Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 72, No. 02 1995

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Volume 72 Number 2 FAIL 1995

A L U M N I WJ M AG A Z I N E

Features 16

The Power to Heal Converting Tech's nuclear reactor to medical uses opens up enormous opportunities in the field of brain tumor therapy.

Written by Joint Dunn

Low Fares, High Shares With low tares and a lean operation, Tech grad Lewis Ionian is helping build a successful, no-frills airline at Valujet Written byJerry Schwartz

High Tech A new age of technology dawns in the South as information-based companies expand their footholds in the area—thanks in part to Georgia Tech research.

Written by Hoyt Coffee Pant- 28

Online in Math A Tech professor has established the leading online math journal.

Written by Jack Stewart

Departments

4 7

Letters Technotes Roll Call; High tech transport; Tech, Emory join in MD/Phl).

12

Perspective Wayne Clough on Acidemia and the Olympics.

Pacesetters Hill Stanley and [venue Love Stanley.

John I.appington: Empowering Engineers.

Bruce Wheeler: Hip on I Ill's.'

Research Armor lor industry; Smart sounds.

Page

54

Profile Robert (i. l.ocwy: Flying Higher. Paster, Smarter.

Page 49

Cover Photo: Competitors wave before entering the tenter in the national synchronized swimming meet that opened the neti Tech Aquatic (.enter. it's one of many ways the Institute trill be affected by lb' < llympics. Rend more on pages 12 and 10

GEORGIA TBCB ALUMNI MAGAZINE

is published quarterly Jbr Roll Cull contributors by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

Send <correspondence and changes of address to: GEORGIA TECH An MM MAGAZINE, Alumni/Faculty House.

IIS North Avenue NW, Atlanta. <,\ 30332-0175 • Editorial: (404)853-0760/0761 Advertising: (404) 894 9270 • lax: (404) 894 5113 • e-mail: editor@alumni.galeeh.edu © 1995 Georgia Tech Alumni Association • ISSN: 1061 n~ c Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH 3

letters ALUMNI

E»

KJUAGAZINE

Don't Be Cruel John C. Dunn Hoyt Coffee Michael Terrazas Everett Hullum Robb Stanek

editor associate editor staff'writer design advertising

Ahintni Association Boaixl of Trustees

Editor: How can you be so cruel and insensitive?

I can almost taste the chili dog on your summer cover. But I'm 1,500 miles away. I do miss the Varsity.

William A. Wilde, ME '63 Denver, Colo.

Officers H. Milton Stewart, IE '61, President Frank H. Maier Jr., IM '60, Past President Hubert L. Harris Jr., IM '65, President Elect/Treasurer Francis N. Spears, CE 73, MS CE '80, Vice President/ Activities Jay M. McDonald, IM '68, Vice President/Communications N. Allen Robertson, IE '69, Vice President/Roll Call John B. Carter Jr., IE '69, Vice President/Executive Director James M. Langley, Vice President/External Affairs

Trustees Charles W. Bass, IE 70 Charles G. Betty, ChE 79 G. Niles Bolton, Arch '69 Daniel H. Bradley, IM '61 Lucius G. Branch, GMgt 71 H. Preston Crum, Arch '67 Albert W. Culbreth Jr., IM '68 W. Elliott Dunwody III, Arch '52 Dwight H. Evans, CE 70, MS SanE 73 Phil Gee, IE '81 Sherman J. Glass Jr., ChE 71, MS ChE 72 Marion B. Glover, IM '65 Robert L. Hall, IM '64 L. Andrew Hearn Jr., EE '57 Gabriel C. Hill III, Text '57 Douglas R. Hooker, ME 78, MS TASP '85 Calvin D. Johnson, MSci 73 Douglas W. Johnson, IM '65 Sharon Just, CE '89 John E. Lagana, IE '6& .

Robert H. Ledbetter Sr., IM '58 David M. McKenney, Phys '60, IE '64 Gary S. May, EE '85 Francis B. Mewborn II, Cls '56 Jean A. Mori, ME '58 Thomas J. Pierce Jr., ChE '61 Linda A. Podger-Williams, CE '81 Warren D. Shiver, ME '64, MS ME '66 W. Pierre Sovey, IE '55 Emily H. Tilden, IE 78, MS IE 79 Rene L. Turner, IE '83 Charles L. Wallace, IM '64 Warren O. Wheeler, EE '63 Janice N. Wittschiebe, Arch 78 Vincent T. Zarzaca, IE '55, MS IM '66 Stephen P. Zelnak Jr., IM'69

MDI Award Editor: It was with great pleasure that I read the article relating to the Office of Naval Research creating a new Molecular Design Institute here at Georgia Tech [Spring issue of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine]. There was one extremely important omission: MDI received $5 million from the Georgia Research Alliance for the creation of this institute. It must be stressed that it would not have been possible for the Office of Naval Research to grant the award to Georgia Tech in the absence of such positive GRA support.

Williams S. Rees Jr. Associate Professor School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Materials Science and Engineering

Predicting Rain

GeormM Home of the 1996 Olympic Village 4

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Editor: I look forward to the coming football season with some apprehension.

' 1 ^tti

^—**

We have an almost new coach in whom we are placing a lot of hope and trust. We will also start a new era with a grass playing field.

Grass may be fine for athletes and Olympians, but what about us fans? Do you realize that whileGrant Field has had artificial turf it has only rained during one game? It "sprinkled" during two games, and at our last Florida game, a long timeout had to be taken while we waited for an electrical storm to pass.

We cannot take umbrellas into Bobby Docld Stadium, but they have not been necessary for the last 20 or so years. Now we may need to get some rain gear and hope that our athletes can play in the mud.

Alvaro E. Cardoso, CE '58, MS CE 70 Atlanta THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE

welcomes Idlers from till alumni, faculty and friends of Georgia Tech.

Address correspondence to: Editor

Georgia Tech. Uttmnl Publications Alumni faculty House Atlanta, GA 30332-0175 Fax (404) 894-5113 e mail editorial ttmni. .Htilech.edu

A special rate for Tech fans only. Weekends throughout football and basketball seasons. Afterward, relax with a drink. Or enjoy dining in The Restaurant or The Cafe. Then settle back in a luxurious room at the heart of downtown

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Roll Call: Record Goal

W

ith the historic 1996 Centennial Olympic Games just around the corner, the 49th Roll Call is creating history of its own with a record goal of $5.8 million.

This year's Roll Call theme. "Going for the White and Gold," ties into the Games. "Just as the world's greatest athletes will c< >me to Atlanta shooting for their best," says Roll Call Vice President N. Allen Robertson, IE '69, "so will we be shooting for our best with this record goal.

"The excellence of the athletes is analogous to

what we experience at Tech: the high caliber of faculty, the ranking of our students and the national reputation of our programs."

A record participation goal of 25,300 Tech alumni and friends has been set.

"That is at least as significant as the monetary amount, because if we get the participation, the funds will follow," Robertson says. "That's really the ultimate goal."

This year's Roll Call also will use a new, more personal approach of contact with potential supporters. Dorcas Wilkinson, di-

Roll Call Vice President Allen Robertson, IE '69: "We'll be shooting for our best effort." rector of Annual Giving, says this new approach of classmate-to-classmate contact is modeled after that of many private institutions, whose alumni traditionally support their alma maters far more than those from public universities. Roll

High-Tech Transport

I

t's the crackle of electricity that's putting the buz/ in Georgia Tech's bus system these days.

Working with a group of businesses and government agencies, the Georgia Tech Research Institute is test-driving an electric shuttle bus along campus routes this fall to assess electric-vehicle technology and lay the groundwork for environmentally friendly shuttles serving the Olympic Village.

The 33,000-pound Stinger is the product of a joint venture between Westinghouse and Blue Bird, the Fort Valley. Ga., company that is the world's largest school bus manufacturer. The Southern Coalition for Advanced Transportation (SCAT), of which Tech is a charter member, and the Georgia Flee trie Transportation Consortium pooled resources to design the shuttle.

Operating on I 12 lead-acid batteries, the electric bus has a range of about 70

miles between charges—60 miles if theair conditioning is running—which means it can remain in service about five to seven hours at a stretch. It can be recharged in as little as two hours.

Westinghouse provided a quarter of the vehicle's $200,000 price tag, according to GTRI's Wade Garnto, the engineer in charge of the tests. Seed money was provided by the Defense Department, with additional funding by the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency.

GTRI is working on Other electricvehicle research projects, too.

With Clark-Atlanta University. GTRI is developing an "Electric and Hybrid Electric Virtual Testbed," which will involve technology analysis and modeling of such things as life-cycle cost, heating and air conditioning, pulsed battery charging, and motor behavior, says Rob Michelson, principal research engineer at GTRI's aerospace sciences lab.

Call staff will enlist the help of class representatives from each class from '65 to '95.

The thrust of the campaign, Wilkinson says, will be toward alums who have not participated in past Roll Calls or who may not be consecutive-year contributors. Volunteers will be calling their peers and asking them to contribute only at a level with which they are comfortable.

Approximately 75 percent of Roll Call comes from gifts of $250 or less.

Tech, Emory Join in MP/PhD

G

eorgia Tech and Emory University now have a formal joint M.D./ Ph.D. program, with Tech offering the Ph.D. in bioengineering.

A recent agreement proposes the program, in which the doctor of medicine will be awarded by the Emory University School of Medicine, and the doctor of philosophy in bioengineering will be awarded by Georgia Tech.

Since the mid-1970s, Georgia Tech and Emory have maintained a collaborative relationship. The bioengineering program has grown steadily, and this year, U.S. News & World Report ranked it No. 8 in the nation.

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

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)e Academia and the Olympics

By Dr. Wayne Clough

A

century ago, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, L the father of the modern Olympics, was asked why he restored the Olympic Games. His answer: "To ennoble and strengthen sports ... and to enable them to better fulfill the educational role incumbent upon them in the world."

When it comes to the participation of colleges and universities, the Atlanta Games fulfill de Coubertin's ideal more than any previous Olympics.

Never before in Olympic history has higher education played such an integral role in the planning, construction, staging and outcome of the Games.

Although the hustle and bustle of preparing for the Olympics often obscures the extent of its connections to higher education, Atlanta and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) are making a profound statement to the world in focusing the world's attention on the integral place of higher education in Atlanta and in American life. vf .•'

An Overview Although the 1996 Olympics are centered in Atlanta, institutions of higher education from around Georgia and the 12

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Southeast will play a major role in helping athletes prepare for the Games.

For example, nine French sports teams will train at Auburn University.

So too will teams from Finland, Japan and Ukraine.

Belgian teams will train at the University of Alabama.

In North Carolina, N.C. State will host Norwegian athletes, while the University of North Carolina will host the training of American track and field athletes.

The University of Tennessee will be the training venue for U.S. swimmers, and Russian teams will train at the University of South Carolina.

Here in Georgia, athletes from at least 16 countries will prepare for the Olympics at 10 different colleges and universities.

In Milledgeville, Georgia College will become a mini-United Nations as badminton teams from Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland and the United States prepare for the Games. In Marietta, distance runners from Australia, Finland and France will train at Life College.

As for the Games themselves, it is not too much to say that they could not take place without the active participation of the academic community. No fewer than six metro Atlanta colleges and uni-

versities—Clark Atlanta, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Morris Brown and the University of Georgia—will be venues for 11 different sporting events. And Georgia Tech's campus will also serve as the Olympic Village.

The Olympic Legacy to the Academic Community Higher education's connection to the Olympic Games is more than just a matter of providing training facilities and athletic venues. The opportunity for students of all ages to be exposed to diverse cultures and outlooks from around the world will have a powerful impact. Like institutions of higher education, the Olympic Games as envisioned by Coubertin will provide an educational forum through which people can broaden their experience with and knowledge of other people and places.

The academic community is working to expand on this unique opportunity.

