Successful test results of a new machine learning (ML) technique developed at Georgia Tech could help communities prepare for extreme weather and coastal flooding. The approach could also be applied to other models that predict how natural systems impact society. 

Ph.D. student Phillip Si and Assistant Professor Peng Chen developed Latent-EnSF, a technique that improves how ML models assimilate data to make predictions.

In experiments predicting medium-range weather forecasting and shallow water wave propagation, Latent-EnSF demonstrated higher accuracy, faster convergence, and greater efficiency than existing methods for sparse data assimilation.

“We are currently involved in an NSF-funded project aimed at providing real-time information on extreme flooding events in Pinellas County, Florida,” said Si, who studies computational science and engineering (CSE). 

“We're actively working on integrating Latent-EnSF into the system, which will facilitate accurate and synchronized modeling of natural disasters. This initiative aims to enhance community preparedness and safety measures in response to flooding risks.” 

Latent-EnSF outperformed three comparable models in assimilation speed, accuracy, and efficiency in shallow water wave propagation experiments. These tests show models can make better and faster predictions of coastal flood waves, tides, and tsunamis. 

In experiments on medium-range weather forecasting, Latent-EnSF surpassed the same three control models in accuracy, convergence, and time. Additionally, this test demonstrated Latent-EnSF's scalability compared to other methods.

These promising results support using ML models to simulate climate, weather, and other complex systems.

Traditionally, such studies require employment of large, energy-intensive supercomputers. However, advances like Latent-EnSF are making smaller, more efficient ML models feasible for these purposes.

The Georgia Tech team mentioned this comparison in its paper. It takes hours for the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts computer to run its simulations. Conversely, the ML model FourCastNet calculated the same forecast in seconds.

“Resolution, complexity, and data-diversity will continue to increase into the future,” said Chen, an assistant professor in the School of CSE. 

“To keep pace with this trend, we believe that ML models and ML-based data assimilation methods will become indispensable for studying large-scale complex systems.”

Data assimilation is the process by which models continuously ingest new, real-world data to update predictions. This data is often sparse, meaning it is limited, incomplete, or unevenly distributed over time. 

Latent-EnSF builds on the Ensemble Filter Scores (EnSF) model developed by Florida State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers. 

EnSF’s strength is that it assimilates data with many features and unpredictable relationships between data points. However, integrating sparse data leads to lost information and knowledge gaps in the model. Also, such large models may stop learning entirely from small amounts of sparse data.

The Georgia Tech researchers employ two variational autoencoders (VAEs) in Latent-EnSF to help ML models integrate and use real-world data. The VAEs encode sparse data and predictive models together in the same space to assimilate data more accurately and efficiently.

Integrating models with new methods, like Latent-EnSF, accelerates data assimilation. Producing accurate predictions more quickly during real-world crises could save lives and property for communities.

[Related: University of South Florida Researchers Track Flooding in Coastal Communities During Hurricanes Helene and Milton]

To share Latent-EnSF to the broader research community, Chen and Si presented their paper at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE25). The Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) organized CSE25, held March 3-7 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Chen was one of ten School of CSE faculty members who presented research at CSE25, representing one-third of the School’s faculty body. Latent-EnSF was one of 15 papers by School of CSE authors and one of 23 Georgia Tech papers presented at the conference.

The pair will also present Latent-EnSF at the upcoming International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2025). Occurring April 24-28 in Singapore, ICLR is one of the world’s most prestigious conferences dedicated to artificial intelligence research.

“We hope to bring attention to experts and domain scientists the exciting area of ML-based data assimilation by presenting our paper,” Chen said. “Our work offers a new solution to address some of the key shortcomings in the area for broader applications.”

On April 21 at 5 p.m. in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Atrium, dozens of teams will present prototypes at the Spring 2025 Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase. They will be vying for a chance to get a golden ticket in CREATE-X’s Startup Launch program, which gives participants $5,000 in optional seed funding and $150,000 in in-kind services like accounting and legal services, mentorship, and entrepreneurial education, among other benefits. 

The I2P course, where these students develop their prototypes, offers research credit for undergraduate students up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses and faculty mentorship. It’s open three times a year, in the spring, summer, and fall. Both undergraduate and graduate students can take the course, and students can take it up two times. 

Convexity Electronics finished in second place at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase. The company delivers smaller, faster, and more cost-effective circuit boards compared to traditional lithography-based methods. We delved into the team’s journey, challenges, and aspirations in this exclusive Q&A with one of its founders, Calla Scotch.

