Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 70, No. 04 1994

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Georgia Ted Puts Muscle, in Economic Development Biotechnology Science Fiction

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Ramblin' Wreck

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We haven't been able tofindit since December, when all 12,500 of the original edition, scale model Ramblin' Wrecks were SOLD Ol GOOD NEWS! A new, 2nd edition of the replica Ramblin' Wreck has been commissioned and is now available to all alumni and friends.

picture' is tit iilnl size

The Alumni Association is proud to offer this beautifully detailed, 1/25 scale model of Georgia Tech's famous symbol of tradition and excellence...The Ramblin' Wreck. Our re includes : An interior with door pockets, 4-gauge dashboard, clutch and shift levers, rul tires and spoked wheels and a beautiful glossy white and gold paint job with the "GT" 1 on the doors just like the original. The rumble seat opens to reveal a lockable coin bank, too!

PLEASE SEND ME: replica(s) of the Ramblin' Wreck @ $29.95 = $ Shipping ($3.50 per Wreck) = $ GA residents add 6% tax ($1.80 per Wreck) ••$ Total •$

Phone Orders: Call Toil-Free: 1-800-GT-ALUMS Send Mail Orders to: Official Ramblin' Wreck Georgia Tech Alumni Association Alumni House • Atlanta GA 30332-0175

Name Address City

Zip

State

Credit Card: • Visa ~i . MasterCard # Signature

Exp. Date Daytime Phone

Apply yourself

Apply for a Georgia Tech VisaÂŽ or MasterCard?

You'll get all the benefits of a NationsBank credit card.

And the Georgia Tech Mumni Association will benefit every time you use your card to make purchases or get cash advances.

Georgia Tech gave you a great education. The Georgia Tech Visa or MasterCard is a great way to give something back...at no extra cost, every time you use it.

To apply, just call.

1-800-282-2273, Ext. 505

NationsBank The Power To Make A Difference.

NationsBank of Delaware, N.A., a subsidiary of NationsBank Corporation Š1993 NationsBank Corporation

The Official Georgia Tech World Globe by Replogle® Commissioned by The Georgia Institute of Technology, this is the most up-to-date geographical reference source available today. It is created by Replogle®, the world's leading globemaker, and endorsed by the National Council for Geographic Education.

A classic, floor model globe with Old World touches parchment-tone oceans, elegant cartouches and compass roses. Mounted in a stand of selected hardwoods, hand-rubbed to a brilliant cherry finish, and measuring a perfect chairside height of 33".

A convenient interest-free monthly installment plan is available.

A convenient, interest-free payment plan is To order by mail, write to: Official Georgia Tech available with ten equal monthly payments per Alumni Association, Attn.: Operator 502SW, globe. (Shipping, handling and full state sales tax, c/o P.O. Box 46117, Eden Prairie, MN 55344-2817, if applicable, will be added to the first payment.) and include check or money order made payable to "Official Georgia Tech Globe."

This impressive globe is available to you now at the original price of just $295, making it an out- Credit card orders can also be sent by mail—please standing value. There is a $12.50 handling and include full account number and expiration date. insured shipping charge per globe. On shipments to Minnesota, please add 6.5% state sales tax.

Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

To order by Visa or MasterCard, please call toll-free (and request operator 502SW):

1-800-523-0124 Calls are accepted weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Central Time)

Volume 70 Number 4 SPRING 1994

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Features 1 9

Science Fiction

30

Bioengineering

40

Portraits of a Growing Economy

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It was a dark and stormy night w h e n Frankenstein—and a n e w genre of literature—was born. It has been enthralling readers for nearly t w o centuries.

Written by John Dunn

Georgia Tech researchers are engineering cutting-edge advances in medicine that promise to save lives in the decades ahead.

Written by William Smith

Georgia Tec h helps keep the state working in many ways /'holography hy Stanley D'ary • Text by Daniel Kennedy

Page SO

Departments

5

Letters

7

Special Report: The President Search

Page 19

A search for the best faces the Regents' Presidential Search Committee.

11

Technotes Summer in Olympic City; Made in the shade; Rare date changed; The category is "game shows"; More fu_ a_d games; A traditon continues; On target with Roll Call, Nominations sought; Free call

53

Pacesetters Luis Romero-Font: A Man with a Message Brett Salter: Big Winner

60

Research A Remedy for Landfills

62

Profile Ward Winer: The Students' Advocate

Cover Photo: Workers such as take-off operator Erie Ixuuic at National Gypsum Co. in Savannah rescued the company from bankruptcy—with a little help from Georgia Tech.

TTANU I U Uti nana

Page 40 GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

is published quarterly for Roll Gall contributors by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Send correspondence and changes of address to: GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Alumni/Faculty Mouse, 225 North

Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175 • Editorial: (404) 853-0760/0761 Advertising: (404) 894-9270 • Fax: (404) 894-5113 © 199-1 Georgia Tech Alumni Association • ISSN: 1061-9747

GEORGIA TECH • Contents 3

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Livrr John C. Dunn, editor Gary Goettling, associate editor Gary Meek, Stanley Leary photography Everett Hullura, design Dudley Williamson, advertising

Chairman Louis Gordon Sawyer Sr., NS '46 Chairman. Sawyer-RileyComptou. Atlanta Members William "Guv" Arledge, IM 71 Ma nager/A dvertising, BellSouth Corp., Atlanta McKinley "Mac" Conway Jr., GE '40 President. Conway Data Inc., Norcross, Ga. Hubert L. Harris Jr., IM '65 President. Investco Services Inc., Atlanta McAllister "Mac" Isaacs III, TEX "60 Executive Editor, Textile World. Atlanta George A. Stewart Jr., AE '69 President. Stewart Consulting Group, Dunwoody, Ga. James M. l.angley Vice President External Affairs. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta JohnB. Carter Jr., IE '69 Vice President and Executive Director, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta Dudley C. Williamson, IMGT "74 Associate \ 'ice President/ Associate Executive Director. Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta

Science Fun Editor: I enjoyed the Winter 1994 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine with the great cover, "Teaching Kids the Ropes about Science," a n d article, "PhD in Fun," describing the fine w o r k of Georgia Tech alumnus Alan Friedman, director of the N e w York Hall of Science.

I am particularly pleased that the article stressed the "fun" in science, echoing Friedman's approach, w h i c h has m a d e the N e w York Hall of Science o n e of the hottest science m u s e u m s in the country. While our Georgia Tech students constantly complain about the hard w o r k they u n d e r g o to earn their degrees, o n c e they put their Georgia Tech education to use professionally, they b u b b l e over with enthusiasm about the "fun" they derive from the science/ engineering work—including their fun while studying at Tech.

Dr. Melvin Kranzberg Callaway Professor Emeritus School of History, Technology a n d Society

k n o w at what angle (oarto-shell) the crew should apply m a x i m u m force.

Intuitively o n e might say 90 degrees, but I am not confident this w o u l d b e correct d u e to the c u p in the oar blade, speed, a n d blade angle u p o n entering and exiting the stroke.

W.C. Coulbourn, AE'35 Huntington, N.Y. • Georgia Tech crew m e m b e r H o d y Crouch responds: Basic physics shows that the strongest part of the rowing stroke occurs when the oar is perpendicular to the gunwhales of the rowing shell. However, pulling on the oar only when it is peipendicidar to the boat% would not produce a great deal of boat speed.

In practice, the oars usually enter the water at about 45 degrees from perpendicular, and are pulled through at about an 80 degree angle, depending on the situation.

In choppy water or in

windy conditions—the two usually go together— the stroke is typically extended as far as each roiver can reach.

Since the wind and waves can hurt boat speed, especially during the recovery of each stroke, the time in the water is maximized while the time out of water is minimized.

In good conditions, a crew might use the typical pullthrough, but slow down the recovery to improve their run or glide.

Also, a skilled crew might shorten the pullthrough to get more power out of each stroke.

This is less efficient, but efficiency means little in the last 30 seconds of a race.

Letters to the editor are w e l c o m e d a n d encouraged. Send correspond e n c e to: Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Alumni-Faculty House, Atlanta, GA 30332-0175 Fax: (404) 894-5113

The Angle on Crew

o

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

is printed on recycled paper.

