Woodruff Buzz: 2022-23 Annual Magazine

Woodruff Buzz

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

Woodruff Buzz is published annually for the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the George W. Woodruff

School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

SCHOOL CHAIR

Devesh Ranjan

EDITOR

Ashley Ritchie

WRITERS

Chloe Arrington

Catherine Barzler

Christa M. Ernst

Steven Gagliano

Jason Maderer

Tess Malone

Steven Norris

Georgia Parmelee

Péralte C. Paul

Ashley Ritchie

Melinda Rose

Emma Ryan

Ian Sargent

Joshua Stewart

DESIGNER

Ashley Ritchie

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Mayar Allam

Chloe Arrington

Ahmet Coskun

Rob Felt

Candler Hobbs

Gary Meek

Ashley Ritchie

Ian Sargent

Ankur Singh

Steve J Swieter

Adam Thompson

Thomas Voisin

Ben Wright

Zoo Atlanta

George W. Woodruff

of Mechanical

© 2023

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

On behalf of everyone at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, I am proud to present our new magazine, Woodruff Buzz, produced annually for our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends.

The first 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. The plan, released earlier this year, includes a new mission statement, aspiring vision, and actionable goals and objectives, and will guide our initiatives through 2030.

As many of you know, the Woodruff School 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. The depth and breadth of our mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering programs have led to national rankings that place us in elite company. Our mechanical engineering undergraduate program is second according to U.S. News & World Report, while we rank fifth in our graduate mechanical engineering program and eighth in nuclear engineering.

Last fiscal year was full of remarkable achievements. We secured $67.8 million in new sponsored research awards, the highest in Woodruff School history. As you flip through these pages, you’ll see the funding is giving our faculty a rich set of research opportunities, such as the chance to transform the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF) into the Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AI-MPF), the chance to develop new technologies and programs to close the nitrogen loop and revolutionize agriculture, and the chance to engineer bioinspired materials needed to realize the Navy’s advanced capabilities in deep sea environments. Our faculty have also made innovative contributions in other fields. Associate Professor Matthew McDowell researched new materials for the next generation of high-capacity batteries; Professor Ankur Singh led a team of researchers in the development

of a promising breakthrough for targeted cancer therapies; and Associate Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow W. Hong Yeo developed a wireless monitoring patch system to detect sleep apnea at home, to name a few. Members of the Woodruff School community won many notable awards during the 2022-23 academic year. Associate Professor Aaron Young won the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award; Assistant Professors Akanksha Menon and Ye Zhao were awarded NSF CAREER Awards; G.P “Bud” Peterson received the 2022 Max Jakob Memorial Award; and Marta Hatzell received the Institute’s Outstanding Achievement in Early Career Research Award. Our students also continued to shine. Mechanical engineering students took home first, second, and third place in the College of Engineering’s (CoE) annual Student Innovation Competition – Promoting Equity and Access, which asks students to propose a creative solution to a problem affecting marginalized populations on campus; and students Carolina Colón, Lina Daza Llanos, Elyssa Ferguson, Alison Jenkins, Maria Sattar, and Jordyn Schroeder were awarded the inaugural 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 and faculty in mechanical engineering. Our staff members were also recognized for their hard work and dedication. Cary Ogletree earned a Leadership in Action Award from the Institute; Michelle Graham received the CoE Soaring Jacket Award; and the S.H.O.E Cabinet, consisting of Lula Baker, Melody Foster, and Ann Lamb, won the CoE Staff Innovation and Process Improvement Award and the Institute’s Cultivating WellBeing Award for creating an inclusive environment in the Woodruff School where staff members feel valued and are enabled to reach their potential. Finally, three of our alumni were named to the Class of 2022 40 Under 40 and four alumni were recognized with CoE Alumni Awards, including G.B. Espy and Deborah Kilpatrick who were inducted into the Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame.

The Woodruff School also celebrated major milestones and new initiatives during the last academic year. We hosted an event at the Fox Theatre to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering program and hosted an Advisory Board and Campaign Reception that shined a light on our community of engineers who are transforming tomorrow through their leadership, volunteerism, and philanthropic support. We also launched a new program, Woodruff Strong, that is one of the School’s top priorities during the comprehensive campaign, Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign for Georgia Tech. Through Woodruff Strong, we seek to raise $30 million for scholarships and fellowships, academic support services, and health and wellness resources.

To conclude, all of our success wouldn’t be possible without outstanding members of the Woodruff School community. I am immensely proud and grateful for your ongoing contributions and commitment. Over the next year and beyond, I look forward to our continued collaboration and I am confident that, together, we can strengthen our impact locally, nationally, and globally 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, 2023-24)

No. 8

Nuclear Engineering Graduate Program

(U.S. News & World Report, 2023-24)

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, 2022-23

451 269 B.S. Degrees

Degrees

68

DEGREES

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; ComputerAided Engineering and Design; 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

95 Tenure-Track Faculty

81 Staff

17 Research Faculty

15 Non-Tenure Track Faculty

ENGINEERING SCHOLARS

1819 Undergraduate Students Fall 2022

$67.8M

946 Graduate Students Fall 2022

Total Expenditures

M.S.

Sherry Adadi was selected for the International Atomic Energy Agency Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme for 2023.

Amro Alshareef received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Bettina Arkhurst was named a 2022-2023 Novelis Scholar.

Max Asselmeier received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Eyas Ayesh received the 2022 Millennium Fellowship.

Matthew Barry was awarded the Sandia National Laboratories’ President Harry S. Truman Postdoctoral Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering.

Alexander Chipps received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Jonathon Faulkner was awarded a threeyear DOE graduate fellowship through the Office of Nuclear Energy’s University Nuclear Leadership Program.

Student Notes

Elyssa Ferguson was awarded a RBI Graduate Research Fellowship.

Carlos Fernandez was selected to join the second class of Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Graduate Fellows.

Nina Sara Fraticelli-Guzmán was named the student winner of the 2022 Diversity Champion Award at the 14th Annual Georgia Tech Diversity Symposium.

Madeline Garell received the Sigma Xi Best M.S. Thesis Award.

Rodrigo Gonzalez received the Sigma Xi Best Ph.D. Thesis Award.

Yutong Guo was awarded the 2022 Andrew J. Lockhart Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Daniel Johnson was named a 2022-2023 Novelis Scholar.

Kathryn Kelly was named a 2023 Goizueta Foundation Fellow.

Velin Kojouharov received the 2022 Millennium Fellowship.

Matthew Krecicki was awarded a first place prize in the Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards sponsored by the DOE, Office of Nuclear Fuel and Supply Chain.

Patience Lamb was selected for the International Atomic Energy Agency Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme for 2023.

Abir Muhuri received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Bailey Painter was awarded a three-year DOE graduate fellowship through the Office of Nuclear Energy’s University Nuclear Leadership Program.

Walter Parker was named a 2022-2023 Novelis Scholar.

Lauren Paulson received the Brooke Owens Fellowship.

Alexandra (Lexie) Schueller was named a 2022-2023 Novelis Scholar.

Nathan Zavanelli was named an ARCS Scholar and recipient of the Imlay Foundation Global Impact Award.

M.S. Student Attends Science Outside the Lab Workshop

Caroline Greiner, an M.S. student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, recently attended the six-day Science Outside the Lab workshop in Washington D.C.

The event is sponsored by the Nanotechnology Collaborative Infrastructure and invites a select cohort of graduate students to meet and interact with policymakers, regulators, journalists, and others who work at the crucial intersection of science and government.

Greiner, a Charlotte native, saw firsthand the input science has in advising a large bureaucracy and in turn, how various agencies provide the framework for regulating and promoting scientific

innovation.

“I wanted to attend the Science Outside the Lab workshop to learn about opportunities in science policy for people with technical STEM backgrounds,” Greiner said. “I learned so much about how science policy is spread across different levels and branches of government and how STEM students can contribute to and find a career in science policy.”

During her time in D.C. Greiner met scientists working in various roles of state and federal government. This included visits to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S. Senate.

“The highlight was attending a meeting

at the Organization of American States (OAS) on the National Mall and learning about science diplomacy,” Greiner said. “I thought the only way scientists could be involved in the government was to work as a scientist or engineer at a national lab or for the National Institutes of Health, but that is not the

Lillian Tso Wins 2023 Helen Grenga Outstanding Woman Engineer Award

Lillian Tso, an undergraduate student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded the 2023 Helen Grenga Outstanding Woman Engineer Award. Named after the first full-tenured female engineering professor at Georgia Tech, this award recognizes the outstanding achievements of a female engineer each year.

Tso, who will graduate in December, says she is incredibly honored to receive the award and expressed her gratitude to those within the Woodruff School. “I am so thankful for all the support I have received from the mechanical engineering department: my professors, classmates, advisors, and mentors,” Tso said upon learning of her win.

“I want to thank my mom for all her support as well,” she added. Tso’s mother, also an engineer, was one of two females to graduate in her class. “She has always given me someone to look up to.”

With a personal philosophy to “say yes” to opportunities that come her way and to always be on the lookout for new experiences, Tso has had a rich and eventful time as an undergraduate including interning at NASA, blogging for Georgia Tech-Europe, and bikepacking across Newfoundland, Canada through Outdoor Recreation at Georgia Tech (ORGT).

“I can think of no one more deserving of this award,” said Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and Professor Brandon Dixon. “Lillian’s intelligence, personal demeanor, and contagious enthusiasm for the opportunities available to students within the Woodruff School and Georgia Tech are such a visible example that our students are our greater asset.”

Tso has also been actively involved with the Flowers Invention Studio, recently serving as President of the largest student-run makerspace in the nation. According to Dixon, it was her leadership that ensured the community and culture that many worked so hard to build not only survived through the height of the pandemic but thrived.

With the goal to inspire other students and to give back to the Georgia Tech community, Tso has taken on mentorship and volunteer roles whenever possible.

“I have focused on giving back and mentoring younger mechanical engineers to give them the same opportunities which I received,” she said. “I believe it is so important to help the next generation of engineers move up to the next rung of the ladder!”

In addition, Tso joined the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) soon after enrolling at Tech and credits this as an integral part of her college experience.

“The women in SWE have been my inspiration, my support system, and my friends for the past four years, and I would not have been able to accomplish much without them,” she said.

One ‘SWEetie’ in particular, who Tso considers a close mentor, is Katie Bishop, EE 2023. Bishop has helped guide Tso through her minor in aerospace and encouraged her to apply to the Brooke Owens Fellowship in 2022, which she won.

After graduating later this year, Tso plans to pursue a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, continuing her journey at Georgia Tech.

New Program — Woodruff Strong — to Strengthen Student Support

There are many barriers to student success in higher education. They range from unmet financial need to inadequate student support to academic-related stress and more. The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor, are determined to remove these obstacles through a new program that focuses on student well-being and building a stronger community within the School.

Woodruff Strong will serve as one of the School’s top priorities during the comprehensive campaign, Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign for Georgia Tech.

Over the next five years, the program seeks to raise $30 million for scholarships and fellowships, academic support services, and health and wellness resources.

Since becoming Chair, Ranjan has been focused on meeting the needs of Woodruff School students. His goal is to ensure mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering students have access to a remarkable education as well as opportunities and resources outside of the classroom that will prepare them for their future careers and help them succeed.

“By partnering with alumni, parents, friends, corporations, and

foundations, we can transform students’ lives and in turn, empower them to create a better future for our community — locally, nationally, and globally,” said Ranjan.

Woodruff Strong will strengthen the School’s commitment to supporting students across three key areas:

Access: The School will expand access to one of the top mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering programs in the nation by increasing the number of need-based and merit-based scholarships and fellowships awarded annually, in particular for firstgeneration, underrepresented minority, and women students.

Success: The School will enhance student success by increasing academic support services, developing cohort, alumni, and corporate mentorship programs, and hosting career and culture-building activities.

Academic Well-Being: The School will improve academic wellbeing by increasing health and wellness resources, in partnership with the vice president for Student Engagement and Well-being, such as 24/7 online counseling services, hosting mental health awareness events, and offering mindfulness programming.

“With such a large undergraduate and graduate student population

– larger than most colleges of engineering – a focus on these important needs of Woodruff School students is timely,” said Professor Emeritus Raymond P. Vito.

Vito, who is also passionate about helping Georgia Tech students succeed, was one of the founders of the Georgia Tech InVenture Prize and has been pivotal in the creation, development, evolution, and delivery of the CREATE-X program.

“Through Woodruff Strong, we will not only help our students be successful at Georgia Tech but also in their careers,” he added.

Philanthropy and the Power to Transform

Woodruff Strong builds on the School’s existing initiatives to support students.

Mechanical engineering graduate student Jairo Y. Maldonado-Contreras is a member of the first class of students to receive the Woodruff School First Generation Fellowship. The fellowship, made possible through a partnership with Shell, awards $2,500 to first-generation graduate students who demonstrate excellence in academics, factoring in research and external recognition.

“As a recipient of the Woodruff School First Generation Fellowship, I feel empowered to achieve my goals while embracing my status as a first-generation student,” said Maldonado-Contreras.

Maldonado-Contreras is a member of the Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab, led by Associate

Professor Aaron Young. His research focuses on developing intention recognition algorithms that allow lower-limb robotic prostheses to execute the intended movements of users across a variety of environments – ramps, stairs, and level ground. After completing graduate school, he plans to become a professor.

Another group that supports students is the Mechanical Engineering Grad Student Mental Health Committee. It was initially formed as an ad hoc committee during the 2019 fall semester as a way to improve the culture around mental health among graduate students. In three years, the group has worked to implement initiatives, improve policies, and initiate dialogue to ensure Woodruff School students can succeed without compromising their mental health and well-being.

Studies have shown that poor mental health is linked to poor academic performance – resulting in low test scores, poor attendance, and a greater chance of withdrawing from college.

“Creating an inclusive academic environment requires providing for the needs of those who are most vulnerable in our community. Some students may not be in a vulnerable place today, but that does not mean they won’t face a circumstance in which they become vulnerable in the future,” said Bettina Arkhurst, a member of the Mechanical Engineering Grad Student Mental Health Committee. “Support would let students know that even if things in life go wrong, the Woodruff School won’t let them slip through the cracks – they are seen,

Ways to Support Students in the Woodruff School

Undergraduate Limited-Income Scholarship, $100,000: With 2,477 first-generation college students currently enrolled at Tech, the timing to continue to develop customized programming and resources that will better serve firstgeneration students’ needs is ever-present. An endowed scholarship will empower underrepresented students to break barriers and become a helluva engineer.

Graduate Fellowships, $150,000: The graduate student body exceeds 1,000 students, however, a mere fraction, less than 5%, benefit from a fellowship. It is essential that we prioritize investments in our graduate program to recruit and retain top engineering talent.

Renovation of the Instruction Labs, $200,000+: Located on the second floor of MRDC, the instructional labs serve as a learning and immersive experience for over 20 classes and more than 1,000 students annually. The labs need to be updated to better serve the needs of a top engineering program. An investment in the instruction labs will include naming opportunities.

cared for, and can access help, financial and otherwise when they need it most.”

As an example of potential support, Arkhurst points to funding that would facilitate systemic support for students who may be facing toxic work environments, a mental health crisis, or other difficult life events, including the loss of a loved one or having to support a family member in need.

“Supporting students in this way would be a game-changer,” she said.

Off to a Strong Start

Woodruff Strong’s fundraising initiative is already off to a strong start. Since the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year, the Woodruff School has been rolling out pieces of the program with great momentum.

In August, the School announced Women of Woodruff (WoW), an organization made up of College of Engineering alumnae and friends who are committed to ensuring women mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering students and faculty have the tools they need to thrive.

In addition, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a globally revered humanitarian leader, visited Georgia Tech to engage in a conversation about managing stress and developing mental resilience. More than 500 students, faculty, and staff attended the event, “#TechMeditates – a Dialogue on Mental Wellness with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,” hosted by SKY at Georgia Tech.

Engineering A New Way to Feed Gorillas

A team of Georgia Tech researchers has built an automatic feeding machine for gorillas at Zoo Atlanta that allows the primates to more naturally forage for food. Their ForageFeeder replaces the zoo’s previous feeding protocols, which had staff deliver food to the habitat at set times and locations.

With the new machine, feeding times can be set for different intervals every day. This encourages the gorillas’ natural feeding behavior, giving them additional random foraging opportunities throughout the day.

“Feeding behavior in wild primates is an important part of their daily lives. Gorillas typically eat and continuously move during daylight hours,” said Josh Meyerchick, senior keeper of primates at Zoo Atlanta and one of the paper’s co-authors. “We needed an additional tool to help increase their natural feeding behavior, which can provide a source of development and more natural social interactions than human-based feeding.”

The ForageFeeder was built by two Georgia Tech students — an engineer and a computer scientist — in collaboration with zoo staff. The undergraduates constructed it with affordability in mind: The $400 machine is open source and easy to manufacture and modify, which allows zoos around the nation to replicate the device.

The invention and a how-to-build-it guide is published in the journal HardwareX.

A New Idea Without a Good Solution

Andrew Schulz was a familiar face at Zoo Atlanta before earning his Georgia Tech mechanical engineering Ph.D. in 2022. He would sit with the elephants most days, studying how the animals stretch their trunks and use them to inhale food and liquids.

In January 2020, Meyerchick made the short walk from the gorilla habitat to see Schulz.

“They wanted me to look at a new project that wasn’t working correctly,” remembered Schulz, now a researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. “They had built their own automatic feeder for the gorillas using a deer feeder powered by a motorbike battery. A good idea, but it wasn’t ideal.”

