Fast charging a battery is supposed to be risky — a shortcut that leads to battery breakdown. But for a Georgia Tech team studying zinc-ion batteries, fast charging led to a breakthrough: It made the battery stronger. This result could revolutionize how we power homes, hospitals, and the grid.

By flipping a foundational belief in battery design, Hailong Chen, an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and his team found that charging zinc-ion batteries at higher currents can make them last longer. The surprising result, recently published in Nature Communications, challenges core assumptions and offers a path toward safer, more affordable alternatives to lithium-ion technology. 
 

Why Zinc-Ion Batteries? 

Zinc-ion batteries have several key advantages over lithium-ion batteries, the most commonly used rechargeable battery technology:

• Abundant: Zinc is one of the most abundant metals on Earth, and it’s mined in many countries.
• Low cost: Zinc is significantly cheaper than lithium and doesn’t rely on scarce materials.
• Nonflammable: Unlike lithium, zinc batteries won’t catch fire — a critical safety benefit.
• Environmentally safer: Zinc is less toxic and easier to recycle than lithium-based materials.

However, until Chen’s discovery, zinc-ion batteries had one major drawback. The growth of dendrites, the sharp metal deposits that form during charging, can eventually short-circuit the battery. 

“We found that using faster charging actually suppressed dendrite formation instead of accelerating it,” Chen said. “It’s a very different behavior than what we see in lithium-ion batteries.”

With this approach, the zinc doesn’t build up into dendrites. Instead, it settles into smooth, compact layers — more like neatly stacked books than splintered shards — a structure that not only avoids short circuits but also helps the battery last longer.

“It goes against the conventional thinking that fast charging shortens battery life,” Chen said. “What we found expands people’s understanding of fast charging that could rewrite how we think about battery design and where they can be used.
 

Solving Half of the Problem

Even breakthroughs have limits. Chen was quick to point out that while his discovery solves a major issue, it only fixes one half of the battery.

A battery has two main ends, the anode and the cathode. Chen’s team made the anode last much longer. Now, the cathode must catch up. He is working to improve the cathode so the whole battery performs reliably over time. His team is also experimenting with mixing zinc with other materials to make zinc-ion batteries even more durable.

Testing Everything at Once

Chen’s team didn’t just stumble on these results. They built a novel tool that allowed them to watch how zinc behaved under different charging rates in real time, studying many samples simultaneously.

That real-time, side-by-side view was important. Traditional battery experiments usually test one variable at a time. But this novel approach allowed researchers to test hundreds of conditions at the same time, speeding up discovery and revealing patterns that would have been easy to miss.

“We weren’t just seeing whether the battery worked or not; we were watching the structure of the material evolve as it charged,” Chen noted. Using their new tool, he and his team uncovered for the first time why fast charging makes zinc settle into smooth, tightly packed layers instead of dangerous, needle-like spikes. No one had ever experimentally mapped out this process before.

It’s an approach that combines efficiency with insight.
 

Charging Into the Future

Chen’s team didn’t reinvent the battery. They challenged the status quo — and the data took them somewhere no one imagined. That unexpected result could redefine battery science.

“You can imagine these zinc-ion batteries being used to store solar energy in homes, or for grid stabilization,” Chen said. “Anywhere you need reliable, affordable backup power.”

With growing demand for clean energy, unstable lithium supply chains, and safety concerns over flammable batteries, the need for alternatives has never been more urgent.

If all goes well, Chen hopes zinc-ion batteries could be ready for everyday use in about five years.

 

 

Chen’s research was supported by Yifan Ma, ME 2024; Josh Kasher, associate professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering; and the U.S Department of Energy National Laboratories. The study was funded by Novelis through the Novelis–Georgia Tech Research Hub, with additional funding from the National Science Foundation. Two Novelis researchers, Minju Kang and John Carsley, are co-authors on the paper.

 

 

Every summer for the last eight years, Georgia Tech students, from engineering and computer science to sustainable energy and environmental management, have lent their talents and creative energy to metro Atlanta sustainability-oriented organizations to increase their capacity in the community.

