Faculty News
Publications:
Dr. Murray Loew (BME) and colleagues from the Korea University-GW collaboration have published the following paper: Y. Jiang, H. Chen, M. Loew, and H. Ko, “COVID-19 CT Image Synthesis with a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network,” IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Vol. 25, Issue 2, February 2021, pp. 441-452.
In a research article published in Environmental Science & Technology, Dr. Danmeng Shuai (CEE), his PhD student Mengyang Zhang, and their colleagues found that vesicle-cloaked norovirus clusters, an emerging enteric pathogen, were persistent under environmental stresses and were resistant to ultraviolet disinfection. This finding thus calls for urgent attention to the public health concerns of this emerging pathogen. Their work was co-led by Dr. Nihal Altan-Bonnet at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is supported by both National Science Foundation and NIH intramural research programs. A profile of the research findings was published in the April 15 GW Today article “Norovirus Clusters Are Resistant to Environmental Stresses and UV Disinfection, New Study Finds .” The paper citation is: M. Zhang S. Ghosh, M. Kumar, M. Santiana, C. K. E. Bleck, N. Chaimongkol, N.l Altan-Bonnet, and D. Shuai, “Emerging Pathogenic Unit of Vesicle-Cloaked Murine Norovirus Clusters is Resistant to Environmental Stresses and UV 254 Disinfection,” Environmental Science & Technology. (Published online April 15, 2021)
Dr. Volker Sorger (ECE) and colleagues have published the following paper: A. Rostamian, E. Madadi-Kandjani, H. Dalir, V. J. Sorger, and R. T. Chen, “Towards lab-on-chip ultrasensitive ethanol detection using photonic crystal waveguide operating in the mid-infrared,” Nanophotonics. (Published online April 7, 2021)
Media Mentions:
Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE) was interviewed in the April 13 WUSA-CBS9 article “Combatting communication issues after CDC pauses Johnson & Johnson vaccine administration,” and was quoted in The Atlantic in the April 14 article “The Rural Pandemic Isn’t Ending.” In addition, Sinclair Broadcast Group quoted him in the April 16 article “COVID-19 politics get heated in Jordan-Fauci clash over public health vs. freedoms.”
Dr. Samer Hamdar (CEE) is featured in GW Magazine’s article “Forecast, which showcases professors from across the university who provide forecasts for the future in their discipline, from transportation to pandemics to education, health equity and criminal law reform. The 10 faculty members offer prescriptions along with predictions on how to address some of our most pressing challenges. Dr. Hamdar was also featured by Arlington Now in the April 12 article “This Woman with Epilepsy is Making Driving Safer for People with Disabilities.”
Student News
ECE PhD student Yuede Ji, supervised by Dr. Howie Huang (ECE), has just accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas.
CEE PhD student Mengqiao Li, supervised by Dr. Danmeng Shuai (CEE), is a recipient of the C. Ellen Gonter Environmental Chemistry Awards from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Environmental Chemistry. The annual award honors approximately five graduate students studying at U.S. or international universities who have written the highest quality research papers. It is the highest award given to students by the Division of Environmental Chemistry. Mengqiao studies the fate and transformation of the emerging nanomaterial graphitic carbon nitride. She has found that photoreactivity determines a unique pathway of nanomaterial aging. She will give an invited oral presentation at the 2021 ACS Fall Meeting, which will be held in August in Atlanta, GA.
The GW team Hippos@Potomac, comprised of CS Scholarship for Service students Colin McKenzie and Phoebe Chang, placed 15th nationally in the 2021 Cyber Power Rankings after competing against nearly 700 teams. Additionally, in the individual game competition, Colin placed 49th in a field of 4,180 competitors. The Cyber Power Rankings are a set of National Cyber League (NCL) competitions created by Cyber Skyline in partnership with the NCL. The rankings represent the ability of students from these schools to perform real-world cybersecurity tasks on the Cyber Skyline platform. Students have to identify hackers from forensic data, pentest and audit vulnerable websites, recover from ransomware attacks, and more. Schools are ranked based on their top team performance, their top student's individual performance, and the aggregate individual performance of their students.
CEE undergraduate Lobna Youssef received Second Prize in the Hardy Cross Presentation Competition, held during the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2021 Virginia Students Conference, April 8-10. The conference was organized virtually by Fairmont State University, and more than 10 universities participated. Ms. Lobna presented her applied engineering work under the title “Groundwater Recharge Methods for Water Management in India.”
Other News
The Biden administration announced on April 12 that it intends to name Chris Inglis (Certificate in CS, 1990) as the first national cyber director. In this position, he will coordinate the defense of civilian agencies and review agencies’ cyber budgets. Mr. Inglis previously served for 28 years at the NSA, retiring in 2014 after almost eight years as deputy director. He also has taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and has been on the boards of FedEx and Huntington Bancshares.
Upcoming SEAS Events
ECE Seminar: “Stochastic Linear Contextual Bandits with Diverse Contexts”
Speaker: Dr. Jing Yang, The Pennsylvania State University
Friday, April 23
10:30 am (ET)
WebEx link
This talk will be hosted by Dr. Omur Ozel (ECE) and will count toward ECE department colloquium requirements.
