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Coastal Glacier Retreat Linked to Climate Change

bwaye3 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 20:05:40 +0000

Coastal Glacier Retreat Linked to Climate Change bwaye3 Tue, 07/19/2022 - 16:05

More of the world’s coastal glaciers are melting faster than ever, but exactly what’s triggering the large-scale retreat has been difficult to discern because of natural fluctuations in the glaciers’ surroundings.

Now, researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) and the Georgia Institute for Technology have developed a methodology to determine why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Attributing the human role for coastal glaciers – which melt directly into the sea – could pave the way to better predictions about sea level rise.

Published July 13 in the journal The Cryosphere, the methodology is unique because it treats rapid glacier retreat as an individual probabilistic event, like a wildfire or tropical storm. For a large retreat to happen, the glacier must retreat past its “stability threshold,” which is usually a steep rise in the underlying bedrock that helps slow its flow. The probability of that happening varies depending on local climate and ocean conditions that change with natural fluctuations and human-caused warming. Even small variations can cause large changes in a glacier’s behavior, making them hard to predict and leading to cases where glaciers were found retreating right next to ones that weren’t.

So far, scientists have tested the approach only in computer models using simplified glaciers. They found that even modest global warming caused most glaciers to melt, or retreat.

The next step, the researchers said, is for scientists to simulate the coastal glaciers of a real ice sheet, like Greenland’s, which holds enough ice to raise sea level by about 22 feet (7 meters). That will reveal whether they are retreating due to climate change and help predict when major ice loss might next occur.

“The methodology we’re proposing is a road map towards making confident statements about what the human role is [in glacial retreats],” said glaciologist John Christian, who is a postdoctoral researcher at both The University of Texas at Austin and Georgia Tech. “Those statements can then be communicated to the public and policymakers and help in their decision making.”

Overcoming Uncertainty

Co-author and UTIG glaciologist Ginny Catania points out that the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found there was still too much uncertainty about coastal glaciers to say whether their retreat is due to human-caused climate change or natural climate fluctuations.

The new study shows how to overcome the uncertainty by providing a methodology that accounts for differences between glaciers and natural climate fluctuations, while testing the effect of background trends such as global warming. According to Catania, the study means they can now attribute mass coastal glacier retreat to climate change and not just natural variability.

“And that’s the first time anyone’s done that,” she said.

To test the methodology, the team ran thousands of simulations of the past 150 years with and without global warming. The simulations showed that even modest warming dramatically increased the probability of ice sheet-wide glacier retreat.

When the scientists ran models without human-caused climate change, they found it virtually impossible for more than a few of the glaciers to begin retreating within years of each other.

By contrast, since 2000, nearly all (200) of Greenland’s 225 coastal glaciers have been in varying states of retreat.

“This study gives us a toolbox to determine the role of humans in the loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica, to say with confidence that it’s not just coincidence,” said Georgia Tech College of Sciences glaciologist and co-author Alex Robel.

The research on coastal glaciers builds on previous work to understand the human role on the retreat of mountain glaciers — which is now well-established. The latest study was funded by UTIG and the National Science Foundation. UTIG is a research arm of UT Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences.

Citation: John Erich Christian, Alexander A. Robel, Ginny Catania. A probabilistic framework for quantifying the role of anthropogenic climate change in marine-terminating glacier retreats. The Cryosphere, 2022; 16 (7): 2725 DOI: 10.5194/tc-16-2725-2022

Summary sentence

Researchers have developed a methodology to determine why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

Summary

Researchers have developed a methodology to determine why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

Dateline

Tue, 07/19/2022 - 12:00

georgia.parmelee@gatech.edu

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Tue, 07/19/2022 - 13:16

New “Megaflash” Lightning Record Set; Could Provide Severe Storm Insights

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 19:50:40 +0000

New “Megaflash” Lightning Record Set; Could Provide Severe Storm Insights admin Thu, 07/31/2025 - 15:50

A lightning flash that extended from near Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri, now holds the record for the longest lightning discharge ever recorded. Known as a “megaflash,” the lightning discharge spanned some 515 miles (829 kilometers) and lasted 7.39 seconds. It included over a hundred individual cloud-to-ground strikes that were part of a large storm system extending from Minnesota to Texas.

Most lightning flashes are much shorter – 10 miles or less – but discharges that travel hundreds of miles occur frequently enough to be detected from space and are often seen in the Great Plains area of the United States. Beyond the inherent interest in their unusual length and duration, meteorologists are studying these megaflashes to learn more about the mysteries of lightning, to develop new approaches for predicting the risk of severe storms – and to provide public warning of lightning bolts that may occur unexpectedly long after the storm front spawning them has passed.

The new record megaflash was identified in data from a storm that occurred in October 2017. The flash produced more than 116 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes from a lengthy and complex series of jagged paths woven through the clouds. It was not found earlier because of how the data was originally processed, but was finally identified when the satellite data was re-analyzed in 2024.