Q&A with Team Convexity's Calla Scotch

Team Members:

Calla Scotch, Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering 

Atharva Lele, Sophomore, Engineering 

Anuj Pandey, Junior, Mechanical Engineering

Why did you pursue your startup?

It’s so complex. There are so many routes, and it's so new in terms of how many people are working on it. One day I woke up and couldn't stop thinking about it, then I couldn't sleep about it, and then I couldn't stop working on it. It was one of those things where I couldn't stop.

Traditionally, circuit boards — the stuff that's in your phones, computers, cameras, cars, everything — are made entirely subtractively. You have your block of material and cut away the stuff you don't want. It's a well-thought-out manufacturing process, but it's mostly very expensive and very slow. The materials and electronics manufacturing industry hasn't changed in about 30 years because it's been optimized as much as it can be. 

What is your goal with Convexity?

To take that subtractive process and, instead of doing that, build the same circuits additively. I'm working on 3D printing the insulative base material, then 3D printing the conductive material, then using an electrical process to take those conductive materials and convert them into copper. And then doing layer after layer after layer to make the same circuits that someone in a subtractive process would do.

If you have traditional manufacturing, it takes about two weeks to ship from China, and it takes about a week to make a lab. My goal would be to make them in about five hours and then courier them over the same day. You don't need a big serial manufacturing facility if someone needs 6,000 boards. You don't have 6,000 printers in one room; all your printers are connected to the cloud. You could even go from 2D electronics to three-dimensional electronics. We just want to make more, smaller, faster, and cheaper than traditional manufacturing.

What surprised you about I2P?
How much time it took out of my day and how much I didn't want to do as much homework anymore. It made me want to focus all of my time on this and on how many different avenues there were to do what I wanted to do. I probably went through 30 different iterations of completely different scientific topics. I think because of how many options there were and how crazy scientifically advanced each of them was, it is what keeps me going.

What was your favorite part about I2P?

I did I2P for two semesters, and the best thing about it is getting to work on your own project and your own research for class credit.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?

Sifting through all the research and development that has gone into this field. Electronics manufacturing has been around for a long time, and there's a lot of research and patents to work through and build on. I feel like I spent half my time coming up with ideas and the other half building the physical printer.

 

What would you say to students who are interested in entrepreneurship?
I can't tell you how much I've learned just by doing. Outside of that, talk to people. Just go out and talk to people. Ask people questions. Have your problem and get their input and insight on it, because how we make smart decisions and make startups that people want is by asking people what they want. 

Cheer on Convexity as they pitch their prototype at the final round of the InVenture Prize, on March 12, at 7:30p.m., in the Ferst Theater of Arts. During this competition, the largest of its kind in the nation, a panel of celebrity judges and experts in science, technology, and venture capital will judge undergraduate teams competing for $35,000, including $5,000 for the People’s Choice award. Through audience voting, you get to advance the projects you support. Request your free InVenture Prize tickets today.

Want to be part of the next wave of technological advancements? Register for the Spring 2025 I2P Showcase to see our latest cohort of I2P inventors and their prototypes. Consider joining I2P for Summer or Fall 2025. For more information, visit the I2P program website. 

Bradford “Brad” Greer (bottom) and Kevin Ge (top), both 2023 graduates from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, have taken their startup, CADMUS Health Analytics, from a classroom project to a promising health tech company. In 2023, CADMUS was accepted into the CREATE-X Startup Launch program. Over the 12-week accelerator, CADMUS made significant strides, and program mentors provided expert guidance, helping the team focus their direction based on real-world needs. Their partnership with Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) was a direct result of connections made at Startup Launch’s Demo Day.

How did you first hear about CREATE-X?

We did the CREATE-X Capstone with an initial team of seven people, later transitioning to Startup Launch in the summer. Capstone required a hardware product, but for several reasons, we pivoted to software. By that point, we already had a grasp on the problem that we were working on but didn't have the resources to start working on a large hardware product.

Why did you decide to pursue your startup?

One of our close buddies was an emergency medical technician (EMT), and we also had family connections to EMTs. When we were doing our customer interviews, we found out that Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had multiple problems that we thought we'd like to work on and that were more accessible than the broader medical technology industry. 

What was Startup Launch like for you?

Startup Launch seemed to transition pretty seamlessly from the Capstone course. We came to understand our customer base and technical development better, and the program also led us through the process of starting and running a company. I found it very interesting and learned a whole lot.

What was the most difficult challenge in Startup Launch?

Definitely customer interviews. We spent a lot of time on that in the Startup Launch classes. It's a difficult thing to have a good takeaway from a customer interview without getting the conversation confused and being misled. We didn't mention the product, or we tried to wait as long as possible before mentioning the product, so as to not bias or elicit general, positive messaging from interviewees. 

We're working in EMS, and the products we are building affect healthcare. EMS is a little informal and a little rough around the edges. Many times, people don't want to admit how bad their practices are, which can easily lead to us collecting bad data. 

What affected you the most from Startup Launch?

The resources at our fingertips. When we were running around, it was nice to be able to consult with our mentor. It's great having someone around with the know-how and who's been through it themselves. I revisit concepts a lot.

How did the partnership with NGHS come about?

During Demo Day, we met a Georgia state representative. He put us in touch with NGHS. They were looking for companies to work with through their venture arm, Northeast Georgia Health Ventures(NGHV), so we pitched our product to them. They liked it, and then we spent a long time banging out the details. We worked with John Lanza, who's a friend of CREATE-X. He helped us find a corporate lawyer to read over the stuff we were signing. It took a little back and forth to get everything in place, but in September of last year, we finally kicked it off.

What’s the partnership like?

We provide them a license to our product, have weekly meetings where experts give feedback on the performance of the system, and then we make incremental changes to align the product with customer needs. 

While we're in this developmental phase, we're kind of keeping it under wraps until we make sure it’s fully ready. Our focus is primarily on emergent capabilities that NGHS and other EMS agencies are really looking for. Right now, the pilot is set to be a year long, so we're aiming to be ready for a full rollout by the end of the year. 

How did you pivot into this other avenue for your product?

EMS does not have many resources. That makes it not a popular space as far as applying emerging technologies. There's only competition in this very one specific vein, which is this central type of software that we plug into, so we're not competing directly with anyone.

EMS agencies, EMTs, and paramedics - the care that they give has to be enabled by a medical doctor. There has to be a doctor linked to the practices that they engage in and the procedures that they do. With the product that we're making now, we want to provide a low-cost, plug-and-play product that'll do everything they need it to do to enable the improvement of patient care. 

How are you supporting yourself during this period? 

I was paying myself last year, but we're out of money for that, so we're not currently paying for any labor. It's all equity now, but our burn rate outside of that is very low. The revenue we have now easily covers the cost of operating our system. I'm also working part-time as an EMT now. This helps cover my own costs while also deepening my understanding of the problems we are working on.

How are you balancing your work?

It's hard to balance. There's always stuff to do. I just do what I can, and the pace of development is good enough for the pilot. Every week, and then every month, Kevin and I sit down and analyze the rate at which we're working and developing. Then we project out. We're confident that we're developing at a rate that'll have us in a good spot by September when the pilot ends.

What’s a short-term goal for your startup?

Kevin and I are trying to reach back out and see if there's anyone interested in joining and playing a major role. The timing would be such that they start working a little bit after the spring semester ends. I think most Georgia Tech students would meet the role requirements, but generally, JavaScript and Node experience as well as a diverse background would be good.

Where do you want your startup to be in the next five years?

I want to have a very well-designed system. Despite all the vectors I’m talking about for our products, everything should be part of the same system in place at EMS agencies anywhere. I just want it to be a resource that EMS can use broadly.

Another issue in EMS is standards. Even the standards that are in place now aren’t broadly accessible. I think that these new AI tools can do a lot to bridge the lack of understanding of documentation, measures, and standards and make all of that more accessible for the layperson.

What advice would you give students interested in entrepreneurship?

Make sure the idea that you're working on, and the business model, is something you enjoy outside of its immediate viability. I think that's really what's helped me persevere. It's my enjoyment of the project that's allowed me to continue and be motivated. So, start there and then work your way forward.

Are there any books, podcasts, or resources you would recommend to budding entrepreneurs?

 I’d recommend Influence to prepare for marketing. I have no background in marketing at all. Influence is a nice science-based primer for marketing.

 I reread How to Win Friends and Influence People. I am not sure how well I'm implementing the concepts day-to-day, but I think most of the main points of that book are solid.

I also read The Mom Test. It's a good reference, a short text on customer interviews.

Want to build your own startup?

