Student Veterans Graduate from Summer Advanced Manufacturing Program

A total of eight students, including three military veterans, graduated from the Research Experience for Student Veterans in Advanced Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship (REVAMP) 2021 summer program. This veteran-focused program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and hosted each summer by the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI)--officially serving as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site for NSF.

The coordinator of this education and work force development (EWD) program is Billyde Brown, Ph.D., a senior research faculty and EWD director at GTMI. Brown's role is to create strong partnerships among industry, government, and academia in manufacturing research, development, and deployment, while acquiring and managing sponsored research programs.  

Current and past students have performed fundamental research projects in advanced manufacturing topic areas such as additive and hybrid manufacturing, composite joining and repair, cell therapy manufacturing, robotic machining, integrated computational materials engineering, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, and data analytics for adaptive manufacturing, and nanoscale 3D printing.

REVAMP’s major program activities include a seminar series on a broad array of manufacturing-related topics by Georgia Tech faculty and graduate students, external manufacturing plant tours (e.g. Kia Motors, Hyundai Mobis, Lockheed Martin, Textron Specialized Vehicles), experiential learning classes on the fundamentals of evidence-based entrepreneurship provided by Georgia Tech’s VentureLab and Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a panel discussion from successful minority business enterprise clients of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Center in Atlanta, and three oral presentations delivered by students to demonstrate their research progress.

A new program element started in 2019 that offered a student veteran orientation, panel discussions, luncheon events, and tours of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) facilities both on the main campus and Marietta locations that were facilitated together with GTRI veteran faculty and the Georgia Tech Veterans Resource Center director. REVAMP is one of the premier REU programs in the nation for advanced manufacturing research and entrepreneurship training for undergraduate student veterans.

This year’s REVAMP-REU 10-week summer program was held from May 18 – July 24 at GTMI located on the Georgia Tech main campus. Students worked under the supervision of different faculty mentors to complete a research project centered on cutting-edge manufacturing science and technology. They also received entrepreneurship training by conducting customer discovery interviews to support a hypothetical product related to their research. As a bonus, eligible students received on-campus housing, $500 towards travel, and a $5,000 stipend.

Congratulations to these student graduates (in bold text) of the summer 2021 REVAMP-REU program and their faculty mentors:

Elizabeth Spahn         
Faculty mentor: Tequila Harris, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering        
Project: “Formation of Gradient Thin Film using Scalable Coating Method”

Jabari Acre     
Faculty mentor: Sourabh Saha, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering                     
Project: “Two Photon Additive Manufacturing”

Anthony Whylie        
Faculty mentor: Aaron Stebner, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering       
Project: “Optimization of Process Parameters for Additively Manufacturing Nickel Titanium (NiTi)”

Pedro Alcolea
Faculty mentor: Krishnendu Roy, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering                
Project: “Advanced Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Manufacturing

Allison Jung   
Faculty mentor: Yan Wang, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering                  
Project: “Optimization of 3D Printing Head

Jacob Totri     
Faculty mentors: Keat Ghee Ong & Bob Guldberg, professors at the University of Oregon
Project 1: “Magnetoelastic Sensors for Real-Time Tracking of Cell Growth”

Faculty mentor: Chuck Zhang, professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Project 2: “Printed Sensors for In-situ Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Aircraft Structures”

Nathan Janda
Faculty mentor: Shreyes Melkote, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering       
Project: “Robotics and Hybrid Manufacturing”

Devon Phelps
Faculty mentor: Raghu Pucha, Ph.D., principal lecturer in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering  
Project: “Modeling of Hybrid Composites with Nanofillers

More information about the Research Experience for Student Veterans in Advanced Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship (REVAMP) summer program can be found here.