SPRING 1992 VJALUMNI MAGAZINE

Also Inside Physics of Six Flags Olympic Planning ThcPowcrofUglit

% Wi I ffi KS TO THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

pegvooalSa^

* c d e pro' duds \r\c

THE TRADE'S NEWEST TOOL.

A cellular phone can make you more productive,

more efficient, even make you more money.

It can keep you in touch wi th bo th your office

and your customers, allowing you to make one sales

call on the way to another.

So, you see, it truly has become the business

tool for the '90s.

And since you are indeed only as good as the

tools you use, it's no surprise that more business

©1991 BellSouth Mobility

I TICK I OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

people are choosing to go wi th BellSouth Mobility.

After all, we offer industry-leading technology,

extensive coverage areas, 24-hour customer service,

a wide range of pricing plans and a no-nonsense

satisfaction guarantee.

So, give u s a call today at 1-800-351-3355, or see

your local BellSouth Mobility representative.

And see for yourself why a cellular phone from

BellSouth Mobility is the right tool for your job.

BellSouth Mobility A BELLSOUTH COMPANY

T H E R E ' S N O B E T T E R W A Y T O S T A Y I N T O U C H !

CLASSIC

I

n a • • ' » '

*

k Real filing.

c 1990 The Coca-Cola Company. "Coca-Cola" and Ihe Dynamic Ribbon device aCompanys^^

,3"*'/

, 'HI | I V I n AIT 1 ines

WithTech Degrees And DeltaTickets, 'hey Can Go Just About AnywhereThey Want.

Delta and The Delta Connection now offer ewer 4,800 daily flights to more than 300 cities worldwide. We thought you should know this because,

with a diploma from Tech, you're undewtbtedly going places.

EUA We hut.' Id l-ly/ bid // Shows.

Delta t onnection flights operate with Delta flighi numbers 2000- 5999

a : ICIAI SPONSOR

GeormTech A L U M N I O M A G A Z I N E

Volume 67, Number 4 • SPRING1992

STAFF John C. Dunn, editor Gary Goettling, associate

editor Gary Meek, Margaret Barrett

photography Everett Elullum, design Dudley Williairison,

advertising

PtJBUCATIONS COMIVIITIJEE

Chairniaii Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr.,

NS'46 Chairman, Sawyer-Riley-Compton Inc., Atlanta

Members William -Guy" Arledge, IM 71

Manager Advertising, BellSouth Corp., Atlanta

McKinlev "Mac" Conway Jr., GE'40 President. Conway Data Inc., Xorcross, Ga.

Hubert L. Harris Jr., LM '65 President. Investco Services Inc., Atlanta

McAllister "Mac" Isaacs III, TEX '60 Executive Editor, Textile World. Atlanta

Perry Pascarella Vice President-Editorial Pentou Publishing, Cleveland. Ohio

George A. Stewart Jr., AE '69 President. Stewart Consult­ing Group. Dunwoody, Ga.

James M. Langley Vice President External Affaiis. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

JohnB. Carter Jr., IE '69 Vice President and Executive Director, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta

Dudley C. Williamson, IMGT 74 Associate Vice President/ Associate Executive Director. Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta

COVER: In the comfort of retirement in Savannah, Ga., Rufus Youngblood recalls his Secret Service career, and the last trip of the Kennedy presidency. PHOTO MARGARET BARRFTT

Features IS

Eyewitness to the Death of a President 14 Former Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood, IE '50, looks back on his exciting and historic 20-year career. Written by Gary Goettling

Mind Over Matter Planners for the '96 Olympics in Atlanta are relying on old-fashioned brain-power as well as computers. Written by Lisa Crowe

24

30 The Physics of Six Flags Physics lessons that leave students screaming for more. Photo essay by Gary Meek Written by Gary Goettling

The l ight Stuff 40 Tech researchers illuminate a new path to data processing. Written byfohn Toon

departments Letters 5

T e c h n o t e s 7 Tech cracks top 10; Housing changes; Upbeat forecaster; Habitat home; Tech joins center; Football anniversary; Starts with B; Fash retires; MBA or MoT?; Seating changes; Info, please; Alumni on council.

Innovator 49 Clifton Dukes, TEX '42: time and measurement.

Pacesetter 52 Bob Balentine, IM '55: steady course.

Research 55 Construction simulator; Computer graphics; Environmental simula­tion; Educating robots.

Profile 58 Prof. Uzi Landman: A symphony of numbers.

GEORGIA TECH AXTJMNI MAGAZINE is published quarterly for Roll Call contributors by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Send correspondence and changes of address to: GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Alumni/Faculty House, 225 North Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175 • Editorial: (404) 853-0760/0761 Advertising: (404) 894-9270 • Fax: (404) 894-5113

© 1992 Georgia Tech Alumni Association

GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

The Suit That Makes Tech Alumni Look Even Smarter Kuppenheimer's Premier Edition Suit At Just $235 And $265.

Whether you choose pure worsted wool or wool blend, our Premier Edition Suit could very well be the smartest suit in your wardrobe. You won't find a suit that offers this much at a price this reasonable.

• Our Premier Edition Suit features fine quality down to the most minute detail — pants half-lined to the knee, passport pocket, gold piping, and suspender buttons.

• As with all our suits, it comes with Kuppenheimer's own Suit'Yourself Guarantee.

• Because we design and make every suit we sell, you won't find better value at a better price.

And considering that you can have all this for just $235 or $265, you'll never look smarter.

KUPPENHEIMER'S ABSOLUTE

SUITYIX'RSEIJ-GUARANTEE

KVTOTOH

Our Suit Yourself Guarantee means well do whatever it takes to completely satisfy you.

m OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

»7

KUPPENHEIMER X V ( M E N ' S CLOTHIERS)*1-

Our Values Fit Your Values • Gwinnet

Place Mall

• Perimeter Mall

North Dekalb

• Smyrna • Jonesboro

• Norcross • Loganville

• Roswell • Buckhead

• Shannon Mall

Town Center Mall

Call 1-800-772-KUPP for the store nearest you

1992 Kuppenheimer

Letters

Danger on the Home Front? Editor:

Regarding Carlton S. Hulbert's concern about the electn magnetic fields from high-voltage transmis­sion lines [Letters, winter 1992 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine]: I understand that the effects of such fields on people are not known, and therefore more research is needed. However, it is known that electromagnetic radiation is a function of the amount of current (lowing, and dis­tance from the wires. Volt­age is not a factor. You do get a static charge from the voltage, but that does not affect the electromagnetic radiation.

People are very close to the wiring in their homes, the range circuits of which may carry 40 to 50 amps. So if magnetic radiation is harmful, we may need to be more concerned about our home wiring than transmission lines.

J. Rid lev Reynolds Jr., ME '26 Decatur, Ga.

Wreck Was Wrecked and Repaired Editor:

A note on the article about the Ramblin' Wreck [winter 19921: The car was owned by Delta pilot Ted Johnson and was re-built by a neighbor, Ken Johnston, the owner at that time of Junior's Grill. He was a master craftsman and manufactured some of the parts himself.

One clav Ted had an

accident with the future "Ramblin' Wreck," when he hit a dump truck on Stewart Avenue. He drove the "Wreck" home; the dump truck had to be towed to the garage.

I had been a student at Tech from 1951 through 1953, but entered pilot training in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. In 1959, while work­ing as a Delta Air Lines pilot, I re-entered Tech part-time. My automobile for school was a 1930 model A Ford and Ted en­listed me to help repair his car. I replaced one fender and running board, bump­er, grille, and a badly mangled horn. Shortly after that, he sold the vehicle to Tech.

My son has since gradu­ated from Tech and we attend football games to­gether. It gives me a great thrill to see the "Wreck" and to know that I had a piece of the action.

George D. Bass Jr., IM '55, '62 Griffin, Ga.

Malone Received Quality Education Editor:

I read with interest the article concerning Dr. Thomas Malone, president and chief operating officer of Milliken [winter 1992 Alumni Magazine].

One item not men­tioned in the biographical information about Dr. Malone was that he chose a quality method of educa­

tion while at Georgia Tech, working several quarters as a co-op student with Her­cules Powder Co.

It may also interest you' to know that Milliken is one of our stronger sup­porters of cooperative edu­cation, with approximately 20 students employed.

Thomas M. Akins, IE 74 Director, Co-op Division Georgia Tech

Jacket Mascot An Admirable Choice Editor:

I have often wondered why the Georgia Tech ath­letic team mascot is a yel­low jacket—that is, until now. Based on a recent experience, I think the choice was an admirable one.

This fall, as I was in my yard sawing a large timber, • I was attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets.

Fortunately, I am im­mune to insect stings, so I had no problem on that score, b u t . . . a couple of days later, I noticed the jackets were still there, cir­cling the entrance to the nest, which was a hole in the ground. Since their nest is on the path to my boat dock, I decided I had to do something about this hazard. I doused the en­trance with wasp spray. The effect was nil.

I decided to resort to drastic action. I went home and poured about a pint of gasoline into the hole and the surrounding area. It burned for about 15

minutes. The guard force of the

hive went berserk, flying about in furious spurts in all directions, looking for the culprit. I kept a safe distance, but stayed close enough to watch. Eventu­ally, almost all of them, one by one, attempted to fly into the entrance to the hive. They were taking a stand on some final pro­tective maneuver.

At that point, I began to regret what I had done. As an old soldier, I appreci­ated the devotion and bravery that marked their last effort. Brave little fel­lows. Georgia Tech, you chose well your mascot.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Dan Raymond

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Columbus, Ga.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Gen.

Raymond, a West Point gradi tate, plays golf u nth Yellow Jacket James A. Byars, TE 3 J of Columbus.

Correction A Pacesetter article on

Aleksander Szlam, EE 74, winter 1992 Alumni Magazine, incorrectly said he graduated from Georgia Tech in electrical engineer­ing in five years. Szlam, founder of Melita Interna­tional, received his bachelor's degree in elec­trical engineering from Tech in three years, gradu­ating with high honors.

GEORGIA TECH • Letters 5

Every Time You Use Your Georgia Tech VISA or MasterCard" Credit Card To Make Purchases And Get Cash Advances, You'll Be Helping To Support The Georgia Tech Alumni Association... At No Extra Cost To You.

NationsBank The Power To Make A Difference.

>y

© 1992 NationsBank of Georgia, N.A. •™<i Uprnkpr FntP \ OFFICIAL SPONSOR iv iemoer r a i e \ ALUMNI MAGAZINE

TechNotes Written by Gary Goettling

Tech Cracks Top 10

Georgia Tech ranks • among the top 10 engineering

schools in the country, ac­cording to an annual sur­vey conducted by U.S. News & World Report.

Tech has risen steadily in the rankings each of the four years the survey of professional universities and colleges has been con­ducted, this vear entering the top 10 for the first time with a No. 10 showing.

In addition, Tech tied Purdue for first place in the specialty of industrial

and systems engineering. The U.S. News rankings

are based on measures such as job-market success of recent graduates, fac­ulty-student ratio, plus the universities' reputations among deans, professors, corporate CEOs and busi­ness leaders.

Housing Changes

The Georgia Tech hous­ing office is considering "theme" housing and more co-ed residence halls as

ways to make campus liv­ing more enjoyable, ac­cording to Terry Sichta, director of housing.

Theme housing is an arrangement whereby stu­dents with a shared inter­est such as membership in a particular club all reside in one area of a residence hall.

Currently, Woodruff residence hall is the only co-ed dormitory on cam­pus, but others may soon follow suit. Two configura­tions under review are single-sex floors, and halls

divided in half between male and female residents.

Sichta said that he hopes the housing changes will be implemented by fall quarter.

Upbeat Forecaster

Lawrence A. Kudlow, chief economist and senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York, delivered the annual Tennenbaum lecture in March.

