Tequila A. L. Harris is a Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and is the director of the Polymer Thin Film Processing Laboratory (tharris@gatech.edu). Her research focuses on investigating the fundamental science associated with manufacture of polymer thin films from fluids (e.g., solutions, dispersions, slurries, etc.) as they are coated onto permeable or impermeable surfaces to make components or devices. She explores the connectivity between thin film functionality, based on their manufacture or structure, and their life expectancy, to elucidate mechanisms by which performance or durability can be predicted. In addition to conducting computational analysis, developing analytical models and running experiments, Harris also develops new manufacturing technologies to fabricate thin films, in wide area or discrete patterns. Target applications are well-suited for a variety of industries including food, energy, electronic, and environmental systems to name a few. In conjunction with her research activities, she is committed to the education, mentoring, and advisement of students towards scholarly achievements. She has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles. Harris has several awards including the National Science Foundation's young investigator CAREER Award and the Lockheed Inspirational Young Faculty Award.

Jun Ueda joined Georgia Tech in May 2008 as Assistant Professor. Before Georgia Tech, he was a Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at MIT, where he worked on the development and control of cellular actuators inspired by biological muscle. He developed compliant, large strain piezoelectric actuators and a robust control method called stochastic broadcast feedback. From 2002-2008 he was Assistant Professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, where he led a research group dedicated to dynamics and control in robotics, such as robot hand manipulation, tactile sensing, and power-assisting. From 1996 to 2002 and prior to obtaining his Ph.D, he worked at the Advanced Technology R&D Center of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan. Here he was involved in a variety of activities including disk drives, machine tools, and satellite tracking antennas. His Ph.D. work at Kyoto University was on the end-point control of a robot manipulator mounted on a non-rigid base. He studied feedback control robustness in terms of the coupling of the arm and base dynamics.

Eric M. Vogel is currently professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Tech in August 2011, he was an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) where he was also associate director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and led UT Dallas's portion of the Southwest Academy for Nanoelectronics. Prior to joining UT Dallas in August of 2006, he was leader of the Semiconductors and Novel Devices Group and founded the Nanofab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in 1998 in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and his B.S. in 1994 in electrical engineering from Penn State University. Professor Vogel's research interests relate to materials and devices for future micro-/nano-electronics. He has published over 150 journal publications and proceedings, written six book chapters and given over 75 invited talks and tutorials.

John R. Reynolds is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology with expertise in polymer chemistry and serves as a member of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). His research interests have involved electrically conducting and electroactive conjugated polymers for over 30 years with work focused to the development of new polymers by manipulating their fundamental organic structure in order to control their optoelectronic and redox properties. His group has been heavily involved in developing new polyheterocycles, visible and infrared light electrochromism, along with light emission from polymer and composite LEDs (both visible and near-infrared) and light emitting electrochemical cells (LECs). Further work is directed to using organic polymers and oligomers in photovoltaic cells.  Reynolds obtained his M.S. (1982) and Ph.D. (1984) degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Polymer Science and Engineering, he has published over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers, has 15 patents issued and ~25 patents pending, and served as co-editor of the “Handbook of Conducting Polymers” which was published in 2007.  He was awarded the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science in 2012.  He serves on the editorial board for the journals ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Polymers for Advanced Technologies, and the Journal of Macromolecular Science, Chemistry.

Billyde Brown is a Senior Research Faculty and Education and Workforce Development (EWD) Director at the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI), one of eleven interdisciplinary research institutes at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Brown also serves as a Manufacturing Advisor at the Georgia MBDA (Minority Business Development Agency) Business Center where he connects minority-owned business clients with resources and expertise at Georgia Tech and provides assistance with prototyping and engineering services.

Brown’s overall role at GTMI is to create strong partnerships among industry, government, and academia in the area of manufacturing research, development, and deployment, while acquiring and managing sponsored research programs. Brown is currently the Principal Investigator of an Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI BioFabUSA) funded project to develop a wireless sensor system for real-time in-situ monitoring of critical quality attributes including pH, glucose, lactate, and protein biomarkers in human mesenchymal stem cell expansion bioreactors.

