This year, for the first time, Public Policy participated in the 2014 Capstone Design Expo, which featured more than 900 students and 170 teams from eight Georgia Tech schools and three colleges tackling real-world problems. The Expo showcases projects from undergraduate senior design courses in which students work together to design products or tackle real-world problems, sometimes at the behest of sponsors. It was held on April 24 at McCamish Pavilion and was the largest Spring Expo to date. More than 5,000 visitors roamed the premises checking out projects that ranged from life-saving medical devices to tools to make life easier.  Many teams worked on projects that could be commercially viable, while other teams focused on community-oriented projects. 

This year’s senior-year Public Policy Task Force teams displayed their projects at the Expo, attracting many visitors and much discussion. An award was given in each discipline, and this year’s Public Policy Award went to the ALFI team:for the City of Atlanta, they studied urban agriculture initiatives in other cities to help the Atlanta Local Food Initiative devise a strategy for Atlanta to boost urban agriculture, taking into account zoning ordinances, demand, and necessary resources for urban agriculture. The team members were Sahra Jabbehdari
, Ryan Hedrich
, Jonathan Vallecillo
, and Tim Lin.

Another Policy Task Force team analyzed E-Cigarette policies for the Centers for Disease Control: Jim Woodson, Meagan Ryan, Joseph Santoro, and Aaron Morgan. Great timing: the FDA released its proposed regulations the same day as the Expo, and the ECig team anticipated many of its recommendations. 

Amanda Scott and Brandon Williams worked on a project for the Marcus Autism Center to identify the best approach for Georgia to reimburse care for autism that is provided via telemedicine through the Medicaid system.



The Healthy Cities/Fulton team (Mary Shoemaker, Paige Clayton, and Derek Jett) worked for the Fulton County Health Department to recommend a path forward for engaging the cities throughout the County in working to enhance the health of their residents based on best practices in other municipalities around the US.

 The fifth Public Policy Task Force team conducted a study for the Centers for Disease Control of policies regarding youth and the recreational use of marijuana.  The team -- Sean Poole, Roma Amin, Graham Goldberg, and Kayla McKenzie – were dressed appropriately!