The Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS) at Georgia Tech has announced the Fall 2025 Core Facility Seed Grant recipients. The primary purpose of this program is to give graduate students in diverse disciplines working on original and unfunded research in micro- and nanoscale science and engineering the opportunity to access the most advanced academic cleanroom space in the Southeast. In addition to using the labs' state-of-the-art fabrication, lithography, and characterization tools, the awardees will have the opportunity to gain proficiency in cleanroom and tool methodology and access the consultation services provided by research staff members in IMS. Seed Grant awardees are also provided travel support to present their research at a scientific conference.

In addition to student research skill development, this biannual grant program gives faculty with novel research topics the ability to develop preliminary data to pursue follow-up funding sources. The Core Facility Seed Grant program is supported in part by the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), a member of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).

The five winning projects were awarded IMS cleanroom and lab access time to be used over the next year. 

The Fall 2025 IMS Core Facility Seed Grant recipients are:

2D Confined Metals for Electrocatalytic Applications
PI: Faisal Alamgir
Students: Robert (Bobby) Hoye and Arturo Medina
School of Materials Science and Engineering

High-Speed Chip-to-Chip Terahertz Interconnects Enabled by Nanoporous Cu-Cu Bonding
PIs: Nima Ghalichechian and Vanessa Smet
Student: Seung Yoon Lee
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Characterization of Composite Materials with Enhanced Cyclability for Thermal Batteries
PI: Akanksha Menon
Student: Sadie Flagg (School of Materials Science and Engineering)
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

High-Endurance FeFET-ECRAM Hybrid Devices for Next Generation - Vertical NAND Applications
PI: Asif Khan
Student: Ranie Seetha Lakshmi Jeyakumar
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Coral Skeletal Cadmium Isotopes: Exploring and Establishing a Novel Proxy for Marine Bio-productivity in the Modern and Ancient Ocean
PI: Isaiah Bolden
Student: Margaret Gordon
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences