Georgia Institute of Technology

April 29, 2013 — Robots are now able to intelligently maneuver within clutter, gently making contact with objects while accomplishing a task, thanks to technology developed by Dr. Charlie Kemp and the Healthcare Robotics Lab.  

April 26, 2013 — A new study in fish shows how the strength and timing of competing molecular signals during brain development has generated natural and presumably adaptive differences in a brain region known as the telencephalon -- much earlier than scientists had previously believed.

April 25, 2013 — Using bundles of vertical zinc oxide nanowires, researchers have fabricated arrays of piezotronic transistors capable of converting mechanical motion directly into electronic controlling signals. The arrays could help give robots a more adaptive sense of touch, provide better security in handwritten signatures and offer new ways for humans to interact with electronic devices.

April 23, 2013 — Based on a study of both hatchling sea turtles and "FlipperBot" -- a robot with flippers -- researchers have learned principles for how both robots and turtles move on granular surfaces such as sand.

April 16, 2013 — Researchers are developing a novel technology that would facilitate close monitoring of bridges, parking decks and other structures for early signs of strain, stress and formation of cracks. Their approach uses wireless sensors that are low cost, require no power, and can be implemented on tough yet flexible polymer substrates.

April 11, 2013 — Physicists have examined how Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) might be used to provide communication among the nodes of a distributed quantum computer. The researchers determined the amount of time needed for quantum information to propagate across their BEC.

April 10, 2013 — The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is developing integrated hardware devices that simulate sensors potentially present on enemy UAVs. The technology is expected to be used to gauge the effectiveness of U.S. countermeasures against enemy drones.

April 7, 2013 — A new separation process that depends on an easily-distinguished physical difference in adhesive forces among cells could help expand production of stem cells generated through cell reprogramming. By facilitating new research, the separation process could also lead to improvements in the reprogramming technique itself and help scientists model certain disease processes.

April 2, 2013 — Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have won a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to develop three-dimensional chip cooling technology able to handle heat loads as much as ten times greater than systems commonly used today.

March 29, 2013 — A research team has developed an ultra-compact passive true time delay device that could help reduce the size, complexity, power requirements and cost of phased array designs. The patent-pending device takes advantage of the difference in speed between light and sound to create nanosecond signal delays needed for beam steering.

March 27, 2013 — This article is the second in a series of Q&As to introduce the Tech community to the eight IRIs and their directors. In this installment, Executive Director Bob Guldberg answers five questions about the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience.

March 27, 2013 — Ayanna Howard has been awarded a NSF REU Site: Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) continuing grant for her proposal to add a robotics component to Georgia Tech’s SURE program.

March 27, 2013 — The Georgia Institute of Technology and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta are advancing their commitment to collaborative research through enhanced management of their vast joint research portfolio.

March 21, 2013 — Using a combination of theory and experiment, researchers have developed a new approach for understanding and predicting how small legged robots – and potentially also animals – move on and interact with complex granular materials such as sand.

March 20, 2013 — When Georgia Tech opens the doors to the Georgia Dome next month as the host institution for the 2013 Final Four, expect third-seeded Florida to walk out as the national champion. That’s the prediction from Georgia Tech’s Logistic Regression/Markov Chain (LRMC) college basketball ranking system, a computerized model that has chosen the men’s basketball national champ in three of the last five years.

March 20, 2013 — Researchers have for the first time demonstrated that mechanical forces can control the depolymerization of actin, a critical protein that provides the major force-bearing structure in the cytoskeletons of cells. The research suggests that forces applied both externally and internally may play a much larger role than previously believed in regulating a range of processes inside cells.

March 18, 2013 — A team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a new type of interface between cochlear implant devices and the brain that could dramatically improve the sound quality of the next generation of implants. Cochlear implants help deaf individuals perceive sound.

March 12, 2013 — Technology that could help spinal-cord injury sufferers control their bladder by remote control won first place ($10,000) in the 2013 Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition.

March 10, 2013 — The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has named Ravi Bellamkonda as the organization’s president-elect. He will begin his term as president in 2014.

February 27, 2013 — Researchers have demonstrated the use of a technique known as small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to study the effects of ions moving into nanoscale pores. The study is believed to be the first application of the SANS technique for studying ion surface adsorption in-situ.

February 21, 2013 — The SimTigrate Design Lab designed a mocked-up exam room to have the exact configuration as the Sibley clinics so the doctors and nurses could experience the usability of each device in a realistic environment. 

February 20, 2013 — Wagner, who works in GTRI’s Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory (ATAS), is one of 40 recipients of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program (AFOSR YIP) award for his proposal “Trust and Trustworthiness in Human-Robot Interaction: A Formal Conceptualization.” 

February 18, 2013 — When it comes to forming the droplets that make up clouds, a little oily and viscous organic material apparently doesn’t matter that much. And that’s good news for reducing the uncertainty of climate model predictions.

February 14, 2013 — A new study provides insights into how cells stick to each other and to other bodily structures, an essential function in the formation of tissue structures and organs. It’s thought that abnormalities in their ability to do so play an important role in a broad range of disorders.

February 4, 2013 — Researchers have published a study in the online Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing – for the first time – that certain volatile organic gases can promote cloud formation in a way never considered before by atmospheric scientists.

February 1, 2013 — Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute, has been appointed to the National Petroleum Council (NPC) by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. Lieuwen, who is also a professor of aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech, will serve on the council of about 20 people that advises the secretary on matters relating to oil and natural gas.

January 28, 2013 — In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers used genomic techniques to document the presence of significant numbers of living microorganisms – principally bacteria – in the middle and upper troposphere, that section of the atmosphere approximately four to six miles above the Earth’s surface.

January 16, 2013 — A research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is developing an airborne testing capability for sensors, communications devices and other airborne payloads. This aerial test bed, called the GTRI Airborne Unmanned Sensor System (GAUSS), is based on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made by Griffon Aerospace and modified by GTRI. 

January 9, 2013 — Researchers recently created a biophysical model of the response of a Gram-positive bacterium to the formation of a hole in its cell wall, then used experimental measurements to validate the theory, which predicted that a hole in the bacteria cell wall larger than 15 to 24 nanometers in diameter would cause the cell to lyse, or burst.

January 8, 2013 — Georgia Tech researchers have created a hydrological model that forecasts flooding in Pakistan as many as ten days in advance.

January 3, 2013 — Ronald L. Johnson, retired 2-Star Army General and graduate of ISyE, has accepted a joint appointment at Georgia Tech. Effective January 2, 2013, he will serve as a Professor of Practice in ISyE, and the Managing Director of the Tennenbaum Institute.

December 20, 2012 — 2012 has been a year of milestones and accomplishments for Georgia Tech. Enjoy taking a look back at some of the highlights.

December 12, 2012 — A device designed by engineers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is part of the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD), an experimental airborne system developed by the Earth Science Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

December 10, 2012 — Researchers at Georgia Tech are trying to open the world of tablets to children whose limited mobility makes it difficult for them to perform the common pinch and swipe gestures required to control the devices. Ayanna Howard, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and graduate student Hae Won Park have created Access4Kids, a wireless input device that uses a sensor system to translate physical movements into fine-motor gestures to control a tablet.

December 5, 2012 — ATLANTA – Dec. 5, 2012 – How unsafe are mobile browsers? Unsafe enough that even cyber-security experts are unable to detect when their smartphone browsers have landed on potentially dangerous websites, according to a recent Georgia Tech study. Source: Office of Communications

December 3, 2012 — Using deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The research is funded by the Office of Naval Research and is led by Professor Ronald Arkin, who suggests the applications could be implemented by the military in the future. The research is highlighted in the November/December 2012 edition of IEEE Intelligent Systems.

November 29, 2012 — A research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology has received a $2.7 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop technology intended to help address the challenges of "big data" – data sets that are both massive and complex.

November 28, 2012 — Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have been awarded three grants totaling more than $9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop energy technology solutions. 

November 26, 2012 — Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have received a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how complex microbial systems use their genetic diversity to respond to human-induced change. The work is important because these microbial communities play critical roles in the environment, breaking down pollutants, recycling nutrients – and serving as major sources of nitrogen and carbon.

November 21, 2012 — Researchers from Georgia Tech are partnering with GE and Ford Motor Co. to study ways to add greater efficiencies to electric driving and charging performance.

