{"679169":{"#nid":"679169","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Gregory Sawicki to Serve as Interim Director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEffective January 1st, Gregory Sawicki will serve as interim executive director of the Georgia Tech Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). Sawicki is a professor and the Joseph Anderer Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cProfessor Greg Sawicki will make a great interim executive director of IRIM. He brings experience with robotics and collaborative research to this role,\u201d said Julia Kubanek, professor and vice president for interdisciplinary research at Georgia Tech. \u201cHe\u0027ll be a strong partner to faculty, students, and the EVPR team as we explore the future of IRIM and robotics over the next several months.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESawicki succeeds Seth Hutchinson who will be taking a new position at Northeastern University in Boston.\u0026nbsp;Hutchinson, professor and KUKA Chair for Robotics in Georgia Tech\u2019s College of Computing, has served as executive director of IRIM for six years. During Hutchinson\u2019s tenure as executive director, IRIM expanded its industry outreach activities, developed more consistent communications, and grew its faculty pool at Georgia Tech to include a diverse cohort from across the Colleges of Engineering and Computing and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I am extremely excited to step into this leadership role for IRIM, maintain our research excellence in the foundational areas of robotics, and proactively leverage opportunities to grow across campus and beyond in novel, creative interdisciplinary directions,\u201d said Sawicki. \u201cThis will involve new initiatives to incentivize connections with GTRI and other IRI\u0027s on campus, to build new industry partnerships, and continue to strengthen the M.S.\/Ph.D. program in Robotics by engaging with Schools beyond those with a traditional footprint in robotics education and research.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESawicki directs the Human Physiology of Wearable Robotics (PoWeR) Lab where he and his group seek to discover physiological principles underpinning locomotion performance and apply them to develop lower-limb robotic devices capable of improving both healthy and impaired\u0026nbsp;human locomotion. By focusing on the human side of the human-machine interface, his team has begun to create a roadmap for the design of lower-limb robotic exoskeletons that are truly symbiotic \u2013 that is, wearable devices that work seamlessly in concert with the underlying physiological systems to facilitate the emergence of augmented human locomotion performance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESawicki earned a B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell University in 1999, an M.S. in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from the University of California - Davis in 2001, and a Ph.D. in neuromechanics at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2007. Sawicki completed his postdoctoral studies\u0026nbsp;in integrative biology at Brown University in 2009.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESawicki has been recognized for his interdisciplinary research and teaching, recently receiving a $2.6 million Research Project Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study optimization and artificial intelligence to personalize exoskeleton assistance for individuals with symptoms resulting from stroke. * Sawicki was also selected as a 2021 George W. Woodruff School Academic Leadership Fellow, and the 2022 College of Sciences Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching and the 2023 American Society of Biomechanics Founders\u2019 Award for excellence in research and mentoring. Sawicki has also been featured as an expert voice on exoskeletons and human neuromechanics in numerous print and television news releases.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E--Christa M. Ernst\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/news\/woodruff-school-faculty-awarded-26-million-nih-research-project-grant\u0022\u003E*Joint Award with Aaron Young, Assistant Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Sawicki is a professor and the Joseph Anderer Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEffective January 1st, Gregory Sawicki will serve as interim executive director of the Georgia Tech Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). Sawicki is a professor and the Joseph Anderer Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Effective January 1st, Gregory Sawicki will serve as interim executive director of the Georgia Tech Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). "}],"uid":"27863","created_gmt":"2025-01-06 13:59:58","changed_gmt":"2025-01-07 15:16:41","author":"Christa Ernst","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-01-06T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2025-01-06T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"675931":{"id":"675931","type":"image","title":"sawicki_brownhat2_23web_0.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGregory Sawicki to Serve as Interim Director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1736172072","gmt_created":"2025-01-06 14:01:12","changed":"1736172072","gmt_changed":"2025-01-06 14:01:12","alt":"Gregory Sawicki","file":{"fid":"259611","name":"sawicki_brownhat2_23web_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/01\/06\/sawicki_brownhat2_23web_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/01\/06\/sawicki_brownhat2_23web_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":644647,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/01\/06\/sawicki_brownhat2_23web_0.jpg?itok=FfQB2K-2"}}},"media_ids":["675931"],"groups":[{"id":"197261","name":"Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"142761","name":"IRIM"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"132","name":"Institute Leadership"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188087","name":"go-irim"},{"id":"187582","name":"go-ibb"},{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"},{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"98751","name":"College of Engineering; George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"193656","name":"Neuro Next Initiative"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EChrista M. Ernst [christa.ernst@research.gatech.edu],\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Communications Program Manager,\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ETopic Expertise: Robotics | Data Sciences| Semiconductor Design \u0026amp; Fab\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["christa.ernst@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}