photo by Stanley Leary
The hydrogel air cleaner developed at the Georgia Tech Research
Institute removes both particles and volatile organic compounds from air
that is filtered through it.
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Known as the hydrogel air cleaner, the gel removes both particles and volatile organic compounds from air that is filtered through it, explains principal research scientist Charlene Bayer of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). She and Dr. Jan Gooch, a polymers and coatings consultant, invented and patented the substance.
"Other air cleaning media remove either particles or gases, but not both," says Bayer, of GTRI's Electro-Optics, Environment and Materials Laboratory. "In addition, the hydrogel air cleaner doesn't support microbial growth. Microbes growing on other kinds of filtering materials can emit volatile organic compounds, aggravating indoor air quality problems."
Hydrogels are essentially chains ofw simple molecules, many of them water. The gels demonstrate solid and liquid qualities, making them useful in many applications — from repairing internal body parts to absorbing moisture in diapers.
Preliminary studies show that the prototype hydrogel air cleaner removes 50 percent of respirable-size airborne particles, and 80 to 90 percent of gaseous air pollutants. Some other air cleaning media do remove a greater percentage of particles or similar amounts of gases from the air compared to the hydrogel air cleaner. But these media absorb either particles or gaseous materials — not both. And some also may provide fertile ground for microbe growth.
The preliminary studies were conducted by fashioning the hydrogel into a filtering mesh, and also by applying it directly to existing furnace air filters.
The hydrogel air cleaner works via absorption and adsorption, but the exact mechanism is a mystery even to Bayer, who plans to continue exploring the workings of the gel.
With funding from the Faculty Research Commercialization Program through Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center, the researchers have worked to move the hydrogel air cleaner closer to a commercial product. Bayer and her colleagues would eventually like to develop the hydrogel into a form that could substitute for the standard air filter in building, vehicle and military applications. They also want to improve the lifetime of the hydrogel air cleaner, incorporating enough of the substance into a filtering device to make it competitive with the three-to-six months minimum lifetime of standard air filters.
— Lea McLees
For more information, you may contact Charlene Bayer, Electro-Optics, Environment and Materials Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0820. (Telephone: 404/894-3825) (E-mail: charlene.bayer@gtri.gatech.edu)
Photodisc photo
Georgia Tech Research Institute researchers are studying the
effects of continuous active humidity control and ventilation on
schools' indoor air quality.
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"Our hypothesis is that if schools have active humidity control, the air quality will be better — thus, the learning environment will be improved, and student learning will be enhanced," says Bayer, who conducts research in GTRI's Electro-Optics, Environment and Materials Laboratory.
The results of the study could be an important part of school modernization and construction efforts around the country, Bayer says. Many indoor air quality issues affect children more dramatically than adults.
"Children are generally more susceptible to respiratory ailments," she says. "Asthma, which is increasing among children, is linked to indoor air quality problems — particularly molds, moisture and dust mite feces. Dust mites are prolific in areas of high humidity."
The study is one of only a few statistically controlled, quantitative studies of school air quality ever conducted. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy via humidity control systems manufacturer SEMCO Manufacturing Inc.
Researchers have divided the 10 participating Georgia schools — four in metro Atlanta and six in high-humidity coastal regions — into five pairs. Each pair of schools is similar in design, building age, mechanical systems and location. But only one school in each pair uses active humidity control technology. Any significant impact of active humidity control on air quality will be readily apparent, Bayer says.
Researchers are tracking carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, airborne and surface microbes, and microbial emissions of volatile organic compounds. They are taking measurements at each school in fall, winter and spring, and have set up continuous monitoring devices on site. Unlike previous studies, this work avoids schools with known air quality problems.
"We specifically did not take schools with problems for this study so we could get good, baseline data," Bayer says.
The active humidity control systems used by participating schools are manufactured by several different vendors, to prevent vendor bias from affecting the study's results.
Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences will perform particle analysis. Dr. Sidney Crow of Georgia State University's Department of Biology will analyze microbial findings.
Students at participating schools also will benefit intellectually from the study. Researchers are teaching them about research, sampling and scientific method related to the project. Youngsters are monitoring air quality measuring devices at their schools, and they chart their data with help from the researchers via an Internet site.
The study will be completed at the end of spring 1999, with results available at the end of summer 1999. The researchers are interested in expanding their work to other states.
— Lea McLees
For more information, you may contact Charlene Bayer, Electro-Optics, Environment and Materials Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0820. (Telephone: 404/894-3825) (E-mail: charlene.bayer@gtri.gatech.edu)
photo by
Billy Howard
Dror Seliktar, a Georgia Tech graduate student, prepares
tissue-engineered vascular grafts. The research focuses on ways to grow
artificial veins for use in bypass surgery, eliminating the need to use
veins taken from patients' legs. The artificial veins will be stronger
and less likely to clog than veins taken from a patient.