Several colleges and universities are developing courses on the Olympics, including one project supported by the University System of Georgia that will offer Olympics-related courses throughout the state via distance-learning technology.

These are noteworthy efforts whose impact will be increased by the learn-

During recent ceremonies, Dr. Wayne Center.

ing opportunities provided by the Olympics experience itself.

A second legacy the Games will provide is the opportunity to show case not only Atlanta, but also the campuses and creativity of the involved colleges and universities. The international publicity that the area's academic institutions will receive during the Games will heighten worldwide knowledge of the quality and achievements of Atlanta's academic community.

The Olympic legacy will also include bricks and mortar. At Georgia Tech we recently dedicated the new Georgia Tech Aquatic Center that will be the site of four Olympic events.

Alexander Memorial Coliseum is also being "re-created" and will be the venue for Olympic boxing.

Construction is proceeding on seven new residence halls that will be home to 2,700 Tech stu-

YAXIY ADIK P H O T O

\

Clough {right) and Billy Payne, head of ACOG, dedicate Tech's Aquatic

dents after the Olympics.

Living quarters will be apartment-style, with a full kitchen, a living/study area, single-occupancy rooms and one bathroom shared by two students.

Each room will be connected to a high-speed computing and communications network.

With ACOG providing $27 million, Tech's remaining debt on the halls is $93 million. This will be retired over 20 vears through the fees charged to students for their rooms.

Across from our campus another portion of the Olympic Village rises into the air over the downtown connector. These four Olympic housing units will become home to 2,000 Georgia State students after the 1996 Olympics.

Elsewhere in metro Atlanta's academic community. Olympic construction is under way on many other campuses. Clark Atlanta will receive a new track

and field stadium. Georgia State's gymnasium is being renovated. Morehouse will build a new basketball facility. Morris Brown is refurbishing its football stadium for use as the field hockey venue. And the University of Georgia is building a new gymnasium to be used for volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics.

Clearly, the Atlanta Olympics will provide a legacy of education, publicity and facilities to the city's academic community.

Tech and the Olympics As president of Georgia Tech, I would be remiss if I did not address my own institution's other contributions to the Games.

After having graduated from Georgia Tech 35 years ago, I returned to Atlanta last year well aware that under my predecessor, Dr. John P. Crecine, Tech played a major role in attracting the Olympics to Atlanta by developing a

stunning multimedia presentation. I also knewjthat Tech would be the site of the 1996 Olympic Village.

Even so, I was not fully aware of the extent of Georgia Tech's involvement with the Games.

As the Olympics approach, Georgia Tech will turn over most of its campus to ACOG not just for the Olympics, but for two full months, beginning June 15. We will regain most of the campus on Aug. 15, except for the northwest quadrant, which will host the athletes and the Games of the 1996 Paralympics until Aug. 27.

Since its research programs and sizable summerteaching session make Tech a year-round operation, this will seriously complicate our operations next summer. However, ACOG is working closely with Tech administrators, faculty and staff to minimize the problems.

Georgia Tech faculty and staff are helping prepare for the Olympics in other ways as well. Tech engineers and computer experts are devising methods to track and model the movements of Olympic athletes in tennis, gymnastics, softball, swimming, diving and equestrian to improve their performance.

Tech designers helped create the Olympic torch; and architects, designers and

ii

engineers educated at Tech designed and built the Aquatic Center, the Alexander Memorial Coliseum renovation, the Olympic Plaza, the Olympic Stadium and Park, the Stone Mountain Tennis Center, the Wolf Creek Shooting Complex, the Rowing & Canoeing at Lake Lanier, the Cycling Velodrome at Stone Mountain Park and the Woodruff Arts Center renovation.

And when the Atlanta Ballet presents its performance during the Olympic Games, it will be in collaboration with Tech's DanceTechnology Project.

Conclusion After the Olympics, Georgia Tech and its fellow members of the highereducation community will return to our principal job of educating young people. This constant has not and will not change.

But we will not be the same after 1996. In keeping with de Coubertin's ideal, because of their ties to the Atlanta Olympic Games, higher-education institutions will be better prepared to enter the next century and to serve the people of Georgia and the nation, and the Olympics will be better off as well. â&#x20AC;˘ Dr. Wayne Clough, CE '64, MS CE '65, is president of Georgia Tech.

Fall 1995 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA TECH

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The Power To Heal Georgia Tech's nuclear reactor is being converted to medical uses; it promises to be a unique tool in the treatment of deadly brain tumors

By John Dunn Illustrations by Karen Ku

G

eorgia Tech is refitting its nuclear reactor to produce a neutron beam that could make it the world's premier center for treating victims of deadly brain tumors.

The 5-million-watt reactor at Georgia Tech's Neely Nuclear Research Center is considered the best-suited in the country for the application of an innovative radiation treatment—Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), which has had some remarkable successes in Japan. Trial therapy has also begun in the United States at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Ratib A. Karam, director of the Neely Center, explains that while BNCT trials in Japan used a thermal neutron beam, Tech's reactor would produce an epithermal beam that could treat deep-seated and otherwise inaccessible tumors.

Georgia Tech's reactor, the second most powerful university-based reactor in the coun try, can be modified to produce the "purest epithermal neutron beam in the world," Karam says. Epithermal neutrons—those with energies between 0.50 and 10,000 electron volts—can penetrate to a tumor without damaging healthy tissue.

In June, Georgia Tech joined with Emory University to create the Cancer Research Program centered on BNCT for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, a cancer of the brain. Karam and Dr. William "Bill" Casarella of Emory University have been named codirectors of the program. Casarella is chairman of radiology at Emory.

Georgia Tech's responsibility will be to characterize the neutron beam and filter out interfering gamma rays. Emory will provide the biomedical expertise in designing experimental and clinical protocols and managing patient treatment. The program will also | evaluate boron compounds and their - \ 16

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Georgia Tech and Emory University researchers plan to use the Neely reactor to treat brain tumors and other deadly cancers.

Illustrated above is a magnetic resonance image of a glioblastoma tumor.

pharmacologic properties.

Also in June, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency approved Georgia Tech's plan to convert the reactor from high-enriched uranium-235 to a low-enriched fuel. Karam said the reactor will be temporarily shut down during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, averting any possibile security threat to the reactor while the campus serves as the Olympic Village. High-enriched uranium fuel will be removed from the reactor in May; the ^ facility will not be refueled until titter the Games. During the shutdown, the core of B the reactor will be removed and a filter ' installed to produce the epithermal neutron beam.

"The modified Georgia Tech reactor fj will have an advantage in beam quality over any other site in the world," Karam says. "It is the most realistic site in the United States for large scale Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy treatment of victims of malignant brain tumors."

B

|NCT treatment is a two-step procedure: .First, a boron-10 enriched compound 'that is designed to lodge in the tumor is injected in a patient's blood; next, the boron is irradiated by a low-energy neutron beam. When a boron atom absorbs, or captures, a neutron, the atom splits, releasing enough energy to kill nearby tumor cells without harming healthy brain tissue.

"Neutrons react with exogenously administered boron compounds to produce alpha particles and isotopes of lithium," Karam explains. "The alpha and lithium particles are lethal to whatever cell contains the boron compound." The particles travel only the distance of one cell's diameter, confining the damage to the cell containing boron.

Glioblastoma, the primary target for BNCT treatment, is an incurable cancer of the brain that affects the central nervous system.

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Approximately 15,000 people are diagnosed each year as having primary brain tumors; glioblastoma is the most common.

Victims of glioblastoma undergoing traditional surgery and radiation therapy have a life expectancy of less than 16 months. One of the most malignant tumors in the human body, glioblastoma is sometimes called the "octopus tumor" because it spreads from a central tumor like tentacles into the brain, an infiltration method that makes complete surgical removal nearly impossible.

"BNCT is really a simple concept in which nuclear reaction is used to kill tumors," Karam says. "It is a site-specific energy deposition to achieve eradication of the cancerous cell. No other treatment has been shown to be effective for that kind of tumor."

"It is exciting," says Casarella. "We have developed new boron compounds that have promise for being very selective in killing malignant cells, and Georgia Tech has the ideal reactor."

Treatment at the center need not be restricted to brain tumors.

BNCT can be applied to any type of cancer, providing that a chemical compound • containing boron is designed to concentrate in the cancerous cells of an organ, Casarella adds. "Different boron compounds are needed for treatment of a tumor in the brain than boron compounds for treating cancerous cells in the breast, neck or colon."

T

he new Emory-Georgia Tech Cancer Research Program is expected to have an annual economic impact of more than $70 million in Georgia and Atlanta and create 650 jobs, according to the Economic Development Institute at Georgia Tech.

New biotechnology-related industrial activity stimulated by the Cancer Research Center would amount to $50 million annually and new household income is projected to be more than $20.3 million annually. Additionally, the state would realize $1.2 million in annual revenues while another $1222 million would go to local governments, according to the EDI estimate, fy Karam and Dr. Jeffrey Olson, associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory University, in a study analyzing the economic impact the center will have on Georgia and Atlanta, say it will stimulate clinical research and biotechnology industrial activity, attracting biotechnology firms involved in such researchrelated areas as pharmacology, tumor biology, 18

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Tech's Reactor Best?

Conversion simple—major features already in pl

G

eorgia Tech's nuclear reactor is the best in the world for Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), an innovative radiation treatment for brain cancer victims.

That was the conclusion of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, which several years ago conducted a study of all the nuclear reactors in the United states.

Merle Griebenow, former BNCT director at the laboratory anil president of Neutron Technology since L992, says Georgia Tech's reactor can easily be converted to provide the best epithermal neutron beam in the world for the treatment of cancel'.

"Georgia Tech's reactor has all the best lea lures," says Griebenow, who was responsible for the conversion of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Reactor where BNCT clinical trials are being conducted.

"It is heavy-water cooled and moderated," he says. "It's twice as good per megawatt of power as a light-water reactor"- -meaning twice as many neutrons having the desired energy can be extracted from the core of a heavy-water reactor as from a light water reactor of similar power.

"Georgia Tech's realtor has an aluminum reactor vessel, and aluminum is one of the best materials for down-scattering high-energy neutrons into the energy range we want," Griebenow says. That greatly simplifies mollifying the reactor by installing a filter to eliminate gamma rays and contaminants to produce "the purest epithermal neutron beam in the world."

"Conversion of the reactor is almost a nonjob," Griebenow says. Essentially it means inserting a filter consisting of aluminum plates between the con' and the vessel, spaced to allow heavy-water to circulate between the gaps.

The face of Georgia Tech's reactor core has a large beam port to effectively treat a patient, Griebenow says.

"Georgia Tech's reactor has in place most of tin' essential features," Griebenow adds, "You don't have to cut any holes in the reactor vessel, anil there is no big engineering challenge. Conversion is kind of a no-brainer."—John Dunn

D20/A1 Plates Lithiated Aluminum Plates Titanium S Plate Recast * Shield B

Core (19 elements)

Biological Shield Graphite Aluminum Vessel

Air Filled Aluminum Tubing

Lithiated Polyethylene

^Bi,Pb, Cd Housing •Bi,Pb, Shield Structure •Bi,Pb, Cd Cone Housing

Treatment Room Rendering shows Georgia Tech reactor with filter design of aluminum plates.

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

19

radiation physics, dosimetry, microdosimetry and boron biochemistry.

"Testing new drugs and methods of targeting drug delivery to tumors, and further development of economical neutron sources are clearly fertile ground for biotechnology firms," Karam adds.

"The possibility of treating other cancers is great," Olson says. "The only requirement is that the drug concentrate in the tumor. If you can get boron to concentrate in other tumors —breast, prostate, colon and some of the bigger hitters—there is no reason you can't focus the neutron beam on that also," Olson says.

A clinical facility would be located at the Neely Nuclear Research Center. During its first year of operation, Karam estimates the cost of purchasing the equipment, research, characterizing the neutron beam and staffing the project at approximately $1 million.

