On Wednesday, April 13th 2022, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) hosted the 16th annual Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. UROP’s annual symposium is Georgia Tech’s largest undergraduate research colloquium and allows students to present their research and gain valuable skills and presentation experience. Each year the symposium also presents awards to the top poster and oral presentation from each college and honors the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher (OUR) from each college. And with over 40 oral presentations and nearly 90 poster presentations, this year’s symposium proved to be another success for UROP and Georgia Tech.
This year the symposium was held in Exhibition Hall and opened with an introduction and keynote address to students, faculty, and other non-presenters. Shortly after, the event moved into the poster presentations segment where undergraduate students displayed their research to judges, faculty, and other attendees. The oral presentations followed soon after and gave student researchers the opportunity to go more in-depth with their research and findings and answer any questions the judges and attendees had. To end the event, sponsoring colleges and departments recognized Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers from their respective colleges. Additionally, the symposium judges were tasked with selecting the top student researchers having exceptional poster and oral presentations.
Any Georgia Tech undergraduate student interested in presenting their research is encouraged to apply for future symposiums and to build on research presentation skills, connect with other undergraduate researchers and faculty, and the chance to be recognized with awards by members of the Georgia Tech research community. UROP also hosts other research-related events and workshops throughout the school year to assist undergraduate students interested in research and build on their passions!
To view the list of awardees and pictures from the event visit: https://symposium.urop.gatech.edu/awards/
To learn more about undergraduate research at Georgia Tech visit: https://urop.gatech.edu/
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After almost a year since the completion of the 2021 InVenture Prize Competition, we caught up with Matt McMullen and Emma Bivings who competed as finalists on the SPOT Harness team, a harness that uses sensors and vibrators to help blind dogs navigate. Their experience in the competition exposed them to multiple experiences, environments, and demands necessary for startups for the first time. As a result, they were able to distinguish their areas of growth, gain valuable insights, and make potential changes in the direction of their product.
Today, Matt is currently a graduate student seeking a master’s in music technology and Emma is a full-time operations management trainee at McMaster-Carr. The team is still developing the SPOT Harness and has even grown its team to five members. Through funding and participating in Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X Startup Launch program, they have been able to launch their company Saving Grace Pet Solutions LLC. They plan to launch SPOT Harness under this company as well as develop other future products.
To future InVenture participants, Matt advises, “Don’t give up on your idea! The most important part of making it the distance is having a team with a passion for your product.”
The SPOT Harness team will be launching a kick-starter soon for preorders ahead of the official market launch of the SPOT Harness for blind dogs. They also advise anyone who has or knows someone who has a dog suffering from vision loss to visit their website to sign up for their newly refined prototype!
Visit their website here: www.savinggrace.tech
To learn more about the upcoming InVenture Prize Competition visit https://inventureprize.gatech.edu/ . Registration closes on Jan. 19.
]]>By Frida Carrera
Several months after the completion of the 2021 InVenture Prize Competition, we caught up with John Wooten to see what he’s been up to over the past couple of months! In 2021’s competition, John’s innovation Block Transfer, a decentralized stock transfer agent protocol for global financial markets, placed as a finalist.
Today, John Wooten has been actively working to grow Block Transfer by securing final SEC approval, acquiring funding by US Bank, and submitting utility patents. He believes that by combining blockchain tech with traditional financial markets, we can fundamentally change the world. John describes his experience as a finalist in the competition as being invaluable and advises, “We didn't know we could partake given prior admission to CREATE-X. Biggest advice is to just TRY!”
You can learn more about Block Transfer here: https://www.blocktransfer.io/consult
To learn more about the upcoming InVenture Prize Competition visit https://inventureprize.gatech.edu/
Registration closes on Jan. 19.
]]>By Frida Carrera
Several months after the completion of the 2021 InVenture Prize Competition, we caught up with John Wooten to see what he’s been up to over the past couple of months! In 2021’s competition, John’s innovation Block Transfer, a decentralized stock transfer agent protocol for global financial markets, placed as a finalist.
