Woodruff Buzz: 2023-24 Annual Magazine

Woodruff Buzz

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Achieving a Culture of Inclusive Excellence

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

On behalf of everyone at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, I am thrilled to present the next issue of our magazine, Woodruff Buzz, produced annually for our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends. This edition of our magazine is filled with buzzworthy stories related to student success, research preeminence, and community and culture — the three key focus areas of our strategic plan.

As you know, the Woodruff School is committed to empowering our students to succeed and make an impact – locally, nationally, and globally. As you flip through these pages you’ll see that last fiscal year, our students did just that. Mechanical engineering student Velin Kojouharov received the Love Family Foundation Award, Georgia Tech’s top honor for graduating students. Mechanical engineering student Andrew Grant and his Makr Papr teammates were awarded second place at this year’s InVenture Prize Competition. They developed an innovative, patent-pending technology that promises to replace name tags and event apps at conferences with an easy-to-use, tapand-go printable paper. Three Georgia Tech students, including mechanical engineering major Jacqui van Zyl, took first place with their invention NeuroChamp during the 2024 ACC InVenture Prize. The wearable, concealed headband is used to continuously monitor pediatric seizures. Our students also competed in communication-based tasks that pushed them to demonstrate that engineers can communicate as part of the inaugural Webb-Donnell Communication Competitions, created in honor of Frank K. Webb and Jeffrey Donnell.

Faculty made their mark through achievements in teaching, innovation, and research. The USG Board of Regents honored three Woodruff School faculty members with Regents’ appointments. Tom Kurfess was named Regents’ Professor, while Alexander Alexeev and Todd Sulchek received the Regents’ Innovator title. The Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI), led by Woodruff Professor Anna Erickson, was awarded a second $25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Assistant Professor Akanksha Menon

received $3 million as part of the DOE’s Energy Earthshots™ Initiative. Further, faculty members Bert Bras, Amit Jariwala, Julie Linsey, and Yan Wang continued to lead the Woodruff School in embracing and championing the intersection of design and innovation; Woodruff Professor Marta Hatzell worked to make fertilizer more sustainable; Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Chair in Manufacturing Aaron Stebner continued to spearhead the largest of nine projects within the Georgia AI Manufacturing technology corridor grant; and a team of researchers in Associate Professor Aaron Young’s lab developed a universal approach to controlling robotic exoskeletons that requires no training, no calibration, and no adjustments to complicated algorithms.

The Woodruff School also celebrated new initiatives and the impact of the members of our community. We hosted an inaugural STEM immersion and mentoring program, GT PRIME, developed for school counselors and K-12 students in the community; three of our alumni were named to the Class of 2023 40 Under 40 and four alumni were recognized with CoE Alumni Awards, including D. Fort Flowers, Jr., who was inducted into the Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame; faculty and staff were recognized with 19 different awards at the Faculty and Staff Honors, Awards, and Promotions Reception; and students Bettina Arkhurst, Natalie Cannon, Jenny Leestma, Haley Hilborn, Naiki Kaffezakis, and Vishwa Vasani were awarded Women of Woodruff (WoW) fellowships. WoW, a newly launched initiative spearheaded by members of the Woodruff School Advisory Board, aims to provide resources and programming that will allow Georgia Tech to attract, support, and retain women students in mechanical and nuclear engineering.

We continued to see a strong connection between the Institute and our alumni. We launched our inaugural Young Alumni Council, bringing together a group of 20 dedicated graduates to help shape the future of the Woodruff School. During Georgia Tech’s Giving Day, our alumni demonstrated their generosity by helping us raise more than $165,400 to support students and programs in the College of Engineering as part of Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign

for Georgia Tech. Speaking of Transforming Tomorrow, the Woodruff School hit a major milestone of reaching our campaign goal of $75 million, thanks to the crucial support of our donors, alumni, and friends. Meeting our goal opens the door for us to do more during the remainder of this campaign and dream big. I look forward to doubling our success over the next few years, focusing on raising funds for need-based scholarships, graduate fellowships, the renovation of MRDC into the Student Engagement Center, the potential naming of the Capstone Design Expo, and a Resilient Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Engineering (RAISE) Building. These initiatives are essential in maintaining our tradition of excellence and ensuring that we provide the best possible environment for our students and faculty to thrive.

To conclude, the last academic year has been nothing short of a huge success, but all of our wins wouldn’t be possible without outstanding members of the Woodruff School community. I am inspired by and grateful for your ongoing contributions and commitment that propels us to execute our mission and achieve our vision. Over the next year and beyond, I look forward to our continued collaboration and I am confident that together we can strengthen our impact as we continue to achieve a culture of Inclusive Excellence.

Best regards, Devesh Ranjan

Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and Professor

ABOUT THE WOODRUFF SCHOOL

MISSION

The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is an inclusive, innovative, and thriving educational and research environment committed to fostering the next generation of intellectually curious and globally engaged leaders who are empowered to create solutions to society’s most challenging problems and dedicated to improving the human condition.

TOP RANKED PROGRAMS

No. 2

Mechanical Engineering

Undergraduate Program

(U.S. News & World Report, 2024)

No. 5

Mechanical Engineering

Graduate Program (U.S. News & World Report, 2024-25)

No. 9

Nuclear Engineering

Graduate Program (U.S. News & World Report, 2024-25)

VISION

The Woodruff School will be a student-centered, research-focused, and service-oriented community recognized for its outstanding education, the development of leaders, and the creation of innovative technological solutions that improve society and the human condition. We will embrace the diversity of our collaborative community, the foundational principles of engineering and science, and ethical behavior as we achieve a culture of inclusive excellence.

DEGREES AWARDED, 2023-24

The Woodruff School offers:

2 B.S. Degrees

7 M.S. Degrees

6 Ph.D. Degrees

CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH

Acoustics and Dynamics; AI, Informatics for ME (AI2ME); Automation, Robotics and Control; Bioengineering; CAE and Design; Engineering Education; Fluid Mechanics; Heat Transfer, Combustion, and Energy Systems; Manufacturing; Mechanics of Materials; Medical Physics; Micro & Nano Engineering; Nuclear and Radiological Engineering; Tribology

FACULTY AND STAFF

91 Tenure-Track Faculty 82 Staff

Degrees

Degrees

489 317 B.S. Degrees 66

ENGINEERING SCHOLARS

1877

Undergraduate Students Fall 2023

943 Graduate Students Fall 2023

26 Research Faculty

13 Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Sherry Adadi received the H. Wade Patterson Memorial Award at the 2023 Health Physics Society (HPS) Annual Meeting.

Omar Allam received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Hoseyn A. Amiri received the GT NEXT Award.

Katherine Anderson was selected for the 2024 Class of the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program.

Bettina Arkhurst received the Woodruff School Excellence in Service and Leadership Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Lianna Arnold received the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award and the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award — Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Program, School of Mechanical Engineering.

Seunghyeb Ban received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Maddox Fellowship.

Ignacio Bartol was awarded an HPS Fellowship.

Timothy Brumfiel received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Pruitt Fellowship.

Jesse Bruner received the Roy G. Post Foundation Scholarship.

Natalie Cannon participated in the Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation (NESD).

Student Notes

Theresa Chen received the McKenney’s Scholarship.

Jungho Choi received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Pruitt Fellowship.

John Clashman received a Wohlford Scholarship.

Stefan Colton was a member of a team announced as a national runner-up for the 2023 U.S. James Dyson Award for the invention Cellsense.

Patrick Connolly received the 2023 Lutz Moritz Memorial Award at the 2023 HPS Annual Meeting.

Nancy Deaton received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Wepfer Fellowship.

Allannah Duffy was selected to join the third class of Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems Graduate Fellows.

Tyler P. Farr won third place in the oral presentation competition at the NASA Exploration Science Forum 2023.

Mark Fievet received a Wohlford Scholarship.

Isabelle Gustafson received the Richard K. Whitehead Jr. Memorial Award. She was selected as a 2023 Ramblin’ Royalty finalist.

Joonha Hwang received the Richard K. Whitehead Jr. Memorial Award.

Chidinma Imediegwu was selected as a Fall 2023 Commencement reflection speaker.

Velin Kojouharov received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. He was named an Astronaut Scholar, Churchill Scholar, Goldwater Scholar, and Knight-Hennessy Scholar. He received the Richard K. Whitehead Jr. Memorial Award.

Heechan Lee was awarded an HPS Fellowship.

Henry Lee received the Woodruff School Best Graduate Teaching Assistant Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Kyungbin Lee received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Zalesky Fellowship.

Jennifer Leestma received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Maddox Fellowship.

Wenjing Li received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Kristian Lockyear received a silver medal for his research presentation at the 3rd International Forum on Energy & Informatics.

Erica Lull received the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering School Chair’s Award.

Dimitri Margot was awarded an HPS Fellowship.

Emmanuel Matey Mate-Kole was awarded an HPS Fellowship.

Yash Mhaskar received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Niam Morar received the Woodruff School Best Graduate Teaching Assistant Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Madeline Morrell received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Mete Muslu received the 2023 ASME Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) Student Engineer/Member of the Year Award.

Siddharth Nathella received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Derek Nichols received the Woodruff School Best Graduate Instructor Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Alex Qiu received the Richard K. Whitehead Jr. Memorial Award.

Jerry Qiu received the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Scholar Award.

Young Jae Ryu received the Woodruff School Best Graduate Teaching Assistant Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Anastasia Schauer received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Joseph Schwalbe received the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award.

Devasena Sitaram received the 2023 Millennium Fellowship.

GEORGE

Talia Thomas received the Woodruff School Excellence in Service and Leadership Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Jacob Tjards received the Woodruff School Best Graduate Instructor Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Luke Towery received the College of Engineering Honors Award.

Jacqueline van Zyl received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She received the Richard K. Whitehead Jr. Memorial Award.

Luke Wells received the Woodruff School Best Graduate Teaching Assistant Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Emily Winters received a Brooke Owens Fellowship.

Chiyu Yang received the Woodruff School Ph.D. Research Excellence Award and the Flowers Fellowship.

Garrett Youngblood received the College of Engineering Honors Award.

Nathan Zavanelli was awarded first place in the Policy/Civic Engagement category in the 2023 Student IoT Innovation Capacity Building Challenge.

Zhe Monica Zhong received the GT NEXT Award.

‘Technique’ Editor Represents Student Media With Debate Coverage

Earlier this year, the nation turned its attention to Atlanta for the first 2024 presidential debate. There was no crowd inside the Warner Media campus on Techwood Drive, where the debate took place, but the Technique’s managing editor, Alec Grosswald, was in the center of the media frenzy taking place across the street.

Granted a credential to attend media row and the spin room inside McCamish Pavilion alongside national and local media, Grosswald provided live updates and a behind-the-scenes look inside the event on the publication’s Instagram page. Additional updates were posted to the paper’s website throughout the evening.

The third-year mechanical engineering student and his colleagues on the editorial board fielded policy questions from classmates with the intent of giving the student body a seat at the table.

“Our goal was to take students’ questions and broadcast the answers from campaign surrogates in the spin room,” he said. “We wanted the students to have a voice. That’s something we’ve discussed as young voters, and not feeling valued is a potential driving factor behind low youth voter turnout.”

Leading into the debate coverage, the paper’s editorial board shared one of its “consensus opinion” pieces outlining thoughts on the current state of youth voters in Georgia. The Technique also released a comprehensive recap from Grosswald’s coverage, complete with interviews and reactions.

The debate’s proximity to campus created an opportunity for the student newspaper to garner real-world experience alongside journalists from around the world, and Grosswald was elated to represent the Technique on the floor.

“It’s gratifying that bigger news organizations and institutions are recognizing the value of student media, and it’s validating that we had the same opportunity to get answers for our audience,” he said. “This was a real opportunity to grow our platform and the voice of student media.”

Woodruff School Students Compete in Inaugural Webb-Donnell Communication Competitions

Undergraduate and graduate students in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering were given the opportunity to compete in communication-based tasks that pushed them to demonstrate that engineers can communicate as part of the inaugural Webb-Donnell Communication Competitions.

The competitions were created in honor of Frank K. Webb, ME 1938, and Jeffrey Donnell, former principal academic professional in the Woodruff School. Throughout his career, Webb recognized the importance of training engineers with effective communication tools. Donnell joined the Woodruff School in 1990 and was tasked with improving student’s communication skills. His work soon attracted the attention of Webb, who praised it as some of the best engineering education innovation he had ever seen.

Webb remained a dedicated alumnus and in 1999 he bestowed an endowment upon the Woodruff School that ensured the continued support to the communication skills of students. Donnell was named the first Frank K. Webb Academic Professional Chair in Communication Skills and held this position until his passing in 2022.

“We are very lucky to be able to offer competitions such as the WebbDonnell Communication Competitions,” said current Frank K. Webb Academic Professional Chair in Communication Skills Jill Fennell.

For this year’s competitions, undergraduate students could craft an op-ed that explored the challenges and opportunities related to public perception and trust in science and technology or compose an internal memo for a hypothetical workplace to introduce a current, real-world technological advancement and argue why this

advancement is relevant and significant. Graduate students were able to showcase their original research in a Ted Talk-style presentation, highlighting their expertise and passion for advancing engineering knowledge.

“All three competitions illustrate how communication is key to achieving the Woodruff School’s mission; in order to empower engineers who are equipped to solve society’s most challenging problems and to improve the human condition, they must be able to communicate such solutions and their social implications in a way that incites action and change,” explained Fennell.

The competitions were made possible by a generous contribution from the Frank K. Webb Trust, facilitated by co-executors Martha Webb (niece of Frank K. Webb) and Randy Dietel.

“Frank Webb and Jeff Donnell understood the value that clear, compelling communication can add to the success of an engineer’s career. The Frank K. Webb Trust is proud to honor these two far-sighted individuals by sponsoring the Webb-Donnell Communication Competitions’ prizes,” said Webb.

Ivy Chang won first place in the Quick Talks Graduate Communication Competition for her presentation, “Robotic Grasping: The Stuck Jar Lid Problem,” which emphasized the need for adaptive technology in robotic hands.

Chang had previously worked as a teacher’s assistant with Donnell where she learned the importance of telling a story along with technical aspects of a research project.

“Dr. Donnell shaped the career path I chose to go down, the hope to work in academia as a teaching professor that values the aspect of communication equally to research in engineering curricula. It saddens me that Dr. Donnell is not here today to see the progress and hard work I have put into my research, but hopefully showing the impact of my research is a story worth telling,” said Chang.

Anna Lisner was awarded first place in the Public (Op-Ed) Undergraduate Communication Competition for her piece, “Why Should I Trust an Engineer?” Keshav Pransukhka’s entry, “Integrating 3D-Printed Houses in our Suite of Services,” was awarded first place in the Internal (Memo) Undergraduate Communication Competition.

“I am fortunate to have inherited the legacy these two men envisioned and created,” said Fennell, who looks forward to continuing the work started by Webb and Donnell and helping students excel beyond their research.

Results

Public (Op-Ed) Undergraduate Communication Competition

First place: Anna Lisner

Second place: Alexey Khotimsky

Third place: Matthew Kuzajada

Internal (Memo) Undergraduate Communication Competition

First place: Keshav Pransukhka

Second place: Stacy Marie Ross

Third place: Rohan Punamiya

Quick Talks Graduate Communication Competition

First place: Ivy Chang

Second place: Teerapong Poltue

Third place: Derek Nichols

Fourth place: Steven Swingle

“Dr. Donnell shaped the career path I chose to go down, the hope to work in academia as a teaching professor that values the aspect of communication equally to research in engineering curricula.”

—Ivy Chang

Pictured left to right: Eden Kahssai, Martha Webb, Susan Liebeskind, and Jill Fennell

NeuroChamp Wins 2024 ACC InVenture Prize

Three Georgia Tech students who created a pediatric medical device won $15,000 during the 2024 ACC InVenture Prize, an annual undergraduate entrepreneurship competition.

Biomedical engineering student Caitlin van Zyl, her sister and mechanical engineering major Jacqui van Zyl — both Stamps President’s Scholars — and Meg Weaver, a biomedical engineering major, took first place with their invention, NeuroChamp. The wearable, concealed headband is used to continuously monitor pediatric seizures. Half a million children nationwide suffer from epilepsy, and many children experience daily, frequent seizures that cannot be detected by their parents, their teachers, or even themselves. NeuroChamp sets itself apart from existing monitoring devices because of its concealed design.

The team was inspired to create the device partly from personal experience. A child in Jacqui van Zyl’s hometown experienced the “silent seizures” that NeuroChamp can help monitor. The team is already working with physicians at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to launch a pilot study of the medical device. Their ACC InVenture Prize winnings will help fund continued testing.

Teams from 14 universities competed in this year’s event, which was held at Florida State University.

Makr Papr Takes Second Place at 2024 InVenture Prize Competition

Makr Papr, a team of computer science, computer engineering, and mechanical engineering students, was awarded second place at this year’s InVenture Prize Competition.

Mechanical engineering student Andrew Grant and his teammates developed an innovative, patent-pending technology that promises to replace name tags and event apps at conferences with an easy-to-use, tap-and-go printable paper.

“We want to show others that it doesn’t matter where you come from or your background,” said the team. “If we can do it, you can do it.”

Woodruff School Graduate Student Carolina Colón Named STAR Award Honoree

Carolina Colón, a graduate research assistant and bioengineering Ph.D. student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been named a Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Technical Achievement and Recognition (STAR) Award honoree. She was recognized with the Role Model Award during the SHPE National Convention.

STAR Awards honor outstanding professionals and students for their dedicated actions and efforts to advance the careers of Hispanics in STEM. Colón, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, expressed how extremely honored she is to receive such a distinction.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the many people I looked up to and guided me to where I am now. For that reason, it is humbling to be recognized as a role model myself, since these words mean so much to me,” said Colón.

Receiving this award is also meaningful for Colón as she is always trying to emulate the support she has received in her career and believes in paying forward anything you are given and working together to help others achieve their full potential.

“Even if we all have the same experiences, we learn different things from those experiences, and sharing that with others, I believe, is a beautiful and powerful thing,” she stated.

After moving to Florida to complete her last year of high school, Colón began her engineering journey at Valencia Community College before transferring to Florida Tech where she received her B.S. in aerospace engineering.

During this time, Colón developed a connection with Georgia Tech by

participating in multiple Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs on cell therapy. These programs helped inspire her varying research interests and goal of merging the fields of aerospace and bioengineering.

Now at the Woodruff School, Colón is the first person in her family to be pursuing a Ph.D. and credits the strong relationships and support she has received for achieving this.

“I have been very fortunate to have gained invaluable knowledge from every single person involved in my life and believe that everyone has something to share that will benefit others,” she said.

Colón is co-advised by Todd Sulchek, Regents’ Innovator and professor in the Woodruff School, and Jud Ready, principal research engineer at Georgia Tech Research Institute. She is currently researching T-cell mechanics, how they differ between cell phenotypes, and how to use these mechanical property differences as cell therapy potency markers. She hopes to translate this research into the space environment to create cell therapies for astronauts on long-term space missions.

Last academic year, Colón received the Woodruff School First Generation Fellowship

Wreck Racing Celebrates Second Place Finish at Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge

Wreck Racing, a student competition team at Georgia Tech, placed second overall at the 2024 Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge, held April 6-7 in Gainesville, Florida.