Editor: The fall 1993 issue had a very interesting article o n rowing, "The Dynamics of Crew." I'd like to

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Special Report The Search for a New President

By Dwight H. Evans

I

t's an honor to serve on the panel that oversees selection of Georgia lech's 10th president. As chairman of the Regents' Presidential Search Committee (RPSC), it's also a challenge as we embark on a course to recommend a new president to lead the Institute into the 21st century.

At perhaps no other time has the helm of Georgia lech been more attractive, a considerable feat given the Institute's history of academic, research and all-around excellence. In two years, the Olympic Games will

take place in Atlanta, and the Tech campus will host athletes from across the world in a state-of-the-art residence hall and dining complex. The Olympic Village, which will house more than 15,000 athletes, coaches and officials, will become residence halls for Tech students once the Games are completed.

At the same time, the new president must maintain and improve the Institute's tradition of academic excellence. The quality of students attending Georgia Tech continues to rise. These students will need and deserve increasingly highquality faculty and facili-

Evans: "It's our challenge to find the best candidate—someone who respects Georgia Tech's glorious past and possesses the vision...to guide the Institute boldly into the future."

ties. It will be up to the new president to ensure* that their needs and expectations are met, while navigating the day-to-day challenges of a high-pressure, high-visibility position.

It's our (the RPSC) challenge to find the best candidate—someone who respects Georgia Tech's glorious past and possesses the vision, character and leadership to guide the Institute boldly into the future.

The RPSC is charged with recommending a new president to the full University System Board of Regents, which has ultimate approval in the process. Aiding the RPSC • is the Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC), a group of faculty, administrative, student and alumni representatives, who are developing a president's job description and will conduct the most thorough screening of candidates in the Institute's history.

In seeking a president, we are asking the advisory committee to assume a central role in determining who will be Georgia Tech's next president. To give the PSAC more time to participate in the screening process, we hired an international executive search firm,

Alumnus Dwight Evans is a member of the Regents' Presidential Search Committee.

Heidrick & Struggles, to perform a number of professional functions which frees committee members from time-consuming activities of lesser importance. Heidrick & Struggles has more than 20 years of experience in conducting executive searches for higher education and non-profit institutions, with a list of clients including Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University and the University of Georgia, to name a few.

The search firm will serve as a consultant to us through the selection process, assisting with the position description and conducting thorough research on potential candidates. Heidrick & Struggles also will enrich the pool of candidates

GEORGIA TECH • The Search for a New President

"7

Special Report: The President Search

with the names of top academicians who are not actively seeking a job change, but might desire to preside over an institution like Georgia Tech if the opportunity presented itself. In addition, the search firm will make sure the pool of candidates is representative of our diverse society.

Let me add that we encourage anyone to submit potential candidates to the search firm. If you're aware of someone who you think would foster the kind of attitude and leadership necessary to lead Georgia Tech in the coming years, submit his or her name to William J. Bowen, vice chairman, Heidrick & Struggles, 303 Peachtree Street, N.E., Suite 1300, Atlanta, GA 30308.

We hope to have a

With global competition forcing radical change in the way business is conducted, our institutions of higher education will have to change to maintain their effectiveness. pool of candidates identified by late April. At that point, we'll conduct an initial screening of candidates, and then the rigorous scrutiny will begin by the PSAC and the search firm. Selected candidates will be matched against the job description. Their records and references will be checked and their qualifications verified.

From those detailed screenings, we will develop a list of at least five

finalists who will be interviewed. Once we've interviewed the finalists, the search team will assist us with additional referencing to ensure that the individuals are indeed qualified for the position, not only professionally but personally and temperamentally. This is a critical component of the search that will allow us to verify facts and impressions.

The RPSC then will select a candidate for recommendation to the Board of Regents. Our goal is to have a new president approved by the end of June.

I can't stress enough how important this search process is to the future of Georgia Tech. As our world becomes increasingly smaller, with global competition forcing radi-

cal change in the way business is conducted, it's almost certain that our institutions of higher education will have to change with the times to maintain their effectiveness. The challenge is to preserve integrity while marching forward with innovative and bold ideas that will keep Georgia Tech at the forefront of academic excellence.

As a representative of the group charged with selecting a new president for the Institute. I assure you that we have committed ourselves to a process that will find the very best person for the job. â&#x20AC;˘ H.Evans. CE70.MSEE 73, is executive vice president of Georgia Power Co. and a member of the Alumni Association board of trustees.

Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Officers G, William Knight IE '62, MS IM '68 president H. Hammond Stithjr. CE '58 past president Frank II. Mater [r. IM '60 president elect treasurer H. Milton Stewart IE '61 vice president/activities Hubert L. Harris Jr. IM '65 Vice president communications Francis N. Spears CE 73, MS CE '80 vice president/Roll Call John B. Carter Jr. IE '69 vice president/executive director James M. Langley vice president, external affairs

8

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1994

Trustees A.E. Beachamjr. IE '60 William Hagood Bellinger EE '63 Charles G. Betty ChE 79 James W. Bowyer CE '64, MS SANE '60 Richard II. Bradf'ield ARCH '60 I.. Guydon Branch Mgt 71 Carey H. Brown IE '69 Albert W. Culbreth Jr. IM '68 Fred L, Cook TCH 7 1 , PhD 75 Thomas F, Davenport Jr. IE '56 Charles E. Ea.sley Jr. IM '86 Dwight Evans CE 70, MS SANE 7 3 Janice Carol Harden IE 74 Paul W. Heard Jr. ME '65 L Andrew 1 learn Jr. EE '57 J. Scott Howell ISyE 75 Douglas W. Johnson IM '65 David R. Jones IM '59

Govantez L. Lowndes IE '83 Jon Samuel Martin IM '64 David M. McKenney Phys '00, IE', '64 Francis B. Mewborn Cls '50 Charles D. Moseley Jr. IE 'OS G. David Peake IE '61 Thomas J. Pierce Jr. ChE '61 Linda Poger-Williams CE '81 |. Lamar Reese Jr. IM '55 Neal Allen Robertson IE '69 B. Jane Skelton IM 77 Haywood F, Solomon Jr. IM '70 Louis Terrell Sovey Jr. IE 'Si William P. Sovey IE '55 Neal D. Stubblefield ME 79 Harry B. Thompson III IE '00 Rene L. Turner IE '83 Philip S. Vincent IE '66

• • • • • • • •

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comes to

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1-20 Just West of Atlanta Heart-pounding rides, great water adventures, fantastic food, shopping, shows, special events, and live concerts... It's all here, all year at Six Flags Over Georgia.

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I calendars P SPRING ONLY. The Great American Scream Machine... BACKWARDS! Back by popular demand p APRIL 2-10. Spring Breakout. Do something totally different this Spring Break! Try an inverted bungee, the velcro wall, the orbitron, big bout boxing, sumo wrestling, the joust and more. Thrill to the "Dare to Air" bike and skate stunt show, three times daily. p APRIL 2. Moby's 3rd Anniversary Party. Celebrate with one of Atlanta's favorite DJ's of WKHX. Tracy Lawrence and Neal McCoy will be on-hand to perform. p APRIL 8-9. Christian Music Weekend. See some of the greats in contemporary Christian music — BeBe and CeCe Winans, Mylon LeFevre, The Newsboys and Sandi Patti.

P APRIL 30-MAY 8 (Saturdays & Sundays) & MAY 14-22 (Daily). Sports Illustrated Sports Festival. The world's largest traveling sports festival. Measure your skills against the performances of the "pros." It's over 120,000 square feet of basketball, football, baseball, golf, soccer, hockey, and tennis. p. OPENS MAY 7. New for '94! The Police Academy Live Action Show. It's wild, wacky and wet with all of the antics of the Police Academy characters.

• OPENS MAY 7. Held over for '94! The Batman Stunt Show. Rockets fly, motorcycles crash, and walls explode as Batman saves the day.

P MAY 28-29. Southern Gospel Weekend. Great traditional southern gospel music with Gold City, the Kingsmen, Karen Peck and New River, Charles Johnson and the Revivers, Poet Voices, the McKamey's, the Nelons, the Bishops, Brian Free and Assurance, Ivan Parker, and Jerry Goff.