R

obert Hawkins, executive director for development and corporate relations at ^Georgia Tech, says that considerable additional funding will be needed, and the advancement teams from Georgia Tech and Emory will coordinate their efforts with regard to individual donors, corporations and foundations. "Federal funding may play a large role as well," Hawkins adds.

The $1 million amount represents "a barebones figure of what we can do to get the program up and running and prove its validity," says Jane Brown, director of development for Emory University's Center for Neurosurgical Research.

"This reactor is the best one in the world for this project, and it happens to be right here at Georgia Tech," Brown says. "It helps having the Emory School of Medicine involved, since we have a brain-tumor program already in existence. It's a great marriage.

"Scientists from all over the world have already indicated they want to be a part of the project—from Australia, Sweden, France and certainly Japan, where this alUstarted," she adds. "They are all interested in doing projects like this. Their conversion costs are much higher, so they want to be a part of this and learn from it. Then they can go back and justify the greater expenditures it will take for their sites."

Emory's Winship Cancer Center, which is in the process of gaining a National Cancer Institute designation, will be heavily involved in BNCT-related research and patient treat-.

20

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Dr. Ratib A. Karam, director of the Neely Nuclear Research Center, says this is an opportunity for nuclear science to assume a vital, expanded humanitarian role. Future BNCT treatment, in addition to brain tumors, may include breast, prostate and colon cancer.

ment, Brown says. "For any kind of cancer, one of the major aspects of the research is going to be boron research. It's currently ongoing and has been in a collaborative fashion at Georgia Tech and Emory for several years.

Researching the right boron compounds to find ones that will lodge in the cancel- cells— not in the good tissue—is the jigsaw puzzle.

Right now there are more than 50 compounds—we have one that has been approved for use, and we are in the process of seeking approval for another. Certainly, as the research goes on, they'll get better.

"The compounds are becoming more elegant in how they work, and they can go

from cell to cell, which a scalpel cannot do," Brown adds.

"There is no doubt in my mind that BNCT will be the next major improvement in cancer therapy窶馬ot just brain tumors, but other types as well," states Merle Griebenow, president of Neutron Technology, a BNCT crusader who for 35 years was a research scientist with the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. "All we need is a good boron drug that will go to the various tumor types. We are already developing some techniques for delivering boron to lung, breast, prostate and bone tumors. Successful treatment of one tumor type will stimulate the production of boron

drugs for treating other tumor types. It will be a big step forward."

T

he concept of BNCT is not new and not without controversy. In the 1950s and 1960s, unsuccessful BNCT clinical trials were conducted through Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston using the nuclear reactor at MIT and through Stoneybrook Hospital in New York using the reactor at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

BNCT pioneer researchers found that the early boron compound was not accumulating sufficiently in the brain tumor, and the thermal neutron beam was irradiating healthy

"This reactor is the best one in the world for this project, and it happens to be right here at Tech."

Fall 1995 窶｢ GEORGIA TECH

21

tissues. BNCT clinical tests ended in the United States for the next 35 years.

However, one of the researchers, Hiroshi Hatanaka, a neurosurgeon at Teikyo University in Tokyo, successfully applied the BNCT concept in Japan, where he began clinical trials in 1968. Hatanaka used improved boron compounds and applied radiation directly to surgically exposed tumors, rather than attempting to irradiate the tumor through the patient's skin and skull.

Also in Japan, after 15 years of research, the governments of Japan and Australia established a joint BNCT program for the treatment of melanoma.

A coordinated program on the treatment has been started by the Commission of European Communities, which involves scientists from Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands. The high-flux reactor in Pettern, Netherlands, has been designated as the center for conducting clinical trials for the treatment of melanoma and glioblastoma.

"A substantial technology basa for Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy application exists," Karam states. "The teaming of the scientific and medical talents at Georgia Tech and Emory University and the existence of one of the best facilities for BNCT application—the Georgia Tech research reactor—creates an ideal situation for the state of Georgia to support an effort to bring healing to thousands suffering from the incurable cancers in the brain and skin."

W

' hen the Neely Nuclear Research Center was dedicated on Jan. 11, 1963, at a value of $4.5 million, it represented the largest single building project undertaken at Georgia Tech. Edwin D. Harrison, w h o was president of Georgia Tech at the time, said the idea of the reactor grew out of a conference of Southern governors held in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1956 to thrust the South into the nuclear age.

During its 32-year history, the reactor has been used for teaching, research and development.

BNCT represents the opportunity for the nuclear reactor to assume a vital, expanded, humanitarian role through medical research and patient treatment, Karam says. It is an opportunity to make Atlanta and the state of Georgia international leaders in the province of scientific and medical applications. • ' \ 22

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Felix GKhran's Silver Bullet An Atlanta man is among the first to have boron-neutron treatment for cancer

L

ast January. Pelix Cochran, an Atlanta real estate developer and avid golfer, was attempting lo play a round of golf in Phoenix, Ariz. Bui something was terribly wrong: his left arm had gone numb. <)n his return u> Atlanta, Cochran went to West Paces Ferry Hospital to check out spasms he had been hating in his diaphragm and a "sleepy feeling" in his left arm. ( In Jan. 24, alter several days of ^ * testing and monitoring, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) examination detected a brain tumor. Dr. Jeffrey Olsen, associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory 1 Iniversity's School of Medicine, performed a craniotomy on Feb, 1 and removed the

tumor.

The invisible beam of the reactor is focused on the diseased area of the brain during the noninvasive BNCT treatment, which lasts only about 45 minutes.

Within a week, Cochran received the diagnosis: he hail glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer that affects the central nervous system. I le probably had no more than IS months to lite.

"That just blew me out of the saddle." says Cochran, chairman of Paces Properties. "I've altt .its been athletic and sort of a daredevil.

Pear, for me personally, has never been an issue.

I snow-skied two or three limes a year; I windsurf; I try to stay in good shape. I smoked when I was in college and ([nil 29 teats ago. I've tried to keep other people from smoking and doing things harmful to their health—and then I get a disease that you don't know what the origination is."

Cochran learned that Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), a treatment of brain cancer that has had some surprising successes in Japan, had been approved for clinical trials at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. Under the program, which began in April, It people would receive BNCT, "This was my silver bullet, my chain e to beat the tumor. Cochran says. "I decided I was going to do everything I could to get accepted into the

forms of cancer in the future, and that it will be a readily available treatment for all

people.

Atlantan Felix Cochran, only the third person to receive BNCT treatment in the United States in 35 years, is a champion of the procedure. program, and that I was not going to quit, I even decided to go to Japan if necessary, and I had my name put on their BNCT waiting list.

Cochran and his son, Christopher, 24, began in build a support program. Cochran wrote all his friends and relatives and enlisted the support of every I S . senator and congressman in Georgia, On March 3, he was accepted into the BNCT program. Although others have since been treated, he was only the third person to receive BNCT in the United States in 35 years.

On .March 17, Cochran underwent another craniotomy, this time at Beth Israel Hospital in New York, in preparation for BNCT. In a letter to his friends and supporters, Cochran describes the BNCT treatment he received on April 1.3: "Once at Brookhaven. they put the Boron10 solution into my blood; this lakes two hours. At about I p.m., they wheeled me into the reactor and positioned my head against the portal where the neutron beam is focused.

The entire procedure lasted about 45 minutes, Willi a live-minute break in the middle. I only felt a tingling sensation on my scalp for a little while alter the treatment. Whatever was left of the tumor was zapped by the BNCT! "T left Brookhaven feeling very optimistic that BNCT had worked. My hope is that this will be a cure for brain tumors and other

"The BNCT treatment is a one-lime treatment. I was treated at the reactor, and 1 will not have any continuing treatment. I will now only have check-up visits where the doctors will do some blood work, and I will periodically have MRIs done. These visits will monitor any changes and determine if there is any tumor rcgrowth."

Today. Cochran says he is fortunate to have been able to participate in the BNCT clinical trials.

"It's my belief that there is no cure out there. Whether I'll get six months or live years, we don't know yet. But BNCT has brought me some quality of-lile time."

Cochran is a champion of BNCT, and believes the Georgia Tech nuclear reactor may be the "silver bullet" that will save lives in the future.

"The reactor at Brookhaven is not nearly as well designed as I understand Georgia Tech's reactor is," Cochran says.

"But when you've got a brain tumor, you can't wait for the perfect circumstance to occur."

Cochran says he is not bitter.

"I never went through this 'Why me.

Lord?' or became angry at the Lord," says Cochran, a Christian and member of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta. "I would have liked something different, but by the same token, I have had a wonderful, full

I i

"I only felt a tingling sensation on my scalp for a little wliile after the treatment.

Whatever was left of the tumor was zapped by the BNCT!"

and happy life for 61 years.

"It's kind of hard to say this, but even in the face of this tragedy in life, the benefits of finding out who I am, where I am and what life is about have nearly offset the problems of this disease." Cochran says, "The quality of my life has improved so dramatically since I've had this disease that it's hard to describe. I appreciate every day and every friend. And SO many people have expressed so much love and caring that it has just been overwhelming. It's been a wonderful experience.

"You just take what you've got and go on to the next day." â&#x20AC;&#x201D;John Dunn

Fall 1995 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA TECH

23

Low Fares, High Shares Lewis Jordan has helped create a successful airline by offering no frills—on the plane or in the office

By Jerry Schwartz A dvice for anyone starting to work for / % Lewis H. Jordan and Valujet: Don't lose M. AL the first ballpoint pen you are given— you may never get another.

It's not that Valujet is exactly stingy, but, where most companies proudly boast of being thrifty, Valujet absolutely pinches each nickel until the buffalo cries out in agony.

The Valujet policy of providing employees a new pen or new flashlight batteries only when they turn in the used ones is born of Lewis Jordan's, AE '68, experience working his way through Georgia Tech as a co-op student in the mid-1960s, carefully hoarding his $290 monthly salary to complete his education.

"We've put together a product that—unless it does something for your safety, or the reliability of the airline, or your comfort or your pleasure on board the trip—we just don't do it," Jordan says of the fledgling Valujet.

That philosophy enabled the upstart Atlanta-based airline to confound every industry model by becoming profitable virtually from its first flight in October 1993, while offering fares as much as 60 percent less than the competition. Since its initial public offering in June 1994, Valujet stock has hurtled upward faster than its fleet of 28 DC-9 aircraft, jumping 500 percent in less than a year. That performance, according to James D. Parker, airline analyst for the Robinson-Humphrey Co., "may be the most remarkable in the history of the airline industry."

Lewis Jordan, president and chief operating officer, says there are no secrets to Valujet's success. "When we started this airline, we said to 0U5 people, 'We will be glad to give you a pen to do your work, but when you get your next one, you've got to turn in your old one that's out of ink.' It's not about not trusting people. It's just a matter of attention to detail.

"Those pennies add up, and they add up to our ability to offer you transportation it the lowest price from point A to point B any-^ 24

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

where Valujet goes. And we happen to think that has been a real reason why people have altered their travel plans."

Jordan says he is a product not only of Tech's solid academic program, but of the rigorous discipline imposed on a youngster just out of Griffin High School south of Atlanta.

But Lewis Jordan almost passed up his opportunity for a Georgia Tech education. "I always wanted to go to Georgia Tech. I had an uncle who had attended Georgia Tech earlier. But I had been told all my life what a difficult school it was to get into, to stay in and to graduate from. And I had sort of marked Tech off my list."

A high school pal convinced him to attend The Citadel instead, where Jordan had been accepted. But a few weeks before school was to start, his parents took him aside. "When my parents figured out what it cost, they had to say, 'We never really talked about this before, but we can't afford it.'"

Stung, Jordan announced to his high school buddies that he wasn't going to any college. He was joining the Marine Corps. But a high school guidance counselor turned that decision around and convinced Jordan to make a try for Georgia Tech.

