The Atlanta Community-Engaged Research Student Network launched this semester. The program is co-led by Nicole Kennard, assistant director for Community-Engaged Research with the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), along with Associate Professor Richard Milligan and Associate Professor Sarah Ledford from Georgia State University, Associate Professor Emily Burchfield and Associate Teaching Professor Carolyn Keogh from Emory University, and Iesha Baldwin from Spelman College. The program also partners with several community-based organizations to co-develop strategic direction and provide training. They are Science for Georgia, Historic Westside Gardens, HBCU Green Fund, South River Watershed Alliance, and Food Well Alliance.

The primary aim of the Atlanta Student Community-Engaged Research (CER) Network is to use a peer learning approach to train graduate students with the skills to co-lead community-engaged and locally focused research, while at the same time building relationships with local community organizations. This approach will help address local sustainability and societal challenges, lay the foundation for community-engaged research programs, and enable young researchers interested in this work to thrive in the Atlanta area. Initial funding for the pilot program was provided by the Atlanta Global Studies Center and the Georgia Tech Provost's Excellence in Graduate Studies fund.

The program received a total of 41 applications from graduate students from Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, and Emory University. Thirty-five master’s and Ph.D. students were accepted into the cohort, spanning a wide range of disciplines, from the humanities, sciences, design,  public health, engineering, and computing. The program has additionally engaged eight senior-level undergraduates from Spelman College to learn about graduate school tracks with community-engaged research opportunities.

This program provides a unique opportunity to learn engagement and leadership skills not typically taught in graduate programs. Students are attending one training a month over the course of the Spring 2026 semester. Here, they learn about the diversity of sustainability-focused, community-based organizations in the area, develop skills to engage meaningfully with community partners in research projects, and improve the ways they communicate to the public about research.

The Georgia Tech Provost's Excellence in Graduate Studies fund will provide a $2,500 stipend to five Georgia Tech students who will work on a research project with a community partner organization. These projects will take place over the spring and summer semesters this year, providing opportunities for graduate students to apply their newly acquired community-engagement skills to on-the-ground research, while also opening a new pathway for Georgia Tech’s engagement with community partners.

Fellows and projects include:

• Irene Jacob, M.S., city and regional planning, will work with the Food Well Alliance to update the implementation strategy for their 10-year community garden survey.
• Ethan Zhao, M.S., human-computer interaction, will work with Historic Westside Gardens to integrate new technologies into their community garden spaces and assess the benefits to the communities they serve.
• Virginia Cason, M.S., sustainable energy and environmental management, will work with Science for Georgia to translate data gathering and analysis into community-centered narratives.
• Sharon Rachel, Ph.D., history and sociology of technology and science, will work with the HBCU Green Fund to examine the environmental and community impacts of data center projects in Atlanta.
• Ella Neumann, Ph.D., interactive computing, will work with the South River Watershed Alliance to document and communicate the history and impact of the City of Atlanta's combined sewer consent decree, and assess if the intended results of the decree have been met.

Applicants expressed their passion for community-engaged research projects and working directly with local community members and organizations:

“Lived experience is just as valuable as academic expertise, and meaningful change only occurs when both work together. I think that this takes approaching problems with a lot of humility, care, and a genuine desire to listen to communities and their needs.” -Virginia Cason, M.S., sustainable energy and environmental management

“I want to do research that stems from a theoretical question, but is feasible in reality and benefits the community. One of the most efficient ways to achieve this goal is through doing research WITH the community.” -Keke Li, M.S., analytics

“Community-engaged research is not only a methodology, but a commitment to partnership, humility, and shared power.” -Grace Fraser, M.S., city and regional planning

“To me, community-engaged research means working with people, not just for them. CER is not only a method but also a mindset. True impact comes when research and community experience grow together.” -Bingjie Lu, Ph.D., civil engineering

The community partners involved in the program are equally enthusiastic about community-engaged research. As Fred Conrad of Food Well Alliance put it, “Food Well has been intentional about engaging our constituents since we began, and this is not only a continuation of that effort, but a significant refinement of how we accomplish that. I think all of us have deepened our understanding of the CER process since we began this journey.”

People engaged in purpose-driven work can get worn down. At Georgia Tech’s 2026 Sustainability Showcase, three faculty leaders urged attendees to stop trying to do everything and instead focus on the convergence where their strengths, satisfaction, and the most urgent climate needs intersect.

