Jim Pope Fellowship Cohort 2025

CREATE-X is pleased to announce the next cohort of faculty members selected for the Jim Pope Fellowship for the upcoming academic year. The program provides faculty fellows with funds and education to serve as entrepreneurial instructors, mentors, and advisors to students participating in CREATE-X, Georgia Tech's entrepreneurial learning incubator.

Each fellow receives $15,000 in discretionary funds, which can be used to seek a partial reprieve from teaching for one semester. Fellows also receive mentorship, education on evidence-based entrepreneurship through courses, and opportunities to work with students launching startups.

The new Jim Pope Fellows are:

  • Adam McCallum is a translational research advocate for the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. His work focuses on how metals function in our bodies, utilizing synthetic ligands as chemical tools to explore the biochemistry of metals in biological systems. He collaborates with faculty members, students, and researchers in BME to promote the translation and commercialization of biomedical technologies developed at Georgia Tech and Emory while also encouraging entrepreneurship. Adam earned his Ph.D. in chemistry, with a focus on organic chemistry, from Georgia Tech. He then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory in Dennis Liotta's lab, where he conducted drug design and discovery research to develop novel therapeutics for various clinical indications.
     
  • Yue Chen is an assistant professor in the Walter H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He also is a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute. His work addresses building the scientific and technical foundations for various robotic systems and applying them in the medical field. His lab is especially interested in designing, building, modeling, and controlling robots. Among these robots are a commercial robot arm and many custom-made robots, like tube robots, tendon-driven robots, catheters, and soft robots. He received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a B.S. in vehicle engineering from Hunan University. This year, he won the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and is developing a continuum robotic system that can efficiently perform procedures like radio frequency ablation while a patient is inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.
     
  • Mioy Huynh is an academic professional in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry who earned his Ph.D. in physical and computational chemistry as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied proton-coupled electron transfer reactions. He has taught at Yale University, UCLA, and the Claremont Colleges. Huynh began his professional career in chemistry education as a lecturer and summer instructor at UIUC. After postdoctoral research at Boston University and the University of Wisconsin, he held lecturer positions in general and physical chemistry at Yale, UCLA, and the Claremont Colleges. 
     
  • Cici McNamara is an assistant professor in the School of Economics. McNamara studied economics and English for her undergraduate studies, and then graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D.  in economics. McNamara’s research interests are in empirical industrial organization. She studies how policies influence the demand and supply of health care and what are the impacts of resulting changes on the market and patient outcomes. She is also a health economist, and her recent work has examined the effects of financial incentives and competition on healthcare market outcomes. Her research on health care consolidation has been integrated into the Vertically Integrated Project, and she was named an AcademyHealth Rising Star in Health Economics in 2023. Among her awards and fellowships, McNamara has also presented her work at numerous conferences and seminars, including the Allied Social Science Associations Annual Meeting, the American Health Economics Conference, and the International Industrial Organization Conference.
     
  • Morvarid Rahmani is an associate professor of operations management in the Scheller College of Business. She received her Ph.D. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She also received three master degrees, in industrial engineering, electrical engineering, and economics. Her research focuses on innovation and social sustainability, providing managers with insights to enhance work processes, drive successful innovation, and address social issues. Rahmani recently received the Best Paper Award from the journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM) for her research on maximizing the social impact of nonprofit organizations on distressed individuals. She has also received the Brady Family Award for Faculty Teaching Excellence at the Scheller College of Business, the CTL/BP Faculty Teaching Excellence Award at Georgia Tech, and CIOS Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching Award, among other awards. Rahmani is the founding chair of the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TIE) Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM). She has also served as the Chair of the Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (TIMES) Section of INFORMS and as a vice president of the Product Innovation and Technology Management (PITM) College of Production and Operations Management Society (POMS). 
     
  • Jud Ready: Ready is a principal research engineer and the deputy director of Innovation Initiatives for the Georgia Tech Institute for Materials. He is also the associate director of External Engagements for the Georgia Tech Institute for Matter and Systems and has been an adjunct professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech for over 20 years. Ready has over 2,200 citations to his three dozen refereed publications and has been invited to over two dozen international conferences. He has 15 patents awarded in the United States, with many others pending. He has also served as an expert witness in criminal and civil cases, provided testimony to the Georgia State House Science and Technology Committee, and served on boards and committees. He has served as PI or co-PI for grants totaling over $20 million from various organizations, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA, NASA, NSF, NIST, industry, charitable foundations, private citizens, and the state governments of Georgia and Florida. His current research, with an emphasis on aerospace applications, focuses on energy capture, storage, and delivery enabled by nanomaterial design. His research has been included in missions to the International Space Station, low Earth orbit, and heliocentric orbit.
     
  • Fan Zhang is an assistant professor in nuclear and radiological engineering and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. She received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and an M.S. in statistics from the University of Tennessee. Her research focuses on the cybersecurity of nuclear facilities, online monitoring and fault detection using data analytics methods, instrumentation and control, and nuclear systems modeling and simulation. She has developed multiple test beds using both simulators and physical components to investigate various aspects of cybersecurity and process health management. Her research also includes AI/ML, operation optimization, digital twins, predictive maintenance, autonomous controls, robotics, and XR. Zhang is a Georgia Tech College of Engineering Cybersecurity Fellow and has received several prestigious awards. She is the recipient of the 2021 Ted Quinn Early Career Award from the American Nuclear Society for her contributions to instrumentation and control and cybersecurity. In 2022, she was awarded the inaugural Distinguished Early Career Award from the U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. Additionally, Zhang was recognized as one of UT's 2023 Volunteer 40 Under 40 and is a Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Alumni.

The Jim Pope Fellowship spans three consecutive semesters. During the fall semester, faculty fellows learn principles of evidence-based entrepreneurship by attending a workshop and shadow teaching one of the CREATE-X courses, Startup Lab, which teaches undergraduates how to examine startup ideas through customer discovery, testing hypotheses, and constructing minimum viable products. 

In the spring semester, fellows scope an entrepreneurial project to implement within their home unit, such as creating entrepreneurial assignments within an established course, hosting workshops, or developing a new course that integrates entrepreneurship. 

Once the summer semester starts, the cohort works with student startups through CREATE-X Startup Launch, serving as mentors or coaches. After completing the program, fellows spend the next two years leading CREATE-X programs.

Since its creation, the Jim Pope Fellowship has supported 25 fellows, represented 11 Georgia Tech departments, secured $1 million in funding and facilities for makerspaces, and introduced 2,500 students to entrepreneurship.

Faculty members interested in getting involved with CREATE-X can participate as teachers or mentors in various programs such as Startup Lab, CREATE-X Capstone, Idea-to-Prototype, and Startup Launch. Faculty can also apply for the next cohort of the Jim Pope Fellowship when it opens in the spring. For additional information or inquiries, contact the director of CREATE-X, Rahul Saxena, at rahulsaxena@gatech.edu.

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Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Josh Luber, co-founder of StockX, zerocool, Fanatics Collectibles, speaks to Georgia Tech students

Josh Luber, co-founder of StockX, zerocool, Fanatics Collectibles, and ghostwrite, recently surprised Georgia Tech students with a guest appearance at CREATE-X’s Deep Startups workshop.

Josh Luber, co-founder of StockX, zerocool, Fanatics Collectibles, and ghostwrite, recently surprised Georgia Tech students with a guest appearance at CREATE-X’s Deep Startups workshop. The workshop, part of the Institute’s CREATE-X entrepreneurship program, features accomplished entrepreneurs who share real-world insights on launching and scaling successful ventures. The workshop sessions offer students a rare chance to learn directly from industry leaders.

Luber, best known for transforming his passion for sneakers into the billion-dollar marketplace StockX, has since become a serial entrepreneur. His ventures include  collectibles, trading cards, and beyond, showcasing his ability to identify and capitalize on emerging markets.

During the recent workshop, Luber shared his candid experiences, including how he pivoted after a layoff, transitioned between corporate roles and entrepreneurship, raised capital during a market downturn, and created opportunities by "making his own luck." The 46-year-old entrepreneur provided valuable lessons on resilience, adaptability, and innovation in an ever-changing entrepreneurial landscape.

Watch the workshop video to hear insights from Luber.

Start Your Own Venture With CREATE-X Startup Launch

Georgia Tech students, faculty, alumni, and researchers interested in starting or developing their own startups are encouraged to apply for CREATE-X’s Startup Launch program. The program offers $5,000 in optional seed funding, $150,000 in in-kind services such as legal and accounting support, mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs, and more. The next application deadline is March 19, 2025. Early applicants receive feedback and have a higher chance of acceptance. Apply now

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Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

From left, Georgia Tech’s Nakia Melecio, Keith McGreggor, and Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, are the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub director, faculty lead, and principal investigator, respectively.

From left, Georgia Tech’s Nakia Melecio, Keith McGreggor, and Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, are the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub director, faculty lead, and principal investigator, respectively.

National Science Foundation Awards $15M to Georgia Tech-Led Consortium 
of Universities for Societal-Oriented Innovation and Commercialization Effort 

Multi-state I-Corps Hubs project designed to strengthen regional innovation ecosystem and address inequities in access to capital and commercialization opportunities 

ATLANTA — The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a syndicate of 8eight Southeast universities — with Georgia Tech as the lead — a $15 million grant to support the development of a regional innovation ecosystem with a focus on addressing underrepresentation and increasing entrepreneurship and technology-oriented workforce development. 

The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Southeast Hub, as the project is called, is a five-year project and is based on the I-Corps model, which assists academics in moving their research from the lab and into the market. 

Led by Georgia Tech’s Office of Commercialization and Enterprise Innovation Institute, the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub encompasses four states — Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama. 

Its member schools include: 

  • Clemson University 
  • Morehouse College 
  • University of Alabama 
  • University of Central Florida 
  • University of Florida 
  • University of Miami 
  • University of South Florida 

In January 2025, when the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub officially launches, the consortium of schools will expand to also include the University of Puerto Rico. Additionally, through Morehouse College’s activation, Spelman College and the Morehouse School of Medicine will also participate in supporting the project. 

With a combined economic output of more than $3.2 trillion, the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub region represents more than 11% of the entire U.S. economy. As a region, those states and Puerto Rico have a larger economic output than France, Italy, or Canada. 

“This is a great opportunity for us to engage in regional collaboration to drive innovation across the Southeast to strengthen our regional economy and that of Puerto Rico,” said the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s Nakia Melecio, director of the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub. As director, Melecio will oversee strategic management, data collection, and overall operations​. 

Additionally, Melecio serves as a national faculty instructor for the NSF I-Corps program. 

“This also allows us to collectively tackle some of the common challenges all four of our states face, especially when it comes to being intentionally inclusive in reaching out to communities that historically haven’t always been invited to participate,” he said. 

That means not just bringing solutions to market that not only solve problems but is intentional about including researchers from a diversity of schools that are inclusive of Black and Hispanic serving institutions, Melecio said. 

Keith McGreggor, director of Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, is the faculty lead and charged with designing the curriculum and instruction for the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub’s partners. 

McGreggor has extensive I-Corps experience. In 2012, Georgia Tech was among the first institutions in the country selected to teach the I-Corps curriculum, which aims to further research commercialization. McGreggor served as the lead instructor for I-Corps-related efforts and led training efforts across the Southeast, as well as for teams in Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Republic of Ireland. 

Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, Georgia Tech’s vice president of commercialization, is the project’s principal investigator. 

The NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub is one of three — the others being in the Northwest and New England regions, led by the University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively — announced by the NSF. The three I-Corps Hubs are part of the NSF’s planned expansion of its National Innovation Network, which now includes 128 colleges and universities across 48 states. 

As designed, the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub will leverage its partner institutions’ strengths to break down barriers to researchers’ pace of lab to market commercialization. 

“Our Hub member schools collectively have brought transformative technologies to market in advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, cybersecurity, and the biomedical sectors,” Sivakumar said. “Our goal is to accomplish two things. It builds and expands a scalable model to translate research into viable commercial ventures. It also addresses societal needs, not just from the standpoint of bringing solutions that solve them but building a diverse pipeline of researchers and innovators and interest in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math]-related fields.” 

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Atlanta) is a proponent of the Hub’s STEM component. 

“As a biology major-turned-Congresswoman, I know firsthand that STEM education and research open doors far beyond the lab or classroom.,” Williams said. “This National Science Foundation grant means Georgia Tech will be leading the way in equipping researchers and grad students to turn their discoveries into real-world impact — as innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. 