Deer eat smaller food than gorillas, who typically consume turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, and other items. When the deer feeder couldn’t handle the chunky shapes, the zoo asked Schulz for help.

He took the idea back to campus and brainstormed with his

Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) team of fellow mechanical engineering students. The VIP program, which includes more than 1,500 students every semester, allows students and faculty advisors to partner on long-term projects that bridge the gap between research labs and classroom curricula.

The team tinkered with concepts but then had to pause because of the pandemic. By the summer of 2021, everyone on the team had graduated, so Schulz turned to Maggie Zhang and Nima Jadali. The duo would make the project a reality.

Experience Beyond the Classroom

For the next year, Zhang and Jadali went back and forth with the zoo, testing various methods and parts.

Zhang, the engineer, kept the deer feeder bucket, added some acrylic materials, and printed the remaining parts with 3D and laser printers on campus. It was a trying process.

“I thought I had the skills to pull it off as a third-year student. But then everything kept breaking,” said Zhang, who graduated in May from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “I had already taken ME 2110, which taught me how to implement designs. Struggling on a project outside the classroom gave me new insight into engineering: when you fail, you have to find a passion to fix it that extends beyond getting a bad grade.”

Jadali, the computer scientist, built the

electronics, software, and a remote trigger to activate the feeder. He purposely used simple circuits, batteries, and wires to make the machine easy to replicate.

“This project was deceptively difficult,” said Jadali, who also graduated in May. “Often times with my research, I’m the only person who sees and tests much of the code I write. Then it goes into a blackhole after the project ends. This was different; it had to work long after I created it. That’s something I’ve never faced in a research setting.”

Fall Feedings

The ForageFeeder has been in place at the zoo intermittently since August. At first, the gorillas didn’t know what to make of it. During the first feeding, the primates ran away and looked confused when the food suddenly sprayed around their habitat.

Now it’s a regular, but random, part of the day. The primates don’t know when it will activate or what kinds of foods it may deliver.

The feeder is suspended in a tree about 15 feet off the ground. When it’s time to eat, food falls out of the bucket into a tray, where a rotor spreads the treats in a circular pattern, much like a fertilizer dispenser. The food can be distributed as far as 30 feet from the feeder.

“This is a great example of how technology can positively influence animal welfare. Zoo Atlanta is a local, nonprofit institution, and it was great to see Georgia Tech students learning by doing. Technology has been improving human lives for years, and now it’s

the gorillas’ turn,” said David Hu, professor in the Woodruff School and faculty advisor of the project.

The device hasn’t been up long enough for researchers to deeply dive into behavioral data and determine how much the gorillas are moving, nor how much more of the habitat they’re exploring.

“But I’m confident we’re going to see statistical data that confirms what we’re already seeing: more foraging behavior,” Meyerchick said.

If they like what they see in the data, the gorilla care team plans to add as many as three more feeders to the current habitat, which houses nine gorillas.

As the team continues to explore modifications to make the process and equipment more durable, other Zoo Atlanta keepers have asked Zhang if a modified version could be used in habitats for other animals. Since installing the gorilla feeder, she and her Capstone Design Expo team created a device to feed the Zoo’s treedwelling Angolan colobus monkeys.

“Engineers must always respect the projects we work on, even if they’re for animals,” Zhang said. “I find the zoo projects very interesting because your intended audience can’t provide any feedback. If the device stops working, the animal doesn’t tell you. If they rip it apart, you can’t tell them to stop. It’s good to anticipate the problems of a design and figure out its solutions before it’s sent into the real world.”

“I find the zoo projects very interesting because your intended audience can’t provide any feedback. It’s good to anticipate the problems of a design and figure out its solutions before it’s sent into the real world.”

—Maggie Zhang

Virtual Reality Learning Tools Win Top Prize in Student Innovation Competition

When Siva Appana, Ian Kwuan, and Jathin Gadiparthi set out to make learning more accessible and interactive, the solution – virtual reality (VR) visualizations – felt initially elusive. The lightbulb moment for the three mechanical engineering students came on one of their late-night brainstorming sessions.

“As a visual learner, I convert any ideas into mental images, which aid significantly in my understanding,” Appana said. “Once I realized that I unconsciously do this, I realized that 3D animated visuals will help students better understand concepts.”

The team’s idea won the first-place prize in the College of Engineering’s annual Student Innovation Competition – Promoting Equity and Access (SICPEA), which asks students to propose a creative solution to a problem affecting marginalized populations on campus. Other teams won second and

third place with projects that seek to improve students’ access to groceries and keep underrepresented minorities from abandoning engineering careers.

The competition is designed to build awareness around issues of equity and access among engineering students while improving the College community. The competition is coordinated by the College’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council, and the top three teams win cash prizes.

“SICPEA remains an important spoke in our network of student innovation competitions because it brings students together to think about how we as a community can put into action Georgia Tech’s values of diversity, access, and well-being,” said Mark Losego, a member of the College’s DEI council who helps coordinate the competition and an associate professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering.

“Food insecurity is a huge issue on college campuses and correlates with lower GPA, attendance, and completion rates.

When students are focused on how to afford their next meal, they are not able to put their full effort into academics.”

—Devasena Sitaram

Dean Raheem Beyah discussed the winning idea from the 2023 Student Innovation Competition - Promoting Equity and Access over lunch with GT VizTools team members (clockwise) Siva Appana, Ian Kwuan, and Jathin Gadiparthi.

Anastasia Schauer and August Kohls — now siblings-in-law — had long wanted to write a paper together about engineering education, and the College’s innovation competition gave them the opportunity.

First Place: GT VizTools

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” Appana said. “Our proposal for GT VizTools expands visualization beyond whiteboards or textbooks to implement animations and interactivity, using libraries developed for VR headsets.”

The team proposed an open-source library of digital course content that could be accessed via VR headsets, which would be available for checkout at the Georgia Tech Library. Easy access to improved visualizations of course content could aid understanding and offer creative ways to prepare for exams, the team suggested.

“Especially in engineering and the sciences, visualization is important for helping students to comprehend and internalize topics they are learning in their classes,” Kwuan said. “We aimed to create an innovation that would add a layer of interactivity and realism to representations of many course topics.”

Gadiparthi said that interactivity would have helped him in classes like linear algebra, where 3D visualizations can represent concepts better than 2D.

“This is the tool that I wish I had,” he said. “By being a part of this project, I like to think I would be helping people in situations similar to mine.”

Appana, Kwuan, and Gadiparthi won $3,000 for the GT VizTools proposal and lunch with engineering Dean Raheem Beyah. Moving forward, the team hopes to begin prototyping course content and then starting a student organization focused on bringing GT VizTools to life.

“Planning out GT VizTools with my two friends has been a very positive group project experience,” Kwuan said. “What we have done so far in this competition certainly feels rewarding; we’ve had some fun moments working late through the night together on this, and I hope to continue with them on this innovation in the long run.”

Second Place: GroceryJackets

Devasena Sitaram, Grace Marek, Nicole Sen, Priyali Bandla, and Shreya Terala focused on improving access to grocery stores, an issue they said heavily impacts low-income students and those with dietary restrictions. By making it easier for students to get to the store and then to prepare affordable meals, the team hopes to improve educational equity.

“Food insecurity is a huge issue on college campuses and correlates with lower GPA, attendance, and completion rates,” said Sitaram, a third-year mechanical engineering student. “When students are focused on how to afford their next meal, they are not able to put their full effort into academics.”

Team members surveyed students about food access and costs. Many of their respondents didn’t have access to a car and nearly half cited cost as an obstacle to getting groceries. They also looked at U.S. Department of Agriculture data, which classifies the campus neighborhood as a food desert since there’s only one grocery store within a mile. To improve access, the team proposed a rideshare app that would connect students with cars to those without to offer rides to nearby grocery stores.

“It was so amazing to see issues that my friends and I struggled with — exasperation at the lack of access to fresh nutritious foods that were affordable and impact our experience at Tech — inspire a potentially actionable solution,” said Bandla, a third-year industrial engineering student.

Third Place: The Inclusive Interdisciplinary Innovators

Anastasia Schauer worked with Carnegie Mellon student August Kohls to dig into data about why underrepresented minorities (URMs) leave engineering fields to present ideas for retaining them.

The two Ph.D. students noted that the National Society of Black Engineers has reported seven in 10 Black engineering students leave the field before finishing their degrees compared to 50% for all races. Meanwhile, underrepresented groups also change fields after graduation, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The center reported that Black, Hispanic, and Native American students account for 21% of science and engineering bachelor’s degree recipients yet just 11% of the workforce.

Through a survey of former engineers at various stages of their careers, Schauer and Kohls found that the key to increasing retention might be incorporating interdisciplinary studies into engineering, in the classroom and beyond. The team proposed several different means of doing this, including interdisciplinary internship and research opportunities, interdisciplinary projects starting in students’ first year, bachelor’s and master’s programs across fields, and more guest lecturers from other disciplines in engineering classrooms.

Schauer, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student, said they’re just getting started with their work and will share their findings more broadly this summer.

“I’m excited that our work was accepted to be presented at a conference,” she said. “We’ll be sharing it at the American Society of Engineering Education conference at the end of June.”

Mechanical Engineering Student Bikes Across America

Baltimore-to-San Francisco ride raises money for teen cancer patients

There’s no denying that college can be a challenge — a test of what you have learned, your time management skills, and your fortitude. But second-year Georgia Tech mechanical engineering student Mjay Choi was still feeling like he wanted to see how far he could push himself.

What could be the ultimate test? What about biking across the United States?

“Always challenge yourself,” Choi said. “That is the only way to make yourself stronger.”

He found an opportunity to raise money and awareness for young adult cancer patients with the nonprofit Ulman Foundation. Choi jumped at the opportunity to support the cause, having lost both his grandparents to different forms of the disease.

But Choi was not a competitive cyclist. Other than leisurely rides with his family, he’d never attempted anything like a 4,000-mile bike trek. The team at Ulman provided him with some guidelines to prepare, and he started training at the Campus Recreation Center with more frequent cardio. As he finished his first year at Tech, Choi was preparing to pedal from Baltimore, Maryland, all the way to San Francisco, California. Choi and a team of other cyclists averaged 80 miles of biking every day. He and his fellow riders often relied on the kindness of strangers to make the journey.

“In some locations, we had meals and places to stay planned ahead,” Choi explained. Sometimes, the team would camp under the stars. But in other places, community members would find out about the fundraising effort and would offer to make a hot meal or provide lodging for the cyclists.

Choi said some of the first days of the 70-day ride were most difficult. For a rider with little experience, the mountains of West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania in the early June heat were daunting.

“Eventually, my body started getting used to the rides every day,” he said.

The team of 30 cyclists Choi rode with started riding extra miles so they could collect pictures with state signs as trophies of their triumph.

“We’d get so excited to make it to another new location,” said Choi. Eleven states and seven national parks in total. “The best experience of my life so far,” he said.

As for favorite locations, Choi says the vistas of the American West helped not only make the ride easier but reshaped his view of the United States.

“Yosemite National Park was amazing,” said Choi. “Cycling through different elevations and enjoying scenery was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Although his goal was to raise money for cancer patients, he also learned a lot of life lessons.

“Live in the moment; it’s now or never,” said Choi.

Choi says he’d challenge himself all over again if he had the chance. His advice: “Ask yourself, ‘Will I regret my decision in five years?’ If you think the answer is yes, then make a different decision.”

Jesse Bruner and Carolina Colón, graduate students in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, recently received the Woodruff School First Generation Fellowship. Sponsored by 3M and Shell, the fellowship provides $2,500 in funding to first-generation graduate students who demonstrate excellence in academics and research.

Jesse Bruner is a first-year Ph.D. student studying nuclear engineering. Originally from Orlando, Florida, Bruner spent two years working in the Washington state area, including a stint with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

“It’s nice to receive the fellowship,” Bruner said. “I was moving from across the country, which was costly, and not having to pay anything out of pocket for the first semester was really helpful and allowed me get started here at Georgia Tech with smooth transition.”

With one semester completed, Bruner says he enjoys the quality of his classes and connections he has been able to make with peers and faculty in the Nuclear & Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics program.

“I have already learned so much just being here,” said Bruner. “The program provides lots of opportunities for me to travel to conferences, to apply for other sources of

Students

Receive Woodruff School First Generation Fellowships

funding, and meet people at other labs; it’ s been a lot of good things.”

Recently Bruner attended a conference at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. He is also involved in a current project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where he’s studying pulse shape discrimination for antineutrino detectors.

Bruner, who is also a bassoonist with the Georgia Tech Symphonic Band, has found interests in diagnostic imaging, radiation therapy and nuclear propulsion. After graduation Bruner hopes to continue working in a national lab.

Carolina Colón is a first-year bioengineering Ph.D. student. Originally from Quebradillas in northwest Puerto Rico, Colón says monetary awards like the Woodruff School First Generation Fellowship mean she, for the first time, can focus on her studies and research without the need for a fulltime job.

“If I did not work 50-something hours, I would not have been able to attend school at all,” Colón said. “So even $500 or $1,000 can be the difference between being able to go to school versus having to delay by another semester.”

For Colón, the fellowship is not just an appreciation of her personal academic achievements, but of a significant

acknowledgment of the diverse challenges first-generation students face in higher education settings.

“It’s kind of like a ‘we hear you; we see you’ kind of thing,” Colón said.

Colón’s academic focus blends her aeronautical engineering background with CAR-T cell therapies. Her long-term goal is to develop methods for implementing cell therapies on a large scale, and eventually creating the means to make the technology available to astronauts on hazardous longduration missions.

“It has a lot of potential to be a one size fits all therapy,” Colón said. “Right now, these therapies cost close to half a million dollars, making treatments inaccessible to most of the population, so one of the few ways you can bring the price down is by scaling their manufacturing.”

Doing so first requires extensive research into T-cell biology and resiliency, which Colón is hoping to incorporate into her dissertation.

The Woodruff School First Generation Fellowship was established by Shell in 2020 and is part of a continued effort by the Woodruff School to provide a broad range of funding opportunities for current students.

HyTech Racing Celebrates Success at Formula SAE Electric Competition

HyTech Racing, Georgia Tech’s student-led electric racing team, placed tenth overall at the 2023 Formula SAE Electric hosted at Michigan International Speedway. The competition challenges student teams from around the world to design, build, and present the bestperforming electric formula race car. Along with their impressive placing, the team broke two standing records at the event, lateral and longitudinal acceleration, claiming the title of fastest vehicle to have competed in this competition.

The electric vehicle competition was introduced by SAE in 2013 and this year over 60 teams participated. Each year, teams use vehicles powered only by electrical motors and compete in two different types of events, static and dynamic. In the static events, teams participate in real-world scenario challenges such as explaining and justifying their vehicle costs and defending their designs to EV industry leaders. After passing all static events, team vehicles compete in the dynamic portion. Cars compete for the fastest time on straight-line acceleration, skid pad, autocross (single lap), and endurance lap (22 lap) events.

Hytech Racing’s overall top ten placing was due to their impressive and consistent results in the individual events. The team finished first in the acceleration and skidpad tests, second in the autocross event, and fifth in design.

“While results are great, our culture encourages the team to fall in love with the process,” said Hytech Racing President and mechanical engineering student Akshat Jain. “Our mission of building the next generation of engineers through the pursuit of vehicle performance encouraged members to give their absolute best effort.”

All members actively participate in all parts of the vehicle construction, including experimental circuitry, material characterization, and computational fluid dynamics. According to the team, building such a car like this requires a tremendous amount of innovation.

“Last year, our chief engineer mentioned the transition to all-wheel drive and compared it to being a quantum leap for the performance of our vehicle. While our car was at peak performance in 11 months, it required significant changes to our design, some of which included a planetary gearbox for the hub motors and a redesigned suspension. The simulation-backed design decisions were promising, however, there was a lot of doubt about the team’s ability to execute such drastic changes in a single season and every day was filled with a stream of never-ending problems,” said Jain.

For this year’s build, on top of challenging and complex engineering problems, the team also dealt with external factors such as supply chain issues. In the end, the results of the competition were a reflection of the dedication of the team, and several members also received internship offers as a result of their work.

There is no time to waste though, according to Jain the team is already looking forward to next year’s competition. “The real magic takes place in the preparation for the event that begins when the competition ends,” he said.

Back to Back Drone Racing Titles Further RotorJackets Goal of Expansion

April was a month of national championships at Georgia Tech as Buzz was crowned the nation’s best mascot, and the RotorJackets took home their second straight Collegiate Drone Racing championship.

Tech’s team, comprised of four racers, narrowly emerged from the field of 15 schools and 52 individual pilots to take home the title following two days of competition at the Fayette Fliers Field in Tyrone, Georgia. While scores from the qualifying round and the previous races in the knockout round are compiled into a sum, it was RotorJackets’ vice president Tanner Beard who put his team in the lead in the final race of the competition. Beard also finished in second place in the individual competition, but it’s the team’s accomplishment that he’s proudest of.

Beard and outgoing team president Luke Lawver started flying first-person view (FPV) drones together in 2018 before officially founding RotorJackets in the fall of 2020. As Beard, a mechanical engineering student, and Lawver, an aerospace graduate student, get set to leave Tech, the pair couldn’t have imagined the success the group has achieved in a short time.

“I’m just very proud of how far it’s come. We started out practicing on fields with PVC pipes, and our gates and materials were falling apart. We didn’t really have anything, but we were able to build everything up, and we’ve practiced every single weekend for events like this,” Beard said.

The team learned the layout of the championship track just two weeks before the event, but practicing from first light to sundown was nothing new for the RotorJackets. The hard work and preparation continued up until the last

Georgia Tech Motorsports Celebrates Top 10 Finish

minute as the team was forced to replace a drone the night before the competition. But the two senior members of the team were impressed by first-year computer engineering student Ian Boraks – the incoming president – and Dylan Wyckoff, in his first-ever drone race. Wyckoff is a third-year computer science major and will take over as the club’s treasurer.

Both relished the opportunity to fly alongside their experienced teammates and are now focused on continuing their legacy in pursuit of a three-peat.

Other than winning titles, the club also wants to expand the drone-flying community on campus. When the fall semester begins, monthly events will be held on Tech Green, where all students can learn how to fly. No experience is necessary, and all equipment will be provided. Not all club members are racers, and the benefits of learning the skill go well beyond the group.

“The cool thing about FPV as a hobby is that, especially as an engineering major or someone in any STEM field, it teaches you a ton of practical skills that are incredibly useful in your dayto-day job,” Lawver said. “We build all of our drones basically from scratch, so you can learn about electrical hardware design, mechanical hardware design, and software engineering and dive into whatever areas you want. Or, you can just treat it as a black box, and you’ll have fun with it.”

Using the skills they’ve acquired, the RotorJackets have expanded their footprint at Tech, using drones to enhance coverage of events like the iconic Mini-500 as well the Pi Mile, and they’ve assisted Athletics in creating digital content.

Georgia Tech Motorsports (GTMS), one of the oldest competition teams operating at Georgia Tech, placed in the overall top 10 at the 2023 Formula SAE Michigan held at Michigan International Speedway. GTMS placed seventh overall in the competition, breaking into the top 10 for the first time since 2008 and achieving their highest placing since 2004.

GTMS is made up of 75 students from different majors across the Institute, with most students hailing from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

The Formula SAE competition challenges teams of university undergraduate and graduate students to conceive, design, fabricate, develop, and compete with formula racing-style vehicles. Teams compete under the hypothetical scenario they are working for an engineering firm that is designing, fabricating, testing, and demonstrating a prototype vehicle.

Teams are required to participate in a series of events, both on and off track, and have the chance to demonstrate their creativity and engineering skills against groups from other universities around the world.

GTMS team lead Eli Kuperman broke down the team’s success, highlighting the impressive improvement from last year’s 23rd overall placement.

“While we only finished top 10 in one event, it’s important to note our consistency in finishing well in every event pushed us into the overall top 10 results,” stated Kuperman. “Our sights are set high for next year.”

GTMS scored consistently well in all aspects of the event where their model vehicle was tested in areas including endurance, acceleration, design, cost, and sales presentation.

“We could not have done this without the support of the Institute, the Woodruff School, and our gracious sponsors,” said Kuperman. “Every student on GTMS owes their experience to the support of the aforementioned parties, so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”

Antonia Antoniou was promoted to professor.

Marian Axente joined as adjunct assistant professor.

Costas D. Arvanitis was promoted to associate professor and named Woodruff Faculty Fellow. He received the Woodruff School Mentor of the Year Award. He received a $3 million, five-year R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to apply thermal targeting by Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound to increase anti-HER2 CAR T cell delivery and potentiate therapy against breast cancer brain metastasis.

Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb joined the NSF as program director in its Division of Materials Research within the Directorate for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

Nico F. Declercq was promoted to professor.

Shaheen Dewji was selected to join the ICRP Task Group.

Brandon Dixon was named Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

Anna Erickson was promoted to professor. She received the Arthur Holly Compton Award in Education and the National Landis Young Member Engineering Award. She was named an ELATES Fellow.

Alper Erturk was named Ring Family Chair. He received the Woodruff School Culture Champion Award (Faculty).

Andrei G. Fedorov was named Regents’ Entrepreneur.

Andrés J. García received the Founders Award from the Society for Biomaterials. He co-founded a company called iTolerance that is developing immunomodulatory biomaterial technology, bringing it further into clinical trials, commercializing it, and ultimately making it available to patients.

Srinivas Garimella received the Sigma Xi Sustained Research Award. He was also named an ASHRAE Fellow.

Faculty Notes

Samuel Graham was named an AAAS Fellow.

Peter Griffiths joined as academic professional.

Marta Hatzell received the Institute’s Outstanding Achievement in Early Career Research Award.

Yuhang Hu received the SES Young Investigator Medal for 2023 and the Eshelby Mechanics Award for Young Faculty. She was named Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

Amit S. Jariwala received the CoE Outstanding Teacher Award (MidcareerSenior), the Woodruff School Mentor of the Year Award, and the Georgia Tech Student Government Association Advisor of the Year Award (for Invention Studio). He was awarded the Georgia Tech Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellowship in Fall 2022 and the Woodruff Academic Leadership Fellowship in 2023.

Yogendra Joshi joined DARPA as a program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office.

Surya Kalidindi was reappointed Regents’ Professor.

YongTae Kim was named Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

Dan Kotlyar was awarded a grant from Idaho National Laboratory to collaborate on implementing a computational transient system capability via INL’s MOOSE framework to analyze components of an NTP system including the reactor core during startups and shutdowns.

Shreyas Kousik joined as assistant professor.

Thomas Kurfess was elected President of ASME. He was appointed to the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Advisory Committee for Nuclear Security and appointed to the Department of the Navy Science and Technology Board.

Michael J. Leamy was appointed Interim Director of Graduate Student Services.

Seung Woo Lee was named Woodruff Faculty Fellow. He received the award for Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper.

Timothy C. Lieuwen was named Interim Chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

Peter Loutzenhiser was named an ASME Fellow and Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

David L. McDowell received the ICF Paul C. Paris Gold Medal and the ASME Worcester Reed Warner Medal for 2023.

Matthew McDowell won an ECS Battery Division Early Career Award.

Shreyes N. Melkote received the 2023 SME Gold Medal.

Akanksha Menon was recognized as a DARPA Riser. She was also selected as a Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Georgia Tech.

Roxanne Moore received the CoE Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research Award (Research Faculty).

G.P. “Bud” Peterson received the 2022 Max Jakob Memorial Award.

Raghuram V. Pucha was named the 2023 Zeigler Outstanding Educator.

Jerry Qi was named SES J.R. Rice Medalist. Devesh Ranjan was chosen as a Fellow for the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership program.

Gregory Sawicki received the 2023 ASB Founders’ Award.

Ankur Singh, in collaboration with Emory, received a $2.76 million, five-year R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the interactions between patientlevel factors, tumor genetics, and the tumor microenvironment as features that contribute to racial disparities in diagnosis, survival, and treatment.

Suresh K. Sitaraman received the Richard Chu Award and the Best Associate Editor award from the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology.

Vanessa Smet was selected as a Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow by the CTL at Georgia Tech.

Aaron Stebner received the Woodruff School Research Award.

Susan Napier Thomas was inducted into the 2023 Class of the AIMBE College of Fellows. She also received the Biomaterials Award for Young Investigator for 2022.

Mike Tinskey received a Ford Research Award to study ways to reduce severity of automotive collisions using both data analytics and energy absorbing devices.

Shannon Yee was named Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

W. Hong Yeo was awarded an IEN-EX Seed Grant. In collaboration with Emory, he received a $2.46 million grant to develop intelligent tools for assessing heat exposure effects.

Aaron Young received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. He was promoted to associate professor and named Woodruff Faculty Fellow.

Fan Zhang was named a CoE Cybersecurity Fellow.

Ye Zhao received an ONR YIP Award and the Woodruff School Research Award.

Ting Zhu received the 2023 ASME Centennial Mid-Career Award, the CoE Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research Award (Midcareer), and the Woodruff School Research Award.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Assistant Professor Shreyas Kousik

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

What brought you back to Georgia Tech?

As I worked through grad school, academia seemed a better fit for me than industry. When it came time to apply for faculty jobs, I was so excited to see that the Woodruff School had a job posting specifically looking for roboticists – coming back here was my top choice. I already knew how it felt to be an ME undergrad here, so I was excited to connect with the students. On top of that, Georgia Tech has an incredible robotics program that is growing quickly, so I was thrilled to add to the cutting-edge research at a place that was already home.

Why did you choose a career in academia?

After working in a wide variety of internships, I realized that I was more pulled towards the fundamental math of why robots work than creating products or services. Of course, it’s possible to do a lot of R&D work in industry (for which getting a Ph.D. is a prerequisite). But for me, doing research while also teaching students feels much more fun than working at a company. Besides research and teaching, I’m passionate about improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering. I think academia gives me the biggest lever to make an impact.

What classes will you teach?

First and foremost, ME 3017 System Dynamics. I took this class with Professor Ye-Hwa Chen in 2013, and it made me fall in love with system modeling and control. That one class is honestly why I still work in the field today. In the longer term, I hope to teach optimal control and a robot safety special topics class.

What is the focus of your research?

I work on robot safety. If we really want to put robots everywhere, working near and around people, I believe we must be able to justify exactly why and how they are safe. Often, we can write down safety in a somewhat straightforward way on the whiteboard, but it quickly becomes challenging to transfer that definition onto real robot hardware. So, I’m really interested in developing theories paired with numerical representations that let us make strong statements about real-world safety.

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

It is challenging to know what to prioritize. As a Ph.D. student or postdoc, you can do teaching, research, and service at the same time, but there’s usually an advisor as a fallback point of contact and support. As a new professor, you immediately have a million tiny problems to solve, but you’re also the fallback point. However, the mechanical engineering faculty and staff are doing a great job of setting me up with mentors and addressing my millions of questions.

The McDowell Lab at Georgia Tech is Shaping the Future of Battery Technology

Batteries. They come in numerous shapes, sizes, and lettered designations; they power everything from telecoms satellites to children’s toys; your TV remote goes through them too quickly and a dead one in your car will have you asking strangers for help.

Like so many items of convenience we only register the impact batteries have on our dayto-day life when they begin to falter. On most occasions these failures are at worst a nuisance, but as the number of hybrid and fully electric vehicles on the market grows, and as more economies aggressively pursue alternative fuel sources, the reliability and longevity of batteries will play a dominant role in how we create, store, and use energy.

Researching new materials for the next generation of high-capacity batteries is

Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and director of the McDowell Lab. By understanding how these different materials react to numerous charging cycles, his team hopes to help lead the charge toward longer-lasting batteries.

An Atlanta native, McDowell first took a serious interest in batteries as a graduate student at Stanford University.

“I figured that batteries would be a very important technology to enable widespread clean energy use and vehicle electrification,” McDowell says.

The complex materials used in batteries were another reason McDowell shifted his academic focus. Batteries have been constructed using a

range of elements and minerals, from copper, zinc, lead, and even sulfuric acid. Nickel and lithium are two elements currently in use in lithium-ion batteries. Because of their high energy densities, lithium-ion batteries make up the bulk of batteries in consumer electronics, including those used in electric vehicles.

Still, researchers like McDowell and his team are looking for ways to improve energy density and long-term durability while reducing charging times, which remain obstacles in the electric vehicle market.

“Lithium-ion batteries are great,” McDowell says. “However, for cars that drive further on a charge, and for next-gen applications such as hybrid-electric aircraft, we need batteries that can store more energy. My group is working

on new materials for batteries that can store more energy while being able to charge and discharge over many cycles.”

The group hard at work in the McDowell Lab consists of an affable team of 19 graduate students and post-doctorates.

Talia Thomas, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student from Fort Meade, Maryland, joined the McDowell Lab in 2022 and has enjoyed the chance to fuse green chemistry and sustainable practices into battery science. She praised the positive lab culture and mentorship she’s received from colleagues and peers.

“[Professor McDowell], the postdocs and fellow grad students are always excited to share their knowledge and help me grow as a scientist and researcher,” Thomas says. “I feel empowered and supported to do cool science that benefits humanity.”

The lab has made recent progress studying solid-state battery technologies, which have even more energy density than lithium-ion batteries. Packed with a highly conductive non-volatile medium, solid-state batteries are seen as a safer and more powerful energy storage alternative.

“We have recently discovered the mechanisms that limit the performance of high energy electrode materials in solid-state batteries,” McDowell says. “We have also developed new electrode materials which can charge and discharge very fast – in other words, you wouldn’t have to wait long at a charging station to recharge your car.”

The research into solid-state batteries has helped Lars Nelson, a Ph.D. student in the McDowell Lab studying materials science and engineering. The Charleston, South Carolina

native has been with the lab for two years and describes the work as “impactful” and of personal importance.

“Being in the lab has given me several awesome opportunities to lead and conduct research at multiple national lab facilities,” Nelson says. “That has resulted in some exciting data that will shape my Ph.D. going forward.”

Nelson plans on returning to the national lab setting to continue solid-state battery material research after completing his Ph.D. He’s also highly appreciative of the time and help he’s received in the lab, and says he’s become a much stronger researcher because of it.

A May report by the World Meteorological Organization indicated a 66% chance that global temperatures would increase beyond

the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set by the 195 national signatories of The Paris Agreement. As natural and manmade events drive climate imbalance, the potential impact of the research done by McDowell and his lab isn’t lost on anyone working there, including McDowell.

“I see batteries as a key part of enabling a clean energy future,” McDowell says. “Renewable energy, like solar and wind electricity, cannot be produced all the time, and cheap and efficient batteries are needed that can store renewable energy when it is produced so it can be used later. In addition, batteries enable the electrification of vehicles to avoid fossil fuel emissions. The next few years will see advances in batteries for all these applications, and I am particularly excited about new chemistries that are enabled by using solid-state battery technologies.”

Groundbreaking Lymphoma Tumor Model Paves Way for New Therapies

In recent years, innovative cancer drugs that target specific molecular drivers of the disease have been embraced as the treatment of choice for many types of cancer. But despite significant advances, there is still a lack of understanding about how the complex interactions between a tumor and its surrounding environment in the body affect cancer progression. This problem has become a well-known roadblock in making novel treatments effective for more people.

Ankur Singh, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, led an international team of researchers in the development of a promising breakthrough for targeted cancer therapies.

The team bioengineered a synthetic tumor model to understand and then demonstrate how the tumor microenvironment impacts the effectiveness of targeted therapies for a specific type of lymphoma called Activated B Cell-like Diffuse Large B cell lymphoma (ABCDLBCL). Their synthetic tumor model could change the game for designing and testing personalized cancer therapies. The research

paper, which features an interdisciplinary team from institutions across the U.S. and around the world, was published in the journal Nature Materials.

A Cutting-Edge Tumor Model

Recent treatments for ABC-DLBCL that target specific molecular signals of the disease are in clinical trials. But, while the treatments have shown to be effective in lab testing (in vitro environments) and in mice (in vivo), they have proven less effective in humans, with over 60% of patients not responding.

“We wanted to understand how specific changes that happen in the microenvironment empower the lymphoma tumors to not respond to these drugs when administered in patients,” Singh said. “The ultimate goal is to build a patient-derived tissue model that represents the tumor and can be grown outside of the body, in order to truly understand the factors and conditions that control tumor behavior.”

To accurately test new therapies, a model tumor microenvironment should closely mimic the nuanced interactions that happen in a live tumor. But to understand those conditions, which can vary wildly from case to case, the researchers needed real patient data.

The researchers examined more than 1,100 ABC-DLBCL lymphoma patient samples to understand the molecular profiles of their tumors. For each sample, they used RNA sequencing and imaging to identify the composition, stiffness, and mechanical properties of the tumor tissue, along with other factors that play a role in how tumors grow and respond to treatment.

Combining what they learned from the patient data, the researchers designed a synthetic hydrogel-based model of the lymphoma tumor microenvironment. They bioengineered the model to have the specific qualities and characteristics seen in the microenvironments of the samples. Specifically, by modifying the hydrogel with cell-binding adhesive peptides and presenting immunological signals, they were able to recreate the intricate biological, chemical, and physical characteristics that are present in a live tumor microenvironment, including protein signals, tumor stiffness, and more. The customizable hydrogel proved to be supportive of tumor samples obtained from patients, a phenomenon that has not been previously demonstrated for lymphomas.

Combining Therapeutics

The team illustrated the viability of their model by testing how the tumors responded to a new type of inhibitor drug known as mucosaassociated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1 inhibitors) currently in human trials.

The researchers observed that, when being treated by MALT1, several tumor microenvironment factors related to the tumor cells — including T cell signal CD40 Ligand, collagen-like extracellular matrix, and the level of tissue stiffness — all empowered the tumor, helping the cancer cells resist responding to the new inhibitors even at high doses.

The researchers then sought a way to overcome the dampened tumor response by combining therapeutics that simultaneously suppress multiple aberrant oncogenic pathways in the same tumor cell. They found that when they used MALT1 and another inhibitor to target multiple pathways at the same time, they were able to promote more tumor death in the cells.

One of the major challenges is that tumors can engage multiple pathways in the cells to keep fueling the survival of tumor cells. However, the combination treatment was so powerful that, even in the presence of tumor microenvironment factors that supported tumor survival, they could still be overcome by the combination of therapies.

To validate the results from synthetic tissues developed in lab, the researchers then implanted actual patient tumors in an immunocompromised mouse model to determine how the patient tumors responded to the new therapies.

“We live in a world where we can claim a lot based on in vitro treatments, but the obvious question is always what happens in vivo,” Singh said. “What’s amazing is that we predicted this exact result in our synthetic model.”

Moving Forward

The researchers’ work clarifies the complex relationship between malignant ABC-DLBCL tumors and their dynamic surrounding environment, while highlighting the crucial importance of considering the tumor microenvironment when creating treatments that combine therapeutics.

