In today’s world, the search for viable, climate-friendly energy sources is a major focus of scientific research. Eric Vogel, Hightower Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and executive director of the Institute for Matter and Systems at Georgia Tech, is contributing to this effort through a $107 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The project, in collaboration with the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), aims to make fusion energy a commercially viable option.

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Georgia Tech researchers played a key role in the development of a groundbreaking AI framework designed to autonomously generate and evaluate scientific hypotheses in the field of astrobiology. Amirali Aghazadeh, assistant professor in the school of electrical and computer engineering, co-authored the research and contributed to the architecture that divides tasks among multiple specialized AI agents. 

This framework, known as the AstroAgents system, is a modular approach which allows the system to simulate a collaborative team of scientists, each with distinct roles such as data analysis, planning, and critique, thereby enhancing the depth and originality of the hypotheses generated

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Nestled on the fifth floor of Georgia Tech's Technology Square Research Building (TSRB), the mmWave Antennas & Arrays Lab is silently innovating in wireless communication. Under the leadership of professor Nima Ghalichechian, the lab is at the forefront of developing technologies that promise to revolutionize how we connect and communicate.​

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Space researcher. Materials scientist. Entrepreneur. And Yellow Jacket. The only thing missing on Jud Ready’s resume is “astronaut.” Not for lack of trying, though. Ready had hoped earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech would lead him to a spot in NASA’s Astronaut Corps. Instead, it’s led him to the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), where his passion for space is alive and well.

1. What about space fascinates you? 
It all goes back to my dad being interested in space. In first grade, we went to a how-to-use-the-library class, and I came across a book about the Mercury and Apollo astronauts. I checked it out and renewed it over and over again. I eventually finished it in second grade. So, I’ve had a lifelong commitment since then to space.

2. What drew you to engineering? 
I grew up in Chapel Hill. In that same first grade class, we went to the University of North Carolina chemistry department. My mom is really into roses, and they froze a rose in liquid nitrogen then smashed it on the table. It broke into a million bits, and I was like, “What?!” The ability of science to solve the unknown grabbed me. And I had a series of very good science teachers — Mr. Parker in fifth grade, in particular. Then I took a soldering class in high school. We built a multimeter that I still have and still use, and various other things. And I suddenly discovered and started exploring engineering. Plus, I just like making things.

3. How did your career change from hoping to be an astronaut to being an accomplished materials engineer? 
When I started looking at colleges, that was my primary interest: What school would help me become an astronaut the quickest. I applied to Georgia Tech as an aerospace engineer, but was admitted as an undecided engineering candidate instead. It was the best thing that could have happened. Later, I got hired as an undergrad by a professor who was doing space-grown gallium arsenide on the Space Shuttle. Ultimately, they offered me a graduate position. I accepted, because I knew you needed an advanced degree to be an astronaut — and for a civilian, a Ph.D. in a relevant career such as materials science.

I applied so many times to be an astronaut — every time they opened a call from 1999 until just a few years ago. Never got in. But I was successful at writing proposals and teaching. So I started doing space vicariously through my students, writing research proposals on energy capture, such as solar cells; energy storage, such as super capacitors; and energy delivery like electron emission. They’re all enabled by engineered materials.

4. What makes Georgia Tech and GTRI a key contributor to the future of humans and science in space? 
Georgia Tech offers us so many unfair advantages over our competition. The equipment we’ve got. The students. You’ve got the curiosity-driven basic research coupled with the GTRI applied research model. We’ve had VentureLab and CREATE-X. Now we’ve got Quadrant-i to foster spinout companies from research.  

5. One of your solar cell technologies is headed to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. What is it? 
Early in my career, we developed a way to texture thin film photovoltaics to allow for light trapping. Inverted pyramids are etched into silicon wafer-type solar cells so a photon of light has a chance to hit different surfaces and get absorbed. But thin film solar cells typically don’t etch well. I thought we could use carbon nanotubes to form a scaffolding, a structure like rebar. It’s mechanically reinforcing, but also electrically conductive. We coat the thin film solar cell material over the carbon nanotube arrays. You’ve got these towers, and you get this photon pinballing effect. Most solar cells perform best when perpendicular to the sun, but with mine, off angles are preferred. That’s great for orbital uses, because the faces and solar panels of spacecraft are frequently off-angle to the sun. And then you don’t have the complexity of mechanical systems adjusting the solar arrays. So, we got funding to demonstrate these solar cells on the International Space Station three times, and those are some of the cells we provided to the Smithsonian. 