Today, John Wooten has been actively working to grow Block Transfer by securing final SEC approval, acquiring funding by US Bank, and submitting utility patents. He believes that by combining blockchain tech with traditional financial markets, we can fundamentally change the world. John describes his experience as a finalist in the competition as being invaluable and advises, “We didn't know we could partake given prior admission to CREATE-X. Biggest advice is to just TRY!”
You can learn more about Block Transfer here: https://www.blocktransfer.io/consult
To learn more about the upcoming InVenture Prize Competition visit https://inventureprize.gatech.edu/
Registration closes on Jan. 19.
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After almost a year since the completion of the 2021 InVenture Prize Competition, we caught up with finalist Sammie Hasen to see what she’s been up to over the past couple of months! For 2021’s competition, Sammie’s invention, BCase, placed as a finalist for its accessible, discreet, and secure birth control storage that attaches directly to the back of your phone.
Today, Sammie successfully launched BCase in New York City on World Contraception Day as one of five brands featured by Medsur Inc, the consumer goods company founded by Sammie. On September 26th, Medsur was even invited by The Pill Club, a leading contraceptive company, to participate in the launch of their uterus-shaped vending machines in New York. Medsur now continues to garner the attention from many leading health companies in the birth control space and this is just the beginning for Sammie.
“I plan to keep growing Medsur and follow our vision of creating a suite of innovative products for uterus owners. I am slowly growing the team, and I have now added the incredible Alexa Graham as COO. She is a rockstar, and she will help me grow Medsur to be all that we envision it to be!”, she explained.
Sammie adds that Medsur is always looking for new ambassadors to join the team and encourages anyone passionate about the femtech space and building innovative products to consider signing up!
You can learn more about Medsur and BCase on their website here: https://www.medsurinc.com/
To learn more about the upcoming InVenture Prize Competition visit https://inventureprize.gatech.edu/ . Registration closes on Jan. 19.
]]>On April 21, 2021, biomedical engineering student Michael Pullen will serve as Georgia Tech’s representative in the fifth annual ACC InVenture Prize. Here he will compete with teams from twelve other universities for the chance to take home $30,000 in prizes.
Pullen’s invention first took root when he experienced the struggle of getting turf burn while playing football. While most players seek protection through regular compression sleeves, this often leads to decreased grip, more fumbles, and difficulty in maneuvering plays.
While working in sports medicine with the Atlanta Falcons, Pullen found a way to directly avoid this problem. LZRD Sleeve is a compressive sleeve that integrates gripping and moisture-wicking technology to deliver protection and control without sacrificing mobility nor comfort.
Since then, LZRD Sleeve has secured its place in non-athletic arenas. A year ago, the world of sports halted due to COVID-19 shutdowns. It was then that Pullen sought other applications for his innovative sleeve — LZRD Sleeve has expanded its market to delivery drivers, gardeners, and maintenance workers seeking better performance and protection from harm.
LZRD Sleeve is now being used by the largest U.S. courier service, and it has also been featured in Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s podcast StarTalk. On the same hand, Pullen has been in contact with a whopping five Fortune 500 companies. He ultimately hopes that InVenture Prize will show that with hard work, nothing is impossible.
“Never in a million years would I have thought I would be representing Georgia Tech in the ACC InVenture Prize. Getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things is important, and by winning, I hope to set an example so that others might do the same,” Pullen stated.
Overall, winning the ACC InVenture Prize would allow LZRD Sleeve to expand even further through capital investments, uptakes in production, and coverage of associated legal fees.
The Georgia Tech community is encouraged to show Pullen its support through voting for the People’s Choice Award of $5,000. Voting is open from 8 a.m. on Monday, April 5 until midnight on Tuesday, April 6.
To vote, please text GATech to win the ACC InVenture Prize People’s Choice Award to 415-965-7445.
Winners will be announced on Wednesday, April 21 at 7 p.m. on PBS stations throughout the ACC region.
More information about LZRD Sleeve can be found at lzrdtech.com.
