Atlanta's feelings about Georgia Tech (Boston, Graham: credit, schools, quality of life)

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by go falcons

If anyone spends anytime there at all , they soon realize that the students come from all over the world, not just the U.S. Many of us do realise that it is a great school , doing some great things in many different areas especially the engineering fields it is well known for.

Yeah, but can you name REALLY significant things Georgia Tech has done? Stuff that have affected our lives and changed the world? For instance, Google came out of Standford. Fractal Antennas I think came out of Boston University, an important breakthrough for cell phones. The only thing that comes to mind is Hayes and Hayes modems. But that company has since gone bust.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Yeah, but can you name REALLY significant things Georgia Tech has done? Stuff that have affected our lives and changed the world? For instance, Google came out of Standford. Fractal Antennas I think came out of Boston University, an important breakthrough for cell phones. The only thing that comes to mind is Hayes and Hayes modems. But that company has since gone bust.

Post #9 on page 1???

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Yeah, but can you name REALLY significant things Georgia Tech has done? Stuff that have affected our lives and changed the world? For instance, Google came out of Standford. Fractal Antennas I think came out of Boston University, an important breakthrough for cell phones. The only thing that comes to mind is Hayes and Hayes modems. But that company has since gone bust.

List of Georgia Institute of Technology alumni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not too hard to find out any prominent alumni who made major contributions...

They don't do too shabby on the patent portfolio either:
GT | Georgia Tech Ranks Among Top 10 in 'Patent Scorecard'

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Mishap

List of Georgia Institute of Technology alumni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not too hard to find out any prominent alumni who made major contributions...

They don't do too shabby on the patent portfolio either:
GT | Georgia Tech Ranks Among Top 10 in 'Patent Scorecard'

Yeah, but you can patent some rather trivial improvements, etc. And unless the alumnus is taking something right out of Tech like those two Google guys from Stanford did, the alumni achievements are of their own doing. I think Tech's sole claim to a connection to a Nobel laureate is Kary Mullis who earned his Bachelor's in Chemistry there. Can GT claim that if it were not for Tech, Mullis would not have won a Nobel? And as far as I know there are no Nobel laureates on Tech's faculty.

Maybe there is something but again, can anyone point to a significant contribution that Georgia Tech has made to the world? So often, if I hear of interesting breakthroughs, it usually is from somewhere else.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

Post #9 on page 1???

I'm not sure of the claim that GT invented the LED. I can't find a source that says that. Nick Holonyak is supposedly the "father of the LED" and he did it at General Electric. And I know of no connection he has with Georgia Tech.

And I don't care about CEO alumni and companies spawned at Tech. I'm talking big achievements discovered or developed at Georgia Tech. An example would be the Polio vaccine which was developed at the University of Pittsburgh. That's significant.

[jsimms3]

Why don't you do your own research Mathman? I get the Tech newsletter every day and I hear of some pretty ridiculous stuff coming out of Tech almost every day. It sounds to me like you are just on a high horse. We have some of the most endowed faculty in the country and a reputation that isn't earned by not putting out good product. As everyone has said, Tech isn't only known for science, computer technology, and engineering. I mentioned all the CEOs and business leaders who have come out of Tech because we have always had one of the top business schools/industrial management schools in the country. We have Ellen Dunham Jones and a whole host of very well known faculty in our city planning department (in the COA) and we have one of the best schools of architecture. Do you know who John Portman is? Tech professors are quoted every day on the news, in publications, in newspapers, magazines, books, etc and many of the faculty are always brought on to whatever the current administration's team is. Like I said, just look up professor Wong.

http://www.stewardship.gatech.edu/index.php

Check this site out for developments coming out of Georgia Tech related to sustainability and green technology.

[xavier132487]

Who are you speaking to? Georgia Tech does too good of a job of indoctrinating folks into thinking it is solid gold and without flaw. They make it sound better than it is and trick many into going there! And, before anyone does any eyerolls at me, I go to Tech and have every right to say so!

That said, though, it is a great school academically and in research. Too damn hard, though. It will break you and make you a hard worker.

Better than UGA, our state flagship which was rated #1 party school in the nation. They get more money from the state and have more students, yet we have more revenue and expenditures in total than they do. It comes from private donors, research, etc.. So, yeah, we're doing a good job, IMO.

[xavier132487]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Yeah, but can you name REALLY significant things Georgia Tech has done? Stuff that have affected our lives and changed the world? For instance, Google came out of Standford. Fractal Antennas I think came out of Boston University, an important breakthrough for cell phones. The only thing that comes to mind is Hayes and Hayes modems. But that company has since gone bust.

DNA polymerase chain reaction which has allowed for cloning, advancement of the human genome project, etc.

Several Signal Processing theorems which have made data transfer easier and more efficient

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale

Entomopter

SQLite

WTC Memorial Design (if they would just start the damn thing already)

[xavier132487]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Yeah, but you can patent some rather trivial improvements, etc. And unless the alumnus is taking something right out of Tech like those two Google guys from Stanford did, the alumni achievements are of their own doing. I think Tech's sole claim to a connection to a Nobel laureate is Kary Mullis who earned his Bachelor's in Chemistry there. Can GT claim that if it were not for Tech, Mullis would not have won a Nobel? And as far as I know there are no Nobel laureates on Tech's faculty.

Maybe there is something but again, can anyone point to a significant contribution that Georgia Tech has made to the world? So often, if I hear of interesting breakthroughs, it usually is from somewhere else.

If that is the case, then I could claim that Stanford hasn't had any effect on Silicon Valley. It's just that all the brains go there, start companies, and ride the inertia of SV. Yep, that's it

Your Google example was started by Page and Brin themselves; they took nothing from Stanford. They invented the PageRank system which was the basis of their search engine. The only thing that Stanford claims right to is that they patented PageRank, and Google has exclusive rights to it through Stanford.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by runningncircles1

If that is the case, then I could claim that Stanford hasn't had any effect on Silicon Valley. It's just that all the brains go there, start companies, and ride the inertia of SV. Yep, that's it

I don't know how much of an effect Stanford had in making Silicon Valley. Typically companies like to locate near talent pools hence another such concentration of companies in Boston. But the allure of California and the Bay Area probably played a part as well, and clusters of companies attract other such companies, etc. It's that "critical mass" thing.

On a smaller yet still significant note, the computer mouse is an idea that came out of Stanford. The mouse didn't take off as a computing device until the Mac came along.

Your Google example was started by Page and Brin themselves; they took nothing from Stanford. They invented the PageRank system which was the basis of their search engine. The only thing that Stanford claims right to is that they patented PageRank, and Google has exclusive rights to it through Stanford.

Yes, but it was a research project AT Stanford. Something that came out of a university and really made an impact.