GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH
`
The "Lifeblood" of Research
By Lea McLees
Photography by Stanley Leary
ONE DAY YOUR HOME COMPUTER may have a roomy 50-gigabyte -- or larger -- optical drive made possible by special materials, and you'll store everything from favorite songs and recipes to billing records on it.
Ph.D. student Berdenia Walker
is creating a new type of partitioning algorithm for prototyping
computer hardward designs.
|
Water pollution testing will take into account the subtle ecological differences between the rushing, splashing rivers of Colorado and the still, silent lakes of Florida. The embedded computer controlling your auto's anti-lock brake system will be accurately simulated on a computer for higher quality and produced faster, at less expense.
And you may very well have a Georgia Institute of Technology graduate student such as Eden Hunt, Gary Cecchine or James DeBardelaben to thank for such advances.
Hunt, Cecchine and DeBardelaben are among approximately 3,401 graduate students pursuing master's and doctoral degrees at Georgia Tech. Their research is not just winning them diplomas -- it holds the potential to improve quality of life for all of us.
"Graduate students are the lifeblood of research at universities," says Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, vice provost for research. "Obviously, faculty members are the key in initiating ideas and finding resources. But a large amount of work comes from the students. They are very important to Georgia Tech as researchers, but also as individuals who will represent the Tech name in the future."
A Worthwhile Investment
Graduate research is a win-win endeavor
Students who perform research as part of their training absorb more than in-depth knowledge of a subject area, says Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
"By doing research, students develop creative processes and creativity," she says. "In class, there's only one solution to a problem. Often, the questions posed in research have no such strict bounds. You have to evaluate tradeoffs, and you have to know what else you need to learn to solve the problem."
Ph.D. student Bob McGinty displays a speck of copper,
prepared for microscopic analysis of its structure, as well as a large copper
piece, used for compression tests.
|
Chameau agrees. In addition, graduate students practice teamwork and communication in their research experiences. And students are not the only beneficiaries of their work, he notes.
"Through interaction with graduate students, industry can identify the best and the brightest and have access to human resources, including our faculty," he says. "It is also a good way for industry to be aware of the latest developments in technology."
The long-term focus of the university research environment compliments the short-term research industry conducts, many researchers note. And interaction with government and industry sponsors helps students learn what industry needs from them, as well, says Dr. Mark Richards, a principal research engineer in the Georgia Tech Research Institute's (GTRI) Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory.
"People really do learn more when they solve real problems with real deadlines for real sponsors," he says. "At GTRI they are exposed to all the business aspects of research."
Graduate students also find that real research -- like real life -- doesn't always work out the way one expects or hopes that it will, notes Dr. David Roessner, associate professor in the School of Public Policy.
"You run into unexpected problems, and you find the world is not as neat as you thought it was," he says. "That kind of experience, in real time, is extremely valuable."
Chameau foresees continued opportunities for graduate students.
"There is often a perception that the market is bad for Ph.D. graduates," he notes. "Although that may be true in some cases, clearly the record at Georgia Tech shows that our graduates, both M.S. and Ph.D.s, find jobs, and very good ones. For some schools here, the more graduates they produce, the more graduates are hired, including Ph.D.s. Our students get good jobs in academia, industry and research organizations."
And graduate students often bring to those jobs a view that extends beyond their areas of expertise, Jokerst says.
"The most important thing we can do as educators is to treat students not just as students of technology or engineering information, but as individuals being prepared to join a large community that serves the interests of the United States," she says. "Paying attention to the intangibles, as well as the tangibles, will produce not only excellent students, but excellent leaders."
Read on to meet some current and former Georgia Tech graduate students -- and learn about the directions in which they'll be leading tomorrow's world.
Making New Materials
Hunt: Research in non-linear materials
Optical fibers hold vast potential for transmitting large amounts of data -- but for now, their data capacity is limited by the electronic components with which they are interfaced.
"Any great leap in [materials] performance or cost
is going to have to come from further material research," says Ph.D.
student Eden Hunt.
|
Ph.D. student Eden Hunt [Adviser: Dr. Janet Hampikian] is developing non-linear materials that may lead to all-optical systems in the future: insulating materials with metallic particles embedded in them.
"Dielectric materials containing nano-sized particles have interesting non-linear optical properties for use in waveguide technology, for example," she says. "The proper combination of matrix, particle materials and size may prove to result in the properties necessary to make an optical switch."
Hunt implanted yttrium into alumina, resulting in the formation of aluminum particles. Her dissertation will address why that is happening, and how the process might be controlled to form materials with specific properties.
"Any great leap in [materials] performance or cost is going to have to come from further materials research," Hunt says. "It is very important to keep the research practical."
Hunt's research has been sponsored by several sources -- the Engineering Foundation, Georgia Tech's Molecular Design Institute, the Shared Research Equipment Program through Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Southeastern University Research Association. Hunt also won the Microscopy Society of America Presidential Student Award for an abstract she prepared for that group's annual meeting in August 1996.
"In a class, the professor generally knows the 'right' answer; in research, you must find an answer of your own," she concludes, "and be able to defend it."
Rotifers, Stress and Pollution Tests
Cecchine: Research on aquatic organisms
Rotifers and other tiny aquatic organisms are commonly used in freshwater pollution tests. The amount of food they eat, their rates of reproduction and other functions are monitored for effects of pollutants.
Gary Cecchine measures algae for use in toxicity testing
with rotifers.
|
But these tests don't take into account the effects of predation, starvation and other stressors on rotifers' ability to withstand pollution, notes School of Biology Ph.D. student Gary Cecchine [Adviser: Dr. Terry Snell]. Cecchine is examining the combined effects of different types of stress on these tiny, multicellular herbivores -- each about 1/10th of a millimeter in size -- and how these affect the results of pollution testing. Though small, rotifers are a critical part of many aquatic environments.
"It's a rough world out there," Cecchine says. "If an animal is under starvation stress, it doesn't have much energy to allocate to dealing with pollution stress -- and pollution stress affects its ability to take in more food.
"That dynamic leads to false conclusions of environmental safety, because traditional toxicity testing reveals only the effects of pollution stress in the absence of natural stressors," Cecchine says. "Since natural stress exacerbates pollution stress, we underestimate the total effect of adding pollution to an environment when we use only traditional tests in the absence of combined natural stressors."
Cecchine's work is funded by an NSF Environmental Sensors Research Assistant Grant and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4. His goal is to develop freshwater pollution testing that is more realistic, and specific to different ecosystems. He wants to use his biology, aquatic toxicology and public policy training, along with 41/2 years as a medical service officer in the U.S. Army, to help industry deal with environmental protection.
"To make effective environmental policy, it takes cooperation of the government, citizens groups and industry," Cecchine says. "Academia provides the information and the models."
Getting the Word Out
DeBardelaben: Research in signal processors
Ph.D. student James DeBardelaben [Adviser: Vijay Madisetti] is not only performing research -- he is planning ways to share his findings with industry and university colleagues.
Ph.D. student James DeBardelaben is helping develop hardware
simulation models, or "virtual prototypes," used to model digital signal
processors.
|
DeBardelaben's work, along with that of other graduate students in Madisetti's Rapid Prototyping of Application Specific Signal Processors (RASSP) Laboratory at the Center for Signal and Image Processing (CSIP), is being incorporated into courses to be taught in industry and academia. It also will be used in a 1997 book on system-level design, co-authored with Madisetti.
"Technology transfer forges a partnership between academia and industry. Our research helps companies develop new technologies, while they provide us with additional scientific input and resources," DeBardelaben says of his extra efforts.
DeBardelaben is helping develop hardware simulation models or "virtual prototypes" for modeling digital signal processors (DSPs). The processors control everything from engines and anti-lock brakes in automobiles to radar systems, video conferencing and video data encoding. The virtual prototypes allow engineers to test software before building the hardware it would run on, thus catching design errors quickly and cheaply.
DeBardelaben's optimization framework, funded as part of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) RASSP effort, combines lifecycle costs and profits with the predicted effects of a product's schedule to generate cost-effective architectures meeting the hardware/software system's design requirements.
"Our quantitative modeling approach partitions the system-level algorithm specification between hardware and software, while determining the processor type, the number of processor boards, and the amount of memory needed. From there, virtual prototypes of the architectural candidates are used to verify that the system actually meets performance constraints in addition to cost and schedule constraints," he explains.
DeBardelaben and fellow graduate students working with Madisetti also are getting lots of experience working as a team via the Internet with representatives of Lockheed Martin, Sanders, Motorola, Hughes Aircraft, SCRA, the University of Virginia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cincinnati and the University of California/Berkeley.
