April 13-19, 2015

Newsletter

April 13, 2015

Faculty News

Media Mentions:

Prof. Lance Hoffman (CS) was quoted in the April 10 Washington Post article, "As encryption spreads, U.S. grapples with clash between privacy, security.''

The New York Times quoted Anna Slomovic (lead research scientist, Center for Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute) in its April 8 article "Giving Out Private Data for Discount in Insurance."

Prof. Poorvi Vora (CS) is mentioned in the April 6 Washington Post article on electronic voting, "Can you vote for the next president on your smart phone? Not just yet."

Presentations:

Prof. Claire Monteleoni (CS) gave an invited talk on April 1 at the University of Maryland, College Park CLIP (Computational Linguistics and Information Processing) Colloquium. Her talk was titled "Climate Informatics: Recent Advances and Challenge Problems for Machine Learning in Climate Science."

Student News

micron

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GW Tech Collective organized an April 2 tour to Micron Technology in Manassas, VA, that included 38 undergraduate and graduate students and eight faculty and staff. Micron is the second largest producer of computer memory in the world, and its semiconductor fabrication facility in Manassas mainly produces memory used in the automotive industry. The day included a very informational lecture about Micron's background, products, and some of the basics of semiconductor fabrication, and a window tour of Micron's 180,000 square foot state-of-the-art clean room.

CS undergraduate Ellen Louie has been accepted to the competitive Washington State University Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for this summer. The nine-week program is sponsored by WSU's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer. REU participants assist in designing smart environments and then present their research results in a poster session at the end of the program.

Other News

Graduate Recruiting & Admissions: Anthony Spatola is holding online information sessions and admitted student information sessions. Save the date for a Graduate Open House in the SEH on April 30.

SEAS Graduate Career Services: Fall registration is now open, and registration reminders will be sent to all current graduate students in the coming weeks. Please email any requests for graduate coordinators to [email protected]. The SEAS Graduate Career Services team will host an International Coffee Hour on April 29 from 4:00 to 5:00 in SEH 2000. Students who want to participate in the Dinner with Alumni Program throughout April can register at: go.gwu.edu/aprildwa. Weekly Featured Graduate Career Services Informational Resource: 7 Conversation Starters Better Than "What Do You Do" - and 7 That Are Even Worse 

Guest Vignette

There are some 30 million adults in the U.S. at the below-basic level in prose literacy, the ability defined as being able read and comprehend continuous texts such as news stories, articles, documents, and instructional materials. Can intelligent software help? Prof. Rahul Simha and his students in the Learning Technologies Research Group are developing apps for adult literacy in partnership with leading adult-literacy organizations in the D.C. area, such as Washington Literacy Center and the Academy of Hope. In particular, the CAPITAL (Comprehension and Pronunciation Instructional Tools for Adult Learners) suite of apps is an open-source project focused on creating a set of free educational mobile apps to help low-literacy adults gain literacy skills. The goal is to automatically create practice exercises customized to each learner's individual level that adhere to principles from the science of learning: frequent and regularly spaced exercises that provide immediate feedback, and the repeat as needed to develop long-term memory. The exercises in CAPITAL are designed to improve literacy skills at all levels, from basic phonemic awareness to complex passage comprehension. A preliminary version was recently deployed and tested among students at the Washington Literacy Center. The students on this project include Ph.D. student Jennifer Hill, undergraduates Katherine Stasaski, Elsbeth Turcan, and Malcolm Goldiner, with past contributions from alumni Michelle Cano and James Pizzuro. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Rahul Simha, Department of Computer Science)

SEAS Events

Institute for Massively Parallel Applications and Computing Technologies (IMPACT) HPC Leaders Seminar Series:"Experimental Computer Science"
Presenter: Dr. Amy Apon, NSF Program Director and CS Chair, Clemson U.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
1:00 pm
SEH 2000B

SEAS Faculty Teaching and Research Awards
Thursday, April 16
2:00 pm
SEH Lehman Auditorium
Reception to follow

MAE Seminar: "Nanoscale Optomechanical Systems"
Presenter: Kartik Srinivasan, Center for Nanoscale Science & Technology, National Institute of Standards & Technology
Thursday, April 16
2:30 pm
SEH B1270

CS Colloquium: "MAC for Vehicular Communications Networks"
Presenter: Prof. Xuemin (Sherman) Shen, University of Waterloo, Canada
Thursday, April 16
3:45 pm
SEH B2000B

CEE Seminar: "Nanoparticles – Characterization at the Interface"
Presenter: Dr. Nora Savage, National Science Foundation
Friday, April 17
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
SEH 2000B

ECE Colloquium: "The Application of Medium Grazing Angle Sea-Clutter Models"
Presenter: Dr. Luke Rosenberg, Defence Science and Technology Organisation
Edinburgh, Australia
Tuesday, April 21
3:00 – 4:00 pm
SEH 4040

2015 Frank Howard Lecture: "Your Personal Virtual Heart"
Presenter: Dr. Natalia Travanova, Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Thursday, April 23
6:30 – 8:30 pm (Reception to follow the lecture)
SEH Lehman Auditorium
RSVP
Heart disease is the number one killer in the industrialized world, due in large part to heart rhythm dysfunction and the development of arrhythmias. Yet, the treatment for a common arrhythmia – the fast rhythm which accompanies a myocardial infarction or heart attack – currently has a success rate of only 50-70%. The odds could be improved if treatment were tailored specifically to the configuration of the patient's own heart, through the creation of a personal virtual heart. 

ECE Colloquium: "Beyond the Ph.D. Filter: Advances in Random Set Approaches to Multi-Object Estimation"
Presenter: Dr. Ba Tuong Vo, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Friday, April 24
3:00 – 4:00 pm
SEH B1220

SEAS Career Center

Leidos Engineering Interns (Job Number: 613925)
To apply: http://jobs.leidos.com/ ShowJob/Id/439220/Engineering- Interns/
The Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group is seeking engineering Interns for the Arlington, VA office. The interns will support research on developing software to assist in building large cancer signaling pathways. Research tasks will involve extracting information from scientific articles, particularly from tables; integrating cancer signaling pathway information from different sources, including text, tables, and existing knowledge bases, into a knowledge base of choice, and determining what inferences can be made from such knowledge bases. Interns will assist in gathering data and developing algorithms for all aspects of these research tasks. Qualifications: current university students (sophomores and above) pursuing engineering, computer science or a closely related field. A GPA of 3.0 or higher is required. Candidate must be able to obtain a DOD Secret security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship.

Intern, Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC)
The Team America Rocketry Challenge is the world's largest model rocket contest and the aerospace industry's signature STEM workforce development program. Designed to encourage middle and high school students to study math and science and pursue careers in aerospace, TARC has reached over 60,000 students since the first annual competition was held in 2003. This position is responsible for supporting various elements of the TARC program and assisting with planning the TARC National Finals that will take place in May. To apply: please send a cover letter and resume to TARC Manager Miles Lifson at [email protected] . Be sure to indicate your availability and desired start date.

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Research Information Intern
The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is seeking a Research Information Intern to work with AAPM headquarters staff and volunteers on matters relating to membership informatics and computational tools for AAPM research activities. The internship location is College Park, MD/Alexandria, VA, and the pay rate is $23/hour. Essential functions include: data mining, statistics, and analytical modeling; development of software applications and documentation; data selection, extraction, and curation for corporate applications; needs analysis of AAPM researchers and technical solution design; and identification of software and tools needed to satisfy the above functions. To apply, please contact the Human Resources Division of the American Institute of Physics at [email protected].

Student Career Development Opportunities

CAE Information Session
Wednesday, April 15
CAE is recruiting undergraduate and graduate students for internships in Italy

Your Career & Personal Branding: An Evening with Lindsey Pollak
Tuesday, April 21
6:00 – 8:30 pm
Marvin Center Grand Ballroom
Hosted by the Center for Career Services

GW Alumni Virtual Networking Hour
Wednesday, April 29
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Register
Hosted by Michael Steelman and GW Alumni

Entrepreneurship News & Events

GW Business Plan Competition Finals
Tuesday, April 14
Register
The GW Business Plan Competition will award more than $200,000 in prizes to teams of GW students, faculty, and alumni who offer innovative ideas for new products and/or services. 10 finalist teams will present their business plans to a panel of distinguished entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, and a live audience.

Doctoral Dissertations

Student's Name: Gregory Mitchell
Dissertation Title: "An Investigation of Anisotropic Transverse Resonance in the Design of Wideband Low Profile Antennas"
Advisor: Prof. Wasyl Wasylkiwskyj (ECE)
Thursday, April 16
10:00 am
SEH 5990