From fighter jets to medical devices, today’s most advanced machines depend on parts as intricate as their missions. These components aren’t just geometrically complex — they’re made from specialized metals engineered to withstand extreme heat, friction, and wear. But that strength comes with a challenge. How do you shape metals tough enough to survive the heat of a jet engine? 

The event marks the culmination of the semester-long I2P course, where undergraduate students develop functional prototypes aimed at solving real-world problems. Prototypes this semester include a smart military drone, a gentler device for cervical cancer screening, a rotating espresso station, tools to keep AI safe, compact data centers, systems that simulate cyberattacks to help companies strengthen their defenses, and many more. 

The showcase is free and open to students, faculty, staff, and members of the local community. 

Winning teams will receive prizes and a “golden ticket” into CREATE-X’s Startup Launch, a summer accelerator that provides optional seed funding, accounting and legal service credits, mentorship, and more to help students turn their prototypes into viable startups.

This is a free event, and refreshments will be provided. Register for the Fall 2025 I2P Showcase today!

Georgia Tech roboticists are attempting to identify the most stressful periods that human teleoperators experience while performing tasks remotely. A novel study provides new insights into determining when a teleoperator needs to operate at a high level of focus and which parts of the task can be delegated to robot automation.

School of Interactive Computing Associate Professor Matthew Gombolay calls it the “sweet spot” of human ingenuity and robotic precision. Gombolay and students from his CORE Robotics Labconducted a novel study that measures stress and workload on human teleoperators.

Gombolay said it can inform military officials on how to strategically implement task automation and maximize human teleoperator performance.

Humans continue to hand over more tasks to robots to perform, but Gombolay said that some functions will still require human input and oversight for the foreseeable future.

Specific applications, such as space exploration, commercial and military aviation, disaster relief, and search and rescue, pose substantial safety concerns. Astronauts stationed on the International Space Station, for example, manually control robots that bring in supplies, move cargo, and make structural repairs.

“It’s brutal from a psychological perspective,” Gombolay said.

The question often asked about automating a task in these fields is, at what point can a robot be trusted more than a human?

A recent paper by Gombolay and his current and former students — Sam Yi Ting, Erin Hedlund-Botti, and Manisha Natarajan — sheds new light on the debate. The paper was published in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta.

The NASA-funded study can identify which aspects of tedious, time-consuming tasks can be automated and which require human supervision. If roboticists can pinpoint the elements of a task that cause the least stress, they can automate these components and enable humans to oversee the more challenging aspects.

“If we’re talking about repetitive tasks, robots do better with that, so if you can automate it, you should,” said Ting, a former grad student and lead author of the paper. “I don’t think humans enjoy doing repetitive tasks. We can move toward a better future with automation.”

Military officials, for example, could measure the stress of remote drone pilots and know which times during a pilot’s shift require the highest level of attention.

“We can get a sense of how stressed you are and create models of how divided your attention is and the performance rate of the tasks you’re doing,” Gombolay said.

“It can be a low-stress or high-stress situation depending on the stakes and what’s going on with you personally. Are you well-caffeinated? Well-rested? Is there stress from home you’re bringing with you to the workplace? The goal is to predict how good your task performance will be. If it indicates it might be poor, we may need to outsource work to other people or create a safe space for the operator to destress.”

The Stress Test

For their study, the researchers cut a small river-shaped path into a medium-density fiberboard. The exercise required the 24 participants to use a remote robotic arm to navigate through the path from one end to the other without touching the edges.

The experiment grew more challenging as new stress conditions and workload requirements were introduced. The changing conditions required the test participants to multitask to complete the assignment.

Gombolay said the study supports the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that moderate levels of stress increase human performance.

The experiment showed that operators felt overwhelmed and performed poorly when multitasking was introduced. Too much stress led to poor performance, but a moderate amount of stress induced more engagement and enhanced teleoperator focus. 

Ting said finding that ideal stress zone can lead to a higher performance rating. 

“You would think the more stressed you are, the more your performance decreases,” Ting said. “Most people didn’t react that way. As stress increased, performance increased, but when you increased workload and gave them more to do, that’s when you started seeing deteriorating performance.”

Gombolay said no stress can be just as detrimental as too much stress. Performing a task without stress tends to cause teleoperators to become disinterested, especially if it is repetitive and time-consuming.

“No stress led to complacency,” Gombolay said. “They weren’t as engaged in completing the task.

“If your excitement is too low, you get so bored you can’t muster the cognitive energy to reason about robot operation problems.”

The Human Factor

Roboticists have made significant leaps in recent years to remove teleoperators from the equation. Still, Gombolay said it’s too early to tell whether robots can be trusted with any task that a human can perform.

“We’re a long way from full autonomy,” he said. “There’s a lot that robots still can’t do without a human operator. Search and rescue operations, if a building collapses, we don’t have much training data for robots to go through rubble by themselves to rescue people. There are ethical needs for humans to be able to supervise or take direct control of robots.”

The project was part of Computer Science Junior Design Capstone Expo, where students collaborate in teams to build functional software solutions for real-world clients. For team members Jonathan Collins, Joel Cave, Srithan Nalluri, Mark Podrazhansky, and Caden Virant, that client was the U.S. Army. School of Computing Instruction Lecturer Aibek Musaev led their Junior Design section.

“The Army spends a significant amount of time maintaining, documenting, and repairing equipment that allows them to complete their mission,” said Collins, a U.S. Army veteran. “Our system essentially took the current maintenance process and converted it from an entirely paper-based process to a completely digital one.”

The team built a streamlined web application utilizing a set of modern tools that enhance data management, create a user-friendly interface, and ensure seamless operations. The new system improves accountability and visibility across Army maintenance operations by digitizing the intake and tracking processes. It eliminates the risk of lost paperwork and makes it easier for personnel to stay updated on equipment status and repair needs.

2nd Lt. Noah Parsons, the Army’s point of contact for the project, was impressed with both the product and the team’s professionalism.

“Georgia Tech students have completed the intake system to perfection,” Parsons said. “They performed exceptionally and professionally. I cannot stress how great of a job they have done for their class and for the Army as well. Our company intends to start using the intake system as early as next month.”

For Collins, who served four years in the Army before enrolling at Georgia Tech, the experience was meaningful.

“A large part of my role in the Army involved the very maintenance processes we’ve been working to improve,” he said. “I can’t even count how many hours my coworkers and I spent with the current system. Now, being able to use this new chapter of my life to make meaningful improvements feels incredibly rewarding.”

Collins also took the lead in communicating with the military client, helping the team navigate strict requirements and non-negotiable specifications.

With this system, the Army decided what they wanted, and the team was tasked with delivering exactly that with no variation.

The project taught the team critical lessons about ownership, communication, and collaboration under pressure.

“Communication with the client is the absolute most important thing,” Collins said. “You could have the best programmers in the world, but it won’t matter if you can’t deliver the product the client wants. Meeting often and getting consistent feedback was key.”

The Army plans to begin using the system as early as June, bringing the students’ work full circle and marking a meaningful contribution to real-world military operations.

Wang is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The award recognizes Wang for his lifelong work on democratizing human-centered AI.

“Throughout my Ph.D. and industry internships, I observed a gap in existing research: there is a strong need for practical tools for applying human-centered approaches when designing AI systems,” said Wang, now a safety researcher at OpenAI.

“My work not only helps people understand AI and guide its behavior but also provides user-friendly tools that fit into existing workflows.”

[Related: Georgia Tech College of Computing Swarms to Yokohama, Japan, for CHI 2025]

Wang’s dissertation presented techniques in visual explanation and interactive guidance to align AI models with user knowledge and values. The work culminated from years of research, fellowship support, and internships.

Wang’s most influential projects formed the core of his dissertation. These included:

• CNN Explainer: an open-source tool developed for deep-learning beginners. Since its release in July 2020, more than 436,000 global visitors have used the tool.
• DiffusionDB: a first-of-its-kind large-scale dataset that lays a foundation to help people better understand generative AI. This work could lead to new research in detecting deepfakes and designing human-AI interaction tools to help people more easily use these models.
• GAM Changer: an interface that empowers users in healthcare, finance, or other domains to edit ML models to include knowledge and values specific to their domain, which improves reliability.
• GAM Coach: an interactive ML tool that could help people who have been rejected for a loan by automatically letting an applicant know what is needed for them to receive loan approval.
• Farsight: a tool that alerts developers when they write prompts in large language models that could be harmful and misused.  

“I feel extremely honored and lucky to receive this award, and I am deeply grateful to many who have supported me along the way, including Polo, mentors, collaborators, and friends,” said Wang, who was advised by School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) Professor Polo Chau.

“This recognition also inspired me to continue striving to design and develop easy-to-use tools that help everyone to easily interact with AI systems.”

Like Wang, Chau advised Georgia Tech alumnus Fred Hohman (Ph.D. CSE 2020). Hohman won the ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2022.

Chau’s group synthesizes machine learning (ML) and visualization techniques into scalable, interactive, and trustworthy tools. These tools increase understanding and interaction with large-scale data and ML models. 

Chau is the associate director of corporate relations for the Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech. Wang called the School of CSE his home unit while a student in the ML program under Chau.

Wang is one of five recipients of this year’s award to be presented at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025). The conference occurs April 25-May 1 in Yokohama, Japan. 

SIGCHI is the world’s largest association of human-computer interaction professionals and practitioners. The group sponsors or co-sponsors 26 conferences, including CHI.

Wang’s outstanding dissertation award is the latest recognition of a career decorated with achievement.

Months after graduating from Georgia Tech, Forbes named Wang to its 30 Under 30 in Science for 2025 for his dissertation. Wang was one of 15 Yellow Jackets included in nine different 30 Under 30 lists and the only Georgia Tech-affiliated individual on the 30 Under 30 in Science list.

While a Georgia Tech student, Wang earned recognition from big names in business and technology. He received the Apple Scholars in AI/ML Ph.D. Fellowship in 2023 and was in the 2022 cohort of the J.P. Morgan AI Ph.D. Fellowships Program.

Along with the CHI award, Wang’s dissertation earned him awards this year at banquets across campus. The Georgia Tech chapter of Sigma Xi presented Wang with the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. He also received the College of Computing’s Outstanding Dissertation Award.

“Georgia Tech attracts many great minds, and I’m glad that some, like Jay, chose to join our group,” Chau said. “It has been a joy to work alongside them and witness the many wonderful things they have accomplished, and with many more to come in their careers.”

Shandler’s latest study looks at the effect this uncertainty has on public opinion after a cyber incident.

“When faced with the unknown, people conjure visions of doom, where one bad guy in his mom’s basement clicks a button and takes over the world.”

According to Shandler, even a minor cyberattack can generate the kind of fear that “changes world views or causes people to vote a certain way, sacrificing their civil liberties for security and surveillance, regardless of how intrusive.” By way of example, Shandler refers to a digital mishap hyperbolically reported as a major cyberattack on a Florida water plant that actually resulted from an employee mistake.

“These reactions from the general public, even when they don’t know who is behind an attack, can have strong political and societal consequences,” he said.

Shifting the Focus

Sometimes he refers to this uncertainty as “a shadow of ambiguity.” Shandler and his collaborators have added a new element to the body of cyber-conflict literature, most of which deals with ambiguity from an operational or strategic perspective. His team has written an article for a special issue of the Journal of Peace Research that focuses on the uncertainty surrounding cybersecurity incidents. Shandler also co-edited the issue.

The researchers surveyed 2,025 participants, who were asked to evaluate potential cyber threat scenarios and decide on various retaliatory measures.

A typical question presented two scenarios positing a cyberattack on the U.S. In one, intelligence sources might be 70% certain that China was the perpetrator; in the other, intelligence might be 40% certain it was caused by the United Kingdom. Other options in the scenario included the proposed means of retaliation and the chance of conflict escalation. Participants were asked which strategic course they preferred — whether to retaliate and, if so, against whom.

“As the government’s certainty percentage goes down, the level of support for retaliation goes down, which is unsurprising,” said Shandler, whose collaborators on the study were Nathaniel Porter of Virginia Tech and Eric Jardine of cybersecurity firm Chainalysis. “But when we dig a little deeper, we can see that it depends on who the other country is. If we’re 50% sure China is behind it, we tend to lean more toward retaliation than if we’re 50% sure that England is behind it.”

Mental Shortcuts

Faced with the complexities of cyberspace and the potential threats inhabiting it, most people will fall back on mental shortcuts when forced to decide in the face of uncertainty, the researchers assert. As such, perceptions of countries as adversaries or allies play a role in decision-making.

Political partisanship also played a role in how people responded to the scenarios. For Republicans, the perception of another country as an ally or rival mattered more than it did for Democrats. This also wasn’t particularly astonishing to the researchers.

“We didn’t want to guess — we wanted to find out how people react when faced with the ambiguity of a cyberattack,” Shandler said. He and his colleagues hoped to identify what they called a “certainty threshold.”

That is, they wanted to answer a basic question: How sure do authorities need to be about the perpetrator to gain public support for economic, diplomatic, or military responses?  After gathering and crunching the numbers, the researchers put the threshold at 60% certainty, though it shifts depending on the identity of the presumed attacker.

Shandler’s colleagues in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy are mostly computer scientists who work in bits, bytes, and rational logic — everything is mapped out and orderly, unlike human beings, who aren’t logical or rational.

“People are not computer code. We’re messy, emotional, and use mental shortcuts to make decisions,” Shandler said. “So, we thought a human analysis of the uncertainty that is so much a part of cyberspace would be a good idea.”

Ultimately, Shandler hopes his research will force policymakers and national security officials to pay more attention to the way the public experiences cyber threats, because voters won’t write a blank check and support retaliation in response to every attack.

“When states volley cyberattacks back and forth, the public gets caught in the crossfire, and they need to be a stakeholder in decisions about how to react,” he said.

Authorities should be more open with the public, he added. That would go a long way toward demystifying cyberattacks and avoiding the potential of a mass panic.

“In my experience, mystifying the situation is how we get to the theories of cyber doom and Armageddon and Mission Impossible and the robots coming to get us,” Shandler said. “I think what people are imagining is much worse than the reality. It’s the lack of information that scares them.”

CITATION: Eric Jardine, Nathaniel Porter, Ryan Shandler. "Cyberattacks and public opinion – The effect of uncertainty in guiding preferences," Journal of Peace Research. doi.org/10.1177/0022343323121

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is addressing this challenge by developing a Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) platform that standardizes the development and testing of artificial intelligence (AI) and ML models to enhance the speed and efficiency with which these models are utilized during real-time decision-making situations.   

“It’s been difficult for organizations to transition these models from a research environment and turn them into fully-functional products that can be used in real-time,” said Austin Ruth, a GTRI research engineer who is leading this project. “Our goal is to bring AI/ML to the tactical edge where it could be used during active threat situations to heighten the survivability of our warfighters.” 

Rather than treating ML development in isolation, GTRI’s MLOps platform would bridge the gap between data scientists and field operations so that organizations can oversee the entire lifecycle of ML projects from development to deployment at the tactical edge. 

The tactical edge refers to the immediate operational space where decisions are made and actions take place. Bringing AI and ML capabilities closer to the point of action would enhance the speed, efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making processes and contribute to more agile and adaptive responses to threats. 

“We want to develop a system where fighter jets or warships don’t have to do any data transfers but could train and label the data right where they are and have the AI/ML models improve in real-time as they’re actively going up against threats,” said Ruth.   

For example, a model could monitor a plane’s altitude and speed, immediately spot potential wing drag issues and alert the pilot about it. In an electronic warfare (EW) situation when facing enemy aircraft or missiles, the models could process vast amounts of incoming data to more quickly identify threats and recommend effective countermeasures in real time. 

AI/ML models need to be trained and tested to ensure their effectiveness in adapting to new, unseen data. However, without having a standardized process in place, training and testing is done in a fragmented manner, which poses several risks, such as overfitting, where the model performs well on the training data but fails to generalize unseen data and makes inaccurate predictions or decisions in real-world situations, security vulnerabilities where bad actors exploit weaknesses in the models, and a general lack of robustness and inefficient resource utilization.

“Throughout this project, we noticed that training and testing are often done in a piecemeal fashion and thus aren’t repeatable,” said Jovan Munroe, a GTRI senior research engineer who is also leading this project. “Our MLOps platform makes the training and testing process more consistent and well-defined so that these models are better equipped to identify and address unknown variables in the battle space.” 

This project has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development (IRAD) Program, winning an IRAD of the Year award in fiscal year 2023. In fiscal year 2024, the project received funding from a U.S. government sponsor. 

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photos: Sean McNeil 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) are exploring how the powerful processing capabilities of quantum computers can expedite CFD’s resource-intensive simulations used in aircraft design, weather prediction, nuclear weapons testing and more.  

“Through a collaboration between GTRI and Georgia Tech, we are developing an application of quantum computing to solve proof-of-principle problems in computational fluid dynamics that could streamline efficiencies and reduce costs across numerous industries,” said Bryan Gard, a GTRI senior research scientist who is leading this project.

Quantum computing offers a new way of doing computations using the principles of quantum mechanics, a science that explores the behavior of tiny particles such as atoms and photons. Computers and software that are built on the theories of quantum mechanics can process a large amount of information simultaneously and much faster than classical computers. That is because unlike classical computers, which use bits that are either 0 or 1, quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits. 

Classical bits are similar to regular on/off switches, which can only exist in one state at a time. Qubits, meanwhile, can exist in multiple states at once thanks to a property in quantum mechanics known as superposition.  

Because CFD involves complex simulations of how fluids, such as air or water, move and interact with different surfaces, classical computers often struggle with the immense number of calculations needed for such detailed simulations. The ability for quantum computers to process information in parallel could significantly speed up these simulations and produce more accurate results. 

“Say you are examining how air flows over a plane wing and you want to identify the large- and small-scale dynamics of that interaction,” explained Gard. “This type of problem would be very hard for a classical computer to handle because it wouldn’t be able to examine those large- and small-scale aspects simultaneously.” 

The team has split its research into two parts. The parts that involve linear differential equations are solved on a quantum computer and the other, non-linear parts are handled conventionally on a classical machine. 

The reason for this division is that as the problem scales up on classical supercomputers, the communication between nodes becomes inefficient, creating a bottleneck. Even though quantum computers are not yet large-scale, they can handle certain parts of the problem without facing the same communication challenges, Gard explained. 

These principles could help organizations strategically allocate resources and avoid costs associated with manufacturing and testing potentially flawed designs. In the defense realm, an example of this can be seen with designing aircraft. 

Instead of the conventional methods of building and testing structures in a wind tunnel, quantum-enhanced CFD would allow engineers to analyze stresses, assess designs and predict performance more efficiently and cost effectively. This becomes particularly relevant at high speeds, where factors such as air flows and turbulence pose additional challenges for running accurate simulations. 

“It all comes down to money, as with everything else,” said Gard. “If you could save yourself a lot of time and money by running this simulation, which you couldn't do before, then it would allow you to allocate your resources more effectively.” 

For this project, GTRI is collaborating with Spencer Bryngelson, an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering who has expertise in computational physics, numerical methods, fluid dynamics and high-performance computing. Zhixin Song, a graduate student at Georgia Tech who is researching quantum algorithms for CFD, has also contributed.   

“This project is particularly interesting because although it is challenging, it could have outsize performance gains if one can find the right tools for the job, meaning the right quantum algorithm to solve the right fluid dynamics problem,” Bryngelson said. “GTRI and Georgia Tech have already made progress in this area, and also work well together, so it has been a good experience.” 

The project has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development (IRAD) Program, winning an IRAD of the Year award in fiscal year 2023, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photos: Christopher Moore 
Art Credit: Img2Go.com, Adobe 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The Aviation Radio Control Manager (ARCM) software will enable the sustainment of enduring fleet aircraft by employing a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to replace obsolete, out-of-production radio equipment and set the stage for future communications suite enhancements. The reusable and adaptable ARCM software is projected to be employed on additional Army aircraft in the future, providing benefits of software reuse, potentially leveraged for future efforts.

Now in its third round of software development, ARCM is due to be flight-tested next summer and installed on the first group of UH-60M aircraft in 2025. The project, supported by the U.S. Army’s PEO Aviation in Huntsville, Alabama, will comply with the service’s Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™) Technical Standard, Edition 3.1.

Model-based approaches are being used across the Department of Defense (DoD) to accelerate the development of new platforms and updates to existing ones. Beyond reducing costs and getting new capabilities to warfighters more quickly, the process can streamline procurement by clearly spelling out system specifications and key interfaces.

“Model-based approaches have been a very central part of how we’ve approached ARCM, and the return on investment for ARCM generally and for the MBSEs specifically, is based largely on a business case in which you spend a little more to get the models in place and design the system to interface with multiple components,” said Scott Tompkins, a GTRI senior research engineer who leads the project. “Investments in MBSE can provide huge savings when you reuse the work for other systems and shorten the cycle times to bring new capabilities to aircraft platforms.”

In this first application, the ARCM software will facilitate three major improvements for the UH-60M: (1) replacement of the control head unit (CHU) that aircrews use to operate radio equipment, (2) replacement of an obsolete tactical communications radio, and (3) upgrade of cryptographic systems used for secure communications. The replacement radio hardware, which is being built by multiple vendors, interfaces with the aircraft’s unmodified flight management system (FMS) via the ARCM.

“The aircraft needed a new radio, but the Army doesn’t necessarily desire to change the approved and fielded Black Hawk FMS Operational Flight Program (OFP) to integrate that radio,” Tompkins said. “In this project, we are translating the radio’s interface, so they don’t have to change the main aircraft software. This will address three issues at once through software.”