Wreck Racing is made up of students from different majors across the Institute, with many hailing from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

During this year’s competition, more than 30 teams competed in events across three categories, autocross, drag race, and concours, in vehicles they built. In addition to being sorted by tire class, car builds were entered into one of two sub-categories: those built for less than $2000 and those built without budget limitations.

Wreck Racing’s entry was based on a Factory Five 818 chassis with a custom turbocharged Honda K24 engine mounted in the middle.

“Our modifications were able to increase the engine’s output to 240 horsepower, 1.5 times the standard 160,” said industrial design student and Wreck Racing’s press secretary Andrew Knops. The chassis was wrapped in a repurposed 1990 Nissan 300zx body, and the build also featured a custom aerodynamics package.

Despite battling issues with engine sensors and broken shift linkages at the event, Wreck Racing achieved first place in vehicle class, first place in concours, and third place in the autocross event.

“After the racing had subsided, the cars were wheeled into the judging pavilion and every team gave a quick presentation to the judges outlining their build. The judges were impressed with our technical skills required on the build and our indepth approach to optimizing our setup, awarding Wreck Racing first place in our class out of all 31 vehicles,” said Knops.

Industrial engineering student and team member Neel Sardana was inspired after seeing all the other cars at the competition. “I’m excited to pursue more and look forward to helping continue the legacy of Wreck Racing,” he said.

Mechanical engineering student and lead engineer Kandhan Nadarajah is excited about what’s to come, including new leadership and a new build.

“We will hopefully go bigger and better than what Wreck Racing has done in the past,” he said.

Georgia Tech Takes Second Place in Year Two of EcoCAR EV Challenge

The Georgia Tech EcoCAR Team, which includes several students from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has placed second overall in year two of the current four-year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTCs) EcoCAR EV Challenge.

Managed by Argonne National Laboratory and sponsored by the Department of Energy, General Motors, and MathWorks, the EcoCAR EV Challenge is a four-year collegiate engineering program designed to create the next generation of EV talent.

Woodruff School students Matthew Anderson, Prathik Gunreddy, Eric Gustafson, and Mason Shackelford were among the team members who attended this year’s competition, held in Arizona earlier this year.

EcoCAR is a Student Competition Center team part of Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program, which allows undergraduate and graduate students to participate in long-term, multidisciplinary project teams led by faculty. Over 50 students are on the team and it is advised by Woodruff School faculty members Professor Antonia Antoniou and Director of Graduate Studies and Woodruff Professor Michael Leamy, as well as Professor David Taylor from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The cross-disciplinary competition, among 15 North American universities, gave teams a 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ in the fall of 2023 that they are reengineering through 2026 to complete complex, realworld technical EV challenges. These include enhancing the propulsion system to optimize energy efficiency while maintaining consumer expectations for performance and driving experience.

This year’s result continues the team’s success from year one of this cycle, where they received several sub-category awards, including Best EcoCAR Collaboration and 1st Place Propulsion Controls & Modeling Presentation.

Revving Toward Success: A Journey into Racing and Engineering

In the high-octane world of motorsports, where speed is king and precision is paramount, individuals like Harbir Dass stand out not only for their skills on the track but also for their dedication to engineering excellence. As a first-year Georgia Tech mechanical engineering student with an automotive concentration, Dass’ journey intertwines his passion for racing with his pursuit of engineering.

From a young age, Dass has shown a fascination with creating and designing machines that move. He fondly recalls how in the 8th grade he saved all his money and invested in a Lincoln Electric welder so that he could build his own go-kart. That experience ignited a passion that propelled him toward mechanical engineering.

“I discovered go-kart racing in 8th grade and knew that I had found my type of sport,” Dass said.

Balancing the demands of academia with the rigors of racing is no easy feat. Dass’ schedule is a whirlwind of long racing weekends, with classes sometimes taking a back seat to his passion for motorsports. Despite the challenges, he strives to excel both on the track and in the classroom, juggling coursework with race preparations and commitments.

Dass’ dedication to the sport recently earned him the 2024 Parella Motorsports Holdings Powering Diversity Scholarship for the Ligier JS Formula 4 series. In a sport as competitive as racing, recognition of his diverse background was both validating and inspiring.

“I appreciate being recognized as an individual with a diverse background and hope that my presence in motorsports can inspire others to participate in this exciting sport,” Dass explained.

Beyond racing and engineering, Dass enjoys working on his project cars and playing on his electric guitar. These passions serve as outlets for creativity and relaxation, helping him recharge.

With each lap around the track and every project in the workshop, he embodies the spirit of innovation and the relentless pursuit of excellence. As he continues to carve his path in the world of motorsports, one thing remains certain: Harbir Dass is a force to be reckoned with, both on and off the track.

The Grass is Greener at Georgia Tech for NRE Student Derek Lewis

Derek Lewis has fully embraced the Georgia Tech student experience since joining the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and enrolling in the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering (NRE) program last fall. Though Lewis’ academic path took some twists and turns before pointing to Georgia Tech, it is clear it led him to the correct place.

Originally from Virginia, Lewis hadn’t even considered Georgia Tech initially. “I was originally leaning towards Virginia Tech or the University of Virginia, but after I visited Atlanta, I knew that Georgia Tech was my home,” he said.

Along with the culture, academics, and sports scene that resonated with Lewis, he was impressed by the breathtaking campus. “I always thought that the ‘grass is greener’ metaphor was just another cliché until I visited Atlanta. The grass literally is greener at Georgia Tech, and I love how beautiful the nature and landscaping on campus make everyday life.”

Before visiting campus, a small essay mishap, that Lewis can laugh about now, had him unsure if his application would even be considered. He applied to Georgia Tech on a last-minute whim after being peer-pressured by a couple of friends. In the days before the deadline, he opted to copy-andpaste a portion of an essay he wrote for a North Carolina State University application.

“After a Google search, in a mere 300 words, I very comprehensively detailed how interesting Georgia Tech’s nuclear research reactor was, completely oblivious to the fact that it had been decommissioned in the ’90s,” he said.

After a whirlwind of anticipation and an early admissions deferral, Lewis

regrouped and showed off a different side to his personality in a continued interest essay about his fantasy football league and was accepted in the regular decision round.

Lewis’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) began when he learned about the sunlike capabilities of an ordinary atom. As nuclear engineers, his mother and father naturally encouraged his affinity for the field.

“For me, a take your kid to work day wasn’t just about shadowing my parents; it was about witnessing, first-hand, the revelations of atomic science in the past century, and seeing the table of nuclides wasn’t just about memorizing elements it was like peering into a blueprint of the universe,” Lewis said.

Since then, Lewis’ fascination for the atom has developed into a passion for nuclear and radiological engineering and its broad applications, from clean, sustainable energy that combats climate change, to interplanetary space propulsion that will eventually power a trip to Mars.

“I felt that this major would best help me play a role in building a cleaner, healthier, and more technologically advanced future,” he said.

Though his love of science comes first from his parents, the character of Cooper played by Matthew McConaughey in the movie Interstellar also inspired Lewis’ scientific pursuits. “The dedication, tenacity, and future-focused mindset of the character is inspiring to me as a nuclear and radiological engineering major because Coop has a willingness to overcome overwhelming odds to secure a future for humanity,” he explained. “This is like the technical hurdles of climate change and energy security that

nuclear power aims to tackle.”

Now, halfway through his first year at Georgia Tech, the campus that initially won Lewis over has provided an experience-rich first semester for him. Lewis has been involved in several campus clubs and took first place in the Freshman Cake Race, a half-mile race held before sunrise on the morning of the Homecoming game every year. As a winner of one of Georgia Tech’s greatest traditions, he received a cake and was brought to the field during halftime of the Homecoming game where he was congratulated by the Ramblin’ Royalty.

In addition to staying on top of his academics and participating in extracurriculars, Lewis believes mental health is an important and often overlooked part of society. To maintain balance, Lewis runs through Piedmont Park, takes naps after class, and even goes for an occasional ice cream break at Brittain Dining Hall.

“Another one of my philosophies that helps me relax

is that nobody’s perfect, and at the end of the day, a 90 percent is the same as a 100 percent, so shoot for 90 percent and have some fun at the same time,” he added.

Lewis is also an accomplished athlete. He played ice hockey and ran track competitively and enjoys the chance to play a variety of sports whenever he can. “I’m very fortunate to have amazing friends that are competitive, athletic, and always down to try new things,” he said. “One of my favorite parts of the day is going to Tech Green with them to play football, frisbee, Spikeball, pickleball, volleyball, or whatever might be in hand, and locking in for a few hours.”

When he isn’t playing sports, Lewis can be found showing his support for the Yellow Jackets at various athletic events, cheering, dancing, and singing along to the Georgia Tech fight songs with friends. Lewis truly is a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluva engineer.

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF

Army Medic to NASA ‘Space Plumber’: An Army Veteran’s Journey at Tech

Corey Crisostomo’s passion for engineering first took root on medical calls during his time as a United States Army medic. In his seven years in the Army, Crisostomo often found himself fiddling with medical devices and thinking about how designs could be improved for the medics to use more effectively.

“I remember being on medical calls and messing with the equipment,” recalled Crisostomo. “I’d be thinking, who designed this? It doesn’t do what we need it to. This was made by someone who only thinks they know what we do.”

So, when his time in the Army ended, Crisostomo was set on pursuing this found interest in engineering. He enrolled at Georgia Southern University to complete his core classes, but Georgia Tech was always his end goal for its reputation in the engineering field.

After a year, he transferred to Tech as a mechanical engineering major via the Veterans Transfer Pathway, a program that assists veterans who have completed active duty within the past five years gain admission into Tech.

Crisostomo has now been at Tech for two years and rotates between semesters of classes and working as a NASA Pathways intern. In his role at NASA, he works as a cryogenics propulsion specialist on the Artemis Project, a job that others in the unit fondly describe as a “space plumber.”

“I make sure that all the valves and pumps involved with fuel delivery work correctly,” Crisostomo explained, “essentially making sure that fuel can get to the rocket’s engines so that it actually gets up into the air.”

The position has been enlightening for Crisostomo, especially when it comes to understanding the breadth of the field of engineering and where it can take him.

“I would love to help Army medics, and the more I think about it, the more I think I might want to follow that path,” he said, “whether that be with Army Medical Research or companies that interface with those products.”

Aside from attributing the inspiration for his engineering pursuits to his military experience, Crisostomo also credits it with helping him tackle the academic rigor of his Tech coursework.

“My time in the Army gave me the ability to know that I can do hard things,” he said. “The military gives you a lot of soft skills that help you frame problems and have a system for approaching a solution. Also, it teaches you how to operate in nearly any environment.”

Woodruff School Graduate Student Awarded Fellowship for Mentoring

Jennifer Leestma, a graduate student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, recently received a Woodruff School fellowship in recognition of her dedication to mentoring students.

Mentoring is an integral part of the Woodruff School community, helping to build a supportive and collaborative experience for students. Leestma has been helping guide other students through their Georgia Tech journey since 2020.

“Mentoring has been a huge part of my time at Georgia Tech, so it means a lot to receive this recognition from the department,” she said.

Leestma first started mentoring an undergraduate team of researchers, the Human Balance Augmentation team, in January 2020 during the second semester of her Ph.D. program. Since then, she’s had anywhere from three to seven undergraduate students that she works with each semester. She has mentored students from varying fields including mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science through the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. In VIP, teams of undergraduate students work with faculty and graduate students in their areas of scholarship and exploration. Undergraduate students earn academic credit for their work and have direct experience with the innovation process, while faculty and graduate students benefit from the extended efforts of their teams.

Over the last few years, Leestma has not only been dedicated to the success of her mentees academically but has also cared deeply about their well-being and growth beyond the classroom.

“These students put a huge amount of work into our lab, typically more than 10 hours per week during the school year, and as a result, have been involved in nearly every project during my Ph.D. program. I could rave about each of the students for quite a while, but collectively the thing I’m most

proud of is how much they grow in their confidence, resilience, and independence during the time that they work in the lab,” Leestma said.

She also pointed out the difference between research and classwork for students saying that research can be a hard thing to jump into, unlike many of the classes the students typically occupy their time with.

“Research is a world where there is often not a right answer,” she said. “We’re doing things that haven’t been done before so building up your understanding, diligently and meticulously working through problems, and trusting your knowledge can be a big adjustment.”

One of the most rewarding parts of being a mentor for Leestma has been seeing students work through the questions and problems research entails and come to a discovery.

“Getting to witness the lightbulbs going off and being there when students start coming up with their own ideas is rewarding. I do my best to foster this growth and I think the key has been always encouraging students to understand why they’re doing something, to the extent that they can easily explain it to others, even if that means progress must slow down while you deeply work through a problem,” she said.

Leestma is grateful for the chance to be a mentor during her time at Georgia Tech and will use the skills she has gained during the experience as she moves to her next chapter.

“This mentorship experience has been invaluable and completely solidified my desire to pursue an academic career after graduation,” she said.

Improving Mental Health Amongst Woodruff

School Graduate Students

The pressure of graduate school is no secret, and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is dedicated to offering support to students through various initiatives including the Mechanical Engineering Grad Student Mental Health Committee (MEMHC).

Originally launched in 2019 as an ad hoc group of students helping students, the committee has since grown to pilot its own initiatives and provide policy feedback to help administrators foster graduate student success in the Woodruff School.

“We believe the work we do is critical for helping graduate students in the department navigate their programs and the impacts of that experience on their mental well-being,” said committee member Bettina Arkhurst.

The committee consists of graduate students who are passionate about mental health, graduate support, and community in the Woodruff School. Each year, members volunteer to work in focus areas they are most passionate about, such as social events, fundraising, community support, and conflict resolution. The 2023-24 committee members include Arkhurst, Akshar Kota, Anusha Krishnan, Jennifer Molnar, Madeline Morrell, Derek Nichols, and Christian Viteri.

The group’s initiatives range from the Quals Care Package Initiative, which offers care packages to students taking their qualifying exams, to the Faculty Connections Initiative, which provides meals to help connect faculty and students through unstructured conversations that can span topics from career advice and aspirations to research challenges, and more.

One of the MEMHC’s current projects is a Conflict Resolution Navigator tool, which provides students and administrators with a map of the resources and pathways available to them for handling conflicts. The goal is for the Navigator to be an asset for students within the School, around campus, and possibly at other institutions. Initially sponsored by a seed grant from the

University Center of Exemplary Mentoring, this project has leveraged partnerships and collaborations within the Woodruff School and across Georgia Tech’s institutional leadership.

The group also saw the addition of the Woodruff Strong Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) this year. Committee member Jennifer Molnar was appointed to this role and has worked to further develop and validate the online Conflict Resolution Navigator tool by working with Institute administration to confirm its accuracy.

“We are now seeing value in our work beyond the Woodruff School, and even beyond Georgia Tech. The initial interest we’ve seen around our Conflict Resolution Navigator tool has been very encouraging,” said Arkhurst. The committee presented their work at the Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD) Conference earlier this month.

Looking ahead, the MEMHC has many goals for the future. The group is planning to launch a new peer mentorship program with two thrusts: one based on social mentorship, and another based on technical mentorship. According to Arkhurst, the social mentorship thrust will pair incoming graduate students with senior graduate student mentors to help them navigate the program and foster new and meaningful connections. The technical mentorship thrust will act as a resource to allow graduate students to share their engineering expertise to help others in the School develop a range of hard and soft skills.

In addition, the committee is looking to bring new members on board. “Previous members of the committee have now graduated, so we are hoping to pass the baton and keep the work of this group going,” says Arkhurst. “We also hope we can continue to have a positive impact in the Woodruff School and amplify that impact over time.”

Inaugural Val-Sal Scholar Shares Journey to Tech

The 2023-24 academic year marked the first time the Georgia Tech Val-Sal Scholarship, a scholarship for eligible Georgia high school valedictorians and salutatorians, was awarded at Tech. Offered to 25 students for the inaugural year, the scholarship covers up to $5,000 a semester for those who may not be able to attend the Institute otherwise. One Scholar, mechanical engineering major Azaniah Blackmon, reflects on his time at Tech so far and what brought him here.

In high school, Blackmon wasn’t sure where his next steps would take him. As he started his college planning, his parents were the first to suggest Georgia Tech to fit his engineering aspirations. Blackmon was quick to get on board given that he could study his passion at an elite institution while sticking close to home.

He applied, and received the Val-Sal Scholarship, confirming that Tech was the right choice. Since coming to campus in the fall, he’s enjoyed the opportunity to learn at an elite level while being close enough for his family to make the occasional visit.

When it came time to make a decision about which branch of engineering to pursue, Blackmon was stuck between mechanical and civil engineering. After some thought and time on campus last fall semester, mechanical engineering ultimately won out.

“I saw myself going further in that field,” he said. “I went to the career fair just to see what was out there in both fields and felt like there were a lot of directions to go within mechanical engineering.”

One in a Million

In the weeks after Commencement, Andrew Rogers, a master’s medical physics candidate, will begin looking for a place to live in Texas for his residency, take a family vacation to Alaska, and return to his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, to pack for his big move.

But a busy travel schedule is nothing new for Rogers. Diagnosed with hepatoblastoma at the age of 3, he spent over a decade traveling between Augusta, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, with lengthy hospital stays in between, undergoing treatment for the rare childhood liver cancer.

Given a prognosis with a “one-in-a-million” chance of survival, Rogers had two liver transplants before the cancer spread to his lungs and brain. In total, he endured 50 surgeries before his 13th birthday, and it was during the countless trips to Atlanta that he dreamed of two things — attending Georgia Tech and making a difference for kids facing similar struggles.

Unlike chemotherapy or other procedures, Rogers found radiation therapy to be a painless experience, in part thanks to the radiation therapists administering the treatment.

“They may not have thought much of it at the time, but in those moments, by playing with me, making me laugh, making me a Spiderman radiation mask, they helped me forget — even for a second — that I had cancer and helped me enjoy life. I think about that every day. I hope to one day change a child’s life like my therapists did for me,” he said.

Now 18 years cancer-free, Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in radiation therapy from Augusta University. A program director told him about Georgia Tech’s medical physics program, and, since arriving at the Institute in 2021, he has sought hands-on experience in the field. Completing the clinical portion of the program through a partnership with the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Rogers learned each role within the rotation.

“From booting up machines and checking on patients to everything else, I just started wanting to come in every day. I’d go in for free just because I love what I’m doing,” he said.

Rogers wasn’t immune to the stresses of everyday college life, but he approached them with a positive perspective.

“My parents told me that there’s always a light at the end of every tunnel, and it’s always going to be worth it in the end. So, I will keep telling myself and everybody else that when they’re going through a hard time, keep pushing,” he said. “Things may be painful and stressful now, but think about what you will achieve in the future and the people you will help get through battles of their own. That will always keep me motivated.”

Rogers isn’t done with medical appointments, but with each yearly checkup, he never tires of hearing the words he hopes to deliver in his career: “All clear.”

Velin Kojouharov Wins Tech’s Top Honor for Graduating Students

Velin “Venny” Kojouharov fell in love with physics and woodworking in high school, so when the time came to think about college, mechanical engineering immediately appealed to him.

That’s why he came to Georgia Tech. And as a Yellow Jacket, Kojouharov has developed and pursued those passions, diving into research and discovering the possibilities of bioinspired robotics.

Along the way, he’s also clearly made an impression: as he prepares to graduate this semester, Kojouharov has received the Love Family Foundation Award, Georgia Tech’s top honor for graduating students.

“I am extremely grateful to have been selected for the Love Award. To me, it is a recognition of the amazing support I have received at Georgia Tech through faculty, staff, and peers,” said Kohouharov, who grew up in Mansfield, Texas. “I had so many wonderful people help me through my journey at Georgia Tech, and this award is validation of the time and energy they poured into me. Also, being recognized for following my passions in research has given me the confidence to not only pursue a Ph.D. but to try and become a professor.”

The Love Family Foundation Award is given to one undergraduate student each spring who has demonstrated the most outstanding scholastic record among graduating students. Each college nominates its top scholar, and the academic associate deans coordinate with Georgia Tech’s Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) to select the winner. The honoree receives $10,000.

It’s just the latest accolade for Kojouharov, who also is a Stamps President’s Scholar. He was named a 2023 Goldwater Scholar, a

prestigious national honor that will support his graduate studies. He also received an Astronaut Scholarship last year for students who show a special drive or talent that suggests they’ll be leaders in advancing scientific knowledge.

George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering faculty member David Torello met Kojouharov in a dynamics class and became a mentor, including traveling together through the Scottish Highlands on a Stamps Scholars trip. Torello said Kojouharov has been the strongest engineering candidate for the Love Award he’s ever encountered — excellent in the classroom, interesting, compassionate, and emphathetic.

“Venny is the complete package. And he gets it. He gets that the point of all of this is to solve problems that matter to people and elevate the people and community around him,” Torello said. “He’s always thinking about impact and always thinking about the reach of his actions.”

That mindset led Kojouharov to co-found an organization at Tech called BRITE — BioInspired Robotics Initiative for Teaching and Education — to expose middle school students to bioinspired design and spark their curiosity about science, technology, engineering, and math. He also established a Biomechanics Day at Zoo Atlanta that has become an annual event.

Kojouharov’s outreach work has been an outgrowth of his research. He has conducted research in labs at Harvard University and ETH Zurich. But his home base since his first year at Tech has been in Professor Daniel Goldman’s lab in the School of Physics, where

“Venny is the complete package. And he gets it. He gets that the point of all of this is to solve problems that matter to people and elevate the people and community around him.”

—David Torello

he has studied how animals move and how those movements can inspire robotic locomotion. Kojouharov credited Goldman with shaping him as a researcher, scientist, and engineer.

“He has given me the resources, motivation, and passion for the research that I do and has inspired me to continue doing it,” he said.

Kojouharov’s work in Goldman’s lab has included collaborations across physics and chemical and biomolecular engineering to design a robot inspired by the muscle movements of organisms without limbs, such as snakes and worms.

“I was introduced to research in robotics, biology, and physics, and loved the interdisciplinary approach,” he said. “I wanted to share this with others and had the opportunity when I was asked to present my robot for Zoo Biomechanics Day. I spent the day next to the snake exhibits and got to teach thousands of kids about how we can study animals to help design robots.”

That’s work he’ll likely continue as he moves to the West Coast to pursue graduate studies at Stanford University. His research will focus on developing sustainable robots that can safely interact with the natural world.

“Designing these types of robots is difficult,” Kojouharov said. “That’s why researchers look to nature as a source of inspiration.”

Georgia Tech Unveils New AI Makerspace in Collaboration with NVIDIA

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering has established an artificial intelligence supercomputer hub dedicated exclusively to teaching students. The initiative — the AI Makerspace — is launched in collaboration with NVIDIA. College leaders call it a digital sandbox for students to understand and use AI in the classroom.

Initially focusing on undergraduate students, the AI Makerspace aims to democratize access to computing resources typically reserved for researchers or technology companies. Students will access the cluster online as part of their coursework, deepening their AI skills through hands-on experience. The Makerspace will also better position students after graduation as they work with AI professionals and help shape the technology’s future applications.

“The launch of the AI Makerspace represents another milestone in Georgia Tech’s legacy of innovation and leadership in education,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College and Southern Company Chair. “Thanks to NVIDIA’s advanced technology and expertise, our students at all levels have a path to make significant contributions and lead in the rapidly evolving field of AI.”

At its core, the Georgia Tech AI Makerspace is a dedicated computing cluster paired with NVIDIA AI Enterprise software. The software technology resides on an advanced AI infrastructure that is designed, built, and deployed by Penguin Solutions, providing a virtual gateway to a high-performance computing environment.

The first phase of the endeavor is powered by 20 NVIDIA HGX H100 systems, housing 160 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs (graphics processing units), one of the most powerful computational accelerators capable of enabling and supporting advanced AI and machine learning efforts. The system is interconnected with an NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking platform, featuring innetwork computing.

To put this computational power into perspective, it would take a single NVIDIA H100 GPU one second to come up with a multiplication operation that would take Georgia Tech’s 50,000 students 22 years to achieve.

“The City of Atlanta commends the leadership of Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering in advancing education and technology through the AI Makerspace,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “Partnerships with industry leaders such as NVIDIA propel our students and workforce toward tomorrow, further enhancing Atlanta’s status as an innovation hub.”

Students and faculty will also receive support through NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute resources, including faculty-run NVIDIA workshops, certifications, a university ambassador program, curriculum-aided teaching kits, and a developer community network.

The collaboration between the Georgia Tech and NVIDIA signifies the College’s significant commitment to best-in-class enterprise AI hardware and software.

“AI supercomputers provide a platform to help drive powerful new discoveries that could solve some of the world’s most complex challenges,” said Cheryl Martin, director of Higher Education and Research at NVIDIA. “Georgia Tech’s AI Makerspace will provide students with access to NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform, equipping them with the technology to push the boundaries of AI learning and research.”

The Next Step in the College’s AI for Engineering Initiative

The AI Makerspace expands on Georgia Tech’s foundational, theory-focused AI curriculum by offering students a hands-on platform to tackle real-world AI challenges, develop advanced applications, and present their AI-driven ideas at scale. It also complements two recent “AI for Engineering” announcements by the College: the unveiling of Georgia Tech’s first minor degree program in AI and machine learning, as well as the reimagining and creation of 14 core AI courses for undergrads.

“The AI Makerspace represents a significant advancement in technology for education,” explains Arijit Raychowdhury, professor and Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “To draw a comparison, the makerspace will provide a technological upgrade equivalent to switching from an etch-a-sketch to an iPad. That’s the level of difference in technology that the AI Makerspace provides to students.”

Penguin’s comprehensive solution features tightly integrated, end-to-end compute, data management, networking, software, and infrastructure, providing the AI cluster with the ability to process intense amounts of data with ultra-low latency.

“By initially focusing on undergraduates, the AI Makerspace at Georgia Tech is leaning in on the important work of providing technology to help educate an emerging new segment of students who could conceivably be called Generation AI,” said Mark Adams, president and CEO of SGH, Penguin Solutions’ corporate parent. “We’re pleased to partner with Georgia Tech and NVIDIA to help make the AI Makerspace a reality. With the speed and evolution of AI, it’s critical that those who will be developers and users of AI, now and in the future, are grounded by the best in higher education and have access to the latest, ever-evolving technology.”

The effort is bolstered by Georgia Tech’s Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE), which is providing sustainable leading-edge cyberinfrastructure and support, ensuring students have the necessary tools and assistance to best utilize the cluster.

The Next Steps for AI Education

Undergraduate students currently enrolled in ECE 4252: Fundamentals of Machine Learning (FunML) are accessing the AI Makerspace to learn, experiment, prototype, and showcase their AI-driven ideas at scale. This fall, the AI Makerspace will be incorporated into the curriculum of all eight engineering schools.

By spring 2025, all Georgia Tech engineering students — both undergraduate and graduate — will have access to noninstructional learning. In 2026, Georgia Tech plans to set up the AI Makerspace Omniverse, a sandbox for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The education and research hub is based on NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for connecting and developing 3D tools and applications, and will be available to all students.

To break down the accessibility barrier students may face with the makerspace, PACE and ECE’s Ghassan AlRegib are developing smart interfaces and strategies to ensure that students from all backgrounds, disciplines, and proficiency levels can effectively utilize the computing power.

“The intelligent system will serve as a tutor and facilitator,” said AlRegib, the John and Marilu McCarty Chair of Electrical Engineering. “It will be the lens through which students can tap into the world of AI, and it will empower them by removing any hurdle that stands in the way of them testing their ideas. It will also facilitate the integration of the AI Makerspace into existing classes.”

“Democratizing AI is not just about giving students access to a large pool of GPU resources,” said Didier Contis, executive director of academic technology, innovation, and research computing for the Office of Information Technology. “Deep collaboration with instructors is required to develop different solutions to empower students to use the resources easily without necessarily having to master specific aspects of AI or the underlying infrastructure.”

Beyond traditional computing applications, the hub is designed to be utilized in each of Georgia Tech’s six colleges, placing a unique emphasis on human-AI interaction. By doing so, it ensures that AI is viewed as a transformative force, encouraging innovation that extends beyond the confines of a single field.

Finally, and similar to how students use physical makerspaces

on campus, Raychowdhury sees the AI Makerspace as a tool for students to create technology that prompts AI start-up companies.

“AI is increasingly interdisciplinary and an irreversibly important part of today’s workforce,” said Raychowdhury. “To meet the needs of tomorrow’s innovation, we need a diverse workforce proficient in utilizing AI across all levels.”

“The launch of the AI Makerspace represents another milestone in Georgia Tech’s legacy of innovation and leadership in education. Thanks to NVIDIA’s advanced technology and expertise, our students at all levels have a path to make significant contributions and lead in the rapidly evolving field of AI.”

Faculty Notes

Yunus Alapan joined as research engineer I.

Alexander Alexeev was named Regents’ Innovator.

Mary Coker joined as lecturer.

Baratunde Cola delivered a commencement speech about applying Ph.D. thinking at the Spring 2024 Georgia Tech Ph.D. Ceremony.

Jonathan S. Colton received the CoE Outstanding Service Award and the Woodruff School Chair’s Appreciation Award. He was awarded the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Professorship in Manufacturing.

F. Levent Degertekin was awarded the CoE Outstanding Achievement as an Inventor Award and the Woodruff School Outstanding Achievement in Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Award.

Secil Demir joined as research engineer I.

Chaitanya Deo was awarded the Southern Nuclear Termed Professorship in NREMP.

Michael DeSalvo was promoted to research engineer II.

Denis Dorozhkin received the Woodruff School Teaching Excellence Award for NonTenure Track Faculty.

Anna Erickson was part of a team of researchers who received $11.6 million from the U.S. DOE’s NNSA to establish the Transuranic Chemistry Center of Excellence.

Jonathan Farnum joined as research engineer I-LT.

Jill Fennell joined as Frank K. Webb Academic Professional Chair in Communication Skills. She received the Woodruff School Outstanding Non-Tenure Track Faculty Award.

Aldo Ferri received the Sandi Bramblett Instructor of Excellence Award.

Jonathan E. Gaines joined as the inaugural Associate Chair for Inclusive Excellence.

Rudolph Gleason was named Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

Anthony Gody Jr. joined as lecturer.

Francois Guillot was awarded a $5.3 million grant from ONR for a project entitled “Development of vector sensors and arrays for flow noise measurements and shallow water applications.”

Tequila Harris was promoted to professor.

Marta Hatzell was named a 2024 winner of the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Awards.

David Hu was elected a 2023 American Physical Society Fellow.

Yuhang Hu, along with W. Hong Yeo, was selected to direct the Wearable Intelligent Systems and Healthcare (WISH) Center.

Andrew Hummel joined as lecturer.

Suhas Jain joined as assistant professor.

Amit S. Jariwala received the Institute’s Excellence Award as part of the Capstone Design Core Planning Team. He was selected to participate in Georgia Tech’s Emerging Leaders Program.

Ji Ho Jeon joined as research engineer I-NE.

Kyriaki Kalaitzidou was selected for the 2024 ACC ALN Fellows program. She received the Woodruff School Chair’s Appreciation Award.

Surya Kalidindi received the Woodruff School Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award.

Ubade Kemerli joined as research engineer II-LT.

Sedighe Keynia joined as lecturer.

Dan Kotlyar was promoted to associate professor. He was named a Woodruff Faculty Fellow. He received the Woodruff School Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award and Mentor of the Year Award.

Thomas Kurfess was named Regents’ Professor.

Michael J. Leamy was appointed director of graduate studies. He was among the researchers chosen by NSF to establish the New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center.

Mark Ligler joined as lecturer.

Anirban Mazumdar received the CTL Junior Faculty Teaching Award and the Woodruff School Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.

Matthew McDowell was appointed Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair for innovation in Material Science and Metals Processing. He received the Electrochemical Society Battery Division Early Career Award and Woodruff School Research Award.

Kristi Mehaffey was named Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advisor – Primary Role winner.

Shreyes N. Melkote was awarded the ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal. He received the Institute’s Outstanding Achievement in Research Engagement and Outreach Award.

Akanksha Menon received the CTL Junior Faculty Teaching Award and the Woodruff School Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.

Soumya Mohan was promoted to research engineer II.

Richard W. Neu was named the 2023 ASTM International Professor of the Year.

Raghuram V. Pucha delivered the 2023 Zeigler Outstanding Educator Lecture.

Jerry Qi received the ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal.

Devesh Ranjan was named to the USG’s ELI class for 2023-24.

Hassan Rashidi joined as lecturer.

Sourabh Saha was elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors, class of 2024.

Christopher J. Saldaña was selected to serve as DOE AMMTO Director.

Gregory Sawicki was appointed Joseph Anderer Faculty Fellow. He is part of an interdisciplinary team spanning 21 institutions awarded $15 million to explore muscle dynamics.

Carolyn Seepersad joined as Woodruff Professor.

Ankur Singh was promoted to professor. He received the Woodruff School Research Award.

GEORGE

Suresh Sitaraman received the Woodruff School Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award and Mentor of the Year Award.

David Smith received the Woodruff School Teaching Excellence Award for Non-Tenure Track Faculty.

Khalid Lief Sorensen joined as lecturer.

Aaron Stebner was appointed Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Chair in Manufacturing.

Todd Sulchek was named Regents’ Innovator.

Yuguo Tao was promoted to senior research engineer.

Susan Thomas was promoted to professor.

Michael Tinskey received the Woodruff School Outstanding Non-Tenure Track Faculty Award.

David Torello received the Woodruff School Culture Champion Award.

Maegan Tucker joined as assistant professor.

Levi Wood was promoted to associate professor. He was named a Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

Hanjiang Xu joined as senior research engineer.

Bo Yang was promoted to senior research scientist.

W. Hong Yeo received the Woodruff School Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Award. He was selected to lead the KIATGeorgia Tech Semiconductor Electronics Center. He was selected to direct the Wearable Intelligent Systems and Healthcare (WISH) Center, with Yuhang Hu.

Chiyul Yoon joined as research engineer II.

Aaron Young was selected to participate in Georgia Tech’s Emerging Leaders Program.

Zhuomin Zhang was elected an Honorary Member of ASME.

Min Zhou was appointed Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair for innovation in Material Science and Metals Processing.

Ting Zhu was appointed Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair for innovation in Material Science and Metals Processing.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Woodruff Professor Carolyn Seepersad

Get to know one of the Woodruff School's newest faculty members

Welcome back to the Woodruff School! You received your Ph.D. here in 2004. Do you have any fond memories?

My time in graduate school at Georgia Tech was absolutely transformational in terms of its impact on my professional development. The students, staff, and faculty were always so motivating and supportive, and my advisors always encouraged me to think “big,” be bold, and take risks. It was the perfect environment for me for graduate school.

What do you enjoy about working in academia?

I absolutely love working with students, and I love working with them to transition exciting new ideas into reality. Whenever I look back on my career to date, I always view my biggest accomplishments as the students I influence, much more than the papers we publish, or the research grants we complete.

Who are some of your career influences?

My graduate advisors and committee members at Georgia Tech had a tremendous influence on my career. From them, I learned how to do research, how to mentor and guide students, and how to be a lifelong learner who adapts to the changing research landscape. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues at my former institution, UT Austin, who were fantastic collaborators and established a collegial environment that made it easier for me to thrive. My family has always been incredibly supportive, and I can’t thank them enough.

What is the focus of your research?

My research focuses on two interrelated topics: additive manufacturing process innovation and design for additive manufacturing, particularly computational methods with an emphasis on interesting applications in the design of structures and architected materials. In recent years, my research portfolio has also included creativity and innovation, and sustainability.

What is the biggest challenge of being a new professor on campus?

Having been a graduate student at Georgia Tech and a professor for many years at another university, I certainly have a head start compared to many new professors on campus. When transferring from another university, one of the biggest challenges is learning new ways of doing things and new terminology for different aspects of the research and teaching enterprise, but it’s also lots of fun because it forces you to be adaptable and think in new ways.

Innovation and Education: The Woodruff School's Unique Approach to Design for Mechanical Engineers

Mechanical engineering, in the broadest sense of the discipline, touches a vast array of processes and systems, encompassing familiar industries and niche startups. Rapid technology advances mean engineering skills and methods change frequently to adapt to newer materials, tools, or customer needs. At its core, however, the intersection of design and innovation drives engineering, shaping the future of products and manufacturing processes. At the forefront of this intersection is the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, well known for its commitment to design education and unique approach to understanding the crucial role design plays in educating future engineers.

Design Education: Bridging the Gap Between Art and Engineering

Amit Jariwala is the Director of Design and Innovation at the Woodruff School and is responsible for developing industry partnerships to support the innovative learning experience at the school. Through these connections, Jariwala can also keep a close study on the skills and experience companies are looking for in prospective hires, which can help identify areas of focus across the school’s curriculum.

Jariwala has been in his current position since 2012 and has played a key role in helping expand the design curriculum facilities at the Woodruff School, which include the IDEA Lab, the Flowers Invention Studio, and the Montgomery Machining Mall. These facilities, collectively known as the Wepfer Design Commons, have seen rapid growth and an enhanced focus on supporting students with their design pursuits in and out of the classroom.

This hands-on approach isn’t a replacement for the technical and mathematical rigor necessary to engineering projects but is a reemphasis of creating solutions with the end-user in mind. “I do not see design and engineering as opposing ends; rather, I consider design as a tool that leverages engineering to solve a problem,” Jariwala said, underscoring the essence of the Design Sequence at the Woodruff School, where courses offer practical tools to merge artistic and technical considerations seamlessly.

The Design Sequence, according to Jariwala, addresses the critical need for end-user desirability, often overlooked in traditional engineering. Through collaborations with industry experts and realworld insights shared in classrooms, the Woodruff School ensures students develop a holistic perspective.

“Too often, as engineers, we tend to focus too much on technical feasibility but underestimate the value of end-user desirability,” Jariwala said. “We will need a lot of human-centric, empathetic engineers and designers who can work together to improve the human condition, and I believe that graduates from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering will have a pivotal leadership role to play in creating these solutions.”

“We

will need a lot of human-centric, empathetic engineers and designers who can work together to improve the human condition, and I believe that graduates from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering will have a pivotal leadership role to play in creating these solutions.”

—Amit Jariwala

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF

Design Cognition: Unraveling the Engineering Mind

Julie Linsey, professor and director of the Innovation, Design Reasoning, Engineering Education, and Methods (IDREEM) Lab at Georgia Tech, spends a lot of time thinking about how people think, especially when they’re thinking about design.

