Recent Press Coverage

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Georgia Econ Profs Urge Trump to be Careful on Immigration

April 14, 2017

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Tibor Besedes and Erik Johnson, associate and assistant professors, respectively, in the Ivan Allen College School of Economics, joined about 40 Georgia economists to call on President Trump and Congressional leaders “to avoid changes that would undercut the economic value of immigration.”

Excerpt:

Thirty-nine economists from Georgia colleges and universities have signed a letter calling on President Trump and Congressional leaders to avoid changes that would undercut the economic value of immigration.

The economists joined 1,431 others from around the country in a petition organized by New American Economy, a bi-partisan group of mayors and business leaders who say they support immigration reform that will boost the U.S. economy and create jobs here.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Atlanta Journal Constitution
To Be a Genius, Think Like a 94-Year-Old

April 7, 2017

John Walsh, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, was quoted in “To Be a Genius, Think Like a 94-Year-Old” by The New York Times.

Excerpt:

On the contrary, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that late blooming is no anomaly. A 2016 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation study found that inventors peak in their late 40s and tend to be highly productive in the last half of their careers. Similarly, professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Hitotsubashi University in Japan, who studied data about patent holders, found that, in the United States, the average inventor sends in his or her application to the patent office at age 47, and that the highest-value patents often come from the oldest inventors — those over the age of 55.

John P. Walsh, one of the professors, joked that the Patent Office should give a “senior discount” because “there’s clear evidence that people with seniority are making important contributions to invention.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The New York Times
Werner Stiller, East German Spy and Defector, Dies at 69

April 3, 2017

Kristie Macrakis, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of History and Sociology, was quoted in “Werner Stiller, East German Spy and Defector, Dies at 69” by The Washington Post.

Excerpt:

Mr. Stiller was for many years a model citizen of communist East Germany, where he had been a member of the Free German Youth as a teenager and joined the state Communist Party by 21. His loyalties began to shift by the mid-1970s, according to Kristie Macrakis, a Georgia Tech professor who studies espionage and chronicled Mr. Stiller’s story in the 2008 book “Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi’s Spy-Tech World.”

She said that Mr. Stiller was disillusioned with the repressive politics of East Germany, but also frustrated with a career that had stagnated and with a strait-laced German society that abhorred his lavish, womanizing lifestyle.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
The Paris Agreement is Burning

March 28, 2017

Marilyn Brown, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in “The Paris Agreement is Burning” by The New Republic.

Excerpt:

Trump’s executive order will do the opposite of this, reversing reductions America was already on track to make in both of those sectors. Take the Clean Power Plan, the signature policy Trump is aiming to repeal. If that plan were allowed to continue, it would have gotten the U.S. seven percent of the way to its 26 percent reduction goal under the Paris agreement, according to Marilyn Brown, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor and energy policy expert. The same goes for Obama’s fuel economy standards, which require cars and trucks to go further on less gasoline. Those would have gotten the U.S. another eight percent of the way toward meeting its goal under the Paris accord, Brown said. But Trump has promised to reduce those standards, too.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The New Republic
CNN Interviews Marilyn Brown About Climate Regulations

March 28, 2017

Marilyn Brown, professor in the School of Public Policy, was interviewed by CNN about President Trump's attempts to undo many Obama-era climate regulations..

Watch the full interview here.

Published in: CNN
Georgia Tech Alumni Increasing Efforts to Raise Scholarship Funds for Black Students

March 27, 2017

Jacqueline Royster, dean of the Ivan Allen College, and Thomas “Danny” Boston, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, were mentioned in “Georgia Tech Alumni Increasing Efforts to Raise Scholarship Funds for Black Students” by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Excerpt:

The Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization has started a year-long campaign to increase the number of its scholarships for black students.

The organization has scheduled a Leaders & Legends event on Sat., April 8 to recognize accomplished alumni, students, staff and faculty. The black-tie optional event will be at Tech’s Academy of Medicine, 875 West Peachtree St. in Atlanta.

The endowment currently provides $35,000 in scholarships.

Tech has tried to increase the percentage of African-American students on its campus, which is currently about 7 percent.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Korean Social Sciences College Named After Former Georgia Tech Prof John Endicott

March 24, 2017

Jacqueline Royster, dean of the Ivan Allen College, and John Endicott, professor emeritus in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, were featured in “Korean Social Sciences College Named After Former Georgia Tech Prof John Endicott” by Global Atlanta.

Excerpt:

Since he joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology, John E. Endicott has had a sixth sense for innovation in his career and in his life, which took him from Atlanta to become president of a Korean university where on March 2 the university named a new building and a new school of social sciences after him.

