Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor Srinivas Aluru is the recipient of the Charles Babbage Award for 2025. Aluru was awarded for pioneering research contributions that intersect parallel computing and computational biology.

“This is a very well-deserved recognition for Srinivas as he joins the illustrious list of past recipients of the Charles Babbage Award,” said Vivek Sarkar, the John P. Imlay Jr. Dean of the College of Computing.

“Srinivas’ accomplishments reflect positively on himself and all of us at Georgia Tech. This is indeed an occasion to celebrate.”

The IEEE Computer Society presents the Babbage Award annually. The award recognizes significant contributions to parallel computation. 

[Related: IEEE-CS interview with Aluru on his award-winning career]

The award is named after Charles Babbage, widely considered to be a “father of the computer.” Babbage and Ada Lovelace are credited with inventing the first mechanical computers in the 19th century, eventually leading to more complex designs.

Aluru is a pioneer in computational genomics, an area of biology that studies the order, structure, function, and evolution of genetic material. Throughout his career, his lab has developed software and algorithms to analyze the genomes of several species of plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Genome base pair sizes can number into the billions, which can be interpreted as massive datasets. Ever since the early years of his career, Aluru championed parallel computing as a practical approach to studying these challenging datasets. 

Parallelism divides a large problem into smaller ones, allowing different processors on a computer to solve the simpler tasks simultaneously. This approach breaks a genome into smaller segments, allowing computers to efficiently transcribe genetic code and identify insightful patterns. 

“Srinivas Aluru’s groundbreaking contributions have profoundly shaped the intersection of parallel processing and bioinformatics. His work is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Yves Robert, awards chair of the IEEE Computer Society Babbage Committee. 

“It is a privilege to recognize a researcher whose work will undoubtedly have a lasting impact for generations to come.”

IEEE selected Aluru as a fellow in 2010, and he recently served as the editor-in-chief of the journal IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. 

Aluru has fellowships with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is a past recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, IBM Faculty Award, and the Swarnajayanti Fellowship from the government of India.

Along with receiving the Babbage Award, Aluru’s leadership acumen earned him the recent appointment as senior associate dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing. 

Aluru helped form the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) at Georgia Tech in 2016, serving as co-executive director. Later, he became the institute’s sole executive director from 2019 to 2025. Regents’ Professor C. David Sherrill became interim executive director of IDEaS when Aluru accepted his associate dean appointment.  

Aluru started at Georgia Tech in 2013 to join the new School of Computational Science and Engineering, established in 2010. He served as the School’s interim chair from 2019 to 2020. In 2023, the University System of Georgia appointed Aluru as Regents’ Professor.

Aluru completed his Ph.D. at Iowa State University in 1994. He then worked at Ames National Laboratory, Syracuse University, and New Mexico State University before returning to his alma mater from 1999 to 2013.

“This award is a recognition of over two and a half decades of research efforts in my group, reflecting not only my work but that of numerous graduate students and collaborators,” said Aluru. 

“I hope the award draws attention to the importance of parallel methods in computational biology and points key advancements to new entrants in the field.”

A new NASA-funded project will have Georgia Tech aerospace engineers developing new technology to one day study planets outside our solar system. 

It's a $10 million joint mission led by the University of Michigan called STARI — STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry. Georgia Tech’s engineers will build the propulsion systems for a pair of briefcase-sized CubeSats that will fly in orbit a few hundred yards away from one another, bouncing starlight back and forth. 

The technology could be used someday to better understand if any known exoplanets are capable of supporting life as we know it.

Interferometry is already used to study stars, gas clouds, and galaxies. Instead of using one large telescope, several smaller telescopes work as a team. The machines swap starlight to create higher resolution images than are possible from a single telescope. 

Scientists and engineers have recently proposed using interferometry to locate exoplanets. 

STARI will determine if the same type of coordination and light transmission can be done using less expensive CubeSats. 

Read the entire story on the College of Engineering website. 

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a groundbreaking 3D-printed, bioresorbable heart valve that promotes tissue regeneration, potentially eliminating the need for repeated surgeries and offering a transformative solution for both adult and pediatric heart patients.

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From new farming practices to paleontology, meet four Georgia Tech researchers who improve the climate and predict its future.

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Calculating and visualizing a realistic trajectory of ink spreading through water has been a longstanding and enormous challenge for computer graphics and physics researchers.

When a drop of ink hits the water, it typically sinks forward, creating a tail before various ink streams branch off in different directions. The motion of the ink’s molecules upon mixing with water is seemingly random. This is because the motion is determined by the interaction of the water’s viscosity (thickness) and vorticity (how much it rotates at a given point).

“If the water is more viscous, there will be fewer branches. If the water is less viscous, it will have more branches,” said Zhiqi Li, a graduate computer science student.

Li is the lead author of Particle-Laden Fluid on Flow Maps, a best paper winner at the December 2024 ACM SIGGRAPH Asia conference. Assistant Professor Bo Zhu advises Li and is the co-author of six papers accepted to the conference.

Zhu said they must correctly calculate and simulate the interaction between viscosity and vorticity before they can accurately predict the ink trajectory.

“The ink branches generate based on the intricate interaction between the vorticities and the viscosity over time, which we simulated,” Zhu said. “Using a standard method to simulate the physics will cause most of the structures to fade quickly without being able to see any detailed hierarchies.”

Zhu added that researchers had yet to develop a method for this until he and his co-authors proposed a new way to solve the equation. Their breakthrough has unlocked the most accurate simulations of ink diffusion to date.

“Ink diffusion is one of the most visually striking examples of particle-laden flow,” Zhu said.

“We introduce a new viscosity model that solves for the interaction between vorticity and viscosity from a particle flow map perspective. This new simulation lets you map physical quantities from a certain time frame, allowing us to see particle trajectory.”

In computer simulations, flow is the digital visualization of a gas or liquid through a system. Users can simulate these liquids and gases through different scenarios and study pressure, velocity, and temperature.

A particle-laden flow depicts solid particles mixing within a continuous fluid phase, such as dust or water sediment. A flow map traces particle motion from the start point to the endpoint.

Duowen Chen, a computer science Ph.D. student also advised by Zhu and co-author of the paper, said previous efforts by researchers to simulate ink diffusion depended on guesswork. They either used limited traditional methods of calculations or artificial designs. 

“They add in a noise model or an artificial model to create vortical motions, but our method does not require adding any artificial vortical components,” Chen said. “We have a better viscosity force calculation and vortical preservation, and the two give a better ink simulation.”

Zhu also won a best paper award at the 2023 SIGGRAPH Asia conference for his work explaining how neural network maps created through artificial intelligence (AI) could close the gaps of difficult-to-solve equations. In his new paper, he said it was essential to find a way to simulate ink diffusion accurately independent of AI.

“If we don’t have to train a large-scale neural network, then the computation time will be much faster, and we can reduce the computation and memory costs,” Zhu said. “The particle flow map representation can preserve those particle structures better than the neural network version, and they are a widely used data structure in traditional physics-based simulation.”

Pursuing entrepreneurship is an exciting and rewarding experience. You have the power to solve real-world problems and make an impact. Here are six things you can do to begin your entrepreneurial journey.

1. Identify a Problem You’re Interested in Solving

We often gravitate toward familiar problems, but it's crucial to explore beyond our immediate surroundings. Take the time to venture off campus and learn about problems faced by small businesses, corporations, and communities. Engaging with diverse groups will help you uncover unique challenges that you might not have considered. We accept startups in a variety of industries, from fashion to healthcare.

2. Understand the Problem Before Creating a Solution

It's tempting to rush into building a solution once you've identified a problem. However, it's essential to thoroughly understand the problem first. Before you start building, conduct at least 10 – 20 customer discovery interviews. This will give you valuable insights into the problem you're solving and help you validate your business thesis.

3. Start With Your Business Thesis

Formulate a clear business thesis: "X will buy Y because of Z." Here, X represents your target customer, Y is your product, and Z is the reason they will purchase it. As you engage with potential customers, refine your hypothesis based on their feedback. This iterative process will help you develop a product that meets real needs.

4. Build a Version 1 of Your Product

This is easier than it sounds and can be very low-tech to start. Concentrate on developing the core functionality of your product that addresses the primary pain point for your users. This unlocks user insights that can help you know if and where to pivot your solution.

5. Think About Your Business Model

While you don't need to have a concrete business model from the start, it's beneficial to brainstorm potential models. Consider how your product could generate revenue and sustain itself. Your business model can evolve as you gain more insights and experience.

6. Put in the Time

Launching a startup requires a significant time commitment and focus. You can create real momentum when you can dedicate consistent time.

 

Looking for more support on your entrepreneurial journey? Be sure to check out Startup Launch, a 12-week accelerator that helps you move from idea/prototype to your first customer. You have access to expert mentors, exclusive founder-focused workshops, vendor discounts, and $5,000 in seed funding. 

The application deadline is Monday, March 17, for the summer cohort. 

A previous info session on Startup Launch and a Startup Launch sample application are available to help students prepare. Attend CREATE-X events to get insights into entrepreneurship, workshop business ideas, find teammates, and prepare your Startup Launch applications. For additional questions, email create-x@groups.gatech.edu.

Andrei Fedorov, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Chair, and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, will represent Georgia Tech in a new international research initiative. The program, Adopting Sustainable Partnerships for Innovative Research Ecosystem (ASPIRE) for Top Scientists, is funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. It will receive approximately $3.2 million in funding over five years.

The award will support a broad spectrum of multidisciplinary research activities by the multinational teams and intermediate to long-term (three months to one year) collaborative visits to global research sites in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. A total of 46 proposals were submitted to ASPIRE for Top Scientists, out of which 14 were selected by expert evaluation. Each project is an international collaboration and the initiative's key focus is advancing science and technology on an international level.

Fedorov will lead a project titled "Construction of International Data and Analysis Platform for Inorganic Power-storage Materials Informatics with Nano/Micro-Structure" that will explore the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Informatics, and Energy. He will represent Georgia Tech as a principal investigator. The planned research will also involve faculty members and graduate students from College of Engineering schools involved in the Strategic Energy Institute.

Read the full story on the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering website.

CREATE-X is set to host its next Deep Startups panel event on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Rooms 1116– 1118. The event will feature S.K. Sharma — former chief analytics and AI officer at Universal Music Group — and an expert in AI, data science, and strategic analytics. During Deep Startups, Sharma will dive into startup development within the context of the music business industry. Seating is limited. Students can register for Deep Startups on Engage. Faculty, staff, and the general public can register for Deep Startups on Eventbrite. 

Deep Startups is a series that brings together knowledgeable entrepreneurs and Startup Launch alumni from various business sectors to discuss their experiences forming companies that address significant, contemporary challenges. Attendees spend an informative evening discovering the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship.

From 2016 until recently, S.K. Sharma led a global team of Ph.D. data scientists, engineers, and strategists at Universal Music Group (UMG) to develop innovative and scalable solutions that drive real-time market insights and audience engagement. His leadership has been instrumental in creating differentiated intellectual property and market-leading capabilities in AI, machine learning, and prescriptive analytics, earning him multiple patents in marketing analytics.

Sharma's academic background includes a Ph.D. in chemical physics and physical chemistry from Caltech. His research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and he has held concurrent roles in academia and industry, including senior research scientist at Caltech's Beckman Institute. His corporate career includes significant positions such as vice president at Lehman Brothers, executive director at UBS, and vice president and partner at Mitchell Madison Group, where he advised global private equity funds and venture capital managers.

In addition to his role at UMG, Sharma is an entrepreneur in residence at UC San Diego's Office of Innovation and Commercialization, where he supports pioneering advancements in science and engineering. He is also an investor at Provisio Medical, a company revolutionizing endovascular procedures with its Sonic Lumen Tomography technology.

Sharma's contributions to the field of AI and analytics have been widely recognized. He was awarded Billboard magazine's 40 Under 40 and has been a commencement speaker at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering. His work in developing AI-driven marketing technologies has set new standards in the industry, ensuring compliance with global privacy regulations while driving significant improvements in marketing efficiency.

Attendees of Deep Startups will hear practical knowledge and actionable advice on entrepreneurship from Sharma. Each CREATE-X event is an opportunity to network, build ideas, and prepare for the Startup Launch program, which provides $5,000 in optional seed funding, $150,000 in in-kind services, mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops, networking events, and resources to help build and scale startups. Students, faculty, researchers, and alumni interested in developing their own startups are encouraged to apply. The deadline to apply for Startup Launch is March 17, 2025. Spots are limited. Apply now for a higher chance of acceptance and early feedback. If you have any questions about getting started, email us at create-x@groups.gatech.edu.

The Space Research Institute (SRI) at Georgia Tech has initiated an internal search for its inaugural executive director. This new Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) will build upon the foundation laid by the Space Research Initiative.

The SRI is dedicated to advancing cutting-edge research in space-related fields, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, and establishing strong partnerships with industry, government, academic, and international organizations. As leader of the newly established IRI, the executive director will lead the Institute's strategic vision, nurture a culture of innovation, and champion initiatives that position Georgia Tech, via the SRI, as a global leader in space research and exploration.

The SRI is composed of faculty and staff across campus who have a common interest in space exploration and discovery. Collectively, SRI will research a wide range of topics on space and how it relates to human perspective and be an ultimate hub of all things space related at Georgia Tech. It will connect all the research institutes, labs, facilities, and colleges to pioneer the conversation about space in the state of Georgia. By working hand-in-hand with academics, business partners, and students we are committed to staying at the cutting edge of innovation. 

Click here to learn more about this position and how to apply.