• JUNE 4. Gospel Jubilee. Mississippi Mass Choir, John P. Kee, and Kirk Franklin perform a mix of traditional and contemporary gospel music.

P JUNE 15-18. Atlanta Fest. Four days and nights of top Christian talent like Carman, Michael W. Smith, Petra, 4Him, Michael English, Whiteheart, and many, many more.

P- JULY 16-31. KidsFest. Two fun-filled weeks in July of activities and shows for children.

P AUGUST 19. Reba McEntire in concert.

P SEPTEMBER 2-11,17-18, & 24-25. Country Star Jamboree. The entire park is transformed into a country fair with food, crafts, demonstrations, and foot-stomping entertainment such as Doug Stone, Lorrie Morgan, Pam Tillis, and Mark Chestnut.

P OCTOBER 7-9,14-16, 21-23, & 28-30. Fright Fest.

Halloween fun for the whole family. It's a spooktacular event with pumpkin carving, haunted houses and trick-or-treating for all. (On October 7,14,21 & 28 the park will be open from 6:00 p.m. until midnight.)

Six FLAGS OVER GEORGIA • THE WORLD OF FUN NOT A WORLD AWAY! Concerts and special events subject to nominal upcharge.

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OFFICIAL SPONSOR ALUMNI MAGAZINE

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TechMes Summer in Olympic Gty

By Gary Goettling

W

here will Georgia lech students go when the campus becomes the Olympic Village in 1996? That's the question before President John P. Crecine and a committee of faculty, students and staff representatives. While no plan has been presented to the Board of Regents for approval yet, the committee has several possibilities. */ A standard 11-week summer session could be held at West Georgia College in Carrollton for all students, or for incoming freshmen only.

^ The summer quarter could be split in half, with the first weeks held at West Georgia and the last weeks at Tech after the Olympics.

• An accelerated fiveand-a-half week summer quarter program could be conducted at West Georgia before the Olympics with another accelerated session at Tech after the Games, and would be open to all students except incoming freshmen.

•/ Non-traditional video-based or electronic media instruction could be made available to all students except incoming freshmen.

Any plan for summer quarter 1996 must meet the approval of the Board of „.

Regents. Final proposals and a decision are not expected to be made until early next year.

Made in the Shade

S

ince November, Trees Atlanta—a nonprofit citizen group—has planted more than 200 trees near the west and east ends of Tech Park-

way. The plantings, which were done at no cost to Georgia Tech, represent the first phase of the group's effort to beautify sections of campus in time for the 1996 Olympics. The varieties planted were magnolia, maple, oak, holly and crepe myrtle. Trees Atlanta also plans to perform landscaping around most of the construction projects on campus.

GEORGIA TECH • TechNotes

11

TechMes JRllHliTTtWa The Category Is 'Game Shows'

A

rchitecture senior Mar. tin Poteralski will represent Georgia Tech in the annual College Tournament of the TV show "Jeopardy!" He is one of 15 college students out of an original group of 200 hopefuls who will compete for a $25,000 grand prize. Poteralski, who has been a member of the Tech Academic Team for the past four years, plans to enter law school after earning his undergraduate degree. The College Tournament will air during the first two weeks in May.

More fu_ a_d games

T

his spring, Vanna White will be turning letters for four Georgia

Tech students picked to compete in the "Wheel of Fortune" College Week Tournament.

A contestant search on campus in February at-

tracted about 90 students. Making the final cut were senior Jennifer Hawbaker, junior Larry Stewart, and sophomores Pete Ketterman and Corey Rockwell.

The tournament has been taped in Orlando, Fla., for broadcast May 16-20.

PARTNERSHIPS

WORK...

ANTHONY & CLEOPATRA ABBOTT &COSTELLO LONE RANGER & TONTO FRED ASTAIRE & GINGER ROGERS

Let Georgia Tech Continuing Education show you how a partnership can keep you and your organization on the cutting edge of technology.

Like the great partners listed above, when you partner with Georgia Tech you are tapping into a world of expertise.

We can meet your educational needs through a variety of formats including: - custom designed continuing education programs • tailored graduate programs • on-site training

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E-MAIL: conted@gatech.edu

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Georgia Tech Rate $ 5 9 - $ 7 9 . N o one caters to outdoor pool, health club, sauna and whirpool.

All for special alumni rates that won't sting your the gold and white like Marriott Northwest. We wallet. Weekends, just $59 per room, not per offer Georgia Tech alumni deluxe accommodaperson. And weekdays, only $79 per room, not tions. Superior service. Even complimentary per person. Subject to availability. continental breakfast. Plus a convenient ATLANTA So call (404) 952-7900 or (800) location off 1-75 at Windy Hill Road, just 9 miles from Georgia Tech Campus.

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TechMes A Tradition Continues

A

Georgia Tech culinary tradition returned to campus on Feb. 16 when Junior's opened at its new location in the Bradley

Thank you to the official sponsors of the

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Building, next to the Tech Tower.

Tommy Klemis, proprietor of the original Junior's who now manages the new facility for ARA, was on hand as usual to greet the first wave of hungry students.

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

Junior's serves breakfast from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and lunch until 2:30 p.m.

The original Junior's on North Avenue was demolished last fall to make way for Olympic athlete housing.

Georgia's Stone Mountain Park Georgia Tech Theatre for the Arts Lockheed Georgia Employees' Federal Credit Union Marriott Courtyard Midtown Atlanta NationsBank Norrell Services Piedmont Hospital

Former proprietor Tommy Klemis still manages Junior's.

Prudential Home Mortgage Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead Six Flags Over Georgia Technology Park/ Atlanta Trust Company Bank Wachovia Bank of Georgia Wyndham Midtown Hotel

Join us as we close out the season with: SISTERS OF THE SOUTH* southern musical roots

April 5

YOTHU YINDI* aboriginal rock group

April 8

PHILIP GLASS* solo piano performance

April 14

â&#x20AC;˘ IN COOPERATION WITH INTERNATIONAL ARTS ASSOCIATION

Savoyards Light Opera presents THE GONDOLIERS May 6, 7 & 8 KRONOS QUARTET May 12 MASTERWORKS May 15 For ticket information, call the Georgia Tech Theatre for the Arts Box Office

404-894-9600

rara

theatre for the $lrts WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS THE ARTS

TvchNotes GROWING THROUGH A GIVING TRADITION

On Target

M

ore than 18,000 donors have contributed a total of $3.5 million to the 47th Roll Call so far. The goal for the annual fund-raising drive, which ends June 30. is $5.6 million from 27,000 donors.

More than $400,000 of the current total has come from companies that match their employees' contributions dollar-for-dollar, two-to-one or more. Alumni -who have not yet made their Roll Call contributions are urged to do so, and those who work for match inggift companies are encouraged to take advantage of that opportunity.

Roll Call is Georgia Tech's largest source of unrestricted gift income.

Nominations Sought

T

he Institute Honors Committee is accepting candidates for Geor-

Free Call

A

umni living outside the metro Atlanta local calling area can save a few dimes by reaching the Alumni \ssociation at its new toll-free telephone number: (800) GT-ALUMS (4825867). Office hours are 8 a.m until 5 p.m., EST, Monday through Friday.

gia Tech's top 1994 faculty awards.

• The Distinguished Professor award recognizes an individual with an international reputa-

47TH ANNUAL ROLL CALL Georgia Tech Alumni Association

47th Roll Call Goal: $5,600,000

tion in his or her field.

• The W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Awards honor excellence in teaching, while the Outstanding Service Award is presented to an individual who has significantly benefitted the Institute. ^ The Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award recognizes significant interdisciplinary contributions to teaching and research, and • the Outstanding Continuing Education Award recognizes outstanding contributions in continuing education.

Distinguished Professor nominations must include

a detailed resume and a nomination letter from the candidate's immediate superior, and letters of recommendation.

Packages for the other four awards should contain at least a detailed resume and a nominating letter. Outstanding Teacher nominations must include letters of recommendation from former students.

Q For more information, call Dr. Edward K. Reedy at (404) 894-7788.

Nominations must be received by April 15, 1994, and should be sent to Dr. Reedy, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405.

