Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Vol. 95 No. 4, Winter 2019 by Georgia Tech Alumni Association

“We have had a blessed life thanks to the education we received at Tech, and we want to pay it forward so others can have the same opportunity.” —Laura S. Huffman, EE 1979, M.S. EE 1981, and David C. Huffman, EE 1980 Laura and Dave Huffman’s professional and personal lives were influenced heavily by the Institute. They both earned electrical engineer-

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,” Dave said. After graduating, Laura worked as director of product manage-

ing degrees from Georgia Tech, where Laura also earned a master’s

ment at Lucent for several years before earning her J.D. from Emory

degree in the discipline. Dave, enrolled in a five-year, dual-degree

University School of Law in 2008. Currently, she is a senior attorney

program, completed both an electrical engineering degree from Tech

with King & Spalding specializing in intellectual property. Dave was

and a physics degree from Georgetown College in Kentucky in 1980.

chief scientist with L3 Technologies Inc. until his retirement in 2010.

Georgia Tech is where Centerville, Ohio, native Laura met Dave,

He currently serves as president of the Peachtree Corners

who hails from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. “Dave came to Tech for his

Festival and works with World Relief to help refugees adjust to their

last two years,” Laura said. “We never had any classes together, but I

new lives in the United States. Although she is still working, Laura

was a little sister in his fraternity.”

finds time to volunteer with Georgia IP Alliance, “making Georgia

Although their hobbies are different — Laura enjoys running, reading, and music, while Dave follows Atlanta Braves Baseball, Georgia

No. 1 in the world for intellectual property,” she said. Another generation of Huffmans has also found an educational

Tech sports of all varieties, and enjoys volunteering — they found

home at the Institute. Their son, Matthew D. Huffman, NE 2019, was

enough common ground to build a life together.

“a proud four-year member of the Yellow Jacket Marching Band who

“We have had a blessed life thanks to the education we received at Tech, and we want to pay it forward so others can have the same opportunity,” Laura said. Laura and Dave have established a generous estate provision to benefit the Institute. “We hope to support amazing students in the

will begin graduate school at Tech in January 2020,” Laura said. The combination of Matthew’s graduation, Dave’s retirement, and a big reunion year influenced the Huffmans’ decision to establish the estate provision. “This is our 40th reunion, and it was time to step up and increase our commitment to Tech,” Dave said.

Founders’ Council is the honorary society recognizing donors who have made estate or life-income gifts of $25,000 or more for the support of Georgia Tech. For more information, please contact: 404.894.4678 • giftplanning@dev.gatech.edu • plannedgiving.gatech.edu

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MBA Program US News & World Report, 2019

Full-time MBA The Economist, 2019

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TECH SAVVY. BUSINESS SMART. As a Georgia Tech alum, you know solving problems means tackling issues from every angle and understanding technology’s impact on every situation. Scheller College of Business’ three globally-ranked MBA programs (weekend Executive, part-time Evening, and Full-time MBA) offer specialized graduate curriculum and experiential learning opportunities designed to prepare professionals to thrive in the technology-driven world of business. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of business and technology, Scheller College excels at developing innovative business leaders who are ready for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities. We are Tech Savvy. Business Smart.

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PUBLISHER’S LETTER

DON’T PARDON THE DISRUPTION

AT G E O R G I A T E C H , creating the next and building a better future are embedded in our DNA and part of our mission. But sometimes it takes a big leap in thinking or acting—an outright disruption—to break free of the same old way of doing things. Our recent history proves that Tech students, faculty, staff and alumni truly embrace the power of disruption. Some may say that graduate education can be expensive and inconvenient, especially for working professionals. But what if Tech offered an online master’s degree with the same rigor as an on-campus class and made it extremely affordable? Or better yet, how about three of these degrees in such high-demand fields as computer science, data analytics and cybersecurity? (Yes, we did all of these!) The incredible growth of our enrollment numbers (page 24) clearly demonstrates how quickly an impact such thinking can have. But our online master’s programs are just one example. There are dozens of other disruptive ideas and projects happening on campus right now. In fact, our new President Ángel Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, is leading an effort to reimagine Tech’s future and develop a new strategic plan. And he’s specifically looking to alumni and others to help shape the Institute’s direction over the next decade. You can get involved and share your input immediately at www.strategicplan.gatech.edu. We at the Alumni Association are following President Cabrera’s lead and are

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE VOL. 95 | NO. 4 PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER Dene Sheheane, Mgt 91

EDITOR

working to explore new ways we can better serve our now (after Fall 2019 graduation!) more than 170,000 alumni. As the saying goes, we used to educate students for the career of a lifetime, but now we need to educate them for a lifetime of careers. The Alumni Association truly wants to be a key resource and support system for you to succeed throughout life. If there’s anything new you’d like us to add or something we could do better, feel free to contact me personally or even stop by the Alumni House to share your ideas. Meanwhile, be sure to dive into this current issue of the Alumni Magazine, which features a wide variety of ways that Tech alumni have become positive, disruptive forces in the world. Find out why Tech alumni John Foley and Yony Feng and their company Peloton have turned the exercise industry on its head (page 44). See how campus has embraced the cutting edge of energy-efficient design in the newly opened Kendeda Building, the most sustainable building of its kind in the Southeast (page 52). Even new women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner (page 28) has brought a disruptive brand of hoops to Tech—one that’s had immediate and impressive results with a 7-1 start (as of press time), including a huge early win over our rivals in Athens. Now please, pardon my disruption and dig in to the rest of the issue!

DENE SHEHEANE, MG T 91, PRESIDENT GEORGIA TEC H ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Roger Slavens

STAFF EDITOR Jennifer Herseim

DESIGNER Karen Matthes

COPY EDITOR Barbara McIntosh Webb

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bill Chastain, IM 79, Kelley Freund, Kristin Baird Rattini

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Chair Brent Zelnak, Mgt 94 Past Chair, Finance Bird Blitch, IE 97 Chair of Roll Call and Gold & White Jocelyn Stargel, IE 82, MS IE 86 Vice Chair of Engagement Shan Pesaru, CmpE 05 Member at Large Rita Breen, Psy 90, MS IE 91 Member at Large Garett Langley, EE 09 Member at Large Sheri Prucka, EE 82, MS EE 84 Member at Large Magd Riad, IE 01

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Michelle Adkins, IM 83; Clint Bailey, TE 97; Carlos Barroso, ChE 80; Amrit Bhavinani, CM 09; Trevor Boehm, ME 99, MS ME 04; Jeff Bogdan, Mgt 88, MS MOT 98; Jason Byars, ME 96; Randy Cain, IE 91; Alina Capanyda, IE 10; Aurelien Cottet, MS AE 03; Andre Dickens, ChE 98; Elizabeth Donnelley, IA 08; Scott Hall, ME 96; Tim Holman, MS EE 88, PhD EE 94; Keith Jackson, Mgt 88; Joy Jordan, ChE 92; Mary Beth Lake, IE 04; Juan Michelena, TE 85; Angela Mitchell, PTCH 04; Jerald C. Mitchell, MBA 11; Alex Muñoz, Mgt 88; Anu Parvatiyar, BME 08; Blake Patton, IE 93; Debra Porter, ME 86; Bert Reeves Jr., Mgt 00; Amy Rich, MBA 12; Jean Marie Richardson, Mgt 02; David Sotto, BME 09, PhD BioE 15; James Stovall, CS 01; Betty Tong, ME 93, MS ME 95; Kate Tyler, MS CE 09; Brian Tyson, EE 10; Jef Wallace, Mgt 94; Kristin Watkins, Mgt 13; Sam Westbrook, IE 99; Stephenie Whitfield, Bio 93; Bruce Wilson, EE 78, MS EE 80

ADVERTISING Justin Estes (404) 683-9599 justin.estes@alumni.gatech.edu

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN: 1061-9747) is published quarterly by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313. Periodical postage paid in Atlanta and additional mailing offices. © 2019 Georgia Tech Alumni Association

POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313.

TELEPHONE Georgia Tech Alumni Association (404) 894-2391

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

VOLUME 95 ISSUE 4

FEATURES

A NEW MODEL FOR SUSTAINABILITY This fall, Georgia Tech dedicated the innovative Kendeda Building, designed to be the most eco-friendly structure of its kind in the Southeast U.S.

COVER PHOTOGRAPH

KEITH BARRACLOUGH

PHOTOGRAPH

JONATHAN HILLYER

PELOTON’S WILD RIDE

ANATOMY OF A LIVING BUILDING

KING OF HEARTS

Tech alumni John Foley and Yony Feng took a big risk in starting up Peloton, but it’s one that has paid off as they’ve upended the exercise industry.

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design pushes the envelope for what an educational and research facility can be.

Trailblazing Tech Professor Ajit Yoganathan invented the science of prosthetic heart valve engineering back in 1979.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

VOLUME 95

DEPARTMENTS

ISSUE 4 BIG PLANE WITH A BIG PURPOSE Backed by Georgia Tech engineering and operations expertise, Stratolaunch is creating a carrier system designed to launch payloads into space.

CONTENTS

AROUND CAMPUS Social Stingers 12 Facuty Focus 14 Formally Invested 18 Talk of Tech 20

ON THE FIELD Nell Fortner’s Love of the Game 28 Athletics News 32

IN THE WORLD A Radical Design Concept 36 When Big Ideas Take Flight 38 Dollars & Sense 42

ALUMNI HOUSE Gold & White Honorees 68 Association Annual Report 79 Ramblin’ Roll 83 In Memoriam 90

100

TECH HISTORY A Ramble Through Wreck History 100 Back Page 106

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

FEEDBACK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TECH’S TROPHY CASE GROWS

explained to me. As a frequent visitor and lecturer there, I have never had a full picture of its background and impact until now. And any comprehensive issue of the magazine wouldn’t be complete without recognizing Marilyn Somers, Hon 06, and her Living History crew, who recorded an oral history with me a de-

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

cade ago and have recorded more

K U D O S T O T H E E D I T O R and the talent-

and friends over the years. Congratula-

ed staff of the Georgia Tech Alumni

tions on the 25th anniversary!

than a thousand Tech alumni, faculty

Magazine! The latest issue (Fall 2019,

But the crowning achievement of the

Vol. 95, No. 3) was not just great—it was

issue was the gathering of those 100

spectacular!

most fascinating people, places and

I WOULD LIKE TO AMEND the article titled

The personal story about new Pres-

ideas in the feature story “10 x 10 x

"Three Tech Football Legends, Three

ident Ángel Cabrera and his family

Tech.” There is nothing wanting in this

Trophies Named in Their Honor" in the

was a fascinating look at the man (and

handy, present-day snapshot of the In-

Fall 2019 issue of the Georgia Tech

not just his role). In a photo essay,

stitute’s best and brightest.

Alumni Magazine. There are actually

the special “Cinderalla” bench in the

four trophies named after four differ-

West Architecture building was finally

PRESTON STEVENS JR., ARCH 52 ATLANTA, GA

ent top Yellow Jacket legends—not just John Heisman, Bobby Dodd and Homer Rice. J. Frank Broyles, IM 47, was a twotime All-SEC quarterback and SEC

THE NEED FOR EVEN MORE SPEED

Player of the Year in 1944 for the Yellow

I RE AD THE SUMMER 2019 (Vol. 95, No.

Jackets and a member of the College

2) issue of the Alumni Magazine and

Football Hall of Fame. After graduating,

read the article about Georgia Tech’s

he coached under Bobby Dodd, then

connections to auto racing with great in-

were powered by the Mazda rotary

went on to be the head coach at the Uni-

terest. As a mechanical engineer with a

engine. Jim is also the co-inventor of the

versity of Arkansas. He served as head

more than casual interest in the subject

HANS device, which is credited with

coach and/or athletic director at Ar-

I appreciated a lot of the points made,

saving many lives in all forms of racing.

kansas for almost 50 years. The Broyles

but feel it wasn’t complete.

Jim Downing, IM 66

BILL BULPITT, ME 70 ATLANTA, GA

Award is named after him and is given

Jim Downing, IM 66, is the owner of

annually to the best assistant coach in

Downing Motorsports in Atlanta and

college football. Tech’s Ralph Friedgen

has been a designer, builder and driv-

[Ed. Note: The magazine story, “Georgia

won the award in 1999.

er of many significant race cars. He

Tech’s Racing Roots,” was adapted from

has won five IMSA championships

a longer piece originally published online.

and placed in many long-distance

Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit all of the sto-

sports car events, including the 24

ries of alumni involved in racing in print.

[Ed. Note: Thanks for that enlightening ad-

Hours of LeMans, considered by many

But you can read the full, expanded fea-

dendum. We apologize for the omission of

to be the greatest racing event in the

ture here: www.news.gatech.edu/features/

the Broyles Award.]

world. Most of his significant race cars

georgia-techs-racing-roots.]

LARRY GREGORY, CE 91 ROGERS, ARK.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

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MEETINGS. CONFERENCES. TRAINING.

VOLUME 95

AROUND CAMPUS

ISSUE 4

PHOTOGRAPH

DALTON TOUCHBERRY

RECONNECTED ROYALTY Business majors and former Walton High School classmates Francis Yang and Rachel Luckcuck never knew each other well, but shared a common destiny in being named 2019 Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech.

SOCIAL STINGERS

FACULTY FOCUS

TALK OF TECH

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

AROUND CAMPUS

SOCIAL STINGERS

GEORGIA TECH RESEARCHERS STUDY YELLOW JACKETS— OUR INSECT NAMESAKES—TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THEIR HIGHLY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR. BY VICTOR ROGERS F A L L I S Y E L L O W J A C K E T S E AS O N . But in this case, it’s not football or basketball. Rather, it’s the time of year when colonies of yellow jackets— the insects—reach their maximum size. It’s also when Professor Michael Goodisman and the Goodisman Research Group at Georgia Tech collect their nests. “We typically collect nests for a month or so beginning in late October, which is prime time for collecting,” says Goodisman, associate professor and associate chair for undergraduate education in the School of Biological Sciences. “The colonies usually die off around Thanksgiving, and are completely dead by Christmas—although climate change may be moving the dates.” Humans usually cross paths with the yellow jackets’ underground nests a couple of times a year. The first is between April and June, when people tend to mow their lawns frequently. The second is fall, when it’s time to rake leaves. “Yellow jackets are particularly aggressive in October and November,” says Goodisman, whose team collects the insects alive, albeit somewhat sedated. The underground nests typically have a single hole, about the size of a silver dollar, for entering and exiting. “We pour a little bit of anesthetic 12

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

into the hole. It does the same thing to them that it does to us—it knocks them out,” he says. “Then we try to dig up the nest very quickly before they come to. We pull the nest out and bring it back to the lab.” When collecting nests, Goodisman and the team wear beekeepers’ uniforms with long pants underneath for additional protection. Yellow jackets are aggressive and will push their way through air holes in the pith helmets, so the researchers cover them with

“THERE’S NO ONE STUDYING YELLOW JACKETS THE SAME WAY THEY’RE STUDYING HONEYBEES,” GOODISMAN SAYS.

tape to keep the insects out. “I have had that happen to me, and it’s no fun at all!” Goodisman says. “If

there’s an opening, they will find it and get in.” STUDYING SOME BUSY BEHAVIOR The Goodisman Research Group collects the nests so they can study yellow jackets to learn about their highly social behavior. “Yellow jackets are an example of some of the most extreme and impressive social behavior that you will see in any animal, even more so than in humans,” Goodisman says. “Their social structure is similar to honeybees’ in that they typically have a single queen, though not always. She produces a bunch of selfless workers that work until the colony succeeds.” The researchers are also interested in studying multiyear super colonies. Nests usually last only one season, from May to December. But when temperatures are mild, a colony can survive the winter and become massive the next year. “We have seen this in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. We’re starting to see it in Florida, south Alabama and California—super colonies the size of a car,” Goodisman said. These changes bring up other questions, such as, are yellow jackets facing the same environmental threats as honeybees? “The short answer is we don’t know. There’s no one studying yellow jackets

PHOTOGRAPH

PROVIDED BY MICHAEL GOODISMAN

Yellow jackets are particularly active in the fall months. During this time they can exhibit some extremely social behavior.

the same way they’re studying honeybees,” Goodisman says. “But not all of the things that affect honeybees will affect yellow jackets.” Honeybees have been partially domesticated and bred for successful pollination, reduced aggression, and increased honey production. Unfortunately, domestication often has unwanted side effects. For example, domesticated honeybees may display fewer behavioral defenses against parasites than feral honeybees as a consequence of the domestication process. “Yellow jackets don’t really have that. We don’t associate yellow jackets with having a lot of diseases. They still could be subjected to pesticides, but it’s not really known,” Goodisman says. It’s hard to tell if there has been a decrease in the yellow jacket population based on the calls the Goodisman Research Group receives. “There has been no systematic survey that I know of,” Goodisman says. “I think a widespread survey over

many years would be interesting.” GO (YELLOW) JACKETS! Goodisman’s interest in insects began when he was a child in Syracuse, New York. “There are yellow jackets in Syracuse and all across North America, from Mexico to Alaska,” he says. Indeed, they can be found all across the northern hemisphere. They are one of the most common and successful social insects. “They’re great fun, as you might imagine. They have a lot of personality,” he said. “It’s exhilarating when you’re trying to pull them out of the ground or get them out of the house.” His undergraduate research at Cornell University included work with insects, and he did his doctoral thesis at the University of Georgia on fire ants. While at UGA he saw fire ants in a tray in the lab, and he thought it was “so cool.” But his work with yellow jackets didn’t start until he did postdoctoral work in Australia.

“There was some interesting research being done on invasive yellow jackets in Australia and New Zealand. I’d been working on yellow jackets well before I came to Georgia Tech.” It was purely coincidental that Goodisman became a professor at Georgia Tech, home of the Yellow Jackets. But it still causes the occasional raised eyebrow when he tells people about his research. “People do a double take and ask if I’m at Tech because of my yellow jacket research. They ask if I have a yellow jacket professorship, or if I’m the ‘Chair of Yellow Jacket Research.’ It’s always a fun conversation, especially with Georgia Tech alumni.” Note to Atlanta Area Alumni: The Goodisman Research Group will provide free yellow jacket nest removal. Nests will be used for research in the School of Biological Sciences. Email michael.goodisman@biology.gatech. edu to arrange a pickup. GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

FACULT Y FOCUS

POETRY AS ENGINEERED BEAUTY

TECH PROFESSOR ILYA KAMINSKY, ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST POETS OF HIS GENERATION, HELPS SHAPE THE MINDS OF TOMORROW’S ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS IN UNEXPECTED WAYS.

YASHVARDHAN TOMAR wants to go to Mars. For now, however, the second-year astrophysics student from Meerut, India, is happy to be at Georgia Tech. Yes, for the highly rated School of Aerospace Engineering. But also for Ilya Kaminsky, professor of poetry. “There was something warm and inviting about his presence, something in his demeanor, that instantly drew me to him,” Tomar says. “As I went and introduced myself, I was greeted with such welcome and exuberance of spirit that made me feel that there was never a time when we hadn’t known each other.” Of course, a warm and welcoming presence is not all Kaminsky is known for. The Margaret T. and Henry C. Bourne Jr. Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech, Kaminsky is widely acclaimed by critics as one of the greatest poets of his generation. His book, Deaf Republic, was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry—one of the most prestigious prizes in American literature.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

BY MICHAEL PEARSON “When I was chairing the search committee for the Bourne Chair, I made the comment that I think Ilya will be a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature in the coming years,” says Karen Head, a colleague of Kaminsky’s in the School of Literature, Media and Communications (LMC), and a celebrated poet in her own right. “I don’t say things like this lightly; his work really is that special.” LANGUAGE IN A TIME OF CRISIS Deaf Republic opens to a crowd gathered in the town square of an occupied country to watch a performance. Suddenly, soldiers fatally shoot a young deaf boy. In response, the city’s population chooses to no longer hear the soldiers’ orders. “They use deafness as a protest,” says Kaminsky, who himself has a hearing impairment and drew on his experience as a youth when writing the book. “But as the story goes on, there are many different questions,” he says. “What is protest? How do we protest? How do we live in a time when difficult things happen?” Deaf Republic, Kaminsky says, is a “fairy tale,” but also a book about

language in a time of crisis. It is also an intensely political book that calls into question any indifference to oppression or violence, at home or abroad. “It talks about our privileges and questions them,” he says. Kaminsky’s work has long included a focus on probing crisis and easing those affected by it, including work on behalf of immigrants, refugees, and the homeless. He has continued his work aiding marginalized communities while at Georgia Tech, including a workshop this month to mentor poetry critics from underrepresented communities and a recent reading organized by Poetry@ Tech featuring immigrant poets. ENGINEERED FOR BEAUTY “For us, Kaminsky’s special focus on social justice, diversity, and inclusion fulfills our strategic plan's strong desire to create with purpose, to make texts and things that have social meaning beyond their immediate academic utility,” says LMC Chair Richard Utz. “Ilya’s

PHOTOGRAPH

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

Ilya Kaminisky is the Margaret T. and Henry C. Bourne Jr. Chair in Poetry in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

poetry is ‘engineered’ to be beautiful and socially relevant and life-changing, and supportive of those often underrepresented in an atmosphere in which rigorous research is the most important currency.” Additionally, the attention surrounding Deaf Republic, as well as Kaminsky’s many international accolades since arriving on campus in 2018, are helping shine new light on the already well-regarded programs in the humanities offered by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Utz says. “Having Ilya on our faculty helps

highlight to the world how Georgia Tech is just as competitive, just as rigorous, just as celebrated, in the humanities as we are in some of the key research areas more typically associated with the Institute,” he says. CONTINUING POETRY@TECH’S MISSION One of Kaminsky’s roles at Georgia Tech is director of Poetry@Tech, which engages Georgia Tech students and the public with poetry and presents the South’s premier poetry reading series. Since its founding in 2000, the program has brought more than 250 poets

to the Georgia Tech campus. All told, at least 19,000 students, aspiring writers, and members of the community have benefitted from poetry readings and poetry workshops in Atlanta and around the country since the organization’s founding, according to Travis Denton, Poetry@Tech’s associate director. “Early on, everyone thought that having poetry at Tech was an oxymoron, Denton says. “Then word got out what we were doing, and it didn’t stop. It took a few years, but now the idea that there's a nationally known poetry GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

FACULT Y FOCUS

‘WE LIVED HAPPILY DURING THE WAR’ BY I LYA K A M I N S K Y AND WHEN THEY BOMBED OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES, WE PROTESTED BUT NOT ENOUGH, WE OPPOSED THEM BUT NOT ENOUGH. I WAS IN MY BED, AROUND MY BED AMERICA WAS FALLING: INVISIBLE HOUSE BY INVISIBLE HOUSE BY INVISIBLE HOUSE

I TOOK A CHAIR OUTSIDE AND WATCHED THE SUN. IN THE SIXTH MONTH OF A DISASTROUS REIGN IN THE HOUSE OF MONEY IN THE STREET OF MONEY IN THE CITY OF M O N E Y I N T H E CO U N T RY O F M O N E Y, O U R G R E AT CO U N T RY O F M O N E Y, W E (FORGIVE US) L I V E D H A P P I LY D U R I N G T H E WAR.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Kaminsky’s book Deaf Republic was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry.

program at Georgia Tech feels very natural to everyone.” Kaminsky says he appreciates being a part of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, which has an international reputation for bridging technology and the humanities and social sciences through innovative interdisciplinary research and teaching. “In some ways, it is when Georgia Tech created the Ivan Allen College that it decided to be a great university,” Kaminsky says. “It is not possible to have a great university without humanities.” MIXING POETRY AND ENGINEERING Most of Kaminsky’s students are studying engineering, and are lifelong makers drawn to poetry as intensive craft. He says he draws enormous satisfaction from helping those students understand how that craft becomes art, and what that means. “Sometime in the middle of the class, they realize that it’s not just about making, but about moving other people with what you make, about discovering something from what you have made, about being moved by your own language because something

is revealed to you,” he says. For a high-achieving student like Yashvardhan Tomar—who counts Leonardo da Vinci as his role model and has his sights set on a PhD and a research career that he hopes someday leads him to Mars—mixing poetry and engineering makes perfect sense. “From poetry one inherits imagination; from poetry one inherits empathy; from poetry one inherits hope,” Tomar says. “These are the bequests we need to pass on to the scientists and engineers who will shape our tomorrow.” He says Kaminsky has helped him improve his own poetry immeasurably. “Ilya’s teaching style is very participatory—every class is more of a conversation, a dialogue among students trying to grasp the intricacies of the craft with him throwing light on the right parts,”Tomar says. “He wants us to express how our five senses respond to the rhythm, the emotions, the images evoked by the poet. He wants us to think for ourselves what makes a poem work; what aspects inform the poet’s choices as they weave words in an attempt to move us in some way.”

