Georgia Tech Academics Digest – Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 brought one of the biggest academic headlines of the year for Georgia Tech, along with a full slate of campus notices, workshops, and training opportunities. Here is your daily rundown.

Georgia Tech Rises to No. 6 Public University

The Institute has entered the nation’s top 30 universities in the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges 2027 rankings, climbing three places to No. 29 among national universities and three places to No. 6 among public national universities. The most dramatic move came in Best Value Schools, where Georgia Tech jumped from No. 108 to No. 39 – a 69-place leap and the largest year-over-year improvement among its listed rankings. The Institute also placed No. 5 in the new Best Value Schools for In-State Students category.

“At a time when students and families are asking important questions about the value of higher education, Georgia Tech continues to demonstrate that world-class academic quality and affordability can go hand in hand,” said President Angel Cabrera.

Undergraduate engineering rose one place to No. 2 nationally, tied with Stanford and UC Berkeley, and every ranked engineering discipline remains in the top five. Civil engineering moved into the No. 1 spot, joining environmental engineering and industrial and systems engineering at the top of their fields – giving Georgia Tech three No. 1 undergraduate engineering rankings. Mechanical engineering and materials engineering both rose to No. 2, computer engineering advanced to No. 5, and aerospace and chemical engineering held at No. 2 with electrical engineering at No. 3.

Computing held its top-five standing, with undergraduate computer science at No. 5 nationally alongside Princeton and Illinois. Six computing specialties landed in the national top 10: cybersecurity at No. 2, software engineering at No. 3, artificial intelligence and data analytics/science at No. 5, computer systems up to No. 6, and theory at No. 10. At Scheller, the undergraduate business program ranked No. 20 nationally, with business analytics and management information systems each at No. 3 and quantitative analysis rising to No. 4.

Just as encouraging for the student experience: Georgia Tech climbed seven places to No. 14 for Best Undergraduate Teaching, held at No. 3 among Most Innovative Schools, and ranked No. 4 for internships and co-ops and No. 14 for undergraduate research and creative projects.

Film Production Coming to Campus This Week

A film production crew will be working at the Blake R. Van Leer Building and the Campus Recreation Center from Wednesday, Sept. 23 through Tuesday, Sept. 29, with operations running as early as 5 a.m. and as late as 10 p.m. The heaviest impact is expected Sunday, Sept. 27, when filming moves inside both buildings; large production trailers will occupy the W21 parking lot and the CRC’s McAuley Aquatic Center will be unavailable. All other areas of the CRC are expected to stay open, and no exterior filming is currently planned. Campus community members should allow extra travel time and follow posted signage. Full details here.

Library Workshops: Patent Searching

The Georgia Tech Library has opened registration for a two-part online patent searching series. Part I, on Thursday, Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to noon, introduces intellectual property fundamentals and demonstrates preliminary patent searches using publicly accessible tools, with hands-on activities. Part II, on Thursday, Oct. 8 at the same time, covers patent classification systems and digs into two databases – Espacenet (open access) and PatSnap (Georgia Tech only). Both sessions are open to students, faculty, staff, and guests.

PACE Linux 102 for Researchers

Georgia Tech’s High Performance Computing group continues its monthly command-line series with PACE Linux 102, a hands-on virtual class building on Linux 101. Attendees will work with regular expressions and stream manipulation using sed and awk, compile code from source with git and make, handle advanced I/O for in-situ processing, and integrate compression for better data management. Upcoming sessions are scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3 and Tuesday, Dec. 8, both from 2 to 3:45 p.m. on Zoom.

Green Goodbyes Faculty and Staff Week

Faculty and staff can shop and donate in support of student success and campus sustainability during Green Goodbyes Faculty & Staff Week, running Tuesday, Nov. 17 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the second floor of Barnes & Noble Georgia Tech.

2027 General Safety Annual Training Schedule Posted

Environmental Health & Safety has published a large block of dates for the 2027 General Safety Annual Training Program, an 11-week initiative for Infrastructure & Operations employees across Areas 1-5, Utilities, Landscaping, Waste Services, and other facilities operations. The curriculum spans injury reporting and incident prevention, ladder safety, fall protection, lockout/tagout, electrical safety, confined space entry, PPE, slip/trip/fall prevention, body mechanics and ergonomics, equipment and vehicle safety, and department-specific hazard awareness. Registration runs through Genius LMS. Newly posted sessions include:

• Area 4, Part 2 – Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2027
• Area 5, Part 1 – Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2027 and Part 2 – Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2027
• Utilities Maintenance, Part 1 – Tuesday, March 2, 2027 and Part 2 – Wednesday, March 3, 2027
• Utilities Maintenance, Holland Plant Associates, Part 1 – Tuesday, March 9, 2027 and Part 2 – Wednesday, March 10, 2027
• Landscaping, Part 1 – Tuesday, March 16, 2027 and Part 2 – Wednesday, March 17, 2027
• Waste Management/Recycling, Part 1 – Tuesday, March 23, 2027 and Part 2 – Wednesday, March 24, 2027

That is the academic and campus roundup for September 22. Which of today’s rankings stood out most to you – the three No. 1 engineering disciplines, or that 69-place jump in value? Drop a comment, share this digest with a fellow Yellow Jacket, and check back tomorrow for more from the Flats.