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Tissue engineering research may soon produce advances in the regulation of blood glucose for diabetics, the regeneration of bone to correct genetic defects, and the creation of bioartificial blood vessels for high risk heart patients, Georgia Tech researchers say.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding the one-of-a-kind Engineering Research Center (ERC) with $12.5 million over the first five years, with a potential duration of 10 years. The center is conducting research on the design and development of tissue substitutes that replace, enhance or maintain natural tissue. Dr. Robert M. Nerem, director of Georgia Tech's Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, is also director of the ERC.
"Tissue engineering represents the next generation of medical implants, and this award allows us, working with our industrial partners, to take the lead in harnessing the products of the biological age and to revolutionize this important industry," Nerem says.
The ERC is focusing on specific research projects in three core areas: cell technology, cell construct technology (prototype organ or tissues structures) and their integration into living systems. Current research projects in tissue engineering include: the development of substitute blood vessels; the creation of a bioartificial pancreas; and engineering bone repair.
After years of maintaining a grassroots collaborative relationship, Georgia Tech and Emory University signed formal agreements to establish a biomedical research program in the mid-1980s. In the fall of 1997, in a pioneering academic collaboration, the two institutions established a joint department of biomedical engineering, creating Georgia's — and possibly the nation's — first joint department between a public and private university. Both the new research center and the Georgia Tech/Emory Department of Biomedical Engineering will be housed in the $30 million Bioengineering and Bioscience Building, which is under construction on Tech's campus and scheduled for completion in 1999.
— Victor Rogers
For more information, you may contact Dr. Robert Nerem, Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0363. (Telephone: 404/894-2768) (E-mail: robert.nerem@ibb.gatech.edu)
The Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have
formed a partnership to create a new center that could hatch some big
business for the state of Georgia. It's an incubator for nurturing
biotechnology companies.
Emory purchased the 42-acre Georgia Mental Health Institute
complex on Briarcliff Road in Atlanta for $2.9 million and plans to
convert much of the campus into an incubator for start-up biotechnology
firms. The biotech industry includes companies that develop diagnostic
procedures, medical devices and drugs.
The incubator concept draws on the success of Georgia Tech's
Advanced Technology Development Center. The concept has the support of
the Georgia Research Alliance and is a continuation of the partnership
Tech has with Emory's research efforts.
"We think that this is an important expansion of the
Emory/Georgia Tech collaboration," says Georgia Tech President Wayne
Clough. "This is something that will substantially enhance the growing
biotech movement in Atlanta. It will provide another piece to the
foundation that will allow Atlanta to become one of the nation's premier
biotechnology centers. The critical components for biotechnology success
are research and space. This park, with the business incubator
component, helps to satisfy both needs."
The concept of the biotechnology development center also takes
full advantage of Georgia's biomedical resources, beginning with Emory
and Georgia Tech, two of the fastest growing research institutions in
the nation. Both have laboratories and scientists already producing
technologies that are moving from the laboratory into production and
patient care.
The third issue of an on-line technical journal featuring the
work of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) will be posted on the
World Wide Web in early February. The Journal of Technology, found at
www.gtri.gatech.edu/jot/ targets scientists, engineers and research
sponsors.
Articles in the third edition of the Journal of Technology
include the following:
The Journal of Technology showcases the broad gamut of GTRI
research, ranging from information technology to defense electronics and
simulation to materials and manufacturing. The publication features both
abstracts and full text of articles along with photographs, charts and
illustrations. Authors' biographical information and e-mail addresses
are provided along with links to the home pages of their respective
laboratories.
The on-line publication, edited by GTRI researcher Henry Paris,
is being updated quarterly.
Biotechnology Partnership
Emory/Tech partnership
strengthens with biotech incubator.
Journal of Technology
New scientific journal
to post third edition on line.
For more information, contact Henry Paris, Electro-Optics,
Environment and Materials Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute,
Atlanta, GA 30332-0826. (Telephone: 404/894-3688)
(E-mail:
henry.paris@gtri.gatech.edu)
photo by Stanley Leary
Georgia Tech environmental engineering student Brian Skeens, left,
and
Dr. Appiah Amirtharajah, a professor in the School of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, inspect water mixing equipment at the city
of Atlanta's Water Pilot Plant. Amirtharajah and other Tech researchers
are collaborating with scientists from Vivendi in a new endeavor called
the Water Technology and Management Research Center.
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The partnership created the Water Technology and Management Research Center in Atlanta last fall. The center serves as the North American node for Vivendi (formerly Compagnie Generale des Eaux) and is the second largest facility in the company's global research center network. Vivendi spends more than $40 million a year on water research.
