Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 70, No. 03 1994

WINTER 1994

ALUMNI MAGAZINE

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ALSO INSIDE:

Tech's Man at Harvard Advances in Photovoltaics The Answer Is Analog

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Volimic 70 Number 3 WINTER 1994

A L U M N I V J M AG AZ I NE

Features 2 0 APhDinFun

At New York's I kill of Science, Tech grad Alan Friedman directs

a museum that entrails as it educates kids of all ages.

Written byJohn Dunn

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The Juggler of Harvard ArcWtecture Balancing innovation and risk with tradition and reputation is the task of Tech architecture graduate, B. Mack Sogin.

Written byJerry Schwartz

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^uhatever Happened to Solar Energy?

It still shines brightly at Georgia Tech.

Photo essay by Gary Meek • Text by Gary Goettling

Page 40

Departments

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Letters

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Technotes

Page 15 \ c \ \ engineering facility moves ahead; Hall named baseball eoaeh; Dodd in Hall of lame; Keseareh lights up; Yell< ivv Jackets abroad; 1 ligh lech hall; Technique critique.

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Perspective Let's Hear it lor Analog • By Barbara Tomlinson

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Pacesetters Christopher Watkins: Renaissance and Rock Raymond Baker: Out of Africa Melvin Beardslev: Beach Builder

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Research Bulgaria's free market struggle; Help to diabetics; Lye surgery simulator

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Profde Donald Ratliff: Olympic People Mover

Cover Photo: When vim don 'i see is the business end of a model tow truck thai the kids me moving— it's a lesson in physics mid in working together at the New York Hull of Science (page 20).

I UBi i SflCBS PHOTO

Page 32 < .i one a v TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

is published quarterly for Roll Call contributors by the Georgia Tech Alumni. issociation. Scud correspondent! e and < hana.es of address to: GEI iKeiv TEI n All VIM MAI, V/IM . Alumni Faculty I louse. 22S North Avenue NW. Atlanta, D A 30332-0175 • Editorial: i 104)853-0760/0761 Advertising: (404)894 9270 • lax: I 104)894-51 L3 • 1994 Georgia Tech Alumni \ssociation • ISSN: 1061 9747

GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

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WithTech Degrees And DeltaTickets, They Can Go Just About AnywhereThey Want 1 )elta and The Delta Connection" now offer over 4,900 daily flights to more than 300 cities worldwide. We thought you should know this because, with a diploma from Tech, you're undoubtedly going places.

UDEHAAIRLINES Dcltat onnection flights operate with Delta flight nun

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Juv lit/1 d John C. Dunn, editor Gary Goettling, associate editor Gary Meek. Stanley Leary photography Everett I lullum, design Dudley Williamson, advertising

Chairman Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr., NS '46 Chairman, SaivyerRiley-Gompton, Atlanta Members William "Guy" Arledge, IM 71 " Manager, Advertising, BellSouth Corp., Atlanta McKinlev "Mac" Conway Jr., GK'40 President. Conway Data Inc.. Norcross, Ga. Hubert L. I larris Jr., IM '65 President. Investco Services Inc., Atlanta McAllister "Mac" Isaacs III, TEX '60 Exeat I ire Editor, Textile World. Atlanta George A. Stewart Jr., AE '69 President. Stewart Consulting Group, Dunwoody, Ga. James M. Langley Vice President External Affairs. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta John B. Carter Jr., IE '69 Vice /'resident and Executire Director, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta Dudley C. Williamson, IMGT 74 Associate Vice President/ Associate Executive Director. Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta

O GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

is printed on recycled paper.

Ray Anderson Revisited Editor: The rest of the story about Ray C. Anderson, chairman of Interface ("Pacesetter," Fall 1993) is that Ray is color blind. Can you imagine a person with such a handicap directing carpet research and development? Ray did in 1969 and 1970—that is another reason his success story is unique and amazing.

Having known Ray, the article was of immense interest to me. The other side of the coin is his human side—how Ray relates to his associates and the other people who come in contact with him. How Ray Anderson treats others has as much to do with his success as the business side.

William B. Crane, ME '50 Winston-Salem, N.C.

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Bricks for Booksway from our goal of Own a Piece of the Dorm $100,000. We need your Editor: I am asking my fellow alumni to support the "Bricks for Books" campaign started by Chris Whaley, EE '87, to place books in the Tech library.

A number of bricks salvaged from McDaniel a.k.a Techwood Dorm, which has been razed to make way for Olympic construction, will be sold to raise funds for the library. Each brick will be emblazoned with an brass plate commemorating over 50 years of housing in Techwood— affectionately known as "the building we loved to hate." These keepsakes are available for a minimum . contribution of $50.

The campaign has just begun and we are a long

help in locating alumni who would want to own a brick. Unfortunately, housing records have not been kept up-to-date, so we have not been able to contact many former residents.

Not only will you own a piece of this historic building when you support Bricks for Books with your tax-deductible contribution, you will also be investing in the future of Tech students.

To receive your commemorative brick, send your contribution to Buddy Chambless, Division of Student Services Division, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 3033202185. (404) 894-1321.

Joseph P. Byrd III, GE '38 Lufkin, Texas

Thank you to the official sponsors of the

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE • • • • • • • • • • •

Acme Business Products Alamo Rent-A-Car Atlanta Marriott Northwest Atlanta Renaissance Hotel Bank South The Coca-Cola Company Delta Air Lines Diamond Brostrom Doubletree Hotel Georgia's Stone Mountain Park Georgia Tech Theatre for the Arts • Lockheed Georgia Employees' Federal Credit Union

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Marriott Courtyard Midtown Atlanta NationsBank Norrell Services Piedmont Hospital Prudential Home Mortgage Ritz-Cariton, Atlanta Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead Six Flags Over Georgia Technology Park/Atlanta Trust Company Bank Wachovia Bank of Georgia Wyndham Midtown Hotel

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ntoe New Engineering Facility Moves Ahead

By Gary Goettling

B

y the summer of 1997 there will be a new abbreviation on the Georgia Tech campus.

On Dec. 6, ground was broken for the new Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex (MRDC).

The project is supported by a $16.3 million appropriation from the state for fiscal year 1993.

Located at Ferst Drive and Hemphill Avenue, MRDC will contain about 100,000 square feet of floor space divided between the School of Mechanical Engi-

neering and the School of Textile and Fiber Engineering.

ME's undergraduate classrooms, instructional laboratories and research labs will move to the new facility, which will also house three research chemistry labs for textile and fiber engineering, along with that school's computer laboratories and analytical instruments labs.

The MRDC is the second in a four-building complex to be devoted to manufacturing technology.

The first, the Manufacturing Research Center, was

designed by the architect tural firm of Lord, Aeck & Sargent and completed in 1989.

The firm will also design the MRDC.

Hall Named Baseball Coach

D

anny Hall, who guided Kent State University's baseball program to national prominence, has been hired as Georgia Tech's baseball coach. Hall posted a 208-117 record in six seasons with the Golden Flashes. Last year,

Kent State led the nation in team earned-run-average and set a school record for fielding accuracy. The 1992 club posted a school-best 45-13 record. Hall replaces Jim Morris, who resigned to take the top baseball coaching job at Miami. The Jackets were 504-244-1 in 12 years under Morris, and have appeared in the last nine NCAA tournaments.

Hall appears wellequipped to continue the streak: Kent State has appeared in the NCAA playoffs each of the past two years as Mid-America Conference champs.

DIGGING IN: At groundbreaking ceremonies for the MRDC are, from left, George Hightower Jr., TEXT 71, chairman of the Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association; Oliver Sale, ME '56, chairman of the Woodruff School Advisory Board; Dr. Fred Cook, T CH 71, PhD CIIEM 75, director of the School of Textile and Fiber Engineering; Dr. Ward Winer, director and Regents' professor of the Woodruff School; Ga. Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard; and Georgia Tech President John P. Crecine.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ TecbNotes

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TechMes Bobby Dodd in Hall of Fame

It's a Student's life

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eorgia Tech coaching legend Bobby Dodd has been inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame, joining Amos Alonzo Stagg as the only men inducted into the hall both as a player and a coach. Dodd, a former quarterback at Tennessee, compiled a 165-648 coaching record in 22 years at Tech, including

It's a Fact

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he average SAT score of fall-quarter freshmen at Georgia Tech is six points higher than last year's entering class. At 1,232, the average places Tech near the top among all public universities in the

country.

eight straight bowl victories during 1947-56. He died in 1988 at age 79. The induction took place on Dec. 7 at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York.

