Faculty News
Awards & Honors:
Prof. Michael Plesniak (MAE chair) was recognized for his election as Fellow at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on February 18-20 in Washington, DC. Prof. Plesniak was invited to the Fellows Forum ceremony to be recognized as a new Fellow of AAAS. He is honored for "distinguished contributions to research and education in fluid dynamics, for leadership at the National Science Foundation, and for public policy advocacy." Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is an honor bestowed on distinguished persons who are members of the Association, the world's largest scientific society and publisher of the peer-reviewed weekly journal Science. Fellows are elected annually by the AAAS Council, for "efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications [which] are scientifically or socially distinguished." The honor of being elected a Fellow of AAAS began in 1874 and is acknowledged with a certificate and rosette.
Media Mentions:
Prof. Peter Bock (CS) appeared on Fox 5 News on February 17 in an interview regarding the performance of IBM's supercomputer "Watson" on the game show "Jeopardy!" and the advances being made in machine intelligence and cognition.
Other:
Prof. Sameh Badie (CEE) served as a panel member for the 2011 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), February 11-13. Prof. Badie served on the civil and environmental engineering panel along with 25 members selected nationally. This year, the GRFP received about 12,000 applications in different areas of science and engineering, and it anticipates presenting 2,000 awards. The NSF-GRFP award is considered one of the more prestigious U.S. fellowship awards for students pursuing graduate engineering studies at the master's or doctoral level.
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) has been invited to assist in the NSF 2011 CAREER Proposal Writing Workshop, which will be held April 4 and 5, and hosted by the University of Connecticut. This workshop will provide future CAREER proposal submitters with proposal review experience and interactions with NSF program directors and recent NSF CAREER awardees. Major activities of the workshop include presentations by NSF program directors on the key fundamentals of proposal writing, presentations by recent CAREER awardees on their experiences and best practices, mock panel reviews of successful and unsuccessful CAREER proposals, and panel reviews of project summaries of the attendees' own CAREER proposals. The application deadline was February 15, 2011; however applications may still be submitted in case there are cancellations. Application procedures and the tentative agenda for the workshop can be found at http://aries.imse.ksu.edu/nsf/nsfcareer2011/main.htm.
Congratulations to our 2011 Professors of the Year, selected by SEAS students and announced Saturday night at E-Ball: Prof. Kim Roddis (CEE chair), Prof. Gabriel Parmer (CS), Prof. Shahrokh Ahmadi (ECE), Prof. Tom Mazzuchi (EMSE), and Prof. Yin-Lin Shen (MAE).
Other News
SEAS hosted its fifth annual SEAS Student Research and Development Showcase last week in conjunction with National Engineers Week. Sixty-three graduate and undergraduate students competed for $14,000 in prize money, presenting a wide range of research projects. The winners of the 2011 Showcase were:
- First Place ($5,000): Can Kirmizibayrak and Mike Wakid for "Interactive Visualization and Image Fusion for Image Guided Surgeries and Surgical Planning" (Advisor: Prof. James Hahn-CS)
- Second Place ($4,000): TaiSen Zhuang for "Small Force Satellite Thruster" (Advisor: Prof. Michael Keidar, MAE)
- Third Place ($3,000): Chia-Pin Chang for "Compact Optical Microfluidic Uric Acid Analysis System" (Advisors: Profs. David Nagel and Mona Zaghloul, ECE)
- Best Undergraduate Poster ($2,000): Hannah Stuart for "Development of a Method for Optical Measurement of Water Droplet Formation in the Cathode Flow Channel of a PEM Fuel Cell" (Advisor: Dr. Xia Wang, Oakland University)
Congratulations to our four winners and to all the students who presented their research at the Showcase! Video presentations of the winning research posters are available on the SEAS website.
