Faculty News
Research:
Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE) has received a one-year, $16,000 NSF award for his proposal “Conference proposal: International Symposium on High-Order Methods for Computational Fluid Dynamic.” The conference will be held July 26-30 in San Diego, CA.
Publications:
Prof. Michael Keidar (MAE) has published the following paper: P. Babington, K. Rajjoub, J. Canady, A. Siu, M. Keidar, and J. H. Sherman, “Use of cold atmospheric plasma in the treatment of cancer," Biointerphases, Vol. 10, Issue 2.
Prof. Zhenyu Li (BME), his Ph.D. student Alan Guan, and BME undergraduate students Aditi Shenoy and Richard Smith have published the following paper: A. Guan, A. Shenoy, R. Smith, and Z.Y. Li, “Streamline based design guideline for deterministic microfluid hydrodynamic single cell traps,” Biomicrofluidics 9, 024103 (2015).
Profs. Thomas Mazzuchi and Shahram Sarkani (EMSE) and their graduate student have published the following paper: J. M. Fossaceca, T. A. Mazzuchi, and S. Sarkani, “MARK-ELM: Application of a novel multiple kernel learning framework for improving the robustness of network intrusion detection,” Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 42, Issue 8, 2015, pp. 4062-4080.
Prof. Volker Sorger (ECE) was awarded the journal cover for his recent publication: K. Liu, Z. R. Li, S. Khan, C. Ye, and V. J. Sorger, “Ultra-fast electro-optic modulators for high-density photonic integration,” Laser & Photonics Review, 10, 1, p.11-15 (2015). This indicates the importance of the work given that the high impact factor of the journal is 9.3.
Media Mentions:
Prof. Rachelle Heller (CS) was featured in the March 18 Washington Post article “Women in STEM will be ahead of the game.” (The Washington Post link is no longer available).
Presentations:
Prof. Lorena Barba (MAE) participated in the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), where she organized (by invitation) the featured mini-symposium, “Fast Multipole Methods Maturing at 30 Years,” and gave the talk “Overview of the Field and the Community of Fast Multipole Methods.” She also was invited to speak at the “Teaching Computational Thinking and Practice” mini-symposium, during which she gave the talk “Teaching Computing to Engineers.” In addition, she was a panelist in the session “The Future of CSE as a Discipline.” At the GPU Technology Conference, held March 17–20, Prof. Barba was an invited panelist in the “Fostering Inclusiveness in Computing” session, which was covered in the Nvidia company.
Prof. Poorvi Vora (CS) was invited to participate in the plenary panel “Blue Skies/Blank Check” at the annual conference of the Election Verification Network (EVN), which is a nonpartisan network of professionals committed to election integrity. Its membership includes “voting activists, computer scientists, election law and voting rights attorneys, academic experts, election officials, civil rights advocates and more.” Attendance at the conference was open to EVN members and invited guests only.
Prof. Adam Wickenheiser (MAE) and his graduate student Akash Dhruv attended the SPIE 2015 Smart Structures/Non-Destructive Evaluation Conference, held March 9-12 in San Diego, CA. Akash presented the following paper: A. V. Dhruv, C. J. Blower, and A. M. Wickenheiser, “A three dimensional unsteady iterative panel method with vortex particle wakes and boundary layer model for bio-inspired multi-body wings.” Prof. Wickenheiser chaired the ASME Energy Harvesting Technical Committee meeting under the Aerospace Division, Adaptive Structures & Material Systems Branch.
Prof. Timothy Wood (CS) co-chaired the IEEE International Workshop on Cloud Analytics, held March 12 in Tempe, AZ. He also presented the paper “Cloud-Scale Application Performance Monitoring with SDN and NFV," written with his graduate student Guyue Liu.
Other News:
Prof. Rachael Jonassen (visiting scholar and part-time faculty, EMSE and CPS) serves on the Oversight Committee of the Association of Climate Change Officers. This group is designing certification standards for “climate change officers” who must make policy and business decisions affected by climate change. Her principal foci within ACCO include uses of climate change science and appropriate pedagogic approaches to education standards. These standards address the new climate education requirements included in President Obama’s Executive Order on climate change, issued on March 19, 2015. Dr. Jonassen helped shape portions of that executive order as a consultant to the General Services Administration. More information on the ACCO certificate is available here.
Prof. Claire Monteleoni (CS) has been invited to serve as an area chair on the program committees of both ICML 2015 and NIPS 2015. These are the two top international conferences in her field, machine learning.
Prof. Volker Sorger (ECE) held the first Design-Thinking workshop on March 19. Design-thinking is a new way of collaborative emphatic ideation, followed by rapid prototyping. The workshop was co-organized by Prof. Sorger and Mike Deem from Peer Insight, an innovation consulting firm in Washington, DC.