In regard to EWD, Brown manages a Manufacturing Certificate program and proctors a Manufacturing Seminar Course for the Georgia Tech College of Engineering while hosting a 10-week GTMI Lunch and Learn Lecture Series each semester with high profile industry, government, and academic speakers to share advanced manufacturing knowledge within a global community. Brown also coordinates an annual 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) summer program called REVAMP (Research Experiences for student Veterans in Advanced Manufacturing and entrePreneurship) sponsored by the National Science Foundation that maintains target demographics of 50% student veterans and 40% underrepresented minorities with STEM majors.

Brown has strong expertise in several technical areas including electrochemical biosensors for bioprocess monitoring, thin-film manufacturing (CVD, PVD, ALD, AJP), nanomaterial synthesis and characterization, and electrochemical energy storage. Brown has over 20 peer-reviewed publications and is a regular reviewer of high impact factor peer reviewed journals. He earned his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from NC State University and Duke University, respectively.

Melkote began at Tech in 1995 as an Assistant Professor. Prior to this, he was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he conducted research in Machining and Machine Tools Systems in the group led by the Late Professor Richard E. DeVor and Professor Shiv G. Kapoor

Colton's research interests are in the areas of design and manufacturing, focusing on polymers and polymer composites. Processing techniques, such as micro-molding, injection molding, filament winding, resin transfer molding and the like, are studied and used to fabricate these devices and products, such as smart composite structures.

The design of processing techniques and equipment for metamaterials also are being studied with applications being dielectric materials for electromagnetic applications. Due to the small-scale physics associated with their engineering, nano-scale metamaterials exhibit superior properties and enhanced performance.

Colton has a strong passion for the application of engineering for the common good – "humanitarian design and engineering" and "design that matters," - such as in developing countries and other resource limited environments. To be successful, multidisciplinary teams must work together to produce products that function as well as delight, that exceed customer's expectations, regardless of where the product is used. Along these lines, product design and role that the interactions between engineering and industrial design forms another research interest.

Zhou's research interests concern material behavior over a wide range of length scales. His research emphasizes finite element and molecular dynamics simulations as well as experimental characterization with digital diagnostics. The objective is to provide guidance for the enhancement of performance through material design and synthesis. Zhou maintains a high-performance computer cluster with 384 parallel processors and an intermediate-to-high strain rate material research facility which includes a split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus, a tension bar apparatus, and a combined torsion-tension/torsion-compression bar apparatus.

Recent research focuses on the characterization of the dynamic shear failure resistance of structural metals and the role of microscopic damage in influencing failure processes through shear banding and fracture. Micromechanical models are developed to outline microstructural adjustments that can improve the performance of materials such as metal matrix composites, ceramic composites, composite laminates and soft composites. These models explicitly account for random microstructures as well as random crack and microcrack development. At the nanoscale, ongoing research focuses on the novel shape memory and pseudoelasticity that were recently discovered in metal (e.g., Cu, Au and Ni) nanowires. The coupling between the thermal and mechanical responses of semiconducting oxide (e.g., ZnO and GaN) nanowires is another active research direction which uses molecular dynamics simulations and continuum modeling. Dr. Zhou's group is also actively engaged in research on the equivalent continuum (EC) representation of atomistic deformation at different length scales. Related research projects are sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Army Research Office (ARO), industry, and the Center for Computational Materials Design (CCMD).

Donggang Yao is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees both from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his B.S. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He teaches and directs research in the broad area of polymer engineering. His current research focuses on polymer micromolding, fiber spinning, single-polymer composites, constitutive modeling, and process modeling and simulation. He has published over 60 journal papers and 80 conference papers on polymer processing. He was a recipient of NSF Career Award in 2003 for his research on polymer micromolding. He chaired the ASME Composites and Textile Engineering Technical Committee from 2009 to 2011. He currently serves as an associate editor for ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering and an editorial board member for Polymer Engineering and Science.