Research lights Up

T

he federal government has selected Georgia Tech as headquarters for its new Phosphor Technology Center of Excellence.

The three-year, $10 million project will stimulate research, technology transfer and education in phosphors—the chemicals that light up TV and computer screens.

The enhanced-resolution display technology is essential to deployment of high-definition television, and may also find applications in vehicular dash-

n its annual Freshman Survival Guide issue, the Technique presented a list of 99 things thai Tech students will do before graduating. A sampling: ^ Identify yourself as George P. Burdell.

• Wander aimlessly, dazed by a bad tesi grade. f' Get kicked out of the library at closing time.

• Eat too much food from the "V." • Blow off homework for an all-weekend Star Trek festival on TV. i/ Imagine that your roommate is getting paid to ruin your life.

board controls, medical instrument monitors, computer screens, virtual-environment displays and industrial process-control panels.

Yellow Jackets Abroad

G

eorgia Tech is expanding its global presence, most recently in an announcement from the European Community that

the Institute has been selected to participate in joint academic efforts with universities in the Netherlands, France and England.

In partnership with the State University of New York at Buffalo. Tech will be involved in curricula development, and faculty and student exchanges.

Details are still being worked out for the initiatives, which will focus on technology and intercultural management studies.

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers G. William Knight 1H '62, MS IM '68

president 1 [. Hammond Stith Jr. CE '58

peat president Frank H, Malerjr. IM '60 president-elect/treasurer 11. Milton Stewart IE '61

vice prBSidentfactivtties Hubert L. Hants fr. IM '65 Vice president/communications FrandS N. Spears CE 73, MS CE '80 vice pwsich n it/Roll Call John B.Carter Jr. IE'69

vicepresident/executive director James M. Langley

vkx president, external affairs

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GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

Trustees A.1-. Beachamjr. IE'60 William Hagood Bellinger EE '63 Charles G. Betty ChE 79 James W. Bowyer CE '64, MS SANE '66

Richard H. Bradfield ARCH '60 L Guydon Branch Mgt 71 Carey H. Brown IE '69 Albert W. Culbrethjr. IM '68 Fred L. Cook TCH 71, PhD 75 Thomas E. Davenport Jr. IE '56 Charles F. Easley Jr. IM '86 Dwight Evans CE 70, MS SANE 73 Janice Carol Harden IE 74 PaulW. Heard Jr. ME'65 L Andrew Hearn Jr. EE '57 J. Scott Howell ISyE 75 Douglas W. Johnson IM '65 David R. Jones IM '59

Govantez L. Lowndes IE '83 Ion Samuel Martin IM '64 David M. McKenney Phys '60, IE '64 Francis B, Mewborn Cls '56 Charles D. Moseley Jr. IE '65 G. David Peake IE '61 Thomas J. Pierce Jr. ChE '61 Linda Poger-Williams CE '81

I. Lamar Reese Jr. IM'55 Neal Allen Robertson IE '69 B. Jane Skelton IM 77 Haywcxxl F. Solomon Jr. IM '""0 Louis Terrell Sovey Jr. IE '52 William P. Sovey IE '55 Neal D. Stubblefield ME 79 Harry B. Thompson III IE '60 Rene L. Turner IE '83 Philip S. Vincent IE '66

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Technique Critique, Tongue In Cheek

W

riting in a recent issue of The Technique, photography editor Todd Sleeman proposed a "roommate critique" similar to course critique, the results of which would be made available to help students find compatible roommates.

Some of the questions he devised include: • During winter quarter, did your roommate finally ask where the closest washing machines are?

• What were your roommate's sleeping habits, if any?

• How often "was your roommate around?

• Did your roommate have a car? Did he leave his keys around? Did he notice when you borrowed his car?

High Tech Hall

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'o* underscore the importance of high technology to Georgia,

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GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

the Business and Technology Alliance has established a Technology Hall of Fame to recognize the state's leaders.

Dennis Hayes, Cls 73, founder of Hayes Microcomputer Products; Dr. John Pippin, EE '51, MS EE '53, founder of EMS Technologies; and Glen Robinson, Phys '48, MS PHYS '50, founder of Scientific-Atlanta, were among the first four inductees.

Former Gov. George Busbee was also elected to the hall, which is located in the Science and Technology Museum of Atlanta and was launched in October as part of Georgia High-Tech Month.

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To order using MasterCard or VISA, call toll-free 1-800-GT ALUMS or return the attached order form with your check payahle to the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Alumni/I acuity House Atlanta, GA 30332-0175.

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A convenient interest-free payment plan is available w i t h s e v e n e q u a l m o n t h l y payments per watch (shipping, handling and full state sales tax, if applicable, will be added to the first payment).

The black embossed calf-leather strap men's or w o m e n ' s wrist watches are $200 each; and the two-tone bracelet men's or women's wrist watches are $265 each. There is a $7.50 s h i p p i n g a n d h a n d l i n g fee for each w a t c h o r d e r e d . On s h i p m e n t s to Minnesota, please add 6.5% state sales tax.

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Mwe Let's Hear It for Analog ti

By Barbara C. Tomlinson

1

heard a radio station calling itself "all digital" today. 1 have always thought fondly of radio as the pinnacle of analog technology. One of my favorite books is the biography of Edwin H. Armstrong, most famous for inventing frequency modulation, or FM radio as we know it. He was a fascinating man who deserves recognition. I felt offended that they would presume to gloss over the contributions of great inventors like Armstrong for the sake of the marketing ploy of the day.

Despite the radio stations policy of no longer playing analog records (>r cassette tapes— surely what they meant by "all digital"—I know that radios themselves are still analog, numeric display aside. The hard-won patents of great inventors may become obsolete in our society and parts of the radio set may eventually give way to digital technology, but there is one part of a musical broadcast they will never make digital, and that is the speaker.

Patents run out in seventeen years, we forget who invented what, but physics is forever and hearing is analog.

Mulling over my mystification toward the lack of good press for the analog domain, I headed to Georgia Tech to commiserate with Dr. Eugene T. Patronis, professor of physics and acoustics consultant, over the demise of the sinusoid. I fancied that smell was

another analog sense that gets little publicity these days as I caught a whiff of Dr. Patronis's signature cigar, the kind that comes in a wooden box with exportation stamps on it. I followed my nose to the lab, where I found Dr. Patronis playing with a new analogto-digital converter board in his lunch-box-size computer. He put his cigar down in the blackboard chalk tray, and played back the sample he was working on.

It astonished me. I had never heard anything like it. I followed the wires from the computer to an ancient-looking Crown amplifier. Hooked to it was a contraption made of several coils and some big capacitors and resistors stuck to a piece of ply-

wood with hot glue. It was sitting on top of a hefty- * looking three-way loudspeaker. "Do it again," I asked.

What I heard was a timpani. I had studied how drums work in a sophomore Physics

of Music class, but I never appreciated the idea of the overtone like this before. I heard the felt-headed hammer smack the plastic head; then I heard the harmonics building up to the rich full tone recognized as a timpani. I actually visualized the superposition of sine waves, just like the illustration from the physics book.

It was eerie.

"So this is phase response," I said. "I've read about this. I've heard of speakers with poor phaseresponse being described as sounding muddy. Compared to this, I feel as if I've been doing listening tests in a swamp. What's the secret?" I asked.

"The crossover," he said, indicating the object on top of the speaker. I suspect he was simplifying things a bit. The loud-

speaker was made in three separate sections. The middle section placed the mid-range driver a few inches back, and there were four ports in the bass section. I knew he had done a lot of math to determine the size of those holes.

"Those drivers must have cost a bundle," I observed.

He shrugged. "No, not really. You don't have to use expensive drivers to get a good loudspeaker. You just have to design the enclosure and the crossover for the specific drivers that you choose."

We talked about trends in loudspeakers. "Speakers will become an integral part of the listening-room design. Of course, only the wealthier people will be able to afford the luxury of custom-designed rooms until it becomes a more standard practice," Dr. Patronis predicted. He made the concession that there will always be the boom box or the stereo system that people move from place to place.

I asked about speakers installed in the walls — did he think they could be as good as that speaker I just heard? "I think you can make a better loudspeaker permanently built into the wall," he said.

"It's important to con-

GEORGIA TECH • Let's Hear It for Analog

15

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sider the acoustics of the whole room. You couldn't just take a generic loudspeaker and cut a hole in the wall for it. The installation plan should take into consideration the room size, and the angle and material of the walls. All that

would determine the speaker's direction and how much you should cant it," Dr. Patronis explained, indicating with his hands how the speaker might be aimed not straight ahead, but a little off to the side, or down

from horizontal.

Top-notch sound-system installation requires expertise, and some specialized testing and measurement equipment. Dr. Patronis has used his collection of instruments—his "toys"—to solve the acous-

tical problems in many impressive places. He showed me Polaroid pictures taken in the White House East Room. He was posing behind the presidential podium. On the wall behind him were two stately columns flanking an

Signature cigar in hand, Tech Professor Eugene Patronis admires the efficiency of old-time radio—and modern sound equipment.

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

oil painting of George Washington. A second picture shows those columns in the lab with the fronts off, chock full of drivers.

A cluster of Dr. Patronis's patented hornloaded drivers provide the public address system at

Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Several stadiums in the Southeast sport an impressive group of bass enclosures and towers of horns, including Bobby Dodd Stadium at Grant Field. He tells me these horns are Bessel arrays.

Each stack of five horns acts like a single loudspeaker, really loud without distortion.

AMC Theaters got together with Dr. Patronis for multiple patents on the new High Intensity Theater System.

When they decided to go to a new-type screen, the customary speaker placement behind the picture became impossible.

Dr. Patronis used a little psychoacoustics trickery to solve their problem. The convenient placement of the human ears allows the bass drivers to go below the screen and the fullrange speakers above the screen, while maintaining the illusion of the sounds really coming from the right place in the picture.

The Fox Theater in Atlanta upgraded their movie sound-system this year to use some of this technology when they heard how good it sounded. The movie sound system at the Fox is separate from the regular inhouse sound-reinforcement system, which is also Dr. Patronis's design.

Right there in the lab I could see the direction

An intriguingjy shaped speaker produces miraculous sound quality; Dr. Patronis calls the cone "a pleasing anatomical shape.

Nature knows best sometimes." things were going—smaller.

On top of a loudspeaker the size of a Japanese sports car was an intriguingly shaped speaker in a four-inch aluminum cube.

Dr. Patronis uses this prototype to amaze his acoustics class—there is no way to describe the miraculous sound quality out of this little marvel, but every- . body who has ever seen it and heard it remembers it.

He calls the cone "a pleasing anatomical shape.

Nature knows best sometimes," he claims. The breast shape optimizes structural strength and good sound-reproducing characteristics.

On the tripod set up for testing with the Techron TEF analyzer is a weirdlooking thing all wrapped in duct tape. It is a prototype for a downsized version of the theater speaker.

"In these multiplex cinemas, the rooms just keep getting smaller and smaller.

They want the screen as big as possible. That leaves very little room above it for

the speakers," Dr. Patronis explainedAs I looked around the lab, I felt I was in a place that had been influenced by all the meaningful trends. Rather than trying to get a jump on the next marketing gimmick, Dr. Patronis continues to reap the benefits of the latest developments without losing touch with the valuable technology of the past.

This is a place where a portable digital audio tape machine is sitting next to a real-time analyzer that was used to equalize the sound system in the Fox Theater last year. It is still the best available, even though Crown stopped making them ten years ago.

A digital surroundsound processor sits on a desk next to a rack that contains amplifiers that have never been turned off since their installation in that spot when the building was brand new back in the seventies. There is an Apple Powerbook resting on a signal generator so old the leather handle has rotted off.

I feel a little less hostile toward digital than I did when I came in, because people appreciate analog here, and they consider digital a helpful tool. • Barbara Tomlinson, Phy '89, is a free-lance writer in Tampa, Fla.

GEORGIA TECH* let's Hear It for Analog

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APhDinRin In New York's Hall of Science, Tech gradAlan Friedman directs a museum that teaches, enthralls and excites kids of all ages

By John Dunn Photography by Laura Sikes

Ian J. Friedman has not forgotten the ^ wonder of being a child, or a student LOT lor that matter, how to have fun

with a I'hl) in physics, Friedman, w h o earned his physics degree from Georgia Tech in 1964 and his doctorate at Florida Stale, is director of the New York Hall of Science, where he has combined the

adventure of discovery and the wonder n\ science.

New York (lily's only hands on science and technology museum, the I kill of Science is a fun-filled, often dazzling, and alwayseducational experience.

Located in Queens on the western edge of flushing Meadows, in a pavilion built for the 1964 World's fair, the Hall of Science attracts 111,000 visitors each year. And it has earned a Good Housekeeping magazine rating as one of the nation's top-10 science museums.

"Science museums have only one real purpose, and that is education," Friedman says. "We don't collect things just because they are valuable or historic'. We only collect something if it has educational value."

The museum has ISO interactive exhibits, which Friedman says are "designed to communicate the wonder, excitement and majesty of scientific endeavor."

In one exhibit, a child pulls a MO pound pendulum with nothing but a string and a miniature magnet. Another exhibit holds adults and children in awe as a video camera that is attached to a microscope reveals on a television screen the crowded invisible world that exists in a single drop of water taken from an aquarium.

Most of the exhibits are Organized around four major themes: "Seeing the Light," which encourages visitors to experience the world

20

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

of color, light and perception; "Feedback," the principles and workings of self-sensing machines; "Realm of the Atom," including the world's first three-dimensional model of a hydrogen atom magnified a billion times; and "Hidden kingdoms -The World ol Microbes," the world's smallest creatures presented in the world's largest interactive microbiology exhibition.

The 25,00(1 -square-foot facility is undergo ing an expansion that will quadruple its size during the next eight years. A $13 million first phase to be completed in 1905 includes a 47foot rotunda that will serve as the new entrance, a 300-seal auditorium, a science playground, ami a 300-seal cafeteria.

With an annual budget of $5.7 million—50 percent provided by grants and gifts, 31 percent from New York City, and 19 percent earned—the science museum is enjoying a success that belies (vast difficulties.

New York founded the first hands on museum in the country in 19,31), but the museum closed after World War II. A new science museum was stalled for the 1964 World's fair, but it closed in 1980. It was resurrected several years later and friedman was hired as director.

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riedman's association with science museums was a case ol serendipity. A physics teacher at Hiram College in Ohio in the early 1970s, friedman received a one year research fellowship to study the relationship between science and literature at the University of California in Berkeley. He later collaborated with Carol C. Donley to write Einstein as Myth and Muse, a book examining the cultural Influence on Albert Einstein.

"At (he and of the year, I wandered into

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the Lawrence Hall of Science, pan of the University of California at Berkeley," Friedman recalls. "This was L972 and it was fairly new. I was just fascinated by what they were doing. 1 had not seen this kind of museum before. The\ were doing experiments.

It was very much like doing science, like doing physics, except the experiments they were doing were in how to communicate science, instead of in science itself."

Friedman's enthusiasm was such that he was offered a pan time job. "1 got an extension of m\ leave of absence, and 1 just stayed."

Friedman directed astronomy and physics at the Lawrence Hall of Science for Id years. and his team excelled at promoting audience participation in.planetarium programs.

In 1982, Friedman says, Berkeley "rented me to the French government, and my wife and I spent a year and a half in Paris." France was building its second hands on museum, the City of Science and Industry at Fare de La \ ilk-tic. With a budget of more than $600 million, it was one of the largest museum building projects in the world, and Friedman Served as a senior consultant.

"It was a huge project with a rather ambitious goal: Nothing less than to convert the self image of the French people I mm agricultural—food and wine—to high tech."

Friedman states.

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riedman became director ol the New York Hall of Science- in 1984, two w a r s before the facility reopened. "It was almost a dream come true," Friedman says. "I had the opportunity of taking the World's Fair building, which was empty, and rebuilding New York's hands-on mu.seum. 1 had a board of directors w h o were dedicated and a lot of

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support from the city. I hired the staff and decided < in pn tgrams and the whole style t if

the place.

"I was able to combine very good features of my three favorite science museums: the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and the < tularin Science Center in Toronto. I also wanted some of the Hair of the City of Science and industry in Paris."

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riedman is very serious about evaluating the effectiveness of the Ifall'sexhibits.

"The most straightforward way Is to interview visitors." he says: Did you enjoy it?

What do you think the main point is? Why did that light change color when you pushed the button? I low would von explain this ex 1 lilsit to somebody else?

