, Mgt 88, MS MOT 98; Jason Byars, ME 96; Randy Cain, IE 91; Alina Capanyda, IE 10; Aurelien Cottet, MS AE 03; Andre Dickens, ChE 98; Scott Hall, ME 96; Tim Holman, MS EE 88, PhD EE 94; Keith Jackson, Mgt 88; Joy Jordan, ChE 92; Mary Beth Lake, IE 04; 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; Debra Porter, ME 86; 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; Betty Tong, ME 93, MS ME 95; Kate Tyler, MS CE 09; Brian Tyson, EE 10; Jef Wallace, Mgt 94; Kristin Watkins, Mgt 13; Sam Westbrook, IE 99; Stephenie Whitfield, Bio 93; Bruce Wilson, EE 78, MS EE 80

ADVERTISING Dawn Churi (404) 385-2991 dawn.churi@alumni.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. © 2019 Georgia Tech Alumni Association

POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313.

TELEPHONE

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Georgia Tech Alumni Association (404) 894-2391

VOLUME 95 ISSUE 2

Find out how a Georgia Tech professor’s love for poetry and waffles turned into

PHOTOGRAPH

ROGER SLAVENS

a one-of-a-kind post with Yellow Jackets’ favorite restaurant.

FEATURES

AN OFFICIAL POETIC LICENSE?

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62

68

SMARTER EVERY DAY

THE POETRY OF WAFFLES

STATE OF IMPACT

Georgia Tech researchers are working with communities across Georgia to implement smart design solutions and improve quality of life.

Backed by the Waffle House Foundation, Associate Professor Karen Head will take her love for poetry (and waffles) to high schools across the state.

The numbers don’t lie: Take a look at how Tech measures up in a variety of ways as the premier institution in Georgia.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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VOLUME 95

DEPARTMENTS

ISSUE 2

PHOTOGRAPH

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

CONTENTS

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AROUND CAMPUS Pulling Rank 12 Student News 16 Talk of Tech 18 Tech Research 26

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ON THE FIELD Swagger Returns to the Flats 30 Athletics News 38

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IN THE WORLD Dollars & Sense 42 Serving the Peach State 46

RAMBLIN’ WRECKS WITH A NEED FOR SPEED Read about Georgia Tech’s place at the epicenter of auto racing history, from driving to engineering and the early days of NASCAR.

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ALUMNI HOUSE Inside Grad Regalia 76 New Association Leaders 80 Ramblin’ Roll 84 In Memoriam 90

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TECH HISTORY Georgia Tech’s Racing Roots 98 Back Page 106

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

ÁNGEL CABRERA APPOINTED 12TH PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA TECH

J

JUST AS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE was going to press, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia officially named Ángel Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, the next president of Georgia Tech. He will assume the position by Sept. 15.

Cabrera is uniquely qualified for the role. Not only is it rare for a university to attract a candidate who has served as president of a leading institution; it’s even rarer to find one who also is an engaged alumnus. But that’s not the end of the serendipity: Cabrera’s wife Beth Fraser Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, and son Alex Cabrera, CS 19, are also Ramblin’ Wrecks. (His daughter Emilia Cabrera is a junior at Harvard, and Alex will begin his doctoral studies at Carnegie Mellon University this fall.)

“I am thrilled to serve as Georgia Tech’s new president,” says Cabrera.

“My academic career was shaped here, as was my personal life. My wife and I

met in graduate school at Tech and our son Alex just finished his undergraduate here this year. In many ways, this is a wonderful homecoming for us. As a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board for about a decade, I have witnessed Georgia Tech’s emergence as one of the leading technological universities in the world and admired its role in making Atlanta a thriving hub of innovation. It is an absolute privilege to be asked to lead this remarkable institution into its next chapter.”

Since 2012, Cabrera has served as president of George Mason University, a top-tier research institution and the largest public university in Virginia. During his tenure, GMU accounted for more than half of all enrollment growth in Virginia. His efforts also include improving student outcomes, enhancing research, strengthening community partnerships and doubling philanthropic contributions.

“Dr. Cabrera is an excellent choice to lead Georgia Tech as its next president,”

says Board of Regents Chairman Don Waters. “I am confident that he will work diligently on behalf of students while advancing Georgia Tech’s growth, priorities and world-class reputation.

On behalf of the Board of Regents, I welcome Dr. Cabrera back to Georgia Tech and look forward to working with him.”

Cabrera earned his PhD and master’s degree in cognitive psychology at Georgia Tech—which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar—and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer and electrical engineering at Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, which has also awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Prior to becoming president of GMU—where became the first Spanish-born citizen to become president of an American university—Cabrera led the Thunderbird School of Global Management, now part of Arizona State University, and the IE Business School in Madrid.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK If you enjoyed what you read or have something new to add to a story, send us a letter to: Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or editor@alumni.gatech.edu. You can also share story ideas, personal news, birth and wedding announcements (be sure to include photos!), out-and-about snapshots and in memoriam notices to gtalumni.org/ magazine. We’d love to hear from you about all things related to Georgia Tech.

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

AN MBA THAT’S WORTH THE WHISTLE. 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 and skills you need to tackle a whole new set of challenges, from operations and finance to commercialization and strategy. Our three 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.

VOLUME 95

AROUND CAMPUS

ISSUE 2

PHOTOGRAPH

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

CLIMBING THE UPWARD SPIRAL The new, high-tech, high-rise CODA building that officially opened this May in Tech Square boasts the world’s tallest spiral staircase.

PULLING RANK

TALK OF TECH

TECH RESEARCH

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18

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GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | | SUMMER SUMMER2019 2019 11 11

AROUND CAMPUS

PULLING RANK

GEORGIA TECH HAS CLIMBED TO NEW HEIGHTS ON A VARIETY OF LISTS RATING THE WORLD’S TOP UNIVERSITIES, BUT HOW MUCH DO THESE RANKINGS MEAN TO THE INSTITUTE AND TO PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS?

D

DIRECTOR OF UNDERG R A D U AT E A D M I S S I O N Rick Clark knows that when it comes to colleges, there’s a ranking for just about everything these days. Truth be told, he knows Georgia Tech’s position on a lot of them by heart. For example, Tech earned the No. 8 slot on the U.S. News & World Report rankings of public universities in 2019.

On the Princeton Review’s green colleges list, Georgia Tech landed at 43.

But let’s be honest, you can’t win them all. In the world of increasingly granular rankings, Georgia Tech didn’t land spots on any “best dorm rooms” lists that we could find. And it rarely makes top-tier appearances on any “great party school” best-of ’s, no matter how regional the list. (But more on that later.)

In a world overflowing with information, Clark understands people’s desire for clarity and simplicity. “We love tips, we love top 5 lists,” he says, adding that in his years of global travel, he’s noted an obsession with rankings not just in the United States, but also around the world.

But how much can rankings really tell us about a school? And do they actually matter that much?

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

BY ERIN PETERSON

IN THE BEGINNING U.S. News & World Report—the best-known purveyor of college rankings—launched its first “Best Colleges” list in 1983. It turned out to be an ingenious method to sell magazines, but earned plenty of ire from colleges.

Many were concerned that the rankings weren’t just gobbling up too much of

prospective students’ attention, but also were relying on flawed criteria.

Over time, this formula has been transformed and tweaked, sometimes even with the help of Georgia Tech minds. Years ago, Sandi Bramblett, Tech’s assistant vice president of institutional research and enterprise data management, served on an advisory board for

the U.S. News rankings through the Association for Institutional Research.

The group encourage U.S. News to add more data and rigor to the rankings, such as factoring in a school’s retention and graduation rates.

U.S. News rankings eventually cemented themselves into the public consciousness, becoming a shorthand for overall excellence. Georgia Tech has benefited from its consistently high performance in these and plenty of other rankings. It’s no secret that a high ranking on such lists can be a boon for admissions. Indeed, more than 90 percent of Georgia Tech students who took a first-year survey in 2018 reported that rankings in national magazines held at least some importance in their decision to attend Tech.

Rankings also have ripple effects across an institution: strong rankings in the right area can help attract great faculty and top administrators, and it can help support alumni fundraising efforts. Clark relates that former CocaCola Enterprises CEO John Brock, ChE 70, MS ChE 71—who graduated from Tech before U.S. News was churning out

rankings—joked that while he didn’t graduate from a top 10 public university, he now holds a diploma from one.

Seeing opportunity and dollar signs, plenty of publications, websites and companies have eagerly attempted to jump into the fray, coming up with an array of other measures for judging institutions of higher education, ranking everything from campus cafeteria quality to student involvement in social activism. Bramblett, for one, suggests caution before putting too much weight on a single ranking. “It’s important to go back to the methodology, to see how transparent they are,” she says.

The rigor for some of these niche rankings can be questionable at best.

So you can probably eye those “best dorms” and “party school” rankings with the skepticism they likely deserve.

And, of course, even with meticulously developed and measured rankings, the criteria themselves should still be up for debate as well. The things that the publication has deemed important to a ranking might not be the things that are important to a specific student.

“In the same way that we don’t just use a single SAT score to make an admission decision, people probably shouldn’t use a single ranking to make a college decision,” Clark says. “We wouldn’t take a student just because they have a 3.8 GPA if they’re not a good fit, and people shouldn’t choose a school because it’s ranked No. 6 or 18.”

THE VALUE OF RANKINGS Clark notes that while Georgia Tech is careful not to place too much weight on any given ranking or rating, he also sees that being on some lists really does make a difference, even if their methodology isn’t exactly airtight.

Clark says he couldn’t be happier that Tech has regularly landed on the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Campus USA list. The designation recognizes schools dedicated to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship—and often serves as a head-turner for environmentally minded prospective students. “People assume that Tech is a concrete jungle, and it’s hard to dispel that myth.

But put that rating out there, and

IN-STATE STATURE

#

1

THERE ARE PLENT Y OF GREAT UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS IN GEORGIA. BUT WE’RE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO THINK WE’RE THE BEST IN THE PEACH STATE.

PUBLIC UNIVERSIT Y IN GEORGIA BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT BEST COLLEGE IN GEORGIA BY MONEY MAGAZINE BEST VALUE COLLEGE IN GEORGIA BY MONEY MAGAZINE AND SMARTASSET HARDEST COLLEGE TO GET INTO IN GEORGIA BY NIC HE BEST COLLEGE FOR STUDENT ATHLETES IN GEORGIA BY NIC HE

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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AROUND CAMPUS

AMONG THE BEST OF THE BEST SO, HOW DOES GEORGIA TECH STACK UP AS A UNIVERSIT Y BY THE TOP RANKERS? NOT SURPRISINGLY TO RAMBLIN’ WRECKS, TECH ROUTINELY RATED AMONG THE BEST OF THE BEST IN A NUMBER OF C ATEGORIES. HERE’S JUST A SMALL SAMPLING OF THE SCHOOL’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS RANKINGS.

#8

BEST PUBLIC UNIVERSIT Y AND #35 OVERALL IN THE NATION BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

#4

MOST INNOVATIVE SC HOOL IN THE NATION BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

#4

BEST UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING PROGRAMS IN THE NATION BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

#1

#8

BEST UNDERGRADUATE COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAM IN THE WORLD

BY THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION UNIVERSIT Y WORLD RANKINGS

BEST ANNUAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT (FOR IN-STATE TUITION) BY PAYSCALE.COM

#1

PRODUCER OF BAC HELOR’S ENGINEERING

#2

DEGREES FOR MINORIT Y STUDENTS BY DIVERSE MAGAZINE

UNIVERSIT Y BUSINESS INCUBATOR IN THE WORLD (SPECIFICALLY, VENTUREL AB) BY UBI INDEX

suddenly people start looking a little closer,” Clark says. “Recognition like that helps fight some outdated stereotypes.”

Other rankings are becoming increasingly important as the higher education landscape as a whole has changed. For example, as the cost 14

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

of colleges across the nation has come under increasing scrutiny, return-on-investment rankings have gained significant traction among students and their parents. Georgia Tech typically does well, routinely landing among the top 10 schools in the country on several such ROI rankings.

But in the end, a ranking is nothing more than that.

The real value of a Georgia Tech education is more than a number. It’s about the work that Yellow Jackets go on to do in the world, the people they come to be and the ideas and empathy that they bring to every interaction.

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Start your journey at coe.gatech.edu/masters

STUDENT NEWS

FEELING THE RHYTHM

BIOCHEMISTRY STUDENT ELENA SHINOHARA MANAGES TO BALANCE TECH ACADEMICS WITH A PUSH TO BECOME ONE OF THE BEST RHYTHMIC GYMNASTS IN THE WORLD.

BY STEVEN NORRIS

Elena Shinohara is an elite competitor in rhythmic gymnastics.

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

COURTESY OF USA GYMNASTICS

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FOR ELENA SHINOHARA, whose mother competed for the Japanese national team, rhythmic gymnastics is in her blood. But among Americans the sport is largely unknown.

In a nutshell, rhythmic gymnastics combines dance and acrobatics. Competitors perform jaw-dropping leaps and awe-inspiring throws and catches with multiple implements: a ribbon, a ball, a hoop, and a pair of clubs.

“It’s popular in Eastern Europe and Asia,” explains Elena. “I realize not many people know what it is, but I love it. Most people confuse it

with artistic gymnastics with the bars and the beam.”

She’s been competing in rhythmic gymnastics since moving to the U.S. in the first grade. And while Elena admits she’s always wanted to be like her mother, her father also brings an interesting perspective to her training.

Minoru Shinohara—who goes by “Shino”—holds a PhD in exercise science, and his expertise lies in neuromuscular control of skilled movement He runs the Human Neuromuscular Physiology Laboratory at Georgia Tech. For more than 25 years, he has helped educate instructors and coaches about the science behind human movement.

He also applies that same scientific knowledge to helping his daughter perform at the highest level.

Growing up, Elena often visited Georgia Tech with her dad. “I would practice on Sundays at the Campus Recreation Center when the gym near my house wasn’t open,” she says.

As she continued her training through high school, Elena became the only elite-level rhythmic gymnast in the entire state of Georgia. She was the youngest athlete to win Georgia’s state rhythmic gymnastics championship—a title she has won 12 times.

Now, the young woman who used to train at Tech as a child is back on campus as a first-year biochemistry major. Just before coming to campus, Elena qualified for the USA National Rhythmic Gymnastics Team. Her bejeweled competition leotard now boasts an American flag on the sleeve.

As she juggles biology labs and calculus with her hoops and ribbons, Elena is also reaching for her ultimate athletic goal: the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She says she is one of only three athletes taking college courses while continuing to compete on the rhythmic gymnastics circuit.

She keeps up her studies during the week, and many weekends she racks up frequent flyer miles competing in places like the Netherlands and Poland. “USA Gymnastics wants to see that you are competing internationally,” Elena says, hoping it will help her earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. “My plan is to compete as much as I can now and get good results.”

After that, it’s back to books and biochemistry. She’s got her sights set on another goal, too: medical school.

“I’m on the pre-health track,” she says. “Chemistry is

tricky. But I am pushing through. I knew I wanted to come to the best school in Georgia.”

Squeezing in practices between classes, she still goes to the CRC to work on routines. “I’m not at home as much now that I’m taking classes, so I work on stretching and tosses in the studios upstairs.” And she’s become accustomed to fellow Tech students doing a double-take when they see her practicing. “I’ll throw the ball up and catch it with my feet and they’re all like, ‘Whoa! What is that?’” Elena says.

As for the spotlight that comes with competing at an elite level, Elena says she doesn’t mind it. In fact, she thrives on it. “Somehow when I’m performing, I feel free. I’m showing all the work I’ve put in. I don’t notice anything else.”

NEEDLING OUT A WIN

TEAM ETHOS MEDICAL WON THE 2019 INVENTURE PRIZE WITH INNOVATIVE TECH TO MAKE LUMBAR PUNCTURES SAFER AND MORE ACCURATE.

PHOTOGRAPH

DALTON TOUCHBERRY

BY STEVEN NORRIS T H R E E R E C E N T E N G I N E E R I N G A L U M N I teamed up to develop a first-of-its-kind medical device that took home top honors and $20,000 in the 2019 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize innovation competition.

Using ultrasound technology coupled with a custom-built guidance tool, team Ethos Medical has invented a guidance system to help physicians guide needles into the spine accurately and safely. The team was comprised of two recent Tech biomedical engineering graduates, Dev Mandavia, BME 18, and Cassidy Wang, BME 18, and mechanical engineering alumnus Lucas Muller, ME 18.

Mandavia also was part of a team that won the InVenture Prize in 2017. “Our mission is to get lumbar punctures placed successfully on the first try, every time,” he says.

“To get to where we are and actually win this award really means something to us,” Muller adds. “It’s validation that what we’ve been doing for the last year really matters.”

The team has been working full-time to launch the company since inventing the device on campus last year.

They have also been working closely with doctors in the Atlanta area to develop a prototype that medical professionals will use.

“The next step for us is to begin the FDA testing process,” says Wang.

In addition to the cash prize, Ethos Medical will receive a free U.S. patent filing by Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing that’s valued at approximately $20,000.

This year marked the 11th annual holding of the Georgia Tech InVenture Prize competition.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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TALK OF TECH

ACADEMICS

A DYNAMIC DUO OF NEW DEANS

THE LATEST LEADERS OF THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCES AND THE COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AIM TO TAKE TECH TO NEW HEIGHTS IN TEACHING AND RESEARCH.

BY SUSIE IVY T H E G E O R G I A T E C H C O M M U N I T Y had long awaited the news of who would fill two of the Institute’s most prestigious posts.

Both the College of Sciences and College of Computing had made tremendous gains over the past decade, and students and

faculty were eager to see who would lead them into the next one. In the end, the Institute landed two exceptional deans: Susan Lozier brings new experiences and expertise to Tech, while Charles Isbell is already a beloved figure on campus.

SUSAN LOZIER, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCES S U S A N L O Z I E R , the Ronie-Richele

“We are so pleased to bring Dr. Lozier

Garcia-Johnson Distinguished Professor

to Georgia Tech as dean of the College

“I am thrilled to join Georgia Tech

of Ocean Sciences at Duke University,

of Sciences,” says Rafael L. Bras, provost

as the next dean for the College of Sci-

has accepted the role of dean and Bet-

and executive vice president for academ-

ences,” Lozier says. “I look forward

sy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland

ic affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family

to working with the administration,

Chair in the College of Sciences. She will

Chair. “She brings with her a rich history

faculty, staff and students to continue

officially assume the role no later than

of leadership, but also a tremendous leg-

the pursuit of both fundamental and

Oct. 1.

acy as a mentor, colleague, researcher

convergent science, and to support

and educator.”

Lozier has been a faculty member at Duke University since 1992.

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

mechanisms that encourage bold ideas, entrepreneurial efforts and productive partnerships.”

During her tenure at Duke, she has

Lozier’s research interests include

served in various leadership roles

large-scale ocean circulation and its im-

including department chair, fac-

pact on climate, meridional overturning

ulty senate chair, vice provost for

circulation and its variability, pathways

strategic planning and co-chair of

of ocean flow, and physical constraints

Duke’s effort to reimagine graduate

on marine primary productivity. She is

education. She recently complet-

currently the international lead for an

ed a term as the president of the

ocean observing system in the North

Oceanography Society and, as of

Atlantic.

January 2019, is president-elect of 18

the American Geophysical Union.

Over her career, she has been the

recipient of numerous awards. She

Science Fellow (2015). She was award-

chief administrative officer for Academ-

was the recipient of an NSF Early Ca-

ed the American Geophysical Union

ic and Research Administration, served

reer Award in 1996, was awarded a

Ambassador Award in 2016 for lead-

as search director. Professor David M.

Bass Chair for Excellence in Research

ership in the ocean sciences community.

Collard has served as the interim dean

and Teaching in 2000, and received a

Lozier was one of three finalists in

Duke University Award for Excellence in

the international search for the College

Lozier earned a bachelor’s degree

Mentoring in 2007, among others. She

of Sciences dean. The search commit-

in chemical engineering from Purdue

is an American Meteorological Society

tee was chaired by Pinar Keskinocak,

University, a master’s of science degree

Fellow (2008), American Geophysi-

William W. George Chair in the H. Mil-

in chemical engineering and a PhD in

cal Union Fellow (2014) and American

ton Stewart School of Industrial and

physical oceanography from the Universi-

Association for the Advancement of

Systems Engineering. Jennifer Herazy,

ty of Washington.

since Aug. 1.

CHARLES ISBELL, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF COMPUTING CHARLES ISBELL, professor and exec-

Center for Equity in Computing. In ad-

utive associate dean of the College of

dition, Isbell has been a champion and

Computing, has been named the next

supporter, at the Institute level, of many re-

dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair in the

search initiatives and centers led by and

College of Computing at Georgia Tech,

originated by his computing colleagues.

effective July 1.

“I am honored to be selected as the

“Dr. Isbell has a longstanding track re-

next dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair of

cord of teaching and scholarly excellence,

the College of Computing as we prepare

leadership and advocacy in his service to

for the next generation of learners,” Isbell

the College of Computing community,”

says. “The breadth represented in the field

says Provost Rafael L. Bras. “I very much

of computing — including information and

appreciate his vision for the College and

data science, computer engineering and

future,” Isbell says. “I am committed to

its alignment with the Institute’s vision and

others — is central to the future of univer-

working with faculty, staff and students

goals for education and research. I know

sities as we face changing student needs,

within the College and our colleagues

that, together, the students, faculty, and

increasing workforce demands, an evolv-

around campus to continue to take risks

staff, under Dr. Isbell’s leadership, will

ing relationship with industry and the

and effect change so that Georgia Tech

continue the trajectory of innovation in re-

public, the need for new ways of support-

continues to provide global leadership in

search and education that characterizes

ing cutting-edge research, and persistent

the field of computing and beyond.”

the College of Computing.“

issues of equity and access.”

In addition to his Tech degree, Isbell

Isbell, ICS 90, joined the Tech faculty

Isbell’s research interests include

holds a master of science and Ph.D. in

as an assistant professor in 2002, serving

artificial intelligence, with emphasis on in-

electrical engineering and computer sci-

in advancing academic, research, and

teractive machine learning and how it can

ence from the Massachusetts Institute of

administrative leadership roles. During

be used to model human behavior. He is a

Technology. Though born in Chattanoo-

that time, he has been in the midst of var-

fellow of the Association for the Advance-

ga, Tenn., Isbell grew up in Atlanta. He

ious educational innovation and diversity

ment of Artificial Intelligence and the

and wife Sheila D. Isbell, MS CS 11, chief

and inclusion initiatives in the College of

Association for Computing Machinery.

for the Software Engineering and Analyt-

Computing, such as the Threads program,

“Even in rapidly changing times, I be-

ics Division at the Georgia Tech Research

the Online Master of Science in Computer

lieve Georgia Tech and the College of

Institute (GTRI), are parents to daughter

Science (OMSCS) and the Constellations

Computing are well-positioned for the

Jacqueline, 14, and son Christopher, 11.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

19

TALK OF TECH

TEC HN OLOGY

ANCIENT TOY INSPIRES STATE-OF-THE-ART SCIENTIFIC TOOL

BY ELIZABETH THOMSON

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

ROB FELT

20

an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech; Soham Sinha, a Tech undergraduate; Janet Standeven, Byagathvalli’s biology teacher at Lambert; and Aaron F. Pomerantz, a grad student at the University of California, Berkeley. Its development was reported in the journal PLOS Biology.

The team demonstrated that the device, dubbed the 3D-Fuge because it is created through 3D printing, could be used in at least two different applications. In a rainforest in Peru, the 3D-Fuge was an integral part of a “lab

PHOTOGRAPH

A 5,000-YEAR-OLD TOY still enjoyed by kids today has inspired an inexpensive, hand-powered scientific tool that could not only impact how field biologists conduct their research but also allow high-school students and others with limited resources to realize their own state-of-the-art experiments.

The device, a portable centrifuge for preparing scientific samples including DNA, was created by a team of students and faculty researchers, including Gaurav Byagathvalli, a senior at Lambert High School in Georgia.

His colleagues are M. Saad Bhamla,

in a backpack” used to identify four previously unknown plants and insects by sequencing their DNA. Back in the United States, a slightly different design enabled a new approach to creating living bacterial sensors for the potential detection of disease.

The 3D-Fuge is based on earlier work

by Bhamla and colleagues at Stanford University on a simple centrifuge made of paper. The “paperfuge,” in turn, was inspired by a toy composed of string and a button that Bhamla played with as a child. He later discovered that these toys, known as whirligigs, have existed for some 5,000 years.

They consist of a disk with two holes—like a button —through which is threaded a length of flexible cord whose ends are knotted to create a single loop with the disk in the middle.

That simple contraption is then swung with two hands until the button is spinning and whirring at very fast speeds.

A small benchtop centrifuge can cost $3,000 to $5,000; larger units cost many times that. By rapidly spinning samples, they separate materials of interest from biological debris. Bhamla’s team found that the 3D-Fuge works just as well as its more expensive cousins, but costs less than $1.

IN THE MEDIA

G E O R G I A T E C H S TA R S IN NEW GOOGLE AD A FICTIONAL WEB SEARCH LEADS AN ASPIRING ASTRONAUT TO THE INSTITUTE G E O R G I A T E C H is flying high in Google’s latest advertising campaign.

