Faculty News
Awards & Honors:
Dr. Jin-Hee Cho (CS, adjunct faculty) has been selected to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. The awards were announced by the White House on February 18. Dr. Cho will attend a ceremony this spring to receive this award.
Prof. Julie Ryan (EMSE) was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) at its 68th annual scientific meeting, held February 22-27 in Las Vegas, NV. Prof. Ryan is a member of the Digital and Multimedia Sciences section of the Academy.
Research:
The Washington State Department of Ecology has awarded Prof. Rene van Dorp (EMSE) a $165,000 sole source contract to conduct a Vessel Traffic Risk Assessment Study (VTRA) in the Salish Sea, comprised of the Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia. The project runs from February through December 2016, and the focus of the study is the prevention of oil spills from tank barges and tankers. The Salish Sea is an international waterway known for being a pristine ecosystem inhabited by multiple endangered species, including a resident orca whale family. It is currently under pressure from multiple planned terminal development projects both on the U.S. and Canadian sides, including a terminal project for loading tar sands oil on tankers for transportation from Vancouver through these waterways. This project is joint work with Prof. van Dorp’s collaborator, Jason Merrick at Virginia Common Wealth University.
Publications:
Dr. Jin-Hee Cho (CS, adjunct faculty) and her collaborator, Dr. Jianxi Gao (Northeastern University), have published the following journal paper: J. H. Cho and J. Gao (2016). “Cyber War Game in Temporal Networks,” PLoS ONE 11(2).
Prof. Roger Lang (CS interim chair) has published the following paper: R. Lang, Y. Zhou, C. Utku, and D. Le Vine. “Accurate measurements of the dielectric constant of seawater at L band,” Radio Science, Vol. 51, pp. 2-24, 2016. The measurements published in the paper could be used by NASA in algorithms for microwave remote sensing of global sea surface salinity.
Prof. Ergun Simsek (ECE) and his former student Bablu Mukherjee have published the article: B. Mukherjee and E. Simsek. “Utilization of monolayer MoS2 in Bragg stacks and metamaterial structures as broadband absorbers,” Optics Communications, Vol. 369, pp. 89-93, 2016.
Conferences & Presentations:
On February 12, Dr. Cynthia Gayton (EMSE, adjunct faculty) participated in a Digital Humanities Showcase presented by the GW Digital Humanities Institute, GW Libraries, and the Office of Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration. Her presentation concerned her research on the relationship between an inherited legal framework and trends in intellectual property protection.
Dr. Rachael Jonassen (EMSE and CPS, visiting scholar and part-time faculty) spoke at a meeting sponsored by the White House Council on Environmental Quality on February 23. The title of her talk was “The Business Case for Reducing Supply Chain Emissions.”
Dr. Mehmet Kurum (ECE, research scientist) presented the paper “Antenna pattern corrections for the combined radar/radiometer (ComRAD) ground based SMAP simulator” at the URSI Radio Science Meeting, held January 6-9 in Boulder, CO. The paper was co-authored by Prof. Roger Lang (CS interim chair), P. O'Neill, A. Joseph, M. Cosh, Prof. Emeritus Wasyl Wasylkiwskyj (ECE), and M. Ogut.
Prof. Roger Lang (CS interim chair) and Simon Yueh (NASA JPL) organized the session “L-Band Microwave Remote Sensing of Land and Ocean Surfaces” at the URSI Radio Science Meeting held January 6-9 in Boulder, CO.
Other News:
GW’s Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) hosted a half-day symposium titled “Public-Private Partnerships and Private Capital in the Water Sector: Moving the Ball Forward” in the Lehman Auditorium on February 18. The Institute’s advisory board held its first meeting the following day. EMSE Profs. Jonathan Deason, Joe Cascio, and Alex Beehler organized the symposium and conducted the advisory board meeting. Approximately 50 invitation-only participants attended the symposium and heard from Dean David Dolling, Prof. Royce Francis (EMSE), and a half-dozen other speakers. Dean Dolling provided opening remarks at the advisory board meeting and Prof. Ekundayo Shittu (EMSE) gave a presentation about one of his current research projects. The 21 participants at the meeting included top-level corporate and NGO representatives and former government officials.
Student News
Eight members of GW’s chapter of Engineers without Borders (EWB-GWU) traveled to La Peña, El Salvador during the first week of January. They had a successful and fun trip that consisted of implementing two more compost latrines in the community and performing a comprehensive water assessment. The team interviewed occupants of every home in La Peña and met with the local mayor’s office to establish the most feasible option for implementing a water distribution system in the community. EWB-GWU plans to continue working with La Peña to monitor latrines and implement further projects as the community grows. The chapter is thankful for all the support it has received from the GW community. If you wish to learn more about its mission or projects, please e-mail [email protected].
Other News
Nominate someone for the 2016 GW Engineering Hall of Fame. Since 2006, SEAS has honored distinguished SEAS alumni, faculty, staff, and friends who have contributed to engineering, technology, or management in a sustained and significant way during their careers. These are individuals who bring distinction to GW through their achievements and their contributions to their professions, the University, and society-at-large. Last year's honorees included alumni from NASA, Office of Naval Research, CAE Inc., LGS Innovations, DLBA, Rolls Royce, and Johns Hopkins University. The deadline for consideration is Thursday, March 31.
Computing Facility News
SEAS Computing Facility Workshop: “Introduction to SolidWorks”
Final session: Saturday, March 12: Assemblies & Drawing
12:00 – 3:00 pm
Tompkins Hall, Room 406
Entry is free and open to all. Contact Farhad Goodarzi [email protected] with questions.
RSVP
SEAS Computing Facility Workshop: “Introduction to MATLAB and SIMULINK: The Language of Technical Computing”
Final session: Saturday, March 15: SIMULINK
12:00 – 3:00 pm
Tompkins Hall, Room 406
Entry is free and open to all. Contact Farhad Goodarzi [email protected] with questions.
RSVP
SEAS Events
ECE Distinguished Lecture Series: “Optics at the Extreme”
Speaker: Nader Engheta, H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor, University of Pennsylvania; Fellow of OSA, MRS, APS, SPIE, IEEE; Chair of the Gordon Research Conference
Wednesday, March 2
1:00 – 2:00 pm
SEH, B1220
More information
Environmental and Energy Management Institute: Short courses in partnership with the European Energy Centre:
“Multi-Aspect Introduction to Solar Photovoltaics”
Thursday and Friday, March 17-18
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
2020 K St., Room 21
Cost: $600
Register
Entrepreneurship Events
2016 Startup Career Fair
Thursday, March 3
Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom
1:00 pm
Register
The GW Startup Career Fair is a joint event for DC area universities, led by GW. For the fifth year in a row, hundreds of the most talented and educated students gather on campus to network for internships and job opportunities with local startup companies.
Startup Career Fair Panel Luncheon
Thursday, March 3
Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom
12:00 – 1:00 pm
Register
Join the leadership team from 2U for a panel luncheon. 2U is a very successful distance learning company, and its founders are all GW Alumni.
Annual Student Startup Showcase
Thursday, March 3
1:00 pm
Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom
Register
The GW Office of Entrepreneurship welcomes GW's top student start-ups to campus to showcase their ideas, products, and services to the University at large. The audience features GW students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni, as well as local entrepreneurs and industry experts. GW-based start-up teams who wish to present at the Showcase must complete an online application. Entries are addressed on a first-come, first-served basis. The earlier you apply, the better chances you have to present with us.
Getting Your Legal House in Order (Peter Weissman)
Tuesday, March 8
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Duques Hall, Room 356
Register
Guest speaker Peter Weissman, patent attorney and partner at Blank Rome LLP, GW Business Plan Competition sponsor, and GW Law alumnus, discusses common legal challenges faced by start-up companies from formation of the company to contractual and patent issues. From this talk you will learn why it is important to have a company, how to identify the key differences between the various company structures, how to avoid common contract issues, and what steps need to be taken to protect your team's valuable patents and trademarks.
External News & Events
Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund: Call for Proposals
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is expanding the Centers & Institutes Facilitating Fund (CIFF) to include a cross-disciplinary intramural program for collaborative projects. The goal of the Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund (CDRF) is to establish collaborative research partnerships within Centers and Institutes or between researchers from two or more schools to facilitate externally-funded sponsored projects. CDRF will provide up to $50,000 per year for two years. Statements of Intent are due by Monday, February 29. View the CDRF page on the OVPR website for more details.
Seminar: “Research Project Management: Making Your Projects Successful ”
Tuesday, March 1
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Duques Hall, Room 453
RSVP to: [email protected]
Workshop: “Grant Writers' Workshop”
Wednesday, March 2 & Thursday, March 3
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Marvin Center, Room 310
RSVP to: [email protected]
Dissertation Defense
Student Name: Usamah A. Algemili
Title: “Investigation of Reconfigurable Pipelined Architecture for on-the-fly Processing of Big Data Streams”
Advisor: Prof. Simon Berkovich (CS)
Friday March 10
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
SEH, Room 2000B
Student Name: Faisal Alsaby
Title: “Investigation and Development of Scalable Clustering Algorithm for Big Data Applications”
Advisor: Prof. Simon Berkovich (CS)
Friday March 11
11:00 am – 1:00 PM
SEH, Room 2000B
Student Name: Junfeng Wang
Title: “CHORUS Code for Stellar and Planetary Convection”
Advisor: Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE)
Tuesday, April 12
2:00 – 4:00 pm
SEH, Room 2000B