December 16-22, 2019

Newsletter

December 16, 2019

SEAS Research Retreat

SEAS Research Retreat presentation

SEAS Research Retreat discussion

SEAS faculty gathered on GW’s Mount Vernon Campus on December 11 for the school’s first-ever, SEAS-wide research retreat. Nineteen SEAS faculty members—some of whom were joined by collaborators from other GW schools—made research proposal presentations to the assembled faculty, offering ideas for cross-cutting research areas that may provide strategic opportunities for growth for the school. The presentations were the first step in a strategic planning process designed to develop research strengths that will bridge departmental and university strengths, forge new research directions for the school, and create distinctive areas of world-class excellence. GW President Thomas LeBlanc, Provost Brian Blake, and Vice President for Research Robert Miller attended parts of the retreat, listening to faculty presentations. National Advisory Council members Scott Amey, Terry Collins, and Randy Graves also joined the retreat.

 

Faculty News
Research:

Dr. Michael Keidar

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will officially issue U.S. Patent No. 10,508,036 to Dr. Michael Keidar (MAE) on December 17. The patent is for “System and Method for Mass Production of Graphene Platelets in ARC Plasma.” Dr. Jerry Comanescu of GW’s Technology and Commercialization Office assisted with the patent application and filing process.

 

Publications:

Dr. Volker Sorger
                        
Dr. Tarek El-Ghazawi

Drs. Volker Sorger (ECE) and Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE) have published the following paper: A. Mehrabian, M. Miscuglio, Y. Alkabani, V. J. Sorger, and T. El-Ghazawi. “A Winograd-based Integrated Photonics Accelerator for Convolutional Neural Networks,” Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. Published online December 3, 2019. Separately, Dr. Sorger has published: R. Amin, R. Maiti, J. K. George, X. Ma, Z. Ma, H. Dalir, M. Miscuglio, and V. J. Sorger. “A Lateral MOS-Capacitor Enabled ITO Mach-Zehnder Modulator for Beam Steering,” Journal of Lightwave Technology. Published online November 29, 2019.

 

Dr. Santiago Solares
                        
Dr. Michael Keidar

Drs. Santiago Solares (MAE) and Michael Keidar (MAE) and their post-docs and student have published this paper: C. Corbella Roca, S. Portal Marco, M.A.S.R. Saadi, S. Solares, M. Kundrapu, and M. Keidar. “Few-layer flakes of Molybdenum Disulphide produced by anodic arc discharge in pulsed mode,” Plasma Research Express. Published online December 12, 2019.

 

Conferences & Presentations:

Dr. Ken Chong

Dr. Ken Chong (MAE) presented a seminar on basic research and innovation at Xi'an Jiaotung University (XJTU) in Xi'an, China on December 9. XJTU, one of the top universities in China, is organized in twenty schools forming a comprehensive research university. During his visit, Dr. Chong also visited labs and held discussion sessions with faculty and graduate students.

Dr. Paymen Dehghanian

On December 5, GW SmartGrid Lab director, Dr. Payman Dehghanian (ECE), gave an invited talk at the International Conference on Justice Development: Law, Business, and Technologies Preventing Crimes, which was held in Warsaw, Poland. Dr. Dehghanian presented the SmartGrid Lab's research findings through a live presentation titled “Can Smart Grid Technologies Prevent Crimes in Modern Societies?”

Dr. Igor Efimov

Dr. Igor Efimov (BME) recently presented the following invited lectures: 1) “Patient-specific computer models of action potential derived from functional and molecular data,” 10th TRM Forum on Computer Simulation and Experimental Assessment of Cardiac Function. University of Lugano, Switzerland (December 10); 2) “Mechanisms of remodeling in human heart failure,” Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago IL (November 22); 3) “Future of cardiac implantable devices,” McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston IL (November 21); and 4) “Electroporation: Hype or hope for arrhythmia ablation?”, Arrhythmia Research Summit: Ventricular Arrhythmias and Sudden Cardiac Death: Bench to Bedside, American Heart Association Annual Sessions, Philadelphia, PA (November 16).

