Flooding dominated the headlines of summer 2025. Atypical storms and rising rivers in the Texas Hill Country washed away an entire summer camp. Glacial snow melt, combined with flash river floods, caused hundreds of deaths in Pakistan. As the Atlantic hurricane season hits its peak, Americans wait to see if another storm may be as unexpectedly devastating as 2024’s Hurricane Helene. 

Flooding can be an existential threat, affecting everything from infrastructure to health. Georgia Tech researchers are developing solutions to monitor and forecast flooding, as well as restore ecosystems to prevent future flooding. These efforts support communities’ resilience in the face of climate change and keep the U.S. secure.

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This fall, 20 Georgia Tech students published a peer-reviewed scientific paper — the culmination of work done during a semester-long laboratory course. During the semester, students analyzed genomes sequenced from marine samples collected in Key West, Florida — doing hands-on original bioinformatics research on par with graduate students and working with bioinformatics tools to explore drug discovery potential.

The course, BIOS 4590, is a research project lab for senior biology majors that provides an opportunity for professors to share their expertise with students in a hands-on environment. In his class, Associate Professor Vinayak (Vinny) Agarwal, who holds joint appointments in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Biological Sciences, aimed to introduce undergraduates to advanced bioinformatics tools through applied research using new-to-science raw data. 

The resulting paper, “Phylogenomic Identification of a Highly Conserved Copper-Binding RiPP Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Marine Microbulbifer Bacteria,” which was recently published in ACS Chemical Biology, involves the historically understudied genus of Microbulbifer, a type of bacteria often associated with sponges and corals. These microbial communities are rich sources of natural products, small biological molecules often associated with medicine and drug discovery. 

"This class, and the resulting research, is a testament to the transformative power of hands-on learning,” says Susan Lozier, dean of the College of Sciences, Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair, and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “The success of this course — and the students’ remarkable achievement — reflects Georgia Tech's commitment to fostering curiosity, collaboration, and scientific rigor and to empowering the next generation of scientists and leaders."

Funded by Agarwal’s 2023 National Science Foundation CAREER grant and Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar award, the class also received support from leadership in the College of Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, and School Chemistry and Biochemistry. The study’s lead author, graduate student Yifan (Grace) Tang, served as the class teaching assistant, and was funded in part by a Biochemistry and Biophysics Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need fellowship. 

“The students in this class are working on important, novel work — this cohort worked with real genomic data that had never been sequenced before,” she says. “Typically, researchers might work with one or two genome sequences, but we provided students with 42 — this might be the first time anyone has looked at Microbulbifer at such a wide scope.” 

From classroom to publication

To prepare for the class, Tang worked alongside Laboratory Manager Alison Onstine, who manages the School of Biological Sciences teaching laboratory spaces, to sequence the Key West bacterial genomes.

“Our work in the Agarwal Lab is in natural product discovery. We focus on finding new pharmaceutical drugs through marine bacteria — but with a bioinformatics spin,” Tang explains. “We wanted to bring this type of experience to undergraduates, so we gave fully sequenced genomes to students and asked them to look for potential properties.” 

Throughout the class, students learned different techniques for analyzing bacterial genome sequences and extracting data with various tools — gaining both lab and computational skills through hands-on experiences, live demos, and troubleshooting sessions. 

“The highlight was showing students just how much we can learn about a bacterial genus, especially one that hasn’t been studied at this scale before,” Tang shares. “This is a growing field, so there are so many opportunities for students to make meaningful contributions while learning new skills.”

Empowering future students

For many students, it was their first time using these types of tools, but Agarwal says that it’s something they'll likely encounter in both industry and research. He sees this type of research experience as especially helpful for seniors, who are often deciding between entering the workforce or continuing their education.

“Bioinformatics is increasingly important for analyzing big data. Students need the ability to manipulate and understand data using computational tools, and this class plays an important role in familiarizing them with this process,” he shares. “Our goal is to demystify research and give students the confidence and tools for both graduate school and for the workforce after graduation.”

The class will be offered for a third time in Fall 2026. While the exact course of research hasn’t yet been decided, “we always aim for something new that can produce publication-quality research — students don’t repeat past year’s work,” Agarwal says. This recent cohort of students built on the success of 18 undergraduates who took the class in 2023, who also published a paper. “This course truly underscores Georgia Tech’s commitment to pioneering meaningful undergraduate experiences — no other peer institution I know of is exposing undergraduates to bioinformatics at this level.”

 

Funding: NSF CAREER and the Dreyfus Foundation

The 2025 round of Sustainability Next Research Seed Grants has been awarded to 17 transdisciplinary research teams representing a vibrant network of 51 collaborators from across Georgia Tech. These teams span 21 unique units from six of the seven Colleges, including Schools, research centers, and Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. 

The seed grant program, administered by the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), reaches many faculty members from a diverse array of disciplines due to the generous support provided by broad-based partnerships in addition to the Sustainability Next funds. This year’s partners are the Georgia Tech Arts Initiative, BBISS, Walter H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Design, School of City and Regional Planning, School of Computer Science, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, Energy Policy and Innovation Center, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Institute for Matter and Systems, Institute for People and Technology, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Strategic Energy Institute, and Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education.

The goal of the program is to nurture promising research areas for future large-scale collaborative sustainability research, research translation, and/or high-impact outreach; to provide mid-career faculty with leadership and community-building opportunities; and to broaden and strengthen the Georgia Tech sustainability community as a whole. The call for proposals was modeled after the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research’s Moving Teams Forward and Forming Teams programs.

Looking ahead, BBISS will support and nurture these projects in collaboration with the relevant funding partners. Beginning in October, BBISS will host a series of focused workshops designed to foster collaboration and provide additional support to help advance these initiatives. Projects have been grouped into five thematic clusters, each of which will be the focus of an upcoming workshop:

• Circularity Programs
• Adaptation to the Changing Environment
• Community Engagement and Education
• Climate Science and Solutions
• Environmental and Health Impacts

BBISS faculty fellows, past seed grant recipients, and other interested Georgia Tech faculty are invited to participate. If you are interested in participating in the workshops, please email kristin.janacek@gatech.edu. The first session on Circularity Programs is Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. in the Peachtree Room (3rd floor) of the John Lewis Student Center.

The 2025 Sustainability Next Seed Grant awards are:

Forming Teams:

• Developing a Sustainable and Ethical Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Workforce for the Future Through Cross-Sector Partnerships. Principal Investigators (PI): Joe Bozeman. Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI): Jennifer Hirsch.
• Unlocking Circularity at Scale: Platform-Based Solutions for Advancing Material Reuse and Supply Chain Resilience. Principal Investigator: Marco Ceccagnoli. Co-PIs: Matthew Realff, Patricia Stathatou, Christos Athanasiou.
• OpenGUARD: Geospatial Utility Aggregations with Robust Differential Privacy. PI: Patrick Kastner. Co-PI: Juba Ziani.
• Regenerative Framework: A Transdisciplinary Model for Urban Climate Resilience and Soil Health. PI: Jenny McGuire. Co-PI: Nicole Kennard.
• Guiding Transportation With Community Action Through Research, Education, and Service (GT-CARES). PI: Rounaq Basu. Co-PIs: Ruthie Yow,  Sofía Pérez-Guzmán, Rebecca Watts Hull.
• Co-optimizing Design and Coordination for Sustainable Multi-Robot Construction. PI: Edvard Bruun. Co-PI: Harish Ravichanda.
• Campus as Material Ecology: Building Transdisciplinary Circular Systems for Plastic Tracking, Transformation, and Community Engagement. PI: Hyojin Kwon. Co-PIs: Michael Best, Russ Clark, Tim Trent, Meisha Shofner.
• Sonifying Climate Infrastructures: Community Outreach and Education With Shade Synthesizer. PI: Heidi Biggs. Co-PIs: Clint Zeagler, Alexandria Smith.
• Building a Georgia Tech Research Partnership for Community-Based Food System Resilience. PI: Johannes Milz. Co-PIs: Xin Chen, Inge Rocker,  Sofía Pérez-Guzmán, Nicole Kennard.

Moving Teams Forward:

