Yashwanth Nakka’s lab simulates the moon’s surface to test lunar rover operations and algorithms. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
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With thousands of faculty and student researchers and countless research areas spread across eight schools, you never know what you’ll see when you visit a lab space.
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Labs can be relatively simple: rows of desktop computers, microscopes, test tubes, fume hoods. They also can be remarkably complex, with machinery inscrutable to outsiders that’s tied to a specific field of study or even a single research project. It’s not unusual to find plants growing in a lab. Or robots pollinating them in another.
These spaces reflect each researcher’s curiosity and their evolving pursuit of new ideas.
Every lab door leads to a different discovery. We’re taking you behind a few of them to show off unique spaces most people can’t visit.
Seven tons of basalt rock cover the floor of Yashwanth Nakka’s lab, which is framed by walls painted black. Bright lights cast eerie shadows across the granular surface and the small robots that roll over its slopes.
It’s unlike anything in higher ed: a re-creation of the moon’s surface. The gem-sized basalt rocks, which are like the moon’s regolith but less harsh on equipment (and people), allow Nakka’s driving machines to experience the same shifts and movements they would crawling across the moon.
The lab’s lights mimic the sun’s glare. That’s important because lighting conditions on the moon can impact a rover’s cameras and its computer control systems.
Nakka is developing algorithms to allow rovers to operate in this challenging environment, including working together.
“Advancing autonomous systems is critical to enabling deep-space exploration, supporting resource utilization, and empowering scientists to investigate new frontiers such as icy moons that may harbor subsurface oceans,” said Nakka, an assistant professor in the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “However, many of today’s space mobility solutions build upon algorithms developed two decades ago. Our lab positions us to pioneer the next generation of autonomous technologies that can overcome unstructured terrain as well as environmental and operational challenges.”
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Ph.D. students Walter Disharoon (left) and David West work with instruments in the Spherical Near-Field Antenna Chamber. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
Carolina Hau Loo connects a coaxial cable to the vector network analyzer in the mmWave Antennas and Arrays Lab, while fellow Ph.D. student Chinaza Ogbonna mounts and aligns a ridged horn antenna to the robotic system. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
The two most common Wi-Fi bands operate at 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) and 5 GHz frequencies. Cell phones work, for the most part, in sub-3 GHz bands. But engineers need something at much higher frequencies for extremely wide communication channels capable of transferring huge amounts of data at high speeds. This includes satellites and next-generation 5G and 6G communications.
Nima Ghalichechian has two lab spaces. The first characterizes millimeter-wave (mmWave) antennas and arrays in the 30–300 GHz range. Their antenna chamber, which has a large wooden door and is about size of a child’s bedroom, conducts antenna pattern measurements for frequencies below 30 GHz.
Wavelengths in mmWave can be as small as a few millimeters, requiring precise (on the order of micrometers) testing and instrumentation to overcome significant losses and errors. Ghalichechian’s walls of spiked, pyramidal absorbers — which can be wheeled around the larger lab and are embedded in the chamber — are designed in a shape and with a material that absorbs electromagnetic wave energy. This prevents undesirable wave reflections from impacting the measurements.
“Our team focuses on design, simulation, fabrication, and measurement of next-generation mmWave arrays. Specifically, we perform research on mmWave phased arrays, reconfigurable antennas, on-chip antennas, and more,” said Ghalichechian, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Our chamber also is used in antenna engineering and microwave design classes, giving students hands-on experience with antenna measurement practices.”
The chamber box doesn’t feel as claustrophobic as it might look, Ghalichechian said. After the initial setup of an antenna, researchers leave and spend the majority of their time behind a computer located just outside, using a camera for inspection.
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Ph.D. students Alex Rice (civil engineering) and Michael Davies (mechanical engineering) prep for a Department of State experiment studying blast-loading of concrete anchors. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
Inside an 18,000-square-foot space large enough to hold more than six tennis courts, three structural engineers have set up labs to conduct research on blasts, robotics, bridge designs, and more.
Ryan Sherman works in the front of the building on the lab’s strong floor. He’s currently testing a 17-foot-tall 3D printed bridge, part of research that explores the behavior and performance of metallic structures. His goal is to develop unique solutions that enhance the function and resilience of civil infrastructure through three major areas: evaluation of in-service performance, rehabilitation strategies, and innovative design solutions.