The video, “Here to help: Take on the world,” begins with an adult asking a young girl what she wants to be when she grows up. Her response? “I’m going to be an astronaut,” followed by Google searches on “how to become an astronaut,” “make your own spacesuit,” “famous female astronauts,” and “colleges for aerospace engineering.”

That’s where Tech comes in. The Georgia Institute of Technology appears as the top search result for best aerospace engineering schools, and the user clicks on it. And with good reason: Georgia Tech’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering is currently ranked second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for its undergraduate programs.

What’s more, 14 Yellow Jackets have launched into orbit, including three women—Jan Davis, Bio 75, Susan Still Kilrain, MS AE 85, and Sandra Magnus, PhD MSE 96. Tech is also the nation’s top producer of female engineers.

“It is an exciting time to be in the field of aerospace engineering,” says school chair Mark Costello. Especially now that the most-used search engine in the world has taken notice.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

21

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TALK OF TECH

HACKING

A M O R TA R B OA R D T H A T P L A YS “RAMBLIN’ WRECK”

Timothy Hsu in the School of Music and helped model historical venues to establish a better understanding of their acoustic qualities. He also took Analog Circuits for Mu-

RECENT GRAD Nathan Batey, EE 19,

sic Synthesis with electrical

built a working synthesizer on his mor-

engineering professor Aar-

tarboard so he could play the Georgia

on Lanterman.

Tech fight song on it. “Music has al-

“I highly recommend the

ways been a passion for me,” he says.

course for anyone interested

At the age of 9, Batey started playing

in analog circuits or music,”

old-time bluegrass and gospel music

Batey says.

on the fiddle. At Cairo High School, he

That course, coupled with

started learning piano. Since then, he’s

his love for music, inspired

added the organ, mandolin and syn-

his one-of-a-kind mortar-

thesizer to his repertoire.

board for graduation. Batey

At Tech, Nathan kept music a part

sourced the keys and speak-

of his collegiate journey. He took a

er for the synthesizer from

position at Georgia Tech’s WREK ra-

a toy piano. He then used

dio station and hosted his own weekly

a protoboard for the power supply,

into a one-of-a-kind statement for his

bluegrass show called The Back Alley

and an oscillator and breadboard for

graduation ceremony. “I’m just happy

Pork Roost. Academically, he partici-

a large adjustable bank of resistors

it ended up working,” Batey says.—

pated in undergraduate research with

used to tune the oscillator. It all turned

STEVEN NORRIS

AWARDS

STUDENT S WIN PRESTIGIOUS GOLDWATER SC HOL ARSHIPS F O U R G E O R G I A T E C H S T U D E N T S have recently been awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for the 2019–20 academic year. The scholarship, named to honor the late Senator

SHERRY SARKAR

Barry Goldwater, was given to 496

A computer science major, Sarkar plans to earn a PhD at t he intersection of computer science and mat hematics, working in academia and developing her passion for teac hing .

college sophomores and juniors out of an estimated 5,000 applicants. Each recipient is awarded up to $7,500.

The scholarship is intended to help them continue their education and pursue a research career in the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.

22

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

LEE-KAI SUN A biomedical engineering major, Sun plans to pursue an M.D.-PhD in immunology or biomedical engineering. He wants to rewire t he immune system in t he treatment of refractor y diseases.

ELEANOR “LILY” TURASKI A materials science and engineering major, Turaski aims to design more ef f icient solar cell tec hnology as she progresses toward earning her PhD in t he f ield .

JULIA WOODALL A biomedical engineering major, Woodall is motivated by how physics can f ight disease. She wants to develop mec hanical models of living systems at t he cellular and systems level.

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

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FACULT Y FOCUS

LEAVING MORE THAN A TRACE DAVID McDOWELL EARNED TECH’S TOP FACULTY HONOR, BY CULTIVATING VISIONARY IDEAS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND THE MINDS OF HIS STUDENTS.

D

BY VICTOR ROGERS

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

ALLISON CARTER

24

That was in 1983.

David McDowell won this year’s Class of Now, 36 years later, as a 1934 Distinguished Regents Professor and Professor Award. the Carter N. Paden Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing, McDowell has been performance of products that benefit bestowed Tech’s highest award given everyday life in areas such as transporto a faculty member: the Class of 1934 tation and energy production. He has Distinguished Professor Award. produced more than 500 published The award recognizes outstanding papers or book chapters as author or achievement in teaching, research and co-author (including more than 335 service. Instituted in 1984 by the Class of refereed journal articles) and more than 1934 in observance of its 50th reunion, 600 presentations. the award is presented to a professor For 20 years, he served as director who has made significant long-term of the Mechanical Properties Research contributions to the Institute.

Laboratory, a major university lab“For me, this award is really a recoratory in experimental fatigue and ognition of my being here,” McDowell fracture research. And he is the foundsays. “It shows that there’s a trace of my ing executive director of the Institute contributions.” for Materials, serving as a driver of the He will leave much more than a trace. development and growth of materials research and education at Tech.

RESEARCH AND TEACHING But he is proudest of advising 81 Over the course of three and a half master’s and doctoral students through decades, McDowell has conducted degree completion. “What has kept me groundbreaking research in developin the academic realm is my love for the ing new techniques and methods for development of students, and in particmeasuring, understanding and modelular graduate students, developing them ing the way materials behave—and how as people and helping them realize their to use this information to improve the goals and dreams,” McDowell says. “I’m

PHOTOGRAPH

D A V I D M c D O W E L L doesn’t like being put in a box.

That’s one of the reasons why, after earning a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he headed south to begin his career at Georgia Tech.

“One thing that I didn’t want was to go to a place where they had a slot for me to fit into: ‘Professor X is retiring; we need to cover this slot. We see you as a potential for that,’” McDowell says.

“I wanted to define my own path, and I thought Georgia Tech would allow me to do that.”

McDowell wanted a place where he could exert his vision and leadership from an early stage. “At the time—the late 1970s and early ’80s—Georgia Tech was a great educational institution, but not as highly rated in research as it is today,” McDowell says. “It was approaching the top 20–25 territory, and I could see that people here had fire in their belly to make that happen. So, coming here was a pretty easy decision.”

not a ‘grass is greener’ person. Whenever you change universities, you alter the momentum of your own program. So, I made the decision at multiple points that I can get more accomplished in my career staying the course and being consistent with a position at Georgia Tech.”

McDowell says the academic environment is unique because as a professor he can stay young intellectually by interacting with people who are in the throes of defining their area of greatness.

“That’s an inspiration to be around people who have their future ahead of them, and they’re trying to chart that path,” he says. “I’m helping them to do that by helping them refine the precision and creativity of their thinking.

To me that’s remarkable. That’s what a professor does.”

When further describing his role as a professor, McDowell makes a point of putting his words in a particular order. “Professors have two major responsibilities. One is to develop and cultivate new ideas. The second is to cultivate and develop people, specifically students that you help guide in the early stages of their career,” he says.

He estimates that 33 percent of his former doctoral students are working in industry, 40 percent are in academia, and the rest have careers in government research labs. “I have a knack for guiding people who have an inclination for academia,” he says.

But, he doesn’t steer students in that direction. Instead, he lets them explore and find areas where they may become world-class. “Everyone has world-class potential in something. Most people don’t acknowledge that or often don’t recognize it,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be scientific or technical endeavors. It could be empathy, leadership,

athletics, oration, or giving a voice to others. In a world of nearly 8 billion people, you’d think that the probability of sheer numbers dictates that it’s not possible for everybody to have the potential to be world-class. But, it’s kind of a mystery to me that they do.”

PASSING THE TORCH McDowell observed that one advantage of being at Georgia Tech is its culture of going outside the boundaries of departments and schools and “getting the job done.”

“One thing about Tech that’s interesting to me is the interdisciplinary thinking going back to day one since I’ve been here,” he says. “In 1984, I was asked to become associate director of the Mechanical Properties Research Lab, where I got to see the importance of fostering collaboration between academic units and colleges and breaking down barriers.”

McDowell pointed out that today it’s relatively easy to have students being shared among departments, and faculty collaborating among departments.

In a way, Tech is leading how research and education are conducted across academic disciplines. “One area that I have always tried to foster with my students and in my own research agenda is thought leadership, new ideas, new directions—but always paying attention to detail and understanding what has gone before,” he says.

The challenge is to create an environment where young people with good ideas can find support for their vision and their leadership. “This is the next generation of leaders at Georgia Tech, and they will be steering us into the future,” he says. “Let’s empower them. I want the same kind of empowerment for them that I had.”

IN PRAISE OF PROFESSOR McDOWELL “I count my time at Tech working with Dr. McDowell as a great privilege, and I am grateful for the patient mentoring and instruction I received from him. Dr. McDowell is not just a superior educator and researcher, but a great individual who selflessly takes time to help and support all who seek it.”

C R A I G P. P R Z Y B Y L A , P H D M S E 10 COMPOSITES PERFORMANCE RESEARCH TEAM LEADER FOR THE MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING DIRECTORATE AT THE AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY

“Fourteen years [after he was my Ph.D. advisor], I regularly receive special invitations to speak at important conferences and symposia or to edit special issues of journals because Dr. McDowell nominated me and advocated for me.

He does these things because he gains tremendous joy and satisfaction from the successes of his students.”

C AROLYN CONNER S E E P E R S A D , M S M E 01, PHD ME 04, PROFESSOR AND GENERAL DYNAMICS FACULTY FELLOW IN THE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

25

TECH RESEARCH

ROBOTICS

WHEN SLOTH MEETS ROBOT

TECH RESEARCHERS HAVE DESIGNED A NEW “SLOTHBOT” FOR USES WHERE SLOW MOTION AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY ARE NEEDED.

BY JOHN TOON moves only when it must to measure environmental changes that can be observed only with a long-term presence.

The proof-of-concept hyper-efficient robot, described recently at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, may soon be hanging out among treetop cables in the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

“In robotics, it seems we are always pushing for faster, more agile and more extreme robots,” The SlothBot maneuvers says Magnus Egerstedt, the slowly over wire.

Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and principal investigator for Slothbot. “But there are many applications where there is no need to be fast. You just have to be out there persistently over

FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING, precision agriculture, infrastructure maintenance and certain security applications, slow and energy efficient can be better than fast and always needing a recharge. That’s where “SlothBot” comes in.

Powered by a pair of photovoltaic panels and designed to linger in the forest canopy for months, SlothBot

26

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

long periods of time, observing what’s going on.”

Based on what Egerstedt called the “theory of slowness,” graduate research assistant Gennaro Notomista designed SlothBot together with his colleague, Yousef Emam, using 3D-printed parts for the gearing and wire-switching mechanisms needed to crawl through a network of cables in the trees. The greatest trick for a wire-crawling robot is switching from one cable to another without falling, Notomista says.

“The challenge is smoothly holding onto one wire while grabbing another,” he says. “It’s a tricky maneuver and you have to do it right to provide a fail-safe transition. Making sure the switches work well over long periods of time is really the biggest challenge.”

Mechanically, SlothBot consists of two bodies connected by an actuated hinge. Each body houses a driving motor connected to a rim on which a tire is mounted. The use of wheels for locomotion is simple, energy efficient and safer than other types of wire-based locomotion, the researchers say.

BIOLOGY

DO-BEE, DO-BEE GLUE HONEY BEES spend hours each day

described how those two natural liq-

collecting pollen and packing it into

uids work together to protect the

tidy bundles attached to their hind

bee’s bounty as it travels back to its

legs. But all of that hard work could

hive.

instantly be undone during a sud-

The first component of the glue is

den rainstorm were it not for two sub-

the bee’s own salivary secretions,

stances the insect uses to keep the pol-

which coat the pollen

len firmly stuck in place: bee spit and

grains and allow them

flower oil.

to stick together. The

AGRICULTURE

WHEN PEANUT P L A N T S PA S S G A S

Now Georgia Tech researchers

bees produce those

P E A N U T G R O W E R S could someday

are looking at that mixture of ingre-

sugary secretions, the main ingredient

identify emerging threats such as

dients as a model for a bio-inspired

in honey, from nectar they drink from

drought, pests or diseases by testing the

glue because of its unique adhesive

the flowers.

“chemical breath” of their plants.

properties and ability to remain sticky through a range of conditions.

The second ingredient is a plant-

Peanut plants emit volatile organic

based oil that coats the pollen grains

compounds (VOCs) that vary in types

“A bee encounters not just wet and

called pollenkitt, which helps stabilize

and patterns depending on how they

humid environments but windy and

the adhesive properties of the nectar

respond to various stresses. Growers

dry surroundings as well, so its pollen

and protect it from the impact of too

typically rely on indirect monitoring

pellet must counteract those variations

much or too little humidity.

methods such as soil moisture testing

in humidity while remaining adhered,”

“It works similarly to a layer of

to assess the health of plants in their

says J. Carson Meredith, a professor

cooking oil covering a pool of syrup,”

fields. Directly testing stress response

in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical

Meredith says. “The oil separates the

could be faster and more accurate and

and Biomolecular Engineering. “Be-

syrup from the air and slows down

offer a wider range of diagnoses, so re-

ing able to withstand those kinds of

drying considerably.”

searchers are working on gas-collection

changes in humidity is still a challenge

The research team, which included

devices that growers could deploy.“We

Victor Breedveld, an associate pro-

want to learn the best ways to detect

In a study published in the jour-

fessor in the School of Chemical and

and measure gases that could cor-

nal Nature Communications and

Biomolecular Engineering, also exam-

relate to various plant conditions such

sponsored by the Air Force Office of

ined dynamics of the bee adhesive.

as drought,” says Wayne Daley, associ-

Scientific Research, the researchers

— J O S H B ROW N

ate division chief and principal research

for synthetic adhesives.”

engineer with the Agricultural Technology Research Program at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

Researchers inspired by honeybees are working to develop a more durable glue.

About 1.67 million acres of peanuts were harvested in the U.S. in 2017, including 850,000 acres’ worth in Georgia.— J O H N

TIBBETTS

READ MORE ABOUT RESEARCH Sign up to receive the Institute’s monthly research e-newsletter or twice-yearly Research Horizons magazine at www.rh.gatech.edu/subscribe.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER SUMMER 2019 2019

27

VOLUME 95

ON THE FIELD

ISSUE 2

BACKHAND SMASH Kenya Jones finished the women’s tennis season ranked No. 15 nationally and earned All-American honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

PHOTOGRAPH

JAY WILKINSON/GEORGIA TECH ATHLETICS

SWAGGER RETURNS TO THE FLATS

ATHLETICS NEWS

30

38

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | | SUMMER SUMMER 2019 2019 29 29

ON THE FIELD

PHOTOGRAPH

KAYLINN GILSTRAP

Geoff Collins brought a strong vision and attitude with him to Tech, along with some of the nation’s top assistant coaches.

30

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

SWAGGER RETURNS TO THE FL ATS NEW HEAD COACH GEOFF COLLINS DOESN’T WANT TO JUST WIN FOOTBALL GAMES AT TECH HE WANTS TO WIN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF AN ENTIRE CITY.

O

O N C E U P O N A T I M E , Bobby Dodd and his Yellow Jackets football squad ow ne d At l ant a, b ack when the legendary coach strolled the Grant Field sidelines. Dodd’s boys, however, faced a much different sports landscape then—one devoid of any professional teams vying for attention. It wasn’t until 1966—the year he retired from coaching—that the Braves relocated to town from Milwaukee and a year after the Falcons franchise was born.

Geoff Collins has returned to Georgia Tech not only to win a lot of football games as the Yellow Jackets’ new head coach, but also to recapture the attention and imagination of Atlanta’s sports fans. Collins wants his team to own the town like Dodd and his boys did. But he’s got a lot of work to do.

In recent years, home game crowds at Bobby Dodd Stadium have devolved to the point where the visiting team’s fans match the Tech faithful, making Historic Grant Field often play like a neutral site. And though there have been some successes in recent memory —namely a few dramatic wins over the

BY BILL CHASTAIN, IM 79 rival Georgia Bulldogs and a victory in the 2014 Orange Bowl—the squad’s overall results haven’t lived up to the demanding expectations of alumni and boosters.

Collins, loudly promising a “404 Takeover,” has made it clear since becoming the Tech’s 20th head football coach on Dec. 7 that he wants to shake the team out of its rut. He wants the Yellow Jackets to again be the rule of the roost in Atlanta, and he’s brought a much needed swagger and enthusiasm back to The Flats.

“Georgia Tech was a household name when I was growing up,” says Collins, who didn’t get the chance to play football for the Yellow Jackets but served two stints as a Tech football assistant. “That’s the way I know this place to be. I know it can be that and should be that. And it’s our task to make sure we’re invigorating the fan base and reinvigorating the city of Atlanta—reminding everyone that Georgia Tech football is the team this city roots for whether they went to school here or not.”

Ambitious? Maybe. Ludicrous?

Hardly. Collins brought a positive approach from Day 1, complete with a new, pro-style offense, a relentless approach to recruiting and a savvy and GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019 31

ON THE FIELD

strong social media presence.

Athletic Director Todd Stansbury, IM 84, says that Collins has made an incredible impact in his time on campus so far. “There’s buzz around the city, buzz around the entire region,” Stansbury says. “Everybody’s talking about Georgia Tech football again.”

A recent visit to Collins’ office found him kicked back in a Masters Golf Tournament pullover, board shorts and slides. Clearly, the man is comfortable in his own skin. And he’s not into trying to be any of the coaching legends he’s worked for during his career—an impressive list that includes Alabama’s Nick Saban, Florida’s Dan Mullen and former Georgia Tech coaches George O’Leary and Chan Gailey.

“Believe it or not, the best thing that ever happened in my coaching career was working for Jim McElwain at the University of Florida,” Collins says. “He taught me that you have to be yourself.

Use the resources that you have. Use the lessons that you’ve learned from different places. But you better do it with your personality. With your outlook.

With your perspective. Or it’s going to come across as disingenuous.

“Players today, millennials—even Generation Z—if they think you’re fake or phony, or putting on a front, you’ve lost them. So, you better be genuine to who you are. And I think I’ve been able to do that, and I had the confidence to do that after working for Coach Mac.” AN EARLY PASSION FOR FOOTBALL— AND GEORGIA TECH Born on April 10, 1971, in Dekalb Memorial Hospital, football enraptured Collins early. “I’ve just loved it ever since I was a little guy,” he says.

Raised in Decatur, Ga.—“just off 32

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

A TIMELINE OF GEOFF COLLINS’ COACHING EXPERIENCE DEC. 2018–PRESENT GEORGIA TECH HEAD COAC H

2017–18 TEMPLE UNIVERSIT Y HEAD COAC H

2015–16 UNIVERSIT Y OF FLORIDA

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ SAFETIES COAC H

2011–14 MISSISSIPPI STATE

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ LINEBAC KERS COAC H (2011-12), CO-DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ LINEBAC KERS COAC H

2010 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ LINEBAC KERS COAC H

2008–09 CENTRAL FLORIDA

LINEBAC KERS COAC H/ RECRUITING COORDINATOR

2007 UNIVERSIT Y OF AL ABAMA

LINEBAC KERS COAC H/RECRUITING COORDINATOR

2006 GEORGIA TECH

DIRECTOR OF PL AYER PERSONNEL (2001), TIGHT ENDS COAC H (1999-00), GRADUATE ASSISTANT

1997–98 ALBRIGHT COLLEGE

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ LINEBAC KERS COAC H

1996 FORDHAM UNIVERSIT Y LINEBAC KERS COAC H

1995 FRANKLIN (N.C.) HIGH SCHOOL ASSISTANT COAC H

1993–95 WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSIT Y

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ DEFENSIVE BAC KS (1993-94), STUDENT ASSISTANT

Columbia Drive”—Collins spent his youth playing pigkskin.

“On Saturday mornings, I’d set up our backyard like it was a football field,” Collins says, recalling how he used his collection of Dairy Queen miniature football helmets. “Different helmets would be the 10-yard increments and we’d play pickup football for hours.”

When he wasn’t playing football, the sport occupied a front-row seat in his mind.

“Remember those little electric football men?” Collins asked a visitor. “I would just play with them almost 24 hours a day, and I wouldn’t use the electric board. My mom got me a football field tablecloth, and I would just sit there and move those little guys around in formations and plays all day.”

Somewhere in the midst of all his football activities, he fell for Georgia Tech.

“We’d always come to the Georgia Tech vs. Georgia Thanksgiving game at Bobby Dodd Stadium,” Collins says, recalling the freshman vs. junior varsity game played for charity. “As I got a little older and spent more time in Atlanta, I just gravitated to this place.”

He hoped to earn a football scholarship to Tech, and Tech showed interest in the Rockdale County High School senior. One assistant would call every Saturday morning, telling him, “You’re one of the top seven safeties on our board.”

However, Tech never made him an offer, leaving him to walk on at Western Carolina, where he became a three-year starter and earned a full scholarship in his sophomore year. Playing outside linebacker and defensive back, he finished his career with 194 tackles.

Collins graduated from Western

Collins is known for his intensity in practice and on game days, as well as his ability to fire up his team.

| SUMMER GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE 2019 33 PHOTOGRAPH DANNY KARNIK/GEORGIA TECH ATHLETICS

ON THE FIELD

Carolina in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management and exercise science. Shortly thereafter, he embarked on a career coaching football.

BABY-FACED AND BATTLE-READY Don’t let his baby face fool you: Collins has been around the block and has paid his dues in the coaching ranks.

By the time he accepted his first head coaching position at Temple University in December 2016, he’d moved up the tree at Western Carolina, Franklin High School in North Carolina, Fordham University, Albright College, Georgia Tech, the University of Alabama, the University of Central Florida, Florida International, Mississippi State and the University of Florida.

Rising to become a defensive coordinator for Mississippi State and Florida against tough Southeastern Conference (SEC) opponents put Collins in “kind of a fighter-pilot mode” during games.

Renowned for his in-game intensity, in that state he would stay locked in on the action, thinking only about the next defensive play he needed to call.

“It was about the call and not affecting people emotionally, or affecting globally the energy and the mood of the team,” Collins says. “I had to be down with the right blitz and the coverage, the right pressure, and be very focused and dialed in.”

Once he became Temple’s head coach, he faced new challenges. Ingame decision making became a smaller part of the job, as his duties expanded greatly. It was no longer just the Xs and Os, but interacting with university administrators, speaking to alumni groups, managing all the players and coaches, and maintaining a positive mood on the sideline and in the stands.

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COACHING IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Over his career, Head Coach Geoff Collins has had to become a social media savant of sorts. A number of different platforms—from the early days of MySpace to Instagram—have played a critical role in his teams’ recruiting and branding.

He first discovered social media in 2006, when he was Georgia Tech’s director of player personnel on Chan Gailey’s football staff. “We recruited that entire class using MySpace,” Collins recalls. “That was the hot new social media thing—one of the very first social media platforms. Text messaging also became a huge recruiting tool right about that time.”

When Collins left Tech to become Alabama’s director of player personnel in 2007, just one year later, he found he had to transition to a completely different platform. “Facebook took off and replaced MySpace,” he says. “We recruited that Alabama class mainly on Facebook.”

Collins again demonstrated his social media chops—along with his ability to adjust—when he moved to the University of Central Florida to become the Knights’ linebackers/recruiting coordinator. “That’s when Twitter exploded and I had to become a Twitter expert to stay on top of things,” Collins explains.

Collins, 48, is almost as comfortable using social media as his student-athletes. He well understands that it’s one of the main ways to connect with them and that it’s important to them. During Temple’s 2018 Cherry & White spring game, Collins allowed his players to adorn the back of their jerseys with their Twitter handles. Players with a 3.0 GPA or higher were given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to promote themselves by wearing these personalized jerseys. It became something of a viral sensation.

Collins didn’t make the same offer to his Tech players for the simple reason that he didn’t want to be a “swag stealer.” That was Temple’s thing now. “I like being a trend setter, so I had to try to come up with something new,” he says.

Since arriving at Tech, he’s used Twitter to get his message across to players and fans alike, while trying to establish the Tech brand. He’s also keen on helping players establish their own brands. “In this day and age, recruits are largely making their choices based on what the college’s brand is,” Collins says. “The education, the city, the location, the culture is all very important to them and reflects upon who they are.

We want to build the strongest culture possible at Tech to attract them and let them develop their own brands once they’re here.”

To that end, Collins said he and his coaches strive to make sure the players are given “as much shine” as possible. “We give out awards to our players every single day at practice, then we post them on social media,” Collins says. “Social media makes things real for them and our fans. The second something goes on Twitter and there’s 100,000 followers that see a player went really hard in practice, that becomes a part of their brand and elevates their status.”

Collins’ affinity for Waffle House has delivered a fun sideshow since his return to The Flats. Rarely do you see Collins without a Waffle House cup in hand. “Waffle House Wednesdays” are short video segments aired on Twitter every week featuring Collins, former Tech great Roddy Jones and a Tech coach.“That whole relationship with Waffle House has been fun,” says Collins, noting that it has already helped expand the Georgia Tech fan base. “I think the association has broadened Tech’s appeal to possible sidewalk fans and connected the two brands, which is cool.”—Bill Chastain, IM 79

“I can say that in my first days as a head coach at Temple, I did not handle all these new responsibilities as well as I did with game strategy,” Collins says. “But systematically, over the course of the last two years, I got better and better.”

Once the games slowed down for him as head coach, Collins let the fastpaced, intense personality he had long showcased in practice take over as his everyday persona.

“At practice, I’m engaged with everybody and pushing all the buttons,” Collins said. “If I’m not doing that on game day, then the kids will start wondering what’s going on. I have to make sure I’m actively engaged with all of the players in the game and off the field, just like I am in practice.”

Collins’ Owls went 7-6 in 2017 and won the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl. In his second season in 2018, Temple went 8-4 and earned an Independence Bowl berth. These successes marked huge improvements for his team.

EYES ON THE PRIZE Throughout Collins’ journey, his eyes remained focused on the prize: becoming the head coach at Georgia Tech.

“I’ve been formulating this plan for about 20 years,” Collins says. “I’ve always believed 100 percent that I would become the head coach. Set a goal. Have a vision and work towards it. There were going to be setbacks here and there, but if I knew exactly what I was meant to do and meant to be—if I just kept working every single day and maintained a vision for what I wanted—it would come to fruition. And it did.”

Brent Key, formerly the offensive line coach for the national champion Alabama Crimson Tide and now

Tech’s assistant head coach, remembers his time playing for the Yellow Jackets when Collins was just a graduate assistant. Even back then, Collins told Key he knew he would one day helm the Yellow Jackets squad. “He even started his thoughts with ‘When I’m the head coach at Georgia Tech’ and not ‘If I become the coach’,” Key says. “I knew then the passion and the love he felt for this place.”

WHAT COLLINS BRINGS TO THE TABLE As much as he is known for his confidence and swagger, Collins has a strong track record as a savvy recruiter and a preference for running a pro-style, pass-friendly offense. All of these traits have generated a lot of buzz among Yellow Jacket backers.

Highlights from his recruiting resume include helping Tech land the highest-rated recruiting class in program history in 2006–07 and helping Alabama sign the No. 1 class in the

nation in 2007–08. He did remarkably well in bringing the right talent to Temple, too.

But how will Collins handle the tricky task of luring top athletes to a university with a tough-as-nails academic reputation? Well, Collins’ 2020 recruiting class is ranked among the top-rated in the country. Understanding the current generation of student-athletes and being able to relate to them has served him well.

“I have a natural ability to connect with people,” Collins says. “Emotional intelligence is critical for coaching and recruiting, especially in being able to read people and interact with them.”

Part of his success is that not only does he look young, he thinks young.

“I share a lot of interests with the student-athletes I recruit and coach,” Collins says. “The broad spectrum of TV shows I watch, what I stream on Netflix, the movies I go to, the music I listen to, it all allows me to have

“THERE WERE GOING TO BE SETBACKS HERE AND THERE, BUT IF I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT I WAS MEANT TO DO AND MEANT TO BE—IF I JUST KEPT WORKING EVERY SINGLE DAY AND MAINTAINED A VISION FOR WHAT I WANTED—IT WOULD COME TO FRUITION. AND IT DID,” COLLINS SAYS.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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BUILDING A FORMIDABLE COACHING STAFF

BY LURING TOP-QUALIT Y COACHES AND PERSONNEL TO TECH, GEOFF COLLINS PROVES THAT STUDENT- ATHLETES AREN’T THE ONLY PEOPLE HE KNOWS HOW TO RECRUIT.

BY BILL CHASTAIN, IM 71 Yellow Jackets Head Coach Geoff Collins knows that creating a top-tier football program isn’t a one-man operation. In building his staff, he made it a priority to hire several coaches who played football and earned their degrees at Georgia Tech, as

well as some up-and-comers he’s worked closely with over his career.

“This wasn’t a happenstance that this staff was put together,” Collins says. “It was systematically targeted so that every era of Georgia Tech football, all the way back to

Marco Coleman—who played for Georgia Tech when they won a national championship—was represented. We can draw on those teammates and those experiences for how special this place was and is supposed to be.”

BREAKING DOWN THE NEW FOOTBALL ASSISTANTS BRENT KEY

MGT 11, ASSISTANT HEAD COAC H/ RUN GAME COORDINATOR/ OFFENSIVE LINE

PREVIOUS STOP:

University of Alabama WHY RECRUITED: Key was a fouryear starter at guard at Georgia Tech (1997–2000), where he earned a management degree. He coached with Collins numerous times and helped lead Alabama to the 2017 NCAA national championship.

TASHARD CHOICE

HTS 07, RUNNING BAC KS/OFFENSIVE RECRUITING COORDINATOR

PREVIOUS STOP: University of North Texas

WHY RECRUITED: Choice played at Georgia

Tech (2005–07) and led the ACC in rushing in both 2006 and 2007. He graduated with a degree in history, technology and society.

VINCE SINAGRA C HIEF OF STAFF

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ QUARTERBAC KS

Temple’s offensive coordinator under Collins and brings his successful prostyle, passing-oriented scheme to Tech.

PREVIOUS STOP: Temple University

WHY RECRUITED: Thacker is an Atlanta-area

native (Cartersville, Ga.) and served on Collins’ Temple staff for two seasons, including one as defensive coordinator.

NATHAN BURTON

BIO 05, CO-DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ SAFETIES

PREVIOUS STOP: Temple University

WHY RECRUITED: Burton served as defensive

backs coach under Collins at Temple and was a four-year letter winner at Tech who graduated with a degree in applied biology.

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

same staff with Collins at the University of Florida, where he was named a Top 25 recruiter by Rivals, and has enjoyed a 12-year collegiate coaching career.

LARRY KNIGHT

same position on Collins’ staff the past two seasons at Temple.

WHY RECRUITED: Spent two seasons on

PATRICK SUDDES GENERAL MANAGER

PREVIOUS STOP: Temple University

Collins’ staff at Temple, working first as a quality-control assistant before being promoted twice—to director of player personnel and then to outside linebackers coach/defensive recruiting coordinator.

PREVIOUS STOP: Auburn University

WHY RECRUITED: Suddes work with Collins as the associate director of football operations (2007–2013) at the University of Alabama.

JEFF POPOVICH

CORNERBAC KS/DEFENSIVE SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR

ANDREW THACKER

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ LINEBAC KERS

WHY RECRUITED: Dixon worked on the

DEFENSIVE LINE/DEFENSIVE RECRUITING COORDINATOR

PREVIOUS STOP: Temple University

WHY RECRUITED: Patenaude served as

WIDE RECEIVERS

PREVIOUS STOP: Temple University

WHY RECRUITED: Sinagra served in the

DAVE PATENAUDE

KERRY DIXON PREVIOUS STOP: University of Toledo

PREVIOUS STOP: Boise State

LEWIS CARALLA

HEAD FOOTBALL STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COAC H

PREVIOUS STOP: University of Buffalo

WHY RECRUITED: Served with Collins on the

Mississippi State staff (2011).

MARCO COLEMAN

CLS 91, DEFENSIVE ENDS/OUTSIDE LINEBAC KERS

PREVIOUS STOP: Oakland Raiders

WHY RECRUITED: Coleman had a standout

career as a defensive lineman at Georgia Tech (1989–91) and played 14 seasons in the NFL. He was the defensive line coach for the Raiders last year.

WHY RECRUITED: Has 14 years of

coaching experience at the collegiate and professional levels, most recently as cornerback coach at Boise State in 2018.

CHRIS WIESEHAN

TIGHT ENDS/OFFENSIVE SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR

PREVIOUS STOP: Temple University

WHY RECRUITED: Coached on Collins’ staff the past two seasons at Temple and was nominated for the Broyles Award as one of the nation’s top assistant coaches in 2018.

PHOTOGRAPH

DANNY KARNIK/GEORGIA TECH ATHLETICS

Collins got his first in-game look at his new players during Tech’s spring game.

conversations with recruits, their parents, alumni boosters, pretty much everybody. Finding common ground is an important part of this job.”

One area that today’s young football players connect to is a style of play that resembles what’s used in the pro game.

Collins’ arrival came on the heels of the resignation of Paul Johnson, who famously employed the triple-option rushing offense and rarely passed.

This strategy didn’t even employ a tight end.

Under Collins, Tech fans can expect drastic changes to the offense—and to the demeanor of the team. But the biggest things to watch for during the upcoming 2019 football season, he says, will be the sense of urgency—the energy and the pace—that the team will showcase.

“Everything we do is competitive,” Collins says. “Everything we do has a frenetic energy to it, because I want the practices to be far harder than games.

We put our players in chaotic situations and try to cause as much mayhem as possible during practice so that the games are actually more serene and seem slower.”

A visit to spring practice found the offense spread out. Loud music blared.

Receivers ran routes—as did tight ends.

At one point, Collins called for the “Coca-Cola offense” to go against the “Waffle House defense.”

Throughout, players danced and had a good time. The energy was palpable and the players were engaged. And the “404” love came from Atlanta rapper Jeezy’s visit.

A symbolic passing of the torch from Paul Johnson’s style to what Collins will bring took place on the very first play of the spring game this April.

The Gold team’s offense lined up with

an option look, prompting more than a number of Tech fans to scratch their heads. Then the offense shifted into a spread look. Quarterback Lucas Johnson took the shotgun snap, then fired a strike to tight end Tyler Cooksey. Not since 2007 had the Flats seen a pass to a tight end.

Yes, it’s not your father’s Ramblin’ Wreck. And the players are sold on the new Tech.

“Coach Collins is a great individual,” says senior offensive lineman Jahaziel Lee. “He’s buying into the players’ culture in this day and time. I like his swag.

I like his juice. I like the effort he’s bringing to this program. I love everything about him.”

Collins agrees that the “buy-in factor among the players” has been “amazing.”

“We have a saying around here with the coaches that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Collins says. “Our first job, and our first responsibility as a coaching staff, was to make sure as fast as we could to help these young men know that we’re here for them.”

Players left over from Johnson’s tenure have heard their share of criticism about only being recruited and suited to play in the option offense. No doubt, the prospect of having a new

coach come in and change the scheme unsettled the group at first. Lee admitted that he and returning teammates had been anxious to see how they were going to adjust to a new coach and the new offense.

“Coach Collins came in and kind of pushed us to our limits and emphasized getting better every day,” Lee says. “He’s actually made it easy for us to adjust.”

Last season, Georgia Tech lost badly to powerhouse Clemson and Georgia teams in games that suggested the opponents could have named their scores.

It’s fitting that Collins’ first start at Tech will come against Clemson and wrap up against Georgia. These bookend games will serve as a litmus test for how the team has progressed under his guidance during the 2019 season.

Narrowing the margins against the two top programs would do wonders for selling the future on The Flats. Collins definitely has the swagger needed to accomplish the task.

“We’re going to play really good football,” Collins says. “We’re going to win a lot of games, we’re going to win championships, we’re going to win back Atlanta. But the thing that matters most to me and to our success is making sure our players are developing in every single way possible.”

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

37

ON THE FIELD

C OA C H I N G L E G E N D N E L L F O R T N E R N A M E D W O M E N ’ S B A S K E T B A L L C OA C H N E L L F O R T N E R has joined Georgia

“I’m excited to welcome Coach Fort-

Tech as its sixth head coach in wom-

ner to the Georgia Tech family,” says

en’s basketball history. One of the most

Tech Athletic Directory Todd Stansbury,

successful coaches ever in women’s

IM 84. “Her resume speaks for itself—

basketball, Fortner has compiled a 305-

she is one of the most successful and

187 (.620) record as a head coach at

respected coaches in women’s basket-

history of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever

the collegiate, professional and interna-

ball history.”

from 2000–03. Her career also includes

tional levels.

At the collegiate level, Fortner has nine

two stints as a women’s basketball an-

She led teams to Big Ten (Purdue,

seasons of experience as a head coach

alyst at ESPN—first as a studio analyst

1997) and Southeastern Conference

and compiled a 162-117 (.581) overall

from 2001–04, then as a color analyst

(Auburn, 2009) championships and,

record. In her first season as a collegiate

for the past seven seasons.

perhaps most notably, coached the

head coach, she led Purdue to a share

“I am so proud to be named the next

United States national team to three

of the Big Ten regular-season champion-

women’s basketball coach at Geor-

international titles from 1997–2000,

ship with a 12-4 conference record and

gia Tech,” Fortner says. “I’ve coached

including the gold medal at the 2000

an NCAA Tournament berth. Following

for 28 years, at every level, and Geor-

Summer Olympics in Sydney, Austra-

this impressive rookie campaign, she was

gia Tech was the perfect fit for me to get

lia. Fortner is the winningest coach in the

named the 1997 Basketball Times Na-

back in the college game. Tech is one of

history of the USA women’s basketball

tional Coach of the Year.

those unique institutions that has both a

national team, having compiled a 10114 (.878) record.

Fortner also served as the first head coach and general manager in the

premier academic reputation and a successful athletics program.”

HURDLER IN A HURRY On the final day of the NCAA East Regional, Tech’s Jeanine Williams earned an opportunity to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships by finishing first in the 100m hurdles with an impressive time of 12.62, then ranked as the second-fastest time in the NCAA and the third-best in the world. Williams went on to place fourth in the NCAA Championships final with a time of 12.74, earning the track star first-team All-American honors.

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VOLUME 95

IN THE WORLD

ISSUE 2

GEORGIA PORTS CAN’T CONTAIN THEIR GROWTH The deep seaports of Savannah and Brunswick are two of the busiest in the U.S., and they’re poised to keep growing with some Tech help.

PHOTOGRAPH

COURTESY OF GEORGIA PORTS AUTHORITY

DOLLARS & SENSE

SERVING THE PEACH STATE

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41

DOLLARS & SENSE

A NEW AUTHORITY ON GEORGIA’S PORTS

THOUGH THE STATE’S PORTS ALREADY RANK AMONG THE BEST AND BUSIEST IN THE U.S., TECH ALUMNUS WILL MCKNIGHT SEES AN EVEN BRIGHTER, DEEPER FUTURE.

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Q : HOW DID YOU GET FROM GEORGIA TECH TO RUNNING YOUR OWN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY? A : I’m actually a third-generation contractor. My granddad Mason McKnight Sr. started our business back in 1929.

He came to the Augusta area and built homes during and after the Great Depression. Then my dad, Mason Jr., graduated from Georgia Tech in the 1950s and came back to Augusta.

He built about four or five houses and decided that he couldn’t do that for a living. So he went in a different direction, focusing more on retail construction. From the 1950s into the late 1970s—when I joined the company after getting my business construction degree from Tech in 1979—McKnight Construction built shopping centers up and down the eastern seaboard. We soon started doing a lot of Department of Defense work, and have since focused on institutional building

COURTESY OF GEORGIA PORTS AUTHORITY

42

The Alumni Magazine interviewed McKnight to gain his insight into how the Georgia Ports Authority works, the ports’ impact on the state’s economy (bringing in $106 billion annually!) and how they are poised to continue to lead the way in innovative shipping technologies and logistics, thanks in part to a new agreement with Georgia Tech.

PHOTOGRAPH

W

W I L L M C K N I G H T , B C 7 9 , is a no-nonsense, hands-on kind of leader. Though he’s served as president of McKnight Construction since 1986, he started working for the family business when he was a teenager, spending his summers as a field employee. When he returned to Augusta after earning his business construction degree at Georgia Tech, McKnight took on a wide range of roles to better understand the construction business as he worked his way up the ladder.

Today, as the top executive for the Augusta-based business—which generates $100 million in revenue a year—McKnight works as the senior project manager on every major construction job. He visits worksites regularly to oversee the progress and stay connected with his employees, whom he considers part of a family.

McKnight also strongly supports his hometown community, and through his service and philanthropic efforts in Augusta, he developed a close relationship with former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. Deal appointed McKnight to serve on the board of the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) in 2014, and this summer, after five years of service, he was appointed board chair.

BY ROGER SL AVENS

The Georgia Ports Authority oversees import, export and transportation activity that brings in $106 billion to the state’s economy annually.

and construction, from military housing and jails to hotels and performing arts centers. Today, McKnight Construction generates about $100 million dollars in revenue a year. And the fourth generation of McKnights are currently involved in the business, including two of my daughters and two sons-in-law, three of them Tech alumni.

Q : WHY ARE YOU NOW INVOLVED WITH THE GEORGIA PORTS AUTHORITY? A : I was appointed to the board of the Ports Authority by former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal in 2014. I got involved with the consolidation of Augusta State University and met Governor Deal through that and developed a great relationship with him. The GPA board is a very diverse group. We’ve got a farmer from Vidalia, the CEO of Georgia Power, a retired chief executive from a pest control service company, a lawyer from Columbus and several other intelligent, invested minds. The board truly represents much of Georgia.

Q : W H AT E X A C T LY D O E S T H E P O R T S A U T H O R I T Y D O A N D W H AT WILL YOUR NEW ROLE AS CHAIR ENTAIL?

A : The Ports Authority oversees all of Georgia’s ports, from the deep-port terminals in Savannah and Brunswick to the river port in Bainbridge to the inland rail terminal in Murray County. I have served as secretary/treasurer and then vice chair leading up to this appointment. As chair, I will oversee all the committees and assist our executive team to grow the ports’ market share and prominence in the world.

Q : JUST HOW BIG ARE GEORGIA’S PORTS? A: Our container port in Savannah is the largest terminal and the third-largest port in the United States. It processes an average of four million TEUs (that’s a 20-foot equivalent unit container) a year, in addition to a diverse range of other cargo, including automobiles. When you see these containers on the backs of truck or train trailers, they likely came to the U.S. on ships—many of them through Savannah—that are removed and put on port by huge ship-to-shore cranes.

They’re then stacked and organized to be moved out within a day or two to go out either by truck or rail to reach customers, often somewhere in the Southeast. Meanwhile, we’re also loading containers arriving in Savannah by truck or rail to GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | | SUMMER SUMMER2019 2019 43 43

DOLLARS & SENSE go on one of the 38 ships calling our port every week.

Q : HOW DO THESE PORTS HELP GEORGIA COMPANIES? A : Georgia’s main industries, from lumber to car manufacturing to agriculture and so on, all rely on Georgia ports for the import of supplies and parts, as well as the export of finished products to countries around the globe.

For example, we export thousands of cars—many of them made in Georgia car factories like the Kia Motors plant in West Point—out of Brunswick.

Q : AND WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY? A : In total, the Georgia Ports Authority’s annual economic impact is approximately $106 billion and supports 440,000 jobs across the state. This translates to roughly $25 billion in personal income.

Q : T H E G E O R G I A P O R T S A U T H O R I T Y R E C E N T LY E N T E R E D I N T O A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) WITH GEORGIA TECH. WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS NEW RELATIONSHIP? A : Two of my daughters have degrees in industrial engineering from Tech. So they’ve shown me first-hand some of the Institute’s cutting-edge approaches to supply chain logistics and analytics which we employ at McKnight Construction. And this incredible expertise will help the ports become even more efficient and effective. Tracking all those trains and trucks and ships and working to create different logistics models and analyzing when and where we should build more infrastructure will be a great boon to the Georgia Ports Authority, and no doubt to the students and researchers at Tech. It’s a win/win for both parties because you’re putting together the best industrial engineering school with the largest terminal in the country.

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Q : G E O R G I A G O V . B R I A N K E M P H AS P L A C E D A N E M P H AS I S O N SUPPORTING AND GROWING SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGHOUT THE STATE. HOW CAN THE PORTS AUTHORITY HELP? A : The GPA has roughly 1,200 customers that amount to less than 100 TEUs each in activity a year. While we love to showcase all our big clients, we’re also keen on serving small businesses, such as the little antique shop in Conyers that wants to bring in items from England or the pump manufacturer in Augusta that wants to export its products around the world. By creating such a competitive marketplace, we’re able to handle imports and exports for these small businesses with the same efficiency we do for big businesses.

COURTESY OF GEORGIA PORTS AUTHORITY

44

Q: WHAT IS YOUR SHORT-TERM GOAL FOR THE GROWTH OF THE PORTS? A : We hope to grow our annual capacity from 5.5 million TEUs to 8 million TEUs by 2029. This growth would make the Savannah port by far the largest single container facility in the U.S. and closer to competing with the world’s biggest ports.

PHOTOGRAPH

Q : WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADVANCES IN LOGISTICS AND T E C H N O L O G Y T H AT T H E P O R T S A U T H O R I T Y I S L O O K I N G T O TA K E ADVANTAGE OF? A : Well, one thing that I think is pretty special about what we’re doing right now is we started a mega-rail project in the port of Savannah. We’re going to be the only port in the country that can handle 10,000-foot trains—imagine trains that are almost two miles long—and we’ll be able to cut our time from getting a container onto our trains down to just over 24 hours. That would be by far the fastest turnaround time in the country, and we’d be able to reach as far as Chicago and St. Louis with these

mega trains. On a different front, we’re now right in the middle of our harbor deepening projects. By dredging the sea bed to 49 feet deep in our outer harbor at low tide, ships can start coming in earlier to port and not be limited by the tides, which typically allow only a four- or five-hour window for ships to come in and out. Half of our entire channel, all the way out to the ocean, has already been dredged to that 49-foot depth, and we hope to finish up the other half in the next two years.

It also allows us to bring bigger ships into port. Almost 2 years ago, we had the first 14,000 TEU ship ever come into our harbor; prior to the re-opening of the Panama Canal in June of 2016, the largest ship the canal could accept was 5,000 TEUs. That’s a nearly three-fold increase. Our crane fleet is also growing in both number and size, which greatly increases the ports’ ability to unload containers and cargo from bigger and bigger ships. Meanwhile, our average container time spent on port has decreased significantly. Intermodal boxes alone have been reduced from just over three days on terminal to just over one day. Compare that turnaround to some congested ports in the U.S. which have containers sit for an average of 30 days.

EVEN BIGGER BUZZ Degrees Certificates Courses Corporate Education Online & On-site

CONTINUE YOUR SUCCESS STORY pe.gatech.edu/alumni

ON THE JOB

SERVING THE PEACH STATE

MANY YELLOW JACKETS TODAY WORK IN GEORGIA AS POLICY MAKERS, CIVIC LEADERS AND EDUCATORS MEET FOUR WHO ARE MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE. T H E F O R M E R Y E L L O W J A C K E T pitcher turned entrepreneur who’s relatively new to state politics but holds one of its highest offices. The chemistry teacher and experienced administrator who leads one of Georgia’s top regional colleges. The former big business CEO who now represents the Peach State in the nation’s capitol. The mayor of Georgia’s second-largest city

who plays a lot of different roles, including that of a visionary civic engineer.

All four of these Ramblin’ Wrecks today are leveraging the education and expertise they learned on Tech’s campus in Atlanta to make a larger impact across the state of Georgia. Here are their stories and their insights.

F R O M B A S E B A L L S TA R T O T H E S TA T E ’ S S E C O N D I N C O M M A N D G E O F F D U N C A N , C L S 97, L I E U T E N A N T G O V E R N O R O F G E O R G I A

Geoff Duncan pitched on the 1994 Yellow Jackets squad that reached the College World Series title game.

GEORGIA TECH ARCHIVES

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

because of Georgia Tech and its network,” Duncan says. “There was just a tremendous tailwind for us to have Yellow Jackets from all over the state, giving us words of encouragement and investing in our campaign to become lieutenant governor.”

When he says “us,” Duncan includes his wife Brooke, Mgt 97, who worked tirelessly alongside her husband throughout the election cycle.

The two were high school sweethearts at Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta before both coming to Georgia Tech. Geoff came to play baseball as a scholarship pitcher and to study management, glad to be close to home so his family could watch him play. Brooke followed him a year later. In fact, she graduated from high school the morning of June 11 and got

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46

T H I S P A S T J A N U A R Y , Geoff Duncan found himself back on the hardwood of McCamish Pavilion. The last time he stood there was nearly 25 years ago during halftime of a Georgia Tech basketball game. He and his teammates from the Yellow Jackets men’s baseball squad, which included future MLB stars Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek, were being honored for making it to the 1994 College World Series championship game.

But on this date, Jan. 19 to be precise, Duncan had returned to his alma mater and landed in virtually the same spot. However, it was for a very different honor: He was about to take the oath of office as the 12th lieutenant governor of the State of Georgia.

“In both cases, I got to this spot [honored at McCamish] in large part

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CHRISTOPHER MOORE

Duncan was sworn in as Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor in January at McCamish Pavilion.

on a plane to Omaha, Neb., to watch Geoff and his teammates play in that 1994 College World Series championship game.

After a successful baseball career at Georgia Tech, Geoff was drafted by the Florida Marlins organization, where he spent six seasons in the minor leagues before a shoulder injury forced his retirement in the early 2000s.

Taking what they had learned as management students at Tech, Geoff and Brooke started a small marketing firm out of their living room in Cumming, Ga. The company’s tremendous success allowed them to sell the business and pursue several other entrepreneurial ventures, with Geoff most recently serving as the CEO of a health technology startup.

Duncan’s career in public service began in 2012 when he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, where he served for five years before deciding to run for the statewide office of lieutenant governor. After winning the election in November 2018, Duncan tapped fellow state representative and Georgia Tech alumnus Mike Dudgeon, EE 89, to serve as his policy director.

Dudgeon is a lifelong technology entrepreneur himself in addition to having

served five years in the Georgia House.

Technology and innovation are evident in Duncan’s ambitions for the next four years. He wants Georgia to be a home for healthcare innovation.

He also sees technology as an inroad to preparing all of Georgia’s students for the 21st century economy.

“On the education front, I believe the greatest gift we can give a child in Georgia is a quality K-12 education,” Duncan says. “Simply put, I think we can continue to do better in all areas in our state. My kids are fortunate to go to public schools in Forsyth County and they do an amazing job of preparing them for the future. I want to make sure that all kids have that type of opportunity in Georgia.”

One of the highlights from his first legislative session as lieutenant governor was the passage of Senate Bill 108, a computer science curriculum bill sponsored by chairman of the Senate Education and Youth Committee and fellow Georgia Tech alumnus State Sen. P. K. Martin, IA 00. The bill requires high schools throughout the state to offer a computer science class to every student they graduate. According to Duncan, only a half of a percent of Georgia’s current high

school graduates have taken any type of computer science class.

Duncan sees this foundational understanding of computer science as part of the groundwork for one of his most ambitious goals: He wants Georgia to be the technology capital of not just the Southeast, but also the entire East Coast.

“To do so, we’re going to have to take on some big cities like New York and Boston and Washington, D.C.,” Duncan says. “And, absolutely, Georgia Tech has been a huge inspiration for that line of thinking.”

Seeing the success that Tech has had fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation through private sector partnerships, he believes the Institute can play a big role in Georgia’s technological future. In the last two years alone, more than a dozen corporate innovation centers have been established on and around Tech’s campus. This has spurred his thinking to imagine such efforts on a broader scale across the state, creating an unbeatable ecosystem of talent that lures the private sector here.

A few months after he was sworn in, Duncan returned to Tech’s campus on April 27 for another special occasion.

He brought his family to Russ Chandler Stadium to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game against ACC rival Clemson. It was alumni night, and there to cheer him on were several of his teammates from that 1994 College World Series squad.

“I’ll never forget that opportunity,” Duncan says. “I was a freshman, and to go from a high school field and fast forward 12 months to be playing in Omaha for the national championship was an incredible experience for us.”

— L AU R A M E A N S

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

47

ON THE JOB WORKING TO MAKE GEORGIA NO. 1 IN BUSINESS

DA V I D P E R D U E , I E 7 2 , M S O R 76 , U N I T E D S TA T E S S E N A T O R G E T T I N G T I M E W I T H A U . S . S E N AT O R isn’t easy these days.

touch down when he can in Glynn County, where he

David Perdue’s job in Washington, D.C., keeps him

and his wife Bonnie reside. But since there are few peo-

plenty busy. In his first term as Georgia’s junior U.S.

ple with as much influence on the state and few senators

Senator, Perdue serves on four crucial committees: the

with as much business expertise—he’s the former CEO

Armed Services Committee, Banking Committee, Agri-

of Reebok and Dollar General—the Alumni Magazine

culture Committee and Budget Committee. And when

was happy to catch a few minutes of this proud Yellow

he’s not working in the U.S. Capitol, he’s shuttling back

Jacket’s time to weigh in on three important questions.

and for th to Georgia to meet with constituents and

— RO G E R S L AV E N S

have changed the standard of living, helped our economy grow and improved the lives of Georgians and all Americans. Tech is at the forefront of integrating technological innovations with business applications in an ever-changing global environment. The technical competition we have with China today is very real, and Georgia Tech is in a unique position to continue to lead in this very important arena through partnerships with the Department of Defense and innovative research in cyber

Senator David Perdue (left) meets with troops overseas.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH AND CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE STATE OF GEORGIA THAT YOU IN PARTICULAR ARE HELPING TO CHAMPION? A:

and space. and federal level, we have removed burdensome regulations, created a tax structure that makes us competitive with the rest of the world, and invested in growth and innovation. This will allow

Georgia is the No. 1 state in the

Georgia’s industries to grow exports

country in which to do business right

and continue competing on the glob-

now. Our state has become a hotbed

al stage.

for fintech, biotech and other emerging the frontlines of our nation’s cyber defense and will host the Air Force’s new Advanced Battle Management Sysaddition, we have fully funded the Sa-

Q:

A: Georgia Tech taught me to focus on solutions and results—not prob-

lems. Tech also taught me to persevere

HOW, IN YOUR OPINION, ARE MAJOR RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES LIKE GEORGIA TECH BEST POSITIONED TO HELP SPUR THIS GROWTH AND CHANGE?

through adversity. It’s one thing to com-

A:

ing, I somehow have always been an

The economic miracle in the Unit-

plain about something; it’s another to find the root of the problem and devise a plan to fix it. As an engineer by train-

ed States over the last 70 years was

agent for change in my career. I have

vannah Harbor deepwater expansion

based on innovation, capital formation,

tried to bring the same sense of urgen-

at the federal level for the third straight

and the rule of law. Obviously, Geor-

cy that I learned at Georgia Tech and

year and are finally on track to com-

gia Tech has played a major role over

in my business career to my work in the

plete this project by 2022. At the state

that period of time with innovations that

United States Senate.

48

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

COURTESY OF SEN. DAVID PERDUE

tem mission at Robins Air Force Base. In

WHAT SKILLS AND/OR MINDSET DID Y O U L E A R N AT G E O R G I A T E C H T H AT M O S T HELPS YOU IN ENSURING YOU BEST REPRESENT THE PEOPLE OF GEORGIA IN THE U.S. SENATE?

PHOTOGRAPH

technology companies. We are also on

Q:

Investing in the future generations of Augusta is important to Mayor Hardie Davis.

T H E M A YO R W H O W E A R S M A N Y ( A T L E A S T 5 ) H A T S

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COURTESY OF THE CITY OF AUGUSTA

H A R D I E DA V I S , E E 9 2 , M A YO R O F A U G U S TA , G A .

W H E N H A R D I E D AV I S , E E 9 2 , took office as mayor of Augusta in 2015, he’d already excelled in a head-spinning number of fields. Senior pastor and president of the Abundant Life Worship Center. Automation and systems engineer for companies including Monsanto and SAIC. State representative and state senator for Georgia.

Now in his second term as the leader of Georgia’s second largest city, Davis may be wearing more hats than ever.

He talked with the Alumni Magazine about the many roles a mayor has to play in an ambitious, growing city— and the sometimes messy challenges of turning smart ideas into real action.

Who is Hardie Davis as a mayor?

Here are five answers.

1. The approachable celebrity. After a landslide victory for office in 2014

(he secured 75 percent of the vote), local media dubbed Davis “the people’s mayor.” His multi-week initiative before inauguration to hear citizen perspectives as he developed his “One Augusta” initiative (more on that later) helped cement the moniker.

For Davis, who regularly attends ribbon cuttings and meets with citizens in his office, this type of accessibility is a core responsibility of the job. “At the local level, people want to make sure they can touch their elected officials,” he says.

Still, his openness occasionally has its drawbacks, like when he just wants to finish a workout before he starts his day. “I enjoy running, but sometimes folks will stop me and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a question,’” he says. His new solution for getting a workout in? Setting the alarm clock even earlier. “I may be up,

but most everybody else is not.”

2. The visionary. Davis has called Augusta home since 1985, but he sometimes bristled at the city he experienced as a teenager, which felt divided by race.

“It wasn’t a city of opportunity for everyone,” he says.

His time at Georgia Tech helped expand the possibilities he could see for the place he called home. “Tech exposed me to the world,” he says. “It’s an international school where people from around the world are represented. That exposure helped shape a broader world view for me.”

That worldview led him to the “One Augusta” theme that drives his work today. “One Augusta is about creating a culture, a climate, and a city for people from all walks of life,” he says. “It’s a city that provides opportunities for GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

49

ON THE JOB

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

give great consideration to the opportunities of it. The world needs us.”

In the case of the much-needed turn lane, Davis feels confident that a systematic review of the problem will lead the city to the safe solution it needs.

4. The ambassador. If Davis is typically laser-focused on improving the city he has long called home, he also

“YELLOW JACKETS ARE UNIQUELY SUITED TO SOLVE PROBLEMS AT EVERY LEVEL, INCLUDING THE GOVERNMENT,” DAVIS SAYS. knows that his responsibilities go well beyond it. Currently, for example, he is president of the African American Mayors Association. The group includes more than 500 mayors, including those leading the cities of Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco.

He’s also an advisory board member

of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, an organization for mayors of cities with populations of at least 30,000.

These groups don’t just serve as a sounding board and helpful way to learn from others. They’re also a way for Davis to position Augusta as one of the country’s finest cities. “Being able to highlight my city on a national stage is important to me,” he says. “We’re more than just the Masters Golf Tournament —which we’re proud of!—but we’re becoming one of the cyber security capitals of the nation. We’re working on solving some of the great challenges of cities, from vacant properties, to affordable housing, to smart city initiatives.”

5. The achiever. Don’t expect gauzy platitudes from an engineer. When Davis sums up the achievements he’s proudest of accomplishing in his mayoral tenure so far, he ticks off a series of defining statistics. “When I took office, unemployment was at 6 percent, and now it’s at 3.3 percent. We’ve made $1.1 billion in investments in the city. We have the highest bond ratings we’ve had in 20 years. We passed the largest special-purpose local option sales tax in the history of the city.” These numbers serve as proof points for the grander vision Davis has tried to shape for the city.

Add these roles up—the downto-earth pragmatist and the blue-sky dreamer, the friendly neighbor and the rising national star—and you’ll discover the larger identity Davis seeks to hold as mayor: the transformer.

—ERIN PETERSON

COURTESY OF THE CITY OF AUGUSTA

50

Ribbon cuttings and groundbreaking ceremonies are a frequent part of a mayor’s job.

PHOTOGRAPH

everyone, from manufacturing to cyber security. It goes beyond the traditional narratives of race.”

3. The problem-solving engineer. A big part of being a mayor is solving the real issues that affect a city, from tweaking zoning laws to buying new law enforcement vehicles.

Recently, when the usual two-hour bimonthly commission meeting—a mix of public hearings, policy discussions and presentations—stretched to an attention-taxing four hours, a big culprit was a debate about putting in a turn lane at a dangerous stretch of road near the city’s airport. For the benefits to public safety alone, the case for the turn lane seemed to make it a slam dunk. Still, an array of individual concerns derailed the conversation.

While others might have seen it as ugly political wrangling, Davis reached back to his Tech experience to apply a cleaner, mathematical analogy. “It’s like you’re trying to solve a differential equation, and you realize you missed a point, or you didn’t have the appropriate input,” he says. “Public policy is the same way.

You find you don’t have everything you need, so you revisit conversations and then you start the problem over.”

He’s used the same methodical approach to tackle everything from rolling out smoking ordinances to developing a comprehensive parking management process for the downtown area. These are challenges that required nuanced policy solutions, and which can transform a city if implemented well.

Indeed, it’s the value of an engineering mindset that he thinks should lead more Tech alumni to politics. “Yellow Jackets are uniquely suited to solve problems at every level, including the government,” he says. “Engineers should not despise politics. We should

CHAMPION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ACCESS

MARGARET VENABLE, MS C HEM 90, P R E S I D E N T O F DA LT O N S TA T E C O L L E G E , DA LT O N , G A .

MARGARET VENABLE has worked in the University System of Georgia as an educator and administrator for 28 years, working primarily for “access” colleges such as Georgia Perimeter, Gainesville State and Gordon State. She was named president of Dalton State in 2015. Venable shared details of her career path and her thoughts on why smaller, regional colleges throughout

Margaret Venable became president of Dalton State College in 2015.

Georgia play such an important role in the state’s higher education system.

— RO G E R S L AV E N S

I came to Georgia from Kentucky to

PHOTOGRAPH

COURTESY OF DALTON STATE COLLEGE

go to college, attending Agnes Scott

of Georgia State University.

challenging. And then, out of the blue,

College in Decatur to get my undergrad-

I soon discovered at DeKalb that

I got asked by my president at Georgia

uate degree in chemistry. I really didn’t

while I knew a lot about chemistry, I

Perimeter to lead a new early college

know what I wanted to do with the de-

didn’t know much about teaching. So

charter school to focus on recovering

gree, but I thought it was a solid path to

I started working on my doctorate in

students who had dropped out.

a viable career.

science education at Georgia State

My successes led to even higher roles

My parents, who were public school

while teaching full-time at DeKalb Col-

at Gainesville State College (VP and

teachers, had told me to major in what-

lege. When I finished my PhD, I was

CEO of the Oconee Campus) and Gor-

ever I wanted, just as long as I could get

convinced this was the career for me

don State College (Provost and VP of

a job—and as long as I didn’t wind up

and that I never intended to leave the

Academic Affairs) until eventually I was

teaching. Oops.

classroom. I simply loved teaching and

appointed president of Dalton State College nearly four years ago.

I went on to graduate school at Geor-

working one-on-one with students, help-

gia Tech, where, much to the chagrin of

ing to demystify a subject like chemistry

The secret to my upward mobility? It’s

my parents, I realized I wanted to teach.

that seemed inaccessible to many of

simple. When I was approached to take

And I found out that with a master’s in

them. This topic of access became pivot-

on a new, difficult challenge, I just kept

chemistry I could teach at a two-year

al to my career.

saying yes.

community college. So after “getting

Along the way, I moved into ad-

My whole career has been spent

out” of Tech, I got my first job teaching

ministration, first as an interim, then a

teaching and serving as an admin-

at DeKalb College, which eventually be-

permanent department chair. I found

istrator at what are called “access”

came Perimeter College and now is part

the work to be very interesting and

institutions. These are primarily twoand four-year colleges that serve communities

“I FEEL LIKE I’M MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OUR STUDENTS,” VENABLE SAYS.

needing affordable, convenient and effective higher education offerings. One of the things I really appreciated about teaching

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

51

ON THE JOB

at an access institution was that I felt like I was really making a difference— that these students really need me. At a place like Georgia Tech, where I did some TA work, the students had long been on a path to success and while they needed some guidance, I knew they were all going to be fine regardless

As a college president, Venable makes an impact on students’ lives in more big-picture ways.

of what I added to their experiences.

But I felt like at places like Georgia Perimeter, I was teaching students who

is the “Carpet Capital of the World,”

Dalton State specifically has changed.

after all.

We’re not that junior college that many

needed more direction and nurturing.

Conversely, most of our students

people in our community attended in

They needed someone to help make

also intend to stay put when they grad-

their studies more approachable and

uate and need to know they can get a

There’s skepticism about the value

understandable. And now as an admin-

job in the area. We stay abreast of in-

of a college education—is Dalton State

istrator, I feel like if access institutions

dustry trends and keep in contact with

a good return on investment? Whether

didn’t exist in their communities, these

employers to make sure we’re providing

you’re talking to a donor or a prospec-

students probably might not go to col-

programs that match up with the skills

tive student and their parents, you have

lege at all, anywhere.

and jobs they need filled.

to be strategic and clear about showing

the past.

There are three top reasons that stu-

For example, Dalton State used to be

them that, yes, investing in college is still

dents say they chose Dalton State. One

primarily a two-year college, but we’ve

is affordability, an obvious one. Two is

responded to demand and now most

We also face greater diversity in our

that it’s close to home; 87 percent of our

of our graduates are getting four-year

student population—not simply gender

students this past fall came to us from the

degrees. We have 25 bachelor’s de-

or racial diversity—but diversity in their

six counties surrounding our Dalton cam-

gree programs and 11 associate degree

life stages, the complexity of their situ-

pus. The third thing is, they tell us that

programs.

ations. At access institutions, entering

a smart thing to do.

The biggest challenges I face as a col-

at age 18 and graduating at 22 is not

ly small and have small class sizes that

lege president? Money. That’s an issue I

the norm. You’ve got 30- and 40-year-

translate into more personal attention

think most higher education institutions

olds enrolling in college for the first time.

and a greater sense of belonging. They

share. For us, part of being an access

And you’ve got 21-year-olds that are

don’t want to go to a huge university—at

institution demands that our tuition is af-

married with children who only take

least not at first—where they might feel

fordable, but that also means our direct

one or two classes at a time. You’ve got

overwhelmed and lost.

revenues are low. Plus our allocation

all kinds of different scenarios and dif-

from the University System of Georgia is

ferent needs among our students that

also low compared to others.

we’re trying to meet.

There are students that are looking for a Dalton State rather than a Georgia Tech, and that’s what we need to be.

It’s also a challenge to recruit and

Despite these challenges, I wouldn’t

retain good employees. We have the

trade my job for anything. I feel like I’m

same needs as a bigger university to

making a difference in the lives of our

they have a very close relationship with

hire, say, a financial aid director, but I’m

students. I may no longer be teaching

the communities they serve, because

only able to offer a fraction of the salary

them directly, but I am making sure they

the local government and industries

and a fraction of the staff. The competi-

are well cared for and that Dalton State

see us as pivotal to providing their fu-

tion is tough.

is giving them the programs, the facul-

ture workforces. In Dalton, that means

Finally, one of my biggest hurdles is

ty, the facilities, the resources for them

training professionals to work in the

helping people understand that high-

to succeed and become engaged mem-

carpet and flooring industry. Dalton

er ed in general has changed and

bers of their community.

52

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

COURTESY OF DALTON STATE COLLEGE

Another important thing to know about access institutions is that usually

PHOTOGRAPH

they chose us because we are relative-

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SM ARTER EV ERY DAY GEORGIA TECH

RESEARCHERS ARE

VENTURING ACROSS THE STATE TO MAKE SMART CITIES A REALITY.

54

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

GEORGIA TECH researchers, professors and students are leading the charge to make Georgia a leader in “smart” technology by helping communities tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the state.

The Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation Initiative is a new cross-disciplinary, Institute-wide research collective that applies Georgia Tech’s powerhouse research prowess to smart cities innovation.

So what exactly is a smart cities project? There isn’t an easy way to define it. Smart cities work can involve intelligent infrastructures, Internet of Things

//// BY John Tibbetts and Melissa Fralick

devices, and other computational or digital systems, such as data portals, smartphone applications and automated digital services.

“It’s about empowering communities with data and technology to improve their quality of life,” says Debra Lam, the managing director for the Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation Initiative. “All communities, regardless of size, regardless of population, regardless of geography or GDP levels, can be smart. Smart itself is a process— it’s not an end state.”

A good way to explore this concept is through one of the Initiative’s flagship projects, the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge. Following a statewide call for submissions, Chatham and Gwinnett counties along with the cities of Albany and Chamblee were selected from a pool of applicants to receive support for one-year projects to develop and implement smart design solutions.

Through their projects, these Georgia communities are working to improve housing investments, address traffic and transportation challenges and develop more targeted flooding forecasts for storms and sea level rise along Georgia’s coast.

“This was the first statewide initiative of its kind,” Lam says. “It’s coming from the ground up. It’s not us dictating to them, it’s these communities saying we know our communities, we know the local context, and we think this is what we want to do.

“With that, it’s led by the local government but it’s very much in partnership with local industry startups, GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

55

local community groups, and then of ing to show that you can do innovative technolocourse each of these projects is emgy and public service for Georgia and still have bedded with a leading Georgia Tech it be very exciting.” professor who is an expert in the field Though the four pilot projects will officialand they are part of the project.” ly end in September, many will continue indeEach community has received pendently with the help of Tech faculty. The pro$50,000 in grants and $25,000 from Geor“THAT’S WHERE IT GETS REALLY gia Tech in research support. Communities EXCITING WE’LL HAVE UP TO EIGHT also raised matched PROJECTS ACROSS THE STATE UNDERGOING funds. Georgia Power is the lead sponsor, SMART CITY WORK,” LAM SAYS. with additional financial support from the Atlanta Regional Commission. fessors embedded in the four communities have Lam says there are a lot of different players in become committed to the projects and applied the smart cities space, such as tech companies for additional grants and funding to keep the and nonprofits, but Georgia Tech is well-suited to work going. tackle the challenges that local communities face.

The four communities selected for the second “We’re a public university, so it’s not like we Georgia Smart Communities Challenge were anneed to sell technology,” Lam says. “We are kind nounced on June 18: Columbus-Muscogee Counof neutral ‘white hat’ in terms of our understandty, Macon-Bibb County and the cities of Milton ing of all the technology and innovation, and we and Woodstock. really just want to see it from an educator, re“That’s where it gets really exciting—we’ll have searcher and practitioner’s vantage point.” up to eight projects across the state undergoing The four projects are about halfway through smart city work,” Lam says. their one-year timeframes. The work began in Georgia Tech has discovered that there is a September 2018 and will continue through Sepgreat deal of interest in smart cities innovation tember 2019. across the state.

This summer, Georgia Tech will introduce the Representatives from across Georgia travel to Smart Community Corps, a student program site visits in the challenge communities, and local modeled after larger national programs like the Tech alumni attend events to learn about projects Peace Corps and Teach for America. One Georin their area. gia Tech student will be selected to be embedded Though only four communities are selected to into each of the four communities. They will live participate in the challenge, Lam says they have there over the summer and work to support the made resources available to meet the demand of Smart Communities projects full-time. interested communities.

Lam says it’s a great opportunity for the stu“We have a series of workshops, site visits, dents to gain experience working on smart city webinars, monthly communications—there’s a lot projects, while local governments will benefit from that we do not just with the four communities but the expertise of Tech students. with Georgia communities as a whole. We like to “Georgia Tech students could go to Google or think just because you didn’t ‘win’ doesn’t mean Amazon, but they’re going to be in Albany or you can’t be a part of this,” Lam says. “We’re Chatham for the summer,” Lam says. “We’re trytrying to make Georgia a leader in this space.”

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

L

CHATHAM COUNTY

L o c at e d a l on g t h e Atlantic coast in southeast Georgia, Chatham County is home to the picturesque city of Savannah and one of the largest cargo ports in the country along the Savannah River.

Climate change is driving sea levels higher, increasing flooding during coastal storms and extreme high tides.

The Georgia coast is a complex environment where the effects of rising water can vary dramatically from place to place, but the county has only one official water level gauge, located at Fort Pulaski.

“Some neighborhoods are flooding more frequently now, while in other neighborhoods not far away the flooding is more modest or erratic, depending on which way the wind is blowing, how much rain falls, and many other factors,” says Russell Clark, Georgia Tech senior research scientist in the College of Computing.

Chatham County is using its Smart Communities support to develop a sensor network partnered with data analytics for more accurate, localized

flooding forecasts for improved emergency planning and response.

“Coastal communities are desperate for solutions,” says Kim Cobb, the project’s faculty leader, Georgia Power Chair, and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

“Through many partnerships, Georgia Tech can design strategies to help communities adapt to climate change and sea level rise. We see this pilot as only the first step of a multi-year effort to advance real solutions with different combinations of partners, expertise and funding.”

Local high school students are helping to build and install a new batch of 30 sensors that will soon augment the 12 units already deployed. The sensor network will transmit data to computer models for analysis and prediction of storm strength and flooding.

The Smart Sea Level Sensor Project is a partnership among officials from the Chatham Emergency Management Agency, the city of Savannah, and Georgia Tech scientists and engineers.

RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING A NETWORK OF SENSORS LIKE THIS ONE FOR MORE ACCURATE, LOCALIZED FLOODING FORECASTS FOR IMPROVED EMERGENCY PLANNING AND RESPONSE.

PHOTOGRAPH

The pilot project’s data could be used to plan more resilient bridge, road and water treatment infrastructure, while sensors could be adapted later to collect other environmental monitoring data, including rainfall and water quality parameters.

“Residents are excited to see that localized sensor data will be visible for them,” Clark says.

“We hear a lot of ‘thank you for doing this in my neighborhood.’”

Emanuele Di Lorenzo, professor of ocean and climate dynamics, will integrate sensor data into models for predictive floodrisk assessments specifically for the Chatham County coast. David Frost, the Elizabeth and Bill Higginbotham Professor of Civil Engineering, will provide resilience planning tools for community leaders.

Residents had the chance to offer their input during a recent showcase for the project sponsored by the Georgia Smart Communities Program. On smartphones and tablets, Tech students guided residents through web-based visualizations of flood-risk scenarios for different coastal locations with augmented-reality tools.

“We continue to look for community feedback, which is so important,” Cobb says. “There will be many more opportunities for local community members, students and educators to get involved.”

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ALBANY W

Why do public investments in housing and infrastructure often fail to revitalize blighted neighborhoods? Albany, a city in the southwest corner of the state, is drawing on Georgia Smart support and guidance to develop and evaluate an automated housing registry that could help answer this question.

“As is the case in many communities, housing has fallen into disrepair in some Albany neighborhoods,” says Omar Isaac Asensio, assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy and principal investigator for the Albany project. “Abandoned or uninhabitable properties have been purchased and cleaned up. But the community says, ‘We’re spending a lot of money on revitalization, but because data are siloed in different city departments and are not easily accessible, it’s hard for us to really quantify the benefits of these investments.’

“In an effort to promote transparency, the city wants to integrate and analyze Albany’s housing data, which would help the community answer questions about the effectiveness of various policies or programs designed to help neighborhoods.”

