Events

Carnegie Honors INTA's Bowman as
Professor of the Year

Associate Professor Kirk Bowman has been named the 2008 Georgia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Bowman was among 46 state-level academics honored through the U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program, which recognizes outstanding undergraduate instruction. As documented by the publicity in the Chronicle of Higher Education, AJC, and BoR website, this represents a very major award.

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech is Bowman's first teaching position, and he credits the Institute for encouraging faculty to combine research and teaching and its commitment to study abroad. “The line between teaching and research is porous,” he said. “[This award] means that there is recognition for those who combine serious research and scholarship and an enjoyment of teaching. You really can do both.”

Instructor of 1000 to 6000 level courses, Bowman also directs the Institute's International House (I-House) ‘living-learning' community and the Study Abroad programs in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba and Spain.

“The most impact I have on students is with Study Abroad. I've taken a group of 20 to 30 students every summer,” said Bowman. “It's the best way to have a holistic educational experience in the social sciences.”

Bowman received his master's degree from the University of Arizona and his doctorate in political science and comparative politics in Latin America from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His research centers on development and politics in Latin American and the Iberian Peninsula. He authored “Militarization, Development and Democracy: The Perils of Praetorianism in Latin America” and is currently finalizing research for his latest book, “Latin American Politics and the Political Economy of Soccer,” a work in concert with four other scholars. He also is working with biologists at Georgia Tech, Scripps and in Fiji on sustainable development and drug discovery.

Bowman was nominated for the Professors award by Georgia Tech's Office of the President under G. Wayne Clough. In 2007, Bowman was honored as the University System of Georgia Board of Regents Professor of the Year for research universities in Georgia.

“I really like the entrepreneurial side of Tech,” he said. “I like that it was easy to combine Study Abroad and research. There are fewer walls [at Tech] than in traditional academia, and more opportunities to collaborate here. The Institute just has a ‘problem-solving' attitude. And Georgia Tech's real strength is having students that are bright, gifted and involved enough to participate in research projects.”

Economics and HTS Relocate to
Modernized Old CE Building

This month, the schools of Economics and History, Technology, and Society relocate to a new home in the Old Civil Engineering (CE) Building at 221 Bobby Dodd Way. The move is a significant step toward a master plan to consolidate the IAC Schools within close proximity, thus enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration.

Built in 1939, the four floors of Old CE have been spectacularly modernized and yet maintain the building's historic ambiance. Exterior brickwork has been repaired, original architectural elements have been incorporated into enlarged hallways, and the beauty of the old terrazzo floors has been restored. The interior has been revitalized with new office, classroom, and Ph.D. spaces. Modern features have been added as well—skylights, Zen gardens, a thirty station computer lab, classrooms with full multimedia systems and smart podiums, automatic lights, and a new plaza that can accommodate outdoor classes. New windows and state-of-the-art systems such as the HVAC were designed to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Award standards.

Faculty, staff, and students gave input on the renovation design by architects, Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein, the same firm that renovated the Swann Building for Modern Languages. IAC's Chris Fehrenbach, who oversaw much of the renovation, explained that the new space was designed to foster collaboration among students, as well as faculty.

“The graduate students have been scattered all over, wherever they could find a desk,” explained Fehrenbach. “Now they will be brought together in a light and airy loft designed to promote collaboration and innovation. ”

Masters student Priya Kundu commented, “The centralized location will give me and my counterparts a new sense of camaraderie with faculty and students in other Schools, and the state of the art technology will provide us with new avenues to complete our research.”

Classes will be held in the new building beginning in January. HTS occupies mainly the ground and first floors, Economics the second and third floors, and a faculty lounge is shared. Both Schools will continue to use the lecture hall in D.M. Smith. The School of Public Policy will expand into the D.M. Smith space vacated by HTS. The Nunn School of International Affairs will use the Habersham Building space vacated by Economics.

Living Game Worlds IV –
Gaming Is Harbinger for
Public's Online Experience

The 2008 Living Game Worlds (LGW) symposium was its own 3-Dimensional experience inspiring insights vast and deep about the past, present and future of online gaming. The themes of multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds proved a springboard to understanding that constructs which originated from the niche gaming environment are now expanding to the larger public Internet experience. Indeed, keynote and College of Computing alumnus, Chris Klaus (Kaneva), cited research showing that 80% of active Internet users will engage in virtual worlds space by 2011. Klaus predicted the convergence of social networking, business, and gaming interests to a fully immersive 3-D interactive experience for millions of users.