Guest Vignette
Water, water everywhere, and increasingly influencing research conducted by EMSE faculty. The challenges being addressed range from the emergency response to water disasters such as the tsunami in Indonesia and the effects of Hurricane Katrina to the systems engineering challenges associated with storm water management and clean water supplies, and include the risk analysis of using the waterways for hazardous cargo movement. Professors Deason and Francis are focused on researching the management and use of water as an environmentally sustainable resource in our everyday lives. Professor van Dorp does extensive modeling and analysis of risk associated with the use of the waterways for conveyance and for hazardous cargo transport. Professors Barbera and Shaw research the emergency and risk management aspects of water disasters, including the need for prepositioning of resources and emergency reaction capabilities. The inter-relationships between all these areas are systems of systems and are engendering new systems engineering research approaches as well. Next time you take a sip of refreshing water or have to divert around a broken water main, consider the complexity of the infrastructure and management of water supplies: that's the EMSE challenge and we are stepping up to it. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Julie Ryan, chair of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering)
Upcoming Events
SEAS Events:
ECE Seminar: "Graphene Nanoelectronic Devices"
Dr. Osama M. Nayfeh, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate
Wednesday, March 2
2:00 - 3:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
SEAS Presents: Mario Cardullo
Wednesday, March 2
3:00 - 5:00 pm
310 Marvin Center
More info . . .
To RSVP, email Prof. Julie Ryan at [email protected].
MAE Seminar: "Simulation of night purge cooling: A case study in natural ventilation"
Erin L. Hult, Stanford University
Thursday, March 3
2:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
MAE Seminar: "Ship Air Wake Project"
Dr. Murray R. Snyder, United States Naval Academy
Friday, March 4
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
USDOT National Engineers Day
Wednesday, March 9
Program begins at 9:00 am
Lisner Auditorium
Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute Seminar: ""Investigating Cybersecurity Threats: Exploring National Security and Law Enforcement Perspectives"
Dr. Frederic Lemieux, GW College of Professional Studies
Wednesday, March 9
12:00 noon
302 Marvin Center
RSVP to: Jessica Pulsifer at [email protected]
MAE/GWIBE Seminar Series: Engineering Feedback Control Systems in Microbes
Dr. Mary J. Dunlop, University of Vermont
Thursday, April 14
1:00 - 2:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
Entrepreneurship Events:
Follow GW Office of Entrepreneurship activities on: Facebook: GW Office of Entrepreneurship, Twitter: GWInnovate, and www.gwu.edu/entrepreneurship.
$50K BizPlanComp: Workshop - How to Do Market Research for a Business Plan
Thursday, March 3
6:00 - 7:00 pm
553 Duques
RSVP to: http://bpcworkshop7.eventbrite.com
Entrepreneur Office Hours in SEAS:
Friday, March 4
1:00 - 2:00 pm
107 Tompkins Hall
RSVP to: http://officehour4.eventbrite.com
$50K BizPlanComp: Workshop - Dollars and Sense or How to Do Financial Planning for a Business Plan
Wednesday, March 9
6:00 - 7:00 pm
254 Duques
RSVP to: http://bpcworkshop8.eventbrite.com
Entrepreneur Office Hours in MCCS
Friday, March 11
1:00 - 2:00 pm
104 MCCS
RSVP to: http://officehour5.eventbrite.com
Entrepreneur Center @NVTC: The Power of Angel Investing - Due Diligence Workshop
Wednesday, March 16
Virginia S&T Campus, Exploration Hall, 20101 Academic Way, Ashburn, VA
Details and registration at: http://www.nvtc.org/events/geteventinfo.php?event=ANGEL1
$50K BizPlanComp: Deadline for Submission of Formal Business Plans
Monday, March 21
Submit your entries to: www.gwbizplan.com
Special Event: The Role of IP in Academia and in Science-Based Businesses
Tuesday, March 22
12:00 - 1:00 pm
117 Ross Hall
RSVP to: http://special1.eventbrite.com
SEAS Seminar on Entrepreneurship: "Marketing: How to Find Your Customers"
Wednesday, March 23
6:00 - 8:30 pm
103 Funger Hall
Entrepreneur Office Hours in Old Main
Friday, March 25
1:00 - 2:00 pm
202 Old Main
1922 F St NW
RSVP to: http://officehour6.eventbrite.com
First Annual Start-up Career Expo
Thursday, March 31
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Marvin Center, 3rd Floor Grand Ballroom
Academic Success Events - March:
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Monday, March 7
4:00 -5:30 pm
405 Marvin Center
Job Search Strategies for Graduate Students
Tuesday, March 22
4:00-5:30 pm
309 Marvin Center