2005-2006 Annual Report

THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering 2005-2006 LETTER FROM undergraduate degrees. At the graduate level, both master’s and doctoral, we grant the largest number of mechanical engineering THE CHAIR degrees in the country. We are very fortunate to have strong leadership at our two Academic year 2006 was a very programs in Savannah, Georgia and Metz, France. In Metz, Yves good year for the Woodruff School. Berthelot became the director of Georgia Tech Lorraine and president Our budgets are somewhat higher; of the Board for Georgia Tech Lorraine as of January 1, 2007. At student enrollment at the graduate Georgia Tech Lorraine, the number of faculty in both ME and ECE level is at an all-time high, and increased; undergraduate students can now do their junior year enrollment at the undergraduate abroad at GTL; and a computer science program was introduced at level is the largest in more than the graduate level. Overall, the Georgia Tech Lorraine operation is twenty years. Our faculty and staff doing well and student enrollment continues to increase. continue to do an outstanding job. During the past year, we had an excellent Gegenheimer Lecture As you will see in this report, our graduate student enrollment is on Innovation by Professor James DeLaurier from Canada. He has now more than 700 and the undergraduate enrollment, which is also spent much of his career developing a flapping wing aircraft that will high, has increased by almost fifty percent in the past five years. We carry one or two passengers. It has been an unusual and excellent are about the same size, or possibly larger, in terms of student design challenge for his students over the years. enrollment than Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Now in its third year is the rapidly growing Georgia Tech Auto Recently, I told the new Provost that as he walks around campus, he Show. This weekend show was started by Sterling Skinner, our should realize that approximately one out of every seven students he director of undergraduate laboratories and alumnus of the School, will see is enrolled in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who is very interested in automotive issues. The attendance and the and one out of every four students is either enrolled in ME or ECE. number of autos on exhibition were outstanding. Franco Cimatti, from The quality of our student body and the demographics are very good. Ferrari and an alumnus of our program, came from Italy to speak. The only problem is that the size of the student body is beginning to This was clearly an excellent attraction to Auto Show attendees. strain the workload of our faculty, particularly in terms of classroom Regrettably, just as we were going to press, we learned that teaching and graduate student thesis advisement obligations. Harold Gegenheimer (class of 1933) passed away on October 4, The Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics 2006 at the age of 95. Throughout his life, he was a strong programs have also grown substantially in the past few years, with supporter and benefactor of Georgia Tech. The Woodruff School was approximately 225 students enrolled this fall. This is the highest particularly fortunate to receive his support, which has made a strong enrollment since the early 1970s and may possibly be the largest impact on our design programs and helped emphasize innovation to nuclear engineering program in the country. The enrollment in our students. Because of Harold’s foresight, his impact on Woodruff Mechanical Engineering is certainly the largest in the country. School students will continue far into the future. During the past year, we modified the undergraduate In summary, we introduced a number of innovations in our under- curriculum, introduced the international degree plan, expanded our graduate program; our graduate program grew in number and program in Savannah, and increased the number of faculty at stature; and our faculty and support staff did an excellent job. We Georgia Tech Lorraine. look forward to another good year in 2007. We started serious preparations for the ABET evaluation in academic year 2008. In early 2007, we will undergo an Academic Program Review, as required by the Board of Regents of Georgia. We are confident that we will receive very positive evaluations on both of these external reviews. Ward O. Winer, Ph.D. As can be expected with the high enrollments of the past few Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair years, we hit a record high in the total number of degrees granted Atlanta, Georgia through the Woodruff School. Only Penn State might grant more October 2006 The annual report of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical CONTENTS Engineering at Georgia Tech is published in the fall. For more detailed information about Woodruff School undergraduate programs in Academic Year in Review.......................................1 mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering and Students ...............................................................10 our graduate programs in mechanical engineering, nuclear and radiological engineering, medical physics, bioengineering, and paper science Degrees................................................................14 and engineering, please contact us by any of the following methods: Fellowships...........................................................20 Faculty..................................................................21 Letter Dr. Ward O. Winer, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. Chair of the Staff ......................................................................26 George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Facilities ...............................................................27 Georgia Institute of Technology Alumni ..................................................................28 Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0405 Contributors..........................................................29 Phone 404-894-3200 Finances...............................................................30 Fax 404-894-1658 The Woodruff Endowment....................................30 E-mail [email protected] or [email protected] Other Endowments...............................................31 Online www.me.gatech.edu Advisory Board.....................................................32 GEORGE W. WOODRUFF SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ACADEMIC YEAR IN REVIEW HAROLD W. GEGENHEIMER (1911-2006) SPECIAL EVENTS Harold W. Gegenheimer, a generous supporter of the Woodruff School, passed away on October 4, 2006. We reprint here the biographical sketch that we updated and used each year for the Gegenheimer Lecture program. Harold W. Gegenheimer was associated with the printing industry all his life: As a machinist, machine design engineer, inventor, product development manager, and corporate chief executive. He was the Chairman Emeritus of the Baldwin Technology Company, an international manufacturer of material handling, press accessory, and prepress equipment for offset printing. His father, William, started the Baldwin Company in 1918 in a small building next to their house in Baldwin GEGENHEIMER LECTURE ON INNOVATION (Long Island), New York. He Dr. James DeLaurier, Professor of Aerospace Studies at the University invented the Baldwin Press of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, gave the annual Harold W. Washer and the company Gegenheimer Lecture on Innovation to a packed house in the Van Leer emerged as a manufacturer of Auditorium on the Georgia Tech campus on November 3, 2005. His printing press accessories talk, complete with slides and videos, was on the Development of a and controls. Full-Scale Flapping-Wing Aircraft. He described his quest since 1975 to Harold always took an build and test a full-scale engine-powered ornithopter. The first accom- interest in things mechanical, plishment was a hand-launched 1/4-sale remotely-piloted model in so it was natural that he came 1991; the original research on that project led to the full-scale design, to Georgia Tech, where he built in 1996. Now they faced new challenges such as the ground received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in takeoff of a flapping-wing aircraft. To date, the ornithopter has 1933. Later, he invented the Convertible Offset Perfecting accelerated to over 50 mph and has achieved brief liftoffs. To listen to Press, a feature used by most press manufacturers that allows Dr. DeLaurier’s lecture, go to www.me.gatech.edu and click on the 2005 for one or more colors to be printed on both sides of the paper Gegenheimer Lecture icon. with just one pass through the press. His inventions, for which Dr. DeLaurier did his undergraduate studies at the University of many United States and foreign patents have been obtained, Illinois, and received a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from were keys to the great growth of the offset printing process Stanford University in 1970. He did postdoctoral research at the von after World War II. Karman Institute in Belgium. This expertise provided employment at Mr. Gegenheimer was President of the National Printing the G. T. Schjeldahl Corporation, which led to a DARPA contract to Equipment and Supply Association from 1977 to 1979. He was develop large, stable, tethered aerostats. Thus began his interest in an officer or director of other industry associations and the light-than-air technology. recipient of numerous technical and educational awards. In Dr. DeLaurier has been at the University of Toronto since 1974. In 1983 he was

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