Student Art

White and Gold Winter Guard Sets a New Standard

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:48:41 +0000

White and Gold Winter Guard Sets a New Standard admin Wed, 04/30/2025 - 14:48

Georgia Tech's White and Gold winter guard made program history with two recent performances, propelling the squad to a new competitive tier.

As the competitive arm of the Yellow Jacket Marching Band's Color Guard, winter guard members perform interpretive routines and face off against teams from across the country on two circuits — the Southern Association for Performance Arts (SAPA) and Winter Guard International (WGI).

The White and Gold returned from a hiatus in 2022, and three seasons later, the team captured its first SAPA circuit championship in March before placing fifth out of 62 teams at the April WGI Championships in Dayton, Ohio. The team competed in the Independent-A division, and the top five finish vaults them up to the Independent-Open division for the 2025-26 season.

Twelve members relaunched the team, and it has since grown to 28, along with a coaching staff of six Georgia Tech alumni. Co-captain Christine Werts, a third-year biomedical engineering student, credits the culture they've built for their recent success and wants to ensure it remains intact as the competition level increases.

"This sets the bar high for us. Our success was phenomenal, and we were able to bask in it and reflect on the hard work we put in, but moving forward, we always need to remember that there is room for improvement," Werts said. "Having people who are ready to learn, who are good teammates, have a good attitude, and have good time management skills is becoming more important, especially as we get more competitive.”

During the season, which runs from November to April, the team meets for practices three times a week, including a seven-hour session on Saturdays. Winter guard director and head coach Alexa Medlin was proud to see the students' hard work pay off and their ability to balance the rigor of academic and athletic responsibilities.

"As an alumna of Georgia Tech and the band program, seeing our winter guard accomplish these milestones this season was incredibly special and a bit surreal,” Medlin said. “So much planning and work go into creating and perfecting a competitive show. It's a labor of love that both the members and the coaches dedicate massive amounts of free time to achieve. There will be higher expectations for 2026, but we will always ensure that our purpose is to provide a creative and competitive outlet for students."

The title of the team's award-winning performance was The Things You Do. For Werts and her teammates, the "thing" that drives them is showing up for each other at every event and the ability to share their creativity with the community.

The team competes in circuit events and performs at local showcases, but through their membership and fundraising efforts, they hope to compete in more events around the region in future seasons.

View the White and Gold's WGI performance:

Subtitle

Two championship performances are building momentum for the competitive arm of the Yellow Jacket Marching Band’s Color Guard.

Summary sentence

Two championship performances are building momentum for the competitive arm of the Yellow Jacket Marching Band’s Color Guard.

Summary

Two championship performances are building momentum for the competitive arm of the Yellow Jacket Marching Band’s Color Guard.

Dateline

Wed, 04/30/2025 - 12:00

steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano – Institute Communications

Keywords

Yellow Jacket Marching Band

color guard

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Student Art

Mercury ID

682135

Source updated

Wed, 04/30/2025 - 14:48

5,000 Baby Hats and Counting for Madhatter Knits

admin — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:03:41 +0000

5,000 Baby Hats and Counting for Madhatter Knits admin Wed, 03/19/2025 - 11:03

In 2020, looking for a creative outlet and a way to make a difference, high school students Aditi Bang, Sonika Tatipalli, Rasagna Vuppala, and Meghana Madduri formed the Georgia chapter of the Madhatter Knits. Five years later, Bang, Tatipalli, and Vuppala are Tech students, and the club is a Georgia Tech student organization that has donated more than 5,000 handmade hats for premature babies in Georgia hospitals.

Premature babies often struggle to regulate their body temperature — a goal they must meet before being discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Because heat escapes through exposed skin, the baby’s head can be a site of significant heat loss. So, the hats knitted by the club at Georgia Tech provide both a functional benefit and a sense of comfort.

“We know that heat is lost from the head and that our hats provide that physical comfort, but even more than that, we want the hats to help these families understand that, even beyond this hospital system and the doctors and nurses working 24/7 to provide the care they need, there are people out there who care for them,” Bang said.

Madhatter Knits typically hosts three monthly events, during which members and newcomers can knit hats that will end up in Georgia NICUs.

When the chapter co-founders started the club, they had no knitting experience. While they were elated to find an extensive knitting community at Georgia Tech, they stress that no prior experience is necessary to join.

Club members can teach inexperienced knitters to use the loom, allowing everyone to connect with their cause.

