Airline passengers arriving in Atlanta on early morning “redeye” flights during the past few months may have noticed something different during their descent to the runway. Instead of the typical sound of engine power rising and falling as the aircraft descended in a series of level flight steps, they may have noticed a quieter arrival – without the steps.
The changes were part of Georgia Tech’s flight-testing of “continuous descent arrivals,” a procedure designed to save fuel and time while producing environmental benefits by reducing both noise and emissions. Involving more than 600 flights, the Atlanta study was done in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), FedEx and Atlanta’s two dominant air carriers: Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways.
The continuous descent arrival procedure has already been studied at Louisville and Los Angeles airports. Proponents hope the 90-day test at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – currently the nation’s busiest airport – will move the concept one step closer to nationwide implementation. Estimates suggest that continuous descent arrivals could save a large airline as much as $80 million per year in fuel costs alone.
“In commercial aircraft, we see anywhere between 300 and 1,000 pounds of fuel saved for each arrival,” said John-Paul Clarke, director of the Air Transportation Laboratory at Georgia Tech and an associate professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “With fuel cost at $3 per gallon, that would amount to as much as $600 per arrival and could really add up for the airlines at a time when they need all the savings they can get.”
Because aircraft engines don’t throttle up and down during a continuous descent arrival, there are also significant reductions in noise and emissions. Keeping engines at idle power can cut emissions of nitrogen oxides by nearly a third, and reduce noise by 6 decibels along certain portions of the flight path – both significant reductions that would improve the environment in the vicinity of airports.
And the technique could cut two minutes off the approach and landing portion of a flight. While that doesn’t seem like much, it could result in more efficient utilization of aircraft and reductions in flight times for crews.
Continuous descent arrival is one in a series of improvements aimed at creating the next generation of air transportation technologies. The goal is to redesign the airspace to allow future airliners to travel the most efficient paths to their destinations.
Though the final numbers from the Atlanta evaluation won’t be known for several months, the potential savings have been demonstrated by more than 60,000 landings at Los Angeles with a continuous descent arrival technique developed by Georgia Tech. But adopting the procedure throughout the airspace system won’t be easy. Safety considerations must be paramount, and there are a number of optimization challenges caused by widely varying aircraft types, wind conditions and airport configurations.
“Imagine a line of aircraft descending through a long tube that’s fixed laterally and limited vertically to be within a narrow band,” explained Clarke. “If each airplane were like a ball with a different coefficient of friction, then when you put the balls in the tube at equal intervals, they would begin to catch up with one another. The ball with the lower coefficient would tend to catch up with the ball with a higher coefficient. That’s something that we have to work very hard to avoid.”
While the risks of getting aircraft too close are obvious – and governed by FAA rules on minimum spacing – too much spacing between landing aircraft can waste time and reduce airport throughput.
“The goal is to design a procedure that allows the aircraft engines to throttle back to idle power at the point of initial descent and to remain at idle power along the flight path to the runway as long as possible,“ Clarke added. “We have figured out how to put altitude and speed constraints along the flight path so they can stay at idle power as long as possible while achieving the required minimal spacing at the runway threshold.”
Determining those constraints requires detailed knowledge of the performance of each aircraft type in use. Clarke and his research team have obtained performance data for most Boeing aircraft, as well as some of those manufactured by Airbus. Based on the performance data, they have simulated the operation of each aircraft type under varying wind and weight conditions.
The researchers have also modeled variation in pilot behavior, because small differences in when flaps are deployed and landing gear lowered create variations in speed, which affect aircraft spacing.
Arrivals would be customized for each airport, taking into account wind and traffic patterns. And because the spacing between aircraft is determined well before they arrive at their destinations, adoption of the technique will require changes in the nation’s air traffic control system.
“The air traffic control system currently isn’t designed to allow the kind of fine-tuning we need, but I’m very optimistic about being able to change that,” said Clarke. “Throughout all the areas, the FAA and the airlines, there is a growing acceptance that this is a solution. We have been able to do the analysis, the flight-testing and the number crunching to show that it can be done.”
Clarke, who began the research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining Georgia Tech in 2005, believes the cost savings will ensure adoption of continuous descent arrivals. He compared the technique to the adoption of fuel-saving winglets, small vertical attachments that have replaced traditional wingtips on many aircraft.
“For years people knew that winglets provided better performance, but it costs money to install them,” he added. “When fuel got more expensive, airlines started installing winglets because the savings justified the costs. The benefits of continuous descent arrival may also take some time to be realized.”
Written by John Toon
Imagine getting into your vehicle and entering your destination into a small device that continuously sends your speed, location and travel path to a traffic monitoring station. By combining your information with data from other vehicles, motorists could receive real-time notifications of tieups and slowdowns in traffic on any road, from the largest interstate to the smallest dirt lane. The device could then display a map depicting the best route around congestion to your destination.
“We’re investigating how to develop such a system, which will be the future generation of intelligent transportation systems,” says Michael Hunter, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).
Hunter is working on this research with Richard Fujimoto, Regents’ Professor and chair of the College of Computing Computational Science and Engineering Division; Christos Alexopoulos, associate professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Randall Guensler, CEE professor; and Frank Southworth, CEE principal research scientist and Oak Ridge National Laboratory senior research staff member. These eff orts are being funded by the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation program.
“By allowing motorists to be more active and participate in the traffic monitoring system by providing real-time data to the traffic centers, officials could build a picture of current and future traffic flow and actively manage that traffic with much lower infrastructure cost than is done today,” says Fujimoto.
The research team envisions that each vehicle would contain a computer that collects real-time information and rapidly produces reliable forecasts of the future traffic in its local area. Using a concept called ad hoc distributed simulations, each vehicle’s simulation of a portion of the network would be combined to create a more complete picture of the entire network. This type of system would allow offi cials to know what’s happening on side roads and not just on the camera-equipped freeways.
The researchers are currently investigating how to send information from each vehicle to a roadside server, which could involve transmitting it wirelessly from vehicle to vehicle until it reaches the server. They are also developing communications protocols to determine which information to collect and pass to the next vehicle and how to handle the databases in each vehicle. Field tests could begin in 2009.
“The benefit of this type of system is that it tells traffic officials where a lot of people are headed so that they know what the demand is going to be, which will allow them to start managing for that demand immediately,” explains Hunter.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. EFRI- 0735991. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the researchers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Written by Abby Vogel
As competition increases and shippers raise their expectations for service, trucking companies must optimize their routes and use of drivers, vehicles and facilities.
Researchers in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech are developing models to help optimize driver and equipment scheduling, shipment planning, load consolidation and routing for two carriers – Saia and YRC Worldwide. The companies operate as less-than-truckload carriers, which means they collect freight from various shippers and consolidate that freight to fill trailers for travel to common destinations.
“Tens of thousands of shipments have to be picked up and then dropped off hundreds or thousands of miles away, and we’re studying how all of that freight can best be consolidated and sent through the company’s network of hundreds of facilities to minimize cost and improve service,” said Martin Savelsbergh, Schneider Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Many less-than-truckload carriers operate with a fixed consolidation and routing plan that they typically repeat every day. But Savelsbergh, along with associate professor Alan Erera, and graduate students, developed a different tactical plan for each day of the week for Duluth, Ga.-based Saia.
“Our results have shown that there is the potential for 5 to 10 percent reductions in line haul costs, which equates to savings of $10 million to $20 million per year, simply by executing a different plan each weekday,” said Erera.
Taking it one step further, the researchers are developing real-time dynamic plans for Saia based on freight information collected each day. While the goals of dynamic planning are to reduce the time required for freight in the system to arrive at destinations and to cut costs, the models developed also consider the future operational cost impact of decisions made today.
For YRC Worldwide, which operates both the Yellow Freight and Roadway carriers, the researchers initially focused their efforts on driver management issues. They developed a computer program that could plan a week’s worth of driver schedules in a matter of minutes, while considering driver constraints and costs.
“Our software can be used to tell companies how many drivers they should have, where the drivers should reside and how they should be dispatched,” noted Erera.
The researchers have also recommended ways to manage YRC’s equipment to minimize the tractor and trailer resources required by the company to effectively serve its customer demands. Results indicate that fleet sizes may be reduced by 10 to 15 percent if resources are moved geographically to where they are needed most at any given time.
“The optimization techniques we’ve developed are applicable for any less-than-truckload carrier and are going to become increasingly necessary in the future to maximize profit and service based on the fixed resources available,” explained Savelsbergh.
Funding for this research was provided by the companies through the Leaders in Logistics program, which is part of the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Trucking Industry Program.
Written by Abby Vogel
While radar and other existing systems typically warn aircraft pilots of potential weather hazards during flight, they do not detect all possible atmospheric dangers.
“Some hazards can be the most dangerous because pilots’ eyes and radar cannot see them,” says Gary Gimmestad, a principal research scientist in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).
GTRI is leading a team of researchers from five universities and research organizations to investigate the feasibility of using an instrument called a forward-looking interferometer to detect several of these invisible hazards during takeoff, cruise and landing. Forward-looking interferometers can detect the presence of the environmental hazards by identifying each hazard’s distinct infrared spectral signature.
With funding from NASA, the researchers are conducting studies to determine the sensitivity of the system for detecting clear-air turbulence, wake vortices, volcanic ash, low visibility, dry wind shear and ice on runways.
A major concern for air navigation is clear-air turbulence because it cannot be seen and is therefore difficult for pilots to avoid. During a January 2008 ground test in Boulder, Colo., the research team evaluated the feasibility of the infrared interferometer to detect clear-air turbulence at a useful distance from the sensor by measuring temperature fluctuations. They also evaluated the turbulence detection and hazard prediction algorithms they developed.
“The measured results corresponded well to the model predictions, and this result was interpreted as a successful detection of mountain waves with interferometric radiometry, which has never before been accomplished,” adds Leanne West, project director and GTRI senior research scientist.
A second field test was conducted in Madison, Wis., in June 2008 to investigate the ability of the instrument to detect wake vortices. This tornado-like turbulence forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air and can cause problems for any subsequent aircraft following the same flight path.
The researchers were able to resolve what could potentially be a wake vortex about 80 seconds after a DC-9 aircraft passed overhead. If this result can be verified, it would be the first detection of a wake vortex by spectral infrared radiometry, according to the researchers.
The preliminary results from the field tests show that the imaging system is a promising technology to detect many, if not all, of the external hazards. Further research will be completed to determine if the hazards can be detected in-flight with sufficient time-to-alarm for safe maneuvering to avoid the hazards.
The material in this article is based upon work supported by NASA under award number NNX07AN17A. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the researchers and do not necessarily refl ect the views of NASA.
Written by Abby Vogel
The Port of Savannah has experienced dramatic growth – 15 percent per year on average since 2002. This trend could necessitate expanding the roads and railroads leading to and from the seaport on Georgia’s coast. To help guide these infrastructure decisions, researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have developed models that show how freight moves on roads and railroads from the Port of Savannah to the rest of the nation.
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed models to show how freight moves on roads and railroads from the Port of Savannah. (Click image for high-resolution version. Credit: Georgia Department of Economic Development)
“We are developing models that can answer questions about the local and downstream impacts of growth in port operations, port infrastructure or local infrastructure on the larger system,” says Michael Rodgers, a GTRI principal research scientist.
Rodgers is working on this project with GTRI principal research engineer James McMichael, civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Michael Hunter, and graduate students Christopher Puglisi, Thomas Wall, Franklin Gbologah and Lakshmi Peesapati.
With data from the Logistics Innovation Center and funding from GTRI’s independent research and development program, the models aim to help transportation organizations plan for corresponding growth in rail and highway systems. The models can reveal bottlenecks in the transportation network and determine where money would best be spent to improve the transportation infrastructure.
“Transportation organizations and governments have very limited resources, so our models will tell them what types of improvements give the most bang for the buck,” adds Rodgers. “It is so much quicker, easier and less expensive to change the infrastructure in a computer than it is to change the infrastructure on the ground.”
With the models, the researchers can examine many ‘what-if’ scenarios – such as the impact of new technologies, a high-speed rail line, truck-only lanes or the development of a regional freight corridor. In addition to studying proposals from a technical perspective, the researchers are also investigating the environmental impact of the scenarios based on energy consumption and vehicle emissions.
