Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb joined Georgia Tech in summer 2007 as an assistant professor at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Prior to this, she was a senior engineer in the materials and device R&D group of MEMS Research and Innovation Center at QUALCOMM MEMS Technologies, Inc. Her work included characterization and optimization of optical and electric response of IMOD displays and research on novel materials for improved processing and reliability of IMOD. Bassiri-Gharb's research interests are in smart and energy-related materials (e.g. ferroelectric and multiferroic materials) and their application to nano- and micro-electromechanical systems. Her research projects integrate novel micro and nanofabrication techniques and processes and study of the fundamental science of these materials at the nanoscale, at the interface of physical and electrochemical phenomena.

Stephen Balakirsky is the Chief Scientist for the Aerospace, Transportation & Advanced Systems Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), and the Director of Technical Initiatives at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) at Georgia Tech.

Balakirsky’s research interests include robotic architectures, planning, bio-automation, robotic standards, and autonomous systems testing. His work in knowledge driven robotics couples real-time sensors and knowledge repositories to allow for flexibility and agility in robotic systems ranging from assembly and manufacturing systems to surveillance and logistics systems. The framework promotes software reuse and the ability to detect and correct for execution errors.

Previously, Balakirsky worked as a project manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and was a senior research engineer at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). At ARL, Balakirsky performed mobile robotics research in several areas, including command and control, mapping, human-computer interfaces, target tracking, vision processing and tele-operated control.

Srinivas Aluru is executive director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) and professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He co-leads the NSF South Big Data Regional Innovation Hub which nurtures big data partnerships between organizations in the 16 Southern States and Washington D.C., and the NSF Transdisciplinary Research Institute for Advancing Data Science. Aluru conducts research in high performance computing, large-scale data analysis, bioinformatics and systems biology, combinatorial scientific computing, and applied algorithms. An early pioneer in big data, Aluru led one of the eight inaugural mid-scale NSF-NIH Big Data projects awarded in the first round of federal big data investments in 2012. He has contributed to NITRD and OSTP led white house workshops, and NSF and DOE led efforts to create and nurture research in big data and exascale computing. He is a recipient of the NSF Career award, IBM faculty award, Swarnajayanti Fellowship from the Government of India, the John. V. Atanasoff Discovery Award from Iowa State University, and the Outstanding Senior Faculty Research Award, Dean's award for faculty excellence, and the Outstanding Research Program Development Award at Georgia Tech. He is a Fellow of AAAS, IEEE, and SIAM, and is a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Golden Core and Meritorious Service awards.

Alexandria Smith is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and holds an M.M. and B.M. from Mannes the New School for Music.

Alexandria specializes in recording/mixing/mastering music that mixes different genres and experimental music. Her work has been referred to by Downbeat as “splendidly engineered.” Alexandria’s recent project as tracking/mix/mastering engineer and co-producer of Grammy-nominated bassist Mark Dresser’s Tines of Change was favorably reviewed by Downbeat, the Wire Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Percorsi Musical, All About Jazz, jazz-fun.de-Magazin für Jazz Musik, and more and was rated as one of the ‘Best Solo Albums of the Year’ by bestofjazz.org and best of 2023 by Downbeat. She has worked on recordings by Basher, Filera (Carmina Escobar, Natalia Pérez Turner, and Wilfrido Terrazas), Alvin Lucier, Rand Steiger, Treesearch, TJ Borden, Judith Hamann, and more. Her audio engineering work can be heard on labels such as Pyroclastic Records, Infrequent Seams, Black Truffle, New Focus Recordings, 577 Records, 1980 Records, and Blank Forms.

Dr. Abigale Stangl is a design researcher specializing in the development of systems that promote inclusive design practices and enhance the accessibility of products and information. With expertise in human-centered design, human-computer interaction, accessibility, and sensory AI, her interdisciplinary research encompasses universal design principles and prioritizes disability-first innovation. Abigale's current research goals focus on expanding tactile media availability through in-depth investigations of tactile design practices, interaction techniques, and the optimization of multimodal and multisensory systems. She actively collaborates with individuals with disabilities, ensuring their perspectives and needs drive innovation. Abigale also cultivates students' abilities as allies and co-designers, fostering an inclusive design community that embraces diverse perspectives.

