Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 13:55:41 +0000

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase admin Fri, 07/18/2025 - 09:55

As more satellites launch into space, the satellite industry has sounded the alarm about the danger of collisions in low Earth orbit (LEO). What is less understood is what might happen as more missions head to a more targeted destination: the moon.

According to The Planetary Society, more than 30 missions are slated to launch to the moon between 2024 and 2030, backed by the U.S., China, Japan, India, and various private corporations. That compares to over 40 missions to the moon between 1959 and 1979 and a scant three missions between 1980 and 2000.

A multidisciplinary team at Georgia Tech has found that while collision probabilities in orbits around the moon are very low compared to Earth orbit, spacecraft in lunar orbit will likely need to conduct multiple costly collision avoidance maneuvers each year. The Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets published the Georgia Tech collision-avoidance study in March.

“The number of close approaches in lunar orbit is higher than some might expect, given that there are only tens of satellites, rather than the thousands in low Earth orbit,” says paper co-author Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Borowitz and other researchers attribute these risky approaches in part to spacecraft often choosing a limited number of favorable orbits and the difficulty of monitoring the exact location of spacecraft that are more than 200,000 miles away.

“There is significant uncertainty about the exact location of objects around the moon. This, combined with the high cost associated with lunar missions, means that operators often undertake maneuvers even when the probability is very low — up to one in 10 million,” Borowitz explains.

The Georgia Tech research is the first published study showing short- and long-term collision risks in cislunar orbits. Using a series of Monte Carlo simulations, the researchers modeled the probability of various outcomes in a process that cannot be easily predicted because of random variables.

“Our analysis suggests that satellite operators must perform up to four maneuvers annually for each satellite for a fleet of 50 satellites in low lunar orbit (LLO),” said one of the study’s authors, Brian Gunter, associate professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

He noted that with only 10 satellites in LLO, a satellite might still need a yearly maneuver. This is supported by what current cislunar operators have reported.

Favored Orbits

Most close encounters are expected to occur near the moon’s equator, an intersection point between the orbit planes of commonly used “frozen” and low lunar orbits, which are preferred by many operators. Other possible regions of congestion can occur at the Lagrangian points, or regions where the gravitational forces of Earth and the moon balance out. Stable orbits in these regions have names such as Halo and Lyapunov orbits.

“Lagrangian points are an interesting place to put a satellite because it can maintain its orbit for long periods with very little maneuvering and thrusting. Frozen orbits, too. Anywhere outside these special areas, you have to spend a lot of fuel to maintain an orbit,” he said.

Gunter and other researchers worry that if operators aren’t coordinated about how they plan lunar missions, opportunities for collision will increase in these popular orbits.

“The close approaches were much more common than I would have intuitively anticipated,” says lead study author Stef Crum.

The 2024 graduate of Georgia Tech’s aerospace engineering doctoral program notes that, considering the small number of satellites in lunar orbit, the need for multiple maneuvers was “really surprising.”

Crum, who is also co-founder of Reditus Space, a startup he founded in 2024 to provide reusable orbital re-entry services, adds that the cislunar environment is so challenging because “it’s incredibly vast.”

His research also examines ways to improve object monitoring in cislunar space. Maintaining continuous custody of these objects is difficult because a target’s position must be monitored over the entire duration of its trajectory.

“That wasn’t feasible for translunar orbits, given the vast volume of cislunar orbit, which stretches multiple millions of kilometers in three dimensions,” he says.

By estimating a satellite’s orbit using observed data and constraining the presumed location and direction of the satellite, rather than continuous tracking (a process known as continuous custody), Crum greatly simplified the process.

“You no longer need thousands of satellites or a set of enormous satellites to cover all potential trajectories,” he explains. “Instead, one or a few satellites are required, and operators can lose custody for a time as long as the connection is reacquired later.”

Since the team started their study, there has been a lot of interest in the moon and cislunar activity — both NASA and China’s National Space Administration are planning to send humans to the moon. In the last two years, India, Japan, the U.S., China, Russia, and four private companies have attempted missions to the moon.

Why the Moon

Spacefaring nations’ intense interest in exploring the lunar surface comes as no surprise given that the moon offers a variety of resources, including solar power, water, oxygen, and metals like iron, titanium, and uranium. It also contains Helium-3, a potential fuel for nuclear fusion, and rare earth metals vital for modern technology. With the recent discovery of water ice, it could be a plentiful source for rocket fuel that can be created from liquifying oxygen and hydrogen needed to launch deep space missions to destinations like Mars. In February, Georgia Tech announced that researchers have developed new algorithms to help Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander find water ice on the moon.

Commercial space companies like Axiom Space and Redwire Space, as well as space agencies, are actively building lunar infrastructure, from satellite constellations to orbital platforms to support communication, navigation, scientific research, and eventually space tourism.

A key project involves the Lunar Gateway, a joint venture of NASA and international space agencies like ESA, JAXA, and CSA, as well as commercial partners. Humanity’s first space station around the moon will serve as a central hub for human exploration of the moon and is considered a stepping stone for future deep space missions.

Getting Ahead of a Gold Rush to the Moon

All this activity underscores the urgency to get out in front of potential crowding issues — something that hasn’t occurred in LEO, where near-miss collisions, or conjunctions, are frequent. LEO, which is 100 to 1,200 miles above the Earth’s surface, is host to more than 14,000 satellites and 120 million pieces of debris from launches, collisions, and wear and tear, reports Reuters.

“Using the near-Earth environment as an example, the space object population has gone from approximately 6,000 active satellites in the early 2020s to an anticipated 60,000 satellites in the coming decade if the projected number of large satellite constellations currently in the works gets deployed. That poses many challenges in terms of how we can manage that sustainably,” observed Gunter. “If something similar happens in the lunar environment, say if Artemis (NASA’s program to establish the first long-term presence on the moon) is successful and a lunar base is established, and there is discovery of volatiles or water deposits, it could initiate a kind of gold rush effect that might accelerate the number of actors in cislunar space.”

For this reason, Borowitz argues for the need to begin working on coordination, either in the planning of the orbits for future missions or by sharing information about the location of objects operating in lunar orbit. She pointed out that spacecraft outfitted for moon missions are expensive, making a collision highly costly. Also, debris from such a scenario would spread in an unpredictable way, which could be problematic for other objects.

Gunter agreed, noting, “If we’re not careful, we could be putting a lot of things in this same path. We must ensure we build out the cislunar orbital environment in a smart way, where we’re not intentionally putting spacecraft in the same orbital spaces. If we do that, everyone should be able to get what they want and not be in each other’s way.”

Borowitz says some coordination efforts are underway with the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and the creation of an action team on lunar activities; however, international diplomacy is a time-consuming process, and it can be a challenge to keep pace with advancements in technology.

She contends that the Georgia Tech study could provide baseline data that “could be helpful for international coordination efforts, helping to ensure that countries better understand potential future risks.”

Gunter and Borowitz say that follow-on research for the team could involve looking into the Lunar Gateway orbit and other special orbits to see how crowded that space will likely get, and then do an end-to-end simulation of these orbits to determine the most effective way to build them out to avoid collision risks. Ultimately, they intend to develop guidelines to help ensure that future space actors headed to the moon can operate safely.

Summary sentence

A Georgia Tech study warns that rising lunar traffic could lead to costly collision avoidance maneuvers, urging better coordination to manage growing risks in cislunar space.

Summary

A Georgia Tech study warns that rising lunar traffic could lead to costly collision avoidance maneuvers, urging better coordination to manage growing risks in cislunar space.

Dateline

Fri, 07/18/2025 - 12:00

Contact

News Contact: Laurie Haigh

Writer: Anne Wainscott-Sargent

Associated importer

Keywords

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Categories

Aerospace

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Mercury ID

683175

Source updated

Fri, 07/18/2025 - 09:53

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:52:41 +0000

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy admin Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are already considering the mission’s implications, from engineering challenges to international diplomacy. While the White House has framed the mission as a demonstration of American leadership, experts say its success will depend on collaboration — across disciplines, sectors, and borders.

“This is more than a space race,” said Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Mars isn’t just the next step for space exploration — it’s a stress test for everything we’ve learned about sustainability, resilience, and engineering under uncertainty.”

Engineering for the Red Planet

For Athanasiou, the Mars mission is a test of human ingenuity, creativity, and endurance. Unlike the moon, Mars is months away by spacecraft, with no quick return option. That distance introduces a host of engineering challenges that must be solved before a single boot touches Martian soil.

“Ensuring astronaut safety on such a long-duration mission requires us to understand how the Earth materials we will be using in our mission behave in extraterrestrial conditions,” he said.

In his recent TEDx talk, Athanasiou emphasized that the mission must also consider its environmental impact. Mars may be barren, but it is not immune to contamination. Athanasiou believes that strategies used for environmental remediation on Earth — such as waste recycling, habitat sustainability, and pollution control — can be adapted to protect the Martian environment.

“If we can build structures that survive Mars using recycled materials, AI, and Earth-born ingenuity, we’ll unlock entirely new ways to live — both out there and back here,” he said.

Reading the Martian Landscape

James Wray, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent years analyzing Mars’ surface using data from orbiters and rovers. He sees the planet as both a scientific treasure trove and a logistical puzzle.

“Mars has vast lava plains, dust storms, and steep canyons that pose real risks to human settlement,” Wray said.

But beneath the challenges lies opportunity. Mars is home to significant deposits of water ice, especially near the poles and just below the surface in some mid-latitude regions. That water could be used not only for drinking but also for producing oxygen and rocket fuel — critical resources for long-term habitation and return missions.

“The presence of water ice near the surface is a game changer. It could support life, and more importantly, it could support us,” Wray said.

He also noted that Mars’ thin atmosphere — just 1% the density of Earth’s — complicates everything from landing spacecraft to shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation. “We’ve learned a lot from robotic missions. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge to human exploration.”

Diplomacy Beyond Earth

Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, says that the Mars mission could have significant diplomatic implications. “The Mars mission has little to no bearing on space security; it has no military value,” he said. However, he noted that international cooperation could still play a valuable role in reducing the financial burden of such a costly endeavor.