Currently, the model includes the Port of Savannah, railways from Miami to Washington, D.C., and west to Chicago, and highways from Savannah west to Atlanta. The researchers plan to expand the model to include ports in Charleston, S.C.; Norfolk, Va., and Jacksonville, Fla., and highways throughout the southeastern United States.
“Our models may help determine improvements that will allow freight moving through the Port of Savannah to reach its final destination faster, which could make the port even more attractive to shippers and improve the economy in Georgia,” explains McMichael.
Written by Abby Vogel
Randall Guensler, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, studies transportation efficiency in metropolitan areas.
His current work focuses on close monitoring of real-world driving behavior. The goal: find ways to improve traffic flow by maximizing the use of existing highways.
The vehicle-activity data being monitored are useful, he explains, not only for evaluating travel behavior, but also for studying traffic operations, safety, and environmental impact. Such data can help guide decisions affecting transportation planning and environmental policy analysis.
“Many experts now believe that actively managing lane use can provide greatly improved service without having to construct extra lanes,” Guensler said. “These managed-lane strategies can be implemented for minimal cost, especially when compared to the land and construction cost, the traffic problems and the demolition issues involved in building new roads.”
Guensler and his team are involved in two major projects directly associated with transportation efficiency and managed-lane approaches:
The benefits of controlling lane use through value pricing – sometimes called congestion pricing or peak-period pricing – are counter-intuitive, Guensler says. To people sitting in traffic, it looks as if fewer vehicles are flowing through the adjacent limited-access lane because there are big spaces between each car or truck.
“But in fact if you were looking from the top down, you’d see more vehicles going through that lane every hour than in the congested lanes,” he said. “From an engineering standpoint, traffic flow is the product of vehicle speed and traffic density – that is, the speed of the vehicles and how closely are they following each other.”
To look at it another way, he explains, a small hose that’s flowing freeing moves more water than a large hose that’s blocked.
Commute Atlanta’s first two phases, now complete, examined consumers’ response to having a price attached to their travel practices.
The study selected several hundred representative Atlanta households. Using in-vehicle computers and Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment to collect speed, position and engine-operating data, the study pinned down each family’s average travel habits.
Then each household was offered a monetary rebate for each mile it could pare from its monthly total by any means possible: fewer trips, carpooling, using public transportation, biking or even walking.
Guensler says the study’s first two phases have helped establish research guidelines, but results haven’t been definitive. It’s likely that a larger sampling will be needed to produce statistically significant data. However, he adds, the data already collected from 470 vehicles and more than 1.8 million vehicle trips will be useful in ongoing air-quality and safety research.
The third and fourth phases of Commute Atlanta will simulate the impact of travel behavior on real-time congestion pricing – charging less for restricted-lane travel at off -peak periods. The research also includes installing portable devices on delivery and service vehicles to examine the potential effect of congestion pricing and other pricing mechanisms.
As value pricing of lane use becomes a reality, it’s likely to use a variety of monitoring and toll-collection technologies. To avoid congestion-prone toll booths, future approaches could use technologies similar to today’s cruise cards, which employ radio-frequency identification (RFID) to keep track of a driver’s highway usage.
Another approach could involve on-board vehicle-monitoring systems, which would be in-vehicle devices that use GPS and other techniques to monitor and bill drivers for using special lanes.
The Congestion Pricing Project, a study separate from the Commute Atlanta work, was recently completed for the GDOT. In that project, Guensler teamed with co-principal investigator Catherine Ross, who is the Harry West Professor in the Georgia Tech College of Architecture.
Initially, the Congestion Pricing project reviewed new toll-collection technologies, as well as case studies of congestion-pricing projects in other cities. Subsequently, it interviewed experts on congestion-pricing programs and then analyzed local consumer reactions using focus groups comprised of Atlanta-area citizens.
“Our focus group work revealed interesting points, including the fact that income groups that wouldn’t generally use value priced lanes still liked having them available,” Guensler said. “There are times when everyone finds that these lanes are a good economic decision – such as when you’re late for daycare, and you’re facing dollar-a-minute overtime charges.”
Under a recently announced plan, the state of Georgia will be the beneficiary of $110 million in federal funds to develop HOV toll lanes along Interstate 85 in metro Atlanta.
The Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), partnered with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), will monitor the effects of the high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane implementation. Georgia Tech has been performing research in support of managed-lane projects since 2003.
Georgia Tech’s activities, led by Guensler, have involved several efforts, including technology development, instrumented vehicle-data collection and analysis of the impact of pricing on traffic and emissions. More recently, working with Catherine Ross’ planning team, the researchers have also completed a series of reports for GDOT that summarize expert panel and focus group results on potential consumer response to congestion pricing.
As the work continues, Guensler will oversee a study that will monitor drivers who choose to use the new toll lanes. His team will track changes in congestion levels, household travel behavior and emissions.
Researchers will also identify potential equity issues in a study that will include 700 households, 1,500 personal vehicles and the express bus fleet. The goal will be to assess the actual travel response and emissions changes that result from implementing the toll project.
Guensler and his team are specialists in the development and deployment of in-vehicle devices to monitor motorists’ driving habits.
For the first two phases of the Commute Atlanta study, researchers developed instrumentation that used an onboard computer and GPS equipment to record numerous driving parameters including location, speed, engine functions and mileage. The team monitored more than 1.8 million vehicle trips on a second-by-second basis. A built-in cellular connection sent back accumulated data weekly.
The third and fourth Commute Atlanta phases are using upgraded equipment that allows real-time tracking of vehicle location, speed, mileage and as many as 10 engine parameters in some monitored vehicles.
Guensler and Jennifer Ogle, now at Clemson University, are principals in Vehicle Monitoring Technology, a new company that is now providing monitoring services for vehicle activity and emissions elsewhere in the U.S.
Written by Rick Robinson
In transportation, efficiency and sustainability are inseparable.
That’s the viewpoint of transportation-sustainability researchers like Adjo Amekudzi, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“Transportation performance needs to be evaluated in broader terms than in the past,” Amekudzi says. “A transport system must move goods and people effectively, but it should do so in ways that are environmentally friendly and socially equitable. In the long term, that approach is best for both sustained economic development and quality of life.”
Sustainable transportation, she says, plays a major role in quality-of-life issues. Clearly, the amount of money that both governments and individuals must spend on transportation affects other important expenditures. Air quality and the amount of time that people spend in traffic also figure importantly in quality-of-life perceptions.
To help achieve sustainability, cities need to promote multi-modal transportation systems – those that distribute transportation over several systems rather than relying heavily on highways, Amekudzi says. A good multi-modal transportation system can improve efficiency across the board by giving both businesses and individuals true flexibility in matching their needs to given transport modes.
Amekudzi’s recent research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Transportation, has focused on developing sustainability metrics and methods for sustainability planning. She examines the broader picture of transportation and society, including ways to generate alternative scenarios that can improve both travel efficiency and environmental impact.
Analyzing the link between land use and transportation is vital, she says, because usually land use generates the need for transportation. For instance, if most affordable housing is built outside the city center, people will need expanded transit infrastructure to get to jobs, universities and recreation in places where the bulk of these activity centers exist in the city core.
Amekudzi points to mixed-use facilities, like Atlantic Station in midtown Atlanta. Such self-contained developments, which are blends of residential, commercial and recreational development, pack many resources into a small area, reducing the need for outside trips that consume energy.
“I don’t think everybody needs to park their cars, because we already have a substantial infrastructure for vehicles,” she says. “But we need to come to a point where people will see that they have several viable transportation choices. That in turn will help us to reduce our resource and waste footprints, and allow us to continue to improve our quality of life and make measurable movements toward sustainability.”
Written by Rick Robinson
Increasing transportation efficiency involves more than optimizing traffic flow and lowering fuel consumption.
Rather, it requires achieving efficiency in a range of areas, including cost, energy, environment and safety, says Frank Southworth, a principal research scientist in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Southworth has been a principal investigator on more than 50 transportation-planning projects.
“Most big projects tend to be evaluated on travel-time savings, because time is money,” he says. “But a really efficient system tries to minimize all the costs – the obvious ones and the not-so-obvious – of a passenger or a freight trip, while still remaining reliable.”
For example, he says, if a company can move freight quickly but its fuel consumption is becoming prohibitive or safety is suffering, those problems will affect the real cost of doing business.
“Basically in transportation, the rule is – the bigger, the fewer, the cheaper,” Southworth says. “That means a big vehicle that makes fewer trips is more efficient to operate, especially if its loads are kept as large as possible at all times.”
But, he adds, the most efficient method isn’t always the obvious one, and even the big-vehicle/always-loaded rule has exceptions. For example, many power companies have found that dedicated “unit trains” carrying only coal can be the most efficient way to feed power plants. Even though these miles-long trains go all the way back to the mines empty, they turn out to be cheaper to use than general-purpose freight trains.
Similarly, choosing shipping modes – road, rail, ship, barge or even pipeline – also requires close consideration. Railroads and barges, for instance, typically use less fuel than highway vehicles. Yet the cost of transferring goods to trucks for local delivery can eat up those savings, and that can make straight-through trucking a better choice at times.
Often left out of the transportation equation are environmental costs, says Southworth, who is also a senior research and development staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. It’s in society’s long-term interest, he says, to promote transportation systems that reduce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and ozone-creating pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.
“Environmental damage, safety and energy costs are often called ‘externalities,’ – external to the primary goal of fast and cheap,” he says. “But you don’t want transportation to occur in such a way that increases pollution and consumes energy unnecessarily – and safety should never be compromised.”
To address environmental issues, he says, transportation researchers have turned to “the three-legged stool” – more efficient engines, less-polluting alternative fuels and reduced transportation demand.
“We tend to say that the bottom line is moving people and goods from A to B for the least cost,” he explains. “But the other question is, what does cost really mean?”
Written by Rick Robinson
Georgia Tech’s Transportation Research Center (TRC) for Freight, Trade, Security and Economic Strength focuses on improving the security and efficiency of the transportation system, with a concentration on international trade, seaport and airport security, and their economic interrelationships and impacts.
Alan Erera, associate professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Chelsea C. White III, H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair and Schneider National Chair of Transportation and Logistics, serve as TRC co-directors.
With funding from the Center, Stewart School associate professor Christos Alexopoulos and professor David Goldsman are developing a suite of simulation software tools for seaport analysis. The current simulation model is based on the Port of Savannah. The goals of this development effort are to help port management and emergency response teams develop and evaluate facility expansion or reorganization plans, recovery strategies to respond to equipment failures, and security-related technologies, and to conduct emergency situation training.
TRC members are also investigating new forms of information technology, such as radio frequency identification, and the ability of such technology to improve the efficiency and security of today’s transportation systems.
“We are examining the impact of increased container security checks on port productivity and the relative trade-off between trying to prevent a major security-related service disruption and trying to quickly recover from a major disruption,” says White.
The TRC is supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation and local matching funds and includes 12 investigators from Georgia Southern University and Georgia Tech’s Stewart School and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The Georgia Transportation Institute (GTI) is a multi-faceted facilitator in transportation research and development statewide.
“GTI coordinates transportation research activities here at Georgia Tech and other Georgia universities,” says Michael Meyer, director of the institute and a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “We’re the mechanism through which the Georgia Department of Transportation funds that research.”
Researchers affiliated with GTI are active in research on a broad range of topics including policy and planning, environmental issues, transportation technology, transportation infrastructure, and traffic operations.
GTI utilizes the faculty, departments and research facilities of Georgia Tech and other university members in Georgia, including Albany State University, Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Southern University, Georgia State University, Southern Polytechnic State University and the University of Georgia.
But, Meyer stresses, GTI is a versatile group that does more than distribute research funds, respond to industry inquiries and organize professional seminars. It actively pursues research opportunities.
He points to the new U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Center (UTC) established at Georgia Tech last year. The University Transportation Centers are part of a federal program that funds U.S. universities to advance transportation research and train professionals in the field.
GTI, Meyer says, identified and pursued the UTC opportunity. The result was that Georgia Tech is now home to a national UTC – one of 10 universities to receive the Tier I University Transportation Center designation. That distinction includes up to $1 million in funding over two fiscal years, to be matched by non-federal funding.
Written by Rick Robinson and Abby Vogel
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]]>In some instances, UAVs must fly close to their targets to gather data effectively and may evade enemy detection with sophisticated techniques like radar stealth, infrared stealth and special camouflage. Aeroacoustics researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are investigating an additional kind of stealth that could also be vital to these UAVs
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]]>Predicting chemotherapy's efficacy could save thousands of individuals from unnecessary toxicity and the often difficult side effects of the treatments.
