Walking down the stairs in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, you might look up to discover a set of letters made out of construction paper. Backlit by blue and red light, it reads, “Plant Library: Fridays 3:30 – 4:30”. This sign has caught the eye of many students, who walk inside to discover a bustling scene. Instead of books lining shelves, plants of all sorts are gathered in the windows, drinking in the sunlight. A group of students browses for a few moments before leaving with a plant of their own to nurture. The majority are gathered around a table, cutting up English ivy to propagate in recycled containers.   

Deciding which candidates deserve scarce laboratory time is itself a hard problem. It requires weighing scientific plausibility against practical constraints — likely impact, expected effectiveness, and eventual manufacturability — considerations that are difficult to apply consistently across thousands of candidates.
 

An artificial intelligence (AI) program developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) could provide a new way to narrow that hypothesis pool down to a rate that robotic laboratories can actually test, and more broadly, to evaluate a wide range of scientific and technical claims that would otherwise overwhelm human assessment.
 

Known as FARSCAPE, the program was developed to support a research project organized by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to evaluate a broad range of feasibility questions. By breaking down challenging questions into smaller components that can be evaluated by a team of independent computer agents, FARSCAPE uses a “chain of thought” approach to provide answers in the form of probabilities. It then helps humans check the rationales for its assessment.
 

Read the full article on the Georgia Tech Research Institute news page

Microbes from space have fueled the plots of science fiction mainstays like “Project Hail Mary” and “The Andromeda Strain.” But with more space missions launching each year, finding extraterrestrial life in a microbial form is becoming more plausible. What will the response be back here on Earth if – or when – scientists discover extraterrestrial microbes? Will the international policy and security communities be prepared for the fallout?

When you hear about extraterrestrial life, your mind may go to intelligent life, like the kind present in a lot of Hollywood science fiction. But even the confirmation of microbial life that originated somewhere other than on Earth – which is much more likely – would be a paradigm-shifting event. Thinking about what these consequences might look like early on can help nations and the international community prepare.

Our team is interested in this question. We’re made up of a full professor of international affairs, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, and whose expertise is on how emerging science and technologies could affect global conflict and cooperation, as well as an emerging scholar in space policy and security and an expert on social and political implications of frontier technologies, such as AI, space, quantum and energy sources.

Multiple Mars landers have identified large amounts of frozen and liquid water, essential for life, on the red planet. Samples retrieved by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft from a near-Earth asteroid revealed the presence of uracil, part of RNA, which is a building block of life. Uncrewed space probes like NASA’s Europa Clipper and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer are on their way to conduct detailed reconnaissance of the planet’s moons and to investigate whether they have conditions suitable for life.

Along with data from the James Webb Space Telescope and future missions targeting Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, the likelihood of discovering extraterrestrial microbial life has increased substantially.

A Governance Challenge

The discovery of microbial life would expose significant gaps in international governance related to space.

While there are some existing international agreements, including the Outer Space Treaty, that provide space law guidelines, these are ill-equipped to address the complexities posed by extraterrestrial biology.

The Outer Space Treaty, established in 1967, dictates that countries should use outer space peacefully. It also states that no single nation may claim ownership or exert sovereignty over parts of outer space or celestial bodies such as the Moon.

However, it doesn’t have much to say about who can own extraterrestrial organisms or what to do about biosecurity risks. It doesn’t have direction for who can use, preserve or destroy living things, such as bacteria or fungi, that may be discovered in space.

Historical Analogies and Future Pathways

While people have yet to discover extraterrestrial life of any kind, there are some major geopolitical events that can help researchers understand what the consequences might look like.

While the space race of the 1950s and ’60s led to exploration of the Moon, it was driven by a Cold War power struggle between two nations back on Earth. Instead of coming together to explore space, both countries experienced a renewed sense of nationalism. They used the new discoveries that came from the space race to invest in their military capabilities.

On the other hand, researchers can look at how states respond to asteroid threats. Since an asteroid could pose a truly existential threat from space, preventing the worst-case scenario requires cooperation and thinking ahead.

Astronomers have built a global, collaborative network to monitor for and sound the alarm about any potential threats. This network has shown that nations can put aside terrestrial rivalries to work together if they perceive something from space as a truly existential threat.

The International Space Station is another example showing how nations that are competing great powers on Earth work together to cooperate in space. Countries have collaborated to solve issues on the International Space Station that have specific, short-term and clearly identified goals.

These examples show a range of possible reactions to the discovery of space microbes. The situation could renew space races between competing countries and lead to militarization, or it could create unprecedented cooperation.

Potential Outcomes

We’ve identified three main possible outcomes to the discovery of microbial extraterrestrial life.

First, there’s a cooperative outcome, reminiscent of the asteroid threat network or the International Space Station. Here, nations collaborate to regulate research, share data, protect the planet or advance specific interests they share.

This pathway isn’t inherently benign or malignant. It could entail expanding the roles of international organizations or creating new legal instruments.

Second there’s a competitive outcome, characterized by strategic rivalry between countries. Like in the space race, nations could fight to be technologically superior. They might try to monopolize access to the extraterrestrial microbes or to leverage biological discoveries from the microbes for their own economic or military advantage.

Scientific breakthroughs derived from extraterrestrial organisms could lead to innovations in medicine, agriculture, energy and beyond. However, the organisms could also be weaponized, intentionally or otherwise, which would amplify biosecurity risks. In this sense, the discovery of microbial life could create a new form of technological competition, one that merges space exploration with biological research and development.

The increasing role of private companies, such as SpaceX, complicates this dynamic. These companies receive contracts from the government, blurring the lines between commercial civilian and strategic activities.

For example, around 60% of all satellites currently orbiting the Earth belong to SpaceX’s Starlink subsidiary. The company can – and has – chosen to block access selectively, in alignment with its political priorities. When commercial interests and national priorities diverge, who has access versus who is denied access can be uncertain.

Research around biopiracy may come into play. Biopiracy is a term that applies to two primary issues: the patenting of indigenous knowledge or the patenting of natural resources, such as microbes, for profit. The Budapest Treaty prohibits claiming ownership of a naturally occurring microbe on Earth, but there’s no equivalent for microbes in space.

Third is an isolationist outcome, in which states could sever their involvement in international cooperation due to biosecurity concerns or political distrust. The potential for unknown biological risks, however minimal, could trigger precautionary restrictions on data sharing, which limits international collaboration.

Countries may lose or gain allies as they grapple with whether the microbe could cause harm to humans or the environment, or be developed into a biological weapon.

Emerging technologies will also shape these outcomes. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are already integral to scientific research. Scientists use them to process astronomical data and identify potential biosignatures. Nanotechnology and advances in the life sciences and engineering could allow researchers to study, modify or exploit extraterrestrial microbes, if they’re given access to them.

Countries will have to prepare not only for the scientific implications of discovery but also for its societal and political reverberations. The politicization of scientific discoveries from the microbes could complicate or change how countries respond domestically and at the international scale. Misinformation about the microbes could shape policy and public response.

Preparing for the Unprecedented

The discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life would not merely mark a scientific milestone. It would be a geopolitical event.

Rather than attempting to predict a singular outcome, policymakers could adopt scenario-based planning approaches in the meantime to anticipate and prepare for a range of possibilities. In these approaches, participants explore multiple futures through structured activities similar to professional or military wargaming or path games, in which they explore multiple outcomes systematically to test strategies, to plan and to analyze potential outcomes under realistic uncertainty.

In our view, the question is not whether humanity will discover life beyond Earth, but whether it is prepared for the consequences when it does.

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

As Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera delivered his final Institute Address from the Walter G. Ehmer Theater inside the John Lewis Student Center, he emphasized that the end of his tenure is not the end of a race but rather the next leg of a relay. As he prepares to pass the baton to the next president, he outlined Tech’s unprecedented momentum.  

We encourage everyone to allow extra travel time when moving through these affected areas:

• The Historic Academy of Medicine.
• Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons.
• Price Gilbert Memorial Library.
• Crosland Tower.
• Tech Green.
• Harrison Square.
• Kessler Campanile area.
• Bobby Dodd Way and Cherry Street corridors.

Production activity is expected to take place primarily during the day, starting as early as 7 a.m., and in the early evening hours, with setup, filming, and breakdown occurring throughout the three days. While every effort will be made to minimize disruption, brief holds may be necessary at various times to ensure the safety of the campus community and filming crew.

Campus parking and vehicular traffic may also be affected in select areas due to production vehicle and equipment staging. This includes parking in E84, W21, and limited spaces along Ferst Drive near the John Lewis Student Center. Please follow all posted signage.

We appreciate your patience and cooperation as Georgia Tech hosts this production.

Despite decades of research, the chaotic nature of turbulence makes it difficult to predict and control. This challenge impedes more than smoother air travel. Solving the turbulence problem could lead to advances in areas ranging from sustainable energy to training a smarter workforce for the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

To advance understanding of turbulence, the National Science Foundation is establishing a new, $30 million Science and Technology Center (STC) at Michigan State University. Georgia Tech is among eight universities supporting the center.

Assistant Professor Qi Tang will join the STC for Transformative Explorations in Multi-Physics and Engineering of Scientific Turbulence (TEMPEST). TEMPEST, launching on Sept. 1, aims to build trustworthy, predictive models of real-world turbulence. 

Tang will lead TEMPEST’s modeling and scientific machine learning (ML) efforts. NSF will fund Tang and Georgia Tech with over $1 million from the center’s five-year, $30 million award.

By understanding and predicting turbulence, TEMPEST can unlock new applications, with a focus on fusion energy and national security. The center will also generate long-term research projects with applications in air and space flight, manufacturing, chemistry, and broaden science education and AI fluency.

“Turbulence has resisted prediction for a century,” said Tang, a faculty member in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE).

“STC TEMPEST aims to develop a unified, predictive science that advances fusion energy, improves hypersonic technologies, and deepens our understanding of how stars created the elements that make up our world and ourselves. For everyday people, the center points toward abundant clean energy and faster, more efficient flight."

Turbulence is the motion of a fluid characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and speed. Turbulent flows can occur across all scales, from interactions between subatomic particles to astrophysical scales, including supernovas, black holes, and cosmic rays. 

While turbulent flows are common and occur naturally, scientists still do not fully understand them. Small changes in a turbulent flow can produce dramatically different outcomes. Combined with the countless interactions across multiple scales of time and space, this makes turbulence extraordinarily difficult to predict.

“Rather than studying individual pieces of this enormously complex problem in isolation, we are bringing together theory, experimentation, computation and artificial intelligence to develop a deeper understanding of turbulence across scales,” said Michael Murillo, an MSU professor and the director of TEMPEST. 

“Our goal is not simply to understand turbulence better, but to make it predictable and controllable in ways that will enable new technologies and scientific discoveries.”

The NSF TEMPEST award supports students and researchers at Michigan State University, Auburn University, Baylor University, Georgia Tech, San José State University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, University of Rochester, and Yale University to combine theory, computation, AI techniques, and experimentation to build trustworthy predictive models of real-world turbulence for high-consequence applications.

Additional partners include Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Fusion, and General Atomics.

Together, TEMPEST researchers will build more accurate and reliable physics-grounded models. The center will test new ideas against real-world observations, then use those results to refine the models. 

Tang contributes expertise in ML, scientific computing, and plasma physics to STC TEMPEST. 

Earlier this year, Tang received an Early Career Research award from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. He is using the award to build ML and data science tools that help scientists analyze massive datasets from fusion experiments and simulations.

This interdisciplinary approach is intended to move science from understanding why turbulence behaves as it does to predicting how it will behave. Through prediction and simulation, scientists could eventually engineer solutions to control turbulence in real-world scenarios.

The center will make its data and software broadly available and engage the public through museum exhibitions, immersive media, and educational programs that are expected to reach more than 10,000 K-12 students annually. TEMPEST will also help train an AI-fluent scientific workforce prepared to tackle complex problems across disciplines.

“One reason I am excited to work in TEMPEST is because it aligns perfectly with our School of CSE mission. As a discipline, CSE complements theory and experimentation as a mode of scientific discovery,” Tang said. 

“We build computational models to simulate scientific and engineering concepts, like turbulence in this case, so that we can test theories that are too difficult, expensive, or risky for physical experiments.”

Georgia Tech researchers spent two years helping to answer that question through DARPA’s AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC), a competition designed to test whether AI could identify and fix security vulnerabilities in real-world software.

Now, they are sharing what they learned with the cybersecurity community.

Their paper, SoK: DARPA’s AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC): Competition Design, Architectures, and Lessons Learned, was presented at USENIX Security 2026, one of the world's leading cybersecurity conferences. The paper was selected as a runner-up for the conference’s distinguished paper award, placing it among 36 recognized papers from 362 accepted papers out of 3,028 submissions.

The paper examines how the seven finalist teams approached the competition and what the results reveal about the future of AI-powered cybersecurity.

Putting AI to the Test

AIxCC challenged teams to build Cyber Reasoning Systems (CRSs) that could operate with minimal human assistance to identify software vulnerabilities, develop fixes, and determine whether security alerts were real threats.

The teams had 143 hours to analyze 53 software projects during the final competition.

Georgia Tech’s Team Atlanta, which won the competition, used an approach that combined multiple AI agents with traditional security tools. Other teams used different approaches, including applying AI for specific tasks or building highly autonomous AI agents.

The variety of systems provided researchers with a rare opportunity to compare different approaches to AI-powered cybersecurity.

Lesson from the Competition

One of the biggest lessons was that reliability matters as much as intelligence.

Some systems were highly capable but struggled to remain operational while analyzing large, complicated software projects. The strongest systems were often those that could work reliably throughout the competition.

The researchers also found that AI and traditional security tools have different strengths. Traditional tools were still effective at finding common bugs, while AI performed better at reasoning through more complex problems.

However, AI-generated fixes remain a major challenge.

Researchers found that 38% to 46% of AI-generated patches were semantically incorrect. This means a patch might stop a security problem but also break a feature or create another problem.

The results show that AI can play an important role in cybersecurity, but human experts are still needed to verify the safety of AI-generated fixes.

Sharing the Lessons

Cen Zhang, the paper’s first author, said the research offers a unique look at the competition by combining lessons from the finalist teams, organizers, and DARPA’s data.

“This paper provides a unique angle on how AIxCC was designed, the techniques teams used, and what the scores reveal and conceal,” Zhang said.

Jiho Kim presented the paper at USENIX Security 2026. He said the presentation was an opportunity to share lessons from two years of work with the broader cybersecurity community.

“Seeing the strong interest and thoughtful questions from the audience made the experience particularly rewarding,” Kim said.

The researchers say they hope the lessons from AIxCC will help guide the next generation of cybersecurity tools.

The committee, convened through the National Academies' project Future of Battery Technology Options for Defense Applications, will identify the strengths and weaknesses of future battery technologies, including an examination of performance, safety, and manufacturability across technology and manufacturing readiness levels. The committee will also identify gaps where research investments could potentially improve battery capabilities across technology and manufacturing readiness levels, creating opportunities to leverage commercially available technologies.

