Good morning. Is the mike on can you hear me. Welcome on behalf of the my co-chair Dr Alan Jones from the College of Architecture as well as the institute I'd like to welcome you to the Frederick Elmo instead symposium before I give a few brief remarks and we start the program. I'd like to thank the staff who put a significant amount of time in organizing this outstanding program like to acknowledge Cormac Crystal Hansen. Jess hunt. Josh do it if you're here please. It's kind of raise your hand. So we can acknowledge I think the other two outside thank you for your work. I must say the enthusiasm for this symposium caught me a little bit off guard when we first were planning it we were anticipating maybe twenty five to fifty people or so we had a small room and then I grew to one hundred and then the last count that we had last night was two hundred twenty register so clearly there is a lot of excitement about Frederick Law Olmstead his legacy and all the great work that he has done Stuart raised the bar on the design and all manner of infrastructure integrating democratic ideals engineering systems such as storm water systems Boulevard networks and the first master plan suburbs. He worked at the intersection of the built environment natural systems and human society. While many of the parks were designed and built many years ago the concepts are more important now than ever. Fifty percent of the world's population is live in urban areas and this is expected to grow to sixty one percent within the next fifteen to twenty years. And we know that it's all cities that consume significant resources and produce significant ways. As the U.N. environmental program chief stated in two thousand and five the battle for sustainable development. For delivering a more environmentally stable just and healthier world is going to be largely won and lost in our cities and this is why we're here today bringing the concepts of Armstead toss students programs and Ahmad inordinate urban areas will help solve the challenges first facing urban systems. And will be the charge of the new Frederick Law Olmstead chair in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Charles Limburg who one could argue a pit in my eyes technologies progress in the twentieth century later in his life he became a huge fan of parks and had a park dedicated to his name in Minnesota from a speech in one nine hundred seventy three when he was dedicating the part when the park was being dedicated to the Lindbergh he made the following statement. I believe all civilizations the latest advance is symbolized by the park rather than by satellites and space travel as a civilization advances follies permitted to advance. I feel sure that we will realize that progress can be measured only by the quality of life. All life not human life alone there cumulation of knowledge the discoveries of science the products of technology our ideals art our social structures and all achievements of mankind have value only to the extent that they preserve and improve the quality of life. This is why I say that parks symbolize the greatest advance also has yet made and quote. So today we've gathered some of the brightest minds in sustainable urban infrastructure to lead discussions about the relevance of linking the design of all built environment to public health resilience sustainability quality of life and economic competitiveness competitiveness. These discussions will lay the foundation for the work of this unique endowed faculty position. I'd like to thank all the speakers who travelled from all over the country to be with us today and share their thoughts. Professor Doug. Alan who will give some introductory remarks like to thank the committee for all their hard work in helping to identify organize this session as well. The den of five the outstanding speakers and most especially like to thank Jenny and Mike Messner for their vision and generosity in creating the chair and I thank all of you for coming today to share in today's conversation. So with this. I would like to begin the program we have a very very tight program as you see on the agenda and so we will keep people on task with their time. Alan here has a clock that will be talking down very very large bright numbers and so the first person who is on the clock is Dean Gary May from the College of Engineering. Thank you. Reggie I as an electrical engineer a little bit intimidated to speak to this group on this topic but I'm really happy to be here this morning and I asked. REGGIE What should I talk about in my welcome and he announced it. Talk about three minutes so so on behalf of Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering I just like to welcome you to today's STATE symposium this opposing him is focused on future trends in the design of sustainable urban infrastructure the southeastern region as well as the country must find not only comprehensive long term solutions to meet transportation and infrastructure needs that will not only certainly increased also must find ways to deal with current challenges and today represents a start in that dialogue. I'd like to take just a brief moment to tell you about Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering which is the largest and most diverse and one of the premier colleges of engineering the nation and in fact the world U.S. News and World Report ranks our engineering programs among the top five in the country and we're also right ninth in the world's top engineering universities in. The latest London Times Higher Education world university rankings Georgia Tech has more than twenty one thousand students enrolled in engineering students make up thirteen thousand of that number more than thirty percent of our in class incoming class are women and tech is the nation's number one producer of female engineering graduates as well as a large producer of engineers from