Spearheaded by LCC Digital Media's Celia Pearce, Director of the Experimental Game Lab, in concert with the GVU Center, LGW4 showcased cutting edge thought from the vanguard of the gaming world. Klaus and Raph Koster (Metaplace) provided keynotes, and 27 panelists from far-flung corners of the real world shared multi-dimensional perspectives on virtual worlds, augmented reality, networked online play, and multiplayer games.

Collaboration and socialization were key themes. For example, IBM's Jason Ellis talked about the company's experiments with team building through virtual Outward Bound-type environs. Also widely covered was the diminishing gap between virtual and real worlds. LCC's Steffen Walz, for example, showed REXplorer, a mobile virtual world application that introduces players on real life sightseeing tours to “ghosts” of historical characters.

The closing session unfolded a fascinating historical narrative of gaming told by its pioneers. Englishman Richard Bartle revealed that it was J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical hobbit world in Lord of the Rings that inspired his co-creation of MUD1 in 1978. MUD1, a text-based fantasy roleplaying game, established the conventions of today's massively multiplayer games, such as World of Warcraft.

Turner/Cartoon Network's, Sam Lewis observed that the original gamer ‘nerd' is disappearing. Gaming is becoming an everyday point of commonality for people, like playing basketball or going to the library to socialize and have fun. The complexity of 3-D technology remains a barrier to business profitability and mass adoption, but this hurdle will be rapidly overcome as more and more browser-based technologies extend 3-D and virtual world experiences to us all.

Living Game Worlds IV was held Dec 1st & 2nd. Planning for LGW5 is already underway. Next year's event will be organized by LCC's Michael Nitsche and Ian Bogost, in collaboration with the Savannah College of Art and Design.

LCC Dazzles with Digital Media Demos

LGW4 kicked off with an afternoon of demonstrations by the LCC Digital Media Program and the GVU Center computing and media labs. The Winter Demo Day, which was open to symposium attendees, the GT campus, and the general public, provided the opportunity for one-on-one exploration of more than 70 research projects originated by faculty and students.

Director of Graduate Studies, Janet Murray, Ph.D. candidate Sergio Goldenberg, and students presented the Avatar Theater, which enables users to come together virtually to watch a movie and interact through text and icons. Participants can, for example, throw a tomato at the screen.

Assistant Professor Ali Mazalek's Synaesthetic Media Lab demonstrated 11 intelligent interactive games. BDC or embodied Digital Creativity transfers a person's body movements to a virtual character and then examines whether the novel movements enabled by the game character improve the player's creativity.

Assistant Professors Michael Nitsche, Professor Jay Bolter, and students showed “Breakdance Performance Experiment” which has live breakdancers competing against avatars in real time.

Assistant Professor Celia Pearce challenged students to use classic table-top paper and pencil conventions (e.g., Dungeons and Dragons) as the method for designing a digital game. The resulting Ellis Island game will be developed as a board game, online, and possibly as an alternate reality game in coming semesters.

If you missed out on this one, watch for the upcoming Spring Demo Day.

SPP Study Shows Innovative Firms
Gain Widening Profit Advantage

The profitability gap between companies that compete on the basis of innovative products or processes and firms that compete with a low-price advantage has more than doubled over the past three years, a new survey of Georgia manufacturers has found.

The 2008 Georgia Manufacturing Survey also found that Georgia companies are making significant progress in adopting sustainable techniques – another form of innovation – though they tend to focus on short-term cost reduction rather than long-term profitability and growth.

Results of the survey, done periodically to assess the business and technological condition of Georgia's manufacturing community, were released this week by the Enterprise Innovation Institute and IAC's School of Public Policy. The results are based on responses from 738 companies with more than 10 employees.

“Innovation remains as important as ever,” said SPP Professor Philip Shapira, one of the study's co-authors. “Those Georgia companies that innovate receive rewards for doing so. But a significant number of companies still have not adopted innovation as a leading strategy.”

The survey showed that companies competing on the basis of innovation had a three-year average return on sales of 14.5 percent – nearly twice the 7.6 percent average for companies competing with low prices. In the 2005 Georgia Manufacturing Survey, companies relying on innovation saw an average return on sales of 6.3 percent, compared to about 3.6 percent for the low-cost competitors. The gap between the rewards for these two competitive strategies nearly doubled during the 2005 to 2008 period.

Slightly less than 20 percent of Georgia manufacturers compete based on price, compared to fewer than 10 percent that use innovation as the competitive edge, the study found. Half of Georgia manufacturers report gaining a competitive edge from quality products or services. Other strategies include quick delivery, adding value and adapting to customer needs.

Read full article by Research Horizons editor John Toon

Mason's Book May Impact Courtroom Justice

One reviewer wrote that Marianne Mason's new book “hits the reader like a battering ram from beginning to end. Her research is revealing, groundbreaking, and challenging.” Courtroom Interpreting should intrigue those interested in the judicial process and the factors that shape trial outcomes.

An Assistant Professor in the School of Modern Languages, Mason's lens is the relationship between language and the law. In Courtroom Interpreting, she offers a new perspective in the study of the bilingual courtroom through the exploration of cognitive and linguistic barriers that court interpreters face every day and ultimately result in an interpreter's deviation from original linguistic content. The quality of an interpreter's translation plays a key role in how well a non-English speaking defendant's legal rights are served.

“The most significant finding of my study is that it proves convincingly, and empirically, the relationship between psycholinguistic factors, such as cognitive overload, and the type and rate of errors interpreters make. This work also sheds light on the effect that power inequities in the courtroom may have on the quality of male and female interpreters' renditions.”

Mason has talked with academics and professionals in the field of courtroom interpreting and anticipates that her book will have a significant impact on how interpreters are trained, how gender is treated in the courtroom, and on how the judicial system views the work of interpreters.

“The latter is particularly important,” notes Mason, “since at present many in the legal profession still hold the view that interpreters should be ‘invisible' in the courtroom and capable of providing an accurate rendition of the original discourse without regard to cognitive factors.”

CM's Stamatiou Gains Funding for Blog

Paul Stamatiou built Skribit (skribit.com) while a student in the Computational Media joint major program of the School Literature, Communications, and Culture and the College of Computing. Stamatiou created the service a little over a year ago as a tool to help cure blogger's block (writer's block for bloggers). It is currently used by more than 4,000 blogs and receives 4 million hits a month. Stamatiou graduates this semester and has been seeking funding to allow him (and co-founder Calvin Yu) to develop skribit.com in to a profitable business. The funding has been provided by the Georgia Tech Edison Fund so Stamatiou will remain on campus.

Stephen Fleming, Chief Commercialization Officer for the GT Edison Fund, said that one of their most important missions is to retain early-stage technology companies that have a close association with the Institute and who would otherwise have to leave Atlanta to secure seed capital. “At one time, I know that Paul was looking to move out to California to try to get funding for Skribit,” said Fleming. “I'm glad that we were able to provide him with the initial funding to keep young talent like him here in Atlanta.”

Stamatiou created Skribit (rhymes with ribbet) to help him work on his blog, www.PaulStamatiou.com. Skribit is successful, he says, is because it provides a place for bloggers to get new ideas, rather than simply writing about what people are already talking about.

Public Policy's Walsh Presents at
National Academies Workshop

John P. Walsh, Professor of Public Policy, served on a panel at a National Academies workshop entitled, “From Concept to Application: Managing the Transfer of Academic Research Results.” Sponsored by the National Academies' Committee on Management of University Intellectual Property, Walsh's panel focused on the effects of technology transfer and intellectual property management on the norms and values of university research.

Walsh spoke about his research in this area describing the historical values associated with scientific research and summarizing selected studies that have attempted to address the impact of patents and technology transfer on these values at the university level. The historical research values described included science-driven motives rather than personal interest; autonomy in experimental design and dissemination of results; and a culture of openness in the distribution of results and methods. Walsh cited studies (including some of his own) that addressed the question of the effects of commercial activity on scientific norms, saying that there is some evidence of increasing secrecy in science. Walsh was careful to point out that these results were not necessarily the product of university-industry partnerships or patent regulations, but instead may simply be a natural consequence of scientific competition.

Panelists and attendees appeared to agree that the patent process needed to be further standardized in order to control undue industry influence and blatant disregard for historical norms in the university research process. However, the source and scope of that regulation was not clearly defined during the session.

Summary provided by Sam Cowin, Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC

IAC is First to Expand Recycling Program

Under the energetic leadership of Accounting Manager, Chris Fehrenbach, and undergraduate Lawton Fairchild, IAC is the first Georgia Tech college to expand its recycling program. The program satisfies the requirements set forth by Tech's Campus Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship initiative.

Under the energetic leadership of Accounting Manager, Chris Fehrenbach, and undergraduate Lawton Fairchild, IAC is the first Georgia Tech college to expand its recycling program. The program satisfies the requirements set forth by Tech's Campus Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship initiative.

Fehrenbach and Fairchild have extended recycling to all four IAC buildings and this month, will add the new Old CE Building to the program. Recycling bins have been placed prominently in the buildings and they are labeled to indicate that the Ivan Allen College is now recycling plastic bottles. Fairchild is also working with IAC event coordinators to ensure that plastic bottles are recycled at events.