With a joint appointment in MSE and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, McDowell is internationally recognized for his research on batteries and energy storage materials. His work focuses on understanding how materials change during battery operation and using that knowledge to develop safer, more efficient, and more sustainable energy storage systems. McDowell is also co-director of the Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center. He leads research spanning solid-state batteries, lithium-ion and sodium-ion technologies, and next-generation energy storage materials. “I am very thankful to be selected, and I look forward to working with colleagues on developing recommendations to advance battery technologies in support of our country," said McDowell.

Read Full Story on the MSE Newspage

This award is part of NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants Program, which supports groundbreaking projects with the potential to transform space science and technology.

Through the three-year, $750,000 award, Mazumdar and her research team will develop laser-based methods to simultaneously measure temperature, chemical species, gas velocity, and other properties in the gases surrounding heat shield materials.

“We aim to implement our measurement techniques in arc jet or plasma jet facilities, like the ones at NASA, to assist with the evaluation of thermal protection systems for next-generation spacecraft,” Mazumdar said.

The project uses ultrafast lasers, which produce extremely short, high-intensity pulses. These pulses allow researchers to study the behavior of molecules on extremely short timescales and measure properties that can improve understanding of the gases surrounding a spacecraft during atmospheric entry.

Mazumdar said she and her students are excited about this project and hope it will help NASA develop new heat shields for spacecraft traveling to destinations such as Mars, Venus, and Titan.

Read Full Story on the ME Webpage

Read more.

You’ve been planning your dream beach vacation for months, only to arrive and find the shoreline covered in large piles of smelly, brown seaweed, with even more floating offshore. It’s disappointing, for sure – and increasingly common.

Since 2011, summer scenes like this have played out on beaches in South Florida and throughout the Caribbean.

The consequences are even greater for people who live and work along the Caribbean and Gulf coasts and the coasts of the tropical Atlantic. Large masses of sargassum seaweed can clog harbors, interfering with fishing and boating, and in some cases harm marine life. As the seaweed begins to decompose it releases gases, including hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and methane, raising concerns for both public health and the environment.

To reduce the impact of these sargassum blooms, a crucial first step is understanding why the seaweed started growing in the first place and what’s sustaining it now.

We study the oceans, marine life, and algae blooms, such as sargassum. Our research suggests that these vast mats of smelly seaweed may have entered a self-sustaining cycle, effectively feeding their own expansion. It’s creating a chronic disaster for the affected coasts, with little sign of ending.

Columbus and the Great Sargasso Sea

Pelagic sargassum is a type of brown seaweed that floats on the ocean surface and is naturally abundant in the Sargasso Sea, a region of the subtropical North Atlantic.

The seaweed takes its name from sargaço, the Portuguese word for grape. When Portuguese navigators reached the region, they noticed its small, grapelike, air-filled bladders that keep the seaweed afloat. Christopher Columbus later wrote about encountering vast mats of it during his voyage to the Americas.

However, in 2011, people began noticing unusually large mats of sargassum in the tropical Atlantic, between the coasts of Africa and Brazil. In the years since, these blooms have become more frequent, lasted longer, and grown much larger, with vast amounts of sargassum washing ashore across Central America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

In this new area, now called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, the amount of sargassum surpassed an estimated 37,500 million tons in 2025. Forecasts suggest summer 2026 could break records again.

Sargassum’s Drivers Changed Over Time

For years, scientists have searched for the causes of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt.

They explored changes in ocean nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer and other human activities in the Amazon and Congo river basins, increasing amounts of Saharan dust blowing in the wind, and changes in ocean temperatures, winds and currents. None of the hypotheses could fully explain year-to-year variations in the sargassum belt.

Our research suggests something else is also going on – the main cause has changed.

In the winter of 2010, strong winds brought some sargassum southward from the Sargasso Sea to the tropical Atlantic. For a few years, winds stayed strong in winter and spring, acting like a giant spoon and mixing deeper, nutrient-rich water up to the sunlit surface, giving the algae the resources it needed to bloom and grow.

A floating sargassum mat is much more than just seaweed. It is like a floating city, home to fish, shrimp, crabs and countless tiny living organisms, all food for larger fish. Together, they form an ecosystem that we call the sargassumsphere. It’s much like a mobile reef or forest.

These animals collect food around the floating mats and recycle nutrients through their waste and the breakdown of older sargassum. In this way, nutrients are gathered from a much larger area and concentrated around the seaweed, helping the next bloom to grow.

This process can make sargassum blooms very likely to persist in the years ahead.

To test this theory, we created a mathematical model that accounts for the mechanisms controlling the blooms. With the measurements of nitrogen content and isotopic composition in argassum collected around the U.S. Virgin Islands, our model not only reproduced the blooms from 2011 to 2022 but also predicted ahead of time the size and evolution of blooms that occurred in 2023 and 2024, suggesting the theory is correct.

Better Forecasts, Better Solutions

Our work shows that the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is likely here to stay.

Predicting when blooms will occur, and understanding what drives them, can help create early warning systems that give coastal communities time to prepare for their unwanted arrival. It can also support long-term efforts to turn sargassum from a costly nuisance into a valuable resource.

Sargassum biomass has attracted growing interest as a renewable feedstock for biofuel production. Unlike bioenergy crops grown on land, sargassum does not need land, freshwater or fertilizers, reducing competition with food production. The seaweed is rich in carbohydrates that can be converted into bioethanol, biogas, bio-oil, or hydrogen through processes such as fermentation, anaerobic digestion, hydrothermal liquefaction and gasification.

Scientists at a university in Barbados, for example, developed a way to produce biofuel from a combination of the excessive sargassum on the island’s shores and wastewater from the local rum industry.

The island is also encouraging farms to use sargassum as a fertilizer and soil amendment, providing a sustainable alternative to synthetic fertilizers. Sargassum is rich in organic matter, potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace elements. After careful processing to remove the salt and excessive metals, it can be used to improve soil structure, enhance water retention and stimulate plant growth.

Sargassum is increasingly also being explored as a sustainable construction material, particularly in Mexico and Brazil. The biomass can be incorporated into building products, such as compressed panels similar to drywall that were developed by researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and low-cost bricks developed by entrepreneur Omar Vázquez Sánchez in Mexico using about 40% sargassum with limestone and other organic materials. Using sargassum as a mortar additive also helps reduce dependence on conventional, carbon-intensive materials.

By learning to live with and make use of sargassum, affected regions may be able to transform a growing challenge into a new opportunity.

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

You’ve probably heard artificial intelligence models described as “open” or “closed.” These are not descriptions of the model’s personality. Large language model AIs like the one under the hood of ChatGPT don’t have actual personalities, despite appearances.

The labels refer to whether all of the information about how an AI model works is publicly available and the model can be modified, or whether the model’s developer keeps its inner workings secret and the model itself private property.

Open-Source Software

The concept of open-source software originated in the free software movement of the 1980s and ’90s. The movement’s founders believed that software creators and users had the right to “four freedoms” – to run the program, to study and modify it, to distribute copies of the original, and to distribute copies of subsequently modified versions. The fundamental requirement was that the source code – the basic instructions – for a program should be made available.

In the late 1990s, software developers associated with projects such as the Netscape web browser and the Linux operating system coined and promoted the term “open source” to refer to these ideals.

As part of the evolving movement, certain organizations developed open-source licenses that specified how a particular piece of source code could be used and distributed, including the Gnu General Public License, Apache License, MIT License and the Berkeley Software Distribution. Each type of license also specified any potential restrictions on how software patents applied to the source code.

Open Source or Open Weight?

The open-source idea has risen to prominence again in the past several years as artificial intelligence large language models have surged, notably OpenAI’s ChatGPT, released in 2022. Developers first train new models on large datasets, then deploy the models for use by other people.

Meta was one of the first large companies to release an open-source large language model, called LLaMa. The company released LLaMa on Feb. 24, 2023, and made available the “inference” source code – the instructions that run the model. And it released the so-called weights, the encoded knowledge the model learned during training. However, open-source organizations such as the Open Source Initiative have stated that the LLaMa licensing guidelines prohibit commercial reuse, which the initiative maintains is not truly open source.

Other companies have released “open weight” models, such as DeepSeek from DeepSeek AI and Qwen from Alibaba. The models have less restrictive terms for reuse, and the AI community has adopted them rapidly. Still, many developers believe that a true open-source AI model must not only include the source code and weights but also the data that is used to train the model.

A Lot to Open Up

The Open Source Initiative’s definition of a fully open-source AI model includes the training data as a key element. Some developers wonder, however, how feasible it is to distribute the enormous datasets required.

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

Across corporate earnings calls, investor presentations and marketing pitches, “artificial intelligence” has become the buzzword of choice. Yet a troubling pattern lies under the hype. Many claims vastly overstate actual AI sophistication, misleading people about true capabilities, future outcomes and potential harms.

A case in point is the recent 600% share price surge of Allbirds, after the once-trendy sustainable footwear business issued a vague announcement in April 2026 that it would pivot to AI. In the coming months, the company plans to rename itself NewBird AI and give up its status as a public benefit corporation.

As a scholar who studies corporate sustainability, I see parallels between this “AI washing” phenomenon – when companies oversell the benefits of AI while glossing over the risks – and the greenwashing trend in the recent past, when companies claimed to commit to sustainability but didn’t enact fundamental change. Widespread deception was rampant, with businesses spending far more on green marketing than on actual sustainability improvements. And those efforts often backfired on both the companies and the communities they served. Even more worrisome: AI washing’s rapid rise and widespread adoption will likely eclipse the greenwashing trends.

How We Got Here

AI washing is thriving because companies and policymakers ignore four important principles. These shortfalls, in the past, also characterized greenwashing.

First, AI guidelines lack standardization. By 2019, 84 sets of AI ethics principles and guidelines had already been published. By 2023, this number had exploded to more than 200 – a mess of voluntary frameworks from companies, research institutions and public organizations.

Making matters worse is that the U.S. currently relies on fragmented AI rules, with most being voluntary. The Trump administration has generally sided with Big Tech to push back efforts at state or federal regulation. At a global level, one of the few exceptions is the European Union AI Act, perhaps one of the most comprehensive frameworks, but its implementation won’t be fully phased in until 2027 or later.

In the early 2000s, corporate sustainability faced a similar credibility crisis. Every company measured sustainability differently, making comparisons impossible and greenwashing easy. The breakthrough came only when standardized, industry-specific metrics allowed meaningful benchmarking. Initiatives such as the Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board established common metrics for measuring environmental impact, social responsibility and quality of governance, known by the shorthand ESG.

When companies must report carbon emissions using the same methodology, for example, or disclose labor conditions using identical categories, investors can compare performance, identify laggards and allocate capital accordingly. This push made comparisons possible and deception harder, although it still wasn’t foolproof. For example, a 2023 United Nations Environment Programme report on the fast-fashion industry found that many companies continue to make “vague and inflated” sustainability claims.

Second, there are no comprehensive frameworks in the U.S. that require businesses to judge how AI affects them in a material way and publicly disclose those impacts. Examples of AI-driven material impacts include whether algorithmic bias shapes business outcomes, or whether decisions on how to use AI systems carry significance for shareholders and the public.

Instead, AI governance remains dominated by the narrow inner circle of companies that build the AI systems, while affected communities rarely have a say in determining which AI impacts are material enough to warrant public attention. For example, Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA and others adhere to their own AI governance guidelines, with relatively little public input.

The development of sustainability principles offers some examples of how to build these frameworks. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires over 50,000 companies to formally evaluate which sustainability topics are material to their stakeholders, and then disclose that information. These efforts try to ensure that accountability is clear across entire supply chains.

While nowhere nearly as comprehensive, U.S. regulations such as the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform and California’s law requiring reporting on statewide greenhouse gas emissions provide a similar blueprint that U.S. policymakers could build on if they chose.

A third problem is the general lack of third-party verification, making AI washing trivially easy. Effective disclosure means reporting all material impacts – not just cherry-picked successes.

In practice, AI audits can vary dramatically in rigor, scope and methodology. One auditor might conduct extensive testing across demographic groups, analyze decision-making and validate the quality of training data. Another might simply review documentation and accept company explanations at face value. Given the variety of AI auditing models out there, different auditors may use incompatible methodologies, making results impossible to compare. If companies adopted third-party accreditation systems to assess how they use AI, they would help ensure the accountability that self-reported claims cannot match.

By contrast, there was reasonable progress in this respect as companies adopted ESG principles. For example, institutions such as the Carbon Disclosure Project and Global Reporting Initiative have a network of partners that offer independent verification. These providers, certified under international standards, verify corporate sustainability data against rigorous criteria. That way, they provide the assurance that lets companies show the progress needed to unlock sustainable finance and mitigate legal risks. Third-party audits are far from perfect, but they offer a clear path for improvement.

The fourth principle is robust enforcement. Early ESG initiatives relied on reputational pressure and stakeholder goodwill – things that corporations routinely ignored when profits were at stake. When change came, it was because regulations established legal liability and financial penalties.

These consequences changed how corporations assess risk and continue to shape sustainability practices today. Volkswagen’s 2015 ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, for example, cost the company over US$30 billion in fines, settlements and criminal charges after U.S regulators found that the carmaker was cheating emissions tests. BP faced billions in penalties and liabilities for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the biggest oil spill in the history of marine oil drilling operations.

The current enforcement gap in AI creates a predictable dynamic. The expected value of AI washing – like potential investment gains, competitive advantage, and market valuation increases – far exceeds the expected cost in terms of penalties and risk of detection. Until enforcement imposes consequences that exceed benefits, AI washing will persist as a rational business strategy rather than a risk to a business’s reputation.

Fortunately, investors are beginning to step up. The Federal Trade Commission, for example, launched Operation AI Comply in 2024, targeting deceptive AI claims, although this effort has been partially scaled back by the current Trump administration.

New Standards For a New Era

Until businesses address these four principles, AI washing will continue. Without standards and audits, even well-intentioned companies can’t know if their work meets adequate rigor. Without assessments of material impact, some groups of consumers or shareholders will be hurt. And without liability, even thorough auditors won’t be able to identify whether a business’s claims about AI are truthful.

These principles, applied broadly, also help explain why greenwashing persists. For example, the lack of universal reporting standards continues to leave some gaps, with data-quality issues persisting even as reporting frameworks emerged. More fundamentally, political buy-in for ESG has diminished significantly, particularly in the U.S., where over 150 bills were introduced across multiple states by 2023 to disincentivize firms from adopting ESG. Major financial institutions – including JP Morgan, State Street, BlackRock and PIMCO – have retreated from their earlier climate commitments amid political pressure as well as antitrust concerns.

This trend shows that even well designed accountability measures require durable political support to succeed. After all, corporate sustainability took more than 25 years to develop from an initial framework to mandatory standards, and it still remains a work in progress. AI, by contrast, is advancing exponentially in terms of its reach and societal impact. There may not be 25 years to catch up – but at least there are lessons from the recent past.

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

On May 22, 2026, the Pentagon released a second batch of previously classified photos and videos showing what appear to be unexplained flying objects. These file dumps were the culmination of a process that was set in motion back in July 2023, when a group of government whistleblowers testified before Congress that the U.S. government was secretly in possession of extraterrestrial spacecraft and suspected alien body parts.

