Three of Tech’s major academic showcases take place this week: The third annual Tech4Good Poster Showcase, the twice-yearly Capstone Design Expo, and the end of semester celebration for Idea to Prototype.
Tech4Good lets students from different areas of study work on projects that benefit nonprofit organizations and local communities. It aims to build on current service learning activities on campus and promote social entrepreneurship and civic engagement in Tech's curriculum.
Idea to Prototype has students earn academic credit for developing their ideas for the market. This program is part of CREATE-X, a new Georgia Tech initiative that aims to build entrepreneurial confidence in undergraduate students. The showcase will let student teams show the ideas they have been working on for a semester or longer. Awards will be given at the end of the program.
The Capstone Design Expo focuses on mechanical, biomedical, electrical and computer, and industrial and systems engineering projects, as well as industrial design projects. Students in these majors take the Capstone Senior Design course and develop innovative ideas that solve an industry-sponsored challenge, help researchers develop technology, or form the basis for their own startup.
All events are free and open to the public.
]]>The IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is the world’s preeminent forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and electronic device technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling. IEDM is the flagship conference for nanometer-scale CMOS transistor technology, advanced memory, displays, sensors, MEMS devices, novel quantum and nano-scale devices and phenomenology, optoelectronics, devices for power and energy harvesting, high-speed devices, as well as process technology and device modeling and simulation.
]]>Delta Airlines will invest $2 million to build the facility, in which it plans to enhance operations and improve customer experience by tapping into the knowledge at Georgia Tech, and has committed an additional $3 million to the Georgia Tech Foundation.
“Delta Air Lines and Georgia Tech have a rich heritage of working together in everything from research to hiring our co-ops and graduates. We are delighted that Delta’s collaborative research center will provide even greater opportunities for Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff to work with this outstanding global airline,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson.
Delta has pioneered many firsts in the airline industry including the use of a hub and spoke system in 1955, being the first U.S. airline with motion graphic maps in the cabin showing the aircraft’s position and route in 1992, and launching the first mobile baggage tracking app in 2011.
The innovation center at Georgia Tech will also be a first for any college in the United States.
Read more about the Delta R&D Center here.
While pursuing an international experience might seem intimidating at first, there are many resources available to students who are interested. Here are a few tips to consider when starting the study abroad process:
With more than 120 study abroad programs, it can be a tough to decide where to go for a semester overseas. The first step is to choose between a Tech faculty-led program and an exchange program. These programs have different things to offer, so it’s important to focus on what you’re looking for in a study abroad experience. Are you set on a specific country? Need a specific class? Do you want to take classes in English or a foreign language? These are all things to consider before picking a program. Students can browse the programs online and narrow down the program options using a variety of filters.
Many programs fill up a semester or two in advance, so if you know you are applying for a popular program (such as Georgia Tech-Lorraine, Oxford, or Pacific), be sure to apply early.
After finding a study abroad program, apply for scholarships. Even if you can’t decide between two programs, go ahead and apply for scholarships. The OIE Administered Scholarships Application has three cycles per year, with applications due October 15, January 15, and April 1. It is important to apply early for scholarships — summer applicants are expected to apply for scholarships by the January 15 cycle.
Currently, OIE is about 500 students away from sending the 20,000th Tech student abroad. To celebrate, OIE is offering the lucky 20,000th student a free airfare voucher up to $2,000 to apply to their study abroad. #GT20kAWAY
Aside from OIE Administered Scholarships, there are external scholarships students can apply for. OIE has listed them here.
In addition to sending Georgia Tech students abroad, OIE also serves as a resource to welcome international students to campus.
Georgia Tech hosts a large population of full-time international students in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Georgia Tech also invites exchange students from partner universities to come experience life at Tech through semester-long exchange programs.
This is International Education Week (IEW), and in celebration of Georgia Tech’s international community, OIE will host several events over the next few days. All students are welcome to attend IEW events.
Monday, November 16
Tuesday, November 17
Wednesday, November 18
Thursday November 19
Friday, November 20
For a complete list of International Education Week events, visit www.oie.gatech.edu/iew.
]]>
Notably absent are human beings and radio control devices. This little squadron is fully autonomous.
In robotics, autonomy involves enabling unmanned vehicles to perform complex, unpredictable tasks without human guidance. Today, in the early stages of the robotics revolution, it’s among the most critical areas of research.
“The move to true autonomy has become highly important, and progress toward that goal is happening with increasing speed,” said Henrik Christensen, executive director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) at Georgia Tech and a collaborator on the mapping experiment. “It won’t happen overnight, but the day is coming when you will simply say to a swarm of robots, ‘Okay, go and perform this mission.’”
Traditionally, robotic devices have been pre-programmed to perform a set task: Think of the factory robot arm that automatically performs a repetitive function like welding. But an autonomous vehicle must be fully independent, moving — without human intervention — in the air, on the ground, or in the water. Well-known examples include the prototype self-driving vehicles currently being tested in some U.S. cities.
]]>Research News
(404) 894-6986
]]>The Fall 2015-2016 IEN Seed Grant Award winners are:
The five student winners for this award cycle come from various schools across campus, and will be provided no-cost access to the IEN cleanrooms and labs for a six-month period. Awardees will present the results of their research efforts at a future IEN User Day.
]]>AT&T (NYSE: T); CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa, Inc.; Facebook; Google; LinkedIn; Mailchimp; Orange (NYSE: ORAN) and (Euronext: ORA); Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.
M3AAWG Full Members
1&1 Internet AG; Adobe Systems Inc.; AOL; Campaign Monitor Pty.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFlare; dotmailer; Dyn; ExactTarget, Inc.; IBM; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI); Listrak; Litmus; McAfee Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; Oracle Marketing Cloud; OVH; PayPal; Proofpoint; Rackspace; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec and Twitter.
A complete member list is available at http://www.m3aawg.org/about/roster.
The title of the award-winning paper is “System-level variation-aware aging simulator using a unified novel gate-delay model for bias temperature instability, hot carrier injection, and gate oxide breakdown,” and it was published in Microelectronics and Reliability, vol. 55, nos. 9-10, pp. 1334-1340, August-September 2015.
The paper presents software that has been developed to estimate the lifetime of logic circuits due to a variety of front-end-of-line (FEOL) wearout mechanisms. It takes into account operating temperatures, IR drops, and stress probabilities while running benchmarks. It also takes into account system performance requirements, several FEOL wearout mechanisms (gate oxide breakdown, hot carrier injection, bias temperature instability), and a wide variety of use scenarios. Statistical analysis identifies critical paths and provides accurate estimates of the distribution of lifetimes under process, supply voltage, temperature, and aging variations. The software enables the replacement of arbitrary timing guardbands for aging with guardbands based on process data and system usage
]]>Marilyn Somers, director of Georgia Tech’s Living History Program, said she is amazed at how rigorous Georgia Tech was — even in the early days.
