Prospective Students

LEARN ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS

Graduate Programs

Expect to be challenged. Expect to excel.

The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers five master's and five doctoral degree programs that serve as the launching points for a wide variety of academic and career destinations.

CEE graduate students choose uniquely challenging paths toward their intended degrees. Most will work within one of six affinity groups, each of which conducts a variety of interdisciplinary research initiatives within the School, across campus, and with other universities around the world. This interdisciplinary approach to research attracts a broad array of corporate, governmental and research foundation support. Students can also gain valuable work experience through graduate assistantships in CEE, the Georgia Tech Cooperative Education Program, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Civil Engineering

Engineering Science & Mechanics

Our degrees:

Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Master of Science in Environmental Engineering
Master of Science in Engineering Science & Mechanics
Master of Science in Bioengineering This degree is jointly offered by the Colleges of Engineering, Computing, Sciences, and Architecture as well as the Emory University School of Medicine.
Master of Science in Computational Science & Engineering This degree is offered jointly by the College of Engineering, the College of Computing and the College of Sciences.
Doctor of Philosophy Students pursue the Ph.D. degree through one of six programs:
- Civil Engineering
- Environmental Engineering
- Engineering Science & Mechanics
- Bioengineering
- Computational Science & Engineering
- Ocean Science & Engineering

Admissions Flowchart
	Application Submitted to CEEatGT for summer and fall admission: December 15 for spring admission: August 31
	Initial Processing typically 3-4 weeks after application deadline
	Faculty Review approximately 6-8 weeks; faculty review for admissibility and funding
	Decisions Issued by March 30 for Summer and Fall by October 30 for Spring
	Accept Offer of Admission to CEEatGT!

Please keep in mind, master’s degree applicants are typically admitted for fall semester.

Admission to the Ph.D. Program

Our Ph.D. program is available to selected students who have an excellent academic background and the capability to conduct independent research. Applicants must have earned an acceptable master's or bachelor's degree. Ph.D. applicants must choose a CEE discipline or specific field of study. After consulting with faculty, the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies grants or denies the applicant admission to the Ph.D. program in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Admission to the Ph.D. program does not constitute admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. (Candidacy requirements are discussed here.)

Personal Statement Guidance

The personal statement, or statement of purpose, is your opportunity to clearly outline your academic, professional, and career objectives. Additionally, it is your chance to tell us why you wish to pursue these objectives through graduate studies in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech. Your statement should discuss your background — including academic, research, and professional experience — as well as any unique specifics related to your qualifications for a graduate program. In short, your statement should address:

Why you wish to attend graduate school;
Why you wish to specifically attend the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech; and
How our program can help you reach your long-term goals.

Test Scores

	MINIMUM SCORE	INSTITUTE CODE	DEPARTMENT CODE	NOTES
GRE	155 (quantitative only)	R5248	1102	Official score reports will be sent directly from the testing agency to Georgia Tech. All GRE subset scores (verbal, quantitative, analytical writing) are required for *all* applicants, and the TOEFL is required for all international applicants. International students who have attended a U.S. college or university for at least one academic year will not be required to provide a TOEFL score.
TOEFL	90 (minimum 19 in each subsection)	5248	65
If you know your test scores when completing the application, note them in the space provided on the application form. Although an application may be reviewed based on your self-reported scores, many faculty wish to see the official scores during their review. We advise you to plan accordingly so that your official scores arrive before the application deadline.

Explore CEEatGT Academic Groups

Construction and Infrastructure Systems Engineering

Pieces of steel with the interlocking GT spirit mark of Georgia Tech attached to one of the poles. A work boot is in the background.

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The technological evolution of construction and infrastructure systems engineering in the last few decades demands a new generation of modern engineers.

Our students become those engineers — professionals who understand the accelerating pace of technology and how it impacts architecture/engineering/construction practice. They know how to build and manage civil infrastructure projects and systems that excel in safety, quality, operational, environmental and other requirements. But more than that, they learn to advance the cutting edge of technology.

Construction and Infrastructure Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech acts as the platform for technological change in the industry. As a result, our graduates help their organizations work smarter and understand the impact of emerging technologies on their practice. We teach our graduate students advanced technological approaches and methods and encourage them to research and develop new ones, always with a focus on the human dimension that enables them to understand how their ideas impact people and processes. Students participate in state-of-the-art fundamental and applied projects in the construction and infrastructure systems engineering areas of information technology and systems, data and system modeling and visualization, automation and robotics, infrastructure sensors and sensor systems, risk analysis, and other advanced technology-based areas.

The interdisciplinary nature of construction and infrastructure systems engineering encourages students to supplement their graduate program with courses from other areas at Georgia Tech, including computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, building construction, and industrial and systems engineering.

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Angshuman Guin demonstrates how a cell phone tracks Gwinnett County Fire Department trucks and data about traffic to improve response times. Guin is working with Gwinnett on connected vehicle technology as part of the first round of Georgia Tech’s Georgia Smart Communities Challenge. (Photo: Allison Carter)

Taylor, Watkins, Guin will help Columbus, Milton with smart communities projects

PEOPLE

Adjo A. Amekudzi-Kennedy Associate Chair for Global Engineering Leadership and Entrepreneurship,...	Baabak Ashuri Associate Professor	Daniel Castro Adjunct Associate Professor
Yong Kwon Cho Associate Professor	T. Russell Gentry Adjunct Associate Professor	Emily Grubert Assistant Professor
Laurence J. Jacobs Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor	Lawrence F. Kahn Professor Emeritus	Kimberly E. Kurtis Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship & Professor
Jamia Luckett Administrative Professional, Sr.	Eric Marks Professor of the Practice & Group Coordinator	John E. Taylor Associate Chair for Graduate Programs and Research Innovation &...
Iris Tien Assistant Professor	Yi-Chang James Tsai Professor

Environmental Engineering

A grass-covered mountain against a cloudy, gray sky with a hint of a rainbow.

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Our Environmental Engineering program provides comprehensive educational and research opportunities in air, land, and water science and engineering. Our faculty members have a broad range of experience and expertise. They work in top-notch research facilities. They collaborate extensively with other engineering and science faculty across campus.

That means we attract the highest-caliber students from a variety of engineering and science backgrounds. And we design your master’s or Ph.D. program specifically for your professional goals.

Our program is a key component in campus-wide initiatives on biological engineering, bioscience and biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science and technology, sustainable technology and development, environmental science and technology, and energy systems.

Key Research Areas:

Air pollution: emissions, formation, transport, and deposition of aerosols
Chemical and environmental multiphase transport processes
Environmental and analytical chemistry
Environmental biotechnology for bioremediation of contaminated soil, sediments and waters
Hazardous substances in sediments, soils, waters and residues
Nanotechnology in the environment
Physical, chemical and biological processes influencing subsurface fate and transport of contaminants
Physicochemical processes for water and wastewater treatment
Sustainable technology and development

KEY RESEARCH PROJECTS

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PEOPLE

Mustafa M. Aral Professor Emeritus	Joe Brown Carlton S. Wilder Assistant Professor	Yongsheng Chen Professor
John Crittenden Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, Hightower Chair...	Maohong Fan Adjunct Professor	Janet Hatt Senior Research Scientist/Lab Manager Konstantinidis Group
Yongtao Hu Senior Research Scientist	Ching-Hua Huang Professor	Jennifer Kaiser Assistant Professor
Kostas T. Konstantinidis Professor	John H. Koon Professor of the Practice	Chris Chungkei Lai Assistant Professor
Lekia Mauesby Administrative Professional Sr.	James A. Mulholland Professor	Nga Lee (Sally) Ng Adjunct Professor
M. Talat Odman Principal Research Engineer	Spyros G. Pavlostathis Professor	Luis Miquel Rodriquez-Rojas Research Engineer
Armistead G. Russell Howard T. Tellepsen Chair, Regents Professor & Group Coordinator	F. Michael Saunders Professor Emeritus	Jim C. Spain Professor Emeritus
Costas Tsouris Affiliate	Ambarish Vaidyanathan Adjunct Assistant Professor	Shih Chi Weng Adjunct Assistant Professor
Xing Xie Carlton S. Wilder Assistant Professor	Sotira Yiacoumi Professor	Guangxuan Zhu Senior Research Scientist

RESEARCH

Capture of Organic Iodides from Vessel Off-Gas Streams

Principal Investigator: Sotira Yiacoumi

Sponsor: Defense Threat Reduction Agency

CAREER: Bioaerosols and Enteric Pathogen Risk in Cities with Poor Sanitation

Many cities, especially in developing countries, have poor sanitation infrastructure characterized by a number of interconnected problems, including uncontained wastewater flows, lack of functional sewerage networks, open sewers, poor drainage, highly contaminated urban waterways, inadequate treatment of wastewater, and unsafe disposal of biosolids. Residents of cities with poor sanitation are exposed to a range of pathogens via a number of pathways, contributing to a high burden of disease. One pathway that has not yet been adequately characterized in these settings is the aeromicrobiological (AMB) pathway: the transport of pathogens in aerosols where uncontained fecal waste exists in close proximity to population centers. In this project, the PI aims to advance our understanding of the role bioaerosols play in transmission of pathogens in these environments. Findings will be applicable to many settings in the U.S. and other developed countries as well; these settings include areas of intensive animal agriculture, wastewater infrastructure, and biosolids management. Field studies will be integrated with innovative, hands-on, undergraduate engineering courses focused on environmental problems affecting global public health in underserved communities.