In a study published in the February issue of the journal Radiology, researchers describe a technique for determining the "leakiness" of tumor blood vessels using a simple digital mammography unit. The researchers designed nanometer-sized capsules containing a contrast agent that could only leak into tumors with blood vessels that were growing and therefore leaky. The digital mammography-based quantification of "leakiness" is closely correlated to the ability of a clinically approved chemotherapy agent to enter the tumor, allowing the researchers to predict the agent's therapeutic efficacy.
"We developed a quantitative way to measure the leakiness of the blood vessels, which is directly linked to the amount of drug that gets to the cancer and in turn determines effectiveness," said Ravi Bellamkonda, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. "By simply measuring how much contrast agent reaches the tumor, we can predict how much of a clinically approved chemotherapeutic will reach the tumor, allowing physicians to personalize the dose and predict effectiveness."
In some cases, one chemotherapy drug may not be effective in treating the tumor, but this new technique allows oncologists to investigate other drugs sooner since they know the drug is reaching the tumor. Studies are currently underway to determine if mammography can predict the optimal dose of a wide range of breast cancer chemotherapeutics.
Bellamkonda and Coulter Department postdoctoral fellow Efstathios Karathanasis collaborated on this study with Ioannis Sechopoulos, an assistant professor in radiology at Emory University; Andrew Karellas, a former professor in the Emory University Winship Cancer Institute currently at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; and Ananth Annapragada, an associate professor of health information sciences at the University of Texas, Houston. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and Georgia Cancer Coalition.
For the study, a long-circulating nanometer-scale liposomal capsule filled with iodinated contrast agent was injected into rats with six-day-old breast cancer tumors. For the next three days, the researchers collected digital mammography images of the animals and compared the pre- and post-injection grayscale intensity values to study the dynamics of how the contrast agent accumulated in the tumor over time.
"During the three-day time course, some tumors exhibited a rapid and significant increase in image brightness, meaning the contrast agent was accumulating in the tumor, whereas other tumors showed a slow and low increase," said Bellamkonda, who is also a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar.
While the brightness of the tumors in the images changed significantly, no variations were observed in non-tumor areas or in the tumors of animals that did not receive the contrast agent. Immediately after the imaging was completed and the leakiness of each individual cancer vessel was quantified, the animals were intravenously injected with a clinically approved chemotherapy drug, liposomal doxorubicin.
Results showed that the chemotherapeutic drug slowed the progress of the tumor. The variability in uptake of the contrast agent by the tumors, as measured during the three-day imaging sessions, provided an accurate prognosis of the effect of liposomal doxorubicin on tumor growth rate.
"When we plotted the post-treatment tumor growth rate versus the intensity of leakiness, there was a significant and strong correlation," noted Bellamkonda. "The tumors in which the nanocarrier leaked out and accumulated the most in the tumors during the initial three-day test were the ones that responded best to the treatment."
To verify that the intensity changes in the images were caused by the nanocarrier and not endogenous changes in the tumor tissue, liposomal probes tagged with a fluorescent dye were injected into the animals. By looking at histological tumor sections, the researchers showed that the location of the increased image brightness and the fluorescent dye were the same.
"This study showed that higher uptake of the probe by the tumor related to leakier vasculature and suggested a better therapeutic outcome of liposomal doxorubicin," said Bellamkonda. "Imaging the integrity of the tumor vasculature like this may allow cancer treatment to be more patient-specific and potentially spare patients from chemotherapy if it is not going to be effective."
While the goal of the study reported in the journal was not to induce tumor regression, the researchers plan to investigate whether the liposomal probes can be used for this purpose in the future. To further develop and commercialize these multifunctional probes, Bellamkonda and Annapragada founded a start-up company called Marval Biosciences, Inc.
The researchers also want to investigate whether the leakiness of tumor vasculature represents a parameter that is useful for clinical diagnosis or tumor characterization.
"We want to study the molecular basis for blood vessel leakiness," said Bellamkonda. "We want to understand why there is variation in leakiness and chemotherapy effectiveness among individuals with tumors of the same type, size and stage."
Researchers in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech are developing models to help optimize driver and equipment scheduling, shipment planning, load consolidation and routing for two carriers
]]>His current work focuses on close monitoring of real-world driving behavior. The goal: find ways to improve traffic flow by maximizing the use of existing highways.
The vehicle-activity data being monitored are useful, he explains, not only for evaluating travel behavior, but also for studying traffic operations, safety, and environmental impact. Such data can help guide decisions affecting transportation planning and environmental policy analysis.
]]>And using the same nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have also generated electrical current from a tapping finger – moving the users of BlackBerry devices, cell phones and other handhelds one step closer to powering them with their own typing.
“Using nanotechnology, we have demonstrated ways to convert even irregular biomechanical energy into electricity,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regent’s professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “This technology can convert any mechanical disturbance into electrical energy.”
The demonstrations of harnessing biomechanical energy to produce electricity were reported February 9 in the online version of the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters. The research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force, and the Emory-Georgia Tech Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.
The study demonstrates that nanogenerators – which Wang’s team has been developing since 2005 – can be driven by irregular mechanical motion, such as the vibration of vocal cords, flapping of a flag in the breeze, tapping of fingers or hamsters running on exercise wheels. Scavenging such low-frequency energy from irregular motion is significant because much biomechanical energy is variable, unlike the regular mechanical motion used to generate most large-scale electricity today.
The nanogenerator power is produced by the piezoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which certain materials – such as zinc oxide wires – produce electrical charges when they are bent and then relaxed. The wires are between 100 and 800 nanometers in diameter, and between 100 and 500 microns in length.
To make their generators, Wang’s research team encapsulated single zinc oxide wires in a flexible polymer substrate, the wires anchored at each end with an electrical contact, and with a Shottky Barrier at one end to control current flow. They then attached one of these single-wire generators to the joint area of an index finger, or combined four of the single-wire devices on a “yellow jacket” worn by the hamster.
The running and scratching of the hamster – and the tapping of the finger – flexed the substrate in which the nanowires were encapsulated, producing tiny amounts of alternating electrical current. Integrating four nanogenerators on the hamster’s jacket generated up to 0.5 nanoamps; less current was produced by the single generator on the finger.
Wang estimates that powering a handheld device such as a Bluetooth headset would require at least thousands of these single-wire generators, which could be built up in three-dimensional modules.
Beyond the finger-tapping and hamster-running, Wang believe his modules could be implanted into the body to harvest energy from such sources as muscle movements or pulsating blood vessels. In the body, they could be used to power nanodevices to measure blood pressure or other vital signs.
Because the devices produce alternating current, synchronizing the four generators on the hamster’s back was vital to maximizing current production. Without the synchronization, current flow from one generator could cancel out the flow from another.
The research team – which also included Rusen Yang, Yong Qin, Cheng Li and Guang Zhu – solved that problem by using a substrate that was flexible in only one direction, forcing the generators to flex together. Still, there was substantial variation in the output from each generator. The differences result from variations in the amount of flexing and from inconsistencies in the hand-built devices.
“The nanogenerators have to be synchronized, with the output of all of them coordinated so the current adds up constructively,” Wang noted. “Through engineering, we would expect this can be resolved in the future through improved design and more consistent manufacturing.”
To ensure that the current measured was actually produced by the generators, the researchers took several precautions. For instance, they substituted carbon fibers – which are not piezoelectric – for the zinc oxide nanowires and measured no output electrical signal.
The research team encountered a number of obstacles related to its four-legged subjects. Wang’s team first tried to outfit a rat with the power-generating jacket, but found that the creature wasn’t very interested in running.
At the suggestion of Wang’s daughter, Melissa, the researchers found that hamsters are more active creatures – but only after 11 p.m. They had to experiment with a jacket configuration that was tight enough to stay on and to wrinkle the nanogenerator substrate – but not so tight as to make the hamster uncomfortable.
“We believe this is the first demonstration of using a live animal to produce current with nanogenerators,” Wang added. “This study shows that we really can harness human or animal motion to generate current.”
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Writer: John Toon
Organizers of the recently established Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Bioengineering for Soldier Survivability want to change that.
"The goal of the center is to rapidly move new technologies from the laboratory to patients so that we can improve the quality of life for our veterans as they return from the wars the United States is fighting," said center director Barbara Boyan, the Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
The center will leverage the expertise of Georgia Tech researchers in musculoskeletal biology and regenerative medicine to quickly move tools that are clinically valuable, safe and effective from laboratories to use in trauma centers. To reduce the amount of time from invention to clinical use, engineers and scientists in the center work in teams that include a clinician with experience in combat medical care and a medical device industry partner.
Support for the center is provided by the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research's Orthopedic Trauma Research Program, the U.S. Department of Defense and industry.
Researchers in the center will initially focus on ways to improve the healing of wounds, segmental bone defects and massive soft tissue defects. Traumatic injuries that affect the arms, legs, head and neck require technologies for treatment at the time of injury and in the ensuing days and months.
"These combat injuries are complicated to treat because they are large and typically infected, so even determining when a soldier should be treated for optimal recovery is a challenge," said Boyan, who is also the associate dean for research in Georgia Tech's College of Engineering and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. "It is not known whether a regenerative therapy will be most effective if used immediately following injury or at some later time after scar tissue has been established at the wound site."
By developing models that accurately reflect the complex aspects of injuries sustained by soldiers in combat, the researchers will be able to test assumptions about when to employ specific strategies and how to ensure their effectiveness. The models must also allow them to examine the use of technologies on both male and female patients, and on complex tissues that consist of nerves, a blood supply and multiple cell types.
"Since the processes of bone, vascular and neural formation are naturally linked during normal tissue development, growth and repair, our approach is to harness this knowledge by developing delivery strategies that present the right biologic cues in the right place at the right time to promote functional regeneration of multiple integrated tissues," said associate director of the center Robert Guldberg, a professor in Georgia Tech's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.
To enhance tissue repair and regeneration following a traumatic injury, the researchers are focusing their efforts on stem cells. Even though stem cells have tremendous potential for repairing such defects, effective methods do not yet exist for delivering them to an injury site and of ensuring that they survive and remain at that site long enough to impact the regeneration process.
"Clinicians currently inject stem cells into a vein and hope that the cells will migrate to sites of injury and remain at those sites long enough to participate in the repair process. While some cells certainly do migrate to injury sites, the actual percentage is very small and those that arrive at the site do not remain to engraft with the host tissue," explained Boyan.
This limited effect may be the result of the injection process, according to Boyan, so researchers in the center are developing ways to protect the cells from damaging forces they might encounter when inserted into the body.
"Studies in our laboratory have shown that when stem cells are encapsulated in microbeads, they can be injected by needle without loss of cell viability and they remain at the injury site for at least two months," said Boyan.
Protecting the cells during insertion is just the first step toward improved tissue repair. The researchers must also examine whether the stem cells will turn into cells typical of the implanted tissue and if they produce or should be paired with molecules that can enhance the healing of the implanted tissues.
Center researchers are also investigating whether bone marrow-derived stem cells can be used in the body to heal large defects in bone and cartilage if they are inserted in fiber mesh scaffolds and silk sponges during a surgical procedure.
Additional projects in the center include assessing tissue viability, preventing the growth of bone in the soft tissues of the body and improving pre-hospital care of orthopedic injuries. Since effective treatment of traumatic injuries is an important goal for the general public as well as the military population, the researchers also hope to adapt their technologies for use in hospitals.
Other researchers in the center include Ravi Bellamkonda, a professor in the Coulter Department; Andres Garcia, the Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; Robert Taylor, a professor in the Coulter Department and Emory's Division of Cardiology; Zvi Schwartz, a visiting professor in the Coulter Department; and U.S. Army surgical medicine consultants Michael Yaszemski and David Cohen.
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]]>And the trend toward cloud computing will expand the need for both servers and cooling.
At the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers are using a 1,100-square-foot simulated data center to optimize cooling strategies and develop new heat transfer models that can be used by the designers of future facilities and equipment. The goal is to reduce the portion of electricity used to cool data center equipment by as much as 15 percent.
"Computers convert electricity to heat as they operate," said Yogendra Joshi, a professor in Georgia Tech's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. "As they switch on and off, transistors produce heat, and all of that heat must be ultimately transferred to the environment. If you are looking at a few computers, the heat produced is not that much. But data centers generate heat at the rate of tens of megawatts that must be removed."
