Georgia Tech Academics & Research Digest — October 14, 2026

Welcome to your Wednesday, October 14, 2026 roundup of academics and research news from The Flats. Today’s slate spans a major push on digital accessibility, a leadership development opportunity across the ACC, registration milestones, and two upcoming gatherings where AI meets the physical sciences.

Digital Accessibility Gets a Longer Runway — and More Tools

Georgia Tech has expanded the tools, guidance, and training available to help the campus community meet updated digital accessibility requirements under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The U.S. Department of Justice extended the applicable compliance deadline by one year, to April 26, 2027, while the technical standard remains WCAG 2.1 Level AA. “The extended deadline gives our community more time to make thoughtful, sustainable progress,” said Jarmon DeSadier, vice president for Equal Opportunity, Compliance, and Conflict Management. “We need to keep the momentum going.” The Digital Accessibility website now serves as a central hub with Get Started guidance, role-based road maps for instructors, staff, technical staff, librarians, and students, enterprise testing and remediation tools, and recorded workshops. Since February, the Office of Information Technology has contacted owners and managers of 425 websites about claiming their sites in the Website Asset Inventory process and scanning them with DubBot. Read the full announcement.

Nominations Open for the 2027 ACC Academic Leaders Network

Georgia Tech is accepting nominations through Monday, Nov. 9, for the 2027 cohort of the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Leaders Network. The program is open to current academic leaders — department chairs or heads, assistant or associate deans, and assistant or associate provosts — with at least one to two years in a leadership role and foundational leadership training already completed. Tech may nominate up to five faculty representatives. The cohort kicks off virtually on Jan. 28, 2027, and includes a yearlong collaborative project plus three in-person sessions hosted at Florida State University in February, Boston College in June, and Virginia Tech in October, with meals, travel, and lodging provided. “The ACC Academic Leaders Network provides an unparalleled opportunity for our leaders to expand their leadership skills while building collaborative relationships across institutions,” said Michelle Rinehart, vice provost for Faculty. See the nomination details.

Spring 2027 Schedule of Classes Is Live

Students and advisors, take note: the Spring 2027 Schedule of Classes is now available online in OSCAR. Questions can go to the Office of the Registrar. View the calendar listing.

COPE Fall Workshop: Light-Matter Interactions in Emerging Semiconductors

The Institute for Materials’ Center for Organic Photonics & Electronics (COPE) hosts its fall workshop on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building. The day brings together speakers to discuss the latest advancements in emerging materials for quantum and molecular photonics, with Georgia Tech talks from Joshua Kretchmer, Ali Adibi, and Chunhui Du alongside visiting researchers from NYU, UW–Madison, Rochester, the University of Idaho, UAB, and Emory. A poster session and happy hour close things out in the Marcus Nano Atrium. Register and see the full agenda.

Machine Learning for Microscopy 3 Hackathon

Mark your calendar for Dec. 15: a three-day hybrid hackathon exploring how AI and machine learning can advance microscopy, materials imaging, spectroscopy, and scientific workflows, hosted in Pettit 102A&B. The focus is primarily electron microscopy (SEM, S/TEM, and related techniques), with projects in scanning probe microscopy, hyperspectral imaging, and other methods also welcome. Organizers emphasize that you do not need to be an AI expert — teams are encouraged to pair microscopy and materials domain knowledge with AI/ML and coding skills, and most projects can be built on accessible cloud resources. Undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, researchers, and industry participants are all invited, and there is no registration fee. Local host and contact is Mengkun Tian. Register here.

Keep the Conversation Going

From accessibility work that makes Tech more inclusive to hackathons pushing the frontier of AI in the lab, there is a lot happening on The Flats. Which of today’s stories caught your eye? Drop a comment below and let us know what you would like us to dig into next.