/ \nj iv ir>i i IVI/ \VJ/ \Z J IIN C vvinier zuuo

"My gifts to Tech reward excellent teaching and help raise the status of senior faculty members committed to the role of teaching undergraduates/'

Georgia lech

For more information on supporting Georgia Tech through a bequest or life-income gift, please contact: Office of Development • Gift Planning • Atlanta GA 30332-0220 • 404.894.4678 • founderscouncil@dev.gatech.edu

Geoffrey G. Eichholz Regents' Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Atlanta, Georgia

• Native of Hamburg, Germany; expelled from Technical University Berlin after Kristallnacht.

• Undergraduate degree in physics, PhD, and DSc, University of Leeds, England.

• From 1951 to 1963, head of the Physics and Radiotracer subdivision of the Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys.

• In 1963, hired as the first faculty member in Georgia Tech's new School of Nuclear Engineering; retired as Regents' Professor in 1988.

• Wrote Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power, 1976; author of or contributor to ten other books; holder of three patents.

• Georgia Tech Outstanding Teacher Award, 1973; Fellow of American Nuclear Society; Fellow and recipient of the Robley T. Evans Commemorative Medal of the Health Physics Society.

• In retirement, teaches history and geopolitics at the Senior University at Emory and Mercer Universities.

Gifts to Georgia Tech • With a gift in 2004, established

the Geoffrey G. Eichholz Faculty Teaching Fund.

• Charitable gift annuities designated for the Eichholz Faculty Teaching Fund after his death.

Thoughts on giving to Tech "The importance of good classroom teaching and turning out well-taught students can often be overlooked. My gifts to Tech reward excellent teach­ing and help raise the status of senior faculty members committed to the role of teaching undergraduates. Charitable gift annuities, and the income I receive from them, were the best way for me to make a substantial, enduring gift while preserving my resources."

Geoffrey G. Eichholz joins Founders' Council's 951 members who have made bequests or life-income gifts of at least $25,000 in support of Georgia Tech's future.

Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech A Centennial History of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association

This fascinating book and DVD set marks the 100-year anniversary of your Georgia Tech Alumni Association and will make the perfect gift for any Georgia Tech graduate. The hardback book includes a foreword penned by Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as a Photomosaic of the Ramblin1 Wreck composed of 2,600 images of alumni, friends, leaders and legends of Ramblin1 Wreck history. A 24-minute DVD, produced by our award-winning Living History Department, provides historic pictures, movie and news clips and colorful narration that complete the history of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

"Tech's celebration of the Association's centennial anniversary is a time for remembering the many wonderful highlights of the past and for using that past as a

springboard to the incredible future opportunities that lie ahead."

— Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough

http://gtalumni.org/site/Page/Shop

Order the centennial history through the Alumni Association for $39.95, plus shipping and handling. For more information, call 1-800-GT-ALUMS.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Centennial Celebration Cover Story Wheeling the centennial year of the Alumni Association off to a roaring start are, left to right, Joe Irwin, president; Meade Sutterfield, chair; Janice Wittschiebe, past chair; Bill Todd, chair for FY 09; and Tech President Wayne Clough.

Cover Illustration: Bob Braun

Ramblin'Wrecks From Georgia Tech

UntTHWlM

Is It Live or Is It AR? By blending digital creations with our view of the world, augmented reality is set to transform the way we entertain and educate ourselves.

From Lab to Market TI:GER teaches students to commercialize technology. A collaboration between Georgia Tech and the Emory Law School, the program is national­ly recognized for its success in developing entrepreneurs.

Starts, Sputters and Smokers An excerpt from the new book "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech" describes the hesitant beginnings of the Alumni Association and profiles the organization's early leaders.

Britain's Nuclear Chief Bill Coley leaves retirement and the United States "up for the challenge" of tackling energy obstacles in the United Kingdom.

rinter2008?KE %

Viewpoint Celebrating a Century

Feedback Our readers write

In Focus • Flower Power • Painless Vaccine

Interview Marilyn Somers: A Centennial Story

In Quotes Comments in the media from the Georgia Tech community

>

Tech Notes • PECASE

Winners • Green Carpet

Standards • Theory of

Everything' • Science Fellows • Bright Idea

for Funding • Petascale

Computing • Executive MBA • Humanitarian

Relief

Bookshelf 'A Contract with the Earth': A Tech Technology Solution

A Watercolor by Tom Ventulett

Pacesetters Roger Andresen: Mapping Out a Game Plan

Pacesetters Niles Bolton: Designed to Sell

Pacesetters Edward Morgan: The Little Engine That Could Not

White, Gold and Irish Green Georgia Tech Ireland opens doors to economic opportunity in an ambitious research

initiative involving students, faculty and companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Faculty Profile Bonnie Heck Ferri: Digital Logic

Alumni Almanac Anak is founded; building and enroll­ment jump; Silicon Valley takes note of Tech; and the Alumni Association promises Depres­sion-era grads: "We'll stay with you, regardless."

Photo Finish About Face: The Georgia Tech Alumni Association represents thou­sands of people, including those who submitted their photographs to illustrate they are Ramblin' Wrecks in a computer-gener­ated work of art.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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With Gas South you get great service and competitive rates on natural gas, and support the home team at the same time! For every Georgia Tech Alumni, faculty, staff or friend that signs up with us, Gas South will make a contribution to the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

To sign up for Gas South natural gas service, call 1-866-563-8129, or visit www.gas-south.com/affinity, and use promo code 1885. Already a Gas South customer? No problem! Visit www.gassouth.com/affinity and register your account to support the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

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GAS (i) SOUTH

V I E W P O I N T S

Georgia Tech Alumni A s s o c i a t i o n

Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, Publisher

John C. Dunn, Editor Kimberly Link-Wills, Managing Editor Leslie Overman, Assistant Editor Everett Hullum, Design

Alumni Association Executive Committee C. Meade Sutterfield, EE 72 Chair

Janice N. Wittschiebe, Arch 78, M Arch 80 Past Chair

William J. Todd, IM 71 Chair-elect/Finance

Joseph W. Evans, IM 71 Vice Chair for Roll Call

Thomas Davenport III, IM 84 Terry Graham, IM 69 Sonya C Rush, ChE 81 Members At Earge

Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 President

Advertising Maris Ozug (404) 894-0766 • E-mail: maris.ozug@alumni.gatech.edu

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine (ISSN: 1061-9747) is published quarterly (Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring) for contributors to the annual Roll Call of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. NW, Atlanta, GA 30313. Georgia Tech Alumni Association allocates $10 from a contribution toward a year's subscription to its magazine. Periodical postage paid at Atlanta, GA and additional mailing offices. © 2008 Georgia Tech Alumni Association Main Number (404) 894-2391.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. NW, Atlanta, GA 30313. Editorial phone (404) 894-0750/0760. Fax (404) 385-4637. E-mail: editor@alumni.gatech.edu; gtalumni.org.

Celebrating a Century In 1908, there were no zippers. No refrigerators. No radios. No color TV. No air conditioning. No telephones. No electric power. No freeways. No antibiotics. No duct tape. The list goes on. There was a newfangled machine called a Tin Lizzie but more commonly known to us now as the 1908 Ford Model T.

Why does this matter? Well, when you consider that the Georgia Tech Alumni Association will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year, you get a sense of how things have changed. It's been a century of remarkable change. Here's what hasn't changed. "The object of this Association shall be to promote the cause of technical education in Georgia and the South and to establish and maintain scholarships; to aid in the development of the Georgia School of Technology; to pro­mote the mutual interest of the members of the Association."

This was the mission as stated on those charter papers in 1908. Sure, we've changed the words a bit, but the spirit of what this Associa­tion is all about hasn't changed. And maybe that's why we're celebrat­ing a century of service to Tech and its alumni — this mission is clear and ongoing.

We had fewer than 400 alumni back then. Today, we have almost 118,000. There were 541 students including 125 apprentices. Today, we have 18,736 students. There were 45 faculty and staff members. Today, we have 900-plus faculty and 5,300-plus staff. The football team went 6-3. Baseball went 1-5. Basketball went 10-11.

So join us this year as we celebrate 100 years of serving and pro­moting Georgia Tech and our alumni. It's a remarkable tribute to those who came before us and those who will follow. And under the category of shameless promotion, get yourself a copy of our great book, "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," which is a centennial history of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. It comes with a bonus DVD. I know that you'll enjoy it.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Memories that last a lifetime. Payments that don't.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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> > F E E D B A C K

Thanks for Guilt Trip Many thanks for the guilt trip set

upon me and my fellow Georgia

Tech alumni from your Fall mag­

azine article on Judith Curry

and her "Meteoric Rise." I fully

expect to read the rebuttal arti­

cle to Ms. Curry's opinions on

man-made global warming in

the next issue of our beloved

apolitical ALUMNI MAGAZINE,

I often attempt to uncover

the quid pro quo when true sci­

entific research eventually

becomes junk science, and Ms.

Curry's responses to the ques­

tions and your title "Meteoric

Rise" certainly help unravel the

tangle. What was formerly unin­

teresting has now become pop­

ular (atmospheric science), and

Ms. Curry has certainly benefit­

ed personally from this popular

environmental movement by her

own admission. Her department

also has directly benefited from

her own promotion of man-

made global warming.

Her answer to the "how

have we contributed to global

warming and what do we do to

stop it" question was telling:

Yes, we contribute by burning

fossil fuels. But like all of her ilk,

no real solutions are presented.

I suppose the requisite solution

to her hypothesis will be left up

to us Georgia Tech mechanical

engineers to ponder, especially

those of us who make a living

liberating said carbon from its

under-earth dungeons. Alas, the

proposed solutions by the likes

of Ms. Curry so far only seek to

limit the industrial revolutions of

Third World regions experienc­

ing the economic growth that

we experienced 200 years ago.

I guess the natural skeptic

in me that was dormant before

my years at Tech needs to quiet

down. The rational half of my

brain that knows that man-made

greenhouse gas includes my

exhaling should begin listening

to the emotional half that

ignores the most prevalent natu­

rally occurring greenhouse gas

water vapor and the solar cycle

as the primary cause of the cur­

rent proposed warming trend.

"Pay no attention to the two-

thirds of the Earth covered by

water and please no longer

linger on the name Greenland

as we contemplate ditching our

refrigerators and air condition­

ers," sayeth my pre-Tech illogi­

cal youth.

So what is my quid pro quo,

you say? Maybe the quality of

life for my wife and three small

boys is my motive. Maybe it is

guilt over seeking a better life

than my forefathers who physi­

cally worked themselves into an

early grave. Only time will tell.

John C. Brunson, ME 94

Lawrenceville, Ga.

Kudos to Curry Another great ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

To Judith Curry (re: "Meteoric

Rise"): Excellence in education

in technology is the aim, and

you are providing an example of

what Tech is doing. Keep it up.

J.R. Anderson, ME 58,

MS IM 62

Germantown, Tenn.

Reporter Threw Softballs I was very disappointed to read

the interview with Judith Curry in

the Fall ALUMNI MAGAZINE. In an

age of environmentally driven

political correctness, where

hype and exaggeration are pre­

sented every day as fact, your

interviewer threw Ms. Curry

numerous softballs without once

diving deeper for some sub­

stance behind the claims.

The claim that "overwhelm­

ing scientific evidence is that

the Earth is warming and that

humans are contributing to a

significant part of it" is still very

much in dispute. I only needed

one Google search to find

numerous sites and articles that

refute man-made global warm­

ing. To print such a claim with­

out follow-up leads me to

believe that reporters are sent

out ill-prepared or perhaps Ms.

Curry's ideas are appealing to

the editorial staff.

I expect more from any

publication with Georgia Tech

on the cover. The majority of

your readers are engineers or

scientists. I believe presenting

such an unbalanced view of a

scientific subject is damaging to

the credibility of the Institute.

Scott Ellis, IE 89

Suwanee, Ga.

Space-age Graffiti The mention of the Sputnik

satellite in the Fall issue prompt­

ed a recollection. I believe in

the hall of the physics building

there was a large poster from

GE that illustrated the proposed

"world's first orbiting satellite" to

be launched by the U.S. and

included weight, perigee and

apogee.

Shortly after the launch of

Sputnik I, some thoughtful stu­

dent crossed through the data

on the poster and penned in

that of Sputnik.

Charles Hand, IE 58

Canton, N.C.

Why Go to Mars? The article "Missions Accom­

plished" in the Fall ALUMNI

"The claim that 'over-helming scientific

evidence is that the Earth is warming and that humans are con­tributing to a signifi­cant part of it' is still very much in dispute," says one reader.

MAGAZINE was quite interesting.

Many articles about NASA get

into the matter of a manned trip

to Mars. I have never read such

an article without having the

question raised in my mind:

What is the real purpose of such

a flight?

Recently I read that it had to

be done as a matter of saving

civilization. That does seem to

be a stretch. Another line of

We Welcome Mail The ALUMNI MAGAZINE welcomes

letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for clarity, space and content. Mail/e-mail to: Georgia Tech Alumni

Publications 190 North Ave. NW Atlanta, GA 30313 Fax: (404) 385-4637 editor@alumni.gatech.edu

8 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

thinking is that NASA is there and they have to have some­thing to keep working on. We know from past experience that it is hard to stop a government program once it gets firmly established.

I wish that someone would lay out the need for such a pro­gram. It doesn't seem to have the same degree of the unknown as existed when Columbus and other early Earth explorers set out on their voy­ages to the unknown. It would be an extremely expensive, long-term program.

We have many problems on Earth that need to be solved. Would the space project pro­vide some perceived direct benefit to mankind that we can't do without? It is hard for me to imagine a large group of cheer­ing and excited people saying, "Thank God, someone is finally going to Mars."

If there are more concrete answers to this question, I would really enjoy reading about it in your magazine — or should I say our magazine?

Billy Wallace, EE 46 Stillwater, Okla.

Great Co-op Testament In reading the Fall issue of the

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE,

I was pleased to see our co-op and internship programs men­tioned in the "Tech Notes" sec­tion about the latest U.S. News rankings. The magazine has been ranking "Academic Programs to Look For" for a total of six years, 2002-07. It is with a tremendous sense of pride that Georgia Tech's co-op and internship programs have been ranked for all of these six con­secutive years. This is a great testament to our high quality of students and faculty.

Having the nation's largest totally optional co-op program, a sizable undergraduate profes­sional internship program, the nation's largest graduate co-op program and a rapidly growing work abroad program (all at a Tier I research university) make Georgia Tech's Division of Professional Practice unique when compared to peer institu­tions.

Not only am I personally proud to be a Georgia Tech co­op alumnus but extremely pleased to be a part of this effort at my alma mater!

Thomas M. Akins, IE 74 Executive director Division of Professional

Practice

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

D I N I N G O U T J

Wi 11LE D I N I N G IN. J M j

Just one of the many rewards of retirement at

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A family celebration. A spontaneous gathering of

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10 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Taking the QTLN& out of job hunting and recruiting!

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 11

Studies that have been carried out over the past 100 years show there is very little evident

> » MlNQUOTESJJ

tJi If you are probing a cell to get a bit of information, how do you know that the cell is not going to respond by changing the information it reveals the next time you probe it? If you are probing a mole­cule, can you assume that the molecule will return to its original configura­tion before you test it the next time? We didn't think about this until we had been doing these

kinds of experiments for more than 10 years.

— Cheng Zhu Regents professor in the Coulter

Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech

and Emory University, on sciencedaily.com

Some people are waiting for the idea that is obvi­ously the winner right out of the box. And there cer­tainly are big ideas, but my experience is these

ideas are built, they're not just born. They usually come from putting other things together, refining ideas, letting it mature. And the bigger your idea and the more different your idea is, you never have consensus at the start... because they are all sitting there with the current mind-set.

— Danny Strickland Chem 70, chief innovation and

technology officer at The Coca-Cola Company, in the

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

To my knowledge, this is the tirst long-term study of this sort. It is groundbreak­i ng . . . and helps to forward human-robot interaction studies significantly.

