Accidental Entrepreneur
Top Innovator
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Georgia Tech alumni Dr. Stephen Brossette in his office at UAB. |
Hospitals might be the last place you'd expect to contract an infection, but hospital-acquired infections affect 2 million patients annually in the United States, costing providers and insurers more than $6 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control. These infections account for 50 percent of all major hospital-related complications and are responsible for about 90,000 deaths each year, making them the fourth leading cause of death in the country behind heart disease, cancer and strokes.
Stephen Brossette, Phys 93, founder and president of MedMined Inc., in Birmingham, Ala., developed software while enrolled in the University of Alabama-Birmingham's combination MD/PhD program designed to cut the incidence of such infections by 25 percent and save a hospital $650,000 per year.
Brossette was named one of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators by the MIT magazine Technology Review.
Nominees are recognized for their contributions in transforming the nature of technology in industries such as biotechnology, computing, energy, medicine, manufacturing, nanotechnology, telecommunications and transportation.
Brossette's creation, Data Mining Surveillance Service, provides an automated data-monitoring system that tracks patterns of hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic resistance in health care facilities and in the community using data-mining technology. DMSS combines artificial intelligence, statistics and database searches to allow researchers to extract information without being limited to a predefined search criteria.
"Infection control is a huge problem for health care," Brossette says. "It's not well-known in the general public, although that's beginning to change. It's usually caused by some kind of human error and once these breakdowns are identified, they are fairly easy to correct."
Brossette's ultimate goal for the company is to "change the way hospital epidemiology is done."
"We would like to see this become a standard internationally," Brossette says. "This is not just a U.S. problem. I would like to see our technology used in hospitals of all flavors, shapes and sizes."
Accidental Entrepreneur
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Kevin Christopher, AGI studios. |
When Kevin Christopher didn’t land a traditional architecture job after graduating in 1992, he fell back on a skill he had picked up by chance at Georgia Tech.
"Around 1990, I was working for the computer lab and they had a bunch of software tools that were new to the College of Architecture. The research engineer who was in charge of the lab, Anatoliusz Lesniewski, basically turned it over to me and said, ‘Here, have fun.’ I read books and manuals and visited different places that sold software and I learned how it all worked."
Christopher mastered those first DOS versions of 3D Studio and AutoCAD.
After applying for architecture jobs and dropping off resumes, Christopher set up two computers in his house in Atlanta and began doing computer-animated visualizations of high-end residential projects for a few clients.
"Within six months of graduating I was set up working out of my house. Architects or designers would provide me with floor plans and elevations and then I would do a 3-D model," he says. "We would do visualizations so the client could understand exactly what the architect was drawing. I hoped I’d be able to communicate: ‘This is what the architect was talking about.’ Within a year I realized I could probably make a business out of this little hobby that I had."
That hobby would eventually grow into AGI Studios, what Christopher calls "this little acorn that became this big tree with all of these branches." The firm now has handled everything from a fly-around for a $600 million Donald Trump development in Miami to the conversion of old films into DVD format.
AGI has grown from creating computer visualizations of buildings to editing movies and commercials to converting films and videos to DVD format, all of which encompass some form of computer animation.
"To do all the things we are doing, we have to have all the equipment that you have in the entertainment business. You have to be able to edit video, do video compression and put together presentations to make a whole product out of an animation," he says. "I had gained a fair amount of knowledge in the technical aspect and had done some consulting here and there for people, and that’s when Cinepost asked me to move over here and do DVD and video editing for them."
Cinepost is an Atlanta company that cleans, restores, develops, designs and creates video masters from film or video for DVD, broadcast and duplication. AGI Studios moved into a shared studio with the company and began doing all of its animation and graphics.
"Cinepost brings in the clients for DVD and does the film or video transfer. Then my team actually makes the DVD — designs the graphics, does the video compression and puts the master together for the client. We handle the creative aspect," Christopher says. AGI Studios has worked on more than 200 titles, mostly older films and some animated features, including "The Fighting Sullivans" and all of Roy Rogers’ films.
Meanwhile, AGI still handles large architectural computer visualization projects. This spring, Christopher’s studio landed the animation project for a $600 million Donald Trump development near Miami.
They recently completed the animated fly-arounds for the Trump Ocean Grande Sonesta Hotel and the adjacent Trump Royale and Trump Palace condominiums, which are being developed on the beachfront in Sunny Isles Beach just outside of Miami.
Running a business that’s as old as his Tech degree is "a little strange," Christopher says, but his family and educational background prepared him to be an entrepreneur.
"In the College of Architecture at Tech, it’s a little different. They want to teach you to be creative. Throw everything away, throw practicality away, and just be creative. That’s why the College of Architecture is kind of out there by itself. They foster creativity and don’t try to constrain themselves to a box," he says. "And almost everyone in my family has always been self-employed. We get up early in the morning, go to work and work until everything gets done. There are lots of long hours, but I have fun and I don’t have to wear a tie."
©2002 Georgia Tech Alumni Association
