Steven A. Denning Faculty Award for Global Engagement
The Steven A. Denning Award for Global Engagement recognizes a Georgia Tech faculty member who has demonstrated sustained outstanding achievement and commitment to the advancement of the Institute’s global engagement. The award includes a $5,000 stipend. This program is funded through the generous support provided in the establishment of the Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement. It seeks to recognize a tenured or tenure---track faculty member who has made a significant and sustainable impact in one or more of the following areas:
- Promoting the recognition of Georgia Tech in other countries
- Advancing research, education,and economic development engagement at the international level
- Enriching the experiences of international students or scholars
- Incorporating global perspectives in teaching or international components into the curriculum
- Giving of their time and influence to organize and/or promote international events, visitors, or other international exchanges at Georgia Tech
- Creating new ideas, structures, procedures, or products which promise to eliminate international inequalities, to promote global cooperation, or to foster respect for human dignity among nations and peoples of the world.
To Nominate:
Send a statement of advancement of internationalization that includes a description of the nominee’s past and present international involvement. This statement should speak to the nature and quality of the involvement in the global arena and how these efforts have expanded and enriched one or more of the contribution areas above. Include the names and contact information of both the nominee and the nominator. Nominations should not exceed 5 pages, and should include letter(s) of support (not included in page count). Nominations should be submitted by email to the Office of the Vice Provost for International Initiatives: Florence.stoia@provost.gatech.edu
Deadline for nominations: January 27, 2017
]]>The Office of the Vice-Provost for International Initiatives (VPII) seeks to seed-fund exploratory initiatives in global engagement. This program is funded through the generous support provided in the establishment of the Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement, currently held by the Vice Provost for International Initiatives. Goal 4 of the GT strategic plan is to “Expand Our Global Footprint and Influence to Ensure That We Are Graduating Good Global Citizens” with specific strategies to a) Expand the World’s Footprint at Georgia Tech; b) Extend and leverage Georgia Tech’s impact around the world; and c) Embrace and support globally engaged students. Implementation is discussed in the Global Positioning Strategy (GPS) available at http://www.global.gatech.edu/.
The Denning Global Engagement Seed Fund has four goals:
• Support feasibility studies of innovative, transformative research and education ideas in global engagement with significant emphasis on their impact on students;
• Develop new and creative international experiences for students;
• Promote and develop the Institute’s global engagement in new and creative ways;
• Facilitate the development of new and strategic relationships with international partners (e.g. universities, governments, companies, NGOs) in areas that are aligned with Georgia Tech’s strategic plan and lead to a sustainable program in education, economic development, or research, including programs with one or more of the Institute’s Interdisciplinary Research Centers (IRCs).
Single investigators or teams may apply for seed funding in the range of $15,000 for FY1 8. It is expected that 3 projects will be selected. Investigators can be PI on only one proposal. Faculty salary support is not encouraged, but will be considered under exceptional circumstances that are justified. Preference will be given to new initiatives.
A two page request should be submitted with the following information: i) Proposed idea and its potential impact; ii) A specific sustainability plan subsequent to receipt of this funding; iii) Potential significance of the proposed research or educational idea being explored, its relation to current programs and measure of success; iv) Two---page CV of the PI and team members (not included in page count); v) a budget (also not included in page count).
Deadline for requests is March 31, 2017 for an anticipated July 2017 start.
For more information, contact Yves Berthelot: berthelot@gatech.edu
Proposals should be submitted by email to florence.stoia@provost.gatech.edu
]]>Now a team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Notre Dame has created a new computing system that aims to tackle one of computing’s hardest problems in a fraction of the time.
“We wanted to find a way to solve a problem without using the normal binary representations that have been the backbone of computing for decades,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Their new system employs a network of electronic oscillators to solve graph coloring tasks – a type of problem that tends to choke modern computers.
Details of the study were published April 19 in the journal Scientific Reports. The research was conducted with support from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Center for Low Energy Systems Technology.
“Applications today are demanding faster and faster computers to help solve challenges like resource allocation, machine learning and protein structure analysis – problems which at their core are closely related to graph coloring,” Raychowdhury said. “But for the most part, we’ve reached the limitations of modern digital computer processors. Some of these problems that are so computationally difficult to perform, it could take a computer several weeks to solve.”
A graph coloring problem starts with a graph – a visual representation of a set of objects connected in some way. To solve the problem, each object must be assigned a color, but two objects directly connected cannot share the same color. Typically, the goal is to color all objects in the graph using the smallest number of different colors.
In designing a system different from traditional transistor-based computing, the researchers took their cues from the human brain, where processing is handled collectively, such as a neural oscillatory network, rather than with a central processor.
“It’s the notion that there is tremendous power in collective computing,” said Suman Datta, Chang Family professor in Notre Dame’s College of Engineering and one of the study’s co-authors. “In natural forms of computing, dynamical systems with complex interdependencies evolve rapidly and solve complex sets of equations in a massively parallel fashion.”
The electronic oscillators, fabricated from vanadium dioxide, were found to have a natural ability that could be harnessed for graph coloring problems. When a group of oscillators were electrically connected via capacitive links, they automatically synchronized to the same frequency – oscillating at the same rate. Meanwhile, oscillators directly connected to one another would operate at different phases within the same frequency, and oscillators in the same group but not directly connected would sync in both frequency and phase.
“If you suppose that each phase represents a different color, this system was essentially mimicking naturally the solution to a graph coloring problem,” said Raychowdhury, who is also the ON Semiconductor Junior Professor at Georgia Tech.
The researchers were able to create a small network of oscillators to solve graph coloring problems with the same number of objects, which are also referred to as nodes or vertices. But even more significant, the new system theoretically proved that a connection existed between graph coloring and the natural dynamics of coupled oscillatory systems.
“This is a critical step because we can prove why this is happening and that it covers all possible instances of graphs,” Raychowdhury said. “This opens up a new way of performative computation and constructing novel computational models. This is novel in that it’s a physics-based computing approach, but it also presents tantalizing opportunities for building other customized analog systems for solving hard problems efficiently.”
That could be valuable to a range of companies looking for computers to help optimize their resources, such as a power utility wanting to maximize efficiency and usage of a vast electrical grid under certain constraints.
"This work provides one of the first constructive ways to build continuous time dynamical system solvers for a combinatorial optimization problem with a working demonstration using compact scalable post-CMOS devices," said Abhinav Parihar, a Georgia Tech student who worked on the project.
The next step would be building a larger network of oscillators that could handle graph coloring problems with more objects at play.
“Our goal is to reach a system with hundreds of oscillators, which would put us in striking distance of developing a computing substrate that could solve graph coloring problems whose optimal solutions are not yet known to mankind,” Datta said.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1640081, the Semiconductor Research Corporation under research task Nos. 2698.001 and 2698.002, and the Office of Naval Research under award No. N00014-11-1-0665. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of those agencies.
CITATION: Abhinav Parihar, Nikhil Shukla, Matthew Jerry, Suman Datta and Arijit Raychowdhury, “Vertex coloring of graphs via phase dynamics of coupled oscillatory networks,” (Scientific Reports, April 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00825-1
]]>Research News
]]>But few people have the time or money to take a class. Williams wanted to find a way to bring the training to more people.
He teamed up with two friends, and together the three Georgia Tech students invented a device that walks a person through all the steps to perform CPR.
“You can pick up the device, turn it on and immediately begin the latest standard of care,” said Williams, a computer engineering major.
The device, called CPR+, is a CPR mask with LED lights that offers user feedback throughout the resuscitation process. Turn it on and a voice tells you to call 911. Then it directs you to put the mask around someone’s face. It instructs you how to attach its sensor that automatically measures heartrate. Then, if needed, it directs you to deliver rescue breaths. If you do it right, the lights turn green. Do it wrong and the lights turn red. Next, it will tell you to begin chest compressions and will count along at the correct pace.
The invention is one of six competing for Georgia Tech’s 2017 InVenture Prize. The annual contest encourages and supports interest in innovation and entrepreneurship by rewarding students with cash prizes for inventions that have the potential to solve the world’s problems. The finale takes place Wednesday night at the Ferst Center for the Arts.
While there are apps that can walk someone through the CPR steps, they are unable to measure a victim’s heart rate and breath rate, said Dave Ehrlich, a computer engineering major from Portland, Ore.
CPR+ makes it possible for “anyone, anywhere at any time to perform life-saving techniques,” Ehrlich said. “This device doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
The team built much of the device in the GVU Prototyping Lab. They are currently on the third iteration of CPR+ and may finish a fourth before the finale.
They’re used to working together and with others on team projects through their classes at Georgia Tech, said Samuel Clarke, a mechanical engineering and computer science major from Indianapolis.
“We’ve had to put the best of what we’ve learned into play,” Clarke said. “There are times when it was hard and I didn’t think we’d get it done, but we had to rise above the pressure and put it all together.”
]]>The second-place team earns $10,000.
Both first- and second-place finishers will receive free U.S. patent filings by Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing.
A $5,000 People’s Choice Award will go to the fans’ favorite invention. Voting will be held online and by text messaging during the finale.
]]>Media Relations
404-894-6016
@LauraRDiamond
]]>The competition is sponsored by Atlanta-based Worldpay US — the global payments technology and services company and creator of ATDC’s FinTech Program — and Columbus, Georgia-based TSYS — a leading global payment solutions provider. (REGISTER HERE)
Participating teams will compete for cash, gadgets, and professional-services prizes valued at approximately $100,000. The grand prize winning team will receive a prize package valued at approximately $79,000, which includes $12,000 cash.
A program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, ATDC is the state’s technology incubator. This year’s theme centers on the Internet of Things, specifically, wearable financial technology (FinTech). The competition is designed to bring together entrepreneurs, developers, designers, and innovators who thrive on tackling challenges, solving problems, and working in teams to create the next big disruptive FinTech idea.
“Georgia is the nation’s payments processing capital, and we have a deep pool of talented people who have innovative ideas,” said Michelangelo Ho, ATDC’s FinTech catalyst and head of the incubator’s FinTech Program. “Bringing them together in this competition and in partnership with two FinTech industry leaders, Worldpay US and TSYS, will create an environment for some truly dynamic ideation and potentially innovative startups.”
The competition, which will be held at the Centergy building in Atlanta Technology Square, is an extension of ATDC’s FinTech Program, which was launched in 2015 via a $1 million gift and executive mentorship from Worldpay US to Georgia Tech. The idea behind the initiative is to foster high-tech innovation and to attract and retain talent in Georgia and its “Transaction Alley,” which processes more than 70 percent of all U.S. payment transactions.
“Enabling payments disruptors to disrupt has always been at the core of our values as a business and the ATDC FinTech Program, and the hackathon is a unique opportunity for developers to experience firsthand the breadth, depth, and simplicity of our single integration technology,” said Worldpay US Vice President of Innovation and Design Joe Kleinwaechter. “Worldpay could not be more excited to return to the FinTech Hack as a sponsor, and we’re sure the Internet of Things solutions this year’s competitors create will be boldly breakthrough.”
The team winning the grand prize will receive the critical post-hack engagement, mentoring, and support from the ATDC, Worldpay US, TSYS and others to create, build, and launch viable startup companies.
Participants will decide which ideas to tackle using sponsors’ APIs. They can work on their own projects or work on challenges presented to them by the hackathon sponsors.
“We're thrilled to support the ATDC as a sponsor of the FinTech Hack. We believe our platform will align perfectly with the kind of unique thinking and innovation we’ll see over the course of the weekend,” said Scott Carter, TSYS’ group executive of Digital Innovation. “At TSYS, we put people at the center of payments and look forward to connecting with like-minded industry peers.”
ATDC will post updates and more information in the coming weeks on atdc.org, Facebook, and Twitter, but here are some key dates to remember:
About ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is one of the longest running and largest university-based startup incubators in the country. Founded in 1980, ATDC has graduated more than 160 companies from its ATDC Signature program. To date, those companies have attracted roughly $2 billion in investments. The ATDC Financial Technology (FinTech) Program powered by Worldpay US was established in 2015 to attract and accelerate entrepreneurs and startups in that sector from across the state. ATDC, which also has programs in Savannah, Athens, and Augusta, is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, the chief economic development arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. For additional information about ATDC and the ATDC FinTech Program, visit atdc.org.
About Worldpay
Worldpay is a leading payments company with global reach. It provides an extensive range of technology-led payment products and services to more than 400,000 customers, enabling their businesses to grow and prosper. The company manages the increasing complexity of the payments landscape for its customers, allowing them to accept the widest range of payment types around the world. Using Worldpay’s network and technology, the company processes payments from geographies that cover 99 percent of global GDP, across 146 countries and 126 currencies. It helps its customers to accept more than 300 different payment types. For more information, visit worldpay.com.
About TSYS
TSYS unlocks opportunities in payments for payment providers, businesses, and consumers. Headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, the company operates in more than 80 countries with local offices across the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. The company provides seamless, secure, and innovative solutions across the payments spectrum — from issuer processing and merchant acquiring to prepaid program management — delivered through partnership and expertise. For more, visit us at tsys.com.
]]>Laura Diamond
404.894.6016
For information about ATDC FinTech, contact:
Michelangelo Ho
404.894.3575
]]>That can be a nagging question in some medical decisions, where side effects are possible. But researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have figured out a way to keep what helps, while blocking what harms, in a type of therapy to fight serious chronic inflammatory diseases.
It’s simple and works a little like a pacemaker: An implanted device electrically stimulates the vagus nerve, but, in addition, inhibits unwanted nerve activity in a targeted manner.
Forms of vagus nerve stimulation treatment against chronic inflammation have already been successfully tested in humans by private industry with the intent to make them available to patients. But the innovation by Georgia Tech researchers of adding an inhibiting signal could increase the clinical efficacy and therapeutic benefit of existing treatments.
“We use an electrode with a kilohertz frequency that blocks unwanted nerve conduction in addition to the electrode that stimulates nerve activity,” said principal investigator Robert Butera, a professor jointly appointed in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “We’ve arranged the two near each other, so the blocking electrode forces the stimulation from the stimulating electrode to only go in one direction.”
The researchers’ innovation could theoretically by implemented relatively quickly by augmenting existing clinical devices. So far, tests in rats have returned very encouraging results, and they have been achieved without taking more drastic measures notable in other experiments to optimize this kind of treatment – such as a vagotomy, the cutting of part of the vagus.
“The original studies in animals on the anti-inflammatory benefits of vagus nerve stimulation resorted to nerve transections to achieve directional stimulation as well as boost effectiveness of nerve stimulation. But cutting the vagus is not clinically viable, due to the multitude of vital bodily functions it monitors and regulates. Our approach provides the same therapeutic benefit, but is also immediately reversible, controllable, and clinically feasible,” said lead researcher Yogi Patel, a bioengineering graduate student.
“We call it a virtual vagotomy,” Butera said.
Patel, Butera and former Georgia Tech researchers Tarun Saxena and Ravi V. Bellamkonda, published the results of their study in the journal Scientific Reports, which is published by Nature Publishing Group, on Thursday, January 5, 2017. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Ian’s Friends Foundation.
To understand how this new bioelectronic fine-tuning works, let’s start with the vagus nerve itself.
It lies outside the spinal column and runs in two parts down the front of your neck on either side. It’s easy to forget about because, though it does help you feel some limited sensations like pain and heat from a handful of internal organs, those sensations are not as blatant and common as when you reach out and touch something with your hand.
Your voluntary, or somatic, nervous system is responsible for the reaching, touching, and feeling, and the vagus nerve belongs to your involuntary nervous system – actually called the autonomic nervous system. Though you may experience the effects less consciously, you couldn’t survive without a vagus.
“The vagus nerve conveys an incredible amount of information related to the state and function of the visceral organs – your digestive tract, your heart, your lungs, information about the nutrients you eat – anything required for homeostasis (physiological balance),” Patel said.
The vagus nerve is the lifeline between the vital function control centers of your brain and your visceral organs, passing messages constantly between your hypothalamus and organs to control things like pulse and respiration, certain secretions, and the limiting of immune response.
That last one is where inflammation comes in, because it's part of the body's natural immune response. But when the immune system becomes hyperactive, it can attack not just pathogens but also uninfected tissue, as with patients suffering from diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn’s disease. Drug-based therapies often fail to significantly benefit them.
The two parts of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system -- the sympathetic and the parasympathetic -- strongly influence your immune system. The vagus nerve belongs to the parasympathetic.
“It’s like a seesaw system. Your sympathetic nervous system helps kick the immune system on, and the parasympathetic nervous system tempers it,” Patel said.
Stimulating the vagus nerve supports that tempering effect, but it can also somewhat excite the part of the nervous system that stimulates the immune response, which is counterproductive if you're looking to calm it.
“Every circuit has a path coming from the brain and one going to the brain, and when you stimulate electrically, you usually have no control over which one you get. You usually get both.” Patel said. These paths are often in the same nerve being stimulated.
The path leaving the brain and going toward other organs, called the efferent pathway, is the one to stimulate to temper the immune system and help relieve chronic inflammatory conditions. The one going to the brain, called the afferent pathway, if stimulated, leads eventually to the hypothalamus, a pea-sized region in the center of the brain. That triggers a chain of hormonal responses, eventually releasing cytokines, messaging molecules that promote inflammation.
“You get a heightened inflammatory response when you stimulate the afferent pathways, which are actively conveying information about your internal state and trigger the immune system when necessary,” Patel said. “And if a patient is already in a hyperactive immune state, you don’t want to push that even more."
Stimulating downward (efferent), while blocking upward (afferent) vagus nerve activity keeps the good effect while preventing possible bad effects. In animals that received this treatment, blood tests showed that inflammation markedly decreased. Most importantly, this treatment can be turned on or off, and be tuned to the needs of each patient.
No additional authors were involved in the study, which was performed at Georgia Tech. Two of the authors, Saxena and Bellamkonda, are now at Duke University. Research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant 2R01EB016407) and Ian’s Friends Foundation. All findings, conclusions, and opinions are those of the authors and do not represent views of the funding agencies.
]]>404-660-1408
ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu
]]>For many teams, the projects were all about making people’s lives easier. From a 2-D wearable sensor that makes it simple for runners to access their smartphone, to an app that provides a more transparent automotive service experience to car owners, student teams focused their energy on creating projects tailored to the customer. Two separate teams focused on the fan at the Mercedes-Benz and Braves stadiums in Atlanta, ensuring that game watchers could access food and beverages as efficiently as possible to enhance their game day experience. Another team helped customers coming into Home Depot find the exact screw they are looking for with a device that analyzes the screw type, removing shopping frustrations.
Other teams focused on enhancing the customer experience. Luxury car brands manufactured by GM had one team designing driver’s seats with sensors to increase the safety and comfort of commuters, ultimately delivering a higher quality driving experience. Mechanical engineering team members Doug Learnard and Golda Nguyen agreed that offering a novel car experience to drivers is a value add for customers when considering their buying options, and a tailored, personalized seat offers a better commute.
At the end of the night there was a surprise in store for all competitors. For the first time in Capstone’s 10 year history, there was a tie for the overall winner. “Bacon and Eggs” and “Team 16 Emory Risk” shared the spotlight and $3,000 cash prize. Both teams were from ISyE.
“Bacon and Eggs” focused on system improvements for Waffle House to help the chain uphold their commitment to 24/7/365 quality customer service. The team optimized four areas for the restaurant, including restructuring the maintenance van inventory model, modifying geographic assignment of maintenance technicians, reprioritizing preventative maintenance procedures, and recommending a centralized maintenance management platform.
“Waffle house is one of those places where every time you go there, you can tell how much they care about their customers, and it’s really been an honor to help them out with that,” said Christopher Bush, ISyE. “All in all, winning feels like an absolutely amazing experience. Everyone talks about how hard it is for industrial teams to win Capstone, and we set out to defy that.”
For “Team 16 Emory Risk,” students focused on enabling doctors at Emory to provide better healthcare, upholding Emory’s value equation which is “Quality Over Cost.” The team combined Emory’s medical and financial data to provide physicians a way to better allocate their resources and inputs, such as medications and beds for patients.
“Our team is so excited to win, we are really honored to have worked with Emory Healthcare, which is an awesome client,” said Sarah Both, ISyE. “In fact, we had our final handoff meeting with Emory today, and they are incredibly excited and looking forward to implementing our work into their system to preserve resources and provide a better experience to patients.”
Many student teams are poised to take their projects even further after Capstone, either applying for a patent or joining the CREATE-X program to take their business idea to market. And those focusing on the consumer have a distinct advantage in today’s business world that offers high reward to companies who invest in the customer experience.
2017 Fall Capstone Design Expo Winners
Overall winner – Tie
Bacon and Eggs - Waffle House maintenance handling system improvements
Team 16 Emory Risk - Emory Healthcare Risk Modeling and Patient Quality Metrics
Alice Jinks, ISyE, Columbus, GA
Aerospace Engineering
Ostrow Air - Commuter Aircraft/Air-taxi Aircraft 2030
Biomedical Engineering
Liv'R Little - Laparoscopic Liver Maneuvering Device
Civil & Environmental Engineering
J2AD Engineering - Bridge Replacement - Lee St Over Heart of Georgia Railroad
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Brighter SoluSuns - Intelligent Triport
Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering
Rampion - Dance Ramp Assembly Optimization Project
Industrial & Systems Engineering
12 Textron Quality - Textron Quality
Mechanical Engineering
Blankity Blank - Material Handling Revolution
Interdisciplinary
Miracle on Techwood - Lockblox
For more images visit the Flickr site.
]]>Over the past year, the Center for Advanced Electronics through Machine Learning (CAEML) has gained four new partners. The team of 13 industry members and three universities has expanded both the breadth and depth of its work. CAEML is funded in part by a National Science Foundation program. In the past, CAEML focused on signal integrity and power integrity, but this year, the team has diversified its portfolio with system analysis, chip layout and trusted platform design.
“One of the challenges we face is getting access to data from companies,” said Professor Madhavan Swaminathan, the John Pippin Chair in Microsystems Packaging & Electromagnetics and Director of Center for Co-Design of Chip, Package, System (C3PS) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a CAEML host. “Most of their data is proprietary, so we’ve come up with several mechanisms to handle it. The processes are working fairly well, but they are more lengthy than we’d like.”
Previously, the group had a sort of coming-out party. It started with backing from nine vendors including Analog Devices, Cadence, Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Xilinx. Its initial interest areas included high-speed interconnects, power delivery, system-level electrostatic discharge, IP core reuse, and design rule checking.
After this year, it is clear that the EDA industry is entering its second phase in its use of AI (moving past high-speed interconnects, power delivery etc. and into the realm of machine learning), which the next phase of product development in optimizations that speed turnaround time. Often hindered by current algorithmic limitations.
Researchers are exploring opportunities to replace today’s simulators with AI models (faster) after a reported 40 MHz increase in speed last year. "Relatively slow simulators can lead to timing errors, mistuned analog circuits, and insufficient modeling that results in chip re-spins, said Swaminathan. In addition, machine learning can replace IBIS for behavioral modeling in high-speed interconnects."
Chip researchers are currently combatting the issue with research in data mining, surrogate models, statistical learning, and neural networking models (used by Amazon, Google etc).
“The amount of training data required is high,” said Christopher Cheng of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, another member of the CAEML team. “Classifiers are static, but we want to add the dimension of time using recurrent neural networks to enable time-to-failure labels. We want to extend this work to more parameters and general system failures in the future.”
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332917
]]>Their device, FireHUD, received an NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $224,143 to conduct research and development work on a biometric Internet of Things system for first responders.
Zack Braun, who graduated in December with a degree in computer engineering, and Tyler Sisk, a fellow December graduate with a degree in electrical engineering, invented FireHUD. The real-time wearable system and heads up display provides biometric and environmental data to firefighters on the job and officials on site. The device measures heart rate, body temperature and external temperatures that can help predict fatigue and prevent injuries.
FireHUD won the 2016 InVenture Prize, an annual Georgia Tech innovation competition for undergraduate students. Braun and Sisk also participated in CREATE-X, a series of initiatives to enhance and support entrepreneurship programs among Tech students.
Another Georgia Tech graduate, Joseph Boettcher, also joined the company. All three are working on the device full-time.
The NSF grant will fund the company for a full year, said Braun, FireHUD CEO. Next month they plan to launch pilot studies with local fire departments and hope to deploy about 25 units.
Braun said the company has three main goals to accomplish with the NSF award, including the research and development of a rugged wearable system that will monitor the physiology of firefighters in real-time and the development of a machine learning algorithm to identify key markers that will indicate the exertion and stamina levels of first responders in chaotic environments. They will also work to develop a long-range radio system capable of transmission within large urban structures.
]]>404-660-2927
]]>Professors Timothy Lieuwen and Jianjun (Jan) Shi are two of this year’s 83 new NAE members. They’re joined by adjunct faculty member and former College of Engineering Dean Gary S. May. The group will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in September.
“We are delighted that the National Academy of Engineering has recognized our Georgia Tech faculty members for their outstanding contributions to engineering and as leaders in their fields,” said Steve McLaughlin, dean and Southern Company Chair in the College of Engineering. “We also take great pride that our former dean and Tech alumnus, Gary May, has been recognized, not only for his research, but also for his advocacy in bringing more underrepresented students into engineering. Their induction is a testament to the quality of our faculty members and their contributions to the engineering profession."
Lieuwen is the executive director of Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute and professor and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair in the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. He was honored for “contributions to research and development in low-emissions gas turbine combustion systems and U.S. energy policy.”
Shi was recognized for “the development of data fusion-based quality methods and their implementation in multistage manufacturing systems.” He serves as Carolyn J. Stewart Chair and professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
May was elected for “contributions to semiconductor manufacturing research and for innovations in educational programs for underrepresented groups in engineering.” The 1985 alumnus (electrical engineering) is currently chancellor of the University of California Davis and an adjunct faculty member in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature.” The NAE also makes selections based on "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."
The trio joins nearly three dozen other Georgia Tech NAE members. They include Provost and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair Rafael L. Bras, President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough and College of Computing Dean and John P. Imlay Chair Zvi Galil.
With billions of connected devices, and several more billions to come in the next few years, the opportunities are endless. With such a dramatic growth, the devices need to be low-cost, preferably self-powered, low power-consuming, wirelessly connectible, reliable, mass producible, customizable, easily accessible and usable, lightweight, and also be able to conform to the surface of the object to which they are attached. This conformality then drives the need for flexible electronics, changing the world of electronics from one of being flat and stiff to one which is bendable and stretchable. This paradigm shift in electronics, driven by the shape of things-to come drives the need for Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE).
With these grand challenges in mind, Prof. Suresh Sitaraman from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN) , Georgia Tech hosted, in conjunction with NextFlex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a workshop that focused on expert presentations of state-of-the-art, along with the defining a technical roadmap targeting on the power aspects of FHE device, called “Powering the Internet of Everything”.
The workshop, attended by nearly 90 Government, Industry, and Academic experts was held in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building on November 6 – 8, 2017. The three-day event included invited talks, roadmapping, a student technical poster session, and guided tours of principal research and shared user laboratories where FHE related research, micro/nano fabrication and microanalysis occur on the GT campus. Labs visited included mechanical and electrical testing, modeling and characterization; additive and 3D printing; device packaging; soft robotics and exoskeleton; organic photonics and electronics; and the IEN micro/nano fabrication and microscopy laboratories, to name a few. Workshop attendees were able to get up a close up view to the interesting FHE projects in which students and faculty are engaged. At each stop in the tour students demonstrated their work and answered questions about their programs, from flexible batteries for IOT to robotic human augmentation exoskeletons, FHE-enabled wearables and human-machine interfaces, and more. Of greatest interest to the participants were those technologies that had already been demonstrated in the GT labs and which are ready for prototyping and pilot scale manufacturing.
Technical sessions included; Power and Energy Systems Needs, Energy Harvesting Strategies, Energy Storage Strategies, Power Management Strategies, and Ultra-Low Power Electronics/Sensors. Speakers were drawn from both government and private sectors, as well as academia. Speakers included participation from AT&T, IBM, NIH, Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Office of Naval Research, PARC, Silniva, Air Force Research Lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Blue Spark Technologies, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Following the technical sessions, the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Atrium space filled to capacity for an evening reception and competitive student poster and demo session. With over 35 FHE projects on display, the judging team consisting of industry and government experts was challenged with determining the best posters based on the content, clarity and organization, and overall presentation. After the scores were tallied, it was announced that there was a three-way tie for first place, a second place winner, and a tie for third, with all of them winning monetary awards.
Below is a list of the winning poster titles and authors:
Tied for 1st
“Toward all-soft and fully-integrated microsystems: vertically integrated physical and chemical microsystems using gallium-based liquid metal and soft lithography”, Min-gu Kim and Prof. Oliver Brand
“Novel Architectures for Polymer Thermoelectric Devices for Energy Harvesting”, Akanksha Menon, Kiarash Gordiz, and Prof. Shannon Yee
“Soft, Fluidic Modulation of Skin Temperature”, Donald J. Ward, Nil Z. Gurel, Prof. Omer T. Inan, and Frank L. Hammond
2nd Place
“Self-powered Wide-frequency Flexible Triboelectric (SWIFT) Microphone”, N. Arora, S. L. Zhang, M. Gupta, F. Shahmiri, D. Osorio, Y. Wang, Z. Wang, C. Zhang, T. Starner, B. Boots, ZL Wang, G. D. Abowd
Tied for 3rd
“Mm-wave Ultra-Long-Range Energy-Autonomous Printed RFID Van-Atta Wireless Gas Sensors: at the Crossroads of 5G and IoT”, Jimmy Hester and Prof. Manos Tentzeris
“Sensorized Pneumatic Muscles for Force and Stiffness Control”, Lucas O. Tiziani, Thomas W. Cahoon, and Frank L. Hammond III
About FHE at Georgia Tech:
Led by Prof. Suresh Sitaraman, the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, more than 30 researchers at Georgia Tech are involved in projects involving flexible electronics from the School of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Several interdisciplinary research institutes at Georgia Tech are also involved in the projects, including the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, and the Institute for Materials. The Office of Industry Collaboration and the College of Engineering are also actively engaged.
