Faculty News
Media Mentions:
Prof. Evan Drumwright (CS) was mentioned in a December 15 IEEE Spectrum article, "Willow Garage Sells First PR2 Robots." Prof. Drumwright is studying ways to get robots to autonomously perform occupational tasks.
Papers:
Prof. Michael Plesniak (MAE chair) published "Year on Review - Fluid Dynamics" in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) magazine Aerospace America "Year in Review" issue (December 2010). His article highlights accomplishments in the field of fluid dynamics over the past year.
Prof. Robert Waters (EMSE) had a paper published in the Engineering Management Journal, vol. 22, no. 4, Dec. 2010, pp. 54-57. The title of the paper is "Time to Think Outside the Box? Technical Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management Education."
Conferences & Presentations:
At the Society for Risk Analysis annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 5-8, Prof. Royce Francis (EMSE) was elected vice-chair of the Society's Engineered Infrastructure Specialty Group [EISG] for 2011. In 2012, he will serve as the chair of the specialty group [Prof. Joost Santos, also of EMSE, serves as the 2011 EISG chair]. Prof. Francis was also the chair of the conference symposium "Opportunities at the Infrastructure-Environment Nexus," and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University presented a paper he co-authored entitled "Imputation models for use in hurricane building-risk analysis."
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) gave a seminar in late December on sustainability and nuclear energy safety, research, and challenges at the Hong Kong City University. He also visited with the president, provost, dean, faculty members, and students and toured key state-of-the-art laboratories that are very impressive in the nano science and engineering as well as mechanics and materials areas.
Other:
The Department of Defense (DOD) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) have invited Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) to serve on the panel for the 2011 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships, which will meet in February 2011. The DoD plans to award approximately 200 new three-year graduate fellowships in April 2011 to individuals who have demonstrated the ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering. NDSEG Fellowships are awarded to applicants who will pursue a doctoral degree in, or closely related to, an area of DoD interest.
Prof. Johan Rene van Dorp (EMSE) was appointed to the editorial board of the Decision Analysis journal, effective January 1, 2011. Prof. van Dorp is the second professor from GW to join this editorial board. Professor Philippe Delquie from the Department of Decisions Sciences in the GW Business School is an associate editor of the journal. Decision Analysis is published by the INFORMS Society, which also publishes the Operations Research and Management Science journals.
Staff News
Ms. Brittany Wright has recently joined the SEAS Office of Graduate admissions as the ISO coordinator and evaluator. Brittany graduated from GW in December 2010 with her M.A. in international education. Prior to joining SEAS, Brittany was the program assistant for the Elliott School of International Affairs Office for International Programs and Education, where she helped administer graduate level study abroad programs and worked with international exchange students. Brittany is originally from Albany, New York, and received her B.A. in international studies from the State University of New York at Cortland.
Student News
Taqsim Husnain, a CEE doctoral student, presented a poster entitled "Towards 'Green' Shipboard Wastewater Treatment and Reuse by Using Forward Osmosis Membrane Processes" at the 15th annual Partners in Environmental Technology Technical Symposium & Workshop - Meeting DoD's Environmental Challenges, Washington, DC, November 30 - December 2. The poster is co-authored with CEE doctoral student Yaolin Liu and Profs. Rumana Riffat and Baoxia Mi.
Other News
The Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute (CSPRI) of SEAS has awarded 59 full-ride scholarships to GW students since 2002 to study computer security and is now recruiting applicants for 2011-2013. Rising juniors, seniors, and graduate students who are U. S. citizens can apply. Complete details are at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/cybercorps. Applications are due Monday, January 31.
Guest Vignette
Probing Tissue with Sound and Light
Detecting cancer at its very earliest stages is critical to improving patient outcomes. It is well known that human tissues undergo changes in both their mechanical and optical properties with the development of cancer (examples of this are palpable lumps in breast cancer and visible changes in skin cancer). Professor Jason Zara of the ECE Department and his doctoral student, O'Tega Ejofodomi, are working on new imaging probes that have the ability to provide information on the mechanical and optical changes that occur very near (1 mm deep) the surface of epithelial tissues (where a vast majority of human cancers begin). These probes will use high frequency ultrasound to provide acoustic radiation forces that push upon the tissues and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging to image the tissues before and after the acoustic push.
OCT is an imaging modality analogous to ultrasound or radar that produces high resolution (10s of microns or less) images of tissue from backscattered infrared light. The OCT images provide information on the optical properties of the tissues, and by measuring the displacements of the tissues when known acoustic radiation forces are provided, the relative mechanical stiffnesses of the tissues can then be estimated. The intended target of this work is cancers in the oral mucosa, but applications include the bladder, esophagus, and others. It is our hope that by providing information on both the mechanical and optical properties of the tissue, we will be able to detect epithelial cancers earlier and more accurately, improving patient outcomes. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Jason Zara of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Upcoming
MAE Seminar: "Corona Streamer Discharge Processing to Reduce Bacterial Adhesion on Surfaces of Biomedical Implants"
Ibrahim Al-Hamarneh, Ph.D., Washington State University Pullman and Al-Balqa' Applied University (Jordan)
Monday, January 24
1:00 - 2:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
Institute for Biomedical Engineering Colloquia: "Nanophotonics and Microfluidics: Tools for Single Cell Biology and Medical Diagnostics"
Prof. Zhenyu Li, ECE
Tuesday, January 25
1:00 - 2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
ECE Colloquium/IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture Series: "Magnetic Soft X-ray Microscopy: A Path Toward Imaging Magnetism Down to the Fundamental Length and Time Scales"
Dr. Peter Fischer, Center for X-ray Optics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Tuesday, February 22
4:00 PM
Phillips Hall 640
More info . . .
Entrepreneurship Events & News
Follow GW Office of Entrepreneurship activities on: Facebook: GW Office of Entrepreneurship
and Twitter: GWInnovate
$50K BizPlanComp: Teambuilding Event - Building a Technology Startup Team
Tuesday, January 11
5:00 - 6:30 pm
107 Tompkins Hall
More info . . .
$50K BizPlanComp: Workshop - Narrowing in on an Idea and Direction
Thursday, January 13
6:00 - 7:00 pm
553 Duques Hall
More info . . .
Information Session: ACTiVATE at GW
Thursday, January 13
6:00 - 9:00 pm
Teqcorner Training Room, 3rd Floor
1616 Anderson Road, McLean, VA
More info . . .
$50K GW BizPlanComp: Networking Event: Brazen Careerist Network Roulette
Friday, January 14
8:00 - 9:00 pm
Online event
More info . . .
$50K GW BizPlanComp: Workshop - Writing an Executive Summary
Two sessions:
Thursday, January 20
7:00 - 8:00 pm
553 Duques Hall
Saturday, January 22
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
553 Duques Hall
SEAS Entrepreneurship Seminar Series
Building Your Early Stage Startup Team
Wednesday, January 26
6:00 - 8:30 pm
103 Funger Hall
GW Business Plan Competition
Materials due: Monday, January 31, 2011
This semester the EMSE Department is offering EMSE 6018: Engineering Law. This course focuses on an introduction to intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, and copyrights. During the semester-long class, Prof. Rochelle Lieberman addresses with students the definition of the different properties, how they are obtained, enforced, licensed, and how they bring value to a company. (Note: This course was previously offered under a different code, EMSE 210).