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Thu, 07/31/2025 - 15:48

From Isekai to IT: How an Esports Startup Builds the Workforce

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 12:52:40 +0000

From Isekai to IT: How an Esports Startup Builds the Workforce admin Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:52

More than 1,000 cosplayers, gamers, and nerds took over Macon, Georgia’s, annual Cherry Blossom Festival in late March. They were there for the fourth year of the CBF Isekai convention, which celebrates all things anime, cosplay, and esports, but Isekai offers more than a weekend of fun. Participants could enter gaming competitions that might help them land a future cybersecurity or IT job.

CBF Isekai is sponsored by SON Technologies — short for Swagged Out Nerds — a Macon esports company focused on workforce development. SON believes the best gamers can also become promising IT professionals.

A startup founded by two Air Force veterans, SON is already making a name for itself in the esports world and has support from Georgia Tech. It is one of the Accelerate companies in the startup portfolio of Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), one of the oldest and most successful university-affiliated incubators in the United States.

Swagged Out Start

SON founders Jason Clarke and John Robinson first met when they both worked in cybersecurity in the Air Force. As they transitioned to civilian IT careers, they realized a perhaps unlikely source sparked their IT expertise — video games. In 2019, the two partnered to create an esports competition team for veterans, but they knew the company’s mission could be bigger.

“When people think of gamers, you think of a 40-year-old person in their mom’s basement,” Clarke said. “But we wanted to change the perception. Gamers have employable skills that can be used for substantial IT work.”

For example, when a person plays a multiplayer game like Fortnite, they can assume a leadership role, delivering directives to their teams. What may look like mere play actually entails planning, organizing, and executing. Even a simple task like troubleshooting a household wi-fi network is a skill that can be expanded on with the right training.

From Player to Professional

SON wants both kid and adult gamers to know they have options. They regularly host gaming tournaments and conventions to find people who would be right for their programs and cultivate community. Through a partnership with digital education company Aperion Global Institute and cybersecurity certification organization EC-Council, Clarke and Robinson administer a high school-level curriculum highlighting the synergies between IT and gaming.

Adults also have opportunities. Past SON tournament competitors can take an eight-week program, Sticks to Clicks, to turn their gaming skills into IT proficiency. These initiatives come at a crucial time: Between now and 2030, according to O*NET OnLine, 51,000 cybersecurity jobs in the state of Georgia are expected to be vacant.

Game-Changing Career Paths

The programs’ benefits are already tangible. One adult participant in Sticks to Clicks had an annual income of less than $10,000 before joining the program. In the first seven weeks, he earned a certification in CompTIA Security+. In the eighth and final week, he interviewed with some of SON’s workforce partners. He was ultimately hired to install network infrastructure for $46,000 a year.

High school students have had similar success. In the 2025-26 school year alone, 150 students went through the SON program and received stackable credentials that can prepare them for IT careers even if they don’t go to college.

All of this momentum got ATDC’s attention, and SON Tech was accepted as a portfolio company in Fall 2024. Both Georgia AIM and the Air Force went to Macon for the 2025 Isekai convention and met potential employees firsthand. They saw that SON was just getting started.

The ATDC Connection

SON joined ATDC in 2024 under the AI and Manufacturing vertical sponsored by Georgia AIM, a statewide coalition to advance manufacturing using AI. SON is one of ATDC’s first middle Georgia companies, but the entire state will experience benefits. Through ATDC, SON can use Georgia Tech resources, meet experts in grant applications and corporate networking, and plug into the startup ecosystem in Atlanta. The three-to-five-year program helps startups scale up.

“The truth is when you’re starting a company, the first few years are the worst of your life,” said Nwanyinma Dike, who serves as the Georgia AIM and ATDC liaison. In this role, she advises SON. “Connecting into a community of folks rooting for you, listening to you, helping you breathe through whatever challenges occur is one of the most valuable resources ATDC has to offer.”

The size of the March Isekai event was only possible thanks to ATDC’s support. They helped SON fundraise by finding the right sponsors.

“We went from starting this convention in a pizza shop to now packing an entire plaza downtown,” Clarke said. “To see the growth is amazing. We've received a lot of industry backing because of the creative ways we're helping workforce development.”

Dike wants to ensure the event wasn’t a one-off and that SON can keep up the momentum. SON is already planning an even bigger 2026 Isekai convention, with exciting new partners in the pipeline who want to share in the energy of this creative workforce development solution and movement.

SON also announced a partnership with gaming company Blaze Fire Games and the Houston County School District. The school district can access Blaze Fire Games’ Recruit, Reclaim, and Retain career pathway program, which is designed to help close the technology industry’s vast talent gap.

“The partnership is exciting because it represents more than creating and launching an esports club,” said Isiah Reese, CEO and co-founder of Blaze Fire Games. “This agreement allows our company to continue creating opportunities and develop relevant, sustainable career-readiness skills required to compete in today’s environment.”

Sherri Johnson, the CEO and principal of Houston County College and Career Academy, agrees. "The partnership is a real game-changer for our students. These unique, forward-thinking, 21st-century digital economy workforce educational courses will empower our instructors to reimagine and enhance classroom learning within our cybersecurity and gaming career pathway programs.”