That idea anchored “Finding Joy and Building Resilience in Climate Action,” an interactive session on day two of the showcase, hosted Feb. 9 – 10 by the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS). Each spring, the event brings together Georgia Tech researchers, students, staff, and partners to share their work with the sustainability community. This session turned the spotlight inward, asking how people doing sustainability work can sustain themselves over the long haul. Facilitated by Rebecca Watts Hull, the session drew on an April 2022 TED Talk by marine biologist and policy expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who lays out a practical way to “lean into your superpowers” for being effective in purpose-driven work.

Watts Hull, assistant director of Faculty Development for Sustainability Education Initiatives in Georgia Tech’s Center for Teaching and Learning, opened the discussion by explaining why she proposed the session. Many showcase events, she noted, focused on social, community, and ecological resilience. This one examined individual capacity — how people stay engaged in work that can feel frustrating, slow-moving, and emotionally draining.

Johnson’s TED Talk framed the problem, describing the climate challenge as “gargantuan,” spanning energy, transportation, agriculture, buildings, industry, ecosystems, and culture. Rather than dwelling on dire projections, she urges people to pivot to solutions and to contribute not just as generic volunteers, but by using their particular talents.

Her tool is a Venn diagram that asks three questions:

• What are you good at — your skills, expertise, resources, and networks?
• What work needs doing — high-impact sustainability solutions, especially at the systems level?
• What brings you joy or satisfaction — work that energizes rather than depletes you?

Johnson warns against choosing work that leads to burnout and against merely validating what one is already doing, pushing instead for a fresh look at where each person can have the greatest impact. She also emphasizes implementation and argues for a “leaderful” movement in which many people step into leadership in different ways.

Matthew Realff, professor and David I.J. Wang Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, connected Johnson’s framework to resilience and his 33 years at Georgia Tech. He traced the word “resilience” back to its Latin root, meaning “to bounce back,” and defined it as the ability to absorb shocks and return to an original or improved state.

For Realff, that ability depends heavily on relationships. “I think of personal resiliency as coming from the networks of people I interact with — the social bonds that stretch and are strained,” he said, and “help me bring myself back to my center when I'm finding that life is difficult with respect to things like sustainability.”

He then walked through his own Venn diagram across teaching, research, and service. In teaching, he uses senior design courses to give engineering students real-world sustainability problems, from hydrogen liquefaction to biofuels and biochemicals. “Watching students grapple with those challenges brings me joy,” he said.

In research, he focuses on carbon capture, including capturing CO₂ from flue gases and from the air. In service, he has stepped into roles he didn’t initially seek, such as board chair of GreenBlue, the nonprofit behind the “How2Recycle” label found on consumer packaging, and chair of standards committees that shape the environmental profile of electronics purchased by major institutions. Those roles, he acknowledged, pulled him out of his comfort zone but delivered tangible, systems-level impact.

Christie Stewart, senior academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences, added a perspective grounded in well-being and resilience education. She oversees Georgia Tech’s undergraduate wellness requirement and teaches a class called Flourishing: Strategies for Well-Being and Resilience. For years, her students designed wellness and sustainability projects, but rarely had time to carry them out within a semester.

That frustration pushed her toward community-based service learning, linking personal wellness to broader community resilience. Stewart highlighted three strengths she brings to her own Venn diagram: using well-being frameworks; taking a strengths-based approach that helps students identify what they do best; and creating psychologically safe environments where students can discuss values, disagreements, and the emotional strain of large-scale problems like climate change.

For her, the work that needs doing includes building capacity for community partners and helping students recognize that they must protect their own mental and physical health if they want to stay in the work. Her greatest satisfaction comes from seeing students discover a sense of purpose and begin to imagine themselves as future leaders who can “change culture and advocate” for sustainability.

Watts Hull described how Johnson’s Venn diagram helped her reconcile what she wasn’t doing with what she could do best. A sociologist by training who studies social movements and change, she supports the integration of sustainability across the curriculum and teaches one course each year. In her personal life, she attends climate demonstrations, but as an introvert who dislikes large crowds, she rarely stays long and feels guilty about not doing more public-facing activism.

Completing the diagram, she said, gave her permission to focus on teaching and movement-building — her core strengths and sources of joy. She recently led a four-week climate action course at her church and used Johnson’s Venn diagram as an exercise.