GEORGIA TECH • TechNotes

15

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"It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs." The year is 1818 and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's gothic romance, ignites the spark of life into a new genre—science fiction. A schizophrenic creatiomof the industrial revolution, science fiction continues to be nurtured by a world that is terrified at the prospect of technological madness, while passionately embracing the promise of technological prosperity.

Science Fiction

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| his is the literature writer Robert A. Heinlein calls "stories whose objective is to explore, to discover, to learn, by means of projection, extrapolation, analogue, hypothesis-and-paperexperimentation, something about the nature of the universe, of man, or reality."

It is the domain of Irving F. "Bud" Foote, a professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech, who has helped shape science fiction as an academic discipline.

"Science fiction is art," says Foote. "What is art about? It is to enrich our perception of the present. And science fiction does that in a very strange and interesting way.

"Art unscrews the inscrutable, reconciles the irreconcilable. It's about contradiction; it's about mixed feelings. Science fiction deals with our mixed feelings about the high rate of change which has occurred for the last 200 years.

"We fear our technology because we can see the clangers in it. But we have great hopes for our technology. It's that dynamic of contradiction that drives the machine."

1884 Flatland

1818 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein becomes the first science fiction novel A new genre begins to explore "the nature of the universe, of man, of reality."

1889

In his office on the third floor of the SkilesyBuilding, Foote momentarily concentrates On packing tobacco into the bowl of a curve-stemmed pipe, explaining that he has quit smoking cigarettes. The large desk in front of him is covered with paperwork; next to it, a personal computer rests on a smaller desk, and four floor-to-ceiling bookcases, crammed with books, line the opposite wall.

A 63-year-old native of New Hampshire, Foote is a sturdy man with a gray beard and the rugged features of a New England sea captain. He published his first science fiction story in 1954, and during his academic career has navigated all the shallows and depths of the genre's literary ocean.

When Isaac Asimov, an icon in the field, died in 1992, CNN came to Foote for comment.

"Asimov is certainly one of the people who changed the whole field of science fictionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;his concept of robots, his invention of psycho-history. We all owe him," says Foote. "In a lot of ways, Asimov was a clumsy writer, but he had wonderful ideas."

Foote's literary interests are not limited to science fiction. He is a voracious reader

of mainstream and detective fiction, and has taught speed-reading courses at Tech for many years. His office walls are decorated with memorabilia that reflect his eclectic interests as a scholar, folk musician and activist. He is a songwriter whose folkmusic band, The Adamantly Egalitarian String and Reed Corps, also performs protests songs—he has written more than 200.

He also plays, and collects, guitars. But

Foote has carved a niche in science fiction.

His 1990 book, The Connecticut Yankee in the Twentieth Century: Travel to the Past in Science Fiction, received critical acclaim.

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oote began teaching science fiction at Georgia Tech in 1971, and now teaches both a survey course and a senior seminar, as well as a course on video for continuing education. "We read a

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book a week with a quiz a week," Foote says. "1 don't make it easy for them or me."

Dr. Kenneth J. Knoespel, director of the School of Literature, Communication and Culture, observes that Foote has helped define science fiction as an academic discipline.

"Professor Foote's creative work at Georgia Tech coincides with the development of science fiction studies in the U.S. and Eu-

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rope," Knoespel said. "What was conside r e d ^ non-academic subject in the '50s became in the '80s and '90s an established discipline."

"One of the things I enjoy most in life is reading books and talking about them," Foote says with a Tom Sawyer grin. "So I got a job where I read books and talk about them, and they give me money, which is a little immoral."*

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produced an imaginative version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sei^Tourteen years later, along came "2001."

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rofessor living F. "Hud" Foote's reading list prepared for his "Survey of Science Fiction" includes some of the best books and writers of the genre over the past 176 years.

At least one choice may surprise some readers— Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which Foote explains is the first time-travel novel. After Connecticut Yankee, Foote says, time-travel books began to appear "all over the place."

Foote, a professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture, should know, lie spent 10 years researching Twain's work and timetravel, which resulted in a scholarly effort titled The Connecticut Yankee in I be 20th Century: Travel to the fast in Science Fiction, published in 1990.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's gothic tale written in 1818, begins the genre of science fiction. Foote concludes his list with The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, two of the leading exponents of the cyberpunk literary movement that began in the 1980s, to which virtual reality is central.

"As popular literature, science fiction speaks to the concerns of its time," Foote says. His reading list: • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley • 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Jules Verne • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court, Mark Twain • The War of the Worlds And '/be Time Machine, II. G. Wells • We, Yevgeny Zamyalin

• Gateway, Frederik Pohl

Science Action writer Stan Robinson, author of Red Mars, signs autographs after speaking at Georgia Tech.

• The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin • Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson • The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling "The reading is extensive," Foote says, "covering such concerns as the popular reaction to Darwinism; the romance of travel and of the scenery afforded by advanced technology; time travel and the nature of history; science and technology as threat and as promise; the question of individual identity in mass society; the interchangeability of human beings; the depletion of the environment; our human nature and psychobiology; and the threat of dehumanization."

Foote is enthusiastic about the genre he first encountered as a nine-year-old boy in 1939—the year science fiction entered a Golden Age that lasted until 1950.

"Science fiction got me interested in science and technology," Foote says. He speaks fondly of editor John Campbell Jr., who took over Astounding Science Fiction and helped initiate the era, and such writers as Jack Williamson, Frederik Pohl, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp and Theodore Sturgeon, many of whom Foote has come to know as friends.

"Science fiction shares with mainstream fiction a certain degree of credibility, but it also shares with fantasy a kind of wonder in dealing with stuff that is not," Foote observes.

One of his favorite definitions comes from science-fiction writer Samuel R. "Chip" Delaney, whom Foote paraphrases: Mainstream fiction is about things that did not happen, but could have; fantasy is about things that did not happen, and couldn't have; and science fiction is about things that could happen, but have not happened yet.

D

efining what science fiction is—and is not—has been debated by modern scholars and readers alike. Elements of science fiction such as fantastic voyages, Utopias and wonderful machines can be found in early heroic legends and epic tales. But, Foote asserts, that does not

1898 KG. Wells was among early authors who intermingled scientific fact and prophetic vision.

qualify them as science fiction.

Another group argues that science fiction is a 20th-century literature, he states. After all, the term didn't even come into use until the mid-1920s, when pulp magazine editor Hugh Gernsback penned it. But even then, Gernsback recognized existing literature, commenting, "By 'scientifiction,' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of a story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic visidh."

The heart of science fiction, Foote says, is "the sense of historical change." While historical change is missing from epic narratives, it is clearly found in literature before this century.

The defining argument for historical change, Foote says, is made by Brian Aldiss, British writer and critic, who drew the parallel between science fiction and the industrial revolution in Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction, since revised as Trillion Year Spree.

One of the strengths of science fiction, Foote says, is that when the main character -confronts adversity, the character will T persevere to overcome.

"This has been a century of winners in the mainstream novel," Foote says. "This is the century of

Franz Kafka and his descendants. Kafka basically says, 'I'm guilty, if somebody will tell me what I'm charged with, I plead guilty.' The main message of a lot of mainstream literature has been, "Where do we go to surrender?'

"This is paralleled in physics by Werner Karl Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Just as in physics we've gone from laws to statements of probability, there's been a kind of loss of faith in the ability to do anything significant within reason.

"Consider that in detective fiction and in science fiction, no matter how difficult the problem, no matter how confusing the evidence, the great detective and the great scientist will always, by force of mind, think his way out of it.

"It is a literature that, particularly since Asimov, is a very logical, intellectual, idealoaded kind of fiction.

"When I started teaching science fiction, the general feeling was that it was Buck Rogers stuff," Foote says, granting that 90 percent of science fiction is. mediocre.

That reminds Foote of what is known in literary circles as Theodore Sturgeon's law.

The story goes that the late writer was

asked by a critic why he wrote science fiction, because 90 percent of science fiction is crap.

"Sturgeon replied, 'My dear sir, 90 percent of everything is crap.' " Foote laughs.

"Maybe you wouldn't put it quite that way, but one of the things you have to say is that by definition, most of what is out there in any field is mediocrity. Ninety percent of the books that are published in mainstream, I have no desire to read."

