Mechanical engineering, in the broadest sense of the discipline, touches a vast array of processes and systems, encompassing familiar industries and niche startups. Rapid technology advances mean engineering skills and methods change frequently to adapt to newer materials, tools, or customer needs. At its core, however, the intersection of design and innovation drives engineering, shaping the future of products and manufacturing processes. At the forefront of this intersection is the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, well known for its commitment to design education and unique approach to understanding the crucial role design plays in educating future engineers.
 

The University of Waterloo and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, representing Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), have officially entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen academic and research ties between the two institutions. The MOU signifies a commitment to fostering collaborative initiatives in research, education, and other areas of mutual interest. Both universities, recognized for their global impact and innovation, are eager to embark on this journey of cooperation.

Charmaine Dean, Vice-President of Research & International, shared, “The University of Waterloo is pleased to embark on a new collaboration with Georgia Tech, featuring faculty and student exchanges, joint research projects, dual degrees, and conferences. Strengthening ties between our institutions through this collaboration creates a dynamic environment for our faculty and students to foster innovation in many areas of mutual excellence.”

“Georgia Tech is excited to see its NSF AI Institute for Advances in Optimization (AI4OPT), under the leadership of Prof. Pascal Van Hentenryck, partner with experts from the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute of the University of Waterloo. I am really looking forward to the impact that this partnership will have in advancing the fundamental knowledge of AI, in further expanding its applications, and in enabling its wider adoption,” noted Prof. Bernard Kippelen, Vice Provost for International Initiatives at Georgia Tech.

This collaboration is poised to elevate the academic and research landscape of both institutions, promoting global engagement and creating opportunities for students and faculty to thrive in an interconnected world.

The CAMX expo is the largest, most comprehensive composites and advanced materials event in North America. This year, the event was held in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. A record number (500+) of exhibitors displayed their material, processing equipment and latest innovations at the annual industry event.

Several thousand engineers, technical professionals, sales, marketing and business development experts from all corners of the world took advantage of the CAMX expo and conference programming to increase their manufacturing and process knowledge, meet their supply chain, build new networks and collaborate on sustainable industry solutions in the aerospace, automotive, wind power and other markets.

As part of the event, the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) hosted an onsite tour of its Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF) to a select group of industry expo attendees.

AMPF is a 20,000 square foot research and development high bay manufacturing facility located on the Georgia Tech campus supporting industrial, academic, and government stakeholders related to manufacturing research and also serves as a teaching laboratory to train the next generation of engineers, scientists and manufacturing experts. Made possible by a $3 million gift from the Delta Air Lines Foundation, this facility enables manufacturing innovation projects of almost all shapes from additive/hybrid manufacturing to composites, digital manufacturing, Industry 4.0, industrial robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Recently, Georgia Tech and the AMPF facility are supporting a statewide initiative that combines artificial intelligence and manufacturing innovations with transformational workforce and outreach programs.

The AMPF tour was led by Kyle Saleeby, research engineer in GTMI, who tailored the tour to feature manufacturing technologies related to metal composites and advanced manufacturing capabilities for 3D printed metals. This included additive, subtractive, and hybrid manufacturing technologies along with metal powder/alloy making capabilities that AMPF utilizes.

“CAMX is grateful to Kyle for presenting an informative tour of the impressive AMPF facility, said Raj Manchanda, chief technology officer of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE®). “Nearly 25 CAMX attendees who participated in the tour provided positive feedback not only on the state-of-the-art hybrid manufacturing equipment that AMPF houses from leading OEMs, but also the capability of the Georgia Tech AMPF faculty and brilliant graduate students who are developing adaptable manufacturing solutions integrating proven machining technologies with advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, additive manufacturing, and more.”

At the expo, GTMI was invited to host and lead a panel discussion of current digital manufacturing trends on day two of the CAMX show. Three industry experts from GTMI’s partner network participated in a discussion moderated by Kyle Saleeby. The panelists were Elaine Winchester from Plyable, Andre Wegner from Authentise and Rodney Elmore from Microsoft.

“At the advanced manufacturing pilot facility, we are always proud host so many great organizations, institutions and industry colleagues to share our advanced manufacturing research,” said Saleeby.

Sean Castillo is in the win-win business. As an industrial hygienist in the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), his job is to ensure that employees are safe in their workspaces, and when he does that, he simultaneously improves a company’s performance.