November 19, 2012 — The research team will use the comprehensive research approach of systems biology to study and catalog in molecular detail how malaria parasites interact with their human and animal hosts.

November 18, 2012 — By fabricating graphene structures atop nanometer-scale “steps” etched into silicon carbide, researchers have for the first time created a substantial electronic bandgap in the material suitable for room-temperature electronics. Use of nanoscale topography to control the properties of graphene could facilitate fabrication of transistors and other devices, potentially opening the door for developing all-carbon integrated circuits.

November 8, 2012 — Corals under attack by toxic seaweed do what anyone might do when threatened – they call for help. A study reported this week in the journal Science shows that threatened corals send signals to fish “bodyguards” that quickly respond to trim back the noxious alga.

November 1, 2012 — Researchers are developing a technique for predicting from a simple blood sample the amount of cathepsins—protein-degrading enzymes known to accelerate certain diseases—a specific person would produce. This patient-specific information may be helpful in developing personalized approaches to treat these tissue-destructive diseases.

October 30, 2012 — Using a new method for precisely controlling the deposition of carbon, researchers have demonstrated a technique for connecting multi-walled carbon nanotubes to the metallic pads of integrated circuits without the high interface resistance produced by traditional fabrication techniques.

October 26, 2012 — A new study shows that jumping can be much more complicated than it might seem. In research that could extend the range of future rescue and exploration robots, scientists have found that hopping robots could dramatically reduce their power demands by adopting a unique two-part “stutter jump.”

October 25, 2012 — Robots have the potential to help older adults with daily activities that can become more challenging with age. But are people willing to use and accept the new technology? A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology indicates the answer is yes, unless the tasks involve personal care or social activities.

October 16, 2012 — The 2012 Georgia Manufacturing Survey provides some welcome good news for Georgia companies. For the first time since researchers began tracking the statistic, more Georgia manufacturers have been benefitting from in-sourcing – production work coming to them from outside the state – than have been losing work to other states and countries.

October 11, 2012 — Understanding the phenomenon of blackbody radiation – electromagnetic emissions that play a role in a broad range of physical systems – is an important part of physics instruction at both the high school and college levels. Thanks to researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), explaining this to students just became a little easier.

October 9, 2012 — A Georgia Tech research team has received a grant from the Office of Naval Research to work on a project that intends to teach robots how to use objects in their environment to accomplish high-level tasks.

October 2, 2012 — Modulating immune response to injury could accelerate the regeneration of severed peripheral nerves, a new study in an animal model has found. By altering activity of the macrophage cells that respond to injuries, researchers dramatically increased the rate at which nerve processes regrew.

October 1, 2012 — A new study from Georgia Tech and the University of Toronto suggests that memory impairments for people diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s disease may be due, in part, to problems in determining the differences between similar objects. The findings also support growing research indicating that a part of the brain once believed to support memory exclusively – the medial temporal lobe - also plays a role in object perception.

September 28, 2012 — Two new grants awarded to the College of Architecture's Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access total $3.1 million.

September 25, 2012 — Researchers in Georgia Tech’s Center for Behavior Imaging have developed two new technological tools that automatically measure relevant behaviors of children, and promise to have significant impact on the understanding of behavioral disorders such as autism.

September 20, 2012 — School of Economics Professor Thomas “Danny” Boston testified Wednesday before the U.S. Senate’s Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee in Washington.

September 14, 2012 — Popular Science has named Andrea Thomaz (Interactive Comp) one of 2012’s “Brilliant 10,” an award given by the publication to ten scientists under 40 whose innovations will change the world. Source: Office of Communications

September 7, 2012 — Georgia Tech has developed a new algorithm that quickly determines betweenness centrality for streaming graphs. The algorithm can identify influencers as information changes within a network. The first-of-its-kind streaming tool was presented this week by Computational Science and Engineering Ph.D. candidate Oded Green at the Social Computing Conference in Amsterdam.

August 31, 2012 — The project will introduce about 5,100 Griffin-Spalding County students in grades six through nine to advanced manufacturing learning experiences, such as working with robots and creating items using computer design and 3-D printers.

August 22, 2012 — C. Ross Ethier, Ph.D., an internationally recognized leader in the area of biomechanics and mechanobiology recently joined the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University as the new Georgia Research Alliance Lawrence L. Gellerstedt, Jr. Eminent Scholar in Bioengineering. He is considered one of the world’s leading researchers in the study of glaucoma, arterial disease and osteoarthritis. 

