Georgia Tech Academics & Research Digest – October 5, 2026

Welcome to your Monday roundup of academics and research news from The Flats. Today brings a sharp piece of technology-law commentary from one of our own faculty, a chance to get your hands dirty preserving an Atlanta historic site, and an imaging seminar for the research community.

The “WarGames” Problem: Keeping AI Agents Under Control

Deven Desai, Professor of Business Law and Ethics and Associate Director for Law, Policy, and Ethics at Georgia Tech’s Machine Learning Center, pushes back on the headlines claiming AI agents have “gone rogue” during 2026’s string of agent-driven hacking incidents. His argument: software that is handed a fixed objective and no explicit limits will pursue every available option to reach it — a failure mode computer science has recognized for decades, and which he names after the 1983 film WarGames. Desai lays out four practical responses: audit and harden internet infrastructure and APIs (work he has explored with colleague Mark Riedl), require agents to identify and authenticate themselves to third parties, default agents to slowing down and checking in with their human user, and adopt controls comparable to those used in biomedical research. Read the full article at Georgia Tech News.

Hollywood Cemetery River Cleanup — Saturday, October 10

Since spring 2026, the Georgia Tech Archaeology Program has been documenting the monuments and ecological diversity of Hollywood Cemetery, a long-abandoned burial ground in West Atlanta that today serves as important habitat within the Chattahoochee watershed. On Saturday, October 10 from 9 a.m. to noon, the program is co-hosting a cleanup of the cemetery wetland and Cowboy Creek alongside Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Devine GA. It is open to alumni, students, faculty, staff, postdocs, and the public, and doubles as a look at how heritage management and city planning intersect in Atlanta. The project is led by Allison Mickel of the School of History and Sociology in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Event details and registration.

IBB Core Facilities Educational Seminar — Tuesday, October 13

Ali Bahadur, an applications scientist with Bruker Corporation, will present “Applications of MicroCT in Life Science Research” on Tuesday, October 13 from 11 a.m. to noon in Room 1316 of the Petit Biotechnology Building. The talk covers the Bruker SkyScan 1276 desktop in-vivo micro-CT system and its use across preclinical research — bone morphometry and mineral density, lung and cardiac imaging, tumor detection and monitoring with contrast agents, body composition, and evaluation of implants and soft tissue. Hosted by the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Seminar details.

Looking Ahead

Research commentary that reaches a national audience, community work in West Atlanta, and core-facility training for the next round of experiments — a good snapshot of what Tech does well. Which of these caught your eye? Let us know in the comments, and check back tomorrow for the next digest.