Georgia Institute of Technology has been ranked 7th in the world in the 2026 Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings, in association with Schmidt Science Fellows. This designation underscores Georgia Tech’s leadership in research that solves global challenges.
“Interdisciplinary research is at the heart of Georgia Tech’s mission,” said Tim Lieuwen, executive vice president for Research. “Our faculty, students, and research teams work across disciplines to create transformative solutions in areas such as healthcare, energy, advanced manufacturing, and artificial intelligence. This ranking reflects the strength of our collaborative culture and the impact of our research on society.”
As a top R1 research university, Georgia Tech is shaping the future of basic and applied research by pursuing inventive solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Whether discovering cancer treatments or developing new methods to power our communities, work at the Institute focuses on improving the human condition.
Teams from all seven Georgia Tech colleges, 11 interdisciplinary research institutes, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Enterprise Innovation Institute, and hundreds of research labs and centers work together to transform ideas into real results.
Associate Professor Matthew McDowell, Professor Min Zhou, and Woodruff Professor Ting Zhu will hold the position for a five-year term and receive discretionary funding to support their educational and research activities.
These appointments recognize each of the three recipients for their intellectual leadership and broader impact in the field of material processing, and the ability to help the Woodruff School grow in emerging areas of importance.
“Throughout their careers, Matt, Min, and Ting have been leaders in their fields and made significant contributions to research,” said Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair. “They are highly deserving of this endowed chair position, and I know David McDowell, who held the Paden Chair until his retirement earlier this year, is proud to pass it on to his son and former long-term collaborators and mentees.”
McDowell’s research focuses on developing materials for next-generation battery systems, as well as understanding dynamic materials transformations in electrochemical energy devices. He leads the newly established Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center (GTABC) with co-director Gleb Yushin, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. The new center will build community at the Institute, work to enhance research and educational relationships with industry partners, and create a new battery manufacturing facility on Georgia Tech’s campus.
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.
Zhu's research focuses on the mechanical behavior of advanced engineering materials at the nano to macro-scale. He conducts modeling and simulations using the atomistic, continuum, and multiscale methods.
The endowed chair was made possible by Georgia Tech alumnus Carter N. Paden, Jr., IM 1951, who had a lifelong career in metals processing.
]]>"Glass-core packaging holds the promise to revolutionize the field of advanced packaging and impact major paradigms such as artificial intelligence, mm-wave/THz communication, and photonic connectivity," said Muhannad Bakir, Dan Fielder Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech. "We look forward to supporting Absolics in establishing a glass-core packaging facility in the State of Georgia through workforce development initiatives."
Because of President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, this proposed investment would support over an estimated 1,000 construction jobs and approximately 200 manufacturing and R&D jobs in Covington and enhance innovation capacity at Georgia Institute of Technology, supporting the local semiconductor talent pipeline.
The proposed investment with Absolics is the first proposed CHIPS investment in a commercial facility supporting the semiconductor supply chain by manufacturing a new advanced material.
]]>Call for Proposals: A Gateway to Innovation
Launched in early 2024, the Call for Proposals invited researchers from across Georgia Tech to submit their innovative ideas on GenAI. The scope was broad, encouraging proposals that spanned foundational research, system advancements, and novel applications in various disciplines, including arts, sciences, business, and engineering. A special emphasis was placed on projects that addressed responsible and ethical AI use.
The response from the Georgia Tech research community was overwhelming, with 76 proposals submitted by teams eager to explore this transformative technology. After a rigorous selection process, eight projects were selected for support. Each awarded team will also benefit from access to Microsoft’s Azure cloud resources..
Recognizing Microsoft’s Generous Contribution
This successful initiative was made possible through the generous support of Microsoft, whose contribution of research resources has empowered Georgia Tech researchers to explore new frontiers in GenAI. By providing access to Azure’s advanced tools and services, Microsoft has played a pivotal role in accelerating GenAI research at Georgia Tech, enabling researchers to tackle some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field.
Looking Ahead: Pioneering the Future of GenAI
The awarded projects, set to commence in Fall 2024, represent a diverse array of research directions, from improving the capabilities of large language models to innovative applications in data management and interdisciplinary collaborations. These projects are expected to make significant contributions to the body of knowledge in GenAI and are poised to have a lasting impact on the industry and beyond.
IDEaS and the Cloud Hub are committed to supporting these teams as they embark on their research journeys. The outcomes of these projects will be shared through publications and highlighted on the Cloud Hub web portal, ensuring visibility for the groundbreaking work enabled by this initiative.
Congratulations to the Fall 2024 Winners
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christa.ernst@research.gatech.edu
]]>Each instrument can measure elemental variability in both dissolved aqueous samples as well as solids/minerals via laser ablation microsampling from a Teledyne Iridia laser ablation system. Together the system can measure isotopes at precision in elemental systems from Li and U.
Planned applications include: (1) high-resolution measurements of Ca, Sr, Ba, Mg, and B elemental and isotopic variability in seawater and marine and terrestrial carbonates for paleoclimate reconstructions, (2) (U-Th)/Pb dating and Hf isotope measurements to study the origin of critical mineral deposits, with a potential engineering application and the development of novel methods for increasing precision/accuracy and minimizing sample consumption during routine analyses of water quality and environmental contamination.
The MCF welcomes users interested in these and other potential applications of this new facility to their scientific and engineering research to contact David Tavakoli (atavakoli6@gatech.edu).
]]>To enable this research, IMat leadership launched an initiatives strategy in 2021 to support selected faculty, known as Initiative Leads, to further materials-related research and activities which meet IMat’s goals and objectives. Initiative Leads focus on Georgia Tech’s strengths and gaps in particular materials research domains and recognize overlaps between individual initiatives and group activities. This allows IMat to identify emerging research directions and prepare teams to compete for mid- and large-scale multi-investigator research centers with academic, national laboratory, and industry partners. For example, in FY21, IMat Initiatives submitted multiple large-scale proposals including for NSF Science and Technology Centers and an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. In addition, Initiative Leaders worked to increase the campus’ collaborative spirit by working with other Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, campus units, and GTRI to design and support research programs.
Initiative Leads serve for one academic year and may be considered for renewal based on their progress in achieving community building goals and their impact on IMat and the materials innovation ecosystem at Georgia Tech.
Meet the 2022-23 IMat Initiative Leads
Remote and Real-time Measurements | Faisal Alamgir
Faisal Alamgir is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. He holds a B.A. in physics and mathematics from Coe College and a Ph.D. in materials science and technology from Lehigh University. His research interests are in polymers, composites, ceramics, metals, and nanostructures.
Alamgir served as an inaugural IMat initiative lead in 2021 and will continue to lead a team effort to transform campus materials characterization facilities on two fronts: turning passive experiments into in-situ/operando ones by designing alternate sample environments that change samples in real time and increasing safety and efficiency in characterization spaces via remote operations where feasible to do so. In cases where remote operation compromises results, he will find solutions to alleviate the compromises.
Circularity in Civil Infrastructure Materials and Systems | Russell Gentry
Russell Gentry is a professor in the Schools of Architecture and Civil Engineering (by courtesy) and a licensed structural engineer. He teaches graduate courses in building materials and structures, computationally-driven fabrication, and building integration. He is affiliated with the design computation faculty in the School of Architecture and the structural engineering and mechanics of materials faculty in the School of Civil Engineering. Gentry directs the Master of Science programs in the School of Architecture and serves as the Associate Dean of Faculty in the College of Design.
The goal of this initiative is to expand IMat’s focus by including the rather mature material systems of civil infrastructure within IMat’s scope and to expand its scope from the material scale to the system scale. The focus will be on material life cycles with a specific emphasis on re-use and re-cycling of materials and ultimately on circularity in civil infrastructure material systems. This domain complements and builds on the existing initiative led by Kyriaki Kalaitzidou on the circularity of biopolymers and on work ongoing in the Renewable Bioproduct Institute.
Materials and Interfaces for Catalysis and Separations | Marta Hatzell
Marta Hatzell is an associate professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and an M.Eng in environmental engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Her research group focuses on exploring sustainable catalysis and separations with applications spanning from electrofuels and solar fuels to desalination.
To mitigate issues related to climate change, there is a societal push to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Thermal separations and catalysis are the primary sources of carbon emissions in industry today. Thus, there is a growing research focus on developing next-generation materials for net-zero catalysis and separation processes. As Initiative Lead, Hatzell will work to bring faculty together who are working on materials-related issues aimed at decarbonizing industrial separations and catalysis, identifying the bottlenecks for new materials, and assessing their long-term impacts.
Quantum Responses of Topological and Magnetic Matter | Zhigang Jiang
Zhigang Jiang is a professor in the School of Physics. He holds a B.S. in physics from Beijing University and a Ph.D. in physics from Northwestern University. He was also a postdoctoral research associate at Columbia University jointly with Princeton University and NHMFL from 2005 - 2008. His research interests are in the quantum transport and infrared optical properties of topological and magnetic materials. His current projects include (1) infrared magneto-spectroscopy of topological semimetals, (2) band-engineering topological phases in metamorphic InAsSb ordered alloys, and (3) developing new materials for portable real-time radiation monitoring devices.
The goals of this initiative are two-fold. First, anchor, develop and promote the community of researchers working on the fundamental magnetic properties of quantum materials. Second, connect these researchers to application-centric initiatives led by other science or engineering colleagues across Georgia Tech. The focus of this initiative will be on fundamental research progress in topological and magnetic matter and to communicate their importance, relevance, and significance to Georgia Tech’s research audience. In addition, this initiative aims to leverage fundamental discoveries in quantum materials and explore how these can be translated in their own right into quantum systems with new functionalities for spintronics, qubits, and electronic devices.
Circularity of Biopolymers | Kyriaki Kalaitzidou
Kyriaki Kalaitzidou is the Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. She also holds an adjunct appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D. in manufacturing and characterization of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) from Michigan State University. Kalaitzidou also serves as the strategic coordinator on circular materials in the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) which provides a natural conduit for increased collaboration between RBI and IMat.
Kalaitzidou served as an inaugural IMat Initiative Lead in 2021 and will continue her work in materials upcycling in 2022. She believes that the circularity of materials is an area where Georgia Tech faculty from across units can have a tremendous impact both in terms of fundamentals, such as the design of new polymers for recyclability, and applied research, such as scalable processes for sorting and re(up)cycling of end-of-life plastics, composites, and other materials. Additionally, this strategic theme allows great opportunities for technological innovations that provide positive societal, economic, and environmental impacts.
C.H.I.P.S. Initiative - Electronic and Ferroic Materials | Asif Khan
Asif Khan is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His group conceptualizes and fabricates solid state electronic devices that leverage interesting physics and novel phenomena in emerging materials (such as ferroelectrics, antiferroelectrics, and strongly correlated/quantum materials) to overcome the fundamental limits in computation and to address the most pressing challenges in the semiconductor industry and the computing paradigms. His work led to the first experimental proof-of-concept demonstration of the negative capacitance — a novel physical phenomenon that can lead to ultra-low power computing and memory platforms by overcoming the fundamental "Boltzmann Limit" of 60 mV/decade subthreshold swing in field-effect transistors.
Khan served as an inaugural IMat Initiative lead in 2021 and will continue in this role in 2022. As the Initiative Lead for Electronic and Ferroic Materials, Khan is working to leverage the unique strengths of Georgia Tech in the broad area of electronic materials to create strategic initiatives in terms of team building and connecting to other players and government agencies. These efforts will prepare Georgia Tech to take a leadership role in the large funding opportunities available in electronic materials as part of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America and Foundries Act (or CHIPS for America Act) to strengthen the country’s semiconductor capacity.
Materials for Energy Storage | Matthew McDowell
Matthew McDowell is an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. McDowell’s research group focuses on materials for next-generation energy storage devices. His group uses in situ experimental techniques to probe how materials inside batteries transform and degrade, and this knowledge is then used to guide the engineering of materials for breakthrough new devices.
McDowell served as an Initiative Lead in 2021 and will continue in this role in 2022. Investment in battery research and technology is rapidly growing, and Georgia Tech’s strong energy storage research community is well positioned to make an impact in the development of next-generation energy storage devices. McDowell foresees that IMat and the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) could both play important roles in enabling the formation of an energy storage initiative that will bring the community together and provide improved external advertisement of Georgia Tech’s capabilities for energy storage research.
Materials in Extreme Environments | Richard W. Neu
Richard W. Neu is a professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His research involves the understanding and prediction of the fatigue behavior of materials and closely related topics, typically when the material must resist degradation and failure in harsh environments. He has investigated a broad range of structural materials including steels, titanium alloys, nickel-base superalloys, metal matrix composites, molybdenum alloys, high entropy alloys, medical device materials, and solder alloys used in electronic packaging.
As an IMat Initiative Lead, Neu will engage and build an interdisciplinary research community to address the complex issues associated with new materials in extreme environments. These environments include high temperature, high pressure, corrosive, wear/erosion, cyclic loading, high-rate impacts, and radiation. The materials are continuously evolving and deforming in these harsh environments, which presents a roadblock in advancing engineering systems due to the uncertainty in the performance of new materials or new process methods such as additive manufacturing. Managing this risk by predicting the uncertainties, both internal to the material (its structure feature) and external environment, is an important consideration that materials engineering must address.
Materials for Quantum Science and Technology | Chandra Raman
Chandra Raman is a professor in the School of Physics. His research has two thrusts. The first utilizes sophisticated tools to cool atoms to temperatures less than one-millionth of a degree above absolute zero. Using these tools, the team explores topics ranging from superfluidity in Bose-Einstein condensates to quantum antiferromagnetism in a spinor condensate. In the second thrust he partners with engineers to build cutting-edge atomic quantum sensors on-chip with the potential for scale-up.
Raman served as an Initiative Lead in 2021 and will continue in this role in 2022. He envisions the development of “World-Ready” quantum systems, including room temperature quantum information processing and hybrid platforms combining quantum systems with MEMS and integrated photonics. Raman will seek to connect the vast photonics and MEMS expertise at Georgia Tech with other researchers in the materials domain, both at Georgia Tech and GTRI, to explore novel science and engineering approaches to address the challenges of growing quantum information systems to industrial scale.
Polymer Electronics and Photonics | Natalie Stingelin
Natalie Stingelin is the chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on the broad field of functional plastics, including organic electronics; multifunctional inorganic/organic hybrids; smart, advanced optical systems based on organic matter; and bioelectronics.
Stingelin was an inaugural IMat Initiative Lead in 2021 and will continue in this role in 2022. She is working with MSE’s SoftBio Topical Working Group, Georgia Tech’s Polymer Network, the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics, and the Renewable Bioproducts Institute to create a unique materials research environment that is capable to work across traditional material classes and raise the recognition of the materials innovations at Georgia Tech to the international stage. Organic electronics and photonics technology platforms can be expected to have a great societal impact because they promise to open new pathways and opportunities, which include reshaping product development and manufacturing, including flexible, rollable electronics targeted, e.g., for health-care applications, large-area energy harvesting, heat management structures for the building environment towards increased climate resilience.
Materials for Biomedical Systems | W. Hong Yeo
W. Hong Yeo is an Associate Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the IEN Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering (CHCIE) at Georgia Tech. He received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and genome sciences from the University of Washington and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the areas of nano-microengineering, soft materials, molecular interactions, and biosystems, with an emphasis on nanomembrane bioelectronics and human-machine interfaces.
As an IMat Initiative Lead in Materials for Biomedical Systems (MBS), Yeo plans to foster collaborations between faculty, researchers, and clinicians to advance research in biomaterials and biomedical systems. He believes collaborative research environments between materials science/engineering and medicine will result in fundamental breakthroughs in bioinspired materials, human-centered designs, and integrated biomedical systems, which will significantly advance human healthcare. He also hopes to enhance human health via multidisciplinary materials research to tackle the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge to engineer better medicines in collaboration with both academic and industry partners.
]]>The four winning teams, led by PIs from across Georgia Tech’s Colleges and Schools, will host their workshops during the Spring 2023 semester at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Atlanta campus.
Integrative Genomics for Health Equity
This one-day workshop will address the computational and analytical limitations to the use of integrative genomics and multi-omic profiling to understand and promote health equity. As genomic analysis begins to transform healthcare delivery, by promoting personalized assessment of therapeutic intervention, it is becoming increasingly apparent that both social and genetic determinants of health need to be measured. Equitable implementation of genomic medicine must evaluate the influences of ancestry as well as socioeconomic status alongside genetics, with effects mediated in part through gene expression and epigenetics. This workshop will bring together up to 9 speakers who will be asked to present their views on how genomic and non-genomic data can be integrated to guide precision medicine of diverse human populations.
Single Cell Spatial Omics
The field of single cell spatial omics is growing fast, thanks to global consortia such as the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) and the Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP), and also due to reduced next-generation sequencing (NGS) costs. Arguably, the biggest challenge in realizing the full potential of “spatial omics” techniques is the need for analytical tools that maximize our ability to extract testable hypotheses from the rich but noisy data sets. Thus, the AWSOM ’23 workshop will seek to bring together Atlanta-area strengths in computational science and machine learning at the same forum as technology developers and biologists, to strategically determine the thrust areas for future research.
Computational and Mathematical Approaches to Theoretical Neuroscience
Understanding how the human brain works is one of the major challenges of our times. There has been a lot of progress on modeling phenomena at micro scale, such as the model of a neuron, of the chemical channels in a Synapse, learning models for updating weights in neurons etc. Such models have also inspired the models behind modern deep learning architectures. Rapid developments in neuro imaging at both micro and macro levels has enabled us to look at brain phenomena at unprecedented scale. However, an overarching model that explains the macro behavior of the brain is still not found. There have been several exciting steps towards this direction in the last decade from researchers at the intersection of several fields including computational neuroscience, theoretical CS, and probability. The focus of this seminar series is to invite researchers in this space to Georgia Tech, so that students and faculty at GT can pick up and contribute to this young and emerging field.
Sunny Workshop: A Julia Package for The Modeling of Spin Dynamics in Quantum Materials
In recent years, working with scientists at the University of Tennessee and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), we have developed a simulation package called Su(n)ny, that uses Monte- Carlo techniques to calculate the spin dynamics of systems of interests. The Su(n)ny package is written in Julia and currently hosted on Github: https://github.com/SunnySuite/Sunny.jl. Development took place in the last year and a half. Last month, we presented our work for the first time during a workshop at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as well as tutorials on how to use this package: https://github.com/SunnySuite/SunnyTutorials/tree/main/tutorials, see also the introductory video here: https://mourigal.gatech.edu/public/Sunny-Install-Video-Mourigal.mp4 The package was very well received by our community, and it is now time to accelerate its deployment in realistic community use cases, by coupling it to the modeling of real data, porting it on GPU/Leadership class computers, advertising it more broadly, and including AI/ML methodologies to extract models from data. Learn About the Package Here https://docs.juliahub.com/Sunny/atBCQ/0.3.0/
IDEaS leverages expertise and resources from throughout Georgia Tech's colleges, research labs, and external partners, to define and pursue grand challenges in data science foundations and in data-driven discovery in various fields. For updates on these workshops and other IDEaS events, please visit our website
- Christa M. Ernst
]]>Now the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is getting on board with Yushin’s Georgia Tech startup as part of federal efforts to reinvigorate tech manufacturing in the United States.
DOE awarded Sila Nanotechnologies $100 million this fall to support the company’s new factory in Moses Lake, Washington, and help Sila hire and train up to 300 workers for the facility. It was one of 21 projects funded in domestic battery materials processing and manufacturing.
“It’s our mission to help move America away from being energy dependent and become a leader in the energy transformation,” said Yushin, the company’s chief technology officer and a faculty member in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “With this funding, Sila will deliver proven, clean energy technology and world-scale manufacturing to revitalize the industry and gain independence.”
Birthed from Yushin’s research on lithium-ion batteries, Sila manufactures next-generation materials and a silicon anode technology that boosts battery energy density by 20%. The silicon anodes are a drop-in replacement for graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries. The new facility is projected to produce enough capacity to power 200,000 electric vehicles by 2026. Sila has inked a deal with Mercedes-Benz to use the company’s technology, starting with G-Class vehicles.
Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.
]]>Yeo is an Associate Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and holds a courtesy appointment in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is also the director of the Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on the areas of nano and microengineering, advanced soft materials, molecular interactions, and bio-electromechanical systems, with an emphasis on stretchable hybrid electronics.
In this brief Q&A, Yeo discusses his interest in materials for biomedical systems, some of the current challenges in human healthcare, and how he hopes to bridge the gap between materials research and bioengineering systems at Georgia Tech.
What is your field of expertise and at what point in your life did you first become interested in this area?
My expertise is in biomaterial-enabled medical sensors and electronics. During my graduate study, I found biomedical systems research impressive since it can contribute to human healthcare. Currently, I am working on the study of soft materials, flexible mechanics, nanomanufacturing, machine learning, electronics, and system packaging to develop nanomembrane biosensors and bioelectronics. These biomedical systems are used to advance portable human health monitoring, quantitative disease diagnosis, enhanced therapeutics, and persistent human-machine interfaces.
What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
I have found out that the existing medical devices urgently need new materials that can enhance their sensitivity, reliability, and usability. That triggers my research using new biomaterials and nanomaterials to develop human-centered medical systems.
Why is your initiative important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
This initiative, materials for biomedical systems (MBS), can bring new perspectives on tissue-compatible and bio-friendly materials to develop next-generation healthcare monitors, diagnostics, and therapeutic tools. The MBS initiative will study interdisciplinary fundamental science in materials and integrated materials engineering to develop innovative biomedical systems for bridging gaps in materials research and bioengineering systems at Georgia Tech. This initiative will build an inclusive culture and interdisciplinary research ecosystem across and beyond Georgia Tech while targeting large-scale extramural center funding and developing industry consortia.
What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
One of the Grand Challenges in Engineering is to engineer better medicines, which still has many unresolved and ongoing challenges in materials and biomedical systems. It should be addressed by combined efforts and expertise in materials, nanoengineering, physiology, electronics, informatics, and human-centric designs. The MBS initiative will enhance human health via multidisciplinary materials research, which will bring a unique opportunity to Georgia Tech to tackle the healthcare grand challenge.
What are your plans for engaging a wider Georgia Tech faculty pool with IMat research?
I plan to organize Georgia Tech, regional, and national workshops and/or technical conferences to bring together the biomaterials, biomedical, human-centered engineering, and nanoengineering communities. Eventually, I will organize a Georgia Tech-Industry Consortium to gain external awareness and sustainable research support.
]]>The Paris Agreement actually aims for 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels to avoid potential catastrophic changes to our climate. But it’s become increasingly clear to climate scientists and policymakers that just reducing emissions is not enough.
“We now know that we probably should have stopped putting massive amounts of CO2 in the air 10, 20, 30 years ago to prevent the climate from getting above 2 degrees C,” said Chris Jones, a chemical engineer at Georgia Tech. “Now we've waited so long to reduce our emissions that we need to develop technologies that are referred to as negative emissions technologies that remove CO2 from the atmosphere.”
Jones was one of a handful of scientists who co-authored a landmark National Academies report in 2018 that outlined a variety of approaches to negative emissions. Agricultural practices and forest management are options — essentially using nature’s ability to grab carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it away in plants and soil. But Jones said we’ll need quicker and more direct approaches.
“We could plant billions of trees to do this, but there's not enough available land. And the trees don't grow fast enough for us to do this quickly enough to slow global warming at the rate required,” said Jones, John F. Brock III School Chair in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE). “That's where direct air capture comes in: It's a chemical engineering way of designing a process that takes CO2 out of the air.”
Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.
]]>In this brief Q&A, Hatzell discusses her research focus, how it relates to materials research, and the global impact of this initiative.
What is your field of expertise and at what point in your life did you first become interested in this area?
My field of research focuses on electrochemical materials for separations and catalysis. As an undergraduate I became very interested in the energy transition. At that point in time, it was clear that there was a need to move to a more electrified power and transportation sector, but it was unclear how to address decarbonization in the industrial sector. That is when I became interested in electrochemistry, electrochemical materials, and electrochemical engineering, as these skill sets seemed crucial to the energy transition. I've been working in this area ever since! At Georgia Tech, my group is interested in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries like chemical manufacturing, electrofuels, desalination, and industrial separations.
What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
With all the new technologies and processes being designed around electrochemistry, there are so many open questions about what materials can be used for separations and catalysis. Materials for modern-day industrial separations and catalysis have been largely optimized. However, as we move toward new electrified technologies, we can rethink how we design materials and systems.
Why is your initiative important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
Decarbonizing chemical manufacturing is incredibly important for the globe to meet Net Zero carbon emissions and mitigate issues related to climate change. And, at the heart of this transition is the discovery and design of new materials. We need materials that have high activity and selectivity, are durable, and are cost-effective in order to implement these new processes in the industrial sector.
What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
We work on a number of catalytic and separations-based processes. One in particular that has global and societal benefits is the synthesis of ammonia for synthetic fertilizers. Today, half of the world's population depends on synthetic fertilizers, and nearly 100% of these fertilizers are made using one catalytic process. Unfortunately, this current process emits a significant amount of CO2, and therefore we are looking at electrified catalytic processes which can decrease or eliminate this carbon footprint.
What are your plans for engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
With so many talented researchers on campus, we are always looking for new ways to bring faculty together to engage in larger efforts. Thus, our primary plans focus on efforts that bring faculty together. We are currently in the process of planning workshops and seminars to bring together faculty who have interests in catalysis and reaction engineering.
]]>Grover is a professor and the associate chair for graduate studies at Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering. Her research interests include feedback control of colloidal crystallization for photonic materials; chemical evolution in the origins of life; modeling and control of pharmaceutical and nuclear waste crystallization; and process-structure-property relationships in polymer organic electronics.
SRNL intends to collaborate with Grover to utilize her expertise and experience to:
“Dr. Grover’s efforts contribute directly to SRNL’s strategic goal of providing applied science and engineering for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management’s active cleanup sites and Office of Legacy Management’s post-closure management sites,” said SRNL Deputy Lab Director, Science and Technology, Sue Clark, PhD. “Dr. Grover will strengthen SRNL’s core competency of accelerating remediation, minimizing waste, and reducing risk by supporting process stream characterization associated with treatment of DOE tank waste.”
In addition to her primary research, Grover focuses on creating an even more inclusive community, exploring issues relevant to women, underrepresented minorities, and international students. She co-leads the GT-Equal (Graduate Training for Equality in Underrepresented Academic Leadership) Program and, in 2020, was named a National Science Foundation Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE) Professor. Georgia Tech’s ADVANCE Program builds and sustains an inter-college network of professors who are world-class researchers and role models to support the community and advancement of women and minorities in academia. Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering also was one of two institutions selected nationwide to be inaugural sites for the American Chemical Society’s Bridge Program, which aims to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who receive doctoral degrees in chemical sciences.
The Joint Appointment Program at SRNL provides university faculty opportunities to engage in the laboratory’s research and development that address the nation’s challenges in energy, science, national security, and environmental stewardship. Together, SRNL staff and joint appointees help ensure America’s security and prosperity through transformative science and technology solutions. Joint appointees serve as a bridge between their university, SRNL researchers and students.
Savannah River National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy multi-program research and development center that’s managed and operated by Battelle Savannah River Alliance, LLC (BSRA). SRNL puts science to work to protect the nation by providing practical, cost-effective solutions to the nation’s environmental, nuclear security, nuclear materials management, and energy manufacturing challenges (https://srnl.doe.gov/).
]]>This annual event aims to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists and share the breadth of Georgia Tech’s research activities with the local community. Last year more than 500 attendees, ranging from toddlers to retirees, explored the campus and participated in hands-on STEAM activities, tours, and demonstrations designed to engage and educate participants. While attendees were able to get a glimpse into one of the nation’s most research-intensive universities, the community-wide event also allowed Georgia Tech students, researchers, and staff members the opportunity to share their work with the public.
Seeking Demo Groups
To continue the success of Science and Engineering Day, we need members of the Georgia Tech community — including student groups, labs, staff, and faculty — to participate in this year’s event. Last year, 26 units and student organizations across campus provided activities in biology, space, art, nanotechnology, paper, computer science, wearables, bioengineering, and chemical engineering just to name a few.
Taking part in Science and Engineering Day gives Georgia Tech students and researchers a unique opportunity to share their work with the community and inspire attendees. Demo space is limited, so reserve your spot today. Opportunities include hands-on STEAM activities, exhibits, demonstrations, and opportunities to meet student researchers. If you have questions about how you can participate, reach out to Leslie O’Neil. All demo groups must register by February 20, 2023.
The Atlanta Science Festival is engineered by Science ATL and community partners, with major support from founders Emory University, Georgia Tech, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and from sponsors UPS, International Paper, Georgia Power, Cox Enterprises, Lockheed Martin, Lenz Marketing, and Mercer University.
Learn more and register to demonstrate at research.gatech.edu/ATLscifestGTday23
]]>In this brief Q&A, Neu discusses his research focus, how it relates to materials research, and the impact of this initiative.
What is your field of expertise and at what point in your life did you first become interested in this area?
My field of expertise is the mechanical behavior of materials, mainly structural alloys. As an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, I chose to study engineering mechanics, which is the discipline explaining the way materials behave under loads and displacements. This led me to conduct undergraduate research on the thermomechanical mechanical fatigue of railway wheels, which occurs from the brake shoe application on the tread resulting in frictional heating of the wheel's surface. On a long downward grade, the wheel treads can get red hot, since the brakes are continuously applied. The strength and elastic properties of the wheel steel are reduced, and permanent changes such as the formation of residual stresses and changes in the microstructure degrade the mechanical behavior after repeated braking. Understanding and predicting this response enables more durable wheel steels and designs.
In my early career, I investigated several problems that involved structural materials needing to survive extreme environments. These included the understanding of the mechanisms leading to hot bearings in railway freight cars, the thermomechanical response of the skin material for hypersonic aircraft, and the thermomechanical fatigue and creep of hot turbine sections in gas turbines for both propulsion and energy generation. These problems are changing because high strength, high creep resistance, and good fracture toughness are needed, while the material itself continues to evolve at these high temperatures. In addition, chemical reactions can occur, significantly affecting the microstructure and mechanical behavior of the material near the surface. The problem of understanding these materials operating in these extreme environments entails a multidisciplinary approach involving mechanics, metallurgy, manufacturing processes, tribology, and machine design.
What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
My current research does not deviate much from my early days of research. The most challenging problems in the mechanical behavior of materials involve pushing materials to their extremes. There is a continuing need to discover and design structural alloys and composites with improved high-temperature properties, with reduced degradation in the environment they must withstand, whether corrosive, cryogenic, high temperature, or more often, a combination of these. Today, these challenges include developing more efficient gas turbine systems that can burn alternative fuels such as hydrogen, rolling bearing and gear steels that have higher reliability, and establishing quality assurance for materials manufactured using additive manufacturing and other novel processes to ensure that they will survive these extreme environments.
Why is your initiative important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
Leading the initiative for Materials in Extreme Environments, I desired to bring together faculty and researchers working in this area and those working on applications that involve materials operating in extreme environments. This year we identified one important application area where Georgia Tech is taking the lead. Hydrogen is likely to be a major player in the future green energy economy. One challenge to realizing a hydrogen energy economy is the efficient and low-cost generation, storage, and transport of hydrogen. In alloys, the degradation due to hydrogen embrittlement is one of the concerns that must be addressed. Both the materials understanding in this environment and the design of newer materials and surface modifications are needed. Furthermore, this needs to be accomplished at a large scale and low cost.
What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
The work we do enables safer and lower life cycle costs of mechanical systems, critically important for all the highly loaded structural components of aircraft and other transportation systems, hypersonic aircraft and rocket systems, gas turbine systems, nuclear power generation systems, and immense wind turbine components, as well as materials used in medical devices that are implanted in humans. Our research provides the knowledge and engineering tools to achieve a safer world and superior mechanical systems that improve the quality of life.
What are your plans for engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
We are engaging with external experts to understand the needs in materials for the hydrogen value chain. While much research today is focused on producing green hydrogen through lower cost electrolysis and using hydrogen for energy generation with fuel cells, a big challenge of storing and transporting the hydrogen from its production to where it will be used requires novel solutions and materials. This involves, for example, storing hydrogen under extreme pressures in an environment where hydrogen itself can react and degrade the mechanical properties of the materials. The time is right for a diverse group of faculty to work on the storage and transportation challenges to facilitate energy having a substantial reduction in the carbon footprint while also reducing the life cycle costs of the infrastructure.
]]>To further this mission, IMat and the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) co-hosted the 2023 Brumley D. Pritchett Lecture and IMat Symposium on Materials Innovations on March 31, 2023. The Symposium included talks from invited speakers and Georgia Tech faculty, a poster contest, and networking opportunities.
“The 2023 IMat Symposium on Materials Innovations was a great success,” said Eric Vogel, IMat’s executive director. “The talks were interesting, and the audience was engaged.”
The prestigious Brumley D. Pritchett lecture featured Giulia Galli, the Liew Family Professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Galli’s talk was on Complex Materials from First Principles: From Sustainable Energy Sources to Quantum Information Science.
The Symposium content focused on new advances in materials science and their applications in various industries. Guest speakers included Christophe Levy from Holcim Innovation Center and Carmel Majidi, a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Levy started off the day with his talk on industrial innovations in the cement and concrete domain and Majidi discussed integrated soft materials for human-compatible machines and electronics.
Georgia Tech speakers included Associate Chair for Research and Woodruff Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Anna Erickson, IMat Science Advisor and Professor Martin Mourigal, Assistant Professor Vida Jamali, Associate Professor and Vasser-Woolley Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator in Sensors and Instrumentation Jason Azoulay, and Assistant Professor Victor Fung.
More than 20 students participated in the poster contest with presenters from the Schools of Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Aerospace Engineering.
The winning poster and recipient of a $500 prize was submitted by Rahul Venkatesh. His poster was on “Data-Enabled Experimental Development of Polymer-Based Organic Electronics.” In addition to the winner, three finalists were also selected. Presenters of the finalist posters included Daniel Aziz, Carolina Colon, and Harsh Verma. Each received a prize of $250.
This was the second year IMat and MSE hosted the Symposium, and it provided attendees with valuable insights into the latest advances in the field of materials science. It also provided an opportunity for researchers and students to network and collaborate, paving the way for future breakthroughs in materials science.
]]>“The existing healthcare challenges are so complicated and demanding, so the collaboration between academia, industry, and national labs is imperative, and synergistic multidisciplinary research is required,” explained Yeo, who is also an associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and holds a courtesy appointment in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.
To further this initiative, Yeo and Emory University’s Young Jang organized the Materials for Biomedical Systems (MBS) Day at Georgia Tech. The workshop was held on March 30 at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center and attracted researchers and industry representatives from a variety of disciplines.
The focus of the morning session was on soft materials and biomaterials for medical systems. It began with a talk on Organogels x EGaIn for Soft & Self-Healing Bioelectronics from Carmel Majidi, a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Additional speakers in the morning session included ProgenaCare Global’s Allison Ramey-Ward, Seoul National University’s Young Bin Choy, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology’s Jae-Woong Jeong. The morning concluded with a panel discussion, regarding the translation of biomaterials technologies to system developments and commercialization, moderated by the University of Pittsburgh’s Youngjae Chun.
The afternoon session of the day was focused on stem cells and regenerative medicine. It began with a talk on Bioengineered Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine from Andrés García, executive director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) and Regents’ Professor at Georgia Tech. Additional speakers in this session included Sung-Jin Park from Emory/Georgia Tech, William Hynes from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Ki Dong Park from Ajou University, Ho-Wook Jun from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Johnna Temenoff from Emory University/Georgia Tech. The session concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Johnny Lam from the Food and Drug Administration.
“I am so thankful for all of the participants, sponsors, and organizers who made such an amazing workshop that generated innovative ideas and new collaboration opportunities from across the field,” said Yeo. “We also discussed immediate commercialization paths and regulatory importance in developing biomaterials and medical systems. We will continue offering networking and research-sharing opportunities to facilitate knowledge exchange through this MBS initiative.”
After the workshop, multiple students participated in a poster contest to showcase their research in biomaterials and medical systems and network with attendees. MBS Day was co-sponsored by IMat and IBB.
]]>The pipeline extracts material property records from published papers and populates the data into a new application called Polymer Scholar. The platform works like a browser to search polymers and materials properties by keyword, rather than reading through countless articles.
The application makes materials research more efficient, which could lead to discovery of new polymers.
“Essentially, we have created an index on materials science literature that is much more granular than ones in a typical index that a search engine would create,” said Georgia Tech Ph.D. student Pranav Shetty, the lead designer of the pipeline.
“Our hope is that materials science researchers can make use of this capability in their day to day lives and workflows, and therefore, allow their work to have much more usability toward studying polymers and developing new materials.”
The group’s paper says the number of materials science papers published annually grows at a rate of 6% compounded annually. This amount of content makes for long, difficult work for scientists and in need of a computing solution.
The group’s answer is MaterialsBERT, a model they built and trained that powers the pipeline.
MaterialsBERT categorizes words in text by association with a material property record. After the model associates text with records, the data is fed to Polymer Scholar. Scientists can use Polymer Scholar to study data, searching either polymer name or a property, like boiling point or tensile strength.
The group used 2.4 million materials science abstracts to train MaterialsBERT. In tests, the model outperformed five other models on three of five entity-recognition datasets.
According to the study, the pipeline needed only 60 hours to obtain 300,000 material property records from over 130,000 abstracts.
As a comparison, materials scientists currently use a database called PoLyInfo. This system has over 492,000 material property records, manually curated by hand over the span of many years. Georgia Tech’s pipeline can accomplish in hours what took humans years to do in PoLyInfo.
“Polymer Scholar and MaterialsBERT are powered by a large corpus of 2.4 million materials science articles, which took some time and effort to develop the infrastructure to support such a large collection,” said Chao Zhang, an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE). “This body of papers made all the difference training MaterialsBERT because it improved the language model’s ability to identify and extract data.”
Polymer research is vital because of their role in manufacturing, healthcare, electronics, and other industries. Polymers have desirable properties that make them useful toward future applications.
When polymer research slows, it inhibits development of new technologies. These technologies are needed to overcome today’s challenges like climate change, faltering infrastructure, and sustainable energy.
In their paper, the group analyzed data using polymer solar cells, fuel cells, and supercapacitors as keywords in Polymer Scholar. This showed that scholars can use the pipeline to infer trends and phenomena in materials science literature. It also used practical examples to demonstrate applicability.
The journal npj computational materials published the group’s paper because of its findings.
The group’s work embodies Georgia Tech’s commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship. Researchers from the School of CSE and the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) collaborated on the pipeline.
School of CSE authors include Shetty, Zhang, and Ph.D. student Sonakshi Gupta. MSE authors include postdoctoral researchers Arunkumar Chitteth Rajan, Christopher Kuenneth, undergraduate students Lakshmi Prerana Panchumarti, Lauren Holm, and Professor Rampi Ramprasad.
The pipeline is the latest work for the group who are committed to applying computational methods to lead innovations in materials science.
“Our long-term vision is to use the extracted data to train models that can predict material properties,” Ramprasad said. “Creating a pipeline to extract this data that can seamlessly feed into predictive models will ultimately lead to an extraordinary pace of materials discovery.”
]]>But battery researchers have begun to approach the limits of lithium-ion. As next-generation long-range vehicles and electric aircraft start to arrive on the market, the search for safer, cheaper, and more powerful battery systems that can outperform lithium-ion is ramping up.
A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, is using aluminum foil to create batteries with higher energy density and greater stability. The team’s new battery system, detailed in Nature Communications, could enable electric vehicles to run longer on a single charge and would be cheaper to manufacture — all while having a positive impact on the environment.
“We are always looking for batteries with higher energy density, which would enable electric vehicles to drive for longer distances on a charge,” McDowell said. “It’s interesting that we can use aluminum as a battery material, because it’s cost-effective, highly recyclable, and easy to work with.”
The idea of making batteries with aluminum isn’t new. Researchers investigated its potential in the 1970s, but it didn’t work well.
When used in a conventional lithium-ion battery, aluminum fractures and fails within a few charge-discharge cycles, due to expansion and contraction as lithium travels in and out of the material. Developers concluded that aluminum wasn’t a viable battery material, and the idea was largely abandoned.
Now, solid-state batteries have entered the picture. While lithium-ion batteries contain a flammable liquid that can lead to fires, solid-state batteries contain a solid material that's not flammable and, therefore, likely safer. Solid-state batteries also enable the integration of new high-performance active materials, as shown in this research.
The project began as a collaboration between the Georgia Tech team and Novelis, a leading manufacturer of aluminum and the world’s largest aluminum recycler, as part of the Novelis Innovation Hub at Georgia Tech. The research team knew that aluminum would have energy, cost, and manufacturing benefits when used as a material in the battery’s anode — the negatively charged side of the battery that stores lithium to create energy — but pure aluminum foils were failing rapidly when tested in batteries.
The team decided to take a different approach. Instead of using pure aluminum in the foils, they added small amounts of other materials to the aluminum to create foils with particular “microstructures,” or arrangements of different materials. They tested over 100 different materials to understand how they would behave in batteries.
“We needed to incorporate a material that would address aluminum’s fundamental issues as a battery anode,” said Yuhgene Liu, a Ph.D. student in McDowell’s lab and first author on the paper. “Our new aluminum foil anode demonstrated markedly improved performance and stability when implemented in solid-state batteries, as opposed to conventional lithium-ion batteries.”
The team observed that the aluminum anode could store more lithium than conventional anode materials, and therefore more energy. In the end, they had created high energy density batteries that could potentially outperform lithium-ion batteries.
“One of the benefits of our aluminum anode that we're excited about is that it enables performance improvements, but it also can be very cost-effective,” McDowell said. “On top of that, when using a foil directly as a battery component, we actually remove a lot of the manufacturing steps that would normally be required to produce a battery material.”
Short-range electric aircraft are in development by several companies, but the limiting factor is batteries. Today’s batteries do not hold enough energy to power aircraft to fly distances greater than 150 miles or so. New battery chemistries are needed, and the McDowell team’s aluminum anode batteries could open the door to more powerful battery technologies.
“The initial success of these aluminum foil anodes presents a new direction for discovering other potential battery materials,” Liu said. "This hopefully opens pathways for reimagining a more energy-optimized and cost-effective battery cell architecture.”
The team is currently working to scale up the size of the batteries to understand how size influences the aluminum’s behavior. The group is also actively exploring other materials and microstructures with the goal of creating very cheap foils for battery systems.
“This is a story about a material that was known about for a long time, but was largely abandoned early on in battery development,” McDowell said. “But with new knowledge, combined with a new technology — the solid-state battery — we've figured out how we can rejuvenate the idea and achieve really promising performance.”
Funding: Support is acknowledged from Novelis, Inc. M.T.M. acknowledges support from a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This work was performed in part at the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (ECCS-2025462).
Citation: Liu, Y., Wang, C., Yoon, S.G. et al. Aluminum foil negative electrodes with multiphase microstructure for all-solid-state Li-ion batteries. Nat Commun 14, 3975 (2023).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39685-x
Writer: Catherine Barzler
Photography: Rob Felt
]]>Institute Communications
]]>The team has identified two possible candidates using new machine learning models they developed and deployed with the capabilities of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego. They published their progress recently in the journal Physical Review Materials.
Superconductors allow electricity to pass with no resistance, but conventional materials require temperatures near absolute zero (nearly -460 degrees Fahrenheit). For more than a century, scientists have been searching for materials able to accomplish the feat at room temperature and ambient pressure.
“The main challenge of the [artificial intelligence/machine learning] method is that we need, but never have, the desired database of superconductors,” said Huan Tran, senior research scientist in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “All previous works relied on databases that are sometimes large enough, but completely lacking in atomic-level information — which is absolutely crucial for accurate predictions.”
Tran and Tuoc Vu from Hanoi University have been building a database with that atomic-level information, filling in a critical gap in available data so they can train machine learning models to accurately predict promising superconductive materials.
More details about their work from the San Diego Supercomputer Center.
]]>To enable this research, IMat leadership has supported strategic interdisciplinary initiatives since 2021. Each initiative has a dedicated faculty lead to guide the initiative and prepare teams to compete for mid- and large-scale, multi-investigator research centers with academic, national laboratory, and industry partners. Initiative leads also work to increase the campus’ collaborative spirit by working with other Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, campus units, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute to design and support research programs. Initiative leads serve for one academic year and may be considered for renewal based on their progress in achieving community-building goals and their impact on IMat and the materials innovation ecosystem at Georgia Tech.
“The goal of our initiative lead program is to provide support for these strategic interdisciplinary research areas,” said IMat Executive Director Eric Vogel. “Now that we are in the third year of the program, we have seen significant growth in many of the initiatives we have supported, including batteries and energy storage and materials laboratories for the future.”
Matthew McDowell has served as an IMat initiative lead in Materials for Energy Storage, a joint initiative with the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), since the program began in 2021. With the nation’s increased focus on electric vehicles, battery storage technologies have gained significant attention since McDowell launched his initiative. In addition, the state of Georgia is becoming the epicenter of the battery belt of the Southeast, with more than $25 billion invested or announced in EV-related research in the past three years. The Materials for Energy Storage Initiative has worked to highlight Georgia Tech’s strong energy storage research community and how it can help shape the development of next-generation energy storage devices. In 2023, McDowell and his team hosted Georgia Tech Battery Day, a sold-out event that brought together more than 230 energy researchers and industry representatives to advance energy storage technologies.
This year, the Materials for Energy Storage Initiative will become the Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center, with McDowell and Gleb Yushin as co-directors. The new center will build community at Georgia Tech, work to enhance relationships with industrial partners, and create a new battery manufacturing facility on Georgia Tech’s campus. The Advanced Battery Center is the latest initiative to gain external funding and become a center, in addition to the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics and the Georgia AI Manufacturing coalition led by former IMat Initiative Lead Aaron Stebner.
Materials for Solar Energy Harvesting and Conversion
Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena is an assistant professor and the Goizueta Early Career Faculty Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He holds a B.S. in management and engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering, all from the University of Connecticut. Correa-Baena runs the Energy Materials Lab at Georgia Tech, which focuses on understanding and control of crystallographic structure and effects on electronic dynamics at the nanoscale of low-cost semiconductors for optoelectronic applications.
As an initiative lead, Correa-Baena will work to create a community around solar energy harvesting and conversion at Georgia Tech. He aims to integrate photovoltaic, photodetectors, and related devices into IMaT-related research; energize research in these areas at Georgia Tech at large; and consolidate the expertise of the many research groups working on or around photovoltaics/photodetectors that will allow us to target interdisciplinary research funding opportunities. He also wants to provide an official link at Georgia Tech for industry partners to interact with faculty on photovoltaics, with a special aim at First Solar and QCells, the largest solar panel factory in the western hemisphere.
Autonomous Research for Materials
Mark Losego is an associate professor, MSE Faculty Fellow, and Dean’s Education Innovation Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He holds a B.S. from Penn State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, all in materials science and engineering. The Losego research lab focuses on materials processing to develop novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials and interfaces for microelectronics, sustainable energy devices, national security technologies, and advanced textiles.
As an IMat initiative lead, Losego will help build a community at Georgia Tech that works toward developing autonomous and intelligent systems (robots) that execute physical experiments — processing, characterizing, and measuring the properties of materials — and then uses this knowledge to iteratively and intelligently execute subsequent experiments that produce new knowledge about process-structure-property relations, which inform materials discovery and design. He also hopes to learn what technical questions, training opportunities, or other incentives would compel Georgia Tech roboticists to collaborate with materials scientists to develop autonomous materials discovery systems and what the Georgia Tech materials community can do with emerging, inexpensive, and simple-to-use robotics systems to drive autonomous materials discovery.
Macromolecular Materials at Biotic and Abiotic Interfaces
Valeria Tohver Milam is an associate professor and MSE Faculty Fellow in MSE. She holds a B.S. from the University of Florida, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, all in materials science and engineering. Her research interests are in DNA-based ligands for molecular, macromolecular, and mesoscale targets and bio-inspired colloidal assembly for multifunctional drug delivery vehicles and colloidal-based sensing. She also leads the Milam Group.
As an IMat initiative lead, Milam will work to build an inclusive and active community across and beyond Georgia Tech to identify emerging research directions in macromolecular materials. Macromolecules, whether natural, bio-inspired, or completely synthetic, hold promise for enabling the next generation of materials to successfully perform at biotic as well as abiotic interfaces. Motivated by broad applications ranging from health to the environment, this initiative will bring together experimental and computational engineers and scientists focused on fundamental studies of macromolecular systems. The goal is to identify pathways to novel compositions, structures, synthesis, and characterization approaches to designing and implementing macromolecular materials.
Mechanical Metamaterials
D. Zeb Rocklin is an assistant professor in the School of Physics. He holds a B.Sc. in physics and economics from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include soft condensed matter physics and adjacent fields like statistical physics, physics of living systems, and hard condensed matter with a particular focus on the relationship between the geometric structure of a system and its mechanical response. He leads the Rocklin Group at Georgia Tech, which focuses on the structure and motion of soft materials.
As an IMat initiative lead, Rocklin aims to bring faculty together within the Colleges of Sciences, Engineering, and Design to develop, characterize, and apply novel metamaterials — those with programmed structures above the atomic scale, blurring the line between material and machine. They can reveal fundamentally new physics while also incorporating new functionality for flexibility, strength, and intelligent processing of mechanical force and energy.
Materials and Interfaces for Catalysis and Separations | Marta Hatzell
Marta Hatzell is an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and an M.Eng in environmental engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Her research group focuses on exploring sustainable catalysis and separations with applications from electrofuels and solar fuels to desalination.
To mitigate issues related to climate change, there is a societal push to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Thermal separations and catalysis are the primary sources of carbon emissions in industry today. Thus, there is a growing research focus on developing next-generation materials for net zero catalysis and separation processes. In year one, Hatzell aided in bringing together faculty for two center-level proposals through the NSF and DOE. She also helped run a workshop to disseminate information regarding the DOE Earthshot call. In her second year as an initiative lead, Hatzell will continue to bring faculty together who are working on materials-related issues aimed at decarbonizing industrial separations and catalysis, identify the bottlenecks for new materials, and assess their long-term impacts.
Quantum Responses of Topological and Magnetic Matter | Zhigang Jiang
Zhigang Jiang is a professor in the School of Physics. He holds a B.S. in physics from Beijing University and a Ph.D. in physics from Northwestern University. He was also a postdoctoral research associate at Columbia University jointly with Princeton University and NHMFL from 2005 to 2008. His research interests are in the quantum transport and infrared optical properties of topological and magnetic materials. His current projects include infrared magneto-spectroscopy of topological semimetals, band-engineering topological phases in metamorphic InAsSb ordered alloys, and developing new materials for portable, real-time radiation monitoring devices.
The goals of this initiative are twofold: first, to anchor, develop, and promote the community of researchers working on the fundamental magnetic properties of quantum materials. And second, to connect these researchers to application-centric initiatives led by other science or engineering colleagues across Georgia Tech. The focus will be on fundamental research progress in topological and magnetic matter and to communicate their importance, relevance, and significance to Georgia Tech’s research audience. In addition, this initiative aims to leverage fundamental discoveries in quantum materials and explore how they can be translated in their own right into quantum systems with new functionalities for spintronics, qubits, and electronic devices.
Materials in Extreme Environments | Richard W. Neu
Richard W. Neu is a professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His research involves the understanding and prediction of the fatigue behavior of materials and closely related topics, typically when the material must resist degradation and failure in harsh environments. He has investigated a broad range of structural materials, including steels, titanium alloys, nickel-base superalloys, metal matrix composites, molybdenum alloys, high entropy alloys, medical device materials, and solder alloys used in electronic packaging.
Neu served as an initiative lead in 2022 and will continue in this role in 2023. He will continue to engage and build an interdisciplinary research community to address the complex issues associated with new materials in extreme environments. These environments include high temperature, high pressure, corrosive, wear/erosion, cyclic loading, high-rate impacts, and radiation. In harsh environments, materials are continuously evolving and deforming, presenting a roadblock in advancing engineering systems due to the uncertainty in the performance of new materials or new process methods such as additive manufacturing. Managing this risk by predicting the uncertainties, both internal to the material (its structure feature) and external environment, is an important consideration that materials engineering must address.
Organic Photonics and Electronics | Jason Azoulay
Jason Azoulay is an associate professor and Georgia Research Alliance Vasser-Woolley Chair in Optoelectronics in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, with a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara and performed postdoctoral studies at Sandia National Laboratories. His research group unites strong synthetic foundations with physics, materials science, and engineering to synthesize and apply next-generation functional materials. Research within his group includes homogeneous catalysis applied to polymer synthesis; electronic, photonic, magnetic, and quantum materials; device fabrication and engineering; chemical sensing in complex aqueous environments for environmental monitoring; and the synthesis, application, and engineering of high-performance polymers across multiple technology platforms.
Emerging semiconductor materials open new pathways and opportunities to address critical national needs with global societal impacts in climate change, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, information science, consumer applications, defense-wide applications, and many others. Azoulay will work across multiple Georgia Tech centers, topical working groups, and institutes to create a unique materials research environment that spans traditionally siloed disciplines and materials classes. These efforts will advance the chemistry, materials science, and application of emerging photonic, optoelectronic, semiconductor, spin-based, and quantum technologies and raise the recognition of the materials innovations at Georgia Tech to the international stage.
Materials for Biomedical Systems | W. Hong Yeo
W. Hong Yeo is an associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the IEN Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and genome sciences from the University of Washington and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the areas of nano-microengineering, soft materials, molecular interactions, and biosystems, with an emphasis on nanomembrane bioelectronics and human-machine interfaces.
Yeo led the Materials for Biomedical Systems initiative in 2022 and will continue in this role in 2023, where he will continue to foster collaborations between faculty, researchers, and clinicians to advance research in biomaterials and biomedical systems. In 2022, this initiative successfully hosted the MBS Day by inviting more than 80 people from academia, industry, and national labs to share knowledge, research ideas, and commercialization opportunities. Yeo believes collaborative research environments between materials science and engineering and medicine will result in fundamental breakthroughs in bioinspired materials, human-centered designs, and integrated biomedical systems, which will significantly advance human healthcare. He also hopes to enhance human health via multidisciplinary materials research to tackle the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge to engineer better medicines in collaboration with both academic and industry partners.
]]>"Our investment will help train the next generation of talent necessary to fill key openings in the semiconductor industry and grow our economy from the middle out and bottom up," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "By supporting novel, transdisciplinary research, we will enable breakthroughs in semiconductors and microelectronics and address the national need for a reliable, secure supply of innovative semiconductor technologies, systems and professionals."
]]>According to LLNL materials scientist Kyle Sullivan, who sponsored Brettmann’s mini-sabbatical, she helped his team take a fresh look at their methodology, enabling them to identify ways to streamline a highly complex process.
“Many of our material development activities start with multi-faceted problems,” Sullivan said. “We were eager to draw from Blair’s experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing to help us identify an efficient methodology to apply to our research.”
Brettmann’s research focuses on material processing, including how a material’s properties influence the optimal processing approach, as well as how novel processing techniques can be used to develop materials with the features needed for specific applications. Her goal is to better understand options for real-time monitoring of material processing, including effective data collection tools, as well as knowing which experimental data would be beneficial to analyze. As she heads back to Georgia Tech to start another academic year, Brettmann is hoping that the insight she gained during her mini-sabbatical will help her research team as they test new analytical techniques for their material formulation experiments.
Dobbs spent her summer at LLNL investigating material formulation techniques. She helped design and conduct experiments that explored ways to optimize material mixing and she developed a new process for analyzing experimental data. During her internship, Dobbs met with LLNL experts in materials processing and advanced manufacturing, who helped her frame her experiments.
“It was great to expand my understanding of the entire manufacturing process and learn about key challenges in the field," Dobbs said. “The opportunity to spend time with energetics experts was one of the highlights of my internship experience.”
]]>Point-of-care technologies are medical diagnostic tests performed outside the laboratory in close proximity to where a patient is receiving care. This allows health care providers to make clinical decisions more rapidly, conveniently and efficiently.
AMCE POCT, which is one of six sites in the U.S. selected by NIH as part of the NIH Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network, was originally established in 2018 to foster the development and commercialization of microsystems (microchip-enabled, biosensor-based, microfluidic) diagnostic tests that can be used in places such as the home, community or doctor’s office. The center played a pivotal role during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as the national test verification center to rapidly evaluate COVID-19 tests and help make them widely available.
]]>The goals of the funded proposals include identifying prominent emerging research directions on the topic of AI, shaping IDEaS future strategy in the initiative area, building an inclusive and active community of Georgia Tech researchers in the field that potentially include external collaborators, and identifying and preparing groundwork for competing in large-scale grant opportunities in AI and its use in other research fields.
Overview: The goal of this initiative is to bring together expertise in machine learning/AI, high-throughput computing, computational chemistry, and experimental materials synthesis and characterization to accelerate material discovery. Computational chemistry and materials simulations are critical for developing new materials and understanding their behavior and performance, as well as aiding in experimental synthesis and characterization. Machine learning and AI play a pivotal role in accelerating material discovery through data-driven surrogate models, as well as high-throughput and automated synthesis and characterization.
Overview: Zhigang Jiang is currently leading an initiative within IMAT entitled “Quantum responses of topological and magnetic matter” to nurture multi-PI projects. By crosscutting the IMAT initiative with this IDEAS call, we propose to support and feature the applications of AI on predictive and inverse problems in quantum materials. Understanding the limit and capabilities of AI methodologies is a huge barrier of entry for Physics students, because researchers in that field already need heavy training in quantum mechanics, low-temperature physics and chemical synthesis. Our most pressing need is for our AI inclined quantum materials students to find a broader community to engage with and learn. This is the primary problem we aim to solve with this initiative.
Overview: Our objective is to use large language models (LLMs) in conjunction with AI algorithms to identify effective driver proteins, develop screening algorithms that target appropriate binding sites while avoiding deleterious ones, and consider bioavailability and drug resistance factors. LLMs can rapidly analyze vast amounts of information from literature and bioinformatics tools, generating hypotheses and suggesting molecular modifications. By bridging multiple disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and pharmacology, LLMs can provide valuable insights from diverse sources, assisting researchers in making informed decisions. Our aim is to establish a first-in-class, LLM driven research initiative at Georgia Tech that focuses on designing highly effective small molecule libraries to treat challenging diseases. This initiative will go beyond existing AI approaches to molecule generation, which often only consider simple properties like hydrogen bonding or rely on a limited set of proteins to train the LLM and therefore lack generalizability. As a result, this initiative is expected to consistently produce safe and effective disease-specific molecules.
Overview: We are committed to building a team of interdisciplinary & transdisciplinary researchers and practitioners with a shared goal: developing a new framework which model future climatic variations and the interconnected and interdependent energy infrastructure network as complex systems. To achieve this, we will harness the power of cutting-edge climate model outputs, sourced from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), and integrate approaches from Machine Learning and Deep Learning models. This strategic amalgamation of data and techniques will enable us to gain profound insights into the intricate web of future climate-change-induced extreme weather conditions and their immediate and long-term ramifications on energy infrastructure networks. The seed grant from IDEaS stands as the crucial catalyst for kick-starting this ambitious endeavor. It will empower us to form a collaborative and inclusive community of GT researchers hailing from various domains, including City and Regional Planning, Earth and Atmospheric Science, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering etc. By drawing upon the wealth of expertise and perspectives from these diverse fields, we aim to foster an environment where innovative ideas and solutions can flourish. In addition to our internal team, we also have plans to collaborate with external partners, including the World Bank, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and the Berkeley AI Research Initiative, who share our vision of addressing the complex challenges at the intersection of climate and energy infrastructure.
Overview: Our research team envisions a significant trend in the exploration of AI applications for urban flooding hazard forecasting. Georgia Tech possesses a wealth of interdisciplinary expertise, positioning us to make a pioneering contribution to this burgeoning field. We aim to harness the combined strengths of Georgia Tech's experts in civil and environmental engineering, atmospheric and climate science, and data science to chart new territory in this emerging trend. Furthermore, we envision the potential extension of our research efforts towards the development of a real-time hazard forecasting application. This application would incorporate adaptation and mitigation strategies in collaboration with local government agencies, emergency management departments, and researchers in computer engineering and social science studies. Such a holistic approach would address the multifaceted challenges posed by urban flooding. To the best of our knowledge, Georgia Tech currently lacks a dedicated team focused on the fusion of AI and climate/flood research, making this initiative even more pioneering and impactful.
Overview: Most asset management and recycling use technology that has not changed for decades. The use of bar codes and RFID has provided some benefits, such as for retail returns management. Automated sorting of recyclables using magnets, eddy currents, and laser plastics identification has improved municipal recycling. Yet the overall field has been challenged by not-quite-easy-enough identification of products in use or at end of life. AI approaches, including computer vision, data fusion, and machine learning provide the additional capability to make asset management and product recycling easy enough to be nearly autonomous. Georgia Tech is well suited to lead in the development of this application. With its strength in machine learning, robotics, sustainable business, supply chains and logistics, and technology commercialization, Georgia Tech has the multi-disciplinary capability to make this concept a reality, in research and in commercial application.
Overview: Artistic human movement at large, stands at the precipice of a data-driven renaissance. By leveraging novel tools, we can usher in a transparent, data-driven, and accessible training environment. The potential ramifications extend beyond dance. As sports analytics have reshaped our understanding of athletic prowess, a similar approach to dance could redefine our comprehension of human movement, with implications spanning healthcare, construction, rehabilitation, and active aging. Georgia Tech, with its prowess in AI, HCI, and biomechanics is primed to lead this exploration. To actualize this vision, we propose the following research questions with ballet as a prime example of one of the most complex types of artistic movements: 1) What kinds of data - real-time kinematic, kinetic, biomechanical, etc. captured through accessible off-the-shelf technologies, are essential for effective AI assessment in ballet education for young adults?; 2) How can we design and develop an end-to-end ML architecture that assesses artistic and technical performance?; 3) What feedback elements (combination of timing, communication mode, feedback nature, polarity, visualization) are most effective for AI- based dance assessment?; and 4) How does AI-assisted feedback enhance physical wellness, artistic performance, and the learning process in young athletes compared to traditional methods?
The so-called DUCKY polymers — more on the unusual name in a minute — are reported Oct. 16 in Nature Materials. And they’re just the beginning for the team of Georgia Tech chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists. They also have created artificial intelligence tools to predict the performance of these kinds of polymer membranes, which could accelerate development of new ones.
The implications are stark: the initial separation of crude oil components is responsible for roughly 1% of energy used across the globe. What’s more, the membrane separation technology the researchers are developing could have several uses, from biofuels and biodegradable plastics to pulp and paper products.
“We're establishing concepts here that we can then use with different molecules or polymers, but we apply them to crude oil because that's the most challenging target right now,” said M.G. Finn, professor and James A. Carlos Family Chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.
]]>A sample of a DUCKY polymer membrane researchers created to perform the initial separation of crude oils using significantly less energy. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
]]>Over the summer of 2023, the two students served as research interns for Ye Zhao, Assistant Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering and a member of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, and Ting Zhu, Woodruff Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering and a member of the Institute for Materials, both learning from the experience and proposing new research paths to their hosting lab team.
Mentored by graduate students Kelin Yu and Chaitanya Mehta, Christian and Matthew were introduced to the basics of robotic grippers with embedded tactile sensors and training via convolutional neural networks, a powerful artificial intelligence approach that imitates the way humans learn things. After this introductory period, the pair proposed their own approach to testing the robotic gripper on various objects with different textures and shapes. The two discovered that by changing several parameters of the neural network they were able to increase the precision of the robotic arm so that it can more accurately identify the grasped object, adjust its force accordingly to hold the objects firmly but without breakage.
“Following an extensive period of learning and exploration, Matthew and Christian identified and proposed a novel research topic, followed by the development of a comprehensive research plan. Their proposed topic effectively integrates deep learning and tactile sensing to enhance the accuracy of object identification by robotic hands, “said graduate student and mentor Kelin Yu. “They introduced a novel approach to object classification by utilizing deformations of grasped fruit objects and deep learning models. Moreover, Matthew and Christian played important roles in various phases of the research, including the intricate tasks of model training, meticulous data acquisition, and the execution of experiments on robotic hardware. Their active participation was pivotal in driving the project to successful completion.”
In addition to gaining new skills, such as using SOLIDWORKS for design and modeling and 3D printing for prototyping, the two gained valuable insights into the importance of collaboration across specialized teams for productive research outcomes.
Prior to having this opportunity, I never would have imagined that so many specialized groups had to work together and communicate with each other. I would see the Cassie foot team members come in some days and they would discuss topics with the Robotic gripper team members Chaitanya or Colin. – Christian Hable
Georgia Tech has a cutting-edge research environment, such as at Professor Zhao’s lab, where research on robotics and artificial intelligence intersects. I am very impressed by how dedicated and hardworking my mentors, Colin and Chaitanya, were. Our wonderful research experience would not have been possible without the dedication of my mentors. – Matthew Zhu
Kelin, Chaitanya, Zhao and Ting are currently in the process of preparing a journal manuscript on the research, with Matthew and Christian as co-authors. The tentative title of the manuscript is “A robotic hand for object identification through tactile sensing and neural networks”.
In this brief Q&A, Rocklin discusses his research focus, how it relates to materials research, and the impact of this initiative.
What is your field of expertise and at what point in your life did you first become interested in this area?
I'm a soft matter physicist who studies flexible structures and metamaterials. Flexible structures can support mechanical loads while undergoing complex deformations. Metamaterials are structures engineered with repeating patterns such as holes or creases that imbue them with fundamentally new properties. I have been interested in using math and logic to solve puzzles and figure things out from a very young age. This has grown over the last several years into designing structures with new geometries to convey force in new and useful ways.
What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
Flexible structures lend themselves to complex behavior and fascinating puzzles. Why do origami sheets seem to bend in exactly the opposite direction as conventional thin plates? How can you design a structure that can robustly toggle between flexible and stiff? How many different stable shapes can be programmed into a single mechanical metamaterial?
Why is your initiative important to the development of Georgia Tech’s materials research strategy?
This research offers a new way of conceptualizing materials research, connecting with a vibrant and growing international materials community. Materials research often involves manipulating the smallest (atomic) scale, whereas metamaterials aim to take advantage of structure at all scales, up to the human scale of the overall system. This complements existing materials research while connecting it with other disciplines such as robotics and mechanical engineering.
What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
As a scientist, I have faith that deeper knowledge leads to broad social benefits. In the case of metamaterials, this benefit is already being realized. Soft robots, sheets of paper, textiles, plants, and the human body itself are all flexible structures. Metamaterial principles are being used widely, from space missions to surgical stents, to create stronger, tougher, cheaper, softer, and lighter-weight structures.
What are your plans for engaging a wider Georgia Tech faculty pool with IMat research?
Georgia Tech has a remarkable set of researchers who work on metamaterials, as well as many others who work in adjacent and complementary areas. Our immediate goal is to strengthen communication and build a sense of community to share ideas and craft teams of collaborators capable of developing new research programs.
]]>Altogether, the agency is investing $3 million in the three projects led by faculty members in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). Georgia Tech is a contributing partner on a fourth project led by Notre Dame researchers to explore materials that can be switched from an insulator to a metal with an external trigger.
The new awards are part of NSF’s Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program, which is intended to discover and create advanced materials twice as fast and at a fraction of the cost of traditional research methods.
Read more about the researchers' plans on the College of Engineering website.
]]>The new IRI, which has yet to be named, will explore the vast scientific, technological, societal, and economic impacts of innovative materials and devices, as well as foster their incorporation into systems that improve the human condition in areas such as information and communication technologies, the built environment, and human well-being and performance.
“The new IRI will not only combine the strengths of IEN and IMat, but will also allow us to further expand faculty representation from across the Institute,” said Julia Kubanek, vice president of Interdisciplinary Research at Georgia Tech. “As we look at the future of research in these areas, expanding inclusivity of researchers from the liberal arts, design, business, and basic sciences will allow us to better meet the education, workforce development, and innovation needs of Georgia, the U.S., and the world.”
The new IRI will strengthen Georgia Tech’s role in national focus areas such as the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the Materials Genome Initiative, and the CHIPS and Science Act, as well as identify and shape future priorities.
Core competencies of the new IRI will include:
“IEN and IMat have worked closely together for years, and there is overlap in the research areas we cover,” said Eric Vogel, IMat’s executive director. “This is an opportunity for us to build on IEN and IMat’s individual successes and our strong record of collaboration to create something even more exceptional.”
The new IRI will strengthen the state-of-the-art core cleanroom and characterization facilities, providing researchers with the tools and resources necessary for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. These facilities will continue to serve both Georgia Tech and, through its leadership within the NSF National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, the nation. Recognizing the importance of nurturing talent, it will champion education and outreach programs to inspire the next generation and equip the workforce with the skills necessary to collaborate and communicate across multiple disciplines.
“This is an exciting time to look to the future,” said Michael Filler, interim executive director of IEN. “We highly value the dedication and hard work of our staff and research faculty, who have been crucial to the success of IEN and IMat and will be the backbone of this new organization. We look forward to creating something exceptional in the coming months.”
]]>“Pressure injuries directly impact the veteran’s quality of life, because the medical provider will order the veteran to bed rest for weeks and potentially months,” said Kim House, a physician and medical director of the Spinal Cord Injury Clinic at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Healthcare System. “At every clinic visit, I provide education for pressure injury prevention.”
House could one day have a new tool to offer her patients, thanks to researchers in the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, and wheelchair-bound veterans are just the beginning.
Materials engineers are developing new fabric sensors and a customized wheelchair system that assesses and automatically eases pressure at contact points to prevent injuries from developing in the first place.
“We have three key issues happening: First, continuous pressure. Second, moisture, because when you're sitting in the same spot, you tend to sweat and generate moisture. And third is shear. When you try to move somebody, the skin shears. That perfect combination is what causes pressure injuries,” said Sundaresan Jayaraman, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). “We believe we have a solution to the perfect storm of pressure, moisture and shear, which means the user’s quality of life is going to get better.”
Get the full story on the College of Engineering website.
]]>The Wearable Intelligent Systems and Healthcare (WISH) Center will work to push innovation in wearable sensors and electronics technologies. Focus areas of the center will include electronics, artificial intelligence, biological science, material sciences, manufacturing, system design, and medical engineering.
“We are excited by the promise of bioelectronics improving human health and all the exciting science engineering that is required to make it a reality,” said Michael Filler, interim executive director of IEN.
WISH is directed by W. Hong Yeo, associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, and Yuhang Hu, associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech.
“I founded WISH to bring together Georgia Tech’s expertise in various disciplines and to create opportunities for developing wearable bioelectronics and human-machine technologies leading to better lives and communities,” said Yeo.
Yeo’s research focuses on developing soft sensors, electronics and robotics for health monitoring and disease diagnosis at the intersection of human and machine interaction. Other researchers in the center represent disciplines from across Georgia Tech’s Colleges of Engineering, Computing, Sciences, Design, and Liberal Arts; Emory University; and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
WISH will be one of IEN’s 10 strategic research centers, along with the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center, a graduated NSF Engineering Research Center focusing on advanced packaging using 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration technologies, and the Georgia Electronic Design Center, one of the world’s largest university-based semiconductor research centers. WISH is an evolution of the Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering, which received seed funding from IEN to focus on collaborative research for human-centered design, biofeedback control, and integrated nanosystems to advance human-machine interaction in the scope of healthcare.
IEN supports early-stage research in underfunded research areas that span all disciplines in science and engineering through its seed grant programs, which focus on research in biomedicine, electronics, optoelectronics and photonics, and energy applications.
]]>The Humboldt recipients are academics whose fundamental discoveries, theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own disciplines and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.
Li’s research focuses on theory and computation of disordered materials — such as glass and liquid — with an emphasis on understanding the underlying atomic structures and their relations to properties. These materials are known for the lack of long-range order, making it extremely difficult, if not possible, to determine the exact atomic structures experimentally. The missing connection between the structure and property has challenged scientists for decades.
Using computational and theoretical approaches, Li’s research is directed towards the fundamental understanding of the mechanisms, process, and structures of the materials. He has made many contributions in the topics of glass transitions, deformation localization in glassy materials, thermodynamic and statistical physics models for metastable systems and their phase transitions, and algorithm development for computations.
“Besides the honor and recognition, for which I am very grateful, the Humboldt Research Award brings a tremendous opportunity for international collaboration of basic research through the financial support and also the Humboldt network.” Li said. "The fundamental understanding enables us to carry out new experiment and computation that could lead to development of new materials that have not been possible for disordered or amorphous materials.”
In addition to the honor, the Foundation also provides financial support for Li to foster and carry out creative collaborative research in Germany. Li will work closely with colleagues in two world-class institutions in Germany: Prof. Robert Maaß at Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM) in Berlin and Prof. Jörg Weissmüller at Hamburg University of Technology in Hamburg.
They will work on how new design of microstructures in disordered materials could bring revolutionary changes to the physical and mechanical properties and how length scale and geometric and topological shapes influence the surface and interface properties of this class of materials.
]]>In this brief Q&A, Correa-Baena discusses his research focus, how it relates to materials research, and the impact of this initiative.
What is your field of expertise and at what point in your life did you first become interested in this area?
I am an expert in materials for energy harvesting and conversion. I first became interested in this topic when I was an undergraduate student and started thinking about the future of energy production.
What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
I was born and raised in a country where fossil fuels dominate the energy production landscape, yet where renewables are readily available. Colombia is a large producer of oil but also boasts a huge potential for solar energy production. This juxtaposition always puzzled me growing up. As a researcher in this field, I want to ensure that all countries around the world have access to solar energy, by helping lower deployment cost.
Why is your initiative important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
There is a growing need to expand our research footprint at Georgia Tech with regard to photovoltaics. This is especially important with the impact of the photovoltaic industry presence in Georgia. My initiative is focusing on galvanizing activities around photovoltaic research at Georgia Tech that can benefit our footprint globally as well as locally with industry partners.
What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
The main benefit of the research we do is to the photovoltaic industry, which we hope to engage through cutting-edge research at Georgia Tech.
What are your plans for engaging a wider Georgia Tech faculty pool with IMat research?
I am planning to organize an internal workshop, as well as a session on photovoltaics in the Next Generation of Energy Materials Symposium to be held in March 2024 at Georgia Tech. In addition, as part of my efforts to engage the Georgia Tech community at large, I am working to create a website that will connect the Georgia Tech community working towards advancing photovoltaic capabilities for future manufacturing advancements.
]]>In this brief Q&A, Milam discusses her research focus, how it relates to materials research, and the impact of this initiative.
What is your field of expertise and at what point in your life did you first become interested in this area?
My field of expertise lies in bio-inspired materials science and engineering. Natural macromolecular components of biological systems such as cell receptors or antibodies rely on recognition-based binding events to, for example, allow a cell to take up particular nutrients or to neutralize a specific pathogen threat. Inspired by nature’s capabilities, my group’s research strives to identify and study synthetic macromolecular materials with bio-inspired compositions and self-folded structures. I first became interested in using DNA for its recognition capabilities during my postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania. For the first several years as an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, my group used DNA duplexes as a temporary glue between particle surfaces. Our more recent efforts focus on finding oligonucleotides to function as ligands or capture agents for a specific biological or nonbiological target.
What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
Polymers or macromolecules hold a lot of promise as a class of materials for various applications. Synthetic macromolecules, however, pose a lot of synthesis and post-use challenges that can hinder the discovery and practical use of novel macromolecular chemistries. Natural polymers such as oligonucleotides and proteins, on the other hand, have their own elegant synthesis and degradation pathways. To promote discovery of novel macromolecular materials, my group uses nature’s reagents and building blocks to synthesize numerous artificial biopolymer candidates. Since we do not start with any sequence design rules, we rely on maximizing the composition diversity of these artificial biopolymers. We then test all candidates collectively to efficiently choose ones with the desired functionality.
Why is your initiative important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
One of the challenges to discovering macromolecular systems that are both novel and practical is the lack of design rules. For example, how does one choose the right number and composition of repeat units for a macromolecule that binds to a particular material surface or to a particular biological target. If you can take advantage of nature’s building blocks and enzymes, then you can explore a wide chemical combinatorial space without having to follow any prerequisite design rules. Better yet, you can then use your initial findings to come up with design rules to explore additional, possibly better macromolecular candidates. This approach to macromolecule discovery is inherently interdisciplinary since one must combine or adapt techniques and approaches developed by biologists, polymer scientists, and materials engineers. Thus, Georgia Tech is a great place to foster this interdisciplinary strategy to research.
What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
In addition to training members of our future workforce with interdisciplinary skill sets, we want to carve out a pathway to designing, synthesizing and using environmentally friendly, multiuse macromolecules with commercial promise.
What are your plans for engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
Currently, we are primarily in the brainstorming stage. To this end, I am engaging with science and engineering faculty at GT as well as Emory. As cross-disciplinary ideas start to brew, we will work towards multi-PI funding opportunities that engage the broader GT faculty and community.
]]>Energy materials are the things — natural, manufactured, or both — that aid the use of energy. They also play a key role in developing cleaner, more efficient energy solutions.
Energy Materials Day was co-hosted by Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), the Institute for Materials (IMat), and the Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center. The event evolved out of last year’s Georgia Tech Battery Day.
“As an engine of innovation in science and technology, Georgia Tech has incredible opportunities and the responsibility to conduct research to benefit society,” said Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for Research at Georgia Tech. “We call this ‘research that matters.’”
Events like Energy Materials Day are part of an ongoing, long-range effort to position Georgia Tech, and Georgia, as a go-to location for modern energy companies. Tech was recently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the top public university for energy research. Abdallah also outlined why Georgia Tech, with more than 1,000 researchers across campus working in the energy space, is a natural fit for events that foster collaboration between the public and private sectors.
“Right here, right now, we have the opportunity to harness our collective powers, our collective knowledge, our collective resources to become a global engine of innovation,” he said.
Plenary speaker Danielle Merfeld, global chief technology officer at QCells, highlighted opportunities for the current and future clean energy infrastructure in the United States.
"At the heart of our discussions today [are these questions]: What is new technology, and how do you make it ... and make it at scale, in an affordable, accessible, and reliable way?” she said.
"... [The] good news is this country has taken a very deliberate step toward creating the most robust industrial policy we've had in decades. ... This is driving opportunity and creating the foundation for manufacturing. So, [we can] use that industrial base of making and consuming power [and] decarbonize the electric grid by 2035...."
“Events like this are so important to forwarding progress in research and industry,” said Eric Vogel, IMat’s executive director. “It’s important to bring together professionals throughout the industry to keep these lines of communication open.”
The day was divided into three tracks: battery materials and technologies, photovoltaics and the grid, and materials for carbon-neutral fuel production. Attendees were encouraged to listen to talks from all three areas. Each track included academic speakers who shared their research and private-sector speakers who described how technological advancements are affecting the industry.
“With its rich history in energy research, Georgia Tech remains a leader in addressing global energy challenges,” said Tim Lieuwen, executive director of SEI. “The success of Energy Materials Day is encouraging, and I eagerly anticipate continuing these discussions in 2025.”
]]>Holding a dual appointment as Deputy Director of Innovation Initiatives for Georgia Tech’s Institute for Materials, one of Tech’s 10 Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRI) focused on advancing materials research and innovation, and with over two decades of experience as an adjunct professor in Tech’s School of Materials Science & Engineering, Ready has established himself as a leader in materials science and engineering.
Read the full story
Georgia Tech is playing a significant role in creating the next generation of chips, as the Institute is especially well positioned to innovate in the semiconductor field. All areas of the semiconductor stack — the components that build a chip, from hardware to artificial intelligence — are studied at Tech, and collaboration among faculty is a hallmark of its research enterprise. Such cooperation is necessary to build better chips, since they need to be reinvented in every layer of the stack.
