Faculty News
New Faculty:
Santiago Solares
Santiago Solares is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He received his Ph.D. degree from the California Institute of Technology, where he conducted research on semiconductor surface reconstruction and functionalization processes, and on the development of atomic force microscopy probes using carbon nanotubes. His research areas at GW will include the development of multifrequency atomic force microscopy methods and their application to characterize the nanomechanical properties of energy relevant and biological materials. Prior to coming to GW, Prof. Solares served as assistant and associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and prior to that he held technical and management positions with Mars Incorporated (in North America) and with Pepsi-Cola International (in Latin America).
Research:
Profs. Xiuzhen Cheng (CS) and Hyeong-Ah Choi (CS) have received an additional $338,470 for one of their current National Science Foundation projects, "NeTS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Integrated Dynamic Spectrum Access for Throughput, Delay, and Fairness Enhancement." The additional funding increases the grant's total funding to $695,932. The objective of the project is to investigate novel methodologies and theories to enhance throughput, delay, and fairness of cognitive radio networks via integrated dynamic spectrum access.
The National Science Foundation has awarded GW's Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute (CSPRI) a five-year, $4.14 million renewal grant for the project "PISCES 2019: Partnership in Securing Cyberspace through Education and Service: Renewal." Prof. Lance Hoffman (CSPRI director) is the PI on the grant, and Profs. Rachelle Heller (CS) and Costis Toregas (CSPRI lead research scientist) are the co-PIs. The renewal is a testament to the quality of the program and its success in placing graduates in the workplace. Since 2004, more than 70 GW graduates have benefited from PISCES' CyberCorps (and related) scholarships awarded through CSPRI; and these graduates have been placed in more than 35 government agencies, national labs, and federally funded research and development corporations. More information about the CyberCorps program and scholarships is available on CSPRI's CyberCorps website.
Prof. Claire Monteleoni (CS) has been awarded a two-year National Science Foundation grant titled "EAGER: Collaborative Research: Learning Relations between Extreme Weather Events and Planet-Wide Environmental Trends." Prof. Monteleoni is the PI on the grant. The co-PIs are Arindam Banerjee of the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and Timothy DelSole of George Mason University. The total award is $299,932, and the GW portion is $99,993.
Media Mentions:
Allan Friedman (research scientist, Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute) was featured in the August 11 Politico Pro piece, "Analogies illuminate, limit cybersecurity thought," (link is pay walled). On August 13, the Washington Post quoted him in the article " The NSA has a secret program that automatically hacks back against enemy targets, says Snowden ." Associated Press Television subsequently spoke to him about the NSA's MonsterMind program, and the interview aired on top-tier media outlets including WBBM-AM, Chicago, and KGO-AM, San Francisco; and the video was picked up by USA Today.
Publications:
The second edition of Disaster Policy and Politics, a book authored by Prof. Richard Sylves (EMSE visiting research professor), has been published by Sage/CQ Press. It was released on July 30. Prof. Sylves wrote the second edition during his time as a visiting research professor with EMSE and in service of GW's Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management. The book appears for sale on Amazon.com and on the Sage/CQ Press web site.
Conferences & Presentations:
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) and his doctoral students Zhou Ma and William Rone published and presented two peer-reviewed conference papers (full articles with full review) at the 38th Mechanisms & Robotics Conference, held August 17-20 in Buffalo, NY. The papers are: 1) Z. Ma and P. Ben-Tzvi. "Modeling Human Hand and Sensing Hand Motions with the Five-Fingered Haptic Glove Mechanism;" and 2) W. Rone and P. Ben-Tzvi. "Continuum Robotic Tail Loading Analysis for Mobile Robot Stabilization and Maneuvering." Both were published in the proceedings of the 2014 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE 2014), 38th Mechanisms & Robotics Conference. At the same conference, Prof. Ben-Tzvi chaired the technical session "Bioinspired Mechanisms and Robots II" and co-chaired the technical session "Surgical and Rehabilitation Robotics" during the Symposium on Biologically Inspired and Health Motivated Mechanisms and Robotics.
Prof. Zhenyu Li (BME) gave an invited talk titled "Miniature Optofluidic Dark-field Microscope for Biosensing" at the SPIE Optics + Photonics 2014 - Ultrafast Nonlinear Imaging and Spectroscopy Conference , held August 17-21 in San Diego, CA. Prof. Li also co-organized the conference and chaired the SFG/SHG spectroscopy and imaging session.
Other News:
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) has been invited to serve as a member of the Technical Program Committee for the 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotic and Sensors Environments (ROSE 2014), to be held in Timisoara, Romania, October 16-18.
