News Briefs

EcoCAr Arrives At Georgia Tech

October 22, 2009

The wheels have arrived.

Following months of planning and preparing, students at Georgia Tech have finally received the car they hope to convert into a fuel-efficient, green machine that is eco-friendly, stylish and performance savvy.

EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, along with its headline sponsors, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), challenges 17 universities across the U.S. and Canada to redesign and reengineer a GM donated vehicle to further minimize fuel consumption and reduce emissions while retaining the vehicle’s performance and consumer appeal. EcoCAR aims to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers by giving them the tools and experience necessary to secure a more energy-efficient future.

EcoCAR

As the student engineers from Georgia Tech embark on the second phase of the challenge, they will incorporate plug-in hybrid electric vehicle architecture powered by a lithium ion battery and fueled by ethanol into the vehicle. In the first phase of the competition, the team designed a virtual model of their vehicle using advanced software and computer modeling tools, which earned them keys to the vehicle so they could turn their cutting-edge simulations into reality. Now they have moved on to the physical stage of the competition which involves working under the hood of the vehicle and, ultimately, taking it on the road.

“EcoCAR gives students hands-on design and engineering experience,” said Dr. David Taylor, the student advisor. Our students have worked hard this past year, and they are excited for the opportunity to integrate their designs into the vehicle.”

EcoCAR is a three-year competition that builds on the 20-year history of DOE advanced vehicle technology competitions by giving engineering students the chance to design and build advanced vehicles that demonstrate leading-edge automotive technologies. GM provides vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. The DOE and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, provide competition management, team evaluation, technical and logistical support. Through this important partnership between government and industry, EcoCAR aims to inspire and support the next generation of scientists and engineers to unite around the common goal of sustainable mobility. Additional information about the EcoCAR competition and photos can be found online at:
http://www.ecocarchallenge.org; http://www.green-garage.org; http://archive.ecocarphoto.com/c/ecocarphoto

For more information Contact Don Fernandez (Phone: )

Students Collect Donations For Flood Relief

October 14, 2009

The Georgia Tech Student Government Association, MOVE (Mobilizing Opportunities for Volunteer Experience) Georgia Tech, The President’s Council Governing Board, and the American Red Cross are collecting non-perishable food, clothes and money to assist victims of Georgia’s recent floods.

Students, faculty and staff may drop off donations from 11AM to 1PM this Thursday and Friday on Skiles Walkway. Donations may also be made before Mock Rock on Thursday at 7PM in the Ferst Center for the Arts and before the Ramblin’ Reck Parade this Saturday at 8AM

Students wanted to assist with flood relief when they learned that fellow Yellow Jackets were affected by the disaster. “When we heard Governor [Sonny] Perdue give the estimate for damage at $500 million, we quickly realized we had an obligation to do our part,” said Undergraduate Student Government member Corey Boone.

For additional information, contact Andrea Fernandez at afernandez6@gatech.edu.

For more information Contact Andrea Fernandez (Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx)

Monthly Testing of Campus Warning System

October 8, 2009

To assure that Georgia Tech’s Warning System is in continuous operational condition, the Office of Emergency Preparedness will begin testing the system today at 11AM. All seven speaker stations will be tested simultaneously playing the following test message twice:

“Testing 1-2-3-4, this is a test. Test out.”

The normal siren and recorded test message will not be played at this time. The e-mail and voice mail alerts will also not be transmitted during this test.

For more information Contact Lisa Grovenstein (Phone: 404-894-8835)

Ga. Tech Professor Selected for NAE Symposium

October 8, 2009

A Georgia Institute of Technology faculty member has been selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium.

Dirk Schaefer
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Dr. Dirk Schaefer, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, will join 48 of the nation’s brightest young engineering researchers and educators who have been selected to take part in the inaugural symposium.