SON is ready to rise to whatever industry or challenge needs their model next. What they have been able to do for the IT and cybersecurity fields could eventually be applied to the Federal Aviation Administration or even healthcare technician jobs. There’s an entirely new way to develop the tech world field, and it may not start in a classroom but with a controller.

Summary sentence

SON Technologies is part of Georgia Tech’s startup incubator, ATDC.

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Mon, 07/21/2025 - 12:00

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Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:51

School Shootings Lower Spending by Millions in Affected Communities

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 12:50:47 +0000

School Shootings Lower Spending by Millions in Affected Communities admin Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:50

School shootings occur almost weekly in the U.S., with effects rippling beyond the school district where a shooting happened. New research from Georgia Tech shows that spending at local businesses across an affected community declines for at least six months.

Following school shootings, community members are 2% less likely to shop at area grocery stores. Convenience shops and liquor stores lose 3% of their business during this period. Restaurant and bar patronage drops even further — to 8%.

Cumulatively, a local economy can lose $5.4 million over six months.

“We set out to explore whether school shootings would have a direct causal impact on community economic activity,” said Adithya Pattabhiramaiah, Sharon A. and David B. Pearce Professor in the Scheller College of Business. “It may seem like a 2% loss is small, but that can add up to a pretty sizable revenue impact for a retailer with small margins.”

The Data

The three-year study combined statistical data and experimental interviews. The researchers started by examining NielsenIQ data, which tracks what shoppers buy at stores by county. Their NielsenIQ sample included 63 fatal school shootings between 2012 and 2019. Next, the researchers combined this with a Center for Homeland Defense and Security dataset of school shootings. They also examined a study of the nutritional value of products people bought at grocery stores in areas with school shootings.

The researchers hypothesized that people buy unhealthier foods to cope with negative emotions. Instead, their analysis showed people don’t buy comfort food after school shootings — because they generally don’t shop at all.

Pattabhiramaiah and his collaborators compared these datasets with those of neighboring counties that did not experience a school shooting. They followed purchasing patterns for a year, from six months before the event through six months after. The study’s statistical controls helped rule out other reasons people might shop less, such as weather events or holidays.

The Emotional Impact

It was important to the researchers to show that people not only spend less, but also why. So, the team conducted experimental studies in which participants read a hypothetical shooting scenario and were asked to share their emotional response to it and discuss how such an event might affect their shopping.

This experimental data backed up the numbers. People are more likely to consolidate their shopping trips and dine out less. This often comes down to anxiety about being in public.

“We show the main driver isn’t fear, or even sadness,” Pattabhiramaiah said. “If that were the case, we would see evidence of people indulging in comfort foods, as past studies have shown. Rather, the main feeling is anxiety.”

One thing is clear from Pattabhiramaiah’s research. Policymakers need to think about how to help their communities recover when school shootings occur. Thriving local businesses are a sign of a community’s economic health — and also its emotional well-being.

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech researchers have discovered persistent community-wide economic effects from school shootings.

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Mon, 07/21/2025 - 12:00

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Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:50

Stitched for Strength: The Physics of Stiff, Knitted Fabrics

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 12:39:36 +0000

Stitched for Strength: The Physics of Stiff, Knitted Fabrics admin Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:39

School of Physics Associate Professor Elisabetta Matsumoto is unearthing the secrets of the centuries-old practice of knitting through experiments, models, and simulations. Her goal? Leveraging knitting for breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing — including more sustainable textiles, wearable electronics, and soft robotics.

Matsumoto, who is also a principal investigator at the International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (WPI-SKCM2) at Hiroshima University, is the corresponding author on a new study exploring the physics of ‘jamming’ — a phenomenon when soft or stretchy materials become rigid under low stress but soften under higher tension.

The study, "Pulling Apart the Mechanisms That Lead to Jammed Knitted Fabrics," was published this week in Physical Review E, and also includes Georgia Tech Matsumoto Group graduate students Sarah Gonzalez and Alexander Cachine in addition to former postdoctoral fellow Michael Dimitriyev, who is now an assistant professor at Texas A&M University.

The work builds on the group’s previous research demonstrating that knitted materials can be mathematically ‘programmed’ to behave in predictable ways. “These properties are intuitively understood by people who knit by hand,” Matsumoto says, “but in order to manipulate and use these behaviors in an industrial setting, we need to understand the physics behind them. This new research is another step in that direction.”

An Unexpected Twist

Gonzalez, who led the research, first became interested in jamming while conducting adjacent research. “I was using model simulations to characterize how different yarn properties affect the behavior of knitted fabrics and noticed a strange stiff region,” she recalls. “In our previous research, we had also seen this behavior in lab experiments, which suggested that what we were seeing in the simulations was a genuine phenomenon. I wanted to investigate it further.”

After digging into the topic, she realized that what she was seeing was called ‘jamming.’ In knits, Gonzalez explains, jamming occurs when stitches are packed tightly together, and the fabric resists stretching. Although it’s a well-known phenomenon, the physics has mostly been investigated in granular systems, like snow or sand, rather than fabrics.