“It is clear that from its very beginning, the intention was to set the bar high academically,” said Somers. “Based on the evidence of retention, they met the goal, as only one out of five students who were accepted, were still in school three months later.”
That level of rigor has, no doubt, contributed to Georgia Tech’s transformation into a science and technology powerhouse. This year, for the 16th consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Tech one of the top 10 public universities. It also has Tech listed at No. 7 among public universities and 35th among all national universities.
1885 – On Oct. 13, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill appropriating $65,000 to found a technical school.
1888 – The Academic Building, known today as the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Administration Building or Tech Tower, was completed. Enrollment began with 84 students.
1893 – Tech played its first football game against the University of Georgia, winning 28-6, making it the school’s very first victory.
1905 – Tech adopted Ramblin’ Wreck as the official fight song, although it had been the unofficial fight song for several years.
1911 – The first issue of the student newspaper, The Technique, was published on Nov. 17.
1917 – Women were allowed to attend Georgia Tech — but only through its Evening School of Commerce. After the School was removed in 1931, women were unable to enroll at Tech — with the exception of the WWII years when they were permitted to attend but not earn degrees. It would be 1952 before they could do so.
1928 – Former student Frank Gordy opened a restaurant called The Yellow Jacket near campus. The name soon changed to The Varsity.
1934 – To boost the state’s economy in the midst of the Great Depression, the Engineering Experiment Station, now known as the Georgia Tech Research Institute, was founded as the nonprofit applied research arm of Georgia Tech.
1948 – The university’s name was changed to the Georgia Institute of Technology, reflecting an increasing focus on technological and scientific research.
1952 – Women were permitted to enroll only in Georgia Tech degree programs not offered at other universities in Georgia.
1961 – Tech became the first university in the Deep South to admit African-American students without a court order. Ford Greene, Ralph A. Long Jr., and Lawrence Michael Williams were Tech’s first three African-American students.
1965 – Ronald Yancey, the first African-American student to graduate from Tech, earned a B.S. in electrical engineering.
1968 – Helen E. Grenga, a chemical engineer, became Georgia Tech’s first full-tenured female engineering professor.
1970 – The Board of Regents voted to allow women to enroll in all programs at Tech, superseding the 1952 policy.
1985 – Tech President Joseph E. Pettit and J. Erskine Love Jr. spearheaded the Institute’s $100 million Centennial Campaign, raising a total of $202.7 million.
1990 – Georgia Tech-Lorraine opened in Metz, France. Its primary focus is graduate education, sponsored research, and an undergraduate summer program.
1996 – Georgia Tech was the Home of the Olympic Village for the Summer Olympic Games. A substantial amount of construction occurred, including the erection of housing, the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, and the renovation of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
2003 – Technology Square, the heart of the Institute’s internationally recognized innovation ecosystem, opened its doors.
2013 – Tech introduced the first accredited Master of Science in Computer Science degree that students can earn exclusively through the massive open online course (MOOC) delivery format — for a fraction of the cost of on-campus programs.
2015 – The freshman class is record-setting in its diversity and academic prestige. It is 41 percent female and has 35 percent more African-American students than 2014. The academic profile, which includes SAT scores and number of college-level classes taken, is the best it has ever been.
]]>Gil Weinberg’s robotic prosthesis for drummers made news around the world. Ayanna Howard’s child-sized bot helps children with motor skills disabilities and brought the launch of startup company Zyrobotics. Andrea Thomaz’s Socially Intelligent Machines Lab – home to Simon, a near-celebrity droid – has deepened understanding of human-robot interactions.
But there’s another dimension of robotics exploration at Tech that’s less known but becoming every bit as impressive. It’s the field of control, which ensures that robots act and react predictably.
More precisely, control represents the application of control theory, the mathematical underpinnings that guide robot actions and decision-making in situations or dynamic environments. A robot walking across a floor, for example, may seem like an unremarkable event. But the decision and control system that informs this simple action is quite complex – even more so if a small object is placed in the robot’s way.
If you scan the higher education landscape, you’ll find some of the usual suspects leading the way in controls research. MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) and CalTech’s vaunted Division of Control and Dynamical Systems are list-topping laboratories.
If what’s happened in recent years is any indication, Georgia Tech’s name has been added to that upper echelon. Tech has been building one of the strongest, not to mention largest, research groups in control in the country. And the work they’re doing is beginning to capture the attention of others.
A luncheon at Chicago’s Palmer House in early July provided two examples of this rising prominence. At the event, a pair of Georgia Tech faculty – Magnus Egerstedt and Aaron Ames, both researchers in controls – were presented with two of the five top awards bestowed by the American Automatic Control Council, a consortium of eight societies in the field.
Egerstedt’s receipt of the John R. Ragazzini Education Award certified his status as a thought leader in the field. His area of specialty is swarm robotics, a fascinating way of coordinating systems of many small robots. Each robot works on a task. Through sensors and communication, it is attuned only to what’s happening in its immediate environment; it receives no instruction from a single central decision maker. Hence, the challenge of a swarm: Its sheer size makes centralized command impossible, so its behavior and decision making must be pre-determined through algorithms.
Designing a robot swarm requires deep knowledge of the “swarm intelligence” principles found in nature, and indeed, the field was born through collaborations with biologists. Schools of fish, flocks of birds – even colonies of bacteria – all have lessons to impart to legions of robots that work individually toward a larger common goal.
“And it’s not just the anthills,” Egerstedt says. “Human societies are also distributed systems where individuals make decisions and communicate with neighbors to solve problems.” (Watch Egerstedt’s TedX talk on swarm robotics)
The thinking is that “with very simple individual rules, the robots in a swarm can be mobilized to accomplish significant tasks,” he adds. Perhaps they could be deployed in disaster relief situations or used to disarm an environmental hazard. It’s a young field, rife with possibilities, and Egerstedt has been instrumental in shaping it.
The same could be said someday about Aaron Ames, an associate professor in both the ME and ECE schools. A new recruit to Georgia Tech – he arrived in July from Texas A&M – Ames captured AACC’s Donald P. Eckman Award, which recognizes outstanding young engineers in automatic control. He is distinguished by more than being smart and young (35 this year); his work in bipedal locomotion control is advancing the field humanoid robots with the goal of translating these capabilities to prostheses, exoskeletons and wearable robots.
“Having a robot wash dishes is fine,” Ames says, “but when you put robots on people, it’s something completely different. For people who can’t walk, you’re giving them the chance to come out of the wheelchair – and walk.”
Ames heads the AMBER Lab, which he moved to Tech from Texas. The lab has built multiple robots with a walking style mirroring that in humans. It takes extraordinary effort and iteration not only to mimic human biomechanics, but also to make quick decisions after sensing something different in the environment – a buckle in the sidewalk, for instance.
“We’ve had millions of years of evolution to achieve this behavior of walking, yet the simplicity and elegance with which humans walk belies something we haven’t yet discovered,” which is how to replicate it in a machine, Ames says. (Watch a robot-walking demonstration from the AMBER lab)
Developing control methods to achieve walking on humanoid robots and wearable robots is ambitious enough. But Ames has a side goal: He would like to refine the dynamics of a robot so that it can outrun Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt, hailed as the fastest human ever.
“I think we can do it in the next five years,” Ames says. “We’re designing a robot right now to do this. Our motors are fast and powerful enough to make a robot run 30 miles an hour. The technology is there, but we have to integrate the control.”
The awards given to Ames and Egerstedt reflect only the latest achievements among Georgia Tech faculty working in control, and both are quick to emphasize that other developments and colleagues are substantive evidence of Georgia Tech’s rising star in the field.
For example, Jeff Shamma, Julian T. Hightower Chair in Systems & Control in ECE (currently on leave), pioneered the use of game theory when designing controllers. Panagiotis Tsiotras, the College of Engineering Dean’s Professor in AE, leads a major multi-university research initiative on high-speed autonomous driving.
And then there’s the Decision and Control Laboratory, currently the locus for advancing knowledge of control theory across the Institute. Launched in 2008, DCL does a good job sharing developments in the field with students and faculty, but some recognized it could do more.
So Egerstedt and Eric Feron, a Professor in Aerospace Engineering, are leading an effort to have the Lab designated as one of Georgia Tech’s celebrated Interdisciplinary Research Centers. The move would formalize collaborations across all colleges at Georgia Tech and open the door to becoming a worldwide reference center for scholarship in control theory and dynamical systems – another milestone toward solidifying Georgia Tech’s reputation in a field that is rapidly changing.
“We have an amazing group of faculty in controls,” Egerstedt says. “We’ve gone from a good program to a top program, and now we have the opportunity to build a brand in this area for Georgia Tech.”
The contributions Georgia Tech makes to control and control theory will not only change the field but help shape the next generation of robotics in our lives. What lies beyond that is anyone’s guess.
An excellent definition of control and dynamical systems from a peer institution:
]]>“At its simplest, control is achieved when a sensed quantity is used to modify the behavior of a system, as one does in everyday life, such as driving a car and walking. In technology, control is often achieved through computation and actuation, as in automotive controls or controlling a spacecraft. More formally, control makes use of algorithms and feedback in engineered systems, and is a means of ensuring robustness in an uncertain environment. Dynamical systems refers to the way systems change over time, such as the movement of your car, the dynamics of walking, or the dynamics of a molecule or of the solar system. More formally, it is the study of processes described by evolutionary equations such as ordinary and partial differential equations.” — California Institute of Technology
At the same time, Dorrier Coleman was experimenting with electric vehicles as part of his Capstone Design project.
Today the three are co-founders of TEQ Charging, a startup that invented a power strip that allows multiple electric vehicles to be recharged by a single charging point. They were in Las Vegas as finalists for Tech.Co’s annual Startup of the Year.
Coleman graduated in May, while Lieberman and Wittenstein are still enrolled as mechanical engineering majors.
They launched TEQ during Startup Summer, which is part of CREATE-X, a Georgia Tech initiative to enhance and support entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate students. The new program is one way the Institute is preparing the nation’s next entrepreneurs.
“Georgia Tech has given us the opportunity to be where we are right now,” said Lieberman, who is the CEO. “Without it, we would not have been able to clearly define our business. This definition has allowed us to build a strong business and be a finalist for Tech.Co Startup of the Year.”
TEQ eliminates a main source of frustration for electric vehicle drives: seeing one car plugged in to a charging point all day while other drivers wait to connect. The power strip solves that problem by servicing multiple cars at a time. Their patent-pending algorithm and hardware design eliminates the need to run a separate power line to each individual charger. The TEQ app helps vehicle owners locate an open charger.
TEQ is currently in its beta program and expects to hit the market the first quarter of 2016.
Learn more about TEQ here.
]]>The latest of these initiatives is the recent acquisition of the final cast of Robert Berks’ monument to Albert Einstein. The other installations of Berks’ sculptures of Einstein are located at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem. On Friday, October 23, as thousands of alumni and students converge on campus to celebrate homecoming, we will officially dedicate the final cast of Berk’s Einstein sculpture right here on campus.
Atlanta resident and Berks collector, Jim Barksdale, first brought the idea to Georgia Tech after learning the final cast was available. Jim was particularly passionate about Einstein’s legacy as a human rights advocate, and thought Atlanta and Georgia Tech represented the perfect place for the cast to call its new home. We couldn’t agree more, and Jim’s generous cornerstone gift was instrumental in bringing Einstein to Georgia Tech.
Einstein was so much more than one of the 20th century’s most brilliant and original physicists, he was also a tireless and highly visible advocate for peace and social justice. Georgia Tech and Atlanta embody science and civil and human rights like no other institution and city in the world. It is fitting that we will be the home of this unique piece of public art. The monument consists of a larger-than-life bronze of the famous scientist holding a book with the famous equations that brought together energy and matter and space and time – effectively redefining physics, and reminding us that we are just one small expression of an extraordinary universe whose beginning and end we still seek to understand.
The design of a sitting Einstein and the science allegory is common to all three existing monuments. But our Einstein is unique in that he gazes down to a black granite platform with the exact replica of the night sky over Atlanta on December 10, 1948 – the day of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Engraved on the granite steps are two quotes representing Einstein the scientist and the humanist. Most fittingly, one of the quotes is pulled from Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reads, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
The excitement surrounding the Einstein project has been, in my experience, unprecedented. What began as an idea, quickly transitioned into a highly successful campaign for resources, and the support continues. Honestly, I have never seen a project generate this much support in such a small amount of time. Many friends and alumni followed Jim Barksdale’s example and donated generously to the effort, sufficient to cover all costs and hopefully, as it continues, to fund annual programs around the subject matter that the monument evokes.
The Class of 1966 recently voted to make the project the subject of their 50th year class gift. Their initial goal was reached the day they made the decision. Fittingly they have decided to raise the goal, which will make all our aspirations for the impact of the Einstein piece on the campus and community come true.
Unquestionably, the Einstein Monument at Georgia Tech will become a fitting icon for what we represent: science, technology and the betterment of the human condition.
]]>Institute Communications
404-385-3782
]]>Since it started in 2002, the program has hosted more than 130 collegiate teams. The program has also grown internationally with expansion into Europe, China, Latin America, and the Middle East.
The Solar Decathlon team is currently looking for students with the following backgrounds or interests:
Students can learn more about the VIP program and Solar Decathlon project by attending an upcoming information session:
Throughout the semester the team will meet Tuesdays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Students interested in joining the Solar Decathlon Team can apply here or contact Alexandre Poux alex.poux@gatech.edu.
The Georgia Tech team is organized through the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. This program joins undergraduate teams with faculty and graduate student advisors to create large-scale design and discovery projects.
Participation in VIP can be registered for academic credit, so the program is able to encourage students to participate for more than one semester. Students gain more exposure to multidisciplinary design projects and professional skills than they would in regular courses. For a list of all the current project teams, visit www.vip.gatech.edu/teams.
]]>Alexandre Poux
alex.poux@gatech.edu
“The current ecosystem seems to be based largely on meritocracy. But, the fact is that people from underrepresented backgrounds almost never have access to the networks, resources, and support necessary to create homerun success,” said Hank Williams, founder and CEO of Platform. “That’s why creation of indispensable social capital for and within our community has always been core to our mission at Platform and why we created the Platform Summit three years ago.”
During the Platform Summit, five innovation topics were presented, and each topic featured four to six distinguished speakers, including Ayanna Howard, professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The topics included:
On the first day of the Platform Summit, Georgia Tech hosted a reception for more than 400 attendees in the Student Center Ballroom, where several Georgia Tech students showcased their inventions that were InVenture Prize finalists or winners. These inventions included Better Walk, Haplit, Shortweb, and WISH for Wash.
“It was an honor to co-host this year’s Platform Summit with Morehouse College and host the Platform Summit Reception. Our partnership with Morehouse College has spanned decades, and we all share a passion for technology and ‘what is next,’” said Georgia Tech’s Institute Diversity Vice President Archie Ervin.
Since 1969, Morehouse College students have had the option to study engineering through a cooperative agreement with Georgia Tech. This partnership has helped Georgia Tech become the No. 1 school for awarding bachelor’s degrees in engineering to all minority students and doctoral degrees in engineering to African-American students.
For more information on the Platform Summit, visit www.platform.org.
]]>Communications Manager
Institute Diversity
]]>In a rare interview in 2013, Henry said Georgia Tech has always been “Nerd University,” and a major player in Atlanta’s science and science fiction heritage – a unique environment that allows Dragon Con to succeed.
What makes Dragon Con so interesting to those of us from Georgia Tech? Discover Georgia Tech’s stories of nerdy inspiration at the nation’s premier science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture fan convention.
The Spectacular Collision of Georgia Tech and Dragon Con
]]>Combined with connection technology that operates through structures in the cooling passages, the new technologies could allow development of denser and more powerful integrated electronic systems that would no longer require heat sinks or cooling fans on top of the integrated circuits. Working with popular 28-nanometer FPGA devices made by Altera Corp., the researchers have demonstrated a monolithically-cooled chip that can operate at temperatures more than 60 percent below those of similar air-cooled chips.
In addition to more processing power, the lower temperatures can mean longer device life and less current leakage. The cooling comes from simple de-ionized water flowing through microfluidic passages that replace the massive air-cooled heat sinks normally placed on the backs of chips.
“We believe we have eliminated one of the major barriers to building high-performance systems that are more compact and energy efficient,” said Muhannad Bakir, an associate professor and ON Semiconductor Junior Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “We have eliminated the heat sink atop the silicon die by moving liquid cooling just a few hundred microns away from the transistors. We believe that reliably integrating microfluidic cooling directly on the silicon will be a disruptive technology for a new generation of electronics.”
Supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research is believed to be the first example of liquid cooling directly on an operating high-performance CMOS chip. Details of the research were presented on September 28 at the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference in San Jose, Calif.
Liquid cooling has been used to address the heat challenges facing computing systems whose power needs have been increasing. However, existing liquid cooling technology removes heat using cold plates externally attached to fully packaged silicon chips – adding thermal resistance and reducing the heat-rejection efficiency.
To make their liquid cooling system, Bakir and graduate student Thomas Sarvey removed the heat sink and heat-spreading materials from the backs of stock Altera FPGA chips. They then etched cooling passages into the silicon, incorporating silicon cylinders approximately 100 microns in diameter to improve heat transmission into the liquid. A silicon layer was then placed over the flow passages, and ports were attached for the connection of water tubes.
In multiple tests – including a demonstration for DARPA officials in Arlington, Virginia – a liquid-cooled FPGA was operated using a custom processor architecture provided by Altera. With a water inlet temperature of approximately 20 degrees Celsius and an inlet flow rate of 147 milliliters per minute, the liquid-cooled FPGA operated at a temperature of less than 24 degrees Celsius, compared to an air-cooled device that operated at 60 degrees Celsius.
Sudhakar Yalamanchili, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and one of the research group’s collaborators, joined the team for the DARPA demonstration to discuss electrical-thermal co-design.
“We have created a real electronic platform to evaluate the benefits of liquid cooling versus air cooling,” said Bakir. “This may open the door to stacking multiple chips, potentially multiple FPGA chips or FPGA chips with other chips that are high in power consumption. We are seeing a significant reduction in the temperature of these liquid-cooled chips.”
The research team chose FPGAs for their test because they provide a platform to test different circuit designs, and because FPGAs are common in many market segments, including defense. However, the same technology could also be used to cool CPUs, GPUs and other devices such as power amplifiers, Bakir said.
In addition to improving overall cooling, the system could reduce hotspots in circuits by applying cooling much closer to the power source. Eliminating the heat sink could allow more compact packaging of electronic devices – but only if electrical connection issues are also addressed.
In a separate research project, Bakir’s group has demonstrated the fabrication of copper vias that would run through the silicon columns that are part of the cooling structure fabricated on the FPGAs. Graduate student Hanju Oh, co-advised with College of Engineering Dean Gary May, fabricated high aspect ratio copper vias through the silicon columns, reducing the capacitance of the connections that would carry signals between chips in an array.
“The moment you start thinking about stacking the chips, you need to have copper vias to connect them,” Bakir said. “By bringing system components closer together, we can reduce interconnect length and that will lead to improvements in bandwidth density and reductions in energy use.”
The cooling research was funded by DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, through the ICECOOL program. At Georgia Tech, DARPA funds two major cooling and system integration projects, one called STAECool directed by George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Professor Yogendra Joshi, and the other, called SuperCool, that is directed by Bakir. In collaboration with the STAECool effort, Bakir and Joshi, along with Professors Andrei Fedorov and Suresh Sitaraman from the School of Mechanical Engineering, developed a thermal design vehicle to emulate challenging power maps to test the benefits of microfluidic cooling.
“We have reached an important milestone that we hope to use as a stepping stone to reach other objectives,” said Bakir. “There is still a big challenge ahead, but we expect this to allow much denser, higher-performance computing systems that will dissipate less power. We can think of many interesting applications for these cooling technologies.”
Altera’s principal investigator for the project, Arifur Rahman, said: “Future high-performance semiconductor electronics will be increasingly dominated by thermal budget and ability to remove heat. The embedded microfluidic channels provide an intriguing option to remove heat from future microelectronics systems.”
This research was supported by DARPA-MTO; the contents of the news release are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DARPA.
CITATION: Thomas E. Sarvey, et al., “Embedded Cooling Technologies for Densely Integrated Electronic Systems,” (IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, 2015).
Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA
Media Relations Contact: John Toon (jtoon@gatech.edu) (404-894-6986)
Writer: John Toon
Research News
(404) 894-6986
]]>A new service gives those who aren’t full-time Web developers an easy way to create or maintain a website that shares information about themselves or their work.
Professional Web Presence (PWP) lets those without coding and Web development experience create a website with a Georgia Tech theme with just a few clicks.
“We looked at the Web as it exists on campus and were seeing a lot of sites that were outdated, visually unappealing, and vulnerable to hacks,” said Eric Sembrat, Web manager in the College of Engineering who helped get the PWP system up and running. Sembrat and others in the campus Web development community from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and College of Sciences took it upon themselves last year to explore solutions in response to requests from faculty and staff in their own colleges.
PWP issues Wordpress-based sites and comes with pre-set packages, themes, and plug-ins all designed with Georgia Tech users in mind. Site administrators can include additional Georgia Tech users on their site and give them different privileges for editing and updating content. Websites or individual page privileges can also be password-protected for those groups who may want to limit who can view certain information.
The system is ideal for those who need a simple site for their work, such as a faculty member. But it is not meant for those wanting or needing more customized options, or a more in-depth website of the scale that a school or college may need.
“We wanted to make something for those who work with the Web as a very small part of their jobs, and have it be as simple as possible so it’s basically self-service,” Sembrat said.
Many of Tech’s websites are built on the open source Drupal platform, which is designed to be user-friendly but still has a learning curve. In the Wordpress system, those who have used a blogging platform or done formatting in Microsoft systems should find it fairly intuitive. A mobile-friendly view even lets users make changes from a tablet or phone.
The PWP administrative team handles security updates and patches, and all the themes are built with accessibility in mind. So far, 260 users are working on more than 180 sites created with the system. Some examples of sites built with the system include the InVenture Challenge (inventurechallenge.gatech.edu), Stanley Neural Coding Laboratory
(stanley.gatech.edu), and blog of Gary May, Southern Company Chair and Dean of the College of Engineering (deanmay.gatech.edu).
This fall, PWP is taking its training on the road and scheduling information sessions in schools and colleges around campus. The group also hosts a monthly drop-in session at Highland Bakery in the Bradley Building where users can stop by with their laptop to ask questions or learn more. The next drop-in session takes place Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the Bradley Conference Room.
To learn more or get started creating a website, visit pwp.gatech.edu.
]]>The following gifts and commitments are responsible for pushing these six units past their Campaign goals.
The Evans’ estate provision will establish endowments providing undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships in the Scheller College.
“The inspiration for this commitment comes from seeing what an impact the Dean’s Scholarship Program has had on the College,” said Evans. “The high level of talent being brought in because of this program has been energizing. We have truly become competitive for the very best students.”
See the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering section for information on the Brock gift.
The Brocks’ commitment established the John F. Brock III School Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the final remaining school in the College of Engineering to have an endowed school chair. In addition to the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering goal, the Brocks’ commitment also pushed the College of Engineering past its overall $480 million goal.
“This is a special opportunity that means so much to me,” said Brock, who is serving as Campaign co-chair along with his wife, Mary. “To be able to make this commitment to the School that nurtured my love of engineering, equipped me with the tools I needed to succeed, and provided opportunities I never would have dreamed of — it truly is an honor.”
Chaddick’s estate provision will establish an endowment fund providing unrestricted support for the School, ensuring greater resources for future advancements on important initiatives that may otherwise be out of reach.
“It was gratifying to be able to help punch through that goal,” said Chaddick. “ECE made me who I am, in large measure. I wouldn’t have had the opportunities, the skills, and the knowledge to do the things I’ve done in my career had I not been in that place — as an undergraduate and a graduate student.”
The Krones’ estate provision will establish a faculty endowment fund that will help the school chair attract and retain the very best faculty in the field.
“The four years in Aerospace Engineering helped me to realize my dream,” said Krone. “It is our hope that this gift will help other students realize their dreams.”
Tellepsen’s estate provision will establish a permanent endowment that will provide unrestricted support to the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, allowing the chair to take advantage of emerging opportunities or to further long-term strategic priorities.
“My entire experience of Georgia Tech has been so positive,” said Tellepsen. “I am truly grateful for the chance to serve Georgia Tech and especially to help the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering to reach even greater success.”
]]>Dan Treadaway
Institute Communications
Program Description: The Georgia Tech IEN is an Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) comprised of faculty and students interested in using the most advanced fabrication and characterization tools, and cleanroom infrastructure, to facilitate research in micro- and nano-scale materials, devices, and systems. Applications of this research span all disciplines in science and engineering with particular emphasis on biomedicine, electronics, optoelectronics and photonics, and energy applications. As there can be a learning curve associated with initial proof-of-concept development and testing using cleanroom tools, this seed grant program was developed to expedite the initiation of new graduate students and new research projects into productive activity. Successful proposals to this program will identify a new, currently-unfunded research idea that requires cleanroom access to generate preliminary data necessary to pursue other funding avenues.
