SEAS Colonial Cable
Message from Dean David Dolling
|
|
As many of you probably know already, engineering schools and colleges across the U.S. celebrate National Engineers Week each year during February. To help mark National Engineers Week, SEAS students and our faculty/staff “E-Week” planning committee are hard at work putting together a number of events and activities here at SEAS. We welcome alumni participation in these events and encourage you to visit our Engineers Week events page for a full list of the week’s activities.
There’s one event in particular—the Engineers Ball—that they are “pulling out all the stops” for. The Engineers Ball is the traditional culmination of our Engineers Week celebration, and is always a special occasion for our students; this year, however, it is particularly special, because we have chosen it as the inaugural event for our year-long commemoration of the 125th anniversary of engineering at GW.
|
The Ball will be held on Friday evening, February 20th, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium here in D.C., and I’d like to invite you, our alumni, to attend. Because the Ball is a student event, students necessarily receive priority tickets, but we have a limited number of tickets for alumni, which we will sell on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you would like to join us for an evening of dinner, dancing, and celebrating engineering—and I hope you will—please visit the Engineers Ball event page to purchase your tickets and find out more information about the Ball.
I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Sincerely,
David S. Dolling, Ph.D.
Dean
News & Events
A message from Development . . .
Just this week I made my first visit to the GW Virginia Campus and was amazed with both the work that is being done and the vision for continued growth of our research facilities on that campus. One particularly exciting program in Ashburn is the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC), a global leader on research in highway and transportation safety.
The NCAC, launched and directed by Professor Steve Kan, is a successful collaborative effort among the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and GW. Chartered at SEAS in 1992, the NCAC primarily supports the U.S. Department of Transportation's strategic goal to reduce fatalities and injuries on the nation's roadways, but it has also served to enhance efforts to improve safety worldwide. The NCAC’s three-fold mission is to: improve safety by expanding researchers' knowledge about crashes; develop and share the detailed vehicle and hardware models; and lead efforts to apply computer simulation tools to enable researchers to study the complex interactions associated with crashes.
As a next step in building on the strength and reputation of the NCAC, we have as a goal to construct a transportation impact laboratory, making possible the actual testing of vehicle crashes. With dramatic changes underway in automobile design, propulsion and materials, the focus on impact and safety is sharpening. The Impact Lab will support life-saving research; it will enhance and strengthen our leadership role; and it will be a catalyst for additional collaborations with important strategic partners. We are actively seeking funding for the NCAC Impact Lab, and Dean Dolling and I look forward to our further discussions with many of you in the weeks ahead. If you would like to learn more, please call or write and we will be pleased for the opportunity to talk with you about it, and even provide a tour of the facilities if you are interested. In the meanwhile, the NCAC is a program that SEAS alumni can be proud of!
Thank you for your continuing support of SEAS. Your gifts are an investment in today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders.…solving problems and building solutions.
Sincerely,
Jim Howard
Assistant Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations
210 Tompkins Hall
jphoward@gwu.edu
Tel: 202-994-4121
SEAS 2009 - Celebrating 125 years of Engineering
Prof. Plesniak Tapped to Serve on Advisory Board for Obama Administration
Professor Michael Plesniak, chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is serving on the Infrastructure Issues Team of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC). The CSPC is a public policy advocacy group that has been advising President Obama’s transition team and will be making recommendations to him on policy issues. Professor Plesniak has joined leaders from government, industry, think tanks, and universities as a member of the Infrastructure Issue Team. These leaders include, for example, John Engler, the former governor of Michigan; Warren Rudman, a former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire; Martin Wachs, a RAND Corporation director; Tony Ingram, the chief operating officer of CSX Transportation, Inc.; and James Aidala, a former assistant administrator of the EPA, among others.
SEAS Team Reports on National Flood Exercise to Netherlands Government
Professor Greg Shaw and Emeritus Professor John R. Harrald, both of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, have visited the Netherlands twice in the past two months as part of a U.S. team comprised of the GW Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management; the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center; and the University of Colorado Natural Hazards Center. This team is acting as observers for the Netherlands National Flood Exercise and providing observations and comparative practices through reports and presentations to Netherlands government officials and emergency management personnel. The U.S. team participation was funded through sponsored research; further participation through continued sponsored research funding is anticipated starting in March 2009.
