February 7-13, 2011

Newsletter

February 7, 2011

Faculty News

Research:

Prof. Royce Francis (EMSE) has been awarded a seed grant by the DC Water Resources Research Institute (DCWRRI) entitled "Integrated water use impact assessment for DC urban water infrastructure." The proposed research addresses tradeoffs with respect to expanding the physical capacity of infrastructure assets (e.g., pipes) against improving sequestration and containment measures (e.g., local stormwater containment or detention) through collaboration with customers.  The award includes a $15,000 grant from DCWRRI, with a $30,000 matching contribution from DC Water.

Prof.  Lance Hoffman (CS) was recently awarded a supplemental grant from the National Science Foundation Scholarship for Service program to run boot camps that inform new Scholarship for Service (SFS) institutional recipients about practical issues in managing their grants.  The audience is principal investigators or other officials from institutions around the country who have responsibility for grant administration.  Lessons and best practices are explained by a team of veteran mentors made up of principal investigators who have had SFS grants for several years and who have successfully educated students in cyber security and information assurance and placed their graduates into government service.

Books and Papers:

Prof. Royce Francis (EMSE) recently published a paper with collaborators from Johns Hopkins University: Francis, R.A., Falconi, S.M., Nateghi, R., Guikema, S.D. (2011).  Probabilistic life cycle analysis model for evaluating electric power infrastructure risk mitigation investments.  Climatic Change. DOI 10.1007/s10584-010-0001-9.

Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE) co-authored the following research with colleagues from Stanford University and NASA Ames: V. Olshevsky, C. Liang, F. Ham, N. N. Mansour and A. G. Kosovichev, Turbulent convection and differential rotation in spherical shells, Annual Research Brief, Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University, 2010.

Conferences and Presentations:

Prof. Michael Plesniak (MAE chair) attended the Gordon Research Conference on Stochastic Physics in Biology on January 23-28 in Ventura, CA.  This Gordon Conference focused on the interface where statistical physics meets cellular biophysics. Relevant questions included:  How do stochastic processes and dynamics affect a cell's internal structures and biochemical and genetic networks and circuitry? What are the trajectories that might contribute to cellular evolution?  How do fluctuations affect biological bifurcations?  Models and experiments for the transduction of signals and energy, motility and cell mechanics, and related topics were presented and discussed.

Prof. Enrique Campos-Nanez (EMSE) recently gave the talk "Technology Portfolio and Capacity Investments under Uncertainty" on two occasions - at the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) Annual Meeting in Austin, TX, and for the Atlantic Energy Group, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in Washington, DC.

Other:

Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) has been appointed to a two-year position as an associate editor of the International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems (IJCAS).  The bimonthly journal is published by the Institute of Control, Robotics, and Systems together with the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers, and it strives to establish a high-quality archival periodical, covering recent state-of-the-art advances and practical applications in the fields of robotics, controls, automation, and systems engineering.  IJCAS is indexed as a Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) journal, and the acceptance rate is approximately 30%.

Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) was invited by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to serve as a panelist for the 2011 ONR Summer Faculty Research Program Evaluation Panel, which will meet in late February. The ONR Summer Faculty Research Program provides an opportunity for faculty members to participate in research of mutual interest with professional peers at U.S. Navy Laboratories. 

Prof. Shelly Heller (CS) received a Fulbright fellowship entitled Fulbright Scholar.  In this program, Prof. Heller, like other Fulbright scholars, will be available as a consultant to Fulbright universities around the globe.  Her two areas of expertise are noted as educational uses of computers and the recruitment and retention of women in science, technology, education and math (STEM).

Prof. Alex Li (ECE) received an equipment donation of two Tesla C2050 GPU processors, worth approximately $5,000, from NVIDIA. The GPUs will be used in his research on hardware reliability and teaching in GPU computing.

Other News

SAVE THE DATE: The Fifth Annual SEAS Student R&D Showcase
Wednesday, February 23
3:00 - 6:00 pm
The Four Seasons Hotel
2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Come hear keynote speaker Aaron Batalion, CTO and co-founder of LivingSocial, the local startup phenomenon that just raised $175 million from Amazon.com, at a valuation of more than $1 billion, after having been started only two years ago.  His talk, "Being a Hungry Entrepreneur," will cover what it's like to be an engineer at a hot startup.  Open to the public and free, this year's R&D Showcase will feature 60 student R&D projects.  It includes a competition and cash awards.  Register at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/RDShowcase

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering recently launched a Facebook Page: GWU: Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Guest Vignette

A renewed Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute (CSPRI) has been launched within SEAS to promote research and policy analysis of computer security and privacy problems.  Led by Profs. Lance Hoffman and Costis Toregas from the Computer Science Department, its 16 associated researchers are tackling cyber security issues such as the economics of cyber security, workforce development, security economics, privacy-preserving data mining, and telemedicine security.  

