National Security Research Fueled By Partnership
New program to foster research collaboration between academic faculty and Georgia Tech Research Institute scientists
June 14, 2021 | By Georgia Parmelee
Some of the most complex problems facing U.S. national security are tackled every day at Georgia Tech, with research ranging from cyber forensics for adversarial attacks to health care tools that monitor soldiers in the field. Now, engineering faculty and researchers from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are partnering in a new program that supports Georgia Tech’s strategic defense technology priorities.
The inaugural GTRI Graduate Student Fellowship Program is a competitive program for high-caliber Georgia Tech graduate students working in GTRI strategic research areas. Academic faculty and GTRI researchers, including Woodruff School assistant professor Ellen Yi Chen Mazumdar and GTRI senior research engineer Ken Allen, worked together to create proposals that closely aligned with GTRI’s strategic initiatives. Soon, graduate students will be recruited to work on these research projects with fully funded fellowships.
“GTRI has an important mission to support our nation through solving some of the hardest problems in national security, and we believe that we are best able to achieve our mission when we fully and broadly leverage the deep expertise that exists in the academic units at Georgia Tech,” said Mark Whorton, chief technology officer at GTRI. “It is central to our identity and necessary for our success to fully leverage the talent within the academic units and elevate our reputation as a leading university-affiliated research institute.”
The program will build upon existing relationships between academic faculty and GTRI researchers, further developing relationships and long-term research collaborations that will advance projects related to national security.
This is a unique program that pairs academic faculty with technology researchers to tackle the challenges of national security,” said Krista Walton, associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Engineering. “We are excited to partner with GTRI and offer the vast knowledge base of our engineers in order to enable research that advances our national security efforts.
Faculty Research Pairs and Proposals
Across the eight selected fellowship awards, researchers from GTRI labs will co-advise students along with a College of Engineering faculty member.
Advanced Concepts Laboratory
Who: Ellen Yi Chen Mazumdar & Ken Allen
What: Radio Frequency Actively-tunable Three-dimensional Optimized Metamaterial Structures (RF ATOMS)
Why it matters: Recent innovations in radio frequency devices, such as 5G, and government spectrum selloffs have generated unique national security problems, including congested network environments. In order for radio frequency devices to operate effectively, novel metamaterials and tunable filtering techniques need to be developed.
“This exciting fellowship opportunity will allow Georgia Tech and GTRI units to develop closer relationships, leading to more synergistic collaborations on future programs,” said Mazumdar, assistant professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. “This project will also allow us to leverage the amazing fundamental and applied research that is being conducted across the institute to solve important national security problems related to radio frequency metamaterials.”
“My hope in serving as a co-advisor in the Fellowship Program is to grow our workforce and help cultivate the next generation of talent in national security,” said Allen, senior research engineer at GTRI.