• Are Data Centers the New Landfills? Social, Economic, and Environmental Tradeoffs. PI: Allen Hyde. Co-PIs: Josiah Hester, Cindy Lin, Nicole Kennard, Joe Bozeman, Elora Raymond, Tony Harding, Jung-Ho Lewe.
• Game-Based Learning in Energy Systems: A Rigorous Evaluation of Current Crisis. PI: Jessica Roberts. Co-PI: Daniel Molzahn.
• Strategic Application of Antibiotic-Independent Therapy to Treat Coral Disease Outbreaks. PI: Lauren Speare.
• Advancing Water Reuse Through Research, Education, and Community Partnerships in Atlanta, Georgia. PI: Katherine Graham. Co-PIs: Amanda Nolen, Yeqing Kong.
• Assessing the Accuracy and Reliability of Low-Cost Particulate Matter (PM) Sensors Across Diverse Ambient Environments. PI: Nga Lee (Sally) Ng. Co-PI: Ted Russell.
• Developing a Georgia Community Center Into a Sustainability Hub. PI: Ashutosh Dhekne, Co-PIs: Umakishore Ramachandran, Danielle Willkens, Ruthie Yow.
• What, When, Where of Air Pollution: PM2.5 and How It Impacts Health. PI: Shuichi Takayama. Co-PI: Nga Lee (Sally) Ng.
• Enabling Communities to Baseline the Performance of Energy Systems. PI: Jung-Ho Lewe. Co-PIs: Scott Duncan, David Solano Sarmiento, Danielle Willkens, Anna Tinoco-Santiago.

This round of funding was highly competitive, with 45 proposals submitted. BBISS extends its gratitude to all the individuals and groups who applied, as well as to the faculty and staff who contributed their time and expertise to evaluate the proposals. Their thoughtful input was essential to achieving a fair and collaborative selection process, ensuring that the awarded proposals align strongly with the BBISS’ strategy and show promise for long-term impact and future research opportunities.

According to BBISS Executive Director Beril Toktay, and Brady Family Chair in Management, “The high level of participation demonstrates the enduring commitment to sustainability research and engagement by the Georgia Tech community. BBISS honors this commitment by looking for collaboration opportunities with all who are driving sustainability efforts at Georgia Tech.”

Beril Toktay, Regents’ Professor and Brady Family Chair, Scheller College of Business
Executive Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems
Board of Directors, New York Climate Exchange

I returned from Climate Week NYC energized by what I witnessed: Georgia Tech faculty, students, and startups showcasing the breadth and depth of our climate innovation work on one of the world's biggest stages.

Climate Week NYC brings together more than 900 events, but what stood out wasn’t the scale — it was the substance. Across five New York Climate Exchange partner events, the Georgia Tech community demonstrated something essential. Georgia Tech bridges research and real-world impact where it matters most — in people’s lives.

At the Super South event, we flipped the script on where climate innovation happens and demonstrated the Southeast as a climate tech powerhouse. Too often, conversations about climate tech center on coastal hubs. But Georgia Tech-affiliated entrepreneurs Tarek Rakha (Lamarr.AI), Mya Love Griesbaum (Mycorrhiza Fashion), Joe Metzler (Metzev), Laura Stoy (Ph.D. ECE 2021, Rivalia Chemical), Charlie Cichetti (MGT 2004, Skema), Joseph Mooney (research engineer, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, WattAir), Lewis Motion (MBA 2017, WEAV3D), and Ramtin Motahar (IE 2004, ECON 2004, M.S. AE 2017, Joulea) showed that the Southeast isn’t just participating in the clean energy transition — we’re leading it.

The Climate Tech Fellowship Showcase was personal. Seeing two Georgia Tech teams — Patricia Stathatou and Christos Athanasiou’s yeast-based water purification system, and Xiao Liu’s AI-powered wildfire management platform — selected for the inaugural cohort reminded me why partnerships like the New York Climate Exchange matter. These early-stage innovators need more than good ideas. They need networks, mentorship, and funding pathways. NYCE provides those connections.

From flooding to batteries, two symposia highlighted GT faculty doing research that matters. At Weathering the Future, Iris Tien joined experts from AECOM, NVIDIA, and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection to discuss integrating resilience into urban infrastructure. Her work on coastal adaptation and infrastructure resilience addresses real vulnerabilities that cities face today. The Global Battery Alliance Leadership Meeting and Urban Battery Forum brought Yuanzhi Tang into conversations about building sustainable, circular battery value chains. As EVs scale and stationary storage grows, how we manage battery lifecycles — from securing raw resources to manufacturing to second-life reuse/recycling — will determine how we balance electrification, sustainability, environmental considerations, and economics; more details can be found in the NYCE report on battery circularity co-authored by Wyatt Williams (M.S. CEE 2024, MBA 2024).

Nicole Kennard’s leadership in the Climate Storytelling Workshop reinforced something I believe deeply: Technical solutions alone won’t solve the climate crisis. We need approaches that center community voices, acknowledge environmental justice concerns, and build trust. This became particularly clear in Kennard’s lecture for NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress: "Food, Place, and Belonging: From Global Visions to Local Sustainability." Presented with Janelle Wright (M CP 2022) from the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, this lecture demonstrated how sustainable food systems can draw on global frameworks but must center community values and honor the history of place.