August 20, 2012 — Ben Wang, Georgia Tech’s manufacturing chief and executive director of the Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC), recently presented some of his ideas and viewpoints at the U.S. Department of Energy’s roundtable on "Strengthening Advanced U.S. Manufacturing in Clean Energy."

August 16, 2012 — If you’ve ever bathed a dog, you know firsthand how quickly a drenched pup can shake water off. Now researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found that furry mammals can shake themselves 70 percent dry in just a fraction of a second.

August 13, 2012 — Researchers for the first time have shown that members of a family of enzymes known as cathepsins – which are implicated in many disease processes – may attack one another instead of the proteins they normally degrade. Dubbed “cathepsin cannibalism,” the phenomenon may help explain problems with drugs that have been developed to inhibit the effects of these powerful proteases.

August 5, 2012 — Researchers have used complex computational models to design micro-swimmers that could overcome the challenges of swimming at the micron scale. These autonomous micro-robots could carry cargo and navigate in response to stimuli such as light.

August 2, 2012 — Computer-generated characters have become so lifelike in appearance and movement that the line separating reality is almost imperceptible at times. But while bipeds and quadrupeds have reigned supreme in CG animation, attempts to create and control their skeleton-free cousins using similar techniques has proved time-consuming and laborious.Georgia Tech researchers have found a possible solution to this challenge by developing a way to simulate and control movement of computer-generated characters without a skeletal structure, anything from starfish and earthworms to an elephant’s trunk or the human tongue.

July 26, 2012 — An enhanced training program designed to teach Braille transcription, computer skills and business techniques to soon-to-be-released offenders could expand the quantity of printed materials available for blind and visually impaired persons – while providing ex-offenders marketable skills designed to reduce recidivism rates.

July 24, 2012 — With a series of papers published in chemistry and chemical engineering journals, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have advanced the case for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air using newly-developed adsorbent materials.

July 23, 2012 — Thanks to tiny microneedles, eye doctors may soon have a better way to treat diseases such as macular degeneration that affect tissues in the back of the eye. That could be important as the population ages and develops more eye-related illnesses – and as pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs that otherwise could only be administered by injecting into the eye with a hypodermic needle.

July 18, 2012 — A new report released yesterday by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) urges building on progress to date for improving domestic manufacturing competitiveness and encouraging companies to invest in the United States.

July 11, 2012 — Using a process called paleo-experimental evolution, Georgia Tech researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli(E. coli) bacteria. This bacterium has now been growing for more than 1,000 generations, giving the scientists a front row seat to observe evolution in action.

July 6, 2012 — Georgia Tech will host nearly 800 of the world’s top experts in the field of conducting and semiconducting organic materials July 8-13 in Atlanta. The International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals (ICSM) 2012 will be held at the downtown Hyatt Regency. Regents’ Professors of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jean-Luc Bredas and Seth Marder are serving as the event’s lead organizers.

July 5, 2012 — Using piezoelectric materials, researchers have replicated the muscle motion of the human eye to control camera systems in a way designed to improve the operation of robots. This new muscle-like action could help make robotic tools safer and more effective for MRI-guided surgery and robotic rehabilitation.

June 28, 2012 — The Georgia Institute of Technology is pleased to announce its collaboration on a new publication aimed at helping industrial and institutional researchers work together more effectively. 

June 26, 2012 — Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive "musical buddy." 

June 25, 2012 — The Invention Studio, located on the second floor of the MRDC, fosters design inspiration and learning. The equipment and space is open to all students, regardless of major.

June 16, 2012 — Doctoral students from four Atlanta universities worked together recently to learn how to develop new pharmaceutical products during a two-week interdisciplinary short course at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

June 13, 2012 — Georgia Tech startup SpherIngenics is using microbead technology to produce protective capsules for the delivery of cell-based therapies. The technology provides an efficient, safe and repeatable delivery method that protects cells from death and migration from the treatment site. 

June 12, 2012 — Seven different schools and departments join together to form the new Integrated Cancer Research Center.

