Faculty News
Research:
The CyberWatch organization (www.cyberwatchcenter.org), which is funded through the National Science Foundation, has awarded GW a $100,000 sub-award. Cyberwatch is the network of more than 50 two-year community colleges and four-year universities (including GW) that provides focus to develop the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. GW's Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute (CPSRI) will provide management services in order to accomplish three goals: expand partnerships with private industry in cyber security, support the 2011 Mid Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition with event coordination and job fair management services, and manage a networked approach to a virtual lab organization oriented toward new cyber security curricula delivery systems in four CyberWatch institutions. The co-PIs on this award are Prof. Shelly Heller (CS) and Dr. Costis Toregas, CSPRI assistant director.
Media Mentions:
Profs. Pedro Silva and Azim Eskandarian (both of CEE) appeared in a November 7 Washington Post article about earthquake engineering and driver simulation research at GW's Virginia Science and Technology Campus. The article is entitled "The quake faker: GWU 'shake table' helps engineering students brace for nature's wrath." Photos and a short video are also available on the Washington Post site.
Awards & Honors:
Prof. Ben-Tzvi (MAE) was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Wireless Engineering and Technology (WET). The journal is published by Scientific Research Publishing, USA. WET is an international, peer-reviewed journal that is dedicated to studying the latest advancements in wireless engineering and technology and to promoting research in these rapidly developing areas.
The paper "Prototype Genomics-Based Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code Protocol," coauthored by Prof. Hermann Helgert (ECE), adjunct professor Sayed Hussein (ECE), and ECE doctoral student Harry Shaw, was given the "Best Paper" award at the IARIA Internet 2010 Conference held in Valencia, Spain, September 21-25.
Papers:
The USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST '11), which is one of the most prestigious conferences in computer systems research, has accepted a paper by Profs. Howie Huang (ECE) and Nan Zhang (CS), and Wei Wang, (Prof. Huang's former graduate student). The paper is entitled "Just-In-Time Analytics on Large File Systems." This NSF-funded work is in collaboration with Prof. Gautam Das (University of Texas Arlington) and Prof. Alex Szalay (The Johns Hopkins University).
Profs. Tom Mazzuchi and Shahram Sarkani (both of EMSE) have co-authored the following paper with their doctoral student, Chris Willy: Willy, Christopher J., Roberts, William J. J., Mazzuchi, Thomas A. and Sarkani, Shahram (2010) "Recursions for the MMPP Score Vector and Observed Information Matrix," Stochastic Models, 26: 4, 649 - 665
Conferences & Presentations:
Prof. Matthew Burke (CS) spoke as a member of a panel on student involvement in open source software development at the 40th Frontiers in Education conference held in Arlington, VA, October 27-30.
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) recently received the H. K. Cheng Engineering Fellowship in Hong Kong to give lectures on multi-scale mechanics and nanotechnology at the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and at the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Chong completed the lecture tour last week, and he enjoyed the interactions with engineers, faculty members, and students. He also visited some key laboratories ranging from organic photovoltaics to thin-walled structures.
Prof. Azim Eskandarian (CEE) presented a lecture entitled "A Signal Processing and Pattern Recognition Method for Drowsy and Fatigued Driver Assistance" at The Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering on October 25.
On November 3, Prof. Samer Hamdar (CEE) gave a presentation entitled "Transportation Demand versus Infrastructure Supply: Route 7" at the Telos Corporation, Ashburn, VA. The presentation addressed the possible traffic issues on Route 7 in Loudoun County, VA. Route 7 Task Force members and State Senator Mark Herring were introduced to different congestion mitigation measures, including integrated corridor management strategies, with a subsequent discussion of the suggested solutions. Prof. Hamdar is the director of the Traffic and Networks Research Laboratory under the Center of Intelligent Systems Research (CISR) at GW's Virginia Science and Technology Campus.
SEAS and the School of Business and Economics of Beijing Institute of Technology co-hosted the 2010 International Conference on Risk and Reliability Management in Beijing, China, October 23-24. Prof. Tom Mazzuchi (EMSE) co-chaired the conference and provided the plenary session talk, "Copulas and Risk Matrices: Quantifying Qualitative Risk Measures," which was joint work with his doctoral student Xing Hong.
Student News
On October 15, the Fulbright Association awarded the 2010 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding to Bill and Melinda Gates. As part of the ceremony, the Fulbright Association selected five Fulbright Fellows currently studying in the United States to pose a question to Bill and Melinda Gates. EMSE doctoral student Emmanuel Donkor (pictured above second from the right), who is a Fulbright Fellow from Ghana, was one of the five selected students.
Other News
The SEAS 5th Annual Student Research & Development Showcase will be held during Engineers Week this year (on Wednesday, February 23), and all SEAS students - graduate and undergraduate - are invited to participate.
Prizes for the Showcase are as follows:
- 1st Place-$5,000
- 2nd Place-$4,000
- 3rd Place-$3,000
In addition, $1,000 per poster towards research will be awarded to winning mentors.
Prize winners will attend a VIP reception following the event. They will also show their research at the Business Alliance's Mid-Atlantic Innovation Showcase in April 2011.
As information becomes available, it will be posted in the newsletter and on the R&D Showcase web page, www.seas.gwu.edu/RDShowcase. Registration for the Showcase is due to Mike Veedock (106 Tompkins Hall) by Wednesday, December 22, 2010. Please visit the link above to download the registration form.
The GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010-2011 Interdisciplinary Research Fund competition.
Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE)
"Kinetic Universal Robotic Assistive Joint"
Jonathan Silver, M.D. and Zhenyu Li, Ph.D. (ECE)
"Computer-Controlled Magnet-Positioning Assembly to Permit "Single-Molecule" Biomedical Research at George Washington University"
Vesna Zderic, Ph.D. (ECE)
Sankara Mahesh, M.D.; Ji Liu, M.D.; and Craig Geist, M.D. (Department of Ophthalmology)
"Focused Ultrasound for Hyperthermia-Mediated Drug Delivery into Ocular Tumors"
Lijie Grace Zhang and James Lee (MAE)
"Design of Biomimetic Nanostructured Composites for Bone Repair and Regeneration"
Guest Vignette
Robotics has the potential to extend the independent life of the elderly, to remove drudgery from our daily lives, and to help us colonize other planets. The science of robotics spans from the macroscopic (e.g., large industrial manipulators) to the microscopic (e.g., nanorobotics). Prof. Evan Drumwright of the Department of Computer Science recently established the GW Autonomous Robotics laboratory (GWAR). This lab will investigate methods to endow manipulator and humanoid robots with autonomy in order to perform domestic and occupational tasks. The lab's facilities will include a Willow Garage PR2, the most advanced mobile manipulator robot in the world, as well as a Pioneer 2DX mobile robot and an array of sensing technologies (LIDAR, vision, etc.) These facilities will help place GW at the forefront of robotics research in the United States. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Evan Drumwright of the Department of Computer Science)
Upcoming
MAE Colloquium: How Aeros, Ag/Bio Engineers, Chemists, Food Scientists & MEs Work Together To Develop Advanced Rocket Motors
Prof. Paul Sojka, Purdue University
Monday, November 8
1:00 - 2:00 pm
736 Phillips
CS Colloquium: Data Exploration and Privacy Preservation Over Hidden Web Databases
Prof. Nan Zhang, MAE
Monday, November 8
4:00 pm
736 Phillips
Global Forum 2010: Global Network for Empowering Women's Innovation and Entrepreneurship
"Information Technology: A (Dis)enabler for Women"
Prof. Shelly Heller, CS
Tuesday, November 9
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Marvin Center
CS Colloquium: Can We Crowdsource Your Robot?
Prof. Chad Jenkins, Brown University
Wednesday, November 10
4:30 pm
736 Phillips
ECE Colloquium: A New Paradigm for Exchange Bias in Polycrystalline Films (IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture Series 2010)
Prof. Kevin O'Grady, University of York (U.K.)
Wednesday, November 10
3:00 pm
640 Phillips
CSPRI Seminar: Cloud Computing and the Cyber Security and Privacy Multidisciplinary Research Problems It Raises in Business
Prof. Ross Lumley, GWSB
Wednesday, November 10
12:00 pm
302 Marvin Center
Looking Forward
CEE Colloquium: Micro-to-Macro Connections in Geomechanics
Prof. A. (Rajah) Anandarajah, Johns Hopkins University
Monday, November 15
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
CS Colloquium: Extracting Clean Energy from Nonlocality Clocking of Quantum Computing
Prof. Simon Berkovich, CS
Tuesday, November 16
4:30 pm
736 Phillips Hall
GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering Colloquium: Dual-Mode Imaging of Cardiac Ischemia and Reperfusion in Contracting Hearts Using Contrast Echocardiography and Fluorescence Imaging
Profs. Vesna Zderic and Matthew Kay, ECE
Tuesday, November 16
2:30 - 3:30 pm
736 Phillips
"A Day in the Life of an Engineer"
Tuesday, November 16
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Thurston Basement Study
GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering Colloquium: The Role of Tissue Engineering and Nanomedicine for Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration
Prof. Lijie (Grace) Zhang, MAE
Tuesday, November 30
1:00 - 2:00 pm
736 Phillips
Entrepreneurship Events
Building the Best Team: Teambuilding Event for the $50,000 Business Plan Competition
Friday, November 12
3:00 - 5:00 pm
453 Duques Hall
Pitch George Competition
Saturday, November 13
8:00 am - 3:00 pm
650 (1/2/3) Duques Hall and the Duques elevator
Workshop: Market Research for New Business Concepts
Monday, November 14
6:00 - 7:00 pm
601 Rice Hall
The Hoffman Lecture
Thursday, November 18
6:00 - 7:30 pm
650/651 Duques Hall
Gov 2.0 - Start-up Lab
Friday, November 19
2:30 - 6:00 pm
Jack Morton Auditorium
805 21st Street, NW
SEAS Entrepreneurship Seminar Series
Entrepreneurship within a Corporate Environment: Lessons from SAIC
Tuesday, December 7
5:30 - 7:30 pm
103 Funger Hall
Dissertation Defenses
Name of Student Defending: Sava Petar Stanic
Title of Dissertation: " Fault Monitoring and Localization in Transparent Optical Networks"
Dissertation Director: Prof. Suresh Subramaniam (ECE)
Friday, November 12
9:00 am
107 Tompkins Hall (Dean's Conference Room)
Name of Student Defending: Karma Yonten
Title of Dissertation: "Implementation and Validation of an Anisotropic Plasticity Model for Clays and a Two-Scale Micropolar Model for Sands"
Monday, November 15
2:00 - 5:30 pm
640 Phillips Hall