The team’s work will help clinicians prioritize clinical trials of certain therapies and enable scientists to create more rational therapy combinations that could improve patient response rates to treatment. This is especially relevant for the potential of personalized treatment for lymphoma, as two individuals with the same cancer may benefit from different combinations and dosages of therapeutics.

A large portion of the patient samples used in creating the tumor models were provided by Emory through a collaboration with oncologist Jean Koff, one of the authors of the study.

“From a clinician’s standpoint, this work is very exciting because it exemplifies how findings from large genomic datasets may be translated into development of therapeutic strategies in lymphoma,” Koff said. “Singh’s cutting-edge organoid technology allows us to explore how patient-specific changes in the tumor microenvironment impact response to therapeutic agents, thus helping to deliver on the promise of precision medicine.”

The project further initiated a new partnership between teams at Georgia Tech and Emory and strengthened existing collaborations with Cornell Medicine. The teams will continue to work together to investigate molecular pathways that may be targeted to improve treatment outcomes for lymphoma patients.

The research comes at an important time in the field of drug testing. The FDA has begun to encourage alternatives to animal testing for pharmaceuticals. Singh’s powerful synthetic model that faithfully mimics real tumor environments is likely to be an example for other cancer researchers to follow for in vitro drug testing.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Wellcome Leap HOPE program.

Building Georgia with AI and Manufacturing

Aaron Stebner outlined an aggressive plan for artificial intelligence and manufacturing when he applied for a faculty position in 2019. In his cover letter, he promised “to establish the Georgia Institute of Technology as a world leader in additive manufacturing of solid materials (ceramics & metals) R&D, especially in the fusion of data sciences and AI to create new, world-leading technologies.”

Stebner thought it would take 10-15 years of incremental steps and funding to achieve the goal. He was wrong.

Thanks to a new $65 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, announced by President Joe Biden, Stebner’s plan will begin to become a reality — and include the entire state of Georgia and all of its manufacturing sectors from agriculture to airplanes — two years after arriving on campus.

The largest of the nine projects within the larger Georgia AI Manufacturing (GA-AIM) technology corridor grant will allow Stebner and Georgia Tech to transform the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF) into the Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AI-MPF). The 24,000 square-foot facility on 14th Street will more than double in size after Georgia Tech and statewide GAAIM partners were selected as one of 21 Phase II awardees in the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBB) competition, part of the Investing in America’s Communities initiative under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The AMPF is a flagship component of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI). The facility is a testbed where basic research results are scaled up and translated into implementable technologies, coupled with education and workforce training. The

fields include additive/hybrid manufacturing, composites, digital manufacturing/Industry 4.0, and industrial robotics.

“AMPF has been a shell waiting for a vision like Build Back Better to fill it out,” said Stebner, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “Now we will transform the facility into one of the nation’s first manufacturing labs designed for autonomy with the goal of helping the state and the nation to be world AI manufacturing leaders.”

Stebner has experience with such a project, although at a smaller level. Before coming to Georgia Tech, he built an additive manufacturing technology center and a public-private innovation consortium at the Colorado School of Mines, working with Colorado companies to integrate machine learning to solve problems. He found that the bottleneck in using AI in additive

“Now we will transform the facility into one of the nation’s first manufacturing labs designed for autonomy with the goal of helping the state and the nation to be world AI manufacturing leaders.”

—Aaron Stebner

manufacturing wasn’t due to machine learning or AI technologies. Instead, the slowdowns were due to the manufacturing environment: acquiring and processing data when humans were in charge.

“People just aren’t consistent enough at repeating the same process the same way thousands of times. We get bored and feel the need to be creative,” Stebner said. “However, computers and machines excel — they don’t change the way they do something unless we program changes into them.”

He continued: “Our country is greatly underutilizing machine learning in manufacturing. It’s like we’re using the potential and power of a supercomputer to do calculations we could already do with handheld calculators. We need to change our processes for a new mindset — one that mimics supercomputers making calculations we can’t even fathom. A facility that can autonomously create and curate the data that AI needs is the way to make that leap in innovating manufacturing.”

Stebner said it’s too early and too high risk for the federal government to establish a national autonomous manufacturing lab. But, he said, Georgia and Georgia Tech are ideal for a first prototype with AI-MPF. Manufacturing is the state’s second-leading employer behind real estate. It’s also diverse, with defense, food, timber, and energy

manufacturing spread throughout the state. Plus, Georgia Tech produces about 4% of the nation’s mechanical engineers.

“The Woodruff School prides itself on being an inclusive, innovative, and thriving educational and research environment,” said Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair. “As a leader in AI and manufacturing research, this grant will enable our researchers to collaborate and create a better future for our community — locally, nationally, and globally.”

Leading a Coalition and Assisting the Entire State

The $65 million initiative is officially structured underneath the umbrella of the Georgia AI Manufacturing (GA-AIM) Technology Corridor. Coalition members include partners in education, business, government, and economic development. The College of Engineering’s Tom Kurfess will serve as GA-AIM’s regional economic competitiveness officer.

Kurfess is GTMI’s executive director. He recently returned to campus after working on leave as the chief manufacturing officer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) from 2019-2021, where he was responsible for strategic planning for ORNL in advanced manufacturing. Kurfess also

previously led the advanced manufacturing team at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for the Obama administration from 2012-2013.

“There’s so much industry growing in Atlanta and the southeast,” said Kurfess, HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control and professor in the Woodruff School. “Georgia Tech researchers are studying machines, robots, manufacturing plants, and the entire supply chain. GA-AIM will allow us to integrate it all together as it relates to technology, people, and privacy. The sum of the pieces will be greater than our individual components.”

GA-AIM is designed to revolutionize the state’s industrial economy by developing and deploying talent and innovation in AI for all manufacturing sectors. Transforming AMPF is just one piece. Also included is a series of programs in lockstep with Georgia Tech’s strategic focus area of expanding access and empowering people of all backgrounds and stages of life.

Women currently comprise just 18% of Georgia’s manufacturing workforce. Just 6% are Black. Over the next five years, GA-AIM plans to improve those numbers to 23% and 15%, respectively, with other initiatives in place to reskill Georgia workers among all demographics, especially within rural and distressed counties.

“We need to address one of the country’s greatest needs: creating a workforce with more capability, specifically related to technology and manufacturing,” Kurfess said. “Just as we teach our students a series

of skills that will allow them to be successful in future jobs in the decades to come, it’s Georgia Tech’s responsibility to upskill workers around the state who are in the middle of their careers and facing technology disrupters.”

Tim Brown is the managing director of Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute (SCL), an Interdisciplinary Research Center. As SCL leader, he’s tasked with developing executive education and youth- and minority-focused programs that help upskill workers around Georgia.

Brown is using GA-AIM to split the Peach State into four areas to capitalize on each region’s manufacturing strength and needs. Savannah’s focus is on shipping and distribution operations, along with reskilling veterans and military families from nearby bases. Albany is home of the Marine Corps Logistics Base. Priorities there will center on training military families and others in the community as a way to stimulate the economy.

Brown will focus on the flooring industry in Dalton and poultry-related industries and the expanding advanced manufacturing community in northeast Georgia’s Gainesville area.

Over the next five years, Brown and his team will hold virtual sessions and travel to each region to help companies and their employees test and try new processes and learn about emerging technologies.

“This is about creating change agents and giving middle managers exposure to technology so they can determine how to improve manufacturing and supply chain resilience, develop a business case for change, and sell executives on the need for technology-enabled investment,” said Brown, a senior research associate in the H. Milton School of Industrial Systems and Engineering. “Our role in the Build Back Better initiative is to look not only at manufacturing processes, but also at logistical flows and planning approaches to improve overall supply chain resilience.”

Brown will start with 25 students and four certificate courses per region, for a total of 100 people per year. He will also establish industry councils in each region to develop pilot projects for state manufacturers.

A second outreach initiative, led by Woodruff School senior research engineer Roxanne Moore, will focus on inventiveness and entrepreneurship in K-12 schools and expand partnerships with technical colleges and minority-serving institutions. The project will teach up to 1,000 students and

100 teachers from underserved areas, with a focus on rural communities via existing programs at Georgia Tech, other nonprofits, the Technical College System of Georgia, the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission, local manufacturers, and K-12 school leaders.

For instance, Georgia Tech’s K-12 InVenture Prize education program and competition will expand its offerings through partnerships with the Institute’s GoSTEM program to better serve Latino populations. GA-AIM also will support an existing high school entrepreneurship program in Fitzgerald and work with Albany State University to host teacher workshops, support local schools, and host regional competitions with a focus on inventiveness and the entrepreneurial mindset.

“We need to illustrate the powerful relationships between innovation, entrepreneurship, and manufacturing so that students can see how ideas come to life and how they can improve their communities,” said Moore, who also works in Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC). “It is my hope that these regional ecosystems become a role model for how educational institutions can support each

other in expanding access to high-quality STEM experiences for diverse students who typically are not empowered to create their futures.”

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Another Tech Square?

The $65 million grant comes 21 years after the groundbreaking of Tech Square. Prior to Georgia Tech purchasing the three acres across the Downtown Connector, Tech Square was largely undeveloped and removed from campus. It has since grown to 13 acres and is home to the highest density of startups, corporate innovators, and research centers in the Southeast. “Across the bridge” no longer seems like a different section of Atlanta.

Kurfess sees many similarities with AMPF, which is located off 14th Street and Hemphill Avenue. It’s about a mile north of campus. However, it’s already surrounded by local businesses, student housing, and accessible via Georgia Tech’s Stinger bus system.

“Tech Square pushed the boundaries of Georgia Tech,” Kurfess said. “This is kind of the same — we’re on the fringes. I think in five or 10 years down the road, AMPF will be the same kind of juggernaut as Tech Square, making a difference in society. People will look back at this moment and think ‘That was a crazy time at Georgia Tech.’”

And, just as Tech Square expanded the boundaries of campus, GA-AIM has the capability of expanding Georgia Tech’s impact on the state.

“In addition to being a major research institute, Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering are focused on workforce development,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College and Southern Company Chair. “Sometimes that takes a backseat to research. With GA-AIM, Georgia Tech now has the funding to tie workforce development with AI research — and create a new generation of engineers and technicians — to help all of Georgia.”

Stebner agreed, as he sees GA-AIM as a way to solve some of the issues around the state when it comes to AI manufacturing and the workforce. For instance, rural companies tell him it often takes years to fill machine vision jobs. The company doesn’t know how to train workers in their local community and people from Atlanta don’t want to leave the city.

“The state needs people in rural areas, and rural communities need them,” Stebner said. “We are going to create programs that train the trainer where they live. And on campus,

with our focus on creating an autonomycapable facility at AI-MPF, GA-AIM gives Georgia Tech a national and world-leading resource to create breakthroughs in how AI is used and how it advances manufacturing over the course of the next several decades, if not longer.”

College of Engineering GA-AIM Team:

Faisal Alamgir (MSE), Tim Brown (ISyE), Tequila Harris (ME), Surya Kalidindi (ME), Joshua Kacher (MSE), Tom Kurfess (ME), Kim Kurtis (CEE), Matthew McDowell (ME), Benoit Montreuil (ISyE), Cary Ogletree (ME), Chris Saldana (ME), Emily Sanders (ME), Steven Sheffield (ME), Ryan Sherman (CEE), Lauren Stewart (CEE), Manos Tentzeris (ECE), Chelsea White (ISyE), Saman Zonouz (ECE), and Chuck Zhang (ISyE)

Georgia Tech’s $26 Million Partnership with National Science Foundation to Transform Fertilizer Production

Thanks to efforts to combat climate change, many have heard the catchphrase “closing the carbon loop” — a global effort to convert carbon dioxide into something useful to mitigate the damaging effects of pollution on the planet. Another environmental challenge relates not to carbon dioxide but nitrogen. Now, an ambitious plan to close the nitrogen loop is underway, and with it comes the potential to revolutionize agriculture in the U.S. and around the world.

The Georgia Institute of Technology will be part of CASFER, an NSF Engineering Research Center (NSF-ERC), with four other universities. Supported by an initial grant of $26 million from NSF, CASFER seeks to transform the U.S. from nitrogen cycle pollution to a nitrogen circular economy by developing new technologies and programs for capturing, recycling, and producing decarbonized nitrogen-based fertilizers (NBFs). Georgia Tech is joined by Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Case Western Reserve University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Texas Tech University, which will lead the effort and serve as CASFER’s headquarters.

Nitrogen is used in many commercial applications, but one of the most significant uses is in NBFs for growing food. NBFs are put out into fields, but most do not get used — 80% are washed away and wasted, ending up as pollutants in the watershed. With

support from NSF, this team of universities will attempt to recover and reuse nitrogen compounds, the principal element in fertilizers.

“By taking pollutants out of the water and converting them for use, we are taking a negative and making a positive out of it,” said Paul Kohl, Regents’ Professor and Thomas L. Gossage Chair in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) and co-lead of the CASFER effort at Georgia Tech, along with Marta Hatzell, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “This process will both decrease pollution and lower the cost of farming.”

CASFER has three areas of focus it will pursue to achieve its goal. The first involves measuring and analyzing data to identify new opportunities and locations for collecting wasted fertilizer and determining how exactly the fertilizer affects individual environments.

The second area — Kohl and Hatzell’s focus — is the actual collection and separation of nitrogen compounds from the three types of environments where they usually show up: produce farms, livestock farms, and wastewater treatment plants. They will develop specialized separation methods to pull nitrogen pollutants out of the various environments, creating new types of polymer membranes that work to separate and

concentrate the compounds into solutions that can be converted for future use. The work will start in the laboratories at Georgia Tech, but later the team will build test beds — portable laboratories the size of small trailers — to test their separation methods on-site.

“All our separations technologies will be modular, electrified, and largely decarbonized,” said Hatzell. “Our overall goal is to design processes that synthesize new or recover used fertilizers from waste at the same or lower price than traditional chemical manufacturing processes.”

The third area is reconverting the concentrated solutions into usable fertilizer. Humans have been making fertilizer the same way for more than 100 years, using an expensive chemical process that requires natural gas — a resource in short supply. CASFER researchers will develop the conversion methods to create new fertilizers and strategies for dispensing it back into fields for growing crops.

Georgia Tech researchers involved in the grant include Kohl (Co-Thrust Leader), Andrew Medford, and Joseph Scott from ChBE; Peter Hesketh (Co-Thrust Leader) and Hatzell (Thrust Leader/Co-PI) from the Woodruff School; Mary-Lynn Realff from the School of Materials Science and Engineering; Lizanne DeStefano (EWD Lead) from CEISMC; and Jie Xu and Milad Navaei from the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Akanksha Menon Awarded NSF CAREER Award for Sustainable Energy Research

Akanksha Menon, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET).

Menon’s NSF CAREER project, “Nonequilibrium effects in thermochemical energy storage: linking microstructure to thermal transport,” aims to bridge our understanding of structure-property relationships in thermochemical materials across different lengths and timescales.

Currently, thermal loads (e.g., space conditioning and hot water) account for 50% of the energy consumption in buildings. To match energy demand with supply especially from renewables, a thermal battery can be used that stores and releases energy as heat. Among the different storage materials, thermochemical salt hydrates are promising as they have a higher energy density compared to phase change or sensible storage materials. However, these salt hydrates experience mechanical stress and hygrothermal instabilities that reduce their energy density as the thermal battery is cycled (charge-discharge).

Menon aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of the key factors governing thermochemical phase transitions and their impact on coupled heat-and-mass transport, which will eventually enable the development of reversible thermal batteries with longterm stability to decarbonize buildings. Her research will be complemented by two education and outreach efforts.

Georgia Tech Researchers Awarded $1M for Nuclear Energy Project

Shaheen Dewji (lead PI) and Fan Zhang (co-PI), assistant professors of nuclear and radiological engineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, have been awarded $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a nuclear energy research project through the Nuclear Engineering University Program (NEUP). NEUP seeks to maintain U.S. leadership in nuclear research nationwide by providing top science and engineering faculty and their students with opportunities to develop innovative technologies and solutions for civil nuclear capabilities.

Their project, “Risk-Informed Consequence-Driven Hybrid CyberPhysical Protection System Security Optimization for Advanced Reactor Sites,” aims to develop an expanded methodology for designing a novel risk-informed cybersecurityintegrated physical protection system (PPS) framework for advanced reactor (AR) concepts that serve to reduce the operational costs for the life of a reactor against that of a traditional light water reactor PPS design, promoting efforts to credit safety features of advanced reactors through proposed amendments to current security regulations while integrating health and economic consequence analyses.

“This project is critical in integrating approaches traditionally treated disparately to create a comprehensive risk-informed approach to advanced reactor licensing,” said Dewji. “These risk-

informed approaches come full circle through integrating physical security, cybersecurity, and reactor accident analysis in informing dose-based consequence-driven analysis as another metric of risk for licensing advanced reactor concepts.”

The researchers plan to enhance MELCOR’s reactor accident progression analysis capabilities by combining it with HAZCADS cybersecurity framework. This will improve its capabilities in modeling risk-informed fault-tree analysis and system theoretic process analysis perturbations to source terms. Additionally, they will use doseinformed consequence assessment to generate source terms by expanding the capabilities of MACCS. This involves the generation of new dose coefficients for radionuclides specific to AR concepts and using Lagrangian modeling to improve atmospheric transport and near-field resolution for siting boundaries.

“The outcomes of this project could lead to the development of a new approach to streamline meeting regulatory requirements for ARs that are more risk-informed in an end-toend. This could also ultimately make ARs more safe, secure and affordable, which could significantly impact the global energy landscape,” Dewji said.

