Pete Ludovice
Associate Professor
ChBE

Where did you grow up and how did you find your way to Georgia Tech?

I grew up in the Midwest. I'm originally from a suburb of Chicago called Des Plaines, IL, whose claim to fame is that it was the home of the first McDonald’s. It was the first chain golden arch one and it’s now a museum. I went to University of Illinois, because states schools are affordable, then did my graduate work at MIT. I did my postdoctoral work at IBM and NASA in California and ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. Then I worked for a company called Polygen Molecular Simulations. It was originally called Polygen Molecular Simulations and then they changed it to Molecular Simulations Inc. because people were answering the phone "Good morning. PMS Inc. How may I help you?" So I interviewed here and a couple other places, and they offered me a job, so I started working here in 1993.

What is your area of interest when it comes to research?

I do computer simulations of synthetic biological macromolecules or polymers. Big molecules. I'm working on some polypeptide simulations that are part of some biomaterials research right now, but I'm currently doing a lot of work on block copolymers. That’s two polymers that have two different blocks to them that phase separate, and they separate into these nice little lines, you can then etch them and make really small features in a computer chip. It's called directed self assembly. I do a lot of the simulation work in collaboration with Cliff Henderson who does the experimental work. We’re trying to use computer simulation to push forward the bounds of Moore's Law.

I also do some research in humor. I actually have an active National Science Foundation research grant to study using humor to improve engineering education. The joke I tell is that it's going very slowly, because engineers don't necessarily have much of a sense of humor. There is some truth to that. 

We've actually had to flip the classroom first to try to do more active learning to make that work, but the idea is that if you use an example to learn, say for example, numerical methods in engineering, it's a little more relatable, a little funnier, you may find that it's easier to understand what's going on. A good example is a lot of times you like to take data and break it down in to its independent components so it's a principle component analysis where you sort of break things up into these independent eigenvectors and you can either apply that to analyze the data to something complicated or you can take the patent from eHarmony.com, the dating service, and take a crazy survey of students and have them analyze that. For example, if you have two pieces of data that are inversely correlated. It's not always interesting to see why that is the case, and if you just said vibrations and the infrared spectrum molecules, people don't always see that. They can't relate to it. Maybe it's easier to learn it when you do it on a survey when people ask you if you like to read, or like walks on the beach or if you like cats or dogs, and things like that. What's interesting is that most people would say that the question "Do you like cats or do you like dogs" would be inversely correlated, because people are either a dog person or a cat person. Every time we do the survey though, it's the opposite. They are positively correlated, so what it really says about the data is people are either animal lovers or not, which people can relate to that.

I also do some work with Lew Lefton. He's in the math department. He's a professional faculty member there, and he also is in charge of computing for the College of Sciences. He is both a stand-up comedian like me, plus he's also an improv comedian. So we work on a workshop approach where we use humorous improv to catalyze technical and engineering innovation. The improv part is the divergent thinking that gets you thinking about new and different things. That divergent part gets merged with the convergent and emergent parts that allows you to then turn it into a possible solution for an engineering problem, so it's another research area. So I do some simulations and some goofy applications of humor to improve technical communication, education and innovation.

How did you get interested in exploring stand up and taking comedy seriously?

I did it the same way everybody does it. The same way I encourage my students, who are part of the Georgia Tech Geekapalooza Comedy Tour- go on open mic. That’s how David Spade started, that's how Jerry Seinfeld started. Back in 2004, 11 years ago now, I went to an open-mic at the Funny Farm Comedy Club. It has since closed, and I used to do a lot of MCing. So that was sort of the intro comic work. Then once I did that, I just sort of caught the bug and kept it going. I tell my students that if you get up on stage and don't wet your pants and cry, and get through your jokes and can get off the stage, it's been a successful open mic. Open mics are never pretty the first time you do it. Until you've done it in front of an audience, you just don't know what to expect. So that's how I got started. Probably a year or two into it I asked myself if I could take humor and comedy and use it to help what I do in chemical engineering. 