Summaries of the research have been published in the Journal of Electronic Packaging and International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer and presented at the Second International Conference on Thermal Issues in Emerging Technologies, Theory and Applications. The research has been sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and by the Consortium for Energy Efficient Thermal Management.
Five years ago, a typical refrigerator-sized server cabinet produced about one to five kilowatts of heat. Today, high-performance computing cabinets of about the same size produce as much as 28 kilowatts, and machines already planned for production will produce twice as much.
"Some people have called this the Moore's Law of data centers," observed Joshi, who is also the John M. McKenney and Warren D. Shiver Chair in the School of Mechanical Engineering. "The growth of cooling requirements parallels the growth of computing power, which roughly doubles every 18 months. That has brought the energy requirements of data centers into the forefront."
Most existing data centers rely on large air conditioning systems that pump cool air to server racks. Data centers have traditionally used raised floors to allow space for circulating air beneath the equipment, but cooling can also come from the ceilings. As cooling demands have increased, data center designers have developed complex systems of alternating cooling outlets and hot air returns throughout the facilities.
"How these are arranged is very important to how much cooling power will be required," Joshi said. "There are ways to rearrange equipment within data centers to promote better air flow and greater energy efficiency, and we are exploring ways to improve those."
Before long, centers will likely have to use liquid cooling to replace chilled air in certain high-powered machines. That will introduce a new level of complexity for the data centers, and create differential cooling needs that will have to be accounted for in the design and maintenance.
Joshi and his students have assembled a small high-power-density data center on the Georgia Tech campus that includes different types of cooling systems, partitions to change room volumes and both real and simulated server racks. They use fog generators and lasers to visualize air flow patterns, infrared sensors to quantify heat, airflow sensors to measure the output of fans and other systems, and sophisticated thermometers to measure temperatures on server motherboards.
Beyond studying the effects of alternate airflow patterns, they are also verifying that cooling systems are doing what they're supposed to do.
Because tasks are dynamically assigned to specific machines, heat generation varies in a data center. Joshi's group is also exploring algorithms that could help even out the computing load by assigning new computationally-intensive tasks to cooler machines, avoiding hot spots.
Another issue they're studying is what happens when utility-system power to a data center is cut off. The servers themselves continue to operate because they receive electricity from an uninterruptible power supply. But the cooling equipment is powered by backup generators, which can take minutes to get up to speed.
During the brief time without cooling, heat builds up in the servers. Existing computer models predict that temperatures will reach dangerous levels in a matter of seconds, but actual measurements done by Joshi's graduate students show that the equipment can run for as much as six minutes without cooling.
"We're developing models for different parts of the data center to learn how they respond to changes in temperature," said Shawn Shields, a former graduate student in Joshi's lab. "Existing models consider that temperature changes across a server rack will be instantaneous, but we've found that it takes quite a relatively long time for the server to reach a steady state."
Beyond reducing cooling load, the researchers are also looking at how waste heat from data centers can be used. The problem is that the heat is at relatively low temperatures, which makes it inefficient to convert to other forms of energy. Options may include heating nearby buildings or pre-heating water, Joshi said.
Data obtained by the researchers with thermometers and airflow meters is being used to validate computer models that are reasonably accurate, but run rapidly. In the future, these models will help data center operators do a better job of optimizing cooling in real time, he said.
Joshi believes there's potential to reduce data center energy consumption by as much as 15 percent by adopting more efficient cooling techniques like those under development in his lab.
"Our data center laboratory is a complete sandbox in which we can study all sorts of options without affecting anybody's computing projects," he added. "We can look at interesting ways to improve rack-level cooling, liquid cooling and thermoelectric cooling."
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]]>In a paper published in the June 2009 issue of the IEEE journal Electron Device Letters, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology report detailed analysis of resistivity in graphene nanoribbon interconnects as narrow as 18 nanometers.
The results suggest that graphene could out-perform copper for use as on-chip interconnects -- tiny wires that are used to connect transistors and other devices on integrated circuits. Use of graphene for these interconnects could help extend the long run of performance improvements for silicon-based integrated circuit technology.
"As you make copper interconnects narrower and narrower, the resistivity increases as the true nanoscale properties of the material become apparent," said Raghunath Murali, a research engineer in Georgia Tech's Microelectronics Research Center and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "Our experimental demonstration of graphene nanowire interconnects on the scale of 20 nanometers shows that their performance is comparable to even the most optimistic projections for copper interconnects at that scale. Under real-world conditions, our graphene interconnects probably already out-perform copper at this size scale."
Beyond resistivity improvement, graphene interconnects would offer higher electron mobility, better thermal conductivity, higher mechanical strength and reduced capacitance coupling between adjacent wires.
"Resistivity is normally independent of the dimension -- a property inherent to the material," Murali noted. "But as you get into the nanometer-scale domain, the grain sizes of the copper become important and conductance is affected by scattering at the grain boundaries and at the side walls. These add up to increased resistivity, which nearly doubles as the interconnect sizes shrink to 30 nanometers."
The research was supported by the Interconnect Focus Center, which is one of the Semiconductor Research Corporation/DARPA Focus Centers, and the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative through the INDEX Center.
Murali and collaborators Kevin Brenner, Yinxiao Yang, Thomas Beck and James Meindl studied the electrical properties of graphene layers that had been taken from a block of pure graphite. They believe the attractive properties will ultimately also be measured in graphene fabricated using other techniques, such as growth on silicon carbide, which now produces graphene of lower quality but has the potential for achieving higher quality.
Because graphene can be patterned using conventional microelectronics processes, the transition from copper could be made without integrating a new manufacturing technique into circuit fabrication.
"We are optimistic about being able to use graphene in manufactured systems because researchers can already grow layers of it in the lab," Murali noted. "There will be challenges in integrating graphene with silicon, but those will be overcome. Except for using a different material, everything we would need to produce graphene interconnects is already well known and established."
Experimentally, the researchers began with flakes of multi-layered graphene removed from a graphite block and placed onto an oxidized silicon substrate. They used electron beam lithography to construct four electrode contacts on the graphene, then used lithography to fabricate devices consisting of parallel nanoribbons of widths ranging between 18 and 52 nanometers. The three-dimensional resistivity of the nanoribbons on 18 different devices was then measured using standard analytical techniques at room temperature.
The best of the graphene nanoribbons showed conductivity equal to that predicted for copper interconnects of the same size. Because the comparisons were between non-optimized graphene and optimistic estimates for copper, they suggest that performance of the new material will ultimately surpass that of the traditional interconnect material, Murali said.
"Even graphene samples of moderate quality show excellent properties," he explained. "We are not using very high levels of optimization or especially clean processes. With our straightforward processing, we are getting graphene interconnects that are essentially comparable to copper. If we do this more optimally, the performance should surpass copper."
Though one of graphene's key properties is reported to be ballistic transport -- meaning electrons can flow through it without resistance -- the material's actual conductance is limited by factors that include scattering from impurities, line-edge roughness and from substrate phonons -- vibrations in the substrate lattice.
Use of graphene interconnects could help facilitate continuing increases in integrated circuit performance once features sizes drop to approximately 20 nanometers, which could happen in the next five years, Murali said. At that scale, the increased resistance of copper interconnects could offset performance increases, meaning that without other improvements, higher density wouldn't produce faster integrated circuits.
"This is not a roadblock to achieving scaling from one generation to the next, but it is a roadblock to achieving increased performance," he said. "Dimensional scaling could continue, but because we would be giving up so much in terms of resistivity, we wouldn't get a performance advantage from that. That's the problem we hope to solve by switching to a different materials system for interconnects."
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]]>Identification of the gene cluster responsible for producing thiostrepton sets the stage for genetic manipulations that could make the drug more useful by improving its water solubility, potentially providing a new tool in the high-stakes battle against bacteria. Beyond the possible medical applications, the research produced a scientific surprise: thiostrepton is derived from a genetically encoded peptide that undergoes no fewer than 19 different modifications, one of the most complex such processes known
]]>"We found that snakes' belly scales are oriented so that snakes resist sliding toward their tails and flanks," said the paper's lead author, David Hu, a former postdoctoral researcher at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and now an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. "These scales give the snakes a preferred direction of motion, which makes snake movement a lot like that of wheels, cross-country skis, or ice skates. In all these examples, sliding forwards takes less work than does sliding sideways."
The study's other co-authors were Jasmine Nirody and Terri Scott, both undergraduate researchers at NYU, and Michael Shelley, a professor of mathematics and neural science and the Lilian and George Lyttle Professor of Applied Mathematics at Courant.
The study centered on the frictional anisotropy--or resistance to sliding in certain directions--of a snake's belly scales. While previous investigators had suggested that the frictional anisotropy of these scales might play a role in locomotion over flat surfaces, the details of this process had not been understood.
To explore this matter, the researchers first developed a theoretical model of a snake's movement. The model determined the speed of a snake's center of mass as a function of the speed and size of its body waves, taking into account the laws of friction and the scales' frictional anisotropy. The model suggested that a snake's motion arises by the interaction of surface friction and its internal body forces.
To confirm movement as predicted by the model, the researchers then measured the sliding resistance of snake scales and monitored the movement of snakes through a series of experiments on flat and inclined surfaces. They employed video and time-lapse photography to gauge their movements.
The results showed a close relationship between what the model predicted and the snakes' actual movements. The theoretical predictions of the model were generally consistent with the snakes' actual body speeds on both flat and inclined surfaces.
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Writer: James Devitt
]]>The surface treatment increases absorption both by trapping light in three-dimensional structures and by making the surfaces self-cleaning
]]>Flanked by NCR officials, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue on June 2 announced that the company would move more than 2,100 jobs to the state by relocating its headquarters to Duluth and by developing a new advanced manufacturing facility in Columbus.
"The opportunity to partner with top-tier academic institutions such as Georgia Tech was one reason among many that we made this decision," said Bill Nuti, NCR's chairman and chief executive officer.
Currently based in Dayton, Ohio, NCR is best known for automated teller machines (ATMs), self-service kiosks and other assisted- and self-service solutions. The Columbus facility, which will employ 870 people over the next five years, will produce advanced technology equipment enabling consumers to use ATM kiosks for a growing number of financial transactions.
Working with Georgia Tech's Strategic Partners Office, NCR officials learned about a broad range of Georgia Tech resources and expertise -- in collaboration with the University System's Intellectual Capital Partnership Program (ICAPP) and the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA).
The Governor's announcement specifically mentioned the College of Computing, Health Systems Institute, Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and College of Management as potential collaborators for NCR. In addition, company officials have been briefed on resources available at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC), Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU) and Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC), said Strategic Partners Officer Greg King.
"The company is interested in both ensuring access to a highly educated work force and in linking to the innovation in Georgia Tech's research and development network," King explained. "There are many advanced technology areas in which Georgia Tech and NCR have interests in common."
More than a year ago, King began meeting with NCR officials to learn about the company's needs and to pinpoint potential areas of interest at Georgia Tech. That led to a campus meeting for NCR management with Mark Allen, Georgia Tech's Senior Vice Provost for Research and Innovation. Additional follow-on discussions about potential collaborations were also held.
"Georgia Tech is committed to supporting innovation through university-industry collaborations, and we believe there are many opportunities for us to work with NCR," said Allen. "We welcome this opportunity to work with NCR as the company develops new cutting-edge products and processes."
Georgia Tech will be involved in assisting the development of NCR's Columbus manufacturing operation through an ICAPP-supported project in production design, agile manufacturing and continuous improvement. The project will include faculty and staff from the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and College of Management.
"This project and the future collaborations are excellent examples of how Georgia Tech works with organizations such as the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the University System of Georgia's ICAPP program and the Georgia Research Alliance to impact investment and growth in the state," said Carl Rust, director of the Strategic Partners Office.
NCR's connections to Georgia Tech go back more than 20 years to the launch of a new product development group in the Advanced Technology Development Center's former incubator on 10th Street. Since then, the company has had a significant presence in the state, and in 2008 had announced that it would establish a global Center of Excellence in Peachtree City.
"The decision to consolidate functions in Georgia and build a technology-focused corporate headquarters campus is right in line with our business strategy to drive growth, improve our innovation output, increase productivity and continually upgrade our focus on the customer," Nuti said in the June 2 announcement.