A few insights emerged from the week:

1. Geography matters — and so does bridging it. Collaborative platforms like NYCE that create genuine partnerships across regions will be more effective in achieving Georgia Tech’s vision of doing climate work that is grounded in Georgia and global in impact.

2. Visibility accelerates impact. Several faculty and entrepreneurs told me that Climate Week NYC opened doors — to investors, to funders, to partners, and to media. Platforms like NYCE amplify work that might otherwise stay local.

3. Students are passionate about climate opportunities. Every conversation about internships, fellowships, and experiential learning generated immediate interest. We need to build more pathways for students like Rohan Datta and Amanda Ehrenhalt to engage in climate work across both New York and Atlanta ecosystems — creating opportunities for hands-on experience, knowledge diffusion across regions, and the professional networks that will define their careers.

4. Our community extends far beyond campus. Meeting alumnus Alan Warren (PHYS 1978) drove this message home. Alan brings a unique vantage point on coastal resilience challenges faced in New York — and he’s energized by what our partnership can achieve. His offer to serve as Georgia Tech’s “envoy” in NYC, connecting our climate work to networks and opportunities there, is exactly the kind of volunteer leadership that accelerates impact. Alan’s own inspirational story of resilience and regeneration makes his commitment to climate resilience work even more meaningful.

Looking ahead, I see Georgia Tech’s partnership with the NYCE creating a powerful platform: NYCE amplifies our work through capital and convening; Georgia Tech anchors deployment with Southeast roots and global reach. Working alongside a distinguished board led by incoming chair Andrea Goldsmith, president of Stony Brook University, gives me confidence in this direction.

President Ángel Cabrera met with Goldsmith this week and reaffirmed our shared vision for bridging research and impact. “Georgia Tech’s mission has always been about translating knowledge into progress that serves society,” said Cabrera. “The New York Climate Exchange partnership exemplifies this commitment to innovative solutions that can be scaled to create real human impact. By connecting our strengths in community-engaged climate research with networks that can amplify and accelerate solutions, we’re living our motto of Progress and Service as we address one of humanity’s most urgent challenges.”

The Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) convenes faculty, students, and partners to address sustainability challenges through research, education, and collaboration. Connect with BBISS on LinkedIn to be part of the ongoing discussion and/or reach out to Susan Ryan (susan.ryan@gatech.edu) to be added to BBISS’ climate science and solutions community of practice.

Congratulations to postdoctoral researcher Jiaqi Wang, recipient of a prestigious 2025 Best Paper Award from the Freight Transportation and Logistics Special Interest Group of the INFORMS Transportation Science & Logistics Society, for his paper titled “D-Optimal Orienteering for Post-Earthquake Reconnaissance Planning.” Wang is working under the supervision of Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute affiliated faculty member Professor Weijun Xie.

Award Recognition

This year, the committee received 39 exceptional submissions, resulting in a highly competitive selection process. After two rigorous rounds of voting, only three papers were selected to receive awards, highlighting the exceptional quality of Wang's research.

Groundbreaking Research Impact

The focus of the research tackles a critical real-world problem: how emergency response teams can efficiently assess earthquake damage when resources are limited. In the chaotic aftermath of a major earthquake, inspection teams must quickly determine which buildings are safe and which pose risks to public safety.

The authors transformed this challenge into an innovative vehicle routing optimization problem. Unlike traditional routing that simply moves vehicles from point to point, their approach strategically deploys inspection teams to collect the highest-quality damage assessment data possible.

Technical Innovation

The team developed advanced mathematical methods that measure data quality using sophisticated criteria, ensuring every inspection contributes maximum value to emergency response planning. They validated their methodology through realistic case studies using cutting-edge earthquake simulation technology, proving their system can significantly improve disaster response efficiency.

About the Organization

The INFORMS Transportation Science & Logistics Freight Transportation and Logistics Group focuses on research spanning trucking, rail, shipping, air cargo, and intermodal transportation. Their work encompasses planning, real-time control, pricing, demand management, and risk analysis across global supply chains.

Geotab Inc. (“Geotab”), a global leader in connected vehicle solutions and asset management, today announced a significant research investment of up to $223,000 (USD) to support a doctoral project at Georgia Tech. This funding will specifically enable PhD students to work alongside Geotab staff, tackling real-world challenges in understanding traffic patterns and improving road safety, by leveraging Geotab’s advanced data and AI capabilities.

