IN THIS ISSUE Juneteenth Celebration • Summer Plans • Research Spotlight
Soccer League • Summer Camps • Service Anniversaries • Photo Contest
|
|
|
Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of the day in 1865 when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with General Order No. 3, which declared that all enslaved people in Texas were free. Though it came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, emancipation in Texas marked the symbolic end of slavery in the U.S.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, designating June 19 as a federal holiday that celebrates the long-awaited freedom of enslaved African Americans. Gov. Brian Kemp and state lawmakers followed suit in 2022, establishing the date as an official state holiday.
The day is intended for reflection on the struggles that African Americans have faced in the U.S. and serves as a reminder of the work still to be done in pursuit of racial equality. It honors the stories of those who endured the horrors of slavery, calls for a reckoning with the nation’s past and current injustices, and celebrates Black culture and history.
This year, the campus community marked the holiday with the Third Annual Georgia Tech Juneteenth Celebration — a festival, live music, food, and games on Tech Green along with a keynote from Joycelyn Wilson, a Black media scholar in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication.
|
|
|
Around Georgia and around the globe, from east to west and north to south, summer means some amazing adventures for our colleagues across the College this year. We asked about the summer fun you have planned, and, wow, did you deliver. Here are some of the itineraries (and can you take us with you?!):
|
|
|
“My theme for the summer is, ‘Why do the kids get to have all the fun?’ So, I created my own summer camp with field trips around Georgia. I took a class in printmaking at the High Museum of Art, made French macarons at The Cook’s Warehouse, did ‘Asia in Atlanta’ with my nephew at the BAPS temple and an amazing Korean barbecue spot, and had an all-day movie adventure at the European Film Festival at the Plaza Theatre. One adventure I’m still planning: I have always wanted to visit BabyLand General Hospital in Cleveland. Maybe I will adopt a Cabbage Patch doll!”
Lauren Morton
Academic Program Manager, Clark and Dean’s Scholars, Dean’s Office
|
“I’m excited to share that I have an upcoming weeklong vacation in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! I’ve never been and am really looking forward to sitting and relaxing on their gorgeous Caribbean beaches. Other than ‘beaching it,’ I plan to visit Monkeyland and Plantation to hold and play with the monkeys!”
Amanda Ford
Academic Program Manager II, ISyE
(Eds Note: Amanda could very well be cuddling a monkey as you read this! Her vacation is this week.)
|
“During the summer when I am not working, I like to spend my time by my pool with my family, cooking out with friends, or at summer concerts. Vacation will be spent with my family in Florida this year, and I will end my summer taking short trips to the mountains, lake, or catching up with friends in North Carolina.”
Hope Payne
Faculty Support Coordinator, MSE
|
|
“This summer began with a vacation to Panama City Beach for our anniversary. I will also be attending several outdoor concerts (our first since the pandemic). I am so excited. We love to take day trips or weekend getaways and we have some of those on the books for Charleston, South Carolina. I am also planning to end the summer with my daughter at Disney for her 31st birthday.”
La Juana Whitner-Bason
Events Coordinator, MSE
|
“I am planning to go to Austria, Italy, and France this summer.”
Jillian Jantosciak
Program Support Coordinator, Dean’s Office
|
Fran Buser, Academic Program Manager in ISyE, is spending her summer soaking up the beauty in Dublin, Ireland! Fran is there supporting a group of undergraduate students as part of ISyE’s Summer Study Abroad Program in Europe.
|
“I have decided to treat my family to a memorable experience by attending this year’s U.S. Open. It has always been a dream of mine to take my family to visit the iconic Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. I can’t wait for my wife and daughter to join me in this amazing adventure. We have carefully planned our trip to coincide with the Labor Day weekend, which promises to be extra special. In addition to attending the U.S. Open, we are thrilled to be a part of the vibrant and lively West Indian Day parade, a must-see event held in the heart of Brooklyn. The parade is known for its vibrant colors, infectious music, and an overall atmosphere of celebration, making it a perfect addition to our itinerary.”
Mack Curtis
Academic Assistant II, ME
|
|
|
Research Spotlight: Air Quality
|
|
|
Even at home, summer’s a time when many of us like to be outdoors, enjoying Atlanta’s parks and greenspaces, cooling off in lakes and pools, or grilling out back.
This summer, though, the news has been full of stories about dense and dangerous smoke from Canadian wildfires ruining air quality in swaths of the country — with some of the haze even stretching to Atlanta. That got us thinking about our air quality and how engineers are working to protect and improve the air we breathe.
|
| |
|
Assistant Professor Jennifer Kaiser in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering says hot, sunny days fuel the formation of ozone and fine particulate matter, even when we’re not dealing with wildfire impacts. Her research group is working to better understand this summertime smog formation.
Ph.D. student Nidhi Desai is involved with a NOAA-funded project studying how urban photochemistry has changed in recent years as the impact of on-road vehicles declines. The team is flying over Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago to collect measurements that will help us understand the chemical composition and reactivity of previously understudied emission sources, which are growing in relative importance.
Meanwhile, Ph.D. student Asher Mouat is using new instruments set up from Georgia Tech to Conyers to track pollution formation from the ground up. The data will help validate and interpret observations from a newly deployed NASA satellite tracking atmospheric composition.
Regents’ Professor Armistead “Ted” Russell in CEE has been working on projects assessing the effectiveness of air pollutant controls on air quality and health in Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles, and using satellite and other data to model and understand air quality around ports, including rail yards, airports, shipping ports, and warehouses.
