February 13, 2015•Volume 100, Issue 22•nique.net

YELLOW JACKET BASEBALL PREVIEW p24

See GIFT, page 13

DramaTech prepares for upcoming comedy

Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications

Ryan Evans puts on his costume before a dress rehershal. “Car-

toon” has elaborate make up and design to match its absurdity. See CARTOON, page 17

Students to vote on $35K

donationNICK JOHNSON

ASSISTANT LIFE EDITOR

Keeping campus in the spirit of giv-ing, the Student Alumni Association (SAA) has opened voting to the student body for the Gift to Tech. The Gift is an annual donation by SAA consisting of SAA membership dues and alumni donations.

Last year’s Gift was $31,000 to fund Klemis Kitchens, a resource for students who are facing financial hardships and cannot afford their own meals. With over 4500 SAA members and the do-nation of $10,000 by alumni Ken and Tyler Townsend (ME ‘64, IE ‘98), this year’s Gift is currently at $35,000 and growing.

With Tech’s status as the No. 1 pub-lic university in alumni giving, SAA believes that it is important to instill a culture of giving back to Tech early on. Students can help add to this fund by joining SAA and paying the $10 sign-up fee, $5 of which goes to the Gift to Tech with the other $5 going towards the Student Foundation’s Roll Call for the betterment of Tech.

Students and organizations can rec-ommend projects, and SAA pares these down to eight projects to be voted on by the Tech community via SAA’s web-site. After community voting ends on March 13, the top three projects are put through another round of voting by SAA members, and the top project after that is announced on April 21.

Posed by the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) and the Office of Institute Diversity, the GT ALIGN Campus Ac-cessibility app aims to make Tech’s

News 2 Opinions 6 Life 10 Entertainment 14 Sports 24

LIFE

technique.

Google Fiber p5

NEWS

.

Serial Podcast p10

LIFE

ENTERTAINMENT

SPORTS

Top L: Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications; Top R: Photo by Monica Jamison Student Publications; Above: Photo by Austin Foote Student Publications

SOPHIE GONZALEZCONTRIBUTING WRITER

DramaTech continues to wow audiences with its newest produc-tion, “Cartoon.” The play super-sedes expectations, experimenting with new theatrical styles, such as Commedia del’Arte, to transport audiences to an alternate universe of animation filled with social commentary. With actors liter-ally jumping off stage, “Cartoon” separates itself from all other past productions.

“Cartoon” features elaborate set designs, actors’ convincing

portrayals of eccentric characters and interwoven plot twists. Dra-maTech’s adaptation of “Cartoon” treats audiences to an experience like no other with performances from Feb. 13 - 21.

The Technique got the chance to speak with Melissa Foulger, the director of “Cartoon,” about how DramaTech creates such unique elements within each of its shows, and what audiences should look for in this latest production.

Technique: What makes “Cartoon” different from other DramaTech productions?

Foulger: “Cartoon” is more

cinematic in nature than other shows that DramaTech has done. It is also very stylized because each character is based off of a dif-ferent cartoon trope. I also think that “Cartoon” has some surprises that the audience might not be ex-pecting. These surprises will leave the audience talking for a while.

Technique: What should viewers look out for while watch-ing “Cartoon?”

Foulger: Look for (and enjoy) all of the different cartoon tropes that appear. We tried to stay true to some really comedic cartoon

2 • February 13, 2015• technique // NEWS2 • February 13, 2015• technique

The South’s Liveliest College Newspaper

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:Brittany Miles

MANAGING EDITOR:Lindsay Purcell

NEWS EDITOR:Kenneth Marino

OPINIONS EDITOR:Wyatt BazrodLIFE EDITOR:Alexa Grzech

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR:Joe Murphy

SPORTS EDITOR:Mark Russell

DESIGN EDITOR:Connor Napolitano

PHOTO EDITOR: Brenda Lin

Founded in 1911, the Technique is the student newspaper of the Georgia In-stitute of Technology, and is an official publication of the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. The Technique publishes on Fridays weekly in the fall and spring and biweekly in the summer.ADVERTISING: Information can be found online at nique.net/ads. The dead-line for reserving ad space is Friday at 5 p.m. one week before publication. To place a reservation, for billing informa-tion or for any other questions please e-mail us at ads@nique.net. You may reach us at (404) 894-2830, Monday through

Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

COVERAGE REQUESTS: Requests for coverage and tips should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and/or the relevant

section editor.

Copyright © 2015, Brittany Miles, Editor-in-Chief, and the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief or from the Board of Student Publications. The ideas expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Board of Student Publications, the students, staff or faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology or the University System of Georgia. First copy free—for

additional copies call (404) 894-2830

technique

nique.netsliver

Slllllllliverrrrrrr.98% of my “tupperware” are just old food cartons.no you’re awesome sliver boxOn my first drive in Atlanta, I went over a few potholes, got stuck in a turn only lane because of traffic, and almost t-boned a crazy MARTA Mobility van. The hype is real.On the bright side, on my drive back I really enjoyed the beauty of North Avenue #ATL4lyfeI looked up the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes to make a sliver, but then I fell in love with the haunting beauty of it again.... Slivering is having some positive externalities!#slivlyfe #slivculture #slivcabularyDavid Raji for News Editor.I <3 David Raji. He writes real news.#fairandbalancedMRAWRRRRRRRRRLauretta is the coolest roomie. :)You are valued <3Spread the love to your fellow studentsI want to be done, but I don’t want to stop, yet I haven’t started yet.I am sick and tired of planning my guy friends’ Valentine’s Days. Ask the girl you’re actually dating what she wants to do.“If you were an okra you’d be famous.... We’d win prizes for you.”I’m in my room reading. My roommate is playing guitar. My friend is making Valentine’s cards. Is this Tech?That moment when you do your homework early only for the professor to teach the easier way to do things the next dayBEST LAYOUT. TAKE THAT SIGNAL! AH HA!the lights are on in the stadium and it’s kinda mesmerizing but really anything’s better than this high speed test

KENNETH MARINONEWS EDITOR

In a rally in Tehran on Wednes-day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for an end to all sanctions against his country, ac-cording to the Washington Post.

“We want an agreement that protects our dignity and respect,” Rouhani said at the rally.

The U.S. and several other nations imposed restrictions on Iran’s trade and finance, greatly harming its oil revenues. Iran is currently negotiating with a group of six nations, including the U.S., to lift sanctions and resolve the other nation’s objections to its nuclear program.

The deadline for a basic frame-work for a deal is the end of March, with a final deal expected by June 30. Negotiations have been ongoing for months, but ac-cording to Secretary of State John Kerry, they are unlikely to be ex-tended again.

The speech is a blow to the White House which has been staving off attempts by Congress to impose additional sanctions on Iran, according to the Post.

Last month, the Senate Bank-ing, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee voted 18-4 on a bill which would impose greater sanc-tions on Iran if it does not agree to a deal which would prevent it from developing the capacity for a nuclear weapon by July.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) sparked a de-bate on the Hill by inviting Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu before a joint meeting of Congress in March to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. Congressional Republi-cans are unhappy with the state of the Iran nuclear talks.

KENNETH MARINONEWS EDITOR

CHECK THE LOG FILEAt about 1 a.m on Feb. 4, the

GTPD met with a student who reported a theft.

According to the student, he had left his backpack unattend-ed in the library when he left to get dinner. The bag contained a laptop valued at $500 and cir-cuits valued at $180.

The victim was not able to find the bag at the library lost

and found.At 11:05 a.m. the same day,

the GTPD returned the back-pack to the victim. The back-pack was found by library se-curity that night, but because it was logged improperly, it was not located when the student re-ported it missing.

STOP, STOP, STOP!!!!!At approximately 2:30 p.m.

on Feb. 2, a GTPD officer ob-served that the stop sign at 8th Street and Fowler had been damaged.

The sign was leaning towards the ground at a 45 degree angle. No cause of the damage was im-

mediately identified. I’M A HUGE FAN

On Feb 1 at about 5:30 p.m. an officer was dispatched to Smith Residence Hall to investi-gate the odor of marijuana.

The officer talked to the resi-dent of the room, who allowed the officer in his room. The room contained a distinct odor of marijuana as well as fan blow-ing air out the window.

After several questions, the resident admitted to smoking marijuana that day and gave the officer a bag containing less than an ounce of marijuana. The offi-cer asked who gave it to him, but the student refused to answer.

FUNNY MONEYTau Beta Pi requested fund-

ing to help source their events for Engineer’s Week. Of the eight events, five will be partial-ly funded by the bill. However, conflicts ensued as to whether SGA should be responsible for funding a comedian to appear during the week, as a comedian does not necessarily support the values of the organization and the event. In the end, funding for the comedian was cut from the bill, and then the bill was passed.

IT’S ALL GREEK TO METhe programming board sub-

mitted a bill to request funding for the two large Greek events, Greek Sing and Greek Tug. Some disagreement erupted over why the board was requesting less money than it truly required but in the end it was agreed that the money would be used for reserving event space. The bill passed.

BILL SUMMARYBILL AMOUNT GSS UHR

$3,667.12$2,787.43

$5,000$0

$ 396.35$1,000$317.10

N/A$3,159

N/A

35-6-134-8-013-0-037-3-128-0-015-0-015-0-013-0-0

N/AN/A

29-3-234-1-030-0-024-8-034-0-033-0-033-3-035-0-031-0-129-0-1

Georgia Tech PulseTrailblazers Spring Break

Greek TUGAlpha Phi Pageant

Nuclear Society ConferenceGreek Leadership Summit

AAOP SymposiumResolution of Condolences

SGA BanquetElections Code

Each week, this section of News will include the coverage of different aspects of bills that

passed through Student Government. This will include the Undergraduate House of Representatives, Graduate Student Senate and the Executive Branch of both government bodies.

HASIT DEWANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

IN MEMORIAM

On Sunday, February 8, Siddartha Kahali, a third-year CS major, regretfully passed away in his dorm room in Maulding Residence Hall. The Technique extends its heartfelt condolences to Kahali’s family, friends, and fellow Yellow Jackets. Students in need of support can contact the Counseling Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 404-894-2575.

technique • February 13, 2015• 3// NEWS

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DAVID RAJIASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Roughly one year ago, a stu-dent at Tech suffered a case of meningitis.

All of the occupants of the resi-dence of the afflicted individual were notified of the situation im-mediately. Stamps Health Center was able to stay open into the night in order to provide treat-ment for those residents who were at risk for infection.

If, however, an outbreak on a significantly larger scale were to take place, Tech is in a position to take action. However, the com-prehensiveness of the response de-pends on the type of disease and other specifics.

Dr. Gregory Moore is the Se-nior Director at Stamps Health Services as well as a Clinical Pro-fessor in the School of Applied Physiology. Moore provided in-sight on how students would be alerted to a potential disease out-break.

“The fastest notification would be on the Stamps website and through social media,” said Moore. “We have both Facebook and Twitter accounts. Students who follow us will hear about dis-ease threats first.”

Moore went on to explain how Institute Communications would also be able to contribute resourc-es to the effort. These might in-clude screen ads, posters or Daily Digest notices. During the Myco-plasma outbreak at Tech, which occurred approximately two years ago, individual emails were sent to all students in order to ensure the information was as widely circu-lated as was possible.

Other resources and medical procedures were also mentioned by Moore in regards to Tech’s planned response to specific dis-ease outbreaks. Ebola is just one example.

“As far as Ebola goes, we don’t have the ability to treat those pa-tients, but we have full personal protective equipment so that

Stamps staff can briefly care for a patient as they are being prepared for transfer to Emory,” Moore said.

Stamps also has in its posses-sion what Moore described as “full personal protective equip-ment,” which would allow the staff to avoid a lapse in care to a specific patient during the time that he or she is awaiting trans-portation to Emory.

“We also have a negative pres-sure room at Stamps to isolate a student with a suspected airborne infectious disease while making a diagnosis and preparing for trans-fer,” said Moore regarding poten-tial containment methods for in-dividual infections.

Tech’s immunization require-ments for students, faculty and staff were instituted with the goal of avoiding large scale disease transmission. But if an outbreak on a greater scale were to occur, it would likely be handled by au-thorities at either the local or state level, either of which could possi-bly include involvement by public health officials at the nearby Cen-ter for Disease Control (CDC).

If a quarantine or modifica-tions to Tech’s academic calendar were deemed necessary due to the scope of the outbreak, an over-all decision would be reached by Tech administration in conjunc-tion with public health officials.

“As always, we advocate good hygiene, hand washing, sneezing into the inner elbow and staying away from others when sick as the first, and most important, mea-sure to prevent disease transmis-sion,” Moore said.

These measures, in addition to vaccination, have proven to be sufficient to prevent large scale outbreak at Tech in the past, but only time will tell whether they will continue their track record of successful prevention.

Is Tech Prepared for Ebola?DAVID RAJI

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Last Monday, Klemis Kitchen officially opened to all students who had officially qualified. The program serves as a food pantry for students in need of proper nutrition, most commonly due to financial difficulties.

Klemis Kitchen’s creation is due in part to the success of Cam-pus Kitchen’s operations at Tech, which launched April 18, 2014.

“It’s a joint program between Georgia Tech and Georgia Tech Dining Services where we’re tak-ing excess food that’s produced in our dining locations and actu-ally packaging it with our student team and distributing it to shelters across the Atlanta area for those who are less fortunate,” said Grant Grimes, the Sustainability Coor-dinator at Georgia Tech Dining Services.

Because all dining operations must overproduce food to provide good service, the excess can be diverted for some other purpose. This is the core principle behind the Campus Kitchen initiative.

In a process known as “waste diversion,” food which would normally be thrown away is redi-rected to the organization. Klemis Kitchen was conceived in part due to the observed success of the Campus Kitchen, but it was also inspired by the efforts of Tommy Klemis to help feed Tech students who were particularly struggling financially.

“After Junior’s grill left cam-pus in 2011, there was a pretty big void because Tommy Klemis, the owner of Junior’s, would feed students,” said Sidhartha Sinha, the student lead for the Klemis Kitchen initiative. “If students were hungry, they would come in, and he would feed them or give them some of his own money just

so they could make ends meet.”Syreeta Thibodeaux, the Unit

Marketing Coordinator for Din-ing Services, also emphasized how the program is specifically geared towards those who are desperately in need of support.

“This isn’t something for stu-dents who can’t afford to eat at Starbucks, and it’s not for students that don’t like what the choices are,” Thibodeaux said. “This is for students who haven’t eaten since Friday, and now it’s Monday. It’s really need based.”

Sinha also spoke in reference to the process by which students are allowed to gain access to Klemis Kitchen. He discussed how, in the large majority of cases, need will be recognized.

“If the student thinks they may qualify for the Kitchen, all they have to do is contact the Dean of Students Office or Dr. Dana Hartley to schedule a meeting,” said Sinha. “After that, the stu-dents are granted access. There’s no official application process be-cause it’s not something you can quantify, it’s a very qualitative idea.”

Grimes also says that main-taining anonymity of the students who utilized Klemis Kitchen is a priority. This is one of the reasons for its secret location on campus, and Dining Services hopes the extra effort will make the Kitchen more attractive to more students in need.

Students who wish to get in-volved in the program can fill out an online form on the Klemis Kitchen website to apply for vol-unteer opportunities.

Applicants will be reviewed, then assigned to work on weekly shifts. According to Sinha, a sig-nificant amount of interest has already been seen, demonstrat-ing a desire among Tech’s student populace to help one another.

Klemis Kitchen opens

Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications

A Tech student gets a shot at Stamps Health Center. Tech re-

quires students to be inoculated against many common viruses.

4 • February 13, 2015• technique // NEWS

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HASIT DEWANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

On January 29, the Student Government Association (SGA) released its Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) Trea-surer’s Report: a two-page info-graphic outlining updates made to the SGA budget.

One of the most noticeable facts from the report was that ap-proximately half of SGA’s funding out of its account from the previ-ous year has yet to be allocated. The account has $262,563 in un-allocated funds, the capital outlay account has $911,067 yet to be allocated, and the Undergradu-ate Legislative Reserve (ULR) has $8,872 in unallocated funding, amounting to over a million dol-lars in funding that has yet to be applied to any student causes.

The money that does get al-lotted to student organizations is distributed through a tier, or hier-archy system.

“The only Tier I organizations are the CRC and the Student Center,” said Decker Onken, the current UHR representative and treasurer for the body. “Tier II or-ganizations are those that impact a large number of students on campus, such as the SGA, SCPC, Musician’s Network, DramaTech, and all the student publications. Tier III includes all the other stu-dent clubs and groups.”

The first page of the report breaks down SGA expenditures and funds remaining by account

type and organization tier. The next page has detailed bar graphs that depict the budget allowances by both tier and organization name. The report provides both monetary amounts and percent-ages to better facilitate reading the documents.

The creation of these budgets begins in early October, when clubs submit budgets along with basic membership information through JacketPages. Next, each club must meet with the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) early spring semester. JFC has a set of rules about what things students can and cannot ask money for. At the meeting, the organizations ex-plain their budgets and JFC alerts them to violations bills might pos-sess.

Once these deliberations have been completed, a UHR ad-hoc committee forms to further discuss the bills and ways the funding can be reduced, if at all possible. This committee is also empowered to make suggestions based not only on policy, but also on whether the line items are wor-thy of funding and meets the stra-tegic objectives of SGA funding.

“The House then forms a little committee called an ad-hoc com-mittee that will make cuts across the board to try and decrease the total requests to bring it closer to our target,” Onken said. “Right now, the target for this year is 4.8 million dollars and we have 6 mil-lion dollars in requests, so obvi-ously we have a lot to cut.”

Interestingly, a cursory glance at the graphic reveals that a major-ity of the little funding that does get allocated is apportioned to the CRC. In fact, if a Tier I organiza-tion requires additional funding; the money can be sourced from a lower tier’s budget during the budget process.

“So when we review budgets, we review Tier I first because if they start running out of money we cut from Tier III first. If there is a budget shortage with Tier III, then we start picking out of Tier II also. Usually, Tier I gets most of its money from the budget, rather than bills. Tier II also usually gets money from their budgets, but more so from bills than Tier I. Then, with Tier III, most of the money is allocated through bud-gets, but then they also receive a lot of bill funding.”

In fact, Tier III budgets are deliberated upon last, once Tier I and Tier II allotments have been set. Because of this, Tier I groups such as the CRC dominate the budget and receive a substantially larger sum of money than other groups.

The CRC especially requires a lot of money simply due to its large size. Based on the recent UHR report, the CRC received almost 2 million dollars in fund-ing, compared to its fellow Tier I organization, the Student Center, which received almost half that amount. The largest spending Tier III organization was less than $40,000.

SGA sitting on $1.2 Million, CRC dominates

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SHASHANK SINGHCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Last month, Google an-nounced that it will be expanding its Google Fiber network, which is capable of delivering gigabit Internet connection speeds, into Atlanta.

Areas which will be receiv-ing the connections include At-lanta, Smyrna, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Decatur, Avondale Estates, East Point, College Park, and Hapeville. These locations were selected since there was a higher demand for Google Fiber in these neighborhoods.

“Another possibility is that K–12 schools will be able to par-ticipate and benefit from this event,” said Dr. Ron Hutchins, Associate Vice Provost for Re-search and Technology and Chief Technology Officer.

“Now, students who are liv-ing around Atlanta rather than in dormitories will have the same capabilities as students living on campus,” Hutchins said. “This is a major benefit since now stu-

dents living off campus will not have to come on campus every time they wish to do something that requires a high speed Internet connection. As a result, students might be drawn to live in these specific areas of Atlanta.”

In the Atlanta Journal Consti-tution, Hutchins explains some of the benefits of having faster Internet speeds available to the population. These benefits include seamless working from home, op-portunities to launch businesses from home and also, for example, the ability for elderly patients to have convenient minor check-ins with doctors through high-speed, high-quality video connections.

Students on campus have stated that higher Internet speeds enable them to work more easily and perform a variety of activities without suffering from bottle-necks in their connections.

“Our network will not be changing since we have already had a gigabit connection for a while now,” Hutchins said.

One example would be the pos-sibility for having location based

services on campus and around Midtown. Students could simply leave messages based on their lo-cation and then anyone walking by would be able to see their mes-sage. This could also be useful to inform people of things such as a road being closed, hazards or ar-eas with high traffic.

In general, this ubiquitous high speed connectivity will boost the productivity of people living around Atlanta and make daily life and work easier.

Hutchins also proposes the op-portunities that students will have to take this infrastructure present-ed to them and build something useful and innovative off of it that people on campus and around the city can benefit from.

“We are probably 2 or 3 years out from this project being com-pleted,” Hutchins said. “Google is currently in the design process for this undertaking.”

The mayor of Atlanta has been a big proponent of Fiber coming to Atlanta and has done a lot of work to make it happen, accord-ing to Hutchins.

Google Fiber is good for youKAITLIN SHEA

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Last month, Dr. Jacqueline Royster was re-appointed as the Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts after a custom-ary five-year review of her time as Dean.

According to Royster, Ivan Al-len is sometimes misunderstood.

“[My] experience is that people who question liberal arts at Geor-gia Tech are people that don’t know what we do,” Royster said. “And I think that once they un-derstand what we do and how we do it, that question just doesn’t come up.”

Tech students are required by Georgia Law to take two English courses, six hours of humanities and twelve hours of social sci-ences. According to Royster, it is vital for all students to take these courses.

“I believe that the liberal arts are an excellent way to become an educated person,” Royster said. “It was how I was educated myself, and you tend to have a deep affec-tion for the things that form the culture in which you yourself were made, and I consider my commit-ment to human centered things to be a part of that.”

When responding to doubts about the liberal arts at Tech, Dean Royster says that she be-lieves in the capabilities of the college.

“We have as much of an obli-gation as any of the other colleges, Royster said. “It’s a collaborative enterprise; that’s what universities are. They work together to make sure that there is academic excel-lence.”

Despite the focus that many at Tech place on engineering and the sciences, according to Royster,

liberal arts are a key component to education, and to the world.

“This is a world with human beings in it, this is a world with science and technology in it, and this is a world that we put to-gether at Georgia Tech in a really dynamic way,” Royster said. “It’s just powerful in its effect and its ability to equip people to be the leaders, movers, and shakers that they’re going to be in the world.”

Dean Royster graduated from Spelman College and earned an M.A. and D.A. in English from the University of Michigan. Ac-cording to Royster, her back-ground in English inspires her to develop and expand the liberal arts, and she believes there is no better place to do so than Tech.

“I believe that Georgia Tech students are wonderful people,” Royster said. “I think that one important advantage that we add for people who are not our majors is that we help them to broaden their worldview, their experience, and their capacity to be a good productive citizen, and we help them to become people who are capable of interacting with others no matter where you find your-self.”

Dean Royster hopes to help Ivan Allen progress, advance, and evolve even further.

“Going forward, we need to be able to exercise our greatest poten-tial,” Royster said. “We need to be able to show the quality of work that the liberal arts has the capac-ity to do. In an institution like this that’s so attune to address-ing some of the world’s thorniest problems, I think it’s a marriage made in heaven.”

Currently, Ivan Allen College has 622 undergraduate students and 255 Masters and Ph.D. stu-dents.

Dean Royster reappoint-ed, defends Liberal Arts

Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications

A Google Fiber van is parked along Tech walkway in front of the Student Center. Google

uses the vans both to publicize Fiber and explore where the service can be utilized.

technique6

Friday, February 13, 2015

My washing machine overwhelms me with its options and its sophistication.- Uma Thurman

OPINIONS EDITOR: Wyatt Bazrod

“”

TECH VALENTINE CIRCA 1885 BY COLLIN CALDWELL

Opinions

Write to us: letters@nique.netGot something to say? Then let

your voice be heard with the Tech-nique. Sliver at Nique.net, tweet us @the_nique or check us out on Face-book at facebook.com/thenique. We want to hear your opinion and want to make it known to all of campus.

We also welcome your letters in response to Technique content as well as topics relevant to campus. We will print letters on a timely and space-available basis.

Each week we look for letters that

are responses to or commentaries on content found within the pages of the Technique. Along with these letters, we are open to receiving letters that focus on relevant issues that currently affect Georgia Tech as a university, in-cluding its campus and student body.