In addition to Dewji and Zhang, the research team includes Professor and Department Head Karen Vierow Kirkland from Texas A&M University, as well as Chris Faucett, John Fulton, and Michael Rowland from Sandia National Laboratories.

Enhancing Design Engineering Education Through Peer Mentorship

Researchers in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering are exploring the impact of peer mentorship within the classroom.

Director of Design & Innovation Amit Jariwala and Principal Lecturer Raghuram Pucha began implementing a mentorship model outlined in their latest work-inprogress paper, Peer Mentorship Model to Enhance Design Engineering Education, which examines the effects of student/ student mentorship.

Previous literature indicates mentorship in the form of undergraduates teaching other undergraduates is one of the most effective methods for achieving both cognitive and attitudinal goals of undergraduate education.

This paper presents the “design,

implementation, and impact of a simultaneous curricular intervention in freshman and senior capstone design courses in an undergraduate mechanical engineering program,” as described by Jariwala.

Jariwala and Pucha began developing their study last year when they were independently looking at ways to enrich classes ME1670 – Intro to Engineering Graphics and Design and ME4182 –Capstone Design. ME1670 is an introduction to engineering graphics and visualization. ME4182 is a senior design course where students work in groups to solve design challenges originating from industry sponsors, students, or faculty.

“I was also looking for a way to better

prepare students entering the senior level Capstone Design course, so it made sense to find a way to connect a lower-level class with the senior class,” said Jariwala. These courses provided an ideal situation to pair students in a mentoring scenario to benefit both class levels.

The two primary objectives of this intervention were to enhance understanding of the design process, emphasizing the importance of end-users and stakeholders, and to create an opportunity for students to be rewarded for learning and teaching their peers.

When developing the intervention, the student perspective was important. Jariwala and Pucha partnered with former students who had completed both courses, as well as teaching assistants Shivani Kundalia and Terrence Pleasant, to design an interaction process between the two courses that would allow students to leverage their class time to interact with the other students.

Senior mechanical engineering student Mesum Zaidi participated in the mentorship program this year and enjoyed the opportunity to give guidance to new students. Zaidi pointed out that the process of explaining his senior project to a freshman who is still learning and developing their technical skills is excellent practice for making the key engineering details approachable for someone not in the engineering field.

“I believe a program like this would be highly beneficial to both underclassmen and Capstone students by allowing for perspectives to be shared between two groups that otherwise would have little reason to interact with one another, making for quite a unique experience,” said Zaidi.

“I found the peer mentoring to be an interesting and engaging way to learn,” said first-year mechanical engineering student Jonathon Barrington. “Our interactions with our peer review group were insightful, and on numerous occasions, they helped us to redesign aspects.”

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Barrington also expressed how he felt the peer mentoring experience heightened his interest in design and manufacturing and has already helped spark excitement for his senior Capstone Design project.

Jariwala and Pucha were invited to present their findings at the 2023 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition. The initial findings of the pilot semester were presented, however detailed results are still being compiled to be presented at a later stage. Initial findings have served to highlight those areas where further assistance and logistical considerations are needed to make widespread peer mentoring available and effective.

The study also provides a foundation for long-term longitudinal research to further understand the impact of peer mentorship and socio-technical projects from freshman to senior years.

When asked about the long-term implications of this proposed mentorship model, Jariwala explained the overarching goal is to provide first-year students with a sense of excitement for what their future curriculum has to offer and to allow senior students the opportunity to gain and refine their leadership skills and abilities while reinforcing fundamental engineering principles.

Jariwala and Pucha also worked with Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor, to ensure the study aligned with Tech’s DEI goals to “create equitable and inclusive learning and research environments through inclusive teaching and mentoring practices,” and to foster a culture of Inclusive Excellence among our students by building a sense of community within the Woodruff School.

Research Team Awarded $7.5M to Design

Materials Inspired by Deep Sea Fish

A research team from Georgia Tech has been awarded $7.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for a research project titled, Bio-Inspired Material Architectures for Deep Sea (BIMADS), as part of the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. MURI seeks to fund research teams with creative and diverse solutions to complex problems and is a major part of the DoD’s research portfolio.

Alper Erturk (Lead PI), Carl Ring Family Chair and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Yuhang Hu, associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will explore the fundamental science behind the biological characteristics that allow deep sea fish to adapt and survive in high pressure ocean environments. They will then translate those findings to engineer bioinspired materials needed to realize the Navy’s advanced capabilities in deep sea environments.

“In the deep ocean, marine organisms have evolved to thrive in high pressure environments, and adapt to pressure changes while remaining functional,” Erturk said. “Our goal for this project is to discover, test, and translate biological mechanisms into synthetic materials and structures that can dynamically adapt to high pressures in the ocean.”

Specifically, the researchers will test and explore the origins of the biological mechanisms (both molecular and macroscopic) that underlie the ability for deep sea snailfish to adapt to high pressures, pressure changes, and pressure differentials across material interfaces. Using findings from the biological studies, the researchers will design synthetic materials and structures that will then be evaluated in high pressure chambers.

“Knowledge gained from these studies will provide insight toward the design of structures spanning from atmospheric dive suits to robotic fish for the deep ocean,” Hu said.

BIMADS brings together experts in marine biology, bioengineering, biomimetic materials, chemistry, mechanochemistry and multiphysics chemomechanical modeling, hydrogel synthesis, biohybrid material fabrication, and the design, mechanics, and dynamics of architected structures. In addition to Erturk and Hu, the team also includes Anna Balazs and Lance Davidson from the University of Pittsburgh, John Costello from Providence College, Shashank Priya from the University of Minnesota, and Andrew Sarles from the University of Tennessee.

Georgia Tech Chosen as Partner Institution for World-Leading Climate Center

Georgia Tech will be a key partner for the New York Climate Exchange (The Exchange), a first-of-its-kind international center for developing and deploying dynamic solutions to the global climate crisis. In addition to convening the world’s leaders and climate experts, The Exchange will address the social and practical challenges created by climate change — including commercially viable research and ideas that lead to immediate action on local and global levels.

“Today’s climate issues are urgent, and environmental justice and ecological sustainability necessitate action from leaders across the world,” said Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech. “As a core partner of The Exchange, Georgia Tech will provide research expertise in the areas of energy, urban planning, biological ecosystems, public policy, and more, and we look forward to playing an instrumental role in bringing its mission to fruition.”

Georgia Tech researchers are studying glacial melt, coral growth, sea level rise, and other climate concerns in the state of Georgia and around the world and will share their data and research results with partners at The Exchange. Likewise, research at The Exchange will be applicable for towns and cities across Georgia, allowing state leaders to take advantage of economic opportunities that arise when climate change is addressed head on.

In addition to contributing critical research across the many areas of climate change, Georgia Tech leads major initiatives that are focused on solving the crises laid out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Generation 2 Reinvented Toilet (G2RT) — a solution to the world’s water and sanitation problem — is led by Shannon Yee, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of

Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. This cost-effective, globally scalable reinvented toilet with built-in human waste treatment will ensure that drinking water stays clean and will improve public health around the world.

“We are looking forward to contributing and demonstrating some of the engineering sustainability solutions that have been developed at Georgia Tech with New York City and the world,” said Yee. “Many of the technical and economic solutions that serve the state of Georgia, the coastal city of Savannah, and the urban center of Atlanta can also serve the urban harbor of New York City. Similarly, the innovations and economic opportunities that address climate change can be shared with and benefit Georgia. This collaboration embodies the concept of an exchange where we share with one another.”

As The Exchange’s anchor institution, Stony Brook University will build and operate the center which will be located on Governors Island in New York City. The center is slated to open in 2028.

“It is becoming clear year after year in New York, and around the world, that the impacts of climate change are real and are here,” said Kevin Reed, associate dean for Research and associate professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook. “By partnering with communities, industries, governments, and universities, The Exchange will help to accelerate the implementation of urban solutions to these climate impacts through an interactive research ecosystem where community engagement is paramount. As a climate scientist, I recognize that New Yorkers need solutions to the climate crisis now, and The Exchange will help to make that a reality.”

Ye Zhao Wins NSF CAREER Award

Ye Zhao, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Laboratory for Intelligent Decision and Autonomous Robots (LIDAR), and member of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, has been granted an NSF CAREER Award for “Interactive Decisionmaking and Resilient Planning for Safe Legged Locomotion and Navigation.”

Zhao and his team will use the funding to develop a novel task and motion planning framework for bipedal robotic locomotion interacting with complex environments.

Zhao’s goal is to achieve safe and autonomous robot locomotion that will move legged robotic systems from the confines of research labs into real-world application domains such as disaster relief, first responder assistance, surveillance for civil and mechanical infrastructures, and use in agricultural environments.

Zhao and his team aim to apply full-bodydynamics-aware trajectory optimization techniques with symbolic planning and policy learning, formal task specification design, robust decision-making, and add real-time locomotion failure recovery capability via behavior trees to address unexpected environment interventions. By using these complementary methods, Zhao hopes to resolve computational hurdles that have hindered the use of symbolic planning and decisionmaking methodologies on human-robot interaction problems. Additionally, Zhao and the LIDAR team will place an emphasis on experimental evaluations to enable transformative new legged navigation functionalities in real-world scenarios and pave the road for future studies of heterogeneous robot teaming in challenging environments.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Early Alzheimer’s Research Team Awarded $3.8M NIH Grant for Precision Robotics

By 2050, more than 150 million people are projected to be living with dementia. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, makes up roughly 70% of all cases. Alzheimer’s causes progressive neurodegeneration – a hallmark of the disease which is thought to initiate and track cognitive decline in those suffering with it. But while increasingly accurate biochemical markers are helping diagnose Alzheimer’s disease earlier, treatments to stall the disease in its early stages remain elusive.

In support of early-stage Alzheimer’s research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $3.8M grant to an interdisciplinary research team from Georgia Tech and Emory University. Led by Craig Forest, professor of bioengineering in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, and Matt Rowan, assistant professor of cell biology at the Emory University School of Medicine, the team will undertake a multiyear project to develop new precision robotics and use them to uncover the emergence of cellular and circuit dysfunction during the progression of Alzheimer’s. The team’s work could lead to novel molecular and cellular therapies that halt the disease.

“We will robotically search across the brain, with unprecedented throughput, for the earliest electrical signals of the disease in order to understand how Alzheimer’s starts,” Forest said.

Recent research into early-stage Alzheimer’s indicates that changes start to happen in the brain even before classic biochemical markers begin to accumulate. The first changes seem to be circuit dysfunction due to altered circuit activity, but the cellular players in this process are unclear. Parvalbumin-expressing (PV)

interneurons are special types of inhibitory neurons in the brain which seem especially prone to changes in their activity in models of early Alzheimer’s. According to the researchers’ hypothesis, PV interneurons may contribute to early brain dysfunction and future neurodegeneration.

“While several investigations have looked at changes in neuronal activity in Alzheimer’s models, our approach represents the first to systematically evaluate the physiology of different neuron types, including PV interneurons, across several disease stages and different brain areas that are highly vulnerable in early Alzheimer’s,” Rowan said.

The team will study whether PV interneurons develop dysfunction in vulnerable regions of the brain during early Alzheimer’s before progressing to other brain regions. To test their hypothesis, they will use PatcherBot, an automated robotic platform that can produce electrophysiological recordings of thousands of individual neurons in the brain. By augmenting PatcherBot’s machine vision capability using florescence imaging, the researchers will be able to use the technology to specifically trace PV interneurons.

Postdoctoral fellow Viktor Olah and graduate students Mercedes Gonzalez and Annie Goettemoeller developed and perfected the biological, mechanical, and computational tools necessary for the team to hit the ground running, Forest said. Findings from the research project could yield wide-ranging advances, from significant progress in electrophysiology methods to biological implications related to the potential for understanding progressive dysfunction in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

A New Framework for Measuring Stability During Walking

Falls are a serious public health issue, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths annually and racking up billions of dollars in healthcare costs. While there has been extensive research into the biomechanics of falls, most current approaches study how the legs, joints, and muscles act separately to respond, rather than as a system. The ability to measure how these different levels relate to each other could paint a much clearer picture of why someone falls and precisely how their body compensates. Until recently, however, an integrated measuring approach has been elusive.

In published research, Pawel Golyski and his Ph.D. advisor Gregory Sawicki, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biological sciences at Georgia Tech, investigate whether mechanical energy can be used as a “common currency” to measure how humans use lower limbs to stabilize during walking. Their research, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, lays the groundwork for using mechanical energetics to understand the roles of joints and muscles during unsteady locomotion. The paper also contributed to Golyski’s selection as this 2022 recipient of the American Society of Biomechanics’ (ASB) Pre-Doctoral Achievement Award — a prestigious honor that considers a candidate’s entire portfolio of publications.

Golyski, a graduating member of Sawicki’s Physiology of Wearable Robotics (PoWeR) Lab, previously worked as a research scientist with individuals with lower-limb amputation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. For his graduate work at Georgia Tech, his aim was to develop an understanding of how devices and the human body work together, specifically at the intersection of three elements: muscle mechanics, wearable exoskeletons, and stability during walking.

Each of the three elements relates to the others. Exoskeletons affect a person’s stability while also affecting how their muscles work, and vice versa. But to examine how muscles both interact with exoskeletons and affect stability makes for an interesting challenge, Golyski says. Because, while one can observe how muscle dynamics change

with the use of an exoskeleton, how those changes relate to stability is not understood. To understand how all three pillars work together to help humans compensate during a fall, Golyski and Sawicki needed to come up with a new framework to measure stability.

Energy Accountants

The researchers knew that for a person walking at a steady speed on level ground, the net mechanical energy of the person and each leg over one stride — from the heel strike of one leg to the next heel strike of that same leg — is zero. They also knew that energy needed to be equal to mechanical energy at all levels of description of the leg, specifically the joints and muscles.

“The idea is that if we can relate stability to a demand in energy, then we can become accountants, and track how the energy — our currency — changes at the level of the person, muscle, and exoskeleton,” Golyski said. “That provides a really powerful framework to relate all three of those areas.”

Golyski and Sawicki designed an experiment with a person walking on a treadmill. Using a split-belt treadmill, they applied short, quick disturbances, known as perturbations, in the form of increases in belt speed to one leg during walking. The purpose was to inject or extract energy during a stride, so that they could then measure how the person’s leg and joint energies change.

For the experiment they used Georgia Tech’s CAREN (Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment) — an integrated system used to study stability during movement. It features cameras mounted above a treadmill to track a person’s movement using motion capture markers attached to the person. Using an algorithm designed by Golyski, Sawicki, PoWeR lab Ph.D. student Jennifer Leestma, and a high school mentee, Esmeralda Vazquez, the CAREN can execute perturbations based on a person’s movements — enabling the researchers to initiate perturbations at specific times in the gait cycle. By combining the force of the treadmill with the positional

data collected by the CAREN, Golyski and Sawicki can calculate the changes in energy in a person’s individual joints. Their new framework could assist in determining which part of a person’s body manages responses to destabilizing energy, pointing to specific muscles or joints to target with rehabilitation therapy. It could also open doors to advanced exoskeletons and prostheses that target specific joints to

restore stabilizing responses in individuals with impaired balance.

“The body of research that Pawel completed during his doctoral studies is nothing short of impressive. He broke new ground by developing new experimental techniques and a new hip exoskeleton assistive device, making first-of-a-kind muscle imaging measurements, and ultimately answering the question of how

exoskeletons modify joint and muscle dynamics to influence human walking stability,” Sawicki said. “I was thrilled that Pawel’s outstanding contributions as a scientist-engineer were recognized by ASB, and I’m even more thrilled that he will return to Walter Reed — his dream job — to apply his new skillset to help people get from here to there.”

Cyber Manufacturing Research Team Awarded $3M NSF Grant

Shreyes N. Melkote, who holds the Morris M. Bryan, Jr. Professorship in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded a $3 million Future Manufacturing Research Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Melkote, who is also the Associate Director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and Executive Director of the Novelis Innovation Hub, will act as principal investigator alongside four other researchers, including Woodruff School Professor Emeritus David Rosen, and will explore a data-driven approach to cyber manufacturing. The grant will also support Melkote’s efforts to work with academic and industry partners to develop educational tools to train a future manufacturing workforce from diverse backgrounds.

Cyber manufacturing looks to leverage recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud technology and the expanding reach of the Internet-of-Things to reduce the cost and time of producing discrete parts. Presently, the manufacturing process is compartmentalized, with design, fabrication, and distribution heavily reliant on direct communication between the parties, and often involves multiple iterations of a design before the customer’s needs are met.

In a future cyber manufacturing ecosystem, the process is digitally unified across the supply chain and potential issues in fabrication can be flagged automatically and early in the design process, minimizing the need for multiple prototypes. The final design can then swiftly be routed to those best equipped to produce the product based on the specifications.

This vision of a fully automated, interconnected process has long been sought after and is considered the ‘holy grail’ of discrete parts manufacturing.

“It’s an old problem,” Melkote said. “But we have new ways of potentially trying to solve it, and we have a critical mass of people and resources to help solve, or at least make a significant dent, in solving the problem.”

A crucial step in solving the problem requires digitizing and automating the complex series of decisions that begin when a new design for a product is completed. What are the manufacturing

processes (and machines) required to produce the design? What processes create the most durable build, or the most cost-efficient? Can the design be altered for manufacturability without compromising functionality and quality?

