Georgia AIM Week: Making Manufacturing Cool
Oct 14, 2024 —

Georgia AIM representatives talk with students on Georgia Tech's campus during the launch event for their new mobile labs.
Gold and white pompoms fluttered while Buzz, the official mascot of the Georgia Institute of Technology, danced to marching band music. But the celebration wasn’t before a football or basketball game — instead, the cheers marked the official launch of Georgia AIM Week, a series of events and a new mobile lab designed to bring technology to all parts of Georgia
Organized by Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (Georgia AIM), Georgia AIM Week kicked off September 30 with a celebration on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus and culminated with another celebration on Friday at the University of Georgia in Athens and aligned with National Manufacturing Day.
In between, the Georgia AIM Mobile Studio made stops at schools and community organizations to showcase a range of technology rooted in AI and smart technology.
“Georgia AIM Week was a statewide opportunity for us to celebrate Manufacturing Day and to launch our Georgia AIM Mobile Studio,” said Donna Ennis, associate vice president, community-based engagement, for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute and Georgia AIM co-director. “Georgia AIM projects planned events in cities around the state, starting here in Atlanta. Then we headed to Warner Robins, Southwest Georgia, and Athens. We’re excited about the opportunity to bring this technology to our communities and increase access and ideas related to smart technology.”
Georgia AIM is a collaboration across the state to provide the tools and knowledge to empower all communities, particularly those that have been underserved and overlooked in manufacturing. This includes rural communities, women, people of color, and veterans. Georgia AIM projects are located across the state and work within communities to create a diverse AI manufacturing workforce. The federally funded program is a collaborative project administered through Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute and the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute.
A cornerstone of Georgia AIM Week was the debut of the Georgia AIM Mobile Studio, a 53-foot custom trailer outfitted with technology that can be used in manufacturing — but also by anyone with an interest in learning about AI and smart technology. Visitors to the mobile studio can experience virtual reality, 3-D printing, drones, robots, sensors, computer vision, and circuits essential to running this new tech.
There’s even a dog — albeit a robotic one — named Nova.
The studio was designed to introduce students to the possibilities of careers in manufacturing and show small businesses some of the cost-effective ways they can incorporate 21st century technology into their manufacturing operations.
“We were awarded about $7.5 million to build this wonderful studio here,” said Kenya Asbill, who works at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE) as the Economic Development Administration project manager for Georgia AIM. “We will be traveling around the state of Georgia to introduce artificial intelligence in manufacturing to our targeted communities, including underserved rural and urban residents.”
Some technology on the Georgia AIM Mobile Studio was designed in consultation with project partners Kitt Labs and Technologists of Color. An additional suite of “technology vignettes” were developed by students at the University of Georgia College of Engineering. RICE and UGA served as project leads for the mobile studio development, and RICE will oversee its deployment across the state in the coming months.
To request a mobile studio visit, please visit the Georgia AIM website.
During Monday’s kickoff, the Georgia Tech cheerleaders and Buzz fired up the crowd before an event that featured remarks by Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. EDA Christina Killingsworth; Jay Bailey, president and CEO of RICE; Beshoy Morkos, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Georgia; Aaron Stebner, co-director of Georgia AIM; David Bridges, vice president of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute; and lightning presentations by Georgia AIM project leads from around the state.
Following the presentations, mobile studio tours were led by Jon Exume, president and executive director, and Mark Lawson, director of technology, for Technologists of Color. The organization works to create a cohesive and thriving community of African Americans in tech.
“I’m particularly excited to witness the launch of the Georgia AIM Mobile Studio. It really will help demystify AI and bring its promise to underserved rural areas across the state,” Killingsworth said. “AI is the defining technology of our generation. It’s transforming the global economy, and it will continue to have tremendous impact on the global workforce. And while AI has the potential to democratize access to information, enhance efficiency, and allow humans to focus on the more complex, creative, and meaningful aspects of work, it also has the power to exacerbate economic disparity. As such, we must work together to embrace the promise of AI while mitigating its risks.”
Other events during Georgia AIM week included the Middle Georgia Innovation Corridor Manufacturing Expo in Warner Robins, West Georgia Manufacturing Day – Student Career Expo in LaGrange, and a visit to Colquitt County High School in Moultrie. The week wrapped on Friday, Oct. 4, at the University of Georgia in Athens with a National Manufacturing Day celebration.
“We’re focused on growing our manufacturing economy,” Ennis said. “We’re also focused on the development and deployment of innovation and talent in the manufacturing industry as it relates to AI and other technologies. Manufacturing is cool. It is a changing industry. We want our students and younger people to understand that this is a career.”
NSF RAPID Grant to Analyze Plume Chemistry
Dec 11, 2024 —

