Georgia Institute of Technology Materials Science and Engineering

The Novelis scholars program review committee at the Georgia Institute of Technology received 34 nominations and selected six graduate students as the inaugural group of Novelis Scholars for the 2021-2022 academic year. The winning scholars are:

• Andrés Felipe Castro Méndez, a third-year Ph.D. student in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His research focuses on understanding the formation thermodynamics of lead halide perovskites deposited by thermal co-evaporation.  
• Carlos Fernández, a Ph.D. student in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are in reactor design and computational methods for efficient electrochemical CO2 conversion to high-value fuels.  
• Rupesh Kumar Mahendran, a second year Ph.D. student in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. His research is focused on physics-based and data-driven model development for shape-memory alloy (SMA) alloy, manufacturing, and part design, including developing high throughput methodology and surrogate models to accelerate SMA developments.  
• Rupesh Rajendran, a Ph.D. student in the School of Materials Science & Engineering. His research is focused on understanding the effects of post-processing treatments and microstructure on corrosion, stress corrosion cracking, and mechanical behavior of additively manufactured (AM) 7xxx series aluminum alloys for aerospace applications.  
• Tingli Xie, a Ph.D. student in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Her research areas of interest are deep learning, uncertainty quantification and fault diagnosis. The goal of her research is to develop intelligent computational methods to provide accurate diagnosis of key faults by fusing multiple sensor resources in manufacturing systems.  
• Wei Yang, who is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in machine learning and a M.S. degree in statistics in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. His research interest is on high dimensional data analysis for process monitoring and diagnosis using functional profiles, images and videos with applications in manufacturing and energy sectors.

The Novelis Innovation Hub at Georgia Tech announced the launch of the Novelis Scholars Program during fall 2021. The program seeks to recognize and cultivate top graduate students conducting research in various aspects of sustainability, high-throughput materials discovery, surface functionalization, and artificial intelligence (AI)/data science applications in materials, manufacturing, and supply chain technology.

Novelis has partnered with Georgia Tech to collaborate on research and development, and promote the education of the next generation of engineers dedicated to making better products that lead to a more sustainable world. Novelis is headquartered in Atlanta with a global footprint, over 12,500 employees, and recorded $12.3 billion in revenue for its 2020 fiscal year. Novelis recently expanded its research partnership with Georgia Tech.

The Novelis Innovation Hub expects to issue its next call for Novelis Scholars for the 2022‐2023 Academic Year in Spring/early Summer 2022.