Read the full story on GT Research News.
]]>The KIAT-Georgia Tech Semiconductor Electronics Center will receive $1.8 million to establish a sustainable semiconductor electronics research partnership between Korean companies, researchers, and Georgia Tech.
“I am thrilled to announce that we have secured funding to launch a groundbreaking collaboration between Georgia Tech’s world-class researchers and Korean companies,” said Hong Yeo, associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “This initiative will drive the development of cutting-edge technologies to advance semiconductor, sensors, and electronics research.”
Yeo will lead the center, and Michael Filler, interim executive director for the Institute of Electronics and Nanotechnology, and Muhannad Bakir, director of the 3D Advanced Packaging Research Center, will serve as co-PIs.
The center will focus on advancing semiconductor research, a critical area of technology that forms the backbone of modern electronics.
The Cooperation Center is a global technology collaboration platform designed to facilitate international joint research and development planning, partner matching, and local support for domestic researchers. The selection of Georgia Tech underscores the Institute’s leadership and expertise in the field of semiconductors.
]]>With this new knowledge, she could train and help other students with their research. At the time, Bonecutter-Leonard was a chemical engineering major with no plans to go into microelectronics. Working in the cleanroom changed that.
“I fell in love with microelectronics through exposure to the research and development work performed in the cleanroom,” she said.
What started as a student job led to her taking microelectronics classes — and eventually to a career in the field. “My work-study prepared me with hands-on technical skills I would have never learned from just being in a classroom,” she said. Now, Bonecutter-Leonard works as a microelectronics business chief engineer at defense contractor L3Harris Technologies.
Her story is one of many from the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN, the successor to MiRC), which has been training students from kindergarten to graduate school to be leaders in the microelectronics and nanotechnology space. The goal of IEN’s outreach is to make nanotechnology and microelectronics — such as computer chips and sensors — as accessible as any other science. Ultimately, these efforts will build up the U.S. workforce in the field, ensuring the country remains at the forefront of the technology that powers Americans’ everyday lives.
Bolstering the number of workers in the microelectronics industry is imperative to keep the U.S. globally competitive. Right now, 40% of the industry's labor force is older than 50, with practitioners aging out of their careers at a pace new talent cannot match. Additionally, heavy educational barriers to entry, including required degrees and specialized training, prevent more people from pursuing careers in the field. Without dedicated efforts, the entire sector — and the nation — will fall behind.
IEN is working to solve this pipeline problem.
“With the national semiconductor workforce aging, it is important now more than ever that we educate the next generation to move into these jobs,” said Michael Filler, IEN’s interim executive director. “IEN is proud to support the semiconductor industry by providing students with the interdisciplinary skills and hands-on technical training essential for success in this fast-paced, global field.”
Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned to lead this charge with its 28,500 square feet of academic cleanroom space, the largest in the Southeast and among the largest in the U.S. From micro-electro-mechanical systems to electronics fabrication, workers have 100 bays in which to conduct leading-edge research. These cleanrooms are also key teaching and training facilities.
IEN invites anyone from around the world, whether affiliated with the Institute or not, to become a core user of the cleanroom facilities. The center also regularly hosts short courses for external partners — academic, industry, and government — in microfabrication and soft lithography for microfluidics. Over the past three years, more than 700 people went through new-user orientation, and 193 enrolled in the short courses.
Making nanotechnology — of which microelectronics is an example — educationally accessible begins before college. Each semester, more than 800 K-12 students participate in IEN’s Introduction to Nanotechnology virtual lesson. Associate Director for Education and Outreach Mikkel Thomas begins his presentations by asking a simple question: What do you know about nanotechnology?
“About 99% of the time, they say that’s what makes Ironman’s suit work,” said Thomas. “That means they’ve learned the wrong lesson — that nanotechnology is a futuristic tech and that you have to be as smart as Tony Stark to work in the field.
“But most people interact with nanotechnology multiple times throughout their day, and they have no idea they're doing it.”
Thomas also emphasizes there is a career path for everyone, even if they don’t plan to get a traditional four-year degree. Part of IEN’s workforce development initiative is to build up the entire pipeline from industry and research lab technicians at the certificate level to postdoctoral researchers.
“It’s important for us to reach kids who don’t know what career options are available in nanotechnology,” Thomas said. “We want them to know that whatever they're interested in, there is a pathway for them.”
Sixth- through eighth-grade students sparked by this conversation can attend Chip Camp, a three-day STEM summer camp sponsored by Micron. They begin with a day at IEN to learn about thin films, magic sands, ferrofluids, and measuring their height in nanometers. The rest of the camp features hands-on visits to the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) and the IEN cleanroom, where they can try on the white “bunny suits” technicians wear in the lab.
To further their reach, IEN’s workforce development team collaborates with teachers to bring nanotechnology into classrooms. During the summer, IEN offers the Research Experience for Teachers, a training program for public school and community college teachers to conduct nanotechnology research and learn how to incorporate it into their lessons. Middle school teachers have similar opportunities through the Nanoscience Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers.
When these students get to a university like Georgia Tech, IEN hires them for work-study jobs like the one Bonecutter-Leonard had. The hands-on cleanroom training is also vital to graduate students pursuing advanced degrees.
Katie Young earned her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech. Learning her way around the IEN cleanroom was essential for her graduate studies.
“My dissertation research involved synthesizing two-dimensional materials — only a single atom thick — for permeation barriers,” she explained. “I often used the cleanroom’s vacuum systems to synthesize and process 2D materials.” Now a research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Young still works in the cleanroom on semiconductor device fabrication, building prototype quantum and biological sensors.
IEN opportunities are not limited to graduate research. Annually, about 150 Georgia Tech undergraduate students take microelectronics packaging and devices classes, with labs taught by IEN staff in the teaching cleanroom. These courses include Integrated Circuit Fabrication (ECE 4452), in which students learn to fabricate circuit elements, and the Science and Engineering of Microelectronic Fabrication (ChBE 4050/6050, open to graduate students as well), for students interested in semiconductor materials and fabrication.
Students don’t need to enroll at Georgia Tech to benefit from training, courses, and other opportunities. IEN’s internship program provides technical college students with training to become microelectronics technicians, either through work in the Biocleanroom or in the MCF.
IEN also participates in the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), which provides opportunities for students from underrepresented groups or who attend schools without similar facilities. While enrolled at another university, John Mark Page was introduced to Georgia Tech’s cleanroom through an REU.
“That was my first exposure to any facility of this kind, and it felt like I was looking at the future. Being in a facility that can fabricate devices at or near the atomic level — it was hard to fathom,” Page said. “I had never thought that participating in microelectronics and nanotechnology as a student, especially as an undergraduate, was something I could do.”
As a result of his REU, Page transferred to Georgia Tech — he will graduate this summer with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He also completed a second REU at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, worked as a student assistant in the IEN cleanroom, and participated in a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP), Chip Scale Power and Energy.
“I was interested in the VIP because it allowed me to spend more time in the cleanroom, familiarizing myself with semiconductor fabrication methods and training on new fabrication equipment,” Page explained. His experiences inspired him to consider a future career in the semiconductor industry.
“It wasn’t only the 10-week experience of the REU that made a lasting impact on me,” he said. “It was also the relationships formed with the people of IEN. The staff there are exceptional representatives of Georgia Tech, and they make IEN a tremendous asset to the future of microelectronics and nanotechnology in the U.S.”
Biya Haile, an ECE Ph.D. student, had a similarly meaningful REU experience. Haile, whose research focuses on creating micro-electro-mechanical systems-based sensors (MEMS), described the REU as “immersive.”
“The REU project enabled me to study chemical micro-sensor technologies, as well as state-of-the-art additive nano-manufacturing techniques, which has contributed to my research,” he said. “I feel lucky that my academic journey has entailed developing new technologies that use nanoscience to solve big problems.”
While Haile is currently focused more on designing and testing rapid processes for fabricating MEMS-based devices, he still occasionally works in the cleanroom on fabrication. He plans to go into the microelectronics industry after graduating.
All of IEN’s training and educational offerings align with IEN’s mission to bolster and diversify the microelectronics workforce, according to George White, senior director of strategic partnerships for the Georgia Tech research enterprise. “IEN has been at the forefront of the CHIPS infrastructure buildout, particularly in the area of education and workforce development,” he noted.
IEN’s efforts impact not just Atlanta but the entire country. Georgia Tech’s leadership in microelectronics research trains the innovators and practitioners of the future everywhere and ensures that America stays at the forefront of leading-edge technology. As demand increases for microelectronics, IEN is moving to meet it.
Effective July 1, 2024, the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology and the Institute for Materials will evolve into the Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS). This strategic union aims to foster convergent research at Georgia Tech, focusing on the science, technology, and societal underpinnings of cutting-edge materials and devices. Eric Vogel will be the director of IMS, and Michael Filler will be the deputy director.
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As an evolution of the Institute for Materials (IMat) and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), IMS aims to enable convergent research at Georgia Tech related to the science, technology, and societal underpinnings of innovative materials and devices. Additionally, IMS seeks to integrate these innovations into systems that enhance human well-being and performance across information and communication, the built environment, and human-centric technologies that improve human health, wellness, and performance.
“Executive Vice President for Research Chaouki Abdallah and I are very excited about the launch of IMS, which positions Georgia Tech for integration of science and technology from atoms to devices, while explicitly drawing in researchers in the social sciences, design, business, and computing,” said Vice President of Interdisciplinary Research Julia Kubanek.
“IMS will ensure relevance across Georgia Tech through its newly configured Internal Advisor and Ambassador Board with representation across all six Colleges and GTRI,” she said. “Additional advisory committees representing IMS employees and facility users will ensure that we don’t sacrifice any of the research excellence for which IEN and IMat are known. With IMS I expect we will be even better positioned to tackle research problems that will have the greatest positive societal impact.”
Vogel will continue in his current position as the executive director of IMat until the launch of IMS. In addition to leading and growing IMat, Vogel is the Hightower Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering, and he served as the IEN deputy director prior to leading IMat.
“It is an honor to be appointed executive director of the Institute for Matter and Systems, and I look forward to collaborating with the talented faculty and staff associated with it,” said Vogel. “This opportunity allows us to leverage the core competencies of IEN and IMat while extending our capabilities beyond nanotechnology and materials science. Together, we will be a hub for interdisciplinary research ranging from advanced materials to complex systems that solve global challenges.”
Georgia Tech’s IRIs facilitate collaboration between researchers and students from its six Colleges, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, national laboratories, and corporate entities to tackle critical topics of strategic significance for the Institute as well as for local, state, national, and international communities. IMS will also house and maintain the state-of-the-art Materials Characterization Facility and one of the largest academic cleanrooms in the nation, which offers a broad range of fabrication capabilities from basic discovery to prototype realization.
Before joining Georgia Tech in 2011, Vogel was an associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. During this time, he also served as the associate director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and led UT Dallas’s involvement in the Southwest Academy for Nanoelectronics.
Prior to UT Dallas, he led the CMOS and Novel Devices Group and established the Nanofabrication Facility at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Vogel holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the development and fundamental understanding of electronic and nanomaterials and devices.
]]>According to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, since 2020, Georgia has had $21 billion invested or announced in EV-related projects with 26,700 jobs created. With investments in alternate energy technologies growing exponentially in the nation, McDowell revealed Georgia Tech is well-positioned to make an impact on the next generation energy storage technologies and extended an open invitation to industry members to partner with researchers. As one of the most research-intensive academic institutions in the nation, Georgia Tech has more than $1.3 billion in research and other sponsored funds and produces the highest number of engineering doctoral graduates in the nation.
“More than half of Georgia Tech's strategic initiatives are focused on improving the efficiency and sustainability of energy storage, supporting clean energy sources, and mitigating climate change," said Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech. "As a leader in battery technologies research, we are bringing together engineers, scientists, and researchers in academia and industry to conduct innovative research to address humanity's most urgent and complex challenges, and to advance technology and improve the human condition."
Rich Simmons, director of research and studies at the Strategic Energy Institute moderated the first panel discussion that included industry panelists from Panasonic, Cox Automotive, Bluebird Corp., Delta Airlines and Hyundai Kia. The panelists analyzed the opportunities and challenges in the electric transportation sector and explained their current focus areas in energy storage. The panel affirmed that while EVs have been around for more than three decades, the industry is still in its infancy and there is a huge potential to advance technology in all areas of the EV sector.
The discussion also brought forth important factors like safety, lifecycle, and sustainability in driving innovations in the energy storage sector. The attendees also discussed supply chain issues, a hot topic in almost all sectors of the nation, and the need to develop a diversity of resources for more resilient systems. The industry panelists affirmed a strong interest in partnering on research and development projects as well as gaining access to university talent.
Gleb Yushin, professor in the School of Material Science and Engineering and co-founder of Sila Nanotechnologies Inc., presented his battery research and development success story at Georgia Tech. Sila is a Georgia Tech start-up founded in 2011 and has produced the world’s first commercially available high-silicon-content anode for lithium-ion batteries in 2021. Materials manufactured in its U.S. facilities will power electric vehicles starting with the Mercedes-Benz G-class series in 2023.
The program included lightning talks on cutting-edge research in battery materials, specifically solid-state electrolytes and plastic crystal embedded elastomer electrolytes (PCEEs) by Seung Woo Lee, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Santiago Grijalva, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, discussed the challenges and opportunities for the successful use of energy storage for the grid.
Tequila Harris, initiative lead for Energy and Manufacturing and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, spoke to energy materials and carbon-neutral applications. Presenting a case for roll-to-roll manufacturing of battery materials, Harris said that the need for quick, high yield manufacturing processes and alternative materials and structures were important considerations for the industry.
Materials, manufacturing, and market opportunities were the topic for the next panel moderated by McDowell and included panelists from Albemarle, Novelis, Solvay, Truist Securities, and Energy Impact Partners. Analyzing the current challenges, the panelists brought up hiring and workforce development, increasing capacity and building the ecosystem, decarbonizing existing processes, and understanding federal policies and regulations.
Lightning talks later in the afternoon by researchers at Georgia Tech touched on the latest developments in the cross-disciplinary research bridging mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, AI manufacturing, and material science in energy storage research. Topics included safe rechargeable batteries with water-based electrolytes (Nian Liu, assistant professor, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering), AI-accelerated manufacturing (Aaron Stebner, associate professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering), battery recycling (Hailong Chen, associate professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering), and parametric life-cycle models for a solid-state battery circular economy (Ilan Stern, research scientist from GTRI).
Another industry panel on grid, infrastructure and communities moderated by Faisal Alamgir, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering included panelists from Southern Company, Stryten Energy, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Improving the grid resiliency and storage capacity; proximity to the energy source; optimizing and implementing new technology in an equitable way; standardization of the evolving business models; economic development and resource building through skilled workforce; educating the consumer; and getting larger portions of the grid with renewable energy were top of mind with the panelists.
“Energy-storage-related R&D efforts at Georgia Tech are extensive and include next-gen battery chemistry development, battery characterization, recycling, and energy generation and distribution,” said McDowell. “There is a tremendous opportunity to leverage the broad expertise we bring to advance energy storage systems. Battery Day has been hugely successful in not only bringing this expertise to the forefront, but also in affirming the need for continued interaction with the companies engaged in this arena. Our mission is to serve as a centralized focal point for research interactions between companies in the battery/EV space and faculty members on campus.”
]]>The opening day of the symposium covered sustainability and circular economies for materials production and reuse, as well as electronic, and energy materials. The morning kicked-off with the event’s first keynote speaker, Dr. Nag Patibandla from Applied Materials presenting, Materials Engineering Innovations for Display and Optics for AR/VR Devices. Following the opening keynote, faculty from across the materials research spectrum gave attendees an overview of research in lithiuum ion batteries, photovoltaics, materials for clean energy & water, renewable energy, and nanomaterials.
The Brumley D. Pritchett Lecture closed the lecture portion of the day. The lecture featured Dr. Laura Greene, the chief scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, and the Marie Krafft Professor of Physics at Florida State University. Dr. Greene’s research centers on quantum materials, focusing on fundamental studies utilizing novel materials growth with planar tunneling and point contact electron spectroscopies to elucidate the mechanisms of unconventional superconductivity.
In her presentation, The Dark Energy of Quantum Materials, Greene spoke on correlated electron problems that remain largely unsolved; with one stunning success being Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) electron-phonon mediated “conventional” superconductivity. Greene touched upon the many families of superconductors that are “unconventional” including the high-Tc cuprates, iron-based, and heavy fermion superconductors. These materials are disparate in many properties but display similarities in their fundamental properties. These topics were presented using an analogy to stress how they remain among the greatest unsolved problems in physics today.
The day was capped by a reception in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Atrium, held in tandem with a student research posters session and tours of the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility and the Materials Characterization Facility for interested attendees.
The second day of the Symposium focused on functional and quantum materials and characterization infrastructure at Georgia Tech to accelerate materials innovation. Faculty and research engineers touched on topics from meta and ferrroic materials to materials for modular and scalable micro and nano device engineering.
Day two also featured the event’s second keynote speaker, Dr. David D. Awschalom; Liew Family Professor and Vice Dean for Research of the Pritzker School for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, a Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, and Founding Director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange. Awschalom’s lecture, The Quantum Revolution: Materials for New Technologies, touched on the ways in which new methods of computing, communication and measurement are being developed by researchers utilizing quantum phenomena such as entanglement, superposition and interference.
About The Brumley D. Pritchett Lecture
The Brumley D. Pritchett Lecture Series was established in the School of Polymer, Textile & Fiber Engineering (now Materials Science and Engineering) in 2006 as a memorial to the late Col. Brumley D. Pritchett. He received his bachelor's degree in textile engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1930, graduating with an award for superior achievement in his major. While at Georgia Tech, he was instrumental in the founding of the Phi Psi Textile Honors Fraternity and was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. After graduation, he worked briefly with Dundee Mills before assuming management duties at Eagle and Phoenix Mills in Columbus, Georgia. He joined the United States Army in 1940 and served in the Pacific during World War II. Upon leaving the army, he returned to Eagle and Phoenix Mills as superintendent. Later, he joined Steel Heddle Manufacturing Company as a sales engineer and consultant, retiring in 1972. He was elected to membership in the College of Engineering Hall of Fame at Georgia Tech in 2002.
]]>The Georgia Institute of Technology was the first university to offer a comprehensive curriculum on microelectronics and microsystems design and packaging and, currently, numerous faculty at Georgia Tech are widely known for their work in semiconductor and microelectronics technologies. In December of 2021 Georgia Tech researchers will again showcase how their pushes the boundaries of microelectronics technologies at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).
The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering research teams of Assistant Professor Asif Khan, partnering with Dan Fielder Professor Muhannad Bakir, and Associate Professor Shimeng Yu, partnering with Professor Sung-Kyu Lim and Assistant Professor Shaolan Li, have dominated the 2021 IEDM presentation line-up with a total of 8 accepted papers. With topics ranging from ferroelectric materials for memory, new advances in ALD process, and in-memory computing and 3D reconfigurable architectures, the research presented by these teams is at the cutting-edge of advancing computing power and consumer electronics. In addition to the research presentations, Electrical and Computing Engineering Faculty & Director of the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center at GT will be presenting a short course session on devoted to “Heterogenous Integration Using Chiplets & Advanced Packaging”
Noting the timely nature of these research advancements, Arijit Raychowdhory; Professor and Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering noted, “IEDM is a premier conference in the area of semiconductor devices. Such a strong performance by GT ECE exemplifies the strength of our program, the ingenuity of our students and the innovation driven by our world-class faculty. Sincere congratulations to Professors Khan, Yu Bakir, Lim and Li for their pioneering research in semiconductor logic and memory technologies, that are critical for our nation and our industries.”
Asif Khan is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. His work led to the first experimental proof-of-concept demonstration of the negative capacitance effect in ferroelectric oxides. His group at Georgia Tech conceptualizes and fabricates electronic devices that leverage interesting physics and novel phenomena in emerging materials (such as ferroelectrics, antiferroelectrics and strongly correlated systems) to overcome the “fundamental” limits in computation and to address the most pressing challenges in electronics and the semiconductor industry.
Shimeng Yu is currently an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Tech. He received the B.S. degree in microelectronics from Peking University in 2009, and the M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2011 and 2013, respectively. From 2013 to 2018, he was an assistant professor at Arizona State University. Prof. Yu’s research interests are the semiconductor devices and integrated circuits for energy-efficient computing systems. His research expertise is on the emerging non-volatile memories for applications such as deep learning accelerator, in-memory computing, 3D integration, and hardware security.
Muhannad S. Bakir is the Dan Fielder Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. Dr. Bakir and his research group have received more than thirty paper and presentation awards including six from the IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), four from the IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC), one from the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), and two from the IEEE Transactions on Components Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (TCPMT). Muhannad S. Bakir received the B.E.E. degree from Auburn University, Auburn, AL, in 1999 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Tech in 2000 and 2003, respectively. His research interests include, heterogeneous microsystem design and integration, including 2.5D and 3D ICs and packaging, electrical and photonic interconnects, and embedded cooling technologies.
Sung Kyu Lim received B.S. (1994), M.S. (1997), and Ph.D. (2000) degrees all from the Computer Science Department at UCLA. During 2000-2001, he was a post-doctoral scholar at UCLA, and a senior engineer at Aplus Design Technologies, Inc. Lim joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology an assistant professor. He is currently the director of the GTCAD (Georgia Tech Computer Aided Design) Laboratory and focuses on VLSI and 3D circuit architecture and packaging.
Shaolan Li received his B.Eng. degree with highest honor from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2012, and his Ph.D. from UT Austin in 2018, all in electrical engineering. Prior joining Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 2019, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT Austin from 2018-2019. He also held intern positions in Broadcom Ltd. in Sunnyvale, California, and NXP in Tempe, Arizona during 2013-2014. His research interests are broadly in analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits. His expertise is in high-performance data converters, ultra-low-power low-cost sensor interface, and novel analog mixed-signal architectures for design automation.
The IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is the world’s preeminent forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and electronic device technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling. IEDM is the flagship conference for nanometer-scale CMOS transistor technology, advanced memory, displays, sensors, MEMS devices, novel quantum and nano-scale devices and phenomenology, optoelectronics, devices for power and energy harvesting, high-speed devices, as well as process technology and device modeling and simulation. Georgia Tech research teams have a strong track of record in IEDM publications in the recent years, including 8, 4, 9 and 7 papers presented in IEDM 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
- Christa M. Ernst
]]>In addition to student research skill development, this bi-annual grant program gives faculty with novel research topics the ability to develop preliminary data to pursue follow-up funding sources. The Facility Seed Grant program is supported by the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), a member of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).
Since the start of the grant program in 2014, seventy-two projects from ten different schools in Georgia Tech’s Colleges of Engineering and Science, as well as the Georgia Tech Research Institute and 3 other universities, have been seeded.
The 4 winning projects in this round were awarded IEN cleanroom and lab access time to be used over the next year. In keeping with the interdisciplinary mission of IEN, the projects that will be enabled by the grants include research in semiconductor technology, opto-electronic materials and designs, quantum computing, and polymer nanostructures.
The Fall 2021 IEN Facility Seed Grant Award winners are:
In-situ Electron Microscopy Biasing Experiments on Ferroelectric Oxides on Ge Substrates
PI: Asif Khan and Joshua Kacher | Student: Nashrah Afroze
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering/School of Materials Science and Engineering
Fabrication of Dielectric Resonant Optical Metamaterials using 3D Printed Patterns
PI: Sourabh Saha | Student: Vidhukiran Venkataraman
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Realization of Microscale Mechanical Bistable Junction
PI: Chengzhi Shi | Student: Chenzhe Wang
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Fabrication and Characterization of Surface-Modified Polymers
PI: Akanksha Menon | Student: Walter Parker
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), is funded by NSF Grant ECCS-2025462.
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]]>My expertise is in the quantum physics of neutral atoms. Traditionally most research in this field has been done within the confines of a laboratory, with experiments done on tables that are filled with equipment such as lasers, optics and evacuated chambers, and all connected up with tons of electrical cables. About 10 years ago I began to wonder how to turn such bespoke, one-of-a-kind experiments into highly reproducible devices that can be carried around by a person (and eventually fit into a cellphone). The potential applications of this are enormous--atoms are incredibly precise sensors that could revolutionize timing and navigation by eliminating our dependence on GPS. They could also be the paramount platform for building the next generation of quantum information devices that can transform the world of computing and information. I’m super excited to harness atoms for real-world applications!
2. What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
I realized in my journey that materials are the key to making new things happen in this field. For instance, a lot of what I do currently revolves around silicon, which is not a traditional material used in atomic physics or for bulk optics. If we don’t explore new materials and materials processing methods we will miss out on large opportunities to solve the problems in quantum device development.
3. Why is your theme area important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
When I first started as an Initiative Lead in IMat, I was struck by how close the worlds of materials science and physics are. Many of the faculty come from a Physics background and appreciate the quantum way of thinking. Although we are separated into two Colleges at Tech, there is so much overlap in the way we think that it’s clear we need to collaborate more. In addition, I believe quantum computing, sensing and information is a huge opportunity for us at IMat and at GT more generally because a) there is a lot of federal and commercial funding in this area currently, and b) it leverages several of our key strengths. Materials fabrication and characterization is one of the key calling cards that can define Georgia Tech’s competitive advantage in applying for Center grants and for large-scale team formation. It is very much within the mission of IMat, I feel, as an interdisciplinary Institute.
4. What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
Quantum technologies offer the prospect of highly secure communications, which could have a profound influence on industries such as banking, for example. They also might be able to solve ultra-hard problems that current computers cannot tackle, for example, discovering the structure and function of complex molecules, which would enable drug discovery. Quantum computers might even illuminate some of humanity’s greatest mysteries about the cosmos and physical law. At a more personal level, I would be thrilled if quantum ideas became commonplace, i.e. to teach ideas such as superposition and entanglement in elementary schools.
5. What are your plans on engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
I am learning more and more about what people do in IMat, and I’m excited by it, as I feel new doors have opened up. I’m also hoping to serve as a bridge between IMat and Physics, to enable new collaborations. One-on-one discussions are a key part of moving that process forward, and I’m confident that we will develop new synergies in this area.
]]>My area of expertise is polymer physics applied to problems in the broad area of organic electronics and photonics, and more recently polymer upcycling. I only became interested in this area after high school. I meant to become an architect but was left handed rendering at that time technical drawing with ink difficult. Hence I chose an engineering study. I opted for Materials Science and Engineering simply because, on the one hand, it was the smallest engineering degree at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (I was the only women student) and, on the other hand, because it seemed to be a fascinating combination of chemistry, physics, mechanics and math.
2. What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
Next-generation plastic semiconductors are chemically very differently structured compared to commodity polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, or polyesters. This opens many fundamental questions about how they function. Developing mechanistic understanding on structure/processing/property relationships, a key pillar in my research group, will contribute to more reliable manufacturing of plastic electronics and photonics applications, and the design and engineering of new device platforms. It also will assist with technique development to generally gain insights in macromolecular matter.
3. Why is your theme area important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
Organic electronics and photonics technology platforms can be expected to have great societal impact because they promise to open new pathways and opportunities that could underpin the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ by reshaping product development and manufacturing, including flexible, rollable electronics targeted, e.g., for health-care applications , large-area energy harvesting, heat management structures for the building environment towards increased climate resilience. Georgia Tech has an incredible breadth and depth in science and engineering; bringing the various activities together will provide a unique platform towards impactful materials research. This requires to bridge current activities in the functional soft matter area with those in inorganic (hard) materials, and combine these with ongoing research in, e.g., physics and chemistry.
4. What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
The potential impact of all plastic electronics/photonics technologies to benefit mankind in the next 10 years is extremely significant, and there is no doubt that these materials- and device- platforms will play a big part in a more sustainable future world. They provide underpinning technologies towards future climate resilience of our society and show enormous promise to accelerate decarbonization trough novel, widely applicable energy harvesting systems, multi-functional windows that control light- and heat-flow, and transparent envelope technologies that help to dramatically reduce the overall need for active cooling/heating in buildings, agricultural greenhouses, and electric vehicles, while enabling better daylight access. This is of paramount importance as rising energy costs, and an increased need for energy, have drastically accelerated our demand for the kind of smart, intelligent, multi-functional materials materials for which my group provides mechanistic understanding, towards systems that promote energy conservation, reduce unnecessary emissions, and minimize use of natural resources.
5. What are your plans on engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
Having been educated as material scientist with focus on classical polymer physics, and with an active, internationally recognized research program in polymer electronics and photonics systems, I will be extremely well situated to work with IMaT teams across research boundaries. Moreover, as the MSE SoftBio TWG Leader, I have established close links with GTPN and RBI, while my collaboration with, e.g., the Silva group (GT Chemistry) has provided me with a good understanding of quantum science. Hence, I have the multidisciplinary understanding that will help me engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMaT to create a unique materials research environment that is capable to work across traditional material classes.
]]>I work at the intersection of mechanics, metallurgy, machine learning, and manufacturing. I became interested in engineering as a small child – my grandfather was an engineer, and when I would spend time with my grandparents in the summer, I would go to work with him, and I was fascinated with drawing boards, alligator clips, circuits, and more. In high school, I started interning at the business he had built that primarily developed automation and test equipment for circuit breaker manufacturing (he had passed and my uncle then ran it). I started in the stock room, worked through the machine shop, assembly, and into quality control in my first years there. Then I became an engineering assistant as I went into my undergraduate studies. I had thought that I wanted to be electrical engineer (like my grandfather), but after 6 – 8 months of assisting EE, I realized that my true passion was in mechanical engineering, and I moved over to ME – so that foundation instilled in me that I had a passion for ME, manufacturing, and automation. The metallurgy came years later, when I won a graduate fellowship to work at NASA Glenn while earning my Master’s degree. I worked with metallurgists there who were developing new shape memory alloys, which fascinated me. I resisted materials science and metallurgy for many years, insisting that should be someone else’s job, and I should stick to manufacturing and ME. However, it became evident that you can’t engineer with shape memory alloys or develop their manufacturing unless you deeply understood their metallurgy – that resonated with me when I attended a conference in 2008 while working for a startup company that was commercializing some of the new shape memory alloys the group I’d worked with at NASA had developed. When I returned from that conference, I signed up for my PhD program the next week and dove deep into the intersection of metallurgy, manufacturing, and mechanics. The machine learning came years later, several years into my faculty career. We were working with several companies and the state Office of Economic Development in Colorado (I started my faculty career at Colorado School of Mines) to develop an R&D center and technology incubator to support the growing metals 3D printing industry. When I asked the industry people why they needed a center/consortium at Mines in this area – what were they not getting at other additive manufacturing centers at that time (this was 2014/2015), they said “no one is helping us with our data problems.” So, that became our mission – data informatics innovations in metals additive manufacturing. Here at GT, I’m thrilled by the opportunities, colleagues, and infrastructure available to bring it all together – our big vision for this IMat initiative is to develop R&D test beds and technology incubators for AI materials manufacturing.
2. Why is your theme area important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
Largely, our materials research laboratories (nation-wide and globally, not just at Georgia Tech) have been designed and built to support human operators. However, AI cannot independently function in the same way and in the same environments – or, at least, we will never realize its full potential if we make it play by our rules. Re-thinking and designing new materials laboratories that can operate autonomously and semi-autonomously is critical to be at the forefront of future innovations.
3. What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
Lowering barriers and times for the discovery and development of new materials and manufacturing – lower costs, faster times to deployment, increased sustainability, and finding better solutions. Also, with AI engines, the ability to distribute manufacturing to local/underserved parts of the globe and our nation – we saw this at the onset of COVID – when our corporate supply chain was unprepared to meet the demand, people were able to contribute respirators, masks, and more using the 3D printers in their garages, libraries, schools, universities, and hospitals and serve their community. However, people in their garages are rarely equipped to qualify/certify/ensure safety of critical parts and widgets on their own – the data infrastructure + AI enables qualification/certification to happen through statistics, and then rapid dissemination of the manufacturing “how to”. One could even imagine a future where the burden of qualification and certification could be shared across everyone participating in the supply chain – that will take a lot of policy and economic reform and rethinking as well, but as we gain confidence in our understanding of statistical models and data management infrastructure and software, it becomes more and more feasible.
4. What are your plans on engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
I think the group of involved faculty now spans 7 or 8 schools and 3 colleges, at least – I’ve stopped counting, to be honest – the interest and support of colleagues here at GT is tremendous. On our larger proposals, there are anywhere from 20 – 30 faculty involved – I think this next one we may exceed 40. I welcome anyone who has ideas for how they can contribute or wants to learn more about the vision for AI materials + manufacturing test beds to email me anytime, and we’ll setup a time to meet and discuss. I also intend to hold some workshops and conferences – we received funding to start a consortium that will hold quarterly meetings for any interested business or faculty, and newsletters will also be sent, starting in 2022.
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The flag was chosen due to its universal symbolism of exploration and achievement, planted in the microscale to replicate traditional imagery of an explorer’s flag, creating a familiar sense of physical human presence.
The project was proposed early December 2020, just as the first COVID-18 vaccines began to roll out. It has since developed with input from leading nano-scientists and researchers in fields such as materials engineering, space exploration, biotechnology, and environmental sustainability.
At the time of the flag’s construction, nanotechnologists were sequencing and storing information in DNA, building quantum computers, sending rovers and helicopters to Mars, and rearranging materials on the atomic scale. No longer science fiction, nanoscientists are imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter that can’t be seen with the human eye. These achievements are not often recognized by the general public, but deserve to be celebrated. This research allows us to observe the world more intimately; and when new materials are created or current ones are manipulated at this scale it can revolutionize the way we live our everyday lives. The Micro-Monument is an attempt to raise awareness for the interdisciplinary work being accomplished in Nanoscience, and aims at building a stronger emotional connection towards these scientific achievements.
Presented on a crystalline silicon plaque and created using the same materials and techniques as those used in the production of semiconductors, the Micro-Monument currently lives online at micromonument.com with hopes of expanding into physical exhibitions. The Micro-Monument is etched with the words, “This flag stands as a monument to scientific achievement at the nanoscale, celebrating the continued interdisciplinary research dedicated to improving our understanding of the world.”
The Micro-Monument Project was created using the IEN cleanroom facilities and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the South-Eastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC).
The opening address will be delivered by John Williams, CEO of Domtar, a company on the forefront of the effort to convert sustainable wood fiber into useful products on which people rely every day. His keynote address, "The Building Blocks of Our Industry's Future," will outline Domtar's evolving strategy of looking differently at trees — to recognize them as nature’s biorefineries. Williams will also discuss approaches to promoting improved understanding of the industry throughout the general public.
“We are extremely pleased to have John Williams join us this year,” said RBI Executive Director Norman Marsolan. “He has been an industry leader and visionary in the area of sustainability, calling it a ‘moral imperative’ and emphasizing that sustainability is not only good for the environment—it can also benefit the bottom line, building a culture that produces productive employees, stronger employee loyalty and greater brand strength.”
This year, RBI’s fourth-year students will present the results of their endowment-sponsored research. Our faculty will share their innovative ideas and most recent endeavors in a variety of areas. We will also introduce some new faculty who have recently joined Georgia Tech to offer intriguing possibilities for forest bioproducts.
In addition, a special session is being planned to address implications and opportunities inherent for companies in the recently awarded “Rapid Acceleration of Process Intensification Deployment” (RAPID), a Department of Energy Innovative Manufacturing Institute for which Georgia Tech is a partner with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Two interactive discussions are scheduled. The first will feature students reflecting on their education and career opportunities. The second will be led by the directors of several Georgia Tech Interdisciplinary Research Institutes to explore the future of manufacturing and how developments in their areas may present opportunities and challenges in manufacturing and research.
Nearly 40 of the PhD students sponsored by RBI’s endowment are expected to participate in this year’s poster competition. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet these students and discuss with them how their research could be valuable or made more relevant to their companies.
Throughout the two days, attendees will have ample time for networking and discussion with both expert researchers and students. The conference is also a prime opportunity to learn more about Georgia Tech’s innovation and commercialization centers and how they can provide insights, techniques and tools to support business and industry strategies. RBI serves as a portal into pertinent research, capabilities, services, and scholarship being conducted on campus.
Last year’s conference attracted a record number of industry and business leaders, as well as government and academic representatives — more than 160 during the two-day event. The meeting serves as a development opportunity as well for young to mid-level professionals. There is no registration fee.
Register here to reserve a spot today and watch for more details on our website in the coming weeks. Rooms are available at a preferred rate through Jan. 31 for conference guests at the Hilton Garden Inn, 97 10th St. NW, Atlanta, 404.524.4006. Ask for the RBI conference rate. Many hotels in the Midtown area also offer Georgia Tech preferred rates. Please be sure to specify “Georgia Tech” when you call to make your reservation.
]]>The Georgia Tech IEN is an Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) comprised of faculty and students interested in using the most advanced facilities for fabrication, characterization, and cleanroom processes, to facilitate research in micro- and nano-scale materials, devices, and systems. Applications of this research span all disciplines in science and engineering with particular emphasis on biomedicine, electronics, optoelectronics and photonics, and energy applications. As there can be a learning curve associated with initial proof-of-concept development and testing using cleanroom tools, this seed grant program was developed to expedite the initiation of new graduate students and new research projects into productive activity. Successful proposals to this program will identify a new, currently-unfunded research idea that requires core facility access to generate preliminary data necessary to pursue other funding avenues.
Program Eligibility
This program is open to any current Georgia Tech or GTRI faculty member as project PI. The graduate student performing the research should be in the first 2 years of their graduate studies, and preference will be given to students who are new users of the IEN facilities. The student’s research advisor (project PI) does not need to be a current user of the IEN cleanroom/lab facilities. Current PI awardees cannot apply in consecutive funding periods. Please make sure that the student will be available to use the facility during the majority of the grant period.
Award Information
Each seed grant award will consist of free core facility access to the student identified in the proposal over a 12-month period (4 consecutive billing quarters) up to a maximum of $6600 in charges. This award amount is based on the current access rates and the academic cap on quarterly charges and equates to two free billing quarters spread over one year in order to provide maximum flexibility in access. This maximum award amount is still in effect even if IEN non-cleanroom (lab) equipment, electron beam lithography (EBL), or tools in the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) are required. Access to facilities other than IEN/MCF are not covered by the seed grant.
In addition, each student will be offered up to $500 in travel support to attend a scientific conference where they will present (oral or poster) the work resulting from this seed grant. This travel can be used during the award period or up to a period of 6 months following.
The number of awards for each proposal submission cycle will depend on the number and quality of the proposals.
Expectations
The seed grant will begin with a group kickoff meeting (mandatory for students) with IEN technical staff and will also include periodic check-in meetings as required. Members of the IEN processing staff will also be available to consult as needed during the project period. The designated student user is expected to only utilize the seed grant for core facility access while working with the PI on the proposed project. A short progress report is submitted at the mid-point of the project, and a longer report describing the research activities and outcomes is required at the completion of the award period. Students may also be requested to present a poster at the annual IEN User Day event.
Submission Schedule
This Seed Grant program is offered in two competitions each year with due dates on October 1, 2021 and April 1, 2022 for research activity that will begin on December 1, 2021 and June 1, 2022, respectively.
Proposal Requirements (2 pages max)
The proposal (submitted as a PDF file of no more than 2 pages) should do the following:
1. Provide a project title. List name of faculty PI and student at the top of the proposal.
2. Identify the research problem and specify the proposed methods.
3. Indicate the IEN research tools necessary to conduct the research. It is recommended that you obtain assistance with this component from members of the IEN or MCF technical staff.
4. Describe the relationship of this research to the PI’s other research activity and how it is distinct from and not an extension of ongoing work.
5. Identify the PI and the graduate student involved (including year of graduate work), and if there will be a mentoring relationship with the PI’s other students. Note if there are collaborative relationships with Georgia Tech faculty that bear on this research project.
