July 26 - August 8, 2010

Newsletter

July 26, 2010

Faculty News

Research:

The National Science Foundation has awarded a two-year, $920,777 grant to Profs. Lance Hoffman and Shelly Heller (CS) to continue the PISCES (Partnership in Securing Cyberspace through Education and Service) scholarship program at GW.

Media Mentions:

Prof. Gregory Shaw (EMSE) was quoted in “Disaster 101: Preparing Students for Scary Future,” an article published online July 8 on NPR.

Books & Papers:

Prof. James Lee (MAE), in collaboration with his doctoral students, has co-authored the following chapters in Multiscaling of Synthetic and Natural Systems with Self-Adaptive Capability, a book recently published by National Taiwan University of Science and Technology: 

  1. James Lee and James Chen:  “Sensitivity of interatomic potentials in multiscale modeling of fracture”
  2. James Lee, Xianqiao Wang, and James Chen: “An overview of micromorphic theory”
  3. James Chen and James Lee: “Dynamic characteristics of nano/micro biosensors”

Prof. Suresh Subramaniam (ECE) co-authored the following paper with his graduate student Amir Askarian and others: "Cross-Layer Approach to Survivable DWDM Network Design," IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networks, Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 319 - 331, June 2010.

Prof. Adam Wickenheiser (MAE) has co-authored two recently published journal articles:

  1. A M Wickenheiser and E Garcia, "Broadband vibration-based energy harvesting improvement through frequency up-conversion by magnetic excitation," Smart Materials and Structures, 19, 065020, 2010
  2. J M Dietl, A M Wickenheiser and E Garcia, "A Timoshenko beam model for cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvesters," Smart Materials and Structures, 19, 055018, 2010.

Conferences, Workshops, & Presentations:

Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) just returned from participating in a workshop entitled “The US-Israel Workshop on Sustainable Buildings, Materials and Energy” at the Technion (Israel).  He presented a paper on "Infrastructure Materials: Mechanics and Sustainability" as well as chaired and moderated a breakout session on innovative materials, including energy and nano science/engineering considerations. 

Prof. Samer Hamdar (CEE) participated in the Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) workshop at the University of Colorado at Boulder, July 18-23.  The workshop was a six-day practicum that provided engineering educators with an opportunity to improve their teaching abilities.

Prof. James Lee (MAE) and his graduate student Xianqiao Wang presented the following paper at the 16th US National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, June 27 - July 2, in State College, PA: Xianqiao Wang, James Lee and Qian Deng, “Wave propagation through interface in coupled atomistic/continuum simulation.”

Prof. Joost Santos (EMSE) presented a paper entitled "Extensions of Input-Output Analysis to Portfolio Diversification" at the International Input-Output Analysis Conference, held at the University of Sydney (Australia), June 25.  Separately, Prof. Santos presented a seminar entitled "Interdependent Economic Impacts of Degraded Workforce Productivity" for the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of the Philippines, July 3.

Other:

Twenty-five Iraqi Fulbright Scholars along with the Middle East program directors of the Fulbright commission visited the High-Performance Computing Laboratory (HPCL), where they listened to an HPC overview lecture, received a tour of the supercomputing facilities, and engaged in discussions with the HPCL research group on July 23.  The visit was a part of the orientation for the Fulbright scholars at the start of their program in the U.S.

Over the past two months the U. S. State Department has sponsored visitors from 13 Caribbean basin countries, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to visit EMSE’s Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management (ICDRM) to discuss emergency and disaster management best practices and organization.  The sharing of information informs not only the visiting representatives but also contributes to the knowledge base and curriculum of the EMSE research and educational activities. 

Student News

James Chen (MAE) and Prof. James Lee (MAE) presented “Multiscale Modeling of Fracture of Magnesia in Different Interatomic Potentials” at the 16th US National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in State College, PA, June 27-July 2.  James Chen received an award sponsored by the Air Force Office of Science Research, Army Research Office, National Science Foundation, and Office of Naval Research for the presentation. 

Yaolin Liu (CEE), a doctoral student of Prof. Baoxia Mi, has been awarded a National Water Research Institute Fellowship for Membrane Technology for her research proposal, “Biofouling of Forward Osmosis Membranes: Mechanisms and Fouling Control.”  The fellowship consists of a $10,000 award per year for two years. 

On July 8, Prof. Samer Hamdar's CEE students (Lama Bou Mjahed, Eric Braga and Muhammad Zeeshan Khan) participated in the Sustainability Workshop organized at GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus while interacting with the landscape design program students.  The three students are working on a research pilot project designing a more sustainable traffic engineering plan for the Ashburn campus.

Announcements

The NSF Industry/University Center for High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing (CHREC) has recently received two Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).  The awards will be used for two computer engineering students to undertake sponsored research assignments and gain research experience in Fall 2010 as interns in CHREC.  Highly motivated undergraduate students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and interest in research and potentially graduate studies should send their resumes to [email protected], with the subject line stating "CHREC REU Application."  Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. 

This year, thanks to Dean Dolling and CS chair Abdou Youssef, GW and SEAS are hosting the summer meeting of LACS, an influential group of computer science educators from mainly liberal arts institutions.  Interested faculty are welcome to attend those sessions that will be held in the dean's conference room.  If you would like to attend any of these sessions, please email Prof. Rhys Price Jones ([email protected]) to let him know the specific sessions you would like to attend.  The conference agenda is available online.

A little background on LACS: Current members are on the faculties of Williams, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Spelman, Dartmouth, Kalamazoo, SUNY Geneseo, Carnegie-Mellon, Pomona, Gustavus Adolphus, Wellesley, Calvin, Union, Puget Sound, Creighton, Allegheny, Hope, Grinnell, Bryn Mawr, and Prof. Price Jones from GW. The group has had a significant impact on the curricular recommendations of the professional bodies (ACM, IEEE) over the decades.  They meet twice a year, once in conjunction with the main computer science education conference (ACM-SIGCSE) and once at the campus of one of their members.