When submitting letters we ask that you include your full name, year (1st, 2nd, etc.) and major. We ask that letters be thought provoking, well written and in good taste. We reserve the right to both reject or edit letters for length and style.

For questions, comments or con-cern, contact the Opinions Editor at opinions@nique.net.

OUR VIEWS | Consensus Opinion

Addressing Mental Health at TechEncouraging campus to change the current culture

Recently, there has been much con-versation around campus about mental health at Tech. These discussions often center around the availability of resources on campus. While we agree that mental health resources are incredibly important and should be made accessible to all stu-dents, we also believe that the current mental health conversation should be ex-panded to include what everyone at Tech can do to help improve campus culture.

In many ways, Tech is an institution like no other. While the constant pressure has led to job offers and research grants, it can-not be denied that it has also led to large amounts of stress, anxiety and depression.

Classes, and by extension faculty, can be a main contributor to stress at Tech. While we understand the immense pres-sure faculty are under to succeed in their fields, it can feel like research is placed be-fore teaching. Stories of classes with steep curves, failing average grades or unreason-able homework expectations are not un-

heard of, but commonplace. The way current discussions about men-

tal health are conducted can cause students to fall into a “me versus Tech” mentality.

Furthermore, we believe that mental health should be discussed on campus openly throughout the year, to current and prospective students. Students should come into Tech prepared for the challeng-es they will face and comfortable discuss-ing stress and its effects on campus life.

Finally, students also have a part to play in changing campus culture. Currently, we praise each other for our all-nighters and 18 hour days, and laugh at those who eat regularly or have time to take a break. This is a terribly flawed mentality and it needs to change.

We need to reestablish the importance of self-care on campus and we need to do it soon. Together, the administration, facul-ty and students can make Tech not only a great academic institution but also a great place to live.

The Consensus Opinion reflects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board of the Technique, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

TOP SLIVERS

The first step is always admition and I admit my New Years Resolutions failed miserably.

A five dollar increase in transportation isn’t big uhm hello that’s two guacamoles at Chipotle

Going to restaurants and pretending I got stood up on Valentine’s Day and suddenly it’s discount city.

Beck’s Grammy win resembles how my friends look at me when I do well academically.

I don’t know why I get so upset when I miss chicken mini’s for breakfast and ‘settle’ for a chicken sandwich

“I knew you were trouble when you Walden” - Henry David Thoreau probably

I want to be done, but I don’t want to stop, yet I haven’t started yet.

My GPA needs a little less bend and a little more snap.

Why do we put so much effort into things like Holidays when there is a national pizza day?

I need to be productive for the next three weeks so when House of Cards comes there’s no ragrets.

That moment when you do your homework early only for the professor to teach the easier way to do

things the next day

technique editorial boardBrittany Miles EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Lindsay Purcell MANAGING EDITORConnor Napolitano DESIGN EDITOR

Kenneth Marino NEWS EDITORAlexa Grzech LIFE EDITOR

Brenda Lin PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Mark Russell SPORTS EDITORWyatt Bazrod OPINIONS EDITOR

Joe Murphy ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

technique • February 13, 2015• 7// OPINIONS

Does anyone else remember the child-like awe that you had prior to coming to this place called Tech? I know that I do. Back in my senior year of high school, I began the search for my place in higher learning. I didn’t necessarily un-derstand the im-pact of this deci-sion on my life, but I was aware that this was a decision I should think carefully over.

After many months, a defer-ral and finally an acceptance, I realized that I would be at-tending the Georgia Institute of Technology. Those next few months were filled with pride and accomplishment; I knew that I had made a good decision no matter how difficult Tech would prove to be. The fact that I got accepted meant that some-one somewhere on this campus believed that I was capable of doing great things at this school, and they felt that way about everyone here. To this day I have made it a personal goal to try and prove that person right, wherever they may be.

I still have days where I reflect over this thought and appreciate both the fact that I am able to be here and that I have almost made it through my third year. Over time, I have found that these reflections are imperative to my motivation.

I want to help everyone re-new the same awe in their life. Fall back in love with this school and really take a second to re-alize how awesome it is to be a part of this place.

That doesn’t mean that I am not aware of the constant strug-gle that this school can be. The

perpetual work, the competitive environment and our own past successes generally stress all of us out at least occasionally. It happens. They told all of us that

this school was never going to be easy. Even after being warned, we may have underestimated just how dif-ficult Tech was going to be, and when everything seems to be go-ing south it can be fairly easy to

let the stress overwhelm us.It is during times like these

that I remember the words of “Twin Peak’s” Dale Cooper: “I’m going to let you in on a little secret: everyday, once a day, give yourself a present.” Cooper ex-plains how the present should be unplanned, but happy enough to actually make your day.

These presents can be any-thing from the cup of coffee in the show to a Surrito from Bento Bus or a quick break from studying to play a game or watch a quick episode of your favorite show. All of these are perfect presents to yourself; I personally use it as a reward for getting through almost every assignment. I will treat myself to something I normally don’t get on the average day, just so I can feel some greater sense of ac-complishment and satisfaction.

I personally guarantee that after you get used to this system, you will have a greater apprecia-tion for all the small things.

Why not treat yourself to-day? It doesn’t take getting an A on every test, or completely reorganizing your life. It can be as simple as remembering to do laundry before running out of clean underwear.

EVAN LONGFIRST-YEAR INTA

“‘Go Away’ because some-times you just need time

to study.”

TAYLOR MCKIESECOND-YEAR ENVE

“I love you!”

SEBASTIAN LIFOURTH-YEAR ME

“You’re sweeter than this [candy].”

BRITTANY CORBETTFOURTH-YEAR PSY

“‘Meow!’ It’s an inside joke between my boyfriend

and me.”

What would your candy heart say?

Persevering through Tech’s toughness

“...really take a second to realize how awesome it is to be a

part of this place.”

CONNOR NAPOLITANODESIGN EDITOR

Photos by Brenda Lin Student Publications

I am not afraid to admit to having stayed awake all night to study for an exam the following day. Some of those occasions were not far in the past. Howev-er, these attempts at salvaging my titanic-like situa-tion have seldom ended in a savory fashion.

For this rea-son, I must dis-courage any ef-fort to prolong waking hours for the purpose of raising one’s grade on a test.

Let me drop some hypotheti-cals on you real quick. Imagine a guy named Eric. He usually has his life together, but for some reason this past week didn’t quite turn out so well. Now it is Sunday, and Eric is feeling desperate. An all-nighter seems inevitable, but would it actually help? The answer is scientifically proven to be a resounding no.

“But wait,” you ask, dumb-founded. “How else could I pos-sibly do better on an exam that I don’t know the material for?”

While it might seem logical during the evening prior, come morning you will feel the deep-est regret, which is known only to those who have acted upon the poorest of instincts. Your eyes will ache and your bones may break (but probably not). Those are only a few of the in-numerable grievances you will unequivocally desire to lend voice to.

“I do not particularly want to be in unimaginable agony during my midterm,” says your conscience. “So what should I do instead?”

Well, if you do fancy (or des-perately need) a decent grade on the exam but also do not have

aspirations of misery, I would genuinely suggest inventing or locating and buying a machine capable of time travel. What, did you really expect me to

have a magical solution which I would reveal only to readers so steadfast that they have made it this far into this rambling editorial? Unfor-tunately for any individuals read-ing this who find themselves in a

position in need of a quick fix, one doesn’t exist.

This is not to say you are completely done for; there are indeed some avenues which will undoubtedly factor more posi-tively into your personal well-being as well as that of your GPA. If you ever find yourself seriously considering staying awake through the night for the sole reason of learning a signifi-cant portion of upcoming exam material, do yourself a favor and go to sleep instead.

A number of studies, in-cluding one done by Dr. Philip Alapat at the Baylor College of Medicine, have conclusively found sleeping before an ex-amination to produce consis-tently better results than those achieved through all-nighters.

Why should you trust this random study? Well, if you came into this article looking for validation of the opposite viewpoint than the one I just made, then I confess you have no reason to believe any of what I am wrote. On the other hand, one could simply choose to ac-cept a credible scientific study for nothing less than what it is, and re-evaluate their test-taking strategy accordingly.

My failed experience with an all-nighter

“If you ever find yourself seriously

considering staying awake... do yourself a

favor and go to sleep.”

DAVID RAJIASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

When my mom got a Fitbit, I knew wearable technology had finally made its way to the masses.

Over the past several years, wearables have transitioned from being just a plaything for tech geeks to something normal people actually want to own. Fitness trackers, smartwatches and even smart glasses have be-come mainstream.

Despite speculation that it won’t be much good, the release of the Apple Watch will surely further this trend. I have yet to be convinced that I need any of this.

The smartphone was an easy sell to consumers. It was a new device that could replace your old cellphone, calculator, note-pad, camera and even some as-pects of your computer. The key to the success of the smartphone was that it allowed people to carry around less stuff. It mini-mized the number of devices a person needed to have with them, but allowed them to have access to the functions of many devices at any given time.

Now, smartphones have be-come somewhat stagnant. Each

new Galaxy or iPhone or Lumia (to avoid alienating you Win-dows Phone people) which gets released feels more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Our phones are so packed with features that little can be added. What is already there just gets upgraded. Plus, apart from Nokia’s crazy colors most smartphones look exactly the same.

Rather than sticking to the idea that your smartphone should do everything, tech com-panies now want us to add a second device to supplement the functionality of our phones. To me, most of these devices suffer from some fatal flaws: almost every smartwatch on the market

today requires a paired phone in order to do anything, and what they can do is basically an extension of the functionality I already have.

I am also not a big fan of the high price of smartwatches. Carrier subsidies allow you to buy a smartphone for cheap (sometimes even free), and yet you will be paying hundreds of dollars for a watch to go with it.

I realize some people out there are willing to pay plenty of money for a regular dumb watch. I’m just not one of those people, nor do I think those people would trade the quality and craftsmanship of an expen-sive watch for a plastic watch with a color screen.

At first glance, fitness track-ers seem like a better proposi-tion. They are cheaper than smartwatches, and can also tell you really incredible things about yourself, such as how many steps you took that day or if you slept well (since apparent-ly you can’t figure that one out on your own). Unfortunately for fitness tracker manufactur-ers, a new study released by the University of Pennsylvania says that built-in fitness tracking in smartphones is actually more accurate than wearable fitness tracking. It turns out that our smartphones are already replac-ing fitness tech that we just de-cided we needed.

Maybe I am just lazy, but I would rather not have to charge multiple devices every day. I already charge my phone every single night, so I am far less like-ly to use a second device if it also needs to be charged daily.

I almost bought a Pebble smartwatch during a Black Fri-day sale solely because of the price cuts, but for me, the cur-rent state of wearables is just not developed enough to be worth the purchase.

My mom is more high-tech than I “Each new Galaxy or

iPhone or Lumia...which gets released feels

more evolutionary than revolutionary.”

TRUITT CLARKONLINE EDITOR

8 • February 13, 2015• technique // OPINIONS

OUR VIEWS | HOT OR NOT

Anna KendrickOne of the funniest stars

in Hollywood, Anna Kend-rick, star of the hit movie Pitch Perfect, was seen around Cen-tennial Olympic Park, filming a new movie set to release in 2016. The film features other stars like Ben Affleck and J.K. Simmons. Additionally, it has been rumored that the film signed a deal with Tech to film on campus during Spring Break. Let’s hope Tech will get a CULC slide again.

HOT– or –NOT

T-ScareNothing is more annoying

than when you go online to turn in an assignment and, oh wait, T-Square is down. Sure, GTWifi was doing fine, but T-Square was down much of Monday making assignment submission and grade check-ing even more stressful than it usually is. In a perfect world, we would learn to do our work on time and to not procrasti-nate, but where is the fun in that?

The ‘NiqueFair warning: this “Hot”

is about to get a little bit meta and a lot-a-bit braggy. Your one and only student newspaper came away with a lot of wins at this weekend’s Georgia Col-lege Press Association’s Con-ference. We came away with ten awards, including 1st place prizes in Layout and Design, Best Website, and Best Inves-tigative News article. Here’s to hoping next year’s haul is even better.

