From left: Comas Haynes, Kelly Grissom, and Randy Green display the award for 2024’s top IAC.
The federally funded IAC program provides small to mid-sized industrial facilities in the region with free assessments for energy, productivity, and waste, while also supporting workforce development, recruitment, and training.
“This IAC is a great example of the ways in which Georgia Tech is serving all of Georgia and the Southeast,” said Tim Lieuwen, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) and Regents’ Professor and holder of the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.
“We support numerous small and medium-sized enterprises in rural, suburban, and urban areas, bringing the technical expertise of Georgia Tech to bear in solving real-world problems faced by our small businesses.”
Georgia Tech’s IAC, which serves Georgia, South Carolina, and North Florida, is administered jointly by the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), part of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2). The organization has performed thousands of assessments since its inception in the 1980s – usually at rate of 15 to 20 per year – and typically identifies upwards of 10% in energy savings for clients.
The assessment team, overseen by IAC associate director Kelly Grissom, comprises faculty and student engineers from Georgia Tech and the Florida A&M University/Florida State University College of Engineering.
In addition, Georgia Tech leads the Southeastern IACs Center of Excellence, which partners the institution with fellow University System of Georgia (USG) entity Kennesaw State University, local HBCU Clark Atlanta University, and neighboring state capital HBCU Florida A&M University.
Although mechanical engineering has historically been the chief area of concentration for IAC’s interns, the program currently accepts students across a range of disciplines. “Increased diversity from that standpoint enriches the potential of the recommendations we can make,” said Grissom.
Students are integral to the program, as is Grissom’s role in facilitating their experiences with client engagement and technical recommendations.
“Kelly is the reason our program has been recognized,” said Randy Green, energy and sustainability services group manager at GaMEP. “He works tirelessly to ensure that assessments are accomplished with success for our manufacturers and students.”
“We also recognize our partnership with the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and with IAC program lead Comas Haynes, Ph.D., who works diligently to keep us on track and connected with our sponsors at the U.S. Department of Energy,” Green added.
The DoE accolade represents “a ‘one Georgia Tech’ win,” symbolic of the synergistic relationships forged across the Institute, said Haynes, who also serves as the Hydrogen Initiative Lead at Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) and Energy branch head in the Intelligent Sustainable Technologies Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Haynes specifically cited Green’s “technical prowess and managerial oversight” as another key to the IAC program’s success.
Said Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, “It is truly an honor for Georgia Tech to be named the Department of Energy Industrial (Training and) Assessment Center of the Year. Clean energy and manufacturing have been a focus for the Institute and the Woodruff School for a long time, and GTRI, EI2, and SEI have collaboratively done phenomenal work in helping manufacturers save energy, improve productivity, and reduce waste.”
To check eligibility and apply for assistance from Georgia Tech’s IAC, click here.
Eve Tolpa
eve.tolpa@innovate.gatech.edu
A view of Tech Tower from Crosland Tower. Photo: Georgia Tech
Nine early-career professors will pursue cutting-edge climate mitigation research during the upcoming year as part of the Seed Grant Challenge for Climate Solutions created by the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) and the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS).
Launched in April during the Frontiers in Science: Climate Action Conference and Symposium, the Challenge “provides seed funding for climate mitigation and adaptation research led by ambitious early-career faculty eager to work across disciplines,” explains Beril Toktay, Regents’ Professor and interim executive director of BBISS.
One goal of the Challenge is to facilitate research collaboration across the Institute. “Transitioning to a sustainable, clean energy system requires concerted collaboration across diverse disciplines,” says Tim Lieuwen, Regents’ Professor, David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair, and executive director of SEI. “Initiatives like this are instrumental in paving the way for such groundbreaking interdisciplinary work.”
The four selected proposals include researchers from five different schools and two centers, and will investigate biodiversity, coral reef resilience, lithium-ion battery recycling, and coastal resilience. “I am pleased with the range of proposals submitted by our assistant professors,” adds Susan Lozier, dean of the College of Sciences and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Each proposal represents an opportunity to combine expertise from across the Institute to deepen our understanding of climate challenges and uncover possible solutions.”
Each of the following projects will receive a $15,000 seed grant to be used during the 2025 fiscal year:
The research team seeks to test the “escalator to survival” concept, which theorizes that lowland tropical species will only be able to persist in the face of rising temperatures if they are able to shift their ranges to nearby foothills and mountains, where temperatures remain cooler.
The research team will develop transformative tools to evaluate reef health and resilience; detect impending compositional changes; determine the capacity for reef regeneration; and elevate mitigation strategies that preserve reef diversity and ecosystem services.
This project will build a transdisciplinary team to determine how to effectively unite community stakeholders, industry, social scientists, and engineers when applying for external grants to equitably establish a U.S. southeastern hub for EV-battery lithium recycling.
This project will quantify the risks associated with hurricane-induced compound flooding in a warming climate by developing physics-based hydrodynamic and AI models. The project aims to promote geographic equity in climate resilience and develop science-based, cost-effective adaptation strategies through active community engagement in Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida.
Writer: Lindsay C. Vidal
Georgia Tech faculty Tim Lieuwen, Adam Cohen, and Rich Simmons authored this op-ed on how climate change might be considered in the forthcoming federal infrastructure spending, and what tools are available to help inform decision making.