Value added - USG serves Georgia [Mar. 2007]

VALUE ADDED USG Serves Georgia
March 2007

UGA Extension Agent Lauded for Extensive Work with Low-Income Families
Over the 30 years that University of Georgia family and consumer science extension agent Deborah W. Purvis has been serving Colquitt County, she has developed, tested and implemented many innovative programs that impact the well-being of children and families. These programs ranging from home-ownership workshops for Hispanic families to a parenting and nutrition class for teenage mothers at a local high school and healthcare programs for farm workers and their families at farm work camps have become national models for serving the needs of low-income families. UGA recently named Purvis as its 2007 Walter Barnard Hill Distinguished Public Service Fellow. This honor recognizes sustained, distinguished and superb achievement in university public service that improves the quality of life in Georgia or elsewhere.
GTRI Making Roads Safer with Automated Pavement Marker System
On rainy nights in Georgia and across the nation, drivers greatly benefit from small, reflective markers that make roadway lanes more visible. A new automated system developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) for installing the markers is expected to improve safety for both Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) workers and drivers. There are more than three million of these safety devices, called raised pavement markers (RPMs), in service

on Georgia highways. They are installed and then need to be replaced about every two years by road crews who consider the task one of the riskiest they face. Workers typically ride on a seat cantilevered off the side of a trailer just inches from highway traffic. Not only is manual RPM installment risky for personnel, but it also is expensive and time-consuming. A typical RPM placement operation involves four vehicles and a six-person crew. All the vehicles must stop at each marker location, so there is tremendous wear on the equipment and increased fuel use. GDOT asked GTRI to develop a first-of-its-kind system capable of automatically placing RPMs along the lane stripes while in motion. After almost three years of research and development, GTRI expects to deliver a prototype system that requires only a two-man crew early this year.
Georgia Southern Architect Designs Local Hospice, Wins Award
Pro bono work on a Statesboro hospice facility has earned Georgia Southern University Landscape Architect Chuck Taylor an award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Taylor, a 10-year employee of Georgia Southern, donated time in designing the landscaping of the Ogeechee Area Hospice, a non-profit agency providing end-of-life care for the residents of nine rural counties. This is not Taylor's first foray into pro-bono work in 2004, he won another award from ASLA for his work on downtown Statesboro's Triangle Park.