Dr. Leila Farhadi

Dr. Leila Farhadi (CEE) and her Ph.D. students attended the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting, held December 9-13 in San Francisco, CA. Dr. Farhadi gave an invited talk on coupled estimation of evapotranspiration and recharge from remotely sensed measurements of soil moisture and land surface temperature. Her students, Abedeh Abdolghafoorian and Parisa Heidari, gave oral presentations on their research topics.

Headshot of Kausik Sarkar

Dr. Kausik Sarkar (MAE) and his Ph.D. student Jenna Osborn (MAE) attended the 178th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, held December 2-6 in San Diego CA. Dr. Sarkar presented an invited talk: M. Aliabouzar, K. Kumar, and K. Sarkar, “1pBA2 Acoustic droplet vaporization threshold of perfluorocarbon droplets as a function of frequency: Effects of droplet cores and size.” Jenna Osborn presented this poster: M. Bedingfield, L. G. Zhang, and K. Sarkar, “3pBA14. Acoustic droplet vaporization embedded in 3-D printed gelatin methacrylate hydrogels.”

Dr. Ekundayo Shittu

On December 9, Dr. Ekundayo Shittu (EMSE) gave a presentation titled “Coupling Equilibrium Models with Electricity Capacity Expansion Investments to Hedge against Large-scale Electric Power Infrastructure Disruptions” at the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) annual conference in Arlington, VA. This is the first in a tripartite set of coordinated research activities at the nexus of infrastructure resilience, energy technology policy and investments, and catalyzed large-scale assessment modeling.

 

Other News:

Dr. Ekundayo Shittu
                        
Dr. David Lee

Dr. Ekundayo Shittu (EMSE) and Dr. David Lee (BME) have developed a Problem-Solving Studio (PSS) Card, “PSS: Problem for Introducing Engineering Economics.” This follows the successful implementation of the card in two PSS sessions in their classes. With the guidance of Dr. Joe Le Doux (Georgia Tech), the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) coordinator for problem solving, the PSS Card developed will enhance curiosity and connections, and create value while simultaneously equipping the students with skillsets including designing technical solutions, exploring societal benefits or economic viability, and creating impacts through partnerships and team building. GW is a member of KEEN, a network that is focused on fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students.

 

At the 3rd Annual Global Virtual Reality Day, held on November 23, CS students enrolled in Dr. Hurriyet Ok’s (instructor, CS) course, CSCI 3907/6907: Augmented and Virtual Reality, demonstrated their virtual reality projects. CS department chair, Dr. Robert Pless (CS), joined the event as well. Dr. Ok shares a video of the day, which was educational, entertaining, and informative.

 

Student News
On December, 9, EMSE Ph.D. student H. Deniz Marti presented the poster “The Link Between Expertise and Risk in Context: A Fuzzy Trace Theory Approach to NASA's Engineering Decisions" at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, held in Arlington, VA. The poster presentation emphasized the findings that NASA experts' mission design decisions are driven by their gist representation of risk information, which is the least precise and qualitative, yet the most productive, form of risk information encoding in decision making. Deniz' work is supervised by Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE).

 

External Events
RCR Session: Collaborative Science
Tuesday, December 17
2:00 – 3:30 pm
Marvin Center, 311
RSVP
Increasingly, successful research projects require collaboration across disciplines and between institutions. These collaborations benefit from diverse expertise and perspectives and ensure the efficient use of time and other resources. This session will cover key points in establishing collaborative relationships, the nature and advantages of successful collaborations, dealing with challenges, and the role of institutions in collaborative science. The discussion will be led by Dr. Kathleen Griffith, associate professor of medicine and member of the GW Cancer Center, and Dr. Keith Crandall, director of the Computational Biology Institute.

 

Human Resources News

Marion Flythe-Inman

In this month's HR Corner, SEAS HR Manager Marion Flythe-Inman shares new information on:

  • How to share your GW employment stories with HR
  • GW's Career Milestones Celebrations in December

The HR Corner is a web page for SEAS staff that contains HR-related news, information, and events. Marion encourages staff to visit the page to find information on GW's new time off and leave guide, events and trainings, SEAS employment opportunities, and much more.