Tech Topics

Vol. 35, No. 2, Winter 1998

Tech to lead effort to curb binge drinking

Georgia Tech has been selected as one of four new partners in a group of American university-community coalitions to lead a national effort to curb binge drinking.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J., and the American Medical Association approved a $60,000 development grant to Georgia Tech in 12-month support of its participation in the program, “A Matter of Degree: Reducing High-Risk Drinking Among College Students.”

“Given the impact of binge drinking on academic performance, injury to self and others, disciplinary actions, sexual harassment and assault, and police records, we need to do everything we can to reduce this kind of high-risk drinking,” said Lee Wilcox, vice president of Student Affairs. “The grant will allow us to work in partnership with our student leaders and community organizations to try some new approaches since traditional programs really haven’t worked.”

Georgia Tech was selected for its innovative model projects addressing the pervasive problem of high-risk drinking among students. The Institute’s plans include alternative-entertainment programs scheduled at times when alcohol use is traditionally high, revision of existing alcohol policy and stepped up enforcement with sanctions, a mandatory alcohol peer-education program for new sorority and fraternity pledges, and building support among alumni for the program.

Clough Speaks at Release Of Congressional Report

Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough was a featured speaker at the release of Congress’ Great Advances Report in Washington D.C. on Sept. 26, which included several Georgia Tech research projects.

The Great Advances Report documents technological and scientific breakthroughs over the past two years in research funded by the 105th Congress. It was sponsored by the House of Representatives Science Committee. Advances spanning 18 scientific fields from more than 50 universities were included.

Tech participated as a member of the Science Coalition, an alliance of more than 400 organizations, institutions and individuals that includes public and private universities, scientific societies, Nobel Laureates, businesses, medical groups, and health care providers.

  • The entire report is available online at www.sciencecoalition.org.

    • Prime Number

    When it comes to tax cheats, the Internal Revenue Service is looking out for No. 1

    Around April 15 some normally banal business execs can become pretty creative, using what they think are “random” numbers to pad their deductions.

    But those “random” numbers may lead to deductions of a very different kind at the Internal Revenue Service.

    The key is something known as “Benford’s Law,” a probability theory that asserts random digits are not so random as you might think. In a list of numbers taken from a variety of sources, the numeral one is more likely to appear as the first non-zero digit in a number than any other numeral—in fact, the first digit is one about 30 percent of the time, and it’s nine less than 5 percent of the time.

    “If someone is getting creative at the end of the year when they’re making up their taxes, they’re just filling in the blanks. And chances are, they don’t know this law,” says Ted Hill, a math professor at Georgia Tech who’s advancing the theory. “But there is now substantial evidence from the IRS’s own files that true tax data follows this law to two or three decimal points.”

    Unlikely as it may sound at first, Benford’s Law is proving accurate. Using this little-known, little-understood axiom, tax cops from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office recently busted seven companies for fraud.

    “There are a lot of surprises in probability, and this is one of them that people are capitalizing on now,” Hill says. “Because the man on the street does not know this law, the IRS is using it to help detect fraud. It’s already in use in California, and in the Netherlands, I believe.” The trick, he says, is that people aren’t that good at being random. They tend to use too many mid-range numbers—sixes and sevens—setting off a red flag for auditors.

    The so-called first-digit phenomenon, or “significant digit” to exclude zero from the mix, isn’t really anything new, although Hill has only recently provided its mathematical foundations, which he described in American Scientist this summer. The law was first documented in 1881 by astronomer and mathematician Simon Newcomb, who noticed a peculiarity in a library’s logarithm tables—a thick book of numbers little used since the calculator’s advent.

    “He noticed that the book was dirtier in the beginning and got cleaner as it went through,” Hill says. “And he thought, ‘That’s strange; you would expect that out of a bad novel—people start reading it and throw it away—but you wouldn’t expect people to be looking up more ones than they would nines.’

    “If you believe that somebody hasn’t rigged this, then people are looking up more twos than they are threes, more threes than they are fours. Based on that, he came up with a new probability rule for the occurance of various digits.”

    Newcomb’s discovery was forgotten for 57 years until General Electric physicist Frank Benford made the same discovery, but took it much further by devoting years to collecting random data—everything from baseball statistics to atomic weights—and comparing them to the frequency predicted by what became known as Benford’s Law. His combined table of data was an exceedingly good fit.