Linsey’s area of research is design cognition, a blend of cognitive psychology and engineering design research. Her work puts under a lens the cognitive processes behind design choices with the goal of creating better tools and approaches to enhance innovation, delving into the intricacies of how engineers navigate the design process, particularly in the fuzzy front end of design, where prototyping decisions are pivotal.

“In the early design process, there’s a lot of human cognition that comes into play,” says Linsey, whose interdisciplinary approach draws from psychology, sociology, and ethnography. Biases such as the halo effect and primacy and recency biases can lead to systematic mistakes.

Primacy bias, for example, refers to the tendency to give more weight or importance to the first pieces of information encountered during the design process. This bias can influence decision-making and design choices based on the early information received, potentially overlooking alternative solutions or aspects introduced later in the process.

Imagine a design scenario where engineers receive initial specifications emphasizing a particular material or manufacturing method. They might develop a bias towards that option without fully exploring alternatives. This early emphasis can lead to a design that is suboptimal or misses out on more innovative and efficient solutions that might emerge later in the process.

Linsey’s work aims to develop design methods that minimize these biases, fostering a more innovative and creative approach among engineers. Acknowledging the biases can mitigate some, but not all negative effects, so the work done by Linsey and her team in the IDREEM Lab is indispensable to the Woodruff School’s design curriculum.

“I have to understand the cognition of the engineers of the designers and then how their tools, their methods, all relate to producing; much of my work is focused on how we help engineers become more innovative, more creative.”

Linsey’s empirical research was among the first to document the multifaceted learning occurring in spaces like the Flowers Invention Studio. While anecdotally it was clear that there would be benefits to makerspaces, there’s now the data to underpin these claims.

“They’re building their prototyping skills,” Linsey said. “They’re building their confidence, but we also see a lot of other things. They’re building their interpersonal skills, their self-awareness.”

Linsey’s work has shown that makerspaces like the Invention Studio not only enhance technical skills but also nurture qualities essential for engineers tackling the openended challenges of the future, while developing effective communication and leadership skills.

Multi-Scale Computational Design: Shaping the Digital Frontier

Spearheading research on the frontier of engineering technology is Yan Wang, director of the Multi-Scale Systems Engineering Research Group and a professor at the Woodruff School.

Wang specializes in multi-scale computational design systems, tools enabling engineers to analyze and model materials, products, or processes at various levels of detail and size—from the macroscopic shape of an airplane’s wing to its microscopic material structure—all in one computational system.

“Engineering design is an iterative process,” Wang says. “Instead of iteratively building physical prototypes to test and evaluate designs, building digital models or virtual prototypes to evaluate their performance in a computer can significantly reduce the cost and time associated with the design iterations.”

Wang envisions a future where engineering seamlessly integrates product design and materials design. His research group tackles the challenges posed by integrating the complex math of both the macro and micro scales, seeking innovative computational approaches to overcome them.

“Computational tools that can model and evaluate systems at multiple length scales are crucial to accelerate product innovation,” said Wang.

The technical challenges lie in predicting the properties of materials and the performance of products. The ‘curse-of-dimensionality challenge,’ where computational costs grow exponentially with the number of variables, necessitates the novel approaches that Wang and his team take, including developing algorithms designed for quantum computers.

Wang also sees the recent explosion in AI tools amplifying the speed at which engineers can explore design solutions.

“As an alternative to traditional physics-based models, which are often computationally expensive, machine learning models can be

used to predict the property and performance very efficiently,” he said. “Nevertheless, I do not believe AI tools can completely replace human designers, because these tools can only do jobs very similar to what they have been trained with. To perform non-repetitive tasks, physical knowledge accumulated by human beings is still irreplaceable, which is our intuition and wisdom.”

Wang’s research highlights the forwardthinking approach the Woodruff School is taking to design, pushing the boundary through advanced research, and better preparing students to be the engineers of tomorrow.

Sustainable Design: Engineering for a Better Tomorrow

Likewise, sustainability remains critical to the engineering of tomorrow, and Bert Bras, Associate Chair for Administration, has long been a champion of sustainable design. Bras, who also holds the Brook Byers Professorship in Energy and Environmental Systems, had his interest sparked in 1992 when discussions about product take-back laws in Europe were gaining traction. He saw an opportunity to research making products easier to dispose

of, which led him to his first NSF grant titled “Enhancing Reusability by Design.”

“I realized it was a completely new area that gave me and students a good feeling to work in,” he said. “After 31 years, I still find the whole area of sustainable design very rewarding and exciting. It is nice to know that you work in an area that is actually good for the planet.”

His passion for sustainable design now extends beyond remanufacturing, encompassing the entire life cycle and drawing inspiration from natural ecosystems. Bras sees the future of sustainable design evolving at multiple levels, with principles

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF

integrated into standard engineering practices. “To get to true sustainable development, we need to design new energy systems, new mobility systems, more advanced buildings, and building energy systems,” he said.

Under Bras’ guidance, the Sustainability Design and Manufacturing Lab at Georgia Tech plays a pivotal role in helping companies evaluate their economic and environmental impact. By developing models that quantify the impact of sustainability-related options, the lab aids companies in making informed decisions. Bras recounts successful projects, such as reducing volatile organic compound emissions in collaboration with Ford, demonstrating that sustainable design can lead to both environmental and financial winwin situations.

Bras shares his passion and enthusiasm for sustainability with students and seizes on their desire to have a positive impact on the world.

“Most already realize that we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and that engineering can help with that,” he says. “What many don’t realize is that a lot starts with good engineering, that is, reducing waste and increasing efficiency, which includes making sure that you don’t overdesign products.”

“That’s when you can differentiate in true advancements and worthwhile trends, versus hype.”

Forging Future Leaders in Design and Engineering

The Woodruff School continues to position itself on the vanguard of innovation, where design is not just a tool but a guiding principle, directing the approach the school takes to education, research, and technology, and collectively shaping the narrative of design in mechanical engineering.

Looking ahead, new programs and initiatives will provide unique opportunities for transformative research and education.

Currently in its early stages, TechMade will be a new interdisciplinary initiative tapping into the technological resources available across Georgia Tech.

“The vision for TechMade comes from the Woodruff School’s desire to integrate art, science, and engineering into design thinking,” said Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor.

TechMade is supported by the Woodruff School and led by Professor Carolyn Seepersad, together with Professor Wayne Li from the School of Industrial Design. The initiative focuses on creating design threads that complement analytical and computational skills with design thinking and hands-on fabrication opportunities in each year of the mechanical engineering undergraduate curriculum. At the graduate level, the initiative will nurture a cadre of TechMade fellows who integrate engineering design into other technical areas to address complex multidisciplinary challenges.

The Woodruff School’s commitment to design education, cognitive research, multi-scale computational design, and sustainable design propels its graduates into the workforce as empathetic problem-solvers and leaders. As Jariwala aptly puts it: “We are preparing next-generation leaders who are empathetic problem-solvers armed with the ability to learn, collaborate, adapt, and create solutions to improve the human condition.”

“I realized it was a completely new area that gave me and students a good feeling to work in. After 31 years, I still find the whole area of sustainable design very rewarding and exciting. It is nice to know that you work in an area that is actually good for the planet.”

—Bert Bras

Innovative Research in Nuclear Nonproliferation

Georgia Tech is one of the nation’s premier institutions for nuclear studies. The Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics (NREMP) program, part of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, provides students with several areas to choose from as an academic focus such as reactor engineering, instrumentation and control, and radiation detection. Additionally, select students can gain further experience working in faculty-led research labs like the Laboratory for Advanced Nuclear Nonproliferation and Safety (LANNS).

The LANNS Group

LANNS is led by Anna Erickson, Associate Chair for Research and Woodruff Professor, who has published extensively on reactor designs and novel radiation detection methods.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of my role as a faculty member at Georgia Tech working in nuclear nonproliferation is the ability to contribute to global security,” Erickson said. “Knowing that your work has a direct impact on the safety and well-being of

people worldwide is highly motivating.”

After earning her Ph.D., Erickson initially studied fast neutron reactors—a low-waste, fuel-efficient alternative to the more common thermal reactors. Nuclear security and detection offered a less theoretical and more hands-on approach to her research. Her expertise in both areas has given her a unique perspective on the intersection of reactor design and nonproliferation, and it’s this perspective that is at the core of LANNS.

A Multidisciplinary Approach

Nuclear nonproliferation is a broad, branching concept commonly associated with studies in international relations and the diplomatic efforts involved in advancing the peaceful use of atomic energy. Underpinning these efforts, however, are the complex sciences of nuclear physics, reactor design, and novel technologies to detect and monitor radioactive material. The LANNS group is a multidisciplinary team operating within this space. LANNS works in tandem with faculty and students from the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and the Sam

Nunn School of International Affairs.

“Non-proliferation challenges are inherently complex and multifaceted,” Erickson said. “They often require interdisciplinary solutions that leverage insights from various fields. Working with other Schools allows us to approach these challenges from multiple angles, fostering innovation and creativity.”

Matthew Dunbrack is a Ph.D. student working in LANNS. His research focuses on using machine learning and other methods of data processing to develop antineutrino-based safeguards. Dunbrack isn’t the first nuclear engineer in his family; his grandfather was also a nuclear engineer and worked on the Navy’s Poseidon missile program.

“I remember hearing carefully worded stories about his time working on confidential projects and was mesmerized by the mystery of the nuclear field,” Dunbrack said.

After studying at the University of Florida Dunbrack joined the NRE program at Georgia Tech with the goal of developing safer nuclear technologies. His research in antineutrino safeguards can potentially lead to improved monitoring of nuclear reactors and the safer deployment of nuclear reactors to nonnuclear states.

“All fission reactors emit antineutrinos. If we can measure and analyze enough antineutrinos, we can ensure that a reactor is operating as expected.”

Dunbrack recently traveled to Vienna, Austria to present his research at the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management and the European Safeguards Research & Development Association Joint Annual Meeting.

“It is always great to hear about the cutting-edge research being done in the field of nuclear nonproliferation,” Dunbrack said about his experience. “With the meeting’s proximity to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, I felt my research was making a difference on an international scale.”

Novel Radiation Detection

Last year, the IAEA reported 146 incidents involving nuclear materials, including five instances of illegal trafficking. The LANNS group’s research into novel radiation detection technologies can help play a vital role in preventing malicious use of nuclear material.

“A small quantity of nuclear material, as compact as a baseball, could potentially be used to build a nuclear weapon if it falls into the wrong hands,” Erickson said. “The small size of these materials makes them difficult to detect because they can be effectively concealed by lead or other dense substances

that block the radiation they emit. This is why the smuggling of nuclear materials is a significant concern in nuclear security and non-proliferation efforts. Technology plays a crucial role in our attempts to uncover covert activities in this regard.”

Mackenzie Duce is a Ph.D. student with the LANNS group and specializes in researching the next generation of detector materials.

“To me, radiation detection is the perfect intersection of basic science and hands-on experiments,” she said. Duce has enjoyed the ability to learn alongside her colleagues in the lab and strongly encourages students interested in nonproliferation to get involved in research as soon as possible.

“Our group has fostered a collaborative and supportive environment such that we can draw upon the expertise of one another as we address our own research challenges.”

Duce is a co-inventor on a recent patent filing for a novel silicon detector and says her work in the LANNS group has sharpened her skills as a researcher and provided opportunities to grow as a mentor and teacher. She’s also enjoyed using the advanced facilities available at Tech.

“We have a unique variety of radiation sources that most schools do not have access to,” she said. “The cleanroom facility has also been an incredible and unique resource; I’ve spent many hours in there supporting work on novel photodetector fabrication using tools that are just not available at other universities.”

Continued Growth

The LANNS group and other labs working with the NRE program have benefited from continued growth of the program and recent investments. One example is the creation of the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation, or ETI. The ETI Consortium is composed of 14 universities and 12 national laboratories, led by Georgia Tech. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded the consortium $25 million to develop new technologies and educational programs to support the agency’s nuclear science, security, and nonproliferation goals.

The LANNS group is a sterling example of Georgia Tech’s ongoing commitment to innovative research and the development of new detection technologies are vital components of a safer future. More importantly, Erickson’s team harnesses the exceptional potential of Georgia Tech students to become leaders and changemakers.

“Technology will undoubtedly be a key factor in our nonproliferation endeavors,” Erickson said. “However, we must also underscore the human element, with our students poised to play a pivotal role in shaping versatile and adaptive nonproliferation strategies that can adapt to changing security dynamics and technological progress.”

Akanksha Menon, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded $3 million in funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of their Energy Earthshots™ Initiative to advance clean energy technologies within the decade.

The initiative includes a total of $264 million in funding that will support 11 new Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs) led by DOE National Laboratories and 18 university research teams addressing one or more of the specific Energy Earthshots™ that aim to accelerate affordable and reliable clean energy solutions to mitigate the climate crisis to reach a net-zero carbon goal in 2050.

Menon’s project, titled Thermo-ChemoMechanical Transformations in Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Composites, will bring together Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the Woodruff School, Claudio Di Leo, assistant professor in

Akanksha Menon Awarded $3 Million for Research as part of DOE's Energy Earthshots™ Initiative

the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and Jeff Urban from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to provide a fundamental understanding of the coupled thermo-chemo-mechanical phenomena in thermal energy storage (TES) materials that will enable low-cost and stable storage.

“You can think of TES as a thermal battery that is ‘charged’ using electricity and can ‘discharge’ that energy as heat at different temperatures ranging from 100 to 1500 degrees Celsius,” said Menon.

An issue Menon explained is that during this charge and discharge process, materials experience large thermal and concentration gradients that can cause structural changes and mechanical stresses. This in turn impacts the storage capacity and lifetime of the materials.

To address this, the research team will combine experiments with predictive computational models to pinpoint the rational design of composite TES materials that are stable under cycling using tools developed for studying Li-ion batteries, with modifications for gas flow and different temperature ranges.

The collaboration will draw on the specialized skills of those involved. “My co-PI, Matthew McDowell, is an expert in developing in situ experimentation of battery materials,” stated Menon. In addition, co-PI Di Leo will provide expertise in continuum modeling of coupled interactions in dynamic materials that will aid the development of a general framework for understanding the degradation in TES composites. The Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research facility within Berkeley Lab, will be used to synthesize composite materials that minimize mechanical degradation and maximize energy storage.

Menon highlighted how one of the benefits of a thermal battery, over electrochemical batteries like Li-ion, is that energy storage capacity and power output can be dissociated, making it suitable for achieving the Long Duration Storage Shot™, which is targeting low-cost storage for 10+ hours.

The thermal battery can also produce heat at different temperatures by using different materials and storage mechanisms (such as thermochemical reactions and sensible heat), making this suitable for achieving the Industrial Heat Shot™, which is targeting low-carbon heat for industrial processes like iron and steel production.

Menon used the comparison of an everyday cell phone battery to explain the goal of the project. “If you think about it, we don’t know everything about the Li-ion batteries in our phones,” she said. “However, enough research has been done to pinpoint how many cycles and how much performance degradation is typical over a given lifetime – that is the level of detail our project aims to bring to the field of thermal batteries.”

This grant builds on Menon’s NSF CAREER Award which started last year and will also contribute to another DOE-funded project she is leading on integrating thermochemical energy storage with HVAC in buildings.

“I was one of the topic leads back in February when the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) organized an informational workshop on this topic, so now having a $3 million funded project is surreal. We have a lot of work to do to make thermal batteries a reality,” said Menon.

Menon is also a part of an EERC led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with Associate Professor Shannon Yee.

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF

Looking across the 20,000 square feet of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF), Aaron Stebner is greeted by a maze of machines. Spread throughout the bright, cavernous space are metal printers with electron beams. A robotic welder. A robotic loader and unloader.

It’s been more than a year and a half since the White House announced a $65 million grant that put Georgia Tech at the forefront of Georgia’s capabilities in artificial intelligence and manufacturing, with AMPF serving as the heart.

“Everything is going gangbusters,” Stebner said recently. “It’s exciting to think about how much we’ve done in the last 18 months.”

The $65 million is bolstering AMPF, a testbed where basic research results are scaled up and translated into implementable technologies, including additive/hybrid manufacturing, composites, and industrial robotics.

Stebner is an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His primary role since that 2022 announcement has been leading the largest of nine projects within the Georgia AI Manufacturing technology corridor grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.

AI-ing Georgia’s Manufacturing Renaissance

Forty or so grad students and five faculty members worked in AMPF when the funding was announced. Now it’s 70 grad students, a dozen faculty, and 50 undergrads, as well as other staff members.

“In addition to more people, we are working with corporate partners on 5G and cloud computing projects,” Stebner said. “It’s busy, and I feel like I’m drowning most days. But when I come up and take a breath and look around, it’s quite amazing to see people working together and making innovation happen.”

The next part of the project will be the most visible. This summer, AMPF will nearly double in size as walls come down and usable space in the building is reallocated to expand the footprint to 58,000 square feet. It will be the foundation for what Stebner is most excited about.

“Right now, in manufacturing, a piece of equipment — a turbine rotor blade, for example — is created in one place, then sent somewhere else for testing,” Stebner said. “Often it goes across the country to check its interior structure, then is shipped to a second location to test its chemical composition. Georgia Tech’s plan is to put the entire process under the same roof to create a testbed for AI to perform research and development using models that it learns across the manufacturing and quality data.”

In short, Georgia Tech will make machine parts while simultaneously checking their composition, durability, and more — all made possible by AMPF’s connected machines. The devices will “talk” to each other using AI. This will ensure that engineers are making the things they think they’re making, rather than sending them around the country and waiting for confirmation. Co-locating those processes would make manufacturing more efficient and economical and provide the nation with a testbed designed for AI innovations.

“No other facility in the nation is built to do this. Georgia Tech will be the first,” Stebner said.

The construction and build-out of the new space should finish this fall. Small-scale testing of the interconnected machines will begin in 2025. Stebner’s team is about eight years away from producing large projects at scale.

“I often don’t take the time to appreciate it, because day-to-day, I feel like we’re always behind and not getting to where we need to go,” Stebner said. “But we’ve really come a long way in short time. And there’s a lot more to do.”

Georgia Tech Wins Second $25 Million Award to Support Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Education

Georgia Tech will lead a consortium of 12 universities and 12 national labs as part of a $25 million U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) award. This is the second time Georgia Tech has won this award and led research and development efforts to aid NNSA’s nonproliferation, nuclear science, and security endeavors.

The Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI) 2.0 will leverage the strong foundation of interdisciplinary, collaboration-driven technological innovation developed in the ETI Consortium funded in 2019. The technical mission of the ETI 2.0 team is to advance technologies across three core disciplines: data science and digital technologies in nuclear security and nonproliferation, precision environmental analysis for enhanced nuclear nonproliferation vigilance and emergency response, and emerging technologies. They will be advanced by research projects in novel radiation detectors, algorithms, testbeds, and digital twins.

“What we’re trying to do is bring those emergent technologies that are not implemented right now to fruition,” said Anna Erickson, Woodruff Professor and associate chair for research in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, who leads both grants. “We want to understand what’s ahead in the future for both the technology and the threats, which will help us determine how we can address it today.”

While half the original collaborators remain, Erickson sought new institutional partners for their research expertise, including Abilene Christian University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Stony Brook University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Other university collaborators include the Colorado School of Mines, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

National lab partners are the Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory.

The partners, along with the other NNSA Consortia, gathered at Texas A&M in June to present the new results of the research — NNSA DNN R&D University Program Review — and the kickoff will be hosted in Atlanta in February 2025. More than 300 collaborators, including 150 students, met for four days to share their research and develop new partnerships.

Engaging students in research in the nuclear nonproliferation field is a key part of the award. The plan is to train over 50 graduate students, provide internships for graduate and undergraduate students, and offer faculty-student lab visit fellowships. This pipeline aims to develop well-rounded professionals equipped with the expertise to tackle future nonproliferation challenges.

“Because nuclear proliferation is a multifaceted problem, we try to bring together people from outside nuclear engineering to have a conversation about the problems and solutions,” Erickson said.

“One of the biggest accomplishments of ETI 1.0 is this incredible relationship that our university PIs have been able to forge with national labs,” she said. “Over five years, we’ve supported over 70 student internships at national labs, and we have already transitioned a number of Ph.D. students to careers at national labs.”

As the consortium efforts continue, the team looks forward to the next phase of engagement with government, university, and national lab partners.

“With a united team and a focus on cutting-edge technologies, the ETI 2.0 consortium is poised to break new ground in nuclear nonproliferation,” Erickson said. “Collaboration is the fuel, and innovation is the engine.”

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF

Andrei G. Fedorov Awarded 2024 Presidents’ Award of Distinction for Team Science

Andrei G. Fedorov, Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Chair and professor, was recently awarded the 2024 Presidents’ Award of Distinction for Team Science from the Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance (CTSA). This award is bestowed upon a multidisciplinary research team in recognition of innovative, high-functioning teamwork and synergy, with demonstrated high impact on clinical applications.

Fedorov, along with Candace Fleischer, associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, were recognized at the 2024 Southeast Regional Clinical and Translational Science Conference for their collaborative work with Emory School of Medicine physicians on “Brain Thermometry Advances for Better Health: From Physicists to Physicians to Patients.”

Over the last five years, the team has developed a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for non-invasive brain temperature monitoring and its use as a new biomarker of stroke and traumatic brain injury in clinical applications. The work exploits the basic science and engineering advances in combination with clinical evaluation and technology integration to enable important advances in non-invasive MR brain thermometry, facilitate evaluation of brain temperature as a prognostic clinical biomarker, and expand understanding of brain thermoregulation for better patient outcomes.

1,000 Steps for 100 Days in High Heels May Help Improve Walking

High heels position the ankle in a plantarflexed state with the toes pointing downwards, causing calf muscle tendons to operate at relatively short lengths. Habitually operating muscle tendons at relatively short lengths induces structural remodeling that theoretically affects muscle metabolism.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, including Gregory S. Sawicki, Joseph Anderer Faculty Fellow and associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and recent graduate Jordyn Schroeder, Ph.D. ME 2023, have seen evidence that the regular wearing of high heels demonstrated changes in the calf muscle and Achilles tendon providing further functional benefits.

The research, conducted in collaboration with Owen Beck, assistant professor at the University of Texas, Austin, was recently published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Beck is a former member of Sawicki’s Physiology of Wearable Robotics (PoWeR) Lab where he was a postdoctoral fellow.

The study was developed from Schroeder’s initial doctoral work using a musculoskeletal model and computer simulations to show that long-term use of ankle exoskeletons may alter the properties of the Achilles tendon.

“This project was centered on answering big questions about how structure and function interact and impact locomotion on short-term and long-term time scales,” said Schroeder. “We used iterative brainstorming sessions about expanding my modeling to longitudinal human studies and landed on using modified shoes as a creative tool to investigate these research questions. These shoes allowed us to shift calf muscle-tendon dynamics in participants during their daily lives instead of being confined to a laboratory.”

The study fitted eight participants, both male and female, with highheeled wedge shoes custom built by Schroeder and Kinsey Herrin, senior research scientist in the Woodruff School and board-certified

prosthetist/orthotist. According to Herrin, the fabrication of custom-built shoes that highly active individuals would be able to wear in their busy lives over three months required significant technical skill and attention to detail.

Once outfitted with their shoes, participants were asked to wear the experimental footwear daily for 14 weeks. Prior to joining the study, participants self-reported either no experience wearing highheeled footwear or rare high-heel use. Throughout the intervention, participants were instructed to use an activity monitor and log their daily step totals with and without the high heels and periodically returned to the lab for measurement sessions to see how muscles, tendons and walking behavior changed over time.

After 14 weeks, volunteers who had given up early on wearing the heels showed no changes in their legs or walking, but those who wore the heels consistently tended to have shorter calf muscles and stiffer Achilles tendons than before and the habitual heel-users became more economical during walking in both heeled and flat footwear. Participants who took at least 1,500 daily steps in high heels for 99 days reduced their metabolic energy expenditure during walking in flat-soled footwear in postintervention testing.

Those wearing the heels seemed to become “more metabolically economical human beings,” said Beck in a recent article in the Washington Post discussing the research. Beck also explained the study’s findings could be meaningful to those with mobility concerns such as the elderly, by making walking feel “less effortful” and encouraging more activity.

“This was the most ambitious experimental protocol ever attempted in the PoWeR lab to date, both for its length and breadth of measurements,” said Sawicki. “It really required an all hands effort and set the bar high for what is possible in terms of longterm structure-function studies with human participants. We hope to carry out similar research with wearable robotic devices next.”

Photochemistry and a New Catalyst Could Make Fertilizer More Sustainable

Georgia Tech engineers are working to make fertilizer more sustainable — from production to productive reuse of the runoff after application — and a pair of new studies is offering promising avenues at both ends of the process.

In one paper, researchers have unraveled how nitrogen, water, carbon, and light can interact with a catalyst to produce ammonia at ambient temperature and pressure, a much less energy-intensive approach than current practice. The second paper describes a stable catalyst able to convert waste fertilizer back into nonpolluting nitrogen that could one day be used to make new fertilizer.

Significant work remains on both processes, but the senior author on the papers, Marta Hatzell, said they’re a step toward a more sustainable cycle that still meets the needs of a growing worldwide population.

“We often think it would be nice not to have to use synthetic fertilizers for agriculture, but that’s not realistic in the near term considering how much plant growth is dependent on synthetic fertilizers and how much food the world’s population needs,” said Hatzell, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “The idea is that maybe one day you could manufacture, capture, and recycle fertilizer on site.”

Producing Ammonia at Lower Temperature, Pressure

Nitrogen-rich ammonia is an essential fertilizer in global food production. Creating it requires significant petroleum-based energy, however, and it can only be done at 100 or so large-scale facilities worldwide.

Hatzell and her Georgia Tech colleagues have uncovered the important role of molecules called carbon radicals for a lowenergy approach that uses a light-reactive

“The idea is that maybe one day you could manufacture, capture, and recycle fertilizer on site.”

—Marta Hatzell

catalyst to fuse nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia. They reported their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society Au.

Photochemical reactions are promising because they could use solar energy instead of fossil fuels and offer a more decentralized approach to ammonia manufacture. Typically, the necessary reaction requires temperatures around 400 degrees Celsius and 100 times normal atmospheric pressure. Creating a process at ambient pressure and temperature — around 25 degrees C — would be considerably easier.

The team, which included researchers from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, used spectroscopy tools to show that light interacts with the photocatalyst to produce high-energy carbon molecules called carbon radicals.

“We found, surprisingly, that the nitrogen does not directly react at low temperatures. You really need the presence of carbon radical to aid the nitrogen fixation process,” Hatzell said.

“It was really important for us to try to identify that reaction pathway, because without a clear understanding of how nitrogen and water results in the formation of ammonia, we really can’t engineer systems and design new materials,” she continued. “By mapping this reaction pathway and understanding all the possible catalytic processes that can take place, we can now better engineer reactors and better design materials to accelerate the process.”

The team used titanium dioxide as the photocatalyst in these experiments because it’s well-studied and widely useful, but Hatzell said other materials might prove more effective at sparking the creation of ammonia in a photochemical reaction. This new understanding can help scientists begin to optimize the process.

GEORGE

Recycling Fertilizer Waste

The second study out of Hatzell’s lab — published in ACS Energy Letters — is working at the opposite end of the fertilizer lifecycle. Significant amounts of nitrogen are wasted when fertilizer is applied to crops — perhaps as much as 80% goes unmetabolized by plants. This nitrate waste often ends up polluting groundwater.

Hatzell worked with other Georgia Tech mechanical engineers and researchers at two national labs to create a palladium-copper alloy that reduces those nitrates back to nitrogen, which can be released harmlessly into the air or, one day, used to feed processes like the photochemical reaction in the JACS Au study to create new ammonia fertilizer.

“Not only is our catalyst good, but it’s also stable for a very long period of time,” Hatzell said. “Many researchers have come up with catalysts that get good conversion, but the catalysts aren’t stable. We’ve created a highly ordered alloy material that’s effective, efficient, and also stable, which means that it would be able to work with these waste streams.”

Both studies are the outgrowth of a concentration of expertise in the College of Engineering working to make advances in this area. They’re also part of a broader National Science Foundation-funded effort Hatzell and others at Tech help lead that’s working to reduce nitrogen pollution and instead create a circular nitrogen economy by capturing, recycling, and producing decarbonized nitrogen-based fertilizers.

“With that 10-year center, we’re working to develop all of these individual processes and technologies,” Hatzell said. “Then we’ll figure out how to put them together and pilot them at wastewater treatment plants and agricultural sites.”

Novel Use of Existing Drug Could Significantly Cut Heart Attack Risk

Heart attacks have been the leading cause of death in the U.S. for a century. While most treatments for cardiac events target breaking down blood clots, Georgia Tech researchers have found a way to prevent blood clots from even forming. Dramatically, their drug is shown to completely knock out the formation of blood clots without increasing the risks of bleeds in vivo.

This drug is both affordable and already widely available for other uses, meaning patients could experience these benefits sooner than waiting for a completely new drug to go through FDA approval. Eventually, the drug could be used to prevent second heart attacks for high-risk patients or even primary heart attacks, strokes, and other complications caused by blood clots.

The researchers presented their findings in the paper, “N-Acetyl Cysteine Prevents Arterial Thrombosis in a DoseDependent Manner In Vitro and in Mice,” in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology in April.

How Blood Clots Form

Most existing preventive treatments for clots involve anti-platelet drugs that can cause bad side effects for the patient.

“Doctors are between a rock and a hard place — we can give you a drug that may help prevent a second cardiac event, but it might also cause a lot of bleeding,” said David Ku, Lawrence P. Huang Endowed Chair for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Regents’ Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME). “These blood clots are held together by a protein called von Willebrand factor (VWF), which is a different target for drugs.”

VWF is a long protein, occurring naturally in plasma, that allows blood clots to form quickly. Under normal conditions, it functions like an inert ball of yarn, but when VWF unravels, it becomes sticky and catches platelets.

“The VWF grabs platelets and the platelets activate, so they release more VWF, which grabs more platelets, creating a positive feedback loop that leads to really fast clot formation,” explained Christopher Bresette, an ME postdoctoral researcher.

Breaking Down Blood Clots

Bresette and Ku sought to break down VWF proteins using a drug already on the market, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), typically used to treat acetaminophen overdose. Earlier researchers had tried using NAC to break down clots after formation, but Ku’s team wanted to stop clots before they even started.

“We chose NAC because of its current clinical use and safety history,” Bresette said. “Using an existing drug for off-label use can speed up the time it takes to start helping patients.”

At the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, the researchers ran blood through a small channel similar to a narrowing artery that could lead to a heart attack or stroke. NAC completely prevented a clot from forming under these conditions. Next, they tested NAC in a mouse model and found comparable results. Even better, NAC’s benefits lasted six hours after it left the bloodstream, keeping arteries clear for longer.

The researchers envision the drug will be most useful if a patient has already had a heart attack but is at risk of having a second one soon after. An IV injection of NAC could lower immediate risk. Eventually, NAC derivatives could be administered orally as a daily pill to reduce heart attack risk.

Heart attacks and strokes are just the beginning. From stopping embolisms to other blockages, the future with NAC is only just beginning. The researchers are hoping to conduct a clinical trial and receive FDA approval so NAC can help patients as soon as possible.

Nanowires Create Elite Warriors to Enhance T Cell Therapy

Adoptive T-cell therapy has revolutionized medicine. A patient’s T-cells — a type of white blood cell that is part of the body’s immune system — are extracted and modified in a lab and then infused back into the body, to seek and destroy infection, or cancer cells.

Now Georgia Tech bioengineer Ankur Singh and his research team have developed a method to improve this pioneering immunotherapy.

Their solution involves using nanowires to deliver therapeutic miRNA to T-cells. This new modification process retains the cells’ naïve state, which means they’ll be even better disease fighters when they’re infused back into a patient.

“By delivering miRNA in naïve T cells, we have basically prepared an infantry, ready to deploy,” Singh said. “And when these naïve cells are stimulated and activated in the presence of disease, it’s like they’ve been converted into samurais.”

Lean and Mean

Currently in adoptive T-cell therapy, the cells become stimulated and preactivated in the lab when they are modified, losing their naïve state. Singh’s new technique overcomes this limitation. The approach is described in a new study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“Naïve T-cells are more useful for immunotherapy because they have not yet been preactivated, which means they can be more easily manipulated to adopt desired therapeutic functions,” said Singh, the Carl Ring Family Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The raw recruits of the immune system, naïve T-cells are white blood cells that haven’t been tested in battle yet. But these cellular recruits are robust, impressionable, and adaptable — ready and eager for programming.

“This process creates a well-programmed naïve T-cell ideal for enhancing immune responses against specific targets, such as tumors or pathogens,” said Singh.

The precise programming naïve T-cells receive sets the foundational stage for a more successful disease fighting future, as compared to preactivated cells.

Giving Fighter Cells a Boost

Within the body, naïve T-cells become activated when they receive a danger signal from antigens, which are part of diseasecausing pathogens, but they send a signal to T-cells that activate the immune system.

Adoptive T-cell therapy is used against aggressive diseases that overwhelm the body’s defense system. Scientists give the patient’s T-cells a therapeutic boost in the lab, loading them up with additional medicine and chemically preactivating them. That’s when the cells lose their naïve state. When infused back into the patient, these modified T-cells are an effective infantry against disease — but they are prone to becoming exhausted. They aren’t samurai. Naïve T-cells, though, being the young, programmable recruits that they are, could be.

The question for Singh and his team was: How do we give cells that therapeutic boost without preactivating them, thereby losing that pristine, highly suggestable naïve state? Their answer: Nanowires.

NanoPrecision: The Pointed Solution

Singh wanted to enhance naïve T-cells with a dose of miRNA, a molecule that, when used as a therapeutic, works as a kind of volume knob for genes, turning their activity up or down to keep infection and cancer in check. The miRNA for this study was developed in part by the study’s co-author, Andrew Grimson of Cornell University.

“If we could find a way to forcibly enter the cells without damaging them, we could achieve our goal to deliver the miRNA into naïve T cells without preactivating them,” Singh explained.

Traditional modification in the lab involves binding immune receptors to T-cells, enabling the uptake of miRNA or any genetic material (which results in loss of the naïve state). “But nanowires do not engage receptors and thus do not activate cells, so they retain their naïve state,” Singh said.

The nanowires, silicon wafers made with specialized tools at Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, form a fine needle bed. Cells are placed on the nanowires, which easily penetrate the cells and deliver their miRNA over several hours. Then the cells with miRNA are flushed out from the tops of the nanowires, activated, eventually infused back into the patient. These programmed cells can kill enemies efficiently over an extended time period.

“We believe this approach will be a real gamechanger for adoptive immunotherapies, because we now have the ability to produce T-cells with predictable fates,” says Brian Rudd, a professor of immunology at Cornell University, and co-senior author of the study with Singh.

The researchers tested their work in two separate infectious disease animal models at Cornell for this study, and Singh described the results as “a robust performance in infection control.”

In the next phase of study, the researchers will up the ante, moving from infectious disease to test their cellular super soldiers against cancer and move toward translation to the clinical setting. New funding from the Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance is supporting Singh’s research.

Family Loss Brings About Medical Breakthrough

The call from his mom is still vivid 20 years later. Moments this big and this devastating can define lives, and for Hong Yeo, today a Georgia Tech mechanical engineer, this call certainly did. Yeo was a 21-year-old in college studying car design when his mom called to tell him his father had died in his sleep. A heart attack claimed the life of the 49-year-old high school English teacher who had no history of heart trouble and no signs of his growing health threat. For the family, it was a crushing blow that altered each of their paths.

“It was an uncertain time for all of us,” said Yeo. “This loss changed my focus.”

For Yeo, thoughts and dreams of designing cars for Hyundai in Korea turned instead toward medicine. The shock of his father going from no signs of illness to gone forever developed into a quest for medical answers that might keep other families from experiencing the pain and loss his family did — or at least making it less likely to happen.

Yeo’s own research and schooling in college pointed out a big problem when it comes to issues with sleep and how our bodies’ systems perform — data. He became determined to invent a way to give medical doctors better information that would allow them to spot a problem like his father’s before it became life-threatening.

His answer: a type of wearable sleep data system. Now very close to being commercially available, Yeo’s device comes after years of working on the materials and electronics for an easy-to-wear, comfortable mask that can gather data about sleep over multiple

days or even weeks, allowing doctors to catch sporadic heart problems or other issues. Different from some of the bulky devices with straps and cords currently available for at-home heart monitoring, it offers the bonuses of ease of use and comfort, ensuring little to no alteration to users’ bedtime routine or wear. This means researchers can collect data from sleep patterns that are as close to normal sleep as possible.

“Most of the time now, gathering sleep data means the patient must come to a lab or hospital for sleep monitoring. Of course, it’s less comfortable than home, and the devices patients must wear make it even less so. Also, the process is expensive, so it’s rare to get multiple nights of data,” says Audrey Duarte, University of Texas human memory researcher.

Duarte has been working with Yeo on this system for more than 10 years. She says there are so many mental and physical health outcomes tied to sleep that good, long-term data has the potential to have tremendous impact.

“The results we’ve seen are incredibly encouraging, related to many things —from heart issues to areas I study more closely like memory and Alzheimer’s,” said Duarte.

Yeo’s device may not have caught the arrhythmia that caused his father’s heart attack, but nights or weeks of data would have made effective medical intervention much more likely.

Inspired by his own family’s loss, Yeo’s life’s work has become a tool of hope for others.

Universal Controller Could Push Robotic Prostheses, Exoskeletons Into Real-World Use

Robotic exoskeletons designed to help humans with walking or physically demanding work have been the stuff of sci-fi lore for decades. Remember Ellen Ripley in that Power Loader in Alien? Or the crazy mobile platform George McFly wore in 2015 in Back to the Future, Part II because he threw his back out?

Researchers are working on real-life robotic assistance that could protect workers from painful injuries and help stroke patients regain their mobility. So far, they have required extensive calibration and context-specific tuning, which keeps them largely limited to research labs.

Mechanical engineers at Georgia Tech may be on the verge of changing that, allowing exoskeleton technology to be deployed in homes, workplaces, and more.

A team of researchers in Aaron Young’s lab have developed a universal approach to controlling robotic exoskeletons that requires no training, no calibration, and no adjustments to complicated algorithms. Instead, users can don the “exo” and go.