EVEN BIGGER BUZZ Degrees Certificates Courses Corporate Education Online & On-site

CONTINUE YOUR SUCCESS STORY pe.gatech.edu/alumni

AROUND CAMPUS

FORMALLY INVESTED THE INVESTITURE OF ÁNGEL CABRERA, TECH’S 12TH PRESIDENT, CELEBRATED THE INSTITUTE’S HISTORY AND CAMPUS COMMUNITY.

BY VICTOR ROGERS AND KRISTEN BAILEY O N O C T . 2 8 , the title of president of the Georgia Institute of Technology was conferred upon Ángel Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, at his Investiture at the Ferst Center for the Arts on campus. The ceremony proved to be a melding of fun and formality that featured Cabrera making a grand entrance perched on the running boards of the Ramblin’ Wreck. The Glee Club and Treble Choir sang, and Tech’s National Pan-Hellenic Council performed a step show. A host of speakers included college deans and student leaders,. “President Cabrera has legally been president of the Institute since Sept. 1, so the Investiture was really a celebration,” says Joseph L.A. Hughes, professor in the school of electrical and computer engineering, chair of the faculty executive board and a member of the Investiture planning

committee. Hughes says that in some ways an investiture is similar to a wedding. “In both cases a group of people gather for a relatively rare event where a person is the focus,” he says. “At a wedding, the focus is obviously on the couple getting married. At an investiture, the new president is clearly the focus, but the event is also about and for the community.” Cabrera is only the 12th president since Georgia Tech opened its doors in 1888. “If you do the math, it says our presidents are lasting 10 or more years on average. That’s pretty unusual,” says Hughes, adding that the average tenure of a president at a top U.S. university is around five years.

“For us, an investiture is a pretty rare event,” Hughes says. “We have students who have spent their entire time at Georgia Tech with one president. In that sense, it’s a celebration of who we are as an institute. Tech’s Investiture is part of the passing along of the Institute’s history.” Georgia Tech’s last presidential Investiture was more than a decade ago, in September 2009. The one before that took place in 1994. It’s safe to say most college students never get the opportunity to take part in this kind of historic moment in the life of their university.

Cabrera celebrated the Investiture with his family, including his son Alex, CS 19, wife Beth, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, and daughter Emily.

Students got a chance to meet and talk to President Cabrera on Tech Green.

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President Cabrera rode out onto the stage in grand fashion perched on the running boards of the Ramblin’ Wreck.

Left: A bigger-than-life Buzz looms over a lively conversation between President Cabrera and students on Tech Green.

Bottom Left: Tech’s National Pan-Hellenic Council performed a rousing step show during the Investiture celebration.

PHOTOGRAPHS

INSTITUTE COMMUNICATIONS

Bottom Right: Students, staff and faculty were invited to write messages of welcome and encouragement for the new president.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

TALK OF TECH

STUDENT NEWS

STUDENT MAKES LIFESAVING BONE MARROW DONATION

MONTHS AFTER SWABBING HER CHEEK ON CAMPUS, SOPHIE HEIMAN GOT A CALL THAT SHE’D MATCHED WITH A LEUKEMIA PATIENT. BY EVAN ATKINSON T E N S E C O N D S on Georgia Tech’s campus eventually led to a lifesaving donation hundreds of miles away in Ohio. That’s how long Sophie Heiman needed to swab her cheek on Tech Green last fall. The sample of cells was then mailed to a lab for testing. But it was months later that Heiman actually had the chance to save a stranger’s life. Her cheek was swabbed during the

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Fall 2018 semester. Taking samples on campus was an organization called Be The Match—the largest and most diverse marrow registry system in the world, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program. Months passed, and classes and exams came and went. Heiman accepted a spring co-op position with Ethicon, a subsidiary company of Johnson & Johnson that develops surgical sutures and other medical devices. She was driving to Ohio when she received a text message saying she was a match for a leukemia patient. “ To be honest, I’d forgotten I’d done the s w a b,” He i m a n e x plains. “I immediately called back.” Heiman worked with Be The Match to identify the closest hospital where she could undergo the marrow donation procedure.

They located one in Cincinnati. Typically, the surgery consists of liquid bone marrow being extracted from the pelvic bone. Most donors go home the same day or the next morning. “You have nothing to be afraid of,” she says, noting that even the side effects were minimal. Because of the anonymous nature of the donation, she will have to wait a full year before she can meet the person who received her bone marrow, but she has received a letter from the recipient—who is alive and doing well. If they both agree, they can meet in person in March. Heiman is looking forward to it. “If you are that person, you can give someone life and that is just incredible,” she says. Now she’s encouraging others to join the bone marrow registry. “I think that everyone should go get a cheek swab done as fast as they can,” Heiman says. “The odds may be small that you would actually match, but what is the risk if you have the chance to help save another person’s life?”

TECH LEGACY

A T L A N TA D E D I C A T E S WALKING BRIDGE IN H O N O R O F I VA N A L L E N J R . T H E L I F E A N D L E G A C Y of f or mer Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., Comm 33, was celebrated by the dedication of a downtown Atlanta bridge which

for African Americans and creating

A series of placards runs the length of

serves as a new, permanent outdoor

the foundations for the modern city we

the bridge under colorful ribbons, which

walking museum in his honor. A legend-

know today.

creates a linear timeline for visitors as

ary Tech alumnus and the namesake of

The newly dedicated Ivan Allen Jr.

they walk by. The story is divided into

the Institute’s College of Liberal Arts,

Legacy Bridge connects Marietta Street

several themes, including Allen’s char-

Allen transformed Atlanta during his

and the Westside, symbolizing Allen’s

acter, his civil rights record, his business

leadership in the turbulent 1960s.

role in breaking down the barriers of

pragmatism, his vision for the city’s cul-

The PATH Foundation brought to-

Jim Crow laws and revitalizing Atlan-

tural institutions, and his collaboration

gether the Allen family, Jim and Sarah

ta as a city where all its citizens could

with other leaders. The bridge also of-

Kennedy, and the James M. Cox Foun-

flourish together. The bridge was de-

fers onlookers a multimedia experience

dation to fund the project with hopes

signed by Mad Dworschak, Signature

with placards which include mobile hy-

of helping younger generations under-

Design, and Perez Planning + Design,

perlinks and QR codes that visitors can

stand Allen’s role in forging a new era

who spent months researching Mayor

scan with their mobile devices to access

in Atlanta, pushing forward civil rights

Allen’s life and accomplishments.

extra video content.—REBECCA KEANE

Kid Koala

Artists from around the world share their explorations of art and technology

KID KOALA’S

Tickets are $5 for Georgia Tech Student Alumni Association members* and start at $15 for general public.

SATELLITE TURNTABLE ORCHESTRA MOMIX

Saturday, February 15 7 & 9:30 pm

VIVA MOMIX

*Discount available at Ferst Center for the Arts Box Office with membership card, Monday-Friday, 11 am-5 pm.

Sunday, March 1, 7 pm enra

ENRA: DREAMS

Friday, March 27, 8 pm

SCRAP ARTS MUSIC: CHILDREN OF METROPOLIS

Friday, April 17, 8 pm Scrap Arts Music

arts.gatech.edu 404-894-9600

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

TALK OF TECH

RESEARCHERS SEND SOLAR CELLS TO SPACE

ASTRONAUTS ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ARE TESTING NEW TECHNOLOGIES DESIGNED AT THE INSTITUTE. BY JOHN TOON

Principal Research Engineer Jud Ready holds a sample of a perovskite solar cell.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

BRANDON CAMP

copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (CZTS) material—along with a control group of traditional silicon-based cells— are among the 20 photovoltaic (PV) devices placed on the Materials International Space Station Experiment Flight Facility on the exterior of the ISS for a six-month evaluation. For two of the cells, the launch marked their second trip into space. “The research questions are the same for all the photovoltaic cells: Can these photo-absorbers be used effectively in space?” says Jud Ready, MSE 94, MS MSE 97, PhD MSE 00, principal research engineer in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), associate director of Tech’s Center for

PHOTOGRAPH

F I V E D I F F E R E N T T Y P E S of s ol ar cells fabricated by research teams at Georgia Tech have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) to be tested for their power conversion rate and ability to operate in the harsh space environment as part of the MISSE-12 mission. One type of cell, made of low-cost organic materials, has not been extensively tested in space before. Textured carbon nanotube–based photovoltaic cells designed to capture light from any angle will be evaluated for their ability to efficiently produce power regardless of their orientation toward the sun. Other cells made from perovskite materials and a low-cost

Space Technology and Research and deputy director of Tech’s Institute for Materials. “With this test, we will gain insights into the degradation mechanisms of these materials and be able to compare their power production under varying conditions.” Traditional flat solar cells are most efficient when the sunlight is directly overhead. Because the direction of the solar flux varies with the orbit, large space vehicles like the ISS use mechanical pointing mechanisms to keep the cells properly aimed. Those complex mechanisms create maintenance issues, however, and are too heavy for use on very small spacecraft such as CubeSats. To overcome the pointing problem, Ready’s team developed 3D-textured solar cells that can efficiently capture sunlight arriving at different angles. The cells use “towers” made from carbon nanotubes and covered with PV material to trap light that would bounce off standard cells when they are not angled toward the sun. “With our light-trapping structure, we are agnostic to the sun angle,” Ready says. “Our cells actually work better at glancing angles. On CubeSats, that will allow efficient capture regardless of the orientation of the sun.”

THE UNCOMMON

ENGINEER

A podcast presented by the Georgia Tech College of Engineering. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about engineers, impact and you. LISTEN NOW AT PODCAST.COE.GATECH.EDU

TALK OF TECH

HIDDEN GEORGIA TECH: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES PREP LAB Many biology lab courses have adopted more innovative teaching techniques and are shifting away from older teaching tools, including specimens preserved in liquid, prepared microscope slides, animal skulls, and anatomical models. As a result, collections of vintage equipment and fluid-preserved specimens (pictured) like the ones kept in the Biological Sciences Prep Lab, located in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, are increasingly rare. Learn about this secluded part of campus, as well as other examples of Hidden Georgia Tech, at www.news.gatech.edu/features/hidden-georgia-tech.

NUMBERS

TECH ENROLLMENT REACHES ALL -TIME HIGH G E O R G I A T E C H ’ S F A L L 2 0 1 9 enrollment grew to 36,489, an 11.5 percent

Undergraduate enrollment remained steady at 15,848 students.

increase over the previous year. The ad-

“Georgia Tech’s unique ability to

ditional 3,766 students are primarily

provide high-quality, affordable educa-

graduate students, and a large number

tion in an accessible way has resulted

of them are enrolled in online master’s

in unprecedented growth in these on-

degree programs.

line programs, with the newest being

Tech’s overall graduate enrollment is

cybersecurity,” says Bonnie Ferri, vice

20,330. Of those, 12,339 students are

provost of graduate education and

enrolled in online master’s programs:

faculty development. “This type of inno-

9,030 in computer science; 2,853 in

vation in graduate education has made

and on economic development in these

analytics; and 456 in cybersecurity.

a significant impact on the workforce

high-tech fields.”—DENISE WARD

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

TECH RESEARCH

TOP NATIONAL L A B S PA R T N E R W I T H TECH ON CUTTING-EDGE AI RESEARCH THE GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY , Sandia National Laboratories, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are jointly launching a new research center to solve some of the most challenging problems in artificial intelligence (AI) today, thanks to $5.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). AI enables computer systems to automatically learn from experience without being explicitly programmed. Such technology can perform tasks that formerly only a human could, such as: see, identify patterns, make decisions and act. The new co-design center, known as the Center for ARtificial Intelligencefocused Architectures and Algorithms (ARIAA), funded by DOE’s Office of Science, will promote collaboration between scientists at the three organizations as they develop core technologies

AWARDS

GEORGIA TECH–LORRAINE WINS HONOR FOR BOOSTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN FRANCE

important for the application of AI to

T H E I N S T I T U T E ’ S F I R S T international

laboratory between Georgia Tech

DOE mission priorities, such as cyber-

campus, Georgia Tech–Lorraine, has

and the French National Center for Sci-

security, electric grid resilience, graph

received the French-American Cham-

entific Research, with a presence on

analytics, and scientific simulations.

ber of Commerce’s annual Crystal

both the Metz and Atlanta campuses.

PNNL Senior Research Scientist

Peach Award. The distinction recogniz-

Adjoining the Metz campus is the La-

Roberto Gioiosa will be the center’s di-

es outstanding corporate honorees for

fayette Institute, a newly established

rector and will lead the overall vision,

their “commitment to economic growth,

platform for innovation and technolo-

strategy, and research direction. Tushar

innovation, and the expansion of com-

gy transfer in optoelectronics working

Krishna, an assistant professor in Geor-

mercial relations between France and

in tandem with Tech’s Institute for Elec-

gia Tech’s School of Electrical and

the southeast United States.”

tronics and Nanotechnology and the

Computer Engineering (ECE), and Siva

Georgia Tech–Lorraine is being

Rajamanickam, a computer scientist at

honored for bringing the Southeast to

“It’s a great honor to receive this

Sandia, will serve as deputy directors.

France. The campus was established in

award as we enter our 30th year,”

1990 in Metz and hosts more than 700

says Yves Berthelot, president of Geor-

students each year, from undergrad-

gia Tech–Lorraine and vice provost

uates in all disciplines to postdoctoral

for international initiatives. “Georgia

students in engineering—creating a two-

Tech–Lorraine is an extension of Geor-

way talent pipeline across the Atlantic.

gia Tech’s innovation ecosystem, and

With a focus on academics, re-

Enterprise Innovation Institute.

students return from the campus as en-

search, and innovation, the campus

gaged global citizens.”

houses a joint international research

—DENISE WARD

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

VOLUME 95

ON THE FIELD

ISSUE 4

BASKETBALL BLOWOUT The Yellow Jackets women’s basketball team beat the Bulldogs in Athens for the first time in program history by the lopsided score of 73–40 on Nov. 17.

PHOTOGRAPH

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

FIELD OF DREAMS

REFEREEING LEGEND

BRIAN SAVAGE/ATHLETICS

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

ON THE FIELD

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

NEW HEAD COACH NELL FORTNER BRINGS A WORLD OF HOOPS EXPERIENCE, SUCCESS AND PASSION TO THE YELLOW JACKETS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM.

BY BILL CHASTAIN, IM 79

NELL FORTNER never had a chance: Basketball had her at hello. Now the sport has brought her back into the fold as a coach once again as just the sixth women’s basketball coach in Georgia Tech history. Fortner remembers being in the second grade when her father put up a basketball hoop in the driveway of their home in New Braunfels, Texas. “He just threw a ball out there just to get us kids out of the house,” she says. Fortner says she took to the sport immediately. “Once I threw that first shot up—a two-handed shot—I was in love with it,” she says. “Actually, I was obsessed with it.” A floodlight lit the Fortners’ driveway, which was always teeming with her siblings and kids from across the neighborhood. “Everybody was playing—boys, girls, younger kids and older kids,” Fortner says. “That’s how I learned how to play basketball. I taught myself how to play, then eventually beat up on everybody.” When Fortner’s older brother, Tom, earned a full scholarship to Tulane to play football, her eyes opened to the possibilities of taking her hoops skills as far as she could. “I told myself that I was going to get a full scholarship to play basketball, even though I was only in the seventh grade at the time and wasn’t playing any organized basketball yet, just pickup games at home,” she says. Fortner was unaware that sports scholarships weren’t as

readily available to women in the 1970s as they were to men. With new determination, Fortner went on to star in basketball and volleyball at New Braunfels High School. She also doubled down on how basketball was going to play a lasting role in her life. “My high school had phenomenal female coaches,” she says. “I knew I wanted to be like them. I wanted to play, but also I wanted to coach.” Fortner earned Texas All-State honors and became a Parade All-American en route to receiving a dual-sport scholarship to play basketball and volleyball at the University of Texas. She helped lead Texas to 127 basketball wins in four seasons and remains one of the school’s all-time leading

“COACHING IS ABOUT THE KIDS, PERIOD. YOU WANT TO BE AROUND THOSE KIDS. YOU WANT TO INFLUENCE THEM. YOU WANT TO HELP THEM GROW. YOU WANT TO HELP MAKE THEM BETTER PLAYERS,” FORTNER SAYS.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

DANNY KARNK/ATHLETICS PHOTOGRAPH

scorers, with 1,466 career points. In volleyball, she helped the coaching is different,” Fortner says. “Coaching is about the Longhorns win the NCAA Women’s National Championkids, period. You want to be around those kids. You want to inship in 1981, her senior year. fluence them. You want to help them grow. You want to help Women’s sports have certainly progressed a long way since make them better players—see them through this time periher youth, Fortner says, in both the collegiate and professional od of their life when they’re growing so much. I missed that.” ranks. “I can’t even put it into perspective—it’s ginormous,” she Tech Athletic Director Todd Stansbury, IM 84, says it’s imsays. “When you think about how long men have been playing portant to note that Fortner wasn’t just hired for her on-court organized sports compared to women, there’s a big chasm there.” But Fortner acknowledges there’s still a lot of work to be done to bridge that gap. “We’re trying to get healthier professional leagues, whether it’s the WNBA or soccer,” she says. “And hopefully that happens as time goes on. But I think right now, we have great opportunities in both high school and college, and hopefully those will just continue to grow.” Following her collegiate playing days, Fortner kept her commitment to continuing her basketball career as a coach. As women’s hoops head coach, she helped guide the Purdue Boilermakers to the 1997 Big Ten Championship and then the Auburn Tigers to the 2009 SEC Championship. In between, she coached the U.S. Women’s National Basketball Team to three international titles from 1997 to 2000—including the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in SydThe MBA programs offered by ney, Australia. Tech's Scheller College of BusiFortner loved coaching, but recness rank among the best. ognized something was off during the early part of her 2011–12 season at Auburn. “I just needed a break—I knew it,” Fortner says. So she left Auburn in 2012 to work as an analyst for ESPN—her second stint with the network—until she decided to return to coaching on April Nell Fortner held a 162-117 9, 2019, when Georgia Tech hired collegiate head coaching her to fill its women’s basketball head record before coming to Tech. coach opening. “I had a great job at ESPN, but GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

ON THE FIELD

MEET THE COACH N A M E : Nell Fortner EDUC ATION:

B.S. Physical Education, 1982, University of Texas, M.S. Education, 1987, Stephen F. Austin

COLLEGIATE BASKETBALL P L A Y I N G C A R E E R : 127 wins in four seasons

& 1,466 career points at the University of Texas

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACHING CAREER:

1983-86 Head Coach, Killeen (Texas) High School 1986-87 Graduate Assistant, Stephen F. Austin 1987-90 Assistant Coach, Stephen F. Austin 1990-95 Assistant Coach, Louisiana Tech 1995-96 Assistant Coach, U.S. National Team 1996-1997 Head Coach, Purdue 1997-2000 Head Coach, U.S. National Team 2000-03 Head Coach and General Manager, Indiana Fever, WNBA 2004-12 Head Coach, Auburn 2019-Present Head Coach, Georgia Tech

COLLEGE HEAD COACHING RECORD ( B E F O R E 2 0 19 - 2 0 S E A S O N ) : 162-117 (.581 winning percentage)

USA BASKETBALL HEAD COACHING RECORD: 101-14 (.878)

WNBA HEAD COACHING RECORD: 42-56 (.429)

HONORS AND AWARDS:

2000 Olympics (Sydney, Australia) Women’s Basketball Gold Medal 2000 USA Basketball Coach of the Year 2001 Texas Sports Hall of Fame 2001 University of Texas Women’s Athletics Wall of Honor 2013 San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Top: Head Coach Nell Fortner looks on during a game at McCamish Pavilion. Bottom: Fortner brings a winning attitude to Tech practices.

successes. “She’s not only led teams to Olympic gold and major conference championships, but she has also proven to be an outstanding leader of young women who has embodied our mission of developing the young people who will change the world,” he says. The potential of the Yellow Jacket women’s squad equated to the perfect opportunity for Fortner’s return to coaching. “Georgia Tech’s right in the middle of Atlanta,” Fortner says. “And all the hoops talent in the Southeast revolves around the city—it’s an exciting destination. You can get kids to come to Atlanta from all over the country, all over the world, obviously.”

PHOTOGRAPHS

DANNY KARNIK/ATHLETICS

The Yellow Jackets beat the Wisconsin Badgers 60-41 in a Big Ten/ACC Challenge matchup on Dec. 5.