Schaefer, who works at Georgia Tech’s Savannah campus, was selected along with other top engineering faculty members in the first half of their careers who are developing and implementing innovative educational approaches in a variety of disciplines. They will gather in Herndon, Va., November 15-18 to share ideas and best practices to bring back to their home institutions.

“I am proud that Dr. Schaefer is playing a strategic role in transforming engineering education,” said David Frost, director of Georgia Tech-Savannah. “We are fortunate to have someone of his caliber as part of our Savannah campus.”

The participants were nominated by fellow engineers or deans and chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants. Schaefer, who joined Georgia Tech in 2006, has focused his research on the strategic design of engineering education including virtual learning environments and remotely/robotically controlled physical laboratory exercises for distance learning settings.

For more information Contact Lisa Grovenstein (Phone: 404-894-8835)

Georgia Tech Annual Security Report Released

October 1, 2009

In accordance with federal law, the Georgia Tech Police Department’s Annual Security Report is now available. This report provides statistics for the past three years concerning reported crimes that occurred on campus, within off-campus buildings owned by the Institute, and on public property adjacent to campus. The report also documents institutional policies regarding campus security and other safety protocols.

To view a copy of this report, visit
http://www.police.gatech.edu/documents/brochure.pdf

For more information Contact Ian Mayberry (Phone: )

Convergence Innovation Competition Announced

September 29, 2009

Georgia Tech’s Research Network Operations Center (GT-RNOC) is kicking off its annual research competition for students who are interested in developing new technology ranging from new iPhone or Android applications to projects focusing on interactive TV, Web2.0, smart grids and more. Known as the Convergence Innovation Competition (CIC), the fourth annual challenge gives students the opportunity to connect classroom and research lab work to the business world with the creation of innovative and commercially relevant applications and services for mobile devices, set top boxes and other electronic devices. Competition winners will be announced in April 2010.

Winners of the annual competition will be announced in April 2010.
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Categories for the 2010 CIC include:
- SIP+Web2.0 converged applications
- Wireless Solutions for the Utility Industry
- Interactive Television
- Campus Community Widgets

Competition category sponsors include AT&T and Verizon Wireless along with other industry contributors such as Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent. GT-RNOC also partners with a number of Georgia Tech entities including the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EII), the GVU Center, the Georgia Electronic Design Center as well as the College of Computing, the College of Management and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

"This innovative approach to industry partnerships in our research and academic programs adds value to everyone involved, which is why we’re always looking at ways to expand these partnerships,” said Dr. Ron Hutchins, GT-RNOC’s executive director and Georgia Tech’s chief technology officer. “In fact, like our industry partners, the Office of Information Technology is sponsoring a category to capitalize on the benefits of student innovation of our campus enterprise technologies and services.”

The competition kicks off in September giving students the chance to acquire skills through a diversity of mobility and convergence related courses, industry presentations, and resources provided by the industry-supported GT-RNOC Convergence Innovation Platform (CIP), an end-to-end development environment. During the fall semester, students work together to build interdisciplinary teams, conduct market research and create prototype concepts in preparation for the spring competition.

Industry representatives review project proposals early in the spring, allowing the teams to revamp and refine their entries. Competition submissions include video presentations, functional end-to-end prototypes, and a detailed business case. Entries are evaluated based on market and technical viability, creativity and completeness of the working prototype. Throughout the competition, students are shepherded by GT-RNOC staff who maintain the CIP resources and operate the CIC. Competition winners receive assistance with commercialization through Georgia Tech’s VentureLab (a part of EII) or through a sponsor’s product development process.

"The CIC offers students a unique opportunity to cultivate their entrepreneurial skills by directly applying their research and academic experiences,” said Stephen Fleming, vice provost of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. “In doing so, the competition fills an important role in accelerating innovation and commercialization at Georgia Tech.”

The competition is generating exciting new technology. Last year’s winners included MoVue, a mobile search and social networking application with location-based advertising and Ubi-Q-tweet, an application that personalizes voice mail greetings for each caller according to the user’s location, calendar, Twitter status and other information.

