Malena Bisanti’s work and life mirror each other. She calls herself a “lifetime learner” by practice. She works with faculty to design the visual presentation of online graduate courses while spending her free time constructing layered works of art. Somewhere between the classroom and the studio, her philosophy, career, and creativity have come together into a real-life collage. 

1. It’s not about exposure anymore. Atlanta is already a global city, so the focus is on whether the World Cup delivers lasting value for residents.
2. Economic impact is uneven. Big headline numbers do not show who actually benefits, and much of the spending may not reach local communities.
3. Infrastructure will be tested. Transportation and downtown systems will face heavy strain, raising concerns about what improvements last beyond the event.
4. The hidden story is food and logistics. Behind the scenes, Georgia Tech researchers are working to reduce food waste and strengthen systems that could outlast the tournament.

A Global Stage and Familiar Promises

As Atlanta welcomes the world for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the promises are familiar: millions of visitors, global attention, economic growth, and a chance to showcase the city on one of the biggest stages in sports.

But Georgia Tech experts say the real question is not whether the tournament will generate activity — it is who benefits from it and what remains after the final match is played.

From Visibility to Value

Mega-events have long been sold as catalysts for transformation. The 1996 Olympics reshaped Atlanta’s physical landscape and helped position the city as a global destination. Thirty years later, the World Cup arrives at a very different moment.

“There are similarities,” said Emily Barrett, assistant professor in the School of City and Regional Planning. “Like the Olympics, the World Cup is an accelerator for infrastructure upgrades and public and private investment alike.”

Atlanta is seeing significant public investment in transportation improvements and billions of dollars in private development downtown. But today’s Atlanta is very different from Atlanta in the 1990s.

“Atlanta is no longer a city seeking recognition on the world stage,” Barrett said. “We are a thriving and growing city.”

That shifts the conversation from visibility to value.

“The open question is whether hosting mega-events makes the city work better for the people who live here,” Barrett added.

The Economics Behind the Headlines

Assessing that value becomes more complicated when economic forecasts enter the conversation.

Large projections often dominate headlines, but Declan Abernethy, lecturer in the School of History and Sociology, cautions that economic impact estimates rarely tell the whole story.

“It is far easier to put out an economic impact projection compared to the difficulty of measuring impact,” Abernethy said.

While visitors will spend money on hotels, restaurants, transportation, and entertainment, he notes that much of that spending may not reach the community.

“When we look closely at that spending, we can see that much of the profit will be taken in by large corporations or FIFA in the immediate vicinity of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and not as much by Atlanta residents or small businesses,” he said.

According to Barrett, economic studies often overlook a critical question: What could alternative investments have accomplished?

“Economic studies rarely account for displacement costs, or whether the same public dollars could have generated similar or better outcomes if invested elsewhere,” she said.

Pressure Points Across the City

The World Cup’s impact extends beyond economics; it will also test Atlanta’s infrastructure at a scale few events can match.

Michael Hunter, professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says the biggest challenge may be the volume of people moving through the city.

“There will be a number of pressure points. However, one of the most significant will be just the number of people,” Hunter said. “This event will attract significant crowds.”

Atlanta’s transportation agencies have spent years preparing, drawing on lessons learned from events including the Super Bowl, World Series, and major concerts. Still, capacity limits are unavoidable.

“There is only so much traffic that MARTA or any transit agency can handle,” Hunter said. “People need to understand that there will be congestion and longer wait times. The key is to be patient.”

The concern is whether those investments result in lasting improvements or merely support a few weeks of activity.

Abernethy argues that the World Cup should be viewed as part of a broader vision for Atlanta rather than a standalone catalyst.

“We are seeing the World Cup as a part of a longer-running and more cohesive vision for sport and economic development downtown,” he said. “Atlanta may not be repeating the same cycle nor cracking downtown’s development problem with the World Cup itself.”

Behind the Scenes: Food and Logistics

Infrastructure challenges extend beyond transportation. Feeding hundreds of thousands of visitors while minimizing waste requires its own network of logistics, coordination, and planning.

Nicole Kennard, a research scientist at Georgia Tech’s Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, views the tournament as an opportunity to strengthen how food moves throughout the city.

“These large events are a really big opportunity for us to coordinate and test our infrastructure,” Kennard said. “We have to think critically about how to improve the infrastructure and ensure its resilience and efficiency.”

Working with organizations such as Second Helpings Atlanta, the official food rescue partner for the World Cup, Georgia Tech researchers are building technologies and tools to improve coordination among food rescue groups. The effort aims to keep surplus food out of landfills by quickly moving it from stadiums and vendors to local food organizations.

“It’s really a logistics problem, a data problem, and a coordination problem,” Kennard said. “The faster you can move food from the point of surplus directly to a pantry, the more likely it is to reach people who need it.”

What Legacy Looks Like

Ultimately, Atlanta’s World Cup legacy may not be measured by attendance figures or visitor spending alone.

“How we evaluate success depends on what we choose to measure, and too often we focus on headline numbers instead of who actually benefits,” said Abernethy.

Kennard sees the tournament as a chance to build systems that outlast the event itself. “What we build for the World Cup could become critical infrastructure for future emergencies and disasters,” she said.

Atlanta already knows how to host a global event. Whether the investments, partnerships, and infrastructure created for the World Cup leave the city stronger after the crowds leave remains to be seen.

After leading Georgia Tech through one of the most successful periods in its history, President Ángel Cabrera has been selected to serve as the next president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, one of the world’s foremost nonprofit organizations dedicated to leadership, dialogue, and addressing society’s most pressing challenges. 

1. You’re paying more at the pump, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Gas prices are the most visible sign of the crisis, and the increases are already significant. National average retail gasoline prices are more than $1.20 higher than they were in February, before the conflict escalated.

“Even though U.S. petroleum production often exceeds our consumption, we are not insulated from disruptions in global oil supply because oil is a globally traded commodity,” says director of the Energy Policy and Innovation Center, Laura Taylor. “If supply is restricted anywhere in the world, prices will rise everywhere, including in the U.S.”

Markets expect some relief by fall, with future prices pointing lower than today’s levels. But Tony Harding, assistant professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, cautions, “Prices are likely to remain above pre-conflict levels for the foreseeable future, and temporary relief measures, such as Georgia’s motor fuel tax suspension, will not last forever.”

Taylor puts it plainly: “Wages are not rising faster than prices, so people are feeling the pinch and will continue to do so.”

2. Your summer plans just got more expensive.

The impact does not stop at the gas station. For Americans planning summer travel, the timing of this conflict could not be worse. Matthew Oliver, associate professor in the School of Economics, points to commercial air travel as one of the most exposed sectors.

“Jet fuel prices have roughly doubled in the wake of the current oil price spike, putting immediate upward pressure on airfares,” says Oliver.

The ripple effects extend far beyond travel. 

“Oil is an input into the supply chain of nearly every good at some point,” says Bobby Harris, assistant professor in the School of Economics. “When input costs go up, prices go up.”

3. Expect to pay more at the grocery store.

The connection between Middle East tensions and the American dinner table is more direct than many realize, because petrochemicals are a key feedstock for fertilizer production.

“Higher oil prices lead to higher fertilizer prices, which lead to higher food prices,” says Oliver. 

Combined with existing tariff pressures and tight supply chains, the strain on household budgets is coming from multiple directions at once.

“If the crisis persists, there will be upward pressure on the prices of nearly every physical good,” Oliver adds.

4. The government’s options are limited, and the clock is ticking.

Washington has tools to respond, but none are silver bullets. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve currently holds around 400 million barrels and can release about 4 million barrels per day, roughly 20% of U.S. daily demand.

“I see the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a tool to buy time during a crisis,” says public policy professor Dan Matisoff. “But if the conflict drags on, we will ultimately be in a more vulnerable position.”

Quick fixes like price caps or demand subsidies carry trade-offs. 

“Subsidies can mitigate the impact of price shocks, but they can also mask important market signals that help balance supply and demand,” says Harding, using Europe’s 2022 energy crisis as a cautionary example.

5. The smartest thing Americans can do right now is think about efficiency.

“People in general tend to undervalue energy efficiency,” says Matisoff. “Think of energy efficiency investments as a sort of hedge or insurance against volatile energy prices.”

That means considering fuel efficiency when buying a car, and looking at heat pumps, electric vehicles, and home energy upgrades when the time is right.

“Higher energy prices increase the value of investing in energy efficiency upgrades to your home and adopting technologies that are less dependent on fossil fuels,” says Harding.

For families navigating uncertainty, both economists and policy experts point to the same practical advice: Reduce your exposure to fossil fuel price swings before the next crisis hits.

Dust-sized meteoroids and solar wind gradually alter lunar soil, producing tiny metallic particles known as nanophase iron. For years, scientists have used sensing data influenced by those particles to estimate the weathering age of the moon’s surface, but they weren’t sure which weather source primarily drives these changes.

To investigate, physics Ph.D. candidate Roshan Trivedi and Advik Vira, a recent Ph.D. graduate, exposed ilmenite, a common mineral on both the Earth and moon, to a synthetic version of solar wind. The experiment produced nanophase iron under controlled conditions, suggesting that solar wind plays a major role in shaping the lunar surface observed today. 

The team presented its findings in “Creation of Lunar-Like Rims in Ilmenite Using Synthetic Solar Wind,” published in The Planetary Science Journal in June. Their work was conducted through the Georgia Tech Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER), a NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) led by Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor Thom Orlando, a co-author of the study. A central aim of CLEVER is to understand the science and effects of space weathering as they pertain to the goals of NASA’s Artemis missions.

By understanding how the moon’s surface morphs on a microscopic level, scientists will be able to better interpret remote sensing data. Soon, we won’t have to rely just on moon missions to learn detailed characteristics of the lunar surface.

The work could also shed light on another longstanding question: how water forms on the moon. 

“Water would be a fantastic resource for humans operating on the moon, but scientifically, we are driven simply by the question of how water gets there in the first place,” said Phillip First, a professor in the School of Physics. “Solar wind is potentially one way, because protons in solar wind provide the hydrogen of H2O molecules while oxygen is present in lunar minerals.”

Using a vacuum chamber in Orlando’s lab to simulate solar wind and high-resolution electron microscopy to analyze the samples, the researchers recreated the effects of thousands of years of solar wind exposure.

“Scientists have been doing laboratory radiation experiments for years, but they haven't been able to characterize the results at this level of detail,” said lead author Trivedi.

The team can now simulate a wide range of exposure ages, which may help explain how water forms. In addition to forming nanophase iron, the experiments created tiny voids within the mineral — potential sites where hydrogen from solar wind could bond with oxygen to form water. 

“Having the ability to recreate the solar wind and having results look so similar to actual lunar samples is excellent,” said co-lead author Vira. 

DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ae6074

Funding: This work was directly supported by the NASA SSERVI under CLEVER. Sample preparation was performed at the Georgia Tech Institute for Matter and Systems, which is supported by the National Science Foundation. Collaborations between the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Georgia Tech for advanced electron microscopy were supported by the Georgia Tech Center for Space Technology and Research. 

The streets have been paved. The grass has been mowed. Projects across the city have rushed to completion in anticipation of Atlanta hosting eight World Cup matches in June and July. Georgia Tech’s campus will join in the excitement, and the campus community is ready. 

The first week of June marks National CPR and AED Awareness Week, but year-round, Georgia Tech students are helping equip the campus community with lifesaving skills. 

Godavarti, then a second-year chemical and biomolecular engineering (ChBE) student, joined a course on chemical equity focused on reducing chemical exposure in vulnerable communities. The class, part of Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, embeds students in long-term research teams that span disciplines and semesters.

She and her classmates developed a computational model that estimates how dangerous chemical vapors build up in enclosed spaces, such as tanker trucks. Their work culminated in a paper, “Modeling Time-Dependent Chemical Concentrations in Confined Spaces for General Safety Applications,” published recently in ACS Chemical Health & Safety.

For Godavarti, the experience helped clarify her future career endeavors. 

“I was always motivated to keep going on this project because chemical equity is something I genuinely care about,” she said. “I realized I really enjoyed working on open-ended projects after this class, and this confirmed my desire to pursue a Ph.D.”

She will begin her ChBE doctoral studies at Northwestern University this fall.

Bridging Disciplines

The VIP class grew out of a gap between research labs and reality. Pamela Pollet, a faculty member in Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is used to working in controlled lab settings with safety measures like vent hoods. But after she consulted on a project where commercial workers were accidentally exposed to harmful chemicals, she started to think about safety differently.

“There was a disconnect between what we do with chemicals in our controlled environments, which we understand very well, and how people interact with chemicals every day,” she said.

To bridge that gap, Pollet partnered with Jenny Houlroyd, the occupational group health manager of the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s (EI2) Safety, Health, and Environmental Services Program. Houlroyd works with Georgia businesses to reduce workplace hazards and protect employee health.

“We realized how siloed this work can be,” Houlroyd said. “Chemical safety researchers and chemists often operate separately, but their skills are complementary. That’s how we came up with the idea for the class.”

The VIP format made that collaboration possible. The 20-student team included majors from chemistry, biochemistry, biology, computer science, neuroscience, and ChBE. In addition to research, students heard from guest speakers — including journalists, lawyers, and policymakers — whose work intersects with chemical safety.

Modeling a Real-World Risk

The students focused on a practical problem in industrial hygiene: quickly estimating a person’s exposure to hazardous chemicals after a spill or open container in a confined space.

“If you hire an industrial hygienist like me, it’s going to take time to schedule, and it’s going to be expensive,” Houlroyd said. “But if there’s a chemical spill event happening, you need that safety data right away.”

To address this, the students built a computational model that simulates how chemicals evaporate and spread through air in enclosed environments. Using benzene, a common solvent, as a test case, the model predicts how benzene concentrations change over time, from minutes to hours after a spill or residual pool in an enclosed space. It can also estimate exposure at different heights, accounting for whether someone is standing upright or crouching in a chemical-heavy area.

“We’re addressing important gaps in modeling chemical exposures,” said John Pederson, a chemistry Ph.D. student who mentored the student team. “There’s been strong work in industrial settings, but less attention to environments found in transportation, agriculture, and sanitation, for example. It's an easily overlooked fact that working with paints, coatings, cleaning solutions, and other solvents presents a risk of acute or chronic exposure.”

From Classroom to Impact

The team ultimately hopes to make the model widely accessible and create a user-friendly app. While that work is ongoing, Pollet and Houlroyd say the project already demonstrates the power of interdisciplinary learning.

“This project was a very nice overlap of our fields,” Pollet said. “It helps students understand real-world scenarios in a way you can’t replicate in a traditional classroom.”

For Houlroyd, the collaboration also extended her impact beyond the field.

“I work for EI2, and we’re primarily external-facing and helping businesses out across the state of Georgia, but this has been a great opportunity to take what I'm learning in the field and then share it with the students,” she said. “I am so proud of the students. To see them take this big issue and make it into something the industry can use is so exciting.”

Modeling Time-Dependent Chemical Concentrations in Confined Spaces for General Safety Applications

Diya Godavarti, Waynell Simbafo, John Pederson, Jenny Houlroyd, and Pamela Pollet

ACS Chemical Health & Safety Article ASAP

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chas.6c00021

After days of testing at General Motors’ Milford Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, Georgia Tech won first place in the final year of the current EcoCAR EV Challenge cycle. Tech students competed against 13 universities over four years, applying emerging technologies to create intelligent mobility solutions. 

Walker has been a member of the Guggenheim School faculty since 2005 and has held several leadership positions, including associate chair for graduate studies. Prior to his appointment as chair, he served in the dean’s office as the College’s associate dean for academic affairs.

“Mitchell’s leadership and achievements reflect the excellence and innovation that define Georgia Tech,” said Raheem Beyah, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “As a longtime member of our faculty, he brings a deep understanding of the Institute’s values and aspirations to this new role. I am confident he will build on the College of Engineering’s extraordinary legacy and elevate its global impact.”

Walker is known for his ability to bring together expertise and partners across schools and colleges to develop high-impact programming, including the interdisciplinary Minor in Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

He played a pivotal role in advancing the sustained advocacy that led to Georgia Tech securing $88 million in state funding for a new Aerospace Engineering Building. Under his leadership, the nation’s top-ranked public aerospace program built a compelling case through years of coordinated effort among faculty, staff, alumni, advisory board members, and past leaders. This momentum reflects Walker’s contributions to aligning academic excellence with strategic institutional advocacy to achieve a landmark investment for the Institute.

“Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering represents the very best in innovation, impact, and collaboration,” Walker said. “I am honored to lead such an accomplished community of faculty, staff, and students and look forward to building on its strong foundation. Together, we will continue to advance research, education, and partnerships that address the world’s most pressing challenges and improve lives.”

Walker is a respected leader in advanced propulsion research, focusing on experimental and theoretical studies of plasma propulsion concepts for spacecraft, including Hall thrusters, gridded ion engines, and vacuum facility effects. He directs Georgia Tech’s High-Power-Electric Propulsion Laboratory and is principal investigator and director of the $15 million Joint Advanced Propulsion Institute (JANUS), a multi-university NASA Space Technology Research Institute. JANUS develops strategies to overcome limitations in ground testing of high-power electric propulsion systems, enabling and expanding their use in flight.

Walker is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and serves as a member of the organization’s Electric Propulsion Technical Committee. He is also an associate editor of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets and serves on the editorial boards of Frontiers in Physics and Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences – Plasma Physics. In addition, he has delivered expert witness testimony to the Space Subcommittee of the House of Representatives to help guide national investments in space propulsion technology.

His contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award, the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the AIAA Sustained Service Award, and the Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award.

As dean, Walker will lead the College’s academic and research enterprise, which includes more than 21,000 students, 50 degree tracks, and nearly 500 faculty members. Its undergraduate program is ranked No. 3 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and the graduate program is No. 4. All 11 of its programs are consistently ranked in the top 10.

Walker succeeds Beyah, who began his term as provost last November.

“I would like to thank Doug Williams for his steady leadership and service as interim dean during this important transition,” Beyah said. “Since November, he has provided critical stability for the College, and we are deeply grateful for his support of our faculty, staff, and students. I would also like to thank the search committee and their chair, Dean Vivek Sarkar. Vivek and the committee brought world-class candidates forward during this process, and their work has resulted in an exceptional new dean.”

Writer: Brittany Aiello, Faculty Communications Program Manager, Executive Communications, Institute Communications

Sherman Lofton Jr. has been a Yellow Jacket for more than 40 years, as a student, alumnus, and employee, currently serving as the senior director of cybersecurity operations. He arrived on campus in 1984 and earned a bachelor’s degree in management in 1990, and he never imagined that decades later he’d be graduating with a master’s degree from Tech on the same day as his daughter.  

Sherman Lofton Jr. has been a Yellow Jacket for more than 40 years, as a student, alumnus, and employee, currently serving as the senior director of cybersecurity operations. He arrived on campus in 1984 and earned a bachelor’s degree in management in 1990, and he never imagined that decades later he’d be graduating with a master’s degree from Tech on the same day as his daughter.  

Whether you are in Atlanta for an internship, taking summer classes, or simply hanging around, there are lots of events taking place around town during Memorial Day weekend. 

Brew at the Zoo 

For decades, bird flu was uncommon in the U.S., but that has changed. In the past several years, epidemics have threatened poultry and dairy cattle operations across the country. Higher egg prices, driven largely by bird flu-related supply disruptions, have cost American consumers billions of dollars in losses.

“The H5N1 strain of the bird flu, which has driven recent and current outbreaks, is a highly lethal virus that kills domestic chickens and other bird species in droves,” said David Pattie, GTRI research scientist and branch chief. “It can easily jump from birds to other animal species — and sometimes to humans.”

The research team will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to design and test a probiotic avian flu vaccine that, if successful, could be served to chickens in their feed. Currently, vaccinating a flock means individually injecting every bird. 

“We’re focusing on live bacterial vaccines, which means the vaccine comes from living bacteria you swallow, instead of an injection,” said Mike Farrell, GTRI principal research scientist and the project’s lead investigator. 

“These probiotic vaccines would help protect birds and livestock from flu-like infections and lower the risk of those viruses spreading to humans,” he added.

In addition to Farrell and Pattie, the team includes researchers from an array of disciplines across the Institute: Faramarz Fekri, professor and John Pippin Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; JC Gumbart, Dunn Family Professor in the School of Physics; Brian Hammer, associate professor in the School of  Biological Sciences; and Anton Bryksin, director of the Molecular Evolution Core at the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. 

Building on Human Influenza Research 

The project builds on Farrell’s ongoing research into developing probiotic vaccine adjuvants for human influenza. The goal is to use probiotic bacteria — the “good bacteria” found in foods like yogurt — to help create immunity for the flu vaccine.

If the researchers can get probiotic bacteria to display pieces of the flu virus (called antigens) on their surface, then they could be swallowed like a normal probiotic pill.

“The gut is a great place for building immunity. When these bacteria reach the gut, your body would recognize the virus pieces on the bacteria and start building flu antibodies,” Farrell explained. “That way, when the chickens get exposed to flu, their immune system would already be prepared to fight it.”

Putting AI to the Test

“The idea behind this oral bird flu vaccine is to leverage artificial intelligence and the vast historical database for H5N1 available to us, because it's a very well-studied virus,” Farrell said. “There is a ton of structural data out there.” 

Gumbart is an expert in protein modeling and simulation. Part of his role is figuring out the best design for a viral protein piece (antigen) — one that looks and behaves like the real virus protein, so it triggers the right immune response. To do this, he will combine Fekri’s AI-generated predictions with computer modeling. 

“That’s where my team adds real value,” Gumbart said. “We use simulations to test how stable and realistic these protein designs are, which allows us to choose the best ones for lab experiments.”

AI has already identified new medicines and antibiotics by studying chemical databases. If the team can use AI to help design virus proteins for vaccines, it could transform how vaccines are made. 

Pattie says that any viral infectious disease with a high mortality rate has the potential to become a national security threat. “At that point, developing countermeasures becomes exceedingly important from a national security perspective,” he said.  

This is the first time several of the team members are working on poultry research. For Gumbart, the project is a full-circle moment.

“I grew up in rural Illinois, and as a kid, one of my daily chores was to take care of chickens, and I kind of hated it,” he said. “It is some sort of universal irony that I am back to taking care of chickens again.”

McCamish Pavilion will host Atlanta Public Schools (APS) graduation ceremonies throughout the week, bringing additional traffic to the Georgia Tech campus.   

The peak of the severe weather season is nearing its end, but in Georgia, it's been a quieter period than residents have become accustomed to in years past, devoid of the flurry of tornado warnings, heavy rain bands, and thunderstorms. Zachary Handlos, director of the B.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences degree program, explains that the region lacked a major component of the severe weather formula.  