Two different radios with comparable functionality will be available as options for replacing the existing ARC-201D unit. The ARCM software will make the difference between those two alternatives invisible to aircrews and other systems in the aircraft. The software will also allow transparent substitution of radio equipment on Black Hawks used by foreign nations, and it is designed for future support of alternate radio equipment used by National Guard Black Hawks for collaboration with civil defense and domestic first responder agencies.

“From the models, we generated the vast majority of the code used in the ARCM, and that code meets the FACE Edition 3.1 standard for MOSA software,” Tompkins said. “We have also deployed a development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) pipeline to support our software repository and perform automated testing of the products as part of best practices in software development and acquisition. We are also doing full end-to-end information assurance accreditation.”

Though only the UH-60M work has been performed so far, the work done on ARCM could also be used with CH-47F Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters, as well as the Gray Eagle uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). The Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) platforms could also take advantage of the modeling done for ARCM.

“The FACE model provides the ability to unambiguously communicate about interfaces,” Tompkins said. “We have all the contextual meaning for the data so that when we hand this over, there’s no question about what the data is and how to interpret the messages. We have captured all of that in the model.”

Beyond ensuring compatibility with existing Black Hawk systems, GTRI is also making sure the replacement interface – graphics and buttons that control the radio equipment – makes sense to the aircrews that will use it. “We recently completed another round of crew station working group meetings where we had pilots review our graphical user interface (GUI) and the functionality,” said Tompkins. “It was very encouraging, and we continue to get positive user feedback.”

GTRI is scheduled to deliver its full technical data package (TDP) to the Army in January 2024. The ARCM program will submit the software and its associated development artifacts to the Army for an airworthiness qualification to a DO-178C Design Assurance Level ‘C’ level of rigor in Q3 of fiscal year 2024. It will then be reviewed for a first test flight in early summer of that year. Once flight testing is over, ARCM and the new hardware can begin rolling out to Army units in 2025.

GTRI expects to be part of the test flights and then move on to support the development of additional capabilities, including new waveforms being developed by the radio vendors. Discussions are also underway regarding potential applications to other Army rotorcraft.

“Our goal is to have an ARCM release annually that brings new capabilities,” Tompkins said. “With software-defined radios, the vendors are constantly innovating and improving waveforms. We want to get those enhancements out to aircrews as soon as possible.”

The ARCM program has involved multiple labs within GTRI, as well as Tucson Embedded Systems, which is a FACE Verification Authority.

“We have put together a great multidisciplinary team of modelers, software developers, information assurance experts, human factors specialists, and human systems engineers,” Tompkins said. “It’s been a spectacular project – working with a wonderful team – and I’m really excited to see the first test flight.”

DISCLAIMER: This article contains views and opinions that are not official U.S. Army positions.
 

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)  
GTRI Communications  
Georgia Tech Research Institute  
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Since the war began with the killing of an estimated 1,200 Israelis and the taking of more than 200 hostages by Hamas, the Gazan death toll is estimated to have surpassed 11,000, and over 1.6 million residents have been displaced. Israel has rejected cease-fire calls to this point, but a deal with Hamas resulted in a four-day pause in fighting in exchange for the release of 50 hostages. Israel has begun to release about 150 Palestinian prisoners — primarily women and children — and is allowing up to 300 aid trucks into Gaza. An additional two-day pause was also brokered, including the release of an additional 20 Israeli hostages. 

The deal offers hope that “there are lines of communication open, which, as we've just seen in the U.S.-China context, is important in and of itself between hostile or adversarial actors,” said Rachel Whitlark, political scientist and associate professor of international affairs in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“It's not clear that the current developments signal anything about what might happen with the additional hostages being held by Hamas or those being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And the deal will likely allow Israel to continue its military campaign to rid itself of a neighbor committed to its destruction, perhaps more aggressively given that these hostages have been released.” 

Identifying an End Goal  

The temporary peace will be welcomed in the region that has seen nonstop violence since Oct. 7, but when the fighting resumes, the pressure on Israel to identify an end goal will increase, explains Lawrence Rubin, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.  

"What happens the day after you topple Hamas? But also, what happens if Israel doesn’t eliminate Hamas?" said Rubin, who recently traveled to the Middle East for the IISS Manama Dialogue. “Another sticking point is that many Arab leaders are publicly unwilling to discuss any post-conflict scenario until the fighting stops. Leaders in Egypt and Jordan, for example, face populations who would view discussions about their countries’ participation in a post-conflict Gaza as allowing Israel to complete its destruction of Gaza. Arab leaders don’t want to be held responsible for cleaning up Israel’s military operation.”  

Hamas' relationship with the Jewish state complicates any large-scale political compromise with the organization. 

"Hamas is not an entity that even believes in a two-state solution. It is bent on Israel’s destruction and is unlikely to relinquish power. Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas. A long-term political compromise at this stage seems highly unlikely,” Rubin said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently reiterated the intent to "destroy Hamas," and said Israel would maintain “overall military responsibility” in Gaza until it can ensure that there is no resurgence of terrorism in the region. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirmed the administration's position that Gaza cannot continue to be run by Hamas following the war. He also shared that conversations took place prior to the hostage deal, directing Israeli leaders to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians and increasing aid into Gaza.  

Whitlark explains that the U.S. has effectively used its modest tools of persuasion and diplomatic pressure to attempt to modify behavior in the war, yet faces additional challenges in its handling of multiple conflicts around the globe.  

"The Biden administration is juggling tensions both within the Democratic Party and with the Israeli government,” she said. “They are trying to manage the mounting civilian casualties in the conflict and the divisions in Congress, and among Democrats in particular, over U.S. support for Israel. This aid to Israel is also tied up with aid to Ukraine, another democracy that was attacked by a neighbor, that the U.S. is working hard to assist in its military campaign. Further, the administration had been putting significant pressure on Netanyahu to try to gain additional humanitarian aid, humanitarian pauses, and accept a deal to get some of the hostages released. Meanwhile, as we understand from the president's Washington Post op-ed last week, he is working for the longer-term future for a lasting peace, protecting democracies from encroaching aggression, and regional and global stability."  

In an interview with a Lebanese television outlet, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader, stated the group's intention to repeatedly attack Israel "a second, a third, a fourth time" while expressing the organization's belief that their actions are justified as victims of occupation. Along with the targeted attack on perceived military infrastructure, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have killed dozens of Hamas commanders, according to The Guardian. Israel's ground operation began in northern Gaza in late October, and in addition to the mounting pressure to reduce civilian casualties, there could be major economic ramifications of a drawn-out war.  

“Israel’s operational time has lasted longer than many would have expected, but it is still working on borrowed time. As international pressure on Israel mounts, U.S. leaders will continue to push harder for ways to reduce a rising civilian death toll,” Rubin said. 

A Second Battle: Misinformation  

As Israeli forces operate in Gaza City, the IDF recently gained control of Al-Shifa Hospital, which it asserts was being used to house a Hamas command center in underground tunnels. An initial raid of the compound revealed duffel bags filled with weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment, but Hamas continues to deny claims that the hospital is being used as a front and asserts that the IDF planted the evidence.  

With many claims unable to be independently verified, Rubin says a "misinformation problem" exists as the war goes on, and the world is watching it play out through social media and the internet. “It's almost to the extent that it doesn't even matter that we've seen the truth when it comes out because people won't believe it, and there's denial about it," he said.  

He also noted that Hamas understands the value of disinformation and its ability to pit the U.S. against itself. The unfolding hostage deal will not end this conflict, Rubin says, predicting the information battle will continue until the physical fighting resumes. 

Looking Ahead  

In terms of further escalation in the region, Rubin observed that Iran does not seem eager to jump into the fray. Hezbollah, a terrorist group based in Lebanon, has launched several attacks, but to this point, no second front has been opened in Northern Israel. That said, Whitlark notes that a recent meeting between an Iranian leader and Hezbollah's leadership reminds the international community that a broader conflict remains a possibility if the war between Israel and Hamas continues to escalate. 

*The below story was originally posted Oct. 17, 2023.

Attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel, along with subsequent strikes in Gaza and a declaration of war from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have resulted in global unrest. Georgia Tech experts offer their thoughts on the conflict, what comes next, and what role the United States will play.  

What Happened? 

On the Jewish Sabbath, which coincided with the holiday of Simchat Torah, 3,000 Hamas militants crossed into Israel and executed a coordinated attack on Israeli civilians and military personnel by land, sea, and air, killing an estimated 1,400.  

At the latest count, nearly 200 hostages were taken, including Americans and people from other countries. The attacks caught Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by surprise in what Lawrence Rubin, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, described as one of the biggest intelligence failures since the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.  

"It is too early to make a definitive assessment as to why this intelligence failure occurred. However, it’s clear that there was a heavy reliance on technology and a certain amount of complacency in thinking that the threat from Hamas was contained and the greater Palestinian threat was in the West Bank. Israel had also been much more focused on the Iranian nuclear threat," said Rubin, author of Islam in the Balance: Ideational Threat in Arab Politics.  

Following Netanyahu's vow to "avenge this dark day" and win the ensuing war despite an inevitable "unbearable price," Israel quickly launched counterstrikes in Gaza, which have killed and wounded thousands. The conflict has escalated to a level not seen in the region in decades. 

What's Next? 

As Israel contemplates its next strategic move, Jenna Jordan, associate professor and associate chair of the Nunn School, said a ground invasion into Gaza could play into Hamas' goals of undermining diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and gaining support among the Palestinian people and the broader international community.  

"A ground invasion could result in major civilian casualties in Gaza, creating a humanitarian crisis. Hamas anticipated that a massive retaliatory response would change the tide of sentiment to their favor, mobilizing new recruits, support, and allies. Hamas seeks to appear as the most committed group fighting for and protecting the Palestinian people. These highly visible operations are a way for the group to demonstrate that they are more resolved and a stronger advocate for the Palestinian cause than Fatah and the Palestinian Authority," she said.  

Jordan, author of Leadership Decapitation: Strategic Targeting of Terrorist Organizations, explained that Hamas, which rose to power in Gaza and the West Bank in 2006 after winning 44.5% of the seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, has already achieved an important strategic objective by seizing the attention of the international community and placing Israel in a strategic conundrum.  

"Israel is under pressure to respond with force given the scale of the attack, as is every nation in the wake of a major terrorist attack," she said. "The U.S. faced a similar decision in the aftermath of 9/11 and launched a very long and costly ground invasion into Iraq starting in 2003. This fueled the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and eventually ISIS. It is imperative that Israel considers whether its counter operations will backlash and create more support for extremism in the region.” 

The possibility that Iran will intervene is the biggest wild card and could carry the greatest risk for regional conflict and escalation, according to Rubin. An Axios report states that Iran plans to intervene should a ground operation in Gaza occur and this could take the form of supporting Hezbollah operations against Israel if it opens a second front. Rubin warns this would bring the conflict to an entirely different level.  

U.S. Involvement 

The United States has offered its unwavering support for Israel, but President Joe Biden warned that invading Gaza would be a "big mistake." He announced plans to visit Israel before traveling to Jordan to meet with his Majesty King Abdullah, Egyptian President Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. 

Following the attacks on Oct. 7, the U.S. positioned an aircraft carrier, the USS Ford, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a deterrent, and a second carrier was deployed to the region on Oct. 15.  

As the U.S. continues to support the Ukrainian war effort against Russia, Rubin explained that the new conflict could shift the nation's focus further away from China. Should this conflict continue, it may erode previous efforts at bringing the Saudis and Israelis together to normalize relations, which already had plenty of challenges to begin with, Rubin said.  

National Trauma and Negotiations  

An IDF spokesperson called the Hamas attacks Israel's 9/11. Rubin speculated that it might be worse than that for Israel because the attacks have conjured images of pogroms and the Holocaust. He said Israel's small population exacerbates the sense of national trauma and could decrease the likelihood of a non-military response.  

“Almost everyone in Israel, particularly Jewish Israelis, knows someone who was killed, wounded, or kidnapped. Combined with the effect of having women and children held hostage, with reports of rape circulating on social media, this will reduce Israel’s willingness to compromise,” Rubin said. 

Whether Hamas can withstand Israel's efforts to restrict the flow of resources into Gaza and likely attacks on its leadership remains to be seen, explained Jordan. President Biden said on 60 Minutes that he supports the elimination of Hamas entirely, but Jordan noted that organizations such as Hamas — with popular support, a bureaucratized organizational structure, and a strong ideological foundation — are extraordinarily resilient.  

“It’s important to remember that ideology can become more entrenched in the face of violence and heavy-handed counterreactions on the part of the state fighting that particular group," she said. 

On Campus 

Jordan and Rubin, along with Associate Professor Rachel Whitlark and Lawrence Silverman, U.S. ambassador to Kuwait from 2016 to 2019, will host a virtual discussion titled Israel and Hamas at War on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at noon. 

The following resources and services are available to members of the Georgia Tech community:  

• Center for Mental Health Care and Resources.  

• Let’s Talk program.  

• Satellite Counseling program. 

• Through a partnership with Christie Campus Health, sponsored by the University System of Georgia, students can access 24/7 assistance by calling 404.894.2575 to get immediate assistance from a counselor. Students can also visit the GT Wellness Hub webpage for more self-care resources.  

• Dean of Students Office.  

• Advocacy and assistance: If you are concerned about a student who may be in distress or believe that a student may need personal support, the Dean of Students Office accepts third party referrals from faculty and staff.  

• Office of International Education.  

• info@oie.gatech.edu – Students needing support (or faculty/staff consultation) can contact the office via this address.  

• Campus chaplains. 

WarRoom, part of the U.S. Air Force’s Live Mission Operations Capability (LMOC) program, has now been installed at over 20 different training ranges around the world. It brings together as many as a dozen programs that provide information on potential threats, handle radio communications, analyze aircraft engagements, support mission planning, and display a fused combat operating picture. WarRoom operates on non-proprietary commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) computer systems. 

What WarRoom does is comparable to how modern smartphones brought together separate pagers, cameras, mobile phones, electronic calendars, and other devices, explained Joel Rasmussen, a research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), which developed WarRoom and an allied display application known as Angel for the U.S. Air Force.

“The whole concept of LMOC is to get more competency into the brains of our warfighters in less time,” he said. “More efficient training helps warfighters improve more quickly, allowing the collective capabilities of our Air Force to elevate. We can also replicate and adapt to changing enemy capabilities because this system is designed to be agile.”

Training ranges provide valuable assistance to pilots and aircrews, allowing them to battle “red team” opponents and learn new tactics and techniques in a controlled environment. WarRoom increases the training value of each training mission to help prepare warfighters for combat.

By providing a common hardware/software operating platform for combat training ranges, WarRoom also allows new applications to be quickly installed and updated. Previously, new applications had to be installed individually at the ranges, a time-consuming process. 

“We can host these applications on a single server cluster and give them to everybody who needs them,” Rasmussen said. “The main thing is that every range, no matter the size, can have the best tools available. There are many advantages to having a common platform for the ranges.”

In developing the WarRoom, a team headed by GTRI Systems Research Manager Ed Loeffler virtualized legacy range systems so they could operate on a common architecture. That allows all the applications to run on virtual machines, which reduces maintenance and hardware upgrade costs – and facilitates data sharing. Loeffler’s team is experienced in scalable and interconnected live-synthetic, hybrid, and digital architectures and environments with redundant, fail-safe capabilities that can be rapidly reconfigured between unit-level or large-force test and training events and wargaming exercises.

For ranges that don’t yet have WarRoom, GTRI has developed a scripted deployment process that reduces the overall installation time. “This has turned a months-long integration effort into a couple of days with a pre-approved Authority to Operate (ATO). That really helps with getting a new installation approved and accredited, and also ensures that we have good repeatability at each of the ranges,” Loeffler said.

WarRoom can easily accommodate new applications thanks to the Test and Training Enabling Architecture (TENA). Additionally, several ranges using WarRoom are now connected using the Live Mission Operations Network (LMON).

“Beyond the existing WarRoom systems, GTRI has several additional installations scheduled, along with multiple updates. A typical new WarRoom install requires the team to be on-site for less than a month for installation, integration, and user training,” Rasmussen said. 

A key component of WarRoom is a new display system known as Angel that supports blended training for the combat air force. Angel is a versatile visualization tool not limited to legacy data formats or architectures, does not use any proprietary data models, and is not tied to any specific ground system.

WarRoom also supports Live Virtual Constructive (LVC), which will allow a live person in a real aircraft to interact with a live person in a simulator – or an artificial intelligence or “constructive” entity on a computer. While this training component hasn’t yet been fully implemented, WarRoom is designed to enable LVC by integrating all the data necessary for it in a single platform.

Based on input from warfighters, WarRoom has been in development since 2019 and has been implemented incrementally over time. This has allowed the research team to respond to the changing needs identified by users – and new threats that have arisen.

Jared Lyon, a GTRI Senior Research Engineer in the Phoenix Field Office, has been involved with the project since its inception. “We frequently solicit and receive feedback from the people using the system so we can make sure it does exactly what they need,” Lyon said. “We recently hosted more than a dozen system users in our Phoenix field office to get input. We were making changes to the product in real-time, trying to understand challenges from the warfighters’ perspective.”

Though developed for the Air Force, WarRoom may expand to other Department of Defense branches that also could benefit by integrating their training range software. Using a common platform could facilitate more interaction between the services, Rasmussen said.

WarRoom is a major project for GTRI involving more than 40 researchers altogether. The work is principally being done in three field offices – Utah, Phoenix, and Orlando – as well as GTRI headquarters in Atlanta. More than a dozen subcontractors have been involved, including Space Dynamics Lab and Raytheon Solipsys.

In addition to the GTRI researchers already mentioned, the project has included Principal Research Engineer Mike “Scratch” Fitzpatrick and Principal Research Associate Mike Naes.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)  
GTRI Communications  
Georgia Tech Research Institute  
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is addressing that challenge through its Defense-University Affiliated Research Traineeship (DART) Program. DART’s main goal is to leverage the pipeline of researchers underrepresented in STEM and accelerate their awareness, knowledge, access, and opportunities in research and development (R&D) contracting for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). GTRI launched DART as a pilot program this summer where it partnered with a faculty member and an undergraduate student at Alabama A&M University (AAMU) in Huntsville, Alabama, to conduct research for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC). 

“GTRI has benefitted from almost 90 years of DoD research, which has taught us a lot about how to build out our infrastructure,” said Lee Simonetta, a GTRI principal research engineer who serves as DART’s principal investigator (PI). “Our partnership with Alabama A&M was a mentor-protégé opportunity, where we provided the research facility and capabilities and they contributed their exceptional talent and expertise as we worked together to address a pressing need for one of our sponsors.” 

GTRI hosted AAMU’s Kenneth Sartor, an assistant professor of math, and Malcolm Echols, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, at its research facility in Huntsville. Sartor and Echols worked under the guidance of GTRI Principal Research Engineer Eric Grigorian. Grigorian is also the chief engineer and division chief of GTRI’s Applied Systems Laboratory’s (ASL) Architecture and Systems Development Division. The group’s research project involved using machine learning to improve predictive maintenance for the Army’s helicopters.

In the DoD realm, predictive maintenance is used to predict the failure of the components of weapon and delivery systems so that they can be replaced before they fail. The technique is particularly beneficial for military equipment as its frequent exposure to harsh conditions can make it more prone to wear and tear. 

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that can rapidly learn from data, identify patterns, and make recommendations with minimal human intervention. The technology could optimize predictive maintenance by collecting and analyzing data in a fraction of the time it takes humans and reduce uncertainties around when assets might fail. 

AAMU and GTRI developed and incorporated advanced machine learning algorithms into AvMC’s data repository of helicopter maintenance records to augment its maintenance prediction models. 

“Our group developed a few algorithms that AvMC had not yet considered, which was great progress for an initial study,” said Grigorian. “Ken’s mathematical background and Malcolm’s technical knowledge really enhanced the solutions we developed, and I enjoyed working with them and learning from them.” 

Sartor, who holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Florida Institute of Technology and a master’s and bachelor’s degree – both in electrical engineering – from North Carolina A&T University and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), respectively, called his collaboration with GTRI a full-circle moment. 

“This program gave me a chance to kind of take all those skills I developed in my career since graduating from Georgia Tech and apply them this past summer,” Sartor said.

Before joining AAMU in 2012, Sartor spent his career in private industry, including working for and ultimately retiring from Northrop Grumman as a systems engineer, where he gained expertise in topics such as algorithm development, modeling and simulation, and systems analysis. 

“One of the reasons I went into teaching is because both of my parents were teachers and I have always had a passion for giving back to the next generation, including showing students how to use concepts they learn in the classroom to solve real-world problems.” 

Sartor said Echols’ technical skills, including his coding experience, along with his tenacity and eagerness to learn, made him a great fit for the program. 

Echols said Sartor’s academic and DoD research experience helped him achieve maximum success. He also called DART an eye-opening experience that gave him the confidence to tackle new challenges. Echols will be returning to GTRI to work as a student researcher during the 2023-2024 school year.   

“Throughout the summer, Dr. Sartor kept reminding me to not just limit my thinking to the academic world, but to the actual problem we were looking to solve,” Echols said. “It was a big adjustment, but it also a great experience. I learned a lot.” 

From FY 2010 to FY 2020, about $67 billion in DoD science and technology funding was awarded to 1,183 institutions of higher education, of which 157, or about 13%, were HBCUs or other minority-serving institutions (MSIs), according to a recent study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But HBCUs and MSIs received only 1.3% of the total DoD research funding awarded to all institutions of higher education, the data found. 