6. Specify the potential for follow-on funding based on the results of this initial work.
Some helpful hints: Proposals should not excessively discuss the motivation and impact of the research. While this is helpful for understanding the importance of the work, please be brief. More important is a detailed description of what you propose to actually do (fabrication and/or characterization) in the core facilities so that this can be assessed for how feasible and realistic it is within the scope of IEN’s capabilities. We understand that this research is being undertaken by a beginning graduate student with limited experience who will likely require staff assistance. In addition, there may be multiple approaches to the research problem. However, you should clearly describe at least the most promising approach in detail within the page limitations.
Submit the PDF file by the specified due date to Ms. Amy Duke (amy.duke@ien.gatech.edu).
Review Criteria
Proposals will initially be reviewed by IEN staff for technical feasibility within the time frame. Rating of proposals will be done by a review committee of Georgia Tech faculty, with final selection of awardees by IEN staff. Review criteria include novelty of the research, clarity of the proposed work, work that is technically achievable within the time constraints, and likelihood of positive outcomes (future funding).
For more information, please contact Dr. David Gottfried, dsgottfried@gatech.edu, (404) 955-9733.
]]>Corrective solutions to the issue of MAs have, thus far, been either expensive to implement, such as filtering software, or cause discomfort to the wearer, such as tighter strap attachments and stronger, skin irritating adhesives. The team of W. Hong Yeo, Associate Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering & PI of the Yeo Group & Director of Center for HCIE, working with partners at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Emory University have designed a flexibly packaged wireless wearable ECG device using a new class of strain-isolating materials that reduces MAs, induced by movement in the skin/sensor contact area.
The team’s new strain-isolated, wearable soft bioelectronic system (SIS) adheres naturally to the skin using a breathable soft membrane for continuous conformal contact. A pair of nanomembrane mesh electrodes and a thin-film circuit powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are placed on a thin layer of silicone gel to allow a greater range of motion and packaged within a low modulus silicone elastomer. In testing the design against commercially available skin-mounted biosensors, the team’s new device provides real-time wireless data of multiple physiological signals with a significant reduction in MA interference. Additionally, and most importantly, the device trial participants exhibited no device lamination issues, excessive sweating, signal degradation, or increased skin irritation.
Yeo and his team are pleased with their results to-date but have plans to take the research even further. The team seeks an even smaller device footprint by integrating fan-out wafer-level packaging and developing all-printing fabrication methods. Additionally, the team is planning large-scale clinical studies in cardiology and pediatrics to monitor the health status of both inpatient and outpatient groups on a continuous basis.
- Christa M. Ernst
Rodeheaver, N., Herbert, R., Kim, Y.-S., Mahmood, M., Kim, H., Jeong, J.-W., Yeo, W.-H., Strain-Isolating Materials and Interfacial Physics for Soft Wearable Bioelectronics and Wireless, Motion Artifact-Controlled Health Monitoring. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2104070. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202104070
My research group at Georgia Tech works on materials for energy storage, such as batteries. I was originally drawn to materials for batteries as an undergraduate for two main reasons. First, I feel that the use and storage of clean energy is a really important area of need for our society, and second, the kinds of materials used inside batteries are fundamentally fascinating!
2. What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
My research group specializes in experiments that uncover precisely how materials inside batteries change, transform, and degrade during charge and discharge. We use state-of-the art experiments, such as electron-beam and x-ray imaging, to visualize these changes at very small length scales. These efforts are important since it is only by understanding how materials “work” inside batteries that we can engineer the materials for improved battery performance.
3. Why is your theme area important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
We are entering into an era of massive electrification in our society, and materials scientists and engineers at Georgia Tech are working to advance the next generation of materials that will enable this transition. This is an technology area that will only increase in importance in the coming years, and there is a great community at Georgia Tech working on these materials.
4. What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
I hope that my group’s research will create the scientific foundation for the development of electric vehicles with longer driving range and fast charging times so that they will be a no-brainer to purchase for the vast majority of people. In addition, our research is also focused on batteries that could be used in electric or hybrid-electric airplanes, which would be really important for decarbonizing the aviation industry.
5. What are your plans on engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
We have a really strong group of faculty, postdocs, and graduate researchers working on materials for energy storage and conversion at Georgia Tech. In my IMat role, I’ve started working on a website that showcases the advances of GT faculty and makes it easier for outside entities to learn about the scientific and technological progress in this area at Georgia Tech.
]]>Utilizing Cyclodextrin to Compatibilize the Polymer and CNC Interface for Lightweight Material
Advisors: Will Gutekuhst; Professor, School of Chemistry and Mohan Srinivasarao; Professor, School of Materials Science & Engineering
As a renewable resource, cyclodextrin-modified CNCs have the potential to produce a new class of lightweight, high-strength composites for a wide-range of applications, including materials in the automotive and aerospace fields. The research this award will support involves using my recently developed surface modification technique to covalently anchor cyclodextrin rings onto cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) particles and study the physical threading of polymers through the cyclodextrin cavity
Receiving the IMat Graduate Fellowship is incredibly exciting and a great motivator as I am working on a challenging section of my project while working with lab restrictions. I am grateful to BASF for these funds, and I am excited to share my progress later in the year.
- Krista Bullard
Krista received her B.S. in chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. While at Pitt, she conducted computational research on silyl ketene polymerization and CO2 absorption in ionic liquids with Dr. Daniel Lambrecht. During the summer of 2016, Krista received the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship through the Department of Energy at the National Energy Technology Lab in Pittsburgh, where she did computational research of the electrochemistry of CO2 with gold nanoparticles. In the summer of 2017, Krista worked in polymer R&D at Sherwin-Williams. She is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a recipient of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute fellowship.
Mechanocatalytic Ammonia Synthesis over Transition Metal Nitrides in Transient Microenvironments
Advisor: Carsten Sievers; Associate Professor, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Hebisch and team aim to provide an alternative to the current way to produce fertilizers based on ammonia, which is currently highly industrialized and only viable at large scale, to enable increasing agricultural yields in developing regions. Their mechanocatalytic approach offers a promising alternative to industry use standards, as it can operate with renewable energy sources and features a simple, modular design.
The award of this fellowship shows that industry leaders also see a potential for our research to play a role in a more sustainable future and the funding provided will help to continue our pioneering work on this important topic.
- Karoline Hebisch
Karoline L. Hebisch is a second-year Ph.D. student in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. She is advised by Dr. Carsten Sievers in the field of heterogeneous catalysis.
Karoline received her B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2016 and 2019. During her master’s she spent a semester abroad to study Plastics Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. In her master’s thesis with Dr. Sievers, she studied mechanochemical ammonia synthesis as a sustainable, distributed approach for fertilizer production.
Developing and Understanding Liquid Metal Interfaces for Solid-State Batteries
Advisor: Matthew McDowell; Associate Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science & Engineering
To make renewable energy possible for our society, progress needs to be made to improve energy storage devices. Fundamentally understanding the effects of liquid metals at solid- solid electrochemical interfaces will be an important step toward making solid-state batteries a competitive energy storage option. Our team aims to produce research results that help drive the development of batteries with higher energy density and specific energy that can be produced at scale for wide adoption.
Due to recent environmental disasters such as fires and hurricanes, climate change is again at the forefront of public discussion. New battery technologies will be critical for enabling longer- range electric vehicles and for the engineering of largescale energy storage technologies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for our society.
- Emily Klein
Emily Klein is a first-year graduate student in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, working in Prof. Matthew McDowell’s group and leading a research project focused on interfacial engineering of solid-state batteries. She has extensive prior research experience on investigating battery safety during her co-op experience at the Naval Research Lab, and is excited to be working to enable the creation of next generation solid-state batteries.
High-Throughput Screening of Cathode-Electrolyte Systems for Stable Lithium-Air Battery (LAB) Design using Machine-Learning (ML) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) Simulations
Advisor: Seung Soon Jang; Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering
Machine Learning advances are aiding the development of reliable computational screening models for new energy storage devices. Unlike (de)intercalation in Lithium-ion batteries, Lithium-Air batteries requires an understanding of various competitive reactions taking place at both the cathode surface and solvated electrolyte. Training a machine learning model using data from molecular simulations can help us to predict battery performance for a wide array of substrates.
US Department of Energy aims to reduce price of batteries to about $80-100/kwh. There is an uprising need to develop cheap, energy dense, and compact devices. I am fortunate to study on fundamental mechanism of Lithium-air batteries, at this right hour. I am grateful to my advisor, Institute for Materials, and BASF for believing in and funding this project.
- Sai Saravanan Ambi Venkataramanan
Sai Saravanan Ambi Venkataramanan received his B.S in Chemical Engineering, with an emphasis on ASPEN and molecular simulations in studying the extraction efficiency of ionic liquids. He received the Indian Science Academies Summer Research Fellowship in 2018 and attended the CCP5-CECAM Summer Program in ‘Molecular Simulations of Condensed Phases’ at Lancaster University, UK. Sai is currently pursuing his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech working under Prof. Seung Soon Jang in developing principal cathode and electrolyte specific features to predict Lithium-Air Battery performance.
The awardees will present their research to BASF representatives at BASF’s campus recruiting visit during October 2021. Fellows’ presentations will detail the aspects explored, new capabilities developed, and how their research impacts them personally and professionally, including benefits to their group, academic unit, Georgia Tech Community, and the larger society.
Founded in 2012 as one of Georgia Tech’s 11 interdisciplinary research institutes, the Institute for Materials at Georgia Tech seeks to enable and support Georgia Tech’s internationally recognized materials research and innovation ecosystem; establishing and supporting large- scale industry and government partnerships, developing opportunities for Georgia Tech researchers to catalyze new ideas, and establishing Georgia Tech as an internationally recognized hub for core materials research facilities, infrastructure and knowledge. Learn more at: https://research.gatech.edu/materials
The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a top 10 public research university developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its nearly 40,000 students, representing 50 states and 149 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion dollars in research annually for government, industry, and society. For more on Georgia Tech research visit: https://research.gatech.edu/
BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 17,000 employees in North America and had sales of $18.7 billion in 2020. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit basf.com.
BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. More than 110,000 employees in the Group contribute to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions.BASF generated sales of €59 billion in 2020. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts in the U.S. Further information at basf.com.
- Christa M. Ernst - Interdisciplinary Research Communications Program Manager
Materials | Nanotechnology | Robotics
Georgia Institute of Technology| christa.ernst@research.gatech.edu
During this time, Georgia Institute of Technology professor Jun Ueda and Ph.D. student Waiman Meinhold, along with their collaborators at NITI-ON Co. and Tohoku University in Japan, began to explore how they might contribute. By employing their previously engineered “smart” tendon hammer and developing a mobile app to accompany it, Meinhold, Ueda, and their collaborators devised a system that enables the deep tendon reflex exam to be performed remotely, filling a gap in neurological healthcare delivery.
The deep tendon reflex exam is both a basic and crucial part of neurological assessment and is often the first step in identifying neurological illnesses. The traditional exam consists of two main parts. First, using a silicone hammer, a physician taps on a patient’s tendon to trigger a reflex response. Next, the physician grades the reflex on a numerical scale. To characterize the reflex, a trained physician relies primarily on previous experience, visual cues, and the “feel” of the hammer rebounding in their hand. Until now, the physical act of reflex elicitation has been completely out of reach for telemedicine. Hitting the correct spot on the tendon is crucial and is necessary in order to elicit a proper reflex response.
According to Meinhold and Ueda’s research, a patient’s caretaker or family member may be able to easily step in to assist with this critical component of the neurological exam. They will simply need to obtain the smart tendon hammer and download the accompanying mobile application for data analysis.
To make this advance possible, Meinhold and Ueda modified a standard commercially available reflex hammer by furnishing it with a small wireless Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) capable of measuring and streaming the hammer’s acceleration data. In the course of their research, Meinhold and Ueda proved that by taking the hammer’s acceleration measurements from on-tendon and off-tendon locations and running them through a classification algorithm, they can reliably distinguish whether or not the hammer has hit the correct spot.
How would this remote exam work, exactly? Equipped with the smart hammer, the lay person uses the app to select which tendon they will test (bicep, Achilles, patellar, etc.), which calls up the pre-programmed “classifier” for that particular tendon. These “classifiers” are basic forms of artificial intelligence that use aggregated acceleration data collected from experiments to categorize each tap into one of two categories: correct or incorrect. The lay person then uses the smart tendon hammer to administer a tap on the patient’s tendon. As contact is made, the hammer streams acceleration data via Bluetooth to the app, which interprets the data and gives instant feedback to the user about whether they have tapped the correct location. In addition, colored LEDs on the hammer indicate a tap’s success, with a green light indicating a correct tap and a red light indicating an incorrect tap. The user is prompted to keep tapping until they log several correct taps.
Crucially, Meinhold and Ueda showed that lay people can adequately perform tendon tapping. Their research appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI on March 16, 2021. There, moving their smart hammer closer to clinical implementation, Meinhold and Ueda directly compared the manual tapping variability between a novice and a trained clinician. The results were reassuring. The team found that while novices had more variability in their tapping than clinicians, their skill level was adequate. They reliably elicited tendon reflexes. Their research demonstrates that a tool is within reach to allow for remote implementation of deep tendon reflex exam.
But could lay users also aid in grading reflexes? The work by Meinhold and Ueda suggests that non-experts may be able to help. To investigate this, they tested a simple training scheme. They provided participants and physicians with a training video on how to grade reflexes, and then assigned unlabeled videos for them to score. They found that while novices were able to grade reflexes with relatively low error rates, expert physicians outperformed them. Physicians excelled at grading from video, making no errors. To access this expert grading, Meinhold and Ueda envision that through the app, lay users could upload videos of the tendon tapping and reflex response. Physicians could then easily grade the patient’s reflexes from their office.
By revolutionizing a traditional neurological assessment procedure, the smart hammer system developed at Georgia Tech is poised to kick-start a new wave in telemedicine.
Text - Catherine Barzler
Images – Christa Ernst
A Smart Tendon Hammer System for Remote Neurological Examination
W. Meinhold, Y.Yamakawa, H. Honda, T. Mori, S. Izumi and Jun Ueda
Fontiers in Robotics and AI, #8, 2021
DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.618656
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Polymers. I worked with polymers in my PhD, but only used them as carrier materials and never dug deeper into the science or their properties. When I worked in industry for Saint-Gobain, I was in a polymer group and discovered how complex and interesting polymer science and especially polymer processing could be, so I decided to focus more on them moving forward.
2. What questions or challenges sparked your current materials research?
Polymers are long chain molecules, so they behave very differently than other material types. They have slow changes in properties since they need time to move, they behave differently when the chain is stretched out vs distributed throughout a globule and they have many chemical functional groups that can interact with other components in a mixture. If we can understand all these complex phenomena, we can more quickly design new and improved polymer-based products and even understand how to better recycle or remove them from the environment.
3. Why is your theme area important to the development of Georgia Tech’s Materials research strategy?
A major challenge for materials engineers today is working towards a more sustainable world, including for consumer products, many of which contain polymers either as their primary component or as a coating or binder. Georgia Tech has the base polymer community to become a leader in solving polymer sustainability challenges, both in designing new polymer systems and in better end of life for existing ones. Strategically drawing this group together will better allow our expertise and talents to make a difference in materials sustainability.
4. What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?
Consumer plastics and polymer-containing materials are ubiquitous in the modern world and have led to many excellent outcomes in public health, preventing food spoilage, light weighting materials and more. However, they also are increasingly of concern for the environment through poor end of life degradation and challenges in recycling. Research to better understand polymers, fully integrating fundamental science and engineering design, is necessary to provide better plastics and processing for end-of-life.
5. What are your plans on engaging a wider GT faculty pool with IMat research?
I plan to partner with the Georgia Tech Polymer Network and host a series of discussions with applications specialists in consumer and industrial materials to understand the polymer science challenges in these areas and build bridges between applications and polymer faculty. I also plan to build on Georgia Tech’s core strengths related to consumer-focused polymers including polymer upcycling, machine learning for polymer design and polymer processing to link the experts to specific challenges across campus.
]]>The Science Advisor and Initiative Leads will meet regularly with the IMat Executive Director and Innovation Director. By focusing on Georgia Tech’s strengths and gaps in a particular materials research domain and recognizing overlaps between individual initiative and group activities, IMat will identify emerging research directions and prepare teams to compete for mid- and large-scale, multi-investigator research centers with academic, national laboratory, and industry partners. To increase the campus’ collaborative spirit, Initiative Leaders will work with other Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, campus units, and GTRI in designing and standing up research programs. The Science Advisor and Initiative Leads are the “faculty face” of IMat, and will communicate IMat’s vision and activities to audiences both within and outside of GT.
The roles of IMat Initiative Leads will be announced annually, with existing Initiative Leaders considered for renewal based on their progress in achieving community building goals and their impact on IMat and the materials innovation ecosystem at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Science Advisor | Martin Mourigal
Dr. Martin Mourigal is Associate professor in the School of Physics. Mourigal's laboratory focuses on the magnetic properties of quantum materials. His research primarily relies on neutron spectroscopy to probe the exotic states of matter such as spin-liquids, frustrated magnets, and spin-multipolar phases. In addition to his own lab research, Dr. Mourigal is the Co-Director of the Georgia Tech Quantum Alliance, a university wide program on quantum sciences and engineering.
Mourigal plans to deepen his knowledge of the College of Sciences’ materials ecosystem through lab visits, research discussions with faculty and students to identify existing and emerging topical areas such as quantum and topological materials, soft and active matter, and organic photonics/electronics, identify their research needs, and explore stronger connections with the College of Engineering. Mourigal is also interested in continuing to develop the Quantum Alliance along GT’s strengths and as an Institute-level research theme.
Characterization: Remote and Real-time Measurements | Faisal Alamgir
Dr. Faisal Alamgir joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. He received his BA in physics and mathematics at Coe College and his Ph.D. in materials science and technology at Lehigh University.
Alamgir will lead a team effort to transform campus materials characterization facilities on two fronts: 1) turning passive experiments into in-situ/operando ones by designing alternate sample environments that change samples in real time, and 2) increasing safety and efficiency in characterization spaces via remote operations where feasible to do so, and in cases where remote operation compromises results, finding solutions to alleviate the compromises.
Polymers: Depolymerizable Polymers and Upcycling | Blair Brettmann
Blair Brettmann received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at MIT. Following her Ph.D., Dr. Brettmann was a Senior Research Engineer at Saint-Gobain and a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She was the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2020, the ACS PMSE Young Investigator award in 2020, and the Ralph E. Powe Award in 2018 and an IUPAC Young Observer in 2019. Her research focuses on linking molecular to micron scale phenomena to processing and multicomponent complex mixtures to enable rapid and science-driven formulation and product development.
Brettmann is dedicated to further raising the quality and profile of polymer research at Georgia Tech by pairing a wide-ranging network with targeted initiatives based on growing research topics. As the Polymers Initiative Leader, she will support the Georgia Tech Polymer network within IMat, while building a stronger network for IMat with polymer faculty. In building the initiatives within IMat, she plans to focus on specific needs and develop programming that will provide immediate value as well as lay the groundwork for long-term strengths. She is well placed to immediately advertise IMat initiatives to a strong network of polymer interested faculty that already exists at Georgia Tech.
Nanomaterials: Devices as Materials | Michael Filler
Dr. Filler is an Associate Professor and the Traylor Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. His research program focuses on the synthesis, understanding, and large-scale deployment of nanoscale materials and devices to enable new electronic, photonic, and energy technologies. He has been recognized for his research and teaching with the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award, and CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.
Filler will bring together IMat faculty to consider the applications, secure external funding for, and advance the research required to create materials comprised of nanoscale functional devices. A key goal of Prof. Filler’s initiative will be to interface faculty with expertise in synthesis and processing with those targeting specific applications to identify opportunities where nanoscale devices can both solve existing technical challenges as well as open new directions. The intersection of science and engineering required for this work will offer natural opportunities for members of other IRIs and multiple Colleges to interact.
Materials Upcycling: Circularity of Biopolymers | Kyriaki Kalaitzidou
Dr. Kalaitzidou joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in the G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in 2007. She also holds an adjunct appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D. in manufacturing and characterization of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) from Michigan State University. She also serves as the Strategic Coordinator on circular materials in the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) which provides a natural conduit for increased collaboration between RBI and IMat.
Kalaitzidou believes that the circularity of materials is an area where Georgia Tech faculty from across Units can have a tremendous impact both in terms of fundamentals, such as the design of new polymers for recyclability, and applied research, such as scalable processes for sorting and re(up)cycling of end-of-life plastics, composites and other materials. Additionally, this strategic theme allows great opportunities for technological innovations that provide positive societal, economic and environmental impacts.
Functional Inorganic Materials: C.H.I.P.S. Initiative - Electronic and Ferroic Materials | Asif Khan
Dr. Asif Khan is Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Khan’s group conceptualizes and fabricates solid state electronic devices that leverage interesting physics and novel phenomena in emerging materials (such as ferroelectrics, antiferroelectrics and strongly correlated/quantum materials) to overcome the “fundamental” limits in computation and to address the most pressing challenges in the semiconductor industry and the computing paradigms. His work led to the first experimental proof-of-concept demonstration of the negative capacitance–a novel physical phenomenon that can lead to ultra-low power computing and memory platforms by overcoming the fundamental "Boltzmann Limit" of 60 mV/decade subthreshold swing in field-effect transistors.
The CHIPS Act for America has designated microelectronics as a national R&D priority. As an Initiative lead, Khan’s primary goal will be to leverage the unique strengths of Georgia Tech in the broad area of electronic materials and create strategic initiatives in terms of team building and connecting to other players and the government agencies. In doing so, the Institute will be primed for taking up a leadership role in the upcoming large funding opportunities in electronic materials.
Energy Materials: Materials for Energy Storage | Matt McDowell
Dr. Matthew McDowell is Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. McDowell’s research group focuses on materials for energy storage and electronics applications. His group uses in situ experimental techniques to probe how materials inside batteries transform and degrade, and this knowledge is then used to guide the engineering of materials for breakthrough new devices.
Investment in battery research and technology is rapidly growing, and Georgia Tech’s strong energy storage research community is well positioned to make an impact in the development of next-generation energy storage devices. McDowell foresees that IMat and the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) could both play important roles in enabling the formation of an energy storage initiative that will bring the community together and provide improved external advertisement of Georgia Tech’s capabilities for energy storage research.
Condensed Matter: Materials for Quantum Science and Technology | Chandra Raman
Dr. Chandra Raman is Professor in the School of Physics. His research has two thrusts. The team utilizes sophisticated tools to cool atoms to temperatures less than one millionth of a degree above absolute zero. Using these tools, they explore topics ranging from superfluidity in Bose-Einstein condensates to quantum antiferromagnetism in a spinor condensate. The secondary lab effort involves partnering with engineers to build cutting edge atomic quantum sensors on-chip with potential for scale-up.
Raman envisions the development of “World-Ready” quantum systems, including room temperature quantum information processing and hybrid platforms combining quantum systems with MEMS and integrated photonics. Raman will seek to connect the vast photonics and MEMS expertise at Georgia Tech with other researchers in the materials domain, both at GT and GTRI, to explore novel science and engineering approaches to address the challenges of growing quantum information systems to industrial scale.
Structural Materials: Materials Laboratories for the Future | Aaron Stebner
Dr. Aaron Stebner works at the intersection of manufacturing, machine learning, materials, and mechanics. Prof. Stebner joined the Georgia Tech faculty as an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering in 2020.
In order to create a more cohesive “materials voice” and more effectively pursue resources and funding, Stebner proposes the development of plans for facilities that are based upon future-focused, GT-specific identity assessments. To drive successful outcomes, each plan will be built upon 2-pronged, identity-driven mission statements that clearly define: 1) how the facility enables future research that is not possible with today’s facilities and 2) why/how GT is uniquely positioned to host and operate the facility.
Functional Organic Materials: Polymer Electronics and Photonics | Natalie Stingelin
Previously a Professor of Functional Organic Materials at the Department of Materials, Imperial College of London, Dr. Natalie Stingelin joined Georgia Tech in 2016 as Full Professor. Her research focuses on the broad field of functional plastics, including organic electronics; multifunctional inorganic/organic hybrids; smart, advanced optical systems based on organic matter; and bioelectronics.
Soft Matter research could considerably profit by being interweaved with hard materials activities — with many synergies and massive untapped possibilities for IMaT. Stingelin proposes teaming with MSE’s SoftBio Topical Working Group, Georgia Tech’s Polymer Network, the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics and the Renewable Bioproducts Institute to create a unique materials research environment that is capable to work across traditional material classes and raise the recognition of the Materials innovations at Georgia Tech to the international stage.
- Christa M. Ernst
]]>As a result of this cooperative plan the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN, 2004-2015) was established by the NSF to provide access to specialized nanotechnology resources to all researchers, including smaller academic institutions, as well as to small and medium size commercial entities, who could not afford the expense of in-house nanotechnology infrastructure. Additionally, nanotechnology education and outreach activities, as well as components for the social and policy implications of nanoscience advancements, were added to the program’s goals.
The Georgia Institute of Technology was a foundational member of the 14-site NNIN user facility network. Georgia Tech Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor James Meindl served as director of the Georgia Tech site from 2004 until his retirement in 2013. This decade included the opening of Georgia Tech’s Marcus Nanotechnology Building in 2009, which still houses one of the largest academic cleanrooms in the country as well as a state-of-the-art materials characterization facility. During this same period, the NNIN Education and Outreach Office was located at the Georgia Institute of Technology and led by Dr. Nancy Healy.
The National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), established in 2015, is the latest version of this NSF nanotechnology resource and builds on the legacy of the NNIN, which enabled major discoveries, innovations, and contributions to education and commerce for more than 10 years. With initial funding of $81 million over five years to support 16 sites and a coordinating office, NNCI affords cross-disciplinary research support in electronics, materials, biomedicine, energy, geosciences, environmental sciences, consumer products, and more. The geographical positions of the sites and partner institutions are strategically located in 15 states and involve 27 universities, giving access to as many users as possible across the U.S. The toolsets of sites were designed to accommodate explorations that span the continuum from materials and processes through devices and systems. Micro/nano fabrication, conducted in cleanroom environments, as well as extensive characterization capabilities, provide resources for both top-down and bottom-up approaches to nanoscale science and engineering.
To enhance the impact of NNCI sites as a national network of user facilities and aid access to these assets via a unified entry point to the user community \, the NSF selected Georgia Tech to be the NNCI Coordinating Office in 2016. The NNCI Coordinating Office also uses the expertise of the network to develop and disseminate best practices for national-level education and outreach programs and activities in societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology.
On August 24, 2020, NSF announced that it will invest a further $84 million over five years in a renewal of the NNCI Program. In March 2021, the NSF again selected Georgia Tech to lead the Coordinating Office with participation from Arizona State University and Virginia Tech. Georgia Tech will receive $3.5 million over five years for this coordinating role.
Plans for this next phase of the NNCI include establishing Research Communities focused on specific research topics which are designed to connect researchers with the NNCI resources available, as well as determine what challenges and opportunities exist in these areas for adding capabilities to NNCI facilities. These Research Community topics are: Transform Quantum, Understanding the Rules of Life, Nano-Enabled Internet-of-Things, Nanotechnology Convergence, and Nano Earth Systems.
Additionally, the successful integration of nanotechnology into consumer technologies rests on the ability for industry to adopt novel processes into existing manufacturing platforms or easily scale-up a new technique. To help technologies bridge the “valley of death” to commercialization, a new Associate Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship position has been established to implement programs across the network that will assist users in this area and thus improve the economic impact of NNCI and connect users to the existing translational ecosystem.
With continued support from the Coordinating Office at Georgia Tech, the NNCI will train a globally competitive nanotechnology workforce and provide efficient access to resources for research, innovation, and commercialization of nanotechnology. The network will also help to inform and educate future scientists and the public on fundamentals and advances in nanoscience and engineering and their societal and ethical implications.
For a perspective from IEN Leadership on the importance of the Shared Infrastructure Model for innovation in academia see the article co-written by IEN Executive Director Prof. Oliver Brand & IEN Senior Assistant Director for Nanotechnology Dr. David Gottfried here: The National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI): A Model for Shared Resources
]]>The Georgia Tech IEN is an Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) comprised of faculty and students interested in using the most advanced facilities for fabrication, characterization, and cleanroom processes, to facilitate research in micro- and nano-scale materials, devices, and systems. Applications of this research span all disciplines in science and engineering with particular emphasis on biomedicine, electronics, optoelectronics and photonics, and energy applications. As there can be a learning curve associated with initial proof-of-concept development and testing using cleanroom tools, this seed grant program was developed to expedite the initiation of new graduate students and new research projects into productive activity. Successful proposals to this program will identify a new, currently-unfunded research idea that requires core facility access to generate preliminary data necessary to pursue other funding avenues.
Program Eligibility
This program is open to any current Georgia Tech or GTRI faculty member as project PI. The graduate student performing the research should be in the first 2 years of their graduate studies, and preference will be given to students who are new users of the IEN facilities. The student’s research advisor (project PI) does not need to be a current user of the IEN cleanroom/lab facilities. Current PI awardees cannot apply in consecutive funding periods.
Award Information
Each seed grant award will consist of free core facility access to the student identified in the proposal over a 12-month period (4 consecutive billing quarters) up to a maximum of $6600 in charges. This award amount is based on the current access rates and the academic cap on quarterly charges and equates to 2 free billing quarters spread over one year in order to provide maximum flexibility in access. This maximum award amount is still in effect even if IEN non-cleanroom (lab) equipment, electron beam lithography (EBL), or tools in the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) are required. Access to facilities other than IEN/MCF are not covered by the seed grant.
In addition, each student will be offered up to $500 in travel support to attend a scientific conference where they will present (oral or poster) the work resulting from this seed grant. This travel can be used during the award period or up to a period of 6 months following.
The number of awards for each proposal submission cycle will depend on the number and quality of the proposals.
Expectations
The seed grant will begin with a group kickoff meeting (mandatory for students) with IEN technical staff and will also include periodic check-in meetings as required. Members of the IEN processing staff will also be available to consult as needed during the project period. The designated student user is expected to only utilize the seed grant for core facility access while working with the PI on the proposed project. A short progress report is submitted at the mid-point of the project, and a longer report describing the research activities and outcomes is required at the completion of the award period. Students may also be requested to present a poster at the annual IEN User Day event.
Submission Schedule
This Seed Grant program is offered in two competitions each year with due dates on April 1, 2021 and October 1, 2021 for research activity that will begin on June 1, 2021 and December 1, 2021, respectively.
Proposal Requirements (2 pages max)
The proposal (submitted as a PDF file of no more than 2 pages) should do the following:
1. Provide a project title. List name of faculty PI and student at the top of the proposal.
2. Identify the research problem and specify the proposed methods.
3. Indicate the IEN research tools necessary to conduct the research. It is recommended that you obtain assistance with this component from members of the IEN or MCF technical staff.
4. Describe the relationship of this research to the PI’s other research activity and how it is distinct from and not an extension of ongoing work.
5. Identify the PI and the graduate student involved (including year of graduate work), and if there will be a mentoring relationship with the PI’s other students. Note if there are collaborative relationships with Georgia Tech faculty that bear on this research project.
6. Specify the potential for follow-on funding based on the results of this initial work.
Some helpful hints: Proposals should not excessively discuss the motivation and impact of the research. While this is helpful for understanding the importance of the work, please be brief. More important is a detailed description of what you propose to actually do (fabrication and/or characterization) in the core facilities so that this can be assessed for how feasible and realistic it is. We understand that this research is being undertaken by a beginning graduate student with limited experience who will likely require staff assistance. In addition, there may be multiple approaches to the research problem. However, you should clearly describe at least the most promising approach in detail within the page limitations.
Submit the PDF file by the specified due date to Ms. Amy Duke (amy.duke@ien.gatech.edu).
Review Criteria
Proposals will initially be reviewed by IEN staff for technical feasibility within the time frame. Rating of proposals will be done by a review committee of Georgia Tech faculty, with final selection of awardees by IEN staff. Review criteria include novelty of the research, clarity of the proposed work, work that is technically achievable within the time constraints, and likelihood of positive outcomes (future funding).
For more information, please contact Dr. David Gottfried, dsgottfried@gatech.edu, (404) 955-9733.
]]>“The reach and impact of Georgia Tech’s materials research program is broad, from fundamental physics, chemistry and biology to simulation, synthesis, processing, and characterization to properties impacting structural, chemical, biomedical, electronic, optical, magnetic, thermal, and energy applications,” said Vogel. “I am humbled by the opportunity to serve Georgia Tech’s internationally recognized materials research enterprise.”
As one of Georgia Tech’s 11 interdisciplinary research institutes, IMat brings together more than 100 principal investigators, providing leadership in discovery and development of materials that address 21st century grand challenges in areas such as energy, mobility, infrastructure, computing, communications, security, and health.
“Materials provide the foundation for innovation in broad areas of science and technology that will help solve the challenges of tomorrow,” said Raheem Beyah, Georgia Tech’s vice president for interdisciplinary research. “Eric Vogel’s broad expertise and interdisciplinary research experience make him an ideal leader for this important research area.”
Vogel succeeds David L. McDowell, Regents’ Professor and Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing, who has served as executive director of IMat since its founding in 2012. McDowell is a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
As associate director of IMat since 2012, Vogel founded and leads Georgia Tech’s Materials Characterization Facility. He has also been deputy director of IEN since 2015, and was responsible for catalyzing large-scale, interdisciplinary research activities in the area of micro- and nano-electronics and photonics.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he was associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Prior to joining UTD, he was a research group leader and founded the Nanofab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, for which he received a Department of Commerce Silver Medal.
Vogel received the Ph.D. degree in 1998 in electrical engineering with a minor in physics from North Carolina State University (NCSU) and was recently honored with induction into NCSU’s Electrical Engineering Hall of Fame. He has authored more than 210 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited a total of 11,000 times.
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]]>The technique, called surface-activated bonding, uses an ion source in a high-vacuum environment to first clean the surfaces of the GaN and diamond, which activates the surfaces by creating dangling bonds. Introducing small amounts of silicon into the ion beams facilitates forming strong atomic bonds at room temperature, allowing the direct bonding of the GaN and single-crystal diamond to fabricate high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs).
The resulting interface layer from GaN to single-crystal diamond is just four nanometers thick, allowing heat dissipation up to two times more efficient than in the state-of-the-art GaN-on-diamond HEMTs by eliminating the low-quality diamond left over from nanocrystalline diamond growth. Diamond is currently integrated with GaN using crystalline growth techniques that produce a thicker interface layer and low-quality nanocrystalline diamond near the interface. Additionally, the new process can be done at room temperature using surface-activated bonding techniques, reducing the thermal stress applied to the devices.
“This technique allows us to place high thermal conductivity materials much closer to the active device regions in gallium nitride,” said Samuel Graham, the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. School Chair and professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “The performance allows us to maximize the performance for gallium nitride on diamond systems. This will allow engineers to custom design future semiconductors for better multifunctional operation.”
The research, conducted in collaboration with scientists from Meisei University and Waseda University in Japan, was reported February 19 in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. The work was supported by a multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) project from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR).
For high-power electronic applications using materials such as GaN in miniaturized devices, heat dissipation can be a limiting factor in power densities imposed on the devices. By adding a layer of diamond, which conducts heat five times better than copper, engineers have tried to spread and dissipate the thermal energy.
However, when diamond films are grown on GaN, they must be seeded with nanocrystalline particles around 30 nanometers in diameter, and this layer of nanocrystalline diamond has low thermal conductivity – which adds resistance to the flow of heat into the bulk diamond film. In addition, the growth takes place at high temperatures, which can create stress-producing cracks in the resulting transistors.
“In the currently used growth technique, you don’t really reach the high thermal conductivity properties of the microcrystalline diamond layer until you are a few microns away from the interface,” Graham said. “The materials near the interface just don’t have good thermal properties. This bonding technique allows us to start with ultra-high thermal conductivity diamond right at the interface.”
By creating a thinner interface, the surface-activated bonding technique moves the thermal dissipation closer to the GaN heat source.
“Our bonding technique brings high thermal conductivity single crystal diamond closer to the hotspots in the GaN devices, which has the potential to reshape the way these devices are cooled,” said Zhe Cheng, a recent Georgia Tech Ph.D. graduate who is the paper’s first author. “And because the bonding takes place near room temperature, we can avoid thermal stresses that can damage the devices.”
That reduction in thermal stress can be significant, going from as much as 900 megapascals (MPa) to less than 100 MPa with the room temperature technique. “This low stress bonding allows for thick layers of diamond to be integrated with the GaN and provides a method for diamond integration with other semiconductor materials,” Graham said.
Beyond the GaN and diamond, the technique can be used with other semiconductors, such as gallium oxide, and other thermal conductors, such as silicon carbide. Graham said the technique has broad applications to bond electronic materials where thin interfacial layers are advantageous.
“This new pathway gives us the ability to mix and match materials,” he said. “This can provide us with great electrical properties, but the clear advantage is a vastly superior thermal interface. We believe this will prove to be the best technology available so far for integrating wide bandgap materials with thermally conducting substrates.”
In future work, the researchers plan to study other ion sources and evaluate other materials that could be integrated using the technique.
“We have the ability to choose processing conditions as well as the substrate and semiconductor material to engineer heterogenous substrates for wide bandgap devices,” Graham said. “That allows us to choose the materials and integrate them to maximize electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties.”
In addition to the researchers already mentioned, the paper included co-corresponding author Fengwen Mu from Meisei University and Waseda University in Japan, Luke Yates from Georgia Tech, and Tadatomo Suga from Meisei University.
This research was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) through MURI Grant No. N00014-18-1-2429. Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Office of Naval Research.
CITATION: Zhe Cheng, Fengwen Mu, Luke Yates, Tadatomo Suga and Samuel Graham, “Interfacial Thermal Conductance across Room-Temperature-Bonded GaN/Diamond Interfaces for GaN-on-Diamond Devices” (ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2020, 12, 8376?8384). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b16959
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]]>1. Biomaterials
2. Mobility & Infrastructure
3. Computing and Electronics
4. Energy (lower priority)
5. Security (lower priority)
All projects should include a view to sustainability in regard to raw materials, carbon or energy efficiency, waste and recyclability.
Up to three IMat Graduate Student Fellows (IGSF) will be selected in this seed funding program. If selected, a $3.5K direct funding grant will “top-off” existing annual GRA stipends with the intent of adding value to the existing thesis-directed materials research workflows by introducing one or more of the following elements:
Requirements:
· Graduate students in any academic unit may apply.
· The IGSF should seek to incorporate this experience into the student’s final thesis product.
· Awards should be used for augmentation of stipends of existing thesis-directed GRAs and not for bridging between other means of support or for augmenting TA compensation.
· Students should engage in training sessions and workshops for materials data science, and to serve as ambassadors/mentors for other students in their group and beyond.
· A statement from their research advisor regarding interest in, and commitment to these requirements is necessary as part of the proposal
· Students are encouraged to consider enrolling in the following materials informatics courses:
Deliverables:
-Evidence of incorporation of these areas into the workstream of the student’s thesis research.
-Students should complete the two MOOC course sequence on Coursera:
-Report due June 30, 2020 detailing: aspects explored, new capabilities developed, and how this experience has impacted their research group and/or academic unit, and benefit to GT research capabilities and/or user facilities, broadly speaking.
IGSF application format:
Review Criteria:
Applications will be reviewed by a committee composed of Georgia Tech faculty. Final award selections will balance available funds with requests and review recommendations. Funding to be allocated depends upon the submission of proposals that are considered responsive to the call as outlined and recommended for support in the review process.
Applications should be submitted to https://gatech.infoready4.com/ by 11:59P ET on Friday, February 21, 2020. Award selections will be made in March 2020 and funds will be disbursed in equal increments on April, May and June 2020 pay dates.