— Ron Arkin • Regents professor and director of the College of

Computing Mobile Robot Laboratory, about toddlers bonding with a state-of-the-art robot

introduced in a classroom over five months, on nationalgeographic.com

People tend to react anthropo­morphic ally to the unit. They thank, they praise Roomba and they even reprimand Roomba if it doesn't behave.

— Ja Young Sung Georgia Tech student on a research team

studying why people become attached to a vacuum robot, giving it names and

even dressing it in clothes, on NPR

*$£-«££ A

w -.

igazine • Winter 2008

could substantiate any energy savings due to the advent of daylight-saving time. dam bneiion

director of research programs Strategic Energy Institute at Tech, onAtlantaWXIA-TV11Alive.com

Handoffs from one leader to the next are tricky because of the politics and intrigue that sur­round them, the complex nature of the CEO position and the dynamic nature of companies. For

that reason, they represent a time when the company

is vulnerable. — Nathan Bennett

Georgia Tech manage­ment professor and

co-author of a column on "Best

Practices in Succession

Planning" on Forbes.com

H i

The field is surviving; it's stressed, but it's hanging in there. The good thing is we recently devised a way to capture water from an under­ground spring and divert it for use on the field.

— Wayne Hogan associate athletics director for external relations at Georgia Tech, about water­

ing grass at Grant Field during a drought, in the Associated Press

If Florida is the only group in the world doing anything, you're not going to make a

dent in this. But some of the things that Florida is doing really could lead the way.

— Judith Curry chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

at Georgia Tech, concerning legislative efforts in Florida to curb

greenhouse gas emissions, in The Washington Post

What they're doing is coming to terms with reduced future profitability.

— Charles Mulford Georgia Tech management professor

concerning General Motors taking a $39 billion charge on a tax offset,

in The New York Times

The Internet is like a big wonderful house that was built in the 1970s. It's really important to you and you love it, but it may not do things you need it to do today. And while I'm not saying the house has termites, there are signs of decay.

— Ellen W. Zegura associate dean and chair of the computing science and systems division,

College of Computing, in The Chronicle of Higher Education

E-mail is the Trojan horse of office productivity. — Thomas "Danny" Boston • economics professor at Georgia Tech and owner of the EuQuant research firm, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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G e o r g i a T e c h Alumni Magazine • Winter ?W8 | %i

Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Tom Ventulett, BS 57, Arch 58, now spends more time at an easel than at a drafting table. Ventulett shared some of the floral watercolors he has painted at a show he and his wife hosted during which 85 of his works sold for between $400 and $500 apiece. All proceeds were donated to the South­eastern Flower Show. The Ventuletts are honorary chairs of the 2008 show, scheduled for Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. The American Institute of Architects recently awarded Ventulett the Bernard B. Rothschild Award for distinguished service to the profession of architecture in Georgia. A visiting professor in the College of Architecture, he and his family also endowed a distinguished

y** *

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* " * "Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Painlei Vaccini

Researchers Mark P*i r, left, of Georgia Tech and Richard Compans of Emory University are using National Institutes of Health grants totaling about $11.5 million over five years to develop a flu vaccine delivered through painless microneedles in patches applied to the skin. "Potentially, individuals could administer the vaccine to themselves, perhaps after receiving it in the mail," says Compans, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory's School of Medicine. Prausnitz, a professor in Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, says, "The possibility of replacing a hypodermic needle with a microneedle patch should significantly impact the way that other vaccines are delivered." The research could have implications for immunization programs in developing countries, where eliminating the use of hypodermic needles could make vaccines more widely available and address the problem of disease trans­mission caused by the reuse of conventional hypodermic needles. "We expect microneedles to be less painful than conventional hypodermic needles because they are too small to significantly stimulate nerve endings," Prausnitz adds. GT

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

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-rve, e M.vM1 GeorgiaOt7D v^dc ®{f T e c h

temblin' WreckTrom Georgia Te

And a heli'of an engineer-

A helluva, helluva, helJiuvaTneTIDvar+^eJlof an engineer,

^£ke all thejolly good fellovvsy

I'm

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Oh! If I had a daughter, sir,

I'd dress her in White and..Qgld.

And put her on thtescampuS

To cheer the Brave and Bold.

But if I had a son, sir,

I'll tell you what he'd do

| would yell, "To hell with Georgia,

like njs daddy uj3ed to do.

I wish I had a barrel of rum

6~

call *rw<^-

l * - / C ^ cki^or a r ^ >ugar three thousand pounds, H°ed - 5 ^ - T^X

W ^ ? 3 +Ae T ^ ^ o l l e g e t > l l to put it in

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Hell of an Engineer!

£j^yv\><

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I'd drink to ailaood fe1lo\

Who come from far and near.

XV

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A L L

TECHNOTES

Two Alumni Receive Young Scientist Honors Two Tech graduates

with doctoral degrees

have received national

early career awards:

Elliot Moore, below

left, for his work in

electronically analyz­

ing speech and

Chekesha Liddell,

below right, for her

studies of control

over light waves. Both

scientists' work was

recognized at a White

House ceremony.

Two Tech alumni, Elliot Moore and Chekesha Liddell, are among the 20 recipients of the Presi­dential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The award winners were honored at the White House in November.

Moore, EE 98, MS EE 99, PhD EE 03, is an assistant professor at Tech's Savannah, Ga., cam­pus. He teaches electrical and computer engineer­ing and conducts research in applying digital signal processing to speech analysis. Ultimately, Moore's work could provide the means for electronically analyzing speech to detect certain emotions or stress. He could improve existing methods for detecting deception as well as add a useful dimen­sion to human-computer interaction.

Moore was the first Savannah-based Tech fac­ulty member to win a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. He won that award in 2005 for a project titled "Extraction and Integration of Voice Source Features into the Acoustical Analysis of Spoken Affect."

Liddell, MatE 99, PhD MSE 03, is an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Cornell University, where she studies how non-spherical particles can be induced to arrange them­selves into structures that promise a significantly higher level of control over light waves than tradi­tional optical materials.

Engineering strong light-matter interactions

through the design of new structures enables advances in a number of critical technologies. Among them are structuring solar cell component materials and their interfaces at fine scales to improve the efficiency of next-generation solar-to-electric energy conversion devices and structuring porous silver and other metal-ceramic composite materials to increase the sensitivity of chemical and biochemical sensors to target molecules including proteins, DNA or pesticides.

A New Green Carpet Standard Don't call it "green" carpet, call it sustainable car­pet. A new standard for assessing the environmen­tal friendliness of carpet was announced at the 2007 Greenbuild International Conference in Chicago.

Matthew Realff, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecu-lar Engineering, served as chair of the committee that developed the standard.

"The LEED standards for buildings suggested that standards were an effective strategy for encouraging competition and providing an objec­tive way of evaluating sustainability claims made in the marketplace," Realff says.

The new sustainability standard addresses chemicals and materials used in manufacturing car­pet, the energy used in production, the use of recy-

20 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

T E C H N O T E S > >

cled or bio-based content methods of disposal and/or reuse and the overall environmental per­formance of manufacturers.

This new standard aims to help consumers sort out the complex sustainable attributes and encourage manufacturers and their suppliers to seek out or develop environmentally preferable processes/ practices, power sources and materials.

The Green Label certification program devel­oped by the Carpet and Rug Institute that required carpets to meet emissions criteria for volatile organic compounds and other chemicals is part of the new standard.

Silver, gold and platinum certification levels will be awarded to manufacturers. In addition, some categories mandate that specific requirements be met to achieve the higher certification levels.

Surfer's Theory of Everything' David Finkelstein doesn't discount a new theory of the universe proposed by a free-spirited surfer with a doctorate in physics who says the concept came to him in a dazzling inspiration.

Garrett Lisi, who spends most of the year surf­

ing in Hawaii, reported the theory in a New Scientist paper, "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything." Lisi earned a doctorate in theoretical physics in 1999 at the University of California in San Diego.

Finkelstein, professor emeritus in Georgia Tech's School of Physics, was editor of the Interna­tional Journal of Theoretical Physics from 1977 to 2005.

"Some incredibly beautiful stuff falls out of Lisi's theory," Finkelstein says. "This must be more than coincidence and he really is touching on something profound."

Lisi's theory is based in the elegant, intricate shape known in mathematics as E8, a complex, eight-dimensional pattern with 248 points first found in 1887 but only fully understood by mathe­maticians in 2007.

E8 encapsulates the symmetries of a geometric object that is 57-dimensional and is itself 248-dimensional.

Lisi told the media his breakthrough came when he noticed that some of the equations describing E8's structure matched his own. "My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing." > »

"My brain exploded

with the implications

and the beauty

of the thing."

— Garrett Lisi

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 21

> > T E C H N O T E S

Tech's Judith Curry, Randall Engle, Cheryl Leggon and Rick Trebino, top to bottom, have been honored as American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows.

Lisi realized he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8's 248 points. Twenty gaps remained, which he filled in with notional particles, including those some physicists predict to be associated with gravity.

It may be possible to test Lisi's theory, which predicts a host of new particles, using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher near Geneva, which will begin operation in 2008.

While the theory has created excitement among physicists, many have publicly expressed the view that Lisi's "Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" is a very, very long shot.

Four Faculty Named Science Fellows Four Georgia Tech faculty members — Judith Curry, Randall Engle, Cheryl Leggon and Rick Trebino — have been named American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows.

"Overall, it adds to the prestige of the Institute when you have a number of fellows named," says Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmosphe­ric Sciences.

Curry was recognized for her work in both the relationships between global climate change and hurricane intensity and for her contributions that led to understanding feedbacks in the Arctic sys­tem. She was named a fellow in the American Geophysical Union in 2004 and the American Meteorological Society in 1995.

Engle, the School of Psychology chair and associate dean for the College of Sciences, says the distinction "helps us to convey that there is a sci­ence of psychology that plays a crucial role in the community of scientists."

Engle was recognized for his work in under­standing the nature of working memory and indi­vidual differences.

Leggon, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy, says, "My orientation to research has always been policy and practice in terms of making a difference in individual lives as well as trans­forming institutions. This is not only important nationally but globally as who is not 'at the table' is as significant as who is."

In 2006, Leggon was elected to membership in Sigma Xi, an honorary scholarly society.

Physics professor Trebino credits the work of many in receiving the honor. "It means that many grad students, postdocs and others who have

worked with my group over the years have done a very nice job making my ideas — as well as their own — happen."

He was honored for the development of tech­niques and devices for measuring ultrashort laser pulses. Trebino is a 2006 fellow of the American Physical Society and a 1999 Optical Society of America fellow.

AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society. The 471 new AAAS fellows will be honored at the Fellows Forum in February.

"

Bright Idea for Early-stage Funding Thomas Edison often receives credit for inventing the

electric lightbulb, though his real accomplishment was

in making it commercially successful. That focus on

commercializing innovation is now providing the founda­

tion for a new venture bearing Edison's name at Georgia

Tech.

Launched by a multiyear grant from the Charles A,

Edison Fund — named for the inventor's son, a suc­

cessful businessman and former governor of New

Jersey — the Georgia Tech Edison Fund will provide

seed funding for early-stage technology companies that

have a close association with the Institute.

"We will focus on startups at the very early stage,

because that's the hardest money for an entrepreneur to

find," says Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech's chief com-

ercialization officer and manager of the new fund.

The Georgia Tech Edison Fund has already made

its first investment in Pramana, a member company of

the Advanced Technology Development Center that is

commercializing Internet technology developed in the

College of Computing.

Fleming says the Charles Edison Fund and

Georgia Tech are natural collaborators. "Edison means

innovation, invention and creativity — all of which are

things we are trying to do. This helps us get our mes­

sage across very quickly." The collaboration is Edison's

first university partnership.

Edward Allman, IE 48, a longtime member of the

Charles Edison Fund board of directors, played a key

role in advocating the funding to establish the Georgia

Tech Edison Fund. "Georgia Tech was founded on a

tradition of taking theory and applying it to the

real world in ways that make people's lives

better. Thomas Edison once said that

genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 per­

cent perspiration, which reminds me of

what life was all about at Tech."

22 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Petascale Computing David Bader, associate professor of computing and executive director of high-performance computing at Georgia Tech, has edited the first published col­lection on petascale techniques for computational science and engineering.

"Petascale Computing: Algorithms and Applications" is the first work released through Chapman & Hal/CRC Press' new computational

science series.

"My goal in developing this book was to inspire members of the high-performance comput­ing community to solve computational grand chal­lenges that will help our society protect our envi­ronment and improve our understanding in funda­mental ways, all through the efficient use of peta­scale computing," says Bader.

Featuring contributions from the world's lead­ing experts in computational science, the book looks at expected breakthroughs in the field and covers a breadth of topics in petascale computing, > »

"My goal was to

inspire members of

the high-performance

computing communi­

ty to solve computa­

tional challenges that

will help our society

[and] protect our

environment." — David Bader

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

> > T E C H N O T E S

including architectures, software, programming methodologies, tools, scalable algorithms, perform­ance evaluation and application development.

New Executive MBA The College of Management now offers an execu­tive MBA in management of technology for rising professionals in tech-heavy fields.

Recently approved by the Board of Regents, the degree is an evolution of the master's in man­agement of technology started in 1995.

The 19-month program is designed for techni­

cal and business professionals who are ready to transition into upper management and strategic management roles. They can earn their degrees while continuing to work full time, says College of Management Dean Steve Salbu.

A sister program, the global executive MBA, has seen exponential growth in popularity as more professionals recognize that the boardroom is as likely to be in India or China as in Georgia or New York. Established in 2005, the 17-month program enhances traditional course work with internation­al perspectives on finance, operations, economics and marketing, GT

"My training as an

industrial engineer

has informed every

assignment I have

undertaken. I think in

terms of processes

and optimization of

the systems I am

working in, with

the largest system

of course being

the global

system."

A Career in Humanitarian Relief Shireen Khan, IE 93, became interested in international devel­

opment when she was working at AT&T.

"I was spending all of my free time on community

service activities and I was keen to have an international

assignment. I thought I might do well to focus on humanitari­

an efforts as my main job," she says.

So Khan moved to Ghana, where her first assignment

was managing an emergency food security project.

"My training as an industrial engineer has informed

every assignment I have undertaken," she says.

The job in Ghana involved organizing a logistics and

distribution system to deliver seed to farmers.

After earning master's degrees in business and

international affairs from Columbia University in 2002, Khan

moved to Afghanistan to work with the United Nations and

other agencies in the economic development arena.

Following the devastating 2004 tsunami in Asia, she

served as the local economic recovery adviser to the

U.S. government representative for Aceh Recon­

struction to find solutions for business recovery.

Currently, Khan is a global leadership fellow at

the World Economic Forum, for which she pro­

motes public-private partnerships to achieve inter­

national development goals,

Khan says she believes that Tech's H. Milton

Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engi­

neering will help make a significant impact around

the world.

"While the field of humanitarian relief is becom­

ing more sophisticated, each new complex emer­

gency presents new challenges in administering

aid," she explains. "Focusing the brainpower and

expertise of the Stewart School of ISyE on improving

humanitarian relief efforts has the potential to save

many lives, ease suffering and reduce waste."

When the Outcome of Your Meeting Matters

Plan Your Next Corporate Meeting With Us Book your next corporate meeting, conference, or training seminar at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.

Georgia Tech Global Learning Center

A PROFESSIONAL MEETING AND LEARNING FACILITY

(404) 385-6203 • www.gatechcenter.com

CENTENNIAL The Georgia Tech Alumni Association celebrates

2008 as its centennial anniversary an occasion for

yearlong festivities and events in recognition of the

organization's 100 years of history. "This is a

momentous occasion, a momentous anniversary that covers a

phenomenal period of history" says Joseph P. Irwin, presi­

dent of the Alumni Association.

"Our history includes two world wars, the Great

Depression, the establishment of Atlanta as a center for high

technology, the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the ushering

in of a new millennium and the emergence of Georgia Tech as

a world-class university," Irwin says. "In all of this, Georgia

Tech has been at the forefront."

The occasion began with the publication of a centennial

history of the Alumni Association, "Ramblin' Wrecks From

Georgia Tech." It is written by John Dunn, Gary Goettling,

Kimberly Link-Wills and Leslie Overman. Everett Hullum,

the longtime designer of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI

MAGAZINE, also created the look of the book.