1920-21 Yevgeny Zamyatin's We offers an anti-utopia that prefigures Huxley and Orwell, and supercedes Utopias in the tradition of Sir Thomas More.

D

uring the past eight years, Foote has brought some of the leading science fiction writers to Georgia Tech to present seminars, meet with faculty and visit with his classesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including Brian Aldiss, Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson, James Gunn, Joe Haldeman, Ursula Le Guin and L. Sprague de Camp.

Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red Mars, the first in a trilogy about terraforming the planet that will also include Green Mars and Blue Mars, visited the campus for three days in March.

Robinson is best-known for a thematic trilogy set in his hometown of Orange

County, Calif.: The Wild Shore, a post-holocaust novel; The Gold Coast, a dystopia; and Pacific Edge, a Utopia.

Robinson disdains science fiction that he calls "stage business—sword fights and escapes built upon action after action after action. Unless there is some point beyond that, stage business isn't really what a story is about."'

Science fiction should be more than a space western, he says. "It must have some purpose lor being science fiction."

Science fiction is traditionally strong on plot and weak on developing its characters, Foote states, but science fiction as a whole has improved. A number of science fiction writers could write mainstream novels, Foote says, including Robinson.

"I tit ink science fiction is a more powerful genre,"' Robinson says. "I can say what I want to say better in science fiction."

Science fiction can transcend into mainstream fiction, says Dr. Kenneth Knoespel.

"Jurassic Park is a good example. Science fiction of this type actually allows our society to negotiate this relationship between ourselves and objects that we have created and need to live with—whether an automobile, an airplane or a space shuttle, or various problems that technology has created.

Pohl's Gateway won the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award for science fiction.

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Environmental issues oftentimes today become components in discussions about science fiction."

The scene may be some exotic landscape in a far-off galaxy and the inhabitants may be as strange as they are remote, but don't be misled. Science fiction is often about the politics of the here and now.

"Science fiction is about the present," says Robinson. He makes'the comparison to a computer simulation. "You start at a given set oPinitial conditions, which are the present. Then you nun a simulation; it goes off to a future moment. You write a novel about that, and what you're doing is illuminating certain aspects of the initial conditions by exaggerating. It's a kind of metaphor. I think of science fiction as a kind of prose poetry because it is filled with metaphors.

"In essence, it's a political statement about now because it is a historical statement. You're saying, 'If this goes on, this will happen, or if we do this, we'll get here.' That statement shows a lot of faith in the human agency that we might actually get to control where we go."

"We can't go into the future, except in our imagination," says Foote. "We can read hypothetical stories about the future. A present that leads to a 1984 kind of state is very different from a present that leads to Stan Robinson's Pacific Edge. But the

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present has both of those potentials. You can draw a logical line from now to a terrible tyranny, or from now to a golden Utopia, or anything between. By looking at all the possible futures that are imbedded in our present, we enrich our perception of the present. By the time you have read 100 good science-fiction novels, you've had 100 good takes at what the present is about.

"Science fiction is mote about technology than it is abpU) science, and It's more

Stan Robinson calls science fiction a "historical literature" that connects the fictional future through the present moment.

about history than it is about technology.

What you find when you talk to science fiction writers is that almost all of them are very knowledgeable about history. In effect, they're writing history, but it's future history, or it's alternative history.

"What we think of technology is very much what we think of human beings," says Foote. "It is a marvelous and wonderful thing to be a human being. It's impossible to contemplate without feelings of reverence."

Foote has published two articles about Robinson in the March 1994 Science-Fiction Studiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an interview and a analysis of Red Mars. He will also read a paper on Robinson at the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, an academic convention.

Foote is optimistic about the future: "Unfortunately for me, within the next 100 years, geriatric medicine is going to make it unnecessary to get old and die. It's going to come just too late for me. And I came just too early to get off the planet. If I were 40 years younger,I'd be standing in line. If I'm still around and ran withstand getting off the planet, and they ask for people to go set up a university on Mars, I'll be there." â&#x20AC;˘

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Georgia Tech researchers are engineering advances in medicine that promise to save lives

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Min Cheol Wang working in the biosolid mechanics laboratory on the mechanical properties of atherosclerotie human arteries.

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Robert Nerem: "What we're trying to do is organize the cells in the form that we want and provide the right properties, both in a mechanical and in a bio-chemical sense."

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lhe driving force behind Georgia Tech's bioengineering program has been Robert M. Nerem, holder of the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine. For the past ten years, Nerem and his colleagues have quietly developed the bioengineering program at Tech; now it has an international reputation in its field.

Occupying a floor-and-a-half in the Weber Building, Tech's bioengineering program has 16 faculty members and about 80 students. Within a few years, it will offer a PhD in bioengineering and have 40 additional students. There will be six new faculty members, and the program will have twice as much space, not to mention a host of new computers and other major equipment.

The impetus behind these good tidings is a $3 million Biomedical Engineering Developmental Award from the Whitaker Foundation. The award, which was granted in January 1993, will enable Georgia Tech, along with the Emory University School of Medicine, its research partner, to join the elite ranks in bioengineering.

"This will definitely take us to the next level," says Nerem, who popped open a bottle of champagne after he got the good news last year. "When the reporter from The Atlanta Constitution called and asked me how I felt, I told her I was on cloud nine."

The Whitaker Foundation, based in Washington, was established in 1975 by U.A. Whitaker, founder of AMP Inc. and an engineer who believed that the quality of medical care could be improved by applying engineering and physical science principles. Along with the University of Utah and the University of California at San Diego, Georgia Tech was one of three winners selected last year from 57 competing institutions.

Since the Whitaker Award—the program received ^1 million last September and will receive $500,000 for each of the next four years—there is a high level of energy these days in the bioengineering department at Georgia Tech.

O

n a brisk winter morning, David N. I Ku, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech who's also an associate professor of surgery at Emory University, talks excitedly about

32

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1994

his current research on heart disease.

"Think about it. What causes disease to build up in the neck rather than the arm?" he asks rhetorically. The answer, he says without waiting for a response, is a function of blood flow. "What we're trying to do is isolate the trouble spots in the body, and then analyze the blood flow. By doing this we've come up with a lot of interesting observations."

Ku whips out a marker and draws on a board in his office the intersection of two arteries as it occurs in the human neck, which is a frequent trouble spot for heart disease. Arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries, occurs where blood flows slowly, and cholesterol-filled pockets of plaque build, he explains. Bioengineers analyze exactly why and how this occurs, using the same principles that are more conventionally used to study air flow over an airplane wing.

Engineers rely on plexiglas models to reconstruct blood flow. They measure How with lasers, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging techniques and they apply engineering principles to cell biology.

Why is slow blood flow unhealthy?

Through bioengineering techniques, . scientists have discovered that blood flow actually alters the structure of endothelial cells, which line the insides of arteries. Ku illustrates the point by playing a video cassette that shows an artery where blood flow is so poor that it oscillates back and forth.

Suddenly, the patient exercises, and blood rushes through the veins, clearing out the built-up plaque particles.

"To treat patients you have to understand the disease," says Nerem. "Heart disease isn't well understood. Half the people who have heart attacks don't have the conventional risk factors. We're trying to understand how the mechanical factors are influencing where it develops and the rate at which it develops. We're interested in how mechanical forces alter cell structure and function. Very few medical people look at it from the perspective of mechanical force."

Heart disease is just one of the many applications of bioengineering. Nerem's new focus is "tissue engineering," a rapidly advancing technology with powerful implications. Nerem believes the Whitaker grant will enable Georgia Tech to break a lot of new ground in the field. Basically, tissue

engineering involves the reconstruction of certain tissues and organs. Nerem, for instance, is currently working on a project to build artificial blood vessels.

The idea, he explains, is to take fatty tissue from a patient's body and then reconstruct the cells into a blood vessel, which could in turn be used to replace a worn out artery in the case of heart disease, through bypass surgery. Nerem and his students are working on a system to cultivate the cells, which can then be transplanted. Currently, the only way doctors can find a replacement vessel is to strip one out of a patient's leg.

