Faculty News
Research:
Dr. Chung-Hyuk Park (BME) has received a five-year, $429,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program grant for his project “CAREER: Social Intelligence with Contextual Ambidexterity for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction and Intervention (LT-HRI2).” The project aims to develop a novel socio-emotional human-robot interaction framework with contextual ambidexterity to answer the following question: How might we be able to develop intelligent socially-assistive robotic systems that can cope with the developmental processes as well as gender-specific characteristics of individuals with autism spectrum disorder? The knowledge gained through this project will be directly fused into educational activities for the future generation and for students from underrepresented groups to develop creative mindsets and analytic skills in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM).
Dr. Ekundayo Shittu (EMSE) has been awarded a five-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program grant for his project “CAREER: Adaptive Investments into Resilient Electricity Infrastructure Systems.” This project will develop a decision support system to help government policymakers craft the incentives to advance public-private enterprise capital formation and investments into electricity infrastructure systems and provide strategies for self-organized power restoration in the advent of a disruption. Inspired by the self-healing properties in biological systems such as morphogenesis (gene formation and adaptation to environmental changes) and wound healing (functional changes in cells due to regeneration), this CAREER project will expand the paradigms of complex adaptive systems by incorporating realism and empirical data into models that have practical implications, such as how much to invest in a particular electricity technology portfolio in order to enhance system resilience.
Publications:
Dr. Anne-Laure Papa (BME) has published the following journal article: A-L. Papa, A. Jiang, N. Korin, M. B. Chen, E. T. Langan, A. Waterhouse, E. Nash, J. Caroff, A. Graveline, A. Vernet, A. Mammoto, T. Mammoto, A. Jain, R. D. Kamm, M. J. Gounis, and D. E. Ingber. “Platelet decoys inhibit thrombosis and prevent metastatic tumor formation in preclinical models,” Science Translational Medicine, Vol. 11, Issue 479. Her research was also featured in the February 13 Science Magazine article “These platelet ‘decoys’ could prevent blood clots without spreading cancer.”
Dr. Volker Sorger (ECE) has published the article: J. K. George, A. Mehrabian, R. Amin, J. Meng, T. Ferreira de Lima, A. N. Tait, B. J. Shastri, T. El-Ghazawi, P. R. Prucnal, and V. J. Sorger. “Neuromorphic photonics with electro-absorption modulators,” Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 4.
Conferences & Presentations:
On February 11, Dr. Ekundayo Shittu (EMSE) gave an invited talk titled “Optimizing Investments in Electricity Generation Assets under Multiple and Sequential Uncertainties” to an operations research and financial engineering group at Princeton University.
Media Mentions:
Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE) was quoted in the February 13 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty article “Are Russian Trolls Saving Measles From Extinction?” His research was also cited in the February 8 Psychology Today article “Antivaxxers and the Plague of Science Denial.”
Other News:
On February 14, the chairman of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) invited Dr. Ken Chong (MAE) to serve as an overseas member for a two-year term to assist RGC in the selection and monitoring of six Joint Research Schemes/Collaboration Schemes (JRS). The JRS are in cooperation with mainland China and overseas regions in the form of research grants, travel grants, conference grants, and fellowships.
On February 12, Dr. Jonathan Deason (EMSE) and Mr. Joe Cascio (EMSE) conducted an environmental decision making symposium in the SEH as part of the two-week 2019 Winter Leadership Training Camp sponsored by the International Fund for China’s Environment. The symposium covered an overview of decision aiding tools commonly used in the environmental arena, such as quantitative risk assessment and Monte Carlo simulation. Attending the session were students from top Chinese universities, including Tsinghua University, Renmin University, Beijing University, and the Beijing University of Technology.
SEAS Events Re-cap
On February 12, GW’s Transportation Program won the first GigabitDCx Challenge after developing the framework for “Road Vision” (RV), a video traffic detection and information sharing app. The announcement was featured in the February 13 Technical.ly DC article “George Washington University’s Transportation Team awarded $25K at GigabitDCx.’’ The team, which represented GW and competed against 18 other teams, was led by Dr. Samer Hamdar (CEE), supervised by Dr. Claire Silverstein (visiting assistant professor, CEE), and included doctoral students Amir Farrahi and Deng Pan. The Challenge was organized by the DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer and announced in October of 2018. During the Challenge, the team held lengthy discussions and received mentorship from the DC Department of Transportation. The team is proud to use their expertise and knowledge of DC’s transportation assets and challenges to offer a more efficient and safer urban multi-modal traffic system.