"The history of the Alumni Association

mm

sounds like a subject guaranteed to attract insomniacs," says

Dunn, editor and vice president of Alumni Communications.

"You want to say 'Please try and suppress your yawn.' We

have tried not to write a sleepy little book."

The book's title reflects the emphasis on Georgia Tech

alumni, those who have directed the affairs of the Alumni

Association, and many who have played a significant role in

the history of Atlanta, Georgia and the nation.

"Georgia Tech alumni have been essential to Atlanta's

growth as a high-technology center and Tech President Joseph

M. Pettit played an important role in that development,"

Dunn says.

"Georgia Tech played a critical role in bringing the 1996

Summer Olympic Games to Atlanta that has not been fully

appreciated," Dunn adds.

"Multimedia and interactive technology is common now,

but in 1989, through President John P. Crecine's initiative,

Georgia Tech faculty produced a spectacular state-of-

the-art presentation featuring Atlanta as the

host city of the 1996 Summer Games that

24

fc' P\u

-r>JLm «y—»

U<A\ _6>t • °

•

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine

CELEBRATION absolutely wowed the International Olympic Committee.

"The multimedia presentation was so much fun, it surely

went a long way in winning over the collective mind-set of the

committee, which had set its heart on returning the Olympic

Games to Greece for the 100th anniversary. Billy Payne was

the visionary for the Summer Games in Atlanta, and Georgia

Tech alumni were everywhere in the background."

The Alumni Association's role has always been that of

best friend of the Institute, so the history of the Alumni

Association is in step with Georgia Tech. The history of the

Association is the story of Georgia Tech alumni, many of

whom have become legendary.

The idea of a book came out of a centennial committee

meeting in late 2006, Dunn says. "The task fell to me, and I

quickly enlisted some very talented people to help make it

happen. It was a team effort of researching, writing, editing

and proofreading. There is a great deal of satisfaction

of being part of this kind of effort."

The observance will be marked by 100th

anniversary banners, billboards on Interstate

75-85, a street naming and dedications. It will be an evident

theme in all annual Alumni Association events and activities

such as the Alumni Career Fair, Pi Mile, the Presidents'

Dinner, and Homecoming, says Renee Queen, vice president

of Marketing Services for the Alumni Association.

A centennial wooden bowl will be created by the

Moulthrop family, whose works are prized by collectors, from

an elm tree in the Basil Garden that was felled by a wind­

storm. The family craft of wood turning and bowl making

was started by Edward Moulthrop, who taught architecture

and physics at Tech in the 1940s. The work was continued by

his son, Philip Moulthrop of Marietta, Ga., and grandson,

Matt Moulthrop, MBA 04.

Other activities in the works, which will be promoted on

an Alumni Association centennial Web site, include a centen­

nial cruise, a trip to New York City with the Georgia Tech

marching band, also celebrating its anniversary in 2008, and

"some creative opportunities around campus for alumni and

students," Queen says. "Everyone should stay tuned for an

exciting year." GT

[®J

/

Starts, Sputte V

Excerpted from "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," published by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, © 2007

HE GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY'S FIRST ALUMNUS, HENRY L. SMITH, WAS ALSO THE FIRST

person to rally other graduates to found an alumni association.

A motivator in the effort to establish an alumni association was school president Lyman Hall, a West Point graduate and professor of mathematics under Isaac S. Hopkins, the school's first president. When Hopkins resigned in 1896, Hall was named to the office.

Smith and George Gordon Crawford, both college graduates, were admitted in the middle (or junior) class in 1888 to pursue mechanical engineering degrees, which they earned in 1890. Smith was presented the first diploma the school issued.

"It was the greatest honor I ever received, and I received it through chance," Smith told Robert B. Wallace Jr., longtime editor of the alumni magazine and author of "Dress Her in White and Gold." "George Crawford and I got together before graduation and agreed that this decision was too important to make on an alphabetical basis, so out came a coin — it was a 50 cent piece — and I won the toss."

Both Smith and Crawford were actively involved with their alma mater.

Crawford became president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company of

and Smokers The founding of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, as told in its newly published history, "Ramblin'Wrecks From Georgia Tech','was not what you would call a masterful feat of engineer­ing. The idea was good, but it took a lot of deter­mination and quite a bit of tinkering.

* * = : •

i

Birmingham, Ala., and was recognized as "The First Citizen of Alabama." In 1919, he was named to Georgia Tech's board of trustees.

Smith became a superintendent at Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta, where he worked for 10 years.

From early on, alumni meetings were held annually in conjunction with the school's commencement exercises. R.H. "Pud" Lowndes, a 1903 mechanical engineering graduate

who was active in founding the Alumni Association, speculated that as early as 1894, alumni assemblies were held to spark interest among the freshly minted, Atlanta-area graduates into organizing an association.

A brief article appeared in the June 18,1897, edition of The Atlanta Constitution

announcing that at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 23, Georgia Tech alumni from all over the state would meet in their first reunion to form "the first alumni associa­tion of the school." The article added, "There are over a hundred graduates of

the school living in this city."

On June 24,1897, The Atlanta Constitution

reported the success of the meeting: > »

' •U J"»,

* ! "

" Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Mischievous Mascot The Yellow Jacket is one of Georgia Tech's most familiar and oldest symbols, The earliest known refer­ence to the Yellow Jacket appeared in 1905, a year after John Heisman became Tech's football coach, The earliest known illustrated Yellow Jacket appeared in the Atlanta newspapers in 1906 (above). During the 1920s and 1930s, the Yellow Jacket was incorporated on the cover of the Georgia Tech alumni magazines right along with the official school seal, In 1985, the Yellow Jacket got a contemporary look, Tech wanted the new mascot Buzz to project a personality — the same bold-as-brass, mischievous and irreverent character that has championed athletic events, enlivened social activities and invigorated academic pomp and ceremony and now has become the impish Buzz beloved by alumni,

"For several months past, Capt. Lyman Hall, president of the School of Technology, has been interesting the alumni of this institution in organizing an association.

"At a meeting held yesterday morning, his hopes were realized and an association formed, strong in every respect. To celebrate this good beginning, an elegant banquet was given by the newly organized association at the Kimball house last night.

"Around the beautifully decorated tables were seated several of the very first year's graduates of the Technological school. They ranged on down to the eight graduates who received their diplomas yesterday and who were elected members of the alumni associa­tion last night.

"Gathered around the banquet board last night were men from every section of the state. It was not a local association by any means that was formed, but its charter members are from the different counties through the state.

"Mr. H.L. Smith was elected president of the alumni association, M.W. McRae vice president and E.B. Merry secretary and treasurer."

McRae and Merry were 1893 classmates. Murdock McRae played left end on the Georgia Tech football team that Leonard Wood coached and led to the school's first victory over the University of Georgia 28-6 on Nov. 5,1893.

Wood, a lieutenant and Army surgeon stationed at Fort McPherson near Atlanta, had already received the Medal of Honor for his participation in the capture of Geronimo in 1885. He would go on to be the colonel commanding Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, governor general of Cuba and a major general. Reliable accounts state Wood took a course in Tech's wood shops in 1893 as an opportunity to manage and play for its football team.

In a speech at the organization's meeting in 1899, Smith observed, "For the first few years, we cannot expect our association to become the wonder of this generation; neither can we, nor will we, remain insignificant, for this sentiment does not find a lodgment in the heart of him who is molding for himself a future of usefulness. We must be known, we must be felt, and to be such requires the individual effort and the concerted effort of each and every alumnus."

A primary role of the association would be "to secure positions for all of our alumni and to assist in the promotion to higher positions those already employed, helping each other over the rough places," he said.

"There are more avenues opening up to us every day — the foundries, machine shops, electric lighting and railway," with an array of jobs available for "men of brain and activi­ty." But, Smith warned, "These places are being filled every day by Northern men, because we have not heretofore proven our ability to cope with the assignments of the positions.

"The Georgia School of Technology, of which this association is the offspring, is send­ing her alumni into the same territory from which we have been drawing our supply [of technically trained talent], and they are filling the most responsible positions that is theirs to give. When this fact is brought prominently before the Southern manufacturer, if he is wise, he will see the turning of the tide and quickly avail himself of it."

For whatever reasons, the ambitious organizational effort was not sustained. Smith moved to Dalton, Ga., to found with his brother the M.D. and H.L. Smith Co., which manu­factured tents as well as overalls and flour and meal bags.

Alumni in Atlanta and around the state continued the practice of meeting annually on commencement day and electing officers.

At the close of the school year in June 1903, A.R. Colcord, an 1892 mechanical engi­neering graduate who was serving as president of the alumni association, gathered about 60 alumni for a banquet at the Piedmont Hotel for the purpose of passing on the leader­ship. It was the first alumni association meeting attended by Lowndes, a new gradu- > »

30 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Gridiron Genius In addition to being a brilliant

football tactician who champi­

oned the forward pass and ush­

ered in football's modern era,

coach John Heisman had a flair

for the dramatic. During the off­

season — when he was not

coaching football and baseball

at Georgia Tech — Heisman per­

formed on the Atlanta stage,

often cast as the heavy Even

off stage, he spoke in the some­

what flamboyant diction of an

actor.

Heisman, known as "Heis,"

did not like to lose, and, during

his 16 seasons as Tech's

football coach, from 1904 to

1919, he never had a losing

season. The Yellow Jackets

were 102-29-7 under

Heisman, and his 1917

team was declared national

champion.

But in the spring of 1916,

Heisman's baseball team trav­

eled to Cumberland College in

Lebanon, Term., where it was

ambushed. The Cumberland

squad, loaded with ringers from

a Nashville professional team,

humiliated Tech 22-0.

The next fall at Grant Field,

Heisman engineered the most

dramatic score in football histo­

ry On Oct. 7, 1916, Tech defeat­

ed hapless Cumberland 222-0.

In the game, which Heisman

agreed to shorten to 45 minutes,

Tech scored 32 touchdowns

and 30 field goals, carried the

ball for 978 yards and never

threw a pass. Neither team

made first down; Tech

scored within four downs

on every possession,

Heisman's 1908 team

is pictured above; despite

the introduction of the Yellow

Jacket mascot in 1905, his win­

ning style resulted in team nick­

names like the Tech Tornadoes

and Golden Tornadoes,

Heisman left Tech in 1919

and returned to his alma mater,

the University of Pennsylvania,

where he had earned a law

degree. He never duplicated the

success he had enjoyed at

Georgia Tech.

He retired from football in

1926 and became director of

athletics at the Downtown Athle­

tic Club in New York.

After his death on Oct. 3,

1936, the trophy the club pre­

sented annually to the player

judged the best in the nation

was renamed the Heisman

Memorial Trophy

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 31

The Engineering of a Song Just how long Georgia Tech men — and, more recently, women —

have been singing about drinking their whiskey clear has been the

subject of some debate, The Georgia Tech Alumnus tried to set the

record straight in the fall of 1948, when it quoted H.D. Cutter, an

1892 graduate,

Cutter told the Alumnus that "without a shadow of a doubt" the

first Georgia Tech version of the song "Ramblin' Wreck" was written

by his classmate, WR "Billy" Walthall,

"It may be well to note further that 'Ramblin' Wreck' was adapt­

ed from a college song that originated prior to 1892; however, the

versions by Mr. Walthall and others of later classes finally evolved

into the song as it is today" the Alumnus said,

The song was said to be based on"Son of a Gambolier," with

the chorus: "Like every jolly fellow/I takes my whiskey clear/For I'm

a rambling rake of poverty/And the son of a gambolier."

The words to Georgia Tech's version of the song were pub­

lished what is believed to be the first time in the 1908 Blueprint

under the heading "What Causes Whitlock to Blush." And "certain

words too hot to print" were replaced by long dashes.

About 1912, the story goes, M.A."Mike" Greenblatt, hired by

Tech students to serve as bandleader, wrote the score. Later, when

Frank Roman became director of the Georgia Tech band, he wrote

the musical score for his adaptation of the song, He obtained a copy­

right in 1919.

The song has been broadcast and recorded countless times.

Two notable performances: The Glee Club sang "Ramblin' Wreck"

on Ed Sullivan's show, and Gregory Peck sang the song in the movie

"The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,"

One other footnote: Daniel W Boone Sr, a direct descendant

of the frontiersman of the same name, was responsible for installing

the Moeller organ in the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in 1929. To test the

organ, he sat down and played "Ramblin' Wreck,"

"'Ramblin' Wreck' is correctly known as Georgia Tech's

own and, in addition to its national fame, everyone who shared

in its origin and development is due gracious thanks and the

best of all honors," the Alumnus said in 1948,

I'm a Ramblin1 Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer,

A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer

Like all the jolly good fellows, 1 drink my whiskey clear,

I'm a Ramblin'Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer,

Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold,

And put her on the campus, to cheer the brave and bold.

But ifl had a son, sir, Til tell you what he d do,

He would yell, "To Hell with Georgia," like his daddy used to do,

Oh! 1 wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar 3,000 pounds,

A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it round,

I'd drink to all good fellows who come from far and near,

I'm a ramblin', gamblin', hell of an engineer.

N

\eeVv &v

, • ' : !—

Geoigia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 " 7c5

i

Charter President Inl905J.B.McCraryanl891

graduate in mechanical engineer­

ing and president of an Atlanta

engineering firm, organized a

smoker — dinner followed by

cigars — at his own expense to

plan for a "permanent alumni

association." The next year, when

alumni met for the purpose of

organizing that association

McCrary — to no one's surprise -was elected its first president.

ate. Lowndes, who would later become a faculty member, served as secretary and treasurer of the Association when it was granted a charter in 1908. At that time, he gave a brief histo­ry of the association since 1903 from his own recollection. "That being my first year as a member of the association, I have a pretty close record of its history," Lowndes wrote.

"I do not recollect that any business was transacted other than a kind of unanimous expression to have Mr. Colcord continue his presidency. Mr. Colcord, however, tendered his informal resignation and expressed his desire to withdraw."

The next year, there was a called meeting of the floundering organization "seemingly at the insistence of F.C. Turner," Lowndes said. Turner, a member of the class of 1899, organized a committee, which scheduled a banquet at the Piedmont Hotel in June 1904.

"In 1905, the banquet was held as usual, but with the resignation of Mr. Colcord the business end of the association had waned, for no other officers had been appointed," Lowndes reported.

Two months later, the school confronted its own crisis. President Lyman Hall died in office on Aug. 16,1905. Nine days later, Kenneth G. Matheson, head of the English depart­ment, was named chair of the faculty and acting president.

In the fall of 1905, J.B. McCrary, ME 1891, president of an Atlanta engineering firm, rec­ognized that if an alumni organization was to survive, it needed structure and leadership. He organized a smoker — dinner followed by cigars — at his own expense.

Lowndes said the smoker was attended by a number of "more or less enthusiastic alumni" who recognized the need to establish "a more permanent alumni organization."

"Many vital matters were discussed and tentative officers were elected and several committees appointed," Lowndes said.

The next year, the initiative to establish a viable, organized alumni association took a strategic direction.

HE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MEETING ON JUNE 21 , 1906, WAS CALLED ON A WHIRL-

i rA wind day in the life of the school. Acting President Matheson was named ^•president by the board of trustees. Combined with that, the school held

its graduation ceremonies at 8 p.m. at the Bijou Theater, and immediately afterward, an alumni banquet was held at 10 p.m. at the Piedmont Hotel. The banquet toastmaster was Hal G. Nowell, a mechanical engineering

graduate from 1894, attorney and a member of the Georgia Legislature. Included among the banquet guests were Georgia Gov. Joseph M. Terrell, Matheson and Tech founder Nathaniel E. Harris, chairman of the board of trustees.

The organizational efforts of the smoker paid dividends. The Atlanta Constitution

announced that a 3 p.m. meeting was to be held at the Piedmont Hotel "for the purpose of organizing a permanent alumni association."

Lowndes observed alumni assembled for the "first bona fide business meeting of which any record remains." Probably to no one's surprise, McCrary was elected president. H.H. Miles, ME 1893, was chosen vice president and Lowndes was named secretary and treasurer.