The Yellow Jackets feature a diverse, international roster with players hailing from Dakar, Senegal; Terni, Italy; Vitoria, Spain; Helsinki, Finland; and Bassano del Grappa, Italy. “Plus, the degrees that players can earn at Georgia Tech are outstanding. I always thought Tech had a lot of potential to be a women’s basketball powerhouse. Hopefully that’s where we go. That’s where my vision is and I want to take these girls to the upper echelons of the sport.” Fortner showed no coaching rust in Tech’s November 5th home opener against Houston. After trailing 9-2 early, Fortner made the necessary adjustments to handle Houston’s pressure, then watched her team go on a 14-6 run to end the first quarter. They held the Cougars to one point in the second quarter, building a 46-16 halftime advantage to lead Fortner to her first win on The Flats. She also guided the Yellow Jackets to their first win ever in Athens, with her girls stinging the Bulldogs by the lopsided score of 73–40. Despite her prolonged hiatus from coaching, Fortner says it’s not really changed that much. “The 18- to 20-year-old players are still the same. They’re talented in the classroom and on the court, but they’ve only had a little time to grow and excel,” she says. “I’m here to help them mature, give them needed

“I ALWAYS THOUGHT TECH HAD A LOT OF POTENTIAL TO BE A WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POWERHOUSE,” FORTNER SAYS.

guidance. They need leadership, discipline, encouragement.” She does admit that in these days of social media and multitasking, “their world moves a lot faster than it did when I last coached.” For Fortner, that’s the biggest difference. “Their ability to have to take in a lot of information at a really fast pace all day long is amazing to me,” she says. “However, I expect them to give me their full attention and focus it all on basketball, in between those lines, for 2 and a half hours every day.” GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

REDDING HONORED AS FOOTBALL REFEREEING LEGEND

ON THE FIELD

T H E N AT I O N A L F O OT B A L L F O U N D AT I O N (NFF) and the College Football Hall of Fame celebrated the long refereeing career of Rogers Redding, XXX with the 2019 NFF Legacy Award this December. The NFF Legacy Award, established in 2007, honors individuals and organizations who have made extraordinary contributions to the NFF

R U S S C A N D L E R S TA D I U M : A REAL-LIFE FIELD OF DREAMS

and and embody its mission. Redding is retiring from his role as the national coordinator of College Football Officiating (CFO) at the end of the college

FOR THE THIRD TIME overall and sec-

professional and recreational venues

ond time in the last five years, Georgia

based on playability, appearance and

Since 2011, the NFF has partnered

Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium earned

innovation solutions. This is the third

with Redding to help generate aware-

the Sports Turf Managers Association

“Field of the Year” award for Georgia

ness for the rule changes in college

“Field of the Year” Award in college

Tech’s director of athletic grounds Chris

football through a series of regular

baseball for 2019. Home of the reign-

May, who also earned the recognition

columns distributed by the NFF while

ing ACC Coastal Division Champions,

in 2014 for Russ Chandler Stadium and

supporting his efforts as the leader of

the stadium also earned the recog-

2017 for Grant Field at Bobby Dodd

the CFO, which functions as the na-

nition in 2008 and 2014. The award

Stadium.

tional professional organization for all

is presented annually to collegiate,

football season.

football officials who work games at the collegiate level. "We had the privilege of honor-

W O M E N ' S VO L L E Y B A L L W I N S M U LT I P L E A C C H O N O R S

ing Rogers Redding in 2010 as the recipient of the NFF Outstanding Football Official Award, and we quickly forged a partnership with him to sup-

GEORGIA TECH VOLLEYBALL led the way

port his efforts to improve officiating

in the annual Atlantic Coast Conference

and enhance player safety," says NFF

honors this season as head volleyball

President-CEO Steve Hatchell. "Rog-

coach Michelle Collier was named the

ers stands as a giant among those who

ACC Coach of the Year. She guided the

Julia Bergmann earned the nod as

have worn the college football stripes,

Yellow Jackets to a second place fin-

ACC Freshman of the Year and while

and we are proud to call him a friend

ish in the ACC after being projected to

sophomore Matti McKissock was select-

and recognize him as an ambassador

place 11th in preseason polls. It was the

ed Setter of the Year. A program-record

for football. He has left his mark on our

team’s highest finish in conference play

six Jackets earned all-conference

game, which is without question better

since 2004.

honors.

because of his contributions."

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

VOLUME 95

IN THE WORLD

ISSUE 4

POP-UP ARCHITECTURE A team of star architects at Cooper Carry, including four Tech alumni, won the Radical Innovation national design contest with Connectic, a modular, flexible construction system.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

COURTESY OF COOPER CARRY

A RADICAL DESIGN CONCEPT

BIG IDEAS TAKE FLIGHT

DOLLARS & SENSE

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

IN THE WORLD

A TRULY RADICAL DESIGN CONCEPT

FOUR YOUNG ALUMNI HELP DESIGN AN AWARD-WINNING CONCEPT FOR A FLEXIBLE, MODULAR CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM. BY ROGER SL AVENS WHEN YOU THINK OF ARCHITECTURE, you usually think about permanent, solid structures that stand the test of time. Well, think again. A team of up-and-coming architects at Cooper Carry—an Atlanta-based design firm that was founded by Jerry Cooper, Arch 52, nearly 60 years ago—have developed a radical concept called “Connectic.” It’s a flexible, modular, movable and collapsible system of construction units that could fill underutilized spaces and respond to a variety of environments. For example, they could serve as a pop-up hotel in a remote or densely packed urban area, or could be used as mobile refugee housing. The idea is so radical that it won the 2019 Radical Innovation Award. This national design contest celebrates forward-thinking solutions that address the needs and challenges of the travel and hospitality industries. The design team of six rising stars included four Georgia Tech alumni: Shraddha Strennen, M Arch 08, Allison Clark, Arch 13, Vinnie Yee, Arch 11, M Arch 17, and Abaan Ali, Arch 11, M Arch 18. Working together, the group drew from the diversity of their personal backgrounds, age groups, work experiences and travel experiences. They held multiple visioning sessions where they sifted through 36

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Top: Cooper Carry’s rising stars behind Connectic: (top row, l to r), Vinnie Yee, Shraddha Strennen, Allison Clark, (bottom row, l to r) Ben Gholson, Aubrey Andres and Abaan Ali. Bottom: Connectic concept art.

innumerable ideas until a common theme emerged: the stark lack of flexibility in hospitality. Inspired by this past year’s Super Bowl in Atlanta, which brought thousands to the city in search of short-term accommodations, the design team wanted a more sustainable solution than building another 200key hotel to meet the ebbs and flows

of travel demand. More than that, they believed that Connectic could be adapted to meet critical needs for short-term housing in a variety of scenarios, such as disaster relief. And while Connectic remains just a futuristic concept for now, the team—fueled by Georgia Tech grit, imagination and determination— hopes to someday turn it into reality.

THIS IS NOT JUST A STUDENT. This is a future Industrial Engineer. A world traveler to places like the Shenzhen University in Shenzen, China. An inspiration to future students who inspire to pursue their dreams. This is a Georgia Tech student, and with your gift to Roll Call you can provide even more opportunities to students like Yumi.

Yumi Rivas 4th year Industrial Engineering Major, Engineering and Business Minor

Continue the tradition and make a difference for outstanding students, world-class programs, top-notch instructors and state-of-the-art facilities. ROLL CALL, GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Give to the 73rd Roll Call, Georgia Techâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fund for Excellence gtalumni.org/giving 190 NORTH AVE, ATLANTA, GA 30313

404.894.0756

IN THE WORLD

WHEN BIG IDEAS TAKE FLIGHT

TECH ALUMNUS ZACHARY KREVOR IS HELPING OVERSEE THE CREATION OF THE LARGEST AIRPLANE SYSTEM EVER BUILT, THE STRATOLAUNCH CARRIER, DESIGNED TO LAUNCH PAYLOADS INTO SPACE.

T H E L AT E P A U L G . A L L E N created Stratolaunch Systems with a lofty goal in mind: Build the largest airplane ever (by wingspan) and make it a “launchpad in the sky” able to deploy space-bound rockets and their satellite payloads while in midflight. As the company’s chief operating officer, Zachary Krevor, MS AE 04, PhD AE 07, aims to continue Allen’s legacy by fulfilling the legendary Microsoft co-founder’s disruptive vision to make space launches more reliable, affordable and accessible. Krevor plays a critical role at Seattle-based Stratolaunch. That includes leadership for converting the huge carrier aircraft—which made its first successful flight in April 2019—into a successful mobile launch platform. He’s also in charge of the technical integration of launch systems, mission systems and operations, ground and airborne support equipment, and business operations. From Stratolaunch’s flight operations based at Mojave Air & Space Port, just 38

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

BY TOM KERTSCHER AND ROGER SL AVENS northeast of Los Angeles, Stratolaunch engineers and fabricators are working to build a future where “booking a satellite launch is as easy as booking a plane ticket,” he says. Despite a wingspan of 385 feet (longer than a full American football field, end zones and all), the carrier aircraft can still take off and land from an airport runway just like a regular plane. Once it reaches a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, the plane, as designed, will someday be able to launch one or more rockets into orbit, where satellites can be deployed. One big advantage of an in-air-launch system is that it can work in inclement weather, while bypassing many of the hazards that can cause

ground-launch delays back on terra firma—saving a significant amount of time and money of a postponed blastoff. “Our launch system is able to fly around inclement weather and avoid air traffic to keep launches on schedule,” Krevor says. “Additionally, unlike with an earthbound launch, we will be able to fly over the ocean and other unpopulated areas, and reach a variety of orbital inclinations from a single aircraft mission. It allows commercial space customers to launch with us and send their payloads to one processing site, such as Mojave, but still reach multiple locations in space.” Another advantage of Stratolaunch’s launch vehicles and in-air platform is

“ONE OF OUR GOALS IS TO ENABLE CUSTOMERS TO USE OUR ROCKETPOWER TESTBEDS TO HELP THEM SOLVE PROBLEMS,” KREVOR SAYS.

PHOTOGRAPH

COURTESY OF STRATOLAUNCH

The dual-fuselage Stratolaunch carrier airplane made its first flight in April 2019.

that they will enable clients to test new satellite technologies. As satellites and sensors get smaller and easier to build, the number of organizations that can take advantage of space has grown exponentially. The problem is that advancements in launch capabilities haven’t kept up—and many payloads are stuck on the ground as a result. “One of our goals is to enable customers to use our rocket-power testbeds to help them solve problems and break through any technological barriers they might have,” Krevor says. A lot of development and engineering

work still needs to be done—there’s no official schedule for an in-flight rocket launch yet—but the company has still scored a number of successes over the years. Most recently, in April 2019, the signature, dual-fuselage Stratolaunch carrier airplane made its first flight. It achieved a maximum speed of 189 mph and flew for two and a half hours over the Mojave Desert, reaching altitudes as high as 17,000 feet. "There certainly was a lot of nervous excitement, but we were confident it was going to work,” Krevor says. “It was the culmination of years of careful planning

and engineering. The team prepared very hard for that first flight—and then seeing it finally take off, really jumping off the runway, was very satisfying.” Krevor’s fascination with space started in high school, when his class took a field trip to the NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. "I remember seeing a lot of the space flight hardware, seeing the large hangars and hearing the NASA engineers talk about the projects that they worked on, and how the the vehicles they were working on were actually going to fly in space,” Krevor says. “The GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

IN THE WORLD

MAX TAKEOFF WEIGHT: 650 TONS

(589,670 KILOGRAMS)

FUSELAGES: 2 (TWIN)

TAIL HEIGHT: 50 FEET

(15 METERS)

PAYLOAD WEIGHT: MORE THAN 500,000 POUNDS (227,796 KILOGRAMS)

OPERATIONAL RANGE: 1, 00 0 N A U T I C A L M I L E S (1,852 KILOMETERS)

THE STRATOLAUNCH C A R R I E R : BY THE NUMBERS TOTAL MISSION TIME: 10 H O U R S 40

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LENGTH: 238 FEET (73 METERS)

PROPULSION: 6 PRATT & WHITNEY PW4056 ENGINES (USED ON BOEING 747S)

WINGSPAN: 3 8 5 F E E T (117 METERS)

KEY PLANE FEATURES AIRCRAFT SHAPE

The innovative dual fuselage and high-wing design allow multiple launch vehicles (of various sizes and mass classes) to release from the aircraft centerline and below the wing for a much safer deployment.

ENGINES

Six Boeing 747 engines allow for a large payload capacity.

WINGSPAN

The reinforced center wing provides lift, stability and pylons that can support multiple launch vehicles weighing more than 500,000 pounds.

CONSTRUCTION

Built by American aerospace company Scaled Composites, the plane uses proven 747 engines, avionics, landing gear and flight controls for reliability, while its allcomposite structure maximizes range and lift capacity.

idea of working on a project that was going to fly in space started to become fascinating.” After earning his master's and doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech, Krevor went on to serve as both a reliability engineer and a propulsion analyst for the Lockheed Martin Orion program and was a member of Lockheed’s Altair Lunar Lander team. Most recently, he worked as a chief systems engineer on the Dream Chaser spaceplane program for Sierra Nevada Corp., where he helped develop the commercial crew variant and led the advanced development group. Krevor is widely respected in the aerospace field, recently recognized as an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and serves on the Space Systems Technical Committee. This past October, Stratolaunch was sold to a private investor group. It was previously reported that Allen's sister, Jody Allen, who is overseeing his estate, had put the company up for sale with an asking price of about $400 million. At the original company, Allen was influential, according to Krevor. “What I learned from him was to think about what should exist and then worry about how to make that happen,” Krevor says. He also credits his doctoral work at Georgia Tech for much of his success. “Going through the dissertation process,” he says, “I really improved my ability to take initiative, develop solutions o challenging problems and think about the big picture.” Krevor has seen the company's big ideas take flight, and his goal in leading Stratolaunch is to help other companies do the same in the near future.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

DOLLARS & SENSE

DRIVING CHANGE VIA DATA IN HEALTHCARE

TECH ALUMNA NALINI POLAVARAPU WENT FROM A SMALL TOWN IN INDIA TO THE LEADING EDGE OF DIGITAL INNOVATION AT BAYER.

BY A. MAUREEN ROUHI

M O R E T H A N 8 , 0 0 0 M I L E S separates Hyderabad, India, from Atlanta. That’s how far Nalini Polavarapu traveled in 2001 to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech and start her career journey, which has led her to the leading edge of innovation as the head of data science strategy for pharmaceutical and healthcare giant Bayer. “My parents did not go to college, and I grew up in a small town in India,” Polavarapu says.“I am a first-generation graduate and forever indebted to Georgia Tech for giving me the finest educational opportunity.” Polavarapu, MS BI 07, MS CS 07, PhD BI 07, plays a critical role for the Fortune 500 company in innovating to meet customers’ needs and increase corporate revenues. It’s an extremely challenging job because data-driven innovations are often disruptive and people are naturally resistant to change and the unknown. Also, it doesn’t get any easier when

A 9th grade photo of Nalini Polavarapu and her classmates at Little Flower School in Mudinepalli, Andhra Pradesh, India.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

the person leading the charge for change is a woman of color. While the cutting-edge technical prowess and knowledge she acquired at Georgia Tech has certainly helped Polavarapu successfully navigate turbulent waters throughout her career, it’s been her abundance of soft skills that has enabled her to bring employees, bosses and other stakeholders along for the ride. “I devote considerable amounts of time to cultivating leaders, looking for ways to encourage and persuade people to develop more than they are prepared to,” Polavarapu says. She’s also passionate about fostering inclusion and diversity in STEM fields, and leads the Women in Data Science network at Bayer. Always seeming to go above and beyond in her work, Polavarapu initially came to Georgia Tech to earn a master’s degree in bioinformatics. But when she left in 2007, she had in fact earned three degrees, including a master’s in computer science and a PhD in bioinformatics.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR PATH TO YOUR CURRENT POSITION? A: I came to the U.S. in 2001 to pursue a master’s degree. Back then, bioinformatics was a newly emerging field. It piqued my interest because of its interdisciplinarity and promise of finding solutions to global problems with massive societal impact. Georgia Tech was one of the few schools offering a master’s in bioinformatics back then. Because of its strong reputation in engineering and computer science, the Institute stood out to me. While at Tech, I was in awe of the intellectual prowess of the professors and students. I took advantage of the enormous learning opportunities, and I devoted myself to building

a strong foundation in STEM fields by taking as many classes as possible. What started as the pursuit of one degree led to the completion of three. When I got introduced to artificial intelligence (AI), it became my passion and has been the core of the degrees and projects I completed at Tech and beyond. As I was graduating, I came in contact with my current employer at a Georgia Tech career fair. A conversation led to a job offer, and I started as Bayer’s first data scientist-AI scientist. In this role, I had the unique opportunity to create innovations, build the team and influence the cultural change to drive the digital transformation of a global Fortune 500 company in a traditional life sciences industry.

Q: WHAT IS A TYPICAL DAY IN YOUR CURRENT POSITION? A: My role is to lead digital transformations that will drive personalized value for customers while providing top-line and bottom-line growth for our company. This involves creating inventions using digital technologies, applying these inventions to enable new business models, and influencing the organization at all levels to drive cultural change. I spend much of the day leading and attending business meetings with senior leaders, peers and partners, as well as coaching and mentoring direct and indirect reports and colleagues who seek advice. The rest of the day goes into preparing and organizing internal talks, events and meetings, researching and evaluating emerging technologies, contributing to our inclusion effort, representing Bayer at external venues, and personal development.

Q: WHAT HAS BEEN THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE SO FAR? A: We started the AI journey more than 10 years ago, long before it became as popular as it is today. Being in a traditional industry, I encountered huge cultural resistance and pushback. The AI inventions were not fully understood and were seen as replacing humans instead of being seen as enhancers of human life. In addition, we had no template or prior experience to guide us. I had to work hard, develop and adjust to overcome these challenges. I learned new ways of engaging and communicating what the technology can do for business, for people, and their roles. Luckily, I had mentors and champions who

advocated for me and helped me navigate the path.

Q: WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST GRATIFYING EXPERIENCE OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL CAREER SO FAR? A : I work for a company that is advancing life—using science and imagination to help better people’s lives by advancing health and nutrition. The inventions that came from my team will contribute to ensuring food security for 9 billion people by 2050. In addition, I feel so gratified when people I led or mentored tell me, “I developed under your leadership. Because I followed your advice, I have been selected for this accelerated career opportunity.” It is also satisfying to see that individuals who started in my team are now in senior leadership roles leading major transformations in our company and elsewhere. Q : W H AT I S T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T T H I N G Y O U L E A R N E D AT GEORGIA TECH TO MAKE YOU SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONALLY? A: Lifelong learning, initiative, hard work and perseverance. The computer science and mathematics classes and the dissertation experience at Tech gave me the strong foundation that enabled me to create disruptive AI innovations in the early years of my career. Georgia Tech has a very special place in my heart. Many times tears flow from my eyes when I think of the school and what it has given me. I developed into a whole individual and discovered myself at Tech. I have the same special sentiment for my mentor, John McDonald (professor of biological sciences). He believed in me more than I did—his belief made me stretch and strive more. He gave me autonomy to pursue my passion, while providing guidance and encouragement. Also the students and staff in the lab were my family in the U.S. I loved spending time with them. They gave me strong and much needed professional and personal support, and I am forever indebted to them. GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

L E T IT

RIDE 44

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CUTTING-EDGE TECH BAKED INTO A BIKE

PELOTON CO-FOUNDERS AND TECH ALUMNI

JOHN FOLEY AND YONY FENG TOOK A CHANCE ON A RISKY BUSINESS IDEA AND DISRUPTED THE EXERCISE INDUSTRY BY BRINGING HIGH-TECH INDOOR CYCLING CLASSES (AND MORE) INTO HOMES

WOR L DWIDE . STORY BY

KELLEY FREUND

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

JAZZERCISE. TAE BO. THE THIGHMASTER. 8-MINUTE ABS. The history of exercise is

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

KEITH BARRACLOUGH

PHOTOGRAPHS

crammed with fads that have come and gone. Which was why, when Georgia Tech alumni John Foley and Yony Feng announced that they were bringing the concept of on-demand content to the fitness world, a lot of people said it wouldn’t work. Except it did. Seven years later, Peloton—with internetconnected, indoor exercise bikes and treadmills, live and on-demand classes, taught by world-class instructors—has brought the energy and soTop: John Foley, IE cial motivation of studio-style workouts into 94, is a founder of Peloton and serves homes across the country. Hugh Jackman is a as its CEO. fan. So is Richard Branson, Jimmy Fallon and Kate Hudson. And so are more than 1.6 million other community members worldwide. As Peloton continues to roll out new technologies and expand to new markets around Bottom: Yony Feng, the globe, Foley and Feng believe their comCmpE 06, MS ECE 07, pany is poised to be one of the most influential is also a founder of consumer brands of the next decade. They’re Peloton and serves as its CTO. banking that 10 years from now, many of us will be saying, “Remember when we had to leave the house to go to a gym class?” As a student, Foley participated in Tech’s co-op program, which meant he attended classes in the winter and summer THE EUREKA MOMENT quarters and then worked as an engineer at the M&M/Mars Long before John Foley, IE 94, became CEO of Peloton—bemanufacturing plant in Waco, Texas, in the spring and fall. He fore he headed up e-commerce operations for Barnes & Noble returned to the plant after graduating, landing a plum job and and was at the helm of Evite and Pronto.com—there was a working there for six years as a production shift manager betime, growing up in Key Largo, Fla., when he thought he might fore moving on to a career exploring the burgeoning world of want to be a pilot. So his father, who worked for Delta Airlines, the internet. would take him flying over the Florida Keys. But it turned out During his stint at Barnes & Noble, Foley saw the Nook Foley was much more interested in looking for fishing holes reading device help disrupt a massive category of book retailthan learning to fly the plane. ing: With so many people consuming content through this And in high school when his SAT results arrived, revealing a new platform, the four-wall bookstore was becoming a dino220-point difference between his math and reading scores, he saur. Then one day in 2011, Foley was taking an indoor cycling knew he wouldn’t be studying history or English. So he headclass—one he barely had time for since the birth of his second ed towards Georgia Tech—named a “Best School for Your child—and he thought to himself: “Here’s another four-wall loMoney” in a copy of U.S. News and World Report that his dad cation. Why can’t this be digitized, too?” brought home—and a career in industrial engineering. The local gym could also go the way of the dinosaur.

“” THE ENTIRE GEORGIA TECH EXPERIENCE IS AKIN TO CREATING A STARTUP,” SAYS FENG. “YOU HAVE T0 BE RESOURCEFUL AND HAVE GRIT.

Putting a cycling class online, after all, would have many advantages to fitness consumers. People wouldn’t have to pay $30 every time they stepped into a boutique studio. It would also allow new parents or time-pressed professionals to take a class whenever they wanted. And it even had the possibility of improving the exercise experience. From his bike in class that day, Foley had to strain his neck around a pole to see the instructor. But he realized by positioning cameras around a studio and streaming the class to a consumer’s home, every viewer would have a front-row seat. Foley had spent the past 15 years in the consumer internet world, surrounded by websites, web apps and pure software. But spending all those years at the M&M/Mars manufacturing plant was about to pay off. “As I started to think about creating this new company, I found I wasn’t afraid of the hardware aspect,” Foley says. “I wasn’t afraid to create physical things, an earthly product.” The only problem? He didn’t know how to build that product. “That’s when I needed Yony,” he says.

Connected bikes and treadmills bring live

classes right into homes.

Feng says he often felt like he was drinking through a fire hose while he was a student at Tech, as he took classes for his undergraduate and master’s degree at the same time, but the Institute prepared him for what he thought he might want to pursue down the road: working for an early-stage startup. “The entire Georgia Tech experience is akin to creating a startup,” says Feng. “You have to be resourceful and have grit. Nothing is handed to you for free and when you look back, you’re always amazed at how far you can be pushed.” But Peloton was still a few years away. After graduating, Feng moved to Silicon Valley to work at Cisco on B2B software before he moved on to consumer-focused software—the textchat platform at Skype. For Feng, from a skill-set perspective, these jobs were indispensable. “It’s important to get a few years’ experience of applying what you learned in school and seeing how the juice is made before you’re running a manufacturing plant with the juice,” Feng says.

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

After immigrating to the United States from China when he was 8 years old and settling in Duluth, Ga., Yony Feng, CmpE 06, MS ECE 07, found himself taking a number of art classes in middle school and high school—and realized art was not something he should pursue any further. His father was a scientist who conducted research in the medical field, and Feng thought he might want to do something similar. However, the theoretical portion of science proved to be tougher than he thought. So he decided to study something far more practical at Georgia Tech—electrical and computer engineering.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

When Feng’s college roommate, who also knew Foley, told him about the Peloton idea, Feng was in a U-Haul truck driving to a new job at Ticketfly in San Francisco. He was pretty sure he wanted to come aboard at Peloton and wondered if he should even bother unpacking. Foley and Feng officially launched the company in February 2012 with three other business partners. A Schwinn stationary bike with a computer monitor rigged to the front was used as an early prototype, and Feng set out to prove he could get the Android app he created to talk to the hardware. Next, the team curtained off a section of the office for a “studio,” and began streaming their classes to a bike on the other side of the office; they then live streamed to someone’s living room. By August 2012, they had a prototype ready to show off to investors. But getting people interested in hardware proved to be, well, hard. Venture capitalists are not always interested in investing in companies with physical components, as those components can be expensive and complex to produce. Foley remembers pitching the product three times a day for four years, with 400 investors turning him down. At the time, he was cleaning the

Peloton office bathrooms himself because the company couldn’t afford to hire an office support staff and pay their engineers. Peloton turned to the internet and crowdsourcing for help. The company launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, 48

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

promising everything from water bottles to reserved usernames and a year of free classes. The company raised more than $300,000 through Kickstarter, and eventually traditional VC funding followed. By 2014, Peloton had its first bikes on the market.