Principal Investigator: Joe Brown

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Closing the Loop: An Integrated, Tunable, and Sustainable Management System for Improved Energy, Nutrient, and Water Recovery from Biowastes

Phosphorus is an element that, along with nitrogen and potassium, has enabled large increases in food production in the U.S. and globally. Phosphorus is mined from natural deposits, but these deposits are diminishing. Contemporary reports indicate that there is a pending phosphorus crisis, as global supplies dwindle and demand for food increases. Currently, the utilization of phosphorus for fertilizer is energy intensive and expensive. Phosphorus supply is limited, and its recovery from food and other wastes and water bodies is virtually nonexistent. Traditionally, agricultural production has been optimized with little or no consideration of the losses of phosphorus beyond its use in producing crops. This practice leads to large energy needs for fertilizer production and for treatment of phosphorus waste in agricultural runoff, and food and animal wastes. The other side to this problem is that some phosphorus applied to agricultural fields is lost to lakes and rivers causing considerable environmental damage. These phosphorus issues significantly influence our food, energy, and water systems. Two key approaches to achieve sustainable phosphorus management are agriculture fertilization systems that more efficiently use phosphorous for plant growth and systems that recover phosphorus from food and animal wastes and from biowastes in contaminated water. Unfortunately, we do not have suitable recovery systems due to technological limitations and economic and infrastructure constraints. This project aims to develop an integrated and sustainable management structure that can simultaneously address the major technical challenges in biowaste management and agriculture fertilization systems. This management structure will enable recovery of phosphorous, energy, and water, thus increasing resource use efficiency and providing a new source of phosphorus for agricultural food production.

Principal Investigator: Spyros Pavlostathis

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Data Integration Methods for Environmental Exposures with Application in Air Pollution and Asthma Morbidity

Accurate and reliable exposure estimates are crucial to the success of any environmental health study. The overarching goal of this project is to develop and apply statistical methods to improve exposure assessment and exposure uncertainty quantiﬁcation for spatio-temporal environmental pollution ﬁelds. This is accomplished by statistically integrating observations with additional data sources, including state-of-the-art computer model simulations and satellite imagery. We will develop methods motivated by three current research priorities in air pollution epidemiology: a) identifying susceptible sub-populations most at risk to air pollution exposures; (b) quantifying health impacts of air pollution under a changing climate; and (c) understanding sources of air pollution to develop control strategies. In Aim 1, we will develop multi-resolutional and multivariate data integration methods for ambient air pollution concentrations. We will supplement sparse observations from monitoring networks with simulations from a chemical transport model and multiple satellite retrieval parameters. The proposed methods will exploit the between-pollutant dependence and the spatio-temporal autocorrelation within each pollutant for better predictions. In Aim 2, we will develop multivariate bias-correction methods for climate model simulations using historical observations. The goal is to perform joint bias-correction across multiple variables such that the observed dependence is retained in future projections. In Aim 3, we will develop ensemble source apportionment methods for ﬁne particulate matter pollution (PM2.5). The methods will estimate emission source contributions by combining results from several algorithms that incorporate different types of external information and assumptions. We will further utilize computer model simulations to spatially interpolate source information to locations without monitors. Methods developed from Aims 1, 2, and 3 will be used to create national databases of (1) daily concentration estimates for criteria pollutants and major constituents of PM2.5, (2) projections of ozone levels due to climate change under different future emission scenarios, and (3) daily estimates of contributions from multiple PM2.5 sources, including coal combustion, on-road diesel and gasoline combustion, biomass burning, and resuspended soil/dust. We will also provide uncertainty estimates, detailed documentation, and R packages to ensure these methods and estimates can be used in other environmental health studies. In Aim 4, we will acquire individual-level emergency department (ED) visit data from 25 cities during the period 2005-2014. The data integration products will be used to estimate short-term associations between asthma ED visits and multiple air pollutants and pollutant sources. The proposed health study ﬁlls a major gap by considering both elderly and non-elderly susceptible populations to support the development of targeted, effective risk reduction and preven- tion activities. While air pollution serves as the motivating application in this project, the methods proposed are highly applicable to other environmental exposures.