Russell has been working with Nga Lee “Sally” Ng in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to deploy a suite of high-quality particulate matter instruments across the country. He’s also part of project led by Principal Research Engineer Talat Odman that will predict how prescribed burning impacts air quality and health in Georgia.
Ng says her team recently deployed a large suite of aerosol instruments at the ASCENT Atlanta site in south DeKalb County. She noted they’ve captured some high-pollution events in recent weeks with high temperatures and stagnant atmospheric conditions.
Russell says air pollution was a top concern in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll when he arrived in 1996. Longtime residents may remember a haze that used to sit over Atlanta.
Russell says regulations have led to substantial improvements in air quality and health, and Atlanta’s haze is mostly gone as a result. About half of what’s left is due to natural emissions from trees and such, he says.
|
|
|
ECE Soccer League Expands College-Wide
|
When Christian Gallie joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in June 2022, he realized the School’s large population of international students had few points of connection and community. A former international student himself, Gallie had an idea to help: a soccer league.
The league began playing in Fall 2022, and quickly became more popular than Gallie could have anticipated. Since its founding, it has expanded to 110 members and now includes faculty and staff too.
“The students have welcomed the idea and shown how grateful they are for an event like this,” said Gallie, an academic advisor and graduate coordinator in ECE. “Many have made new friends. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, so having so many international students, as well as young Americans who are growing fond of the sport, has been the key to the league’s success.”
Now Gallie’s vision is expanding, and he has opened the league up to anyone in the College of Engineering. Eventually, he hopes to have a team good enough to compete with other colleges and universities.
“I love soccer because it's a sport that brings everybody together,” said Colin Elliott, a master’s student in aerospace engineering and the team’s captain. “I joined the ECE Soccer League because I love the game, but I stayed because of the great connections I've made with all the players.”
This summer, the team is meeting 5-7 p.m. every Wednesday on Stamps Field 3. Interested players can contact Gallie or simply show up on the field. You also can click to join the league’s WhatsApp group.
|
|
|
Even with the lighter summer class schedule, lots of learning is happening across campus. Engineering summer camps are encouraging high school students to explore prototyping and fabrication, undergrads to dive into research, and welcoming new students. A few of the camps and workshops happening across the College:
|
| |
The Clark Scholars Program welcomed 10 new scholars to the CoE community with a 10-day Summer Experience this month. The scholars spent their time exploring campus, building relationships with each other, and directly experiencing the Clark Scholars four program pillars — scholarship, service, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
|
The Invention Studio has hosted a two-month camp for high school students. They participated in a fabrication training program like what the makerspace’s Prototyping Instructors go through. Then they used those skills on a final project for the remainder of the program.
|
Nearly 50 students from around the country have been working in labs throughout the College as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), a highly competitive 10-week program. SURE is designed to attract qualified underrepresented minority and women students into graduate school in engineering and science.
|
|
The ChBE Frugal Science Academy welcomed six high school interns this summer, who are working on projects to solve challenges in synthetic biology and global health. The summer cohort includes Vineeth Sendilraj, Avi Karamchandani, Aditya Lagu, Manasvi Gupta, Natalie Tan, and Alina Refios.
Teachers from around Georgia also got in on the frugal science action with a week of professional development through the Academy. They participated in hands-on synthetic biology labs, heard from Georgia Tech and other guest speakers, and created inventions to solve problems in their own classrooms. The training continues throughout the year with a series of virtual and in-person experiences.
|
AE faculty and students are leading the Science, Technology and Engineering Pipeline (STEP) program this month — a free summer camp for Atlanta-area high school students where students learn the engineering design process and complete NASA-inspired challenges. This year, students are building rovers for Mars. (The camp also expanded to Albany, Georgia, for the first time this year, where campers worked on drone designs.)
|
|
|
Congratulations to our colleagues celebrating service anniversaries in May and June. We have 54 folks who’ve worked with us from one year to 25 years! Thanks for all each of you brings to our community. 💛
|
|
|
Summer Grilling Photo Contest
|
|
|
Calling all Iron Chefs and Grillmasters! We know there are some seriously talented outdoor chefs in the College searing, smoking, and slow cooking tasty morsels this summer. Snap a photo during your next grilling sesh and send our way.
We’ll select the most creative and tastiest looking submissions and reward you with lunch with Dean Raheem Beyah.
|
| |
|
BONUS: ME Facilities Project Manager Cory Ogletree recently shared a few summer grilling (and smoking) tips. See what’s cooking.
|
|
|
Spring Photo Scavenger Hunt Answers
|
If you’re keeping score, here are the answers to last issue’s photo scavenger hunt.
- Petit Biotechnology Building / IBB
- Van Leer / The Hive / Interdisciplinary Design Commons
-
Campanile Fountain
- Atlantic Drive near the Mason Building and MiRC
- BioQuad
- Boggs Building
Tie Breaker 1. Wreck Garage
Tie Breaker 2. Swann Building
|
|
|
Woodruff School Summer Picnic
|
ME staff members and School leadership gathered July 11 for a summer picnic of with lots of good food and games.
|
|
|
Erin Adams, CEE
LaJauna Ellis, Dean’s Office
Sarah Flake, ChBE & MSE
|
| Amanda Ford, ISyE
Melody Foster, ME
|
| Dawn Franklin, Dean’s Office
Marva White, AE
Shalonda Williams, ECE
|
|
|
Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
|
Georgia Tech College of Engineering 225 North Ave NW | Atlanta, GA 30332 US
|
|
|
This email was sent to jstewart@gatech.edu.
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.
|
|
|
|