    Since then, mathematicians have been trying to prove the theory, realizing that it fits some sets of numbers, but not all.

    “Finally, I found proof,” Hill says. “It explains what happens, and it works like this: There’s something that statisticians never do: They don’t mix data from different experiments. What Benford did was take data from totally different sources and put it together. If you do that, in a neutral way, you’re going to get this law. It’s curious and quite counterintuitive.”

    Despite the fact that it’s still not completely accepted, Benford’s Law shows up in many places. For instance, the stock market follows the law over the past 90 years, as do population figures for all 3,141 U.S. counties. On the other hand, it’s not much good for playing the market over a single year or so. Nor is it a boon for lottery players or gamblers in general, although similar probability surprises enabled a group of Florida jai-alai betters to figure out the odds and pull down a cool million, and led an Emory University mathematics graduate to discover a flaw in a national “scratch-off” game and make national headlines—along with a $10-12 million out-of-court settlement.

    But the laws of probability taught by Hill find more serious applications than the statistical “parlor tricks” that entertain audiences at places like SciTrek, where Hill has lectured. On factory lines, for instance, probability can save thousands of dollars.

    “I’ve had students go to work for Coca-Cola, and now we’re working with researchers over there,” Hill says. “They’ve got major, simple questions—simple for us. They need to know, for example, if there is evidence of possible contamination, how many bottles do they need to check before they know if they’ve got a problem or not?”

    And in a variety of engineering and scientific disciplines, even Benford’s Law can help.

    “It’s an excellent double check. If you have a new mathematical model for a process, and you run real data through, and it doesn’t follow Benford’s Law, you might want to think about changing your model.”

    Goglia celebrates 50 years at Tech

    Former students share tears of gratitude

    Over the course of half-a-century at Georgia Tech, the accomplishments that have distinguished Dr. Mario Goglia include writing a textbook on thermodynamics, serving as dean of the Graduate School and assistant dean of faculty, being named one of Georgia Tech’s first three Regents’ Professors, and serving on the advisory council to the chancellor.

    But the testimonies of Goglia’s former students celebrate many of his unheralded accomplishments, some with tears of gratitude. The observance of his 50th anniversary by the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering this fall—with three generations of the Goglia family present—was an opportunity for former students to share their memories.

    “I had been accepted as a graduate student at Georgia Tech on a conditional basis because my grades were marginal,” wrote former student, Felix J. “Gene” Lyczko, MS ME ‘52, an engineering consultant in Lake Forrest, Ill. “I had been able to save $300 by the time school started, but I hadn’t counted on how much everything was going to cost. By December of my first semester, I had $35 left—just enough to finish the course and take a bus home.”

    When Goglia found Lyczko was leaving, and why, he got him a grant-in-aid and a lab assistantship paying $110 a month.

    “The next 10 months were the happiest and most productive of my life,” Lyczko said. “With that one act, Dr. Goglia essentially gave me my master’s degree, and that degree opened door after door over the ensuing four decades that would have otherwise been closed to me. As I write this note with tears streaming down my face, I realize that for 15 months I had the privilege of working with and studying under one of the most dedicated, sensitive and competent teachers that this country has ever known.”

    Dr. Ward O. Winer, chairman of the Woodruff School—who has known Goglia since Winer’s days as a graduate student—said Goglia was a dedicated teacher and able administrator who demonstrated first and foremost, a deep concern for his students.

    During his tenure at Tech, Goglia was named one of “Atlanta’s Hundred Leaders of Tomorrow” by Time magazine, and in 1996 he received the coveted Renaissance Engineering and Science Award from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

    Bobby Green, former regional vice president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, presented Goglia with a certificate, plaque and pin commemorating his 50-plus years of contributions to the organization.

    “I am deeply grateful to each of you for the kindness you have extended over the years,” Goglia said. “I’ve had the privilege of meeting wonderful people.” GT

    Tech Studies Better Packaging

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has chosen Georgia Tech to help find solutions to two challenges facing the electronics-packaging industry.

    NIST awarded a four-year, $9.9 million joint grant to Georgia Tech, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and MicroModule Systems to develop a new “micro-spring” interconnect technology for testing and packaging microelectronic devices.