Questions:
Dr. Jud Ready, IMat Deputy Director - Innovation Initiatives jud.ready@gatech.edu
404-407-6036
]]>In many specialized areas of science, engineering and medicine, researchers are turning to machine learning algorithms to analyze data sets that have grown much too large for humans to understand. In materials science, success with this effort could accelerate the design of next-generation advanced functional materials, where development now depends on old-fashioned trial-and-error.
By themselves, however, data analytics techniques borrowed from other research areas often fail to provide the insights needed to help materials scientists and engineers choose which of many variables to adjust — and can’t account for dramatic changes such as the introduction of a new chemical compound into the process. In some complex materials such as ferroelectrics, as many as 10 different factors can affect the properties of the resulting product.
In a paper published this week in the journal NPJ Computational Materials, researchers explain how to give the machines an edge at solving the challenge by intelligently organizing the data to be analyzed based on human knowledge of what factors are likely to be important and related. Known as dimensional stacking, the technique shows that human experience still has a role to play in the age of machine intelligence.
The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, as well as the Swiss National Science Foundation. Measurements were performed, in part, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
“When your machine accepts strings of data, it really does matter how you are putting those strings together,” said Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, the paper’s corresponding author and a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We must be mindful that the organization of data before it goes to the algorithm makes a difference. If you don’t plug the information in correctly, you will get a result that isn’t necessarily correlated with the reality of the physics and chemistry that govern the materials.”
Bassiri-Gharb works on ferroelectrics, crystalline materials that exhibit spontaneous electrical polarizations switchable by an external electric field. Widely used for their piezoelectric properties — which allow electrical inputs to generate mechanical outputs, and mechanical motion to generate electrical voltages — their chemical formulas are usually complicated, including lead, manganese, niobium, oxygen, titanium, indium, bismuth and other elements.
Researchers, who have been working for decades to improve the materials, would like to develop advanced ferroelectrics that don’t include lead. But trial-and-error design techniques haven’t led to major breakthroughs, and she is not alone in wanting a more direct approach — one that could also more rapidly lead to improvements in other functional materials used in microelectronics, batteries, optoelectronic systems and other critical research fields.
“For materials science, things get really complicated, especially with the functional materials,” said Bassiri-Gharb. “As materials scientists, it’s very difficult to design the materials if we don’t understand why a response is increased. We have learned that the functionalities are not compartmentalized. They are interrelated among many properties of the material.”
The technique described in the paper involves a preprocessing step in which the large data sets are organized according to physical or chemical properties that make sense to material scientists.
“As a scientist or engineer, you have an idea whether or not there are physical or chemical correlations,” she explained. “You have to be cognizant of what kind of correlations could exist. The way you stack your data to be analyzed would have implications with respect to the physical or chemical correlations. If you do this correctly, you can get more information from any data analytics approach you might be using.”
To test the techniques, Bassiri-Gharb and collaborators Lee Griffin, Iaroslav Gaponenko, and Shujun Zhang tested samples of relaxor-ferroelectric materials used in advanced ultrasonic imaging equipment. Griffin, a Georgia Tech graduate research assistant and the paper’s co-first author, did the experimental measurements. Zhang, a researcher at the University of Wollongong in Australia, provided samples for the study. Bassiri-Gharb and Gaponenko, a research affiliate in her group, developed the approach.
Using a conductive tip on an atomic force microscope, they examined the electromechanical response from a series of chemically related samples, generating as many as 2,500 time- and voltage-dependent measurements on a grid of points established on each sample. The process generated hundreds of thousands of data points and provided a good test for the stacking approach, known technically as concatenation.
“Instead of just looking at the chemical composition that provides the highest response, we looked at a range of compositions and tried to figure out the commonality,” she said. “We figured out that if we applied this data stacking with some thought process behind it, we could learn more about these interesting materials.”
Among their findings: Though the material is a single crystal, the functional response showed highly disordered behavior, reminiscent of a fully disordered material like glass. “This glassy behavior really is unexpectedly persisting beyond a small percentage of the material compositions,” said Bassiri-Gharb. “It is persisting across all of the compositions that we have looked at.”
She hopes the technique will ultimately lead to information that will improve many materials and their functionalities. Knowing which chemicals need to be included could allow the materials scientists to move to the next phase — working with chemists to put the right atoms in the right places.
“The big goal for any materials’ functionality is to find the guidelines that will provide the properties we want,” she said. “We want to find the straight path to the best compositions for the next generation of these materials.”
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through award DMR-1255379, by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) though grant HDTRA1-15-0035, by the Center for the Science and Technology of Advanced Materials and Interfaces (STAMI) at Georgia Tech, and Division II of the Swiss National Science Foundation under project 200021_178782. The piezo-response measurements were in part performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring organizations.
CITATION: Lee A. Griffin, et al., “Smart machine learning or discovering meaningful physical and chemical contributions through dimensional stacking” (NPJ Computational Materials, 2019, https://rdcu.be/bOycU).
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]]>David McDowell doesn’t like being put in a box. That’s one of the reasons why, after earning a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he headed south to begin his career at Georgia Tech.
“One thing that I didn’t want was to go to a place where they had a slot for me to fit into: ‘Professor X is retiring; we need to cover this slot. We see you as a potential for that,’” McDowell said. “I wanted to define my own path, and I thought Georgia Tech would allow me to do that.”
He said he wanted a place where he could exert his vision and leadership from an early stage.
That was in 1983. Now, 36 years later, McDowell, Regents Professor and Carter N. Paden Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing, will receive Georgia Tech’s highest award given to a faculty member: the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award.
The award recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching, research, and service. Instituted in 1984 by the Class of 1934 in observance of its 50th reunion, the award is presented to a professor who has made significant long-term contributions that have brought widespread recognition to the professor, to his or her school, and to the Institute.
“For me, this award is really a recognition of my being here,” McDowell said. “It shows that there’s a trace of my contributions.”
Continue reading the article here.
]]>victor.rogers@comm.gatech.edu
]]>
A paper on the research was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
Electrochromic materials change color upon the application of a small electrical potential or voltage. For the last 20 years John R. Reynolds, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been studying and developing electrochromic materials that can switch from a wide range of vibrant colors to clear.
But these materials, known as cathodically coloring polymers, have a drawback. Their transmissive, or clear, state is not completely clear. Rather, in this state the material has a light blue tint. “That’s fine for many applications — including rear-view mirrors that cut the glare from oncoming cars by turning dark — but not for all potential uses,” said Reynolds, who has joint appointments in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.
For example, the Air Force is working toward visors for its pilots that would automatically switch from dark to clear when a plane flies from bright sunlight into clouds. “And when they say clear, they want it crystal clear, not a light blue,” Reynolds said. “We’d like to get rid of that tint.”
Toward a Solution
There is another family of electrochromic materials that can change color when exposed to an oxidizing voltage. These materials, known as anodically coloring electrochromes (ACEs), are colorless materials that turn colored upon oxidation. But there has been a knowledge gap in the science behind the colored oxidized states, known as radical cations. Researchers have not understood the absorption mechanism of these cations, and so the colors could not be controllably tuned.
Introducing Dylan T. Christiansen, a graduate student in the Reynolds group. While tinkering with some ACE molecules, he experimented with a new approach to controlling color in radical cations. Specifically, he created four different ACE molecules by making tiny changes to the ACEs’ molecular structures that have little effect on the neutral, clear state, but significantly change the absorption of the colored or radical cation state.
The results were spectacular. “I expected some color differences between the four molecules, but thought they’d be very minor,” Christiansen said. Instead, upon the application of an oxidizing voltage, the four molecules produced four very different colors: two vibrant greens, a yellow, and a red. And unlike their cathodic counterparts, they are crystal clear in the neutral state, with no tint. Finally, just like mixing inks, the researchers found that a blend of the molecules that switch to green and red made a mixture that is clear and switches to an opaque black. Suddenly those Air Force visors that switch from crystal clear to black looked more attainable.
“The beauty of this is it’s so simple. These minor chemical changes — literally the difference of a few atoms — have such a huge impact on color,” said Aimée L. Tomlinson, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Georgia and the third author of the paper with Reynolds and Christiansen.
What’s Going On?
How could such tiny changes have such an effect? That’s where Tomlinson, a computational chemist, comes in.
For the last five years she has been analyzing Reynolds’ electrochromic materials with computational models that provide insights into what’s happening at the sub-molecular level. Using those models, coupled with Christiansen’s data for the new ACE molecules, she was able to show how the small chemical changes that were made can drastically alter the electronic structure of the molecules’ radical cation states, and ultimately control the color.
The work continues to generate insights into new ACE molecules thanks to continuous feedback between Tomlinson’s models and the experimental data. The models help guide efforts in the lab to create new ACE molecules, while the experimental data from those molecules makes the models ever stronger.
Tomlinson notes that because the work is also helping to illuminate how radical cations work — they are still not well understood — it could help others manipulate them for future use in fields beyond electrochromism.
Reynolds commented on the serendipitous nature of the initial discovery. “I think what makes science really interesting is that [sometimes] you see something you really did not expect, you pursue it, and you end up with something that is better than you expected when you started.”
This work was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Tomlinson also acknowledges the support of her university, while Reynolds acknowledges support for his electrochromic polymer research program from NXN Licensing. Any opinions or conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the sponsoring organizations.
CITATION: Dylan T. Christiansen, Aimée L. Tomlinson, and John R. Reynolds, “New Design Paradigm for Color Control in Anodically Coloring Electrochromic Molecules”(Journal of the American Chemical Society, February 22, 2019). https://pubsdc3.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.9b01507
Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)
Writer: Elizabeth Thomson
]]>Research News
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]]>The POLY Fellow is through the Division of Polymer Chemistry and the PMSE Fellow is through the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering.
Selected PMSE Fellows are honored with a plaque at the PMSE Division Awards Ceremony and Reception at the Spring National ACS Meeting.
]]>Join us for “Advancing Foundational Technologies to Improve the Bottom Line,” Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute on the Atlanta campus.
Delivering our keynote address will be RAPID Manufacturing Institute CEO and Georgia Tech alum William Grieco.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the establishment of the 10th Manufacturing USA Institute, the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing Institute. Leveraging up to $70 million in federal funding, RAPID is focused on developing breakthrough technologies to boost energy productivity and energy efficiency by 20 percent in five years. RAPID will leverage approaches to modular chemical process intensification used in a variety of industries. Its focus on renewable bioproducts can be found here.
Grieco's senior-level innovation roles have focused on process development across multiple industries. These include the biofuels startup PetroAlgae, where he and his team built the first-of-a-kind intensive biomass production process to grow and convert aquatic plants to purified proteins and energy feedstocks. For the biopharmaceutical firm Alkermes, he spearheaded development and commercialization of the VIVITROL® and RISPERDAL®
He serves on the external advisory board for the Georgia Tech Energy Policy Innovation Center. Grieco has been a member of AIChE for 25 years, and chaired the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum in the mid-2000s.
The workshop will further explore how RBI is changing the way companies look at their bottom line. Listen to RBI affiliated faculty present research in areas such as black liquor separation, multi-phase forming, corrosion sciences and Factory 4.0, as well as “intelligent paper” and new products for the future of packaging and barrier protection. Find the latest draft agenda on the workshop home page as well as register here.
Attendees may also take advantage of one-on-one interactions with graduate students as they share their research a poster session and luncheon at the Paper Tricentennial Building.
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Advanced Computation and Data in Materials and Manufacturing examines the core knowledge required to fully realize the game-changing potential of advanced computation and data approaches. Building on the contributions of leading experts who participated in a facilitated workshop in March 2018, the report identifies 38 technical gaps, and provides detailed discussion and action plans to close the six highest priority gaps:
Details including costs to use the facilities can be found on our website, mpcf.gatech.edu.
MPCF has a full-time Research Engineer, Dr. James Collins, who provides training on the use of a variety of mechanical test systems, and helps coordinate the usage. MPCF staff can provide support in setting up test programs, designing accessories and adapters, developing new protocols, integrating new sensors and transducers, developing control algorithms, etc. A wide range of materials can be and have been tested in MPCF including all sorts of metal alloys, polymers, ceramics, and different types of composites, as well as testing of components. MPCF staff also perform routine maintenance and repairs to keep systems in a state of readiness to ensure users of the facility obtain good data in a minimal amount of time.
The MPCF presently occupies a total of 4250 sq. ft. across three buildings [2500 sq. ft. in Bunger-Henry (rooms 153, 158, and 173), 1250 sq. ft. in Callaway (MaRC) Hi-bay lab and 500 sq. ft. in MRDC 2340].
Major equipment and tools include:
Major accessories and expertise include:
In addition, MPCF supports a wet lab with specific expertise on metallography and failure analysis to prepare samples for either mechanical property testing or for further analysis using tools in the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) also administered through the Institute for Materials (IMat).
For more information, visit mpcf.gatech.edu. Capability questions may be forwarded to Dr. Collins at james.collins@me.gatech.edu, or if you may submit a test proposal at mpcf.gatech.edu.
]]>The new HPC system, valued in total at $5.3 million, will support data-driven research in astrophysics, computational biology, health sciences, computational chemistry, discovery and acceleration of new and improved materials with linkage to manufacturing, and numerous other projects. It will also be used for research to improve the energy efficiency and performance of the HPC systems themselves. Research enabled by this new system will aid several national initiatives in big data, including strategic computing, materials genome, manufacturing partnerships, NSF-supported observatories such as the LIGO gravitational wave observatory, and the South Pole neutrino observatory known as IceCube.
The effort was led by Srinivas Aluru, co-executive director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) and professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering. Key contributing faculty in thrust areas of the award include Surya Kalidindi (Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Materials), Charles David Sherrill (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Deirdre Shoemaker (School of Physics), Rich Vuduc (School of Computational Science and Engineering) and Marilyn Wolf (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering).
The proposed resources will affect dozens of faculty, also supporting the work of more than 50 research scientists and 200 graduate students. The materials science and manufacturing component of the proposal, led by Kalidindi, involved nine faculty contributors (A. Alexeev, C. Deo, H. Garmestani, A.S. Henry, S.R. Kalidindi, D.L. McDowell, D.S. Sholl, B. Wang, Y. Wang) and pointed to the work of 85 graduate students, the largest single application sector within the proposal. The chemistry component of the proposal, led by C. David Sherill, also includes a computational materials chemistry component.
The system is anticipated to begin operations in 2019, and will surpass current campus capabilities. It will be used for applications that require large memories or local storage, provide modern GPU accelerators, and large storage capacity for data and simulation results. IDEaS and many users of the new equipment will be based in Coda. System management will be handled by the Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment, or PACE, also residing in Coda.
The MRI press release, with quotes from EVPR and Provost, can be found at:
http://ideas.gatech.edu/georgia-tech-award-equips-codas-data-center-new-supercomputer
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In addition to his research and teaching as the Rae and Frank H. Neely Chair in Mechanical Engineering, García has directed Georgia Tech’s Interdisciplinary BioEngineering Graduate Program. His research focuses on potential new therapies for diseases such as diabetes and cystic fibrosis, as well as basic science discoveries in the area of regenerative medicine.
“Andrés is widely respected as a researcher and scholar across campus and throughout the global biotech research community,” said Christopher Jones, Georgia Tech’s Interim Executive Vice President for Research. “His many years on the faculty at Georgia Tech endow him with local knowledge and connections that will allow him to interconnect members of our community across the whole spectrum of schools, colleges and critical organizations such as GTRI and the Enterprise Innovation Institute.”
The Petit Institute, an internationally recognized hub of multidisciplinary research at Georgia Tech, brings engineers, scientists and clinicians together to solve some of the world’s most complex health challenges. With 18 research centers, more than 200 faculty members, and $24 million in state-of-the-art facilities, the Petit Institute is translating scientific discoveries into game-changing solutions to solve real-world problems.
Read the entire article here.
]]>404-894-6986
]]>The Georgia Institute of Technology was one of 40 academic institutions to benefit from more than $15 million in grants recently awarded for scholarships, fellowships, and faculty development by the NRC through its Nuclear Education Program. Recipients include four-year universities and colleges, two-year trade schools and community colleges, and minority serving institutions.
The fellowship program awarded to the Georgia Institute of Technology will provide eight one-year fellowships covering up to the cost of tuition, mandatory student fees, books, supplies, and stipends for highly qualified students. The program will focus on the recruiting and retention of top nuclear engineering students who come to the Georgia Institute of Technology to obtain an M.S. or Ph.D. degree in nuclear engineering.
“The funding from NRC will be very important to our Nuclear Engineering Program,” said Dr. Samuel Graham, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. “We are excited to have the opportunity to recruit and support top graduate students who are pursuing their degrees in this field. Nuclear Engineering is important to the U.S. both as an energy source and for national security. The Woodruff School is looking forward to producing the engineers that will contribute to solving the challenges seen in this field.”
Read the entire article here.
]]>This week, Wang, the Hightower Chair and Regents’ Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering, was named the winner of the Eni Award for Energy Frontiers.
The award is one of three awarded each year by the Italian-based oil and gas company Eni, which established the prize a decade ago with a goal of being similar to the Nobel prize for energy. The award recognizes researchers who have made significant contributions to the industry.
Wang’s research uncovered a new pathway to harvesting energy from a variety of sources such as wind, ocean currents or sound vibrations.
“This is a great honor for me and recognition of the tremendous potential we have to capture the random mechanical energy that surrounds us every day,” Wang said. “Triboelectric nanogenerators have broad applications for harvesting energy from human activities such as rotating tires, mechanical vibration and more, with great applications in self-powered systems for personal electronics, environmental monitoring, and medical.”
]]>David L. McDowell, Regents’ Professor and Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing at Georgia Institute of Technology, is doing just that by bringing together computational simulation tools for metals processing and mechanical behavior at various length scales with state-of-the-art mechanical testing and characterization tools.
Having joined Georgia Tech in 1983, McDowell served as Director of the Mechanical Properties Research Laboratory (MPRL) from 1992-2012 prior to founding the Institute for Materials (IMat). He has served as Executive Director of IMat since 2012.
Read the entire article here.
]]>Dr. Kalidindi was selected based on his research in Fusion of inherently incomplete and uncertain multiscale multiphysics materials knowledge in pursuit of novel engineered materials.
Dr. Kalidindi's research interests are broadly centered on designing material internal structure (including composition) for optimal performance in any selected application and identifying hybrid processing routes for its manufacture. To this end, he has employed a harmonious blend of experimental, theoretical, and numerical approaches in his research.
He serves as Innovation Strategies and Innovation Support Team Lead at the Institute for Materials and was instrumental in the creation of IDEAS:MD3, an entity with a mission of developing the initial data engineering and science foundation in that ecosystem, a key to unleashing new potential in solving 21st century grand challenges.
The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship program is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and administered by the Office of Naval Research. This program seeks outstanding researchers to conduct transformative basic research in topic areas of interest to the DoD. Through the program, select university researchers and students learn about DoD’s current and future challenges, and are introduced to some of the ongoing critical research.
The program fosters long-term relationships between DoD and university researchers, and prepares them for possible entry into the defense and national security workforce.
Fellows are currently conducting basic research in the areas of quantum information science, neuroscience, nanoscience, novel engineered materials, applied mathematics and statistics that could revolutionize a wide variety of DoD capabilities such as artificial intelligence, position-navigation-timing in denied environments, autonomous system design, decision support tools, and sensor development. In addition to conducting this innovative, “blue sky” research, the Fellows have opportunities to directly engage with the larger DoD research enterprise and to share their knowledge and insights with DoD military and civilian leaders, researchers in DoD laboratories, and the national security science and engineering community.
The VBFF commemorates Dr. Vannevar Bush, director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during WWII. Following the example set by Dr. Bush, DoD invests in basic research to probe the 'limits of today's technologies and discover new phenomena and know-how that ultimately leads to future technologies and helps prevent capability surprise. These investments have led to broad and game-changing capabilities such as the global positioning satellite (GPS) system, magnetic random access memory (MRAM), and stealth technology, to name a few.
The 10th Anniversary meeting of the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship took place in April in Washington, D.C.
Click here for a full list by name, academic institution and research projects, of the new members of the 2018 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows.
Kacher’s citation reads: “For his passion and joy for teaching, and his sustained record of teaching and research excellence, and for his enthusiasm, adaptability, and commitment to mentoring students in research and exploratory contexts.”
Kacher joined Georgia Tech’s Materials Science and Engineering department as an assistant professor in fall of 2015.
The Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers was established in 1952 in memory of an outstanding teacher of metallurgy and Dean of Engineering who was President of ASM in 1942, to encourage young teachers of materials science, engineering, design and processing by rewarding them for their ability to impart knowledge and enthusiasm to students. The award carries a certificate and an honorarium of $3,000. There is only one individual selected each year.
The award presentation will be made at the ASM Awards Dinner scheduled to take place during the Materials Science & Technology 2018 Conference and Exhibition (MS&T’18), Oct. 14-17 in Columbus, Ohio.
Prior to Kacher’s appointment at Georgia Tech, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he worked in collaboration with General Motors to understand the Portevin-le Chatelier effect in Al-Mg and with the navy to develop novel rhenium-replacement alloys. His research approach centered on applying in situ TEM deformation to understand the influence of local chemistry on the behavior of defects such as dislocations and twins. This was coupled with mesoscale characterization of the defect state using EBSD for multiscale characterization of the deformation processes.
His Ph.D. and master’s work similarly focused on applying multiscale electron microscopy techniques to understanding defect behavior in a variety of systems such as ion-irradiated stainless steels, materials at elevated temperatures, and Mg alloys for light-weight alloy development.
]]>Woodruff School Professor Surya Kalidindi has been named a recipient of the 2018 Department of Defense Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. Kalidindi, the first Georgia Tech faculty member to receive the fellowship, joins a group of 45 current Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows who are sponsored by the DoD to conduct foundational research in core science and engineering disciplines underpinning future DoD capabilities.
Read the entire article here.
]]>Wepfer reflected on his departure in a note to faculty, highlighting the accomplishments during his two terms as chair, as well as the groundwork of his predecessors. The School more than doubled its research enterprise, developed a flexible curriculum that allows for exploration of minors and certificates, expanded and built new spaces, such as the Invention Studio and the Montgomery Machining Hall, and established two graduate program partnerships with fellow international institutions.
“More important (than these accomplishments) is how the Woodruff School’s culture of discovery, creativity and innovation grows stronger each and every day,” said Wepfer. “The past 10 years have been the highlight of my professional career.”
Wepfer joined Georgia Tech’s faculty in 1980 as an assistant professor, and has since had a significant impact on the School and Institute at large. Wepfer’s research focuses on heat transfer, combustion and energy systems. He has investigated textile drying and processing and conducted analysis of solid oxide fuel cell systems. Wepfer is currently on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Board of Governors, and has held several other positions in the prestigious society.
Click here for complete article.
]]>While the effects of static electricity have been fascinating casual observers and scientists for millennia, certain aspects of how the electricity is generated and stored on surfaces have remained a mystery.
Now, researchers have discovered more details about the way certain materials hold a charge even after two surfaces separate, information that could help improve devices that leverage such energy as a power source.
“We’ve known that energy generated in contact electrification is readily retained by the material as electrostatic charges for hours at room temperature,” said Zhong Lin Wang, Regents' Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Our research showed that there’s a potential barrier at the surface that prevents the charges generated from flowing back to the solid where they were from or escaping from the surface after the contacting.”
In their research, which was reported in March in the Advanced Materials, the researchers found that electron transfer is the dominant process for contact electrification between two inorganic solids and explains some of the characteristics already observed about static electricity.
]]>The launch follows a year of deliberations by an executive committee of campus stakeholders brought together under a joint charge from the Office of the Provost and Office of the Executive Vice President for Research. The 22-member committee was led by President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough and represented all six colleges.
“The work of the committee highlighted the many ongoing and exciting efforts in the global change space happening in schools, units, and centers across the Institute,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “Bringing these groups together in a coordinated, collaborative, and multidisciplinary way will amplify Georgia Tech’s thought leadership and expertise, expand academic programs, and strengthen key partnerships with industry and peer institutions.”
The program will be directed by Kim Cobb, ADVANCE professor and Georgia Power Chair in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Early program activities include curriculum design for undergraduates, including creation of an “Energy and Climate” minor and a climate solutions lab. The program will also host speakers and roundtable events to showcase Georgia Tech’s contributions to global change-related subjects including energy, food and water supply, air quality, ocean health, public policy, and economics. Objectives include possible expansion of academic programs to graduate students, and growth of new partnerships both within Georgia Tech and with public and private partners.
]]>Blair Brettmann, assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science Engineering, currently focuses her research on novel drug manufacturing processes. Her goal is to improve the continuous manufacturing process already on the market and develop a drug production system that can scale up for commercial use. Large pharmaceutical companies are sure to take notice of her work in order to capitalize on a more efficient manufacturing process.
In addition to process work, Brettmann is growing drugs in her lab that have more effective properties than those currently on the market. Rather than delivering drug powders in tablet form, she is crystalizing drugs to make them more digestible by the stomach.
“The challenge with some drugs is they are not very water soluble, meaning they aren’t easily digested,” said Brettmann. “By creating a crystal form, we are seeing that they are more easily broken down and therefore more effective in treating symptoms of disease.”
Uniquely, Brettmann has a more holistic approach to her work, building drugs with the end in mind – like healthcare savings or drug efficacy. Rather than studying each molecule individually, Brettmann looks at the solution in its entirety. This is where her approach differs from what other researchers are doing in her field.
]]>Kiziltas is research scientist with the Sustainable Biomaterials and Plastic Research Group
within Ford Motor Company.
He will discuss how Ford is researching nanocellulose reinforced composites and foams for automotive applications.
His particular interests lie in sustainable materials such as bio-based and recycled resins, natural fiber composites,and nanofillers-reinforced foams and composites. He is a graduate of the University of Maine where he received his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Forest Resources. He has published more than 50 papers and presentations in peer-reviewedjournals and conferences and holds five patent disclosures.
The TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials will be held June 11-14 in Madison, WI. To find out more about the programming or to register, visit the conference website.
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She will serve as interim until a permanent director is named in summer 2019. Current Executive Director Norman Marsolan announced his retirement in late 2017, and Dr. Cross also announced earlier this year he would be stepping down from his current position and resuming his duties as Professor at Georgia Tech.
“With the process of naming my successor under way and Norman’s timeline of retirement, we all felt Meisha would bring stability and continuity as these transitions begin,” Dr. Cross said. “Meisha is a highly talented and well respected member of the Georgia Tech community and we are very excited to have her in this role. I am pleased that she has agreed to serve in this role and appreciate her willingness to take on this important leadership position at this time.
Marsolan echoed Cross’ sentiments, and said Shofner had his full endorsement.
"I have worked with Meisha since 2010 and have been impressed with her knowledge and leadership skills, so much so that I appointed her associate director in 2015. Meisha being chosen for this role will prove to be rewarding both for our partners in industry and government and our staff and affiliated faculty and RBI Fellows. She understands RBI and our mission. She knows our partners and has a fresh outlook to advance the Institute."
Dr. Shofner completed her post-doctoral training at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and her Ph.D. in Materials Science from Rice University. Prior to beginning graduate school, she was employed as a design engineer by FMC in the Subsea Engineering Division, working at two plant locations (Houston, Texas and the Republic of Singapore). Following post-doctoral research training at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Meisha joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2005.
At Georgia Tech, her research group is concerned with structure-property relationships in polymer nanocomposite materials and with producing structural hierarchy in these materials for structural and functional applications.
"Dr. Shofner has the skills and vision to build on the established strengths of RBI in pulp and paper, and broaden its mission through strategic industry-university partnerships in areas that address societal challenges including critical usage of materials, natural resources, food security, and energy," said Dr. Naresh Thadhani, Professor and Chair of GT's School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Shofner was recently selected for the 2017-18 cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program and received the Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellows Program in 2014.
]]>Tyler Quill joked that his dentist would kill him for drinking coffee, knowing how the beverage’s acidity contributes to tooth and enamel erosion.
“Then we started talking about why that happens and how great it would be if we could find a way to fix the problem,” said Quill, who is from Grayson, Ga.
Together the team designed pHAM, a filter to reduce coffee’s acidity. They incorporated a mineral blend into the structure of the filter paper, which reduces the acidity of the brewed coffee without negatively affecting the taste.
The creation is one of six competing for Georgia Tech’s annual invention competition, the InVenture Prize.
]]>“In my lab, we are working with multiple drones that lift and fly packages together,” said Rogers. “This involves distributing heavy lift capabilities into a number of small drone units that can then organize themselves to pick the object up.” With exceptional portability, unobtrusive size and remote control, drones are ideal for situations that are dangerous for humans. Rogers has designed the world’s first heavy lift small drones – robots that can work together to lift and evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield or civilians from a disaster area. Theoretically, three to four man-portable robots fly out together, connect to the person, and lift them 500 yards out of harm’s way. Each drone has eight large propellers and can fold up into a backpack for portability. The drone can lift a 65 pound object, and with three or four drones working together, a human can be lifted. Rogers explains that it’s all about thrust density, a term he invented.
“Determining how much thrust you can pack into a small area is important when you are using multiple vehicles to lift a specific object,” said Rogers. “When you pack a large amount of thrust into a small object, the laws of physics work against you, so you need more power. That’s why we only fly the soldiers about 500 yards away after they are lifted from the battlefield.”
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Professors Timothy Lieuwen and Jianjun (Jan) Shi are two of this year’s 83 new NAE members. They’re joined by adjunct faculty member and former College of Engineering Dean Gary S. May. The group will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in September.
“We are delighted that the National Academy of Engineering has recognized our Georgia Tech faculty members for their outstanding contributions to engineering and as leaders in their fields,” said Steve McLaughlin, dean and Southern Company Chair in the College of Engineering. “We also take great pride that our former dean and Tech alumnus, Gary May, has been recognized, not only for his research, but also for his advocacy in bringing more underrepresented students into engineering. Their induction is a testament to the quality of our faculty members and their contributions to the engineering profession."
]]>This nomination recognizes Ougazzaden’s reputation in the field of science and technology and his contributions to the visibility and global reach of the city of Metz, located in the Lorraine Region of France.
Read more here: http://lorraine.gatech.edu/news-and-events/ougazzaden-appointed-national-academy-metz
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The meeting will open Tuesday, March 6 at 1 p.m., with sessions continuing until 5 p.m. A poster session and reception will be held from 5 to 6:30, with a seated dinner to follow from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday will kick off with breakfast at 8 a.m., with sessions ending at 1 p.m.
You may register for the conference beginning Jan. 18 by clicking here.
The conference and poster session will be held in the Global Learning Center located in Midtown Atlanta. Tuesday's dinner will be held in the adjacent Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center.
The first day of the conference will consider “Transformative Opportunities for Tomorrow’s Bioproducts Manufacturing.” The second day will be devoted to “Manufacturing Design for Advanced Chemicals and Materials,” comprised of two sessions—The Promise of Smart Manufacturing, and Material and Chemical Design for New Products. Experts, faculty and students will engage the audience in discussing these topics.
“This conference is being designed to explore the application of new tools to long-standing challenges,” said RBI Executive Director Norman Marsolan. “We want to explore how those tools can lead the existing and emerging bioproducts industry into a vibrant and as yet unimagined future.”
About 45 graduate Fellows supported by RBI's unique endowment are expected to participate in this year’s poster competition. Conference participants will have an opportunity to meet these students and discuss with them how their research could be valuable or made more relevant to their companies.
Throughout the two days, there will be ample time for networking and discussion with expert researchers, students, and industry peers. The conference is also a prime opportunity to learn more about Georgia Tech’s innovation and commercialization centers and how they can support business and industry strategies. RBI serves as a portal into pertinent research capabilities and services available across campus.
The 2017 conference attracted a record number of industry and business leaders from a wide range of arenas, including energy, pulp & paper, biochemicals, materials science and bioprocessing, as well as government and academic representatives — more than 160 during the two-day event. The meeting serves as a development opportunity as well for young to mid-level professionals. There is no registration fee.
More information will be released in the coming weeks and can be found at the 2018 conference page.
Rooms are available at a preferred rate through Feb. 28 for conference guests at the Hilton Garden Inn Midtown, located just a 10 minute walk from the conference venue. Many hotels in the Midtown area also offer Georgia Tech preferred rates. Please be sure to specify “Georgia Tech” when you call to make your reservation.
For hotel and other travel and accommodations inquiries, please contact Dione Morton.
For any other questions regarding the conference, please contact Kelly Smith, RBI's marketing and communications manager.
]]>404-894-7769
]]>The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) announces a re-competition of the Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) and encourages both new and renewal applications. Applications will be required to address priority research directions identified by the series of “Basic Research Needs” reports, the scientific grand challenges identified in the report Directing Matter and Energy: Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination, and the opportunities described in the report Challenges at the Frontiers of Matter and Energy: Transformative Opportunities for Discovery Science. Applications submitted in response to this FOA must propose scientific research that addresses PRDs identified in one or more of these reports.
Note: DOE anticipates awards in a number of different scientific research areas. When making selections, DOE will emphasize emerging science priorities that have been highlighted in recent workshops, including:
In order to address these priorities, DOE plans to deemphasize the following topical areas:
Scientific research related to environmental management will not be supported under this FOA, as this was the subject of a targeted EFRC FOA in FY2016.
Science “Grand Challenges” and “Transformative Opportunities”
The BES mission to direct and control matter at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels, requires new insights into the complexity that governs material properties and processes at the quantum level. A 2007 workshop examined the primary roadblocks to progress and resulted in the following BESAC report, which defined five “grand challenges” for science:
Directing Matter and Energy: Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination.
https://science.energy.gov/~/media/bes/pdf/reports/files/Directing_Matter_and_Energy_rpt.pdf
In this report, a new era for energy science was posed in five “grand challenges”:
In 2015, in response to a charge to revisit this so-called “grand challenge” report, BESAC convened a committee of experts and issued the following report:
Challenges at the Frontiers of Matter and Energy: Transformative Opportunities for Discovery Science.https://science.energy.gov/~/media/bes/besac/pdf/Reports/Challenges_at_the_Frontiers_of_Matter_and_Energy_rpt.pdf
This report identified five “transformative opportunities” for discovery science:
Applications submitted in response to this FOA must propose research that addresses one or more of the “grand challenges” and that embodies one or more of the “transformative opportunities.”
The primary purpose of the EFRCs is to support integrated, multi-disciplinary teams of researchers performing fundamental science; therefore dissemination of results through peer-reviewed publications is a necessary measure of success. In addition, DOE anticipates that some EFRC basic research will have potential technological value. When appropriate, EFRCs are encouraged to file for patent protection. Recipients are also encouraged to explore opportunities to accelerate the transition of promising scientific results to technology development and commercial applications outside of the EFRC; EFRC awards must not support applied research and technology development.
Institutional Limits
GT is limited to the submission of three (3) proposals as the lead institution, therefore GT will conduct an internal selection process to determine the institutional applicants.
Award Timeline
GT Internal Competition Process:
1) Letter of Intent due by December 14, 2017.
2) GT Internal Pre Proposal Packages due by December 21, 2017.
Selection Criteria
All submissions will be evaluated and rated by a selection committee using the following selection criteria:
§ Responsiveness to FOA
§ Scientific and technical merit
§ Appropriateness of the proposed research approaches
§ Likelihood of scientific impact
For More Information
The device uses metallic nanoparticles to coat cellulose fibers in the paper, creating supercapacitor electrodes with high energy and power densities—and the best performance so far in a textile-based supercapacitor.
By implanting conductive and charge storage materials in the paper, the researchers’ layer-by-layer technique creates large surface areas that function as current collectors and nanoparticle reservoirs for the electrodes. Testing shows that devices fabricated with the technique can be folded thousands of times without affecting conductivity.
“This type of flexible energy storage device could provide unique opportunities for connectivity among wearable and internet of things devices,” says Seung Woo Lee, an assistant professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We could support an evolution of the most advanced portable electronics. We also have an opportunity to combine this supercapacitor with energy-harvesting devices that could power biomedical sensors, consumer and military electronics, and similar applications.”
]]>The process, which uses parallel plates to create a meniscus of ink containing the metal halide perovskite precursors, could be scaled up to rapidly generate large areas of dense crystalline film on a variety of substrates, including flexible polymers. Operating parameters for the fabrication process were chosen by using a detailed kinetics study of perovskite crystals observed throughout their formation and growth cycle.
“We used a meniscus-assisted solution printing technique at low temperature to craft high quality perovskite films with much improved optoelectronic performance,” said Zhiqun Lin, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We began by developing a detailed understanding of crystal growth kinetics that allowed us to know how the preparative parameters should be tuned to optimize fabrication of the films.”
The new technique is reported July 7 in the journal Nature Communications. The research has been supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Perovskites offer an attractive alternative to traditional materials for capturing electricity from light, but existing fabrication techniques typically produce small crystalline grains whose boundaries can trap the electrons produced when photons strike the materials. Existing production techniques for preparing large-grained perovskite films typically require higher temperatures, which is not favorable for polymer materials used as substrates – which could help lower the fabrication costs and enable flexible perovskite solar cells.
So Lin, Research Scientist Ming He and colleagues decided to try a new approach that relies on capillary action to draw perovskite ink into a meniscus formed between two nearly parallel plates approximately 300 microns apart. The bottom plate moves continuously, allowing solvent to evaporate at the meniscus edge to form crystalline perovskite. As the crystals form, fresh ink is drawn into the meniscus using the same physical process that forms a coffee ring on an absorbent surface such as paper.
“Because solvent evaporation triggers the transport of precursors from the inside to the outside, perovskite precursors accumulate at the edge of the meniscus and form a saturated phase,” Lin explained. “This saturated phase leads to the nucleation and growth of crystals. Over a large area, we see a flat and uniform film having high crystallinity and dense growth of large crystals.”
To establish the optimal rate for moving the plates, the distance between plates and the temperature applied to the lower plate, the researchers studied the growth of perovskite crystals during MASP. Using movies taken through an optical microscope to monitor the grains, they discovered that the crystals first grow at a quadratic rate, but slow to a linear rate when they began to impinge on their neighbors.
“When the crystals run into their neighbors, that affects their growth,” noted He. “We found that all of the grains we studied followed similar growth dynamics and grew into a continuous film on the substrate.”
The MASP process generates relatively large crystals – 20 to 80 microns in diameter – that cover the substrate surface. Having a dense structure with fewer crystals minimizes the gaps that can interrupt the current flow, and reduces the number of boundaries that can trap electrons and holes and allow them to recombine.
Using films produced with the MASP process, the researchers have built solar cells that have power conversion efficiencies averaging 18 percent – with some as high as 20 percent. The cells have been tested with more than 100 hours of operation without encapsulation. “The stability of our MASP film is improved because of the high quality of the crystals,” Lin said.
Doctor-blading is one of the conventional perovskite fabrication techniques in which higher temperatures are used to evaporate the solvent. Lin and his colleagues heated their substrate to only about 60 degrees Celsius, which would be potentially compatible with polymer substrate materials.
So far, the researchers have produced centimeter-scale samples, but they believe the process could be scaled up and applied to flexible substrates, potentially facilitating roll-to-roll continuous processing of the perovskite materials. That could help lower the cost of producing solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.
“The meniscus-assisted solution printing technique would have advantages for flexible solar cells and other applications requiring a low-temperature continuous fabrication process,” Lin added. “We expect the process could be scaled up to produce high throughput, large-scale perovskite films.”
Among the next steps are fabricating the films on polymer substrates, and evaluating other unique properties (e.g., thermal and piezotronic) of the material.
This research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (MURI FA9550-14-1-0037; FA9550-16-1-0187) and National Science Foundation (CMMI-1562075). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.
CITATION: Ming He, Bo Li, Xun Cui, Beibei Jiang, Yanjie He, Yihuang Chen, Daniel O’Neil, Paul Szymanski, Mostafa A. EI-Sayed, Jinsong Huang and Zhiqun Lin, “Meniscus-assisted solution printing of large-grained perovskite films for high-efficiency solar cells,” (Nature Communications, 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16045.
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]]>This recognizes Marc's sustained and outstanding efforts in advancing the Woodruff School's Education programs!