Omar Garcia Urdiales, CREATE‑X’s associate director of Learn, brings a global entrepreneurial experience to Georgia Tech: founder and CEO of a startup operating in the AWS Accelerator Loft, longtime startup coach in Europe’s major innovation hubs, lecturer across multiple universities, and an external doctoral researcher in entrepreneurship and digitalization. He brings this background to his teaching of Startup Lab’s latest iteration – a significant redesign developed by VentureLab’s Director Keith McGreggor. McGreggor created the course and has evolved it over many years, building on its initial success.  

“This new iteration of Startup Lab allows us to meet students exactly where they are,” said McGreggor. “By doing this, we give them the strongest foundation possible, providing them with the tools to grapple with uncertainty and build their confidence.” 

Startup Lab has long anchored the Institute’s entrepreneurial pathway with clearer structure, a unified language, and a deeper focus on reflective growth, so more Georgia Tech students can discover (and trust) their own entrepreneurial judgment.

Startup Lab is expanding responsibly, with six sections in Atlanta and additional global sections in France and Asia-Pacific taught by faculty trained in the curriculum. Students here benefit from a program that’s learning across borders and bringing that learning back to campus.

“Startup Lab is not about becoming an entrepreneur, but about engaging in the unknown and adopting entrepreneurial behavior, which can be applied to all career paths,” Urdiales said. “Students become better equipped to identify problem spaces and solve them through evidence-based building.” 

Start Where You Are

Urdiales emphasized that Startup Lab is built for students who are still exploring, uncertain, or are simply curious.

“Many students tell us they’re curious about entrepreneurship but feel not ready,” he said. “They worry they’re too introverted for customer interviews or assume Startup Lab is only for people with fully formed ideas. In fact, those are the most common misconceptions.”

The course’s first few weeks focus on training students to see struggles and patterns in the world. Then, they apply those skills on a team, exploring, designing, and testing a concept with real people. The nonnegotiable outcome isn’t the best idea; it’s a more confident, evidence-driven version of you. 

“Startup Lab is strengthening that self-awareness. All of us who are entrepreneurs, we don’t grow linearly. We have various iterations of how we see things,” Urdiales said. “This ability to see patterns or to see problems with customer discovery, it’s a learning process and a growth process.” 

Building Muscle Memory

Urdiales said that students won’t have a passive experience in the lab.

“To become an entrepreneur, you need to do it. You need to engage with customers. You need to get out of the building,” he said. “It gives you the ability to incorporate theoretical frameworks into practical solutions and then understand these more practical outcomes.”

Aligning with CREATE-X’s culture of continuous iteration, Startup Lab is tightening the hands-on core of the course around four simple, repeatable tools so that entrepreneurial thinking becomes muscle memory, not a one-off assignment. The new iteration of the curriculum, developed by McGreggor, helps students learn to: 

• Elicit grounded problem stories from real people (and separate observations from interpretations).
• Make explicit strategic decisions — who you serve, what you offer, how you deliver, how you get paid — and back them with discovery evidence.
• Externalize your logic with clear Business Model Canvas snapshots (hypotheses ≠ decisions ≠ open questions).
• Design minimum viable experiments (MVEs) that can falsify assumptions, not just confirm them. 

“What we have is a frontier model in entrepreneurial education,” said McGreggor. “The result is a course that teaches sound decision making and builds entrepreneurial confidence that rewards authentic discovery and iteration over performative polish. It creates a more solid foundation for entrepreneurial thinking and sets students up to engage more deeply with everything that follows in their CREATE-X pathway.” 

Reflection as a Feature

As a part of Startup Lab, instructors integrate reflection throughout the semester, which helps students notice patterns of work, make small experiments, and adjust based on what’s learned. Students often worry they’re not the founder type or that their introversion will hold them back; Startup Lab reframes those worries as raw material for growth, including communication skill building and one-on-one interactions you won’t always get in higher-level courses. 

Startup Lab integrates HaradaLite — McGreggor's adaptation of the Japanese Harada Method — as a weekly reflection practice in which students keep a reflection log, helping them notice patterns of work, run small experiments, and adjust based on what's learned. With this approach, educators are able to measure the growth of entrepreneurial confidence by self-report, leading to a more quantitative approach to teaching.

A Common Language Across CREATE‑X

There’s no mandated order for CREATE-X courses. Startup Lab simply makes the next steps clearer by providing a shared language and milestone structure across sections and instructors, so whatever comes next (I2P, Capstone, Launch, or an internship), you can carry forward a coherent, evidence- aware story of your work. 

“All CREATE‑X Learn sections will work with the same milestone objectives,” Urdiales said. “Students trained in Startup Lab are already trained in the muscles of entrepreneurship. They’re more equipped to go into Make and Launch or be a leader within their industry.”

Built To Be Inclusive Across Disciplines and Needs

Startup Lab is about becoming the kind of person who can see opportunities, reason from evidence, and make better decisions when the path isn’t obvious. 

• You do not need an idea or a pre‑built team — curiosity is enough.
• You do not need special permits to enroll. Startup Lab is open to anyone ready to explore.
• You can benefit from the course before or after I2P or Capstone, since there’s no fixed order to the CREATE‑X pathway.
• Introverts are welcome. The course intentionally builds communication skills through structured, low-pressure interviews and guided interaction. 

“Startup Lab helps students see the world’s problems and fill the gaps with fresh ideas, teaching them to see and understand the important difference between evidence and inference,” said McGreggor. “This lays the foundation that leads to good founders, and builds the entrepreneurial confidence needed to succeed.”

What You’ll Actually Do 

Students in Startup Lab can expect a workshop-heavy, conversation-rich semester with weekly artifacts, scenario-based decision prompts, startup reports, and quizzes that keep you honest about what you’re learning. You’ll assemble a Continuity Pack near the end: a compact bundle of your best discovery evidence, decisions, MVEs, economics, and final story slides so your future self (or your I2P/Launch application) can pick up right where you left off. 

The course also sets norms for modern tool use. AI is welcomed as a coach and organizer, after your own baseline thinking and research, and as an enhancement of the real conversations you have. That matters because Startup Lab’s promise is that you build solid judgment under the test of uncertainty, critical to the world of today and the future that is being built. 

Jump Into Startup Lab

You don’t have to have it all figured out. If you’re a first-year student still exploring, a junior craving real-world projects, or a senior looking to stand out in interviews, Startup Lab is for you. 

Seats fill quickly across all sections — and for good reason.
This course gives you the clearest, most supportive on‑ramp into CREATE‑X, with a global methodology, a unified curriculum, and instructors who believe deeply in your potential to grow. Learn how to think entrepreneurially. See the world differently. Build the confidence that will follow you long after the semester ends.

Register for Startup Lab for Fall 2026.

 

Christopher Zuo never thought of himself as someone mosquitoes singled out. They bit him from time to time, he said, but no more than anyone else who spent a lot of time outdoors. 

Gemini is a versatile generative AI assistant that supports a range of activities such as brainstorming, drafting communications, summarizing complex materials, and generating code. NotebookLM functions as a research-focused assistant, which allows users to upload documents and receive responses grounded in their own provided data, complete with citations and contextual insights.

Faculty and staff can access Gemini and NotebookLM through Georgia Tech-managed environments using their standard credentials, ensuring that they are operating within the Institute’s data protection guidelines. Employees who work with sensitive data, specifically GTRI employees and other campus researchers, are encouraged to review OIT’s new Institutional AI Register for guidance on permissible data usage with these services before using them.

• Faculty and staff access to Gemini is available at: https://gemini.g.gatech.edu.
• Faculty and staff access to NotebookLM is available at: https://notebooklm.g.gatech.edu.
• Students, affiliates, and temporary employees must request access to a Google for Education license through the MyAccess Packages portal, as these licenses are limited.

“Our goal is to provide the campus community with the tools they need to move faster and think bigger,” said Leo Howell, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer. “Equally important is building the infrastructure, governance, and guidance that ensures we are doing so responsibly.”

This rollout is part of a larger, ongoing effort to build a comprehensive and transparent AI ecosystem at Georgia Tech. OIT recently enhanced its AI website with new resources designed to improve visibility and streamline access to tools, including:

• A dynamic institutional register of AI tools, which provides a real-time inventory of the tools that are approved for use and what types of data they support, as well as where other tools are in the institutional review process.
• A centralized intake form for AI tools, enabling faculty and staff to request evaluation of new technologies not currently included in the Institute’s portfolio.
• An invitation to participate in OIT’s AI Smart Pass program, which provides temporary access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 and OpenAI ChatGPT Edu licenses for faculty and staff.

All AI tools undergo a comprehensive review process before approval. This includes third-party security assessments, data privacy and risk analysis, contractual and compliance review, and alignment with Institute and University System of Georgia (USG) policies. These steps ensure that tools can be safely used with Georgia Tech systems and data, particularly when protected or regulated information is involved.

In the coming weeks, Georgia Tech will introduce its first formal AI policy, aligning with USG requirements and establishing a foundation of governance, expectations, and leading practices for AI use across the Institute.

To explore available tools or review guidance, visit https://oit.gatech.edu/ai.

Sherman Lofton Jr. has been a Yellow Jacket for more than 40 years, as a student, alumnus, and employee, currently serving as the senior director of cybersecurity operations. He arrived on campus in 1984 and earned a bachelor’s degree in management in 1990, and he never imagined that decades later he’d be graduating with a master’s degree from Tech on the same day as his daughter.  

Eligible full-time faculty and staff are encouraged to apply for education assistance through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and the Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program (STRAP). These programs are designed to support your professional development and help you achieve your educational goals by providing tuition and mandatory fee waivers or reimbursements.  

At the five Spring Commencement ceremonies, student speakers will share what they have learned during their time at Tech, as well as inspiring words of advice to their fellow graduates. 

Just saying hello to someone can make all the difference in the college experience. That’s the message Lucas McCarty wants to pass on to the next generation of Yellow Jackets as he graduates with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.   

Building upon a multifaceted relationship, the two are bringing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and fueling infrastructure to campus — turning Georgia Tech into one of the nation’s most prominent campus-based examples for hydrogen mobility.

“Hyundai Motor Group is proud to strengthen our collaboration with Georgia Tech as we work together to accelerate the future of clean mobility. Georgia Tech’s leadership in innovation and its commitment to developing the next generation of problem-solvers make it a natural partner in advancing technologies,” said Ken Ramírez, executive vice president and head of Global Energy and Hydrogen Business at Hyundai Motor Group. “By combining the university’s excellent research with Hyundai’s global experience, we are creating the foundation for real-world solutions that will help drive the energy transition and inspire future mobility leaders.” 

Ramírez is also a 1991 Georgia Tech graduate and a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. 

“It’s very fulfilling to donate a handful of our NEXO fuel cell SUVs as part of our expanding relationship with Georgia Tech. Hydrogen-powered NEXO fuel cell vehicles will immediately serve to expand the clean mobility footprint on campus while providing real-world experiences with the cutting edge of zero-emissions transportation technology,” said Randy Parker, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor North America.

“Georgia Tech has a long history of working with industry to move breakthrough technologies from the lab into the real world. By expanding our work with Hyundai, we’re advancing hydrogen research, reducing emissions on our campus, and strengthening Georgia’s role in the future of clean mobility," Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera said.

How the Partnership Drives Hydrogen Innovation and Research

The partnership includes the donation of four Hyundai NEXO fuel cell electric SUVs by Hyundai Motor North America and a hydrogen electrolyzer project, which will be installed at Georgia Tech’s North Avenue Research Area, positioning Tech as one of the most visible real-world test beds for hydrogen mobility in the U.S.

The vehicles and infrastructure will support campus operations and interdisciplinary research. Key areas of focus include:

• Engineering: Exploring hydrogen-based systems and mobility solutions.
• Sustainability: Assessing the environmental benefits of hydrogen technologies.
• Energy systems: Understanding the integration of hydrogen fuel cells into current infrastructure.
• Public policy: Evaluating the regulatory and social implications of hydrogen adoption.

This initiative connects Georgia Tech’s research enterprise with campus operations, using the Institute as a living laboratory for clean transportation technologies. Faculty and students will study:

• Real-world performance of hydrogen technology.
• Infrastructure requirements for large-scale deployment.
• Environmental impacts of hydrogen energy systems.

Insights gathered from this initiative aim to inform and accelerate the widespread use of hydrogen technology in campuses, fleets, cities, and freight corridors. The initiative also supports Georgia Tech’s strategic plan, which includes the goal of expanding the use of zero-emissions vehicles powered by sustainable energy sources.

Why Is the Partnership with Georgia Tech Key to Hyundai Motor Group’s Vision? 

The collaboration between Hyundai and Georgia Tech is a testament to the power of aligning academic expertise with corporate innovation. Beyond hydrogen energy, the partnership seeks to advance innovation in the areas of:

• Autonomous driving
• Electric vehicle (EV) batteries
• Charging infrastructure
• Materials science
• Cybersecurity

In addition, Hyundai’s presence in Georgia underscores its commitment to the region. Georgia is home to the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America and also serves as a hub for zero-emissions transportation through HTWO Logistics, a clean logistics partnership that operates Hyundai XCIENT fuel cell heavy-duty trucks in logistics operations near Savannah. The collaboration with Georgia Tech builds on this regional foundation, reinforcing the link between education, research, and Hyundai's long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.

What’s Next for the Partnership?

The partnership between Hyundai and Georgia Tech represents more than an investment in research. It’s a shared effort to lead the next generation of mobility advancements. Additional announcements about the partnership’s research projects, educational programs, and vehicle deployment are expected in the coming months.

You hear a lot of chatter in the Campus Recreation Center (CRC) — “All the weight machines are full!” “Where is the swimming pool?” “I exceeded my one-rep max today!” — but one sentence you don’t expect to hear is, “Do you want to go play video games?” 

The questions surrounding AI may be an unprecedented new challenge, but at Georgia Tech, students are already trying to answer them. The AI Safety Initiative (AISI) is a student group aiming to steer AI research and policy for society’s benefit.

“AI introduces new kinds of challenges into our legal and societal frameworks,” said Rocio Perales Valdes, AISI co-director and second-year computer science student. “Its capabilities emerge fast and on a jagged, hard-to-predict edge, which leaves AI governance like chasing a moving target. The work ahead is building the governance and technical tools we need to evaluate these systems, set direction, and enforce them without hindering innovation.”

AISI focuses on developing and deploying AI responsibly, rather than avoiding it. The group offers guest talks from AI researchers, fellowships that immerse students in the latest safety research through reading and discussion groups, and independent projects that contribute directly to the field. Past projects from AISI include demonstrating large language model security risks on Capitol Hill, responding to U.S. Federal Requests for Information, and running a war game for GTRI faculty. Part lab and part learning community, AISI prepares students to become the next generation of AI safety researchers and practitioners. They have placed alumni at leading organizations such as Anthropic, RAND, Model Evaluations and Threat Research, the UK AI Security Institute, and the Horizon Institute for Public Service.

“AI safety is an urgent problem because there is a rapidly growing gap between what AI systems can do and what we understand about them; yet mitigating AI risks is systematically neglected by current market incentives,” said Yixiong Hao, third‑year computer science student and co‑director of AISI. “I think the set of things I can do to directly move the needle is quite limited in the next three to five years, and that’s why I run this group. I have higher leverage in convincing smart people to work on neglected problems in AI safety.”

Founded in 2022 by Gaurav Sett, who is now a Ph.D. student at the RAND School of Public Policy and a fellow at the Institute for Progress, AISI has grown quickly. Its 10‑member executive board supports a broad base of student involvement, with more than 70 students participating in the fellowship program each semester. Over the past two years, members have also published 13 papers at top conferences such as the International Conference on Learning Representations, with projects spanning AI security and algorithmic transparency. 

From Discussion to Discovery

As a first‑year computer science student, Ishan Khire joined AISI looking for a deeper way to engage with AI safety and quickly found a pathway into research. After attending one general meeting, Khire enrolled in the group’s six‑week fellowship program, where students meet weekly to discuss current technical and policy challenges shaping the field.

“Finding a community that cares about AI safety was a big part of joining the fellowship,” Khire said. “Because AI safety is a broad subject, it was helpful to have an accountability group to discuss current issues.”

Thanks to the connections he made at AISI, Khire began conducting AI research with computing faculty member Giri Krishnan to predict the 3D structure of proteins. 

“AI is going to be really transformative in the next five to 10 years, and we want to make that transformation go well,” Khire said. “AISI tries to upskill people and connect them to technical and policy research that helps them find impactful work.”

Student Advantage

AISI is entirely student‑run, with a small group of faculty advisors. That structure lends itself to uncertain research that can be difficult to fund through traditional academic labs, and faculty support has followed.

“Any cursory look at the news today will show there is significant angst about AI and whether it is being developed responsibly and with sufficient guardrails in place,” said Tom Conte, the College of Computing associate dean for Research. “AISI has Georgia Tech at the forefront of that conversation.”

AISI member and computer science Ph.D. student Glenn Matlin has recruited many undergraduate researchers from the group for his own projects.

“I consider AISI like a third lab,” he said. “I use it as a great place for recruiting students. I’m constantly sharing my own research, and it helps me stay up to date with what other researchers are talking about.”

Matlin also credits AISI with advancing his own work in AI safety. Through the fellowship, he synthesized research that helped him apply for opportunities such as the prestigious AI safety mentorship at the MATS Program, which has connected him to additional research funding.

In a future increasingly shaped by algorithms, AISI’s students are betting that the most important safeguards won’t come from code alone, but from the people guiding how that code is built, deployed, and governed.

“AI safety matters to everyone,” Matlin said. “AI is going to disrupt not just technology, but also politics and business — and its risks are creating urgent opportunities to make it safer.”

Working with collaborators at University College London (UCL), Georgia Tech researchers used computer models to reveal how, during early development, forces generated by cells physically pull the neural tube closed — like a drawstring. This discovery offers new insight into a critical process that, when disrupted, can result in severe birth defects such as spina bifida.

“Understanding a complex developmental process like neural tube closure requires a highly interdisciplinary approach,” said Shiladitya Banerjee, an associate professor in the School of Physics. “By combining advanced biological imaging with theoretical physics, we were able to uncover the mechanical rules that drive cells to close the tube. My lab builds computational models to uncover the physical rules of living systems. The neural tube is an ideal focus because its formation requires incredible mechanical coordination.”

The researchers presented their findings in Current Biology. 

Closing the Gap

The UCL team studied mouse embryos, which develop similarly to humans, and Georgia Tech researchers used that data to construct their models. From the data, they identified the fundamental physics mechanism that enables neural tube closure in part of the brain. This mechanism, called a “purse string,” is made of actin, a pivotal protein that forms a cell’s skeletal structure. As the purse strings tighten, the tube closes.

“These actin molecules are very important because they give rigidity and shape to cells,” Banerjee said.

“During neural tube closure, actin filaments form a ring around the opening and engage molecular motors — proteins that generate forces inside cells,” he said. “As these motors pull on the actin, they generate tension that tightens the ring and draws the tube closed.”

Stretching to Fit

As the actin ring tightens, cells stretch and elongate, causing them to align and move together in a synchronized pattern, like a school of fish. This coordination allows the cells to move faster and more efficiently, increasing tension and driving a feedback loop that helps seal the neural tube.

The team built a computer model to show how this feedback loop leads to successful neural tube formation. Further research using the model could help explain why the neural tube fails to close.

“Physics-based modeling of cell and tissue mechanics allows us to connect the dots between developmental stages in a way that is both robust and quantitative, simulating experiments that are impossible in biological tissues,” said Gabriel Galea, the study co-author and UCL group leader. “In this case, it allowed us to explain how a cell’s mechanical experience impacts its current and future shapes during a critical step of brain development.”

Beyond neural tube development, the findings highlight the power of physics-based modeling to explain complex biological processes that can’t be observed directly. The researchers say this approach could be applied to other stages of human development where forces, motion, and timing are just as critical.

The computational research at Banerjee Lab is funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Fernanda Pérez-Verdugo, Eirini Maniou, Gabriel L. Galea, Shiladitya Banerjee, “Mechanosensitive feedback organizes cell shape and motion during hindbrain neuropore morphogenesis,” Current Biology, 2026.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.02.068 

Interior design in higher education goes far beyond aesthetics. At Georgia Tech, it plays a critical role in shaping how students learn, collaborate, live, and feel on campus. From classrooms and labs to student centers, offices, and shared spaces, thoughtfully designed interiors quietly support the Institute’s mission every day. 

The Truman Scholarship is awarded annually to a select group of students nationwide who demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, academic excellence, and an enduring commitment to making a difference. Named after President Harry S. Truman, the scholarship supports students in their graduate education and careers addressing society’s most pressing challenges.

“Taylor exemplifies the kind of leader we strive to develop,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “Her commitment to strengthening public institutions reflects our motto of Progress and Service. Her selection as a Truman Scholar, one of the nation’s most prestigious fellowships for public service, is an exceptional achievement, and we are incredibly proud of her.”

A Commitment to Rebuilding Trust in Public Institutions

Witte, who hails from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is pursuing dual bachelor’s degrees while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. She balances an ambitious academic load with dedicated involvement in campus leadership, undergraduate research, and national public service experiences.

Motivated by the erosion of trust in American public institutions, Witte aims to strengthen government decision-making through rigorous economic analysis, transparent data practices, and effective regulation. Instead of viewing public trust as just another policy area, Witte sees it as the very foundation upon which all governance rests.

“While several social issues, from the climate crisis to criminal justice, demand our attention,” she explains, “our ability to tackle these challenges is only as strong as our collective faith in the institutions meant to do so. Responsible data stewardship is the first step to ensuring that communities see themselves represented in the policies that shape their lives.”

That philosophy was shaped in part by her work at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where she served as a statistics and data management intern in 2025. The experience reinforced her belief that sound regulation, grounded in high-quality evidence and community realities, is essential to restoring confidence in government.

It’s a perspective that also guides her long-term goals. As a Truman Scholar, Witte plans to pursue a joint J.D. and Ph.D. in economics. She hopes to work in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, specifically the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where economic analysis and regulatory oversight intersect.

Leadership at Georgia Tech and Beyond

Witte’s leadership record at Georgia Tech is extensive. She has served as an advisor for the Seek Discomfort First-Year Leadership Organization and is currently a justice on the Undergraduate Judiciary Committee within Georgia Tech’s Student Government Association.

She has also played a key role in institutional service and advocacy. As an ambassador for the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Witte helps lead Shadow Day, the College’s largest outreach event for prospective students. Previously, she sat on the Ivan Allen College Advisory Board and is now the sole undergraduate member of the School of Economics Chair Search Committee.

In addition, Witte has helped oversee the Georgia Tech Stamps Summit as conference chair, building intellectual community among fellow scholars committed to leadership and service.

Chaffee Viets, executive director of the Office of Scholar Programs, notes that Witte’s leadership is defined as much by reflection as ambition.

“Taylor is a thinker,” Viets said. "Someone who asks the same questions of herself that she might ask of society: How is this path I am on going to lead to real impact? In her answers, I see deliberative leadership and extraordinary potential.”