Geotab and Georgia Tech have formalized their collaboration through a Master Agreement, facilitating joint research initiatives between Geotab teams and Georgia Tech faculty and their students. This strategic partnership emphasizes knowledge transfer and practical outcomes.

Read the article in its entirety within the Geotab website.

Smart manufacturing, data-driven design, and artificial intelligence aren’t just buzzwords — they are fields that are creating high-paying, high-tech careers across the country. In rural communities across Georgia, these advanced manufacturing roles are growing, but the talent pipeline isn’t keeping pace.

“It’s not just about creating jobs, it’s about filling them,” says Tom Kurfess, Regents’ Professor in mechanical engineering and executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI). “To do that, we need to show students how exciting and innovative manufacturing can be. Manufacturing has really changed over the past few years. Today, going from an idea to a physical part is much easier to do. It is fun and exciting to bring ideas to life and to actually hold the results in your hands.”

GTMI is working to reignite student interest in the art and science of making through its new K–12 initiative: the Advanced Manufacturing Pathways (AMP) Program. Modeled after Georgia Tech’s Rural CS Initiative, AMP empowers schools with faculty expertise, cutting-edge equipment, and a hands-on curriculum to give students early exposure to the tools, technologies, and creativity behind modern manufacturing while building a pipeline of future talent ready to thrive in high-tech careers.

Funded by the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission (SWGRC), AMP is kicking off in three school districts this fall — Decatur County, Thomas County, and the city of Thomasville  — with plans to expand to additional schools in the spring of 2026. The program will start by engaging more than 200 students through hands-on learning, virtual instruction, and in-person lab experiences led by Georgia Tech researchers and faculty.

“Here in Southwest Georgia, we believe that opportunities like this are vital for integrated learning in schools and for growing our future workforce,” says Beka Shiver, economic development and transportation planner for SWGRC. “Workforce development and K-12 integration are at the heart of our Southwest Georgia Ecosystem Building Project, and we are so pleased to be able to provide funding for this program.”

The launch of the AMP Program is centered around Design, Build, Race, a course putting a modern spin on the classic pinewood derby. Students will use digital design, 3D printing, and machining to build and race custom cars, while also learning how to collect and analyze performance data to improve their designs and predict outcomes. The course blends engineering with data science, sparking curiosity and showing students how modern manufacturing is powered by both technical skills and smart data. 

“This program delivers real-world industry experience to students while strengthening the talent pipeline that drives innovation, competitiveness, and resilience in advanced manufacturing”, says Steven Ferguson, interim director of operations at GTMI and one of the project’s leaders. “After more than 20 years of driving education and workforce development innovation, I’m more energized than ever to help launch the AMP program to open doors for students and advance U.S. manufacturing leadership.”

Building the Blueprint

Before it evolved into the AMP Program, Design, Build, Race was a course developed by GTMI research engineer Kyle Saleeby in 2023. Originating in GTMI’s Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF), the course was designed to introduce Morehouse and Georgia Tech students to the possibilities of modern manufacturing through digital design, 3D printing, machining, and competitive creativity.

“Even after the first week, it was powerful to watch students discover how exciting it is to design and manufacture a competition-ready car in a matter of hours,” said Saleeby. “That’s when I knew we were onto something special.”

Saleeby teamed up with Ferguson to transform the course into a broader initiative. The duo engaged colleagues from STEM@GTRI and secured funding from SWGRC to modify the curriculum and scale the course for a high school audience. 

“We are thrilled that we have been able to take the lessons learned during the development of the Rural Computer Science Initiative and expand opportunities for students in Southwest Georgia,” says Sean Mulvanity, a senior research associate in the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Mulvanity is one of the founders of the initiative and has been a key contributor to the AMP Program. “We hope this program can grow and expose students across the state to the field of advanced manufacturing.” 

Though granted by the SWGRC, funds for the program were provided by Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing, a statewide initiative founded by GTMI and Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute to advance AI-driven manufacturing.

To bring AMP into classrooms, Southern Regional Technical College helped set up labs and provide technical support, ensuring schools were ready to launch. 

“At all levels, the community has rallied around this program,” says Saleeby. “Providing students with a unique experience learning advanced manufacturing technologies will open countless career opportunities. I cannot wait to see where they go.” 