About NextFlex:
Formed in 2015 through a cooperative agreement between the US Department of Defense (DoD) and FlexTech Alliance, NextFlex is a consortium of companies, academic institutions, non-profits and state, local and federal governments with a shared goal of advancing U.S. Manufacturing of FHE. By adding electronics to new and unique materials that are part of our everyday lives in conjunction with the power of silicon ICs to create conformable and stretchable smart products, FHE is ushering in an era of “electronics on everything” and advancing the efficiency of our world.
- Christa M. Ernst
{christa.ernst@ien.gatech.edu}
For example, attackers might register www.familiarbankname-security[.]com or www.security-familiarbankname[.]com. Unwary users see the familiar bank name in the URL, but the additional hyphenated word means the destination is very different from what was expected. The result could be counterfeit merchandise, stolen credentials, a malware infection – or another computer conscripted into a botnet attack.
The attack strategy, known as combosquatting, is a growing threat, with millions of such domains set up for malicious purposes, according to a new study scheduled to be presented October 31 at the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS).
“This is a tactic that the adversaries are using more and more because they have seen that it works,” said Manos Antonakakis, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This attack is hiding in plain sight, but many people aren’t computer-savvy enough to notice the difference in the URLs containing familiar trademarked names.”
Researchers from Georgia Tech and Stony Brook University conducted the study, which is believed to be the first large-scale, empirical study of combosquatting. The work was supported by U.S. Department of Defense agencies, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Combosquatting differs from its better-known relative, typosquatting, in which adversaries register variations of URLs that users are likely to type incorrectly. Combosquatting domains don’t depend on victims making typing errors, but instead provide malicious links embedded in emails, web advertising or the results of web searches. Combosquatting attackers often combine the trademarked name with a term designed to convey a sense of urgency to encourage victims to click on what appears at first glance to be a legitimate link.
“We have seen combosquatting used in virtually every kind of cyberattack that we know of, from drive-by downloads to phishing attacks by nation-states,” said Panagiotis Kintis, a Georgia Tech graduate research assistant who is the first author of the study. “These attacks can even fool security people who may be looking at network traffic for malicious activity. When they see a familiar trademark, they may feel a false sense of comfort with it.”
For their study, the researchers began with the 500 most popular trademarked domain names in the United States, and excluded certain combinations made up of common words. They separated the domains into 20 categories, then added two additional domains: one for for politics – the study was done before the 2016 election – and another for energy.
With the resulting 268 trademark-containing URLs, they set out to find domain names that incorporated the trademarked name with additional words added at the start or end. They searched through six years of active and passive domain name system (DNS) requests – more than 468 billion records – provided by one of the largest internet service providers in North America.
“The result was mind-blowing,” said Kintis. “We found orders of magnitude more combosquatting domains than typosquatting domains, for instance. The space for combosquatting is almost infinite because attackers can register as many domains as they want with any variation that they want. In some cases, registering a domain can cost less than a dollar.”
In the six-year data set, the researchers found 2.7 million combosquatting domains for the 268 popular trademarks alone, and the combosquatting domains were 100 times more prevalent than typosquatting domains. The combosquatting attacks appear to be challenging to combat, with nearly 60 percent of the abusive domains in operation for more than 1,000 days – almost three years. And the number of combosquatting domains registered grew every year between 2011 and 2016.
Among the malicious domains, the researchers discovered some that had previously been registered by legitimate companies which had combined words with their trademarks. For some reason, those companies permitted the registrations to lapse, allowing the trademark-containing domain names – which once led to legitimate sites – to be taken over by combosquatting attackers.
In many cases, malicious domains were re-registered multiple times after they had expired, suggesting an improvement in “internet hygiene” may be needed to address this threat.
“Imagine what happens in a city when the garbage isn’t picked up regularly,” Antonakakis said. “The garbage builds up and you have diseases develop. Nobody collects the garbage domains on the internet, because it’s nobody’s job. But there should be an organization that would collect these malicious domains so they cannot be reused to infect people.”
More stringent anti-fraud screening of persons registering domains would also help, he added. “We don’t want to prevent legitimate users from getting onto the internet, but there are warning signs of potential fraud that registrars could detect.”
What can be done by ordinary computer users and the organizations where they work?
“Users unfortunately have to be better educated than they are now,” Antonakakis said. “Organizations can provide training in the on-boarding process that takes place for new employees, and they can protect their network perimeters to prevent users from being exposed to known combosquatting domains. More needs to be done to address this growing cybersecurity problem.”
In addition to those already mentioned, the research included Najmeh Miramirkhani and Nick Nikiforakis from Stony Brook University; Charles Lever, Yizheng Chen and Rosa Romero-Gómez from Georgia Tech, and Nikolaos Pitropakis from London South Bank University.
CITATION: Panagiotis Kintis, et al., “Hiding in Plain Sight: A Longitudinal Study of Combosquatting Abuse,” (2017 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security). https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.08519
This material is based upon work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce under grants 2106DEK and 2106DZD; the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants 2106DGX, CNS-1617902, CNS-1617593, and CNS-1735396; the Air Force Research Laboratory/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under grant 2106DTX; and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under grant N00014-16-1-2264. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
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]]>“We are all so busy,” says Grover, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, a scientific collaborator at the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE), and a member of the Center for Space Technology and Research (C-STAR).
Now, Grover, Glass, and others at Tech are members of a growing community that’s coalescing astrobiology activities across campus. In a public debut of sorts, six members of Georgia Tech Astrobiology, as the community calls itself, participated in the 2017 Dragon Con, the premier pop-culture convention on science fiction and fantasy. They wowed the audience, not by fiction or fantasy or over-the-top costumes, but by progress in answering fundamental questions – How did life begin? Where else could life exist? – happening right next door from the meeting venue, at Georgia Tech.
The growing visibility of researchers interested in astrobiology is helping Georgia Tech emerge as a powerhouse in the field. At minimum, says Kenneth Knoespel, a historian of science and professor in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, “it affirms the importance of this community at Georgia Tech and the importance of astrobiology as a new configuration of disciplines that brings together the natural and human sciences.”
TEEMING WITH TALENT
“Georgia Tech is clearly recognized as a hub for astrobiology and maybe the one that’s growing the most quickly,” says Edward Goolish, the deputy director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), one of the six elements of the NASA Astrobiology Program. People at Georgia Tech, Goolish adds, “have been generous with their time and have contributed in important ways when NASA has reached out to the science community for input.”
The community includes physicists, chemists, biologists, Earth and planetary scientists, and engineers, as well as historians of science and writers. The scientists are figuring out how life emerged and evolved to the biosphere we know, inventing instruments to detect life outside Earth, and searching for other habitable places in the universe. The science historians and writers are witnessing science in the making and perhaps gathering fodder for the next volume of science fiction.
Broadly defined, astrobiology is the study of life in the cosmos. Its central questions are “What is the origin of life?” and “Does life exist beyond Earth?” Humans have asked these questions since time immemorial. That they are still around attests to the difficulty of discovering and assembling the pieces of a formidable puzzle: the emergence of a biosphere on a planet.
How formidable? According to Eric Smith, a theoretician in the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s team at Georgia Tech (NAI-GT), understanding the nature of the transition from a planet without a biosphere to one with a biosphere should be central to origins-of-life inquiries. However, he says, “a lot of the language to enable that understanding doesn’t exist yet.”
THREE PILLARS
At Georgia Tech, research teams are working across the breadth of questions central to astrobiology. Their activities are exemplified by three specialized research groups: CCE, NAI-GT, and C-STAR.
CCE is building a community in origin-of-life research, said its director, Nicholas V. Hud, at a symposium organized by Georgia Tech Astrobiology last month. In finding answers, CCE takes two approaches, Hud explained. “Bottom up,” it starts with geology and chemistry and understanding the formation of the first polymers of life, which is a major focus of Hud’s. “Top down,” it starts with biology, genetics, and looking back in time at persistent, conserved molecular motifs, as exemplified by the work of Loren Williams on ribosomes.
Like digging a tunnel underground from opposite ends and meeting somewhere in between, the two approaches are converging on the coevolution of the biopolymers of life. Chemistry and biology are telling us the same thing, say Hud and Williams, both professors in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry (SoCB) and members of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB).
At NAI-GT, “we start at the level of the cell,” says Frank Rosenzweig, the School of Biological Sciences (SoBS) professor who leads the NASA group. “Once you have all this biochemistry wrapped in a cell, what happens then? How do they become associated as multicellular organisms? How do they engage in biochemistries that change the environment? We need to understand the interaction between the evolution of life and the evolution of its abiotic surrounding to have a chance of recognizing life elsewhere.
“Although life on Earth manifests in different forms, all are governed by laws of growth, inheritance, and variability,” says Rosenzweig, also a member of IBB. NAI-GT aims to “illuminate and interpret these laws via laboratory-based evolution experiments with microbial populations.” An example is the exploration of the origin of multicellularity by experimentally evolving yeast, as described in the September symposium by Will Ratcliff, an assistant professor in SoBS.
For C-STAR-affiliated faculty, habitability is one key question. What events and conditions in the abiotic sphere yield environments that support life? The NASA-supported work of Jennifer Glass and Chris Reinhard, in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS), exemplify the search for answers in this realm.
What signals should we monitor in search of life elsewhere in the universe? What tools do we need to probe for signs of life from the comfort of Earth? What hazards should we prepare for if humans were to go to other worlds?
In EAS, C-STAR members and planetary scientists Carol Paty, Britney Schmidt, and James Wray are co-investigators of NASA-funded projects to answer these questions. So is C-STAR member Paul Steffes, in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as C-STAR Director Thomas Orlando and C-STAR member Amanda Stockton, in SoCB.
WHAT’S NEXT
With the talent on campus, Georgia Tech is becoming well known in the field of astrobiology. At the 2017 Astrobiology Scientific Conference, in Mesa, Ariz., last April, the Georgia Tech “posse” numbered about 30 faculty and students. Last summer, attendees of AbGradCon (Astrobiology Graduate Conference) 2017 selected Georgia Tech to host the 2018 event. This popular meeting for students is funded primarily by the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
The astrobiology community at Georgia Tech is “healthy,” Smith says. “The people in strategic positions have good priorities in the sophistication and intellectual integrity they are trying to support.”
The community – now 85 strong and growing – is raring to make its presence felt. It has an ambitious schedule for the 2017-18 school year, spearheaded by the September symposium.
Led by Grover as principal investigator, and with contributions from Glass, Knoespel, Paty, Reinhard, Rosenzweig, Schmidt, Williams, and others – Rebecca Burnett, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; Glenn Lightsey, School of Aerospace Engineering and C-STAR; and Christopher Parsons, CCE – their proposal for seven projects received funding from the Georgia Tech Strategic Plan Advisory Group (SPAG) and the Colleges of Engineering, Liberal Arts, and Sciences.
The projects aim to showcase the quality and variety of astrobiology projects at Tech, highlight the social impact of these projects, and strengthen the sense of community among faculty and students. The goals will be achieved through formal gatherings, educational innovations, and public outreach.
“As I see it, the point of research universities is to tackle the really important, really deep, and really challenging questions – the ones at the edge of, or even beyond, our reach; the ones that present not just the possibility but the likelihood of failure,” said College of Sciences Dean and Sutherland Chair Paul M. Goldbart at the September symposium. “It’s our duty as administrators to do everything we can to support this kind of truly adventurous research.”
What the astrobiology community is doing not only is exciting, Goldbart said. But also, “it could hardly fit better with the dreams of the College of Sciences and of Georgia Tech.”
Georgia Tech Researchers Working Toward the Goals of NASA’s Astrobiology Program
Planetary Science and Technology Through Analog Research (P-STAR)
Jennifer Glass, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Britney Schmidt, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Amanda Stockton, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations (PICASSO)
Amanda Stockton
Exobiology: Early Evolution of Life and the Biosphere
Frank Rosenzweig, School of Biological Sciences
Exobiology: Evolution of Advanced Life
William Ratcliff, School of Biological Sciences
Exobiology: Prebiotic Evolution
Loren Williams, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Exobiology: Methane and Iron Metabolisms in Ancient Oceans
Jennifer Glass
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Affiliated with NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)
Jennifer Glass, Chris Reinhard, and Yuanzhi Tang, with University of California, Riverside, team
James Wray, with SETI Institute team
NAI Team at Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences
Kim Chen
Phillip Gerrish
Matt Herron
Teresa Jonsson
Kennda Lynch
Frank Rosenzweig
William Ratcliff
Eric Smith
Pedram Samani
Tim Whelan
NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellows
Bradley Burcar, with Nicholas Hud
Peter Conlin, with William Ratcliff
Moran Frenkel-Pinter, with Loren Williams
Kazumi Ozaki, with Chris Reinhard
Nicholas Speller, with Amanda Stockton
2018 AbGradCon Organizers
Marcus Bray Justin Lawrence
Bradley Burcar Adriana Lozoya
Anthony Burnetti Kennda Lynch
Heather Chilton Santiago Mestre Fos
Chase Chivers Marshall Seaton
Dedra Eichstedt Micah Schaible
Zachary Duca Elizabeth Spiers
Jennifer Farrar Scot Sutton
Nicholas Kovacs Nadia Szeinbaum
George Tan, Conference Chair
Note: This list is not meant to be comprehensive; it represents information that was available as of October 2017.
This list was updated on Nov. 21, 2017, to include all members of the NAI Team at Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences.
PHOTO CAPTIONS
Georgia Tech at AbSciCon 2017. This photo shows only some of the Georgia Tech researchers who attended. From left: Cesar Menor-Salvan, Nick Hud, Justin Lawrence, Jacob Buffo, Frank Rosenzweig, Amanda Stockton, Britney Schmidt, Kennda Lynch, Gavin Mendez, George Tan, Jennifer Glass, Zachary Duca, Nadia Szeinbaum, Aaron McKee, Chloe Stanton, and Marcus Bray (Courtesy of Jennifer Glass)
Georgia Tech Astrobiology at 2017 Dragon Con. From left: Amanda Stockton, Loren Williams, Kenneth Knoespel, Lisa Yaszek, Chris Reinhard, and Britney Schmidt (Photo by Renay San Miguel)
Organizers and Speakers: “Life in the Cosmos.”
Top, from left: Rebecca Burnett, Carol Paty, Kennda Lynch, Jennifer Glass, Martha Grover, Gongjie Li, and Amanda Stockton
Bottom, from left: Thomas Orlando, Paul Steffes, Frank Rosenzweig, Nicholas Hud, Loren Williams, and William Ratcliff (Photos by Maureen Rouhi)
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Transferring the gallium nitride sensors to metallic foils and flexible polymers doubles their sensitivity to nitrogen dioxide gas, and boosts response time by a factor of six. The simple production steps, based on metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), could also lower the cost of producing the sensors and other optoelectronic devices.
Sensors produced with the new process can detect ammonia at parts-per-billion levels and differentiate between nitrogen-containing gases. The gas sensor fabrication technique was reported November 9 in the journal Scientific Reports.
“Mechanically, we just peel the devices off the substrate, like peeling the layers of an onion,” explained Abdallah Ougazzaden, director of Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France and a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “We can put the layer on another support that could be flexible, metallic or plastic. This technique really opens up a lot of opportunity for new functionality, new devices – and commercializing them.”
The researchers begin the process by growing monolayers of boron nitride on two-inch sapphire wafers using an MOVPE process at approximately 1,300 degrees Celsius. The boron nitride surface coating is only a few nanometers thick, and produces crystalline structures that have strong planar surface connections, but weak vertical connections.
Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN) devices are then grown atop the monolayers at a temperature of about 1,100 degrees Celsius, also using an MOVPE process. Because of the boron nitride crystalline properties, the devices are attached to the substrate only by weak Van der Waals forces, which can be overcome mechanically. The devices can be transferred to other substrates without inducing cracks or other defects. The sapphire wafers can be reused for additional device growth.
“This approach for engineering GaN-based sensors is a key step in the pathway towards economically viable, flexible sensors with improved performances that could be integrated into wearable applications,” the authors wrote in their paper.
So far, the researchers have transferred the sensors to copper foil, aluminum foil and polymeric materials. In operation, the devices can differentiate between nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ammonia. Because the devices are approximately 100 by 100 microns, sensors for multiple gases can be produced on a single integrated device.
“Not only can we differentiate between these gases, but because the sensor is very small, we can detect them all at the same time with an array of sensors,” said Ougazzaden, who expects that the devices could be modified to also detect ozone, carbon dioxide and other gases.
The gallium nitride sensors could have a wide range of applications from industry to vehicle engines – and for wearable sensing devices. The devices are attractive because of their advantageous materials properties, which include high thermal and chemical stability.
“The devices are small and flexible, which will allow us to put them onto many different types of support,” said Ougazzaden, who also directs the International Joint Research Lab at Georgia Tech CNRS.
To assess the effects of transferring the devices to a different substrate, the researchers measured device performance on the original sapphire wafer and compared that to performance on the new metallic and polymer substrates. They were surprised to see a doubling of the sensor sensitivity and a six-fold increase in response time, changes beyond what could be expected by a simple thermal change in the devices.
“Not only can we have flexibility in the substrate, but we can also improve the performance of the devices just by moving them to a different support with appropriate properties,” he said. “Properties of the substrate alone makes the different in the performance.”
In future work, the researchers hope to boost the quality of the devices and demonstrate other sensing applications. “One of the challenges ahead is to improve the quality of the materials so we can extend this to other applications that are very sensitive to the substrates, such as high-performance electronics.”
The Georgia Tech researchers have previously used a similar technique to produce light-emitting diodes and ultraviolet detectors that were transferred to different substrates, and they believe the process could also be used to produce high-power electronics. For those applications, transferring the devices from sapphire to substrates with better thermal conductivity could provide a significant advantage in device operation.
Ougazzaden and his research team have been working on boron-based semiconductors since 2005. Their work has attracted visits from several industrial companies interested in exploring the technology, he said.
“I am very excited and lucky to work on such hot topic and top-notch technology at GT-Lorraine,” said Taha Ayari, a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of ECE and the paper’s first author.
In addition to Ougazzaden, the research team includes Georgia Tech Ph.D. students Taha Ayari, Matthew Jordan, Xin Li and Saiful Alam; Chris Bishop and Youssef ElGmili, researchers at Institut Lafayette; Suresh Sundaram, a researcher at Georgia Tech Lorraine; Gilles Patriarche, a researcher at the Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (C2N) at CNRS; Paul Voss, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of ECE; and Jean Paul Salvestrini, a professor at Georgia Tech Lorraine and adjunct professor in the Georgia Tech School of ECE.
The research was supported by ANR (Agence Nationale de Recherche), the National Agency of Research in France through the “GANEX” Project.
CITATION: Taha Ayari, et al., “Gas sensors boosted by two-dimensional h-BN enabled transfer on thin substrate foils: towards wearable and portable applications,” (Scientific Reports, 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15065-6
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]]>The answer is Startup Launch, a two-semester program to help teams of students form startups based on their ideas, inventions and prototypes. The program is part of CREATE-X, a Georgia Tech initiative to enhance and support entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate students
The 27 teams participating in this year’s Startup Launch will demonstrate their products and services Wednesday starting at 4:30 p.m. at the Fox Theatre.
CREATE-X has helped launch nearly 70 startups since 2014. Graduates have completed prestigious nationally recognized accelerators and incubators and have been recognized among the country’s top entrepreneurs under the age of 30. These companies employ dozens of Georgians and hire Georgia Tech students as interns.
Here’s a look at four CREATE-X alumni.
FIXD
When John Gattuso arrived at Georgia Tech his post-graduation goal was to work for a car manufacturer in Detroit. Instead he co-founded FIXD, a startup that allows drivers to better understand and maintain their vehicles.
FIXD was part of the 2014 inaugural class of Startup Summer, which later became Startup Launch. Today the company has 23 employees and has sold more than 200,000 units this year.
“It has been a wild ride,” said Gattuso, who graduated in 2015 with a degree in mechanical engineering. “I think when I was a freshman, my wildest dream was to pass Calc II.”
The company’s other founders are Frederick Grimm, an industrial engineering major who graduated in 2014, and Julian Knight, who graduated in 2015 with a degree in electrical engineering.
Besides CREATE-X, the company went through VentureLab, the Institute’s technology commercialization incubator. FIXD is now part of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), which is the state’s technology incubator.
The company’s distribution allows it to work with parts retailers and car dealerships to help drivers get needed parts and services.
FIXD includes a sensor that is plugged into a car’s diagnostic port. It relays problems to an app via Bluetooth. It provides a simple definition of what is wrong, explains the severity of the issue and warns of the consequences of driving without repairs. The device will also keep track of the vehicle’s diagnostics and let owners know when their car is due for maintenance.
Gattuso said the company is still using the lessons it learned from CREATE-X. They are hoping to launch a new product and completing the customer discovery process.
FireHUD
Zack Braun and Tyler Sisk weren’t looking to launch a startup when they signed up for CREATE-X. The two friends just wanted to develop their idea to help keep firefighters safe.
They signed up for Idea 2 Prototype, which is part of CREATE-X. The for-credit class provides students with up to $1,500 and mentorship to transform their idea into a working prototype.
They developed FireHUD, a real-time wearable system and heads up display that provides biometric and environmental data to firefighters on the job and officials on site. The device measure heart rate, body temperature and external temperatures that can help predict fatigue and prevent injuries.
The class led them to 2016’s Startup Summer. They’ll graduate in December and are currently running the company out of Sisk’s basement.
Braun, a computer engineering major, and Sisk, an electrical engineering major, brought on board Chris Ward, who earned an MBA from Georgia Tech. They are finalizing a first production run of 30 units and will conduct pilot tests at four metro Atlanta fire departments.
Before launching the startup, Braun and Sisk entered the 2016 InVenture Prize, Georgia Tech’s annual innovation competition for undergraduate students. FireHUD won first place and $20,000.
That exposure has led other Georgia Tech students to ask them if it’s worth signing up for CREATE-X over other classes, clubs or internships.
“We tell them that it is because the chance to bring their ideas into the world and truly leave their mark is an incredible opportunity,” Braun said. “Anyone can do CREATE-X -- all they need is an idea.”
TEQ Charging
Dorrier Coleman and Isaac Wittenstein solved a main source of frustration for drivers of electric vehicles. Their startup, TEQ Charging, makes charging easier by allowing multiple drivers to plug their cars into a charging queue.
The company connects electric vehicle charging stations to the cloud at low cost. This allows for affordability and profitability for property owners and guarantees availability of charging stations for drivers. Seven hotels in Florida and Georgia are piloting the product.
Coleman, a computer engineering major who graduated in 2015, and Wittenstein, a mechanical engineering major who graduated in August, completed Startup Summer in 2015.
“CREATE-X introduced us to the world of startups and a new path that wasn’t on our radar at Georgia Tech,” Wittenstein said.
The company’s name is short for The Electric Queue and pays tribute to Georgia Tech.
Today the company is part of ATDC and has three full-time employees and three Georgia Tech interns.
Coleman and Wittenstein also completed the Techstars IoT (Internet of Things) Accelerator in New York City.
Wittenstein said there are a few lessons from CREATE-X the company still follows.
“Never be afraid to ask others for help,” he said. “Always be open to advice and input from others, but know that you ultimately have to make the final decision. And continually listen to your customers and what their needs are.”
Gimme Vending
Gimme Vending has come a long way since 2014’s Startup Summer program.
In just three years, the company has become a funded startup with 10 employees. More than 10,000 vending machines use the company’s products and thousands more are in the process of coming online, said Cory Hewett, CEO and one of the company’s founders.
Gimme Vending builds hardware and software mobility tools that allows companies to easily monitor the status of their cash and inventory in real-time. The company’s technology replaces cumbersome handheld devices and allows for better unattended retail management.
Hewett, an electrical engineering major, left Georgia Tech in 2014 to focus on the company full-time. Evan Jarecki, the company’s chief technology officer, graduated in 2014 with a degree in electrical engineering.
Larger vending companies have noticed Gimme and formed partnerships to work with the young startup.
In March, Gimme partnered with Cantaloupe Systems, the vending industry’s premier provider of cloud-based mobile technologies. And in April the company announced an alliance agreement with USA Technologies, a payment technology provider of cashless and mobile transactions in self-serve retail.
Hewett said one key lesson from CREATE-X still resonates with the company today.
“GOOTB – ‘get out of the building’ – and talk to real people to find out their pains before you start building anything,” he said. “It’s trendy to say ‘customer discovery’ but that really means getting outside of your normal area, your normal social group, to challenge your understanding of the problem and learn what real people really think.”
]]>@LauraRDiamond
]]>These teams, consisting of multiple types of robots and sensors with varying abilities, are designed to assist humans in a wide range of missions in dynamically changing, harsh and contested environments. These include search and rescue of hostages, information gathering after terrorist attacks or natural disasters, and humanitarian missions.
The award is part of ARL’s Distributed and Collaborative Intelligent Systems and Technology (DCIST) Collaborative Research Alliance. Penn Engineering will lead this alliance in collaboration with the Army Research Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The consortium also includes faculty from University of California San Diego, University of California Berkeley and University of Southern California.
DCIST involves imbuing teams of heterogeneous robots and sensors with the intelligence to learn and adapt to different settings and perform new tasks along with humans. Key to this vision is building resilience to disruption.
Teams of robots and human first responders might eventually be used to survey a disaster site for victims, but unpredictable environments and ongoing hazards could damage or destroy some of the robots, or disrupt communications between them. If each robot were just preprogrammed and given specific instructions, that could lead to gaps in their search. But if the team were able to reconfigure itself in response to damage, the remaining robots could collaboratively decide how to reorganize and work with human partners to complete the mission.
“We want to have teams of robots that know how to work together, but can figure out how to keep working even if some of their teammates crash or fail, if GPS signal is unavailable, or if cloud services are disrupted,” said Vijay Kumar, Penn Engineering’s Nemirovsky Family Dean and director for the DCIST program. “This means designing networks with loose, flexible connections that can change on the fly. That way, a single event can’t bring down the entire network. More importantly, we want them to learn to perform tasks they may have never performed and work alongside humans that they may never have worked with.”
The three important research focus areas are distributed intelligence and learning; creating a cohesive team of autonomous robots, sensors, computational resources and human experts; and building resiliency in group behaviors.
“Through this exciting project, Georgia Tech will help develop novel tools and techniques that enable human operators to work effectively and safely in teams together with autonomous robots,” said Magnus Egerstedt, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and Julian T. Hightower Chair in Systems and Controls. “These types of questions connect well with our expertise in the areas of human-robot interactions, distributed decision making and learning, and swarm robotics.”
Beyond Egerstedt, the Georgia Tech researchers affiliated with this multidisciplinary project are Sonia Chernova, assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing; Panagiotis Tsiotras, Dean’s Professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering; and Justin Romberg, Associate Chair for Research and Schlumberger Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
With multiple types of assets collectively assessing a complex, continuously changing scenario and determining how best to assign their individual skills to a broadly defined problem, such human-robot teams of the future would be ideal first-responders to dangerous situations.
“The technology we’re working will better allow humans to respond by projecting their intelligence without directly coming in harm’s way,” Kumar said.
Research News
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Media Relations Contacts: Georgia Tech – John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu); UPenn – Evan Lerner (215-573-6604) (elerner@upenn.edu).
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]]>Research News
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]]>Both students who want additional funding for their research or students who want to commercialize an idea should enter, he says.
The contest begins with a display of student research posters on Sept. 27 at the Georgia Tech Cyber Security Summit (GTCSS), when 400 members of the public are invited to browse student research and vote for their favorite projects. From there, all students can continue to compete between October and April for additional prizes under “Research Track” or “Commercialization Track.”
Lee adds that even the initial step of showing a research poster can spark conversations that lead to new resources.
“Often our researchers need real-world data from companies or agencies to test, code to exchange, or validation or input for their project from frontline information security researchers,” he says. “Showing a research poster at GTCSS helps the public see what we’re working on, contribute, or license the outcome.”
Ways to Win
Students should register their project by Sept. 20.
Graduate students who wish to commercialize their project can win any combination of #3, #4, and #5 or potentially all three prizes. Undergraduates should form a team with at least one graduate student to qualify for the maximum number of prizes.
For complete details, eligibility rules, and to enter, visit http://cyber.gatech.edu/cyber-demo-day
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Here’s a closer look at six courses being taught this semester.
Taught by Chrissy Spencer and Shana Kerr, academic professionals, and Aakanksha Angra, postdoctoral fellow
Have you ever wondered… Why does sex exist? Can we prevent infectious disease spread? Can GMO foods harm us? How can DNA help solve crimes? What can cause the death of the entire species?
“I leapt at the opportunity to help build a new lab science requirement from the ground up, and the students last spring collaborated with us to polish the free online ‘textbook,’” said Spencer. “They told us what worked and what didn’t, and they learned tons of fun biology along the way. We are grateful to our students from last semester and excited to get back into the classroom this fall.”
Students will learn biology through the lens of the formation and collapse of biological systems, organized around questions pertaining to life, sex, and death. The small, interactive class covers the applications of biology to things relevant to human health and the environment, and hits on key biological thinking along the way.
Labs will showcase real-world biology that allows students to examine fertilization in sea urchins, mate choice in fruit flies, sexual selection in bean beetles, and male-male combat in fiddler crabs. Instructors designed the lab curriculum to develop marketable skills, such as problem solving, basic statistics, communication, and collaboration.