That congressional hearing marked the beginning of a cultural shift in which UFO reports are increasingly treated as a matter for serious discussion, both within the government and the scientific community.

But is this newfound legitimacy deserved? As an aerospace scientist who studies aircraft and spacecraft design, I approach this question using math, physics and the principles of engineering. To assess the plausibility of alien visitors, it’s necessary to understand the obstacles that an extraterrestrial vessel would need to overcome to reach Earth.

The Tyranny of Distance

There is no evidence of intelligent alien life in our solar system. So any extraterrestrial visitors would likely have to come from another star system within our Milky Way galaxy.

Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, is located 4.25 light-years (about 25 trillion miles or 40 trillion kilometers) away.

For perspective, if Earth were the size of a pea, the distance to Proxima Centauri would roughly equal the distance between New York and Sydney, Australia.

Since only a fraction of stars are thought to host intelligent life, the nearest alien civilization – if one exists – is surely much farther away than Proxima.

A Need for Speed

Given the scale of interstellar distances, it’s inevitable that any alien voyage to Earth would span many years and possibly several centuries. But as the time spent in transit increases, so does the risk of catastrophic accidents or system malfunctions that could jeopardize the mission. So it’s important to avoid an overly lengthy journey by traveling as fast as possible.

No object can reach or exceed the speed of light (roughly 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers per second). But well before approaching that threshold, engineering constraints begin to assert themselves. Limited fuel availability and the potential for structural damage will restrict the spacecraft’s peak velocity.

There is no universally accepted upper limit on interstellar flight speeds, but studies tend to converge around 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) – 10% of the speed of light – as a realistic cruise velocity. At this speed, a journey of 10 light-years will take approximately 100 years to complete.

Fueling the Dream

Finding a way to accelerate the ship to its target cruise speed is the central challenge facing any would-be alien explorers.

Interstellar space is unforgivingly vast, but the emptiness has some advantages. The lack of atmosphere means there is no aerodynamic drag. So when the ship reaches its cruise speed, it can shut down its propulsion system and coast toward the final destination. Unfortunately, the lack of atmosphere also means there is nothing to slow the ship down prior to arrival. So ideally, the propulsion system would be used for both acceleration at the start of the trip and deceleration at the end.

One of the more exotic propulsion strategies employs high-powered laser beams to push the ship through space. The beam is projected from a stationary array near the travelers’ home planet and directed toward a thin reflective sail attached to the ship. The beam’s photons exert radiation pressure on the sail, propelling the ship forward.

This approach has a major advantage in that it requires no onboard fuel. But the amount of energy and infrastructure needed to operate the laser would be staggering. Also, beamed propulsion provides no mechanism for deceleration. At best, this method could be deployed as part of a hybrid strategy that uses a separate system for deceleration.

A more practical approach is to use rocket propulsion. Rockets generate propulsive force, also known as thrust, by expelling high-velocity exhaust in a rearward stream. By reversing the direction of the exhaust, rockets can also be used to slow the ship down.

Their main disadvantage is that rockets must carry their own fuel in addition to carrying the passengers, the habitat and other life-sustaining systems. The extra load necessitates even more fuel. In other words, you need fuel to transport your fuel. The result is a costly snowball effect that can cause the total fuel requirement to balloon to absurd proportions.

Rocket propulsion can be divided into three broad categories.

Chemical propulsion uses chemical reactions – typically combustion – to extract energy from the bonds between atoms. All human space missions thus far have used chemical propulsion. The problem with this method is that it accesses only a tiny fraction of the energy contained within the fuel.

Consequently, using chemical propulsion on a spacecraft with a cruise velocity of 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) would require more fuel than all the mass in the observable universe.

Antimatter propulsion is theoretically the most efficient option. When antimatter comes into contact with ordinary matter, the two undergo mutual annihilation and 100% of their combined mass is converted into energy. This makes it possible to achieve the same cruise velocity – one-tenth the speed of light – with fuel accounting for less than a quarter of the ship’s total mass. This is science fiction-level fuel efficiency, which makes antimatter an attractive option for interstellar propulsion.

The downside is that antimatter is extremely unstable and difficult to make. To date, particle physicists have produced less than 20 billionths of a gram of antimatter. Moreover, these particles had lifespans lasting only fractions of a second and a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nuclear fusion offers a more viable alternative to antimatter. This approach harvests energy stored inside the nucleus of an atom using the same process that powers the Sun. With current technology, fusion engines remain aspirational, but they could, in theory, produce 10 million times more energy per kilogram than chemical rockets.

Still, a fusion-powered ship with a cruise velocity of 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) would require fuel equivalent to 150 times the mass of the ship itself.

A Delicate Balancing Act

These numbers assume that our extraterrestrial visitors have figured out how to efficiently convert the energy released by their reactor – whether nuclear fusion or antimatter – into thrust.

Just as importantly, they must be able to create optimized fuel tank structures that are ultra lightweight yet highly secure. Designing the structure of the ship, from the fuel tanks to the hull, would be one of the biggest engineering challenges of the entire mission.

Interstellar space contains a sparse smattering of hydrogen atoms and microscopic grains of cosmic dust. At 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s), dust particles would smash into the ship’s hull with the energy of a .22-caliber bullet. The bombardment of hydrogen atoms would produce a violent cascade of radiation that could erode even the most resilient engineering materials.

Surviving the onslaught would require no less than a flying fortress with complex magnetic shielding. This would increase the total mass of the ship, which further drives up the demand for fuel.

This example is just one of the hundreds of delicate design trade-offs that would plague any interstellar vessel. Each individual design requirement acts as a filter, reducing the number of feasible solutions.

Finding a single system that simultaneously satisfies all the requirements is analogous to shopping for a car online. With each new filter you apply – four-wheel drive, black exterior, less than 10,000 miles on the odometer – the number of available options dwindles.

When design requirements are in tension with one another – for example, requiring a structure that is lightweight but also supremely durable – the number of feasible solutions can drop to zero.

No single law of physics prohibits an interstellar voyage to Earth. But the combined effects of hundreds of extreme, often conflicting engineering requirements may render it physically infeasible.

It’s also possible that alien civilizations have discovered novel technologies that outperform anything currently known to humans. But like the examples discussed here, any such technology will inevitably encounter its own engineering hurdles.

The Trillion-Dollar Question

Ultimately, engineering challenges are just some of the many barriers to interstellar travel. Any prospective alien visitors must also have sufficient cognitive ability, technological maturity, physical resources, collective desire and proximity to Earth.

That said, if the stars were to align and an alien vessel made it to Earth intact, it would trigger a torrent of burning questions: Where are they from? What do they want? What are they made of?

But the question that would go furthest in shedding light on the deeper mysteries of the universe is, “How on Earth did they get here?”

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

Did you see the landmarks in the distance that make up the city skyline? Did you drive right past the grocery store you promised to stop by at the corner of this Peachtree Street or that Peachtree Street, a struggle Atlanta locals know well?

“Oops! Force of habit,” you might say to yourself as you miss your turn and begin to think about when and where you can turn around.

Relying on familiarity can either facilitate or impede daily navigation. As a researcher studying memory and navigation, I aim to understand how the brain supports spatial navigation and what happens if the cognitive mechanisms for choosing the best route home begin to decline, such as during stress or with aging.

Humans are creatures of habit – at least that’s what people tell themselves when wary of trying something new. But what if a new route is faster or safer than the one you usually take? Would you try it?

Research from my team suggests that people balance between exploration and habit – that is, trying something new or sticking with the familiar – when deciding what route to take. Which navigation strategy someone chooses depends not only on their spatial abilities but on their network of brain regions that support navigation.

A Spatial Blueprint

Spatial navigation refers to the cognitive ability that helps you travel from one location to another. It may sound simple, but it requires using cognitive functions such as memory, attention, decision-making and assessing potential rewards – never mind the ability to simply perceive the environment itself.

Spatial navigation uses memories of things you consciously experienced. Two types of memory relevant to navigation are what scientists call episodic and semantic.

For example, you might retrieve an episodic memory about a specific event: remembering a detour you took a week ago to drop a package off at the post office, including the traffic and weather that day.

You might also retrieve a semantic memory that’s more factual and knowledge-based: remembering how many blocks away the post office is from the park and the turns you need to make to get there.

Together, these kinds of memory inform your spatial memory, which allows you to retrieve location information. This could be where buildings are in relation to each other or where objects are situated in your house. Spatial memories help form your cognitive map, which is essential for getting around in the world.

Often, these different ways of remembering interact, and you can use one type of memory to inform the other. For example, you’ve become accustomed to your commute to work and know it’s relatively short (semantic memory), but over the past three days you’ve been arriving late due to heavy traffic (episodic memory), so you choose to take a different route next time.

Research from my team has found that disagreements in your brain over possible routes can happen. Different types of memory can come up with different solutions for what route you can take, and this conflict is a big factor in how hard your brain needs to work when navigating an environment.

Responding to New and Familiar Memories

Habits stem from what researchers call stimulus-response memories. These include the knee-jerk reaction you might have to familiar landmarks – when you perceive these places, your brain signals you to make a turn along your commute without needing to consciously think about it.

Habits are rigid, but they can also be beneficial: By taking care of the navigation for you, habit frees up your brain to have a conversation with someone or plan what to make for dinner when you get home.

When navigating less familiar routes or environments, where habit doesn’t kick in automatically, you rely on brain regions such as the hippocampus to call on detailed memories from recent experiences to help guide the way.

But let’s say you’re shopping at a new grocery store where most things are where you expect them to be, even though you’ve never been in this particular store before. What happens when your brain experiences both something new and something familiar about an environment?

Researchers have shown that when something about an environment is familiar and aligns with your prior experiences, the prefrontal regions of your brain – those responsible for executive functions such as decision-making – become more active. They can bypass or even inhibit your hippocampus’s ability to form new memories about specific events.

In other words, your brain can weave information about a new experience into your database of existing knowledge, rather than storing it as completely new information with little relation to the past. This process may help fast-track your understanding about new experiences.

Updating Cognitive Maps

Researchers know that cognitive maps of the environment depend on the hippocampus and its database of memories about specific events. However, I and other researchers argue these maps can also function as a schema – a collection of memories made up of associations between environmental details. You can add new information to these collections and use it to infer new relationships.

Say a new pedestrian bridge is built between the park and the post office. Your brain can more easily weave this new route information into your existing memories compared with learning a new environment from scratch. Similarly, if you just moved to a new town and know very little about the spatial layout, you might rely on your past experiences of towns to infer where something is.

Using neuroimaging techniques as well as virtual reality programs designed to test a participant’s ability to navigate different routes, my team found that there is likely an interdependent relationship between the brain areas that store memories of specific events and areas that store related information across memories when planning to navigate less familiar places.

New routes are more difficult to follow when they differ from your prior experiences. Thus, a stronger schema helps integrate your knowledge of the spatial relationships between locations and landmarks (such as the distance between the post office and the park) with more general knowledge (such as prior route difficulty). This all informs how you choose to navigate.

Navigating Daily Life

These memory principles help explain why inconsistencies with your previous experiences can make it so difficult to navigate many aspects of daily life.

Imagine you woke up tomorrow and the GPS on your smartphone was no longer available. How will you plan your route to get to your destination?

You might be used to navigating north from your home to the grocery store – but have you ever tried to navigate to that grocery story from a different location? It’s much harder!

Factors such as stress, aging and general cognitive decline can affect brain function and human behavior. Imagine how much harder that new route to the grocery store is for an older adult.

Relating new information to your prior experiences may help strengthen your schema and make navigation easier. And understanding what processes the brain needs to go through to solve these navigation problems can help you understand why getting around can be challenging.

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

A new study led by Francesca Storici, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and faculty member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, has uncovered an unexpected feature of human DNA linked to gene activity and the physical organization of DNA. The findings, published in Cell, could change how scientists think about DNA organization, transcription, and genome function. 

Not all earthquake faults behave the same. Some stick and snap, causing earthquakes. Others move slowly over time.

For years, the leading explanation for slow-moving faults has been that high-pressure fluids along the fault lubricate it, allowing the slabs to slide steadily rather than building up stress until that stress is eventually released in a large, destructive earthquake.

But in a new study of the Shumagin Gap, a quiet section of the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone – the area where one tectonic plate dives below another – my colleagues and I found that the fault does not contain enough fluid to explain why it slides slowly. Scientists may need to rethink this assumption about subduction zones around the world.

Pinning down why faults creep matters for how scientists build models of the world’s most powerful earthquake zones to assess long-term earthquake and tsunami hazards, from Alaska to Japan to the Pacific Northwest. Knowing how earthquakes are likely to behave is essential for helping communities decide where and how to build homes and other infrastructure so they can withstand an earthquake and tsunami.

How Earthquakes Happen Along Faults

An earthquake fault is a break in Earth’s outer rock layer where two blocks of rock slide past each other. The way they slide determines what kind of shaking, if any, reaches the surface.

Some faults are “locked.” They do not budge until stress builds to a breaking point, then they release it all at once in a sudden rupture. This is what happens during most damaging earthquakes. Other faults “creep.” They glide past each other steadily, releasing stress gradually.

The biggest and most destructive earthquakes on Earth happen along subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives beneath another. The Alaska-Aleutian margin, the Japan Trench, the subduction zone off Chile and the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia zone are all examples. When a locked patch of a subduction fault suddenly slips, the seafloor can jolt upward and a tsunami can follow.

A Quiet Fault Challenges a Common Assumption

Deep underground, fault behavior is hard to see directly, especially offshore where faults often sit beneath kilometers of seawater and sediment.

Scientists rely on measurements from GPS stations, seismometers and seafloor sensors, and then build computer models of what must be happening below. For decades, the leading explanation for creeping faults has been that high-pressure fluids along the fault reduce friction, the way a film of water causes tires to hydroplane.

Testing that idea requires seeing the fluids, and that’s where our team came in.

We use marine electromagnetic imaging, a method that maps how easily underground materials conduct electricity. A ship tows an instrument close to the seafloor, sending electromagnetic signals into the rocks below, while other instruments on the seabed record the response. Different materials beneath the seafloor conduct electricity differently, and that shows up in the measurements. Because salty water conducts electricity very well, the method is especially good at mapping where fluids are and where they aren’t.

We surveyed a 75-mile (120-kilometer) stretch of seafloor across the Shumagin Gap, a section of the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone that has been creeping for more than a century. The Shumagin Gap had long been considered a quiet part of the margin, even though neighboring segments have produced magnitude 8 and larger earthquakes.

To our surprise, the fault at the Shumagin Gap was not as fluid-rich as the leading explanation would predict.

Our images show that the shallow part of the fault, closest to the ocean, has little open space in the rock for fluid to occupy. And the fluid that is there is under roughly normal pressure, not the high pressure that the “slippery fluid” model predicts.

The fault surface is bumpy and rugged. The upper plate appears to be a patchwork of stronger and weaker material, and we found possible pathways where fluids may drain into the rock above the fault.

In other words, this quiet fault isn’t quiet because it’s well lubricated. Something else is keeping it stable, most likely a combination of rough fault surface, varying rock strength and, in some places, fluid.