    In a separate three-year, $5.7 million project, National Semiconductor Corp., National Starch and Chemical, and Georgia Tech will create new bonding materials for faster, more cost-effective chip packaging.

    Because microelectronic devices are used “practically everywhere,” said Suresh Sitaraman, principal investigator and assistant professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, “the electronics industry increasingly has demanded continued reduction in size and an increase in power, performance and input/output connections, without sacrificing reliability or increasing cost.”

    Both awards are funded through NIST’s Advanced Technology Program. GT

    Engineering Expansion

    Responding to increase demand in some disciplines, Tech is taking the lead in growing the state’s engineering programs

    At a time when Georgia has sustained the nation’s fastest growth in high-tech jobs, and the demand for qualified engineering graduates is at an all-time high, Georgia Tech has been asked to lead an effort by the Board of Regents to expand engineering education delivery in the state.

    Although a 1998 regents’ study found Georgia’s current engineering programs to be qualitatively and quantitatively stronger than the national average, the study also underscored concerns for the future relative to an escalating demand for engineers. Engineering jobs on average are predicted to increase by 46 percent over the next 10 years, with a dramatic growth in computer engineering and related areas.

    “The job market for engineers has totally exploded,” says John Hannabach, director of Georgia Tech’s career services. “Some students have as many as 15 job offers, and most average at least four to five.” In light of these findings, and with the goal of providing economic support to the state, Georgia Tech and the regents will begin planning for possible solutions. This effort will require cooperation from the entire state, both in providing greater educational opportunities and in taking advantage of the resources that are currently in place.

    One element of the plan calls for growth on Tech’s existing campus. In an effort to increase the number of engineering graduates in the state, Georgia Tech plans to follow the recommendations of the Institute Strategic Plan and increase its student population from 13,400 to 15,000 students.

    Although the increase in enrollment would help, said President Wayne Clough, “growth beyond that size could jeopardize the focus of our programs and the quality of service provided to the students. Therefore, it’s in our best interest to look for solutions in other options rather than continued and unchecked growth at our campus.”

    Two other initiatives call for increasing the size and reach of Tech’s distance-learning network, and adding one to two regional engineering programs maintained by Georgia Tech. This would relieve pressure on the Atlanta campus, while enhancing the opportunity for a high-quality engineering education for all qualified Georgia residents. “The regional engineering programs will be tailored to specific needs and will be designed to best assist in each area’s economic development,” says College of Engineering Dean Jean-Lou Chameau. “We need to evaluate cost effectiveness and leverage existing regional expertise and facilities around the state.”

    The first effort will focus on southeast Georgia, working in collaboration with educational institutions in the Savannah and Statesboro areas. Two of these institutions, Armstrong Atlantic State University and Georgia Southern University, are members of the Regents’ Engineering Transfer Program (RETP) and offer the first two years of the engineering curriculum for students who transfer to Tech. Georgia Southern produces the largest number of students among the RETP schools. Also located in Savannah are Savannah State University and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, where Tech has growing involvement in environmental and biological research.

    An undergraduate program in computer and software engineering and a second engineering program still under development are being considered for the regional programs. These programs need to allow for ease of transfer to leverage the already considerable success experienced by students who transfer to Georgia Tech from regional universities.

    Expanding the accessibility of graduate degrees already offered through distance learning and the GSAMS (Georgia Statewide Academic and Medical System) network is also critical. “The expansion of current educational technology will be key,” Chameau said. “We cannot rely merely on the traditional teaching environment if we are going to enhance engineering education across the state.”

    Though the proposed regional programs are still in the early planning stages, a team from Georgia Tech and the chancellor’s office will begin working to evaluate available resources and match needs to resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. On-site visits, which include meetings between a Tech working group and the universities, business community and elected officials of South Georgia, will take place in the near future.

    MOOSE Crossing

    Eucation is the goal of this virtual world for kids

    At MOOSE Crossing expect to find a dragon that breathes gold and chocolate and a French-speaking pig that runs away squealing at the mention of bacon or pork.

    An online community for kids, created by Georgia Tech’s Amy S. Bruckman, MOOSE Crossing lets kids experience learning for its own sake, in an environment where there are no grades.

    “I want kids to learn reading, writing and programming in a self-directed way,” she said, “and have fun doing it.”