Kudlow, who served in Continued next page

Home Sweet Home Members of the Georgia Tech chapter of Habitat for .

Humanity install siding on the group's first house, located on Boulevard in the Edgewood section of Atlanta. The 1,100-scju a re-foot structure was dedicated on March 11, capping two years of planning and fund-raising by the students. The 100-member chapter donated eight con­

secutive Saturdays to building the home, which will be occupied by a single mother and her three children. Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization that sponsors home-building projects for low-income wage earners. The Georgia Tech students hope to begin work on their second Habitat project next year.

GEORGIA TECH • TechNotes 7

TechNotes Continued from previous page

Kudlow: Economic forecast strong Japanese power overrated

about his 1992 choice, but liked the "intelligent sug­gestions on capital forma­tion and small business" made by Democrat Paul Tsongas. He also said that Japan's power and influ­ence have been overrated, and noted that "since 1986, we've more than doubled our exports to Japan." iM

Lawrence Kudlow: U.S. on a long-term path to the greatest economic prosperity in history.

the Reagan administration as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget, said, "I be­lieve we are on a long-term path to the greatest economic prosperity in the histoiy of civilization."

Although he was a vol­unteer in George Bush's 1988 campaign, Kudlow said he was undecided

Techjoins Center

Georgia Tech has joined a new cooperative re­search and education effort aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the U.S. textile industry. The feder­ally funded program, called the National Textile Center-University Research Consortium, will support development of improved composite fabrics, new fabric-barrier systems, and new electronic-based pro­duction technologies. Other members of the pro­

gram are Clemson, N.C. State and Auburn.

Football Anniversary

This year marks the centennial of Georgia Tech football. Tech's illustrious gridiron tradition was off to a rough start in 1892, losing its first game to Mer­cer University by a 12-0 score. The Technologicals, as the team was known then, did not post its first victory until the following year—a 28-6 victory over Georgia in Athens.

Seating Changes

Construction of the Bill Moore Student Success Center on the west side of Bobby Dodd Stadium will displace 2,640 seats in the top 10 rows of the lower West Stands, necessitating changes in seating alloca­

tions at the stadium. The changes include a

complete reassignment of seat locations based on the Athletic Association's point system, and a reduction in the number of opponents' tickets.

The reapportionment will provide many season-ticket holders with an op­portunity to improve their seats, or to consolidate their seats in one location.

For more information contact Susan Phinney at 894-5768.

Starts with Bee

Although them were many worthy candidates for the head football coach position, Bill Lewis may have had an advantage— his first name starts with "B." Ever since William A. "Bill" Alexander started calling the plays in 1920, the first name of every

Conltimed page 12

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers John C Staton |r. IM '60

president Shirley C. Mewbom EE '56

past president ll. Hammond stith fr. CE '58 <

president elect treasurer G. William Knight IP '62, MS IM 'AS

vice president activities Prank II. Maierjr. IM '60

ri< e president communications II. Milton Stewart IP <>i

vice president'/Roll Call |nhn B. Carter Jr, DE '69

vice president 'executive director James M. Iangle\ i

vice president, external effair^ ' 1

Trustees K.iv Elizabeth Adams l.M 74 Theodore Arno 11 TEXT'49 At. Beacham |r. IP '60 William Hagood Bellinger PP. '63 James 1). Bliteh III IE '53 II. Guv Darnell |r. IM '65 Thomas P. Davenport |r. Hi '56 FosephT. Dyer IP '69, MS iCS 71 Albert P. Gandv IP '56 Don P. Giddens All '63, MS All '65.

PhD All '67 Thomas B. Gurlev 111 '59 laniee Carol Harden 111 74 Hubert L. Harris lr. IM '65 Paul W. Heard Jr. MP. '65 P. ( )uen llenin Jr. IM 7 0

David R, Jones IM '59 G. Paul Jones Jr. MP '52 [venue Low Stanley ARQI 77 t rovantez I.. Lowndes IP '85 Jon Samuel Martin IM '64 lav M. McDonald IM '68 Thomas ll. Mullerjr. IP '65 Michael L. Percy Sr. TEXT '08 Patriae Perkins-Hooker IM so Neal Allen Robertson IP '69 Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr. NS ' id Louis Terrell Sovey It. Ill '52 W. Clayton Sparrow Jr. PIIVS OH Neal 1). Stubblefield ME 79 Howard T. Tellepsenjr, CP '66 Harry B, Thompson III IK '()() S.Joseph Ward IM'51

1 '

8 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

TM ROLL €HLL

5 MILLION DOLLAR DASH

' 5 MILLION FINISH LINE V

TO GENERAL FOR A HONE r

OFADEIL

We're proud to be the first official rental car company of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

So we're giving members and their families some very special treatment at General. That special

treatment includes a 10% discount on any car you rent. Along with a great selection of top quality

cars. And free unlimited mileage, nationwide. You'll also get the kind of fast, friendly service that

has people buzzing everywhere.

We've enclosed your special PacesetterSM Association Discount Card in this issue of the

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. To get your exclusive discount, just use the Pacesetter number

A D 2 0 0 5 , GWD number A 5 3 4 2 0 0 , on your card when you make a reservation. Or present the

card when you rent your car. ~^^^^^^^L^^^

For reservations, nationwide, call your travel " " ^ a * ^ ^ ^ ^ • 4 f e B f e 2 f e H ^ a l " agent or General at 1-800-327-7607. ^ ' K' \ 9 6 wfc 3! And find out how sweet it is. RENT-A-CAR

We feature quality products of Chrysler Corporation like the Chrysler LeBaron Convertible, air bag equipped for added safety.

NATIONWIDE LOCATIONS IN: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington. More locations opening.

5323

rC H

l;\

THREE

IMPORTANT

Buzz WORDS:

ATLANTA

MARRIOTT

NORTHWEST.

k I TECH I

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

J Georgia Tech Rate $59-$79. No one caters to the gold and black like Marriott Northwest. We offer Georgia Tech alumni deluxe accommoda­tions. Superior service. Even complimentary continental breakfast. Plus a convenient location off 1-75 at Windy Hill Road, just 9 miles from Georgia Tech Campus. There's also a host of amenities includ­ing three lighted tennis courts, indoor/

ATLANTA

^Xarnott NORTHWEST

outdoor pool, health club, sauna and whirlpool. All for special alumni rates that won't sting your wallet. Weekends, just $59 per room, not per person. And weekdays, only $79 per room, not

per person. Subject to availability. So call (404) 952-7900 or (800) 228-9290 and ask for the Georgia Tech rate. But you better fly fast, the offer's only valid until 12/30/92.

TechNotes Continued from page 8

New school of management degree program offered

Dean Fash Retires College of Architecture Dean William Fash has an­

nounced his retirement effective June 30, or sooner if a replacement is found. Fash joined the faculty in 1976 as the first dean of the architecture college. He will continue as coordinator for faculty and curricu­lum development for the architecture program.

Tech football coach, with the exception of Pepper Rogers, has started with B: Bobby Dodd, Bud Carson, Bill Fulcher, Bill Curry and Bobby Ross.

Information, Please

A new information booth will be opening on the second floor of the Stu­dent Center this summer. It will also serve 'as the tick­eting facility for the re­cently opened Georgia Tech Theater for the Arts.

The booth will include several bulletin boards to display campus news, a large campus map, and a pair of computer terminals

that will function as an electronic message system for students.

The booth is a proto­type of communications centers that will be in­stalled at several campus locations for the 1996 Olympics.

MBA or MoT?

A new certificate in management of technology is being offered to gradu­ate students in the Ivan Allen College of Manage­ment, Policy and Interna­tional Affairs. Under devel­opment since 1989, the program is designed to combine knowledge of

current technology with a comprehensive under­standing of the principles required to manage that technology. The curricu­lum includes courses, weekly seminars and a project in which students work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to solve a real problem posed by a technology-based firm. The teams are supervised by a faculty member and a representative of the host company.

The certificate may evolve into a master's de­gree option as an alterna­tive to the MBA for techni­cal professionals.

Alumni on Council

A Governor's Advisory Council on Science and Technology Development has been named by Gov. Zell Miller to create a tech­nology policy for the state of Georgia. The 18-mem-ber body includes four Tech alumni: James C. Eden-field, IE '57, president and CEO of American Software Inc.; Dennis C. Hayes, Cls '73, chairman of Hayes Mi­crocomputer Products; DavidS. Lewis Jr., AE'39, retired chairman of Gen­eral Dynamics; and Jay McDonald, IM '68, of McDonald, Withers & Hughes. Georgia Tech Pro­fessor Robert M. Nerem, who holds the Parker H. Petit chair for engineering in medicine, also serves on the board. •

Thankyou to the official sponsors of

the GEORGIA

TECH ALUMNI

MAGAZINE •

• Acme Business Products

• Balentinc & Co. • BellSouth

Cellular • The Coca-Cola

Company • Delta Air Tines • Diamond

Brostrom • Georgia Tech Corporate liaison

• Inforum • Lanier Plaza

Ho te l* Conference Center

• Marriott North­west Atlanta

• Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

• Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead

• Sheraton Colony Square Hotel

• Six Flags Over Georgia

• Technology Park/Atlanta

• Trust Company Bank

• Wachovia Bank of Georgia

• Wyndham Hotel

1 2 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

SIX FLAGS O V E R G E O R G I A

1-20 just wes t o f A t l a n t a • Six F lags exi t

n

The Black Belt of Roller Coasters

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

This year Six Flags is offering an explosion of roller coaster excitement with

N I N J A - t h e Black Belt of Roller Coasters!

Turning you upside down five times with upward spirals, corkscrew dives and breathtaking sidewinding action, NINJA is the only steel coaster of its kind in the South.

Get ready for lightning fast, twisted and unpredictable thrilling fun with NINJA.

Scheduled to open April '92

Six Flags Over Georgia now open weekends through M a y 24th.

By Gary Goettling Photographed by Margaret Barrett

THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT Ruins W. Youngblood has more than a passing interest in the assassination of President Jolin F. Kennedy. Like millions of Amerieans, the 1950 industrial engineering graduate remembers exactly where he was and what he was doing on Nov. 22, 1963. He was riding in a motoreade in downtown Dallas.

Continued next page

ss to Assassination 15

L s the special agent in charge of the vice presi­

dential Secret Service detail, Youngblood rode in an open Lincoln

convertible with Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Texas Sen. Ralph Yarborough and a driver. Only a Secret Service follow-up car sepa­rated him from the president's limou­sine, and the violence that unfolded there with graphic finality on a warm Dallas afternoon 28 years ago.

Who killed Kennedy? It's a ques­tion Youngblood has been asked hundreds of times, and his firm answer defies popular opinion: "Lee Harvey Oswald."

"I support the findings of the War­ren Commission. [Conspiracy theo­rists] have had investigation after in­vestigation, and nobody has come up with anything concrete. Nothing."

Actor Kevin Costner "should have stuck to dancing with wolves," Youngblood says tartly, referring to the movie "JFK." Although he says that he has not seen the Oliver Stone film, he is familiar with its premise, which implicates Lyndon Johnson and the Secret Service in a massive conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy and cover up the crime. Stone, he notes, "is making a whole bunch of money from it," a motive that he believes drives'bther conspiracy proponents as well.

Youngblood has not read any of the dozens of "conspiracy books" that promulgate theories ranging from CIA plots to French hit-men, but he is generally familiar with their assertions. In particular, he labels as "ridiculous" an upcoming book that > blames the assassination on "friendly\ fire" from a Secret Service agent.

Secret Service agent Ruius Youngblood served under five presidents. But his most

is a warm after­noon in Dallas.

he prcsidcntal motor­cade just moments

L after the first shot is fired. Secret Service agents begin to react as President John Kennedy slumps in the hack seat of the lead car, his arm ahove his head. In a split-second, YoungbkxHl, in the third car, leaps across Vice President Lyndon Johnson, using his hody to shield Johnson from further shots.

"I don't think any Secret Service guy fired his weapon down there that day. I could look ahead and see [George] Hickey, an agent in the president's follow-up car, who had the AR-15 [rifle]. He stood up and looked, but didn't see anything to fire at."

Kennedy's body was removed from Parkland Hospital by the Secret Service and flown back to Washing­ton aboard Air Force One, technically in violation of Texas law which states that homicide victims must be autopsied in-state. Many conspiracy proponents point to that as evidence of Secret Service complicity in an as­sassination cover-up.

"That's nitpicking," Youngblood says. "I was telling Johnson that the safest thing for us was to get out of there and get back to Washington. He said that we were not leaving without Mrs. Kennedy, and she

<Sjf«lbi

wasn't leaving without her husband's body. There was nothing sinister about it. Some people are just trying to make something up thai isn't re­ally there."

Youngblood is particularly both­ered because "children gix nving up are not going to know what to be­lieve because apparently the adults don't know what to believe," he says, a reference to polls which indi­cate that over 70 percent of the pub­lic does not support the lone-gun­man conclusion in the Warren Re­port.

The bi-partisan Warren Commis­sion did a thorough investigation of the crime, including the subsequent killing of Oswald, and reached the most reasonable and logical conclu­sions, Youngblood says. Acknowl­edging that there are some "honest skeptics," Youngblood believes that more people would concur with the

1 6 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

commission's findings—if they read them.

'Td say that 90 percent of the public has never read [the sum­mary],'' says Youngblood, who keeps a bound c< >py of the report on a liv­ing-room bookshelf. And although he has nt>t read all 26 volumes him­self, he lias read the two-inch-thick summary, and reviewed the other volumes.

Youngblood is seated on a cloth sofa at the comfortable rancher in Savannah that he shares with his wife, Peggy, and a Siamese cat named OOK. "That stands for Out-Door Kitty." smiles the 68-year-old Atlanta native. The home is sprinkled with reminders of his alma mater, from the Georgia Tech license plate on the Toyota van parked at the head of the driveway to the small matted Tech Tower print in the foyer. Color photographs of children—the

couple has four—and grandchildren are scattered throughout the spa­cious living room. Atop a cabinet rests a gray scale model of a B-17, similar to the aircraft in which Youngblood had flown as a waist-gunner during World War II.

Y* oungblood eases back on his couch to reflect on the circumstances that carried him from North Avenue to 1600

Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1946, fresh from military service with the Eighth Army Air Force, Youngblood en­rolled at Georgia Tech, finishing the four-year industrial engineering cur­riculum in only three.

"I was already married then and I had a kid and I had to work, so I wanted to get through and get out," he recalls.

After graduating from Tech, Youngblood found a job with a con­sulting mechanical engineering firm, but soon a recession hit the profes­sion and he was jobless again after only a few months.

"I liked law enforcement and in­vestigation," Youngblood says. "I'd even thought seriously about joining the FBI and went down to talk with them."

When told that agents had to be either accountants or lawyers, Youngblood prepared to enter Mer­cer University's law school.

"I got some law books and I read them," he says, "and they bored the hell out of me. I didn't want to be an attorney."

He turned next to the Georgia Tech Alumni Placement office for help, which offered a promising lead: "The United States Secret Ser­vice is seeking qualified applicants

GEORGIA TECH • Eyewitness to Assassination 1 7

for Special Agent positions, starting salary $3,825 per year."

The job didn't require a law-en­forcement background, just a college degree. "You did have to take a Civil Service examination and a Secret Ser­vice examination, which was prima­rily an aptitude test."

Later, as Youngblood began his climb through the Secret Service ranks, he attended Treasury Depart­ment Enforcement School and the service's own training program.

On March 26, 1951, Youngblood was sworn in as a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service, beginning a career that would last 20 years through five presidencies.

At the time Youngblood was a rookie agent, the Secret Service, which comes under the auspices of the Treasury Department, had two basic functions: to investigate coun­terfeiting and other crimes involving government obligations, and to pro­

tect the president. The second mis­sion has since been extended to in­clude the vice president, presidential candidates, former presidents, and visiting heads of state.

Youngblood spent most of his probationary period in the Atlanta field office working on check-forging cases. In June 1951, he got his first taste of the protective-duty side of the service when he was assigned to escort Vice President Alben Barkley on an Atlanta visit.

When Barkley stepped down the ramp at Atlanta Airport, "there was one green agent there watching ev­erything that moved," Youngblood laughs. "As far as I was concerned, the place was crawling with potential assassins, and I was ready for them."

The next year, while on a 30-day assignment to Washington, Young­blood had his first encounter with a president.

He was standing at his post out­

side the Oval Office when the door opened and Harry S. Tinman stepped out into the hall, arms laden with papers and books. The presi­dent asked the young agent if he would help carry the material up­stairs. "Why certainly, Mr. President," said the startled Youngblood, who realized that he was violating orders. But how could he refuse?

I* t was hardly an auspicious beginning, but the assignment convinced Youngblood that protective duty would be more interesting than investi-> gative work, and his request

for a transfer to Washington was approved.

Besides the "glamour'' of meeting famous people from every conceiv­able endeavor, what was so appeal­ing about protective duty?

"First of all, it's nor glamorous," Youngblood corrects. "It might be for

Presidential Snapshots HARRY S. TRUMAN: He was an immaculate dresser,

probably a carryover from his days when he was a haberdasher. He was also one of the most brilliant historians I ever ran across. He did a lot of reading of history as a hobby. It was always quite interesting to listen to him.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: 1 thought of him as my commanding officer. I felt like we had won World War II together, lie spent a lot of time in Augusta on the golf course, and since I was a Georgian familiar with the area, I would often accompany him on those trips.

JOHN F. KENNEDY: I think he was the epitome of charisma. I don't believe we used that word very much back in those days, but I think that if anybody had it, he had it. He was energetic, and it was a plea­sure to work around him.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Of all the presidents, he was probably the most professional politician. Politics was his hobby. He was also the most down-to-earth hu­man being who was in the White House during my time there. Little things bothered the hell out of him. He said to me once that the big decisions didn't bother him, but some of the little bitty things. . . . He would tell you how to turn a screw clockwise or counterclockwise.

RICHARD M. NLXON: I was not assigned to him for any length of time, but I did have a couple of short temporary assignments—including a campaign visit to Atlanta in I960.

1 liked Nixon when he was vice president, but when he came in as president, time had done some­thing to him.

1 8 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

the first few months, but that dimin­ishes. But it is a good education. You are where history is being made.

"A lot of people wrongfully as­sume thai a Secret Service agent on protective duty is principally a body­guard. That is an aspect of what you do, but one of the main things is to make advance arrangements for presidential tours. That is a wide-

ranging thing that takes you all over the world. It is quite interesting."

Youngblood notes that the objec­tives of a president and his Secret Service agents are often at odds.

"The problem is that you have two missions in direct conflict—you have a political mission and a secu­rity mission. Neither one embraces the other, so you attempt to do what­

ever you can to provide a secure en­vironment.

"For instance, the armored car is one of the things we accomplished, but it took an assassination to get one. That's terrible. We had tried be­fore for many, many years, but the presidents thought they'd be criti­cized for spending the money.

"You could put the president in a secure building like the White House and let him talk to people through bars or over a telephone and not be exposed to the public. Even I don't want to see that. That is not what we should do in this country.

"Actually, one of the safest things a president can do is go into a crowd as long as it's unplanned and unpub-licized. The worst thing is to go sit at something outdoors like a football game for a couple of hours," he says.

The biggest headache in provid­ing Secret Service protection over­seas is. "getting cooperation from the embassies," according to Young-blood. "They have a lot of protocol, and they would sacrifice security for protocol. A lot of times you have to compromise a little bit, but you get it worked out."

Some presidents have at first re­sisted Secret Service protection as an invasion of privacy, "but soon they realize they have more privacy by virtue of having us than they would if they didn't have us.

"We don't interfere with their per­sonal life," he adds. "When [Presi­dent Johnson's daughters] Luci or Lynda had dates, we didn't go in the car with them. We would follow them in another car. We would be at restaurants where they went, but we didn't sit at the table with them.

"When Tniman sat down to play poker with his cronies, we took him to the place and we were there to

GEORGIA TECH • Eyewitness to Assassination 19

bring him back, and we were guard­ing the building while he was there, but we didn't go in and intrude on the poker game."

Secret Service agents are charac­terized by tact and discretion, and even after 20 years Youngblood is sparing in his descriptions of the per­sonal side of the presidents he served.

"Eisenhower was really great for relying on a table of organization," Youngblood says in response-to criti­cism that the 34th president spent more time playing golf than making decisions. "Ypu also have to remem­ber that the country was a lot more peaceful during his administration. The problems we had during the Eisenhower administration and the Truman administration are almost nij when compared to the problems we\ are confronting today."

Wasn't Truman known for his eu­phemistically termed "salty" lan­guage? "He wasn't near as salty as LBJ," Youngblood chuckles mischie­vously without elaboration.

"Truman was extremely punctual. You could almost set your watch by him. On the other hand, LBJ was the kind of guy who said he'd rather be 10 minutes late than one minute early.

"All of them were vain insofar as their appearance before the public-was concerned. Ike was probably the least vain of the bunch.

"I really liked them all," he insists. "They all had good points and bad points, and they often get the blame when things go wrong, but they don't get credit for the good things they do."

But of all the presidents and vice presidents he served, Youngblood

was closest to Johnson. "I had been with him all over the

world from early in his vice presi­dency. I've seen the good and the bad.

"The guy would chew me out for something the Air Force did, and chew out the Air Force ft >r some­thing I did—that sort of thing. He never would apologize, but he would turn around and do some­thing nice for you. But he would never say, 'Look, I'm sorry I fussed at you.'

"Sometimes I tried to argue with him—I should say that I tried to rea­son with him, because he was going to get his point made, regardless."

Youngblood likes to tell the story about a White House phone call he received at home one night. Clutch­ing an imaginary receiver, he mur­murs, "Yes sir . . . yes . . . yes sir . . .

2 0 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

The slower pace of retire­ment leaves plenty of time for family, Mends—and memories.

crapbooks chronicle Youngblood's career in the Secret Service.

He taps his finger on a pho­tograph of a solemn young man standing in front of the White House, a few steps behind President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mamie Eisenhower. "I was 26 years old when this pic­ture was taken," he says. "You know it was a long time ago—I had hair then!" A (ieorgia native, Young-blood frequently accompa­nied Eisenhower on golfing trips to Augusta.

yes, Mr. President." When his wife asked what the call had been about, Youngblood said, "Oh, he just chewed me out for something I wasn't really guilty of."

"Well." she replied, "it used to be that you got chewed out by the vice president. Now you're getting chewed out by the president. You've come up in the world!"

Frustration over the Vietnam war exacted a heavy emotional and physical toll on Johnson, Youngblood remembers. "He couldn't sleep at night, and would go over to the Situation Room where they had constant flow of informa­tion, to see what had come in."

Youngblood, who made trips to Vietnam with Johnson as vice presi­dent and again as president, believes that "he had too much bad advice."

Youngblood maintains close ties

t

to the Johnson family, and has ac­cepted an invitation to the LBJ Ranch to help celebrate Lady Bird's 80th birthday on Dec. 22.

I» n 1971, at age 47, Young­blood retired from the Secret Service as deputy director. "One of the good things you learn at Georgia Tech is math-i ematics," he says. "I figured

that if I kept working, with the costs of commuting and all, that I'd be get­ting only about 40 percent of my sal­ary. But if I retired, with the pension I'd be getting 60 percent."