"Then we got to the point about the economics of the deal, and I first learned of the co-op program, which turned out to be, in my view, just one of the finest ways to get an education ever in the world."

The co-op program was more than just a meal ticket for Lewis Jordan. It provided a sense of discipline and introduced the future executive to his first post-Tech employer.

"Within the co-op programs, James E. Woolford and William H. Hitch counseled with us on what it would take to get a job and keep a job. It was their role to say, 'You're not just here to have fun and go to football games and fraternity parties. You've embarked on a co-op program, which requires a real commitment to something.'"

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The co-op commitment, as it turned out, was to Atlanta-based Southern Airways, which would develop into a 17-year career.

"I had to fight the temptation at times to drop out of college and go to work full-time," Jordan says. "Southern was in a rapid growth mode, and they had a number of opportunities for engineers. But I was determined to get the degree."

That Georgia Tech discipline "was, in my mind, one of the most valuable ingredients of any degree of success in a business career.

You develop the confidence when faced with a tough situation that we'll work through this.

Some sort of way, we will work through this, and we'll come out on top."

L

ewis Jordan has needed that confidence. He has had to face two of the most difficult crises in the airline industry: a major airline crash and a company bankruptcy. The first occurred near the end of his career with Southern.

On the afternoon of April 4, 1977—with Jordan now a senior executive—a Southern Airways DC-9 crashed on a narrow highway in the northwest Georgia community of New Hope. The crash killed 72 people, including both pilots. But 24 others, including both flight attendants, survived. It remains the worst aviation disaster in Georgia history.

"There's nothing that had nor could have prepared me for that," Jordan says. It was his job to direct rescue activities at the scene. "I don't like to talk about it, because it's a very painful experience. People understand intellectually that when you fly 100,000-pound machines around full of fuel at 600 miles an hour, something can happen, but in all the emotions of sadness and anger and resentment, you understand that a happy little airValuJet's president and inspirational leader Lewis Jordan learned the basics in Tech's co-op program. "You develop confidence when faced with a tough situation that we'll work through this."

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

25

Valujet Net Margin Is Strong

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line like Southern, which did a great job, now had to face the reality that there was in fact a tragedy."

After Southern was bought out, Jordan moved on to other airline positions, eventually landing at Continental Airlines. He was president and chief operating officer at Continental during the tempestuous reign of Chairman Frank Lorenzo—a period which included the buyout of Eastern Airlines and subsequent Continental bankruptcy.

"My job in Continental, when I was recruited there, was to come in and oversee IOW the airline was run on a day-to-day basis while mergers and acquisitions and financial eeling and dealing was going on."

Umosphere among employees at Conwas skeptical, even cynical, Jordan "While we would all like to find ourlves in happy situations, once you take a position of responsibility—if you're not a quitter and if you care about the people that are assigned to you—then you don't spend as much time focusing how you'd like to be happy as you do on sort of fulfilling the responsibilities that you had accepted." fter leaving Continental in March 1993— A fte

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26

just a few weeks before it emerged from bankruptcy—Jordan was contacted by Robert Priddy, a founder of Atlantic Southeast Airlines and a former colleague of Jordan's at Southern Airways.

Priddy, along with airline pioneers Maurice "Maury" Gallagher and Tim Flynn (who had co-founded California commuter airline WestAir) were in the process of starting Valujet. They wanted Jordan to come on board as president and a co-founder. "Each of them had invested a million and they said, 'How do you expect to be an equal partner?

You don't have a million dollars.'" Jordan scraped up S200,000 in cash, borrowed anJz00,000 and agreed to work out the Kinder in "sweat equity" by taking a salary approximately one-third what he normally would haveabeen paid.

"The three of them had one great fear, and that was that I had become a 'big airline guy,' and that's not a compliment," Jordan recalls.

They were concerned that, after Jordan's stint at $5 billion Continental and its profligate spending, a no-frills airline wouldn't suit his style. "The only thing I knew to say to them was, 'If that's your greatest concern, find something else to worry about.'

"I remember where I came from. I remem-

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

ber all my background, back to the point that we didn't have enough money to send me to college, working my way through school. being down on the hangar floor with the people at Southern and all of the things that had served me well to get where I had gotten."

Frugality shows in every aspect of Valujet's operations. Walking into "corporate headquarters," a visitor sees an operation that looks more like a medium-sized insurance agency than a $l-billion airline. Jordan, now 50, presides over operations from behind a plain metal desk in an office as cramped as the "all-one-class" cabin on a Valujet airplane.

Wearing a Valujet golf shirt—even day is casual dress day at Valujet—Jordan says he most often is asked what single factor has accounted for the airline's success. Is it the fact that Valujet issues no tickets, but relies instead on computer-generated confirmation numbers?

In fact, he says, there is no single factor.

"People want to hear that there's some magic formula, some instant key. There isn't. Very good football coaches will tell you that it's the basics, all the fundamentals. It's blocking and tackling and paying attention to the details.

And there are a thousand details a day that we have to pay attention to."

That attention to detail manifests itself in the "inexpensive office furniture and the absence of anything palatial anywhere within the company," Jordan says. When he was recently asked by a financial reporter whether there was any other cost Valujet could possibly reduce, a straight-faced Jordan replied, "We're actively debating whether we can continue both peanuts and pretzels on our flights."

Jordan said there is no reason why Valujet can't continue its tremendous record, and, as an example, he points to Southwest Airlines —profitable for 21 years. "I can't in any way prove to you that we will be successful over the next 21 years until 21 years go by. 1 can only say that we've done what everybody said couldn't be done so far.

"After all of the difficulties in this industry, we are driven to write a chapter about a genuinely successful airline, from its beginning and on to the point that it is a real, no kidding, 'just-a-startup' airline—a genuine airline, well-run and profitable." • Jerry Schwartz is a freelance writer who often contributes to Georgia Tech publications.

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GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

W

High Tech A new age dawns in the New South

By Hoyt Coffee

hen Henry Grady and other architects of "The New South" first proposed a school of technology in Georgia during the 1880s, their aim was—as Grady said in an Atlanta Constitution editorial—to produce "great mechanics, great chemists, great scientists and great businessmen who will make Georgia the glorious empire she should be."

They foresaw a South no longer just fields of cotton, but forests of smokestacks as the region abandoned its agrarian roots and joined the already century-old Industrial Revolution.

A century later, the South is proving fertile soil for another revolution as an Information Age dawns worldwide. In Georgia, technologybased business is becoming an ever-larger segment of the economy, providing hometown opportunities for engineers who in the past had to abandon the region to pursue careers.

"The kinds of jobs that Tech graduates could find in Georgia 25 years ago were going to work for a bank, selling insurance, selling consumer goods," says W. Thomas Smith Jr., IM 70, vice president and general manager of IBM in Atlanta. "The activities available to remain a resident of Georgia were finance or marketing of industrial products. Today, there is an opportunity to actually do technological manufacturing, to find functional jobs in engineeringbased companies where an engineering background is good to have—even to be a finance officer of a large engineering firm."

Since 1971, the number of high-tech manufacturing jobs in Georgia has increased 350 percent and now stands at around 140,000, according to a study by Georgia Tech that was sponsored by the Business and Technology Alliance (B&TA). And the number of companies fitting the 11 high-tech categories noted in the study has reached 1,600, generating between $12 billion and $15 billion a year for the state's economy.

"In just the past three years, the number of high-tech companies has grown by more than 60 percent," says Charles Paparelli, president of the software firm BT Group and chairman of this year's Georgia High-Tech Month, an annual October effort to boost technology-based business in the state (see story, page 30). "Of the top 50 international electronic companies, 45 have a business presence in Georgia and 15 have manufacturing operations."

Metropolitan Atlanta owns the lion's share of Georgia's high-tech industry, and the city has

Ml 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

29

become widely known as a telecommunications center. Located at the confluence of 29 fiber optics pathways, the metro area is "more of a communications capital than New York City," Paparelli says. That latter fact, it turns out, owes much to geography.

The South's new age of information technology started with WWII research at Tech, snowballed in the '50s and '60s and, by the '80s, had taken "a new turn."

From Terminus to Tech

D

uring the early 19th century, America's railroads sought routes for the nation's westward expansion that were clear of the mountainous obstacles between the Midwest and the Eastern Coast. They found one such site in the lands that had been deeded to Georgia by the Creek Indians in the 1820s.

The first link to what came to be known as Terminus was completed in 1837; by the time war broke out between the states, the city was at the heart of so extensive a rail network as to be considered a primary target for Northern generals.

Despite the fact that many of the area's rails ended up as "Sherman's bow ties"— wrapped around trees to make them useless to Confederate troops—Atlanta emerged from Reconstruction as the South's premier transportation hub. In time, the railroad rights-ofway came to serve another function.

"When fiber started getting laid to develop

17

IBM's Tom Smith, IM 70, finds "there is an opportunity to do technological manufacturing and functional jobs in engineering-based companies where an engineering background is important."

30

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

the communications infrastaicture in I heUnited States, they followed railroad beds because that was the best way to get right-ofway to crisscross the country and not have to worry about dealing with more than one entity, i.e. the railroad company," says J. Lawrence Bradner, IE 74, president of B&TA. "As a result, our heritage of being a Terminus has carried on into the fiber and the communications world, and it has allowed us to have one of the most significant fiber communications infrastructures of any major city in the country."

Decades before the onset of advanced communications, the railroads were bringing much more to the area: Northern machinery for updating textile, agriculture and other native industries. Southern leaders, painfully aware of the region's economic inadequacies, wanted more than machines, though. They sought the technical knowledge to compete with Northern industry, rather than reiving on it. Within this revolutionary environment.

Georgia Tech was created and nurtured, made ready to assume a leadership role in the next revolution, the Information Age.

Dawn of a New Era

T

'hrough the first half of the 20th century, the South was eagerly industrialized. But it remained to a large extent a source of cheap labor for external interests. A new age began to dawn on the newly christened Sunbelt, though, as technological innovations and the first stirrings of globalization sent the I ;nited States toddling toward a new economic order.

"To the extent that it has been driven by electronics, some of that really starts during World War II with electronics research as a derivative of military research at Georgia Tech," says Robert C. McMath Jr., director of the school of History, Technology and Society and co-author of Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885-1985. "It starts there, and then in the '60s, there is the development of what is now the College of Computing.

"In the '50s and '60s, you see the beginnings of that, and it obviously has snow balled since. And then, with a lot of spin-off software activities, particularly by the late 70s and '80s, it took a new turn."

In looking for a particular event that heralded a new era for Georgia and Georgia Tech. most long-term observers point to a

group of researchers who were escorted off campus in 1952 and into private life as Scientific Associates, later to be called ScientificAtlanta.

"It's probably the first significant corporation that grew out of Georgia Tech," McMath says. "We like to claim it as a spin-off, although if you go back and look, we actually kicked the people out of Tech who started that up. made them choose between having a business and being at Tech. However it happened, that's the first example of a large, successful firm that grew out of the Institute's technology environment."

First There Was Scientific-Atlanta mong that group of seven Tech engineers .was Glen P. Robinson Jr., Phys '48, MS Phys '50. who would remain at ScientificAtlanta as president and chairman for 27 years.

"The idea was to manufacture some of the developments at Georgia Tech that were suitable for the commercial market and not appropriate for a university," Robinson says.

"We started developing antennas and antenna-test equipment because of the experience of the group that formed the company and the antenna design. There were seven, but 1 was the only one who took on a full-

time job. The others were just part-time, or they all left within a year or two."

Scientific-Atlanta established an international reputation within three years and became a leader in the field of antennas and antenna-test equipment. Then company engineers discovered that some of their lower frequency antennas could pick up television signals from hundreds of miles away.

"So we got into the cable business back in the very early days," Robinson says. "As the cable industry grew, we kept adding to our product line, making cable receivers to pick up from a long distance. Then we started making the table-top converters for TV sets that descramble or interface between the cable and the homeowner's TV set."

Meanwhile, Scientific-Atlanta was also developing satellite antennas for NASA and military applications, setting the stage for another commercial development. "We were tracking satellites, and we saw that satellites were really going to open the door for television transmission. We started tying that in with cable systems. For example, one of the first satellite systems we sold was to Ted Turner, which allowed him to broadcast Channel 17 around the country to other cable systems. He was a pioneer in using our equipment to broaden his coverage."

By the time Robinson left the company in Continued on page

Glen Robinson, one of the founders of Scientific-Atlanta, helped usher in Georgia's high-tech information era.

After 27 years as chairman and CEO at Atlanta's communications technology giant, Robinson has moved on to other ventures; his latest is making laser speed guns for police.

33

Fall 1995 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA TECH

31

High-Tech Month Georgia has a 'hot date' in October

T

he lapel button that Charles I'aparelli wears says a lot without saying vers much: "Looking for a hot date in t Ictober?" what's hot is high tech, a loose term for those seductive industriesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;-computers, telecommunications and the likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that have so

enamored themselves to Georgia's economic elite.

The idea behind High-Tech Month is to make people aware of the tremendous contribution that technology makes to the economy of Georgia.

32

Mm it wasn't love at first byte; pro-technology suitors have been wooing high-tech companies and entrepreneurs for years.

This October marks the loth annivcrsari ol High-Tech Month in Georgia, an effort to boost the states technological industry base that started as little more than a daylong press con ference and mushroomed into a month ol eel cbration involving thousands of people and dozens of events.

"The idea behind High Tech Month is to make people aware of the tremendous contribution that technology makes to the economy of Georgia," saws i'aparelli, president of the software firm BT Croup and this war's chairman of Georgia High Tech Month. "Obviously, we hope this awareness translates into mote technology companies doing business hen'."

Georgia already compares well with other high-tech meccas, such as North Carolina's Research Triangle and Silicon Valley in California. That fact owes much to both High-Tech Month and Georgia Tech, a major sponsor of the menu During the '80s, Georgia's business technology base amounted to just a handful of home grown companies and corporate branches, but according to a Georgia Tech study commissioned by the business and Tech nology Alliance (B&TA), an allied group of companies dedicated to boosting the stair's high tech stork, recent growth in the industry has been phenomenal.

Today, there arc at least l.hot) Georgia companies fitting the 11 categories of high tech enterprise, up more than 60 percent in just the past three years, They employ more than l 10,000 people and generate some Sis billion for the state's economy. And the Atlanta area enjoys a partially serendipitous reputation as a telecommunications denter: The high-capacity

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1995

fiber optics cables thai make many advanced telecommunications applications possible ended up following the path of least resistance, the railroad rights of way that gave birth to the city in the early and middle 19th century.

"We have the second largest installations and investments for AT&T, MCI and Sprint in the country," I'aparelli says. "When you < otnbine the communications contributions with more than (>()() software establishments around llti' state, we're wail on our way to be. i Hinng a software communications capital."

Despite the good fortune of being a communications hub. that category makes up only 11 percent of Georgia's technology basis Computer software, peripheral and component firms take the lion's share with .At percent. All this growth owes much lo economic development at Tech through the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and other Institute organizations, Making that contribution known is an important factor in Georgia lech's extensive involvement in High Tech Month.

"This is an opportunity lot Tech to make its services and its research more broadly known, understood anil supported," says Thomas K. 1 lamall, lech's director of I miversity Partnerships, "Within the business and Technology Alliance, you'll find that a very significant number of those businesses were created, formed oi managed by Tech graduates.

"Also, it provides us with an opportunity to make services like our Advanced Technology Development Center better known, ami the program of the management and admitiistration of technology out oft hi' [van Allen College."

Tech's diverse participation in High Tech Month includes an essay contest for midilleand high-school science students cosponsored

by B&TA, the d.ioo member Georgia Science Teachers Association and SciTrek, The aim of the contest is to "build a pipeline by encouraging students to Investigate tin' importance of technology in their lives and possible technological education and career choices.

"They're taking a look at [technological career tracks] based on where that field might be at thi' point when they might be entering, n IS

High Tech Month Chairman Charles Paparclli. years > mi " I lamall says, "So I ligh Te< h Month is a two way street, It's a way of our positioning what it is we do and how it is that we support high-tech industry in Georgia, as well as an opportunity to stimulate and encourage young people to consider and to enter careers in technology and the sciences.''

Georgia Tech has a historical connection with I ligh-Tech Month as well. B&TA emerged from an organization called the Advanced Technology Development institute, an offshoot of the ATDC. which was created by peopk' like Howard Morrison ol NationsBank and I lerdov. (iecage Busbee.

"They recognized the need to build a network among the high-tech industries in Georgia an i to use that network as a mechanism for better informing the public inside and outside oI Georgia about the future of high technology in the stale.'' I lamall saws, adding that the story doesn't end here. "If we don't work the entire spectrum—not only with existing industries, but also with potential new industry as we're doing with ATDC—and with the small industries that are no longer incubating but which need help and nurturing- like we're doing through the Economic Development Institute and its IS field offices how are we going to compete in a global economy in the year 2010?

"The next five to seven years, the next is to in \ears, the leaps are going to be quantum. It is hard to predict. < )ne thing we know is whether that growth rate is SO percent or 100 percent', Georgia Tech is going to be a key lac tor in it." —Hoyt Coffee

1979 to found a new 'state-of-the-art air conditioning and water-heating firm, ScientificAtlanta was doing about $200 million in sales and had spun off a number of other high-tech operations. Robinson's new firm came to be called Crispaire, and he remains chairman and principal stockholder. Meanwhile, he has , started yet another company, Lasercraft, arid manufactures laser speed-guns for use by police departments and highrway patrols.

Bradner, now chief executive officer at Telecorp Systems, a Marietta, Ga., firm that processes one out of every three cable television orders in the United States, worked for Scientific-Atlanta during the late 70s. After working in the Northeast and earning an MBA at Harvard, he returned to Scientific-Atlanta.

"By then, they had really developed their communications business. Now it's a billiondollar company. I was with them through about five years ago, and when I left, the communications division was six times as big as the rest of the company," Bradner says.

Bradner compares Scientific-Atlanta's contribution to Georgia's high-tech industry base to that of Fairchild Semiconductor, "the parent company for most all of the technology startups in Silicon Valley. To a certain extent, the lineage here goes back to Scientific-Atlanta.

"Electromagnetic Sciences is probably the second largest technology-based company, and it was an outgrowth of Scientific-Atlanta.

Then you look around the community and you keep running into Scientific-Atlanta expatriates all around doing things, either start-ups or middle- or senior-level managers who were recruited to come to work for companies and help grow their businesses."

ScientificAtlanta has been the parent for many of the high-tech companies that have been started in the state.

A Place in the Country

A

nother significant outgrowth of Georgia Tech that contributed to the state's technology base was the product of another group of Institute engineers led by Paul A. Duke, who founded Technology Park on the northern fringe of Atlanta's suburbs in 1968.

"The whole idea of Technology Park was to create high-technology jobs for the alumni and for the state of Georgia," says Duke, ME '45. "The first president we had at Technology Park was the president of the Research Triangle. We stole him. And then we brought in [Charles R.] Charlie Brown later as sales manager, and he's the one who made such a

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

33

L

Technology historian Bob McMath of Georgia Tech says Scientific-Atlanta is "the first example of a large, successful firm that grew out of the Institute's technology environment." Others are following its lead.

34

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

success of it." Brown, BC '62, is now president of Technology Park.

One of the drawbacks to creating a hightech business park in the area at that time was the rural nature of the local school system. Duke and the other investors set about restructuring the system, and they were so successful that the county is now the largest supplier of students to Georgia Tech and offers Tech credit for classes taken by highschool seniors.

Technology Park set the benchmark for a wave of corporate-campus developments located in upscale suburbs that could support the high quality of life demanded by hightech entrepreneurs and well-to-do engineers.

Within 20 years the area could boast enough technology-oriented space with state-of-theart amenities to fuel a high-tech boom.

"It has also contributed tremendously to Georgia Tech's foundation funds," Duke says.

"There were 17 Georgia Tech alumni who put $1.7 million of their own money into Technology Park exclusively to help create hightechnology jobs, so they wouldn't have to leave the state to get a job. All of us pledged to give it to our alma mater if it was successful. Now Tech has a $7 million to $8 million endowment from selling stock."

fflgh-Tech Help: The ATDC

D

uring the 1970s, much of the Atlanta area's traditional economic activity—such as real estate—faltered amid national reces-

sion, inflation and upheavals among foreign resource suppliers. Such pressures generated a new mood in favor of high technology similar to the desire to industrialize at the beginning of the century. To that end, state economic-development advocates like Gov. George Busbee began looking for an insight into the success of such places as Silicon Valley, and they found it in the person of Joseph Mayo Pettit, the former Stanford I Iniversity dean who had been president of Georgia Tech since 1972.

Under Pettit, Tech expanded its local and regional economic development activities, which had diminished somewhat in previous years.

"Tech scientists and engineers were involved with federal agencies and that sort of thing, and we probably got a little bit away from the regional and local activities," McMath says. "By the '70s and '80s, there was a reawakening of the original mission of looking at state economic development. This refocusing on state and regional technology has been building up over the last 20 years or so.

"You can see a clear influence of Pettit and, behind him, Fred Terman at Stanford with the Silicon Valley model. Someone like Pettit comes along just at the right time. And his hook clearly would be electronic and information-based activities. That's what he had done at Stanford."

A key to translating Institute research into enterprise is developing partnerships between scientists and businessmen. At the genesis of many such organizations as B&TA in Georgia are the Advanced Technology Development Centers, the high-tech incubators on the Tech campus and in Warner Robins, Ga. In fact, B&TA began as the Advanced Technology Development Institute. Through the efforts of ATDC and its affiliated groups, Georgia's high-tech industry benefited from an infusion of venture capital and old-fashioned business savvy.

"There wasn't much understanding of what 'high tech' was—as something you recruited or something you grew back in the '80s," says Wayne Hodges, director of ATDC and the Economic Development Institute.

"In fact, the ATDC did several workshops with both economic development groups and others in the community. It was kind of an education process as to what high tech was, how important it was and what that

brought to the community.

"When ATDC started, there were not a lot of groups that were providing support to start-up companies. You didn't get the consultants and others who were doing that. Now there's a whole range of consultant activities and support for entrepreneurs."

Once the technology seed was planted in the state and local economy, something that Parker 11. Petit calls "technology momentum" took over. When companies such as Scientific-Atlanta became successful and support for entrepreneurs was in place, new firms began to spin off as engineers trained in the successful companies left the nest.

"We definitely have a technology momentum going in the city and in the state," says Petit. MP '62, MS EM '64, chairman of Healthdyne. "There's no reason why it shouldn't continue because we've got all the resources here. We've got venture capital nowadays; we've got lots of state focus in this area. The Georgia Research Alliance has been a big help to technology and getting some technology resources, particularly talent, attracted to the state."

The Information Age Arrives

F

ortune smiled on state high-tech development in the mid-'80s with the breakup of AT&T. With a healthy software-development community already in place and a wealth of telecommunications infrastructure, the two essential parts were in place for the creation of Information-Age business in the area.

"The information age is a combination of computing power and communications power," Bradner says. "Atlanta had well-developed communications. Then probably even- technology community around the countiy felt a major boom when the price performance of computers changed dramatically, the hardware changed, and the ability to develop applications software on PC platforms began to emerge. You tended to see lots of small companies springing up."

Today there are more than 700 companies producing computer hardware or software in Georgia. And while Georgia still takes a back seat to Silicon Valley and Boston's Route 128 in terms of computer systems companies like Sun and Apple, the state's potential for producing high-tech solutions for a broad range of industries seems limitless.

