The Georgia Tech-Savannah campus is transitioning into a hub for professional education, as recommended by the Institute’s task force report last summer. Professional Education Dean Nelson Baker will lead the new direction of the Georgia Tech-Savannah campus.

Baker is a nationally recognized leader in award-winning educational technologies designed for and applied to engineering and technical environments.  As the dean of Professional Education, Baker is responsible for the oversight of all professional education programs at Georgia Tech and for the distance delivered master’s degree programs.

“Nelson will provide the leadership and direction needed to guide Georgia Tech-Savannah through this transformation,” said Georgia Tech Provost Rafael Bras.  “He has a strong vision for professional education at Georgia Tech, and Savannah can play a key role through its new mission focused on meeting the needs of the community and industry in the coastal Georgia area.”

Georgia Tech-Savannah will begin to offer professional education classes this fall in the areas of OSHA, LEAN Healthcare, supply chain logistics, and project management, with additional programs to be scheduled in the future. The Savannah campus will also continue to deepen engagement with the community via partnerships with industry, other educational institutions, K-12 outreach, and the military.

“I’m excited that Georgia Tech is investing in the Savannah campus through our professional education program,” said Baker.  “Over the last year, I have learned that the Savannah business community is very dedicated to working with Georgia Tech-Savannah.  Our goal is to create new programs that will have a vital and lasting impact in Savannah and the coastal region.”

Within the educational technology domain, Baker has helped create and assess technology used by students in the pursuit of evaluating the impacts on knowledge retention and transfer.  These activities have included multi-lingual web-based intelligent simulations for problem solving, intelligent tutors, student models, virtual reality interfaces for education and medical assistants for physicians.

Baker’s research interests include intelligent learning environments for engineering, applications of artificial intelligence and other computer-based techniques to solve engineering problems, as well as robotic applications in civil engineering. He has a master’s and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon and bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech.