Faculty News
Media Mentions:
On October 29, the Baltimore Sun published an op-ed titled “Maryland voting audit falls short” by Prof. Poorvi Vora (CS) and her colleague Philip Stark (University of California, Berkeley). On the same day, Prof. Vora also provided testimony on this matter to the Maryland State Board of Elections, on behalf of a dozen election integrity experts.
Conferences & Presentations:
Postdocs Dr. Amir Aslani and Dr. Mohammadreza Ghahremani at the Institute for Magnetics Research (IMR) will present their research on the enhancement of magnetic properties of yttrium-iron nanoparticles at the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials conference in New Orleans on November 2. As shown experimentally, magnetic nanoparticle refrigerants have a higher magnetization and a smaller coercivity compared to their bulk counterparts. The results are particularly interesting in magnetic refrigeration technology, as higher magnetization could lead to a higher magnetocaloric effect, and a smaller coercivity reduces the hysteresis losses. This is promising as it leads to the design of commercially viable, efficient, and environmentally friendly next-generation refrigerators. The result of this research is to be published in the AIP Advances Journal. IMR is directed by Profs. Ed Della Torre (ECE) and Larry Bennett (ECE).
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) gave an invited seminar on October 10 at Tsinghua University’s Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics. The topic was new developments in manufacturing and mechanics. While there, he also visited with graduate students and faculty members in aerospace and engineering mechanics as well as touring the state-of-the-art facilities and labs.
Prof. Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE) recently gave three invited seminars at the University of Toronto’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (September 22), the University of Southern California’s Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering (September 29), and the University of Arkansas’s Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering (October 19). The title of his seminar at each of the universities was “Productive Exploitation of Hierarchical Locality for Productive Extreme Scale Computing.”
Dr. Emilia Entcheva (BME) delivered an invited key lecture on October 28 at “X-Genetics Workshop: Opto-, Magneto-, Sono- and Chemigenetics.” The workshop was held in Taipei, Taiwan.
On October 26, Prof. Leila Farhadi (CEE) gave an invited seminar titled “Mapping land water and energy balance relations through remote sensing estimates land surface state observations” at George Mason University’s Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies.
On October 18, Prof. Cynthia Gayton (EMSE, adjunct faculty) moderated a GW alumni panel discussion here at the SEH on the Internet of Things. Separately, she also submitted and discussed a poster she created for GW's Teaching Day on October 14
On October 25, Prof. Claire Monteleoni (CS) gave an invited talk, titled “Climate Informatics: Accelerating Discovery in Climate Science with Machine Learning,” at the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul, South Korea.
Other News
Prof. Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE) has been appointed associate editor of the IEEE Transactions for Parallel and Distributed Systems for a term of two years.
As part of SEAS’ continuing collaboration with Korea University (KU), eight SEAS faculty members visited Korea University last week to review progress on several research collaboration projects and to discuss the status of the successful student exchange program between GW and KU. The SEAS team was led by Associate Dean Can Korman and included Profs. Samer Hamdar (CEE), Saniya LeBlanc (MAE), Zhenyu Li (BME), Murray Loew (BME), Claire Monteleoni (CS), Ergun Simsek (ECE), and Volker Sorger (ECE). The results of the research collaboration were presented jointly by SEAS and KU faculty at the 3rd KU-GW Research Symposium. The current joint research topics include traffic management, nanotechnology, big data, and biomedical devices.
The event was hosted by Dean Jin Taek Chung of the KU College of Engineering and SEAS/KU alumnus Dr. Simon Lee. The research collaboration and the student exchange program are sponsored by the generous donations of Dr. Simon Lee to both GW and to KU. Faculty and students plan to visit KU during the next year to continue their joint research projects, and plans are to hold another KU-GW Research Symposium next fall at GW. For further information, please contact Associate Dean Korman .
Student News
BME doctoral candidate Ms. Aleks Klimas, advised by Prof. Emilia Entcheva, won the OSA Foundation Emil Wolf Outstanding Student Paper Competition in at the 100th “Frontiers in Optics (FiO)" conference, organized by the Optical Society of America and held October 17-21 in Rochester, NY . The award “recognizes the innovation, research and presentation excellence of students presenting their work during FiO.” Aleks talked about the development of an automated high-throughput platform for all-optical electrophysiology that enables fast drug testing and the characterization of stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes. She and Prof. Entcheva have filed a patent application with GW on the technology.
