Georgia Tech Research Podcast

Cloud top discharges are the largest electrical discharges on planet earth and produce many spectacular colors, including purple, blue, and red. These discharges span up to 50 miles long and can directly transfer electric charge to outer space, yet the scientific community still doesn't understand how they do this. With support from the National Science Foundation, Levi's research into cloud top discharges dives deep into the physics to learn scientifically how these discharges develop during sever weather and how they interact with the atmosphere and impact the environment. For example, these discharges produce nitric oxide (NOx), which affects the amount of ozone in the stratosphere, which in turn affects the warming and cooling of the planet.

Levi's research will seek to capture electrical discharges above the clouds using a high-speed imaging system to learn more about their physics and how thunderstorms produce such massive discharges. The goal is to gain a better understanding as to why some storms produce cloud top electrical discharges while others do not. This will also lead to a better understanding about the physical properties of these type of discharges such as their conductivity and energy. The high-speed imaging system that Levi and his team will use will be the first of its kind, and will be able to measure up to four simultaneously electromagnetic wavelengths at high speeds.

Join the Slack Q&A with Levi beginning Friday, May 24th on the #tech-connects channel.

This episode of The Georgia Tech Research Podcast is an interview with Janaki Tambe, the new Director of GTRI's Project Management Office (PMO). She assumed that role May 1, reporting to the office of the COO.

As the PMO Director, Janaki provides executive oversight and leadership to the PMO office. She will be responsible for maintaining a dynamic and productive team culture, fostering productive relationships across GTRI and Georgia Tech, securing project management work with GTRI laboratories, and providing best-of-class PM subject matter expertise to Department of Defense (DoD) research projects and all other organizational projects in which the PMO is involved. She also maintains accountability for all PMO activities and represents the PMO to GTRI leadership.

This Tech Connects podcast features Dr. Jie Xu, Principal Research Scientist and Chemical and Biological Systems Branch Head in GTRI's Aerospace, Transportation & Advanced Systems Laboratory (ATAS).

The optical sensor development represents a collaborative endeavor supported by a diverse coalition of stakeholders. With support from federal agencies such as the USDA, EPA, NSF, and FDA alongside backing from the State of Georgia through the Agriculture Technology Research Program, and strategic partnerships with private sector entities like Salvus. Dr. Xu's research initiatives span a wide spectrum of applications, including food safety, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and pathogen mitigation.

Dr. Xu's research aligns with GTRI's mission of applying science and technology to solve complex problems for government and industry, enhancing GTRI's reputation as a leader in innovative research with real-world impact. She enjoys working with teams comprised of individuals with diverse technical backgrounds, fostering research freedom and collaboration.

Comas Haynes is Principal Research Engineer in ATAS and the Materials/Energy Branch Head within the Intelligent Sustainable Technologies Division of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

Enhanced Chilling Automation for Georgia's Poultry Processing Sector

Enhancing the State of Georgia economic development is one of the four focal points listed in the GTRI mission statement. The enhanced chilling project is sponsored by the State of Georgia through the Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP), along with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a recent co-sponsor. ATRP intends to drive transformational innovation in the state's (and ultimately the nation's) poultry, agribusiness, and food manufacturing spaces. Since Georgia is the #1 state in the nation in the poultry processing sector, this project is a significant part of GTRI's alignment with its mission statement.

This episode features a discussion with Austen and Jalan, the fall 2023 Intelligent Sustainable Technologies Division (ISTD) Cooperative Education (co-op) students.

The co-op work-study program provides academic credit for structured work experiences, helping young people complete the school-to-work transition.

The topics covered in this discussion include their experiences, their goals, and their pathway to a great career in research while gaining hands-on work experience with the Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) projects.

This episode is a great discussion for anyone, but it has a unique appeal to high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research.

There are five "P's" in Georgia agriculture: Poultry, Pines, Peaches, Pecans, and Peanuts. This episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast deals with research by GTRI's Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) on peanuts.

Peanuts are the official state crop of Georgia. Annually, Georgia's peanut harvest is nearly half of the total yield of the United States. ATRP research focusing on peanuts is thus well in line with GTRI's Mission aim to "Enhance State of Georgia economic development."

Center for Scalable and Intelligent-Automation in Poultry Processing (CSI-APP)

This podcast highlights interdisciplinary research on a current four-year project that is being sponsored by the USDA. It is a collaboration among GTRI, Georgia Tech, Fort Valley State University, University of Arkansas and University of Nebraska. Its goal is to help modernize the poultry processing industry through novel forms of automation, the need for which has been dramatically demonstrated by the pandemic. Georgia is by far the US's largest poultry producer. Poultry is a billion-dollar industry in the state and this project aligns with GTRI's commitment to serve Georgia.

The project has four research objectives: (1) intelligent automation of poultry deboning, (2) virtual reality telepresence to enable human-robot collaboration on the plant floor, (3) intelligent automation of poultry plant sanitation and health, and (4) determination of the societal impacts of automating traditional manual jobs. Recent advances in robot hardware, sensors and artificial intelligence capabilities will be fully leveraged. The project has potentially global ramifications.

This episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast highlights a current research project under the Georgia Tech Research Institute's Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP). Host Stephanie Richter, a GTRI Research Scientist, talks with Dr. Konrad Ahlin about his exploratory project called The One-Handed Rehang Device.

Dr. Ahlin's project aims to address an area of poultry processing that requires tedious, heavy, and repetitive motions for workers.

The DOD, DOE national laboratories, ARPA-E, and NASA are collaborating to reduce the cost, volume and weight of batteries while simultaneously improving battery performance (power, energy, durability) and resilience to abuse conditions and extreme temperatures. In addition to the current federal emphasis placed on battery and energy storage technology, the state of Georgia is positioned to become a regional and national leader in renewable energy technology. Manufacturing of electric vehicles and EV components is accelerating, especially in the Southeast. Tesla, Kia, Volkswagen, and Apple are just a few of the many companies contributing to the Governor's Office push to establish Georgia as the technology innovation hub of the Eastern US.

All-Solid-State Batteries (ASSBs) have gained great attention due to their inherent safety advantages over conventional lithium (Li)-ion batteries, which use flammable liquid electrolytes and are vulnerable to Li dendrite growth when paired with Li metal anode. The focus of this research into is two-fold: from the bottom up, the fabrication of high-performance cells, and from the top down, a parametric model to envision insertion of this research into a feasible future circular economy.

This episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast is the eleventh in a special series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Georgia Tech Research Institute's Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP).

Host Stephanie Richter, a GTRI Research Scientist, talks with Dr. Doug Britton, Program Manager--Agricultural Technology Research Program at Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Gary McMurray, Division Chief--Robotics, Modeling, & Sensing for Agriculture, at Georgia Tech Research Institute. They speak primarily from their roles at the intelligence Sustainable Technology Division (ISTD). McMurray is the division chief of ISTD and Britton is the Associate division chief of ISTD.

The talk extensively about the synergies between ISTD and ATRP--as well as partnerships with other institutions and entities.

"We've been very intentional that we want to be seen as a collaborative organization," says McMurray.

Britton agrees: "We've built that culture of we're here to support and collaborate and in the end 'It's still your project.'"

Britton and McMurray delve into work that ISTD and ATRP have done with universities, DoD and military branches, and non-DoD governmental units.

In addition, they speak on recent "big wins" for ATRP, as well as the future of ATRP and its work.