Fall 2003 |
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Faculty Profile |
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Q & A with Stephen Cross
New GTRI director shares his by JANE M. SANDERS | |
STEPHEN CROSS became the new director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and a vice president at the Georgia Institute of Technology on Sept. 1, 2003.
Stephen Cross became the new director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute and a vice president at the Georgia Institute of Technology on Sept. 1, 2003. He was also appointed as a professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
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Cross succeeds Edward Reedy, who retired after 33 years of service at Georgia Tech. GTRI is the applied research arm of the Institute. More than 1,200 GTRI employees perform or support more than $120 million in annual contract research for more than 200 clients in industry, government and academia around Georgia, the nation and the world.
He was also appointed as a professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Previously, Cross was the director and chief executive officer of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute and a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.
photo by Nicole Cappello
(An expanded version of Research Horizons' interview with Cross is available on the Web at www.gtresearchnews.gatech.edu.)
Q. What attracted you to GTRI and Georgia Tech?
A. I've been coming to meetings here and have known people here for 25 years. I also funded research here when I was with DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Coming to work here is a dream come true. Georgia Tech and the surrounding area exude an electric atmosphere, with a can-do attitude and results to match. We are fortunate to be located in a state capital and have strong support from the state government and the local community. This is definitely a forward-looking area on the move!
Q. In what ways do you expect to contribute to GTRI, and in a larger sense, to Georgia Tech?
A. We have a great heritage and technical program here, but we can do more. I will challenge people to move into some new areas such as the life sciences and biotechnology. And my own faculty appointment in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering may lead to some new research opportunities for us, as well.
I believe new ideas occur at the boundaries of technical and scientific fields.
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Researchers in these varied areas have joined forces to develop technology allowing doctors to create very accurate, three-dimensional visual craniofacial records, which can later be used to understand and plan new surgical and restorative procedures. Dentists can use it to create more accurate crowns, for example. The result is less tapping and grinding. The crown fits the first time it is placed in the mouth, and it fits more accurately. The patient experiences less discomfort, less time in the dentist's chair and a reduced chance of having bacterial or structural problems with the crown later on. A challenge in dentistry is thus being met by combining different domains in a multidisciplinary, innovative effort.
I want to challenge our research faculty at GTRI and in the colleges of Science and Engineering to address some "grand challenge problems." We need to continue to set high standards and goals and then work hard to achieve what others think is impossible.
An example of a "grand challenge" is to build an artificial hand, an intelligent prosthesis, which could play the piano. That would require a systems solution integrating technologies in robotics, microelectronics, MEMS, nanotechnology, lithography, software and human-computer interaction. I don't know whether we'll ever achieve this, but this is the sort of vision we should have. We should set goals so far beyond what our minds can imagine right now. And the great thing about involving Georgia Tech students in our research is that they don't think such grand challenges are impossible. They just do it.
Q. How would you describe your leadership style?
A: It's a combination of the best practices I've learned from the leaders I've worked for. It's nothing I've invented. A book called "The Leadership Challenge" by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner outlines the style by which I lead. I suppose another way to describe this is servant leadership. I was impressed to find out that Georgia Tech has an endowed chair in servant leadership, held by Arnold Stancell, and offers a class in this area. Servant leaders are more effective leaders. They work quietly behind the scenes and don't try to get attention for themselves. This just fits my style, and I've been fortunate enough to work under many leaders with this style.
Basically, I want to enable people to do their jobs better than they are able to do them now. My job is to support them in several ways. One is to model the way, so I'm trying to show by example how a leader in GTRI should operate through my own research in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, through my communication, and by creating and inspiring a shared vision with GTRI research faculty and staff and the rest of the university.
Another thing is this: While I'm by nature quiet and easygoing, I'm also driven to achieve great results, and I challenge existing processes. We can always do things better. It's never acceptable to say, "This is the way we've always done it." My personal motto is that "progress begins when you deny the present concept."
Q. Why is accountability an important issue to you?
A. One of our key core values at GTRI is integrity. So that's one reason accountability is important.
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Another is this: We're measured not so much on what we say, but on the results we get and how we get them. We do what we say and we always strive to do more and to do better than we think is possible. Everybody is accountable for what they say they're going to do and for giving their best effort to do it. Everybody is hired to do a job we need them to do and everyone will be evaluated on the results and held accountable for them. We need to be accountable to our employer and our customers. We all have customers – some are internal customers and some are external customers. Our customers are our most important stakeholders. I'm accountable to external customers who fund GTRI's research program, but I'm also accountable to the GTRI research faculty, its staff and the university.
At the same time, we need to have a culture where people can make mistakes and learn from them. I have experienced this. I've admitted mistakes and moved on. We need to have a culture of prudent risk-taking here. I don't want anybody who's trying and doing their best and taking risks to be scared of the consequences of making mistakes. I will be the first to admit it when I make a mistake.
If you asked what is the most important aspect of performing and supporting research at GTRI, I'd say there are two things – fun and impact. Our work needs to have great impact but we also need to have fun doing it. If we have impact, but no fun, I have a big problem.