UNC ShootingIt is unfortunate how in this

day and age, things like the University of North Carolina shooting still happen. Authori-ties have confirmed that three Muslim students were shot by a 46 year old man in a alleged “parking space dispute.” The school’s dean has condemned the attack and called upon the UNC campus community to rally together in these tough times in order to show support for the victims.

NOYESBRITTANY MILES

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

As a senior about to enter graduate school there is nothing I value more than the opportunities I had to engage in undergraduate research. These experiences have helped me to gain an understand-ing of the core of graduate life, and have confirmed that graduate school is right for me.

While this may sound insig-nificant, the culture and daily life of graduate students differs from that of undergraduates’ im-mensely. Instead of bustling from class to class, grad students spend hours in their labs. The long days that bleed into long nights are not something that everyone can handle.

This is where undergraduate research is useful. It effectively gives students a “trial run” at graduate life by allowing them to design their own experiments, set their own hours and learn how to deal with their own failures. For any student contemplating gradu-ate school, this is a necessary ex-perience. It lets you figure out if you can handle the program at the most basic level.

It is no surprise to me that schools place an emphasis on this experience when considering can-didates for graduate programs. Students who understand the re-quirements of graduate life and the grueling nature of research are more likely to complete graduate programs because they already know what they are getting into. Moreover, they have already dem-onstrated the ability to produce high quality work product.

While the demands of fitting undergraduate research into an already packed schedule can be stressful, the value of the experi-ence outweighs the cost. Under-graduate research is not for ev-eryone, but then again, neither is grad school.

TRISHNA CHANDARANACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Tech is home to approximately 15,000 undergraduates, almost 80% of whom are some kind of STEM major. Of those, most will participate in some kind of re-search, internship or co-op before graduating with their Bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately, this occur-rence is not spurred by a desire to learn more outside the classroom. It has almost become a require-ment for undergraduate students to have participated in some form of research or internship by grad-uation day if they wish to find employment or be accepted into graduate school.

Before anyone misunderstands, I am in no way saying that do-ing research as an undergraduate is a bad thing and needs to stop. Rather, something that used to be considered special has become an unnecessary requirement in order to be considered average by poten-tial employers.

It is ridiculous how much is expected from students nowadays. High school was dominated by a compulsive need to overachieve just so colleges would glance at your application. This same strug-gle has seeped into undergraduate life.

Gone are the days where good grades got students noticed by graduate level admissions offices. Now, students have to fight tooth and nail to participate in research when they do not yet possess the tools to be a contributing member of the team.

Getting involved in research is healthy. However, it is unhealthy to be expected to use one’s semes-ter and major school breaks just to stay competitive in undergraduate school. These impossibly high ex-pectations will eventually rise so high that they will push students to their breaking point at the rate they are going.

arts.gatech.eduSee the full TechArts festival schedule and get more details at

The TechArts Festival is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Arts Advisory Board, the Council of the Arts and the Office of the Arts.

Packed with great arts events, the Festival is your chance to enjoy music, dance, visual art, poetry and more on campus. Most events are free or low cost for students!

A CELEBRATIONEXPLORING CREATIVITYAND THE ARTSAT GEORGIA TECH

FEBRUARY 18–MARCH 7, 2015

FESTIVAL EVENTS

FESTIVAL EVENTS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18

6pm Sounds of Atlanta exhibition opening, film screening, dance party. Ferst Center. Free

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1911am Discussion: Deliberation by Ruth Stanford On the Ferguson/Brown case. Ferst Center. Free.8pm DramaTech presents Cartoon. Tickets: 404-894-3481 www.dramatech.org8pm Open Mic Night by Musicians Network Under the Couch, Student Center. Free.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 205:30pm Student View Exhibition opens Ferst Center Galleries. Free.7pm Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Finals Klaus Building. Free.8pm DramaTech presents Cartoon Tickets: 404-894-3481 www.dramatech.org8pm GTDA Swing Dance Student Center Ballroom. Swing dance instruction at 8 pm, dance at 9 pm. $5-$10. gtda.gtorg.gatech.edu.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 211:30pm Khayaal 2015 Academy of Medicine. Tickets at khayaalmusic.com/tickets. Free for GT students/faculty with online registration.8pm Jonah Bokaer: Why Patterns and Recess Tickets 404-894-9600. ferstcenter.gatech.edu8pm DramaTech presents Cartoon Tickets: 404-894-3481 www.dramatech.org

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 225pm TAP-A-CE-TIC LIVE dance

Ferst Center. ferstcenter.gatech.edu Tickets 404-894-9600

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 247 pm DramaTech play reading Empty Rooms Hall Building, Room 102. Free.7:30pm GT Jazz Ensemble Ferst Center. Free. Guest vocalist Taryn Newborn and GTDA swing dancers

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 264-7pm Clough Art Crawl opens Clough ULC. Free.7:30pm GT Symphonic, Concert and Percussion Ensembles A Little Jazz. Ferst Center. Free.7:30pm McEver Poetry Reading Nguyen Phan Que Mai, Bruce Weigl, and Bruce McEver. Kress Auditorium, Robert C. Williams Paper Museum. Free.8pm Open Mic Night by Musicians Network Under the Couch, Student Center. Free.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 276pm A Gathering of Continents-Joan Blaeu’s Grooten Atlas Opening

Robert C. Williams Paper Museum. Free.7:30pm Chicken Dinner Faceplant + Naan Violence + Dolly Llama + Daniel Hearn Under the Couch, Student Center. Free with Buzzcard. 8pm Let’s Try This Improv Show DramaTech. Free.

SUNDAY, MARCH 13pm GT Orchestra and Chorale: Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang. Ferst Center. Free

MONDAY, MARCH 27:30pm Witches’ Night Off–A Wicked Cabaret Tickets 404-894-9600. ferstcenter.gatech.edu

TUESDAY, MARCH 311am A Conversation with artist Jeff Mather Ferst Center. Free.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 411am A Conversation with Marc Bamuthi Joseph Ferst Center. Free.

THURSDAY, MARCH 57pm An Evening with RadioLab’s Jad Abumrad Ferst Center. Tickets 404-894-9600 ferstcenter.gatech.edu8pm Open Mic by Musicians Network Under the Couch, Student Center, Room 220

FRIDAY, MARCH 6 7 pm WREK’s SciFi Lab Presents A Night in the Lab Ferst Center. SATURDAY, MARCH 78pm Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy Ferst Center. Tickets: 404-894-9600 ferstcenter.gatech.edu

CLASSES

Master Class with Choreographer Jonah Bokaer February 23, 7 pm, Ferst Center. Free.Classes at Paper and Clay in the Student Center: Paper and Clay events require registration at http://techstuff2.gatech.edu/Pottery Wheel Intro February 20, 12-2 pmBeginner’s Sewing February 21 and 28, 1-3 pmAlterations 101 February 28 and March 7, 4-6 pmStained Glass February 22 and March 1, 1-4 pm

technique10Friday,

February 13, 2015Life Ambassador of Colombia to the U.S.

Luis Carlos Villegas discusses Colombia's current standing in the twenty-first century412

Dr. Schaffer reminisces on Tech’s traditions

Guilty before innocent: Serial lawyer speaks outALEXA GRZECH

LIFE EDITOR

On Feb. 9, Rabia Chaudry, the lawyer involved in the influ-ential Serial case, visited Tech to give students, faculty and visi-tors a general overview and an update on the current case’s sta-tus. Hosted by the Muslim Stu-dent Association, Sameera Omar, president of the MSA, felt the event was much needed to show-

case the importance of a “fair and just trial” while helping students acknowledge their “duty to speak out against injustice and seek to understand others.” With tick-ets selling out in less than a week and over 100 people on the event’s waiting list, the Serial update event proved to be a hit among the Tech and Atlanta community.

Holding the current No. 1 spot on iTunes, Serial is a spinoff of the popular NPR podcast This Ameri-

can Life. With the producer of the podcast, Sarah Koeng, dubbing Serial as “about the basics: love and death and justice and truth,” the podcast seeks to investigate the death of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old girl.

With her body discovered on Feb. 9, 1999, Lee’s death was im-mediately ruled a homicide. Con-sequently, her ex-boyfriend, Ad-nan Masud Syed, was sentenced to life for her murder even with

Syed declaring himself innocent. The podcast, ultimately, hopes to shed light on the murder case while questioning the legitimacy’s of Adnan’s trial.

The event started with a mod-erator-led session followed by a student question and answer por-tion. Immediately, Chaudry ad-dressed the gathered crowd with the ultimate question: “who here has listened to the Serial podcast?” As expected, every person in the

room raised their hands with the exception of two students whom she jokingly asked to be “escorted out” of the talk.

Since most of the attend-ees were avid listeners of Serial, Chaudry instantly jumped into the case’s current status. Possibly stemming from the podcast’s suc-cess, Adnan was recently granted a chance at filing an appeal, so he may be given a chance at a post-conviction hearing. The appeal, however, “can be denied if the court finds [the Defense Attorney, Gutierrez,] was effective with the case.”

She also addressed a variety of issues touched upon in the podcast. She felt the “prosecu-tion [was] relying on stereotypes of Muslim men.” The prosecu-tion felt Adnan believed that “in [his] culture, it’s okay to kill a girl who besmirched [his] honor.” An uncommon question, she ad-dressed the prejudice associated with marijuana use. Even though Adnan smoked frequently during his high school years, Chaudry still believed the stigma associated with marijuana was not present throughout the trial.

Chaudry also discussed the so-ciology of innocence. According to Chaudry, the innocent before proven guilty “presumption is not reality.” Citing Adnan as a prime example, she believed that the justice system did “not treat [Ad-nan] like an innocent person,” as he was jailed almost a year before trial. She also feels “if Gutierrez had done her job ethically, then [Adnan] would not have been convicted.”

ALEX COVINGTONCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Tech has changed a great deal over the past five decades, but one presence that has remained con-stant is the rumbling good humor of Dr. William Schaffer, Emeritus Professor of Economics. Though he has taught here continuously — save for a single year — he jokes he retired in 1963, the year he joined the faculty. As his wife Lee Schaffer explained, “He says he’s never worked a day in his life because he loves to teach.”

That love of teaching is evi-dent in the way he talks about his work, which will often be framed in terms of his relationships with students.

“Students were the source of everything,” Schaffer said, jok-ing that “they all worked with me, and I exploited them mercilessly. But they got good deals out of it, because they got their names on different publications and they got to go off to different places with me.”

Dr. Schaffer is an acknowl-edged expert in regional and ur-ban economics, which means he would often travel to different areas to create economic models relating to different activities. He spoke fondly of the “computer jocks” who would assist him,

commending them for their will-ingness to work late in the night and the expertise they were able to contribute.

In recent days, however, the advent of widespread computing has changed the culture, and as he explains, “students have their own lives, and it’s very difficult for the student and the professor to interact.”

With travel no longer neces-sary thanks to the availability of information through the Internet and a more formal system of in-ternships existing separately from the student-professor relationship, extensive collaboration between a professor and a student is a rarity these days.

Still, Dr. Schaffer believes strongly in relationships in peda-gogy, making a point to know the pupils in his class and hosting “Peach Parties” at his home for his students.

Dr. Schaffer’s pride for Tech, and the state of Georgia as a whole, is evident in everything he does. Before coming to Tech as an undergraduate, Schaffer grew up in Monticello, Georiga (or as he refers to it, “Where they filmed My Cousin Vinnie.) He then grad-uated from Tech with a degree in Industrial Management in 1956. Schaffer still remembers when classic school traditions were more

obligatory than today, as “the freshman were closely supervised by the sophomores, juniors and seniors.”

Losing one’s RAT cap meant being paid a visit by upperclass-men who would shave most of one’s head, leaving behind a “T”

pattern — a cause of great panic when Schaffer lost his cap one night behind a radiator.

Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications

Dr. Schaffer happily smiles as he remembers his time at Tech. With a degree from Tech, he loves

teaching at the university and he tries to maintain strong relationships with his current students.

