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'The Politics of Innovation'

July 26, 2016

Mark Zachary Taylor, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs was featured in “‘The Politics of Innovation,’” in a feature about his new book of the same name.
Excerpt:
The subtitle of Mark Zachary Taylor’s new book, The Politics of Innovation (Oxford University Press), asks why some countries are better than others at science and technology. He argues that the answer lies in politics and proposes a theory of “creative insecurity,” arguing that innovation rates should be higher in countries in which external threats outweigh domestic tensions.
“S&T progress creates winners and losers, and the losers resort to politics to slow innovation,” Taylor, an associate professor of political science at Georgia Institute of Technology, writes in the book’s introduction. “However, external threats increase political support for S&T and thereby counteract domestic political resistance to innovation.”
You can read the articule in full here.

Published in: Inside Higher Ed
This Badminton Academy in a Favela Will Give You Hope for the Rio Olympics

July 26, 2016

Kirk Bowman, associate chair and Jon Wilcox Term Professor of Soccer, Global Politics, and Society from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs was quoted in “This Badminton Academy in a Favela Will Give You Hope for the Rio Olympics” for The Washington Post.
Excerpt:
Back then, Ygor was “just a little kid, dreaming of the Olympics,” said Kirk Bowman, a professor in soccer and global politics at Georgia Tech, who runs Rise Up & Care with Jon Wilcox, a banker from Orange County, Calif.
Brazilian filmmaker Katia Lund, a co-director of the hit film “City of God,” is making documentaries about the Rio projects she works with, including Miratus, which will be shown in Rio on Aug. 6.
“The news from Brazil is like the seven plagues,” Bowman said. “But there are positive stories as well, especially in the favelas.”
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
Rest in Peace, VCR

July 26, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication wrote “Rest in Peace VCR” for The Atlantic.
Excerpt:
The video store, as it is nostalgically remembered, looks like a record shop, or a hookah parlor. Staffed by scruffy burners or neo-hippies who “really know their stuff,” splayed with shelves at all angles, plastered in posters, encrusted with knick-knacks.
Some such stores might have existed, but the earliest video stores were nothing like them. They were modernist celebrations of minimalism and order. Light grey walls and dark grey carpets, austere racks displaying evenly-spaced, singular copies of video boxes. They were quiet and circumspect. Some were tacked on to television equipment repair facilities; others freely stood behind nondescript façades. Indulgences to style were limited: a neon accent, or an OCR-inspired logotype. Before video was culture, it was technology.
What kind of technology? One that cut wormholes through space-time. Called “time shifting,” the videocassette and the VCR made it possible to record a program broadcast at a particular time and to watch it later. Or, to rent or buy a videocassette copy of a film and to watch it from the comfort of home after it had left the theater. It did this for two decades, from 1975 to 1995, and then the DVD continued its legacy, in part, for a decade more.
The full article can be read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
With BOAT Lab, Tech, Art, and Ecology Converge In One Floating Makerspace

July 23, 2016

Andrew Quitmeyer, alumni of the Digital Media Program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication was featured in “With BOAT Lab, Tech, Art, and Ecology Converge In One Floating Makerspace” for Fast Company.
Excerpt:
If you were given $10,000 to improve a community in another country using art, how would you do it?
For Andrew Quitmeyer, the answer was: BOAT.
An American post-doctoral researcher with a PhD from Georgia Tech, Quitmeyer created Building Open Art and Technology (aka BOAT), a floating art and tech lab for a village in the Philippines. Its purpose? Teach locals about ecological conservation.
Quitmeyer's PhD research focused on “Digital Naturalism,” or studying animals in their natural habitats with computers and sensors. He channeled that into gadget tutorials for young folks and robotics projects in Central American jungles, which eventually led him to apply to be an arts ambassador for a new outreach program known as American Arts Incubator.
The program premiered last year as a partnership between the U.S. State Department and the Silicon Valley-based company ZERO1 with the mission of using art to connect to communities outside the U.S. Each ambassador leads a community in workshops and activities to explore a theme unique to their country. In his application, Quitmeyer proposed that as an arts ambassador to the Philippines, he would raise ecological awareness by combining monitoring of the local environment with performances illustrating the community's responsibility to clean up the area.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: Fast Company
Rio Terá Programação Paralela à Olimpíada com Documentários Inéditos Dirigidos por Kátia Lund, de Cidade de Deus