under-represented minority groups as a result of that Hispanic Business Magazine as ranked as the number one engineering school for Hispanic and Latino students in just a few weeks ago we graduated more than sixteen hundred engineers to take their place in this wonderful profession had a lot of hands to shake at commencement. I'm pleased to see the creation of endowed chair that embodies the ideals of the college and the Institute and the Frederick Law Olmstead also would fit right in with our interdisciplinary research efforts here at Tech throughout his career he emphasized the importance of collaboration with professionals especially engineers by breaking down silos and creating opportunities for collaboration Institute wide we open the way to solving a plethora of social global and scientific problems that require the collaboration require collaboration at the interface of disciplines. We know that the greatest discoveries occur not within a discipline but at the boundaries between multiple disciplines and this is clearly embodied by the theme of the Olmsted chair the speakers today and the search committee which represents four of our engineering schools and the Georgia Tech Research Institute the OEM said here is crucial and positioning Georgia Tech as a leader in civil and environmental engineering especially when it becomes when it comes to improving and protecting the health safety and welfare of the public through improvement of the nation's public infrastructure state himself was a world traveler finding inspiration as well as social awareness during his voyages he combined global social and political values that gave special purpose to his design work on stand was a blend of genius determination and vision a man who fused theory in practice that is what we need to deal with the issues before us today. The long. Not the quick fix It was a master of daring experiments in engineering ecology landscape design and city planning. It's by similarly bringing a multitude of ideas and backgrounds to the table that we will deal with the problems of tomorrow today in essence that's what we're doing here at Georgia Tech our strategic plan speaks to ensuring that innovation entrepreneurship public service and global awareness are fundamental characteristics of our graduates. It is not only faculty who put forward these ideals of a strategic plan many alumni have also championed these principles. So today I'd also like to recognize and thank Michael J. master. Not only for the generosity. But also for their vision in establishing a chair that will impact many generations of students and have impact on society. Well beyond the walls of Georgia Tech is being an effort called Red fields to green fields the focus of this initiative is turning underutilized in fake and commercial property in urban areas into public green spaces microsleep ladies own reform efforts within the urban landscape landscape. Excuse me bridging engineering city planning public policy and business to make a real difference. So in closing almost it offers examples to emulate not imitate. He did not design for his own generation or even his children's issues you're addressing here at the symposium near the bed visionary approach these discussions are the harbinger of four infrastructure tomorrow that will solve the will serve generations to come. As with what instead did and what Mike is doing. Let's go beyond the rhetoric to action and a lasting legacy for better urban environment enjoy a symposium. Thank you thank you very. Next like to introduce the French the dean of the College of Architecture. You. Well let me say welcome to Georgia Tech. I guess I was also a little bit surprised at the. At the large turnout that we've gotten for this I guess I should have been but I'm pleased to see everybody here on this this lovely spring morning. And we also thank the speakers who've come from far and wide. So if you have known for decades and some of you. I have just just begun to meet but I have the program looks to be very exciting and thank you for making the trip to come. This is actually a very important step for Georgia Tech. I think and bringing the ideas of omes the ED and sustainable development sustainable infrastructure parks and open space into the curriculum is important for us and I think this chair will be important in that. Bike to think Mike and Jenny Mester they've had a long history of supporting Georgia Tech dairy mention the red fields to green fields project that's having an impact across the country in terms of creating new green spaces like also funded the champ project where we looked at the Caribbean hazards of mitigation was also supportive of the redesign and refurbishment of the basin building and now chair and let me just say thank you for your support and you're making a serious difference in improving Georgia Tech and particularly the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Now almost that is widely known as the designer of Central Park. He actually did the landscaping at Biltmore hope you seen that. And even did the linear parks here in Atlanta that some of you'll see on the tour and he was a great designer but the interdisciplinary nature of his work which Reggie and Gary are already mentioned is really characteristic of Georgia Tech. I always like to tell people that. The silos at Georgia Tech are very porous. This is the best place I've ever seen for working across disciplines and all the big challenges in the world cannot be solved by any one discipline. Regardless of what your discipline is so this is a is emblematic of the kinds of work that we want to do here at Georgia Tech the basis for collaboration between different schools. I see this chair as actually a key linkage between the College of Architecture and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and I look forward to working with the chair and appreciate your support.