Dr. Cassie S. Mitchell is a research engineer, elite athlete, and mentor. She is a current member of the USA Paralympic team and research faculty in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. At age 18 Cassie was afflicted with Devics Neuromyelitis Optica, leaving her as a quadriplegic and with visual impairments. Her faith and philosophy on life has helped her to overcome the resulting challenges. She graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from GT/Emory. She enjoys mentoring high school and college students as well as new spinal cord injury patients at Shepherd Center Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitiation Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.

Professor Menon joined Flow Industries, Kent, Washington, as a research scientist, and in 1988, became a senior scientist and program manager for the computational fluid dynamics group in Quest Integrated, Inc. (formerly called Flow Research, Inc.). At Quest, Menon led research teams in various research projects such as the active control of combustion instability in ramjet engines, supersonic mixing studies, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft fluid dynamics, and hypersonic reentry problems. In 1992, he joined Georgia Institute of Technology as an associate professor and became a professor in 1997. He is currently the Hightower Professor of Engineering in Georgia Tech. Professor Menon is a world renowned expert in large-eddy simulation of turbulent reacting and non-reacting flows and has developed unique simulation capabilities to study pollutant formation, ozone depletion in high-altitude aircraft jet plumes and combustion in gas turbine and ramjet engines. He has been (and is currently) a principal investigator for a wide range of research projects funded by NASA, Department of Energy, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, Defense Threat Reduction Agency. His work has been (and is also) supported by many industries including General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Solar Turbines, Boeing, Safran (France), Hyundai (S. Korea), JAXA (Japan), IHI (Japan) and Rocketdyne-Aerojet. He has published and/or presented over 395 papers. Professor Menon is a Fellow of AAAS, Associate Fellow of AIAA, and a member of the American Physical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Combustion Institute and the Sigma Xi. He is a peer reviewer for numerous archival journals, NASA, NSF, DoD and DOE research proposals.

Dr. Jian Luo completed his undergraduate and M.S. studies at Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he received a B.Sc.(Eng.) and a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering in 1998 and 2000, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in 2006 in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, California. The research Dr. Luo is conducting involves field, theoretical, and computational investigations of flow and reactive transport in subsurface; development and application of geostatistical methods for the spatial and temporal analysis of hydrogeologic and biochemistry data; development of computational algorithms and programs to simulate subsurface flow and reactive transport, and to assess the associated uncertainty; inverse modeling to estimate flow and transport parameters under uncertainty; and use of such computational methods and models to assess subsurface contamination, and to aid the optimal design of groundwater remediation operations.

Devesh Ranjan was named the Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and took over the role on January 1, 2022. He previously served as the Associate Chair for Research, and Ring Family Chair in the Woodruff School. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and serves as a co-director of the $100M Department of Defense-funded University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH). At Georgia Tech, Ranjan has held several leadership positions including chairing ME’s Fluid Mechanics Research Area Group (2017 - 2018), serving as ME’s Associate Chair for Research (2019-present), and as co-chair of the “Hypersonics as a System” task-force, and serving as Interim Vice-President for Interdisciplinary Research (Feb 2021-June 2021). 

Ranjan joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2014. Before coming to Georgia Tech, he was a director’s research fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2008) and Morris E. Foster Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&M University (2009-2014). He earned a bachelor's degree from the NIT-Trichy (India) in 2003, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from the UW-Madison in 2005 and 2007 respectively, all in mechanical engineering. 

Ranjan’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary area of power conversion, complex fluid flows involving shock and hydrodynamic instabilities, and the turbulent mixing of materials in extreme conditions, such as supersonic and hypersonic flows. Ranjan is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions, including the DOE-Early Career Award (first GT recipient), the NSF CAREER Award, and the US AFOSR Young Investigator award. He was also named the J. Erskine Love Jr. Faculty Fellow in 2015. He was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s 2016 US Frontiers in Engineering Symposium. For his educational efforts and mentorship activity, he has received CATERPILLAR Teaching Excellence Award from College of Engineering at Texas A&M, as well as 2013 TAMU ASME Professor Mentorship Award from TAMU student chapter of the ASME. At Georgia Tech, Ranjan served as a Provost’s Teaching and Learning Fellow (PTLF) from 2018-2020, and was named 2021 Governor’s Teaching Fellow. He was also named Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Fellow for 2020-21. 

Ranjan is currently part of a 10-member Technical Screening Committee of the NAE’s COVID-19 Call for Engineering Action taskforce, an initiative to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Shock Waves and was a former Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering.