Can biosignals such as heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure be integrated into immersive virtual reality experiences? For researcher-turned-entrepreneur Yuchen Zhao, this vision is at the core of her work with her startup BioVR.

Imagine a doctor’s visit that never ends. An app on your phone and a wearable on your wrist monitor your health 24/7, alerting you to potential issues before you even feel sick. It sounds utopian: no surprise illnesses, faster diagnoses, maybe even AI-guided cures. However, as Georgia Tech researcher Catherine Wieczorek has found, today’s artificial intelligence health tools carry more than medical promise.

The FlameJackets, a team of Georgia Tech students and faculty, are developing a hybrid fuel-electric drone to detect and suppress wildfires autonomously. Born out of Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, the team is now a strong contender in the $11 million XPRIZE Wildfire competition.

Imagine an Atlanta where there’s a pathway for every breakthrough in a Georgia Tech lab to launch into a startup and scale to a billion-dollar “unicorn”. This isn’t a distant fantasy—it’s the vision that Dr. Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, Georgia Tech’s chief commercialization officer, is championing.

“It’s the smell of the future,” says Mya Love Griesbaum, reflecting on her work with fungi. The 21-year-old materials researcher has come to appreciate the earthy odor of decomposing matter, a scent that symbolizes possibility: a future where fungi clean up pollution and transform the fashion industry. As the founder of Mycorrhiza Fashion, she is developing a sustainable approach to textiles by cultivating fungi-derived materials that can help address the pollution problem in the fashion industry.

At Memento in Atlanta, Sam Thurman’s 3D-printed light sculptures transformed architectural principles into luminous art, blending geometry, symmetry, and design to create spaces that resonated with both form and meaning. His debut show, Speculative Futures, invited viewers to experience how architecture and technology intersect with creative expression.

On a North Georgia poultry farm, thousands of chickens are clucking and chirping under the noisy hum of fans. Amongst the chatter, a small device is quietly eavesdropping. “You can tell how chickens are doing just by how they sound,” says David Anderson, a Georgia Tech professor and TSRB researcher who has made a career of listening closely.

“I vividly recall watching teachers struggle with technology while their students navigated it effortlessly,” says Shi Ding. That early moment as a middle school intern sparked a path dedicated to creating AI-powered, inclusive learning tools that meet students where they are.

What happens when fans build better stories than the studios that own them? From viral memes to collaborative tabletop role-playing games, emergent transmedia is rewriting who gets to shape a narrative, and why that power should stay with the people.

Chengzhi Zhang, a PhD student at Georgia Tech, is leading efforts to improve AI literacy by exploring the dangers of overestimating generative AI's capabilities, a phenomenon known as the ‘Eliza Effect.’ Her work and recent paper aim to equip users with the knowledge to use AI tools like ChatGPT responsibly and effectively.

Charles Ramey, a TSRB Georgia Tech researcher, collaborates with the Georgia Aquarium to develop instrumented enrichment tools for sea otters. His research uses innovative, data-driven methods to improve animal welfare by tailoring enrichment to the specific needs of species, with a focus on cognitive engagement and behavioral well-being.

Artificial intelligence is a prevalent topic in current design conversations. Tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Figma plugins promise to streamline workflows and unlock creativity. However, for some UX designers, those promises fall flat or create new problems. Georgia Tech researcher Inha Cha wants to know why.

TSRB researcher Allie Teixeira Riggs is using buttons as a medium to explore how marginalized communities, particularly queer individuals, create and share their histories. Their latest project blends queer theory, HCI, and tangible design, inviting participants to craft buttons with embedded NFC tags that store personal audio recordings, offering a private yet public way to archive and express queer identities.

At Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), researchers Moeiini Reilly and Nicole Brancato are reimagining the future of music education. Their goal is to make music education more affordable and equitable by using low-cost interactive technology.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the potential to benefit a variety of industries, from agriculture to military operations. However, their reliance on batteries makes flights shorter and more expensive, while also being detrimental to the planet. Research from Georgia Tech's Schools of Interactive Computing and Computer Science highlights how solar power can make UAVS more sustainable and widespread.