LIFE EDITOR: Alexa GrzechASSISTANT LIFE EDITOR: Nick Johnsonlife@nique.net

Photo by Monica Jamison Student Publications

Rabia Chaudry speaks about the renowned Serial case to the gathered crowd. She spoke on the stereotypes associated with Muslim

men, the sociology of innocence, and the most recent right to appeal granted to Adnan, a man sentenced to life for Lee’s murder.

See GRAD, page 13

technique • February 13, 2015• 11// LIFE

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404-894-3570

CHBE Sam Leach said. “Now with the Common App,

students only need to click an ex-tra button and pay a little more money. So on the surface, we’re getting more selective but I think many of them don’t really have a lot of interest in Tech and don’t end up coming here,” Leach said. “In the end, what makes our stu-dent body so amazing is our pas-sion and commitment to what we do, and I would hate to think that some students who have that pas-sion are pushed away because of students who are smart but don’t really have an interest in coming.”

Ben Ashby, a second-year BME, has a similar line of think-ing: “Since the application now is just an extra click, I imagine there

are some students who don’t re-search Tech before applying.”

The acceptance rate for admit-ted 2014 students was 36.8%, which is only slightly higher than the national university average of 34.1%, as reported in US News.

The 2014 freshman class also has an impressive academic pro-file. The middle 50% SAT range was 2050-2240; The middle 50% ACT range was 30-33, and the average freshman took between 6 and 11 AP, IB or other college-credit classes in high school.

“It’s a great thing that the younger people who are coming behind us are smarter than us,” said third-year EE Theresa Eni-mini Obot.

Hailee Greenfield, a third-year

BME, agrees. “I think the qual-ity of students at Tech will con-tinue to increase in the all years to come.”

In addition, the 2014 freshman class is fairly diverse. It draws its members from over 1,300 high schools, 63 countries, and 47 states. Regarding gender, 39% of the class is female and 61% is male, which is a slight increase in female students from 2013’s fresh-man class. Similarly, diversity has increased incrementally through-out the years and is expected to increase among the Tech 2015 freshman class. “It’s an excit-ing time to be here,” says first-year BA, Meghan Devine. “It’s great to live and work with enthu-siastic peers.”

MEGAN PRESTONCONTRIBUTING WRITER

With the 2015 Early Ac-tion freshman class averaging 1488/2196 on the SAT and 32 on the ACT, the admission’s rate statistics for each class at Tech continue to be even more impres-sive than the last. This class also averaged taking 9.9 classes on Ad-vanced Placement (AP), Interna-tional Baccalaureate (IB) or other college-credit classes. Many Tech students reflected on the new data while remembering their own ap-plication process.

A major change contributing to the decreased admission rate was the switch from Tech’s individual application to the Common Ap-plication. This has caused some concern among Tech students that not everyone who applies has a genuine desire to be here.

“When I applied to Tech, they had their own application, and as an out of state student majoring in engineering, you didn’t really apply unless you wanted to actu-ally go to Tech and take on the rigor of the program. You had to have some sort of interest, or else you wouldn’t bother,” fourth-year

Photo by Grace Stephens Student Publications

The 2015 Early Action Freshmen Class will attend FASET this upcoming summer. Boasting some

impressive statistics, the incoming class made current Tech students reflect on their experiences.

Reflecting on Admissions

Process

How to win a Valentine

TIM SMITHCONTRIBUTING WRITER

With Valentine’s Day fast ap-proaching, here are some tips and tricks on getting that perfect Val-entine for the special holiday.

DO BACKGROUND RESEARCHBefore making that first move,

you should know that your po-tential Valentine is indeed single. This is very important as you want to avoid a future conflict. Check Facebook or ask his or her friends to determine your special some-one’s relationship status.

Try to find out his or her favor-ite restaurant before setting up an official date. Also, never resort to the Student Center dining options or, worse, the dreaded dining halls. Try to pick a place away of Tech’s campus, such as the classic Chow Baby or La Fonda.

ASK THEM OUT THE RIGHT WAY Ask your special someone

out in-person, not over text, GroupMe, LinkedIn or Snap-Chat. By doing so, he or she will know your true intentions, and he or she will know that you are serious. Even though asking that special crush out in person may seem like a daunting task, you

See TIPS, page 13

12 • February 13, 2015• technique // LIFE

Alvin M. FerstLeadership & Entrepreneur

Award

Apply Today: studentaffairs.gatech.edu

* $2,500 Grand Prize* Awarded to a Junior or Senior Student who has Demonstrated Extraordinary Leadership or Entrepreneur Skills* Deadline to Apply: Monday, March 2 at noon

Colombian ambassador discusses country’s growthVIDYA IYER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Thursday Jan. 5, the Of-fice of International Initiatives in conjunction with the Office of Hispanic Initiatives welcomed the Ambassador of Colombia to the United States, Luis Carlos Ville-gas, to speak about U.S. Foreign policy in Colombia.

Villegas opens his talk by ad-dressing the high level of academ-ics of Tech. He mentioned the need for people to pursue higher education in a country like Co-lombia, “to solve new problems that will come, but not to create any.”

He then begins to talk about Colombia. Villegas has been trav-eling from Colombia to the Unit-ed States for almost 38 years, so he is personally able to recall the changing perceptions of his coun-try. “For many years, the percep-tions of Colombia in this country was seen as a depressing tragedy,” he begins.

In recent years, however, Co-lombia has taken great strides in repairing the government and economy.

He discussed how this genera-tion can say that “Colombia is a permanent source of good news,” something his generation and be-fore would have a difficult time believing.

Besides taking the ambas-sador’s word, there is actual evidence that the country is im-proving. At the beginning of the 21st century, Colombia ranked

seventh in GDP. Last December, Colombia ranked third following behind Brazil and Mexico.

This shows that Colombia’s GDP has grown by 5 times in the last 15 years. This has resulted in a better standard of living for the citizens of Colombia. In 1998, 6

out of 10 Colombians were below the poverty line. Now less than 3 Colombians out of 10 are below the poverty line.

The improvements seen in Co-lombia “produce growth in the economy, pressure on democracy, need to open the society to the

world: world discussion, world trade, world investment, world security” and the ability to be able to compare themselves to the rest of the world. In the last year, Colombia has seen extraordinary sales in cars.

The country went from sell-

ing 50,000 cars to 350,000 cars and from 50,000 motorcycles to 600,000 motorcycles. Even the pet food market has grown.

In 2004, the pet food market was worth $65 million and last year it increased to $700 million dollars.

What exactly does this mean? It means that the country’s econo-my is doing better than it ever has and people are willing to invest in a higher quality of life.

Villegas concluded by saying, “So, Colombia has changed for good.” Colombia has gone from an isolated state with high rates of violence and crime in 1995 to an active member in world affairs. Villegas notes that while Colom-bia has come a long way, by no means are they done growing and improving.

Assuming Colombia becomes a developed country, Villegas says the next steps to take are to re-form justice and similar changes to take the country to a new cul-tural stage and form more close-ness among citizens. After this reform, the next issue to look at is economic equality.

Villegas believes that the gov-ernment has an initial responsibil-ity to provide opportunities for low-income families and the mar-ket will help in the future. Lastly, he believes in reducing crime in the country.

He mentions how crime and violence were dominant aspects in his generation’s life and how it is more of a distant memory for the current generation.

Photo by Tyler Meuter Student Publication

The Ambassador of Colombia to the United States, Luis Carlos Villegas, speaks to Tech students

and staff. He discussed Colombia’s recent improvements and the plans to reform the country.

technique • February 13, 2015• 13// LIFE

FEB25

3:30-4:30pm

4:30-5:15pm

5:30-7:30pm

Clary Theater Student Success Center

Discussion panel in the theater

Small reception just outside of theaterwith posters created by student staff

Film showing*Discussion after movie

FREE MOVIE & DISCUSSION presented by

**ADDITIONAL SCREENING AT THE HISTORIC ACADEMY OF MEDICINE ON FEB. 24 AT 6PM FOLLOWED BYDISCUSSION AT 8PM, SPONSORED BY THE GEORGIA TECH STUDENT CENTER AND GT CAMPUS SERVICES.

campus more inclusive to stu-dents, faculty, visitors and staff who have difficulty maneuvering campus. The app would visualize up-to-date information such as sidewalk condition and locations of accessible entrances.

The Georgia Tech Police De-partment’s Campus Safety - Bike Bait Program is designed to help catch bicycle thieves on campus. The Gift would fund different model bicycles with GPS track-ing units to be placed in areas that thieves typically target to catch criminals.

The Enhancements to Har-rison Square and Cherry Street aim to improve the heart of Tech’s Historic Hill District and New Steelcase media: scape furniture and technology in Clough Com-mons would tackle the desire for students to collaborate more ef-fectively. The technology in these stations allows students to con-nect their laptops and share infor-mation among other connected devices.

The SAA Free Concert Series is a plan to schedule four outdoor concerts in the outdoor Amphi-theater next to the Ferst Center for the Arts. With two in the Fall and Spring, the concerts would be free to all of campus and feature professional performers. Provid-ing electricity to students looking to relax outdoors, Solar-Powered Electricity Stands would provide a green way to relax and study. Using minimal space, the stands would provide a communal gath-ering spot for groups to work around or an emergency stop for a dying phone battery. The stands

would be placed in Tech Green for open space for all.

With a Student Emergency Fund in place, students facing fi-nancial difficulty would be able to purchase something out of reach, like a suit or airfare for an inter-view. Managed by the Office of Financial Aid, a student-to-stu-dent support system would help out fellow students, especially when unexpected expenses arise.

Funding Student Mental Health would allow the Counsel-ing Center to make enhancements to its program, as recommended by the 2014 President’s Task Force on Student Mental Health. The Gift would benefit the Center’s individualized psychological ser-vices, professional education and campus programs to empower students to reach academic and personal success.

In SAA’s five years on campus, the organization and the Gift to

Tech have matured to where they can be more selective in the initial eight choices.

“We were mindful of who we let be in the top eight this year,” says fourth-year BA Carli Walker, President of SAA. “Hopefully in the future, it can be something that people apply for and give a pitch for, but we’re not at that point yet.”

Additionally, SAA is increas-ing visibility of the Gift to Tech in their presence on campus and in their choices of Gifts that appeal to the entire Tech community.

“The people who really know about the Gift are huge organiza-tions who have a foot in the Gift,” Walker says. “We don’t want it to be just the Band or the Ramblin’ Reck Club. We want it to be ev-eryone on campus who might not have any personal investment in any of the 8 projects voting on what they think is the best.”

Another tradition, the shirt tail parade, saw a line of stu-dents, mostly freshmen, weaving through Atlanta while clutching each others’ shirt tails with Five Points as the destination.

He noted that the student body had changed, explaining that “you no longer come to a place with a frightened young boy just off the farm trying desperately to stay out of the military and go to Korea.”

The turbulent era of the Viet-nam War introduced a more prominent strain of individual-ism into the student body, and the influx of different cultural groups reduced the homogeneity of the then largely white male popula-tion.

In fact, the year of Dr. Schaf-fer’s entrance as an undergraduate was the first to have female stu-dents admitted to regular classes. Some things have remained con-stant, however.

As Dr. Schaffer explained, stu-dents have always had a distaste for cafeteria food: “People with heads on their shoulders would go over to Junior’s and eat and enjoy a good breakfast of eggs and pan-cakes, rather than going to Brit-tain, which served a pretty crappy selection.”

Though Dr. Schaffer is now officially retired, he continues to teach small courses in regional and urban economics and the history of economic thought. He strives to contribute his wisdom and knowledge to the student body. It is no surprise that he con-tinues to enjoy and practice teach-ing — as he says, “students are what made my life.”

GRAD FROM PAGE 10GIFT FROM PAGE 1

should still follow through on that action. Even if you unfortunately get turned down, your crush will surely be flattered.

PLAN A FUN DATE Instead of going with the typi-

cal dinner option, you should be open to doing a fun date idea es-pecially if your special someone is particularly adventurous. Take that person on the ultimate hiking adventure at Stone Mountain (just plan on a somewhat long drive) or go to Skyzone to have a hopping good time.

Near Tech’s campus, you can plan on going to the romantic Centennial Ferris Wheel although the price may be on the steeper side. You can also go to the Coke Museum and try all the cokes to-gether for a fun time. The french bakery Amelie’s off of Marietta Street is also a nice date place, as you can try all the pastries.

