Péralte Paul - Enterprise Innovation Institute

ManTech Partners With Georgia Institute of Technology’s ATDC to Drive Innovative Cyber Security and Emerging Technologies for Government

ManTech to support development of cyber technology entrepreneurs and startups

Joe Cubba is ManTech’s executive vice president and chief growth officer.

HERNDON, VA and ATLANTA (Sept. 28, 2023) — ManTech today announced a partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Advanced Technology Development Center to support the growth and acceleration of startups built on cybersecurity-related technologies and emerging innovations.

The announcement marks ATDC’s first such agreement with a federal systems integrator. Leveraging ManTech’s deep government experience, the partnership will help entrepreneurs in ATDC’s Cyber and Emerging Technologies Program develop innovative, disruptive solutions that target and resolve federal agencies’ most pressing and difficult challenges.

ManTech provides advanced, mission-focused technology solutions and services for every branch of the federal government including the Department of Defense, intelligence community, and federal civilian agencies.

“ManTech is proud to work with ATDC in an industry-leading initiative that will accelerate government access to highly differentiated cyber and emerging tech solutions with the potential to stop even the most insidious cyberattacks on contact,” said Joe Cubba, ManTech executive vice president and chief growth officer. “Together, we are turning today’s next-gen innovators into the technology thought leaders and giants of the future.”

ATDC, the state of Georgia’s technology incubator, works with entrepreneurs to build, scale, and launch successful technology companies. Since its founding in 1980, ATDC has provided coaching, curriculum, community, connections, and access to capital and customers. Among the many benefits for young technology ventures, this partnership builds on ATDC’s platform with training and mentoring on how startups can grow their business with funding by the government’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

“Small companies need a proven systems integrator like ManTech to drive government introductions, integrate and deploy their technology, and show how it can make a real difference in supporting the mission,” said Corbett Gilliam, ATDC’s manager of corporate development. “ManTech and ATDC are bringing today and tomorrow’s Edisons and Teslas deep inside the very operations that keep this nation safe.”

As part of the partnership, ATDC has hired Blair Tighe to lead the vertical. In that role, Tighe, a U.S. Army veteran with a combined background of private sector cyber strategy and emerging technologies, will manage the pipeline, evaluate technologies, and coach companies.

He will leverage ATDC’s Connect program and expertise to secure opportunities for pilot projects, investments, and customers. He also will work with ManTech to mentor companies and host classes and educational programming built around the specific needs of the cyber and emerging tech sector.

The cyber focus comes as ATDC is seeing increased startup activity from entrepreneurs and founders in the cybersecurity space. The portfolio already has 12 companies in its incubator program.

About ManTech
ManTech provides mission-focused technology solutions and services for U.S. defense, intelligence, and federal civilian agencies. In business more than 54 years, we excel in full-spectrum cyber operations, data collection and analytics, enterprise IT, agile DevOps systems engineering, and software application development solutions that support national and homeland security. Additional information about ManTech can be found at mantech.com.

About Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students, representing 50 states and more than 148 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1.0 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

About the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the state of Georgia’s technology startup incubator. Founded in 1980 by the Georgia General Assembly, which funds it each year, ATDC’s mission is to work with entrepreneurs in Georgia to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed in the creation of viable, disruptive technology companies. Since its founding, ATDC, a program of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, has grown to become the longest running and one of the most successful university-affiliated incubators in the United States, with its graduate startup companies raising $3 billion in investment financing and generating more than $12 billion in revenue in the state of Georgia. To learn more, visit atdc.org.

Georgia Tech EDA University Center Funds Redevelopment and Housing Studies for Two Georgia Towns

Analyses to help community leaders create long-term
residential home development growth strategies

The Depot building. — The AB&A Historic Train Depot in Fitzgerald, Georgia, is one of the community’s key attractions. The Depot is home to the Blue & Gray Museum, the Genealogy Research Center, and Collins Railroad Collection.