What This Means for Assessing Earthquake Risks

Our findings about this fault have consequences for assessing earthquake and tsunami hazards more broadly.

Many models lean on the idea that fluid pressure helps determine whether a subduction fault slips suddenly or creeps. If fluid isn’t the main control keeping the Shumagin Gap quiet, other quiet faults might similarly lack fluid, raising questions about how stable those faults really are.

Understanding these mechanisms matters for assessing coastal communities’ earthquake and tsunami risks. A shallow slip near a trench is what drives the most destructive tsunamis. Tsunamis from Alaska–Aleutian earthquakes have reached distant coasts before. Large earthquakes in 1946, 1957 and 1964 generated tsunamis that damaged the coasts of Hawaii and California.

As our results show, there isn’t a single, simple story explaining slow-sliding faults. More and better offshore data will help scientists more accurately assess earthquake and tsunami hazards around the world and help communities well beyond Alaska prepare.

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

Georgia Tech is hosting the 2026 MFEM (Modular Finite Element Methods) Community Workshop, Sept. 22-25. MFEM supports research in computational physics, earth systems modeling, engineering, energy, and other fields. 

The four-day workshop is being held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center and will focus on improving software for scientific computing and discovery. Participants can also attend online. Registration for the workshop is open through Sept. 11. 

“We're very excited and grateful for the opportunity to have this workshop at Georgia Tech,” said Tzanio Kolev, a computational mathematician at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

“Georgia Tech has a great reputation in our field, and hosting at universities is a great way to connect with students. We see students as our future colleagues who will improve MFEM for generations to come.”

MFEM is an open-source software library for solving equations in computational models. Scientists and engineers use it to build and test virtual designs on some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers before creating real-world prototypes.

In fact, MFEM powered a tsunami early-warning model that ran on El Capitan, the world’s second-fastest supercomputer. The framework completed a simulation in a fraction of a second, 10 billion times faster than conventional algorithms. Kolev was part of the team that won the 2025 Gordon Bell Prize for the project.

MFEM’s impact extends beyond its original developers. The AWS Center for Quantum Computing uses the software as the foundation for a tool called Palace. This project runs 3D electromagnetic simulations to aid in the design of quantum computing hardware.

“These workshops have been very beneficial for both the broader user community and also for MFEM developers,” said Kolev.

“Every workshop, we are surprised by the ways people are building on our work, seeing what incredible, interesting, amazing things they do with it.”

Next month’s workshop at Georgia Tech will connect MFEM users and developers from national laboratories, academia, government, and industry. 

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority joins LLNL and Georgia Tech in sponsoring this year’s workshop. Nearly 20 scientists from Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories are attending in person. They represent LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the Naval Nuclear Laboratory.

The workshop’s first day features a free, hybrid tutorial. LLNL’s High Performance Computing Innovation Center will lead the tutorial, helping new users get started with MFEM and learn what the software can do. The tutorial requires separate registration for virtual participants.

The workshop will also host a simulation and visualization contest. Participants can submit images and videos of simulations using MFEM, which will be posted in a gallery. The workshop organizers will select an overall winner.

Further workshop activities include:

• MFEM news and roadmap for future projects
• Talks from application developers
• Student-user lightning talks
• In-person poster sessions
• Office hours with MFEM experts

The MFEM workshop highlights the role open-source software plays in scientific discovery. 

By making tools freely available, researchers can build on each other’s work rather than starting from scratch. This shared approach can accelerate innovation, improve software, and make advanced computing tools accessible to a wider community.

Georgia Tech hosts a Center for Scientific Software Engineering and an Open-Source Program Office. This year’s workshop connects these units with the MFEM community to help put the software into the hands of more researchers across science and engineering.

“The MFEM workshop aims to foster collaboration among all MFEM users and developers,” said Qi Tang, a workshop organizer and assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering.

“Hosting its annual community workshop brings researchers from DOE laboratories, universities, and industry to campus, giving Georgia Tech faculty and students direct access to experts from the field.”

The milestone was driven by startup activity in CREATE-X and Quadrant-i, two cornerstone initiatives of the Office of Commercialization, and reflects the expanding reach of Tech's innovation ecosystem. The programs support students, faculty, researchers, and alumni in transforming ideas into companies within industries ranging from healthcare and robotics to legal technology and accessibility.

"Crossing the 200 startup teams milestone is more than a record. It's a reflection of a commercialization ecosystem that is helping translate ideas into products and companies that solve real problems," said Raghupathy "Siva" Sivakumar, chief commercialization officer. "Building a dense, connected community of founders is essential to our vision of becoming the nation's leading startup campus and maximizing the value of Georgia Tech innovation."

Diverse Paths to Entrepreneurship

The founders behind this year's milestone represent the many paths entrepreneurs can take at Georgia Tech. They come from different disciplines, pursue various industries, and arrive with a wide range of experiences, but all share a desire to solve meaningful problems.

For alumnus Alberto Flores Guerrero, who earned an M.S. in cybersecurity from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts in 2025, and his longtime friend and co-founder, Luis Estala, that journey to CREATE-X began nearly 2,000 miles from Atlanta.

The pair are building Separate, an AI-powered platform designed to help people navigate divorce by simplifying legal processes, organizing paperwork, and connecting users with resources. Drawing on Flores Guerrero's background as a lawyer, the company aims to make one of life's most stressful experiences more manageable.

When they learned about CREATE-X Startup Launch's kickoff just two weeks before it began, they didn't hesitate. Flying wasn't an option, so they packed the car and drove from Mexico to Atlanta.

Four days later, they arrived at Georgia Tech, convinced the opportunity was worth every mile. Inspired by the kickoff experience, Flores Guerrero soon returned to Mexico, packed his belongings, and moved to Atlanta for the summer.

For both of them, Startup Launch became more than a summer program. It gave them the confidence to build their company as part of a community of founders.

"This experience has completely changed the way we think about ourselves and what's possible for our company," Estala said. "This is the chance of our lives."

"I've learned so much just by being around these people," Flores Guerrero said. "Georgia Tech has some of the smartest students in the world, and then you put the most entrepreneurial of them together in one room. Nice things should happen."

Building a Deep-Tech Startup

For Georgia Tech master's student Rohit Gore in the College of Computing and co-founder Patrick Walsh, entrepreneurship began with one idea. But their startup took shape after they pivoted in a new direction.

As they developed a low-cost drone, they kept encountering the same challenge: Robots that performed well in simulations often struggled in real-world environments. After talking with robotics teams across the country, they launched Brio Robotics, a company developing a simulation and automated testing platform for autonomous systems.

CREATE-X Startup Launch helped the team refine its approach to customer discovery, sales, and commercialization.

"We're engineers by trade, and we don't know anything about B2B sales," Gore said, noting that Startup Launch Director Margaret Weniger “has been hugely helpful. It was so valuable to hear her perspective on what good sales metrics look like, what the goal of a customer call should be, and how to approach those conversations."

Today, Brio Robotics is finalizing its first design partnership with a drone company and has five additional robotics companies in its sales pipeline.

Turning Research Into a Startup

While many startups begin with student entrepreneurs, others emerge directly from Georgia Tech's research labs.

For Yue Chen, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, commercialization meant looking beyond the lab. Working with Ph.D. students Yixuan Xia, Yilin Cai, and Samuel Wilcox, Chen launched Fructus, a startup developing robotic harvesting technology to help growers address labor shortages and improve harvesting quality.

The technology began as a USDA-funded blackberry harvesting project. But through Quadrant-i Startup Launch, conversations with growers and industry stakeholders revealed a greater opportunity in Georgia's blueberry industry, prompting the team to pivot toward a larger market and a more pressing need.

"For faculty, we focus on research and developing fundamental science" Chen said. "But there's a gap between the work we do in the lab and the final product." Startup Launch helped bridge that gap through customer discovery. It “gave us the opportunity to get out of the lab, talk to stakeholders, and understand what they really need."  

For Cai, the experience changed the team's perspective. "As researchers, we usually focus on solving a research problem," he said. "Through Startup Launch, we learned to see the problem from the customer's perspective and think about what it really takes to build a product."

Looking Ahead

More than 150 startups will showcase their ventures at CREATE-X Demo Day on Thursday, Sept. 3, at LOOP, Georgia Tech's newest creative arts and performance venue. The event will bring together students, investors, mentors, industry leaders, and the broader community to meet the founders behind this record-breaking cohort and explore the next generation of Georgia Tech innovation.

"This experience has completely changed the way we think about ourselves and what's possible," Estala said. "If you have an idea, just do it. You never know where it might take you.” 

When Chevron reported its highest quarterly profit in six years on July 31, 2026, it was just one detail in a larger picture: Analyst firm Wood Mackenzie estimates the global oil and gas industry is on course for a cash windfall of US$495 billion in 2026. That’s profit above and beyond what the industry expected before the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began.

Three separate bills seeking to tax those profits are now in Congress, and President Donald Trump has even said the oil companies are “making too much money.”

As an applied microeconomist, I am often asked how taxes affect economic activity. Economists have long held a more nuanced view of windfall taxes than either side of the current debate suggests. Advocates often make overly optimistic revenue projections, and opponents often overstate how much such a tax might discourage investment. A 1980s U.S. windfall-tax experiment is instructive on both counts.

Other Nations Have This Type of Tax

In the U.K., a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas – layered on top of existing levies to produce a combined rate of 78% on profits – is on course to generate an estimated 8 billion pounds in 2026 (about $10.8 billion), roughly double its 2024–25 revenue.

A similar European Union-wide tax imposed as a one-time measure after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine raised 26.15 billion euros ($30 billion). Five EU countries are now calling for a second one in response to the Iran war.

How to Tax a Windfall

Many taxes are deliberately designed to change behavior. But a windfall tax is different: It goes after money that results from a company making the same production decision it was already planning to make before prices rose. The oil was going to be pumped regardless; the war just made each barrel worth more.

A textbook windfall tax would not fall on all profits, but only on the amount exceeding a baseline level. Australia’s Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and Norway’s special petroleum tax are the closest working examples. Under those, companies deduct all costs — including exploration and investment – plus a normal rate of return, before any windfall tax is owed.

In the U.S., the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax, enacted in 1980, was projected to raise $393 billion over its planned 10-year life. It raised about $80 billion before being repealed in 1988 – roughly a fifth of the projection. Prices collapsed after 1986, domestic production was increasingly exempted, and the tax was generating almost nothing by the time it was repealed.

What Congress is Considering

The bills currently in Congress are structured very differently from the textbook design – and from each other.

A proposal by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, both Democrats would levy a 50% excise tax per barrel on the difference between the current average Brent crude price and the 2025 average of $69. With a July 2026 average of $84, a company would owe $7.50 per barrel – regardless of production costs or profitability.

A second bill, the Iran War Oil Crisis Windfall Profits Tax Act by Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California, is more aggressive: a 100% tax on the amount by which crude prices exceed $75 per barrel. At the July 2026 average of $84, companies would owe $9 per barrel. That tax would be in effect only until hostilities end and prices fall below that threshold.

Both are triggered by prices, not by any measure of underlying profit. A third proposal, the Taxing Buybacks from Big Oil Windfalls Act by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden, Chuck Schumer, and Michael Bennet, takes a different approach: raising the excise tax on stock buybacks from 1% to 25% for large oil and gas companies, targeting not the windfall itself but what companies do with it.

Where the Money is Going

The American Petroleum Institute has argued that proposals like these “erode the certainty needed to make investment” decisions. The Tax Foundation has warned that “taxing producers is the opposite of a solution to a supply crisis.” Neither side, however, has put a specific dollar figure on how much investment would actually be deterred.

The data tells a different story. According to Wood Mackenzie, the 49 largest oil and gas companies will pocket about $272 billion of the sector’s windfall – roughly equal to 70% of their combined annual investment budgets. Yet investment spending has barely moved, stock buybacks are on course to fall, and dividends have stayed flat. The cash is simply accumulating on balance sheets.

This is exactly what economic research predicts: When a windfall doesn’t change a firm’s underlying investment opportunities, managers hold the cash and wait. In 2026, the industry is waiting for clarity on how long the war lasts, whether prices have peaked and whether Congress will pass a windfall tax. The argument that such a tax would prevent important economic activity weakens by the day.

What the Current Proposals Would Mean

For oil companies, the direct effect is straightforward: Every dollar paid in tax is a dollar less in earnings. The indirect effect – discouraging investment – is likely weaker than usual because the windfall isn’t being invested now anyway.

For government revenue, the 1980 experience is a cautionary tale: Projections built on current prices tend to overstate what a tax will collect.

For consumers, a tax only on domestic production is largely borne by producers, while a tax that touches imports can raise pump prices.

But the use of the revenue matters too. Both the Whitehouse-Khanna and Sherman bills rebate proceeds directly to households. The Whitehouse-Khanna proposal could give an estimated $216 a year to a single taxpayer at $100-per-barrel oil – helping offset pump prices particularly for lower-income families, who spend a larger share of their budgets on fuel.

Whether the trade-off between taxing companies’ war-driven windfall profits and the risks of market intervention is worth making depends on human values as much as on financial estimates. People differ on how fair it is to let companies keep profits that result from a war, and on the reliability of projections about revenue raised and investment lost. Those are not questions economists alone can settle.

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

The semester may have only just started, but it’s time for a day off. Georgia Tech’s campus will be closed on Monday, Sept. 7, in observance of Labor Day.   

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Angus Wilkinson, associate chair and professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, has been elected chair of Georgia Tech's Faculty Executive Board. 

The effort will be coordinated through Georgia Tech's Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS), which will serve as the hub for the Institute’s NNME activities. Drawing on Georgia Tech’s research expertise, educational programs, industry partnerships, and shared facilities, IMS will help strengthen the state’s role in the nation's growing microelectronics ecosystem.

Georgia Tech is part of NNME South, a regional node led by The University of Texas at Austin. The consortium brings together higher education institutions, industry collaborators, workforce organizations, and economic development agencies across 10 states to align education and training with industry needs, expand workforce development opportunities, and create clearer pathways into semiconductor careers. 

"Microelectronics are in everything from consumer technologies to national security," said Mikkel Thomas, associate director for education and outreach at IMS. "Through NNME, we have an opportunity to work alongside industry and academic partners to help teach the next generation of the semiconductor workforce."

This initiative comes as demand for domestic semiconductor talent continues to grow. NNME South projects that approximately 29,000 semiconductor-related positions will be added across the region over the next decade, increasing the need for skilled technicians, engineers, and advanced manufacturing professionals.

IMS brings expertise in advanced materials and substrate innovation to support workforce needs across the semiconductor ecosystem. As part of this effort, IMS will help align educational programs with industry-defined knowledge, skills, and abilities, creating clearer pathways from technical training and certificate programs to advanced degrees and careers.

Through NNME, IMS and its regional partners will work to modernize curricula, expand hands-on learning opportunities, strengthen workforce partnerships, and increase awareness of careers in microelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing. These efforts aim to equip students, educators, and employers with the resources and pathways needed to support the future growth of the U.S. semiconductor industry.

