Aug 14, 2025
Bachir El Fil, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Project: HYDROHEAT
Bachir El Fil is developing HYDROHEAT, a passive off-grid water-harvesting system that extracts clean water from air using a hydrogel-coated heat exchanger powered by low-grade heat sources such as solar, geothermal, or waste heat. A Tech Ready Grant will fund an integrated prototype and accelerated testing. Modular and scalable, the system can serve everything from small farms to industrial sites, reducing water and energy use in sectors such as agriculture, data centers, and HVAC.
“This grant will allow us to build and accelerate testing of a fully integrated prototype, helping us move from lab-scale proof-of-concept to real-world deployment,” El Fil said.
Aklilu Giorges, Ph.D.
Principal Research Engineer, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Project: GT Trimming System
Aklilu Giorges is tackling a longstanding challenge in the poultry industry: automating the breast trimming process. Despite widespread use of robotics in food processing, this particular step remains manual and inefficient. Giorges has developed a tool with a rotating hollow blade and vacuum system that makes clean cuts while minimizing product loss.
“The grant will be used to build two sanitary cutting systems and test them in an industrial setting,” Giorges said. “The new system will be constructed from food-grade materials and meet food safety specifications.”
JC Gumbart, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Physics
Project: DeepPath
JC Gumbart and his research group are developing DeepPath, a machine learning tool that predicts how proteins change shape, an important but often overlooked factor in drug development. Unlike models trained on biased data sets, DeepPath uses active learning and physics-based modeling to continually refine its predictions as it’s exposed to new data. The team plans to test how DeepPath can identify new small molecules that bind to dynamic protein targets, accelerating the path from computational insight to experimental validation.
“Demonstrating that DeepPath-generated conformations can be used to discover potential new drugs will create a significant value proposition to take us to the next stage of our startup journey,” Gumbart said.
Akane Fujimoto Wakabayashi, Ph.D.
Research Engineer, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Project: TRUST (Tool for Resource Usage and Supply Tracking)
Akane Fujimoto Wakabayashi is helping hospitals strengthen their supply chain resilience through better forecasting and scenario planning. Her team is developing a decision-support tool called TRUST, designed to help healthcare providers avoid disruptions like the IV fluid shortage that followed Hurricane Helene in 2024. TRUST combines advanced analytics, inventory visibility, and real-time data to support informed, timely decisions in both emergency situations and everyday hospital operations.
“We are incredibly grateful for this grant and excited to use it to advance the development of TRUST,” Wakabayashi said. “We also look forward to engaging student researchers to collaborate and contribute to this project.”
About Tech Ready Grants
Tech Ready Grants are available biannually to Georgia Tech faculty and full-time research staff working to move technologies toward commercialization. Each funded project must have an existing or newly submitted invention disclosure tied to Georgia Tech-owned intellectual property. Projects must be completed within 12 months, with progress reports due at the six- and 12-month marks.
The Office of Technology Licensing provides support throughout the process, including guidance on intellectual property protection and next steps for market engagement. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to disclose their inventions as early as possible in the discovery process to ensure protection of intellectual property. Visit the Office of Technology Licensing website for more information.