STICK WITH A CLASSIC When all else fails, you can al-

ways go with the classic Tech first date at Café Intermezzo. While it may be a little bit pricey, the dimmed lights and smaller tables provide a romantic atmosphere for you and your sweetheart.

Café Intermezzo also has the added benefit of having a variety of options. With a wide selection of cakes, crepes, drinks and des-serts, you will not have to worry about your date being unable to find something they like. Just know that the popular restaurant will surely fill up for Valentine’s Day, so it may be best to order those tasty treats to-go.

TIPS FROM PAGE 11

Photo by Tyler Meuter Student Publication

SAA displays the 2014 Gift to Tech Klemis Kitchens sign. This

year, the Gift includes 8 unique projects for students to vote on.

entertainment@nique.netEntertainment

technique14

Friday, February 13, 2015

Tragic love story sets the mood for Valentine’s

JAMIE RULESTAFF WRITER

Since the year 2000, The New American Shakespeare Tavern has shown the ever-popular Shake-spearean play “Romeo and Juliet” every February. This is only logi-cal, since people tend to enjoy see-ing the tragic story of two sense-less teenagers around Valentine’s Day. Of course, this dedication to the star-crossed lovers creates the problem of doing a play altogether too often.

Before some plays, the audi-ence is asked if they are return patrons or if this is their first time going to the tavern. For many plays, the returners far outweigh the newcomers. For “Romeo and Juliet,” however, the audience is about half and half between the

two groups, occasionally favoring the newcomers.

Doing the same thing for the sixteenth year in a row tends to bore, even taking into account the occasionally varying actors in each role. This year’s rendition of the timeless tale of doomed love saw the return of most of the 2014 cast, including the leading actors Nick Arapoglou and Annie York Hester.

As is the case of any production worth its salt, the players involved are most certainly worth mention-ing. From enamored to depressed, hopeless and suicidal, Hester does a fantastic job portraying the range of Juliet’s emotions. In Ad-dition, Arapoglou complements Hester’s performance, and the two depict their character’s ill-thought-out love as though it were true. However, while the two are fine actors and played their parts with gusto, their rendition of the two woefully tragic characters was not as entertaining as it could have been.

Since it has been shown so often at the Shakespeare Tavern and is one of the Bard’s most well-known plays, it is difficult to find someone who does not know how “Romeo and Juliet” ends. Much of the fun of plays, and of stories in general, is following the action or lack thereof that leads to a surpris-

ing, or at the very least unknown, conclusion. Since the entertain-ment value of an unknown end-ing has been taken away from this particular play by time, it is left with the talent of the actors and little else to make it an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Sadly, as good as the actors are, they are not so good as to be able to make “Romeo and Juliet” entertaining for those seeing it for the third or fourth time.

Perhaps if there were fewer points in the plot where the viewer can see how to avoid the disastrous end watching “Romeo and Juliet” again would be more pleasant. Pointing out these alter-nate paths could be entertaining in itself, but after exhausting the options and knowing the play will not change its centuries-old end-ing, the viewers are left with yet another rendition of a senseless couple’s downfall.

For those who managed to graduate high school without reading “Romeo and Juliet” and have not been curious enough to learn the story on their own, this is perhaps one of the better places to see the play for the first time. This is mostly due to the Tavern’s adherence to original practice: they use the unmodified script from Shakespeare’s time and the actors do not acknowledge the

In this rendition of the famous tragedy, the chemistry between the leads is palpable, but the story is regrettably predictable.

Photo courtesy of The Atlanta Shakespeare Company

SHOWS

Romeo and JulietDIRECTOR: Matt FeltenPERFORMER: Nick Arapoglou, Annie York HesterLOCATION: The New American Shakespeare TavernDATE: Feb. 5 - Mar. 1

OUR TAKE: «««««

fourth wall’s existence, reacting to the audience if the fancy strikes them.

There are, however, plenty of other plays to see, both at the Shakespeare Tavern and else-where, so it is probably best to stay away from the overdone classic, “Romeo and Juliet,” which will be performed until Mar. 1. Starting Mar. 5, the Shakespeare Tavern plans to perform “The Winter’s

Tale,” a little-known work by the Bard which should be a nice re-prieve from the familiar “Romeo and Juliet.”

Also, later this year, the Tavern has plans for performing “Taming of the Shrew,” “Merchant of Ven-ice” and “Coriolanus,” as well as the non-Shakespearean play “Our Town,” by Thornton Wilder; such a lineup will surely attract a wide range of viewers.

Robot prepares to sweep future Grammys TRISHNA CHANDARANA

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Students at Tech are well-know for their innovation in the areas of engineering and computer sci-ence; however, there are some who choose to do the impossible and bring liberal arts into the mix as well. Enter Mason Bretan, a Ph.D. student at the Center for Music Technology here on campus.

Bretan specializes in a brand of artificial intelligence that seeks to harness the mysteries of music through the medium of robotics. The robots he works with, nick-named Shimon and Shimi, are currently coded to create music via improvisation and interaction with their surroundings; the Tech-nique was recently able to pose a few questions to Bretan regarding his past experience, his current work and his hopes for the future of music technology.

Technique: What made you interested in combining music and technology in the first place? Is there someone or something that was a big influence on you and kind of led you to do research in the subject?

Bretan: Growing up I loved music and I loved science, but they were always separate and I had never really given much thought about combining the two fields until I started my undergrad at UC San Diego. There is a large music department at UCSD with a heavy emphasis on music tech-nology; in fact it’s home to many notable names in the field.

I would attend performances

and see these great musicians us-ing computers to create systems that could automatically respond to them resulting in sounds and timbres I had never heard before. This completely changed my per-spective on music and it really opened my eyes to the aesthetic possibilities that science and tech-nology can provide to music.

So I started to explore this do-main and as I began to become more familiar with higher level

computer science, signal process-ing and acoustics concepts I de-cided that there was still so much to learn and explore within music technology, so I applied to grad school. And now I’m here at the Center for Music Technology at Tech, and I’ve enjoyed every mo-ment of it!

Technique: What ideas led to the creation of Shimon and your other robots?

Bretan: Robotic musicianship

in general combines two ideas, namely musical mechatronics which focuses on construction of sound producing mechanics, and machine musicianship which fo-cuses on developing algorithms and cognitive models represen-tative of various aspects of mu-sic perception, composition and theory.

By creating robots capable of understanding and generating music we hope to supplement and

enrich the musical experience for humans in a way that would not be possible from only human-hu-man musical interactions. Com-puters and robots are capable of doing things humans aren’t and I and other researchers in the field believe there is artistic potential in these non-human characteristics.

Technique: What kinds of things are you currently working on? Is there still more progress you hope to make with Shimon?

Bretan: There’s still plenty to do with Shimon, Shimi and in the field of robotic musicianship in general. Recently I’ve been work-ing on a generative system for robot musicians that allow them to “think” about their embodi-ment and physical constraints when making musical decisions. I call it “musical path planning” and it works by jointly optimizing for the robot’s physicality and its musical knowledge and goals. Ac-tually, part of the reason I made my video was to demonstrate my implementation of this idea in ac-tion.

Recently our group has also been focusing on wearable robot-ics and how we might be able to augment human ability with ad-ditional limbs and learn how the augmentations can influence the music.

There are plenty of challenges in this and our first prototype was built for an amputee drummer. We had some success and some nice musical results and now we want to go a step further and see if an additional “drumming arm”

Shimon, the robot that Ph.D. student Mason Bretan is currently working with, represents a blend of music and computer programming, and undoubtedly opens new doors in the world of A.I.

Photo courtesy of Mason Bretan

See SHIMON, page 17

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Joe MurphyASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Kara Pendley

technique • February 13, 2015• 15// ENTERTAINMENT

Phox lights up Terminal West with soulful tunes

ALLY STONECONTRIBUTING WRITER

This past Tuesday, Feb. 11, at Terminal West, the up-and-com-ing band Phox charmed a friendly audience with their alterative folk/indie pop melodies. Hailing from Baraboo, Wisconsin, the seven-member group includes instru-mentalists ranging from piano, guitar, drums and trumpet to shakers, banjo, recorder and uku-lele.

Self-reported on their website, the band is “a gaggle of goofy wiz-ards performing minor illusions and big-top music,” and although their music tends to fall in line with the folk genre, they continue to demonstrate their inventive style with rock and electronic ele-ments as well.

The instrumentalists are all men   (Matt Roberts, Zach John-ston, Dave Roberts, Matt Hol-men, Cheston Van Huss and Jason Krunnfusz), and provide background vocals and harmonies for Phox’s lead singer: the sweet and effervescent Monica Martin.

Phox is not new to the Atlanta music scene, as they were part of last year’s Shaky Knees Festival line up and were headliners of a summer show at the Vinyl.

The ages of the audience mem-bers at the Terminal West show ranged from early twenties to mid-thirties, and members en-gaged by swaying, foot stomp-ing, singing along with the lyrics or simply surrendering to the all but hypnotic, soulful voices of the band. Field Report, the openers and close friends of Phox, set the serene tone for the night before the main act took the stage.

Phox performed songs from their self-titled debut album that was released last summer, includ-ing the crowd pleasing “Slow Mo-tion,” “1936” and “Kingfisher,” along with some songs from their new album to be released later this year. The songs are playful and layered with lyrics that cover family relationships, love and life in Wisconsin, all with a nostalgic underpinning.

“Slow Motion” was by far the most recognizable and requested song of the band’s repertoire, with its fun call-and-response style of Martin’s voice, as well as background whistling and instru-mentation. It is evident from the band’s distinct energy that they grew up together in Wisconsin and even live together on and off the road; the nerdy instrumental-ists were corralled by their quirky queen as they interacted with the Phox lead singer Monica Martin led the night with her interactive stage presence; the band

is larger than most, allowing them to experiment with a combination of sound techniques.

Photo by Ally Stone Student Publications

CONCERT

How We Escape Wisconsin Winters

PERFORMER: PhoxLOCATION: Terminal WestDATE: Feb. 11

OUR TAKE: «««««

See PHOX, page 17

16 • February 13, 2015• technique // ENTERTAINMENT

Computer-animated musical is “strange” indeed

PATRICK BLACKCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Strange Magic is certainly an experience. There really is no bet-ter description for this movie.

Directed by Gary Rydstrom (who has only ever done sound de-sign in movies before), this com-puter-animated musical is a re-imagining of the Shakespearean classic, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

For a movie revolving around fantastical situations and never-before-dreamed of worlds, the main plot is pretty simple. There are two kingdoms, one good and one bad. The main character, Marianne (voiced by Evan Ra-chel Wood, Across the Universe), is about to get married, but she finds out that her fiancé is cheat-ing on her and vows never to fall in love again. Years later, her sis-ter is kidnapped by the Bog King (Alan Cumming, The Good Wife) and Marianne ventures into the

Dark Kingdom to save her. Out-side of this driving conflict, there are various subplots that are un-fortunately too convoluted to even list here.

Despite any shortcomings in the originality and flow of its story, one of the more redeeming qualities of Strange Magic is the visuals. Suffice to say, the film is definitely one of the nicest-look-ing animated movies to have been released in recent months. Every object pops with vibrant colors, and the look of the film, while not entirely unique in general style, is pretty refreshing given the bound-less opportunities of its magical forest setting.

The voice acting is also pretty good, as far as animated musicals go. While the performances might not be the most mind-blowing or tear-inducing, the actors hit all the right emotional notes, resulting in a consistent level of energy and emotion.

The ending of the film was for-tunately one of its better aspects. To avoid spoilers, nothing will be said about it here, besides that it takes a tired premise and puts a more realistic, albeit small, spin on it.

Sadly, the film has a lot of poor qualities as well. As this movie is a musical, one would think that the songs would be good, or at the very least catchy, but in actuality they are quite terrible, a fact made more unfortunate considering the director has won awards in sound design in movies like Toy Story and

Finding Nemo. The soundtrack of the film consists of remixes of songs popular throughout the years, from “Can’t Help Falling in Love” to “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You).”

The first problem with the mu-sic is that the song selection is very random. It has no cohesiveness and seems to have little or noth-ing to do with what is happening, with only a verse or two being ap-plicable to the situation at hand.