    More than a computer game, more than a learning tool and much, much more than a Web page, MOOSE Crossing is a virtual world developed by kids and constructed entirely of words. The key, for Bruckman, was to create an online community that promotes learning and interaction with other kids.

    In this early stage of figuring out what the Internet has to offer, people too often focus on information, Bruckman said.

    “Sure there is information retrieval and gathering,” she said. “But beyond that there’s community and collaboration.”

    Since launching MOOSE Crossing three years ago, about 300 kids have logged on. Although grown-ups drop by from time to time, the community is aimed at kids 8 to 13. Among the frequent visitors: a 7-year-old prodigy who has an easier time relating to people online because they assume he is a bit older, and an autistic child who is treated more like a normal kid in cyberspace.

    An assistant professor in the College of Computing, Bruckman arrived at Georgia Tech from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year, bringing MOOSE Crossing with her. Bruckman, 32, researches Internet communities as they relate to education.

    Inside an office overflowing with kids’ software, Beanie Babies and a Star Trek Barbie, Bruckman and her students develop ways to use Internet communities to promote learning. At the end of meetings, they take the software product and analyze it.

    “Oh yes, we’re a real unpopular research group,” she joked. “We never have any fun.”

    Bruckman’s introduction to computers came as a student in a technology-rich Manhattan high school. A physics major at Harvard, she studied literature and art history, all without touching a computer.

    She found her first post-college job at a small publishing company and soon found herself training colleagues in computers and working in interactive video production.

    “I didn’t expect it to be an interesting job,” she said. “It was something to do while I was thinking about what I wanted to do for real.”

    While a graduate student at MIT, she initially focused on video. But in 1993, a new medium was emerging: the Internet. Problem was, nobody really knew what to do with it. The inspiration for MOOSE Crossing started as a suggestion to create an Internet project for girls based on the popular series, “The Babysitter’s Club.”

    The theme evolved into one that would interest girls and boys. Having kids create pets to follow them around seemed a natural thing that children would gravitate toward.

    Bruckman is routinely floored by her young friends’ creativity, such as the child whose virtual pet penguin reminds its owner when it hasn’t been fed and asks for toast when served tea. The pet was created before Japanese-imported virtual pets became popular, she says.

    MOOSE Crossing is available free over the Internet, but kids must sign a hard-copy contract agreeing to follow the rules, such as never giving out their address or agreeing to meet an online friend in person. Signing a piece of paper and mailing it to Atlanta encourages kids to take it seriously, Bruckman said.

    Bruckman spent two years developing MOOSE Crossing. She had to create a language that kids could work with, and work out the bugs, including software that ran too slow. On a test run, she created a pet for herself called “Boo Boo Bear” that laughed when he was tickled. She knew there was a problem when she tickled her pet, went out for coffee and came back in time to hear him laugh.

    With MOOSE Crossing up and running, Bruckman is juggling several other projects: She reviews educational software for a magazine to keep up with new products on the market. Still interested in video, she is working on a three-dimensional interactive project.

    Also in the works is American Timewarp, a project that will give schoolchildren a chance to interview seniors about their colorful histories. The oral history project will start with a face-to-face meeting at school, giving students and seniors a chance to connect. After that, kids will use the Internet to interview their new friends.

    It’s a natural fit for retired people to get involved in education, but teachers are often too overwhelmed to coordinate such a program. American Timewarp can serve as a bridge, Bruckman says.

    Bruckman plans to continue focusing on education, a constantly evolving field with endless possibilities. She expects MOOSE Crossing to be around for a while.

    “Logging on and seeing the wonderful things kids have come up with,” she said, “that’s the fun part of all this.” GT

    Information about MOOSE Crossing can be found at: www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/moose- crossing/

    MOOSE Crossing Online

    Assistant Professor Amy Bruckman, creator of MOOSE Crossing, analyzes many software products for children. Her all-time favorite kids’ programs are:
  • SimTunes (Maxis)—Playful music software by Japanese artist Toshio Iwai. All ages.
  • My Make Believe Castle (LCSI)—Choose a character like a dragon and watch all the fun things it can do. Young children, especially pre-readers.
  • Kid Pix Studio (Broderbund)—Drawing and animation tools. A classic. All ages.
  • Lego Mindstorms (Legomedia)—Build a robot car out of Lego motors, parts, sensors. Junior-high to adult.