July 22, 2016

Kirk Bowman, the Jon Wilcox Term Professor of Soccer and Global Politics in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and his upcoming event Reimagine Rio were featured in “Rio Terá Programação Paralela à Olimpíada com Documentários Inéditos Dirigidos por Kátia Lund, de Cidade de Deus” for AdoroCinema.
The full article can be read here.

Published in: AdoroCinema
5 Reasons That Technology Is Good for Kids

July 20, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communications was quoted in “5 Reasons That Technology Is Good for Kids” for Parade.
Studies show that a curriculum involving digital media can improve early literacy skills. Participating four and five year olds enjoyed boosts in letter recognition, sound association with letters, and understanding basic concepts about stories and print. However, it should be noted that gains were achieved through the use of high-quality educational titles – and that strong parental and teacher involvement was key to success, as always. Experts further point out that teens and tweens can also benefit from the use of high-tech solutions. As Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost explains: “Look at [popular online games and virtual worlds]: You’ve got 11-year-olds who are learning to delegate responsibility, promote teamwork and steer groups of people toward a common goal.”
Read the full article here.

Published in: Parade
Nice Attack Witnesses Recall Chaos; ‘Bodies, Limbs and Blood’

July 15, 2016

James Walker, an undergraduate student in the School of Economics, was quoted in “Nice Attack Witnesses Recall Chaos; ‘Bodies, Limbs and Blood’” for The Washington Post.
Excerpt:
The attack in the French Riviera city of Nice Thursday night left at least 84 people dead and about 50 others critically injured. The driver of the truck mowed down dozens of people and fired on others before being shot down by police, regional president Christian Estrosi said. Among the dead were at least two Americans. Many more Americans were in the crowd, including 17 Georgia Tech students, according to one of them, James Walker, quoted by WXIA TV in Georgia.
“The mirror of the truck came up and hit me on the head,” Walker told the station. “I mean, I’m not hurt at all, but that’s pretty much how close I was to it.”
The bloody attack came at the end of one of France’s most important holidays, Bastille Day, marking the start of the French Revolution 227 years ago. All around the country, the occasion was celebrated with military parades and fireworks displays.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
The '96 Olympics: Techwood and the New Face of Public Housing

July 15, 2016

Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Professor Thomas "Danny" Boston was quoted in “The '96 Olympics: Techwood and the New Face of Public Housing” for 90.1 WABE.
Excerpt:
‘The Old Bad History’
“Techwood Homes was a place you would not drive through,” said Thomas Boston, a professor of economics at Georgia Tech.
Where Centennial Place is now was the nation’s oldest public housing, Techwood Homes. Boston said on his regular commutes from the Atlanta University Center he steered clear from the area.
Like many public housing projects around the country, Techwood (seen here to the right of the interstate) grappled with drug violence and units in disrepair.
“It was just such a distressed and troubled and violent neighborhood that you avoided it,” he said.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: 90.1 WABE
‘Enough is Enough’: NBA Star Speak Out Against Gun Violence, Racial Profiling

July 14, 2016

“‘Enough is Enough’: NBA Star Speak Out Against Gun Violence, Racial Profiling” quotes School of History and Sociology Assistant Professor, John M. Smith, Ph.D. for The Christian Science Monitor.
Excerpt:
Athletes now prefer to be active in less confrontational ways – like giving to charities, funding scholarships, and investing in poor communities, says Johnny Smith, a historian at Georgia Tech.
“It’s a quieter activism, it’s a safer form of activism,” he adds. “These athletes came of age in a different political climate, and they have been discouraged to be politically active because it has not been economically wise to do so.”
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Christian Science Monitor
I Despise Pokémon Go, and There’s No Way I’m the Only One