Since 2002, CSPRI has awarded 59 full-ride scholarships to GW students.  It also has management responsibilities for aspects of the regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and of CyberWatch, an NSF-funded education network of over 50 academic institutions focusing on cyber security.   

CSPRI's  Wednesday public lecture series focuses on cyber security research possibilities in each GW School. Since September, law, health services, economics, and business professors have spoken and led robust luncheon discussions with students, professors, and outside experts.  (Provided courtesy of Prof. Lance Hoffman of the Department of Computer Science)

Upcoming

ECE Seminar: "Tensor Factorization for Model-free, Space-variant, Blind Deconvolution of the Single- and Multi-frame, Multi-spectral Image"
Ivica Kopriva, Ruder Boskovic Institute (Zagreb, Croatia)
Friday, February 18
10:30 - 11:30 am
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .

ECE Colloquium/IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture Series: "Magnetic Soft X-ray Microscopy: A Path Toward Imaging Magnetism Down to the Fundamental Length and Time Scales"
Dr. Peter Fischer, Center for X-ray Optics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Tuesday, February 22
4:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .

SEAS Presents: Mario Cardullo
Wednesday, March 2
3:00 - 5:00 pm
310  Marvin Center
To RSVP, email Prof. Julie Ryan at [email protected].
More info . . .

ECE Seminar: "Graphene Nanoelectronic Devices"
Dr. Osama M. Nayfeh, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate
Wednesday, March 2
2:00 - 3:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .

Engineers Week Events:

The Phoenix Project
Allyn Kilsheimer, SEAS '63
Tuesday, February 22
3:30 - 5:00 pm
113 1957 E St.
Registration is not required and alumni are encouraged to attend.

The Fifth Annual SEAS Student R&D Showcase
Wednesday, February 23
3:00 - 6:00 pm
The Four Seasons Hotel
2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Register at: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/RDShowcase

SEAS Engineering Expo: An Engineering and IT Career Fair!
Thursday, February 24
GW Marvin Center Grand Ballroom
3:00 - 3:45 pm - Q&A Panel; 3:45 - 5:30 pm - Expo
Registration is now open in GWork to SEAS students and alumni.  Register at: mygwork.gwu.edu.

Entrepreneurship Events

Follow GW Office of Entrepreneurship activities on:  Facebook: GW Office of Entrepreneurship, Twitter: GWInnovate, and www.gwu.edu/entrepreneurship.

$50K BizPlanComp: Workshop - Protect Your Intellectual Property
Wednesday, February 9
12:20 - 1:30 pm
254 Duques Hall
RSVP to: http://bpcworkshop4.eventbrite.com

$50K GW BizPlanComp: Workshop - Writing a Successful Business Plan
Two sessions:
Thursday, February 17
7:00 - 9:00 pm
553 Duques Hall

Saturday, February 19
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
553 Duques Hall
RSVP to:  http://bpcworkshop5.eventbrite.com

$50K BizPlanComp: Workshop - Product Strategy
Tuesday, February 22
6:00 - 7:00 pm
453 Duques Hall
RSVP to: http://bpcworkshop6.eventbrite.com

SEAS Seminar on Entrepreneurship: "Managing Growth"
Tuesday, February 22
6:00 - 8:30 pm
103 Funger Hall

SEAS Seminar on Entrepreneurship: "Marketing: How to Find Your Customers"
Wednesday, March 23
6:00 - 8:30 pm
103 Funger Hall

Academic Success Events

The Academic Job Search
Thomas Stowell, GSEHD
Monday, February 14
5:00 - 6:30pm                                                                    
301 Marvin Center

Funding your Dissertation Research
Geri Rypkema and Eileen Lavelle, Office of Graduate Assistantships and Fellowships
Tuesday, February 15
4:00 - 5:00pm                                                                    
302 Marvin Center