“In fabrics, when you pull softly, the response is surprisingly stiff, but when you start pulling harder and harder, the stitches rearrange, and the material softens,” Matsumoto says. “In granular systems, this is a little like how avalanches work. At low forces, the snow pack is solid, but when the slope is steep, the force of gravity liquidizes that snow pack into an avalanche.”

“In fabrics, it is a little like having a tangle in a piece of jewelry,” she adds. “If you pull on it, it gets quite stiff, but if you loosen the knot, the chain can reconfigure, and it's not so stiff.”

Unraveling the Physics of Jamming

Using a combination of experiments with industrially knitted fabrics and computer models, the team analyzed what causes jamming in fabrics and how to control it. “We wanted to determine how different yarn properties impacted jamming,” Gonzalez explains. “Our goal was to understand the mechanics of jamming through how yarn interacts at various touchpoints in stitches.”

The team found that both machine tension and yarn thickness played a key role in making a fabric more or less jammed, and that jamming behaves differently depending on which direction the fabric is stretched.

“When you stretch a knit along the rows, the stiffness of the yarn causes fabric jamming. Jamming in the other direction is due to yarn contacts,” says Gonzalez. “We also showed that the impacts of changing machine tension and yarn thickness differ depending on fabric direction.”

“Discovering that fabric jamming works differently in different directions was a key insight,” she adds. “To our knowledge, the physics of this has never been explored before.”

Modern Innovation — With a Centuries-Old Technique

The research dovetails with Matsumoto’s WPI-SKCM2 Center work, which involves investigating fundamental aspects of knots and chirality. The Center is interested in a class of materials called “knotted chiral meta matter” that could lead to more sustainable materials.

For example, knitting — which leverages chiral knots — could be used to create more elastic fabrics from natural materials. “In many cases, manufacturers use yarns that combine, for example, polyester, cotton, and elastane to create a desired elasticity,” Matsumoto says. “Our research suggests that manipulating the topology of the stitches could lead to a similar elasticity, reducing the need for petroleum-based fibers and creating a more sustainable textile.”

“Knitting has the potential to be extremely useful in manufacturing, but knowledge has typically been shared through intuition and word of mouth,” she adds. “By creating these mathematical models, we hope to formalize that knowledge in a way that’s accessible for large-scale manufacturing — so we can leverage this centuries-old intuition for modern innovation.”

Funding: This work was supported by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; National Science Foundation (NSF); and Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/g94g-c6tt

Summary sentence

Physicists unravel the secrets of the centuries-old practice of knitting in a new study that explores the physics of ‘jamming’ — a phenomenon when soft or stretchy materials become rigid under low stress but soften under higher tension.

Summary

Researchers in the School of Physics unravel the secrets of the centuries-old practice of knitting in a new study that explores the physics of ‘jamming’ — a phenomenon when soft or stretchy materials become rigid under low stress but soften under higher tension.

Dateline

Fri, 07/25/2025 - 12:00

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Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:38

Nuclear Power Isn’t What You Think — and That’s a Good Thing

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 12:37:40 +0000

Nuclear Power Isn’t What You Think — and That’s a Good Thing admin Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:37

“Nuclear” is a loaded, highly charged word. It can conjure images — both real and imagined — of explosive destruction.

Nuclear is also a loaded, highly charged technology. A single fuel pellet the size of a pencil eraser contains as much energy as a metric ton of coal, 150 gallons of oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

The technology’s complex history, along with its vast potential, is why nuclear scientists and engineers often find themselves moonlighting as myth busters. Georgia Tech experts are eager to untangle fact from fiction so nuclear can shine — safely.

“I am really excited about nuclear, but this is a technology that has a lot of myths and misinformation around it,” said Anna Erickson, Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME), and leader of the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI), which is focused on nuclear technology.

“Concerns about nuclear weapons, accidents, and waste have overshadowed nuclear energy’s potential as a clean, carbon-free technology,” she added.

Here, Georgia Tech researchers share what nuclear is, why it’s important, and why its moment is now.

What Is Nuclear?

“Nuclear, as indicated by its name, is focused on the nucleus within an atom, but also the atom as a whole,” said Steve Biegalski, ME professor and chair of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics Program. “From an engineering perspective, we're looking at how we can use the physics of an atom — and the physics of a nucleus — to solve different scientific and societal problems.”

In 1938, German and Austrian scientists discovered that breaking apart an atom’s nucleus creates energy through fission. Many aspects of nuclear science, however, were advanced through the Manhattan Project during World War II, in which the U.S. developed the atomic bombs it later dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This historical association has likely played a significant role in shaping the negative perception of nuclear technology.

But nuclear science isn’t only about international power and weapons, Biegalski said. Advances in nuclear science have contributed to life-saving cancer therapies, cutting-edge heart scans, and on-demand X-ray technologies.

Safe levels of radiation are all around us — for example, our imported fruits and vegetables are treated with radiation when they enter the country. Even kitty litter is radioactive — not very, but detectable by modern sensors.