Q. You have an appointment as a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Why was that important to you?
A. In my previous position at Carnegie Mellon University, I was the head of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), which is in some ways parallel to GTRI at Georgia Tech. Before that, I had a research professorship in the School of Computer Science, and I retained that position when I became director of SEI. That helped me develop connections and relationships with both the research faculty at SEI and the academic faculty. So I believed it was crucial to have a similar position here at Georgia Tech. In fact, the president and the provost both told me that GTRI research is an integral part of the overall strategy of the university. So they granted my request.
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Why the appointment in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE)? I believe my background would also have qualified me for an appointment in the College of Computing or the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. But the ISyE School chairman, Bill Rouse, and I go back a long way. He was one of my professors at the University of Illinois and was on my dissertation committee. For the past two years, we have collaborated on some research ideas and want to continue that. We're interested in how large enterprises transform themselves to work in new ways by redefining workflows and processing. We study how they use decision support systems and computer support techniques to change their work processes and cultures.
One example of an enterprise that transformed itself this way is a company called Kimberly-Clark. About 10 years ago, they were number three in the consumer papers market. They had some cultural problems because they were a classic "stovepipe" operation with separate manufacturing and marketing units. So the CEO created a board game for executives. It required them to collaborate and focus on the customer's needs. Now, Kleenex is the number one seller in its market. There are a lot of good ideas there, which could be used more broadly.
Now that we're coming out of the dot-com crash, the companies that will exploit the Internet and e-commerce technologies are the traditional brick-and-mortar companies. They have the infrastructure and can reinvent themselves. Exploring this will make for exciting research involving GTRI, ISyE, the Dupree College of Management, the College of Computing and the Ivan Allen College.
Q. How would you summarize the unique contributions that GTRI can make to the mission of Georgia Tech – and to the state of Georgia?
A. We are the applied research arm of the university. Our vision is to create technical solutions through innovation. We have the ability here to create prototype solutions to unprecedented problems. A high-ranking General Motors official recently told me that GTRI has a culture of "doers," and we should preserve that. We can take new technology and apply it to social, industrial and government problems and solve them.
Over time, this capability will attract new companies to Georgia. The work we're doing in dental technology is a good example. Another good example concerns plasma technology, which could allow us to do away with landfills and convert waste materials into energy very efficiently. I could go on and on with a longer set of examples, from poultry and other food research to unmanned air vehicles, from advanced communication and antenna technology to fuel cells, to wireless network technology and more.
We're also working closely with other Georgia Tech units, such as the Advanced Technology Development Center, Economic Development Institute and Venture Lab. One of the great things about Georgia Tech is that we have all the pieces here to make it work. Companies want to come to the Atlanta area to be in close proximity to the research organizations at Georgia Tech, so they can benefit from our knowledge and ideas.
What we need to do now is communicate these capabilities and resources to the people of Georgia. They should take real pride in GTRI.
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Q. How will the increasing budget pressures at both the state and federal levels affect GTRI?
A. Federal research budgets remain strong. The impact of the state budget cuts is minor compared to some other states. Georgia is a fiscally sound and well-managed state. California has had 40-percent cuts in its state university system, and Arizona and other states are experiencing large cuts, too. Overall, we've had just a 2.5 percent cut in our state budget, which accounts for approximately 7.5 percent of our overall revenue. But it does challenge us to focus on our priorities and be more creative. Economic indicators suggest the economy is bouncing back. I do not see any long-term negative impact.
Q. How would you characterize the future of nonprofit research institutes like GTRI?
A. GTRI has a bright future. We have an ambitious goal – to be the best non-profit research organization in the world, not by claim, but by any objective benchmarking criteria. This will take some time, but I have no doubt we can achieve it. One reason for this confidence is that we are an integral part of a great research university. Our position within the university is unique and in sharp contrast with applied research institutes at other research universities. The Georgia Tech strategy is to weave GTRI more synergistically into the overall university strategy. That contrasts with many other major research universities that have sold their applied research institutes or elected to decommission them.
I know this is important to Georgia Tech alumni, too. I just attended my first Georgia Tech Advisory Board meeting and met many influential alumni who either had a cooperative education assignment or their first work experience through GTRI. That is another significant attribute of GTRI – our support to the educational mission of the university, and our role in training and developing the engineers of the future with co-op and other work opportunities we offer. The bottom line is simple – we are an integral part of the university and its plans for the future. This speaks well for our future, which is only limited by our potential and how hard we work.
Q. What other messages do you want to deliver to the GTRI and Georgia Tech community?
A. We have an important mix of stakeholders – state and federal government and industry. We continue to be very much interested in partnerships, new research opportunities, and technical opportunities to resolve issues for our stakeholders and society. I invite Research Horizons readers to contact me with any ideas they might have. I want GTRI to continue to be a catalyst for innovation – just as we have since we began work in 1934.
For more information, contact Stephen Cross at 404-894-3400 or email stephen.cross@gtri.gatech.edu.
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Last updated: Dec. 11, 2003