The School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences' air quality trailer in Conyers, Georgia (Photo Credit: Greg Huey Research Group)
On September 29, 2024, a chemical plume of chlorine- and bromine-containing compounds spread across the Atlanta area. The result of a fire at the BioLab pool chemical manufacturing facility in Conyers, Georgia, the plume impacted communities for several weeks, prompting a stay-at-home order and the temporary evacuation of approximately 17,000 people for the surrounding county.
Professor Greg Huey has been awarded an NSF RAPID grant to unravel the chemical composition of the emission plumes. The grant, "Identification and Measurement of Emissions from the Biolab Incident Impacting the Atlanta Urban Area", will support the analysis of air chemistry data collected during a three-week span that the plume impacted the Atlanta area.
During the incident, Huey’s lab collected real-time air chemistry data in two locations — at Georgia Tech in Midtown Atlanta, and near the BioLab facility, in Conyers, GA.
Huey, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent the last fifteen years measuring halogens — including chlorine and bromine — in remote locations like Barrow, Alaska. “Normally, there are no halogens detectable in the Atlanta area,” he says. “But spending the last 15 years making observations in other locations means that we were well-equipped to measure the halogens from the BioLab plume, and untangle some of the plume’s chemistry.”
“Our goal is to understand and report what was in the plume, then establish a website and make the data publicly available,” Huey adds. “We aim to share valuable public knowledge about this incident.”
A rapid response
When the plume first became visible, Huey recognized the ability to collect data in real-time.
“We decided to turn our high resolution mass spectrometer on and start sampling air,” he says. This piece of scientific equipment is capable of capturing and identifying chemical signatures, and is sensitive to measuring levels of specific chemicals, such as chlorine and bromine. “We have a port measure on the roof of our building at Georgia Tech, which allowed us to start observing the first day,” he adds.
However, this kind of data collection also depends on wind direction blowing chemicals to different regions, Huey explains.
Leveraging the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences’ mobile air quality trailer, the team deployed a second mass spectrometer near the BioLab facility in Conyers, Georgia. “The City was very supportive,” Huey shares. “We set up the mobile lab in the parking lot of Conyers City Hall with the goal of seeing what we could measure — and if we were seeing high levels of chlorine.”
With both sites established, Huey says the team was able to simultaneously measure in Conyers and in Midtown Atlanta — and began to see that the plume was more chemically complex than initially thought.
A proactive approach
Collected data in tow, the NSF RAPID grant will support Huey and a graduate student in the analysis of those site readings, including calibration and publication of chemical data — to be archived to a publicly accessible site; analysis of mass spectra associated with the plumes and identification of chemical compounds; calibration of the species identified, prioritized based on toxicity; and publication of a report on all species detected in the plumes.
Data from the project will help inform communities potentially impacted by the plume — while helping predict the impacts of similar chemical incidents, enabling a better understanding of how to address accidental chemical emissions in the future.
“We want to have a better idea of what this type of incident can produce for future incidents, and we want to have a better idea of what people may have been exposed to,” Huey says. “While we can’t measure and identify everything, this project will help us become better informed for the future.”
Funding:
NSF AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences #2509330

Mass spectrometry equipment (Photo Credit: Greg Huey Research Group)

Written by Selena Langner
Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston
Employing Business Analytics for Social Impact: A Partnership Between a Colombian Nonprofit and Scheller's Business Analytics Center
Dec 10, 2024 —

