the year in review - office of the presidentinnovation lab (i3l). the i3l is the realization of a...

THE YEAR IN REVIEW2 0 1 3 – 2 0 1 4

Georgia Tech’s VentureLab program is ranked second in the world in

a benchmarking study of 150 university-based business incubators

in 22 different countries. The study was conducted by UBI Index, a

Stockholm-based company that provides assistance to incubators.

Since its formation in 2001, VentureLab has launched more than 150

technology companies that have attracted more than $700 million in

outside funding. J U LY

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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny

Pritzker visits the Global Center for

Medical Innovation (GCMI) near

Georgia Tech’s campus as part of

her nationwide listening tour during

her first 100 days in office. The tour

includes business leaders, Department

of Commerce employees, and inno-

vation and entrepreneurial centers —

such as GCMI — around the country.

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A U G U S T

In support of its effort to create a campuswide IT master plan, the Strategic Technology Investment Committee holds a series of three town halls to receive input from students, faculty, and staff.

Georgia Tech partners with the

Museum of Design Atlanta on

an exhibit that highlights the

work of women game designers

and artists. The exhibit was

developed in partnership with

Tech’s Experimental Game Lab

and the Digital Design graduate

program, both in the Ivan Allen

College of Liberal Arts.

Pablo Laguna is named chair of the School of Physics. A native of Mexico, Laguna holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa in Mexico City and a doctorate

from the University of Texas at Austin.

The Georgia Tech Police

Department joins the

ranks of a select group of

59 college and university

police departments in the

country that are accredited

by the Commission on

Accreditation for Law

Enforcement Agencies.

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G E O R G I A T E C H / / T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W 2 0 1 3 – 2 0 1 42

A U G U S T

Georgia Tech’s Collegiate

Panhellenic Council, the

governing body for Tech’s

nine sorority chapters, is one

of just 14 councils from more

than 600 across the U.S. and

Canada to earn a Collegiate

Panhellenic Excellence

Award from the National

Panhellenic Conference.

Thirteen congressional staffers participate in a day-long campus visit to learn more about the research that makes Georgia Tech one of the top technological universities in the world and an economic engine for the country. The congressional staffers also saw demonstrations and briefings that highlighted expertise in cybersecurity, wearable technologies, and sensor systems for health care applications.

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The National

Institutes of Health

awards Georgia

Tech a $2 million research

grant to unravel the

mechanical forces at play

in lymphedema, a poorly

understood disease with

no cure and little hope for

sufferers. Lymphedema

develops when the body

fails to circulate lymphatic

fluid, which sometimes

causes extreme swelling and

other symptoms.

A Georgia Tech-led

research team is awarded

a $2 million grant from

the National Science

Foundation to develop

a unique approach

to making extremely

compact and highly

efficient antennas and

electronics. The new

technology will use

principles derived from

origami paper-folding

techniques to create

complex structures

that can reconfigure

themselves by unfolding,

moving, and even twisting

in response to incoming

electromagnetic signals.


O C T O B E R

S E P T E M B E R

In its annual evaluation of undergraduate programs, U.S. News & World Report ranks Tech seventh in the nation while the College of Engineering is ranked fifth.

After a thorough review of the responsibilities of the Division of Professional Practice and Career Services by the Office of Strategic Consulting, President G.P. “Bud” Peterson announces the merger of the two units. The new unit is named the Center for Career Discovery and Development.

The

Georgia Tech

community

celebrates

the 100th

anniversary of Grant Field

at the September 26 football

game against Virginia Tech.

The Georgia Tech Library

Archives recovers a lost

collection of more than 400

drawings by Francis Smith,

a renowned Atlanta architect

and the first director of the

College of Architecture. Valued

at $618,000, the collection of

architecture drawings had

been tucked away in the Smith family’s attic for

more than 50 years until being discovered by

construction workers during renovation.

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Christopher W. Jones, a chemical

engineering professor whose research

focuses on catalyst materials, is named

associate vice president for research.

A faculty member in the School of Chemical

and Biomolecular Engineering, Jones has

conducted research for a variety of indus-

trial and federal sponsors, including Fortune

500 corporations and startup companies.