In time for the fall semester, the ribbon has been cut, and students will soon move into Georgia Tech’s newest traditional residence hall — the Bud and Val Peterson Residence Hall.  

On Monday, Aug. 31, the Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD) began increased enforcement of micromobility violations across campus, reinforcing existing state laws and City of Atlanta ordinances that apply to all micromobility devices. 

The effort builds on GTPD's ongoing micromobility education and safety initiatives and is intended to promote safer riding behaviors and reduce conflicts among riders, motorists, and pedestrians. 

Know the Rules of the Road 

Under Georgia law, micromobility devices are considered vehicles, and riders are expected to follow applicable traffic laws while operating them. This includes obeying traffic signals and posted signs, yielding to pedestrians, and following other rules that apply to vehicles operating on public roadways. More information regarding applicable laws can be found here.  

Riders should also remember that the walkways surrounding Tech Green are designated for pedestrians and ADA mobility devices during peak pedestrian traffic, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cyclists, scooter riders, and other micromobility users should dismount and walk their devices through the area during those times. 

Education Remains Essential 

Along with enforcement, GTPD will offer a Micromobility Diversion Class designed to reinforce safe riding behaviors and educate eligible riders about applicable traffic laws and expectations. 

The rider improvement course focuses on safe driving attitudes and behaviors, rules of the road, and responsible micromobility operation. 

The diversion program will be available to eligible Georgia Tech-affiliated micromobility riders who receive a citation from GTPD. To be eligible, you must have a referral from a GTPD officer. Micromobility users determined to be at fault in a collision are not eligible. Additional circumstances may also affect eligibility, and receiving a micromobility citation does not guarantee admission into the diversion program.  

Safety Is a Shared Responsibility 

GTPD has continued to expand micromobility education as bicycles, scooters, and other devices become increasingly common modes of transportation across campus. Riders are encouraged to wear a helmet; remain alert; avoid distractions; use appropriate lighting at night; and be mindful of pedestrians, vehicles, buses, and other micromobility users. 

Whether traveling across campus for class, work, or another activity, the expectation is simple: Know the rules of the road, ride responsibly, and help keep Georgia Tech safe for everyone. 

For additional information about micromobility rules, safety practices, violations, and educational resources, visit the Georgia Tech Police Department's Micromobility webpage. 

The Georgia Institute of Technology has established the Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership, a new interdisciplinary institute designed to prepare students to navigate the intersection of technology, civic life, and leadership. The naming was recently approved by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents in recognition of a transformative philanthropic commitment from Georgia Tech industrial engineering alumnus Michael E. Tennenbaum and his family. 

Building on initial seed funding from the State of Georgia and shaped by substantial engagement with Georgia Tech stakeholders, and in alignment with the vision of the Board of Regents, the Governor’s office, and the Georgia General Assembly, the institute will serve as a convening hub for students, faculty, and external partners. Tennenbaum's investment will create a permanent endowment to support the institute's long-term operations and strategic initiatives. It will also expand programming, strengthen faculty and student engagement, and help position Georgia Tech as a national leader in addressing societal challenges through innovation. 

“At Georgia Tech, we believe that technological innovation and civic leadership must go hand in hand,” said Ángel Cabrera, president of Georgia Tech. “The Tennenbaum Family Institute will help to ensure that our students grow as productive, open-minded, engaged leaders, ready to work across ideological lines to get the job done. We are grateful to Michael Tennenbaum and his family for making this vision possible.” 

Rooted in Georgia Tech's motto of Progress and Service, the institute will foster open inquiry, civil discourse, and responsible problem-solving through teaching, research, and public engagement. Georgia Tech's strengths in engineering, computing, the liberal arts, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary collaboration position it to address important questions arising from rapid technological change. “Given the complexity of modern social life, the Tennenbaum Family Institute will be essential in building the well-rounded, technical leaders we’ll need in the future,” said Amanda Murdie, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair.

“The institute will support new courses and programming that encourage students to grapple with a wide range of perspectives and prepare them to lead in a world shaped by rapidly advancing technology,” said Aaron Levine, interim executive director of the Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership and interim chair of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy. “We hope this new institute will engage our students and faculty with external partners as they work together to address pressing real-world questions at the intersection of technology and the human condition.” 

Tennenbaum is a distinguished alumnus and business leader whose philanthropy has supported entrepreneurship initiatives, interdisciplinary research, student scholarships, faculty positions, and programs across Georgia Tech. He also played an instrumental role in the growth of CREATE-X, the Institute’s student startup program. In recognition of his achievements, leadership, and service, Georgia Tech awarded an honorary doctorate to Tennenbaum in 2016. 

“The challenges facing society today do not fit neatly within any one discipline,” said Tennenbaum. “Addressing them requires leaders who understand technology, appreciate civic responsibility, and can work across differences to find solutions. My family and I are proud to support Georgia Tech in creating an institute that will encourage the exchange of ideas and will prepare the next generation of thoughtful leaders.”  

Tennenbaum’s commitment is part of Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign for Georgia Tech, helping advance priorities to expand opportunity, accelerate innovation, and strengthen Georgia Tech's impact in Georgia and beyond. 

Now, as Professor Edmond Chow prepares to teach at Georgia Tech-Europe for the 2026-2027 academic year, Professor Polo Chau is stepping into the role of associate chair to help guide the School’s next phase of growth. 

Their leadership transition comes at a time when demand for expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), data science and analytics, and high-performance computing accelerates across industry, government, and academia.

“On behalf of the students, faculty, and staff of CSE, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to Edmond for his years of dedicated service as associate chair,” said School of CSE Regents’ Professor and Chair Haesun Park.

“Polo is a respected leader, an accomplished scholar, and a passionate advocate for our community. I am confident he will build on Edmond’s strong foundation to guide the School's continued success.”

The School of CSE associate chair helps lead faculty development, academic planning, and new initiatives. These responsibilities include course scheduling, teaching assignments, and reviewing proposals for new courses.

Rapid growth defined Chow’s tenure as associate chair, which started in summer 2021. 

As associate chair, Chow led CSE’s faculty recruiting committee. The School hired 15 new professors during his term, doubling the faculty in that span.

Chow’s relationship with new hires didn’t end with recruiting. Each new professor needed support to onboard smoothly, which he helped facilitate by pairing new hires with faculty mentors in the School. 

Chow helped new and veteran faculty alike design courses centered on their expertise and the field's emerging needs. As a result, he broadened and enriched the CSE curriculum at Georgia Tech. 

Chow led CSE’s effort to secure space in the Coda Building to accommodate so many new faculty and students. With his help, the School added the east wing of the 13th floor and space for four labs on the fifth floor.

While at Georgia Tech-Europe, Chow will teach CS 7545: Machine Learning Theory and CS 1371: Computing for Engineers. 

Chow is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Like CSE, the professional society recognized Chow’s leadership and administrative talents, selecting him for several roles.

With his associate chair responsibilities concluded, Chow will focus more on his role as SIAM’s vice president for programs. He also co-chairs the organizing committee for the SIAM Conference on CSE, to be held Feb. 22-26, 2027, in Pittsburgh.

Previously, Chow served as vice chair of the SIAM Activity Group on CSE from 2025 to 2026. He co-chaired the organizing committee for SIAM’s 2022 annual meeting. 

"It has been an honor to serve CSE,” Chow said. “I am also inspired to have worked alongside others, including Haesun, who care so much for the School.”

Since joining Georgia Tech in 2012, Chau has distinguished himself as a leading expert in data science and AI.

Chau’s research combines machine learning and visualization to create scalable, interactive tools. His lab has developed applications for studying massive datasets, interpreting complex AI models, and solving real-world problems in cybersecurity, human-centered AI, graph visualization and mining, and social good.

Chau has taught CSE 4242/6242: Data and Visual Analytics since 2013. The course has grown into the world's largest semester-long university class on the subject. More than 19,600 students have taken the course throughout its history.

Alongside his research and teaching, Chau has held several leadership roles at Georgia Tech.

Since 2014, Chau has served as associate director of Georgia Tech’s M.S. Analytics program. The program celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, when he received the Innovator Award for his leadership and pioneering approaches to analytics education.

In 2019, Chau accepted roles as director of industry relations for the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) and as associate director of corporate relations for the Machine Learning Center (ML@GT). Chau recently stepped down from his leadership positions with IDEaS and ML@GT to accommodate his responsibilities as CSE’s associate chair.

“I enjoy building deep connections with people, and this role provides a lot of opportunities to do that,” Chau said. “Faculty development helps my colleagues build the careers that they want, and collectively shape CSE’s future. That’s what I look forward to the most.”

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will pay $17.1 billion and implement new protections to reduce the harmful effects of social media on young people, settling a lawsuit alleging that the social media giant violated consumer protection laws and targeted teenagers through its addictive features.  

Georgia Tech’s Itamar Kolvin is aiming to solve that problem using molecular motors powered by tiny chemical reactions, giving researchers a new way to guide how fibers assemble into larger structures in the lab. The work could open the door to advances in wound healing, artificial tissues, and organ repair.

Now, Kolvin, an assistant professor in the School of Physics, has been awarded a $747,000 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support this research.

The NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program is a five-year grant designed to help promising researchers establish a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in their field. Known as CAREER awards, the grants are NSF’s most prestigious funding for early-career faculty.

“The CAREER award is a crucial opportunity to push this research forward,” says Kolvin. “NSF plays a critical role in advancing science, and we wouldn’t be able to do our work without their support. I’m incredibly grateful for their commitment to advancing science.”

Microscopic Motorboats

While the body naturally assembles these fibers, their small size makes protein filaments difficult to control in a lab setting. Without guidance, the materials grow randomly, creating weak and disorganized structures. But Kolvin has found that exposing the filaments to controlled fluid flows can help them grow in predictable ways.

That’s where Kolvin’s molecular motors come in. He attaches the motors to rod-shaped particles called microtubules, transforming the otherwise inert particles into microscopic motorboats. Powered by chemical reactions, the microtubules move through the fluid and generate tiny currents. Those currents guide the suspended protein filaments, directing how they align and assemble.

Like sticks in a stream, the current helps the protein filaments align with the flow around them. When millions of filaments interact in this way, they can form bundles, clusters, and large-scale networks. 

“How do these rods align, when do they tangle, and when do they form networks?” Kolvin asks. “I’m interested in learning how we may be able to predict and ultimately control that behavior in order to direct the ways these structures can grow.”

Flexible Filaments

Kolvin’s earlier work has already shown success with actin, the filaments responsible for building muscles. When suspended in fluid, the molecular motors helped actin fibers bundle together and form a membrane-like structure. 

While that work demonstrated that molecular motors could influence assembly, Kolvin now aims to create a more dynamic, tunable system. Actin is limited, he explains, because of its simple rod-like shape, lack of rigidity, and because its bonds become permanent once the fibers bundle together.

He believes the more rigid, helix-shaped flagella in this new work will offer a wider range of opportunities. “The shape and rigidity of flagella expand the variety of patterns they can form,” he explains. “These new structures could have different applications.”

Toward Tunable Materials

Through molecular engineering, the Kolvin Lab creates flagella that are temperature-sensitive, meaning that they can make and unmake bonds at different temperatures. This property might be key in creating a system that could be assembled and disassembled on demand.

“This could make it possible to tune materials in real-time by warming or cooling the system," Kolvin explains.

By combining molecular motors with temperature-sensitive protein fibers, Kolvin aims to create systems that can be predictably shaped, assembled, and disassembled on demand, opening the door to new possibilities for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. 

The work could also help answer long-standing problems in physics about active matter and collective behavior, revealing how flow and shape influence the way millions of microscopic building blocks align, pack, and assemble into complex materials.

“This CAREER award provides an exciting opportunity to pursue new ideas and tackle difficult, far-reaching questions,” Kolvin says. “I’m looking forward to seeing where this research leads in the years ahead.”

On Sept. 3, CREATE-X Demo Day will take place for the first time at LOOP, Georgia Tech’s new creative and cultural hub, where more than 100 startups will give a firsthand look at what Tech founders have spent the summer building and launching. 

Previously known as Velocity Startups, The Venture Arcade serves as a bridge between early-stage startup founders who have participated in Georgia Tech initiatives like CREATE-X, Quadrant-i, and Biolocity and are focused on scaling their businesses and preparing themselves for late-stage accelerators such as the Advanced Technology Development Center, Engage, Fusen, and Atlanta Tech Village. 

Hodgson brings more than two decades of entrepreneurial leadership, capital markets expertise, and global operating experience to the role. As CEO of RoxWrite, she led the development of an industry-leading, AI-powered underwriting, onboarding, and risk-monitoring platform. Hodgson co-founded and led Now Corp from 2010 to 2024, serving as president and CEO of the innovative business-to-business payments company that created NowAccount. Earlier in her career, she co-founded Nourish Inc., served as executive VP of Dunk.net and chief marketing officer and chief operating officer of Dewberry Capital Corporation, and was senior vice president and general manager at iXL, where she built and led the Retail and Consumer Products Practice across 26 global offices serving clients such as The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, and Nike. 

"As a Georgia Tech graduate, serial entrepreneur, and longtime mentor to founders at CREATE-X and Harvard Business School, I've seen what it takes to start and scale a business, and I've seen how much faster and more successful that journey can be with the right resources,” she said. “The Venture Arcade is built to deliver exactly that, with access to Georgia Tech’s unparalleled resources. Bringing capital, capacity, and customers, The Venture Arcade’s flywheel of growth will give Georgia Tech founders and local technology companies, including hard tech and deep tech, an unfair advantage. I'm proud to work with Georgia Tech to bring this program to Atlanta, a city ready to take its place as a top five technology and startup hub in the U.S."

Hodgson is also a nationally recognized thought leader on entrepreneurship and access to capital. She co-authored the award-winning book Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back (2022), published by Portfolio Penguin and now widely used in university entrepreneurship courses. She previously served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School, where she continues to mentor founders and judge venture competitions. She has also served as a mentor in Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X 10x program, coaching high-potential founders as they scale and pursue significant market opportunities.

“Lara possesses the capital formation expertise and business acumen to put The Venture Arcade on the map,” said Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, chief commercialization officer at Georgia Tech and president of Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures. “Her experience building, scaling, and financing companies makes her uniquely suited to shape The Venture Arcade into a meaningful pathway for high-potential startups. Lara truly embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of Georgia Tech, and we are thrilled to have her on the leadership team.” 

A proud Georgia Tech alumna, Hodgson earned her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering with highest honors and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation and serves on multiple corporate and nonprofit boards. Her honors include recognition as a 2019 EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman, a Worthy 100 honoree by Worth magazine, and inclusion in Pathway of Progress, the campus installation celebrating women at Georgia Tech.

About The Venture Arcade

The Venture Arcade is a startup accelerator that propels deep-tech innovation, providing the resources and infrastructure for founders to take their innovations to market. Located in the heart of Tech Square in the historic Biltmore Innovation Center, The Venture Arcade offers mentorship, infrastructure, strategic programming, and funding opportunities. The accelerator is made possible through a partnership with Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures Inc. and the Georgia Tech Foundation. 

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Georgia Tech is excited to host the University of Colorado for the Yellow Jackets’ football season opener at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3, at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. 

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Since becoming the first woman to serve as dean of the College in 2019, Lozier's strategic approach has led to historic growth in enrollment, research activity, philanthropy, and reputational excellence. During her tenure, the College has launched dozens of innovative programs and expanded support and mentoring for more than 3,300 students and 550 faculty across six internationally ranked Schools. 

In fiscal year 2026, the College reached a record $70 million in research expenditures. Undergraduate enrollment is up by more than 60%, with nearly 180,000 undergraduate credit hours taught each year. More than three-quarters of the College's undergraduate students are from Georgia.

“It has been nothing short of an honor and pleasure to serve as dean,” said Lozier. “If my tenure will be remembered as one that fostered an environment where amazingly talented students, faculty, and staff felt supported and encouraged in their work, then I will have accomplished what I set out to do. From year one to year seven, the people in the College of Sciences community have been my top priority.” 

The College has added new minors ranging from astrophysics and quantum science to the science of mental health and well-being. New offerings include bachelor’s degrees in math and computing and environmental science, as well as the interdisciplinary doctoral program in Neuroscience and Neurotechnology. 

Under Lozier’s leadership, the College also achieved reputational highs, with all graduate degrees ranked in the top 10% of their respective U.S. News & World Report program rankings. 

In 2025, Sciences was the first college to surpass its Transforming Tomorrow campaign goal, raising more than $90 million and counting. Philanthropic contributions to the College have created new undergraduate scholarships and set record fellowship and endowment support for graduate students, faculty, and postdoctoral scholars. The College also advanced new initiatives for student support and career education, faculty mentoring and teaching, and alumni engagement, and expanded programming to convene experts in space exploration, health and ecology, and artificial intelligence and brain science. 

Lozier established four new strategic research centers to extend work on critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and spatial processing and navigation. She also led the creation of Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow, a wide-ranging effort to address pressing health and climate challenges across the state, from farms and forests to Georgia’s coastal communities and growing cities. 

“Dean Lozier has set a remarkable example of what it means to lead with purpose, generosity, and deep commitment,” said Raheem Beyah, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “She has left an enduring mark on the College of Sciences and on the many people who have benefited from her guidance, advocacy, and mentorship. She has helped position the College for an exciting future while bringing distinction to Georgia Tech through her leadership and scholarship. We are grateful for all she has given to the Institute, and I look forward to seeing the continued impact of her tenure in the years ahead.” 

Beyond Georgia Tech, Lozier has served in leadership roles in several international scientific organizations, including a recent term as president of the American Geophysical Union, representing more than 62,000 members across 144 countries, and as president of The Oceanography Society. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. 

Recent honors include election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020 and receipt of the Henry Stommel Research Medal in 2022, the highest honor given to an oceanographer by the American Meteorological Society. In 2025, Lozier was named Faculty of the Year by the Georgia Tech Graduate Student Government Association and, earlier this year, received the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award. 

An active researcher and one of the world’s foremost physical oceanographers, Lozier remains the international project lead for the $32 million National Science Foundation-funded Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program observing system, known as OSNAP. 

In planning for new leadership, Beyah has named Mitchell Walker, dean of the College of Engineering, to serve as chair of the search committee. Details about interim leadership and the timing of the search process will be announced soon.

Jie Wu, an engineering graduate student, was studying a type of striking white beetle found in Southeast Asia and attempting to figure out how to mimic its brilliant color when an unexpected discovery upended the experiment.

Jie and Carson Meredith had been hoping to identify naturally occurring whitening pigments that could be used in paper and paints. The beetle’s white exoskeleton is made from a compound called chitin, which is a type of carbohydrate – one that is also commonly found in crab and lobster shells.

Read the full article in The Conversation here: https://bit.ly/4uBteYr

Through a Next Gen STEM (NGS) NASA Aerospace Skilled Technical Workforce Hubs (NAS_Hub) grant award, Georgia Tech will play a central role in addressing a critical labor shortage in the booming aerospace industry and enhance the state’s role as an aerospace industry leader in the global space economy.

Beginning this fall, the three-year, $1.5 million award will establish the Southeast Space Technology & Aerospace Readiness Skills (SE-STARS) Hub. The hub will expand opportunities for training and workforce readiness in high-demand technical careers in aerospace.
The SE-STARS Hub includes the Georgia Space Grant Consortium (GSGC), Georgia Tech’s Space Research Institute (SRI), the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI), the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), Georgia Southern University, Georgia College and Career Academies, Georgia Aerospace & Defense Alliance (GADA), and select Georgia aerospace employers to support the growing aerospace industry and NASA missions.

Aerospace products are Georgia’s No. 1 export and the state has more than 800 companies supporting aviation, manufacturing, research, maintenance, repair, and operations.  Many aerospace and engineering positions rely on skilled technical workers whose training pathways do not require a four-year, or advanced degree. There are significant gaps in technical roles such as machinists, electronics technicians, test operators, and systems integrators. These shortages are driven by an aging workforce and a projected national shortfall of at least one million skilled technical workers by 2030. (National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, 2025). The gap also stems from the rapid pace of technological advancement, where even current skills can quickly become obsolete if not constantly renewed.  All this combines to create an urgent need for training to support new and sustainable aerospace career pathways. 

Stephen Ruffin, interim chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and GSGC director will serve as the principal investigator (PI).  Jud Ready, executive director of SRI; Lori Skillings, GSGC; Hossein Taheri, Georgia Southern University; and Steven Ferguson, GTMI, will serve as co-PIs. Jeffrey McNabb, a research engineer in Georgia Tech’s Aerospace Systems Design Lab (ASDL), will serve as the program manager, leading day-to-day operations and coordinating the project team.

"This initiative strengthens Georgia's position as a leader in aerospace innovation and manufacturing while providing new opportunities for students and industries across the state," said Ruffin.

Coordination between public education systems, industry, and workforce agencies can sometimes be limited. SE-STARS will act as a "hub" to bridge these gaps, connecting Georgia Tech and its specialized research institutes with TCSG’s 22 colleges and 88 campuses to provide statewide access to training.
“Another advantage of the program is the stronger network it creates,” said Ruffin. “Each organization in the SE-STARS team has unique capabilities but together we will strengthen the technical workforce pipeline across Georgia and the broader Southeast.”

The SE-STARS team will collaborate with industry partners to develop curriculum aligned with workforce needs. “The easily ported curricula we develop will be tailored for other institutions to adopt directly, creating a consistent foundation of skills and competencies that employers can universally expect from program graduates across Georgia,” Ready said.

Students will access training through a statewide network of technical colleges serving as regional instructional nodes, which offer flexible online options and hands-on paid apprenticeships to ensure broad geographic reach. 

The program also reaches K-12 and adult learners through career academies and specialized STEM labs, creating a structured, sustainable transition from early education to high-demand aerospace credentials. GTMI will support this work through its Advanced Manufacturing Pathways Program, which connects industry-informed training with pathways into high-demand advanced manufacturing careers.

“Georgia's expanding aerospace and space sectors are creating high-paying jobs and driving economic growth,” said Ruffin. “This program will help develop the skilled workforce needed to support that growth and Georgia’s competitiveness in the space economy.” 

This barren land isn't Mars or Pluto, but volcanic deserts in Iceland. The environment is so comparable to Mars' arid landscape that researchers can use it as an analog. From Earth, they can extrapolate how planets in our galaxy and beyond could sustain life and what tools humans might need to make homes on these planets.

Georgia Tech researchers explore everywhere from Oregon's mountaintops to Arizona's deserts to better understand space — and life on this planet.

Organized by the Georgia Forestry Foundation (GFF) in partnership with the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, Clemson University, and the University of Georgia (UGA) Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, the trip brought together university researchers, foresters, potential carbon credit buyers, and family landowners. 

Georgia is the number one forestry state in the country, with more than 22 million of its roughly 24 million forested acres held in private hands. According to the Southern Group of State Foresters, forests and the forest products industry in the Southern U.S. provide for more than 18% of the world’s pulpwood for paper and paper-related products and 7% of the world’s industrial roundwood. The timber industry also supports thousands of rural livelihoods and sequesters enormous amounts of carbon. Yet today, Georgia forests are under pressure due to natural disasters and market changes. 

The field tour promoted a Georgia-specific carbon exchange that has the potential to save forests, help companies purchase high quality carbon credits, and provide co-benefits for the entire state. 

Pressure Points: Helene’s Wake and Market Headwinds 

Across pine-forested Southeast Georgia, the devastation left by Hurricane Helene remains impossible to miss. A year and a half later, the cleanup – which is slow, expensive, and disheartening – is still ongoing across thousands of acres. Downed timber, too old to be sold for profit, lies in heaps. Throughout the field tour, landowners and foresters shared personal narratives that made it easy to feel the weight of what has been lost. 

Helene only worsened troubles that were already underway. The markets for timber and pulpwood have been weakening. Demand for paper products has fallen sharply, taking pulpwood prices with it. In the last year alone, three mills have closed in Georgia. 

Do I bother to replant? If I plant, will someone actually buy my timber in 20 years? These are the questions landowners across Georgia are wrestling with. Landowners’ decisions today can lead to a future with fewer forested acres, less healthy forests, and forests converted to development – a loss that is permanent. 

The pressing question throughout the field tour was: What happens next? 

Storytelling Matters: The Power of the Personal 

One of the benefits of a field tour is the chance to hear firsthand, personal accounts from the people whose livelihoods depend on forests. 

The tour began in Emanuel County at the Willie Hodges Family Farm Estate. Herbert Hodges welcomed the group to the 600-acre property his family has stewarded for four generations. Hodges shows his respect for the land through thoughtful stewardship – for which he was honored when he was named 2025 Conservationist of the Year by the Georgia Association of Conservation Districts. However, Hodges worries whether the fifth generation will keep the land, and he wants to demonstrate to his heirs that the land is worth holding onto. He remembers his father telling him, “Never get rid of the land. As long as you keep it, you have somewhere to live, somewhere to go.” 

Matt Hestad, senior vice president of GFF, said, “Mr. Hodges has to identify new opportunities for his property not only to keep his family engaged but also to prove the land is economically valuable, both today and into the future.” 

The carbon exchange, if built well, could be exactly that kind of new opportunity. 

Building a Georgia Carbon Exchange 

The initiative to develop a Georgia Carbon Exchange, launched in 2025, is being led collaboratively by the organizers of the field tour. It’s designed to create a voluntary carbon credit marketplace specifically tailored to Georgia’s forest landscape, Georgia’s landowners, and companies that are interested in purchasing high quality carbon credits. 

David Eady, director of industry engagement at the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, described the vision: “We're looking at creating a marketplace for companies doing business in Georgia or headquartered in Georgia, so they can acquire credits that specifically benefit local communities and ecosystems. We want to make sure that we can continue to manage our valuable forest resources that make up well over half of the land in Georgia.”   

“Companies are concerned about sustainability because their customers are – and one of the things that that's manifested is a market for carbon credits,” said Leslie Boby, director of the UGA Southern Regional Extension Forestry. “Being in forestry, we have the original carbon sequestration system: trees. And we have a lot of trees in Georgia.” 

The foundation for the Georgia Carbon Exchange already exists, waiting to be built on. 

All the Players at the Table 

The January tour was a pilot that can be replicated for other groups of potential carbon buyers, policymakers, and stakeholders who need to understand what is at stake in Georgia’s forests before they can meaningfully invest in their future. 

Hestad described what made this first tour valuable: “We need all the players at the table: academics, buyers, and landowners. I feel like we’ve learned from a variety of people about forest management – from a private family landowner about intergenerational challenges, from a recreation-focused landowner about wildlife management, and from landowners who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene. We’ve been provided with context for how a carbon exchange could serve those different sectors of landowners.” 

For industry representatives on the tour, the experience was eye-opening. They joined the tour to learn more about recovery efforts, community support, and the mechanics of a carbon exchange. At the end of the tour, they said they had a clearer sense of both the urgency and the opportunity. 

Clay said, “Landowners are focused on the economics of forestry, and buyers are looking for quality credits. I think there's a lot of opportunity for both of these things to happen.” 

A successful carbon exchange requires trust, understanding, and shared purpose to be cultivated deliberately. Tours like this one are part of that cultivation. 

A Common Goal in Focus 

Georgia has everything it needs to make a carbon exchange work: the forests, the science, the institutions, and the will. What it needs now is exactly what the field tour was designed to build: awareness, connection, and shared commitment among the people and organizations whose decisions will shape the future of the state’s forests. 

Zach Johnson, procurement manager at Beasley Timber Management, LLC, told the group: “With every one green ton of tree growth, you sequester approximately one metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Let’s find a way to certify this wonderful resource we have and prop up these jobs in Georgia – before it’s too late.” 

Maintaining Georgia’s forests is not only about carbon. Well-managed forests filter water, support native wildlife, improve air quality, protect public health, and provide opportunities for outdoor recreation. These are co-benefits that a carbon credit does not fully capture but that are very much part of the value proposition for maintaining Georgia’s private forests. As stated by Yanshu Li, associate professor of forest economics at UGA: “If we take care of our forests, our forests will take care of us.” 

Among the pines of Southeast Georgia, a common goal came into focus. The forests are worth saving. And the right people are coming together with the right plan to make it happen. 

Few neuroscientists would dispute that the brain relies on prediction. From houseflies evading swatters to humans catching baseballs, living things are constantly anticipating what comes next. Understanding how the brain generates those predictions could help explain one of neuroscience's most enduring questions: how the brain builds internal models of the world that allow us to learn, adapt, and anticipate what comes next.

“Without actively predicting the world, we cannot survive,” says Farzaneh Najafi, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences and a faculty affiliate of Georgia Tech's Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society. “There is quite some sensory-motor delay in the processing. We can’t just sit there, wait for the brain to process our environment, and then react.”

Part of the puzzle may lie in signals known as neural ramps. Almost like a drumroll leading up to a big reveal, neurons in some areas of the brain have shown gradual increases in activity immediately before a stimulus appears. For decades, researchers have interpreted this ramping activity as a neural signature of prediction, reflecting anticipation of an upcoming event.

Recently published in Science Advances, a new study from Najafi’s lab reveals these signals may not be “predictions” at all, but instead a way neurons track elapsed time.

“Surprisingly,” says Najafi, “the very first study from my lab called the Predictive Processing Lab showed that no, these are not prediction signals.”

The finding challenges a long-standing interpretation of one of neuroscience's most studied signals and reveals that the search for predictive neurons may lead to different circuits — or require different experiments to uncover. 

As manufacturing systems become more connected, the cyberthreat grows with them. Saman Zonouz has spent years documenting how vulnerable smart manufacturing environments are. He’s an associate professor in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he co-leads the Cyber-Physical Security Lab with Raheem Beyah, Georgia Tech’s provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. 

The answer is yes. Ozdemir demonstrated the technique by taking a piece of paper with a small Waldo-shaped hole cut out and placing it over the page. The demonstration confirms that Waldo is on the page without revealing his location or other details and is a simple example of a concept called a zero-knowledge proof.

