A Conversation with Mike Gazarik

ATRP--Episode 34: Robots in Indoor Farming: Autonomous Pollination, Safety, and Motion Planning with Dr. Shreyas Kousik

Indoor farms often lack natural pollinators like birds and bees, forcing growers to hand-pollinate every flower. In this episode, Dr. Shreyas Kousik from Georgia Tech joins us to discuss his work at the intersection of control theory, robot motion planning, and data-driven design—and how these tools are being used to build a robot that can autonomously and safely pollinate indoor crops.

A Conversation with Mike Gazarik

GTRI Director Mike Gazarik, Ph.D., is the featured guest on the latest episode of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast. In his first 90 days as Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Mike Gazarik, Ph.D., is building the foundation of his tenure on certain core ideas: mission, people, culture, speed, and impact. They form an early blueprint for how he sees GTRI, why he came back, and where he believes the Institute can go next. For Mike, being GTRI Director is not just a stop along the way, or a late-career experiment. It is something more personal and more final than that. "This is it. This is the ultimate chapter for me," he said. "I'm not trying to go anywhere, do anything. I'm really just trying to help."

ATRP--Episode 33: 'Bytes & Bites': Cybersecurity Meets Food Safety

Smith Sheehy, Vice President of Program Development and a board advisor for the Cybersecurity Association of the Food Industry, discusses the critical role of cybersecurity in the food industry. She emphasizes the importance of securing the digital nervous system of food production, comparing digital threats to biological pathogens. She advocates for integrating cybersecurity into new technologies and policies. Smith also underscores the importance of transparency and continuous education within organizations to enhance cybersecurity practices.

ATRP--Episode 32: The Critical Role of Managing Clean Water

This episode of The Georgia Tech Research podcast features Mary Catherine Foy, Director of Technical Services at Proxy Clean Products, discussing the critical role of water management in poultry houses. Foy emphasizes the importance of clean water for bird health, noting that birds consume twice as much water as feed. She highlights the vulnerability of water lines during the first two weeks of a new flock, when microbial counts peak. Foy recommends daily water treatment, regular flushing, and cleaning water lines between flocks. She also addresses the challenges of antibiotic-free production, which revealed weaknesses in water treatment programs.

Introducing Georgia Tech's Consortium Helping Improve Research Participation (CHIRP)

The Georgia Tech Research Institute podcast, hosted by Georgia Tech staffers Fran and Salimah, discusses the Consortium for Helping Improve Research Participation (CHIRP). The podcast aims to increase research participation, particularly among underrepresented groups, including people with disabilities from diverse backgrounds. They highlight the importance of inclusive research, citing historical mistrust due to unethical studies and the need for better representation. They also mention the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in protecting research participants. The hosts emphasize that research affects everyone and encourage listeners to share their experiences and perspectives on research participation.