SEAS Colonial Cable

Message from Dean Timothy Tong

Sincerely,

Timothy W. Tong, Ph.D.
Dean

SEAS Receives $2.8 million NIH Grant

An interdisciplinary partnership between SEAS and GW's School of Medicine and Health Science is bringing together researchers from both schools in response to a unique grant opportunity. The proposal, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), calls for researchers to utilize computer based tools to improve a surgical procedure that helps patients with a voice disorder caused by vocal cord weakness.

Vocal fold problems can cause a person to have difficulty with voice production, and the surgical procedure used to correct this problem and restore a patient's voice - called medialization laryngoplasty - is currently dependant on the surgeon's skills and intuition. Even for the most experienced surgeons, the procedure fails in about 24 percent of the cases, which requires an additional surgery.

An image-guided procedure will be developed to help the surgeon during the surgery. "By superimposing the CT data from the patient with the actual larynx of the patient during surgery, we are in essence giving the surgeon X-ray vision," said James Hahn, chair of the Department of Computer Science and director of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering. "This will allow the surgeon to place the implant much more accurately than is currently possible."

The image-guided system will be tested on cadavers by Raymond Walsh, professor and chair of GW's Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and his team. "We propose to use computer simulation of the air flow in the larynx to predict the interaction of air with vocal folds that are responsible for voice production," said Rajat Mittal, associate professor of engineering and applied science in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. "This will produce a computer-based surgical planning tool that will reduce the dependency on a trial-and-error process."

In the short-term the team hopes to improve the success rate of this surgery, reducing the need for additional surgeries and the associated health care costs. Their longer-range goals are to answer important questions related to biomechanical modeling and the simulation of voice production and to improve image-guided surgical procedures.

This four-year, $2.8 million NIH grant is the first of its kind for SEAS. "The NIH's main vehicle for funding research is the R-01 grant," said Dean Timothy Tong, "and this is the first time that SEAS has been awarded a grant of this type. We're very proud of the grant and of the work that the Institute for Biomedical Engineering has done to prove itself worthy of such an award."

Record Number Attend New Student Get-away

On Friday, August 26, 160 members of the Class of 2009 and several transfer students boarded buses bound for Ligonier, Pennsylvania and the SEAS New Student Get-away.

This year, as in previous years, SEAS hosted a weekend retreat for the incoming class of freshmen and transfer students to allow them to begin to form friendships with their classmates, meet some of the faculty, and learn more the school--all in a fun outdoor setting.

Joining the new students were 18 upper class mentors, several faculty and staff, and Dean Tong, Associate Dean Harrington, and Assistant Dean Myklebust. The students, faculty, and staff spent the weekend enjoying a number of teambuilding activities and outdoor activities such as white water rafting, mountain biking, mountain boarding, caving, and hiking. They also spent time with the mentors and faculty learning about the various student services and student activities available for them at the school and the university.

Call for Alumni Help with Student Internships

Dear SEAS Alumni:

Last year, the SEAS Career Services Office was able to place 45 SEAS students in summer internships and more than a dozen students in part-time positions during the school year. This experience serves as a great differentiator when our students seek full-time jobs after graduation, and, therefore, one of my major goals is to help every student who desires either a summer internship or a part-time position during the spring and fall semesters to get one.

We are currently polling SEAS students for their interest in these opportunities in the coming year, and we believe that over 125 undergraduates will want such an opportunity. The SEAS Student Career Services Office, now in its second year under the voluntary direction of GW alumnus Scott Amey, has contacted more than one hundred IT and engineering companies and federal agencies about summer internship and part-time opportunities for the 2005 - 2006 academic year.

We need your help to achieve our goal of placing every student who wants this valuable experience. These students are majoring in civil engineering, environmental engineering, computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, systems engineering, mechanical engineering, and aerospace engineering. They could help your company or agency by providing enthusiastic technical support at a relatively low cost, and in turn, they would be able to enhance their educational experience through "real world" exposure to the everyday workplace.

I ask that you e-mail Scott Amey (scott@scottamey.com), with the name and contact information (either phone number or e-mail address) of the person at your company or agency who handles summer internships and/or part-time positions.

Thank you for helping to make The George Washington University an exceptional and complete experience for SEAS students.

Sincerely,

Timothy W. Tong, Ph.D.
Dean

Upcoming SEAS Events

EAA Board Meeting

Alumni Venture Capitalists Discuss Funding Alumni/Faculty/Student Start-Up

Presented by the GW Entrepreneurs Roundtable and SEAS Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and Commercialization

An exciting discussion with alumni venture capitalists Ray Dizon (EE '86) of the Maryland Venture Fund, Robbie Melton (Elliott '86) of Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), and Bill Watson (MS '95) of Virginia's Gap Fund, who will answer questions on what it takes to be funded by their venture funds. This is a great opportunity to network with other alumni who are entrepreneurs or funders of start-ups.

For more information on this event, please visit http://lab2ipo.org/Events/Oct122005 or contact Tony Stanco, Director of SEAS Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and Commercialization at stanco@gwu.edu. For more information about the GW Entrepreneurs Roundtable and how you can get involved, please contact Joe Bondi.

The GW Entrepreneurs Roundtable is an interdisciplinary organization to bring faculty, students, alumni, and University administration together to advance the mission of entrepreneurship, and start-up formation and funding. The Roundtable invites alumni, including entrepreneurs, angel investors, engineers, attorneys, accountants, and others who can help foster entrepreneurship at the school and in the region to join.

Dean's Reception during Colonial's Weekend

Save the Date - Resume Critique Event

EAA Committee Meetings

GW Colonial Cable

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