The  Sustainable Communities Summer Internship Program in the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education (SCoRE) taps students from across the Institute, who gain real-world experience in both sustainability and community engagement, while participating partners scale their operations and deepen their relationship with Georgia Tech.

“It is a nontraditional internship, but it is so effective,” says Kristina Chatfield, director of business administration for the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), who manages the operational components of the program.

Impact on Atlanta’s Sustainability Community

Now in its eighth summer, the program has placed more than 200 students with over 60 Atlanta community organizations. Many return year after year, like WunderGrubs, an Atlanta-based insect farm that wants to bring a sustainable, nutritious form of protein to communities.

“I can’t overstate the value that Georgia Tech students bring to our company every summer through the SCoRE internship program,” says CEO and co-founder Akissi Stokes-Nelson, explaining that WunderGrubs’ mission is rooted in food equity and social impact. “We’re constantly innovating to support smallholder farmers, develop educational programs, and expand our reach both locally and globally. The SCoRE interns have been instrumental in helping us realize this vision.”

Stokes-Nelson says they add immediate capacity to WunderGrubs’ small team, bringing fresh perspectives and technical expertise — whether it’s developing new curricula for STEAM summer camps, introducing technology like Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and Arduino controllers, or helping the company build and scale its modular “grub shed” farming systems. She credits them with enabling her to reframe her business, pilot new programs, and even expand internationally, citing a recent partnership in Rwanda.

“What sets the Georgia Tech interns apart is their maturity, technical skill, and genuine passion for social impact. They’re not just here to learn — they’re here to contribute, innovate, and help us grow,” she says.

“The program is unique in its focus on both student development and organizational impact, particularly for underrepresented and first-generation students,” says Ruthie Yow, associate director of SCoRE, who leads partner engagement and student learning.

Georgia Tech covers all costs, including stipends for the full 12 weeks. Students take part in a seminar one evening a week to learn about grassroots sustainability innovation. They can also earn an internship course credit.

Connecting With Students in STEM

Intern Ridoine Idrissou, a computer science undergraduate at Tech, supported WunderGrubs’ “Tech Avengers” STEM summer camp. “We taught kids about cybersecurity, IoT, how to be safe online, and they learned about mealworms. They got rid of almost one ton of trash,” recalls Idrissou, who also developed IoT kits for the company’s farm sheds. “It’s not all about coding,” adds the Togo, West Africa, native. “It’s about connecting to the environment. It’s given me a whole different type of experience than I normally have as a computer science major.”

Idrissou, who has spent his last three summers interning, credits the program with giving him a chance when nobody else would. “My internship experience makes me appreciate the field I’m in, and it gives me a good idea of how to be mindful, when building software or other products, of the well-being of other people.” He plans to pursue a career in cybersecurity and system administration after he graduates next spring.

This positive internship experience isn’t the only one. Another organization benefiting from Georgia Tech’s talented students is the Lifecycle Building Center (LBC) in Atlanta.

Shannon Goodman, a Georgia Tech architecture program alumna, serves as executive director of the LBC. She considers her interns foundational to her nonprofit, which reduces waste in the built environment by salvaging materials like lumber, cabinets, flooring, and appliances, and making them available to the community, nonprofits, and for reuse in new projects. The organization runs a 70,000 square-foot warehouse and provides free materials and services to nonprofits across Atlanta.

“Our interns have been the connective tissue that helps all the different resource-constrained CEOs and community-based organizations build strong, trusted relationships with each other and lay the groundwork for our training program,” Goodman says.

Assessing the Lifecycle of Salvaged Building Materials

Morgan Hale interned at LBC while completing her graduate degree in sustainable energy and environmental management. “This internship program bridges sustainability with all the academic pathways at Georgia Tech. It does a great job of engaging students and educating them on ways to take what they're learning from school and map that into a career in sustainability,” says Hale, whose capstone project focused on the lifecycle assessment of salvaged building materials. “This internship perfectly aligned with my academic and career interests in sustainability and policy,” she adds. “And the extra workshops and networking opportunities are invaluable.”