On August 20, Prof. Julie Ryan (EMSE) hosted five representatives from Pakistan's National University of Science and Technology (NUST) for a roundtable discussion on cyber security issues and cyber confidence building measures. The participants included three graduate students; their professor, Prof. Abdul Ghafoor; and Prof. Tughral Yamin, associate dean of the Center for International Peace and Stability (CIPS). Before coming to DC to talk to policy experts about how they view cyber issues, the group also spent a week at Sandia National Laboratories learning about technical methodologies for assessing threats and a week at the Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS) learning about cyber policy. As a result of the meeting, the group agreed to continue collaborating, particularly in cooperative research and educational efforts.
Student News
Undergraduate Richard Smith (BME, senior) has been selected as the 2014-2015 Deloitte Undergraduate Scholar of the Metropolitan Washington Chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (MWC/ARCS) Foundation. This is a $5,000 award. The MWC/ARCS Foundation is funding scholars for 2014-2015 at five prestigious universities: University of Virginia, Georgetown University, University of Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, and The George Washington University.
CS doctoral student James Taylor presented the paper "Temporally Consistent Simulation of Robots and Their Controllers" at the ASME International Conference on Multibody Systems, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Control, held August 17-20 in Buffalo, NY. The paper was authored by James and Profs. Evan Drumwright (CS) and Gabriel Parmer (CS).
Other News
GW's Office of Safety and Security recently released PAL, a Personal Alarm Locator phone app that allows students to immediately contact the police when they are in need. The app provides the police dispatcher with direct access to the caller's GPS location, as well as any profile information provided by the student, such as emergency contacts or medical conditions. Jared Alexander, a master's student in the CS Department began development of the application during an independent study course directed by Prof. Tim Wood (CS). They worked together with the Office of Safety and Security and the Division of IT to design and prototype the application. Mr. Alexander continued the development of PAL after completing his degree in 2013, and now is the instructor for the CS Department's mobile application development course. Jared and Prof. Wood are both mentioned the August 18 GW Today article "University Launches Safety and Security App."
The SEAS Office of Graduate Admissions hosted a number of events for SEAS graduate students during Welcome Week. Pictures are available at www.facebook.com/gwgradengineer. Additionally, the SEAS Grad Office of Career Services is facilitating a number of workshops on Academic Expectations designed for incoming international students. The workshops were created in collaboration with Gelman's STEM librarians, the Office for Academic Integrity, the Writing Center, and the EAP faculty.
SEAS Events
MAE Seminar: "Sensing and Force-Feedback Exoskeleton (SAFE) Glove Mechanism and Its Applications"
Speaker: Zhou Ma, MAE doctoral candidate
Monday, August 25
1:00 pm
739 Phillips Hall 739
MAE Seminar: "Recent progress in numerical prediction of cavitating flows with special emphasis on unsteady loads and on erosive collapse events"
Speaker: Steffen J. Schmidt, Head of Gas Dynamics Research Group at the Institute of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Technical University of Munich
Tuesday, September 9
2:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
Entrepreneurship News & Events
2015 GW Business Plan Competition Kickoff: "10,000 Pennies for Your Thoughts!"
Thursday, September 4
5:00 – 7:00 pm
405 Marvin Center
RSVP required
This year's GW Business Plan Competition Kickoff event is a Rapid Pitch Challenge. Everyone in the audience will be encouraged to generate business ideas, form teams, and make a three-minute pitch to a panel of judges. Any and all ideas are welcome. The top 10 teams will be awarded cash prizes totaling $1,000. Questions? Email us at [email protected] .
Stories from College Entrepreneurs
Thursday, September 11
6:30 – 9:30 pm
1133 15th St NW, 12th Floor
Washington, DC
DC TechDay
Thursday, October 2
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
National Building Museum
Washington, DC
Volunteers Needed for DC I-Corps Fall Cohort
The DC I-Corps Node is a regional program that provides real world, hands-on training on how to successfully commercialize scientific and technical research from universities and national laboratories. All GW professors, research staff, and graduate students with potentially commercializable research are eligible to participate. Some funding is available to support participation in the program for GW researchers with invention disclosures submitted to the GW Office of Technology Transfer.
External Events
2014 Solar Symposium: "Using Solar Energy to Generate Wealth in Lower Income Communities"
Tuesday, September 23
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Jack Morton Auditorium (SMPA Building)
805 21st Street NW
Register
The GW Solar Institute will host the first national gathering of stakeholders dedicated to achieving solar energy affordability and accessibility for Americans with limited means .
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