Co-taught by Mustaque Ahamad, professor in the College of Computing, and Jimmy Lummis, interim director and chief information security officer for the Cyber Security Division of the Office of Information Technology
“This class will teach the operational aspects of running a cybersecurity program within an enterprise environment,” Lummis said. “Some topics include security sensors, security data collection, incident prevention, incident detection and response, and endpoint forensics for incident response.”
The course focuses on practical skills useful to anyone working in an operational security capacity. Some topics include security sensors, security data collection, incident prevention, incident detection and response, and endpoint forensics for incident response. Students will get firsthand insights from Lummis and Ahamad on how OIT neutralizes attacks on campus resources and data, educates campus users, and ensures compliance with information security laws and policies.
Taught by Lauren Wilcox, assistant professor, School of Interactive Computing
This class focuses on behavioral health and introduces students to a variety of tools and techniques to measure personal health in everyday life. Students will learn approaches to designing tools to not only measure personal health, but also to promote healthy behaviors.
“I am excited about teaching this class because there are many technologies on the horizon that promise to make everyday health and wellness more attainable,” said Wilcox. “Personal and environmental sensing, electronic health records, and advancements in large-scale data analytics are driving interactive systems that can capture everyday information to inform health monitoring and interventions. These can be useful not only for those who manage illnesses, but for anyone striving to live their strongest, fullest life.”
Students will gain exposure to interdisciplinary approaches to evaluating health behavior applications — gaining knowledge of approaches in medical research and socio-behavioral fields. Finally, they will develop skills for scientific discussion of current personal health informatics literature and for critiquing emerging health behavior technologies.
“What excites me most are the projects that I have seen come out of the class, such as new video browsing techniques for reflecting on the developmental progress of children with autism and their responses to therapies, and wearable sensors that track users’ transitions from sedentary to more active physical states and offer engaging user experiences for reviewing progress and setting goals,” Wilcox said.
Taught by Emanuele Massetti, assistant professor, School of Public Policy
The goal of this course is to provide a solid introduction to the concept of sustainable growth and development. Students will learn how to professionally navigate the current debate on sustainability and to assess strategies to develop remote sustainable communities and a sustainable planet.
“This course will be useful for students from all backgrounds because it provides key tools to think about sustainability in a systematic and coherent way,” Massetti said. “The knowledge built will be useful over students’ entire professional careers and will make them better citizens and stewards of the planet.”
The course will take a deep dive into major social and environmental challenges, including climate change, international trade, health care, food production, education for all, sustainable water use, deforestation, gender issues, and income inequality.
Sustainability, Technology, and Policy is one of the Serve-Learn-Sustain center’s Foundation classes. (https://serve-learn-sustain.gatech.edu/get-involved/courses).
Taught by Amy Bruckman, professor and interim chair, School of Interactive Computing
“In CS 4001, we try to give students a toolkit of ways to think about ethical issues in the workplace and the social implications of technology,” said Bruckman. “We can’t provide answers, but we can help students to have ways of thinking about challenges they will face, and the broader societal implications of the work they do.”
CS 4001 covers ethics, professional ethics, computing and society, and argumentation. The goal is for students to be able to address ethical dilemmas with reasoned arguments, grounded in a combination of ethical theories.
Professional Ethics focuses on what special responsibilities computing professionals should consider, and how they can be applied in daily practice. Computing and Society will cover ways that computer technology impacts society, including privacy, intellectual property, and freedom of speech. Argumentation will ask students to learn to construct well-reasoned arguments and hone oral and written communication skills to complement their technical acumen.
Raghupathy Sivakumar, professor and the Wayne J. Holman Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is the founder of this course and of the CREATE-X program, to which the course belongs. The course is cross-listed in three colleges (Engineering, Computing, and Business), and is co-taught by eight faculty members including Nishant Dass, associate professor in the Scheller College of Business.
“There are two things that are very attractive and unique about Startup Lab,” said Dass. “First, the cross-disciplinary nature of this course makes for an especially enriching experience both for the students as well as faculty. Second, we encourage students to tackle ‘big’ business problems and not just build the ‘canonical app’ that only helps college students. The students learn that entrepreneurship is hard, but it is no longer a crapshoot — there is a method to this madness. If they identify a good problem to solve, they can really make a big impact. We have seen it happen numerous times in this course.”
The objective of Startup Lab is to teach evidence-based entrepreneurship and inspire entrepreneurial confidence. The course will cover a variety of topics including, but not limited to, opportunity identification and validation, ideation, customer discovery, market analysis, pivoting, minimum viable product development, business models, intellectual property, and capital raises. The course has two parts that run in parallel. The first part is a lecture series that will focus on the elements of a startup ranging from how opportunities are identified, to how ideas are conceived, to what customer discovery means. The second part is a laboratory that gives students hands-on experience in developing the core of a business model for an actual startup idea.
“I know that Georgia Tech students are extremely capable of solving big and important problems. As an instructor, it is a treat to see students’ ideas take shape and become the basis of a business model in the course of a semester,” Dass said. “I think every student should try their hand at this course, even if to discover that entrepreneurship is not for them. The lessons learned in this course are invaluable.”
]]>Institute Communications
404-894-6398
]]>“I originally had a talk about 10 minutes long, describing my thesis,” said McNerney, who is a fourth-year Chemical and Biomechanical Engineering Ph.D. student. “Whittling it down to three minutes was difficult. But, ultimately, I think streamlining my presentation made it much more engaging.”
And engaging it was. McNerney won last year’s 3MT competition at Georgia Tech with her presentation, “Bacterial Biosensors: Low-cost, Field-friendly Nutrition Tests.” Now, it’s your chance to see if you’ve got what it takes to win. Registration for the 2017 event is open now through Sept. 18.
The 3MT competition, which started at the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2008, challenges participants to present their thesis research in three minutes in a way that any audience can understand. For McNerney, that meant avoiding certain difficult-to-understand technical terms.
“I use harmless E. coli cells as part of my research, but many people only know about the strains that cause disease,” McNerney said. "Instead of using the term E. coli, I described the cells as 'harmless bacteria' and then described synthetic biology concepts in terms that everyone could understand. I really tried to focus on the big picture applications and big picture results rather than the technical details."
This year, 3MT is not only open to any doctoral student currently involved in dissertation research, but also master’s students currently engaged in thesis research. The top presenters among both master's and Ph.D. students will receive research travel grants and a chance to represent Tech at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools.
In preparation for the competition, workshops will be held starting Aug. 30 to help students prepare their presentations, and the preliminary rounds will be held Oct. 12 and 18. Finals will be held on Nov. 13.
For more information, visit grad.gatech.edu/3MT.
]]>Get up to speed on emerging threats and meet leaders who are advancing the field of information security at the Cybersecurity Lecture Series held each Friday at Noon. Invited speakers include executives and researchers from Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, intelligence agencies, visiting faculty, as well as Georgia Tech faculty and students presenting conference research. Lectures are open to all majors. Graduate students may register by Aug. 25 for credit under seminar course CS-8001-INF.
All students are invited to bring new ideas for commercialization (or continued research) before business leaders at the Institute for Information Security & Privacy's Cybersecurity Demo Day. Students can win cash and prizes valued at $125,000 to move great ideas to market – including eligibility for a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation or a spot in Create-X Startup LAUNCH worth $70,000. (Who doesn't want $20,000 for their prototype...? Yeah, we thought so!) For the first time this year, Demo Day includes entrepreneurial coaching, powered by VentureLab, to help all competitors hone their pitch before investors or academics.
Two scholars from Georgia Tech will be chosen to attend the RSA® Conference 2018 at no expense. The RSA®C Security Scholar program brings the brightest up-and-coming cybersecurity students nationwide to a premier information security industry conference -- helping students meet 40,000 industry attendees, learn how to pursue a cybersecurity career, and build the connections that can make it happen. Past scholars enjoyed reserved seating at RSA's opening keynote, intimate meetings with industry luminaries, Learning Labs, and had an opportunity to present their work. Students who demonstrate extracurricular involvement in cybersecurity and excel in their work at Georgia Tech will qualify for selection. Get involved now to be considered when the 2018 scholars are chosen in October.
Students in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Public Policy or International Affairs with a strong interest in cybersecurity may apply for a full-ride scholarship, the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service. Recipients of this multi-year scholarship agree to work in a cybersecurity role for a federal, state, local or tribal government organization in the United States after graduation for a period equal to the length of the scholarship.
Additionally, Ph.D. students may apply for the IISP Cybersecurity Fellowship program to gain financial support for unfunded or under-funded research ideas. All Ph.D. students from any unit at Georgia Tech are encouraged to apply if they demonstrate a significant focus in one of six, core, cybersecurity research areas: policy, consumer-facing privacy, risk, trust, attribution, or cyber-physical systems. Mark your calendar to apply for Spring ’18 before Nov. 30.
Undergraduate students can participate in on-going, exploratory research in a variety of fields, including cybersecurity. The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program unites undergraduate education and faculty research in a team-based context. Undergraduate VIP students earn academic credits, while faculty and graduate students benefit from the design/discovery efforts of their teams. Projects related to cybersecurity are recruiting additional team members now. Search projects and how to apply at http://www.vip.gatech.edu/
Beginners in cybersecurity and those who want to compete in hacking challenges to test their skills can sync up with the student-led GreyHat Club. Find details and a calendar of events online.
Stay engaged all year long. Visit iisp.gatech.edu for events, research updates, news commentary and more.
]]>In the 21st century, science is no longer limited by the rarity of total eclipses. These events can now be simulated in computers. The instruments of the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory are constantly trained on our life-giving star.
With all this technology, can eclipses still serve as old-school windows into scientific discoveries? They can, says Morris Cohen, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Center for Space Technology and Research (C-STAR).
Eclipses allow experiments to take place in natural daylight and darkness at the same time. Simultaneous light and dark is what Cohen needs to study how the sun affects radio waves in Earth’s ionosphere. “We are using the unique properties of the eclipse to get a window into the physics of the upper atmosphere,” he says.
In the weeks leading to the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse, Cohen’s team will deploy 30 receivers on either side of the path of totality. As the eclipse occurs, a patch of nighttime (shadow) surrounded by daytime will move cross-country.
“Because the sun dominates the electrical properties of the upper atmosphere, this moving patch affects radio communications,” Cohen says. The ionosphere is tough to study because it’s too high for balloons and too low for satellites. A better understanding of this part of the atmosphere can improve satellite-based navigation and airline communications, which depend on radio waves in this region.
To monitor the sun’s impact on the upper atmosphere, Cohen’s team will look at radio waves in this frequency band and examine how they are affected by the rapid shifts between light and dark that an eclipse enables. “We’ve never had a controlled experiment where we can shut off the sun so rapidly in a defined area,” Cohen says.
Cohen is part of a long tradition – since 1223 B.C., the first record of a solar eclipse – of scientists and historians using the rare phenomenon to record observations, test theories, and conduct experiments. Earlier eclipses helped establish the existence of the solar corona, prominences (those loops of gas that shoot from the sun’s surface), and the element helium.
Wild west eclipse
Still reeling from the Civil War, America decided in 1878 to use a solar eclipse to establish its scientific credibility to the rest of the world.
“I was fascinated by how this country pulled together and intentionally wanted to prove that we weren’t just this backward country that was strong economically and good at industrial production, but frankly wasn’t that intellectual,” says David Baron, science journalist and author of “American Eclipse.”
The book is about the July 29, 1878 event and how it galvanized the country’s scientific community. “This eclipse inspired this nation to come together,” Baron says.
Scientists traveled by train to Wyoming and Colorado to investigate the 1878 total solar eclipse. They included a young Thomas Edison, eager to try his new solar heat measurement device, a tasimeter; Maria Mitchell, one of the few women U.S. scientists at the time; and James Craig Watson, a noted astronomer and discoverer of asteroids.
Mitchell and Watson risked attacks from bandits and warring Indian tribes to search for Vulcan, a planet believed to exist between Mercury and the sun. They hoped to find it during the eclipse’s totality. They didn’t.
Edison’s tasimeter, meanwhile, “was a terrible flop,” Baron says, although it could be viewed as the first step in the development of detectors used in infrared astronomy.
“From a scientific standpoint, the 1878 eclipse didn’t amount to anything,” he says. Yet from a cultural and intellectual perspective, it lit the way for future breakthroughs. “It made a huge difference,” Baron says. “It rallied the country to get behind its scientists.”
Einstein was right
If the statue of Albert Einstein near Tech Green could talk, it would remind everyone that a total solar eclipse helped confirm the theory of general relativity.
Einstein’s 1915 theory challenged Isaac Newton’s long-established theory of gravity. According to Einstein, space and time form a fabric, which would bend and twist around the gravity of massive objects. The theory predicted that light passing near the warped fabric would curve rather than move in a straight line. The prediction was difficult to prove with early 20th-century technologies.
British astronomers saw an opportunity in the May 29, 1919, total solar eclipse. On that day, the sun would pass in front of a large cluster of stars, the Hyades. The eclipse would temporarily extinguish the sun’s overpowering brightness, making visible any Hyades starlight skewed by the sun’s gravity.
Astronomers noted the stars’ positions in the months before the eclipse. During the solar eclipse on May 29, 1919, they photographed the same stars’ positions.
The photographs showed the stars in slightly different places, proving Einstein’s theory of general relativity. For this reason, the European Space Agency calls the 1919 event “probably the most important eclipse in the history of science.”
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Micro C, one of the Advanced Technology Development Center’s ATDC Accelerate startup portfolio companies, has developed a comprehensive, hand-held X-ray and digital camera for surgeons and physicians who treat disorders of the extremities.
All the funders in the round are Georgia-based and the company said the investors utilized Georgia's Angel Investor Tax Credit program.
Micro C founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Greg Kolovich, Chief Executive Officer Evan Ruff, and Chief Operating Officer Kirby Sisk said they will leverage the additional funds to complete several planned initiatives in the second quarter. Among them: a prototype build, beta testing, submission to the Food and Drug Administration, and go-to-market launch activities including demonstrations at leading professional academies for orthopedic surgeons.
“At our sessions with orthopedic surgeons and ambulatory surgery center management, the feedback is consistent: They want to use the Micro C as soon as commercially available,” said Kolovich, who is an orthopedic hand and micro-surgeon. “They are impressed with how we have incorporated multiple innovations into a compact digital X-ray and multimodal camera that also integrates real-time, HIPPA compliant, data and image transmission together with accurate billing and much greater accuracy, clarity, safety, and speed.”
Kolovich earned his electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech, medical degree from Ohio State, and surgical training at Harvard. The company has received several key recognitions, including the Technology Association of Georgia’s TAG Most Innovative Company award and first place at the Geekend Pitch Contest in Savannah.
“With seven patents filed, we believe that the intellectual property we created is not only winning us recognition but will also contribute to building the value of our product and our company significantly,” said Ruff, who earned his degree at Tech in computer engineering.
Sisk, whose degree from Tech is in mechanical engineering, is responsible for production of the Micro C emitter, table, and accessories. “Combining a compact and complex device with software, consumables, and service support will demand skills and resources that we are rapidly bringing on board with our investors’ confidence and backing,” Sisk said.
]]>Laura Diamond
Georgia Tech Media Relations
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Work to be presented includes new cryptographic search methods, a malware detection method for IoT or embedded devices, protections for industrial control systems, spectral profiling to catch malware activity, and a model for software engineering policy requirements.
For last year’s inaugural winner – Musheer Ahmed – the event was a springboard to successfully launch FraudScope, a healthcare fraud detection system based upon algorithms he developed as a Ph.D. student.
After winning Demo Day Finale, Ahmed went on to collect more than $400,000 in seed funding in less than three months. He won the Atlanta Start-up Battle, the Technology Association of Georgia's Biz Launch Competition, and more. The quick success allowed him to invest in a better user interface design, hire staff, and begin marketing his product at health and technology industry trade shows.
The Demo Day Finale is hosted by the Institute for Information Security & Privacy (IISP) and aims to give students an early introduction to potential investors as they continue their research or as they are ready to move it to market.
“During the course of research, it can be difficult for entrepreneurial students to know how industry may react to a finished project,” says Wenke Lee, co-director of the IISP and a professor in the School of Computer Science who has successfully transferred research to private corporations. “The Demo Day Finale lets students share ideas underway with active investors so they can receive early stage feedback that will inform research directions, the future application of it, or market considerations. This is one way we think the Institute for Information Security & Privacy can help move solutions to market that will improve the security or privacy of our identities, data, and devices.”
While Ahmed was eager to launch his business as soon as possible, last year’s second place winner -- ID for Web -- used the experience to get an early “gut” reaction from business investors as they tried to create a more secure form of identity validation online. Their Demo Day presentation led to an invitation from start-up accelerator CyberLaunch, where they spent summer 2016 discovering the best application of their technology by talking to both potential customers and investors.
"The summer at CyberLaunch put us in touch with business leaders from many different industries, and got us a lot of validation to the relevance of our technology; everybody agrees the current authentication mechanisms are a huge pain to both users and service providers,” said Simon Chung, a postdoctoral researcher. “Their eyes light up when we say we're trying to get rid of passwords. Also, since our technology can be used to solve many real-world problems, this process helped us find the best use of our technology and focus on developing our first end-to-end prototype system.”
Demo Day Finale judges include Georgia Tech commercialization catalysts Jeff Garbers and Harold Solomon of Venture Lab, and Thiago Olson of the Advanced Technology Development Center. The public is invited to attend and vote for a People's Choice winner.
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]]>May will begin at UC Davis on August 1, 2017. An interim dean for the College of Engineering will be appointed, and the search for the new dean will begin immediately. Next steps will include appointment of a search committee.
“As an accomplished alumnus and longtime member of our faculty for nearly three decades, Dean May has certainly left his mark on Georgia Tech as a leader, mentor and scholar,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “Under his leadership, the College of Engineering has thrived as a preeminent program in the nation and world. We thank Dean May for his years of service to Georgia Tech and certainly wish him well at UC Davis.”
May has served as the dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering since July 2011 and has held the Southern Company Chair since 2015. He also holds an academic appointment as professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As dean, he serves as the chief academic officer of the college and leads more than 400 faculty members and more than 13,000 students. The College of Engineering at Georgia Tech produces more engineering graduates than any other college in the United States.
“For the past five years, Dean May has led the nation’s largest and most diverse college of engineering,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “His commitment to mentoring students and developing programs to attract and retain female and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields has benefitted students, not only here at Georgia Tech but throughout the nation. His efforts to increase interdisciplinary collaboration and help graduates gain entrepreneurial confidence have had wide-ranging impact, including facilitating the growth of Technology Square. We are grateful for his vision, energy and thought leadership while here at Georgia Tech.”
Prior to his current appointment as dean, May was the Steve W. Chaddick Chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his field of research is computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits. He has authored more than 200 technical publications, contributed to 15 books and holds a patent in this topic.
He has also participated in acquiring more than $49 million in research funding, and he has graduated 20 Ph.D. students. In 1993, May was named Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Young Alumnus, and in 1999 he received Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Service Award. In 2004, he received Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, as well as the Outstanding Minority Engineer Award from the American Society of Engineering Education. In 2006 he received the Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2010 he was named the Outstanding Electrical Engineering Alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley. May is a Fellow of the AAAS and the IEEE.
May created the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Science (SURE) program, for which he has been granted $3 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF). SURE hosts minority students to perform research at Georgia Tech in the hopes that they will pursue a graduate degree, and over 73 percent of SURE participants enroll in graduate school. May was also the co-creator and co-director of the Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science (FACES) and University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) programs, for which he has been granted more than $17 million from NSF and the Sloan Foundation to increase the number of underrepresented Ph.D. recipients from Georgia Tech. Over the duration of FACES, 433 minority students have received Ph.D. degrees in science or engineering at Georgia Tech – the most in such fields in the nation. As a result of these efforts, May received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama in 2015.
May is executive vice president of the National GEM Consortium and a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Society of Black Engineers.
May received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1985 as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Berkeley in 1988 and 1991, respectively. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he is married to LeShelle R. May, and they have two daughters, Simone and Jordan.
“I have greatly enjoyed helming the College of Engineering (one of the best jobs in all of academia), but the leadership of an institution such as UC Davis represents a truly exceptional opportunity,” May said. “It is impossible to reduce to mere words how much Georgia Tech has meant to me and to my family. I have literally spent more than half of my life on this campus (55.92 percent to be exact), and that experience has shaped me into the person that I am today. I am grateful to my colleagues, students, staff, and fellow Tech alums for their friendship and the memories that will remain etched in my mind as long as long as I live.”
]]>I2P is a unique experience for collegiate inventors. By providing guidance and financial grants to these students, they are able to creatively build their idea into a fully functioning prototype. However, equally important to all of this is the course credit involved.
“Personally, I2P has given me the opportunity to put aside time for our project and make sure it is a priority just as much as any other class I am taking, because we are receiving course credit.” Said Sarah Selim, 2-time participant in Idea to Prototype.
Selim’s team, CPAP for Kids, is a great example of the beauty of the Idea to Prototype course: Three different specialties working in tandem to create a well rounded prototype, well preparing them for the many multi-faceted teams in their future. This ability to form teams of their own proves to be an asset for many students.
“My end goal was to exercise and cultivate my innovative mind, with across niche of like-minded friends across multiple backgrounds. My participation with I2P has provided me a platform to do as such, and has given my experience at Georgia Tech, so far, more substance. I2P has allowed me to structure the knowledge and skills I have cultivated in my Georgia Tech classes and put into real-world innovative applications.” Said Olatide Omojaro, 1st place winner of the Fall 2016 Idea to Prototype Showcase.
The combination of I2P’s unique features proves to be a formula for success in many of these teams. I2P both encourages and adequately prepares students for their next step in their invention and entrepreneurship endeavors, such as competing in the InVenture Prize, continuing into Capstone Design, or even applying for Startup Launch.
Selim’s team, CPAP for Kids, continues to move toward success after their 2 semesters of Idea to Prototype enrollement. She said, “... After working for a year on our project, we now have a functional prototype and a working partnership with CHOA doctors to receive feedback on our medical device.”
Out of the 26 teams building their invention ideas this year, do you want to see who wins first place at the 2017 Showcase? Join us Thursday, April 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Klaus Atrium. To attend, click here!
Pictured: Fall 2016 1st Place Winners, Team Aquarius
Sam Youngdale (ME 2017), Elie Ghossain (ME 2017), Daniel Albequerque (EE), Olatide Omojaro (CS 2018)
Pictured: Sarah Selim (ME 2018), Katie Jordan (BME 2018), Virgil Shah (ISyE 2018)
]]>We believe that all great ventures and organizations begin with great ideas. Therefore, I2S is primarily a competition of ideas where creativity, imagination, and technology are applied to solving social and/or environmental problems. The competition is for current Georgia Tech students and recent alumni who have early stage product/service ideas or venture concepts that are geared towards creating a better world through students who Dare to Care.
Come learn more about the competition at our information session January 26, 2016 from 11 a.m.- 12 p.m. in Room 101 at the Scheller College of Business. Lunch will be provided, please RSVP here.
You can also visit our website to learn more.
]]>TAPPI’s Nanotechnology Division is now accepting nominations to be submitted for the Nanotechnology Division Technical Award and Prize.
This award recognizes outstanding accomplishments or contributions which have advanced the technology of the nanotechnology industry in the field of research and development.
Send in your nomination now and make sure his/her contributions to the industry are recognized.
Your nomination should contain:
The award will be presented at the 2017 International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials which will be held 5-8 June in Montreal, Canada.
Submit by completing the Nano Division Award Nomination Form and sending it to:
Lisa Stephens, TAPPI, 15 Technology Parkway South, Suite 115, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092, USA. You can also email or fax your completed form to: lstephens@tappi.org; or fax it to +1.770.446.6947
Deadline for Submissions: 31 March 2017
]]>To find a way to alleviate this problem, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, is hosting the second Spectrum Collaboration Challenge, or SC2. The goal of the challenge is to increase the possibility of access to Wi-Fi for both military and civilian wireless devices. According to the SC2 website, this will be accomplished when “radio networks will autonomously collaborate and reason about how to share the RF spectrum, avoiding interference, and jointly exploiting opportunities to achieve the most efficient use of the available spectrum.” The challenge is designed to encourage sharing between networks through a combination of machine learning and communications engineering.
Enter Georgia Tech Agile Communication Architectures, one of 30 teams selected to participate in SC2. Spearheaded by two Georgia Tech professors – Matthieu Bloch, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Sebastian Pokutta, David M. McKenney Family Associate Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) – the team comprises graduate students from both schools and comes out of the interdisciplinary Center for Machine Learning at Georgia Tech (ML@GT). The team is self-funded, but Bloch and Pokutta have received some support from the National Science Foundation in the form of an EAGER grant in the amount of $99,877, which will support the team’s early efforts.
Describing the Georgia Tech team’s approach to the spectrum challenge, Bloch said, “Here at Tech, we have expertise in both communications engineering and machine learning, and [the solution] that DARPA is looking for is something that integrates the two. The future of communication – for them – has to go through the integration of machine learning and intelligence, and that was a strength we were able to advertise to DARPA. They were happy with our approach because we were proposing an integrated solution from the beginning.”
In terms of solving the challenge through machine learning, Pokutta said, “If you look at machine learning in general, it’s a very powerful technique. At the same time, it’s probably overhyped. You have to create tangible value: applying it to real-world problems and solving them to have impact. It’s like having a hammer. A hammer is a great tool, but if you have nothing to apply it to, it’s completely worthless.”
In other words, the goal of the challenge is collaboration. Collaboration is important for solving SC2, but for Bloch and Pokutta, the collaborative aspect includes training graduate students to be interdisciplinary – to understand not only the nuances of machine learning or communications engineering, but to be fluent in both fields.
There’s something else that sets the Georgia Tech team apart: While Bloch and Pokutta are the professors heading up the challenge – Pokutta compared Bloch and himself to investors in a startup company – the day-to-day work of solving the challenge is led by graduate students in ECE and ISyE.
Jana Boerger is an ISyE master’s student who will graduate this summer before entering the ISyE Ph.D. program in machine learning in fall 2017. She oversees management of the project. From an ISyE perspective, Boerger said, “The challenge shows that the optimization methods we learn in ISyE can be applied to very technical real-world problems.”
But like Pokutta and Bloch, Boerger sees the value of an interdisciplinary approach. She added, “What’s also interesting is that while our team is all students, the other teams in SC2 are companies – heavyweight teams with a lot of money behind them. I think we as students can be successful if we work together, because we have this interdisciplinary team. Innovation happens when you combine two different fields together, like we’re doing. You need to look outside the box and see what’s there and take the tools and the knowledge and combine what you have.”
Pokutta elaborated, “The challenge is a learning experience that encourages creativity. We don’t just want to take something that’s out there and enhance it. Our strategy is to break with the current paradigms, start in the physical area, and redo everything from scratch with collaboration and spectrum-sharing built in from the start, not just as an afterthought to the technology.”
Keerthi Suria Kumar Arumugam is a Ph.D. student in ECE, and he is the communications team leader. Arumugam’s team builds the interface between the hardware components and designs the signal processing algorithms to push meaningful data to machine-learning algorithms.
He explained, “We make sure we can receive signals from the network, process them, receive insights from machine-learning algorithms, and suitably schedule packets that they can then be pushed to the network.”
Over the course of the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge, the 30 teams will compete in three preliminary competitions – in December of 2017, 2018, and 2019 – with a final competition in 2020, taking place in the recently constructed DARPA Colosseum. The teams have a chance to win as much as $3.5 million in prize money.
The Colosseum, as described by the DARPA SC2 website, is located in a 30-foot by 20-foot server room on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. It is “capable of creating a much larger, and critically important wireless world. If all goes as planned during SC2, competitors … will use the Colosseum … as a world-unique testbed to create radically new paradigms for using and managing access to the electromagnetic spectrum in both military and civilian domains.”
Bloch explained the idea behind holding SC2 in the Colosseum in terms of bringing together a group of people speaking multiple foreign languages in one room: “What DARPA wants is to put people in the room who aren’t speaking the same language. You have no information on what language the others speak. If I speak French and someone else speaks Chinese, there’s little chance that we understand each other. But the key thing – and this is where machine learning kicks in – is that we don’t have to fully understand each other. Maybe we just need to understand high-level features and communicate high-level ideas.”
Pokutta added, “If there are several people in the room, you need to understand when there is a pause in the others’ speaking so you can use that available time to speak for yourself. You don’t need to understand what’s being said; you need to understand when the language is creating gaps or holes you can use for your own communication.”
In the meantime, prior to the preliminary challenges, the Georgia Tech team will compete in “scrimmages,” or informal competitions against several other participating teams that take place in the Colosseum. The scrimmages will provide opportunities for the team to run trials using their own radio networks and to test their algorithms against one another.
Arumugam said, “The scrimmage is an excellent reality check on where we stand with respect to other teams. It is also a great opportunity to experiment with certain features and check how they fare against the other teams. Since the scrimmages are not counted toward the final score, they are essentially rehearsals. We are preparing the first draft of our design to compete against two other teams on June 21.”
Thanks to the interdisciplinary nature and approach of the Georgia Tech Agile Communication Architectures team, the group is uniquely positioned for success in developing and executing an integrated solution to the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge as it navigates the multi-year, multi-phased competition.
]]>Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering
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]]>The strategy would take advantage of the fact that malware invaders need to communicate with their command and control computers, creating network traffic that can be detected and analyzed. Having an earlier warning of developing malware infections could enable quicker responses and potentially reduce the impact of attacks, the study’s researchers say.