Their system uses a kind of artificial intelligence called deep learning to autonomously adjust how the exoskeleton provides assistance, and they’ve shown it works seamlessly to support walking, standing, and climbing stairs or ramps. They described their “unified

control framework” March 20 in Science Robotics

“The goal was not just to provide control across different activities, but to create a single unified system. You don’t have to press buttons to switch between modes or have some classifier algorithm that tries to predict that you’re climbing stairs or walking,” said Young, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

Machine Learning as Translator

Most previous work in this area has focused on one activity at a time, like walking on level ground or up a set of stairs. The algorithms involved typically try to classify the environment to provide the right assistance to users.

The Georgia Tech team threw that out the window. Instead of focusing on the environment, they focused on the human — what’s happening with muscles and joints — which meant the specific activity didn’t matter.

“We stopped trying to bucket human movement into what we call discretized modes — like level ground walking or climbing stairs — because real movement is a lot messier,” said Dean Molinaro, lead

author on the study and a recently graduated Ph.D. student in Young’s lab. “Instead, we based our controller on the user’s underlying physiology. What the body is doing at any point in time will tell us everything we need to know about the environment. Then we used machine learning essentially as the translator between what the sensors are measuring on the exoskeleton and what torques the muscles are generating.”

With the controller delivering assistance through a hip exoskeleton developed by the team, they found they could reduce users’ metabolic and biomechanical effort: they expended less energy, and their joints didn’t have to work as hard compared to not wearing the device at all.

In other words, wearing the exoskeleton was a benefit to users, even with the extra weight added by the device itself.

“What’s so cool about this [controller] is that it adjusts to each person’s internal dynamics without any tuning or heuristic adjustments, which is a huge difference from a lot of work in the field. There’s no subject-specific tuning or changing parameters to make it work,” said Young.

The control system in this study is designed for partial-assist devices. These exoskeletons support movement rather than completely replacing the effort.

The team, which also included Molinaro and Inseung Kang, another former Ph.D. student now at Carnegie Mellon University, used an existing algorithm and trained it on mountains of force and motioncapture data they collected in Young’s lab. Subjects of different genders and body types wore the powered hip exoskeleton and walked at varying speeds on force plates, climbed height-adjustable stairs, walked up and down ramps, and transitioned between those movements.

And like the motion-capture studios used to make movies, every movement was recorded and cataloged to understand what joints were doing for each activity.

The Science Robotics study is “application agnostic,” as Young put it. Yet their controller offers the first bridge to real-world viability for robotic exoskeleton devices.

Imagine how robotic assistance could benefit soldiers, airline baggage handlers, or any workers doing physically demanding jobs where musculoskeletal injury risk is high.

Assistive robotics also could help stroke patients regain mobility. Related experiments in Young’s lab are working to understand how their hip exoskeleton and unified controller could be extended to help people recovering from stroke navigate their communities.

Helping Amputees Do More

Other projects in Young’s Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab are marrying the power of robotics and AI to help adults with above-the-knee amputations navigate more effectively and children recover from neurological injuries.

For adults, the lab is imagining new powered prostheses to help them navigate the world. An active study is exploring how AI can learn a patient’s gait and adapt over time to improve walking.

Stacey Rice has been working with the team for a year, testing iterations of a leg prosthesis and the accompanying AI controller. She lost her leg to bone cancer 44 years ago, so she’s already seen technology improve the devices available to amputees.

The Atlanta native is a multisport athlete and 1988 volleyball Paralympian. She said she can feel a real difference in the amount of effort she expends using the robotic assistance.

“I realized while I was on the treadmill that I wasn’t using as much energy as if I was using my own prosthesis. For me to have that energy bank is huge. There’s so much energy the body uses when you’re an amputee and you’re walking. To reserve that energy for your day-today activities will allow amputees to be more active during the day and do more,” Rice said.

Gamifying Pediatric Rehab

In other experiments, Young’s lab is working with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Shriners Hospital to incorporate robotics into a new approach to pediatric rehabilitation that helps patients improve their gait.

Kids with cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries, and other conditions often undergo physical therapy to help correct walking abnormalities. Incorporating robotics into the process is an area Young is excited about because developing brains are especially good at relearning skills and can recover function over time.

“The robotic therapy does what a physical therapist might do manually, but in an automated way. It encourages them to adopt better gait biomechanics,” Young said.

In each appointment, the researchers combine a robotic exoskeleton with biofeedback systems through a game-like interface.

“When the patients come in, it’s like a video game that they’re playing, which both engages them and gives them feedback about their performance,” Young said. “We want them to internalize the learning. The exoskeleton will help them physically achieve their goals, but we need them to retain that and engage in the rehab process.”

Regaining Balance

Elsewhere in the lab, Young and his team use a unique virtualreality treadmill system to study gait and balance, particularly for older adults or people with mobility issues from strokes or amputations.

The team uses the platform to introduce significant disruptions while participants are walking, challenging them to keep or regain their balance. The resulting data — largely from young, athletic individuals — is inspiring how wearable robots should operate to help people with balance impairments stay upright.

In other words, it’s a busy place. And all in service of making a future of wearable robotics a reality.

“For a lot of us, mobility is something we’re able to take for granted. One of the hopes is that this work can translate to people with mobility impairments and improve their quality of life,” Molinaro said. “And also, there are times when mobility is a limitation. So, we’re interested in how we push the edge of mobility, both in restoring it for those with impairments but also augmenting it for those of able body to make them even more capable.”

Researchers Create Faster and Cheaper Way to Print Tiny Metal Structures With Light

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a lightbased means of printing nano-sized metal structures that is significantly faster and cheaper than any technology currently available. It is a scalable solution that could transform a scientific field long reliant on technologies that are prohibitively expensive and slow. The breakthrough has the potential to bring new technologies out of labs and into the world.

Technological advances in many fields rely on the ability to print metallic structures that are nano-sized — a scale hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Sourabh Saha, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Jungho Choi, a Ph.D. student in Saha’s lab, developed a technique for printing metal nanostructures that is 480 times faster and 35 times cheaper than the current conventional method.

Their research was published in the journal Advanced Materials

Printing metal on the nanoscale — a technique known as nanopatterning — allows for the creation of unique structures with interesting functions. It is crucial for the development of many technologies, including electronic devices, solar energy conversion, sensors, and other systems. It is generally believed that high-intensity light sources are required for nanoscale printing. But this type of tool, known as a femtosecond laser, can cost up to half a million dollars and is too expensive for most research labs and small businesses.

“As a scientific community, we don’t have the ability to make enough of these nanomaterials quickly and affordably, and that is why promising technologies often stay limited to the lab and don’t get translated into real-world applications,” Saha said.

“The question we wanted to answer is, ‘Do we really need a high-intensity femtosecond laser to print on the nanoscale?’ Our hypothesis was that we don’t need that light source to get the type of printing we want.”

They searched for a low-cost, lowintensity light that could be focused in a way similar to femtosecond lasers, and chose superluminescent light emitting diodes (SLEDs) for their commercial availability. SLEDs emit light that is a billion times less intense than that of femtosecond lasers.

Saha and Choi set out to create an original projection-style printing technology, designing a system that converts digital images into optical images and displays them on a glass surface. The system operates like digital projectors but produces images that are more sharply focused. They leveraged the unique properties of the superluminescent light to generate sharply focused images with minimal defects.

They then developed a clear ink solution made up of metal salt and added other chemicals to make sure the liquid could absorb light. When light from their projection system hit the solution, it caused a chemical reaction that converted the salt solution into metal. The metal nanoparticles stuck to the surface of the glass, and the agglomeration of the metal particles creates the nanostructures. Because it is a projection

type of printing, it can print an entire structure in one go, rather than point by point — making it much faster.

After testing the technique, they found that projection-style nanoscale printing is possible even with low-intensity light, but only if the images are sharply focused. Saha and Choi believe that researchers can readily replicate their work using commercially available hardware. Unlike a pricey femtosecond laser, the type of SLED that Saha and Choi used in their printer costs about $3,000.

“At present, only top universities have access to these expensive technologies, and even then, they are located in shared facilities and are not always available,” Choi said. “We want to democratize the capability of nanoscale 3D printing, and we hope our research opens the door for greater access to this type of process at a low cost.”

The researchers say their technique will be particularly useful for people working in the fields of electronics, optics, and plasmonics, which all require a variety of complex metallic nanostructures.

“I think the metrics of cost and speed have been greatly undervalued in the scientific community that works on fabrication and manufacturing of tiny structures,” Saha said.

“In the real world, these metrics are important when it comes to translating discoveries from the lab to industry. Only when we have manufacturing techniques that take these metrics into account will we be able to fully leverage nanotechnology for societal benefit.”

GEORGE W. WOODRUFF

New Process 3D Prints Glass Microstructures at Low Temperature with Fast Curing

Using ultraviolet light instead of extremely high temperatures, a team of Georgia Tech researchers has developed a new approach for 3D printing small glass lenses and other structures that would be useful for medical devices and research applications.

Their process reduces the heat required to convert printed polymer resin to silica glass from 1,100 degrees Celsius to around 220 degrees C and shortens the curing time from half a day or more to just five hours. They’ve used it to produce all kinds of glass microstructures, including tiny lenses approximately the width of a human hair that could be used for medical imaging inside the body.

Led by George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Professor H. Jerry Qi, the team described their approach Oct. 4 in the journal Science Advances

“This is one of the exploratory examples showing that it is possible to fabricate ceramics at mild conditions, because silica is a kind of ceramic,” Qi said. “It is a very challenging problem. We have a team that includes people from chemistry and materials science engaged in a data-driven approach to push the boundary and see if we can produce more ceramics with this approach.”

Along with miniaturization of lenses for medical endoscopes, these 3D printed glass structures could create microfluidic devices — typically small computer chip-like devices with nano- or microscale channels used to study cells or biofluids in motion. Glass chips would offer advantages over current chips made of polymer materials, the researchers said, resisting corrosion from chemicals or body fluids.

The low-temperature process also would enable fabrication of microelectronics with glass structures, according to Mingzhe Li, the study’s first author.

“We can print in situ, directly into microelectronics,” said Li, a postdoctoral researcher in Qi’s lab. “Semiconductor materials used in microelectronics cannot

withstand very high temperatures. If we want to print directly on a board, we have to do it at a low temperature, and 200 degrees C can definitely do this job.”

The team’s printing process presents a climate friendlier option for silica glass manufacturing.

Typical additive manufacturing processes for glass require polymer mixtures that must be burned away with heat once the desired shapes are formed. The Georgia Tech team’s approach uses a photoresin that is converted to glass using a kind of ultraviolet light called deep UV light. That allows for lower temperatures that save significant heating energy. And because they don’t have to add extra polymer material, fewer resources are involved in the first place.

The researchers employed a light-sensitive resin based on a widely used soft polymer called PDMS, and they don’t have to add silica nanoparticles to their mix like other 3D printing methods. The result is highly transparent glass without the potential optical issues that can arise with the added nanoparticles. The glass lenses they produced were as smooth as commercially made fused silica glass.

In addition to Qi’s group in the Woodruff School, the research team also included Rampi Ramprasad’s lab in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Right now, their process creates structures that are 200 – 300 micrometers in size — equivalent to the thickness of a piece of paper or the diameter of a human hair. They’ve started to work on scaling up the glass structures they can 3D print to the millimeter scale.

Qi said advances in 3D printing technology and interest in ceramics — inorganic, nonmetallic materials that are shaped, fired, harden, and become heat- and corrosionresistant — pushed the group to think about new approaches to their manufacture. And they found a willing partner in the Office of Naval Research, which funded the effort.

“We really want to do the cutting-edge — things nobody has done before in the space of low-temperature conversion of polymers to ceramics within additive manufacturing,” Qi said. “We were encouraged by the Office of Naval Research. They know the risk is high, but they gave us a lot of freedom to try new things.”

“We really want to do the cuttingedge — things nobody has done before in the space of low-temperature conversion of polymers to ceramics within additive manufacturing.”

—H. Jerry Qi

Aluminum Materials Show Promising Performance for Safer, Cheaper, More Powerful Batteries

A good battery needs two things: high energy density to power devices, and stability, so it can be safely and reliably recharged thousands of times. For the past three decades, lithium-ion batteries have reigned supreme — proving their performance in smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles.

But battery researchers have begun to approach the limits of lithiumion. As next-generation long-range vehicles and electric aircraft start to arrive on the market, the search for safer, cheaper, and more powerful battery systems that can outperform lithium-ion is ramping up.

A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, is using aluminum foil to create batteries with higher energy density and greater stability. The team’s new battery system, detailed in Nature Communications, could enable electric vehicles to run longer on a single charge and would be cheaper to manufacture — all while having a positive impact on the environment.

“We are always looking for batteries with higher energy density, which would enable electric vehicles to drive for longer distances on a charge,” McDowell said. “It’s interesting that we can use aluminum as a battery material, because it’s cost-effective, highly recyclable, and easy to work with.”

The idea of making batteries with aluminum isn’t new. Researchers investigated its potential in the 1970s, but it didn’t work well.

When used in a conventional lithium-ion battery, aluminum fractures and fails within a few charge-discharge cycles, due to expansion and contraction as lithium travels in and out of the material. Developers concluded that aluminum wasn’t a viable battery material, and the idea was largely abandoned.

Now, solid-state batteries have entered the picture. While lithium-ion batteries contain a flammable liquid that can lead to fires, solid-state batteries contain a solid material that’s not flammable and, therefore, likely safer. Solid-state batteries also enable the integration of new high-performance active materials, as shown in this research.

The project began as a collaboration between the Georgia Tech team and Novelis, a leading manufacturer of aluminum and the world’s largest aluminum recycler, as part of the Novelis Innovation Hub at Georgia Tech. The research team knew that aluminum would have energy, cost, and manufacturing benefits when used as a material in the battery’s anode — the negatively charged side of the battery that stores lithium to create energy — but pure aluminum foils were failing rapidly when tested in batteries.

The team decided to take a different approach. Instead of using pure aluminum in the foils, they added small amounts of other materials to the aluminum to create foils with particular “microstructures,” or arrangements of different materials. They tested over 100 different materials to understand how they would behave in batteries.

“We needed to incorporate a material that would address aluminum’s fundamental issues as a battery anode,” said Yuhgene Liu, a Ph.D. student in McDowell’s lab and first author on the paper. “Our new aluminum foil anode demonstrated markedly improved performance and stability when implemented in solid-state batteries, as opposed to conventional lithium-ion batteries.”

The team observed that the aluminum anode could store more lithium than conventional anode materials, and therefore more energy. In the end, they had created high energy density batteries that could potentially outperform lithium-ion batteries.

“One of the benefits of our aluminum anode that we’re excited about is that it enables

performance improvements, but it also can be very cost-effective,” McDowell said. “On top of that, when using a foil directly as a battery component, we actually remove a lot of the manufacturing steps that would normally be required to produce a battery material.”

Short-range electric aircraft are in development by several companies, but the limiting factor is batteries. Today’s batteries do not hold enough energy to power aircraft to fly distances greater than 150 miles or so. New battery chemistries are needed, and the McDowell team’s aluminum anode batteries could open the door to more powerful battery technologies.

“The initial success of these aluminum foil anodes presents a new direction for discovering other potential battery materials,” Liu said. “This hopefully opens pathways for

reimagining a more energy-optimized and cost-effective battery cell architecture.”

The team is currently working to scale up the size of the batteries to understand how size influences the aluminum’s behavior. The group is also actively exploring other materials and microstructures with the goal of creating very cheap foils for battery systems.

“This is a story about a material that was known about for a long time, but was largely abandoned early on in battery development,” McDowell said. “But with new knowledge, combined with a new technology — the solidstate battery — we’ve figured out how we can rejuvenate the idea and achieve really promising performance.”

“But with new knowledge, combined with a new technology — the solid-state battery — we’ve figured out how we can rejuvenate the idea and achieve really promising performance.”

—Matthew McDowell

Denn Agustin received the CoE Soaring Jacket Award.

Lauren Allen was promoted to academic advising manager. She received the Woodruff School Hats Off Performance Award. She gave a presentation at the 2024 Region 4 NACADA Conference with other members of the undergraduate advising team.

Lenna Applebee was promoted to academic advising manager. She gave a presentation at the 2024 Region 4 NACADA Conference with other members of the undergraduate advising team.

Laila Baker joined as financial administrator I.

Graham Barber was part of the inaugural cohort of the Staff Opportunities to Accelerate Readiness (SOAR) Program.

Bruce Barkley was promoted to facilities manager senior.

Carlos Barrow was promoted to machine shop supervisor II.

Jacob Blevins received the Woodruff School Professional Support Excellence Award.

Craig Burns was promoted to student support coordinator I.

Nichelle Compton received the Institute’s Excellence Award as part of the Capstone Design Core Planning Team and the Woodruff School Hats Off Performance Award.

Mack Curtis received the COESCAC Culture Champion Award and the Woodruff School Culture Champion Award.

Justin Dean was promoted to mechanical engineer II.

Staff Notes

Scott Elliott received the Woodruff School Outstanding Staff Leadership Award.

Fatema Ferdous was promoted to financial administrator III.

Melody Foster received the Institute’s Service to the Community Award.

Kyle French received the Woodruff School Outstanding Student Support Award.

Mikey Fuller joined as communications officer I.

Stephen Fuller received the Woodruff School Outstanding Staff Leadership Award.

Michelle Graham received the Woodruff School Staff Excellence Award.

Khara Hayden joined as IT support professional manager.

Jaimie Hayes served on a lunch-and-learn panel hosted by the Georgia Tech Development Culture Committee.

Angela Hicks received the Woodruff School Solutions Award.

Khadijah Jenkins joined as financial administrator II.

Glenda Johnson received the Woodruff School Leader Jackets Award.

Teresa Jonsson joined as grants administrator lead.

Joyce Lowe was promoted to administrative professional senior.

Deidra Mahoney was promoted to purchasing associate.

Kenya Manchester was promoted to financial administrator II.

Mary Beth Morris gave a presentation at the 2024 Region 4 NACADA Conference with other members of the undergraduate advising team.

Frank Murdock was promoted to instrument maker III.

Regina Neequaye received the Woodruff School Leader Jackets Award.

Cary Ogletree received the Institute’s Excellence Award as part of the Capstone Design Core Planning Team.

Joi Outlaw was promoted to administrative professional senior. She received the Woodruff School Staff of the Year Award.

Ashley Ritchie received the Institute’s Excellence Award as part of the Capstone Design Core Planning Team and the Woodruff School Staff of the Year Award. She served on a lunch-and-learn panel hosted by the Georgia Tech Development Culture Committee.

Jamya Roberts was promoted to financial administrator II.

Rachael Robideaux gave a presentation at the 2024 Region 4 NACADA Conference with other members of the undergraduate advising team.

Ansley Rowan gave a presentation at the 2024 Region 4 NACADA Conference with other members of the undergraduate advising team.

Echo Sayr joined as grants administrator lead.

Monifa Skelton-Wells was promoted to academic program manager II. She received the Institute’s Leadership in Action Award.

Tiffany Sneeze was promoted to assistant director of financial operations.

Courtney Sykes received the Woodruff School Solutions Award. She served on a lunchand-learn panel hosted by the Georgia Tech Development Culture Committee.

Nicole Thomas was part of the inaugural cohort of the Staff Opportunities to Accelerate Readiness (SOAR) Program.

Dylan Truong joined as mechanical technician II.

Ranjini Unnikrishnan received the Woodruff School Staff Excellence Award.

DeMarlo West received the Woodruff School Professional Support Excellence Award.

Jessica Whitaker was promoted to financial administrator III.

