Faculty News
Research:
Prof. Zhenyu Li (ECE) has received a $95,000 NSF sub-award for the project: "Collaborative Research: Design and Implementation of Position-Encoded 3D Microarrays." In collaboration with researchers at Caltech and Washington University in St. Louis, Prof. Li's group will help design and implement the next generation 3D protein/DNA microarrays with position-encoded microspheres by combining microfluidics, optical imaging, and statistical signal processing.
Media Mentions:
Prof. Abdou Youssef (CS) was interviewed by Computerworld for an article titled “Foreign students now a majority in computer science grad schools,” which appeared on March 11. Recently published data by the Computing Research Association (CRA), showing an increase of international students in computer science programs in the US, are in line with what the Department of Computer Science master's degree program in SEAS has experienced in the last two years. The data account partially for the sharp rise in master's degree program enrollments in SEAS-CS, as highlighted in a recent GW Hatchet article, "Computer science program enrollment surges."
Conferences & Presentations:
Prof. Rachael Jonassen (EMSE part time faculty) presented the keynote talk at the Environmental and Water Resources Institute, held March 7 in Sacramento, CA. The meeting focused on challenges for realigning regulations so water managers can respond to climate change. Prof. Jonassen's talk was titled "Managing for Uncertainty: The New Reality in Contemporary Climate Change Adaptations for the Water Industry."
Prof. Volker Sorger (ECE) gave an invited talk, titled "Modern Photovoltaics and Economic Impact," to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at the Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (ASIR). He presented on February 28 in New Delhi, India.
Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber (EMSE) attended IEEE Aerospace in Big Sky, MT, the week of March 4. There, she gave the management engineering and cost track keynote, "An Epoch-Shock view of space technology innovation management: Insights from NASA." Morgan Dwyer, a student she co-advises at MIT, also presented their paper, “The Impact of Technical Complexity on the Decision to Collaborate or Combine.”
Prof. Costis Toregas (CS) gave the keynote lecture at a conference of the European Environment Agency, held March 4-6 in Dublin, Ireland. He spoke about inherent risks in sharing data across organizations and ways to use public-private partnerships to promote effective use of satellite data and GIS in making policy choices for the environment.
Other News:
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) has been invited by the Hong Kong University Grants Council (UGC) to serve as a member of the Engineering Panel in the upcoming Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The UGC is an advisory committee appointed by the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Its main functions are to advise the government on the strategic development and resource requirements of higher education in Hong Kong, and to allocate funding to its eight funded universities, including the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The University of Hong Kong. Since 1993, the UGC has conducted four RAEs, seven years apart, to assess the research quality of institutions and to encourage world-class research. Prof. Chong's appointment is for the period March 2013 to April 2015.
Guest Vignette:
Of the four million babies born in the United States every year, almost a third are delivered via Caesarian section. In many cases, the C-Section, which has nearly eliminated the transfer of HIV from mother to child, allows women experiencing serious pregnancy-related complications, such as pre-eclampsia, to give birth before their life is threatened. However, this procedure is not without substantial risks to both the mother and newborn. For cases of severe maternal or fetal distress, the benefits of the surgery outweigh the risks. However, a better understanding of the mechanics of delivery may reduce the need for C-sections in less severe cases, such as prolonged labors and slightly abnormal fetal presentations.
I study the fundamental fluid dynamics of the human birthing process. The laboring uterus is a complex fluid system. The pulsing, elastic boundary interacts directly with the (mostly) solid fetus and with the amniotic fluid, which pushes on the baby. Additionally, there is a continuous flux of fluid in the uterus throughout. There are many aspects to this problem that we study in the Leftwich Lab: the shape of the uterine wave, the strength of the uterine muscles, the position and size of the fetus, and the volume and properties of the amniotic fluid. Specifically, we are using experiments to determine the role of the amniotic fluid in transferring force from the uterus to the fetus. We expect that our biophysical findings will lead to clinical guidelines in the delivery room. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Megan Leftwich of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)
SEAS Events:
MAE Faculty Candidate Seminar: “Nanogenerator for Self-Powered System and the New Concept of Piezo-Phototronics”
Faculty Candidate: Youfan Hu, research scientist, School of Materials Science and Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Monday, March 18
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
ECE Colloquium: " Biomedical Technology Transfer and Commercialization"
Dr. H. Chopra
Monday, March 18
2:00 - 3:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
CS Colloquium: “Hardening Code without a Large Trusted Computing Base”
Dr. Greg Morrisett, Harvard University
Monday, March 18
4:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "Biomechanical Regulation of Blood Vessel Formation: Insights Using Microscale Technology"
Jonathan Song, post-doctoral fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Thursday, March 21
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "The Mechanism of Axi-Asymmetric Mass Transfer Phenomenon Behind an Orifice in a Curved Swirling Flow"
Dr. Nobuyuki Fujisawa, Niigata University, Japan
Monday, March 25
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
ECE Faculty Candidate Colloquium: “Compressed Sensing in Computed Tomography”
Faculty Candidate: Dr. Hengyong Yu, director of the CT Lab and assistant professor, Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Tuesday, March 26
1:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
MAE Faculty Candidate Seminar: “Warm-blooded Plastics: Bio-inspired Solutions to Smart Material Systems"
Ximin (Tracy) He, Ph.D., Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University
Tuesday, March 26
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
ECE Faculty Candidate Colloquium: “Scalable and Flexible Bulk Architecture”
Faculty Candidate: Xuehai Qian, Ph.D. candidate, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Thursday, March 28
11:00 am
640 Phillips Hall
ECE Faculty Candidate Colloquium: “Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging of Tissue Metabolism”
Faculty Candidate: Dr. Mahsa Ranji, assistant professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Monday, April 1
11:00 am
640 Phillips Hall
ECE Faculty Candidate Colloquium
Faculty Candidate: Dr. Hoang Le
Talk title: TBA
Tuesday, April 2
1:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
Free COMSOL Multiphysics Workshop at GW
Host: Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi (MAE)
Thursday, April 4
Please choose the session most convenient to you; both workshops are identical:
AM Session:
9:30 - 11:00 am: Intro and Live Demo
11:00 am - 12:30 pm: Hands-on Session
PM Session:
1:30 - 3:00 pm: Intro and Live Demo
3:00 - 4:30 pm: Hands-on Session
736 Phillips Hall
2013 Frank Howard Distinguished Lecture: "Promoting Cutting Edge Research: The Impact of the U.S. Navy"
Speaker: Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research
Wednesday, April 17
6:15 - 9:00 pm
103 Funger Hall
As the Chief of Naval Research, RADM Klunder coordinates, executes and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, distributing approximately $2 billion in funds annually.
Dissertation Defenses:
Name of Student Defending: Harry Cornel Shaw
Title of Dissertation: “Genomics and Proteomics Based Security Protocols for Secure Network Architectures”
Advisor: Prof. Hermann Helgert
Wednesday, March 20
1:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
Name of Student Defending: Qianyi Zhao
Title of Dissertation: “Methodology of Modeling Multiple Scattering Effects in Microwave Remote Sensing of Vegetation”
Advisor: Prof. Roger Lang
Tuesday, March 26
10:00 am
640 Phillips Hall