Previous recipients can be found at the following link:
http://www.me.gatech.edu/lectures/zeigler
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The book, released ahead of the G7 summit held in Italy recently, was published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a global organization based in Paris that promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. This book offers an in-depth assessment of the medium-term economic and policy implications of these new and emerging production technologies.
Georgia Tech’s David L. McDowell contributed one of the five chapters focusing on those key emerging technologies. His chapter, “Revolutionizing product design and performance with materials innovation” explores the impact of emerging trends at the intersection of computational modeling, big data, and high throughput experiments on acceleration of the discovery and development of new materials, including their incorporation into manufactured products.
McDowell serves as the Executive Director for the Institute for Materials and is a Regents' Professor and Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing.
"This work is a rare opportunity to help define the key policy issues in government, industry and academia that will need to be addressed to realize the potential of an exploding marketplace of concepts for new materials by design and how this will affect distributed manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, a cyber-enabled materials supply chain, and the digital materials and manufacturing thread,” he said. 'This volume offers a unique opportunity for Georgia Tech’s thought leadership in defining and establishing a materials innovation ecosystem that anticipates and prepares the future workforce for this bold new future of materials research and development.”
The publication, launched May 10 in Rome, examines the opportunities and challenges for business and government within these areas, which include digital technologies (e.g. the Internet of Things and advanced robotics), industrial biotechnology, 3D printing, new materials and nanotechnology. Some of these technologies are already used in production, while others will be available in the near future — all are developing rapidly.
As these technologies transform the production and the distribution of goods and services, they will have far-reaching consequences for productivity, skills, income distribution, health and well-being, and the environment. The more that governments and firms understand how production could develop in the near future, the better placed they will be to address the risks and reap the benefits.
In addition to five chapters on key emerging technologies, the book also includes six chapters on cross-cutting themes, including “The rise of advanced manufacturing institutes in the US” and “China and the next production revolution.”
]]>In a study published March 23 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers described how a class of water soluble liquid crystals, called lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals, exhibited unexpected characteristics that could be harnessed for use in sensors and other potential applications.
"We were seeking to understand the aggregation and phase behavior of these plank-like molecules as a function of temperature and concentration," said Karthik Nayani, a former Georgia Tech student who worked on the problem. "When observed under crossed polarizers in an optical microscope, liquid crystals can exhibit beautiful textures that hint toward how the molecules themselves are arranged."
To answer some fundamental questions pertaining to the material’s phase behavior, the researchers used the microscopes to observe the molecules’ textures when they were confined to droplets known as tactoids.
"Surprisingly, we found a configuration that hasn’t been seen before in the 70 years that people have been studying liquid crystals," said Mohan Srinivasarao, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. "Historically, liquid crystals in tactoids conform to what is known as a bipolar and a bipolar configuration with a twist. At lower concentrations, we found that these liquid crystals arrange in a concentric fashion, but one that appears to be free of a singular defect."
]]>The winners are:
These professors will recruit entering graduate students into their respective schools to conduct the research. The fellowships will provide up to four years of funding for these students, who will join more than 40 RBI Fellows on campus.
"We were very pleased with the enthusiastic response to the request for proposals, and with the strength of the responses this year," said RBI Director Norman Marsolan. "We congratulate our winners, and hope to encourage the other submitting investigators, as this year’s project proposals presented a very competitive choice.
"We are also awarding seed-grant funding to four more proposals," he added. "We are delighted to fund eight students through the endowment, and we can use additional member funding to support proof-of-concept research in several other areas of high interest."
The seed grant winners are:
All of the projects are available for additional sponsorship to augment the research, which can carry intellectual property rights. "I urge those interested in supporting these projects or engaging with the students and investigators to contact me," Marsolan said. "Georgia Tech’s contract continuum has models to meet any company’s preferences. We are excited about these projects, and the opportunity to develop our students as future leaders of our industry."
]]>NASA has selected four new research teams to join the existing nine teams in SSERVI to address scientific questions about the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and their near space environments, in cooperation with international partners.
Thomas Orlando, a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been named as a member of the Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces (REVEALS) team. The REVEALS team will explore radiation processing of natural regolith and human-made composite materials to understand the condensed-matter physics and radiation chemistry that can lead to volatile formation, sequestration and transport.
This team also will explore how novel materials and real-time radiation detectors can minimize risks and exposure to dangerous radiation during human exploration missions.
]]>Campus wide Living Building Progress Presentation with the Design Team and Pilot Project Q/A Session
College of Design Auditorium
The Living Building at Georgia Tech Academic & Research Council is accepting proposals for research, teaching and community based pilot ventures connected to the Living Building Project at Georgia Tech. The maximum funding per project is $10,000.
The Living Building at Georgia Tech is a state of the art teaching, research and learning community under development in the center of campus and a key part of the emerging Sustainability Innovation Commons/EcoCommons.
The Living Building at Georgia Tech will be a cornerstone for a new series of investments at Tech over the next ten years which will rapidly accelerate progress in the Southeast’s regenerative building movement and serve as an incubator for advancing new ideas related to interdisciplinary thinking on sustainability.
Successful pilot projects will promote Institute goals and priorities connected to sustainability through design, construction, outreach, educational and research opportunities and elevate new goals and priorities through collective learning and knowledge development.
Successful projects will connect to areas such as: Dashboards/Sensors/Monitoring; Materials; Equity; Policy; Energy Conservation/Power, Plug Load Management; Post-occupancy Behavior; Narrative Construction/Storytelling; Performance Landscape; and other areas as yet determined.
Applicants should submit a 1-2 page proposal narrative that:
• Describes the pilot project topic and its research significance
• Identifies connections to Living Building Challenge Petals or Imperatives
• Identifies teaching and research activities
• Identifies other audiences it might attract, including leverage for larger external research funding
• Discusses intended outcomes as well as any products that may result from the pilot project
• Includes a brief statement (1-2 paragraphs) articulating your/your group interest in the Living Building including what you believe you can contribute to the Living Building and what you hope to achieve from participating
• Includes a brief description (1-2 paragraphs) of your/your group research, teaching, or action objective that is consistent with the objectives of the Living Building. If it’s not immediately obvious, make sure to explain how this objective will eventually relate to student learning.
• Priority will be given to projects that touch on multiple petals
Budget and Timeline
A separate page should provide a detailed budget and timeline for planning and conducting the pilot project, specifying expenses by category: i.e., faculty and student support, materials, honoraria, etc. Proposers are encouraged to seek support from their schools or outside donors to broaden the reach of the project.
Proposals can pertain to research area or topic of interest to a school, center, lab or faculty member. Pilot projects will be chosen by April 20, with funding available immediately. The pilot project must be completed by May 31, 2018.
We will consider the first year of the Living Building Pilot project competition a great success if it leads to three to five excellent, high impact projects from academic and research units from across campus. We look forward to receiving this year’s proposals.
Important Links:
• Living Building Challenge https://living-future.org/lbc/
• Georgia Tech Living Building Website: http://livingbuilding.gatech.edu/
• 100% Schematic Design Drawing Set for the GT Living Building
https://www.dropbox.com/home/Living%20Building%20%40%20GT_TeamShare/Deliverables/Schematic%20Design?preview=20161215_Living-Bld-%40-GT-Project_100SD.pdf
Submit Questions to: GTLivingBuildingProposals@gatech.edu
The Living Building at Georgia Tech Academic and Research Council Members
David Frost, College of Engineering, Civil/Environmental
Tim Lieuwen, College of Engineering, Mechanical/Aerospace
Mary Hallisey Hunt, Strategic Energy Institute
Ted Russell, College of Engineering, Atmospheric Chemistry
Jennifer Leavey, College of Science, Biology
Beril Toktay, Scheller College of Business, Operations Management
Michael Gamble, College of Design, Architecture/Energy
Fried Augenbroe, College of Design, High Performance Building
Michael Chang, Brook Byers Institute
Dan Matisoff, Ivan Allen College, Public Policy
Mark Hay, College of Science, Ecology
Jennifer Hirsch, GT Serve-Learn-Sustain
Jeannette Yen, College of Science, Biology
Richard Utz, Ivan Allen College, Literature, Media and Communication
The projects, which will take place over the next two years and have a budget of more than $9 million, are backed by NextFlex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a group of private companies, universities, several state and local governments and not-for-profit organizations with a mission to advance flexible electronics manufacturing in the United States.
Researchers at Georgia Tech are partnering with Boeing, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, General Electric, and DuPont as well other research institutions such as Binghamton University and Stanford University on the projects.
Flexible electronics are circuits and systems that can be bent, folded, stretched or conformed without losing their functionality. The systems are often created using machines that can print components such as logic, memory, sensors, batteries, antennas, and various passives using conductive ink on flexible surfaces. Combined with low-cost manufacturing processes, flexible hybrid electronics unlock new product possibilities for a wide range of electronics used in the health care, consumer products, automotive, aerospace, energy and defense sectors.
]]>During the final panel of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute’s 2017 executive conference, directors representing five of Georgia Tech’s Interdisciplinary Research Institutes - Robotics, Materials, Manufacturing, Nanotechnology, Renewable Bioproducts - engaged industry representatives in an hour-long discussion on future opportunities in manufacturing and how they can maximize the impact of their work by partnerships with one another and with companies.
RBI is one of 12 IRIs on the Georgia Tech’s campus. Today, these institutes are engaging in more crosscutting research and project development than ever before as industries try to meet new challenges, whether it be automation in the workforce or on the farm or developing more renewable materials to reduce the dependency on petroleum in consumer goods.
The five-person panel, moderated by Christopher Jones, Tech’s associate vice president of research, explored the importance of interdisciplinary partnerships to industry and the benefits that can be gained through a true innovation ecosystem at Georgia Tech.
Oliver Brand, executive director at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, said that several global challenges could be addressed through a collaboration of multiple IRIs.
"Take the area of flexible electronics, which provides some of the most promising opportunities in health care applications – wearable electronics. Everyone sitting on this panel is involved in some way," he said. "You need new materials, nano, sustainable substrates, and new materials applications at other institutes like IBB (Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience). Of course, then we need to manufacture these devices. So, there are skill-sets across the board and across our campus that strengthen our appeal to industry.”
These collaborations are taking place between robotics and manufacturing, renewables and electronics, materials and energy, to name just a few.
“We’re getting a broader point of view, discovery … we need the intersection of all of us here to generate different ideas and approaches,” said Gary McMurray, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. “If you look at manufacturing facilities, traditional automation is changing even more. Robots are leaving the cage and working in less strict environments … robots are now making decisions.
“In agriculture, this is a huge area of progress and potential, and another example of where we need flexible products. When I look at this panel, there are skill-sets in each IRI that have an impact with the work we are doing.”
This “innovation ecosystem,” which has become a cornerstone of cross-cutting collaboration and a key focus of Georgia Tech’s Executive Vice President of Research Steve Cross, has resulted in a win-win for both Georgia Tech and its industry partners, according to Jones.
“The original ecosystem began in 2003 with a few investments in Tech Square. Now it’s booming. The number of companies wanting to co-locate here exceeds the space available,” Jones said. “IRIs are central to our approach in targeting investment. They offer a single point of entry into Georgia Tech and this type of concierge service will enable us to grow.”
David McDowell, executive director for the Institute for Materials, said this approach to an innovation ecosystem is an important benefit not only for the IRIs, but also for industry now and in the future.
“Georgia Tech has organized this based on innovation and connectivity,” he said. “Other major research institutes try this approach, but they are limited. We are always thinking together, as a group, about the future so we can anticipate the innovation ecosystem that will exist 20 years from now.”
Keeping up with the rapidly changing scientific and economic landscape requires road-mapping, and this is a critical piece in continuing the relevance and value of the IRIs, according to Jones.
These roadmaps include not only internal stakeholders, but external ones as well, gathering input, anticipating future needs and outlining where an IRI fits into the landscape.
In Robotics, it’s finding what McMurray calls “collaborative robots”–getting the big-picture view by working with industry to bridge the gap in finding ways of programming and modification of technician skills for a portion of the workforce without college degrees. For Materials, it lies in areas such as additive manufacturing and 3D printing, where certification and qualifying present huge opportunities. A new manufacturing scholars program in Manufacturing not only increases the size and quality of the manufacturing talent pipeline for sponsor companies, but also enhances collaboration between GT faculty and manufacturing company sponsors to solve important manufacturing challenges. At RBI, industry partners are sponsoring groundbreaking work in new platforms aimed at using biomass to address energy efficiencies and nanocellulose applications in order to give automotive and aerospace sectors a lighter, stronger building material. And in Electronics and Nanotechnology, promising research is being conducted in sensor-related and flexible electronics, which could revolutionize areas within the health, security and energy sectors.
These types of roadmaps are being formed through a true partnership with industry and an evaluation of their needs.
“IRIs are the touch-point for the interactions with affiliated (companies),” Jones said. “We derive value from long-term relationships ... Our thinking has been catalyzed by the effectiveness of Tech Square, which has resulted in growth far beyond our original vision. We want to replicate that in other areas.”
Marsolan made his remarks during RBI's annual executive conference, March 7-8, on Georgia Tech's campus. Growing Resources Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow: People, Technologies & Ideas highlighted both faculty and student research. The event provided two days of dialogue to further explore collaborative partnerships between industry and RBI and how, together, they can tackle some of the biggest challenges and opportunities of the next decade and beyond.
"Advancing our understanding of the drivers of global grand challenges and potential remedies for them requires contributions from the full range of research fields that can be engaged through RBI – the people, technologies and ideas driving those fields," he said. "It also requires partnerships with you – the people and organizations that support our research and work with us to translate these advances into real-world applications."
Domtar CEO John D. Williams leads a company on the forefront of the effort to convert sustainable wood fiber into useful products. In his conference keynote address, he said RBI stands prepared to support his industry's next great transformation with a vision of unlocking and recombining the chemical building blocks of trees in new and interesting ways to make advanced, sustainable biomaterials.
"Wood fiber is the age-old wonder material that is seemingly new again," he said. "Its inherent attributes—renewable, sustainable, carbon-neutral, and cost-competitive—are driving exciting new developments. Today, we are the biomaterials prospectors of our forests, surrounded by opportunities to explore and develop.
"RBI is now looking at the horizon from the bow of our ship instead of the stern," he added. "The perspective is changing … and, in my experience, this change in perspective matters enormously. Playing to win is a very different game than playing not to lose."
And this changing landscape requires more and more collaboration and tapping of a variety of resources. RBI is one of the 12 Interdisciplinary Research Institutes on Georgia Tech’s campus. Today, these IRIs are engaging in more crosscutting research and project development than ever before as industries try to meet the challenges of the 21st century, whether it be automation in the workforce or on the farm or finding more renewable materials to reduce the use of petroleum in consumer goods. Directors representing five of these IRIs - Robotics, Materials, Manufacturing, Nanotechnology, Renewable Bioproducts - engaged industry representatives in an hour-long discussion on how their internal collaboration is maximizing their impact for companies and industries. The five-person panel, moderated by Georgia Tech associate vice president-research Christopher Jones, explored the importance of interdisciplinary partnerships to industry and the benefits that can be gained through a true innovation ecosystem at Georgia Tech.
Oliver Brand, executive director at the Institute of Electronics and Nanotechnology, said many global challenges could be addressed through a collaboration of multiple IRIs.
"Take the area of flexible electronics, which provides some of the most promising opportunities in health care applications – wearable electronics. Everyone sitting on this panel is involved in some way," he said. "You need new materials, nano, sustainable substrates and applications, and the expertise of centers like the Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience. Of course, then we need to manufacture these devices. So, there are skill-sets across the board and available across our campus that strengthen our appeal to industry.”
These collaborations are taking place between robotics and manufacturing, renewables and electronics, materials and energy, to name just a few.
This “innovation ecosystem,” which has become a cornerstone of cross-cutting collaboration and a key focus of Georgia Tech’s Vice President of Research Steve Cross, has resulting in a win-win for both Georgia Tech and its industry partners, according to Jones.
“The original ecosystem began in 2003 with a few investments in Tech Square. Now it’s booming. The number of companies wanting to co-locate here exceeds the space available,” Jones said. “IRIs are central to our approach in targeting investment. They provide a single, industry-facing point of entry into Georgia Tech, and this type of concierge service will enable us to grow.”
But it was the premier research – long drawing companies to Tech Square and beyond – that took center stage during the conference. RBI-affiliated faculty members were on hand to share the latest innovative approaches in the development, processing, and use of forest bioproducts, from biorefining and bioprocessing to nanocellulose and other biomaterials.
RBI’s Ph.D. Fellows shared the results of their endowment-sponsored research during the conference sessions, and also were given one-on-one time to interact with industry guests and academics during RBI’s annual poster competition. Nearly 40 Ph.D. students sponsored by RBI’s endowment participated in this year’s poster competition. Read more about the winners here.
Visit our website to read about our full lineup of speakers and presenters and explore their presentations.
This year’s conference focused on the current state of science in raw biomaterials as society addresses critical social, economic and environmental concerns and development priorities. Introducing the People, Technologies and Ideas which make up RBI, an array of research faculty, RBI Fellows and Georgia Tech leadership discussed the advancements being developed to address the needs of a growing population and reduce the reliance on non-renewable resources.
Nearly 40 of RBI’s Fellows, Ph.D. students sponsored by RBI’s endowment, participated in the annual poster competition. The session is held in conjunction with an evening reception and allows industry, academia, and government guests to get an up-close look at the research being conducted through the RBI Fellowships and discuss ideas with the students face to face.
This year, RBI named six winners. They are as follows:
To read full abstracts of these and other posters entered into the contest, read the catalog. Full details about executive conference can be found here.
]]>The opening address will be delivered by John Williams, CEO of Domtar, a company on the forefront of the effort to convert sustainable wood fiber into useful products on which people rely every day. His keynote address, "The Building Blocks of Our Industry's Future," will outline Domtar's evolving strategy of looking differently at trees — to recognize them as nature’s biorefineries. Williams will also discuss approaches to promoting improved understanding of the industry throughout the general public.
This year’s conference will focus on the current state of science in raw biomaterials as society addresses critical social, economic and environmental concerns and development priorities. Introducing the People, Technologies and Ideas which make up RBI, an array of research faculty, RBI Fellows and Georgia Tech leadership will discuss the advancements being developed to address the needs of a growing population and reduce the reliance on non-renewable resources.
“Advancing our understanding of the drivers of global grand challenges and potential remedies for them requires contributions from the full range of fields represented at RBI,” said Norman Marsolan, RBI’s executive director. “It also requires partnerships with the people and organizations that support our research and work with us to translate these advances into real-world applications. This conference offers two days of discourse and dialogue regarding the challenges and opportunities in the rapidly-evolving world of bioproducts.”
This year, RBI’s fourth-year students will present the results of their endowment-sponsored research. Our faculty will share their innovative ideas and most recent endeavors in a variety of areas. We will also introduce new faculty who have recently joined Georgia Tech to offer intriguing possibilities for forest bioproducts. In addition, plenary sessions will cover an overview of the RBI Endowment portfolio, the implications and opportunities inherent for companies in the recently awarded “Rapid Acceleration of Process Intensification Deployment” (RAPID) and closing the conference, a discussion regarding the future of manufacturing, led by panel of five Georgia Tech Interdisciplinary Research Institute directors.
Nearly 40 of RBI’s Fellows, Ph.D. students sponsored by RBI’s endowment, will participate in this year’s poster competition. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet these students during lunch and an evening reception to discuss with them how their research could be valuable or made more relevant to their companies.
The conference is also a prime opportunity to learn more about Georgia Tech’s innovation ecosystem, which encourages cross-disciplinary research partnerships in order to advance progress and solutions on issues of significance. Our industry partners will hear in detail about commercialization centers and how they can provide insights, techniques and tools to support business and industry strategies with RBI serving as a portal into pertinent research, capabilities, services, and scholarship being conducted on campus.
Full details about the conference can be found on RBI's conference website.
]]>For more information, contact Bailey Risteen at bristeen3@gatech.edu.
]]>RBI's own Preet Singh, a professor of materials science and engineering, is part of team recognized.
The work developed a new steel to reinforce concrete bridge piles in marine environments that withstands corrosion and lasts well beyond the expected 100-year lifespan of the structures. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or AASHTO, named it one of the group’s 2016 Sweet Sixteen high-value research projects.
“The new goal of the Federal Highway Administration and Georgia DOT is to have a design life for bridges of 100 years or more. Current steel reinforcing in piles in marine environments totally corrodes in less than 40 years,” said School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Emeritus Lawrence Kahn, who led the effort along with Professor Kimberly Kurtis.
]]>Russo partners with Xujun Zhang, an MSE grad student, and Jinxin Fu, a MSE post-doc, in the venture. Zhang was on hand to accept the award for the group. The company received a $750 prize.
MetaOptics is the maker of EZ-sizer, a small, portable and accurate device which allows the measurement of particles as small as 50 nanometers in diameter, using an optical technique known as differential dynamic microscopy (DDM).
Key features of the EZ-sizer are a large concentration range, immunity to light absorptive samples and easy sample preparation. A variety of industries are expected to benefit from its application, including pharmaceutical and healthcare; coatings, paints and cosmetics; chemicals; minerals and mining; and food and beverage.
iMatSci Innovator Showcase provides a platform for technology leaders at universities, research labs and start-up companies to demonstrate the practical applications of innovative, materials-based technologies. The goal of this program is to convene innovators, industry leaders and investors in one location to spur collaboration that accelerates the adoption of new materials technologies for real-world applications.
iMatSci is designed to showcase technologies that have not yet been productized but where there is a working prototype or evidence of a repeatable process. The entities behind these innovations will generally be early stage and pre-revenue; however, iMatSci will also consider showcasing innovative technologies that are emerging from an existing corporate entity.
]]>A recent seed funding award from the Institute of Materials will cover the preparation and imaging of the sample from the project selected. In return, MCF asks it be allowed to use selected images and details of the work for promotional purposes.
Only a limited number of submissions will be selected and it is likely that only one sample from each PI will be imaged – though multiple submissions are allowed.
Projects will be selected on the bases of both scientific merit and the work's potential to demonstrate the broadest possible range of MCF capabilities. This attempt at comprehensiveness might require some experimentation to determine the best procedures for preparation and imaging, but an MCF staff member attached to each project will consult regularly with the research group to ask/answer questions and update the project status.
Please fill out this form and return it with any questions to: Walter Henderson - walter.henderson@gatech.edu or Dr. Yong Ding - yong.ding@mse.gatech.edu
]]>
The awards are meant to advance the strategic goals of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), which have been laid out over the past five years.
A total of five awards were given from 14 applicants in three programs.
MGI-Faculty Leadership Grant Award
· Michael A. Filler, Associate Professor, CHBE (Award $20k)
“Patternless Fabrication and Purification of High Performance Field Effect Transistors: A New System for Integrated Circuit Manufacturing”
IMat Graduate Student Fellows Award
· Nils Persson, ChBE-Advisor: Martha Grover (Award $5k)
“Computer Vision for Automated Materials Imaging and Analysis”
· Jordan Key, MSE-Advisor: Josh Kacher (Award $5k)
“In situ TEM investigation Correlating Microstructure to Corrosion Susceptibility in Fe Thin Films”
IMat Faculty Fellows Award
· Matthew McDowell, Associate Professor, ME (Award $10k)
“Harnessing Data Analytics to Unleash the Full Potential of Nanoscale In Situ Experiments”
· Josh P. Kacher, Assistant Professor, MSE; Mark D. Losego, Assistant Professor, MSE; Yao Xia, Assistant Professor, ISYE (Award $20k)
“Dynamically Responsive Scanning Diffraction for High-Throughput Analysis of Phase Assemblage in Functional Complex Oxides"
"These five seed funding awards demonstrate Georgia Tech's commitment to creating the next generation of materials workforce and research platforms,” said IMat Executive Director and Regents’ Professor David L. McDowell. “The diverse set of proposals reviewed were of very high quality, reflecting the depth and breadth of the GT materials innovation ecosystem involving experiments, computation and integration with data science."
These awards strengthen Georgia Tech's already strong position in Materials Genome-related research and fulfills a portion of Tech’s $10 million five-year commitment to the effort.
THE WINNERS
Mike Filler’s group will develop synthetic methods to fabricate large quantities of high performance electronic devices without top-down patterning (e.g., lithography). As-produced devices will then be purified based on their structural and electronic properties. Realization of this vision requires several high-throughput synthesis and characterization techniques, and associated data analytics.
“Our long-term goal is to produce electronics in much the same way we currently produce chemicals — with a sequence of reaction and separation steps,” he said.
Computer vision has contributed to many recent advances in modern technology, including robotics, facial recognition, and autonomous driving. Persson’s goal is to apply computer vision algorithms to a much smaller world: the world of nano-scale materials.
“The funding from IMAT will allow us to explore new ways to integrate data science with imaging and experimental materials research,” he said. “One potential scenario would have us leverage the 3D printing resources at Georgia Tech to simulate materials imaging. The possibilities are virtually endless in such a strong collaborative environment.
By combining in situ electron microscopy techniques with data science tools, Key hopes to develop a predictive phenomenological model that relates microstructure to corrosion properties. He said he believes such a tool would have great potential to significantly increase the speed and efficiency of corrosion-resistant materials design.
“This allows me access to sophisticated characterization equipment at DOE national laboratories, such as Oak Ridge or Sandia that can yield information with incredible spatial and temporal resolution,” he said. “Such a tool would have great potential to significantly increase the speed and efficiency of corrosion-resistant materials design. My goal is to publish the results in a high-impact journal as well as give a presentation at a technical conference such as M&M or MS&T.
Matthew McDowell and his group will use the grant to jump-start collaborations in developing new analytical tools for the automated analysis of in situ electron microscopy data. “My research group is grateful and honored to receive this grant, which will be used to advance our capabilities for observing and understanding real-time reaction processes in important new battery materials through the use of data analytics,” he said. “Our hopes are that this work will enable the development of new, safer, long-lasting batteries.”
Kacher, Losego and Xie are seeking to use advanced data analytics to close the loop between materials processing, structure, and properties. The three have been working together for the past year to develop high-speed scanning electron beam diffraction methods to gather spatially-dependent, statistically relevant, crystallographic information about materials.
“I think the most exciting part about this project is that each of us doesn't yet fully understand the other collaborators’ scientific expertise,” Losego said. “While we appreciate the potential power of our synergy, this seed funding will drive us to dig deeper into each other’s fundamental science pursuits and make unique connections that would not be possible as individuals.”
Please visit IMat’s website for more information regarding IMat’s seed funding program.
About MGI’s Strategic Goals
A key strategy of the MGI has been the coupling of advanced in situ and in operando experimental methods for synthesis and characterization, high throughput methods for exploring potential materials and performing early stage qualification, computational materials science, and modern data science. The ultimate goal is to increase the pace of materials discovery and development. This coupling is of course is too broad for a single initiative, as it reflects new scientific possibilities enabled by convergent advances in materials instrumentation, improved spatial and temporal resolution of measuring material structure and its evolution from atomic scale upward, predictive materials modeling and simulation via high performance computing, and data science and analytics. This convergence of experiment, theory and simulation, and data science offers new pathways to inform decision making as necessary to increase the pace of materials discovery and development. Indeed, the materials community is poised for a revolution in its ability to tailor and control structure and properties of new materials to address grand challenges in clean energy, sustainability, mobility, infrastructure, health, and security.
]]>BENEFITS
Applications for the next class of fellows will be due on or by January 11, 2017.
Access application materials and additional information at https://www.krellinst.org/ssgf/how-apply
]]>(515) 956-3696
]]>"If we can make it thin enough, dense enough to make on a fabric, you make a power shirt," said Dr. Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents' professor at Tech's School of Materials Science and Engineering.
The power shirt – or jacket or vest – is the likely result of the ongoing research of Dr. Wang who, in a basement laboratory at Tech, has created an electricity-generating textile.
"(It's) a power fabric," Wang said. "A fabric that can convert any kind of physical motion, sunlight, solar light, light, into electricity for wearable electronics."
Watch the full report on Atlanta Alive.
]]>
See the full press release from AFOSR
]]>See the full press release from AFRL, NIST AND NSF here
]]>Additional information can be found at P3Nano Opportunity News. Read the full RFP here.
Proposals are due by EOD Oct. 31 with announcements targeted for Dec. 15.
]]>
McDowell is the executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Materials, Regents' Professor and Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing.
The prestigious and long running conference brings together delegates from around the world to discuss how to characterize, predict, and analyze the fatigue damage of structural materials.
McDowell served as a session chair for the conference, leading the discussion around Microstructure Scale Computational Modeling I with an international group of scientists and researchers. He also presented his own work regarding Microstructure-sensitive computational fatigue modeling.
He is a co-editor of the International Journal of Fatigue, dedicated entirely to the full range of scientific and technological issues associated with fatigue. The scope of the journal includes the spectrum of characterization, testing, and modeling of degradation processes under cyclic loading, commonly referred to as fatigue.
Dr. McDowell's research focuses on nonlinear constitutive models for engineering materials, including cellular metallic materials, nonlinear and time dependent fracture mechanics, finite strain inelasticity and defect field mechanics, distributed damage evolution, constitutive relations and microstructure-sensitive computational approaches to deformation and damage of heterogeneous alloys, combined computational and experimental strategies for modeling high cycle fatigue in advanced engineering alloys, atomistic simulations of dislocation nucleation and mediation at grain boundaries, multiscale computational mechanics of materials ranging from atomistics to continuum, and systems-based computational materials design.
]]>Granted, people have been collecting and crunching numbers for a long time, but over the past decade several things have changed, noted Charles Isbell, senior associate dean and a professor in Georgia Tech’s College of Computing. “A lot of data became ubiquitous, algorithmic sophistication has increased dramatically, we can construct complicated models to predict things — and we have the machinery to make it happen. Put all this together, and data science suddenly matters.”
Indeed, instead of being relegated to some niche fields, “data science is becoming pervasive,” agreed Steve McLaughlin, chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “There are very few fields in sciences, engineering, humanities, or business that aren’t being drastically impacted by data.”
]]>Traditionally, materials have been developed slowly, by trial and error. Today, 21st century computational techniques, in tandem with cutting-edge experimentation capabilities, allow materials scientists and engineers to work at the atomic scale to design novel materials with increasing speed and effectiveness.
The result is that today’s cyber-enabled materials — so-called because of the computer’s pivotal role in their creation — are more likely to move from laboratory to industry in a few years rather than a decade or two. This increased efficiency is helping fulfill the goal of the Materials Genome Initiative, a 2013 White House program aimed at bolstering the economy by shortening development cycles.
“Historically, it has taken 15 to 20 years to implement new materials into high-value products, which is simply far too long for industries to compete in the digital age, where design of new products occurs within months or a few years,” said Dave McDowell, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Materials (IMat). “Our goal is to dramatically accelerate that process.”
Multiple teams of Georgia Tech researchers are utilizing cyber techniques to support accelerated materials design. Here are a few of the innovative efforts underway by research teams that include engineers, chemists, physicists, computer scientists, and others.
]]>The coupling of advanced in situ and in operando experimental methods for synthesis and characterization, high throughput methods for exploring potential materials and performing early stage qualification, computational materials science, and modern data science is a key strategy of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI)[1] [2] aimed at increasing the pace of materials discovery and development. This coupling is of course is too broad for a single initiative, as it reflects new scientific possibilities enabled by convergent advances in materials instrumentation, improved spatial and temporal resolution of measuring material structure and its evolution from atomic scale upward, predictive materials modeling and simulation via high performance computing, and data science and analytics. This convergence of experiment, theory and simulation, and data science offers new pathways to inform decision making as necessary to increase the pace of materials discovery and development. Indeed, the materials community is poised for a revolution in its ability to tailor and control structure and properties of new materials to address grand challenges in clean energy, sustainability, mobility, infrastructure, health, and security.
Background
The 2014 national MGI workshop Building an Integrated MGI Accelerator Network hosted by Georgia Tech on behalf of the Materials Accelerator Network[3] explored common needs among diverse classes of soft and hard materials and identified a number of science and technology needs.[4]
Building on Georgia Tech’s core strengths in materials, through IMat’s investment in shared facilities, advances in materials data science and informatics, and connectivity with materials simulation and design, Georgia Tech has developed a leadership position in the MGI by introducing the broader notion of a materials innovation ecosystem.[5] [6] Certain aspects of this ecosystem are being increasingly emphasized in many contemporary federal funding calls, and require targeted development to address gaps and enhance our competitive posture for leadership in future cross-cutting research center proposals, including those at the intersection of materials and manufacturing.[7] These include:
At a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy[8] celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Materials Genome Initiative on August 2[9], various federal agency leads, industry and academia stakeholders reviewed the status and future directions for the MGI. To date, over $500M in federal research funding has been devoted, with intent to continue and intensify investments over the next decade.
Description: IMat Faculty Fellow, IMat Graduate Student Fellow, and MGI-Faculty Leadership Grants
Seed funding investments from IMat are intended to build Georgia Tech’s foundational leadership capabilities in the materials innovation ecosystem. Three categories of seed funding are available this call, with number of awards made in each category depending on responsive and competitive proposals submitted.
IMat Faculty Fellow - Up to three awards
$10K direct discretionary funding for travel, student support, and other personal research program development will be provided to each IFF in FY2017 to support proposed advances in capabilities and resources that contribute to an enhanced competitive profile for Materials Genome Initiative-related leadership from Georgia Tech in at least one of the following areas:
With an eye towards establishing a leadership position in MGI-related research initiatives, it is expected that IMat Faculty Fellows will explore integration of materials data science into their research workflows and proposals, through collaboration with the MATIN team[10] and will have collaborative discussions with the new IDEAS:MD3[11] materials data science and informatics institute.
Requirements:
Deliverables:
IFF proposal format:
IMat Graduate Student Fellow (IGSF) - Up to two awards
This $5K direct funding grant will “top-off” existing GRA stipends with in the intent of adding value to their existing thesis-directed materials research workflows by introducing one or both of the following elements:
Requirements:
Deliverables:
IGSF proposal format:
MGI-Faculty Leadership (MGI-FL) Grants - Up to two awards
The goal is to support and develop faculty leadership in acquiring preliminary results, conducting critical gap analysis, and team-building towards a competitive position to pursue future cross-cutting federal funding calls, e.g., NSF Materials Innovation Platform (MIP)[13] [14]. Proposals should describe scoping concepts for new, valued-added capabilities, either in methods or tools or new/improved faculty research capabilities. Mid-career to senior faculty members positioned to assert collaborative leadership are encouraged to apply. Up to two awards at up to $20K each of direct funding will be provided to awardees.
Requirements:
Deliverables:
MGI-FL proposal format:
Review Criteria
Proposals for each project category will be reviewed by a committee composed of Georgia Tech faculty. Final award selections will balance available funds with requests and review recommendations. Funding to be allocated to any category depends upon the submission of proposals that are considered responsive to the call as outlined and recommended for support in the review process.
Proposals should be submitted to cecelia.jones@imat.gatech.edu by 5 pm on Sept. 21, 2016. Awards will be made in early October 2016 and funds can be spent through June 2017.
Questions
Overall program and proposal process: Jud Ready, IMat Innovation Support Lead (jud.ready@gatech.edu, 404-407-6036).
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/mgi_strategic_plan_-_dec_2014.pdf
[3] http://acceleratornetwork.org/
[4] http://acceleratornetwork.org/wp-uploads/2014/09/MAN-MGI-REPORT-2015.pdf
[5] http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10263068&fileId=S0883769416000610
[6] http://materials.gatech.edu/
[7] http://www.nist.gov/amo/nnmi/
[8] https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp
[9] https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/08/01/materials-genome-initiative-first-five-years
[10] http://materials.gatech.edu/MatIN
[11] http://materials.gatech.edu/ideas-md3
[12] http://materials.gatech.edu/MatIN
[13] https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505133
[14] https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15522/nsf15522.htm
]]>
Overall program and proposal process: Jud Ready, IMat Innovation Support Lead (jud.ready@gatech.edu, 404-407-6036).
]]>IDEAS:MD3 represents an important data science component of Georgia Tech’s Materials Innovation Ecosystem. Its organization was led by Surya Kalidindi with the mission of developing the initial data science and engineering foundation in that ecosystem, a key to unleashing new potential in solving 21st century grand challenges. The purpose of IDEAS:MD3 is to promote and conduct research, development, and testing in materials data science and informatics that will lead to new and improved methods to accelerate materials design, development, and deployment (MD3). This includes e-collaboration and tracking of data through materials development and manufacturing workflows. Knowledge and information regarding these capabilities will be disseminated through research projects, conferences, workshops and publications to establish a strong community addressing materials data and informatics.
“IDEAS:MD3 will serve its members by providing a low cost entry opportunity to increase their awareness and exposure to modern data science tools and e-collaboration platforms, and help them realize significant acceleration, cost reduction, and increased productivity in their ongoing MD3 related projects” said Surya Kalidindi, director of IDEAS:MD3. Members will also have unique access to a set of community curated and pedigreed data, codes, workflows, knowledge, and expertise databases in the many application areas of MD3, he added.
This materials innovation ecosystem leverages Georgia Tech’s thought leadership in the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) and existing strengths in technology translation. It also continues to build strong relationships with original equipment manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, energy and defense sectors, with emphasis on incorporating their materials supply chains. According to David McDowell, executive director of IMat, this new data science institute is uniquely poised to transform the future workforce at the interface of materials data science and manufacturing.
“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to bring industry’s challenges to the forefront in applying modern data science methods to create new value for global competitiveness, building on Georgia Tech’s related investments over the past four years,” he said.
IDEAS:MD3 will align with the activities of the Materials Accelerator Network (GT lead: McDowell) in connection with the MGI, as well as the South Big Data Regional Innovation Hub (GT lead: Srinivas Aluru). This new hub will also be hosting its own introductory workshop, Thursday, Aug. 25. Read in more detail about the workshop and register here.
IDEAS:MD3 will become an application “spoke” in the Big Data Innovation Hub, while becoming the main national hub for Hierarchical Materials Informatics, establishing Georgia Tech as a leading global authority on effective e-collaboration workflows that will produce the disruptive transformation envisioned by MGI/ICME. In the process, it will create completely new markets for materials data, analytic tools, and knowledge databases with opportunities for incubation of new commercial technologies/products created by GT researchers and their successful translation through various programs offered by GT’s EI2
The launch event will kick off with IMat Executive Director David L. McDowell emphasizing the benefits of this new initiative within the materials and Georgia Tech communities , followed by an overview of and introduction to the IDEAS:MD3 platform by Surya Kalidindi and a MATIN primer by Aleks Blekh, a research scientist with the MINED group and soon-to-be faculty member with ChBE. After lunch, three hands-on demonstration stations will showcase the novel data capture, analytics, and collaboration capabilities offered by the unique material innovation cyber-ecosystem being designed, built, and launched by MD3 for its members. See our draft agenda.
“The demonstrations will provide an opportunity to work with emerging tools in the IDEAS:MD3 ecosystem, showcasing capabilities in data capture and storage, analysis, and e-collaboration,” said Andrew Medford, a postdoctoral researcher with the MINED group. “This will give participants a more concrete idea of the potential impact of data science on the materials and manufacturing sector, and provide a unique chance to interact with the talented students and researchers in this exciting field.”
Visit our web page for more information. Questions regarding IDEAS:MD3 should be directed to Brooke Beckert at brooke.beckert@imat.gatech.edu. If you need additional information regarding the event itself, please contact Cecelia Jones at cecelia.jones@imat.gatech.edu.
]]>
Brooke Beckert: brooke.beckert@imat.gatech.edu
]]>Humanity generates data at a dizzying pace. By 2020, the amount of data created worldwide is expected to hit 44 zettabytes—the equivalent of 40 trillion gigabytes, according to IDC Research.
Yet some computer science researchers wince at the now-popular term “Big Data.” They point out, correctly, that volumes have been getting bigger for decades, as the cost of storage has tumbled, and as the things we produce and consume—documents, media, business applications and even social interactions—have become digital.