In computer science, zero-knowledge proofs allow one person to prove that something is true without revealing the information that makes it true.

These types of problems sit at the center of Ozdemir’s work. As a computer scientist and cryptographer, he studies ways to use mathematics and computer programs to protect information. But his work goes beyond creating new methods for keeping data secret. He is interested in connecting those methods to the computer systems that use them.

“I get excited about what no one else is working on,” he said. “What I’m excited about now is how you relate the security of a computer system to a crypto scheme.”

Two recent papers published at USENIX Security show how Ozdemir is applying this approach to real-world privacy and security problems.

One of these problems is how to handle sensitive information without revealing it.

Imagine two organizations want to combine or analyze information, but neither wants to share its private data with the other. Cryptography can make this possible, but some of these privacy protections can be slow and difficult to use with large amounts of information.

Ozdemir and his collaborators developed a new system called FLOSS (Fast Linear Online Secret-Shared Shuffling) to make one of these tasks much faster.

FLOSS allows two parties to mix a set of private information without either party seeing the original data or learning the final order. This process, known as shuffling, is useful in privacy-preserving applications such as data analysis, anonymous messaging, and private advertising.

In tests, FLOSS shuffled more than one million items in less than half a second, making it more than 800 times faster than previous leading methods.

FLOSS achieves much of this speed by doing some of the hard mathematical work in advance, before the actual data is available. When the data arrives, the system can complete the shuffle quickly, with very little communication between the two computers.

The system is designed to protect against cheating. If one of the parties tries to manipulate the process or access information it shouldn’t, FLOSS can detect the problem and stop the computation.

The researchers also used FLOSS to create a faster way to sort private information. Sorting is a basic computer task but doing it while keeping the information secret can be expensive. Making that process faster could allow privacy-preserving tools to handle much larger amounts of data.

Ozdemir tackled another problem through a project called Orbit: How can computers perform useful work on information that remains encrypted?

Fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE, is a form of encryption that allows computers to perform calculations on protected data without first decrypting it. For example, a hospital could send encrypted medical information to a cloud service for analysis without the service seeing the patients' records.

The challenge is that this type of computing can be extremely slow.

Orbit is a computing tool called a compiler that helps make these encrypted calculations more efficient. A compiler takes computer code and turns it into instructions that a computer can run. Orbit examines an entire computation and identifies more efficient ways to handle some of the most expensive steps in fully homomorphic encryption.

Rather than treating those steps separately, Orbit looks at how they work together and identifies opportunities to reduce the amount of work the computer must do.

In tests, Orbit was between 1.19 and 1.73 times faster than previous leading systems on the workloads studied, including complex tasks such as running artificial intelligence models. The calculations also remained within 0.3% of the accuracy of those performed on unencrypted data.

For Ozdemir, projects like FLOSS and Orbit are part of a broader goal: making advanced cryptography practical enough to use with the computer systems people use every day. 

Now at Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy (SCP), Ozdemir is recruiting Ph.D. students from across the computing stack to work with him. He was drawn to Georgia Tech in part for its multidisciplinary approach to security.

“I also just love being around universities,” he said.

At SCP, Ozdemir plans to continue exploring programmable cryptography across the computing stack, integrating cryptography, compilers, and automated reasoning to address security problems from multiple angles. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford University and bachelor's degree from Harvey Mudd College. 

As part of the existing Georgia Traffic Management Center (TMC), those systems notify drivers of changing highway conditions, operate traffic management devices, and help the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) identify and respond to traffic issues requiring immediate attention.

In December 2025, Georgia Tech cybersecurity researchers began working with GDOT to ensure the security of those networked systems and devices. As part of this advanced cybersecurity project, they are applying machine learning (ML), a type of artificial intelligence (AI), to safeguard existing systems and set the stage for future automation.

Read the full article on the Georgia Tech Research Institute news page

Instead of becoming steadily stickier as they are pulled apart, soft hydrogels first become less adhesive and then more adhesive as the pulling speed increases, revealing a previously unknown "sweet spot" where detachment is easier. The discovery challenges a long-held assumption in adhesion mechanics and reveals a new physical mechanism that governs how soft materials attach and detach.

"We expected the adhesion to increase continuously with pulling speed, as predicted by classical theories," said Yuhang Hu, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. "Instead, we found the exact opposite over a broad range of speeds. That told us there had to be a completely different physical process at work."

Read the full story.

Georgia Tech will play a key role in the newly announced Genesis Mission, a national initiative harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to propel scientific discovery and address challenges in health, energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, and national security. The White House announced the first Genesis Mission projects on July 22 as part of a more than $5 billion investment in AI-enabled science and technology. 

"One of the goals of the program is to give students the time and support needed to make meaningful progress on their dissertation research while helping them understand the broader policy, economic, and societal implications of their work," said Laura Taylor, director of EPIcenter.

The stipends enable participants to focus exclusively on clearly defined research goals. The program also supports peer discussions, communication training, and interdisciplinary learning opportunities designed to strengthen both their research and professional development.

This year's cohort explored topics ranging from electricity markets and air pollution to critical mineral supply chains and grid modernization, highlighting the breadth of energy-related research taking place across Georgia Tech.

Exploring Complex Energy Challenges

Ana Mazmishvili, who studies environmental and energy economics, used the summer to examine how climate policies affect communities across state lines.

"My research measures who is actually exposed to pollution from power plants when some states adopt climate regulations to cut emissions while neighboring regions do not," Mazmishvili said. "Because air doesn't stop at state borders, the key question is what happens once the pollution is emitted, and who ends up breathing it."

Her work focuses on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program in the Northeast, and investigates whether the benefits and burdens of emissions reductions are distributed equitably between regulated and neighboring states.

Mazmishvili said the program provided valuable time to focus on her job-market paper, a central component of her dissertation.

"The regular meetings with the program director and other fellows create useful accountability checkpoints and let me hear perspectives from people in very different fields," she said. "We're also learning how to make academic research understandable to a general audience, a skill I expect to use well past this summer."

Industrial and systems engineering doctoral student Faeze Fahimi Aghda spent the summer developing an optimization model for the U.S. gallium supply chain, a critical component of many advanced technologies.

Her research uses mathematical modeling to examine where and when domestic gallium processing facilities should be established under the threat of supply disruptions.

"Working on my research through EPIcenter has taught me to look at my problem from a policy point of view rather than focusing only on the math," Fahimi Aghda said. "The feedback within the meetings helped me improve my model."

Ryan Anthony, in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, explored how one of the largest oil shocks in U.S. history affected electricity customers and whether utility ownership influenced the impact on consumers.

"So far, my research suggests that it mattered a lot,” Anthony said. “Municipal utilities held rates down and absorbed many of the costs, while private, investor-owned utilities passed more costs through to their customers."

Anthony said the program provided critical support for the archival research required for the project.

"My project depends on data that only exists in old government reports, and that kind of archival work is difficult to fund," he said. "EPIcenter gave me the time and space to do it properly."

Connecting Research to Real-World Impact

For Samin Alipour, the summer provided an opportunity to explore how electric grids can adapt to growing numbers of distributed energy resources.

"Most electric distribution systems were built like one-way roads, carrying power from a substation to homes and businesses," Alipour said. "Rooftop solar, batteries, and electric vehicles are turning those roads into two-way systems."

Her research examines how these emerging technologies can be coordinated to increase grid flexibility and clean energy adoption while maintaining safety and reliability and ensuring that costs and benefits are distributed fairly.

With support from EPIcenter, Alipour focused on the economic and policy dimensions of those challenges. "I did not want my research to remain only a technical model," she said. "The program has helped me connect the technical results of my dissertation to economic value, reliability, equity and compensation policy."

One study developed during the summer was accepted for presentation at a specialized power systems conference, an achievement Alipour credits in part to the opportunity to focus on the broader implications of her work.

Building the Next Generation of Energy Scholars

Beyond advancing individual research projects, the Summer Research Program encourages students to engage with colleagues from different disciplines and develop skills for communicating complex ideas to broader audiences.

“Through regular cohort meetings, participants build a community of accountability, discuss research challenges, explore interdisciplinary energy topics, and develop communication skills,” said Gil Gonzalez, program support coordinator for EPIcenter. “Students also write a research-focused blog post for EPIcenter and present their work at the program's fall workshop, which allows them to share their research with the broader Georgia Tech energy community.”

As EPIcenter continues to support interdisciplinary energy scholarship at Georgia Tech, the Summer Research Program equips future leaders with the tools to address complex energy challenges through technological innovation, informed policy, and economic analysis.

Shreyes N. Melkote, Morris M. Bryan Jr. Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and executive director of the Novelis Innovation Hub at Georgia Tech, has been named interim associate vice president of Corporate Engagement, effective Sept. 1. He will report to Executive Vice President for Research Tim Lieuwen and will lead the Office of Corporate Engagement (OCE) during a national search for the position’s permanent successor. 

Read more »

Join Georgia Tech undergraduate Harrison Burnside on this latest episode of Engineered at Tech as he tours Katherine Graham's lab and discovers how to track pathogens in the Chattahoochee River. The goal is to help local agencies pinpoint sources of pollution in rivers and reservoirs to protect public health. 

Watch the video on the COE News page

As a new semester dawns and thousands of new Yellow Jackets arrive, Week of Welcome is a chance for students new to campus to learn their surroundings, meet new people, and have fun before classes begin.  

Launched in 2025, INNS serves as a hub for neuroscience and neurotechnology research, connecting researchers across disciplines to advance discovery, innovation, and societal impact.

“A core part of INNS's mission is helping people find one another, connect around shared interests, and build something bigger than they could accomplish alone,” says Executive Director Christopher Rozell. “Simon has spent his career bringing together people, perspectives, and disciplines to tackle complex challenges. I can't think of a better person to help lead our interdisciplinary research efforts and support the next generation of collaborative neuroscience research.”

A longtime leader in Georgia Tech's neuroscience community, Sponberg helped shape the institute's early foundations through the Neuro Next Initiative, which evolved into INNS. As associate director, he will help guide research strategy, foster new collaborations, and support interdisciplinary work across the neuroscience ecosystem.

“Neuro-related research touches so many fields that we inevitably have a problem of finding all the potential right people and opportunities to tap into,” he said. “A core responsibility of this role is helping catalyze the ideas of new teams of talented researchers, educators, and trainees from inception to realization.”

Sponberg is the Glen Robinson Professor in Complex Systems with appointments in the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences, where he directs the Agile Systems Lab. His work also connects him to the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) and the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM), underscoring the cross-disciplinary approach that defines both his research and leadership.

Since joining Georgia Tech in 2014, he has built a highly collaborative research program spanning neuroscience, biology, physics, engineering, and robotics while helping foster interdisciplinary connections across campus. He currently leads a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) that brings together neuroscientists and engineers from five universities to understand how brains achieve fast, flexible perception and decision-making in complex sensory environments. He also co-leads the Integrative Movement Sciences Institute, an NSF Biological Integration Institute focused on understanding movement and muscle function across scales.

His contributions have been recognized through numerous honors, including a Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Neuroethology, a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in the Neurosciences, and the Leddy Family Dean’s Faculty Excellence Award.

As associate director, Sponberg will focus on helping researchers identify new opportunities for connection and collaboration. In addition to overseeing seed funding programs, he hopes to create pathways for researchers to build teams, access support resources, pursue ambitious interdisciplinary research ideas, and team with Georgia Tech’s undergraduate and graduate neuroscience degree programs.

“I look forward to being a resource for our community when people are looking for help in building teams or finding opportunities to support their ideas,” he said. “Bring your best ideas and please reach out if you want to talk about ideas in the interdisciplinary neuro space that you want to see realized.”
 

Counterfeit and out-of-spec components are entering U.S. defense supply chains through thousands of small and midsized suppliers that make up the lower tiers of the industrial base. Researchers at the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) say the fix isn't just better parts, but better proof: verified digital records, secured against tampering, that travel with each component from raw material to installation.   

Generating $6.3 billion in economic impact for Georgia’s economy in fiscal year 2025, Georgia Tech surpassed its own record and continues to lead all state public universities, according to a University System of Georgia (USG) study.  

For most floods caused by dam or reservoir breaks, known as outburst floods, current data is nearly impossible to find. By the time researchers can safely reach the site, only the aftermath remains. But in the case of Kakhovka, a newly launched NASA satellite happened to be collecting measurements over the region, providing a unique view of the flood in real time.

Using those observations, Georgia Tech researchers tested how well existing outburst flood models reproduced the actual event. The results revealed a discrepancy: The models consistently underestimated flood conditions. Even improved models struggled to accurately capture both the height and timing of floodwaters.

The findings suggest that commonly used flood simulations may not fully capture the dynamics of large outburst floods. Models need improvement to be effective for hazard assessment and emergency planning.

Putting Models to the Test

Flood models are essential for estimating how deadly and costly outburst floods can be.

“Models allow us to understand which communities could be affected by an outburst flood,” said Karl Lang, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.  “They also help us estimate how long floodwaters will remain on the landscape. In many places, prolonged flooding can be just as devastating as the initial event because it can damage infrastructure, disrupt livelihoods, and contribute to public health risks.”

Until recently, however, scientists didn’t have a way to evaluate how accurate the models were. But when NASA launched its Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, a serendipitous opportunity arose. The satellite passed over the Kakhovka flood zone repeatedly during and after the dam failure, producing detailed daily measurements across the flood plain. SWOT uses two antennas and a technique called interferometry to measure water elevation with approximately 10-centimeter accuracy across rivers, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, and oceans.

“SWOT doesn’t observe every flood that happens, but when it does, it provides exactly the information we’ve needed to understand how floodwaters move across the landscape,” said Tamlin Pavelsky, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Those observations help us improve computer models used to anticipate future flood events.”

Reality Versus Simulation

Researchers compared the satellite observations with models that simulate depth and spread of flooding. They found that models relying on commonly available global data consistently simulated floodwaters that were lower and slower than those SWOT observed.

The team then improved the model inputs by incorporating more realistic estimates of the reservoir and river-bottom topography. Those changes brought model results closer to real-world conditions, but they still failed to accurately reproduce both flood height and flood timing simultaneously.

“It’s really challenging to collect real-world data from these huge floods because they’re so localized, unpredictable, and energetic,” said Karin Lehnigk, a postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study. “Because SWOT gave us a new image every day covering the entire flood path, we could compare the model with real-world conditions across many locations and points in time in ways that previously were only possible in a laboratory.”

The results suggest model limitations extend beyond simply having better maps of reservoir depth or river channels. Instead, they point to broader challenges in how scientists simulate large outburst floods and their movement across complex landscapes.

As aging infrastructure, extreme weather, and other hazards increase flood risks around the world, researchers say better models are essential for helping communities prepare for the floods.

This research was funded by NASA and the Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment at Georgia Tech.

CITATION: Lehnigk, K.E., Pavelsky, T.M., & Lang, K.A. (2026). SWOT satellite observations of the Kakhovka Dam break flood highlight limitations of outburst flood models. Geophysical Research Letters, 53, e2025GL120832. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL120832

The high cost of renting and buying homes in U.S. cities is no secret. But this affordability problem isn’t limited to urban regions – it affects rural areas as well.