For Goodman, education remains a key part of her team’s role. “Our job at the end of the day is helping people understand all the different types of opportunities that get lost when we just throw materials away. I don't know how we would do it without our interns. Through her capstone project, Morgan developed tools and procedures for calculating the embodied carbon and GHG emissions of the materials we salvage to create Environmental Product Declarations, or EPDs, for reclaimed materials, which don’t currently exist in the U.S. EPDs allow us to prove exactly how much better salvaged materials perform compared to new products, and will enable the material reuse industry to scale in the U.S. at a rate never seen before.”

LBC’s connection to Georgia Tech doesn’t stop with the internship program, however. “We have had countless professors from different departments of Georgia Tech bring their students here to learn about what we do, engage with us, and get materials from us,” says Goodman, noting that back in 2022, Georgia Tech was instrumental in helping her assemble community organizations like the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and many others to form the ReBuildATL Coalition. Today, the coalition includes more than 40 nonprofits, academic institutions, industry partners, and local government agencies that empower Westside Atlanta neighborhoods.

Learn More

The Sustainable Communities Summer Internship Program is a partnership between SCoRE and the Office of Community-Based Learning. It is co-sponsored by the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, the Strategic Energy Institute, the Renewable Bioproducts Institute, the Office of Commercialization, and the Sustainability Next initiative.

To learn more about the program, including how to contribute financially to the program or to become a participating partner, visit https://scre.research.gatech.edu/sustainable-communities-summer-internship-program.

By Anne Wainscott-Sargent

Researchers from Georgia Tech have created a material inspired by seashells to help improve the process of recycling plastics and make the resulting material more reliable.

The structures they created greatly reduced the variability of mechanical properties typically found in recycled plastic. Their product also maintained the performance of the original plastic materials.

The researchers said their bio-inspired design could help cut manufacturing costs of virgin packaging materials by nearly 50% and offer potential savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. And, because less than 10% of the 350 million tons of plastics produced each year is effectively recycled, the Georgia Tech approach could keep more plastic out of landfills.

Aerospace engineering assistant professor Christos Athanasiou led the study, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

Read the Q&A of the findings, and see a video of the testing, on the College of Engineering website. 

This summer, the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) and the Energy Policy and Innovation Center (EPIcenter) hosted Energy Unplugged, an education and outreach program focused on science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). The annual summer camp is organized through the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC), a unit of the College of Lifetime Learning at Georgia Tech. As one of Tech’s most sought-after programs for high school students, the weeklong summer camp continues to spark interest in energy innovation and develop foundational skills in science.

“Energy Unplugged introduces high school students to Georgia Tech’s vibrant innovation ecosystem, engaging young minds in shaping a more forward-thinking energy future,” said Christine Conwell, interim executive director of SEI.

Rich Simmons, SEI’s director of Research and Studies and a George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering faculty instructor, has led the camp’s curriculum since 2019. Under his leadership, students engage in applied learning experiences that introduce energy efficiency principles, foster creative thinking, and encourage real-world decision-making.

“Energy Unplugged features interactive activities and field trips which provide students tangible exposure to working energy facilities and STEM careers,” Simmons said. “As an integral part of our education and outreach efforts, the camp continues to inspire the next generation to think critically about energy and its impact on their communities and the world.”

“Collaborating with SEI on Energy Unplugged allows us to amplify CEISMC’s mission of expanding access to high-quality STEM experiences,” said Sirocus Barnes, director of Expanded Learning Programs at CEISMC. “By connecting students with real-world energy challenges and Georgia Tech’s research ecosystem, we’re helping them envision themselves as future innovators and problem-solvers.”

The week began with a hands-on workshop where students constructed mousetrap-powered cars, applying core physics concepts and the mechanics of energy conversion. In another activity, students raced remote-controlled cars to highlight the importance of swift decision-making while accounting for external variables. These experiments offered students a dynamic understanding of the relationship between energy and physics. Camp participants also explored electricity use in everyday life by experimenting with solar charging setups, learning how devices like cellphones can be powered through solar energy.