    Digitized Dean: George Griffin’s Memories on the Web

    The Georgia Tech Library has digitized more than 700 photographs from the archival collection of the late George C. Griffin for retrieval and display on the World Wide Web.

    The photographs, housed in the Library’s archives department, span Griffin’s 70-year association with Georgia Tech, which began in 1914 when he was admitted as a student in Tech’s apprentice class.

    Griffin, CE ’22, served in the Navy in both World War I and World War II, and was a long-time track and cross-country coach at Tech. He retired as dean of students in 1964, but continued to be active through the Georgia Tech Alumni Assocation until a few years before his death at age 93 in 1990.

    “It is a well-maintained collection of the history of Georgia Tech,” said Grace Agnew, Library assistant director for systems and technical services. “Dean Griffin was a marvelous collector of Tech history, and the collection includes anecdotal pictures as well as those of significant people. Each of the images has a really good descriptive record, which has been done in a new metadata format.”

    Ruth Hale, head of archives and records, wrote the captions for the photographs.

    “Dean Griffin’s collection of photographs are important, not only because they cover so much of Tech’s history, but because they give that history a face,” Hale said. Most of the photographs are of the many Georgia Tech faculty, coaches and alumni who were his friends.

    The collection is accessible through the Library website: www.library.gatech.edu/

    Sam Nunn Goes Multimedia
    The Georgia Tech Library is also helping bring Sam Nunn into every public school and university in Georgia—through the wonders of multimedia. The life and career of Georgia’s former U.S. senator has been produced on an interactive CD-ROM titled “Sam Nunn: The Man from Perry.” It will be distributed to all public high schools, colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia. The CD-ROM about Nunn is the first project of SAGE, Selected Archives at Georgia Tech and Emory. Agnew reviews some of the photographs included on the CD-ROM. The joint program with Emory University Library proposes to develop and create digital libraries at both universities. A future CD-ROM is planned which addresses issues of concern to Nunn. GT

    Investing in Teaching

    Alumni support connects the science of learning to the art of teaching

    Students and educators alike recognize that expertise in a particular subject does not necessarily translate into the ability to impart that knowledge to others. With support from three alumni reunion classes, those two distinct strengths are coming closer together at Georgia Tech.

    “It’s one thing to be an expert in a given field, but getting the information across effectively can be really hard,” said Dr. Karen Dixon, professor of civil and environmental engineering.

    In September, Dixon was named a recipient of the CETL/Amoco Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. The honor followed her success in the Teaching Fellows program, which helps young Georgia Tech professors develop their teaching skills.

    “I learned a lot about students’ different learning styles and how you can strengthen your teaching by playing to those different styles,” she said. “You’re taught how to build up your presentation and effectively offer the information—instead of just throwing it all out at them and not checking to see if they’re following you.”

    Members of the classes of 1957, 1969 and 1972 are helping young teachers like Dixon by championing development of their fundamental craft at Georgia Tech—the art of teaching.

    “Classes have typically put money into buildings, books for the library or, most common of all, raised money for President’s Scholarships for students,” said Dr. Dave McGill, director of Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL). “All of that is important to Tech, but these three classes had a different and unique idea for a legacy by supporting the improvement of our teaching.”

    Under the auspices of CETL, alumni have funded professional-development programs aimed at upgrading the quality of instruction at Georgia Tech by faculty as well as graduate teaching assistants.

    Four years ago, to commemorate its 25th anniversary, the class of 1969 raised money to endow the Teaching Fellows program. Under the six-month program, tenure-track faculty participate in 10 weekly seminars conducted by Tech professors. The seminars are devoted to such topics as the psychology of learning, high-tech educational tools, working with graduate students and tips for better teaching. Teaching fellows are also extensively critiqued on their classroom manner by a CETL staffer—usually Billiee Pendleton-Parker—who solicits students’ comments for the evaluation, and then reviews with the teacher a videotape of his or her classroom performance. The last part of the program is devoted to completion of a personal teaching-improvement project devised by each fellow.

    At the end of the program, participants know their strengths and weaknesses as teachers. More importantly, they have the basic information with which to correct those weaknesses and dramatically improve in their instruction.

