The Oliver Brand Memorial Technical Symposium was held on Feb. 22 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in honor of the technical achievements of Professor Oliver Brand.

The event brought together students, faculty, and professionals in the microelectromechanical systems research community to celebrate Brand’s contributions to the field and explore cutting-edge research.

“As a fellow academic, looking at his contributions, they’re remarkable,” said Mike Filler, interim executive director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN). “But then what put it over the top was his humanity. He supported every member of the community; he believed in people and had their best interests in mind.”

The seven speakers included research colleagues, graduate students and technical staff who worked closely with Brand throughout his career. They reminisced about Brand and discussed the research and technical achievements they collaborated on with him.

Brand spent more than 20 years as a member of the Georgia Tech faculty. In addition to leading IEN, he was a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, director of the Coordinating Office for the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), and director of the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor, one of the 16 NNCI sites.

Brand united researchers in the fields of electronics and nanotechnology, fostering collaboration and expanding IEN to include more than 200 faculty members. In addition to his respected work in the field of microelectromechanical systems, he is remembered for his kindness, dedication, and unwavering support toward all who knew him.

The Georgia Institute of Technology today announced the signing of a master research agreement with Micron Technology, a global leader in memory and storage solutions. Under the new agreement, the two organizations will expand their collaborative efforts in providing students with experiential research opportunities and expanding access to engineering education.

“We are proud to join forces with Georgia Tech, home to some of the nation’s top programs, to expand students’ opportunities in STEM education,” said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of Technology and Products at Micron. “This collaboration will help push the boundaries in memory technology innovation and ensure we prepare the workforce of the future.”

“We believe that when academia and industry converge, the best ideas flourish into game-changing innovations,” said Chaouki T. Abdallah, executive vice president for Research at Georgia Tech. “The synergy between Micron and Georgia Tech has already been tremendously fruitful, and we are so excited for the boundless opportunities on our shared horizon.”

“The signing of the master research agreement represents a significant step towards increasing additional collaboration pathways between Micron and GT including the joint pursuit of major federal funding activities, technology transfer, student internships and technology transfer,” said George White, senior director of Strategic Partnerships at Georgia Tech.

The first project under the agreement is already underway. Saibal Mukhopadhyay, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is leading the research efforts titled “Configurable Processing-In-Memory.” This cutting-edge research will enable memory devices to work faster and more efficiently.

A new kind of polymer membrane created by researchers at Georgia Tech could reshape how refineries process crude oil, dramatically reducing the energy and water required while extracting even more useful materials.

The so-called DUCKY polymers — more on the unusual name in a minute — are reported Oct. 16 in Nature Materials. And they’re just the beginning for the team of Georgia Tech chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists. They also have created artificial intelligence tools to predict the performance of these kinds of polymer membranes, which could accelerate development of new ones.

The implications are stark: the initial separation of crude oil components is responsible for roughly 1% of energy used across the globe. What’s more, the membrane separation technology the researchers are developing could have several uses, from biofuels and biodegradable plastics to pulp and paper products.

“We're establishing concepts here that we can then use with different molecules or polymers, but we apply them to crude oil because that's the most challenging target right now,” said M.G. Finn, professor and James A. Carlos Family Chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.