Mastering the Web
Farrell: Entangled in Web art
If you've seen or read about a Web site called Art Crimes: The Writing on the Wall, then you know a little something about the talents of Tech graduate Susan Farrell [Adviser: Dr. Kenneth Knoespel].
Art Crimes was one of the first Internet art galleries -- it also was Farrell's final project for her 1995 master's in information design and technology. The collaborative project -- developed with University of Southern California student Brett Webb -- features graffiti art and continues attracting worldwide attention. Art Crimes was highlighted in Newsweek on Oct. 21, 1994, and continues to create requests for at least an interview a week, Farrell says. "We are still collecting graffiti art, and have more than 2,000 images from 80 cities around the world," she adds. "Hundreds of people are now participating in this on-line gallery."
The skills, experience, instruction and access to cutting edge technology Farrell received at Georgia Tech helped her get where she is today -- Silicon Graphics Inc. in Mountain View, Calif. Farrell designs user interfaces in SGI's Worldwide Customer Service division.
"The fastest growing job categories out there are in high-tech industries," says Farrell, who studied in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture and worked in a GTRI lab. "You must have computer skills -- the only way to get those is to sit in front of a high-end workstation and bang on the keyboard. Most people can't afford to do that as individuals. The tools and access I had at Georgia Tech made it possible for me to learn new things on my own."
The Dividends of Research
Tong: Reinvestment in student prowess
Tech plows knowledge back into the institution by hiring some of its graduate students. One such former student is Dr. Wusheng Tong [Adviser: Dr. Chris Summers], who earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1996 and a master's in electrical and computer engineering in 1992.
Former graduate student Dr. Wusheng Tong develops
thin-film phosphors for the next generation of electro-luminescent displays
through the Phosphor Technology Center of Excellence.
|
Wusheng develops thin-film phosphors for the next generation of electro-luminescent displays through the Phosphor Technology Center of Excellence (PTCOE), a DARPA-funded, university-led consortium. With Summers' direction, Wusheng's thesis research resulted in the invention of technologies to grow materials for a novel low voltage electro-luminescent device which reduced operating voltage from 200 V to 24 V. Lower voltage means less power consumption; it also allows direct integration of the display and the driver circuitry on one wafer -- a great advantage for head-mounted displays.
He also developed a delta-doping technique with more than four times higher luminescent efficiency than conventional homogeneously manganese-doped, thin-film zinc sulfide.
Currently, Wusheng is working with zinc sulfur manganese, which glows yellowish-red, and strontium sulfide doped with cerium, which produces blue.
"We are trying to develop a full-color, flat-panel display for use on monitors or head-mounted devices," he says. "These displays will have broad applications in the military, as well as in the civilian market. They could be used in armed vehicles because they can withstand tough conditions, such as high and low temperatures, and because they offer a wide viewing angle. But these displays also can be used for many civilian applications -- in cars and airplane cockpits, and as machine vision aids in advanced manufacturing technology.
"We have many chances to present our work, and to initiate new technological developments," Wusheng says of his graduate student experience at Georgia Tech. "When a graduate student takes a job, that person often has to be trained for a couple of years. But with my experience here, I was able to go to Planar America on a summer exchange program conducted by PTCOE and work with the new project right away."
Did You Design What You Planned?
Walker: Streamlining the prototype process
After a designer develops an idea for computer hardware, a real prototype is desirable for testing. Prototyping saves time and money by pointing out potential problems earlier in the design process. Ph.D. student Berdenia Walker [Adviser: Dr. Henry Owen] is trying to make that process more efficient by creating a new type of partitioning algorithm.
"Partitioning is one phase of the design cycle," says Walker, who is studying electrical and computer engineering. "Partitioning breaks the design down into pieces, such that a prototype can be created using a hardware emulator.
"Most partitioning algorithms don't take the architecture of the emulator into account, so sometimes you can partition and your results won't map on the emulator due to interconnect constraints, for example," she continues. "If it doesn't map, you can't get a prototype."
Walker's algorithm, in contrast, does take the architecture of the emulator into account.
"Research helps you be creative, and you need that if you are going into industry or academia," Walker says. "You learn to develop new technologies, new tools and new methods using new ideas -- and you can't be afraid to try different things. This is useful in the real world, no matter where you work."