SEAS Computing Facility
Introduction to Raspberry Pi and Arduino Workshops: SEAS Computing Facility (SEASCF) will host its final fall semester workshop on Arduinos and Raspberry Pis, which are inexpensive platforms for electronics and programming projects. The workshop will be held on Saturday, March 2 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm in the SEH Studio Labs (SEH 1300/1400/1450). The workshop is free and will cover a hands-on project.
Register
Software Carpentry Workshop
SEAS CF, in partnership with the GW Libraries and Academic Innovation, is offering a two-day software carpentry workshop on February 20-21 from 9:00 am to 4:40 pm in Gelman 201 (STEMworks). The workshop is intended for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty who want to become more productive with lab skills for scientific computing. It is free to any GW-affiliated participant.
What is it?
The workshop provides two days of hands-on learning to:
- automate repetitive tasks (Unix shell)
- track and share your code and writing (git and GitHub)
- use programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis (R)
Program
Short tutorials alternate with hands-on practical exercises in the workshops. Participants are encouraged both to help one another and to try applying what they have learned to their own research problems during and between sessions. Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system; they also should have admin privileges on the computer. The computer needs to be a “real” laptop—not a Chromebook, tablet, etc.
Register
Introduction to MATLAB Workshops:
- Monday, February 25: Figures & 3D Plotting
- Monday, March 4: Linear Equation & ODE Solving
MATLAB (matrix laboratory) is a multi-paradigm numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language used in various backgrounds of engineering, science, and economics. These workshops will cover the fundamentals of MATLAB programming. The workshops will be held from 7:00 to 8:00 pm in Tompkins 406. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
Register
MATLAB and SolidWorks tutoring: MATLAB and SolidWorks tutoring will be offered throughout the fall semester on Mondays from 8:00 to 10:00 pm in Tompkins 401. To schedule a tutoring appointment, please email [email protected]. The workshops and tutoring will be hosted by SEAS senior Keily Gleason.
Engineering Software installation on personal computers: Most engineering programs installed in the SEAS Computing Labs—including MATLAB, SolidWorks, and others—are available for install on students’ personal computers. For a complete list of applications, please visit the SEAS Computing Facility website.
Upcoming SEAS Events
CS Colloquium: “Human Factors in Mobile Authentication”
Speaker: Dr. Adam Aviv, United States Naval Academy
Tuesday, February 19
11:00 am
SEH, B1220
ECE Seminar: “Hardware and Software Cooperated Solutions to Sticking Points in Intelligent Computing Systems”
Speaker: Dr. Chenchen Liu, Clarkson University
Tuesday, February 19
11:00 am
SEH, B1270
ECE Faculty Candidate Seminar: “Nonconvex Approaches for Data Science”
Speaker: Dr. Zhihui Zhu, Johns Hopkins University
Wednesday, February 20
10:45 am
SEH, B1270
BME Seminar: “Augmenting Human Capabilities with Smart Robotic Support”
Speaker: Dr. Chien-Ming Huang, Johns Hopkins University
Wednesday, February 20
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Marvin Center, 302
CS Colloquium: “Trust and Accountability in Computer Systems”
Speaker: Dr. Joshua Kroll, University of California, Berkeley
Thursday, February 21
11:00 am
SEH, B1270
MAE Seminar: “Unraveling the Impact of Fluid-Structure Interactions on Hypersonic Flight”
Speaker: Dr. Daniel Bodony, University of Illinois
Thursday, February 21
2:00 – 3:00 pm
SEH, B1220
The Engineers' Ball
Saturday, February 23
Doors open at 6:45 pm | Dinner begins at 7:30 pm
Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel
999 9th Avenue, NW
Please email any questions to E-Council.
Panel and Pizza: "Do We Have a Failure to Communicate?"
Speakers:
- Dr. Kim Roddis (CEE)
- Ms. Kristy McDonell Ortiz, SEAS alumna and director, Utilities, CGI INC.