Watts Hull closed the session by asking participants to sketch their own diagrams, reflect quietly for several minutes, and then share with others at their tables — a step toward aligning Georgia Tech’s diverse sustainability community around the personal “superpowers” that can sustain climate action over a lifetime.

“This is an opportunity to get away from what I call self-immersion,” said audience member Jay Bassett, a 1985 Georgia Tech graduate and retired EPA Opportunity Zone and Smart Sector Advisor. “We have a tendency to get so isolated in what we do,” and “this offers an opportunity to think beyond that and get past those boundaries and see opportunities that we don’t see before because we’re so self-immersed. That’s an actual skill that we all ought to learn — to see the bigger picture because it may be the best part of the path forward.”

Written by: Anne Wainscott-Sargent

As artificial intelligence (AI) drives explosive growth in data centers, communities across the U.S. are facing rising electricity costs, new industrial development, and mounting strain on an aging power grid.

At Georgia Tech, several faculty members are approaching these sustainability challenges from different but complementary angles: examining how data center policy affects local communities, modeling how AI-driven demand reshapes regional energy systems, and building tools that help the public understand the tradeoffs embedded in grid planning. Together, their work highlights how better data, thoughtful policy, and public engagement can guide more resilient and equitable decisions in an AI-powered future.

AI’s Hidden Footprint: How Data Centers Reshape Communities

Ahmed Saeed studies the infrastructure most people never see. An assistant professor in the School of Computer Science and a Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Faculty Fellow, Saeed focuses on how data centers — the backbone of modern AI — are built, operated, and regulated, and what their growth means for host communities.

“Data centers are the infrastructure for our digital life, so more of them are necessary to keep doing what we’re doing,” he said.

Data center energy consumption could double or triple by 2028, accounting for up to 12% of U.S. electricity use, according to a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. U.S. spending on data center construction jumped nearly 70% between May 2023 and May 2024, according to the American Edge Project.

Georgia is an AI data center hub, ranked fourth globally, with $4.6 billion in AI-related venture capital invested across 368 deals, the American Edge Project reported. At a recent town hall in DeKalb County, Georgia, Saeed helped residents connect AI’s promise to its local consequences. Training large AI models can require tens of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) running for days or weeks, driving an unprecedented wave of data center construction. AI-focused chips, he noted, can consume 10 to 14 times more power than traditional processors.

That demand often shows up as pressure on local infrastructure. Communities are increasingly concerned about electricity and water use, grid upgrades, and who ultimately pays. In Virginia, Saeed pointed to a legal dispute in which consumer advocates warned that data centers could raise electricity bills by 5% in the short term and up to 50% over time, while utilities argued those investments were inevitable and could benefit customers in the long run.

Environmental concerns add another layer. Saeed cited controversies over water use and backup diesel generators in states, including Georgia and Tennessee, alongside a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling that tightened generator regulations. While diesel generators are clearly harmful, he cautioned that long-term, rigorous evidence linking data centers to regional health impacts remains limited.

Saeed’s research aims to reduce those impacts directly. By optimizing how workloads are scheduled across large server fleets, his team has demonstrated power savings of 4 – 12%, a meaningful gain if U.S. data centers approach projected levels of up to 12% of national electricity use by 2028.

For Saeed, data centers are akin to highways: essential to modern life, disruptive to nearby communities, and shaped by policy choices. The question, he argues, is not whether AI infrastructure should exist, but how transparently and fairly it is built.

Economist Probes the Energy Costs of the AI Boom

While headlines often frame AI as an energy crisis, Georgia Tech environmental and energy economist and BBISS Faculty Fellow Tony Harding is focused on measuring its real — and uneven — impacts. Harding, an assistant professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, uses economic modeling to examine how AI adoption affects energy use, emissions, and local communities.

In recent work published in Environmental Research Letters, Harding and his co-author analyzed how productivity gains from AI could influence national energy demand. Their findings suggest that, at a macro level, AI-related activity may increase annual U.S. energy use by about 0.03% and CO₂ emissions by roughly 0.02%.

“Those numbers are small in the context of the overall economy,” Harding said. “But the impacts are highly uneven.”

That unevenness is evident in where data centers are built. While Northern Virginia remains the country’s top data center hub, with 343 operational data centers, states like Georgia, which currently has 94 operational data centers, are rapidly attracting facilities due to reliable power and favorable tax policies. 