For mass-produced discrete products or parts built to universal standards, these are questions to which suitable answers have been found through trial-and-error, but bespoke or new designs often require specialized knowledge about manufacturing processes and their capabilities. A company or individual will use their current level of understanding to discern how to move forward with a brand-new design.

“Fundamentally they are harnessing the knowledge derived from data they have tucked away somewhere and then using that to actually take a shot at figuring out how to make it,” Melkote explained. “But it would be great if they had all of these capabilities in an automated way. This grant is focused on how you generate the complex knowledge that individuals have acquired through experience.”

Melkote’s interdisciplinary approach will use generative machine learning and other artificial intelligence techniques to help automate this complex decision-making process. If a computer can infer the capabilities and limitations of an industrial manufacturing process and associated machines, then it should be able to make intelligent deductions about the entire manufacturing process, at least in theory. Extracting the data necessary to make this happen requires new methods that Melkote and his co-investigators will research.

“If I can teach a computer to be able to learn these things, the more data from successfully produced parts I can provide it, then its learning will improve and its ability to get close to telling me what all the types of things I can produce using a given process on a given machine will improve.”

The models and algorithms that would run this process could then be embedded in an automated cyber manufacturing service, which can analyze an uploaded design and provide a customer with instant feedback regarding recommended modifications, and projected costs, or even generate instructions and send them to the right machine. The work could see sweeping changes made to several manufacturing industries and democratize the way products are designed and made.

Georgia Tech Researchers Develop Wireless Monitoring Patch System to Detect Sleep Apnea at Home

Georgia Tech researchers have created a wearable device to accurately measure obstructive sleep apnea — when the body repeatedly stops and restarts breathing for a period — as well as the quality of sleep people get when they are at rest.

Under conventional methods, people who are suspected of having some sleep issue or disorder must go to a medical facility, where they are monitored overnight and tethered to a series of wired probes that record brain, eye, and muscle activity.

The wearable sleep monitor patch developed by a team of researchers and clinicians, led by W. Hong Yeo, an associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, is made of silicone and fits over the forehead, with a second, smaller silicone attachment that molds to the chin.

“A lot of people have this disorder, but they don’t know it because it’s very hard to diagnose right now,” Yeo said. “Current smartphone

apps don’t capture the specific data doctors and clinicians study to determine if a patient has apnea, rendering them useless.”

Conventional existing sleep testing is occurring in sleep labs because of device limitations. This at-home wearable device could be the alternative to the more expensive medical procedures at sleep labs.

Yeo and his team, which included researchers from across Georgia Tech, Emory University School of Medicine, the University of Texas at Austin, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, the Korea Institute of Materials Science, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, reported their findings in Science Advances.

Rising Prevalence

While there are two additional types of sleep apnea — central and complex — obstructive sleep apnea is the most common, Yeo said, explaining that in addition to snoring and arrested breathing episodes, it’s generally characterized by waking up suddenly, gasping for air or choking, and high blood pressure.

Lack of quality sleep can exacerbate other health issues in people with existing illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes, Yeo said. But even those who don’t have other health ailments can have serious complications from sleep apnea because the longer it goes undetected and untreated, the more it will affect their hearts and brains over time.

Seeing the toll sleep apnea was taking on the U.S. population, Yeo set out to apply his wearable device research to the industry with a wireless sleep monitoring patch system.

The patches — which have an accuracy rate of 88.5% for sleep apnea detection — have the thickness of an adhesive bandage. Three embedded electronic sensors send signals wirelessly via Bluetooth to record brain, eye, and muscle activity. That data is relayed to an app on a smart device such as a phone or tablet for further study and

Underlying health issues are partly behind the increase, he said, but key drivers are the types of food and portion sizes of the modern American diet as well as stress.

There’s also an economic toll on the country. Poor sleep cost the U.S. economy $411 billion in lost productivity in 2015. That figure is projected to exceed $467 billion by 2030.

Predicting Sleep Apnea

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, the technology behind the wearable device records the data to give a sleep score that determines if the patient has sleep apnea or if they are getting enough quality sleep.

In the study, when measured against a controlled group of eight sleep apnea patients whose issues were detected under conventional testing means, Yeo’s wireless patch detected sleep apnea with an accuracy rate of 88.5%. For comparison, an existing headband device on the market had an accuracy rate of about 71% and cannot measure muscle activities.

What’s more, the technology Yeo and his team developed, and the machine learning

Solving a Problem

The wireless patch solves a multipronged challenge to conventional testing methodology by addressing current patient issues with comfort, time, access, and cost.

The current process — called a PSG or polysomnography test — proves uncomfortable for some patients. That’s because they must sleep in a fixed position for fear of detaching any one of the 15 wired probes from their skin. Having any of those sensors detach from their bodies risks not capturing enough data for proper assessments.

It’s also time consuming because the patient must go to a sleep center and spend the night being monitored by medical personnel. There can also be a lag to even get tested. Patients who don’t have severe symptoms or other high-risk, underlying factors such as heart disease or hypertension, often must wait after getting a referral from a doctor to be slotted for a bed at a sleep center, pending availability. Finally, the current detection method is costly to patients and insurance systems, tallying roughly $8,000 per person, per night.

“So that testing barrier is really high for regular people unless you are already sick, then they will screen you to avoid any severe conditions,” Yeo said. “But for people who don’t show symptoms, you won’t know whether you have the sleep disorder until it gets severe. We want to stop sleep apnea before it starts.”

“A lot of people have this

“In the U.S., more than 18 million people have this type of sleep apnea. That’s basically one out of every 15 Americans, and those numbers are increasing over time.”

—W. Hong Yeo

Researchers 3D Print First High-Performance Nanostructured Alloy That’s Both Ultrastrong and Ductile

A team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts Amherst has 3D printed a dualphase, nanostructured high-entropy alloy that exceeds the strength and ductility of other state-ofthe-art additively manufactured materials, which could lead to higher-performance components for applications in aerospace, medicine, energy and transportation. The research, led by Ting Zhu, professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, and Wen Chen, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UMass, was published in the journal Nature

Over the past 15 years, high entropy alloys (HEAs) have become increasingly popular as a new paradigm in materials science. Comprised of five or more elements in near-equal proportions, they offer the ability to create a near-infinite number of unique combinations for alloy design. Traditional alloys, such as brass, carbon steel, stainless steel and bronze, contain a primary element combined with one or more trace elements.

Additive manufacturing, also called 3D printing, has recently emerged as a powerful approach of material development. The laserbased 3D printing can produce large temperature gradients and high cooling rates that are not readily accessible by conventional routes. However, “the potential of harnessing the combined benefits of additive manufacturing and HEAs for achieving novel properties remains largely unexplored,” says Zhu.

Chen and his team in the Multiscale Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory combined an HEA with a state-of-the-art 3D printing technique called laser powder bed fusion to develop new materials with unprecedented properties. Because the process causes materials to melt and solidify very rapidly as compared to traditional metallurgy, “you get a very different microstructure that is far-from-equilibrium” on the components created, Chen says. This microstructure looks like a net and is made of alternating layers known as face-centered cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC) nanolamellar structures embedded in microscale eutectic colonies with random orientations. The hierarchical nanostructured HEA enables co-operative deformation of the two phases.

Zhu’s group at Georgia Tech led the computational modeling for the research. He developed dual-phase crystal plasticity computational models to understand the mechanistic roles played by both the FCC and BCC nanolamellae and how they work together to give the material added strength and ductility.

“Our simulation results show the surprisingly high strength yet high hardening responses in the BCC nanolamellae, which are pivotal for achieving the outstanding strengthductility synergy of our alloy. This mechanistic understanding provides an important basis for guiding the future development of 3D printed HEAs with exceptional mechanical properties,” Zhu says.

Fire Ant Rafts Form Thanks to a Force Known as the ‘Cheerios Effect’

Ever stare at those last few pieces of breakfast cereal and watch them seemingly clump together or cling to the side of the bowl?

Scientists have dubbed it the “Cheerios effect,” the combination of forces causing those clumps. Researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered those same forces draw small numbers of ants together to begin to form water-repellent ant rafts — even though the ants seem to be uninterested in collaborating with their neighbors for survival.

Described in the journal Physical Review Fluids, their study explains for the first time the underlying forces at play in attracting ants to each other. Ants clump together into rafts to survive during flooding, and the team determined it takes exactly 10 ants to form a stable raft.

“The motivation here was to understand how these individual parts come together,” said Hungtang Ko, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student in Professor David Hu’s lab and first author of the study. “We looked at how a pair of ants interact, and we were surprised to find that they don’t actually actively swim towards each other. Even when they do, they tend to repel or ignore the other ant.”

Studying small groups of ants — down to just a pair of individuals — the team found they flail their legs when placed in water and bounce off each other. Yet, inexorably, the Cheerios effect draws them together.

Hu and his lab have long studied how fire ants weave themselves into tight, waterresistant rafts for survival. They can float atop water for weeks at a time — like huge colonies in Houston after Hurricane Harvey that drew national attention. Hu has documented that ants in these rafts create connections with an average of 14 others to form their waterrepelling seal. Groups also can build towers to escape rising water.

Usually, studies of rafts involve 1,000 or more ants. This time, the team scaled down to a few as two to understand the mechanism behind raft formation.

“I think the surprising thing here is that ants prioritize exploration, actively avoiding each other on the water surface. They instead rely on physical forces to bring them together — the Cheerios effect,” said Hu, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Biological

Sciences. “Previously, we only studied the change in the shape of the raft once formed; we never asked how ants find each other on the water surface.”

Just like those lingering Cheerios in milk, the ants float atop water. They’re not heavy enough to break the surface tension and sink, but they create a slight depression in the water’s surface. At its most basic, the slope of those depressions causes nearby ants to “slide” down next their neighbor. That’s the Cheerios effect.

“The Cheerios effect scales with number, so the larger the raft, the easier it is for satellite ants to get attracted to it and the harder it is for ants to escape the raft’s influence,” said Ko, now a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.

Ko and the team also found the tipping point for a stable raft is when 10 ants clump together. Any fewer and the rafts break apart within minutes as the ants flail. Time is a factor, too. The longer ants are on the water, the less active they become.

“Being apart is not beneficial for their survival, but it turns out that it takes time for them to realize that this is a friend not a

foe, and they shouldn’t have pushed them away,” Ko said. “When you just first put them in water, they’re all frantic and waving their arms. That craziness decreases with time, especially when they’re in a stable raft, and slowly they come to realize that maybe they’ll start to form more rigid and stable connections.”

Birds, fish, and other organisms exhibit this kind of grouping behavior, but little is known about how they do amazing things as a group that the individuals don’t do, Hu said: “This study is about their coherence — the ability of the members to stay together.”

Ko said that’s what makes collective behavior so fascinating. The collective is usually greater than the sum of its parts.

“An individual fish or bird has limited abilities to escape predators, but when they come together in groups, they can perform evasive tactics as a team plus many more fascinating tasks,” Ko said. “And this extends beyond animals. Air molecules individually only obey so many laws, but when they come together, they can flow like a fluid. There are all kinds of complex weather phenomena that arise from the individual interactions.”

The human body is made up of thousands of tiny lymphatic vessels that ferry white blood cells and proteins around the body, like a superhighway of the immune system. It’s remarkably efficient, but if damaged from injury or cancer treatment, the whole system starts to fail. The resulting fluid retention and swelling, called lymphedema, isn’t just uncomfortable — it’s also irreversible.

When lymphatic vessels fail, typically their ability to pump out the fluid is compromised. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new treatment using nanoparticles that can repair lymphatic vessel pumping. Traditionally, researchers in the field have tried to regrow lymphatic vessels, but repairing the pumping action is a unique approach.

Nanotechnology Could Treat Lymphedema

“With many patients, the challenge is that the lymphatic vessels that still exist in the patient aren’t working. So, it’s not that you need to grow new vessels that you can think of as tubes, it’s that you need to get the tubes to work, which for lymphatic vessels means to pump,” said Brandon Dixon, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

“That’s where our approach is really different. It delivers a drug to help lymphatic vessels pump using a nanoparticle that can drain into the diseased vessels themselves.”

The researchers published their findings in “Lymphatic-Draining Nanoparticles Deliver Bay K8644 Payload to Lymphatic Vessels and Enhance Their Pumping Function” in Science Advances.

The Benefit of Nanotechnology for Drug Delivery

The drug the researchers used, S-(-)-Bay K8644 or BayK, normally targets L-type calcium channels that enable the skeletal, cardiac, and endocrine muscles to contract. In effect, the application of BayK throughout the body would lead to convulsions and spasms.

Using nanoparticles designed to drain into lymphatic vessels after injection focuses the drug solely into the lymphatic vessels, draining the injection site. As a result, the drug is available within lymphatic vessels at a locally high dose. When lymph is eventually returned into the circulation, it’s diluted in the blood so much that it doesn’t affect other systems in the body, making the drug for lymphedema applications both targeted and safe.

“Lymphatic tissues work like river basins — regionally you have vessels that drain the fluid out of your tissues,” said Susan

Thomas, Woodruff Professor and associate professor in the Woodruff School and faculty member in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. “This method is like putting nanoparticles in the river to help the river flow better.”

The research is the perfect blend of Dixon’s and Thomas’ respective expertise. Dixon’s lab has been studying how lymphatics function in animal models for years. Thomas engineers nanoparticle drug delivery technologies that deploy in the lymphatic system.

“He develops analysis tools and disease models related to the lymphatic system, and I develop lymphatic-targeting drug delivery technologies,” Thomas said. “Tackling lymphedema as a widely prevalent condition for which there are no efficacious therapies was the perfect opportunity to leverage our strengths to hopefully move the needle on developing new strategies to serve this underserved patient population.”

Testing the Therapy

The Dixon and Thomas lab teams tested the formulation using rodent models. They first mapped the model’s lymph node system by injecting a fluorescent substance to see how it traveled. Then they applied a pressure cuff to measure how the lymphatic system fails to function when compromised. From there, they evaluated how formulating BayK in a lymph-draining nanoparticle influenced the drug’s effects. The delivery system allowed the drug to act within the lymphatic vessel, as demonstrated by increased vessel pumping and restored pumping pressure, and drastically reduced the concentration of BayK in the blood, which is typically associated with unwanted side effects.

The researchers are expanding the formulation to more advanced disease models to move it closer to human application. They will also explore how it can be used to prevent or treat lymphedema in combination with other existing or new therapies now being developed.

Closing the Loop to Target Brain Glioblastomas

“Closing the loop” has become one of the jargony cliches of the business world. But in the world of cancer immunotherapy, closing the loop could be an innovation that unlocks powerful therapies for hard-to-treat brain cancers called glioblastomas.

Researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have developed a system that uses ultrasound-induced microbubbles to help a powerful immunotherapy target brain tumors and a custom algorithm to continuously fine tune the bubbles for maximum impact.

Their closed-loop controlled focused ultrasound system proved effective in boosting survival rates in mouse models, including eradicating the entire tumor in at least one case. They described their approach in the journal Science Advances

“With closed loop focused ultrasound, we observed statistically significant improved anti-PD-1 delivery, which is the antibody that we use for our immunotherapy. We also have observed improved efficacy of the combined treatment in a survival study,” said Hohyun “Henry” Lee, a Ph.D. student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and first author of the paper. “Recent studies have shown that focused ultrasound combined with microbubbles can enhance this immunotherapy technology. We developed an algorithm that controls the focused ultrasound to maximize the combined effect of these two technologies.”

PD-1 is a key protein on the immune system’s T cells that serves as an off-switch, preventing T cells from attacking normal, healthy cells by mistake. However, sometimes PD-1 stops T cells from targeting cancer cells. Left unbothered by the body’s immune system, those cells then can proliferate.

Anti-PD-1 drugs block the protein from shutting down T cells, freeing them to attack tumors. They’ve become a powerful weapon, particularly against melanoma and some lung cancers, but their effectiveness against brain tumors has been disappointing — partly because delivering drugs through the bloodbrain barrier is a major challenge.

The system Lee developed with Associate Professor Costas Arvanitis is designed to get the anti-PD-1 therapy across the blood-brain barrier and into the tumor microenvironment using tiny bubbles one-thousandth of a millimeter in diameter. The focused

ultrasound causes the bubbles to oscillate, which forces open the blood-brain barrier so the therapeutic agent can reach the tumor.

The researchers’ key innovation in this study is an algorithm that constantly measures the echoes of the bubbles to maintain optimum force while tracking the bubble concentration and not damaging blood vessels. That’s the closed loop: The algorithm takes in a constant flow of data about the microbubbles and adjusts accordingly. Other microbubble systems lack this level of control.

“We need to really tune this pressure or force that we apply to these bubbles with ultrasound at a very, very high level of precision, and that’s what Henry did,” said Arvanitis, who is jointly appointed in the Woodruff School and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “If we have a lower vibration, we will not have the desired effect. If we have a higher level, we might create damage. It’s really about tuning these micro- to nanoscale changes in the bubble radius and doing it completely noninvasively.”

The adaptiveness of the team’s system results in a greater safety profile and the ability to fine-tune therapies for any potential patient, Arvanitis said. The algorithm was able to detect signals that indicated trouble and adjust, sustaining just-right microbubble oscillations in a dynamic environment where the line between stability and violent bubble collapse is whisper thin.

“Closing the loop and tracking the bubble kinetics in real time is critical for this research and moving to the clinic, where every time you have a new patient and a new case,” Arvanitis said.

“When we talk to our colleagues in the clinic, they tell us that

you have so many constraints, and you really need to be in position to make quick decisions without compromising safety and efficacy. That’s what this controller would be able to offer.”