N O V E M B E R

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Georgia Tech and the International Telecommunication Union

release the findings of a study that is the first attempt to measure,

by country, the world’s “digital natives.” The term is typically used

to categorize young people who were born around the time the

personal computer was introduced and have spent their entire

lives connected with technology. The study found that nearly 96

percent of American millennials are digital natives, behind Japan

(99.5 percent) and several European countries, including Finland,

Denmark, and the Netherlands.

Some of the most sophisticated and

advanced robots in the world arrive on

campus for the IEEE-RAS International

Conference on Humanoid Robots. The

international event focuses on trends

and technology for humanoids in the

real world. The three-day conference

features demonstrations, lectures, and

tours of Georgia Tech robotics labs.

Parking and Transportation Services is honored with

a PACE Award, winning the Government Champions/

State Employer category for its efforts toward

creating sustainable and alternative transportation

options for campus.

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N O V E M B E R

O C T O B E R Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Steven Thomas earns the Volunteer of the Year award from the Georgia Downtown Association and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for his efforts in downtown Gainesville, Georgia.

The College of Computing and the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering become the first campus units to surpass their fundraising goals ($40 million and $60 million, respectively) within the $1.5 billion Campaign Georgia Tech.

The Georgia Tech Military Affinity Group hosts

a symposium to discuss ideas for how to better

engage Georgia Tech students who are veterans.

The event is designed to let those with a role

in student engagement share ideas and begin

developing plans for serving both undergraduate

and graduate veteran students.

Georgia Tech becomes the first university

to receive the Phoenix Award from the

Health IT Leadership Summit for support

of innovative health IT-based education,

research, and commercialization at

its Interoperability and Integration

Innovation Lab (I3L). The I3L is the

realization of a five-year vision for

driving health care transformation

through advanced technologies. The lab

provides a vendor-neutral test bed for

exchanging health information among

disparate electronic health records

systems and other platforms.Student speakers take the stage at Tech’s first-ever TEDxStudent, a two-hour event showcasing 10 students who discuss their ideas related to the TED theme of “ideas worth spreading.” TED (short for technology, entertainment, and design) has gained traction internationally through conferences featuring short, engaging presentations by leaders in a variety of fields. The TEDx program is designed to bring the TED experience to more narrowly defined communities and enable them to organize events that emulate the global and national conferences.

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D E C E M B E R

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Internationally acclaimed

architect Santiago

Calatrava is awarded

an honorary doctorate

at Georgia Tech’s fall

commencement ceremony.

Among Calatrava’s many

innovative designs is the

World Trade Center railway

station in New York.

The Georgia Tech Research Corporation’s Office of Industry Engagement launches the Contract Continuum. This new mechanism makes it easier for industry and university researchers to engage at any point in the R&D process — from early-stage research to product launch. The Contract Continuum is a collection of four research contracts: Basic Research, Applied Research, Demonstration, and Specialized Testing. These contracts simplify collaboration between Tech and industry at all R&D stages.

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Rwandan Ambassador

Eugene-Richard Gasana

delivers the Institute’s

annual Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr. Lecture.

Gasana is a Rwandan

diplomat and the

current permanent

representative of

Rwanda to the United

Nations.

Georgia Tech is ranked first in the Atlantic Coast Conference for Waste Minimization in the 2013 Game Day Challenge. In this nationwide recycling competition, 88 colleges and universities track collections of recyclable materials during home football game days. At Georgia Tech’s seven home football games in 2013, tailgaters and fans diverted 13.2 tons of bottles and cans from landfills with the help of more than 100 student volunteers.


The U.S. Department of Energy awards the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) $1.7 million to help detect cyber attacks on the nation’s utility companies. By partnering with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s National Electric Energy Testing, Research, and Applications Center and the Strategic Energy Institute, GTRI is working with experts in smart grid technology to develop protocols and tools to detect such attacks.

Ford Motor Company, in collaboration with

Georgia Tech, debuts a new solar car concept at

the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas. Instead

of recharging its battery from an electrical outlet,

the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept harnesses the

power of the sun by parking under a special

concentrator that acts like a magnifying glass,

directing intensified rays from the sun onto solar

panels on the parked vehicle’s roof below.