“You might have slightly elevated radioactivity for a short while after you eat a banana in the morning,” Erickson said. “Our bodies have evolved to live with radiation.”

AI Has Entered the Chat

Lately, Erickson has been getting calls from major technology companies with questions about how to power data centers. She isn’t surprised — nuclear energy is widely being discussed as the way to power the AI revolution.

“Today’s energy needs are very different than they were in the past, and consistent, reliable, and independent electricity production is necessary — especially for the technology sector,” Erickson explained.

“At this stage, it’s not a question of whether nuclear energy can meet those demands, but how quickly we can make it a reality,” she added.

One of nuclear’s most distinguishing features is its power density, or how much power is produced by volume of raw material. Another defining feature is its reliability. Wind and solar are weather-dependent and provide power intermittently. Nuclear can supply power around the clock, and data centers require that level of consistency.

“There are discussions about developing a number of data centers just outside of Atlanta, and those will require full-size nuclear power plants to power them,” Biegalski said. “When we look at electricity production, these facilities need power 24/7, 365 days a year. Nuclear power can supply that, and wind and solar simply cannot.”

Great Power, Great Responsibility

According to Erickson, the nuclear reactors in use today are far more advanced than those associated with past disasters like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

New nuclear plants are designed with great efficiency in mind. Coal must be supplied continuously, whereas nuclear can be loaded once and run for years.

In addition to dispelling misinformation, nuclear experts are also knowledgeable about nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security. Georgia Tech is a leader in these areas. Experts like Erickson and Biegalski are regularly tapped to help design new reactors that are popping up across the country.

The Georgia Tech-led nuclear consortium, ETI, assesses how emerging technologies help or hurt nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Nuclear nonproliferation is the global effort to minimize the spread of nuclear weapons, technology, and development.

“One of our main missions is to understand expansion of civilian nuclear power through the lens of nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation,” Erickson said. “Specifically, we want to know how we can best prevent misuse and mishandling of nuclear materials and keep nuclear facilities safe, while also investing in advancing nuclear technology.”

A Shift in Public Opinion

Despite the popular culture — think Homer Simpson’s nuclear plant job handling green slime — the public is also becoming better informed about nuclear power’s relative safety, especially compared with other energy sources.

In early 2025, nearly 6 out of 10 Americans supported increased development of nuclear energy. But why are Americans gradually coming around to the idea?

Erickson may have the answer. “The technology’s potential is catching on across the globe,” she said. “In France, 70% of their electricity comes from nuclear energy.”

For one of her first research projects as a young student, Erickson analyzed what went wrong with the Chernobyl reactors. She understands why people can be wary of nuclear technology.

“Despite the uptick in support for nuclear, people still have concerns we need to answer, rather than just telling people to trust the experts,” Erickson said. “Talking to people is critical in promoting this technology and making sure we keep the public’s trust in this.”

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech researchers are advancing nuclear science and engineering while deconstructing myths around the technology.

Summary

Georgia Tech researchers are advancing nuclear science and engineering while deconstructing myths around the technology.

Dateline

Fri, 07/25/2025 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

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Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer/Editor
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683299

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Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:36

Georgia Tech Team Takes Second Place at ICRA Robot Teleoperation Contest

dgivens8 — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:58:25 +0000

Georgia Tech Team Takes Second Place at ICRA Robot Teleoperation Contest dgivens8 Tue, 07/29/2025 - 08:58

An algorithmic breakthrough from School of Interactive Computing researchers that earned a Meta partnershipdrew more attention at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Meta announced in February its partnership with the labs of professors Danfei Xu and Judy Hoffman on a novel computer vision-based algorithm called EgoMimic. It enables robots to learn new skills by imitating human tasks from first-person video footage captured by Meta’s Aria smart glasses.

Xu’s Robot Learning and Reasoning Lab (RL2) displayed EgoMimic in action at ICRA May 19-23 at the World Congress Center in Atlanta.

Lawrence Zhu, Pranav Kuppili, and Patcharapong “Elmo” Aphiwetsa — students from Xu’s lab — used Egomimic to compete in a robot teleoperation contest at ICRA. The team finished second in the event titled What Bimanual Teleoperation and Learning from Demonstration Can Do Today, earning a $10,000 cash prize.

Teams were challenged to perform tasks by remotely controlling a robot gripper. The robot had to fold a tablecloth, open a vacuum-sealed container, place an object into the container, and then reseal it in succession without any errors.

Teams completed the tasks as many times as possible in 30 minutes, earning points for each successful attempt.

The competition also offered different challenge levels that increased the points awarded. Teams could directly operate the robot with a full workstation view and receive one point for each task completion. Or, as the RL2 team chose, teams could opt for the second challenge level.

The second level required an operator to control the task with no view of the workstation except for what was provided to through a video feed. The RL2 team completed the task seven times and received double points for the challenge level.

The third challenge level required teams to operate remotely from another location. At this level, teams could earn four times the number of points for each successful task completed. The fourth level challenged teams to deploy an algorithm for task performance and awarded eight points for each completion.

