Peter Brecke, Associate Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (INTA), also began his duties in January as the new Assistant Dean for Information Technology. Brecke will be responsible for hiring, supervising, and training the IT staff. In addition, he will define College and School IT needs while coordinating with the Office of Information Technology management; continuing development of the enterprise structure for IAC IT. Brecke also intends to pursue staff retention activities, including mentoring, on-going training, restructuring of responsibilities to allow senior staff to mentor new staff as well as addressing new mobility requirements for laptops and personal digital assistants.

The course will be offered as a special topics course in the GT Honors Program, and will have a limited enrollment of around twenty first- and second-year Honors Program students. The emphasis will be on promoting intellectual inquiry and active engagement on the part of the students, featuring both reading (including books by two Tech authors, Ron Bayor of HTS and Larry Keating of City Planning) and written work (both analytical essays and reflective journal entries), along with working with the leadership in the community.

The students will also develop projects, either individual or group, that will be useful to the community and have substantial intellectual weight to be worthy of academic credit. Both Nobles and Ashmore anticipate a connection of the undergraduate students in this course with the masters-level students working with Harley Etienne, joint Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and College of Architecture, who will be teaching a design studio course focusing on the English Avenue community.

On December 7th, 2007, he gave the keynote address at the Annual Convention of the Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council. Boston gave the keynote address at the First Annual Black Business Congress, which was held at Morehouse College on December 6th, 2007. In October 2007, a report he prepared for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation entitled, "Increasing the Capacity of the Nation's Small Disadvantaged Businesses," was released publicly. The report provides recommendations that are being used by the U.S. House and Senate Small Business Committees to revise regulations affecting small disadvantaged businesses that contract with the Federal Government.

"Stem cell science is promising and advancing, but often controversial," says Berry. "Some kinds of stem cell research raise ethical, religious, legal and policy issues about which people disagree. We conceived of the conference as a way to foster understanding of the controversies," she said.

The seminar, entitled, The European Union at 50; Current Issues and Challenges, will be held on Tuesday, February 5th, at 1:30 in the Swann building, room #106. Goergens will speak about the EU from an insider's point of view, focusing on current issues facing the EU, such as structural reforms, and the debate about taking on new member states. The lecture will be in German and is open to all students and faculty.

The program is produced by the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC) and WREK 91.1, Georgia Tech’s student-run radio station. The Sci Fi Lab is an extension of LCC professor Lisa Yaszek's Science Fiction Laboratory and is staffed by Georgia Tech students and alumni. Previous shows exploring science fiction at Georgia Tech, science fiction fans, and science fiction music are available at LCC's Creative Projects website.

Besedes is currently involved in an experimental project that examines how individuals make decisions when they are presented with complex choices. The project was motivated by the difficulties that senior citizens report attempting to choose a prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D. The goal of the project is to understand whether or not these individuals are able to choose the best option for them, and how that ability changes when more options and more cards options are provided.

Results to date show that, as the choice set becomes more complicated, the ability to find the best option deteriorates commensurate with education and age, among other factors. Researchers are trying to understand the rate of error-making and how to devise ways in which decision-making can be improved. This project, now in its final stages, is funded by a National Institutes of Health grant ($360,000), and involves economists at Vanderbilt University, University of Arkansas, and Louisiana State University in addition to Georgia Tech.

Besedes hopes to use these research projects in future classes he will teach at Georgia Tech and to present the results of these projects in articles and at various domestic and international conferences. When he's not writing, he says he also enjoys reading about history, watching and playing sports, and traveling.

In 2007, he was also awarded the national NASA SEMAA Next Generation Pioneer Award of $5000 for teaching and work he has done relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education in the past.

Rattray has been invited by Public Broadcasting Atlanta (PBA) to work with their New Media Department and IBM on their latest online social networking portal for a three-day design consultation. Subsequently, he was recognized by the PBA Board of Directors for his input. In addition, he is excited about serving as Communications Director for the fledgling Georgia Tech environmental organization, Students Organizing for Sustainability.