The study identified three areas as crucial for HBCUs and MSIs to build their capacity and compete for DoD funding: One, a strong institutional research and contract base, including appropriate physical research facilities and skilled research support to enable competitiveness; two, research faculty support, including an articulated vision and support for a research climate and culture by institutional leadership, faculty teaching workloads that allow time for research pursuits, and department/college-based research staff and administrative support; and three, ancillary services, including effective human resources processes and legal/contracting assistance, and robust government relations teams. 

“All of these schools share a similar story – they have talented, capable people, but are held back by a lack of infrastructure,” said William H. Robinson, GTRI’s deputy director for research for its Information and Cyber Sciences Directorate (ICSD). “For this pilot, we were able to navigate that challenge and I believe this is an area where GTRI can continue to provide mentorship going forward.” 

Looking ahead, GTRI aims to expand DART to other HBCUs throughout the country.    

“One of our goals from the beginning was to develop champions, both faculty and students, at HBCUs who can advocate for the importance of DoD research,” said GTRI Principal Research Engineer Erick Maxwell, who first developed the idea for the DART Program. “As we think about expanding this program to other HBCUs, we have this example of success through our work with Alabama A&M that we can continue to build on.” 

GTRI’s Huntsville Research Center (HRC) is the development and technology home for Army air defense systems, missile defense systems, and rotary wing aviation technology, among many other projects. GTRI Huntsville provides on-site research and engineering solutions and has a deep reach-back to GTRI’s Atlanta-based laboratories.

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photos: Sean McNeil 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

GTRI’s Latest HOH Cohort is ‘Mission-Ready’

We spoke with members of the “23-3” cohort of GTRI’s Hiring Our Heroes program as they began their fellowships in early September. Their insights show the importance of the HOH program, both for the fellows and for GTRI.

The GTRI HOH Experience

For many warfighters, transitioning from the structured military environment to a research institution can be daunting. But at the heart of this transition is guidance. Each fellow is paired with a sponsor from one of GTRI's eight prestigious laboratories.

The Impact of HOH

It's not just about employment; it's about community, integration, and mutual growth. For those in the military community considering this path, the fellows have some advice.

Below, we present the fellows’ thoughts in their own words.

Meet the GTRI Hiring Our Heroes Fellows in the ‘23-3’ Cohort

Zachary Guyton:

Zach’s sponsor is Jeffrey O’Hara, Principal Research Scientist, ASL

Give an overview of your military career. How long did you serve, and in what capacities?

I have served 12.5 years in the Army as an infantry officer. During this time, I have held the positions of platoon leader, company commander, operations and logistics planner, operations officer, and assistant professor at USMA. I have multiple combat and operational deployments (Afghanistan twice, Kuwait, and Korea) and have been in both light infantry and Armor (Tank) formations. 

How did you first learn about the Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) Fellowship at GTRI?

Prior to joining the 23-3 cohort, I interviewed for a GTRI position that I did not get. I maintained contact with the GTRI Division/Branch leadership, which led to a HOH fellowship. Throughout the process, GTRI was extremely professional and engaged while setting me up for the fellowship and potential post-fellowship employment.

What type of research will you be conducting in your assigned laboratory at GTRI?

I am working in the Human Systems Engineering Branch (Human Centered Engineering Division) within the Applied Systems Laboratory. I will be conducting human factors and human systems integration/engineering research in support of efforts to improve future Army fighting and transportation vehicles. 

How do you think programs like HOH impact the broader military community in transitioning to civilian roles; and what advice would you give to future transitioning service members considering the HOH Fellowship at GTRI?

Hiring our heroes is an outstanding opportunity for transitioning servicemembers to immerse in a civilian job and determine the type of the work they want to do following military life. It also can provide a direct path to employment following the fellowship.

I would tell future GTRI Hiring our Heroes candidates to ask questions, learn as much as possible, and stay proactive as they consider GTRI as an option. There are plenty of opportunities within GTRI and finding the right spot within the organization will help ensure GTRI is a good fit.

Amana Norris:

Amana’s sponsor is Eric Scott, Principal Research Associate, Information and Cybersecurity Department (ICD)

Give me an overview of your military career. How long did you serve, and in what capacities?

I enlisted in February 2003 in the U.S. Army, and will officially retire in March 2024, thereby spanning a 20-year career in Information Technology and Cybersecurity. I began as a 25B--Information Services Specialist, in the Signal Corps, reaching the rank of SSG before applying to become a Warrant Officer as 255A--Information Services Technician. Later, when the Cyber Corps was being established around 2014, I decided to transition as a 170A, where I am now a CW3.

Throughout my career in the Signal and Cyber Corps, I have been stationed and deployed to various organizations in Korea; Germany; Fort Liberty (formerly Bragg), North Carolina; Fort Eisenhower (formerly Gordon), Georgia; Kuwait, and Afghanistan. My various roles included the opportunity to exercise my leadership skills and demonstrate my skillset in Helpdesk Operations, COMSEC security, server technician, and cybersecurity. Within my military career, it has been my passion to increase my technical skills as much as possible since Information Technology and Cybersecurity are translatable into a civilian career. The mission and operations are the only difference between the military and civilian sectors. Tools used and knowledge gained remain the same.

How did you first learn about the Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) Fellowship at GTRI?

I was contacted by email to interview for a position within the Information and Cybersecurity Division (ICD), where I would be able to continue using my technical skillset. I signed up for the HOH fellowship program because I wanted something that would allow me to operate in a civilian setting outside the DoD. I view this fellowship as an opportunity to apply my knowledge, identify areas I may be lacking, and adapt to civilian operations. I was not aware that GTRI had various HOH Fellowships throughout their various labs and was actually referred to ICD when I was conducting an interview for a program management position. Personally, I was not interested in program management and wanted something that fell into IT or Cyber. Luckily, my information was sent to ICD, where I found the work/life balance to be an attractive incentive in accepting the fellowship with GTRI and ICD.

What type of research will you be conducting in your assigned laboratory at GTRI?

As part of ICD, I am part of the support services in threat-hunting cybersecurity incidents. Research will consist of identifying new cybersecurity threats and sharing that information.

How do you think programs like HOH impact the broader military community in transitioning to civilian roles; and what advice would you give to future transitioning service members considering the HOH Fellowship at GTRI?

Programs like HoH provide service members an opportunity to find their strengths and weaknesses outside a military setting. The transition time helps ease a service member’s mindset in letting go of the military while possibly learning a new skillset or applying their current skills to the position they select. There are some organizations that monopolize a service member’s transition time and don’t allow them the opportunity to gradually become a civilian again. When you join the Army, you go through basic training to shed the civilian mentality and become a soldier. Without programs like the HoH, I feel some service members would experience shock in the transition. Those are the ones who would most benefit from a program like the HoH Fellowship.

Brian Trainor:

Brian’s sponsor is Stan Sutphin, Principal Research Engineer, SEAL

Give me an overview of your military career. How long did you serve, and in what capacities?

I was an Electronic Warfare Officer in the USAF for a little over 23 years.

How did you first learn about the Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) Fellowship at GTRI?

I learned about GTRI during the resume release portion of the HoH program.

What type of research will you be conducting in your assigned laboratory at GTRI?

I will be helping research and create a roadmap for the Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations test and training infrastructure at the National Space Test and Training Complex (Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado).

How do you think programs like HOH impact the broader military community in transitioning to civilian roles; and what advice would you give to future transitioning service members considering the HOH Fellowship at GTRI?

I think programs like HOH help expose transitioning service members to follow-on career options that they may not have been aware of or even considered realistic options before entering the fellowship program. My advice to future transitioning service members would be to take as many opportunities to connect, speak, and interview with as many companies as possible during the "interview stage" of the program. I know that getting that exposure to multiple different companies and how they operated helped me narrow down and ultimately decide where I wanted to be--GTRI.

Ric ‘TAC’ Turner:

TAC’s sponsor is John Bennell, Principal Research Associate, Sensors & Intelligent Systems Directorate (SISD)

Give me an overview of your military career. How long did you serve, and in what capacities?

I have over 20 years of experience as a leader, test pilot, fighter pilot and engineer in the United States Air Force.

What type of research will you be conducting in your assigned laboratory at GTRI?

I conduct cutting-edge research and development projects in aerospace engineering. I am passionate about the integration of systems--especially as they cross domains to provide capability, as well as advancing the state-of-the-art in air, space, and cyberspace systems, and look forward to leveraging my expertise, experience, and network.

Cody Waits:

Cody’s sponsor is Clayton Besse, Principal Research Associate, CIPHER

Give me an overview of your military career. How long did you serve, and in what capacities?

I served in the Army for 7.5 years as a Signal Officer, the majority of the time with Special Operations and Airborne community. I deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and managed tactical information network nodes and secure radio communications. As a Signal Officer, I was the IT Operations manager for multiple organizations within my career. I allocated tactical IT assets to mission-based requirements to provide consistent and clear communications to ground forces and higher headquarters.

How did you first learn about the Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) Fellowship at GTRI?

I did not even know about the fellowship opportunity until [CIPHER Senior Research Associate] Steven Bartels reached out to me to set up an interview to talk. I was immediately interested and after interviewing, GTRI was my most interesting opportunity and I accepted the bid to conduct my fellowship with GTRI.

What type of research will you be conducting in your assigned laboratory at GTRI?

I will be conducting cloud integration/migration and cybersecurity research within the CIPHER Laboratory.

How do you think programs like HOH impact the broader military community in transitioning to civilian roles; and what advice would you give to future transitioning service members considering the HOH Fellowship at GTRI?

I think that programs like HoH are an amazing asset to the military community, this allows a unique opportunity where employers will reach out to you instead of applying to multiple applications online without even receiving an initial response. With the current job market climate, HoH proves to be invaluable to separating service members. I would advise future GTRI fellow candidates to highly consider GTRI, I believe this is a work environment that will still give you that sense of purpose and fulfillment that you will miss upon separating from the military.

GTRI’s Hiring Our Heroes Fellowship program is more than just an employment opportunity—it's a bridging of two worlds where skills, dedication, and innovation intersect. Through this program, GTRI not only gains valuable expertise but also reinforces its commitment to giving back to those who've served. For the fellows, it’s a chance to chart new horizons, building on their rich military past. While each HOH Fellowship cohort lasts 12 weeks, the relationships built and the skills acquired have long-lasting implications.

Writer: Christopher Weems

GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Combining technologies including machine learning, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and a new radio-frequency image processing algorithm, the research has streamlined the modular handling of radar signals to reduce processing time and cost. The improvements – as much as two or three orders of magnitude – could lead to real-time analysis of RF image data from sources ranging from potential enemy targets to speeding automobiles headed toward collisions.

The research, which has been tested on a 16-element digital antenna array, was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Tensors for Reprogrammable Intelligent Array Demonstrations (TRIAD). While the project has so far focused on real-time imaging operations on vast amounts of data, it supports the conventional beamforming operations also done by phased arrays.

“The goal is to push processing up front, to where all the raw data is coming in,” said Ryan Westafer, a principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). “We work to manage the high-dimensional data there and extract features in real-time. With so many data sources from autonomous vehicles to drones, we can’t be sharing all those raw data feeds. We need to be analyzing the data locally and sharing only the information content – the relevant features.”

With potentially hundreds or even thousands of subarrays generating terabytes of data every second, Westafer says this “edge intelligence” can pull out the desired information in real-time, allowing defense and transportation applications alike to get the important details right away – when they need it – without waiting for processing by backend servers.

“Classical approaches process the data in the analog format, choosing only certain components of the vast information flow for digitizing where needed,” noted Alex Saad-Falcon, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student and former GTRI researcher who co-led the project. Other portions of the data can be stored on a server for later analysis.

“We want to digitize all of the data, then off-load a smaller digital portion to be shared,” he said. “That gives more flexibility to antenna array algorithm designers, because it is much easier to create an algorithm in the digital domain because you can write it in code, versus analog, where you have to design a circuit and get it built. That also facilitates reprogramming when conditions change.”

FPGAs and GPUs are keys to Georgia Tech’s modular TRIAD approach. With low power consumption and high processing speeds, the FPGAs are located adjacent to the analog-to-digital converters on antenna subarrays. With help from graphics processing units (GPUs), they process the data, quickly sending it to a CPU where information from other subarrays is aggregated.

As a key feature of the project, GTRI researchers collaborated with academic researchers in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) to utilize SoloPulse, a new array processing algorithm designed for radio-frequency images generated in synthetic aperture radars (SAR).

“The algorithm provides an estimate of energy coming from different points in the vicinity of the array,” Saad-Falcon explained. “That allows you to form an image, though you have some uncertainty about where the actual source is. The goal was to train the machine learning model to reduce that uncertainty, or learn from it to predict the source location.”

Though SoloPulse was not originally designed for the purpose the GTRI researchers needed, their collaborators – ECE Professor Christopher Barnes and Research Technologist J. Michael McKinney – supported its adaptation to the TRIAD goals.

Programming in the digital domain can utilize tensors, which are multilinear algebraic entities that describe the relationships between objects in terms of scalars and vectors. Utilizing tensor operations also allows data representations to be shared with machine learning algorithms such as deep neural networks, which can learn how to improve their operation every time they receive new data.

“You funnel the data into the new artificial intelligence tensor operations, which you also bundle up, and then at the end you get a detection, some kind of an end result that is human-actionable,” said Saad-Falcon. “The whole idea is that because you frame both the traditional algorithms and the machine learning algorithms in the same format as these tensor operations, you can effectively chain them together and get speedups that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.”

Beyond accelerating the data processing, the use of FPGA and GPU chips could help conserve power, which can be critical for mobile applications. “You have a finite compute budget on the array, so you need to intelligently allocate the computation and use an algorithm that extracts the information you want from the signal most effectively,” he said. “This is of interest to a lot of different applications in the industry right now.”

Part of the project’s goal was a demonstration to process radar pulses received by the 16-element array. The researchers used a moving emitter on a turntable in their lab to evaluate TRIAD’s imaging ability. “We could immediately see the result and our total latency from emitter motion to screen update was on the order of about 20 milliseconds – almost faster than the human eye can see.”

The DARPA project concluded in December 2022 and the researchers are now looking at other potential applications for the technologies. Among the possible uses is shared perception, which could have applications in autonomous vehicle networks, both for commercial and defense needs.

In addition to those already mentioned, the research included Jonathan Andreasen and Clayton Kerce from GTRI, and Jonathan Beaudeau from Pareto Frontier LLC, who supported the FPGA digital signal processing (DSP) component of the project.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Nearly 250 attendees from more than 200 government, academic, and industry organizations convened at the Phoenix Challenge June 20-23 to discuss how misinformation, disinformation, and the propagation of bad information may affect the world – and how organizations across those three sectors can work together to address growing concerns about the effects of what’s happening in this arena. Although AI was among the top concerns, there were many other issues on the agenda.

The conference was organized for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (OUSDP) by GTRI, the University of Maryland Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS), and the Information Professionals Association.

The June Phoenix Challenge conference was part of a series of events designed to promote collaboration on efforts ranging from research and acquisition to operational planning and execution, with goals of reducing enterprise ambiguity in the Department of Defense, promoting awareness, and exchanging information. Recommendations coming out of the meeting’s working groups are being briefed to appropriate offices in the Department of Defense and other agencies.

“The idea for the Phoenix Challenge is to create a watering hole where everyone can participate with equal standing,” said Austin Branch, professor of the practice at ARLIS, which is funded by the OUSDP to convene the Phoenix Challenge events. “By bringing these communities together, government can enjoy additional critical thinking and testing of ideas, offering new concepts, technologies, and methodological approaches in an environment that’s collaborative and includes everyone.”

OIE – a discipline that in years past was known as information warfare – can include such topics as electronic warfare, cyber operations, military deception, and psychological operations in a broad cognitive security space. “The Phoenix Challenge is a recognized platform for collaboration and sharing, in both technical and non-technical areas, and in the hard sciences and soft sciences,” Branch said. “Participants have to be prepared to work because we’re working on solutions, and there is a sense of mutual accountability.”

Beyond the recommendations to the government, participants from industry and academic communities benefit from obtaining a better understanding of the government’s needs, plans, and concerns.

“Here, we can have everybody concentrated and focused, with a great value proposition in being able to reduce ambiguity about what the requirements are and for the government to articulate what the needs are, then allow this broader enterprise to work on those things,” Branch added.

At the Atlanta meeting, there were three panel discussions, including one on generative AI, which has both positive and negative implications for the world’s information environment.

“This technology is going to have an enormous impact on us going forward,” said Theresa Kessler, a GTRI research scientist who was among the Atlanta event’s organizers. “AI and machine learning tools can make the OIE challenges worse, or be used to make them better. There’s also a cybersecurity component and the human element of how people can be so accepting of bad information.”

The goals of the Phoenix Challenge include much more than identifying the issues. Attendees participated in six working groups organized to highlight potential solutions and make recommendations to be considered by the government. And those making the recommendations are expected to play a role in carrying them out.

“Ultimately, the goal is to affect the national defense strategy, with these output products, recommendations that the working groups built,” Kessler explained. “We had a huge representation of industry partners, along with academic participants, including multiple universities, University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs), and Federally-Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs). Each of our working groups had a representation from industry, government, and academia.”

That broad representation helped provide a perspective not limited to a single constituency, she said. “The working groups were designed and facilitated in a way that everybody’s opinion was pulled in and valued. Involving all these different groups provides a more holistic presentation of the problem and the solution set.”

In addition to a classified working group, the breakout sessions focused on:

• Inputs to the R&D Roadmap for OIE Technologies.
• Detection and Beyond: Implementing Effective Technological Solutions to Emerging OIE Threats.
• Applied Research: Assessments.
• Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment (SOIE) Implementation Plan Framework.
• Resilience to Adversary Disinformation.

Among the conference speakers were:

• Todd Breasseale (Deputy Assistant to the Secretary for Public Affairs, Office of Information Operations Policy).
• LtGen (R) Dennis Crall, USMC.
• Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), who addressed the conference virtually.
• Neill Tipton, Director for Defense Intelligence, Collection and Special Programs.

The June Phoenix Challenge event was the first hosted by GTRI, but the event has a long history, beginning decades ago and including recent meetings in London and Charleston, South Carolina. In 2022, GTRI hosted an Information Warfare Summit on its Atlanta campus, but elected to join forces with the Phoenix Challenge in 2023. The next event is likely to be held in the Washington, D.C., area during 2024.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The SST's mission is to: "Make GTRI the thought leader in developing future aircraft sustainment, lifecycle management, and logistics best practices." SST strives to achieve this through business intelligence produced through benchmarking leading operators, integrating technologies, developing enterprise innovation solutions, and fostering organizational change management.” 

The Founding Vision

The team's ultimate goal is to enact change that will significantly benefit sponsors.

In 2018, Dr. William Roper, then Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics, saw exceptional performance at Delta Air Lines, and wanted to inject this performance into the Air Force. He connected with Air Force’s Education with Industry (EWI) Fellows embedded in Delta Airlines and Amazon who had developed a proposal for what  has since become known as the Tesseract Office of Innovation. Major General Linda S. Hurry, the Director of Logistics and Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, Headquarters US Air Force, expanded upon their idea and built the new office to focus on challenges within the Air Force’s maintenance and logistics communities. Specifically, she wanted them to build a network of academic and industry partners combined with liaison officers throughout the enterprise to execute on six lines of effort laid out in the Air Force's Sustainment Strategic Framework (SSF).

GTRI's SST and Delta Air Lines were inaugural members of this network and have worked to support Tesseract with SSF implementation, foster collaboration, and applying innovation, empowering ideas to accelerate change.

"We do a lot of this analysis as if we're doing it by ourselves. We cannot do this alone, and our partners have a lot of capacity and capability," stated General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Chief of Staff at the Air Force, emphasizing the value of this collaboration.

GTRI Builds Upon the Vision

SST receives contributions from and a wide-reaching group of GTRI collaborators, including students. Every member contributes using their own source of knowledge and skills and achievements.

One of the GTRI SST’s founders is senior research engineer and U.S. Marine Corps reservist, Kyle Blond, who was pivotal in the team's development. Blond helped set a vision for SST that extends beyond simply improving isolated aspects of maintenance and logistics. He aims for the SST to be a catalyst for sweeping transformation within the DoD.

As Blond explains, "Our vision here is to advance academic, industry, and government collaborations to deliver transformational change for sustainment stakeholders through innovation and experimentation." He emphasizes that the team's focus on innovation is not merely about doing things better, but about fundamentally changing how things are done.

Blond's own experience played a significant role in shaping this vision. As a Marine Aircraft Maintenance officer and aerospace engineering graduate from Georgia Tech, Blond brings to the table a wealth of military and academic expertise. This is complemented by the diverse experiences of his team members, which include an Air Force aircraft maintenance officer and a former Delta Airlines general manager for maintenance planning. The combination of these experiences provides a unique perspective and an enormous amount of transfer learning, which has proven crucial to the success of SST.

“SST doesn't work from desks,” says Eric Klein, a Senior Research Associate in GTRI’s Electronic Systems Laboratory (ELSYS), and a member of SST.

A significant aspect of the SST's work is its hands-on approach. Rather than merely conducting analyses from behind desks, SST is directly involved in the innovation process. Blond describes this balance between research and development: "Our team balances research and development here in Atlanta while also going to various customer locations to design and drive these experiments to fruition."

SST's collaborative work extends far beyond the walls of GTRI. The team is deeply involved with a wide network of partners and contributors, including hundreds of volunteers from academia, government, and commercial organizations. This network has been instrumental in fostering a culture of innovation and building an ecosystem of problem solvers.

“GTRI's SST is made up of members with deep military and commercial maintenance experience, along with senior research personnel specializing in data analytics, optimization, and predictive maintenance approaches,” said Klein. “We are also receiving contributions from students and a wide-reaching group of GTRI collaborators. Every member contributes using their own source of knowledge and skills and achievements. Because of this, the GTRI Strategic Sustainment Team has what it takes to ‘win.’”

In addition to its involvement with academic and government organizations, SST has been making strides in the commercial sector as well. Blond said, "There have been talks of co-developing software that both perhaps the Air Force and Delta could benefit from because they face a lot of the same challenges when it comes to fixing and flying aircraft." This is exemplary of SST's commitment to sharing knowledge and driving innovation across sectors, demonstrating that its work is as much about collaboration as it is about leadership.

Anticipating and Leading

With over $10.8 million in sponsored projects under its belt, SST has continually proven its ability to stay ahead of the DoD's needs. Through research in predictive maintenance, enterprise logistics, and operational tracking systems, the SST is pushing boundaries and developing groundbreaking solutions. This proactive approach, Blond explains, is a fundamental aspect of SST's mission: "Our mission is to try to be the thought leader in aircraft maintenance and sustainment innovations."

Some of SST’s projects include the C5 experiment on increasing mission-capable aircraft, the KC-46 analysis on the Air Force organically adopting the Boeing maintenance program, working with the Global Strike command manager on the logistics support Pathfinder to increase mission-capable aircraft and reduce s time using innovative planning and scheduling processes. Another project is Iron Spear, a multi-year research project to develop predictive maintenance models from existing sensors and data on aircraft.

Blond makes it clear that in its mission to become the thought leader in the space, SST not only responds to the challenges at hand but also actively identify areas where the team can innovate and propose new ideas.
"Our approach is proactive," Blond explains, "We don't wait for the problem to become critical before starting our work. We constantly brainstorm and look for opportunities where we can make a difference."

The SST team's efforts have led to numerous partnerships, further amplifying their impact. Notably, the SST has established collaborations with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), broadening the diversity of perspectives and experiences that contribute to their work. It has also partnered with the Georgia Tech’s Professional Masters in Applied Systems Engineering (PMASE) program, offering students an opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research and real-world applications of their studies.

SST is engaged with Georgia's economic development organizations, aiming to drive economic growth and innovation within the state. These collaborations allow the SST to harness a broad range of knowledge and expertise, fostering a rich, innovative ecosystem that promotes both local and national advancement.

Blond highlights that the team's success so far is only the beginning, "The ultimate goal is for GTRI to become the thought leader in developing future aircraft sustainment life cycle management and logistics best practices that can be applied for our sponsors' benefit." 

He believes that through the SST's work, they can help bring about a transformational change in the defense sector by pushing the boundaries of existing practices and forging new paths in innovation.

The SST is committed to making a lasting impact on the Department of Defense's maintenance and logistics operations. Through its diverse collaborations, proactive approach, and commitment to groundbreaking solutions, the SST is poised to make a lasting mark on the world of defense operations and beyond.

Watch the GTRI Strategic Sustainment Team introductory video here.

Writer: Christopher Weems
Photo: Christopher J. Moore
GTRI Communications
Video: Eric Klein, GTRI Electonic Systems Laboratory (ELSYS)
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The U.S. Air Force Lifecycle Management Center / Electronic Warfare Division (WNY), located at Robins Air Force Base, supported the development of the Advanced Integrated Electronic Combat Suite (AIECS). Developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the system completed its final flight test in January 2023 and will be installed on the C-130H aircraft used by Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units.

AIECS provides an integrated onboard defensive system that enhances aircrew situational awareness to address threat detection, identification, location, and avoidance of airborne and ground-based threats emitting radio-frequency, infrared, or electro-optical signals. It further enhances aircraft defensive suite capabilities to degrade enemy threats.

C-130s often fly at low altitudes, which means their crews have little time to detect and respond to threats. The pilot, co-pilot, and navigator are often busy with mission-related tasks such as navigation, communication, and terrain avoidance. “AIECS serves as an aircrew decision aid. It correlates information from multiple sources into a single view that allows crews to rapidly understand and respond to their threat environment,” said Andrew Schoen, a GTRI senior research scientist who has worked on the project since its inception.

“Any time you are in a threat environment, you are fighting against a timeline,” Schoen said. “The adversary has a certain amount of time before they might shoot a missile at the aircraft. Reducing the amount of time needed by the crew to detect the threat and respond to it increases the survivability of that crew because it allows them to beat that timeline.”

The AIECS software runs on a mission computer already operating on the aircraft that had the capabilities needed, Schoen said. “Instead of adding a new piece of hardware, we used something that was already there.”

“We’ve been responsive to the operators in how they would like to use the system and have the information displayed,” Schoen added. “For instance, we’ve tweaked the display to make it more understandable to aircrews trying to fly through a complex environment.”

A 2022 flight test helped the GTRI researchers to identify other operational improvements that only become apparent during flight testing. Those improvements were incorporated into AIECS for the 2023 test, said Dan LaGesse, a GTRI senior research engineer who participated in the most recent flight test. “We are always looking for ways to improve things,” he added.

The January 2023 flight test was held at the China Lake Electronic Combat Range using an Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center C-130. Ten GTRI researchers were involved in aircraft- and ground-based portions of the test, with representatives from GTRI Headquarters in Atlanta, the Tucson Field Office, St. Joseph Field Office, and Warner Robins Field Office.

“We are looking at ways to reduce lifecycle costs and improve performance across the systems on the aircraft,” LaGesse explained. “The aircrews are operating in a rapidly-evolving threat environment. We want to develop software that evolves as quickly as the world around us.”

In addition to those already mentioned, the following key GTRI researchers (in alphabetical order) participated in the development of AIECS: Chad Brown, Clay Carpenter, Jo Eliot (retired), Sean Maydwell, Tim Palmer, Brian Rianhard, and Linda Viney.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Sanders found the perfect fit in GTRI’s Professional Education program (GTRI-PE). GTRI-PE is connected to the Georgia Tech Professional Education program (GTPE) and offers short courses and certificate programs taught by GTRI researchers in the areas of defense technology, cybersecurity, and occupational safety and health.

Sanders last year earned a cybersecurity certificate through the program, which teaches participants how to best mitigate risk, defend their organization from external and internal threats, and more. Working in a cyber-focused role at GTRI, Sanders said the program equipped her with the strategic and technical knowledge to help protect GTRI against emerging threats.

“The program was exactly what I was looking for,” said Sanders. “It fit into my schedule and helped me obtain more career-specific credentials.”

GTRI-PE offers over 100 distinct courses taught by more than 160 instructors. During FY22, the program delivered a total of 184 courses, predominantly catering to organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and various government sponsors. GTRI researchers with a suitable background and proficiency may serve as instructors. Instructors receive supplemental compensation as an acknowledgment of their contributions to the program.

GTRI-PE Director Renita Folds said GTRI researchers provide a practical perspective to the classroom that extends beyond theories and concepts.  

“GTRI researchers bring immense value to our short courses, primarily through their extensive experience in their respective fields,” Folds said. “They are actively engaged in applied research and working on cutting-edge solutions for complex problems on a daily basis. This direct involvement in the field allows them to bring real-world insights and up-to-date knowledge to the classroom, enhancing the learning experience for our course participants.”

GTRI places high importance on providing courses that cater to the current demand in various fields. While radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic warfare (EW) and cybersecurity remain highly sought-after disciplines, the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) also recognizes the significance of emerging technologies. Hence, GTRI is prioritizing the development of courses focused on cutting-edge subjects like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data science. A new communications certificate program is currently under development and is set to launch in FY24, said Folds.

“We recognize how critical it is for our government and industry partners to stay ahead of these pressing issues,” she said.   

GTRI-PE offers a mix of in-person, hybrid and virtual classes, which consist of lectures, discussion sessions, and hands-on projects.  

While instructors are considered to be experts on the topics that they teach about, GTRI Principal Research Engineer Carlos Dávila, who teaches courses on radar systems and electronic warfare (EW), said he is often just as much a student as a teacher.

Dávila has been an instructor for the past 20 years, and developed two short courses for the program – Modeling and Simulation of Radar Systems and Basic Electronic Warfare Modeling, which are centered on two widely-used programming languages, MATLAB and Simulink.  

“The intent with these courses is to build upon theoretical concepts by having students develop models that reinforce and illustrate those fundamentals,” Dávila said.

Dávila said his favorite part of being an instructor is gaining fresh perspectives from students, who help him stay current on the ever-changing dynamics of his field.

“I see teaching and performing research as very complementary,” he said. “My students keep me hungry to improve both the breadth and depth of my knowledge base.”

Another instructor, GTRI Principal Research Scientist Matt Guinn, has also been with the program for 20 years and developed the cybersecurity course Introduction to Penetration Testing. Guinn’s class is lab-based and provides students with an understanding of the fundamental threat vectors and exploitation techniques adversaries use to breach systems and networks.

Guinn also co-teaches a course related to his own class called Defensive Cyber Operations. This course is also lab-based and introduces students to modern defensive skills required to counteract cyber threats.

“I often teach these courses back-to-back, which is fun because students get to spend the first class thinking about threats from an adversary’s perspective, and then flip things around and learn about how to best defend against those threats in the second class.”  

Guinn most enjoys demystifying cyber threats and providing his students with practical tools to be prepared to defend their organizations against them.  

“One of the main things that I try to accomplish with my class is to teach professionals who may have a limited amount of technical experience with handling cyber breaches the fundamentals of how to best address them,” he said.

But GTRI-PE is not limited to novices.  

Industry veterans who participate in the program say they can’t believe how much there is left to learn.

Jaime Downing, an information security manager at the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), which provides integrated air warfare capabilities to the U.S. Navy, has close to 25 years of cybersecurity experience, an MS in Information Systems Management Cybersecurity and multiple cyber certifications. Downing has audited cyber courses offered by similar programs across the country.

Downing, who earned GTRI’s cybersecurity certificate in 2021, said the practicality of the classes and the ability to collaborate with other DoD professionals helped her view cyber concepts in a new light.  

“GTRI provided perspectives to help with delivering objectives and benchmarks associated with vulnerabilities, threats and risk reduction,” Downing said. “Even at the expert level, there is something new to learn every day. The GTRI team provided professionalism and friendliness, displayed significant details, and was well versed on the topics taught.”

Downing added that the program reinforced the importance of maintaining strong cyber networks from a national security standpoint.  

“From a DoD perspective, the U.S. has to be trained one step further than its adversaries,” she said. “We need to make sure that we are as cyber-savvy as possible and that all of our networks are secured. Our nation’s future depends on it.” 

If you are interested in learning more about GTRI-PE, you may contact Renita Folds at renita.folds@gtri.gatech.edu.

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photos: Sean McNeil 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

VR is a simulated experience that immerses users in a virtual world through the use of pose tracking and 3D displays. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has adopted VR as a way to provide real-time training for warfighters, such as flight simulations for fighter pilots and battlefield training for on-ground soldiers, as well as equipment repair and maintenance.

Alexis Noel, a GTRI senior research engineer who is leading this project, said VR is a cost- and time-effective alternative to traditional training methods. Noel, who holds a Ph.D. in biomechanics from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), focuses her research on how to train the next generation of technicians, artisans, and engineers through immersive, interactive augmented reality (AR) and VR experiences.

“The idea is that military personnel could put a VR headset on and walk through a whole bunch of different training scenarios without there being a need to spend the time and money required for them to be in the actual environment,” Noel said.

As technology becomes increasingly more complex, subject matter experts (SMEs) are becoming increasingly sparse, she added.  

“In a traditional training environment, if you want to train someone on operating a new CNC milling machine, for example, you may have to fly a SME out from across the country, which can be expensive and time-consuming,” Noel said. “If you don’t have a SME, you have to rely on paper manuals, recorded videos, or virtual conferences. VR is the next step in the progression of training videos.”

In addition to reducing the cost and time required to train novices on beginner tasks or standard operating procedures, VR can also replicate emergency scenarios, which can be challenging to do in a traditional training setting. VR can also enable repetition and be deployed to any location, Noel said.

VR systems come with 3D headsets that show users the virtual world and hand controllers that allow them to interact with that new environment. However, many traditional VR controllers are rigid, clunky, and don’t allow people to use their fingers to grab or manipulate small objects or complete tasks that require greater levels of precision.

Noel’s team is working to solve that challenge by developing a lightweight yet robust haptic device that users would wear on their fingertips. The haptic system is called LiGHT-VR, which stands for Lightweight Glove-free Haptics for Training in Virtual Reality. LiGHT-VR relies upon sensor fusion to accurately track the position of a user’s fingertips and provide tactile feedback.

“This ‘gloveless’ glove would remove the need for rigid controllers and better allow warfighters to interact with things in the virtual world with their hands,” Noel explained. “It has some feedback mechanisms in place to make it feel like they’re actually touching things. Additionally, our haptic system is cable-free, lightweight, and can snugly fit any size hand for accurate finger tracking.”

In addition to offering greater precision and tactile feedback, this lightweight device would have a low level of latency, or the amount of time it takes for a user’s movements to be reflected in the VR environment, to optimize performance.

The haptics market has experienced rapid growth in recent years, largely due to the digital transformation spurred by Covid-19. The global haptics market is projected to reach $28.1 billion in value by 2026, a 104% increase from 2020. The tactile haptics market, meanwhile, is expected to grow 13.5% to reach $24 billion by 2026.

While there are a number of commercial off-the-shelf products available in the VR haptic glove market, these gloves are plagued by immersion-breaking issues such as unrealistic haptic feedback, poor finger tracking, and bulky, ill-fitted fabric glove bases, noted Noel.

“These devices haven't quite figured out how to map your hand into the virtual world,” she said.  “That’s where we come in. We want to remove the controllers by precisely tracking where a user’s fingertips are and then replicate that in the virtual world.”

GTRI’s new haptics offering would usher in a new era of virtual DoD training. Military personnel would be able to do things such as use their hands to disassemble weapons and learn how to operate the buttons and switches in a nuclear power plant.  

GTRI has developed its own haptic prototype with a combination of off-the-shelf components and GTRI-developed silicone casting that would be placed on users’ finger tips to track their movements.

This project has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development (IRAD) program.

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photos: Christopher Moore 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Georgia Tech space policy expert Mariel Borowitz thinks she has a way to help clear up some of that confusion. Under a new $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, Borowitz plans to help lead a major series of public space wargaming exercises. They’re meant to tease out how current U.S. deterrence strategies might fall short when it comes to stopping a conflict in space and what can be done to improve them.

“When it comes to conflict in space, the stakes are enormously high and the challenges are extremely complex,” said Borowitz, an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “This project will better equip us to understand whether existing deterrence models can help hold the line in space or whether another model is necessary to prevent a potentially devastating outbreak in orbit.”

Jon Lindsay, an associate professor in the Nunn School with a joint appointment in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, will work with Borowitz on the project, as will U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Brian Stewart — a Nunn School Ph.D. graduate who now teaches at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Jacquelyn Schneider — a Hoover Fellow at The Hoover Center at Stanford University — rounds out the team.

A central theme of the project will be trying to understand how the concept of integrated deterrence applies to conflict in space. Integrated deterrence essentially boils down to a country using everything at its disposal to prevent conflict from escalating too far, from applying diplomatic and economic pressure to bringing the military into the mix.

Using such means to deter conflict in a global hotspot on the ground is tricky enough. Look no further than Ukraine for contemporary evidence of that.

But when that hotspot is space, conflict doesn’t just threaten stability in one part of the planet. It could quickly become a serious threat to civilian communications, commerce, and military operations across the globe. Despite the high stakes, trying to understand how to tamp down such conflict is something government officials and scholars are only beginning to tackle.

Much of the work in this space focuses on improving military technology to sense what adversaries are doing and improving the ability of militaries to destroy incoming attacks quickly. But this project highlights how no complex problem can be solved without considering both technological and human factors — a core competency of the Nunn School and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“We understand entanglement from a technological standpoint, but we need to better understand how these entanglements affect perceptions and decisions, which ultimately shape deterrence,” Borowitz said. “And we need to have more clarity on how decisions to separate military and civilian systems or choices to integrate different sectors within the space domain more closely might affect deterrence, before billions of dollars are spent on these efforts.”

Borowitz and her colleagues have already staged versions of space conflict scenarios in the classroom at Georgia Tech. They are now broadening the scope and preparing for the first exercises, which could come as soon as September.

The team plans to hold wargaming sessions across the globe over the next few years, including at Georgia Tech and the Air Force Academy and in Washington, Brussels, Taiwan, and Tokyo. The sessions will include national security figures, scholars, students, and international partners.

The project is expected to generate a significant dataset of use to scholars, as well as a book, game design materials, and other assets to help other researchers continue the work, Borowitz said

VR is a simulated experience that immerses users in a virtual world through the use of pose tracking and 3D displays. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has adopted VR as a way to provide real-time training for warfighters, such as flight simulations for fighter pilots and battlefield training for on-ground soldiers, as well as equipment repair and maintenance.

Alexis Noel, a GTRI senior research engineer who is leading this project, said VR is a cost- and time-effective alternative to traditional training methods. Noel, who holds a Ph.D. in biomechanics from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), focuses her research on how to train the next generation of technicians, artisans, and engineers through immersive, interactive augmented reality (AR) and VR experiences.

“The idea is that military personnel could put a VR headset on and walk through a whole bunch of different training scenarios without there being a need to spend the time and money required for them to be in the actual environment,” Noel said.

As technology becomes increasingly more complex, subject matter experts (SMEs) are becoming increasingly sparse, she added.  

“In a traditional training environment, if you want to train someone on operating a new CNC milling machine, for example, you may have to fly a SME out from across the country, which can be expensive and time-consuming,” Noel said. “If you don’t have a SME, you have to rely on paper manuals, recorded videos, or virtual conferences. VR is the next step in the progression of training videos.”

In addition to reducing the cost and time required to train novices on beginner tasks or standard operating procedures, VR can also replicate emergency scenarios, which can be challenging to do in a traditional training setting. VR can also enable repetition and be deployed to any location, Noel said.

VR systems come with 3D headsets that show users the virtual world and hand controllers that allow them to interact with that new environment. However, many traditional VR controllers are rigid, clunky, and don’t allow people to use their fingers to grab or manipulate small objects or complete tasks that require greater levels of precision.

Noel’s team is working to solve that challenge by developing a lightweight yet robust haptic device that users would wear on their fingertips. The haptic system is called LiGHT-VR, which stands for Lightweight Glove-free Haptics for Training in Virtual Reality. LiGHT-VR relies upon sensor fusion to accurately track the position of a user’s fingertips and provide tactile feedback.

“This ‘gloveless’ glove would remove the need for rigid controllers and better allow warfighters to interact with things in the virtual world with their hands,” Noel explained. “It has some feedback mechanisms in place to make it feel like they’re actually touching things. Additionally, our haptic system is cable-free, lightweight, and can snugly fit any size hand for accurate finger tracking.”

In addition to offering greater precision and tactile feedback, this lightweight device would have a low level of latency, or the amount of time it takes for a user’s movements to be reflected in the VR environment, to optimize performance.

The haptics market has experienced rapid growth in recent years, largely due to the digital transformation spurred by Covid-19. The global haptics market is projected to reach $28.1 billion in value by 2026, a 104% increase from 2020. The tactile haptics market, meanwhile, is expected to grow 13.5% to reach $24 billion by 2026.

While there are a number of commercial off-the-shelf products available in the VR haptic glove market, these gloves are plagued by immersion-breaking issues such as unrealistic haptic feedback, poor finger tracking, and bulky, ill-fitted fabric glove bases, noted Noel.

“These devices haven't quite figured out how to map your hand into the virtual world,” she said.  “That’s where we come in. We want to remove the controllers by precisely tracking where a user’s fingertips are and then replicate that in the virtual world.”

GTRI’s new haptics offering would usher in a new era of virtual DoD training. Military personnel would be able to do things such as use their hands to disassemble weapons and learn how to operate the buttons and switches in a nuclear power plant.  

GTRI has developed its own haptic prototype with a combination of off-the-shelf components and GTRI-developed silicone casting that would be placed on users’ finger tips to track their movements.

This project has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development (IRAD) program.

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photos: Christopher Moore 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Northern Edge 2023 involved thousands of U.S. service members, five ships and more than 150 aircraft at various locations in and around Alaska. The NE 23-1 contingency included service members from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, Royal Air Force (UK), and Royal Australian Air Force. NE 23-1 provided the opportunity for U.S. military and allied personnel to sharpen their skills; practice tactics, techniques, and procedures; to improve command, control, and communication relationships; and develop cooperative plans and programs.

The large contingent of U.S. forces participants was joined by United Kingdom and Australian service members in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercise, which provided an opportunity for joint, multinational, and multi-domain operations designed to provide high-end, realistic warfighter training, develop and improve joint interoperability, and enhance the combat readiness of participating forces. U.S. alliances and partnerships remain a critical defense relationship and a central pillar of all nations’ national security, based on shared values and a common commitment to peace and security.

“NE23-1 is a strong example of multilateral cooperation and demonstrates the U.S. commitment to the region by building interoperability, advancing common interests and a commitment to our Allies and partners in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” according to Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs.

GTRI researchers supported the exercise from multiple locations, including Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Eielson Air Force Base, among others. The exercise provided an opportunity for GTRI to showcase our talents and capabilities across multiple areas of air and ground systems research and development.

Great job to all!

Writer: Mike Naes, Orlando Field Office Manager (Reference 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs)

Photo: Senior Airman Jose Miguel Tamondong

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

At the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), researchers are working to expand their fundamental understanding of these hybrid electrolytes, the component that transfers charge between electrodes as the batteries power systems such as electric vehicles (EVs) – and are then recharged. Lithium-ion batteries widely used in today’s EVs rely on liquid electrolytes, which are susceptible to thermal runaway and fire if they are damaged.