That’s been a theme for Castillo and his colleagues in the Safety, Health, Environmental Services (SHES) program and their partners in the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), part of EI2’s suite of programs aimed at helping Georgia businesses thrive.

“A healthier workforce is healthy for business,” said Castillo, part of the SHES team of consultants who often work closely with their GaMEP counterparts to improve safety while also maximizing productivity.

This team of experts from EI2 assist companies trying to reach that critical intersection of both, combining smart ergonomics and safety enhancements with lean manufacturing practices. This can solve human performance gaps due to fatigue, heat, or some other environmental stressor, while helping businesses continue to improve their production processes and, ultimately, their bottom line.

These stressors cost U.S. industry billions of dollars each year — fatigue, for example, is responsible for about $136 billion in lost productivity.

“Protecting your employee — investing in safety now — saves a lot of money later,” Castillo said. “It equates to less money spent on workers compensation and less employee turnover, which means less time training new employees, and that ideally leads to a more efficient process in the workplace.”

It takes careful and intentional collaboration to bring those moving pieces together, and inextricably linked programs like SHES and GaMEP can help orchestrate all of that.

Ensuring Safe Workspaces

SHES is staffed by safety consultants, like Castillo, who provide a free and essential service to Georgia businesses. They help companies ensure that they meet or exceed the standards set by the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), mainly through SHES’ flagship OSHA 21(d) Consultation Program.

“Our job is to ensure that workspaces and processes are designed so that anybody can perform the work safely,” said Trey Sawyers, a safety, health, and ergonomics consultant on the SHES team, aiding small and mid-sized businesses in Georgia. When a company reaches out to SHES to apply for the free, confidential OSHA consultation program, a consultant like Sawyers gets assigned to the task, “based on our area of expertise,” said Sawyers, an expert in ergonomics, which is the science of designing and adapting a workspace to efficiently suit the physical and mental needs and limitations of workers.

“If a company is having ergonomic issues — maybe they’re experiencing a lot of strains and sprains — then I might get the call because of my knowledge and understanding of anthropometry, and then I’ll go take a close look at the facility,” Sawyers said. Anthropometry is the scientific study of a human’s size, form, and functional capacity.

SHES consultants can identify potential workplace hazards, provide guidance on how to comply with OSHA standards, and establish or improve safety and health programs in the company.

“The caveat is the company has to correct any serious hazards that we find,” said Castillo, who visits a wide range of workspaces in his role. For instance, his job will take him to construction and manufacturing sites, gun ranges, even office settings. “We do noise and air monitoring at all different types of workplaces. I was at a primary care clinic the other day. And over the past few years, we’ve had a significant emphasis on stone fabricators, looking for overexposures to respirable crystalline silica.”

Silica, which is dust residue from the process of creating marble and quartz slabs, can lead to a lung disease called silicosis. OSHA established new limits that cut the permissible exposure limits in half, and that has kept the SHES consultants busy as Georgia manufacturers try to achieve and maintain compliance.

Keeping Companies Cool

Another area of growing emphasis for Georgia Tech’s consultants is heat-related stress in the workplace.

“Currently, there are no standards to address this,” Castillo said. “For example, there are no rules that say a construction site worker should drink this much water. There are suggested guidelines and emphasis programs for inspections for targeted industries where heat stress may be prevalent — but no standards, though that is coming.”

The SHES team is trying to stay ahead of what will likely be new federal rules for heat mitigation. To help develop safe standards and better understand the effects of heat on workers, consultants like Castillo are going to construction sites, plant nurseries, and warehouses, and enlisting volunteers in field studies. Using heat stress monitor armbands, they’re monitoring data on workers’ core body temperatures and heart rates.

“These tools are great because we’re not only gathering some good data, but we can use them proactively to prevent heat events such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke, which can be fatal if left untreated,” Castillo said.

To further help educate Georgia companies about the risks of heat-related problems, SHES applied for and recently won a Susan Harwood Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The $160,000 award will support SHES consultants’ efforts to further their work in heat stress education so that “companies and workers will understand the warning signs and the potential effects of heat stress, and how they can stay safe,” Castillo said. “We’re sure this will all become part of OSHA standards eventually, and we’d like to help our clients stay ahead of the curve to protect their employees.”

