ABOUT
HumaniTech VIP
Who Are We
Started in 2017, the HumaniTech VIP is a vertically integrated research project at Georgia Institute of Technology. We are comprised of several teams, made up of both undergraduate and graduate students, all working on different projects to solve global development issues. These solutions include: economic technologies for rural farmers, nutrition and farming engineering, vulnerability analyses, and accessible healthcare technology. We value human-centered design and co-creating with communities to ensure that our technology solutions are sustainable.
We recently merged with the Tech4Wildlife VIP which has focused on technological interventions to solve complex animal conservation issues. Tech4Wildlife projects center around human-wildlife interactions and using indigenous methods to solve these issues. Tech4Wildlife is also now a student organization at Georgia Tech. To learn more about the student organization, visit their Engage page.
Visit the Projects page to learn more about all of our current teams and the projects they are working on.
Leadership
Instructor of Record: Cassie Shriver
Cassie has been involved with HumaniTech since Fall of 2022. She is currently a second-year PhD student in the Quantitative Biosciences department studying mammalian climbing biomechanics with applications for conservation. Cassie is passionate about interdisciplinary education and enjoys advising HumaniTech students in the development of novel solutions to benefit underserved communities and mitigate human-wildlife conflict
Faculty Advisor: Robert Wallace
Robert is currently a GTRI researcher that assists in the two courses that I teach including HumaniTech and GaTech4Wildlife. Robert helps oversee projects with connections in 5 different continents.
Teaching Assistant: Sammy Callahan
Sammy has been involved with HumaniTech since Spring of 2021 and was team lead on the Puerto Rico Disaster Relief Project. Sammy is currently a fourth year Biology student with a minor in Global Development. Her interest in global development and health lead her to become the teaching assistant for the HumaniTech VIP.
Founding member: Andrew Schulz
Andrew has been involved in HumaniTech since the first semester of its inception as a Vertically Integrated Project Course. Andrew is currently a 4th-year Ph.D. Student in elephant trunk biomechanics and conservation in the Mechanical Engineering department. Currently, Andrew is working towards graduating in the Summer of 2022 and wants to expand HumaniTech to other universities after graduation.
The Georgia Tech VIP Program
The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program is a transformative approach to enhancing higher education by engaging undergraduate and graduate students in ambitious, long-term, large-scale, multidisciplinary project teams that are led by faculty. The program has been rigorously evaluated and refined over more than two decades. In VIP, teams of undergraduate students – from various years, disciplines and backgrounds – work with faculty and graduate students in their areas of scholarship and exploration. Undergraduate students earn academic credit for their work and have direct experience with the innovation process, while faculty and graduate students benefit from the extended efforts of their teams.
Learn more at VIP Programs at Georgia Tech.