Not surprisingly, Woosong University’s SolBridge International School of Business, where he serves as vice-chancellor, located in Daejeon, South Korea provides an interdisciplinary program of international studies “with business and innovations in mind.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Global Atlanta
Former NATO Commander Breedlove Puts Georgia Tech Training Toward Containing Russia

March 22, 2017

Global Atlanta highlighted General Philip Breedlove's (Civil Engineering 1977) mission as a distinguished professor in the Ivan Allen College Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech.

Excerpts:

By returning to the Georgia Institute of Technology as a distinguished professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs last year, Gen. Philip Breedlove completes a full circle in a career that includes his service as NATO‘s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the commander of U.S. European Command.”

"In his address, he said that the U.S.’s opponents “are more emboldened, more than they have ever been,” while politically the U.S. was divided and needed to become more unified in its understanding of the values it upholds and its politics. “To reestablish our national position in the world, we can’t do that with two voices out of Washington D.C.,” he added.

He also said that he was concerned by Russia’s role in the U.S. elections, but somewhat downplayed his concern saying that the challenges Russia presents to the U.S. “are far bigger and impactful than what has happened in any election.”

“I think that Mr. Putin is incredibly happy with what has happened,” he added. “He has challenged the legitimacy of democracy.”

Read the full article

Published in: Global Atlanta
The Spy Among Us

March 20, 2017

Kristie Macrakis, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of History and Sociology, wrote “The Spy Among Us” for The Washington Times.

Excerpt:

Everyone loves a good spy story. But it can be hard to tell if the story is fact or fiction; this is especially the case with spy memoirs. Jack Barsky’s page-turning memoir, “Deep Undercover,” has a ring of authenticity to it. Most of the book is written using recreated dialogue, but is it true?

Part of Mr. Barsky’s story was told by “60 Minutes” and it reads like the best of spy fiction: While he was a prize-winning chemistry student in East Germany, the KGB recruited Mr. Barsky to become an illegal agent abroad. An illegal is one of Russia’s most secret agents. The spy is sent to the target country under an assumed identity and is told to build a life acquiring all the necessary documentation.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Times
Art Review: Food Innovators Offer Plenty of Food for Thought at MODA

March 16, 2017

The Atlanta Journal Constitution article, Art Review: Food Innovators Offer Plenty of Food for Thought at MODA, reviewed the Food by Design: Sustaining the Future exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta featuring projects from the Public Design Workshop, a design research studio led by Ivan Allen College School of Literature, Media, and Communication Associate Professor Carl DiSalvo.

Excerpt:

In the future, we will eat baked goods made from pulverized crickets, subsist solely on liquid diets of protein shakes, grow basil in living room pods with timers that alert us when the growing cycle is over and tend gardens in inner-city concrete mediums. And in the Museum of Design Atlanta exhibition “Food by Design: Sustaining the Future,” the future is now. All of those things and far more fascinating food-centric projects are already a reality as scientists, students, architects, activists and gardeners visualize how to grow and prepare food in a changing world… A number of the projects in “Food by Design,” from a Georgia Tech grad’s food-substitute innovation Soylent to Atlanta compost organization Compostwheels, have Atlanta roots, many of them spearheaded by ordinary citizens and by the city’s first Urban Agriculture Director Mario Cambardella.

Full article

Published in: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Artificial Intelligence? Only An Idiot Would Think That

March 16, 2017

LMC Professor Ian Bogost was quoted in the Irish Times article, “Artificial Intelligence? Only an Idiot Would Think That” in the Irish Times, March 9, 2017

Excerpt:

Not every technological innovation is artificial intelligence and labelling it as such is making the term “AI” virtually meaningless, says Ian Bogost, a professor of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. Bogost gives the example of Google’s latest algorithm, Perspective, which is designed to detect hate speech. While media coverage has been hailing this as an AI wonder, it turns out that simple typos can fool the system and allow abusive, harassing, and toxic comments to slip through easily enough. Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, put the algorithm through its paces by testing the phrase “Anyone who voted for Trump is a moron”, which scored 79 per cent on the toxicity scale. Meanwhile, “Anyone who voted for Trump is a mo.ron” scored a tame 13 per cent. If you can easily game Artificial Intelligence, was it really intelligent in the first place?

Full article:
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/artificial-intelligence-only-an-idiot-would-think-that-1.2999847

Published in: Irish Times
Trump, Russia And Nuclear Weapons: More With Sam Nunn

March 14, 2017

Part 2 of Dennis O'Hare's conversation with Sam Nunn aired March 14, 2017 on WABE and covered U.S.- Russia relations (countries have “existential common interest” and must work together, importance of military-to-military cooperation, Trump administration’s contacts with Russia; themes from recent Nunn-Browne-Ischinger-Ivanov op-ed); President Trump’s proposed defense budget; issues where Democrats and Republicans should be able to find common ground (infrastructure, reducing corporate taxes); Senator Nunn’s concern about some who “delegitimize presidential elections;” and the Iran deal.

