This year, $40,000 in research travel grants were awarded to 20 exceptional scholars who presented their research in the 16th annual Career, Research, Innovation, and Development Conference (CRIDC) poster competition.   

Georgia Tech’s 16th annual CRIDC took place on Feb. 6 and brought together a diverse community of scholars from research disciplines from four of the seven colleges.   

Seventy-nine graduate students participated in the in-person poster competition, and five online students participated in the online poster competition, presenting their research to faculty and staff judges. Congratulations to the following poster competition winners:     

 College of Engineering Winners ($1,000 each)   

 Anamik Jhunjhunwala  

Zaid Salameh  

Mehdia Ali  

Haley Carroll  

Nidhi Malhotra  

Nina Sara Fraticelli-Guzman  

 College of Sciences Winners ($1,000 each)   

 Shreya Kothari  

Sidney Scott-Sharoni  

Monica Monge-Loria  

Gretchen Johnson  

Isabel Berry  

Maggie Straight  

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Winners ($1,000 each)   

 Olajide Olugbade   

Maghfira Ramadhani  

Shi Ding  

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR) ($1,000) 

 Raj Agarwal 

Erik Barbosa 

Adam Cosica 

Allannah Duffy 

Alina Gorbunova 

Jiangpeiyun Jin 

Kristian Lockyear 

Rupesh Kumar Mahendran 

Robert Nikolai 

Alexandra Patterson 

John Pederson 

Alper Saygin 

Joseph Sommer 

Devashish Sood  

Xing Xu 

Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education Winners ($2,000 each)     

Oscar Emanuel Patzschke, OMSCS (Online Master of Science in Computer Science)   

Amber Rothe, College of Engineering   

Timothy Brumfiel, College of Engineering   

Walter Parker, College of Engineering   

Murillo Gustineli, College of Computing   

This year’s CRIDC was sponsored by Demand Sight Analytics.  CRIDC is the product of the collaborative efforts of the Graduate Student Government Association (GSGA) and the Graduate Career Development Team from the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education. Sixteen years ago, the event was created when the student-led poster competition, the Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Competition (GTRIC), was combined with the Graduate Career Symposium.     

CRIDC also features an Innovation Competition, in which graduate student finalists offer three-minute presentations to a panel of judges. All participants met with Tech’s Quadrant –i (formerly known as VentureLab) to explore grants and programs that can help them pursue startup businesses and technology licensing opportunities.      

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 CRIDC Q-i Innovation Competition:     

2nd Runner-up ($1,000)   

Joseph Sommer   

1st Runner-Up ($1,000)  

Alexandra Patterson   

Innovation Competition Winner ($2,000)   

Ayushi Chakrabarty  

Ayushi Chakrabarty will also receive an automatic admission into Startup Launch (worth $10,000).   

In addition to the poster competitions and innovation competition, this year’s CRIDC featured an employee networking lunch, featuring 15 employers, a Flash Mentorship Workshop hosted by The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, and a Create-X Showcase. For more information about CRIDC, please visit grad.gatech.edu/cridc.