IN THE SADDLE Peloton instructor Robin Arzon starts the cycling class by telling participants to bring the good vibes. “You don’t know me and you don’t know my style,” she sings as she dances on her bike. Then she gets serious and places her hands on the handles. She commands the class: “Turn up that cadence. I’m not holding back today!” Arzon and her workout are exactly what you would expect if you were to take a class at a high-end gym or Instructors broadcast live workout studio. But you’re at neither from Peloton's of these. You’re in your basement. studios in New Or living room. Or guest room. York and London. Wherever it’s most convenient. And you’re streaming Arzon’s workout through a Peloton bike which displays the action live on a high-tech screen inches from your face. Truly, you have a first-row seat, just as Foley imagined. Every month, Peloton features up to 950 live classes taught by instructors like Arzon, shot in three studios—two in New York and one in London. In case you can’t make it to your bike for a live class, Peloton also offers thousands of on-demand ones that members can stream at any time. And if cycling isn’t your thing, Peloton offers a mix of other workouts, from running (with the company’s new treadmill) to strength training to yoga and meditation (which you can stream with just the company’s app, no equipment required). This content—the instructor’s motivation, the music, the workout itself—is just part of what Peloton brings to your

A TIMELINE home. Through social software created by Feng and his engineering team, Peloton also makes you feel like you’re part of a community—and not working out alone in your basement. When members take a live class, their Peloton screens display a leaderboard, which participants can filter according to age group and gender. Also shown are location and statistics, such as output, a combined metric of a rider’s total cadence and resistance. If you see someone from your hometown is dragging during an uphill climb, you can send them a virtual high-five. And if you're taking an on-demand class, there is a “here now” leaderboard so you can see how you rank against everyone else riding at the same time as you, whether live or on demand. Instructors have their own software that displays details like how many workouts a participant has completed, and they use that information to interact with people working out at home. As Foley puts it, the teachers can break the “fourth wall” to congratulate you on your 100th ride. These interactions create an immersive, communal experience that can make you feel like you’re actually in a cycling class at the gym, without all of the inconveniences. “All of that is very easy to say,” Foley says. “I still don’t know how Yony built it.” As CTO and CIO, Feng oversees a team which ensures that Peloton’s streaming works for a large number of riders across the world and that all the leaderboard data is distributed successfully. That data comes from a console attached to each internet-connected bike. The console runs a customized operating system that gathers metrics from the bike, then aggregates the data and sends it to a cloud platform. Imagine all the data that had to be processed on Thanksgiving Day in 2018, when 19,700 people took a live “Turkey Burn” class, setting a world record for the largest ever live cycling class. Feng and his team push code daily to any one of the company’s platforms, and components continue to be tweaked and improved as the company invests in software and hardware engineers and new consumer-facing features. (Recently, Peloton announced controls that allow riders to independently adjust the volume of the instructor’s voice and the background music.) As of this fall, Peloton claimed it had more than 1.6 million members and had sold 577,000 of its connected fitness products. The company went public with an IPO on Sept. 26, 2019 and suffered a few first rocky months on Wall Street. But the results didn’t seem to faze the company’s founders regarding Peloton’s future. “We’re playing the long ball,” Foley said during an interview at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in October. “We’re playing for the next decade of building one of the special consumer brands.”

2012

Peloton founded in New York City.

2013

First Peloton Bike sold.

NOV.

First Peloton Showroom opened

2013 MAY

2014 APRIL

2017

in Short Hills, N.J.

Peloton Cycling Studio opened in New York City. Peloton launched partnership with Westin Hotels & Resorts. More than 11,000 riders joined

NOV.

2017

Robin Arzon’s annual Turkey Burn Ride and together set a Guinness World Record title for largest live cycling class.

JAN.

2018

Peloton announced the Peloton Tread, its second product.

During the XXIII Olympic Win-

FEB.

2018 MAY

2018 JUNE

2018 AUG.

2018 SEPT.

2018 OCT.

2018 NOV.

2018 DEC.

2018 SEPT.

2019

ter Games, Peloton live streamed four classes from NBC’s Primetime Broadcast Studio in PyeongChang.

Peloton Tread Studio opened in New York City. Peloton app and digital membership launched. Peloton received $550M Series F round of funding.

Peloton launched in the United Kingdom.

Peloton launched in Canada.

Peloton’s annual Turkey Burn ride broke the record for largest ever live ride, with 19,700 unique live riders.

Peloton Yoga Studio opened in New York City. Peloton issues IPO, floating 40 million shares of Class A common stock at $29 per share.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

BY THE NUMBERS The $1.2 billion raised from the IPO will allow for even more innovations from the company and for Peloton to be rolled out to more markets, Foley says. The company is investing money in another New York City studio, which Foley believes will be the best digital television streaming studio in the world. By April 2020, Peloton plans to have retail stores in six major cities across Germany, and they will be hiring instructors to teach classes in German, which will be produced in the company’s London studio. With plans to eventually have studios around the globe, each producing at least10 classes a day, Peloton seems poised to take over the home fitness world.

HEAVY RESISTANCE

Back in 2012, Peloton was so small they couldn’t even get people to call them back regarding music rights. (The company would go on to create a new category of music licensing rights and eventually purchase its own music technology platform, Neurotic Media, based in Atlanta.) Raising money has always been a challenge. And for the past eight years, it’s been hard to get people to believe in the future of Peloton, including, Foley points out, right now. “Fitness continues to have a lot of naysayers,” he says. “It’s been a hard category for decades with bad models, bad products, bad marketing and bad fads.” Feng says he underestimated how hard it would be to reverse those stereotypes. “There has been a lot of brand damage to the fitness industry over the years,” he says. “It's a constant challenge to change the image of fitness and shine a positive technology innovation angle to this industry. It continues to be a message that we have to consciously reinforce regularly.” That negative image is something that has impacted Pelo-

1.6 MILLION

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2000

members of the Peloton community

employees worldwide

More than

950

instructors across cycling, tread and yoga classes

classes produced monthly

More than

213 MILLION

55 MILLION

miles were collectively traveled by Peloton members in 2018

1000 S

workouts taken in fiscal year 2019

of on-demand classes

company,” Feng says. “It’s challenging to create a company from the ground up with such a wide and diverse need for engineering talent. You really have to navigate through what types of talent you can attract, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of your team, to be able to achieve that member experience.” Some articles and reviews of Peloton criticize the high price tag that comes with that member experience. Peloton’s bike is priced at $2,245, while you can expect to hand over $4,295 for the treadmill, plus a $39-per-month subscription for streaming content. The company’s ads feature Peloton products in high-end homes, suggesting that it’s a luxury brand geared to well-to-do consumers. But Foley says the idea that Peloton is for rich people is flat out wrong. In the company’s beginnings, Foley worked in the retail stores (and occasionally still does on weekends) and says he personally has sold hundreds of bikes to teachers. Close to

PEOPLE LOVE THEIR FITNESS PROGRAMS,” SAYS FOLEY. “AND THEY LOVE GOOD, THOUGHTFUL BRANDS . ton’s ability to recruit talent from day one. And another recruiting challenge stems from Peloton’s diverse technology needs, which include not just software engineers, but mechanical, industrial and electrical engineers. “We’re in a lot more disciplines than your average tech

Nearly

20 percent of bikes sold last year went to households making less than $75,000 in combined income, Peloton claims. In an effort to democratize fitness, the company offers financing plans (you can buy the bike for $58 a month), as well as digital-only subscription packages for strength, yoga, cardio stretching and meditation classes for $12.99. (The company claims nearly 106,000 subscriptions.) Some copycat outfits have popped up, marketing themselves as cheaper alternatives to Peloton. Echelon Fitness hit the market in 2018 with a similar product—so similar in fact that at a quick glance, the companies’ logos look the same. In October 2019, Peloton filed a lawsuit against Echelon, accusing them of infringing on patents and trademarks. The suit was not a first for the company. Last September Peloton sued Flywheel, claiming the company also copied its technology. (The lawsuit is ongoing, but Flywheel is in the process of shutting down more than a quarter of its cycling locations.) Other similar products are on the way. In August, Equinox, the parent company of SoulCycle, announced plans for its own streaming indoor cycling and treadmill classes. Still, Foley and Feng like Peloton’s chances, pointing out that the company has an almost 8-year head start and, now, a substantial balance sheet. And the company is incredibly dedicated to its subscribers. In the fall, Foley ventured out on a 15-city tour, having dinner with members to hear about their Peloton experiences and the software features and content they want more of. “Serving our members is our true north,” says Feng. “And we have an incredible team that is working together to achieve that. That’s the formula for staying ahead and being a market leader.”

A FIERCELY LOYAL FOLLOWING This past fall, 3,000 riders from 49 states descended on New York City for Peloton Homecoming, an annual convention of the company’s biggest fans. The concept for the event was born a few years ago when it was brought to the company’s attention that groups of people who had befriended each other through Peloton were coming together to meet in person, spend a weekend in the city and take a class at the studio. This migration was originally known as a Home Rider Invasion, and it was something that Peloton founders could not have predicted when they created the company. But now, various Facebook and Instagram communities have popped up, from Pelo-Foodies to Scuba Lovers of Peloton

to Pelowinos. Except for the brand’s official Facebook page, which has more than 200,000 members, and the Official Peloton Mom Group, these groups are run by members, with no involvement from Peloton. But the mingling doesn’t stop there. There has been at least one Peloton marriage—a couple who met on a Peloton message board. Tickets for the 2019 Peloton Homecoming sold out in 10 minutes, and fans braved long lines and rain to snap a photo with their favorite instructors. Some of the Peloton instructors have reached celebrity status, with hundreds of thousands of people following their social media feeds, and at this point, the job is a coveted position. In a recent search for new yoga instructors, the company interviewed 425 yogis across the country for three open positions. Perhaps most representative of the company’s loyal following are those who showed up to the Homecoming event brandishing Peloton tattoos. Certainly when Foley and Feng helped found the company in 2012, they didn’t think they would find their company’s logo permanently inked on their customer’s bodies. But perhaps it’s not so surprising in retrospect. “People love their fitness programs,” says Foley. “And they love good, thoughtful brands.” Both Foley and Feng are Peloton consumers. Foley uses his bike a few times a week. Feng is a new father and finds that holding a six-month old has taken a toll on his back and posture, so many mornings before work, he completes a 10-minute Peloton strength or stretching class while his daughter hangs out nearby. “At the end of the day, we’re working towards a vision that is benefiting the health of people all over the world,” Feng says. “I like seeing the impact Peloton has on people. That motivates me every day.” That’s good, because there’s so much more Foley and Feng want Peloton to accomplish. Five years ago, Foley points out there were just hundreds of people who loved Peloton. Today that number is 1.6 million, but he says that still feels small. He can’t wait to get Peloton into the homes of tens of millions of people around the world. “At our core, we our entrepreneurs—innovation and creation are in our blood,” says Foley. “We see Peloton as a several hundred-billion-dollar global tech platform and one of the most influential consumer brands in the next decade. We do not feel like we’re a big deal yet—we feel like those days are still ahead of us. We’re very hungry to come into work and someday realize all our dreams for the company and its impact.” GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

ANATOMY LIVING

OF A

BUILDING* GEORGIA TECHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW KENDEDA BUILDING OF INNOVATIVE SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PUSHES THE ENVELOPE OF WHAT AN ACADEMIC & RESEARCH FACILITY CAN BE. 52

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THE KENDEDA BUILDING

Text by Joshua Stewart & Roger Slavens

photos by Jonathan Hillyer

*WHAT MAKES A LIVING BUILDING Recognized as the most environmentally advanced educational and research facility of its kind in the Southeast, the Kendeda Building is projected to achieve Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification in 2021. To do so, the building must prove over a 12-month period of occupancy that it meets a series of ambitious performance requirements.

for Innovative Sustainable Design—newly completed and dedicated on Georgia Tech’s campus—rewrites the rules for sustainability in the Southeast United States. However, the Kendeda Building isn’t just sustainable—it’s actually regenerative. And it has reimagined from the ground up what a campus building can be. “The time for doing less harm is gone,” says Shan Arora, director of the Kendeda Building. “We need to have buildings that provide more than they take.” This broad guiding principle has produced a building that will, each year, generate more on-site electricity than it consumes, and collect and harvest more water than it uses. In fact, during construction, the building diverted more waste from landfills than it sent to them. “The Kendeda Building is an incredible and beautiful example of sustainable design, integration with nature, human inclusion and well-being,” says Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “It is the most sustainable building of its kind in the Southeast. And thanks to our partnership with the Kendeda Fund, it will inspire architects, civil engineers, business and policy leaders for generations to come.” In 2015, The Kendeda Fund committed $25 million for Georgia Tech to design and build a “living building” on campus in an effort to prove a regenerative building was practical even in the Southeast’s heat and humidity. An additional $5 million will support programming activities once the building is certified. The Kendeda Building is the first academic and research building in the Southeast designed to be certified as a living building by the International Living Future Institute. Over the next 12 months, it will have to prove its bona fides to earn Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification—delivering on its promise to be self-sufficient, healthy and beautiful while connecting people to light, air, food, nature and community. On the following pages, let’s take a closer look at the building’s sustainable design and how it is poised to meet the Living Building Challenge. GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

interior

RESTORATIVE DESIGN The facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expansive, open-space design offers nearly 46,000 sq. ft. of beautiful indoor and outdoor space. Following the Living Building Challenge 3.1 criteria, every occupied space has access to fresh air and daylight.

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LESSONS FROM MOTHER NATURE In total, the Kendeda Building features two 64-person classrooms, two class labs, a makerspace for testing design concepts, and an auditorium that seats 176.

INTERDISCIPLINARY USE The buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flexible, open space will enable students and faculty from across campus, in virtually all areas of study, to engage in problem-based learning exercises that will explore and teach the principals of sustainability. GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

details CONSTRUCTIVE PARTNERSHIP The Kendeda Fund committed to investing a total of $30 million in the Georgia Tech facility over the next several years. That includes the private funding of 100 percent of the design and construction costs, plus money to support programming activities.

ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS The facility intentionally has a limited materials palette: mostly wood with limited use of steel and concrete. The designers chose to leave several systems exposedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;such as several Big Ass Fans that do a lot oft the heavy lifting in circulating air inside. The exposed approach also helps to limit unnecessary and potentially harmful materials.

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A SECOND LIFE FOR TREES Wooden features of the building, including slatted ceilings, stair treads, and counters, were all made from recycled wood. Felled trees on campus were used for counters, and floor joists for the stairs came from the 2017 renovation of Tech Tower.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

exterior COME RAIN OR SHINE A huge canopy of 917 solar panels that cover the Kendeda Building helps mitigate the urban heat island effect by providing shade while capturing more than enough solar power to run the building. In addition to sustaining a rooftop garden, the panels help to channel rainwater so it can be collected and housed in a 50,000gallon cistern in the basement of the building.

NET-POSITIVE IMPACT The facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy use is expected to be about 72 percent more efficient than an average building of the same size. In fact, the solar array will harness more energy, and the water recycling systems will collect more water, than the building can consume. This makes it not just sustainable, but net-positive in impact.

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A TRANSFORMATIVE ENVIRONMENT Designed to operate as a true, living, learning laboratory, the Kendeda Building is not only a functional space, but also a beautiful one that will contribute to the health, wellbeing and happiness of the students, faculty and staff who use it.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

KING OF

HEARTS

BY BEN BRUMFIELD

Georgia Tech Professor Ajit Yoganathan, set to retire in 2020, invented the science of prosthetic heart valve engineering back in 1979. 60

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Mick Jagger owes some thanks for the fact he’s alive and strutting to Ajit Yoganathan and his lab crew. In fact, millions of people do. The rock icon received a replacement heart valve in the spring of 2019 in a New York City hospital, and Yoganathan has led the testing of every prosthetic heart valve design on the U.S. market for safety and effectiveness. His Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (CFM Lab) has served as a valve approval site for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for four decades. Yoganathan invented the science of prosthetic heart valve engineering in that lab at Georgia Tech in 1979. It is his signature achievement and the primary reason for his 2015 induction into the National Academy of Engineering. He and his fellow lab members have had a profound influence on prosthetic valve design—including the advanced model in Jagger’s chest. For surgeons and researchers seeking a deeper understanding of how the heart pumps blood and how to fix it when the flow goes wrong, Yoganathan and the CFM Lab crew are bigger icons than the Rolling Stones.

argues that Yoganathan’s revolutionizing of pediatric cardiac surgery outweighs his heart valve accomplishments. "To large heart valve companies, he’s a rock star," says Duke University's Dean of Engineering Ravi Bellamkonda. Yoganathan’s accolades fill pages, as do his titles. He is currently Regents Professor at Georgia Tech and Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. But he made his mark with a succinct nickname. “Crossing the ‘Dr. Y’ threshold was always important,” Ebeling says of the FDA valve approval process. “The ‘Dr. Y’ stamp of approval meant a lot.”

NOT ONE VALVE

Since he plans to retire in June 2020, it’s time to hold up Dr. Y’s Tech's Ajit Yoganathan is surrounded by images from surgical planning software, which he helped to develop.

PHOTOGRAPH

GEORGIA TECH

MEET ‘DR. Y’

“There just aren’t many people, frankly, in any industry with such universal name recognition and integrity,” says Phil Ebeling, retired chief technology officer at medical giant Abbott Laboratories. “There’s no part of the world that I go to where people don’t know of him,” says Pedro del Nido, professor of child surgery at Harvard Medical School and head of cardiovascular surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. Del Nido GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

‘Dr. Y’ reviews Doppler ultrasound heart recordings in Tech’s Weber Space Science and Technology Building in the late 1980s.

In 1974, as a graduate student, Yoganathan became interested in the functioning of natural and 62

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Testing an artificial heart valve in Yoganathan’s lab. This is the same technology used in Mick Jagger's procedure.

ROB FELT

A WORLDCHANGING LAB

PHOTOGRAPHS

legacy as inspiration for biomedical researchers to translate their science and engineering directly into patient benefit, an emphasis known as translational medicine. Dr. Y has advocated for it at Georgia Tech throughout his career while setting the best example of it—with the help of lab members and collaborators who possess complementary skills and resources. Dr. Y is the preeminent expert on replacement valve design, although he has not taken one valve to market himself, leaving that to professional valve makers. Not a physician himself, he also has not performed pediatric cardiac surgery—but in collaboration with surgeons, he helped transform it. His contributions arose at lab benches, lecterns, and computers. They drove more research progress to patient bedsides more quickly and economically than would have been possible through the traditional route of inventing new treatments and marketing them to clinicians. That process takes about a decade for one new medical device and costs hundreds of millions in development dollars. “A lot of people think translational is about forming startups and getting new drugs or devices patented,” Yoganathan says. “That’s one way, but there are other pathways.” Dr. Y has formed startups, but he has made the biggest difference with those “other pathways.”

replacement heart valves. Five years later, he founded his lab at Georgia Tech, intending to run it for three years. But in 1976, Congress passed Medical Device Amendments that gave the FDA authority over medical and diagnostic devices. Back then, there were no official lab testing procedures and no required preclinical or clinical trials for mechanical valves. The need for them was dire: Doctors were implanting new heart valve designs straight into patients who were desperate for anything to save their lives. “By necessity, valve makers had to build one, try one, build one, try one. There were a lot of failures,” says Paul Citron, a retired vice president at Medtronic and also a member of the National Academy of Engineering. “I remember a patient receiving about a dozen valves that failed until a successful valve was put in.” “I worked with the FDA to come up with the initial standards for valves and test protocols at the lab bench,” says Yoganathan, who also chairs the committee that oversees global valve standards at the International Organization for Standardization. Heart valve manufacturers began jumping ahead of the FDA to have Dr. Y’s lab inspect their work before submitting it for approval, and they used Yoganathan’s assessments and recommendations to make improvements. “Just about every new heart valve we designed went through initial testing in his lab to see if it worked, or sometimes he’d just test it on his own,” Phil Ebeling recalls.

“Just about every new heart valve we designed went through initial testing in his lab to see if it worked, or sometimes he’d just test it on his own.” —PHIL EBELING, ABBOTT LABORATORIES “Sometimes collaborating clinicians had us look at a valve even when the company they worked with would have rather avoided it,” Yoganathan says, chuckling. One way or the other, new heart valve designs eventually landed in his lab team’s hands.

Dr. Y’s overarching contribution was to end the guesswork. “Getting that accumulated knowledge of why a valve fails in the first place, to arrive at an artificial valve that works long enough to be worth putting in a human, is his grand achievement,” Citron says. Mick Jagger’s prosthetic heart valve was inserted through an innovative procedure called transcatheter valve replacement, and Citron gives much of the credit for its development to Dr. Y. “His body of work contributed heavily to the transcatheter valve,” Citron says. “His fingerprints are all over it.” An arterial catheter guides a prosthetic valve in a collapsed state through an artery to the heart, where a balloon expands the valve to replace the damaged natural valve, or to correct a narrowing in the aorta. Transcatheter procedures have saved thousands of adult patients for whom, in the past, open heart surgery was too risky.

PLANNING SAVES BABIES

Dr. Y and his teams expanded cardiovascular knowledge beyond valves with years of flow and physiology data gathered ELIMINATING THE GUESSWORK through ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, modThe physics of blood flow is wily. Add heart anatomy and physeling, and computer simulation. This led to the breakthrough iology, and their variation from patient to patient, effects of that pediatric surgeon del Nido values most: planning software hypertension and other diseases, age-related degeneration, for difficult cardiac surgeries in babies with deadly birth defects. genetics, heart valve materials and engineering, and it’s no surThough Dr. Y started pediatric surgery planning nearprise that heart valve developers and surgeons had to work for ly 20 years after first opening his lab, he faced that familiar so long by trial and error. trial-and-error dilemma in surgeons’ struggles to save babies’ lives. “Surgeons would try something. If it worked, they kept doing it,” del Nido says. “A lot of it was apprenticeship. ‘My mentor did it this way, so I do it this way, too.’ “Dr. Y pointed out ways to predict what surgery would do to blood flow. It meant we no longer had to do experimentation on children. It seems like an obvious concept, but it was a profound change in the field.” Pe di at r ic p at ients are chronically underserved in medical research. Especially with rare disorders, there are so few peYoganathan worked with the FDA to come up with the initial diatric patients that developing standards for valves and test protocols at the lab bench. new solutions can’t be financed. GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

Yoganathan at his induction into the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest engineering honors in the United States.

Yoganathan seized the opportunity for sweeping change, at a low cost, in a particularly vexing heart defect. “Roughly two in every 1,000 children born in the U.S. only have half a heart, only one ventricle that is functioning,” Yoganathan says. “I got the idea of making the surgeries for it more systematic by using surgical planning in a simulation.” “Now we can get patient-specific surgical solutions based on the anatomy and physiology of the individual,” says Kirk Kanter, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Emory University School of Medicine and a collaborator with Dr. Y on surgical planning. “We experiment with five or six surgeries on the computer to come up with optimal choices.” “There were others who dabbled at this, but no one with Dr. Y’s level of knowledge who could combine it with the resources he had at Georgia Tech, like in mechanical engineering or computer engineering. It was seamless for him but would have presented hurdles at many other institutions,” del Nido says. For the software’s development, Dr. Y tapped into the expertise of Jarek Rossignac, a professor in Georgia Tech’s College of Computing. Yoganathan also leveraged collaborations with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, clinical relationships that continue to benefit Georgia Tech.

loss from related existing procedures. Dr. Y put the device through initial preclinical studies. He and Jimenez launched a startup, APICA Cardiovascular Technologies Inc., to generate interest. Then the Great Recession hit. Five years later, in 2014, the device sold to a company that was subsequently acquired by Abbott, which is now considering the device for further development. Dr. Y views delays and setbacks calmly. “I had a lot of insight into startup companies because I consulted a lot for them and saw many of them fall by the wayside,” says Yoganathan, who adopted a more organic approach to his own startups. “Keep your eyes open, and opportunities will come. If you start off just wanting to invent something out of the blue, it probably won’t work,” he says.

