Georgia Tech was a popular destination site for a number of VIPs during March. First, President Barack Obama visited campus and wowed a crowd of nearly 10,000 students, faculty, staff and others. His speech was primarily about making post-secondary education more affordable, but he also gave a shout out to advanced manufacturing and Georgia Tech's involvement in the program. (Click here to read more about AMP. Go to this link to view a video of the President's speech. At mark 6:30 you will hear his comment on AMP.)

Joining the President for his visit to Georgia Tech was Admiral James A. "Sandy" Winnefeld, Jr., Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Later in the day, Adm. Winnefeld toured the Advanced Orthotics and Prosthetics Manufacturing Lab on 14th Street to see the work GTMI researchers are doing to help veterans.

Chuck Zhang of GTMI said the Admiral's interest was piqued by the project called, "Socket Optimized for Comfort with Advanced Technologies," or SOCAT. The project includes work to create a socket for amputees' prosthetics that is partially 3D printed and has sensors to detect and control temperature, swelling and other factors that can cause discomfort for the amputee. The Admiral, who is a Georgia Tech graduate, was interested to hear about how 3D printing technologies were being used and how the sensors were incorporated into the design.

Friday, March 13 brought another visitor to campus and to GTMI. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited GTMI and faculty of the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) department. After a short presentation on research at GTMI and ISyE, they German delegation toured labs at GTMI.