There were also some not-too-subtle hints coming from the White House. Youngblood, who had al­ways enjoyed a close relationship with presidential assistants—Demo­crat and Republican—sensed a "dra­matic change" in the tenor of the Nixon administration.

"Haldeman and Ehrlichman—I didn't cotton to them. They weren't exactly my bosses, but they wouldn't invite me to meetings and things like that. So I just couldn't see any sense in staying on any longer."

In 1973, Youngblood finished a book about his career titled 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents. The publisher, Simon and Schuster, sent him on a publicity tour that included appearances on "The Tonight Show" and "Today." Young­blood, who spent two years on the project, was disappointed in sales.

"They [Simon and Schuster] sent me on this tour when the book wasn't even in stores yet," he recalls. He says that the publisher concen­trated its attention and resources into promoting another title that year. "My book was up against Joy of Sex. I didn't have a chance," he shrugs.

Inevitably, the conversation drifts

back to 1963 and the tragedy that staggered the world—and put Rufus Yourigblood's name in a hundred reporters' notebooks.

Up until the time the presidential motorcade turned onto Elm Street, "it looked like just another very success­ful political trip," Youngblood re­members. "They wanted crowds, and they got crowds."

As the procession crawled into Dealey Plaza, Youngblood glanced up at the clock on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository. It flashed 12:30. Less than a minute to the freeway, and only five minutes to the Trade Mart, he thought. That in­stant, piercing through the shouts of the thinning crowd, and the stutter­ing and backfiring of police motor­cycles, Youngblood heard the shat­tering crack! of a rifle. His reaction was immediate and instinctive.

"Get down!" he yelled. "GET DOWN!" And in the time it takes to pull the bolt of a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, Youngblood had vaulted over the back of the limousine seat onto Vice President Johnson, pushing him to the floor of the Lincoln convertible and shielding Johnson's body with his own.

Johnson, in his statement to the Wan-en Commission, said that Youngblood reacted immediately af­ter the first shot and was sitting on top of him by the time the second shot and fatal third shot were fired into Kennedy.

Youngblood's heroic action earned him the Treasury Depart­ment's highest honor, the Excep­tional Service Award, presented by President Johnson on Dec. 4, 1963-

In his own testimony before the Warren Commission, Youngblood said: "As we were beginning to go down this incline, all of a sudden

GEORGIA TECH • Eyewitness to Assassination 2 1

Tragedy for the nation has offered profit for others.

vciitually the enormity of it all caught up with him, and when he returned home after the longest day of

I his life, "I really broke down," Youngblood says.

there was an explosive noise. I quickly observed unnatural move­ment of crowds, like ducking or scat­tering, and quick movements in the presidential follow-up car. So I turned around and hit the vice presi­dent on the shoulder and hollered, 'Get down,' and then looked around again and saw more of this move­ment, and so I proceeded to go to the back seat and get on top of him."

From his position, Youngblood noticed "a grayish blur in the air above the right side of the presi­dent's car" right after the third shot. "There were shouts from ahead, then the cars in front of us lurched for­ward toward the underpass. I yelled to our driver, 'Stay with them, and keep close!'"

From his uncomfortable sprawled position on the back seat, Johnson asked what had happened. Young­blood replied that the president had been shot, and that they were headed to the hospital.

"My God! They've shot the Presi­

dent!" exclaimed Sen. Yarborough, who shared the back seat of the lim­ousine with the vice president. Lady Bird Johnson, seated between the two men, cried out, "Oh no, that can't bd"

^L iter arriving at the hospital, J ^ ^ t h e vice president

t ^^k climbed out of the car, X M ^ A nibbing his stiff

M ^^k shoulder, giving rise flXLi ^ 1 ^ ^ to early erroneous press reports that Johnson had also been wounded in the attack. Still un­sure if a larger plot to assassinate all top government officials was being deployed, Youngblood worked quickly to sequester Johnson.

"President Kennedy was practi­cally dead when they arrived at the hospital," Youngblood says. "He had a little pulse, but for all practical pur­poses he was gone. At the time, I didn't know how badly wounded the president was, but I did know that if he was incapacitated in some

Ikes Rogue Golf Cart

Golf carts were just coming into vogue in the early fifties, and Ike • often enjoyed driving his own cart. One warm spring afternoon on Augusta National, Ike tooled his can up to the edge of the

green where his ball lay just off the putting surface. The moment he took his foot off the accelerator it was apparent that something was wrong, as the cart continued on under full power, Faced with a long downhill run to a creek, Ike made his decision and bailed out. But the driverless cdrt circled back sharply, and for a few tense moments a strange procession moved across the lush fairway—the president of the United States in the lead, mnning for all he was worth, a rogue golf cart at his heels, and half a dozen Secret Service agents tearing along in pur­suit. There was some shouted discussion as to whether the thing should be shot, just as three agents overtook it and, like a dogie at a rodeo, bulldogged it over onto its, side.

, v—From: 20 years in the Secret Sen See.

way, then Johnson was next in line, so I acted accordingly."

All accounts of the events imme­diately following the assassination, up through the time when the air­plane carrying a new president and a slain president touched d< >wn at Andrews Air Force Base, single out Youngblood for maintaining his com­posure and professionalism in the face of absolute pandemonium. Eventually the enormity of it all caught up with him, and when he returned home after the longest day of his life, "I really broke down," Youngblood says.

Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand, did not receive universal high marks for his performance after the assassination, mostly from people who felt that he had jumped into the presidency with more enthusiasm than appropriate or necessary. "I'm really surprised at a lot of the things that have been written." Youngblood says. "Some nasty things have been said about him, and the guy could not have been any more c< tnsiderate toward the president's family and the president's staff. I mean, not only on that day and the flight back, but through the ensuing months and even years. They didn't treat him as nicely as he treated them."

Youngblood is still d< >gged by the Kennedy assassination—n< )t so much by the past as the present; by the outrageous speculation and accusa­tions of people who literally spent years dissecting decisions made in a few chaotic minutes or seconds. Once upon a time it may have hurt, and sometimes it still makes him an­gry. But mostly he is just tired of it.

"I wish they would just put it to rest," he sighs. "But they won't—not as long as someone can make a buck off it." •

2 2 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

KflGGHffl One of the world's largest

copier and facsimile manufacturers. I JOHI

ff

..:;:,i;ii:i;;i iiiiUiiiiuiuiiiiitL

JS | - H H ^ H E 3 B

he BPbcW FAJB8 /

Acme The South's largest

copier and fax dealer.

nmm & 1 -TO7^%> hjotcfr 11 Professional sales and service since 1972"

Acme Business Products n ALCO Office Products Company

' For a free demonstration contact the Acme office nearest you. Albany, GA (912) 432-2344; Athens, GA (404) 353-0368; Atlanta, GA (404)279-5500; Atlanta South (404) 366-6162; Augusta, GA (404) 863-2263; Brunswick, GA (912) 264-6675; Columbus, GA (.404) 327-5114; Dothan, AL (205) 793-0005; Dublin, GA (912) 272-6465; Ft. Walton, FL (904) 664-2707; Gainesville, GA 1404) 531-0593; Griffin, GA (404) 227-5566; Gulfport/Biloxi, MS (601) 865-0406; Hilton Head, SC (803) 686-2050; Macon, GA (912) 788-7416; Marietta, GA (404) 425-2043; Mobile, AL (205) 342-9458; Montgomery, AL (205) 271-1413; Pascagoula, MS (601) 762-3061; Pensacola, FL (904) 474-0227; Rome, GA (404) 295-7247; Savannah, GA (912) 232-6576; Valdosta, GA (912) 241-9401; Warner Robins, GA (912) 328-3229; Waycross, GA (912) 283-2767

n • T T L H P

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

2 4 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Mind Over Matter Olympic planners are relying on old-fashioned mental processes—aided by a computer printout now and then—to prepare for the '96 Games

By Lisa Crowe

^though Atlanta's 1996 Sum-i mer Olympics will be the

Jargest and most complex event ever

staged in the Southeast, the mammoth planning process itself is con­spicuously low-tech, favoring color markers instead of plotters, and scratch pads instead of terminals.

But don't be fooled. "We are using a so­

phisticated process, but instead of relying on gizmos we are relying on the use of the mind, which after all is the greatest of all comput­ing devices," says Mike Sizemore, a 1966 Tech architecture graduate.

Sizemore is a part­ner in Sizemore Floyd Architects which, in a joint venture with the

Sizemore Floyd partners review Olympic plans. From left, Mike Sizemore, ARCH '66; Tom Sayre, ARCH 76; Jeff Floyd, ARCH 70.

construction-cost estimating and scheduling firm of Cordell W. Ingram Inc., has won the job of planning the

entire $500 million physical structure of the 1996 Olympics.

Tech alumnus W. Jeff Floyd Jr., ARCH 70, also a Sizemore Floyd partner and di­rector of the Olympic project, knows the job is awesome and the stakes are high.

"We are projecting that through televi­sion, four billion folks—40 percent of the human race—will see these events," he says.

The project's chief tool is a planning methodology called "visual programming," which defines the problems that the ar­

chitectural design must address. It involves talking, listening and a lot of what Sizemore calls "hand-holding."

Visual programming starts out with goal-setting sessions. Program­mers explore the image that a client

Continued next page

GEORGIA TECH • Olympic Planning 2 5

Walls covered with hand-drawn charts and graphs signal the planners' progress.

Atlanta 1996 TM.CIW.HCXX;

wants to project, the mission of the project, how it will fit into its surroundings,

and its budget and schedule. After concrete goals are estab­

lished, programmers start collecting facts. They research information on infrastructure, financial resources, transportation, parking, pedestrian traffic and design standards.

The process then moves to an exploration of alternative concepts. Programmers and clients examine different options and determine what the client actually needs. Each poten­tial element of a project is evaluated on a cost-versus-benefit basis.

For the Olympics project, the visual programming process begins with "a systemwide

analysis to determine how the parts relate because it is one very large, interdependent system," Sizemore says. "Then we look for elements that are common throughout all the venues, such as medical and security needs."

Once the overall requirements are determined, five teams of planners are assigned to about five venues each, and the task of collecting

The torch-lighting ceremony and track-and-field activities of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles were held in the Coliseum. Each Olympic city presents unique challenges to site planners. In Atlanta, "we're going from zero to 90 miles per hour pretty quickly," says Tech alumnus Mike Sizemore.

26 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

specific data about each Olympic installation begins.

The information about each event site is fed back into the overall plan­ning, "so it's a cyclical process, going from the particular to the general," Sizemore says.

As the intensive programming proceeds, the resulting ideas and options are reduced to hand-drawn charts and graphs that are stuck on the conference room walls. By the time the walls are covered, program­mers have identified the client's key goals, collected pertinent tacts, tested promising concepts, come up with a possible budget, and developed the statement of the problem which the architectural design must address.

The system had its beginnings in Texas shortly after World War II, when a firm designing schools for the opening wave of baby boomers developed a method of quickly plan­ning cost-effective options. It essen­tially meant that architectural plan­ners asked a lot of smart questions, and hung around the site until they got all the answers. Sizemore and Floyd have refined this technique and used it successfully in several hundred projects.

Architectural programming is not a glamorous process, and many pre­fer to skip it altogether and go right into design, often with disastrous re­sults.

"Watch out for the cocktail-napkin sketch," cautions Sizemore. "Beware of this architect. He has given the solution without knowing where the problem is.

"Then the architect falls in love with his plan, the client loves it, and they both find out too late that it doesn't work. With our method, we

Continued on page 29

IS YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN BETTING AGAINST

THE ODDS? Your retirement plan must perform consistently over the long haul.

Even when the market turns south. At Balentine & Company, we effectively allocate your assets while

reducing the level of risk. It's the key to optimum portfolio performance. Our quantitative approach to portfolio management incorporates a

statistical analysis of historical market data and subsequent market performance. We utilize objective, disciplined, mathematical probabilities for an investment program that has shown superior investment results.

We examine your goals, the investment future, and resources that you have available. Then we select an investment manager to provide you a custom-fit program.

If you or your company have a qualified retirement plan of $1 million or more, contact Frederick Wright, Balentine & Company, Investment Consulting Group at 404 885-9600. Frederick will show you how to keep your pension fund portfolio performing consistendy—with the odds in your favor.

SfPC We are a member of;

BALENTINE & COMPANY

ELEVEN HUNDRED PEACHTREE STREET

SUITE 1900

1100 PEACHTREE STREET, N.E.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30309-4519

TELEPHONE: (404) 885-9600

Securities Industry Protection Corporation FAX: (404) 885-7959

Yellow Jackets get special savings at the Wyndham Midtown Atlanta. For just $59 on weekends and $75 weekdays* you can relive those college days. Only blocks from campus, we offer luxuriously appointed guest rooms and superb service. Pop­ular dining and entertainment. And the state-of-the-art Midtown Athletic Club. Call now for res­ervations at (404) 873-4800 or 800 822-4200. As Ramblin' Wrecks from Georgia Tech you get a helluva Wyndham deal! *Rates are per room, pernight, based on availability.

WYNDHAM MIDTOWN ATLANTA A TRAMMELL CROW HOTEL

Official sponsor of T h e Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

Peachtree & 10th Streets, N. E., Atlanta, GA 30309 (404) 873-4800 U.S. 800822-4200 CANADA 800 631-4200 OFFICIAL SPONSOR

ALUMNI MAGAZINE

s. I

i Olympic planners are completing "project bibles" listing features of each venue.

Atlanta 1996 TM.OlWAUOt

find out what clients really need and what they can get, as opposed to what

they wish they had. Then -we do the design."

Olympic planning is a tough I job, no matter how good your system. Floyd is super­

vising the programming of 27 sports venues, and the housing for 16,500 athletes and officials. His group is also responsible for the planning cri­teria for security, transportation and food service for the athletes, 15,000 media representatives, and all those people who are expected to buy up to eight million tickets. And you sure don't want any of them waiting in long concession lines or wandering around lost because it all happens in the sweltering August heat, a time of year in which locals traditionally retreat into arctic air conditioning.

Although it is possible to get guid­ance from past Olympic games, each city faces its own logistical chal­lenges. In 1984, Los Angeles had most of its venues in place, so the primary job was linking them all to­gether. In 1988, Seoul, South Korea, sank massive amounts of money into new constniction. When Barcelona, Spain, got the 1992 Games, it was already the self-proclaimed sports capital of Europe, and many top-notch venues were already built.

In Atlanta, "we are going from zero to 90 miles per hour quickly," Sizemore says. Some venues will be temporaty. but for those that are per­manent, the goal is to create struc­tures that will fit into the future life of the site.

"Our focus is on how we can do great Olympic facilities that will help, not impede, later development," says Sizemore.

This means that the visual plan­ning must be conducted with both the Atlanta Committee for the Olym­pic Games (ACOG) and the owner of each venue. The Sizemore Floyd/ Ingram joint venture has called upon CRSS Architects Inc. of Greenville, S.C, for extra programmers to keep up with this tremendous job.

Olympic planners are now com­pleting "project bibles" that list the basic features of each venue, includ­ing operational needs, siting, security entry, square footage, medical and office space, and the special needs of each facility. ACOG, assisted by Sizemore Floyd/Ingram, will then start selecting other architects for each individual project.

Still to come is the "look" of Atlanta's Olympics. The Los Angeles theme was Hollywood, Tinsel Town, and the materials were deliberately temporary like a movie set: banners instead of fixed signs, plywood in­stead of concrete or brick. In con­trast, South Korea, seeking to shake its image as a Third World country, went for impressive, monumental structures.

Atlanta's theme hasn't been de­fined, though judging from the new logo, "Georgia forest green" may fig­ure prominently.

It will all come together, Floyd says reassuringly. Perhaps it's like that corny old line—How do you eat an elephant? Sizemore Floyd/Ingram is going at it one bite at a time. •

Lisa Crowe is an Atlanta free-lance writer.

Are You Interested

In The Latest Developments In Any Of The

Following Fields?

Telecommunications Optical Fiber Technology

Power Engineering Computer Architecture Project Management

Reliability Engineering many more engineering

fields...

Request a Free catalog from the Association for Media-based

Continuing Education for Engineers (AMCEE). It describes over 400

courses in 14 engineering disciplines.

Georgia M Georgia Tech and 33 other major

universities offer videotapes of their short courses through AMCEE.

Call Today!! 1-800-338-9344 (except GA and AK)

or FAX (404) 894-8714

AMCEE 613 Cherry Street

Swann Building, Room 308 Atlanta, GA 30332-0210

Take the first step in securing your access to the resources of AMCEE's member universities by calling for

your FREE catalog today!

GEORGIA TECH • Olympic Planning 2 9

Em

Secondary school students from Georgia and Ten­nessee are getting

scared to death of physics —and loving every minute of it.

With the help of Geor­gia Tech's Pipeline Pro­gram, which promotes in­terest in math and science among school children, a group of Georgia middle-school students spend a summer afternoon at Six Flags amusement park near Atlanta, where volun­teer instructors help them learn about physics through the nerve-wrench­ing experience of rides such as the Great Ameri­can Scream Machine.

The trip is part of a five-day summer space camp co-sponsored by the Geor­gia Tech Space Consor­tium, Atlanta Public Schools and the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. Tech professors helped design the overall camp program, and Tech stu­dents provide teaching as­sistance. Last year, 88 middle-school students participated in the Six Flags excursion.

Tom Gourman, a teacher at Mays High School in Atlanta, devised the physics curriculum, which he describes as "Mr. Wizard goes to Six Flags."

Gourman and several students built simple de­vices such as accelerom-eters that the students car­ried onto the rides.

"We wanted them not only to understand the physical principles in­volved, but to actually do some measurements," he says.

The students recorded their observations in work­

books, which also contain questions about specific physical events. Among the topics investigated were gravity-induced stress, the Doppler effect, free-fall effects on a liquid,

and how differential veloc­ity affects trajectory.

The students were par­ticularly impressed by the effect of gravity on two objects of different weights, Gourman says. Several of them took turns riding the Free Fall, accom­panied by a plastic bottle containing a feather and a lead ball, secured inside the compartment with Velcro tape.

"Inside the bottle, you've cancelled all the aerodynamic effects on the feather, so the feather and the ball get to the bottom of the bottle at exactly the same time," Gourman says.

The amusement park also becomes a physics laboratory for the high school students of Dr. George Taylor, who re­ceived a doctorate in phys­ics from Tech in 1970.

Taylor is a physics teacher at The Baylor School in Chattanooga, Term. Every April for the past few years, he and a busload of students have made the two-hour drive to Six Flags "in an attempt

to take physics out of the textbook and put it into the students' world'," he

i says.

The students are grouped into "lab teams" and directed to five or six rides. Each student carries a notebook containing a series of questions, plus basic data about each ride.

"They have to make "•*" some sort of measurement, or good guesses, and then answer specific questions, and provide an explana­tion based on what they have done," Taylor ex­plains.

The exercises range from calculating the carousel's frequency of ro­tation to expressing the centripetal force acting on the Looping Starship.

Taylor stresses the im­portance of observation in physics. "I warn my stu­dents that if they spend hours punching numbers into their calculators or doing arithmetic, they've missed it—they're not doing the right sorts of things. Ideally, the calcula­tions should take only about five minutes per ride."

Although the Six Flags assignment is not a test, "it is a big part of their grade," he says.

Taylor laughs that former students have ac­cused him of "ruining" amusement parks. "They say, 'Every time we go to an amusement park, we think about physics.'

"I think that's great!" •

On the following pages, the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine presents its own physics lessons, as inter­preted by the action at Six Flags.

Newton's First Law

Up and Down on the Roller Coaster:

Every body perseveres in

its state of rest or uniform

motion in a straight line,

except when it is compelled

to change that state by

forces impressed upon it.

Stressing Gravity on the Water Slide

The force of attraction F

between two bodies of

masses m. and m2,

separated by distance X,

is directly proportional

to the product of the

masses, and inversely

proportional to the square

of their separation distance.

GEORGIA TECH • Physics of Six Flags 3 3

Newton's Second Law

Into the WUd Blue Yonder on the Air Racer

The rate of change of

linear momentum with

time is equal to the force

applied, and takes place

along the straight line in

which that force acts.

Newton's Third Law

Bang, Bam, Bash on the Bumper Cars

Every action is always opposed by an equal and

opposite reaction.

ry

Law of Accumulation, Production and Transport

Splashing, Crashing along Thunder River

The rate of accumulation of

a substance within a space

is equal to the rate of its pro­

duction within the space,

plus the rate at which it is

transported into the region.

3 4 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

I •

8 •

Whirling Around on the Night-time Carousel

The moment of inertia

of a body irilb respecl

lo any axis is Ihe sum

of the products oblaiiied

by multiplying each

elementary mass by

Ihe square of its

distance from Ihe axis.

Ifyou want a bank

that gets things done, welcome to

Personal Banking. welcome to V&chovia.

.<-

f i

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Member FDIC

WACHOVIA

I N D U S T R Y I S S U E S & E V E N T S F R O M I N F O R U M • A T L A N T A , G E O R G I A

INFORUM AND GEORGIA TECH: AN EVENT-FILLED RELATIONSHIP

A s a new Corporate Sponsor, but lifelong friend, of Georgia Tech, we at INFORUM would like to use our space in Tech Topics

and the Alumni Magazine to describe how the two organizations work together.

INFORUM, located in the heart of downtown Atlanta and just a few blocks from the Tech campus, is an innovative project that offers technology companies a special environment to market and sell their products and services. Designed by Georgia Tech alumnus John Portman, INFORUM also provides superior offices for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and leading companies like Lockwood Greene Engineers.

Two floors of INFORUM are a state-of-the-art conference and convention center with: . 450-seat business theatre

23,000 square foot General Assembly room 18 meeting rooms (including an Executive Board Room)

. 100,000 square foot Exhibit Hall Even before INFORUM's conference and

convention facilities were complete in September, 1989, Georgia Tech was scheduling or planning to participate in events there. Today, the list of Georgia Tech-related programs at INFORUM is long and growing, including the President's Dinner on May 8, honoring Georgia Tech's generous benefactors. But the INFORUM/Georgia Tech alliance only begins with events.

Georgia Tech is the only university to have a Marketing Center at INFORUM. Here the Institute, like 16 other high tech companies, demonstrates its "corporate capabilities."

Featured in the Marketing Center are the two interactive multimedia projects that Georgia Tech developed to help to bring the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta.

Georgia Tech faculty are often speakers for our Exec­utive Breakfast Briefing Series, which is designed to keep executives up-to-date on hot issues and hot technologies.

Another "Tech tie": Two of the companies with marketing centers at INFORUM —AccuTech Cable and Dickens Data Systems — were founded by Georgia Tech alumni Barry Heidt and Gordon Dickens.

And Georgia Tech Vice President for Information Technology F.L. (Bud) Suddath is a member of the INFORUM Advisory Board, a group that has done much to shape the programs of INFORUM.

We think that all of these connections and the many yet to come make INFORUM and Georgia Tech a true Techlanta Team.