For example, the Community Home Investment Program assists low- and moderate-income households with up to $25,000 in home repairs that affect the health or safety of inhabitants. Eligible repairs include costly items such as roof replacement, HVAC systems

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and other energy efficiency measures. Today there is no way to link housing investment information with energy performance data in the city. As a result, the data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of housing programs are inaccessible—not just to the public.

Asensio’s team is collaborating with the city to bring together multiple databases to map housing address information as well as 10 years’ worth of utility records held by the city. Additional information from other city departments, including transit, code enforcement, crime and other open data, is part of the overall initiative, and will be added later.

“Under the leadership of Steven Carter, Albany’s chief information officer, we’ve already made strides on data collection, aggregation and curation,” Asensio says. “Now an open-data portal needs to be built, and data from more departments will be integrated into one place.”

Using record linkage and statistical algorithms, the Georgia Tech team will create maps to visualize locations of blight and housing investments and tell the hidden stories behind the data, backed by rigorous analysis.

Albany is hosting participatory design workshops for the public to develop priorities about the initiatives that can be run through the portal and ArcGIS Hub in collaboration with Georgia Tech’s Christopher Le Dantec and Debra Lam. Project

ALBANY OFFICIALS ARE WORKING WITH TECH RESEARCHERS TO CREATE AN OPEN DATA PORTAL TO BETTER EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HOUSING INVESTMENTS.

partners include Dougherty County, the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development and the nonprofit Fight Albany Blight.

“We need input from both the public and private sectors about what’s important to them because ultimately this process is meant to benefit communities,” Asensio says.

The open-data portal will evolve with new data that the city adds over time, helping officials to do their jobs, improving fiscal efficiency and enhancing transparency throughout city government.

Urban policy scientists are often stymied by lack of access to data.

“The Albany initiative allows researchers access to granular data about public investment and performance needed for rigorous policy and program evaluation,” Asensio says. “This project could provide a blueprint to other cities to open up and visualize city data in collaboration with the academic research community, the public, government and industry. Albany’s experience will be indispensable for other communities in our state, putting the city on the map for developing the latest analytical tools on open data.”

G

PHOTOGRAPH

ALLISON CARTER

Gwinnett County, a suburban community northeast of Atlanta, has experienced increasingly heavy traffic as a result of rapid growth in recent decades.

In partnership with Georgia Tech, Gwinnett officials hope to ease the gridlock by deploying smart technologies and setting the standard for the application of connected vehicle technology to improve mobility and traffic safety.

When vehicles share real-time locations with each other and with traffic signals, it can lead to improved traffic flow and driver safety. High-tech sensors on vehicles and roadways tell connected vehicles when to maneuver to avoid collisions, reducing crashes and traffic snarls on suburban arteries.

The county aims to develop and implement a master plan for autonomous real-time data sharing among connected vehicle applications, signals and other roadway sensors. The Peachtree Industrial Boulevard corridor has been chosen as the pilot smart corridor for technology deployment, which is scheduled to begin later this year.

First, though, the county needs accurate baseline data about current traffic patterns.

“We’ve had access to high-fidelity traffic signal data, but data from vehicles on the road are very sparse,” says

Angshuman Guin, the project’s faculty reach emergency scenes more quickly leader and senior research engineer in and safely. He will also simulate trafthe School of Civil and Environmental fic operations and apply safety analyses Engineering. “We were only getting a across all systems. location point for emergency response Gwinnett County and Georgia Tech vehicles every five minutes, but we need are collaborating on the project with the GPS points every second to underGeorgia Department of Transportation stand the bottlenecks in traffic, as well and the cities of Berkeley Lake, Duluth, as where and why the vehicles are losing Norcross and Suwanee. time on the roadway during an emerMost connected-vehicle pilot efforts gency response.” focus on interstates or high-density Guin is collaborating with the Gwinnett County fire chief to outfit 15 fire department vehicles with Georgia Tech– designed sensor packages.

“We are using the fire department data to know exactly where and how long the delays GEORGIA TECH'S are for emergency response ANGSHUMAN GUIN DEMONSTRATES vehicles and compare those SENSORS TO GWINNETT COUNTY data to signal data. Was a deFIREFIGHTERS. lay associated with the signal being red?

Or was it associated with traffic alone? This study is only possible because of our collaboration with the county, the business districts. But many commutfire department and the other ers and other drivers in the Atlanta partners involved. We would metro area spend more miles on suburnot be able to gather the data ban roadways than in the city. we need without them.”

Suburban arterials are typically more Guin will help the county aschallenging for smart communicasess the benefits of connected vehicle tions technologies. Heavily traveled applications such as Emergency Vehicle suburban roads with higher operating Preemption, which helps responders speeds and irregularly spaced intersections make driving more complex and dangerous. That’s why the suburban Gwinnett County corridor could form the backbone of the Connected Vehicle Technology Master Plan to improve driving experience with connected vehicle technology across city and county lines throughout the state.

GWINNETT COUNTY

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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CHAMBLEE C

Chamblee, a small city just outside of Atlanta, is attracting new residents, particularly young people in search of a walkable, urban community that’s more affordable than in-town neighborhoods. The Chamblee MARTA rail station in suburban DeKalb County has been a crucial drawing card for commuters relocating to the city’s redeveloping core.

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Chamblee has succeeded in revitalizing properties near MARTA with urban apartments and new restaurants.

“Now the city wants to expand local transit opportunities to link the MARTA station to other nearby neighborhoods, some with redevelopment projects already underway,” says Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the Georgia Tech urban design program.

Chamblee is using Georgia Smart funding to partner with a Georgia Tech

team, led by Dunham-Jones, to study how improving urban design and passenger experiences can help build ridership for an experimental mode of transportation: the shared autonomous vehicle.

Introducing small autonomous transit vehicles to city streets could eventually transform how people get around.

“With autonomous shared vehicles, you could replace the typical big

PHOTOGRAPHS

STANTEC

CONCEPTUAL ILLUSTRATIONS DEPICT SHARED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES, AN EXPERIMENTAL MODE OF TRANSPORTATION PROPOSED FOR CHAMBLEE.

bus that comes once an hour with four or five small shuttles along the same route arriving every 10 minutes, and that would be a game changer for encouraging more people to use transit,” Dunham-Jones says.

Chamblee anticipates operating an autonomous shuttle along a mile of Peachtree Road with five stops for 10 hours a day, seven days a week. A second phase could extend the shuttle east to Assembly Yards, a mixed-use development under construction in nearby Doraville. At first, the shuttle would operate semi-autonomously with an onboard attendant in case of emergencies.

The Georgia Tech team is developing a set of recommendations for the city and a best practices manual to improve the user experience of getting to, waiting for, and riding on autonomous shuttle buses. How might they expand walkability throughout Chamblee and build social capital? Can bus stops serve as community infrastructure? The guide could be applied in other communities in Georgia and around the country.

The pilot project will also develop an operations plan for the shuttle and conduct preliminary engineering while engaging the community through public meetings, city strolls and other events. Other project partners include the city of Doraville, Stantec, MARTA and the Assembly Community

Improvement District.

Dunham-Jones and Ph.D. student Zachary Lancaster studied 18 autonomous shuttle projects in pilot stages worldwide, the great majority of which operate on private streets or in office parks. They interviewed industry experts, visited pilot projects, and surveyed potential passengers of Chamblee’s shuttle.

The autonomous shuttle experience must be appealing enough to compete with other transit options, including private cars, electric scooters and rideshare services.

“Once the shuttle is operating, it’s important to have a data management plan that allows for feedback from users,” Dunham-Jones says. “That will help the city improve the shuttle system by learning more about how people respond to it.”

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

61

POETRY OF

GEORGIA TECH PROFESSOR KAREN HEAD GREW UP LOVING

WAFFLE HOUSE AND POETRY. THE FRIENDLY YELLOW SIGN HAS BEEN A SOURCE OF COMFORT AND ARTISTIC INSPIRATION FOR HER THROUGH THE YEARS. RECENTLY, HEAD WAS APPOINTED AS THE OFFICIAL WAFFLE HOUSE POET LAUREATE — SHE EVEN HAS THE NAMETAG TO PROVE IT. THIS FALL, SHE’S LEVERAGING HER NEW ROLE TO DRIVE ACROSS THE STATE OF GEORGIA AND SHARE HER PASSION FOR POETRY AND ARTS WITH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN FAR-FLUNG COUNTIES, TELL THEM ABOUT HER OWN CIRCUITOUS PATH TO A MEANINGFUL CAREER, AND CONVINCE THEM THAT THEY SHOULD GO TO COLLEGE, TOO.

BY ROGER SLAVENS

W A F F L E S

THE

W

W H E N E V E R K A R E N H E A D would get homesick or just

plain stuck while working on her doctoral dissertation at the University of Nebraska, she’d grab her keys, jump in her car and hit the open road. While her hometown of Atlanta was worlds away, she knew a place that would put her at ease— Waffle House.

The only problem was that she still had to drive a couple hours to get to the nearest location in Missouri, just north of Kansas City. “There’s virtually nothing between Lincoln and St. Joe’s, so they never built a Waffle House that far out into Nebraska,” Head says. “Back home in Atlanta and throughout the South, we have Waffle Houses everywhere.”

After Head reached her destination, she’d usually order a cheese and eggs plate, maybe a waffle, but always the hash browns. “For me, it’s all about the hash browns,” she says. “Scattered, smothered, covered, capped and diced. They make me happy. They make me feel like I’m home.”

By the time she finished her meal, she’d feel much better. She also might have worked out whatever dissertation problem had been bothering her. Or perhaps she had used the time between bites to jot down a quick poem, inspired by the sights, smells, tastes and emotions that consumed her in these familiar environs. “Even though it was a hassle to get there, the time and effort spent was well worth it,” Head says. “Waffle House always fixed me.”

She’d then hop back in her car and drive the return route to Lincoln and grad school—until the next time the need for the friendly yellow sign and those decadent hash browns hit her.

Years later, well-entrenched in her role as a professor and resident poet at Georgia Tech, Head wound up telling the story so often that a well-connected colleague introduced her to two alumni who were truly moved by the tale: Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer, IE 89, and Vice Chairman Emeritus Bert Thornton, IM 68. They were particularly floored when they found out that not only had Waffle House provided her 64

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comfort in times of need, but also their restaurant chain and its food had been the inspiration for a number of Head’s published poems.

“We were amazed that many of Karen’s poems were penned while she sat in a Waffle House booth,” Thornton says. “And we were humbled that our restaurants could serve both as her artistic refuge and, occasionally, her muse.”

Why has Head drawn so much inspiration from Waffle House? “I just love the place,” she says. “I love the food—it’s just so solid and good. And you can always count on Waffle House to be there for you when you need it. It’s always open. The experience is always comforting and consistent. There’s not a lot of that in life today.”

After meeting at a couple of alumni events, Head and Thornton struck up a friendship, trading their books—both are published authors—and emailing each other about a range of topics, especially Georgia Tech. A common theme would often arise in their missives. “I told Bert that I had become increasingly concerned that as Tech grew more competitive and more selective, we risked becoming too focused on recruiting top students who are good for the Institute’s reputation instead of recruiting students for whom Tech is good,” Head says.

Neither of them could know that what had begun as casual conversations would eventually lead to Thornton bestowing the title of Waffle House Poet Laureate to Head. Or that just a few months from now, funded by the company’s foundation, she would be embarking on a tour of Georgia high schools to share the virtues of poetry and arts with students across the state, and to make connections with some who might never have considered attending Tech, or for that matter, any college.

Head has so many roles and responsibilities at Georgia Tech that it’s hard to believe she has spare time to conduct a poetry tour. Or edit an international poetry journal—the acclaimed Atlanta Review, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Or write poems in the booths of Waffle House. But somehow she manages to fit all of these creative endeavors into an already crammed schedule.

Her primary jobs on campus are twofold. She serves as the associate chair and an associate professor of the School of Literature, Media and Communication (LMC) in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “I teach creative writing, composition and technical writing, and when it comes to literature I kind of own the Jane Austen class we offer regularly in LMC,” Head says.

She also works as the executive director of Tech’s Naugle Communication Center, a lab housed in Clough Commons to

tutor students in all forms of communication: writing, public speaking and presentations, nonverbal body language and visual design. “We work with everybody across campus, undergrads and grad students,” Head says. “And I personally coach the students who serve as commencement and convocation speakers, and from time to time even help out faculty members with their presentation skills.”

Though Head is stepping off of Tech’s student publication board after serving on it for 14 years—starting out as the advisor to the literary journal Erato—she now finds herself leading the 2019–20 Tech employee charitable campaign. “I’ve been one of the three co-chairs the last two years and now it’s my turn to be the point person,” she says.

With all the extra effort Head puts into helping her colleagues and students, it’s no surprise that the Georgia Tech Honors Committee named her the winner of the Class of 1934 Outstanding Service Award this past academic year. And it’s precisely that spirit of service that prompted her to partner with Waffle House.

As the leader of the Naugle Communication Center, Head finds herself on the front lines with students who may be struggling with some of their coursework and need extra help.

“I have a special vantage point on students who haven’t been as well prepared coming into Tech as others,” she says. “It’s not that our center is just for students who struggle—because most of those who come in are doing really well and want to do even better—but sometimes we are the best option for those who don’t know where to find assistance.”

Head admits that at one time in her life, she was one of those students who struggled—not with her schoolwork, but with making the right life choices. “Neither of my parents graduated from high school in the traditional manner, though they got their GEDs later on,” she says. “My dad was the youngest of 17 kids and his family strained to make ends meet. He went into the Army, and my parents married young. My mom followed him without ever finishing school, which was pretty common at the time, some 62-plus years ago.”

Despite moving around a lot during her father’s various posts, including overseas, Head in fact enjoyed a great education from Department of Defense schools. “Those were plum jobs and attracted the best teachers,” she says. “Many of them had PhDs.” The real struggle came after Head graduated from high school. “A lot of women didn’t go to college—it wasn’t seen as an important thing,” she says. “I applied to two places and

got into both, but the whole college thing frightened me, so I did what a lot of women my age did back then: I made a very bad decision and I got married.”

After getting out of what became an abusive relationship, she found herself 25, alone, and on the verge of a crisis. “My parents told me that I had to deal with the consequences of my actions on my own, and my friends who had gone to college had moved on and started their careers,” Head says. “So I got a corporate job and worked my way up to being the executive assistant for the company CEO. It was a good job, but I wasn’t happy. What I really wanted to be was a teacher.”

So Head started her life over as a 27-year-old freshman at DeKalb College, a two-year community college on Atlanta’s perimeter. Saying she did well once she finally enrolled is a vast understatement: Head wound up earning four degrees in rapid-fire succession over 11 years. She became a Regent Scholar at DeKalb, and then earned her bachelor’s degree at Oglethorpe University, master’s degree at the University of Tennessee and finally her PhD at Nebraska—all in English literature. Along the way, she became the teacher she wanted to be, as well as a published, acclaimed poet and author.

Looking back, she just wishes someone had put her on this path much earlier.

A couple years ago, Georgia Tech announced that it would give automatic admission to any valedictorian or salutatorian from a high school in the state of Georgia. Head thought this was a great idea.

But then she found out that there were dozens of counties that hadn’t sent the Institute a single applicant. “That really concerned me,” she says. “If you had guaranteed admission to arguably the best university in the state, what would keep you from applying? Maybe Tech isn’t the right place for some, but the truth is that far too many Georgia high school students don’t think they’re good enough for Tech. Or anywhere else, for that matter.”

Head shared some of these thoughts with Waffle House’s Thornton and how she thought that if she shared her personal story, she might get through to some of those who were just as unsure of themselves as she was when she was 18.

“I told Bert that as a tenured faculty member at one of the world’s leading institutions, I had a responsibility to visit some of these counties and try to convince their students at least to GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

65

KAREN HEAD LED A POETRY READING AND COLLEGE DISCUSSION AT GRIFFIN HIGH SCHOOL THIS SPRING.

consider going to college,” she says.

At the same time, she had another agenda. “I am deeply concerned about the gutting of arts education and opportunities in the state of Georgia, and the rural counties are the ones who have been hit the hardest,” Head says. “Many schools don’t have dedicated arts teachers. But exposure to the arts has been proven to be one of the best things to develop critical thinking skills and helps you in other subjects, like math.”

In addition, she wanted to take some of the burden off these teachers who are all overworked and underpaid. “They’re doing the best they can with the resources they have, bless them,” Head says. “And I was willing to come out and help them for free.”

She and Thornton batted the idea around a bit, and finally Head asked him if Waffle House would consider sponsoring such a tour. “My thinking was that there might not be a college that’s close to them, but I knew that there were Waffle Houses nearby and that could be the connection,” she says. “I didn’t want to be paid—just my modest travel expenses covered. And I suggested that we could have a poetry competition and Waffle House could fund a small scholarship for the winner to use wherever they liked to go.”

Thornton loved the idea, and Head’s poetry tour, aimed at reaching at least 12 different counties, was fully funded.

Head had asked for $5,500, and more than half of that was earmarked for the scholarship. Some while later, Head received an unexpected and lumpy envelope in the mail with a Waffle House return address on it. Inside was a nametag that had her named on it—Dr. Karen Head—and identified her as the official Waffle House Poet Laureate. It was one of the happiest moments in her career.

Head started writing poetry when she was 6 years old and a first grader living in Fayetteville, N.C. “The local paper had a children’s section and ran kids’ poems, so every week I’d write 66

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

one, give it to my mom and have her send it in,” she says. “Every Sunday, I’d open the paper looking for a poem of mine.

This went on for weeks and weeks until finally, one day, they finally ran one. It wasn’t until I was much older and in grad school that my mother admitted that the one that got published was the first one she had actually sent in. It might sound horrible, but she inadvertently taught me an important lesson—to be a writer you have to be resilient and you can’t let rejection get to you. You can’t take it personally and you have to keep trying. Though it wasn’t my mom’s intention, I think the universe was working through her.”

Despite all that’s on her plate at work, Head still finds time to write poetry every day. “For me, it’s kind of like breathing,” she says. “I can’t imagine not doing it or not being able to do it.”

She’s had five books of her poetry published, including her latest, titled Lost on Purpose. It’s true that she’s written some of her poems while relaxing at a Waffle House. It’s also true that Waffle House and those hash browns occasionally weave their way into her poems. “Always Open,” for instance, takes her grad school story of driving two hours to get to the nearest location and merges it with the news of the untimely death of TV gourmand Anthony Bourdain that shook the foodie world in 2018. (Read the poem on the opposite page.)

“I wrote ‘Always Open’ after he died,” Head says. “He actually has an episode of his show, No Reservations, which featured Waffle House, and I connected the two things in the poem.”

The pilot run of Head’s poetry-and-higher-education outreach program, fueled by Waffle House, took place this spring. “The hardest thing was to convince the schools that this was a real thing,” she says.

Her first visit was to Griffin High School. “It’s technically in a rural county, but it’s also the closest school to Georgia Tech that we had identified. We had a great day—more than 90 students showed up at the school library. It was World Read Aloud Day, which was a perfect coincidence.”

Head arrived at the school, introduced herself and then told the students her personal story and obstacle-laden route to college. Then she asked them an important, leading question: “How many of you know somebody who thinks college isn’t right for them?” Not surprisingly, everyone’s hands shot right up. “I’m sure that some of them meant themselves,” she says.

Then she spent a lot of time fielding questions about what college is like, what being a professor entails. “They were really trying to figure out how college works and what is expected of students.

And then we talked a bit about poetry and about art, and I shared some of my poems with them.”

The poetry session went over well with the students. “I think everybody goes through a poetry phase, and it often happens around the time you’re in high school,” Head says. “That’s when they’re usually exposed to poetry and asked to read and write poems. There’s also a lot of teen angst, which is the perfect catalyst for poetry, being able to write down all your complex thoughts and feelings.”

At another trial run at Washington County High School in Sandersville, the discussion about poetry turned into an open mic opportunity for the students. A couple of them wanted to read their verse to Head and their classmates. “I ceded the floor to them and let them go for it,” she says. “One young woman got up and did a slam poetry piece—she was amazing and the students really got into it.”

Believe it or not, poetry is thriving in this country, especially among young people, Head says. “I think a lot of people underestimate that, especially when you consider spoken word events and slam poetry competitions,” she says. “They’re such close cousins to things like rap and other forms of music that they just naturally embrace it.”

ALWAYS OPEN A POEM BY KAREN HEAD, FROM HER BOOK LOST ON PURPOSE IN THE DREAM, I’M BACK ON THE ROAD DRIVING SOUTH FROM LINCOLN, NE TOWARD KANSAS CITY, WINDOWS HALF WAY DOWN, MIDWEST WINTER AIR SMACKING ME AWAKE, REMINDING ME TO BREATHE. I’M SUFFERING. HOMESICKNESS IS THE STORY I TELL, BUT I KNOW THERE’S MORE TO IT, THIS LONELINESS, THESE TOO FAST HEARTBEATS, THIS NEED TO ESCAPE.

JUST OUTSIDE ST. JOE, TRAFFIC FROM THE KC AIPORT ROARS OVERHEAD, AND JUST OFF THE EXIT

poem

I SEE IT, GLOWING WARM YELLOW IN THE DARKNESS, SO I PULL IN. THIS IS NO PHOTOSHOPPED HOPPER NIGHTHAWKS. NO, THIS IS HOME, ALWAYS OPEN, ALWAYS THERE WAITING FOR ME PAST ANY CURFEW.

I SHAKE SNOW FROM MY HAIR, FIND THE PLACE EMPTY, EXCEPT FOR ONE COUNTER STOOL, WHICH BEGINS

Head admits that what she did in her two trial runs of outreach—and is gearing up to do in her larger, formal tour starting this fall—is not rocket science. (“That’s not just an idiom—we really do teach rocket science at Georgia Tech, after all,” she quips.)

“Maybe I’m just this crazy poetry lady, but I truly feel that if I can convince just one student who wasn’t thinking about going to college to change their mind and apply, all my effort to put this project together would be worth it,” she says.

“If I could alter their course and put them on a better path, I’d be satisfied.”

Poetry workshops and school outreach sessions are old hat for Head, who has been putting them on for decades, dating back to her graduate study days at the University of Tennessee and University of Nebraska. “But it’s so much more meaningful to do this here in Georgia, because I know these places and the people so well,” she says. “I cling tightly to them, because I think it’s important that you never lose track of where you come from.”

TO SPIN AND BOURDAIN TELLS ME TO JOIN HIM, SO I DO BECAUSE I’VE GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO BE. I SHOUT, “SCATTERED, SMOTHERED, COVERED, DICED, AND CAPPED,” AND LAUGHTER ERUPTS. NOW THE PLACE IS FULL OF PEOPLE I COULDN’T SAVE. WE ARE ALL EATING PECAN WAFFLES, TELLING EACH OTHER STORIES, AND I SAY, “SOMEDAY, MAYBE, I’LL FIND A WAY TO BE HAPPY,” AND BOURDAIN SAYS, “DON’T YOU HAVE SOMEWHERE YOU SHOULD BE?” THE FAINT SOUND OF THE AIRPLANES BEGINS TO AMPLIFY, EVERYTHING BEGINS TO SHAKE. I DIVE DOWN, COVER MY EARS, SHUT MY EYES TO THE LOOMING SHADOWS—

STARTLED, I FIND MYSELF BACK IN ATLANTA, YOU ARE SNORING AGAIN, AND, FOR ONCE, FOR ALWAYS, THIS MAKES ME HAPPY.

STATE

OF

IMPACT DEFINITIVE PROOF THAT GEORGIA TECH MEASURES UP TO ITS COMMITMENT TO SERVING ALL OF GEORGIA—NOT JUST ATLANTA—IN A WIDE VARIETY OF WAYS.

BOOSTING THE GEORGIA ECONOMY

GEORGIA TECH STANDS NO. 1 AMONG 26 STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN NEARLY EVERY MAJOR MEASUREMENT OF REGIONAL IMPACT, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST STUDY BY THE BOARD OF REGENTS. #1 IN SPENDING IMPACT

(INITIAL OUTLAYS OF MONEY BY THE INSTITUTE ON RESOURCES AND OPERATING EXPENSES, AS WELL AS BY ITS STUDENTS)

$ 1.92 BILLION #1 IN OUTPUT IMPACT (EQUIVALENT TO BUSINESS REVENUES OR SALES)

$ 3.09 BILLION

#1 IN VALUE-ADDED IMPACT

$ 2.23 BILLION #1 IN LABOR-INCOME IMPACT

$ 1.63 BILLION 68

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

#1 IN EMPLOYMENT (NON-STUDENT) IMPACT

19,796

JOBS

FOSTERING THE CULTURE OF INNOVATION GEORGIA TECH’S ENTERPRISE INNOVATION INSTITUTE (EI2) SERVES THE WHOLE STATE BY OFFERING A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SERVICES AND PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO CREATE, ACCELERATE AND GROW GEORGIA’S TECH-BASED ECONOMY.