The alumni undertook a hefty agenda. Committees were assigned to draft a constitu­tion and a petition for a charter "believing that more may be accomplished by an incorpo­rated body."

The constitution stated that all graduates were eligible to become members of the asso­ciation by paying $2 annual dues (approximately $40 in today's currency according to the American Institute for Economic Research). Anyone who attended Tech at least one year and left in good standing could be an associate member, but without voting rights. > »

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 33

Father of Tech Football In 1893, Leonard Wood, a lieutenant and Army surgeon stationed at Fort McPherson near Atlanta, coached and led the team to the school's first football victory over the University of Georgia on Nov. 5. Already a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his participation in the capture of Geronimo in 1885, Wood took a course in Tech's wood shops in 1893 as an opportunity to man­age and play for its football team. Thomas W Raoul, an 1893 graduate who played on the team, remem­bered Wood as "the father" of Tech football. He was also a supporter of the National Alumni Association, writing in 1919, "I shall be very glad indeed ... to tell the country of what a sound institution Tech is and how valuable and far-reaching is its work in the South."

It took a week to prepare the petition, and on June 28,1906, four alumni signed the charter application: McCrary, W.H. Glenn, who also graduated in 1891, J.W. Little, ME 1893, and W.R Walthall, ME 1892. But it would be two years before the petition was filed and a char­ter was finally granted.

EANWHILE, AS THE NUMBER OF ALUMNI GREW OUTSIDE OF ATLANTA, THE

concept of an alumni association gained national appeal. Local alumni in Macon, Ga.; New York City; Pittsburgh; Chattanooga, Term.; and a handful of other cities initiated satellite alumni associa­tions. Forty alumni in New York met at Murray's restaurant on

142nd Street on March 7,1908.

The New York alumni explained their purpose in an article appearing on March 18, 1908, in The Atlanta Constitution that carried a resolution stating, "That we notify the Georgia School of Technology and the Alumni Association thereof of our existence. That the object of this association is the promotion of social intercourse among the graduates of the institution, the promotion of their professional welfare and the extension of the knowl­edge of the school and its advantages. That we lend a helping hand to all graduates and students of the institution who come within our reach."

The New York association elected J. Howard Williams, ME 1901, secretary and created an executive committee made up of C.E. Fairbanks, 1892; J.G. Rossman, 1892; S.F. Jeer, 1893; EC. Furlow, 1897; G.J. Merritt, 1901; S.L. Snowden, 1903; EC. Morton, 1905; and P.V. Stephens, 1905.

In Atlanta, the alumni association experienced confusion in its efforts to get the charter. In the 1907 minutes, Hal Nowell explained that the charter had been filed in the office of the clerk of Fulton County Superior Court, but "the committee, due probably to lack of funds, had failed to publish the matter as required by law and therefore, the charter had not been obtained."

The charter was granted on June 20,1908. There was nothing spectacular about the document, no bold proclamation reading

"Charter." It is a simple, inauspicious legal document, a copy of which is in the Georgia Tech Library archives. But it gave the new association life.

After starts, stalls, sputters and a two-year wait, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association finally found its footing. GT

34 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Insubordinate Seniors The Georgia Tech Class of 1901 was almost

the class that wasn't,

On Jan. 1, 1901, the first day of class fol­

lowing Christmas break, the entire senior

class of 18 failed to return to campus. They

had conspired to extend their holiday an

extra day and celebrate New Year's with

their families.

When the seniors returned on Jan, 2,

President Lyman Hall called them into his

office, one by one, and told them they were

guilty of insubordination and that they were

suspended until Feb. 2, 1901. They were

required to return in the fall to graduate, and

diplomas were held until completion of

classes.

Upset parents protested to the school's

Board of Trustees and appeared before

faculty pleading for leniency but the discipli­

nary action stood.

Seventeen of the seniors returned to

earn their degrees and rallied together as

the "Insubordinate Seniors," returrhngto

campus every five years to be photo­

graphed on the steps of the Administration

Building.

When the class observed its 60th

anniversary in 1961, only one of the group,

Julian P Benjamin of Jacksonville, Fla,, was

able to attend and was photographed on

the steps of the building along with group

photographs taken at previous reunions.

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 35

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ACentenrrialStory The making of'TechTone News,' a documentary celebrating 100 years in the life and times of Georgia Tech alumni

By John Dunn Photo: Scott Dinerman

Fans rush to congratulate Bobby Jones, winner of the Grand Slam of

golf; Dean of Students George C. Griffin chats with a student in his

office walled with photographs in a scene sure to bring back a rush of

nostalgic memories; a co-ed at Tech is so rare that when she strolls

across campus she attracts a photographer's attention; and three black

men enroll at Georgia Tech and break the racial barrier.

They are historic events featured in "TechTone News," a DVD cele­

brating the Georgia Tech Alumni Association's centennial observance. It

was produced by the Living History program under the direction of

Marilyn Somers.

Somers wrote the script for the history and Scott Dinerman, STC

03, Living History's videographer, edited the 24-minute DVD and creat­

ed the graphics and special effects. Kirk Englehardt, director of com­

munications at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, narrated the fea­

ture, which is done in the style of old Movietone News reels.

The "TechTone News" DVD is a companion to the centennial histo­

ry, "Ramblin' Wrecks From Georgia Tech," published by the Alumni

Association, and is included with the book.

Somers talks about the making of the centennial "TechTone News"

documentary.

How did you approach pro­ducing the centennial DVD? As a storyteller, I look for the story.

Even though this is a story that is

10 stories because it highlights

events from each decade, you

want it to have continuity, You

can't be too random. But each

decade is a story.

When did you come up with the Movietone News con­cept? We were brainstorming early on

and it was the first concept that

came to mind. I thought it would

really work out well and I thought

it might be fun because we have

some of these old film clips. I

knew I had a clip of Winston

Churchill when he came here in

the 1930s. I was picturing in my

mind some of the footage of for­

mer presidents and personalities.

I started referring to it as Tech's

Movietone News. An alumnus

suggested dropping the word

"movie" and simply call it

"TechTone News," And that's what

we did.

What were you looking for? I clearly knew what the music had

to sound like. Movietone music is

Movietone music. We went

through a real search but we

found it.

What about the voice? The other thing was the narrator.

For our narrator we chose Kirk

Englehardt, who we've worked

with many times. I asked him if he

could do Ed Herlihy. I was looking

for that very serious voice. I think

he did a super job and he had a

great time. And it was recorded all

in one session, which I thought

was amazing because we had

tons of script.

Were there other chal­lenges? The headlines were a challenge

— to write not the way I might

want to write but to write in the

spirit of a Movietone News reel. I

listened to a lot of them. And we

did a lot of research to find out

what was typical of a headline at

that time. The newspaper archives

came in so handy. The grandiose

headlines were the times and they

did that. I just let my imagination

run wild with that and had a really

good time actually, It was a fun

thing to do, It was important

because it sets up the news clip.

Were you forced to rely on historical photographs? No, we didn't want to have to

depend on photographs. We

wanted to use moving images.

We used quite a few motion pic­

ture clips.

Was archival footage readi­ly available? Not usually. We did a lot of online

searches to see what was out

there. The University of South

Carolina is the recipient of the Fox

Movietone News archives, We

were able to negotiate a very rea­

sonable contract with them and

get selections of some epic

events that happened on the

Georgia Tech campus. All we had

were photographs.

Does this classify as a docu­mentary? Absolutely. It's history from the

beginning to the future because

the story continues and doesn't

end.

One hundred years covers a lot of history. It required a lot of research. This

goes back before we were even

recording the history. We reviewed

printed histories and what was

published in the Atlanta Journal

and Constitution. We started

exploring and finding lots of neat

stuff — written material. We want­

ed to figure out what things hap­

pened in each decade. There

were a tremendous number of

events. It would be easy to slip

into institutional history and not

alumni history. You have to ask

what happened that directly was

associated with alumni. I started

out with timesheets. We listed all

these things and went back by

process of elimination -~ what

directly involved alumni. Then we

would see what we had in the way

of motion picture clips or video,

Was the research difficult? The research was fun and the

detective work was lots of fun.

Sometimes it was frustrating. I

always try to make decisions

based on the true history. I'm

always going to choose true histo­

ry over something that is politically

correct.

Did your research turn up any surprises? When we started peeling back the

layers, we discovered more of

Tech's history than we knew. We

knew we could get good photos

of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He came

to Georgia Tech to dedicate the

Techwood Project. We knew that

we had the Techwood building,

but I didn't know that two of our

alums had negotiated to get that

dorm for nothing. It was a

$250,000 building at the time — in

the 1930s — and it was Flippen

D. Burge and the senior Preston

Stevens. They were the architects

36 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

and the builders on the project

and they negotiated with the fed­

eral government so that Georgia

Tech would benefit. Unfortunately,

we were unable to find any

archival film on Techwood.

Were there other surprises? I knew Charles Lindbergh had

come to Georgia Tech. I thought

he was celebrating his trans-

Atlantic flight in the Spirit of St.

Louis. I didn't realize that Dr.

Marion Brittain had specifically

invited him because Dr. Brittain

was actually looking to secure the

Guggenheim award for the aero­

nautical engineering program. He

was a prescient and a forward

thinker. Everyone I had inter­

viewed who knew Dr. Brittain

always talked about what a fine

old gentleman he was, which did­

n't make me think of him as a pro­

gressive. But he was. I gained a

much greater respect for him. He

was building for Tech's future.

Lindbergh was a freshly minted national hero at that time. When Lindy came to Georgia

Tech, it became more of an

Atlanta event, but he came to the

Tech stadium. The priority was for

alumni to come out and they

came in greater numbers than

they had ever come before. There

were alums working at Georgia

Power who got involved and for

the first time put a loudspeaker

system in and put lights in the sta­

dium just for that event. It was

cool.

How about the famous Rose Bowl run of Wrong Way Riegels? We show it all. I under­

stand the Rose Bowl

considers it the most

famous play in its

history. Roy Riegels

was playing for

California and recov­

ers a Tech fumble, but he runs the

wrong way. When he realizes his

mistake, Georgia Tech tackles him

at the 1-yard line.

Did you find anything on drownproofing? We did. Drownproofing was an

experience that was uniquely

Georgia Tech. We found some

rare footage of Freddy Lanoue

teaching drownproofing — stu­

dents with their feet and hands

bound, bobbing in the water.

Freddy Lanoue is in it. He's every­

body's favorite. He turned into

such a legend.

You have John Young on the moon? Yes, bounding across the moon's

surface. It was a historic moment.

And we have film clips of every

president of Georgia Tech since

1908, but not all of them are

included. We have a lot of video

on Jimmy Carter, but I wanted to

show his inaugural walk when he

was sworn in as president. The

Carter Center was very helpful.

The DVD has a fast pace. We cover the Alumni Association

history in about 24 minutes with

clips of Bobby Jones, George

Griffin, Bobby Dodd, two world

wars, the admission of women,

integration, the Olympic Games

and the era of Wayne Clough.

How do you edit 100 years of history? I started out with 20 things for

each decade and then I looked at

what I could match to film. The

deciding factor for us was always

film and trying to find an interest­

ing angle. Some of the choices

were not what we would have

chosen if we had all the liberty in

the world. But they were decided

by what made a huge impact and

what we had in the way of film

clips. We believe it's an entertain­

ing, historical documentary of the

Alumni Association and some of

its wonderful alumni, G T

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Is It live or IsItAR? By blending digital creations with our view of the world, augmented reality is set to transform the way we entertain and educate ourselves

By Jay David Bolter and Blair Maclntyre Photo: Gary Meek

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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.;

There are two ways to tell the tale of one Sarah K. Dye, who lived through the Union Army's siege of Atlanta in the summer of 1864. One is to set up a plaque that narrates how she lost her infant son to disease and carried his body through Union

lines during an artillery exchange to reach Oakland Cemetery and bury him there.

The other is to show her doing it. You'd be in the ceme­tery, just as it is today, but it would be overlaid with the sounds and sights of long ago. A headset as comfortable and fashionable as sunglasses would use tiny lasers to paint high-definition images on your retina — virtual images that would blend seamlessly with those from your surroundings.

If you timed things perfectly by coming at twilight, you'd see flashes from the Union artillery on the horizon and a moment later hear shells flying overhead. Dye's shadowy figure would steal across the cemetery in perfect alignment with the ground, because the headset's differential GPS, com­bined with inertial and optical systems, would determine your position to within millimeters and the angle of your view to within arc seconds.

That absorbing way of telling a story is called augmented reality, or AR. It promises to transform the way we perceive our world, much as hyperlinks and browsers have already begun to change the way we read. Today we can click on hyperlinks in text to open new vistas of print, audio and video media. A decade from now — if the technical problems can be solved — we will be able to use marked objects in our physical environment to guide us through rich, vivid and gripping worlds of historical information and experience.

The technology is not yet able to show Dye in action. Even so, there is quite a lot we can do with the tools at our disposal. As with any new medium, there are ways not only of covering weaknesses but even of turning them into strengths — motion pictures can break free of linear narration with flashbacks; radio can use background noises, such as the sound of the whistling wind, to rivet the listener's attention.

Along with our students, we are now trying to pull off such tricks in our project at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. For the past six years, we have held classes in AR design at Georgia Tech and for the past three we have asked our stu­dents to explore the history and drama of the site.

We have distilled many ideas generated in our classes to create a prototype called "Voices of Oakland," an audio-only tour in which the visitor walks among the graves and meets three figures in Atlanta's history. By using professional actors

Jay David Bolter is co-director of the Wesley Center for New Media at

Georgia Tech and a professor in the School of Literature, Communi­

cation and Culture. Blair Maclntyre is director of the Augmented

Environments Lab and a professor in the College of Computing.

to play the ghosts and by integrating some dramatic sound effects (gunshots and explosions during the Civil War vignettes), we made the tour engaging while keeping the visi­tors' attention focused on the surrounding physical space.

We hope to be able to enhance the tour, not only by adding visual effects but also by extending its range to neigh­boring sites, indoors and out. After you've relived scenes of departed characters in the cemetery, you might stroll along Auburn Avenue and enter the former site of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Inside, embedded transceivers would allow the GPS to continue tracking you, even as you viewed a virtual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a sermon to a virtual con­gregation, recreating what actually happened on that spot in the 1960s.

Whole chapters of the history of Atlanta, from the Civil War to the civil rights era, could be presented as interactive tours and virtual dramas. Even the most fidgety student probably would not get bored.

By telling the story in situ, AR can build on the aura of the cemetery — its importance as a place and its role in the Civil War. The technology could be used to stage dramatic experiences in historic sites and homes in cities throughout the world. Tourists could visit the beaches at Normandy and watch the Allies invade France. One might even observe Alexander Graham Bell spilling battery acid and making the world's first telephone call: "Mr. Watson, come here."

An Embryonic Science

The first, relatively rudimentary forms of AR technology are already being used in a few prosaic but important practical applications. Airline and auto mechanics have

tested prototypes that give visual guidance as they assemble complex wiring or make engine repairs. Doctors have used it to perform surgery on patients in other cities.

But those applications are just the beginning. AR will soon combine with various mobile devices to redefine how we approach the vast and growing repository of digital infor­mation now buzzing through the Internet. The shift is coming about in part because of the development of technologies that free us from our desks and allow us to interact with digital information without a keyboard. But it is also the result of a change in attitude, broadening the sense of what computers are and what they can do.

We are already seeing how computers integrate artificial­ly manipulated data into a variety of workaday activities, splicing the human sensory system into abstract representa­tions of such specialized and time-critical tasks as air traffic control. We also have seen computers become a medium for art and entertainment. Now we will use them to knit together Web art, entertainment, work and daily life.

40 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Using AR technology, whole chapters of the history of Atlanta, from the Civil War to the civil rights era, could be presented as interactive tours and virtual dramas. Even the most fidgety student probably would not get bored.