“Our study shows that by the time you find the malware, it’s already too late because the network communications and domain names used by the malware were active weeks or even months before the actual malware was discovered,” said Manos Antonakakis, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “These findings show that we need to fundamentally change the way we think about network defense.”
Traditional defenses depend on the detection of malware in a network. While analyzing malware samples can identify suspicious domains and help attribute network attacks to their sources, relying on samples to drive defensive actions gives malicious actors a critical time advantage to gather information and cause damage. “What we need to do is minimize the amount of time between the compromise and the detection event,” Antonakakis added.
The research, which will be presented May 24 at the 38th IEEE Security and Privacy Symposium in San Jose, California, was supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The project was done in collaboration with EURECOM in France and the IMDEA Software Institute in Spain – whose work was supported by the regional government of Madrid and the government of Spain.
In the study, Antonakakis, Graduate Research Assistant Chaz Lever and colleagues analyzed more than five billion network events from nearly five years of network traffic carried by a major U.S. internet service provider (ISP). They also studied domain name server (DNS) requests made by nearly 27 million malware samples, and examined the timing for the re-registration of expired domains – which often provide the launch sites for malware attacks.
“There were certain networks that were more prone to abuse, so looking for traffic into those hot spot networks was potentially a good indicator of abuse underway,” said Lever, the first author of the paper and a student in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “If you see a lot of DNS requests pointing to hot spots of abuse, that should raise concerns about potential infections.”
The researchers also found that requests for dynamic DNS also related to bad activity, as these often correlate with services used by bad actors because they provide free domain registrations and the ability to add quickly add domains.
The researchers had hoped that the registration of previously expired domain names might provide a warning of impending attacks. But Lever found there was often a lag of months between when expired domains were re-registered and attacks from them began.
The research required development of a filtering system to separate benign network traffic from malicious traffic in the ISP data. The researchers also conducted what they believe is the largest malware classification effort to date to differentiate the malicious software from potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). To study similarities, they assigned the malware to specific “families.”
By studying malware-related network traffic seen by the ISPs prior to detection of the malware, the researchers were able to determine that malware signals were present weeks and even months before new malicious software was found. Relating that to human health, Antonakakis compares the network signals to the fever or general feeling of malaise that often precedes identification of the microorganism responsible for an infection.
“You know you are sick when you have a fever, before you know exactly what’s causing it,” he said. “The first thing the adversary does is set up a presence on the internet, and that first signal can indicate an infection. We should try to observe that symptom first on the network because if we wait to see the malware sample, we are almost certainly allowing a major infection to develop.”
In all, the researchers found more than 300,000 malware domains that were active for at least two weeks before the corresponding malware samples were identified and analyzed.
But as with human health, detecting a change indicating infection requires knowledge of the baseline activity, he said. Network administrators must have information about normal network traffic so they can detect the abnormalities that may signal a developing attack. While many aspects of an attack can be hidden, malware must always communicate back to those who sent it.
“If you have the ability to detect traffic in a network, regardless of how the malware may have gotten in, the action of communicating through the network will be observable,” Antonakais said. “Network administrators should minimize the unknowns in their networks and classify their appropriate communications as much as possible so they can see the bad activity when it happens.”
Antonakakis and Lever hope their study will lead to development of new strategies for defending computer networks.
“The choke point is the network traffic, and that’s where this battle should be fought,” said Antonakakis. “This study provides a fundamental observation of how the next generation of defense mechanisms should be designed. As more complicated attacks come into being, we will have to become smarter at detecting them earlier.”
In addition to those already mentioned, the study included Davide Balzarotti from EURECOM, and Platon Kotzias and Juan Caballero from IMDEA Software Institute.
This material is based upon work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce grant 2106DEK, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant 2106DGX and Air Force Research Laboratory/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant 2106DTX. This research was also partially supported by the Regional Government of Madrid through the N-GREENS Software-CM S2013/ICE-2731 project and by the Spanish Government through the DEDETIS grant TIN2015-7013-R. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Commerce, National Science Foundation, Air Force Research Laboratory, or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
CITATION: Chaz Lever, et al., “A Lustrum of Malware Network Communication: Evolution and Insights,” (38th IEEE Security and Privacy Symposium, 2017).
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]]>Both projects will be presented at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) May 29 – June 3 in Singapore.
In the first, five swarm quadcopters zip back and forth in formation, then change their behaviors based on user commands. The trick is to maneuver without smacking into each other or flying underneath another machine. If a robot cuts into the airstream of a higher flying quadcopter, the lower machine must quickly recover from the turbulent air or risk falling out of the sky.
“Ground robots have had built-in safety ‘bubbles’ around them for a long time to avoid crashing,” said Magnus Egerstedt, the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor who oversees the project. “Our quadcopters must also include a cylindrical ‘do not touch’ area to avoid messing up the airflow for each other. They’re basically wearing virtual top hats.”
As long as the Georgia Tech machines avoid flying in the two-foot space below their neighbor, they can swarm freely without a problem. That typically means they dart around each other rather than going low.
Ph.D. student Li Wang figured out the size of the “top hat” one afternoon by hovering one copter in the air and sending others back and forth underneath it. Any closer than 0.6 of a meter (or five times the diameter from one rotor to another) and the machines were blasted to the ground. Then he created algorithms to allow them to change formation midflight.
“We figured out the smallest amount of modifications a quadcopter must make to its planned path to achieve the new formation,” said Wang. “Mathematically, that’s what a programmer wants — the smallest deviations from an original flight plan.”
The project is part of Egerstedt and Wang’s overall research, which focuses on easily controlling and interacting with large teams of robots.
“Our skies will become more congested with autonomous machines, whether they’re used for deliveries, agriculture or search and rescue,” said Egerstedt, who directs Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. “It’s not possible for one person to control dozens or hundreds of robots at a time. That’s why we need machines to figure it out themselves.”
The researchers overseeing the second project, the blimps, 3D-printed a gondola frame that carries sensors and a mini camera. It attaches to either an 18- or 36-inch diameter balloon. The smaller blimp can carry a five-gram payload; the larger one supports 20 grams.
The autonomous blimps detect faces and hands, allowing people to direct the flyers with movements. All the while, the machine gathers information about its human operator, identifying everything from hesitant glares to eager smiles. The goal is to better understand how people interact with flying robots.
“Roboticists and psychologists have learned many things about how humans relate to robots on the ground, but we haven’t created techniques to study how we react to flying machines,” said Fumin Zhang, the Georgia Tech associate professor leading the blimp project. “Flying a regular drone close to people presents a host of issues. But people are much more likely to approach and interact with a slow-moving blimp that looks like a toy.”
The blimps’ circular shape makes them harder to steer with manual controllers, but allows them to turn and quickly change direction. This is unlike the more popular zeppelin-shaped blimps commonly used by other researchers.
Zhang has filed a request with Guinness World Records for the smallest autonomous blimp. He sees a future where blimps can play a role in people’s lives, but only if roboticists can determine what people want and how they’ll react to a flying companion.
“Imagine a blimp greeting you at the front of the hardware store, ready to offer assistance,” Zhang said. “People are good at reading people’s faces and sensing if they need help or not. Robots could do the same. And if you needed help, the blimp could ask, then lead you to the correct aisle, flying above the crowds and out of the way.”
]]>The annual Georgia Tech competition brings together student innovators to foster creativity, invention and entrepreneurship.
The finale begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Ferst Center for the Arts. It will air live on GPB and can be watched online here.
Meet the finalists:
The winning team earns $20,000 and represents Georgia Tech in the annual ACC InVenture Prize, taking place on campus March 31.
The second-place team gets $10,000.
Both first- and second-place finishers will receive free U.S. patent filings.
A $5,000 People’s Choice Award will go to the fans’ favorite invention. Voting will be held online and by text messaging during the finale.
]]>@LauraRDiamond
]]>In order to enable future multi-band 5G MIMO systems with high reliability and international roaming, Wang’s group has demonstrated the world’s first mm-Wave Doherty power amplifier that can cover multiple 5G bands (28GHz, 37GHz, and 39GHz) in only one silicon IC chip with the best reported back-off power efficiency enhancement among silicon power amplifiers. This single IC-footprint Doherty power amplifier is ideally suited for use in ultra-high-speed wireless data transfer and augmented-reality and virtual-reality (AR/VR) devices.
The team’s second demonstrator is a mm-wave multi-feed antenna and transmitter co-design for 5G backhaul applications. Unlike traditional phased-array designs, which comprise hundreds or thousands of many small antennas to achieve high gain at the expense of array beam-width, Wang’s group proposed and demonstrated a new multi-feed antenna concept that enables direct on-antenna power combining of multiple mm-wave power amplifiers; a proof-of-concept design in standard CMOS process achieves the best output power and energy efficiency among reported mm-Wave power amplifiers or transmitters whilst maintaining a single antenna footprint. This new multi-feed antenna and transmitter co-design is particularly useful to support high-performance long-range back-haul base-station/base-station communication for 5G networks and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure 5G links for self-driving transportation ‘smart city’ developments.
The team’s third demonstrator, a wideband digital power amplifier with built-in phase distortion cancellation, addresses the unmet need of broadband, high-efficiency, and high-linearity power amplifiers for 5G RF (<6GHz) applications. Digital power amplifiers offer superior energy efficiency and reconfigurability but often exhibit poor phase linearity under large signal operations. Wang’s group presented a novel digital power amplifier topology using feed forward capacitors and phase-insensitive matching network, which autonomously compensates and improves the phase linearity with no need of phase pre-distortion.
The final presentation by Wang’s team, an ultra-broadband 100GHz-300GHz transmitter/receiver system for mm-Wave/THz hyperspectral imaging, seeks to make terahertz based spectroscopy quick, non-destructive, and portable. This newly developed sensor platform may be used for a broad array of applications, such as wireless patient point-of-care health examinations via breath analysis and non-destructive and on-location scanning of packaged food items for safety and quality control. Additionally, the new sensor’s bandwidth, transmitter power flatness, and receiver sensitivity make it ideal for use in the growing world of new materials research and 3D printing by spectrally evaluating for hidden defects. The team demonstrated the successful real-time detection of metal screws in the sealed, packaged cookies and water content measurements in fresh vs. dry leaves.
About Dr. Wang
Professor Wang received his B.Sc. from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2003, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Dr. Wang is generally interested in innovating and engineering mixed-signal, RF, and mm-Wave integrated systems for wireless communication and bioelectronics applications. He is a member of Sigma Xi, the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, and the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society.
About IEEE ISSCC
The IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) is the flagship conference for solid state circuit design.
Further Reading
A 28GHz/37GHz/39GHz Multiband Linear Doherty Power Amplifier for 5G Massive MIMO Applications. Authors: Song Hu, Fei Wang, Hua Wang
A 60GHz On-Chip Linear Radiator with Single-Element 27.9dBm Psat and 33.1dBm Peak EIRP Using Multi-Feed Antenna for Direct On-Antenna Power Combining.
Authors: Taiyun Chi, Fei Wang, Sensen Li, Min-Yu Huang, Jongseok Park, and Hua Wang
A Packaged 90-300GHz Transmitter and 115-325GHz Coherent Receiver in CMOS for Full-Band Continuous-Wave Mm-Wave and THz Hyperspectral Imaging.
Authors: Taiyun Chi, Min-Yu Huang, Sensen Li, and Hua Wang
- Christa M. Ernst
]]>All Georgia Tech students and recent alumni are invited to attend. More than 100 employers will be in attendance and will be looking to fill various types of professional employment, from summer internships to full-time positions. Here’s more information about the fair, why you should go, and how you can prep.
While the career fair for all majors held in the fall is led by a student committee, this event has been coordinated by a team within the Center for Career Discovery and Development (C2D2) that includes Employer Relations Coordinator Alan Botkin and Director of Employer Relations Patricia Bazrod.
Botkin joined the team for the career fair this past fall and has managed company registration, logistics, and scheduling for the upcoming fair.
Employer spots at Georgia Tech career fairs are in high demand — registration for the spring event opened in November and has garnered 120 registered companies, with 89 on a waitlist
“The Georgia Tech fall career fair is where most recruiters start their Southeast recruiting tour,” Bazrod said. “The spring career fair has proven to have similar appeal to companies.”
Luckily, waitlisted companies have the opportunity to participate in a virtual career fair on Feb. 15. Look here for more details.
More than 100 companies will be attending the event, making it the perfect opportunity for students to begin building a professional network. Employers will range from Fortune 100 companies to the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) to the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). A full list of employers can be viewed here. For those attending the event, no pre-registration is required, but bring a GT ID or BuzzCard for admittance.
This is the first time a career fair will be held in McCamish Pavilion since its renovation in 2012. The change of location is expected to help with lines, navigation, and access for students. Students can attend any time between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. and can re-enter throughout the day.
Fourth-year chemical and biomolecular engineering major Yuri Terada has a unique insight on career fairs at Tech. She worked with C2D2 at both the 2016 Spring Internship and Co-Op Fair and the 2016 All Majors Fall Career Fair, assisting with check-in and directing attendees around the fair.
“Meeting the recruiters and asking about their experiences with a company is the best way to learn if the company and the position are a good fit for you,” she said. “The career fair provides students with an opportunity to make an impact on recruiters while gaining practical knowledge.”
A typical conversation with a company representative at a career fair revolves around a student’s resume. This gives students the chance to elaborate on their experiences and highlight their accomplishments.
“Often times,” Terada notes, “recruiters ask you to tell them more about your experiences, so that’s a good chance to walk them through your resume and focus on your skills.”
Toward the end of a fruitful conversation, students are encouraged to ask for the recruiter’s business card or contact information. Having the business card of a representative allows the student to follow up with the organization, send a thank you note, and have a direct contact to a company they might be interested in.
“The spring career fair is great for students who may not have been prepared for job searching during the fall semester,” Botkin said. He also noted that the career fair exposes students to companies they may not have seen before and allows them to get an understanding of a company’s culture.
“I knew of a student who was considering an offer for a job at a large company but turned down the offer after attending the fall career fair and finding a smaller company that seemed like a better fit, ” he said.
Some students may believe that career fairs are a one-stop shop for a job, but that isn’t always the case. This does not mean they should avoid going, however.
“The career fair is a great time for exploration,” Bazrod said. “Go ‘shopping’ and find a company that interests you.” The career fair offers valuable networking time, regardless of whether a job is found.
Institute Communications
]]>The researchers recently demonstrated properties of their chiral metamaterial, in which they spectrally modified two absorptive resonances by incrementally exposing the material to power intensities beyond its linear optical regime. With a 15 milliwatt change in excitation power, they measured a 10-nanometer spectral shift in the material’s transmission resonances and a 14-degree polarization rotation.
The researchers believe that may be the strongest nonlinear optical rotation ever reported for a chiral metamaterial, and is about a hundred thousand times larger than the current record measurement for this type of structure. The research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory, was reported February 27 in the journal Nature Communications.
“Nanoscale chiral structures offer an approach to modulating optical signals with relatively small variations in input power,” said Sean Rodrigues, a Ph.D. candidate who led the research in the laboratory of Associate Professor Wenshan Cai in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “To see this kind of change in such a thin material makes chiroptical metamaterials an interesting new platform for optical signal modulation.”
This modulation of chiroptical responses from metamaterials by manipulating input power offers the potential for new types of active optics such as all-optical switching and light modulation. The technologies could have applications in such areas as data processing, sensing and communications.
Chiral materials exhibit optical properties that differ depending on their opposing circular polarizations. The differences between these responses, which are created by the nanoscale patterning of absorptive materials, can be utilized to create large chiroptical resonances. To be useful in applications such as all-optical switching, these resonances would need to be induced by external tuning – such as variations in power input.
“When you increase the power, you shift the spectrum,” Rodrigues said. “In effect, you change the transmission at certain wavelengths, meaning you’re changing the amount of light passing through the sample by simply modifying input power.” For optical engineers, that could be the basis for a switch.
The material demonstrated by Cai’s lab are made by nano-patterning layers of silver – approximately 33 nanometers thick – onto glass substrates. Between the carefully-designed silver layers is a 45-nanometer layer of dielectric material. An elliptical pattern is created using electron beam lithography, then the entire structure is encapsulated within a dielectric material to prevent oxidation.
“It is the engineering of these structures that gives us these chiral optical properties,” Rodrigues explained. “The goal is really to take advantage of the discrepancy between one circular polarization versus the other to create the broadband resonances we need.”
The material operates in the visible to near-infrared spectrum, at approximately 740 to 1,000 nanometers. The optical rotation and circular dichroism measurements were taken with the beam entering the material at a normal incident angle.
The researchers induced the change in circular dichroism by increasing the optical power applied to the material from 0.5 milliwatts up to 15 milliwatts. While that is comparatively low power for a laser system, it has a high enough energy flux (energy transfer in time) to instigate change.
“The beam size is roughly 40 microns, so it is really focused,” said Rodrigues. “We are putting a lot of energy into a small area, which causes the effect to be fairly intense.”
The researchers don’t yet know what prompts the change, but suspect that thermal processes may be involved in altering the material’s properties to boost the circular dichroism. Tests show that the power applications do not damage the metamaterial.
Cai’s laboratory has been studying chiral materials of different kinds for a variety of optical applications. In June 2015, they reported the realization of one of the long-standing theoretical predictions in nonlinear optical metamaterials: creation of a nonlinear material that has opposite refractive indices at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies of light. Such a material, which doesn’t exist naturally, had been predicted for nearly a decade.
In addition to those already mentioned, the research included Shoufeng Lan, Lei Kang, Yonghao Cui, Patrick Panuski, Shengxiang Wang and Augustine M. Urbas. Urbas is associated with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Wang is associated with Wuhan Textile University in China. The others are associated with Georgia Tech.
This work was performed in part at the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS-1542174). This material is based on work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECCS-1609567 and by collaborative support from the Air Force Research Laboratory through UES and Azimuth subcontracts S-977-022-001 and 238-5404-GIT, respectively. Support is also acknowledged from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1650044. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring organizations.
CITATION: Rodrigues, S.P. et al., “Intensity-dependent modulation of optically active signals in a chiral metamaterial,” (Nature Communications, 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14602.
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]]>Georgia Tech was one of just 20 universities nationwide invited to send three students to RSAC, courtesy of the conference. RSAC selected universities based upon the strength of their cybersecurity programs, and students were chosen by their schools. Attending from Georgia Tech are David Formby (Ph.D. ECE), Marie Le Pichon (Ph.D. CS), and Carter Yagemann (Ph.D. CS).
“It really is an honor to be chosen to represent Georgia Tech when we have so many great security students here doing amazing work,” says Formby, whose research under Prof. Raheem Beyah in the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering focuses on problems in industrial control systems, such as the power grid. “I'm hoping to learn something from all the brilliant speakers and fellow scholars that will inspire new and interesting directions in my research.”
The Institute for Information Security & Privacy invited students to apply to be chosen last fall. Students were evaluated based upon academic standing, demonstrated interest in cybersecurity, and voluntary participation in IISP learning activities, such as the weekly Cybersecurity Lecture Series and Fall Demo Day at the Georgia Tech Cyber Security Summit.
“This will be my first time attending RSAC so I'm very excited,” says Yagemann, whose background in mobile security ultimately led him toward researching systems and machine learning security under professors Wenke Lee and Taesoo Kim in the School of Computer Science. “Being able to attend as an RSAC Security Scholar makes it even better. Industry prioritizes security problems differently than academia… I believe security is one of the fields where academics need to work closest with industry; getting to see another perspective is a wonderful opportunity.”
Le Pichon said her focus will be on “information and good conversation” about privacy, law, and identity – all central to her doctoral focus on cybersecurity public policy under Annie Antón, chair of the School of Interactive Computing.
“Being selected as an RSAC Security Scholar not only affords me the opportunity to take advantage of this well of knowledge, but validates my work in the field of information security,” she says. “I believe that the fields of privacy, security, and compliance are inextricably intertwined, and this further confirms an openness on the part of the security community to work on these issues holistically.”
The scholars will receive priority seating at conference keynotes, enjoy a private dinner with industry leaders, and a state of the industry panel with information security professionals from defense, consulting and manufacturing. Formby will present and speak in the ransomware seminar track. Yagemann says he also will compete in a voluntary “capture the flag” hacking contest. Le Pichon says she will follow the Hackers and Threats track in addition to her area of research.
“With more than 500 sessions at RSAC, we hope the students will discover a new angle of cybersecurity outside of their current focus,” said Lee, co-director of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy. “This is a phenomenal opportunity at a diverse and popular event. Being a security scholar will help them stand out in the crowd.”
All students are invited to participate in cybersecurity activities at Georgia Tech to help them understand facets of the problem applicable to their future careers. To learn more, visit www.iisp.gatech.edu/events
The annual competition brings together student innovators from all academic backgrounds to foster creativity, invention and entrepreneurship.
More than 500 students applied for the contest, which will select a winner March 15.
Here are the finalists:
Capable Cane is a walking cane that unfolds into a portable, full-sized comfortable seat. The design offers the stability of four legs and provides an armrest and a backrest, making it safer than what is currently available.
Inventor: Jeffrey McMichael, a mechanical engineering major from Atlanta.
CauteryGuard is a safer electrocautery device, which is used by doctors, veterinarians and other medical personnel to remove unwanted tissue and to stop bleeding. The CauteryGaurd automatically retracts when not in use, and the inventors said this removes any chance of accidental injury caused by the device during procedures.
Inventors: Four biomedical engineering majors – Jack Corelli from Philadelphia; Hunter Hatcher from Marietta, Ga.; Devin Li from Corning, N.Y.; and Dev Mandavia, from Duluth, Ga.
CPR+ is a CPR mask that allows an untrained bystander to perform CPR by collecting vitals and dynamically walking the user through each step of the process.
Inventors: Samuel Clarke, a mechanical engineering and computer science major from Indianapolis; David Ehrlich, a computer engineering major from Portland, Oregon; and Ryan Williams, a computer engineering major from Las Vegas.
Gaitway are transportable, collapsible parallel bars for physical therapists to use when working with children. Unlike other designs, Gaitway can be used by children as young as 15 months and as old as 10 and can support up to 150 pounds.
Inventors: Two industrial design majors – Nora Johnson from Tampa; and Veronica Young from McDonough, Ga.
InternBlitz takes the digital college application system of the Common App and applies it to internships. With more than 600 internships to choose from, students can apply for 15 different internships in just five minutes.
Inventors: Murtaza Bambot, an industrial engineering major from Duluth, Ga.; and Nathan Dass, a computer science major from Woodbridge, Va.
PickAR is like Google Maps for warehouses. The team invented a headset, which uses augmented reality technology to overlay picking information and directions to packages so warehouses can find and process orders more efficiently.
Inventors: Three computer science majors – Cheng Hann Gan from Wheaton, Ill.; Sarthak Srinivas from Bangalore, India; and Wenqi Xian from Beijing.
The winning team will take home $20,000 and will represent Georgia Tech in the annual ACC InVenture Prize, taking place on campus March 31.
The second-place team earns $10,000.
Both first- and second-place finishers will receive free U.S. patent filings by Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing and a spot in Georgia Tech’s startup accelerator program, Flashpoint.
A $5,000 People’s Choice Award will go to the fans’ favorite invention. Voting will be held online and by text messaging during the finale.
The finale will take place March 15 at the Ferst Center for the Arts. Tickets are free and can be requested here.
The event will also be aired live on Georgia Public Broadcasting.
]]>@LauraRDiamond
]]>Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Student Center, Third Floor
Oral Presentations 1:00-4:30pm
Poster Presentations 3:00-4:30pm
Reception & Awards 4:30-6:00pm
We are now accepting applications for the 2017 Spring Symposium.
Salary Awards offer a $1,500 stipend to undergraduate students who are conducting research with a Georgia Tech faculty member or Georgia Tech Research Institute scientist. Both faculty members and students can initiate research projects, but the award proposal must be written by the student, and the student must apply by the established deadline for the semester in which the funds are requested. Funds are competitively awarded. Please read all rules, eligibility requirements, and application procedures below before applying.
Students can apply for a PURA Salary Award through our online application form here. The two major components of the salary application are the research project proposal and the letter of recommendation from the applicant's faculty mentor.
RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL. Items to be included in the project proposal are:
Proposals should not exceed two pages in length (excluding references).
LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION. Once a student submits the online application form, an email is automatically sent to listed faculty member requesting a recommendation letter. Recommendation letters must be received by the application deadline, and applications are considered incomplete until a recommendation letter is received. It is for this reason that we advise against waiting until the last day to submit an application.
More information and deadlines can be found here.
]]>Please submit this form if you would like to request tickets to this year's InVenture Prize final round.
Please also note that requesting a ticket does not guarantee receiving a ticket, as this event may be oversold. In order to ensure that you have a seat at the live event, we strongly encourage you to pick up your tickets and be seated as early as possible. Tickets may be picked up on the night of the show in the lobby of the Ferst Center from 5:00-7:00pm on a first-come, first-serve basis. All audience members are to be seated by 7:00pm. There will be seats available at an alternate venue nearby to watch the streaming broadcast if you do not arrive in time to be seated at the live event.
You will receive a confirmation email following submission of this form with further instructions.
]]>
Allyson Tant
Program Coordinator, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
With the Georgia Tech Research Option, students are afforded a unique opportunity for intensive, hands-on research experiences as undergraduates. This opportunity provides students with several semesters of research on a single project, culminating in an original thesis or research paper. Research Option students work one-on-one with faculty members, and students are encouraged to present their final work at professional conferences or seek publication.
Students who graduate with the Research Option will have opportunities to extend their communication and writing skills, increase their knowledge in a specific area of emphasis, and depending on the research project, learn either independent research or teamwork skills. Students will be exposed to how research projects are created and sustained, and what research within their field of study really entails. Completing the option appears on a student’s transcript as a special designation, yet the true benefit of the program comes from the immersion in a specific independent research topic, interaction with peers from other disciplines also completing research, and special instruction in small classes on research-related skills and tools.
The Research Option is open to all students, but is specifically tailored for students who are considering graduate school, or students who are planning a career in research and development. Interested students need to have support from a faculty member to participate in the program.
For additional information on the Research Option, a list of participating schools, and additional resources, visit: http://urop.gatech.edu/research-option.
For more information on undergraduate research and the research option, email urop@gatech.edu.
]]>The spring semester is a busy time for OIE with many deadlines. Students who are interested in studying abroad during the summer 2017, fall 2017, or academic year 2017-2018 should make sure to submit their application materials on time. Many deadlines fall in early February 2017. For full details and information, please visit our website: http://oie.gatech.edu/study-abroad-programs.
Because Georgia Tech offers so many opportunities to study abroad, we have started to offer Study Abroad 101 Sessions each regular semester Tuesday at 11 a.m. in room 211, Savant Building. These sessions are for students to come ask questions and are more in-depth than a traditional information session. The sessions are to guide students in getting started in selecting a study abroad program.
The Georgia Tech China Summer Program offers students from every year and every major the opportunity to study abroad in China. Over a nine-week period, students and faculty travel together to Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Shanghai while completing Georgia Tech coursework. Students will see sites such as the Great Wall of China and Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak while staying on track for graduation. This program will be accepting applications through February 15, 2017. For more information, email Mary Alice Allen at maryalice.allen@oie.gatech.edu.
Studying abroad is not the only way for students to go global. Georgia Tech’s Global Internship program has expanded 39 percent in the last academic year. With more students taking advantage of these opportunities, it is important to know when internship deadlines are coming up. To learn more about summer and fall Global Internships with upcoming deadlines, please go to http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bead96385b046062aad906361&id=f6550696ff
]]>The simulated attack was designed to highlight vulnerabilities in the control systems used to operate industrial facilities such as manufacturing plants, water and wastewater treatment facilities, and building management systems for controlling escalators, elevators and HVAC systems. Believed to be the first to demonstrate ransomware compromise of real PLCs, the research is scheduled to be presented February 13 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
Though no real ransomware attacks have been publicly reported on the process control components of industrial control systems, the attacks have become a significant problem for patient data in hospitals and customer data in businesses. Attackers gain access to these systems and encrypt the data, demanding a ransom to provide the encryption key that allows the data to be used again.
Ransomware generated an estimated $200 million for attackers during the first quarter of 2016, and the researchers believe it’s only a matter of time before critical industrial systems are compromised and held for ransom.
“We are expecting ransomware to go one step farther, beyond the customer data to compromise the control systems themselves,” said David Formby, a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “That could allow attackers to hold hostage critical systems such as water treatment plants and manufacturing facilities. Compromising the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in these systems is a next logical step for these attackers.”
Many industrial control systems lack strong security protocols, said Raheem Beyah, the Motorola Foundation Professor and associate chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Formby’s faculty advisor. That’s likely because these systems haven’t been targeted by ransomware so far, and because their vulnerabilities may not be well understood by their operators.
Formby and Beyah used a specialized search program to locate 1,400 PLCs of a single type that were directly accessible across the internet. But most such devices are located behind business systems that provide some level of protection – until they are compromised. Once attackers get into a business system, they could pivot to enter control systems if they are not properly walled off.
“Many control systems assume that once you have access to the network, that you are authorized to make changes to the control systems,” Formby said. “They may have very weak password policies and security policies that could let intruders take control of pumps, valves and other key components of the industrial control system.”
In the past, control systems weren’t designed for connection to the internet, and many users of the systems assume they aren’t on the public network and therefore not susceptible to attack. Control systems may also have connections that are unknown to operators, including access points installed to allow maintenance, troubleshooting and updates.
“There are common misconceptions about what is connected to the internet,” said Formby. “Operators may believe their systems are air-gapped and that there’s no way to access the controllers, but these systems are often connected in some way.”