Hines warned that shifting U.S. priorities from the moon to Mars could strain the international partnerships built through the Artemis program. He explained that some countries may view the Mars initiative as a distraction from the more immediate and economically promising lunar goals. Political instability in the U.S., he added, could further erode trust in its long-term commitments. “Countries may lose faith that the United States is a reliable partner to cooperate with for its lunar program if Mars seems to be the new priority,” he said.

He also pointed to existing legal frameworks like the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies, and the Rescue Agreement, which obliges nations to assist astronauts in distress. While these agreements provide a foundation, Hines emphasized that they don’t fully address the complexities of future Mars missions.

Establishing international norms for Mars exploration, he said, will be challenging. “Norms are really hard to develop,” Hines explained, noting that countries often hesitate to commit to rules without assurance that others will do the same. Still, he suggested that Mars — with its limited material value — might offer a rare opportunity for cooperation, if nations are willing to engage in good faith.

Subtitle

Georgia Tech contributes to the national vision with research in engineering, science, and policy.

Summary sentence

As the White House accelerates plans for a 2026 crewed mission to Mars, Georgia Tech experts highlight the engineering, scientific, and diplomatic challenges that will shape the success—and sustainability—of humanity’s next giant leap.

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

Contact

Siobhan Rodriguez
Senior Media Relations Representative
Institute Communications

Keywords

Mars mission

White House space policy

2026 Mars landing

Georgia Tech

Christos Athanasiou

James Wray

Lincoln Hines

NASA

Artemis program

space exploration

international cooperation

Outer Space Treaty

space diplomacy

space security

lunar vs. Mars priorities

U.S.–China space relations

environmental impact on Mars

human spaceflight

Mars geology

Space Policy

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Science and Technology

Categories

Aerospace

Engineering

Environment

Institute and Campus

National Interests/National Security

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Mercury ID

682882

Source updated

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

Georgia Tech to Launch State’s First Sustainability Master’s Program

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:39:46 +0000

Georgia Tech to Launch State’s First Sustainability Master’s Program admin Wed, 06/18/2025 - 10:39

The Georgia Institute of Technology is launching a new Master of Science in Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management (MSEEM) — the only graduate degree in Georgia fully dedicated to sustainability issues.

The highly technical, science-based, and interdisciplinary program — approved by the Board of Regents on Feb. 12, 2019 — will prepare students to deliver fact-based policy expertise through robust analytical techniques and a deep understanding of energy and environmental issues and sustainability practices.

“This professionally focused degree will allow Georgia Tech to educate the next generation of sustainability leaders in corporate, government, and non-governmental organizations,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “Georgia Tech is proud to deliver innovative, affordable, and top-quality education in high-demand areas such as sustainability to meet the needs of our evolving workforce."

When the program begins in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts' School of Public Policy in August 2019, MSEEM students will study topics such as sustainable energy and voluntary environmental commitments, cost-benefit analysis, utility regulation and policy, Earth systems, economics of environmental policy, big data and policy analytics, climate policy, and environmental management.

They also will learn analytical techniques used to estimate and evaluate sustainability metrics, be able to expertly assess the context of energy and environmental problems, and understand environmental ethics and its implications for sustainability practice.

The program will combine professional instruction from the nationally-ranked School of Public Policy with Georgia Tech’s top-notch engineering, business, and planning faculties to educate professionals who can lead organizations toward policies consistent with a sustainable future.

“This unique interdisciplinary program takes an innovative and integrative approach to sustainability that epitomizes the commitment of the School of Public Policy to collaborate across disciplines to educate future policy analysts and leaders and turn ideas into solutions to public problems,” said Kaye Husbands Fealing, professor and chair of the school.

Faculty will be drawn from across the Georgia Tech campus, including from the School of Public Policy, the Scheller College of Business, the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the School of City and Regional Planning.

Guest lecturers from Atlanta’s corporate community, government agencies, NGOs and research organizations also will participate — helping connect MSEEM students to the state of the practice and to job opportunities.

MSEEM students also will have access to Georgia Tech’s summer Program on Sustainable Development and Climate Change in Venice, Italy. The 5-week, 6-credit program features courses in climate policy and sustainable development and provides a multi-disciplinary learning experience that combines classroom lectures, guest speakers and instructional field trips.

“The world’s energy economy is undergoing transformational change, and as the public and private sectors strengthen their commitment to green practices, the need will increase for well-trained policy experts able to design, implement, and manage responses to sustainability issues. This program will provide such leaders,” said Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy.

The MSEEM program is designed to serve a broad range of students interested in sustainability issues. Students can complete the degree on campus or online as a full-time student. Students also have the option to enroll part-time and complete their degree online. The program is designed to serve working professionals and others who want to participate part-time and earn their degree over several years.

In addition to the master’s degree, Georgia Tech is also offering a Certificate in Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management. This 12-credit hour SEEM Certificate can be completed in one or two semesters and can be earned on its own or in combination with the master’s degree.

Applications are being accepted through June 15 for the inaugural class of MSEEM students, who will begin study in August 2019.

A generous philanthropic gift has enabled Georgia Tech to offer five fully funded MSEEM fellowships to the program each year for the first three years of the program.

For more information on these programs, visit https://cepl.gatech.edu/mseem, or https://cepl.gatech.edu/cseem.

Summary sentence

The degree program will help educate the next generation of sustainability leaders for corporations, government, and non-governmental organizations.

