Staff Spotlight: Supporting Global University Connections

Faith Sumpter, program and operations manager for the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) at Georgia Tech, is currently managing logistics for IPaT’s Convergence Innovation Competition (CIC) in Asia under the leadership of IPaT’s Executive Director Michael Best.

CIC was founded in 2007 by the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT). This year, the Asian CIC competition is co-supported by the Shenzhen Georgia Tech Education Foundation, an independent fund in support of Georgia Tech. The competition recognizes student innovation and entrepreneurship with a focus on global challenges and opportunities. Many projects are linked to United Nations sustainable development goals.

Sumpter is coordinating with eight new Asia faculty fellows recruited from IPaT’s strategic partners and anchor universities across Asia. These faculty fellows are experts in their field who have agreed to give advice and mentorship to interested student teams participating in CIC. 

In addition to supporting CIC, she manages IPaT’s lending library allowing a wide range of technology to be used by faculty and students. Devices that can be checked out include: phones, tablets, and other mobile and wearable devices; Arduinos, Raspberry Pi’s and other IoT development kits; a variety of sensors; cameras and media capture devices; virtual machines and databases, home automation hubs and sensors; and a wide range of networking equipment. 

She previously worked for the University of North Carolina in Ashville, Agnes Scott College, and Chattahoochee Technical College. Sumpter is currently a second-year doctoral student at the University of North Georgia in the higher education, leadership and practice program. Travelling the globe is one of her biggest hobbies and she’s planning to visit Panama and Mexico soon.