“I’m especially excited about the partnership with Morehouse College and other Minority Serving Institutions through this Innovation Hub, expanding pathways to innovation and entrepreneurship for historically marginalized communities and creating one more tool to close the racial wealth gap.” 

That STEM aspect, coupled with supporting growth of a regional ecosystem, will speed commercialization, increase higher education-industry collaborations, and boost the network of diverse entrepreneurs and startup founders, said David Bridges, vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute. 

“This multi-university, regional approach is a successful model because it has been proven that bringing a diversity of stakeholders together leads to unique solutions to very difficult problems,” Bridges said. “And while the Southeast faces different challenges that vary from state to state and Puerto Rico has its own needs, they call for a more comprehensive approach to solving them. Adopting a region-oriented focus allows us to understand what these needs are, customize tailored solutions and keep not just our hub but our nation economically competitive.” 

 

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Péralte Paul

Benjamin Emerson stands with the high pressure liquid sprays combustor rig that his team uses to test novel combustor concepts.

Lieuwen and his research group are developing a new type of all-purpose combustor that can use any type of fuel while still maintaining low emission standards. Their non-premixed, rich, relaxation, lean (NRRL) combustor works just as well as current mixed-fuel type combustors — but without instability.

Closeup view of Georgia Tech's newest robotic guidewire device for surgical precision.

Closeup view of Georgia Tech's newest robotic guidewire device for surgical precision.

The Coaxially Aligned Steerable Guidewire Robot (COAST) is a groundbreaking surgical device developed at Georgia Tech that helps doctors navigate blood vessels with precision during procedures like angioplasty. Controlled remotely, it’s the world’s smallest steerable guidewire. Its innovative micro-tendon actuation system allows smooth navigation, reducing risks. Available for licensing, with support from the Georgia Research Alliance.

Read more »

A gold and white charger box in front of a car

The EV smart charger allows users to customize their charging, with the ability to weight preferences for carbon-free energy, cost, charge speed, and battery health. Credit: Allison Carter

A gold and white charger box in front of a car

The EV smart charger allows users to customize their charging, with the ability to weight preferences for carbon-free energy, cost, charge speed, and battery health. Credit: Allison Carter

In 2024, more than one in five cars sold is an electric vehicle (EV). Intergovernmental agencies estimate that by 2035, half of all new cars sold globally will be EVs

While more EVs on the road sounds like great news for the environment, it could lead to complications. The electric grid is not yet ready to support the EV influx, and unaddressed capacity limitations could threaten the future of the EV industry. 

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a device to help avoid grid overload: a revolutionary EV smart-charging system. 

Read the story here

News Contact

Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer/Editor

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

NakiaMelecio

Nakia Melecio, the VentureLab Principal under the Office of Commercialization, has made remarkable progress in enhancing the grant programs of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Over an intensive eight-month period, Melecio was part of an evaluation committee that focused on refining initiatives of the NIH’s National Cancer Institute, particularly the Small Business Transition Grant and other related grant programs.

“The experience was both enlightening and challenging,” Melecio said. “We engaged with faculty from over 20 universities to understand the diverse needs — from early-stage research to the commercialization of technology.” His pivotal role in streamlining the application processes for the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs has significantly enhanced their efficiency and accessibility.

A key aspect of Melecio’s efforts was to increase participation from historically underrepresented groups, with a significant focus on supporting historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. His strategic insights have helped reshape these programs to better facilitate the commercialization of technologies developed within academic institutions.

Keith McGreggor, director of VentureLab, praised Melecio’s contributions. “Nakia’s work embodies our mission to transform research into viable market opportunities, ensuring broad access and benefit. The approval of the committee’s recommendations by the NCI leadership marks a significant advancement in our ongoing effort to make NIH funding more accessible and effective,” he said.

As these enhancements are implemented, they promise to significantly improve the landscape for commercializing technologies originating from university research, fostering broader innovation and practical application of groundbreaking discoveries.

The Office of Commercialization at Georgia Tech continues to support faculty and researchers as they navigate these improved opportunities, ensuring that the leadership and expertise within our community are directed toward national and global advancements in science and technology.

Stay engaged with the Office of Commercialization for ongoing updates on this and other initiatives.

News Contact

Lacey Cameron