The majority of the museum's audience are kids anil their families. "This is a city of

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"One wai we build our audience is to give every sehool child a free pass to come back.

They often return with a brother or sister or mother or father.

"Museums are often thought of as being only for the elite upper-middle class, which is not true," Friedman says. "We really need to appeal to the entire citizenry, so we work very hard at that."

The museum attracts tl percent of its

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audience from Queens, 21 perceni from Long Island, 12 percent Irom Brooklyn, 7 percent Irom Manhattan, and 19 percent from neighboring counties. Nearly half of Its audience represents return visitors.

Friedman's staff also has a program called the Science Career Ladder that involves recruiting, training and employing students from 20 local colleges and the New York City schools to work for the museum. The goal is to encourage the students to pursue science and science-teaching careers.

"They are the whole floor-staff of the museum," says Friedman. "They greet you, do the demonstrations, explain the exhibits to you. They're called Explainers.

"We try to hire people who relied the community," Friedman adds, "For example, in our first group of Explainers, we hired 30 young people who spoke a total of 14 languages, A lot of them were the children of recent immigrants. By making sure our floor staff comes from the diversity that is New York, we

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are able to attract a very rich and diverse visitorship."

A not her thrust of the 1 lull of Science is to LM develop innovative technology for JL J A museums to communicate science.

"We wouldn't be afraid ol something new," says Friedman. "It wouldn't always work, but we'd go out of our way to encourage the development of new technology. We've had some striking successes."

The first development was the invention by consultant Build Went/ of a new type n\ microscopeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the F.asy-View Microscope. "It can be used as high as 2.0(10 power and liter ally anybody can use it. A first grader can use

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microbiology. The eyepiece is as big around as a lea saucer and it produces beautiful, clear images. First introduced and tested at the museum, the microscopes are now used in more than a bun dred museums around the world."

Other developments include a 3-D Quantum Atom model, and Science fink, a series of interactive, computer-based programs now in museums worldwide.

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'he 1 kill of Science was one ol eight science museums to develop and present the national traveling exhibition, "What About AIDS?" The four-month exhibit, which opened in October, was developed in conjunction with the Centers lor Disease Control ami Prevention, and the American Medical Association, Using hands-on exhibits, interactive videos anil personal stories of people with AIDS, the exhibit was designed to educate everyone, but particularly young people from 10 to P . One exhibit uses dice to illustrate the high risk of multiple expo sures to IIIV infection.

"Since a cure for AIDS is still not available prevention Is the only way we know to stop the spread of AIDS," says Friedman. "Education is thi' only vaccine."

I he I kill ol Science contribution to the exhibit involved a computerized mufti-media presentation on the biology of AIDS, Including sound effects and animation. The presen talion explains what happens when a virus invades a person's body, how the body defends against the virus, and why the usual defense is not effective against AIDS. Building an arch-bridge is one of the most popular exhibits at many museums, says Friedman, and the I kill of Science is no ex

ceplion. Fulling the wedge-shaped bloeks together to create the arch-bridge requires

26

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\ can't put it together because it is too big.

"We find visitors spontaneously recruiting a teamâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;'Excuse me. tan you help me put this thing together?'" Friedman mimics.

"Pretty soon they have tour or live people and they get all the blocks in place and it is pretty sturdy. Then the) walk all over it and finally begin testing it. moving the blocks slightly out of alignment, and finally it colapses. Then they have to start all over again. but it's usually with a new group of people."

A t another event, children create giant ZJA bubbles. "These kids are dearly having A, J L a whale of a time, and they're screaming and making big bubbles." Friedman says. but ate they actually learning anything?

"To make a big bubble, you have to learn lOW to do something. 1 van describe each phenomenon with lots of technical terms. We van talk about surface tension, minimal surface structures, interference patterns that create the colors. The kids, in fact, are learning physics even though they don't have names to attach to it. They probably don't even have models in their heads for what is going on. But they tire gathering the basic data, and they're creating some son of explanation for themselves about why it works this way. And in the constructiv ist theory of learning, this is the.way you start, Even il your explanation isn't the right one. you have to construct an explanation so you have some thing to test the world against.

Acs. this is an educational exhibit, even though the kids walking away would have a lard time telling you what they learned.

"Education Is our number-one goal."

Friedman says. And at the New York Hall of Science, Friedman makes it fun. â&#x20AC;˘

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The Juggler Of Harvard Architecture Georgia Tech's R Mack Scogin balances risk with tradition

By Jerry Schwartz

Georgia Tech alumnus B. Mack Scogin, chairman of Harvard University's architecture department in the Graduate Sch<x>l of Design, and his wife, Merrill F.lam, also a lech architecture graduate, stand before the Buckhead branch of the Atlanta-Fulton County Public library. The facility, designed by their linn, Scogin, Flam and Bray, has received a national award of excellence. w i n II \u\ I'lU'i

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o hear it told by computer disciples, there is almost nothing in the field of design and drafting that computers can't inhale and spit back at you faster than a speeding pencil and eraser. But for B. Mack Scogin Jr., the lessons he learned at a Georgia Tech drafting table more than 30 years ago are still the most important.

And they are lessons he now imparts to students of the Harvard Graduate School of Design as the chairman of the school's architecture department.

"Yes there are a lot of things that computers can do for us. They allow us a great deal more freedom in describing unusual shapes and getting things built," Scogin says of the changing state of his profession. "But it's going to be a while before a computer is

kpRGIA IHHÂŤ Hack Scogin: Architecture Chair at Harvard

33

going to be able to capture and describe what your mind and your hand can do now."

Born in Atlanta, former president and chief operating officer of Heery and Heery Architects, Scogin is a founder and principal of Scogin, Elam and Bray architects in Atlanta, and a 1966 graduate of Georgia Tech with a bachelor of architecture degree.

At the time of his appointment as chairman of Harvard's architecture department in 1990, Scogin had only been an adjunct professor at the school for a year. "My position at the school has traditionally been for a practitioner rather than an academician," Scogin says. "That, in itself, implies a certain challenge to the establishment."

T

he establishment at Harvard is an imposing one, indeed. Since 1937 when the legendary Walter Gropius arrived at Harvard bringing with him the influence of the German Bauhaus tradition, the school has been a seminal influence on the world of design. Together with his Bauhaus colleague Marcel Breuer, Gropius trained some of the most famous architects of recent generations.

Among the Harvard graduates of the Gropius period were the architects I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, Edward Larabee Barnes, John Johnansen, Paul Rudolph, Ulrich Franzen and Victor Lundy.

"Every week I go up there I get more and more impressed with the institution," Scogin says. "It is so steeped in tradition that it is now at the point where it can laugh at itself.

It can represent itself back to itself in ways that are critical. It is an amazing responsibility to maintain a tradition that on the one hand is incredibly single-minded, but on the other hand has to be totally inventive. It's like driving down the freeway on two wheels, balanced on one of those concrete median barriers. Harvard is not inhibited by^ither end of the spectrum. It demands invention. It demands risk. It demands exploration. At the same time, it demands a respect for history and tradition."

Scogin brought with him to Harvard a wealth of awards for his designs. Over the past five years, the nine-year-old Atlanta architectural firm of Scogin, Elam and Bray has won three national awards from the American 34

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Winter 1994

Time called the Scogin firm's Clayton County library one of its "Best of 1988," adding it "is the kind of municipal bufiding you'd expect to find only on a drawing board, a 'K mart for information,' . . . practical, fun-loving avant-gardism."

Institute of Architects. For a young 12-member architectural firm, that is an astounding haul.

"Not many firms have won that many," says Dennis Smith, director of media relations for the ALA in Washington D.C. "Most architects

would love to have one."

When Time magazine selected Scogin, Elam and Bray's design for the headquarters branch of the Clayton County Libraiy as one of its "Best of 1988," the magazine wrote,

"With its corrugated-steel exterior and wild cubist geometries, the Clayton County Library is the kind of municipal building you'd expect to find only on a drawing board. Yet there it is in suburban Georgia. Architects Mack Scogin, RKANSAS OFFICE

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Mack Scogin: Architecture Chair at Harvard

35

Merrill Elam and Lloyd Bray designed what they call a 'K mart for information,' part industrial-strength Pee-Wee Herman, part scrupulously planned service facility.

This is practical, fun-loving avant-gardism."