Published in: WABE
Trump, Russia and Nuclear Weapons: More With Sam Nunn

March 14, 2017

Sam Nunn, distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed in “Trump, Russia and Nuclear Weapons: More With Sam Nunn” by WABE.

Excerpt:

As U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson begins a trip to Asia this week, the emerging nuclear threat posed by North Korea will likely be a major subject of his talks in Japan, South Korea, and China.

However, Russia remains the U.S. adversary with the largest nuclear capability by far, and the chance of a conflict with Russia--especially one caused by lack of communication--continues to worry former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn.

The Georgia Democrat is a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and is currently the co-chair and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Recently, he introduced Tillerson at the Senate confirmation hearings for Secretary of State.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: WABE
Why Is It That So Many Basic Things Don't Work As Well As They Used To?

March 14, 2017

Ian Bogost, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in “Why Is It That So Many Basic Things Don't Work As Well As They Used To?” by Mother Nature Network.

Excerpt:

Ian Bogost at the Atlantic shares my frustrations, and writes: "So many ordinary objects and experiences have become technologized ... that they have also ceased to work in their usual manner. It’s common to think of such defects as matters of bad design. That’s true, in part. But technology is also more precarious than it once was. Unstable, and unpredictable."

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Mother Nature Network
Sam Nunn Discusses the Threat from North Korea and President Trump’s Temperament

March 13, 2017

In Part 1 of a two-part interview with Dennis O'Hare of WABE which aired on March 13, 2017, Senator Sam Nunn discussed the Threat Posed by North Korea and President Trump’s Temperament in Handling Military and Security.

Published in: WABE
Time To Talk To North Korea, Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn Says

March 13, 2017

Sam Nunn, distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed in “Time To Talk To North Korea, Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn Says” by WABE.

Excerpt:

This week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson begins a trip to Asia, with scheduled visits to Japan, South Korea, and China. Tensions have increased in the a region after North Korea recently conducted new tests of missiles, which North Korea says could carry nuclear warheads.

Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, a Democrat from Georgia, is the co-chair and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. In part one of a conversation with Denis O'Hayer on "Morning Edition," Nunn talked about how serious a threat North Korea poses, and about the complicated diplomacy he says the new Trump administration must pursue to head off the possibility of a nuclear confrontation with that country.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: WABE
Trump Expected to Roll Back Obama's Climate Change Plan

March 7, 2017

Marilyn Brown, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in “Trump Expected to Roll Back Obama's Climate Change Plan” by WABE.

Excerpt:

The Clean Power Plan has never gone into effect because two dozen states, including Georgia, sued to block it.

Still, many coal-fired power plants have closed anyway, because natural gas is cheaper than coal.

“Market forces, particularly with gas prices being so low, have created a great deal of momentum in the right direction,” said Marilyn Brown, a professor at Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy. “But those are all really short-term advances. The question is, what are we going to be able to do to meet the longer-term goals? There's so much uncertainty.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: WABE
Closer Look: Outkast Class; Atlanta Traffic; And More

March 7, 2017

Joycelyn Brown, visiting professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was interviewed in “Closer Look: Outkast Class; Atlanta Traffic; And More” by WABE.

Excerpt:
- 33:27: Dr. Joycelyn Wilson, visiting professor at Georgia Tech, discusses her class, "Exploring the Lyrics of Outkast and Trap Music to Explore Politics in Social Justice,” and what lessons can be learned from hip-hop.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: WABE
‘Artificial Intelligence’ Has Become Meaningless

March 4, 2017

Ian Bogost, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Literature, Media, and Communication, wrote “‘Artificial Intelligence’ Has Become Meaningless” for The Atlantic.

Excerpt:

In science fiction, the promise or threat of artificial intelligence is tied to humans’ relationship to conscious machines. Whether it’s Terminators or Cylons or servants like the “Star Trek” computer or the Star Wars droids, machines warrant the name AI when they become sentient—or at least self-aware enough to act with expertise, not to mention volition and surprise.

What to make, then, of the explosion of supposed-AI in media, industry, and technology? In some cases, the AI designation might be warranted, even if with some aspiration. Autonomous vehicles, for example, don’t quite measure up to R2D2 (or Hal), but they do deploy a combination of sensors, data, and computation to perform the complex work of driving. But in most cases, the systems making claims to artificial intelligence aren’t sentient, self-aware, volitional, or even surprising. They’re just software.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
Trump Officials Calm Allies' Worries About U.S. Commitment to Europe

March 3, 2017

General Philip Breedlove,a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed on the March 3, 2017 episode of Morning Edition for NPR.

Listen to the full segment here.

Published in: NPR