]]>Office of Undergraduate Education
]]>Apply online at urop.gatech.edu
]]>Earlier this month, 2018 InVenture Prize winner, entrepreneur, and CEO Kolby Hanley celebrated the milestone of surpassing $1M in revenue. His Duluth-based company ULTRAVIEW Archery offers state-of-the-art products to competitive archers across the world. Hanley, a 2019 Georgia Tech Materials Science and Engineering graduate, is still fond of his roots as the company sees more and more success.
“I was a competitive archer, and we used lights all the time for low-light conditions. However, there was never really a solution for it. You’d have to buy an external light kit that mounted to your bow, and it just wasn’t good,” Hanley described.
Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Hanley worked to develop his very own scope with integrated lighting, ultimately taking it to the 2018 InVenture Prize. Here he refined his product, began his startup, and later took home the $20,000 grand prize with StarLight, a scope since updated and sold as The ULTRAVIEW 2.
Since graduation, Hanley has been working to bring a wider variety of products to the competitive archery community. The company’s most recent one is The Hinge, a hand-sized release designed for compound archers.
“The goal behind ULTRAVIEW is to offer the best product in each category for competitive archers,” Hanley stated. Judging by their product reviews, Hanley and his team seem to be doing just that. With their array of scopes, releases, and grips, ULTRAVIEW seeks to prioritize archers’ performance and comfort above all.
By the end of the year, ULTRAVIEW is projected to reach $1.2-1.4M in sales, and revenue growth should reach 450%. The team has expanded to approximately ten members since Hanley’s one-man InVenture victory in 2018, and the company is currently recruiting a COO.
“With InVenture, you’ll know what product you’re offering and what problems you’re solving — it really helps you clarify what you’re doing with your business idea. It definitely changed my life,” said Hanley in reflection of his time spent competing.
With the holidays approaching, Hanley and his team expect to see an increase in orders, and their dedication to competitive archers remains strong. The company has a presence on Facebook and Instagram, and more info can be found at www.ultraviewarchery.com.
Applications for the 2021 competition are open now on the InVenture Prize website, and the competition will move briskly toward the finals:
404.385.5379
]]>This is the sign you've been looking for.
]]>Work hard
Anywhere.
]]>On March 13, 2019, the lives of team members Dev Mandavia, Lucas Muller, and Cassidy Wang began to change. Once Ethos Medical was announced as the winner of the 2019 InVenture Prize, the team witnessed the transformation of their startup. They would now have full confidence in their ultrasound-guided needle system, not to mention $20,000 (sponsored by the TDK Corporation) and a patent filing in their hands.
As the team explained in their pitch last year, most spinal punctures require specialized expertise from medical professionals to place a needle into the spine and, even then, it is done blindly. Seeing this issue, Ethos Medical sought to alleviate the uncertainty by developing a system that shows the needle’s trajectory and location in real time with ultrasound. Their device has the potential to change the face of procedures such as epidurals and spinal taps, increasing safety for both patients and medical staff.
Product and Team Updates
Since winning the InVenture Prize, the team has been working fulltime on the development of Ethos Medical. All three members graduated in 2018, and they are dedicating all their time to bringing Ethos Medical to hospitals and medical schools. The team now has a WEBSITE in which medical personnel can explore Iris, their official needling device that works together with the commonly used Philips Lumify portable ultrasound.
Ethos Medical has also collaborated with prominent medical professionals. Since last year’s competition, the team has onboarded several clinical advisors such as Dr. Rich Duszak, Emory University’s vice chair for Health Policy and Practice, and Dr. Mike Blaivas, an ultrasound expert and emergency physician at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Georgia.
Future Endeavors
As the year comes to a close, the team reflected on their current and future plans.
“Our business model will be to sell the devices to hospitals. We’re pre-revenue, and we’re planning to participate in a training bootcamp at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in January,” Mandavia said. As far as the InVenture Prize goes, the team will be able to draw on some of the experiences gained from competing and taking home the grand prize. “Through the pitch practices, we learned how to pitch and tell a story, which will certainly come in handy throughout the course of our startup,” the team stated.
Thoughts on the 2020 InVenture Prize
With the registration deadline a little over a month away, the members of Ethos Medical offered some advice on how to get going with the InVenture Prize process.
“Find a genuine problem in the world and talk to the people who experience that problem the most in order to understand what they need in a solution. Then, build the solution as fast as you can.”
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE 2020 INVENTURE PRIZE BY CLICKING HERE. Registration ends Jan. 13.
]]>By Jessica Barber
As the Institute welcomes the beginning of a new decade, it also welcomes a new group of dedicated student innovators. Only a few days remain until the Preliminary Round of the 2020 InVenture Prize, and in preparation for this, the Office of Undergraduate Education hosted an all-day Q&A session for students heading into the competition.
On January 17, representatives from several teams met with Recha Reid, Program and Operations Manager for Student Innovation, in order to discuss their products, pitches, and remaining questions before the competition revs up.
“We wanted to join InVenture because we wanted to do something humanitarian, and we wanted to do something that might potentially help the world,” one team stated. This ideal was reflective of many groups’ mantras, and this year should present some of the most compassionate inventions yet.
“All the students had really robust ideas that can actually make a change in the world, even in a little way. I think their ideas are way past what we would expect at this stage in the competition, or even in their years at Georgia Tech,” Reid stated.
Throughout the day, topics ranged from poster designs to pitch suggestions and from simple advice to locating on-campus innovation resources. When asked about any surprises from the Q&A session, Reid mentioned one standout discovery.
“Surprisingly, a lot of this year’s groups actually talked to last year’s finalists to get advice, and that was unexpected. I don’t think many of the teams did that last year,” she noted.
It is evident that this year’s teams seem to be some of the most resourceful ones yet, and the connections formed between past and present competitors should prove to be interesting in the beginning stages of the competition.
On Wednesday, January 22, the Preliminary Round will host approximately forty student teams as they compete in a round-robin-type atmosphere. Here they will receive scores and feedback on their presentations from Institute faculty before the Semifinal and Final Rounds on February 4 and March 11, 2020, respectively.
Read more about the InVenture Prize.
]]>The
InVenture
Effect!
]]>A team of materials science and biomedical engineers, TremorTrainer finished in second place at the 2019 InVenture Prize. Nicolette Prevost, Colten Spivey, and Nisha Goddard captivated audiences with their intuitive, weighted glove designed to help patients struggling with hand tremors.
The glove depends on counterweight technology to allow patients to carry out everyday tasks such as writing, tying shoelaces, and buttoning shirts. Depending on the severity of their tremors, patients can add or subtract weights to meet their individual needs.
Product Updates
Since the InVenture Prize, TremorTrainer has continued to focus on making the glove more accessible and personalized.
“We are coordinating with a local seamstress to supply our gloves, and we are working on our patent,” Prevost said. “We will be providing a variety of sizes and, potentially, colors. We are working on branding the weights and we’ve completed the packaging design.”
As the team members approach their final semesters at Tech, their future looks bright. The final pieces for the full production of TremorTrainer are coming together, and the team is continually applying the knowledge gained from competing in the InVenture Prize.
“Beyond engineering, there is a lot that goes into advertising, logo design, slogan creation, and more than we would have ever known. We can now apply these lessons during design processes to optimize product performance down the line,” the team said.
Moving Forward
Since participating in the 2019 Finals, TremorTrainer has proven itself a valuable addition to the medical field. The team has been working with medical professionals to gauge the need for therapeutic devices, especially for tremor patients. Interactions like these have opened new doors for the team, and they look forward to continued growth.
“We have come into contact with so many people who are interested in trying and buying the glove. We have received requests to expand the business outside of the United States,” they said.
The team is also thinking of ways to make TremorTrainer a truly advanced device for motor skill therapies, including incorporating sensors to gather data on an individual’s tremor to more accurately quantify the appropriate weight.
Thoughts on the 2020 InVenture Prize
When asked about the most valuable part of their InVenture Prize journey, the team had one definitive answer.
“The coaching. We have had so much support from experienced professionals,” they said. “The InVenture Prize has taught us an immense amount about marketing, sales, and communication. Additionally, the product exposure and funding has launched us forward. On a personal level, the public speaking development was unparalleled.”