Using two of Meta’s Quest wireless controllers, Zhu controlled the robot under the direction of Aphiwetsa, while Kuppili monitored the coding from his laptop.

“It’s physically difficult to teleoperate for half an hour,” Zhu said. “My hands were shaking from holding the controllers in the air for that long.”

Being in constant communication with Aphiwetsa helped him stay focused throughout the contest.

“I helped him strategize the teleoperation and noticed he could skip some of the steps in the folding,” Aphiwetsa said. “There were many ways to do it, so I just told him what he could fix and how to do it faster.”

Zhu said he and his team had intended to tackle the fourth challenge level with the EgoMimic algorithm. However, due to unexpected time constraints, they decided to switch to the second level the day before the competition due to unexpected time constraints.

“I think we realized the day before the competition training the robot on our model would take a huge amount of time,” Zhu said. “We decided to go for the teleoperation and started practicing.”

He said the team wants to tackle the highest challenge level and use a training model for next year’s ICRA competition in Vienna, Austria.

ICRA is the world’s largest robotics conference, and Atlanta hosted the event for the third time in its history, drawing a record-breaking attendance of over 7,000.

Subtitle

Summary sentence

A Georgia Tech team earned second place in the ICRA Robot Teleoperation Contest for their EgoMimic algorithm, which allows robots to learn skills by mimicking human tasks from first-person video.

Summary

Students from Georgia Tech's Robot Learning and Reasoning Lab earned second place and a $10,000 cash prize in a robot teleoperation contest at the 2025 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta. The RL2 lab announced a partnership with Meta in February on a novel computer vision-based algorithm called EgoMimic. It enables robots to learn new skills by imitating human tasks from first-person video footage captured by Meta’s Aria smart glasses.

Dateline

Wed, 06/11/2025 - 12:00

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Thu, 06/12/2025 - 07:52

Scientists Pinpoint Hazards for Engineered Stone Fabrication Shop Workers

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:23:41 +0000

Scientists Pinpoint Hazards for Engineered Stone Fabrication Shop Workers admin Mon, 07/28/2025 - 14:23

You've probably seen fabricated stone countertops on an HGTV remodeling show — and you might even have them in your own home.

The durable, affordable, and highly customizable product debuted in Italy in the 1970s and continues to grow in popularity. Between 2010 and 2018, U.S. imports of engineered stone slabs increased by 800%. One report predicted that global demand will increase 5.4% each year, to reach 97 million square meters by 2028.

Sometimes referred to as manufactured stone or quartz (which is, confusingly, also the name of one of its main components), to the untrained eye, the material looks no different from natural stone. One of its biggest advantages is that it can be made to resemble marble, granite, or nearly any other stone.

Beneath the material’s familiar smooth surface, however, lie safety risks for engineered stone workers.

Research conducted by a team of Georgia Tech scientists demonstrates that everyone in a fabrication shop is at risk, not just the workers cutting and fashioning the material.

The group included members of the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s Safety, Health, and Environmental Services (SHES) program: Jenny Houlroyd, Hilarie Warren, Brandon J. Philpot, and Sean Castillo. Together with Jhy-Charm Soo of Georgia Southern University, they recently published their findings in Oxford Academic.

The study divided engineered stone workers into four risk groups and charted their relative exposure to the material’s chief hazard: respirable crystalline silica.

A “Toxic Product”

Engineered stone differs notably from its natural counterpart, both in composition and in danger to worker health.

A stone slab cut from the ground, such as granite or marble, comprises several different minerals and typically has a concentration of 40% or less of mineral crystalline silica — usually quartz, which is the most abundant form of crystalline silica.

Engineered stone, however, can contain more than 90% silica. Slabs are produced when silica is crushed, combined with synthetic resins, and compressed using heat or pressure.

During fabrication, these slabs are cut and shaped by powered hand tools. The resulting dust contains tiny particles of respirable crystalline silica. Once inhaled, some of the particulate may stay in the lungs and cause an inflammatory response.

While crystalline silica is released from both natural and engineered slabs during fabrication, the engineered slabs’ significantly higher percentage of silica poses a much greater risk to human health.

A growing body of research indicates that breathing engineered stone dust leads to lung inflammation and can cause acute silicosis, an untreatable lung disease.

“I would classify engineered stone as a really toxic product,” said Houlroyd, manager of occupational health services at SHES. “When you have something that’s high-risk, you have to prepare for systems to fail and have backup measures.”

Committed to Safety

Over six years, the SHES research group collected air-sampling data, making 17 visits to 11 Georgia stone fabrication shops. The shops had all requested air-sampling services offered by SHES.

“The companies agree that by working with us, they commit to correcting the hazards and reducing exposures, as much as is feasible,” Houlroyd noted.

Because most kitchen and bathroom countertop fabrication shops are small employers, workers often complete a variety of tasks, resulting in a range of exposure factors.

