March 4-10, 2013

Newsletter

March 4, 2013

Faculty News

Publications:

Prof. Zhenyu Li (ECE) and his collaborators at Washington University in St. Louis have published the following paper on biomicrofluidics: Xiaoxiao Xu*, Pinaki Sarder*, Zhenyu Li*, and Arye Nehorai., "Optimization of microfluidic microsphere-trap arrays," Biomicrofluidics 7, 014112 (2013). *Equal contributions

Advances In Engineering has invited Prof. Michael Plesniak (MAE) to feature online an article that he published recently with his former graduate student, Stephane Poussou. The article, “Vortex dynamics and scalar transport in the wake of a bluff body driven through a steady recirculating flow,” is available to the wider engineering community on the Advances In Engineering website.

Conferences and Presentations:

Prof. Philippe Bardet (MAE) gave a seminar titled “Micro-physics of Air Entrainment on Free Surfaces” at Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering on February 21.

On February 26, Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE) gave a talk at the SIAM Computational Science and Engineering conference, held in Boston, MA. The title of his talk was "Simulation of an Oscillating Wing Power Generator Using an Efficient High-order Method. "Prof. Liang’s doctoral student, Bin Zhang, was involved in this work.

On February 28, Prof. Julie Ryan (EMSE) delivered an invited talk titled "Cybersecurity Management Challenges" to the Information Asset Protection Council of ASIS International, one of the largest professional security organizations in the world.

Prof. Kausik Sarkar (MAE) gave an invited talk at Advances in Computational Mechanics (ACM 2013): A Conference Celebrating the 70th Birthday of Thomas J. R. Hughes, held February 27 in San Diego, CA. The title of his talk was "Mechanics of soft particles: Vesicles and encapsulated microbubbles for ultrasound imaging and drug delivery."

>Other News:

Prof. Chandru Mirchandani (EMSE part-time faculty) has recently been certified by INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering) as an Expert Systems Engineering Professional.

Student News:

Team Capitol dc, the 2013 Solar Decathlon team of students and faculty from GW, Catholic University, and American University, was featured on February 27 in a WTOP article, “ Students build green home to donate to wounded vet,” and in a piece that aired on NBC’s local affiliate, WRC-TV.

Guest Vignette:

Is it safer for New Orleans river gambling boats to be underway than to be dockside? Is oil transportation risk reduced by lowering wind restrictions from 45 to 35 knots at Hinchinbrook Entrance for laden oil tankers departing Valdez, Alaska? Should the International Safety Management (ISM) code be implemented fleet-wide for the Washington State Ferries in Seattle, or does it make more sense to invest in additional life craft? Can ferry service in San Francisco Bay be expanded in a safe manner to relieve high way congestion? These risk management questions were raised in a series of projects spanning a time frame of more than 10 years, and they were addressed using a risk management analysis methodology developed by a team of principle investigators from GW, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This methodology integrates simulation of Maritime Transportation Systems (MTS) with incident/accident data collection, expert judgment elicitation, and a consequence model.

Prof. Johan Rene van Dorp and his collaborator, Prof. Jason R.W. Merrick, are currently funded by the Makah Indian Tribal Council and the Puget Sound Partnership to conduct a Vessel Traffic Risk Assessment (VTRA). The purpose of the VTRA is to inform the state of Washington and the United States Coast Guard on what potential actions should be taken to mitigate any increase in oil spill risk from large commercial vessel oil spills in the Northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan De Fuca areas. This study area is expected to experience a significant increase in vessel traffic during the next decade. The VTRA is also intended to inform federal agencies, tribes, local governments, industry, and non-profit groups in Washington State and British Columbia on potential risk management options and to facilitate their input to achieve consensus risk management decisions regarding vessel operations in the study area. To that end, Profs. van Dorp and Merrick present their progress every two months at Puget Sound Harbor Safety Committee meetings. If you would like to learn more about this project, please visit: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~dorpjr/tab4/publications_VTRA_Update.html. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Johan Rene van Dorp of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering)

SEAS Events:

MAE Seminar: “Thermoelectric Power Generation: Linking Materials, Systems, and Cost”
Saniya LeBlanc, Research Scientist, Alphabet Energy
Thursday, March 7
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall

CS Colloquium: “Real-Time Scheduling and Platform Support for Cyber-Mechanical Systems”
Dr. Christopher D. Gill, Washington University in St. Louis
Wednesday, March 13
12:30 pm
736 Phillips Hall

MAE Seminar: "Nanotherapeutics: Optimizing Delivery of Genetic Medicine with Engineering Strategies"
Dr. Kam W. Leong, Duke University
Thursday, March 14
2:00 pm
736 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

Dissertation Defenses:

Name of Student Defending: Jeff Miller
Title of Dissertation: “Analysis and Process Model Development for Situation Awareness during Military Humanitarian Assistance Operations”
Advisor: Prof. Joseph Barbera
Monday, March 4
2:00 pm
1776 G Street, Conference Room 120

Name of Student Defending: Joanna Resurreccion
Title of Dissertation: “Stochastic Inventory Modeling and Integration to Multi-criteria Risk Decision-making for Interdependent Economic and Infrastructure Systems”
Advisor: Prof. Joost Santos
Wednesday, March 6
10:00 am
1776 G Street, Conference Room 120Â

Entrepreneurship Events

2013 Startup Career Expo
Wednesday, March 6
1:00 - 4:00 pm
Marvin Center, 3rd Floor