June 11, 2012 — David Ballantyne, one of the Institute’s black hole experts, is on the science team of NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), which is scheduled for launch Wednesday morning. He’s one of a handful of people who decided where the high-energy X-ray telescope will point while in orbit. NuSTAR’s technology will allow it to image areas of the universe in never-before-seen ways.

June 6, 2012 — ATLANTA – June 6, 2012 – According to some estimates, the average corporate email user sends 112 emails every day. About one out of every seven of those messages, says a new study from Assistant Professor Eric Gilbert (Interactive Computing), can be called gossip. Source: Office of Communications

June 4, 2012 — Georgia Tech researchers used high-speed videography to determine the mosquito’s strong exoskeleton and low mass render it impervious to falling raindrops. 

May 31, 2012 — Georgia Tech researchers used experiments and numerical calculations to show that iron, in the absence of oxygen, can substitute for magnesium in RNA binding, folding and catalysis. The findings suggest that 3 billion years ago, on the early earth, iron did the chemical work now done by magnesium.

May 25, 2012 — Georgia Tech recently opened a new laboratory with state-of-the-art radiation therapy equipment dedicated solely to research and education, making it one of the only universities in the nation with this unique capability. 

May 22, 2012 — Three college students, including Georgia Tech’s own Paris Rouzati, created Sweet Lemon Magazine.

May 18, 2012 — Researchers have developed a novel technology that could change how industry designs and casts complex, costly metal parts. This new casting method makes possible faster prototype development times, as well as more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing procedures.

May 10, 2012 — New research findings show that embryonic stem cells unable to fully compact the DNA inside them cannot complete their primary task: differentiation into specific cell types that give rise to the various types of tissues and structures in the body.

May 9, 2012 — The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Georgia Tech funding for two undergraduate scholarships, three graduate fellowships, three research projects and an infrastructure improvement.

May 7, 2012 — A new study by a Georgia Tech researcher shows that capped broadband pricing triggers uneasy user experiences that could be mitigated by better tools to monitor data usage through their home networks.

May 3, 2012 — Assistant Professor Josef Dufek's new findings provide more evidence that early Mars was saturated with water and that its atmosphere was considerably thicker, at least 20 times more dense, than it is today.

April 26, 2012 — By analyzing 600,000 tweets sent on the night U.S. Special Forces captured Osama bin Laden, researchers studied how Twitter broke the story and spread the news. Their data also shows that the Twitterverse was overwhelmingly convinced the news of bin Laden’s death was true, even before it was confirmed on television.

April 24, 2012 — The research shows that having a more positive, motivational outlook had a beneficial effect on job pursuit, especially at the outset of the search. However, the more important influence on maintaining one's job search activities and increasing the likelihood of landing employment was the person's ability to stay energized and keep negative emotions under control over time. The study appears in the current issue of The Academy of Management Journal.

April 19, 2012 — In new findings published in the journal Science, Georgia Tech researchers have introduced what appears to be a universal technique to reduce the work function of a conductor. Their use in printable electronics can pave the way for lower cost and more flexible devices.

April 19, 2012 — Using lasers to excite just one atom from a cloud of ultra-cold rubidium gas, physicists have developed a new way to rapidly and efficiently create single photons for potential use in optical quantum information processing – and in the study of dynamics and disorder in certain physical systems. 

April 18, 2012 — As any city dweller knows, buses are rarely on time. It’s typical to wait a while, only to have several buses show up one after another, a phenomenon known as bus bunching. Fortunately, researchers and students at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a possible solution for bus bunching that provides better service to riders, simplifies the job of drivers and reduces work for management.

April 11, 2012 — The Georgia Institute of Technology opened its doors to more than 400 middle school and high school students on Wednesday for the third annual Robotics Open House.

March 30, 2012 — Interested in innovative business concepts that could help improve society or preserve the environment? Then you're welcome to attend the poster showcase and reception of the fourth annual Ideas to SERVE (I2S) Competition at 6 p.m. Monday April 2.

March 28, 2012 — Advanced manufacturing is a major area of research at Georgia Tech, involving faculty members from academic colleges, as well as the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2). Activities focus on a broad range of areas, including new manufacturing technologies, factory-floor issues, manufacturing systems, product improvements and sustainability.