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The Georgia Institute of Technology will receive up to $2 million to research advanced semiconductor packaging technologies. Georgia Tech was selected as a partner institution by the South Korean Ministry of Trade. 

The Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS), George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center (PRC) will work with Myongji University and industry partners in South Korea on a seven-year collaborative project that focuses on developing core evaluation technologies for advanced semiconductor packaging. 

The project is led by Seung-Joon Paik, IMS research engineer; Yongwon Lee, research engineer in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; and Kyoung-Sik “Jack” Moon, PRC research engineer. It is funded by the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in Korea.

The project aims to develop validation technologies for next-generation 3D packaging with strategic globally competitive capabilities. The developed platform will meet the high growing demand for advanced packaging technologies for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and chiplet-based semiconductor. As a designated partner, Georgia Tech will play a pivotal role in developing core evaluation technologies. 

The project’s outcomes will contribute to the commercialization of dependable packaging technologies and the resilience of the global semiconductor supply chain.

The most recent cohort of the Microelectronics and Nanomanufacturing Certificate Program (MNCP) have completed their training and are ready to dive into the workforce. 

The MNCP is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded collaboration between the Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS), Georgia Piedmont Technical College (GPTC) and Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization. 

The spring 2025 cohort was comprised of three individuals with non-technical backgrounds. For 12 weeks, they split time between online lectures and hands-on training in the Georgia Tech Fabrication Cleanroom where they immersed themselves in advanced microelectronic fabrication techniques. Their training included thin film deposition, photolithography, etching, metrology, laser micro-machining, and additive manufacturing. They gained hands-on experience with industry-standard equipment, even creating their own custom designs on 4-inch silicon wafers.

“The program really helps people get their head start, especially for those who don’t really have the educational background,” said Lauren Walker, one student from the cohort. Walker applied for the program after hearing about it from a colleague and was able to get a job as a laboratory technician with help from the program resources.

“[The program] gave me everything I needed to know for new skills and things like that for the industry,” said Walker. “It helped me eventually get another job. I say it helped because of the workshops they had.”

Under the direction of Seung-Joon Paik, IMS teaching lab coordinator, the cohort spent two days a week in the IMS cleanroom working on research projects with IMS staff. Michelle Wu, a research scientist in IMS, served as lab instructor throughout the program and oversaw the training on cleanroom tools. 

“As their lab instructor, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with their passion, patience, and unwavering dedication to this program,” said Wu.

The program is supported by the Advanced Technological Education program at the National Science Foundation and is free for all participants. 

Learn more about the Microelectronics and Nanomanufacturing Certificate Program

More than 300 people from industry, government, and academia converged on Georgia Tech’s campus for Energy Day. They gathered for discussion and collaboration on the topics of energy storage, solar energy conversion, and developments in carbon-neutral fuels.

Taking place on April 23, Energy Day was cohosted by Georgia Tech’s Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS), Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), the Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center, and the Energy Policy and Innovation Center.

“The ideas coming out of Georgia Tech and other research universities can drive greater partnerships with our local and state officials. Whether you live in Georgia or elsewhere, we are changing how energy is viewed and consumed,” said Tim Lieuwen, Georgia Tech executive vice president for Research.

Energy Day 2025 is the latest evolution in a series of events that began as in 2023 Battery Day. As local and national energy research needs have evolved, the event has grown to highlight Georgia Tech, and the state of Georgia, as a go-to location for modern energy companies.

“At Georgia Tech, we approach energy holistically, leveraging innovative R&D, economic policy, community-building and strategic partnerships,” said Christine Conwell, SEI's interim executive director. “We are thrilled to convene this event for the third year. The keynote and sessions highlight our comprehensive strategy, showcasing cutting-edge advancements and collaborative efforts driving the next big energy innovations." 

The day was divided into two parts: a morning session that included a keynote speaker and two panels, and an afternoon session with separate tracks addressing three different energy research areas. Speakers shared research being conducted at Georgia Tech, as well as updates from industry leaders, to create an open dialogue about current energy needs.

“We believe we can solve problems and build the economy when you bring various disciplines together and work from matter — the fundamental scientists and devices all the way out to final systems at large — economic systems, societal systems,” said Eric Vogel, executive director for IMS. “Not only did we share the latest research, but we discussed and debated how we can continue to transform the energy economy.”

Discussions ranged from adapting to rapid changes in battery storage to advancing photo-voltaic manufacturing in the U.S. to the environmental impacts and sustainable practices of e-fuels and renewable energy.

The day ended with a robust poster session that attracted more than 25 student posters presentations. Three were awarded best posters.

First place: Austin Shoemaker
Second Place: Roahan Zhang
Third Place: Connor Davel

Related Links:
Advancing Clean Energy: Georgia Tech Hosts Energy Materials Day
Georgia Tech Battery Day Reveals Opportunities in Energy Storage Research

Origami — the Japanese art of folding paper — could be at the next frontier in innovative materials.

Practiced in Japan since the early 1600s, origami involves combining simple folding techniques to create intricate designs. Now, Georgia Tech researchers are leveraging the technique as the foundation for next-generation materials that can both act as a solid and predictably deform, “folding” under the right forces. The research could lead to innovations in everything from heart stents to airplane wings and running shoes.

Recently published in Nature Communications, the study, “Coarse-grained fundamental forms for characterizing isometries of trapezoid-based origami metamaterials,” was led by first author James McInerney, who is now a NRC Research Associate at the Air Force Research Laboratory. McInerney, who completed the research while a postdoctoral student at the University of Michigan, was previously a doctoral student at Georgia Tech in the group of study co-author Zeb Rocklin. The team also includes Glaucio Paulino (Princeton University), Xiaoming Mao (University of Michigan), and Diego Misseroni (University of Trento).

“Origami has received a lot of attention over the past decade due to its ability to deploy or transform structures,” McInerney says. “Our team wondered how different types of folds could be used to control how a material deforms when different forces and pressures are applied to it” — like a creased piece of cardboard folding more predictably than one that might crumple without any creases.

The applications of that type of control are vast. “There are a variety of scenarios ranging from the design of buildings, aircraft, and naval vessels to the packaging and shipping of goods where there tends to be a trade-off between enhancing the load-bearing capabilities and increasing the total weight,” McInerney explains. “Our end goal is to enhance load-bearing designs by adding origami-inspired creases — without adding weight.”

The challenge, Rocklin adds, is using physics to find a way to predictably model what creases to use and when to achieve the best results.

Deformable solids

Rocklin, a theoretical physicist and associate professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, emphasizes the complex nature of these types of materials. “If I tug on either end of a sheet of paper, it's solid — it doesn’t separate,” he explains. “But it's also flexible — it can crumple and wave depending on how I move it. That’s a very different behavior than what we might see in a conventional solid, and a very useful one.”

But while flexible solids are uniquely useful, they are also very hard to characterize, he says. “With these materials, it is often difficult to predict what is going to happen — how the material will deform under pressure because they can deform in many different ways. Conventional physics techniques can't solve this type of problem, which is why we're still coming up with new ways to characterize structures in the 21st century.”

When considering origami-inspired materials, physicists start with a flat sheet that's carefully creased to create a specific three-dimensional shape; these folds determine how the material behaves. But the method is limited: only parallelogram-based origami folding, which uses shapes like squares and rectangles, had previously been modeled, allowing for limited types of deformation.

“Our goal was to expand on this research to include trapezoid faces,” McInerney says. Parallelograms have two sets of parallel sides, but trapezoids only need to have one set of parallel sides. Introducing these more variable shapes makes this type of creasing more difficult to model, but potentially more versatile.

Breathing and shearing

“From our models and physical tests, we found that trapezoid faces have an entirely different class of responses,” McInerney shares. In other words — using trapezoids leads to new behavior.

The designs had the ability to change their shape in two distinct ways: "breathing" by expanding and contracting evenly, and “shearing" by deforming in a twisting motion. “We learned that we can use trapezoid faces in origami to constrain the system from bending in certain directions, which provides different functionality than parallelogram faces,” McInerney adds. 

Surprisingly, the team also found that some of the behavior in parallelogram-based origami carried over to their trapezoidal origami, hinting at some features that might be universal across designs.

“While our research is theoretical, these insights could give us more opportunities for how we might deploy these structures and use them,” Rocklin shares.

Future folding

“We still have a lot of work to do,” McInerney says, sharing that there are two separate avenues of research to pursue. “The first is moving from trapezoids to more general quadrilateral faces, and trying to develop an effective model of the material behavior — similar to the way this study moved from parallelograms to trapezoids.” Those new models could help predict how creased materials might deform under different circumstances, and help researchers compare those results to sheets without any creases at all. “This will essentially let us assess the improvement our designs provide,” he explains.

“The second avenue is to start thinking deeply about how our designs might integrate into a real system,” McInerney continues. “That requires understanding where our models start to break down, whether it is due to the loading conditions or the fabrication process, as well as establishing effective manufacturing and testing protocols.”

“It’s a very challenging problem, but biology and nature are full of smart solids — including our own bodies — that deform in specific, useful ways when needed,” Rocklin says. “That’s what we’re trying to replicate with origami.”

This research was funded by the Office of Naval Research, European Union, Army Research Office, and National Science Foundation.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57089-x 

Georgia Tech professors Michelle LaPlaca and W. Hong Yeo have been selected as recipients of Peterson Professorships with the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center (PTC) at Georgia Tech. The professorships, supported by the G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Faculty Endowment Fund, are meant to further energize the Georgia Tech and Children’s partnership by engaging and empowering researchers involved in pediatrics.

In a joint statement, PTC co-directors Wilbur Lam and Stanislav Emelianov said, “The appointment of Dr. LaPlaca and Dr. Yeo as Peterson Professors exemplifies the vision of Bud and Valerie Peterson — advancing innovation and collaboration through the Pediatric Technology Center to bring breakthrough ideas from the lab to the bedside, improving the lives of children and transforming healthcare.”

LaPlaca is a professor and associate chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint department between Georgia Tech and Emory University. Her research is focused on traumatic brain injury and concussion, concentrating on sources of heterogeneity and clinical translation. Specifically, she is working on biomarker discovery, the role of the glymphatic system, and novel virtual reality neurological assessments.    

“I am thrilled to be chosen as one of the Peterson Professors and appreciate Bud and Valerie Peterson’s dedication to pediatric research,” she said. “The professorship will allow me to broaden research in pediatric concussion assessment and college student concussion awareness, as well as to identify biomarkers in experimental models of brain injury.”

In addition to the research lab, LaPlaca will work with an undergraduate research class called Concussion Connect, which is part of the Vertically Integrated Projects program at Georgia Tech.

“Through the PTC, Georgia Tech and Children’s will positively impact brain health in Georgia’s pediatric population,” said LaPlaca.

Yeo is the Harris Saunders, Jr. Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the Wearable Intelligent Systems and Healthcare Center at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on nanomanufacturing and membrane electronics to develop soft biomedical devices aimed at improving disease diagnostics, therapeutics, and rehabilitation.

“I am truly honored to be awarded the Peterson Professorship from the Children’s PTC at Georgia Tech,” he said. “This recognition will greatly enhance my research efforts in developing soft bioelectronics aimed at advancing pediatric healthcare, as well as expand education opportunities for the next generation of undergraduate and graduate students interested in creating innovative medical devices that align seamlessly with the recent NSF Research Traineeship grant I received. I am eager to contribute to the dynamic partnership between Georgia Tech and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and to empower innovative solutions that will improve the lives of children.”

The Peterson Professorships honor the former Georgia Tech President and First Lady, whose vision for the importance of research in improving pediatric healthcare has had an enormous positive impact on the care of pediatric patients in our state and region.

The Children’s PTC at Georgia Tech brings clinical experts from Children’s together with Georgia Tech scientists and engineers to develop technological solutions to problems in the health and care of children. Children’s PTC provides extraordinary opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatrics, creating breakthrough discoveries that often can only be found at the intersection of multiple disciplines. These collaborations also allow us to bring discoveries to the clinic and the bedside, thereby enhancing the lives of children and young adults. The mission of the PTC is to establish the world’s leading program in the development of technological solutions for children’s health, focused on three strategic areas that will have a lasting impact on Georgia’s kids and beyond.