Alumni Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 24) >>>TECHNOTES “What we are celebrating today is Dr. McCorkle’s bold solution — to bring Georgia Tech to Huntsville and establish the permanent presence of GTRI engineers at Redstone Arsenal.” The research lab celebrated its milestone anniversary at a Feb. 26 Huntsville event that drew some 200 attendees, including Georgia Tech officials, researchers and alumni and representatives from the military. President Wayne Clough presented a GTRI award to William McCorkle, executive director of the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and an early proponent of a permanent GTRI presence in Huntsville. McCorkle is the first recipient of the GTRI Award for Exceptional Innovation and Leadership. “What we are celebrating today is Dr. McCorkle’s bold solution — to bring Georgia Tech to Huntsville and establish the permanent presence of GTRI engineers at Redstone Arsenal,” Clough said. Today, HRL focuses on software engineering and system engineering for a variety of U.S. Department of Defense programs, says Barry Bullard, the lab’s director since 1998. HRL keeps busy with research that covers air defense systems modeling, software testing and evaluation, war-game simulations and analysis and weapons system modernization. “In our 30 years here, we’ve had the opportunity to work with the Army on its missile defense mission as well as grow our sponsor relationships into other areas,” says Bullard. “Our expansion into the aviation mission area and several forms of system engineering is keeping our staff of 33 very busy.” Attention! Affinity group steps up to honor Tech’s military ties By Karen Hill An Alumni Association affinity group is pulling together Yellow Jackets who can make a bed so tight a quarter will bounce off the blanket. The Georgia Tech Military Affinity Group came into existence just a year and a half ago and is designed to link people whose backgrounds include both Tech and the military. It includes veterans, active-duty military personnel, family members and civilians with connections — those who work for the Department of Defense for example. The affinity group is sponsoring its first celebration of Armed Forces Day with a recognition event May 16, one day before the nationwide observance. Air Force Reserve Capt. Marcus Smith, EE 98, the group’s president, says he realized its potential a decade ago when he was a student and working with the student foundation. “That’s when I learned how the Georgia Tech Foundation worked, how the alumni database was used. It dawned on me that there was a pool of (military) expertise not being tapped, and it was people who probably did want to get pulled together,” Smith says. Smith says the group has three main goals: to build relationships between military-minded alums and students, with a focus on career advice for the latter; to raise money for room and board subsidies, stipends and scholarships; and to someday erect a museum chronicling the long and complex ties between Tech and the military. Army ROTC at Tech dates to 1917; Air Force ROTC at Tech can trace its roots to 1920, when it was one of the first six Army Air Service ROTC units established. The school also was one of the six original sites for Naval ROTC, beginning in 1926. “Military history, whether you ‘love’ the military or not, is a part of Tech history,” Smith says. “There are things to be sad about, lessons learned, lessons to be learned. If those are not captured, how can we learn?” Each unit based at Tech now has about 100 cadets or midshipmen, including some from other Atlanta-area colleges and universities who come to the Institute for their ROTC courses. To date, the group has provided money for Air Force cadets to build a flight simulator and awarded $6,500 in scholarships. It has brought military and political notables to campus to speak. That amount also includes what is planned as an annual $2,500 leader- Alumna Named Harvard Dean Georgia Tech alumna Evelynn Hammonds has been named dean of Harvard College. She will be the first female and the first African-American to serve as dean of the undergraduate college. Hammonds, EE 76, currently Harvard’s senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity and a professor of the history of science and of African and African-American studies, will assume the job June 1. “I know that there are many challenges facing the college and I am ready to tackle them with my colleagues’ help,” she told the Harvard University Gazette. Harvard president Drew Faust called Hammonds a “strong institutional leader” and a >>> 24 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2008
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