A BIOMEDICAL ARMY

Dr. Y has ensured that others will carry on translational cardiology once he leaves Georgia Tech, where he led the creation of PhD programs in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, the latter a collaboration with Emory. He has trained more than 50 PhD students and as many master’s graduates, and he happily shares the spotlight with them whenever his work is recognized. “He collects smart people around him and orchestrates what they all do,” Kanter says. “He brings out the best in them. It’s all about the group. It’s never about him.” Dr. Y will leave behind enough work for future heart valve researchers. “Valvular disease is very complex. We can fix damage, but we are still trying to understand some of the deep biological causes,” Yoganathan says. As retirement beckons next summer, he envisions himself relaxing and watching his legacy ripple across fields and generations in the continuing quest to improve patients’ lives.

THAT STARTUP PATH

The course taken by one particular medical device illustrates why patenting and marketing devices is, for Yoganathan, the road less traveled. Dr. Y co-developed the device with one of his former Ph.D. students, Jorge Jimenez, and surgeons at Emory to reduce the need for open-heart surgery. It’s a conduit to enter the heart through the tip of the left ventricle, and it sharply reduces blood 64

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Read More About Research Sign up to receive the Institute's monthly research e-newsletter or twice-yearly Research Horizons magazine at: www.rh.gatech.edu/subscribe.

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association partners exclusively with Liberty Mutual to help you save $782 or more a year on auto and home insurance.1

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For a free quote, call 888-618-2146 or visit Libertymutual.com/gtalumni Client # 5906 This organization receives financial support for offering this auto and home benefits program. 1 Average combined annual savings based on countrywide survey of new customers from 1/1/15 to 1/29/16 who reported their prior insurers’ premiums when they switched to Liberty Mutual. Savings comparison does not apply in MA. 2 Based on Liberty Mutual Insurance Company’s 2014 Customer Satisfaction Survey in which more than 81% of policyholders reported their interaction with Liberty Mutual service representatives to be “among the best experiences” and “better than average.” 3 For qualifying customers only. Accident Forgiveness is subject to terms and conditions of Liberty Mutual’s underwriting guidelines. Not available in CA and may vary by state. 4 With the purchase of optional Towing & Labor coverage. Applies to mechanical breakdowns and disablements only. Towing related to accidents would be covered under your Collision or Other Than Collision coverage. 5 Optional coverage in some states. Availability varies by state. Eligibility rules apply. Coverage provided and underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance and its affiliates, 175 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116. ©2018 9 Liberty Mutual Insurance Valid through December 13, 2018.

VOLUME 95

ALUMNI HOUSE

ISSUE 4

HOMECOMING HOOPLA From the Ramblinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Wreck Rally Tailgate to milestone reunions and group parties, the 2019 Homecoming Weekend proved to be an absolute blast, with fun had by all ages.

GOLD & WHITE HONOREES

ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT

RAMBLINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ROLL

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

ALUMNI HOUSE

A NEW GOLD STANDARD

THESE EIGHT ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF GEORGIA TECH TRULY HELP TO MAKE THE INSTITUTE SHINE. PROFILES BY ROGER SL AVENS / PHO T OGRAPHS BY KAYLINN GIL S TRAP E V E R Y Y E A R S I N C E 1 9 3 4 , the Georgia Tech Alumni Association has recognized the Ramblin’ Wrecks who stand out not only for their professional accomplishments, but also for their service to society and the Institute. They are business and education leaders, engineers and scientists, innovators and pillars of their communities. And they’ve

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made our world a much better, brighter place. The 2020 Gold & White Honors recipients represent the best of Georgia Tech—its alumni, faculty, staff and friends. Let’s meet the eight individuals we’ve singled out for their contributions and successes to be honored in Atlanta this February at the 2020 Gold & White Honors Gala.

VA L E R I E M O N T G O M E RY RICE, CHEM 83 PRESIDENT OF THE MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

V A L E R I E M O N T G O M E R Y R I C E has been a pioneer throughout her stellar medical career. She’s the sixth president of the Morehouse School of Medicine and the first woman to lead the institution. She’s a worldrenowned infertility specialist and researcher and has held leadership roles at health centers around the country. That includes serving as the founding director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color. But if you ask this distinguished Georgia Tech alumna what her greatest accomplishment is—and what she still strives to do every day—she will say it’s “changing the paradigm of who can be trained in medicine.” Montgomery Rice adds: “We need greater diversity in the field. We have to continue empowering black men and women, and other underserved minorities, to pursue higher education and medical degrees.” After all, the data shows that when everyone works together, learns from one another and develops cultural awareness and empathy, the medical profession and the level of care it provides advances, she says. “I’m most proud of the fact that the Morehouse School of Medicine has been on the forefront of the discussion and efforts on diversity,” Montgomery Rice says. Her leadership role extends far into the medical community, both in Atlanta and across the nation. She’s a member of several influential boards, including

DEAN GRIFFIN COMMUNIT Y SERVICE AWARD

Recognizes alumni who have performed exemplary community service in the following ways: Service in a long-term volunteer capacity, impact on the quality of life of others, leadership and creativity in dealing with societal problems, and ability to serve as a source of inspiration for others.

the National Academy of Medicine, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, the Horatio Alger Association and many others. Montgomery Rice went to Georgia Tech to become an engineer, and though she ultimately decided to switch to a chemistry degree before heading off to Harvard Medical School, she often draws upon her experiences at the Institute as a source of great resolve. “Tech prepared me for a life of study and rigor and discipline,” she says. “My coursework was difficult and very humbling at the time, but as I look back I now know how invaluable it was to building up my confidence and determination.”

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

JAMES “JIM” R. BORDERS, ME 83 PRESIDENT-CEO OF THE NOVARE GROUP

AFTER SPENDING MORE THAN A YEAR of his life working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico—both as a summer engineer and in his first job after graduating from Georgia Tech—Jim Borders abruptly realized he really didn’t want to be a mechanical engineer after all. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do instead exactly—maybe business, maybe law—but I was a good problem solver and wanted to solve a different set of problems,” Borders says. So he shifted gears and earned a joint JD/MBA degree from a certain university northeast of Atlanta. However, Borders says, it was his time at Tech studying engineering and honing his problem-solving skills that formed a foundation for excelling in his new studies. And it helped propel him into a succesful career in real-estate development. “It started when I had an opportunity to buy a self-storage facility here in Atlanta,” Borders says. “I had spent a few years as an attorney, then some time as a turnaround consultant, but I felt that entrepreneurial tug to build a business. I passed the hat around to my friends, and was able to make that first purchase with their help.” It was one of the best decisions he ever made. Bolstered by early success, Borders began to invest in more storage facilities, office buildings and, eventually, apartment buildings and condominiums. The company he founded, the Novare Group, grew rapidly: Since 1998, Novare has overseen the development of more than 15,000 residences in 48 communities around the country, including the “SkyHouse” brand and 38 high-rises. Novare also redeveloped the historic Biltmore Hotel and sold it to the Georgia Tech Foundation. Always inclined to share the rewards of his success, Borders quickly turned to his alma mater to pay it forward. “The first thing I really got involved with was giving to the Alexander-Tharpe Fund,” he says. Borders has also played an instrumental role in the growth of Tech Square and the City of Atlanta as centers for innovation. He serves on the board of Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures LLC, a non-profit where he and his wife Sarah have focused their philanthropy and which supports technology startups and research activities at Georgia Tech.

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JOSEPH MAYO PETTIT DIS TIN GUISHED SERVICE AWARD The highest award conferred by the Alumni Association, honoring alumni who have provided outstanding support of the Institute and Alumni Association throughout a lifetime and who have provided leadership in their chosen professions and local communities.

ANDREA L. LALIBERTE, IE 82, MS IE 82 FORMER COACH INC. EXECUTIVE AND GEORGIA TECH EXECUTIVE IN RESIDENCE

S O M E T I M E S C L AS S R E U N I O N S provide the spark for a new chapter in life. In the case of Andrea Laliberte, with her 25th reunion from Georgia Tech approaching, she found herself marveling at all the Institute had done for her and her career. And she wanted to give back. “Not just as a thank you, but also to give future students that same opportunity I had to attend Tech and succeed,” Laliberte says. In the midst of a stellar 19-year career as a top executive at Coach Inc., from where she eventually retired as senior vice president of distribution, Laliberte knew she had real-world expertise she could share with new generations of Yellow Jackets. She joined the Georgia Tech and Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) Advisory Boards in 2008, then was elected as a trustee of the Alumni Association in 2011. Two years later, she joined Tech full-time as the Edenfield Executive in Residence and a Professor of the Practice in ISyE, where she got the opportunity to teach students about real-world applications of their studies, develop their leadership skills and advise them on their career paths. “I run into my former students and I’m always so humbled to see the impact I’ve had on their lives,” Laliberte says. “Teaching and advising them proved to be the most rewarding part of my second career.” Laliberte is a past chair of the Alumni Association Board, and currently serves as trustee for the Georgia Tech Foundation and sits on the Alexander-Tharpe and College of Engineering Boards. She created two endowed scholarships—one that she says is academic-based for out-of-state, women engineering students, and another that is designed to support a student-athlete who plays on the women’s basketball team.

“In my first semester as an executive-in-residence at Tech, I rented a two-bedroom apartment in the graduatefamily housing complex near McCamish Arena,” she says. “I found myself going to women’s basketball games regularly and wound up getting directly involved with the team. I was lucky to be able to help them afford to go on their international trip—which is a great experience for student-athletes who don’t often get an opportunity to study abroad.”

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

THE HONORABLE JOHN J. YO U N G , J R . , A E 8 5 PRINCIPAL OF JY STRATEGIES

JOHN YOUNG ALWAYS KNEW he wanted to be an engineer. He also knew from a young age that he wanted to work in Washington, D.C., on military programs and policy. Sure enough, with ample know-how and grit he learned as an aerospace student at Georgia Tech, he accomplished both of his lifelong goals. Young did well in math and science in high school, and found his way into Tech, even though it was a financial hardship for him and his mother. So he took advantage of Tech’s co-op programs and worked eight quarters for General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas, earning money so he could stay in school while gaining real-world experience working on the F-16 fighter program. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor spoke at Tech about the need for more engineers to participate in the Washington policy process. Motivated by her comments, Young applied and was selected for the U.S. Senator Sam Nunn Intern Program, where he did a research project on the Strategic Defensive Initiative (better known as Star Wars) proposed by President Ronald Reagan. For one quarter, he was living his dream at this critical intersection of technology, politics and policy. After successful stints as an engineer at BDM and Rockwell International, he received a fellowship from Sandia National Laboratories to go to D.C. and pursue his passion for defense. He served on the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee reviewing defense research programs. He was nominated by George W. Bush for three Pentagon positions—finally serving as the Under Secretary for Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, where he advised the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries of Defense on $200 billion of defense programs and led a workforce of more than 126,000. He left the DoD in 2009 and founded JY Strategies, a consulting firm that provides strategic insight to companies who work on defense programs. Despite his time away in Washington, D.C., Young still was able to find opportunities to stay engaged with Tech. He was asked to join the Aerospace Engineering School Advisory Council, on which he still serves as chair emeritus. He’s also been a Tech parent, with two of his sons earning their degees from the Institute.

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A R C H E L B E R N A R D , S T C 11 HEAD BOMBCHEL IN CHARGE OF THE BOMBCHEL FACTORY, MONROVIA, LIBERIA

A R C H E L B E R N A R D I S T R U LY A F O R C E O F N AT U R E and fashion. After graduating from Georgia Tech in 2011, she returned to her ancestral homeland of Liberia to find opportunities to celebrate African style and culture. She was born in America to refugees from a nation that was still struggling to rebound from a brutal cival war. By 2014, Bernard found herself in the midst of another deadly disaster in Liberia: An Ebola outbreak had begun to devastate the country. But Bernard didn’t back down. After leaving briefly for her safety, she came back more determined than ever to start an ethical fashion company—The Bombchel Factory—and provide disadvantaged women opportunities to develop workplace skills and become self-sufficient. Despite the long odds she faced, Bernard succeeded. “It’s been a challenge, but The Bombchel Factory is now self-sustaining and growing,” Bernard says. “Ethical fashion is becoming more popular all over the world, and we get a lot of love for what we do.” What’s most important to Bernard are the women she’s helped. “My first employee, Beatrice, is an Ebola widow who is my same age,” Bernard says. “When she first came to us, she couldn't even write her name. Since then she has learned how to sew, of course, but also how to read and write. Beatrice is the breadwinner of her family and she’s able to pay for her daughter to go to school.” Overall, Bernard says that 25 women have come through her workplace training program to learn skills from pattern-making to accounting. “In a country where education is severely lacking, we are proving that learning a few, key skills can be the way out of poverty for women,” she says. Bernard’s clothing can be purchased online through The Bombchel Factory store. Her sportswear has been

OUT S TANDIN G YOUN G AL UMNI AWARD

The award is given to Georgia Tech alumni who have not reached their 40th birthday by February 13, 2020, and who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and service to Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, the community and their profession.

featured annually at New York Fashion Week and in several international magazines. More fashion shows are planned for the future, and Bernard is spending more of her time in Atlanta—and on Tech’s campus—trying to expand the market in the United States for her clothes while exploring other new projects.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

J O H N A . H A N S O N , I E 11 CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER & PORTFOLIO MANAGER, RIVERSTONE ADVISORS LLC

W H E N J O H N H A N S O N was an industrial engineering student at Georgia Tech, he helped set up the Student Alumni Association and took full advantage of its fledgling Mentor Jackets program, which pairs students with alumni in their fields. He was surprised to be matched with Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer, IE 89. But that mentor-student pairing showed Hanson that you could—with great success—apply a Tech engineering background to virtually any industry. While Ehmer went into the restaurant business to much success, Hanson has quickly made his mark in the wealth management, personal finance and banking fields. “Not surprisingly, you’re seeing financing and investing companies recruit more and more engineers,” Hanson says. “Solid analytical and problem-solving skills are in high demand.” Today, following stints as an analyst for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Porsche Cars, Hanson puts his data-crunching expertise to work for clients at Riverstone Advisors, where he manages approximately $190 million in assets for individuals and families across the United States. “As much as I like the analytical side of this business—digging into the details—I also really love the personal aspect of it,” he says. “It’s very fulfilling to know that I’m helping people make smart investing decisions so they can best provide for their families and future generations.” Because he got so much out of his mentoring experience at Tech, Hanson volunteers every academic year to pay his success forward and help current Yellow Jacket students. “I give them advice on career development, how to get a headstart on personal finance, and point out experiences they should take advantage of while they’re still at Tech,” he says. Hanson has also been heavily engaged with the Alumni Association on numerous fronts since he graduated, serving as a member of the Young Alumni Council and as the president of the Dekalb County Alumni Network. He and his wife, Stephanie Hanson, CS 12, have their first baby on the way and can’t wait to bring her to games and indoctrinate her into the Georgia Tech family.

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OUT S TANDIN G YOUN G AL UMNI AWARD

JOSEPH “JOE” R. BANKOFF PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, SAM NUNN SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

ONE OF JOE BANKOFF’S GRE ATEST SKILLS is the ability to bring out the best in the people around him. His leadership and teambuilding abilities—not to mention his close relationship with former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn—led Georgia Tech to recruit him to chair the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs after he had spent the previous six years as president-CEO of Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center. Originally an attorney by training and an expert in intellectual property law, Bankoff worked at King & Spalding for 34 years, rising to senior partner. In fact, it was at the Atlanta law firm that he began his long-term association with the Institute. In 1998, he helped fellow law partner Nunn, who joined King & Spalding after retiring from the U.S. Senate, create the first Nunn Policy Forums at Georgia Tech. Today these forums still bring together top minds—across a variety of fields and sectors—to discuss critical policy issues at Tech. When recruited by Provost Rafael Bras and then President G.P. “Bud” Peterson to lead the Sam Nunn School at Tech, he asked Nunn for advice. “Sam told me to take the position, even though I had a JD, not a PhD,” Bankoff says. “I wasn’t looking for a job, but the three of them thought I could help elevate the school.”

HON ORARY AL UMNI AWARD

Honors any non–alumni who have devoted themselves to the greater good of Georgia Tech. The Alumni Association’s Executive Committee selects and approves the recipients for this award.

Under his direction, the Sam Nunn School has thrived. “I soon found out how extraordinarily talented the faculty was, and in a surprisingly wide range of fields—from international affairs to economics to modern languages,” Bankoff says. “I was energized by the breadth and depth of courses we could offer students. My role was simply to be a facilitator and grow everyone in their strengths.” Bankoff also recruited more top talent to join the school, including two distinguished Tech alumni from the highest ranks of the U.S. military: former Navy Admiral Sandy Winnefeld, AE 78, and Army General Philip Breedlove, CE 77. Today he still co-teaches the popular “Global Issues and Leadership” course alongside them, delving into the hot-button topics facing the world. Even though Bankoff stepped down as chair earlier this year, he remains an engaged Professor of the Practice.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

VA L E R I E “ VA L” HOPPE PETERSON FORMER FIRST L ADY AND QUEEN BEE OF GEORGIA TECH

VAL PETERSON will likely never be forgotten as Tech’s “Queen Bee.” For 10 years, she created her own buzz across the Institute, publicly championing student and faculty causes while she supported her husband, Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson, in a true work-life partnership. And though she’s now retired, she is still a regular presence on campus and an unbridled force of personality and positivity. “When one door closes, another one opens,” says Peterson, who is enjoying a welcome change-of-pace from the intensity of being “all in for all things Georgia Tech” over the past decade. She’s now able to focus on other things that matter dearly to her that often lost out to the demands of the Institute—namely, her family (including a 3-year-old grandson and 6-month-old twin granddaughters) and her passion for yoga. A teacher by training—specifically the Spanish language at all levels—she still teaches yoga classes for students in family housing on Tech’s campus. “Immediately after stepping down as First Lady, I took my Level 4 yoga training,” she says. “I’ve been certified in yoga for years, but this has really stretched my horizons being able to explore its rich history and philosophy alongside its physical aspects.” Reflecting on her tenure at the Institute, Peterson is proudest of being a vocal advocate for change. She served as a campus leader and advisor for a number of mental health initiatives over the years. That included acting as the chief spokesperson for Tech Ends Suicide Together, a zero-suicide initiative that she presented to the Association of American Universities Parners in Washington, D.C., this past April. She’s also acted as a mentor to a variety of students and their campus organizations, and was involved with a number of programs aimed at improving diversity across Tech. In June, the couple was honored by the creation of a new G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Scholarship Endowment Fund. With a grant coming from the Georgia Tech Foundation and pledges from more than 100 Tech alumni and friends that has so far totaled over $17 million, it is the largest single scholarship fund established in Institute history.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

HON ORARY AL UMNI AWARD

Honors any non–alumni who have devoted themselves to the greater good of Georgia Tech. The Alumni Association’s Executive Committee selects and approves the recipients for this award.

ALUMNI HOUSE

#SQUAD GOALS

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION’S AFFINITY GROUPS PROVIDE RAMBLIN’ WRECKS A WAY TO CONNECT BASED ON SHARED INTERESTS, EXPERIENCES AND AFFILIATIONS. BY KAT BALLOU AND ROGER SL AVENS

T H E R E A R E M A N Y W A Y S Ramblin’ Wrecks can stay actively engaged with Georgia Tech, even if you’re no longer near campus. You might know about the Alumni Networks based in key cities and regions across the country, ranging from Miami to Seattle and lots of places in between. And more and more networks keep popping up around the globe, too, to help alumni stay connected to your alma mater. Yellow Jackets also like to congregate not just by geographic proximity, but also by shared interests, experiences and past student affiliations (such as sports clubs, band and more). Affinity Groups help bring like-minded alumni together for special programs

and events, community service efforts, philanthropic drives and networking events—both social and professional. Each group is led by a board of volunteers and supported by the Alumni Association, but raise their own funds and plan their own activities. Currently, the most active groups are the Women Alumnae Network and the Black Alumni Organization. But new Affinity Groups keep taking shape by interested alumni, including most recently ones for the legal community and Chinese and Hispanic alumni. The GT Bar Association group supports alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends who perform legal services or are considering a career change to

the legal field. Meanwhile, the Chinese Alumni Network and Hispanic Alumni Network promote and facilitate the engagement of those who identify with those cultures. Interested in joining an Affinity Group? Visit gtalumni.org/community.

G T W O M E N A L U M N A E N E T W O R K W A N T S YO U THE GEORGIA TECH WOMEN ALUMNAE NETWORK (GT WAN) is the premier networking

Atlanta include Book Club on Jan. 14, a

group for women graduates of Geor-

Self-Defense Course on Feb. 23, and the

gia Tech. The goal: Bring together Tech’s

group’s signature event, the Women’s

best and brightest to encourage, inspire

Day Forum on March 7. The Women’s

and inform. This Alumni Association

Day Forum is a full-day program featuring

Affinity Group offers networking oppor-

keynote speakers, interactive workshops

tunities and career-oriented resources as

and panel discussions followed by a net-

it explores contemporary women’s issues

working hour.

Upcoming 2020 GT WAN events in

such as work-life balance, career paths

Want to get involved? Learn more at

and women’s health. Most importantly,

www.gtwan.gtalumni.org and follow

though, GT WAN offers fun, engaging

GT WAN on social media: Facebook

and informative events that appeal to all

@gatechwan, Twitter @gatechwan,

women no matter in what stage of life you

LinkedIn @company/gtwan, and Insta-

may find yourself.

gram @gatech_wan.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

ALUMNI HOUSE A L U M N I S TA F F SPOTLIGHT:

5 QUESTIONS WITH GERRI ELDER, DONOR RELATIONS AND STEWARDSHIP MANAGER WHEN GERRI ELDER joined the staff of the Alumni Association in 2000, she had already had a remarkable and diverse career. She served as the chief of staff to legendary Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson in the 1970s—the first woman ever to hold that role. She was Atlanta's commisioner of parks, recreation and cultural affairs, and in the 1980s for Mayor Andrew Young, worked with Coretta Scott King and the (MLK Jr.) King Center. A few decades earlier, she competed in the Miss Chicago beauty pageant and modeled for both Jet and Ebony Magazines. Today, at age 82—a fact which surprises most who meet the youthful and energetic Elder— she serves as the “voice” of Roll Call, Georgia Tech’s Fund for Excellence.

Q: HOW DID YOU JOIN THE STAFF OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION? A : After an extended time abroad as an entrepreneur in the Caribbean, I returned to serve Mayor Jackson again in the early 1990s. I left his office in 1994 to look for a new direction outside of politics, and I shopped around for what I was going to do in the next stage of my career—a stage when most people might consider retiring. I took a job as a “do everything” temp at the Alumni Association and then was offered a full-time position, which has grown in responsibility over the years.