July 12, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication was quoted in “I Despise Pokémon Go, and There’s No Way I’m the Only One” for The Washington Post.
Excerpt:
To be clear, AR is a fascinating and deeply cool technology. I suspect that it will result in fascinating, very cool things, from enhanced visions of the distant past to cutting-edge medical techniques to immersive games that engage us in far more than lukewarm childhood fantasies. The best AR will, we hope, enhance our understanding of our real-life environments, making visible — as the Atlantic’s Ian Bogost wrote — “previously unseen” possibilities. Pokémon Go does little more than distract from the physical environments it entices us into: The only thing “augmented” here is the bottom line of Niantic and Nintendo.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
Who Needs Convertible Slippers?

July 11, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication wrote “Who Needs Convertible Slippers?” for The Atlantic.
Excerpt:
“Hang on, I just have to put my soles on,” I call after the kids, who are racing out the door for a trip to the market. The soles in question are two dove-gray, rubber flaps that snap to the bottoms of my slippers, which I have just imported from London. A slipper-transformer that will transition me from scruffy writer-dad to euro-sleek snacks prospector in mere moments. I am excited. I am embracing design.
I have been for two weeks or more, in fact, ever since I ordered the $89 Mahabis convertible slipper, footgear that I had seen advertised so extensively online, I finally had to click. Its webpage features a young, beautiful blonde couple. Him: sporting a man-bun, his beard both wispy and full all at once. Her: mostly Cupid’s bow, likely to be “picking at her eggs” in a magazine profile. Both don their woolen Mahabis. Typeset in front of them: “reinventing the slipper.”
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
The Tragedy of Pokémon Go

July 11, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication wrote “The Tragedy of Pokémon Go” for The Atlantic.
Excerpt:
When they first hit the scene more than a decade ago, pervasive and alternate reality games promised to offer a different way to see and understand the physical, material world. The game designer and author Jane McGonigal, who was also one of the “puppetmasters,” or game-runners of ilovebees, insisted that the “alternate” in “alternate reality” didn’t signify the alternative reality of fantasy, but the alternating one of realism. These games wouldn’t replace the world, either as escapist entertainment or as instrumental exercise or socialization therapy. Instead, they would force the fictional and the real worlds to swap places, and rapidly. The result would be a new and deeper appreciation for the real reality that the games use as their materials. That’s one reason pervasive games so often make use of paranoia fiction: they make visible previously unseen—even if preposterous or unlikely—possibilities.
And Pokémon Go sure seems to be offering lots of alternating realities, for good and for ill. A middle-aged white guy befriends (and wards the cops off) two black men in the park at 3 a.m. A Massachusetts man reportedly causes a multi-car accident trying to catch ‘em all while driving on the highway (the report itselfturns out to be a hoax). One player finds a dead body while hunting pocket monsters; others get lured into an armed robbery. And mostly, adults and kids commune over an entertainment property old enough to be multi-generational.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
Philip Shapira Motivates Manufacturers for a New Century

July 11, 2016

Philip Shapira, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Public Policy, was featured in “Philip Shapira Motivates Manufacturers for a New Century” for AAAS.
Excerpt:
As a teenager in London, Philip Shapira watched manufacturing evolve from the shop floor of Semnat Glass Works, a company that employed his father, grandfather, and uncles for decades.
“There was a little bit of automation in the factory, but it was not comprehensive and it was not integrated. Looking back now, I see that there are so many things they might have done that they didn't,” Shapira said.
He witnessed the end of an era. That glass company was one of many producers in London that went out of business in the early 1970s. Now, as a professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Professor of Management, Innovation and Policy with the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research in the UK, Shapira’s focus is aimed at making sure small and mid-sized manufacturing companies don’t meet the same fate.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: AAAS
How Might Global Warming Affect Air Travel?

