Faculty News
Research:
Dr. Gina Adam (ECE), along with collaborators from NIST and Western Digital, has received a one-year $450,000 Office of Naval Research/DARPA grant to develop memory-efficient hardware for neural network training acceleration. Dr. Adam is the principal investigator on this grant. The overarching goal of the project is to use decomposition techniques to stabilize the training of novel neural networks and reduce the hardware overhead in neuromorphic systems. With this approach, emerging analog memory devices like memristors can be used despite their imperfections, bringing this new technology closer to deployment in advanced neural network training accelerators.
Dr. Saniya LeBlanc (MAE) has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award for the project “CAREER: Interface Formation in Laser Processed Thermoelectric Materials.” This five-year, $500,000 award integrates advanced materials and manufacturing techniques to create next-generation energy devices. Additive manufacturing, particularly laser-based additive manufacturing, could enable effective materials engineering and integration as well as customizable device design for solid-state energy conversion devices that improve energy efficiency. However, very little is known about how laser processing (during which materials rapidly melt and re-solidify) impacts thermoelectric materials’ structure and properties. This project aims to discover the relationship between rapid melting and solidification and the resulting nano-, micro-, and meso-scale structures, as well as establish the impact of these structures on thermal and electrical properties of thermoelectric materials.
Dr. Roger Lang (ECE) has received a three-month, $35,000 NASA grant to explore the use of radar to measure the presence of ice under the Marian Regolith.
Publications:
Dr. Chung Hyuk Park (BME) has published the following two papers with his students and collaborators: 1) H. Javed, R. Burns, M. Jeon, A. M. Howard, and C. H. Park. “A Robotic Framework to Facilitate Sensory Experiences for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 2019; and 2) J. Barnes, S. M. FakhrHosseini, E. Vasey, C. H. Park, and M. Jeon. “Child-Robot Theater: Engaging Underrepresented Students in Informal STEAM Education Using Interactive Robots,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2020.
Media Mentions:
Dr. Lance Hoffman (CS) was quoted in the Washington Post’s January 13 article “The Cybersecurity 202: Get ready for serious cyberattacks from Iran, experts say.” The article also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Conferences and Presentations:
Dr. Payman Dehghanian (ECE) was invited for a two-week visit to both campuses of the North China Electric Power University (NCEPU), in Beijing and Baoding. There, he attended meetings with several electric industry members and collaborators. At the Baoding campus of the NCEPU, he gave an invited talk on January 6, titled “Pathways to Enhanced Resilience: Integrated Solutions for Online Situational Awareness in Power Grids.” Dr. Dehghanian is the director of the GW SmartGrid Lab.
Dr. Samer Hamdar (CEE) and his collaborators from Korea University, the Delft of University of Technology (The Netherlands), University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and the US Federal Highway Administration participated in the 99th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, held January 12-16 here in Washington, DC. The GW Transportation Program presented five papers at the meeting: 1) S. H. Hamdar, A. Talebpour, K. D’sa, V. Knoop, W. Daamen, and M. Treiber. “A Behavioral Based Pedestrian Modeling Approach: Formulation, Sensitivity Analysis, and Calibration” (Paper 20-05446); 2) M. Haque, S. Kang, and S. H. Hamdar. “Directivity and Percolation Analysis of Urban Travel Patterns: Exploratory Case Study Using Taxi Trip Data” (Paper 20-03341); 3) C. E. Silverstein, S. H. Hamdar, and A. Talebpour. “Microscopic Traffic Simulation with Collision Formation” (Paper 20-02416); 4) M. K. Hosseini, S. Devunuri, A. Talebpour, and S. H. Hamdar. “Vehicle Trajectory Data Collection Using Aerial Videography” (Paper 20-03146); and 5) D. Pan, W. Zhang, S. H. Hamdar, and S. Kang. “Short-Term Traffic Prediction and Incident Detection with Single Traffic Detector Using Recurrent Neural Network” (Paper 20-02505). Dr. Hamdar and his colleagues also organized the January 12 workshop “The Advancement of Modeling Connected and Automated Vehicles: Past and Future.” The workshop was presided over by Dr. Hamdar and featured eight presentations and nine speakers.