2021 GW Design/Build/Fly in-person Fly-off
Saturday, April 24
9:00 am – 1:00 pm (ET) (weather dependent)
The annual Design/Build/Fly national competition (which would have been held in Tucson, AZ this year) has been cancelled due to the pandemic; however, the GW Design/Build/Fly team is hosting an in-person fly-off in Northern Virginia to showcase its work to members of the GW community. Covid safety protocols will apply. If you are interested in attending, please email Joshua Glottmann to get location information and other event details.
Entrepreneurship News & Events
BME senior Donivyn Cruz and MAE junior William (Treaux) Jackson have been selected for Stage 1 of the VentureWell E-Team Program for their technology venture, GW Airflow. GW Airflow is developing a wireless sensor network that can detect airborne particles in workplaces and display spatial maps of particle concentration, enabling analysis and mitigation of workplace particle transmission. The team was awarded a $5,000 Stage 1 grant, which will support the members in conducting customer discovery research, advancing prototype development, and establishing their intellectual property portfolio as they move their project out of the university lab and into the market. Dr. Mark Reeves (CCAS, Physics) is the team’s principal investigator.
Webinar: GW Commercialization Advising Network (GW CAN) - Givitas
Wednesday, April 21
12:00 pm (ET)
Register
Please join us for a 45-minute interactive webinar and networking session to educate the GW Commercialization Advising Network (GW CAN) entrepreneurial community on Givitas. GW CAN, a virtual network for technology entrepreneurs and inventors affiliated with GW, uses the Givitas platform to simplify giving and receiving help. During the webinar you will learn how to: save 5 hours a week by asking for what you need; help others in just 5 minutes a day; and increase your social capital. Expand your network and build deeper relationships with people who are knowledgeable and experienced with startups, investing, and entrepreneurship. This event is sponsored by the GW Technology Commercialization Office. Please contact Katie Bennett if you need help registering for the webinar.
GW Innovation Center Events
GWIC Spring 2021—We’re OPEN!
Bring your ideas and questions to the Innovation Center. We are here to help you with a range of expertise, from 3D modeling to equitable venture plans and human-centered design.
M06 Virtual Hours
Mondays 6:00 – 7:00 pm (ET) and Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:00 pm (ET)
GWIC student fellows, Phoenix Price, Isabelle Carney, and Jamie Horowitz, will host virtual office hours to assist in making, design, and social impact project development.
Virtual Mentor Hours with Innovation Center Co-directors
Fridays 12:00 – 1:30 pm (ET): GWIC Founder and SEAS Chief Evangelist, Annamaria Konya Tannon
Thursdays, 1:00 – 2:00 pm (ET): GWIC Co-director, Erica Cusi Wortham
For details and links, please visit the GWIC Events Page and Instagram @gwinnovationcenter.
GW Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Events:
Congratulations to ECE doctoral student Hanhan Zhou, Dr. Tian Lan (ECE), and Dr. Guru Venkataramani (ECE), who won $5,000 in the 2021 GW New Venture Competition for vFitting, an AI-powered virtual try-on system using one single image. vFitting is a personalized virtual-fitting room at home.
Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Speaker Series: “Merging Health Devices and Technology into Business and Entrepreneurship”
Speaker: Dr. Wei Chen
Tuesday, April 20
5:00 – 6:00 pm (ET)
Register
How is artificial intelligence (AI) impacting the healthcare domain and accelerating healthcare innovation? How can healthcare entrepreneurs, business leaders and managers utilize artificial intelligence in their information systems and technology pipelines to scale their businesses? Join us on as we speak with Dr. Wei Chen, visiting assistant professor of information systems and technology management at GW’s School of Business, about the intersection of artificial intelligence and the healthcare industry.
External Events
GW Career Center Events & Services:
Virtual coaching appointments available: Make your appointment with Dr. Merrill, the STEM industry coach. If you need tips on the virtual job search or virtual Interviewing or would like to work on your career strategy, spruce up your resume, or land an internship, make a virtual coaching appointment with her in Handshake or email her for more information.
Technical interview preparation: If you have a technical interview coming up, sign-up for the new technical interview slots in Handshake! See tips for technical interviews in Handshake Article # 18641, Technical Interview Tips.
Dissertations
Student Name: Baichen Li
Dissertation Title: “Perspiration Compensated Transdermal Alcohol Sensor for Personalized Medicine”
Advisor: Dr. Zhenyu Li (BME); Presiding: Dr. Chung Hyuk Park (BME)
Tuesday, April 20
3:00 – 5:00 pm (ET)
WebEx link
Student Name: Runyu Pan
Dissertation Title: “Efficient and Predictable Protection Domains on Resource-Constrained Embedded Systems”
Advisor: Dr. Gabriel Parmer (CS); Presiding: Dr. Timothy Wood (CS)
Wednesday, April 21
9:00 – 11:00 am (ET)
Zoom Link
Human Resources News
Find updates on benefits, employee resources, and more at the HR Corner. Please visit the HR Corner to get the latest news and information.