"The information age is a combination of computing power and communications power," says Lawrence Bradner, president of B&TA. That put Atlanta at the nexus of the new high-tech era.

"There has been and will continue to be a great deal of technology in the manufacturing business," IBM's Smith says. "The pervasiveness of technology will show up in every single industry. Technology components companies will find little niches, and these components will show up in virtually every business in such magnitude that they will need functional experts within those firms to help manage technology, whether you're an insurance company, a bank or whatever."

Current developments certainly support that assertion. In the ATDC today there are 25 new companies taking root, many involved in multimedia computing, an industry ideallysuited to the computer/telecommunications establishment of metro Atlanta. High-tech start-ups are moving at a brisk pace, especially as firms move to take advantage of both the business and visibility prospects of the 1996 Olympics. Beyond that, Georgia is moving ahead in education with the advent of such things as the lottery-funded Hope Scholarships and computers-for-schools initiative.

At Georgia Tech, research is advancing steadily as scientists seek the edges of technology, and organizations such as the ATDC are set to share that technology with business.

The Information Age has dawned—and in Georgia and at Georgia Tech—it is reaching high noon. •

A key to translating Institute research into enterprise is developing partnerships between scientists and businessmen.

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH 3 5

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Online in Math An electronic journal for mathematicians has a formula for success

By Jack Stewart Illustration by Richard Hicks

What has excited others to found their own journals is not simply the accessibility of papers, but the ability to make each published work a "living document."

innovative electronic journal founded by a Georgia Tech mathematician has made great steps in accelerating the world of academic publishing.

Dr. Neil Calkin, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, started the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics (EIJO in 1994 and is surprised at the success his publication has achieved. Scientific American cites the "enthusiastic backing" ElJC has received from a number of prominent mathematicians.

Unlike its printed counterparts, an electronic journal allows for peer-reviewed articles to be published sooner, commented mm on and revised continually, and is more accessible. r-.

"What's beautiful about publishing / £J online," he says, his British accent filled with enthusiasm, "is that there's no iff ""• physical location that limits you. It's free and can be accessed by anyone with access to the Internet and the World Wide Web. This means that not only will academic colleagues with good libraries have a chance to read the

38

A"

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

most current material, but a high school student in Nebraska will be able to get to it as easily as a graduate student at Columbia."

Given the price of subscriptions and budget cutbacks, many libraries today are concerned about accessibility. There are some 1,100 scholarly journals published worldwide; almost 50,000 papers are published each year in mathematics alone.

"Most mathematical journals are available at only 1,000 research libraries around theworld," says Andrew M. Odlyzco, a researcher at AT&T. "Even for the scholars at these institutions, access to journals requires a physical trip, often to another building, and is restricted to certain hours."

OdIyzx'O thinks the evolution of the electronic journal will change all this, saying it is "already possible to store all the current mathematical publications at an annual cost much less than that of the subscription to a single [print] journal."

Calkin points out that, with ElJC, accessibility is accomplished without sacrificing the integrity of the peer-review process.

"Typically, the time between acceptance and publication is a bottleneck that, in mathematics, takes a couple of years," Calkin says.

"The time now is two to three months. We want the refereeing to be done in a timely fashion, but we still demand that the referees be as thorough as possible."

In just over a year, Calkin's work has made quite an impact. Dr. Ronald Graham, former president of the American Mathematical Society and a researcher for AT&T, calls Calkin a "pioneer." Dr. Douglas Gies, an astronomer at Georgia State University, acknowledges his debt to Calkin in his Be Star Newsletter.

Response to ElJC has been a bit overwhelming. Calkin mentions the old academicjoke that only three people ever read anygiven article—the author and the two referees. With ElJC, however, papers are being

ii

downloaded at a rate of almost 1,500 per month.

"When we first gathered these statistics, we were astounded," Calkin says. "It's very exciting being a part of something that has helped create stronger links between colleagues across the country. The dialogue that now takes place is different from what it was only a few years ago, and the dynamics of the discussion, the ways in which we approach the material, are fundamentally different."

Dr. Tom Morley, a colleague of Calkin's in Tech's mathematics department, agrees. "[ElJC] has become more or less the standard for electronic journals."

At conferences, Calkin now is frequently recognized and approached. "People in other areas are often interested in how to start jour- rity and rigorous standards the journal emnals in their fields," he says. ploys. ElJCs editorial board is star-studded What has prompted others to found their with the likes of Graham, Odlyzko, Yale own journals is not simply the accessibility of scholar Laszlo Lovasz and others hailing from papers, but the ability to make each pubBerkeley, the University of Chicago, Bell Labs lished work a "living document," as Odlyzko and, internationally, from countries such as calls it.

Israel, England, France, Australia and Hungary.

"Without changing the paper itself," Calkin "Journals distinguish themselves largely on says, "we attach a comments area in which the quality of their papers and the composiinformation pertaining to the paper can be tion of their editorial boards," Calkin says. placed and made available. We achieve a Still, there is no denying that a certain status balance, a dichotomy, between the paper as has been accorded to ElJC and, by extension, an immutable document and as a living piece to Georgia Tech. of work that reflects what's going on."

"Every time people access the journal, they Following Calkin's lead, scholars are startsee Tech is mentioned," Calkin says. "It brings ing up their own electronic journals in fields visibility to the department and the Institute." as varied as physics, chemistry and literature.

He. adds with a shy smile, "It's certainly someIn fact, there now are quite a few poetry thing we don't discourage." • magazines online. ElJC is one of the most visible journals available; one scholar says Jack Stewart is a poet and freelance writer that, among mathematicians, it is "about as who lives in Atlanta. He received his Ph.D. well known as ESPN." from Emory University while working as a Brittain Fellow at Georgia Tech.

Calkin is serious about the quality, integ-

Dr. Neil Calkin's pioneering work on an online electronic journal has set a standard for rapid reporting and peer exchange in mathematics research*— and brought recognition "we don't discourage" to Tech.

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

39

First Impressions

By John Dunn

B

ill Stanley met Ivenue Love the first day she came to the Georgia Tech campus.

They have been a team ever since.

They dated for six-anda-half years before they married in 1978, during which time they worked for the same architectural firm. He was a job captain, and she was an intern architect.

But first things first.

William J. "Bill" Stanley III became Georgia Tech's first African-American architecture graduate in 1972, and Ivenue LoveStanley, who had already earned a mathematics degree from Millsaps College, became Tech's first female , African-American architecture graduate in 1977.

He was the youngest African-American to become registered in the South, and she was the first African-American woman in Georgia to do so. After she became registered in 1983, they formed Stanley, Love-Stanley.

Since then, they've been building marriage and monuments together., "We spend 23-and-a-half hours a day around each other, so you might think we'd split and go our separate ways at the first opportunity on Saturday or Sunday," Stanley suggests.

40

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1995

"That's not the case. We spend a lot of time around each other on weekends, shopping, going to the movies and playing."

"We love what we do, and I think that passion helps," she agrees. "And we love each other," he says. "We've been married for almost 17 years."

"We have a respect for each other's talents," she adds.

Stanley is responsible for-marketing and is the principal in charge of design; Love-Stanley is the business manager and principal in charge of production.

"We're both very handson in the practice of our firm," she says. "We're actively involved in every job that comes into our office."

One of the most impressive jobs is a $17 million Aquatic Center, located behind the Student Activities Building at Georgia Tech, site of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. The open-air structure, equipped with a diving gpol and competition pool, was designed by Stanley, Love-Stanley in a joint venture with Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates.

The permanent roof of the facility has the curve of a giant airplane hangar; a temporary addition to be

constructed in May will give the roof the sweep of a gentle ocean wave. The roof will be equipped with several thousand photovoltaic solar panels, which will generate 40 percent of the energy needed for the building, saving Georgia Tech $80,000 a year in energy bills.

When it opened for

competition in August, the Aquatic Center was. of course, the first of the downtown Olympic venues to be completed.

Stanley, Love-Stanley is a generalist practice that has been involved in projects for almost every educational institution in Atlanta. Their designs of Southwest YMCA and St.

• Bill Stanley and Ivenue LoveStanley helped design the new Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in a joint venture with Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates.

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Stanley's work has

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earned him the 1995 Whitney M. Young Jr. Citation for "contributing to the economic growth and empowerment of minority communities in Atlanta and the Southeast."

Among the first AfricanAmerican students at Tech, Stanley knew he was "breaking new ground."

As a student at Tech,

Stanley actively supported minority programs and confronted racial prejudice.

He was president of the Georgia Tech Afro-American Association, a member of the advisory cabinet to the president of Georgia Tech, chairman of campus affairs for the American Institute of Architects and a member of the Board of

Regents Student Committee to choose a new president at Tech.

Love-Stanley already had a degree when she came to Tech, and her goals were different. "I had two objectives: one was to get a degree in architecture, and one was to work so I could stay in school."

Both have remained involved with Georgia Tech.

They are also the first husband and wife to serve as trustees of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, although they were not on the board at the same time.

"I don't know how people define their love for Georgia Tech, but I know we have a tremendous amount of respect for Tech—and that respect has kept us involved," LoveStanley says.

"We stress excellence," Stanley says.

"And that comes from the training we had at Tech," Love-Stanley adds.

"It comes from the work ethic Tech instilled in us."

"The work ethic is the main thing," Stanley agrees. "Even now there are nights when we just spend the night working with our projects."

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

41

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Pacesetters

Empowering Engineers ALAN DAVID PHOTO

By Michael Terrazas ega-corporations of the world, look out: if graduating seniors follow the advice of Georgia Tech alum John Lappington, EE '66, there will be a dire shortage of entry-level engineers sometime in the near future.

"One of the worst things you can do after school is go to work for a big company, because you get programmed to just turn the crank." says Lappington, now senior vice president of technology for Antec in Norcross. Ga. "You will become programmed to do a task and not have any sense < >l responsibility. But when y< >u consider yourself an independent professional, you take far more responsibility for every decision you make and evert' action you take."

Lappington speaks from experience. Upon graduating from Tech, he accepted a job with aeronautics giant McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis and finished his master's in night school at the University of Missouri.

In 198 1. Lappington went to Scientific-Atlanta.

"I didn't wake up until 25 years [after graduating], when I bought a small company for ScientificAtlanta and made four engineers millionaires," he says. "1 was broke, even though I had a significant level of responsibility."

M

Convinced entrepreneurship would demand better use for his talents—and higher rewards— than his corporate job, Lappington (center) convinced fellow Tech graduates Eric Berkobin and Cameron Wilson (right) to join him in creating a new company, Electronic System Products.

That's when Lappington decided to strike out on his own.

He knew of a medical software company in need of custom hardware and willing to pay someone to design it, so he convinced fellow electrical engineering Tech grads Eric Berkobin and Cameron Wilson ('80 and '82, respectively) to help him create a design firm.

The result: Electronic System Products (ESP) was

born in January 1989 and has skyrocketed ever since; ESP's sales have doubled each year of the young company's existence.

"That first contract paid our salaries for all of 1989," Lappington says. "With that success, we got more business concentrating on product development for companies that did not have design engineering capability.

"A lot of people attempt to do this, but the thing

that made us successful was that, by starting with a large enough group of individuals, we were able to take larger orders and develop a marketing presence."

Lappington and his partners knew all along that their goal was to build ESP up until it was an attractive purchase for a larger company, and then to sell it.

And that's just what happened—Antec bought ESP in March 1994, though the

Fall 1995 • GEORGIA TECH

43

Pacesetters Lappington left his corporate job for the risks—and promise—of private business. "You really don't make major personal achievements unless you truly have independence." smaller firm remains a separate entity, preserving Lappington's coveted independence. Richard Wunderlich, the fourth founder of ESP, is now president and reports to Lappington's vice president position at Antec.

With a solid financial base, ESP has continued to produce results. The company is hiring roughly 10 engineers each month, and is designing a modem for cable television systems which will allow multiple simultaneous data transmissions. In other words, a user could sign on to the Internet, watch TV and talk on the telephone at the same time, something not possible with traditional phone modem lines.