    One measure of its success may be the recognition bestowed upon some of the 150 former Georgia Tech Teaching Fellows. Those honors include 17 CETL/Amoco Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards, 14 college- or school-level Outstanding Teacher Awards, 10 National Science Foundation Career Awards and four Outstanding Teacher at Georgia Tech honors.

    A Five-Year Plan
    Last year, the classes of 1957 and 1972 marked their respective anniversary milestones by embarking on an ambitious five-year drive to endow the Graduate Teaching Assistants Development Program (GTA).

    While including the same peer interaction and evaluation-and-feedback services offered to Teaching Fellows, the GTA program also orients new graduate teaching assistants to official campus academic and social-awareness policies.

    A key component of the development effort is the Academic Intern Program (AIP), designed for graduate assistants intent on pursuing careers in academia at Tech or other institutions.

    AIP offers education, practical experience and certification in three areas: teaching, academic writing and professionalism, according to Dr. David Shook, an associate professor of Spanish and CETL’s coordinator of graduate teaching assistant development programs.

    “For the teaching component, we conduct a five-week seminar series in which we talk about teaching and learning styles, how you can evaluate your students and how you can get feedback on what you’re doing in the classroom,” he said. “We also examine ways to deal with classroom problems and other classroom-management issues.”

    The academic writing portion of the program assists participants with the dissertation process, helps them become proficient writers and enables them to better evaluate student writing.

    Georgia Tech faculty members round out the AIP by providing insight into the professional side of academia—finding and keeping a faculty position, and the tenure process.

    The money raised by the classes of 1957 and 1972 will allow a greater number of graduate assistants to participate in AIP and the overall GTA development program, expand program offerings and perhaps provide customized training by academic departments, Shook said.

    CETL’s newest addition to its teaching improvement effort was announced this past spring. The Senior Teaching Fellows program is designed to “allow mid-career professors a chance to recharge their teaching batteries,” McGill said.

    Patterned after the program for young faculty, the project brings professors up-to-date on education methods and technology through workshops, seminars and peer discussion. CETL hopes to find a class interested in endowing the Senior Teaching Fellows program so that it can assist the greatest number of students by reaching as many professors as possible.

    “We have seen a resurgence in good teaching and learning on our campus in recent years, due in large measure to the alumni-funded teaching programs,” McGill said. “With their continued support, we can look forward to even higher levels of excellence in teaching and instruction at all levels at Georgia Tech.” GT

    International Partnership

    Georgia Tech, French establish center to study urban water and wastewater management

    Georgia Tech and the French conglomerate Vivendi have begun a partnership to research innovative technologies to improve environmental and economic issues related to urban water and wastewater management.

    In October, the partnership created the Water Technology and Management Research Center in Atlanta. The center serves as the North American node for Vivendi (formerly Compagnie Generale des Eaux) and is the second-largest facility in the company’s global research-center network. Vivendi spends more than $40 million a year on water research.

    The center draws upon the expertise of 11 faculty members and more than 100 graduate students in the environmental engineering program of Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).

    “One of the major factors that led to Vivendi’s choice of Atlanta for establishment of the research center was the nationally recognized expertise of the faculty in the environmental engineering group,” says group leader and Tech professor Dr. Appiah Amirtharajah. “They also were impressed with our state-of-the-art analytical capabilities, especially in drinking-water treatment and wastewater management, developed with assistance from the Georgia Research Alliance.

    “Also, Georgia Tech has a history of working with established companies to build research centers.”

    He and his faculty are collaborating with Vivendi researchers in France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and China. Vivendi has 210,000 employees worldwide and annual expenditures of $38 billion. Vivendi is the parent company of Aqua Alliance Inc. Aqua Alliance has an engineering division, Metcalf & Eddy Inc., and an operating division, Professional Services Group, for its North American activities.

    Specific areas of research activity at the Tech center are:

  • drinking-water treatment and distribution;
  • wastewater collection and treatment;
  • wastewater reclamation and reuse;
  • bio-solids management and disposal;
  • and urban water-management economics.

    One example of collaboration between Tech and Vivendi researchers is a project headed by French researchers on static mixers for enhancing drinking-water ozonation. Tech researchers have been developing a computational fluid-dynamics model of a static mixer and studying its use for mixing disinfectants to kill the parasite Cryptosporidium. The parasite has caused major waterborne disease outbreaks in Carrollton, Ga.; Milwaukee, Wis.; London; and Sydney, Australia.