To launch the research, the researchers identified several common PLCs in use at industrial facilities. They obtained three different devices and tested their security setup, including password protection and susceptibility to settings changes. The devices were then combined with pumps, tubes and tanks to create a simulated water treatment facility. In the place of chlorine normally used to disinfect water, the researchers used iodine. They also added starch to their water supply, which turned bright blue when a simulated attack added iodine to it.
“We were able to simulate a hacker who had gained access to this part of the system and is holding it hostage by threatening to dump large amounts of chlorine into the water unless the operator pays a ransom,” Formby said. “In the right amount, chlorine disinfects the water and makes it safe to drink. But too much chlorine can create a bad reaction that would make the water unsafe.”
Vulnerabilities in control systems have been known for more than a decade, but until the growth of ransomware, attackers had not been able to benefit financially from compromising the systems. As other ransomware targets become more difficult, Beyah believes attackers may turn to easier targets in the industrial control systems.
“It’s quite likely that nation-state operators are already familiar with this and have attacks that they could use for political purposes, but ordinary attackers have had no interest in these systems,” he said. “What we hope to do is bring attention to this issue. If we can successfully attack these control systems, others with a bad intention can also do it.”
In addition to improving password security and limiting connections, Beyah says operators of these devices need to install intrusion monitoring systems to alert them if attackers are in the process control networks. Beyah and Formby have launched a company to make their strategies for protecting systems broadly available to control system operators.
Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA
Media Relations Contacts: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu) or Ben Brumfield (404-385-1933) (ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu).
Writer: John Toon
]]>Research News
(404) 894-6986
]]>“As women pursuing STEM degrees from Georgia Tech, Stempower was personally relevant to all of us from the beginning,” remarked Leonard, an undergraduate in the School of Psychology. “The majority of the co-founders had a role model who provided direct encouragement. Yet for girls growing up without a role model, where can they turn for support? We knew that we needed Stempower to fill this gap.”
Stempower is a mentoring program offered by Georgia Tech women students that encourages girls to explore STEM and learn key character values. Partnering with the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, two Stempower mentors meet bimonthly with fourth- and fifth-grade girls in a given troop. Each meeting is comprised of a different STEM activity — building rockets, making circuits, or learning to code — paired with a character lesson like encouraging questions and valuing mistakes.
“Research shows that young women start losing interest in math and science during middle school. We created Stempower to mentor elementary school girls in STEM, thereby increasing their self-confidence and providing relatable role models,” said Rizk, an undergraduate in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering.
Three years later, after initial support from the Grand Challenges Living and Learning Community, Stempower has become one of the outreach initiatives of the Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology (WST), with eight Tech mentors and 100 Girl Scout mentees in the U.S. Stempower was also launched at Uganda’s Makerere University after Rizk witnessed similar women’s empowerment issues during a service project a few years ago.
“After mentoring for years, I still clearly remember my first meeting with a troop,” Leonard reflected. “The meeting opened with a broad discussion about women scientists and engineers. Upon mentioning Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman astronaut, girls raised their hands and jumped up and down for the opportunity to tell me what they already knew about her. After this first meeting, I walked away impressed by their knowledge and energy and encouraged that supporting these girls through Stempower would help each of them thrive.”
According to Carol Colatrella, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, assistant dean for graduate studies, and co-director of WST, “We are excited to support Stempower as their efforts align with WST’s mission and goals to promote the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women students and faculty in STEM fields.”
If interested in becoming a mentor, contact stempower.gt@gmail.com. To learn more about Stempower, visit www.wst.gatech.edu/stempower.
]]>Communications Manager
Institute Diversity
annette.filliat@gatech.edu
]]>For the second consecutive year, the Institute’s College of Engineering ranked No. 7 (No. 3 among public universities), and all 11 of the programs within the college are ranked in the top 10, including:
The Scheller College of Business full-time MBA program ranked No. 29, up from last year’s rank of 34, and its Production/Operations specialty ranked No. 8. Scheller’s Information Systems specialty ranked No. 10, up from 11 last year. The biggest specialty jump for Scheller came in its Supply Chain/Logistics program, moving to No. 17 from No. 21 last year.
Graduate programs in computing, public policy and sciences are not ranked annually. According to previous rankings, the Georgia Tech College of Computing’s graduate programs ranked No. 9 overall with the artificial intelligence specialty ranked No. 6, systems ranked No. 6, theory ranked No. 8, and programming languages No. 13.
In the College of Sciences, the Chemistry degree program was ranked No. 24, and in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the School of Public Policy’s graduate programs ranked No. 45 overall and No. 2 in the information and technology specialty.
]]>The projects, which will take place over the next two years and have a budget of more than $9 million, are backed by NextFlex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a group of private companies, universities, several state and local governments and not-for-profit organizations with a mission to advance flexible electronics manufacturing in the United States.
Researchers at Georgia Tech are partnering with Boeing, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, General Electric, and DuPont as well other research institutions such as Binghamton University and Stanford University on the projects.
Flexible electronics are circuits and systems that can be bent, folded, stretched or conformed without losing their functionality. The systems are often created using machines that can print components such as logic, memory, sensors, batteries, antennas, and various passives using conductive ink on flexible surfaces. Combined with low-cost manufacturing processes, flexible hybrid electronics unlock new product possibilities for a wide range of electronics used in the health care, consumer products, automotive, aerospace, energy and defense sectors.
Suresh Sitaraman, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, who is leading Georgia Tech’s flexible electronics activities, said the technologies have the potential to positively impact some of society’s greatest challenges.
“Flexible electronics will make possible new products that will help us address problems associated with food supply, clean water, clean energy, health, infrastructure, and safety and security,” Sitaraman said.
More than 20 researchers at Georgia Tech are involved in projects involving flexible electronics from the School of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Several interdisciplinary research intitutes at Georgia Tech are also involved in the projects, including the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, and the Institute for Materials.
“The area of flexible hybrid electronics has a unique appeal because of the inexpensive nature of printed electronics and the availability of a wide-range of substrate materials in large panel forms,” said Oliver Brand, a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the executive director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology.
Georgia Tech was one of the founding members of the Manufacturing Innovation Institute, which is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and distributes research and development funds through competitively bid project calls. Industry-generated technology roadmaps drive project calls, timelines and investments.
In one of the projects, Boeing will partner with Georgia Tech researchers Tequila Harris, Suresh Sitaraman, Manos Tentzeris, and Rao Tummala to create a flexible array antenna that could be incorporated into a plane fuselage.
“By fabricating large and broadband antenna arrays using a combination of additively manufactured silver, carbon nanostructures such as graphene and nanotubes, and magnetic materials on several layers on flexible substrates, we will fundamentally stretch the flexible antenna technologies to frequencies better by one to two orders of magnitude compared to current state-of-the-art,” said Manos Tentzeris, Ken Byers Professor in Flexible Electronics with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “This achievement will enable the first millimeter-wave flexible broadband wireless modules applications, such as real-world large-area Internet of Things, smart skins and wearable biomonitoring systems.”
In another project, Georgia Tech researchers Abhijit Chatterjee, Sam Graham, Suresh Sitaraman, Ben Wang, and Chuck Zhang will partner with Binghamton University and DuPont to perform a range of tests on flexible electronics to gauge how the mechanical and electrical characteristics will change under repeated bending, stretching, and twisting over a wide range of temperatures.
“Studying the electrical behavior of printed silver, copper, carbon, dielectric and other materials over multi-GHz frequency will provide unique insight that has not been addressed before,” Sitaraman said. “Similarly, repeated bending and stretching experiments and models under various thermal and humidity conditions will offer insight into cracking, debonding, and other failure characteristics of printed and assembled materials on a wide range of substrates.”
In the project headed by Hewlett Packard Enterprises in partnership with Georgia Tech, Stanford University, and the University of California – Santa Barbara, the team will develop process-design kits (PDK) for flexible electronics.
“PDKs are commonly used for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor devices for design and fabrication. However, when it comes to the nascent flexible electronics, design and fabrication tool kits are non-existent, and this project will accelerate developing and integrating such toolkits with commercial software packages,” said Madhavan Swaminathan, a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who is developing electrical models for the project using Machine Learning techniques.
In the fourth project, led by Binghamton University, Georgia Tech researchers Sam Graham, Olivier Pierron, Suresh Sitaraman, and Charles Ume will examine the reliability of wearable human health and performance monitoring devices through physics-of-failure models.
“Based on our experiments, we see that our protective barrier coatings on devices are able to provide protection, when the devices are exposed to phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution similar to physiological fluids, and thus, Georgia Tech will make important contributions to wearable electronics,” said Sam Graham, a professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering.
The flexible electronics program will not only unleash a wide range of game-changing applications but will also dovetail with Georgia Tech’s mission to develop a highly-trained workforce, Sitaraman said.
“By incorporating the ideas into classroom education, capstone design courses, student internships, and external short courses, the program aims to develop a comprehensive workforce consisting of doctoral and master’s thesis students, practicing undergraduate engineers, product developers, and high-school students, and will position Georgia Tech as a leader in the development of a well-qualified and well-trained workforce to address different aspects of flexible electronics from research to practice to product development to manufacturing and economic growth,” he said.
]]>Research News
]]>“It always surprises me,” said Howard, the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The medical and biomedical fields are just as technical as robotics, but they don’t have as major of a gender gap.”
The good news? While nationwide numbers for robotics aren’t available, the number of females getting undergraduate degrees in computer science is increasing. It was nearly 14 percent in 2009. It’s up to almost 16 percent as of 2015. This past fall, 23 percent of Georgia Tech’s computer science students were female.
Does diversity in robotics truly matter? Howard and fellow females are quick to say yes.
“If robots are truly being built so everyone can use them, how can roboticists figure out what’s needed for half the population if women aren’t represented very well in the design process?” Howard asked. “Our field must be reflective of the consumer market.”
In a world dominated by men, here are 10 Georgia Tech women changing the field of robotics.
]]>From autonomy, to human augmentation, to collaborative robotics, IRIM partners with industry and government to pursue transformative robotics research.
Check out three examples of how IRIM is creating the next in robotics.
Georgia Tech's Rob Callan, a post-doctoral researcher, and Ph.D. Student Farnaz Behrang brought the winning cybersecurity solution with a new approach for detecting malware in embedded devices. The pair landed 1st Place and $5,000 toward commercialization at the Institute for Information Security & Privacy's "Demo Day Finale" with a method to monitor radio frequency emissions ("electromagnetic emanations") and help detect unwanted code or hijacks.
The method first characterizes electromagnetic emanations generated by software running on an uncompromised device. To protect another device against intrusions, Callan and Behrang continually monitor its EM emanations, and when those differ from the uncompromised device, they examine for a possible hack. This approach separates (or "air-gaps") the monitor from the device being monitored.
Judges at Demo Day Finale immediately saw numerous applications for commercialization.
"Healthcare is a dream problem set for this method because countless devices roll in and each from its own maker," says Jeff Garbers, a Demo Day Finale judge and principal at VentureLabs. "These types of devices are rarely updated or known when they are out of compliance, and there is no sensor smart enough to tell if the software inside is failing."
The method by Callan and Behrang is an evolution of work that began under the direction of Georgia Tech faculty Milos Prvulovic and Alenka Zajic, who co-advise Callan in the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Knowing that "side channel" emanations could be read from a nearby device, the researchers further explored what the technique might reveal as a preventative measure for nuanced IoT, personal or embedded devices.
"We're grateful for the recognition and feedback, and we look forward to commercializing this research to solve tough cybersecurity problems in the near future," Callan said on behalf of his team.
Also winning $5,000 at Demo Day Finale was Ph.D. Candidate David Formby from the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering for another approach to preventing malware – this time in industrial control systems, such as water plants or utilities. Formby’s software suite won the 2nd Place prize of $3,000 from judges, plus a surprise nab as the audience favorite for the $2,000 People’s Choice Award.
“I was optimistic, but I didn’t expect to win both,” Formby cheerfully said after the event, posing with two prize checks and encircled by congratulatory students.
Formby is expected to graduate in Summer 2017 and already has formed a company, Fortiphyd Logic, to begin commercializing his invention. Callan graduated from Georgia Tech in December 2016 with a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering. Behrang is a Ph.D. student in the School of Computer Science, studying software evolution and testing. She is advised by Alessandro Orso.
About Demo Day
Each year, students are invited to compete before venture capitalists and industry leaders at the Institute for Information Security & Privacy's "Demo Day." Students bring initial research ideas to the fall Georgia Tech Cyber Security Summit, where public vote determines which projects are invited back in the Spring. Students return six months later at the Demo Day Finale for a TED-style talk about their developing project. A panel of business leaders and investors from across the United States advise students about future considerations for commercialization. Student research with the best chance of commercialization or demonstrating the most impact toward resolving an information security need receives a cash prize.
"The Institute for Information Security & Privacy wants to move good ideas to market," says Wenke Lee, co-director. "We know industry leans on academic researchers to raise new ideas and we lean on industry to take solutions to the public. Our hope is that by introducing students to business mentors early in the research timeline that we can help them naturally build productive relationships and reduce time to market. All students participating in Demo Day will benefit from the insight and critique of those closest to industry needs today."
]]>Jackie Nemeth, (404) 894-2906, jackie.nemeth@ece.gatech.edu
]]>Each year, IRIM welcomes distinguished scholars from around the world to pursue research interests in robotics during an extended visit to the Georgia Tech Atlanta campus. Candidates engaged in research activities focusing on robotics are selected from universities or industry/government laboratories.
Bio
Gregory S. Chirikjian received undergraduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University in 1988, and a Ph.D. degree from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1992.
Since 1992, he has served on the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, attaining the rank of full professor in 2001. Additionally, from 2004-2007, he served as department chair.
Chirikjian’s research interests include robotics, applications of group theory in a variety of engineering disciplines, and the mechanics of biological macromolecules.
He is a 1993 National Science Foundation Young Investigator, a 1994 Presidential Faculty Fellow, and a 1996 recipient of the ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal.
In 2008, Chirikjian became a fellow of the ASME, and in 2010, he became a fellow of the IEEE. From 2014-15, he served as a program director for the National Robotics Initiative, which included responsibilities in the Robust Intelligence cluster in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of CISE at NSF.
Chirikjian is the author of more than 250 journal and conference papers and the primary author of three books, including Engineering Applications of Noncommutative Harmonic Analysis (2001) and Stochastic Models, Information Theory, and Lie Groups, Vols. 1+2. (2009, 2011). In 2016, an expanded edition of his 2001 book was published as a Dover book under a new title, Harmonic Analysis for Engineers and Applied Scientists.
]]>Leigh is the associate dean for research in the College and last fall secured a grant from the National Science Foundation National Robotics Initiative to study the U.S. robotics industry and its economic impacts. She also is a professor in the School of City and Regional Planning.
She gave us her thoughts on robotics research and the industry.
1. Why should anyone research the robotics industry?
Robots are being developed and “employed” across the economy, on farms, in factories, warehouses, hotels and hospitals, to name just a few types of businesses using them. They will fundamentally transform daily life and work. Researchers are essential to making that transformation happen from a creative and technical perspective. They also have a key role to play in ensuring that robotics diffusion is not simply imposed upon society in a way the causes winners and losers, but, rather, leads to robotics’ full potential for enhancing all human experience and safeguarding the physical world.
2. How will robots affect city and regional planning?
City and regional planning includes a number of specializations that focus on the world in which we live, such as economic development, environment, housing, land use, and transportation. Robotics diffusion will affect all of these areas, but, currently, the most attention is being given to how autonomous vehicles (a kind of robot) will alter our transportation infrastructure, as well as greatly reduce the number of driver jobs.
3. Your peers are inventing and improving robots: What does Georgia Tech need to do to shape a future with robots?
We are already shaping a robotic future at Georgia Tech, but there is much to be done. Within the College of Design, in a great example of how robots can contribute to the arts and empowering those with disabilities, music Professor Gil Weinberg has developed a marimba-playing robotic musician that uses machine learning for jazz improvisation, as well as a prosthetic robotic arm for amputees that restores and enhances human drumming abilities. Associate Professor Russell Gentry offers a great example for architecture; he is using a Kuka robot for teaching robotic fabrication and for researching humans – robot collaboration in a fabrication setting.
4. What else should the Design academic community research about robots?
We have a major research focus on assistive technologies involving several schools and research centers of the College of Design and robots will be an increasing part of such technologies. How robots navigate existing street, sidewalk and building infrastructure, and how their presence might influence future design of such infrastructure is another rich research area. And how the deployment of robots in multiple economic sectors affects current and future jobs will be a critical economic development question tying in with many aspects of the Design academic community.
]]>“In this role, Rob will help stimulate cutting-edge, transformative research and facilitate its translation into practice,” said May. “He will also be working closely with faculty leaders to support interdisciplinary research initiatives and help position our researchers at the forefront of interaction with funding agencies.”
A 1991 BEE graduate of Georgia Tech, Butera attended graduate school at Rice University in Houston, Texas, receiving the MSEE in 1994 and PhD in 1996. Following graduate school, he conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. While at the NIH, he worked jointly in the Mathematical Research Branch and the Laboratory for Neural Control. Butera is a professor in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
"I enjoy the challenge of helping to enable our faculty and students to engage in the cutting edge research Georgia Tech is known for,” Butera said. In his role as associate dean for research & innovation, Butera will focus on enabling engineering faculty members to develop and sustain excellence in scholarship and research, as well as creating an environment in which innovation, entrepreneurship, and public service are fundamental characteristics of CoE graduates.
Prior to joining the Dean’s Office, Butera directed the Neural Engineering Center (2014-2016). He previously served as founding Faculty Director of the Grand Challenges Living Learning Community (2012-2015) and Director of the Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program (2005-2008).
Butera’s research is focused on developing novel methods for peripheral and autonomic nerve modulation using electrical signaling, combining engineering and neuroscience to tackle clinically motivated problems. Professionally, Butera has served as Vice-President for Finance (2011-2014) and was elected to serve as Vice-President for Publications (2017-2020) for the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Organization for Computational Neuroscience (2013-2015). Butera is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
]]>Students were recognized for academic excellence in addition to other outstanding achievements and leadership. Awards were given at both the Institute level and within individual colleges. See photos on Flickr.
Congratulations go out to the following students:
Because cybersecurity no longer is confined to the discipline of computer science, three specialization tracks—policy, energy systems, as well as information security—will be offered to broaden Georgia Tech’s Master of Science in Information Security (MS INFS). The degree, historically housed under the College of Computing, has been renamed the Master of Science in Cybersecurity and is delivered through three colleges at Georgia Tech, effective May 1.
Participating are the College of Engineering School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts School of Public Policy, and the College of Computing School of Computer Science. Students may enter the degree from any of the three colleges, take a uniform set of core courses, and complete a specialization track for a total of 32 credit hours.
“Georgia Tech recognizes that the field of cybersecurity has become much broader than just technologies that secure digital information,” says Mustaque Ahamad, a professor of computer science who initiated the expansion and established Georgia Tech’s pioneering information security program 15 years ago. “Cybersecurity touches multiple disciplines, careers, and nearly all aspects of society—especially energy and public policy.”
Cybersecurity already is a part of courses taught by internationally recognized Georgia Tech faculty with expertise in public policy and electrical engineering, including professors Raheem Beyah, Hans Klein, Milton Mueller, and Peter Swire. The expanded degree formalizes a track for those students and others and also updates the existing curriculum to align with industry standards.
The expanded degree confirms for students in other programs, such as liberal arts, that cybersecurity will be part of their careers and it allows them to focus on a critical area of cybersecurity in addition to core computing fundamentals.
“As technology evolves and changes how societies interact, public policy must lead and continually represent the values and wishes of society,” says Kaye Husbands Fealing, chair of the School of Public Policy. “Cybersecurity policy affects privacy, speech, and governance of the tools that are now essential to commerce and communication. We’re pleased to offer this focus.”
"Cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, such as power and water systems, demands more attention from industry, policymakers, and academia," says Steven W. McLaughlin, professor and the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering. “Georgia Tech’s research in this area has sounded the alarm for our society to take heed of these issues, and now we’re pleased to support that with a formalized degree dedicated to energy systems cybersecurity.”
]]>This year, the $10,000 scholarship provided by the Gay and Erskine Love Foundation went to Georgie Tzintzarov, an electrical and computer engineering major, and Charles M. Wang, a chemistry and computer science major. Students in all six of Georgia Tech’s colleges are considered for the award.
Both students have maintained a 4.0 GPA while engaging in multiple academic enrichment activities outside of normal coursework. The two received the award at the annual Student Honors Celebration on April 20.
Tzintzarov held summer internships at Cisco and Boeing, and he has worked as a co-op student in the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Electronic Systems Lab. He was able to get a taste of research in two different labs during his undergraduate career. He worked in Professor Ayanna Howard’s Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Lab through the Opportunity Research Scholars (ORS) program and was later an undergraduate research assistant in Professor John Cressler’s Silicon-Germanium Devices and Circuits Lab.
Propelled by his exposure to undergraduate research, Tzintzarov is now pursuing a Ph.D. degree with a focus on microelectronics/microsystems with Professor Cressler as his advisor.
Outside of the lab, Tzintzarov is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and led efforts to improve his fraternity’s academic performance while maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. He hopes to inspire his brothers to be great leaders both at Georgia Tech and in life.
Given his numerous accomplishments, perhaps the most impressive part of Tzintzarov’s journey is where it began—in a small town in Eastern Europe. Below he expounds on his “American Genesis” story and how his upbringing made him the man he is today.
Funded by a President’s Undergraduate Research Award, Wang worked with Josephine Yu, an assistant professor in the School of Mathematics. The undergraduate research has yielded two articles co-authored by Wang. “Generalized Permutohedra from Probabilistic Graphical Models” has been posted on arXiv.org and is under review for publication in the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics. Another research article, “Toric h-vectors and Chow Betti Numbers of Dual Hypersimplices,” is in preparation.
“Charles has a rare combination of curiosity, perseverance, and mathematical and computational ability, which makes him an ideal research student,” Yu said. “I have every reason to believe that he will succeed in graduate school and beyond.”
Wang’s fondness for mathematics has taken him to Hungary, where he participated in Georgia Tech’s Budapest Semester in Mathematics Program and to North Carolina, Germany, and Finland to attend mathematical research summer workshops. He will pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
SeaPerch is a robotics program that equips teachers and students with the resources they need to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). More than 200 student teams will participate, including regional winners from middle and high schools as well as from 4-H, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, home schoolers, and other groups who have earned the right to compete against their peers on the national stage.
During the competition, the students will test their vehicles, navigate an obstacle course and compete in specific challenges. Each team will also present their understanding of engineering principles and design concepts through an Engineering Notebook.
“At Georgia Tech, we’re creating the next generation of scientists and engineers to solve the world’s most difficult problems, and at Georgia Tech Research Institute, those solutions come to life for our customers,” said Leigh McCook, GTRI division chief and director of STEM outreach programs. “It’s important for us to be involved with initiatives like SeaPerch because they stimulate excitement for careers in STEM. We need these students at Georgia Tech so we can continue meet the demand for STEM workers at GTRI and throughout the economy.”
SeaPerch is the innovative K-12 underwater robotics program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and managed by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation (AUVSI). The competition provides students with the opportunity to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts and careers while building an underwater ROV as part of a science and engineering technology curriculum. Throughout the project, student teams learn to solve problems using engineering and scientific processes such as design principles, buoyancy and displacement, propulsion, tool safety and usage, circuitry, ergonomics, depth measurement, and the physics of motion, force and light. To learn more, visit www.seaperch.org/seaperch_challenge.
GTRI’s STEM initiative — STEM@GTRI — aims to inspire, engage and impact Georgia educators and students by providing access to experts in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Through this interaction, GTRI hopes to improve academic performance in STEM subjects and encourage students to pursue educational and career opportunities in these areas, as well as provide materials for teachers to strengthen their STEM-related curriculum.
The Georgia Tech Research Institute solves complex problems through innovative and customer-focused research and education. Established in 1934, GTRI is Georgia Tech’s nonprofit, applied research arm with more than 2,000 staff, 20 locations, eight laboratories and annual contract awards exceeding $360 million. Learn more at www.gtri.gatech.edu.
]]>With the beginning of funding for SENIC, the IEN seed grant program was extended to include non-Georgia Tech students and PI’s for award consideration. This award session is the second in which an off-campus research project was chosen for inclusion.
The 5 winning projects, from a diverse group of engineering disciplines, were awarded a six-month block of IEN cleanroom and lab access time. In keeping with the interdisciplinary mission of IEN, the projects that will be enabled by the grants include research in materials, biomedicine, energy, and electronics applications.
The Spring 2017 IEN Seed Grant Award winners are:
Awardees will present the results of their research efforts at the annual IEN User Day in 2018.
For more information about IEN cleanroom facilities, research capabilities, and collaboration opportunities please visit www.ien.gatech.edu.
]]>The submission deadline for awards beginning in the fall semester is May 31 at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Saving Time).
For eligibility and application requirements read here
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ICRA is one of two premier international conferences covering advances in robotics, alongside IROS (the International Conference On Intelligent Robots and Systems).
Georgia Tech’s participation at ICRA 2017 is among the top ten of all institutions represented at the conference, ranking among nearly 3,000 of the world's leading roboticists contributing to 953 papers.
Among the cohort of conference participants are 60 faculty members and graduate students representing Georgia Tech by presenting 23 papers, leading several topic-area sessions, and delivering a keynote address.
These researchers hail from the College of Engineering, the College of Computing, and the College of Sciences.
To keep up with Georgia Tech’s presence and all papers being presented at ICRA 2017, the GVU Center and IRIM have developed the GT@ICRA 2017 microsite, which includes a series of interactive visualizations for exploring the conference program.
Join us on Tuesday, May 30 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the Casablanca Conference Room in the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (main conference venue) to meet IRIM faculty members and graduate students and learn more about Robotics at Georgia Tech.
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Ask Georgia Tech researchers working with advanced materials for examples, and they give a pop culture reference. Two of them even cite the same reference.
“It’s like The Terminator, liquid metal that then becomes a solid,” says Alberto Fernandez-Nieves, associate professor in the School of Physics.
“Think of The Terminator,” says another School of Physics associate professor, Jennifer Curtis.
Pop culture so effectively appropriates next-level science research, that it comes as no surprise that these scientists first thought of Oscar-winning director James Cameron’s shapeshifting “mimetic polyalloy” assassin from the future in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
“Or that animated movie, Big Hero 6,” Curtis adds, referring to a 2014 Disney film about nanobots combining to form bigger objects. “We would love to find an original way to create small shapes. And then make them intelligent enough to properly reconfigure in some other way.”
Georgia Tech scientists aim to make those science-fiction scenarios real through collaborative, interdisciplinary research at the Center for the Science and Technology of Advanced Materials and Interfaces (STAMI).
Launched in 2016, STAMI comprises four groups:
Of all those acronyms, COPE’s has been around the longest, since 2003. COPE helped develop the optical technologies that enable flat-screen HDTV to deliver sharper resolutions on any monitor size while consuming less power.
Over the years, COPE has attracted some $84 million in research funding and research-related awards, says Seth Marder, Regents Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and COPE’s founding director. That’s because “we were able to create multi-investigator proposals with a very high degree of success,” Marder says.
Because proposals from centers with teams of researchers tend to attract more funding, Marder and colleagues set up STAMI to brew ideas and foster collaboration among researchers across Georgia Tech.
“People who work in advanced materials recognize that collaborative approaches are critical,” Marder says. At COPE and now in STAMI, he adds, “we recognize that if you build the strong human relationships, the strong collaborative scientific relationships will be that much stronger, that much more fun, and it will lead to that much more productivity and the opportunity to do other things.”
The promise of advanced materials
When subjected to stimuli – such as current, light, heat, or chemicals – liquids, foams, gels, liquid crystals, and other substances may respond and change, or even acquire new functions.
The liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in smartphones and TV/computer monitors are organic photonic technologies in action. They are marvelous combinations of thin films, electrolytic gels, and molecules that respond to light and electricity.
Soft matter is anything that can be prodded, poked, folded, warped, or deformed by weak external causes, including heat and mechanical forces. Examples abound but the science around them is relatively young.
Polymers, strings of repeating molecular units, can be natural, like the DNA in cells, or synthetic, like the plastics in houses. Manipulating them can yield stronger construction materials or more effective medical treatments.
Advanced materials can mean progress from healthcare to defense technology and consumer electronics. But getting materials to work together – and allowing users to program, control, and predict their behaviors – is key to realizing the next-generation promises.
COPE: Collaboration before collaborating was cool
It was the spirit of teamwork that first brought Marder to Georgia Tech in 2003, after appointments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and the University of Arizona.
He and three others who were focused on optical sciences started COPE shortly after they arrived at Tech. They believed that a center like COPE would help them brainstorm research ideas while increasing their chance of funding.
That teamwork helped Marder ignore temptations to move to other universities. “What kept me at Georgia Tech is the people,” he says. “If you’re fundamentally connected with the people around you, that’s a pretty strong adhesive.”
To that end, Marder became a strong protagonist for COPE’s collaborative propensity. Materials science can involve physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, and reaching across Tech’s colleges and schools is key. COPE pioneered this approach.
“You’re not just bringing people together to work on a problem; you need the right culture,” says Bernard J. Kippelen, a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and current COPE director. “Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned in that respect because interdisciplinary research is part of Georgia Tech’s DNA.”
Research themes exemplify the intrinsic interdisciplinarity:
“We focus on organic – carbon-based – materials,” Kippelen says, because they can be processed at room temperature, making manufacturing easier. And because the building blocks are molecules, physical properties can be controlled by changing chemical structure.
“As we study more of these materials to understand why they work, we come across new surprises, new breakthroughs that were not anticipated,” Kippelen says. “It’s the gift that keeps giving.”