Harding’s latest research focuses on local effects, asking why data centers cluster in urban areas, how they influence housing markets, what happens to electricity prices, and whether they exacerbate water stress. Early evidence suggests large facilities can increase local electricity rates, contributing to public backlash and regulatory response. In Georgia, the Public Service Commission has begun requiring new, high power draw customers (like data centers) to cover more of the costs associated with grid expansion.

Harding’s goal is to give policymakers better evidence to design incentives and guardrails. “To manage these technologies responsibly,” he said, “we need a clear picture of their intended and unintended consequences.”

Gamifying a Strained and Aging Power Grid

Daniel Molzahn is tackling another side of the problem: how to modernize an aging power grid under growing demand. Electricity demand is expected to rise about 25% by 2030, driven by data centers, electric vehicles, and broadscale electrification. At the same time, much of the U.S. electricity grid is nearing the end of its lifespan, with many transformers being decades old.

To make these challenges tangible, Molzahn, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, developed a browser-based game with a group of students through Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects program called Current Crisis. Players take on the role of a utility decision-maker, balancing reliability, wildfire risk, renewable integration, and affordability.

The game grew out of Molzahn’s National Science Foundation CAREER award and reflects his belief that complex systems are best understood experientially. Its initial focus is wildfire resilience, modeling how grid infrastructure can both spark and suffer damage from fires.

But resilience comes at a cost. Burying power lines, for example, reduces wildfire risk but dramatically increases expenses. Players must confront the same tradeoffs utilities face: improve reliability or keep rates low.

Molzahn hopes the game will help students and the public grapple with the realities of planning future power systems. “These choices aren’t abstract,” he said. “They shape affordability, resilience, and our path toward a cleaner grid.”

The project now involves nearly 40 students from across campus, supported by Sustainability NEXT funding and a collaboration with Jessica Roberts, former BBISS Faculty Fellow and director of the Technology-Integrated Learning Environments (TILES) Lab in the School of Interactive Computing.

“As a learning scientist, I look at how to engage people with science and scientific data and get people having conversations they might not otherwise have,” says Roberts, who hopes the seed grant helps the team determine first that they are going in the right direction and, second, how to broaden the impact.

One student, Stella Quinto Lima, a graduate research assistant in Human-Centered Computing, has made the game the focus of her doctoral thesis. Through the game, she wants players to notice their misconceptions about the power grid, energy use, and AI, and to use critical thinking to identify, question, and possibly undo those misconceptions.

 “I hope that we can really engage adults and help them see it’s not black and white. The game is not only about power grids, but how AI affects the grid, how it affects our lives, and how it will impact our future.”

The team plans to expand the game’s features, use it in outreach programs, and analyze player decisions as a source of data to study energy-system decision-making.

“We want to change the conversation about power and power grid stability, reliability, and sustainability, Roberts said, “and find a way to get this message to a larger public.”

Written by: Shweta Ram and Seungho Lee

What does it mean to design systems that endure even after major disruptions? This question framed the 2026 Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Sustainability Showcase, where conversations over two days spanned the Georgia coast, wildfire modeling, AI data centers, infrastructure, community engagement, and the joy of working for a more sustainable and resilient world. Across disciplines and scales, a unifying theme emerged: resilience is not a single solution. It is a systems-level challenge requiring integration across science and technology, policy, communities, and human experience.

From Coastlines to Communities

The showcase opened with a keynote from President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough on wildlife management and resiliency along Georgia’s coast. The conversation that followed between Clough and BBISS Executive Director Beril Toktay highlighted the interconnection between public policy, wilderness conservation, community leadership, and scientific research. The session highlighted not only the urgency of protecting fragile ecosystems, but also that resilience works best when it is community-focused and community-driven.

Subsequent panels continued this systemic perspective. Sessions on community engagement, biotechnology-derived, climate-resilient plants, the flood resilience of Georgia coastal communities, wildfire prediction and prevention, and infrastructure resilience analytics all emphasized that resilience depends on the synthesis of many disciplines.

Across sessions, researchers emphasized that infrastructure resilience must include governance frameworks informed by good science, community engagement based on trust, and sustained collaboration that seeks to constantly improve the science, policy, and stakeholder relationships. The researchers demonstrated that they understand their role to be greater than merely modeling risk, but as collaborators who translate research into practical solutions that communities can adopt, maintain, and trust.

AI Data Centers: A New Resilience Frontier

Day two shifted attention to data centers, which are emerging as a critical resilience frontier. As artificial intelligence systems scale rapidly, so does the infrastructure that powers them, as well as the growing realization that digital systems are physical systems. Conversations examined the feedback loops that play a significant role in determining environmental impacts, such as chip architecture, AI workloads, data center sustainability, appropriate AI usage, and who makes the decisions on data center infrastructure development. 

