Faculty News
Research:
Dr. Russell Hemley (CEE) has received a one-year, $74,962 grant titled “Bridging Deep Carbon Communities” from the A.P. Sloan Foundation. This is a supplemental award to a major series of grants from the foundation to the Deep Carbon Observatory; the grants total $50 million over 10 years. Dr. Hemley co-founded the observatory in 2009 and is its co-executive director. The observatory’s mission is to understand all aspects of carbon in the Earth and in extreme environments. All members of the GW community are invited to join the observatory’s network.
Dr. Rumana Riffat (CEE) has received a one-year, $99,000 grant from DC Water and Sewer Authority for the research project “Evaluation of Anaerobic Digestion at Lab and Pilot Scale.” The award will support graduate and undergraduate students conducting research to improve digester efficiency through various pretreatment methods.
Publications:
Dr. Lorena Barba (MAE) and her co-author George Thiruvathukal published the editorial “Reproducible Research for Computing in Science & Engineering” in the November/December issue of IEEE/AIP Computing in Science and Engineering, Vol. 19, Issue 6, pages 85–87. Separately, Dr. Barba published the following article with her doctoral student Natalia Clementi and collaborators: N. C. Clementi, G. Forsyth, C. D. Cooper, and L. A. Barba. “PyGBe-LSPR: Python and GPU Boundary-integral solver for electrostatics,” Journal of Open Source Software, 2(19), 306, doi:10.21105/joss.00306.
Dr. Russell Hemley (CEE) and his research group have published the following paper: Z. Geballe, H. Liu, A. K. Mishra, M. Ahart, M. Somayazulu, Y. Meng, M. Baldini, and R. J. Hemley. “Synthesis and Stability of Lanthanum Superhydrides,” Angewandte Chemie (International Edition). The paper describes the experimental confirmation of a very hydrogen-rich high-pressure material that his group predicted theoretically in a paper published this past summer [PNAS, 114, 6990-6995 (2017]. In addition to its unusual composition (LaH10) and structure (consisting of cages of 32 hydrogen atoms), the material is predicted to be a room-temperature superconductor. All of the paper’s co-authors are members of the CDAC (Capital/Department of Energy Alliance Center) and EFree (Energy Frontier Research in Extreme Environments) Centers managed from SEAS.
Dr. Zhenxian Liu (associate research professor, CEE) has co-authored two recently published papers: 1) H. Hwang, D. Seoung, Y. Lee, Z. Liu, H-P Liermann, H. Cynn, T. Vogt, C-C Kao, and H-K Mao. “A role for subducted super-hydrated kaolinite in Earth’s deep water cycle,” Nature Geoscience, 10, 947–953 (2017); and 2) K. R. O’Neal, J. H. Lee, M-S Kim, J. L. Manson, Z. Liu, R. S. Fishman, and J. L. Musfeldt. “Competing magnetostructural phases in a semiclassical system,” Quantum Materials, 2:65 (2017). Part of the work for both papers was carried out at the National Synchrotron Light Source II high-pressure infrared beamline, which Dr. Liu now manages from SEAS and which is also a part of CDAC (Capital/Department of Energy Alliance Center).
Conferences & Presentations:
On November 12, Dr. Lorena Barba (MAE) gave the keynote at the 7th Workshop on Python for High-Performance and Scientific Computing. The workshop was held in Denver, CO, as part of the Supercomputing Conference.
Dr. Kelly Scanlon (senior research scientist, Environmental and Energy Management Institute) presented a two-hour short course on the Department of Defense's sustainability analysis at the SERDP-ESTCP (Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program) Symposium, held November 28-30 in Washington, DC. Participants from academia, government, and industry learned about the life cycle-based methodology that DoD uses to evaluate impacts and costs of defense-related systems.
On November 20-21, Dr. Costis Toregas (director, Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute) attended the Expert Meeting on the Global Risk Assessment Framework in support of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement. The meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland. While there, he was interviewed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and asked about his reactions to the conference.
Other News:
Dr. Lorena Barba (MAE) participated in the Open Data Science Leadership Summit, held November 10 in San Francisco, CA. The invitation-only group of approximately 30 participants worked on a first draft of the Data Science Manifesto and analyzed the state and future of the Data Science Tool Chain. The Manifesto will offer a set of guiding principles for modern data teamwork and describe what is possible. Participants hailed from industry, academia, and non-profit foundations.
Other News
Deadlines extended: The deadlines to apply for the SEAS Student R&D Showcase and the SEAS Innovation Challenge have been extended. The new deadlines are:
- SEAS Student R&D Showcase: Monday, December 18
- SEAS Innovation Challenge: Monday, January 8
This semester GW’s Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) will offer several on-campus, two-day professional short courses in renewable energy and sustainability. EEMI runs the courses in partnership with the European Energy Center. The courses qualify participants to take the exam for the internationally recognized Galileo Master Certificate (GMC). The remaining courses are:
Renewable Energy Market Trends and Finance
December 11-12
More information
Distributed Generation and Energy Storage
December 13-14
More information
SEAS congratulates former ECE professor Dr. Joseph Pelton, who recently won the Leonardo da Vinci Space Safety Award for Life Time Achievement from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS). The da Vinci Award is the top award that the IAASS gives. Dr. Pelton received the award at the Ninth Conference on Space Safety, held in Toulouse, France.
SEAS Computing Facility
MATLAB and Solidworks Tutoring: SEAS Computing Facility (SEAS CF) will continue to offer MATLAB and Solidworks tutoring throughout the fall semester in Tompkins 401. To schedule a tutoring appointment, please email [email protected]. The MATLAB and Solidworks workshops and tutoring will be hosted by SEAS graduate student Makan Payandehazad. Tutoring dates:
- Wednesdays: 12:00 – 5:00 pm
- Thursdays: 12:00 – 3:30 pm
- Fridays: 4:00 – 6:00 pm
SEAS CF is hosting a series of workshops covering a range of topics throughout the fall semester. The remaining workshops are:
High Performance Computing Workshops:
These workshops will be offered in collaboration with the Colonial One HPC support team and will leverage Colonial One, GW's Central HPC cluster. They will be held in Tompkins 405 from 2:30 to 4:30 pm and will be hosted by the Colonial One HPC support team: SEAS CF (Marco Suarez, Jason Hurlburt, Zhen Ni); CCAS OTS (Glen MacLachlan); and DIT (Adam Wong).
Workshop pre-requisites: you must have a Colonial One account, familiarity with programming languages, and Linux fundamentals knowledge. If you are unfamiliar with Linux, please attend the Introduction to Linux workshops (listed above). Please email [email protected] with any questions or comments.
Register
December 8: Workshop 2
- Topics: Working with SLURM and checkpointing; SLURM topics include: sinfo, salloc, squeue, scancel, sbatch, sshare, sprio, srun; scripting submit files; how fair share works; and common job errors
December 15: Workshop 3
- Topics: MPI; OpenMP; and Python package management
Google Cloud Computing Seminars
Friday, December 15
SEH, B1220
Register
9:30 – 10:30 am: Google Cloud Platform Overview
Discover what is different with the Google Cloud Platform and how it is being used in higher education and research institutions.
10:30 – 11:30 am: Google Cloud Storage, Compute Engine, and Container Engine
Discover how to store, secure, and manage any kind of data at scale on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Learn how GCP can help you build vast dynamic clusters on the cloud and dynamic burst capability with your on-prem HPC. Identify workloads that run more effectively on GCP. Includes an HPC demonstration.
11:30 am – 12:30 pm: Big Data and Machine Learning on Google Cloud Platform; NIH/NSF Funding for Cloud-based Research
Gain insights from data using the same analytics and machine learning services that Google uses. Learn how to effectively store, process, analyze, and share petabytes of data. Learn how Google can help your group access new NIH/NSF funding dedicated to cloud-based research. Includes some machine learning demonstrations.
1:00 – 3:00 pm: Research-specific Q&A with Google
Google will be available for 20-minute Q&A sessions with research groups. These sessions are available by appointment only via the registration form. Due to the limited window, some meeting requests may not be fulfilled on site. This session will be held in SEH, 2990.
SEAS Events
CEE Seminar: “Antibiotic Fate in Photolytic Processes: Solar Irradiation of Agriculturally-Impacted Waters and UV-254 Treatment of Wastewater”
Speaker: Dr. Lee Blaney, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Monday, December 4
2:30 – 3:30 pm
SEH, B1270
CEE Seminar: “Current Challenges Facing the Structural Engineering Community”
Speaker: Michael Lenkin, P.E., Senior Vice President, Miller & Long Co.
Thursday, December 7
6:15 – 8:00 pm
Tompkins Hall, 307
BME Seminar: “Ultrasound Elasticity Imaging and Therapeutics”
Speaker: Dr. Elisa Konofagou, Columbia University
Wednesday, December 13
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
SEH, B1270
MAE Seminar: “A Computational Bifluid–Solid Mechanics Framework Dealing with Capillarity and Wetting Issues: Towards Void Formation and Permeability Predictions in LCM Processes”
Speaker: Dr. Yujie Liu, Sun Yat-Sen University (China)
Thursday, December 14
2:00 pm
SEH, B1220
Entrepreneurship Events
Webinar: How to Submit Your New Venture Competition Application
Tuesday, December 5 | 1:00 – 2:00 pm | WebEx Room | Register
Wednesday, December 6 | 5:00 – 6:00 pm | WebEx Room | Register
Compete for over $300,000 in cash and in-kind prizes at the 10th Annual GW New Venture Competition! Join us for an informational webinar to learn what you need to do to submit a robust application. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn how you can compete in one of the nation's largest business planning competitions.
Information Session: Innovation & Entrepreneurship at GW
Thursday, December 7
5:30 – 7:00 pm
District House, Room B114, 2121 H St. NW
Register
Do you want to get involved with the innovative and entrepreneurial community on campus? Stop by District House on December 7 for a brief information session on all the programs and resources GW has to offer. Don't miss out on these great resources for next semester.
GW & External Events
Special Event: “Multitudes”
Saturday, December 9
6:00 pm
SEH, B1 (in front of the Green Wall)
"Multitudes" is a preliminary showing of dancer Linda Ryan's honors thesis research. It is a duet between one dancer and a GoPro camera strapped to her body. Audience members will be able to stream the live feed from the camera on their smartphones while attending the event for a simultaneous performance. Ushers will be available before the performance to help audience members access the livestream. Bring your phone, tablet, or laptop! Those who can’t attend can still livestream the event.
STGlobal Conference: Call for Papers
The 18th annual STGlobal Conference will be held on March 23-24 at the National Academy of Science and American Association for the Advancement of Science buildings. STGlobal challenges graduate and undergraduate students to engage with and contribute to science and technology studies and policy scholarship. We welcome submissions under two categories: individual paper abstracts and poster abstracts. We strongly encourage work that highlights interdisciplinary efforts in these fields and engages in creative uses of theory or methodology in areas such as health, energy, sustainability, social justice, education, innovation and emerging technologies policy, research policy, and history of science and technology. The deadline to submit abstracts is December 15. For more information, please contact Zlata Gogoleva.