Darryl Williams was promoted to facilities manager I. He received the Woodruff School Culture Champion Award.

Segried Winfrey was promoted to faculty support coordinator II.

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Woodruff Games Return for Second Year

Members of the Woodruff School community celebrated and bid farewell to the summer with the Second Annual Woodruff Games. The friendly competition returned by popular demand after a successful inaugural event in 2022.

This year, along with Woodruff School staff and faculty, postdocs and graduate students had the opportunity to compete in the games. A total of 16 staff and faculty teams and another 12 postdoc and graduate student teams signed up to participate. Several different events were offered including basketball, kickball, volleyball, soccer, and a 4x200 meter relay.

The idea of the Woodruff Games came from Kyriaki Kalaitzidou, Associate Chair for Faculty Development and Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Professor, who noted making time for moments and events like the Woodruff Games is important for overall wellbeing, mental health, and community building.

“These events offer a chance to connect with and participate alongside faculty and staff members I might not have interacted with before. Engaging in spirited competition together, whether as teammates or opponents, creates a bond. Subsequently, we share laughter over our performances and use the moments to foster deeper connections, gradually getting to know each other better,” said staff member and two-time participant Mack Curtis.

Alumni Notes

Rebeccah Brown, M.S. ME 2001, Ph.D. ME 2003, was selected to lead the Woodruff School Advisory Board as board chair.

Lisa Cupid, ME 2000, was featured in Georgia Trend’s list of the 100 most influential Georgians for 2024.

Michele Sutton Ferenci, M.S. HP 1997, Ph.D. NRE 2001, was elected a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Karen Gallen, ME 1996, was named vice president of engineering at medical equipment manufacturer Arthrex.

Deborah Kilpatrick, B.S. ESM 1989, M.S. ME 1994, Ph.D. ME 1996, was selected as one of 70 graduates to be part of Celebrating Georgia Tech Women: Pathway of Progress, the forthcoming, permanent tribute to the impact of women from Georgia Tech.

Tim Lieuwen, M.S. ME 1997, Ph.D. ME 1999, was chosen by the National Academy of Engineering to give a keynote address about net zero pathways in the U.S. energy system as part of the 2023 Global Grand Challenges Summit. He was awarded a grant as a part of the DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization multi-topic funding for a project titled “Omnivore Combustion System” (serving as co-PI).

Jared Matthews, M.S. ME 2023, was awarded first place in the Policy/Civic Engagement category in the 2023 Student IoT Innovation Capacity Building Challenge. He developed Physioconnect, a cloudinterfaced wearable device with monitoring for cardiovascular characterization for remote, longterm postpartum monitoring.

Barry Powell, B.S. ME 1989, M.S. ME 1991, was selected to lead the Woodruff School Advisory Board as vice chair.

Seth Radman, ME 2017, was named to the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Ira Soltis, B.S. ME 2021, M.S. ME 2023, received first place in the IoT Innovation category in the 2023 Student IoT Innovation Capacity Building Challenge. The team developed a soft upperextremity exoskeleton created for the purpose of human strength augmentation.

Mickey Wade, M.S. NE 1987, Ph.D. NE 1991, was named a 2023 Leadership Award recipient by the Fusion Power Associates.

Want to be recognized in future publications? Submit alumni updates to communications@ me.gatech.edu.

Woodruff School Graduates Honored with 2024 CoE Alumni Awards

Four graduates from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering were among those honored at the College of Engineering’s 2024 Alumni Awards Induction Ceremony held on April 20. The College annually celebrates alumni who have contributed to the profession, advanced in their careers, and enhanced the lives of others both personally and professionally.

Honorees are nominated by committees within each of the College’s eight schools and formally submitted for selection. The College of Engineering Alumni Awards were created in 1994 under the leadership of John A. White during his tenure as dean. The event is held each spring.

Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award

Shweta (Shay) Natarajan

B.S. ME 2009, M.S. ME 2012 Partner – Strategy, Mobility Impact Partners

The Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves

through professional practice and service to the Institute, the engineering profession, or society at large. They are on the fast track and have made rapid advancement within their organizations. Already, they have been recognized for early achievements by others within their profession, field, or organization.

Natarajan started her career as a business operations manager at Apple, where she was responsible for the technical and operational strategy of iPhone displays and accessories. She went on to hold senior roles at McKinsey & Company for five years, where she advised Fortune 500 companies on their growth strategy. After McKinsey, Natarajan was the head of enterprise strategic initiatives at Caterpillar, where she crafted the company’s strategic growth plan.

As a current partner at Mobility Impact Partners (MIP), she leads the identification of MIP’s investment strategy.

Natarajan is a member of the Woodruff School’s Advisory Board and chair of the School’s Young Alumni Council. She also sits on the board of CurrentFleet, a mobility startup focused on fleet electrification.

Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award

Barry Edward Powell

B.S. ME 1989, M.S. ME 1991

North America Regional CEO, Electrical Products Business Unit, Siemens

The Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have provided distinguished contributions to the Institute, profession, field, or society at large. Candidates are highly placed executives and are actively involved in engineering, management, industry, academia, or government.

In his role as regional CEO, Powell has transformed Siemens Electrical Products into the best-in-class provider of electrical infrastructure solutions for customers ranging from Microsoft to Tesla to Intel, as well as to iconic sites such as the Freedom Tower in New York City. He oversees a progressive $4 billion organization that is leading the overall company in data analytics, digitalization, and supply chain optimization. He is the founder of the Siemens Manufacturing Council in the U.S. and led his business to winning the Werner von Siemens Award as best overall Siemens business in 2020 and 2023.

Powell is a recognized national leader in the electrical industry, currently serving as the treasurer and board of governors executive for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. He recently served as secretary and executive board member for the Electric Safety Foundation International.

Powell serves as the vice chair of the Woodruff School’s Advisory Board and has been actively involved with the School via course sponsorship and collaboration on Covid-19 PPE production. He and his wife, Darlene, B.S. IE 1990, M.S. IE 1992, are active supporters of other Tech initiatives.

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Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame

D. Fort Flowers, Jr.

ME 1983

Founder and Executive Chairman, Sentinel Trust Company

Membership in the Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame is reserved for individuals holding an engineering degree or honorary degree from Georgia Tech. Those selected have made meritorious engineering or managerial contributions during their careers.

Sentinel Trust Company is a full-service wealth management firm that provides investment and family office services for 40 families and is responsible for more than $6 billion of their assets. Flowers has managed and served on the boards of firms in the energy, mining, engineering, manufacturing,

Dean's Impact Award

John Gattuso

ME 2015

Chief Executive Officer, FIXD (with Frederick Grimm)

and banking industries.

He has served on the boards (and in many cases chaired the investment committees) of The Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation, The Texas Presbyterian Foundation, St. John’s School, and Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. Flowers is now serving his third term on the Georgia Tech Foundation Board of Trustees. He has also served on the visiting committees for mechanical engineering at MIT (where he received his master’s) and the University of Texas.

Flowers and his wife, Beth — an associate professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine — split their time between Houston and their ranch outside of Brenham, Texas. They have five children who collectively have earned 11 college degrees (thus far), including their son, Daniel, who earned his MBA at Tech.

Many College of Engineering alumni have devoted themselves to fostering a more equitable global community that also is ecologically, socio-culturally, and economically sustainable. The Dean’s Impact Award recognizes the efforts of these alumni who are focused on developing globally relevant, locally sustainable innovations that meet societal challenges across the world. The College of Engineering is committed to a multicultural, multidisciplinary, sustainable, and international engagement by our students. This award recognizes those graduates who embrace engineering through this lens and have a vision to find solutions for the world’s grand challenges.

FIXD takes the stress and worry out of car trouble, breaking car problems down into simple and understandable terms so drivers don’t get taken advantage of when they go to a repair shop. The FIXD Sensor plugs into the diagnostic port of any car manufactured since 1996 and communicates via Bluetooth to the FIXD smartphone app. With more than 3 million sensors sold, FIXD has given millions of drivers the tools and resources they need to have peace of mind and save money over the life of their car.

Woodruff School Lands Three on Alumni 40 Under 40 List

Joe Gammie, ME 2013

Executive Vice President & Cofounder | Utility Innovation Group

Joe Gammie has spent his career leading innovation, revolutionizing the electric grid. In 2021, he cofounded the Utility Innovation Group with the mission of shaping the future of electric grid infrastructure across the globe through explicit focus on decarbonization and the increasing need for resiliency. Gammie has developed several microgrid programs powering more than 250,000 homes and has led numerous state-of-the-art projects across the U.S. and E.U., including the Georgia Tech Energy Lab. He holds an MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech with a minor in energy systems.

Favorite Tech Memory: After upsetting Virginia Tech, singing the fight song with Bud Peterson and relocating a goal post to his front lawn.

Tom Mulcahey, M.S. ME 2010, Ph.D. ME 2014

CTO & COO | CSA Medical, Inc.

Tom Mulcahey is an inventor and leader in the field of medical device research and development. Over the decade since graduating from Georgia Tech, he has developed, patented, and commercialized two lifesaving technologies. After a successful exit of truFreeze in 2019, Mulcahey set his sights on a treatment for COPD with chronic bronchitis. Four years later, RejuvenAir is on track to help the millions of patients suffering from the world’s third leading cause of death. Graduate classes in entrepreneurship sparked a strong interest in startups that launched him into a fast-paced career in VC-backed technology development.

Favorite Tech Memory: Shaking hands with my dissertation committee after successfully defending and hearing “Congratulations, Dr. Mulcahey.”

About the 2023 Class of 40 Under 40

Mihir Pathak, B.S. ME 2008, M.S. ME 2010, Ph.D. ME 2013

Chief Operating Officer | Mayvenn

Mihir Pathak is dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship. After earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in mechanical engineering and cryogenic physics from Georgia Tech, Pathak grew his career as an innovator at NASA, the White House, McKinsey, and Stack Overflow. Today, he serves as COO at Mayvenn. He sits on several company boards, has become an angel investor in 10 companies through his fund, and has personally advised more than 30 startup founders. Pathak serves on the Forbes Business Council and as chair of the Woodruff Young Alumni Council. In 2023, Pathak was inducted into the Georgia Tech College of Engineering’s Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni.

Favorite Tech Memory: Rushing The Flats in 2009 when the No. 19 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets upset the No. 4 Virginia Tech Hokies!

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association has announced the 2023 class of 40 Under 40. The annual program showcases how Tech graduates impact every industry worldwide and work to improve the way we live through their diligence and expertise from an early age.

Nominees, who must have completed at least one semester at Georgia Tech and be under the age of 40 as of June 30, 2023, were scored using a 25-point rubric by a committee of 24 faculty, staff, and volunteers who collectively represented all Georgia Tech colleges.

This exceptional class of Jackets have done the impossible; from furthering space exploration to revolutionizing healthcare, these individuals have made the Tech community exceptionally proud.

Fixing the Auto Repair Industry

In high school, John Gattuso, ME 2015, became the go-to person when something went wrong with a car. “I got a reputation for helping people,” he says. Naturally, when he heard how intimidating the auto repair industry can be for many car owners, he wanted to fix that, too.

Gattuso teamed up with Julian Knight, EE 2015, and Frederick Grimm, IE 2014, to build FIXD, a sensor and smartphone app that gives drivers easy-to-digest information about their vehicle issues and estimated repair costs. Gattuso, CEO, was in the first cohort of the CREATE-X Startup Launch alongside Knight, FIXD’s CTO. Grimm then joined as COO.

“We want to be the source that a driver can trust,” Gattuso says. “Because we’re a third-party, independent source, we have no incentive to tell a driver they need x, y, z when they don’t.”

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association sat down with Gattuso to discuss the auto repair industry, plus where FIXD is heading, and how Tech influenced its founders.

Q: You were in Wreck Racing. Could you share a memory from that time?

When I was a freshman, we rebuilt a 1994 Miata with a V8 engine. We would go to an abandoned parking lot and set up a course to identify the fastest drivers for competitions. One time, I was driving fast, and the car spun out. Luckily, it wasn’t a bad accident, but that was certainly frightening.

Q: When you were starting FIXD, what piece of advice was the most helpful?

Mike Tinskey, who is a professor of the practice and who used to be an executive at Ford, was helpful at giving advice on the people side of things. A lot of advisors have opinions on your product, but in the early days you need someone almost like a therapist, to help survive the ups and downs. A piece of advice he gave me was that people’s actions show their priorities.

Q: Why are auto repairs stressful and intimidating for so many?

I think there are three things. The first is that car problems don’t happen often and anything you don’t do often, you have a lot of hesitation about. The second is it’s costly. The third and biggest one is that people generally don’t know much about cars, so they’re at the mercy of the mechanic.

Q: What’s on the horizon for FIXD?

We want to take someone from the moment they have a problem with their car to the moment that it’s resolved. We have a lot of features in the pipeline around completing that user journey, such as helping you find a repair shop. Outside of that, because we have a product people enjoy and use repeatedly, we’ve established trust with these drivers. We think that’s a great position to be able to recommend other products and services that a customer might buy for their vehicle.

Woodruff School Alumnus Marshal Mayhew Completes 20,523-Mile Cycling Journey

On June 4, 2021, Georgia Tech mechanical engineering alumnus Marshal Mayhew set off on a big cycling adventure. He began in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and finished in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina, on February 29. Marshal’s journey lasted 1,001 days, and he traversed 20,523 miles through 15 countries on a bike, raising more than $3,000 for charity.

“I wanted to travel in a way that I thought would be challenging as well as rewarding and would let me experience the world in a different way. I had never gone on a bike trip before and, for some reason, crossing two continents seemed like a good way to try it out,” he said.

From Tech to Capitol Hill: An Alumna’s Impactful Journey in Engineering and Policy

Graduates of Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering thrive across an array of industries and roles, so it’s no surprise that one alumna, Elisabeth Deeb, ME 2013, M.S. MT 2015, found herself spending the past year busy with purpose in the heart of Washington D.C. as an ASME Congressional Fellow in Advanced Manufacturing.

Sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Congressional Fellowship program is extremely selective; it’s more than just an opportunity for professional development, as fellows like Deeb spend 12 months in Washington providing technical expertise to lawmakers and taking an active role in shaping future policy.

Policy Impact at the Heart of Government

As vice president of business development and senior project manager with the consulting firm T&M Associates, Deeb’s background involved work with agencies representing governments in Europe and the Middle East. She also worked extensively with key suppliers to major companies like Saudi Aramco and ADNOC, helping guide those suppliers through regulatory requirements and acquiring an expert understanding of the region’s supply chain ecosystem.

“I realized that I knew a lot about how the foreign governments I worked with operated, but not my own,” Deeb said. “What are the mechanisms that drive decision-making and other things? I knew how that worked overseas and wanted to figure out how that worked in the U.S.”

Looking to build upon her international experience, Deeb applied for the Congressional Fellowship and, after her selection into the program, started working in the office of Senator Raphael Warnock in September of 2022, where she consulted

on a diverse range of topics related to entertainment, manufacturing, agriculture, and supply chain policy.

In practice, this meant Deeb offered policy recommendations, attended constituent and committee meetings, and helped ask or answer pertinent technical questions.

One area of focus for Deeb was permitting reform. Obtaining federal permits for large-scale infrastructure projects is often time-consuming and costly. Each project presents unique challenges, making effective holistic changes to the permitting process difficult. Deeb distilled these complex issues into manageable, actionable items. Drawing from her international experience, Deeb recognized the downstream benefits of permit reform, especially as the U.S. transitions to renewable energy sources.

“Whether it’s oil and gas, whether it’s transmission lines for offshore wind or solar, we need the infrastructure to be updated and expanded and that’s going to require permits,” Deeb emphasized. “We just need to make sure that it’s done safely and responsibly, and not cost companies decades and billions of dollars to get their permits.”

Navigating AI and the Entertainment Industry

One of Deeb’s major accomplishments during her fellowship was establishing a permanent entertainment industry portfolio within the senator’s office. The portfolio—a collection of issues or areas of policy a legislator will oversee—was a long-term project Deeb knew would have a lasting impact given the global presence Georgia has in the music and film industries.

“Although entertainment is 6.9% of the United States’ GDP we tend to forget that it exists when it comes to policy,” Deeb said. Deeb connected with industry leaders to hear concerns, ranging from pandemic recovery to retaining state-educated graduates. Her focus changed when OpenAI released its AI-powered ChatGPT in late fall of 2023, which put a spotlight on the technology’s vast and disruptive potential.

Quite suddenly, Deeb was doing a lot of work at the intersection of AI and copyright law, with artists and others wary of the potential misuse of their creative works or personas. She helped organize an AI roundtable, bringing artists, industry executives, and policymakers together to begin constructive discussions on the topic.

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Despite the technical complexities concerning AI, Deeb’s time at Georgia Tech meant she was ready for the challenge. A classically trained violinist, Deeb earned her master’s degree in music technology and studied the use of AI in music software. Her unique perspective allowed her to effectively engage with a broad cross-section of industry insiders, from film and television to publishing and video games.

“I think I’m probably the first and only music technology graduate who has been on the Hill,” Deeb joked. “Just having that knowledge and credibility goes a long way with constituents. Half of your job is working with constituents and making sure you’re taking in all the information you can, but also making sure that they are being heard and working with them throughout the process of policy making.”

Future Perspectives

The Congressional Fellowship not only provided Deeb with an insider’s view of the government but also served as a conduit for collaboration. Fellows are placed in all three branches of government, both legislative chambers and across the political spectrum, fostering a network that Deeb and her peers utilized.

“It’s allowed for some interesting coalition building around bills,” Deeb said. “I’ve gotten to work with quite a few offices on both sides of the aisle on certain issues.”

Deeb’s journey exemplifies the farreaching impact of a Tech education and showcases how skills honed at the Woodruff School can be leveraged to make a significant impact after graduation. While there are no immediate plans to dive back into policy work, her words echo the possibility of a return, emphasizing the importance of finding the right role.

“I enjoyed my time in the Hill,” Deeb said. “I would definitely be up for going back, but finding a position that makes a lot of sense takes a little bit of time.”

Helluva Poker Face

Georgia Tech alumni are famously good at perseverance. Daniel Weinman, who won the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and took home a record-breaking $12.1 million in winnings, credits it as part of his strategy for success.

“Even the best players in the world have to come to terms with the fact they are going to lose a tournament about 75% of the time. There’s not much instant gratification, and the hard work put in at and away from the tables doesn’t always yield immediate results,” says Weinman. “I’m sure most Tech grads can relate to having to persevere through a difficult class or concept that eventually tied everything together.”

Weinman, who plays professional poker, became interested in poker in high school, where he and his friends would spend nights huddled in basements playing the game. He quickly realized that it would be more than a hobby for him. “It was during my years at Tech that I began to take it more seriously,” he says.

His passion for poker has certainly paid off. To win the WSOP Main Event, Weinman had to beat 10,042 other participants.

Weinman says he felt relieved at the end of the tournament. “The last couple of days especially were nervewracking. Not so much the playing, but the waiting between days was really starting to get to me,” he says.

Besides a significant amount of media attention, Weinman expects life to remain the same post-win. He plans to continue to play poker competitively. He also advises a few Tech students and alumni who are part of a startup called RF Poker, which hopes to create a Top Golf–like poker experience.

Though the tournament was almost a month before the time of this interview, he says the win still hasn’t sunk in. “It’s a tournament that you never expect to win, or even really have a chance to win, simply due to the massive field size,” says Weinman.