Program Eligibility: This program is open to any current Georgia Tech or GTRI faculty member as project PI. The graduate student performing the research should be in the first 2 years of his/her graduate studies. Preference will be given to students who are new users of the IEN facilities. The student’s research advisor (project PI) does not need to be a current user of the IEN cleanroom/lab facilities. Past awardees of a seed grant may submit additional proposals for different students/projects, but not in consecutive funding cycles.
It is the responsibility of the project PI and student to determine their ability to make use of the awarded time during the grant period. Extensions requested once the project has begun will not be granted.
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 or electron beam lithography (EBL) is 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 Advanced Technology Team (ATT) 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, but typically 3-5 awards will be made. 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 and April 1. While it is expected that research activity will begin on December 1 and June 1, 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 include the following information:
1. Identify the research problem and specify the proposed methods.
2. Indicate the IEN research tools necessary to conduct the research. If assistance is needed with this component, members of the IEN Advanced Technology Team are available for consultation.
3. Describe the relationship of this research to the PI’s other research activity.
4. 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 other Georgia Tech faculty that bear on this research project.
5. 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.
For more information, please contact David Gottfried, dsgottfried@gatech.edu, (404) 894-0479.
]]>Luckily, departments across campus have organized a variety of resources to help students be Career Fair ready.
Aside from the usual follow-ups such as applying online and sending thank you notes to recruiters, here are a few more things you can to do to keep your job search alive after the fall Career Fair.
For more information about the Georgia Tech Fall Career Fair, visit www.career.gatech.edu/careerfair.
]]>Institute Communications
]]>“For almost two decades Georgia Tech has ranked in the top 10 among public research universities. While we are well known for excellence in engineering and other STEM fields, word is also getting out about our other outstanding programs, such as our undergraduate business program, along with our focus on innovation,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson.
Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering maintained fifth place for undergraduate engineering programs at institutions that award doctoral degrees. The college also continued with solid rankings in its engineering programs, with all of its programs ranked in the top 10 of their disciplines and in the top five among public institutions.
Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business ranked 29th among best undergraduate business programs. The college continued its fifth place ranking in Quantitative Analysis while its Management Information Systems program ranked No. 7.
U.S. News & World Report introduced a number of new categories this year. Georgia Tech ranked 13th in the Most Innovative Schools category and 30th in Best Colleges for Veterans.
“These rankings reaffirm our vision to ‘define the technological university of the 21st century.’ It is gratifying to get the recognition of our continuing excellence in all areas of engineering and to see that recognition expanding to many other areas like business,” said Georgia Tech Provost Rafael L. Bras. “It is indeed one of the most innovative schools in the nation, and we will not rest until all our programs are the very best in the world.”
GEORGIA TECH BY THE NUMBERS
National Ranks
#7 – Public Universities
#5 – Undergraduate Engineering Programs
#29 – Undergraduate Business Programs
Specialty Ranks - Engineering
#1 – Industrial Engineering
#2 – Aerospace Engineering
#2 – Mechanical Engineering
#3 – Biomedical Engineering
#3 – Civil Engineering
#4 – Electrical Engineering
#6 – Chemical Engineering
#6 – Computer Engineering
#6 - Environmental Engineering
#7 – Materials Science and Engineering
Specialty Ranks – Business
#5 – Quantitative Analysis
#7 – Management Information Systems
#12 – Production/Operations Management
#12 – Supply Chain Management/Logistics
]]>The session, moderated by Dr. Paul Joseph - External User Program Coordinator and Biomedical Consulting Specialist at GT-IEN, featured five speakers from the joint Georgia Tech – Emory University Bioengineering program presenting their most recent pioneering research in the area of nanotechnology applications in clinical chemistry,
The AACC welcomed thousands of medical professionals and healthcare leaders to the 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, and a total of 17,500 participants attended this year’s event. The meeting showcased revolutionary advancements in clinical testing research and technology that improves the ability of healthcare providers to diagnose patients quickly and accurately and ensure patients get timely and effective medical treatment. Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, the AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressive laboratory science. Since 1948, the AACC has worked to advance the interdisciplinary interests in the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation.
]]>Two years ago, Georgia Tech became the first American institution to become a member of Shenzhen Virtual University Park. Similar to the Georgia Tech/Tech Square model back home in Atlanta, the Shenzhen Virtual University Park emphasizes university-industry partnerships. A single facility houses educational institutions, startups, and established companies.
We moved to Shenzhen after years of offering masters degrees in Shanghai. That program was very successful; its “Coulter Fellows” graduates are already doing amazing things in industry and academia. With the Coulter Foundation support, we were able to educate many who could not otherwise afford quality education. Moving to Shenzhen involved risks but continues to offer enormous opportunities. We began by offering a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering. We are proud that the program was the first Chinese Ministry of Education-approved program in Shenzhen offered by a U.S. university. Current students in that program hail from mainland China, the U.S., Taiwan, France, India, and Indonesia. Our programs in China are under the extraordinary leadership of Prof. G. Tong Zhou. Without her energy and vision none of our activities would be possible.
The challenge in China is: you do not walk, you must run all the time. Even though we are just beginning to settle into our new role in Shenzhen, we are already talking about bringing the effort to the next level. We are speaking to partners in Tianjin University – a well-established, technology-oriented institution in China – about co-locating our activities and increasing collaboration in brand new facilities in Shenzhen under the auspices of the Shenzhen Education Bureau. With that possibility in mind, we met for over three hours with leadership of the Shenzhen Education Bureau who would be the sponsors of the endeavor.
We also toured four sites where the facilities are being offered as possible “homes.” It is difficult to describe what we saw. They ranged from multibillion dollar science and industrial parks – brand new, self-contained cities, still being built; to facilities that were once a resort largely used for government officials (lakes and all) and very close to what is called “University City” that houses Shenzhen campuses of Chinese institutions like Tsinghua University of Beijing; to a self-contained living, leisure resort with everything from 12 golf courses to and international school for children – I have never seen anything quite like it before.
Now we head for Shanghai, very familiar stomping grounds for Georgia Tech. I hope to tell you more about our trip from our meetings and events there.
- Rafael L. Bras
Photo above (from left to right): Ning Chen (PhD ECE 2006); Shelton Chan (MS IL 2003), Asia Pacific, managing director of development; Marta Garcia, associate vice president for development; Ziling Huo, vice president of Mindray; Sue Van (Hon. PhD - Georgia Tech); Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; Patricia Chew, vice president of human resources, Walmart China; John Zhong (MS EE '88), chief executive officer of Amlogic; Professor Tong Zhou; Professor Yves Berthelot; and Professor George Riley (PhD 2001).
