Research Network Operations Center

The Georgia Tech Research Network Operations Center (GT-RNOC) accelerates innovation in networking, computing, sensing, mobility and convergence by enabling communities of collaboration. GT-RNOC oversees the development and support of the Convergence Innovation Competition.

RNOC's lending library is an essential resource for student developers seeking mobile devices for testing, starter kits, tablets. Items can be borrowed for two weeks (and potentially longer term depending on resource availability and current demand). Lab staff are available to provide feedback on CIC projects as needed. Please contact us at rnoc-lab-staff@lists.gatech.edu for more details.

Upcoming Events & Student Competitions

HackGT

October 22-24, 2021

HackGT is a free 36-hour hackathon where students from across the world come together for a weekend to create innovative projects that show off their creativity and passion for development. You may choose any platform, programming language, or format to show how you build solutions.

Participating in this event will widen your professional network and allow you to further develop your creativity! With tech talks and workshops, you will have the opportunity to talk to and learn from professionals in various industries. We encourage everyone to be a part of the hacker community at HackGT 8 regardless of location, major, or prior hacking experience.

Anticipated Events for Spring 2022

InVenture Prize

Deadline: Anticipated in January 2022

Nicknamed "American Idol for Nerds," the Emmy Award-winning InVenture Prize at Georgia Tech is an interdisciplinary innovation competition open to all undergraduate students and recent graduates of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The program schedule can be found at http://inventureprize.gatech.edu/competition/schedule.

CDAIT Student IoT Innovation Capacity Building Challenge 2021

Deadline: Anticipated in January 2022
An important source of innovative ideas, particularly in technology-related fields, comes from university settings: students, faculty, and researchers. In the effort to advance these activities in the area of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and applications, CDAIT seeks to stimulate rapid response innovative/exploratory research or projects in the field of IoT and associated domains.

We especially seek proposals from the social sciences, humanities, and multidisciplinary teams and proposals that address the effects of IoT on underserved populations or people with disabilities. Projects that have a broader social impact are also welcome. We expect to provide up to $3,000 in research support (materials and supplies) to as many as eight (8) Challenge teams. The top three completed projects also will receive scholarship awards to be divided among team members as payments through the financial aid office.

UrbanHeatATL: Student Research Opportunity - Collect Urban Heat Island Temperature Data

Application Deadline: February 2022

To understand urban heat islands in Atlanta, the UrbanHeatATL team will select 20 students each from Georgia Tech and 20 from Spelman College, along with community members to collect temperature data using DIY sensors starting in March, as part of the 2021 Atlanta Science Festival.

For additional questions, please refer to this FAQ.

CREATE-X

CREATE-X's Startup Launch Program

Application Deadline: Anticipated March 2022

Apply for Startup Launch and receive a $4,000 grant and additional services to get your company off the ground. Since the funding is given as a grant, you don’t give up any equity in your startup.You will also receive:

• Intense coaching from experienced entrepreneurs and business faculty
• Mentorship from industry veterans
• Pro-bono legal services from a full-service law-firm 
• Free accounting services from a CPA firm including tax planning and compliance
• 24/7 access to co-working office space
• Access to hundreds of investors at Demo Day
• An opportunity to receive additional funding ($20K-$100K) at the end of the program

Ideas to Serve Competition

Anticipated in February 2022

Ideas 2 Serve focuses on the in-depth understanding of a social/environmental issue a student is passionate about, supporting an in-depth discovery of that particular problem.

Campus Partners

The Convergence Innovation Competition program collaborates with Georgia Tech partners across campus. We encourage all student teams to compete in other campus competitions, co-curricular programs and research opportunities. Some of our campus partners include:

• CREATE-X: CREATE-X is a Georgia Tech initiative to instill entrepreneurial confidence in students and empower them to launch successful startups. The broader goal of this initiative is to provide the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences that will give Georgia Tech graduates the confidence to create their own future and confidently pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.
• Global Change Program:The Global Change Program provides an avenue for Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students to design and implement solutions to climate and global change challenges. Georgia Tech has extensive research expertise in climate science, energy policy, energy technology, and sustainable business, which support a host of activities in the classroom, across the state, and beyond. We aim to build new partnerships across Georgia Tech and with outside partners, both private and public, through innovation and the translation of research into practice.
• Smart Sea Level Sensors: The Smart Sea Level Sensors project is a partnership between Chatham Emergency Management Agency officials, City of Savannah officials, and Georgia Tech scientists and engineers who are working together to install a network of internet-enabled sea level sensors across Chatham County. The real-time data on coastal flooding will be used for emergency planning and response.
• Student Innovation Program: The Student Innovation program plans, manages and coordinates student innovation programs and competitions. Our focus is on growing the innovation ecosystem at Georgia Tech and connecting it to the wider startup community. 

Universal Design Resources

• 7 Principles of Universal Design
• Universal Design Principles for Interfaces (Webinar lecture by Ljilja Kascak, Ph.D student in Industrial Design, Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA), Georgia Institute of Technology)

Problems Worth Solving Project

The Problems Worth Solving project released a learning prototype for a collaborative tool where researchers, faculty and industry partners can submit interesting problems for students to develop solutions against. This is an excellent resource to spark an idea for a team's CIC submission.

Please note, while ideas are submitted by the Georgia Tech and broader community, each idea submitted is reviewed before it is released publicly. There are no stipulations on the type of idea that can be submitted, but we encourage users to consider projects that could fit within a course or a student competition.