FITZGERALD, Ga. — In many ways, this South Georgia town boasts the best of small rural communities. Just 23 miles east of Interstate 75, Fitzgerald has a busy downtown thoroughfare with shops, antique stores, and eateries. It has a modern airport with a 5,000-foot runway, an active mainline railroad, and industrial parks. It’s also home to a museum with a nod to its 1895 beginnings as a community and haven for veterans who fought on both sides of the Civil War.

Fitzgerald also has a successful history of industrial recruitment that has provided the community with a significant manufacturing base. Recent capital investments in wood products, food and beverage processing, plastics, and manufacturing have increased employment, personal income growth, and the community’s GDP.

With its local economy steadily improving, this community of 9,000 is also looking to boost its new home development construction activity. Now, city leaders and officials from surrounding Ben Hill County are working with the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and EDA University Center at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute to produce a study to figure out a viable strategy.

The study is funded in part through an Economic Development Research Program (EDRP) grant, which is administered by the EDA University Center. These grants are targeted toward economically distressed communities that can’t afford the cost of this type of comprehensive economic development research. EDA University Center grants offset some expenses that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to rural communities.

CEDR is conducting the six-month research and analysis project in Fitzgerald, which entails looking at housing that’s for sale, determining what the rental rates are, and developing housing development strategy recommendations for the entire city, said Betsy McGriff, a CEDR associate project manager and lead researcher on the study. It will also include ways to maximize cost effective development strategies, such as new home construction in historic neighborhoods to help revitalize them.

“Our objective is to get a much better understanding of the factors that are deterring new home development,” said Jason Dunn, executive director of the Fitzgerald and Ben Hill County Development Authority. “We want to create more homeownership and have the data needed to influence new residential development in Ben Hill County.

Jason Dunn is executive director of the Fitzgerald and Ben Hill County Development Authority.

The need for the Fitzgerald study comes as the community has seen increased demand for more housing with options in both single family, owner-occupied homes, as well as rentals. But the city’s existing inventory isn’t enough to meet the demand, nor is it energy efficient, comprised of buildings that are at least 100 years old.

“We believe the study will give us the market data needed to pursue a public-private partnership to meet the community needs and lead to residential development that will provide housing solutions in one of Georgia’s most rural areas,” Dunn said.

CEDR is also doing a nine-month study for the City of Jefferson Downtown Development Authority, located in North Georgia’s Jackson County, about 22 miles northwest of Athens. That multifaceted project, which is also partly funded by an EDRP grant, includes a housing market analysis to create a strategy to get more residential housing units built closer to its downtown.

It also includes a retail market analysis to determine what goods and services are needed in the area. It also includes visioning sessions to advise the Downtown Development Authority and help its leaders prioritize strategies and future steps needed for maximum community impact.

The Missing Middle

The two projects reflect the growing housing challenge that scores of communities face across the country said Alan Durham, a CEDR researcher and director of the Basic Economic Development Course.

“Across the U.S., right now we’re short about 4 million housing units. And a lot of those missing units are entry level affordable housing, and workforce housing for police, fire fighters, nurses, and teachers. That’s what’s called the missing middle,” said Durham, who has been researching the national trends and leads the Jefferson project research.

As costs rise, developers are trending toward building very high-end homes. While the high-end housing market is doing well, not enough at the other end — entry-level housing — is being built, squeezing out a market segment communities need to attract.

“Millennials and Gen Z, they can’t even get their foot in the door in the housing market anymore,” Durham said. “The ideal range on housing expenditures is 25% to 30% of gross income. In reality, many are spending over 50% of their wages on housing, leaving them cash-poor to deal with basic necessities and unforeseen expenses.”

Part of the research CEDR will do includes data analyses of both communities. The research will break both communities into their respective income tiers to see how many people make a set amount of money per year, Durham said.

Based on the different income tiers, the CEDR analyses in Fitzgerald and Jefferson will guide the types of housing price points leaders in both communities should pursue.

Detailed Analysis

In addition to the income tiers and bands major employers in each community pay, the CEDR studies will analyze employee commuting patterns, where residents shop for staple goods and services, and other factors that shape where people decide to live.

“These are very rural markets so our work to pull meaningful and actionable data will be different than in a metro area where it’s a little clearer or there’s just more data to be had,” McGriff said. “Our focus and approach will be a lot more granular to assess the demands of a rural market and pull out really meaningful data.”

Armed with that data, both communities will be positioned to develop strategies for targeted engagement with the right mix of investors and developers, McGriff said.

“They’re going to have to sell their communities to investors using the data we produce and the recommendations that we develop together for development strategies,” McGriff said. “These EDA University Center grants are really an investment tool for economic development, and they can leverage that money to attract investments to their communities, which could lead to more jobs and increased tax base, which just then cycles into helping these communities thrive.”

About the Georgia Tech EDA University Center
The Georgia Tech EDA University Center is a program funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) through its EDA University Center program. Led by the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, the Georgia Tech EDA University Center supports outreach activities that seek to promote job creation, development of high-skilled regional talent pools, business expansion in innovation clusters, and create and nurture regional economic ecosystems in the state of Georgia and other states within the EDA Atlanta region (Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). The Center’s primary focus areas are innovation-led ecosystem support for universities and communities and strategic economic development support for distressed communities. To learn more, please visit grow.gatech.edu/eda-university-center.

About the Center for Economic Development Research
The Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) is a collaborative team of economists, city planners, and economic development practitioners. Our talented economic development professionals have the research and implementation experience needed to help economic developers, community leaders, and industries alike understand the opportunities and challenges in fostering local economic development. CEDR is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech’s chief business outreach and economic development organization. To learn more, please visit cedr.gatech.edu.

Georgia MBDA Business Center Client Scores “Major” Win

A Big Night for Client Next Play 360° and Scoot Henderson

Group photo — Scoot Henderson (center), a Georgia MBDA Business Center client, celebrates with family and friends following his joining the NBA in the 2023 draft.

The Georgia MBDA Business Center congratulates Scoot Henderson and his parents, Crystal and Chris Henderson, co-founders of portfolio client Next Play 360°, for Scoot’s selection in June by the Portland Trail Blazers as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Scoot, formerly the youngest player in the NBA G-League, spent the past two years playing for the G-League team Ignite.

Next Play 360° is dedicated to developing the whole person through a robust program that focuses on four core pillars: athletics, academics, leadership, and community. Through this program, Next Play 360° helps student athletes like Scoot become as competitive in the classroom as on the court and change what they think is possible for their futures.

“We could not be more thrilled for Scoot, Crystal, and Christ Henderson,” said Jennifer Pasley, the Georgia MBDA Business Center’s project director.

The Center has been working with Next Play 360° to secure SBA financing to purchase a multi-sports complex in Marietta, Georgia.

“Through our work with Next Play 360°, we have been fortunate to have a front-row seat to Scoot’s incredible NBA journey, and we wish him the best of luck in this exciting new endeavor.”

Creating Communities that Draw People and Business Under the New Workplace Model

56^th Annual Basic Economic Development Course 2023
theme focuses on Placemaking and Economic Recovery

ATLANTA — As communities move past the effects of COVID-19 and the economic turmoil stemming from the pandemic, economic development professionals are fully engaged in recovery.

The 56^th Annual Georgia Tech Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) will arm these professionals with the tools and strategies needed to maximize opportunity and potential for local communities in a four-day course from August 28-31. (Register: http://tiny.cc/BEDC2023)

The 2023 BEDC keynote speakers include Eric Kronberg, founder of Kronberg Urbanists Architects, and Elizabeth Ward Williams, the firm’s director of urban design.

The new realities of today’s workforce in a post-pandemic economy means communities must reimagine themselves in ways that make them more attractive to people as places to live and for businesses to operate.

Presented by Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute in collaboration with the International Economic Development Council and the Georgia Economic Developers Association, this comprehensive course will explore the use of placemaking as an economic development tool to help professionals create quality places where people want to live and businesses believe they will thrive.

The 2023 theme is Placemaking and Economic Recovery: Creating Communities Where People Want to Live and Businesses Want to Be. Keynote speakers include Eric Kronberg, founder of Kronberg Urbanists Architects, and Elizabeth Ward Williams, that firm’s director of urban design.

“We know the pandemic has changed the way we operate in a lot of ways with telecommuting and remote working being a fixed reality for business and job seekers,” said Alan Durham, BEDC course director. With work-from-home or hybrid commuting schedules the norm, communities need to rethink how they create strategies and make them more appealing to potential residents and business investments, he said.

“Our course is designed to teach attendees how to maximize opportunities in this new reality. People aren’t moving to a given community simply to be closer to work if there’s no central office or even a requirement to go into one,” Durham said. “So, it’s imperative that officials looking to boost their communities’ economic development opportunities shift their thinking.”

Part of that shift means focusing on strategies that create an attractive quality of life both for residents and business, plan for economic recovery and resilience, smart incentive packages, and other tools. Communities must also find creative ways to address the shortage of workforce and entry-level housing options.

BEDC course speakers will address several topics over the four days that will help attendees capitalize on their communities’ unique assets and how they can effectively use and maximize placemaking as an economic development tool.

Among the course topics:

- Workforce Housing Strategies
- Business Retention and Expansion
- Real Estate Development and Reuse
- Business Credit Analysis
- Workforce Development
- Strategic Planning
- Economic Impact and Incentives
- Managing Economic Development Organizations
- Ethics in Economic Development
- Small Business and Entrepreneur Development
- Marketing and Attraction
- Disaster Recovery and Resilience
- Media Strategy

This four-day conference gives attendees opportunities to network with industry peers and experts, deeply explore the fundamentals and emerging concepts of comprehensive economic development and prepare them to immediately implement tools and skills gained during the course.

Since its inception in 1967, the Georgia Tech BEDC has prepared more than 3,300 economic developers from all over the world for the IEDC Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) Examination. The certification is considered an essential component of a career in economic development. BEDC at Georgia Tech is accredited by the IEDC and qualifies as a professional development training requirement needed to sit for the exam.

About the Enterprise Innovation Institute
The Enterprise Innovation Institute, the Georgia Institute of Technology’s economic development unit, serves all of Georgia through a variety of services and programs that build and scale startups, grow business enterprises and energize ecosystem builders. As the nation’s largest and most comprehensive university-based economic development organization, the Institute’s expertise and reach are global; its innovation, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem development programs serve governments, universities, nonprofits, and other organizations worldwide. In 2022, Enterprise Innovation Institute programs worked with 15,785 clients to create or save 13,891 jobs and secure $2.4 billion in capital investments. As a group, the Enterprise Innovation Institute helped generate an economic impact return of $422.55 for every dollar received from state appropriations in 2022. Learn more at innovate.gatech.edu.

About the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR)
The Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech with a mission to help communities and economic developers grow and thrive. CEDR, which manages the Basic Economic Development Course, uses in-depth of research, planning, and implementation experience along with resources across the broader Georgia Tech community to provide cutting edge solutions for the innovation economy. To learn more about CEDR and the services offered, please visit cedr.gatech.edu.

EI2 Global Hosts South African Delegation at Georgia Tech

UNISA group photo — EI² Global hosted a delegation of faculty and administrators from the University of South Africa from April 24 to May 2, 2023 as part of an economic development ecosystem building initiative. (PHOTO: Péralte Paul)

EI² Global recently hosted a delegation of about 10 faculty and administrators from the University of South Africa (UNISA). The purpose of the visit was to observe Georgia Tech’s and Atlanta’s innovation ecosystem and learn about entrepreneurship and innovation programs.

The visit is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology to foster an innovation-focused, university-based economic development ecosystem is South Africa.