Georgia Tech students, faculty, researchers, and alumni interested in developing their own startups are encouraged to apply to CREATE-X's Startup Launch, which provides $5,000 in optional seed funding and $150,000 in in-kind services, mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops, networking events, and resources to help build and scale startups. The program culminates in Demo Day, where teams present their startups to potential investors. The deadline to apply for Startup Launch is Monday, March 17. Spots are limited. Apply now.

Men and women in California put their lives on the line when battling wildfires every year, but there is a future where machines powered by artificial intelligence are on the front lines, not firefighters.

However, this new generation of self-thinking robots would need security protocols to ensure they aren’t susceptible to hackers. To integrate such robots into society, they must come with assurances that they will behave safely around humans.

It begs the question: can you guarantee the safety of something that doesn’t exist yet? It’s something Assistant Professor Glen Chou hopes to accomplish by developing algorithms that will enable autonomous systems to learn and adapt while acting with safety and security assurances. 

He plans to launch research initiatives, in collaboration with the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, to secure this new technological frontier as it develops. 

“To operate in uncertain real-world environments, robots and other autonomous systems need to leverage and adapt a complex network of perception and control algorithms to turn sensor data into actions,” he said. “To obtain realistic assurances, we must do a joint safety and security analysis on these sensors and algorithms simultaneously, rather than one at a time.”

This end-to-end method would proactively look for flaws in the robot’s systems rather than wait for them to be exploited. This would lead to intrinsically robust robotic systems that can recover from failures.

Chou said this research will be useful in other domains, including advanced space exploration. If a space rover is sent to one of Saturn’s moons, for example, it needs to be able to act and think independently of scientists on Earth. 

Aside from fighting fires and exploring space, this technology could perform maintenance in nuclear reactors, automatically maintain the power grid, and make autonomous surgery safer. It could also bring assistive robots into the home, enabling higher standards of care. 

This is a challenging domain where safety, security, and privacy concerns are paramount due to frequent, close contact with humans.

This will start in the newly established Trustworthy Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, which Chou directs. He and his Ph.D. students will design principled algorithms that enable general-purpose robots and autonomous systems to operate capably, safely, and securely with humans while remaining resilient to real-world failures and uncertainty.

Chou earned dual bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences as well as mechanical engineering from University of California Berkeley in 2017, a master’s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Michigan in 2019 and 2022, respectively. He was a postdoc at MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory prior to joining Georgia Tech in November 2024. He is a recipient of the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowship program, NSF Graduate Research fellowships, and was named a Robotics: Science and Systems Pioneer in 2022.

John (JP) Popham 
Communications Officer II 
College of Computing | School of Cybersecurity and Privacy

Founded in 2014, CREATE-X has grown from a visionary concept into a transformative program that has empowered more than 34,000 students to launch more than 560 startups, achieving a total portfolio valuation of over $2 billion. The report, “CREATE-X: A Decade of Success,” reviews the first 10 years of impact and mission. 

CREATE-X was established to instill entrepreneurial confidence in Georgia Tech students and provide them with the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed to create their own future. From its humble beginnings with eight teams, the program has expanded to include three distinct branches: Learn, Make, and Launch. These branches cater to the multifaceted needs of entrepreneurial students, offering courses, mentorship, seed funding, and opportunities to develop and launch startups.

Through our value pillars of experiential education, entrepreneurial confidence, and real-world impact, we strive to enable our students to solve the problems they are passionate about solving. And as we look to the future, CREATE-X aims to become the nation’s top startup campus, launching 300 startups each year. 

Our commitment to nurturing student innovation and expanding entrepreneurial education remains steadfast. We invite all Georgia Tech students, faculty, alumni, and the public to join us in this exciting journey. Together, we create the future.

Download our report.

Interested in creating your own startup?

Georgia Tech students, faculty, researchers, and alumni interested in developing their own startups are encouraged to apply to CREATE-X’s Startup Launch. The program provides $5,000 in optional seed funding, $150,000 in in-kind services, mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops, networking events, and resources to help build and scale startups. The program culminates in Demo Day, where teams present their startups to potential investors. The deadline to apply for Startup Launch is March 19, 2025. Spots are limited. Apply now for a higher chance of acceptance and early feedback. 

For students interested in taking a CREATE-X course, consider exploring Startup Lab, Idea to Prototype, and CREATE-X Capstone Design. These courses can be taken in any order to fit your schedule, and they offer opportunities for funding and other resources. The deadline for applications and registrations for these courses is Jan. 6 for Spring 2025 and May 12 for Summer 2025. 