March 27, 2012 — Georgia Tech researchers are helping assess the economic impact of nanotechnology on green and sustainable growth. Their work will help evaluate the multi-billion-dollar public and private investment being made each year in research and development on nanotechnology.

March 19, 2012 — A clock accurate to within a tenth of a second over 14 billion years – the age of the universe – is the goal of research being reported this week in the journal Physical Review Letters. The research provides the blueprint for a nuclear clock based on a single thorium ion.

March 13, 2012 — Santorini, a tourist magnet famous for its breathtaking cliffs and sunsets, sits atop an active volcano. That caldera is awake after more than 60 years of activity and deforming at levels never seen before. Georgia Tech's Andrew Newman has more than 20 GPS stations on the island and is keeping a close eye on a potential eruption.

March 5, 2012 — Using eyewitness video and terrestrial laser scanners from atop the highest buildings that survvived the tsunami, Associate Professor Hermann Fritz has mapped the tsunami’s height and flood zone to learn more about the flow of the devastating currents. 

February 27, 2012 — Top U.S. industry, academic, labor and government leaders will convene in Atlanta for a two-day manufacturing forum starting on Tuesday, Feb. 28. Hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Council on Competitiveness, the forum will address how supply chain, advanced logistics and infrastructure improvements can enhance the nation's manufacturing base.

February 26, 2012 — Uncertainty affects the accuracy with which measurements can be made in quantum physics. To reduce this uncertainty, physicists have learned to "squeeze" certain measurements. Researchers are now reporting a new type of measurement that can be squeezed to improve precision.

February 21, 2012 — Researchers have developed a “soft template infiltration” technique for fabricating free-standing piezoelectrically active ferroelectric nanotubes and other nanostructures from PZT – a material that is attractive because of its large piezoelectric response. Developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the technique allows fabrication of ferroelectric nanostructures with user-defined shapes, location and pattern variation across the same substrate.

February 15, 2012 — The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) has awarded $8.5 million to a consortium of seven U.S. universities that will work together to determine the best approach for generating quantum memories based on interaction between light and matter.

February 13, 2012 — ESW-GT earned $2,340 for its proposal for a solar café or kiosk used to raise funds for the chapter.

February 13, 2012 — Georgia Tech has created a new data analysis algorithm that quickly transforms complex RNA sequence data into usable content for biologists and clinicians. Scientists will be able to more readily use this data to compare the RNA profiles or “transcriptomes” of normal cells with those of individual cancers and thereby be in a better position to develop optimized personal therapies.

February 8, 2012 — 2011 brought two of the deadliest bacterial outbreaks the world has seen during the last 25 years. The two epidemics accounted for more than 4,200 cases of infectious disease and 80 deaths. Software developed at Georgia Tech was used to help characterize the bacteria that caused each outbreak.

February 6, 2012 — Professor Rigoberto Hernandez, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, studied the movements of a spherical probe amongst static nanorods. He found that the particles sometimes diffused faster in a nematic environment than in a disordered environment. That is, the channels left open between the ordered nanorods don’t just steer nanoparticles along a direction, they also enable them to speed right through.

January 24, 2012 — A startup company based on technology developed at Georgia Tech offers a solution to the growing challenge of telephone security, and is quickly gaining traction from investors, financial services companies and the security industry

January 19, 2012 — Designing an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it’s restricted from tight spaces. It might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines. Existing robots can do many of these things, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of snakes.

January 17, 2012 — Glaucoma is typically triggered when fluid is unable to circulate freely through the eye’s trabecular meshwork (TM) tissue. Intraocular pressure rises and damages the retina and optic nerve, which causes vision loss. In certain cases of glaucoma, this blockage results from a build-up of the protein myocilin. Georgia Tech Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Professor Raquel Lieberman focused on examining the structural properties of these myocilin deposits. She was surprised to discover that both genetically defected as well as normal, or wild-type (WT), myocilin are readily triggered to produce very stable fibrous residue containing a pathogenic material called amyloid.

January 12, 2012 — Georgia Tech and CDC researchers have developed a new laboratory test that can rapidly identify the bacterium responsible for staph infections. The test uses mass spectrometry to quantify the number of Staphylococcus aureus organisms in a large number of samples in just a few hours, compared to a day or two for culturing techniques typically used to detect this bacterium.

