When Maia Barrow was in sixth grade, a close relative was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Seeing their cognitive decline sparked her interest in neuroscience. She chose to study at Georgia Tech so she could not only take classes in neuroscience but also do research in it. 

“I realized from the International Baccalaureate program in high school that I really liked research and writing about my findings, so I wanted to hit the ground running,” Barrow said. “A couple of the other schools I considered didn’t have as fully developed a program as Georgia Tech.”

Since her first year at the Institute, Barrow has worked in School of Psychology Professor Eric Schumacher’s cognitive neuroscience lab, where she is now the lab manager. Her experience enabled her to work in three other labs over three summers. These research opportunities prepared Barrow, now in her final semester, to apply for neuroscience Ph.D. programs. She hopes to study computational psychiatry, which applies basic neuroscience concepts to computational modeling, enabling better predictions and diagnoses of neurodegenerative disorders, like MS, and clinical disorders.

Barrow is one of more than 100 Georgia Tech undergraduates who conduct neuroscience research every year. They lend their perspective to nearly 70 labs across campus, which are often led by faculty in the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society (INNS).

Connecting Across Campus

Students work in labs in almost all seven of the Institute’s Colleges, but they can also conduct research at places like Emory University or the Shepherd Center. 

“Having the chance to engage in hands-on scientific discovery in a research laboratory is often a richer, deeper experience than a classroom,” said Schumacher, who also directs the undergraduate neuroscience program. “Making those discoveries is why scientists are interested in science, so giving undergraduates an opportunity to do that is critical for a successful program.”

Finding the right lab is paramount in this process. As director of undergraduate research in neuroscience, Katharine McCann helps connect students to the right research opportunities, whether by emailing labs to see if there are openings or coordinating a networking night for students to meet researchers in labs.

“One of the reasons undergraduate neuroscience research is so robust at Georgia Tech is that there's neuroscience research happening in nearly every College on campus,” said McCann. “Most of our students are placed in the College of Sciences or the College of Engineering, but we have students who are in the College of Computing and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, too.” 

The undergraduate presence is just as much of a benefit to the lab, according to Schumacher. Often, these students bring a new outlook, as well as solid basic science skills that reinvigorate a lab’s energy. 

Embedding Research in Everything

Neuroscience is one of the most interdisciplinary majors on campus. Students take courses ranging from biology to computation, and because they gain both broad knowledge and deep research experience, neuroscience has become one of Georgia Tech’s fastest-growing majors. This combination prepares them for careers in science, technology, and even fields such as medicine and dentistry.

“For neuroscience, we require students to take chemistry, physics, math, and biology, so they’re well-rounded critical thinkers,” said Tim Cope, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Cope previously ran the neuroscience undergraduate program and now directs the neuroscience and neurotechnology Ph.D. program. “Neuroscience is one of the most pressing societal topics right now. Not a day goes by in our lives that there's not something in the news about addiction, depression, or Parkinson’s, and these neuroscience students could be at the forefront of improving people’s lives.”

Building the Future of Neuroscience 

Fourth-year neuroscience student Lynn Kim joined biological sciences Professor Young-Hui Chang’s Comparative Neuromechanics Lab in her first year. She studied how the nervous system adapts to a novel gravity environment through a reduced gravity simulator that mirrors the body weight support system. For her thesis, she explored the role of vision in coordinating sense and motor function, analyzing changes in movements, muscle activity, and cognitive perception of gravity.

“I believe my projects will provide valuable insights to both neuroscience research and applied rehabilitation science, while preparing me to pursue a career dedicated to improving patient outcomes through research,” Kim said.

Georgia Tech leads in neuroscience research at every level. From students who are performing their first experiments to interdisciplinary institutes like INNS, Georgia Tech is building a neuroscience pipeline that starts early and runs deep.

If you know what diatoms are, it’s probably for their beauty. These single-celled algae found on the ocean floor have ornate glassy shells that shine like jewels under the microscope.

Their pristine geometry has inspired art, but diatoms also play a key role in ocean chemistry and ecology. While they are alive, these algae contribute to the climate by drawing down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen through photosynthesis, while fueling marine food webs.