GTPN: Pushing polymers for fun and profit, but mostly fun
When John Reynolds joined IBM Research in the late 1970s, scientists had just discovered that plastics can conduct electricity. Until then, “if you wanted high conductivity, you had to get a piece of metal,” says Reynolds, a polymer chemist. “That an organic polymeric material could do that was earth-shattering.” The breakthrough eventually won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Now Reynolds is a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He also serves as director of GTPN, which launched shortly after he joined Tech in 2012. Reynolds leads with co-directors David Collard, Zhiqun Lin, Elsa Reichmanis, and Paul Russo.
“Georgia Tech and the interdisciplinary atmosphere is why I moved here,” he says. “The walls between colleges and schools here are very low, and that makes Georgia Tech special.”
Reynolds has had a front-row seat for many advances his GTPN colleagues are making in polymer science. He anticipates new materials for applications such as:
When it comes to electrochromic application, Reynolds notes, this technology using polymer gel electrolytes has allowed automakers to eliminate the mechanical switch on rear-view mirrors to suppress blinding high-beam lights from the vehicle behind. Most mirrors now use light sensors and color-changing electrochemical systems to dim that harsh glare.
“That’s a $1 billion a year sales business for a company in Michigan,” Reynolds says.
Yet the most innovative aspect of GTPN, Reynolds says, is its impact on graduate students and researchers at Tech. They’re not just increasing their knowledge of chemistry and physics. “They grow professionally by participating in meetings and seminars, hosting people, and learning how to be professionally social. And they get contacts with companies.”
SMI: Fundamental science from soft matter
Soft matter is described by the University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy as “all things squishy.”
In that spirit, the School of Physics has been hosting Squishy Physics public events since 2012. Restaurant chefs from Atlanta and beyond prepare foods that illustrate aspects of soft matter: “gelation (jams and jelly), phase transitions (melting chocolate ice cream), emulsions (Hollandaise and other sauces), foams (meringue), and glass formations (confections),” says the Squishy Physics web page.
“In many cases, soft materials are mixtures of phases – solids in liquids, gases in liquids, or liquid-liquid mixtures, for example,” says Fernandez-Nieves, director of SMI. “A polymer gel may be 99% water, but it behaves like a spring. If you push on it, it deforms and retains its shape due to the presence of restoring forces, and thus it’s a solid from that perspective. It’s an elastic material. And it’s made of 99% water and 1% polymer.”
SMI is itself in its early phase, launching in July 2016 to coalesce soft matter research interest at Tech and provide brainstorming opportunities, workshops, and seed grants.
So what exactly is SMI incubating: ideas or specific research projects?
“Both,” Fernandez-Nieves says. “You can use soft materials as models to address interesting questions beyond soft matter.” The holy grail in the field is matter with controllable and predictive qualities. “What do I need to do to make that happen? That’s where fundamental science comes in.”
A recent research paper co-authored by Fernandez-Nieves offers an example of soft matter’s potential. Microgels and polymer networks made of natural fibrin, a blood-clotting protein, self-assemble to form tunnels that could allow healing substances to pass through. The Department of Defense, hoping for battlefield applications, supported part of the research.
SMI is a place “where you can incubate ideas and so they can come to fruition,” Fernandez-Nieves says. “I think of SMI as driven by people with ideas and drive, and the desire to do new things.”
You don’t have to be CRĀSI to study interfaces, but it helps
Since 1978, Odyssey of the Mind has staged global problem-solving competitions for students in kindergarten through college. The competition stresses teamwork. Thinking outside the box isn’t just encouraged; it’s necessary.
At Tech, Jennifer Curtis and Michael Filler, CRĀSI co-directors, are hosts of their own Odyssey of the Mind-style competitions for professors only. The focus is on thinking way outside the box in getting advanced materials – their surfaces, actually – to communicate, work together, and respond to human commands.
These gatherings of the minds are needed, because none of the next-level advances in materials science happens without figuring out surfaces and interfaces, says Filler, an associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
“There is an opportunity to target interfaces, the position where materials change from A to B,” he says. “They’re ubiquitous, and they’re really hard to study, because they’re dynamic.”
“The big thing we would love to do is control how smaller objects interact with each other to make programmable, reconfigurable matter,” Curtis says.
The idea of assembling matter is not new. But with the types of assemblies Curtis and Filler are talking about, it might be easier to kill the Terminator. Why?
“We’re just not good enough with the interfaces, programming them and controlling them,” Filler says.
That’s the obstacle CRĀSI wants to topple. Like SMI, CRĀSI also launched in the summer of 2016 to start conversations about possible solutions to tough science problems. So far, CRĀSI has hosted a total of 10 events, mostly Odyssey of the Mind competitions. Curtis and Filler never share the agenda for their meetings because they don’t want any biases to creep into the discussion.
Curtis is pleased with the buy-in from researchers. “There’s a critical mass of people who want to be in the same room to talk science and explore ideas,” she says. “We’re really trying to identify the grand challenge of the next decade.”
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New approaches are needed to conquer these and other challenges — and Georgia Tech is delivering. Faculty are teaching students not only how to solve problems, but also how to find and identify them; to think like designers and storytellers as well as mathematicians; to observe with curiosity and without preconceptions; to fail, get back up and try again.
The College of Engineering is a source and setting for much of this activity, and the four stories that follow illustrate how. Collectively, these stories reflect a guiding principle from the college: Meeting the world’s demands for invention requires originality and ingenuity in education.
STEM from storytelling: A teaching model comes to life
Begin with a clear jar (a mason jar will work). Add corn syrup — that’s plasma. Next, add red and white beads, the red and white blood cells. Smaller white beads are platelets. Then, shake it up.
At this stage, the fluid in the “blood jar” is sticky and viscous; or, as you might say to a group of 7-year-olds, it’s “gloopy.” So you add some water until the fluid flows naturally, providing an object lesson on why it’s important to stay hydrated.
The “blood jar” is the most popular activity devised by Dr. Wilbur Lam’s unique HealthReach class, in which biomedical engineering undergrads teach STEM concepts to hospitalized children using the kids’ illnesses as a springboard. Chronically ill children often struggle academically. They tend to miss school and combat high stress that comes with health problems. But with the hands-on experiments created by Georgia Tech students, children in Atlanta-area hospitals are enjoying their STEM lessons and often earning better grades. Lam is an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory.
One of Lam’s key goals with HealthReach is to teach his students how to communicate science concepts effectively to all audiences. The first semester of HealthReach is spent exploring design concepts and practicing presentations in what Lam describes as a “boot camp” for learning how to teach sick kids. Students work in groups to create activities and demonstrations like the “blood jar” and then present them to their peers in class.
Often, after developing and sharing their experiments and gadgets, students will tweak their designs. “At the core, it’s very much a design course in engineering,” Lam says. “The class enables students to really become engineers in the sense that they get to design, develop and invent and go straight to the end user, a child with a chronic disease.”
In their second semester, HealthReach students visit local Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta hospitals a couple times a week and work directly with kids. So far, they’ve interacted with about 400 student-patients, many of whom are repeat customers.
Next, Lam wants to implement a study to assess the program’s long-term impact on the academic performance of chronically ill kids. If Lam and his colleagues can produce concrete data on HealthReach’s value, it could inspire similar projects elsewhere.
Developing an entrepreneurial mindset
A young man arrives at the intensive care unit of Massachusetts General Hospital, suffering from congestion, cough, fever and chills. He is diagnosed with bronchitis, prescribed steroids, and sent home.
But a day later, he’s back in the emergency room, vomiting and struggling to breathe. The hospital admits him; doctors struggle to save him. Their efforts are unsuccessful. After two weeks, he’s removed from life support and passes away.
This case study, examined at length in the New England Journal of Medicine, forms the basis of the Engineering Physiology course taught by Kyla Ross and Phil Santangelo. Both are faculty members in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.
At the beginning of the course, Ross and Santangelo tell their students: “You’ve been hired by Mass General Hospital to evaluate this case. Your team is looking for missed opportunities in disease detection, progression and intervention. Your assignment is to make recommendations for a different standard of care.”
For the entire semester, students work in groups to assess this case from every conceivable angle and develop models to explain what went wrong. In the process, students synthesize and apply knowledge and techniques from many past courses.
They also draw on the considerable expertise of their professors and teaching assistants. Ross’s area is systems physiology; Santangelo’s is cell biology. Graduate assistants cover mathematical modeling and algorithm coding.
According to the final conclusions of the case study, the young man died from influenza A virus, complicated by staphylococcal pneumonia and herpes simplex virus (HSV) type II. Those complications present a number of variables. It’s up to the students to decide what problem they want to solve — and how to solve it.
One group explores how influenza’s suppression of the immune system could lead to reactivation of HSV II or accelerate staph infections; perhaps immunotherapy could have helped. Another group examines the drugs the patient received in the emergency room and modeling interactions; maybe there was an unintended immunosuppressant effect. And another group analyzes the window in which antivirals for flu would have been most effective.
Each group then analyzes their problem through mathematical models, refined through trial and error and the input of their professors and classmates. “We have them try it once, reflect on that, try it again,” Santangelo says. “The philosophy of this class is fail fast, and fail often. But it’s failure with a purpose, because the students gain the insight and competence to find and solve problems for the rest of their lives.”
Student invention from keen observation
The first-time Jorge Mena noticed a dirty ultrasound machine circulating in the emergency room, he didn’t really think about it. Someone would clean it before the next patient, right? But then he noticed the same thing again. And again.
Mena was a biomedical engineering senior, enrolled in Dr. Jeremy Ackerman’s clinical observation design course offered by the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. In this class, students spend 6-8 hours a week in emergency rooms across Atlanta, and their job is to watch, listen, and learn.
Ackerman isn’t just a biomedical engineering professor; he’s also a practicing emergency physician who sees patients at some of those same Atlanta hospitals. With that interdisciplinary mindset, Ackerman challenges his students to think like designers and storytellers, and identify the hospital’s flaws in architecture, process, and technology. “We know there are problems around here somewhere,” he says. “You find them.”
For Mena, that problem was dirty ultrasound wands. A typical emergency room has just a few ultrasound machines. When a patient arrives with abdominal trauma or internal bleeding, staff grab the nearest ultrasound machine. Then, it’s on to the next patient. In the rush to save lives, there’s often no time to assemble cleaning supplies to sterilize the machine.
Mena observed that the ultrasound wands in use were sometimes soiled with dried gel or smears of blood, potentially exposing patients to infections. So when he began his senior design capstone project, he told his teammates about it, and together they came up with a solution: a disposable polymer pad that attaches to the ultrasound wand. One side has a slick coating that replaces the ultrasound gel. The other is adhesive so it adheres easily to the surface of the wand. After the ultrasound is performed, the technician can throw away the dirty pad.
The young entrepreneurs took their idea and launched a start-up company, SonoFAST. Today, Mena is helping to get it off the ground while also attending medical school at the University of California, San Francisco.
FlexSpark, which developed a device to prevent deep vein thrombosis, is another startup to originate from the course. Syed Hasnain, the company’s co-founder, credits Ackerman’s class with the start-up’s success. As of early 2017, the startup had raised $1.2 million in venture funding and landed a $65 million distribution contract.
“You realize, going into the corporate world, just how unprecedented this access to medical staff is,” Hasnain says. “When we began the accelerator, we were the underdogs, a bunch of undergrads competing with Ph.D.’s and working doctors. But we’d been able to get the input of about 97 different medical professionals on our device.”
This gave his team the edge, Hasnain says — and enabled them to design a device that would meet a genuine need for both patients and hospital staff.
“Most biomedical engineering courses focus on developing tools to solve problems,” Hasnain says. “But Dr. Ackerman’s course is unique in giving us the opportunity to unleash our curiosity in a practical environment and identify and solve actual problems in healthcare. It’s really a transformative experience for students who take it.”
Remaking labs for the real world
Here’s one way to practice calculating the acceleration of an object: Get a long, curved track, a pinewood derby car and a handheld accelerometer.
But the method has a few problems. For one, it’s a hassle to transport and construct such a system, so it’s very difficult to use as a classroom demo. And you can only handle one such track, which means just a few students take a hands-on role, while others have to watch.
So a Georgia Tech research group, aptly named Hands-On Learning, decided to create a replacement: a small, portable pendulum, the bottom of which holds a smart phone with a built-in accelerometer (commonplace in smart phones today).
When the pendulum starts swinging, the phone swings with it, allowing students to track and gather data about the rate of acceleration. Because the pendulum device is affordable and easy to make, every student in class gets an opportunity to work the experiment.
Hands-On Learning is one of Georgia Tech’s unique Vertically Integrated Projects or VIPs. The projects bring together interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students, post-doc researchers and professors to tackle ambitious research challenges.
Through the Hands-On Learning VIP, undergrads earn course credit as they design better ways to explore engineering principles in the classroom. In the process, they create valuable tools and approaches to improve the learning experience for their classmates and themselves.
The group is led by Bonnie and Al Ferri, both professors and associate chairs for undergraduate affairs in their respective schools. Professor Bonnie Ferri in ECE has spent 13 years exploring ways to incorporate hands-on experiments into her electrical engineering courses. Her husband, professor Aldo Ferri, is implementing similar projects in his mechanical engineering courses.
Together, the Ferris have received three National Science Foundation grants to develop mobile hands-on experimental modules, and the experiments they’ve developed benefit about 2,500 Tech students each year.
This year, the Hands-On Learning VIP is tackling their most ambitious project yet: programming and modifying a remote-control car that rides on a customized table-top treadmill. From the car’s electronic circuitry to the mobile apps used to control it, every aspect of the project offers a way to help engineering students apply their lessons in the real world.
by Desirina Frew.
Originally published in Georgia Tech’s Engineers magazine, Spring 2017
]]>“I am proud to continue the critical work of the Office of Graduate Education and Faculty Development,” said Ferri. “The vice provost role is a distinct opportunity to unite schools across campus in support of our students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty, and create a thriving culture of educational innovation.”
Ferri comes to the vice provost position after nearly 30 years of advancing positions of leadership within the faculty. For the last 11 years, she has served as the associate chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in both undergraduate and graduate affairs capacities. She is also the current co-chair of the Commission on Creating the Next in Education.
“Professor Bonnie Ferri’s long history at Georgia Tech means she brings extensive experience as an administrator, leader, and researcher,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and the K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “She’s also proven herself as a consummate champion of excellence in teaching and educational innovation. That experience and enthusiasm will be invaluable as she assumes the role of vice provost.”
The duties of the vice provost include ensuring the quality of graduate education; working on behalf of the well-being of graduate students, postdoctoral students, and faculty; supporting faculty development and the educational enterprise; and managing the hiring, promotion, and tenure process for faculty. The vice provost also oversees the Office of Graduate Studies, the Office of Faculty Affairs, the Office of Postdoctoral Services, and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
The selection of the vice provost followed an internal search initiated this past spring and led by Paul Kohn, vice provost for Enrollment Services, and an applicant review team.
Leslie N. Sharp, associate vice provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development, is serving as interim vice provost until Ferri officially assumes the role.
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]]>“The Vertically Integrated Projects — or VIP — Program isn’t looking to just engage students in research and in generating designs,” said Ed Coyle, a professor in Electrical Engineering and director of the program. “We’re looking for students from across Tech and from all levels to help further innovation.”
Currently, the program is accepting applications from graduate students and nonfreshmen undergraduates for fall of 2017.
Since the program began in 2009, it has brought together multidisciplinary teams of students that work on projects such as the EcoCAR Collegiate Competition Team and Agricultural Robotics Team. Teams range in size from five to more than 45 students.
“Some teams are formed to handle very focused projects, while others address a variety of tasks over their multiyear lifespan,” Coyle said. “The costs of a project are covered by the project’s advisor, with the VIP Program providing tools and resources that enable the smooth operation of all VIP teams. Students who join the program earn academic credit for and their grades are based upon their contributions to their project team.”
Teams work on projects that take many years to complete, and rotate through new members about once every two years. Undergraduates sign up for the teams on a by-semester basis, with most staying on a team for two or three semesters but with some staying for up to six semesters. Graduate students are often the backbones of teams, staying on for multiyear stretches and directing the undergraduates as they work together toward the project’s goals.
Although Coyle handles the planning of the overall program, and he and other faculty advisors direct the projects, they aren’t the only ones providing leadership. Instead, graduate students assist with project leadership, including Paul Garver, a Ph.D. candidate from Electrical Engineering, who joined the program in 2012.
Garver first worked on Coyle’s Stadium-Internet of People and Things Project, and in 2014, he moved to join the Intelligent Digital Communications team. Although they have very different goals and methods, both teams work to create and monitor information flow throughout Bobby Dodd Stadium.
“It can be difficult to take what we’ve learned and apply it to real world situations — but that’s also one of the most rewarding parts of the program,” Garver said. “Unlike typical undergraduate student work, the majority of the VIP program’s projects are low-structure, which means that undergraduates get a chance to experience what long-term projects are like in the real world. And graduate students get a chance to work with practice, rather than just theory.”
Applications for the fall are being accepted on an ongoing basis. For more information, visit vip.gatech.edu.
]]>The GT proposal is one of eight nationwide that were chosen for the 2017 fellowship, which also includes a one-year mentorship by Qualcomm engineers.
Theodorou says the innovation fellowship will help him, Rehg, and graduate students Grady Williams (College of Computing) and Paul Drews (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering) to bring their research to place where it will have a transformative impact in the transportation industry.
“Autonomous driving is one of the most important sub-fields in robotics,” said Theodorou. “However, autonomous vehicles driving hundreds of millions of miles are likely to get into situations where it is necessary for them to perform aggressive maneuvers to avoid collision. Our work can have an impact on that.”
The team’s work focuses on the problems faced by two or more autonomous racing vehicles in an environment that has not been previously mapped out. Potholes, bumps, and other irregularities are expected, but cannot be precisely predicted at the onset. Any system seeking to travel over such terrain must be able navigate new decisions on the fly. Each racing vehicle is necessarily pushed to its handling/acceleration limits, a condition that requires even more simultaneous sensing of the environment and other intelligent agents.
“There is only a small margin of error on both the control and perception side when racing against a capable adversary,” said Theodorou. “This research will address fundamental questions in autonomy by bringing together concepts on stochastic optimal control, game theory and deep learning. "
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The remainder of the events centered around the theme “Micro/Nano-Enabled Electronics for Global Challenges” and featured topical lecture sessions with prominent Georgia Tech faculty speakers, facility tours, and a student poster session.
IEN congratulates the four winners of the session for their excellent presentations.
Potentiometric Biosensing for Rapid, On-Site Disease Diagnostics - Eleanor Brightbill (MSE), Eleanor Brightbill graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Chemistry before beginning her Ph.D. work in Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. As a member of the Vogel Lab, Eleanor is researching field-effect transistor-based potentiometric biosensing, specifically for serological disease detection.
Enabling the Next Generation of Ultrafast Integrated Optical Links - Amir Hosseinnia (ECE), Amir H. Hosseinnia is an ECE PhD candidate and research assistant with the Photonics Research Group (PRG) at Georgia Institute of Technology. During his PhD, he has been working on the design, fabrication and characterization of integrated nanophotonic devices, systems, and platforms. He has successfully developed various heterogeneous material platforms to realize ultra-low-loss, high-speed and high-efficiency integrated devices. His efforts to demonstrate high quality micro-resonators, high-efficiency interlayer couplers, and high-speed modulators on hybrid platforms has paved the path to realize the next generation of silicon photonic systems and devices, which he is working on.
His research interests include the design, optimization, and fabrication of integrated photonic devices, heterogenous optical platforms and novel optical materials. He also serves as the president of OSA Student Chapter at GT aimed to boost the science of optics through various events and conferences.
Ultra-Low Programming Voltage and Time Flash Memory Devices Using CVD Graphene - Ramy Nashed (ECE), Ramy Nashed received the B.Sc. degree in electronics engineering from Loughborough University, U.K., in 2010, and the M.Sc. degree in electronics engineering from American University in Cairo, Egypt, in 2013. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering with Georgia Tech, USA. His research interests include the design, fabrication, and characterization of post-CMOS devices and interconnects. He recently joined Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, USA, as an Intern to study the reliability of the 14 nm-node FinFET transistors."
A Low Temperature Sacrificial Layer Based CMUT Fabrication Process for Improved Reliability - Amirabbas Pirouz (ECE), Amirabbas Pirouz was born in Amol, Mazandaran, Iran, in 1989. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran in 2012. He has completed an M.S. degree in 2015 and is continuing to pursue a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia institute of Technology. His current research interests are in designing, modeling, fabricating, and characterizing capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers (CMUTs) for catheter based CMUT imaging devices and especially intracardiac-echocardiography (ICE).
]]>Georgia Tech isn’t on the path of 100 percent totality, but above campus, the moon will block 97 percent of the sun’s disk at approximately 2:37 p.m. EDT. The eclipse should darken skies, drop air temperatures, and make birds think it’s bedtime.
The sunlight from a partial eclipse is bright enough to injure unprotected eyes, says James Sowell, senior academic professional in the School of Physics, and director of the Georgia Tech Observatory.
“Even a sliver of sunlight, that three percent, could damage your eyes if you persist in looking at it directly,” he says.
The temptation to report to social media or record the event with mobile devices will be strong. We urge you instead to take in the experience. Those who have watched total eclipses say they are spectacular for how they make you feel.
“It humbles you,” says David Baron, science journalist and author of “American Eclipse,” about the total solar eclipse of July 29, 1878. Baron has witnessed five of these phenomena. “They are awe-inspiring and humbling, and they make you realize we are just a tiny part of something enormous.”
Here are three simple rules to safely and fully experience the 2017 solar sensation in an age of mobile devices:
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Steve Cross, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research, was one of 11 panelists for Wednesday’s roundtable discussion about “The State of American Science.” The event, organized by the Association of American Universities and The Science Coalition, covered funding, university research and related public policy issues.
“Scientific and technological discovery has been the driving force of American innovation for more than a century, and has resulted in critical advancements in public health, economic growth and national security,” Cross said. “Many of those breakthroughs were realized in the laboratories of the country’s best research universities and made possible because of federal investment and industry collaboration.”
In 2016, Georgia Tech conducted $791 million in research. The Institute also helped launch more than 100 new startups last year. During the 2016 fiscal year, Georgia Tech received 72 patents and 657 industry contracts.
“Georgia Tech is proud to participate with our peer institutions in this discussion, and we believe it is imperative our institution and others continue the valuable research happening on our respective campuses,” Cross said.
The other panelists included senior research officers from: Florida State University, Iowa State University, Johns Hopkins University, Marquette University, Purdue University, State University of New York, University of California – San Francisco, University of Chicago, University of Missouri – Columbia and University of Rochester.
Several reporters attended the event, including representatives from Science, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The panelists told reporters how universities help fuel the country’s innovation ecosystem. They explained the role of science in policy making and the role of scientists as advocates. They also discussed the impact of proposed cuts to research funding and policies that affect where and how people conduct research.
The panel, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. afternoon, was moderated by Jeffrey Selingo, a visiting scholar at Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities.
]]>The event, organized by the Association of American Universities and The Science Coalition, covered funding, university research and related public policy issues.
]]>What’s key here is that while some of the images carry identifying, machine-readable text or meta information, many do not. Yet the search still found them. How? The answer is that the pictures— more accurately, a pattern in the pictures—was recognized as “Siamese cat” by a machine, without requiring a human to classify each instance.
This is machine learning. At its core, machine learning upends the programming model, forgoing the hard coded “if this, then that” instructions and explicit rules. Instead, it uses an artificial neural network (ANN)—a statistical model directly inspired by biological neural networks—that is “trained” on some data set (the bigger, the better) to accomplish some new task that uses similar but yet unknown data.
The data comes first in machine learning. The system finds its own way, adjusting and refining its model, iteratively.
But back to Siamese cats. Computer vision researchers worked on image recognition for decades, but Google effectively perfected it in months once the company developed a machine-learning algorithm. Today, machine-learning facial recognition systems for mug shots and passport photos outperform human operators.
Not New But Definitely Now
In fact, machine learning, neural networks and pattern recognition aren’t new. In 1950, a computer program was written that improved its checkers performance the more it played (by studying winning strategies and incorporating these into its own program). In 1957, the first neural network for computers (the Perceptron) was designed. In 1967, the “nearest neighbor” algorithm, which allowed a computer to do very basic pattern recognition, was created.
Indeed, some would say that Alan Turing’s famous machine that ultimately broke the German “Enigma” code during World War II was an instance of machine learning—in that it observed incoming data, analyzed it and extracted information.
So why has machine learning exploded on the scene now, pervading fields as diverse as marketing, health care, manufacturing, information security and transportation?
Researchers at Georgia Tech say the explanation is the confluence of three things:
1. Faster, more powerful computer hardware (parallel processors, GPUs, etc.)
2. Software algorithms to take advantage of these computational architectures
3. Loads and loads of data for training (digitized documents, internet social media posts, YouTube videos, GPS coordinates, electronic health records, and, the fastest-growing category, all those networked sensors and processors behind the much-heralded Internet of Things).
This digitalization began in earnest in the 1990s. According to IDC Research, digital data will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 42 percent through 2020. In the 2010-20 decade, the world’s data will grow by 50 times, from about one Zettabyte (1ZB) in 2010 to about 50ZB in 2020.
These oceans of data and data sources not only enable machine learning, but also, in a sense, they create an urgent need for it, offering a solution to the human programmer bottleneck. “The usual way of programming computers these days is, you write a program,” says Irfan Essa, director of Tech’s new Center for Machine Learning. “Now we’re saying, that cannot scale.”
There are simply too many data sources, arriving too fast.
The ability of these systems to quickly and reliably make inferences from data has galvanized the attention of the world’s biggest technology players and businesses, who’ve seen the commercial benefits and opportunities.
“It created a disruption,” says Essa, who also serves as associate dean of the College of Computing, a professor in the School of Interactive Computing and an adjunct professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
As Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, put it in his widely circulated April 2017 letter to company shareholders, Amazon’s use of machine learning in its autonomous delivery drones and speech-controlled assistant Alexa is only part of the story.
“Machine learning drives our algorithms for demand forecasting, product search ranking, product and deals recommendations, merchandising placements, fraud detection, translations and much more,” Bezos wrote. “Though less visible, much of the impact of machine learning will be of this type—quietly but meaningfully improving core operations.”
Two other drivers for the rapid growth of machine learning have been the widely available, open source toolkits (such as Google’s TensorFlow) that can rapidly prototype a machine learning system, and cloud-based storage and computation services to host it.
This April, for instance, Amazon Web Services announced that Amazon Lex, the artificial intelligence service (AI) used to create applications that can interact with users via voice and text—and the technology behind Amazon Alexa—would be available to Amazon Web Services customers.
“You can build a startup very, very fast,” says Sebastian Pokutta, Georgia Tech’s David M. McKenney Family Associate Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School for Industrial and Systems Engineering, and associate director of the Center for Machine Learning (ML@GT). “Before, machine learning was very academic and somewhat esoteric. Now we have a toolbox that I can give a student, and within a week they can create something that’s usable.”
Natural Language: Going Deeper
Like image recognition, speech recognition has seen great strides thanks to machine learning. Consider Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home, two darlings in the speech-controlled appliance space.
Georgia Tech researchers aren’t competing with these new commercial efforts. “We’re working on things that we hope will be important components of systems in the much longer term,” says Jacob Eisenstein, assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing, where he leads the Computational Linguistics Laboratory. “As a field right now, we’re the intersection of machine learning and linguistics.”
That said, Eisenstein points out that Google quietly incorporates increasingly sophisticated natural language processing into its search system every few months.
“What I think they’re doing is drawing ideas from the research literature, from the stuff that’s produced at universities like Georgia Tech,” he says.
Highlighting the market excitement over speech control, Eisenstein notes that five former Tech students are working at Amazon on Alexa development, as are a number of his undergrads and masters students.
So, what sorts of problems are Eisenstein and his colleagues working to solve?
“Imagine you are interested in some new area of research, and could have a system that summarizes the 15 most important papers in that field into a four-page document,” Eisenstein says.
But creating such a system goes far beyond word or phrase recognition. “We know that to understand language, you have to have some understanding of linguistic structure—how sentences are put together,” he explains. Language understanding is hard, from a machine standpoint, because it has very deep, nested structures.
Tackling subjects like language or other complex, non-linear relationships has given rise to a subset of machine learning known as deep learning. A deep neural network is an artificial neural network with multiple hidden layers between the input and output layers.
Black Box Problems
However, those hidden layers give rise to a black box problem. That is, if the artificial neural network contains hidden layers, its processes aren’t transparent. To take a real-word example: how do we audit the autonomous car’s decision to swerve right, not left?
That’s an area of study for Dhruv Batra, an assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing. His research aims to develop theory, algorithms and implementations for transparent deep neural networks that are able to provide explanations for their predictions, and to study the effect of developed transparent neural networks and explanations on user trust and perceived trustworthiness.
According to Batra: “We have to be a little careful though, because if we tack on the explanatory piece—‘That’s why I’m calling this a cat’—the system may learn to produce an explanation, a post hoc justification that may not have anything to do with its choice.”
Other problems range from the practical, “How can we remove human bias when setting up the algorithm?” to the unexpectedly philosophical, “How can we be sure these systems are, in fact, learning the right things?”
Tech researchers are hard at work on these fascinating questions.
Essa admits there’s a lot of hype around machine learning right now. But he notes that people are very good at overestimating the impact of technology in the short term, yet underestimating it in the long run.
If optical character recognition and, increasingly, speech recognition are taken for granted because they “just work,” there are other technologies that are far from perfect.
“And we’d like them to be perfect, which is why research and development needs to continue,” Essa says.
Machine learning may even play a role in improving how Georgia Tech students are taught in the future.
“At Tech we have a lot of educational data,” he says. “How do we now use that data to learn more about and support our student body—learn more about their learning, and provide the right kinds of guidance and support?”
“At Georgia Tech, we recognize machine learning to be a game-changer not just in computer science, but in a broad range of scientific, engineering, and business disciplines and practices,” writes Irfan Essa, the inaugural director of the Center for Machine Learning at Georgia Tech (ML@GT), in his welcome note on the Center’s web page.
Launched in June 2016, ML@GT is an interdisciplinary research center that combines assets from the College of Computing, the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Its faculty, students and industry partners are working on research and real-world applications of machine learning in a variety of areas, including machine vision, information security, healthcare, logistics and supply chain, finance and education, among others.
The center truly is a collaborative effort across campus, with 125 to 150 Tech faculty involved, and more than 400 students, says Sebastian Pokutta, David M. McKenney Family Associate Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and an associate director of ML@GT. “Tech has always had a lot of researchers working on machine learning, but they’d been spread out, working in different departments independently,” Pokutta says. “There wasn’t a real community on campus.”
Echoing Essa’s message, Pokutta says the goal of the Center is straightforward and daring: “We want to become the leader in bringing together computing, learning, data and engineering.”
True, there are other machine learning centers in higher ed—MIT, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon—but most focus on combining computing and statistics.
“One of the unique things about Georgia Tech, since we’re a big engineering school, is our machine learning effort is really closely embedded with our engineering units,” Essa says. “We’re close to the sensor, close to the processor, close to the actuator.”
This matters because of what is known as “edge computing”: the concept of moving applications, data and services to the logical extremes of a network, so that knowledge generation can occur at the point of action.
The objective is to use Tech’s engineering prowess—and data-driven techniques—to help design the next generation of technologies and methodologies.
Healthcare offers a rich source of data to machine learning researchers. There are scanned and electronic health records, claims data, procedure results, lab tests, genetics studies, and even telemetry from devices like heart monitors and wearables like Fitbits and smart watches.
A number of Georgia Tech’s researchers are mining this data to better understand health outcomes at scale and to ultimately figure out the right treatment for each individual patient. This is known as individualist or precision medicine.
Jacob Eisenstein, an assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing, and Jimeng Sun, an associate professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering, are mining the text in electronic health records to better understand health outcomes at scale.
Today, patients and doctors try rounds of treatments for ailments, looking for the best fit. “There’s a lot of trial and error,” Eisenstein explains. The project hopes to reduce that, by systematizing treatment based on a deeper understanding of patients, treatments and outcomes.
Last year, Sun was part of a group of researchers who developed a new, accurate-but-interpretable approach for machine learning in medicine.
Their Reverse Time Attention model (RETAIN) achieves high accuracy while remaining clinically interpretable. It is based on a two-level neural attention model that detects influential past visits and significant clinical variables within those visits (e.g., key diagnoses). RETAIN was tested on a large health system dataset with 14 million visits completed by 263,000 patients over an eight-year period and demonstrated predictive accuracy and computational scalability comparable to state-of-the-art methods such as recurrent neural networks, and ease of interpretability comparable to traditional models (logistic regression).
In other work, Tech professors and students are analyzing data from Geisinger, a hospital network in Pennsylvania, to help predict the risk for sepsis and septic shock in patients before they are admitted to the hospital. Other researchers within the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering’s Health Analytics group are collecting health care utilization data involving millions of individuals for events such as hospitalizations that can be used in estimating the cost savings of preventive care.
Facebook’s interest in having machines better assess the billions of images uploaded to its platform—in order to describe, rank or even delete objectionable images—is obvious.
Georgia Tech faculty Dhruv Batra and Devi Parikh—married partners both in life and at work—are assistant professors in the College of Computing’s School of Interactive Computing who are currently serving as visiting researchers at Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR).
At Facebook, the duo is working on ways to improve the interaction between human beings, a machine platform and images posted on the social network platform. In April 2016, Facebook began automatically describing the content of photos to blind and visually impaired users. Called “automatic alternative text,” the feature was created by Facebook’s accessibility team. The technology also works for Facebook versions in countries with limited internet speeds or that don’t allow visual content.
And last December, Batra and Parikh also received Amazon Academic Research Awards for a pair of projects they are leading in computer vision and machine learning. They received $100,000 each from Amazon—$80,000 in gift money and $20,000 in Amazon Web Services credit—for projects that aim to produce the next generation of artificial intelligence agents.
Batra and Parikh are using giant image data sets with human annotations that have been built up at Mechanical Turk, Amazon’s crowdsourcing internet marketplace.
One project, Visual Dialog, led by Batra, aims at creating an AI agent able to hold a meaningful dialogue with humans in natural, conversational language about visual content. Facebook can already generate automatic alternative text for an image, explains Batra. So a user can be told, “This picture may contain a mug, a person, a cat.” The goal, he said, is to go much further—to offer not only more information about the image but also engage the user in a dialog.
Training the machine learning algorithm for the task requires a huge data set—as many as 200,000 conversations on the same set of images, each conversation including 10 rounds of questions and answers (or roughly 2 million question-and-answer pairs).
Another project, titled “Counting Everyday Objects in Everyday Scenes,” is led by Parikh, and aims to enable an AI to count the number of objects belonging to the same category. One particularly interesting approach will try to estimate the counts of objects in one try by just glancing at the image as a whole. This is inspired by “subitizing”—an ability humans inherently possess to see a small number of objects and know how many there are without having to explicitly count.
]]>Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine
]]>Updated Aug. 2, 2017, to better enumerate the activities at Kessler Campanile and the participating Georgia Tech units.
Solar-eclipse glasses will be distributed throughout campus at noon on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. Supply is limited; please be generous and share with a friend so that everyone has a chance to view the celestial spectacle.
Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons Exhibit
Kessler Campanile
In the event of rain on Aug. 21, activities will be held at the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, at the Starbucks level.
Brought to you by the College of Sciences and the Office of Undergraduate Education, with participation from the Georgia Tech Observatory, Georgia Tech Library, School of Physics, School of Aerospace Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Interactive Computing, School of Music, School of Psychology, Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, and Institute Communications.
Special thanks to James Sowell, director of the Georgia Tech Observatory; Kirk Henderson, exhibits program manager at the Georgia Tech Library; and Renay San Miguel, communications officer at the College of Sciences.
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Neuristors already exist today in labs, in small quantities, and to fuel the quest to boost neuristors’ power and numbers for practical use in brain-like computing, the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $7.1 million grant to a research team led by the Georgia Institute of Technology. The researchers will mainly expand work on new metal oxide materials that buzz electronically at the nanoscale to emulate the way human neural networks buzz with electric potential on a cellular level.
But to walk expectations back from the distant sci-fi future into the scientific present: The research team has developed neuristor materials to build, for now, an intelligent light sensor, and not some artificial version of the human brain, which would require hundreds of trillions of circuits.
“We’re not going to reach circuit complexities of that magnitude, not even a tenth,” said Alan Doolittle, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Also, currently science doesn’t really know yet very well how the human brain works, so we can’t duplicate it.”
But an artificial retina that can learn autonomously appears well within reach of the research team from Georgia Tech and Binghamton University. Despite the term “retina,” the development is not a medical implant, but it could be used in advanced image recognition cameras for national defense and police work.
At the same time, it significantly advances brain-mimicking, or neuromorphic, computing. The research field that takes its cues from what science already does know about how the brain computes to develop exponentially more powerful computing.
The retina is comprised of an array of neuristors, which combines the words “neuron” and “transistor” to refer to ultracompact circuits. The neuristors sense light, compute an image out of it and store the image. All three of the functions would occur simultaneously and nearly instantaneously.
“The same device senses, computes and stores the image,” Doolittle said. “The device is the sensor, and it’s the processor, and it’s the memory all at the same time.” A neuristor itself is comprised in part of devices called memristors inspired by the way human neurons work.
[Also READ: The Brain, Cosmos in the Cranium -- brain research in a nutshell]
That cuts out loads of processing and memory lag time that are inherent in traditional computing.
Take the device you’re reading this article on: Its microprocessor has to tap a separate memory component to get data, then do some processing, tap memory again for more data, process some more, etc. “That back-and-forth from memory to microprocessor has created a bottleneck,” Doolittle said.
A neuristor array breaks the bottleneck by emulating the extreme flexibility of biological nervous systems: When a brain computes, it uses a broad set of neural pathways that flash with enormous data. Then, later, to compute the same thing again, it will use quite different neural paths.
Traditional computer pathways, by contrast, are hardwired. For example, look at a present-day processor and you’ll see lines etched into it. Those are pathways that computational signals are limited to.
The new memristor materials at the heart of the neuristor are not etched, and signals flow through the surface very freely, more like they do through the brain, exponentially increasing the number of possible pathways computation can take. That helps the new intelligent retina compute powerfully and swiftly.
The retina’s memory could also store thousands of photos, allowing it to immediately match up what it sees with the saved images. The retina could pinpoint known terror suspects in a crowd, find missing children, or identify enemy aircraft virtually instantaneously, without having to trawl databases to correctly identify what is in the images.
It could even autonomously learn to extrapolate further information, like calculating the third dimension of a face out of data from a two-dimensional image. Even if you take away the optics, the new neuristor arrays still advance artificial intelligence. Instead of light, a surface of neuristors could absorb massive data streams at once, compute them, store them, and compare them to patterns of other data, immediately.
“It will work with anything that has a repetitive pattern like radar signatures, for example,” Doolittle said. “Right now, that’s too challenging to compute, because radar information is flying out at such a high data rate that no computer can even think about keeping up.”
The research project’s title acronym CEREBRAL may hint at distant dreams of an artificial brain, but what it stands for spells out the present goal in neuromorphic computing: Cross-disciplinary Electronic-ionic Research Enabling Biologically Realistic Autonomous Learning.
The intelligent retina’s neuristors are based on novel metal oxide nanotechnology materials unique to Georgia Tech. They allow computing signals to flow flexibly across pathways that are electronic, which is customary in computing, and at the same time make use of ion motion, which is more commonly known from the way batteries and biological systems work.
The new materials have already been created, and they work, but the researchers don’t yet fully understand why.
Much of the project is dedicated to examining quantum states in the materials and how those states help create useful electronic-ionic properties. Researchers will view them by bombarding the metal oxides with extremely bright x-ray photons at the recently constructed National Synchrotron Light Source II.
Grant sub-awardee Binghamton University is located close by, and Binghamton physicists will run experiments and hone them via theoretical modeling.
The neuristors are created mainly by the way the metal oxide materials are grown in the lab, which has some advantages over building neuristors in a more wired way.
This materials-growing approach to creating part of the computational structure is conducive to mass production. Also, though neuristors in general free signals to take multiple pathways, Georgia Tech’s neuristors do it much more flexibly thanks to chemical properties.
“We also have a sea of lithium, and it’s like an infinite reservoir of computational ionic fluid,” Doolittle said. The lithium niobite imitates the way ionic fluid bathes biological neurons and allows them to flash with electric potential while signaling. In a neuristor array, the lithium niobite helps computational signaling move in myriad directions.
“It’s not like the typical semiconductor material, where you etch a line, and only that line has the computational material,” Doolittle said.
“Unlike any other previous neuristors, our neuristors will adapt themselves in their computational-electronic pulsing on the fly, which makes them more like a neurological system,” Doolittle said. “They mimic biology in that we have ion drift across the material to create the memristors (the memory part of neuristors).”
Brains are far superior to computers at most things, but not all. Brains recognize objects and do motor tasks much better. But computers are much better at arithmetic and data processing.
Neuristor arrays can meld both types of computing, making them biological and algorithmic at once, a bit like Commander Data’s brain.
LISTEN: How neurons make the brain compute -- audio report
LISTEN: Wondrous facts about the brain -- audio report
The research is being funded through the U.S. Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives (MURI) Program under grant number FOA: N00014-16-R-FO05. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of those agencies.
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Media Relations Contact: Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408) (ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu)
]]>During the 2016 program, students and staff served with the Proctor Creek Stewardship Council, Global Growers, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Led by five student leaders, the 16 EngageATL participants reflected on their service experiences, interacted with student leader and staff panels, and formed strong connections with fellow incoming students from their class, all of which helped promote a positive transition to Georgia Tech.
The 2017 EngageATL program hopes to double last year’s participation by increasing to 30 new students. Last year’s program spanned three days and two nights, while this year’s program will span four days and three nights.
The program will run from Aug. 14–17, and registration is $230. Registration closes Aug. 1 or when the program reaches capacity. For more information and to register, visit engage.gatech.edu/engageatl.
Current students who are passionate about leadership, community service, and sustainable communities are encouraged to apply to be a Student Leader for this year’s program. For more details about the Student Leader position, including the application, visit OrgSync.
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Sujay Kalathoor and Taylor Sparacello
EngageATL Student Assistants
Student Engagement
engage@gatech.edu
404-894-3458
“Steve has provided steadfast leadership as a distinguished faculty member and administrator, and has demonstrated a deep commitment to Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and the K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “His time at Georgia Tech has shown him to be bold and forward thinking about the Institute as a global university and provider of entrepreneurial education to the next generation of learners. That will serve him well as dean. I know working with Steve in the uncompromising pursuit of excellence will make the College of Engineering better than ever.”
McLaughlin first came to Georgia Tech in 1996 as part of the ECE faculty. From 2007 to 2012 he was vice provost for International Initiatives, a position in which he provided oversight and strategic direction for Georgia Tech’s global engagement, education, and economic development initiatives. During that time, he also served as the Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement. He was a Ken Byers Professor from 2005 to 2012 and was previously deputy director of Georgia Tech-Lorraine.
During an open seminar hosted June 26 on campus, McLaughlin shared his thoughts on the future of the College of Engineering in the 21st century. During the talk titled “Being Fearless in an Age of Acceleration,” McLaughlin outlined a vision in which the College will “think bigger, act bolder, and collaborate more.”
“I have had the opportunity to represent Georgia Tech in several capacities over the years and consider it a privilege to be named the dean of the College of Engineering at an institution that I truly love,” McLaughlin said. “The dean’s role is about people and the partnerships, relationships, and connections that make the entire College and institution a success. I am ready to continue and grow those collaborations.”
McLaughlin holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, a Master of Science in Engineering from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Research interests include communications and information theory. He has published in the areas of coding and signal processing for wireless communications, physical layer security, quantum key distribution, and data storage. The co-founder of Whisper Communications, he has published more than 250 papers and holds 36 patents. He has served as the research and thesis advisor to more than 50 students at the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral levels. He is married to Mary Fisher. They have one son, William, who will be a first-year student this fall at the University of Colorado – Boulder.
McLaughlin was one of four finalists in the international search for the College of Engineering’s new leader. The 15-member search committee was chaired by Julia Kubanek, associate dean for Research, College of Sciences, professor of Biological Sciences, and professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Jennifer Herazy, associate provost for Operations, served as search director.
“Under the guidance of Provost Bras, the search committee did a tremendous job, and we congratulate Steve on his selection as dean,” said President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “We look forward to Steve’s visionary and collaborative leadership, as he leads one of the pre-eminent engineering programs in the world. I am confident that the College of Engineering here at Georgia Tech is in good hands and look forward to working with Steve in this new leadership role.”
]]>Institute Communications
404-385-3782
]]>Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Rutgers University have developed a three-layer system to verify that components produced using additive manufacturing have not been compromised. Their system uses acoustic and other physical techniques to confirm that the printer is operating as expected, and nondestructive inspection techniques to verify the correct location of tiny gold nanorods buried in the parts. The validation technique is independent of printer firmware and software in the controlling computer.
The verification and intrusion detection research will be described August 18 at the 26th USENIX Security Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia. The two institutions recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop the process described at the symposium.
“These 3-D printed components will be going into people, aircraft and critical infrastructure systems,” said Raheem Beyah, the Motorola Foundation Professor and associate chair in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Malicious software installed in the printer or control computer could compromise the production process. We need to make sure that these components are produced to specification and not affected by malicious actors or unscrupulous producers.”
The three components of the new system include:
The researchers tested their technique on three different types of 3-D printers and a computer numerical control (CNC) machine using a polyethylene tibial knee prosthesis as a test case. Beyond detecting malicious activity or quality problems, the technique could stop inadvertent production problems, reducing materials waste.
In their technique to detect flaws in 3-D printed components, the researchers were inspired to apply the same kind of contrast agents used in medical imaging techniques for detecting tumors, said Mehdi Javanmard, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University.
The gold contrast materials were tested to make sure they wouldn’t compromise the structural integrity of the printed components.
Now that they’ve demonstrated the feasibility of the techniques, the researchers plan to use the NSF funding awarded August 1 to improve the validation methods and move them closer to application. “Our focus now will be on testing the resilience of this technology and its resistance to intrusion and malicious attacks,” Javanmard said.
Among the challenges ahead will be obtaining good acoustic data in the noisy environments in which 3-D printers typically operate. In the research reported by the researchers, operation of other 3-D printers near the one being observed cut the accuracy significantly, but Beyah believes that challenge can be addressed with additional signal processing. The technique will also be applied to additional types of printers, and to different materials.
With the capabilities of 3-D printers growing and their cost declining, Beyah believes the use of additive manufacturing techniques will continue to expand. The validation and intrusion detection system will therefore become more critical.
“The idea that additive manufacturing processes could be compromised to intentionally hurt someone hasn’t really been considered with some of these applications,” he said. “There is a good bit of room to improve the security of 3-D printers, and we think that will start with applications that are closest to humans, such as implants and medical devices.”
In addition to those already mentioned, the research included Christian Bayens from Georgia Tech, and Saman Zonouz, Tuan Le, and Luis Garcia from Rutgers University.
CITATION: Christian Bayens, Tuan Le, Luis Garcia, Raheem Beyah, Mehdi Javanmard and Saman Zonouz, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Feel No Evil, Print No Evil? Malicious Fill Patterns Detection in Additive Manufacturing,” (26th USENIX Security Symposium, August 18, 2017). https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity17/technical-sessions/presentation/bayens
Research described in this news release is being funded under award 1739259 from the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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]]>“Plagiarism cases make up 38 percent of all cases we process, and we know there are some cases we never hear,” said Bonnie Weston, director of the Office of Student Integrity (OSI).
Tech’s policy on plagiarism is straightforward. It states that all cases need to be reported to OSI, and then students who want to challenge the accusation may do so.
But that’s where the simplicity ends. So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we’ve asked Weston and a few of your Tech colleagues for some insight into how they’ve dealt with plagiarism on campus. Read on for their strategies.
Why Do Students Plagiarize?
At Tech, there are two primary reasons for plagiarizing. Some students do it because they consider the class unimportant, as it isn’t one of their core classes. The other major reason is lack of time.
“Most of the students I see plagiarizing are trying to get everything done within their packed schedules,” said Andy Frazee, associate director of the Writing and Communication Program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. “They’re stressed, tired, and think they can’t get it done in time, so they copy someone else’s work.”
David Smith, senior lecturer in the College of Computing, noted that non-computer science students often view his classes as a formality, and some fail to learn anything because of this. These students copy work done by others or ask others for help with their programming assignments and fail to learn the programming skills they need to succeed.
“Every semester, I’ll get students whose failure to do their own work causes them to have to come back and retake my class,” Smith said. “I had one student have to repeat my class several times, because he refused to do his own homework, and had no idea how to solve the problems placed before him on the tests.”
How Do You Spot It?
According to Frazee, the first question any professor should ask himself when presented with suspicious work is, “Does this answer the question I’ve asked?” Plagiarizers often take their material from sources where the question answered doesn’t match the one being asked by the professor. So, a paper or answer that fails to fit the question is a warning sign of plagiarism, Frazee added.
Another sign is sudden changes in the spacing or fonts in a student’s work. So, for example, if the font size or type isn’t consistent, this can indicate that information was copied and pasted from another document, Frazee said.
Many professors use plagiarism checking software, such as Turnitin, especially when it comes to work submitted online. These “cheat catchers” — a term that Smith uses to describe the software — will let professors know if portions of essays or homework were copied. However, Smith acknowledges the limitations of these services.
“We first introduced a cheat catcher in our computer science classes in 2000,” Smith said. “But, the result was that students progressively learned how to get around the program. They weren’t learning anything, and those we caught faced severe academic penalties.”
What Can You Do to Prevent It?
Just one instance of plagiarism can have a tremendous impact on a student’s academic career. For example, it’s unlikely that the student will ever be able find teaching assistant positions or internships on campus, Smith said. For this reason, he does all he can to try and prevent plagiarism from occurring.
One way he accomplishes this is by basing his tests (worth 45 percent of his grades) off his homework, which is only worth 15 percent. Students who cheat on the homework usually fail his courses as a result.
“Just waiting for plagiarizers to get caught and then punishing them doesn’t work,” Smith said. “I advocate a two-pronged approach, dissuading people from cheating through incentives, as well as punishing plagiarizers after they’re caught. There’s no room for negotiation once a student is caught, so it’s essential to keep as many students as possible from trying in the first place.”
Weston reminds all professors to include a copy of the Student Honor Code at the beginning of their syllabi and to go over the correct formatting for citations and references. It is her hope that this clarification can prevent cases of ignorant plagiarism and prevent many of the cases that come to OSI.
And to help mitigate the dangers of time crunches, Frazee has a solution.
“You have to be willing to be a little flexible,” Frazee said. “While setting deadlines is important, you should make it clear to your students that you can be approached if work is piling up. If you’re willing to give an extra day or two to complete an assignment, it can encourage students to write their own work.”
For more information about dealing with plagiarism at Tech, visit http://osi.gatech.edu. Also, in an effort to safeguard academic integrity and prevent plagiarism, the Office of Graduate Studies now offers a limited number of iThenticate plagiarism detection licenses for use by dissertation advisors. For details, visit http://www.grad.gatech.edu/iThenticate.
]]>According to program director John Walsh, a professor in the School of Public Policy, “Georgia Tech students are eager to be part of these innovative activities.”
The Public Policy IP Certificate is designed to teach students how to protect and capitalize on their ideas. Students will learn about law, business strategies, and public policies affecting or affected by intellectual property and prepare them for careers ranging from patent agents (computing, engineering, or science majors), to intellectual property lawyers, to business executives who need to recognize the value of a company’s intellectual property, to engineers who need to be aware of IP issues in their work, to students working in the policy arena related to intellectual property and innovation.
The School recently expanded its faculty expertise in intellectual property by hiring Alan Marco, the former chief economist for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Marco joins Professor Walsh, Associate Professor Justin Biddle, and Robert Pitkowski, J.D., who directs the Public Policy Pre-Law Program.
Students enrolled in the IP certificate program will complete 12 semester hours of approved course work. In addition to the Public Policy classes and electives, they may also take classes from approved electives in the Ivan Allen College Schools of History and Sociology and Literature, Media, and Communications; the Scheller College of Business; and the College of Engineering.
“The program is designed to bridge across the Colleges at the Institute to highlight the variety of problems and opportunities inherent in a changing policy environment and its impact on an idea ecosystem,” said Walsh. “In addition to exposing students to directly IP-related career options, the certificate is designed to prepare those going into other careers for dealing with IP issues in their work. Georgia Tech and the School of Public Policy are uniquely placed to host such a multi-disciplinary IP Program, because of the depth of research and teaching capabilities in this area, in the Ivan Allen College, and across the campus.”
The IP Certificate Program facilitates Georgia Tech’s goal of ensuring that innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental characteristics of our graduates.
To learn more about the IP Certificate Program requirements, and courses, visit the certificate website at https://spp.gatech.edu/undergraduate/certificates/intellectual-property.
]]>
Award Information
Each seed grant award will consist of free cleanroom access to the student identified in the proposal for 2 (consecutive) billing quarters. Based on current access rates and the academic cap on hourly charges (https://cleanroom.ien.gatech.edu/rates/), this comprises a maximum award of $6000 for the 6 month period. This maximum award amount is still in effect even if IEN non-cleanroom (lab) equipment, electron beam lithography (EBL), or tools in the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) are required. The designated student user is expected to only utilize the cleanroom/tool access while working with the PI on the proposed project. Members of the IEN processing staff will be available to consult during the project period. The number of awards for each proposal submission date will depend on the number and quality of the proposals. A short report describing the research activities is required midway and at the completion of the award period.
Submission Schedule
This Seed Grant program is offered in two competitions each year with due dates on October 1, 2017 and April 1, 2018. While it is expected that research activity will begin on December 1, 2017 and June 1, 2017, respectively, there is flexibility in scheduling the 2 quarters of research work, as long as they conform to the IEN billing quarters.
Proposal Requirements (2 pages max)
The proposal (submitted as a PDF file of no more than 2 pages) should do the following:
1. Provide a project title.
2. Identify the research problem and specify the proposed methods.
3. Indicate the IEN research tools necessary to conduct the research. If assistance is needed with this component, staff members of the IEN are available for consultation.
4. Describe the relationship of this research to the PI’s other research activity.
5. Identify the PI and the graduate student involved (including year of graduate work), and if there will be a mentoring relationship with the PI’s other students. Note if there are collaborative relationships with Georgia Tech faculty that bear on this research project.
6. Specify the potential for follow-on funding based on the results of this initial work.
Submit the PDF file by the specified due date to Ms. Amy Duke (amy.duke@ien.gatech.edu).
Review Criteria
Proposals will initially be reviewed by IEN staff for technical feasibility within the 6-month time frame. Rating of proposals will be done by a review committee of Georgia Tech faculty, with final selection of awardees by IEN staff. Review criteria include novelty of the research, clarity of the proposed work, work that is technically achievable within the time constraints, and likelihood of positive outcomes (funding).
For more information, please contact Dr. David Gottfried, dsgottfried@gatech.edu, (404) 894-0479.
]]>The International Ambassadors at Georgia Tech are dedicated to bringing Georgia Tech to the world and the world to Georgia Tech. The group, advised by the Office of International Education and Office of Undergraduate Admission, seeks to promote diversity and inclusion on campus.
Some of the group’s previous events have included Night Market, Karaoke Nights, Career Forums, and Diversity Forums. International Ambassadors also reach out to prospective and admitted international students and help answer their questions about life at Tech.
Potential ambassadors need not be international students to apply — the group is made up of students from all over the U.S. and the world, and values that diversity. Applications are due Friday, Sept. 8, at 11:59 p.m. Apply online.
For more information, visit the group's Facebook page or read an article from Fall 2016.
]]>Schultz, a native of Lilburn, Georgia, was a fourth-year computer engineering major, minoring in biomedical engineering, and was president of Georgia Tech’s Pride Alliance.
On Saturday, Sept. 16, Georgia Tech police officers responded to a call of a person with a knife on West Campus. Officers found Schultz with a weapon. Schultz did not comply with officer requests to drop the weapon and advanced toward officers before a shot was fired. Schultz was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital where they died. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident.
“Scout’s sudden and tragic death today has been devastating news for the Schultz family and classmates — and for members of the community who knew Scout personally, the shock and grief are particularly acute,” said John Stein, dean of students and vice president of Student Life, in a note to the campus community Sunday.
Flowers were placed on West Campus in Schultz’s memory Sunday, and a campus vigil will take place today at 8 p.m. at the Kessler Campanile to commemorate Schultz’s life and contributions to campus.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to Scout’s family, friends, and colleagues as we mourn Scout’s life and the unrealized potential of what could have been,” said President G.P. “Bud” Peterson in a message to campus Sunday.
Students are encouraged to use campus resources as they grieve and process the event. Walk-ins to the Georgia Tech Counseling Center, located on the second floor of the Smithgall Student Services (Flag) Building, are welcome.
“At times like these, we are reminded of the importance of coming together in support, understanding, and care for one another,” Stein said.
Students may also contact the Office of the Dean of Students or the Georgia Crisis and Access Line for additional support.
“As we work through this tragic event, I encourage you to take advantage of all of the resources we provide here on campus for mental, emotional, and physical well-being,” Peterson said. “In the days and weeks to come, we will offer opportunities for dialogue and will respond with additional resources as needed for healing. Together, we will get through this.”
]]>Researchers in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology have been awarded a $100,000 grant to detect runtime errors using hardware-assisted signature generation. The year-long research project is supported by the Cisco University Research Program Fund, a corporate-advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Vincent John Mooney, an associate professor in the School of ECE, leads the Hardware/Software Co-design for Security group which carries out research in embedded systems security and will conduct the investigation based on their proposal, “Runtime Detection of Code Integrity Attacks.”
The project has been identified by Cisco Systems, Inc., as a unique methodology for protecting systems from potentially malicious runtime code modifications. When software processes are executed on an operating system, the technique will provide a high level of assurance of process integrity and will detect if those processes have been maliciously altered. Hardware will be introduced to check hash-based signatures at runtime compared to pre-generated signatures found in a locally secure database in order to verify the reliability of the processes running on the system.
Discussions of the research initially took place at the 2015 Cyber Security Summit hosted by the Institute for Information Security & Privacy at Georgia Tech.
“We are pleased to be able to expand our research into process integrity with this gift from Cisco and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation," said Mooney. "We are also very thankful for financial support from the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which enabled our team to create the momentum needed to launch into this next phase of hardware security research."
]]>Students with the Triangle Fraternity are also collecting donations for hurricane relief by organizing a Pie Your Matlab TA event. Learn more on Facebook.
The catastrophic damage resulting from Hurricane Maria has left most residents of Puerto Rico in dire need. In response, members of the Georgia Tech community have organized a campaign to provide much needed aid to the Commonwealth.
For the next two weeks, several locations on the Tech campus will serve as collection points for essential goods (hygiene products and household goods), non-perishable food, and over-the-counter medicine. Donations may be dropped off at the following locations:
To make a monetary contribution to aid in the relief efforts, visit the Puerto Rico We’re PResent GoFundMe site.
