School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) faculty member Martha Grover has been named the College’s Thomas A. Fanning Chair in Equity Centered Engineering. Grover was selected for her efforts to educate engineers who approach their work with an intent to close societal gaps of wealth, power, and privilege by ensuring equitable access to opportunity.

The endowed position was established via the Southern Company Foundation by Southern Company, which has been regularly recognized for its efforts to promote an organizational culture that ensures representation of all groups. Fanning recently retired as chairman, president, and CEO.

Grover is a systems engineer whose work addresses the complexity of molecular organization and how it can solve complicated grand challenges. For instance, she has worked with the Department of Energy for 10 years to create processes for separation and immobilization of millions of gallons of liquid nuclear waste at the Hanford Site in Washington and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. She’s developed real-time process monitoring of nuclear waste slurries to increase throughput and enhance safety.

Grover’s research also focuses on the origins of life and understanding the essential role of diversity and cooperation. Her other work includes modeling and engineering the self-assembly of atoms and small molecules to create larger scale structures and complex functionality.

Dan Molzahn, assistant professor in the school of electrical and computer engineering and SEI initiative lead for the Energy Club received the outstanding teacher award from the College of Engineering (COE) as a part of its third annual Faculty awards. COE honored eight faculty members for their excellence in research, service, teaching, inventorship, and commercialization.

In addition to his research on energy systems, Molzahn has a goal of educating the next generation of electric power engineers. For instance, he leads a 30-student Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) team that develops video game simulations of power grids operating during extreme events. A first iteration of the game currently is installed at the Georgia Tech Dataseum in the Price Gilbert Library and plans are underway to incorporate a version into next year’s Seth Bonder high school summer camps.

The Energy Policy Innovation Center (EPICenter), along with the Beneficial Electrification League and Wells Fargo, hosted the Georgia Electrification Leadership Summit on the Georgia Tech campus. More than 140 people from the energy industry participated in the highly engaged event that included discussions on innovations and challenges in electrification in the transportation, residential, and industrial sectors. Additionally, the event addressed the economic development that the recent federal funding in the energy area is expected to bring to the state of Georgia.

The event began with a virtual welcome address by Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, followed by an introduction by Joe Hagerman, the director of EPIcenter, that operates within the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech. EPICenter was created to provide an unbiased and interdisciplinary framework for stimulating innovation in energy policy and technology for the Southeast region. Keith Dennis, founder and CEO of the Beneficial Electrification League, engaged the audience with his presentation on the benefits of electrification, followed by key energy industry leaders from the state of Georgia discussing their viewpoints on electrification opportunities in their industry. The morning keynote by Bentina Terry, senior vice president of Customer Strategy and Solutions at Georgia Power, brought focus on the everyday customer. Terry said they can be swayed with energy solutions only if the solutions providers advocate the benefits through the lens of the consumer.    

The stakeholder dialogue on electric transportation included Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols, who emphasized that the state of Georgia needs to focus on expanding the state’s transportation infrastructure to meet the rising EVs on Georgia roads and the urgent need for electrification in transportation. Richard Simmons, director of Research and Studies at the Strategic Energy Institute, also brought home the fact that transportation sector has caught on to the benefits of electrification more than any other sector in the country. GDOT team member in the discussion revealed the timeline of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program that has $135 million in funds apportioned to the state of Georgia.

On electrification in residential homes, panelists including Anita Moreno, Michelle Moore and Andrea Pinabell shared different perspectives and examples of the huge impact electrification has in residential homes, especially in low and moderate income and rural communities of Georgia.

The team from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, an entity that funds environmental infrastructure projects in the state, discussed the historical funding coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and Inflation Reduction Act. With more than $300 million coming through the Georgia State Energy Office and most of the funding residential focused, the team discussed the challenges and consumer expectations and how they ensure projects that get funded save money and lead to client satisfaction.

Stakeholder dialogue on electrification of commercial technology included Chandra Farley, the chief sustainability officer of the City of Atlanta, who discussed decarbonization of public buildings, training the workforce, and electrification of the public fleet, while advancing the city’s goal to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035. Panelists also discussed heat pumps as a cost-effective method of supplying low-temperature heat for industrial processes and the advantages of industrial heat pumps over combustion technologies for electrification and energy efficiency.

“At EPICenter, we leverage Georgia Tech’s expertise and innovation to help inform energy policy and technology for the Southeast,” said Hagerman. “The GA Electrification Leadership Summit is another example of how we have brought together diverse stakeholders to foster collaboration and dialogue on Georgia’s energy future. EPICenter will continue to support electrification, energy access, and deep community engagement. Georgia Tech and EPICenter can play an outsized role in helping the Southeast achieve a vibrant, clean, and competitive energy future for all Georgians.”

Over 9% of global passenger vehicle sales last year were electric vehicles (EVs) according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. EV sales are surging due to a combination of policy support, improvements in battery technology, more charging infrastructure, and new compelling vehicles from automakers.