Principal Investigators: James Mulholland and Armistead "Ted" Russell

Sponsor: National Institutes of Health

Early-Time Signatures of a Nuclear Detonation in Urban Areas

Principal Investigator: Sotira Yiacoumi

Sponsor: Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Fate and Effect of Peracetic Acid Solutions in Poultry Processing Wastewater Treatment Systems

Principal Investigator: Spyros Pavlostathis

Sponsor: U.S. Poultry Foundation

Ferrates (FeVI, FeV, and FeIV) Oxidation for Mitigation of Pharmaceutical Micropollutants in Source-Separated Urine: Underlying Mechanisms

Human urine accounts for less than 1 percent of domestic wastewater by volume yet urine contributes a disproportionate mass load of nutrients and pharmaceuticals to wastewater. While intensifying nutrient recovery in diverted urine has been proposed as a more sustainable alternative to conventional wastewater management, eliminating pharmaceutical micropollutants from the urine will also be highly beneficial. This project will develop a ferrate-based advanced oxidation technology (AOT) that is particularly promising for treating pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in the challenging urine matrices. Effective destruction of pharmaceuticals in urine can minimize energy-intensive treatment required at centralized wastewater facilities to remove these micropollutants, and reduce their potential harm to receiving waters and drinking water sources. This project will be led by Prof. Ching-Hua Huang at Georgia Tech and in collaboration with Profs. Virender Sharma and Leslie Cizmas at Texas A&M to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of ferrate-based AOT and optimize the treatment efficiency in pollutant and toxicity reduction.

Principal Investigator: Ching-Hua Huang

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

The Maputo Sanitation Trial

Access to safe sanitation in low-income, informal settlements of Sub-Saharan Africa has not significantly improved since 1990. The combination of a high fecal-related disease burden and inadequate infrastructure suggests that investment in expanding sanitation access in densely populated urban slums can yield important public health gains. No rigorous, controlled intervention studies have evaluated the health effects of decentralized (non-sewerage) sanitation in an informal urban setting, despite the role that such technologies will likely play in scaling up access. We are conducting a controlled, before-and-after trial to estimate the health impacts of an urban sanitation intervention in informal neighborhoods of Maputo, Mozambique, including an assessment of whether exposures and health outcomes vary by localized population density. The intervention consists of private pour-flush latrines (to septic tank) shared by multiple households in compounds or household clusters. We are measuring objective health outcomes in approximately 760 children (380 children with household access to interventions, 380 matched controls using existing shared private latrines in poor sanitary conditions), at three time points: immediately before the intervention and at follow-up after 12 and 24 months. The primary outcome is combined prevalence of selected enteric infections among children under 5 years of age. Secondary outcome measures include soil-transmitted helminth (STH) reinfection in children following baseline deworming and prevalence of reported diarrheal disease. Further, we are using exposure assessment, fecal source tracking, and microbial transmission modelling to examine whether and how routes of exposure for diarrheagenic pathogens and STHs change following introduction of effective sanitation.

Principal Investigator: Joe Brown

Sponsors: U.S. Agency for International Development; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Microbial Genome Atlas (MiGA) Project and its Expansion to Catalogue the Uncultivated Microbial Majority

The diversity of prokaryotic microbes on the planet is very large, estimated at over a billion species of bacteria, and most of it remains undiscovered. As genome sequencing can help characterizing this diversity and has recently become routine, most microbial scientists have been overwhelmed by the amount of available data. For many researchers, a complete and thorough analysis of the available genome data is not necessary. Instead, these users would be better served with straightforward methods that can identify their unknown DNA/RNA sequence(s), and be able to discriminate between well understood taxa and those that are potentially novel. Tools that can help direct researchers to the most "interesting" genomes and genes among thousands of candidates will be important. Furthermore, metagenomics, which is the sequencing of environmental DNA, allows the genetic characterization of the majority of these prokaryotes that have resisted cultivation in the laboratory. However, current tools to analyze metagenomic data are clearly lagging behind the development of sequencing technologies (and data), and are typically limited to genome assembly and gene annotation. This is a major limitation for better understanding, studying and communicating about the biodiversity of uncultivated microorganisms that run the life-sustaining biogeochemical cycles on the planet, form critical associations with their plant and animal hosts, or produce products of biotechnological value. Therefore, new approaches to make the emerging genomic and metagenomic sequence information readily available to the non-expert user are timely and essential in order to advance our understanding of the diversity and function of microbial communities across the fields of ecology, systematics, evolution, engineering, agriculture and medicine.

Principal Investigator: Kostas Konstantinidis

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Participatory Modeling of Complex Urban Infrastructure Systems (Model Urban SysTems)

This three year project is designed to develop the theory that infrastructure systems, with their many interdependencies and complex adaptations, have many similarities to ecological systems. The insights that arise from this grant will be useful in the future development of tools and methods used in the design and evaluation of urban infrastructure systems and their resilience under stresses like climate change, urban growth patterns, and extreme weather events. The investigators also expect that perspective will be gained by examining the relative advantages of ecological design versus engineering approaches in the design of complex systems such as urban infrastructure.

Principal Investigator: John Crittenden

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Peroxy Acids as Emerging Disinfectants for Water Treatment: Oxidation Chemistry Elucidation and Optimization

Peroxy acids (POAs), such as peracetic acid and performic acid, are emerging disinfectants/oxidants to replace chlorine in wastewater and storm water treatment. Compared to chlorine, the major benefits of POAs are their high effectiveness in disinfection and minimum formation of harmful byproducts. Furthermore, activated POAs by UV irradiation or catalysts are novel advanced oxidation processes that can be useful for degrading recalcitrant organic micropollutants in water. However, even with increased industrial usage of POAs, fundamental research of POAs trails behind their applications. This research project is led by Prof. Ching-Hua Huang to investigate the fundamental reaction kinetics and mechanisms of POAs and activated POAs for their applications in water treatment. The goal is to create the knowledge base that will be useful for improvement and optimization of the POA and UV/POA technology.

Principal Investigator: Ching-Hua Huang

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Regional Industrial Structure, Economic Resilience and Energy Consumption: Comparative Evaluation, Historical Analysis and Pathway Towards a More Sustainable Economy

Current economic models that aim to understand how energy use and efficiency interact within a regional economy are geared towards a broad scale. They also don't account well for an unintended consequence that crops up when energy efficiency is in play, known as the "rebound effect." For example, energy use for lighting, as a percentage of total energy use, tends to increase as lighting technology becomes more efficient. This project will develop a model that introduces adjustments to comprehensively evaluate the economic impact of the rebound effect, as well as tailoring the model to a more regional scale. Understanding energy use and efficiency at a smaller scale will reveal how both energy efficiency and supply shocks effect a region's economic and energy resilience.

Co-Principal Investigator: John Crittenden

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

The Role of Microbial Biodiversity in Controlling Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Soils

Natural microbial communities, especially soil microbiomes, are highly diverse and encompass hundreds, if not thousands, of distinct bacterial and archaeal species, each of which encodes a couple hundred species-specific genes together with distinct alleles of shared genes. The basis for this astonishing microbial biodiversity and its relevance for ecosystem function remain poorly understood. Predicting ecosystem function from the resident gene/genome sequence diversity remains a particularly challenging issue for soil microbiology and soil management. Advancing these issues is important for better modeling ecosystem processes and the biogeochemical contributions of microbial species. To provide new insights into these topics, a key soil ecosystem process will be studied: nitrous oxide (N₂O) reduction to dinitrogen (N₂). N₂O emissions from both managed and natural lands represent a loss of a key nutrient (nitrogen) for soil productivity, and contribute to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. A great diversity of bacterial species, each encoding distinct alleles of the N₂O reductase gene (nosZ; N₂O → N₂), are considered keystone populations controlling N₂O reduction to environmentally benign N₂. The biotic and abiotic controls over N₂O production and reduction activity, which ultimately determine N₂O fluxes, are poorly understood, limiting management practices that would reduce fixed nitrogen loss from soils and mitigate negative impacts associated with atmospheric N₂O.

Principal Investigator: Kostas Konstantinidis

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

U.S.-China: Systems-Based Approaches for Sustainable Steel Manufacturing

This project will focus on developing innovative systems-based solutions for increasing the environmental sustainability of the Chinese steel industry. China is by far the largest producer of crude steel, producing more than half of the global supply. Such enormous production levels are driven by both domestic and foreign demand. Steel production has significant environmental impacts, accounting for 6.7% of the total world CO2 emissions, and considerable use of, and toxic discharge to fresh water sources. In comparison, due to efficiency measures undertaken in the past 3 decades, U.S. metal production is two thirds less energy intensive compared to that of Chinese industries. The team will have cutting-edge access to the Chinese steel industry as well as eco-industrial parks, in which China is leading the world. The team expects that many unique insights will be gained.

Principal Investigator: John Crittenden

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Use of Domestic Wastewater for Food Production

The project goal is to couple the nutrient and water resources in domestic wastewater to urban controlled environment agriculture systems (DWW-CEAs). Supporting objectives include 1) confirming that produce growth rates and quality don't diminish compared to control experiments where synthetic hydroponic fertilizers are used, 2) confirming that chemical contaminants don't accumulate in the produce, 3) confirming that the produce is pathogen free, 4) reducing DWW treatment costs by using the latest in energy-positive treatment technology, 5) developing a sustainable Food, Energy and Water (FEW) system using modelling approaches to minimize investments in DWW-CEA systems while maximizing the utility of the systems, 6) providing an education in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics in high-tech wastewater treatment and CEA technologies, 7) developing a veteran workforce to help operate DWW-CEAs, and 8) guiding local policy to provide sustainable and long-lasting solutions to conserve our precious nutrient and water resources. To accomplish the project goal, a pilot-scale hydroponic system will be constructed and operated using DWW mined from the sewer system on the Georgia Tech campus. The DWW will be treated to remove contaminants and pathogens before being used to irrigate hydroponic systems to assure food and farm worker safety. Multiple fruit and vegetable varieties will be grown year-round. Water quality and chemical and microorganism contamination will be measured continously. The project will show that DWW-CEAs are socially, environmentally and financially sustainable, easily replicable in urban areas and will provide a long-lasting solution to conserve our precious water resources for food production.

Principal Investigator: Yongsheng Chen

Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Using Super-Absorbent Polymer (SAP) Beads to Extend the Shelf Life of Liquid Samples

This project will test whether super-absorbent polymers in sample tubes can improve the accuracy of diagnostics by absorbing molecules like DNA and viruses from liquid samples such as blood, and protecting them during transport to the laboratory. Normally, blood and urine samples degrade over time, particularly when they are exposed to heat or cold. This makes the subsequent diagnostic result unreliable. They propose that low-cost, super-absorbent polymers can preserve diagnostic target molecules by separating them from contaminating cells and bacteria, which can be poured away from sample tubes, and providing a pH buffer and preservatives to extend their shelf-life. They will optimize synthesis of the beads and test their ability to preserve different analytical targets including a human virus surrogate and an antibody against HIV.

Principal Investigator: Xing Xie

Sponsor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Geosystems Engineering

A rocky cliff face against blue sky.

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Our geosystems engineering program merges geotechnics, geophysics, geomechanics and geology.

We focus on the behavior of natural materials in engineered systems, encompassing traditional and emerging topics within the field — like advanced techniques for site and material characterization; constitutive and micromechanical modeling; natural and man-made hazard mitigation; engineered soils; biotechnology; geotechnical aspects of resource recovery; and foundation design, slope stability, and excavation support.

Our graduate students work with world-class faculty to conduct fundamental and applied research using analytical, numerical, and experimental methods. They also help us teach and participate in a wide range of professional development and social activities coordinated by the Georgia Tech Geotechnical Society.

Facilities

Geosystems instruction facilities, research groups and laboratories occupy more than 10,000 square feet of custom space in the Mason Building. The research groups include:

Geoenvironmental Engineering Group

In-Situ Testing Research Group

Rock and Fracture Mechanics Research Group

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Burns Named 2020 Engineer of the Year

rendering of the proposed "Burrowing Robot with Integrated Sensing System"

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Alejandro Martinez welcomes engineers, biologists, physicists and others to the First International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Geotechnics in May at the University of California, Davis. The unique gathering aimed to better define the emerging field of bio-inspired geotechnics and connect researchers from a broad range of disciplines to collaborate on groundbreaking ideas in the area. (Photo: Noah Pflueger-Peters/UC Davis)

NSF workshop sets out to define ‘bio-inspired geotechnics’ and lay groundwork for new collaborations

PEOPLE

Chloé Arson Associate Professor	Rudolph Bonaparte Professor of the Practice	Susan E. Burns Associate Chair for Finance and Administration & Professor
G. Wayne Clough Secretary Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution; President Emeritus, Georgia...	Sheng Dai Assistant Professor	Jenny Freeman Administrative Professional Senior
J. David Frost Elizabeth and Bill Higginbotham Professor & Group Coordinator	Haiying Huang Associate Professor	James Lai Professor Emeritus
Jorge Macedo Assistant Professor	Paul W. Mayne Professor	Glenn J. Rix Adjunct Professor
J. Carlos Santamarina Adjunct Professor

Structural Engineering, Mechanics, and Materials

Two grad students examine data on a laptop in the Structural Engineering and Materials Lab with a shattered cinder block wall in the background.

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Our program’s academic and research activities have earned an international reputation for excellence — a reputation strengthened by an environment that fosters learning, discovery and creativity.

That world renown comes from our work in: creative use of advanced structural materials and composite systems to improve infrastructure; earthquake engineering; cladding effects on, and hybrid control of, the response of tall buildings to earthquakes and wind; steel connection design and behavior; and structural reliability and risk assessment.

Our students learn about — and conduct advance research on — structural analysis and design, the behavior of structural systems, earthquake engineering, engineering science and mechanics, high-performance materials, computer-aided engineering, risk and reliability, and intelligent engineering learning environments.

They are encouraged to form partnerships with each other and our faculty members to develop their skills and advance our profession. And we foster a multidisciplinary environment where we’re developing solutions to engineering problems of national and international importance.

Facilities

Our School is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories and instruments for all aspects of modern structural engineering and structural mechanics and materials research. This includes:

An 18,000-square-foot Structures and Materials Laboratory with an 8,000-square-foot strong floor, an L-shaped reaction wall with capacities of 100-300 kips, and two 30-ton-capacity cranes. More… (Learn about construction of this facility in STRUCTUREmag.)
A broad range of universal testing machines, with capacity to 400 kips.
Specialized facilities for mechanical testing with infrared thermography and photoelastic stress/strain analysis.
A nondestructive evaluation/optics laboratory.
A laser scanning confocal microscope.
Numerous high-performance workstations equipped with state-of-the-art software in structural engineering and mechanics.

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Glaucio Paulino, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, demonstrates hyperbolic paraboloid origami

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New faculty: Sherman studies steel to make old bridges safer and new ones last longer

PEOPLE

Nelson C. Baker Dean, Professional Education & Professor	Reginald DesRoches Adjunct Professor	Bruce R. Ellingwood Professor Emeritus
T. Russell Gentry Adjunct Associate Professor	Barry Goodno Professor Emeritus	Laurence J. Jacobs Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor
Lawrence F. Kahn Professor Emeritus	Jin Yeon Kim Senior Research Engineer	Kimberly E. Kurtis Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship & Professor
Roberto T. Leon Adjunct Professor	Jamia Luckett Administrative Professional, Sr.	Rafi L. Muhanna Associate Professor
Glaucio H. Paulino Raymond Allen Jones Chair & Professor	Ryan J. Sherman Assistant Professor	Lauren Stewart Director of the Structural Engineering and Materials Laboratory &...
Phanish Suryanarayana Associate Professor	Iris Tien Assistant Professor	Yang Wang Associate Professor; Adjunct Associate Professor (ECE)
Gerald Wempner Professor Emeritus	Donald W. White Professor	Kenneth M. Will Associate Professor Emeritus
Chuang-Sheng (Walter) Yang, P.E. Research Engineer II & Instructor	Arash Yavari Professor & Group Coordinator	Abdul-Hamid Zureick Professor

Transportation Systems Engineering

Tall concrete bridge span over the water next to an older truss bridge span.

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Transportation systems are the building blocks of modern society. Efficient and safe movement of information, people, goods and services ensures a thriving economy and improves our quality of life.

Our students study not only the efficient, safe design and operations of these critical linkages but also the systems’ influence on our travel behavior, how we design our communities and the quality of our environment. Working with our faculty of world-renowned scholars, graduate students also help improve the design and performance of our transportation systems as well as our understanding of how they fit into the environmental, institutional and social contexts of our society.

Students supplement their core technical transportation courses in urban planning, traffic engineering, highway and transit facility design, administration, and statistical analysis with interdisciplinary coursework from other units across Georgia Tech.

Facilities

Our research facilities include a unique traffic signal lab, an instrumented vehicle lab, and the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) laboratory.

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PEOPLE

Adjo A. Amekudzi-Kennedy Associate Chair for Global Engineering Leadership and Entrepreneurship,...	Robert B. Carswell Program Support Coordinator	Giovanni Circella Senior Research Engineer
Samuel D. Coogan Demetrius T. Paris Assistant Professor	Laurie A. Garrow Professor	Franklin Gbologah Research Engineer II
Randall L. Guensler Professor	Angshuman Guin Senior Research Engineer	Michael P. Hunter Professor
Marjorie S. Jorgenson Administrative Professional Senior	Jorge A. Laval Associate Professor	John D. Leonard Adjunct Associate Professor
Haobing Liu Research Engineer II / Instructor	John Z. Luh Part-Time Lecturer	Patricia L. Mokhtarian Susan G. and Christopher D. Pappas Professor & Group Coordinator
Srinivas Peeta Frederick R. Dickerson Chair & Professor	Michael O. Rodgers Regents Researcher	Catherine Ross Adjunct Professor
Frank Southworth Adjunct Principal Research Scientist	Wonho Suh Affiliate	Yi-Chang James Tsai Professor
Kari E. Watkins Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor	Roger L. Wayson Adjunct Professor

Water Resources Engineering

Green and purple day moves through the surf at the beach with white-capped waves rolling into shore and a series of work trucks lined up on the beach.

MORE INFORMATION

Find out what kind of courses you can take and learn more about the expertise of our faculty:

Graduate students in Water Resources Engineering can expect a stimulating and diverse educational experience where you participate in innovative experimental, computational and modeling research that creates new knowledge.

Our program focuses on water, air, and land systems, with emphasis on the science and engineering applications of environmental transport processes and sustainable resource management. And our students and faculty members develop their research into new technologies that benefit engineering practice in fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, hydroclimatology, and water resources.

Facilities

The Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory includes a large constant-head tank, a 4.3 m wide sediment scour flume, a 24 m long tilting flume, a recirculating flume for cohesive sediment resuspension, a recirculating salt-water flume, a density-stratified towing tank, and a 24 m long wave tank. Instrumentation includes Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry (ADV), Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV), Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF), and three-dimensional visualization.

The Computational Laboratory includes a 16-node (64 CPUs) High Performance computing cluster and a number of Linux workstations. An eight-CPU, 32GB RAM visualization workstation was recently added. Our graduate students also have access to Georgia Tech's high performance computing systems and several European supercomputers.

Field instrumentation includes pressure transducers and ther mistors; a Campbell Scientific Eddy Covariance Tower System that directly measures sensible, latent and CO₂ fluxes between the terrestrial landscape through the atmosphere. This tower includes soil moisture probes, a rain gauge and dataloggers. Additional equipment includes an ISCO portable water sampler with ultrasonic level sensor and rain gauge, a depth-integrating suspended sediment sampler, a bed sediment sampler, a PPP Spectral Analyzer, and current meters.

PEOPLE

Rafael L. Bras Provost & Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, K. Harrison...	Francesco Fedele Associate Professor	Hermann M. Fritz Professor
Aris P. Georgakakos Professor and Director, Georgia Water Resources Institute	Kevin A. Haas Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs & Associate Professor	Martin Kistenmacher Research Engineer II
Chris Chungkei Lai Assistant Professor	Jian Luo Associate Professor	Lynette McLeod Administrative Manager I
Philip J. Roberts Professor Emeritus	Terry W. Sturm Professor	Jingfeng Wang Associate Professor
Donald R. Webster Karen and John Huff School Chair & Professor

ABOUT OUR SCHOOL

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Civil Engineering

Look around you. The work of civil engineers is everywhere. The roads and bridges we travel on, sure. The buildings we live, work and play in, too. But also systems that bring us clean water and take away waste. Strategies that help us recover from disasters. Energy innovations to power the future. Technologies for green buildings. New materials and sensors for smart infrastructure systems. Projects to alleviate poverty. In other words, civil engineers design the systems, technologies and structures that ready our modern world for a growing, aging human population and make life better in our communities.

Civil engineers are problem solvers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and global leaders. They will invent the technologies of the future and create solutions to challenges we haven’t even imagined yet. A civil engineering education also provides a foundation to move into leadership positions in the public, private or nonprofit sectors, or pursue careers beyond engineering, like law, medicine, business and healthcare.

Environmental Engineering

If you’ve thought about how we control pollution in the air and water or how we clean up contaminated waste sites or how we assess exposure and human risk, you’re already thinking like an environmental engineer. From clean drinking water and air quality monitoring to pollution controls and sustainable development, environmental engineers are designing new ways to make life better for people around the globe while respecting our world’s natural resources.

Environmental engineers use core engineering skills and a deep understanding of the physical, chemical and biological principles of the local, regional and global environment to help change the world.

The pulse of today's world beats with technological revolution, population dynamics, environmental concerns, urban development and more. As a result, civil and environmental engineers must be creative problem solvers to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The programs in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech are based on engineering fundamentals and real-world experience to ensure our students are ready to address complex, multidisciplinary problems to improve the lives of people on a global scale.

Our graduates pursue careers in a variety of civil and environmental engineering jobs in industry and government. They also work in fields as diverse as banking, law and medicine. They travel the world, working to improve the lives of people in developing nations. Still others ultimately decide to start their own businesses. And they work everywhere you can imagine (and maybe some places that would surprise you):