And as always, we invite you to attend our CREATE-X events. CREATE-X hosts workshops and events throughout the year, focusing on brainstorming and receiving feedback on startup ideas, networking and building a team, understanding the legal landscapes of startups, hearing founder insights, and witnessing the latest innovations at Georgia Tech. We hope to see you there.

Interested in supporting CREATE-X?

Faculty members interested in getting involved with CREATE-X can participate as teachers or mentors in various programs such as Startup Lab, CREATE-X Capstone, Idea to Prototype, and Startup Launch. Faculty can also apply for the next cohort of the Jim Pope Fellowship when it opens in the spring. For additional information or inquiries, contact the director of CREATE-X, Rahul Saxena, at rahulsaxena@gatech.edu.

For those interested in donating to or partnering with CREATE-X, your generosity and collaboration is greatly appreciated. Donations to CREATE-X can be made through Georgia Tech’s Give Campus portal. For questions and requests to collaborate, please email create-x@groups.gatech.edu.

CREATE-X appreciates the unwavering support from our community, donors, and partners. Your contributions have been instrumental in shaping the entrepreneurial landscape at Georgia Tech. 

To our students, we encourage you to continue being bold, creative, and fearless in your pursuits. CREATE-X is here to support you every step of the way, providing the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to turn your ideas into reality. 

A researcher in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing has received the nation’s highest honor given to early career scientists and engineers.

Associate Professor Josiah Hester was one of 400 people awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Biden Administration announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The PECASE winners’ research projects are funded by government organizations, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and NASA. They will be invited to visit the White House later this year.

Hester joins Associate Professor Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena from the School of Materials Science and Engineering as the two Tech faculty who received the honor.

Hester said his nomination was based on the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award he received in 2022 as an assistant professor at Northwestern University. He said the NSF submits its nominations to the White House for the PECASE awards, but researchers are not informed until the list of winners is announced.

“For me, I always thought this was an unachievable, unassailable type of thing because of the reputation of the folks in computing who’ve won previously,” Hester said. “It was always a far-reaching goal. I was shocked. It’s something you would never in a million years think you would win.”

Hester is known for pioneering research in a new subfield of sustainable computing dedicated to creating battery-free devices powered by solar energy, kinetic energy, and radio waves. He co-led a team that developed the first battery-free handheld gaming device.

Last year, Hester co-authored an article published in the Association of Computing Machinery’s in-house journal, the Communications of the ACM, in which he coined the term “Internet of Battery-less Things.”

The Internet of Things is the network of physical computing devices capable of connecting to the internet and exchanging data. However, these devices eventually die. Landfills are overflowing with billions of them and their toxic power cells, harming our ecosystem.

In his CAREER award, Hester outlined projects that would work toward replacing the most used computing devices with sustainable, battery-free alternatives.

“I want everything to be an Internet of Batteryless Things — computational devices that could last forever,” Hester said. “I outlined a bunch of different ways that you could do that from the computer engineering side and a little bit from the human-computer interaction side. They all had a unifying theme of making computing more sustainable and climate-friendly.”

Hester is also a Sloan Research Fellow, an honor he received in 2022. In 2021, Popular Sciene named him to its Brilliant 10 list. He also received the Most Promising Engineer or Scientist Award from the American Indian Science Engineering Society, which recognizes significant contributions from the indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in STEM disciplines.

President Bill Clinton established PECASE in 1996. The White House press release recognizes exceptional scientists and engineers who demonstrate leadership early in their careers and present innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology.

Two teams tied for Best Overall projects of the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase. Over two hours, 49 teams displayed prototypes that they developed over the semester to hundreds of attendees, while judges circulated the room. The showcase is the last event of their Idea-to-Prototype (I2P) course, where Georgia Tech students earn research credit (for undergraduate students only), receive up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses, and build a working product with faculty mentorship. The course is held in the spring, summer, and fall. Graduate students can also take the course, and student can take it up two times. 

As a part of the showcase, the winning team, or teams in this case, also receive a golden ticket into the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator, Startup Launch. This program provides founders with $5,000 in optional seed funding, $150,000 in in-kind services like accounting and legal services, mentorship, and entrepreneurial education, among other benefits. At the end of that experience, startup teams can present their products to investors and industry partners at Demo Day, which attracts over a thousand attendees each year.