]]>
Institute Communications
404-385-3782
]]>The expansion, sources said, will triple local manufacturing capacity and involve the addition of a new building.
Suniva, a Georgia Tech spinoff founded by Ajeet Rohatgi, makes high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells and modules. Suniva’s cells can convert about 20 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity, meaning fewer cells are needed to produce the same energy output. Conventional crystalline silicon solar cells average 15.5 percent to 16.5 percent efficiency.
The United States is the second-largest solar power market in the world, with California, alone, being the sixth largest.
Read more about the local impact here.
]]>Georgia Tech’s #7 ranking places the Institute within the top 5 percent of global institutions in the field of engineering. Georgia Tech’s computer science program ranked 22nd globally.
Chemistry ranked 28th in the world and mathematics came in 38th. Georgia Tech’s overall science programs were ranked in the top 50 in the world, at 46. Georgia Tech’s business and economics program placed within the top 75 worldwide. Both social sciences and physics ranked within the top 50 percent of all universities evaluated.
Georgia Tech has ranked within the top 10 of ARWU’s global engineering programs since 2007.
In describing the Institute, the ARWU says, “As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 100 centers focused on interdisciplinary research that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to American government, industry, and business.”
Complete information on the rankings and their methodology can be found on the Shanghai Jiao Tong website.
]]>The BOR approved the establishment of a professional master’s degree program in manufacturing leadership, as well as one in sustainable electrical energy. The manufacturing leadership program is designed for those who hold a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering, have at least one year of working experience, and seek advancement to leadership positions in manufacturing. The sustainable electrical energy program is designed for working engineers in the electrical energy and power industry and will be cohort based.
The Board also approved the establishment of two new faculty chairs: the William H. Harrison Chair in the School of Architecture, and the Garry Betty/V Foundation Chair and GRA Eminent Scholar in Cancer Nanotechnology in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Scott Marble was approved to hold the Harrison Chair, and Ravindra Kane to hold the Betty Chair.
In addition to these two appointments, the following faculty appointments were also approved at the August 12 meeting:
As Tech looks toward the renovation of the Van Leer Building, the Board approved the appointment of BLDGS Inc., Atlanta, as the design firm for the Interdisciplinary Design Commons project. The project received a $3.2 million gift from Texas Instruments in April, and will include a new maker space and outdoor plaza for students of all majors and levels of study.
In addition, the Board voted to allow for Campus Services to lease space to the west of campus on Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard. The space will provide service and storage facilities for trade shops, vehicle parking, and vehicle maintenance, and will allow for existing space on 14th Street to instead be used for the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and Boeing Research Center.
The BOR approved health care plans and premiums for 2016. All premiums will see a slight increase, though not as large as increases in recent years. More information on plans and premiums is available online at www.c.gatech.edu/benefits2016.
Changes were also made for University System of Georgia (USG) retirees over the age of 65. Medicare-eligible retirees age 65 and over and Medicare-eligible dependents age 65 and older will enroll in their supplemental health care coverage and receive the USG health care benefit in a new way in 2016. Medicare Part A and B will provide primary coverage the same as today. Supplemental coverage will be provided through the Aon Retiree Health Exchange, and USG will deposit money into a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) for retirees and/or dependents to use toward premiums and other eligible out-of-pocket health care expenses.
The BOR approved the USG HRA funding of $2,736 per year or $228 per month per 65 and older Medicare-eligible retiree and any 65 and older Medicare-eligible covered dependent(s). In order to receive the USG HRA funding, the retiree and/or dependent must be enrolled in coverage through the USG plan in 2015 and must purchase coverage through the Aon Retiree Health Exchange in 2016.
To learn more, visit www.c.gatech.edu/usgretiree, or attend an informational meeting on Friday, August 21, at 10 a.m. in the Student Center Ballroom.
]]>Patel is one of the teams picked for this year’s Startup Summer, a 12-week internship for Georgia Tech students and recent graduates who want to launch startups based on their own inventions and prototypes. The program teaches students to understand potential customers and the market so they can build a product or service that addresses a real and quantified need.
That approach showed Patel the faults in his idea. For it to work, he would need the ability to issue instant, virtual pre-paid debit cards. This would require the infrastructure and support of a bank, but most said the concept was too futuristic or too costly to set up.
He put aside his original concept and instead created Mercez, a tool to help people when they’re travelling and shopping abroad. The company’s first product, TrueCost, helps people avoid foreign transaction fees, unfavorable exchange rates and miscellaneous fees by providing daily updates showing which of their credit cards provides the best deal on any given day.
“I have motivation, but Startup Summer gives me the support and structure and honest advice I need,” said Patel, a computer science major. “Instead of letting me be discouraged when my first idea didn’t work, they helped me ask the questions I needed to find something else.”
That entrepreneurial confidence to try and try again is what Georgia Tech wants to instill in students, said Raghupathy Sivakumar, the Wayne J. Holman Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Startup Summer instructor.
The confidence comes from the methodical steps students take in the program. They incorporate companies, perform customer discovery, build product iterations, determine pricing strategies, gain customer traction, take the product to market and deal with founder equity allocations.
Startup Summer is part of CREATE-X, a newly launched initiative to enhance and support entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate students.
Georgia Tech alumnus Christopher W. Klaus provided significant funding for CREATE-X, and eight of the 10 Startup Summer teams accepted an investment from the fund. While 13 teams were accepted this year, three shut down operations after realizing there was not a market for their idea.
Alumni and industry veterans served as mentors for the teams.
“The networking has been unbelievable,” said Josh Lieberman, one of the founders of TEQ Charging. “So many in the Georgia Tech alumni network are offering their support and advice.”
TEQ created a power strip to charge electric vehicles. The technology and design increases the efficiency – and lowers the cost – of current charge stations by sequentially charging vehicles, said Isaac Wittenstein, another co-founder. Installing this plug-in system throughout parking lots or decks allows drivers to charge when they need it.
Lieberman and Wittenstein, both mechanical engineering majors, ventured into the electric vehicle market during Startup Lab, a course within the CREATE-X program taught by Sivakumar, that exposes students to startups and teaches them how to develop a business model. They teamed up with the third TEQ co-founder, Dorrier Coleman, who worked on electric vehicles during Capstone Design. He graduated in May.
TEQ recently earned second place in Atlan10, which ranked the most innovative young startups in Atlanta.
Another team, Replantable, is selling one of its products at Sevananda Natural Foods Mart in Atlanta’s Little Five Points.
