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A Look Back / A Look Forward

Farewell 2008 and welcome 2009. While the economy and budget issues took center stage in the last few months of the year, the College of Engineering (COE) was able to make significant strides in instruction and research. COE faculty and staff were asked to do more with fewer funds but continued to provide a first-class education to engineering students on the Tech campus. COE rankings remained in the top-tier of U.S. engineering colleges, coming in at number four in both the top undergraduate and graduate engineering programs according to U.S. News & World Report.

During the past year, COE Dean Don Giddens chaired a National Academy of Engineering Committee on Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering, issuing a report from The National Academies Press on “Changing the Conversation”  in June. From this committee’s work, a new communications focus is emerging on how Americans can benefit from having a better understanding of the role of engineering. Based on the committee’s findings, COE goes into 2009 committed to communicate to young and old alike the role, importance, and career potential of engineering.

Vigor Yang, new Chair of The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Heading into 2009, COE and Georgia Tech are preparing for the naming of a new president of the Institute. G. Wayne Clough, a COE graduate (civil engineering BS and MS degrees) and Tech President from 1994-2008, departed to head the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. COE Dean Don Giddens was a key member of the search committee as they began the process of identifying presidential candidates. As individuals left Tech, new faces added to the strength of the college, and we continue to recruit, develop and retain a diverse faculty, staff and student body committed to excellence. Among others joining COE in 2008 were Vigor Yang, new Chair of The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar John Crittenden (Civil and Environmental Engineering). Bill Wepfer became the chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering following the retirement of Ward Winer. In the COE Dean’s office, Barbara Boyan became the new Associate Dean for Research, and she is also keeping up with her own scholarly activities in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Twenty-one new faculty members were added to COE during the past year. Outreach efforts continued to under-represented populations to join the COE faculty, staff and student ranks. These efforts were led by COE programs such as Women in Engineering and the Diversity & Outreach program in the dean’s office.

Ayanna Howard with a SnoMote, a robot designed to gather scientific data in ice environments.

For eight years, Georgia Tech has been the top public institution in engineering research and development. The College’s strategic plan calls for research initiatives in energy, environment and sustainability, health, and security. Highlights this past year included the development of a micron-scale generator by Materials Science and Engineering faculty member Zhong Lin Wang, that could be woven into clothing to power wireless devices or implanted in the body to monitor vital signs. On the health front, biomedical engineering faculty member Michelle LaPlaca developed a new device, called DETECT, that involves a brief and inexpensive test designed to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can be a predictor of Alzheimer's disease. Just recently, COE researcher Mark Prausnitz (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) announced preliminary human trials for microneedles to demonstrate that drugs can be delivered in this form just as with traditional needles. Researchers are now testing microneedles for diabetics and others who need regular injections. Ayanna Howard (Electrical and Computer Engineering) is working on SnoMotes, toy-sized snowmobiles that someday will gather weather and climate data from remote, hard-to-reach parts of the Arctic and Antarctic too dangerous for scientists to traverse in order to understand how and why the world's ice sheets are melting as a result of man-made climate change.

Using our areas of excellence and interdisciplinary culture to invest in research and educational programs involving issues of global significance, COE continued to seek international collaborations. For example, Georgia Tech is now partnering with two Italian universities, the Politecnico di Torino and the University of Trento, to offer dual master’s degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the University System Board of Regents and Emory Board of Trustees have approved a joint Ph. D. degree in Biomedical Engineering with Peking University in Beijing, China.

As we move forward how much COE will be able to do will be constrained by the budget situation, but the College plans to push for a strong summer engineering program in order to increase opportunities for students and also increase revenues, while taking better advantage of the summer infrastructure. We will continue to recruit women and under-represented minority populations; keep our student/faculty ratio from rising further; and increase our research efforts in energy, environment, health, and security.

2008 Highlights

• Civil Engineering student Benjamin Allread named Georgia Engineering Student of the Year during National Engineers Week.
• GT student chapter of Engineers Without Borders worked on a water distribution system in La Lima, Honduras.
• The Leadership, Education and Development Program (LEAD) chose GT to host the inaugural Summer Engineering Institute in 2008. Focused on 10th grade students, the LEAD engineering program places 30 students on a three-week residency to explore technical fields and careers in corporate America.
• ISyE students held the “Great Package Race” in which major parcel carriers are challenged to deliver packages to some of the most remote or difficult locations in the world.
• COE Dean Don Giddens held a town hall meeting in May of 2008 to review the past five years as well as to discuss future opportunities and challenges for the college.
• COE alumnus Angelo Taylor placed first in the 400 hurdles in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing winning a gold medal.
• The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering celebrated its 10th anniversary. The program began in 1997 and now ranks in the top five biomedical engineering programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
• A new Integrative BioSystems Institute (IBSI) was created in collaboration with the College of Sciences to explore new technologies and methods to collect and analyze biological information in order to form a more complete picture of how life works and how the environment affects living things.
• The 2008 supplement edition of the Times of London showed Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering ranking 8th in the world. Tech was the number two public technological university in the rankings.
• David S. Sholl, the Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Chair, was named a Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar for Energy Sustainability
• COE Associate Dean Jane Ammons was named president-elect for the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE).
• ECE Associate Professor Rob Butera was named a 2008 Jefferson Science Fellow by the U.S. Department of State. Butera will spend one year in Washington working to advance science, technology and engineering policy.
• BME Assistant Professor Thomas Barker initiated the first BME Study Abroad program, Biomedical Engineering in a Global Economy.  Undergraduate students spent three weeks in Switzerland learning about biomedical business in Europe and then served three to six month internships with European biotech companies.
• The Department of Defense established the Center for Enhanced Engineering for Soldier Survivability in the COE, directed by Associate Dean Barbara Boyan (BME) and co-directed by professor Robert Guldberg (ME).  The Center will provide engineering expertise to move technologies from bench to bedside to improve the healthcare of soldiers that have sustained traumatic injuries.

>> The power to do.