That collaboration — launched in April of 2019 — calls for Tech’s assistance and guidance in the creation of an innovation ecosystem to support student entrepreneurship, curricular and extra-curricular programs, and faculty and student venture creation, as well as programs that small business development opportunities and industry engagement in South Africa.

During their nine-day visit, the delegates learned about the components of successful economic development ecosystems and learned about different programs, including the Center for MedTech Excellence, the Advanced Technology Development Center — both sister programs to the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s EI² Global — and the economic development team in Georgia Tech’s Institute Relations. They also met with representatives of the Georgia Department of Economic Development about its Center of Innovation model, and The University Financing Foundation on its infrastructure development strategy.

While South Africa has the continent’s third-largest economy as ranked by gross domestic product, the country’s unemployment rate is 30 percent — the highest in Africa and one of the highest in the world.

A program of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, EI² Global is charged with fostering economic opportunity around the world through inclusive, sustainable, impactful collaborations with universities, innovators, governments, and nonprofit organizations.

The EI² Global team offers a comprehensive set of tools to support entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives as important ways to promote local economic growth in communities.

Georgia Tech APEX Accelerator Hosts Federal Delegation

A delegation from the APEX Accelerators were in Atlanta April 19 to meet with the local team housed at Georgia Tech. The visit was part of a nationwide fact finding tour of its centers aross the country to learn about best practices. (PHOTO: Péralte Paul)

A team of officials from the federal APEX Accelerators — an offering of the Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs —visited the Enterprise Innovation Institute as part of a national tour of its member centers across the country.

The Georgia Tech APEX Accelerator, a program of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, helps Georgia businesses identify, compete for, and win government contracts, at no cost to the companies.

Formally known as the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC), the Georgia Tech APEX Accelerator is one of 95 such centers operating across the country. The visit from the federal delegation followed the rebranding and name change that took place earlier in 2023.

The April 19 Georgia stop was the first of several said Khalil Mack, director of APEX Accelerators program.

“We did the site visit to meet the team and have candid conversations about the program and how their program operates,” Mack said. “This is a very innovative accelerator and where it sits in the Enterprise Innovation Institute, there seems to be a lot of opportunity for cross-pollination across their programs so we were excited to come out here and learn what they are doing and see if we could take some of these best practices and apply them programwide.”

Nakia Melecio Receives Golden Helix Award

WINNERS: Nakia Melecio (left) and Sherry Farrugia show their Golden Helix Awards following the March 29 gala at the Fox Theatre. (PHOTO: Péralte Paul)

The Center for Global Health Innovation’s (CGHI) Office of Life Sciences and Digital Health awarded Nakia Melecio with the Golden Helix Community Award for his dedication to Georgia’s life sciences community.

Melecio, the founding director of the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s Center for MedTech Excellence, was one of six individuals honored with Community Awards at the March 29 event which recognized 21 individuals, companies, and organizations with awards at 25th annual gala.

Sherry Farrugia, CEO, of the Global Center for Medical Innovation, a Georgia Tech affiliate, was presented with the Industry Growth Award, for her tireless efforts and significant contributions to growing the life sciences industry in Georgia.

“Our community strives to improve patients’ lives, support workforce development, grow Georgia’s economy, and be a driving force for good in the world,” said CGHI CEO Maria Thacker Goethe in a statement. “The Golden Helix Awards highlights those lasting contributions made by many in the life sciences sector in Georgia.”

In his role as director of the Center for MedTech Excellence, Melecio works to catalyze the development and commercialization of breakthrough biotechnology, medical devices, life science, and therapeutic innovations.

He also works with other Georgia Tech programs including VentureLab and the Advanced Technology Development Center, as well as other organizations such as the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

“It’s an honor to be counted among the champions here in Georgia who are trying to put the life sciences ecosystem on the map and working behind the scenes from a policy perspective, an academic perspective, and venture capital perspective to really help build the infrastructure and support entrepreneurs,” Melecio said. “To be able to be recognized and to have a voice, that’s what I’m proud of — being able to work with great entrepreneurs and great schools that have a passion for this ecosystem.”

Lynne Henkiel Retires from Georgia Tech

Lynne Henkiel has retired after 22 years of service to Georgia Tech. (PHOTO: Péralte C. Paul)

Lynne Henkiel, director of the Economic Development Lab in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, has retired after 22 years of service.

“Lynne has been an integral part of why the Enterprise Innovation Institute has been so successful our economic development mission,” said David Bridges, vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute. “She has been an invaluable resource, friend, and mentor across our organization and a vital conduit in the application of research and education from Georgia Tech into our economic development programming and activities.”

As Georgia Tech’s globally recognized economic development arm, the Enterprise Innovation Institute is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive university-based program of tech startup entrepreneurship, ecosystem building and development, business services and consulting, international outreach, and student-focused engagement opportunities.

“Her commitment to serving Georgia, her tireless pursuit in bringing resources to our state and leveraging opportunities for greater economic impact embodies what we strive to do every day,” Bridges said. “She will be greatly missed, but she helped us build EI² into what it is today and positioned us to expand our mission and scope in Georgia and beyond.”

Under her leadership, the Economic Development Lab in 2022 worked in all 159 of Georgia’s counties and one country overseas, helped its clients secure more than $134 million in capital investments, created or saved 65 jobs, and train 1,002 economic development professionals in continuing education certifications.

“It has been a wonderful privilege to have served the state of Georgia and to help fulfill Georgia Tech’s promise of progress and service,” Henkiel said. “Being part of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, collaborating with my colleagues to create new opportunities to maximize potential in communities and organizations across the state and the world has been an honor.”

With Henkiel’s retirement, which took effect February 1, the Economic Development Lab, which assists governments, communities, foundations, and entrepreneurs, is being apportioned into two separate groups.

The Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR), which provides economic and fiscal impact and labor market analyses, strategic planning, and professional development, will now operate as a separate program. Alfie Meek, Ph.D., will continue to serve as its director. CEDR staff will continue to operate the Economic Development Research Program (EDRP) which offers affordable economic development and policy research to communities.

To address expanding demand from international organizations, governments, companies, and universities, as well as Georgia’s economic business environment the Enterprise Innovation Institute is creating a new program group — EI² Global.

That program will be led by Juli Golemi. It will include Innovation Ecosystems, which helps launch, operate, and sustain success entrepreneurship and innovation programs; the EDA University Center, which supports strategic building of innovation clusters and regional economic ecosystems across the southeastern U.S.; and Soft Landings, which helps foreign companies evaluate and assess their pathways into the U.S. market.

Prior to leading the Economic Development Lab, Henkiel was director of Innovation Ecosystems. She also was the primary awardee for the EDA University Center grant to Georgia Tech for the last two award periods. She also received the EDA Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) I6 award in 2014 among other funding grants focused on developing healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems.

During her tenure at Georgia Tech, she developed incubation health and community innovation assessment tools, and she was the driving force in the development of the Soft Landings program.

Henkiel’s career at Georgia Tech started with a focus on commercializing innovations from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the Stennis Space Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.

In that role she worked with startup companies that licensed NASA technology, collaborated with entrepreneurs to help them overcome their early-stage pitfalls, and developed educational programming to bolster their success. In addition, she managed the dual-use industry partnerships for the Marshall Space Flight Center, which involved working with large and startup businesses.

Henkiel’s reach at Georgia Tech went beyond the Enterprise Innovation Institute as she created the U.S. Expansion Practicum course at Tech’s Scheller College of Business. That program partnered MBA students with successful business owners — Georgia Tech alumni among them — focused on U.S. business expansion.

A globally recognized ecosystem building expert, Henkiel has been called on to make presentations and write articles for groups and publications here in the United States and around the world.

Most recently, she led the Innovation and Technology Commercialization Professional course in China and Tunisia and efforts to expand the course for Spanish, French, and Arabic-speaking countries.

She is an active member of the Technology Association of Georgia’s International Society Board, and a board member of the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA).

Henkiel earned her master’s degree in the Management of Technology from the University of Miami, and had an extensive career in finance with IBM prior to joining Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech Professor and Team Create Tool to Reduce Burn Risk in Surgeries

Jackson Medical co-founders, Kamil Makhnejia, chief operating officer (left), and CEO James Rains, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

Any surgical procedure comes with a degree of risk for patients. But there’s also stress for the surgical team who must adhere to strict protocols and procedures to ensure positive safe patient surgical outcomes.

Among the worries: accidentally burning a patient or operating room staff or setting fire to the surgical table draping. Although rare, burns can happen from the heat generated by fiber optic light cables that illuminate endoscopes and camera cables surgeons use during operations to see what’s happening internally.

James Rains, a professor in Georgia Tech’s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, has developed a device to minimize that risk.

Rains is co-founder and CEO of Jackson Medical, an Atlanta-based medical device company that launched in 2016. Its flagship product, GloShield, is a flexible, ceramic fitted heat shield that covers the end of the light cable, which can get as hot as 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Whenever you want to look inside the body, you need to illuminate it. You need to provide a light source inside the body via a scope,” Rains said. The risk is present in the surgical field when equipment is assembled and disassembled, leading to a detached and exposed light cable.

GloShield is a flexible, ceramic fitted heat shield that covers the end of light cables used in surgical procedures. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

Current protocols call for someone on the surgical team to hold the cable or keep it from the patient’s skin or material can catch fire. But those protocols aren’t always strictly followed as Rains and his team found when observing bladder and abdominal surgeries in metro Atlanta.

The Jackson Medical team’s observations and understanding of those risks was further underscored through interviews with more than 1,000 clinicians and practitioners across the country.

The GloShield device is designed with a flexible neck connected to a cap that fits snugly over the end of the light cable. The polymer used to create the devices remains cool to the touch. The cap flips up to allow the cable to reconnect to the scope when necessary.

“Surgeries are complex, and there are so many decisions that need to be made and so many tasks that need to be addressed by the surgical team,” said Kamil Makhnejia, another co-founder and who serves as the company’s chief operating officer. “There’s charting and taking care of the patient to ensure there’s proper equipment and specimen handoffs among team members during the entirety of the surgical procedure.”

It takes less than six seconds for the heat generated by a light cable to melt through a surgical drape or burn a patient, Makhnejia said, explaining that the device has been used in more than 100,000 surgeries to date.

“It’s not a matter of if something is going to happen, but when,” Rains said, adding that even though the risks remain low, medical professionals want solutions that reduce as many of those risks as possible and establish peace of mind. “During a surgical procedure, while you’re trying to juggle so many different things — we want to provide a layer of safety so that clinicians can keep their focus on patient outcome.”

That is the right approach said Dr. Howard Herman, an Atlanta surgeon in otorhinolaryngology, a surgical subspeciality of the head and neck, who has used GloShield in his operations.

“There are a lot of risks in surgery, and you try to minimize those risks,” said Herman, who has been a practicing surgeon for 29 years. “The beauty of this solution is that it mitigates the risk. To me, it should become part of the standard of care.”

GloShield devices have flexible necks connected to caps that fit over the end of light cables surgical teams use. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

The Jackson Medical team developed and refined the GloShield prototype at the Global Center for Medical Innovation, a Georgia Tech affiliate, which helps startups in the medical device space through all stages of their lifecycle, ranging from prototype to commercialization.

Jackson Medical is also a portfolio company of the Center for MedTech Excellence. A program of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, the center supports and addresses the unique needs of early-stage medical device technologies.

“We often use the words disruption and innovation quite liberally, yet companies are far from both,” said Nakia Melecio, the Center for MedTech Excellence’s director. “When I think of the team at Jackson Medical, their technology is not only disruptive, but also a novel solution for most, if not all, surgeons to protect patients from burn injuries with a commonly used surgical tool.”

Partnership Launches Workforce for Tomorrow with Inaugural Cohort

ATLANTA — The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (Partnership) is proud to announce the launch of the Workforce for Tomorrow Rotational Fellowship (WFT), a first-of-its-kind opportunity designed to mold fellows into the next wave of leaders within the state of Georgia.

It will serve as the flagship program of the Partnership’s workforce development pillar. WFT further supports the Partnership’s mission of driving growth and innovation forward while building connections between the public and private sectors.

The first cohort of Workforce for Tomorrow participants (from l-r) LaDerrius Williams, Phillip Abidoye, Sruthi Kumar, Iesha Baldwin, Isabelle Barnett, and Noah McQueen. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

“Workforce for Tomorrow presents an amazing opportunity for early career professionals to explore career paths and engage in a mission-driven initiative that benefits the public and private sectors,” said Clarence Anthony Jr., the Partnership’s Workforce Development manager. “I could not be prouder of and more impressed with the quality of fellows and employers who are a part of our inaugural launch.”

Fellows will complete two six-month rotations at two different organizations (one in the private sector and one in the public sector) within the same industry. Over the duration of WFT, fellows will receive full-time compensation and work experience. WFT fellows are also provided career development and exploration opportunities during the program, as well as mentorship from their site hosts and the Partnership’s Workforce Development team.

“This program is structured in a way that includes the participation of both private and public sectors and accommodates diverse people with a wide range of experiences and academic backgrounds,” said Phillip Abidoye, one of six individuals selected for the first cohort of WFT fellows. “WFT is unique and different from other programs that I have participated in.”

Panelists presenting — Panelists discussed the components of successful workforce development at the Workforce for Development kickoff event. (From left) Kerel Fryar, Truist Bank; Cleveland, Ga. Mayor Josh Turner; Heather Maxfield, TAG-ED; Donna Ennis, Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute, and Ira Pearl, Cox Enterprises. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

The program is open to undergraduate and graduate degree holders with less than five years of professional experience. Fellowship applicants must currently reside in Georgia or have an interest in relocating to Georgia.

“I learned about the fellowship through one of my mentors,” said Iesha Baldwin, another of the fellows in the first cohort. “WFT is based in my home state of Georgia, so it is giving me the opportunity to return home and be closer to family.”

The first cohort of WFT fellows — Abidoye and Baldwin, along with Isabelle Barnett, Noah McQueen, and LaDerrius Williams — have been matched with employers in advanced manufacturing and logistics, sustainable energy, and information technology and sustainability. The inaugural class of fellows will work with the following employers (Abidoye’s placement is being finalized):

Iesha Baldwin – Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and Freudenberg NOK
Isabelle Barnett – Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute and Freudenberg NOK
Sruthi Kumar – Cox Enterprises and Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Initiative
Noah McQueen – Microsoft and the Atlanta Beltline
LaDerrius Williams – Cox Enterprises

“I have never seen a fellowship that so clearly advocates for mentorship and advocacy for its employees,” Barnett said. “I am really excited to work with Georgia Tech and Freudenberg NOK – I truly can’t imagine a better partnership.”

The fellowship formally launched December 1, with a kickoff event at Microsoft Atlantic Yards in Atlanta. The event featured a keynote presentation from Georgia State Sen. John Albers as well as a panel discussion between public and private sector partners to discuss the role of workforce development and public-private partnerships in economic growth.

“We are so excited to welcome our fellows with this cohort,” said Michelle Guthrie, Cox Enterprises’ human resources leader. “We are very excited to bring new talent into our organization who can bring their own innovative perspectives to what we do every day.”

Analyses to help community leaders create long-term residential home development growth strategies

The Missing Middle

Detailed Analysis

Analyses to help community leaders create long-term
residential home development growth strategies