December 14-20, 2020

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has elected Dr. Michael Keidar (MAE) to the rank of NAI Fellow. The NAI Fellows Selection Committee noted that it chose Dr. Keidar because he has “. . . demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.” Congratulations to Dr. Keidar.

Dr. Payman Dehghanian (ECE) has published the following article with his undergraduate student Benjamin Wormuth as the lead author: B. Wormuth, S. Wang. P. Dehghanian, M Barati, A. Estebsari, T. P. Filomena, M. Heidari Kapourchali, and M. Lejeune, “Electric Power Grids under High-Absenteeism Pandemics: History, Context, Response, and Opportunities,” IEEE Access, Vol. 8, pp. 215727-215747, Nov. 2020. The work resulted from a fruitful collaboration between the GW SmartGrid Lab researchers and others from the GW School of Business, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Alaska at Anchorage, the University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and London South Bank University (UK). The article explores the various mechanisms through which the electric power grids around the globe are influenced by pandemics in general and COVID-19 in particular. It also shares the lessons learned and best practices taken in different sectors of the electric industry in responding to the dramatic shifts forced by such threats, and it provides visions for a pandemic-resilient electric grid of the future.

Dr. Igor Efimov (BME), first author Jaclyn Brennan, and lab members have published the following paper: J. A. Brennan, Q. Chen, A. Gams, J. Dyavanapalli, D. Mendelowitz, W. Peng, and I. R. Efimov, “Evidence of Superior and Inferior Sinoatrial Nodes in the Mammalian Heart,” JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 2020. (Published online November 25, 20202.)

Research conducted by Dr. Adam Aviv (CS) and colleagues recently appeared as a question on the German TV show “Wer weiß denn sowas?” After a contestant answered the question, a short video that cites his research paper with all the authors' names appeared. The question and the answer options appeared as:

Q: An international research team found in a study about smartphone unlock PINs that ...
A) patterns are more secure than PINs
B) 6-digit PINs are not more secure than 4-digts in practice
C) the numbers 1,2,3, are forgotten faster than 4,5,6,7,8,9

The correct answer is “B”.

The Financial Times quoted Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE) in the December 11 article “UK on high alert for anti-vaccine disinformation from hostile states” (subscription required). Additionally, Dr. Broniatowski’s work is cited multiple times in a December 2020 final report of the National Institutes of Health, “COVID-19 Vaccination Communication: Applying Behavioral and Social Science to Address Vaccine Hesitancy and Foster Vaccine Confidence.”

Washington Business Journal highlighted GW’s participation in a corporate research agreement and quoted Dr. Michael Keidar (MAE) in the December 8 article “GWU, Takoma Park biotech targeting cancer and Covid in $3.2M corporate research agreement.” The article highlights efforts to develop adaptive cold plasma devices based on Dr. Keidar’s study of cold plasma.

Dr. Michael Keidar (MAE) gave the invited talk “New Understanding of How Cold Atmospheric Plasma Treats Cancer” at the 47th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Sciences, held December 8-10 as a virtual meeting. He also chaired the plenary session on plasma propulsion and parallel session on plasma medicine. At the conference, his students and post-docs presented these talks: 1) Li Lin and Michael Keidar, “Machine Learning Controlled Self-Adaptive Plasma Medicine;” and 2) Sungrae Kim and Michael Keidar, “The Power Reduction of the Air Breathing Hall-Effect Thruster.”

GW’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is filming a series of promotional videos for the I-Corps programs at GW, and the first video features Dr. Ekundayo Shittu (EMSE). In the video message, Dr. Shittu discusses how participating in the I-Corps program has benefitted his research and his career.