{"203801":{"#nid":"203801","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ChBE Runners Win 200-mile Dixie200 Relay","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOn the afternoon of Saturday, March 23, Runaway Reaction, a team of twelve faculty and graduate students from the School of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering crossed the finish line of the Dixie200 Relay, sealing a first-place victory and beating fifteen other teams. A 200-mile relay race from Atlanta, Ga., to Birmingham, Ala., the Dixie200 Relay is split into thirty-six legs over two days, and team sizes range from four to twelve people.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter hearing about the race, Professor David Sholl suggested forming a team to a few faculty members, and once a core team of six was formed, Professor Victor Breedveld says they looked for \u201csome graduate students to prop up the average pace.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoing into the race, Breedveld, who also served as team captain, says they expected to finish within the top third of all teams based on the times submitted for predicted pace. \u201cWe ended up running two hours and twenty minutes faster than my prediction, which was admittedly a bit conservative,\u201d he says. \u201cNevertheless, I did not expect us to beat my prediction by more than an hour.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs Team Runaway Reaction neared the final legs, they had endured a five-hour rain delay due to a thunderstorm and were trailing by four minutes. However, the last three runners\u2014graduate student Lester Li, Breedveld, and Professor Michael Filler\u2014pulled out a win for the team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFinishing with a time of 30 hours, 7 minutes, and 58 seconds, the team crossed the finish line 10 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher. While the relay began as a fun activity amongst a few faculty members, it provided the faculty and graduate students with an opportunity to know one another outside of the classroom or research lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDuring an event like this, any boundaries fade, and you\u2019re simply teammates,\u201d Breedveld says. \u201cI think the graduate students were able to see the professors \u2018unplugged\u2019 with all their individual quirks. I had set up the leg assignments so that everyone on the team would interact with everyone else, and that made for a great sense of teamwork.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGraduate student Li agrees, saying, \u201cI think we all really grew on each other. That \u2018barrier\u2019 of sorts between faculty and graduate students quickly dissolved, and everyone was very supportive of\u0026nbsp;one another. We were all sharing equipment, giving helpful tips, and cracking jokes by the end.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor team Runaway Reaction, the Dixie200 was challenging\u2014both physically and logistically\u2014but when it\u2019s time to begin preparing for next year\u2019s relay, there\u2019s a chance ChBE will be sending another team to compete. \u201cAs with all somewhat crazy events, I now say, \u201cMaybe, not necessarily,\u201d Breedveld says. \u201cHalf a year from now, when the memories of hard work and suffering subside a bit, our decision could easily change.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETeam Runaway Reaction comprised seven ChBE faculty members\u2014Victor Breedveld, David Sholl, Pete Ludovice, Michael Filler, Julie Champion, Mark Styczynski, and Krista Walton\u2014and five graduate students\u2014Lester Li, Saujan Sivaram, Brian Kraftschik, Brian Setzler, Sylvia Sullivan.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA team of twelve faculty and graduate students from the Georgia Tech School of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering won the Dixie200 Relay, a 200-mile relay race from Atlanta, Ga., to Birmingham, Ala.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27741","created_gmt":"2013-04-02 10:14:19","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:13:59","author":"Katie Brown","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-04-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-04-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"203781":{"id":"203781","type":"image","title":"Dixie200 Team","body":null,"created":"1449179967","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:59:27","changed":"1475894859","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:39","alt":"Dixie200 Team","file":{"fid":"196661","name":"img_4142_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/img_4142_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/img_4142_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1211934,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/img_4142_0_0.jpg?itok=YEc0TXLR"}},"203791":{"id":"203791","type":"image","title":"Dixie200 Team2","body":null,"created":"1449179967","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:59:27","changed":"1475894859","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:39","alt":"Dixie200 Team2","file":{"fid":"196662","name":"p1100670_v.2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/p1100670_v.2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/p1100670_v.2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":854201,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/p1100670_v.2_0.jpg?itok=yjUuJTOL"}}},"media_ids":["203781","203791"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.dixie200.com\/","title":"Dixie200"}],"groups":[{"id":"1240","name":"School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKatie Brown\u003Cbr \/\u003ESchool of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E(404) 385-2299\u003Cbr \/\u003Enews@chbe.gatech.edu\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["news@chbe.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}