President Ángel Cabrera delivered the annual Institute Address on Thursday, Sept. 2, virtually to nearly 750 viewers on YouTube and to a masked audience in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons.

“Before I highlight the incredibly impressive work we did this past year,” he said, “I first want to address what is on all of our minds these days — how to keep our community safe while we deliver on our crucially important education and research work.”

Cabrera said that after fighting the pandemic for a year a half, he had hoped the worst would be behind us. He said he has received messages of concern from many in the campus community who are dealing with a host of pandemic-related issues at home and at work.

“I know it’s hard,” he said, delivering his second Institute Address during the coronavirus pandemic. “There is no way to sugarcoat this. We are still in the middle of a long and difficult public health crisis that will continue to test us in countless ways. But we are in this together and, like last year, we will navigate through this successfully again.”

Cabrera emphasized the importance of everyone doing what they can to keep Georgia Tech safe, including using the tools that are available: getting vaccinated, wearing masks indoors, surveillance testing, and reporting symptoms and isolating.

Institute Accomplishments

Cabrera described what the Tech community accomplished together over the last year as nothing short of remarkable.

“We recruited our largest, most diverse class ever. We graduated our largest class. We won more research awards and had more economic impact than ever before,” he said. “Our donors, alumni, and friends stepped up, too. We had one of our best fund-raising years ever, and our endowment, held and managed by our foundation, reached a new record level.”

A recent report published by the University of Georgia listed Georgia Tech as the biggest contributor to the state economy among all public universities, accounting for more than $4 billion dollars, or 22% of the overall impact.  

“Our growth will increase those numbers further and will help us continue to attract leading companies like Microsoft and Google to our neighborhood and serve the growth needs of the many who are here already,” he said.

Cabrera praised Tech’s research enterprise for its historic growth in the last year, reaching nearly $1.2 billion in research and other sponsored awards, and nearly $1.1 billion in research expenditures. More than $781 million dollars of Tech’s research awards were received by the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

He noted that all of these accomplishments reflect the goals agreed upon by the Tech community in the strategic plan launched last year.

“One of the main elements of this plan is the core values that will serve as the framework for all of us,” he said. “With a focus on students as our top priority and a drive toward excellence, diversity, collaboration and innovation, freedom of inquiry and expression, well-being, and acting as ethical and responsible stewards, our values are our guiding star.”

The Institute Address concluded with videos introducing Georgia Tech’s new visual identity, a refresh that better and more consistently reflects the Institute’s new mission and values, and the Institute’s 2021 public service announcement.

The address was followed by a question and answer session. The event was recorded and is available here.