{"687094":{"#nid":"687094","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Solar-powered Fa\u00e7ade Panel System Wins Seed Grant Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) and the College of Design (CoD) awarded a seed grant to Christian Coles, lecturer in the School of Architecture; Moinak Choudhury, Ph.D., lecturer in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC); and Janelle Wright, environmental justice programs manager, at the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA). Coles will serve as the principal investigator with Choudhury and Wright serving as the co-principal investigators.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir project, \u201cDesigning Futures: Afrofuturist Co-Creation with AI for Community-Led Facade Design\u201d will be realized during a 16-week design studio (ARCH 4016) class that will take place during fall 2026 and serve senior undergraduate architecture students. Participants from diverse majors will join through the Building for Equity and Sustainability Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) team, in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education (SCoRE). Pre-planning tasks will occur spring semester in preparation for the fall studio class.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe studio class will collaborate with Moinak Choudhury and students in LMC 3403, who bring expertise in technical communication, responsible AI use, and community-based learning to co-create engagement materials and public-facing documentation that strengthen the project\u2019s interdisciplinary links between design, sustainability, and communication.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe final result of the project encompasses students who will design and install a modular, solar-powered fa\u00e7ade panel system for the outdoor classroom on WAWA\u2019s campus. This project \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/saportareport.com\/touching-grass\/sections\/reports\/mark-lannaman\/\u0022\u003Eextends work done by a previous Georgia Tech VIP team\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe panels will serve multiple functions: participatory community engagement, artistic expression, and climate regulation. This project will advance the classroom toward its intended vision as an Afrofuturist learning space with technological nods to the Keneda Building on Georgia Tech\u2019s campus. With the help of this seed grant, interdisciplinary team members will delve into design, engineering, computing, communication, and community partnership.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) and the College of Design (CoD) awarded a seed grant to Christian Coles, lecturer in the School of Architecture; Moinak Choudhury, Ph.D., lecturer in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC); and Janelle Wright, environmental justice programs manager, at the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) and the College of Design (CoD) awarded a seed grant to Christian Coles, lecturer in the School of Architecture; Moinak Choudhury, Ph.D., lecturer in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC); "}],"uid":"27513","created_gmt":"2026-01-06 19:06:48","changed_gmt":"2026-01-06 19:07:43","author":"Walter Rich","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-01-06T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-01-06T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"678930":{"id":"678930","type":"image","title":"Pictured are Christian Coles (left) and Moinak Choudhury (right).","body":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPictured are Christian Coles (left) and Moinak Choudhury (right).\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1767726318","gmt_created":"2026-01-06 19:05:18","changed":"1767726358","gmt_changed":"2026-01-06 19:05:58","alt":"Pictured are Christian Coles (left) and Moinak Choudhury (right).","file":{"fid":"263027","name":"2-researchers-side-by-side.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/01\/06\/2-researchers-side-by-side.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/01\/06\/2-researchers-side-by-side.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":690854,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/01\/06\/2-researchers-side-by-side.jpg?itok=a-3433Mi"}}},"media_ids":["678930"],"groups":[{"id":"69599","name":"IPaT"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"188084","name":"go-ipat"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWalter Rich\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["walter.rich@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}