Georgia Tech’s James Stroud has been awarded a 2025 Maxwell/Hanrahan Award in Field Biology. Presented by the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, the award recognizes outstanding scientists conducting field research that both explores the natural world and leverages collaboration. 

An assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Stroud is one of just five scientists selected to receive this year’s honor, which includes $100,000 of funding to support his work.

“I’m honored to receive this award,” he says. “This support affirms the value of field-based research, and underscores the importance of collaborative, long-term field studies.”

From ecology to empowerment

An evolutionary biologist, Stroud uses lizards to explore how ecological and evolutionary processes at the micro scale may underlie broader patterns of biological diversity at a larger scale — research that involves both computational analysis and long-term field studies.

“My lab’s research focuses on studying lizards in their natural habitats, allowing us to directly investigate how species adapt and evolve in real time,” he shares. “This helps us understand how these ecological and evolutionary processes shape life on Earth."

In South Florida, Stroud’s fieldwork focuses on ‘Lizard Island’ — a football field-sized island with a 1,000-lizard population. Operating for a decade, it is one of the world’s longest-running active evolutionary studies of its kind. This year, Stroud published research documenting evolution in action on the island when two species met for the first time, providing some of the clearest evidence to date of evolution in real-time. 

Outside of field research, Stroud recently led a Nature review paper providing the first-ever comprehensive analysis of long-term evolutionary studies, underscoring the critical need for these types of studies. 

Stroud has also developed a community science project called “Lizards on the Loose.” A collaboration with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the program engages middle school students from more than 100 schools across South Florida through the iNaturalist online platform and mobile app. Together, they have recorded thousands of lizard observations in their school grounds, local parks, and back yards.

Georgia Tech’s Jaden Wang (Zhuochen Wang) has been awarded a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity (NSTGRO). The grant supports graduate students who “show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nation’s science, exploration, and economic future.”

Wang, who is a Ph.D. student in the School of Mathematics and a master’s student in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, will focus on developing mathematically-backed landing solutions for spacecraft. 

“I first became interested in powered descent problems during my Fall 2024 internship with NASA’s Human Landing System at Marshall Space Flight Center,” he says. “With my mathematical background in optimization and topology, and my passion for space exploration, I saw this research topic as a perfect fit when my co-advisor Dr. Panagiotis Tsiotras suggested it.”

Wang is co-advised by School of Mathematics Professor and Hubbard Research Fellow John Etnyre alongside Panagiotis Tsiotras, who holds the David and Andrew Lewis Endowed Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and is also associate director at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

In addition to his Georgia Tech advisors, Wang will collaborate with a NASA Subject Matter Expert, who will connect him with the larger technical community. He will perform part of the research as a visiting technologist at multiple NASA centers, giving him the opportunity to work with leading engineers and scientists and share his research results directly with the NASA community.

From abstractions to space exploration

“NASA’s upcoming missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond need technology that allows spacecraft to land precisely at their intended sites,” says Wang. “My research will focus on the last stage of landing, called powered descent. This stage powers up engines, which guide the spacecraft into a safe landing using a pre-designed trajectory that autopilot follows.”

This means that researchers need to figure out the correct thrust, direction, and timing to reach a landing spot — all while navigating a landing that uses as little fuel as possible.

“A common approach is to treat this as an optimization problem: minimizing fuel consumption with rigid-body physics as constraints to determine the best thrust profile,” Wang explains. “This can work well, but it has drawbacks. It assumes that there is no uncertainty in the system (for example, that the thrust of the engines is applied perfectly) and it simplifies the motion of the spacecraft by treating it as though it’s traveling through flat space instead of on a true curved geometry. Both shortcuts introduce errors  — our research aims to address these gaps.”

To improve landing precision, Wang will develop a curved-space geometric mathematical model, which takes into account the curved-space geometry of spacecraft motion rather than assuming flat space. To find a fuel-efficient landing trajectory, Wang will develop the model around optimal covariance steering, a stochastic control problem that both minimizes fuel costs while keeping the uncertainty of the spacecraft's exact landing spot within a safe amount.

It’s a problem that leverages his experience in theoretical math and his background in aerospace engineering. “I’m incredibly honored that NASA finds this research exciting and is supporting my pursuit of it,” he says. “There are so many fascinating engineering problems that could benefit from deeper theoretical scrutiny, especially using abstract machineries not typically covered in an engineering curriculum. I hope this inspires more theoretical researchers and graduate students to explore bridging these gaps.”