J A N U A R Y

Stamps Health Services begins providing comprehensive sports medical care, including treatment for musculoskeletal injuries, to all Georgia Tech students. Access to this type of care previously was provided only to Tech’s Division I student-athletes.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) initiates a $2.9 million cooperative agreement with Georgia Tech to develop information that military resource planners can use to optimize energy consumption depending on mission needs and local conditions. By developing, evaluating, and integrating dynamic modeling and simulation tools for this task, the researchers will help the DoD meet energy needs while reducing liquid fuel consumption and logistics support.


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Hanchao Lu, professor in the School of History, Technology, and Society, is selected to be a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

M A R C H

Margaret Wagner Dahl, a veteran of research commercialization and technology-based economic development, is named associate vice president for Health IT. In this position, Dahl leads the development and expansion of Georgia Tech’s efforts within the health information technology industry. She also oversees educational, consulting, and other services to fuel economic development and improve health services delivery in Georgia.

Department of

Homeland Security

Secretary Jeh Johnson

meets with Georgia

Tech students and other

members of the campus

community to discuss the

Institute’s contributions

to the field.

U.S. News & World Report ranks all 11 of Georgia Tech’s graduate engineering programs in the nation’s top 10. The overall graduate engineering program is ranked No. 6.

David A. Bader, a renowned leader in high-performance

computing, is named chair of the School of Computational

Science and Engineering in the College of Computing, effective July 1.

Georgia Tech launches MyResearchPortal, a new solution to ease the burden of paperwork, reports, and financials for the Tech research community.

The Board of Regents

approves a policy requiring

all properties owned,

leased, rented, in the

possession of, or in any

way used by the University

System of Georgia or

its affiliates to become

tobacco and smoke free as

of October 1.

A team of four Georgia Tech students developing

a new electrical power grid technology with an

Internet-like control architecture win the third

annual ACC Clean Energy Challenge and the U.S.

Department of Energy’s $100,000 grand prize.


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F E B R U A R Y

The Georgia Tech

Manufacturing Institute

(GTMI) is awarded

a National Science

Foundation grant aimed

at training undergraduate

students, particularly

veterans, in the

fundamental principles of

advanced manufacturing

science and technology

and entrepreneurship. The

three-year grant is worth

approximately $360,000.

M A R C H

Professor Eva Lee, director of the Center for Operations Research in Medicine and Health Care at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, discusses her emergency response software at the 2014 AAAS annual meeting. Lee designed software that combines biological data on the pandemic with demographic data of the at-risk population so that health officials can develop a game plan to limit the pandemic’s spread.

The Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium

(GIEC) — a new research partnership between

Emory University and Georgia Tech — is launched

to apply the principles of engineering to study the

immune system and develop new therapies that

can improve the immune response to diseases.

GIEC brings together engineers, physicians,

chemists, physicists, computational scientists,

immunologists, and clinical investigators.

A P R I L

Zhong Lin (Z.L.) Wang,

Regents Professor of

Materials Science and

Engineering, receives the

Class of 1934 Distin-

guished Professor Award

at the annual Faculty and

Staff Honors Luncheon.

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• Brian Gunter (Aerospace Engi-

neering): Utilizing nano-satellite

technology for improved monitoring

of Earth’s time-variable gravity.

• David Spencer (Aerospace Engi-

neering): Developing Mars tech-

nology demonstration missions in

lower Earth orbit and deep

space micro-spacecraft.

• Panagiotis Tsiotras (Aerospace

Engineering): Autonomous

energy-projecting systems for

robotic exploration of extreme

environments.

• James Wray (Earth and Atmo-

spheric Sciences): Icy satellite

surface compositions from

infrared spectroscopy.

M AY

Greg Huey is named chair

of the School of Earth and

Atmospheric Sciences in the

College of Sciences, effective

July 1. Huey, who joined the

Tech faculty in 1999, focuses

on the field of atmospheric

and analytical chemistry.

Klemis Kitchen, a new student-led initiative, wins the Student Alumni Association’s 2014 Gift to Tech. The gift of more than $31,000 helps provide meals to Tech students in need. The gift honors the legacy of Tommy Klemis, owner of Junior’s Grill, a Georgia Tech dining staple for six decades that closed in 2011.

The Academic Faculty, Academic Senate, and General Faculty vote to approve revisions to the Faculty Handbook that streamline definitions of faculty and retire the longtime “general faculty” designation.

Georgia Tech students and engineers team with Emory students and clinicians to launch Forge, a technology incubator with a mission of developing medical entrepreneurs.