Over the past few years, Antioquia, a department located in the northwest region of Colombia with a population of about 6.9 million, has seen an influx of people, not only from other parts of Colombia, but from all over the world.
While this has stimulated economic growth, especially in Medellín, Antioquia’s capital and largest city, it has also introduced challenges such as rising costs and gentrification, with certain neighborhoods becoming less affordable.
Comfama is a nonprofit organization that strives to grow the middle class by providing social and economic services to families. The organization has begun a groundbreaking project in collaboration with the Business Analytics Center (BAC) at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business to enhance its ability to forecast and meet the needs of the population.
Determining the Future of Compensation Funds
Comfama is a “compensation fund.” In Colombia, these private, nonprofit organizations have been created to improve the lives of workers and their families. They provide social services for recreation, culture, education, preventive healthcare, housing assistance, loans, and more. There are 42 compensation funds across the country that play a vital part in the country's social security system, according to Santiago García Rivera, head of the Information and Analytics Laboratory at Comfama.
For companies in Colombia, participation in a compensation fund is mandatory. Each fund collects a 4 percent payroll tax from affiliated companies to provide monetary subsidies to workers and their families. "We have about 121 thousand companies affiliated with Comfama, which includes about 1.4 million workers. When you take into account their families, that's around 2.7 million people we serve, plus a large group of non affiliated people that use our services," said García Rivera.
For Comfama, economic and demographic shifts have complicated the prediction of how many people will use its services. "Recognizing these challenges, Comfama is embracing data-driven solutions. We want to build a robust prediction model to help us forecast what will happen to our affiliated population in the future," he said.
The Georgia Tech Connection
This is where Georgia Tech comes in. One of García Rivera's colleagues at Comfama, Juan David Penagos, head of Ventures and New Business Development, knew about the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute Medellín Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center and suggested they reach out to see whether they could put a project together with business analytics students. Sara Araujo Santos, managing director of Development for Latin America for the Center, contacted Sherri Von Behren, the BAC's corporate engagement manager, about possibly creating an MBA business analytics practicum project to help Comfama.
Von Behren contacted Jonathan Fan, a faculty member of the Information Technology Management group in the Scheller College. Fan leads students in transforming data into business solutions through the Business Analytics Practicum course, which is offered in the fall for graduate students and in the spring for undergraduates. Fan immediately saw the value of the opportunity for his MBA students and set up a practicum in which they are developing predictive models using time series data and macroeconomic variables.
There are two teams assigned to the project: Team Data Paisa Squad with Aaron Payne, MBA ‘26 (team lead), Lissette Chavez, MBA ‘25, and Boris Taganov, MBA ‘25, and Team The Growth Gurus of Antioquia, with Justin Siegel, MS in Analytics ’25 (team lead), Srinjoy DasMahapatra, MBA ’25, and Vinaya Vinigalla, MBA ’24. Haofei Qin, Ph.D. candiate at Scheller helped mentor students along the way.
They meet weekly with the Comfama team, which includes analysts and data scientists Alejandra Bernal, Susanna Londoño, and Wbeimar Ossa. The teams discuss their progress and address any challenges they face that week. With less than two months to go, they're seeing results.
Fan has been pleased with the results so far. “This cohort was truly outstanding,” he said, speaking of his students. ”They approached complex topics with clarity and creativity, and their collaborative spirit led to innovative ideas and enlightening discussions. They handled challenging subjects effortlessly, always coming up with fresh and interesting perspectives."
Managing the Present and Predicting the Future
Regarding the work of Team Data Paisa Squad, Aaron Payne remarked, "One of our key successes has been developing a model framework that provides accurate forecasts and adapts to changes in external economic indicators. By integrating machine learning techniques alongside traditional time series models, we've increased our forecasts' robustness. Additionally, the collaboration with Comfama's internal team has been highly productive, enabling us to align our technical solutions with their business needs. The early feedback on our findings has been positive."
Payne stated that one of the main challenges they've faced has been combining data from multiple sources, as each source has different levels of detail and accuracy. Ensuring these data sets are consistent and reliable has been difficult, especially for economic factors that may not directly match Comfama's internal data. Another challenge is adapting standard forecasting models like SARIMAX—Seasonal AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average with eXogenous variables— to account for external influences like government policies or unexpected economic changes.
"This experience has reinforced the value of experiential learning in advancing my business analytics skills. Working with real-world data, especially in a dynamic organization like Comfama, has provided a deeper understanding of how to apply advanced analytical methods to solve practical business problems. The practicum has helped bridge the gap between theory and practice, giving me confidence in using these tools to drive decision-making in real business environments," said Payne.
The practicum is more than just about numbers, though. It's about understanding the lives behind the data points. As Fan reminds his students, "A model is just a model, but those data points represent individual lives. We want to understand the mechanism or the story behind the data."
Lorrie Burroughs
Keeping Tabs on RNA Inside of Cells
Dec 10, 2024 —