Other contributors to the paper included Woodruff School Professor F. Levent Degertekin, Postdoctoral Fellow Yutong Guo, Postdoctoral Fellow James L. Ross in the Emory Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Scott Schoen from Massachusetts General Hospital.

Arvanitis said though they focused on developing the algorithm-controlled approach for brain cancer immunotherapy, it holds promise for enhancing delivery of therapeutics for other kinds of brain diseases too, like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

For now, the team has demonstrated the system in small animal models, but they said their approach is easily scaled up to work with existing clinical systems.

“We will continue advancing the method and instrumentation in the coming years to make this approach more effective and potentially more broadly applicable,” Degertekin said.

Alumni Notes Staff Notes

Ashley Andrews was promoted to Mechanical Engineer III.

Lenna Applebee received the Woodruff School Staff of the Year Award.

Chloe Arrington joined as Communications Officer II.

Lula Baker received the CoE Staff Innovation and Process Improvement Award and the Institute’s Cultivating Well-Being Award as part of the Woodruff School’s S.H.O.E. Cabinet.

Carlos Barrow joined as Research Coordinator I.

Jacob Blevins received the Woodruff School Culture Champion Award (Staff).

Mack Curtis received the Woodruff School Culture Champion Award (Staff).

Andrea Dominguez joined as Program Support Coordinator.

Fatema Ferdous joined as Financial Administrator II.

Melody Foster received the CoE Staff Innovation and Process Improvement Award and the Institute’s Cultivating Well-Being Award as part of the Woodruff School’s S.H.O.E. Cabinet.

Tamirah Gore joined as Financial Manager II.

Michelle Graham received the CoE the Soaring Jacket Award.

Tayllor Hastings joined as IT Support Professional II.

Jaimie Hayes joined as Senior Director of Development.

Shana Hefferon joined as Program & Operations Manager.

Tiffany Johnson joined as Faculty Support Coordinator.

Eden Kahssai joined as Associate Director of Development.

Ann Lamb received the CoE Staff Innovation and Process Improvement Award and the Institute’s Cultivating WellBeing Award as part of the Woodruff School’s S.H.O.E. Cabinet.

George Law joined as Financial Administrator II.

Veronica Leak received the Woodruff School Staff of the Year Award. She was promoted to IT Support Professional II.

Kenya Manchester joined as Financial Administrator I.

Nathan Mauldin was promoted to Machine Shop Supervisor I.

Kristi Mehaffey received the Woodruff School Mentor of the Year Award.

Karlos Odum joined as a Facilities Assistant.

Cary Ogletree received the Institute’s Leadership in Action Award.

Rachael Robideaux joined as Academic Advisor II.

Ansley Rowan joined as Academic Advisor II.

Ian Sargent joined as Communications Officer I.

Tiffany Sneeze joined as Financial Manager II.

DeMarlo West joined as Operations and Program Manager.

Jessica Whitaker joined as Financial Administrator II.

Darryl Williams received the COESCAC Culture Champion Award.

Tameka Womack joined as Operations and Program Manager.

Yu Zhuo joined as Grants Administrator.

Lisa Cupid, ME 2000, was featured in Georgia Trend’s list of the 100 most influential Georgians for 2023.

Goodman B. (G.B.) Espy, ME 1957, was featured in the book titled, “The Apostle: The Miraculous Journey of Dr. G.B. Espy, a Doctor who Defied Borders,” written by Rick Hill.

Thomas Feldhausen, Ph.D. ME 2020, received the SME Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award.

Jim Grauley, ME 1984, has been named among Atlanta’s “2023 Most Admired CEOs.”

Laine Mears, M.S. ME 2001, Ph.D. ME 2006, received the 2023 SME Education Award.

Tom Noonan, ME 1983, received the Joseph Mayo Pettit Distinguished Service Award as part of the 2023 Gold & White Honors.

Kyle Saleeby, M.S. ME 2019, Ph.D. ME 2021, received the SME Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award.

Raj Sardana, M.S. ME 1982, has been named among Atlanta’s “2023 Most Admired CEOs.”

Nicholas Selby, ME 2016, was named to the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

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

Woodruff School Lands Three on Alumni 40 Under 40 List

Annemarie Cardell, ME 07 Director of Informatics, Core Faculty, Attending Physician | Maimonides Medical Center, Department of Emergency Medicine

Annemarie Cardell is an emergency medicine physician in Brooklyn, N.Y., and mom to a 2-year-old daughter, Magnolia. Cardell mentors residents and coaches them to become compassionate, thoughtful physicians. She is also an educator who specializes in teaching through simulation. She built her career on developing new and novel ways to educate others. Her current research focus is on developing a next generation intubation trainer using multi-material 3D printing based on real patient imaging. She currently serves as director of Informatics and is interested in developing innovative ways to educate young attendings on clinical productivity metrics.

Favorite Tech Memory: Being on campus when Georgia Tech made the Final Four in 2004.

Ahmad

Ahmad Haider is a people-first leader and a technology strategist with deep expertise in the fields of data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He believes in the power of data and storytelling to change the world and has used them to build strong teams and innovative solutions to solve the most pressing problems in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and software industries. Coming from a diverse background himself, he believes in expanding the footprint of diversity, equity, and inclusion at home and in the workplace. His goal is to influence meaningful changes in society through better use of data and analytics.

Favorite Tech Memory: Playing trivia at Rocky Mountain Pizza every Wednesday evening with Georgia Tech friends. Won a few times, too!

About the 2022 Class of 40 Under 40

Roxanne Moore is a senior research engineer in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) at Georgia Tech. She has served as principal investigator and coprincipal investigator for research grants from multiple sponsors, including the National Science Foundation and Amazon, with a focus on promoting diversity and inclusion in STEM. Her outreach programs and curricula have impacted more than 100,000 K–12 students nationwide. She is the cofounder and director of Georgia Tech’s K–12 InVenture Prize, a statewide invention competition, open to all students and teachers in Georgia.

Favorite Tech Memory: Tailgates and football games with the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association (MEGA).

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is thrilled to announce the 2022 class of 40 Under 40. This annual program showcases how Tech alumni impact every field 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, 2022, 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 proud to call them alumni.

Haider, MS ME 11, PhD ME 16 Senior Director | Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Roxanne Moore, MS ME 09, PhD ME 12 Senior Research Engineer | Georgia Tech

Woodruff School Graduates Honored with 2023 CoE Alumni Awards

Four graduates from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering were among those honored at the College of Engineering’s 2023 Alumni Awards Induction Ceremony held on April 29. 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.

Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award

Mihir G. Pathak

B.S.M.E. 2008, M.S.M.E. 2010, Ph.D.M.E. 2013 Chief Operating Officer, Mayvenn

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.

Pathak’s research in cryogenic physics for space applications led him to join the inaugural class of the NASA Space Technology Research Fellows. He published more than a dozen peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts while serving as a research scientist at NASA across the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ames Research Center, and Goddard Space Flight Center. He later became the agency’s legislative liaison on Capitol Hill, developing the NASA strategic plan and mission strategy while securing financial and political support.

Pathak was tapped to join the Obama Administration as a policy advisor for the White House National Economic Council, where he focused on crafting economic policy for entrepreneurship and small business. He then worked at McKinsey & Company and Stack Overflow, where he helped grow the company’s platform to over 150 million monthly visitors and, ultimately, a $1.8 billion acquisition. Pathak currently serves as the COO at Mayvenn, a venturebacked beauty tech company. He is married to Praachi Pathak (B.S.M.E. 2010). They are raising two daughters, Asmi and Savi.

Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award

Rebeccah J.C. Brown

M.S.M.E. 2001, Ph.D.M.E. 2003

Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs, MiMedx Group, Inc.

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.

MiMedx is a biopharmaceutical company developing, manufacturing, and marketing regenerative biologics utilizing human placental allografts for multiple sectors of healthcare. As vice president, Brown is currently responsible for executing regulatory strategy and advancing regulatory approvals for healthcare products worldwide. During her career at MiMedx, she has been responsible for the company’s product development, intellectual property, quality assurance, and regulatory affairs. She holds numerous U.S. and international patents.

Brown currently serves as vice chair of the Woodruff School’s Advisory Board and is co-founder and chair of the new Women of Woodruff (WoW) organization. WoW is committed to ensuring women students and faculty have the tools they need to thrive at Tech through recruitment, retention, and rewards.

Brown and her husband, Jason Brown (M.S.M.E. 1998, Ph.D.Arch. 2010), also support Georgia Tech through their endowment funds. They have two children, Jack and Clara.

Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame

Goodman B. (G.B.) Espy

B.M.E. 1957

President (retired), OB-GYN Associates, P.A.

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.

After graduating from Georgia Tech, Espy earned his medical degree at Tulane in 1962. He completed his internship and residency at Charity Hospital of Louisiana and then served as president of OB-GYN Associates in Marietta, Georgia, from 1967 to 2014. Espy is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and was certified annually by the American College of Surgeons until 2013. He is a fellow of both organizations. Espy served as assistant physician for

the Georgia Tech football team from 1966 to 1983 and was assistant chief venue medical officer for the press center at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He has traveled on missions around the world, including to Southeast Asia, Africa, Haiti, and the Middle East. He brought three children from Albania and Iraq to the U.S. for major surgeries with prolonged recoveries. He has supported students with scholarships for more than 50 years, including graduate and medical students. Espy was a visiting professor at Georgia Tech and lecturer at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital and has contributed to medical literature on a variety of subjects. He was a member of the Woodruff School Advisory Board for 20 years and has served on the advisory board for the bioengineering graduate program since 1995.

Deborah Kilpatrick

B.S.E.S.M. 1989, M.S.M.E. 1994, Ph.D.M.E. 1996 Co-CEO and Executive Chair, Evidation Health

Kilpatrick has spent the past 25 years in Silicon Valley in large companies and startups in the medical device, molecular diagnostic, and digital health arenas. She currently is the executive chair of the board at Evidation Health, whose technology platform gives global companies the ability to measure individual health and product benefit outside clinic walls via permissioned, person-generated data.

After earning her status in the “GT-cubed” club (three degrees at Tech), she began her healthcare career at Guidant Corporation in multiple leadership roles, including research fellow and director of research and development.

Kilpatrick is on the board of directors for Sleep Number and the Task Force for Global Health, an international nonprofit organization working to improve health in the world’s most vulnerable populations and strengthen care delivery infrastructure in developing countries. A fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, Kilpatrick was the first woman to chair the advisory board for Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. She has also delivered the Woodruff School’s Gegenheimer Lecture on Innovation.

She and her spouse, Kacey Fitzpatrick, are proud supporters of students and faculty at the Woodruff School and have established an endowment for the College’s Women in Engineering program.

Women of Woodruff: ME Launches New Initiative to Ensure Women Thrive at Georgia Tech

Since 2009, Georgia Tech has annually led the nation in engineering degrees awarded to women. This past spring, 32% of graduates were female. It’s fed a national trend — according to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the number of women earning engineering degrees has more than doubled over the past two decades. However, the nationwide ratio is just 1 in 5. In addition, according to the Society of Women Engineers, only 18% of tenured/tenure-track faculty in engineering are women.

Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, wants to ensure that women students and faculty have equal and equitable opportunities within the Woodruff School. One of his top priorities since becoming chair in January has been to increase access to engineering education, as well as teaching and research opportunities, amongst women.

“To support the Woodruff School’s strategic vision of becoming an inclusive and equitable community, we are striving to increase the number of women graduate students to 30% by 2030,” said Ranjan.

It’s the reason why Ranjan and the Woodruff School are launching a new initiative called Women of Woodruff (WoW). WoW, which is still in development, is an organization made up of College of Engineering alumnae and friends who are committed to ensuring women mechanical engineering students and faculty have the tools they need to thrive at Georgia Tech.

WoW’s overarching goal is to provide resources and programming that will allow the Institute to attract, support, and retain women students and faculty in mechanical engineering. To meet this goal, the organization, along with Woodruff School leadership, has identified three key areas of focus:

Recruitment: WoW will ignite a passion for mechanical engineering amongst female students and faculty and increase interest in becoming part of the Woodruff School community through various recruitment efforts. Members of WoW will participate in recruitment fairs, student and faculty visits, and in conjunction with the communications department, tell their stories to attract more women to the field.

Retention: WoW will improve the mechanical engineering student and faculty retention rate amongst women through mentorship. WoW will recruit role models (faculty, staff, alumnae, and friends in the profession) who will share their experiences to help women students make informed decisions about their academic and extracurricular experiences while at Georgia Tech. Mentors will also provide career guidance to women in the Woodruff School, connecting them to leaders in industry and academia. In addition, mentors will help address any personal and emotional challenges women students and faculty may face, serving as a support system every step of their journey.

GEORGE

Rewards: WoW will reward outstanding women mechanical engineering students through scholarships. Scholarships will give women students the momentum to start and continue their studies in mechanical engineering. They will help affirm that these women are on the right path, that their efforts and sacrifices are paying off, and they have the ability to advance technology and improve the human condition. WoW believes the scholarships will have a philanthropic effect on those who receive them, and in turn, inspire future female engineers to give back in their own lives. WoW will also provide research funding for women faculty members and establish a WoW faculty liaison position.

“WoW will give us an opportunity to directly impact the experience of female engineers at the Woodruff School, not only financially, but by being a support structure – recruiting, retaining, and being role models for these women is our goal,” said Rebeccah Brown, M.S. ME 2001, Ph.D. ME 2003, Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at MiMedx Group, Inc. and Vice-Chair of the Woodruff School Advisory Board. “I can imagine that engaging in WoW will also help us engage with each other, reinforcing existing relationships and developing new ones.”

The Path Toward WoW

When Ranjan shared his goals of increasing opportunities and resources for women with the Woodruff School Advisory Board, he received an outpouring of support, and a new collaboration began.

Advisory Board Chair Larry Montgomery, ME 1978, who serves as President of the Montgomery Family Foundation, told Brown about an organization at Auburn University dedicated to the future of women in engineering. They connected with the group called 100+ Women Strong, set up an on-campus meeting, and learned more about the organization’s initiatives. With a desire to give back to the school that propelled their careers, Montgomery, Brown, and other board members started discussing the idea of launching a similar organization in the Woodruff School.

“We are around the 50th anniversary of the Woodruff School’s first female graduate, Mary Kirkpatrick, ME 1970, M.S. ME 1972, so launching this new organization now, when we are celebrating this significant milestone, just feels right,” said Linda Gilday, ME 1983,

Deputy Program Director of the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program at United States Navy and the newest member of the Woodruff School Advisory Board.

When Gilday joined the discussions, she offered an idea for an organization name based on another program she and her husband Adm. Mike Gilday launched for the U.S. Navy, called the WIN program. Shortly after, WoW was born.

Women in Engineering Leadership Lecture Series

As part of WoW, members of the Georgia Tech community will have the opportunity to network with talented female scholars and innovators in the field of engineering through a newly established Women in Engineering Leadership Lecture Series. Each year, the Woodruff School will host talks featuring notable women engineers who are creating a better future for our community — locally, nationally, and globally.

The Woodruff School kicked off the lecture series with Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station (ISS) in the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Gatens holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech.

Looking Ahead

Off to a successful start, WoW is made up of nine founding members who have made a gift of $1,000 for the next five years. Founding members include: Rebeccah Brown, Kyriaki Kalaitzidou, Fredda Lerner, Emily Muhlberger, Shweta Natarajan, Angela Sherman, Nzinga Tull, Kumuda Ranjan, and Tracy West.

“It’s exciting to be able to give back to Georgia Tech and the Woodruff School after everything both have done for us,” said Brown. “Any resources we spend helping female students maintain their endurance and drive to come out positive and successful at the end of their student experience is a resource well spent.”

WoW Awards Inaugural Fellowships

WoW has awarded six fellowships to female students in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The inaugural WoW Fellows include: Carolina Colón, Lina Daza Llanos, Elyssa Ferguson, Alison Jenkins, Maria Sattar, and Jordyn Schroeder.

The fellowships, which are aimed at attracting, supporting, and retaining women students, were made possible by the founding members of WoW and through a generous commitment from Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor.

“As an advocate for inclusive excellence and increasing the number of women graduate students in mechanical engineering, Dr. Ranjan’s commitment to supporting female students has been instrumental in helping WoW achieve its goal of empowering women at the Woodruff School,” said Jaimie Hayes, Senior Director of Development.

All gifts to WoW go directly to support students and faculty

$5,000 Annual Corporate Sponsorship: Branding at WoW events and marketing; Corporate team invited to annual events; Access to top talent

$1,000 Individual Annual Investment & Membership: Individuals harness the power of collective giving to WoW by bringing together individuals with shared values and goals. Through collaboration, education, and strategic giving, WoW membership empowers individuals to be catalysts for change at Georgia Tech.

Woodruff School Celebrates NRE Program's 60th Anniversary

The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering hosted a special event on Oct. 7, 2022, at the legendary Fox Theatre. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends spent the evening celebrating the Woodruff School’s successes and milestones, including the 60th anniversary of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering program. The celebration reunited old friends and allowed the Woodruff School to reconnect with many graduates.

Meet Two Georgia Tech Alumnae who are Helping Shape the Way Future Engineers are Taught

From its beginning in the late 19th century, the Georgia Institute of Technology has been a crucial producer of mechanical engineers nationally and abroad. Before it became the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in 1917, the department reinvented its instructional methods and established a focused curriculum that sought to create engineers whose skills weren’t limited to the shop rooms and forges of the post-Civil War south, but one that could be the vanguard of a desperately needed workforce capable of complex problem solving, mathematical rigor, and innovative design. The change laid the foundation for a program that, over a century later, remains a leader in mechanical engineering education.