Summary

The Georgia Institute of Technology is launching a new Master’s of Science in Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management (MSEEM) — the only graduate degree in Georgia fully dedicated to sustainability issues.

Borowitz’s Book Published by MIT Press

admin — Mon, 19 May 2025 13:38:51 +0000

Borowitz’s Book Published by MIT Press admin Mon, 05/19/2025 - 09:38

Mariel Borowitz, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has written a book titled, Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data. The book was published by MIT Press.

Understanding and addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, requires access to accurate data from many sources. In some cases, government agencies that operate Earth observing satellites have been leaders in this regard — making their data freely available to all users. In fact, some of the earliest references to “open data” can be traced back to early government satellite projects. However, many governments continue to restrict access to their unclassified Earth observing satellite data, and even those that now make their data freely available did not always do so. This book examines how government agencies developed data sharing policies for their Earth observation satellites and how these data sharing policies changed over time. The insights from this study can help to improve international sharing of data critical for understanding environmental challenges and provide insight into the open data movement more broadly.

The book starts with a thorough review of the literature on data sharing and presents a practical model of data sharing policy development, looking at the role of the actors involved (agency officials, legislative officials, executive branch officials, and non-governmental organizations) and at the importance of the attributes of the data itself (economic, security, normative, and technical).

The book includes case studies of both the World Meterological Organization (WMO) and the Group on Earth Obersvations (GEO), providing some historical and international context in which data sharing decisions have been made. Borowitz then presents agency-level historical case studies looking at data sharing policy development in the space and meteorological agencies in the United States, Europe, and Japan (i.e. NASA, NOAA, USGS, DoD, ESA, EUMETSAT, JAXA, and JMA) as well as summaries of data sharing policy developments in the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). There is an appendix that discusses the data sharing policies of every nation that has ever owned an Earth observation satellite.

The final section discusses why some agencies have made their satellite data openly available while others haven’t and offers some practical recommendations on how international data sharing could be improved. Borowitz also specifically addresses the economics of data, commercial remote sensing, and the potential for public private partnerships, as well as challenges related to big data and other evolving technologies.

Borowitz’s research focuses on international space policy issues, primarily international cooperation in Earth observing satellites, and satellite data sharing policies. In the Spring, Borowitz will be teaching a class with Michael Salomone, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, on Modeling, Simulation, and Military Gaming.

Summary sentence

Mariel Borowitz, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has written a book titled, Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data.

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 12/21/2017 - 12:00

Contact

Jessica Palacios

Administrative Professional II

jessica.palacios@inta.gatech.edu

Associated importer

Keywords

Space Policy

space

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

Categories

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Mercury ID

600199

Source updated

Thu, 02/08/2018 - 13:36

Thesis on Human-Centered AI Earns Honors from International Computing Organization

dgivens8 — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:30:41 +0000

Thesis on Human-Centered AI Earns Honors from International Computing Organization dgivens8 Tue, 04/22/2025 - 10:30

A Georgia Tech alum’s dissertation introduced ways to make artificial intelligence (AI) more accessible, interpretable, and accountable. Although it’s been a year since his doctoral defense, Zijie (Jay) Wang’s (Ph.D. ML-CSE 2024) work continues to resonate with researchers.

Wang is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The award recognizes Wang for his lifelong work on democratizing human-centered AI.

“Throughout my Ph.D. and industry internships, I observed a gap in existing research: there is a strong need for practical tools for applying human-centered approaches when designing AI systems,” said Wang, now a safety researcher at OpenAI.

“My work not only helps people understand AI and guide its behavior but also provides user-friendly tools that fit into existing workflows.”

Wang’s dissertation presented techniques in visual explanation and interactive guidance to align AI models with user knowledge and values. The work culminated from years of research, fellowship support, and internships.

Wang’s most influential projects formed the core of his dissertation. These included:

CNN Explainer: an open-source tool developed for deep-learning beginners. Since its release in July 2020, more than 436,000 global visitors have used the tool.
DiffusionDB: a first-of-its-kind large-scale dataset that lays a foundation to help people better understand generative AI. This work could lead to new research in detecting deepfakes and designing human-AI interaction tools to help people more easily use these models.
GAM Changer: an interface that empowers users in healthcare, finance, or other domains to edit ML models to include knowledge and values specific to their domain, which improves reliability.
GAM Coach: an interactive ML tool that could help people who have been rejected for a loan by automatically letting an applicant know what is needed for them to receive loan approval.
Farsight: a tool that alerts developers when they write prompts in large language models that could be harmful and misused.

“I feel extremely honored and lucky to receive this award, and I am deeply grateful to many who have supported me along the way, including Polo, mentors, collaborators, and friends,” said Wang, who was advised by School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) Professor Polo Chau.

“This recognition also inspired me to continue striving to design and develop easy-to-use tools that help everyone to easily interact with AI systems.”

Like Wang, Chau advised Georgia Tech alumnus Fred Hohman (Ph.D. CSE 2020). Hohman won the ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2022.

Chau’s group synthesizes machine learning (ML) and visualization techniques into scalable, interactive, and trustworthy tools. These tools increase understanding and interaction with large-scale data and ML models.

Chau is the associate director of corporate relations for the Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech. Wang called the School of CSE his home unit while a student in the ML program under Chau.