SOURCE:

The Enterprise Innovation Institute

EI2 RANKS AS THE NATION’S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITY-BASED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION, WITH MORE THAN 150 GEORGIA TECH EXTENSION PROFESSIONALS SERVING THROUGHOUT THE STATE. IN 2018, EI2’S PROGRAMS SERVED MORE THAN 10,700 BUSINESSES, COMMUNITIES AND ENTREPRENEURS WHO REPORTED STARTUP INVESTMENT CAPITAL EXCEEDING $ 495 MILLION, MORE THAN $ 2.3 BILLION IN CONTRACTS AND SALES, AND THE CREATION OR SAVING OF 15,700 JOBS. EI2 OFFERS 12 ROBUST PROGRAMS THAT ARE COMPREHENSIVE IN SCOPE AND ADDRESS VARIOUS SECTORS AND INDUSTRIES, ALL WITH AN INNOVATION-LED FOCUS TO SUPPORT AND STRENGTHEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN GEORGIA. KEY PROGRAMS INCLUDE: •

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CENTER (ATDC), the

•

top technology incubator in the state; •

tive innovation platform that partners Tech, Invest Georgia and 11 of the nation’s biggest firms; and

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT LAB (EDL), which assists govern-

ments, communities, foundations, entrepreneurs and small businesses to apply innovative ideas, technology and policy to economic growth-focused initiatives;

ENGAGE VENTURES, a venture fund and collabora-

•

VENTURELAB, which transforms innovations created

by Georgia Tech faculty, researchers and students into viable companies.

CORPORATE INNOVATION CENTERS OVERALL UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA ECONOMIC IMPACT (FROM 26 INSTITUTIONS)

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL- AND INVENTION-DRIVEN ENVIRONMENT AT TECH HAS DRAWN INTEREST FROM FORWARD-THINKING COMPANIES ACROSS THE GLOBE. SINCE 2012, MORE THAN 21 MAJOR CORPORATIONS HAVE SET UP INNOVATION CENTERS AND FACILITIES NEAR OR AT THE INSTITUTE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ITS RICH TALENT POOL AND COLLABORATE ON RESEARCH WITH FACULTY AND STUDENTS.

$16.8 BILLION IN OUTPUT

$11.6 BILLION IN GROSS REGIONAL PRODUCT

$8.1 BILLION IN INCOME

163,754 FULL- AND PART-TIME JOBS SOURCE: “The Economic Impact of University System of Georgia Institutions on their Regional Economies in Fiscal Year 2017,” study commissioned by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and published in November 2018.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

69

MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE SINCE 1960, THE GEORGIA MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIP (G A MEP) HAS OPERATED AS THE ONLY PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP IN THE STATE DEDICATED TO HELPING MANUFACTURERS: IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

GENERATE COST SAVINGS

INTEGRATE NEW TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

REDUCE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

IMPROVE PROCESSES

INCREASE PROFITABILITY

IN 2018, GAMEP WORKED WITH MORE THAN 800 COMPANIES ACROSS GEORGIA AND ACHIEVED:

55 % OF GAMEP PROFESSIONAL STAFF HOLD GT DEGREES

GAMEP OPERATES 10 REGIONAL LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE STATE, AND HAS ASSISTED MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN MORE THAN 75 % OF GEORGIA’S 159 COUNTIES.

SOURCE: The Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Agricultural Technology Research Program

IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL TECH THE GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH INSTITUTE’S (GTRI) AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH PROGRAM (ATRP) WORKS CLOSELY WITH GEORGIA AGRIBUSINESS, ESPECIALLY THE POULTRY INDUSTRY, TO DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND ADAPT EXISTING ONES FOR SPECIALIZED INDUSTRIAL NEEDS. POULTRY RANKS AS GEORGIA’S AGRIBUSINESS.

NO. 1

70

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

SOURCE:

2,131 JOBS CREATED OR RETAINED $ 322 MILLION GENERATED IN NEW AND RETAINED SALES $ 98 MILLION IN REDUCED OPERATING COSTS $ 196 MILLION IN PLANT INVESTMENTS

Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership/Enterprise Innovation Institute

ENHANCE PRODUCT QUALITY

ATRP WAS CREATED IN 1973 , WHEN THE GEORGIA POULTRY FEDERATION ASKED THE GEORGIA STATE GENERAL ASSEMBLY FOR $100,000 TO INVOLVE THE GEORGIA TECH ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION (NOW GTRI) IN STUDIES TO SUPPORT THE INDUSTRY. TODAY, THE PROGRAM RECEIVES FUNDING IN EXCESS OF $2 MILLION, WITH MORE THAN OF THAT INVESTED IN RESEARCH AND SPECIAL PROJECTS.

70 %

DEEPENING K-12 STEM OPPORTUNITIES GEORGIA TECH’S CENTER FOR EDUCATION INTEGRATING SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING (CEISMC) CONNECTS THE EXPERTISE OF TECH FACULTY, STAFF AND RESEARCHERS TO K-12 SCHOOL DISTRICTS THROUGHOUT GEORGIA. THE GOAL? TO INCREASE INTEREST AND ACHIEVEMENT IN STEM STUDIES FOR A WIDE RANGE OF STUDENTS, ESPECIALLY THOSE UNDERSERVED IN DYNAMIC LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH.

74 GEORGIA SCHOOL DISTRICTS PARTNER WITH CEISMC TO INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION OF

MORE THAN 20 POULTRY COMPANIES AND EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS SERVE ON ATRP’S ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

STEM INNOVATORS

1,720+

K-12 STEM TEACHERS HAVE TAKEN

PART IN CEISMC PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ATRP CONDUCTS RESEARCH IN 4 CORE AREAS: ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION SYSTEMS, FOOD SAFETY TECHNOLOGIES, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY SYSTEMS, AND ADVANCED IMAGING AND SENSING CONCEPTS.

350+ POST-DOC, GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE GEORGIA TECH STUDENTS WORKED WITH CEISMC TO SUPPORT STEM LEARNING

200+

GEORGIA TECH FACULTY AND STAFF

MEMBERS HELPED CEISMC BRING STEM PROGRAMS

10 RESEARCH PROTOTYPES ARE CURRENTLY IN VARIOUS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN ATRP. RESEARCH PROJECTS HAVE PRODUCED 18 U.S. PATENTS AND MORE THAN 40 INVENTION DISCLOSURES.

TO STUDENTS

39,000+

OUTREACH AND EXTRACURRICULAR PROGRAMS

5,800+ ON AVERAGE, 30 REQUESTS ARE FILLED ANNUALLY FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FROM GEORGIA-BASED FIRMS AND INDIVIDUALS IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

K-12 STUDENTS ENGAGED IN STEM

HOURS OF STEM TEACHER

DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED BY CEISMC

50+

EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AND

BUSINESSES HAVE PROVIDED K-12 STUDENTS WITH REAL-WORLD STEM EXPERIENCES

ATRP COORDINATES THE POULTRY WORLD EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT EACH YEAR AT THE GEORGIA NATIONAL FAIR, WHICH PROMOTES THE POULTRY INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO GEORGIA.

SOURCE: Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC)

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

71

FOSTERING LIFELONG LEARNING GEORGIA TECH HAS BEEN OFFERING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS. TODAY, GEORGIA TECH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CONNECTS NON-TRADITIONAL LEARNERS ACROSS THE STATE WITH IN-CLASSROOM AND ONLINE COURSES IN STEM, BUSINESS, LEADERSHIP AND INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC SUBJECT AREAS. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS EVERY YEAR TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TECH’S EXPERTISE TO UPGRADE THEIR SKILL SETS, DEEPEN THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND FUTURE-PROOF THEIR CAREERS BY ENROLLING IN PROFESSIONAL SHORT COURSES, CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS, ONLINE MASTER’S AND PROFESSIONAL MASTER’S DEGREES, TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR MILITARY MEMBERS AND VETERANS, AND K-12 LEARNING PROGRAMS.

80 %

36 K+

98 %

OF POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS IN THE U.S. ARE CONSIDERED NONTRADITIONAL LEARNERS, INCLUDING WORKING ADULTS, MILITARY VETERANS AND PARENTS.

LEARNERS ANNUALLY BENEFIT FROM GEORGIA TECH’S PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES, CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS AND ONLINE DEGREES.

OF LEARNERS REPORT AN INCREASE IN KNOWLEDGE, ENHANCED JOB PERFORMANCE AND CAREER ADVANCEMENT.

SAVANNAH CA

MPUS

GEORGIA TECH’S SAVA NNAH CAMPUS PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE PROFESSIONAL EDUC IN DELIVERING ATION TO A GROWING COASTAL WORKFORCE .

MORE THAN 1 ,0 0 0 PR OF ES SI ON AL S PARTICIPATE IN PR DEVELOPMENT COURSE OF S ON THE SAVA

TECH’S CEISMC

NNAH CAMPUS

OUTREACH SE

ESSIONAL EVERY YEAR.

RVES MORE TH AN 1 ,0 0 0 K- 12 LY THROUGH SU MMER PROGRA SATURDAY STEM MS , LABS, THE K-12 INVENTURE PR IZE AND MORE .

AMONG THE FI RST OF ITS KIND IN THE NATION TR AI N IN G AN , TH E VE TE RA

ST U D EN TS ANNUAL

PROVIDES EDUC

N D TR AN SI TI ON (V ET ²) HOSTED AT THE S ED U CATI ON

ATION AND JO

SAVANNAH CA MPUS RY VETERANS TO UL LY HELP IN TO CIVILIAN CA GRADUATES RE REERS. 8 5 % CEIVE FULL-TIM OF VET² E JOB OFFERS FROM PARTNE R BUSINESSES .

1 1 8 STUDENTS HAVE GRADUATED FR OM SINCE IT WAS CODING BOOT CREATED IN 20 CAMP IN SAVA 17.

NNAH THEM TRANSITI

ON SUCCESSF

B OPPORTUNIT

IES FOR MILITA

TH E SU PP LY CH AI N & LO GI ST IC S IN ST IT U TE AT THE AN IM

POISED TO PLAY

SAVANNAH CA PORTANT ROLE MPUS IS IN TECH’S NEW MEMORANDUM GEORGIA PORT OF UNDERSTA S AUTHORITY. NDTHE CAMPUS AL PRESENCE OF SO HOSTS A SI THE EN TE RP ZABLE RI SE IN N OV AT IO N OFFICES FOR TH IN ST IT U TE (E I 2), E ADVANCED TE INCLUDING CHNOLOGY DE GEORGIA TECH VELOPMENT CE MANUFACTURIN NT ER (A TD C) , THE G EXTENSION GEORGIA TECH PARTNERSHIP PROCUREMEN (GAMEP) AND T ASSISTANT CE THE NTER (GTPAC).

ING WITH THE

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Leadership Circle is the cornerstone of Roll Call, Georgia Tech’s Fund for Excellence. It provides Georgia Tech with unrestricted opportunities for 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 73rd 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

VOLUME 95

ALUMNI HOUSE

ISSUE 2

PHOTOGRAPH

ALLISON CARTER

GRADUATING FROM GEORGIA TECH IS NO SNAP Graduates like Randy Liang, MS ME 19, with his Infinity Gauntlet replica, showed off their creativity during Spring Commencement on May 3.

BREAKING DOWN THE CAP AND GOWN

ALUMNI NEWS

RAMBLIN’ ROLL

76

79

84

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75

ALUMNI HOUSE

BREAKING DOWN THE CAP AND GOWN

HERE’S A CLOSER LOOK AT THE REGALIA WORN BY STUDENTS AND FACULTY DURING COMMENCEMENT THAT USHER IN TECH’S NEWEST ALUMNI.

BY VICTOR ROGERS THE LAST ITEMS MOST GEORGIA TECH S T U D E N T S W E A R before they officially become Ramblin’ Wreck alumni are truly special articles of fashion born of pomp and circumstance—their caps and gowns.

At Tech, the bachelor’s gown is a simple robe that covers the entire body, while the master’s gown has longer, closed sleeves. The doctoral robe usually is the most elaborate; it is made of

GRADUATE’S REGALIA

velvet, has three stripes on the arms and includes a hood.

Bachelor’s and master’s candidates don a square mortarboard on their heads. Doctoral students and faculty usually wear a tam.

Faculty members get to dress up for the prestigious ceremonies, too. They typically wear ornate regalia—from colorful gowns to ruffled collars to hats reminiscent of Harry Potter—that

harken back to the university where they earned their doctorate or highest degree.

The variation of caps and gowns (and hoods), viewed across a sea of wouldbe graduates, can be confusing and overwhelming to onlookers. So here’s a visual guide that we hope will help you make sense of everything you see the next time you attend a Georgia Tech commencement.

BACHELOR’S DEGREE: CASEY GOMEZ,CHBE 19 DETAILS: 1) Undergraduates wear black mortarboards with white and gold tassels, and 2) black robes that bear the Georgia Tech seal

1

on the lapels.

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

ROB FELT

76

PHOTOGRAPHS

2

MASTER’S DEGREE: NAHOM SOLOMON, CMPE 18, MS ECE 19

1

DETAILS: 1) Master’s graduates wear the same mortarboards and a similar robe to that of undergraduates, but the sleeves have an extension at the back of the wrist opening, as is customary for master’s gowns. 2) and 3) Master’s hood colors correspond to the academic degree programs.

2

3

2

1

3

2

DOCTORAL DEGREE: IRIS LU, PHD BI 19

PHOTOGRAPHS

ROB FELT

DETAILS: 1) Ph.D. graduate robes are Georgia Tech gold with navy blue accents and 2) the sleeve bars and lapels, which also bear the Institute’s seal, are velvet, as is the navy part of the hood.

The hood is gold, navy and white. 3) PhD graduates wear a sixsided tam, which is navy velvet with a gold tassel.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

77

ALUMNI HOUSE

FA C U LT Y R E G A L I A For faculty robes, the robe itself is usually unique to the uni-

degree, the faculty member has a choice of wearing the robe of

versity, while the hood trim indicates the academic discipline.

the school that conferred the honorary degree, or the one that

In addition, the faculty member wears the robe indicative of

conferred the highest earned degree.

his or her highest degree. If the highest degree is an honorary

MAGNUS EGERSTEDT Steve W. Chaddick Chair and Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering // PhD, Applied Mathematics // KTH Royal Institute of Technology // School Color: Blue

JULIA KUBANEK Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Sciences // PhD, Organic Chemistry // University of British Columbia // School Colors: Blue and gold

OLIVER BRAND Executive Director, Institute for Electronics & Nanotechnology; Professor, School of Electrical & Computer Engi// School colors: Blue and white

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

ROB FELT

78

PHOTOGRAPHS

neering // PhD, Physics // ETH Zurich

ALUMNI NEWS

SHEHEANE NAMED PRESIDENT OF ALUMNI ASSOCIATION G E O R G I A N A T I V E and Tech alumnus Dene Sheheane, Mgt 91, has been selected by the Alumni Association Board of Trustees to serve as the Association’s new president. Sheheane, who most recently served as the vice president of government relations for the Institute, will start his role on July 1.

“Working for something larger than yourself is the greatest thing a human can do,” says outgoing Alumni Association Board Chair Bird Blitch, IE 97. “Dene Sheheane is an inspirational individual and will help others rally behind what it means to be Georgia Tech alumni. He is a unique leader who will challenge us to reach new heights as he

has done throughout campus already.”

Sheheane has worked at Tech since 2007, representing his alma mater and its interests to government leaders at all levels. One of his key long-term accomplishments was to successfully advocate for and secure more than $200 million in state funding for Institute facilities projects. As a member of the president’s cabinet, he was the principal advisor on political and community matters and promoted Georgia Tech outreach across the state in economic and community development.

Prior to his Georgia Tech tenure, Sheheane managed external affairs and state relations at Georgia State

University for 13 years, including an assignment as acting director of the university’s alumni association. Sheheane began his career in the office of former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, to whom he credits his early understanding of the value of building strong networks to accomplish goals.

Bill Todd, IM 71, past chair of the Alumni Association, and current professor of the practice in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business, has served as interim president of the Association since February. The Alumni Association is an independent, self-governed organization closely aligned with the Institute’s leadership.

S A A ’ S G I F T T O T E C H S U P P O R T S N E W W O M E N ’ S H E A LT H P R O G R A M T H E S T U D E N T B O D Y at Georgia Tech

select the final winner. Gift to Tech is fa-

products, the three

selected the CDAC/WST Menstrual

cilitated by the Georgia Tech Student

realized the prob-

Product Program, a pilot program offer-

Foundation. Both SAA and GTSF are

lem was rooted in

ing free menstrual products on campus,

programs of the Alumni Assocation.

gender ineq uali-

as the 2019 Gift to Tech winner. The proj-

The Center for the Study of Wom-

ty and decided to

ect will receive approximately $30,000

en, Science and Technology (WST) is

make a difference in

for programmatic support.

partnering with students involved in the

this space. In turn, they led the develop-

Gift to Tech funds come from more

Cultural Diversity and Affairs Commit-

ment of the strategy, funding, execution

than 6,000 Student Alumni Association

tee (CDAC) of the Student Government

and logistics for the initiative to provide

(SAA) members, with $5 of each mem-

Association to establish the program.

sustainable, biodegradable, easily ac-

ber’s annual dues going to a project they

When students Niveda Shanmugam,

cessible and free menstrual products for

select and vote on. The Georgia Tech

William Harrer and Alex Casad heard

the campus community.

student body chooses the top three proj-

fellow Yellow Jackets saying they had

ect submissions, and the SAA members

trouble affording menstrual hygiene

The Gift to Tech funds will cover most of the program costs for one year.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

79

ALUMNI NEWS

NEW ALUMNI LEADERS TAKE CHARGE

MEET THE YELLOW JACKETS JOINING AND LEADING THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION’S BOARD OF TRUSTEES THIS YEAR.

BY MELISSA FRALICK T H E G E O R G I A T E C H A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N welcomes a new slate of volunteer leaders to join its Board of Trustees. Twelve new trustees will begin their terms on the oversight board, which meets quarterly to advance the mission of the Alumni

Association. Members of the board’s Executive Committee have also started new leadership roles for fiscal year 2020.

Read on to learn more about the Yellow Jackets who are working hard to keep Tech’s global alumni network in tip-top shape.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR OF ROLL CALL AND GOLD & WHITE

MEET THE CHAIRMAN B R E N T Z E L N A K , M G T 9 4 , is now chair of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Before stepping into the

JOCELYN STARGEL, I E 8 2 , M S I E 8 6 , joins

Atlanta. Stargel serves on the Engineer-

the Executive Com-

member of the ISyE Advisory Board.

ing Advisory Board and as an emerita

mittee permanent members and will

She received the College of Engineer-

become chair of the Alumni Association

ing’s Distinguished Alumna award in

in fiscal year 2021. She is a manag-

2016. As a student, she was a member

ing partner with Stargel Consulting in

of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

VICE CHAIR OF ENGAGEMENT SHAN PESARU, CMPE 0 5 , owner of Sharp

network. He now lives in Atlanta and is

mittee as vice chair of finance. Zelnak

Hue Web Design, joins

ed as the Outstanding Young Alumnus

is president of ZP enterprises, a lead-

the rotation of Executive Committee per-

in 2015. As a student, Pesaru worked as

ing supplier of precision machine

manent members and will serve as chair

webmaster and IT support for the Campus

parts and specialty coatings. He lives

in fiscal year 2022. Pesaru is a past pres-

Recreation Center, and was active in stu-

in Atlanta, has been active in Mentor

ident of the Northwest Arkansas alumni

dent government and the Technique.

Association’s top leadership role, Zelnak served on the executive com-

Jackets and recently served on the Scheller College of Business Adviso-

active in Mentor Jackets. He was select-

PAST CHAIR, FINANCE

ry Board. He was a co-op student at

BIRD BLITCH, IE 97,

2010 Outstanding Young Alumni and

Georgia Tech and served in various

is now the past chair

was part of Georgia Tech’s Council of

leadership positions with the Fresh-

of the Alumni Associ-

Outstanding Young Engineers in 2005.

man Experience. This year, Zelnak

ation. Blitch is the CEO of Patientco, a

While a student, Blitch was president of

will serve as the chair of his 25th class

payment technology company head-

the Student Foundation and a member

reunion committee.

quartered in Atlanta. He was named the

of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS- AT-L ARGE

NEW ASSOCIATION TRUSTEES JASON BYARS, ME 96, is vice president of Mas Energy, LLC in Atlanta. He is past

SHERI PRUCKA, EE 82, MS EE 84 will serve

president of the Chicago alumni network and has participated in the Co-op Affinity

as a member-at-large

Group. Jason was a President’s Scholar, a Student Ambassador and a member of

this fiscal year. She

the Sigma Chi fraternity as a student.

lives in Park City, Utah, and is the for-

ALINA CAPANYOLA, IE 10 , is a strategy manager at Deloitte Consulting in Atlanta.

mer president and founding partner of

She is a past ex-officio member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. As a student,

Prucka Engineering Inc. Prucka is on the

she was a President’s Scholar, a Student Ambassador and a member of ANAK and

Electrical Engineering Advisory Board

the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

and is a past member of the Georgia

Tech Foundation Board and the Biomed-

at Immeuble Crystal. He is a member of the GT Lorraine Advisory Board in France.

ical Engineering Advisory Board.

ANDRE DICKENS, CHE 98, is a councilman on the Atlanta City Council, where he is

AURELIEN COTTET, MS AE 03, is innovation project leader of the Transdev Group

also president pro tem and chair of the transportation committee. He is an alumnus M A G D R I A D , I E 0 1 ,

of Leadership Atlanta, Diversity Leadership Atlanta and United Way VIP. He is also

will serve the second

a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

year of his two-year

term. Riad is the presi-

President’s Scholar as a student, Jordan has been involved in the Black Alumni Or-

dent and COO of Marmi Natural Stone

ganization and Mentor Jackets and serves on the Chemical Engineering Advisory

and lives in Norcross, Ga. At Tech, he

Board.

was a co-op student and a student am-

MARY BETH LAKE, ID 04, is a Realtor with Harry Norman Realtors in Atlanta. She

bassador, and served on the Student

was on the FASET Council, a Student Ambassador and a member of the Alpha Chi

Government Association and the FASET

Omega sorority as a student.

J O Y J O R D A N , C H E 9 2 , is innovation leader at Kimberly-Clark in Atlanta. A

DEBRA PORTER, ME 86, is technical knowledge and skills manager at Coca-Cola in

Council.

Atlanta, where she serves as president of the GT Alumni Network. She has partic-

GARRETT LANGLEY, EE 09, will join the ex-

ipated in Mentor Jackets and served on her 25th Reunion Committee. She was in

ecutive committee for

JAMES STOVALL, CS 01, is with Randstad in Atlanta. He is a past president of the

a two-year term as an at-large mem-

Smyrna/Vinings and Athens, Ga., alumni networks and has been involved with

ber. Langley is CEO of Flock Safety in

the co-op and computing affinity groups. As a student, Stovall was part of the co-

Atlanta. He is a member of the Alex-

op program, a student ambassador and a member of ANAK and the Delta Chi

ander-Tharpe Board and is active in

fraternity.

Mentor Jackets. He was a member of

the Sigma Chi fraternity as a student.

She is active in the Houston Alumni Network, having served in several leadership

the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority as a student.

KATE TYLER, MS CE 09, is team leader at Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas.

roles. including president.

RITA BREEN, PSY 9 0 , M S I E 9 1 , begins a

JEF WALL ACE, MGT 94, is president and CEO of Horizon River Technologies in

two-year term as an at-

silon fraternity as a student.

large member. Breen

KRISTIN WATKINS, MGT 13, is vice president-financial risk management at SunTrust

Atlanta. He served on his 25th Reunion Committee and was in the Sigma Alpha Ep-

is the executive director of the Georgia

Banks Inc. in Atlanta. She is active in the Young Alumni Council and Mentor Jackets.

Power Foundation and lives in Marietta,

As a student, she was on the Student Foundation Board and in the Student Alum-

Ga. She was co-chair of the 2017 Gold

ni Association.

& White Honors Sponsorship Commit-

S A M W E S T B R O O K , I E 9 9 , is vice president at Holder Construction Company in

tee. Breen was a co-op student and was

Atlanta. He is on the Construction Advisory Board for the School of Civil and En-

part of the ODK Leadership Honor Soci-

vironmental Engineering and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity as a

ety, Alpha Chi Omega sorority and the

student.

Collegiate Panhellenic Council at Tech.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

81

ALUMNI NET WORKS

RAMBLIN’ WRECKS STAY ACTIVE STATEWIDE

BY MELISSA FRALICK

GEORGIA TECH is inextricably linked with the city of Atlanta, but across the state of Georgia, alumni networks are bringing Yellow Jackets together and planting a flag for Georgia Tech.

From the Appalachian foothills up north to the southern

border and coastal islands, Tech’s alumni networks around Georgia have established successful events that bring alumni together for camaraderie, education and fundraising to support the next generation of Yellow Jackets.

GOLDEN ISLES NETWORK: T H I R S T Y T H I R D T H U R S DA YS person, then you make a point to stop

find ourselves welcoming unexpected

and connect with them,” says John How-

alumni,” Howton says. “One meeting we

ton, GM 73, the organizer of the Golden

had six guys drive up from St. Mary’s,

Isles Network’s Thirsty Third Thursdays.

Ga., and brought some old yearbooks.

On the third Thursday of each month, the coastal alumni network has a happy

John Howton, GM 73, (left) and Claude Hollis, IE 56, at a Golden Isles Network happy hour.