Now, a team led by Georgia Tech scientists has revealed that diatoms leave a chemical fingerprint long after they die, playing an even more dynamic role in regulating Earth’s climate than once thought. 

In a study published in Science Advances, the researchers found that diatoms’ intricate, silica-based skeletons transform into clay minerals in as little as 40 days. Until the 1990s, scientists believed that this enigmatic process took hundreds to thousands of years. Recent studies whittled it down to single-digit years.

“We’ve known that reverse weathering shapes ocean chemistry, but no one expected that it happens this fast,” said Yuanzhi Tang, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and senior author of the study. “This shows that the molecular-scale reactions can reverberate all the way up to influence ocean carbon cycling and, ultimately, climate.” 

From Glass to Clay

When a diatom dies, most of its silica skeleton dissolves on the seafloor, returning silica to the seawater. The rest can undergo reverse weathering — a process that transforms the silica into new clay minerals containing trace metals, while turning naturally sequestered carbon back to the atmosphere as sediments react with seawater. This recycling links silicon, carbon, and trace-metal cycles, influencing ocean chemistry and stabilizing the planet’s climate over time. 

Tang and her team set out to uncover how, and how quickly, reverse weathering happens. Using a custom-built, two-chamber reactor, they recreated seafloor conditions in the lab. One chamber held diatom silica, while the other contained iron and aluminum minerals. A thin membrane allowed dissolved elements to mix while keeping the solids separate.

Using advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and chemical analyses, the researchers tracked the full transformation from the dissolution of diatom shells to the formation of new clays. 

The results were striking. Within just 40 days, the diatom silica became iron-rich clay minerals — the same minerals naturally found in marine sediments. 

Tang noted that this rapid transformation means that reverse weathering isn’t a slow background process, but rather an active part of the modern ocean’s chemistry. It can control how much silica stays available for diatoms to grow, how much carbon dioxide is released or stored, and how trace metals and nutrients are recycled in marine ecosystems.

“It was remarkable to see how quickly diatom skeletons could turn into completely new minerals and to decipher the mechanisms behind this process,” said Simin Zhao, the paper’s first author and a former Ph.D. student in Tang’s lab. 

 “These transformations are small in size but are enormous in their implications for global elemental cycles and climate,” she added. 

The results suggest that the influence of reverse weathering on the coupled silicon-carbon cycles may also respond on far shorter timescales, making the ocean’s chemistry more dynamic — and potentially more sensitive to modern environmental changes.

“Diatoms are central to marine ecosystems and the global carbon pump,” said Jeffrey Krause, co-author and oceanographer at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the University of South Alabama. “We already knew their importance to ocean processes while living.  Now we know that even after they die, diatoms’ remains continue to shape ocean chemistry in ways that affect carbon and nutrient cycling. That’s a game-changer for how we think about these processes.” 

The discovery also helps solve a long-standing mystery about what happens to silica in the ocean, Tang says. 

Scientists have long known that more silica enters the ocean than gets buried on the seafloor. The findings suggest that rapid reverse weathering transforms much of it into new minerals instead, keeping ocean chemistry in balance.

From Atoms to Earth Systems and Beyond

The findings offer new data for climate modelers studying how the ocean regulates atmospheric carbon. The research also lays the groundwork for improving models of ocean alkalinity and coastal acidification — key tools for predicting how the planet will respond to climate change. “This study changes how scientists think about the seafloor, not as a passive burial ground, but as a dynamic chemical engine,” Tang said. 

Tang sees the study as a powerful reminder of why basic research matters. “This is where chemistry meets Earth systems,” she said. “By understanding how minerals form and exchange elements at the atomic level, we can see how the ocean shapes global cycles of carbon, silicon, and metals. Even molecular-scale reactions within hair-sized organisms can ripple outward to shape planet-level dynamics.” 

The team’s next steps are to explore how environmental factors such as water chemistry influence these transformations. They also plan to use samples from coastal and deep-sea sites to see how these lab discoveries translate to natural environments.