Saurabh Sinha (center) and his collaborators are advancing the field of spatial transcriptomics with development of InSTAnT. Flanking Sinha are trainees from his lab (left to right), Bhavay Aggarwal and lead author of the recently published study, Anurendra Kumar.
Saurabh Sinha and a multi-institutional team of researchers have created a computational toolkit with the detection power and precision of a spy satellite. But instead of keeping tabs of human traffic on the ground, or infrastructure development in a city, they’re focusing on RNA with unprecedented clarity at the subcellular level.
Their intracellular spatial transcriptomic analysis toolkit, or InSTAnT, can analyze cellular data and chart RNA interactions, providing new insights into the molecular processes of life and advancing an evolving field of research.
“Conventional spatial transcriptomics maps RNA at the tissue level,” said Sinha, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “But InSTAnT represents a step forward. It provides, for the first time, an analytic technique to fully exploit single-molecule resolution. This means we can explore the intricate architecture, machinery, and activity of cells in ways that were not possible before.”
In addition to Georgia Tech and Emory, the team included researchers from from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. With Anurendra Kumar, a grad student in the Sinha lab, as lead author, they explained their innovative work recently in Nature Communications.
Subcellular GPS
Spatial transcriptomics has enhanced the study of gene expression (how genes regulate cellular functions and behaviors), revealing molecular activity in its natural environment. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of biology, health, and disease, with the hope of developing targeted treatments.
“One of the biggest challenges in the field was the lack of systematic tools to analyze spatial relationships at the subcellular level,” Sinha said. “We saw this gap as an opportunity to innovate and solve a problem that was truly spatial in nature.”
InSTAnT was designed to work in tandem with imaging-based spatial transcriptomics technologies like MERFISH (Multiplexed Error-Robust Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, developed by Harvard in 2015), which can observe thousands of RNA molecules inside single cells, gathering detailed information about gene activity.
“It’s like a GPS for tissue, looking all the way down to city street level,” said Sinha. “The little dots on this GPS aren’t people. They’re RNA molecules called gene transcripts. But we didn’t really know how to make sense of this distribution of molecules in the cytoplasm or the nucleus, or generally within the cell.”
InSTAnT translates what MERFISH gathers, using advanced statistical tests and algorithms, analyzing the distribution of RNA molecules that carry genetic information needed for various cell functions.
The Cities in Our Cells
If a cell was a busy little city, think of the gene transcripts — RNA molecules, the dots in Sinha’s GPS scenario — as workers moving around town, performing their important tasks.
InSTAnT keeps tabs on this activity, investigating where and how these workers interact, and what they might be up to. So, InSTAnT identifies RNA pairs in specific areas, observing molecular interactions that are critical for cellular functions like protein production.
“Our toolkit provides a level of detail crucial for understanding complex biological processes and how they contribute to diseases,” said Sinha, whose team tested the toolkit on a variety of datasets, including human and mouse cells, and across multiple cell types and brain regions.
He expects InSTAnT to transform how researchers study RNA interactions and explore unknown aspects of cellular organization and function.
“I think we’ve opened new possibilities for studying how cells coordinate their activities and adapt to challenges,” said Sinha, adding, “and it was a true team effort, with two other PIs from another institution, and a talented Ph.D. student as the lead author. This is a great example of how collaboration and data-driven science can uncover new biological frontiers.”
CITATION: Aunrendra Kumar, Alex Schrader, Bhavay Aggarwal, Ali Ebrahimpour Boroojeny, Marisa Asadian, JuYeon Lee, You Jin Song, Sihai Dave Zhao, Hee-Sun Han, Saurabh Sinha. “Intracellular spatial transcriptomic analysis toolkit (InSTAnT),” Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49457-w
FUNDING: This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant Nos. R35GM131819, R35GM147420, R21HG013180, and T32- 842 GM136629; Johnson & Johnson (WiSTEM2D Award for Science). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.
Protein Handshake Holds Key to Immune Response
Dec 10, 2024 —