    The research center is linking these ongoing research activities and assisting in global technology transfer of these innovations for supplying safe drinking water. For now, the center is housed in the CEE. Within a few years, Vivendi expects to have 50 researchers at the Tech center and coordinate research of $8 to $9 million a year. GT

    New GTAB Members

    Georgia Tech Advisory Board studies Institute’s entrepreneurial culture

    Eleven business executives from around the countryincluding the highest ranking woman at Microsoft—have been named to the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.

    Deborah Nash Willingham, IE ’78, of Redmond, Wash., vice president of the Enterprise Customer Unit for Microsoft, and 10 other executives attended their first meeting Oct. 23-24 in the Wardlaw Center, a session studying Georgia Tech’s entrepreneurial culture.

    Tech President Wayne Clough and a number of faculty and administrators, as well as both student and alumni entrepreneurs, met with the board during the one-and-a-half day session, presided over by chairman Dan Pittard, IM ’71, a Chicago investor.

    Sam Williams, EE ’68, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and luncheon speaker, said Atlanta is pursuing a plan to attract and develop “industries of the mind” for the next millennium.

    Georgia Tech is strategic to Atlanta’s achieving such an economy, Williams said.

    William “Bill” Todd, IM ’71, president of the Georgia Research Alliance, agreed, predicting that by 2010 Georgia will join the likes of California and Texas, becoming one of the country’s top five states driving the technology industry.

    Todd said that by committing to support research at Georgia Tech and five other state research universities, developing centers of excellence and attracting eminent scholars, Georgia has established a seedbed and climate for a thriving high-tech economy.

    Charles Liotta, vice provost for Research, and Wayne Hodges, director of Tech’s Economic Development Institute, said Georgia Tech’s entrepreneurial spirit helped spawn Scientific-Atlanta and other high-tech industries. The 1981 creation of the Advanced Technology Development Center—a facility for fledgling high-tech start-ups—also has helped stimulate an entrepreneurial culture, both on campus and in Atlanta.

    The new advisory board members join 40 other business leaders who use their collective leadership to promote policies and advance the Institute’s objectives in the corporate world.

    Other new board members include:

    Ray C. Anderson, IE ’56, of Atlanta, founder, chairman and CEO of Interface Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of carpet tile and modular flooring systems for commercial and institutional interiors. He was a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board from 1989 to 1995 and a trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation from 1995 to 1996. He is an emeritus member of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board and chairman of the ISyE Capital Campaign Executive Committee.

    C. Garrett “Garry” Betty, ChE ’79, of Pasadena, Calif., is president and CEO of EarthLink Network Inc., a California Internet access provider founded in 1994. He is also founder and chairman of Physicians Data Corp., which maintains a clinical database for specialty care physicians, and he is president of TSI Power Corp., which makes power supplies for computers and telephone systems. He is a past member of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees, the Alexander-Tharpe Fund Board of Trustees, Management of Technology Corporate Council of Advisers, and the Advanced Technology Development Center board. In 1993, he was named Georgia Tech Young Alumnus of the Year.

    Charles M. Brewer of Atlanta, is the founder, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based MindSpring Enterprises, an Internet access provider. He started the company in 1994 in the Advanced Technology Development Center, and took it public in 1996. A graduate of Amherst College, Brewer earned his MBA at Stanford University. In 1996, the Business and Technology Alliance named him Entrepreneur of the Year. Although his firm was a start-up in the ATDC, this is his first involvement on a Georgia Tech board.

    Edward J. “Ed” Brown III, IM ’70, of San Francisco, is managing director and president of Global Capital Raising and Global Markets for Bank of America. He is a former president of Global Finance for NationsBank Corp. He received his master’s in finance from Harvard in 1972. He is co-chairman of the Regional Development Council.

    Richard J. “Dick” Fox, IM ’50, of Wayne, Pa., is chairman of The Fox Cos., one of the major building-development and real-estate management companies in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. He is also chairman of Strategic Weather Services Inc., his son’s company. He founded the National Jewish Coalition and currently serves as honorary chairman, and he is on the boards of Temple University and several Philadelphia Jewish organizations.