December 23, 2011 — A device that determines how a patient’s blood is clotting – information that could help doctors prescribe more personalized doses of a popular anti-clotting drug – won first prize at the Fall 2011 Capstone Design Expo.

December 14, 2011 — The coming years will bring increased personalization, innovation and flexibility in the media landscape, according to the Georgia Institute of Technology.  These findings were announced in today’s release of the FutureMediaSM Outlook 2012, a multimedia report that offers Georgia Tech’s annual viewpoint on the future of media and its impact on people, business and society over the next five to seven years.

December 8, 2011 — An internationally-known health information technology (IT) leader and a top nonprofit health IT organization are collaborating with the Georgia Institute of Technology on a new public-private initiative designed to accelerate the use of health IT.

December 2, 2011 — The Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT) has hit the right chord by blending research with technology that meets industry needs while creating tools for new and memorable performances.

November 30, 2011 — With the holiday season upon us – and all the festive food it brings – people should know that the color contrast between dinnerware and what's placed on top can affect how much we serve ourselves and consume, according a Georgia Tech College of Management researcher.

November 14, 2011 — Systems engineers at Georgia Tech offered the Georgia Aquarium accurate predictions on how its new AT&T Dolphin Tales exhibit would impact aquarium guest flow and how to optimize the operations logistics, efficiency and show schedules for the exhibit.

November 10, 2011 — The College of Computing's Robotics and Intelligent Machines Center will use a gift of nearly $1 million of robotics from Coca-Cola Bottle Co. Consolidated to create at Manufacturing Robotics Logistics Laboratory on the Georgia Tech campus.

November 7, 2011 — Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have received a grant to study the use of microneedle patches for the low-cost administration of polio vaccine.

November 4, 2011 — Physicists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a theory that describes, in a unified manner, the coexistence of liquid and pinned solid phases of electrons in two dimensions under the influence of a magnetic field. The theory also describes the transition between these phases as the field is varied.

November 1, 2011 — The Georgia Institute of Technology has been designated a Rotorcraft Center of Excellence (RCOE) for the seventh consecutive time. The $7.2 million contract will fund the center for the next five years.

October 30, 2011 — The Georgia Institute of Technology and IBM have announced a new research initiative that will apply advanced systems modeling and large-scale data analytics capabilities to integrate traditionally disparate data that affects health.

October 26, 2011 — Georgia Tech researchers have developed a prototype wireless sensor capable of detecting trace amounts of a key ingredient found in many explosives. The low-cost sensors include carbon nanotubes and can be printed on paper.

October 25, 2011 — The Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to provide manufacturing education programs to high school students. 

October 19, 2011 — The Georgia Institute of Technology and Shepherd Center have been awarded a $4.75 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) for research and development of wireless technologies aimed at enhancing the lives of people with disabilities. The grant supports the continuation of a decade of innovative research and engineering at the Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC), a collaboration between Shepherd Center and Georgia Tech.

October 17, 2011 — A research team led by Patrick Traynor (Computer Science) has discovered how to program a smartphone to sense nearby keyboard vibrations and decipher complete sentences with up to 80 percent accuracy. Source: Office of Communications

October 17, 2011 — Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral.

October 12, 2011 — A two-year, $1.8 million grant from the Food and Drug Administration will launch the new Atlanta Pediatric Device Consortium and foster the development of medical devices for children.

October 11, 2011 — ATLANTA – Oct. 11, 2011 – Today the citizens of Liberia will elect a president, eight years after the end of its civil war, with the specter of violence still hanging overhead. But what if social media, Professor Michael Best (Interactive Computing) is asking, could identify and even help prevent dangerous situations from occurring? Source: Office of Communications

October 5, 2011 — Public Policy’s Marilyn Brown and Doug Noonan are Co-PIs on a Georgia Tech team that has been awarded a 5-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project will establish at Georgia Tech one of the nation’s first truly, interdisciplinary PhD program in energy science, technology, and policy.

September 29, 2011 — The National Science Foundation has awarded $6 million through its Division of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation to fund three projects involving researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

September 22, 2011 — In a competition hosted by the City of Atlanta and Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, a team of Georgia Tech students earned first prize and a monetary reward for proposing a system for electric vehicle adoption in Atlanta.