To address the rapid growth in the EV industry, the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering has partnered with Siemens to offer a new course, Electric Vehicles & the Grid. The course launched in the spring semester and is providing a transformative learning experience to Georgia Tech students while preparing them to charge into the future. 

With a focus on innovation and sustainability, Electric Vehicles & the Grid teaches engineering principles of electric transportation and the energy infrastructure. The class also covers the emerging technologies of batteries, renewables, and connectivity that will allow further optimization of the products with the grid. 

Although EV courses are taught across the nation, the class's additional focus on the grid is a component that is missing from courses taught at other institutions.  

Read Full Story on the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Website

At Georgia Tech, the research enterprise covers activities from basic research to commercialization and societal use. Each year, the Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR) presents awards to recognize the achievements of faculty and staff as partners, mentors, and outstanding researchers across the many facets of the enterprise. 

“Congratulations to all the exceptional nominees and to the individuals who were selected to receive this year's Institute Research Awards,” said Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for Research at Georgia Tech. “These outstanding researchers were nominated by their peers for their diligent research efforts, and we are proud to acknowledge them for their commitment to advance science and technology and to improve the human condition.”

Awardees were selected in nine areas, from achievements in innovation to engagement and outreach. Two of the awards were given to groups of researchers who are making an impact collectively. This year, more than 150 researchers were nominated for these prestigious awards.

• Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:Iris Tien, CEE, SEI
• Outstanding Achievement in Early Career Research:Marta Hatzell, ME, IMat, SEI  
• Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement:Robert Knotts, Federal Relations 
• Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation:Younan Xia, SoCB, IEN, Imat, IBB
• Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Advisor:John Reynolds, SoCB, IMat, RBI
• Outstanding Faculty Research Author:Wilbur Lam, BME, IEN, IBB 
• Outstanding Achievement in Research Engagement and Outreach:Pascal Van Hentenryck, ISyE, IDEaS, SEI
• Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development: The Spaceflight Project Group at GT: Glen Lightsey, AE, IRIM; Jud Ready, GTRI, IEN, IMat, SEI; Christopher Valenta, GTRI; Christopher Carr, AE; Brian Gunter, AE, BBISS, IRIM; Sterling Peet, AE; Ian Harrison, GTRI
• Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Impact:Partnership for Inclusive Innovation: Debra Lam, IDEaS, IPaT, SEI; Clarence Anthony Jr., Kayla Burns, Cody Cocchi, Jamal Lewis, Polly Sattler, all from EI2

Awardees will be recognized at the Faculty and Staff Honors Luncheon on Friday, April 21. 

Brad Dixon, braddixon@gatech.edu

We have a problem with our current solar cells. They were built with very little thought towards end-of-life. Current solar panels tend to last twenty to thirty years. As those solar panels start to age, we are left with the challenge to think about how to recycle them. When the National Science Foundation (NSF) put out an interdisciplinary challenge for clean energy, Dr. Correa-Baena, Dr. Naomi Deneke, and Dr. Ilke Celik partnered to write a proposal to tackle recycling of perovskite solar cells.

Read Full Story on the MSE website.

The Energy, Policy, and Innovation Center (EPICenter) hosted the 2024 cohort of Energy Unplugged, a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) summer program for high school students. The weeklong camp was held at Georgia Tech’s Atlanta and Savannah campuses this summer and has earned a reputation as one of the most sought-after high-school-level summer camps hosted by Georgia Tech. 

Rich Simmons, director of Research and Studies at the Strategic Energy Institute, has been the driving force behind the camp since its inception in 2019. Simmons, a faculty instructor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, brings his award-winning teaching expertise to high school students, ensuring that each session of Energy Unplugged is both educational and engaging. The program covered a range of timely topics, from basic energy principles such as conservation laws, electric circuits, and battery storage to more complex subjects like environmental impacts, data analytics, and decision-making. In addition, students were immersed in hands-on activities, interactive demonstrations, and power plant site visits.

During the first two days, students formed teams to construct catapults and mousetrap cars, discussed the underlying physics involving energy conversion, and then launched projectiles and vehicles to test their predictions. In one of the camp’s most popular activities, students raced remote-controlled cars around an obstacle course to learn about the importance of balancing multiple objectives, such as energy use, elapsed time, safety, and cargo capacity. The week culminated in a small-group mini-project, where campers applied the skills they had acquired to solve a real-world challenge — to optimize a cooking process using solar energy. Given specific parameters on energy generation, storage, and meal demand, the students determined the best approach to convert solar energy for cooking and storage to meet a daily lunch and dinner schedule for a food truck business. The program concluded with the campers presenting their preferred designs to an audience of parents, faculty, and staff, adding public speaking and technical presentation skills to their summer experiences.

Every year, students highlight the energy field trips to power plants, data centers, robotics labs, and makerspaces as some of their favorite aspects of the camp. A student poll during the final presentations used words like fun, informative, interesting, magical, epic, exciting, educational, and fantastical to describe the camping experience. The camp introduced the students to STEM-related careers and the many undergraduate programs that could provide a pathway for them. 