Coatings Applied at Less Expense
Hunt: Translating research into business
Some Tech graduate students turn their research into businesses -- that's what 1993 graduate Dr. Andrew Hunt (no relation to Eden Hunt), CEO of MicroCoating Technologies, did.
Former Tech graduate student Andrew Hunt (shown here
using an X-ray diffractometer) turned his Ph.D. research into a business:
MicroCoating Technologies.
|
While studying for a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, Hunt developed a method of applying solid thin film coatings from vapor in open air. Such coatings traditionally are applied in vapor form inside reaction chambers.
"We save money because you don't have to use chambers or vacuum pumps, and we make the materials easier to work with," Hunt says.
The technology is useful in applying electronic, optical, catalytic, corrosion- and wear-resistant coatings. The American Ceramic Society named the technology one of the top five to watch in the coatings/films area before the year 2000.
The work has been covered by CNN, Business Week, Advanced Materials and Processes, Advanced Coatings and Surface Technology, and was published in Applied Physics Letters.
Hunt continues his lab work while running MicroCoating Technologies, in part because he believes that continued research is vital to the future of this country.
"It causes the United States to maintain its technological lead, " he maintains, "and technological advantage is very important."
Gilson: Re-examining management strategies
Participation is one of the most popular management tools used today -- but not much is known about its multifaceted effects on employee perceptions of fairness.
For her Ph.D. research, Lucy Gilson is exploring
the role of employee involvement and participation in perceptions of
workplace fairness.
|
That will change, however, as management Ph.D. student Lucy Gilson [Advisers: Dr. Terry Blum and Dr. Christina Shalley] pursues organizational behavior and human resources research on fairness and justice issues in the workplace. Her research addresses the role of employee involvement and participation in workplace fairness.
"Much participation research states that if employees are involved, they will see a decision as more fair," Gilson explains. "But now, employees are viewed as either participative or mute. I'm saying that participation is multi-dimensional, and there are different levels and types of participation.
"For example, some people are forced to participate and some participate informally, based on their relationships with their managers. How employees participate should impact how they perceive the decision-making process and the outcome resulting from the decisions. In sum, an employee's relationship with his/her manager and organization can be altered or impacted by both participation and fairness issues."
Gilson brings to her research 10 years of experience in marketing and business development in the United States and England. Other issues she's studied with Blum, professor and director of the DuPree Center for Entrepreneurship, and Shalley, associate professor of organizational behavior, are creativity in organizations, and the importance of the work environment in ensuring that employees can reach their creative potentials on the job.
"Management research is valuable in today's rapidly changing environment," Gilson says. "Academic research helps us better understand and explain what is going on in organizations."
What can't a metal withstand? That's what Bob McGinty [Adviser: Dr. David McDowell] and several other mechanical engineering graduate students are exploring.
McGinty, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, mathematically models the behavior of metals -- what kind of and how much stress is required to deform them in specific ways. The U.S. Army- sponsored work has civilian applications, as well, in the automotive, airline and aluminum can manufacturing industries.
McGinty spent 12 years in research and development at Michelin in Greenville, S.C., before returning to his master's degree alma mater for his doctorate.
"[At Michelin], I had started by studying the thermal aspects of a situation, but found all the answers in its mechanical aspects," he says. "In that way I discovered the world of material mechanics, and loved it."
McGinty advises patience for those who wonder if research pays off.
"A good example is airplane development," he says. "Based on research that was begun decades ago on fatigue and fracture, airline corporations are now able to develop much safer airplanes."
A National Reputation
Favorite: Research in nuclear reactors
The research of Tech's graduate students captures the attention of professional organizations, in addition to that of sponsors and advisers. Jeff Favorite's [Adviser: Dr. Weston Stacey] nuclear engineering research won the 1995 Mark Mills Award, the highest honor the American Nuclear Society presents to any student.
Favorite won for a published paper that eventually led to his current Ph.D. research sponsored by NSF. He is deriving equations that predict the power distribution in a nuclear reactor, even under potential accident conditions. The predictions are used in designing nuclear reactors, and they are important for nuclear reactor safety.
"These predictions are being made very well now," Favorite says. "My equations reduce the expense -- the computer resources -- associated with a given level of accuracy.