The Thirsty Third Thursdays have also

gether around 25 alumni and friends of

become a fundraiser for the network’s

Tech. For the past four years, the group

local scholarship, awarded each year

has met from 5–7 p.m. at the same

to an incoming Georgia Tech freshman.

restaurant for drinks and appetizers.

“We share camaraderie and talk

ST. SIMONS ISL AND may be small, but

The group consists of alumni from

the Georgia Tech alumni community is

different eras—from the days of drown-

strong.

proofing and slide rules to startup

Tech license plate, if you don’t know that

GAINESVILLE: T E C H F R I DA Y L U N C H E S

down there, we’ll make a road trip.”

hour gathering that regularly brings to-

about Tech,” Howton says.

“Anybody that ever sees a Georgia

We told them that if they have a function

incubators and 3D printers.

“Almost every meeting we pleasantly

Attendees bring along Tech-related items to donate, like T-shirts, coasters and hats, which are up for sale during the event. All proceeds benefit the network’s scholarship.

“We’re getting close to $800 we’ve collected so far. It’s an easy ongoing fundraiser,” Howton says.

IE 01, came up with the idea as a way to

meant ‘regulars’ were showing up ‘reg-

build attendance and launched the lunch

ularly,’” says Kara Scroggs, CE 97,

series in 2016.

president of the Gainesville Network.

FOR GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI in Gaines-

On the third Friday of every month,

“It is a very easy way to encourage our

ville, a monthly lunch turned out to be just

alumni and friends of Tech gather for

members to attend: The restaurant takes

what they needed to reinvigorate their lo-

lunch and a presentation from a guest

individual orders and payments, so even

cal network.

speaker from the Institute.

eating lunch is a breeze. Our location

Former network president Damon Nix, 82

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

“Before we knew it, the regular events

is also centralized near our city center

Director of Undergraduate Admission Rick Clark speaks to Gainesville, Ga., alumni.

of Gainesville, providing ready access across our network.”

Over the past year, the network has welcomed a variety of speakers, including Gary Lanier, director of development

TA L L A H A S S E E / THOMASVILLE: SCHOLARSHIP BANQUET

for athletics and a former football quar-

ON THE BORDER OF GEORGIA and Flori-

terback, and Lynn Durham, associate vice

da, the Tallahassee/Thomasville Alumni

president and chief of staff at Tech.

“Although we are a small network, we have been fortunate to have generous alumni,” says Joe Ullo, CE 93, president of the network. “Our current endowment balance is well over $25,000, which enabled us to offer a $4,000 scholarship this year.”

Network celebrated scholarship and

Ullo says the network enjoyed the

For Scroggs, it has been exciting to

got the chance to hear about the upcom-

chance to hear from Choice, a former

watch the event grow along with atten-

ing Tech football season straight from

NFL running back and two-time ACC

dance at other network events as they

the source.

rushing champion at Georgia Tech.

build relationships with area alumni.

Tashard Choice, HTS 07, the Yellow

Choice spoke about the new energy

Nix says it has also been an important

Jackets’ new running backs coach, was

and excitement surrounding the foot-

way to publicize the network’s scholar-

the keynote speaker at the network’s

ball team.

ship goals. “The regular event gave our

May 2 scholarship banquet, which

“He is really optimistic about this sea-

network credibility and the requisite trust

was attended by nearly 60 alumni and

son and feels that there is a great deal of

needed to secure those gifts,” he says.

friends of Tech.

talent on the roster,” Ullo says.

RAMBLIN’ ROLL

CL ASS NOTES & ALUMNI UPDATES

NAVY TO NAME DESTROYER USS SAM NUNN The former U.S. senator and namesake of Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs was honored for his leadership on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

PHOTOGRAPH

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

COURTESY OF THE U.S. NAVY

84

RAMBLIN’ ROLL

CLASS NOTES

1 9 5 0S

MIC HAEL R. SMITH, ME 59, MS NE 61,retired from the LIGO Project in 2013 after 17 years as an optical engineering task leader on the design team. The LIGO Project won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. Smith wrote a memoir about this experience titled To Catch a Black Hole from the Bottom of the Pond. He was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who’s Who on June 14, 2018.

1 9 7 0S

BRUCE L AFITTE, ESM 73, MS ESM 75, retired after 23 years at Nordson Corporation. For a decade, he was the lead engineer for heated hoses, but he worked on designs of all portions of hot-melt adhesive equipment.

He began his career at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, worked briefly for Kimberly-Clark and spent a decade working at Scientific-Atlanta before joining Nordson.

BILL WONG, EE 78,was promoted to content director at Informa’s Design, Engineering and Sourcing Group. His reponsibilities include electronic design, microwaves and radio frequency, and power electronics.

1 9 9 0S

JASON L. DEFRANCESCO, MS C HEM 99, is now a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Hill Wallack LLP. ERIC L AUSTEN , HTS 98, is now part of the federal practice group at Husch Blackwell Strategies in Washington, D.C. Lausten recently stepped down from his post as chief of staff for Illinois Congressman Daniel Lipinski, a role he held for nearly eight years.

WITTSCHIEBE RECEIVES ROTHSCHILD AWARD FROM AIA GEORGIA JANICE WITTSCHIEBE, ARCH 78, MARCH 80, was honored with the Roth-

LEED-accredited professional, she

schild Award by the American Institute

understanding to her projects and

of Architects’ Georgia chapter.

the industry as a whole. Her talent for

brings a wide range of abilities and

The Rothschild Award is the highest

organizing design teams that come

honor that AIA Georgia can bestow

together to meet the client’s needs is

on an individual, alive or deceased.

unparalleled, and her ability to nego-

The award is given annually in hon-

tiate contracts and manage projects

or of Bernard B. Rothschild, FAIA,

throughout each phase helps ensure

who was a seminal figure in the ar-

they stay within budget and are deliv-

chitecture industry throughout the

ered on time.

duration of his career. The award is

Wittschiebe is also passionately

given in recognition of the most dis-

involved in the community. She de-

tinguished service to the profession

votes countless hours to a number of

of architecture in the state of Georgia

professional and nonprofit organi-

by an AIA Georgia member architect

zations, mostly concentrating on the

who exemplifies the principles of the

professional development of students,

profession.

interns and colleagues in the profes-

Wittschiebe is a principal at Stevens

sion. She is also very active as an

& Wilkinson, a full-service architec-

alumna of Georgia Tech. She has

ture, engineering and interior design

served in a wide range of oversight

firm. She has been a leader in the

positions, including as a member of

industry for more than 39 years as

the GT Foundation, as a past chair of

a designer, manager and principal

the Georgia Tech Alumni Association

for multi-faceted projects. As a regis-

Board of Trustees and as chair of the

tered architect, interior designer and

President’s Advisory Council.

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.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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RAMBLIN’ ROLL

CLASS NOTES

1 9 9 0S

T YWANDA LORD, IE 96, was appointed to the executive committee of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. Lord is a partner in the firm’s Atlanta office. The 12 members of the executive committee are responsible for considering issues of strategic direction and policy for the firm. Lord focuses her practice on trademark and advertising counseling and litigation. She represents brand owners across a broad spectrum of industries, including sports and intimate apparel, consumer products and hospitality.

2 0 0 0S

SHANE BAILEY, IE 02, is now flooring quality manager for Home Depot Private Brand Product Development.

ALENKA ZAJIC NAMED O U T S TA N D I N G E N G I N E E R AS S O C I AT E P R O F E S S O R A L E N K A Z A JIC, PHD ECE 08, has been selected for

tions. Also a highly regarded teacher,

the IEEE Atlanta Section Outstanding

Bass/Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding

Engineer Award.

Junior Teacher Award, an honor de-

Zajic was chosen for this honor f or her sust ained t ec hnical

she was chosen as the Richard M.

termined by a majority vote of the ECE senior class.

contributions to wireless chip-to-chip

She has served as an editor for

communications and electromagnet-

the IEEE Transactions on Wireless

ic compatibility. She joined Georgia

Communications and as an execu-

Tech’s School of Electrical and Com-

tive editor for Wiley’s Transactions

puter Engineering faculty in 2012

on Emerging Telecommunications

and leads the Electromagnetic Mea-

Technologies. From 2015 to 2017,

surements in Communications and

she served as chair of the Atlanta

Computing Group.

Chapter of the IEEE Antennas and

Zajic’s research is focused on

Propagation Society/Microwave

studying propagation in challenging

Theory and Techniques Society.

environments such as vehicle-to-vehicle

In 2016, under her leadership, the

wireless radio communications, under-

Atlanta Chapter of IEEE AP-S/MTT-S

water acoustic communications, and

received an Outstanding Chapter

inside-a-processor-chip communica-

Award.

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

KÄREN HALEY, MGT 01, has been named to the 2019–20 class of Fellows for the Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation. Fellows will participate in a year-long program designed to help educate, mentor and encourage them to drive change. The curriculum and events will center around core topics of the economy, education, health and culture.

Haley is the executive director of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail Inc. DANIEL HUYNH, IE 06, has joined Morris, Manning & Martin LLP as a partner in the firm’s intellectual property and technology litigation group.

2 0 1 0S

RAC HEL RIEDER, IE 17, launched Balance on Demand in January. The web app provides a daily caloric intake and macronutrient breakdown, a customized meal plan based on dietary restrictions and a complete grocery list. The system scales all recipes in the database to fit within calorie and macronutrient limits and goals.

MARGUERITE FRICK HONORED FOR CIVILIAN ARMY SERVICE MARGUERITE FRICK, IM 76 , received the Army Superior Civilian Service Award for 43 years of service to the United States Army upon her retirement in the Pentagon on April 12. The award, the third highest of the Department of the Army Honorary Awards, was presented by Lt. Gen. James F. Pasquarette, deputy chief of staff, G-8. Frick joined the federal government after graduating from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s

Shield, Operation Desert Storm and

to soldiers fighting overseas in less than

degree in industrial management. She

the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, when

72 hours. She now plans to spend time

distinguished herself as a Certified Se-

she helped lead the Army’s “immedi-

with her sisters in Atlanta and move to

nior Logistician during Operation Desert

ate buy” effort to get needed equipment

Savannah.

OUT AND ABOUT A total of 38 undergraduates from Georgia Tech’s Denning Technology & Management Program traveled to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China, from March 16-23. Jay Lengel, IE 02, senior vice president operations excellence at LF Logistics, gave the students a tour of the innovation hub “Explorium Hong Kong” (pictured here) and an LF Logistics warehouse. Students also dined with members of the Georgia Tech Hong Kong Alumni Network at NanHai No. 1 restaurant.

From left to right: Steve Harte, IM 84; Jeff Butler, IE 88; Steve Kendrick, IE 88; Allen Stanley, IM 85; John Warchol, ID 85; and Sandy Stephens, IM 87 share a spring break trip together in Seagrove Beach, Fla., in April.

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RAMBLIN’ ROLL

BIRTHS 1.

TRAVIS ROGERS, ME 07, and Bailey Rogers welcomed son Luke Thomas Rogers on Nov. 18, 2018. The family lives in Atlanta.

2. KRISTIN NIKOUKARY HITT, IA 09, and NATHANAEL

HITT, MGT 09, welcomed daughter Kylie Evelyn on Nov. 3rd. The family lives in the Washington, D.C., area.

3.

ELIZABETH LAVERY, BIO 05, and husband Ethan welcomed son Benjamin Munter Lavery on on March 22. He joins big brother Calvin. The family lives in Haymarket, Va.

1

3

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

4.

LAUREN ABERLE REVELS, ID 04, and RYAN REVELS, EE 05, welcomed Hugh Laurence Revels on Aug. 1, 2018. He joins big brother George. The family lives in Austin, Texas.

5.

PARKER HANCOCK, EE 10 and SHELLEY HANCOCK, BME 10, MBA 17, welcomed son William Parker Hancock on Feb. 20. The family lives in Houston, Texas.

2

4

5

1

2

3

WEDDINGS 1.

BRYAN HALLOCK, MGT 01, and René Smith on Sept. 8, 2018, in Historic Old Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta. Hallock is a tax attorney at Hallock Law LLC. The couple lives in Atlanta.

2. AMANDA DUNN, BA 13, and JON WILLIG, ME 12, on May 19, 2018, in Atlanta. Amanda is a senior business analyst at Sagepath and Jon is a mechanical engineer at Newcomb & Boyd. The couple lives in Atlanta.

3.

AUDREY BARNWELL, ME 16, and TYLER BARNWELL, ME 18, on Sept.

22, 2018. Audrey is a mechanical engineer at Eastman Kodak and Tyler is a process engineer at Oneda Cooperation. The couple lives in Columbus, Ga.

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89

IN MEMORIAM

WE REMEMBER & HONOR THE FOLLOWING

WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS The Tech community gathered on April 4 for the annual ceremony known as When the Whistle Blows, which honors students and employees of the Institute who died over the past year.

PHOTOGRAPH JOSH MEISTER

| GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE 9090SUMMER SUMMER 2019 2019

IN MEMORIAM

19 3 0S

ERNEST L. “ERNIE” JOINER, AE 39, of Santa Maria, Calif., on Feb.

15.

THOMAS A . ROLLOW, IM 48,

PAUL D. GRAVES, IM 59, of

of Lafayette, La., on Jan. 26.

Gainesville, Ga., on March 21.

ROBERT J. SANDERS, IM 42, of

LEL AND H. GREGORY JR., IM 55, of Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 22.

Franklin, N.C., on Feb. 23.

19 4 0S

ARTHUR C. “ART” ALLEN , CLS 43, of Spartanburg, S.C., on March 13.

J. L ARRY BATTS, EE 49, of

Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 26.

JOHN W. BIER, IM 43, of

JOHN E. SC HOTT, ME 43, of

Charlotte, N.C., on March 2.

Feb. 19.

WILLIAM L. SIMMONS JR., IM 49, MS IM 50, of Atlanta, on March

JAMES T. “J.T.” LEE JR., AE 59,

19.

of Golden, Colo., on Jan. 27.

JOSEPH W. WAIT, ME 48, of

ROBERT B. LIVINGSTON , C HE

Atlanta, on Jan. 18.

53, of Lakeland, Fla., on Jan. 12.

Jacksonville, Fla., on Feb. 27.

JAMES E. “GENE” BROADWELL, ME 42, of Palo Alto, Calif.,

on June 22, 2018.

HAROLD CASTAGNETTA , CLS 43, of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., on

Jan. 11, 2016.

19 5 0S

JESSE M. “JESS” BOULWARE, AE 51, MS AE 55, of Fort Worth,

Texas, on Feb. 17.

JAC K BRAUMILLER JR., EE 50,

of Catonsville, Md., on March 12.

HENRY E. “GENE” DAMON , CE 49, of Meridian, Miss., on Jan. 31.

HUGH W. BURKE, IM 56, of

DAVID K. HENLEY SR., CLS 50,

C HARLES R. CL ARKE, AE 57,

of Rockwood, Tenn., on Feb. 14.

Atlanta, on Feb. 5, 2018.

of Newnan, Ga., on Jan. 20.

C HARLES W. HENSON JR., IM 47, of Monroe, Ga., on March 24.

RIC HARD E. CL AY TON , TEXT 57, of Greensboro, N.C., on March 8.

HARLO A . HUNTER, AE 47, of

DAN B. DARDEN , EE 51, of

San Diego, Calif., on March 30, 2016.

DONALD H. JONES, ME 47, of

Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 7.

CLINTON B. “CLINT” NEWTON , IE 49, of Franklin, Tenn.,

on Jan. 24.

JAMES A . “JAC K” HALL JR., C HE 57, of Stockbridge, Ga., on

Bay Minette, Ala., on Jan. 9.

WILLIAM S. “BILL” DUGAN JR., ME 57, of Burlington, N.C., on

Jan. 31.

BLAKELY D. “BLAKE” ELLIS, ARCH 52, of Lake Park, Ga., on Feb. 28.

HERSC HELL Q. “H.Q.” MAXWELL, EE 51, of Amarillo, Texas,

on March 10.

EDWARD R. MC KENNA , IM 52,

of Palm Beach, Fla., on March 5.

ARTHUR R. “RUSS” MORSE JR., IE 56, of Gaithersburg, Md.,

on March 1.

DONALD R. “DON” MIDDOUR, ME 50, of Decatur, Ga., on Jan. 24.

WILLIAM R. “BILL” PATRIC K, CE 54, of Richmond, Va., on Jan. 21.

WAYMON E. RAGAN , ME 54,

of Marietta, Ga., on March 4.

HENRY C. SMITH III, IE 54,

of Atlanta, on March 26.

CARL J. STOKES JR., IM 58, of

Chula Vista, Calif., on Dec. 11, 2018.

DAN F. SPRINGER, ME 55, of

Acworth, Ga., on Feb. 23.

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 these full obituaries, please visit gtalumni.org/magazine.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

91

IN MEMORIAM NEAL B. SUMRALL, ME 57,

LENNIE S. BELL, IE 63, of

of Columbia, S.C., on March 26.

Columbia, S.C., on March 17.

L AWRENCE M. “L ARRY” WALKER, IM 58, of Atlanta,

KENNETH H. BREEDEN , EE 65, MS EE 67, of Dawsonville, Ga., on

DAVID NORMAN “NORM” HILL, CERE 68, MS CERE 70, PHD CERE 79, of Sylvania, Ga.,

on April 1.

on March 5.

Dec. 14, 2018.

JOHN M. LITTLE, CLS 66,

WILLIAM R. WHIT WORTH, IM 51, of Covington, Ga., on Feb. 1.

C. “ TOM” BROWN , PHYS 6 4, MS PHYS 66, PHD PHYS 72,

C HARLES MCLELL AN , ME 66,

of Dahlonega, Ga., on Feb. 15, 2018.

of Slidell, La., on March 7.

WILLIAM L. “BILL” WILLIS, ME 52, of Atlanta, on Feb. 3.

STUART M. BROWN , IE 63,

JAMES F. “JIM” MISSROON JR., IE 60, of Tybee Island, Ga., on

WILLIAM “GARDNER” WRIGHT JR., TEXT 51, of Rome,

Ga., on Jan. 26.

19 6 0S

WAYNE S. ANDREWS, CLS 66,

of Clearwater, Fla., on Jan. 21.

D. FRANCIS DASHER, SR., C HE 60, of Albany, Ga., on Nov. 18, 2018.

W. IRVING “IRV” DOT Y, MS ME 69, of Houston, Texas, on Nov.

15, 2018.

of Laguna Vista, Texas, on Jan. 23.

Jan. 31.

WILLIAM “RUSS” SLYE JR., EE 62, of Millersville, Md., on March 17.

WILLIAM A . STUDER, IM 62,

of Tampa, Fla, on Jan. 26.

of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on Jan. 30.

R E B E C C A M C N A L LY G I L D E N : E N G I N E E R A N D I N N O VA T O R REBECCA MCNALLY GILDEN, ME 94, OF SAN JOSE, CALIF., ON JAN. 30.

a U.S. Patent for cordless phone wind noise reduction. After graduation, Gild-

Gilden had a successful career in

en worked for more than 12 years at

engineering and business and served

Ford Motor Company as a product engi-

as an advocate for women battling

neer, production line supervisor, global

breast cancer. She was born in Fort Lau-

supplier strategy manager, and supply

derdale, Fla., and grew up in Stone

base launch manager. She was part of

Mountain, Ga. At Parkview High

Ford’s Manufacturing Leadership Pro-

School, she was the drum major, played

gram Class of 2000, and earned another

time, Gilden was a relentless advo-

the clarinet, and earned the John Philip

patent for high-capacity condensers.

cate to friends and women everywhere

Sousa award.

Gilden went on to work at Apple, Inc.

about the importance of mammograms

She earned a bachelor’s degree

as senior manager for enclosures quali-

and preventive scans. She accompa-

in mec hanical engineer ing from

ty and next as Apple’s color and texture

nied women with newly diagnosed

Georgia Tech in 1994, where, as a soph-

subject matter expert. With Apple,

cancer to doctor’s appointments and

omore, she was the school’s youngest

Gilden launched countless products, in-

helped arrange cancer resources for

female drum major. She earned a dual

cluding the original iPhone, MacBook

those in need. She was featured in the

MBA and master of engineering in man-

Air and the aluminum MacBook and

2017 annual report for Good Samari-

ufacturing from the Tauber Institute at

MacBook Pro.

tan Hospital’s Cancer Program. She was

the University of Michigan in 1999.

She was first diagnosed with breast

very public in sharing the details of her

During her undergraduate studies,

cancer in 2010, with subsequent diag-

cancer battle, helping women far be-

Gilden worked at Motorola and earned

noses in 2013 and 2016. During this

yond her circle of friends.

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P H I L I P L A W R E N C E B O LT E : C O M B A T V E T E R A N A N D M I L I TA RY H I S T O R I A N PHILIP L AWRENCE BOLTE, MS EE 60, OF HUNTSVILLE, ALA., ON MARCH 23.

became an independent consultant,

Bolte was a decorated combat vet-

bat vehicle research and development.

eran of the Korean and Vietnam wars

He has served as president of the Asso-

who maintained a lifelong interest in mil-

ciation of the U.S. Army and U.S. Armor

itary history.

Association chapters in the Washington,

working primarily in the area of com-

Bolte retired from the U.S. Army in

D.C., area. He also chaired the annual

1980 as a brigadier general after 30

American Defense Preparedness As-

years of service. He graduated from

sociation Combat Vehicles Conference

the U.S. Military Academy at West

for five years. He supported several

Point’s class of 1950, the last class to

charitable organizations through his

learn horse cavalry. He soon found

philanthropic efforts, including the Spe-

himself leading troops in Korea, where

cial Olympics, the Civil War Trust and

he earned his first Purple Heart. Bolte

their battlefield preservation efforts, and

arts degree in military history from Nor-

received many other military awards, in-

the Council on America’s Military Past,

wich University in 2013 at age 85. He

cluding the Army Distinguished Service

among many others.

was an active and dedicated leader of

Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit,

During the 1980s and early 1990s,

the U.S. Cavalry Association, serving

Combat Infantryman Badge and senior

he wrote extensively for U.S. and for-

as treasurer, president and finally chair-

parachutist badge. Additionally, he re-

eign defense publications, including

man of the board. During his tenure,

ceived the Vietnam National Order 5th

the column “Tank Automotive News,”

he not only supported the organiza-

Class and the Gallantry Cross with Palm.

for National Defense magazine for

tion with his time and money but also

Bolte went on to earn a master’s de-

ten years. In the 1990s, he shifted his

created the National Cavalry Competi-

gree in electrical engineering from

writing attention to military history

tion, now held each fall at historic Fort

Georgia Tech. After retiring from the

magazine articles, book reviews and

Reno, Okla., which features mounted

Army, Bolte spent two years working for

contributions to books. He was particu-

active-duty military and re-enactors com-

a small defense consultant firm and then

larly proud that he earned a master of

peting in riding and shooting events.

JOHN C. TIDWELL, IM 6 4,

of Macon, Ga., on March 3.

19 7 0S

RIC HARD A . BAGBY, MS CS 76,

of Harrisburg, Pa., on March 13.

F. NORMAN TULLER, C HE 66, PHD C HEM 71, of Columbia, S.C.,

KERRY A . BAKER, IE 71, of

on Feb. 12.

Asheville, N.C., on Jan. 20.

CARL H. WEAVER, EE 66, MS EE 67, of Marietta, Ga., on Feb. 4.

WILLIAM F. BIBB, PHYS 71,

WILLIAM “BILL” WOOLLEY, MS INFOSCI 70, of Apollo Beach,

C HARLES T. “ TERRY” DAVIS, CE 77, of Augusta, Ga., on March 7.

of Atlanta, on Feb. 1.

Fla., on Jan. 31.

EDMUND L. YEARGAN JR., ME 60, EE 61, of Rome, Ga., on Feb. 9.

MURPHREE Y. “MURPH” DONNAN JR., CLS 73, of Columbia,

S.C., on Jan. 31.

SAMUEL “SONNY” HAMLETT, IM 74, of Columbus, Ga., on

March 12.

L ARRY W. HERRINGTON , CLS 72, of Covington, Ga., on Feb. 27.

JOSEPH B. MURAD, MS AM 76, MS EE 78, of Atlanta, on

March 4.

RANDALL E. NEILSEN , EE 76,

of Conyers, Ga., on Dec. 25, 2018.

ELIZABETH G. “BETH” STOUT, PSY 75, of Gray, Ga., on. Jan 22.

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IN MEMORIAM

PRESTON T. THOMPSON JR., ME 72, of Powdersville, S.C., on

March 23.

19 8 0S

STEPHEN W. ATTAWAY, CE 82, MS CE 83, PHD CE 86, of

Albuquerque, N.M., on Feb. 28.

TED L. GIFFORD, MS OR 81, of

Green Bay, Wis., on March 8.

19 9 0S

TIM HENDRIX, AE 97, of Long

Beach, Calif., on March 28.

WESLEY W. “ WES” WILSON , IE 98, of Woodstock, Ga., on

March 11.

DANILO J. RODRIGUEZ, CS 04,

of Redondo Beach, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2018.

2 0 2 0S

BRANDON A . ADAMS, CLS 20,

of Atlanta, on March 23.