To learn about how you, as a Georgia Tech graduate, can take advantage of INFORUM's Conference and Convention Center, technology marketing centers. Technology Briefing Service, Executive Breakfast Briefings, or business office opportunities, just call Brian Hogg (Tech Class of '61), Executive Vice Presi­dent and General Manager of INFORUM, at 1-800-343-5048. n

• T E E H B OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

The light Stuff Georgia Tech researchers iUurninate a new path to information processing

By John Toon Photographed by Gary Meek

Electronic computing is beginning to choke on its own success. Over the past 40 years, computers have revolutionized our world, first using relatively crude transis­

tors and now very large-scale integrated cir­cuits that hold thousands of devices on silicon wafers the size of a fingernail. Increasing the number of devices on a chip lowers the cost of electronic equipment, boosts its speed and re­duces its size. But the growing number of de­vices also creates an electronic traffic jam as data tries to reach different processing loca­tions within the same wafer.

"As computers become larger and more complex, the limitation is not how big a chip we can make, but how many inputs and out­puts we can get on and off the chip," explains Dr. Richard Higgins, director of Georgia Tech's Microelectronics Research Center. "Not only are you limited in the number of inputs and out­puts, but you have to send information through something as primitive as a mechani­cal connector.",

Continued next page

Student assistant Mark Jones adjusts laser beams for a holographic switching experi­ment being conducted by Dr. Carl \erber and Dr. John Uyemura. The unit is able to receive both electronic and optical inputs.

4 0 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Georgia Tech researchers are exploring new technologies that bypass mechanical limita­tions—with light. Electrons interact strongly with one another, meaning circuit designers must provide separate wires for each electronic signal. As chips hold more devices, the re­quired interconnection wiring takes up more and more space. But the photons that make up light don't interact strongly with each other, meaning signals carried by light can cross paths without affecting each other. More im­portantly, large numbers of optical signals can be carried in the same path without mixing or interfering. This ability to carry many signals in parallel offers a tremendous advantage to de­vice designers struggling to break information logjams.

Clearing an Information Logjam

Using a novel fabrication technique known as "epitaxial lift-off," a team of researchers at Tech's Microelectronics

Research Center is developing a low-cost method for placing tiny lasers, light modulators and detectors on silicon circuits. These devices can send information from virtually any loca­tion on a chip to another chip or, by bouncing the beam off a mirror, even to locations on the same chip. This work of Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst, Dr. Mark G. Allen and Dr. Martin Brooke will expand information flow by giving circuit de­signers a simple and inexpensive way to by­pass electronic connecting points traditionally located on the edges of wafers.

"There is goin'g'to be a shift in computer architecture from predominantly serial to mas­sively parallel, and when you look at massively

Tech scientists Harold Engler Qeft), Dr. Allen Garrison (middle) and Dr. Daye Hartup adjust an optical processor tjiat can analyze several signals simultaneously.

4 2 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Holographic patterns can be used to guide an array of laser beams which carry information to de­vices on electronic circuits.

parallel systems" optics begins to have a lot of advantages," saysjokerst.

More complex is a holographic interconnec­tion scheme used by electrical engineering pro­fessors Dr. Carl Verber and Dr. John Uyemura: Twin beams of shimmering green light flow through a maze of carefully aligned mirrors and lenses before converging on a tiny clear crystal of lithium niobate. The beams cross deep within the crystal's microscopic facets, projecting a complex pattern of light and dark spots on a white card behind the crystal. Verber and Uyemura use the holographic pat­terns to guide an array of laser beams which carry information to light-detecting devices on an electronic circuit. The scheme produces a unique hybrid device able to receive both elec­tronic and optical inputs.

Today most electronic processors are com­promises. That is, they are configured with enough flexibility to handle a range of opera­tions. Using the optical inputs, the two scien­tists can send signals to light-detecting cells on the surface of a processor. These cells then reconfigure the processor's operation, optimiz­ing it to handle a specific job.

The two scientists also use the holographic technique to feed many optical signals to an electronic circuit simultaneously, steering an array of optical beams to light detectors located on memory cells on the circuit.

The ability of this hybrid opto-electronic de­vice to load many bits of information at once could help resolve a long-standing problem: how to connect optical computers producing many parallel streams of information with elec­tronic computers.

"Electronics is intrinsically serial—it does one thing at a time, so when you want a faster computer, you buy one with a faster clock rate," explains Uyemura. "Optical computing is parallel, and it is hard to interface a parallel system to a serial system. But no matter how fast you can process something optically, you still must get it into an electronic system so someone can use it."

Continued next page

GEORGIA TECH • Optimizing Optics 4 3

4 4 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Wave guides covered with chemi­cally sensitive film can detect changes in light beams resulting from a chemical reaction.

I-

An Optical Jekyll and Hyde

Simply transmitting information opti­cally is not enough. To make a "smart" device requires that optical data

be switched and processed, tasks that are easy enough for electronic computers.

But here, one of the advantages of light aims against device designers. Since photons do not interact with one another, they cannot be made to trip a switch like electrons. One

Georgia Tech researcher Nile Hartman studies a wave guide, •which is used in de­veloping unique optical sensors.

/ .1

solution is to direct the photons through spe­cial materials that change when they absorb a photon. These changes can then be used to re­route succeeding photons. But in absorbing a photon, the material also absorbs energy, which in turn generates heat. When many pho­tons are absorbed, the heat gain can adversely affect the properties of the material, notes Dr. Chris Summers, director of Georgia Tech Research Institute's Physical Sciences Lab.

"In optical devices, you induce an optical change in the index of refraction, and that causes switching," he explains. "But the devices absorb a lot of optical power, so they heat up. Since their refractive index depends strongly on

temperature and changes in the opposite direc­tion to the electronic effects, the next light-pulse

Continued next page

The Optical Holy Grail

For all the innovative uses of light under development at Georgia Tech and elsewhere, one application has

long been the photonic version of a I loly Grail: all-optical computing. Handling the operations of a computer through optics offers many attractions, including speed, parallelism, and the ability to process signals carried by optical fibers without conversion.

In January 1990, researchers from AT&T Bell Laboratories announced they had built the world's first digital optical processor, a development they described as an impor­tant step toward production of an all-optical computer. Coupled with earlier work, the news generated considerable excitement.

But many Georgia Tech researchers lx*-lieve business pressures on AT&T, and the difficult materials issues involved in making optical switches and modulators, may limit near-term progress in optical computing.

"Although it has a fair amount of glamour associated with it, optical computing is prob­ably not where the action is going to be over the next decade or so," says Dr. William Rhodes. "People have been trying to do optical computing for some time, and I just don't foresee it happening for the next decade or two."

To make optical computing a reality, de­signers have to tiy different approaches. "When you talk about building an optical computer, the whole concept changes," notes Dr. John Uyemura. "We can't mimic an electronic computer in optics."

So in the meantime, Georgia Tech scien­tists are pursuing areas where the massive parallelism of optics offers special advan­tages. And should the optical computer one day become a reality, it will likely be through the interconnects, processors, switches and other devices built by Georgia Tech scientists and engineers.

GEORGIA TECH • Optimizing Optics 4 5

•

fA

4 6 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Development of a single chip ca­pable of performing several vi­sual-processing functions will help machines emulate nature.

MARGARtT BARkhn PHOTO

I*

in the optical train is treated differently." Materials researchers are exploring ways

around this optical Catch-22, but until new materials are developed, switching light will require other techniques.

One such method employs optical gratings, patterns of lines which differentially bend the light-pulses passing through them. The amount of bending relates to the light's wavelength and the dielectric properties of the grating material. But because the dielectric properties can be changed electrically, gratings can be used dy­namically to steer light-pulses to specific loca­tions—or even to block certain wavelengths, Dr. Thomas Gaylord explains.

Other switching can be done by ferroelec­tric liquid crystals, most familiar for their use in electronic displays. In a project being done by Gaylord, Dr. Timothy Drabik and Nile Hanrnan, phase changes prompted by elec­tronic or optical signals alter the ferroelectric crystals, re-directing incoming light pulses.

Yet another optical switching scheme pro­posed by Verber could speed long-distance communications. Long-distance telephone calls now travel mostly on optical fiber. Every time they are re-routed, they must be converted to electronic signals for switching. Once past the switch, they are converted back to their optical form. Each conversion introduces a delay.

Verber proposes to split off a portion of the optical signal at each switch. That small portion would be converted into an electronic signal and used to direct operation of the switch, leaving the main signal in its optical form.

"We want to have the whole thing done op­tically," Verber says. "The aim is to build a communications system in which the data go from the transmitting mode to the receiving

Continued

Dr. Steve Deweerth displays the vision elec­tronics that will guide small robots. He is developing circuits which receive images pixel-by-pixel, process them and send out motor-control signals—all on a single chip.

GEORGIA TECH • Optimizing Optics 4 7

AT&T researchers caused consid­erable excitement when they an­nounced that they had built the first digital optical processor.

mode, and remain in optical form throughout." Switching and logic operations take time,

which means that a very slight delay must be built into the switch to give the electrons time to do their work. To do that, Verber is design­ing a fiber-optic "holding pattern," a kind of dynamic optical memory which holds the sig­nals in a loop until they are needed.

Helping Machines to See

Communications and computing are not the only places where Georgia Tech is tapping the power of light.

Optics also offers benefits for image processing and image recognition, abilities important to many Tech labs.

Dr. William Rhodes, director of the Center for Optical Science and Engineering, is inte­grating an optical image processor with a digi­tal computer to gain the best of the optical and electronic worlds. Though use of the analog optical processor might ordinarily create noise and accuracy problems, Rhodes' device handles data from each image pixel simulta­neously, and without degrading the perfor­mance of its host.

Improving image processing will require increased speed to make the resulting data available in real time. Dr. Steve Deweerth is developing circuits which receive images pixel-by-pixel, process them, and send out motor-control signals—all on a single chip. The tech­nique is useful for solving certain visual com­putation problems, and a prototype is being used to help a vehicle follow a light source, emulating the sensory systems found in nature.

Through the work of Georgia Tech scien­tists, the Infonnation Age is poised to embrace a new set of capabilities, as the solutions to many vexing problems are brought to light. •

i

John Toon is a writer in the Georgia Tech Research Institute Communications Office.

Georgia Tech scientist Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst furnace used to deposit galliuni arsenide, an

adjusts a special optical materiaL

4 8 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Devising Better Measures By John Dunn

TIhe method Atlantan Clifton A. Dukes Jr. has devised to mea­

sure the globe makes a world of sense, and the calendar he has proposed is so precise that the aver­age error per year is only one second.

So, why are his propos­als still gathering dust in the archives after 30 years?

Dukes, a 1942 textile engineering graduate, observes that the world is comfortable with historical precedent, even if it means grappling with the differ­ences between latitudes and longitudes, or having the first day of spring occur on as many as four different days.

Dukes, who is retired from the 1 )el ense Logistics Agency of the Department of Defense, came up with a concept ()i measuring spherical coordinates that was copyrighted in l°6l. The Department of Defense paid the expenses for his 1902 patent of transparent overlay shells for terrestrial globes, which uses his spherical coordinates.

The patent states that the three-dimensional shell overlay "makes it possible to define any given locus on the globe either by the conventional coordinate system or by a novel sys­tem wherein the meridians of longitude are replaced

by parallels of latitude (and wherein interpola­tions are made possible by a system of halved great circles atnning from east to west)."

While latitude and lon­gitude were adequate mea­surements for the civilized world when it was cen­

tered around the Mediter­ranean Sea, Dukes ob­serves, "the ancient world' was only concerned with those areas around the temperate zone—not how to measure a globe." While latitude and longi­tude measurement offers advantages to a navigator,

Tech grad Clifton Dukes: The key to new measure­ments of the globe and of the time it keeps are wrapped up in measuring great or dirriinishing circles in both, vertically and horizontally.

Dukes says* it "lends itself poorly to the determina­tion of geographical loci for use in automatic data-processing systems."

