Feb. 26, 2026
Five faculty members from Georgia Tech have been elected as senior members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). As members, they are recognized as distinguished academic inventors with a strong record of patenting technologies, licensing IP, and commercializing their research. Their innovations have made, or have the potential to make, meaningful impacts on society.
“The election of our faculty members to this prestigious association is a powerful affirmation of the innovative research happening at Georgia Tech,” said Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, chief commercialization officer at Georgia Tech. “Their work to take research to market reflects the growing importance of invention in addressing society’s most complex challenges. This recognition signals the strength of the commercialization ecosystem at Georgia Tech to advance impactful research, encourage innovation, and prepare the next generation of inventors.”
The 2026 Georgia Tech NAI senior members are:
- Jason David Azoulay, associate professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering School and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Jaydev Prataprai Desai, professor and cardiovascular biomedical engineering distinguished chair, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
- David Frost, Elizabeth and Bill Higginbotham Professor and Regents’ Entrepreneur, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Chandra Raman, Dunn Family Professor of Physics, School of Physics
- Aaron Young, associate professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Jason David Azoulay
Azoulay is recognized for pioneering new classes of functional materials through innovative polymer synthesis, heterocycle chemistry, and polymerization reactions. His work spans electronic, photonic, and quantum materials, device fabrication, and chemical sensing for environmental monitoring. He has demonstrated new classes of organic semiconductors with infrared functionality and holds nine issued U.S. patents. Azoulay is the Georgia Research Alliance Vasser-Woolley Distinguished Investigator and holds a joint appointment in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Jaydev Prataprai Desai
Desai is recognized for advancing medical robotics and translational biomedical innovation with inventions spanning robotically steerable guidewires for endovascular interventions, minimally invasive surgical tools, MEMS sensors for cancer diagnosis, and rehabilitation robotics for people with motor impairments. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Robotics Research, has authored more than 225 peer-reviewed publications, and serves as the Director of Georgia Center for Medical Robotics at Georgia Tech. Desai holds 15 U.S. and International patents.
David Frost
Frost has built a career at the intersection of civil engineering research and entrepreneurship. A leader in the study of natural and human-made disasters and their impacts on infrastructure, he has founded two Georgia Tech-based software companies: Dataforensics, which offers tools for subsurface data collection and infrastructure project management, and Filio, an AI-powered mobile platform that supports visual asset management in construction and post-disaster reconnaissance. In 2023, Frost was named a Regents’ Entrepreneur by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents, a designation reserved for tenured faculty who have successfully taken their research into a commercial setting. He holds four U.S. patents.
Chandra Raman
Raman is a physicist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur whose research on ultracold atoms is enabling a new generation of ultraprecise quantum sensing devices. He is the co-inventor of chip-scale atomic beam technology — a breakthrough that makes it possible to miniaturize quantum sensors for navigation and timing applications in environments where GPS fails, with uses spanning autonomous vehicles, aerospace, and national security. Raman holds six U.S. patents, three of which have been issued and two licensed. To bring his inventions to market, he founded 8Seven8 Inc., Georgia’s first quantum hardware company. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and an advisor to national and space-based quantum initiatives.
Aaron Young
Young directs the Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls Lab, where he develops robotic exoskeletons and intelligent control systems to improve walking function and physical capability for people with mobility impairments and industrial safety applications. His research has been supported by major federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, and he holds three U.S. patents. Young works with Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i to advance promising technologies toward real-world adoption.
About Georgia Tech’s Office of Commercialization
The Office of Commercialization is the nexus of research commercialization and entrepreneurship at Georgia Tech, bringing leading-edge research and innovation to market. It comprises six key units — ATDC, CREATE-X, VentureLab, Quadrant-i, Technology Licensing, and Velocity Startups — that empower students and faculty to launch startups, manage intellectual property, and transform research ideas into positive societal impact. Learn more at commercialization.gatech.edu.
About the National Academy of Inventors
The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and nonprofit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. Learn more at academyofinventors.org.
Feb. 24, 2026
The city of Augusta is a major hub for health and life sciences, boasting five hospitals and the Medical College of Georgia.
The Georgia Institute of Technology and Augusta University have launched a collaborative effort to boost the city’s medical device innovation ecosystem.
The Augusta region is already a major hub for health and life sciences, boasting five hospitals and the Medical College of Georgia, the nation’s 13th oldest medical school and one of its largest.
Additionally, the advocacy nonprofit Georgia Life Sciences designated the region a BioReady Gold community. This ratings system recognizes its existing bioscience assets and its commitment to expanding infrastructure and commercialization, marking Augusta as a desired choice for biotech companies looking for suitable sites to expand.
Leading the work at Georgia Tech are the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) and Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).
GaMEP is a program of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Tech’s chief economic development arm. It brings a dedicated team with the unique skills required to help innovators clearly understand the requirements needed to bring medical devices to market.
“When entrepreneurs gain insight into the regulatory and quality requirements early in development, they can make informed, strategic decisions that can significantly reduce both time and cost,” said Sarah Jo Tucker, industry manager for GaMEP’s medical device group. “We partner closely with innovators throughout the process and bring deep expertise in the regulatory requirements while they bring expertise in their technology. Together, we can move products efficiently and confidently from concept to commercialization.”
ADTC, part of Georgia Tech’s Office of Commercialization, is the state’s premier technology incubator and the oldest university-based incubator in the country. ATDC provides guidance and resources for entrepreneurs and founders to successfully launch and scale their technology companies.
Since its founding in 1980, ATDC’s startup graduates have attracted more than $6.2 billion in investment and generated over $14 billion in revenue in Georgia. Through the partnership with Augusta University, ATDC uses its expertise to serve entrepreneurs in the medical device field.
"Medical innovation across the state of Georgia is critical for our health tech industries to thrive,” said Chris Dickson, ATDC’s startup catalyst in the Augusta region. “We identify investment-ready medical technology startups and provide the support needed while they are scaling their businesses.”
A major hub for the life sciences, Augusta University is home to a wealth of researchers in the biomedical and related fields. This makes the institution ideally situated to help facilitate medical device commercialization.
Guido Verbeck understands this dynamic firsthand. A professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Augusta University, he is also an entrepreneur and medical device innovator.
“Academia is a fantastic platform for launching ideas, but there must be an understanding of how to bring a device to market,” said Verbeck. “Physicians and practitioners who are also academics are solving problems in real time, but they often lack the resources and support to get their ideas to production and commercialization.”
Lynsey Steinberg, director of innovation for Augusta University’s strategic partnerships and economic development team, summed up collaboration’s goal.
“When we tap our depth of talent, innovation, and community collaboration, this region has what it takes to become a launchpad for medical device startups — a place where bold ideas find the purpose they need to succeed to solve real-world problems,” she said.
News Contact
Eve Tolpa
eve.tolpa@innovate.gatech.edu
Feb. 12, 2026
ATLANTA (Feb. 12, 2026) -- The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has ranked Georgia Tech among the top 20 universities worldwide for U.S. utility patents granted in 2025. The Institute climbed to No. 19 internationally and 13 nationally as a result of its technology licensing office generating 128 patents. The recognition underscores the Institute’s success in moving research breakthroughs from the laboratory into the commercial marketplace, reflecting a coordinated intellectual property (IP) strategy that supports faculty, staff, and student inventors.
“Our global ranking is a testament to the culture of research innovation we are fostering at Georgia Tech,” said Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, Georgia Tech’s vice president of Commercialization and chief commercialization officer. “Our goal is to ensure that every breakthrough in the lab has a clear, protected pathway to become a startup or product that changes lives. Breaking into the top 20 for the first time demonstrates the impact of our commercialization ecosystem in taking IP to market.”
Over the past five years, Georgia Tech has shown steady growth in its patent output, issuing more than double the number of patents as in 2020. With utility patents as a key indicator of bench-to-market success, they serve as the legal foundation for licensing agreements, industry partnerships, and the launch of new ventures. Through Technology Licensing at Georgia Tech, researchers receive guidance on disclosure, patent strategy, and protection pathways that help translate research outcomes into real-world applications.