NCR will join 13 other Fortune 500 companies and 29 other Fortune 1,000 companies already headquartered in Georgia.
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]]>Although members of the fish species Astyanax fasciatus cannot see, they sense their environment and the movement of water around them with gel-covered hairs that extend from their bodies. Their ability to detect underwater objects and navigate through their lightless environment inspired a group of researchers to mimic the hairs of these blind cavefish in the laboratory.
While the fish use these hairs to detect obstacles, avoid predators and localize prey, researchers believe the engineered sensors they are developing could have a variety of underwater applications, such as port security, surveillance, early tsunami detection, autonomous oil rig inspection, autonomous underwater vehicle navigation, and marine research.
]]>Moreover, Suniva expects to expand quickly. Using technology based on the research of Georgia Tech Regents
]]>Techniques scientists currently use to image these transporters of genetic information within cells have several drawbacks, including the need for synthetic RNA or a large number of fluorescent molecules. The fluorescent probes developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology circumvent these issues.
]]>"Our mission is no longer just to make the best transformers on the market, but also to not be put out of work ever. We can make anything as long as we're able to keep the employment base," stated Ford, chairman and executive vice president of culture. "Adding a breakthrough technology product that addresses global warming fulfills our 'reinventing manufacturing' promise to the work culture, a step toward securing at least these 400 manufacturing jobs, and creating a role model for others to consider."
In 2007, Power Partners expanded its product line to manufacture solar water heater systems, which use solar energy to heat water and can provide up to 85 percent of the energy needed to produce domestic hot water. Systems are composed of solar thermal collectors, a fluid system that moves heat from the collector to the point of usage. According to commercial operations manager Scott Childs, Power Partners is initially marketing the systems to utility companies and dealers.
"The solar water heater system is going to provide hot water mainly in the summer, when electricity is most valuable to a utility, and the system will use more electricity in the winter when there is plenty of electrical capacity," he noted. "We think that situation will marry well with our product, in addition to the utilities' increased focus on green."
In addition to the distribution transformers and the solar water heater systems, Power Partners has the exclusive North American rights to begin manufacturing adsorption chillers, a product that can substantially reduce operating costs by converting waste heat into cool air. Ford says she is excited about the new product's potential.
"When combined with other technologies, adsorption chillers create about as low an impact on the environment as you can get. This is really going to revolutionize the way architects and construction firms think about their designs," Ford said.
With all of the focus on manufacturing environmentally responsible products, it made sense for Power Partners to examine its own manufacturing processes. After working on projects in lean manufacturing and quality standards with Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute, Ford contacted the organization again to conduct an energy assessment.
In July 2008, Bob Hitch, a project manager with the Enterprise Innovation Institute, evaluated Power Partners' process heating systems -- annealing, welding, drying and painting -- for potential energy-saving opportunities, an estimated energy savings of 30 percent. As a result of the recommendations, Power Partners is replacing its water-cooled bearings with high-temperature graphite bearings. Earlier assessment of the general facility energy usage by Hitch and the Power Partners engineers led to the update of lighting in the plant to T5 and T8 high-efficiency units, and replacement of outdated air compressors.
"By changing the bearings and the lighting and the compressors, we have saved an estimated $600,000 easily," said Mike Stonecipher, vice president for technical services. "Those are realized savings and we now have a whole philosophy and set of tools to move us forward."
Power Partners also participated in a November 2008 project for the Green Supplier Network, a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute for Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership. In addition to Hitch, the project was facilitated by Bill Ritsch of the Enterprise Innovation Institute and Dan Loudermilk of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Pollution Prevention Assistance Division. The work was sponsored by Power Partners' customer, Pepco Holdings, Inc.
"The primary objective of this three-day project was to identify opportunities for reductions of waste energy, material and inventories by creating a value stream map, which is a diagram used to analyze the flow of materials and information required to bring a product to a consumer," recalled Hitch. "A team of key players was chosen, and this group was effective in seeing beyond the current processes by proposing a future state map that included some impressive gains in productivity, material usage and environmental reductions."
The improvement ideas included operating the paint line during one shift only, creating a single point of contact for ordering tanks, rearranging the tank wall inventory to minimize travel, reconfiguring conveyors to improve material flow, minimizing repair stations by combining repairs where possible, and re-using the waste water from the paint area. However, Stonecipher says that the most significant improvement was completing a "green" value stream map for all plant processes.
"As part of lean manufacturing, we were familiar with the value process map. But what we had not done was look at it in terms of the environment. That was the first time we had taken a process map of a section of the factory and done it in accordance to our waste streams," he said. "Now when we do a process map, that's a standard part of it. From a lean and practice standpoint, lean green is a new tool that's been brought to the equation."
Power Partners realized other benefits as a result of the Green Supplier Network Project. Tank inventory was reduced by 34 percent, total supply chain lead time for tanks went from more than 17 days to less than a week, water usage was reduced by 10,000 gallons per day, quality improved and productivity increased. Stonecipher notes that while not all of the results were measurable, they were all beneficial.
Power Partners, which was recognized in 2007 as the seventh largest woman-owned business in America as certified by the Washington, D.C.-based Women's Enterprise Business National Council, plans to use Georgia Tech's assistance in the future to focus on pumps and motors, as well as ways to capture waste heat and re-use it so it can install its own adsorption chiller.
"We are people who are continually looking for creativity and innovation, and doing things that are not business as usual," said Ford.
About Enterprise Innovation Institute:
The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute helps companies, entrepreneurs, economic developers and communities improve their competitiveness through the application of science, technology and innovation. It is one of the most comprehensive university-based programs of business and industry assistance, technology commercialization and economic development in the nation.
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Writer: Nancy Fullbright
]]>Researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering are developing programming tools to enable engineers in the defense industry to utilize the processing power of GPUs without having to learn the complicated programming language required to use them directly.
"As radar systems and other sensor systems get more complicated, the computational requirements are becoming a bottleneck," said GTRI senior research engineer Daniel Campbell. "We are capitalizing on the ability of GPUs to process radar, infrared sensor and video data faster than a typical computer and at a much lower cost and power than a computing cluster."
Mark Richards, a principal research engineer and adjunct professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is collaborating with Campbell and graduate student Andrew Kerr to rewrite common signal processing commands to run on a GPU. This work is supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
The researchers are writing functions defined in the Vector, Signal and Image Processing Library (VSIPL) to run on GPUs. VSIPL is an open standard developed by embedded signal and image processing hardware and software vendors, academia, application developers and government labs. GPU VSIPL is available for download at (http://gpu-vsipl.gtri.gatech.edu/).
The researchers are currently writing the functions in Nvidia's CUDATM language, but the underlying principles can be applied to GPUs developed by other companies, according to Campbell. With GPU VSIPL, engineers can use high-level functions in their C programs to perform linear algebra and signal processing operations, and recompile with GPU VSIPL to take advantage of the speed of the GPU. Studies have shown that VSIPL functions operate between 20 and 350 times faster on a GPU than a central processing unit, depending on the function and size of the data set.
"The results are not surprising because GPUs excel at performing repetitive arithmetic tasks like those in VSIPL, such as signal processing functions like Fourier transforms, spectral analysis, image formation and noise filtering," noted Richards. "We've just alleviated the need for engineers to understand the entire GPU architecture by simply providing them with a library of routines that they frequently use."
The research team is also assessing the advantages of GPUs by running a library of benchmarks for quantitatively comparing high-performance, embedded computing systems. The benchmarks address important operations across a broad range of U.S. Department of Defense signal and image processing applications.
Preliminary studies have shown several of the benchmarks have straightforward parallelization schemes that result in faster operation without requiring significant optimization. For other benchmarks, additional research needs to be conducted into optimizing the use of multiple GPUs.
For the future, the researchers plan to continue expanding the GPU VSIPL, develop additional defense-related GPU function libraries and design programming tools to utilize other efficient processors, such as the cell broadband engine processor at the heart of the PlayStation 3 video game console.
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]]>Understanding this surface chemistry could one day allow scientists to borrow and adapt some of those defensive chemical compounds for use against cancer, HIV, malaria, drug-resistant bacteria and other diseases of humans. In a paper published April 6 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology describe a sophisticated chemical defense system that uses 28 different compounds to protect a species of seaweed against a single fungus.
"Plants and animals in the wild use chemistry as way to fight with one another," said Julia Kubanek, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Biology. "Using this new technology, scientists can listen in on this fight to perhaps learn from what's going on and steal some of the strategies for human biomedical applications."
As part of a long-term project sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Georgia Tech scientists have been cataloging and analyzing natural compounds from more than 800 species found in the waters surrounding the Fiji Islands. They have been particularly interested in Callophycus serratus, an abundant species of red seaweed that seems particularly successful -- and adept at fighting off microbial infections.
Using a DESI-MS technique adapted for this project in the laboratory of associate professor Facundo Fernandez in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, researchers Leonard Nyadong and Asiri Galhena analyzed recently-collected samples of the seaweed and found groups of potent anti-fungal compounds in light-colored microscopic surface patches covering what may be wounds on the surface of the seaweed. In laboratory testing, graduate student Amy Lane found that these bromophycolide compounds and callophycoic acids effectively inhibited the growth of Lindra thalassiae, a common marine fungus.
"It is possible that the alga is marshalling its defenses and displaying them in a way that blocks the entry points for microbes that might invade and cause disease," Kubanek said. "Seaweeds don't have B cells, T cells and immune responses like humans do. But instead they have some chemical compounds in their tissues to protect them."
Though all the seaweed they studied was from a single species, the researchers were surprised to find two distinct groups of anti-fungal chemicals. From one seaweed subpopulation, dubbed the "bushy" type for its appearance, 18 different anti-fungal compounds were identified. In a second group of seaweed, the researchers found 10 different anti-fungal compounds -- all different from the ones seen in the first group.
"This species is producing some unique chemical compounds that other seaweeds don't produce, and it is producing a large number of compounds, each of which has a role to play in the overall defense against the fungus," Kubanek noted. "We think the compounds work together in an additive way."
Though chemically different, the compounds are structurally related and seem to arise from a similar metabolic pathway in the seaweed. Why one species of simple organism would produce 28 different anti-fungal compounds remains a mystery, though Kubanek believes the chemicals may also have other uses that are not yet understood.
The compounds have been tested for potential activity against drug-resistant bacteria, cancer, HIV, malaria and other human health threats. So far, preliminary testing suggests they have anti-malarial effects.
The DESI-MS technique allowed the researchers for the first time to analyze chemical activity occurring on the surface of the seaweed. Earlier techniques allowed identification of chemicals in the organism's tissue, but being able to confirm their location on the surface -- the first line of defense against infection -- confirms the role they play as defensive chemicals.
In DESI-MS, a charged stream of polar solvent is directed at the surface of a sample under study at ambient pressure and temperature. The spray desorbs molecules, which are then ionized and delivered to the mass spectrometer for analysis.
"Our collaborative team of researchers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the College of Sciences has worked within the newly-formed Bioimaging Mass Spectrometry Center at Georgia Tech to better understand the mechanisms of chemical defenses in marine organisms," said Fernandez. "This is an example of cross-cutting interdisciplinary research that characterizes our institute."
In addition to the scientists mentioned above, others researchers contributing to the study are Tonya Shearer, Paige Stout, R. Mitchell Parry, Mark Kwasnik, May Wang and Mark Hay, all from Georgia Tech. Beyond the National Institutes of Health support, the research has also been sponsored by the National Science Foundation and seed funding from the Georgia Tech College of Sciences and College of Engineering.
For the future, Kubanek and graduate student Paige Stout are working to modify the most promising of the anti-malarial compounds, replacing some oxygen atoms for nitrogen atoms and bromine for chlorine and fluorine. The hope is to create a compound more potent against the malaria organism with less toxicity for humans.
"We are doing reaction chemistry using these 28 compounds as a starting point," Kubanek explained. "Learning about how other species avoid diseases may give us something we can use to avoid or treat our own diseases."
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]]>Known as sequential profile adjustment by regression (SPAR), the technique could also reduce the amount of experimental data required to make conclusions, and help distinguish true nanoscale phenomena from experimental error. Beyond nanomaterials and nanostructures, the technique could also improve reliability and precision in nanoelectronics measurements -- and in studies of certain larger-scale systems.
Accurate understanding of these properties is critical to the development of future high-volume industrial applications for nanomaterials and nanostructures because manufacturers will require consistency in their products.
