Day Three

The past three days have been a whirlwind — more than 20 events in eight towns across 550 miles — but I’m now back home in Atlanta. On June 30, following our breakfast gathering in Dalton, we closed out our tour with stops in Rome and Cartersville before one last reception at The Battery Atlanta at Truist Park in Cobb County.  

Along the way, I was excited to visit the great Savoy Automobile Museum, part of Cartersville’s impressive group of museums that includes the Tellus Science Museum (a Smithsonian affiliate that has one of the only EV1 models still in existence). We also got to visit two more innovative manufacturing facilities, including a sustainable textile plant run by Aquafil, a partner of Tech’s Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership that’s dedicated to transforming historically wasteful industries. 

To everyone who made this tour possible and came out to meet and support us, thank you so much! I loved seeing so much of our great state and seeing firsthand the impact of Georgia Tech’s work in communities near and far. 

For more highlights and a closer look at our last day, check out the video recap below! 

Day Two

After meeting local government leaders for breakfast in Athens on June 29, we headed northwest to Gainesville for midday gatherings with students, supporters, and alumni and then proceeded all the way to Dalton near the Tennessee border. I especially enjoyed our trip to Dalton’s enormous and impressive solar panel factory. Operated by Q Cells, one of the world’s largest solar cell manufacturers, the 300,000-square-foot plant is the largest factory of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and has been producing 12,000 solar panels a day since 2019. (And the company recently announced they will soon invest another $171 million to build a second facility in Dalton, bringing an estimated 470 new jobs to Whitfield County.) 

On our final day, we’ll visit Rome and Cartersville before making one last stop in Cobb County. Follow along by watching our daily recap below! 

Day One

On June 28, I embarked on my first Georgia tour as president, resuming an Institute tradition started by my predecessor, G.P. “Bud” Peterson, that the pandemic put on hold the past two years. By the time we wrap on Thursday, we will have traveled nearly 550 miles to visit eight cities. Once out of Atlanta, we started in Greensboro, near Lake Oconee, for a meeting with local alumni, leaders, and supporters. Then, after making a midday stop in Augusta, we closed out the day in Athens (where we have a much bigger presence than you might imagine). 

Watch my recap below for more, and come back for details on our next stop, where we go from Athens to Gainesville to Dalton. Go Jackets!