One of the most fascinating sessions came from Alexandria Smith, assistant professor in the School of Music at Georgia Tech. She presented an artistic yet algorithmic composition that sonified data from AI data centers. Through translating kilowatt-hour usage and interconnection data into immersive soundscapes, she reframed data centers not as static input-output machines, but as adaptive, living systems. Drawing inspiration from Physarum polycephalum, a slime mold without a brain or nervous system known for its innate problem-solving abilities, she invites the listener to imagine infrastructure that senses, adapts, and self-optimizes.

Campus as a Living Laboratory

In her session, Professor Jennifer Chirico, associate vice president of Sustainability, highlighted Georgia Tech’s 2024 Climate Action Plan, focusing on building energy efficiency, renewable integration, materials management, and mobility transitions. The plan frames the Georgia Tech campus as a test bed for resilience strategies — an ecosystem where research, operations, and policy intersect. Chirico highlighted several examples where the alignment between research and implementation was essential in moving projects from modeling to pilot projects to sustained institutional change.

Finding Joy in Climate Action

Rebecca Watts Hull, Matthew Realff, and Christie Stewart led an interactive discussion inspired by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s framework for accelerating long-term climate action. Participants were asked three simple questions: What are you good at? What work needs doing? What brings you joy? Sustainability and climate research are fields often defined by serious urgency, crisis narratives, and burnout. This session offered a personal framework for resilience where emotional sustainability, professional fulfillment, and joy matter just as much as the motivation to drive a mission ever forward.

Building a Shared Vision

The Sustainability Showcase concluded with a facilitated visioning session led by Kristin Janacek, associate director for Interdisciplinary Research Impact, and Beril Toktay. In small groups, leaders, researchers, and community members worked to define what resilience looks like for them.

After the conversations, several themes emerged:

• Resilience must move from research to practical and community-based solutions to sustained action.
• Networks create opportunity but require long-term stewardship to endure.
• Choosing the right metrics to measure resilience will galvanize efforts to strengthen it.
• Community capacity is at least as important as built infrastructure.

Over two days, it became clear that Georgia Tech is not approaching resilience as a narrow technical problem. It is approaching it as a systems challenge — one that spans coastlines, campuses, disciplines, data centers, the Appalachian Mountains, data models, the arts, and human relationships. Designing systems that endure requires more than innovation. It requires collaboration, stewardship, and a shared commitment to long-term impact. The conversations launched at this year’s BBISS Sustainability Showcase laid the foundation for continued coordination and ambitious action in the months ahead.

Last summer, when the City of Atlanta declared a state of emergency following multiple water main breaks that left parts of downtown without water, Iris Tien provided commentary to news outlets such as GPB. Tien, the Williams Family Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said the aging infrastructure is “something we see in Atlanta and other cities across the U.S. Most water systems are designed for 50 to 100 years.” Much of Atlanta is well past that mark.

Now in her 11th year at Georgia Tech, Tien considers Atlanta an ideal environment for her work. “Being in a large metropolitan area has been great for collaborating with municipalities and utility providers,” says Tien, who has worked with the Georgia Department of Transportation, the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, and Atlanta’s Emergency Response Department.

Tien considers resilience — withstanding and recovering from adverse events affecting communities — a key part of sustainability. Her research focuses on how to design better systems to meet community needs, especially under increasingly hazardous conditions where there is more strain on infrastructure.

Tien serves as principal investigator for a Sustainability Next Seed Grant that is a collaborative effort between Georgia Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to create a Climate Atlas for the southeastern U.S. The project integrates detailed climate data with critical infrastructure asset information, socioeconomic indicators, and stories of climate impacts on communities to support climate mitigation and adaptation. In addition, Tien has led projects to develop a framework to help communities identify the right kinds of flood-control infrastructure. Choosing the correct type of technology now is critical as sea levels and flood risk rise, especially in coastal areas.

Tien says new technologies are leading to a better understanding and design of infrastructure systems, but have also exposed new vulnerabilities. Increasingly, she and her colleagues are considering potential cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, which represent a growing threat that could affect both utility providers and the people who rely on these essential services.

“From a civil engineering standpoint, if you disrupt any one of these systems, it could have a very large impact,” says the Berkeley engineering graduate.

