Faculty News
Media Mentions
On September 28, Scientific American's "Budding Scientist" blog published Prof. Michael Duffey's (EMSE)guest article "Hot Bots: How Arduino Teaches Kids the Science behind Modern Gizmos."
Responding to several media requests to discuss autonomous driving, Prof. Azim Eskandarian (CEE) recently spoke to writers from CNN Tech and Forbes.com and participated in a radio broadcast. Prof. Eskandarian was quoted in the September 18 CNN Tech article, "You won't need a driver's license by 2040," and the September 25 Forbes article, "Self-Driving Cars Will Take Over By 2040." On September 27, he participated in a discussion on autonomous vehicles on NPR's Dianne Rehm Show.
Books & Papers
A paper co-authored byProf. Jonathan Deason (EMSE) and recent EMSE professional degree graduate Giovanna Monti was published the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. The citation is: Monti, G. and Deason, J.P., "Applying an Ecosystem Services Approach to Supplemental Environmental Projects," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Vol. 55, Issue 8, 2012, pages 1047-1057.
Profs. Thomas Mazzuchi and Shahram Sarkani (both of EMSE)and their students have recently published two articles: 1) B. Herdlick, T. A. Mazzuchi, and S. Sarkani. "Simulation and the T&E of complex systems: establishing trust in operator-in-the-loop federations," ITEA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2012, pp. 191-201; and 2) L. Assidmi, S. Sarkani, and T. A. Mazzuchi. "A systems thinking approach to cost growth in DoD weapon systems," IEEE Systems Journal, Vol. 6, Issue: 3, 2012, pp. 436 - 444.
On September 28, Emergency Management Magazine published "Tips for Building a Budget-Friendly Preparedness Kit," an article by Charisma Williams (EMSE adjunct faculty).
Conferences and Presentations
Prof. Erica Gralla (EMSE) co-facilitated a workshop for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, in Geneva, Switzerland, September 24-25. The workshop, entitled "Field Based Decision-Makers Information Needs in Sudden Onset Disasters," brought together experienced aid workers from a number of humanitarian organizations. The workshop aimed to characterize the information required to make good decisions in disaster response, in order to guide the use of new technologies (such as crowdsourcing) in gathering information that will be useful to decision-makers in future emergencies.
Prof. Adam Wickenheiser (MAE) and his graduate student Christopher Blower attended the ASME 2012 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures & Intelligent Systems held September 19-21 in Stone Mountain, GA. At the conference, Prof. Wickenheiser presented the paper: Adam Wickenheiser, "Model Reduction of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters Subject to Band-Limited, Stochastic Base Excitation." Christopher presented the paper: Christopher J. Blower and Adam Wickenheiser, "The Variations in Active Panel Location and Number for a Bio-Inspired Aircraft Gust Alleviation System." Prof. Wickenheiser also chaired two sessions in the Bio-Inspired Materials and Systems Symposium and two sessions in the Energy Harvesting Symposium. In other presentation news, he delivered a keynote speech, "Powering Long-Term Wireless Devices from Human Locomotion by Broadband Vibration Energy Harvesting," at the 12th Annual Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Colloquium on September 25.
Other News
Prof. Adam Wickenheiser (MAE) has recently become a founding member and the first secretary of the ASME Technical Committee on Energy Harvesting.
Student News
Thanks to the hard work of EMSE undergraduate Madeleine Brannon, with support from her officers and an enthusiastic and talented group of systems engineering undergraduates, SEAS has a new student organization, GW INCOSE. INCOSE (the International Council on Systems Engineering) is the main professional society for systems engineers. The purpose of GW-INCOSE will be to provide students interested in systems engineering at GW with a group dedicated to promoting and advancing the field. The group also interacts with the Washington Metro Area INCOSE Chapter in order to benefit from their experiences. Contact information and an upcoming website can be found on the GW INCOSE listing in the GW STUDENT ORGS. GW INCOSE welcomes involvement from all SEAS undergraduate and graduate students.
The officers of the chapter are:
Madeleine Brannon - President
Alberto Alvarez - Vice President
Josh Klein - Treasurer
Farah Albani - Secretary
Phillip Graeter - Webmaster
Morgan Sutton - E-Council Representative
Nicole Wall - Communications Chair
Aubrey Gunnels - Professional Chair
Prof. Tom Mazzuchi serves as the faculty adviser.
Nathan J. Castro (MAE), a second-year Ph.D. student in Prof. Lijie Grace Zhang's lab, has won The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)/Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program Travel Award "on the basis of his outstanding record of scholarship and achievement." This award offers him up to $1,850 to give a presentation at the 2012 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, to be held October 24-27 in Atlanta, GA.
Guest Vignette
Every year since 2000, Prof. Azim Eskandarian and the Center for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR) accept two or more intern students from University of Valenciennes, France, who conduct research at GW SEAS and VSTC under his supervision for about eight months as part of an informal exchange program. Each student's research culminates in a project report that contributes to fulfilling the requirements of the student's degree program at home, while also benefiting the research at GW. There are also occasional visits and seminars of faculty advisers between both partnering institutions. Some of these students return to pursue a master degree at CEE or in other SEAS departments.
This year there are two students, one working at CISR and another at the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC). Mr. Ismail Fahmy is working at CISR, under the supervision of Prof. Eskandarian, and examining alternate driver-vehicle integrated control centric models, which allow investigation of driver control and reaction behavior through mathematical simulations. The inherent variability of humans in their control abilities and perception-response capabilities and the non-linear dynamics of the vehicle add to the complexity of such integrated models. Mr. Fahmy is contributing to the evaluation of these models. He has been developing Matlab/Simulink control systems based on driver-vehicle integrated models selected from literature and integrating them with Carsim vehicle dynamics simulation code. This integration allows for mathematical simulation of driver control input into the vehicle and evaluation of the responses (i.e. vehicle trajectory, accelerations, forces, etc.), as well as evaluation of alternative models. Ultimately, after further development and validations, these models allow for the design of safer active-safety and advanced driver assistance systems, which are based on driver control abilities.
Mr. Boris Boyer has been conducting research at the NCAC, under the supervision of Prof. Steve Kan. His research focuses on containment of particle impacts or collisions in generic turbofan engine, using non-linear finite element methods and LS-DYNA software. His research specifically addresses energy absorption and containment capability of the aluminum fan casing. He has been contributing to the modeling of generic turbofan fan blade modal analysis using LS-DYNA and ANSYS codes in which the natural frequency and mode shapes of the generic fan blade will be identified at different rotational speeds. This effort contributes to the jet engine containments project the NCAC has with the FAA. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Azim Eskandarian of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
SEAS Events
GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering Seminar: "Biomaterials and Bioreactors in Bone Tissue Engineering"
Prof. John P. Fisher, University of Maryland, College Park
Monday, October 8
1:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "DGEN 380: The Smallest Two Spool, Unmixed Flow Turbofan Jet Engine on the Market"
Martin Vivies, Price Induction
Monday, October 15
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "Turbulence Production by Nonbreaking Waves"
Ivan Savelyev, Research Physicist, Remote Sensing Division, US Naval Research Laboratory
Thursday, October 25
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
Entrepreneurship and Other Events
GW Dolphin Tank: A Pitch-Practice Event
Monday, October 1
5:30 - 8:30 pm
151 Duques Hall
Thursday, October 11
5:00 - 7:00 pm
255 Duques Hall
2012 Election Forum: Energy Issues
Presenters: Staff members from both the Romney and Obama campaigns
Thursday, October 4
6:00 - 8:00 pm
1957 E Street, Room 602 (Lindner Family Commons)
Cost: $25/person