ESP is even making waves for its new owner, as Lappington is trying his best to change Antec's image as a distributor to that of a product designer.

"We're continuing to develop many products that Antec maintains a proprietary interest in, which shows the industry that Antec has made a commitment to develop its own products, not just resell others'. It's been pretty

44

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

Hip on HIPS well-received."

As might be expected, Lappington lays his former company's success at the altar of individual responsibility. "[ESP's] management philosophy was to empower engineers to consider themselves professionals and treat themselves and the customers similar to the way independent lawyers treat themselves and their clients.

You really don't make major personal achievements unless you truly have independence."

Lappington married his wife, Martha, his senior year at Tech. He has a daughter, Dorothy, who is human resources manager of Antec's Atlanta division, and a son, John Jr., who just graduated from the University of Georgia in economics.

Lappington says his years at Tech provided him with the broad foundation of knowledge he needed to achieve his results. He cites Dr. John Peatman, professor of electrical and computer engineering, as one of his influences.

Lappington calls Peatman's 1972 book, Design of Digital Systems, the "defining'^work on the subject.

"Nowadays, the quality of the engineers at Tech far exceeds anything back in the 1960s," he says. "I think the combination of a bachelor's and master's is crucial to being successful." i

By John Dunn

A

despondent, crippled Baice L Wheeler stood on the deck of his Stone Mountain, Ga., home in 1984 and prepared to make a 14-foot plunge he hoped would end his life.

A rising senior at Georgia Tech, Wheeler suffered a severe head injury in an automobile wreck that not only mangled his body, but crushed his dreams. Instead of pursuing the challenges of corporate America, Wheeler's challenges were learning to talk and walk again—and the darkest prognosis of all: that he might remain a helpless, lifelong invalid.

The wreck had occurred in the brutal 8-degree cold of the early morning hours of Dec. 24, 1983. After a long workday, Wheeler had dropped in on a Christmas party at the home of friends. But he has no memory of the party, or the wreck or much of the year 1984.

He had left to go home around 1 a.m. and was found unconscious around 5:30 a.m. at the spot where his car had left the road and collided with a tree.

Wheeler would have begun his senior year in January with a 3.2 grade point average. He had been president of the Ramblin' Reck Club and treasurer of Sigma Nu Fraternity, and he was an

active member of both ANAK and the Order of Omega, the Greek honor society. A cousin of former Georgia Tech football player and coach Pepper Rodgers, the 6-foot-4 Wheeler enjoyed playing intramural sports.

"I died," Wheeler says.

"The old Bruce died."

But teetering on the edge of the deck, Wheeler says, "I decided to get my life back in gear."

Paralyzed on his right side, confined to a wheelchair and speaking with a slur, Wheeler returned to Georgia Tech in September 1984. In addition to academic studies, Wheeler spent hours in physical therapy and teaching himself to walk with the aid of a cane. At the December 1985 graduation ceremony, Wheeler took his cane, left his wheelchair and walked across the stage to claim his degree in management.

When he suffered his injury, Wheeler says, there was no support group to help him and his family cope, no organization to help provide answers and information, and no one who seemed to understand the pathos of his shattered life.

Since he had gonethrough it himself, Wheeler decided he would be there for others.

In typically upbeat fashion, Wheeler founded a non-profit organization he called HIPs—Head Injured

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Wheeler is a tireless, unabashed, upbeat advocate for those who have suffered head injuries.

Wheeler tells his frequent civic club audiences: "Don't worry about what you can't do; do what you can do."

Bruce Wheeler wears five hats, but the one he's most proud of is HTPs, an organization for head-injured people like himself.

Pals. Its purpose is to provide information and support to individuals who have suffered head injuries and their families. Working at his home computer, Wheeler began compiling a data base of people who suffered head injuries, started a newslettepand began scheduling monthly meetings.

The organization has grown from its first meeting of 14 people to a mailing list of more than 600 people across the country.

46

GEORGIA TECH â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 1995

Approximately 150 people attended this year's annual summertime picnic.

He has organized auctions to raise money to operate HIPs, soliciting autographed items from coaches at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, as well as celebrity athletes and coaches from Atlanta's professional sports teams. He aggressively seeks interesting people and subjects for the monthly HIPs meetings, held on the fourth Tuesday

of each month at Smoke Rise Baptist Church, where Wheeler is a longtime member. His speakers have included coaches, prominent politicians, Miss Americas, medical experts, employment specialists and authors. Dr. Neil Shulman, author of the book (made into a movie) Doc Hollywood, spoke at the August meeting.

Two programs he would like to see started at HIPs are a counseling center and an employment placement center.

Wheeler, 33, wears five hats. In addition to managing HIPs, Wheeler has found four other avenues of employment. Every Wednesday, Wheeler puts in a full day working for the payroll unit at Sears.

He is also an advocate for the Persons with Disabilities Law Center; a representative with Lightek, a Tucker lighting company; and is an independent distributor for Enviro-tech, which manufacturers Dri Wash 'n Guard for automobiles.

"I'm a good salesman,"

Wheeler says. To prove that Dri Wash 'n Guard is a worthy product, Wheeler will quickly demonstrate its effectiveness by throwing dirt on his car and wiping it away.

"My clientele are the people I know, and the people I don't know." he quips. "I've never met a stranger in my life."

Twice a week, on iVIondays and Fridays, he goes to the YMCA to a threehour workout and physical therapy. "I've learned how to do all the ins and outs of physical therapy, so I do it on my own," Wheeler says.

Wheeler is a tireless, unabashed, upbeat advocate for those who have suffered head injuries. Although he has an exaggerated limp because of paralysis on his right side and his speech is sometimes indistinct, Wheeler's mind is sharp and quick. A frequent speaker to civic clubs and organizations, Wheeler's comments are laced with an upbeat message and humor.

"Don't worry about what you can't do; do what you can do," he tells his audience.

"I like doing things that make people know that they are important," Wheeler says. "I appreciate all of the accolades I receive, all the pats on the back, but I am secure with myself. I want to assist someone else." â&#x20AC;˘

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The Official Georgia Tech Alumni Watch A Seiko Quartz Timepiece available for a limited time only.

Featuring a richly detailed three-dimensional re-creation of the Georgia Institute of Technology Seal. finished in 14K gold.

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Telephone toll-free

1-800-523-0124 and request Operator A63TZ.

(Personal'Reservation form Mail orders to: GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION P.O. Box 18430 Memphis, TN 38181-0430 Please accept my order for the following Official Georgia Tech Alumni Watch(es): Qty. Women's Seiko Quartz Watch with Leather Strap (GET-SLS) @ $200* ea.

Men's Seiko Quartz Watch with Leather Strap (GET-SMS) @ $200* ea.

Women's Seiko Quartz Two-Tone Bracelet Watch (GET-SLT) @ $265* ea.

Men's Seiko Quartz Two-Tone Bracelet Watch (GET-SMT) @ $265* ea.

"Plus $7.50 handling and insured shipping charge per watch. On shipments to IL, MN, TN, or TX, please add applicable sales tax to your total order.

Purchaser's Name Street Address_ City

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Daytime Phone ( If "ship to" address is different from above, please attach correct address to order form.

)-

NOTE: If inventory has been exhausted by the time your order is placed, you will be notified by telephone. Your earliest consideration is urged.

Please allow 2 to 4 weeks for delivery.

I prefer t o pay a s follows: C_7J ENCLOSED IS MY INITIAL INSTALLMENT of $28 57 for each strap watch and $37.85 for each two-tone watch, payable by check or credit card (information provided below), plus a shipping and handling charge of $7.50 per watch.

I agree to pay the balance due in 6 monthly installments of $28 57 for each strap watch and $37.85 for each two-tone w a t c h . " (On shipments to IL, MN, TN, or TX, please add applicable sales tax to your total order.)

CZl

IN FULL BY CHECK. Enclosed please find my check or money order for the full amount due, made payable to "Official Georgia Tech Alumni Watch."

C7J IN FULL BY CREDIT CARD. Following shipment of my watch(es), please charge the full amount due to my credit card as indicated below.

Credit Card Information: r~\

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A|

â&#x20AC;˘

\m Expiration Date:

Full Account Number: Mo.

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Signature: " A l l orders are subject to acceptance. There is no finance charge on the monthly payment plan. The amount of payments (total sales price) is equal to the single payment price. If purchaser fails to pay any portion of the total payments scheduled, the entire balance shall become due immediately at the election of the watch distributor, Wayneco Enterprises.

Operator No. A63TZ

R Armor for Industry /i

By John Toon

A

material process originally developed L at Georgia Tech for armoring battle tanks has a future in the civilian market, cutting the costs of manufacturing machine parts and other tool-anddie type products.

Using a patented highenergy chemical reaction process. Georgia-based Advanced Engineered Materials (AEM) has begun production of high-performance titanium-diboride materials, which can replace the hardened steel, diamond and tungsten carbide used in tools by companies producing metal components.

"These companies have tremendous costs in replacement parts," says Dr. Kathryn V. Logan, CerE 70, MS CerE '80, Ph.D. '92, associate director of Georgia Tech's School of Materials Science & Engineering and an AEM consultant.

"We can provide them with a material that will allow them to buy significantly fewer parts per year, compared to hundreds or thousands with the materials they are using now."

AEM, located in Woodstock, Ga., has licensed a self-propagating, high-temperature synthesis (SHS) process for manufacturing high-purity titanium diboride (TiB2) and titanium

diboride-alumina composite (TiB2-Al203).

SHS was developed by researchers at Tech and assigned to the Georgia Tech Research Corp., which has licensed it to AEM. Also known as combustion synthesis, the thermite-reaction process resembles the chemical reaction that creates brilliant fireworks displays.

"Compared to conventionally produced titanium diboride, the SHS technique allows the composite to be produced in final form within molds," Logan says. "Those differences mean lower costs for manufacturing final products."

Titanium diboride and

titanium diboride-alumina offer a number of attractive properties, including electrical conductivity, high compressive and mechanical strength, resistance to chemical reactions and the ability to withstand high temperatures.

"These materials are superior in a variety of ways to metals and other advanced materials," says John R. Winters, AEM president and chief executive officer. "The balance of properties works well in applications where molten metals or metal extrusions are involved. We are positioned to compete in these and other materials application markets."

Fall 1995 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA TECH

49

Research

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Smart Sounds

I

f Georgia Tech doctoral student Steven Griffin has anything to say about it, music fans around the world may someday hear sweet strummings from guitars smarter than the musicians playing them.

Griffin and some fellow engineers are working on "smart structures" for inexpensive acoustic guitars to create sound as rich as that produced by instruments costing thousands of dollars. The smart structures —material systems with the inherent ability to change their mechanical properties—would also provide a better method for customizing guitars and tuning them for different performance halls.

After studying exactly how sound is produced in a guitar, Griffin discovered that by putting electronic controllers, sensors and actuators in cheap guitars to control certain vibrational modes, he could artificially reduce the level of vibration absorption, or damping/Less damping resulted in richer, fuller sound, as in a fine instrument.

"Making very high-quality guitars is a black art," Griffin says. "It is spniething that people have been doing over generations, but even they may not understand why it works."

In high-quality, custommade guitars, master in-

52

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

strument makers control the amount of damping by painstakingly reinforcing and shaving down the guitar's wooden components in a technique developed over generations.

"My feeling is that guitar makers will welcome this because it will help them understand what they are doing and help them make better guitars," says Dr. Satya Hanagud, professor of aerospace engineering at Tech. "And we would like to extend this to other acoustic instruments, such as the violin and cello."

Though they have demonstrated the principle of using the smart structures to control acoustics in musical instruments, Hanagud and Griffin say they have a long way to go before musicians will get their fingers on the strings of a smart guitar. The next step will be to improve the stability of the electronic controller, which Griffin built for approximately $20. The control scheme must also be fine tuned to allow precise control by musicians.