The team created a soilless growing system using LED lights, which eliminates the need for direct exposure to sunlight. The system circulates water and has minerals making it possible for people to grow up to five pounds of fruits and vegetables a week, said Alex Weiss, one of the co-founders. The NanoFarm stands about 5-feet tall and takes up about as much space as a dining room chair.
Weiss and Ruwan Subasinghe graduated from Tech in May and have been friends since freshman orientation in 2011.
At Sevananda they’re selling seedling pods that can be screwed onto one-gallon water jugs so people can start growing their own food. The NanoFarm should be available for purchase later this fall.
Until then, Replantable and the other nine teams will show off their startups at Demo Day, taking place at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Historic Academy of Medicine.
]]>“Deadlines will be here soon, and we can help you find out which fellowships may be a good fit and provide feedback and support on your applications,” said Kathryn Meehan, prestigious fellowships advisor. “Applications usually require several weeks of preparation, so we encourage students to make appointments early.”
Meehan can provide additional information, timelines, and deadlines for students interested in a number of awards, including the following:
For rising sophomores and juniors with either an interest in research or a commitment to public service, these scholarships provide significant funding and enrichment opportunities:
The campus deadline for preliminary applications for the following nationally competitive scholarships is August 31. Students should work with the Fellowships Office to prepare for this deadline.
Also for Seniors and Graduate Students
Fulbright Awards: Open to rising seniors and graduate students, offering one-year awards for research, graduate study or an English teaching assistantship in one of more than 140 countries.
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships: Open to seniors, first-year graduate students and first-semester second-year graduate students in science, technology, engineering and math who are U.S. citizens. This three-year award is for those planning a research Ph.D. at a U.S. university. Deadline is in November.
Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellowships: Preference is for candidates who have received a doctorate within three years of the application deadline or who will receive a doctorate before the grant term begins. Eight awards are available for studies at seven research institutions in Israel.
National Academies Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowships: Participants spend 12 weeks at the National Academies in Washington, D.C., learning about science and technology policy and the role that scientists and engineers play in advising the nation. Deadline is September 9.
]]>
Kathryn Meehan
Fellowships Office
The Intel Diversity Scholars Program will recruit and retain underrepresented minority students to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors and prepare them for graduate school. The effort is anticipated to benefit about 1,000 students over five years through mentoring, scholarships and professional development workshops.
Earlier this year, Intel announced a new goal: to achieve full representation of underrepresented minorities and women by the year 2020 in its U.S. workforce, along with a $300 million Diversity in Technology Initiative to help build a workforce pipeline.
“Filling the tech industry pipeline with diverse students is critical to increasing the number of diverse engineers and computer scientists in the field,” said Rosalind Hudnell, vice president of human resources and chief diversity officer at Intel. “The goal of this program is to inspire and support more women and underrepresented minorities to earn technical degrees so we can hire them down the road – we want to foster those future tech innovators.”
Georgia Tech is a leading producer of women and minority STEM graduates and graduates nearly 10 percent of all African-American Ph.D. engineers in the nation.
“It is a national imperative that the U.S. continue to enhance the engagement of students of all backgrounds in STEM fields to create a more robust economy,” said Gary May, dean and Southern Company Chair in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. “The higher education and private sectors must combine forces to achieve the impact that is necessary. As a national leader in producing outstanding underrepresented engineering graduates, Georgia Tech is pleased to partner with Intel in this transformative initiative.”
The gift will expand several Georgia Tech initiatives already underway, including:
The Intel and Georgia Tech program was announced in conjunction with the first-ever White House Demo Day, which celebrates the important role entrepreneurship plays in America's economy. Unlike a private-sector Demo Day, where entrepreneurs and startups pitch their ideas to funders, the new event invites innovators from around the country to "demo" their individual stories in Washington, D.C.
]]>In response to these issues, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology examined options for the power industry’s future. The report released Monday will “help states define their preferred approach for complying with proposed carbon pollution regulations,” said Marilyn Brown, the project’s lead investigator and the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy.
The report, “Low-Carbon Electricity Pathways for the U.S. and the South,” examines two key issues: how states can reduce carbon pollution in the most cost-effective way and how different options impact household electricity bills.
“To minimize costs, the South needs to reduce its coal consumption more rapidly, continue to expand its gas-fired power plants, but temper this growth with aggressive policies to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy,” Brown said.
The project took a turn when last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first ever carbon pollution standards for existing power plants (known as the Clean Power Plan). Since states have considerable latitude to define their preferred response, they are vigorously debating the pros and cons of different options.
Using state-of-the-art modeling, Georgia Tech identified least-cost clean power pathways that would lower household electricity bills and reduce carbon pollution. This combination may not seem intuitive to some, but it is good news for states across the South and the nation.
“This work provides the type of analytic basis that is needed to inform policymaking and will guide the future of the power industry for decades,” said Tim Lieuwen, director of the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech. "Georgia Tech plays an important role as honest broker in national policy discussions, and we will continue to support decision makers through these types of analyses."
]]>Attracting this demographic is essential to maintaining America’s position as a leader in technology innovation, said Gary May, dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech.
May hosted two roundtable discussions in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to confront the challenges facing this issue and celebrate the success stories that receive too little attention.
“It’s a grand challenge, but we know how to solve it,” May said, noting that one out of every 10 African-American engineers with a Ph.D. graduated from Georgia Tech.
A luncheon roundtable, held on Capitol Hill, attracted Congressional staffers, representatives from national associations and others from the D.C. policy community.
During the evening roundtable held at the National Press Club, reporters from Politico and U.S. News & World Report asked questions and helped guide the conversation.
At both events, panelists shared how they overcame obstacles in their careers. They spoke of the importance of mentors, the need to make K-12 lessons in STEM more hands-on and relevant to students and the role parents, corporations and nonprofits must play.
Joining May on the panels were: Rodney Adkins, former senior vice president of IBM and a Georgia Tech alumnus; Reginald DesRoches, Karen and John Huff School Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech; Jeremy Feaster, Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering at Stanford University; Darryll Pines, dean of the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland; Guy Primus, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Virtual Reality Company; Karl Reid, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers; Cedric Stallworth, assistant dean for outreach, enrollment and community for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech; John Silvanus Wilson Jr., president of Morehouse College; and Kyle Woumn, computer science major at Georgia Tech.
The Institute’s roundtable initiative brings together thought leaders from different organizations to discuss important issues. Last year, Georgia Tech held a similar roundtable examining how to attract more female engineers.
The roundtables are an example of a collaborative effort between different units. The African-American Men in STEM event was a partnership between Georgia Tech’s Office of Government and Community Relations, College of Engineering, Office of Development and Institute Communications.
]]>