April 20-26, 2020

Newsletter

April 20, 2020

COVID-19-related News

Dr. Lance Hoffman

Dr. Lance Hoffman (CS) and Dr. Jordan Selzer (GW Medical School) and their team have launched a COVID-19 educational web application aimed at equipping healthcare providers with the knowledge to manage their response to the pandemic. It includes recommendations for everything from pre-hospital dispatch guidance to ICU ventilator management. The application was created using the most up-to-date literature, community best practices, and guidelines. It is continuously updated to reflect the changes in management as the literature evolves.

 

Faculty News
Research:

Dr. Stephen Hsu

On April 7, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued notice of Patent No. US 10611983 to Dr. Stephen Hsu (MAE) for “Encapsulation of chemical agents to effect and enable prolonged friction and wear reduction, extended drain intervals, and ultra-high performance in sliding interfaces.” Dr. Jerry Comanescu (Technology Commercialization Office) facilitated the prosecution of the patent application. Researchers who have a technology commercialization idea they would like to discuss, should contact the TCO.

Photo of Professor Matthew Kay

Dr. Matthew Kay (BME) and Dr. David Mendelowitz (SMHS) are the Multiple Principal Investigators (MPIs) on a newly awarded four-year, $2.33 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The project, “Novel Mechanisms that Restore Cardiac Parasympathetic Activity Limit Arrhythmias and Cardiac Dysfunction After Myocardial Infarction,” will use chemogenetic and optogenetic technologies to study how to control the cardiac parasympathetic neural system to protect the heart from damage during and after a heart attack. The project brings together an outstanding cross-disciplinary team of GW investigators, including Dr. Kate Schunke (BME), Dr. Christopher Spurney (Children's National Hospital), Dr. Olga Dergacheva (SMHS), and Dr. Jhansi Dyavanapalli (SMHS). Dr. Mendelowitz is the contact MPI for the project.

Photo of Professor Luyao Lu

GW has awarded two grants to Dr. Luyao Lu (BME). He received an $18,734 University Facilitating Fund grant to work on the project “Fully implantable neural interfaces for wireless electrophysiology and optogenetics,” and a one-year, $50,000 Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund (CDRF) grant to work on developing wireless, minimally invasive, all-optical sensing and stimulation biointerfaces for probing neural activity. He will work with co-investigator Dr. Hui Lu (Pharmacology & Physiology) on the CDRF project."

Headshot of Kausik Sarkar

Dr. Kausik Sarkar (MAE), Dr. Lijie Grace Zhang (MAE) and Dr. Raj Rao (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery) have received a one-year, $50,000 GW Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund grant for their collaborative project “Low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) and microbubbles for osteochondral regeneration in 3D printed scaffolds.”

Dr. Volker Sorger

Dr. Volker Sorger (ECE) has received a $150,000 grant from Booz Allan Hamilton to conduct research on a Fourier-optical processor.

 

Publications:

 

Dr. Tarek El-Ghazawi
                        
Dr. Volker Sorger

Dr. Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE) and Dr. Volker Sorger (ECE) have published the following paper: S. Sun, V. K. Narayana, M. Miscuglio, L. C. Kimerling, T. El-Ghazawi, and V. J. Sorger. “CLEAR: A Holistic Figure-of-Merit for Post- and Predicting Electronic and Photonic-based Computer System Evolution,” Scientific Reports, 10:6482.

 

Dr. Volker Sorger

Dr. Volker Sorger (ECE) has published these articles: 1) R. Amin, R. Maiti, Y. Gui, C. Suer, M. Miscuglio, E. Heidari, R. T. Chen, H. Dalir, and V. J. Sorger. “Sub-wavelength GHz-fast broadband ITO Mach–Zehnder modulator on silicon photonics,” Optica, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp. 333-335; and 2) Z. Ma, K. Kikunaga, H. Wang, S. Sun, R. Amin, R. Maiti, M. H. Tahersima, H. Dalir, M. Miscuglio, and V. J. Sorger “Compact Graphene Plasmonic Slot Photodetector on Silicon-on-Insulator with High Responsivity,” ACS Photonics, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp. 932-940.