“It’s easy to overlook what’s happening quietly in marine sediments,” Tang said. “But these subtle mineral reactions are part of the machinery that regulates Earth’s climate, and they’re faster and more beautiful than we ever imagined.”

 

Citation: Simin Zhao et al., Rapid transformation of biogenic silica to authigenic clay: Mechanisms and geochemical constraints. Sci. Adv. 11, eadt3374 (2025).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt3374

Funding: National Science Foundation (OCE-1559087; OCE-1558957)

Scientists across Georgia Tech rely on powerful software tools to propel breakthroughs in fields ranging from physics to biology. Now, software experts who make that research possible are gaining a new leader. 

The College of Computing named Professor Rich Vuduc as director of the Center for Scientific Software Engineering (CSSE). The Georgia Tech hub is dedicated to building reliable, high-performance software for scientists.  

Under Vuduc’s leadership, CSSE strives to accelerate the pace and increase the quality of scientific discovery by developing custom software tools and best practices tailored to researchers’ needs.

“There is a reproducibility and reliability problem right now with scientific software,” Vuduc said. “The promise of CSSE is to leverage capabilities shared between Georgia Tech, Schmidt Sciences, and industry experts to address this problem.” 

Issues arise because scientists often need to develop their own software for experiments or data analysis. However, troubleshooting coding issues and other bugs can slow down research.

To assist these scientists, CSSE receives their input to create custom software tools and best practices. The center employs professional software engineers who build and deliver products tailor-made to the needs of researchers at Georgia Tech and broader scientific communities.

Beyond its research focus, CSSE helps Georgia Tech fulfill its educational mission. The center provides students with direct access and exposure to real-world software engineering.

As the center enters its third year, Vuduc wants to better prepare students for employment by enhancing their hands-on experience while learning from CSSE engineers.

To achieve this goal, Vuduc is working to establish a Ph.D. fellowship program in which CSSE engineers mentor students. This program would connect academic inquiry with industry expertise, creating the next generation of dynamic leaders in computational science.  

Vuduc also envisions pairing CSSE with Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program. This approach would allow undergraduate students to earn class credit while working with CSSE engineers on large software engineering projects spanning multiple semesters.

“The center gives our students access to something that is very unique to find in a university environment,” Vuduc said. 

“The software engineers in CSSE mostly come from industry. They have over 65 years of combined experience doing real-world software engineering that students can learn from.”

Vuduc is a 2010 recipient of the Gordon Bell Prize and a leading expert in high-performance computing (HPC). He was a finalist for the award in 2020 and 2022.

The Gordon Bell Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize in supercomputing due to the scope and magnitude of research it recognizes, recognizes achievement in HPC research and application. 

Vuduc joined Georgia Tech in 2007 as one of the first faculty hired for the new Division of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE). Not a stranger of leading new units, he saw CSE begin offering M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 2008 and attain school status in 2010.  

Since 2021, Vuduc has served as co-director of the Center for Research into Novel Computing Hierarchies (CRNCH). 

CRNCH is an interdisciplinary research center at Georgia Tech that explores technologies and approaches that will usher the next generation of computing. Areas CRNCH studies include quantum computing, brain-inspired computing, and approximate computing. 

Vuduc will step down as CRNCH co-director to fulfill his role as CSSE director. The College of Computing will lead a search for CRNCH’s next co-director.

“In a sense, the CRNCH to CSSE transition was partly a natural one because one thing that contributes to software challenges is that hardware platforms are also changing and evolving very rapidly,” said Vuduc. 

“People are exploring radically new hardware systems and we will have to write software configured for those too. Centers, like CRNCH and CSSE, strongly position Georgia Tech to lead these endeavors.” 

Alessandro (Alex) Orso, the previous CSSE director, departed Georgia Tech earlier this year to become dean of the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering. Orso and Distinguished Professor Irfan Essa wrote the proposal to bring CSSE to Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech formed CSSE in 2022 after securing an $11 million grant from Schmidt Futures. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his spouse, Wendy Schmidt, founded the philanthropic venture that funds science and technology research and talent networking programs. 