“We’ve shown that we can fabricate these hybrid, solid-state electrolytes and put them into coin cells to demonstrate high performance and high stability,” said Ilan Stern, a principal research scientist who leads battery research at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech’s applied research organization. “We’ve laid the foundation to show that we can develop innovations in solid-state batteries based on these ceramic-polymer hybrids. Our next step is to integrate the technology into pouch cells, the type of batteries used in electric vehicles.”

The GTRI researchers are working with colleagues from Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Strategic Energy Institute on research into an electrolyte known as lithium aluminum germanium phosphate (LAGP). A polymer component known as poly DOL surrounds the LAGP electrolyte, providing internal ionic conductivity that goes well beyond existing ceramic electrolytes – without the disadvantages of flammable liquids. The fabrication team and academic collaboration are led by Jinho Park, a GTRI research scientist. Synthesis of the LAGP ceramic is led by Jason Nadler, a GTRI principal research scientist.

Advantages of Hybrid Ceramic-Polymer Materials

Stern describes traditional ceramic electrolytes as similar to hard candy – think M&Ms – poured into the space between the battery anode and cathode. The hard ceramics provide safety and energy storage advantages, but are limited in how much they contact the electrodes to transfer ionic charges. Adding the polymer dramatically improves the interfacial contact between the electrodes and electrolyte while maintaining most advantages of the ceramics.

“The electrochemical stability, thermal stability and mechanical stability will be the main differences between the liquid electrolytes and these hybrids,” he said. “We’re really taking the best of both worlds. As solid-state batteries enable the use of a Li-metal anode, the ceiling for capacity is significantly higher, so we should ultimately see a dramatic increase in energy density compared to the conventional Li-ion batteries based on the liquid electrolytes.”

The hybrid ceramic-polymer electrolyte looks like a hockey puck, but will be more resistant to damage than a pure ceramic. “It will certainly be much more forgiving than a ceramic,” Stern said. “Even if micro-cracks develop, the polymer will provide the scaffolding to ensure integrity, holding it together structurally.”

Moving Ahead with Solid-State Batteries

Solid-state batteries are not yet in commercial use, but at least one EV manufacturer plans to put them into vehicles within the next few years as battery manufacturers continue to make improvements. But the technology is far less mature than existing liquid-electrolyte systems, inviting innovations such as the hybrid system the Georgia Tech researchers are working on.

The research is being supported, in part, by a $1.1 million, three-year independent research and development commitment from GTRI. “With the unprecedented federal and state investment made in Georgia for electric vehicles, battery manufacturing, and recycling, GTRI continues to build strong collaborations to help identify gaps and new business models – and to forecast the number and types of recycling plants necessary to respond to future market demands,” Stern added.

Based on encouraging results with small, laboratory-scale batteries, the researchers plan to expand their work into batteries that could be fabricated by the hundreds or thousands for further development and testing – and, ultimately, large-scale manufacturing. “As we increase our efficiency with fabrication, manufacturing costs will come down, while supply chain integration and the sustainability goals of reusability and recycling will have a big impact,” Stern said.

Model-Based System Engineering Guides the Future

Beyond demonstrating the potential for this technology, the research team also is modeling the operation of the cells to help guide future technology development and assessing the potential life cycle of the hybrid electrolyte solid-state batteries. Among the future goals are integrating the technology into supply chains that would not rely on materials sourced from conflict areas of the world, and evaluating new electrode materials such as lithium metal and silicon to replace standard graphite.

“The objective of the model-based system engineering (MBSE) task is to model expert knowledge ranging from the fabrication level to the system integration to unveil opportunities for research as well as new business models,” said Paula Gomez, a GTRI senior research engineer, and the modeling team lead.

The research team is developing models in three main areas: (1) fabrication and performance; (2) manufacturing process; and (3) reuse, refurbish, and recycling. Integrating these models involves evaluating battery efficiency and stability, cost of production, and energy consumption, as well as return on investment of recycling materials.

Though the advantages of solid-state electrolytes are very attractive, there are challenges ahead. A hybrid electrolyte system is more complicated to manufacture, and the electrical, mechanical, and chemical interactions between the materials must be thoroughly studied. “The more complexity you have, the more issues you have to understand,” Stern said.

Military and Economic Development Applications

GTRI is known for its support of national security through research sponsored by U.S. Department of Defense agencies. Stern expects the improved solid-state battery technology will ultimately find its way into military gear carried by soldiers and future generations of electrically powered military vehicles.

The work also supports economic development for the state of Georgia, which is rapidly becoming a hub for electric vehicle and battery manufacturing.

“Georgia is becoming the epicenter of the electrification revolution with vehicle makers such as Rivian and Hyundai, battery companies such as SK, FREYER Battery, and recyclers such as Ascend Elements,” Stern said. “Georgia Tech is contributing to the state’s economic development by helping drive that innovation.”

Battery Day Demonstrates Interest

A recent “Battery Day” held March 30 at Georgia Tech highlighted the broad research collaborations already underway. Led by Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, the event attracted more than 230 energy researchers and industry participants.

Beyond those already mentioned, the hybrid battery project includes Michael Shearin, Richard Wise, John Hankinson, Matthew Swarts, Khatereh Hadi, Milad Navaei, and Jack Zentner from GTRI.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The first eight projects in the inaugural cohort, along with the seven projects chosen last year, have been a great success. In this third year, the fellowship is expanding to include an additional seven projects that will further the research collaboration across Georgia Tech’s schools and colleges.

“We really want connectivity to manifest through research collaborations, and it’s advantageous for us to reach into the broad wealth of and depth of talent across the academic schools,” said Mark Whorton, GTRI’s chief technology officer. “From the theoretical research done on campus into the applied research we do at GTRI, we're seeking to take those great capabilities and bring applications into the national security space.”

Across the seven selected fellowship awards for the upcoming academic year, researchers from GTRI labs will co-advise students along with a Georgia Tech faculty member. This year’s projects will lead to innovations in everything from electronic warfare systems, artificial intelligence/machine learning, autonomous systems, and protein sequencing to international policy.

Faculty Research Pairs and Proposals 

What: Reconfigurable Metasurfaces for High-Power Microwave Systems and Emerging EM Spectrum Operation Concepts

Who: Dr. Nima Ghalichechian, Dr. Joshua Kovitz, Walter Disharoon

Unit: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Advanced Concepts Laboratory (ACL)

Why It Matters: Reconfigurable metasurfaces have the potential to improve high-power microwave (HPM) systems, enabling applications such as adaptive beamforming and beam shaping, frequency tuning, and polarization timing for use in radar, communication systems, directed energy, and other electronic warfare systems. This research proposes to develop reconfigurable metasurfaces using vanadium dioxide (VO2) switch technologies for HPM systems, and demonstrate a reconfigurable reflectarray (RRA) and high-power limiter metasurface.

“Phase-change materials offer a completely new paradigm for the ubiquitous RF switch, a fundamental building block in sensor and electronic warfare systems,” said Kovitz and Ghalichechian. “As a part of this joint effort, we plan to design, fabricate, and test novel reconfigurable and high-power microwave structures based on these phase-change materials.”

What: Interactive Decision-making and Resilient Planning for Long-Horizon Collaborative Manipulation in Complex Military Environments

Who: Dr. Ye Zhao, Dr. Stephen Balakirsky, Maxwell Asselmeier

Unit: School of Mechanical Engineering; Aerospace Transportation & Advanced Systems Laboratory (ATAS)

Why It Matters: Collaborative manipulation, as a class of general-purpose autonomous systems, provides an expansive set of desirable capabilities to perform complex tasks in highly unstructured environments. These autonomous systems could operate in dangerous environments that are inaccessible to first responders, saving labor and reducing the risk to human life. This will open the opportunity of enabling human operators to focus on high-level, critical decisions.

“This fellowship will support human-robot teaming with a robot that has a high level of autonomy along with a sense of touch,” said Balakirsky. “This combination will allow a human operator to provide tasking of dexterous manipulation tasks to the robot without the burden of teleoperation or constant process monitoring. This system has wide-ranging applications from search and rescue to manufacturing.”

What: Trustworthy Edge Systems for Video Analytics: Robustness, Safety, and Resilience

Who: Dr. Ling Liu, Dr. Margaret Loper, Connor Geurin

Unit: School of Computer Science; Information and Communications Laboratory (ICL)

Why It Matters: Video as an edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) service will be a crucial component in many cyber-physical systems and applications. However, most of the video analytics today are typically done in the Cloud, which incurs overwhelming demand for bandwidth. This research is centered on developing trustworthy edge systems for video analytics, including developing the theory, algorithms, and techniques for boosting the robustness of real-time object detection. This will ensure safety and resilience against different types of disruptions and compromises.

“The proliferation of mobile computing and Internet of Things has created a paradigm that pushes computing tasks and services from the network core to the network edge,” said Loper. “Pushing AI to the edge is seen as a promising solution for processing the massive amounts of small data generated by these devices. The findings of this research could fundamentally change how AI-enhanced edge systems will be designed, developed, and deployed, and could lead to a new generation of security and safety-enhanced edge systems.”

What: Model-based Reinforcement Learning for Policy-perspective Explainable and Trusted Artificial Intelligence

Who: Dr. Sehoon Ha, Dr. Robert Wright, Morgan Byrd

Units: School of Interactive Computing; Cybersecurity, Information Protection, and Hardware Evaluation Research Laboratory (CIPHER)

Why It Matters: The emergence of capable artificial intelligence (AI) that can make sequential strategic decisions via deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) has revolutionized various fields, including computer games and robotic control, but they have not yet impacted safety-critical domains such as power grid control, medical treatment, and autonomous driving and far from real-world deployment. This research investigates scalable model-based RL approaches for explainable and trusted AI to develop explainable AI learning frameworks that can be applied to these safety-critical domains.

“AI technologies are becoming more and more capable every day and are on the verge of revolutionizing many fields and industries,” said Wright. “However, AI models are prone to mistakes, and their reasoning can be very opaque, leading to a [reasonable] lack of trust. This effort investigates novel explainable AI approaches for Reinforcement Learning (RL) to improve trust and practicality. Our intent is to develop model-based RL algorithms that can explicitly describe why it is making its decisions, visualize or describe what it expects to happen, and provide counterfactual examples for why it chose not to make decisions.”

What: Two-dimensional Nanopore Sensors for Real-time, Single Molecule Protein Sequencing

Who: Dr. Eric Vogel, Dr. Katherine Young, Noah Baughman

Units: School of Materials Science and Engineering; Cybersecurity, Information Protection, and Hardware Evaluation Research Laboratory (CIPHER)

Why It Matters: There is a significant need to develop rapid protein sequencing technologies that can be used by the warfighter in the field to identify the impact of biological warfare agents or to provide physiological monitoring to enhance soldier performance. A technology to rapidly sequence the primary and secondary structure of proteins at the single-molecule level in real-time does not currently exist. The objective of this work is to develop a rapid protein sequencing prototype technology based on two-dimensional (e.g., graphene, MoS2) nanopore sensors that can be used by the warfighter in the field and enable future research programs which apply this prototype to perform full protein sequencing.

“There is a significant need to develop rapid protein sequencing technologies that can be used to identify the impact of biological warfare agents or to provide physiological monitoring to enhance human performance,” said Vogel and Young. “This fellowship will support the fundamental research necessary to develop nanopore electrochemical sensors based on two-dimensional materials to rapidly sequence the primary and secondary structure of proteins at the single-molecule level in real-time.”

What: Generating Geopolitics: AI, Disinformation, and the Future of National Security

Who: Dr. Jon Lindsay, Mr. Nicholas Nelson, Dennis Murphy

Units: School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and School of Public Policy; Electronics, Optics, Systems Directorate (EOSD)

Why It Matters: The use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) in national security has the potential to enhance our ability to protect national interests greatly. However, there are also potential challenges and risks associated with this technology, such as the potential for bias or misuse. This research will engage in a multidisciplinary study that will bridge the gap between disparate research fields and reintroduce relevant security-related concepts from the social sciences. This will result in the generation of scientifically-grounded potential use cases for the technology in the support and protection of national interests.

“As AI/ML capabilities and use cases continue to evolve, it is critical for defense and national security actors to better innovate, scale, deploy, and integrate AI and autonomy-based technologies to form agile, system-wide solutions,” Nelson and Lindsay said.

What: Unmasking the "Status dilemma/competition" of the triad powers (Russia, China, and United States) in offensive-defensive behavior

Who: Dr. Adam Stulberg, Dr. Theresa Kessler, Megan Litz

Units: Sam Nunn School of International Affairs; Advanced Concepts Laboratory (ACL)

Why it matters: Unveiling the misperceptions of offensive and defensive signaling is needed in a time when offensive and defensive capabilities are becoming ever more difficult to decipher as technology is evolving. The goal of this research is to shed light on how misinterpreting states’ status can lead to international conflict and expand the initial scholarship that is starting to gain traction within the political science and security studies communities. Understanding and attempting to codify intention would be of great interest to U.S. strategists and tactical planners and aid in answering vital questions of National Security regarding the status of triad powers. Information of this nature will benefit U.S. leadership, departments, and inter-agencies that navigate relations with Russia and China.

“This fellowship will support the codification of offensive and defensive signals between Russian, Chinese, and American powers using an open-source literature repository,” said Kessler. “This will help unveil misperceptions and decipher intention.”

Writers: Georgia Parmelee, Tess Malone (Georgia Tech Research); Charles Domercant, Anna Akins (GTRI)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

FY22 was another year of growth. Our workforce of more than 2,900 produced 15% higher revenue and many impactful deliverables. In FY23, we will focus on developing our portfolio tools and strengthening our partnerships.

Through this report, we invite you to review the many inspiring stories that showcase our organization’s dedication to providing innovative solutions for government and industry. We hope you will join us as we continue taking our capabilities to new heights.

VISIT THE GTRI 2022 ANNUAL REPORT DIGITAL SERIES

DOWNLOAD THE GTRI 2022 ANNUAL REPORT (PDF)

Through the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, Georgia Tech has been providing research and training support to personnel at the base, which supports the USMC mission worldwide. Activities under the new contract will be managed through the Albany installation, which has approximately 3,000 civilian staff and slightly more than 400 military personnel, making it one of the largest employers in Southwest Georgia.

The new Information Analysis Center Multiple Award Contract (IAC MAC) was competitively awarded through the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center. In all, the task order contract specifies 22 areas where GTRI, Georgia Tech, and partner organizations can support the USMC, and is the largest contract ever awarded to GTRI from the USMC.

“This award will continue the applied research efforts that support the analysis, assessment, and integration of technologies and methods to enhance the operations of the Marine Corps logistics, storage, and maintenance capabilities, while also providing potential support to the broader Marine Corps and DoD requirements,” said Larry Kimm, manager of GTRI’s Quantico Field Office and project director for the new contract. “This contract builds upon a nearly five-year partnership between Georgia Tech and the U.S. Marine Corps to provide ‘white-hat’ research and analysis support.”

Research projects conducted under earlier contracts have included the development and demonstration of robotic platform prototypes for improved ground vehicle autonomous inventory operations, and the development of a software tool that rapidly collates disparate inventory information to simplify tracking procedures. Additionally, ongoing workflow optimization modeling and simulation, and analytical studies of MARCORLOGCOM parts, repair, paint, and back-shop maintenance operations are supporting enhanced efficiency and mission readiness requirements. 

Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute provides research and education in the application of scientific principles to optimize the design and integration of supply chain strategy, infrastructure, processes, and technology. It has taught courses to hundreds of civilian employees and military personnel at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, providing advanced training and certification in logistics operations and industrial engineering principles. 

“The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute is pleased to continue engaging with GTRI on Marine Corps Logistics Command’s innovation and improvement needs,” said Timothy Brown, managing director of the Institute. “We look to continue delivering professional education programs, applied research by our Industrial and Systems Engineering faculty and graduate students, and operations improvement efforts by our affiliate researchers.”

Graduate and undergraduate programs at Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) have been ranked first in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for more than a quarter century. The school is the largest of its kind in the United States.

In addition to its Georgia Tech collaborators, GTRI has also worked with multiple subcontractors to collaboratively conduct detailed business case analyses and change management support activities to optimize reorganization decisions and processes for MARCORLOGCOM. Georgia Tech has also involved interns from Albany Technical College and Albany State University in serving the organization’s needs.

In addition to supporting MARCORLOGCOM in Albany, the task order contract will allow GTRI and Georgia Tech to serve the broader needs of the USMC in such areas as automation, airborne networks, command-and-control systems, communications, cybersecurity, data exchange standards, electronic combat, human systems integration, manufacturing optimization, modeling and simulation, secure information systems, software assurance, systems engineering, technology insertion, and technology analysis.

GTRI’s connection to Georgia Tech academic colleges and research institutes makes it attractive to organizations interested in promoting innovation and changing organizational approaches. “Agencies gain access to the world-class expertise we have at Georgia Tech, both within GTRI and on the academic side,” Kimm said.

Located on Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, MARCORLOGCOM provides worldwide, integrated logistics, supply chain, and distribution management; depot-level maintenance management; and strategic pre-positioning capability in support of the operating forces and other supported USMC units to maximize their readiness and sustainability and to support enterprise and program-level total life cycle management.

The DoD IAC collects, analyzes, synthesizes, produces, and disseminates scientific and technical information (STI) to DoD and federal government users. IACs support The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (R&E) in carrying out the R&E community's three strategic guiding imperatives: 1) mitigating new and emerging adversary threats that could degrade U.S. (and allied) capabilities; 2) enabling affordable new or extended capabilities in existing military systems; and 3) developing technology surprise through science and engineering applications to military problems. 

GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Getting fuel to military aircraft in a timely manner can be complex and challenging. Fueling operations must anticipate demand and allocate resources to provide quick turnaround while accommodating unexpected air traffic. Located in the state of Washington, Whidbey may be best known as the location where much of the recent movie, “Top Gun: Maverick,” was filmed, but it’s also one of the busiest naval air stations on the West Coast.

The pilot project is supported by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (R&E) 5G initiatives program and is among the first projects to be funded by that effort.   

“The goal of this project is to increase the mission readiness of the aircraft,” said David Alvord, a senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and principal investigator of the fuel delivery pilot program. “We are working with the Navy to increase the reliability of the refueling process, to make sure it’s on time, and help keep everybody in the loop – including the pilots and fuel dispatchers – so they understand the time frame and when and where everything is happening.”

A soon-to-be-built 5G network at Whidbey will be used to connect components of the system, including location tracking and fueling queue information on fuel trucks, computers that analyze planned flight operations, and algorithms designed to optimize the use of fueling resources. The technology will replace a system that relies on walkie-talkie and mobile phone conversations to identify aircraft needs and direct fuel trucks.

"Whidbey, through Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, was directed to leverage commercially available 5G networks, technologies, and processes to experiment with how to ensure that U.S. forces will have connectivity uniquely suited to the battle space wherever we deploy. Utilizing AI to assist in optimizing 5G network management to support fueling operations is one of our experiments that utilizes relevant mission use cases that potentially can support real world functionality and military utility," said Deb Stanislawski, the OUSD (R&E) 5G Accelerate Use Director.   

“We’re going to reduce the likelihood of human errors and misunderstandings to make the system more reliable,” Alvord said. “That should make the job easier, decrease the risk, and improve the level of performance.” Data from two years ago showed many flights operated from Whidbey were affected by delays in refueling operations.

The new system will provide data to three key groups that must make decisions necessary to keep aircraft flying. Fueling technicians will know which aircraft need service and what their priorities are. Plane captains will know when fuel trucks will be available to service their aircraft so they can be present – without having to wait on the flight line. Base leadership will know that available resources are being used to keep missions on time. 

Plane captains, for instance, will know where they are in the priority for fuel and where the truck carrying their fuel is located. “They will know that their request is in the queue and have an estimated delivery time,” said Alvord. “It will allow them to not only more reliably order the fuel they need, but also put time spent waiting for fuel to better use.”

The system will provide base leadership with data and analysis they’ve never had before. “At the base operations level, they will get insight into top-level analytics that will allow them to make better operational decisions about allocating personnel, equipment, or other resources,” Alvord added.

GTRI researchers have experience in military vehicle maintenance issues through their predictive maintenance initiative known as Iterative Reinforced Operational Network for Strategic, Predictive, and Enhanced Analytics for Readiness (IRON SPEAR). Software developed for IRON SPEAR will support the pilot project, Alvord said, including conditioning data from different sources, bringing it together for use by machine learning, and putting the resulting information into a format useful to users.

The AI part of the system will analyze planned flight operations of the aircraft based at Whidbey – information that is usually available a day in advance. The system will also have information about expected stops by transient aircraft that may be at Whidbey to refuel while on their way to a different location. Based on that data, the system will plan fueling operations and be able to juggle priorities should aircraft operations change.

“Those computers are going to be taking all of this new data we’ll be acquiring in real time through the 5G system and running that through an AI modeler to understand trends and what the specific needs and requirements will be for future refueling so they can pre-plan and optimize operations,” he explained.

The Whidbey pilot project is part of a larger initiative within R&E to expand the use of 5G technology throughout the Department of Defense. “What 5G brings to this is decreased latency – the ability to get more data in real-time – and increased bandwidth, which allows us to get all the data we need,” Alvord said.

The goal is for the new refueling system to be fully implemented at Whidbey no later than 2024. Plans include expanding the system to other sites. Each site has different conditions and stakeholders that should provide information useful for a still-larger implementation.

“We’re off to the races and getting great feedback,” Alvord said. “There’s a desire to expand not just to other fueling locations, but to apply what we’re doing to similar types of operations elsewhere in the DoD where having quick access to large amounts of data and analytics will be useful.”

In addition to Alvord, the GTRI team working on this project includes Aimee Williams, Alexis Noel, AnnMarie Spexet, and Jessica LaRocco-Olszewski.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu).

GTRI Communications

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia USA

About GTRI: The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, the state, and industry. For more information, please visit www.gtri.gatech.edu.

The meeting supports DARPA’s mission to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for U.S. national security. “We defend against technological surprise by creating our own,” said Stefanie Tompkins, DARPA’s director. “In DARPA’s search for transformative solutions, what we worry most about are the ideas we never hear. Ultimately, our goal with DARPA Forward is to reach more ideas, connect with more talent, and generate more surprises.”

The DARPA Forward conference in Atlanta will be held at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center and will include talks by researchers from Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Several hundred attendees are expected.

“DARPA funds a lot of great researchers from universities and companies across the Southeast, and we are looking forward to meeting more of them,” Tompkins added. “It’s hard to predict what new ideas the confluence of smart people and a unique geographic perspective can bring to national security problems, but we expect them to challenge our thinking and help us create that technological surprise that is core to our mission.”

DARPA is perhaps best known for creating the ARPANET, designed as a fault-tolerant computer network that evolved into today’s internet. The agency plays a key role in the nation’s science and technology ecosystem, which includes government, industry, and academia, Tompkins noted. “Collectively, that ecosystem advances technology, usually at a pretty steady pace,” she said. “DARPA’s programs, when successful, disrupt that pace, and provide results that change everyone’s understanding of what is possible.”

The agency funds teams – many of them multidisciplinary – to address its mission-focused goals. “Though the roles can differ for any given problem, we typically see the most exploratory research coming from universities, the technical maturation and engineering from industry, and the mission expertise and test and evaluation support from the government,” she said. “All of those elements can come together in a single DARPA program with the potential to deliver a breakthrough technology for national security.”

At Georgia Tech, DARPA has funded nearly two dozen projects over the past three years. Among them:

• A project aimed at demonstrating a hybrid computing system that will combine the advantages of classical computing with those of quantum computing to tackle some of the world’s most difficult optimization problems.
• Research into using a matched filter technique – similar to what is used to analyze signals returned to radar systems – that uses electrical signals within living cells to predict molecular binding events. The work could have initial applications to the disease cystic fibrosis.
• A project aimed at developing a system that would continuously monitor building air for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 and sound a warning to building occupants if it is detected.

Among the speakers is Renee Wegrzyn, the newly-named director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, also known as ARPA-H. Wegrzyn holds a Ph.D. and bachelor of science degree in applied biology from Georgia Tech and will give a keynote talk on Wednesday, October 26.

Six Georgia Tech researchers are part of the agenda for DARPA Forward in Atlanta. Among them are Georgia Tech College of Engineering faculty members Philip Santangelo, James Dahlman, Gabe Kwong, and Mark Styczynski, who will present on the development of mRNA encoded antibody and CRISPR-based therapies for treating and preventing viral infections and low-cost approaches to ultrasensitive pathogen detection.

Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Principal Research Engineer Dana Fitzgerald will discuss cognitive electronic warfare (EW), a research area producing autonomous adaptive EW systems with behaviors, processing, and emissions that optimize operation in the presence of novel electromagnetic emissions. Ronald Arkin, professor and director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory in the Georgia Tech College of Computing, will discuss the ethical, legal, and societal implications of decision-making for autonomous systems.

The keynote address on Tuesday, October 25, will be given by Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense.

DARPA Forward events have already been held at Colorado State University and the University of Washington, and will also take place in early October at The Ohio State University, in November at Texas A&M University, and in December at the University of California at San Diego.

“For each of the DARPA Forward events, we’ve crafted agendas that are meant to give our audience a taste of DARPA – the technical conversations and arguments and challenging of assumptions that we are immersed in every day,” Tompkins said. “Since we spend a lot of time at the intersections of technical communities, we’ve encouraged people to stick around for talks or panels outside their areas of expertise to see whether it ignites some new idea or approach. This seems to have worked well at the first two events, and we are looking forward to even more energy and more new ideas in Atlanta.”

For more information on DARPA Forward, visit forward.darpa.mil.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu).

GTRI Communications

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia USA

About GTRI: The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, the state, and industry. For more information, please visit www.gtri.gatech.edu.

Now, physicists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated — numerically and experimentally — that turbulence can be understood and quantified with the help of a relatively small set of special solutions to the governing equations of fluid dynamics that can be precomputed for a particular geometry, once and for all.

“For nearly a century, turbulence has been described statistically as a random process,” said Roman Grigoriev. “Our results provide the first experimental illustration that, on suitably short time scales, the dynamics of turbulence is deterministic — and connects it to the underlying deterministic governing equations.”

The findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on August 19, 2022. The team of researchers was led by Grigoriev and Michael Schatz, professors in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech who have collaborated on various research projects over the past two decades.

Schatz and Grigoriev were joined in the study by School of Physics graduate students Chris Crowley, Joshua Pughe-Sanford, and Wesley Toler, along with Michael Krygier, a postdoctoral scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, who developed the study’s numerical solvers as a graduate student at Georgia Tech.

A New 'Roadmap' for Turbulence Research

Quantitatively predicting the evolution of turbulent flows — and, in fact, almost any of their properties — is rather difficult. “Numerical simulation is the only reliable existing prediction approach,” Grigoriev said. “But it can be awfully expensive. The goal of our research was to make prediction less costly.”

The researchers created a new “roadmap” of turbulence by looking at a weak turbulent flow that was confined between two independently rotating cylinders — giving the team a unique way to compare experimental observations with numerically computed flows, due to the absence of “end effects” that are present in more familiar geometries, such as flow down a pipe.

“Turbulence can be thought of as a car following a sequence of roads,” said Grigoriev. “Perhaps an even better analogy is a train, which not only follows a railway on a prescribed timetable but also has the same shape as the railway it is following.”

The experiment featured transparent walls to allow full visual access, and it used a state-of-the-art flow visualization to allow the researchers to reconstruct the flow by tracking the motion of millions of suspended fluorescent particles. In parallel, advanced numerical methods were used to compute recurrent solutions of the partial differential equation (Navier-Stokes equation), governing fluid flows under conditions exactly matching experiment.

It is well-known that turbulent fluid flows exhibit a repertoire of patterns — referred to as 'coherent structures' in the field — that have a well-defined spatial profile but appear and disappear in an apparently random manner. By analyzing their experimental and numerical data, the researchers discovered that these flow patterns and their evolution resemble those described by the special solutions they computed. These special solutions are both recurrent and unstable, meaning they describe repeating flow patterns over short intervals of time. Turbulence tracks one such solution after another, which explains what patterns can appear, and in what order.

Recurrent Solutions, Two Frequencies

“All the recurrent solutions that we found in this geometry turned out to be quasi-periodic — that is, characterized by two different frequencies,” said Grigoriev. One frequency described the overall rotation of the flow pattern around the axis of symmetry of the flow, while the other described the changes in the shape of the flow pattern in a reference frame co-rotating with the pattern. The corresponding flows repeat periodically in these co-rotating frames.

“We then compared turbulent flows in experiment and direct numerical simulations with these recurrent solutions and found turbulence to closely follow (track) one recurrent solution after another, for as long as turbulent flow persisted,” Grigoriev said. “Such qualitative behaviors were predicted for low-dimensional chaotic systems, such as the famous Lorenz model, derived six decades ago as a greatly simplified model of the atmosphere.”

The work represents the first experimental observation of chaotic motion tracking recurrent solutions actually observed in turbulent flows. “The dynamics of turbulent flows are, of course, far more complicated due to the quasi-periodic nature of recurrent solutions,” Grigoriev added.

“Using this method, we conclusively showed that the organization of turbulence in both space and time is well captured by these structures,” the researchers said. “These results lay the foundation for representing turbulence in terms of coherent structures and leveraging their persistence in time to overcome the devastating effects of chaos on our ability to predict, control, and engineer fluid flows.”

A New Dynamical Foundation for 3D Fluid Flows

These findings most immediately impact the community of physicists, mathematicians, and engineers who are still trying to understand fluid turbulence, which remains “perhaps the greatest unsolved problem in all of science,” Grigoriev said.

“This work builds and expands on previous work on fluid turbulence by the same group, some of which was reported at Georgia Tech in 2017,” he added. “Unlike the work discussed in that publication, which focused on idealized two-dimensional fluid flows, present research addresses the practically important and more complicated three-dimensional flows.”

Ultimately, the team’s study lays a mathematical foundation for fluid turbulence which is dynamical, rather than statistical, in nature — and hence has the capability to make quantitative predictions, which are crucial for a variety of applications.

“It can give us the ability to dramatically improve the accuracy of weather forecasts and, most notably, enable prediction of extreme events such as hurricanes and tornadoes,” said Grigoriev. “Dynamical framework is also essential for our ability to engineer flows with desired properties, for instance, reduced drag around vehicles to improve fuel efficiency, or enhanced mass transport to help remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the emerging direct air capture industry.”

Funding and acknowledgements: The researchers thank Marc Avila for sharing his Taylor–Couette flow code, and gratefully acknowledge financial support by Army Research Office under Grants W911NF-15-1-0471 and W911NF-16-10281 and by NSF under Grant CMMI-1725587.

Citation and Video: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2120665119

About Georgia Tech

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 44,000 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 in research annually for government, industry, and society.

An electronic Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) could soon give crews of KC-135 Stratotankers an app-based resource to help them quickly diagnose problems and identify solutions using electronic checklists. The software runs on tablet computers and uses a crew-centric human factors approach with an interface similar to the search engines already widely used by consumers.

Developed by researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in collaboration with the Air National Guard (ANG), the QRH has been released for training among ANG KC-135 crews, part of an evaluation that will lead to a planned release for operational use in the aircraft – and potential wider applications. The work has been supported by the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, the Aircraft Systems Special Programs Office, and the ANG.

Providing Searchable Information as Needed

“The overarching goal of the electronic checklist is to provide quick, actionable steps for the crew to maintain aircraft control, identify and rectify the non-normal situation if possible, and provide guidance on how to configure the aircraft for landing if necessary,” wrote the authors of a recent paper about the project. “The new format follows the streamlined, quick-response handbook format and presents only relevant information to crews as they need it. The checklists are searchable, reliable, and provide consistent information to the crews.”

Before the creation of the QRH, crews had to consult a more than 300-page section of a paper-based flight manual to identify and apply the correct emergency procedure for a problem an aircraft was experiencing in flight. The original paper documentation was written from an engineering perspective and often focused on the root technical causes of the problem rather than the symptoms the crew was dealing with. Because it included revisions from 60 years of updates to the aircraft, the manual could be difficult to use in emergencies.

Building on a Need Identified by Air Crews

In 2011, Lt. Col. Matt Boyle, a KC-135 pilot with the Ohio Air National Guard, began the process of adapting the paper emergency procedures to an electronic format that would utilize modern search technology. Building on his work, which grew out of a safety study, GTRI researchers became involved through the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center (AATTC) in St. Joseph, Mo. GTRI expanded the size of the team working on the project, and brought in human-factors experts to help apply knowledge of how aircrews deal with emergencies and search for information.

“We worked with KC-135 subject matter experts, and they helped us understand what should be done,” said Cara Bailey Fausset, a GTRI senior research scientist who’s studied how humans interact with technology. “We applied human factors principles on how people learn and behave, and how to communicate with them.”

Electronic Searching Identifies the Right Checklist

The result is a new tablet-based system that allows aircrews to search emergency procedures by the problem they are observing as well as by the root cause – if it is known. For instance, what to do in case of an “engine failure” can be identified by searching for that term, or by searching for “compressor stall,” which may be the technical cause. Both search terms lead to the same checklist that crews can use to address the problem. The QRH also explains the meaning behind indicator lights, messages, and alerts that crews may receive from aircraft systems.

“We know who our users are, and they are pilots and boom operators,” said Fausset. “We needed the manual and procedures to be delivered in their language and the way they would think and talk about a problem, organized in a way that would be useful to them.”

Consolidating Emergency Procedures for Quicker Results

While building the new app, GTRI worked with Boyle and other KC-135 subject matter experts to reorganize and consolidate what had been 351 sometimes redundant emergency procedures down to just 175. They created a question-and-answer format to help the aircrew confirm that they had selected the correct emergency procedure. Reducing the number of procedures helps the aircrew find the cause and solution more quickly using the QRH search bar.

“We tried to make this useful for both experienced crew members and for newer crew members,” Fausset said. “A crew member shouldn’t have to work harder than necessary in a stressful situation. The information is in the original flight manual, but it can be hard to find quickly.”

Describing How In-flight Emergencies Affect Flight

Beyond identifying the cause of the problem and potential solutions, the QRH describes how the aircraft might behave differently with whatever technical issue caused the non-normal situation.

“If you lose a hydraulic system or an electrical system, that changes the operational limits for the aircraft,” explained Bayne Meeks, a GTRI principal research engineer who has flown military transport aircraft as well as commercial Boeing 737s. “The system can remind the crew how these will affect the aircraft upon landing or approach. It may mean that they don’t have normal braking or the use of spoilers, all factors that must be accounted for while preparing for landing.”

After developing the app based on consolidated emergency procedures, new checklists, and new titles, the human factors researchers also rewrote the emergency procedures section of the paper flight manual to make the two formats consistent.

“You can read the information that supports what you are doing,” said Meeks. “Having that information available continues to build the knowledge base.”

QRH in Evaluation to Prepare for Adoption

The QRH was designed to operate on the Apple iPad, but could also be ported to Android-based tablets in the future. After initial deployment across the KC-135 fleet, the QRH team plans to modify the QRH software so that it can be more easily updated by the military’s software maintenance system via a dev/sec/ops environment. The team has been awarded a GTRI Independent Research and Development task to complete this work. Meeks and Fausset hope the format will be used on other aircraft.

“We could take the C-130 and C-17 procedures and populate the same framework,” said Meeks. “We also want to continue supporting software sustainment and adding new functionality and features for the government.”

The KC-135 is used by the Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force for aerial refueling of other aircraft. It is flown by a crew that consists of a pilot; co-pilot; and boom operator, who directs the refueling operations. The four-engine tanker is based on the airframe of the Boeing 707, so most of the KC-135s are over 60 years old.

“The aircraft has been updated over time, and now has new avionics and other systems,” Fausset noted. “This project will help keep the emergency procedure information up-to-date to ensure continued safe and efficient operation of the KC-135.”

In addition to those already mentioned, a talented and dedicated project team with its roots beginning in April 2014 is at the heart of this effort. Additional GTRI researchers and students include Elizabeth Weldon, Latrice Williams, Cody Fernandez, Noah Chong, Neil Bhadslave, Ishaan Guha, Jim Dudgeon, Buddy Ray, Ben Burkett, Chandler Price, Regina Willen, Chris Hale, Courtney Crooks, Stuart Michelson, Emily Brooks, and Marcia Crosland. Additional KC-135 subject matter experts include Kevin Cartwright, Mark Robinson, Alex Bruzzano, and Joe Bosch.

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

GTRI Communications

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia USA

About GTRI: The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, the state, and industry. For more information, please visit www.gtri.gatech.edu.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is collaborating with the U.S. Army in the development of its Health Readiness and Performance System (HRAPS), which is a wearable sensor system that provides real-time monitoring of the physiological and geolocation data of soldiers during high-intensity training exercises.

GTRI is providing engineering support for the project, which includes the development of a network system comprised of cloud-based storage and a modular local network that allows for the transport and visualization of real-time data about soldiers over long distances.  

"Soldiers participate in very strenuous training exercises, including marches and runs that are tens of miles long," said Alessio Medda, a GTRI principal research engineer who is co-leading the project. "When soldiers push themselves that hard, their core internal temperature can increase to a point where their body cannot dissipate heat anymore, which could lead to a spectrum of heat injuries that can be fatal. The goal of this project is to try to predict these injuries before they happen so that we can save lives."

Heat injuries in soldiers can range from dehydration and heat cramps to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat exhaustion occurs when the body loses too much water and salt, typically through sweating. If not treated, heat exhaustion can rapidly advance to heat stroke. A heat stroke is characterized by a rapid increase of the internal body temperature and the inability of the body to cool itself down, a condition that can cause rapid organ failure and eventually death.

In 2021, there were close to 500 incident cases of heat stroke and nearly 2,000 incident cases of heat exhaustion among active component service members of the U.S. Armed Forces, according to the Military Health System (MHS).  There are on average two to three heat-related soldier deaths each year, per the U.S. Army Public Health Center.

The device that GTRI is supporting is called the Heat Injury Prevention System (HIPS). HIPS looks like a standard heart rate monitor with a chest strap, but in addition to measuring heart rate, it also keeps track of a soldier's skin temperature and movements, and also runs a series of sophisticated algorithms.

The HIPS device has been developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in collaboration with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) and is manufactured by Odic, an engineering research and development company. HIPS utilizes an algorithm developed by Mark Buller, a principal investigator in USARIEM's Thermal & Mountain Medicine Division, that estimates a soldier's core internal temperature using sequential heart rate measurements.

To support this device, GTRI has developed a local network system that captures real-time data from the HIPS sensor and sends that data over an LTE network – a wireless broadband communication standard most commonly used in connection with 4G networks – to a cloud server that can be monitored by a command and control center. The local network system can also share data with unit commanders and others who are within close proximity to the soldiers.  

The local network system includes a mesh network with network nodes equipped with long-range (LoRa) radios for node-to-node communication when LTE is not available. This system is flexible and can be configured to produce a mesh network that overcomes geographical obstacles and can be scaled with the number of subjects and nodes.

"In many of these training locations, connectivity is usually very poor," said Kevin Berman, a GTRI research engineer who is supporting the project. "Getting the data from those remote locations to the server is a challenge, and then making sure that the data that's coming in is correct is also difficult." 

Berman explained that if too much time passes between when the sensor captures the data and the data reaches the server, an overheated soldier may not receive life-saving care in time.

But GTRI's LoRa network could help address that challenge.

"Imagine mile markers at a road race; our LoRa network serves a similar purpose," said Brian King, a GTRI senior research engineer who is co-leading the project. "Troops can place these nodes every quarter mile or so, and when a soldier walks or runs past them, our system grabs the vitals recorded from the sensor and sends it to a display in another location."

In addition to helping command centers take a more proactive approach toward protecting the health and safety of soldiers, researchers could utilize GTRI's system to conduct analyses on data from past events to fine-tune the system even more.

The work has been supported by U.S. Army Medical Material Development Activity (USAMMDA) and is currently being evaluated at various military posts across the country.

Writer: Anna Akins
Photos: Christopher Moore
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia USA

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Concern about the potential loss of GPS data has led to development of alternative navigation approaches relying on sensor fusion techniques that combine information from sources such as vision systems, radio ranging, lidar, altimeters, measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field, and even sightings from celestial objects. These techniques, however, can’t provide a simple, direct, and low-cost replacement for GPS, especially on SWaP-limited UAVs.

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are developing a collaborative and distributed navigation system that would allow swarms of autonomous UAVs to share position, navigation, and timing (PNT) data in real-time. By blending alternate PNT data and information from different air vehicles – some of which may have GPS access – the collaborative system could help a UAV swarm navigate to its destination despite a failure of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

Known as the PNT Chain, this novel technique would enhance established alternative navigation sources should an adversary deprive UAVs of their primary navigation cues. The proof-of-concept technique has been evaluated in simulations and a limited flight test.

“We’ve developed the core distributed algorithms needed for a collaborative system that could dramatically improve GPS-denied navigation,” said Matthew Lashley, a GTRI senior research engineer who leads the project. “We’ve shown that the algorithms work with real sensor data and we have substantiated the feasibility of using the PNT Chain to help UAVs operate even if the GNSS fails. This could significantly improve the robustness and reliability of UAV teams.”

UAVs that are part of the PNT Chain would share whatever useful information they have with other members of the chain, and the resulting sensor fusion could allow PNT information to be projected over long distances.

Simulated flights across the continental United States and over the open water of the Pacific Ocean suggested that the PNT Chain could reduce navigation errors in GPS-denied areas by more than 100-fold. The simulated Pacific mission used 16 UAVs each equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU), compass, altimeter, monocular camera – and access to GPS for a portion of the mission. Visual sighting of two small islands contributed to the simulated navigation.

“The concept of the operation was to have a swarm of UAVs that may extend from a GPS-available region to a GPS-denied region, with ranging radios and the ability to share information,” explained Sam Shapero, a GTRI senior research engineer who is also working on the project. “By looking at the time-of-flight for signals to travel between UAVs, we can determine the distances between them.”

In the PNT Chain, nearby air vehicles communicate, but there is no central computing capability. The distributed system can tolerate the loss of vehicles and changes in the original chain structure.

For swarm UAVs, development of alternative PNT systems requires tradeoffs between capability, cost, and weight. “UAVs are always constrained by what they can carry,” Lashley noted. “An advantage for most UAVs is that they are relatively inexpensive, so you can’t have a million-dollar PNT system installed on them.”

Beyond UAVs, the PNT Chain technique could potentially be used to support GPS-denied navigation needs of ground vehicles, individual warfighters, larger air vehicles, ships and small boats – and even satellites. 

As part of a three-year project supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development program, researchers tested their approach by modifying the SCRIMMAGE UAV simulation environment to evaluate the results from a variety of sensor inputs. They also developed a unique, low-cost sensor payload called Alt-PNT for demonstrating the PNT Chain technology.