OSHA standards are the law, and while larger corporations routinely hire consulting firms to keep them on the straight and narrow, SHES is providing the same level of expertise for its smaller business clients for free. Most of those clients apply for help through SHES’ online request form. And others find the help they need through the guidance of process improvement specialist Katie Hines and her colleagues in GaMEP.

Lean and Safe

Hines came to her appreciation of ergonomics naturally. After graduating from Auburn University, she entered the workforce as a manufacturing engineer for a building materials company, where “it was just part of our day-to-day work life in that manufacturing environment, on the production floor,” she said.

It took grad school and a deeper focus on lean and continuous improvement processes to formalize that appreciation.

While working toward her master’s degree in chemical engineering at Auburn, Hines earned a certificate in occupational safety and ergonomics (like Sawyers, her SHES colleague). At the same time, Hines was helping to guide her company’s lean and continuous improvement program. And when she joined Proctor and Gamble after completing her degree, “The lean concept and safety best practices were fully ingrained, part of the daily discussion there,” she said.

All those hands-on manufacturing production floor experiences managing people and systems prepared Hines well for her current role as a project manager on GaMEP’s Operational Excellence team, where her focus is entirely on lean and continuous improvement work — that is, helping companies reduce waste and improve production while also enhancing safety and ergonomics.

Hines uses her expertise in knowing how manufacturing processes and people should look when everyone is safe and also productive. She can walk into a GaMEP client’s facility and drive the process improvements and solutions that will help them achieve a leaner, more efficient form of production. And then, when she sees the need, Hines will recommend the client contact SHES, “the people who have their fingers on the data and the expertise to improve safety.”

These were concepts that, for a long time, seemed to be working against each other — the very idea of maximizing production and improving profits while also emphasizing worker safety and comfort.

“But you can have both,” Castillo said. “You should have both.”

Dipayan Banerjee and Sushil Varma, Ph.D. students in Operations Research at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), were recently selected as finalists for the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL) student paper competition. The winner will receive the TSL Best Student Paper Award, given to an outstanding paper primarily authored by a student(s) and whose topic is of interest to the broad TSL community.

Out of a total of 40 submissions, four were designated as finalists. The winner will be chosen at the October 15-18, 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting taking place in Phoenix Arizona, during which the finalists will showcase their work in a dedicated session. All finalists receive a commemorative plaque, and the winning entrant(s) receives a $500 honorarium. In addition, the winning paper, if not published or under review elsewhere, will be invited for a fast-track review at Transportation Science.

Dipayan Banerjee
Fleet Sizing and Service Region Partitioning for Same-Day Delivery Systems

Many existing Same-Day Delivery (SDD) studies focus primarily on operational dispatch problems and do not consider system design questions. Furthermore, prior work on SDD system design does not consider the fleet sizing decision when a service region may be partitioned into zones dedicated to individual vehicles (such designs have been shown to improve system efficiency in related vehicle routing settings). Banerjee's research utilizes a novel approach to addressing two key tactical design challenges when planning an SDD system: figuring out how many delivery vehicles you need and dividing the delivery area into manageable zones.

Using continuous approximations to capture average-case operational behavior, the problem of independently maximizing the area of a single-vehicle delivery zone is considered first. The approach then characterizes area-maximizing dispatching policies and leverages the results to develop a procedure for calculating optimal areas as a function of a zone's distance from the depot, given a maximum number of daily dispatches per vehicle. Using minimal computation, the approach specifies fleet sizes and builds vehicle delivery zones that meet operational requirements, verified by simulation results.

Sushil Varma
Electric Vehicle Fleet and Charging Infrastructure Planning

Varma's research focuses on finding the best way to dispatch electric vehicles to pick up customers while making sure they charge periodically. As customer requests arrive, system operators must determine the minimum number of vehicles and chargers for a given service level, along with a matching and charging policy that maximizes that service level. Varma's approach provides a sharp characterization of the fleet size and the charging infrastructure requirements as demand grows. The research highlights the fundamental differences between planning for an electric vehicle system and a gas-powered system. To understand the difference, note that serving a customer comprises two steps -  pickup and trip, each contributing to the fleet size requirement of the system. As EVs require charging time, they need more vehicles to compensate for the trip part of the service. In turn, the optimal dispatching policy can reduce the EV requirement induced by the pick up part of the service by lowering the pickup times, owing to the extra EVs due to the trip phase. The reduction in the EV requirement depends on the number of charging stations and the size of the EV battery packs. 