He adds, "There is no reason to measure one way from diminishing circles, and the other from great circles. What you want to do is either mea­sure off great circles— which is probably the best—or off diminishing circles in both directions, vertically and horizontally."

The patent, he says, was a means of protecting the monograph on the measurement of spherical coordinates. "As far as I know no globes were ever made using my overlay shells."

In 1964, Dukes received a copyright on a 128-year calendar based on the old Julian calendar because it contains the closest rela­tionship between the tropi­cal year and a solar-day calendar year.

"A calendar, to be use­ful for civil purposes, should contain a specific number of whole solar days [24 hours] and it should be so synchronized with the average tropical year that the days recur year after year as inflexibly as possible on the same tropical day," Dukes explains.

Dukes says his calendar confines the time for ar­rival of the first day of spring (vernal equinox)

Continued next page

GEORGIA TECH • Innovator: Dukes 4 9

Innovators

The lust calendur reform was made 410 years ago within the smallest limita­tions.

Keeping a calendar ac­curate is a historical prob­lem. That's because the tropical year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds.

The Roman calendar used before 45 B.C. was based on a 365-day tropi­cal year, which resulted in an error of one day every four years. The Julian cal­endar, intended to correct the Roman calendar, had exactly 365 days and six hours. An extra day was added to the calendar ev­

ery four years. The tropical year was

still 11 minutes and 14 sec­onds shorter than the Julian calendar, resulting in a one-day error every 128 years.

By the year 1582, the cumulative error between the Julian calendar and the tropical year was approxi­mately 10 days, prompting Pope Gregory XIII to intro­duce his reforms and, ac­cording to Dukes, "It was an inadequate job.

"The result of juggling 'leap years on a century basis in the Gregorian cal­

endar is that within a 400-year period the tropical year may be as much as 33 hours, 16 minutes and 18 seconds longer than an average Gregorian year, or as much as 18 hours, 43 minutes and 20 seconds shorter," he says.

"In order to have the least error in a calendar for civil purposes, the average Julian year must be the basic year," he argues. "The logical question then arises. When should a cor­rection be made? The logi­cal answer is when the error between the tropical

year and the average Julian year most closely approxi­mates a whole solar day."

Since that occurs every 128 years, do it then, Dukes says. "The result would be an average error with the tropical year of only one second per year."

The cumulative error of his calendar would amount to one day every 86,400 years, he says. "That's about as accurate as you can get."

Will his ideas ever be­come accepted? Dukes thinks they will. Time, he believes, is on his side. •

1 he Ballroom at our

grand hotel debuted January

1991. Downtown, in the

heart of Atlanta. Boasting

6,500 sq. ft. of magnificent

meeting space, elegantly

appointed with crystal chan­

deliers, fine art and antiques.

Gourmet cuisine prepared

expressly by our catering staff.

A conference concierge to

take care of all the details.

And, of course, uncompro­

mising personal sewice. For

more information please call

404-659-0400 or 800-

241-3333, toll-free. Well put

you up where you belong.

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

THE RITZ-CARLTON ATLANTA

5 0 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

Debu & Dedicated

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

After two decades of working to give Atlanta's high-tech companies a truly supportive environment, Technology Park/Atlanta has learned how to take the bugs out of real estate. What's more, we're still firmly dedicated to you and your corporate well-being.

Our experience in developing nurturing surroundings and creating a community for high-tech businesses has strengthened our original dedication to serving the industry. Maybe that's why so many major firms call Technology Park/Atlanta home, while a host of smaller organizations have also been attracted here. We've provided these younger companies with competitively priced space and given them an ideal place to grow. And there's still room for more.

Call 246-6000 for details about Technology Park/Atlanta. Where the bugs have been worked out, and the dedication to your success kept in.

Technology Park/Atlanta is home to:

Advanced Micro Devices Computer Aided Communications, Inc. Electromagnetic Sciences General Electric Medical Systems Glasrock Intel Corporation Interactive Planning Systems Iterated Systems LXE Corporation

NCR

ISI Systems

Scientific Atlanta Software Alternatives, Inc.

Spalding Software

UNISYS Corporation

Universal Microsystems, Inc.

Wegener Communications

TECHNOLOGY PARKMTWNW A Development of Technology Park/Atlanta, Inc.

40 Technology Park. Norcross. Georgia 30092 (404)246-6000

Pacesetters

Steady Course

In early 1987, when many Wall Street firms were hawking pack­

aged products at the expense of personal service, Bob Balentine chartered his own course.

Balentine, a 1955 indus­trial management graduate, and his son, Robert Jr., founded Balentine & Co. in Atlanta, an investment advisory firm dedicated to providing "impeccable service" to a wealthy clientele.

The firm has experi­enced steady growth throughout its five-year history. The slate of ser­vices has been expanded to include corporate fi­nance and pension-fund management. Assets under management have more than tripled and are now approaching $400 million. And the firm has achieved this against a background of industry volatility.

"Consistent and steady wins the race," says Balentine, who serves as chairman of the firm.

"We don't do anything fancy; we just help people with their financial needs."

Balentine has earned recognition for his work. For the past four years, he has been featured in articles profiling the nation's top-10 investment advisors—twice in Money magazine, and twice in Town & Country magazine. Georgia Trend magazine has also highlighted the Atlanta firm in its statewide top-10 review.

Balentine credits his company's success to a mix of conservative busi­ness philosophy, a net­work of professionals, per­sonal service and a care­fully crafted long-term strategy.

"Successful investors identify trends and take advantage of what the markets—bond and stock—allow them to do," Balentine adds. "They identify a long-term trend and implement the strategy."

Balentine, who de­scribes himself as "pru-dently aggressive," says he makes decisions based on the answers to obvious questions: "Does it make sense? Is it simple enough to be understood? Does it fit the client's needs and objectives?"

Although he is a Wall Street refugee, Balentine has a strong affinity for the industry.

The respect is mutual. He is serving on the Na­

tional Association of Secu­rities Dealers Board of Governors, the enforce­ment arm of the Securities and Exchange Commis­sion. He is past vice chair­man of the Business Committee, District 7, and past chairman of the Local Firms Committee of the Securities Industry Association.

Balentine has taken an active role in his commu­nity. Ha has served on the board of, directors of the Salvation Army for more

than a decade. Housing for the working poor is an is­sue of critical importance to Balentine. He and his firm participate in a pro­gram sponsored by F.C.S. Urban Ministries which builds affordable houses

in the Summerhill area of Atlanta.

"We treat people the way we like to be treated,' explains Balentine.

"That is the sum and substance of Balentine & Co." •

"Consistent and steady wins the race," says Bob Balentine, who serves as chairman of Balentine & Co., an investment advisory firm headquartered in Atlanta. "We don't do anything fancy; we just help people with their financial needs."

5 2 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

A Brief Case For Your Business. $48°° week-days $40°° week-ends

The plush Board Room in our Conference Center is ready to serve our Ga. Tech VIP's.

Excellent service Spacious rooms, newly decorated 27,000 square feet of meeting space Confirmed rates 365 days a year

Week-days $48.00, single or double Week-ends $40.00, single or double

Free transportation to and from Georgia Tech and Lenox Square Two restaurants, two lounges, large pool and garden area

PL4Z4 Hotel S. Conference Center

At Lanier Plaza, service is our specialty!

n • TECH m

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

418 Armour Drive / 1-85 Morth at Monroe Drive / Atlanta, Georgia 30324 (404) 873-4661 / 800-554-8444 / 800-282-8222 (in GA)

Buzz BACK To CAMPUS 1HJS * WEEKEND!

\

Nl

Special Georgia Tech

From

4 ' . ^ . $

Alumni Rates

k *

per night, not per person

Including Breakfast For Two

>' 7

I TECH I

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Enjoy your next Yellow Jacket reunion in style at the Sheraton Colony Square Hotel. Located just blocks from the Georgia Tech campus, this brand-new Sheraton features all of the fine amenities you have come to expect from a luxury hotel, including:

• 461 elegantly-appointed guest rooms

• Outstanding dining and lounge alternatives

• Refreshing outdoor pool, with athletic club, jogging trails and tennis nearby

• Ideal location in the heart of Atlanta's entertainment district and adjacent to Colony Square Mall

*Single or double occupancy; subject to availability. Taxes and gratuities are not included. Free full American breakfast for two adults per room per day each Fri., Sat. or Sun. morning, including meal tax.

Don't let this offer fly by! Call (800) 422-2527 or (800) 422-7895 (outside GA)

-**• "x

Jt

Sheraton Colony Square H O T E L

i MIDTOWIN ATLANTA Peachtree at 14th Street • Atlanta, GA 30361

(404) 892-6000

ITT SHERATON.THE NATURAL CHOICE

Research

Construction Simulator yA computer visual

Z ^ L simulator is being ^ L J L . developed by re­searchers at Georgia Tech to help construction man­agers organize people, ma­terials and machines.

The Construction Visu-alizer (CV) would allow managers to simulate con­struction processes at a particular site—to plan equipment and material placement, for example.

The simulation would pro­vide information in three dimensions and real time, and include input from all key planners involved in the design and construc­tion processes.

The dynamic nature of construction operations dictates that site needs change quickly and fre­quently. By simulating the entire construction project on a computer, the design

Using one CV option, the material hoister, or elevator, used on a construction project could be simulated.

team can move back and forth through the process and make changes in re­sponse to problems that arise, and experiment with "what-if' scenarios.

By including informa­tion from all parties in­volved, the simulation of­fers the added benefit of improving communication among the client, archi­tects, engineers, contrac­tors and workers.

CV is being developed in C programming lan­guage, and uses a UNIX-based workstation to dis­play several different con­struction situations.

Computer Graphics

A 3-D optical digitizer developed at Georgia Tech's Multi-Media Tech­nology Laboratory could bring sophisticated com­puter animation and spe­cial-effects capabilities to desktop computer sys­tems, say researchers.

The device scans com­plex three-dimensional objects and generates de­tailed computer descrip­tions, which serve as a foundation for computer­ized manipulation to pro­duce dramatic images. The descriptions are encoded in standard .DXF format files, and may be quickly imported into existing electronic sculpting soft­ware.

The Tech invention is a substantial improvement over current optical scan­

ners because it can handle finer detail, thus eliminat­ing the tedious and time-consuming touchup work now done manually with pen digitizers, and can handle objects as large as the human figure.

In addition, Tech researchers believe their prototype can be commer­cialized and sold for only about one-eighth the price of current scanners.

The 3-D optical digitizer is an outgrowth of the in­novative work done by Tech researchers in creat­ing the Olympic video, which played a major role in Atlanta's successful bid presentation for the 1996 Olympics.

Environmental Simulation

Engineers can tap a powerful new computer simulator to improve the performance and lower the operating costs of waste­water treatment facilities.

The simulation system is derived from software Georgia Tech researchers originally developed to help the Air Force trouble-shoot its complex military electronics equipment. A key component is a sophisticated electronic circuit simulator capable of generalized problem-solving.

This capability is exploited to determine the growth activity of microbes; the effect of add­ing a more concentrated

Continued next page

GEORGIA TECH • Research 5 5

Research Continued from previous page

Wastewater treatment faculties demand complex simulations

food stream to a waste­water reactor; or what may happen if toxic chemicals get into the reactor.

As water quality stan­dards have become more stringent, systems to treat municipal and industrial wastewater have grown increasingly complex. Computer models of their operation must consider more than 13 interrelated variables.

Since wastewater treat­ment systems operate under constantly changing conditions, engineers must consider the dynamic

nature of many of those variables, such as sudden surges of water from thun­derstorms.

The simulator allows engineers to more fully consider all design options for treatment plants, and enables facility operators to examine how an exist­ing system would behave under various conditions. And because it could simulate the complete operation of a proposed new facility, the system could be used by regula­tory agencies to ensure the validity of a new design.

