February 2-8, 2015

Newsletter

February 2, 2015

Faculty News

Research:

Prof. David Broniatowski (EMSE) has been awarded a prestigious R01 grant by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in the National Institutes of Health for his research "Supplementing Survey-Based Analyses of Group Vaccination Narratives and Behaviors Using Social Media." This five-year, multi-institution grant includes subcontracts to the University of Georgia and Johns Hopkins University. GW is the lead site, and Prof. Broniatowski is the lead PI, along with his co-PI, Karen Hilyard (University of Georgia). The total amount of the grant is $1.55 million.

Publications:

Prof. Ergun Simsek (ECE) and his colleagues have published the following journal article: B. Mukherjee, F. Tseng, D. Gunlycke, K. K. Amara, G. Eda, and E. Simsek, "Complex electrical permittivity of the monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) in near UV and visible," Optical Materials Express, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 447-455 (2015). The article is the first product of their collaboration with Naval Research Lab and University of Singapore. The samples were fabricated at Singapore (at Goki Eda's lab); the the opto-electronic characterization was performed at GW (GWIN and WavesLab); and the theoretical framework was developed during Prof. Simsek's summer fellowship at NRL (Daniel Gunlycke's quantum physics group).

Conferences & Presentations:

On January 21, Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) gave the seminar "Convergence of Technologies" at the Institute of Applied Mechanics of the National Taiwan University. He also visited with faculty members and toured key laboratories. One of the research projects he saw was a scaled model of a nuclear reactor vessel subjected to seismic waves tests to mitigate their effects. The project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and awarded to a PI at the University of Houston.

Other News

Graduate Recruiting & Admissions: All graduate students are welcome to attend an open house on Thursday, February 4 at 5:00 pm on the Lower Level of the SEH. Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served. On February 2, Adina Lav will speak at the Japan-US Education Council (Fulbright) in Tokyo about STEM graduate programs and careers in the U.S. From February 5-8, she will be at the EducationUSA Fairs in Indonesia, and on February 10, she will recruit at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor Bahru. The fall application deadline has passed. Students who are still interested in applying for the fall should email [email protected]. More information about graduate recruitment events can be found at www.graduate.seas.gwu.edu.

SEAS Graduate Career Services: The GW SEAS Graduate Career Service Team hosted its annual International Coffee Hour on January 29. Students were able to network with peers and colleagues, grab a hot chocolate and donut, and get their resume reviewed. The Biomedical Engineering & Health Sciences Career Week, hosted by the University Center for Career Services, was a success. Students had the opportunity to interact with visiting employers Becton Dickinson, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Medtronic, and the National Institute of Health. Thank you to all who participated. The Career Service Council held its monthly meeting at the SEH and toured the new facility. Weekly Featured Graduate Career Services Informational Resource: Top Graduate Engineering Degrees of 2015

 

Guest Vignette

Estimation of position and movement of an object (e.g., plane, ship, submarine, person, animal, asteroid) is of importance in many fields. The estimation is often done by several observation sites that can communicate among them (i.e., they are within a communication network). In this case, through the individual online estimation and information exchange with neighbors, it is possible to speed-up estimation and to minimize estimation error for each observation site. The individual online estimation is typically done with some form of adaptive filtering.

In realizing such a system there are many questions to be faced with, such as how to optimally combine information from neighbors; what information to exchange (estimates, environmental parameters, prediction errors); what is the cost of communication; how communication errors influence the estimation; how network topology influence the estimation; what are protocols that regulate individual estimation and local communication; how to make trade-off between spent energy and computation and communication intensity; how information combining influences estimation stability.