Q: WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR ROLE? A : I act as a steward for our alumni 78

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

donors, making sure their gifts are carefully accounted for, working with the Association’s gift entry and biographical records departments, as well as Georgia Tech’s development and foundation offices. In many ways, my job resembles that of a concierge—providing the same personal service to our alumni as would a concierge at a highend hotel or cruise ship. I communicate with many of them on a daily basis and I treat them all as my valued clients. Making sure they’re happy and well cared for is my favorite part of the job. Having a satisfied alum brings rewards to Georgia Tech, its mission and, ultimately, its students.

country, they’re proud of their ability to be able to pay their successes forward to the current generation of Ramblin’ Wrecks.

Q : W H AT A R E Y O U M O S T P R O U D O F I N YOUR WORK AT THE ASSOCIATION? A: I’m very proud to be part of a team that has a great impact on Georgia Tech's people and programs. In particular, I’ve really enjoyed shepherding the Roll Call “Buy Back Program,” which allows alumni who have missed a few years here and there to fill in the gaps in their consecutive years of giving. Our alumni are very proud of their time here as students, and now as graduates of one of the greatest institutes in the

Q : YOU’VE CERTAINLY PERSEVERED AT T H E A L U M N I AS S O C I AT I O N . W H Y H AV E YOU STAYED SO LONG AND INTO YOUR 80 s, NO LESS? A: Next year—2020—will be my 20th year with the Association and I still love my job. Besides, I think my youthfulness comes from the many students who work in our office and surround me daily. Being around them brings a certain kind of magic, and I hope to stay in this magical role as long as I can.

Q: SPEAKING OF WRECKS, TELL US THAT FUNNY STORY ABOUT BEING IN THE MISS CHICAGO PAGEANT. A: During the evening gown competition, I went up the stairs, tripped on my gown and fell flat right in front of the judges. But my excellent rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow for the talent presentation must have saved me. I was still named second runner-up out of 15 contestants. I persevered, as I do in most things I take on.

—ROGER SLAVENS

ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 1 9 F I S C A L Y E A R

SEE HOW THE PAST YEAR PROVED TO BE AN INCREDIBLY SUCCESSFUL ONE FOR YOUR ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IN TERMS OF IMPACT AND ENGAGEMENT.

A L U M N I B Y S TAT E , T O P 5

GEORGIA

58%

166,872

T O TA L T E C H A L U M N I A R O U N D T H E W O R L D ALUMNI BY COLLEGE

#2 8 %

FLORDIA

SCIENCES 13 , 212 – 8% DESIGN 9,333 – 6%

ENGINEERING 99,290 – 60% BUSINESS 23,823 – 14 %

COMPUTING 15 , 0 51 – 9%

CALIFORNIA

LIBERAL ARTS 5,320 – 3% UNDESIGNATED 798 – 0%

A L U M N I B Y G R A D U AT I O N D E C A D E

2 01 0 s 2 0 0 0 s 19 9 0 s 19 8 0 s 19 7 0 s 19 6 0 s 19 5 0 s 19 4 0 s 51,379

36,035

26,821

22,325

15,733

9,363

4,418

743

31%

22%

16%

13%

N. CAROLINA

TEXAS

54%

OF GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI H AV E G R A D U AT E D S I N C E 2 0 0 0 NOTE: NUMBERS AS OF NOV. 30, 2019. SOME TOTALS MAY NOT ADD UP TO 100%.

A L U M N I B Y C O U N T R Y, T O P 5 ( O U T S I D E U . S . )

#3 FRANCE

#1 INDIA

#2 CHINA

SWITZERLAND

S. KOREA

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

A S S O C I AT I O N F I N A N C E S REVENUES GT Foundation

FISC AL YEAR 2019

BUDGET

ACTUAL

VARIANCE

$4,862,000

Georgia Tech

635,544

599,381

(36,163)

Advertising & Sponsorships

390,000

97,515

(292,485)

Career Services

255,000

84,850

(170,150)

Tours

120,000

228,708

108,708

Merchandise Sales (Net of Cost of Sales)

9,000

12,525

3,525

Royalties

9,000

33,028

24,028 18,220

Event Registrations

204,324

222,544

Other Sources of Revenue

174,071

249,465

75,394

480,000

442,295

(37,705)

$7,138,939

$6,832,311

($306,628)

BUDGET

ACTUAL

VARIANCE

Gold & White Honors Gala/Contributions Total Revenues

EXPENDITURES Administration & HR

$1,808,037

$2,317,442

$509,405

Technology

764,100

727,900

(36,200)

Career Services

289,300

353,976

64,676

Communications

702,880

640,676

(62,204)

Alumni Relations & Tours

403,900

386,301

(17,599)

Roll Call

726,700

378,175

(348,525)

Campus Relations

542,285

359,324

(182,961)

Event Management

1,191,087

1,171,314

(19,773)

Marketing Services

581,150

590,539

9,389

Business Development

129,500

12,026

(117,474)

$6,937,673

($201,266)

$0 ($105,362)

($105,362)

Total Expenditures Excess (Deficiency) of revenue over expenses

$7,138,939

A S S E T S Cash and Cash Equivalents

2019

2018

$583,334

$509,690

Accounts Receivable less Allowance for Doubtful Accounts of $3,000 in 2019 and $3,000 in 2018 86,079 Prepaid Expenses 29,408

126,473 71,321

Inventory 6,836 9,032 Investments 290,674 277,773 Property, Plant and Equipment, net 296,730 Antique Ramblinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Wreck

Total Assets

L I A B I L I T I E S A N D N E T A S S E T S

296,577

12,500 $1,305,561

12,500 $1,303,366

2019

2018

LIABILITIES Accounts Payable $509,926 $309,650 Accrued Expenses 274,353 Total Liabilities

350,071

$784,279

$659,721

Net Assets Without Donor Restrictions

$521,282

$643,645

Total Liabilities and Net Assets

$1,305,561

$1,303,366

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR DEAR FELLOW ALUMNI, what an exciting time to be a Yellow Jacket! Georgia Tech continues to ascend to new heights in academics, research, innovation and campus life and we’ve recently seen many new stories begin to unfold across campus. It truly is a privilege to serve as your chair of the Alumni Association for the 2020 fiscal year, and I want to give special recognition to Bird Blitch, IE 97, for his service and leadership as chair during the previous 12 months. This past summer, as we closed out fiscal year 2019, we had an opportunity to thank G.P. “Bud” Peterson for serving as Georgia Tech’s 11th president over the past 10 years. Bud, along with his wife, Val, have left an amazing legacy, with Georgia Tech reaching not only $1 billion in research funding—a major milestone—but also our alma mater propelling to status as a top 5 public university in the country, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. The Institute’s motto of “Progress and Service” is indeed alive and well! This fall, we welcomed Ángel Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, back to campus and celebrated his investiture as Georgia Tech’s 12th president. This special homecoming was amplified by the fact that Ángel, his wife Beth Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, and son Alex Cabrera, CS 19, are all Ramblin’ Wrecks. Our new president is steeped in Tech’s traditions and committed to its mission of making the world a better place

through innovative thinking. What better personal example could he set than getting himself to this year’s Freshman Cake Race on nothing less than his e-bike? The Alumni Association also boasts a new leader with strong, lifelong ties to Tech. Under President Dene Sheheane, IM 91, the association team has been diligently carrying forth a renewed vision of service. They’re building goodwill and fostering a strong community for all our alumni and Institute through world-class engagement, programming and philanthropy. Seeing firsthand the energy and talents of our Alumni Association staff and our alumni volunteers, and knowing the character of Ramblin’ Wrecks, I have no doubt that we will continue our track record of success. During fiscal year 2019, we raised through Roll Call—Georgia Tech’s Fund for Excellence—$6.6 million from nearly 19,000 alumni donors investing in the future of the Institute. This unrestricted funding plays a critical role in Georgia Tech’s ability to be innovative and a leader. Whether you’re a Golden Giver (50-plus years donating to Roll Call), first-time donor or volunteer, we are grateful for your support and service to Georgia Tech. Go, Jackets! Sincerely, Brent Zelnak, Mgt 94 Alumni Association Chair FY 2020

GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI A S S O C I AT I O N :

OUR RENEWED MISSION, VA L U E S & V I S I O N MISSION:

SERVE AND PROMOTE THE INSTITUTE AND ITS ALUMNI THROUGH PROGRAMMING AND ENGAGEMENT THAT FOSTERS LIFELONG RELATIONSHIPS, PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT AND GOODWILL.

VALUES:

OUR CULTURE ALIGNS WITH OUR INSTITUTE, AND IS BUILT ON INTEGRITY, RESPECT, COMMUNITY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADAPTABILITY.

VISION:

WE ASPIRE TO SERVE, BUILD GOODWILL, AND FOSTER A STRONG COMMUNITY FOR OUR ALUMNI AND INSTITUTE THROUGH WORLD-CLASS ENGAGEMENT, PROGRAMMING AND PHILANTHROPY.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

IMPACT & ENGAGEMENT G I V I N G D AY $ On March 14, 2019, over 24 hours

ALUMNI EVENTS

13.5 MILLION

donors raised (including 833 new donors)

Alumni and guests enjoyed Alumni Association-sponsored Homecoming & Reunion Events

603,238

for Roll Call (a $107 average gift) across 49 states and 11 countries for the 3rd Annual #GTgives event.

Runners participated in the 47th Annual Pi Mile Road Race

ALUMNI C O M M U N I C AT I O N S Social Media interactions with more than 138K followers

total Annual Audience for the Alumni Magazine in print and online

1,538

$167,128

864

1,261 488

Leadership Circle Donors attended the 2019 President’s Dinner, Celebrating Roll Call

S T U D E N T O R G A N I Z AT I O N S AWARDS The Student Alumni Association’s (SAA) Jackets on the Job program was named Outstanding Student Program at the regional and national levels by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Regionally, the Georgia Tech Student Foundation (GTSF) and Student Ambassadors were named Outstanding Student Organization, the GTSF’s Giving Day was named Outstanding Student Program, and Jack Walz, outgoing GTSF chief operating officers was named Outstanding Student Leader by CASE.

IMPACT

SAA membership reached 6,106, with all members donating to Roll Call. Over the span of 33 years, the initial GTSF funding of $100,000 has grown to $1.4 million with more than $800,000 given back to fund student-proposed initiatives. In total, GTSF has funded 562 organizations over this time. Together, SAA and GTSF in 2019 were proud to donate just over $30,000 to the Gift to Tech, which annually goes to a campus initiative voted on by students. SAA’s Mentor Jackets program paired 725 students with volunteer alumni mentors.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

ALUMNI CAREER DEVELOPMENT

425

alumni participated in Alumni Association-sponsored professional development workshops, covering topics on business communication, personal branding, resume basics, interviewing, leadership and entrepreneurship.

1,024

alumni active on JacketNet Jobs, the Alumni Association’s career search website, where 2,690 employers have posted jobs.

new career development programs scheduled for FY2020, including the inaugural Leadership Development Conference on April 23 and the annual Georgia Tech Executive Leadership in October.

A L U M N I T R AV E L In FY19,

656

alumni and guest travelers embarked on 49 tours facilitated by the Alumni Association. 64% were repeat travelers with Tech.

Those who travel, give:

65%

of alumni travelers donated to Roll Call in FY19.

2,097

graduating students attended the annual Ramblin' On Party, where they were welcomed into the Alumni Association

$436,900

were raised at the 2019 Gold & White Honors Gala for the Alumni Association's award-winning student programs. 7 extraordinary alumni and friends were presented with Tech’s top alumni awards.

ALUMNI NET WORKS & AFFINIT Y GROUPS The Alumni Association worked with 400 dedicated volunteers to engage alumni in 80 active Alumni Networks and Affinity Groups around the world.

12,932

alumni and friends participated in over 780 events in FY19, including campus faculty visits, new student send-offs, game-watching parties, and more.

Approximately

$425,000

in alumni scholarships were raised by

60 Alumni Networks and Affinity groups and were given to more than

150 students. The average scholarship amount was $2,500.

RAMBLIN’ ROLL

CL ASS NOTES & ALUMNI UPDATES

PHOTOGRAPHS

RUPERT BERRINGTON

WINNING FORMULA Jim Murphy, IM 70, MS IM 76, (pictured inset) is the proud owner of the Formula 600 race car driven by Clint McMahan, who won the 2019 F500 class national championship in the SCCA Runoffs held at Virginia International Raceway. The Formula 600 Challenge Series, which Murphy administrates, was developed as an affordable open-wheel formula car class to showcase talent without large financial race budgets. The Formula 600 cars use a 600cc motorcycle engine and a six-speed sequential transmission revving up to 15,000 rpm with speeds in excess of 140 mph.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

RAMBLIN� ROLL

CLASS NOTES SHANE BAILEY, IE 02, became the building materials quality senior manager for The Home Depot private brand product development unit. STEVEN GERSHENFELD, MS OR 91, became an Abrakadoodle Remarkable Art franchisee in Morris County, N.J., following a 19-year career with IBM as a client solutions executive. ALLEN HODGES, IM 83, was selected to serve on the Georgia Board of Economic Development by Governor Brian P. Kemp. Hodges is the owner and president of Hodges Land and Timber Inc., a fourth-generation, family-owned, forest-related business. TIM LIEUWEN , MS ME 97, PHD ME 99, was appointed a Foreign Fellow to India’s National Academy of Engineering. Already a member of the U.S National Academy of Engineering, Lieuwen was formally inducted into the INAE in November. He has also been invited to give a research presentation before the INAE during its annual convention in Jaipur, India, in December. Lieuwen serves Georgia Tech as a Regents Professor and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. He is also director of Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute. ALEXIS MC KITTRIC K, PHD C HE 05, received the prestigious Society of Women Engineers Emerging Leader Award in recognition of her STEM achievements and community contributions. McKittrick is a research staff member for Alexandria, Va.-based Institute for Defense Analyses.

COLBERT PROMOTED TO PRESIDENT-CEO OF BOEING GLOBAL SERVICES T H E B O E I N G C O M P A N Y named Ted

served as Boeing’s chief information

Colbert, IE 96, to succeed Stan Deal

officer and senior vice president of

as president and CEO of Boeing

information technology and data an-

Global Services, with Deal becoming

alytics. In this role, Colbert oversaw

president-CEO of Boeing Commercial

all aspects of information technology,

Airplanes.

information security, data and ana-

“Our entire Boeing team is focused

lytics. He also supported the growth

on operational excellence, aligned

of Boeing’s business through IT- and

with our values of safety, quality and

analytics-related revenue generating

integrity, and we’re committed to de-

programs.

livering on our commitments and

Prior to becoming CIO, Colbert led

regaining trust with our regulators,

the company’s information technolo-

customers and other stakeholders,”

gy infrastructure organization, where

says Boeing President-CEO Dennis

he was responsible for developing

Muilenburg. “Ted brings to our Global

and maintaining network, comput-

Services business an enterprise ap-

ing, server, storage, collaboration

proach to customers and strong digital

and infrastructure solutions across the

business expertise—a key component

enterprise. Before that, he led the IT

of our long-term growth plans.”

business systems organization where

Colbert joined Boeing in 2009 and

he managed the computing appli-

serves as an executive vice president

cation systems that support Boeing

of Boeing, and a member of the Boe-

finance, human resources, corporate

ing Executive Council, in addition to

and commercial capital business units,

his new leadership position with Boe-

as well as the company’s internal

ing Global Services. Previously he

systems.

WANT TO SHARE YOUR NEWS? Send your Ramblin’ Roll submissions to: Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or editor@alumni.gatech.edu. You can also submit your personal news, birth and wedding announcements (with photos!), out-and-about snapshots and in memoriam notices online at gtalumni.org/magazine.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

FORBES CHINA’S “30 UNDER 30” LIST RECOGNIZES GT-SHENZEN ALUMNUS PENG Shenzhen, China–based Taobotics, where he is in charge of developing the human-computer interface and marketing for the company’s autonomous robots, which are used in retail settings. While earning his master’s and doctorate degrees, Peng served as a program assistant at GT-Shenzhen, responsible for assisting academic operations and industry research collaboration. After graduating, he worked as a research engineer and coordinator for SF Express Co. LTD., where he led the prototyping and coordination for a computer vision research project in collaboration with

FANDI PENG, MS ECE 16, MS CS 17,

Georgia Tech. He then became the

was selected to for inclusion in Forbes

founder and CEO of Shenxi Technol-

China’s “30 Under 30” list, which rec-

ogies, which facilitated educational

ognizes him as one of his country’s

and research projects for U.S. univer-

most accomplished young trailblazers.

sities in China before going on to help

Peng is the co-founder and partner in

start up Taobotics.

SHAILENDRA N A M E D U S G B OA R D OF REGENTS CHAIR

DOUG MORRELL, HS 81, is now managing partner at Impensa Advisors, LLC, a firm he co-founded in 2018, specializing in cost accounting advisory services for healthcare organizations. Morrell is based in St. Louis, Mo. Previously he was a senior product director with Premier Inc. SCOTT O. SC HWAHN , HPHYS 89, MS HPHYS 90, was elected as a Fellow of the Health Physics Society. A neutron science facilities health physicist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Schwahn was recognized for “outstanding contributions to the profession of health physics.” Of the society’s almost 3,500 members, just more than 100 have received the designation of fellow. C HARLES THOMPSON , ARC H 11, was promoted to associate at Washington, D.C.-office of Quinn Evans Architects. Thompson is a member of the Association for Preservation Technology.

our public colleges and universities throughout the state.” With members appointed by the governor, the Board of Regents

THE BOARD OF REGENTS of the Univer-

serves as the governing and man-

sity System of Georgia (USG) elected

agement authority for Georgia’s 26

Sachin Shailendra, CE 01, to serve as

public higher education institutions.

its chair for calendar year 2020.

CLASS NOTES

“I’m honored to have this opportu-

“An outstanding Georgia Tech

nity to serve the citizens of Georgia,

on our students and what they need to

alumnus, with strong family ties to

my fellow regents, and the 333,000

be successful. I look forward to continu-

Georgia Tech, Regent Shailendra has

students who are working to improve

ing this work on behalf of students and

a unique appreciation of how public

their lives and the world by studying

families.”

higher education can transform lives

at institutions in the University Sys-

Shailendra is involved in a number of

and strengthen our community,” says

tem of Georgia,” Shailendra says.

community organizations, including the

Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabre-

“I was fortunate to earn my degree

boards of the Georgia REACH Founda-

ra. “I look forward to working with

from Georgia Tech, a USG institu-

tion, the Sports Network at Children’s

him in his new leadership role as chair

tion, and throughout my term on the

Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Metro

of the Board of Regents to advance

Board of Regents I have kept my focus

Atlanta YMCA.—CARA CRAMER

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

RAMBLIN� ROLL say that attribute was born of his time at Georgia Tech, but from what we all know, he has been this kind of individual his whole life. However, I can say with confidence, his time at Georgia Tech strengthened that resolve, heightened that keen sense of curiosity, and further instilled in him the grit, drive, and sense of community that I know drives him today.” As a doctoral student in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace En-

HSU INAUGURATED AS FIRST PERSON OF COLOR TO LEAD COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON AS PRESIDENT

gineering, Hsu wrote his dissertation on “Theoretical and Numerical Studies of a Vortex-airfoil Interaction Problem,”

TECH PRESIDENT Ángel Cabrera was

alumnus as he embarked on this journey.

which was ultimately approved by a

not the only Ramblin’ Wreck to be of-

“President Hsu, your Georgia Tech

committee that included Georgia Tech’s

ficially installed to the top post at a

Yellow Jacket family is always with you,

university this fall.

and we are incredibly proud to celebrate

Hsu previously served as provost and

you on your investiture,” Bras said in his

executive vice president for academic af-

remarks.

fairs at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Three hundred miles away at the College of Charleston, alumnus Andrew

Regents Professor Lakshmi Sankar.

Hsu, PhD AE 86, celebrated his inaugu-

Bras also noted Hsu’s love of teaching,

He was born in China and has called

ration as Charleston’s 23rd president in

which originated while a postdoctoral

becoming a university president the em-

late October.

fellow at Georgia Tech, and a keen prob-

bodiment of his American dream.

Georgia Tech provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs Ra-

lem-solving ability that is imperative in higher education leadership.

fael L. Bras spoke at the ceremony,

“President Hsu knows how to antici-

offering his congratulations to the Tech

pate problems,” Bras said. “I wish I could

OUT & ABOUT H. MILTON, IE 61, and CAROLYN J. STEWART visited the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) on Nov. 19 to interact with students, faculty and staff, and to see and hear the latest highlights of their namesake school. The Stewarts viewed senior design presentations, met current students, and enjoyed lunch with President Ángel Cabrera, H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair Edwin Romeijn, and Carolyn J. Stewart Chair and Professor Jianjun Shi. The visit included a tour of campus in the Ramblin’ Wreck. The Stewart family has been instrumental in providing ISyE programs with the resources to become—and stay—the top industrial engineering program in the country.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

He is the first person of color in the College of Charleston’s 248-year histor y to ser ve as its president. —KRISTEN BAILEY

BIRTHS 1.

BRITTNEY CAIN, MGT 11, and husband DOUG CAIN, IE 09, welcomed their precious baby boy Kai Douglas Cain on Aug. 15, 2019.

2. MICHAEL COLE, CE 12, and wife Jennifer welcomed Eleanor Rose on March 30, 2019. She joins big brother Gavin, age 3. The family lives in Dallas, Ga.

JUSTIN D. COTTON, ME 04, and wife Nicole King Cotton welcomed son Xander Khamsin Cotton to their family on Aug. 22, 2019. He joins proud sister Reina Vesper Cotton. Justin is a software engineer at Itential LLC, and a patent attorney practicing in Atlanta.

MEGAN CRAIG, IAML 13, and BENJAMIN CRAIG, ME 13, welcomed John “Jack” Adler Craig on May 19, 2019. The family lives in Newnan, Ga.

DOUGLAS DIEFENBACH, ARCH 76, and wife Linda welcomed their son, Lucas Edwin Diefenbach, on Nov. 14, 2018. He recently celebrated his first birthday and is now walking. The family lives in Danbury, Conn.

ALLISON LULL, ID 04, and husband Greg welcomed daughter Imogen James Lull on Feb. 14, 2019. The family lives in Oakland, Calif.

RYAN PHARR, MGT 99, and wife Molly welcomed daughter Eleanor Louise Pharr on Aug. 27, 2019. “Nora” joins big brother, Nolan. The family lives in Kennesaw, Ga.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

RAMBLINďż˝ ROLL

WEDDINGS 1.

ANNA ADAMS, BA 16, and MITCHELL GREEN, BA 17, married on Oct. 19, 2019, in Fayetteville, Ga. Anna is a senior analyst at The Home Depot and Mitchell is an SEM manager at Gather, a software company. The couple lives in Atlanta.

2. JONATHAN DUKE, IE 02, and ALEX STISHANOK, EE 14, married on Oct. 18, 2019, in Atlanta. Jonathan is the senior director of events at Kennesaw State University, and Alex is an electrical engineer with Georgia Transmission. They live in East Atlanta with their two dogs, 2

Addison and Charlie.

ANNA CATHRYN FINCH, IA 15, MS IA 17, and PHILIP MAURO, MS IA 17, MBA 17, married on Oct. 19, 2019, at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta. Phil and Anna Cathryn met at Georgia Tech, and everyone's favorite mascot, Buzz, attended the reception.

ANDREA SCHODORF, ME 15, and JARAD HEIMER, MSE 16, were married in Dec. 2018, in Dahlonega, Ga. They met at Tech in 2010 and currently live in Houston, Texas.

BRANDIE BANNER SHACKELFORD, CE 15, and PAUL SHACKELFORD, IE 15, married on May 26, 2019. The couple lives in San Luis Obispo, CA.