Alumnus Creating a New Kind of Classroom and Making STEM Accessible

Calvin Mackie, alumnus and advisory board member of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, holds many titles: engineer, professor, entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, husband, and father.

After becoming the first African American to receive tenure in the Tulane University School of Engineering, he faced an abrupt shift in his academic career in 2007 when Tulane disbanded its engineering school due to the financial hardships brought on by Hurricane Katrina.

Mackie’s response to the dissolution of Tulane’s engineering school was not to seek another faculty role, as most in his position would, but to create a whole new type of learning environment. With his teaching experience and substantial involvement in the New Orleans community, he decided to take education from the traditional classroom setting and bring it directly to the community. In 2013, he founded the non-profit STEM NOLA, a hands-on, community-focused education initiative dedicated to making STEM accessible for all K-12 students.

From an Early Prediction to Life-Long Passion

Born and raised in New Orleans, Mackie often built and assembled creations with materials from his father’s roofing business when he would accompany him on job sites. When he was 9, Mackie’s uncle watched him assemble a toy car kit he had gifted him and proclaimed, “He’s going to be an engineer!”

“I had no idea what an engineer was. I had never met one. I couldn’t even spell it!” said Mackie. “But I loved to build and make things, so from then on, when anyone asked me what I wanted to be, I said engineer.”

Mackie received a basketball scholarship in high school, but an extensive shoulder injury his senior year prevented him from playing further. Though a student-athlete would usually be devastated by such a situation,

Mackie experienced his first complete STEM immersion by attending an 8-week-long summer science program at Morehouse College in Atlanta because of this injury.

“That was the place for me,” said Mackie of the experience. Still determined to be an engineer, Mackie learned that while Morehouse did not have an engineering program, a dual degree option was available, starting at Morehouse and transferring to Georgia Tech.

This program was ideal as his grades and SAT scores were not strong enough to get him directly into Georgia Tech. Despite not being a star student on paper, his performance in the summer program earned him a scholarship to Morehouse. Though he was placed in remedial reading courses, Mackie excelled in mathematics, successfully completed his studies at Morehouse, and transferred to Georgia Tech.

“A whole world opened up to me when I joined Georgia Tech,” said Mackie. He admits he chose mechanical engineering because the word mechanical sounded like the best place to continue his passion for building and exploring how things worked. After earning his B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1990, he remained at the Woodruff School through his postgraduate studies, receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. in 1992 and 1996, respectively.

Leaving the Classroom to Create a New Kind of Learning

Mackie’s various mentors convinced him to follow the traditional academic route, which led him to a faculty position at Tulane University. There, he was granted tenure in 2003, approximately two years before Hurricane Katrina. When Tulane eliminated its engineering school, Mackie was offered positions at other universities, but he said he took this upheaval as a sign from God to follow a new path.

“My hope was no longer in the technical development but in the human capital development. I wanted to be what my mentors were to me and focus on developing people,” said Mackie. “Instead of a university, I wanted to build what I call a communiversity.” He hoped this peoplefirst model would take education beyond the classroom and put it directly into the community.

The idea was further inspired by Mackie’s son and his experience in his science class. After proclaiming to his father that he did not like science because his teacher “only wrote on the whiteboard,” Mackie began substituting his lessons with experiments and at-home science kits in their garage.

His son asked Mackie to include his friends and classmates saying, “My friends need this, too.” Before long, Mackie was hosting groups of 20 or more children at each of these garage lessons.

When Mackie saw his son’s love of science return and the academic advantage these at-home lessons gave the children, he knew that his mission was to make this accessible to children in all communities and to help encourage their love and abilities in STEM.

In 2013, STEM NOLA was founded to expose, inspire, and engage communities in learning about STEM and STEM opportunities. In December of that year, STEM NOLA announced its first event would take place in New Orleans, and they expected approximately 100 participants to attend. The actual turnout was closer to 500, with local and state representatives also in attendance.

For the last 10 years, on the second Saturday of every month, STEM NOLA has hosted an event somewhere in New Orleans, and to date, over 125,000 children have participated. Students are exposed to all aspects of STEM, from engineering and physics, where they can build cars and model bridges, to biology, where they can dissect animal hearts. Students are also educated on the science of their city, wetlands, and flooding, learning why Hurricane Katrina was such a historic moment for New Orleans, even though it occurred before these students were born.

“We created living, breathing classrooms outside of buildings and in the spaces where people live and work,” said Mackie. “I’ve built pathways to get the engineering and the technology to the people, rather than people coming to it.”

STEM NOLA is also dedicated to introducing STEM to those typically overlooked in these fields and breaking social and economic barriers. “It’s not that kids in rural and urban areas don’t like STEM; they’re just not exposed to it. They haven’t developed the mindset to see themselves as a great scientist because they haven’t met one. The exposure needs to become second nature, the same way we put a football in a child’s hand at age 4, we need to put STEM in their hands that early.”

Beyond the Big Easy

With STEM NOLA now a fixture in New Orleans, Mackie’s wish for all children to have the chance to experience this communiversity learning is coming to fruition with the expansion into other cities in Louisiana and other states. STEM Mobile is operating in Alabama, and recently, popup STEM events have happened in Atlanta in association with Georgia Tech and in Los Angeles. “We built a model that other cities can adapt and give their kids,” said Mackie.

STEM NOLA is also building a dedicated STEM Innovation Hub in New Orleans to increase the program’s scale and quality. This 40,000-square-foot space will include laboratories and classrooms and serve as the organization’s new headquarters. With the program growing each year, Mackie’s goal has changed in scale, but his vision remains the same as in 2013, giving children the opportunity to learn and love STEM.

“I’ve built pathways to get the engineering and the technology to the people, rather than people coming to it.”

—Calvin Mackie

Woodruff School Announces Inaugural Members of Young Alumni Council

Meet the Inaugural Members

The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering has selected 20 inaugural members to join the newly established Georgia Tech Woodruff Young Alumni Council (YAC).

The YAC is an initiative aimed at bolstering engagement among young alumni while supporting the School’s strategic plan. The Council’s goal is to increase engagement among mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering students and recent graduates by providing targeted professional development, amplifying entrepreneurial impact, and enhancing the student and young alumni experience.

“Joining the Woodruff Young Alumni Council presents an exceptional opportunity for young alumni to maintain their involvement with the School and actively contribute to shaping the future of mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering,” said Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor.

Leading the YAC is Shweta (Shay) Natarajan, ME 2009, M.S. ME 2012, and Mihir Pathak, ME 2008, M.S. ME 2010, Ph.D. ME 2013, who will serve as co-chairs for the initial three-year term.

To be eligible, members must have obtained at least one degree in mechanical or nuclear engineering from Georgia Tech and graduated with the last degree in mechanical or nuclear engineering from the Institute within the last 15 years.

Members, who have a passion for serving Georgia Tech and its students, volunteer by mentoring, being a Capstone judge or sponsor, or serving as a seminar speaker. The YAC also meets twice a year, virtually and in-person, to network with members of the Woodruff School community and discuss the Council’s current and future goals.

For more information on the YAC, contact Courtney Sykes, senior development assistant, at giving@me.gatech.edu.

Shweta (Shay) Natarajan

Mihir Pathak

Jacqueline Buzzett

Matthew DeIulio

Amanda Bock

Malavika Bagepalli

Aditya Dhanrajani

John Gattuso

Rohit Doiphode

Caitlin Leksana

Siddharth “Sid” Gore

Ahmad Haider

Kelly Hon

John Hooie

Brian Kern

Imane Mokri

David Montes de Oca Zapiain

Myela Paige

Aaron Shaw

Taylor Sparacello

Woodruff School Hosts Inaugural STEM Mentorship Program GT PRIME

This summer, the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering hosted an inaugural STEM immersion and mentoring program, GT PRIME, developed for school counselors and K-12 students in the community.

Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor, wished to start a program that focused on outreach to K-12 school counselors in the Atlanta area to promote the Woodruff School’s offerings directly to prospective students. He challenged Jonathan Gaines, Associate Chair for Inclusive Excellence in the Woodruff School, to create a framework which could easily be expanded. The detailed idea for GT PRIME came from Gaines who has previous experience with STEM mentoring programs.

“We wanted to give K-12 students and counselors in our community a behind-the-scenes look at what the Woodruff School has to offer, ” said Ranjan. “We wanted them to step foot on campus, spend time getting to know our faculty and staff, gain a complete understanding of mechanical engineering and how it’s used to address real-world problems, and walk away knowing at Georgia Tech, we can do that!”

The first cohort of GT PRIME participated in a multi-week camp that focused on skill building, collaboration, and mentorship. The program had concurrent goals for the students and mentors: training mentors to connect their students with engineering avenues, and hands-on activity-based programming to introduce students to engineering and the Woodruff School. Ten school counselors were selected from the Fulton County School and Atlanta Public School networks to act as mentors for the program.

“School counselors are perfect as mentors because they are professionally equipped to build relationships and connect with middle school kids,” said Gaines. “They have connections at their school to foster engineering interest amongst students once they return to their home institutions.” The Woodruff School partnered with Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC), who identified 24 students to participate in the program.

The program ran for four weeks, with the first week dedicated to training the counselors on engineering, culturally responsive mentoring, and the program’s values. Students joined the program for weeks two, three, and four.

GT PRIME had four key goals. The first was to increase the engineering identity of all participants using the engineering design process and projects. The second was to inform participants on the offerings of the Woodruff School through regular interactions with faculty and staff and hands-on activities. The third was to build strong relationships between all participants through team-building exercises and by presenting engineering in a collaborative environment. And the final goal was for the school counselors to translate their experiences back to their home school. To aid this, counselors completed a parallel project where they created an initiative to implement in their schools upon their return.

The days were split into two sessions. The morning sessions allowed the counselors and students to learn about engineering and increase their understanding of the Woodruff School through lab tours and demonstrations.

The afternoon sessions were primarily for robotics design activities, during which participants met in groups and designed a robot to address a real-world challenge with an engineering-based solution. The groups learned how to build the robot base platform, program the base platform, and then adapt the robot for specific tasks that addressed their selected real-world issue.

Christian Ford, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), helped coordinate the camp and led the afternoon sessions. Mack Curtis, academic assistant II in the Woodruff School, hosted multiple tours in the Flowers Invention Studio for the participants, where he introduced them to laser cutting and gave demonstrations on the machines.

“I was a lead for a TRiO program (Talent Search) where I found immense joy in structuring nurturing programs like this. As a TRiO alum, I feel a personal duty to engage and bond with students,” said Curtis. “Exposing children from under-resourced environments to opportunities in education has the potential to spark something transformative in them.”

Laura Sams Haynes, senior academic professional in ECE, represented the School as the director of outreach and collaborated with Gaines and Sirocus Barnes in CEISMC to launch GT PRIME. ECE also provided financial support for the program’s student facilitators.

“The debut of GT PRIME has highlighted the strength of Georgia Tech’s collaborative spirit,” said Haynes. “By engaging young students with hands-on engineering lessons and working to integrate STEM principles further into the middle school curriculum, the program will make a meaningful contribution that extends well beyond the summer. ”

The program culminated with participants giving final presentations to an audience full of parents at the John Lewis Student Center.

Gaines is happy with the impact the program had on everyone involved and is looking forward to continuing GT PRIME in the future. “We plan to develop GT PRIME next summer and offer additional experiences in ECE, and we are also speaking with faculty in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering to be part of the expansion.”

6 Woodruff School Students Awarded WoW Fellowships, Alumni Serve on Panel at Spring Biannual Event

Women of Woodruff (WoW), an organization made up of Georgia Tech College of Engineering alumnae and friends, has awarded six fellowships to female students in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. This year’s WoW Fellows include: Bettina Arkhurst, Natalie Cannon, Haley Hilborn, Naiki Kaffezakis, Jennifer Leestma, and Vishwa Vasani.

These fellowships aim to attract, support, and retain women students in mechanical engineering and STEM, and are made possible by the continued efforts of WoW members, as well as a generous contribution from Woodruff School corporate partner Woodward.

Woodward exhibits a commitment to inclusion and belonging, highlighting in their mission statement a belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their greatest potential. Woodward University Relations and IDEA Strategy Manager Daenon L. Gault-Vasconez attended the presentation of the fellowships.

The recipients were honored at WoW’s biannual spring event held April 19. The event also featured a panel discussion where Woodruff School alumni, faculty, and graduate students discussed the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and mechanical engineering. Panelists included: Amanda Bock, senior propulsion analytics engineer at Delta; Ahmad Haider, senior director of data and advanced analytics at Vertex Pharmaceuticals; graduate research assistants Kevin Ligonde and Mayur Singh; and Fan Zhang, assistant professor in the Woodruff School. The panel was moderated by Shay Natarajan, partner of strategy at Mobility Impact Partners.

The fellowships are just one way WoW is working to support female students since it was established in 2022. For more information on WoW or to become a member, visit www.me.gatech.edu/wow.

Women in Engineering Leadership Lecture Series

On October 12, the Woodruff School hosted Jean Marie Richardson, MGT 2002, as the 2023 speaker for the Women in Engineering Leadership Lecture Series. Richardson spoke about the process of building her company, iFOLIO, and key takeaways.

Family's Gift to Improve Crane Safety

In April 2019, 19-year-old Sarah Pantip Wong, a bright first-year student at Seattle Pacific University, lost her life when a tower crane toppled over and collapsed beyond the confines of a construction site, spilling into traffic and crushing the Uber vehicle she was in. Sarah, another passerby, and two ironworkers died. In response to this incident and with a commitment to addressing the pervasive issue of crane safety, Andrea Wang and Henry Wong, Sarah’s parents, have partnered with researchers from Georgia Tech to establish the Crane Safety Research Center.

William Singhose, a distinguished professor at Georgia Tech specializing in automation and mechatronics in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, emphasizes the gravity of the crane safety problem. With millions of cranes in operation worldwide, the United States alone experiences multibillion-dollar losses due to crane accidents, leading to hundreds of deaths each year. Singhose, through his extensive research, private sector engagement, and educational initiatives, is dedicated to addressing these issues comprehensively.

The Crane Safety Research Center at Georgia Tech collaborates with researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington to bridge the gap between engineering curricula, practical applications, and legislation. Wang, Sarah’s mother, underscores the disconnect between academia and construction practices, advocating for a more integrated approach.

Focusing primarily on tower cranes and boom cranes, the center aims to precisely calculate the potential falling distance of cranes during tower crane assembly, disassembly, and reconfiguration procedures. This critical data will facilitate a more accurate determination of public safety zones, thereby enhancing overall safety protocols. Building on principles taught in Singhose’s Emerging Technology Law curriculum, another dedicated team of researchers will delve into the legislative landscape surrounding crane safety, leveraging the center’s findings to formulate recommendations for legislative improvements.

Thanks to the unwavering support from the Wong family, the Crane Safety Research Center is poised to make profound impacts on crane technology, procedural enhancements, and the formulation of public policies. Wang hopes that the research center creates new knowledge and technology, advancing crane safety and informing public policy to safeguard lives — the public and workers. The Seattle incident, like many others, was entirely preventable — and the Wong family hopes the Crane Safety Research Center can find the solutions to eliminate all death and injury by tower cranes. Wang said, “Together with Georgia Tech, we are steadfastly committed to preventing future tragedies and elevating crane safety standards globally.”

Ramesh Supports the Next Generation of Mechanical Engineers

Anand Ramesh, Ph.D. ME 2002, chief technology officer of Verrus, a hyperscale datacenter provider, looks back on his years at Tech as “a magical time.” He also credits the graduate education he received here with launching him on a successful and rewarding career. “I owe a lot to Georgia Tech,” he said. “Tech opened doors for me I didn’t even know existed.” Ramesh’s gratitude toward his alma mater has inspired his generous support of graduate students in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

Ramesh wants to offer “some measure of financial security to these amazing young people, to free their energies for problem-solving and innovation.” This is particularly important in helping to enable the exciting research and professional development of students whose families may be far away or otherwise unable to offer the financial and emotional assistance crucial to success.

Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student

Sai Kuchibhatla came to Tech from India. He was drawn by Tech’s prestige, especially in his field of acoustics and dynamics. Fellowship support has enabled him to focus on his research

into wave propagations and vibrations without the added worry about tuition and living expenses. “I am grateful to my advisor and the Woodruff School for ensuring such uninterrupted support,” Kuchibhatla said, and for fostering “an environment conducive to professional growth and personal fulfillment.”

Sara Bitarafan, a graduate student studying biometrics and the brain, shares Kuchibhatla’s appreciation for the tightknit Woodruff community. Bitarafan said the fellowship support she receives allows her “to focus that mental energy on something productive.”

She works at the intersection of engineering, mathematics, and biology to understand the complexities of neural systems and improve treatment for people with Alzheimer’s.

Prathik Gunreddy specializes in the study of noise, vibration, and harshness reduction in electric cars. Gunreddy came to Georgia Tech specifically because of its commitment to advancing technology in the field of electric vehicles. For him and other graduate students, fellowship support means not having to “rely on our families back in a different country for living expenses and tuition.” He said that alleviating these financial burdens allows

him to concentrate on his research, which includes advancing EcoCAR technology.

Endowed fellowships such as these help strengthen what Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair, identified as the School’s “commitment to supporting students across three key areas — access, success, and academic well-being.” And that support helps Georgia Tech develop the kind of innovators who advance technology and improve the human condition.

“The role that graduate schools play in training the next generation of leaders and problem-solvers cannot be overstated,” Ramesh said. “I want to emphasize how grateful I am to Georgia Tech and the Woodruff School.”

Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign for Georgia Tech is a more than $2 billion comprehensive campaign designed to secure resources that will advance the Institute and its impact — on people's lives, on the way we work together to create innovative solutions, and on our world — for decades to come.

To make a gift or commitment to the Woodruff School in support of the Transforming Tomorrow Campaign, reach out to Senior Director of Development Jaimie Hayes at giving@me.gatech.edu or 404-385-8345.

FINAL SPOTLIGHTS

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Mechanical engineering student Micah Morris and Georgia Tech alumna Kathryn Smith, ChBE 2023, celebrated their engagement with a special touch courtesy of creativity and the Flowers Invention Studio. Morris created a custom engagement ring box in the largest student-run makerspace in the world using the skills he learned as a PI, Laser Master, and Director of Operations.

Students enrolled in the course Electric Vehicles & the Grid participated in the EV & the Grid Grand Challenge. Students worked in teams to modify electric scooters and then put their skills to the test to see who could secure the fastest lap time using the least amount of energy.

Innovation and impact were on display at the Fall 2023 Capstone Design Expo, where more than 120 student teams showed off the results of their semesterlong senior design projects. Woodruff School students shined, taking home four different awards at the event held inside McCamish Pavilion.

The Woodruff School hosted the Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship (IRF) Showcase as part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week. At the event, graduate students Carolina Colón, Siddharth Nathella, and Talia Thomas presented their research to fellow students, faculty, and staff. The IRF provides three years of support to selected students.

Faculty and staff welcomed new students to Georgia Tech during Welcome Week. Mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering students had the opportunity to snap a first day of class photo and pick up free swag, courtesy of Woodruff School alumni.

The Woodruff School hosted the first joint Faculty and Staff Retreat in 2023 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Discussions and activities were centered around the three key focus areas of the strategic plan: student success, research preeminence, and community and culture.