One participant, a rising high school senior, noted the program's differentiation from the typical classroom model: “We had a lot of experiences that aren’t typically offered in high school, which gave me a greater understanding of physics.” 

The camp also featured site visits, including a tour of The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design — the first building in the Southeast to meet the standards of the Living Building Challenge. Students explored the building’s facilities, including its rooftop garden and photovoltaic canopy. Additional field trips included tours of Oglethorpe’s Georgia System Operations plant and the Morgan Falls hydroelectric power plant, which offered students firsthand exposure to how energy is generated and managed across the state. 

To conclude the week, students collaborated in teams on a mini design challenge: devising a sustainable taco business. They were tasked with cooking beans efficiently using either a slow cooker or a pressure cooker and learning how to balance time, energy use, and customer satisfaction. This final project reinforced lessons in energy trade-offs and problem-solving. Teams presented their findings to an audience of parents, faculty, and staff — a memorable opportunity that allowed them to develop public speaking and technical presentation skills as well.

“The presentation on the last day of camp encourages students to use their creativity in different ways to form new solutions and ideas,” said Jake Churchill, graduate student and former camp counselor, “which provides great exposure to an open-minded, nonlinear approach to engineering — and a great teacher, Rich Simmons.” 

Contributed by: Katie Strickland

This June, New York City’s government and utility urged households to conserve electricity during an extreme heat wave with temperatures reaching 100 degrees F. People were asked to set air conditioners to 76 degrees, to avoid using more than one air conditioning unit, and to delay using electricity-hungry appliances during peak cooling hours.

The big concern is that when every air conditioning unit is running at full blast, electricity demand can exceed total generating capacity and force the utility to implement rolling blackouts. These rolling blackouts avoid a total system failure but leave people without access to cooling and other electronics as temperatures reach dangerous levels.

As temperatures peak in the United States during the coming weeks, utilities and city governments may follow suit with similar requests for voluntary conservation. Voluntary requests for conservation in the United States are part of the standard energy emergency playbook and go back at least to President Carter’s request for Americans to reduce heating temperatures during the 1977 energy crisis.

So, do voluntary conservation requests work to save energy and prevent blackouts?

Read Full Story on the EPIcenter Newspage

For more than 15 years, Georgia Tech has provided the City of Atlanta with the foundational data and insight that shape how the city tracks, understands, and plans for changes in its tree canopy. The latest cycle of this research—delivered through the Center for Urban Resilience and Analytics (CURA)—continues that legacy by offering a high-resolution, citywide canopy assessment using satellite imagery and field validation.

The assessment, funded by the city’s Tree Recompense Fund, uses advanced remote sensing tools such as WorldView-2 satellite data and a random forest classification model to categorize land into three land cover types. These include tree canopy, non-tree vegetation (grass, shrubs, and low lying vegetation) and non-vegetation (water, pervious surface). The methodology delivers a detailed spatial picture of land cover across the city.

“This is simply a tool in their planning arsenal,” said Anthony Giarrusso, who has led every canopy study since 2008. “Before they did any of this work in 2008, everything was anecdotal. It was reactionary.”

The new study is not advocacy—it’s information. Giarrusso emphasized that while researchers stay neutral in the politics of urban growth and conservation, their work equips city leaders with science-based knowledge to make more effective zoning and planning decisions.

In addition to mapping existing conditions, the Georgia Tech team developed the Potential Planting Index (PPI), a scalable tool that identifies where tree planting is physically possible based on current land cover. The tool quantifies the difference between tree canopy and non-tree vegetation, indicating zones with restoration potential.

Another key insight is the challenge of interpreting canopy change without understanding land use patterns. “It gives you a false sense of stability if you don’t understand the underlying land use,” said Giarrusso. “You might see canopy regrowth on paper, but that land could be cleared again tomorrow.” He explained that this false signal is particularly common in stalled development sites: “We saw a lot of properties where trees had regrown after initial clearing, but it was temporary and monoculture, low quality canopy. Several of those areas were cleared again for construction later.”

