Georgia Tech Research Podcast

The most recent episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast highlights an ongoing research collaboration between GTRI and Cobb-Vantress, a global leader in poultry breeding and genetics. This highlights GTRI's mission-based efforts to "enhance state of Georgia economic development," as the poultry industry is the state's No. 1 economic engine.

GTRI will soon welcome the next cohort of its STING (Sparking Technology Innovation and Growth) program, a 10-week professional development experience designed to help employees better understand sponsor needs, define meaningful problems, and collaboratively develop solutions with real-world relevance. The upcoming STING 7.0 cohort will begin in Spring 2026.

STING first launched in 2020. The program was created to address a familiar challenge in applied research environments: many of the skills that lead to successful outcomes are difficult to formalize, often learned only through years of experience. STING was designed to bring out those skills, make them teachable, and give participants a structured way to practice them in a low-risk, but high-impact setting.

The latest episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast focuses on a critical but often unseen component of Georgia's agricultural infrastructure: the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network (GPLN).

Host Stephanie Richter, a senior research scientist in GTRI's ATAS laboratory, is joined by Dr. Louise Dufour-Zavala, executive director of GPLN, for a conversation on poultry health, disease prevention, emergency response, and the laboratory network's close coordination with industry, state, and federal partners.

Throughout the episode, Richter and Dufour-Zavala explore how GPLN functions day to day, why its work is essential to Georgia's economy, and how science, speed, and communication work together when animal health is on the line.

GPLN exists to help keep Georgia's poultry flocks healthy, safe, and market-ready. That mission plays out through an extensive testing and surveillance operation, with approximately 1.7 million samples processed annually. The episode emphasizes that this testing supports not only flock health but also food safety, business continuity, and export eligibility.

The latest episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast offers listeners a rare, behind-the-scenes look at XPAT through a conversation with the two researchers who led its development: Maxwell Tannenbaum and Dante Dimenichi of GTRI's Aerospace, Transportation, and Advanced Systems Laboratory (ATAS).

XPAT, the X-band Polarization-Diverse AESA Testbed, was named GTRI's "Large Investment IRAD of the Year" earlier this year.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) podcast celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps, Nov. 10, 2025. GTRI employees who are Marines share their experiences, emphasizing the Corps' traditions and values.

Key moments include the Birthday Ball, which reinforces Marine identity, and deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, highlighting the camaraderie and challenges faced.

Stories from veterans including Courtney Daniels, Patrick Clark, Kirk Blehm, Kyle Blond, Terence Sterba, Rupert Simon, and Eric Scott, illustrate the Marine Corps' impact on their lives and the lessons they apply in their civilian roles at GTRI.

The podcast underscores the importance of Marine Corps traditions in fostering teamwork, leadership, and resilience.

This episode of the Georgia Tech Research podcast discusses PFAs, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, with Dr. Christopher Heist and Jordan Ash. PFAs, known as "forever chemicals," are synthetic compounds with strong carbon-fluorine bonds, making them highly persistent in the environment. They are ubiquitous in products like waterproofing, stain-resistant fabrics, and firefighting foam.

The episode highlights the challenges in analyzing PFAs due to their widespread presence and the need for specialized equipment. The discussion also covers the impact of PFAs on human health, including cancer risks, and the efforts to reduce exposure through filtration and product updates. The conversation emphasizes the importance of collaboration and ongoing research to address PFAs contamination.

Dr. Heist will discuss the subject as a featured speaker during the Georgia Food Safety Conference, to be held Nov. 5- 6 at The Georgia Tech Research Institute Headquarters Conference Center (250 14th Street, Atlanta, GA).

In the latest episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast, host Stephanie Richter speaks with Dr. Dimitri Mavris, Distinguished Regents Professor and Executive Director of Georgia Tech's Professional Master's in Applied Systems Engineering (PMASE) program.

Now in his 46th year at Georgia Tech, Mavris reflects on his journey from student to professor and on the evolution of systems engineering as a discipline. "It wasn't the plan—it became the plan," he said.

Mavris described PMASE as a program designed for working professionals navigating the increasing complexity of technology. He emphasized that staying relevant requires constant education.

"Only by never stopping reading and learning will one have a chance of keeping up."

Since taking leadership of the program, enrollment has grown from 28 to 81 students, supported by collaborations with GTRI researchers and Georgia Tech Professional Education. New initiatives include a certificate program for General Dynamics and plans for a European variant based at Georgia Tech-Europe.

Mavris also discussed the growing influence of artificial intelligence and data-driven engineering. "AI isn't new," he said, "but its scale today makes discernment critical. Students must learn not just to use tools—but to judge what's credible."

The most recent episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast features a conversation with Georgia Tech Human Resources (GTHR) leaders about the many benefits and programs available to Georgia Tech and GTRI employees.

Host Scott McAtee, assistant director-HR business partner at GTRI, is joined by Kimberly Goler-Stubbs, Yolanda McDaniel, and Michelle Jordan-Dumas, who each oversee different aspects of employee health, benefits, and retirement.

The discussion highlights how Georgia Tech's benefits go beyond health care and retirement.

The latest episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast brings together two leaders from the Human Centered Engineering Division (HCED) at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI): Dr. Theresa Kessler, branch head of the Human Performance Branch, and Stuart Michelson, associate division chief.

Together, they break down common misconceptions about human factors, explaining how careful attention to human-system interaction can save time, money, and even lives.

They explain why trust is not the ultimate goal, why manpower, personnel, and training studies are critical, why UX/UI is more than attractive interfaces, and why human systems integration must be treated as foundational.

The latest episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast turns its focus to the people at the heart of cutting-edge defense and technology research. In this episode, Dr. Theresa Kessler, principal research scientist in the Human Centered Engineering Division (HCED) at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), shares how her team's work bridges the gap between technology and the humans who depend on it.

Dr. Kessler's research centers on improving the way humans interact with increasingly complex systems, particularly in defense contexts where clarity and reliability can have life-or-death implications. HCED integrates principles of psychology, engineering, and systems design to ensure that technology enhances, rather than hinders, human performance.

"Our goal is to understand the human in the loop," Kessler explains in the podcast. "When systems are designed with human factors in mind, they become more intuitive, more resilient, and ultimately more effective."