Bridging Liberal Arts and Technical Education

As a liberal arts student at a leading technical institute, Witte has made it a personal mission to demonstrate the essential role of economics, public policy, and the humanities in shaping technological innovation and governance. She currently serves as a teaching assistant in the School of Mathematics, one of only a handful of liberal arts majors among a large cohort, where she works to make complex mathematical concepts accessible and applicable for all her students.

“In everything I do on campus, I want to show that liberal arts majors can learn alongside STEM-focused students, and also lead among them and contribute meaningfully to the Institute’s mission of advancing technology and improving the human condition,” she said. “My experiences at Tech have left me better prepared to navigate a public-sector career in an increasingly technical world.”

Looking ahead, Witte remains focused on the long-term work of strengthening democratic institutions.

“To say we are navigating difficult and uncertain times would be an understatement,” she says. “But the most powerful force in this moment is one within our control: our collective decision to believe in the institutions we build, and to demand that they rise to meet us. It’s our choice to make.”

Students interested in applying for the Truman Scholarship can visit the Prestigious Fellowships website or contact the team at fellowshipsadvising@gatech.edu.

There is no official Commencement dress code, but for those who are still scrambling for picture-perfect attire, here are some practical tips to help dress and prep for the big day.   

Spring 2026 Commencement is a rain or shine event. Graduates and guests are advised to monitor the weather forecast and dress as needed. Each ceremony is expected to last between one to two and a half hours. For directions between venues throughout the weekend, visit the Georgia Tech map.  

Spring 2026 Commencement Ceremony Schedule

Commencement Dress DO’s:  

Leave bags at home. If you must have a bag, make it clear. Commencement events at both Bobby Dodd Stadium and McCamish Pavilion are subject to the venue’s clear bag policy. See the full policy at ramblinwreck.com/clearbag.    

Travel light. This will save you the hassle of carrying a bag at all or leaving your bag at bag valet. If you’re wearing a dress or skirt, try to find one with pockets to carry small items such as keys or your phone.   

Dress comfortably. You may be at the event for up to three and a half hours. The event will be a combination of standing and sitting, so make sure you’re dressed comfortably enough for both. Consider light layers depending on the weather. 

Bachelor’s and Ph.D. graduates will process in front of the stage as their names are called, so be sure you can walk in your shoes. If you’re wearing pants, consider lighter colors to contrast with your regalia. If you’re planning to wear heels, consult the “Don’t wear new shoes” section, and consider a low heel (and that you’ll be walking on uneven turf or flooring).    

Suggest that your guests dress business casual. Although there is no dress code, many guests like to dress up for this special day. Parents and alumni can often be seen donning Tech colors and gear, and sometimes international guests wear their country’s traditional dress clothes. Tell them about the clear bag entry policy so they, too, can plan accordingly.    

Whatever you choose to wear, the photos you take will be around for a while, so pick something you won’t mind seeing a few years down the road. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with white and gold. 

Commencement Dress DON’Ts:  

Don’t think that because you’re wearing a robe, it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing underneath. Throughout the day, you’ll be taking numerous photos, and you may at some point want to take off your regalia.   

Don’t wear new shoes. Commencement is not the day to break in new shoes. Another tip: Don’t wear high heels if you are not used to walking in them. On your walk across the stage, you should be focusing on the moment you’ve been waiting for during the past four (or five) years, not worrying about tripping.   

Don’t spend too much time styling your hair. Keep in mind you’ll be wearing a graduation cap for a few hours. If you’re planning an elaborate hairstyle, try it out with your cap before graduation day to make sure that the cap still sits properly. Bobby pins can help to secure your cap if it feels loose.

Don’t make your mortarboard too epic. Remember that someone has to sit behind you, and if you adorn your cap with anything 3D, try to keep it no more than an inch or two off the board.   

Don’t forget your regalia. Make sure you have your cap, gown, tassel, cords, and stole (and hood, for graduate students). There will not be extras at the venue, and regalia is required for participating in Commencement. And, don’t wait until Commencement day to unwrap it. Take it out of the plastic, make sure you have it all, and hang it up to let some of the wrinkles fall out. If you’re feeling ambitious, give it a steam.

Other Commencement Tips:  

Set an alarm, especially for morning ceremonies. Doors will open one hour before the start of the ceremony. Graduates should report to the venue 45 minutes before the ceremony starts. Set your alarm and have a buddy system to make sure you wake up. (See the full Commencement schedule.)   

Charge your phone. Bachelor’s and Ph.D. graduates will scan a virtual name card (StagePass) as they walk to the stage to have their names called, and you will want to find family members after the ceremony. Master’s graduates will scan their StagePass during their college ceremony. Bring a phone with a full charge. Pro tip: Take a screenshot of your StagePass before you arrive. Better yet, print your StagePass and never worry about your phone’s battery life.

Stay hydrated and take a bathroom break before you arrive. Try to be well-rested, fed, hydrated, and prepared to sit through the ceremony.   

Plan where to meet your guests after the ceremony. For bachelor’s and master’s graduates, there is no formal procession in or out of the venue. Suggest a specific meeting spot beforehand, ideally a bit away from the venue, to ensure you are not lost in the crowd and can find family members to reunite easily.   

Send your guests parking information. Note available parking areas at commencement.gatech.edu/venue-parking.    

Most importantly, remember to enjoy the day and reflect on all that you’ve achieved at Georgia Tech. Congratulations, graduates!

A 2025 AI in Education trend report found that 90% of college students use AI in their coursework, with nearly half using it during the drafting process. As AI becomes embedded in everyday writing, traditional tools like Grammarly or Turnitin for evaluating student learning fall short. If AI is to be expected in most student writing, then merely detecting its presence isn’t enough. 

DraftMarks, a new open‑source tool developed by Georgia Tech and Stanford researchers, makes the writing process itself visible. Instead of trying to assess how much of a finished document was written by AI, DraftMarks shows where a student iterated with AI prompts, what is fully AI, and how a piece evolved — illuminating the often-invisible collaboration between human writers and AI.

Functioning as an augmented reading tool, DraftMarks layers visual cues directly onto a document to indicate different kinds of AI involvement. Eraser crumbs mark heavily revised passages. Smudges signal AI-generated changes in the strength of the argument rather than content changes. Masking tape highlights passages initially generated by AI. Glue residue shows where AI‑generated text was later removed. Ghost text indicates when a writer prompted AI but chose not to use the output. Different fonts distinguish between human‑written and AI‑generated passages.

Together, the marks don’t just reveal AI’s presence. They tell a story about the writer’s process.

“By making the invisible parts of the process tangible, it forces writers to confront whether they are truly engaging with AI or just passively accepting it,” said Momin Siddiqui, a master’s student in the College of Computing and lead author on the project. “Ultimately, it helps writers make more intentional judgment calls about how they want to collaborate with AI in the future.”

The researchers debuted DraftMarks at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona in April.

Designing for Educators

Rather than starting with detection algorithms, the researchers began with educators. In an initial 21-person study, they observed how instructors reviewed student writing and what cues they looked for when assessing learning, revision, and originality. Those insights informed the design of DraftMarks’ visual language, which deliberately mimics physical artifacts of writing — eraser debris, tape, smudges — to reflect processes instructors already recognize.

“These marks are meant to emulate the writing process in ways we’re already familiar with,” said Adam Coscia, a computing Ph.D. student. “They help students and teachers see the effort behind the writing, and whether students actually met the learning objective.”

Behind the scenes, DraftMarks tracks a document’s draft history and classifies different types of edits and AI interactions as they happen, allowing the visual cues to appear almost in real time. 

Reading DraftMarks

To evaluate how the tool functions beyond the lab, the team conducted a follow‑up study with 70 participants, including students, teachers, journalists, and general readers. Their reactions to reviewing a DraftMarks-annotated document varied in revealing ways.

Instructors were most interested in seeing the writing process unfold: how ideas developed, how heavily AI was used, and where students exercised judgment. General readers, meanwhile, used the marks to assess something less measurable but equally important — trust. For them, DraftMarks offered cues about authorial intent and authenticity, helping readers decide how much confidence to place in a piece of writing. 

A Shift From Detection to Reflection

Unlike AI detectors that merely offer a percentage, DraftMarks is designed to prompt reflection from writers and readers. 

“DraftMarks completely changed how I think about my own writing,” Coscia said. “I was surprised by how much I cared about authorial intent once I could actually see how AI affected my tone. It made me realize small AI choices can subtly reshape what I’m trying to say.”

As AI continues to reshape how writing happens, the research team hopes DraftMarks will help shift the conversation toward transparency. Tools like this could offer educators and students a clearer window into how learning happens when humans and AI write together.

This work is funded through the AI Research Institutes program by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

CITATION: Momin N. Siddiqui, Nikki Nasseri, Adam J. Coscia, Roy Pea, and Hari Subramonyam. 2026. DraftMarks: Enhancing Transparency in Human-AI Co-Writing Through Interactive Skeuomorphic Process Traces. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 862, 1–22. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791109

The U.S. Department of Justice recently extended the compliance deadline for Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) digital accessibility requirements by one year. The new deadline to meet the WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements is April 26, 2027.  

Daniel Meng, BA 2025, was 8 years old when he started cooking. His fried rice recipe was simple — rice and eggs — but it was enough to fill him up while his parents were at work, and it lit a fire in him that would eventually lead him to the MasterChef kitchen to compete among the best home cooks in the country.  

Event load-in will take place throughout the week. Intermittent delays and closures are expected along Bobby Dodd Way (between Techwood Drive and Fowler Street) and Fowler Street (between Bobby Dodd Way and Fourth Street). 

Beginning at 6 p.m. Friday, April 24, more significant closures will be in effect through the weekend. Techwood Drive will be closed from Bobby Dodd Way to North Avenue through Sunday following the concert. 

Additionally, North Avenue will be closed between Techwood Drive and Luckie Street from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26. Fowler Street between Fourth and Fifth streets will be limited to parking pass holders accessing Peters Parking Deck. 

Be sure to allow extra travel time, use alternate routes, and remain alert to changing traffic patterns in the area. 

Transportation Changes 

Friday, April 24 

• Red Route Stinger will detour beginning at 5:30 p.m. (see map).  

Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26 

• Weekend Atlantic and Midtown Stinger routes will operate from 8 a.m. to noon. Buses will be labeled “charter” in the TransLoc app.
• Weekend Gold, Red, and Blue Stinger routes will not operate.
• Stingerette Nighttime Safety Service will not operate during the concerts and will resume once roads reopen.  

Parking Changes 

Parking permit holders will be notified via email if they need to move their vehicle. See a map of all affected parking areas. 

The following parking areas will be closed to permit holders to accommodate concert parking: 

Thursday, April 23, at 5 p.m., through Monday, April 27, at 8 a.m. 

• E44: Lyman Hall Lot  
• ER51: Fowler Street from Fourth Street to Bobby Dodd Way  

Saturday, April 25, at 8 a.m., through Monday, April 27, at 8 a.m. 

• ER51: Fowler Street from Fifth Street to Fourth Street
• ER51: Techwood Drive from Fourth Street to Bobby Dodd Way
• E45: Tech Tower
• E46: Burge Deck
• E48: Wardlaw Center
• E49: Alumni Lot
• E52: Peters Deck
• E63: O’Keefe Lot
• E65: McCamish Pavilion
• ER55: Sixth Street to Fifth Street
• W01: Tech Parkway

Alternative parking will be available to permit holders beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, April 24, at the following locations: 

• E70: GTRI Deck
• ER66: Family Housing Deck
• W06: Tech Parkway
• W21: Physics/Boggs/Mason
• W31: IPST
• WR29: West Campus Residential

For many Georgia Tech students, a ride in the Ramblin’ Wreck is a bucket-list item before graduation.  