Prof. Doroslovački and his collaborators have developed several strategies for combing computation and communication across networks in order to speed-up learning for all observation sites. They showed that it is possible to get significant improvements compared with behavior of known methods. They are now working on a theoretical analysis of stability issues of proposed algorithms. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Milos Doroslovački, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering)

SEAS Events

Graduate Career Service Workshop: What Employers Want You to Know
Thursday, February 5
4:00 – 5:00 pm
SEH, Room 2000B

MAE Seminar: "Application of Microwave Energy to Consolidate Metallic Powder of Titanium"
Speaker: Dr. M. Ashraf Imam (SEAS, MAE)
Thursday, February 12
2:00 pm
SEH, B1270

CEE Colloquium: "Electronic Structure of Molecular Magnets: Successes within GGA and Challenges for SIC"
Speaker: Dr. Mark Pederson, Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University; Office of Science, Department of Energy
Friday, February 13
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
SEH, Room 2000B

External Events

Virtual Biotech, Health & Life Sciences Career Fair
Thursday, February 5
12:00 – 5:00 pm
GW's Center for Career Services has partnered with multiple universities to develop the Virtual Biotech and Health Sciences Career Fair. Participate from anywhere! Calling all Public Health, Health Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Majors! Log on and interact with employers in your field via chat rooms. Participating companies include Medtronic, Pfizer, NIST, NIH, CDC and many more! Register at: CareerEco.com/Events/Biotech. 

2015 Spring Career & Internship Fair
Wednesday, February 11
1:00 – 5:00 pm
Charles E. Smith Center
Registration is now open in GWork!

Association of Energy Engineers National Capitol Chapter Luncheon Program: Women in Energy and Environmental Leadership
Friday, February 20
11:30 am – 2:00 pm
SEH, Lehman Auditorium
RSVP
The program will be followed by a GW Showcase on Energy and Sustainability Research and Leaders in Energy professional networking event.

SEAS Career Center News

Department of State Information Session
Wednesday, February 4
5:00 – 7:00 pm
SEH, Room 2000B
The Department of State - Foreign Service is looking for technically skilled individuals who have the ability to adapt to changing cultural and physical environments, work with differing levels of technology, follow developments and innovations in the IT field, and successfully apply emerging technology solutions to the art of diplomacy. As an Information Management Specialist (IMS) you will primarily serve at U.S. embassies and consulates world-wide, but also have opportunities to serve at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., and other domestic locations as needed by the Foreign Service. More information. All interested students may attend the Information Session. U.S. citizenship is required for employment. Recommended attire for Information Sessions is either business professional or business casual attire. To RSVP, email Emmy Rashid at [email protected] and put "Attend Department of State Info Session" in the subject line. 

NASA Academy Internship: The deadline to apply for the NASA Academy Internship is Sunday, February 15. The Academy is the premier internship offered by NASA and has a main goal of training future leaders of the space industry. The summer research program attracts undergraduate and graduate students of various backgrounds, mostly in STEM fields. Background information on the program is available on Youtube.

Entrepreneurship News & Events

Office of Entrepreneurship Spring Workshop: "Creating Financial Projections for a Startup"
Wednesday, February 11
5:30 - 7:00 pm
255 Duques Hall

Save the date for these other Office of Entrepreneurship upcoming workshops/events:

February 18: Writing a Successful Business Plan
February 25: Special Topics: Foreign Startup Founders
March 11: Keeping Your Legal House in Order
March 18: Your Startup's Pitch and Visual Deck
April 14: GW Business Plan Competition Finals, Jack Morton Auditorium

Doctoral Dissertations

Student's Name: Kimberly S. Stambler
Dissertation Title: "Intermediate and Long-Range Incident Action Planning For Complex and Extended Incidents"
Advisor: Prof. Joseph Barbera (EMSE)
Monday, February 9
1:00 pm
2600 SEH

Student's Name: Amine El Haimar
Dissertation Title: "Stochastic Risk Analysis of Influenza Pandemic on Interdependent Workforce Sectors Using Input-Output Modeling"
Advisor: Prof. Joost Reyes Santos (EMSE)
Wednesday, February 25
1:00 – 3:00 pm
2600 SEH