Georgia Tech has received 14 awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a total of $3.2 million and 42 awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a total of more than $17.5 million as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  Among the NSF awards are eight prestigious NSF Career Awards, awards made to promising new faculty with significant achievements early in their academic careers.

ARRA-funded research at Georgia Tech ranges from projects on energy to cancer research and from computer security to biomedical devices aimed at saving lives.  Stimulus funds are also being used to improve computer science education and make the university more energy efficient.

Examples include:

• Georgia Tech and Emory are teaming up with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to develop a kidney replacement device capable of treating children.  The researchers have been awarded a challenge grant of $1 million from the NIH to refine a prototype device. Challenge grants are part of a new NIH program designed to stimulate rapid advances in focused disease areas.
• Georgia Tech biomedical researchers are developing nanofibers to assist veterans who have suffered injuries.  Using ARRA support in partnership with Emory, they are designing a polymeric nanofiber sheet that serves as an "engineered scaffold" to help repair nerves.
• Georgia Computes!, a statewide program designed to expand the pipeline of computer science students and teachers at all education levels in Georgia, received a $1.4 million grant from the NSF to extend the three-year program for two more years.  Georgia Tech's College of Computing has been working to improve computing education throughout the state at all levels with a special focus on developing and implementing models for recruiting, mentoring and retaining students from underrepresented communities. Georgia Computes! engages groups that have not historically participated in IT education at high rates, such as minorities, women and persons with disabilities.
• Funding for energy research plays a vital role in addressing many of the nation's energy challenges.  Georgia Tech is researching carbon capture alternatives and assisting industrial plants in assessing their energy needs.  Tech is one of 15 schools selected to receive funds for an Industrial Assessment Center that will provide small and medium-sized businesses no-cost energy assessments and serve as a training ground for the next generation of energy-savvy engineers. 
• A Georgia Tech collaboration with the Oakridge Partnership for Industrial Energy Efficiency received $1.4 million to perform 100 enhanced Save Energy Now assessments in large industrial plants, and to assist key large industrial plants in implementing identified assessment energy-saving results. 
• As part of the State Facilities Retrofit Program, Georgia Tech will receive more than $6 million in energy-efficiency projects.  Funding for projects is provided through the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA). The energy-efficiency projects include lighting system retrofits, HVAC system upgrades, replacement of inefficient chillers and boilers, advanced control systems, utility sub-metering and building tune-ups (also known as commissioning).

More information about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is available at www.recovery.gov.