Wang is one of five recipients of this year’s award to be presented at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025). The conference occurs April 25-May 1 in Yokohama, Japan.

SIGCHI is the world’s largest association of human-computer interaction professionals and practitioners. The group sponsors or co-sponsors 26 conferences, including CHI.

Wang’s outstanding dissertation award is the latest recognition of a career decorated with achievement.

Months after graduating from Georgia Tech, Forbes named Wang to its 30 Under 30 in Science for 2025 for his dissertation. Wang was one of 15 Yellow Jackets included in nine different 30 Under 30 lists and the only Georgia Tech-affiliated individual on the 30 Under 30 in Science list.

While a Georgia Tech student, Wang earned recognition from big names in business and technology. He received the Apple Scholars in AI/ML Ph.D. Fellowship in 2023 and was in the 2022 cohort of the J.P. Morgan AI Ph.D. Fellowships Program.

Along with the CHI award, Wang’s dissertation earned him awards this year at banquets across campus. The Georgia Tech chapter of Sigma Xi presented Wang with the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. He also received the College of Computing’s Outstanding Dissertation Award.

“Georgia Tech attracts many great minds, and I’m glad that some, like Jay, chose to join our group,” Chau said. “It has been a joy to work alongside them and witness the many wonderful things they have accomplished, and with many more to come in their careers.”

Summary sentence

Zijie (Jay) Wang (Ph.D. ML-CSE 2024) is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI).

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 04/17/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Bryant Wine, Communications Officer
bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu

Keywords

College of Computing

School of Computational Science and Engineering

artificial intelligence (AI)

Georgia Tech News Center

Daily Digest

Research Horizons

go-researchnews

go-ai

Categories

Computer Science/Information Technology and Security

Congressional Testimony

Digital Media and Entertainment

Economic Development and Policy

Education

Energy

Engineering

Environment

Exhibitions

Georgia Tech Arts

Industrial Design

Institute and Campus

Institute Leadership

International Education

Life Sciences and Biology

Military Technology

Music and Music Technology

Nanotechnology and Nanoscience

Performances

Physics and Physical Sciences

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Robotics

Special Events and Guest Speakers

Student Honors and Achievements

Student Research

Mercury ID

681961

Source updated

Tue, 04/22/2025 - 10:29

Faculty, Students Pilot AI Crisis Simulation

admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 18:04:50 +0000

Faculty, Students Pilot AI Crisis Simulation admin Thu, 04/17/2025 - 14:04

Researchers from Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) recently piloted an in-depth crisis simulation exploring the national security implications of advanced artificial intelligence. Designed by the AI Safety Initiative in collaboration with Model UN at Georgia Tech, the immersive half-day workshop challenged faculty to respond to a series of escalating threats — including a potential biological attack, cyberattacks, and rising global tensions.

Participants represented major governments, corporations, and organizations — including OpenAI and Google DeepMind — and were inundated with simulated press releases and intelligence reports describing the rapid evolution of AI technologies. Their task: to debate and coordinate policy responses in real time.

In one scenario, a preliminary World Health Organization report revealed AI-enabled pathogens spreading across Central Asia. The player representing China quickly moved to close borders and reimpose pandemic-era lockdowns, a move that caused global confusion and economic instability.

“There’s just no way I could have predicted that response,” said Parv Mahajan, the director of the simulation. “But that kind of extreme response tells us so much about how unprepared countries might react.”

Divjot Kaur, who constructed the simulated documents participants received throughout the workshop, agreed. “This valuable information can shed light on the research and work we must put in,” she said.

Some players took advantage of the chaos. The simulation concluded with a discussion about how profit motives might distort information access and accelerate a potential AI arms race.

What stood out most to participants was the range of ideas that emerged during the crisis. “It was great to see the perspectives of diverse disciplines on the future of AI,” said Amaar Alidina, an undergraduate researcher. “Debate provided meaningful insight on topics we wouldn't even have thought of,” Kaur said.

Looking ahead, the AI Safety Initiative hopes to expand the simulation through collaborations with labs and departments across campus.

“The future of our work will depend, in some way or another, on AI," said Mahajan. "And the best way to understand the future is to try and experience it.”

Summary sentence

Researchers explore national security risks posed by advanced AI through a high-stakes strategic exercise.

Summary

In a simulation from Georgia Tech and GTRI, participants navigated escalating global crises — including AI-enabled biothreats and cyberattacks — to assess how different actors might respond to emerging AI risks.

Dateline

Mon, 04/07/2025 - 12:00

Contact

AI Safety Initiative
board@aisi.dev

Georgia Tech Model UN
gatechmun@gmail.com

Associated importer

Keywords

AI Safety

artificial intelligence (AI)

Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; school of public policy

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics

Computer Science/Information Technology and Security

Economic Development and Policy

Military Technology

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Student and Faculty

Mercury ID

681671

Source updated

Thu, 04/17/2025 - 14:04

Students Are Advised About Financial Theft Through Cyber Fraud

admin — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 17:07:41 +0000

Students Are Advised About Financial Theft Through Cyber Fraud admin Thu, 01/16/2025 - 12:07

The Georgia Tech Office of the Bursar, Office of Information Technology (OIT), and the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid (OSFA) are warning students about cybertheft affecting student refund payments, including financial aid refunds.