Additionally, winners of the showcase advance directly to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize, a faculty-led innovation competition for undergraduate students and recent BS graduates of Georgia Tech.

This semester, the first place teams were Allez Go and Soul. Team Allez Go’s founders, Adam Kulikowski and Jason Mo, created a real-time visualization system for fencing blades using infrared light and reflectors to accurately track positions during a bout. Team Soul, made up of Ashraf Mansour, Benjamin Wilson, and Michal Gregus, developed fitness-tracking soles and shoes, combining the functions of a smart scale, a workout tracker, and a diet tracker into a singular device.

Second place was awarded to Team Convexity Electronics, consisting of Calla Scotch, Levi Bloch, and Phi Cai. Convexity Electronics produces 3D-printed circuit boards that aim to be smaller, faster, and cheaper than lithography-based circuitry.

Team SuperStream, made up of solo-preneur John-Wright Stanly, took home third place. SuperStream adds video previews to URLs to increase engagement.

Read our Q&A with Team Allez Go and Soul below, and stay tuned for our interviews with the other winning teams! 

Q&As

Team AllezGo

Adam Kulikowski, Sophomores, Computer Science

Jason Mo, Sophomores, Computer Science

Why did you pursue your startup?
Kulikowski: We're both fencers. I've been fencing for 10 years, and Jason's been fencing close to 10 as well. So, fencing as a sport is really hard to view for non-fencers, and so the idea that we wanted to do is use visualizations, animations, and replays in a similar way that other kinds of sport visualization companies did.

What was the I2P course like for you all?
Mo: So, this prototype actually started over the summer. I was in Startup Lab and just did a study abroad program. During that class, they mentioned that I2P is a great opportunity, and I had this prototype already in the works.  

What surprised you about I2P?

Mo: I2P was very generous with funding; we never had any issues with using up our $500. It was just really helpful because our prototype was pretty heavy hardware.

What was your favorite part about I2P?
Mo: Our weekly meetings with Aaron Hillegass, our mentor, were always very, very insightful. I just shot him an email for I2P, hoping that we could work together on this. Sometimes we would talk about prototypes or updates. He had some really good insights, but our mentor also has a lot of industry experience and a lot of experience with his own startups. It was really fun to just ask him general questions and career advice. He was always very responsive, very supportive for us. 

Kulikowski: In addition, I really liked seeing the iterations each week. I think the weekly updates kept us accountable to do at least one small thing every week. So, it was cool to see how the ideas slowly started to formulate each week, small steps and small progresses.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?
Mo: There's a lot of technical challenges. One of the things we did this semester is we changed from a 30 frames per second (FPS) camera to a camera that shoots at 120 FPS. And with that, we could detect a lot more processing power. The camera that we're using is only limited to Windows. I've been using a very old laptop, and that's sort of been a bit problematic when we're trying to do very compute intensive tasks.

What would you say to students that are interested in entrepreneurship?
Kulikowski: There are a lot of people that came by our booth, and a lot of them were freshmen students. Every one of them we told, “If you have an idea, if you're really passionate about something, I2P is a fantastic opportunity.” This semester, with the hands-off approach, really felt like you could just work on this idea, and everything was there to support you working on it. That was fantastic because it's we could take full advantage of the time, the resources, and truly flesh out this idea. I really love the support we had and how we had the bonding with the other students.

Team Soul

Ashraf Mansour, Senior, Computer Science

Benjamin Wilson, Junior, Computer Science 

Michal Gregus, Junior, Physics and Electrical Engineering 

What’s the thought behind the name?
Mansour: We're kind of bringing life through our electronics, back into the shoe, and building a better fitness tracker and a more holistic picture of human health. 

What was the showcase like for your team?
Wilson:  It was a little nerve wracking. I have full faith in our ideas and concepts, but I feel personally like we still have a long way to go for our project. I’m still satisfied with where we are now, but we never really anticipated that we we're going to win anything.

Mansour: The showcase made me realize how much faster all this moves, even compared to my expectations. We came in with a very basic prototype that we wanted to improve on, but I think the potential was enough to sell the judges in this case. Now we have a big responsibility to deliver on that potential.

What was your favorite thing about I2P Showcase?

Mansour: It really reminds you how much of a tech hub Georgia Tech really is. Seeing how entrepreneurship boosts in real time, especially at the early stages, is something that’s really awe inspiring. 