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Four Georgia Tech faculty members are selected to spend part of their

summer working alongside researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion

Laboratory (JPL) in California, collaborating on projects that include

icy moon science and deep-space systems. The Institute’s Center for

Space Technology and Research (C-STAR) selects the participants and

sponsors the program to build collaborative research opportunities

between JPL and Georgia Tech personnel. The participants are:

G E O R G I A T E C H / / T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W 2 0 1 3 – 2 0 1 4 1 1

A P R I L

M AY

For the sixth consecutive year, the Arbor Day Foundation recognizes Georgia Tech as a Tree Campus USA university.

The Georgia Tech men’s intramural basketball team defeats Columbus State to capture the 2014 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association men’s intramural championship.

Richard Lipton, professor

and Frederick G. Storey

Chair in Computing in

the School of Computer

Science, is elected a fellow

of the American Academy

of Arts and Sciences.

President G.P. “Bud” Peterson names Reginald DesRoches,

professor and John and Karen Huff School Chair of Civil

and Environmental Engineering, as the Institute’s faculty

athletics representative to the Athletics Association.

As the faculty’s representative on athletic matters,

DesRoches serves as the liaison between the Institute

and the Athletics Association on issues regarding rules

compliance activities, new developments at the National

Collegiate Athletic Association, and activities related to

Atlantic Coast Conference membership.


M AY

2 0 1 4

Beatrice Mtetwa, a prominent human rights

attorney from Zimbabwe, is named recipient

of the 2014 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social

Courage. Mtetwa, who has fought against

injustice and defended press freedom for

more than 20 years, has endured harassment

and arrest as she advocates for human rights,

social justice, and women’s equality and

advancement. The first woman to receive the

prize, she will be honored during a ceremony

at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts in

November 2014.

A team of students from the

School of Architecture, gt.5, wins

the design solution category

and Construction Documents

Jury Award in the inaugural

Department of Energy Chal-

lenge Home Student Design

Competition. With a clear

mandate to show tightly inte-

grated design, simulation, opti-

mization, and building science,

the team produces a highly

modern, performance-based

design of a zero-

energy home.

Parking and Transportation Services

rolls out a new bike rental program

for students called BuzzBike. Under

the new program, students may apply

to rent a bike for a semester at a time.

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Georgia Tech is among 12 U.S. universities cited for their success in creating economic impact through inno vation. The list — known as Innovation U 2.0 — uses case studies to describe innovation- related attributes of each university, including goals and aspirations, leadership, entrepre-neurship, industry and community partnering, and technology transfer.

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J U N E

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering faculty member John Crittenden, director of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, is one of only six new members from outside China inducted into the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2014.

The Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) is renamed

the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) to reflect a broader

research mission and additional resources. One of Georgia Tech’s

10 interdisciplinary research institutes, RBI’s mission expands

beyond papermaking to include technologies that produce

chemicals, biofuels, and new material products from forest raw

materials. The new name reflects this broader research scope

designed to better serve the global development of new forest-

based economies. In conjunction with RBI’s new name and

expanded research mission, Georgia Tech receives a $43.6 million

gift from the Institute of Paper Chemistry Foundation (IPCF). The

grant, one of the single largest gifts in Georgia Tech’s history,

affirms the Institute’s position as a leading driver of the future of

the forest bioproducts industry.

A. Madison Cario is named the first director of

the Office of the Arts at Georgia Tech, effective

August 4. Cario comes to Tech from the

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the

University of Pennsylvania, where she served as

director of Student Engagement, Special Artistic

Initiatives, and Operations and Facilities.

www.president.gatech.edu/ar2014

Page II: Photo courtesy VentureLab. Page 3: Football: Danny Karnik. Page 5: TEDxStudent: Elliott Brockelbank; I3L: Gary W. Meek. Page 8: Energy Challenge: Gary W. Meek.

Copyright 2014 • Georgia Institute of Technology • Institute Communications • N15C1001A • An equal education and employment opportunity institution • 10% PCW recycled content, Certified Renewable Energy, FSC certified recycled or FSC certified well-managed paper source

Cover image: Tux, by Isaac

Duncan III, was part of the

2013-14 “Engineered Art”

sculpture exhibition. It is

now part of the Institute’s

permanent art collection.