January 18-23, 2011

Newsletter

January 18, 2011

Faculty News

Media Mentions:

On January 6, Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) was featured on Today, an international radio program on China Radio International.  The title of the live, hour-long panel discussion was: Will Robots Change Our World As Much As the Internet Has?  Other panelists included Mary King, CRI editor, and Prof. Hugo de Garis of Wuhan University. To listen to the show's recording, click here and choose to listen to "Hour 1."

Awards & Honors:

Prof. Lijie (Grace) Zhang (MAE) was awarded a 2011 John Haddad Young Investigator Award by the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) on December 16.  As the award's recipient, she will present her research at the AIMM-ASBMR John Haddad Young Investigators Meeting, April 4-8, 2011, in Snowmass, CO. On December 27, Prof. Zhang also received a 2011 Pilot Projects Award from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National Medical Center (CTSI-CN) to support her research, entitled "Biologically Inspired 3D Nanostructured Bone Substitutes for Children Bone Repair and Regeneration."

Research:

Profs. Zhenyu Li and Mona Zaghloul (both of ECE) recently received a $30,000 Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies Award from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National (CTSI-CN).  In this project, Profs. Li and Zaghloul will combine their expertise on microfluidics and CMOS MEMS technology to develop a "Miniaturized Biosensor for Fast Screening of Infant Patients' Serostatus or Genotype Using Small Volume (<50uL) Heel Prick Whole Blood Samples." 

Papers:

Profs. Thomas Mazzchui and Shahram Sarkani (EMSE) recently published the following papers with their students, Pavel Fomin and Tiffany Lewis: 1) P. Fomin, S. Sarkani, and T. A. Mazzuchi. "Growing the house of quality," Systems Research Forum, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2010, pp. 137-149; and 2) T. Lewis, T. A. Mazzuchi, and S. Sarkani. "A statistical approach to the development of program plans utilizing Bayesian methods and expert judgment," Defense Acquisition Review Journal, January 2011, pp. 45-61.

Conferences & Presentations:

Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE) published a paper entitled "An artificial compressibility method for the spectral difference solution of unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on multiple grids" (paper number AIAA-2011-48), at the 49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, January 2011, Orlando, FL. He also chaired a session of "High-order numerical methods on unstructured grids" at the meeting.  The meeting included the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition.

Prof. Michael Plesniak (MAE chair) attended the 49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting on January 4-7 in Orlando, FL.  He and Prof. Helen Reed (Texas A&M University) co-chaired Session 55-FD-15: Computational Transition and Turbulence.  Prof. Plesniak serves as a member of several committees, and participated in the AIAA (national) Public Policy Committee meeting, the annual meeting of the Aerospace Department Chairs Association, and the Experimental and Theoretical Fluid Dynamics subcommittee. 

Prof. Michael Stankosky (EMSE) gave an invited lecture on knowledge management (KM) at the Hong Kong KM Society meeting on December 7-8 . He also served as an external examiner on a PhD committee at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Other:

Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE) was invited by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) to serve on the panel for the 2011 Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarships, which will meet January 21-23.  The SMART Scholarship for Service Program has been established by the DoD to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The program aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at DoD laboratories.

Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE) was invited to serve as a reviewer for DOE SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) proposals in January 2011.

Staff News

Ms. Kelley Stokes recently joined the SEAS communications team, where she will work on projects alongside Joanne Welsh and Grayson De Ritis. Kelley received her BA in English from GW in May 2010 and is currently pursuing an MPA in nonprofit communications through the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. As a first year Presidential Administrative Fellow (PAF), Kelley is heavily involved in the GW community. Prior to arriving at SEAS, she worked for the Division of Development and Alumni Relations, where she led the 2010 Senior Class Gift Campaign and served as a development officer for the Luther Rice Society. As an undergraduate, she was involved in diverse University programs and organizations such as Colonial Inauguration, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the GW Troubadours acapella group.

Other News

Mr. Bryan Koon, a 2004 graduate of the Engineering Management Crisis, Emergency and Risk Management Graduate Certificate Program, was appointed the director of emergency management for the State of Florida (effective February 1, 2011) by Governor Rick Scott.  Mr. Koon is currently the director of emergency management for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a position he has held since 2005.

Guest Vignette

Take one part innovation, add two parts ingenuity, stir in some music and some hobbyist electronics, and what do you get?  A whole new way to teach systems engineering to our undergraduates.  Prof. Michael Duffey rolls out this concept for the first time in the Spring 2011 semester as part of EMSE's efforts to redefine our systems engineering undergraduate program in new and exciting ways.  Prof. Duffey has developed this new approach that integrates principles from math, physics, electronics, and engineering in a project-focused effort in designing and creating systems that achieve specific goals.  The concept has already created excitement and enthusiasm, even before the semester began.  By the end of the semester, the EMSE Department expects to be serenaded at every turn with symphonies of electronically generated music proving the quality of the systems developed.  (Provided courtesy of Prof. Julie Ryan chair of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering)

Upcoming

ECE Colloquium: Continuum Fusion: A New School of Thought in Non-Bayesian Detection Theory
Alan Schaum, Naval Research Laboratory
Wednesday, January 19
2:00 - 3:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .

MAE Seminar:  "Corona Streamer Discharge Processing to Reduce Bacterial Adhesion on Surfaces of Biomedical Implants"
Ibrahim Al-Hamarneh, Ph.D., Washington State University Pullman and Al-Balqa' Applied University (Jordan)
Monday, January 24
1:00 - 2:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .

Institute for Biomedical Engineering Colloquia: "Nanophotonics and Microfluidics: Tools for Single Cell Biology and Medical Diagnostics"
Prof. Zhenyu Li, ECE
Tuesday,January 25
1:00 - 2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .

MAE Seminar: Recent Developments in the Viscous Flux Formulations for the High Order
Spectral Volume Navier Stokes Solver
Dr. Ravishekar (Ravi) Kannan, Research Engineer, CFD Research Corporation
Friday, January 28
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
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
Phillips Hall 640
More info . . .

Entrepreneurship Events

Follow GW Office of Entrepreneurship activities on:  Facebook: GW Office of Entrepreneurship and Twitter: GWInnovate

BrazenCareerist Networking Roulette
Note: New Date: Tuesday, January 18
6:00 - 7:00 pm

$50K GW BizPlanComp: Workshop - Writing an Executive Summary
Two sessions:
Thursday, January 20
7:00 - 8:00 pm
553 Duques Hall

Saturday, January 22
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
553 Duques Hall
More info . . .

SEAS Entrepreneurship Seminar Series
Building Your Early Stage Startup Team
Wednesday, January 26
6:00 - 8:30 pm
103 Funger Hall
More info . . .

GW Business Plan Competition
Materials due: Monday, January 31, 2011
More info . . .