And if you thought 300 to 500 million tweets per day or 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube per minute are impressive numbers, hang onto your hat. The tsunami of human-created data will soon be outpaced by a constant stream of data flowing from devices: sensors in smartphones, cars, homes, medical devices and machinery, to name but a few pieces of the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT).
“One thing we’re seeing in several domains, is data spiraling up faster than our ability to analyze it,” says Srinivas Aluru, professor of computational science and engineering, and co-director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Science at Georgia Tech.
]]>
The White House blog post summarizes the event and the accomplishments of the MGI at https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/08/01/materials-genome-initiative-first-five-years.
Underlying the various goals of the MGI is the need to make cross-disciplinary connections to facilitate acceleration of processes underlying all phases from materials discovery to deployment involving stakeholder communities ranging from academia, to government to industry. David McDowell, Executive Director of the Institute for Materials (IMat), was invited to speak as part of the closing panel addressing progress in meeting the MGI strategic goals and defining key gaps in the path forward in future years. IMat’s MGI strategist in data science and informatics, Surya Kalidindi, was also invited to attend.
Dr. McDowell, Carter N. Paden Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing and Regents’ Professor, has been involved in the MGI process since its inception in 2011. Georgia Tech, along with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan, has coordinated both regional and national workshops through a joint networking partnership – the Materials Accelerator Network – to explore how distributed experimental, computational and materials information infrastructure might be networked most efficiently to realize the MGI vision. (Read more about the 2014 workshop.)
MGI was announced by President Barack Obama in June 2011 to accelerate the development and deployment of new materials with the rallying phrase “half the time at half the cost.” MGI has launched a broad discussion among industry, government and university stakeholders regarding the fusion of digital data and data science, computation and experiments necessary to accelerate the discovery, development and insertion of materials.
McDowell’s panel considered such issues as the shift of culture in academic, industry and government that is necessary to address MGI goals, future workforce development, managing and sharing data generated by researchers, and broadening the materials innovation ecosystem to include systems engineering, manufacturing scale-up, and various other disciplines. Other participants in the panel were Greg Olson of QuesTek Innovations LLC, Darrell Schlom of Cornell University and Katherine Stevens of GE Aviation. Linda Sapochak, Director of the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation, served as moderator.
]]>
The Institute also celebrated its leadership in GT’s first ever Ideation Research Project (IRS), as well as the official launch of IDEAS:MD3, a new cyber-ecosystem for materials innovation, and the Materials Characterization Facility.
Among the highlights of year:
A novel 3-D solar cell design is getting first testing in space aboard the International Space Station. An experimental module containing 20 test cells was launched to the ISS on July 18, and will be installed on the exterior of the station to study the cells’ performance and their ability to withstand the rigors of space.
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/light-trapping-3-d-solar-cells-undergo-space-testing
Georgia Tech’s first ever Ideation Research Project (IRP) took place in 2016 with the Institute for Materials partnering with Simmons. Discussions were held regarding the current state of materials and technologies used by the mattress industry, including a healthy conversation around unmet consumer needs and sharing of the future direction of advanced technology development. A multi-disciplined academic team from Georgia Tech worked with a multi-functional team of Simmons leadership from marketing, product development and advanced technology on ways to enhance, optimize and revolutionize the industry. The ideation led to a Master Research Agreement in 2016 and three task orders, plus a fourth joint project with North Carolina State University (NCSU) concerning ThermoFlex Technologies. Kevin Wozniak (GTRC) served as the lead in creating the language, while Jud Ready (GTRI and IMat deputy director) used the concept (IRP model) for the first time with the company. The four areas of collective efforts are: Fabric surface modification to manage moisture evaporation and heat transfer; Sweat monitoring of lactic acid using flexible graphene sensors; eliminating mattress odors with functionalized polymers; and Flexible thin film peltier cooling design (a joint effort with NCSU).
The South Big Data Hub was officially launched in 2016. The organization was funded through the National Science Foundation’s Big Data Science & Engineering Program Awards. The lead team includes Georgia Tech’s Renata Rawlings-Goss, serving as executive director, and Srinivas Alura, principal researcher. The other two members of the team represent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There has remained a large gap in the translation of big data research findings into economic growth and end-user impact. To exploit the full potential of big data, the NSF hubs endeavor to foster innovation through collaboration, diversity, education, and workforce development. IMat’s own Surya Kalidindi, as well as others involved in the expansion of the big data innovation ecosystem, are heavily involved in the organization and look to expand its impact in the Southeast and the expansive materials community. SBDH hosts its first on-campus workshop today (Aug. 25).
https://southbdhub.wordpress.com
The Georgia Tech Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) was officially launched and established as a centralized institution-wide shared resource, combining the capabilities of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, GTRI, IEN and IMat. The MCF, led by Prof. Eric Vogel, brings together several characterization laboratories on campus under a single umbrella to offer shared access to a wide variety of microscopy and analysis tools, as well as skilled research staff. The MCF includes several transmission electron microscopes, numerous scanning electron microscopes and the fully integrated Panalytical XRD system, along with various X’Pert software packages for data analysis. Today, the fully integrated materials characterization facility at Georgia Tech serves more than 100 principal investigators and 400 individual users. More information can be found at mcf.gatech.edu.
MSE Professor Surya Kalidindi had a dream – to build an emergent materials informatics community at Georgia Tech as a national model. Working toward this goal, he believed a series of hackathon type of events (now referred to as data challenges) might be beneficial for building a strong materials informatics community around existing pools of material science, manufacturing science, and data science researchers. It would not only involve Georgia Tech, he thought, but other institutions and organizations as well. The idea dovetailed with another of Kalidindi’s priorities, which was building from the ground up a new cyber-ecosystem for materials innovation —IDEAS:MD3, officially launched in August 2016.
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/building-emergent-materials-informatics-community-gt
The Georgia Institute of Technology signed an agreement with edX, the nonprofit online learning destination, to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) for learners around the world. The first Georgia Tech class, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Accessibility, opened for enrollment in January 2016 and will address the importance of developing an inclusive workplace for employees and customers with disabilities. The Institute AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center is launching the course in partnership with the United Nations Global Initiative on Inclusion. Faculty from the materials community are instructing various courses, including Dave McDowell, Professor and IMat executive director; Carson Meredith, Professor, ChBE; Rick Neu, Professor, ME; and Surya Kalidindi, Professor, ME. Topics include high throughput, material design, materials in manufacturing, among others.
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/gt-partners-edx-offer-online-courses
Two teams working with the guidance of Professor Surya Kalidindi, MGI Strategist for Georgia Tech’s Institute for Materials, were awarded Materials Genome Initiative prizes in the national Materials Science and Engineering Data Challenge sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. National Science Foundation. The top prize of $25,000 was awarded to the team comprising Joshua Gomberg, Ph.D. student in MSE, Andrew Medford, a post doc in ME, and Prof. Kalidindi. The project was titled, “Structure-based Energy Models from Simulated Al Grain Boundary Datasets.”
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/2-gt-teams-awarded-materials-genome-initiative-prizes
A team of Georgia Tech researchers comprised of Satish Kumar, Samuel Graham, and Yogendra Joshi from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering were awarded $590,000 from the Department of Defense (DoD) to acquire state-of-the-art equipment for thermal imaging and semiconductor characterization. This Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) award, supported by Office of Naval Research, will facilitate the acquisition of a thermo-reflectance characterization system, which has the capability of high precision temperature detection and analysis with 250 nm spatial resolution, 100 ns temporal resolution, and temperature resolution of 0.1 °C.
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/woodruff-researchers-receive-durip-award
Andre’ Fedorov, along with team members Jeffrey Fisher, Songkil Kim and Peter Kottke, have demonstrated a new process for rapidly fabricating complex three-dimensional nanostructures from a variety of materials, including metals. The new technique uses nanoelectrospray to provide a continuous supply of liquid precursor, which can include metal ions that are converted to high-purity metal by a focused electron beam. The new process generates structures that would be impossible to make using gas-phase focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) techniques, and allows fabrication at rates up to five orders of magnitude faster than the gas-phase technique. And because it uses standard liquid solvents, the new process could take advantage of a broad range of precursor materials.
Custom design, manufacture, and deployment of new high performance materials for advanced technologies is critically dependent on the availability of invertible, high fidelity, structure-property-processing (SPP) linkages, according to a new book authored by Professor Surya Kalidindi (ME), head of MGI Strategies at IMat. Establishing these linkages presents a major challenge because of the need to cover unimaginably large dimensional spaces. “Hierarchical Materials Informatics” addresses objective, computationally efficient, mining of large ensembles of experimental and modeling datasets to extract this core materials knowledge.
Carbon fibers are stronger and lighter than steel, and composite materials based on carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers are being used in an expanding range of aerospace, automotive, and other applications – including major sections of the Boeing 787 aircraft. It’s widely believed, moreover, that carbon-fiber technology has the potential to produce composites at least 10 times stronger than those in use today. A research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology – headed by Satish Kumar – has developed a novel technique that sets a new milestone for the strength and modulus of carbon fibers.
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/innovative-method-improves-strength-and-modulus-carbon-fibers
Rosario Gerhardt, professor and Goizueta Foundation Faculty Chair, was profiled in “Ceramic and Glass Scientists and Engineers: 100 Inspirational Profiles” by Lynnette Madsen, published by the American Ceramic Society and Wiley Publications. The book profiles women from 29 countries, providing overviews of their successful careers and the challenges they faced. Filled with inspirational stories, the book provides novelty, inspiration, motivation and a bright perspective for the next generation of scientists and engineers seeking exciting and fulfilling careers.
http://www.mse.gatech.edu/content/gerhardt-profiled-newly-published-book
The Student Polymer Network (SPN) experienced continued growth in 2015-16, representing Georgia Tech not only at events in Atlanta, but nationally as well.
http://materials.gatech.edu/news/gtsn-sees-membership-grow-2015-16
The laboratory team of Dr. C.P. Wong and Ph.D. Candidate Liyi Li discovered a chemical process that may make 3D packaging development more productive with lower overall costs. The technique is based on the fundamental physicochemical behavior of semiconductor materials in a simple chemical bath. The team was able to fabricate the high quality vias needed for component communication. The new electronics processing technique, named metal-assisted chemical etching, or MaCE, not only allowed for production at the necessary level of quality, but was also able to be scaled up to process multiple components in a singular batch. The new MaCE process is approximately 2 to 3 times less expensive than the traditional plasma etching technique and can increase manufacturing output by 1-2 orders of magnitude.
]]>In addition to testing the three-dimensional format, the module will also study a low-cost copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (CZTS) solar cell formulation. In all, the module delivered to the ISS contains four types of PV devices: 3-D cells based on conventional cadmium telluride, 3-D cells based on CZTS materials, traditional planar solar cells produced at Georgia Tech, and planar cells based on CZTS.
“We want to see both the light-trapping performance of our 3-D solar cells and how they are going to respond to the harshness of space,” said Jud Ready, a principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and an adjunct professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “We will also measure performance against temperature, because temperature has an influence on the performance of a solar cell.”
Built by coating miniature carbon nanotube “towers” with a photo-absorber that captures sunlight from all angles, the 3-D cells developed by Ready’s lab could boost the amount of power obtained from the small surface areas many spacecraft have. The cells would absorb light from any direction, eliminating the need for mechanical devices to aim PV modules toward the sun.
The PV cell experiment will be installed on the NanoRacks External Platform (NREP), where robustness of the solar cells will be studied under harsh space conditions for six months. The project is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and the Space Station opportunity was provided by NanoRacks via its Space Act Agreement with NASA’s U.S. National Labs.
"The CZTS photovoltaic arrays were built using the readily available elements copper, zinc, tin and sulfur to replace rarer CIGS – copper, indium, gallium and selenium – which are used in similar thin-film solar cells," said Ready. "The CZTS approach produces an efficient photo-absorber using earth-abundant materials that cost around a thousand times less than rare-earth elements like indium, gallium and selenium."
One virtue of CZTS photovoltaic material is its electron band structure, Ready explained. Like CIGS, CZTS is a direct-band-gap material. In semiconductor physics, this means incoming solar photons are able to emit current-producing electrons directly, rather than moving through power-robbing intermediate states as indirect-band-gap materials, like silicon, require.
Moreover, Ready said, direct-band-gap materials have good resistance to the powerful ionizing radiation encountered in space. That's because direct band gaps are larger than indirect band gaps; it's harder for radiation to damage these larger gaps so severely that functionality is seriously impaired.
The 3-D capability could prove especially valuable on the International Space Station, which is exposed daily to 15-16 sunrises and sunsets as it orbits Earth every 92 minutes at 17,150 mph. The 3-D towers can exploit the sun's rays for longer periods than conventional 2-D planar – or flat – designs, which work most efficiently only when the sun is directly overhead.
"With our 3-D design, as the sun's angle increases more surface is exposed and there's a growing chance that photons will enter," Ready said. "Also, 3-D technology provides more opportunity for photons to bounce around between the towers, increasing the likelihood they will be converted to electron hole pairs and produce mobile charge carriers."
As the ISS orbits, the 3-D arrays' performance will be compared to a high-quality commercial 2-D planar cell array installed nearby. If things go as expected, GTRI's cells will provide relatively better performance than the other cells as they move away from high noon. The new CZTS 3-D arrays will also be tested in space against an older 3-D design made by GTRI using cadmium telluride.
One of the GTRI development team’s key achievements to date has been identifying the best ways to manufacture CZTS solar cells. The team has pinpointed techniques for successfully processing the four Earth-abundant elements into an efficient photo absorber.
"In manufacturing you have to heat these elements, and one major issue is that they evaporate at different rates," Ready explained. "Getting them to blend in the desired ratios, so that the stoichiometry is retained and electron levels of the constituent elements match up as they should, has been a challenge."
GTRI's photovoltaic arrays will be encased in Lexan containers aboard the ISS. Lexan, a clear yet strong polymer, produces minimal interference with incoming solar rays but can protect the delicate arrays from astronauts and space debris – and also protect the crew from any pieces of the arrays that might separate.
After the six-month mission, the solar cells will be sent back to Earth via a cargo ship. The research team will assess the cells’ post-mission performance and look for damage from radiation and other space hazards.
"If it can survive in space, which is the harshest of environments from the standpoint of wide temperature swings, radiation and numerous other factors, then we can be confident it will work well down on Earth," Ready said.
Ready’s novel 3-D photovoltaic technology (U.S. Patent # 8,350,146) is licensed for commercial manufacture by Bloo Solar of El Dorado Hills, CA.
]]>The SPN 2015 Poster session showcased over 30 posters from our talented student researchers. Our group also hosted a booth at the Atlanta Science Festival 2016, teaching students of all ages the importance of polymers in our modern society and some ways in which they are used.
In June of 2016, the SPN sent a delegation of 12 graduate students to the National Graduate Research Polymer Conference in Akron, OH where two of our students, Nils Persson and Zhibo Yuan, took first and second place in the poster session.
]]>The top prize of $25,000 in this national competition was awarded to a team comprising Joshua Gomberg, Ph.D. student in MSE, Andrew Medford, a post doc in ME, and Prof. Kalidindi. The team was awarded the prize for their project titled, “Structure-based Energy Models from Simulated Al Grain Boundary Datasets.” The team took data previously documented and reported by M.A. Tschopp, S.P. Coleman, and D.L. McDowell (see Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, 4 (2015) 1-14) provided open access from a NIST Repository, and extracted a practically useful, low computational cost, metamodel to capture the relationship between the atomic structure of grain boundaries and their associated grain boundary energy. Medford will be joining the ChBE School as a faculty member in spring 2017. The team will be present their award-winning work at a special session during Materials Science & Technology 2016, Oct. 24-27 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
One of the runner-up prizes of $5,000 in this national competition was awarded to a team comprising Xinyi Gong, Ph.D. student in MSE, Ahmet Cecen, Ph.D. student in CSE, Evdokia Popova, a post-doc in ME, Kalidindi, and researchers Theron Rodgers and Jonathan Madison from Sandia National Laboratory. The prize was awarded a project undertaken under the recently established GT-SNL Academic Alliance for a project titled, “Extraction of Process-Structure Linkages from Simulated Additive Manufacturing Microstructures Using a Data Science Approach.” The team employed a data science technique to capture and express the correlations between processing conditions and resulting microstructure in low-dimensional, computationally efficient forms that support multiscale materials and process design.
“This would not have happened without the thought leadership and capabilities built by a concerted vision for materials data science and informatics and e-collaboration by the Institute for Materials,” Kalidindi said. “Programs such as FLAMEL and IDEAS:MD3 have emerged and were built to advance Georgia Tech’s capabilities to first-in-class, as evidenced by results of this competition.
The competition focused on seeking novel uses of accessible digital data to advance Materials Science and Engineering knowledge to accelerate the transition to industrial applications. Entries were submitted between July 2015 and March 2016, and the winners were notified in May 2016.
Medford and Gomberg had been working together on methods for analyzing molecular dynamics simulations and grain boundary energies. During that time, Gomberg developed “some really interesting techniques” according to Medford.
“When we learned about the data challenge, we decided to apply these approaches to an open data set to see how they performed. The results turned out great, and I think the strength of the approach is the balance between the simplicity of the techniques and the remarkable accuracy of the predictions,” he said. “This is the perfect type of competition — it incentivizes sharing approaches in this emerging area and helps researchers in the field get some independent feedback on their techniques.”
Sponsors of the prize stated that the challenge stemmed from a determination that materials science and engineering data had not yet been exploited to its full potential because of its complexity and big data attributes. This complexity stands to provide rich insights if the mysteries the data hold can be unraveled.
To advance the goals of the U.S. Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), the AFRL solicited innovative approaches to solve materials science and engineering problems primarily through the analysis of publicly accessible digital data. Areas of particular interest included discovery of new materials to meet an application need, or development of a new model describing processing-structure-property relationships in either a structural (load bearing), functional (electrical, optical or magnetic), or multifunctional material.”
Emphasis was placed on the use of existing and accessible data sources, novelty of the approach, and validation of results. The goal was to leverage advanced computational and data science techniques to solve challenges associated with discovery, development, and production of new materials.
Dr. David McDowell, executive director of Institute for Materials, said the award “bears the fruit of investment in Georgia Tech’s national and international leadership position in materials data science and informatics, a major direction in 21st century materials science.”
He added, “This leadership role in materials data science is a value-added capability developed with IMat support to provide competitive advantages for Tech’s materials research and education. IMat’s strategy, realized through cross-cutting proposal support and research program development, includes seed funding that incorporates these advances in materials data science and informatics into the toolkits of our core research strengths in areas such as materials for catalysis, composite materials, polymers, and potentially many other domains.”
For more about the challenge, visit the official web site. Click here to learn more about the Institute for Materials’ leadership within the Materials Genome Initiative.
]]>Dr. Surya Kalidindi, ME, will teach "Materials Data Sciences and Informatics." This course aims to provide a succinct overview of the emerging discipline of Materials Informatics at the intersection of materials science, computational science, and information science. Attention is drawn to specific opportunities afforded by this new field in accelerating materials development and deployment efforts.
"Introduction to High-Throughput Materials Development" will be presented by Dr. Richard Neu, ME, and Dr. Carson Meredith, ChBE. This course is an introduction to high-throughput experimental methods that accelerate the discovery and development of new materials.
The Georgia Tech Institute for Materials (IMat) developed this course in order to introduce a broad audience to the essential elements of the Materials Genome Initiative. Other courses will be offered by Georgia Tech through Coursera to concentrate on integrating (i) high-throughput experimentation with (ii) modeling and simulation and (iii) materials data sciences and informatics.
Georgia Tech earlier signed an agreement with edX, a nonprofit online learning destination, to offer MOOCs for learners around the world.
Offering courses under the brand GTx, Georgia Tech joins a consortium of edX partners that has instructed more than 6 million learners since its inception. Additional Georgia Tech courses will be announced later in 2016. GTx will also explore credit programs on edX and innovative ways of making traditional GT programs available to more learners.
“The student and classroom of the 21st century continue to evolve,” said Georgia Tech Provost Rafael L. Bras. “Higher education must prepare the learner not just for their first job after graduation, but also for their third or fourth. Our partnership with edX will allow Georgia Tech to reach traditional learners, as well as early and mid career professionals, in new and novel ways, creating lifelong learning opportunities befitting a successful and fulfilling career.”
More than 1 million students have enrolled in Georgia Tech online courses.
McDowell is exectutive director of the Institute for Materials and Regents' Professor and Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing in the School of Mechanical Engineering. Kalidindi is head of MGI Strategies within IMat and a Professor with both schools of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering.
Read the article here.
]]>“Please join me in congratulating these professors on their successful proposals,” Marsolan said. “This work will advance knowledge in core pulp and papermaking processes as well as emerging opportunities for our industry. We welcome companies’ expressions of interest in these projects, and offer opportunities for collaboration and leveraging of this important work.”
This year's winners are:
• Tunable Polymeric Membranes for Energy-Efficient Black Liquor Concentration - Sankar Nair, Meisha Shofner, Scott Sinquefield
• New Functionality via Vapor-Phase Surface Modification of Cellulose - Mark Losego
• Removal of Particulate Contaminants from Process Effluents by "Affinity Flotation" - Sven Behrens, Carson Meredith
• Low-Cost, Large-Scale Manufacturing of Multifuctional Porous Cellulose/Nanoparticle Microspheres for Water Treatment - Zhiqun Lin
• Biorefining: Catalytic Processes for the Production of Value-Added Chemicals from Lignin - Carston Sievers, Andreas Bommarius, Pamela Peralta-Yahya, Matthew Realff, Valerie Thomas
• Rheological Characterizatoin of Nanocellulose for Metrology and Quality Control Research - Victor Breedveld
• Nanocellulose as Reinforcement: An Approach Toward Light-Weighting of Polymer Composites - Kyriaki Kalaitzidou, Karl Jacob
• 3D Printed High-Strength and Lighweight Epoxy/Nanocellulose Composite Products for Automobile and Aerospace Applications - Jerry Qi, Yulin Deng
The annual award process involves a request for proposals from professors, consideration of priorities of RBI member companies and the industry at large, and evaluation by a faculty committee. This year, a particular effort was made to reflect the industry research priorities expressed in Agenda 2020 roadmaps (see www.agenda2020.org). Currently, there are 43 endowment-supported students pursuing graduate degrees at Georgia Tech. Click here for a listing.
For more information about RBI and its research portfolio, please visit the website at RBI at Georgia Tech
]]>The idea dovetailed with another of Kalidindi’s priorities, which was building from the ground up a new cyber-ecosystem for materials innovation —IDEAS:MD3.
IDEAS:MD3 is designed to promote and conduct research, development, and testing in materials data science and informatics that will lead to new and improved methods to accelerate materials design, development, and deployment (MD3) and to disseminate information and knowledge regarding these capabilities through research projects, conferences, workshops and publications. Emphasis is placed on workforce development in materials data science and informatics, and integration within the materials innovation ecosystem.
“We are looking at a three-prong collaboration to prepare for this century’s materials for manufacture — academia, industry and national laboratories,” said Kalidindi. “There is a niche there that we have the unique expertise to fill. We have the awareness of the tools and methods, the ability to integrate data science with computational modeling (high throughput) and managing and tailoring workflows, among other strengths.”
“We see these events as taking our abilities beyond the abstract, the pure idea and into the real world, where we solve challenges and find opportunities that others may not see. We believe this is just the beginning.”
Showcasing capabilities to potential industry partners is a key goal where the emphasis is placed on the value of working with Georgia Tech to prepare the 21st century workforce for accelerated materials design, development and deployment. This includes a vast array of areas including e-collaboration platforms and closer linkage of OEMs and their supply chains to R&D in data science and informatics via data-driven decision support and identifying and organizing important electronic metadata in materials development.
Additionally, building on previous and ongoing fruitful collaboration between GT and ASM International, materials informatics-focused data challenges would be a good opportunity for both GT and ASM to market their expertise and resources. This data challenge revolved around SMDDP – one of ASM’s materials open databases.
Problem formulation and documentation was led by Kalidindi and Professor David L. McDowell, as well as Jud Ready, Brooke Beckert, Andrew Medford, Soumya Mohan and Aleksandr Blekh.
Judges were Larry Berardinis and Afina Lupulescu (ASM) and Beverly Wright (Business Analytics Center at GT Sheller College of Business). Mentors included Andrew Medford, Dipen Patel, Ali Khosravani, Noah Paulson, Fred Hohman, Alicia Rossi and Tony Fast.
The event self-organized into the following teams The Iron Dragons (Axel-Jose Munoz, Christine Palmer and David Freiberg: Drexel University); JAM (Jenna Kwon, Almambet Iskakov, Marie Dekou: Georgia Tech); and The Yellow Jackets (David Montes, Andrew Castillo, Xinyi Gong: Georgia Tech)
Grand Prize Winner for the challenge was The Iron Dragons. Special Mention categories and winners included:
“This event was a true community-building experience, which has sparked many discussions amongst teams, mentors, industry, professional society people alike,” said Blekh, a research scientist with ME and one of two lead organizers of the challenge. “Such events have a significant potential of higher success in context of community building, if streamlined, scaled and expanded to include more people from various universities and organizations.”
Mohan, a ME Postdoctoral Fellow and organizer, added, “We hope events such as this challenge can foster more discussion in regard to the materials informatics field among the students, faculty and industry experts.”
]]>Institute for Materials
Marketing & Communications Manager
]]>The DURIP supports the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that augments current university capabilities, or develops new capabilities to perform cutting edge defense research and associated graduate student research training. The awards are the result of a merit competition jointly conducted by three DoD research offices: the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The DURIP is highly competitive. The three DoD research offices solicit proposals from university investigators conducting science and engineering research of importance to national defense.
The lead investigator of the project, Satish Kumar, said "the acquisitions made by this award in addition to the equipment and facilities currently accessible to the PIs will enable us to measure transport characteristics of a wide variety of electronic devices and energy conversion systemsrelated to photovoltaics, RF electronics, power electronics, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and microprocessors. The measurements coupled with extensive modeling will directly support multiple research programs pursued by the PIs such as the Energy Efficient Outposts Modeling Consortium (EEOMC) by ONR, DARPA Young Investigator Award on GaN based power electronic devices, the Near Junction Thermal Transport and ICE Cool programs by DARPA, and High Reliability Electronics Virtual (HiREV) Center activities supported by AFRL."
]]>The Institute’s College of Engineering ranked No. 7, No. 3 among public universities, and all 11 of the programs within the college are ranked in the top 10, including:
As with the 2016 edition, Georgia Tech appears within the Top 10 of all related engineering specialty rankings. MIT rejoined Georgia Tech for most appearances (11) on the Top 10 engineering specialty rankings, and Stanford joined them with the introduction of a 13th specialty this year - Petroleum Engineering.
The Scheller College of Business full-time MBA program ranked No. 34. In the specialty rankings, Scheller College ranked No. 11 in Information Systems, No. 12 in Production/Operations Management and No. 21 in Supply Chain/Logistics.. The Institute’s part-time MBA program ranked No. 23.
The School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts moved up eight spots and is now ranked 45 overall. In addition, the school was ranked second nationally in the information and technology management specialty, and for the first time, the School landed in the rankings at 22 for the public policy analysis specialty.
]]>Cook will be honored at the AATCC's international conference, April 19-21 in Williamsburg, VA. The medal signifies outstanding achievement in textile chemistry, or in polymer or other fields of chemistry that are of major importance to textile sciences and fibrous materials. This also includes the development of chemical agents or chemical processes used in the manufacture of textiles, fibrous materials, or methods for their evaluation.
The Olney Medal is the Associations’ highest scientific award. It was established in 1944 as a testimonial to Dr. Louis Atwell Olney, founder of AATCC, in recognition of his lifetime of devotion and multitudinous contributions to the field of textile chemistry. This award is given to encourage and afford public recognition of such achievements and contributions.
Dr. Cook's research interests lie in the fields of textile and polymer chemistry. More specifically, areas under investigation include: crown ethers in anionic polymerizations and resin supports, carbon fiber conversion processes, energy-conserving textile chemical processes and polymer syntheses.
He returned to Georgia Tech from the Experimental Station of E.I. DuPont Co., where he served as a polymer research chemist. His studies at Tech blend polymer chemistry with textile chemical and process applications. A member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, the Fiber Society, Dr. Cook has chaired the AATCC National Committee of Conferences, chaired the NTC Operating Board, chaired the Georgia Tech Polymer Program for eight years, President of NCTE, and is a member of Sigma Xi, Delta Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi Professional Fraternities. He is a consulting editor for Textile World Magazine, and he has served as an expert witness in court for Bic Co.
Founded as the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), the Association continues to evolve to meet the needs of those in the ever-changing textile and materials industries. AATCC has served textile professionals since 1921. Today, the Association provides test method development, quality control materials, education, and professional networking for a global audience.
]]>The book profiles women from 29 countries, providing overviews of their successful careers and the challenges they faced. Filled with inspirational stories, the book provides novelty, inspiration, motivation and a bright perspective for the next generation of scientists and engineers seeking exciting and fulfilling careers.
Gerhardt's research focuses on determining structure-property-processing relationships in a wide range of materials. Most recently, her research group has focused on making and characterizing polymer and ceramic composites containing conducting and semiconducting nanofillers and on the synthesis and assembly of nanoparticles into thin films useful for use as transparent electrodes, solar cell components, microwave heatable inserts, conductive paper, etc.. Over the years, she has worked with a variety of ceramic materials such as dielectric insulators, ionic conductors and ceramic superconductors in bulk and thin film form, as well as with intrinsic conducting polymers. Her work also extends onto non-electronics related materials such as fiber and particulate reinforced composites and metallic alloys that are used for wear applications and as components in the hot-sections of gas turbine engines.
Read more about Dr. Gerhardt’s research.
Learn more about the book.
You are requested and encouraged to (1) display your research poster all day Tuesday, April 5th, and (2) to participate in at least one of the two RBI poster sessions on Tuesday, April 5. And, though not required, you are cordially invited to present your poster at both the 11am and 5:30pm poster sessions
Details:
The Renewable Bioproducts Institute will conduct its annual executive conference, “Reimagining Bioproducts Industries: New Ideas—New Opportunities,” hosting industry, government and Georgia Tech guests on April 5-6, 2016. We request our PSE students to display their poster beginning Monday, April 4, and to be present at either or both of the two poster sessions at 11:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5. The sessions are scheduled for 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (including lunch), and 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (followed by dinner). Students will have excellent opportunities to engage with industry participants. The event will be held in the Paper Tricentennial Building, 500 Tenth Street Northwest (at Hemphill). Please visit the RBI website for more about the conference, including the preliminary agenda.
We will organize the posters as our conference is organized, in three focus areas:
Please let us know as soon as possible, and no later than Friday, February 5, via e-mail to Lavon Harper (Lavon.Harper@rbi.gatech.edu), of your intent to participate and at which of the two sessions you will be present. We ask that you commit to at least one. Again, you are welcome and encouraged to be present at both. Provide the title of your poster and the focus area (above) in which it should be grouped. 150-word abstracts and your 75-word bio are due no later than Thursday, March 3. A catalog of abstracts will be prepared and circulated to invited guests so that they can arrive ready to discuss your projects. The Abstract Catalog from the 2015 RBI Executive Conference can be seen at:http://rbi1.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2015%20Executive%20Conference%20-%20Poster%20Abstracts.pdf.
You will mount your posters on Monday, April 4, details to be announced. Posters will be displayed throughout the conference. You may retrieve your poster after dinner on Tuesday evening, April 5.
In the past, our member company representatives have considered the poster session a highlight of our conferences, and several useful collaborations between students and companies have resulted from the occasion. These poster sessions will reflect our expanded RBI and the continuing Paper Science & Engineering (PSE) program.
Please note that a number of students will make PowerPoint presentations as part of the conference program. If you are making one of these presentations, participation in the poster session is optional.
To summarize, please:
Audience:
The audience will be made up of approximately 50 representatives from the chemical, fuel, materials and pulp & paper industries, and from national affiliated organizations and laboratories such as the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, the forest products industry’s Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance, ACS, USDoE, and others.
Abstract Guidelines: (due Thursday, March 3)
Abstracts should be no more than 150 words in length. They should explain the nature of the work and should lead with how your findings might be useful in terms of significance or potential application. The audience will be technically savvy. Please remember that not all individuals present will be experts in your particular field. Keep your explanation clear and simple. Protect intellectual property.
Poster Presentation Guidelines:
Poster Preparation
The poster may consist of images, illustrations, photographs supplemented by charts, descriptive material, technical information/factors, etc. Emphasis should be placed on originality of the content, technical excellence, educational value, and practical application.
Poster Set-Up and Dismantling:
Now Mark Losego of Georgia Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Elizabeth Paisley from Sandia National Laboratories and the team of J.P. Maria from North Carolina State University, have recently reported the development of a new selective area epitaxy (SAE) method for growth of dielectric MgO thin films on gallium nitride (GaN) surfaces using surface chemistry modification.
GaN-based materials are excellent candidates for use in advanced microelectronic devices because of their ability to operate at high frequencies, high powers, and high temperatures. The growth of atomically smooth MgO epitaxial layers onto GaN is one route to forming gate dielectrics for these devices. However the selective growth of oxides on semiconductors is uncommon. “Our demonstration of using MBE [molecular beam epitaxy] to selectively grow MgO on GaN surfaces is one of the few examples of selective area epitaxy of an oxide by physical vapor deposition [PVD],” Losego says.
Selectivity is generally easier to achieve with a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, than with PVD. “The reason for this is the use of elemental precursors in MBE. Atomic precursors ‘stick better’ to the underlying surface than molecular species, so we had to modify the surface chemistry to alter the sticking coefficient,” Losego explains.
Treatment with hydrochloric acid had been previously shown to chlorinate GaN surfaces, but the effect of this surface chlorination on atomic adsorption had not been previously studied. Losego and colleagues found that treating GaN surfaces with hydrochloric acid impeded MgO film growth under certain conditions, and regions of “growth” or “no growth” could be readily patterned on GaN surfaces. A monolayer of Cl adatoms–the only detectable difference in surface structure–was identified as the source for adsorption impediment (a macroscale example of the results of this process are shown in the photograph).
The inset of this figure demonstrates that higher resolution features can also be replicated when photolithography is used to pattern the surface chlorination.
The group’s work is described as “a nice example of scientific creativity” by Raffaella Calarco, senior scientist at Paul Drude Institute for Solid State Electronics in Berlin. Calarco was not involved in the study. “Instead of the most common approach using a hard mask, here a simple change of surface chemistry due to an appropriate Cl-termination is employed,” she says.
Stephen J. Pearton at the University of Florida, who was also not involved in the study, adds: “It is a clever approach that avoids the need for more complex masking steps in order to achieve selective area growth. The next steps forward will need to expand the range of oxides that can be deposited in this fashion.”
According to Losego, the researchers are now exploring extending this understanding of surface chemistry to other materials and to CVD processes.
]]>Founded in 1973, MRS consists of more than 16,000 members from the United States—as well as nearly 80 other countries and emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to materials research, encouraging communication and technical information exchange across various fields of science.
Risteen was one of three students from the Reichmanis Research Group, headed by Brook Byers Professor Elsa Reichmanis, ChBE, presenting posters during the conference.
Her abstract, entitled “Renewable Biomaterials to Encapsulate and Align Synthetic Semiconducting Polymers,” focuses on the challenges in the delivery of semiconducting polymers to the paper substrate when producing flexible electronics. Risteen said she chose to conduct research in the area of organic electronics because she was intrigued by the open-ended challenge of bringing the desirable properties of polymers to conventional silicon-based devices.
“The field requires a certain level of ingenuity to beat out current technology and think of new applications. It is also highly interdisciplinary and involves principles of mass and charge transport, polymer physics, thermodynamics, and organic chemistry, all of which I have taken as part of my Chemical Engineering undergraduate and graduate curriculum,” she said.
“Flexible electronics in particular interested me because they can be used as control and monitoring tools in a variety of crucial industries such as health care, environmental quality, national security, and systems integrity.”
Risteen said during her time as a graduate student she hopes to engineer an improved processing method for polymer-based electronic devices in order to advance technology for these societally beneficial applications.
Read Risteen’s complete abstract here.
]]>The Collaborative Seed Grants in ImmunoEngineering is intended to stimulate new, collaborative research in ImmunoEngineering and to encourage scientists and engineers from diverse fields to come together, ask important questions and solve important and transformative problems related to the immune system.
The goal of Professor Kumar and Professor Yoon’s work is to enhance the survival and function of hPSC-CMs using hybrid biomaterials by modulating the inflammatory response and increasing cell protection. The hybrid biomaterial co-encapsulation system is expected to promote the viability and functionality of hPSC-CMs by modulating inflammatory reactions. They first plan to fabricate and optimize the hybrid material based on the parameters of cell viability and hPSC-CM functionality followed by use of an in vitro inflammation system consisting of U937 monocytes in suspension will to evaluate the immunomodulatory and cytoprotective role of hMSCs in the hybrid biomaterial.
They will also evaluate the efficacy of the hybrid biomaterial co-encapsulation system in a rat MI model considering cell survival, cell engraftment, inflammation, and cardiac performance. The outcomes from these studies are expected to provide insight into the use of hybrid biomaterials and the feasibility of using hMSCs in immunomodulatory cardiac cell therapy.
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La Scala recently visited the Georgia Tech campus at the invitation of Meisha Shofner, associate director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute and associate professor, MSE. His work ties in particularly well to one of the focus areas of RBI — lignin-derived chemicals.
"Efforts to utilize lignin in applications such as carbon fiber production could lead to greater utilization of composite materials in a host of structures, exceeding those accommodated by the current market size,” Shofner said. “Similarly motivated research at RBI and GT is seeking to fill this need in the carbon fiber market."
La Scala’s research has formulated and developed fatty acid-based vinyl ester resins derived from plant oils and successfully demonstrated and validated them on weapons platforms across the DoD. The chemically modified lignin is used to produce lignin-based carbon fiber with the highest reported strength and modulus.
He has also been working on ways to address the toxicity issues associated with bisphenol, a component used in the production of many high performance polymers. Through use of polymers from lignin-derived chemicals, such as guaiacol, and carbohydrate-derived isosorbide and furans, his team has created a number of polymers with properties similar or superior to that of commercial polymers. They’ve also shown that these bio-based chemicals and polymers have reduced toxicity relative to the baseline commercial polymers.
As a result, La Scala said, they are preparing diamines derived from carbohydrates and lignin to reduce the toxicity and improve the sustainability of polyimides and epoxies.
"Replacing or reducing utilization of petroleum-derived chemicals in the production of polymer-based materials and composites is an important goal,” Shofner said. “Though current petroleum pricing reduces some of the motivation to seek bio-based alternatives, these solutions will have to be developed in the future to address supply concerns. Dr. La Scala's work has addressed this need on multiple fronts while seeking to balance performance issues, leading to solutions that can be potentially implemented in the near term."
Dr. John La Scalais a scientist at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and was recently appointed as the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate Associate for Science & Technology. Throughout his career, he has continued his work in bio-based thermosetting resins, where he now has 18 years of experience. Since joining ARL, he has expanded his work to thermosetting resins for adhesives and coatings and environmentally friendly polymers for composites, adhesives, coatings, and engineering applications.
]]>Allen co-authored the manuscript with Professor Surya Kalidindi in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Drs. Konstantin Kornev and Maryana Nave from Clemson University and Yu-chen Karen Chen-Wiegart and Dr. Jun Wang from Brookhaven National Labs.
This project began in the Materials Informatics class taught by Professor Kalidindi in Fall 2015. This class is a part of the core curriculum in the NSF funded IGERT program FLAMEL. In this project Jason Allen provided the data science expertise for analyzing the large x-ray nanotomography datasets produced by materials domain experts at Clemson University and Brookhaven National Labs. In this project, computational approaches were taken not only to validate a hypothesis proposed by the researchers, but also to find new and interesting features of the data sets. “Large data sets are a daunting task for many researchers and by utilizing data science methods we can mold the data into a form that is much more manageable,” says Jason.