Across higher education, cybercriminals are using email phishing scams, malicious web links, and other techniques to gain access to student credentials, often resulting in unauthorized changes to their financial information stored on file with their college or university. This can lead to the theft of their financial aid refunds or other payments from their institution. Victims may not realize their accounts have been compromised until they receive unexpected bills or notice discrepancies.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to strengthen our defenses against cyberthreats, OIT implemented stronger two-factor authentication (2FA) methods available to students, faculty, and staff at the Institute last summer,” said Jennifer Rhodes, Georgia Tech’s interim chief information security officer. “We encourage students to use 2FA methods such as Duo Mobile, YubiKeys, and passkeys to keep their accounts safe and to implement the use of 2FA as soon as they begin their enrollment.”

Two-factor authentication resources for students can be found at oit.gatech.edu/two-factor-authentication.

“It is also important that students periodically review their banking information saved on the student portal — including the full account, routing, or debit card numbers — saved for direct deposit,” said Georgia Tech Bursar Gloria Kobus. “Students should do so to ensure there have been no changes to the information that they did not approve.”

Protect Your Accounts

The offices encourage students to also take the following steps to keep their accounts safe:

Only check your Georgia Tech financial aid application status and awards through BuzzPort (buzzport.gatech.edu), OSCAR (oscar.gatech.edu), or by contacting OSFA (finaid.gatech.edu).

To check Institute balances, make payments, or sign up for electronic student aid refunds, visit the Office of the Bursar’s Student Payments Instructions webpage. Regularly verify your personal information on file.

Do not engage with suspicious emails by replying to the sender, opening attachments, or visiting links in the message. Report these emails by forwarding them as an attachment to OIT’s Security Operations Center (SOC) at phishing@gatech.edu. Microsoft Outlook application users can also employ its “Report” feature.

Pay special attention to website URLs. Malicious actors may use part of a trusted site domain, such as gatech.edu, in their URLs. Do not click on links that you are unsure of. Instead, visit websites by typing the URLs directly into your browser.

Choose strong passwords and keep them secure. Do not change your campus password through an emailed link; instead, only do so at Passport, at passport.gatech.edu.

Do not approve 2FA requests you did not initiate. If you receive repeated 2FA approval requests that were not initiated by you, report this activity to the SOC at soc@gatech.edu. If you ever believe your Georgia Tech accounts have been compromised, contact the SOC immediately.

“We want our students to understand the importance of protecting their online accounts from the moment they begin their first semester,” said Rhodes. “Though cyberthreats will likely always be around, personal awareness and vigilance are top defenses against them.”

Summary sentence

The Office of the Bursar, Office of Information Technology, and Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid partner to warn students about financial fraud against their Institute accounts and how to protect them.

Summary

Dateline

Tue, 01/07/2025 - 12:00

courtney.hill@gatech.edu

Keywords

financial aid

cyber fraud

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Mercury ID

679666

Source updated

Thu, 01/16/2025 - 12:06

Tech Researchers Embark on Disability in STEM Study

admin — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 15:27:41 +0000

Tech Researchers Embark on Disability in STEM Study admin Tue, 07/16/2024 - 11:27

Cassie Mitchell and Robert “Trey” Quinn have a few questions they’d like to ask you, and there really are no wrong answers.

They’re launching a new study focused on disability in the STEM fields of work — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which they hypothesize are a good fit for people with physical disabilities. Technology has made the work more accessible. Plus, the pay is good. However, there are challenges for working people with disabilities that even a great salary can’t overcome.

“We envision a scenario in which people with disabilities can get into the workforce and provide for their needs,” said Mitchell, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Quinn, one of Mitchell’s former students, graduated in May with his master’s in computer science. He was well-known on campus for the sign attached to the back of his wheelchair, which said “THWG” — or “To Hell With Georgia” — a nod to the famous Georgia Tech-University of Georgia rivalry Quinn shares with his older sister, who attended UGA.

“The overall objective with this data-enabled study is to highlight the factors in academia and industry that have historically inhibited the successful inclusion of disabled people in STEM work,” said Quinn, who took the lead role in this study, which will gather data from both non-disabled and disabled people.

“We want to get a more complete picture of the current landscape, of the educational environment and the workplace,” said Mitchell, principal investigator of the Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics.

Increasing the Sample Size

The study is part of the Science Leadership award Mitchell’s lab received in October 2022. This program, supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, supports early-career biomedical researchers who have a record of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. The award includes a $1.15 million grant over five years.

Mitchell, an internationally recognized Paralympian, developed a neurological condition as a teen that resulted in quadriplegia. She’s always made it a point in her lab to include students from diverse backgrounds and disabilities.

“There is almost no data out there about the inclusion of disabled people in the workforce, only tiny sample sizes,” Mitchell said. “So we wanted to go after a larger sample size. Because if we are not reaching appropriate inclusion — and the few existing studies show that we’re not — then we want to know why.”

Quinn added, “Stable and high-paying careers in STEM fields seem like a viable option for people with disabilities to both achieve and maintain financial independence.”

