Engineers at Georgia Tech have designed a process that converts carbon dioxide removed from the air into useful raw material that could be used for new plastics, chemicals, or fuels.

Their approach dramatically reduces the cost and energy required for these direct air capture (DAC) systems, helping improve the economics of a process the researchers said will be critical to addressing climate change.

The key is a new kind of catalyst and electrochemical reactor design that can be easily integrated into existing DAC systems to produce useful carbon monoxide (CO) gas. It’s one of the most efficient such design ever described in scientific literature, according to lead researcher Marta Hatzell and her team. They published details April 16 in Energy and Environmental Science, a top journal for energy-related research.

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Effective July 1, Eric Vogel will become the executive director of the Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS), Georgia Tech’s newest Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) that will launch on the same date.

As an evolution of the Institute for Materials (IMat) and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), IMS aims to enable convergent research at Georgia Tech related to the science, technology, and societal underpinnings of innovative materials and devices. Additionally, IMS seeks to integrate these innovations into systems that enhance human well-being and performance across information and communication, the built environment, and human-centric technologies that improve human health, wellness, and performance.

“Executive Vice President for Research Chaouki Abdallah and I are very excited about the launch of IMS, which positions Georgia Tech for integration of science and technology from atoms to devices, while explicitly drawing in researchers in the social sciences, design, business, and computing,” said Vice President of Interdisciplinary Research Julia Kubanek.

“IMS will ensure relevance across Georgia Tech through its newly configured Internal Advisor and Ambassador Board with representation across all six Colleges and GTRI,” she said. “Additional advisory committees representing IMS employees and facility users will ensure that we don’t sacrifice any of the research excellence for which IEN and IMat are known. With IMS I expect we will be even better positioned to tackle research problems that will have the greatest positive societal impact.”

Vogel will continue in his current position as the executive director of IMat until the launch of IMS. In addition to leading and growing IMat, Vogel is the Hightower Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering, and he served as the IEN deputy director prior to leading IMat.

“It is an honor to be appointed executive director of the Institute for Matter and Systems, and I look forward to collaborating with the talented faculty and staff associated with it,” said Vogel. “This opportunity allows us to leverage the core competencies of IEN and IMat while extending our capabilities beyond nanotechnology and materials science. Together, we will be a hub for interdisciplinary research ranging from advanced materials to complex systems that solve global challenges.”

Georgia Tech’s IRIs facilitate collaboration between researchers and students from its six Colleges, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, national laboratories, and corporate entities to tackle critical topics of strategic significance for the Institute as well as for local, state, national, and international communities. IMS will also house and maintain the state-of-the-art Materials Characterization Facility and one of the largest academic cleanrooms in the nation, which offers a broad range of fabrication capabilities from basic discovery to prototype realization.

Before joining Georgia Tech in 2011, Vogel was an associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. During this time, he also served as the associate director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and led UT Dallas’s involvement in the Southwest Academy for Nanoelectronics.

Prior to UT Dallas, he led the CMOS and Novel Devices Group and established the Nanofabrication Facility at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Vogel holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the development and fundamental understanding of electronic and nanomaterials and devices.

Georgia Tech opened the 11th annual Atlanta Science Festival (ASF) with record attendance for Science and Engineering Day. Despite the drizzly weather, about 4,000 people of all ages from throughout metro Atlanta — more than double the number of attendees in 2023 — visited campus on Saturday, March 9, 2024, for the space-themed event. They explored more than 45 exhibitions and hands-on activities related to art, robotics, nanotechnology, chemical and systems engineering, and biology, as well as other STEAM areas. 

Visitors began their investigations at “Earth” (the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design), where they picked up a galactic passport specially designed to guide them from building to building — each designated with the name of a planet — and the demonstrations housed within.

At “Mars” (Marcus Nanotechnology Building), attendees measured their height in nanometers, experimented with fruit batteries, and took a window-tour of the largest cleanroom in the Southeast, where semiconductors are developed. Inside “Venus” (Parker H. Petit Biotech Building), budding scientists examined bioluminescent bacteria under a microscope and made Play-Doh models of the human brain. When visiting “Saturn” (Ford Environmental Sciences and Technology Building), visitors studied density by making DIY lava lamps and inspected human brain specimens the way a pathologist would.

“Getting to hold a human brain was cool,” said a 12-year-old participant from Alpharetta. “And I also liked comparing it to the brains of a pig and a mouse.”

Other activities included math games and puzzles, the opportunity to build an artificial hand and a gallery display of research-inspired artwork. Georgia Tech faculty, students, and staff hosted all the demonstrations and served as volunteers who helped Science and Engineering Day guests navigate campus and the demonstration sites.

For many participants, the undoubted highlight was the chance to hear a presentation by former NASA astronaut and Georgia Tech alumnus Shane Kimbrough, MS OR 1998. Kimbrough spent 388 days in space over three missions and served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016. He captivated the standing-room-only crowd with photos and descriptions of his time living and working aboard the ISS and answered questions from the kids in the audience.

“It’s really exciting to see all the activities around campus today … we’re inspiring the next generation of scientists and explorers for our country,” Kimbrough said afterward.

The event was a resounding success for Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Science Fair.

Lauren Overton-Kirk, who organized the event for the Institute, said, "Georgia Tech Science and Engineering Day 2024 was so wonderful to share with the community. What started years ago as a day for young scientific exploration became an all-ages, space-themed scientific spectacular. You could feel the passion for learning fill the campus in a way only Georgia Tech could do.”

Both the Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Science Festival teams are looking forward to next year’s Science and Engineering Day.

“As one of the founding organizations of the Atlanta Science Festival, Georgia Tech has been deeply invested in sharing the Institute’s innovations with the community,” said Meisa Salaita, ASF co-director. “And that investment was deeply evident on March 9th as they opened their doors to kick off the 11th annual Science Festival. Their students and faculty came out with enthusiasm to showcase science to the public. We couldn't be more thrilled with this partnership — and the many ways Tech has helped us show our community that Atlanta is a science city.”

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

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

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

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

Their system uses a kind of artificial intelligence called deep learning to autonomously adjust how the exoskeleton provides assistance, and they’ve shown it works seamlessly to support walking, standing, and climbing stairs or ramps. They described their “unified control framework” March 20 in Science Robotics.

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

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