"This competition allowed me to further my career in ways that are not typically possible in academia. The opportunity to build prototypes in an industry-sponsored environment is fantastic,” said Christian Menkens, first place winner in the inaugural IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) research competition, who is now with the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) in Munich. In this capacity, he is currently responsible for the CDTM research field of Converged Applications in Telecommunications and Internet as well as CDTM’s student and researcher exchange programs. “Because of my own experiences with GT-RNOC, I am excited to send three of our highly gifted students to Georgia Tech as visiting scholars in a newly established program allowing our universities to work together on projects in the area of converged application research and development.”

For more information Contact Lisa Grovenstein (Phone: 404-894-8835)

Two Tech Professors Win NIH New Innovator Award

September 24, 2009

Two Georgia Tech professors have been honored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for work that celebrates creativity and innovation among young and promising researchers.

Dr. Melissa Kemp of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and Dr. Christine Payne of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry are the first Georgia Tech faculty members �“ and first in Georgia - to receive the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

The award provides $1.5 million in research funding - $300,000 a year for five years �“ to each early career investigator honored. Now in its third year, the 2009 NIH New Innovator Award will be presented to 50 individuals to recognize their potential to produce major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research.

Kemp is being recognized for research that utilizes engineering methods to analyze complex biochemical networks. Specifically, she is studying how oxidative environments influence immune cell function. One of her goals is to develop computational models that can predict responses to drug interventions for inflammatory disease and cancer.

"I am thrilled and honored to receive this award at an early stage of my career,” Kemp said. “Young researchers often feel pressure to conduct ‘incremental science’ in order to acquire funding. The grant provides my lab the financial freedom to explore unconventional ideas as part of our research efforts.”

Payne’s honor is in recognition for her research targeting and delivering nanoparticles to living cells and the development of microscopy methods to image dynamic events inside cells. Her research has promising applications in the arena of drug and gene delivery along with displaying potential to further understand the fundamental functions of the cell.

“This award provides a great opportunity to focus on the science of nanoparticle-cell interactions and the development of new fluorescence microscopy methods,” Payne said.

While both Kemp and Payne have received the award for their individual achievements, the two are also involved in a joint collaboration that combines microscopy, modeling and biochemical analysis in an effort to understand the intracellular environment.

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards were announced today. Kemp and Payne are both in Bethesda, Maryland, to accept the honor.

More information on the New Innovator Award is at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/newinnovator. For descriptions of the 2009 recipients’ research plans, see http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/newinnovator/Recipients09.asp.

For more information Contact Don Fernandez (Phone: )

Bioengineering student named Kauffman Fellow

September 17, 2009

Georgia Tech bioengineering Ph.D. student Yash Kolambkar is one of 13 postdoctoral researchers to be named among the first Kauffman Postdoctoral Fellows.

In addition to providing a salary and benefits to support the fellows’ research over the course of the yearlong fellowship, the Kauffman Foundation has matched each fellow with an academic advisor to mentor him/her on matters beyond research, and an experienced investor or corporate leader to serve as a business mentor. During the fellowship year, each fellow also will undertake an industry internship suited to his or her research interests and objectives.

Kolambkar is a researcher in the biomedical field with a strong focus on translation of research ideas into commercially viable products.

Yash has earned a technology commercialization certificate from the nationally recognized TI:GER (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program, based at Georgia Tech and Emory Law School. In the program, he developed a commercialization plan for his PhD technology, which would restore cartilage in osteoarthritic patients. He has been a consultant to VentureLab, where he identified and evaluated Georgia Tech technologies with strong commercial potential.

He is currently preparing to successfully defend his PhD thesis.

For more information Contact Don Fernandez (Phone: )

Tech Offers Assistance to GIs

August 12, 2009

Beginning this month, qualified U.S. veterans who currently attend or wish to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology can apply for the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program, according to the Institute’s Veterans Services office.