July 10, 2016

A WUNC radio interview on “How Might Global Warming Affect Air Travel?” interviewed Marilyn Brown, professor in the School of Public Policy.
Excerpt:
Recently, a United Airlines flight to Phoenix was forced to turn around and head back to Houston. The reason for the diversion? Extreme heat. With global temperatures rising, is this a sign of things to come?
The answer is both yes and no.
Marilyn Smith, a professor and associate director at Georgia Tech’s Vertical Lift Center of Excellence in Atlanta, says the aerospace industry has been addressing this problem for the past decade.
“We are designing new engines that are a lot more efficient and new aircraft designs. We're not going to see the same old tube and wing designs of today,” Smith says.
Smith says aerospace engineers have been looking for ways to decrease the need for more runway length not because of temperatures, but because of noise restrictions. Either way, newer designs and more efficient engines will help the airlines address increasing heat issues.
Read the full article on WUNC.

Published in: WUNC
Cloning for Medicine: The Miracle that Wasn't

July 4, 2016

Aaron D. Levine, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the or Agence France Presse article “Cloning for Medicine: The Miracle that Wasn't.” The article was republished online in several sources including Yahoo! News, Japantoday, and The Economic Times.
Excerpt from Yahoo! News:
Aaron Levine, a bioethicist at Georgia Tech, said cloning's biggest impact on human health is likely to come from animals raised to produce organs, tissue or biological drugs that will not be rejected by the human immune system.
“I think human cloning will disappear,” he said.
“I think there's just not ultimately enough demand, not enough that you can do through cloning that you can't do through other things.”

Published in: Agence France Presse
Are You Eating Cloned Meat? It Might Be More Common Than You Think, Say Scientists

July 4, 2016

Aaron D. Levine, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the Daily Mail article “Are You Eating Cloned Meat? It Might Be More Common Than You Think, Say Scientists.”
Excerpt:
With the possible exception of the ram sacrificed by Abraham in the Bible, Dolly must be the world's most famous sheep.
The ewe's birth in an Edinburgh laboratory on July 5, 1996 was front-page news, provoking hype and hand-wringing in equal parts.
For the most part, cloning turned out to be a dead end.
But there is one sector in which Dolly's legacy is alive and well: the duplication of prize breeding animals.
How aggressively the private sector has developed this niche market has depended in large part on national or regional regulations, with key differences between the United States, China and the European Union.
“The most dramatic impact of the cloning of Dolly has been on animal cloning in the United States,” said Professor Aaron Levine, an expert in bioethics and cloning at Georgia Tech.
Read the full article here.

Published in: Daily Mail
Computer Films of the 1960s

July 1, 2016

Computer Films of the 1960s, an exhibition curated by Gregory Zinman, assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was featured in the SOUND & VISION section of the July/August Issue of filmcomment.
The magazine article is accessible only by subscription. Following is the exhibition description from the Museum of the Moving Image's website:
The 1960s was a seminal period for the artistic use of the computer in the creation of moving images. From the manipulation of geometric line drawings, to the use of realistic 3-D vector graphics to highly processed psychedelic abstraction, these films were the result of pioneering collaborations between artists, computer programmers, and technicians that anticipate the full integration of cinema with computer imaging. This compilation features a selection of pioneering films by Edward E. Zajac, A. Michael Noll, Charles A. Csuri, James P. Shaffer, Stan VanDerBeek, Kenneth Knowlton, and John and James Whitney. As seen in the adjacent exhibition, To the Moon and Beyond: Graphic Films and the Inception of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the films of John and James Whitney had a strong influence on Stanley Kubrick.
The issue of filmcomment can be found here.

Published in: filmcomment
Clinics Offering Unproven Stem Cell Therapies Are Proliferating Across the U.S.