Educating Robots

Georgia Tech research­ers have developed a soft­ware-based system that helps robots improve per­formance by learning from their errors.

The system uses algo­rithms integrated into a robot's existing learning controller, and improves the machine's performance faster than the alternative of replacing or modifying the controller itself. It is a less-expensive upgrade because it involves only

software changes instead of major hardware modifi­cations.

Scientists conducted trials with an IBM 7545 robot equipped with the new software. The robot com­pared its arm movement to an ideal path and cor­rected it a little each time. After only five cycles it was performing as well as its physical limitations and sensors would allow. Most existing learning-control­lers require about 100 rep­etitions before maximum improvement is obtained, researchers said. •

$105 A NIGHT JACKETS REQUIRED

A special rate for Tech fans only. Weekends through- JJ[J?HL appointed room at the heart of downtown Adanta. For out football and basketball seasons. Afterward, relax -^7 reservations, call 404-659-0400 or 800-241-3333 and with a drink. Or enjoy sumptuous dining in The Res- w^J-Ca ask about the Yellow Jacket Weekend. And tor just $105 taurant or The Cafe. Then settle back in a luxuriously raffffr a night, you can stay at a legend when you cheer one on.

, THE RITZ-CARLTON ATLANTA

5 6 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

HowDoYwiManage500/)00Bucks? Very carefully. It's our strong suit at Trust Company Bank,

Georgia's largest trust and investment manager. We can help you coordinate your investments into one cohesive financial plan designed to conserve your capital while investing it for maximum returns.

Our skill is a matter of record. Over the last five years we've consistently outperformed the S&P stock market average. Talk to us about your financial goals. We do not work on commission, so our advice will be completely objective. Our fees are based on how well we perform for you.

For more information, mail the coupon or call a financial manager in our Trust and Investment Management Group. We're confident you'll like the way we can help you manage your bucks.

SunTrust, A SunTrust Bank, Trust Company Bank and the T Design are service marks of SunTrust Banks, Inc.

I 1 TaMo Someone Who Knows.

For afree copy of our brochure call 404-230-1819 or mail this coupon to William A. Sterne, Group Vice President. Trust Company Bank, EO. Box 4418, Atlanta, GA 30302.

Profile

A Symphony of Numbers By John Dunn

y ^ s a music student at yL^kihe Israel Hebrew

J L J L . Conservatory in Tel Aviv, Uzi Landman's ambition was to become a composer and conductor. In his fourth year of study, Landman was conducting a community orchestra performance attended by the young, musically ac­claimed Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim heard errors and word got to Landman.

"I heard him conduct and perform, and I real­ized that I would do a very good thing if I would get out of conducting," Land­man says and laughs. "I

think both of us made good choices."

Landman, who learned to play the accordion be­cause his family could not afford a piano, abandoned boyhood aspirations and began playing profession­ally, paying his way through college in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics, which he earned in 1966. The following year he earned his master's in chemical physics and in 1969, his PhD in theoreti­cal chemistry.

Based on the fourth floor of Howey Building, Landman now conducts a symphony of numbers,

The Landman File 1969: Receives PhD in theoretical chemistry, Israel Institute of Technology. 1970: Visiting assistant professor of chemistry, University of California at Santa Barbara. 1971: Research assistant professor of physics, University of Illinois, Urbana. 1975: Senior fellow, Department of Physics and Astronomy, LIniversity of Rochester. 1977: Associate professor, School of Physics, Georgia Tech. Becomes professor, 1979. 1984: Named Nordita professor, Chalmers Univer­sity of Teclinology, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Goteborg, Sweden. 1985: Named professor (part time), Department of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University. 1988: Regents' professor, School of Physics, Georgia Tech. 1988-89: Associate dean for research, College of Science and Liberal Studies, Georgia Tech. 1991: Institute professor and editor, Journal of Computational Material Science\

using computer-based simulations to bring har­mony to his investigation of microscopic origins of macroscopic phenomena.

A Regents' professor in physics and Institute pro­fessor, Landman heads a research group in Tech's Computational Materials Science Center that has earned international re­nown for its work in the broad spectrum of materi­als systems and computer simulations of complex physical and chemical phe­nomena. He has produced pioneering research in the field of quantum and clas­sical molecular dynamics.

"The computer is won­derful," Landman says en­thusiastically, his thick voice carrying the accent of his native Israel. "You give it a complicated math­ematical computation and it executes at tremendous speed. We are involved with the solution of an enormous number of coupled equations; the motions of atoms and elec­trons in materials systems are all coupled to one an­other."

Computer simulation has progressed beyond "counterfeiting reality," Landman says. "We now can actually predict phe­nomena before the experi­ment is done, or we can explain observations with great precision.

"In simulation, you have full control of the theoreti­

cal model that goes into the simulation. You play God with the system. You can add or subtract an interaction. You can elimi­nate a certain part and see its effect. You see the sum total of all this influence."

Landman has excelled in several areas of materi­als and condensed matter, most recently in tribology —research concerning the design, friction, wear and lubrication of interacting surfaces in relative motion, such as bearings.

"We were the first to bring to the foreground a realistic, detailed atomistic theory of friction and wear processes," Landman says.

"We start from the mun­dane phenomena of fric­tion, which usually is in the hands of engineers, and we end up with atomistic mechanics and physics," he adds. "That's what I find is the fascina­tion. You can apply your­self to engineering, techno­logical problems, as well as to fundamental physical problems and have a good time with it."

It is research that has very practical applications. "If you want to build a bet­ter tire," he says, "you need to understand what makes it wear. And what makes it wear are chemical and physical processes that occur on a microscopic molecular scale. So you have to ask, 'What is it in the tire's molecules?'"

5 8 GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1992

MARGARET BARRETT PHOTO

Tech physicist Uzi Landman: Pioneering research in computer simulations

He has done extensive research on lubricants. "You're n< >t going to de­velop lubricants that work under veiy extreme condi­tions and won't break down, unless you really understand what it is in the structure of the lubricant that makes it live longer— that makes it lubricate."

Other research has in­volved the causes of radia­tion damage to live tissue. "To understand the nature of the damage and how to inhibit it takes microscopic research of the nature of electrons in fluids. We start with irradiating a tissue, causing it damage, and we end up studying the quan­tum mechanics of elec­trons and reactions in aqueous media—because a good part of us is water."

His work in tribology and other materials prob­lems has been noted in Scientific American, for which he is writing an article, Science, and the British journal, Nature.

A few months ago, a Japan Broadcasting Corp. film crew inteiviewed Landman and his research group at the computer simulation lab, focusing on the group's work in nano-tribology, surfaces and in­terfaces for a production titled, "The Nano-Space."

Landman's group has also made computer-gen­erated videos. "We inno­vated a number of ways of visualizing the results of simulations," Landman adds. "Visualization and animation are becoming integral parts of our re­search. Through this view of the microscopic world, you give kids a sense of excitement. If you visualize something, you can relate to it. It's not all buried in some heavy mathematical formula."

Landman came to Tech in 1977 from 1 the University of

Rochester. His only stipula­tion was access to a good

portion of the Tech com­puter. Over the years, as much as 80 percent of all the computational re­sources on campus have been devoted to Land­man's group, which now uses off-campus resources.

"All of the simulations that we do are very large-scale simulations," Land­man states. "Computer re­sources are limiting us. Al­though we are big-time users of various national facilities, we really need our own supercomputer."

Landman teaches graduate courses dealing with condensed matter of solid-state physics, but he also teaches entry-level courses in physics.

"It's a challenge to get students really involved, to give them the sense of excitement—that this is a worthwhile intellectual en­deavor. That it has value to all of us, not only as some­thing that will improve our technology, but something that will enrich us as intel­

lectual human beings. "It's an educational chal­

lenge to go before 150 stu­dents, not all of whom wish to be there," he adds. "You have to perform, and I like to perform. I like to make them laugh. I like to make them enjoy it. I like for them to feel that they really are understanding the way nature works."

Although he started out in chemistry, in the early 1970s he transferred to physics.

"Many areas are so in­terdisciplinary that it does not matter to me what the label is—chemistry, phys­ics, biology, engineering. The phenomena is the in­terest. If it happens to be in mechanical engineering, that's fine. If it happens to be in the ivory towers of theoretical physics, that's fine, too—as long as it is of interest and we can actu­ally advance the field.

"It may be naively fear­less—we attack very diffi­cult, complex problems. And that may be the strength of this group. We're very open. We're looking for problems that seem to be unsolved; problems that have such intricacies that they don't seem to have an explana­tion," he says.

"The funny thing is that quite often, after long and complex studies, the prin­ciples underlying the solu­tions to many hard prob­lems are rather simple." •

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Landman 5 9

DON'T LET OURYELEOW JACKET

WEEKEND RYBY $105PERNIGHT Take off for a grand weekend at The

Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead. You can shop next door at Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square. Give

qur pool and fitness center a workout. Or enjoy elegant surroundings featuring live jazz

in The Bar. And delicious dishes created by our award-winning chefs. On Sundays we boast

Atlanta's best brunch. And finally—a gracious room with a lovely view of Atlanta. Just call

800-241-3333 or 404-237-2700 for reservations. At a price that doesn't sting.

o 0 0

THE RITZ-CARLTON BUCKHEAD

«Thffc*iinfHo*kofttKmxtd*

n • T E C H m

OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

The Official Georgia Tech

Watch by Seiko

A Seiko Quartz timepiece.

Featuring a richly de­tailed three-dimensional

re-creation of the Georgia Institute of

Technology Seal, finished in 14 kt. gold.

Electronic quartz move­ment guaranteed

accurate to within fifteen seconds per

month.

The leather strap wrist watches are $200 each; the two-tone bracelet wrist watches are $265 each; and the pocket watch with matching chain (not illustrated) is $245. There is a $7.50 shipping and handling fee for each watch ordered. On shipments to Pennsylvania, add 6% state sales tax. A convenient interest-free payment plan is available through the distributor, Wayneco Enterprises, Inc., with seven equal monthly payments per watch (shipping, handling and full Pennsylvania sales tax, if applicable, is added to the first payment). To order by MasterCard or Visa, please call toll free 1-800-523-0124. All callers should request Operator E72JS. Calls are accepted weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Eastern time). To order by mail, write to: Georgia Tech Alumni Association, c/o P.O. Box 670, Exton, PA 19341-0670 and include check or money order, made payable to: "Official Georgia Tech Watch". Credit card orders can also be sent by mail—please include full account number and expiration date. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

Actual diameters of watches are as follows: pocket watch 1-1/2", men's 1-3/8", ladies 15-16".

© 1992 db

Georgia Tech recognizes and honors the 1991

CORPORATE LIAISON member companies for their support of scientific research

and academic excellence: AEL (American Electronic

Laboratories, Inc.)

ALCOA

Asea Brown Boveri

Bell Communications Research

BellSouth

Boeing

Duke Power

GTE Telecommunications Products and Services

Hayes Microcomputer Products

OFFICIAL 3PONSON ALUMNI MAGAZINE

HBO & Company of Georgia

Hercules

Hughes

Kimberly-Clark

Lockheed

Martin Marietta

MCC/Panasonic

Metallgesellschaft AG

Michelin

NCR

Nippon Shokubai

Northern Telecom/ Bell Northern Research

Northrop

Phillips Petroleum

Rockwell International

R.R. Donnelley & Sons

Russell

Shaw Industries

Teledyne

Union Pacific Railroad

United Technologies

Yokogawa

For membership information, please contact the Georgia Tech Corporate Liaison Program at (404) 894-7488

The Georgia Tech Ahimni Magazine Georgia Tech Alumni Association Atlanta, Georgia 30332

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Atlanta, GA Permit No. 1482