I believe I'm the only person to ever be invited to tell jokes at the National Science Foundation and I've been featured in Chemical and Engineering News, which is the ACS (American Chemical Society) magazine. Now I go around and often will talk at everything from state science fairs, conferences on education. I just spoke to the local chapter of IEEE last week during the Georgia Association of Engineering Companies. Then I sort of travel around and do my one man show, which is called “Feel the Power of the Dork Side”.  It is a hilarious, yet educational look at science and technology and their practitioners. I can vary my humor everywhere between the regular R-rated comedy club set to something that's funny for technical people, to  something that's really an educational talk that's also a little bit funny on the value of humor in technical innovation and communication. 

What are some of the strangest or most out of way places that comedy has taken you? Are there any unique places you've performed or been asked to speak at?

Yeah, so it took me to Imperial College London, where I realized that Americans are very uptight. You can get away with a lot of different humor in Europe than you can here. I think Americans take ourselves far too seriously. Probably some fringe festivals were interesting. I've done the Atlanta fringe festival, Chicago fringe festival, and the New Orleans fringe festival. I'm just about to do the national fringe festival. 
I've done a couple of international conferences in front of infertility nurses, and I did that because my wife is an infertility nurse, so I had some perspective on that. There I can tell just about any dirty joke I want, because you know, nurses, doctors, firefighters, paramedics and police officers have seen people at their worst. What most people don't realize is that a lot of those medical emergency personnel have a really dirty sense of humor, because anything they can do, they can sort of take the edge off this horrific stuff they have to see. 

Believe it or not, the first time I did it was at a conference in New Orleans, and they literally said and I quote, "We basically want 35 minutes of dirty jokes about awkward moments in the sperm sample collection room” because infertility is a very personal kind of thing, and somebody is taking too long and they have to do an insemination and say “hey what's keeping you?” And there's a lot of pressure, and the joke potential is amazing. I did jokes about Beta HCG Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and I'm one of the few guys that can actually jokes about molecules and things like that.

What types of performances do you do in the Atlanta area and at Tech?

We've done a number of comedy shows both in the dorms and for student groups, and we do a lot of work with Geekapalooza. That’s myself, Lew Lefton, and whatever students and student alumni that are still around. We've done everything with those guys from Dragoncon to the Sweetwater 420 Festival, which we’ve done five years in a row. Of course, the Sweetwater 420 Festival, it's over the 420 weekend, you've got a lot of comedians telling jokes about marijuana. I was out there saying “We're a bunch of nerds. What do we know about 420? Well, we know a lot about 420” and I started explaining about THC and how a lot of researchers are changing the alkane tail on one side of the molecule to change its ability to relieve pain, relieve tumors, relieve cancer and relieve nausea. I know a lot of the guys in the back are looking at me thinking "Hey I gotta get me some of this" but actually you don't. This is the one that FDA has been making in pill form for people with glaucoma for years, and it does relieve interocular pressure, but it's not that really good buzz that you stoners really like. This is the one that makes you feel paranoid, so it isn't actually what you want, but in the process, you learn about some chemistry. 
So I was the guy that talked about chemistry to a bunch of stoners.
 
Is there anybody that has had influence on you from a comedy standpoint?

George Carlin. I first listened to Class Clown, which has the seven dirty words you can't say on television, when I was in middle school. I have that entire routine memorized. He likes to say "I like to bring people over the edge and make them glad they came along for the ride." I don't think I get to get away with that sort of thing, when I'm doing out doing things for the American Chemical Society, so I have to be a little more reserved. A good friend of mine, Tim Lee, is another influence. He is a comedian with a Ph.D. in biology. He does comedy full-time, and he has an act called Scientist Turned Comedian. We’ve performed together at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, and while we were there we did a night of science comedy at Georgetown University. I’ve opened for him a number of times in Atlanta, North Carolina, and D.C. 

We’ve done tons of auditions and screen tests together for a lot of different cable networks. We're trying to do a funny science show. No one has pulled the trigger on it yet, at least not with us. There are plenty of them that don't use real scientists, so we don't have a lot of hope that they're going to do a funny science show with actual scientists. Maybe they think there’s some truth to the saying that scientists and engineers are not that funny, but I refuse to believe that. We’ll keep trying.

How is your humor received by your students?

I think most people would rather have someone funny for an 8 am class than someone not funny. Occasionally, they get a little cruel. One student said "I don't appreciate your jokes, and I don't like your imitation of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy." I think it's received reasonably well. Once in a while, people don't care for my sense of humor, but I think in general, it works to my advantage, particularly for an 8 am class, because no one wants to get up for an 8 am class. 

Given how international Tech students are now, does that come into play? Does the humor translate for an international audience?

It can be a challenge. I think you have to be very adaptive when it comes to that. I tell students that if there's someone who bombed my class, I don't think they bombed my class because they didn't get my jokes, they bombed my class because they didn't show up or do their work. My lecture style isn't for everybody. Some people like things that are much more serious. I don't think I get to a point where I'm distracting, but that may not be the case for everyone. If someone wants a serious professor, there are plenty of those on campus.

One of the problems with our students, if you can call it that, is that they're really good at math and good at applying math and they read the number and say this is greater than that, but what does it mean? They don't want to think outside of the box, so I'm trying to break that. In fact, this NSF grant is called mediating conclusion fear. Students will do all this analysis and come up with all these numbers and in the end, I'd say well, make a conclusion. What does it mean? They're scared to death to do it, because if it's in science or engineering, they think there's some zinger that they don't know. They're afraid that I’m going to jump on them. If it's a topic that they're as familiar with as I am like the survey questions of whether they like dogs or cats, they’re a lot more comfortable drawing conclusions. I've had them analyze movie box office receipts and talk to me about trends in those things, and I probably know less, and I think they feel a little more comfortable with that fun/funny/relatable example, and I'm hoping that when we eventually finish this, that there is a better way of getting conclusions. I hope humor has a role in doing that.
 

Darren Nowell
Financial Administrator III
ME

Where are you from and what brought you to Georgia Tech?

I'm a native Atlantan and I graduated from Georgia State in the late 90's. I had a job at a book store for a while, putting myself through school, then I thought "You know what? Amazon.com just opened" and it didn't take a genius to realize I needed to get out of the retail book industry. I came to Georgia Tech and worked for a year in the architecture library, doing desk service basically.

Then I transitioned over the financial aid department and worked there for about a decade. Then I came over here as an accountant. I kind of fell into managing money. Now that's what I do.

What did you go to school for?

I have a theater degree with a minor in philosophy, so it was a natural transition into finance of course. I've gone back to school and I have a second degree in business administration from Georgia State.

What do you like about your work environment?

It's never a dull moment in our department. I've had days in other departments where it's the same old grind, but here there's always something new and unusual going on that no one has ever faced before. There's always a new challenge to take on and solve or fix. It's fun. 

These are all good challenges, right?

Of course. We have excellent faculty members and there's nothing crazy going on, but with the nature of work they do there are some interesting requests. Trying to figure out how to get a request through the existing bureaucracy at the institute and state level can be tricky.

Have you had any particularly unusual requests?

Once I had to help with purchasing a solar collector from Switzerland. It was about half a million dollars and had to be delivered from Switzerland. It was shipped over via boat and involved lots of work with customs. When you push the button on an order that size your heart panics a little bit. 

You have a reputation for being fun to work around. Did you really dress up as a super hero for an office Halloween party?

It is. We have social events for the staff and we had a Halloween thing. I do a lot of cosplay at DragonCon and other cons. I'm a big scifi nerd and I make no apologies about it at all. I'm into superheroes, and I have a Greek warrior version of a Wonder Woman costume, so it's a gender crossplay costume. It gets a lot of attention, because when people see it they assume it's being worn by a woman. I have relatively hairless legs, so I get mistaken for a girl. I call it my Wonder Whoa Man costume, because people see it and say "Whoa man..." It makes for some funny moments.

I also have a Star Trek costume, I have Star Wars and super hero costumes. I have medieval steampunk costumes- I basically have one for every occasion. I have Invisible Kid from the Legion of Super Heroes, which is very quirky futuristic sci-fi. I'm getting an Aquaman made soon, and I have Green Lantern.

How did you get into cosplay?

It's a hobby in which you're able to just dress up and let things go. People spend their money doing a lot of different things, things that give them an outlet for all of the stress from their regular day-to-day life. We all go to work and pay our bills, and work can be a challenge, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in unintended ways. If you don't have a creative outlet outside of these walls or you don't have something else you do on the side, what are you going to do when you retire? What else in your life brings you meaning? That could be kids, a social life, church life, or whatever. For me- I like dressing up and acting foolish. It's a good time, and I really enjoy it. It helps me shed the stress and frustrations of my work life.

What conventions do you attend?

I'm going to Dragon Con on Labor Day weekend, I went to two in May, including Timegate, a Dr. Who convention at 85 and Clairmont. MomoCon is another big one the last weekend of May, and it's down at the Georgia World Congress Center. There are a lot of cons right now with plenty of opportunities to get involved locally. We even have a Walking Dead convention here, since it's a locally produced show. It's a great way to have fun and meet other people. 

DragonCon is the big one though, and I take the whole week off of work. People know not to call me. I will not be available and if I am you won't want to listen to me. I'll be acting foolish. It's what I do during DragonCon.

Aside from dressing in costumes, what's your approach to keeping work fun?

I've worked in several offices in which the approach from management was "Let's beat the fun out of this. You are here from 8am until 5pm and you are just a cog in the wheel designed to produce results." It's fine to expect results- that's what we're here for- but there's a way to get that message across without sucking out the will to live.

Subject matter experts don't always make great people managers- those are two very different skillsets. Some people who do become managers because of their knowledgebase sometimes miss out on the nuances of managing an office and managing employees. How do you make them feel like they're contributing, and that they're important, instead of just showing up when something goes wrong? There are going to be highs and lows. Mistakes are going to be made- we're people. That's the price of getting business done. But when the overall timbre of an office is so down that you can feel it's an oppressive environment, it's a miserable place to work. My goal is to make the place I work as happy as possible, while still focusing on getting work done.

I try to be a morale booster and I'm a big believer in talking to people about their performance outside of review time. My style is to focus on getting things done and expressing frustrations in a conversational, supporting way, and people can express their frustrations to me too. We're on the same team and we have the same goals, especially as we approach fiscal year closeout. We have to get it all done, and that can be tough. Going into it with a good attitude makes it a lot easier. We can laugh and have a good time, and then leave the work behind us at the end of the week.

And that's when I use my hobbies to blow off steam and be foolish.

The caveat is that you have to know who you can have fun with in the office and who you can't. You have to know the boundaries and be careful not to overstep them. I'm very quick to apologize if I do. You have to take ownership of that and be able to say "That was never my intention." There are people you can joke with and those you can't. Personally, I use a lot of self-deprecating humor. If I show people I can make fun of myself then they know there's nothing sacred and they can say what they want to me. If people are going around making fun of other people that's entirely different and can turn into something mean-spirited very quickly.

As long as people know you are being serious about the work you can bring a light-hearted bent to it, and that makes you easier to deal with. I work in finance and we're frequently the bad guys who are saying no all the time. I try to say no with a reason, or no with alternatives. You have to be forthright, and I use humor as a tool. I want to be known as someone people enjoy interacting with as much as possible. I don't want them to dread talking to me.