On January 14, Dr. Leila Farhadi (CEE) gave a talk titled “Reduced Adjoint Variational Data Assimilation for Estimation of Soil Moisture Profile” at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.
Other News:
Dr. Lorena Barba (MAE) received a $23,000 donation from Leidos, Inc. in support of a faculty development workshop to be held March 25-28 here in SEAS. The workshop will bring several early adopters of Jupyter for teaching in engineering to share their know-how about the Jupyter ecosystem and best practices for teaching engineering topics using computational thinking. Dr. Barba will co-finance the workshop using participant support funds from a National Science Foundation grant, which will allow faculty from universities across the country to travel to DC and participate. More information about the workshop will be disseminated soon.
The IEEE Communications Society has re-appointed Dr. Suresh Subramaniam (ECE) as IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for a second two-year term, running from January 2020 to December 2021.
Student News
Other News
Left to right: Dr. Jonathan Deason, Dean John Lach, Dr. Lilia Abron, Mr. Joe Cascio
EMSE Professors Joe Cascio and Jonathan Deason conducted a meeting of the SEAS Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) Advisory Board on January 17. During the meeting Dean John Lach presented a Distinguished Service Award to EEMI Board member Dr. Lilia Abron, P.E. Dr. Abron is the president and CEO of PEER Consultants, an East Coast environmental consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC. She was honored for her extensive support of the EEMI and assistance to SEAS students, having hired more than a half-dozen SEAS graduates over the past few years. All members of the EEMI Advisory Aboard can be seen on the EEMI website.
Upcoming SEAS Events
BME Seminar: “Physical Biology at the Semiconductor-enabled Bio-interfaces”
Speaker: Dr. Bhozhi Tian, University of Chicago
Wednesday, January 22
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Marvin Center, 311
Mentoring Presentation: “Mentors, Role Models, and Sponsors: How to Find One and How to Be One”
Speaker: Lynn Mayo, Co-founder and CEO, RePicture Engineering
Wednesday, January 22
6:00 pm
SEH, B1270
Guest speaker Lynn Mayo has worked for more than 30 years as a consultant on a wide range of projects for local, state, and federal clients. She was appointed by the Montgomery County, Maryland County Executive to serve as the Academic and Scientific Community Representative on the County’s Water Advisory Group from 1999 to 2005. This event is co-sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers’ National Capitol Section Younger Members Forum, and the SEAS Center for Women in Engineering. All are welcome.
George Hacks Medical Solutions Hackathon 2020
Saturday and Sunday, January 25 and 26
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
SEH, B1 Level
GW’s third annual medical hackathon will feature healthcare organizations in the DMV area. Students will form teams of two to four people, select one of the proposed challenges, and then take 24 hours to problem solve with expert mentors, technical supplies, workshops, and free food at their disposal. Problem statements may be patient-specific or involve a systematic issue relevant to the function of the presenting organization. Each team’s goal is to develop a working prototype, which may be an app, device, systems process, business model, or other that will be judged against the other prototypes at the end of the event. Visit the George Hacks website to register and learn more!
Negotiation Workshop: “Getting What You Want and When to Say No”
Wednesday, January 29
4:45 – 6:00 pm
SEH, 2000
Throughout your career, when interviewing for a job, working on a team or seeking a raise/bonus/promotion, you need to have negotiation skills. Soak up expert advice, role-playing, Q&A and take-away tips in a one-hour workshop, presented by SEAS Center for Women in Engineering (WiE) and Ellen Kandell Esq., president of Alternative Resolutions. All SEAS students, faculty, staff and alumni are welcome! Register via your Handshake account, and contact the WiE if you have questions!