For Georgia Tech, the campus arboretum is more than a designated area of trees. It is the entire campus. Walkways, quads, greens, and streetscapes are all part of a curated landscape carefully selected to thrive in an urban environment. It is also a place where memories are made, from everyday gatherings under the canopy to photos that capture an important milestone.  

Georgia Tech researchers think they have a better way with small metal tags that can signal when a door or drawer is opened, count reps in the gym, or even track bathroom use for elderly relatives. Their tags are battery-free, quiet, inherently private, and cost only a few cents each. They’re smaller than a penny.

Like other kinds of smart home sensors, the tags are designed to be mounted on a cabinet or doorframe, for example, using a 3D-printed base. A small tab is attached to the corresponding door or drawer. When it’s opened, the tab strikes the metal disk, triggering a brief ultrasonic pulse imperceptible to human ears but detectable by a wearable device that logs the activity.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.

Wind turbines and solar panels have what economists call zero marginal cost, meaning producing additional units of electricity requires no fuel once installed. At the same time, this renewable energy varies greatly with the weather and can create operational challenges for grid operators.

A new review study from Georgia Tech examines how these characteristics are reshaping electricity markets and grid operations — and why addressing the challenge requires cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The study, published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, synthesizes more than a decade of research. It analyzes over 200 studies on the engineering, economic, and policy implications of managing renewable energy sources that are both intermittent and effectively zero-cost to operate.

“Wind and solar are now among the lowest-cost sources of electricity in many parts of the world, but integrating them into the grid isn’t simple,” said Matthew Oliver, associate professor in the School of Economics and lead author of the study. “The wind doesn’t always blow, and the sun isn’t always shining, so output can fluctuate significantly, which complicates grid management.”

He added, “Historically, variation in electricity systems generally came from the demand side, and operators could simply ramp generation up or down. Now, we have variability on both supply and demand sides.”

Analyzing the Data

Looking at the problem, Oliver knew he would need to be familiar with engineering concepts to get at the heart of the issue. He created a research team with Daniel Matisoff, professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy; Santiago Grijalva, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and graduate student co-authors Maghfira Ramadhani (economics), Oliver Chapman (public policy), and Amanda West (electrical and computer engineering).

Analyzing over 200 studies published since 2010, the team mapped the complex interactions between electricity market design, grid operations, and renewable technologies.

They also explored the economic implications of large amounts of zero-marginal-cost electricity entering wholesale electricity markets. Because wind and solar have very low operating costs, they can lower prices in wholesale electricity markets. That benefits consumers, but it can also make it harder for flexible conventional plants to earn enough revenue to stay available when renewable output falls.

Collaborating Across Disciplines

The team argues that successfully scaling renewable energy will depend on collaboration across traditionally separate fields.

“Engineering constraints affect how electricity markets work, markets influence investment decisions, and policy shapes how those investments happen,” Oliver said. “When it comes to complex topics like this, you can’t really treat engineering, economics, and policy as separate problems. They’re all part of the same system.”

The researchers found that electricity systems with high shares of renewable energy will require coordinated solutions that combine improved engineering practices, market reforms that value flexibility and reliability, and policies that align private investment with long-term decarbonization goals.

“Our hope is that this paper helps researchers across disciplines communicate more effectively,” Oliver said. “If we want electricity systems with high levels of renewable energy to work reliably, then engineers, economists, and policymakers all have to understand how their decisions affect the others.”

Citation: Oliver, Matthew E., et al. “Managing Zero-marginal-cost, intermittent renewable energy: A survey of the engineering, economic, and Policy Challenges.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 226, Jan. 2026. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2025.116334

Before dawn on March 1, 2026, Iranian Shahed drones struck two Amazon Web Services data centers in the United Arab Emirates. A third commercial data center in Bahrain was hit, though it is less clear whether it was deliberately targeted. This is the first time that a country has deliberately targeted commercial data centers during wartime.

Iran state media issued a statement on March 31 that it will target American companies, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Oracle, Intel, HP, IBM, Cisco, Dell, Palantir and Nvidia. The Financial Times reported that an additional Iranian drone struck an Amazon data center in Bahrain on April 1. And Iranian state media claimed that Iranian forces attacked an Oracle data center in Dubai on April 2.

Iran has also been on the receiving end of such attacks. A data center in Tehran operated by Iran’s state-run Bank Sepah was struck by a missile – apparently fired by U.S. or Israeli forces – on March 11, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.

Data centers have been targets of espionage and cyberattacks in the past, notably when Ukrainian hackers destroyed data stored in a Russian military-affiliated data center in 2024. These strikes in the Persian Gulf region, however, were physical attacks. Drones damaged buildings.

Advances in artificial intelligence have increased the importance of data centers. The U.S. military, in particular, has made great use of AI systems for decision support in its attacks on Iran and Venezuela. Given how important data centers are, Iranian forces could be targeting the infrastructure Iran’s leaders believe is supporting strikes on Iran.

It is not altogether clear that these particular data centers were used by the U.S. military. Instead, the attacks may have been part of a broader effort to punish the United Arab Emirates for its ties with the U.S.

In my experience as a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech studying how technology drives changes in international security, I don’t think the attacks signal any significant change in the nature of warfare. But they are forcing nations to recognize that data centers are targets of war – even if they don’t directly support military operations.

Data Centers and the Cloud

The United States military is increasingly incorporating advanced AI capabilities into its decision support systems. From the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to supporting military strikes against Iran, the U.S. has been using AI, especially Anthropic’s Claude, for intelligence analysis and operational support.

AI is unlocking faster ways to carry out operations in war, but the AI tools the military often uses are not located on a plane or ship. When a service member uses Claude, the computing infrastructure that powers the model and its analysis usually goes to a secure Amazon Web Services cloud that hosts secret government data and software tools.

Commercial data centers are where the cloud lives. The next time you pull up Netflix and watch your favorite shows, you are likely streaming the programming from a data center, possibly AWS. When AWS data centers go down, outages affect all sorts of entertainment, news and government functions.

With AI as a driver of economic growth, data centers are key forms of infrastructure. They ensure that AI can continue to run, as well as much of the underlying internet that governments and industry rely on. When Iran attacked the UAE’s data centers, it caused widespread disruption to the local banking system.

Commercial data centers enable most of the technology that runs the modern world, including AI systems. Disrupting them is key to disrupting a country’s military and society. Given that AWS provides and operates many of the commercial data centers where the cloud lives, it is likely that its data centers will continue to be targeted in conflict.

Going After US Allies

Researchers at Just Security noted on March 12, 2026, that the United States requires cloud-computing service providers to store government and military data within the U.S. or on Department of Defense bases: “Moving such data to Amazon data centers in the Gulf region would require special authorization; we are unaware if that has been granted.”

Nevertheless, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed the strikes were against data centers supporting “the enemy’s” military and intelligence activities. And 10 days after the initial attack on the data centers, an Iranian news agency claimed that major tech company data centers and other physical assets in the region were considered “enemy technology infrastructure.”

Instead of military reasons, Iran may well have targeted the UAE to rattle the global economy and garner attention. Given the prominence of the Gulf as a major recipient of U.S. technological investment, the attack may also have been a symbolic one aimed at the heart of U.S.-Gulf cooperation. AI infrastructure such as commercial data centers is a growing part of U.S. leadership in the region, and this war could jeopardize the future of AI infrastructure in the Gulf.

Growing Importance, Easy Targets

Though data centers are increasingly important for national security, the economy and society at large, it can be tempting to suggest these strikes represent a fundamental shift in the nature of war. While that is a possibility, it is important to remember that Iran launched thousands of missiles and drones at targets in the UAE and Bahrain. Though the vast majority were intercepted, the four that struck data centers are a small portion of the ones that got through to civilian targets in those countries, including strikes on airports and hotels.

The relative vulnerability of commercial data centers – they are large, relatively fragile and lack dedicated air defenses – suggests that the ones in the UAE and Bahrain may have been targets of opportunity or convenience. In other words, they were hit because they could be hit.

Nevertheless, it seems likely that as the use of AI tools and other cloud-based resources continues to grow in importance for countries around the world, commercial data centers will be targets in future conflicts.

This article has been updated to include news of Iran’s statement about targeting U.S. tech companies and subsequent drone strikes on other data centers.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

This week, the Board of Regents (BOR) of the University System of Georgia (USG) approved budget allocations and tuition and fee rates for its 25 member institutions. Pending approval of the state’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget by Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia Tech will receive nearly $639 million in total state appropriations. In addition, the BOR approved limited systemwide tuition increases for undergraduate and graduate programs. This includes a 1% in-state tuition increase and a 3% tuition increase for out-of-state and out-of-country students for the upcoming fiscal year (FY27). 

A 2025 AI in Education trend report found that 90% of college students use AI in their coursework, with nearly half using it during the drafting process. As AI becomes embedded in everyday writing, traditional tools like Grammarly or Turnitin for evaluating student learning fall short. If AI is to be expected in most student writing, then merely detecting its presence isn’t enough. 

DraftMarks, a new open‑source tool developed by Georgia Tech and Stanford researchers, makes the writing process itself visible. Instead of trying to assess how much of a finished document was written by AI, DraftMarks shows where a student iterated with AI prompts, what is fully AI, and how a piece evolved — illuminating the often-invisible collaboration between human writers and AI.

Functioning as an augmented reading tool, DraftMarks layers visual cues directly onto a document to indicate different kinds of AI involvement. Eraser crumbs mark heavily revised passages. Smudges signal AI-generated changes in the strength of the argument rather than content changes. Masking tape highlights passages initially generated by AI. Glue residue shows where AI‑generated text was later removed. Ghost text indicates when a writer prompted AI but chose not to use the output. Different fonts distinguish between human‑written and AI‑generated passages.

Together, the marks don’t just reveal AI’s presence. They tell a story about the writer’s process.

“By making the invisible parts of the process tangible, it forces writers to confront whether they are truly engaging with AI or just passively accepting it,” said Momin Siddiqui, a master’s student in the College of Computing and lead author on the project. “Ultimately, it helps writers make more intentional judgment calls about how they want to collaborate with AI in the future.”

The researchers debuted DraftMarks at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona in April.

Designing for Educators

Rather than starting with detection algorithms, the researchers began with educators. In an initial 21-person study, they observed how instructors reviewed student writing and what cues they looked for when assessing learning, revision, and originality. Those insights informed the design of DraftMarks’ visual language, which deliberately mimics physical artifacts of writing — eraser debris, tape, smudges — to reflect processes instructors already recognize.

“These marks are meant to emulate the writing process in ways we’re already familiar with,” said Adam Coscia, a computing Ph.D. student. “They help students and teachers see the effort behind the writing, and whether students actually met the learning objective.”

Behind the scenes, DraftMarks tracks a document’s draft history and classifies different types of edits and AI interactions as they happen, allowing the visual cues to appear almost in real time. 

Reading DraftMarks

To evaluate how the tool functions beyond the lab, the team conducted a follow‑up study with 70 participants, including students, teachers, journalists, and general readers. Their reactions to reviewing a DraftMarks-annotated document varied in revealing ways.

Instructors were most interested in seeing the writing process unfold: how ideas developed, how heavily AI was used, and where students exercised judgment. General readers, meanwhile, used the marks to assess something less measurable but equally important — trust. For them, DraftMarks offered cues about authorial intent and authenticity, helping readers decide how much confidence to place in a piece of writing. 

A Shift From Detection to Reflection

Unlike AI detectors that merely offer a percentage, DraftMarks is designed to prompt reflection from writers and readers. 