Think of digitally modified reality as a piece of a continu­um that begins on one end with the naked perception of the world around us. From there it extends through two stages of "mixed reality." In the first one, the physical world is like the main course and the virtual world the condiment — as in our AR enhancement of the Oakland Cemetery. In the other stage of MR, the virtual imagery takes the spotlight. Finally, at the far end of the continuum lies nothing but digitally produced images and sounds, the world of virtual reality.

Any AR system must meld physical reality with comput­er-modeled sights and sounds, a display system and a method for determining the user's viewpoint. Each of the three components presents problems. Here we will consider only the visual elements as they are by far the most challeng­ing to coordinate with real objects.

The ability to model graphics objects rapidly in three dimensions continues to improve because the consumer mar­ket for games — a U.S. $30 billion-a-year industry worldwide — demands it. The challenge that remains is to deliver the graphics to the user's eyes in perfect harmony with images of the real world. It's no mean feat.

The best-known solution uses a laser to draw images on the user's retina. There is increasing evidence that such a vir­tual retinal display can be done safely However, the technol­ogy is not yet capable of delivering the realistically merged imagery described here. In the meantime, other kinds of visu­al systems are being developed and refined.

Most AR systems use head-worn displays that allow the wearer to look around and see the augmentations every­where. In one approach, the graphics are projected onto a small transparent screen through which the viewer sees the physical world. This technology is called an optical see-

through display. In another approach, the system integrates digital graphics with real-world images from a video camera, then presents the composite image to the user's eyes. It's known as a video-mixed display. The latter approach is basi­cally the same one used to augment live television broadcasts — for example, to point out the first-down line on the field during a football game.

This comparison with augmented-live television high­lights the problems that must still be solved. TV broadcasters can fix their cameras in precisely known positions and track their orientation with high-quality built-in encoders. And they can delay the video signal by a few dozen frames to gain time to clean things up. Because millions of people are watch­ing, it makes economic sense for the television broadcaster to employ a team of technicians to monitor and adjust the sys­tem. Whoever wishes to bring AR to museums and historic landmarks — let alone less-traveled paths — will have to find less expensive ways around such problems.

The biggest technological challenge is to track position and orientation. Just how good the tracking must be depends, of course, on what you want to do with it. In the Oakland Cemetery example, it would be acceptable to place the ghosts within, say, 10 centimeters of their graves. However, a mechanic depending on AR to replace tiny components in a jet engine would need greater precision. The system might indicate the tiny components by highlighting them in a color; if they are just a few millimeters wide, clearly the system must have millimeter-level accuracy. Distance is just as impor­tant — the farther away you look, the more an error in the angle of the line of vision will become obvious.

For the display to have a chance of appearing perfectly aligned, the orientation error must be less than the visual angle of one pixel on the display. A typical display today might have a field of view of 24 degrees and a horizontal res­olution of 800 pixels, meaning that an orientation error greater than 0.03 degree would result in perceptible misalign­ment between the virtual and physical objects.

To track things outdoors over a wide area, orientation sensors typically use magnetometers, inclinometers and iner-tial sensors. The magnetic components can, however, be thrown off by the presence of magnetic fields, iron or other ferric material. In smaller areas that can be surveyed or fitted with an infrastructure — fixed antennas and printed markers — the absolute accuracy of the sensors can be excellent.

A major research goal is to dispense with such an embed­ded infrastructure by devising automatic ways to find and track "natural features" — say, an uncataloged tree or boul­der. That way the system could handle whatever comes up, without any prior knowledge of the territory Particularly promising are technologies that combine wearable cameras with inertial sensors. > »

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 41

Palettes of Behavior

It is just as important to develop easy-to-use tools for AR. Without them, designers are not likely to enter the field. For our work on the Oakland Cemetery project, we used a

programming system, created in the Augmented Environ­ments Lab at Georgia Tech, called DART — Designer's Augmented Reality Toolkit.

DART was built to facilitate rapid prototyping so that designers can quickly visualize and test their ideas. We believe that DART can help contribute to the development of AR as a medium for art and creative design.

DART provides extensions to the Adobe Director multi­media-authoring system that allow it to coordinate three-dimensional objects, video, sound and tracking information — the entire AR experience. It can track marked objects in a live video feed and react to real-time data streaming in from sensors, a wide variety of which can be made to work togeth­er seamlessly through the Virtual Reality Peripheral Network, an open-source system developed at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The VRPN also makes it easy to inte­grate DART programs with those written in other languages.

DART has palettes of behaviors — that is, the actions of a computerized system as it responds to stimuli, as when a video camera follows a person's movements. It is not our intention to provide a collection of behaviors so complete that it would satisfy the needs of all AR application designers; such an effort would be doomed to failure. Rather, we have designed the behaviors to provide a modular and extensible framework that designers can easily appropriate for their own needs. Anyone developing a new AR application can edit the DART behaviors.

We are by no means the first to promote this combination

of techniques as a new medium of expression. Designers and artists have been experimenting with precursors of the idea for years, although without using fully developed tracking technologies or head-worn displays.

Since its founding in 1979, the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria, has featured digital artists such as Myron Krueger, whose work has involved embedding computer monitors in art installations or projecting images on large screens or the surfaces of rooms or buildings, often in real time. The Canadian installation artist Janet Cardiff has created a series of audio tours in which the user wears headphones and walks along a predetermined path as Cardiff's voice fash­ions an audio landscape.

In addition, curators and designers have been moving toward mixed and augmented reality as they seek to enhance the visitor's experience in museums, historic sites and theme parks. One famous example is the audio tour of Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay in which the user wears head­phones and embarks on an evocative walk through the empty cells and hallways, accompanied by a reconstruction of the sounds and voices of 50 years ago. However, the tour is a lin­ear experience. The user must follow the path dictated on the CD; there is no tracking of the user's location.

Can You See Me Now?

Some of the most compelling work uses mobile phones to combine Internet-based applications with the physical and social spaces of cities. Many such projects exploit

the phone's GPS capabilities to let the device act as a naviga­tional beacon. The positional information might let the phone's holder be tracked in cyberspace or it might be used to let the person see, on the phone's little screen, imagery rele­vant to the location.

Blast Theory, an experimental art and technology group in Brighton, England, has been one of the

leaders in such enterprises. Its participato­ry game event Can You See Me Now? —

designed in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab at the University

of Nottingham — pitted online par­ticipants against runners in the

streets of a real city.

In one installation, in the center of Sheffield, the run­

ners carried handheld com­puters that showed them

the same map that the online participants had

in front of them; the computers also bore

GPS receivers that

With mobile devices, video and computer games are entering the physical environment, as in Bragfish, created by Georgia Tech I students to enable players to steer their own boats, cast lines and catch virtual fish.

let the online people follow along. The runners tried to reach points in Sheffield that corresponded to the virtual positions of as many online participants as possible, thereby "catching" them. An open-mike audio channel connected the runners to the online players, giving the online players a sense of being in a shared physical space, no matter how far from Sheffield — or even England — they really were.

Meanwhile, new phones are coming along with proces­sors and graphics chips as powerful as those in the personal computers that created the first AR prototypes a decade ago. Such phones will be able to blend images from their cameras with sophisticated 3-D graphics and display them on their small screens at rates approaching 30 frames per second.

That's good enough to offer a portal into a world over­laid with media. A visitor to Oakland Cemetery could point the phone's video camera at a grave (affixed with a marker, called a fiducial) and, on the phone's screen, see a ghost standing at the appropriate position next to the grave.

Developing AR Diaries

Video and computer games have been the leading digi­tal entertainment technology for many years. Until recently, however, the games were entirely screen-

based. Now they too are climbing through mobile devices and into the physical environment around us, as in an AR fishing game called Bragfish, which our students have creat­ed in the past year.

Players peer into the handheld screens of game devices and work the controls, steering their boats and casting their lines to catch virtual fish that appear to float just above the tabletop. They see a shared pond, and each other's boats, but they see only the fish that are near enough to their own boats for their characters to detect.

We can imagine all sorts of games for children and adults in which virtual figures and objects interact with surfaces and spaces of our physical environment. Such games will leave no lasting marks on the places in which they are played. But people will be able to use AR technology to record and recall moments of social and personal engagement.

Just as they now go to Google Maps to mark the posi­

tions of their homes, their offices, their vacations and other important places in their lives, people will one day be able to annotate their AR experience at Oakland Cemetery and then post the files on something akin to Flickr and other social-net­working sites. One can imagine how people will produce AR home movies based on visits to historic sites.

Ever more sophisticated games, historic tours and AR social experiences will come as the technology advances. We represent the possibilities in the form of a pyramid, with the simplest mobile systems at its base and fully immersive AR on top. Each successive level of technology enables more ambitious designs but with a smaller potential population of users. In the future, however, advanced mobile phones will become increasingly widespread, the pyramid will flatten out and more users will have access to richer augmented experi­ences.

Fully immersive AR, the goal with which we began, may one day be an expected feature of visits to historic sites, museums and theme parks, just as human-guided tours are today. AR glasses and tracking devices will one day be rugged enough and inexpensive enough to be lent to visitors, as CD players are today. But it seems unlikely that the majori­ty of visitors will buy AR glasses for general use as they buy cell phones today; fully immersive AR will long remain a niche technology.

On the other hand, increasingly ubiquitous mobile tech­nology will usher in an era of mixed reality in which people look at an augmented version of the world through a hand­held screen. You may well pull information off the Web while walking through Oakland Cemetery or along Auburn Avenue, sharing your thoughts as well as the ambient sounds and views with friends anywhere in the world.

The New AR World

A t the beginning of the 20th century, when Kodak first sold personal cameras in the tens of thousands, the idea was to build a sort of mixed reality that blended

the personal with the historic ("Here I am at the Eiffel Tower.") or to record personal history ("Here's the bride cut­ting the cake."). AR will put us in a kind of alternative history in which we can live through a historic moment — the Battle of Gettysburg or the "I have a dream" speech — in a sense making it part of our personal histories.

Mobile mixed reality will call forth new media forms that skillfully combine the present and the past, historical fact and its interpretation, entertainment and learning. AR and mobile technology have the potential to make the world into a stage on which we can be the actors, participating in history as drama or simply playing a game in the space before us. GT

Copyright 2007 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from the August 2007 issue of Spectrum magazine.

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 43

> > B O O K S H E L F

A Tech Technology Solution The authors of'A Contract With the Earth' pen plasma torch into their new book

In a chapter devoted to entrepre­

neurial environmentalism, co­

authors Terry Maple, a Georgia

Tech professor of conservation

and behavior, and Newt Gingrich,

a former congressman, give a

favorable nod to plasma arc

technology studied at the

Georgia Tech Research Institute

by Louis Circeo. They write:

rev

As you drive south on the Florida

turnpike, anticipating the magical

properties of Everglades National

Park and the Florida Keys, you

are startled by massive mounds

of trash heaped much too close to

this modern roadway — higher

than you would ever expect a

landfill to reach. Above the heap,

hundreds of shorebirds circle,

punctuated by the dark silhou­

ettes of the ubiquitous black vul­

tures so common to this region.

Something is wrong with this

picture.

How did this happen and

what can we do about it? Neither

speed nor insulation in the most

modern vehicle will keep the foul,

inescapable odor at bay. Landfills

are proliferating state by state at a

rapid pace. Some are visible from

the roadside, while others are

tucked away beneath our person­

al radar. Whether landfills are a

ticking time bomb or a medical

emergency, the challenge they

present leaves a provocative and

lasting image.

In a fascinating example of

innovation, entrepreneurs and

governments have discovered a

JT

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good use for municipal solid-

waste landfills, in which landfill

gases are converted into a type of

green energy encouraged by gov­

ernment subsidies and tax credits

that are attractive to investors. By

collecting and dispersing landfill

gas for home heating and electric­

ity, green energy investors expect

to operate a profitable business at

the landfill site.

Landfills are commonplace in

America; more than 2,000 munici­

pal sites have been registered.

Currently, our citizens generate

some 230 million tons of solid

waste annually. About half of this

tonnage ends up in landfills.

Landfill gas contains mostly

methane and carbon dioxide,

which are greenhouse gases, so

there is good reason to try to limit

or to exploit these emissions. The

Environmental Protection Agency

promotes the use of landfill gas as

a renewable, green energy source

and has established partnerships

around the country with its Landfill

Methane Outreach Program.

New technology is taking

shape in St. Lucie County, Fla., as

local government has opted to

vaporize garbage at temperatures

of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, as

hot as the surface of the sun. The

$425 million facility will turn trash

into gas and rock byproducts

from the application of plasma

arcs. By 2008, the county expects

to use this method to vaporize

3,000 tons of garbage per day.

The entire landfill, now a mass of

4.3 million tons, should be com­

pletely eliminated in two decades.

Geoplasma, an Atlanta-

based company, foots the bill for

the plant and has promised to use

the byproducts, known as slag, as

a marketable commodity used in

constructing roads and highways.

The gas produced at the site will

run turbines, creating some 120

megawatts of electricity sold to

the grid. The facility will operate

year-round, nonstop, on one-third

of the power it generates. About

80,000 pounds of steam will be

produced daily, which has been

promised to a local juice compa­

ny. Some of the production materi­

als, estimated at 600 tons per day,

will be sold for road construction.

Geoplasma's solution exploits the

inherent power of the landfill as it

eliminates, or at least slows, land­

fill expansion.

3 ,

y*r«.. . * * • " :

: * • ' •

Louis Circeo (above), a Georgia

Tech scientist, has suggested that

large plasma facilities deployed

nationwide could theoretically

generate electricity equivalent to

25 nuclear power plants.

This appears

to be a signif­

icant oppor­

tunity. In

2003,

Americans generated 236

million tons of trash, with an

estimated 140 million tons

dumped directly into landfills.

E.O. Wilson, one of the

world's leading biologists, has

argued that the world's "natural

capital" (arable land, groundwater,

forests, marine fisheries and

petroleum) are finite resources.

Overharvesting and habitat

destruction degrade the value of

these assets. Wilson warns that at

present rates of habitat destruc­

tion, half the world's plant and ani­

mal species could be lost by the

end of the century. This cata­

strophic loss of biodiversity would

be a severe blow to the natural

economy. Greener human habits

i\ ->N

will act to slow the pace of loss,

but government and industry will

have to be ever more entrepre­

neurial to turn the tide and renew

the Earth. A commitment to inno­

vation will be the key to our

success. GT

"A Contract With the Earth," published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, includes this acknowledgement: "We are espe­cially indebted to Dr. Wayne Clough, who provided insight into the fron­tiers of environmental technology and access to cutting-edge research unfolding at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Provost Gary Schuster, Vice Provost Anderson Smith, professor Ed Loveland, professor Lawrence James and professor Bryan Norton also provided advice, guidance and new opportunities to learn."

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Britain's Nuclear Chief Bill Coley leaves retirement and the United States 'for the challenge' By Richard Northedge Sunday Telegraph Photo: Jim Winslet

Bill Coley was brought up in North Carolina, married his high school sweetheart, was a pillar of his church and sat on the boards of local

charities. He spent 37 years with the state's power company and retired to spend more time with his family and golf clubs.

And that could have been the end of a life of little interest outside Charlotte and its suburbs. Except that Coley, EE 66, is now the man with his finger on the United Kingdom's nuclear button. He was plucked from retire­ment, flown to Britain and made chief executive of British Energy, the compa­ny operating the country's eight nuclear power generators.

But with a little digging it turns out Coley's U.S. career ended with a cloud hovering overhead. After a lifetime becoming Mr. North Carolina, he aban­doned everything to start a new life in London.

The U.K. government has sanc­tioned a new generation of reactors and, as owner of the sites already zoned for nuclear use, British Energy is best placed to build them. Though old enough to have a free bus pass, the gray-haired Coley will be leading a con­troversial program to cut the country's carbon emissions.

Not that the no-nonsense Coley has time for that sort of controversy. "If you believe that climate change is an issue and you believe carbon is an issue, I

cannot see how you cannot be favor­able to nuclear energy," he says in his soft Southern drawl.

He rattles off carbon-footprint statistics that show nuclear is better than other sources of power. Worst on his list is coal, but it was at the coal-fired Marshall Steam Station in the Carolina foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains that Coley started his career. Duke Power employed Coley as a jun­ior engineer during the spring and autumn, while he worked toward an electrical engineering degree in sum­mer and winter.