Giarrusso pointed to these “loss-gain-loss” cycles as one of the more misleading aspects of tree canopy analysis without strong land use context. “Some of them were pipe farms—land cleared for development with infrastructure like water and sewer lines installed, but then construction never happened. So trees grow back, and you get a canopy gain that doesn’t last and is nowhere near the quality of the trees originally cleared.”

He stressed that policymakers need to consider the permanence of canopy when using the data. “If it’s just going to be cleared again in two years, it’s not really a gain. That’s why long-term tracking and land use analysis together are so important.”

The city has incorporated these tools into broader planning efforts, including zoning reform and tree ordinance revisions. The research supports recommendations such as restricting full lot clearing in certain zoning categories and adjusting setback or lot coverage limits to better preserve existing canopy.

Giarrusso underscored the urgency of protecting larger, intact forested tracts. “If you can see it from space and it’s still forest—save it,” he said. “Once it’s cleared, you don’t get it back.”

Tommer Ender, Ph.D., serves as the interim Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and Senior Vice President for Georgia Tech, stepping into the role following the departure of Jim Hudgens, who became President and CEO of UL Research Institutes in June.

Ender takes the helm at GTRI as it reaches a new milestone in awards and revenue. During fiscal year 2025, GTRI secured $964 million in new awards, up 11% from the previous year, and earned $980 million in revenue. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to support national security, the state of Georgia, and industry.

“Tommer has been a driving force behind GTRI’s growth and evolution, and I’m grateful he’s serving in this interim capacity,” said Tim Lieuwen, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research. “His deep roots at Georgia Tech — as an alumnus, researcher, and executive — give him a uniquely steady hand at a pivotal time. He leads with both technical expertise and human insight, a rare combination that will serve GTRI well in the months ahead.”

Ender leads over 3,000 GTRI employees and researchers across a variety of disciplines, including autonomous systems, cybersecurity, electromagnetics, electronic warfare, modeling and simulation, sensors, systems engineering, test and evaluation, and threat systems. As interim Senior Vice President of Georgia Tech, Ender also serves on the President’s Cabinet helping set operational and strategic direction for the Institute and reports to Tim Lieuwen, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for Research.

With nearly 25 years of experience focused on national security and systems engineering research, Ender most recently served as GTRI’s Deputy Director for Research, leading the Electronics, Optics, and Systems Directorate (EOSD). He managed operations for an 800-person unit with an annual $300 million research portfolio across three research laboratories, and was also a member of the GTRI Executive Council, helping set GTRI strategy and informing critical decisions impacting the organization. Ender was previously the Director of GTRI’s Electronic Systems (ELSYS) Laboratory, which has over 500 personnel across 12 locations in the United States. 

Ender’s personal area of research includes development of collaborative, executable Model -Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools utilizing multidisciplinary design optimization and trade space analytics applied to complex problems. He has also served as an instructor and course developer for Georgia Tech’s Professional Master’s in Applied Systems Engineering, and has been a member of several doctoral and master’s thesis committees at Georgia Tech and other universities. 

“For the past two decades, I have had the privilege to work with GTRI’s renowned team of researchers who deliver innovative solutions to the world’s most complex issues,” said Ender. “I am humbled to have been appointed interim Director of GTRI to support our mission focused on national security, improving the human condition, serving the state of Georgia, and educating future technology leaders.”

Ender has been invited to participate in a number of national committees, including at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, offering up his expertise in the areas of systems and digital engineering. He is also a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and an active member of the International Council on Systems Engineers (INCOSE), National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), and Military Operations Research Society (MORS), regularly publishing with those organizations. 

A three-time alumnus, Ender earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP).

Georgia Tech will be conducting a national search to identify the permanent director of GTRI, with more details to follow.

For more information, please contact gtri.media@gtri.gatech.edu. 

To learn more about GTRI, visit: Georgia Tech Research Institute | GTRI