At Tech, the Yellow Ribbon Program covers qualified in-state and out-of-state veterans’ tuition and fees for undergraduate, professional and other graduate degrees.

To be eligible for the Yellow Ribbon Program, veterans must qualify 100 percent for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, meaning they must have served at least 36 months of active duty since Sept. 10, 2001. Other provisions for disabled veterans also apply and can be found online at the Department of Veterans Affairs Web site.

The Yellow Ribbon Program, part of the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, allows degree-granting institutions in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with the Veterans Administration (VA) to fund tuition expenses that exceed the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition rate.

Tech joins more than 1,100 colleges and universities that have signed up to take part in the initiative.

Information on the Yellow Ribbon Program at Tech is available through Veterans Services in the Registrar’s Office. For more information on the program, contact VA Coordinator Tammy Dennis at 404-894-4953 or tammy.dennis@registrar.gatech.edu.

For more information Contact Lisa Grovenstein (Phone: 404-894-8835)

Georgia Tech’s Robert Nerem to Address Summer Commencement

July 31, 2009

Professor Robert M. Nerem will address the graduates at Georgia Tech’s 234th commencement on Saturday, August 1, 2009. Approximately 800 undergraduate and graduate students will be recognized at a 9AM ceremony at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

Professor Robert Nerem currently serves as director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center (GTEC) for the Engineering of Living Tissues, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center.

Robert M. Nerem joined Georgia Tech in 1987 as the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine. He currently serves as director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center (GTEC) for the Engineering of Living Tissues, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center.

Nerem earned a PhD in 1964 from Ohio State University, where he was promoted to professor in 1972 and served from 1975-1979 as associate dean for Research in the Graduate School. From 1979 to 1986, he was professor and chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston.

The author of more than 200 publications, Nerem is a fellow and was the founding president of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (1992-1994), and he is past president of the Tissue Engineering Society International. In addition, he was part-time senior advisor for bioengineering in the new National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health (2003-2006).

Other awards and honors include:

• Election to the National Academy of Engineering, 1988

• Member of the National Academy of Engineering Council, 1998-2004

• Election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of
Sciences, 1992

• Election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998

• Honorary doctorate, University of Paris, 1990

• Election as a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 1994

• Honorary fellow, Institution of Mechanical Engineers in the United Kingdom, 1998

• Election as an honorary foreign member, Japan Society for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2004

• Election as a foreign member, Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, 2006

• National Academy of Engineering Founders Award, 2008

• Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009

Nerem’s research interests include biomechanics, cardiovascular devices, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and stem cell technology.

For more information Contact Matthew Nagel (Phone: 404-894-7460)

Ross Advises White House Office on Urban Affairs

July 6, 2009

Catherine L. Ross, Harry West Professor and director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development (CQGRD) at Georgia Institute of Technology, has been invited to assist President Barack Obama’s recently created White House Office of Urban Affairs as it charts a new course for the nation. The White House Office of Urban Affairs was created for the purpose of coordinating federal agencies that impact urban policies in order to ensure thoughtful and integrated investment in urban areas. The office is also charged with identifying policies that will best leverage the assets of our metropolitan areas.

Catherine L. Ross, Harry West Professor and director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development (CQGRD) at Georgia Tech, has been invited to assist President Barack Obama’s recently created White House Office of Urban Affairs.

Adolfo Carrión Jr., director of Urban Affairs, recently stated, “We want to essentially tease out what the elements of a national agenda ought to be.” Ross has extensive experience in regional planning, infrastructure planning and development. She is the author of the recently released “Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness,” published by Island Press in July 2009. Ross co-authored “The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in the Next Century,” published by Transaction Press.

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden created the White House Office of Urban Affairs to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to help direct federal dollars targeted for urban areas. Carrión reports directly to the President and is responsible for coordinating all federal urban programs.

For more information Contact Matthew Nagel (Phone: 404-894-7460)