The research proposes the "Power-of-d" dispatching policy, which achieves this performance by selecting the d closest vehicles to a trip request and choosing the one with the highest battery level. Varma also conducted detailed simulations that verified the scaling results. The paper discusses how the results extend to accommodate demand that increases/decreases repetitively or cyclically over time.

About Dipayan

Dipayan Banerjee is a fifth-year ISyE Ph.D. candidate advised by Professors Alan Erera and Alejandro Toriello. He is broadly interested in optimization for logistics and supply chain management with a focus on modern e-commerce systems. His doctoral research, supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the Eisenhower Transportation Research Fellowship, studies demand management and delivery optimization for e-retail fulfillment. Dipayan was jointly awarded ISyE's Atlanta Air Cargo Association Fellowship for Ph.D. Research Excellence in Supply Chain Engineering in 2022. In addition to being named a finalist for the 2023 INFORMS TSL Society Best Student Paper Award, he also was a finalist for the 2019 INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Prize.

About Sushil

Sushil Varma, also a 5th-year ISyE Ph.D. student, is advised by Professor Siva Theja Maguluri. His research interests include queueing theory, game theory, and revenue management with applications in electric vehicles, online marketplaces like ride-hailing, load balancing, and stochastic processing/matching networks. Sushil was awarded the Stephen. S. Lavenberg Best Student Paper Award in IFIP Performance 2021 and the Alice and John Jarvis Best Student Paper Award in 2022.

We extend our wishes for success to both of these remarkable students. Their dedication, hard work, and commitment to their research have already set them on a remarkable path. Regardless of the outcome, their recognition is a testament to academic excellence.

For the 10th Demo Day, the Tech community came out in droves to support 75 Georgia Tech startups created by students, alumni, and faculty. In booths spread out in Exhibition Hall, they displayed their products, which ranged from AI and robotic training gear to fungi fashion, and more. Over four hours, more than 1,500 people filed in and out of the hall. Founders pitched their innovations to business and community leaders, as well as students and the public, eager to witness groundbreaking innovations across various industries.

Kiandra Peart, co-founder of Reinvend, said the amount of people surprised her.

“After the first VIP session was over, hundreds of people were just flooding through the door at all times,” she said. “We had to give the pitch a million times to explain it to a lot of different people, but they seemed really, really engaged, and we were also able to get a few interactions.”

Reinvend is working through a potential deal with Tech Dining on using their vending machines, which would expand food options for students after dining halls close.

Demo Day is the culmination of the 12-week summer accelerator, Startup Launch, where founders learn about entrepreneurship and build out their businesses with the support of mentors. Along with guidance from experts in business, teams receive $5,000 in optional funding and $30,000 of in-kind services. This year, the program had over 100 startups and 250 founders, continuing the growth trend for CREATE-X. The program aims to eventually support the launch of 300 startups per year.

Peart said the experience taught the team how to better pitch to potential clients and formulate a call to action after a successful interaction.

Since its inception in 2014, CREATE-X has had more than 5,000 participate in their programming, which is segmented in three areas: Learn, Make, and Launch. Besides providing resources, the program also helps founders through its rich entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“We want to increase access to entrepreneurship. That’s the heart of the program, and it’s the goal to have everyone in the Tech community to have entrepreneurial confidence. The energy and passion of our founders to solve real-world problems — it’s palpable at Demo Day. I’d say it’s the best place to see what we’re about and understand what this program offers,” said Rahul Saxena, director of CREATE-X, who also reminded founders that the connections they make here would last for years.

At its core, CREATE-X is a community geared toward innovation. Participants were at the forefront of integrating OpenAI's GPT-3 when it was not yet widely adopted. They share their insights with each other, and the program has mentors coming back from even the very first cohort. Starting with eight teams, CREATE-X has now launched more than 400 startup teams, with founders representing 38 academic majors. Its total startup portfolio valuation is above $1.9 billion.

Peart compared CREATE-X to an energy drink.

“After going through the program, I was really able to refine my ideas, talk with other people, and now that the program is over, I feel energized,” she said. “I think that having an accelerator right at home allows students who may have never considered starting a company, or didn't have access to an accelerator, to actually utilize their resources from their school and their own community to get their companies started.”