Grappling With the Disability Tax

For a person with significant disability, even a good-paying job may not be enough to offset the “disability tax.” Quinn defines the tax as “the extra time and money that living with a disability takes.”

For example, some people need a monthly disability check to cover common living expenses. But often, a more valuable government benefit is a health plan that covers “the thousands of dollars per month in personal support and care services,” Quinn explained. “You often only qualify for this if you’re on government disability benefits and making less than a certain amount of money per month.”

Also, policies vary by state, so individuals can easily fall through the cracks due to the complexities of various programs. And private or employer-funded healthcare plans typically can’t compete with government plans, which cover these expensive personal support services.

For many people with disabilities, it comes down to a choice between working or government-supported services.

“There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground,” said Mitchell, who estimates approximately 60% of her income supports her medical and disability needs. “And that’s after insurance.”

The researchers hope their study provides momentum that will result in something close to full accessibility.

“This study will illuminate the challenges, even if it doesn’t solve them,” said Mitchell. “And while we’re focusing on STEM, this kind of study can be extrapolated to other fields as well. Whether you’re in science or not, I think people understand we’re asking important societal questions.”

Take the Survey

Summary sentence

Cassie Mitchell and Robert Quinn are examining the factors that affect the inclusion of people with disabilities in STEM fields, aiming to understand the challenges they face with the ultimate goal of improving accessibility and financial independence for

Summary

Dateline

Tue, 07/16/2024 - 12:00

jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu

Contact

Jerry Grillo

Associated importer

Keywords

disability

STEM careers

career survey

accessbility

go-researchnews

News room topics

Society and Culture

Categories

Community

Institute and Campus

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Student and Faculty

Student Research

Mercury ID

675482

Source updated

Tue, 07/16/2024 - 11:27

VIP Tackles Grid Resilience with Real-Time Power Outage Tracker

admin — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 15:43:41 +0000

VIP Tackles Grid Resilience with Real-Time Power Outage Tracker admin Mon, 06/10/2024 - 11:43

Georgia Tech's new GROWER VIP is creating the country's most comprehensive real-time power outage tracker for research use. The database will help researchers explore questions about the causes and effects of power outages and how policy interventions can help strengthen grid resilience.

Why now?

This understanding is urgent in the wake of increasingly extreme climate change-driven weather events and natural disasters, as well as the federal government’s investment of more than $15 billion in grid modernization under the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The database will help researchers learn more about the causes of outages and their societal impacts, such as on housing prices, business activity, public health, and crime. It will also help them obtain greater insight into which communities experience the most frequent and longest outages and what can be done to help.

How does it work?

Utility companies report real-time power outages, but the data is fractured across different service territories and states.
Users can’t download data directly, making the information difficult to use for research and evaluation.
Because of this, it's hard for researchers and agencies to understand the extent and scope of problems with the energy grid.

To address these challenges, the GROWER team developed algorithms and web scrapers. They use Amazon Web Services to crawl the utility websites every 15 minutes and collect the power outage data for many states in one place.

Who’s Involved?

The Grid Resilience, Outage, Weather, and Emergency Response (GROWER) Lab is a Vertically Integrated Project launched in 2024 by faculty and students in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering.

Brian Y. An, an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, and Constance Crozier, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, lead the project alongside John Kim, the lab manager and a public policy Ph.D. student. The group includes 15 students in computer science, city and regional planning, business, public policy, and industrial systems and engineering programs.

What’s Next?

The GROWER team has already begun applying findings from the dataset to research questions.

They are writing a paper based on data showing that racial and ethnic minorities experience more frequent and longer power outages than other groups and have also begun examining the effects of power outages on crime and medical emergencies.

This summer, they will partner with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide technical assistance to the Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office, which is the lead federal agency administering grid modernization grants.

“It is incredibly rewarding to connect with research groups in and out of Georgia Tech who share this vision with us,” An said. “We’re excited to conduct robust research that will inform real-word policy making across the country."

Subtitle

The database will help researchers explore questions about the causes and effects of power outages and how policy interventions can help strengthen grid resilience.

Summary sentence

The database will help researchers explore questions about the causes and effects of power outages and how policy interventions can help strengthen grid resilience.

Summary

The database will help researchers explore questions about the causes and effects of power outages and how policy interventions can help strengthen grid resilience.

Dateline

Mon, 06/03/2024 - 12:00

dminardi3@gatech.edu

Contact

Di Minardi
Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Associated importer

News room topics

Society and Culture

Categories

City Planning, Transportation, and Urban Growth

Community

Energy

Environment

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Mercury ID

674971

Source updated

Mon, 06/10/2024 - 11:42

Will Caitlin Clark's Star Power Raise WNBA Salaries?

admin — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 13:26:41 +0000

Will Caitlin Clark's Star Power Raise WNBA Salaries? admin Fri, 04/26/2024 - 09:26

The 2024 women's basketball NCAA tournament championship game boasted more viewers than the men's final for the first time in history. Yet, NCAA star Caitlin Clark will earn an average of only $84,000 a year as the number one WNBA draft pick this summer. In contrast, the number one pick in last year's NBA draft, Victor Wembanyama, is earning about $13 million per year.

As Clark becomes a household name, she elevates a question WNBA players, fans, and advocates have asked for decades: why is there such a significant pay disparity between men's and women's basketball?