The research team recommended that all manufactured stone fabrication workers wear respirators, such as an N95 mask. For employees who are the most exposed, they recommended a respirator with a powered air-purifying element or supplied air.

But personal protective equipment (PPE) alone does not ensure safe conditions.

“Most of the workers in this industry are relying on respirators as their primary source of protection, and they need a lot more to protect them,” explained Houlroyd. “PPE is the last line of defense, and safety needs to be addressed from all angles.”

Part of that multifaceted strategy includes repeated monitoring of air quality and equipment. It’s also crucial for employers to make sure that exposure risks are understood by all workers — not just employees, but also contract and day laborers, as well as those working for cash.

More Than Just a Job

As members of SHES, the Georgia Tech research team members are first and foremost health and safety consultants, with expertise spanning industrial hygiene, environmental compliance, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.

For Houlroyd, worker safety is not just a professional calling; it’s also a personal mission.

“My dad got sick with brain cancer from exposure to contaminants on the job, and he died four years ago,” she said.

“Though he didn’t work in the manufactured stone industry, his story is representative of many people who go to work each day to feed their family, are not aware of workplace hazards, and then find themselves sick.”

The public can play a part in worker safety, too.

“Consumers have a choice and can educate themselves about what type of countertop materials they choose to have installed — like how we look at food labels for nutritional information,” said Warren, who oversees the OSHA Training Institute Education Center at Georgia Tech.

“We should be aware of the risk to workers, as well as how the installation process in our homes should be properly managed to prevent dust contamination,” she added.

A Zero-Risk Solution

In 2024, Australia eliminated the risks associated with engineered stone fabrication. Despite having enacted stronger regulations in 2019, the country continued to see a rise in silicosis cases resulting from exposure to respirable crystalline silica.

Australia’s solution? Enacting a ban on the import and fabrication of the material until its safe manufacture can be demonstrated.

In their report, the Georgia Tech group recommends that the U.S. do the same. As Houlroyd put it, “I would love to see our country find a safer substitution and take this dangerous product off the market.”

____________________

Title: “Respirable dust and respirable crystalline silica exposures among workers at stone countertop fabrication shops in Georgia from 2017 through 2023”

Conflict of interest: Jenny Houlroyd has served as an expert witness in silicosis legal cases unrelated to this research. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding: The U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as part of the OSHA 21(d) Consultation Program grant.

DOI: https://academic.oup.com/annweh/advance-article/doi/10.1093/annweh/wxaf014/8116008?utm_source=advanceaccess&utm_campaign=annweh&utm_medium=email

Summary sentence

Engineered stone has been in use for homes since the 1970s but creates serious health hazards for workers who produce them.

Summary

Australia enacted a ban on the import and fabrication of manufactured stone slabs because of health hazard concerns. Researchers from Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern University recommend the U.S. do the same.

Dateline

Mon, 07/28/2025 - 12:00

eve.tolpa@innovate.gatech.edu

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Mon, 07/28/2025 - 14:22

Georgia Tech Celebrates 2025 Ph.D. Graduates in Cybersecurity and Privacy

dgivens8 — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:47:40 +0000

Georgia Tech Celebrates 2025 Ph.D. Graduates in Cybersecurity and Privacy dgivens8 Mon, 07/28/2025 - 10:47

The School of Cybersecurity and Privacy at Georgia Tech is proud to recognize the accomplishments of five doctoral students who finished their doctoral programs in Spring 2025. These scholars have advanced critical research in software security, cryptography, and privacy, collectively publishing 34 papers, most of which appear in top-tier venues.

Ammar Askar developed new tools for software security in multi-language systems, including a concolic execution engine powered by large language models. He highlighted DEFCON 2021, which he attended with the Systems Software and Security Lab (SSLab), as a favorite memory.

Zhengxian He persevered through the pandemic to lead a major project with an industry partner, achieving strong research outcomes. He will be joining Amazon and fondly remembers watching sunsets from the CODA building.

Stanislav Peceny focused on secure multiparty computation (MPC), designing high-performance cryptographic protocols that improve efficiency by up to 1000x. He’s known for his creativity in both research and life, naming avocado trees after famous mathematicians and enjoying research discussions on the CODA rooftop.

Qinge Xie impressed faculty with her adaptability across multiple domains. Her advisor praised her independence and technical range, noting her ability to pivot seamlessly between complex research challenges.

Yibin Yang contributed to the advancement of zero-knowledge proofs and MPC, building toolchains that are faster and more usable than existing systems. His work earned a Distinguished Paper Award at ACM CCS 2023, and he also served as an RSAC Security Scholar. Yang enjoyed teaching and engaging with younger students, especially through events like Math Kangaroo.

Faculty mentors included Regents’ Entrepreneur Mustaque Ahamad, Professors Taesoo Kim and Vladimir Kolesnikov, and Assistant Professor Frank Li, who played vital roles in guiding the graduates’ research journeys.

Learn more about the graduates and their mentors on the 2025 Ph.D. graduate microsite.