“Alt-PNT is a low SWaP payload that we mounted under a UAV,” explained Shapero. “It carries the sensors as well as the computational hardware we need to run the algorithms. We can plug-and-play various sensing modalities with PNT algorithms.”

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

GTRI Communications

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia USA

About GTRI: The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, the state, and industry. For more information, please visit www.gtri.gatech.edu.

To address this challenge, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is working to increase the situational awareness of troops on the ground through the use of augmented reality (AR) devices and line-of-sight calculations within environments through the use of Unity, a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. The project would facilitate improved nonverbal and distance communication between troops about the location of adversaries during operations. 

The work has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development (IRAD) program and won an IRAD of the Year award in fiscal year 2022.

"Let's say you're a part of a squad that's stationed on a rooftop and another squad in your company is stationed elsewhere," said Emily Strube, a GTRI research scientist who is leading the project. "As the other group radios in to your team, bombs start dropping on their location and you can't hear them over the radio and they can't hear you. You observe a group of enemies coming their way, but you don't want to warn in a way that could alert the adversaries. This is the type of situation our project seeks to address."    

The work calculates the line of sight of enemies by using a computer application to draw lines from an enemy's position(s), connects those lines on a polygon mesh, and then colors the meshes based on the enemy's visibility.

The visibility representation ranges from black to gray to white. Areas that are black are visible to no enemies, areas that are white are visible to all enemies, and areas that are gray are visible to some number of enemies.

The colors are then displayed using Unity both within a computer application and a HoloLens-based application. HoloLens is a pair of mixed-reality smartglasses developed and manufactured by Microsoft.

"The Microsoft HoloLens is basically just a pair of glasses that project light in front of your eyes so that you can see holograms in the real world," Strube said. 

The project utilizes an existing GTRI service called Realtime Intelligence Fusion Service (RIFS), which was built with Unity and has HoloLens functionality. RIFS produces spatial information about a room and then displays that information as meshes that are visible to a command center on a desktop computer. 

From there, the project uses a pathfinding algorithm to generate a path for each HoloLens user to a goal point that is least visible to the enemy. Then, a common operating picture of the area is shared among all HoloLens users – in this case, the warfighters – as well as a command center. The common operating picture consists of the meshes, the visibility metric displayed on them, the generated paths, and the tagged enemy positions.

"Going back to my initial scenario, the troop that's on the roof can now point out the enemy and tag them so that the troops on the ground can know what's there before it gets to them," Strube said.

"Additionally, lines of sight can be calculated for those enemies and a new path can be generated for those troops on the ground to go from their current position to their goal position in a way that is least visible to the enemy."

The battlefield is just one of many use cases to which this research can be applied.

GTRI is also looking to incorporate the work into warehouses, specifically smart warehouses. Similar to smart homes, smart warehouses are enabled with various automated and interconnected technologies. GTRI's pathfinding algorithm could help workers more easily pick up and drop off packages at drop points within a warehouse and also help people locate components inside warehouses to complete repair orders. 

The project could also help users locate and maneuver around chemical hazards. 

The research is currently being incorporated into various programs.

Writer: Anna Akins
Photos: Christopher Moore
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia USA

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

A new approach to assessing simulation fidelity being developed by human factors researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) could help address that challenge with both a framework and rating scale that decompose training tasks into specific task elements for categorization across multiple dimensions of simulation fidelity. The standardized approach to quantifying simulation fidelity could facilitate efforts to broadly assess the effectiveness of training programs and support the development of system requirements for future simulation-based training efforts.

“The overall aim of this solution is to provide a standardized and repeatable approach to categorizing and defining simulation fidelity that goes beyond arbitrary terms such as ‘low-fidelity’ or ‘high-fidelity,’” said Dylan Bush, a GTRI research scientist who is leading the project. “Without explicit definitions of different simulation technologies, it is difficult to analyze data from studies evaluating training programs in the aggregate.”

The research team’s work to evaluate the new capability will be described at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society’s (HFES) 66th International Annual Meeting in October. The work has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development program.

Simulator-based training allows warfighters to repeatedly practice potentially dangerous training scenarios with significantly reduced risk, more convenience, and lower cost. But these VR-based simulations are often developed or acquired without a full understanding of the extent to which the tasks being trained are suitable for, or would benefit from, the training program, Bush said. Without objective criteria for evaluating simulation fidelity, it can be difficult to assess the benefits that can be derived from the training – and the level of realism necessary to create effective simulations.

Development of the new approach began with a three-step process that: 1) broke down the simulations into individual tasks; 2) applied principles of cognitive psychology to divide fidelity concepts into perception, cognition, and action components; and 3) developed the Simulation Fidelity (SiFi) scale for evaluating how well the simulation matches real-world components.

The project builds on earlier work aimed at objectively evaluating the realism of simulations.

“You can’t rate the fidelity of a system without looking at it through the context of the tasks that it needs to support,” Bush said. “While it may seem counterintuitive, fidelity as a construct is really centered on what information and interactions the user needs to complete the task.”

The GTRI system relies on human evaluators to rate both the physical elements of fidelity: visual, auditory, and tactile, as well as cognitive aspects including human interaction and resulting system behavior. Those tasks are rated on a six-point scale that measures how well each simulation element compares to the real-world task it is attempting to simulate.

The ratings range from 0, meaning an element is not present, up to 5, meaning an element is indistinguishable from the real-world form it is attempting to simulate. Ratings for each element are aggregated together to create an overall score.

To evaluate the Inter-rater Reliability of the scale, or how consistently different raters provide similar ratings to the same element, the researchers enlisted help from two former F-16 pilots from the GTRI research staff who completed a series of flight maneuvers in an F-16 VR simulator. After completing the maneuvers, each rater used the scale to provide ratings to 117 task elements.

The results of the inter-rater reliability analysis indicated a strong degree of reliability (k = 0.81), but also identified areas where improvements could be made in certain components of the scale. Bush and colleague Andrew Braun, also from GTRI, would like to conduct additional research using a larger group of raters, and potentially refining the definitions used in the scale.

“These additional analyses would not only further investigate the reliability of the scale, but would also investigate how well the scale can be generalized across different simulation contexts,” the authors wrote in their HFES paper.

Beyond supporting the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of simulations, SiFi could help human factors researchers aggregate evaluations of different studies, allowing them to learn more about the impact of training simulations. Improving standardization could also help DoD purchasing personnel improve the specifications for future simulation projects.

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Designed to operate between 18 GHz and 50 GHz, the module could help address threat systems operating at millimeter wave frequencies and provide to military applications many of the advantages that millimeter wave technology is bringing to commercial applications such as 5G wireless, internet-of-things devices, and radar-based vehicle collision avoidance systems.

“The goal is to demonstrate small size, weight, power, and cost in a wideband millimeter wave T/R module,” said Paul Jo, a Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) research engineer who is leading the project. “This would be a major module at the front of the AESA system, right behind the radiator element to process signals.”

Known as Millimeter Wave Active Electronically Scanned Array using Silicon-Germanium Transmit/Receive Modules (MAESTRO), the project represents a collaboration of GTRI and SiGe specialists in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The use of SiGe helps support the high level of integration necessary for the miniaturization required by the module’s high-frequency operation.

“When it comes to millimeter wave frequencies, the AESA element lattice is less than one centimeter in size, and at 50 GHz, it’s three millimeters, which is very challenging to work with,” Jo noted. “That forces an extreme level of integration and miniaturization for this T/R system, which we are addressing through design and fabrication of the small SiGe monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) die.”

The researchers recently completed the fabrication and packaging of a core channel T/R module die, and are designing an evaluation board to demonstrate performance of the module. Also completed is the fabrication of a stand-alone radiator board for wideband and high-frequency applications; that evaluation board also is under test.

Wideband AESAs are an enabling technology for current and future military radar and communications systems by providing rapid beam steering, graceful degradation, electronic production, and low probability of intercept. The atmospheric attenuation of radio-frequency (RF) signals at millimeter wave frequencies is much greater than at microwave frequencies. As a result, high-gain directional apertures such as AESAs are required to propagate energy over tactically relevant distances.

Beyond the high level of integration, the system presents technical challenges related to manufacturing, packaging, and thermal management. For packaging MAESTRO, the research team is evaluating a Flip-Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) solution to reduce the signal path from the die to the printed circuit board.

Earlier in the four-year project, the research team designed and fabricated single-channel and four-channel T/R modules and measured the RF performance of a chip-on-board (CoB)-assembled single-channel T/R module. The measured results confirmed that the designed digital control circuitry works for both Tx and Rx modes – attenuation and true-time delay – and that the time delay was consistent across the target bandwidth.

The MAESTRO program is a collaboration between GTRI and the research team of John Cressler, a Regents Professor at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Cressler’s team specializes in SiGe for heterojunction bipolar devices designed to provide high-frequency performance in mixed-signal circuit and analog circuit ICs.

“Silicon is a standard technology that industry is using to integrate very complicated systems,” Jo noted. “Since we needed to integrate the whole T/R module system into a very small lattice spacing, we decided to use SiGe to integrate all the discrete components.”

During testing of the T/R module, the researchers realized that the receive mode of their system could operate at even lower frequencies – down to 5 GHz – giving it an operating range of 5 GHz to 50 GHz. Efforts are underway to expand the range of the transmit mode to accommodate a similarly wider frequency band.

The MAESTRO project is part of a GTRI initiative to use SiGe semiconductor technology for a variety of RF applications. The SiGe Multifunction IC for Radio Frequency (SMIRF) program is developing a wideband, multichannel, reconfigurable radio frequency transceiver integrated circuit using the SiGe technology. The goal is to enable element-level digital beamforming of an AESA for RF-converged multifunction systems to support concurrent operating modes such as radar, communications, electronic warfare, positioning, and signals intelligence (SIGINT).

MAESTRO has been supported by GTRI’s Independent Research and Development program.

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

GTRI Communications

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia USA

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

AIS uses signals from transponders operating on the ships to help their captains avoid collisions when the vessels are outside of busy ports. Because AIS is based on an open standard developed many years ago, the U.S. Navy's Battlespace Awareness & Information Operations Program Office (PMW 120) realized the system needed hardening to help address current cybersecurity conditions and expectations.

GTRI researchers were initially asked to evaluate potential vulnerabilities of the system, and then to develop an add-on software system, called Bifrost, which works with AIS to filter messages from ships, guard against potentially malicious messaging, and provide critical alerts to ship captains. The Bifrost system has been delivered to the Navy’s Battlespace Awareness & Information Operations Program Office, and is now undergoing evaluation – a step on the way to potential deployment.

“The goal of AIS is to avoid collisions, and everyone works together to contribute information about where their ship is and which way they are headed to make sure everyone can predict where they will be,” explained Shelby Allen, a GTRI research scientist who led the project. “Being able to trust the information being provided is important to ensuring the safety of maritime traffic worldwide. Along with GPS, AIS plays an integral role in how our forces operate across the seas.”

Information for AIS comes from transponders on each ship that provide such information as the GPS-based location coordinates, heading, and speed. The transponders use a common and open protocol, but equipment errors and other factors can affect the accuracy of what’s reported. Bifrost helps filter transponder information coming into Navy ships.

“The goal of the application we developed was not to get in the way of the existing system, since it is a critical path for downstream systems,” Allen explained. “We wanted to look for both accidental issues with the incoming transmissions and the potential for deliberate misuse.”

Because of the critical nature of the communications, the Bifrost system was designed to extract useful information from ship transmissions even if they don’t necessarily meet all the specifications of the protocol.

“The majority of what we see that looks like a transmission not abiding by the specifications are accidental formatting issues,” he said. “Filtering this information needs to have a certain amount of tolerance for what can go wrong and still have the messages provide useful information.”

Bifrost can detect deliberate misinformation, such as location updates that suggest speeds impossible for vessels to attain. “Ships can only accelerate and decelerate at certain rates, and there are some examples of egregious misuse of location information,” Allen said. “One of our goals was to detect messages less likely to be real GPS-based messages.”

Beyond cybersecurity hardening, Bifrost enhances how the system handles emergency alerts, which may not receive sufficient visibility in the original AIS interface.

“There are safety-related messages that by protocol should be addressed immediately,” Allen said. “We worked to make sure that these alerts had the smallest chance of being an annoyance. When someone did need to review the alerts and needed additional information, we made it as easy as possible to do.”

Because Bifrost was intended to be a working software system with an important safety mission, PMW 120 requested the researchers to carry development further than often happens with research projects. “We had to make sure that this was something that could quietly and reliably run for a long time in a performance environment,” he explained.

That reliability and operational testing extended a bit further than Allen originally expected – to ten days on a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer off the coast of California – and to bunk space reserved for researchers from organizations working on projects that required real-world testing at sea.

“At first, everybody was kind of learning their way around the ship and making sure they weren’t in anyone else’s way,” Allen said. “We slept in standard quarters and ate the same food everybody else onboard did. We were in the thick of operations on a Navy ship.”

Below deck, where Bifrost was operating, Allen and GTRI colleague David Myers at first lost track of time.

“One of the things I didn’t anticipate ahead of time was how optional it was to be outside,” Allen said. “When I imagined being on a ship, I imagined a huge deck with people there all the time. That was not true at all. The vast number of people are working beneath the deck, and there are multiple levels. There was a point I realized that it had been 24 hours since I had seen the sun.”

The researchers scheduled times to work with the operators of the system, knew when mealtimes were, participated in safety-related exercises, and took advantage of workout facilities – which required some adaptation to the rolling of the ship in the waves.

“There were beautiful, starry nights with absolutely no light pollution,” he said. “Dolphins were following the ship, just like in documentaries. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

GTRI Communications

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia USA

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The issue was the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s (GTRI) world-class Cobb County, Georgia facilities and the approximately 850 researchers and staff working on national security research in a complex of buildings near Dobbins Air Reserve Base and the Lockheed-Martin Corporation – a facility that has been designing and building military aircraft since World War II.

While GTRI’s role in supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) isn’t officially a secret, the diversity and impact of the activity isn’t so well known in the county. To help address that, GTRI held a four-hour site visit for the Honorary Commanders Alumni Association (HCAA), an organization affiliated with the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce.

“We were all impressed at everything GTRI has in Cobb County working for our national defense and for civilian purposes,” said Joe Gaskin, co-chair of the HCAA – a group of military and civilian alumni of the Honorary Commanders Association, which gives Cobb leaders an opportunity to learn more about local military activities and their impact on the economy. “GTRI is helping boost Cobb County’s importance to national security.”

More than a dozen members of the HCAA attended the April 29 briefing. They saw work on building small unmanned aerial systems, research aimed at providing earlier warning of severe storms, a wind tunnel used to evaluate new aircraft designs, a phased-array radar that will be used to train operators, anechoic chambers used to develop acoustic devices, and the GTRI Research Electronic Warfare Truck (GREWT) – a Ford F-550 that supports field testing of aircraft defensive systems.

“Cobb County is becoming a center for national security work,” said James Hudgens, GTRI’s director and Georgia Tech senior vice president for research, who thanked the HCAA attendees for their interest in national security. GTRI’s volume of defense research has been growing rapidly and is expected to hit $850 million in 2022. Much of GTRI’s expansion will come to Cobb County, where GTRI already has nearly a million square feet of research facilities, Hudgens told the group.

GTRI has long been known for its electronic warfare research, and Hudgens noted that GTRI is the nation’s second-largest University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) – designated as such because of its unique capabilities that are considered essential to the DoD. Throughout the United States, GTRI operates 22 field offices that help DoD agencies address critical operational issues.

More than 90% of GTRI funding goes to national security research, though the innovation created by these federal dollars has a significant impact on non-defense areas through a “virtuous cycle” of transitions through Georgia Tech’s statewide networks.

“Federally-sponsored research translates into innovation for the state of Georgia,” said Anne Clark, chief scientist for the Air National Guard Program Division (ANGPD) in GTRI’s Electronic Systems Laboratory (ELSYS). Combined with innovation from Georgia Tech’s academic research programs, the virtuous cycle creates unique capabilities to transition new technology through Georgia Tech’s statewide network, where it creates significant impacts that go beyond the DoD, she told the group.

For the state of Georgia, for example, GTRI researchers are supporting a four-year project known as the Medicaid Enterprise System Transformation that is re-architecting the system that supports health care services to approximately three million Georgia citizens. Also in the health care arena, GTRI is supporting the development of the Georgia All-Payer Claims Database (GAPCD), a project aimed at providing price transparency and information about health care quality to help Georgia citizens make informed medical decisions.

GTRI’s Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) works in collaboration with university and industry partners, especially within Georgia's poultry industry – which has a $28 billion annual impact on the Georgia economy – on projects involving robotics, advanced sensors, environmental treatment, and worker and food safety technologies. And as attendees for the HCAA site visit saw, research into radar, acoustic and seismic sensors and models at the Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC) are helping develop improved technologies for predicting severe weather.

Another major benefit to the state is educating young engineers who become leaders in companies and organizations across the state, Clark noted. “Georgia Tech is really the technology school for the Southeast United States,” she said. Collaborations with Emory University are expanding research in biomedicine and the biosciences, Clark added.

GTRI is the applied research division of Georgia Tech. Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees supporting eight laboratories. In all, GTRI accounts for $1.7 billion of Georgia Tech’s overall $3.3 billion impact to the state, Clark noted. Of the 4,390 faculty at Georgia Tech, GTRI is responsible for 1,713 – most of them full-time researchers.

With nearly a million square feet of space in 11 buildings at its Cobb County facility, GTRI also has approximately 850,000 square feet of space in 14 buildings on Georgia Tech’s main campus in midtown Atlanta.

The Honorary Commanders Association is a cooperative effort of the Cobb Chamber, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, General Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center, the Navy, and the Marine Corps. The organization annually selects community and business leaders and pairs them with military commanders in a yearlong program, giving those leaders the opportunity to learn more about local military activities, their impact on our economy, and various aspects of the national defense system. Members of the HCAA, who are graduates of the primary organization, support the Honorary Commanders program, as well as foster and maintain relationships with military and defense contacts.

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

The issue was the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s (GTRI) world-class Cobb County, Georgia facilities and the approximately 850 researchers and staff working on national security research in a complex of buildings near Dobbins Air Reserve Base and the Lockheed-Martin Corporation – a facility that has been designing and building military aircraft since World War II.

While GTRI’s role in supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) isn’t officially a secret, the diversity and impact of the activity isn’t so well known in the county. To help address that, GTRI held a four-hour site visit for the Honorary Commanders Alumni Association (HCAA), an organization affiliated with the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce.

“We were all impressed at everything GTRI has in Cobb County working for our national defense and for civilian purposes,” said Joe Gaskin, co-chair of the HCAA – a group of military and civilian alumni of the Honorary Commanders Association, which gives Cobb leaders an opportunity to learn more about local military activities and their impact on the economy. “GTRI is helping boost Cobb County’s importance to national security.”

More than a dozen members of the HCAA attended the April 29 briefing. They saw work on building small unmanned aerial systems, research aimed at providing earlier warning of severe storms, a wind tunnel used to evaluate new aircraft designs, a phased-array radar that will be used to train operators, anechoic chambers used to develop acoustic devices, and the GTRI Research Electronic Warfare Truck (GREWT) – a Ford F-550 that supports field testing of aircraft defensive systems.

“Cobb County is becoming a center for national security work,” said James Hudgens, GTRI’s director and Georgia Tech senior vice president for research, who thanked the HCAA attendees for their interest in national security. GTRI’s volume of defense research has been growing rapidly and is expected to hit $850 million in 2022. Much of GTRI’s expansion will come to Cobb County, where GTRI already has nearly a million square feet of research facilities, Hudgens told the group.

GTRI has long been known for its electronic warfare research, and Hudgens noted that GTRI is the nation’s second-largest University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) – designated as such because of its unique capabilities that are considered essential to the DoD. Throughout the United States, GTRI operates 22 field offices that help DoD agencies address critical operational issues.

More than 90% of GTRI funding goes to national security research, though the innovation created by these federal dollars has a significant impact on non-defense areas through a “virtuous cycle” of transitions through Georgia Tech’s statewide networks.

“Federally-sponsored research translates into innovation for the state of Georgia,” said Anne Clark, chief scientist for the Air National Guard Program Division (ANGPD) in GTRI’s Electronic Systems Laboratory (ELSYS). Combined with innovation from Georgia Tech’s academic research programs, the virtuous cycle creates unique capabilities to transition new technology through Georgia Tech’s statewide network, where it creates significant impacts that go beyond the DoD, she told the group.

For the state of Georgia, for example, GTRI researchers are supporting a four-year project known as the Medicaid Enterprise System Transformation that is re-architecting the system that supports health care services to approximately three million Georgia citizens. Also in the health care arena, GTRI is supporting the development of the Georgia All-Payer Claims Database (GAPCD), a project aimed at providing price transparency and information about health care quality to help Georgia citizens make informed medical decisions.

GTRI’s Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) works in collaboration with university and industry partners, especially within Georgia's poultry industry – which has a $28 billion annual impact on the Georgia economy – on projects involving robotics, advanced sensors, environmental treatment, and worker and food safety technologies. And as attendees for the HCAA site visit saw, research into radar, acoustic and seismic sensors and models at the Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC) are helping develop improved technologies for predicting severe weather.

Another major benefit to the state is educating young engineers who become leaders in companies and organizations across the state, Clark noted. “Georgia Tech is really the technology school for the Southeast United States,” she said. Collaborations with Emory University are expanding research in biomedicine and the biosciences, Clark added.

GTRI is the applied research division of Georgia Tech. Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees supporting eight laboratories. In all, GTRI accounts for $1.7 billion of Georgia Tech’s overall $3.3 billion impact to the state, Clark noted. Of the 4,390 faculty at Georgia Tech, GTRI is responsible for 1,713 – most of them full-time researchers.

With nearly a million square feet of space in 11 buildings at its Cobb County facility, GTRI also has approximately 850,000 square feet of space in 14 buildings on Georgia Tech’s main campus in midtown Atlanta.

The Honorary Commanders Association is a cooperative effort of the Cobb Chamber, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, General Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center, the Navy, and the Marine Corps. The organization annually selects community and business leaders and pairs them with military commanders in a yearlong program, giving those leaders the opportunity to learn more about local military activities, their impact on our economy, and various aspects of the national defense system. Members of the HCAA, who are graduates of the primary organization, support the Honorary Commanders program, as well as foster and maintain relationships with military and defense contacts.

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

Photo Credits: Sean McNeil, GTRI

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Over the next two years, the team plans to use several hundred quantum bits (qubits) made of trapped ions to put the unique capabilities of quantum computing systems to work on these challenges. The team, which also includes researchers from Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has already demonstrated key elements of the system using a 10-qubit ion chain.

“The implications of a quantum solution to this optimization challenge could be dramatic,” said Creston Herold, a GTRI senior research scientist who is principal investigator for the program, which is known as Optimization with Trapped Ion Qubits (OPTIQ). “Previously intractable problems could be solvable, and computation time could be reduced from days to hours or minutes. That could allow optimization to be applied to many more tasks, improving operational efficiency, and saving time, money, and energy.”

The research is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of its Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum Devices (ONISQ) program. Specifically, the GTRI-led team will use the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) to tackle a difficult optimization challenge known as Max-Cut and related optimization problems.

Optimization Key to Defense and Commercial Applications

Optimization is important to a broad range of defense and commercial challenges, including logistics management, security, reliability, sensing, communications, electronic design and manufacturing, and image segmentation. Package delivery services use optimization algorithms every day to determine the best delivery routes, but some optimization issues are so complex that they cannot be solved using existing approaches. For those, quantum approaches may provide the only solution.

For the quantum component of the project, the research team plans to leverage the massively parallel operations possible with trapped ions, performing many two-qubit gates simultaneously and scaling up to hundreds of qubits. The operations will be performed in two-dimensional ion crystals within Penning traps, devices that contain and control the ions using both a homogeneous axial magnetic field and an inhomogeneous quadrupole electric field.

The project will utilize a unique Penning trap configuration that uses powerful rare-earth permanent magnets instead of bulky, cryo-cooled superconducting magnets. GTRI Senior Research Scientist Brian Sawyer and Research Scientist Brian McMahon developed the trapping system, which was part of McMahon’s Ph.D. thesis at Georgia Tech’s School of Physics.

Hybrid Quantum and Classical Computing Approaches

Because quantum and classical computing rely on dramatically different techniques, they provide different strengths that the project can use in a complementary way, said Swati Gupta, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering who studies complex optimization issues.

“The building blocks are quite different for classical computing and quantum computing,” Gupta noted. “That is exciting and challenging to understand as we build a bridge between these two regimes.”

In some cases, only approximate solutions can now be produced by classical computing systems – and even those may require long run times.

“The speed of operations is very relevant these days because we need to make decisions every second and every minute,” Gupta said. “The dream is that by using a combination of classical and quantum machines, we will be able to significantly beat what can be done with just classical devices.”

Second Phase Builds on Initial 10-Qubit Work

During the first 18 months of the project, the researchers demonstrated that they can prepare their optimization machine using an ion chain composed of 10 qubits. In the second phase, they will tackle the challenge of scaling that up to the hundreds of qubits – and perhaps as many as a thousand – that will be necessary to run the optimization algorithm using controls developed with the 10-qubit system.

“One of the goals is to run this optimization algorithm with more qubits than has ever been demonstrated before,” Herold said. “On the way, we are also going to show control in a two-dimensional ion crystal in a Penning trap that has not been demonstrated before. That may lead to applications similar to QAOA, in which we can also add more degrees of freedom to analog simulations of quantum systems with trapped ions.”

In the Penning trap, the ions in the crystal will affect one another, allowing interactions to be created throughout the system.

“In choosing an optimization problem that was most natural for trapped ions, we looked at the fact that a collection of ions in a crystal all ‘feel’ one another,” Herold said. “There is a repulsion between them because they are all positively charged, and that leads to a pairwise interaction between each of the particles that can be created in a global way.”

Addressing the Technical Challenges Ahead

Quantum systems tend to be noisy, which can create a significant error rate. The research team includes scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who are using a supercomputer there to map the best pathway to minimizing noise in the quantum system as it is scaled up.

Among the technical challenges ahead will be maintaining a uniform magnetic field using permanent magnets instead of superconducting magnets, which are normally the size of a residential hot water heater.

“We had the idea to make a small trap to get rid of the superconducting magnet,” said Sawyer. “But you have to play tricks to make sure the field is as uniform as possible because you want every ion spinning at the same rate regardless of where it is in the trap. That is tricky to do with small permanent magnets.”

2D Ion Crystal Formed by Doppler-Laser Cooling

The researchers plan to use Doppler-laser cooling – slowing the motion of the ions – to create a crystalline structure in which the calcium ions are arranged in triangular arrays. Creating that stable structure is crucial to the ability to know the location of each ion so that their states can be individually flipped.

“To run this algorithm, we need to be able to point to one ion and then another ion and know exactly where they are at all times to program the particular graphs we need to solve Max-Cut,” said Herold.

Beyond demonstrating a quantum Max-Cut solver, the research could have implications for other optimization problems that are now considered especially difficult because their solution requires many qubits and a complex circuit.

“These optimization problems can often be translated into others, so if you can solve one of them really well, there’s a class of universal problems that can be addressed,” said Herold. “Solving one particular problem can provide the kernel for an optimizer.”

This research is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under contract No. HR001120C0046. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing official policies, either expressed or implied, of DARPA or the U.S. government.

Writer: John Toon (John.Toon@gtri.gatech.edu)

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

On the Ground 

In terms of sponsored projects, GTRI has established 5G prototypes at Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah, with funding awarded by Advanced Technology International (ATI). The project is specifically looking at using dynamic spectrum sharing, or DSS, to allow 5G networks and military radars to operate on the same spectrum band.

"Our role at Hill AFB is to look at how a 5G network can share the same spectrum as radar systems," said Grant Lohsen, a GTRI senior research engineer who is leading the project. "In other words, we're exploring how to use dynamic spectrum sharing to minimize interference introduced to a radar system from increased activity on an in-band 5G network."

5G technology currently operates on three spectrum bands: high-band, mid-band, and low-band. High-band spectrum, also known as millimeter-wave spectrum, is seen as the most desirable of the three spectrum bands since it can carry massive amounts of data at high speeds. But its shorter wavelengths means it has trouble traveling long distances and penetrating certain surfaces. By comparison, low-band spectrum can travel long distances and penetrate walls but has less bandwidth.

GTRI is also researching the concept of network slicing for tactical applications, which allows multiple independent virtual networks to operate on one logical network. Unlike earlier cellular technologies, network slicing allows quality of service configuration (including throughput, latency and security) based on the application requirements throughout the 5G network down to the physical layer. The 5G standard enables flexible mapping between the individual slices and physical layer resources (such as spectrum, time, and antenna beams), allowing for research, design and integration of commercial 5G network technologies into a secure tactical framework using open source tools.  

In a hypothetical military setting, network slicing could enable soldiers to exchange vital information while reserving higher-quality bandwidth to stream video back to a command headquarters – all while ensuring the data remains secure.  

"With network slicing, different classes of traffic – whether it's higher throughput or lower latency, classified or unclassified, etc., – can be assigned to different portions of the 5G network," said Tanah Barchichat, a GTRI senior research engineer who is leading the network slicing research. "It’s a big feature we feel that the defense community can take advantage of."

Homegrown 

GTRI is also examining ways to cost-effectively bring high-speed broadband networks to rural parts of Georgia, many of which have struggled to keep up with network demand as the pandemic accelerates the shift to remote work and distance learning.  

Specifically, Bill Lawton, a GTRI principal research engineer studying 5G use case applicability to help rural Georgians, said GTRI is exploring the feasibility of bringing 5G-powered fixed wireless access service to homes in rural Georgia.

"A home owner could just have a router-like device and place it in a window facing wherever the nearest cell tower is, and have high-speed broadband in their home," Lawton said. "That's an area where 5G can help increase broadband penetration to rural areas at much lower installation costs than traditional broadband services."

There are also opportunities to bring 5G to Georgia's agricultural communities. 5G stands to transform things like crop management, where farms could use the technology to monitor crops, allowing fertilizer or pesticide treatment of specific portions of fields instead of applying the same treatment to an entire field. Farms could also use 5G to equip farm machinery and equipment with higher compute power and more advanced data collection capabilities.

"The agriculture industry is one of many areas in Georgia that can greatly benefit from pervasive 5G technologies," Lawton said.

Problem Solving                                 

Closer to home, right at GTRI, researchers have constructed a 5G laboratory where they are conducting over-the-air testing of 5G networks and utilizing open source 5G software to further their research.

GTRI is working to provide a standards-based, open source, 5G cellular system to the government. The goals of the project are to break vendor lock-in, provide a baseline from which mission-specific 5G cellular enhancements can be created, and evolve the system over time as technology advances.

“This will allow for implementation of the 3GPP features that may not be commercially viable but are of great interest to government customers," Lohsen said.

3GPP, or the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, is an organization consisting of seven telecommunications standards organizations that develop protocols for various cellular telecommunications technologies, including 5G.    

Lawton said the team is applying lessons learned from early 5G rollouts in the commercial space to prepare the technology for widespread use in defense settings.   

A major selling point for 5G in the commercial space has been its ability to enable a new era of the internet of things — a network of interconnected electronics, vehicles and home appliances that interact and exchange data. However, many of these applications have been seen as at least a few years away, as they rely on future releases and updates to the 5G specifications that have yet to be finalized.

"We're connecting current models of smartphones to our 5G network and analyzing how these 5G networks really perform versus what's advertised, and how we can best set up and orient these 5G networks to be able to satisfy the requirements of deploying the systems in a tactical environment," Lawton said.

*****

Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performs more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry. Learn more at https://www.gtri.gatech.edu/ and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Writer: Anna Akins 

Photographer: Christopher Moore 

That is why Chris Roberts, a principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Brendan Saltaformaggio, an assistant professor in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and others have joined forces under GTRI's Graduate Student Fellowship Program to research and develop a new branch of cyber forensics called AI Psychiatry that seeks to keep data more secure in a constantly evolving technological landscape.

Saltaformaggio said his idea for AI Psychiatry stemmed from over a decade of researching and building cutting-edge cyber forensics techniques, including protecting against traditional cyberattacks to recovering digital evidence from devices at a crime scene. As AI and machine learning become more popular, Saltaformaggio said AI Psychiatry will play a key role in protecting the nation from rising security risks. 

"You almost can't go anywhere now without some involvement from machine learning and artificial intelligence," Saltaformaggio said. "We knew it was only a matter of time before these things started being targeted in the real world."

Providing the example of a self-driving car, GTRI's Roberts said that if the vehicle takes a wrong turn or speeds up unexpectedly, investigators could use AI Psychiatry to determine whether the accident was due to a cyberattack or errors in training the AI system. If the accident was caused by a cyberattack, the new forensic capability could help experts patch the vulnerability without losing any of the model's existing training.

AI and machine learning models require several rounds of energy- and time-intensive training to become more adept at handling new and existing tasks.    

"You save all that knowledge and can just fix the little problem as opposed to, 'OK, now we need to go back to square one and re-look at this model, retrain this model and redeploy it to the field,'" Roberts said.

The need for AI Psychiatry extends well beyond self-driving cars.

In national security, military experts have been rapidly adopting next-generation technologies to speed up training and decision-making processes – from creating more advanced image classification techniques to developing autonomous weapon-enabled drones.

"When there is a failure – let's say a drone crashes – you have to have these forensic techniques to be able to understand why it crashed and what was involved," Saltaformaggio explained. "'Was this an act of war? Was this an attack by another government? Or was this just an accident that no one saw coming?'"

But developing AI Psychiatry does not come without challenges.  

Roberts noted that since much of these new forensic capabilities do not exist today, it is up to the team to forge a new path forward in the budding field.

"We’re trying to think about what’s going to be the problem 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when machines are effectively making decisions in the battlefield," Roberts said.

That is why a cross-partnership between GTRI and Georgia Tech is so crucial.

"A relationship with campus and GTRI is just so valuable; we complement each other really well," Roberts added.

Other participating members in the AI Psychiatry research project are Noah Tobin, a GTRI senior research associate, and David Oygenblik, a graduate research assistant in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Tobin said that he expects the research to have a direct impact on protecting national security as advancements in technology give way to newer security threats.  

"We are moving into a future where AI is going to become more and more ubiquitous," Tobin said. "We really need a lot of work to understand what the vulnerabilities of that are from a security posture."

Serving national security represents the majority of GTRI's work and remains our primary growth engine. As part of GTRI's new Strategic Plan, we seek to expand GTRI's relationship with the intelligence community through enhancing our knowledge of emerging threats and expanding our national thought leadership impact through presence, participation, and partnership with our sponsors.

The GTRI Graduate Student Fellowship Program is a competitive program for Georgia Tech graduate students working in GTRI strategic research areas. Academic faculty and GTRI researchers worked together to create proposals that are closely aligned with GTRI's strategic initiatives, and graduate students are able to work on these research projects with fully-funded fellowships for five years. 

Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,800 employees supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performs more than $700 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry. Learn more at https://www.gtri.gatech.edu/ and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Writer: Anna Akins 

Photographer: Sean McNeil

Photo Illustration: Melanie Goux 

A research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a modular solution for handling larger packages without the need for a complex fleet of drones of varying sizes. By allowing teams of small drones to collaboratively lift objects using an adaptive control algorithm, the strategy could allow a wide range of packages to be delivered using a combination of several standard-sized vehicles.

Beyond simplifying the drone fleet, the work could provide more robust drone operations and reduce the noise and safety concerns involved in operating large autonomous UAVs in populated areas. In addition to commercial package delivery, the system might also be used by the military to resupply small groups of soldiers in the field.

“A delivery truck could carry a dozen drones in the back, and depending on how heavy a particular package is, it might use as many as six drones to carry the package,” said Jonathan Rogers, the Lockheed Martin Associate Professor of Avionics Integration in Georgia Tech’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “That would allow flexibility in the weight of the packages that could be delivered and eliminate the need to build and maintain several different sizes of delivery drones.”

The research was supported, in part, by a National Science Foundation graduate student fellowship and by the Hives independent research and development program of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. A paper on the research has been submitted to the Journal of Aircraft.

A centralized computer system developed by graduate student Kevin Webb would monitor each of the drones lifting a package, sharing information about their location and the thrust being provided by their motors. The control system would coordinate the issuance of commands for navigation and delivery of the package.

“The idea is to make multi-UAV cooperative flight easy from the user perspective,” Rogers said. “We take care of the difficult issues using the onboard intelligence, rather than expecting a human to precisely measure the package weight, center of gravity, and drone relative positions. We want to make this easy enough so that a package delivery driver could operate the system consistently.”

The challenges of controlling a group of robots connected together to lift a package is more complex in many ways than controlling a swarm of robots that fly independently.

“Most swarm work involves vehicles that are not connected, but flying in formations,” Rogers said. “In that case, the individual dynamics of a specific vehicle are not constrained by what the other vehicles are doing. For us, the challenge is that the vehicles are being pulled in different directions by what the other vehicles connected to the package are doing.” 

The team of drones would autonomously connect to a docking structure attached to a package, using an infrared guidance system that eliminates the need for humans to attach the vehicles. That could come in handy for drones sent to retrieve packages that a customer is returning. By knowing how much thrust they are producing and the altitude they are maintaining, the drone teams could even estimate the weight of the package they’re picking up.

Webb and Rogers have built a demonstration in which four small quadrotor drones work together to lift a box that’s 2 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet and weighs 12 pounds. The control algorithm isn’t limited to four vehicles and could manage “as many vehicles as you could put around the package,” Rogers said.

For the military, the modular cargo system could allow squads of soldiers at remote locations to be resupplied without the cost or risk of operating a large autonomous helicopter. A military UAV package retrieval team could be made up of individual vehicles carried by each soldier.

“That would distribute a big lifting capability in smaller packages, which equates to small drones that could be used to team up,” Rogers said. “Putting small drones together would allow them to do bigger things than they could do individually.”

Bringing multiple vehicles together creates a more difficult control challenge, but Rogers argues the benefits are worth the complexity. “The idea of having multiple machines working together provides better scalability than building a larger device every time you have a larger task,” he said. “We think this is the right way to fill that gap.”

Using multiple drones to carry a heavy package could also allow more redundancy in the delivery system. Should one of the drones fail, the others should be able to pick up the load – an issue managed by the central control system. That part of the control strategy hasn’t yet been tested, but it is part of Rogers’ plan for future development of the system.

More research is also needed on the docking system that connects the drones to packages. The structures will have to be made strong and rigid enough to connect to and lift the packages, while being inexpensive enough to be disposable.

“I think the major technologies are already here, and given an adequate investment, a system could be fielded within five years to deliver packages with multiple drones,” Rogers said. “It’s not a technical challenge as much as it is a regulatory issue and a question of societal acceptance.”

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Media Relations Contacts: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu) or Anne Wainscott-Sargent (404-435-5784) (asargent7@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

Employing approximately 1,000 staff, SRNL conducts research and development for diverse federal agencies, providing practical, cost-effective solutions for the nation’s environmental, nuclear security, energy, and manufacturing challenges. As the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Environmental Management Laboratory, SRNL provides strategic scientific and technological support for the nation’s $6 billion per year waste clean-up program. 

As part of the BRSA, Georgia Tech will help manage the SRNL and guide the future growth of the lab’s core competencies while expanding collaboration with Tech’s $1 billion-per-year research program. The laboratory is located near Aiken, S.C., across the Savannah River from Augusta and Richmond County.

“We are pleased to support the national interests of the Department of Energy and the impact that the SRNL has on the Augusta area,” said Ángel Cabrera, Georgia Tech’s president. “We look forward to expanding our collaborations with the Savannah River National Laboratory, other members of the Battelle Savannah River Alliance, and the Department of Energy.”

BSRA is led by and wholly owned by Battelle, one of DOE’s leading laboratory management contractors. The BSRA Team includes five universities from the region—Clemson University, Georgia Institute of Technology, South Carolina State University, University of Georgia, and University of South Carolina—as well as small business partners, Longenecker & Associates and TechSource. 

“Our collaboration with the Battelle Savannah River Alliance and the Savannah River National Laboratory will provide new opportunities for our faculty and students in unique areas of research and education,” said Chaouki Abdallah, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research.

The contract includes a five-year base with five one-year options. The estimated value of the contract is $3.8 billion over the course of 10 years if all options are exercised.

“We are honored by DOE’s decision to award the Savannah River National Laboratory management and operations contract to our team,” said Battelle President and CEO Lou Von Thaer. “We have the lab management experience to make a difference and we’re committed to ensuring the success of this important national resource.”

“We’re honored and excited to have this opportunity,” said Ron Townsend, Battelle’s Executive Vice President for Global Laboratory Operations. “BSRA’s approach will ensure the delivery of high-impact science, technology and engineering solutions into the future through a significant expansion of SRNL’s core competencies. Our team offers an exciting, compelling vision for the future of SRNL and provides DOE a leadership team that will deliver with excellence.” 

Battelle currently has a management role at seven DOE national labs including Pacific Northwest National Lab, Brookhaven National Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, National Renewable Energy Lab, Idaho National Lab, Los Alamos National Lab and Lawrence Livermore National Lab. It also operates the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center for the Department of Homeland Security.

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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Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Emelianov was recognized for his contributions to ultrasound elasticity and photoacoustic imaging. He is the Joseph M. Pettit Chair Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. An expert in biomedical imaging instrumentation and nanoagents for imaging and therapy, Emelianov has joint appointments with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He is also a professor of Radiology at the Emory University School of Medicine and is affiliated with Winship Cancer Institute and other clinical units. 

Emelianov is the director of the Ultrasound Imaging and Therapeutics Research Laboratory, where his group works on the discovery, development, and clinical translation of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic instrumentation, augmented with theranostic nanoagents–small particles that can diagnose and then treat a specific disease. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and he has served as vice president for Ultrasonics of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society.

Fujimoto, a Regents’ Professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering, was honored for his work in the field of parallel and distributed discrete event simulation. Discrete event simulations model operations within a system and have uses in a wide variety of applications. Fujimoto has authored and co-authored hundreds of technical papers on the subject as well as several books, which span application areas including transportation systems, telecommunication networks, and multiprocessor and defense systems.

He was also named a 2019 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) Fellow. The announcement for both of these recognitions came only two years after he was named an Association for Computing Machinery Fellow in 2017.

Sarkar, the Stephen P. Fleming Chair of Telecommunications in the School of Computer Science and co-director of the Center for Research into Novel Computing Hierarchies, received his distinction for contributions to compiler technologies for high-performance computing. His work in this area spans multiple aspects of parallel computing software including programming languages, compilers, runtime systems, and debugging and verification systems for high performance computers.

Sarkar has numerous recognitions in the field. He became a member of the IBM Academy of Technology in 1995 and an ACM Fellow in 2008. He has been serving as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (ASCAC) since 2009 and has served on CRA’s Board of Directors since 2015. 

The IEEE – short for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 420,000-plus members in more than 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications, biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics.

Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes nearly one-third of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed nearly 1,300 active industry standards.  The association also sponsors or co-sponsors more than 1,900 international technical conferences and events each year.