The research team used advanced microscopy techniques to capture these images of CD40 and CD40L interactions.
A firm handshake between proteins on immune cells is important for the body’s ability to fight infection. Meanwhile, a weak grip helps explain the poor immune deficiencies caused by a rare genetic disorder.
A new study led by Georgia Tech and Emory University researcher Cheng Zhu explores the role of physical force on the immune system’s ability to fight an infection. The team’s discoveries could lead to new therapies that boost immune responses and improve the outcomes of patients battling a rare and devastating disease.
“With this research, we’ve shown how dynamic and physical the immune system truly is,” said Zhu, Regents' Professor and J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME).
The work focuses on the interaction of B cells and T cells in the body’s immune system via two proteins — CD40 on B cells and CD40L on T cells — in an immune deficiency disease called X-linked Hyper IgM syndrome, or X-HIgM. It’s a genetic disorder affecting two out of every million newborn boys, 80% of whom die before the age of 25.
The researchers found mechanical forces generated by these interactions create a “catch bond” between the proteins. It’s like a strong handshake that only gets firmer when each person tries to pull away.
When the bond is strong, it causes T cells to signal B cells they need to make antibodies to fight an invading pathogen. In fact, the B cells can actually switch gears, producing antibodies that are different from what they had been making.
But people with X-HIgM have damaged CD40L proteins, resulting in weak bonds, poor signaling, and the inability to make the right antibodies.
The team published their findings in Science Advances. The work emphasizes the role of mechanotransduction — the conversion of physical force into chemical activity — in the immune system.
“What surprised us was the discovery of the catch bond between CD40 and CD40L and how it relates to mechanotransduction,” said Zhu. “Mechanical force doesn’t just passively exist during T cell and B cell interactions — it actively enhances signaling and ensures robust antibody responses.”
Zhu’s fellow principal investigators in the study included Georgia Tech researcher Ankur Singh and Juergen Wienands of the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany. Lead authors were former BME PhD student Stefano Travaglino and former postdoc Hyun-Kyu Choi (now an assistant professor at Yonsei University in South Korea).
Training Camp for B Cells
In the body’s defense system, B cells are produced in the bone marrow and migrate to a part of the lymph nodes called the germinal center.
“It’s like a training camp where B cells undergo improvement processes, including affinity maturation and antibody class switch, enhancing their ability to make effective antibodies,” Travaglino said.
B cells interact with and receive instructive signals from T cells to make antibodies that are most effective in coping with the pathogen invader. It’s a process that relies heavily on the interaction of CD40 and CD40L.
Using techniques like fluorescence microscopy, the researchers were able to look closely at activity in germinal centers. They used force spectroscopy tools like the biomembrane force probe which revealed that the strong, tugging handshake is suppressed by X-HIgM mutation.
The findings suggest that the physical environment and activity within the germinal center is just as important as the chemical signals at play between the proteins. By demonstrating how X-HIgM mutations impair catch bonds, the researchers provided a mechanistic explanation for the condition’s antibody deficiencies — knowledge that could open the door to future innovations in therapeutic intervention and immunotherapy.
Singh called the team’s findings “nothing short of revolutionary.”
“The significance of the research extends far beyond understanding X-HIgM, offering a fresh perspective on how to approach a variety of immune disorders,” he said. “As this field of study evolves, the potential for advancements in immune therapies looks bright.”
CITATION: Hyun-Kyu Choi, Stefano Travaglino, Matthias Münchhalfen, Richard Görg, Zhe Zhong, Jintian Lyu, David M. Reyes-Aguilar, Jürgen Wienands, Ankur Singh, and Cheng Zhu. “Mechanotransduction governs CD40 function and underlies X-linked Hyper IgM syndrome,” Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl5815
FUNDING: This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants U01CA250040, U01CA280984, R01CA238745, and R01CA266052; The Hyper IgM Foundation AWD-004331; German Research Foundation SFB TRR 274, project A08; National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant RS-2024-00337196; and the Yonsei University Research Fund 2024-22-0036. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.