Washington Post architectural critic Benjamin Forgey also singled out the firm's design for the Buckhead branch of the AtlantaFulton County Public Library. "All wrapped in black, this building clearly embodies a bright new idea about modem architecture and, at the same time, a spirited, inventive take on the oft-ignored architectural possibilities of the commercial strip."

I

n addition to his wealth of practical experience and a mantle full of awards, Scogin brought to Harvard a view of architecture as a discipline that is part of the larger world. In naming him to the architecture department chair, Gerald M. McCue, dean of the Graduate School of Design, noted that Scogin's work "has explored ways in which human activities and social conditions can lead to new architectural opportunities and possibilities."

Scogin said the image of the architect as an isolated creator is fading. "The whole discipline of architecture must connect itself to society or it's going to be extinct—and that's just not going to happen. So, there's no doubt that in the schools today you can feel it in the students, their desire to connect to the real pressing needs of our society in terms of their architecture and urban design and planning. It's really quite exciting."

In Scogin's view, the same change ultimately will find its way to Atlanta which— since the days of General Sherman—has largely developed through a pattern of wholesale demolition and rebuilding.

"The fact is that Atlanta cannot continue to grow in the way that it is growing. And I don't mean geographically, and I don't mean in terms of numbers. I'm talking about growth in terms of its ethical, moral, social and cultural commitment outside the marketdriven values of progress that we have experienced over my lifetime—the last 50 years.

You just can't sustain growth that way."

As an example of the prototypical Atlanta style of development, Scogin cites the proposal to raze 72 acres in downtown Atlanta to make way for a Centennial Olympic Park.

36

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

"That's the sort of consummate Atlanta style of making things happen. But the whole attitude of tearing things down and replacing them with the new is an incredible mindset that sometimes astonishes me. A proposal like that would just be ignored in most cities in this country, in most cities in the world. You just couldn't do it anywhere else."

Scogin's own inclination is to avoid demolishing anything unnecessarily—even a tree.

His most recent ALA award was given for an Atlanta home tucked neatly onto a wooded lot and blending into the surrounding landscape.

In a 1992 interview about the home of Atlanta attorneys Linda and Tod Chmar, Scogin said, "I can remember Linda telling me that she hated the house they lived in, that it seemed stabbed into the ground—a violation.

They wanted a house that had a different relationship to its environment. We didn't change the natural terrain. We didn't grade it one bit. We could do that by lifting the house up on concrete supporting walls. A stream runs under the house undisturbed."

Scogin traces his architectural influences to his days at Georgia Tech and an unusual faculty. He and Merrill Elam, his partner and wife, entered Georgia Tech in 1961.

"The architecture faculty had been at Tech for a number of years. And it's fair to say that it was a rather elderly faculty but, looking back, an unusually sophisticated faculty. They taught that architecture was a continuum and a slowly evolving discipline that had everything to do with givens, traditions and timeproven principles that could be challenged in a number of ways—technologically challenged, sociologically challenged—but that it was a slow and evolving discipline.

"That may sound unimportant, but if you think back to what was happening elsewhere in the world and elsewhere in other architecture schools, it was just total bedlam. Things had been completely turned upside down.

Ideas that everyone was totally invested in were being challenged in many architecture schools. But being here at Georgia Tech, with that particular faculty, it never affected us. We just maintained a steady course."

The Harvard style of the late '50s and early '60s—still under the influence of Gropius— was exactly the opposite, Scogin said.

"Gropius was sort of an anti-historicist. He was a great believer in modern times, modem techniques, technology, of the intellectual

When attorney Linda Chmar told Scogin she wanted a house that didn't violate the environment, he built a house without changing the natural terrain.

Even a stream runs under it

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With structures like the Chmar home, "it's been exciting to me to participate in the city making itself. The difference between Atlanta and other places is that something still is being made here and that you can contribute."

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38

pursuit as being a means to an end. At the time, that view served things well, particularly in the post-war period."

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ut in that post-war period, the years of his youth, Scogin concedes he was all but oblivious to architecture. "I certainly never was interested in architecture as a young person, especially not in high school. All I did was play tennis and basketball and football and hang out with my buddies.

"I guess it's fair to say I've always been kind of mildly interested in drawing and art.

But if you took art courses when I was in high school, you were a sissy, so I didn't."

His earliest influence came from his parents. His father worked at Rich's department store building most of the store's furnishings.

"My father was always making things, constructing things. And I think I took it for granted that everybody's parents built something," he recalls.

"There was an element of happenstance, too. I couldn't afford to go out-of-town to college, and Georgia Tech was a great school here in town where the tuition was something like $92 a quarter."

And, he adds with a laugh, "they had great football teams back then. It was kind of natural for me to want to go to Georgia Tech

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

regardless of what the major was."

Since leaving Tech, Scogin has seen changes in both his profession and his home town. "I think architecture has gone through a period of great challenge and has definitely evolved. It could be argued that it is on the verge of some fairly significant change. But I think without a doubt there is a return to seeing the profession as one that is inextricably lodged in the meaning of our present day, and it has to evolve along with the times in some very careful and methodical ways."

Scogin has seen the city of his birth, education and entire professional life change its face completely. Along with the physical changes, he said, Atlanta is on the verge of a new phase of cultural maturity. "Sooner or later the people of Atlanta, including myself, have got to emerge from this kind of regional cmtch where we lean back and use our roots as some sort of excuse—as a way of not engaging the broader world. I think it has served us well, but I think it's time to mature a little bit. And I include myself in that.

"You still have to somehow catch the Southern manner, the Southern attitude toward behavior. Atlanta is not the South, not the Deep South. It has a different attitude.

There's a positiveness. That's a word that you hear a lot about Atlanta and the city, but it's a very important word. There's a positiveness toward getting things done that I think is wonderful. But to me, the difference now is that we have to direct that same positive attitude towards things of accomplishment.

To me, there's a very big difference between just building, and accomplishment. .Accomplishment has more enduring qualities to it.

In order to do that you have to have a broader view.

"A place like Atlanta is exciting because it has been making itself. And what's been exciting to me is the chance to participate in the city making itself—in a very small way— but at least I've been here.

"That's the difference between Atlanta and a place like Boston where the city was finished 300 years ago. You can build all you want in Boston, but the character of that city is set. If you ask the difference between Atlanta and some other place, I think that's it.

It's the idea that something still is being made here and that you can contribute." • Jerry Schwartz is an Atlanta-based free-lance writer.

n

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\vliatever Happened To Solar Energy?

It still has a bright ftiture at Georgia Tech.

By Gary Grettling Photography by Gary Meek dvanced during the energy crisis of the 70s as the ultimate renewable, environmentally responsible energy source, research on converting sunlight into electricity has lost its marquee status in recent years.

Critics have said that solar energy—called photovoltaics in scientific circles—is too cosdy and inefficient to be practical or competitive with other fuels.

For the most part, conservation has replaced the imperative to find non-fossil-fuel energy sources—an effort that President Jimmy Carter called "the moral equivalent of war."

But even if the sense of urgency to develop new energy sources has waned generally, research into photovoltaics has never been brighter—at Georgia Tech. And the progress being made should force critics to take another look.

Last year, the Institute was selected as the site of a Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics Research and Education by the U.S. Department of Energy. The center is headed by Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi.

ABOVE: A SILICON WATER IS PLACED IN A CARRIER BEFORE BEING P I T INSIDE THE OXIDATION FURNACE. OPPOSITE: PHOTORESIST MATERIAL IS APPIJED TO A WAFER, WHICH IS THEN SPUN TO ITAVE AN ULTRA THIN COATING OF THE MATERIAL.

"No other university in this country has our comprehensive approach to photovoltaic research."

orking primarily with silicon materials, the center has the resources to analyze materials, develop new design, fabricate and test high efficiency solar cells. It's that all-inone capability that attracted the attention of energy department officials, Rohatgi says. "No other university in this country has such a comprehensive program," he says, "and we do it allâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and we have done very well in all areas."

Rohatgi started Tech's photovoltaics program in 1985, when he was lured to campus after nine years of photovoltaic work at Westinghouse.

Hisfirstfew years at Tech were dedicated to characterizing the properties and usefulness of materials that could be used to build solar cells. And while it was useful and necessary work, he felt that his students weren't getting enough out of it.

"I felt that if we could fabricate solar cells here, students would get very excited because they could see their materials, improve the materials, and also go into the lab and fabricate the cells," Rohatgi says. "We can design a very high-efficiency cell on paper, but we would not know if it Is going to work unless we make it in the lab."

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"We had no experience in fabrication, especially working with silicon material"

eorgia Tech had the materials and design capability, so it made sense to do fabrication and testing. But fabrication Ls a major undertaking—"We're talking about the whole process. We had no experience of that nature, especially working with silicon material," says Rohatgi.

By the third year, Rohatgi and his students were developing new technologies, new processes—and working photovoltaic cells.

In fact, a noncrystalline silicon solar cell developed at Tech operates at 17.7 percent efficiency—best in the world for that type of device.

The researchers have also devised single-crystal silicon cells that operate at 21 percent efficiency—among the best in the world.

The program will expand in early 1994 with the addition of an Education Support Program Laboratory, the purpose of which is to provide "more hands-on training for undergraduate and graduate students in the fabrication of solar cells," Rohatgi says.

Efficiency Ls still the key to making solar-generated power cost-effective, but the gap between its cost and that of electricity produced by burning coal has narrowed considerably.

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"By 2000 we will see a significant infusion of pnotovoltaics into residential applications."

wenty years ago, photovoltaic-generated current cost about $15 per kilowatt-hour; today it's only 25 cents. But that is still too high, coasidering that electricity produced from coal costs about 6-to-8 cents per kilowatt-hour. During peak daylight hours, power costs more—perhaps 15 cents per kilowatt hour— which pushes the cost-effectiveness threshold a little closer. "We want to reduce that cost by a factor of two or four," he says.

And Rohatgi is confident of success.

"I think that by the year 2000 we will see a significant infusion of pnotovoltaics into residential applications."

Rohatgi points out that photovoltaic power generation has a lot of support in Europe and Japan, where it there energizes thousands of households, and may spread through developing countries faster than in the U.S. The reason: Countries with little power-transmission infrastructure can adopt new technology more cost-efficiently than industrialized natioas can.

"It Is not a question of whether photovoltaics will become a reality," Rohatgi notes.

"It Is only a question of when." • OPPOSITE: A FINISHED SHJCON WAFER IS A CHECKERBOARD OF INDIVIDUAL SOLAR CELLS. ABOVE: DR. AJEET ROHATGI DISPLAYS ONE OF HIS PANELS. HE IS DIRECTOR OF TECHS CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN PHOTOVOLTAICS RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.

COME BACK TO GEORGIA TECH

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Renaissance and Rock

By John Dunn "W^TTViting books," says % M / (Christopher D. T T Watkins, 27-yearold president of Atlantabased Algorithm Inc., "is like eating potato chips.

You can't have just one."

So far Watkins, a 1989 electrical engineering graduate, has co-authored five books. A sixth—Virtual Reel lily Excursions—is due out in February. His two most recent books— Modern linage Processing: Warping. Morphing and Classical Techniques (coauthored with Stephen R. Marenka, EE '89) and Photorealism and Ray Tracing in CTcome with programming disks for IBM-compatible personal computers. But like potato chips, Watkins' books are not the staple diet of his career; they're snacks.

"I write books that I would buy." says Watkins.

"I wanted that book; I know st mieone else wants that book. I'm leaving a paper trail—an information trail that should benefit both academic sorts and hobbyists.

"Besides," Watkins grins, "books make incredible calling cards."

Watkins. who has boyish looks and a deep bass voice, is a businessman.

He started his business under a different name as a lOth-grade student at sub-

r

When not solving technical problems or writing books, Chris Watkins plays music with his band. urban Atlanta Sequoyah High School. After school he wrote 3-D graphics software programs and games for a consulting firm that sold them to a software company.

As a student at Tech, he renamed his company Algorithm, in reference to the step-by-step procedure of solving matliematical problems, and began working directly with companies to solve specific problems.

"We're sort of a think tank," says Watkins, whose company has four full-time employees and the motto, "Solutions through Technology." He emphasizes solutions.

"I look at a problem and I think it through before I execute a solution,"

Watldns says. "I do not hack on programming or business ventures. Usuallythe solution is fairly elegant. But arriving at the solution—you've got to really work and think through it. It is precise. If someone is going to pay you money to do it, it has to be a technological solution and not an academic exercise."

Watkins is involved in power engineering research and development, creating photo-realistic, ray-traced imagery and anti-aliasing methods, and developing warping and morphing technologies for entertainment. He is also developing desktop virtual reality simulation systems for the medical field, and is working on a system that

would allow doctors at a remote location to consult with medical experts via telecommunications.

Watkins has developed a software package for orthodontists—an analytical tool that uses warping techniques.

The software will save the orthodontist time in making calculations for treatment of a patient's teeth and, Watkins says, "The data is more valid than the data using compasses and protractors because it is actually scaled to a [universal] measure in all x-rays."

The software is designed for image mapping—overlapping a patient's x-ray with a photograph that is automatically reoriented and sized.

GEORGIA TECH • Pacetters: Watkins

49

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Pacesetters "The ability to program a computer is a tool ... Money is a tool... I love solving problems; I have a great passion for it" The software's warping technique allows an orthodontist to show a person how dental treatment or reconstructive surgeiy could enhance the patient's physical features.

Watkins was six when electronics caught his inter-

est. By the age of 10, he had put kits aside and began designing his own electronic projects. It was about that time, as a fifthgrade student, that he became fascinated with the early computers.

"I look at the ability to program a computer, and the ability to solve engineering problems—being an engineer—as tools," Watkins says. "I don't look at them as anything that makes up what I consider the sum total of my personality. They are just tools to do things. Money is a tool. I don't think that

money should be a prime motivator; it should be a fringe benefit. I love solving problems; I have a •* great passion for it."

Watkins also has a passion for music, and he devotes about two hours of his 20-hour day to playing the guitar and writing music. His musical tastes vary from Baroque—Bach and Paganini—to the heavymetal neo-classical style, and he includes among his favorite guitarists Andres Segovia, Chet Atkins, Steve Morse and Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Before 1994 is over he expects to pro-

duce a CD with his band, "Fair Warhdng," featuring both his guitar playing and his compositions, which range in style from classical to modern.

Watkins' other interests —ham radio (KA4DQE), sailing, astronomy, holography, karate, soccer and chess—are juggled into his schedule as time permits.

Among the things Watkins would really like to do is earn his doctorate.

"It would give me a great deal of personal satisfaction," Watkins says. "But," he laments, "when would I find the time?" • ALAN DAVID P H O T O

By John Dunn

I

n his own way, Raymond W. Baker has become a frontline freedom-fighter.

Based on his experi-

ence as a successful businessman in Nigeria and his first-hand confrontation with the problems facing developing countries, Baker founded Overecho Associates, a Bethesda,

Md., firm that helps struggling democratic governments around the world survive and prosper.

Baker, who received his degree in industrial management from Georgia

Tech in 1957 and his master's degree in business administration from Harvard, has become an authority on the problems peculiar to developing countries in Africa, Latin

GEORGIA TECH • Pacetters: Watkins & Baker

51

Pacesetters

America, Central America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

"There are two things that a democracy must do once it has been achieved," Baker says.

"No. 1, democracy must give political participation to all of the citizens, and No. 2, it must generate economic progress. It doesn't have to produce overnight prosperity, but economic progress must move forward with political freedom."

Baker's own success story is ironic in that while many people in developing countries look to America as the land of opportunity, in l°6l Baker found opportunity in newly independent Nigeria.

"Africa was very much what Eastern Europe is at this point," Baker says. "It was regarded as the new frontier."

For two years Baker represented a firm managing two other companies in Nigeria. "I decided that I could do on my own what I was doing for that company."

In 1963, Baker set off on his own, continuing to work in Nigeria.

"During the first couple of years I did a range of consulting work:' marketing research, feasibility studies, financial projections and economic surveys.

"The first company that I became involved with was a trucking company

52

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

"My work is mainly in three areas: the promotion of democracy, the alleviation of debt and the terms of trade." that was going out of business. It was owned by the speaker of the Nigerian House of Parliament, a man named Jalo Waziri.

He asked me to take on the management of his business. We went nowhere for the first two or three years, trying to get the company straightened out. In the middle of the Nigerian civil war, we made a breakthrough. We figured out how to ran the business and make it successful—and we did.

"Jalo Waziri became my partner on two other acquisitions, and we enjoyed a lot of success during the 70s. In 1976,1 sold two of my businesses and became active in other parts of the developing world: Central America, South America, in other parts of Africa, and some parts of Asia."