"What we're trying to do is organize the cells in the form that we want and provide the right properties, both in a mechanical and bio-chemical sense," says Nerem.

The applications are virtually limitless.

"In recent years considerable progress has been made in the development of a bioartificial pancreas," Nerem writes in the Tech application for the Whitaker grant. In other words, he says, it's in the not-toodistant future that doctors will be able to provide patients who have diabetes with "an artificial organ that secretes insulin accordingly."

Much of the research leading to this is being conducted at Georgia Tech by Dr. Athanassios Sambanis and his group in chemical engineering.

S

imilarly, Nerem also expects Tech to play a crucial role in the development of an artificial liver. He cautions that these ideas are many years away from implementation, but insists they are viable.

"The organ that is the biggest challenge is the brain," he says. "There are important nervous-system applications."

Bioengineering techniques are already making differences in people's lives. Con-

TOP RIGHT: Rose Gonzales, a doctoral student, is doing research that is part of Tech's participation in the National Institutes of Health-funded Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Emory.

MIDDLE RIGHT: Randy Grimes (left), a medical doctor earning his PhD, and Samantha Yang, a CE student, study fluid dynamic aspects of blood flow in arteries using laser Doppler velocimetry.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Using a mock circulation loop that models both the left and right heart systems, Jeff Ellis, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, takes poly-Doppler measurements of a heart valve.

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• GEORGIA TECH • Advances in Biotechnology

33

David Ku: "What we're trying to do is isolate the trouble spots in the body, and then analyze the bloodflow.By doing this we've come up with a lot of interesting observations."

sider the development of artificial skin, which is in the final stages of testing by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Artificial skin can be used to treat patients with bedsores, severe burns or other skin ailments, and it was developed and refined through bioengineering techniques. "You have to really understand what you're doing," says Nerem. "Then you can control the process and think about the different applications."

Like many others in his field, Nerem stumbled into bioengineering by accident.

A graduate in aerospace engineering from Ohio State University, Nerem did research for NASA during the days of the Apollo project, studying heat transfer to bodies re-entering the atmosphere. At the time, there were questions about the effects of launch and re-entry on astronauts. Nerem accepted a job to analyze how vibration affected human physiology. This work offered a window into medicine and biology, and that has been his realm of study ever since.

These 'days, bioengineering is one of the fastest-growing fields of engineering. One reason is that bioengineering is a relatively new field, and with the rapid development of technologies in medicine, doctors need an engineering perspective on heart implants, prosthetics and other devices that they prescribe for patients.

Bioengineering isn't exactly glamorous workâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;scientists spend hours measuring the flow of fluids in simulated models and analyzing laser and magnetic-resonance videosâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but it is very rewarding. "This work has a human touch," says Yoganathan. In other words, bioengineering research has a major impact on people's lives. "Esoteric research in this area is not as common as you'd find in the basic sciences," says Yoganathan. "We're looking at a much shorter-term return. People can relate to what we're doing almost immediately, so it's an area of a lot of interest. Philosophically, we're driven by real problems."

B

ioengineering is also distinguished by a nuts-and-bolts pragmatic approach to medicine. To Yoganathan, a native of Sri Lanka who has worked at Georgia Tech for 15 years, this work entails a recognition of the limits of science and technology. "You'll never completely cure heart disease," says Yoganathan. "There are a

34

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1994

variety of things that go wrong "with the heart. Some are genetic. On a more basic level we try to understand some of the diseases. We look for long-term cures in terms of providing quality of life. The concept that a doctor can cure everything is a problem with the American culture. Medicine is more an art than a science. A good doctor knows things that aren't in textbooks. It is difficult to bring a patient who's had a bad case of heart disease back to 100 percent. We try to be realistic."

B

ioengineering isn't cheap. And in the current era of health-care reform and cost consciousness in medicine, every aspect of the profession has to reckon with the bottom line. Yoganathan argues that bioengineering helps to keep costs down by aiding diagnosis and promoting preventive care. Nerem insists that the approaches to medicine that his department is exploring may actually make some treatments less expensive. For instance, an artificial pancreas, says Nerem, would be "no more expensive than existing procedures."

Adds Yoganathan, "high technology isn't always expensive if it's utilized judiciously."

A lot of this study involves experiments on animals, in particular pigs, which present a good model of the human cardiovascular system, according to Nerem.

Yoganathan has made several trips to Denmark, where he says the facilities to experiment on live animals are excellent.

Tech doesn't have large animal laboratories, but the Bioengineering Center does some collaborative research with the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University.

The Bioengineering Center at Georgia Tech has always worked closely with Emory's medical school and hospital.

Yoganathan has done a lot of research with doctors at Emory on how artificial devices such as valves or other implants interact with blood. There are 120,000 heart valves implanted each year, and 75 percent of those models have been studied at Georgia Tech. He also consults with the federal Food and Drug Administration as to whether the latest heart valves and implants are ready for the market. "Blood is not a friendly environment to things that are artiJill Dyken, a doctoral student in the area of tissue engineering, conducts studies that may lead to the development of an artificial pancreas.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Advances in Biotechnology

35

ficial," he explains. "Surgeons want a better understanding of this, so they call us."

Yoganathan recently got a call from an Emory surgeon who had a question about how a certain heart valve responded to different blood-flow patterns. "He can't do research on his patients, so he asked us to develop an experimental apparatus," he says.

Ajit Yoganathan: "We've come a long way in the past 15 years.

And we're going to grow a lot more in the next five years, and that's very rewarding and exciting."

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he relationship between Tech and Emory will become a lot closer with the implementation of the Whitaker grant. Eight professors will be hired as a result of the grant—six for Georgia Tech and two for Emory. A target of study for Emory is gene therapy, which, according to Nerem, is "the most sophisticated manifestation of tissue engineering."

Genetic research has profound implications, not only because it is evolving rapidly, but because of its Brave New World implications of cloning.

Genome research is so powerful, says Yoganathan, that it is "a double-edged sword." Already, the technology can determine whether patients are likely to suffer certain diseases—a prospect that Yoganathan finds daunting. "You don't want people walking around thinking they'll drop dead tomorrow," he says, identifying the ethical dilemma of diagnosing diseases for which there are no present cures.

The Whitaker grant provides for genetic research on a more limited scope, concentrating on efforts to transfer genes to manipulate cells as a treatment for heart disease and other ailments. Emory will also hire a specialist in cellular immunology to research the vexing problem of immune rejection.

Among the new job openings at Georgia Tech is a specialist in nerve regeneration.

Other priority areas include biomaterials, drug delivery, and cellular applications of microfabrication technology. "We've seen this program built from scratch in the past 15 years; and we've come a long way," says Yoganathan. "We're going to grow a lot more in the next five years, and that's very rewarding and exciting." • William Smith is an Atlanta-based free-lance writer.

Doctoral student Gabriel Helmlinger studies the influence of mechanical forces on the signaling mechanisms of cells as related to arteriosclerosis.

36

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1994

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EcQQomy Photography by Stanley Leary • Text by David Kennedy If you drive to the Evenflo manufacturing plant in Canton, you will see red Georgia clay washed against the building's new foundation. Off Brampton Road in Savannah, Spanish moss— light olive with a dusting of silver powder—is draped among the trees around the National Gypsum Co. In Millen, Ga., not far from the Augusta Sportswear Plant, a slow-moving river reflects a mud-colored hornet nest while streams of silver sunlight are caught by branches of a fallen tree. Georgia is a diverse and colorful state, much like the businesses and manufacturers that operate in it. And in another kind of'landscape, the economic one, manufacturers are looking for better,, faster and less expensive ways to make their products.

Enter Georgia Tech. In addition to educating many of the state's brightest students, Tech employs engineers who understand business, logistics and the problems facing manufacturers. These engineers work in the 13 regional offices of Tech's Industrial Extension Service, helping Georgia businesses find those better, faster, less-costly ways to make their products.

40

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1994

*

Sites of Georgia Tech's Industrial Extension Service

Augusta

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kalliy Jones of Evanflo, one of 30. (anion residents who have johs because ofGeorjda Tech's cconomi developmenl outreach around llie s

When Evenflo, a manufacturer of baby-care products, decided to consolidate three manufacturing sites into one in Canton, Georgia Tech developed a layout of the 300,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution site, which will eventually employ more than 300 people. Tech's expertise saved the company thousands of dollars in start-up costs and provided a solid footing for future operations. Tech also assisted with the development of bar-code inventory and tracking options, and in introducing employee-involvement concepts to the plant.