ALLENE TANG, IE 11, and ANDY CHANG, BCH 11, married on Aug. 24, 2019, in Atlanta. Allene is a management consultant at EY and Andy is an orthopaedic surgery resident at Mt. Sinai Hospital. The couple lives in New York City.

3 Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation

(Required by 39 USC 3685) Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, Publication No. 014-073 Frequency: Quarterly. No. of issues published annually: Four. Annual subscription price: None. Publisher: Dene Sheheane Editor: Roger Slavens Owner: Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313 Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security No. of Average holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, copies of No. of mortgages or other securities: None Tax Status/The purpose, function and single issue copies each nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal published issue during income tax purposes: Has not changed in the preceding 12 months. nearest to preceding filing date 12 months Extent and nature of circulation

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

a. Total No. Copies

80,374

139,623

b. Paid Circulation (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 354 (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Cariers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales & Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS

79,739

138,861

None

c. Total Paid Distribution

79,739

138,861

d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541

None

(3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS

None

(4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail

335

462

e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution

335

462

f. Total Distribution

80,074

139,323

g. Copies not Distributed

300

h. Total

80,074

139,323

i. Percent Paid

99.6%

99.8%

This statement of ownership has been printed in the Vol. 95, No. 4 issue of this publication. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete.

Dene Sheheane, IM 91 President, Georgia Tech Alumni Association

INTRODUCING THE

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IN MEMORIAM

WE REMEMBER & HONOR THE FOLLOWING

JOE ANDERER, ME 47, IE 48: EN GINEER, TEXTILE ENTREPRENEUR & ADVENTURER bachelor’s degrees. While in college, he

He served as the chairman of the

met a young nursing student, Ella T’Lene

Georgia Tech Advisory Board from

Brinson, whom he married in 1948. They

1993 to 1995. Anderer was inducted

JOSEPH HENRY “JOE” ANDERER, OF NEW CANAAN, CONN., DIED AUG. 1, 2 0 1 9 . Anderer was born on Oct. 12,

were married for 58 years.

into the Georgia Tech Engineering Hall

his business career as a planning engineer

An avid sportsman and adventurer his

1924, to Catherine Margaret (Fleck) and

at the Atlantic Richfield Corporation and

entire life, Anderer was a noted yachts-

Joseph Lawrence Anderer in Philadel-

he also worked as an assistant professor

man. He was a Commodore of the

phia. He graduated from Springfield (Pa.)

of mechanical engineering at the Drexel

Stamford Yacht Club, a member of the

High School in 1942 as the president of his

Institute in Philadelphia. He then became

New York Yacht Club and a member of

class, captain of the varsity football team

the fiber research manager and manag-

the North American Station of the Royal

and a member of the honor society.

er of the textile development laboratory

Scandinavian Yacht Club.

Following graduation, Anderer began

of Fame in 1996.

Anderer left the University of Pennsyl-

at American Viscose Corporation, the ex-

Joe was preceded in death by his

vania after his freshman year to join the

ecutive vice president for textile marketing

wife, T'Lene, and son Mark H. Ander-

U.S. Navy during World War II. He trans-

at the Celanese Corporation, and the

er. He is survived by his son Joseph D.

ferred to the Marine Corps, went through

president of the cosmetic and fragrance di-

Anderer; daughter Nancy van Lonkhu-

boot camp again and became a Second

vision of Revlon in New York City. In 1978,

yzen; his grandsons Benjamin H. and

Lieutenant. He was honorably discharged

he acquired Warren Corporation of Staf-

Samuel M. Custin; his granddaughters

from the Marine Corps Reserves in 1952.

ford Springs, Conn., and oversaw the

Emily Lippold and Michelle Anderer; his

After the war, Anderer attended

production of some of the finest fabrics in

brother George Anderer; and several

Georgia Tech, graduating with two

the world, until the mills were sold in 1989.

nieces and nephews.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

19 3 0S

JOHN RUTHERFORD SEYDEL, CLS 39, of Atlanta, on Oct. 24.

19 4 0S

EDWARD WINTZ BERCEGEAY, ME 48, of Marietta, Ga., on Sept. 16. V. HERBERT BRADY, IE 49, of

Marietta, Ga., on Oct. 18. EARL P. COOK, EE 47, of Juno

Beach, Fla., on Aug. 7. JAMES O. DENHAM JR., CE 49,

of Summerland Key, Fla., on Aug. 20. MARTIN H. DOLIN , IM 48, of

Augusta, Ga., on Sept. 28. GEORGE FREDERIC K EPPS, ME 49, of Harvest, Ala., on Aug. 7. FRANK SIMS KEY JR., AE 48,

of Florence, S.C., on Aug. 12. ROBERT THOMAS LOWRANCE, CERE 49, of Jackson, Miss., on Aug.

29. EARL HARRIS LUCAS JR., IM 49, of Manakin-Sabot, Va., on Oct. 27. C HARLES THOMAS NIXON , C HE 48, of Austin, Texas, on July 4. THOMAS EDWARD PERRIN , CE 48, of Talahassee, Fla., on Nov. 9.

19 5 0S

HAROLD BALDWIN , ARC H 51,

of Brentwood, Tenn., on Aug. 21. EDWARD TRACY BARNES JR., IM 57, of Peachtree City, Ga., on Aug.

13. RIC HARD HUNTER “DIC K” BARNHARDT, IE 56, of Charlotte,

N.C., on Sept. 15. STANLEY BASKIND, CE 52, of

Vernon Rockville, Conn., on July 27.

J. KENNETH BASTIN , C HE 55,

of Chicopee, Mass., on Aug. 25. RAJA M. BITAR, CE 54, of Boca

MALLIE “JAY” HARNAGE JR., IE 59, of Friendswood, Texas, on Sept.

Raton, Fla., on Sept. 24.

GEORGE WILLIAM “BILL” HAYNES, TEXT 50, of Miramar

OWEN JAMES “JIM” BOOTON , IE 56, of Opelika, Ala.,

Beach, Fla., on Oct. 8.

on Sept. 18.

COLVILLE HARRELL, IE 57, MS IM 58, of West Point, Ga., on Sept. 24.

WILLIAM WOOTEN “BILL” CALHOUN SR., ME 54, MS ME 55, of Roswell, Ga., on July 27.

SAM P. HENSLEY SR., CE 55, of

GULTEKIN “ TEKIN” CELIKIZ, MS TEXT 56, of Philadelphia, Pa., on

LYONEL MARVIN JOFFRE, CLS 57, of Atlanta, on Aug. 14.

Sept. 26. JOHN SCOTT COLEMAN JR., IM 59, of Southern Pines, N.C., on

Aug. 30. C HARLES E. CONNORS, IM 55,

Marietta, Ga., on June 26.

ROLSTON JOHNSON , IM 50,

of Saratoga, Calif., on Sept. 2. RAYMOND JUE JR., IM 55, of

Savannah, Ga., on Oct. 26.

of Huntington Beach, Calif., on July 31.

WILLIAM THOMAS “BILL” KENNEDY, IE 52, of Beech Moun-

FREDERIC K WILHARM “FREDDIE” CRAWFORD, CE 56,

tain, N.C., on Sept. 3.

of Atlanta, on July 31. EDWARD ALBERT “NED” CUNARD, IM 59, of Oxford, Ga.,

on Oct. 29. THOMAS REMY CUTHBERT JR., PHD EE 59, of Greenwood, Ark., on

Oct. 28. DON BURKE “PETE” DENBY JR., ARC H 58, of Carlinville, Ill., on

Sept. 3. C HARLES SASSEEN “C HARLIE” EPSTEIN , AE 52, of Fort Walton

JAC K L. LEVIN , IM 54, of Greens-

boro, N.C., on Oct. 6. SIL AS DAVIS “DAVE” LEWIS, PHD C HEM 59, of August, Ga., on

Oct. 18. ADAMS DELEON “A .D.” LITTLE JR., IM 53, of Marietta, Ga., on

July 23. THOMAS LOWNDES JR., IE 59, MS IE 63, of Stone Mountain, Ga.,

on Sept. 24.

Beach, Fla., on Aug. 16.

THOMAS HENRY MANGAN III, IE 59, of Frederick, Md., on Aug.

BENJAMIN GARRETT FUGITT, IM 58, MS IM 60, of

DONNAN MARTIN , C HE 54, of

Greenville, S.C., on July 23.

Kennett Square, Pa., on July 30.

WILLIAM JOE “BILL” GREEN , C HE 59, of Shelby, N.C., on Aug. 20.

WILLIAM DENLINGER “BILL” McCURRY, CE 56, of Tucker, Ga.,

MARTIN MCGEE GRIF FIN , C HEM 58, of Marietta, Ga., on

Oct. 21.

on Oct. 11. OFFA SHIVERS “MAC” McCOL LUM JR., CE 54 , of Highland, Md.,

on Aug. 14.

FREDERIC K FOY HAND SR., TEXT 52, of Atlanta, on Oct. 9. GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

IN MEMORIAM ERLING GROVENSTEIN JR., CHEM 44: L O N G T I M E T E C H C H E M I S T RY P R O F E S S O R FREDERIC K JOHNSON “RIC K” MILLER, IE 57, of Knoxville, Tenn.,

on Sept. 13. FLOYD ADKINS MONTGOMERY JR., IM 55, of Thomson, Ga.,

on Aug. 23.

DR. ERLING GROVENSTEIN JR., OF AT L A N TA , D I E D O C T . 2 8 , 2 0 1 9 . He was born on Nov. 12, 1924, in Miami, Fla., to Erling Grovenstein Sr. and Lois O'Keefe Nesbitt Grovenstein. He later moved to Albany, Ga., where he graduated in 1941 with honors from Albany

ARTHUR FORT MORGAN , MS MGT 58, of Cumming, Ga.,

High School at the age of 16.

on Aug. 8.

graduating magna cum laude in 1944

JOHN JOSEPH “JAC K” O’CONNOR JR., IE 54, of Ken-

nesaw, Ga., on Aug. 25.

Grovenstein attended Georgia Tech, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry under an intensified wartime program. He obtained his doctorate degree in organic chemistry from MIT, returning to

named varieties of plants. He was also

JAC K OGLESBY ORR, TEXT 53,

Georgia Tech in 1948 as a faculty mem-

a charter member of the Georgia Hos-

of Peachtree Corners, Ga., on Aug. 5.

ber, teaching chemistry and performing

ta Society.

SAMUEL KENNETH OWEN , IM 58, of Salisbury, N.C., on July 12. PAUL L. PARENT, EE 52, of Mesa,

Ariz., on Oct. 22. RIC HARD A . “RIC K” PETERSON JR., C HEM 59, of

Ashland, Ky., on Aug. 2.

related research.

Grovenstein recalled in an interview

A member of Georgia Tech's facul-

with the Georgia Tech Alumni Maga-

ty for 40 years, Grovenstein ultimately

zine: “Someone told me that my students

was named to the Julius L. Brown Chair

thought that I was a hard teacher. I

in Chemistry.

thought that was nice, because after all,

During his time at Tech, he taught nu-

it doesn't matter whether you are hybrid-

merous undergraduate and graduate

izing daylilies or working as a chemist,

courses, ranging from freshman chemis-

unless your work hard, you will not be

try to physical organic and heterocyclic

successful.”

HARRY HOLMES POWELL JR., IM 52, of Signal Mountain, Tenn., on

chemistry. He also supervised 35 gradu-

E a r l y i n h i s c a r e e r, G r o v e n -

ate thesis students and 15 postdoctoral

stein met and married Kat herine

July 21.

fellows.

Carson Gangwer, a librarian at Geor-

EVERETT T. “RAZZ” RASPBERRY, TEXT 55, of Fort

During his career, he published more

gia Tech. Following her death in 1952,

than 65 research articles and papers, in-

he married Lillian Anne Enloe, now

cluding works for the German Chemical

deceased.

Walton Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. BENJAMIN F. REGISTER JR., IM 51, of Smiths Station, Ala., on Aug. 5. DONALD W. RIC HARDSON , AE 51, of West Palm Beach, Fla., on Oct.

24. THOMAS NOEL SAFFOLD, IE 50, of Dunwoody, Ga., on July 18. HAL ROBISON SANDERS, EE 52, of Fayetteville, Tenn., on Oct. 15. JOSEPH C. SEWELL, CE 53, of

Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 6. 92

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Society. He also contributed to numer-

He was a charter member of Shal-

ous textbooks. He was a member of

lowford Presbyterian Church, where

the Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi honor

he served as a Sunday school teach-

societies, along with several profession-

er, deacon, elder and longtime choir

al societies, including The American

member.

Chemical Society, the Royal Society

Grovenstein is survived by his son,

of Chemistry (London), the Georgia

Fred Grovenstein; son John and daugh-

Academy of Science, the American As-

t er-in-la w Lisa Ra y Grovenst ein;

sociation of University Professors and

grandsons Evan Grovenstein (Mary),

Alpha Chi Sigma.

Jack Grovenstein (Meghan); and

A member of the American Hemero-

great-granddaughter, Sawyer Ray

callis Society and the Daylily Society of

Grovenstein. He is also survived by his

Greater Atlanta, Grovenstein hybrid-

sister Lucy Ann Moore, and numerous

ized and introduced several hundred

cousins, nephews and nieces.

CLYDE EDWARD BARNETT, EE 62, MS EE 6 4, of Newnan, Ga., on

JAMES EDWARD FULC HER, ARC H 60, of Winter Park, Fla., on

Oct. 16.

Oct. 13.

Oct. 23.

JAMES R. “JIM” WEBSTER, IM 52, of Marietta, Ga., on Oct. 19.

JON ANTHONY BEARD, IM 63, of Rock Hill, S.C., on July 25.

M. CARL GEHR JR., IE 61, of

JAMIE THOMAS WRIGHT, IE 53, of Snellville, Ga., on July 17.

RALPH W. BLISS, IE 60, of

OL AF HARKEN , IE 63, of

Duluth, Ga., on July 10.

Pewaukee, Wisc., on Oct. 21.

BOYCE RUPERT DOOLEY, EE 6 4, of Decatur, Ga., on July 14.

WILLIAM A. “BILL” HARTMAN, ME 6 4, of Atlanta, on Aug. 4.

WILLIAM EUGENE EDWARDS, JR., TEXT 69, of Dalton, Ga., on

RIC HARD CL ARK “DIC K” L AC KEY, IM 61, of Duluth, Ga., on

Oct. 23.

Aug. 1.

HAROLD JULIUS ERICKSEN JR., IM 62, of Okatie, S.C., on July 26.

HENRY CARROLL MAC KIN , ME 6 4, of Hanover, N.H., on July 29.

LESTER THOMAS SIMERVILLE SR. TEXT 59, of Cleveland, Tenn., on

19 6 0S

AUGUSTUS THEODORE “GUS” ALLEN IV, IE 60, of Columbia, S.C.,

on July 29. MIC HAEL DAVID BARBER SR., ME 67, of Atlanta, on July 12.

Liberty Township, Ohio, on July 13.

J O H N R . H O W E Y, B S 5 6 , A R C H 57: R E N O W N E D TA M PA B A Y- A R E A A R C H I T E C T J O H N R . H O W E Y , O F TA M P A , F L A . , D I E D O C T . 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 . Howey was a highly

Award of Honor for Design Excellence,

regarded architect, with designs that in-

al for Architectural Excellence. He was a

clude the Tampa City Hall Plaza, Village

long-term member of the AIA National

Presbyterian Church Carrollwood, for-

Committee of Design and served on lo-

mer Louis Pappas Riverside Restaurant in

cal and regional AIA committees.

and recipient of AIA Tampa Bay’s Med-

Tarpon Springs, Williers Residence, Bay

Howey was active in his local commu-

Park Place and Bay Villa townhomes.

nity, serving on the initial University of

His architectural innovations include the

South Florida development committee

St. Petersburg Bus Shelter design with

for its school of architecture, as well as

Carl Abbott, which received a patent in

on a number of City of Tampa and archi-

1980. His work extends beyond Florida

tectural boards. He was also a founding

to Georgia, North Carolina, and inter-

member of the Sarasota Architectural

national competitions, where his firm

received his bachelor of science and bach-

planned, built or remodeled buildings

elor of architecture degrees.

with a focus on design to complement the environment.

Foundation. He is the author of The Sarasota

Following graduation from Tech,

School of Architecture, 1941-1966 and

Howey served honorably with the U.S.

co-author of Florida Architecture: A Cel-

Howey was born in New Haven,

Army Corps of Engineers, then worked for

ebration. A book covering his career,

Conn., at Yale University Hospital, where

several architectural firms in San Francis-

John Howey Associates (Master Archi-

his father Joseph taught physics, and then

co, New Orleans and Atlanta. In 1963, he

tect Series VII), was published in 2006.

raised in Atlanta, where his father became

settled in the Tampa Bay area to establish

Howey is survived by his wife of

chair of the Georgia Tech Physics Depart-

his practice, and in 1973, his firm became

51 years, Maria; sons Andrew Mc-

ment. Howey earned the rank of Eagle

John Howey Associates, located in a

Dermott; John McDermott (Karen);

Scout, and following high school gradu-

historic 1898 brick building that he reno-

daughter Dorot hy Howey Bardin

ation in 1950, attended Wooster College

vated at 101 South Franklin Street.

(Matt); grandchildren Richard and

in Ohio for two years. He then transferred

Recognized nationally, Howey was

Benjamin McDermott, Natalie and

to Georgia Tech, where he was a mem-

a Fellow of the American Institute of Ar-

Charles Bardin, and James Bishop

ber of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and

chitects (AIA), recipient of AIA Florida’s

(Christine).

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

IN MEMORIAM

LESLIE RAY “LES” MANZER, IM 61, of St. Simons Island, Ga., on Oct. 6.

DONALD W R I C H A R D S O N , A E 51 : A E R O S PA C E P I O N E E R

WILLIAM DAVID “BILL” McCAIN JR., MS C HE 61, PHD C HE 6 4, of Starkville, Miss., on Sept.

20.

DONALD W. RICHARDSON, OF WEST PALM B E A C H , F L A . , D I E D O C T . 2 4 , 2 0 1 9 . Born

JERRY WAYNE PHILLIPS, AE 60, of Roswell, Ga., on Aug. 16.

March 17, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Richardson enjoyed an exciting and ex-

system. He also served as president of the

emplary life. He fell in love with flying at

American Institute of Aeronautics and As-

an early age thanks to his father, Her-

tronautics, and is one the few Americans

bert, who piloted biplanes for the U.S.

to be named an Honorary Fellow of En-

Army in World War I. At the age of 18,

gland’s Royal Aeronautical Society.

Richardson enlisted to serve in World

Richardson married his wife, Jane, in

War II as an Army Sergeant in charge

1948, and the couple traveled the world

of a mortar crew in Italy. He later con-

together for 63 years until Jane died in

tinued his service as a Navy Reserve

2011. He created a scholarship in her

Captain.

name, the Jane J. Richardson Scholarship

Richardson graduated from Georgia

Endowment for the Daniel Guggenheim

Tech with a degree in aeronautical en-

School of Aerospace Engineering, to

gineering and later earned a master’s

benefit women studying aerospace engi-

degree and a doctorate, all while work-

neering at Georgia Tech.

ing and raising a family. He went on to

Richardson is survived by his second

become a legend in the aeronautical

wife Kathleen Watkins-Richardson; his

and aerospace industry as one of the fa-

sons Scott (Leslie) and Kevin (Debbie)

thers of the country’s air traffic control

Richardson; and five grandchildren.

WILLIAM W. PRINCE, IM 60, of

Sautee Nacoochee, Ga., on Sept. 18. SAMUEL JOHN REED IV, IE 60,

of Atlanta, on Sept. 22. RODNEY HAROLD RIC KETTS, AE 67, MS AE 69, of Stanardsville,

Va., on Oct. 13. JAC K RONALD SALLING, ME 63, of Delray Beach, Fla., on Aug. 31. WILLIAM ROY SL ATE JR., IM 65, of Marietta, Ga., on Sept. 29. JOHN WATERS SPIVEY SR., EE 54, of Calhoun, Ga., on Sept. 27. JOHN C HARLES SULLIVAN , EE 67, of Tampa, Fla., on Sept. 29.

K A Y E L I Z A B E T H A DA M S , I M 67: S YS T E M S E N G I N E E R A N D D E VO T E D Y E L L O W J A C K E T FA N KAY ELIZABETH ADAMS, OF MARIETTA, GA., DIED OCT. 4, 2019 .

a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorori-

and McCamish Pavilion, and she followed

ty—where she often sang and played her

teams to numerous bowl games, Sweet

guitar at Institute and Greek events—and

Sixteens and one Final Four.

Kay was born in Atlan-

began her lifelong love of chili dogs and

ta on Jan. 11, 1949, to

onion rings from The Varsity.

Adams had a particular fondness for cats. In addition to her own animals, she

Oscar Leo and Kather-

After graduation, Adams took some

was personally responsible for rescuing,

ine McClain Adams.

time off then began a 40-year career

nursing back to health and finding homes

She grew up in the area and graduat-

as a systems engineer with IBM, during

for over 200 cats and kittens during her

ed from Walker High School in Dekalb

which time she worked in nearly every

time as a member of the Cobb County

County. An outstanding student, she at-

division. She was happiest when helping

Humane Society’s Cat Foster Program.

tended the Georgia Governor's Honors

customers solve a knotty computer prob-

Predeceased by both parents, Ad-

Program in 1966.

lem and one of the positions she enjoyed

ams is survived by her husband of 42

most was her time teaching new hires

years, Ralph Paulk; her older sister (and

about IBM’s culture.

alternate mother) JoAnn Eidson; and

She enrolled at Georgia Tech in 1967 and remembered that there were only 20 other women in her freshman class.

She was an avid fan of the Tech Yel-

At Tech, she was a varsity cheerleader,

low Jackets, a regular at both Grant Field

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

her 3 beloved furkids, Java, Mollie and Munchkin.

JEROME ALLEN AVERBUCH, IM 60: R E A L - E S TA T E D E V E L O P E R A N D T E N N I S C H A M P I O N J E R O M E A L L E N AV E R B U C H , O F H U N T S VILLE, ALA., DIED OCT. 16, 2019. A

continued his tennis success there, play-

devoted husband, father, and grandfa-

Jackets win the 1959 SEC championship.

ther, Averbuch was born in Nashville,

Shortly following graduation, Aver-

Tenn., to Juliet and Sidney Averbuch.

buch ventured to Huntsville. He became

His achievements began early: At West

a visionary, striving to help develop the

High School in Nashville, he was pres-

city. He built hundreds of homes in Hunts-

of fame. He served as president of the

ident of the Honor Society and the

ville, along with apartment complexes,

Huntsville Museum of Art and the Bet-

Campus Club and vice president of the

condominiums, retail centers, hotels and

ter Business Bureau of North Alabama.

senior class. He also served as captain

office buildings. In later years, Aver-

His survived by his beloved wife,

of his high school tennis team for four

buch, along with his son Gregory,

Arlene; his children, Scott (Dana), Greg-

years, and was crowned Nashville In-

developed hotels in Atlanta, Memphis

ory (Dana), Jennifer Averbuch Ronnel

terscholastic High School Champion in

and Nashville.

(Steve), Lynn Ghertner (Scott), and

1955 and 1956 and the Tennessee State Champion in 1956. Averbuch attended Georgia Tech and

JAMES FOSTER WATTS JR., IM 60, of Greensboro, N.C., on Oct. 22. WAYNE SUTTON “SPIDER” WEBB JR., IM 69, of Tallahassee,

ing for four years and helping the Yellow

He was president of the Huntsville

Jan Brackett (Jim); his sister, Shirley

Home Builders Association and was

Averbuch Zeitlin; his brother, Larry Aver-

honored by being inducted into its hall

buch; and 15 grandchildren.

JAMES LEON MCELVEEN JR., ARC H 79, of Smyrna, Ga., on

WILLIAM BARRY CULLER, MS AE 89, of Duluth, Ga., on Sept. 15.

July 30.

Fla., on Sept. 7.

ARNOLD JOSÉ MORALES, EE 78, of Kingston, Wash., on April 29.

R. MARTIN “MART Y” YORK, ME 6 4, of Atlanta, on Aug. 27.

JAMES RIC HARD “RIC K” ROBERTS III, IM 70, of Duluth, Ga.,

19 7 0S

ENEKAN AKPAN , MS CE 78, of

Woodstock, Ga., on Aug. 28. PHILIP J. DORSEY, ME 70, of

Destrehan, La., on July 12. STEPHEN FRANK “STEVE” FOSTER, CLS 72, of Loganville, Ga.,

on Sept. 14. STEPHEN ROGER LONG, EE 74,

of Douglasville, Ga., on Aug. 26 H. RAY MANLEY, ME 74, of Hen-

on Oct. 23. ERIC DAVIS WILCOX, IM 70, of

Atlanta, on Sept. 17.

19 8 0S

JAMES P. ADAMCZYK, CE 82, of

Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 9. LISA M. ANNUNZIATO, PSY 84, of Ridgefield, Conn., on Aug. 29. ROBERT ALBERT BRUHNS, M ARC H 88, of Seneca, S.C., on

Sept. 15.

derson, Ky., on Oct. 25.

EDWARD GENE “ TED” CAPE JR., C HE 86, PHD C HE 91, of

THOMAS BULLITT McCOUN III, GM 73, of St. Petersburg, Fla., on

Gainesville, Ga., on July 3.

PHILLIP DYER GRISSOM, NE 86, of Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 20. MARC KENNETH HROSSOWYC, AE 88, of San Diego, Calif., on Sept.

21. HAMID “HJ” JAHANGARD, CE 80, MS CE 83, of Atlanta, on Aug. 1. MIC HAEL WALTER POWELL, EE 84, of Clayton, N.C., on Oct. 13. HERBERT CRANE SAUNDERS, MS CE 87, of Atlanta, on

Sept. 23.

19 9 0S

JOSHUA SOL BLEIER, MS CS 93, of Berkeley, Calif., on July 17. ERIC LINCOLN , ME 97, of Macon,

Ga., on May 10. JAMES WARREN MARKS, IE 90, of Indian Trail, N.C., on Oct. 8.

Aug. 27.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

IN MEMORIAM WILLIAM TODD WIGGINS, EE 99, of Roswell, Ga., on Aug. 16.

BILL BURDESHAW, M S E E 61 : W A R H E R O AND BRIGADIER GENERAL OF THE U.S. ARMY

2000S

ELIZABETH DAWN ALFORD, C HBE 09, of Temple, Ga., on July 22. JULIA KAYE L ANG DALY, MS IA 01, of Decatur, Ga., on Sept. 27.

WILLIAM BROOKSBANK “BILL” BURDES H AW , O F P OT O M A C , M D . , D I E D S E P T . 1 4 , 2019. Son of Thomas and Margaret Bur-

awards, including medals from the Re-

deshaw, Bill Burdeshaw was born in East

a career artilleryman, Bill won the Com-

Orange, N.J., on Nov. 20, 1930.

bat Infantry Badge for his service as a

He spent his childhood in East Orange and Griffin, Ga. After attending

publics of Korea and Vietnam. Although

ground advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

the Marion Military Institute in Mari-

Burdeshaw attended Georgia Tech

on, Ala., he received his appointment

to earn his master’s degree in electrical

to West Point. Burdeshaw graduated

engineering. He also attended the U.S.

from West Point in 1953 and was com-

Army War College, and in 1977, he was

missioned as a second lieutenant of

promoted to the rank of brigadier gener-

artillery.

al. Burdeshaw served in the Department

He proudly served his country for 26 years, including tours of duty in Viet-

of Defense at the Pentagon until his retirement in 1979.

KRISTINE MARIE PETTONI, IE 04, of Atlanta, on Oct. 25.

2 010 S

MAX BRIAN ALLEN , CE 10, of

Cairo, Ga., on Aug. 6. C HRISTOPHER THOMAS MCLEOD CANNON , AE 18, of

Macon, Ga., on Oct. 9. KYLE DANLEY TAYLOR, ARC H 10, of Decatur, Ga., on Aug. 4.

nam and Korea. A master paratrooper,

He was recognized by his peers in the

he commanded an artillery battalion

Army as a talented leader, a visionary,

in the 82nd Airborne Division, the Di-

and a strong commander who cared

vision Artillery of the 2nd Division in

deeply for the men and women under

JAMES KATUMBA “JIMMY” STROC K, CLS 22, of Denver, N.C.,

Korea, and was the acting commander

his command.

on Sept. 21.

of the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood,

After retiring from active duty, he

Texas. He also served as an advisor to

founded Burdeshaw Associates Ltd., a

the Vietnamese Army in the Republic of

defense consulting firm. Under his 37-

Vietnam.

year leadership, the company grew to

While serving in Vietnam, his helicopter crashed and immediately came

employ several hundred associates and earned a spot on the Fortune 500.

under intense hostile fire. Though

Early in his military career, while sta-

wounded, Burdeshaw led the crewmen

tioned in Athens, Greece, with the Joint

on a 5-kilometer march over the moun-

U.S. Military Aid to Greece, he met the

tains to a safe evacuation point. His

love of his life—Monica Dorr. They were

actions that day earned him the Purple

married in London, England, on Sept.

Heart, the Bronze Star with "V" Device

27, 1957.

(for valor), and the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star.

Burdeshaw is survived by his wife of

2020S

FRIENDS

PAUL BELLON , of Cleveland, Ohio,

on Sept. 25. KENNETH WILLIAM CANNESTRA,

of Atlanta, on Aug. 14. JAMES “JIM” LLOYD CLEGG JR., of Atlanta, on July 27. TILDEN EUGENE “GENE” CLOPTON , of Lula, Ga., on Oct. 6.

62 years, Monica Dorr Burdeshaw; his

HERBERT COHEN , of Atlanta, on

During his military career, Burdeshaw

brother Bruce Burdeshaw and sister Car-

Aug. 2.

was awarded an Army Distinguished

ol Purvis; his four children: daughter

Service Medal, three Legions of Merit,

Leath Hiegel, son Thomas Burdeshaw,

the Meritorious Service Medal, two Air

daughter Anne Shrout, and daughter Al-

Medals, and two Army Commendation

ison Hereford; 10 grandchildren; and

Medals. He also received many foreign

four nieces and nephews.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

PAUL REESE GREENE, of Atlanta,

on Sept. 27. WALTER A . GRESH JR., of Mariet-

ta, Ga., on Aug. 3.

GL ADYS CAMP “LULU” HILES,

of Atlanta, on July 4. HELEN KREBS MADDOX, of

Arlington, Texas, on June 24. JOYCE BAKER THORSTEN , of

Atlanta, on Aug. 30. ELDRIDGE HOYLE “COOTS” TURNER, of Newnan, Ga., on July 20. NIC HOL AS ANTHONY “NIC K” PAPPAS, of Tallahassee, Fla., on

Sept. 5.

M O H A M E D “ M O ” M OA D : LONG-TIME TECH ENGINEERING PROFESSOR MOHAMED “MO” MOAD, OF ATL ANTA, D I E D O C T . 1 , 2 0 1 9 . Said to have taught

and will be re-

more electrical engineering students

membered as

than any other professor at Georgia

the kindest, smartest and funniest father,

Tech, Moad is estimated to have taught

grandfather, great-grandfather, broth-

well over 20,000 graduate and un-

er, son, and friend that anyone could

dergraduate students in circuit theory,

ever have. He goes to join his wife of

systems and controls during his more

50 years, Helene Moad, who died in

than 40 years as an educator.

2007, and his beloved granddaugh-

An inspiration to his family, Moad

ter, Leah Ganey, who died in 2002.

overcame heart attacks and heart dis-

He is survived by his children and their

FORSTER DEWITT PUFFE, of

ease in his mid-40s by becoming a

spouses, Joseph Moad, Mariam Moad

Smyrna, Ga., on July 17.

vegetarian, quitting smoking and taking

DePriest, Corrine Siegel, Doug De-

up exercise. It doubled his life, and later

Priest, grandchildren Rachael DePriest,

he beat cancer as well. He became an

IE 16, and Isabelle DePriest, Dane and

award-winning ballroom dancer in his

Cody Moad, great-grandson, Mason

60s and kept dancing well into his 80s.

Moad, and his brother Zuheir Moad, EE

RONALD STEPHEN WEBBER, of

McDonough, Ga., on July 26. LORNA ANICE WIGGINS, of

Auburn, Ala., on Oct. 1.

Through it all, Moad put family first,

78, and his family.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

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TECH HISTORY

A RAMBLE THROUGH WRECK HISTORY

SOME 58 YEARS AFTER ITS DEBUT, THE RAMBLIN’ WRECK KEEPS ROLLING ON AS ONE OF GEORGIA TECH’S MOST BELOVED TRADITIONS.

AHOOOGA! The signature blast of the Ramblin’ Wreck’s horn as the car bursts from the tunnel of Bobby Dodd Stadium means o n l y o n e t h i n g : It ' s showtime. With cheerleaders lining its running boards an d fo ot b a l l pl aye rs running up behind the Wreck’s rumble seat, the gleaming old gold-and-white 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe races forward, leading Georgia Tech’s football team onto Grant Field as it has, without fail, for every home game since its debut in September 1961. Not a bad record for a one-ofa-kind antique. The mechanical ingenuity of Tech students embodied by this special mascot have kept the Ramblin’ Wreck rolling on through the decades, whether onto Grant Field, through the streets of Midtown Atlanta or beyond.

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

BEN ROLLINS

100

Tech football team—the term was coopted by students some 30 years later to describe a completely different vehicle. It first became the nickname for a dilapidated 1914 Ford Model T that Floyd Field, a math professor and later Tech dean of men, drove to work daily from 1916 until 1928. When Field’s car disappeared from campus in 1928— replaced by a newer model—The Technique student newspaper mourned its passing. “What can be more beautiful than faithfulness?” the story asked. “Who can ask more of machinery other than to have it run?” Field’s Ramblin’ Wreck would later live on in spirit in the Wreck Parade, launched by the administration in 1932 as a safer substitute to the short-lived Old Ford Race between Atlanta and Athens. The parade— now a Homecoming staple and run by the Ramblin' Reck Club— has taken place nearly every year since then, save for when gas shortages during World War II forced its cancellation in 1943 and 1944. These convoluted Wreck contraptions became a common point of pride on campus throughout the 1940s and 1950s for their student builders, whose engineering prowess kept the cars alive.

PHOTOGRAPH

PRE-WRECK-UISITES Although the “Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech” fight song predates the car—and calls upon the memory of a train wreck involving the

BY KRISTIN BAIRD RATTINI

The Ramblinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Wreck is a 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe that has been a mainstay on campus for 58 years.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

101

TECH HISTORY Around 1959, then-assistant dean of students Jim Dull made it his mission to find an official Ramblin’ Wreck for the university—something that harkened back to Field’s original car. “It was something Dean Dull had on his mind all the time,” says Marilyn Somers, director of Georgia Tech’s Living History Program. “The students had started talking about needing some kind of tangible mascot. Unbeknownst to them, he was already on the lookout for one.” A SERENDIPITOUS PARKING SPOT Call it fate. Call it coincidence. Whatever force led Delta pilot Captain Ted Johnson to park his car in front of Towers Hall one day in 1960, it was a benevolent one—and one that would forever change Georgia Tech history. For when Dull returned to his apartment at Towers that day and spotted Johnson’s pristine 1930 Ford

Model A Sport Coupe, he knew he’d found his Ramblin’ Wreck. Dull left a note on the vehicle, asking the owner to please seek him out at Towers. Hours later, Johnson knocked on Dull’s door. Dull made his pitch to buy the car, but Johnson wasn’t interested. After all, Johnson, his son Craig and a neighbor had spent two years completely renovating the car after rescuing it from a junkyard. It was going to be Craig’s vehicle and he would not part with it. Undeterred, Dull kept calling and writing Johnson, weaving a story about the grandeur of the car and what it would mean not only to Tech, but also to Johnson’s family legacy. After a year of pleas, Johnson relented. He agreed to sell the car for $1,000—only $250 above what he sank into its renovation and far less than Dull anticipated. Legendary Yellow Jackets football coach Bobby Dodd himself paid Johnson’s asking price.

The original, official Ramblin’ Wreck made its debut at Georgia Tech in 1961.

KEEPING A BUSY SOCIAL CALENDAR THE RAMBLIN’ WRECK MAKES STAR APPEARANCES AT NUMEROUS EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE CALENDAR Y E A R . F O R 2 0 19 A L O N E , THE WRECK WAS FRONT AND CENTER AT:

12 FOOTBALL GAMES

20 WEDDINGS

3 FUNERALS

172 OTHER EVENTS (INCLUDING HEAD SHOT WITH THE WRECK, RIDE OUT IN STYLE, AND MANY OTHERS) FOR A TOTAL OF MORE THAN 206 APPEARANCES ALL TOGETHER. THAT SCHEDULE CERTAINLY KEEPS RECK CLUB, ESPECIALLY THE DRIVER, BUSY ALL YEAR LONG.

Two decades later, Johnson returned the money through a donation to the Institute, saying he’d rather be the man who donated the Ramblin’ 102

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

2019 Reck Club President Jill Riley and Driver Ben Damus take the Wreck for a spin around campus.

PHOTOGRAPHS

BEN ROLLINS

Wreck than the man who sold it. A plaque on the Wreck’s dashboard still pays tribute to his donation. ESTABLISHING TRADITIONS When this new Ramblin’ Wreck made its inaugural ride out at the first home football game of the 1961 season—a 24-0 rout of Rice—a tradition was born. But here’s the thing about new traditions: It takes a while to sort out the details, both big and small. For example, now that Tech had a Ramblin’ Wreck, who would drive it? The first driver, Henry Sawyer, IE 64, was chosen by default because he was the junior class president. The next several drivers were selected rather randomly until the Ramblin’ Reck Club (purposely named without the “W”) took over management of the car from a student government committee in 1968. Today, an election among Reck Club members determines the sole driver of the Wreck for each calendar year. Even though the Ramblin’ Wreck was expected at every home game, Bobby Dodd was not pleased to see it on rainy days; he feared the wheels would leave ruts on the grass playing field. “A lot of

the early drivers prayed there wouldn’t be rain during the football season, so they wouldn’t have to go around and around with the coach about coming onto the field,” Somers says. Arrangements were a bit impromptu whenever the car left its Atlanta sanctuary on early road trips. For an away game at Tennessee in 1963, the Vols’ athletic department offered a safe storage space for the Wreck at Neyland Stadium. But Tennessee fans broke in and vandalized the car by painting it orange and ripping the soft top. From that point on, the Wreck has always stayed in Tech hands. CARE AND KEEP The Wreck found itself in the best of hands when Pete George, IE 44, became manager of the nearby Ford Hapeville assembly plant in 1973. Like any new initiative, funding for the Wreck was touch-and-go. George offered up Ford to cover any repairs and restorations, a promise honored by the company until 1994. George oversaw three major restorations of the Wreck, including a paint change selected by Bobby Dodd himself. “Along

Detailed shots of the Wreck show how Reck Club members have kept the 1930 Model A Sport Coupe in immaculate shape and how the vehicle features special Tech touches throughout.

GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

103

TECH HISTORY

Pete George, IE 44, oversaw three major restorations of the Wreck.

with Dean Dull, Pete George is considered a patron saint of the Ramblin’ Wreck,” Somers says. The day-to-day maintenance and operation of the Wreck remains the responsibility of Reck Club members, particularly the driver. “People see us as liaisons of the Institute’s traditions,” says Jill Riley, the 2019 Reck Club president. “These traditions, particularly the Wreck, are a big part of the community on campus; they make us feel more united. We want people to feel excited about them and participate.” One important rule to remember about the Wreck: No freshmen “probate” members of Reck Club— or freshmen, period—are allowed to touch the car. If they do, Tech will be guaranteed to lose to UGA that year, or so the legend goes. “That rule is a biggie,” Somers says. “They terrify the freshmen at convocation: They mustn’t touch the Wreck.” The accumulated wisdom of Reck Club members fills a nearly 300-page handbook that has been passed down through the years. “That handbook has definitely been my guiding light in times of need,” says business administration student Ben Damus, the Wreck driver for 2019. The role of Wreck driver can be

all-consuming. He or she alone (there have been four female drivers so far—a fifth, Abi Ivemeyer, will take over in 2020) can drive the one and only Ramblin’ Wreck. (Note: the Alumni Association has its own version of the Wreck, a 1931 Ford Model A Roadster that it uses for alumni and campus events. There’s also a non-working version that resides in the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center at Tech Square.) The driver must make sure the Wreck shows up camera-ready for endless selfies and Instagram posts at every event where it’s expected, whether long-planned or spur-of-themoment, on campus or several states away. While serving as the official driver this year, Damus compressed all of his classes into a three-hour block in the late afternoon, from Monday to Thursday, so he can be available during the busy lunch hours for rides and appearances as well as attend every football game, both home and away. “When you think about other university mascots, it’s easy to think about putting on a costume,” says Gerome

Stephens, associate dean of students and Reck Club advisor since 2013. “For their year, the driver becomes a part of the Wreck. When the 1930 Model A drives out onto the field, that doesn’t happen without someone inside of it. The driver brings life and a voice to this special tradition here at Georgia Tech.”

WRECK AND WRECKOVERY Many a Wreck driver, including Damus, has had to troubleshoot last-minute mechanical malfunctions and mishaps before an appearance or home game. Lisa Volmar, IE 86, the first female Wreck driver, remembers driving along Fraternity Hill before a home game when the Wreck suddenly broke down. “Everyone was pointing and looking down at me,” she says. “We were on campus, not far from the garage, so I didn’t have any tools with me. I went up the hill to the Phi Delt house and asked, ‘Do you have a butter knife?’” It proved to be the perfect tool for scraping off the timings; the Wreck roared back to life. “The knife was always underneath my seat from that point on,” O V E R T H E R A M B L I N ’ W R E C K ’ S 5 8 -Y E A R H I S T O RY, T H E R E H AV E O N LY B E E N A she says. HANDFUL OF WOMEN DRIVERS, INCLUDING THREE IN THE LAST SIX YEARS: For driver Phil Kelley, IE L I S A V O L M A R , 1986 90, calamity struck when H A N N A H T O D D , 2018 his truck’s welded hitch ball E V E L Y N D A L E M O R G A N , 1988 broke off while towing a trailA B I I V E M E Y E R , 2020 H I L L A R Y D E G E N K O L B , 2015 er with the Wreck inside to the NCAA Final Four basketball

WOMEN ARE A DRIVING FORCE

104

WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

Tech cheerleaders roll out onto Grant Field riding the Wreck’s running boards every home game.

tournament in Denver in 1990. Only chains held the truck and trailer together. After a quick repair, Kelley and his crew raced more than 850 miles to Denver, arriving just in time for its scheduled appearance. Driver John Bird, PFE 07, was towing the Wreck to a wedding in June 2007 when the trailer failed, causing the Wreck’s biggest wreck to date. Bird’s truck and the trailer careened into a ditch at 70 mph; both were totaled. Bird and his passenger fortunately walked away with only minor injuries. The Wreck’s damages were more grave—left side smashed, roof torn, body panels cracked. Reck Club members repaired the damage the best they could, using putty for temporary cosmetic fixes in order to have the Wreck ready for the season opener. But another major renovation was inevitable, once there were enough funds. “Certainly after that accident, there were lots of questions by various individuals and groups about whether Reck Club had all the necessary tools, funding and continuity to manage the Wreck,” Volmar says. In response, the Dean James E. Dull Ramblin’ Reck Endowment Fund was established to

DID YOU KNOW?

AT THE END OF A DRIVER’S TENURE, AS MEMENTOES THEY GET TO KEEP: THE WRECK’S RADIATOR CAP A COPY OF THE IGNITION KEY THE STEP PLATES

THE “TO HELL WITH GEORGIA” AND “GIVE ‘EM HELL TECH” FLAGS

provide ongoing financial support. Thanks to the endowment, the damage from the 2007 accident was remedied and other repairs completed this past summer through a full restoration by Bentley’s Antique Auto Service in Maysville, Ga. The shop has serviced the Wreck since 1995, picking up the baton from Ford. Just as fate brought Dull and Johnson together so many years before, the shop serendipitously found an exact match for the Ramblin’ Wreck—same make, model and year, in great condition—just south of Atlanta for the needed replacement parts. When the home opener against South Florida rolled around on Sept. 7 this season, the newly restored Ramblin’ Wreck was there, as always, for its ride-out, carrying the new Institute President Ángel Cabrera into Bobby Dodd Stadium for the new football coach Geoff Collins’s first game. “The Ramblin’ Wreck is truly a living icon of the institute,” Damus says. “Reck Club is making sure that we can carry the Wreck onwards and keep it in the best condition to serve the institute for years to come.” AhOOOga! GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | WINTER 2019

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BACK PAGE

A PACKAGE, A PLAQUE AND A LETTER FROM GEORGE P. BURDELL

THIS FALL, a 40-pound package—wrapped neatly in brown paper and sent from fictitious student George P. Burdell—was delivered to Dean of Students John Stein in the Student Services Building. “When we finally opened it, we discovered a plaque that seems to have been mounted on a wall at Grant Field,” Stein says. The plaque’s inscription read: Grant Field, Named in Memory of Hugh Inman Grant, 1895-1906. Stein tried to find out more about the sender, but had no luck. That was, until he received the following letter:

BY VICTOR ROGERS

Dear Dean Stein, I understand that you are the current Dean of Students and successor to Dean Dull, a previous Dean of Students whom I may have gotten to know entirely too well during my brief stint on campus. Greetings! I hope this letter and package find you well and that you are able to maintain strict discipline within the hallowed halls of my cherished alma matter. I note with approval the high intensity campaign you and Ma Tech have instituted to discourage students from “stealing T’s” from signs on campus and can't help but think you are having far more success in this area than Dean Dull. Please find enclosed a brass plaque that belongs to Georgia Tech. It once graced Bobby Dodd Stadium’s south stands; the exact location having been lost to demolition and renovation. I am returning it to you on behalf of an old friend (not me of course) who wishes to atone for a youthful prank, to set things right and clear his conscience, and to remain anonymous so as to avoid the possibility of unpleasant consequences just in case the statute of limitations has not expired. I explained to my friend that no one remembers this plaque, no one ever noticed it was missing, it would have been destroyed in the south stands demolition, and no one will have any idea what to do with it once it is returned; however, he insists that returning it is the only right thing to do. Such is the power of a guilty conscience. In asking for forgiveness, you should know that, on the fateful night the plaque disappeared, there was alcohol involved and a beautiful Georgia Tech co-ed. While we all know that romance is only an excuse for vandalism in Hollywood movies, my friend has been happily married to the co-ed for decades and divorced from excessive drink for nearly as long. Although it’s hard to imagine, this plaque played an integral part in both aspects of this “happily ever after” outcome. I hope knowing this will dispose you toward compassion and forgiveness in this case. I hope you will forgive my friend and accept this plaque and letter on his behalf with no questions asked. And without dusting for fingerprints, which I have attempted to completely wipe. Your Timelessly Loyal Fan, George P. Burdell

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WINTER 2019 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE

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