Two alumnae from the Woodruff School, Susan Stewart, M.S. ME 2001, Ph.D. ME 2003, and Min Zou, M.S. ME 1996, Ph.D. ME 1999, have used their Georgia Tech education to launch successful careers in academia where they continue to educate and mentor the next generation of mechanical engineers.

Life at Tech

Stewart, who grew up in State College, Pennsylvania, is now an Associate Teaching Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Penn State University, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. She first studied meteorology before what she calls a “lightbulb moment” pulled her in a different direction.

“In a class in my first year I was assigned to study an environmental issue, combustion of fossil fuels and global warming,” she recalled. “That drove me to change my major so I could study energy, more specifically renewable energy, and I found mechanical engineering to be the best fit for me at the time. Once I took thermodynamics, I knew I was in the right place. I continued on to get three mechanical engineering degrees.”

Two of those degrees were earned at the Woodruff School, and Stewart says that her time at Georgia Tech was highly formative and one of her favorite periods in her life. She helped run the Georgia

Tech chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), where she helped coordinate tours and arrange for guest speakers.

“I had a great cohort of friends and really enjoyed going to the many seminars offered by the department,” Stewart said. “I greatly appreciated having the time to concentrate my studies so deeply in one topic area as I worked on my theses.”

Stewart also credits her time here with helping her develop a more direct and systematic approach to problem-solving. “This helped me tackle new challenges without hesitation,” Stewart said. “I also learned how to communicate effectively to explain complex information, which is essential as an educator.”

Zou is currently a Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas (UA) and the Twenty-First Century Chair of Materials, Manufacturing, and Integrated Systems. She was at Georgia Tech during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Far from being overwhelmed by the hubbub of one of the globe’s largest sporting spectacles, Zou described her time during the Games as “unforgettable.”

“[It] was buzzing with energy as elite athletes from around the world came to our university,” Zou recalled fondly. “I was lucky enough to meet and connect with several Olympic champions, and their stories and achievements deeply inspired me.”

Zou went on to volunteer at the Paralympic Games in Atlanta and described the experience as rewarding and humbling. She still has her Olympic Village pass which she keeps as a reminder of the unique experience and lasting friendships she made during that time.

Originally from China, Zou first studied aerospace engineering; her father worked for an aircraft engine manufacturer, and she would occasionally accompany him to work.

“I thought the detailed drawings of the engine parts were really cool,” she said. “I wanted to be like my dad and work with airplanes, so I decided to study how to design them in college.”

After starting at Tech as a Ph.D. student

in aerospace, Zou made the switch to mechanical engineering, excited by the varied disciplines included in mechanical engineering studies.

Despite the challenges of changing majors in graduate school, Zou excelled and was keen to single out the role her advisor, Professor Itzhak Green, had in her success.

“He really believed in me,” Zou said of Green. “He was super patient, and instead of pushing me, he gave me room to think and learn from my mistakes. Also, he was always there for advice, whether about research or career stuff. His support was indispensable to me.”

Outside of the classroom Zou involved herself in extracurricular activities, serving as the Committee Chair for Activities of the Chinese Student Association, where she helped organize dance socials and performances for the Chinese New Year. Taking the time to participate in these activities helped her foster a sense of community and gave her opportunities to network and gain experience in a leadership role.

Life as Engineering Educators

According to data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the number of Ph.D.s awarded in mechanical engineering across the nation has steadily declined from its 2013 peak. As tech and manufacturing industries swell in numbers, many students are enticed by a quick and relatively painless entry into a growing workforce. The growth, however, means there’s a reciprocal need for more engineering educators, especially as advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing begin to take a more central role across various industries.

Both Stewart and Zou have leveraged their passion for learning and their Georgia Tech doctorates into remarkable academic careers that address changing educational practices and the rapid advance of engineering technologies.

“My Tech degree was very helpful when I ventured into academia,” said Zou. “The

thorough curriculum and exposure to cutting-edge research at Tech really boosted my academic credentials.”

Zou was also able to network extensively with scholars in her field, building relationships that helped nurture her career in academia, a path she chose in part for its potential to provide her the opportunity to be a mentor to others.

“I love learning and sharing knowledge,” Zou said. “Academia is also exciting because it’s always changing, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

One way Zou moved in lockstep with industry needs was through the creation of an undergraduate nanotechnology minor at UA. Zou and her colleagues made a hands-on lab a key component of the minor, allowing students to gain valuable practical insight into nanotech. Zou has also worked with students who have launched high-tech start-ups and been featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 lists.

Her advice to students seeking a career in mechanical engineering is to stay curious, collaborative, and versatile.

“The engineering landscape is always changing, so cultivate adaptability and openness to learning new technologies. Take the initiative to create a professional network through student clubs, conferences, or social platforms – these relationships can be gateways to exciting opportunities.”

Stewart was drawn to being an educator early in life and used her time at Georgia Tech to learn from professors and advisors. She remembers working with Andrei Fedorov, current Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, Professor, Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Chair, and Regents’ Entrepreneur.

“We would meet after each class and discuss how my lecture went,” Stewart said. “He had such thoughtful input that was incredibly valuable in developing my skills as an educator.”

At Penn State Stewart has seen her own students achieve wide success. For the past decade, she has led a team of students in the Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition, winning five of the past ten editions and placing in most of the rest. Her team most recently placed second and won two of the four subcompetitions.

Stewart also serves as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) coordinator for her department, which allows her to see up close how engineering programs are adapting to improve student outcomes and cover relevant topics like sustainability with more depth. She also sees engineering taking positive strides towards becoming more inclusive.

“We still have a long way to go to see a more balanced enrollment (and retention) of women and minorities in many engineering fields,” she said. “But I believe we are on a solid path of continuous improvement.”

Like Zou, Stewart sees great value in keeping up with the pace of change in engineering and cites flexibility as one of the most important attributes to cultivate.

“The industry is changing rapidly,” she said. “As are the ways in which we communicate and interact with each other. Being adaptable is really key.”

Georgia Tech Experiences Shape Life and Career of Nuclear Engineering Alumnus Peter Newby

George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering alumnus Peter Newby, B.S. NE 1994, M.S. NE 1997, has a long history with Georgia Tech. From student to research engineer, to serving as a member of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics (NREMP) Advisory Board, his experiences as a Yellow Jacket have shaped his life and career in nuclear engineering.

Newby’s interest in nuclear engineering was born when he first saw blue Cherenkov radiation from a research reactor during a middle school field trip to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“I knew then I wanted to pursue a nuclear engineering degree, and I wanted to attend a university with a research reactor on campus,” said Newby.

At the time, Georgia Tech had the Neely Nuclear Research Center, which housed both a 5 MW research reactor and a hot cell.

“Those facilities really attracted my attention. The presence of state-of-the-art facilities is a major attraction for potential students and researchers,” he added.

Once enrolled at Georgia Tech, Newby was taught by a number of nuclear engineering faculty who inspired him during his academic journey. Georgia Power Company Distinguished Professor Farzad Rahnema taught his first reactor physics class, Professor C.-K. Chris Wang served as his advisor for a special undergraduate project, and Professor Emeritus Nolan E. Hertel educated him on statistical analysis and the application of Monte Carlo methods.

Newby also explored electives and he credits an astrophysics course, taught by Professor Emeritus Don S. Harmer, as the class that combined his curiosity and interest in astronomy with nuclear physics and Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Outside of the classroom, Newby was actively involved in several extracurricular activities.

“I am an unabashed nuclear geek,” Newby said.

“The student section of the American Nuclear Society was important to me. We had many good outings and field trips including a visit to TVA’s Bellefonte reactor and the Savannah River Site. I was also a writer for the Technique and the Blueprint, which were great escapes from the day-to-day engineering rigor.”

These activities helped Newby branch out from the ‘daily academic drudgery’ as he described it and helped him blow off steam and commiserate with those who understood the difficulty of being a Tech student.

“Georgia Tech is one of the hardest things you’ll ever love. We grow the most when challenged, and Tech will challenge everyone. Persistence is key,” he said.

His persistence paid off and Newby graduated from Georgia Tech with the personal and professional skills that have led to a successful career.

Newby started his career journey as a research engineer at Tech. Three years later, he joined the company Framatome, a nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) designer and manufacturer, where he served as a leader in sales and marketing for over two decades, combining his skills in science and business (Newby also earned his MBA in 2002 from Averett University). In May, Newby was named president of MS Technology, Inc., an engineering and technology development small business located in Tennessee.

“Georgia Tech provided so much more than an education to prepare me for a career. It instilled thought processes and a questioning, can-do attitude that helps in everyday life,” said Newby.

Newby is still heavily involved with Georgia Tech and the Woodruff School, serving on advisory boards for nearly a decade.

“I value the avenue to provide feedback to the Institute and the Woodruff School on what the nuclear energy industry needs are, both today and in the future,” he said. “Being part of an advisory board opens the window to a better understanding of how an academic institution functions, and I have a sense of pride in giving back to my alma mater.”

“Georgia Tech provided so much more than an education to prepare me for a career. It instilled thought processes and a questioning, can-do attitude that helps in everyday life.”

—Peter Newby

Reveam Partners with Georgia Tech to Develop Advanced Accelerator Research and Innovation Center with Support from U.S. National Labs

Reveam executives and representatives from U.S. National Laboratories recently met with Georgia Institute of Technology leadership to kick-off a partnership towards developing a multidisciplinary acceleratorbased center of excellence for advanced E-beam and X-ray research and innovation.

Accelerator-based technologies such as E-Beam and X-ray have long promoted innovative and sustainable solutions to critical issues around the world. Emerging applications of these technologies in Food Safety and Waste, Homeland Security, Energy, Medicine, Materials Science, and Sustainability require resources to support focused programs of research and development and the training of highlyqualified technical personnel.

The memorandum of understanding between Reveam and Georgia Tech includes a new facility to enable research and development in many areas, provide a regional resource for education and training, and inspire commercial applications to address some of the most critical environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) focused issues.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a $54 million investment in National Laboratories for microelectronics research. This funding lays the foundation for solutions to challenges like climate crisis and national security, which support the new facility by attracting highly qualified U.S. resources to the region for innovation and collaboration.

“We look forward to working with Reveam to establish an accelerator-based center of excellence to foster innovation and create new pathways for research and discovery,” states Steven Biegalski, Chair of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering program in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. “This new facility directly supports Georgia Tech’s objective to align its multidisciplinary research efforts to help address the most critical local and global challenges as

articulated by the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.”

Founded by Chip Starns and Dolan Falconer, both graduates of Georgia Tech’s nationally ranked top 10 engineering program, Atlanta-based Reveam spawned out of the Institute’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), considered a top “incubator changing the world” by Forbes magazine.

Reveam leverages accelerator-based technologies to improve the safety and quality of the world’s food supply through a proprietary and environmentally sustainable treatment process known as Electronic ColdPasteurization™ (ECP™). Approved by both the USDA and FDA, ECP™ is a chemicalfree, heat-free treatment that eliminates harmful pests and pathogens while extending shelf-life at the peak of freshness and pinnacle of safety.

“We are proud to partner with Georgia Tech to establish a facility with shared infrastructure for education and training of the next generation. We know first-hand the wide array of applications for these technologies and fully support bringing capabilities in the region for advancement and innovation,” states Chip Starns, CoFounder and Executive Vice President at Reveam.

Woodruff School Partners with Siemens to Launch New Course

Over 9% of global passenger vehicle sales last year were electric vehicles (EVs) according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. EV sales are surging due to a combination of policy support, improvements in battery technology, more charging infrastructure, and new compelling vehicles from automakers.

To address the rapid growth in the EV industry, the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering has partnered with Siemens to offer a new course, Electric Vehicles & the Grid The course launched in the spring semester and is providing a transformative learning experience to Georgia Tech students while preparing them to charge into the future.

With a focus on innovation and sustainability, Electric Vehicles & the Grid teaches engineering principles of electric transportation and the energy infrastructure. The class also covers the emerging technologies of batteries, renewables, and connectivity that will allow further optimization of the products with the grid.

Although EV courses are taught across the nation, the class’ s additional focus on the grid is a component that is missing from courses taught at other institutions.

“Through this course, we are teaching Georgia Tech students the skills they need to solve the world’s emerging and biggest challenges to electrification,” said Professor of the Practice Mike Tinskey who

teaches the course. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Tinskey served as the Global Director of Electrification for Ford.

In addition to teaching the curriculum, Tinskey enjoys incorporating interesting facts into his lectures. For example, he recently taught students about the duck curve. The duck curve is a graph of power production over the course of a day that shows the timing imbalance between peak demand and solar power generation.

“The duck curve is a problem across the U.S. People are returning to their homes from work, at the same time that the sun is setting, and less energy is produced from solar. Combined that this time is usually when electric vehicles are plugged in, it’s starting to become a timing problem for the grid and the graph resembles the shape of a duck,” he said.

With growth in the EV industry leading to more jobs for future engineers, student interest in the EV market is on the rise. When registration opened for Electric Vehicles & the Grid, enrollment quickly reached capacity and students were placed on a waitlist.

When asked what drew her to enroll in the course, mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Caroline Massey noted that the class was an interesting follow-up to her undergraduate studies.

“I wanted to learn more about electric vehicles and grid technology. I really enjoyed learning about power electronics in

undergrad and thought that this may be a good fit,” she said.

To make the class even more engaging, Tinskey has invited industry leaders and other Georgia Tech professors to speak to the students enrolled in the course. One guest speaker was Georgia Tech alumnus Nicholas Selby, ME 2016. Selby, who serves as the director of engineering with Renewvia Solar Africa, was named to the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list and is known for his viral 2013 New Student Convocation speech.

“I said in my speech that ‘Green energy and world peace can wait.’ Now I’m working for a solar mini-grid company. Honestly, having worked with a DOD group working on Iron-Man technology, I find the engineering challenges of solar rural electrification more intellectually stimulating and the applications more personally rewarding,” he said.

A Partnership between the Woodruff School and Siemens

Prior to launching the course, Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair, encouraged Tinskey to present an outline of the class to the Woodruff School Advisory Board.

“We wanted to offer Electric Vehicles & the Grid to enhance our course offerings and research in sustainability and decarbonization – an area of focus in the Woodruff School’s Strategic Plan,” said Ranjan.

After hearing Tinskey’s presentation, advisory board member and Georgia Tech alumnus Barry Powell, M.S. ME 1991, immediately saw potential. As Head of Siemens Electrical Products for North America, he worked with John DeBoer, Head of Siemens Future Grid and eMobility Solutions, to sponsor the course on behalf of Siemens, sparking a partnership between his company and alma mater.

Siemens has been actively involved in the course, contributing to syllabus content and visiting the students in February to talk about the electrification market, its growth, and future career opportunities. The company also hosted an event for the students at their Peachtree Corners office. Students had the chance to tour parts of the facility and were guided through dedicated learning stations that covered specific types of electrical charging technologies and load management.

“This event was a great opportunity to bring together some of the top engineering students in the country with passionate

Siemens employees designing the key infrastructure needed to support the electrification of transportation in our country,” said Powell. “It was very inspirational to see the stimulating dialogues at the hands-on stations and the great questions asked by the group. The future is bright!”

Students were also inspired by the event, including electrical engineering student Timothy Boyer.

“Having the chance to see what we are learning about in the real world is an aspect many Georgia Tech classes completely miss out on,” he said. “It significantly helps you to appreciate what you are learning and inspires you.”

Looking Ahead

Tinskey hopes to teach Electric Vehicles & the Grid to Georgia Tech students in the future, both in-person and online. Currently, 72 students are enrolled in the course for the spring semester and 30% of those enrolled are distance learning students.

“I hope to offer the course next fall and continue to adapt the course to the rapidly changing landscape,” he added.

Advisory Board and Campaign Reception

On Thursday, April 27, 2023, the Woodruff School hosted a special reception and dinner to celebrate our community of engineers who are transforming tomorrow through their leadership, volunteerism, and philanthropic support.

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.

Learn more about our goals at transformingtomorrow.gatech.edu

FINAL SPOTLIGHTS

At the Mechatronics Expo students showcased their final projects from mechatronics courses where they learned to program microcontrollers and use their knowledge of feedback control, electric circuits, sensors, and actuation to design and control responsive electromechanical devices.

Grace Stanke, a nuclear engineering student at the University of Wisconsin and current Miss America, visited Georgia Tech in May for a discussion and a reception. Stanke spoke about STEM education, nuclear engineering, energy, and the environment.

Like son, like father: After a Family Weekend visit, mechanical engineering undergraduate student Patrick Villarreal’s dad decided to enroll at Georgia Tech too. One might think most college students in their 20s would be worried about a parent cramping their style, but Patrick was all in on the idea.

The Woodruff School’s Acoustic Water Tank Laboratory and CEISMC partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Foundation to host a professional development underwater robotics training in an effort to expand access to STEM education.

The force was strong with the teams at the spring 2023 ME 2110 Design Competition. The theme for the event, which took place in April, was Star Wars. All teams (Rebel, Sith, or Jedi) were required to complete a series of tasks and maneuvers with their entry build that included defeating the Imperial Walkers, retrieving a lightsaber, rescuing Baby Yoda, and destroying the Death Star.

Innovation and impact were on display at the Spring 2023 Capstone Design Expo, where more than 190 student teams showed off the results of their semesterlong senior design projects. Woodruff School students shined, taking home three different awards at the event held at McCamish Pavilion.