At the Evenflo plant, plastic baby-bottle caps are made with an injection-mold process. Georgia Tech's economic-development program was a factor in the company's decision to move to Georgia.

"Georgia Tech gave us valuable engineering support. And they didn't walk away after the building was built. Their support continues, which is one of the main reasons we came to Georgia." â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Terry Collins Plant manager Evenflo

42

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 1994

(ill (R< ,i \ 11 ( 11 â&#x20AC;˘ Georgia Te\ l< Industrial lixlcnsiuii

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When Augusta Sportswear wanted to expand, Tech f6i\nd a willing workforce in Jenkins County. The town of Millen was sip enthusiastic Milleri about being a contender for the company's expansion that they built a plant for the manufacturer. Today, the Millen plant that started with 30 Warner Robins people employs 190. South in Warner Robins, when a high-tech defense contractor moved back to California, a number of its employees chose to remain in Georgia and start their own company. Simulation Systems and Support builds radar simulation equipment for electronic warfare devices.

Georgia Tech helped the company fine-tune its business plamand secure starting capital.

The Economic Development Institute is a valuable partner with Georgia communities in starting new businesses such as Simulation Systems and attracting existing industry such as Augusta Sportswear.

BELOW LEFT: A radar-simulation program is tested at Simulation Systems and Support in Warner Robins.

At Augusta Sportswear in Millen, Ga., piecework sewing is used to assemble sports and casual wear, while (BOTTOM) a special machine creates a seamless tube of material that will be used to make T-shirts.

"I have a good job and an interesting job here as a programmer.

One of the things about it I like most is that it will allow me to grow as the company expands—and I am sure we will keep growing."

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In Savannah, National Gypsum Co. was looking for a way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. To save money at National Gypsum's Gold Bond Building Products plant, Georgia Tech engineers worked with plant managers to develop software and a system that allowed the company to sidestep a $100,000 purchase. The cost of the equipment Tech recommended was about $2,000. With further help from Tech engineers, Gold Bond has emerged from bankruptcy protection with its stock back on the market and its fortunes rising.

Georgia Tech engineers helped National Gypsum Co. improve its waUboard manufacturing process and find its way to solvency. BELOW: WaUboard is packed for shipping from Savannah's National Gypsum plant. BOTTOM: A worker controls the flow of gypsum that is formed into waUboard sheets.

"We're out of Chapter 11, we have our stock back on the market—and we're making money.''

—Bob Rowan Plant manager National Gypsum

GEORGIA TECH • Georgia Tech Industrial Extension

47

Georgia Tech works not only to attract new business, but to expand and revitalize existing industry. In Columbus, specialists with the Economic Development Institute office analyzed the operation of Flex-Tec, a manufacturer of wiring harnesses for lighting fixtures.

Improvements in plant layout, processes and operations helped to double the company's sales, and made significant improvements in employee morale as well. • Soon, many more small- and medium-size manufacturing firms like Flex-Tec will have greater access to technical assistance through a two-year federal grant to Georgia Tech. First-year funds will establish the Georgia Manufacturing Technology Extension Center, which will expand Tech's Industrial Extension program by creating new regional offices in north and south Atlanta to serve the metro area's nearly 3,500 firms. It will also establish a Dalton office to support the state's vital textile industry. • Through its 13 regional offices, Georgia Tech is working to bolster Georgia industry and create jobs. Its efforts to help communities attract industry, to advise firms about technology and to give a diverse client-base insight into new and potential markets, makes Tech an important partner in the state's economic well-being.

David Kennedy is a writer with Georgia Tech's Office of Media Relations.

Electrical wire is run through conduit pipe at Flex-Tec in Columbus, Ga. Georgia Tech's management expertise helped double sales and improve employee morale at the middle-Georgia plant.

"Before, it was a little crammed here and everyone wasmnning into each other. Now we have a lot more room, and everybody can get around. It's a pretty good place to work."

—Bertha Williams Line leader Flex-Tec

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GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1994

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Pacesetters

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A Man with a Message STANLEY LEARY PHOTO

By Gary Goettling

L

uis G. Romero-Font has a message for Atlanta. Actually, he expects to be handling several hundred thousand messages before the turn of the century.

A 1973 industrial management graduate of Georgia Tech, Romero is president of Codecomm, a company that sells and services alphanumeric pagers.

Conceptually similar to beepers, pocket-size alpha pagers display text messages instead of just telephone numbers.

Codecomm's product, manufactured by NEC and Motorola, displays 80 characters at one time on its screen. By touching the scroll button, a user can read messages of up to 2,000 characters in lengthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;about five typewritten pages.

Codecomm's network "sends information in the way people want to see it, when they want to see it," says Romero.

The alphanumeric system relies on new voiceto-text technology. A caller dials the pager number and dictates a message, which is then converted into text form by computer and transmitted to the pager over a dedicated radio frequency. The subscriber

Tech grad Luis Romero-Font: His innovative pager carries a better message.

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Pacesetters: Romero

53

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

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No one knows whether we're on the verge of a major recovery-or a short-term comeback.

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Pacesetters Romero's message beepers may have a quarter of the market by AD 2000. "It's a different product. We're in the information business." receives the message in seconds. If for some reason the original call is unintelligible to the computer, the pager will indicate that a message has been received, and the subscriber can call Codecomm and listen to the original message.

For an extra monthly fee, subscribers can also receive traffic information, weather forecasts, financial reports and news on their pagers.

Codecomm's service area includes metro Atlanta, and extends to Athens, Rome, Macon and Dalton.

Although alphanumeric devices currently account for only 4 percent of the paging market, Romero expects that number to climb to 25 percent by 1999- Convenience and price are the main selling points, he says. With a base monthly cost only a couple of dollars more than beeper service, "once people start using this kind of unit, they'll

never go back."

Still, Romero doesn't expect to put all of the beeper companies out of business. "It's a different market," he notes. "There will always be a need for that kind of service, but it just gives you a number.

It's not information, it's just announcing. We are in the information business."

Codecomm's customers include doctors, lawyers and other professionals who make up the traditional paging market.

Romero sees great opportunity for his product in sales, citing the example of a client that sells pharmaceuticals.

"Our operators are essentially their fulfillment center," he says. "We receive the orders and then dispatch them to the right delivery people."

Romero is also aware of a growing consumer demand for pagers, such as for parents who want to stay in touch with their mobile, fashion-conscious teenagers (and vice versa).

"We have units with different-color coverings that you can snap on to match your clothes," he says.

Romero, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, got his first taste of the telecommunications industry while still a high school student, when he worked as a PBX operator. After

graduating from Tech, he worked for a short time with ITT Caribbean Manufacturing, a centraloffice switch manufacturer.

He founded Codecomm in 1977 after completing his MBA at the University of Florida. The company started out selling and servicing large telecommunications networks throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

In 1988, Romero decided to parlay the company's telecommunications expertise into the wireless paging business.

Romero also serves on the boards of Venture Capital Fund Inc. and the investment banking firm of Meduna & Co. Listed in Who's Who in Finance, he was named Top Manager of the year 1991 by the San Juan Sales and Marketing Association.

Romero and his wife, Marie Jane Rodriguez Diaz, have a son, Julian Andres.

Last November, Codecomm established a foothold in the United States by opening a 24,000-square-foot facility at Technology Park in Norcross. For Romero, it was something of a homecoming.

"I kept close contacts with lots of friends in Atlanta, and I always had an idea that I was going to move back here sooner

or later," he says.

According to Romero, about 450 sites were considered for Codecomm's office before metro Atlanta was picked. The decision was a prize for the area's high-tech economy: Codecomm's investment will total more than $25 million and eventually create 400 jobs in all areas of the company, Romero says.

"The Southeast is one of the fastest growing, most technologically sophisticated markets anywhere in the world.

"There are lots of telecommunications facilities here in Atlanta. Fiber-optic networks are installed here. We also have many well-trained people from Georgia Tech and the other universities here.