“DraftMarks completely changed how I think about my own writing,” Coscia said. “I was surprised by how much I cared about authorial intent once I could actually see how AI affected my tone. It made me realize small AI choices can subtly reshape what I’m trying to say.”

As AI continues to reshape how writing happens, the research team hopes DraftMarks will help shift the conversation toward transparency. Tools like this could offer educators and students a clearer window into how learning happens when humans and AI write together.

This work is funded through the AI Research Institutes program by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

CITATION: Momin N. Siddiqui, Nikki Nasseri, Adam J. Coscia, Roy Pea, and Hari Subramonyam. 2026. DraftMarks: Enhancing Transparency in Human-AI Co-Writing Through Interactive Skeuomorphic Process Traces. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 862, 1–22. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791109

Georgia Tech students will once again take part in a national competition that connects them directly with automotive industry leaders to develop the next generation of mobility innovations. 

Coca-Cola, a neighbor to Georgia Tech since 1920, expects to sell a building and adjacent land in a transaction valued at $31.3 million. The company chose to work directly with Georgia Tech on the planned transaction, reflecting the long-standing relationship between the two organizations and a shared commitment to Atlanta’s continued growth and innovation.

The expected sale includes a two-story brick building, part of Coca-Cola’s holdings since 1988, and an adjoining two-acre park along North Avenue. 

“This strategic addition to our core campus will support our growth in enrollment and research activity for years to come,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “I appreciate our long relationship with The Coca-Cola Company that allowed us to pursue this opportunity as we continue to invest in our campus, our neighborhood, and Atlanta’s innovation ecosystem.”  

James Quincey, Coca-Cola’s executive chair and Georgia Tech’s 2020 Commencement speaker, said the company wanted the property to continue contributing to Atlanta’s innovation ecosystem.

“When we decided this space was no longer needed for our corporate campus, our goal was to work with Georgia Tech, as this site offers a great opportunity for them to expand,” Quincey said. “Coca-Cola has a long legacy of involvement and partnership with Georgia Tech, and we are excited to see them redevelop this important area in Atlanta.”

Georgia Tech will evaluate how the property can best support academic, research, and student needs as part of its long-term campus planning efforts. The acquisition represents a strategic step in ensuring Georgia Tech has the space needed to educate future leaders and advance research that strengthens Georgia’s economy.

About Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees, as well as professional development and K-12 programs for fostering success at every stage of life. Its more than 56,000 undergraduate and graduate students represent 54 U.S. states and territories and more than 146 countries. They study at the main campus in Atlanta, at instructional sites around the world, 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.

About The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Our company’s purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference. We sell multiple billion-dollar brands across several beverage categories worldwide. Our portfolio of sparkling soft drink brands includes Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta. Our water, sports, coffee, and tea brands include Dasani, smartwater, vitaminwater, Topo Chico, BODYARMOR, Powerade, Costa, Georgia, Fuze Tea, Gold Peak, and Ayataka. Our juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverage brands include Minute Maid, Simply, innocent, Del Valle, fairlife, and Santa Clara. We’re constantly transforming our portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative new products to market. We seek to positively impact people’s lives, communities, and the planet through water replenishment, packaging recycling, sustainable sourcing practices, and carbon emissions reductions across our value chain. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people, helping bring economic opportunity to local communities worldwide. Learn more at www.coca-colacompany.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The Earth and the Moon may look very different today, but they formed under similar conditions in space. In fact, a dominant hypothesis says that the early Earth was hit by a Mars-sized object, and it was this giant impact that spun off material to form the Moon. But unlike Earth, the Moon lacks plate tectonics and an atmosphere capable of reshaping its surface and recycling elements such as oxygen over billions of years.

As a result, the Moon preserves a record of the geological conditions that helped shape it and can give scientists insight into the world we live in today. Rocks that were formed during early volcanic activity on the Moon offer a window into events that occurred nearly 4 billion years ago. By uncovering the conditions under which the Moon’s rocks formed, scientists move closer to understanding the origins of our own planet.

In a study published March 2026 in the journal Nature Communications, our team of physicists and geoscientists investigated ilmenite, a mineral composed of iron, titanium and oxygen, in a Moon rock crystallized from an ancient lunar magma. We used cutting-edge electron microscopy to probe the chemical signature of titanium in this ilmenite, finding that about 15% of the titanium carries less of an electrical charge than expected.

Implications of Trivalent Titanium

In ilmenite, an atom of titanium typically loses four electrons when bonding with oxygen, resulting in a positive charge of 4+, known as the atom’s oxidation number. From the sample we studied, a rock collected during the Apollo 17 mission, we found that some of the titanium in ilmenite actually has a charge of only 3+, referred to as trivalent titanium. Our measurement of trivalent titanium confirms what geologists had long suspected: that some titanium in lunar ilmenite exists in a lower charge state.

Trivalent titanium occurs only when the amount of oxygen available for chemical reactions is low. Thus, the abundance of trivalent titanium in ilmenite could tell us about the relative availability of oxygen in the Moon’s interior when the rock formed, around 3.8 billion years ago.

A Link to the Moon’s Early Chemistry

Our team has closely studied only one Moon rock so far, but from published studies we have identified more than 500 analyses of lunar ilmenite that could contain trivalent titanium. Studying these samples could reveal new details about how the Moon’s chemistry varies across different locations and time periods.

While our work highlights a link based on prior studies, the relationship between trivalent titanium in ilmenite and oxygen availability has not yet been quantified with targeted experimental data.

By conducting experiments that explore that link, ilmenite could reveal more details about the Moon’s interior. We also expect this relationship to apply to other planets and asteroids that don’t contain much chemically available oxygen, relative to Earth.

What’s Next?

These methods can be used to study many Moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions over 50 years ago, as well as future samples from upcoming Artemis missions, or rocks collected from the far side of the Moon, returned in 2024 by China’s Chang’e-6 mission.

One of our team members plans to use their new experimental lab to explore how oxygen availability in magma affects the abundance of trivalent titanium in ilmenite. With experiments like this that build off our findings, we could potentially use ilmenite to reconstruct the history of ancient magmas from the Moon.

We believe future studies of lunar rocks using advanced scientific methods are essential for revealing the chemical conditions present on the ancient Moon. They could offer clues not only to its own history but also to the earliest chapters of Earth’s past – records that have since been erased from Earth.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

For the third consecutive year, Georgia Tech has secured a spot on Forbes’ list of New Ivies, showcasing the Institute’s strong reputation among employers.  

Now in operation for more than a decade, the CFO of the Year Awards honor exceptional chief financial officers across metro Atlanta who demonstrate excellence in financial leadership, strategic decision-making, and organizational stewardship. Each year, the Atlanta Business Chronicle recognizes finalists and winners whose work strengthens their organizations and supports long-term sustainability amid evolving economic and operational challenges.

Toatley’s selection as a finalist places her among a distinguished group of financial leaders across the region and marks only the second time a Georgia Tech leader has been named a finalist for this prestigious award.

“Kim’s recognition as a finalist for CFO of the Year reflects her exceptional leadership, integrity, and deep commitment to stewarding Georgia Tech’s resources in support of the Institute’s academic and research mission and dedicated service to the Georgia Tech campus community,” said Tricia Chastain, executive vice president for Administration and Finance. 

Since assuming her current role in 2025, Toatley has provided strategic oversight of Georgia Tech’s financial and budget operations, ensuring fiscal integrity and operational excellence across the Institute. Her work is grounded in her strong commitment to responsible stewardship, transparency, and making a meaningful impact on the Institute, its partners, and the greater community.

Toatley brings more than three decades of leadership experience at Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, having served in a wide range of senior finance, accounting, research administration, and operational roles throughout her career. She has played a central role in strengthening financial and research administration practices and supporting the Institute’s ability to sustain complex, externally funded research. In her current role, she continues to guide Georgia Tech through periods of significant institutional and governance transition. 

Toatley holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Georgia State University. She has often noted that her experience as a student deepened her connection to Georgia Tech and shaped her commitment to higher education. Her recognition as a finalist reflects not only her leadership but also the collective work of teams across Georgia Tech and the vital role strong financial stewardship plays in advancing the Institute’s academic and research priorities. 

The CFO of the Year Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, May 21.

On April 2, Georgia Tech launched its new Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership with a symposium built around a simple idea. Society benefits when people are willing to listen, especially to those who disagree with them. 

College of Engineering

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering remained among the nation’s elite, ranking No. 4 overall in Best Engineering Schools and maintaining its position among the top institutions nationwide.

Several engineering disciplines continued to rank among the nation’s best, with multiple programs placing in the top five. The College’s consistent performance reflects its leadership in research, innovation, and graduate training that closely aligns with industry and global challenges.

Top engineering rankings include:

• No. 1 Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering
• No. 1 Biomedical Engineering (tied), up from No. 2
• No. 2 Aerospace Engineering
• No. 3 Civil Engineering
• No. 3 Mechanical Engineering (tied), up from No. 5
• No. 4 Environmental Engineering
• No. 5 Chemical Engineering (tied)
• No. 5 Computer Engineering (tied)

College of Computing

Georgia Tech continued to demonstrate national strength in computing, ranking No. 7 overall among Best Computer Science Schools in the 2026 rankings.

Notable computing rankings include:

• No. 5 Artificial Intelligence, up from No. 6
• No. 6 Systems (tied)
• No. 13 Theory (tied)
• No. 15 Programming Language

These rankings reflect Georgia Tech’s leadership in emerging and foundational computing technologies, as well as its role in applying computation across disciplines to address real‑world challenges and strengthen industries.

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Graduate programs at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy earned strong national placements in the 2026 rankings, highlighting the school’s growing visibility at the intersection of technology, policy, and governance.

Highlights include:

• No. 2 Information and Technology Management (tied)
• No. 10 Environmental Policy and Management (tied)
• No. 23 Public Policy Analysis (tied), up from No. 26

Scheller College of Business

The Scheller College of Business continued its momentum in the 2026 rankings, earning a No. 9 national ranking in Best Part-Time MBA Programs, rising from No. 10 last year.

Scheller also received recognition across a range of graduate business disciplines, with several programs newly ranked in 2026.

Notable Scheller rankings include:

• No. 8 Information Systems (tied)
• No. 15 Supply Chain Management (tied)
• No. 16 Business Analytics (tied)

College of Sciences

Georgia Tech’s graduate programs in the physical sciences earned continued national recognition, reflecting strength in foundational research areas that support advances in engineering, computing, sustainability, and health.

Science program rankings include:

• No. 20 Chemistry (tied)
• No. 22 Physics (tied)
• No. 26 Mathematics (tied)
• No. 29 Earth Sciences (tied), up from No. 33

*Please note that this summary includes the latest rankings issued by U.S. News & World Report for 2026. Not all Georgia Tech Colleges, Schools, and subjects are ranked every year by this organization. 

“The effects move slowly and appear in places people do not connect to energy,” said Tibor Besedes, professor in the School of Economics. “Oil and natural gas are part of the cost structure for an enormous range of goods.”

About 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows through the waterway linking the Persian Gulf to world markets. When that flow is constrained, the impact ripples outward across industries most people never associate with an energy crisis.

“In complex supply chains, a disruption in one critical link, even if only briefly, can cascade through the system, well beyond the initial event,” says Pinar Keskinocak, chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “As delays persist and compound, interconnected systems often take a long time to recover, rebalance, and return to normal.”

Price Pressures That Arrive Quietly

Early effects are already visible. 

Jet fuel availability is tightening, and diesel prices are rising across Asia. China has ordered refineries to stop exporting fuel, creating shortages that are increasing shipping costs for U.S. imports, from consumer electronics to pharmaceuticals.