Mary McDonald, a professor of sociology and Homer C. Rice Chair of Sports and Society in the School of History and Sociology, explains how racism, sexism, cultural narratives, and under-investment all have helped perpetuate the long-standing wage gap between the NBA and WNBA. She also discusses how a confluence of changes, including Clark's star power and a new bargaining agreement in 2025, may affect it.

WNBA Players Earn Less Than 1% of Their Male Counterparts

McDonald begins with a statistic: while women across all occupations make roughly 84 cents on the dollar compared to men, Black women make only 64 cents when compared to white men.

"This racialized gendered devaluing of labor is important to highlight given the WNBA's predominantly Black playing force," McDonald says. In sports, the wage gap is even more pronounced, she says, pointing to estimates from economist David Berri that WNBA players earn less than 1% of what NBA players make.

"There is much more at play than simple market economics," she says. "A legacy of exclusion, a complicit sports media, and differing levels of investment by NBA owners have disadvantaged the women's game and ability to earn a fair wage."

Anticipated Changes in 2025

WNBA players like WNBA Player’s Association President Nneka Ogwumike of the Seattle Storm have not only argued the need to build the basketball-related revenue pie but also to provide WNBA players with a larger percentage of the resulting revenue, McDonald explains. The NBA founded the WNBA in 1997 and still owns 42% of the league. However, NBA players receive 50% of the NBA basketball-related revenue while WNBA players receive only an estimated 10% of the WNBA pot.

But this may change in 2025 when the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement expires and the players negotiate a new contract, McDonald says. Importantly, this is also when the WNBA's current TV rights deal expires, she adds. Based upon their long-standing advocacy, the players will likely continue to ask for what NBA players receive in the form of 50% of the basketball-related revenues from both the teams and the league.

"Receiving 50% of total basketball revenue would greatly elevate player salaries. Before scaling for rookie and veteran salary differences, this translates into an average of over $500,000 per player per year. And this is based on 2022 figures — the pot of money available in 2025 will likely be much larger, especially with a new TV deal on the horizon," McDonald says. “The open question is: Will WNBA owners realize the opportunity they have to grow the league and the game by investing in player salaries and improving travel and working conditions?”

Caitlin Clark, ESPN, and Social Media

Although basketball experts have long known about Clark, "her national exposure during Iowa's 2022-23 national championship runner-up season last year certainly elevated her status, cultural visibility, and marketability," McDonald says.

Clark's rise occurred at the same time as two other important factors: ESPN increasing coverage and promotion of the Women's NCAA tournament and players' ability to use social media to bypass the legacy media gatekeepers and narrate their own "fresh and appealing" storylines, McDonald says. Both of these factors have generated greater interest in women's sports.

"Clark's celebrity has helped to generate new public interest in the pay of WNBA players, as did the 2022 detainment of Phoenix Mercury player Brittany Griner in a Russian prison for nearly ten months," McDonald says. "That story had people questioning why stars like Griner have to play overseas in the offseason to earn greater salaries than they receive in the WNBA."

The Takeaway

Clark is entering the WNBA in a period of league expansion and increased media attention. As revenues expand and WNBA players continue their work to gain more leverage in the next round of collective bargaining, McDonald anticipates compensation increases for WNBA players in the coming years.

"The new TV contract in 2025 — which will likely exceed $100 million compared to the existing $65 million deal — will provide greater exposure for the league and its players," McDonald explains. "This, in addition to public pressure generated by WNBA players' advocacy — now including Clark's advocacy — and social media activism, all bolster the push for what WNBA players have desired and fought for since the league's inception: better marketing, more media exposure, higher salaries, and improved working conditions."

McDonald has published extensively on the intersection of sports and gender and is currently writing a book on the WNBA tentatively titled 'We Got Next': The Affective Politics of the WNBA. Learn more in her faculty profile or our March Madness Q&A with McDonald in 2022.

Summary sentence

As Caitlin Clark becomes a household name, she elevates a question WNBA players, fans, and advocates have asked for decades: why is there such a significant pay disparity between men's and women's basketball?

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 12:00

Contact

Di Minardi

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Associated importer

News room topics

Society and Culture

Categories

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Mercury ID

674387

Source updated

Fri, 04/26/2024 - 09:25

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase

Favored Orbits

Why the Moon

Getting Ahead of a Gold Rush to the Moon

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Georgia Tech to Launch State’s First Sustainability Master’s Program

Read More...

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Borowitz’s Book Published by MIT Press

Keywords

Categories

Thesis on Human-Centered AI Earns Honors from International Computing Organization

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Faculty, Students Pilot AI Crisis Simulation

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Students Are Advised About Financial Theft Through Cyber Fraud

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Tech Researchers Embark on Disability in STEM Study

Increasing the Sample Size

Grappling With the Disability Tax

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

VIP Tackles Grid Resilience with Real-Time Power Outage Tracker

Why now?

How does it work?

Who’s Involved?

What’s Next?

News room topics

Categories

Will Caitlin Clark's Star Power Raise WNBA Salaries?

WNBA Players Earn Less Than 1% of Their Male Counterparts

Anticipated Changes in 2025

Caitlin Clark, ESPN, and Social Media

The Takeaway

News room topics

Categories