“My twin sister and I were preemie babies, so I was in the NICU,” electrical engineering student Carl Court said during a recent knitting event. “There’s a story I’ve always heard that I was losing a lot of heat from my head and crying all day. My dad didn’t know what was wrong until they finally figured out I needed a hat, so I feel connected to this organization and its work,.”

After knitting events, the hats are packed and driven to hospitals across Georgia. As the hub of the Georgia chapter, the club’s membership is primarily Tech students. It numbers more than 200 participants, and high school students also contribute in their respective hometowns.

Each of the founders at Georgia Tech is a biomedical engineering student on the pre-med track, and Madduri is a computer science student at the University of Georgia. Since founding the club, Bang and her childhood friends have volunteered in NICUs, which she says offers a new perspective on where their hats end up.

“Until I volunteered during my first year, it was hard to comprehend how these small hats were able to fit a baby. But even though the babies are so small, they’re incredibly strong, and it’s inspiring to be around them,” she said.

In addition to knitting hats for premature babies, the club raises awareness about global health issues, creates care packages for nurses and hospital staff, and hosts events focused on healthcare.

Subtitle

The club has donated thousands of handmade hats for premature babies in Georgia hospitals.

Summary sentence

The club has donated thousands of handmade hats for premature babies in Georgia hospitals.

Summary

The club has donated thousands of handmade hats for premature babies in Georgia hospitals.

Dateline

Wed, 03/19/2025 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano - Institute Communications

Associated importer

Keywords

student organizations

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Student Art

Mercury ID

681177

Source updated

Wed, 03/19/2025 - 11:03

Tech Developer Wins at Independent Game Festival

admin — Fri, 26 May 2023 19:41:31 +0000

Tech Developer Wins at Independent Game Festival admin Fri, 05/26/2023 - 15:41

From an early age, Daniel Carr knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up.

“When I was in elementary school and was asked, ‘What do you want to be when you're older?’ my answer was a game developer," he said.

In his final semester at Tech before graduating with a B.S. in computer science, Carr won the Best Student Game award at the Independent Game Festival (IGF) in San Francisco for his adventure game, Slider.

He began studying game development in high school, leading him to eventually enter a game jam –– a competition that tasks participants with creating a game from scratch in a short time. Though he didn't find immediate success in his first contest, Carr kept going.

The game, a PC title in which players solve puzzles and rearrange maps to help reconnect humanity, emerged from a competition in November 2021. The game received positive feedback after the jam, and while Carr felt like there was more to be done, he nearly let the project fall by the wayside.

"I remember along the way, there was a lot of doubt in me," he recalled. "I asked myself, ‘Should I carry this through all the way?’ I remember someone telling me that you have to trust yourself at the start of the vision you set out on because while you're working through it, you'll doubt yourself a lot. And, I just did that and kept working on it."

Carr looked to the Tech community for help and pitched the game to the Georgia Tech Video Game Development Club (VGDev) in January 2022. Work on the game continued over the next two semesters, and they submitted Slider to IGF, which receives over 600 entries, later that year. Carr and the team didn't expect a response, but to their surprise, in early January, they were named one of six finalists in the student category.

Over spring break, Carr and six other VGDev members went to San Francisco for the conference. Carr still didn’t believe that winning was a possibility, so when Slider was announced during the award ceremony, he was genuinely shocked. He took the stage and reflected on the hard work that went into the game's development by nearly 30 individuals over the years.

While winning was a highlight of the trip, Carr found himself similarly enthralled with the universal language of gaming.

"One of the coolest things was seeing how much of an international community there is around game development –– there were all sorts of games from European countries, Latin America, and all over the world. Everyone is making games."

A playable demo of Slider is available on Steam, and Carr plans to leave the link active through development in the hopes of expanding the game's reach. As someone who grew up on PC gaming, he knows the platform is accessible to a vast audience. Despite the recent accolades, he explains that the game is not a finished product, but taking his own advice, he plans to trust his vision and keep working on it.

With one degree in hand, Carr is now interning with Amazon and will return to Tech in the fall to get his master's degree in computational intelligence. He plans to keep game development as a hobby for the time being but admits that he’ll never close the door on pursuing it as a career in the future.

Subtitle

Daniel Carr recently won an award for the Best Student Game at the recent Independent Game Festival in San Francisco.

Summary sentence

Daniel Carr recently won an award for the Best Student Game at the recent Independent Game Festival in San Francisco.

Summary

Daniel Carr recently won an award for the Best Student Game at the recent Independent Game Festival in San Francisco.

Dateline

Fri, 05/26/2023 - 12:00

steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano - Communications Officer

Institute Communications

Keywords

Georgia Tech

video game design

SLIDER

Independent Game Festival

News room topics

Business and Economic Development

Campus and Community

Society and Culture

Categories

Community

Student Art

Computer Science/Information Technology and Security

Digital Media and Entertainment

Mercury ID

667921

Source updated

Fri, 05/26/2023 - 15:32

Memorial Day Weekend Events Around Atlanta

admin — Wed, 24 May 2023 20:56:31 +0000

Memorial Day Weekend Events Around Atlanta admin Wed, 05/24/2023 - 16:56

Memorial Day honors members of the armed forces who lost their lives in service to the United States. The weekend leading into the federal holiday also represents the unofficial start of summer and is packed with events around Atlanta.

Atlanta Jazz Festival: Saturday, May 27 – Monday, May 29

One of the largest free jazz festivals in the country, the celebration of music and culture returns to Piedmont Park for its 46th iteration. Fifteen artists will perform during the three-day event, which runs daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Along with musical acts, the festival features local artists and entrepreneurs in a vendor market, and food trucks will be set up around the park.

For a full schedule, click here.

Brew at the Zoo: Saturday, May 27, 6 – 9:30 p.m.

Zoo Atlanta’s Brew at the Zoo event offers after-hours access to the facility with beer and wine samples from 20 different breweries, live music from three different bands throughout the exhibits, discussions with zookeepers, and yard games. General admission and VIP tickets are available, with proceeds benefiting the zoo’s conservation efforts.

For more information, click here.

Stone Mountain Memorial Day Weekend: Friday, May 26 – Monday, May 29

Beginning Friday, Stone Mountain will host its annual Memorial Day weekend event. Every evening will feature a musical salute to the troops with an extended fireworks finale following the attraction’s new Music Across America Light Show. The show features immersive lighting, flames, lasers, and 250 color-changing drones synchronized to music.

Along with a flag-folding ceremony, the Air National Guard Band of the South will perform Saturday through Monday.

For more information, click here.

Alpharetta Arts Streetfest: Saturday, May 27 – Sunday, May 28, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

With over 100 vendors, activities, and street performers, the Alpharetta Arts Streetfest – located at the Grove at Wills Park – is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday with a parking lot full of food trucks and vendors at the Alpharetta Community Center.

For more information, click here.

Memorial Day Classic 5K: Monday, May 29, 8 a.m.

The fourth annual Atlanta Memorial Day Classic 5K begins in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, and the route will be lined with photos of fallen heroes. Participants receive a finisher’s medal.

For registration information, click here.

Memorial Day Family Canoe Day: Monday, May 29, 9 a.m.

Enjoy the outdoors and start your summer with a relaxing paddle on the Chattahoochee Nature Center’s Beaver Pond. This event is a beginner-friendly canoeing experience with CNC guides going over basic techniques and leading races and games. All equipment, including a canoe, paddles, and personal flotation devices, is provided.

For more information, click here.

The Georgia Renaissance Festival: Saturday, May 27 – Monday, May 29, 10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Typically open Saturday and Sunday, the festival located in Fairburn will remain open on Memorial Day, with veterans, active duty military personnel, and first responders getting in free on Monday. In its 38th year, the festival offers daily entertainment with jousting tournaments, live music, and more, along with traditional fair food and beverages. A vendor market is also open daily.

For more information, click here.

Summary sentence

Campus will close Monday for Memorial Day. Ahead of the federal holiday, there’s no shortage of family-friendly activities around Atlanta.

Summary

Campus will close Monday for Memorial Day. Ahead of the federal holiday, there’s no shortage of family-friendly activities around Atlanta.

Dateline

Wed, 05/24/2023 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano - Communications Officer

Institute Communications

Associated importer

Keywords

memorial day

atlanta

News room topics

Campus and Community

Society and Culture

Categories

Community

Performances

Business

Student Art

Mercury ID

667882

Source updated

Wed, 05/24/2023 - 16:48

Student Art

White and Gold Winter Guard Sets a New Standard

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5,000 Baby Hats and Counting for Madhatter Knits

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Tech Developer Wins at Independent Game Festival

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Memorial Day Weekend Events Around Atlanta

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