Meet Our New SEAS Faculty
 |
 |
Professor Baoxia Mi |
Professor Samer Hamdar |
Two new faculty members—Professor Baoxia Mi and Professor Samer Hamdar—have joined SEAS this semester as assistant professors in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Professor Mi most recently served as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Yale University for two years. She earned her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her B.S and M.S., both in environmental engineering, from Tianjin University, China. Her research has focused on physicochemical processes emphasizing novel membrane technologies and nanomaterials for water-related applications.
Professor Hamdar comes to SEAS after having served as a research assistant at the Northwestern University Transportation Center, where he earned his Ph.D. degree in civil and environmental engineering. He holds an M.S. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.E. degree from the American University of Beirut, both in civil and environmental engineering. Professor Hamdar has worked on different projects covering different transportation areas, including a National Science Foundation project entitled “Modeling Driver Behavior from a Cognitive Perspective,” and a Federal Highway Administration project entitled “Incorporating Weather Effect in Traffic Estimation and Prediction.” His primary research interests include driver and pedestrian behavior modeling, traffic flow theory, intelligent transportation systems, transportation planning and evaluation, transportation safety, evacuation modeling, and disaster management. He has an international research background, having participated in projects in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.
SEAS Welcomes NSF Program Director as Visiting Faculty Member
Dr. Ken Chong has recently joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as a visiting professor. Dr. Chong is the engineering advisor and program director for the Engineering Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and he was recently named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is a distinguished scholar, known for his extensive research and policy contributions to the area of solid mechanics. He has published several books and over 200 papers. To learn more about Dr. Chong, please visit the NSF website
Share Your News with Us!
We’re beginning work on the next issue of Synergy, the SEAS alumni magazine, and we hope to include as much information on our alumni as possible.
We know that many of you enjoy keeping up with your classmates, and the magazine is a great way to do that. Please share your news with us, and we’ll share it with your friends and classmates by publishing it in the magazine’s alumni section.
You can send us any news that is important to you – where you currently work, promotions, professional or academic honors, weddings, births, or other events – and we’ll do our best to publish all the news that we receive by March 15th. Please make certain to include: your name, degree, year of graduation, and your news, and feel free to send any photos, as well. Please send your news to jwelsh@gwu.edu.
We look forward to hearing from you.
GW Admissions Alumni and Parent Program
There are several ways that alumni may participate as a volunteer with the GW Admissions Alumni and Parent Program (AAP). Opportunities include college fairs, interviews, and receptions. Please explore the AAP website, which describes the program and outlines the opportunities to get involved. The majority of interviews and college fairs take place in the fall – from September through December – so if you are interested in interviewing, and there are undergraduate incoming students from your area, you may be contacted at this time. Please fill out the attached form, which will enable the Admissions Office to better discern your areas of interest. The form may be downloaded to your hard drive, filled out, and e-mailed as an attachment to aap@gwu.edu.
SEAS Alumni Volunteers Needed To Judge Regional Science Fairs
March 2009
Join your fellow SEAS alumni in volunteering to promote science and engineering to local high school students! (Read more and register).
Upcoming SEAS Events
Men’s Basketball Game and Alumni Tailgate!
GW Colonials vs. Charlotte
Date: |
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 |
Time: |
7:30 pm: Tailgate
9:00 pm: Game |
|
|
Location: |
Alumni House
1918 F Street NW
Washington, D.C. |
Cheer on the Colonials as they take on the Charlotte 49ers! Join fellow SEAS alumni for a pre-game party at Alumni House before heading over to the Smith Center for what is sure to be a great match-up! (Read more and register).
Archives: SEAS Colonial Cable
SEAS Colonial Cables from the 2007-2008 Academic Year
SEAS Colonial Cables from the 2006-2007 Academic Year
SEAS Colonial Cables from the 2005-2006 Academic Year
|