Tien’s expertise extends to Georgia’s coast, where she is part of a team that hopes to increase community resilience in relation to flooding. One project involves installing sea-level sensors throughout Chatham County, the easternmost county in Georgia. The sensors monitor water levels in real time. A Georgia Tech tool helps coastal areas find ideal spots for water-level sensors based on flood risk and population vulnerability.

“We’ve looked at green versus gray solutions,” Tien said, explaining that green solutions could be ponds or basins to slow down water flow during flood events, while gray solutions might include new stormwater pipe systems to quickly move the water away.

Being connected to BBISS through the Sustainability Next Seed Grant program has enhanced Tien’s ability to work cross-functionally. “I definitely collaborate with social scientists, especially on the human and community engagement side of my work,” she says.

A recent project involved developing a new flood-risk curriculum for middle school students in coastal communities. “The program helped build disaster resilience while empowering young people to be better advocates for their communities,” says Tien.

“There’s an opportunity to engage with youth early on and help them better understand their communities. Empowering them in this way means that they can serve as strong advocates for improving their communities into the future.”

In her free time, Tien likes spending time outdoors, hiking, and playing an occasional pickup basketball game. “Being in nature gives you time to think and refresh yourself,” she says.

-- written by Anne Wainscott-Sargent

The Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) is proud to welcome seven newly appointed faculty fellows. These distinguished faculty members will not only receive support for their innovative research and areas of expertise but also take on key leadership roles within BBISS. As fellows, they serve as strategic advisors, help cultivate a vibrant community of sustainability-focused scholars and students across Georgia Tech, and champion the Institute’s mission, values, and goals to broader audiences.

Each fellow will serve a three-year term, with the possibility of renewal. Established in 2014, the BBISS Faculty Fellows program draws talent from all seven Georgia Tech Colleges and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. “The Fellows bring diverse expertise and unique perspectives that enrich our academic community,” says BBISS Executive Director Beril Toktay. “Their interdisciplinary backgrounds create valuable opportunities for collaboration that strengthens our sustainability initiatives and expands the Institute's impact.” These faculty members will join the current roster of BBISS Faculty Fellows.

• Emily Barrett, Assistant Professor, School of City and Regional Planning, College of Design.
• Suvrat Dhanorkar, Associate Professor of Operations Management, Scheller College of Business.
• Bobby Harris, Assistant Professor, School of Economics, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.
• Sofía Pérez-Guzmán, Assistant Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering.
• Ahmed Saeed, Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science, College of Computing.
• Ali Sarhadi, Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Sciences.
• Patricia Stathatou, Assistant Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering.

Rebecca Watts Hull wants to transform what students learn and how faculty across campus connect, innovate, and inspire action for a sustainable future. The assistant director for Faculty Development for Sustainability Education Initiatives in the Center for Teaching and Learning brings a collaborative spirit that’s made her an invaluable partner to Georgia Tech’s Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) and to faculty interested in showing the real-world relevance of sustainability in their classrooms.

Her path to Georgia Tech was shaped by years of hands-on experience in nonprofit environmental advocacy, driving partnerships among medical professionals, scientists, and educators to protect air quality and children’s health. “I kept asking myself why it is,” she says, “that in a city like Atlanta, with all these higher education institutions and one of the largest concentrations of nonprofit organizations in the country, there weren’t more partnerships between nonprofits and academia.” Watts Hull says she was confused since the two groups “often care about and are aiming to advance the same things.”

In 2013, while teaching a continuing education course on sustainability leadership at Emory University, Watts Hull realized that sustainability in higher education was taking off. She pivoted to pursue a Ph.D. at Georgia Tech in history and sociology, and later joined Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) program, established to build bridges between the university and community partners.

When Georgia Tech’s strategic plan elevated sustainability as a core value, Watts Hull served on the “Amplify Impact” team to help shape the strategy and implementation of the plan. An immediate result was the creation of her role within the Center for Teaching and Learning, specifically around sustainability and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “Our aim is to equip students to become true change makers, who can advance the SDGs and fulfill Georgia Tech’s mission of improving not only technology, but also lives and communities,” she explains.

Central to her approach are partnerships with other units, including BBISS, which unites faculty and researchers across the Institute who are focused on sustainability. Watts Hull leads the Community of Practice on Transformative Teaching with the SDGs, an initiative in its third year. “It’s a space where faculty can learn from each other how to teach sustainability in different disciplines,” she says. In addition, participants engage in outreach, sharing cross-disciplinary strategies and creative classroom approaches at Georgia Tech events and conferences.