Prof. Suresh Subramaniam (ECE) has accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial board of the IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networking.
Student News
Colin Parker, a Ph.D. student advised by Prof. Megan Leftwich (MAE), has been selected as a Metropolitan Washington Chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (MWC/ARCS) Foundation Scholar for 2015-2016.
Other News
Graduate Recruiting & Admissions: Brittany Wright recently recruited at the following sites in India: Vellore Institute of Technology, in Vellore; Anna University and Panimalar Engineering College, in Chennai; Chaitanya Engineering College and Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology & Sciences, in Visakhapatnam; J.B. Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Bapuji Institute of Science and Technology, and Annamacharya Institute of Technology and Science, in Hyderabad; Acharya Institute of Technology, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Ramaiah Institute of Technology, P. E. S. Institute of Technology, and Global Academy of Technology, in Bangalore; and ATME College of Engineering, and Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, in Mysore. She also held an admitted students reception and workshop at the Institution of Engineers, in Hyderabad, and an admitted students event on behalf of the University in Bangalore.
Adina Lav hosted a university-wide admitted students reception in Chengdu, China, and a SEAS-only admitted students reception in Beijing. She also completed a site visit to Beijing Normal University, with whom SEAS has signed an MOU. Winnie Carr recruited at the National Association of Black Engineers annual conference in Anaheim, CA; and Anthony Spatola is holding a number of online information sessions and admitted students information sessions.
Please save the date for an Open House in the SEH on April 30. Fall 2015 registration opens on March 23. For a complete list of programs. As a reminder, all requests for graduate coordinators should be sent to [email protected].
SEAS Graduate Career Services: The SEAS Graduate Career Service Team hosted the March 18 Public Speaking: Elevator Pitch Workshop, which gave students guidance and time to practice their elevator pitches. Students also will have an opportunity to practice articulating their skill sets at the International Coffee Hour on Thursday, March 26. The team also met with the International Services Office to discuss OPT and CPT workshops, as well as tracking students as they accept internship and job positions. Chalvonna Smith is speaking with Northramp, an IT Startup Firm looking for masters level students with an interest in information systems/systems analysis. Weekly Featured Graduate Career Services Informational Resource:
8 Reasons This is an Ideal Resume for Someone with a Lot of Work Experience.
Guest Vignette
Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber’s group specializes in designing research that brings hard-to-collect empirical evidence to bear on entrenched policy debates. One ongoing example is work with Ph.D. student Samantha Marquart on the impact and cost of government oversight activities on aerospace system development.
Oversight – the activities performed by government acquirers and imposed on their contractor base to ensure that high-reliability systems function as intended – adds costs, compared to commercial equivalents. The debate is not over whether oversight is necessary and adds cost – it is, and it does – the question is one of how much and what kind? The following two perspectives capture the contrasting views:
“There is suggestive evidence that the cost of government-driven mission assurance and current Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) increase costs by factors of 3-5 times, not just 20-30%” – Dr. Scott Pace, Congressional Testimony
“The service [Air Force] expects that mission assurance activities, such as tests and validation work, cost 2-5% of the total price of a rocket stack. This is cheap insurance in contrast to the price of losing a satellite that could cost more than $1 billion.” Brig. Gen. Roger Teague, Director of Strategic Plans, Programs and Analysis at Air Force Space Command (quoted in Aviation Week and Space News).
One major challenge in resolving these differences is the dearth of empirical evidence. Valid, granular time allocation data that spans a sector is notoriously difficult to obtain because it is both sensitive to the industry and plagued by methodological issues surrounding human memory. To overcome these challenges, and move the discussion forward, we are conducting a two-part study that: 1) unpacks the mechanisms through which oversight-related requests affect engineering work at the contractor-level, and 2) measures time allocated by engineers to these activities as part of their normal jobs. The latter is enabled by a novel application of instantaneous sampling: ~2000 engineers at a major defense contractor respond to a 10-second web-enabled survey of their current task, two times a day over the period of six months. Together this builds the basis for linking oversight to working-level activities and eventually distinguishing non-value added components of oversight. Results will be reported within the year. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber, Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering)
SEAS Events
CEE Seminar: “Introduction to Blast Engineering”
Presenter: David Keller, PE, Senior Engineer, Weidlinger Associates, Inc.
Thursday, March 26
2:15 – 3:45 pm
Marvin Center, Room 311
MAE Seminar: “Predictive Mechanics of Two Health-Related Issues: Cortical Folding and Cell-Nanoparticle Interactions”
Presenter: Dr. Xianqiao (XQ) Wang, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Monday, March 30
10:00 am
SEH 3845
External Events
22nd Global Environment for Network Innovators (GENI) Engineering Conference (GEC22) and US Ignite Application Summit
Monday – Thursday, March 23-26
Hilton Crystal City Hotel at Washington Reagan National Airport
Demo Night: Tuesday, March 24 at GW’s SEH (4:30 – 7:30 pm)
Registration
The 22nd Global Environment for Network Innovators (GENI) Engineering Conference (GEC22) and US Ignite Application Summit will be hosted by GW, March 23-26, 2015. GENI Engineering Conferences (GEC) are regular open working meetings where researchers, developers, industrial and international partners and the GENI Project Office meet to advance infrastructure planning and prototyping for the GENI project. The GEC focuses on how to design and build a suite of infrastructure that can best inspire and support creative research. The conference is open to all. During the conference a Demo Night will be held on the GW Campus at the SEH. The purpose is to visit tables where technology research is demonstrated. For more information.
GW Federal Business Technology Case Competition
Registration deadline: 5:00 pm on Tuesday, March 31st
This competition is sponsored by Deloitte Consulting for undergraduate students. It gives students the chance to experience a simulated consulting project over the course of approximately four weeks, while working in self-assigned project teams. It is designed to provide a realistic representation of a "Day in the Life of a Deloitte Business Technology Analyst." In this exercise, students act as the Deloitte team responsible for helping a federal client reach its goals. The team's mission is to recommend to the client their best course of action. To participate, please form a team of 2-3 members and contact Casey Welch with your team name, the members of your group, and your contact information. Additional information will follow after registration has ended.
SEAS Career Center News
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) 2015 Summer Technical College Intern Program-07251
Deadline to apply: March 31, 2015
APL seeks talented college students in the summer to help us solve challenging technical problems. The College Summer Internship Program offers practical work experience and an introduction to APL for engineering and science majors. APL seeks engineering and science majors (predominantly EE and CS), and it typically (but not exclusively) hires rising juniors and seniors.
American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Research Information Intern
The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is seeking a Research Information Intern to work with AAPM headquarters staff and volunteers on matters relating to membership informatics and computational tools for AAPM research activities. The internship location is College Park, MD/Alexandria, VA, and the pay rate is $23/hour. Essential functions include: data mining, statistics, and analytical modeling; development of software applications and documentation; data selection, extraction, and curation for corporate applications; needs analysis of AAPM researchers and technical solution design; and identification of software and tools needed to satisfy the above functions. To apply, please contact the Human Resources Division of the American Institute of Physics at [email protected].
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Internship: Industrial-Systems Engineer
The NIH seeks students at all levels to complete 3-4 months of full-time internship experience before they graduate. Students will be given a project, mentor, and guidance, and will attend a number of high level meetings. Requirements: U.S. citizenship, 3.0 GPA or higher, and interest in working for the Federal Government. Interested students should contact [email protected] at NIH Corporate Recruitment.
Student Career Development Opportunities
2015 Public Health & Health Services Career Fair
Tuesday, March 24
3:00 – 6:00 pm
This event is hosted by the Milken Institute School of Public Health and will take place in their Convening Center (950 New Hampshire Avenue NW). To find out more details and to RSVP please visit: 2015 Public Health & Health Services Career Fair.
Case Interviewing Workshop
Wednesday, March 25 (Tentative date)
4:00 – 5:00 pm
SEH 2000B
Hosted by the Graduate Career Services Team
International Coffee Hour
Thursday, March 26
4:00 – 5:00 pm
SEH 2000B
Hosted by the Graduate Career Services Team
- Google will visit GW on April 10. More details to come.
- Crown Consulting is looking for junior developers and will hold an information session on March 23. (GWork #814739)
- DME Consulting is looking for an HVAC MEP designer as soon as possible (GWork #816643).
- Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is looking for a computer systems research lab instructor (GWork #816610).
Entrepreneurship News & Events
Dolphin Tank at GW
Wednesday, March 25
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Duques Hall, Room 255
RSVP
GW Business Plan Competition Finals
Tuesday, April 14
Register
The GW Business Plan Competition will award more than $200,000 in prizes to teams of GW students, faculty, and alumni who offer innovative ideas for new products and/or services. 10 finalist teams will present their business plans to a panel of distinguished entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, and a live audience.
Doctoral Dissertations
Student’s Name: Teng Li
Dissertation Title: “Efficient Virtualization and Scheduling of Productive GPU-based High Performance Computing Systems”
Advisor: Prof. Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE)
Tuesday, March 24
1:00 pm
SEH 5845