Learn more about IAC's recycling efforts by viewing Fairchild's video

Giebelhaus Talks to ASO Audience
about Doctor Atomic

In November, HTS Professor Gus Giebelhaus spoke before the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) membership as part of a preview to performances of the opera Doctor Atomic. Sharing the podium with ASO Conductor Robert Spano, Giebelhaus presented the historical context for the libretto – a morality piece that explores the creation and use of the atomic bomb during WWII.

Giebelhaus says that Doctor Atomic, which was written by the leading contemporary composer John Adams, is “good history,” with many words drawn from scientific text and recently declassified information. He plays the trumpet and the opera preview lecture provided him the opportunity combine his dual interests in music and history.

“It was fun to participate,” said Giebelhaus. “This was the dawn of the atomic age…a moment in time where science transformed the world and we continue to feel its effects. “

New Faculty Profile - Assistant Professor Byung-Cheol Kim, School of Economics

With the ‘Big Three' automakers on the brink of ruin, Byung-Cheol Kim's research on industrial organizations offers timely insights. Kim works with theoretical models for oligopoly—industries dominated by a small number of companies. One might think that highly concentrated industries would always be less competitive, yielding a higher profit, but Kim says that may not be the case.

Kim cites the example of the soft drink industry which is dominated by just two firms, Pepsi and Coca Cola. They are highly innovative and appear to be eternally locked in fierce competition for global market dominance. Similarly, the U.S. automobile industry has long been dominated by just three companies - Ford, GM, and Chrysler. In the late 1990s, they claimed an 80% share of the American market. “But they became complacent,” Kim explains. “That opened the door for foreign competitors offering better reliability and lighter fuel consumption. That failure has been exacerbated by bad luck—high gas prices and the economic downturn—and now we see these companies in crisis.” He adds that “In an oligopoly market, it could be more important for firms to keep intense and efficient R&D and innovation, and to make more timely business decisions than in any other market due to payoff-interdependency and strategic dynamics of firms competition.”

“The tools we use for this research are basically game theory,” says Kim. “The players are the companies, and the theme of the research is why and how the decisions they make impact the consumer and, ultimately, society as a whole.”

Originally from South Korea, Kim came to Georgia Tech from Michigan State (MSU) where he obtained his Ph.D. in economics, served as visiting assistant professor in economics, and as adjunct professor in the College of Law.

Kim teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes and is delighted with the attitude of IAC economics students. “The course work here is very closely related to their career concerns so they are highly motivated to perform. They are very practical, always asking ‘how can I apply this to my research or my job search'.”

In addition to industrial organization, Kim's research interests include applied microeconomics. He and colleague Jay Pil Choi from MSU, have just completed a paper, “Net Neutrality and Investment Incentives,” which studies the effects of net neutrality regulation on investment incentives for Internet service providers and content providers and their implications for social welfare.

Student Profile – HTS Major Carrie Freshour

HTS major, Carrie Freshour's initial interest was History, but that changed once she discovered Sociology. “Sociology forces you to be more conscientious about the effects you have on the world, individually and holistically as an active member of society,” explains Freshour. “It also allows you to acknowledge and deconstruct the ‘taken-for-granted' aspects of our everyday world in order to understand the actual constructs that lie behind these perceived norms, beliefs, and ways of being. Knowledge is gained from this dissection that can be applied to implement real change to the institutionalized injustices that currently exist.”

Freshour cites Bill Winders' class “Sociology of Development” as her favorite thus far. “The class allowed me to understand the world economy and the processes involved under the blanket term "development" in a way that was completely alien to me before. I was able to view the seemingly "benevolent" processes of development in a more critical way. This class has been greatly influential in shaping my own academic interests, and I plan to continue with development studies in graduate school.”

Her work in Winders' class led to research that developed into a paper. “Nicaraguan Transformation: Regulation and Liberalization 1979-1995” won a President's Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) this fall. Currently, Freshour has narrowed her research to applying a world-systems framework in understanding agricultural policy within Nicaragua.

Freshour sees strong benefits to being in the liberal arts college on a campus which is more focused on Engineering. “The program is extremely interdisciplinary providing invaluable instruction from multiple perspectives. The faculty student ratio is also wonderful. You know most of your professors by their first names. You aren't afraid to ask questions outside of class… I've learned so much from conversing with my professors beyond the classroom.”

Long term, Freshour expects to pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology and, eventually, become a professor so that she can continue to conduct research.