- Ms. Dawn Ginnetti, professional advisor, SEAS Office of Undergraduate Student Services
- Ms. Zuri Lawrence, CS student
- Ms. Megan Englert, MAE student
Thursday, February 28
5:00 – 6:00 pm
SEH, 2000
Does this sound familiar? At a team project meeting, you point out that the project could be revised in a specific way to make it more useful. No one responds. A few minutes later, a male teammate makes the same point and everyone agrees to go in that direction. Understanding engineering communication norms is not just an equity issue, but changing the norms can improve the profession as a whole. Join us for this "Panel and Pizza" and listen to our panelists discuss their experiences and how they communicate in the engineering world. This is a pre-launch event for the SEAS Center for Women in Engineering.
CS Internet Distinguished Speaker Series: “Vint Cerf: The Unfinished Internet”
Speaker: Vint Cerf
Tuesday, March 19
7:00 pm (Doors open at 6:30 pm)
MPA Building, Jack Morton Auditorium
Registration required
Join us for an exciting talk by Vint Cerf, a "Father of the Internet" and the recipient of both the National Medal of Technology and the Turing Award. He will discuss the origins of the internet and his vision for its future, and a Q&A session will follow. Light refreshments will be served after the talk. This event is open to the public and is part of the CS Department's Internet Distinguished Speaker Series, in collaboration with the GW chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery.
MAE Seminar: “Recent Advances in Dynamic System Research”
Speaker: Dr. Weidong Zhu, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Thursday, April 18
2:00 – 3:00 pm
SEH, B1220
External Events
GW Research Days: Abstract submissions to GW Research Days are due by midnight on Thursday, February 28. The showcase will be held April 9-10. The focus on April 9 will be undergraduate and graduate student presentations in the arts, business, education, engineering (including biomedical engineering), humanities, law, mathematics, sciences and other topics. The April 10 focus will be on presentations from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Milken Institute School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and the Institute for Biomedical Sciences. Please visit the GW Research Days website or follow @GWResearchDays on Twitter for the latest updates.
Spring Break Python Camp
Monday, March 11 – Friday, March 15
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
GW Gelman Library
Registration required
Learn Python and foundations of programming in this five-day, non-credit, interactive, mini-course over Spring Break. This opportunity is for beginners and does not require any programming experience. The workshop uses as its curriculum “ Get Data Off the Ground with Python,” an OpenEdX course by Dr. Lorena Barba (MAE). Learn more.
Entrepreneurship News & Events
NVC Workshop: Feasibility Analysis
Tuesday, February 19
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Gelman Library, Room 219
Register
GW New Venture Competition teams who are looking to get help with their round 2 application should attend this workshop! Learn more about the best method to outline your business for a potential investor and funder.
NVC Workshop: Easy Financials for Startups
Thursday, February 21
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Gelman Library, Rooms 301-302
Register
You're working on a great business plan for your business startup, to take to a bank or other lender. A key part of that plan is the financial statements. These statements will be looked at carefully by the lender, so join us for a workshop to go over some tips for making these documents SELL your business plan.
Startup Career & Internship Fair
Tuesday, February 26
12:00 – 2:30 pm
Marvin Center Grand Ballroom, 3rd Floor
Registration for GW Students | Registration for Non-GW Students
The Startup Career & Internship Fair is a big event where some of the hottest startups and hundreds of the most entrepreneurial students from the greater DC area gather to network for future internships and job opportunities.
GW Technology Commercialization Office 2019 Innovation Competition: Call for Technologies and Poster Session Participants
Tuesday, April 16
1:00 – 5:30 pm
SEH, Lehman Auditorium
Register
The GW Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) is showcasing promising and impactful GW research with commercial potential. This event provides a forum for idea sharing between GW researchers, entrepreneurs, and members of the venture community. Finalists will pitch their technologies for a chance to win $30,000 in prizes for the development of a prototype or proof-of-concept! All are welcome to attend the event, but GW researchers must confirm their eligibility to participate in the competition with TCO by March 4. In brief, participants must have an unlicensed invention disclosed to TCO. Email TCO to disclose your invention today (teams must include a GW inventor)!