The second problem is the fact that the remixes of the songs range from acceptable to downright aw-ful; coupled with their poor use in the movie itself, it makes for a very disagreeable experience, made worse by the fact that there is singing throughout the entire movie.

The story itself is thin. Other than the ending, which is very en-joyable and actually pretty good, the story is overwhelmed by cli-chés that bog down its overarch-ing flow. Many plot points can be seen from a mile away, making most of the experience highly pre-dictable.

Overall, Strange Magic is okay. It falls flat in most places; the story is predictable beyond belief and the songs are downright bad. However, because of some re-deeming qualities in the visual ef-fects, character and world design, voice acting and ending, there may be some value in seeing the movie. As stated before, the movie is an experience, but audience opinion may differ.

Although Strange Magic does not lack originality in its charac-ter animation, its story and music leave viewers wanting more.

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

FILM

Strange MagicGENRE: Fantasy, MusicalSTARRING: Evan Rachel Wood, Alan CummingDIRECTOR: Gary RydstromRATING: PGRELEASE DATE: Jan. 23

OUR TAKE: «««««

technique • February 13, 2015• 17// ENTERTAINMENT

can be useful for an able-bodied drummer.

Technique: What aspirations do you have for the things you’re doing here at Tech — what do you hope will result from your work?

Bretan: I want to show the world that robots and machines can be used for applications other than merely computation or com-pleting tasks. I think they can also be artistic, creative, and perhaps even emotional. Often my re-search is met with some resistance from “purists” who believe that music making and art is a unique-ly human activity and could never be replicated by a cold, calculat-ing, soul-less machine.

In my opinion, robots have the potential to expand artistic cre-ation just as other technologies such as turn tables, the electric guitar or digital audio worksta-tions have influenced musical cul-ture. Technology is a good thing and creative people always find ways of using it to enhance artistic expression.

Technique: What kinds of real world applications do you see for your research?

Bretan: I think music is a real

world application, but the research can also impact other fields. Ex-tracting meaningful information from an audio signal to create an algorithm enabling improvisation encompasses everything from sig-nal processing, to machine learn-ing, to cognitive science.

Music is also an extremely time-demanding task, so a lot of effort is made to make things ef-ficient and run in real-time. Be-yond the science that goes into developing our robots, music is also a domain that is shared and enjoyed by billions of people, and such ubiquity can be leveraged to encourage people to engage with robots.

I think we will be seeing social robots become more integrated into everyday life and robots that demonstrate an understanding and even enjoyment of something that is so familiar to people can help to establish trust and confi-dence in the new technology.

Technique: After you receive your Ph.D, what do you plan on doing?

Bretan: I don’t know yet! Mu-sic technology and robots are both big and growing fields right now so hopefully there will be lots of opportunity when I graduate.

in the production. More impor-tantly, enjoy how we break them.

Technique: What’s been the most challenging aspect in pre-paring for opening night?

Foulger: This show is very stylized and very technically in-tricate, so only having five days to incorporate all of the techni-cal elements into the production was probably the most challeng-ing. Between several feeds of video, countless sound cues and a few surprise special effects, we had some real work ahead of us to have everything work together symbiotically.

Technique: What is something about your experience directing “Cartoon” that surprised you?

Foulger: I was surprised that even though I have directed sev-eral shows by playwright Steve Yockey over the years, I always am surprised by his clarity of lan-guage and the way in which he is able to dissect the human condi-

tion down to its basest level. He is able to surprise the audience in such a way that they have no idea what’s coming until they are three steps past it and then they can’t stop it.

Technique: What’s the most important aspect of a perfor-mance’s delivery to an audience?

Foulger: For this show, what’s most important about a perfor-mance’s delivery to an audience is a commitment to the style. If the actor or elements of the pro-duction seem out of step with the style, it has the potential to pull the audience out of the produc-tion.

Technique: What do you hope audiences take away after watch-ing the performance?

Foulger: I hope the audience is able to question their relationship with the media and with violence. I hope they will understand the importance of the word “citizen,” question their role in our society and explore how and when they are able to make change.

audience between songs. The set alternated between full band per-formances, solo work from Mar-tin and her ukulele, and smaller harmonies with two band mem-bers backing up Martin.

As any avid concert-goer knows, the location of the gig can make or break the performance; fortunately, Terminal West was a great venue for the band. The cozy interior along with the indoor balcony created an illusion of a packed house, while still provid-ing an intimate setting. A down-side to Terminal West’s location is that it borders train tracks, and at one point Martin was interrupted by a train. As a testament to the level of enthusiasm present within the crowded venue, this technical difficulty did not have an effect on audience engagement; on the contrary, the audience was further smitten by Martin’s flustered re-sponse for thinking the train was some higher power suspending her song.

A few other times during solos and smaller harmonies, Martin and her fellow group members would stop and start again. Even though at times this stuttered structure lead to a lack of fluidity within the set, the intimate set-ting allowed for the accidents, as they gave the feeling of the band having a small jam session for their fans. Martin’s nerves were apparent within her soft-spoken conversations with the audience, but her reserved style made her all the more lovable.

Near the end, the band high-lighted some of Johnston’s music from his side project under the name Sonntag. Despite a week-night show, Phox did not leave anything back stage; Martin in-sisted on playing all of their mate-rial after a casual agreement with the audience, which wanted more. The band remained long after the show ended, taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. Overall, the night was a harmonic success; Phox’s tour continues north through the summer, and they can be seen at the Bonnarroo and Coachella music festivals later this year.

Joan Chen helps Megan Tappan pin curl her hair; for a show like Cartoon, the appearance of each performer is essential.

Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications

Shimi, Shimon’s smaller companion, acts as a robotic personi-fication of the desktop music experience used by many today.

Photo courtesy of Mason Bretan

SHIMON FROM PAGE 14

CARTOON FROM PAGE 1

PHOX FROM PAGE 15

18 • February 13, 2015• technique // COMICS

XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE

HARK! A VAGRANT BY KATE BEATON

SMBC BY ZACH WEINERSMITH

FOXTROT BY BILL AMEND

NEDROID BY ANTHONY CLARK

CLASSIC

technique • February 13, 2015• 19// COMICS

DILBERT ® BY SCOTT ADAMS

CUL DE SAC BY RICHARD THOMPSONCLASSIC

CALVIN & HOBBES BY BILL WATTERSONCLASSIC

BY SUDOKUCOLLECTION.COM

SUDOKU PUZZLE

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE BY STEPHEN PASTIS

LIO BY MARK TATULLI

20 • February 13, 2015• technique // SPORTS

ALISON LAVERYCONTRIBUTING WRITER

After a whirlwind of suc-cess last season, junior Nathan Rakitt, from Marietta, Georgia, is looking to have another record-making year. Rakitt is the No. 1 seeded player on Tech’s team and is ranked No. 49 among NCAA singles players.

Last year, Rakitt won the Bull-dog Scramble in Athens. After participating in the ITA Summer Championship in Bloomington, Ind., in 2014, Rakitt received an invitation to the qualifiers at the BB&T Atlanta Open. He held his own at the open, but fell to Mi-chael Shabaz.

Rakitt has become a favorite in men’s tennis at Tech, grow-ing into an All-ACC competitor. Rakitt saw losses in the first three matches of 2015, but he turned it around in the match against Fur-man, fighting for a win against Adam Steryous in singles.

Rakitt, with his sophomore doubles partner Cole Fiegel, also saw success against Jacob Behal and Stefan Rhodes. This season, Rakitt has played doubles with Fiegel and freshman Christopher Eubanks.

In the match on Jan. 31, Rakitt earned a singles win and a doubles win with Fiegel against Eastern Tennessee State University. He also won his singles match against Peter Bleach from the Citadel.

This year, Coach Thorne has put together a solid lineup. The team proved their strength in their match last Saturday, going 6-1 against ETSU and 7-0 against the Citadel.

The team is ranked 72nd in the nation. Rakitt has high ex-pectations for this season and

expects to improve that ranking drastically.

“I think this team, especially since I’ve gotten to school, is by far the strongest we’ve ever had. This year in our lineup, we have four freshmen that came in. Mi-chael [Kay] and Chris [Eubanks] have been doing really well. Elijah [Melendez] and Daniel [Yun] are right outside of me, and they’re ready to play, so everybody has basically moved back in the lineup because of those freshman which is really exciting,” Rakitt said.

Rakitt has been very impressed with the work ethic of his fresh-man teammates.

“A lot of times, freshman will come in and expect to either not play or play the bottom, but these guys came in, and Chris is playing two and Mike’s been doing really well in the middle of the lineup,” Rakitt said. “I expect him to move up as well, so I see us doing very well. Our goal is to start with the third round of NCAAs and we’re definitely expecting to reach that goal.”

Success in the next few match-es will be necessary to reaching the NCAA tournament. Last Fri-day’s match against UGA was es-pecially lively.

“All you need to say is ‘fight.’ Everybody knows that that’s defi-nitely the biggest match,” Rakitt said. “You have just got to fight. They are always tough, always contenders for the national title, always top five or top ten in the nation. So that’s definitely a big challenge for us, but I definitely feel like we have the right group of guys who believe in themselves as well as believing in each other.”

Rakitt still has one more year left in his collegiate athletic career.

He is majoring in Industrial

Engineering but plans on con-tinuing his success on the tennis court after graduating from Tech.

“I never really considered a professional tour. I kind of came here for academics and was plan-ning on going into the business world right after school,” Rakitt said. “But I think last year I had a pretty good year. Definitely not the best that I can do —I feel like there is much more ahead of me—but after last year and hope-fully this year, I will continue to improve, and I still have another year after that. I feel like I could

go into the professional tour after that. So that’s the goal right now.”

Rakitt might not have consid-ered the professional tour at first, but his performances here at Tech tell a different story.

In his time at Tech, Rakitt has developed his singles game to very high level and improved his dou-bles game each year.

Not only is he a strong com-petitor, but also he endures on the court. Rakitt knows how to improve after losses, stay humble after victories and to turn a match around after getting off to a

poor start. With all the makings of a com-

petitor on the professional circuit, Rakitt looks forward to continu-ing his tennis career beyond Tech.

He may not be the only one from the team to make the prof-fessional circuit, as the fresh-men on the team this year have proven to have a high potential to be great.

Tennis fans and followers can look forward to Tech’s rising in the national rankings with a dy-namic lineup this year and in the future.

Photo by GTAA

In his time at Tech, Rakitt has developed his singles game to very high level and im-

proved his doubles game each year. A career on a professional tour may be on the horizon.

Nathan Rakitt excelling with men’s tennis

22 • February 13, 2015• technique // SPORTS

Bad Design Atlanta Competition Awards

The Georgia Tech student chapter of the Human Factorsand Ergonomics Society would like to congratulate thewinners of the 2015 Bad Design Atlanta Competition:• First place: Shaziya Tambawala. Holistic - A reporting

system for potholes and other pedestrian hazards• Second place: Jimmy Y. Zhong. Where am I at

Georgia Tech? – A Closer Look at the Stinger andTrolley Route Maps

• Third place: Kristen Jeffares. A New Stairwell An event hosted by HFES to recognize the winners anddiscuss good human factors and ergonomics design willtake place on Tuesday, February 17th. The event will takeplace from 5:30-7 PM in room 250 in the Coon building.All are welcomed to attend and learn more about humanfactors and ergonomics in the real world. Additional information can be found at:hfesgt.wordpresscom/

ALEXANDER RESSETRACK AND FIELD

NIKHIL VENKATESHCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Technique: Why did you choose athletics?

Reese: I was always athletic as a child. My parents offered [to let] me to do it, and I accepted. It turns out that I had a talent for it. Since middle school, my little brother helped me a lot as he had a lot of connections with a club team and a coach. The coach trained me from then onwards till high school.

Technique: How are you pre-paring for your next track meet?

Reese: The next track meet is at Virginia Tech starting on February 5th and will carry on through the weekend. As far as preparation goes, I’m working on turnover and speed work, and I am hoping to run a 48 low. I have

no idea what events, but I will be taking part in either 400m open or 4x400m relay.

Technique: Why did you choose to run track and field at Tech? How much did academics play into your decision?

Reese: I chose it so I could get the most of it. I got into a hand-ful of schools, and Georgia Tech was an excellent choice for me not only for athletics but also for the superior academics offered here.

Technique: Do you have any advice for your peers on time management?

Reese: I also had a problem managing time at first. But as time went by, I got the hang of it. I would always prioritize academics over anything else. The training is fixed, so you need to build around it depending on what you’re major is. So just pick a quiet place like the library, and put in a couple of hours to focus on academics.

Technique: What do you plan on doing after graduation?

Reese: I am looking forward to getting into graduate school and getting a graduate degree in digi-tal media to further my dreams of becoming a digital designer.

Technique: Do you have any specific training regimes for the different events? What is your mental and physical training process?

Reese: I don’t have any spe-cific training for different events; it’s mostly mental preparation for me. It’s important to under-stand that you’re not the best, and that other people are training just as hard as you. You want to make sure that you personally are trained the hardest. It’s crucial to

be in the zone and stay confident. If you’re not mentally prepared, you’re not forcing yourself to win and stay ahead of the competition. In terms of the physical aspect, though, I like to keep my body loose and well-stretched.

Technique: Who is your track role model?

Reese: I really look up to Mi-chael Johnson. He was the cham-pion of the 400m dash and the 200m dash. I wanted to be just like him, his running style and technique really impressed me.

Technique: What was the most memorable event you have taken part in?

Reese: My most memorable event was in the 2011-2012 season when I was in my junior year of high school. I ran the 200m and the 400m Georgia State meet events. I ran a 21.9 for the 200m, the best in all of Georgia, and I ran a 47.3 [in the 400m], winning the 5A divisions.

Technique: What are some of your hobbies?

Reese: I consider myself an

avid gamer and put my free time into gaming. But if I have some quiet time, I like to do some drawing.

Technique: What are some of your favorite spots to hang out at Georgia Tech and in the Atlanta area?

Reese: I haven’t actually ex-plored Atlanta that much even though I’m a third year. I pre-fer to be on campus, and I feel Tech Square is a nice spot to get some nice food and hang out with friends.

Photo courtesy of GTAA

Tech sprinter Alexander Reese has been running track since he was a kid. He chose Tech

for both its academics and athletics and hopes to go to graduate school for digital media.

technique • February 13, 2015• 23// SPORTS

MICHAEL KENNYCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The men’s basketball team traveled up to Blacksburg, Va., Monday to take on ACC rival Virginia Tech. The Jackets have been struggling against ACC foes, so this was an important game to win against a weaker ACC team.

After playing a hard-fought game, the Jackets fell short and lost a 10 point lead with three minutes left. The Hokies hit a late three pointer, and missed free throws and opportunities plagued Tech as they fell 65-63 to VT.

Forward Charles Mitchell came off the bench for the Jackets and led the team with 17 points and eight rebounds. Mitchell has played a key roll in scoring for the Jackets and has done so all season. He provided a spark off the bench that the team needed during this tough road test.

Marcus Georges-Hunt played a solid game for Tech, adding 11 points and five rebounds of his own.

Tech’s shooting woes contin-ued in this game. The Jackets shot 37.7 percent from the field, below their already subpar 41.5 percent on the season. Their three point shots were off again in this game with the Jackets just four of 19 shots behind the arch. For a team that has not shot the three ball well all season, 19 shots were a lot to take.

The Jackets were able to out-rebound the Hokies, 39-27. But it still would not be enough to get them past VT.

Tech found themselves down early in the game thanks to some turnovers. After the first five min-utes of the game, the Jackets were in a 14-2 hole.

However, their luck would change in the next five minutes. The Jackets went on a key 9-0 to

bring the score within one half-way through the first half. Tech would go into halftime up 31-26 due to some great defense down the stretch.

After multiple attempts to pull away, VT stayed within arms reach of the Jackets. Tech man-aged to build a seven point lead midway through the second half, only to see it erased after the Hok-ies came back from a timeout.

It appeared that the Jackets were ready to put this game away late as Tadric Jackson sunk a huge three to put Tech up by ten with only five minutes left in the game. However, the Hokies would not

go away easily, though. VT made multiple crucial baskets down the stretch.

With only 20 seconds left in the game, VT’s Malik Muller nailed a go-ahead and, ultimately, game-winning three pointer to put the Hokies up by 1 and give them their first lead of the half.

After a great defensive first half, the Jackets fell apart in the second. That did not go unnoticed by head coach Brian Gregory.

“Our defense was awful in the second half. We didn’t guard the dribble well. We took away their three, which was a big part of the game, but they got to

the free throw line. They didn’t make a ton of them, but we had some missed coverages.” Gregory said after the game courtesy of ramblinwreck.com.

“We wanted to take the ball to the basket. It’s a tough, bitter pill to swallow. But we wanted the ball in Marcus [Georges-Hunt]’s hands. He’s our go-to guy. That’s who’s going to win the game for us in the end.” Gregory said.

The Jackets would fall to 11-13 on the season and 2-10 in ACC play. Tech hosts the Florida State Seminoles this Saturday at Mc-Camish Pavilion, followed by Clemson on Monday night.

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The Jackets continue to rely on Marcus Georges-Hunt, seen here defending VT’s Jalen Hudson.

He was on the court for 37 minutes in the 40 minute game, scoring 11 points in the process.

Tech loses big lead, falls by 2 to VT

MEN’S TENNISThe Tech men’s tennis team

lost 4-3 to the No. 4 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. Even though losses are never good, the Tech men’s team will undoubtedly go up in the rankings from the their No. 75 spot. Freshman Christo-pher Eubanks was the big star of the match as he beat the No. 11 singles player in the country and earned himself the No. 50 spot in the current singles rankings

SOFTBALLThe softball team began their

season over the past weekend in Boca Raton, Florida. losing all five of their scheduled games in the FAU Tournament. They pitched well, but were not able to score many runs. They hope to turn their fortunes around this week-end when they travel to Florida State to compete in the FSU Un-conquered Invitational.

TRACK AND FIELDThe men’s and women’s track

and field teams fared well at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet. Both the men’s and women’s 4x800 meter teams finished in second place, with the women’s team setting a school record. Several Jackets also set personal records in their events.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe women’s team lost a close

game at home to No. 25 Syracuse on Sunday, dipping their record to 4-6 in the ACC and 14-10 overall. Sophomore Kaela Davis led both teams with 18 points.

HeartbreakerMen's basketball takes a big lead on Virginia Tech before losing it in the

final minute.423Sports

sports@nique.net

SPORTS EDITOR: Mark RussellASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR: Joe Sobchuk

technique24Friday,

February 13, 2015

2015 TECH BASEBALL PREVIEW

OVERVIEWAll but one of the Jackets’ top nine bat-

ters from last year’s ACC Championship team will be returning to the lineup this year. Combine these returners with a few solid performances by freshmen over the fall, and the team is looking like a strong candidate to contend for the ACC crown and in the NCAA tournament once again.

INFIELDThe Jackets’ defensive strength is best

seen in their infield. The team turned 77 double plays last season, which led the en-tire NCAA and set a new school record. Three out of the four starters from that unit return this year in senior first baseman Thomas Smith, sophomore third baseman Brandon Gold and sophomore shortstop Connor Justus.

Smith’s .301 average and 36 RBIs made him one of the Jackets’ best players last year, and his .996 fielding percentage and .392 on-base percentage led the team.

He will most likely stay at first base but may move to second to make room for freshman Kel Johnson. Johnson lit up the White and Gold Series over the fall, hitting 7-for-10 with five runs batted in. He is a versatile player and could instead see action in the outfield or in the designated hitter position. Senior A.J. Murray could also see time at first, as the slugger will bounce be-tween first, catcher and DH.

If Smith remains at first, freshman Wade Bailey will begin the year in Hyde’s spot at second base. He hit well this past fall, going 6 for 11 with a homer, two RBIs, and three runs scored.

Justus has shortstop on lockdown after a strong freshman outing in 2014. He was dependable in clutch situations, hitting .400 with the bases loaded, scoring five game-winning runs, and driving in an ad-

ditional five game-clinching RBIs. Gold’s strength is in his glove more so

than his bat, but he has worked this off-season to improve at the plate. He will be backed up by freshman Blake Jackson, while junior outfielder Matt Gonzalez could also see action at third.

Sophomore Arden Pabst will start the majority of games at catcher after split-ting the role with Mitch Earnest last year. While he batted for only a .217 average in 2014, he has a lot of value in the field. His 16 runners-caught-stealing was second-best in the conference.

OUTFIELDThe entire starting outfield from last

year—senior Daniel Spingola, junior Matt Gonzalez, and sophomore Ryan Peurifoy—returns for this season.

Sophomores Keenan Innis and Cole Miller will also earn some starts in the out-field this year.

Spingola led the team in batting aver-age (.319), slugging percentage (.451), hits (82, leading the entire ACC), triples (8, also the conference leader), stolen bases (15) and runs (45). Once again, he will be Tech’s leadoff hitter and will be very influential both defensively and offensively.

Gonzalez’s .314 average and 80 total hits were not too far behind Spingola’s, and his team-leading 37 RBIs was one better than Spingola’s 36. His nine outfield assists ranked fourth in the nation, which is even more impressive considering he started sev-eral games in the infield. Gonzalez has the potential to be Tech’s best overall player.

Peurifoy is also strong in both aspects of the game, notching seven outfield assists and hitting .296 in 2014.

Overall, this outfield corps is one of the strongest in recent Tech memory, and could be the most productive in the ACC.

OVERVIEWSeveral key pitchers are gone from last

year but the good news for the Tech pitch-ing staff is that they return their top two starting pitchers from last year and several more experienced pitchers. The bullpen will have several spots to fill, but overall, the starting rotation has potential to be as strong as ever.

The Jackets will face some tough com-petition this year and with their young and improving lineup, if their pitchers perform to the level of last year, Tech could go a long way this season.

Tech is currently ranked in the top 25 by some outlets, but the goal of the team will be to advance to a super regional this year and to play in the 2015 College World Series.

STARTING PITCHERSRedshirt senior Devin Stanton was

Tech’s top performing pitcher last year. Stanton had an phenomenal ERA of 2.24 in 76.1 innings. He struck out 57 oppo-nents and held the batters to an average of .245.

Stanton had the team’s lowest ERA, but current sophomore Ben Parr had one of the best freshman pitching seasons in Tech his-tory last year.

Parr started off in the midweek rotation spot, but after dominating the competition, he became a weekend starter. Parr posted a terrific 2.62 ERA in 65 innings. Parr also tallied 52 K’s, and had the best K/9 ratio on the team.

Junior Jonathan King returns from a shoulder injury from last year. Through four appearances, King had a 1.96 ERA in 18 innings pitched. Unfortunately, he would not pitch again after his fourth start and spent the past year rehabbing from Tommy John’s surgery.

Now returning for his third year, King and Tech are hoping he can replicate last year’s hot start and continue to make im-provements through the season.

Senior Cole Pitts is also recovering from Tommy John’s surgery and is in the running to start this year once he is fully healthy. In four starts last year, he posted a 3.18 ERA.

Stanton has undergone that surgery as well and has been helping Pitts through the process. It is still uncertain if Pitts will re-cover soon enough to be ready for the start of the season or what kind of season he will have.

RELIEVERSAfter losing their top two relievers,

Dusty Isaacs and Sam Clay, and starting pitchers Matthew Grimes and Josh Hed-dinger, expect to see some new faces mak-ing an impact this year for the Jackets.

The closer and setup roles are unknown and only two returning pitchers have re-corded a save, King (expected to be primar-ily a Starter) with two and sophomore Zac Ryan with one.

Manager Danny Hall is uncertain of the bullpen situation, and it may be a role by committee for the time being until some-one separates themselves from the group.

Pitching coach Jason Howell is expect-ing Ryan, sophomores Ben Schniederjans, Matthew Gorst and Tanner Shelton to play big roles coming out of the bullpen this year.

Freshman Jared Datoc, Cory Pope and Daniel Gooden will have a chance to pitch out of the bullpen as well.

It will be a monumental challenge to re-place the roles of Isaacs and Clay but the coaches and players are confident going into this season. Their first test will be this weekend at home vs. St. Johns.