June 30, 2016

Aaron D. Levine, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in “Clinics Offering Unproven Stem Cell Therapies Are Proliferating Across the U.S.” for the MIT Technology Review.
Excerpt:
At least 351 U.S. businesses are offering unproven stem cell interventions in clinics across the country, claiming to treat everything from arthritis to Alzheimer’s, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The finding casts light on an emerging area of medical treatment that has received little attention from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“It is hard to do a project like this and think the FDA is doing a good job regulating the marketplace,” says Leigh Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota who performed the study along with Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell researcher at UC Davis.
Concern over unregulated stem cell therapies is not new, but the issue was previously thought to be mostly confined to patients who traveled abroad for treatments unavailable or forbidden domestically. These renegade treatments can be ineffective and dangerous. Just last week the New England Journal of Medicine described an incident in which surgeons discovered a sticky mass of foreign cells in someone’s spine after he got injections of fetal stem cells in several different countries.
The article can be read in full here.

Published in: MIT Technology Review
Report: Clean Energy Plan Will Cut Electric Bills

June 27, 2016

A write up on Public News Service reviewed a report by Marilyn Brown, Ph.D., the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy.
Excerpt:
Without changes in the way electricity is produced and how it is used, Floridians will likely see a nearly 17 percent increase in their electric bills over the next 15 years, according to a new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
But the study also says that doesn't have to happen. The report finds that implementing the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan could halt that increase, saving the average Florida household more than $2,600 over the same period.
Marilyn Brown, a Georgia Tech professor and the study’s author, says the report clarifies a lot of misinformation.
“A lot of analysts say that the Clean Power Plan is going to bankrupt the nation,” she relates. “But what we're showing is in fact, if done wisely, we can save consumers money and also prevent fossil fuels from heating up the planet.”
The full article can be read here.

Published in: Public News Service
UNU-CS Hosts Georgia Tech Study Abroad Program

June 25, 2016

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Study Abroad Program was featured in a June 25 write-up on the website of the United Nations University on Computing and Society (UNU-CS). The UNU-CS is led by Nunn School Associate Professor Michael Best who is on leave during his tenure as director of the university.

Excerpt:

The UNU-CS successfully hosted the 2016 Georgia Tech Study Abroad Program in Macau from May 20 to July 1. The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology sent a group of students, three graduates and six undergraduates, to spend six weeks at UNU-CS to study science, technology, and international affairs. The program was led by Prof Fei-Ling Wang with assistance from the UNU-CS research staff. The students, majoring in international affairs or engineering, took classes and engaged in research activities on information and computing technologies (ICTs) and society. Under the supervision of the UNU-CS research staff, the Georgia Tech students studied and presented on the following research topics: “ICTs and Myanmar political and technological transformations,” “Social and formal media tracking for crisis response and election monitoring,” and “ICTs and peacekeeping operations and innovation.” The graduate students also wrote and presented their research papers on “ICT policy and the Economic Development in Japan and Taiwan,” “ICTs and state security and national defense,” and “Internet in China.”

The article can be read in full here.

Published in: United Nations University

Recent Press Coverage

'The Politics of Innovation'

This Badminton Academy in a Favela Will Give You Hope for the Rio Olympics

Rest in Peace, VCR

With BOAT Lab, Tech, Art, and Ecology Converge In One Floating Makerspace

Rio Terá Programação Paralela à Olimpíada com Documentários Inéditos Dirigidos por Kátia Lund, de Cidade de Deus

5 Reasons That Technology Is Good for Kids

Nice Attack Witnesses Recall Chaos; ‘Bodies, Limbs and Blood’

The '96 Olympics: Techwood and the New Face of Public Housing

‘Enough is Enough’: NBA Star Speak Out Against Gun Violence, Racial Profiling

I Despise Pokémon Go, and There’s No Way I’m the Only One

Who Needs Convertible Slippers?

The Tragedy of Pokémon Go

Philip Shapira Motivates Manufacturers for a New Century

How Might Global Warming Affect Air Travel?

Cloning for Medicine: The Miracle that Wasn't

Are You Eating Cloned Meat? It Might Be More Common Than You Think, Say Scientists

Computer Films of the 1960s

Clinics Offering Unproven Stem Cell Therapies Are Proliferating Across the U.S.

Report: Clean Energy Plan Will Cut Electric Bills

UNU-CS Hosts Georgia Tech Study Abroad Program

Georgia Institute of Technology

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