Watts Hull says incorporating sustainability into courses not only enhances students’ overall learning and motivation but also helps faculty find renewed meaning and enjoyment in their teaching. “Well-designed, real-world projects help students see the importance of what they’re learning, and they stay engaged,” she notes. “But it’s also true that faculty feel more inspired when they know their teaching matters for big, pressing challenges.” One way faculty can engage is by applying for Undergraduate Sustainability Education Innovation grants. To date, 60 awards have been granted to faculty across campus.

Supporting student and faculty success is a family affair. Her husband, Jonathan, serves as associate vice chancellor for Student and Faculty Success for the University System of Georgia. “Our work both relates to teaching and learning, so we enjoy sharing that in common,” says Watts Hull, whose early community work included serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda.

Most recently, the busy administrator has contributed a chapter to a 2025 book, Higher Education’s Leadership in Climate Action and Sustainability, where she highlights five strategies for scaling up faculty engagement in sustainability across the curriculum.

One of her favorite pastimes is hiking in North Georgia, especially on Blood Mountain, the state’s highest summit along the Appalachian Trail. “The view from the top is just spectacular,” she says. It’s a fitting parallel to the ongoing journey toward a more sustainable future at Georgia Tech, one step — and partnership — at a time.

—Anne Wainscott-Sargent

Against a backdrop of ancient live oaks draped in Spanish moss and salt marshes alive with shorebirds, a statewide conversation about the future of Georgia's environmental resilience took place at Jekyll Island. The Georgia Resiliency Conference 2025, organized by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), brought together more than 430 leaders and experts from across public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors, including a large delegation from Georgia Tech.

The island's natural beauty and vitality served as both inspiration and an urgent reminder of what communities across Georgia stand to lose without coordinated action. Faculty, administration, research fellows, students, collaborators, and Georgia Tech President Emeritus and keynote speaker G. Wayne Clough brought diverse perspectives to discussions ranging from coastal vulnerability to data-driven decision-making. Throughout the event, one theme remained constant: the essential role of interdisciplinary research in addressing real-world environmental challenges across the state.

In the reflections below, Georgia Tech attendees share their takeaways from this landmark gathering.

“The continued commitment by many stakeholders to manage our carbon pollution stood out, as did the importance and fragility of Georgia’s coastal wetlands. It was also rewarding to reconnect with Wayne Clough and hear his geological perspective on our state. I was particularly impressed by the use of AI and spatial data analytics featured in the tools cafe.”
— Marilyn Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy

“Resiliency is now. It’s not a future goal — it’s a present imperative. As we face accelerating environmental challenges, we must adapt in real time to protect our resources and communities. I was deeply inspired by Wayne Clough’s keynote, which emphasized the importance of conservation and forward-thinking systems that can endure uncertainty. What struck me most was the number of Georgia Tech colleagues actively advancing both urban and rural resiliency across our state. Their dedication and innovation give me hope and reaffirm the importance of collaboration in this work.”
 — Jennifer Chirico, Associate Vice President of Sustainability

“It was great to reconnect and network with sponsors, Georgia researchers, local governments, and other stakeholders concerned with coastal resiliency. I was pleasantly surprised by Georgia Tech’s strong presence this year and proud to see my colleagues presenting and moderating sessions. It was long overdue, as planners routinely address issues like climate change and resiliency. The conference’s dedicated focus on connecting natural areas across the state deeply resonated. Having worked on greenspace issues for 25 years, I was inspired by the vision for a statewide trail system linking Macon to the coast through wildlife corridors. Big ideas like this will make a real difference in Georgia’s future.”
— Tony Giarrusso, Associate Director, Center for Urban Resilience and Analytics, College of Design

“The Georgia Resilience Conference provided a great forum for us to introduce our new Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow (GT²) Center to a range of stakeholders and collaborators — from the Georgia DNR to local officials. From the coastal barrier islands to the Blue Ridge Mountains, we’re focusing on research that strengthens resilience and reduces risk from natural disasters, while connecting Georgia Tech’s science to communities across the state. We were inspired by the level of collaboration among agencies, researchers, and practitioners, and we were glad to jointly debut the center’s plans at this year’s event. Our thanks to Jennifer Kline and the Georgia DNR for organizing such a meaningful and energizing conference.”
— Joel Kostka, Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor and Inaugural Director, Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow (GT²); Associate Chair for Research, School of Biological Sciences