"Our statistical model will be useful when the nanomaterials industry scales up from laboratory production because industrial users cannot afford to make a detailed study of every production run," said C. F. Jeff Wu, a professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The significant experimental errors can be filtered out automatically, which means this could be used in a manufacturing environment."
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the research was reported June 25, 2009 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper is believed to be the first to describe the use of statistical techniques for quantitative analysis of data from nanomechanical measurements.
Nanotechnology researchers have long been troubled by the difficulty of measuring nanoscale properties and separating signals from noise and data artifacts. Data artifacts can be caused by such issues as the slippage of structures being studied, surface irregularities and inaccurate placement of the atomic force microscope tip onto samples.
In measuring the effects of extremely small forces acting on extremely small structures, signals of interest may be only two or three times stronger than experimental noise. That can make it difficult to draw conclusions, and potentially masks other interesting effects.
"In the past, we have really not known the statistical reliability of the data at this size scale," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents' professor in Georgia Tech's School of Materials Science and Engineering. "At the nanoscale, small errors are amplified. This new technique applies statistical theory to identify and analyze the data received from nanomechanics so we can be more confident of how reliable it is."
In developing the new technique, the researchers studied a data set measuring the deformation of zinc oxide nanobelts, research undertaken to determine the material's elastic modulus. Theoretically, applying force to a nanobelt with the tip of an atomic force microscope should produce consistent linear deformation, but the experimental data didn't always show that.
In some cases, less force appeared to create more deformation, and the deformation curve was not symmetrical. Wang's research team attempted to apply simple data-correction techniques, but was not satisfied with the results.
"The measurements they had done simply didn't match what was expected with the theoretical model," explained Wu, who holds a Coca-Cola chair in engineering statistics. "The curves should have been symmetric. To address this issue, we developed a new modeling technique that uses the data itself to filter out the mismatch step-by-step using the regression technique."
Ideally, researchers would search out and correct the experimental causes of these data errors, but because they occur at such small size scales, that would be difficult, noted V. Roshan Joseph, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
"Physics-based models are based on several assumptions that can go wrong in reality," he said. "We could try to identify all the sources of error and correct them, but that is very time-consuming. Statistical techniques can more easily correct the errors, so this process is more geared toward industrial use."
Beyond correcting the errors, the improved precision of the statistical technique could reduce the effort required to produce reliable experimental data on the properties of nanostructures. "With half of the experimental efforts, you can get about the same standard deviation as following the earlier method without the corrections," Wu said. "This translates into fewer time-consuming experiments to confirm the properties."
For the future, the research team -- which includes Xinwei Deng and Wenjie Mai in addition to those already mentioned -- plans to analyze the properties of nanowires, which are critical to the operation of a family of nanoscale electric generators being developed by Wang's research team. Correcting for data errors in these structures will require development of a separate model using the same SPAR techniques, Wu said.
Ultimately, SPAR may lead researchers to new fundamental explanations of the nanoscale world.
"One of the key issues today in nanotechnology is whether the existing physical theories can still be applied to explain the phenomena we are seeing," said Wang, who is also director of Georgia Tech's Center for Nanostructure Characterization and Fabrication. "We have tried to answer the question of whether we are truly observing new phenomena, or whether our errors are so large that we cannot see that the theory still works."
Wang plans to use the SPAR technique on future work, and to analyze past research for potential new findings. "What may have seemed like noise could actually be an important signal," he said. "This technique provides a truly new tool for data mining and analysis in nanotechnology."
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]]>The research was published in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Another study by the research team on a different influenza strain was described in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One.
The patches used in the experiments contained an array of stainless steel microneedles coated with inactivated influenza virus. The patches were pressed manually into the skin and after a few minutes, the vaccine coating dissolved off within the skin. The coated microneedle immunizations were compared to conventional intramuscular hypodermic injections at the same dose in another group of mice.
The researchers found that the microneedle vaccinations induced strong immune responses against influenza virus that were comparable to immune responses induced by the intramuscular, hypodermic immunizations. One month after vaccination, the researchers infected both groups of mice with a high dose of influenza virus. While all mice in a control group of unvaccinated mice died of influenza, all mice in both the hypodermic and the microneedle groups survived.
"Our findings show that microneedle patches are just as effective at protecting against influenza as conventional hypodermic immunizations," says Richard Compans, PhD, Emory professor of microbiology and immunology and one of the paper's senior authors. "In addition, vaccine delivery into the skin is desirable because of the skin's rich immune network."
Even though cutaneous immunization has been shown to induce a broad range of immune responses, and to be especially effective in individuals over age 60, this method has not been widely used because it has not been convenient and has required highly trained personnel.
"Unlike conventional hypodermic injections, microneedles are prepared in a patch for simple administration, possibly by patients themselves, and inserted painlessly onto the skin without specialized training," says Mark Prausnitz, PhD, professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and co-senior author. "These micron-scale needles can be mass produced using low-cost methods for distribution to doctors' offices, pharmacies and, possibly, people's homes."
Other advantages of the microneedle patches could include more convenient storage, easier transportation and lower dosage requirements. Lower doses could be particularly important because flu vaccine production capacity sometimes is limited for seasonal vaccine, and a future influenza pandemic would require much greater production of vaccine.
Replacing a hypodermic needle with a microneedle patch also could significantly impact the way other vaccines are delivered, and could be particularly beneficial in developing countries. A microneedle patch could fit inside an envelope for delivery by the postal service and would occupy much less storage space. Patches also would increase vaccine safety by reducing the dangers of accidental or intentional hypodermic needle re-use.
The project team plans future immunization studies in other animal models, including guinea pigs or ferrets, before initiating studies in humans. Also, more studies are needed to determine the minimum vaccine dose needed for full protection.
The Emory and Georgia Tech research team began developing the new microneedle vaccine patch technology in 2007 using grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project team has extensive experience in microneedle development, influenza vaccines, vaccine delivery systems, product development and interdisciplinary collaboration.
In 2007 the NIH awarded a $32.8 million, seven-year contract to Emory, along with the University of Georgia, to establish the Emory/UGA Influenza Pathogenesis and Immunology Research Center. The center is working to improve the effectiveness of flu vaccines through a number of different projects studying how influenza viruses attack their hosts, how they are transmitted, and what new immune targets might be identified for antiviral medicines.
Prausnitz and his colleagues have been working since the mid 1990s to develop microneedle technology for painless drug and vaccine delivery through the skin. The Georgia Tech team has also developed manufacturing processes for microneedle patches and tested the ability of the needles to deliver proteins, vaccines, nanoparticles, and other small and large molecules through the skin.
Other authors of the papers are Emory microbiologists Ioanna Skountzou and Chinglai Yang, and first authors Ling Ye, Qiyun Zhu, Dimitrios Koutsonanos, and Maria del Pilar Martin from Emory and Vladimir Zarnitsyn from Georgia Tech. Other authors and contributors were Yulong Gao, Lei Pan, and Zhiyuan Wen from Emory, and Harvinder Gill and Sean Sullivan from Georgia Tech.
]]>That was the core message delivered by Georgia Tech President G.P. "Bud" Peterson at the GTRI 75th Anniversary Technology Symposium on April 20. The symposium, one of several observances of GTRI's 75th year of operation, featured presentations by GTRI researchers as well as a keynote address by the new president.
"As universities are increasingly called upon to become drivers of innovation and high-end economic development, the importance of the role of GTRI and organizations like it will continue to grow,"
]]>The results of the study, conducted by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Manitoba, were described on May 2 at the Annual Conference of the Production and Operations Management Society. This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
"Recalls undermine trust in a specific brand and it can take the company a long time to recover from the damage to its reputation, but it doesn't have to take a long time if the company uses good crisis management tactics," said Manpreet Hora, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's College of Management. "Reducing the time it takes to recall a product will have a positive effect on consumers' willingness to purchase other products from the same company and if the recall is handled well, the stock price may recover to the same level as before the incident."
The best example of how to deal with a product recall is the Tylenol tampering case in the 1980s. Johnson & Johnson demonstrated that the safety of consumers was paramount by swiftly recalling the product, cooperating fully with regulators, and communicating openly about the issue, the researchers noted. Subsequently, the firm undertook a series of operational and design measures to ensure that such tampering would not occur again.
According to Hora and Hari Bapuji, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba, effective recovery from a product recall begins with the way in which the company announces the recall. The firm should engage the public and immediately disclose all relevant recall and replacement information as soon as possible. Even if the recall was the result of a purchasing, out-sourcing or off-shoring decision, the company should take shared responsibility for the error, the researchers say.
"Consumers are forgiving, so if a firm apologizes, acknowledges the problem, and doesn't make the mistake again and again, consumers will continue to be loyal to that brand," said Hora.
After apologizing, the firm needs to get the product off store shelves and out of consumer' hands as quickly as possible. To do this, the firm must choose the best way to compensate the product purchasers and who will interface with the customer to price the restitution. There are many choices -- the manufacturer, distributor or retailer can collect the recalled product and restitution can be provided by repairing or replacing the product or refunding the purchase price.
"Firms must keep in mind that the best choices are those that decrease the time it takes to recall the product and our analysis shows that it takes much longer to recall the product if the company that announces the recall is further away or upstream from the consumer," explained Hora.
Therefore firms need to collaborate and communicate well with their downstream distributors and retailers so that the distributors and retailers are willing to handle the recall for the manufacturer, leading to much faster recalls. However, if there are millions of units being recalled, it can be a logistical nightmare for the retailers to handle the issue.
When it comes to the type of restitution, shorter recall time is associated with exchanging rather than refunding the recalled product. The firm will fare better if the consumer doesn't have to jump through a lot of hoops for restitution, which may mean allowing consumers to visit a local retailer to return the item for a refund. In other words, companies fare better if they recall the product and provide a refund through a retailer.
The researchers also studied how different types of recalls and defects affected the time it took to recall a product. Their results showed that manufacturing defects, such as lead content in toys, took much less time to recall than design defects such as detachable magnets. They also found that reactive recalls -- recalls due to an incident, injury or death -- were more likely than preventive recalls to result in exchanges, which dramatically reduced the recall time.
Hora and Bapuji are currently expanding their study to investigate how other industries recover from product recalls and whether firms learn from product recalls outside of their own industry. Since product recalls occur in many industries, the researchers are studying whether recalls by other firms lead companies to investigate their own production and supply chain processes to avoid the same issues.
"Having effective recovery strategies for dealing with product recalls efficiently and in a timely manner is imperative," noted Hora. "If a firm handles a product recall crisis well, it can be turned into a positive advantage for that company by actually increasing consumer satisfaction beyond where it was before the recall."
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]]>Electromagnetic induction sensors work by sending out magnetic fields and detecting the response from the electric currents generated when the field interacts with a metallic target. While simple versions of these sensors are capable of detecting most land mines, advanced sensors are required to tell the difference between a land mine and harmless buried metal objects, which can include bottle tops, nails, shrapnel and spent bullets.
"We built this facility to aid in the development of advanced electromagnetic induction sensors and associated detection algorithms, mainly because little was known about how the signals collected by these sensors from land mines changed when the mines were buried underground at odd angles," said Waymond Scott, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Scott and Gregg Larson, a senior research engineer in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, constructed the facility with funding from the U.S. Army and described it at the recent SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing Symposium.
The testing structure was built with five computer-controlled axes -- three translational stages and two rotational stages -- and one manual axis. During testing, an individual sensor or array of sensors is fixed in the middle of the measurement region while the rotational stages orient a target and move it along a prescribed path around the sensor.
For testing, the researchers place the sensor in the center of the area so that it is located as far as possible from any surrounding metal, including the floor that contains structural steel and the aluminum beams of the positioner frame. In the procedure used to measure individual targets, they also controlled for the response from the surrounding metal structures.
The system can collect measurements of typical targets, including shell casings, wire loops, ball bearings and land mines. The data from each target is plotted as response curves, which are a function of the metal content and structure of the target and help discriminate a land mine from other metal buried in the ground. Previous field tests have shown that the shape of the response curves did not change when targets were buried at different depths, but the researchers wanted to know if the same was true for targets buried at different angles.
"This facility allows us to collect measurements of typical targets and clutter objects with respect to location and orientation, which would be very difficult to measure in the field due to the difficulty of accurately placing and rotating the target," said Scott.
