Also available  via live stream at president.gatech.edu. Questions should be submitted within 24 hours of the event to the Provost's Office..

The meeting will open Tuesday, March 6 at 1 p.m., with sessions continuing until 5 p.m. A poster session and reception will be held from 5 to 6:30, with a seated dinner to follow from 7 to 9 p.m.  Wednesday will kick off with breakfast at 8 a.m., with sessions ending at 1 p.m.  

You may register for the conference beginning Jan. 18 by clicking here.

The conference and poster session will be held in the Global Learning Center located in Midtown Atlanta. Tuesday's dinner will be held in the adjacent Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center.

The first day of the conference will consider “Transformative Opportunities for Tomorrow’s Bioproducts Manufacturing.” The second day will be devoted to “Manufacturing Design for Advanced Chemicals and Materials,” comprised of two sessions—The Promise of Smart Manufacturing, and Material and Chemical Design for New Products.  Experts, faculty and students will engage the audience in discussing these topics.

“This conference is being designed to explore the application of new tools to long-standing challenges,” said RBI Executive Director Norman Marsolan. “We want to explore how those tools can lead the existing and emerging bioproducts industry into a vibrant and as yet unimagined future.”

About 45 graduate Fellows supported by RBI's unique endowment are expected to participate in this year’s poster competition. Conference participants will have an opportunity to meet these students and discuss with them how their research could be valuable or made more relevant to their companies.

Throughout the two days, there will be ample time for networking and discussion with expert researchers, students, and industry peers. The conference is also a prime opportunity to learn more about Georgia Tech’s innovation and commercialization centers and how they can support business and industry strategies. RBI serves as a portal into pertinent research capabilities and services available across campus.

The 2017 conference attracted a record number of industry and business leaders from a wide range of arenas, including energy, pulp & paper, biochemicals, materials science and bioprocessing, as well as government and academic representatives — more than 160 during the two-day event. The meeting serves as a development opportunity as well for young to mid-level professionals. There is no registration fee.

More information will be released in the coming weeks and can be found at the 2018 conference page.

Rooms are available at a preferred rate through Feb. 28 for conference guests at the Hilton Garden Inn Midtown, located just a 10 minute walk from the conference venue. Many hotels in the Midtown area also offer Georgia Tech preferred rates. Please be sure to specify “Georgia Tech” when you call to make your reservation.

For hotel and other travel and accommodations inquiries, please contact Dione Morton.

For any other questions regarding the conference, please contact Kelly Smith, RBI's marketing and communications manager.

The conference brings other more than 125 industry, government and Georgia Tech guests from pulp & paper, chemical, fuel and material industries and from national affiliated organizations and laboratories. Students have the opportunity to engage with participants one-on-one during the poster session, giving them the ability to explain in greater detail their research focus and work. 

Abstract:

Materials by Design started with a simple precept; with the advent of computational tools for thermodynamic, kinetics, and mechanics, can we design materials is the same way that mechanical and electrical components were being designed?  Combining systems engineering principles, optimization schemes and advanced computational modeling for process-structure and structure-properties relationships, computational materials design accelerates new materials development to the point that they can be engineered concurrently with higher level mechanical and electronic systems. I’ll review examples for the design of materials for applications in aerospace and transportation.  In additional I’ll touch on path to the future of materials design and the challenges for materials in our complicated and warming world.  

Biography:

Dr. Charlie Kuehmann has been a leader in computational materials design since its inception.  In creating the first company dedicated to commercializing computational materials design, he’s innovated the first materials and alloys from this new technology; from high-performance steels for race cars, aluminum alloys for aircraft, gear materials for helicopters, high-temperature alloys for turbine engines, and even bubble-gum.  As the computational materials design revolution has gained momentum, and been embraced by government and private R&D organizations through the Accelerated Insertion of Materials and Materials Genome Initiative, Dr. Kuehmann has brought the technology to the consumer electronics industry and most recently to electric vehicles and spacecraft.  Dr. Kuehmann currently leads the materials engineering organizations at both Tesla and SpaceX, driving material solutions to enable the world’s transition to a sustainable future, the commercialization of space and a multi-planetary civilization.

Click here to register.

The opening address will be delivered by John Williams, CEO of Domtar, a company on the forefront of the effort to convert sustainable wood fiber into useful products on which people rely every day. His keynote address, "The Building Blocks of Our Industry's Future," will outline Domtar's evolving strategy of looking differently at trees — to recognize them as nature’s biorefineries. Williams will also discuss approaches to promoting improved understanding of the industry throughout the general public.

“We are extremely pleased to have John Williams join us this year,” said RBI Executive Director Norman Marsolan. “He has been an industry leader and visionary in the area of sustainability, calling it a ‘moral imperative’ and emphasizing that sustainability is not only good for the environment—it can also benefit the bottom line, building a culture that produces productive employees, stronger employee loyalty and greater brand strength.”

This year, RBI’s fourth-year students will present the results of their endowment-sponsored research.  Our faculty will share their innovative ideas and most recent endeavors in a variety of areas.  We will also introduce some new faculty who have recently joined Georgia Tech to offer intriguing possibilities for forest bioproducts.  

In addition, a special session is being planned to address implications and opportunities inherent for companies in the recently awarded “Rapid Acceleration of Process Intensification Deployment” (RAPID), a Department of Energy Innovative Manufacturing Institute for which Georgia Tech is a partner with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Two interactive discussions are scheduled. The first will feature students reflecting on their education and career opportunities.  The second will be led by the directors of several Georgia Tech Interdisciplinary Research Institutes to explore the future of manufacturing and how developments in their areas may present opportunities and challenges in manufacturing and research.

Nearly 40 of the PhD students sponsored by RBI’s endowment are expected to participate in this year’s poster competition. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet these students and discuss with them how their research could be valuable or made more relevant to their companies.

Throughout the two days, attendees will have ample time for networking and discussion with both expert researchers and students. The conference is also a prime opportunity to learn more about Georgia Tech’s innovation and commercialization centers and how they can provide insights, techniques and tools to support business and industry strategies. RBI serves as a portal into pertinent research, capabilities, services, and scholarship being conducted on campus.

Last year’s conference attracted a record number of industry and business leaders, as well as government and academic representatives — more than 160 during the two-day event. The meeting serves as a development opportunity as well for young to mid-level professionals. There is no registration fee.

Register here to reserve a spot today and watch for more details on our website in the coming weeks. Rooms are available at a preferred rate through Jan. 31 for conference guests at the Hilton Garden Inn, 97 10th St. NW, Atlanta, 404.524.4006. Ask for the RBI conference rate. Many hotels in the Midtown area also offer Georgia Tech preferred rates. Please be sure to specify “Georgia Tech” when you call to make your reservation.