On October 24, a team from the GW Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) participated in the first NIST-ANSI Standards Negotiation Competition. Prof. Joe Cascio (EMSE) and three students, Seth Barna, Melis Gursel, and Abdul Moiz Sohail, competed against teams from the University of Maryland, Purdue University, and the City College of New York in a simulated exercise to create an international standard related to industrial communication systems that allow machines and operators to gather and exchange data to support manufacturing operations. The competition introduced participants to the complexity and subtleties involved in standards determination, strategy, and negotiation. While a typical international standard usually takes three to five years to develop, the teams had four hours to accomplish the feat. The three GW students are currently enrolled in Prof. Cascio’s course, EMSE 6992-11 Beyond Compliance: Next Generation Environmental Self-Governance, which features international voluntary consensus standards. The competition was an excellent opportunity for the students to experience the process by which such standards are developed and was considered a great success even though the GW team was not the winner.
Other News
The SEAS Environmental and Energy Management Institute and the European Energy Center will offer three remaining professional short courses:
Environmental Management Beyond Compliance (Implementing an ISO 14001 System)
Monday and Tuesday, November 14-15
Taught by: Joe Cascio
Distributed Generation and Storage
Thursday and Friday, December 8-9
Taught by: Scott Sklar
Circular Economy
Thursday and Friday, March 16-17, 2017
Taught by: Roger Feldman and Ed Pinero
Multi-Aspect Introduction to Solar Photovoltaics
Dates TBA
Taught by: Scott Sklar
SEAS Events
SEAS Distinguished Guest Speaker Series
Speaker: Dr. Karen Flack, Mechanical Engineering Department, United State Naval Academy
Tuesday, November 1
7:30 pm
SEH, B1220
Professor Flack will speak about being a female engineer and leader in academia.
Save the Date: “BME Day: The Future of Biomedical Engineering”
Friday, November 11
9:00 am—5:00 pm
SEH
The BME department will host BME Day to showcase its research projects, highlight the collaborative nature of its work, and raise awareness of biomedical engineering at GW and in the Washington, DC region. BME Day will include a student poster session, a moderated panel discussion of leaders in the medical device industry, and selected talks from the BME faculty and invited guest speakers.
5th Annual Engineer Mentor Fair
Monday, November 14
6:00 – 9:00 pm
Marvin Center, Continental Ballroom
RSVP
All SEAS undergraduate and graduate students are invited to attend the fair. The fair will pair alumni professionals and students to discuss and network around engineering-related topics. The four 25-minute roundtable discussions will be followed by a student-alumni networking reception. Refreshments will be served.
MAE Seminar: “Bursting Bubbles and Bilayers”
Speaker: Dr. Steven Wrenn, Drexel University
Thursday, November 17
2:00 pm
SEH, B1220
BME Seminar: “Haptics: The Technology of Touch”
Speaker: Dr. Katherine Kuchenbecker, University of Pennsylvania
Monday, November 28
4:00 – 5:00 pm
SEH, B1220
Career Center & Career-Related Announcements & Events
The Cognitive Computing Odyssey
Cognitive computing unites fields like AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to “think” about data more like a human than a computer. It treats cancer patients, personalizes education, and predicts financial markets. And it's just getting started. This November, students from across the country will gather in one of three cities (San Francisco, Austin, Boston) to explore the technology, future, and jobs of cognitive computing as part of The Cognitive Computing Odyssey. The Cognitive Computing Odyssey is presented by Uncubed and IBM. Travel and lodging will be fully covered for accepted students. Apply and learn more.
Entrepreurship Events
100 Mentor Match-Up
Tuesday, November 1
6:00 – 9:00 pm
1957 E Street NW, City View Room
Register
At this event, the GW Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the GW Entrepreneurs Round Table (GWERT) Mentors Program will pair experienced mentors with GW students. Aspiring GW student entrepreneurs (at all experience levels) can connect with other entrepreneurs, business professionals, and industry experts. The event will also feature a keynote address by Andrew Perlman, CEO at FORM Holdings.
Pitch George Competition
Saturday, November 19
8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Duquès Hall 6th Floor
The annual Pitch George Competition is one of the GW’s premier entrepreneurial initiatives organized by the GW Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (CFEE). The “elevator pitch” competition takes place each fall semester and allows young entrepreneurs (from high school to GW graduate students) to present their business ideas, get valuable feedback on the viability of their business concepts, and win startup capital.
External Events
Value through Partnerships: Research & Education Opportunities with Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU)
Tuesday, November 8
10:30 – 11:30 am
Marvin Center, Room 403
RSVP to: [email protected]
This session provides an overview of the funding and collaboration opportunities that ORAU makes available to member universities. More information
Cayuse Training for University Facilitating Fund Proposals
Monday, November 14
1:00 – 2:00 pm
Marvin Center, Room 310
RSVP to: [email protected]
This session focuses on using Cayuse to submit a University Facilitating Fund (UFF) proposal.