At the symposium, the researchers presented data collected in the facility from three targets: a single wire loop, a composite target with three wire loops and a 9 millimeter shell casing. Their results with the single wire loop and shell casing showed that the shape of the response curve was the same for all of the rotation angles, but the amplitude of the response changed with rotation angle. The more complex three-loop target exhibited changes in the shape and amplitude of the curve when the rotation angle was modified.
The researchers plan to use these results to make improvements to the sensor hardware and processing algorithms. Future efforts in the experimental facility will focus on measuring more targets and investigating methods for summarizing the massive amounts of collected data into simple physical models. The researchers also plan to improve the processing algorithms to help characterize more complicated targets and refine the detection and discrimination methods for electromagnetic induction sensors.
Experiments conducted in the facility will ultimately help researchers better discriminate between land mines and harmless metal objects, which will lead to reduced false alarm rates.
"This facility will help us develop advanced electromagnetic induction sensors that are most effective and able to quickly, accurately and repetitively measure the response of a buried target," noted Scott.
This work is supported in part by the U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, Science and Technology Division, Countermine Branch and in part by the U. S. Army Research Office under Contract Number W911NF-05-1-0257. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the researchers and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Office or the U.S. Government.
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]]>McMurray brings to his new position two decades of experience designing and building advanced robotic systems for the food, transportation and biomedical industries.
"Gary has the vision to diversify our revenues and expand our critical Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP), which is one of the major activities within the Food Processing Technology Division," said Rusty Roberts, director of the Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems (ATAS) Laboratory, which oversees the division.
Ranked as one of the top programs of its kind in the country, ATRP works closely with Georgia agribusiness, especially the poultry industry, to develop new technologies and adapt existing ones for specialized industrial needs. Researchers focus efforts on both immediate and long-term industrial needs, ranging from advanced robotic systems to improved wastewater treatment technologies to machine-vision grading and rapid microbial detection.
McMurray currently leads a project to develop a "smart" deboning system. The system uses computer vision and other sensing technologies to recognize and react to size and shape differences of a carcass to perform precision cuts that optimize yield (the amount of meat removed from the bone) while reducing the risk of bone fragments in finished product.
The Food Processing Technology Division also conducts significant industrial research under Georgia's Traditional Industries Program for Food Processing, which is managed through the Food Processing Advisory Council (FoodPAC). FoodPAC enhances the competitiveness of Georgia's food industry, and through the Traditional Industries Program, has helped GTRI to commercialize some of its developments while also adapting them to the needs of such industries as bakeries and fruit processors.
While food processing technologies remain the division's research priority, funding from the Georgia Department of Transportation has allowed researchers to develop technologies for the transportation industry. For one project, GTRI researchers developed a system capable of automatically placing reflective pavement markers along highway lane stripes from a moving truck.
Since division researchers have core expertise in automation, information technology, food safety, worker safety and environmental technology, McMurray plans to further expand the division's research focuses into areas including biomedical devices, unmanned and autonomous systems, and biofuels.
"We are mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers, image processing experts and many of our core competencies transfer very nicely into areas outside of food processing," said McMurray.
McMurray has personally initiated collaborations with physicians at Emory University to develop new technology to support doctors performing minimally invasive procedures and add new functionality to these procedures.
He is currently developing a new breed of endoscope -- the medical devices used to inspect spaces inside the body -- that will allow doctors to focus their attention on inspecting the space rather than manipulating the medical device. For colonoscopies, doctors must currently guide a specialized endoscope through the patient's colon by pushing the endoscope and controlling the orientation of the instrument's tip while simultaneously watching a video monitor that displays images captured by the endoscope's camera.
Division researchers are also collaborating with other ATAS researchers to develop and test unmanned and autonomous systems. These systems are recognized as critical components to all aspects of modern warfare across the joint forces, and they are growing in mission effectiveness.
In addition to leading the division's research efforts, McMurray will also lead a $3 million fundraising campaign to expand the 36,000-square-foot Food Processing Technology Building by an extra 10,000 square feet. Bettcher Industries, Inc., a world leader in designing and manufacturing food processing equipment and cutting tools, was the first company to support the construction with a donation of $125,000.
"While the building holds facilities to conduct research in automation technology, information technology and environmental systems, it's not large enough for our food safety, human factors and bioprocessing research," explained McMurray.
McMurray earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1985 and 1987, respectively. He lives in Smyrna with his wife Stephanie -- also a Georgia Tech graduate -- and sons Ben, 7, and Alex, 5.
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]]>Published in the May 15, 2009 issue of the journal Science, the work adds new detail to help explain the unusual physical phenomena and properties associated with graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arrayed in a repeating, honeycomb-like arrangement.
"Our experiments directly measured the energy spectrum of graphene with unprecedented precision and show that the unique multilayer epitaxial graphene grown in the Georgia Tech laboratory of Walt de Heer behaves remarkably like independent graphene sheets," said Philip N. First, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Physics and one of the paper's co-authors. "This effective single-layer behavior is due to small rotations between the graphene sheets that dramatically reduce the interlayer atomic interactions. Because the measurements showed only very small surface potential fluctuations and long times between scattering events, it could be that this multilayer material is one of the best places to study many properties of 'single-layer' graphene."
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Semiconductor Research Corporation through the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative INDEX Program, and by the W.M. Keck Foundation.
Graphene's exotic behaviors present intriguing prospects for future technologies, including high-speed, graphene-based electronics that might replace today's silicon-based integrated circuits and other devices. Even at room temperature, electrons in graphene are more than 100 times more mobile than in silicon.
Graphene apparently owes this enhanced mobility to the curious fact that its electrons and other carriers of electric charges behave as though they do not have mass. In conventional materials, the speed of electrons is related to their energy, but not in graphene. Although they do not approach the speed of light, the research team found that unbound electrons in graphene behave much like photons, massless particles that also move at a speed independent of their energy.
This weird massless behavior is associated with other strangeness, the researchers found. When ordinary conductors are put in a strong magnetic field, charge carriers such as electrons begin moving in circular orbits that are constrained to discrete, equally spaced energy levels. In graphene these levels are known to be unevenly spaced because of the "massless" electrons.
The Georgia Tech/NIST team tracked these massless electrons in action, using a specialized NIST instrument to zoom in on the graphene layer at a billion times magnification, tracking the electronic states while at the same time applying high magnetic fields. The custom-built, ultra-low-temperature and ultra-high-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope allowed them to sweep an adjustable magnetic field across graphene samples prepared at Georgia Tech, observing and mapping the peculiar non-uniform spacing among discrete energy levels that form when the material is exposed to magnetic fields.
The team developed a high-resolution map of the distribution of energy levels in graphene. In contrast to metals and other conducting materials, where the distance from one energy peak to the next is uniformly equal, this spacing is uneven in graphene.
The researchers also probed and spatially mapped graphene's hallmark "zero energy state," a curious phenomenon where the material has no electrical carriers until a magnetic field is applied.
The measurements also indicated that layers of graphene grown and then heated on a substrate of silicon carbide behave as individual, isolated, two-dimensional sheets. On the basis of the results, the researchers suggest that graphene layers are uncoupled from adjacent layers because they stack in different rotational orientations. This finding may point the way to manufacturing methods for making large, uniform batches of graphene for a new carbon-based electronics.
The research team included David L. Miller, Kevin D. Kubista, Ming Ruan, Walt A. de Heer and Philip N. First of Georgia Tech's School of Physics, and Gregory M. Rutter and Joseph A. Stroscio of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at NIST.
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]]>The research study found that regulating emotions
]]>Supported by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Saint Joseph's Translational Research Institute (SJTRI), Piedmont Healthcare and the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), the new center will bring together the complete medical device marketplace -- which includes universities, research centers and clinicians; established drug and device companies; investors, and early-stage companies. The new center will be located adjacent to the Georgia Tech campus in Technology Enterprise Park (TEP).
The new Global Center for Medical Innovation was announced by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue May 19th at the 2009 BIO International Convention at the Georgia World Congress Center.
"The convergence of the life sciences with engineering provides a unique opportunity to expand our technology in areas that will support the health care industry of the future," said G. P. "Bud" Peterson, president of Georgia Tech. "The Global Center for Medical Innovation will bring together in one location the key infrastructure needed to rapidly move new medical devices and new medical technologies to market."
The new center will include:
• A complete medical device prototyping center;
• A capability to produce evaluation devices using "good manufacturing practices" mandated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA); and
• The ability to manage, coordinate and aggregate intellectual property from the partner organizations and interested private companies.
The Saint Joseph's Translational Research Institute (SJTRI), the research division of Saint Joseph's Health System, will add the capability for preclinical studies of new devices and technologies. SJTRI has recently opened a new, state-of-the art, 32,000-square-foot preclinical research facility at Technology Enterprise Park. With the GCMI resources, that will provide a comprehensive set of services for developing, testing and prototyping medical innovations.
The leading-edge medical research conducted at the founding institutions will be the engine behind the new center. By bringing together physicians with direct experience at treating patients with scientists and engineers, GCMI will facilitate the development of technology that meets real-world medical needs.
"Physicians on the front lines of patient treatment have a very real appreciation of the need for new technology, but they often lack the resources to translate their ideas and solutions into new medical devices," said Jay S. Yadav, M.D., chairman of the Piedmont Healthcare Center for Medical Innovation, a cardiologist with Piedmont Heart Institute Physicians and CEO of Atlanta medical device company CardioMEMS. "By collaborating with institutions like Georgia Tech, we can meet patient needs and create new business opportunities."
The proximity to university resources will also make the center attractive to outside industry and startup companies.
"Investments in Georgia's research universities are helping to create the knowledge and innovation necessary to expand the medical device industry in the state," said Mike Cassidy, president and CEO of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), a public-private organization that supports the development of technology industry in Georgia. "Through activities like GCMI and Georgia Research Alliance commercialization activities at the state's research universities, we are supporting the development and growth of this promising industry."
Because of the research strengths of the partnering institutions, the center's initial focus is expected to include devices and technologies in cardiology, orthopedics and pediatrics. The only one of its kind in the Southeast, the new center is expected to attract companies from outside Georgia.
"Medical device companies in the Southeast have long suffered a disadvantage compared to competitors that have access to long-established support networks," said Nicolas Chronos, M.D., president of the Saint Joseph's Translational Research Institute and an internationally-known cardiologist and researcher. "The new Georgia center will allow companies to contract with a single entity for comprehensive development activities, create a single location for investors seeking qualified medical device companies, and allow innovations developed by multiple institutions to be combined to create more useful devices."
GCMI is a not-for-profit entity that will have its own governing board with representatives from the partners and stakeholders. A startup manager who will direct the center is expected to be named in the next few months.
"By bringing together these public and private resources, we have provided a strong foundation for accelerating the growth of the medical device and medical technology industry in Georgia," said Governor Perdue. "This partnership demonstrates the strengths Georgia provides industry through collaborations among its research universities, health care organization and the Georgia Research Alliance."
Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
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Media Relations Contacts: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (jtoon@gatech.edu) or Abby Vogel (404-385-3364); E-mail: (avogel@gatech.edu).
Writer: John Toon
]]>To assure that Georgia Tech
]]>The Electronic Professional Development Network Grant is designed to help Georgia Tech, in tandem with Orbit Education, Inc., prepare, produce, deliver and evaluate NASA-related online courses, workshops and experiences for the benefit of STEM educators in Georgia and across the nation. Courses and workshops will emphasize best practices, incorporating inquiry learning, case-based scenarios and data analysis actively into the programs. Georgia Tech's Distance Learning and Professional Education (DLPE) and Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) will be the lead units on the project.
"This project will allow Georgia Tech to reach a community of educators, enabling them to better prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists while enhancing their own careers", says Dr. Nelson Baker, vice provost for Distance Learning and Professional Education (DLPE). The five-year project will utilize existing NASA products and data. CEISMC, Georgia Tech's K-12 educational outreach center, regularly conducts teacher professional development workshops face-to-face with Georgia teachers. "We are eager to translate these professional learning experiences into an electronic format", says Dr. Marion Usselman, CEISMC senior research scientist. "This will enable us to reach teachers who otherwise don't have access to STEM professional development and to help move towards a more environmentally sustainable model where teacher and staff developers aren't required to drive long distances to effectively get together."
]]>According to organizers, the mission of The National Summit is to convene a cross-sector gathering of business, government, labor and academic leaders to promote actions to improve America's competitiveness in the global economy.
