Industry Innovation: Circular Economy
Georgia Tech VIP Team
About
Our goal is the development of a scalable circular product innovation system through the GENX Parametric Innovation Framework, a systems-based platform integrating advanced material science, cradle-to-cradle design, parametric simulation, and lifecycle engineering. The unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and the impacts of climate change remain critical global challenges. Significant plastic pollution and ecosystem degradation driven by high consumption and tourist activity demand urgent, community-grounded engineering solutions. In addition to environmental challenges, the VIP investigates the relationship between environmental conditions and human health through the development of low-cost, portable healthcare technologies for underserved communities affected by climate-related risks and resource limitations. This transdisciplinary VIP is centered around the GENX Parametric Innovation Framework, a connected digital workflow architecture in which material properties, product geometry, manufacturing constraints, environmental impacts, and circular recovery systems are linked through parameterized relationships and shared digital infrastructures across the full product lifecycle. The framework enables: early-stage sustainability-driven decision making real-time design space exploration lifecycle-informed product optimization multi-objective tradeoff analysis across interconnected engineering systems The healthcare use case expands the framework into more advanced circular design challenges involving biomedical materials, biosensing systems, portable diagnostics, and sustainable medical technologies. The approach enables early-stage decision-making, design space exploration, and real-time multi-objective trade-off analysis, embedding sustainability metrics directly within the design optimization loop. Over 100 students across multiple disciplines are currently engaged in end-to-end research, design, validation, simulation, prototyping, and testing workflows.
Majors
Analytics – Online MS, Computer Science, Computer Science – Online MS, Human-Computer Interaction, Architecture, Industrial Design, Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry
How to apply
Visit the official page to apply or learn more.