collaborative building with John Portman & Associates in which Georgia Tech is the anchor tenant. The 750,000-square-foot facility houses Tech's computing center. Excavation was completed in August 2017, and Coda officially opened May 23, 2019, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The largest single scholarship endowment fund in Georgia Tech's history has been established to honor Peterson and first lady Valerie H. Peterson. Totaling $17 million, the G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Scholarship Endowment Fund was announced at the June 2019 meeting of the Georgia Tech Foundation. The Fund was established to help students with demonstrated financial need from across the nation. Early life and education Peterson was born in Palo Alto, California in 1952, but spent his early life in Prairie Village, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. He attended Shawnee Mission East High School, where he lettered in football, basketball, and track. He subsequently went to Kansas State, where he played American football first as a walk-on and later as a scholarship student-athlete with the Kansas State Wildcats. He started 26 games and lettered three years as a tight end/wide receiver from 1970 to 1974, catching 30 passes for 359 yards. Peterson graduated from Kansas State with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1975 and Mathematics in 1977. Peterson stayed at Kansas State and received an M.S. in Engineering in 1980. He then went to Texas A&M University, receiving a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering in 1985. Career Peterson worked at Black & Veatch Consulting Engineers in the summer following his graduation with his first bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. After receiving his second degree (mathematics) in 1977, he worked as a math, chemistry and physics teacher at Wabaunsee County High School in Alma, Kansas, and later as a mathematics teacher at Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kansas. After receiving his M.S., Peterson was an associate professor and head of the General Engineering Technology Department at Kansas Technical Institute in Salina, Kansas, from 1979 to 1981. He was subsequently a visiting research scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, during the summers of 1981 and 1982. While at NASA, Peterson developed a (still used) technique to determine the priming capability of high-capacity heat pipes in low gravity. In 1985, Peterson moved to the Mechanical Engineering department of Texas A&M University. Initially an assistant professor, he became an associate professor in 1988 and a full