Peterson spoke during a panel discussion on America's Competitiveness Agenda along with Thomas Paul d'Aquino, president & CEO, Canadian Council of Chief Executives; Senator Debbie A. Stabenow (D- MI); and Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president, The Council on Competitiveness.The National Summit is meeting in Detroit over the next three days.
]]>In the graduate division, a team of Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University students studying at NIA won first place for their project titled, "Reusable Lunar Transportation Architecture Utilizing Orbital Propellant Depots." Team members included Georgia Tech students Erik Axdahl, Patrick Chai, Michael Grimes, Robert Rowland and Matthew Long along with John Gaebler and Rafael Lugo from NC State. Prof. Alan Wilhite of Georgia Tech served as the team's advisor.An independent panel of space exploration experts drawn from NASA, industry and the academic community judged the entries. Teams scored points based on their final paper, oral presentations, outreach service, technicality and real-life concepts of the project.Over the course of the forum, students toured NASA's Kennedy Space Center, listened in on their peers' oral presentations and had the opportunity to network with one another and industry experts during the poster session and planned activities. For more information about the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage competition and to view photos, please visit http://www.nianet.org/rascal
]]>Welkamp was selected from more than 600 candidates nominated by more than 285 colleges and universities. Scholars were selected on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of
]]>The ranking was announced as part of the U.S. News & World Report's World's Best Colleges and Universities released on June 18, 2009. The rankings are based on data from the THE-QS World University Rankings that were produced in association with QS Quacquarelli Symonds, one of the world's leading networks for careers and education.
Last August, Georgia Tech was rated seventh nationally among public universities for undergraduates in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. For the past decade, Georgia Tech has been among the top ten public universities for undergraduates. In addition, the College of Engineering was ranked No. 4 nationwide for the fifth consecutive year in the publication's annual list of the best American graduate school programs.
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“Winning this award means I will be able to pursue my interest of researching fundamental theoretical physics and the nature of space, time, matter and energy with the world class community of theoretical physicists at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Trinity College Dublin, and the University College Dublin,” said Shah, who is excited about being a member of the Mitchell Scholarship community as well. "Being a part of these communities and making a lifelong connection with the science and people of Ireland are precisely my motivations for applying for the Mitchell Scholarship in the first place."Shah plans to graduate this spring with dual bachelor's degrees in physics and public policy. He then plans on pursuing his research and a PhD in theoretical physics at the University College of Dublin. During his time at Georgia Tech, Sarang conducted research in the field of theoretical neuroscience and developed textual analysis software to help map data.
Twelve Mitchell Scholars between the ages of 18 and 30 are chosen annually for one year of postgraduate study in any discipline offered by institutions of higher learning in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Applicants are judged on three criteria: academic excellence, leadership and a sustained commitment to service and community. The Mitchell Scholarship provides tuition, housing, a living expenses stipend and an international travel stipend.The Mitchell Scholarship is a national competitive fellowship, named to honor the former U.S. Senator's pivotal contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process and is designed to introduce and connect generations of future American leaders to the island of Ireland, while recognizing and fostering intellectual achievement, leadership and a commitment to public service and community.
]]>"Being a recipient of the Udall Scholarship clearly has monetary and prestigious benefits but winning this for the second year in a row, being one of only seven this year to achieve this, validates my goals for the future and provides me with the support to make those goals become a reality," said Christian, who hopes to earn a master's degree in public policy or international policy studies with a focus on environmental policy. After finishing my academics, I hope to enter a career in the federal government doing work related to the environment and international affairs."Christian was the first Georgia Tech student to win the award and is now the first student to win the award twice. He was one of 80 student, selected from more than 66 colleges and universities.
A 14-member independent review committee selected this year's group of scholars on the basis of commitment to careers in the environment, health care or tribal public policy; leadership potential; and academic achievement. Each scholarship provides up to $5,000 for one year.This prestigious scholarship has generated more than 1,000 Udall Scholars since the first awards in 1996.
]]>The U.S. EPA honored Dr. Rohatgi as an Individual Climate Protection Award Winner in a ceremony recently held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.In addition, ASES selected Dr. Rohatgi as this year's Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award Winner, for contributions in solar energy technology, and will honor him at the SOLAR 2009 conference, in Buffalo, New York later this year.Rohatgi founded Georgia Tech's PV research program and later established the first University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education (UCEP), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2007, he founded Suniva, a Norcross, GA-based company, to commercialize the world's most advanced low-cost high-efficiency solar cells.
"This is a critical time in the history of solar research and deployment. Never before in my career have I seen today's confluence of technological advances, political will and economic conditions necessary to bring solar into the mainstream. I'm honored to receive such recognitions as America and the world embrace photovoltaics as a practical energy solution," said Rohatgi. Throughout his career, Dr. Rohatgi has pushed the frontiers of PV cell performance and cost through research into the effects of impurities in silicon solar cells, the design and modeling of solar cells and the development of new fabrication techniques that simultaneously speed manufacturing and reduce costs. Dr. Rohatgi has authored and co-authored over 375 technical papers about solar, set 14 solar cell world records and helped more than 40 of the world's largest solar companies develop new technologies.
]]>Dr. Howard, associate professor at Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received the award at a gala ceremony during NSBE's 35th Annual National Convention.Launched more than a decade ago, the Golden Torch Awards are NSBE's highest honors. The awards recognize outstanding professional achievement and community service and are part of NSBE's effort to spotlight the hundreds of thousands of black professionals and students in engineering, science and information technology in the U.S. The NSBE Golden Torch Awards also honor organizations that give outstanding support to these individuals. In addition, selected, talented high school students receive benefits from the awards in the form of scholarships funded by the event.
Dr. Ayanna Howard joined the faculty of Georgia Tech in 2005, after a 12-year "rocket-fueled" run as a robotics research engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At the age of 30, she was listed as one of the "Top Young Innovators" by the prestigious MIT Technology Review and was also covered by Time magazine for her work in robotics. In her short, four-year tenure at Georgia Tech, Dr. Howard has already made a significant impact on intelligent systems research and engineering education. Dr. Howard has developed two educational software packages for artificial intelligence and robotics programming and a new graduate course on robotics control and techniques. She is also the principal investigator of the Human-Robot Interaction Workshop series, which provides research experience to underrepresented undergraduate math, science and engineering high school and middle school students, and is the co-principal investigator of the Advanced Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) Alliance, whose goal is to increase the number of African Americans who study computer science and robotics and then go on to pursue graduate studies. Dr. Howard has a B.S. in computer engineering from Brown University, an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and an M.B.A. from Claremont Graduate University.
]]>El-Sayed has made broad fundamental contributions to many research areas in the field of electronic and molecular dynamics. His pioneering experiments have yielded deeper understanding of the mechanisms of electronic dynamics in many systems of different length scales ranging from gaseous molecules; ions; gaseous clusters; molecules in condensed phase; amorphous and crystalline solids; nanoparticles and photo biological systems.The Ahmed Zewail Prize was presented during the 2009 Spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Salt Lake City, USA.About the Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular SciencesThe Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences is awarded on a biennial basis to an individual scientist who has made significant and creative contributions, particularly those of a fundamental nature, to any of the disciplines of molecular sciences. The awardee's research activities may cover theoretical and/or experimental aspects of studies in all phases of matter and biological systems.The Prize consists of a monetary award of US$ 20,000, a Gold Medal, and a certificate. The awarding of the Prize takes place at the Ahmed Zewail Prize Award Symposium at the ACS Spring National Meetings.
]]>"This award is very exciting to me," said Secasanu. "I'm humbled to be a part of this group of students and to have my hard work nationally recognized."Secasanu's accomplishments go well beyond the classroom."I worked with another undergraduate student and a BME professor to almost quadruple the output of a laboratory technique used to control the micrometer-scale synthesis of cell scaffolds," said Secasanu. "We published this work and used the technique to synthesize neuron scaffolds for a nerve regeneration project (which could have strong benefits to curing nerve damage, and even paralysis)."Secasanu also worked with several physicians to design and develop medical devices.
"My most ambitious project was working with two additional BME students where we designed, developed, constructed and evaluated a minimally invasive device for treating atrial fibrillation (a cardiac disorder)," he said. "It has strong benefits to reducing healthcare costs and improving treatment availability."That work helped Secasanu land his current job as a research and development engineer at an Atlanta medical device startup (TransCardiac Therapeutics). As part of his work, he's been able to design, patent, evaluate and submit for FDA review several novel cardiac devices. He plans to go to medical school in the fall and says his long-term goals include melding his passion for medicine and bioengineering to help treat and eradicate ailments.
]]>Boe was among the seven astronauts
]]>Rose is a program director at Tech's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC). Atlanta Public Schools is funding her work in developing and aligning science curriculum and designing and providing professional learning for teachers in the sciences and mathematics.CEISMC Director Dr. Richard Millman said, "Georgia Tech has an important role to play in outreach, especially regarding science, engineering and mathematics in the K-12 schools. Ms. Rose's accomplishments are extraordinary, and she is a wonderful example of a person who is truly making a difference in the lives of students and teachers."When asked about the award, Rose quoted Maya Angelou: "'When you learn, teach. When you get, give.' This award will serve as a constant reminder to continue to teach and give," she added.
]]>A member emeritus of the ISyE Advisory Board, Massimino has been using Twitter to post updates on his training and the Hubble mission. He aims to post at least a few updates during his excursion.He can be followed at Astro_Mike on Twitter.
]]>The segment will focus on the importance of colon cancer screenings. Murray-Rust will share her personal experience with a delayed diagnosis due to the difference in her insurance coverage when moving from Colorado to Georgia.Colorectal Awareness Month will launch, March 6, with Dress in Blue Day. The Georgia Tech Library staff is urging the campus to join them in participation of the observance in support of the dean.
]]>Alumni, students and campus sponsors were paired with talented local artists who helped translate their unique vision of Tech onto our beloved mascot. From May 15 to May 22, the Alumni Association is auctioning off 20 of these Buzz sculptures. This marks the end of the Association's centennial celebration and raises money for Tech with auction proceeds supporting various Georgia Tech organizations. To take part in the auction visit Buzz Around Town.
]]>After submitting videos to the The Oprah Winfrey Show highlighting their highly unorganized clutter, Ashley Bush and Kali Watson
]]>LRMC (Logistic Regression Markov Chain), the computer ranking system designed by three professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has predicted that the NCAA Final Four basketball match ups for 2009 will be the University of North Carolina vs. the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Memphis vs. the University of Louisville.
The championship battle, according to LRMC calculations, should pit North Carolina against Memphis with North Carolina emerging as the victor.
Unlike the NCAA tournament seeds released yesterday, LRMC forecast Memphis reaching the Final Four instead of the University of Connecticut.
"There are a few instances where it disagrees with the seeding," said Dr. Joel Sokol, operations research professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech who devised the program. "On the other hand, our system agrees with the awarding of fewer at-large bids for mid-majors than in the past. There just weren't as many deserving mid-major teams this year."
If history is any indicator, it's a promising prognostication.
LRMC, developed by Professors Sokol, Paul Kvam and George Nemhauser, has been proven to be an impressively accurate method to forecast tournament results.
Last year, the LRMC method correctly identified all Final Four participants and heralded Kansas defeating Memphis in the eventual championship.
The LRMC formula includes scoreboard results, which teams are competing, home court advantage and margin of victory in its computational formula. In addition to predicting a potential victor, these calculations can also offer insight into teams that hold more - or less - potential than NCAA seeding indicates.
For example, the 2008 predictions included picking out overrated teams such as Duke, Vanderbilt and Connecticut, which all lost in early rounds. The system also identified West Virginia and Kansas State as potential spoilers. Both teams completed upset victories during last year
]]>Students attending Tech are required to follow an honor code, and those in the research realm long have followed an established standard in academia. This latest initiative, similar to a corporate ethics standard, will bring the business and customer service sides of Tech into similar alignment.
Georgia Tech Interim President Gary B. Schuster and Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance Steven Swant, in cooperation with Institute administrators, faculty and staff, are working to complete the code in addition to updating guidelines for
]]>Initial implementation of the free, online program began at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004 as part of GT SMART (Students Managing Alcohol Risk at Tech). With the grant project ending, GT SMART Director Marsha Brinkley has focused her efforts on finding an
]]>With the largest engineering program in the nation, Georgia Tech has remained a leader in the discipline. U.S. News & World Report ranked both Georgia Tech
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