November 1-6, 2010

Newsletter

November 1, 2010

Faculty  News

Papers:

A paper by Prof. Hernan Abeledo (EMSE) and co-authors appeared in the September/October 2010 issue of Interfaces journal, which is dedicated to the finalists of the 2009 Wagner Prize competition of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences. The full citation is: F. Menezes, O. Porto, M. Reis, L. Moreno, M. Poggi de Aragao, E. Uchoa, H. Abeledo, N. Carvalho do Nascimento, "Optimizing Helicopter Transport of Oil Rig Crews at Petrobras", Interfaces, Vol. 40, No. 5, September-October 2010, pp. 408-416.

Prof. Sameh Badie (CEE) and his former doctoral student, Dr Nghi Nguyen, have published a paper entitled "Relaxing the Stud Spacing Limit for Full-depth Precast Concrete Deck Panels Supported on Steel Girders," in the September 2010 issue of the American Society of Civil Engineering Journal of Bridge Engineering.  The paper covers some of the research activities of the NCHRP 12-65, which was sponsored by the National Academies of Science and awarded to GW.

Dr. Dan Holtshouse's (EMSE) two articles on "The Future of Knowledge Workers," KM World Magazine September/October 2009 sparked an interest in Dr. Tom Abeles, editor, On the Horizon journal (OTH).  OTH is designed for professionals in the international post-secondary and life-long learning arenas: corporate universities, e-learning, private for-profit degree-granting institutions, and the traditional university.  Dr. Abeles offered a "challenge invitation" to Prof. Francesco Calabrese (EMSE): accept a guest editor role to produce a special edition for OTH documenting some of GW's research/practice contributions in knowledge management, and expand on the future knowledge workers theme. 

That special edition of 12 articles (ISSN 1074-8121, Volume 18, Number 3, 2010) issued in October.  In addition to Prof. Calabrese's opening article, "Evolution of Twenty First Century Knowledge Workers," eight of the other 11 articles were authored by the following EMSE/Institute for Knowledge and Innovation personnel:

Patrice Jackson (EMSE D.Sc. candidate) Lockheed Martin et al: "Next generation job title: knowledge productivity coach - must be able to work virtually"

 

  • Dr. Dan Holtshouse (EMSE), "Knowledge work 2020: thinking ahead about knowledge work"
  • Dr. Gabriel McLaughlin and Dr. Michael Stankosky (EMSE): "Knowledge has legs: personal knowledge strategies shape the future of knowledge work and knowledge management"
  • Dr. Gabriel McLaughlin (EMSE) et al (Xerox): "The future of knowledge work: prediction for 2020"
  • Drs. Alex and David Bennet (EMSE): "Multidimensionality: building the mind/brain infrastructure for the next generation knowledge worker"
  • Dr. Alex Bennet (ESME) and Joyce Avedisian: "Values as knowledge: a new frame of reference for a new generation of knowledge workers"
  • Dr. Rudolph Garrity (EMSE): "Future leaders: putting knowledge and learning to work"
  • Diana Acsente (EMSE, D.Sc. candidate): "Literature review: a representation of how[ the] future knowledge worker is shaping the twenty-first century workplace"

 

Conferences & Presentations:

Prof. Sameh Badie (CEE) attended the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Annual Convention in Pittsburg, PA, October23-26.  He gave a presentation to the ACI 343 Committee on Concrete Bridges on the development of the ACI publication, "Analysis of Concrete Bridges."  Prof. Badie is leading a group of national experts on this publication.

Other News:

Prof. Hernan Abeledo (EMSE) has been elected vice-president of WINFORMS, the Washington DC Chapter of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences).

David Hays (professorial lecturer, Hampton Roads Center) has developed a course entitled "Leadership in Health Information Technology," for the master of science in biomedical informatics degree program at Nova Southwestern University.   

In October, Prof. Chunlei Liang (MAE) was appointed to the editorial board of CFD Letters, the first short-communication journal devoted exclusively to computational fluid dynamics research. CFD Letters is an international, peer-reviewed, online and open access journal.

Student News

Congatulations to SEAS doctoral students Brenton Duffy (MAE) and Yi Jin (ECE), who received the ARCS Foundation's Advancing Science in America scholar awards for their academic and research achievements.  Brenton and Yi were among the four GW doctoral students honored at a GW ceremony for ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Students) scholars on October 21.  The ARCS Foundation provides scholarships to academically outstanding students pursuing degrees in science, medicine, and engineering. Read the GW Today story.

Other News

After an extraordinary amount of work, EMSE, as a member of the Virginia Tech team, has been awarded a multi-million dollar continuation of the long-running Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP).  This statement belies the drama and complexity that the re-compete featured.  Ms. Mary Phillips-Muse, who had been the longtime executive director of the SEAP, died in January 2010 after fighting cancer for many years.  Ms. Phillips-Muse was a light in the EMSE offices, running SEAP but also being a wonderful co-worker.  So it was with a great deal of difficulty that the department bade farewell to Ms. Phillips-Muse and undertook the effort to win the continuation of the program.  Three individuals deserve special recognition for their efforts:  Ms. Jessie Coates, who undertook executive oversight of the existing SEAP efforts on top of her existing duties as executive associate of EMSE; Ms. Shiva Sarkani, who picked up additional duties to ensure that the SEAP continued to run smoothly; and Prof. Thomas Mazzuchi, who led the recompetition efforts for EMSE.  The Army Research Office (ARO), which sponsors SEAP, made changes to the program structure for this year, so a significant amount of work was required to structure a winning proposal within the Consortium construct.  Mr. J. P. Blackford, who as a high school student participated in SEAP, takes over managing the program as he completes his doctoral program in the EMSE department. 

The SEAS 5th Annual Student Research & Development Showcase will be held during Engineers Week this year (on Wednesday, February 23), and all SEAS students - graduate and undergraduate - are invited to participate. 

Prizes for the Showcase are as follows:

  • 1st Place-$5,000
  • 2nd Place-$4,000
  • 3rd Place-$3,000

In addition, $1,000 per poster towards research will be awarded to winning mentors.

Prize winners will attend a VIP reception following the event.  They will also show their research at the Business Alliance's Mid-Atlantic Innovation Showcase in April 2011.

As information becomes available, it will be posted in the newsletter and on the R&D Showcase web page, www.seas.gwu.edu/RDShowcaseRegistration for the Showcase is due to Mike Veedock (106 Tompkins Hall) by Wednesday, December 22, 2010.  Please visit the link above to download the registration form.

 

Guest Vignette

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering has a new undergraduate curriculum option, the sustainability option in civil engineering leading to a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.  Through this new option, students are prepared to work in sustainable development.  Sustainable development is the challenge of meeting human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future development.

The core courses in this new option are (using GW's new course numbering system):
CE 1010 - 1 Credit: An Introduction to a Sustainable World
CE 2140 - 3 Credits: Environmental Sustainability
CE 2170 (Modification of CE 170) - 3 Credits: Introduction to Transportation Engineering: Mobility, Safety and Sustainability
CE 3150 - 3 Credits: Sustainable Urban Planning Dynamics
CE 3160 - 2 Credits: Sustainability in Engineering Materials
CE 4180 - 3 Credits:  Introduction to Geoenvironmental Engineering

The sustainability option recognizes the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social values.  This is captured in the popular paraphrase "people, planet, profit."  (Provided courtesy of Prof. Kim Roddis, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Upcoming

ECE Colloquium: An Investigation of Magnetic Reversal at Almost the Nanoscale (IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture Series 2010)
Prof. E. Dan Dahlberg, University of Minnesota
Wednesday, November 3
4:00 pm
640 Phillips

Looking Forward

MAE Colloquium: How Aeros, Ag/Bio Engineers, Chemists, Food Scientists & MEs Work Together To Develop Advanced Rocket Motors
Prof. Paul Sojka, Purdue University
Monday, November 8
1:00 - 2:00 pm
736 Phillips

CS Colloquium: Data Exploration and Privacy Preservation Over Hidden Web Databases
Prof. Nan Zhang, MAE
Monday, November 8
4:00 pm
736 Phillips

Global Forum 2010: Global Network for Empowering Women's Innovation and Entrepreneurship
"Information Technology: A (Dis)enabler for Women"
Prof. Shelly Heller, CS
Tuesday, November 9
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Marvin Center

CS Colloquium: Can We Crowdsource Your Robot?
Prof. Chad Jenkins, Brown University
Monday, November 10
4:30 pm
736 Phillips

ECE Colloquium: A New Paradigm for Exchange Bias in Polycrystalline Films (IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture Series 2010)
Prof. Kevin O'Grady, University of York (U.K.)
Wednesday, November 10
3:00 pm
640 Phillips

CEE Colloquium: Micro-to-Macro Connections in Geomechanics
Prof. A. (Rajah) Anandarajah, Johns Hopkins University
Monday, November 15
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall

GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering Colloquium: Dual-Mode Imaging of Cardiac Ischemia and Reperfusion in Contracting Hearts Using Contrast Echocardiography and Fluorescence Imaging
Profs. Vesna Zderic and Matthew Kay, ECE
Tuesday, November 16
2:30 - 3:30 pm
736 Phillips

"A Day in the Life of an Engineer"
Tuesday, November 16
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TBD

GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering Colloquium: The Role of Tissue Engineering and Nanomedicine for Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration
Prof. Lijie (Grace) Zhang, MAE
Tuesday, November 30
1:00 - 2:00 pm
736 Phillips

Dissertation Defenses

Name of Student Defending:  Sava Petar Stanic
Title of Dissertation: "Fault Monitoring and Localization in Transparent Optical Networks"
Friday, November 12 at 9:00 am
107 Tompkins Hall (Dean's Conference Room)

Name of Student Defending:  Karma Yonten
Title of Dissertation: "Implementation and Validation of an Anisotropic Plasticity Model for Clays and a Two-Scale Micropolar Model for Sands"
Monday, November 15;  2:00 - 5:30 pm
640 Phillips Hall