For those students interested in the upcoming 2020 competition, the team offered some words of advice.
“If you are passionate about your design, pursue this! Give it a shot! Think critically about the value your product provides, and why it’s needed. Think about your business strategy for manufacture, production, and sale.”
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE 2020 INVENTURE PRIZE BY CLICKING HERE. Registration ends Jan. 13.
]]>Last year, team Nix won the People’s Choice Award at the InVenture Prize, and along with it, $5,000 and a place in CREATE-X’s Startup Launch program. Team members Cory Stine, Robert Patterson, Thomas Olson, Mohammed Aamir, Dustin Sloan, Vishwa Shah, and Milan Smart’s device appealed to people struggling with nicotine addiction.
Product Updates
Since competing, team Nix has focused on developing a fully functional prototype, which is an autonomous e-cigarette that automatically tapers users’ nicotine intake over time. By collecting data xaon individual usage habits, the device gradually reduces the amount of nicotine in the e-cigarette’s vapor stream.
Of the original seven team members, Stine, Olson, and Aamir are still working on the prototype. Nix now has a WEBSITE where users can preorder the e-cigarette device, and the team is gathering groups of users to participate in an upcoming beta test.
Moving Forward
With their website up and running, the team is reaching more people who are looking to turn their lives around. As Nix continues expanding, the team hopes to implement some of the knowledge gained from participating in the InVenture Prize.
“The pitch practices for the InVenture Prize really helped us communicate concisely and effectively. We’ll be using these lessons everywhere — marketing campaigns, the website, and more,” the team said.
Currently, preorders are set to be delivered by early 2020. The team hopes to continue making strides toward helping individuals overcome their nicotine dependence and take away the stress and shame surrounding their addiction.
Thoughts on the 2020 InVenture Prize
For students who want to participate in this year’s competition, the team offered advice about getting started.
“Focus on finding a good problem to solve. Finding a problem that people care about is more important than the solution in the early stages,” Stine said.
When asked about the most valuable takeaways from 2019, the team identified three: exposure, mentorship, and prize money. The exposure they received from the live final round and the resources provided by the competition organizing committee helped the team develop their algorithm, app, and e-cigarette. After countless hours of planning, mentorship, and product development, the team is now ready to launch Nix as a legitimate competitor in the growing nicotine replacement therapy industry.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE 2020 INVENTURE PRIZE BY CLICKING HERE. Registration ends Jan. 13.
]]>Create a life you love!
]]>Hustle!
]]>Thanks!
]]>The Student Government Association (SGA), Counseling Center, and Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE) unveiled a new mental health curriculum to be infused into sections of GT 1000: The First-Year Seminar and GT 2000: The Transfer Seminar. Both classes are one-credit-hour, discussion-based courses designed to help new students transition into life at Tech. While the mental health curriculum is not designed to be a lesson plan, it provides instructors with resources to introduce sensitive topics to their students early on in their Tech careers.
“You don’t have to be a mental health professional to lead and support a discussion about it,” said Janice Harewood, licensed psychologist and assistant director for Outreach and Wellness for the Counseling Center.
The curriculum infusion is specifically designed for GT 1000 and GT 2000’s discussion-style setting. It highlights mental health resources available on campus, provides reading resources and videos to help promote classroom discussion, and gives instructors suggestions for how to start talking about mental health with their students. Instructors can also reach out to professionals at the Counseling Center and ask them to lead workshops on a variety of mental health topics.
Jackson Caruso, vice president of Communications for undergraduate SGA, and Haigh Angell, executive vice president of undergraduate SGA, began working on the idea with the Counseling Center and CAE after Caruso took GT 1000 as a summer first-year student in 2018. In April, SGA hosted a roundtable with representatives from CAE, the Counseling Center, the Mental Health Student Coalition, the Office of the Provost, and Pride Alliance to discuss areas of concern surrounding student mental health and recommendations for how the curriculum infusion could address them.
The Counseling Center took this feedback and spearheaded the development of the curriculum itself, which consists of seven topic areas ranging from anxiety and depression to international and transfer students’ struggles in adjusting to a new environment. Harewood and Julia Rizzo, suicide prevention and crisis response coordinator for the Counseling Center, worked together to compile the instructional resource. They prioritized making it accessible for instructors so they wouldn’t have to develop their own resources from scratch.
The curriculum was distributed this fall to all GT 1000 and GT 2000 instructors as a Canvas page, with each topic corresponding to a different module. Lacy Hodges, assistant director in the Center for Academic Enrichment, developed the Canvas page, since CAE oversees all of GT 1000 and GT 2000. Hodges also invited professionals from the Counseling Center into the annual training for GT 1000 and GT 2000 instructors, which takes place each summer.
“As we continue to assess and implement this initiative, it’s imperative that our instructors are properly trained on best practices for addressing mental health and wellness and are familiar with the resources available to our students both on and off campus,” Hodges said.
Ultimately, the goals of this curriculum infusion are twofold: to destigmatize the issue of mental health, and to make sure students know the resources that are available to them.
“I look at this as part of a broader picture of how you can help change the culture of mental health on campus,” said Caruso. He believes that introducing mental health topics in class will lead to open conversations among students about their struggles — whether mental, physical, social, or academic. He cites the experience of failing a first test at Tech as an example of a situation where it’s important to talk to peers.
“You’re thinking, ‘Tech is hard, I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ and yet you also don’t want to talk about it,” Caruso said. “We can do a better job of saying that it’s all right that you failed, and this is how we can improve.”
SGA, along with CAE and the Counseling Center, see this curriculum infusion project as ever-evolving, and one that will adapt to student and instructor feedback.
“Ultimately, we hope that instructors in GT 1000 and GT 2000 will review these resources and at some level make mental health a natural part of the conversation,” said Harewood.
Campus Mental Health Resources
Phone Numbers
External Resources
]]>Institute Communications
]]>As a serial entrepreneur-turned-investor myself, here are a few of my tips for successfully approaching VCs to raise capital for your business.
BIP Capital VP Cres Ferrell
#1: Tell Me About the Problem and How You’ll Solve It
When I’m looking to invest in a company, I want to know immediately about the problem at hand, how you discovered it and how your solution resolves it. Is the problem a real one? Is the pain high enough that buyers will pay for your solution? If so, how much will they be willing to pay? How is it different from similar solutions? And lastly, will the solution increase a company’s revenue, reduce expenses or both? These are the things I really have to know as a VC before making an investment decision. Your presentation needs to tell me that you’ve done your homework.
#2: Show Me Your Tenacity, Resiliency and Drive
You’re the kind of entrepreneur I want to hear from if you have made it your business to know your industry inside and out. You may have encountered roadblocks but you’ve rolled up your sleeves and remained in the trenches until you found a working solution to a real, significant problem. And while you know that past success is often indicative of future success, that doesn’t mean that you’ve never failed. If you have experienced failure, you extracted every single lesson you could from it to help you create future successes. I’m interested in entrepreneurs who make me believe that they can make a difference in their industry. In fact, I need you to make me so excited about what you’re doing that I absolutely have to be a part of it.
#3: Tell Me About Your Customers
While I want to know about your core team, I also want to know about your customers—the early ones, especially. Are they friends turned customers who would simply just support anything you do? Or are they customers who genuinely believe that you have the solution they’ve been looking for and decided to take a chance on you? Will they refer you to others? This latter type of customer speaks volumes about the viability of your business, and I want to know how your solution has made things better for them.
#4: Be Prepared to Invest Time in Building a Relationship
Entering into a relationship with a VC can in some ways be like a marriage. In other words, can we live, grow and work together during the good times and the bad? And here’s the truth (99 percent of the time, at least): No VC worth his or her salt is going to invest in you right on the spot. Usually, it takes some time to evaluate compatibility, ask the in-depth questions and get clarifications. Stay focused on building the relationship. And don’t forget that VCs are busy just like you are. We hear pitches from a lot of entrepreneurs. If you haven’t heard back after a few days following a meeting, a polite and casual reach-out is fine. This might be in the form of a quick email that says something like, “Hey, I just wanted to touch base since I haven’t heard from you in a while.” Such a message often jogs my memory and can lead to reopened discussions. If I seemed excited at the pitch, remind me what I was excited about in the email. However, if a VC is taking more than one or two weeks to get back to you post-pitch, he or she has either forgotten about you or simply just isn’t interested.
#5: Curate Your Pitch Deck
Be mindful of what you do and don’t add to a pitch deck. Don’t include more than an eighteen-month projection for a startup, for instance. Also, skip the part about the “collective experience” of the team—it’s useless. When you create your presentation, don’t just take a PowerPoint template, add some SmartArt and call it a day. Invest in your deck. Be creative. Show that you’ve given consideration to the personality of your brand and its voice. What you say should engage and stimulate further conversation, not just be a regurgitation of dry data from spreadsheets.
If you’re looking for hundreds of thousands of dollars—or even millions—in an investment, your presentation should be of a caliber that deserves that kind of funds. It should look polished and professional and make the data come to life. You should be enthusiastic about it, but not too salesy. Have confidence but be authentic. Most of all, you should clearly lay out why your solution is going to be successful and how you’re making a special company.
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]]>The primary goal of GT 1000 is to support the success and retention of first-year students. Each section of the 1-credit course — there are about 100 every fall and a handful in the spring — meets an hour a week and is taught by either a faculty member or a staff member who has earned a master’s degree or higher. (Staff with bachelor’s degrees may apply to co-teach.) Each instructor is assigned a Team Leader (TL), an upper-class student who helps to facilitate class sessions.
Class sizes typically top out at 20, and GT 1000 sections are themed around academic discipline, special populations, campus programs, and topics relevant to first-year students at Tech. GT 2000, which was first offered to transfer students in Fall 2016, serves a similar role for incoming transfer students each fall and spring, helping them to adjust to Tech’s rigorous academic curriculum and adapt to campus culture.
Most sections are led by staff members, noted Lacy Hodges, who serves as the assistant director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and directs the GT 1000 and 2000 programs.
“Faculty have a teaching load already, but a lot of staff members might not have an opportunity to work closely with students,” she said. “GT 1000 and 2000 give them that opportunity.”
For faculty who teach GT 1000 and 2000, the classes offer a more intimate, discussion-based approach, Hodges said. “They can have a different relationship with the students,” she said. “It can be a way for both the faculty and students to get to know each other in ways they’re not able to in other classes.”
The curriculum is guided by specific learning outcomes — each student must design an academic plan toward graduation, explore career options, and complete a team presentation — but beyond that, there’s “a good bit of leeway,” Hodges said. “We really encourage instructors to take the temperature of their class and see what their students are interested in.”
TLs serve as an additional contact point for first-year students and help shape their experience by facilitating small group discussions and offering mentoring in and outside of class.
All new and returning GT 1000 and 2000 instructors are required to participate in a teaching workshop over the summer. TLs receive a half day of training in April. As for time commitment, in addition to class time, there are generally several hours of weekly preparation involved.
“Teaching GT 1000 is an amazing way to meet incoming students and puts faculty and staff in a position to influence students’ first year at Georgia Tech,” said Karen Yiu, coordinator for Student Diversity Programs and the GT 1000 Instructor of the Year in Fall 2017. “I particularly enjoy GT1000 because it is an avenue for providing college literacy for students as they navigate a new environment. The smaller class size allows for a combination of social development with academic coursework.”
Yiu also noted the balance between the curriculum guidelines and the opportunity to put a personal stamp on the class and accommodate the group’s specific needs.
“There is flexibility in adapting the curriculum, and through the class, I’ve been able to provide resources such as tutoring and resume workshops to help students succeed, but I also provide a space where students have been able to talk about struggling in their classes, their mental health, and normalize what may be taboo,” she said.
To learn more and apply for this year, visit gt1000.gatech.edu, or attend an information session on Thursday, March 15, at 11 a.m. in Clough Lounge (Suite 205, Clough Commons).
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