“It’s quite impressive this was done within one year,” said Dr. Surya Kalidindi, co-PI of FLAMEL. This provides evidence for the high productivity of e-collaborations through MATIN. And it’s just one example. I am looking forward to many more such success stories as we move forward.”
FLAMEL is a doctoral student training program designed to develop innovations in computing, mathematics, material science, and manufacturing in order to accelerate the creation of new high performance materials for applications. The goal is to develop and employ advances in areas such as machine learning algorithms and modeling and simulation for materials applications in an emerging field known as materials informatics. The program was designed to bring together computing researchers, materials scientists, engineers and mathematicians to quantify the microstructures that comprise materials and develop new algorithms and software for their design.
Scientific Reportsis an online, open access journal from the publishers of Nature. SR publishes scientifically valid primary research from all areas of the natural and clinical sciences. Scientific Reports articles are hosted on nature.com, which receives an average of more than 8 million unique visitors each month. Weekly round-ups of all published papers, and subject-specific e-alerts, brings further attention to papers.
]]>Josh Kacher joins MSE as an assistant professor. Previously a postdoctoral research associate working with Professor Andrew Minor at the University of California, Berkeley, his research interests include multi-scale characterization of materials in extreme environments, failure initiation in fatigue, liquid metal embrittlement, corrosion of structural materials, and in situ electron microscopy. Kacher received his B.S. and M.S. from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Matthew McDowell returns to Georgia Tech as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to this appointment, he was a postdoctoral research scholar at CalTech. His research focuses on materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage, in situ nanoscale characterization of energy materials, phase transformations and reaction mechanisms, batteries, solar fuels devices, mesoscale dynamics, and chemomechanics.
To learn more, visit http://www.mse.gatech.edu.
]]>
TAPPI Journal submission guidelines, including author guidelines and style guidelines, are available on the TAPPI website.
Papers should be submitted for peer review no later than November 4. Please make sure you indicate that the paper is for Dr. Ragauskas’ special issue. The papers should be submitted via email.
]]>A foundation of strong technical presentations combined with targeted networking opportunities allows for an environment of professional growth.
The NET Division Conference Program Committee is currently seeking abstracts for the following topics:
Fiber & Polymer Innovations
• Biobased polymers for nonwovens
• New polymer classes
• Bio component fiber systems
• Novel surface coatings – high performance coatings
• Innovations with synthetic, glass fibers
• Conductive Fibers
Binders & Additives
• Next generation binders
• Bio-renewable binders
• Fire retardant additives
Emerging Technologies
• 3-D printing for nonwovens applications
• Bio-mimetics
• Technical textiles
Fiber & Nonwoven Functionalities
• Highly absorbent materials
• Moisture resistant products
• Mold resistant products
• Oxygen permeable/barrier functionalities
• Acoustic products
• Fire retardant/barrier properties
Fiber Processing
• Advances in web forming technologies
• Advances in thermal, chemical, & mechanical bonding
Converting Technologies
• Hot melt innovations
• Surface activation technologies
• New techniques for improved lamination, curing of functionalized coatings, surface sterilization, polymerization
Filtration
• New product applications for nonwoven filters
• Binder systems for unique filtration applications
Nanotechnology
• Nanofibers in nonwoven products
• Nanofiber processing
• Nano-enabled technologies
Nonwovens Processing
• Lean manufacturing in nonwovens
• Increasing conversion speeds, minimizing setup
• Increasing Reliability & Operational Effectiveness
• Imaging and Detection Systems
Smart Nonwovens
• Techniques for embedding electronics
• Medical Nonwovens
• Applications with sound
• Biosensors
Building Sciences
• New applications/products in building & construction
• Increasing operational efficiency and decreasing environmental impact
Regulatory Issues & Market Trends
• Updates on current legislation
• Impact of upcoming regulatory actions
• LEEDS/Green Building Initiatives
• Sustainable Nonwovens
• Global Market Factors Affecting Nonwovens
Operations Management
• Information Technologies
• Productivity Improvement and Cost Reduction
Authors interested in presenting on these or related topics should submit an abstract electronically to TAPPI's Speaker Management System. Abstract submissions should be 1-2 paragraphs in length and are due on or before November 9, 2015. Accepted abstract authors will be invited to submit their presentation for review by the program committee. Feedback will be provided to presenters through a peer review process, and the presentation in its final format will be due to TAPPI in early April for inclusion in the 2016 conference proceedings.
The 2016 NETInc Conference will be co-located with TAPPI Papercon in Cincinnati,OH USA May 15th-18th. NETInc attendees will be able to take advantage of presentations in other relevant areas, which include coating, papermaking, and tissue manufacturing as well as the overall exhibit featuring over 150 exhibitors.
For more information regarding the NETInc Conference or TAPPI’s Nonwovens Division please contact: Ben Hopper at bhopper@tappi.org or 770-209-7248. For information or assistance with TAPPI’s Speaker Management System and the NETInc Technical Program please contact Ben Hopper at bhopper@tappi.org or 770-209-7248. Visit www.netincevent.org for details.
]]>Establishing these linkages presents a major challenge because of the need to cover unimaginably large dimensional spaces. “Hierarchical Materials Informatics” addresses objective, computationally efficient, mining of large ensembles of experimental and modeling datasets to extract this core materials knowledge. Furthermore, it aims to organize and present this high value knowledge in highly accessible forms to end-users engaged in product design and design for manufacturing efforts.
As such, this emerging field has a pivotal role in realizing the goals outlined in current strategic national initiatives such as the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) and the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP).
“The key to good properties and performance characteristics of most materials lies in tailoring their internal structures, referred to as microstructures,” Kalidindi said. “Although this has been known for some time, there has not been a practical approach to quantifying the connections between the material microstructure and its properties. Materials Informatics presents a rigorous data-driven approach for addressing this challenge.”
Kalidindi said he hopes his book will have a transformative effect on the materials engineering community.
“This book introduces a paradigm in how one might organize materials knowledge in forms that can be readily utilized by product design and advanced manufacturing experts,” he said. “As such it can help establish tightly knit connections between the materials community and the design and manufacturing community.”
Kalidindi has joint appointments in the School of Computational Science and Engineering and in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His research efforts during the past two decades have made seminal contributions to the fields of crystal plasticity, microstructure design, spherical nanoindentation, and materials informatics. His work has already produced about 200 journal articles, four book chapters, and a new book on Microstructure Sensitive Design. He is well cited by peer researchers as reflected by an h-index of 52 and current citation rate of about 1000 citations/year (Google Scholar).
He was recently awarded the Alexander von Humboldt award in recognition of his lifetime achievements in research. He has been elected a Fellow of ASME, ASM International, TMS, and Alpha Sigma Mu.
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Proposals will be reviewed for feasibility, safety, and potential for high-impact science. Users for approved projects must complete access and training requirements prior to beginning experiments. Specific information about this call and about each of the instruments available during this experimental period is included on the ORNL Neutron Sciences web site at http://neutrons.ornl.gov/. To learn more about submitting a proposal for beam time, go to http://neutrons.ornl.gov/users/proposals.shtml or directly to the proposal system at www.ornl.gov/sci/iums/ipts/.
]]>During this second cycle, the U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund will prioritize innovation in manufacturing processes for textiles manufacturing (including weaving, fabric dyeing, and cut-and-sew). Submissions of letters of intent to the U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund are due by August 24, 2015.
More information can also be found on this web page: http://corporate.walmart.com/InnovationFund2015.
]]>The study was organized by The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, and sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Materials Measurement Laboratory.
The study reviews the current state of the art of multiscale materials modeling, presents a detailed reference list of relevant materials modeling software, identifies more than 30 gaps in multiscale modeling and details 16 recommendations that address bridging of materials models across length and time scales.
Modeling Across Scales provides practical, concrete guidance in overcoming the challenge of effectively linking materials models across length and time scales and represents a significant milestone on the pathway to accelerating materials-based technological innovations.
More information regarding the full report is available at www.tms.org/multiscalestudy. For more information regarding TMS activities, please visit http://www.tms.org/TMSHome.aspx.
]]>The honor of Fellow represents recognition of Dr. Garmestani’s distinguished contributions in the field of materials science and engineering, and develops a broadly based forum for technical and professional leaders to serve as advisors to the Society.
The Materials scientist was named "for significant contributions in developing relationships between processing and microstructural control in crystalline materials, leading to materials design methodologies that address texture in a range of materials systems,” according to the citation.
His primary research and teaching interests include microstructure/property relationship in textured polycrystalline materials, composites, superplastic, magnetic and thin film layered structures. He uses phenomenological and statistical mechanics models in a computational framework to investigate microstructure and texture (micro-texture) evolution during processing and predict effective properties (mechanical, transport and magnetic). His present research interests are processing of fuel cell materials and modeling of their transport and mechanical properties.
This honor will be conferred at the October Convocation of Fellows in Columbus, OH. The 2015 Class of Fellows will also be featured in the September issue of ASM News.
ASM International was founded in 1913 as the American Society for Metals. Today, ASM is the world's largest association of metals-centric materials scientists and engineers with over 30,000 members worldwide. ASM is dedicated to informing, educating and connecting the materials community to solve problems and stimulate innovation around the world.
For more information, visit www.asminternational.org.
]]>Risteen is a member of the Reichmanis Research Group and is jointly advised by Elsa Reichmanis and MSE's Paul Russo.
Her presentation was titled "Renewable biomaterials to encapsulate and align synthetic semiconducting polymers." It was co-authored by Cornelia Rosu and Drs. Russo and Reichmanis.
]]>Your smartphone likely uses a dozen or so tiny — yet powerful — MEMS sensors to support its sophisticated functions. And that late-model car undoubtedly carries scores of devices based on MEMS and other sensing technologies.
Typically sized at the micron scale — millionths of a meter — MEMS devices use minuscule moving parts to perform a broad range of sensing tasks. Small as they are, they can detect sound, motion, position, force, pressure, chemicals, bacteria, and numerous other things worth knowing about. Note that these miniaturized sensors don’t always have moving parts, and a broader term — microsystems — is sometimes used rather than MEMS.
At Georgia Tech, more than 20 research teams focus on MEMS-related research and development. Supporting them is the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), one of Georgia Tech’s nine Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. IEN’s extensive shared-user facilities, including advanced labs and cleanrooms, are used by as many as 200 Georgia Tech faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers who work on MEMS and other microsystems.
“More and more, our electronic systems must be aware of and even interact with their environment, and MEMS-based devices do that very well. They are the ear that detects sound and movement, the nose and tongue that detect toxic chemicals or smoke,” said Oliver Brand, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and executive director of IEN. “MEMS is like a sandbox of technologies and processes that lets us miniaturize sensors, and even put several sensing technologies onto a single chip, at low cost. It can enable many innovative applications, and it can also make conventional devices — like smoke or movement detectors — smaller, smarter, and more effective.”
Creating innovative sensors is highly interdisciplinary, Brand noted, requiring the joint efforts of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, chemists, and biochemists — who are, in turn, supported by materials, packaging, and circuit-design experts. In addition, MEMS development is often expensive, demanding advanced facilities with device fabrication and characterization tools.
IEN enables Georgia Tech researchers to address these challenges, Brand said. Its cleanrooms and associated labs, open to Georgia Tech and non-Georgia Tech researchers, make state-of-the-art fabrication and characterization equipment widely available. As a result, most MEMS prototypes under development at Georgia Tech can be built right on campus.
To read the complete story, visit Horizons magazine at http://www.rh.gatech.edu/features/unseen-machines.
]]>The good news is that today’s advanced materials can trap or neutralize these acid gases right in the smokestack, or even capture CO2 straight from the atmosphere. Multiple research teams are working to increase the efficiency of these important materials; the Department of Energy (DOE) is currently funding a number of such projects under its Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) program.
But a key question remains: How do acidic gases affect materials designed to lower their emissions? How durable, for instance, will these advanced materials be when subjected to real-world environments like the hot exhaust flues of a power plant?
“There’s a knowledge gap here — scientists don’t yet understand the fundamentals of how acid gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides interact with important classes of materials,” said Krista Walton, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE). “If you create a new material that separates CO2 with record efficiency in the lab, but it only lasts a few days in an industrial environment, then it’s not a useful advance.”
The DOE recently awarded a four-year $11.2 million grant to Georgia Tech to lead an EFRC that studies materials degradation caused by acid gases. Directed by Walton, the new center involves research teams from six universities and a government laboratory. Collaborating with Georgia Tech are researchers from Lehigh University, University of Alabama, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin, Washington University in St. Louis, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Dubbed the Center for Understanding and Control of Acid Gas-Induced Evolution of Materials for Energy (UNCAGE-ME), the Georgia Tech-led effort is one of 10 new EFRCs recently funded by the DOE.
The seven partners are investigating a range of solid materials — including metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites — that have the ability to trap or chemically alter acid gases via separations/ catalysis techniques. The overall study is divided into several research thrust areas, and the goal in each case is to understand, down to the molecular level, exactly what’s taking place as acid gases interact with a given material.
The EFRC is multifaceted, Walton explained. Unlike many materials efforts that focus on designing a single material for a target application, this center covers numerous materials and employs a wide range of research techniques. Moreover, the research process itself is highly integrated — most of the principal investigators from the seven partner institutions are involved in two or more projects.
The center is tackling four major research thrusts, all concerned with materials relevant to industry. The work focuses on acid-gas interactions with:
“The multiple partner structure of this EFRC fits our culture at Georgia Tech very well, because we’re accustomed to collaborating,” said David Sholl, a ChBE professor who is an EFRC deputy director and leader of the thrust investigating external surfaces of porous materials. “It means we can do things that no individual person can do alone; typically three, four, or even five different research groups are contributing their techniques to each thrust.”
Professor Christopher W. Jones of ChBE is leading the thrust on disordered porous materials, while Professor Sankar Nairof ChBE is leading the ordered porous materials thrust. Assistant Professors Michael Filler and Ryan Lively of ChBE, as well as Professor Thomas Orlando of the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, are also principal investigators in the center. Zili Wu of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is leading the research thrust that is addressing model nonporous oxide-based solids.
To get the complete story, visit http://www.rh.gatech.edu/features/acid-test.
]]>The researchers have so far made nano-necklaces with up to 55 nanodisks. The template-based process grows amphiphilic worm-like diblock copolymers through a living polymerization technique in which the polymeric structures serve as nanoreactors that form laterally connecting nanocrystalline structures based on a variety of precursor materials. The nanodisks average about ten nanometers in diameter and four nanometers in thickness, and are about two nanometers apart.
“Our goal was to develop an unconventional, yet robust, strategy for making a large variety of organic-inorganic hybrid shish kebabs,” said Zhiqun Lin, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This is a general technique for making these unusual structures. Now that we have demonstrated it, we believe there is a nearly endless list of materials we can use to craft these nano-necklaces.”
The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation. The results were published on March 27 in the journal Science Advances, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The one-dimensional nano-necklaces could have optical, electronic, optoelectronic, sensing and magnetic applications. The researchers have so far produced structures from cadmium selenide (CdSe), barium titanate (BaTiO3) and iron oxide (Fe3O4), but believe many other materials – including gold—could also be used.
The technique begins with formation of inclusion complexes made of alpha-cyclodextrins, cyclic oligosaccharides composed of six glucose units. The alpha-cyclodextrins, which are hollow in the center, thread themselves onto a polyethylene glycol (PEG) chain in an established self-assembly process. The polymer backbone on which the alpha-cyclodextrins are threaded is capped by a larger stoppering agent to retain the tiny structures.
Each alpha-cyclodextrin has 18 hydroxyl (OH) groups that can be converted into bromine (Br) groups through an esterification process. Diblock polymer “nanoworm” structures are then grown from these bromine groups in solution. Formed from poly(acrylic acid)-block polystyrene (PAA-b-PS), the worm-like diblock copolymers are made up of inner poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) blocks that are hydrophilic, and outer polystyrene (PS) blocks that are hydrophobic. Because so many diblocks grow on each alpha-cyclodextrin, their crowding stretches the polymer backbone.
Finally, metallic ion precursors are preferentially incorporated into the space occupied by inner PAA blocks of worm-like diblock copolymer nanoreactors, forming crystals. These crystals connect the once separate structures, creating the nano-necklaces – which resemble tiny centipedes.
“We were surprised to see these nano-kebabs grown into a single inorganic structure using the worm-like diblock copolymers as nanoreactors,” said Lin. “Under transmission electron microscope imaging, you see nanodisk-like kebab structures periodically situated on the stretched polymer shish.”
Transmission electron microscope images clearly show the nanodisk-like kebabs because they are made up of materials with high electron densities. However, the connecting PEG shish doesn’t show up because it is a single chain and its electron density is much less.
Formation of the structures was initially surprising to Lin’s research group, which expected to produce structures resembling nanorods or nanowires. But simulations done by team member Yuci Xu at Ningbo University in China confirmed formation of the structures they were observing experimentally. The simulations also allowed prediction of the structural dimensions that would be produced.
“Based on the simulation, we could understand the growth mechanism for this nano-necklace-like structure,” said Lin. “This nano-necklace arrangement is very much captured by the simulation. The simulation and experiments agree well, which increased our confidence that we understand the structures.”
With their growth technique demonstrated, the researchers now want to characterize the tiny structures and establish potential applications. Though these have not yet been studied, Lin believes the structures, which are based on semiconducting materials, could, for instance, have electronic applications, with electrons tunneling through adjacent nanodisks.
“The significance of this approach is that there is no limitation on what materials you can make, and no limitation on the size and shape of the structures you can design,” he said. “There are many potentially advantageous characteristics that may be derived from this nanoreactor approach.”
Other techniques exist to form nano-necklace structures, but none uses a similar template and nanoreactor approach, Lin said.
In future work, Lin’s group plans to examine the properties of the structures they’ve built, test other potential materials, and examine applications that may be appropriate. While the properties of individual nanodisks have been studied before, their collective interactions may provide some potentially unique properties.
“This paper represents an intriguing demonstration of forming hybrid organic-inorganic shish kebabs at the nanometer scale,” said Lin. “We are anxious to learn more about the unique properties that they may have, and explore potential applications.”
In addition to those already mentioned, the authors included Haiping Xia of Xiamen University in China, and Hui Xu, Xinchang Pang, Yanjie He and Jaehan Jung of Georgia Tech.
This research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-13-1-0101 and MURI FA9550-14-1-0037), the Minjiang Scholar Program, the National Science Foundation (ECCS-1305087), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 21490573) and (Grant 21304051), and the China Scholarship Council. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the sponsoring agencies.
CITATION: Hui Xu, et al., “A General Route to Nanocrystal Kebabs Periodically Assembled on Stretched Flexible Polymer Shish,” (Science Advances, 2015).
Story courtesy of Horizons Research News.
]]>The researchers have so far made nano-necklaces with up to 55 nanodisks.
]]>“This intelligent keyboard changes the traditional way in which a keyboard is used for information input,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Every punch of the keys produces a complex electrical signal that can be recorded and analyzed.”
Conventional keyboards record when a keystroke makes a mechanical contact, indicating the press of a specific key. The intelligent keyboard records each letter touched, but also captures information about the amount of force applied to the key and the length of time between one keystroke and the next. Such typing style is unique to individuals, and so could provide a new biometric for securing computers from unauthorized use.
In addition to providing a small electrical current for registering the key presses, the new keyboard could also generate enough electricity to charge a small portable electronic device or power a transmitter to make the keyboard wireless.
An effect known as contact electrification generates current when the user’s fingertips touch a plastic material on which a layer of electrode material has been coated. Voltage is generated through the triboelectric and electrostatic induction effects. Using the triboelectric effect, a small charge can be produced whenever materials are brought into contact and then moved apart.
“Our skin is dielectric and we have electrostatic charges in our fingers,” Wang noted. “Anything we touch can become charged.”
While the self-powered feature could provide a convenience benefit and potentially eliminate the need for batteries in wireless keyboards, Wang believes the major impact of the device may be in helping to secure computers by using individual typing patterns or habits as a biometric.
“This has the potential to be a new means for identifying users,” he said. “With this system, a compromised password would not allow a cyber-criminal onto the computer. The way each person types even a few words is individual and unique.”
To evaluate the authentication potential of the keyboard, the research team asked 104 persons to type the word “touch” four times, and recorded the electrical patterns produced. Using signal analysis techniques, they were able to differentiate individual typing patterns with low error rates, Wang said.
Instead of individual mechanical keys as in traditional keyboards, Wang’s intelligent keyboard is made up of vertically-stacked transparent film materials. Researchers begin with a layer of polyethylene terephthalate between two layers of indium tin oxide (ITO) that form top and bottom electrodes.
Next, a layer of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) is applied onto the ITO surface to serve as an electrification layer that generates triboelectric charges when touched by fingertips. FEP nanowire arrays are formed on the exposed FEP surface through reactive ion etching.
The keyboard’s operation is based on coupling between contact electrification and electrostatic induction, rather than the traditional mechanical switching. When a finger contacts the FEP, charge is transferred at the contact interface, injecting electrons from the skin into the material and creating a positive charge.
When the finger moves away, the negative charges on the FEP side induces positive charges on the top electrode, and equal amounts of negative charges on the bottom electrode.
Consecutive keystrokes produce a periodic electrical field that drives reciprocating flows of electrons between the electrodes. Though eventually dissipating, the charges remain on the FEP surface for an extended period of time.
Wang believes the new smart keyboard will be competitive with existing keyboards, in both cost and durability. The new device is based on inexpensive materials that are widely used in the electronics industry.
As part of the study, his research group evaluated the keyboard under challenging conditions, including application of moisture, dirt and oil. “You could pour coffee on the keyboard, and it would not be damaged,” said Wang. “Because it is based on a sheet of plastic, liquids will not hurt it.”
The research was reported December 30 online in the journal ACS Nano. It was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
In addition to Wang, the research team included first author Jun Chen from Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering; Guang Zhu from the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems; Jin Yang from Chongqing University; Qingshen Jing, Peng Bai, Weiqing Yang, and Yuanjie Su from Georgia Tech; and Xuewei Qi from the University of California, Riverside.
This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under award DE-FG02-07ER46394. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DOE.
CITATION: Jun Chen, et al., “Personalized Keystroke Dynamics for Self-Powered Human-Machine Interfacing,” (ACS Nano 2014). http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn506832w
]]>To fully understand how nanomaterials behave, one must also understand the atomic-scale deformation mechanisms that determine their structure and, therefore, their strength and function.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Drexel University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have engineered a new way to observe and study these mechanisms and, in doing so, have revealed an interesting phenomenon in a well-known material, tungsten. The group is the first to observe atomic-level deformation twinning in body-centered cubic (BCC) tungsten nanocrystals.
The team used high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) and sophisticated computer modeling to make the observation. This work, published March 9 in the journal Nature Materials, represents a milestone in the in-situ study of mechanical behaviors of nanomaterials.
Deformation twinning is a type of deformation that, in conjunction with dislocation slip, allows materials to permanently deform without breaking. In the process of twinning, the crystal reorients, which creates a region in the crystal that is a mirror image of the original crystal. Twinning has been observed in large-scale BCC metals and alloys during deformation. However, whether twinning occurs in BCC nanomaterials or not remained unknown.
“To gain a deep understanding of deformation in BCC nanomaterials, we combined atomic-scale imaging and simulations to show that twinning activities dominated for most loading conditions, due to the lack of other shear deformation mechanisms in nanoscale BCC lattices.” said Scott Mao, a professor in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
The team chose tungsten as a typical BCC crystal. The most familiar application of tungsten is their use as filaments for light bulbs.
The observation of atomic-scale twinning was made inside a TEM. This kind of study has not been possible in the past, due to difficulties of making BCC samples less than 100 nanometers in size, as required by TEM imaging. Jiangwei Wang, a graduate student at University of Pittsburgh, and Mao, the lead author of the paper, developed a clever way of making the BCC tungsten nanowires. Under a TEM, Wang welded together two small pieces of individual nanoscale tungsten crystals to create a wire about 20 nanometers in diameter. This wire was durable enough to stretch and compress while Wang observed the twinning phenomenon in real time using a high-resolution TEM.
To better understand the phenomenon observed by Mao and Wang’s team at the University of Pittsburgh, Christopher Weinberger, an assistant professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, developed computer models that show the mechanical behavior of the tungsten nanostructure – at the atomic level. His modeling allowed the team to see the physical factors at play during twinning. This information will help researchers theorize why it occurs in nanoscale tungsten and plot a course for examining this behavior in other BCC materials.
“We’re trying to see if our atomistic-based model behaves in the same way as the tungsten sample used in the experiments, which can then help to explain the mechanisms that allow it to behave that way,” Weinberger said. “Specifically, we’d like to explain why it exhibits this twinning ability as a nanostructure, but not as a bulk metal.”
In concert with Weinberger’s modeling, Ting Zhu, an associate professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, worked with a graduate student, Zhi Zeng, to conduct advanced computer simulations, using molecular dynamics to study deformation processes in 3-D.
Zhu’s simulation revealed that tungsten’s “smaller is stronger” behavior is not without drawbacks when it comes to application.
“If you reduce the size to the nanometer scale, you can increase strength by several orders or magnitude,” Zhu said. “But the price you pay is a dramatic decrease in the ductility.
We want to increase the strength without compromising the ductility in developing these nanostructured metals and alloys. To reach this objective, we need to understand the controlling deformation mechanisms.”
The twinning mechanism, Mao added, contrasts with the conventional wisdom of dislocation nucleation-controlled plasticity in nanomaterials. The results should motivate further experimental and modeling investigation of deformation mechanisms in nanoscale metals and alloys, ultimately enabling the design of nanostructured materials to fully realize their latent mechanical strength.
"Our discovery of the twinning dominated deformation also opens up possibilities of enhancing ductility by engineering twin structures in nanoscale BCC crystals" Zhu said.
Story courtesy of Horizons research news.
]]>Also in March, Gray was invited to serve as chair of the Panel on Ballistics Science and Engineering at the Army Research Laboratory. During the 2-year term, Gray will work with the National Research Council Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences in Washington, D.C.
Gray, who has a PhD in metallurgical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1985. In the Materials Science in Radiation and Dynamics Extremes group (MST-8), he pursues fundamental and applied research primarily in the elucidation of the structure and property behavior of materials subjected to dynamic and shock-wave deformation.
“Constitutive Response and Modeling of Structural Materials,” in honor or Gray’s 60th birthday, was a forum hosted by TMS for discussing recent investigations concerning structure/property relations within structural materials—the heart of Gray’s work. Primary focus areas included constitutive response/modeling of structural materials; characterization of microstructural, textural, and damage evolution; prediction and simulation of strength and damage evolution; and model validation and experimental support.
The event’s organizers were Ellen Cerreta (MST-8), Eric Brown (Neutron Science & Technology, P-23), Neil Bourne (University of Manchester, United Kingdom), James Williams (The Ohio State University), and Kenneth Vecchio (University of California, San Diego), with sponsorship from the TMS Structural Materials Division and the Mechanical Behavior of Materials Committee.
As the 2010 TMS president, Gray broadened the society’s international reach through conferences with the Brazilian Metallurgical Society and the Canadian Metallurgical Society, helped organize an Energy Materials Blue Ribbon panel to explore how advances in materials science and engineering could contribute to an energy-efficient and low-carbon economy, and spearheaded a study on volunteerism, one of his personal passions. He has served on TMS programming, titanium, and mechanical behavior committees, and on its board of directors—as Structural Materials Division chair and director of publications; and has received the Structural Materials Division’s Distinguished Scientist/Engineer Award. He is a Fellow of TMS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the American Physical Society, and ASM International.
]]>Ali P. Gordon earned a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 2006. He now serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at the University of Central Florida.
His principal research activities are focused on the development of continuum-level models to predict behavior and life of materials subjected to complex operating conditions. This research is particularly useful for structural integrity engineers seeking to develop service intervals for components subjected to extreme combined environments. In the classroom, his primary responsibilities are to instruct graduate and undergraduate curricula related to analytical and experimental mechanics of materials. Ali is an active member of ASME.
The webinar will discuss ways to improve undergraduate instruction in materials science principles such as tensile strength, fatigue and fracture mechanic.
A live Q&A will follow. For more information, visit https://asminternational.webex.com.
ASM International was founded in 1913 as the American Society for Metals. Today, ASM is the world's largest association of metals-centric materials scientists and engineers with over 30,000 members worldwide. ASM is dedicated to informing, educating and connecting the materials community to solve problems and stimulate innovation around the world.
]]>Professor Wang has made original and innovative contributions to the synthesis, discovery, characterization, and understanding of fundamental physical properties of oxide nanobelts and nanowires, as well as applications of nanowires in energy sciences, electronics, optoelectronics, and biological science. He is a leading figure in ZnO nanostructure research. His discovery and breakthroughs in developing nanogenerators established the principle and technological road map for harvesting mechanical energy from environmental and biological systems for powering personal electronics. His research on self-powered nanosystems has inspired the worldwide effort in academia and industry for studying energy for micro-nano-systems, which is now a distinct discipline in energy research and future sensor networks. He coined and pioneered the field of piezotronics and piezo-phototronics by introducing piezoelectric potential gated charge transport process in fabricating new electronic and optoelectronic devices. This historical breakthrough by redesigning the CMOS transistor has important applications in smart MEMS/NEMS, nanorobotics, human-electronics interface, and sensors.
He has authored and co-authored 6 scientific reference and textbooks and over 950 peer-reviewed journal articles (16 in Nature and Science, 8 in Nature sister journals), 45 review papers and book chapters, edited and co-edited 14 volumes of books on nanotechnology, and holds over 100 US and foreign patents. Professor Wang is among the world’s top 5 most cites authors in nanotechnology.
The WTN is a curated membership community comprised of the world’s most innovative individuals and organizations in science, technology, and related fields. The WTN and its members – those creating the 21st century – are focused on exploring what is imminent, possible, and important around emerging technologies.
The World Technology Awards are presented in 20 categories for “innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance” to humanity. Award winners are nominated and selected by a peer-reviewed process.
To learn more about Professor Wang’s research visit http://www.nanoscience.gatech.edu
]]>]]>
The NAE is launching another video contest, E4U2, which highlights how engineering will create a more sustainable, healthy, secure and joyous world by addressing the 14 NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering.
All it takes is a camera, phone, or tablet, and a little creativity to enter a 2-minute video in the contest! The grand prize is $25,000.
For more information, visit www.nae.edu/e4u2/.
]]>“The overall goal of our EFRC is to provide a fundamental understanding of acid gas interactions with a broad class of materials and establish strategies for extending material stability and lifetime,” Walton said. “These results will ultimately enable us to accelerate materials discovery for large-scale energy applications.
Five other ChBE professors — Christopher Jones, Michael Filler, Ryan Lively, Sankar Nair and David Sholl, and Thomas Orlando, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry — also will serve as principal investigators at the center. The center will involve work at six partner institutions: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tenn.; the Department of Energy’s largest multiprogram science and energy laboratory), the University of Florida, the University of Alabama, the University of Wisconsin, Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Pa.) and Washington University in St. Louis.
“Our multifaceted approach to this important problem is unique, and one of our proposal reviewers even pointed out that this will be the first research center in the world specifically dedicated to this topic, said Walton.”
The research center’s start date is Aug. 1. The awards announced on June 18 are the second round of funding for EFRCs. The 32 projects receiving funding were competitively selected from more than 200 proposals.
For more information about the EFRC program, click here.
]]>“Georgia Tech has a long-standing reputation for excellence in materials science and engineering,” said Materials Science and Engineering School Chair Dr. Naresh Thadhani. “Dr. Liu’s ARPA-E project presents an exciting opportunity for our program to have an even broader impact in solving challenges of great societal importance.”
Fuel cells convert the chemical energy of a fuel source into electrical energy and are optimal for distributed power generation systems, which generate power close to where it is used. Though fuel cells have been viewed as a potential eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, durability, performance, and cost have been barriers to widespread commercial use of fuel cells. Over the last decade, research advances have improved many of the materials and engineering challenges contributing to fuel cells’ cost and performance issues. But these research efforts have been primarily focused on exploring technologies that either operate at high temperatures (600°C or higher) for grid-scale applications or low temperatures (180°C) for vehicle technologies.
Liu’s project will focus on developing fuel cell devices that operate in an intermediate temperature range (200-500°C). The fuel cells will directly process methane and will use nanocomposite electrolytes that enable the fuel cells to operate at lower temperatures and utilize lower-cost materials to produce, store, and distribute power. Designed for household application, the fuel cells offer a viable low-cost, high-performance solution for mass distributed power generation and storage.
“Methane fuel cells are particularly well-suited for household use because homes are already equipped to run on natural gas,” said Liu. “The fuel cell would just replace the water heater or furnace and enable families to power their homes without connecting to the grid, which offers a cleaner, more efficient energy option.”
Tim Lieuwen, director of the Strategic Energy Institute, said distributed power generation solutions such as Liu’s offer great promise in mitigating many of the challenges associated centralized generation.
“In our current centralized approach, electricity is primarily produced at large generation facilities and often require long transmission distances that can result in power losses and leave lines vulnerable to disruption during inclement weather or natural disasters,” said Lieuwen.
Liu is also a collaborator on another ARPA-E fuel cell project with The University of California – Los Angeles.
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Before joining Georgia Tech, Kelly worked as an independent consultant managing her own firm, Smith Creative Services, based in the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. metro area.
Prior to forming Smith Creative Services, she was a founding partner of Ad Astra, LLC, a full service marketing, communications and public relations boutique firm. She gained global experience in the communications field while employed with Veolia Transportation, a private multi-model transportation company headquartered in Paris, France, where she served as Director of Communications for its North American operations, based in Chicago, IL.
]]>The workshop was presented by the Materials Accelerator Network, which includes Georgia Tech Institute for Materials, University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan.
The goal of the workshop was to highlight innovative applications of informatics in materials science and to engage both materials and data scientists in a more integrated community. The workshop was focused on being a “brainstorming session” with a small number of speakers and plenty of discussion, attempting to yield both novel ideas and cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Representatives from Georgia Tech included David McDowell, IMat executive director; Surya Kalidindi, Professor, Director of Materials Informatics for Engineering Design Group; and Martha Grover, Associate Professor, ChBE.
“We are in a materials data revolution that is opening unprecedented opportunities for materials informatics,” said Dane Morgan, professor, materials science and engineering at the UWM. “There are so many areas in our community that have a stake in this research – computer science, statistics, mathematics, chemometrics, bioinformatics—all with the focus of expediting the full value of current and future materials data.”
The workshop highlighted new applications of informatics in materials science and attendees discussed current trends, including high-throughput computation and experiment, massive increases in the scale of data generated in many experiments (e.g., tomographic methods), government mandated sharing of public data, transformative commitments to online accessible data (e.g., the Materials Project and the Materials Data Facility), and funding support such as the Materials Genome Initiative are creating a data explosion.
To view presentations featured during the two-day workshop, click here.
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The workshop was presented by the Materials Accelerator Network, which includes Georgia Tech Institute for Materials, University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan.
]]>The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a new public-private partnership with the National Football League (NFL), GE and Under Armour to launch an open innovation prize in search of advanced materials with enhanced energy absorption or dissipation properties. The hope is to find new materials that will improve the performance of protective equipment not only for athletes, but also military personnel, first responders and others who face brain and bodily injury from impact events.
The Head Health Challenge III sponsors have committed $2 million in total prizes for Challenge III participants who propose and provide the best performing materials. A unique component of the competition is that participants will be invited to submit materials samples for impact testing by NIST. The Georgia Tech team was recently selected in Challenge II.
The challenge has a mission to draw the best ideas and innovation from across the materials development spectrum. While applications are expected from sports medicine and protective equipment manufacturers and researchers, organizers say they hope to get innovative materials from aerospace, automotive, nanomaterials, biomaterials, packaging and other technology sectors.
Visit http://www.headhealthchallenge.com or https://ninesights.ninesigma.com/web/head-health to learn more about Challenge III, eligibility and entry procedures. Entry requires a short abstract describing the material. The deadline for abstract submission is March 13.
]]>The Head Health Challenge III sponsors have committed $2 million in total prizes for Challenge III participants who propose and provide the best performing materials. A unique component of the competition is that participants will be invited to submit materials samples for impact testing by NIST. The Georgia Tech team was recently selected in Challenge II.
]]>Surya Kalidindi, Materials Science professor, and W. Jud Ready, principal research engineer, both received top honors for their contributions in areas of materials science.
Receiving the 2015 TMS Fellow award, Dr. Kalidindi was cited for his “plasticity and microstructure design, and leadership in materials education.”
In receiving the award, Dr. Kalidindi thanked TMS and its many resources, which have been critical in his professional growth. “I have relied heavily on TMS to be my central resource for my materials education throughout my career. The conferences, journals, committees, and various other activities of TMS have given me many opportunities for my career growth. I am, and will remain, most proud of this award.”
Receiving the 2015 Brimacombe Medal, Ready was cited for contributions in electronics reliability, applied nanotechnology research and service to TMS. Ready also recognized TMS for its part in fostering his career.
“I joined TMS as a student in 1992, and cannot imagine how my career would have evolved (professional/peer-reviewed journals) to the intangible (networking/friendships), with numerous more examples of each and everything in between. Thank you, TMS, for aiding and improving my career.”
The professional awards and honors that TMS confers at every annual meeting represent much more than recognizing individual excellence. They also provide an opportunity to celebrate the many contributions that the minerals, metals, and materials professions have made to advancing society and improving quality of life. The luncheons and special lectures that feature many of the awards at the annual meeting present exceptional opportunities to interact with and learn from honorees at the height of their careers.
To view the full awards program, click here.
]]>Surya Kalidindi, Materials Science professor, and W. Jud Ready, principal research engineer, both received top honors for their contributions in areas of materials science.
]]>Dr. Marder is the Georgia Power Chair in Energy Efficiency and a Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and Professor Materials Science and Engineering (courtesy) at Georgia Tech.
Dr. Marder was chosen from a large group of extraordinary nominees “for establishing fundamental relationships between the chemical structure of organic molecules and their optical and electronic properties thereby profoundly impacting how the scientific community designs optimized molecular structures for use in nonlinear optical applications.” Dr. Marder working with many colleagues, most notably Drs. Joseph Perry, and Jean-Luc Brédas provided both theoretical and experimental guidelines for the development of materials for second-order and third-order nonlinear optical materials which find applications in areas ranging from high speed signal processing to 3D micro- and nano-fabrication. His work thus far has results in over 30 issued patents, many of which have been licensed.
The award consists of an engraved trophy and a cash prize. These will be presented at the 2015 MRS Spring Meeting, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. in San Francisco. Dr. Marder will also present a talk during the meeting on April 8.
He holds or has held the following leadership roles: Founding Director of Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics, Director AFOSR- Center for Organic Materials for All-Optical Switching (COMAS), Co-Director NSF-GT Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Associate Director- DOE Energy Frontier Research Center: CISSEM
Dr. Marder’s research interests include Organic Materials, Optical Materials, Electronics Materials and Surface Modification. However he is equally committed to his educational and diversity related activities at the Georgia Institute of Technology and around the US and the world.
His journal editorships include Materials Horizons – Founding Chair Editorial Board; Journal of Materials Chemistry – Member, Editorial Advisory Board;
Chemistry of Materials – Member, Editorial Advisory Board; and, Nonlinear Optics, Quantum Optics – Member, Editorial Advisory Board.
The Materials Research Society (MRS) was established in 1973 by a visionary group of scientists who shared the belief that their professional interests were broader in scope than existing single-discipline societies and that a new interdisciplinary organization was needed.
Today MRS is a growing, vibrant member-driven organization of over 16,000 materials researchers from academia, industry and government, and is a recognized leader in the advancement of interdisciplinary materials research. Headquartered in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, (USA), MRS membership now spans over 80 countries.
]]>Dr. Marder is the Georgia Power Chair in Energy Efficiency and a Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and Professor Materials Science and Engineering (courtesy) at Georgia Tech.
The award will be presented at the 2015 MRS Spring Meeting, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. in San Francisco.
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