"Cutting-edge concepts only come from research and experience, and those don't pay off in U.S. dollars at the moment of discovery -- it's an investment," he adds. "Graduate students are affordable, and it's an education for us. It's an investment and a service, and it'll all pay off."
Products To Market Quickly
Du: Research in computer process control
The time it requires to launch a new electronic circuit board assembly line, or change an existing one, can affect how rapidly a product comes to market. Hua Du [Adviser: Dr. Chen Zhou], a Ph.D. student in the School of Industrial Engineering, is examining computer process control in electronic circuit board assembly.
"The current research is to develop models and frameworks for reusable, interoperable and saleable process control applications," she says. "The research will lead to a "plug-and-play" paradigm in board assembly integration. Potential benefits include savings on time and effort for new system launch and existing change."
This research, sponsored by Siemens and FASTech Integration via the Center for Board Assembly Research, could reduce tenfold the time needed to launch a new board assembly system, Du notes. "This will result in quicker and better response to customers' demands for electronic products," she adds.
The Future of Transportation
Burnside: Exploring the next phase
While a master's student, Burnside collected
data on transportation information use.
|
Transportation is changing, and Tech graduate Jack Burnside [Adviser: Dr. John Leonard] is ready, thanks to his research experience.
"Transportation has been in a building phase," explains Burnside, who recently completed a master of science degree in the School of Civil Engineering. "Today, management of existing infrastructure is becoming the primary concern."
Burnside collected data on transportation information kiosk use around Atlanta and how that affected the public transportation planning. The research was conducted for Georgia Tech's Transportation Research and Education Center, which oversaw evaluation of a system of traveler advisory kiosks installed in Georgia just before the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The project included Georgia Tech, Concord Associates of Knoxville, Tenn., and Clark Atlanta University.
"I enjoyed it because you can see people using [the kiosks] and watch their reactions -- what you're working on is out there, being used," Burnside says.
He also performed background research on the environmental effects of electric- vs. fossil fuel-powered vehicles for the Northrop Grumman Automotive Systems Department and GTRI. This work expanded on Burnside's five years of environmental planning for the Georgia Department of Transportation.
"You have to think several years ahead about the needs of your field, and prepare to address them," he says.
Research Means Better Teaching
Norris: Translating lessons into practice
As a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student in the early 1990s, Dr. Pam Norris [Adviser: Dr. William Wepfer] studied heat transfer in diesel engine cylinder heads for Cummins Engine Co. Inc.
Today, she is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and has performed more than $1 million in research over the past two years. Norris' current projects include an environmental air sampler for biological warfare detection; development of aerogel thin film dielectrics; and microscale energy transport, with sponsorship from Pacific Sierra Research, IBM and NSF.
"My research experiences at Georgia Tech allowed me to interact often with the company supporting my research, and I learned how to deal with the customer," Norris says.
"I had a unique project, in that I was able to see it from its inception to completion, and then I even had the opportunity to visit the company and see the impact my research had on the product."
She also met world renowned scientist Chang-Lin Tien, Chancellor of the University of California/Berkeley, when he visited Georgia Tech as the 1992 Woodruff Distinguished Lecturer. That contact helped her get a visiting researcher/lecturer position at Berkeley, and a chance to work in Tien's lab.
"I would never have had the opportunity to work with a world-class scientist such as Tien, had Georgia Tech not provided the opportunity for me to interact with him," she says.
Involving graduate students in research ensures that research programs continue to meet the world's needs, Norris maintains.
"When investments are made in graduate student research, a new, fresh and unbiased set of minds is sent to work on problems that may be solved in unconventional ways," she says. "New graduate students look at things from a whole different perspective, and their views aren't already shaped by what 'can't possibly work.' "
Research involvement also ensures good future teachers, Norris reminds us.
"Teachers remain fresh, stimulated and abreast of their fields by actively participating in research activities," she says. "The best way to captivate my undergraduate students is to relate
the concepts I am teaching in class to the projects currently in progress in my lab. Graduate student research helps prepare the next generation of teachers and researchers in a way no other experience could possibly afford."
For additional articles in this issue featuring the work of current or former Georgia Tech graduate students, see the aging research article and the profile of Dr. Marilyn Smith.
Send questions and comments regarding these pages to Webmaster@gtri.gatech.edu
Last updated: May 30, 1997