Honorees have demonstrated outstanding service, teaching, inventorship, and commercialization.
(text and background only visible when logged in)
Eight faculty members have been honored by the College of Engineering for their excellence in research, service, teaching, inventorship, and commercialization.
Candidates for the fifth annual Faculty Excellence Awards were nominated by their peers or submitted self-nominations. Materials were reviewed by a committee of academic and research faculty members within the College.
Each honoree receives $2,000.
(text and background only visible when logged in)
Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research Award (Early Career)
Akanksha Menon
Assistant Professor
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
As director of the Water-Energy Research Lab, Menon focuses on energy storage and advanced separations that leverage phase transitions in thermally responsive materials for clean energy and water. Her group is developing desalination systems for clean water and resource recovery, while treating brines using plastic heat and mass exchangers that improve process efficiency and lifetime. Her work in this space has earned her an IGNIITE grant for early career energy innovators from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy.
For another project, Menon is developing thermal energy storage using chemical reactions for industrial process heat, long-duration grid storage, and efficient buildings. She earned a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and two projects with the Department of Energy for work in this area.
Over the past year, Menon has demonstrated leadership on the energy-water nexus for AI data centers as an Initiative Lead at Georgia Tech’s Institute for Matter and Systems and with a seed grant from the Woodruff School. She led a 1.5-day workshop for attendees from national labs, academia, funding agencies, and companies to develop technology roadmaps and highlight Georgia Tech’s role in this field.
Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research Award (Mid-Career)
Hong Yeo
G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Endowed Professor in Pediatric Research
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Yeo’s research is focused on engineering new pediatric medical technologies and making them available to clinicians, with particular focus on miniaturizing adult devices. For example, his soft, wireless vital-sign sensors for fragile newborns address long-standing limitations of rigid neonatal electrodes, reducing skin injuries while enabling continuous monitoring. The systems are being piloted in U.S. hospitals and low-resource settings in Ethiopia.
Yeo’s other inventions include a saliva-based “smart” pacifier for noninvasive electrolyte monitoring, a wearable pediatric digital stethoscope for early asthma detection, and a child-specific soft robotic rehabilitation glove.
Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research Award (Research Faculty)
Kinsey Herrin
Principal Research Scientist
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Herrin leads the Human Interface Design Development and Engineering (HIDDEn) lab and plays a key leadership role in the Human Augmentation Core lab. Both specialize in the development, evaluation, and translation of human-centered lower- and upper-limb robotic exoskeletons and advanced prosthetic technologies for improving mobility in clinical populations. She currently is advancing her work on pediatric knee exoskeletons with clinical rehabilitation trials at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Shriners Hospitals.
Herrin’s research at Georgia Tech is built on more than a decade of clinical experience across nonprofit, government, and private healthcare settings.
Outstanding Teacher Award (Early Career)
Lauren Steimle
Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Assistant Professor
H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Steimle teaches multiple courses focused on evaluating and optimizing stochastic systems. These systems, where uncertainty is a key factor, are used extensively in manufacturing, service, and healthcare systems. She has been recognized five times on the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 Honor Roll.
Steimle uses a “Why-What-How-What if” lecture style that begins with real-world examples to show why the topic matters. She then explains key concepts and how they build to the main idea. Students apply their understanding through in-class activities that explore both similar and new problems.
Outstanding Teacher Award (Mid-Career or Senior)
Kevin Haas
Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Haas’s teaching philosophy centers on innovation, engagement, and the creation of supportive learning environments. He created homework chats for his courses: short, one-on-one video conversations with students that focus on a single homework problem and allow for individualized guidance. Students have overwhelmingly praised the chats for improving confidence, conceptual understanding, and instructor connection.
To address retention challenges, Haas co-developed Exploring Civil and Environmental Engineering, a first-year course designed to promote identity formation and engagement. The class incorporates engineering communication, teamwork, hands-on activities, and self-reflection exercises. Students who voluntarily took the course prior to its required adoption had retention rates as high as 83%, compared to 50%-57% in earlier cohorts who did not take it. After the course was required, student retention rates averaged 94% in 2025.
Outstanding Achievement as an Inventor Award
Omer Inan
Professor, Regents’ Entrepreneur, and Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair
Associate Chair for Entrepreneurship and Strategic Initiatives
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Inan is an inventor or co-inventor on 22 issued patents and more than 30 pending applications. The inventions span professional audio electronics, vascular wearables, IV infiltration detection, musculoskeletal sensing, and neuromodulation. They have been licensed to multiple startups and multinational corporations. Two separate technologies stemming from his Georgia Tech research have received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Breakthrough Device Designation, a program created to highlight devices that address life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating conditions.
Inan’s research group has invented several wearable medical devices with clinical translation across multiple diseases. The most significant is CardioTag — a wearable chest patch that simultaneously captures electrocardiogram, photoplethysmogram, and seismocardiogram signals, making it the first multimodal wearable sensor of its kind. The device recently received 510(k) clearance from the FDA.
Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Scott Hollister
Professor and Patsy and Alan Dorris Chair in Pediatric Technology
Associate Chair for Translational Research
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University
Hollister has founded or co-led three companies rooted in his research. Tissue Regeneration Systems, Inc., translated his 3D-printed bioresorbable scaffold technology into commercial spine fusion and craniofacial implants. Mobius Biotech develops next-generation bioresorbable 3D-printed medical devices, focused primarily on implants for craniofacial reconstruction, especially nasal and ear reconstruction. Reformis Surgical is commercializing a shape-memory, resorbable elastomer polymer. It was developed by his lab for soft tissue reconstruction and is used to repair cartilage.
Hollister has 54 invention disclosures and 12 U.S. and international patents. In 2019, he secured FDA Humanitarian Use Designation for his 3D-printed bioresorbable Airway Support Device for tracheobronchomalacia.
Outstanding Service Award
Kim L. Paige
Academic Professional and Director of Retention and Engagement
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University
Paige and her Student Engagement Team manage the Coulter Department's Peer Advising Leaders (PALs) program, where students provide peer academic advising, mentorship, and community engagement. After strengthening retention and engagement, PALs expanded in 2024 into a service-research hybrid that provides research collaborations to current PALs so they can produce scholarly work directly related to their leadership development and community engagement experiences.
Paige and her team also coordinate, market, and lead Finals Fuel Ups. The wellness initiative provides support to students during the stressful finals weeks of every semester.
Paige is a member of the Georgia Tech Academic Faculty Senate. Her student engagement team includes Destiny Adams, student engagement assistant and research lead, and students Bianca Chuma, Zoee Jodesty, Jeanne Kamau, and Oluwatundunmininu (Tundun) Olugbenro.
(text and background only visible when logged in)
(text and background only visible when logged in)
Related Stories
Eight Faculty Recognized with 2025 College of Engineering Excellence Awards
Honorees have demonstrated outstanding service, teaching, inventorship, and commercialization.
Lu, Forest Appointed to University System’s Highest Honor
ChBE, ME faculty members receive USG Regents’ titles for their contributions in research and innovation.
Research Makes a Better World
The College’s research labs are where challenging real-world problems meet unique, creative solutions.
(text and background only visible when logged in)