The strait is also a key corridor for naphtha, a feedstock used to produce plastics, packaging, solvents, textiles, and pharmaceutical components. Roughly 85% of Middle Eastern polyethylene exports move through the strait. 

“Consumers won't see the effect of this quickly,” Besedes says, “but the longer the strait is closed, the higher the cost will be of all of these products naphtha is used for.”

Aluminum is equally exposed. 

“Smelters require sustained, low-cost energy,” said Chris Gaffney, a professor of the practice in the Stewart School. “The Middle East accounted for roughly 21% of U.S. unwrought aluminum imports in 2025. When energy prices spike or supply is constrained, capacity is reduced or shut down, and those decisions are difficult and slow to reverse.”

Fertilizer is one of the clearest examples of delayed inflation. Natural gas is essential for its production, and Persian Gulf states account for one-third of global urea exports and half of global sulfur exports. Urea prices at the New Orleans import hub have already climbed sharply.

“We won't see the effects quickly, but rather in six to 12 months, depending on the crop and its cycle,” Besedes says. “Without or with less fertilizer, crop yields will decrease, resulting in higher prices.”

Why Hormuz Is Different From Other Chokepoints

On top of all those factors, the strait closure presents a uniquely dangerous vulnerability. 

“Unlike a port strike or canal blockage, there is no meaningful way to reroute volume,” says Gaffney. “If it is disrupted, flow is constrained rather than redirected.” Pipeline alternatives replace only a fraction of the 20 million barrels per day that normally transit the strait.

“Choke point vulnerability arises when a large portion of flow depends on a route that is hard to substitute,” said Mathieu Dahan, associate professor in the Stewart School. “Hormuz has no scalable alternatives with sufficient capacity.” 

Alan Erera, senior associate chair in the Stewart School expanded on Dahan’s point, noting that strait disruptions raise costs across manufacturing and distribution.

“Ships are rerouted onto longer paths, which drives up fuel and labor costs, ties up vessels and containers for longer periods, and ultimately raises inventory costs for shippers because capital is locked up while goods are still in transit,” Erera said.

When Geopolitics Meets Global Supply Chains

Additionally, the strait closure raises the risk of wartime miscalculation. 

“We haven’t seen a disruption on this scale since the tanker wars of the late 1980s,” said Larry Rubin, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. Gulf states' dependence on the strait constrains both regional actors and U.S. strategy, raising risks around crisis decision-making.

Rubin also points to a dimension most coverage has missed entirely. “One thing that has been overlooked by many commentators is the fact that the Iranian people have probably been hit the hardest economically,” he says. “They were already in a challenging situation. The Iranian economy won't recover quickly after the war.”

Resilience Has a Short Memory

Meanwhile, for the United States, “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve provides a buffer, and domestic energy production has improved resilience,” says Gaffney. “But the gap remains between enabling capacity and sustaining resilience. Policy can support infrastructure, but it cannot ensure private sector participants invest in resilience when cost pressures rise.”

For policymakers and industry leaders, the disruption reinforces a familiar pattern. "The supply chain remains optimized for efficiency rather than resilience, in part due to the high investment costs required to build flexibility," says Dahan. 

Gaffney added that resilience does improve after disruption, but that “it erodes over time if not actively maintained.”

Even if the strait reopens, higher costs and slow restart timelines mean the system will not snap back. Experts suggest that when headlines have moved on from this disruption, it will still be shaping prices across the economy. 

Drawing from the Institute’s racing roots and affinity for classic cars, the Georgia Tech Auto Show has become a spring staple on campus since its inception in 2003. Its evolution continues this year with the addition of the Mobility Seminar on Friday, April 3, and a special presentation from Hyundai on Saturday, April 4.  

As vice provost for Enrollment Management, Rick Clark develops strategies to expand access to Georgia Tech and help students find their path here. As an ultra trail runner, Clark understands that, while there may be twists and turns along the way, perseverance and a steady approach are vital when the path ahead seems daunting. 

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) in Georgia Tech’s Office of Commercialization announced two of its health technology (HealthTech) portfolio companies, Nephrodite and OrthoPreserve, earned the designation. 

Achieving this rare milestone underscores the caliber of founders, science, and support in ATDC’s 30-company HealthTech portfolio, the incubator’s largest focus area. It’s also a win for Georgia because it reflects the strength of the state’s health innovation ecosystem. 

“This designation is one of the strongest signals the FDA gives that a technology could change the standard of care,” said Greg Jungles, HealthTech catalyst at ATDC. “For ATDC to have two in the same year is remarkable.” 

The Breakthrough Device Program doesn’t waive evidence requirements, but it accelerates learning with the FDA, ATDC’s Jungles said. “That means shorter response times, more frequent meetings, and prioritized review. Teams avoid dead ends and align earlier on study designs and endpoints.” 

For the founders of both startups, their technologies come one step closer to moving their innovations to market. Nephrodite’s technology improves the lives of dialysis patients. OrthoPreserve’s device addresses challenges faced by those who suffer from chronic knee pain. 

Nephrodite: Advancing Continuous Artificial Kidney Technology 

Dr. Nikhil Shah and Dr. Hiep Nguyen, cofounders of Nephrodite, aim to improve care for dialysis patients with end-stage kidney disease who need transplants. These patients often spend three to four hours in a dialysis clinic up to three times a week. Being tethered to stationary machines with needles drawing blood via arm grafts complicates everyday activities — from work tasks to the ability to travel. 

Dialysis addresses chronic kidney disease, which means kidneys no longer work properly. The treatments filter out toxins, waste, and other fluids in the blood. Kidney disease costs Medicare $124.5 billion every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And those costs are expected to rise because of increasing rates of kidney failure and chronic kidney disease. 

“Dialysis, while lifesaving when it was pioneered in 1952, is incredibly burdensome,” Shah said. Besides being a long process that keeps the patient in a fixed location, it’s physically tiring. “Taking out your blood continually many, many times over, and over the course of four hours is the equivalent of running the Boston Marathon, hitting the finish line, and then someone saying, ‘You're not done; go do it again,’ ” he said. 

A surgeon by training, with expertise in transplantation and oncology, Shah is also an adjunct associate professor in Tech’s School of Interactive Computing. He worked with Nguyen to develop a continuously functioning mechanical artificial kidney, leading to Nephrodite’s formation. 

The FDA’s breakthrough designation on its artificial kidney allows the company to pursue approvals to begin tests in human trials. 

The company traces its beginnings to a German aerospace facility outside Munich, where Nguyen and Shah watched engineers demonstrate a pediatric artificial heart — the Berlin Heart. 

“That’s how we got started,” Shah said. “Seeing an artificial heart that led us to think about doing this for kidneys — because the kidney space has been largely ignored for 70 years.” 

Backed by a German federal grant, Nephrodite grew, moving from Germany to Boston, Massachusetts, then to Austin, Texas, before calling Atlanta home. The company joined ATDC and tapped into other Georgia Tech programs. This included the Center for MedTech Excellence and the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Nephrodite also drew on student talent as the researchers quietly worked on their continuous mechanical artificial kidney. 

Nephrodite began interviewing patients to find out what they wanted the artificial kidney needed to solve. 

They learned patients want the ability to be mobile. Patients also desire an alternative therapy to large needles being inserted into arm grafts because the injection sites are prone to infection and the grafts can fail. In addition, the process can be painful and disfiguring. Finally, patients want a quality of life independent of machines. 

“Those quality-of-life needs, especially being free and mobile, were absolutely universal,” Shah said.  

Nephrodite began developing the technology to build its device — a filter surgically implanted in the pelvis area. 

“We developed an implant designed to run constantly, connected to larger blood vessels in the pelvis to avoid arm graft failures, and paired with an external interface that lets patients sleep at night while the system removes toxins and excess fluid,” Shah explained. 

The device also has built-in sensors, with data uploaded to the cloud, enabling medical care teams to remotely monitor their patients while freeing patients from frequent in-clinic visits. 

Shah said Nephrodite’s device could restore everyday independence, while potentially lowering infection risk. 

“It's like having an actual kidney, but without all the issues of an unhealthy one,” Shah said.  

OrthoPreserve: Innovating a Minimally Invasive Meniscus Implant 
 
OrthoPreserve’s technology aims to address issues from people have with their meniscus, the C‑shaped piece of cartilage in a knee joint that acts as a shock absorber between the thigh bone and shin bone. 

Though patients undergo a now-routine surgery to address it, incomplete recoveries are also common. An estimated quarter of patients later experience recurring knee pain. No FDA-approved implant currently exists for this population. Now, OrthoPreserveis developing a minimally invasive, artificial meniscus implant to restore cushioning, relieve pain, and delay — or even prevent — knee replacement for some patients. 

“There are a million meniscus surgeries every year, and 25% of those patients still live with recurring pain,” said Jonathan Schwartz, OrthoPreserve’s founder and CEO. 

Patients can face daily pain from ordinary activities, such as prolonged standing or walking a dog. Other activities like jogging and recreational sports can trigger flares that can lead to swelling and prolonged discomfort, Schwartz said. “Those patients have no reliable options today,” he said. “We’re building a minimally invasive implant to restore cushioning and help people get back to the activities they love.” 

OrhoPreserve’s durable implant restores cushioning, and it could help people return to normal activities and delay invasive knee replacement. Along with this comes potential cost and recovery benefits for the healthcare system.   

Schwartz created the implant as his Georgia Tech master’s thesis in the lab of David Ku in the Lawrence P. Huang Endowed Chair for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Regents' Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. After industry experience, Schwartz returned to further develop the technology, building on Georgia Tech’s translational expertise 

OrthoPreserve has completed mechanical testing and a successful study. The company is raising a $2 million seed to complete validations and begin human trials, which Schwartz expects to start in 18 months. 

“The FDA breakthrough designation validates that nothing like this technology exists, and that it has the potential to disrupt the standard of care,” Schwartz said, adding the U.S.’ market opportunity is roughly $1.5 billion. “We finally have a minimally invasive option to bridge the gap between meniscus surgery and knee replacement.” 

What FDA Breakthrough Designation Means for ATDC’s HealthTech Startups 

Having a faster and clearer path is a derisking milestone for investors who are evaluating capital intensive medical device technologies, Jungles said. 

“This breakthrough device designation is a really big deal for medical device companies,” Jungles said, adding that startups often fear navigating the FDA approval process. “But this designation adds to the legitimacy of their technologies and the problemsthey are solving. The designation will help them get to market faster, assuming their data continues to meet expectations.” 

ATDC launched its HealthTech vertical in 2018, which is now sponsored by Catalyst by Wellstar ATDC’s HealthTech portfoilo companies include medical devices, biotech, and digital health, among other segments. 

ATDC’s Role in Accelerating HealthTech Innovation 

Nephrodite and OrthoPreserve’s founders noted ATDC’s coaching and programming as critical in navigating fundraising and regulatory milestones. Another factor, they said, was ATDC’s connection to Georgia Tech’s labs and facilities and prototyping support and clinical advisors from across metro Atlanta.  

“We meet with ATDC coaches every two to four weeks to troubleshoot and plan,” Schwartz said. “Having that level of seasoned guidance, all without consultant-level costs, has been huge.” 

Jungles added that two Breakthrough device designations in the same year reflects ATDC’s selection rigor, noting he’s evaluated hundreds of technologies since the HealthTech vertical launched. 

“It reflects the caliber of the companies in ATDC, specifically in the medical device space,” Jungles said. “It’s the strength of their teams, the persistence of the founders, and the collaboration of the ecosystem in Georgia and Atlanta.”