    Lawrence L. “Larry” Gellerstedt III, of Atlanta, is the CEO of American Business Products Inc., a specialty printing company. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Gellerstedt went to work for Beers Construction and became CEO in 1987. He has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards in the Atlanta area. This is the first time he has served on a Georgia Tech board.

    Robert Gordon “Bob” Marbut, IE ’57, of San Antonio, is chairman and co-CEO of Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., a publicly owned division of The Hearst Corp. and an owner-operator of television stations. This is Marbut’s second appointment to the board; he also served a term from 1978 until 1981. In 1995, Marbut was inducted into Georgia Tech’s Engineering Hall of Fame.

    Charles D. “Charlie” Moseley Jr., IE ’65, Atlanta, is a general partner of Noro-Moseley Partners, one of Georgia’s original venture-capital funds, which he founded in 1983. The firm focuses on investments in technology, medical and service industries. Moseley has served on a number of Georgia Tech boards, including the DuPree Center Advisory board, the ISyE Alumni Advisory board, the Advanced Technology Development Center board, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees.

    Patrick H. “Pat” Nettles, Phys ’64, of Linthicum, Md., is president and CEO of Ciena Corp., a company which designs, manufactures and sells multiplexing systems for fiber-optic communications networks. He was named Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997 by Ernst & Young, and he has been named to the Forbes Technology 100 list.

    W. Pierre Sovey, IE ’55, of Sea Island, Ga., is chairman of Newell Co., a leading manufacturer and marketer of hardware and of housewares, office and industrial products. In addition to serving on several corporate boards, Sovey is currently a member of the ISyE Advisory Board and the Chicago Regional Development Council. He previously served on the Alumni Association Board of Trustees and as a member of his 40th reunion committee. Mr. Sovey was named to Georgia Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 1994.

    Three students were also named to the board: Melissa A. Byrd, Christina Robinson and David C. White. GT

    NSF Funds New Tissue Center

    $12.5 million grant creates unique facilit

    A$12.5 million grant to establish a one-of-a-kind center to study tissue engineering has been awarded to Georgia Tech by the National Science Foundation.

    Tissue engineering research is working to produce advancements in the regulation of blood glucose for diabetics, the regeneration of bone to correct genetic defects and the creation of bioartificial blood vessels for high-risk heart patients.

    The grant will establish the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for the Engineering of Living Tissues at Georgia Tech, with Emory University as a core-partner institution.

    Dr. Robert M. Nerem, director of Georgia Tech’s Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, will be director of the center. The NSF grant funds the center over the first five years, with a potential duration of 10 years, to support research on the design and development of tissue substitutes that replace, enhance or maintain natural tissue.

    “Tissue engineering represents the next generation of medical implants, and this award allows us, working with our industrial partners, to take the lead in harnessing the products of the biological age and to revolutionize this important industry,” Nerem said.

    The center will focus on specific research projects in three core areas: cell technology, cell construct technology (prototype organ or tissues structures) and their integration into living systems. Current research projects in tissue engineering include the development of substitute blood vessels, the creation of a bio-artificial pancreas and engineering bone repair.

    “Tissue engineering holds great promise for the future improvement of medical care,” said Lynn Preston, center team leader and deputy division director, Division of Engineering Education and Centers. “The partnership [between Georgia Tech and Emory] combines a diverse collection of talents in engineering and medicine and will lead to rapid growth in the fields of tissue engineering and bioengineering.”

    After years of maintaining a grassroots collaborative relationship, Georgia Tech and Emory University signed formal agreements to establish a biomedical research program in the mid-’80s. Last fall, in a pioneering collaboration, the two institutions established a joint department of biomedical engineering. Both the new research center and the Georgia Tech/Emory Department of Biomedical Engineering will be housed in the $30 million Bioengineering and Bioscience Building, now under construction on Tech’s campus and scheduled for completion in 1999.

    “The Bioengineering and Biosciences faculty have already developed one of the top 10 programs in the nation,” said Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. “This new center in tissue engineering will give Tech and Emory the opportunity to be among the leaders worldwide in a field that holds tremendous potential for healthcare in the next century.”

    Another goal of this center is to prepare future engineers for research in this unique field.

    Georgia Tech and Emory have obtained 42 acres near northeast Atlanta to develop an incubator for nurturing start-up biotechnology companies. The concept has strong support from the Georgia Research Alliance and continues Tech’s partnership with Emory research. GT