The 250-mile journey to the Georgia Institute of Technology was a rare trip beyond his home state but few colleges operate the sandwich system. "I was able to work my way through university," he says. "And it puts a practical side into engineering. There's a difference between doing a degree in engineering and being an engineer."

The subject was Coley's hobby. As a child he designed and built hi-fi sys­tems and alarm clocks and attended adult evening classes. "I used to get into trouble occasionally," he volun­teers, explaining how one Halloween he wired up the water meter box out­side his parents' home with a speaker attached to a microphone indoors. It is hard to imagine this affable granddad as a mischievous teenager but he chuckles childishly when he says, "It frightened a few kids."

An interest in guidance and control

systems made him consider joining the nascent U.S. space program but the spells working with Duke proved a stronger pull. The day after he graduat­ed in 1966 he began work at the power station and two months later he mar­ried Jane, the girl he had first dated at school in Belmont six years earlier.

Power President

A t Duke, he moved from electri­cal operations to customer servicing and ran its nuclear

plants. He joined the board in 1990 and seven years later Duke merged with PanEnergy of Houston, making it America's 14th-largest company. If Coley expected to be chief executive of the enlarged group, he now denies it worried him, but he was made presi­dent of the power company.

There was an upstart competitor called Enron, however. Coley disliked everything about his rival. "There was a period of time when you went to Wall Street and the biggest thing we had to do was explain why we were not like Enron," he says. "I never bought their stock and part of that is because I did not understand their business model.

"The way Enron wound up was not good for anybody in the business. There were some specific issues in the form of new regulations, but the gener­al problem of Enron was the perception it created of the business — not just in the U.S. but all over the world. It creat­ed a negative view of business." > »

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 47

Yet it turns out that Duke had an accountancy problem of its own. Like U.K. utilities, it is allowed to set prices to produce a rate of return set by its reg­ulators. A whistle-blower revealed Duke had allocated costs of the unregu­lated operations to the regulated busi­ness, thus depressing the latter's profits, allowing it to charge higher prices. The misreporting added up to $124 million. Coley retired shortly afterward from the company he loved.

Why? The enjoyment diminished after the run-in with the regulator, he admits. He blames the post-Enron envi­ronment. "It's less fun when you have to put up with all sorts of media issues," he says.

Duke reached a settlement with its regulator and was not prosecuted, he emphasizes, but adds, "After 37 years, I said, T do not need to do this and I can afford not to do it.'

"Inevitably you start thinking about your mortality — what have you contributed? It was a conscious deci­

sion. I've always spent a lot of volun­teer time in the community raising money," he says. "We've given a lot of money over the years to charity. We've focused on that. We've two principal charitable efforts — our church, my university and Jane's university. We said those are places where we can con­tribute and make a difference.

"I'd done 37 and a half years with the company. I bought a house at Pinehurst in 2000 which was to be my retirement home and had it renovated. My thought was I was going to play a lot of golf."

The thought did not last long, however. He retired in February 2003

"We're doing

something that is

absolutely vital to

the future of this

country. People

take our product for

granted, they take

ilectricity for

granted. We're

concerned about

making sure future

generations have

adequate supplies."

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

and by May was invited to become a non-executive of British Energy, the United Kingdom's largest power gener­ator. He also took part-time roles at U.S. companies — an aggregates business, a phone operator and Peabody, the coal empire once part of Hanson. But the U.K. company was different. The for­mer nationalized industry had been res­cued from insolvency the previous year with the government retaking 65 per­cent ownership and creditors swapping their debts for the remaining equity. The shares had only just been relisted when Coley joined.

Vital Production ihen within two years British Energy's chief was ousted and

L Coley was elevated overnight from non-executive to chief executive. Suddenly he and Jane were mothballing their Charlotte and Pinehurst homes and moving to London.

"1 would never have done it if Jane had not said she's up for the challenge

as well," he drawls. "We've been mar­ried 41 years and in all that time I've worked nights and holidays and weekends and she's never complained about it."

She is studying European art and exploring her Scottish Presbyterian ancestry. The Scots connection is good for a company headquartered in Livingstone and with reactors north of the border. He is less sure of his own family origins but jests, "I'm certain that we probably stole sheep."

They have a flat in Kensington, two Tube stops from the London office — just as the Charleston house was a 10-minute commute from Duke's head­

quarters. Though they still have the U.S. properties, Jane now calls London home; he has switched his support from American to British football and donated his season tickets for the Carolina Panthers to good causes.

The severance with his home coun­try extends even to canceling British Energy's registration with the SEC to avoid filing U.S.-based accounts.

He may not be around to see new nuclear plants completed but Coley hopes to announce partners by March. "My ideal scenario is no more than five years in the planning stage and a con­struction period of five years or less," he says.

"We're doing something that is absolutely vital to the future of this country. People take our product for granted, they take electricity for grant­ed. We're concerned about making sure future generations have adequate supplies."

And he has no regrets he is doing it in Britain rather than North Carolina. "The reason I agreed to do this is because 1 thought it was significant — not for money but to make a contribu­tion, not just to British Energy but to the industry," he says, GT

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007

Photo: Sluitterstock

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

> > > P A C E S E T T E R S

Mapping Out A Game Plan Where in the world are Cameroon and Santiago? You can find out. Roger Andresen has defined the borders to make learning fun.

By Leslie Overman

Don't know much about geogra­

phy? Studies show that most U.S.

citizens do not.

In an international geography

contest in 2002, Americans

placed second to last on overall

geographic knowledge. To most

people, relearning what they

memorized in grade school may

not seem like all fun and games,

but one Tech alum is trying his

best to make it that way.

Roger Andresen, ME 96, is

the president of A Broader View,

an Atlanta-based design firm he

founded to promote geographical

awareness through a line of edu­

cational toys and games. The

company's first product was The

Global Puzzle, which Andresen

created in response to the United

States' poor performance in the

2002 geography competition.

The 600-piece puzzle is unlike

most jigsaw puzzles in that the

pieces are shaped like countries,

states and provinces. While work­

ing on the puzzle, children and

parents alike get a geography

lesson.

In a world where schools

are judged by how well their stu­

dents perform on standardized

tests, the importance of geogra­

phy is often overlooked,

Andresen says. "Math, science

and English get put ahead in

order for kids to score well on

tests, while geography gets put

behind, but geography is impor­

tant for so many reasons. I think

Americans get caught up in so

many useless things, like pop cul­

ture, that just aren't as important."

Andresen had already been

toying with the idea for The Global

Puzzle when he learned of the

United States' standing in the

geography contest. He quit his

job as an engineer to bring the

puzzle to market.

The first-time toy maker

learned everything he needed to

know on creating the puzzle from

the Internet. He acquired a

license for a map of the world,

located manufacturers, learned

50 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

about design and even figured

out how to put a box together.

Upon hitting store shelves in

2003, The Global Puzzle started

receiving media attention.

Andresen made several tele­

vision appearances, quizzing

CNN and MSNBC news anchors

by asking them to point to places

like Cameroon and Kiribati on the

puzzle's map. The success of the

puzzle, which is available at major

retail outlets and www.abroad-

erview.com, spawned a continents

puzzle for younger children and

another in which players match

exotic animals to the regions of

the world that they inhabit.

After developing worldwide

distribution and marketing,

Andresen realized he had the

right channels in place to launch

many more products. Fellow Tech

alum Kevin Cooper, ChE 95, a for­

mer material scientist for Motorola,

came on board to lead research

and development for A Broader

View.

The company's mission is to

add innovation to stagnant market

segments. Since Cooper's arrival,

it has launched more than 30 new

products, including a line of ani­

mal-shaped sippy cups, animal-

themed sunglasses and color-

changing safety mats.

Although A Broader View

only has five full-time employees,

Andresen says the company runs

like a "virtual organization," with

hundreds of people, including

sales representatives, manufactur­

ers, attorneys and accountants,

hired when needed to work on

various projects.

Andresen credits Tech with

helping him meet people with

whom he can collaborate on prod­

ucts. An active alumnus, he's a

member of the Georgia Entrepre­

neurs Society, a nonprofit organi­

zation at Tech devoted to provid­

ing services and support to entre­

preneurs.

"The network here at the

Alumni Association and Georgia

Entrepreneurs Society is just

great," Andresen says. "If I need

legal advice, I'll call up the

Entrepreneurs Society and find a

Tech alum. We always help each

other."

Andresen has teamed up

with Tech alumnus Jeff Galloway,

EE 98, a light and electronics spe­

cialist, for his next toy, a stuffed

chameleon. "He's got a wave­

length sensor on his stomach,

He's able to read whatever color

he's sitting on and then match that

color via an internal LED lighting

system throughout his entire

body," Andresen explains.

It's Andresen's latest

bright idea to adapt to large

markets, G T

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

52 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

FromLab to Market TLGER teaches students to commercialize technology By Brad Dixon Photography: Gary Meek

After losing several family members and a close friend to cancer, Matthew Rhyner set out on a mission to help doctors detect the silent killer in its quietest stages. Rhyner, who earned a doctorate in biomedical engineering in

December through a joint Georgia Tech and Emory University program, has developed nanotechnology that can find tumors with as few as 10,000 cells through the injection of illness-hunting imaging probes into the body. Current medical prac­tice can only uncover cancers with at least 1 billion cells, a stage when the disease is much harder and costlier to treat.

"In order for this research to impact people, it needs to be moved out of the lab into the marketplace," says Rhyner, who became involved with the Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results program to help make his dream of improving cancer diagnosis a reality. > »

f» Lynn Capadona, PhD Chem 04, opposite page, works for NASA as a sys­tems engineer. Matt Rhyner has developed technology to improve cancer diagnosis.

TEGER, a collaboration between Georgia Tech and Emory Law School, is nationally recognized for its success in developing the next generation of entrepreneurs. Housed in the Georgia Tech College of Management, TEGER is the first program of its kind to bring together PhD, MBA and law stu­dents in the classroom and research lab to advance early-stage research into real business opportunities.

Bridging Disciplines

Students who win acceptance into the highly competi­tive TEGER program are assembled into four-member teams consisting of one MBA and two law students

who focus on the commercialization of a PhD student's

"I want to be involved in the whole process of getting a product from the idea stage

market," says Bryan Bell, standing, who works on a team with Stephen Yang.

research over a two-year period. Doctoral students from all of the science and engineering disciplines at Georgia Tech are eligible to apply for TEGER.

Rhyner got help moving his patent-pending nanotechnol-ogy closer to market from his TEGER teammates: David Madden, MBA 07, and Meadow Clendenin and Tom Rafferty who received Emory law degrees in 2007.

They convinced successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists judging Georgia Tech's 2007 Business Plan Com­petition of the great commercial potential of Rhyner's nano-technology by placing first in the contest. They also finished in the top three of Nanochallenge 2006, an international busi­ness plan competition held in Venice, Italy.

While awaiting regulatory approval for clinical use of its products (a process that could take years), Rhyner's company plans to initially sell his nanotechnology to other researchers, a $600 million market. This technology also eventually could be used to determine if localized cancer has spread through metastatic lesions after removal of the primary tumor — a method of detection that is currently unavailable — as well as detect other diseases.

Rhyner, who is now seeking investors and a CEO for the company, believes his participation in TEGER has been in­strumental in preparing his nanotechnology for market. "My team has been tremendous, helping me communicate better — not just as a scientist — and develop strategies for market­ing and mitigating intellectual property risks," he says.

Teammate Madden adds, "The TEGER program was the single most influential experience of my MBA education. The professors involved are very knowledgeable about everything involved in bringing new technologies to market."

TEGER teaches students that the main hurdles to com­mercializing research are seldom technology-related. More often they involve legal issues and problems interfacing with the public and market.

Law students participating in TEGER deal with intellec­tual property issues while MBA students lead the business analysis of possible market applications for PhD students' research. Taking classes together, they learn to maximize com­mercial potential by considering market goals at an early stage of innovation. They also gain understanding of how possible market uses can influence research direction and priorities.

"I really enjoy the opportunity to work closely with a team, which is not part of the typical law school experience," says 2007 Emory graduate Jawad Muaddi. "TEGER helps me appreciate the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems."

Bryan Bell, a dual-degree student who's due to finish his doctorate in bioengineering and MBA in 2008, says that TEGER has helped him move beyond the often insulated

/orld of science to consider the commercial potential of his

Jeff Gross, BME 07, developed technology to improve diabetes treatment. He keeps in touch with his TEGER teammates, standing, left to right, D. Scott Anderson, a 2005 Emory Eaw School graduate; John Stallworth, who received an MBA from Tech in 2005; and Kamran Salour, Emory 05.

orthopedic implant technology and learn how to explain its meaning to lay audiences.

Bell, who has always aspired to work in industry, says, "Whatever kind of company I go to work for, I want to be involved in the whole process of getting a product from the idea stage to market."

TEGER students, who currently number about 60 a year, engage in consulting projects for startup companies associat­ed with Venture Lab, which helps commercialize technologies developed at Georgia Tech. They also benefit from assigned business and legal mentors as well as meetings with industry representatives at biannual TEGER advisory board meetings. Advisory board member Richard Crutchfield says he realized during his years in leadership at Equifax that universities were failing to produce graduates who understood the steps involved in delivering high-tech products to market.

"We were forced to hire people from other companies because we couldn't hire them right out of college," says Crutchfield, who retired as Equifax's executive vice president in 2001.

He believes TEGER is succeeding where other universities

are falling short. "I think it's one of the most innovative pro­grams that Georgia Tech offers right now," Crutchfield says.

Winning Approach

Created in 2002 by strategic management professor Marie Thursby, who'd previously worked on tech transfer programs for Purdue University, TEGER is

increasingly winning national recognition for its pioneering educational approach.

Its prestigious honors to date include the 2003 Price Institute Innovative Education Award from the Stanford University Technology Venture Roundtable on Engineering Entrepreneurship Education; 2005 National Model Specialty Program in Entrepreneurship from the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Students for Free Enterprise; and the 2006 Academy of Management Entrepre­neurship Division Innovation in Pedagogy Award.

To inspire peer institutions to adopt its model for teach­ing and research, TEGER workshops are being conducted to educate other universities about the program, thanks to sup­port from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. > »

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 55

Stressing the importance of programs like TkGER, Kauffman Foundation CEO Carl J. Schramm says, "In a glob­al economy, where researchers around the world are gaining on American universities, more must be done to rapidly and effectively move technology from the halls of academia to the front lines of U.S. commerce."

Through TkGER research, many alumni say they gained an entrepreneurial mind-set that benefits them in a wide vari­ety of careers. Meanwhile, the list of TkGER projects getting turned into real businesses keeps growing.

Open for Business

When David Beck, MBA 05, enrolled at Georgia Tech, he already knew he wanted to start his own busi­ness right after graduation. He just didn't know

what kind. Taking full advantage of the Institute's entrepre­neurial environment to find the right business opportunity, he worked on commercializing promising sensor technology developed by a mechanical engineering PhD student through the TkGER program.

Winning first place in the "most fundable" category in the 2005 Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition confirmed

A doctoral student in mechanical engineer­ing, Dimitri Hughes aspires to manufac­ture environmentally friendly automobiles,

ve been very pas­sionate about starting my own business for a long period of time."

to Beck and his colleagues that they were on the right track with their company, Sentrinsic. The award goes to the team deemed most ready to enter the marketplace by the entrepre­neurs and venture capitalists judging the competition.

Since then, Sentrinsic has made considerable headway in the marketplace with the position sensors it designs, manu­factures and sells for industrial automation and robotics. Posi­tion sensors are essential for automated systems, guiding moving parts, such as robotic arms, where they need to go. Sentrinsic's patent-pending technology offers customers high-precision sensors at half the cost of competing technologies, says COO Beck, who runs the company with CEO Mike Orndorff, MBA 05, and CTO Haihong Zhu, PhD ME 05.

"Simply put, our products are better, smaller and less expensive than anything else out there," he adds.

Sentrinsic is growing fast in the Advanced Technology Development Center, Tech's startup incubator. The company's increasing list of customers includes a Fortune 500 company, Parker-Hannifin, and Sentrinsic continues to attract investors and win grants from organizations like the Georgia Research Alliance.

"TkGER was a great help in navigating the university commercialization process, understanding intellectual proper­ty issues and identifying and attracting the people we needed to get on board to make it happen," Beck says.

Corporate Entrepreneurship

Running a startup is far from the only way for innova­tive types to experience entrepreneurship. More and more established companies recognize that they must

foster an entrepreneurial culture to ensure continued innova­tion. The buzz word for this approach is "intrapreneurship."

TkGER alumna Elizabeth Gadsby, PhD BC 04, considers herself an "intrapreneur" in her role as a research manager for Kimberly-Clark Corp. Even though she's working for a Fortune 500 company, she regularly draws upon her TkGER training to evaluate the market potential of new health and hygiene products and protect intellectual property.

During the TkGER program, her team strategized com­mercializing her technology for improving drug develop­ment. While the team's efforts revealed that this particular technology didn't have great commercial prospects, Gadsby says she still learned a tremendous amount. "TkGER is a very beneficial program, and I think it has made me a much more valuable employee."

Lynn Capadona, PhD Chem 04, says TkGER enabled her to expand her career prospects beyond the laboratory. "TkGER was a perfect way for me to diversify," she says. "It definitely jumped out at potential employers."

She went to work for NASA as a chemical engineer, put­ting her TkGER training to use by working with outside com-

Members of the team that won Tech's business plan contest in 2007 are, left to right, Matt Rhyner, ChE 02, PhD BME 07; Emory graduates Tom Raffcrty and Meadow Clendenin; and David Madden, MBA 07.

panies interested in commercializing technology developed at the agency. "I met all the time with people who needed to know the best routes to take technology past the conceptual stage," she says.

Capadona says through TI:GER she strategized the com­mercialization of her early-stage research on new optical data storage technology. While her academic adviser at Tech con­tinues on with that line of research, Capadona continues to grow professionally at NASA. She recently transitioned into a systems engineering position allowing her to assist with the development of NASA's crew exploration vehicle Orion, which will replace the space shuttle.

"I have been exposed to the full life cycle of technology here at NASA," Capadona points out. "From conducting very early-stage research, to handling technology transfer with out­side entities, to witnessing full-phase implementation on Orion, my experience has been enhanced by my ThGER training."

Opportunity Knocks

Ieff Gross, PhD BME 07, says his TEGER experience opened doors professionally. He credits the program with helping him land a job as a senior management consultant

with Easton Associates, a leading global health care con­sulting firm.

"Easton liked the fact that I had not only a PhD in

science, but also experience with market assessment as well as communicating with CEOs and others on the business side," says Gross, whose job focuses on strategy and mergers and acquisitions. "TEGER helped me understand the impor­tance of market research, due diligence and industry analysis before taking technologies to market."

In the TEGER program, Gross worked on commercializ­ing technology designed to improve the success of a proce­dure enabling people with type-1 diabetes to control their sugar levels without requiring daily insulin injections. Now reserved for the worst cases, this risky procedure involves transplanting healthy islet cells, which produce insulin, from the pancreases of genetically matched cadavers into diabetes patients. Gross' technology tests whether islet cells are of suf­ficient quality to warrant transplantation.

Because this early-stage technology is years away from use on humans, Gross and his teammates moved on to other opportunities after graduation. But Gross plans to stay involved as his academic adviser continues with the islet cell research.

When the time comes, his TEGER teammates also are interested in lending a hand with commercialization.

"We stay in touch in hopes that we can get something going again when this technology comes along," Gross says.

Thinking Big

After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2005, Dimitri Hughes knew he wanted to pursue both his PhD in mechanical engineering and his

interest in business, so he was excited to discover TEGER. "I've been very passionate about starting my own business for a long period of time," he says.

Hughes, who aspires to manufacture environmentally friendly automobiles, is now working on software technology that could help lower vehicle emissions. Designed to improve the efficiency of partial oxidation fuel reformers, this software could vastly decrease research and development expenses in the auto industry.

"This technology will be used," he insists. "I'm very con­fident of that."

After earning his PhD in a few years, Hughes plans to first gain experience in the auto industry, then start a consult­ing business related to environmentally friendly power sys­tems before eventually owning his own auto company.

Hughes says TEGER is helping him reach his goals. "TEGER is without any question the most rewarding experi­ence I've had so far at Georgia Tech," he says. "The program helps engineers and scientists understand what place their work has in greater society. You get to step back and look at your research holistically, making your PhD experience more rewarding and fulfilling." GT

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 57

>>PACESETTERS

Designed to Sell Niles Bolton practices a business-sawy, international approach to architecture

By Leslie Overman

Photo: Gary Meek

When architect Niles Bolton

watches television, he's not so

much engrossed by a show's

characters as he is the backdrop

of the scene — the buildings, the

color palette, the landscaping.

"I find when I'm watching

those programs, I'm looking at

the spaces and other things

around it. Have I been there?

Have I seen it? What did they

do?" says Bolton, Arch 69,

"Where trends used to last

30 or 40 years, now they're

changing in 10 years because of

the Internet, because of movies

and because of TV, If there's a

new building in California, a TV

show is going to have a chase

scene up and down its escala­

tors and through the space, and

now everybody across the coun­

try sees that new space versus it

finally being published in an

architectural magazine."

The ever-changing land­

scape of architecture poses a

predicament for designers, How

do you design a building that

won't be classified as passe or

dated by the time it goes to mar­

ket? How do you predict what

people will want or require from a

space several years down the

road? How much money should

you spend on a building that

may be renovated or demolished

for something bigger and differ­

ent within 10 years?

Bolton opened his own firm

at a time when most architects

couldn't find work and the coun­

try was littered with buildings that

wouldn't sell. To ensure the suc­

cess and longevity of his own

business, he developed a

philosophy.

"We practice what we call

'marketecture' — designing for

the marketplace versus just

architecture," Bolton explains.

"We're doing buildings, spaces

and places that the public has to

want and need. If you do a proj­

ect and people don't want to use

it or are not comfortable in it,

then the project is not success­

ful."

Bolton is the chairman and

CEO of Niles Bolton Associates,

an Atlanta-based firm specializ­

ing in architecture, interior

design, landscape architecture

and urban design. With addition­

al offices in Alexandria, Va., San

Jose, Calif., and Shanghai,

China, the firm has designed

projects — from apartment build­

ings and condominiums to

restaurants, university residence

halls, department stores and

transit stations — in more than

42 states and 14 countries.

Niles Bolton Associates has

been ranked by the Atlanta

Business Chronicle as sixth

among the top Atlanta firms; by

Building Design and Construc­

tion magazine as one of the top

40 architectural firms in the

United States; and by World

Architecture magazine as the

72nd largest architectural firm in

the world.

The firm owes much of its

success to the long-term plan­

ning that associates put into their

projects long before any ground

is broken.

"I think as much as anything

what we're typically doing is

helping somebody think two or

three years out what they want to

do with a piece of property or

where is the market going to be

or what needs the area will

have," Bolton says. "That's what's

exciting — to take a client and

decide how far out ahead they

want to be. Do they want to be

on the leading edge or the

bleeding edge? What's their risk

tolerance? A lot of it is really

reading clients."

Many scrapped designs or

unsuccessful projects are the

result of poor planning and pro­

gramming, says Bolton. "We get

into the engineering of space

and time that the lE's might be

involved with to try to say, 'How

do you make a space function

and work well? Is it comfortable

for people? How does the space

change during the day as sun­

light enters?'"

Bolton is very familiar with

the obstacles faced by architects

designing the ever-popular

mixed-use facility — he's been

building them for about 25 years.

"When you're doing mixed

use, and you're going to have

housing above and restaurants

below, have you thought about

where the odors and exhaust are

going to be vented? Where are

the Dumpsters going to be? Are

you locating service courts so

that residents don't hear the

garbage truck coming in at 4 in

the morning or so you don't smell

spillage in the summertime?

"We get excited about

being over an outdoor cafe when

we're in Europe on vacation or in

Hilton Head staying for a couple

of days, but do you want to live

above that noise all the time?"

Bolton asks.

Bolton was just 28 years old

when he opened the firm in

1975. He had returned from

Vietnam three years earlier to a

struggling economy and a field

that was experiencing major set­

backs,

"In '75, 50 percent of the

architects were unemployed,"

Bolton recalls. "We had markets

where we had 'see through'

office buildings, vacant apart­

ments, unsold condos, and noth­

ing was renting, selling or leas­

ing. That's where we came up

with marketecture, because we

realized people had designed

buildings without thinking, to our

minds, as much as they should

have about who was going to

use them."

Bolton and his two col­

leagues, one his former college

roommate, Bill vonHedemann,

who now is a partner with the

firm, first set up shop in Bolton's

home. He wanted to take a new

approach to architecture.

"I wanted clients that I would

work for continuously or some­

body who needed services all the

time," Bolton says. "If you've got

attorneys and you've got

accountants, they work for you all

the time. Whenever you have a

need, they are there. I wanted

architecture to be that way."

Under that principle, the

company has prospered. Niles

Bolton Associates now has 20

partners and more than 190 staff

members with projects around

the world.

"That idea of having a con­

tinuous working relationship with

companies has really held up for

us," Bolton says. "People leave

those companies and go some­

where else and start a new com­

pany, It's almost like being able to

do a family tree of your clients

and your history of working with

them."

Bolton, who is a former

Georgia Tech Alumni Association

trustee and now serves on the

Georgia Tech Foundation board

and the College of Architecture's

development council, hopes that

the next generation of architects

will get an education in the busi­

ness side of architecture.

"You're going to have a

short career if you can't under­

stand the financial side of it and

where your clients are coming

from," Bolton says. "Most of my

clients tell me architects are noto­

riously bad business people.

They look at themselves as being

the starving artists, because they

don't manage their business like

a business. They're always wait­

ing for the next commission."

Still, Bolton isn't in the busi­

ness to be the biggest architec­

tural firm. "It's about having fun

and loving what you're doing.

Because when it's not fun, I'm not

going to be here anymore." G T

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Georgia Tech alumni and friends on a trip to Ireland take a carriage ride to Muckross House, Photo: John Mullis/JOM lll-Macon

White, Gold and Irish Green By Carol Carter

Georgia Tech now has a presence in Ireland — and the white and gold nice­ly complements the Irish green. Georgia Tech Ireland is the Institute's first applied research facility outside the United States, located in the city of

Athlone on the Shannon River in central Ireland.

GTTs offices in a 115-acre industrial park are strate­gic and convenient, with a close proximity to Galway the Irish center of biomedicine; Cork, the center of the pharmaceutical industry; and Dublin, the center for information communication technology.

"We're globalizing our research and development activities," explains GTI chairman Thomas J. Malone, ChE 63, PhD ChE 66.

In collaboration with Irish industry and research universities, GTTs goal is to enhance the commercial­ization of research, according to Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough. The relationship — which Clough has said opens doors of economic opportunity between Georgia and Ireland — will involve Tech students and researchers as well as Georgia companies.

GTI receives support from the Irish Development Authority, the Irish government's industrial develop­ment agency. Through its network of offices in Ireland and overseas, the agency's core mission is to attract high-quality foreign direct investment.

Within five years, the value of GTTs portfolio of research and industry partnerships is projected to > »

Georgia Tech Ireland opens doors to economic opportunity in an ambitious research initiative involving students, faculty and companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

UNITED KINGDOM

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 61

At Glendalough, a picturesque chapel goes back centuries; the Shannon riverfront at right reflects the modem city ofAthlone, the location of Georgia Tech Ireland.

"People say that we're

only creating 50 jobs

in Ireland. But it's the

amplification effect that

we're really after....

There will be a lot of

companies that

provide services and

products in these

markets. That is

where the job growth

is going to be."

top $24 million. With five employees now — led by general manager Krishan Ahuja, Regents pro­fessor in the School of Aerospace Engineering — GTI is expected to employ 50 researchers when fully operational.

"People say that we're only creating 50 jobs in Ireland," says GTI executive director Stephen Cross, who also is a Tech vice president and Georgia Tech Research Institute director. To some, that doesn't sound like a lot. "But it's the amplifi­cation effect that we're really after. GTI is not going to be that large. The communities of inter­est we create are going to have to find new mar­kets, and there will be a lot of companies that provide services and products in these markets. That is where the job growth is going to be."

A Firsthand Look

Georgia Tech alumni, on an early fall tour of Ireland led by Cross, got a firsthand feel for GTI. Among those on the alumni trip

was Bill Collins, ME 57, MS IM 63, who called the venture "a good fit."

"I was impressed not only with the people selected to work with Georgia Tech at GTI, but also with the fact that the Irish government is. behind the venture," Collins says.

Cross says GTI is a catalyst that will bring research to companies and companies to research. GTI will focus on test beds that could involve the

entire country of Ireland. Cross calls them "test beds of a national scale."

Cross says one could think of a test bed as a laboratory that addresses industrial-size prob­lems.

"Often in the chemical industry, before build­ing a new oil refinery, they will build a pilot plant. It won't have the capacity to do what they want the oil refinery to do, but they will test out new processes and chemical additives on a small-^ er scale and make sure that they can scale it up for a full-sized industry solution."

62 4 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

£•>

Planning Digital Advances

GTI is building a test bed for Internet proto­col television in Ireland. The next big thing in the multimedia world, IPTV enables

customers to receive TV, video signals and other multimedia services over their broadband Internet connections.

The IPTV test bed will connect many of the universities in Ireland, various nonprofit organi­zations and the Georgia Tech campus, Cross says. "We will have kids in the universities in Ireland and Georgia Tech building applications for this.

No single university or organization could create this kind of capability alone. It has to be through collaboration with many organizations."

Cross says GTI knew the idea of IPTV was advancing. "We saw companies like Scientific Atlanta beginning to build equipment for this. We saw research interest in digital media. So, this is an area where many people were thinking along the same lines.

"We came in and said, Tf we create this test bed, then we can accelerate progress in this area. We can support the research. We can support > »

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 63

the people who are developing products. We can stress test those products. We can help facilitate the development of standards in this area/" he says. "For a number of reasons, the test bed is going to help advance the field much more quickly."

One test bed could involve an Atlanta com­pany that has announced plans to create an IPTV interface for its personal traffic guidance systems, converting network data from cell phones into traffic congestion information, which could be personalized to individual commutes.

Another test bed under consideration for GTI involves radio frequency identification. This wire­less sensor technology, for example, enables scien­tists to keep track of endangered animals that have ID chip implants. The pharmaceutical industry, which is quite large in Ireland, would like to use RFID for tracking shipments.

"There are a lot of counterfeit drugs that come out of China," Cross says, "so the industry would like to have some way to better authenti­cate that drugs like Lipitor, for example, were actually manufactured in the Pfizer plant in Cork rather than being a counterfeit knockoff."

The aircraft engine industry, he says, is look­

ing at how RFID technology can be embedded into its systems to help support maintenance.

World-class Reputation

Cross describes the GTI test bed for RFID as, basically, a working factory. "Most RFID laboratories are electronics laboratories on

a small scale at universities. This is going to be a working laboratory, available to industry and the research community, where we can bring in machinery, large robots, containers."

The origins of GTI go back to the fall of 2003, when representatives from the Irish Development Authority visited the Georgia Tech campus. "At the time," Cross recalls, "they were looking for successful models of transitioning technology, often called translational research, from those that conduct research to the benefits of industry."

The Georgia Tech provost referred the group to GTRI. One thing led to another and ultimately, Cross says, "we decided that the best thing to do would be for Georgia Tech to open an office in Ireland."

Malone says, "Georgia Tech has a wonderful multinational brand — namely, a great reputation of graduating world-class students and providing

them to the companies that are successfully competing around the world."

GTI was a natural step, and it is work­ing. When companies kept telling the Irish

government and universities that they needed a world-class university that could do research

with them and connect with them, they said, > »

site

"We came in and said,

If we create this test

bed, then we can

accelerate progress in

this area. We can

support the research.