The center draws upon the expertise of 11 faculty members and more than 100 graduate students in the Environmental Engineering Program of Tech's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
"One of the major factors that led to Vivendi's choice of Atlanta for establishment of the research center was the nationally recognized expertise of the faculty in the Environmental Engineering Group," says group leader and Tech professor Dr. Appiah (Amit) Amirtharajah. "They also were impressed with our state-of-the-art analytical capabilities, especially in drinking water treatment and wastewater management, developed with assistance from the Georgia Research Alliance.
"Also, Georgia Tech has a history of working with established companies to build research centers," Amirtharajah says.
He and his faculty are collaborating with Vivendi researchers in France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and China. Vivendi has 210,000 employees worldwide and annual expenditures of $38 billion. Vivendi is the parent company of Air and Water Technologies and its engineering division, Metcalf and Eddy Inc.
Specific areas of research activity at the Tech center are:
- drinking water treatment and distribution;
- wastewater collection and treatment;
- wastewater reclamation and reuse;
- bio-solids management and disposal;
- and urban water management economics.
One example of collaboration between Tech and Vivendi researchers is a project headed by French researchers on static mixers for enhancement of drinking water ozonation. Tech researchers have been developing a computational fluid dynamics model of a static mixer and studying its use for mixing disinfectants to kill the parasite Cryptosporidium. The parasite has caused major waterborne disease outbreaks in Carrollton, Ga., Milwaukee, Wis., London, England, and Sydney, Australia.
The research center is linking these ongoing research activities and assisting in global technology transfer of these innovations for supplying safe drinking water. For now, the center is housed in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Within a few years, Vivendi expects to have 50 researchers at the Tech center and coordinate research of $8 million to $9 million a year.
— Jane M. Sanders
For more information, you may contact Dr. Appiah (Amit) Amirtharajah, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0512. (Telephone: 404/894-0628) (E-mail: appiah.amirtharajah@ce.gatech.edu)
photo by Stanley Leary
Dr. Robin Thomas,
right, a Georgia Institute of Technology math
professor, has solved the even directed cycle problem — an algorithmic
enigma that has kept graph theorists and computer scientists scratching
their heads for some 25 years. Student Christopher Carl Heckman, left,
has helped implement the algorithm.
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In simple terms, a cycle is similar to a tour of one-way streets, returning to the starting point without passing through any intersection or street more than once. Thus, an even cycle means travelling down an even number of streets without repetition — a problem of great interest to computer scientists for modeling purposes. Deceptively complex, the problem may have been easy enough to state, but remained difficult to resolve.
Two years ago, Georgia Tech's Dr. Robin Thomas, along with Dr. Neil Robertson, a math professor at Ohio State University, and Dr. P.D. Seymour, a math professor at Princeton University, spent the summer at Princeton scrutinizing the decades-old problem. Their powwow produced a proof, which they then simplified over the next year. During the refinement process, the trio was able to design an efficient algorithm (one that tackles a complex system of streets and produces the answer in real time) for determining whether an even-directed cycle exists.
What's more, this algorithm can be applied to several other situations. "There are about six problems, that sound different at first, but over the years have proven to be equivalent. So, if you solve one of them, you can solve all of them," Thomas explains.
For example:
"Now simple economic principles tell us that as the price of bananas increases, so does the supply (farmers will produce more bananas), and the demand decreases (people will buy fewer bananas)," Thomas says. "And, for a fixed price, as people's taste for bananas increases, so does their demand for bananas. From these observations it is possible to mathematically prove that as people's taste for bananas increases, so do the price and demand.
"Thus we deduce something about qualitative relationships of the quantities without knowing their actual values," Thomas says. "To decide in general (when you have hundreds or thousands of such quantities) what relationships exist is equivalent to the even cycle problem, and hence can be solved by our algorithm."
An extended abstract of "Permanents, Pfaffian Orientations and Even Directed Circuits," was presented at the Symposium on the Theory of Computing in 1997, and the complete paper was recently accepted for publication in the Annals of Mathematics.
Two of Thomas' students, Christopher Carl Heckman and Petr Hlineny, have implemented the algorithm and made it available interactively on the World Wide Web. Interested researchers can point their browsers to http://math36.math.gatech.edu:8080/evenc.html.
— T.J. Becker
For more information, you may contact Dr. Robin Thomas, School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0160. (Telephone: 404/894-2733) (E-mail: robin.thomas@math.gatech.edu)
photo by Stanley Leary
GTRI senior
research engineer Jimmy A. Woody tests a pacemaker at
the EAS/Medical Device E3 Test Center. Concern exists that such devices
can malfunction when they encounter fields of electromagnetic energy
generated by electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems in retail
stores.
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Those electromagnetic fields can potentially interfere with operation of sensitive medical devices, causing concern for some store customers using pacemakers or implantable defibrillators.
Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are working with manufacturers of both types of equipment to understand, and therefore help prevent, potentially harmful interactions. The work takes place at the EAS/Medical Device E3 Test Center, a unique facility supported by manufacturers of the electronic article surveillance systems.