“Our team’s mission is to serve as the gateway to smoothly transfer technologies from the lab to the real world,” said Mary Albertson, director of Technology Licensing at Georgia Tech. “By partnering with researchers early in the discovery process and navigating the complexities of patent protection, we help ensure Georgia Tech innovations are positioned for meaningful economic and societal impact.”
Released annually since 2013, the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents ranking highlights the critical role academic institutions play in the global innovation ecosystem. Through the translation of research into protected technologies, these institutions advance societal progress, while strengthening national and global economies.
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Feb. 10, 2026
Mechanical engineer David McDowell is among the newest members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the organization announced Feb. 10.
McDowell is one 130 new members and 28 international members in the 2026 class. Election to the NAE is among the highest professional recognitions for engineers and an honor bestowed on just 2,900 professionals worldwide. New members are nominated and voted on by the Academy’s existing membership.
McDowell is Georgia Tech’s 50th NAE member. He is Regents’ Professor Emeritus in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Read the full story about McDowell on the College of Engineering website.
News Contact
Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering
Feb. 03, 2026
Asif Khan holds a silicon wafer in Georgia Tech’s cleanroom facility. Khan is trying to build new kinds of computer memory using fundamentally different mechanisms to store data. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
The power of modern computing is hard to overstate.
Your smartphone has more than 100,000 times the power of the computer that guided Apollo 11 to the moon. It’s about 5,000 times faster than 1980s supercomputers. And that’s just processing power.
Apple’s original iPod promised “1,000 songs in your pocket” in 2001. Today’s average smartphone has enough memory to store 25,000, along with thousands more photos, apps, and videos.
This exponential leap in capability traces a prediction made in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. He suggested the number of transistors — tiny electronic switches — on a computer chip would double roughly every two years. Moore’s Law, as it became known, has served as a benchmark and guiding principle for the tech industry, influencing the trajectory of innovation for nearly six decades.
But now miniaturizing transistors has slowed. Headlines regularly declare Moore’s Law dead.
Arijit Raychowdhury sees it differently.
He said Moore’s Law was never just about shrinking transistors. It was about making computing better.
“Moore’s Law is fundamentally economic,” said Raychowdhury, Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “It’s not about the physics of making transistors smaller. It’s about the business imperative to deliver better performance, lower power consumption, smaller form factors, or reduced costs.”
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Dan Watson
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jan. 28, 2026
During a research session, a participant imagines saying the text cue on the screen. The bottom text is the brain-computer interface’s prediction of the imagined words. (Photo courtesy: Chethan Pandarinath)
Last summer, a team of researchers reported using a brain-computer interface to detect words people with paralysis imagined saying, even without them physically attempting to speak. They also found they could differentiate between the imagined words they wished to express and the person’s private inner thoughts.
It’s a significant step toward helping people with diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, reconnect with language after they’ve lost the ability to talk. And it’s part of a long-running clinical trial on brain-computer interfaces involving biomedical engineers from Georgia Tech and Emory University alongside collaborators at Stanford University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brown University, and the University of California, Davis.
Together, they’re exploring how implanted devices can read brain signals and help patients use assistive devices to recover some of their lost abilities.
Speech has become one of the hottest areas for these interfaces as scientists leverage the power of artificial intelligence, according to Chethan Pandarinath, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory and one of the researchers involved in the trials.
“We can place electrodes in parts of the brain that are related to speech,” he said, “and even if the person has lost the ability to talk, we can pick up the electrical activity as they try to speak and figure out what they’re trying to say.”
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Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering
Jan. 20, 2026
Milton Mueller speaking at the AI Governance and Global Economic Development, an official pre-summit event of the AI Impact Summit 2026.
Ever since ChatGPT’s debut in 2023, concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) potentially wiping out humanity have dominated headlines. New research from Georgia Tech suggests that those anxieties are misplaced.
“Computer scientists often aren’t good judges of the social and political implications of technology,” said Milton Mueller, a professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy. “They are so focused on the AI’s mechanisms and are overwhelmed by its success, but they are not very good at placing it into a social and historical context.”
In the four decades Mueller has studied information technology policy, he has never seen any technology hailed as a harbinger of doom — until now. So, in a Journal of Cyber Policy paper published late last year, he researched whether the existential AI threat was a real possibility.
What Mueller found is that deciding how far AI can go, and its limitations, is something society shapes. How policymakers get involved depends on the specific AI application.
Defining Intelligence
The AI sparking all this alarm is called artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a “superintelligence” that would be all-powerful and fully autonomous. Part of the debate, Mueller realized, is that no one could agree on the definition of what artificial general intelligence is.
Some computer scientists claim AGI would match human intelligence, while others argue it could surpass it. Both assumptions hinge on what “human intelligence” really means. Today’s AI is already better than humans at performing thousands of calculations in an instant, but that doesn’t make it creative or capable of complex problem-solving.
Understanding Independence
Deciding on the definition isn’t the only issue. Many computer scientists assume that as computing power grows, AI could eventually overtake humans and act autonomously.
Mueller argued that this assumption is misguided. AI is always directed or trained toward a goal and doesn’t act autonomously right now. Think of the prompt you type into ChatGPT to start a conversation.
When AI seems to disregard instructions, it’s caused by inconsistencies in its instructions, not by the machine coming alive. For example, in a boat race video game Mueller studied, the AI discovered it could get more points by circling the course instead of winning the race against other challengers. This was a glitch in the system’s reward structure, not AGI autonomy.
“Alignment gaps happen in all kinds of contexts, not just AI,” Mueller said. “I've studied so many regulatory systems where we try to regulate an industry, and some clever people discover ways that they can fulfill the rules but also do bad things. But if the machine is doing something wrong, computer scientists can reprogram it to fix the problem.”
Relying on Regulation
In its current form, even misaligned AI can be corrected. Misalignment also doesn’t mean the AI would snowball past the point where humans lose control of its outcomes. To do that, AI would need to have a physical capability, like robots, to do its bidding, and the power source and infrastructure to maintain itself. A mere data center couldn’t do that and would need human intervention to become omnipotent. Basic laws of physics — how big a machine can be, how much it can compute — would also prevent a super AI.
More importantly, AI is not one homogenous being. Mueller argued that different applications involve different laws, regulations, and social institutions. For example, the data scraping AI does is a copyright issue subject to copyright laws. AI used in medicine can be overseen by the Food and Drug Administration, regulated drug companies, and medical professionals. These are just a few areas where policymakers could intervene from a specific expertise level instead of trying to create universal AI regulations.
The real challenge isn’t stopping an AI apocalypse — it’s crafting smart, sector-specific policies that keep technology aligned with human values. To avoid being a victim of AI, humans can, and should, put up focused guardrails.
News Contact
Tess Malone, Senior Research Writer/Editor
tess.malone@gatech.edu
Dec. 10, 2025
Pascal Van Hentenryck, A. Russell Chandler III Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech, director of Tech AI, and director of NSF AI4OPT, was a keynote speaker at AI Festival 2025, held December 1–3 at TU Wien Informatics in Vienna, Austria.
The three-day international festival convened leading researchers, industry experts, and members of the public to explore how artificial intelligence is shaping science, technology, and society. Through keynote talks, panels, and interactive sessions, the event fostered dialogue around emerging AI research, real-world applications, and societal impact.
Van Hentenryck delivered a keynote on “AI for Engineering Optimization” during Day 1: Research, which focused on recent advances in foundational and applied AI. His talk highlighted how AI and optimization methods can be integrated to address complex engineering challenges, with implications for domains such as energy systems, mobility, and large-scale decision-making.
The session was chaired by Nysret Musliu of TU Wien and the Cluster of Excellence Bilateral AI (BilAI).
The research-focused first day of the festival featured discussions on topics including neurosymbolic AI, large language models, explainable AI, AI in science, and automated problem solving and decision-making. Van Hentenryck’s keynote contributed to these conversations by emphasizing the role of AI-driven optimization in advancing engineering design and operational efficiency.
AI Festival 2025 was co-organized by TU Wien, the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (CAIML), BilAI—funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)—the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), and TU Austria. The event underscored the importance of international collaboration across academia and industry in advancing responsible and impactful AI research.
Van Hentenryck’s participation reflects Georgia Tech’s leadership in artificial intelligence, as well as the missions of Tech AI and AI4OPT to advance AI-enabled optimization and decision-making for complex, real-world systems.
Dec. 12, 2025
This new Double Jacket found harmony working a fulltime job as en Environmental Engineer, while obtaining her masters.
Antonia Kopp had planned to become a high school math teacher, but an AP environmental science class set her on a new path that led her to Georgia Tech, where she will become a Double Jacket after graduating with her master’s degree in environmental engineering.
Math was always Kopp’s favorite subject, so even as she sought to learn more about the natural world and how humans interact with it, she wanted to find a program that blended her fascination with numbers and science.
“That’s what propelled Georgia Tech’s environmental engineering program to the top of my list when I was looking at schools,” the Macon, Georgia, native said.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in May 2024, she started her full-time job with Freese and Nichols’ Transmission and Utilities group, designing pipelines and pump stations to convey water and wastewater in and out of metro Atlanta.
Three months later, she returned to Tech to pursue a master’s degree part-time, hoping to gain a deeper understanding of water and wastewater treatment systems and how to develop resilient urban infrastructure.
“When there’s a water main break or a boil water notice is issued, you realize how reliant we are on our water and how lucky we are that when we turn on the taps, we trust what comes out. It would bring the city to a halt without reliable, high-quality water. Using the knowledge I’ve gained at Tech, I want to make sure that continues to be the case,” she said.
Kopp says that Tech’s location in Midtown provides on-the-job education, allowing students to study the challenges and strains on aging infrastructure. As Atlanta’s and other cities’ water pipes reach the end of their life cycles, Kopp believes technology will play an increasingly important role in developing new systems for the next generation.
“Part of my job is taking lessons learned from the past and applying them to improve systems in the future. Technological advancements help us to plan our infrastructure for the present and allow us to account for population growth, climate change, and other factors to ensure these systems last for decades to come,” she said.
With her master’s degree in hand, Kopp intends to work toward earning her Professional Engineer license, allowing her to sign and seal engineering designs.
Kopp wasn’t the first Yellow Jacket in her family. Her brother graduated from Tech with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in civil engineering in 2022 and 2023, but she is proud to be the first woman in her family to earn a STEM degree.
News Contact
Steven Gagliano – Institute Communications
Dec. 05, 2025
Georgia Tech is included in The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges for 2026, furthering the momentum from its recognition in last year’s report.
The Princeton Review evaluates colleges based on sustainability initiatives through surveys completed by both administrators and students. These surveys targeted more than 400 institutions, reviewing policies, practices, and programs related to sustainability. The guide also considers factors such as campus renewable energy sources, recycling, conservation, and the availability of academic offerings for students looking to participate in sustainability activities or to major in sustainability-related careers.
Jennifer Chirico, associate vice president of Sustainability, emphasized Georgia Tech’s commitment to a sustainable future.
“Georgia Tech remains committed to being an innovative leader in the Southeast. We have advanced the goals outlined in our first comprehensive Climate Action Plan, published last year, and are proud to operate our campus with expanded clean energy strategies, zero-emissions mobility options, and the continued growth of our award-winning EcoCommons.”
These notable advancements were factored into the decision to include Georgia Tech:
- The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, the first Living Building Challenge-certified research and academic building in the Southeast.
- 30 LEED-certified buildings on campus.
- The award-winning EcoCommons, 80 acres of regeneratively designed greenspace.
- Publication of the Institute’s Climate Action Plan.
- A public Climate Story Map.
- The Georgia Tech Arboretum certified as Arbnet Level II.
- The Green Forks initiative, aimed at reducing food waste and supporting student food security.
- New in-vessel composting machine installed for food waste diversion directly on campus.
The Princeton Review highlights the important work of institutions across the country, recommending those included in the report to “students who want their ‘best-fit’ college to also be a green one.”
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Timothy Sterling
Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Sustainability