Rural areas, home to about 25% of Americans, benefit from federally supported rental housing programs – particularly a U.S. Department of Agriculture program to provide affordable homes for low-income residents.

The USDA’s Section 515 program is the primary way that the U.S. government finances affordable rental homes in rural communities. Since its inception in 1963, the program has supported the construction of over 533,000 apartments, townhouses and other small, multifamily rental homes.

The program offers below-market-rate loans to private and nonprofit developers who build and manage residential housing for low-income residents in small towns and rural counties. The terms of the deal between property owners and the government obliges these landlords to keep rents affordable for their occupants for decades, generally restricting rent to about 30% of tenants’ income.

Last New Loans Were in 2011

People who live in Section 515 housing typically pay around US$325 per month. That’s much less than rural market-rate rents, which typically run $800-$1,100 per month for modest homes.

Because the USDA stopped issuing new Section 515 loans in 2011, this arrangement is phasing out now as existing loans mature.

Loans for about 90% of all remaining Section 515 homes will mature by 2045, according to the Housing Assistance Council, a national nonprofit that supports affordable housing efforts throughout rural America. By 2050, the owners of nearly all properties currently in the program’s portfolio are projected to have paid off their mortgages.

And once most of the owners of these homes exit the Section 515 program, it will have been fully phased out.

An Often-Overlooked Housing Program

As a public policy professor who studies housing, I wanted to understand what happens when Section 515 loans mature. I also was interested in what determines whether properties remain affordable or leave the program after the loans are paid off.

To find out, I worked with three other housing policy researchers on a national study that was peer-reviewed and published in Housing Policy Debate in September 2025.

As of 2024, these loans were still supporting some 400,000 homes on almost 13,000 properties across 87% of all U.S. counties.

The roughly 750,000 Americans in those homes are among the nation’s poorest. The average household income of someone living in Section 515 housing in 2023 was just about $16,000 per year, which was only about one-fifth of the national median household income, which hovered around $76,600 during the same period in inflation-adjusted 2023 dollars.

In addition to having a very low income, more than 60% of the people enrolled in the program are over 62, have disabilities, or fall into both of those categories.

Market-Rate Options After Maturity

The vast majority of these affordable rental homes were built in the 1970s through the 1990s and financed with USDA loans that last between 30 and 50 years.

By 2050, there will be no Section 515 housing left.

The owners of these rental properties no longer have to keep rents affordable once they have paid off their loans. And their owners and tenants may also lose access to a USDA rental assistance program, which helps keep tenants’ housing costs low.

They can refinance the homes or sell the properties. They also can continue to charge affordable rents to occupants or convert those units to market rate. Because of this flexibility, a large share of rural affordable housing units could soon be converted to properties rented at market rates.

What the Data Shows So Far

For this study, our research team analyzed data from nearly 15,000 of the Section 515 properties throughout the country, which have been placed in service since 1963 – including many that are no longer providing rural affordable housing.

We found that the largest factors determining whether a building remains affordable after a Section 515 loan matures are who owns and manages that property. Buildings owned by for-profit companies are far more likely to leave the program than those that belong to nonprofit housing organizations.

Nonprofit-owned buildings, after accounting for building age and local market conditions, are 30% to 40% less likely to convert formerly Section 515 affordable housing into market-rate properties after the owners pay off their loans.

After analyzing this data, we also concluded that buildings run by small property management companies are more likely to leave the program than those managed by larger ones. Properties where the owner manages the homes are also more likely to exit.

Landlords owning more residential properties were also more likely to exit the program. This indicates that larger landlords may be able to afford the renovations and upgrades required to turn their buildings into market-rate housing once restrictions end.

Why Subsidies and Local Markets Matter

Having subsidies through other government programs can help keep affordable housing units from being converted to market-rate housing.

One-third of Section 515 properties also get support from other programs, including Section 8 vouchers and low-income housing tax credits. Those tax credits are another federal incentive that’s provided to developers who build and rehabilitate affordable rental housing while allowing lower rents for low-income tenants.

Those properties are more likely to remain affordable, even years after some of these tax incentives expire.

Local economic conditions can play a role too. In areas with high unemployment rates, large military populations and low housing inventory, properties are also more likely to exit the program.

That means the same rural counties experiencing economic or demographic pressures are often the most likely to have a decline in affordable housing units when owners pay off their Section 515 loans.

Steps That Can Be Taken

Congress and the USDA have taken some steps to slow the loss of affordable housing in rural areas.

For example, the USDA has funded preservation efforts such as the Multifamily Housing Preservation and Revitalization pilot program, which provides grants, loan restructuring and other financing tools to help repair aging Section 515 properties and extend their affordability.

These efforts have helped preserve some buildings and support ownership transfers from private sector landlords to nonprofit housing groups. But they spend only tens of millions of dollars per year and focus mainly on maintaining existing properties rather than building new housing.

Researchers estimate that about $5.6 billion in repairs would be needed to preserve the affordable housing currently tied to the Section 515 program.

Some lawmakers have proposed reforms aimed at doing more than chipping away at the loss of this kind of affordable housing. The bipartisan Rural Housing Service Reform Act, first introduced in 2023 and reintroduced in 2025, would modernize USDA rural housing programs and allow certain rental assistance contracts to continue after mortgages mature. As of early 2026, the bill remains under consideration.

Over the next two decades, most of these landlords will pay off their Section 515 loans. Unless the government reinvigorates the program or replaces it with something else, much of rural America’s affordable rental housing could gradually disappear as owners convert all Section 515 properties to market-rate housing.

Whether rural communities retain affordable housing will depend not only on what the federal government does, but also on the properties’ owners.

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

The U.S. has seen its printed circuit board market share plummet to 4% while becoming dangerously dependent on foreign rare earth processing. Now, with global supply chains fracturing, defense industrial capacity under pressure, and adversaries looking to dominate advanced production, the country is in a race to rebuild — and to rebuild smarter. 

Monitoring these tiny changes results in a wide range of applications — from improving navigation and natural disaster forecasting, to smarter medical imaging and detection of biomarkers of disease, gravitational wave detection, and even better quantum communication for secure data sharing.

Georgia Tech physicists are pioneering new quantum sensing platforms to aid in these efforts. The research team’s latest study, “Sensing Spin Wave Excitations by Spin Defects in Few-Layer Thick Hexagonal Boron Nitride” was published in Science Advances this week. 

The research team includes School of Physics Assistant Professors Chunhui (Rita) Du and Hailong Wang (corresponding authors) alongside fellow Georgia Tech researchers Jingcheng Zhou, Mengqi Huang, Faris Al-matouq, Jiu Chang, Dziga Djugba, and Professor Zhigang Jiang and their collaborators. 

An ultra-sensitive platform

The new research investigates quantum sensing by leveraging color centers — small defects within crystals (Du’s team uses diamonds and other 2D layered materials) that allow light to be absorbed and emitted, which also give the crystal unique electronic properties. 

By embedding these color centers into a material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), the team hoped to create an extremely sensitive quantum sensor — a new resource for developing next-generation, transformative sensing devices. 

For its part, hBN is particularly attractive for quantum sensing and computing because it could contain defects that can be manipulated with light — also known as "optically active spin qubits."

The quantum spin defects in hBN are also very magnetically sensitive, and allow scientists to “see” or “sense” in more detail than other conventional techniques. In addition, the sheet-like structure of hBN is compatible with ultra-sensitive tools like nanodevices, making it a particularly intriguing resource for investigation.

The team’s research has resulted in a critical breakthrough in sensing spin waves, Du says, explaining that “in this study, we were able to detect spin excitations that were simply unattainable in previous studies.” 

Detecting spin waves is a fundamental component of quantum sensing, because these phenomena can travel for long distances, making them an ideal candidate for energy-efficient information control, communication, and processing.

The future of quantum

“For the first time, we experimentally demonstrated two-dimensional van der Waals quantum sensing — using few-layer thick hBN in a real-world environment,” Du explains, underscoring the potential the material holds for precise quantum sensing. “Further research could make it possible to sense electromagnetic features at the atomic scale using color centers in thin layers of hBN.”

Du also emphasizes the collaborative nature of the research, highlighting the diverse skill sets and resources of researchers within Georgia Tech. 

“Within the School of Physics, Professor Zhigang Jiang's research group provided the team with high-quality hBN crystals. Jingcheng Zhou, who is a member of both Professor Hailong Wang’s and my research teams, performed the cutting-edge quantum sensing measurements,” she says. “Many incredible students also helped with this project.”

Du is a leading scientist in the field of quantum sensing — this year, she received a new grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, along with a Sloan Research Fellowship for her pioneering work on developing state-of-the-art quantum sensing techniques for quantum information technology applications. The prestigious Sloan award recognizes researchers whose “creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next-generation of leaders in the fields.” 

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk8495

This work is supported by the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under award No. DMR-2342569, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award No. FA9550-20-1-0319 and its Young Investigator Program under award No. FA9550-21-1-0125, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under grant No. N00014-23-1-2146, NASA-REVEALS SSERVI (CAN No. NNA17BF68A), and NASA-CLEVER SSERVI (CAN No. 80NSSC23M0229).

“Our results point to the possibility of building quantum computers using light by taking advantage of this entanglement,” said Chandra Raman, a professor in the School of Physics. 

Quantum computers have the potential to outperform their conventional counterparts, becoming the fastest programmable machines in existence. Entanglement is the key resource for building these quantum computers. 

Light has always been seen as ideal for quantum computing, but it presents challenges. Photons don’t interact with each other. “If I have two or more photons, it's extremely difficult to make them interact; they fly right by each other,” said postdoctoral researcher Aniruddha Bhattacharya. “The key discovery here is we can entangle photons in a useful, controllable, and deterministic way.” 

The researchers devised a protocol to create entanglement consistently. Their protocol makes use of a mathematical geometric structure known as non-Abelian quantum holonomy, which can entangle photons without requiring quantum measurements. Holonomy can be implemented with on-chip photonic devices, suggesting this protocol could be used to create scalable and integrable photonic quantum computers.

The research’s implications are staggering for the future of quantum computing. Photonic quantum computers work well at room temperature, are portable, and are more easily integrated with existent quantum communication systems and links. Quantum computing is the future of not just computing but innovation, and photons could unlock new frontiers. This research was published in Physical Review Letters.               

What do poetry and physics have in common? If your first answer is “the letter ‘P,’” you’re not alone. Georgia Tech Professor John Lyon, however, traces a much deeper connection between the two disciplines. 

In this brief Q&A, they discuss their research focus, how it connection to IMS’s research priorities, and the national impact of this initiative.

What is your field of expertise?

Jiang and Mourigal are quantum material physicists, specializing in optical magneto-spectroscopy and neutron spectroscopy, respectively. Wang is an engineering expert in quantum optimization and quantum AI/machine learning.

What questions or challenges sparked your current research? 

In 2025, we celebrate 100 years of quantum mechanics. A recurring question in the community is how, after a century of progress, we can fully harness the potential of quantum coherence to achieve quantum supremacy in practical devices. This program aims to address this challenge by demonstrating spectrum-based entanglement witnessing and control in quantum materials, as well as developing novel quantum sensing platforms with unprecedented sensitivity.

Matter and systems refer to the transformational technological and societal systems that arise from the convergence of innovative materials, devices, and processes. Why is your program important to the development of the IMS research strategy? 

IMS has been a strong supporter of campus-wide quantum research, which spans many GT units. Through this program, we aim to integrate existing efforts in quantum materials and quantum engineering to form an interdisciplinary team positioned to address national research needs in quantum information and technology, with a particular focus on quantum sensing. The deep involvement of GTRI quantum scientists provides unparalleled opportunities for real-world applications, aligning closely with the IMS research strategy.

What are the broader global and social benefits of the research you and your team conduct?

This program represents GT’s response to the National Quantum Initiative Act, which aims to accelerate quantum research and development in the United States. The quantum sensing platforms proposed here feature cutting-edge technology that is compact, highly sensitive, and easily integrated with existing classical systems. These platforms hold strong potential for transformative applications across a range of industries, including biomedical imaging in healthcare, navigation in aerospace, oil and mineral exploration, and semiconductor manufacturing. 

What are your plans for engaging a wider Georgia Tech faculty pool with the Institute for Matter and Systems research?

This program builds on an established network of quantum materials and engineering researchers, bringing together faculty from Physics, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and GTRI. We plan to further expand this network by engaging GT scientists and engineers through workshops—such as IMS-organized symposiums—and collaborative team proposals. Our long-term goal is to establish a GT–led quantum center that is nationally competitive and positioned to address critical research needs in quantum information and technology.

To address that challenge, researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have developed an improved cryogenic vacuum chamber that helps reduce some common noise sources by isolating ions from vibrations and shielding them from magnetic field fluctuations. The new chamber also incorporates an improved imaging system and a radio frequency (RF) coil that can be used to drive ion transitions from within the chamber. 
 

“There’s a lot of excitement around quantum computing today, and trapped ions are just one of the research platforms available, each with their own benefits and drawbacks,” explained Darian Hartsell, a GTRI research scientist who leads the project. “We are trying to mitigate multiple sources of noise in this chamber and make other improvements with one robust new design.”
 

The chamber design is described in a paper published January 20, 2026 in the journal Applied Physics Letters. Some of the technical improvements developed for the project are already being applied at GTRI and collaborating organizations. This work was done in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
 

The goal of the vibration isolation is to reduce the laser amplitude and phase noise when addressing the ions, increasing operation fidelity. The goal of the magnetic field noise reduction is to preserve the coherence of qubits for longer periods of time so researchers can use them for more complex algorithms.

See the complete article on the GTRI news site

The approaches of over a dozen quantum computing companies are now being evaluated through the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), a project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the agency, QBI “aims to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation – meaning its computational value exceeds its cost – by the year 2033.”
 

Supporting the effort, a 40-person interdisciplinary research team from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has joined the test and evaluation component of QBI, providing unbiased subject-matter experts to work with 13 other research organizations in evaluating the R&D plans of participating quantum computer companies. Through this collaboration, the GTRI team is working with more than 400 other third-party experts on the project.
 

Read the complete article on the GTRI news site

With a record-setting $5.8 billion economic impact, Georgia Tech led all Georgia public institutions in fiscal year 2024, according to the latest data released by the University System of Georgia (USG).  

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. 

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.  

What started as concern about food waste has grown into a campuswide effort to help food-insecure Georgia Tech students while keeping thousands of meals out of the waste stream. Since launching in 2024, Green Forks has transformed surplus food from catered events into a valuable resource for students in need. 

The Air Quality Index (AQI) measures how clean or polluted the air is. A healthy AQI is between zero and 50, but when wildfire smoke blows in and settles over cities, the AQI can reach levels of 500 or more. Poor air quality changes where and how people spend their time and money, reduces productivity (even for those working indoors), and increases healthcare costs.

“Environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act dramatically improved our air quality over the past 40 years, but as wildfire season becomes the new normal, wildfire smoke is eroding those gains,” Wichman said. According to recent research, wildfire smoke has erased about a quarter of the progress made over previous decades, and more than half in many western states. 

Read Full Story on the IAC News Page