Georgia Tech researchers Cheng Zhu and Ankur Singh
Rising Tide Program Launches for Early Career Scientists
Dec 10, 2024 — Atlanta, GA

Created in partnership with the new Science for Georgia’s Tomorrow initiative, the College of Sciences has launched the Rising Tide Program, which will equip early career scientists with two-year fellowships that are focused on faculty mentoring and skills development to apply for competitive faculty positions.
The inaugural Rising Tide cohort is set to include seven fellows from several institutions — with research interests across nuclear physics, urban climate, resource recovery, machine learning, bioinformatics, and ecology.
Rising Tide is spearheaded by Alex Robel, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences who serves as the Program’s inaugural director.
The Program has three primary goals. “We aim to improve our ability to recruit the most promising young scientists and mathematicians to careers at Georgia Tech, to raise the profile of Tech as an institution that develops academic careers in the sciences, and to better align the range of perspectives and lived experiences of faculty with Georgia Tech students,” Robel shares.
Robel adds that the program leverages the strong culture of mentorship in the College.
“Since I have been at Georgia Tech, I have been inspired by the many individual faculty in the College of Sciences who have achieved consistent success in mentoring students and postdocs to gratifying academic careers,” he says. “In designing the Rising Tide Program, my aim was to organize these successful faculty within a program that supports their existing efforts and complements those efforts with professional career development activities.”
The Rising Tide Program is supported by a generous gift from Nathan Meehan (PHYS 1975) and matching funds from the Office of the Provost.
Science for the Southeast
Rising Tide is part of the just-launched Science for Georgia’s Tomorrow Center, which prioritizes research and teaching aligned with Georgia-specific issues — while connecting Georgia communities with that research and teaching. Robel hopes the Program will help provide a pathway to foster this type of local research at the Institute.
“Part of Rising Tide is to bring more faculty to the Institute who can contribute to research and teaching particularly relevant to communities in Georgia,” Robel explains. “We aim to improve the ability of the College to recruit scientists with professional or lived experience in the Southeast — or focused on research with particular relevance to the Southeast.”
Research future
Early career scientists at any institution can be nominated by College of Sciences faculty to participate in Rising Tide. Selected Fellows take part in the two-year program, where they are welcomed into the Georgia Tech community — then mentored virtually by College faculty and supported with ongoing opportunities to develop skills for applying to competitive faculty positions.
Robel emphasizes that, for the College and new Rising Tide Fellows, it’s a win-win.
“I am most excited to see how this first cohort of fellows interact and learn from each other,” Robel says. “I am also looking forward to seeing what new and exciting ideas and perspectives they can bring to the research and teaching mission of the College of Sciences.”
Written by Selena Langner
Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston
Heck, Xia Elected to National Academy of Inventors
Dec 10, 2024 —

Georgia Tech's iconic Tech Tower in the springtime.
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is adding two more Georgia Tech researchers to its roster of innovators: Larry Heck and Younan Xia.
Heck is an artificial intelligence and speech recognition pacesetter who helped create virtual assistants for Microsoft, Samsung, Google, and Amazon. Xia is a nanomaterials pioneer whose inventions include silver nanowires commercialized for use in touchscreen displays, flexible electronics, and photovoltaics.
Election to NAI is the highest professional distinction specifically awarded to inventors. Founded in 2012, the NAI Fellows program has recognized 22 Georgia Tech innovators — 12 in just the last five years. Xia and Heck join a 2025 class of 170 new fellows representing university, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide.

Larry Heck

Younan Xia
Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering
US Secretary of the Navy Visits Georgia Tech
Dec 02, 2024 —

