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 fiscal year 2025 for 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. Since it was established, GTRI has expanded its engineering focus to include science, economics, policy, and other areas that leverage GTRI's partnership with Georgia Tech. GTRI researchers are named on 76 active patents and 43 pending patents.
History
Establishment
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. The federal effort ultimately failed and the state did not finance the organization.Wallace, p. 238
In 1929, some Georgia Tech faculty members belonging to Sigma Xi started a Research Club at Tech that met once a month.McMath, pp. 186 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. Their report noted that several similar organizations had been opened across the country at other engineering schools and were successful in local economic development.
In 1933, S. V. Sanford, president of the University of Georgia, proposed that a "technical research activity" be established at Georgia Tech in order to boost the state's struggling economy in the midst of the Great Depression. The Georgia Board of Regents provided the new Engineering Experiment Station with $5,000 (equivalent to $ in ), and Georgia Tech provided infrastructure and personnel. The station started operation in April 1934.
Early years
Vaughan was selected as the Engineering Experiment Station's acting director in April 1934 and hired 13 part-time faculty and a few graduate assistants. The station's initial areas of focus were textiles, ceramics, and helicopter engineering. The early work of the station was conducted in the basement of the Old Shop Building next to Tech Tower, and Vaughan's office was in the Aeronautical Engineering Building.McMath, p.187 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".
By 1938, the Engineering Experiment Station was producing useful technology, and the station needed a method to conduct contract work outside the state budget. Consequently, the Industrial Development Council (IDC) was formed. The IDC was created as a non-profit contract organization for the EES, which allowed the EES to receive federal contracts while still retaining its relationship with Georgia Tech and the State of Georgia. It was created by the Chancellor of the University System and the president of Georgia Power Company, and the Engineering Experiment Station's director was a member of the council. The IDC later became the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, which currently serves as the sole contract organization for all Georgia Tech faculty and departments. In addition, the contract organization manages the intellectual property that results from research.
Examples of projects undertaken under Vaughan's directorship include Montgomery Knight's helicopter research, the Georgia Economic Survey, $6,000 (equivalent to $ in ) in aeronautical research for the Guggenheim Foundation, and textile research that created cotton roving and spinning processes that were three to five times faster than contemporary practices. 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, Harold Bunger (head of the Chemistry Department) took over as acting director. However, Bunger died not long thereafter in August 1941.McMath, p. 213 Bunger's successor was Gerald Rosselot, who had been appointed assistant director by Georgia Tech's president in 1940.
World War II
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.McMath, p. 214 Director Vaughan had initially prepared the faculty for fewer incoming contracts as the Georgia General Assembly had cut the station's appropriation by 40%, but increased support from industry and government eventually compensated for lower state funding. World War II is credited with GTRI's entry into electronics, especially telecommunications and electronic warfare; the electronics and communications work that Director Rosselot attracted is still a mainstay of GTRI research.McMath, p. 216 Two of the larger projects were a study on the propagation of electromagnetic waves, and United States Navy–sponsored radar research.
At the end of World War II, Georgia Tech had about $240,000 (equivalent to $ in ) annually in sponsored 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.Wallace, p. 239 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. Georgia Tech president Blake Van Leer and vice president Cherry Emerson solution was to create the Industrial Development Council, a non-profit corporation that would manage contracts for research services and subsequently hire the Engineering Experiment Station to perform the research. It would handle patents garnered through research, and distribute funds garnered from contracts and patents as needed.McMath, p. 215 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.
Scientific Atlanta Glen P. Robinson and six other Georgia Tech researchers (including Robinson's former professor and future EES director Jim Boyd and EES director Gerald Rosselot) each contributed $100 (equivalent to $ in ) and founded Scientific Associates (later known as Scientific Atlanta) on October 31, 1951, with the initial goal of marketing antenna structures being developed by the radar branch of the EES. 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.
From 1950 to 1952, there were a series of disputes between EES director Rosselot and Georgia Tech vice president Cherry Emerson over the station's finances and Rosselot's hand in founding Scientific Associates.McMath, p. 262 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.McMath, p. 263 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. However, Rosselot's participation in Scientific Associates' founding and early operations ensured the eventual success of Scientific Atlanta and facilitated subsequent technology transfer by Georgia Tech's VentureLab and the Advanced Technology Development Center.
In September 1952, the Board of Regents requested an audit of EES's financial operation. Of primary concern was the reporting of overhead income, which the Board suspected was inadequate. The audit found discrepancies in the accounts receivable that were attributed to EES's practice of delaying reporting information on receivables by a month, a tactic that had become common to ensure working capital due to the regents' failure to adequately fund the station.McMath, p. 264 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. Following his resignation, Rosselot soon accepted a position with the Bendix Corporation's aviation division.McMath, p. 265
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