We can support the

people who are devel­

oping products. We

can stress test those

products. We can

help facilitate the

development of stan­

dards in this area.'"

— Stephen Cross

Georgia Tech Ireland isn't far from Dublin, at right, the country's center for information communication technology. Krishan Ahuja, at left, was appointed GTI direc­tor and general man­ager in September.

Photo: Gary Meek

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The Alumni Travel trip took the group, below and includ­ing photographer John Mullis, to the Dingle Peninsula.

"If you're going to get one university from America you ought to get Georgia Tech," accord­ing to Malone.

"So they came to us, which is very exciting, and gave us incentives — facilities, money, sup­port. But GTI has to stand on its own. The compa­nies have to pay for the research. The government has to support our being there. It makes a lot of sense."

Irish Development Authority CEO Sean Dorgan says, "Successful economies of the future will be those that embrace knowledge and learn to leverage knowledge to its fullest potential. The Irish government has therefore placed the encour­agement of research, development and innova­

tion at the heart of Ireland's economic develop­ment strategy.

"Evidence of this commitment to innovation and creativity can be seen in IDA's partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, an acknowledged international leader in applied research with a sterling reputation for working alongside industry to solve difficult problems," Dorgan says.

"Georgia Tech Ireland is a unique and inno­vative research institute that I am confident will become a critical component of Ireland's innova­tion infrastructure."

Trans-Atlantic Benefits

Georgia Tech Ireland also will serve as a model for economic development in Georgia, Cross says. "Many of the

Georgia-based companies that are locating in Ireland are going to benefit because they will be more competitive internationally much more quickly than they otherwise would."

A company involved in the test bed would be able to penetrate the European market with their products, which should help them be much more successful, he says.

Everything GTI does reaches back to Georgia Tech, Cross says. "It has created a great deal of interest not just at GTRI but, for instance, in the biomedical research that is being done through­out Georgia Tech."

GTI is ahead of schedule. At the outset, it was projected to take 18 months to two years to sign its first contract. "We are fairly confident that we're going to have signed four or five deals by early in the first quarter of 2008," Cross says. That would be several months ahead of the research facility's second anniversary in June, GT

"The celebration of

Georgia Tech Ireland's

first year was a high­

light of the Alumni

Travel trip. The travel­

ers found it quite inter­

esting to have an inter­

section with an impor­

tant Georgia Tech ini­

tiative in Ireland."

— Stephen Cross

u Oacapa Williams

"Puckie"

*Two-Sport Athlete *Holds school single

season record for steals, man or woman

JCCH

r

* * # * * • •

Janie Mitchell I *Dean's List Student

*Co-Captain of the team *Led team in rebounds

last year *» mm

I k " T ^ k • •^ i" ;

Chioma Nnarnaka

UtlUy^ tr i l ingual rSwedish & Nigerian Descend

^Currently third in career three-point field goals

P""

Georgia Tec P IriHin For mDrE information visit wwwxBmblin fV^rif3imi ur sail 333-' tCH-TIX

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 67

>>PACESETTERS

The Little Engine That Could Not Alumnus Edward Morgan engineers some help to fire up his invention

By Karen Hill

For 20-something years, Edward

Morgan obsessed about why the

engine he invented only fired

once.

"It would smoke and burn.

One time it fired and I was so

excited, I forgot what the heck I

did to make it fire," says Morgan,

CIs 43. "My wife and I would go to

cocktail parties and I was thinking

about it. I'd be all dressed up,

come home and go straight to

work on it.

"It was as if I had an aver­

sion to making it work, but I had

been so close. I really lost a lot of

sleep over it,"

Father Time finally forced him

to throw in the towel.

"I ran out of gas myself, and

I ran out of help," the 88-year-old

says of the retirement of a talent­

ed machinist at his business,

Morgan Engine Co., a Savannah-

based distributor for Detroit Diesel

Corp. "If I was physically able to

pick up the cylinders, I'd still do

the work myself."

But Morgan decided that if

he couldn't solve this particular

problem for himself, he could at

least solve two others for other

people. He donated the patent for

the Morgan XL 53 rotary diesel

engine to Georgia Tech in 2006,

giving students at its Savannah

campus an intriguing hands-on

problem to solve — and giving

the Institute the potential for a

large source of income if students

can make the engine work.

Morgan invented his low-

cost, low-maintenance engine in

1985 and patented it in 1991. It

features two pistons rotating

around a single shaft, working at

low speed and high torque. He

invented it with an eye toward

applications for heavy equipment

or construction machinery, maybe

a "standby engine for oil pumps

out in the oil fields," he says.

At Tech's Savannah campus,

mechanical engineering professor

Jitesh Panchal put six students —

Jonathan Bankston, Thomas Beal,

Robert Lafond, Alex Ruderman,

Andrew Scripture and Julian

Stevenson — on the case first in a

machine design class, followed

by a class on interactive computer

graphics and computer-aided

design. They studied the engine

timing, cylinder configuration and

its thermodynamic cycle.

Ruderman says he enjoyed

"being able to have the chance to

work on something new that no

one really has tried yet." The most

frustrating thing, he adds, was try­

ing to simulate the engine's com­

plex dynamics on a computer

model. The actual engine has yet

to be moved from Morgan's busi­

ness.

Morgan says he knew of two

problems that might be keeping

his engine from firing. One is that

the pistons work at 45-degree

angles, which makes it difficult to

keep the fuel atomizing properly.

Another problem is "fuel not get­

ting all the way down in the line

when the piston is coming up."

Ruderman says students

found problems in getting the

engine fuel hot enough to spark.

They found another problem too:

Fuel combustion was creating an

opposite-force effect on the pis­

tons rather than allowing them to

turn the plates in the same direc­

tion one after another.

The students made several

recommendations, but didn't have

the opportunity to try them out on

the actual engine. That might

come in later classes after the

engine is moved to the Tech

campus.

Their recommendations

include using multiple fuel injec­

tors; adding metal shims to the

piston housing and extending

them to the end of the piston

heads; and reducing the angle

between the cylinder and the

rotating plate.

In the meantime, with this

particular monkey off his back,

Morgan is back at work himself.

"I've been working on a glow

plug that gets awfully red hot from

batteries. It would burn up all the

nitrous oxide in the cylinder line

and create very little exhaust.

That's what our country needs,

with all our automobiles," Morgan

says. "I hadn't started working on

this seriously until I had given the

engine to Tech." G T

68 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Traveling Save money wnen uou use

Hertz or Avis for your rental car needs.

Georgia Tech alumni are entitled to special discounts with Hertz.

Your Discount CDP # is

1265432

To check rates or to make a reservation visit www.hertz.com or call 1-800-654-2200

AVIS Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD)

number is

B105900

To reserve your car, visit www.gtalumni.org and click on alumni benefits.

This will take you directly to our exclusive online reservation service.

Ys Ivi ove Another benefit

from the Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Preferential treatment Minimum of a 55% discount on all interstate relocations. Free Full-Value Coverage up to $50,000. 15% discount on all Georgia and Florida intrastate moves. Guaranteed on time pick-up and delivery. Personalized attention from start to finish. Top rated drivers will be assigned to all Yellow Jacket shipments. Sanitized air-ride vans.

Contact Tom Larkins (The Ramblin' Relocator) for details on this program

l_800-899-2527 or e-mail him at tom.larkins@atlanticrelocation.com

Atlantic Relocation Systems/ Interstate Agent for

ATLAS VAN LINES 1909 Forge Street Tucker, GA 30084

* A portion of the proceeds collected from the

transportation costs will he paid to the Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 69

> > > A L U M N I A L M A N A C

Years Years Years

Anak, Georgia Tech's unique honor society, was founded Jan. 1, 1908, pri­marily through the efforts of George W. McCarty, ME 1908, its first presi­dent. Charter members, below, include Cherry Emerson, ME 1908, EE 09, and L.W. "Chip" Robert, CE 1908. McCarty served as president of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association from 1924 to 1926 and as president of the Georgia Tech Foundation from 1948 to 1950. Emerson served as president of the Alumni Association in 1947. McCarty, Emerson and Robert all received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award. Other charter members of Anak were C.H. Vaughn, L.E. Goodier, C.A. Sweet, C.A. Hendrie, C.A. Adamson, S.J. Hargrove, J.E. Davenport, W.R. Snyder and G.W.H. Cheney.

Times were never harder than 1933 during the Great Depression, when the Alumni Association told its members it faced a "live or die" year. An editorial, "Shoulder to Shoulder," in the Georgia Tech Alumnus magazine's January 1933 edition urged, "Stay with us if you are employed; if not, we'll stay with you, regardless."

Years

On Jan. 23, 1958, Georgia Tech broke ground on the Skiles Classroom building and launched a three-year, $10 million construc­tion program that would include the Van Leer Electrical Engineering building, a radioiso­topes laboratory, a nuclear research reactor (now decommissioned) and new dormitories as the Institute anticipated a jump in enroll­ment from 5,500 students to 7,000 by 1962.

Silicon Valley took note of Atlanta's high-tech ambitions and the emerging success of the Advanced Technology Development Center, which provided incubator space for entrepreneurial startup com­panies. An article in the San Jose Mercury News, reprinted in the February-March 1983 edition of Tech Topics, said,

"Georgia is trying to grow its own companies in fields such as computer software, tele­communications and medical technology. It's an unorthodox strategy. But it is stolen right from the pages of Silicon Valley.... In Atlanta, the focal point is the Georgia Institute of Technology, which is trying to provide the high-powered help and low-cost space needed to foster startup companies." GT

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Limited Edition Deluxe

BABY BUZZ CLUB The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is pleased to introduce the Deluxe Baby Buzz Club.

This limited edition gift has all of the original Baby Buzz favorites, plus a wonderful CD featuring original lullabies and a piece entitled "Georgia Tech Medley."

Deluxe Baby Buzz includes: Canvas Bag Buzz Hooded Towel . . « „ - •

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Maxwell's Lullabies — Special GT Edition' *WhHe supplies last

Baby Buzz includes: Canvas Bag Buzz Hooded Towel

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Enroll by returning the order fo rm a n d your c h e c k for $49.95 + 8% tax (in Geo rg i a only) a n d

$6.00 Shipping a n d hand l ing m a d e p a y a b l e to

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Atlanta, GA 30313

ORDERED BY:

Name: Telephone #:

Gift card should read:

Send to: Baby's sex: D Male D Female

Shipping Address:

(No P.O. Boxes please)

Payment Information:

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(jeorgia Tech Return Address Labels

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Actual Size of Label 2"x .625"

bo for 120 Color Labels Includes Shipping and Handling

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Complete form and mail with credit card information or check for $7 to:

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

Make checks payable to Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Order online at www.gtalumni.org/nierehandise

G e o r g i a T e c h Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

Tech 100 (Business Club

Sign up to participate on the Alumni Association Web site:

gtalumni.org/Tech 100

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Tradition tyU AKe-W

Attitude-Introducing the New

Collector's Edition Ramblin' Wreck Do not miss this chance to own your own piece of Georgia Tech history.

Please send me . . .

replica(s) of the Ramblin' Wreck $39.95 = $

Shipping ($6.00 per Wreck) = $_

Georgia residents add BAfo ($3.20 per Wreck) = $ _

Total = $_

This brand new edition of our 1930 Model A Ramblin'Wreck has been completely recast with a new sleek convertible design. Also a shiny new spare tire graces the right side. This is a great gift for every Tech fan—perfect for any occasion.

Order your new edition today!

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP

CREDIT CARD:

NUMBER

MASTERCARD .VISA AMEX DISCOVER

EXP DATE

SIGNATURE

DAYTIME PHONE (_ .). PHONE ORDERS: CALL TOLL FREE: (800)GT-ALUMS

MAIL ORDERS: Official Ramblin' Wreck Georgia Tech Alumni Association 190 North Avenue Atlanta, GA 30313

Jse the form above or order on the Internet: http://gtalumni.org/site/Page/Shop

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G e o r g i a T e c h Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008 73

> > > F A C U L T Y P R O F I L E

'-** A

A good teacher, says Bonnie Heck Ferri, has

"thorough knowledge of the subject, ability

to motivate students to learn, willingness

to innovate with new topics and new

educational technologies and the ability to

make connections with students so that they

• [ feel comfortable seeking advice or so they

might view the teacher as a role model."

Digital Logic Professor Bonnie Heck Ferri applies technology to innovative teaching

By Karen Hill

74

A former student at Georgia Tech,

Bonnie Heck Ferri is now recognized

as one of its best teachers. She is

the recipient of the 2007 Hewlett-

Packard/Harriet B. Rigas Award from

the Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers' Education

Society.

The award recognizes female

faculty who have made significant

contributions to electrical and com­

puter engineering through research,

teaching and work in professional

societies.

Ferri, PhD EE 88, is a professor

and the associate chair for graduate

affairs in the School of Electrical and

Computer Engineering. During the

fall semester, she taught at Georgia

Tech Lorraine in Metz, France,

Ferri has been active in curricu­

lum development and in applying

technology to innovative teaching.

She has played an integral role in

developing several undergraduate

and graduate courses in controls, as

well as in the introduction of comput­

er-enhanced and Web-based

instruction in courses on signals,

systems and controls.

"Control systems are devices

that make physical systems behave

more accurately under a variety of

circumstances," Ferri explains.

"Examples are flight controls in

planes, cruise control in cars, tem­

perature and climate controls in

buildings and control of automation

and robotics. My early work in con-

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2008

trols was more theoretical, but I have

become more interested in applica­

tions in recent years.

"I have worked on control sys­

tems applied to automation in the

food industry, control software archi­

tecture for autonomous vehicles and

control of power electronics. I co-

authored a junior-level textbook on

the subject of signals and systems,"

she says.

That book, "Fundamentals of

Signals and Systems," co-authored

with professor emeritus Edward W.

Kamen, has been adopted by more

than 50 universities around the

world.

Ferri receives consistently high

assessments from her students. Her

definition of what makes a good

teacher is "thorough knowledge of

the subject, ability to motivate stu­

dents to learn, willingness to inno­

vate with new topics and new edu­

cational technologies and the ability

to make connections with students

so that they feel comfortable seeking

advice or so they might view the

teacher as a role model."

Ferri also has been active in

outreach programs to draw more

girls into science. Through Women in

Engineering, she has developed

modules for a Georgia Tech camp

for middle school girls that focuses

on technology, engineering and

computing. She's run robotics ses­

sions for the camp, using LEGO

Mindstorm kits, and developed mod­

ules on power and energy genera­

tion, home automation and digital

logic.

How does one teach digital

logic? "I teach the students binary

math, and we build a basic digital

circuit to implement addition. In

essence, I am trying to teach them

how a calculator works," Ferri says.

"It was rather ambitious to teach this

to such young students, but they

grasped the binary logic very quick­

ly and enjoyed playing with the cir­

cuits to add numbers."

Ferri also works as a faculty

adviser for the Women in ECE stu­

dent organization and joins its mem­

bers in visiting high schools and

hosting sessions for visiting pre-col-

lege students. Last summer, the

group ran a camp for middle school

girls that focused on the mechanics

of robotics and programming.

Working with the camps led

Ferri to another innovation: modules

that can be used as "portable exper­

iments" for college courses that tra­

ditionally don't include labs.

The work is funded by a grant

from the National Science

Foundation,

"The motivation is to give

hands-on experience in lecture-

based courses so that we distribute

the laboratory experience throughout

the curriculum," Ferri says. "Students

enjoy a break from lecture by doing

hands-on activities that enhance the

theoretical concepts." G T

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I'm a Ramblin'Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer, A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer. Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear. I'm a Ramblin'Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer.

About Face

There are 2,600 faces of Ramblin'Wrecks in this Photomosaic image that replicates Georgia Tech's classic Ramblin'Wreck, a 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe that wheeled onto Grant Field for the first time in 1961 and forever rolled into the hearts of alumni. The image is computer generated from more than 2,300 individual headshots and photos and, in some cases, the com­puter duplicated images. The Photomosaic was created by Robert Silvers, who developed the patented technology, GT

Keith Brooking ©AirTran Airways 2008