Georgia Tech’s CSSE is part of Schmidt Futures’ Virtual Institute for Scientific Software (VISS) program. This network helps scientists obtain more robust, flexible, scalable open-source software. 

Schmidt Futures is investing $40 million in VISS over five years at four universities: Georgia Tech, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Cambridge.

CSSE uses the funding to employ a software engineering lead, three senior and two junior software engineers. The Schmidt Futures grant equips these engineers with computing resources to build scientific software. Along with the director, an advisory board guides the group’s work to meet the point of need for scientists in the field. 

“I am grateful to Schmidt Futures for their support of CSSE. It aligns with our college’s strategic goals and expertise in scientific software, and I am delighted that Rich has agreed to take on this important role,” said Vivek Sarkar, Dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair of Computing.

“I know that Rich is committed to growing CSSE's internal and external visibility and long-term sustainability. I am confident that he will also help further socialize CSSE among internal stakeholders across Georgia Tech.”

Plastic packaging is ubiquitous in our world, with its waste winding up in landfills and polluting oceans, where it can take centuries to degrade.

To ease this environmental burden, industry has worked to adopt renewable biopolymers in place of traditional plastics. However, developers of sustainable packaging have faced hurdles in blocking out moisture and oxygen, a barrier critical for protecting food, pharmaceuticals, and sensitive electronics.

Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a biologically based film made from natural ingredients found in plants, mushrooms, and food waste that can block moisture and oxygen as effectively as conventional plastics. Their findings were recently published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials.

“We’re using materials that are already abundant in nature and degrade there to produce packaging that won’t pollute the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years,” said Carson Meredith, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE@GT) and executive director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute. “Our films, composed of biodegradable components, rival or exceed the performance of conventional plastics in keeping food fresh and safe.”

Meredith’s research team has worked for more than a decade to develop environmentally friendly oxygen and water barriers for packaging. While earlier research using biopolymers showed promise, high humidity continued to weaken the barrier properties.

However, Meredith and his collaborators found a fix using a blend of these natural ingredients: cellulose (which gives plants their structure), chitosan (derived from crustacean-based food waste or mushrooms), and citric acid (from citrus fruits).

“By crosslinking these materials and adding a heat treatment, we created a thin film that reduced both moisture and oxygen transmission, even in hot, humid conditions simulating the tropics,” said lead author Yang Lu, a former postdoctoral researcher in ChBE@GT.

The barrier technology developed by the researchers consists of three primary components: a carbohydrate polymer for structure, a plasticizer to maintain flexibility, and a water-repelling additive to resist moisture. When cast into thin films, these ingredients self-organize at the molecular level to form a dense, ordered structure that resists swelling or softening under high humidity.

Even at 80 percent relative humidity, the films showed extremely low oxygen permeability and water vapor transmission, matching or outperforming common plastics such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(ethylene vinyl alcohol) (EVOH).

“Our approach creates barriers that are not only renewable, but also mechanically robust, offering a promising alternative to conventional plastics in packaging applications,” said Natalie Stingelin, professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and a professor in ChBE@GT.

The research team has filed for patent protection for the technology (patent pending). The research was supported by Mars Inc., Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute, and the U.S. Department of Defense through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program. Eric Klingenberg, a co-author of the study, is an employee of Mars, a manufacturer of packaged foods.

Citation: Yang Lu, Javaz T. Rolle, Tanner Hickman, Yue Ji, Eric Klingenberg, Natalie Stingelin, and Carson Meredith, “Transforming renewable carbohydrate-based polymers into oxygen and moisture-barriers at elevated humidity,” ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2025.

 

Members of the Georgia Tech community gathered in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building on Oct. 23 for the third annual Oliver Brand Memorial Lectureship on Electronics and Nanotechnology. This year’s lecture was delivered by Vijay Narayanan, fellow at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, who spoke on designing and building the future of artificial intelligence (AI) with next-generation silicon technologies.