Although Demo Day just ended, CREATE-X is already gearing up for  the next cohort. Applications for Startup Launch opened Aug. 31, the same day as Demo Day.

“Consider interning for yourself next summer,” said Saxena. “We know you have ideas about solutions to address global challenges. You’re at Tech; you have the talent. Let us help you with the resources and support system.”

Georgia Tech students, alumni, and faculty can apply to GT Startup Launch now. The priority deadline is Nov. 6. To learn more about CREATE-X, find CREATE-X events to build a startup team, or learn more about entrepreneurship, visit th CREATE-X website

In front of a standing-room-only crowd inside the John Lewis Student Center's Atlantic Theater, global leaders from the Hyundai Motor Group and Georgia Tech signed a memorandum of understanding, creating a transformative partnership focused on sustainable mobility, the hydrogen economy, and workforce development.  

As the automaker continues to construct its Metaplant America site in Bryan County — the cornerstone of Hyundai's $12 billion investment into electric vehicles and battery production across the state of Georgia — today's signing ceremony symbolizes the vision that Hyundai and Georgia Tech share on the road to advancing technology and improving the human condition. 

"As a leading public technological research university, we believe we have the opportunity and the responsibility to serve society, and that technology and the science and policy that support it must change our world for the better. These are responsibilities and challenges that we boldly accept. And we know we can't get there alone. On the contrary, we need travel partners, like-minded innovators, and partners with whom we can go farther, and today's partnership with Hyundai is a perfect example of what that means," Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera said.  

The state of Georgia and the Institute have positioned themselves as leaders in the electrification of the automotive industry. Hyundai is among the top sellers of electric vehicles in the United States as the company aims to produce up to 500,000 vehicles annually at the $7 billion Savannah plant when production begins in 2025. The plant will create 8,500 jobs, and the company's total investments are projected to inject tens of billions of dollars into the state economy while spurring the creation of up to 40,000 jobs.  

"It's clear, we are in the right place with the right partners," Jay Chang, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, said. "When our executive chairman first decided on [the site of] the metaplant, one of the first things he said was, 'Make sure we collaborate with Georgia Tech.’ Hyundai and Georgia Tech have a lot in common. We have proud histories. We celebrate excellence, and we have very high standards. What we love about Georgia Tech is the vision to be a leading research university that addresses global challenges and develops exceptional leaders from all backgrounds."  

Spearheading new opportunities for students, the partnership will create technical training and leadership development programming for Hyundai employees and initiate engagement activities to stimulate interest in STEM degrees among students. 

José Muñoz, president and global COO of Hyundai Motor Company and president and CEO of Hyundai and Genesis Motor North America, says the company quickly realized the potential impact of the newly forged partnership with Georgia Tech.  

"Proximity to institutions like Georgia Tech was one of the many reasons Hyundai selected Georgia for our new EV manufacturing facility. Imagine zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered vehicles here on campus, advanced air mobility shuttling people to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, or riding hands-free and stress-free in autonomous vehicles during rush hour on I-75 and I-85. Together, Georgia Tech and Hyundai have the resources to fundamentally improve how people and goods move," he said. 

In pursuit of sustainability, Hyundai has invested heavily in the potential of hydrogen and plans to lean on the Institute's expertise to explore the potential of the alternative fuel source, primarily for commercial vehicles. Hyundai has deployed its hydrogen-powered XCIENT rigs to transport materials in five countries. 

University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue was on hand for Tuesday’s ceremony. Reflecting on his visits to the company's global headquarters in South Korea prior to the construction of the West Point, Georgia, Kia plant, he praised the company's values and world-class engineering ability.    

"This is a relationship built on mutual trust and respect. It's a company, a family atmosphere, and a culture that I respect and admire for the way they do business and honor progress, innovation, and creativity. That is why I am so excited about this partnership between the Hyundai Motor Group and the Georgia Institute of Technology because that will only enhance that," Perdue said. 

Owned by Hyundai, Kia recently invested an additional $200 million into its West Point facility to prepare for the production of the all-electric 2024 EV9 SUV. The plant currently manufactures more than 40% of all Kia models sold in the U.S.  

The partnership also includes field-naming recognition at Bobby Dodd Stadium, which is now known as Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field, and provides student-athletes and teams with the resources needed to compete at the highest levels, both athletically and academically.