June 11 - 24, 2012

Newsletter

June 11, 2012

Faculty News

Research:

Prof. Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE) has received a new five-year award from the National Science Foundation to extend the NSF Industry/University Center for High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing (CHREC) through April 2017. The exact level of funding of CHREC is determined by its membership base-where each membership is $35,000-and government supplemental funding. In its first five-year phase, CHREC at GW received close to $1.5 million in funding, and its membership base included Intel, SGI, HP, NSA, NRO, ARSC, and AFRL. The most recent additions to CHREC membership at GW are NRO and AMD. In addition to graduate student support, CHREC has offered several undergraduate students internships under the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. NSF Industry/University Research Centers can be renewed by NSF for up to 15 years, after which centers are expected to be self-sufficient relying only on industrial support.

Papers:

Prof. Vesna Zderic (ECE) , together with her former Ph.D. student Shutao Wang and her collaborators from GW's Department of Ophthalmology, has recently published the following manuscript: Wang S, Mahesh S, Liu J, Geist C, Zderic V. "Focused Ultrasound Facilitated Thermo-chemotherapy for Targeted Retinoblastoma Treatment: A Modeling Study," Experimental Eye Research, 2012 Apr 28. [E-publication ahead of print].

Prof. Tianshu Li (CEE), has published the following paper: Tianshu Li, "Ideal strength and phonon instability in single-layer MoS2", Physical Review B 85, 235407 (2012). The paper demonstrates that by applying quantum simulation method based on density function perturbation theory, Prof. Li has identified the intrinsic deformation mechanism of single layer MoS2, a new, two-dimensional material that is a very promising candidate for next generation field-effect transistor, flexible electronics, optoelectronics, and energy harvesting material.

Profs. James D. Lee and Chunlei Liang (both of MAE) and their former student James Chen have published a paper titled "Numerical Simulation for Unsteady Compressible Micropolar Fluid Flow" in Computer and Fluids.

Profs. Chunlei Liang and Elias Balaras (both of MAE) have published a book review titled "Verification and Validation in Scientific Computing" in an Elsevier review journal Progress in Aerospace Sciences.

Conferences and Presentations:

Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) made a presentation on "Nanotechnology in Civil Infrastructures" at the Forum on Anti-Seismic Technology on May 26 in Nanjing, China. He also gave a series of lectures on sustainability and mechanics at the South East University in Nanjing. South East University is a top university supported by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Prof. Tim Wood (CS) and his student Jinho Hwang published a paper titled "Adaptive Dynamic Priority Scheduling for Virtual Desktop Infrastructures" at the 20th International Workshop on Quality of Service (IWQoS) in Coimbra, Portugal on June 4. Jinho presented the paper and received a Best Student Paper award for the work.

On May 30, the Institute for Magnetics Research took part in TJSTAR 2012 (Thomas Jefferson Symposium To Advance Research) at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, VA. IMR members presented two topics in magnetics: 1) Prof. Lawrence Bennett (ECE) gave two tutorial lectures on "Recognition of Cancer in vivo by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance," and 2) graduate students Maryam Ovichi and Hatem ElBidweihy exhibited and explained a poster display, "Exploration of Energy Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Magnetic Refrigeration Systems," all day. Graduate students Mohammadreza Ghahremani and Yi Jin produced the poster.

Other News:

Prof. Kim Roddis completes her second four-year term as chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department on June 30. She will be on sabbatical for AY12-13 and will be a faculty fellow with the Honors Program at the Mount Vernon Campus for Fall 2012. In December 2011, Prof. Majid Manzari was elected by the CEE faculty to succeed Prof. Roddis as chair of the department. He will begin a four-year term on June 30.

Editor's note: A belated congratulations to the SEAS students and their faculty mentors who won first, second, and third place prizes in the 2012 Pelton Award for Outstanding Senior Project competition:

First Place:
ECE: Thomas Bergen, Ashley Friend, Alexandros Sofianos
Project Title: Ultrasound Based Shoe Bomb Detector
Faculty mentors: Profs. Vesna Zderic and Tom Manuccia

Second Place:
MAE: Allison Hogarth and David Perry
Project Title: Moving Side View Mirror for Blind Spot Detection
Faculty mentor: Prof. Andrew Cutler (with assistance from Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi)

Third Place:
ECE (Biomedical Engineering): Ester Akinnagbe, Samah Beg, and Taylor Gould
Project Title: Phantoms of the Breast and Breast Cancer Lesions for X-ray Imaging Systems
Faculty mentor: Prof. Jason Zara

Prof. Kim Roddis (CEE) reports that Clay Myers, a part-time CEE faculty member, passed away on April 27 in Vienna, VA. Prof. Roddis writes, "Clay was a valued member of our part-time faculty for many years. He was a very capable and caring instructor, and our students benefited from his extensive experience in contracts and specifications."