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?

Mansour: There are a lot of unique engineering challenges with the product that we’re building, some we anticipated and others we didn’t, but I think that speaks to the true soul of engineering. That adaptability and sense of problem solving is really important.

Wilson: I’m very grateful to have the other people that were involved in this project for brainstorming and making the design better. 

What would you say to students that are interested in entrepreneurship?

Wilson:  I definitely would encourage anyone that wants to pursue their own startup or has a new idea to just start. It’s far more efficient and far more rewarding to put your ideas out there and try. You’ll learn a lot more through that process of failing than you will contemplating.

A photo gallery from the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase can be viewed on the CREATE-X Flickr page.

CREATE-X is now accepting applications for the summer and fall semesters of the I2P course, and applications for their summer accelerator, Startup Launch. The deadline for I2P applications for Summer 2025 is May 12. The deadline for Startup Launch applications is March 19, 2025. For questions, please email create-x@groups.gatech.edu.

Georgia Tech is days away from the Fall 2024 Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase, set to take place on Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. in the Exhibition Hall. This event offers students a platform to present solutions built over the semester to tackle real-world problems and compete for rewards, including a golden ticket into the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator, Startup Launch. The program offers optional seed funding, workspace, entrepreneurial education, and continued mentorship to help students turn their prototypes into viable startups. Over 50 teams will present their prototypes at the showcase.

The event is open to all Georgia Tech students, faculty, staff, and the local community. Tickets are available now but are limited, so register for the I2P Showcase today. 

Each semester, students in the Idea-to-Prototype course take time out of their schedules, similar to undergraduate research, to build prototypes. Teams accepted into I2P receive a reimbursement of up to $500 for physical expenses, course credit (undergraduate students only), and mentorship from a Georgia Tech faculty member.

During the showcase, participants and judges interact with the projects and give feedback. The criteria for judging are centered on innovation and overall market and impact potential. Judges can include industry professionals, faculty members, and alumni.

Throughout I2P Showcase history, many winning projects have gone on to achieve significant success. One is CaseDocker, which provides an end-to-end workflow management system. The startup now has a user base of over 400 global clients, including Fortune 500 companies. Other winners of the showcase include a blockchain-based music application, Radiochain, a personal financial management platform, Dolfin Solutions, and an EEG monitoring device for pediatric seizure detection, NeuroChamp.

This semester, the I2P cohort includes a digital twin using individual data and AI for health screenings and early detection, an active shooter detection and tracking tool, an AR tool that turns walls into interactive canvases, a device that detects overdosages, 3D-printed circuit boards, an AI detector for digital media, and more.

Whether you're a student with a passion for entrepreneurship, a faculty member interested in the latest student innovations, or a community member looking to support local talent, the I2P Showcase is a perfect opportunity to explore student innovations, mingle, and enjoy refreshments. Register for the I2P Showcase today and join us at the Exhibition Hall for an evening of creativity and community.

Students interested in participating in I2P can do so in the spring, summer, or fall semesters. The registration process involves providing a brief description of the project, the team members involved, and the current stage of development. The deadline for applications is Jan. 6 for Spring 2025 and May 12 for Summer 2025.

Facundo Fernández, Vasser Woolley Foundation Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry and Regents’ Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been selected as this year’s Anachem Award recipient by the Association of Analytical Chemists. 

Presented as a part of a symposium arranged and given by former students and colleagues to honor the recipient, the award recognizes an outstanding analytical chemist that has advanced the field through exemplary research, teaching, or other endeavors.

“This award is very significant to me as it is given to the most accomplished scientists in the field of analytical chemistry, including some of my long-time heroes, such as Bob Kennedy of the University of Michigan, Catherine Fenselau of the University of Maryland and Scott McLuckey of Purdue University,” says Fernández. 

“Anachem award winners include Rosalyn Yallow, who received the Nobel Prize for the development of the radioimmunoassay technique,” he adds. “It is enormously significant to be recognized by such close peers who appreciate the value of measurement science in general, and analytical chemistry in particular.”

Fernández is a noted leader in the field of metabolomics and molecular imaging, where his research encompasses the development of new ionization, imaging, machine learning and ion mobility spectrometry tools for probing composition and structure in complex molecular mixtures. He is the author of over 225 peer-reviewed publications and has received the NSF CAREER award, the CETL/BP Teaching award, the Ron A. Hites best paper award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and the Beynon award from Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, among others.