BME Seminar: “Designing Robots for Human Interaction”
Speaker: Dr. Bilge Mutlu, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Wednesday, February 5
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
SEH, B1270
Entrepreneurship News & Events
2020 GW New Venture Competition: Applications are due Wednesday, February 5 at 1:00 pm. Apply
Information Session: AccelerateGW Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program
Wednesday, January 22
12:30 – 2:00 pm (Free sandwiches will be provided)
1922 F Street, NW (Old Main)
RSVP
The AccelerateGW I-Corps™ program is a lean startup boot-camp for university researchers sponsored by the National Science Foundation that enables researchers to validate the commercial potential of their research. It is free and open to all GW research faculty, graduate students, and post-docs. In addition to the training program, GW faculty, post-docs, staff, and students may be eligible for funding (up to $3,000) for the two-week introduction to I-Corps course (Apply), or for the seven-week I-Corps National Program (up to $50,000).
2020 GW New Venture Competition 101: Insider Tips on How to Compete and Win
Dates: Tuesday, January 21 | Thursday, January 23 | Monday, January 27 | Wednesday, January 29
5:30 – 6:30 pm
GW I+E Lab (2000 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, 7th Floor)
Register
Did you know that the GW New Venture Competition (GW NVC) is one of the largest collegiate entrepreneurship competitions in the country? GW students like you will be vying for over $500,000 in cash and prizes because they know that this cash, mentorship, and concept validation will take their careers to the next level! Join us for an information session that gives you tips to help you be successful in the competition.
Food Innovation Panel and Networking Event with Union Kitchen & TwentyTables
Tuesday, January 28
5:00 – 7:00 pm
GW I+E Lab (2000 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, 7th Floor)
Register
DC has become one of the most innovative food hubs in the country. From Sweetgreen to &pizza, many chefs and food innovators call DC home. In collaboration with Union Kitchen and TwentyTables, we are bringing some of the top executives in the DC startup food industry to talk, meet, and connect with up-and-coming GW food innovators.
2020 GW New Venture Competition 101 Webinars: Insider Tips on How to Compete and Win
Dates & Times:
Wednesday, January 29 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Thursday, January 30 | 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Saturday, February 1 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Webex
More information
Did you know that the GW New Venture Competition (GW NVC) is one of the largest collegiate entrepreneurship competitions in the country? GW students like you will be vying for over $500,000 in cash and prizes because they know that this cash, mentorship, and concept validation will take their careers to the next level! Join us for a webinar that gives you tips to help you be successful in the competition.
Jumpstart 1-Day Bootcamp: Health and Wellness Innovation
Saturday, February 1
9:00 am – 5:30 pm
Gelman Library, Room 301-302
Register
The GW Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, in partnership with Ycenter, presents the Jumpstart Bootcamp: Health and Wellness Innovation, an experiential and interactive bootcamp focused on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages across the globe as aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #3 (UN SDG #3): Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. No previous knowledge about UN SDG’s is necessary to attend.
External Events
Environmentally Sustainable Procurement Policymaking Project
Friday, February 7
8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Jacob Burns Moot Court Room (2000 H Street, NW)
More information/register
The project will introduce students to innovative problem-solving by examining specific policy implementation challenges in the area of environmentally sustainable government procurement and by providing a methodology for addressing problems through hands-on instruction, customer discovery, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. This project is open to all GW students.
Attend “Silent Sky” Play at Ford’s Theater: The SEAS Center for Women in Engineering (WiE) has secured special $23 tickets for GW students interested in attending “Silent Sky,” a play about Henrietta Leavitt, American astronomer, to be performed Saturday, February 8 at 2:00 pm. After the show, Ford’s Theater director will host a brief “talk-back” about how she came to direct the show. Contact WiE for discounted ticket information.
Human Resources News
Please visit this week's HR Corner, where HR manager Marion Flythe-Inman shares the most recent GW HR news and updates regarding:
- Enhanced tuition benefits for faculty and staff
- The performance management schedule
- SEAS staffing updates
- New SEAS employment opportunities
- Benefits reminders