The quality of the employees we have been able to hire is very good."

It was the lure of technology that also brought Romero to Atlanta for the first time, as a college student.

"I wanted to study at a technology school, and Georgia Tech was my first and only choice," says Romero, who originally wanted to become an industrial engineer but found the management curriculum better suited to his interests. "Georgia Tech's curriculum is reallife oriented, and that helps when you get out in the real world." â&#x20AC;˘

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Pacesetters: Romero

55

In the nineties, banking isn't about appearances.

It's about performance.

Qvery day, more businesses turn to Bank South. And it's easy to see why. We don't act much like bankers.

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Winning Big ByJolrnDunn

W

mSoope is living up to its name.

The product developed by The Periscope Co. to help programmers build and debug Windows applications has won PC Magazine's top award in the Development Tools category.

Brett Salter, ME 73, president of the midtown Atlanta firm, says he was so surprised that his product won over giant Microsoft, that "When I got to the podium, I couldn't think of anything to say."

But in selecting W'mScope for its Technical Excellence Award, PC Magazine had plenty to say.

"Unlike traditional debuggers, this indispensable programming tool lets you monitor all types of Windows events by capturing the actual API calls an application makes," the magazine says in its December 1993 issue. "This puts VvTnScope in a different class from other eventcapture tools, which merely let you snoop on messages a Window application passes to the operating environment.

VCn/Scope understands and can capture over 1,200 API calls—including some 200 undocumented

calls—and hundreds of Windows messages. It can even monitor the execution of existing programs, offering fascinating insight into how they work."

IvwScope was also selected by Windows magazine as one of the top 100 Windows products and was selected as a finalist by Compute Magazine in the Best Programming Tool category.

"It's an innovative product," agrees Salter.

Chris Schwartz, IE '86, is the primary architect of WT'wScope, which came out in June 1993, after more than two years of development. An independent software engineer, Schwartz originally came up with the concept and pitched it to Salter.

"Windows is a very complex environment in terms of the way programs are structured," Salter says. "It's such a complex environment in which to program that people need to get some view of what is going on.

This product allows them to see how their programs are interacting with the Windows environment."

Salter founded The Periscope Co. 10 years ago next August.

"I was doing mainframe database consulting when the personal corn-

Brett Salter: Innovative software sets new standards.

puter came along," Salter says. "I saw an opportunity. I quit consulting and developed some software packages that I sold on my own. As a function of developing those utility packages for programmers, I needed a product that would help me debug my programs. That was the beginning of our Periscope product."

In 1988, PC Magazine selected one of the company's hardware products as a finalist, also in the Development Tools category.

Salter attended Georgia Tech as a co-op student, working with Southern Bell. He received a World Student Fund scholarship to Germany after gradua-

tion and later worked for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

He and his wife, Sharon, moved to San Jose, Calif, where he worked for Intel Crop, for several years before returning to Atlanta and founding his own company. The firm now has six employees.

"All in all, the thing that Tech taught me the most is how to solve problems—how to dissect a problem and find an answer," Salter says. "That has been very valuable.

Even though I am not in mechanical engineering, my background has been a big assist in being able to approach a problem and break it down." • GEORGIA TECH • Pacesetters,. Salter

57

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Profile The Students' Advocate

By Sam Heys

T

hey don't refer to students as "kids" around the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Ward O. Winer, the school's usually affable, 57-year-old director, does not accept any view other than students as adults.

"It's one of my pet peeves, and the faculty and staff know it," Winer says. "I have always assumed students are serious, hard-working adults, trying to advance themselves by getting an education, and I treat them accordingly. And I think students respond to that."

That belief was af-

The Winer File Born—June 27, 1936, in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Education—Degrees in mechanical engineering from University of Michigan—bachelor's (1958), master's (1959), PhD (1961); also PhD in physics from Cambridge University (1964).

Personal—Married to Mary Jo Wielinga, They are parents of grown children: Matthew; James, Arch '82, M Arch '86; and Paul, ICS '85, MS MGT '89 (married to Carol Chesnutt Winer, IE '87); and Mary Margaret Winer.

Achievements—Director of School of Mechanical Engineering; Regents' professor; winner of Tribology Gold Medal from British Tribology Trust; member of National Academy of Engineering. Principal researcher on projects sponsored by—among others—NASA, National Science foundation, Monsanto, Dow, Corning, GE, the Department of Transportation, and Department of Energy.

Quote—"One of my underlying philosophies is to do the best damn job you can do at whatever you're doing. When you do that, people

respect you."

Leisure interests—Avid gardeners, the Winers care for more than 30 rosebushes and are rarely without cut flowers at home. They enjoy the symphony and bridge, but most leisure time is devoted to the renovation of a home on Lake Hartwell. Winer is looking forward to resuming a favorite pastime this summer, sailing.

62

GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1994

firmed by Winer's popularity during the two decades he was a professor in the Woodruff school before becoming its director in 1988. A Regents' professor, he was selected Faculty Member of the Year by the Graduate Student Government in 1986 and the following year was named Georgia Tech distinguished professor.

Winer grew up in Michigan, the son of a railway mail clerk who left school after the eighth grade, but was committed to education.

"A lot of my philosophy probably stems from the fact that I put myself through school," Winer says. "A lot of our students are putting themselves through school, so they should be treated as adults."

He started at Grand Rapids Junior College, then transferred to the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor's, master's, and doctorate—all in mechanical engineering— during a three-year span from 1958-61.

But Winer wasn't working from a master plan. "I call it the role of serendipity in career planning," he says.

"The last semester of my senior year, one of the professors asked me, 'What are you going to

do when you finish?' I said, 'I'm looking for a job right now.' He said, 'You ought to go to graduate school. You're a good student.' I said, 'I can't go to graduate school. I'm putting myself through. I've got to get out of here.'"

The professor gave Winer some eye-opening news. "You don't have to pay for graduate school.

We've got money to support you. We've got scholarships and fellowships and research assistantships."

As he neared graduation with his doctorate, Winer was invited to join Michigan's faculty, "to develop the field of lubrication." He studied tribology—the science and technology associated with surfaces in relative motion, comprising friction, lubrication and wear—at Cambridge University before teaching at the Ann Arbor campus.

"That was in the days after Sputnik, and they •were throwing so much money at science and engineering that all you had to do was stand up to get hit by it," Winer says.

Winer's thesis advisor was Dr. Arthur Hansen, who came to Georgia Tech in 1965 as dean of engineering and eventually became Tech's president.

ALAN DAVID P H O T O

School of Mechanical Engineering Director Ward Winer: His key is to treat students as adults.

"Art was a friend, and he was after me to join the Tech faculty," says Winer. He did so in 1969 as associate professor.

"I have always been impressed with Tech students," Winer says. "They are in general highly motivated. They tend to be very brig lit and they work very hard. But they have to be hard-working and

talented because it's a difficult program."

The difficulty of the mechanical engineering program has not diminished the number of applicants to the Woodruff school. "One of our main problems is high student demand and the lack of resources to handle the demand," Winer says.

"Consequently, we have

to turn a lot of students away."

With approximately 1,300 undergraduates enrolled per quarter and another 150 co-ops in the work force, the Woodruff school is Georgia Tech's second largest school, behind electrical and computer engineering.

Georgia Tech bestows approximately 300 me-

chanical engineering undergraduate degrees per year—more than any other mechanical engineering program in America. Its approximately 500 total mechanical engineering degrees annually—both graduate and undergraduate—is also No. 1 nationally.

Expansion of the graduate program has been one of Winer's most significant accomplishments as director—the others being a jump in research funding, the addition of high-quality faculty and staff, and increased outside recognition.

With about 170 fulltime master's candidates, Tech has the third largest master's program in America, behind MIT and Stanford. Its doctorate program—with 200 fulltime students—is the fifth largest, behind MIT, Stanford, California-Berkeley and Michigan.

"I argue," Winer says, "that the mainline engineering programs—particularly mechanical engineering—are excellent general liberal education programs for today's technological world. I believe students and industry recognize that fact by their actions." • Sam Heys is an Atlanta-based free-lance writer.

GEORGIA TECH • Profile: Winer

63

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