Faculty News
Papers:
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) and his doctoral student, Mr. Paul Moubarak, in collaboration with Prof. Mona Zaghloul (ECE), have published the following peer-reviewed journal paper: Moubarak, P., Ben-Tzvi, P., Zaghloul, M., "A Self-Calibrating Mathematical Model for the Direct Piezoelectric Effect of a new MEMS Tilt Sensor," IEEE Sensors Journal, February 2012.
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) has had a paper selected as one of the top 10 research articles with the most full-text downloads in December 2011: Ben-Tzvi, P., Bai, S., Zhou, Q., Huang, X., "Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control of Rigid-Flexible Multi-Body Systems with Bounded Inputs," Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, vol. 133, issue 6, pp. 061012: 1-8, November 2011.
Conferences & Presentations:
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE)has been invited to participate as a member of the Technical Program Committee for the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation - IEEE ICMA 2012, to be held in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, August 5-8.
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) was invited to deliver the Raouf Lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy during National Engineers Week. He delivered the lecture on February 24.
Prof. Greg Shaw and Emeritus Prof. Jack Harrald (both of EMSE) presented a workshop on lessons learned from disasters to members of the Netherlands government and emergency management officials in The Hague, Netherlands on February 16. The workshop was part of the Netherlands, United States, Water Crisis Research Network (NUWCReN) funded research project. Additionally, Profs. Shaw and Harrald co-authored two chapters in the book Flood Preparedness in the Netherlands: A U.S. Perspective: " Public/Private Partnerships for Flood and All Hazards Emergency and Disaster Management;" and " Mitigating and Managing the Health Impacts for a Catastrophic Coastal Flooding Scenario in the Netherlands." The NUWCReN project is a network of four U.S. universities, one Netherlands university, and four Netherlands research centers. The project concludes in April 2012.
Other News:
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) was invited by the Department of Defense and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) to serve as panel chair for the 2012 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships Program, which met on February 25.
Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) has been invited to serve on the Program Advisory Committee for the Robotics and Mechatronics Systems Engineering Program at the University of Detroit, Mercy.
Students News
Senior undergraduate Claire Silverstein (CEE) has received a scholarship from the DC chapter of WTS (Advancing Women in Transportation). She will be recognized as a scholarship winner at the WTS-DC Recognitions Dinner to be held on March 1.
Other News
SEAS is a sponsor of the 2012 USA Science and Engineering Festival (April 27-29), a collaborative effort of the global STEM community to re-invigorate the interest of our nation's youth in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). As part of the Festival, SEAS will host a FREE, one-of-a-kind panel discussion and book signing with best-selling science author-pioneer, Robin Cook; Wolfram Mathematica co-founder and pictorial periodic table pioneer, Theodore Gray; engineer and practical pyromaniac, William Gurstelle; retired rocket scientist and author of October Sky, Homer Hickam; award-winning history and science storyteller, Joy Hakim; and physician, philanthropist, and writer, Pendred Noyce. Shawn Lawrence Otto will moderate the discussion. The discussion and book signing will take place on April 28, from 7:30 to 10:00 pm.
Guest Vignette
The week of January 22nd marked the 91st annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference, and well-represented was the Traffic and Networks Research Laboratory (TNRL) of the George Washington University. Professor Samer Hamdar, his graduate students Justin Schorr and Linqiao Qin, and his undergraduate interns Jason Robertson and Matthew Burkert were involved on all levels of the conference, from giving an invited workshop presentation to attending numerous presentations and committee meetings and submitting papers of their own. Additionally, the research group participated in an interactive evacuation experiment that was sponsored by researchers from a number of different universities and hosted by GW. This experiment is based on a 3D multi-user virtual environment in which up to 40 people can participate at the same time. (Written by Mr. Justin Schorr and edited by Prof. Samer Hamdar of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
SEAS Events
SEAS Student R&D Showcase
Monday, February 27
3:00 - 6:00 pm
Marvin Center Grand Ballroom
MAE Seminar: "Autonomy is Overrated: Towards Shared Human-Machine Control for Vehicles and Other
Mechanical Systems"
Karl Iagnemma, Principal Research Scientist, Mechanical Engineering, MIT
Tuesday, February 28
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
CS Seminar: "Factor Graphs, Bayes Trees, and Preconditioning for SLAM and SFM"
Frank Dellaert, Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology
Thursday, March 8
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "Comparison of hp-Adaptive Finite Element Strategies"
William F. Mitchell, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Thursday, March 22
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "Imaging Tissue Optical Properties Using the Interaction of Light and Sound"
Ronald A. Roy, Boston University, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Thursday, April 19
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
Save the Date: SEAS Graduation Celebration
Friday, May 18
7:30 pm
Smith Center (a reception in the Marvin Center Ballrooms precedes the event)
Entrepreneurship Events
Startup DC Student Career Expo
Monday, March 5
1:00 - 4:00 pm
Marvin Center, 3rd Floor
Dissertation Defenses
Name of Student Defending: Xing Hong
Title of Dissertation: "Risk Matrix Analysis Using Copulas"
Advisor: Thomas A. Mazzuchi
Thursday, February 28
3:00 pm
1776 G Street, Conference Room 120