“I had a phenomenal experience at the Georgia Resilience Conference. It was heartening and eye-opening to see so many participants from all sectors invested in protecting the environment and supporting communities impacted by environmental change. I connected with professors from other universities to discuss future collaborations that could expand on my current project at Tech. Additionally, when I spoke with project managers and engineers within the private sector, I was further motivated by the realization that there is both interest and need for the research we are doing — not only to advance science but also to help those restoring our waterways apply the most promising and sustainable techniques available. This conference was well worth it and is already on my calendar for next time.”
— Maggie Straight, Ph.D. Candidate, Ocean Science and Engineering

“One of the best parts of the conference was spending time with current and former Ph.D. students like Maggie Straight and Sarah Roney (Ph.D. OSE 2025). Maggie’s research characterizes bacteria-algae interactions in micro-algae systems, while Sarah worked on oyster ecosystems during her time at Georgia Tech. What struck me about our conversation was that the principles of resilience show up at every scale. Both Maggie and Sarah are exploring how foundational species — from micro-algae to oysters — create the conditions for entire ecosystems to thrive. This is exactly the kind of systems thinking we need. I am proud to see the next generation of scientists translating their research into real-world impact and grateful for conversations that connect the dots across disciplines and scales.”
— Beril Toktay, Executive Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems; Regents’ Professor; and Brady Family Chair in Management, Scheller College of Business

The Georgia Resilience Conference highlighted the power of collaboration — connecting scientists, policymakers, and community leaders who are shaping Georgia’s response to a changing climate. BBISS remains dedicated to amplifying these voices and translating research into action that strengthens resilience across the Southeast.

— Written by Seungho Lee

Plastic packaging is ubiquitous in our world, with its waste winding up in landfills and polluting oceans, where it can take centuries to degrade.

To ease this environmental burden, industry has worked to adopt renewable biopolymers in place of traditional plastics. However, developers of sustainable packaging have faced hurdles in blocking out moisture and oxygen, a barrier critical for protecting food, pharmaceuticals, and sensitive electronics.

Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a biologically based film made from natural ingredients found in plants, mushrooms, and food waste that can block moisture and oxygen as effectively as conventional plastics. Their findings were recently published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials.

“We’re using materials that are already abundant in and degrade in nature to produce packaging that won’t pollute the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years,” said Carson Meredith, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE@GT) and executive director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute. “Our films, composed of biodegradable components, rival or exceed the performance of conventional plastics in keeping food fresh and safe.”

Meredith’s research team has worked for more than a decade to develop environmentally friendly oxygen and water barriers for packaging. While earlier research using biopolymers showed promise, high humidity continued to weaken the barrier properties.

However, Meredith and his collaborators found a fix using a blend of these natural ingredients: cellulose (which gives plants their structure), chitosan (derived from crustacean-based food waste or mushrooms), and citric acid (from citrus fruits).

“By crosslinking these materials and adding a heat treatment, we created a thin film that reduced both moisture and oxygen transmission, even in hot, humid conditions simulating the tropics,” said lead author Yang Lu, a former postdoctoral researcher in ChBE@GT.

The barrier technology developed by the researchers consists of three primary components: a carbohydrate polymer for structure, a plasticizer to maintain flexibility, and a water-repelling additive to resist moisture. When cast into thin films, these ingredients self-organize at the molecular level to form a dense, ordered structure that resists swelling or softening under high humidity.

Even at 80 percent relative humidity, the films showed extremely low oxygen permeability and water vapor transmission, matching or outperforming common plastics such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(ethylene vinyl alcohol) (EVOH).

“Our approach creates barriers that are not only renewable, but also mechanically robust, offering a promising alternative to conventional plastics in packaging applications,” said Natalie Stingelin, professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and a professor in ChBE@GT.

The research team has filed for patent protection for the technology (patent pending). The research was supported by Mars Inc., Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute, and the U.S. Department of Defense through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program. Eric Klingenberg, a co-author of the study, is an employee of Mars, a manufacturer of packaged foods.

Citation: Yang Lu, Javaz T. Rolle, Tanner Hickman, Yue Ji, Eric Klingenberg, Natalie Stingelin, and Carson Meredith, “Transforming renewable carbohydrate-based polymers into oxygen and moisture-barriers at elevated humidity,” ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2025.