Vibration in the upper plate of the guitar produces most of the sound, and the plate's second vibrational mode, which has an antisymmetric wave pattern, is important to tonal quality. The amount of damping built into an instrument's internal structure determines the role played by this second vibrational rhode in generat-

Graduate student Steven Griffin and Dr. Satya Hanagud check the acoustics of guitars made with "smart structures."

ing a guitar's sound.

"It turns out that in the good guitars, the second mode doesn't have much damping," he explained.

"We realized that if we could reduce the damping in a bad guitar, we could perhaps make it sound like a good guitar."

By knowing which mode to control, Griffin used his model of guitar acoustics to develop a smart structure system that would duplicate the amount of damping built into expensive guitars. Using a sensor, a simple electronic controller and a small piece of piezoelectric actuator, he tested a prototype control system on a crude, single-string cookietin guitar.

Griffin then developed a full-fledged control system for a $200 guitar. Flipping

a switch on the "smart guitar" now sends a small electrical current into the piezoelectric actuator material, causing it to modify the plate's vibrations. That small piece of material on one edge of the guitar's upper plate noticeably improves the sound of the chords Griffin plays.

"We are trying to enrich the acoustic properties of the guitar by changing the frequency response," Hanagud says. "We would like to extend what we have learned to other instruments and ultimately use this technology to solve some very important military aerospace engineering problems."

Griffin has sought patent protection for the technique through Georgia Tech's Office of Technology Licensing. •

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Profile Flying Higher, Faster, Smarter

By Lisa Crowe

B

ob Loewy loves planes. "Aircraft have always been beautiful to me," he says. "I like their challenge and knowing how useful they are.

There's satisfaction in designing, building and, for me, just looking at them."

Dr. Robert G. Loewy, director of Georgia Tech's School of Aerospace Engineering, has devoted his career to making aircraft fly higher, farther, faster—and, recently, "more affordable."

The 69-year-old Loewy's aerospace engineering specialties are known as "aeroelasticity and structural dynamics." He and his fellow aeroelasticians and structural dynamicists try to ensure stability in the way aerodynamic forces on wings and tails and their structural deformations are related. One evidence of stability is that vibrations, such as caused by gusts, will die down rather than grow each time an aircraft in flight is "hit" by a gust.

"When vibrations build

The Loewy File Born: Philadelphia, Pa.. 1926.

Education: Master's in aeronautical engineering.

Mil. L948; Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, 1962.

Personal: He and his wile have three grown children: Esther Elizabeth (Liz), an assistant district attorney in Manhattan; Joanne, a music therapist who works with emotionally disturbed and terminally ill children; and Raymond, a pianist ami composer of commercial jingles in New York City.

Achievements: Awarded NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal, I9S.S; Awarded the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service by the U.S. Air force. loss, 1975 and 1966; Honorary fellow.

American institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 1993; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1981; Winner of the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, 1958; chairman of NASA's Aeronautics Group. PGP 84, the FAA Tec him al Advisory Panel, 1974-75, and the Air Force Aeronautical System Division Advisory

Group, 1979-84; chairman, U.S. Ah Force Scientific \dv isorv Hoard. 1971-74.

Leisure Interests: J a//, piano and tennis. t

54

GEORGIA TECH • Fall 1995

up due to oscillating aerodynamic forces, the phenomenon is known as 'flutter,'" Loewy says. "This describes a vibration that is unstable. As aircraft fly faster and their structures get lighter, the likelihood of encountering flutter increases. In the past, wings have come off and passengers have been killed because of flutter—that's what we work to prevent."

Aerospace engineers must be the "premier integrators," Loewy says. "We, more than anyone else, need to know how to optimize systems in ways that find a proper balance among the many different needs of the user.

"Aeroelasticity involves both aerodynamics and structural deflection under loads. In addition to aerodynamics, engineers have to know about engines and other propulsion systems, structural analysis and design, dynamics, control theory and, among other disciplines, something about human factors, because there's usually a pilot up front.

"I tell students that in the automotive industry, if the car's structure is a little stronger and therefore a little heavier than it has to be, the acceleration or mileage won't be quite as good," Loewy says. "But it still may be a good-looking car; at the right price

people may like it. and it may sell. But if an airplane is a little stronger than it needs to be and weighs a little too much, it may not be able to get off the ground. An airplane that can't get off the ground is not very useful."

Loewy is working on the application of "smart" materials to the design of aircraft control surfaces in an effort to reduce controlpower requirements.

"Smart materials are limited in how much they can change their size and shape without failing, but they promise to simplify aircraft control systems," Loewy says. "I'm dying to figure out how to use the small deflections typical of smart materials to generate the big deflections needed for vehicle control."

L

oewy never doubted his career path. The son of a Philadelphia furrier, he started drawing airplanes when he was eight and began putting models together soon after. He has specialized in helicopters and rotary-wing aircraft, but also has worked on a wide range of aerospace craft, including space launch vehicles and satellites.

"Aerospace engineering is not easy," he says. "You have to know mathematics and physics, and a good knowledge of spatial relationships is helpful. What's

PHOTO BY GARY MEEK

Dr. Robert Loewy: With continual defense needs and a growing civil market, aerospace challenges a new generation of engineers. more, in a field that continues to develop so quickly, you have to be willing to continue to learn your whole life. But that's what makes it fascinating."

Loewy encourages students interested in aerospace engineering not to be overly influenced by the cyclical nature of the industry, which historically has been driven by Defense Department needs.

"If you have lived long enough and paid attention, you see that national needs for defensive systems fluctuate over the years," says Loewy. "But it is always important to have the technology in hand to defend our nation's interests.

"There were only 21 years between World War I and World War II, and then there was the Cold War,"

he says. "When the United States was the only nation with the bomb, we thought we didn't need anything else but the means to deliver it. Then Russia got the bomb." The Korean War followed.

"Now we are in another defense decline because it seems our defense needs are minimal," he says. "I hope they stay that way, but history says otherwise."

P

erhaps more important for the aerospace industry are signs that its burgeoning civil side is becoming the major market for aerospace systems, bolstering opportunities for engineers and providing stability to the industry.

"We are an international society," says Loewy.

"Tourism is probably now

the world's largest business, and developing countries are requiring more and more transportation links with the world.

The argument is not whether there is a big business for commercial jettransport aircraft over the next 15 to 20 years; the argument is whether it's hundreds of billions of dollars or a trillion.

"Space also is becoming increasingly commercialized," he says. "Non-government companies like Orbital Sciences are playing an ever more important role in space launches in the United States, competing with nationalized activities in Europe and Asia.

For these reasons, [aerospace] students really shouldn't be unduly influenced by the job market at

any one point in time. If they really like the field, there will be jobs."

After 47 years in aerospace, Loewy has no plans for retirement. "As long as I am able to contribute, I will," he says. "It's a rare privilege to have been asked to be the director of this school and to work with the outstanding faculty, staff and students who make Tech's aerospace engineering the state and national asset it is.

"I would like to help this school move strongly along the path that, within a reasonable time, will have everyone realizing that aerospace engineering at Tech is No. 1 in the world." â&#x20AC;˘ Lisa Crowe is an Atlantabased free-lance writer.

Fall 1995 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA TECH

55

Delta Air Lines.

The Official Airline rffii of the 1996 999 Olympic Games. lfiD

Atlanta19%

During the Centennial Olympic Games, many visitors' first impression of Atlanta will actually be made 35,000 feet above it. Onboard Delta Air Lines.

To make sure that impression's a good one, we'll

We're BringingThe WorldTo Atlanta. ^

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offer each visitor the kind of care and attention you've come to expect whenever you fly with us. Which will give them a taste of the Southern Hospitality they'll receive from everyone in our hometown.

So while we're bringing the world to Atlanta, we'll also be bringing part of Atlanta to the world.

A.Delta Air Line Delta Air Lines, Inc.

You'll love the way we fly™

Georgia Tech Grandfather Clock W e take great pride in offering the Georgia Tech Grandfather Clock. This beautifully designed commemorative clock symbolizes the image of excellence, tradition, and history we have established at Georgia

Tech.

Recognized the world over for expert craftsmanship, the master clockmakers of Ridgeway have created this extraordinary clock.

Special attention is given to the brass lyre pendulum which depicts the Official University Seal in deeply etched bas relief; a striking enhancement to an already magnificent clock. Indeed, Uh\ the clock makes a classic statement of quality about the owner.

Each cabinet is handmade of the finest hardwoods and veneers in a process that requires over 700 separate steps and the towering clock measures an imposing 83"H x 23"W x 13"D. Finished in brilliant Windsor Cherry, the clock is also enriched with one of the most advanced West German timing mechanisms. Exceptionally accurate, such movements are found only in the world's finest clocks.

Enchanting Westminster chimes peal every quarter hour and gong on the hour.

If you prefer, the clock will operate in a silent mode with equal accuracy.

Beveled glass in the locking pendulum door and the glass dial door and sides add to the clock's timeless and handsome design.

You are invited to take advantage of a convenient monthly payment plan with no downpayment or finance charges.

Reservations may be placed by using the order form. Credit card orders may be placed by dialing toll free 1-800-346-2884. The original issue price is $899.00. Include $82.00 for insured shipping and freight charges.

Satisfaction is guaranteed or you may return your clock within fifteen days for exchange or refund. Whether selected for your personal use or as an expressive, distinctive gift, the Georgia Tech Grandfather Clock is certain to become an heirloom, cherished for generations.

Please accept my order for .Georgia Tech Grandfather Clock(s) @ $899.00 each.

(Quantity) (Include $82.00 per clock for insured shipping and freight charges).

I wish to pay for my clock(s) as follows: ED By a single remittance of $ made payable to "Sirrica, LTD.", which I enclose.

I I By charging the full amount of $_

_to my credit card indicated below.

ED By charging my credit card monthly @ $89.90 for a period of ten (10) months.

Freight charges will be added to the first payment. I understand there is no downpayment and no finance charges, i—i M M I—1 ' J M C I—I

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Mail orders to: Georgia Tech Clock, % P.O. Box 3345, Wilson, NC 27895.

Purchaser's Name: Address: City, State, Zip: Credit Card purchasers may call toll free 1-800-346-2884.

All callers should request Operator 742GT. NOTE: All orders telephoned or postmarked prior to December 5 will be guaranteed Christmas delivery. Installment orders subject to credit approval.

Symbolizing a tradition of excellence.

83" H x 23" W x 13" D

L

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage

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A L U M N I ^ M AG AZ I NE Georgia Tech Alumni Association Atlanta, GA 30332-0175

Senaiobiu. MS Peinii! \ o . 63

The Official Georgia Tech Lamp A classic solid brass and solid marble table lamp. Featuring a richly detailed recreation of the Official University Seal in gold on a black parchment shade. Hand polished and hand assembled of the finest solid brass and solid marble.

You can also have your lamp personalized with an engraved brass plate affixed to the marble base. Similar lamps retail for twice our original issue price of $159.00.

Of course, you must be completely satisfied with the quality of your lamp or you may return it within fifteen days for exchange or refund. The Official Georgia Tech Lamp is certain to be a useful and treasured possession for years to come.

Issue price: $159.00 plus $8.00 for shipping and handling.

Include $20.00 for personalization.

Symbolizing a tradition of excellence for the home or office.

Solid Marble; Ht. 22"; Wt. 8 lbs.; Solid Brass NOTE: All orders received prior to December 10 will be guaranteed Christmas delivery.

To order by America Express, MasterCard, or Visa, please call toll free 1-800-346-2884. All callers should request Operator 711GT. Calls are accepted weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (eastern time). To order by mail, write to: Sirrica, LTD., P.O. Box 3345, Wilson, NC 27893 and include check or money order made payable to Sirrica, LTD. Credit card orders may also be sent by mail - please include full account number and expiration date.