Edvard Bruun’s section of the lab features a pair of heavy-payload, six-axis robotic arms suspended from a gantry system spanning a 60x25-foot work area. The scale is the largest among North American universities. The system allows the robots to move freely through the workspace and operate on structures up to two stories tall. Bruun uses it to test and refine modular construction automation processes for timber, steel, concrete, and other structural materials at realistic building scales.
Lab director Lauren Stewart’s two labs are in the back of the building. The blast and ballistic labs study the effects of explosive, ballistic, and impact loads on civilian and military structures. Her group uses ultra-fast hydraulic and explosively driven actuators and projectile guns to test materials’ reliability and failure rates.
“Our Structures Lab takes traditional structural engineering and brings it into the future with state-of-the-art equipment that allows our researchers to explore new and emerging areas of infrastructure,” Stewart said.
Edvard Bruun programs two robotic arms, which were installed in his lab in late 2025. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
Ryan Sherman (right) and Ph.D student Zachary de Haaff stand in front of a 17-foot-tall 3D printed modular section of a bridge that would be nearly 50 feet long. Sherman’s team conducted load testing to demonstrate that the new additive manufacturing technology could meet performance demands. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
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Mechanical engineering graduate student August Menard runs tests in the water tank. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
On one side of Georgia Tech’s Ferst Drive sits one of the most well-known pools in the nation: the Olympic pool inside the Campus Recreation Center. On the other side, tucked away in the Love Manufacturing Building, is a body of water unknown to much of campus.
The Acoustic Water Tank is 40 feet long and 21 feet wide, plunging 24 feet from the first floor into the building’s basement. Professor Karim Sabra and his George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering research group oversee the facility. They can float small boats on the surface and use a 3-ton crane to submerge equipment for underwater acoustics experiments.
The facility also is available to industry, which has used it for projects ranging from marine robotics to underwater transducers and material characterization.
“This is our mini ocean. It allows us to test our hardware before going out to sea. If the tested hardware runs well and doesn’t sink in our tank, we take it to open waters,” Sabra said. “It’s a unique facility within the southeastern United States, and several other academic institutions and industry partners have benefited from it besides our own researchers.”
Unlike the pool across the street, the water tank is a “no swimming” zone. Sabra said the water is heavily chlorinated. And really cold.
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Researchers Xin Deng (left), Huston Locht, and Khanh Le conduct catalytic reactions in the Flaherty Research Group’s catalyst testing lab. (Photo: Gary Meek)
Xin Deng and Khanh Le change over catalysts in their reactors between experiments. (Photo: Gary Meek)
David Flaherty’s 3,400-square-foot space is filled with lasers, fume hoods, rows of ceiling-mounted steel gas lines, and equipment that can look unfamiliar to anyone who’s not a chemical engineer. The lab is focused on better understanding chemical reactions so everyday products — fuels, plastics, and other common materials — can be manufactured more efficiently and sustainably. The team also studies how to design better catalysts, chemicals that help reactions happen faster and with less waste, energy use, and cost.
In the lab, researchers test new materials and observe how reactions change over time. The Flaherty group works with many different gases, including hydrocarbons, oxygen, and nitrogen, depending on the research.
“Our lab focuses on developing unique experimental methods to answer long-standing questions that limit progress in chemical manufacturing,” said Flaherty, who holds the Thomas C. DeLoach Jr. Endowed Professorship in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “Our lab allows us to safely apply these methods to technically relevant materials and reaction environments. By doing so, we can develop accurate understandings for how to create more effective catalysts based on establishing relationships between structure and performance of materials. These capabilities allow us to collaborate with a growing number of industrial partners and federally sponsored projects.”
About a mile of tubing lines the ceiling and walls of the Flaherty Lab, carrying dozens of gases. (Photo: Gary Meek)
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Research Coordinator Bryan Davant configures a 2.2-megavolt impulse generator for a high voltage impulse test. The equipment is used to mimic lightning and its effect on distribution and transmission-class overhead and underground equipment. (Photo: Gary Meek)
Research Test Technician Spencer Payne prepares for a high voltage time test to evaluate the remaining service life in an aged underground cable sample. (Photo: Gary Meek)
NEETRAC sits about 15 miles from campus in the shadow of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s membership-based research and testing center works with electric utilities and manufacturers to improve the quality of transmission and distribution system.
Sometimes the center is checking the durability of power poles. Other experiments include high voltage and environmental testing, diagnostics for power cables and transformers, and lightning tests. Each project is designed to improve grid efficiency, resilience, reliability, and safety by creating new solutions and knowledge for the power delivery industry.
“Our members are navigating an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving landscape. Practical, industry-focused research has never been more essential,” said NEETRAC Director David McDonald. “We are uniquely positioned to provide the trusted expertise and insights needed to help lead the industry into the future.”
Research Coordinator Eduardo Contreras monitors the ongoing aging of the copper neutral of a distribution-class underground cable. The behavior of corroded neutrals under fault conditions is being studied to assist utilities and manufacturers in asset management of installed cable systems and improvements in cable diagnostic systems. (Photo: Gary Meek)
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Ph.D. students Brian Epstein (left) and Jack Corbin (center) control an X500 drone with Jonathan Rogers. The machine is used in research projects and has been equipped with tools such as radiation detectors, cameras, and docking mechanisms. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
With 1,500 square feet of flight space and ceilings that soar more than 20 feet high, the IFL is one of the largest facilities of its kind at a university. It’s home to a range of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones, ranging from 1-pound vehicles to quadrotors and multi-rotors designed for carrying large objects or heavy payloads.
The IFL’s main purpose is to experiment with new types of drones or technology that allows them to perform new types of missions. Jonathan Rogers and other aerospace engineering faculty members are surrounded by 56 motion-capture cameras as they test flying machines in a climate-controlled environment.
“Without this space, it would be far more difficult to capture rigorous data about experimental drone flights. Small drones are highly affected by even light winds. Having to deal with gusts or extreme temperatures when flying an experimental vehicle for the first time muddies the waters when it comes to diagnosing what might have gone wrong,” said Rogers, the Lockheed Martin Professor of Avionics Integration. “The IFL allows us to first test and refine the system in a controlled, safe environment before going outdoors to a less controlled, more unpredictable setting. This improves safety and reduces the cost of new technology development.”
(Photo: Candler Hobbs)
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Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Austin Graves teleoperates a humanoid robot while wearing haptic gloves that provide tactile and kinesthetic feedback. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
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In a building filled with screens and computers churning out new theories and crunching analytics, Mohsen Moghaddam’s lab looks nothing like what you’d typically find in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE). A robotic dog and humanoid stand in one corner. Across the room, a robotic arm hovers alongside virtual reality and augmented reality headsets and cameras.
Moghaddam’s team is creating immersive tools and algorithms that transform how people and intelligent machines work together. The goal is to design technologies that amplify human capabilities — both cognitive and physical — so people can thrive alongside AI and robotics.
Along the way, he’s aiming to define a new field of specialization within ISyE: human-centered systems engineering.
“Human factors have been a core area in industrial engineering. Our vision is to push that frontier forward by advancing extended reality, AI and machine learning, and robotics around humans to unlock their cognitive and physical potential and support meaningful coexistence not only with AI agents but also with intelligent machines and robots,” said Moghaddam, the Gary C. Butler Family Associate Professor.
“In a way, we are aiming for a Tony Stark plus JARVIS equals Iron Man future, not a Terminator one. And to get there, we need to move beyond purely computational models. That’s why we build and experiment with physical systems, not just simulations, so we can design technologies that truly integrate with human work and everyday life.”
Mahya Qorbani logs user data as fellow ISyE Ph.D. student Akhil Ajikumar interacts with a robot via an AR headset. Ajikumar uses gazes and gestures to execute a joint manipulation task. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
ISyE Ph.D. student Steven Yoo wears a VR headset to experience an immersive industrial training game developed by SAIL and its partners for Naval Sea Systems Command. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
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Helluva Engineer
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Helluva Engineer magazine.
We’re taking you behind the scenes to some of the hidden (and not-so-hidden) labs across the College where Georgia Tech engineers are shaping the future. In these places, robots swim in a mini ocean or crawl across the moon’s surface, huge concrete beams loom, and invisible gas or high-frequency radio waves fly across the room. We’re also unwrapping how researchers help industry partners solve tough problems and improve their processes. Plus, a few students talk to their younger selves and look back at four years of growth on North Avenue.