Energy Unplugged provides a portal for Georgia Tech graduate student interns such as Jake Churchill and staff members such as Jordann Shields to engage students with energy concepts, activities, career paths, and information about attending Georgia Tech. 

Energy Unplugged is administered by Georgia Tech Summer P.E.A.K.S. (Program for Enrichment and Accelerated Knowledge in STEAM) at CEISMC (the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing), the primary connection point between Tech faculty and students and the K-12 STEAM education community. Annually, CEISMC programs are accessible to more than 39,000 students; 1,700 teachers; and 200 schools in over 75 school districts throughout Georgia.

As part of the Strategic Energy Institute, EPICenter taps into regional and national expertise within academia, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and research facilities to provide an unbiased and interdisciplinary framework for driving innovation in energy policy and technology in the Southeast.

Christine Conwell has been named interim executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), effective Sept. 10. 

A principal research scientist, Conwell has served as SEI’s director of planning and operations since 2020. In this role, she oversaw strategic and annual planning within SEI and partnered with campus researchers and units to create and execute strategic programs and events. Most recently, she led the development of a new five-year action plan and launched a signature initiative to build energy-focused research partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.  

Before her role at SEI, Conwell was managing director of the $40 million NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where she oversaw daily operations, fostered collaborations between 12 universities and other partners, and developed outreach and educational programs. Annually, she worked with more than 80 faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and students and advised on key opportunities to maximize the center's impact. She served as a key leader within CCE’s management team and, in 2020, she was awarded Georgia Tech’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement in the Research Enterprise Award for her leadership.

“Christine has been instrumental in the growth and expansion of the Strategic Energy Institute,” said Julia Kubanek, vice president of Interdisciplinary Research at Georgia Tech. “The strong research ties she has built as a long-standing member of the Georgia Tech research community, along with her outstanding leadership during the past few years, makes her the natural choice for SEI’s interim executive director.”

Conwell holds a B.S. in molecular biology and chemistry from Westminster College in Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Georgia Tech. She has authored several peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and grants on her research in DNA biophysics and non-viral gene delivery, and was a postdoctoral recipient of the NIH Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award. During her time at Georgia Tech, Conwell has served as a member of the Research Faculty Senate and the Faculty Executive Board, and she was selected as a member of the fifth Leading Women at Georgia Tech cohort.

“I am honored to serve as the interim executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute during this pivotal moment for energy research,” she said. “As we navigate an exciting period of innovation at the local, regional, and national levels, I am eager to build on our current momentum and deepen collaborations with our exceptional researchers, faculty, and staff to further advance our energy community and drive progress in the field.”

In a study by a Georgia Tech economist that could help inform future energy policy, half the participants cranked their thermostats despite knowing exactly how much each extra degree would cost them.

Prices are typically the first tool used to get people to save energy, noted Dylan Brewer, assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Economics. As climate change affects communities and utilities transition to sustainable sources, it’s increasingly critical for regulators and utilities to understand exactly how price affects consumers’ energy use.

“There's kind of a puzzle that exists in the literature on energy consumption,” Brewer said. When it comes to most commodities, price drives demand, but “if the price of electricity changes, most people are not very responsive.” He wanted to test the popular theory that inelastic demand is the result of consumers not knowing the exact price of turning up the thermostat.

In his 2023 study in the journal Energy Policy, Brewer surveyed a sample of Americans after a winter of real-time heating decisions. They were presented with different cost scenarios and asked about their “bliss point” — the temperature at which they’d keep their houses if money were no object.

As a Ph.D. student at Michigan State University, Brewer was struck by how many landlords offered “free heat” during East Lansing’s frigid winters.

He saw that when “people are not on the hook for a decision, they're often wasteful. But if they're paying for their environmental costs, they're going to conserve.” He focused on this phenomenon in his dissertation and has since launched other projects on the economics of thermostat settings. “It’s my niche,” he said.

In the study, participants knew exactly how much an extra degree of heat would cost them. Yet even at the highest price level ($8 per 5 degrees Fahrenheit), half of them exhibited zero response to price, Brewer reported. On average, doubling heating costs led respondents to say they would lower less than 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Brewer found that participants with incomes below $50,000 and those living in urban areas were more responsive to price changes, while older participants had less elastic demand.

It turns out, Brewer noted, “People simply do not like to be cold.”

The results are just as relevant for warm-weather states. In Georgia in 2022, 42% of the state's electricity was used for air conditioning and nearly three in five households with electric heating, according to the U.S. Energy Information Association.

Based on study results, Brewer noted that utilities confronted with extreme weather or a supply-side disruption might encourage customers to shift electricity usage to off-peak hours rather than assume they’ll be affected by an increase in rates. “If you have an energy emergency and need to curb energy consumption, this is telling you that prices are not going to do it,” he said.

“This is a daily choice that we make,” Brewer said. “Given that we spend a huge fraction of our time in climate-controlled buildings, these types of heating and cooling issues have pretty large implications.”

Written by: Deborah Halber