“Oliver’s past exemplified interdisciplinary discovery, from early work in physics and MEMS to leadership in micro/nano systems — linking institutions and domains,” said Michael Filler, deputy director of the Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS). “He helped shape large-scale research infrastructures, integrated faculty from across engineering and science, and forged connections between academia, government, and industry.

The Brand Lecture invites speakers whose work and innovations reflect the spirit of Oliver Brand’s legacy of research that bridges fields and transcends traditional boundaries.

“I’d like to thank [IMS] for inviting me to this podium to talk a little bit about how I see materials really driving many of the semiconductor innovations that are key for AI design as we see it today,” said Narayanan.

“Driven by AI, there’s a growth in semiconductors in many topical areas,” he said. “There’s significant growth, and it’s not just apps. It’s hardware, technologies, things that will actually grow the ecosystem. And there’s some challenges, very big challenges.”

One of those challenges is the energy consumption associated with large language models. 

“One case of training for GPT-4 is equivalent to 25 jetliner round trips from New York to Tokyo,” said Narayanan. “That’s a lot of energy.” 

He emphasized the critical role of scientists in addressing the rapid growth in AI-driven compute demands and the urgent need for sustainable, scalable technologies. His talk explored cutting-edge developments in materials science, including nanosheet transistors, advanced lithography, and novel materials like rhodium and topological semimetals. Narayanan underscored the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to overcome energy and performance challenges in next-generation silicon technologies.

“Let us carry forward Oliver’s legacy of curiosity, collaboration, and compassion, and let us embrace the challenge of innovation,” Filler said in closing remarks.

Brand, who died in 2023, left a legacy that lives on through interdisciplinary research at Georgia Tech. He spent more than 20 years as a member of the Institute’s faculty. In addition to leading the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), he was a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, director of the Coordinating Office for the National Science Foundation-funded National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), and director of the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor, one of the 16 NNCI sites.

Brand united researchers in the fields of electronics and nanotechnology, fostering collaboration and expanding IEN to include more than 200 faculty members. In addition to his respected work in microelectromechanical systems, he is remembered for his kindness, dedication, and unwavering support for all who knew him.

Previous Lectures:

• Andreas Heirlemann Gives Inaugural Oliver Brand Memorial Lecture on Electronics and Nanotechnology
• Michael Strano Presents the Second Annual Oliver Brand Memorial Lectureship on Electronics and Nanotechnology

When future hypersonic vehicles are tested far above the Pacific Ocean, the telemetry signals they transmit will be captured by a new type of modular antenna system developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in collaboration with prime contractor AV (formerly Blue Halo). 
 

Known as Advanced Phased Array Antenna Technology (APAT), the system uses Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) technology to process the signals directly on the antenna’s elements, allowing multiple signals to be tracked simultaneously in different directions. Both ground-based and airborne versions of the antenna technology have been built and tested for capturing the telemetry – data sent from the vehicles to monitor flight factors and conditions.
 

Built for the Pentagon’s Test Resource Management Center (TRMC), APAT uses commercial-off-the-shelf components paired with bespoke antenna elements and a custom system architecture to create a novel system with unparalleled operational flexibility. It is believed to be the largest all-digital antenna system ever designed by GTRI, which has been developing and building antennas for more than 25 years.
 

“We’re combining RF-efficient aperture design with an intelligently-selected RF front-end that goes directly to digital so that when they’re tracking these telemetry streams, they can track multiple streams simultaneously,” said Kevin Cook, a GTRI principal research engineer who is co-principal investigator on the project. “In earlier analog systems, you’d have to just pick a stream or split the array (or multiple arrays) and lose signal gain. But with digital, you can track as many streams as you want, limited only by the system’s processing power.”
 

Read more in the GTRI Newsroom

 

Pop culture has often depicted robots as cold, metallic, and menacing, built for domination, not compassion. But at Georgia Tech, the future of robotics is softer, smarter, and designed to help.

“When people think of robots, they usually imagine something like The Terminator or RoboCop: big, rigid, and made of metal,” said Hong Yeo, the G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “But what we’re developing is the opposite. These artificial muscles are soft, flexible, and responsive — more like human tissue than machine.”