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Summary sentence

Summary

Five Ph.D. students from Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy graduated in Spring 2025, contributing significant research in software security, cryptography, and privacy with 34 published papers. Highlights include Ammar Askar’s concolic execution tools, Zhengxian He’s industry collaboration, Stanislav Peceny’s advances in multiparty computation, Qinge Xie’s adaptability across domains, and Yibin Yang’s award-winning work on zero-knowledge proofs. Faculty mentors played key roles in supporting their success.

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Wed, 05/14/2025 - 12:00

jpopham3@gatech.edu

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JP Popham, Communications Officer II

College of Computing | School of Cybersecurity and Privacy

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Mon, 07/28/2025 - 10:46

Powering the Future — Without Breaking the Grid

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:15:41 +0000

Powering the Future — Without Breaking the Grid admin Fri, 07/25/2025 - 16:15

As Georgia positions itself as a hub for digital infrastructure, communities across the state are facing a growing challenge: how to welcome the economic benefits of data centers while managing their significant environmental and infrastructure impacts. These facilities, essential for powering artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and everyday internet use, are also among the most resource-intensive buildings in the modern economy.

While companies like Microsoft and Google have pledged to reach net-zero emissions, experts say more transparency and smarter policy are needed to ensure that data center development aligns with community and environmental priorities. That means ensuring adequate energy infrastructure, investing in renewables, training local workers, and mitigating water and carbon impacts through innovation.

A New Kind of Energy Crunch

The rapid rise of AI is fueling explosive demand for computing power — and in turn, energy.

“The proliferation of AI workloads has significantly increased data center energy requirements,” says Divya Mahajan, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Large-scale AI training, especially for language models, leads to elevated and sustained power draw, often nearing the thermal and power envelopes of graphics processing units systems.”

This sustained demand is particularly challenging in hot, humid regions like Georgia, where cooling systems must work harder. “Training these models can cause thermal instability that directly affects cooling efficiency and power provisioning,” Mahajan explains. “This amplifies reliance on external cooling infrastructure, increasing water consumption and grid strain.”

Environmental and Economic Pressure

“Each new data center could lead to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to a small town,” says Marilyn Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy. “In Georgia, the growth of data centers has already led to plans for new gas plants and the extension of aging coal plants.”

There’s an environmental cost to this growth: electricity and water. A single large data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day.

Rising demand has a price. “It’s simple supply and demand,” says Ahmed Saeed, assistant professor at the School of Computer Science. “As overall power demand increases, if supply doesn’t keep up, costs will rise and the most affected will be lower-income consumers.”

Still, experts are optimistic that policy and technology can help mitigate these impacts.

Innovation May Hold the Key

Despite the challenges, experts see opportunities for innovation. “Technologies like direct-to-chip cooling and liquid cooling are promising,” says Mahajan. “But they’re not yet widespread.”

Saeed notes that some companies are experimenting with radical ideas, like Microsoft’s underwater Project Natick or locating data centers in Nordic countries where ambient air can be used for cooling. These approaches challenge conventional infrastructure norms by placing servers underwater or in remote, cold regions. “These are exciting, but we need scalable solutions that work in places like Georgia,” he emphasizes.

What Communities Should Ask For

As communities compete to attract data centers, experts say they should push for commitments that go beyond job creation.

“Communities should ensure that their power infrastructure can handle the added load without compromising resilience or increasing costs,” Saeed advises. “They should also require that data centers use renewable energy or invest in local clean energy projects.”

Training and hiring local workers is another key benefit communities can demand. “Deployment and maintenance of data centers require skilled workers,” Saeed adds. “Operators should invest in technical training and hire locally.”

Policy Can Make the Difference

Stronger policy frameworks can ensure growth doesn’t come at the expense of Georgia’s most vulnerable communities. “We need more transparency from companies about their energy and water use,” says Brown. “And we need policies that prevent the costs of supporting large consumers from being passed on to residential ratepayers.”

Some states are already taking action. Texas passed a bill to give regulators more control over large power consumers. In Georgia, a bill that would have paused tax breaks for data centers until their community impact was assessed was vetoed — but experts say the conversation is far from over.

“Data centers are here to stay,” says Saeed. “The question is whether we can make them sustainable — before their footprint becomes too large to manage.”

Summary sentence

Georgia’s booming data center industry brings economic promise and environmental pressure. Researchers say innovation and local action can tip the balance.

Summary

As Georgia emerges as a hub for digital infrastructure, the rapid growth of data centers — driven by rising demand for AI and cloud computing — presents both economic opportunity and environmental challenges. These resource-intensive facilities strain local power grids, increase greenhouse gas emissions, and consume millions of gallons of water daily. While companies pledge sustainability goals, Georgia Tech experts say stronger policies, greater transparency, and community-driven requirements are essential to ensure that growth benefits residents without overwhelming infrastructure or raising utility costs. Innovations in energy efficiency and cooling technologies show promise, but scalable solutions tailored to Georgia’s climate are urgently needed.

Dateline

Fri, 07/25/2025 - 12:00

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Ayana IslesSenior Media Relations Representative Institute Communications

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Fri, 07/25/2025 - 16:15

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