In the mid-1980s, Baker said he took stock of the state of the developing world.

"I realized that Africa was in the worst shape it had ever been in—far worse than at the time of independence. Economies were collapsing; there

were civil wars and assassinations.

"Many developing countries, particularly in Africa, began to go backwards and experience huge economic problems," recalls Baker. "The two basic problems facing African countries were in terms of trade and debt.

The developing countries are enormously in debt to the creditor nations. Africa is in a debtor's prison.

"I quite consciously said, 'What do I know about these kinds of problems that can be beneficial to developing countries?' I went through the process of analyzing the various problems that developing countries have, and boiling them down to three areas where I felt I could be of significant help.

"My work is mainly in these three areas: the promotion of democracy, the alleviation of debt, and the terms of trade. Developing countries have found that over the past 10 to 15 years what they export has been stagnant in price, whereas what they import— which in most cases is machinery, technology and raw materials—has been rising in price."

Baker has worked at the presidential level in developing countries, addressing debt, trade and democracy.

"The resolution of those three areas are necessary before countries can begin to succeed with the politi-

cal and economic growth developing countries are striving for."

There are many similarities in the problems faced by developing countries, but there are also substantial differences among Africa's problems and Latin America's problems, and the problems facing East European countries. Baker says.

"Most of Latin America —with the exception of Cuba—has achieved democracy, however tenuous and uncertain it is. By no means are the political problems solved. The greatest challenge for Latin America is to develop the institutions that support democracy—the legislative and judicial systems, and the office of the chief executive, so that democracy can be sustained."

Baker says passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement was "extremely important."

"It will benefit North American countries to have a common trade area and will probably lead to a Western Hemisphere freetrade area. And that would logically lead to global free trade.

"Cuba cannot remain an island of communism or socialism in a world where democracy and free trade are solidified," Baker adds.

"How Cuba changes is unpredictable, but clearly it must change. Haiti is also a bastion of authoritarianism

"The economy maybe coming back. But we're still staffed for a recession!'

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Pacesetters that has to change."

Recently. Baker has been traveling in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Czechs and Slovaks separated in a "Velvet Revolution" that followed the collapse of the USSR. "Poland has come out from under the communist yoke, is attempting to go through a rapid reform process, and is making enormous progress," he says.

Baker says two factors have helped Poland. It has a strong sense of identity because of the Catholic Church, and communism never succeeded in taking over the country's agriculture. "The bulk of the land continued to be privately held and farming continued to be tantamount to an entrepreneurial activity on the part of the Polish rural class.

"Poland will make it," Baker says emphatically.

"There will be great economic dislocations, there will be strain, and there will be a tendency to perpetuate some state ownership, and a need to address pension problems for Polish citizens thrown out of work. But all of this is manageable."

In accessing the Czech Republic. Baker is also very optimistic.

"My impression of the Czech Republic is that it must have taken the Czechs about five minutes to convert from commu-

"Inhuman relationships it is not race, it is not culture, it is character. It's what's inside a person's mind and heart that ultimately allows two people to bond together." nism to capitalism," Baker says. "They had no difficulty whatsoever making the transition. It has a growing economy, an enlightened president in Vaclav Havel. It will make the transition; it will integrate itself into the Western European mold; and it will succeed as a country."

In October 1987, Baker received word that Jalo Waziri had died. "I was stunned by his death. The next 48 hours turned out to be the most creative period of my life. I sketched out in my head a play titled "Waziri," which was subsequently produced and staged. It is a play about bonding in a cross-cultural relationship. It is a play about a white foreigner who comes to Africa and becomes friends with a prominent black African.

While the play is fictional;— its story line is set in a time of war, assassinations, coups and difficulties—it is emotionally autobiographical.

"What I have learned in 30 years of involvement in Africa and other parts of the developing world is that in human relationships it is not race, it is not culture, it is character. It's what's inside a person's

mind and heart that ultimately allows two people to bond together. That's a part of the journey that has taken me the greater part of my life and has been altogether interesting and rewarding." •

Inventor Mel Beardsley lias a technique to save eroding beaches.

Beach Builder

By Calvin Dernjnon

M

elville W. Beardsley MS ME '39, says he knows a simple and inexpensive way of using the ocean's own force to rebuild eroded beaches.

He constructed a wave tank in his Carmel, Calif., backyard to prove his

theory, and it worked: The miniature beach in the tank grew instead of sluinking.

Now he needs to convince somebody somewhere to try a full-scale demonstration on a real beach. A number of agencies have expressed interest in the process, but no tests have been arranged.

GEORGIA TECH • Pacetters-. Baker & Beardsley

55

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Beardsley is not discouraged. An inventor who has received 22 patents over the years, he has faced disbelief before and can claim some unusual accomplishments.

He is c >ne of the few pilots ever to fly a model of the experimental Flying Wing aircraft that Northrop tested after World War II. He perfected the vacuum-cooling process that is still used in the Salinas Valley to keep lettuce fresh and crisp for market.

And he is co-inventor of the vehicle known as the hovercraft.

Beardsley, bright and enthusiastic at 80, lives in Carmel with his wife, Marie; they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Oct. 31- When the couple moved to Carmel in 1981, Beardsley often found himself at the beach, watching the ocean with the eyes of a mechanical engineer.

"I'd always been intrigued with the way the waves worked," he says. "I had this grand feeling about what was happening with the sand."

He built his own wave tank to model the dynamics of sand and water, and he came up with what he calls the Beachbuilder Technique.

The method involves spreading a thin, flexible tarpaulin over the sand in the surf zone. The tarp is anchored by a line along the beach edge, and teth-

'Td always been intrigued with the way the waves worked," he says.

"I had this grand feeling about what was happening with the sand." ered more loosely at the ocean edge. Incoming waves carry sand beneath the tarp, but when the waves recede, the tarp prevents the sand from washing out again. Eventually a mound builds up under the tarp, which can then be moved down the beach to another location.

Beardsley says the Beachbuilder Technique is much less expensive than hiring dredges and barges or installing breakwaters to restore eroded beaches.

He received a patent on the technique on Nov. 9. A paper he published about the process attracted a few nibbles of interest; he says his best current hope is an engineer for the state of New Jersey who seems to be interested in carrying out a test in a large wavetank there.

But no one has yet tried the technique on a beach.

"I hope I live long enough to see something come out of it," Beardsley says.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Beardsley graduated from the University of Illinois in 1935 with a me-

chanical engineering degree and enrolled in the Army Air Corps, piloting > Keystone biplane bombers and other aircraft for nearly three years.

He then earned a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1939, and worked for the Engineering Experiment Station, now Georgia Tech Research Institute. He also worked for several firms, including Chrysler Corp., before being called back to active duty.

After the war, he went to work for Northrop, which was developing the Flying Wing. Very hightech for its time, the longrange bomber was all wing窶馬o fuselage or tail.

Beardsley was project engineer for a year or so, and piloted a Flying Wing prototype on a test flight in the Los Angeles area.

Then a friend told him about a man in Salinas who held a patent on a revolutionary cooling process for vegetables.

Beardsley went to the Salinas Valley and perfected the process, which cooled crates of lettuce quickly and efficiently in a vacuum chamber, freeing growers from the need to layer the crates with ice.

The technique is still in use, but the Vacuum Cooling Co., which Beardsley helped start, dissolved in partnership disagreements.

Beardsley went back to school, earning an MBA at

the University of Chicago.

Between classes, he began thinking about flying saucers. In the early '50s, with sightings reported everywhere, flying saucers were on everyone's mind.

Beardsley considered the matter and asked himself: How would you make a saucer-shaped craft fly?

He began fooling around with tin cans and vacuum-cleaner blowers, and eventually came up with a model that didn't fly, but scooted across the floor on a cushion of air.

He applied for a patent, but a British inventor, Christopher Cockerell, filed a patent application at the same time. Rather than fight the British action, Beardsley accepted a $70,000 settlement.

He spent the rest of his working years in the Navy's Marine Engineering Lab at Annapolis, Md., retiring in 1976.

While he waits for someone to catch the vision of his Beachbuilder Technique, Beardsley is making a little extra money as a salesman for a longdistance phone-service provider.

But, he admits, "this type of work is definitely not what I want to do." Not while there are engineering problems to ponder and beaches to build. 窶｢ Calvin Demmon is a staff writer for the Monterey County Herald in Monterey, Calif. This article is reprinted by permission.

GEORGIA TECH 窶｢ Pacetters: Beardsley

57

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Research Bulgaria's Free-Market Struggle ByLeaMcLees

N

'o one aboard knows quite what to expect as former communist-bloc, stateowned industries evolve into private, market-oriented businesses competing in a global market, says Dr. Krassimira Paskaleva of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Paskaleva and her husband, Dr. Philip Shapira, an associate professor in Tech's School of Public Policy, are trying to learn more about how industries in the Burgas region of Southeastern Bulgaria are facing the changeover.

Their survey is the first comprehensive industrial assessment done in postCommunist Bulgaria, Paskaleva says.

"It's a phenomenal period," she says. "We've not had anything like this in world history. Research in the Burgas region is especially interesting because of the severe confrontation of heavily polluting industries with tourism and agriculture."

The Burgas region is located in southeastern Bulgaria, bordered on the east by the Black Sea and on the south by Turkey.

Tourism still flourishes in the former agricultural area. However, Burgas has become home to petrochemical, food processing,

Krassimira and Paskaleva: Researching a historic changeover in Bulgaria

lumber, macfiinery, electronics, rriining, transportation and other industries during the last 45 years, in part due to central-planning practices.

Paskaleva has a personal interest in this research. She grew up in Bulgaria, living there until 1989, when she came to the U.S. to do research in regional development at West Virginia University.

She came to GTRI in 1991.

The researchers conducted a survey of 69 identifiable industrial enterprises in the Burgas region, and Shapira followed with personal visits to 20 plants in October 1992.

Based on responses from 70 percent of the plants, the researchers learned that most of the plants are large, averaging 620 workers. The size of

the plants, coupled with over-centralized management strategies, has encouraged inefficiency, waste and excessive inventories. Some companies have not upgraded certain aspects of their technologies in 40 years.

In response to changing economic and political conditions, employment at the plants has dropped 33 percent since 1989- The cutbacks have primarily hit women and young people.

In a few cases, manufacturers have developed new product lines, although none have marketing departments. Many, tired of the rigid communist five- and ten-year plans, have developed no general strategy.

Firms that are adapting well to change include apparel and plastics plants.

Lea McLees is a writer with the GTRI.

Help to Diabetics

V

ictims of diabetes could one day be freed from the serious long-term complications of the disease and the pain of daily insulin injetions through research aimed at developing an artificial pancreas.

Research teams at several institutions are exploring different approaches for

i â&#x20AC;˘ replacing the organ's insulin-producing function.

Georgia Tech and Emory University are using genetically-engineered mouse cells as the basis for a bioartificial pancreas that could one day be implanted to meet the body's need for insulin.

The researchers are also developing diagnostic methods based on nuclearresonance spectroscopy for noninvasively monitoring the health of cells in the artificial tissue.

Eye-Surgery Simulator

A

team of computer . scientists and medical researchers from two Georgia universities has developed a proof-of-concept eye-surgery simulator which would help ophthalmologists learn new techniques, stay current on rarely used procedures, and rehearse for difficult operations.

Under development by researchers at Tech and the Medical College of Georgia, the simulator provides both visual and tactile feedback. A simulated operating microscope offers realistic close-up views of the surgical procedure, while a simulated surgical tool held by the user provides the "feel" of cutting eye structures. â&#x20AC;˘

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Research

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Profile Olympic People Mover

By Sam Heys

I

deally for the Olympics, you'd like to have veiy large parking lots where people can park and ride buses or trains to the venues," says Dr. H. Donald Ratliff, who likes to think up problems that could arise in moving people around Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics.

Ratliff is sitting in his office in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Building, across from the

Student Athletic Complex, and staring at a computer screen displaying a color map of Atlanta.

"The problem is that there are not a lot of large parking lots," he explains.

"So we will probably have to use small parking lots and a feeder system into hub facilities. At the hubs, people can transfer to trains or express buses that will take them to the venues."

Ratliff s map shows all the bus stops, the M7ARTA

The Ratliff File Born—Jan. 25, 1943 in Ilanceville, Ala. Education—Bachelor's in industrial engineering from University of Alabama. Master's in industrial engineering from University of Alabama. Doctorate in operations research from Johns Hopkins.

Personal—lie and his wife, Glynda, have three children: Warren, Evan, Carrie.

Achievements—Regents' professor in industrial and systems engineering; UPS professor of logistics; co-director of the Logistics Optimization Center at Georgia Tech; editor-in-chief, Journal of Operations Research; a pioneer in developing interactive network optimization methodology for use in the design and operation of logistics systems.

Quote—"The Olympic Games provides some physical assets that we'djjever have otherwise. It provides a huge amount of visibility. And it provides at fcw of us the opportunity to participate in the Olympic planning. Our students who are involved in this planning are getting great exposure."

Leisure Interests—Coaching youth soccer, fishing, reading mystery and adventure novels.

62

GEORGIA TECH • Winter 1994

rail stations, the city's hotels, and about anything else he'd like to see. It also can tell him how many people can stay in those hotels, how many MARTA trains will be running at a certain hour on a summer day 30 months away, and how many people will be at each Olympic venue during that hour.

"We can use all this data to determine how many buses will be required, where they will need to be, and where we need to put the hub facilities," he says.

Ratliff is UPS professor of logistics and a Regent's professor at Georgia Tech—and an essential volunteer for the Atlanta Olympics. His role has been to work with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and the Atlanta Regional Commission to develop ideas that ought to be prototyped.

Once the ideas are outlined, Georgia Tech students do the work necessary to develop the software prototypes.

Ratliff began planning for the Olympics before the games were awarded to the city.

"Russell Chandler [IE '67] was working with the initial group that was trying to win the bid, and he was familiar with our logistics research," Ratliff says.

"Usually, we work on deci-

sion technology associated with moving freight."

Chandler asked Ratliff to help him deiri( mstrate that Atlanta had the teehnological expertise to handle the logistic issues within the Olympic Village.

"We assembled an electronic map of the campus that showed locations of dormitories, offices, eating facilities, sports practice facilities and the campus transportation network. We put this into an interactive system for demonstration to the international visitors.

When [ACOG president] Billy Payne saw the system, he asked us to include all venues and make it available in the hotel rooms of visiting International Olympic Committee members," Ratliff says.

R

ttliff has been working on logistics problems f< >r nearly a quarter-century. He has provided scientific leadership for one of the largest academic research programs in the world devoted to logistics. He has been the principal investigator for over SS million in funded research.

"We combine engineering design, mathematical optimization models, and international computer technology to aid in solving logistics problems," he says. "Much of what we do was not possible prior to

GARY MEEK PHOTO

Logistics expert Don Ratliff: "Intelligent tradeoffs and the ability to react to change are of great value."

about 1980 because you couldn't draw maps on computer screens. More progress has been made in logistics decision support technology in the last 10 years than in all the time before."

Ratliff says the logistics group at Georgia Tech pioneered much of the new generation of logistics decision technology. He calls the group "the best in the world at this sort of thing."

"Normally," he says, "we work on problems for private industry or the military. What is the best way for Coca-Cola to distribute soft drinks? Should Georgia Pacific ship plywood by

rail, truck or some combination. We do a lot of work in military deployment planning. How do you move military supplies and personnel to the Persian Gulf? Do you ship it out of the West Coast or East Coast? Do you send it by ship? How do you get it loaded?"

Ratliff has worked extensively on military problems with funding from the deployment-planning community.

"You try to create a transportation system that's multi-modal. In other words, everything doesn't go the same way—some by sea, some by air, some

by land. You're trying to figure out how you can get it there by the time the commanders in the field need it," he says.

"That is not so dissimilar to transportation planning for the Olympics. For both there is great urgency in getting people to their destinations at a certain time and these are multiple modes of transportation.

The context is different, but they are mathematically similar."

For the Olympics, many logistics decisions must be made. Computers can capture all the information in once place as well as all the decisions that have al-

ready been made.

"The ability to make intelligent tradeoffs and the ability to react to changes in the forecast are of great value," Ratliff says. "As you get closer to an event, you get better information. You simply can't tell three years in advance exactly how many people are going to try to get on a bus at Cumberland Mall."

Perhaps not.

But six years in advance of the Melbourne Olympics, officials in that city have already contacted Ratliff for consultation. • Sam Heys is an Atlantabasedfree-lance writer.

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Ratliff

63

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