Yeo’s latest study, published in Materials Horizons, explores AI-powered muscles made from lifelike materials paired with intelligent control systems. The technology learns from the body and adapts in real time, creating motion that feels natural, responsive, and safe enough to support recovery.
 

Muscles That Think, Materials That Feel

Traditional robotics relies on steel, wires, and motors, but rarely captures the nuances of human motion. Yeo’s research takes a different approach. He uses hierarchically structured fibers, which are flexible materials built in layers, much like muscle and tendon. They can sense, adapt, and even “remember” how they’ve moved before.

Yeo trains machine learning algorithms to adjust those pliable materials in real time with the right amount of force or flexibility for each task.

“These muscles don’t only respond to commands,” Yeo said. “They learn from experience. They can adapt and self-correct, which makes motion smoother and more natural.”

The result of that research is deeply human. For someone recovering from a stroke or limb loss, each deliberate movement rebuilds not just strength — it rebuilds confidence, independence, and a sense of self.

 

A Glove That Gives Freedom Back

One of the first real-world applications is a prosthetic glove powered by artificial muscles (published in ACS Nano, 2025), a device that behaves more like a helping hand than a mechanical tool. Traditional prosthetics rely on rigid motors and preset motions, but Yeo’s design mirrors the natural give-and-take of real muscle.

Inside the glove, thin layers of stretchable fibers and sensors contract, twist, and flex in sync with the wearer’s intent. The glove can fine-tune grip strength, reduce tremors, and respond instantly to the user’s movements, bringing dexterity back to everyday life.

That kind of precision matters most in the smallest tasks: fastening a button, lifting a glass, holding a child’s hand.

“These aren’t just movements,” Yeo said. “They’re freedoms.”

For Yeo, the idea of restoring freedom through movement has driven his research from the very beginning.
 

A Mission Rooted in Loss

Yeo's work is deeply personal. His path to biomedical engineering began with loss — the sudden death of his father while Yeo was still in college. That moment reshaped his sense of purpose, redirecting his focus from machines that move to technologies that heal.

“Initially, I was thinking about designing cars,” he said. “But after my father’s death, I kind of woke up. Maybe I could do something that helps save someone’s life.”

That purpose continues to guide his lab’s work today, building technologies that help people recover what they’ve lost.

Achieving that vision, however, means tackling some of engineering’s toughest challenges.
 

Soft Machines, Hard Problems

Creating lifelike muscles isn’t easy. They need to be soft but strong, responsive but safe. And they must avoid triggering the body’s immune system. That means building materials that can survive inside the body — and learn to belong there.

“We always think about not only function, but adaptability,” Yeo said. “If it’s going to be part of someone’s body, it has to work with them, not against them.”

His team calibrates these synthetic fibers like precision instruments — tested, adjusted, and re-tuned until they operate in sync with the body’s natural movements. Over time, they develop a kind of “muscle memory,” adapting fluidly to changing conditions. That dynamic adaptability, Yeo explained, is what separates a machine from a prosthetic that truly feels alive.
 

From Collaboration to Innovation

Solving problems this complex requires more than one discipline. It takes an entire ecosystem of collaboration. Yeo’s lab brings together experts in mechanical engineering, materials science, medicine, and computer science to design smarter, safer devices.

“You can’t solve this kind of problem in isolation,” he said. “We need all of it — polymers, artificial intelligence, biomechanics — working together.”

That collaborative model is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, and Georgia Tech’s Institute for Matter and Systems. In 2023, Yeo received a $3 million NSF grant to train the next generation of engineers building smart medical technology.

His team now works closely with healthcare providers and industry partners to bring these devices out of the lab and into patients’ lives.


The Future You Can Feel

The future of robotics, according to Yeo, won’t be defined by power or complexity but by feel.

“If it feels foreign, people won’t use it,” he said. “But if it feels like part of you, that’s when it can truly change lives.”

It’s the opposite of The Terminator, where machines replace us. Yeo is designing these machines to help us reclaim ourselves.