 

Media Mentions:

 

Conferences & Presentations:

Dr. David Broniatowski

On April 8, Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE) gave an invited panelist talk to the Stanford Cybersecurity Policy Center's online Zoom series “Digital Technology and Democracy, Security & Geopolitics in an Age of Coronavirus.” His talk was titled “Can communicating the gist combat systematic online distortions of public opinion on health topics? (with new insights from COVID19).”

Dr. Volker Sorger

On April 8, Dr. Volker Sorger (ECE) gave the talk “Photonic Intelligent Information Processing” at the Optics and Quantum Electronics Seminar Series at MIT.

 

Student News

Congratulations to the SEAS students and faculty who took home prizes in GW's 2020 New Venture Competition, held virtually on April 20:

 

  • Daniel Nguyen (Team: Rice Wrap)—Rice Wrap is a biodegradable food packaging used for sealing food in containers to keep them fresh and secure. Daniel and his team won a total of $27,500 in funding: Fosun Best International Prize ($10,000), Quinn Prize for International and Social Venture ($7,500), Most Innovative Food & Beverage Industry Prize ($5,000), and Runner Up Prize ($5,000).
  • Benjamin Bowman, Craig Laprade, and Dr. Howie Huang (ECE) (Team: CyberGraph)—CyberGraph is an A.I.-powered tool for threat detection and network monitoring that generates comprehensive incident stories for cyber analysts. The team won a total of $10,000 in funding:Runner Up Prize ($5,000) and Veterans Prize ($5,000).
  • Jay Grieve (Team: Benjamin)—Benjamin is an application that puts students on an optimal financial path through user-tailored recommendations and actionable items. Jay and his team received a Runner Up Prize ($5,000).
  • Pedram Hosseini (Team: LingoCoach)—LingoCoach is a reliable and trustworthy communication coach that will help you throughout your life's journey. Pedram received a Runner Up Prize ($5,000).

 

SEAS Computing Facility
MATLAB Online Office Hours: SEAS CF will continue to hold MATLAB open office hours throughout the Spring semester, but they will be offered online. Office hours are: Sundays (12:00 – 4:00 pm), Tuesdays (6:00 – 10:00 pm), and Fridays (1:00 – 5:00 pm). Please email us to schedule a tutoring appointment. The workshops and tutoring will be hosted by SEAS senior Emilie Lemieux via webex.gwu.edu/join/elemieux19. MATLAB and many other helpful programs are available to be downloaded onto any personal computer. For a complete list of applications, please visit the SEAS Computing Facility website.

 

Upcoming SEAS Events

Please note that all SEAS and GW in-person events are canceled through the end of the Spring 2020 semester.

 

EMSE Environmental and Energy Management Institute Webinar: “Impact of COVID-19 on Energy Economics and Sustainability”
Presenter: Dr. Gürkan Kumbaroğlu, Fulbright Visiting Professor with the EEMI
Wednesday, April 22
10:00 – 11:00 am
Register and find more info
This event is sponsored by the International Association for Energy Economics. Dr. Edward Saltzberg, EEMI’s director of professional education, will be a panelist on the webinar.

 

SEAS Center for Women in Engineering (WiE) Interactive Webinar: “Bringing Together the SEAS Community”
Monday, April 27
1:00
Webinar will be available on WiE website
This interactive webinar is designed to bring the SEAS community together virtually during this time of social distancing. SEAS Computing Facility Director Raoul Gabiam will lead the presentation and discussion, which will feature SEAS panelists discussing:

  • How SEAS has addressed the opportunities and challenges of supporting academics, research, and everyday operations in this time of coronavirus;
  • Some of the day-to-day technical issues being resolved; and
  • Steps being taken to keep students connected and engaged and to respond to their academic concerns.

 

SEAS Undergraduate Virtual Graduation Ceremony
Friday, May 15
The ceremony will be live streamed, and a link and more information will be provided soon.

 

SEAS Graduate Student Virtual Graduation Ceremony
Friday, May 15
The ceremony will be live streamed, and a link and more information will be provided soon.

 

GW Virtual Commencement
Sunday, May 17
11:00 am EDT
The GW Virtual Commencement Celebration may be viewed on GW’s Facebook page and on the Commencement website.

 

Human Resources News
HR Corner Hero

This week's HR Corner includes important information regarding the paid time-off option, qualified life event changes in status, medical virtual visit costs, and other topics. Please visit the HR Corner to read these updates.