For more information on how to help, including a complete listing of accepted items, visit https://diasporapresente.wixsite.com/diasporapresente.
]]>This upward trajectory is continuing at full strength, and a number of faculty positions are open in robotics or robotics-related disciplines across campus this year. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply by visiting the job postings in relevant schools:
· George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
· H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering
· School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
· School of Interactive Computing
· Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
]]>
Please refer to the announcement for the appropriate link to follow for additional information.
]]>Yet, secure internet and its applications are now essential to almost every aspect of our daily lives.
Today, America’s national defense, economic prosperity, and individual freedoms depend upon cybersecurity.
As the storm of demand for cybersecurity solutions and talent grows, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, faculty members, and students are tackling cybersecurity from multiple angles.
White Hats, Black Hats, Grey Matter: Tackling Cybersecurity
]]>Tara La Bouff
Marketing Communications Manager
Institute for Information Security & Privacy
Georgia Institute of Technology
Email Tara
By allowing components such as memory modules or signal processors to be easily fitted together like the parts of a jigsaw puzzle, the initiative could help reduce the cost of new ICs for Department of Defense (DoD) agencies and accelerate the application of new technology. While the initiative is driven by DoD needs for its ships, tanks and aircraft, innovations developed by the program could also reduce the cost of developing low-volume specialized devices in the commercial world.
“The goal of this program is to make the design more modular so we can reuse existing components, making the design process much faster, easier and cheaper,” said Sung Kyu Lim, a School of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor who heads up Georgia Tech’s part of the initiative. “We’ll be able to create new chips to meet specific needs by reusing these chiplets and putting them together in modular fashion. The modular design will allow us to pick and choose the components we need for specific applications.”
Monolithic integrated circuits like those that go into smartphones contain billions of transistors. They cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars and take months to design. Companies selling large volumes of consumer products can afford that design cost, but DoD agencies that need smaller numbers of specialized devices are looking for ways to reduce the design cost and time required.
Enter DARPA’s Common Heterogeneous Integration and Intellectual Property Reuse Strategies (CHIPS) effort, which will use interposer technology – a silicon and copper interface – that will interconnect the chiplets. While the interposer adds a level of complexity to the design of the devices, it’s necessary to facilitate the 3-D modular assembly. The chiplets themselves could arise from existing designs, with engineers modifying memory, signal processing and other blocks from ICs already in production.
“Instead of designing a whole new chip, you can borrow from what’s already been designed to put together a new chip quickly and at lower cost,” said Lim, who holds the Dan Fielder Endowed Chair. The chiplets would be assembled and then packaged together, facilitating shorter interconnect lengths that would reduce communication time and energy consumption between the components. The modular nature of the chiplets would also allow a block to be replaced by new technology without redesigning an entire IC.
The four-year CHIPS effort involves 11 teams, including major defense contractors, microelectronics companies, design firms – and two other universities: the University of Michigan and North Carolina State University. In addition to Lim, the Georgia Tech effort will involve three other faculty members: Pippin Chair Professor Madhavan Swaminathan, Professor Saibal Mukhopadhyay and Assistant Professor Tushar Krishna, all from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
About $3.7 million will come to Georgia Tech as part of the project’s budget. In addition to the faculty members, that will fund a research engineer and up to eight graduate students.
The Georgia Tech team will provide electronic design automation software needed to produce the chiplets, develop translator technology that will allow chiplets operating in different languages to communicate, and evaluate different design standards brought to the project by other teams.
Though DARPA’s focus is on providing technology for DoD users, solutions developed from the initiative could also have broad benefits in the commercial microelectronics world. “Small- and medium-sized companies could will benefit a lot from this,” Lim said. “Small design houses that would like to develop their own ICs will likely be very interested.”
Meeting the program’s ambitious goals will be challenging, Lim says, with reliability, power, mechanical and thermal issues on the horizon. “The success of this program will make a significant contribution to the defense industry and the microelectronics community in general,” he said.
Research described in this news release is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under award N00014-17-1-2950. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
Research News
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Media Relations Assistance: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu) or Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408) (ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu).
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]]>Misconception: Undergraduate research is only available if the faculty advertises an opening.
The reality: Few undergraduate research opportunities are initiated by a professor posting an opportunity. The best way for students to get involved in research is to review faculty webpages, journal articles, books, presentations or attend a lecture, and when they find something that excites them, they should contact the professor. Tell faculty that they are interested in their research, giving specific reasons why, and then request a meeting. If students want more guidance on this, they can talk to their school’s undergraduate coordinator at urop.gatech.edu/undergraduate-coordinators, academic advisor, or follow some basic guidelines found at urop.gatech.edu/get-involved
Misconception: Students do not have time for undergraduate research because of classes or jobs.
The reality: Undergraduate research is extremely flexible and can be done for course credit or pay.
Misconception: Research is only in labs.
The reality: There are opportunities in every field. Students have worked with faculty on research in a broad spectrum of topics, from designing robots that explore other planets to collecting coral samples for evidence of past climates to analyzing the desegregation patterns of cities.
Misconception: Students cannot do research until they are juniors or seniors.
The reality: Students can begin research at any time during their undergraduate career.
Misconception: Students can only do research within their major.
The reality: Students can do research in any field of study they are interested in at Georgia Tech.
Misconception: Only a few undergraduate students are involved in research.
The reality: Last year there were approximately 2,800 undergraduate students doing research with faculty. There are plenty of opportunities. Encourage your student to explore!
For more information on Undergraduate Research at Georgia Tech, visit urop.gatech.edu.
]]>Hoffmann will chair the first of eight eColloqs on October 24. To register or find out more about it, click here.
]]>
“My research has large scale crime solving implications,” said Saltaformaggio. “My goal is to figure out how we can collect as much evidence as possible from any device involved in the crime to help put away the criminal.”
Solving crimes through cyber forensics
Since arriving at Tech, Saltaformaggio has been hard at work to create forensic techniques that help investigators solve human crimes. Saltaformaggio’s research occurs in his Cyber Forensics Innovation (CyFI) Lab, where the mission is to further the investigation of advanced cyber crimes and the analysis and prevention of next-generation malware attacks, particularly in mobile and IoT environments.
“While my lab focuses on malware and cyber attacks, we also assist with human crimes,” said Saltaformaggio. “If someone robs a bank and drops their phone at the scene of the crime, we can mine that digital device for evidence that will help prosecute the case.”
Saltaformaggio doesn’t work directly with law enforcement, but he does facilitate tech transfer of information, meaning that once a cyber forensic technique is published by his lab, an agency can leverage it to help solve a case. Saltagormaggio and his team then provide the code, test cases and infrastructure for law enforcement to use for criminal investigations.
Saltaformaggio recently developed a cyber forensic technique called RetroScope to access encrypted information on a device, even if the user has locked their accounts. The technique leverages memory forensics, the process of recovering evidence from the RAM (Random Access Memory) of a device. RetroScope makes a copy of the memory (RAM data) from the device and recreates information such as texts or emails from the device. An investigator can see all app screens that were previously accessed by the user. Terrorists are known to use an application called Telegram that is extremely secure and encrypts everything on the phone. With RetroScope, the data on the phone is recreated and made available to law enforcement. An investigator can see exactly what the suspect was communicating before or during the crime. Any data left on the memory of the device can be extracted and used as evidence.
In a recent case, cyber forensics was used at a restaurant where patrons’ credit card information was being stolen. A forensic investigator was called in, but he couldn’t crack the case. With more customers being hacked, the restaurant was finally sued, and they called in a more advanced forensic analyst to look over their system. The forensic analyst realized there was malware on the restaurant’s point of sale system, exporting credit card information with each swipe. The hacker was leveraging the volatile RAM (e.g. the system's short-term memory) to hide the malware, and the first investigator had missed it. Saltaformaggio is among a small group of researchers pioneering the investigation of volatile RAM and the power of memory forensics in cases such as this.
“The first investigator was only considering the static files stored on the disk of the computer,” said Saltaformaggio. “At the time, the forensic investigator wasn’t considering volatile RAM as a hiding place for malware. From research like mine, investigators now know that a device’s RAM is a viable place to harbor malware. You have to look everywhere in these investigations, leaving no stone unturned.”
A deep dive into digital devices through Saltaformaggio’s forensic techniques will redefine the world of cyber security. According to Saltaformaggio, at present, investigating crimes that involve digital devices as evidence is done in a very ad hoc manner, with much digital evidence being left behind.
“We need to design more holistic cyber forensic techniques that take into account the entire digital system, and not just a single piece of evidence that investigators happen to find. It requires a paradigm shift in the way people think about cyber forensics. It’s no longer just a tool to be used in a larger investigation; it’s actually the driver of the investigation itself.” - Brendan Saltaformaggio
Saltaformaggio's ongoing research is paving the way to incorporate a full assessment of digital devices into criminal investigations. And if he is successful, investigators will stop leaving so much digital evidence behind and potentially increase their solve rate.
Eradicating Malware: Beating cyber criminals at their own game
Today, cyber crime is everywhere and affects nearly everyone – the recent Equifax breach left millions of people exposed to identity theft. Ever the engineer, Saltaformaggio got into cyber forensics because he recognized a problem that needed a solution, specifically the problem of malware.
Malware is software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems. It can be extremely destructive; one type of malware recently targeted an Iranian nuclear facility and very slowly degraded the physical hardware, causing it to break well ahead of schedule. Malware tends to be very complex pieces of code with many layers of behavior.
What most people don’t know, is that malware is a commercially viable industry. People go to work specifically to create malware, and there are annual conferences that even award coders for the malware that has infected the most devices. Malware companies create the malicious code that is then sold to people who want to steal information.
“In my lab, we are working on malware attacks against critical infrastructure,” said Saltaformaggio. “Malware is extremely sophisticated and targeted, and it’s become increasingly harder to eradicate. My research hopes to prevent malware attacks and make people safer through cyber security.”
Smartphone users are already reaping the benefits of Saltaformaggio’s research. He recently developed a tool to identify malicious apps in the iOS app store. Cyber criminals have been hiding malware in apps that slip through the cracks at Apple. Saltaformaggio’s tool automates a search to detect apps with malware, and recently found that seven percent of apps in the app store that they tested had malware in them. Apple has improved its vetting process based on the findings from Saltaformaggio’s team.
Saltaformaggio measures his work by asking: Are we safer today than we were before we started this project? Between helping put away criminals and rooting out malware on consumer devices, Saltaformaggio has every intention of making the virtual world a safer place.
]]>Across Georgia Tech, researchers, scientists, and students are creating the next breakthroughs in understanding this complex system, treatments of neurological diseases and injuries, and tools to improve neural function.
“The most difficult part of presenting in the 3MT event is explaining the scientific techniques simply and concisely,” said Michie, who is earning a Ph.D. in Biology. “In my research, I attempt to identify the genes that allow certain bacteria to infect chronic wounds. But, using jargon such as ‘Tn-Seq’ or the scientific name for the bacteria would be outside the expertise of my audience.”
The campus community is invited to attend the final round of this year’s competition, which will be held on Monday, Nov. 13, from 5-8 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom. Winners will be announced during a reception that will immediately follow the last presentation.
The 3MT competition, which started at the University of Queensland in Australia and has spread to campuses around the world, is an event that challenges graduate students to explain their research in three minutes in a way that someone with no knowledge of the subject would understand. Two years ago, Georgia Tech held its first 3MT competition, which was only open to Ph.D. students. But, this year, master’s students are also participating.
“With my research, I’m hoping to locate the genes that cause people to develop chronic wounds,” Michie said. “That will allow us to identify and treat individuals with those genes and save lives. I’m hoping to use the 3MT competition as an experience to better explain my findings to the people who would use them.”
The Ph.D. finalists, who were selected during preliminary rounds held in October, will compete for three prizes ranging from $2,000 to $1,000. The master’s student finalists will compete for prizes ranging from $1,000 to $500. Both groups will also compete for a $500 People’s Choice award.
The Ph.D. finalists for the 2017 3MT include the following students:
The master’s student finalists include the following students:
For more information, visit grad.gatech.edu/3MT.
]]>Through their research, the Fellows are learning about Living Buildings, performance dashboards, systems and complexity, and the design of human interfaces. Their work is being facilitated by Drs. Michael Chang (Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems) and Dana Hartley (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences). Beyond the inaugural year, it is the intent that this pilot project will serve as the basis for a new Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) that allows undergraduates to earn academic credits by working on faculty-led research projects over multiple semesters, with students participating for up to three years.
]]>The images they produce using the terahertz scanners and the processing technique – which was mainly developed for petroleum exploration – provide an unprecedented look at how artists did their work three centuries ago. The level of detail produced by this terahertz reflectometry technique could help art conservators spot previous restorations of paintings, highlight potential damage – and assist in authenticating the old works.
Beyond old art, the nondestructive technique also has potential applications for detecting skin cancer, ensuring proper adhesion of turbine blade coatings and measuring the thickness of automotive paints. The study was reported November 8 in the journal Scientific Reports.
“This technique allows us to see at high resolution what is beneath the surface of a painting, to assess in depth what kind of technique has been used, and to determine what defects may be present,” said Alexandre Locquet, an adjunct professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a researcher at the Georgia Tech-CNRS international laboratory in Metz, France. “Using this, we can get information that art historians previously did not have, and we can provide information that may be helpful to the conservation and restoration of these old paintings.”
The researchers studied the painting “Madonna in Preghiera” by the workshop of Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, which was on loan from the Musée de la Cour d’Or, Metz Métropole, France. The examination began by placing the artwork face down on a gantry device designed to support the canvas without sagging.
Using a commercial terahertz scanner, the painting was then examined approximately every 200 microns by pulses of terahertz radiation. The scanner consists of an electromagnetic wave generator, which emits signals that penetrated through successive layers of the painting. Portions of the beam reflected back from the paint, producing signals from each layer as the scanner moved across the painting in a raster pattern similar to that used to create television images.
A computer using a signal processing technique known as sparsity-based time-domain deconvolution then processed the data, separating the signals reflected by each layer to construct a three-dimensional map of the image. The canvas support, ground, imprimatura, underpainting, pictorial and varnish layers were identified, along with a previously unknown restoration of the varnish.
“Our technique is similar to the way in which seismology can be used to identify the various layers of rock in the ground,” said David Citrin, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “In that case, seismologists send in an acoustic pulse and then measure the resulting echoes. In a similar way, we use a pulse of electromagnetic radiation at a frequency of around one terahertz and then look at the reflections off the various layers, a science known as stratigraphy.”
Without the signal processing, researchers might only be able to identify layers 100 to 150 microns thick. But using the advanced processing, they can distinguish layers just 20 microns thick. Paintings done before the 18th century have been challenging to study because their paint layers tend to be thin, Citrin said. Individual pigments cannot be resolved by the technique, though the researchers hope to be able to obtain that information in the future.
“This is really quite significant, because for years people have tried to use raw data, but you really can’t see much in that without processing the signals,” he said. “It takes coupling the terahertz signals with the signal processing to really make a difference.”
Terahertz radiation, also known as submillimeter radiation, operates at tremendously high frequencies. It can easily penetrate layers of paint, though it can be blocked by conductive pigments such as carbon black. The terahertz imaging technique can supplement conventional art analysis techniques such as X-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and optical imaging.
The research team, which included graduate student Junliang Dong and collaborator Marcello Melis, has also studied other paintings, and plans to image a small part of a 12th century wood panel painting. That work will be challenging because the paint is thin and the wood surface damaged.
Citrin believes the study is the first to detect individual paint layers in a pre-18th century work of art.
“Different techniques provide different information that could be useful to art conservators and historians,” he said. “Terahertz gives us the combined ability to image a large object relatively quickly and inexpensively. We have shown that you don’t need a fancy system to extract useful information.”
Beyond paintings, Citrin’s research group has also imaged a Byzantine coin through a thick layer of oxidation, and is attempting to read an inscription in a medieval lead funerary cross also obscured by an oxide layer. They are also collaborating with a research group in Hong Kong to use the technique for characterizing the layers of skin for skin cancer detection and with another group for measuring damage in composite materials.
“Terahertz imaging is still an emerging field that has to find its best applications,” said Locquet. “We are hoping to contribute to that, and are pleased to apply science and engineering to support the humanities.”
CITATION: Junliang Dong, Alexandre Locquet, Marcello Melis & D. S. Citrin, “Global mapping of stratigraphy of an old-master painting using sparsity-based terahertz reflectometry,” (Scientific Reports, 2017) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15069-2
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]]>The deadline to submit is 1 December 2017. Due to the large number of submissions received, the organizers cannot guarantee acceptance of abstracts received after the deadline.
To submit your abstract:
All submissions are peer reviewed by the conference co-chairs and Nano Division Research Subcommittees. Acceptance letters will go out in February 2018.
To submit your abstract, click here.
]]>The celebration was part of a meeting of GTRC's Board of Trustees and recognized innovators who are creating the next, and those who are living out Georgia Tech's motto of progress and service.
Howard, who is also associate chair for faculty development in ECE, will succeed Professor Annie Antón, who served in the role from 2012-17. Antón finished her five-year term in June 2017 and remains a professor within the school. Professor Amy Bruckman has served as the interim chair since July.
“Ayanna Howard is the perfect individual to lead our School of Interactive Computing, and we are excited to welcome her to the College,” said Zvi Galil, John P. Imlay Jr. Dean of Computing. “She brings a wealth of experience in research and administration, and she has consistently succeeded in leadership opportunities both inside and outside Georgia Tech. Her vision and energy will help ensure that IC will continue to be a national leader in computing research and education.”
As a testimony to her interdisciplinary focus, Howard has collaborated with a number of IC researchers in the past and said the she is looking forward to fostering new – and fruitful – relationships with the school’s faculty and staff.
“I am thrilled for the opportunity to work with the amazing faculty, staff, and students within the School of Interactive Computing,” Howard said. “They are already national leaders in some of the most important fields of modern computing, and I look forward to building on that foundation and continuing to pursue research and innovation that addresses real challenges facing our world today.”
Howard received her bachelor’s degree in engineering from Brown University, her master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1999.
Her research is highlighted by her focus on technology development for intelligent agents that must interact with and in a human-centered world. This work, which addresses issues of human-robot interaction, learning, and autonomous control, has resulted in more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. To date, her accomplishments have been highlighted through a number of awards and articles, including highlights in Time, Black Enterprise, and USA Today. She was named an MIT Technology Review top young innovator and recognized as one of the 23 most powerful women engineers in the world by Business Insider.
She has more than 20 years of research and development experience covering a number of projects that have been supported by organizations like the National Science Foundation, Procter and Gamble, NASA, ExxonMobil, Intel, and the Grammy Foundation.
Howard is the director of the Human-Automation Systems Lab (HumAnS), and in 2015 founded a $3 million traineeship initiative in health care robotics. In 2013, she founded Zyrobotics as a university spin-off and holds a position in the company as chief technology officer. Zyrobotics is currently licensing technology derived from her research and has released its first suite of mobile therapy and educational products for children with differing needs.
From 1993-2005, Howard worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she was a senior robotics researcher and deputy manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist. She has also served as the associate director of research for Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and as chair of the multidisciplinary robotics Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech.
Howard will assume her new role in January 2018. Her appointment is contingent upon approval by Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. She will retain her current Linda J. and Mark C. Smith endowment after transitioning to the School of Interactive Computing.
]]>Cross joined GTRI in 2003 as director and vice president, positions he held until he was appointed to the EVPR role. Cross also served as GTRI’s acting director, concurrent with his EVPR role, for a period of time in 2014 and 2015.
Cross also holds a joint faculty appointment as professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and is an adjunct professor in the College of Computing’s School of Interactive Computing, and the Scheller College of Business. He serves as the president of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (and its subsidiary, the Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation), and the Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures.
In 2009, he agreed to assume a significant leadership role in the development of Georgia Tech’s 25-year strategic plan, Designing the Future. In 2011, he was the University System of Georgia representative to a state of Georgia strategic planning task force on science, technology, and innovation. He has represented Georgia Tech in the state, and across the nation and world, while also supporting studies by the National Research Council, testifying before Congress, and serving as an adviser to government and industry. He has served as a member of the Defense Science Board and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Currently, he serves on the executive committee of the Government-University-Research Roundtable, an organization sponsored by the National Academies, and as vice chair of the Air Force Institute Board of Visitors.
During his time as EVPR, Georgia Tech’s research and economic development programs have grown dramatically. Georgia Tech now reports $824.8 million in annual research and other sponsored program expenditures, including more than $100 million in industry research, a record for the Institute. Cross has helped bring together GTRI, the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), interdisciplinary research institutes (IRIs), and other research-active and support units to focus on measures that emphasize quality, along with diversification of the revenue base and innovative ways to make it easier for government, business, and industry to partner with Georgia Tech.
“Steve’s leadership has helped to make the tagline ‘what does Georgia Tech think’ truly relevant,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “Under his leadership, Georgia Tech’s colleges and schools and GTRI are collaborating as never before with significant joint work in cybersecurity, health analytics, robotics, and many other areas. For the first time in two decades, this fall we were awarded the leading role in a NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC), the focus of which is in an area Georgia Tech created: the manufacture of living cells to be used in a broad range of therapeutic applications. Winning the ERC was made possible through vision and collaboration within Georgia Tech, with other universities and industry, and philanthropic partnerships.”
Peterson also credited Cross with increasing national awareness of Georgia Tech’s impact in economic development, as evidenced by the recent Brookings Institution report that highlighted Tech’s role in economic development. Today, he noted, almost two dozen Fortune 500 companies have established innovation centers in and around Tech Square, and company startup activity is at an all-time high. Other emerging and growing innovation neighborhoods include Technology Enterprise Park, the North Avenue Research Area, the area around the intersection of 14th Street and Northside Drive, and the Cobb County Research Facility, each with a specific market focus.
“While Steve always credits the faculty, students and staff who make great things happen here, his tireless and enthusiastic leadership deserves significant recognition for these and many other accomplishments,” Peterson added.
Before joining Georgia Tech, Cross was a research faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, where he served as director and CEO of the Software Engineering Institute. Before that, he was a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a faculty member at the Air Force Institute of Technology. A retired military officer, he received the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Air Force Research Award.
Cross received a B.S.E.E. from the University of Cincinnati, an M.S.E.E. from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) and the president-elect of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society. Cross is also a distinguished alumnus of the University of Cincinnati’s College of Engineering and the Air Force Institute of Technology.
A search committee will be established to fill the position of EVPR.
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]]>There is no official Commencement dress code, but for those who are still scrambling for picture-perfect attire, here are some practical tips to help dress and prep for the big day.
Spring 2026 Commencement is a rain or shine event. Graduates and guests are advised to monitor the weather forecast and dress as needed. Each ceremony is expected to last between one to two and a half hours. For directions between venues throughout the weekend, visit the Georgia Tech map.
Spring 2026 Commencement Ceremony Schedule
Leave bags at home. If you must have a bag, make it clear. Commencement events at both Bobby Dodd Stadium and McCamish Pavilion are subject to the venue’s clear bag policy. See the full policy at ramblinwreck.com/clearbag.
Travel light. This will save you the hassle of carrying a bag at all or leaving your bag at bag valet. If you’re wearing a dress or skirt, try to find one with pockets to carry small items such as keys or your phone.
Dress comfortably. You may be at the event for up to three and a half hours. The event will be a combination of standing and sitting, so make sure you’re dressed comfortably enough for both. Consider light layers depending on the weather.
Bachelor’s and Ph.D. graduates will process in front of the stage as their names are called, so be sure you can walk in your shoes. If you’re wearing pants, consider lighter colors to contrast with your regalia. If you’re planning to wear heels, consult the “Don’t wear new shoes” section, and consider a low heel (and that you’ll be walking on uneven turf or flooring).
Suggest that your guests dress business casual. Although there is no dress code, many guests like to dress up for this special day. Parents and alumni can often be seen donning Tech colors and gear, and sometimes international guests wear their country’s traditional dress clothes. Tell them about the clear bag entry policy so they, too, can plan accordingly.
Whatever you choose to wear, the photos you take will be around for a while, so pick something you won’t mind seeing a few years down the road. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with white and gold.
Don’t think that because you’re wearing a robe, it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing underneath. Throughout the day, you’ll be taking numerous photos, and you may at some point want to take off your regalia.
Don’t wear new shoes. Commencement is not the day to break in new shoes. Another tip: Don’t wear high heels if you are not used to walking in them. On your walk across the stage, you should be focusing on the moment you’ve been waiting for during the past four (or five) years, not worrying about tripping.
Don’t spend too much time styling your hair. Keep in mind you’ll be wearing a graduation cap for a few hours. If you’re planning an elaborate hairstyle, try it out with your cap before graduation day to make sure that the cap still sits properly. Bobby pins can help to secure your cap if it feels loose.
Don’t make your mortarboard too epic. Remember that someone has to sit behind you, and if you adorn your cap with anything 3D, try to keep it no more than an inch or two off the board.
Don’t forget your regalia. Make sure you have your cap, gown, tassel, cords, and stole (and hood, for graduate students). There will not be extras at the venue, and regalia is required for participating in Commencement. And, don’t wait until Commencement day to unwrap it. Take it out of the plastic, make sure you have it all, and hang it up to let some of the wrinkles fall out. If you’re feeling ambitious, give it a steam.
Set an alarm, especially for morning ceremonies. Doors will open one hour before the start of the ceremony. Graduates should report to the venue 45 minutes before the ceremony starts. Set your alarm and have a buddy system to make sure you wake up. (See the full Commencement schedule.)
Charge your phone. Bachelor’s and Ph.D. graduates will scan a virtual name card (StagePass) as they walk to the stage to have their names called, and you will want to find family members after the ceremony. Master’s graduates will scan their StagePass during their college ceremony. Bring a phone with a full charge. Pro tip: Take a screenshot of your StagePass before you arrive. Better yet, print your StagePass and never worry about your phone’s battery life.
Stay hydrated and take a bathroom break before you arrive. Try to be well-rested, fed, hydrated, and prepared to sit through the ceremony.
Plan where to meet your guests after the ceremony. For bachelor’s and master’s graduates, there is no formal procession in or out of the venue. Suggest a specific meeting spot beforehand, ideally a bit away from the venue, to ensure you are not lost in the crowd and can find family members to reunite easily.
Send your guests parking information. Note available parking areas at commencement.gatech.edu/venue-parking.
Most importantly, remember to enjoy the day and reflect on all that you’ve achieved at Georgia Tech. Congratulations, graduates!
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"The Clark Scholars Program will have a huge impact on our ability to attract the best and brightest young minds to the College of Engineering and will further cultivate an inclusive and diverse student body,” said Steve McLaughlin, dean and Southern Company chair of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. “The entrepreneurial spirit, community-minded values, and continuous strive to achieve excellence that is encouraged by the A. James Clark Scholars Program aligns perfectly with the mission of the College."
Ten students per year will be selected as Clark Scholars based on their financial need, academic accomplishments, engagement in engineering and leadership skills. By fall 2021, the Clark Scholars Program is expected to have 40 students enrolled. Throughout their four years in the program, the Clark Scholars will pursue a rigorous engineering education, enroll in business classes, participate in intensive summer programs, and work on semester-long community service projects.
“We hope to enable motivated and promising students to focus their efforts on academic excellence and a passion for engineering,” said David Torello, faculty mentor of the Georgia Tech Clark Scholars Program. “We expect the program to develop a group of gifted graduates ready to tackle the challenges facing today’s world and establish themselves as leaders in the field of engineering.”
The program honors the legacy of the late A. James Clark, a noted engineer, businessman and philanthropist who never forgot that his business successes began with an engineering scholarship. That is why the Clark family has long supported extending engineering education to talented students from underrepresented backgrounds, including first-generation college students. Mr. Clark was the president and CEO of Clark Construction, a Maryland-based firm with a national reach.
“We are honored to have the opportunity to establish the A. James Clark Scholars Program at Georgia Tech,” said Joe Del Guercio, president and CEO of the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation. “With a focus on underrepresented students, the core curriculum includes a rigorous engineering and business course of study, as well as leadership and community service activities – which reflects Mr. Clark’s values as a businessman and philanthropist.”
“The generous endowment from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation will provide the financial support needed for hundreds of promising students to achieve their dreams,” said G.P. “Bud” Peterson, president of Georgia Tech. “It will impact not only the lives of these students, but the lives of students for generations to come. At Tech, we are creating the next generation of engineers and ensuring that students with the passion and mindset to do great things have a seat at the table.”
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About Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering
Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering (CoE) offers the resources of a major technological university and a location in the heart of cosmopolitan Atlanta. CoE is the largest of the Institute’s six colleges, enrolling more than 60 percent of the students at Georgia Tech and about half of all tenured and tenure track faculty at the Institute. U.S. News and World Report ranks the College in the top four of engineering programs in the country. CoE offers more than 50 different degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels through its main Atlanta campus and satellite campuses around the world. As a leader in engineering education, CoE graduates the largest number of women and minority engineers in the country. Visit www.coe.gatech.edu to learn more.
About the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation
The A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation is the family foundation of the late A. James Clark, former head of Clark Construction, and his wife, Alice B. Clark. The Foundation invests in helping hard workers with a drive to achieve. The Foundation has four priority areas: engineering education, D.C. education, community and veterans support.
The Clark Scholars Program is the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation’s signature academic program. As part of its commitment to building the pipeline of future engineers, the Foundation has partnered with some of the nation’s leading engineering institutions to financially support students who exhibit strong academic and leadership potential. To date, the Clark Foundation has invested in engineering students at The George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, The University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Stevens Institute of Technology, Vanderbilt University, The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Learn more at www.ClarkFoundationDC.org.
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