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro during his remarks at the John Lewis Student Center.
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) proudly hosted U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro during his recent campus visit. Del Toro's visit underscored the critical role of innovation and technology in national security and highlighted Georgia Tech's significant contributions to this effort.
“Our Navy-Marine Corps Team remains at the center of global and national security — maintaining freedom of the seas, international security, and global stability,” he explained in his remarks at the John Lewis Student Center. “To win the fight of the future, we must embrace and implement emerging technologies.”
The Secretary provided an update on science and technology research to the Atlanta Region Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps unit, comprised of midshipmen from Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University. Del Toro has worked to establish a new Naval Science and Technology Strategy to address current and future challenges faced by the Navy and Marine Corps. The strategy serves as a global call to service and innovation for stakeholders in academia, industry, and government.
“The Georgia Tech Research Institute has answered this call,” he said.
A key pillar of the new strategy, says Del Toro, was the establishment of the Department of the Navy’s Science and Technology Board in 2023, “with the intent that the board provide independent advice and counsel to the department on matters and policies relating to scientific, technical, manufacturing, acquisition, logistics, medicine, and business management functions.”
The board, which includes Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) Executive Director Thomas Kurfess, has conducted six studies in its inaugural year to identify new technologies for rapid adoption and provide near-term, practical recommendations for quick implementation by the Navy.
“I recently led the team for developing a strategy for integrating additive manufacturing into the Navy’s overall shipbuilding and repair strategy,” says Kurfess. “We just had final approval of our recommendations — we are making a significant impact on the Navy with respect to additive manufacturing.”
Del Toro's visit to Georgia Tech reaffirms the Institute's role as a leader in research and innovation, particularly in areas critical to national security. The collaboration between Georgia Tech and the Department of the Navy continues to drive advancements that ensure the safety and effectiveness of the nation's naval forces.
“Innovation is at the heart of our efforts at Georgia Tech and GTMI,” says Kurfess. “It is an honor to put that effort toward ensuring our country’s safety and national security in partnership with the U.S. Navy.”
“As our department continues to reimagine and refocus our innovation efforts,” said Del Toro, “I encourage all of you — our nation’s scientists, engineers, researchers, and inventors — to join us.”

The Secretary provided an update on science and technology research to the Atlanta Region Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps unit, comprised of midshipmen from Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University.
Audra Davidson
Research Communications Program Manager
Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute
Georgia Tech and OPEN MIND Empower Staff and Students With Advanced Manufacturing Training
Dec 05, 2024 —

Georgia Tech students and staff members gathered at the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility with members of OPEN MIND for the training.
As automation and AI continue to transform the manufacturing industry, the need for seamless integration across all production stages has reached an all-time high. By digitally designing products, controlling the machinery that builds them, and collecting precise data at each step, digital integration streamlines the entire manufacturing process — cutting down on waste materials, cost, and production time.
Recently, the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) teamed up with OPEN MIND Technologies to host an immersive, weeklong training session on hyperMILL, an advanced manufacturing software enabling this digital integration.
OPEN MIND, the developer of hyperMILL, has been a longtime supporter of research operations in Georgia Tech’s Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF). “Our adoption of their software solutions has allowed us to explore the full potential of machines and to make sure we keep forging new paths,” said Steven Ferguson, a principal research scientist at GTMI.
Software like hyperMILL helps plan the most efficient and accurate way to cut, shape, or 3D print materials on different machines, making the process faster and easier. Hosted at the AMPF, the immersive training offered 10 staff members and students a hands-on platform to use the software while practicing machining and additive manufacturing techniques.
“The number of new features and tricks that the software has every year makes it advantageous to stay current and get a refresher course,” said Alan Burl, a Ph.D. student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who attended the training session. “More advanced users can learn new tips and tricks while simultaneously exposing new users to the power of a fully featured, computer-aided manufacturing software.”
OPEN MIND Technologies has partnered with Georgia Tech for over five years to support digital manufacturing research, offering biannual training in their latest software to faculty and students.
“Meeting the new graduate students each fall is something that I look forward to,” said Brad Rooks, an application engineer at OPEN MIND and one of the co-leaders of the training session. “This particular group posed questions that were intuitive and challenging to me as a trainer — their inquisitive nature drove me to look at our software from fresh perspectives.”
The company is also a member of GTMI’s Manufacturing 4.0 Consortium, a membership-based group that unites industry, academia, and government to develop and implement advanced manufacturing technologies and train the workforce for the market.
“The strong reputation of GTMI in the manufacturing industry, and more importantly, the reputation of the students, faculty, and researchers who support research within our facilities, enables us to forge strategic partnerships with companies like OPEN MIND,” says Ferguson, who also serves as executive director of the consortium. “These relationships are what makes working with and within GTMI so special.”
Audra Davidson
Research Communications Program Manager
Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute