Жорджия Технологиялық институтының ғылыми-зерттеу орталығы

Nonprofit applied research arm

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. GTRI employs around 3,000 people, and was involved in nearly $1 billion in research in 2023 for more than 200 clients in industry and government. Initially known as the Engineering Experiment Station, (EES) the organization was proposed in 1929 by W. Harry Vaughan as an analog to the agricultural experiment stations; the Georgia General Assembly passed a law that year creating the organization on paper but did not allocate funds to start it. To boost the state's struggling economy in the midst of the Great Depression, funds were found, and the station was finally established with US$5,000 (equivalent to $ in ) in April 1934. GTRI's research spans a variety of disciplines, including national defense, homeland security, public health, education, mobile and wireless technologies, and economic development. Major customers for GTRI research include United States Department of Defense agencies, the state of Georgia, non defense federal agencies, and private industry. Overall, contracts and grants from Department of Defense agencies account for approximately 84% of GTRI's total research funding.

After being founded in 1885, Georgia Tech grew from a trade school into a university over several decades. However, there was little state initiative to see the school expand significantly until 1919. That year, in a move similar to the Hatch Act of 1887's establishment of agricultural experiment stations, the federal debate over whether to create engineering experiment stations similarly spurred the Georgia General Assembly to pass an act titled "Establishing State Engineering Experiment Station at the Georgia School of Technology." This station was established with the goal of the "encouragement of industries and commerce" within the state. In 1929, some Georgia Tech faculty members belonging to Sigma Xi started a Research Club at Tech that met once a month. One of the monthly subjects, proposed by W. Harry Vaughan, was a collection of issues related to Georgia Tech, such as library development, and the development of a state engineering station. This group investigated the forty existing engineering experiment stations at universities around the country, and a report was compiled by Harold Bunger, Montgomery Knight, and Vaughan in December 1929. The station's initial areas of focus were textiles, ceramics, and helicopter engineering. The station's name was technically the State Engineering Experiment Station, but it was generally referred to as the Engineering Experiment Station (EES) or simply "the research station". Vaughan was instrumental in securing a permanent building for the station, initially known as the Research Building; several years later it was expanded and named the Thomas Hinman Research Building, after Atlanta dentist and university donor Thomas Hinman. After Vaughan left for the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1940, Bunger's successor was Gerald Rosselot, who had been appointed assistant director by Georgia Tech's president in 1940.

The number and value of contracts coming to the station significantly increased during World War II; the 1943–1944 budget was the first in which industry and government contracts exceeded the station's other income, most notably, its state appropriation. Director Vaughan had initially prepared the faculty for fewer incoming contracts as the Georgia General Assembly had cut the station's appropriation by 40%, Two of the larger projects were a study on the propagation of electromagnetic waves, and United States Navy–sponsored radar research. Important investments during Rosselot's administration at the Engineering Experiment Station included the purchase of an electron microscope in 1946 for $13,000 (equivalent to $ in ), the first such instrument in the Southeastern United States and one of few in the United States at the time. The Research Building was expanded, and a $300,000 (equivalent to $ in ) Westinghouse A C network calculator was given to Georgia Tech by Georgia Power in 1947. Rosselot's administration included the 1946 establishment of the Industrial Development Council, renamed to the Georgia Tech Research Institute in 1948 and its present name, the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, in 1984. The Georgia Board of Regents had ruled that all money received in a year had to be spent that year, which was problematic because most government contracts the EES had received spanned multiple years. The new organization was almost immediately used to weather a severe drop in state support (from $89,000 to $3,000) during the recession of 1949. Robinson worked as the general manager without pay for the first year; after the fledgling company's first contract resulted in a $4,000 loss, Robinson (upon request) refunded five of the six other initial investors. When it was founded in October 1951, Rosselot was president and CEO of Scientific Associates; at issue was the potential conflict of interest with his role at Georgia Tech, and what, if any, role Georgia Tech should have in technology transfer to the marketplace. Emerson later instituted a policy requiring EES employees wishing to work with Scientific Associates to make a written request to the president of Georgia Tech. Though Rosselot denied malfeasance, the practice nonetheless did not conform to the University System of Georgia's established procedures for budget reporting. As a result, Rosselot went on leave from his post at Georgia Tech in November 1952, pending the acceptance of his resignation by the chancellor, which became effective March 1, 1953.

In fiscal year 2022, GTRI employed 2,927 people and totaled $735 million in revenue. Also in fiscal year 2022, the United States Department of Defense consisted of 89% of GTRI's awards by value; the remainder was composed of federal (2%); non DOD (2%) state and local (4%); and university, business, or nonprofit (6%). GTRI is headquartered on the Georgia Tech campus in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, where five of its seven research laboratories are located. Some major buildings are the Centennial Research Building, the Baker Building, and the GTRI Headquarters. The GTRI Headquarters contains the GTRI Conference Center, which has of space and hosts over 300 events a year. Other notable Atlanta buildings include the Food Processing Technology Building and the GTRI Machine Services Building. Two GTRI laboratories operate at an off campus research facility, the Cobb County Research Facility, approximately fifteen miles north of Atlanta in Cobb County adjacent to the Dobbins Air Reserve Base. Additionally, GTRI operates the Applied Systems Laboratory in Huntsville, Alabama. GTRI opened an international office in Athlone, Ireland in June 2006. This effort was expanded when Georgia Tech, the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick partnered in June 2010 to create a joint translational research institute. GTRI has several field offices that help with nearby on site research and needs. These are in Dallas, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, Shalimar, Florida (near Eglin Air Force Base), Huntsville, Alabama, Jacksonville, Florida, Orlando, Florida, Panama City, Florida, Quantico, Virginia, San Diego, California, Tucson, Arizona, Warner Robins, Georgia (near Robins Air Force Base), and Arlington, Virginia/Washington, DC.

GTRI is composed of eight laboratories organized by technical focus into three research and development directorates. Each lab is further subdivided into divisions. Labs frequently collaborate with one another and outside groups (both academic units and external companies) based on the requirements of each project. GTRI performs research for clients at the local, regional, national, and international level, and employees are encouraged to publish their work and present it at conferences and consortia. GTRI is an operating unit of Georgia Tech although it performs research under commercial cost principles for non profit organizations. For that reason, it uses a separate contracting entity, the Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation (GTARC). Although GTARC is the contracting entity, the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) owns the intellectual property created by all Georgia Tech researchers and manages technology protection and licensing. GTRI reports to the Georgia Tech Executive Vice President of Research (as of 2013, Stephen E. Cross) who currently serves as the President of GTARC. GTRI's project directors are responsible for the direction of all aspects of projects, including marketing, contract development, research, and fulfillment. Most projects are conducted on a cost reimbursable basis and are negotiated by Georgia Tech's Office of Sponsored Programs with terms and conditions appropriate for contracts specific to the operation of a university research organization. The organization is led by the Director, who is also considered a vice president of Georgia Tech. Five people report to the director: the Deputy Director and Associate Vice Provost for Research; the Deputy Director for Support Operations; and the three deputy directors in charge of each research and development directorate. Members of the Board of Trustees of the contracting agency, GTARC, are not necessarily members of the External Advisory Council, although there is sometimes overlap between them.

GTRI contributes to the Georgia Tech research environment for faculty and students by conducting externally sponsored, applications oriented research programs that benefit the state, region, and nation. These programs, led by GTRI research faculty, contribute to national security, civilian needs, and industrial competitiveness, and provide students with career experience through graduate research assistantships, cooperative education programs, and undergraduate assistantships. Since 1995, GTRI (and in particular, its Huntsville Laboratory) has been a University Affiliated Research Center, a designation by the United States Department of Defense intended to maintain what it calls "essential engineering and technology capabilities". GTRI is the largest single employer of Georgia Tech graduate and undergraduate students; as of 2013, GTRI employed 186 graduate co ops and research assistants and 128 undergraduate co ops. GTRI's contributions to the Georgia Tech community include collaborative research with academic faculty, courses originated by GTRI faculty, and joint service efforts. Collaboration is strong between the faculties of GTRI and the academic schools and departments. Many GTRI researchers hold appointments as adjunct faculty members in Georgia Tech academic departments, serve on thesis advisory committees, and teach both academic and continuing education courses. GTRI reaches out to Georgia Tech's academic and research departments for collaboration on many research activities, building interdisciplinary teams that take advantage of the broad expertise within Georgia Tech's highly ranked programs. One such collaboration is with the Georgia Tech Information Security Center to create GTRI's newest laboratory, the Cybersecurity, Information Protection, and Hardware Evaluation Research Laboratory (CIPHER).