Georgia Tech president touts Cobb-based researchers

Feb. 13—CUMBERLAND — Kennesaw State University is not the only major research university with a foothold in Cobb County. Just ask Ángel Cabrera, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Cobb Chamber of Commerce Chairman Greg Teague did just that, interviewing Cabrera on the stage of the Coca-Cola Roxy at the chamber's monthly luncheon Monday.

Cabrera, the 12th president of Georgia Tech, touted the Atlanta-based university's impact, across the U.S. and globally, but also in Cobb.

Statewide, Georgia Tech is the second largest university in total student enrollment, trailing only Georgia State University, according to Cabrera. Tech enrolled 45,296 students, the University System of Georgia reported at the start of the fall 2022 semester.

He added that Georgia Tech is the fastest growing university in Georgia and the second fastest growing in the country over the last decade.

And now, for two straight years, Cabrera said, Georgia Tech is the top spender for research among universities without a medical school, a title the university wrested from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A portion of that research takes place at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Cabrera noted, which focuses on applied research, or research focused on solving real-world problems.

About 900 of the nearly 3,000 research engineers and scientists in the GTRI are based at the Cobb County Research Facility, Cabrera said. The Cobb location of the GTRI is based at the Lockheed Martin campus adjacent Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

"They partner with our friends at Dobbins, they partner with all the branches of the Department of Defense, with other agencies as well," Cabrera said. "A lot of the technology that keeps our soldiers safe is made in Cobb County, it was made by researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute."

Cabrera also bragged on the successes of Georgia Tech students in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.

He said the university has long focused on churning out talented graduates who would help attract more companies to Georgia.

Now, he said, the focus has shifted to greater promotion of entrepreneurship and making Georgia Tech an incubator of startups.

CREATE-X is a university initiative geared toward that specific goal, Cabrera said, offering students the education, resources and encouragement to make the school a hub for startup companies.

One startup out of the program is already a "unicorn," Cabrera said, meaning it has reached a valuation of $1 billion (Stord, a cloud supply chain company founded by two Georgia Tech students through CREATE-X in 2015, was valued at $1.3 billion last year).

"These are student-run companies," Cabrera said.

Kim Hill, president of Blue Thanksgiving, Inc., which supports police officers in Cobb and surrounding areas with holiday meals and other programming throughout the year, said she was impressed to hear about the efforts being made by Georgia Tech to promote student startups.

"What the students are doing before they even graduate as far as ... when they get together and they create businesses, that was cool, that was really cool," Hill said.

Kyle Heinz and Ben Perkins, co-owners of Acworth-based Keystone Production Network, a video production company, were interested in the impact Georgia Tech has in the metro Atlanta area.

"I think it's awesome, everything that they're doing, just trying to bring in more people into the community and bring in, like (Cabrera) said, kind of the intellectual talent, not necessarily just the hard and fast resources," Heinz said.

Perkins said he is particularly interested in how the GTRI is working with local businesses to implement and respond to advances in artificial intelligence technologies.

Cabrera said during his talk that Georgia Tech professor Aaron Stebner was able to secure a federal grant worth $65 million to help Georgia-based companies implement AI in their manufacturing processes.

"I think that artificial intelligence has the potential to be such a widely disruptive technology in just about any industry, and I think that it's good that they're forward thinking and working with current students to make that impact and that transition to stay competitive in an increasingly technologically advanced world," Perkins said.