Technique
Earth sends SOS
Friday, September 23, 2011• Volume 97, Issue 10 • nique.net
Students Organizing for Sustainability promote a greener lifestyle to protect the Earth.412
The South’s Liveliest College Newspaper
GTRI wins grant for solar tech By Sam Somani Contributing Writer
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), along with its industrial partners Suniva, Radiance Solar and other companies, was recently awarded a $2.8 million grant from the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative to design more cost-efficient solar panel technology. If this project, entitled SIMPLE BoS, is successful, the more inexpensive innovations could lead to “a bigger market for solar panels in the environment, which means more jobs, [especially] for Tech students,” said Joseph Goodman, leader of GTRI for SIMPLE BoS and Research Engineer at GTRI. GTRI is also receiving the help of the ME department, the COA and the Center for Biologically-Inspired Design (CBID). CBID will seek to inspire the design team, composed of the ME department and the CoA, by using biological principles found in nature as solutions for reducing the overall cost of solar panels. “[Biologically-Inspired Design] has the capacity to not only produce novel technologies that are more efficient and life-friendly, but [also] change the way engineers and biologists think about their craft,” said Marc Weissberg, CoDirector of CBID, in an e-mail. “It gives engineers a whole new tool-kit, and shows how deep biological knowledge is important to other areas besides medicine, or basic science.” For starters, the implementation of solar panels can be broken down into two principal areas: the photovoltaic (PV) cell itself, which converts the solar energy into electricity, and the balance of the system, which includes other important processes, such as materials, See Grant, page 6
Over 5,000 students attend
TECH NIGHT AT SIX FLAGS Photo by Sho Kitamura / Student Publications
Approximately 5,100 students attended Tech Night at Six Flags, which was organized by the Atlanta Life Committee of the Student Center Programs Council on Friday, Sept. 16. Along with rides, this year’s event included an all-you-can-eat buffet. By Katie Mitchell Contributing Writer
Every year, thousands of Tech students attend Tech Night at Six Flags, an exclusive event in which the amusement park is open to only Tech students for several hours at heavily discounted prices. The Student Center Programs Council (SCPC) hosts the event. This year, the event was on Friday, Sept. 16 from 6 p.m. to midnight. Down by over 1,000 from last year, attendance for the event was 5,100. The low attendance may explain the mixed reviews from Six Flags patrons. The experience was “exciting, fun, exhilarating, scary [and] overall amazing,” said Sydney Ray, a
first-year UCS major. Gordon Waller, MSE grad student, was not impressed by the allyou-can-eat buffet, offered for the first time this year. Waller thought the buffet was “not very good.” Food was also on the mind of George Das, a second-year CS major, as he would have liked to have seen “more concession stands open.” Sarang Damle, the chair of SCPC’s Atlanta Life committee, which organizes Tech Night at Six Flags, and a third-year MGT major, admitted that the buffet was not to his standards, but attributes the unsatisfactory food to its being the first time Six Flags has provided food at this event, noting that SCPC had no See SCPC, page 7
Photo by Sho Kitamura / Student Publications
After buying tickets, students took buses provided by Auxiliary Services to the Tech Night at Six Flags.
Freshman reps voice concerns, plans for campus 2011-12 Freshman Elections
Photo by John Nakano / Student Publications
Despite a high voter turonout, many students noted a lack of visibility in both the elections process and campaigning.
By Savannah Andersen Contributing Writer
Last week, freshman elections for SGA’s Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) came to a close, as Alex Bandes, an ME major, was named President, while Emily Russell, an IE major, Gillen Heisler, an IAML major, and Alex Letov, a BME major, claimed other representative positions. Bandes took the lead with 305 votes, Russell with 300, Heisler with 252 and Letov with 249. As the results show, Bandes won the position as president by only five votes. “The close margin just indicates that [we] are really going to have to work together to come up with solutions to campus issues because the constituents’ votes were split so evenly. I think it reflects the diversity of our student body and our representatives,” Bandes said. “There is a wide range of opinions as far as what people would like to see changed on campus, including dining hall selections and campus transportation. They also seem to be interested in a few SGA-sponsored freshmen social events—something I am really excited about,” Bandes said. Russell’s plans include addressing the pressures
associated with being a new Tech student. “One of the biggest issues facing Tech freshmen is achieving a balance between academic success and being connected socially with their peers...I plan to promote student study programs and provide ways for students to connect both in and out of the classroom,” Russell said. Meanwhile, Heisler is focusing on other areas of potential concern. “Some plans [we] have in mind are trying to make the campus more handicap-friendly, increasing the use and availability of BuzzCard at local businesses, addressing many dining hall complaints, making some improvements to the dorms around campus and streamlining the Buzzport website to make information about clubs and organizations more readily available,” Heisler said. During the election, two candidates, Heisler and Michael de la Guardia, who came in fifth in votes, had elections violations, causing each to lose approximately 10 percent of their votes, respectively. Some students expressed that they did not feel a significant presence from those campaigning. “I didn’t have time to meet the candidates and an See Freshmen, page 6