"As both groups of manufacturers learn more about one another, there will be fewer and fewer potential interactions," says GTRI senior research engineer Jimmy A. Woody, manager of the test center. "What's unique here is that the manufacturers of the energy source and the manufacturers of the medical devices are cooperating to set up and use a test center that benefits both groups."
Support to set up the test center came from the International Electronic Article Surveillance Manufacturers Association, which estimates that 400,000 EAS systems are used worldwide. Typically placed near store exits and entrances, the EAS systems use electromagnetic energy to detect special tags placed on items stores wish to protect.
In the test center, Woody and research engineer Ralph M. Herkert subject pacemakers, defibrillators and other devices to the energy fields created by a representative sample of eight EAS systems and two EAS system tag deactivators provided by their manufacturers. Using standardized test procedures, they measure how the medical devices respond through their full range of operation.
The resulting data is used by the manufacturers' design and quality assurance departments to improve their products, if necessary. Thus, this data helps the manufacturers ensure that interference, which could harm wearers of medical devices, does not occur.
Testing takes place with the devices submerged in a tank of saline solution that simulates the electromagnetic behavior of the human torso. Using a computer-controlled positioner, the tank containing the medical device is moved through each merchandise control system in a manner that simulates the way customers might walk through such systems in retail stores. The test protocol also simulates customers standing in a checkout line near equipment used to deactivate the control tags.
Because of a non-disclosure agreement, Woody and Herkert provide the data they generate only to the manufacturers who submit the devices. The researchers do not have medical training, so they do not render judgments about the health implications of the data they measure.
But Woody says the medical devices are carefully designed to handle interference. So when the researchers do measure a response to any electromagnetic field, it tends to be subtle — such as temporary changes in pulse rates and missed beats. And the devices recover quickly.
— John Toon
For the full text news release, see www.gtri.gatech.edu/res-news/E3TEST.html. For more information, you may contact Jimmy Woody, Sensors & Electromagnetic Applications Lab, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0822. (Telephone: 404/894-8326) (E-mail: jimmy.woody@gtri.gatech.edu); or Ralph Herkert, Sensors & Electromagnetic Applications Lab, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0822. (Telephone: 404/894-8602) (E-mail: ralph.herkert@gtri.gatech.edu).
Joseph Bruder, a principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech
Research Institute, was elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Only about 1 percent of IEEE's 300,000
members have earned the fellow designation.
J.G. "Jim" Dai, an applied probabilist with joint appointments in the
School of Mathematics and the School of Industrial and Systems
Engineering, received the Erlang Prize for his outstanding contributions to the field of
applied probability. Sponsored by the Section on Applied Probability of
the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the
Erlang Prize is the most prestigious award for young applied
probabilists.
Patricia Dove, an associate professor in the School of Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences, and graduate student H. Henry Teng won the
Mineralogical Society of America's Best Paper Award. Their paper titled
"Surface Site-Specific Interactions of Aspartate with Calcite:
Implications for Biomineralization" appeared in the 1997 American
Mineralogist (Vol. 82, p. 878-887).
Rosario A. Gerhardt, an associate professor in the School of
Materials Science and Engineering, was inducted as a fellow of the
American Ceramic Society (ACeRS). Only 26 members were elected fellows
in 1998. Gerhardt also is the new program chair of the electronics
division of ACeRS.
M. Jackson Marr, a professor and experimental psychologist in the
School of Psychology, was elected president of the Division of Experimental
Analysis of Behavior of the American Psychological Association. Marr's
recent research activities address the development and assessment of
precision learning techniques and other instructional systems for
teaching engineering physics. He also studies the applications of
dynamical systems theory to operant conditioning, applications of
behavior analysis at Zoo Atlanta and theoretical issues in behavioral
analysis.
Robert Michelson, a principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech
Research Institute, won the 1998 Pioneer Award presented by the
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The award is the
highest recognition in the unmanned systems industry for technical
contributions that advance the state-of-the-art, while moving the
community toward the new millennium. The 1997 winner was former U.S.
Secretary of Defense William J. Perry.
Ward O. Winer, Regents' professor and chair of the School of
Mechanical Engineering, received the 1998 University of Michigan Alumni
Society Merit Award from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and
Applied Mechanics.
Jan Youtie, a senior research associate at the Economic Development
Institute, and Phil Shapira, an associate professor in the School of
Public Policy, won a Lang Rosen "Gold Award" for their article,
"Tracking Customer Progress: A Follow-up Study of Customers of the
Georgia Manufacturing Extension Alliance." They received a similar award
in 1997 for "Coordinating Manufacturing Extension Services: Impacts and
Insights from the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership." The awards,
given annually by the Technology Transfer Society, recognize excellence
in content and writing.
Faculty/Staff Honors and Awards
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