2000S

L ATOYA WEST ATKINS, STC 04,

of Atlanta, on April 4.

J A C K G R E G O RY “ G R E G ” F O S T E R : ENTREPRENEUR AND EXECUTIVE JACK GREGORY “GREG” FOSTER, ME 95, OF ATLANTA, ON JAN. 30.

Southern Direct and Bright-

Foster was an accomplished business-

early success that led to

man and distinguished Tech alumnus who died at age 45 following a brave journey with brain cancer.

Whistle, all of which saw acquisition.

In 2017, Foster retired as CEO of Experience, a

Foster was born and raised in Atlanta,

Cox Enterprises company,

where he was valedictorian at Riverdale

and was inducted into the

High School. He went on to be a Presi-

Georgia Tech Academy

dent’s Scholar at Georgia Tech, where

of Distinguished Engineer-

he was voted Mr. Georgia Tech and

ing Alumni the following

served as student body president. As

year. His most rewarding

president, he championed the creation

role was as father to his

of an Academic Honor Code, which re-

two sons, Jack and Hen-

mains in place to this day. While at Tech,

r y, with whom he loved

he was also a member of Phi Gamma

to travel, play chess and

Delta Fraternity, ANAK and FACET. He

watch movies. A gifted sing-

then earned an MBA from Harvard Busi-

er, Foster enjoyed classical

ness School and returned to Atlanta,

music, fly-fishing, and root-

where he enjoyed a fulfilling career as a

ing for his beloved Yellow

technology entrepreneur, venture capi-

Jackets. He actively partic-

talist, investor and board member. He

ipated in his sons’ activities

worked with Fortune 500 companies,

and was always willing to lend his time

Throughout his life, Foster was an ac-

such as Deloitte, Turner Broadcasting

and talents to advising entrepreneurs

tive member of the Methodist Church,

and Cox Enterprises, and built multiple

and raising money and awareness for

singing in the choir and leading lively

startup companies, including Silverpop,

various philanthropic organizations.

Sunday School classes.

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SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

K A T H L E E N DA Y: HOMEBUILDER AND TRAVELER

KATHLEEN “KATHIE” DAY, IM 78, OF ATLANTA, ON APRIL 23.

Day had a spirit of adventure, inde-

giving in to the epilepsy that she battled

at Georgia Tech, and also served as

throughout her life.

secretary of the Fellowship of Christian

Always wanting to do things for her-

Athletes and founder of the Alpha Delta

self, Day went from learning to maintain

Pi sorority, one of the first sororities on the

her own vehicle to designing and build-

Tech campus. She was also a runner up in

ing houses. She founded and managed

the Miss Georgia pageant.

her own successful home building com-

She was active in the Atlanta com-

pany, Kathleen Day and Associates, for

munity for many years, in Leadership

34 years.

Atlanta and Leadership Georgia, as a

Her family was amazed when she

volunteer at the Grady Hospital neona-

hiked solo over 800 miles along the

tal intensive care unit, and as a member

Appalachian Trail, earning the trail nick-

of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and

name “Why Jay Brave.” Last year, she

the Junior League of Atlanta. She also

traveled on her own for six weeks in

served for many years on the Geor-

New Zealand and Australia, but was

gia Tech Foundation board and on the

never really alone as she made friends

boards of the Atlanta Ballet and Zoo At-

everywhere she roamed. She loved to

lanta. She and her family established

ride horses and shared that passion and

their home in the Inman Park neighbor-

dedication with her daughter, Hannah,

hood, where she resided for 36 years.

tending to the horses and making a close circle of friends at Little Creek Farm.

She obtained a master’s of divinity from the Candler School at Emory, her

pendence and a natural leadership.

Raised in Dunwoody, Ga., she attend-

ministry being to bring the Eucharist to

From sky diving at Georgia Tech to

ed Peachtree High School, where she

shut-ins. Her faith was expressed by her

bungee jumping to celebrate her 60th

was a cheerleader and made excellent

love of the outdoors and by her gener-

birthday, she lived a full life, never

grades. She went on to be a cheerleader

ous spirit of helping others.

CELIA W. COKER, of Atlanta,

HOWARD J. MORRISON JR.,

FRIENDS

on Jan. 16.

of Savannah, Ga., on Jan. 24.

MARK C. CROSS, of Athens, Ga.,

MARY M. RODRIGUE, of Sandy

JESSE ALLEN , of Scottsdale, Ariz.,

on March 5.

on March 11.

Springs, Ga., on March 20.

VIRGINIA “GINGER” ARGROVES, of Hillsborough, N.C.,

FRANK A . GLEASON , of Atlanta,

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TECH HISTORY

GEORGIA TECH’S RACING ROOTS

A CENTURY OF FASCINATION WITH THE ENGINEERING, INNOVATION AND RACING OF FAST CARS.

T 98

BY DOUG GOODWIN WITH STACY BRAUKMAN

T H E F I R S T M O D E L T rolled off the Ford Motor Company assembly lines in 1908, scarcely 20 years removed from the first class enrolling at the Georgia School of Technology. As dirt gave way to asphalt, and car culture captured the country’s imagination, young engineers and mechanics in Atlanta’s North

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Avenue shops and foundries were instantly drawn to automobiles and the pursuit of speed. Racing culture blossomed around Atlanta, and Georgia Tech was at the epicenter of the movement that influenced the development of stock car racing and the early days of NASCAR, the most popular motorsports series in the U.S. During the Prohibition era of the 1920s, Tech students were among the throngs flocking to Lakewood

Speedway, seven miles south of campus, to watch some of the earliest organized auto racing in Georgia.

Several of the featured racers were infamous for their off-track driving skills as “trippers” who transported illegal moonshine from the hills of northeast Georgia. Their law-flouting experiences driving souped-up stock Fords on the dirt roads of rural Georgia translated into raw speed on the mile-long oval racetrack.

Tech students challenged their rivals at the University of Georgia to a 79-mile road race from Atlanta to Athens in 1929.

These rough-and-tumble races were a wash of red dirt clouds, deafening engines and gasoline fumes—the perfect concoction to attract the best drivers, mechanics, car owners and auto enthusiasts from across the Southeast—and an inspiration for Georgia Tech students to get behind the steering wheels of their own racing machines.

their University of Georgia rivals to race jalopies along the rough, 79mile country road from Atlanta to Athens.

“Come on, boys, don’t be bashful. It doesn’t cost anything to enter this road race,” the writers urged.

Only four vehicles managed to cross the finish line—the rest ended up in heaps along the roadside that is now U.S. Highway 78. The fastest time recorded was 1 hour, 26 minutes, at an average speed of 55 mph. The following spring, 16 student-piloted cars, including an entry by the Yellow Jackets football team, competed in the second Old Ford Race. With increased local attention and a tighter set of rules (set by Technique staff), all but one vehicle finished.

In 1930, days after the second Old Ford Race, the Atlanta Constitution reported on the Intercollegiate Motor Marathon, a school-sanctioned, invitation-only event for college racers. Student drivers from Georgia Tech, UGA, Mercer, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Oglethorpe, and Auburn were slated to race from Athens to the Lakewood Speedway south

of Atlanta. While teams from Mercer and UGA were able to make their speed runs the afternoon of May 17, heavy rains kept most student racers off the roads and indoors for the remainder of the weekend. For reasons not clearly documented, the rescheduled race to determine the fastest college driver in the Southeast never took place.

These increasingly fast and furious competitions proved too dangerous for Dean Field and other administrators, who put a stop to the Old Ford Races after the second and final running in 1930. To mollify students and maintain the spirit of building creative contraptions, the dean and the Yellow Jacket Club transformed the races into the Ramblin’ Wreck Parade, a tradition still held each year on the Saturday morning of Homecoming Weekend.

During this time, a teenage entrepreneur named Raymond Parks moved from his family home in Dawsonville, Ga., to Atlanta to help operate his uncle’s service station at 717 Hemphill Ave. As a purveyor of illicit liquor, meeting the high demand for moonshine had made Parks a millionaire.

Among the men running whiskey for

Georgia Tech students painted their cars for the Old Ford Races to Athens in 1929 and 1930.

THE OLD FORD RACES: CLEAN, OLD-FASHIONED HATE TAKES TO THE ROAD “Every man for himself,” proclaimed the May 3, 1929, front page of the Technique, announcing its sponsorship of the first Old Ford Race. Inspired by an affinity for the beat-up 1914 Model T driven by Dean of Men Floyd Field and news coverage of a 1927 cross-country event at Oklahoma State University, Tech students challenged GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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TECH HISTORY

Parks were his cousins Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall, two of the most daring drivers in Georgia. Parks ultimately bought the Northside Auto Service and Hemphill Service Station, opened a number of other legitimate businesses, and continued his lucrative bootleg whiskey operation. Soon, however, Parks’ cousins hooked him on a new venture: stock race cars.

Often to the dismay of administrators, the reference to distilled spirits in Georgia Tech’s world-famous fight song has been a part of campus lore longer than the Ford Model T. And for many of the “jolly good fellows” at Tech, their prime local source for clear whiskey was Raymond Parks. His service station and package store were magnets for budding engineers at Georgia Tech. He treated them like family, cashing checks and extending store credit for his peers in a pinch. Students drove test runs down Hemphill and North Avenue to 565 Spring Street, the nearby home base of another eventual racing legend, master mechanic Red Vogt.

Vogt secured his reputation building and customizing cars for moonshine delivery. In his namesake garage just southeast of campus, Tech students often watched and learned as Vogt built

“ LIKE ALL THE JOLLY GOOD FELLOWS, I DRINK MY WHISKEY CLEAR, I’M A RAMBLIN’, GAMBLIN’, HELLUVA ENGINEER,” THE SONG LYRICS SAY. some of the fastest early stock cars. His son, Tom “Little Red” Vogt, recalled working in the famed speed shop. “It was filled with Georgia Tech engineering students,” he said. “In and out, day and night. They wanted to hang out because of the colorful place, the bootleggers, and my dad’s reputation for building fast cars. They all wanted him

A scene from the 1932 Ramblin’ Wreck Parade.

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to build the engines for their cars and always wanted to talk to him.” The respect for Tech students was mutual, as Vogt placed paid advertisements in the Blueprint yearbook each year from 1940 to 1946.

In 1938, as Georgia Tech celebrated its 50th anniversary, driver Lloyd Seay won the first official stock car race at Lakewood Speedway in a Parks-owned car built by Red Vogt. Together, Parks, Vogt, Seay and Hall soon became the first dominant team in the sport. One of Seay’s competitors in that 1938 race was Bill France Sr., a Florida-based entrepreneur, promoter and racer who first met Parks in Vogt’s Atlanta garage.

Nine years later, France would invite the pair to help create a national sanctioning organization — the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR. In December 1947, France organized a series of meetings with 35 key players in the stock car racing business—including Parks and Vogt—at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach.

Parks provided much of the initial funding, Vogt devised the rules and suggested a catchy, acronym-based name that he and his wife Ruth had come up with years earlier as part of his Georgia racing charter: NASCAR. The meetings resulted in the formation of the nation’s premier stock car racing series. During the first official season in 1948, Parks’ driver and fellow World War II veteran Red Byron cemented the team’s legacy, winning the first race on the sands of Daytona and capturing the first series championship.

After winning that inaugural title, Byron opened his own namesake speed shop at 719 Hemphill Avenue, adjacent to Parks’ Hemphill Service Station.

Top left: Stockcar driver Lloyd Seay with his race car outside the Hemphill Service Station in 1938.

Top Right: Raymond Parks outside his store on Northside Drive. Source: Parks Family Collection Bottom: Red Vogt at his shop just outside Tech’s campus on Spring Street at Linden Way .

Parks began to back away from the sport in 1950, at the peak of his team’s success. By that point, his driver Red Byron had found Victory Lane at every major track in the South, and his Red Vogt–built cars had won multiple times at each. Among his last recorded events as a car owner were entries for Byron at the new Peach Bowl short track off Brady Avenue and Marietta Street, just west of the Georgia Tech campus.

R ay mond Park s fo c u s e d h i s post-racing years on running his Parks Novelty Machine company and other Atlanta businesses, several of which

remain in family operation to this day.

In the early 1960s, he sold some of his properties to Georgia Tech, providing prime real estate for the Institute’s northward expansion. The former site of the Hemphill Service Station is now the heart of the Georgia Tech campus, near the Kessler Campanile and the Student Center.

Parks was named to the inaugural class of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2002, along with his trusted mechanic Red Vogt and drivers Byron, Hall and Seay. Less than a year before his death in 2010, Parks was inducted

into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala. Most recently, NASCAR posthumously inducted Parks into its own Hall of Fame in 2017, and Byron the following year.

The bays of Vogt’s former garage now serve as the entrance to a law firm that occupies the renovated building at Spring Street and Linden Way. Today, Georgia Tech remains true to its racing roots, as home to six competitive motorsports programs that offer students opportunities to apply their knowledge to the pursuit of speed.

During a 2017 visit to campus, Raymond’s wife, Violet Parks, toured the Student Competition Center, home to extensive machining resources and eight teams, including GT Motorsports, GT Solar Racing and Wreck Racing.

The center is located on 14th Street, just down Northside Drive from the family’s still-active package store near Atlantic Station. “The facility was amazing to me,” she remarked. “It seemed like they had everything in the world to work with.”

Her support is more than casual or nostalgic. In 2013, she made an estate gift that will one day establish the Raymond D. Parks Scholarship Endowment, providing scholarship support for mechanical engineering undergraduates who participate in the GT Motorsports program.

“We wanted a permanent legacy for Raymond in Atlanta, which he loved so much, and Georgia Tech was the place to do it,” Parks noted. “He cared about GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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TECH HISTORY

Raymond Parks was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017.

helping people, and it’s fitting that we are doing something that will help undergraduates in the future. I think it would make him happy.”

THE AERONAUTICS PROFESSOR AND THE SPEED RECORD “The whole secret is in the wings,” engineer B ob Osiecki told Spor ts Illustrated. On Aug. 28, 1961, Osiecki’s winged race car, “Mad Dog IV,” set a world speed record at Daytona International Speedway. A 25-year-old daredevil racer named Art Malone piloted the custom-built Kurtis Kraft roadster with a Chrysler V8 engine to a blistering 181.561 mph—a feat made possible by input from a Georgia Tech aeronautics professor.

The Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine called the achievement “something like scaling Mount Everest for the first time,” noting that “many of the world’s mightiest racing cars had tried and failed. Some of these powerful machines spun out and crashed on Daytona’s straightaways and steeply graded turns, carrying drivers to death.”

(Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 7, May 1962, p. 8) Born in New York and raised in southwest Atlanta, Robert S. Osiecki briefly studied mechanical engineering 102

owner representative to the first Board of Governors.

By the mid-1950s, Osiecki was a name familiar to hardcore gearheads. Popular Science magazine prominently featured his techniques on dynamic engine balancing in February 1952, and he successfully marketed self-branded engine equipment to speed shops. Having founded the International Timing Association, he also promoted and sanctioned major international drag races along the east coast. Chrysler Corporation hired Osiecki to manage its NASCAR program in 1957 and the owner-mechanic fielded numerous race entries over the following six seasons, piloted by notable drivers including Jim Delaney, Marvin Panch and Ralph Earnhardt (father of Dale Earnhardt Sr.).

At the time of the record-breaking run, the track in Daytona had only been open for two years, and it boasted the highest banking (and therefore elicited the highest speeds) of any speedway.

Before the track opened in 1959, France (who was also the man behind the Daytona Speedway) took Osiecki on a 125-mph ride around the 31-degree banked turns in his personal car. “After

at Tech before leaving in 1940 to serve in the Army Air Force during World War II, as did his older brother Thomas A. Osiecki, ME 39, who was killed in 1944 while stationed with the Navy in the Pacific. The elder Osiecki is memorialized at the entrance to the William C. Wardlaw Center on North Avenue.

After the war, Bob’s return to civilian life in Atlanta did not mean a return to college life, however, and he instead focused his efforts on designing and building race cars and custom equipment from his namesake garage, located southwest of the Tech campus on Sells Avenue. In the late 1940s, he became an influential figure in the early years of stock car racing, crafting and sponsoring Engineer Bob Osiecki’s winged racecar set a world record. winning race cars at Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway, Daytona’s beach and road courses, and at dirt tracks throughout the Carolinas.

Osiecki was among the 35 men who helped promoter Bill France Sr. formally organize NASCAR in 1947 and 1948, alongside his racing rivals Red Vogt and Raymond Parks. France named Osiecki a charter member of NASCAR and car

SUMMER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Top: Aeronautics Professor John Harper deveoped the wings and tailfin that helped stabilize the Mad Dog IV racecar on the high-banked track at Daytona International Speedway.

Bottom: Professor John Harper, MS AE 42

about two laps around, I was ready to call it quits,” Osiecki told the Greensboro Daily News. “Bill wanted to make sure I saw all the safety points of the track.

Why, he demonstrated things you could do on this track that you would never do on another one.”

A fatal crash just prior to the inaugural Daytona 500 led many to fear that its extreme features made it inherently unsafe. In 1960, in an effort to silence the critics and prove the speedway’s soundness, France offered a $10,000 cash prize to the first person who could surpass the 180-mph mark. The world speed record was 177.38 mph, set three

THE GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE CALLED THE SETTING OF THE SPEED RECORD “SOMETHING LIKE SCALING MOUNT EVEREST FOR THE FIRST TIME.”

years earlier in Monza, Italy.

When Osiecki decided to take on France’s challenge, he knew he needed to make adjustments to his car to counter the centrifugal force from the track’s high-banked curves, which tore away tire rubber at high speeds and made steering almost impossible.

After failed attempts at Daytona with three different cars and multiple drivers, Osiecki consulted with Georgia Tech Professor John J. Harper, MS AE 42, in the Institute’s school of aeronautics (forerunner to today’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering), whose teaching and research focused on aircraft aerodynamics, performance and design. Now he would be applying his expertise to a race car.

Osiecki shipped the Mad Dog IV from Charlotte, N.C., to the Guggenheim Building, where Harper also oversaw the daily operations of the

9-foot-diameter wind tunnel located on the ground floor. The professor and his students designed and tested a pair of inverted airfoils—wings, in effect —each one measuring 3 square feet.

Harper also created a vertical stationary tail fin, similar to an airplane rudder, for increased stability.

On that balmy August afternoon in Daytona, as this magazine reported, the Mad Dog IV’s “wings and tail held the car steady though the tortuous turns and down the breathless straightaways,” GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

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TECH HISTORY

JOLLY GOOD FELLOWS HERE’S A LOOK AT OTHER NOTABLE GEORGIA TECHCONNECTED GEARHEADS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS PERIOD OF RACING’S PROFOUND TRANSFORMATION FROM REGIONAL SPORT TO GLOBAL PHENOMENON:

setting a new standard for speed. It was “obvious that the soft-spoken Harper is pleased at having helped wed science and racing to give the fans more thrills.”

Harper retired from Georgia Tech in 1986, after a 44-year career. A private pilot who built his own airplane and had a lifelong love of model planes, ships and radio-controlled vehicles, he died in 1998 at the age of 78.

His family requested that gifts be made in his memory to support a scholarship fund at Tech. Today, the wind tunnel in the Guggenheim School bears his name.

The Daytona speed record proved to be Osiecki’s signature accomplishment. He leveraged his celebrity status to promote auto shows throughout the Southeast and opened his own Dodge dealership in Florence, S.C., in 1964. The dealership also housed the Osiecki Automotive Mechanic School, which he created to share his skills and knowledge with a full class of 60 aspiring mechanics. As a contribution to his community, he offered the training at no cost to his students.

Osiecki died suddenly of a heart attack at age 43, just three years after his marvelous machine broke the world record at Daytona.

Their record-setting Mad Dog IV race car remains in public view at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Fla. This story was adapted from a pair of digital features published by Institute Communications. For video content, historic photos, more motorsports profiles, and complete acknowledgements and sources, visit news.gatech. edu/features/georgia-techs-racing-roots 104

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1950 T H E H E S T E R F A M I L Y A N D THE CHEROKEE GARAGE As children, Gene Hester, IM 66, MS IM 72, and John Hester, Arch 70, marveled at the skill of their father Billie Hester, ace mechanic and owner of the Cherokee Garage at West Peachtree Place and Techwood Drive. The senior Hester built stock cars for several notable racers and was elected to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.

1960

RICHARD JACKSON

Former NASCAR team owner Richard Jackson, ME 60, built his first race car at age 18 with his brother Leo. The Jacksons formed their own NASCAR team in the mid-1970s, fielding cars in the top two national series for wheelmen such as Phil Parsons and Terry Labonte. Driver Rick Mast piloted one of Jackson’s cars at the inaugural stock car race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994.

1969

TOM DELOACH

Chemical engineer Tom DeLoach Jr., ChE 69, retired as CFO and worldwide coordinator of the motorsports program for Mobil Oil Corporation in 2000. He later formed Pit Instruction and Training to train racing pit crews, and in 2005, he bought a team in the NASCAR Truck Series that he renamed Red Horse Racing.

1978

KYLE PETTY

A member of one of racing’s most famous families, Kyle Petty followed his father Richard Petty into his own NASCAR career at age 18. But in the mid-1970s, his racing future hung briefly in the balance, when Georgia Tech head coach Pepper Rodgers offered the three-sport athlete a football scholarship.

1988

STERLING SKINNER JR.

During his first year at Tech, Sterling Skinner Jr., ME 91, MS ME 95, was a founding member of the GT Motorsports Formula SAE team. Skinner manages instructional labs in the School of Mechanical Engineering and founded the Georgia Tech Auto Show, an annual celebration and showcase of auto engineering and design.

2004 B E N

A. SHACKLEFORD

Ben A. Shackleford, PhD HSTS 04, wrote his dissertation on the history and culture of stock car racing. His research included access to minutes from NASCAR’s 1947 organizational meeting, which have never been released to the public. Shackleford also edited the memoirs of NASCAR legend Smokey Yunick.

PHOTOGRAPH

THE BLUEPRINT 1979

PICTURE OF THE PAST

This psychedelic scene shows a slice of life in 1979 as students pass in and out of the Wenn Student Center. Construction kicked off in May for the Campus Center Project, which includes a renovation of the Student Center and the addition of four new buildings to expand services for Tech’s growing campus.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

105

BACK PAGE

A TRULY PRESIDENTIAL LEGACY

A

A D E C A D E A G O , in 2009, G. P. “Bud” Peterson took the helm as Georgia Tech’s 11th president, joined by Tech’s new first lady, Val Peterson. It marked the beginning of a decade of extraordinary service, leadership and building on Tech’s trajectory of excellence.

Bud began his presidency by engaging the entire Tech community to work together in developing a bold 25-year strategic plan, dubbed Designing the Future. It would serve as an important framework for many of the advances and accomplishments under his leadership, and was aligned with the launch of the public phase of Campaign Georgia Tech.

The Petersons believe that Tech offers students the experience of a lifetime, and

a lifetime of opportunity. They are committed to encouraging, mentoring and inspiring the next generation of leaders. Together, they have been visible, accessible and enthusiastic supporters of Georgia Tech. And they’ve made a sizable impact.

In the past 10 years, overall enrollment at Tech has increased by 69 percent. The ratio of women in the firstyear class has increased from 32 to 40 percent, a historic high. The Atlanta campus has grown to meet changing needs—adding 21 new facilities and 25 renovated facilities since 2009 and creating nearly 3 million square feet of cutting-edge spaces where Tech students, faculty and researchers can push the boundaries of their disciplines.

Research expenditures and other sponsored activities have increased by 78 percent, and Tech stands on the leading

HISTORIC NEW SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT HONORS THE PETERSONS To honor the decade-long legacy of Georgia Tech’s 11th president, the G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Scholarship Endowment Fund was announced at the June meeting of the Georgia Tech Foundation. The Fund was established to help students with demonstrated financial need from across the nation. The Foundation is directing a grant of $5 million to support the initiative. Combined with initial gifts and commitments of over $12 million provided by more than 100 Foundation trustees, along with members of Georgia Tech Advisory Board and the Alumni Association executive committee, it will be the largest single scholarship endowment in Georgia Tech’s history. Anyone wishing to participate should direct their gifts to the Georgia Tech Foundation-Peterson Scholarship Initiative by mailing to: Georgia Tech Foundation, Suite 400, 760 Spring St., Atlanta, GA 30308.

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edge of robotics, cybersecurity, manufacturing, energy and biomedical engineering, to name just a few.

President Peterson has partnered with economic development agencies to attract businesses to Georgia and promote economic growth, and both he and Val have served as ambassadors across the state. During Bud’s tenure, Tech has also expanded across the globe in unparalleled fashion. From Europe to Asia to Latin America, the Institute has established new programs, research centers and campuses and created new opportunities for students to broaden their horizons and sharpen their skills to compete in a global economy.

The story of the Peterson decade will be remembered as one in which the Institute became a globally recognized leader while remaining firmly grounded in its Georgia roots and at the heart of Atlanta.

President and First Lady, for embracing the Georgia Tech campus and community, for your bold leadership during challenging times, for embodying the values and traditions of the Institute, and for never asking more of others than you ask of yourselves—we thank you.

3 rd 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 73rd Roll Call, Georgia Tech's Fund for Excellence gtalumni.org/giving

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