Faculty News
Research:
On September 1, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent 9,120,697 B2 to Research Prof. Ashraf Imam (MAE) and his colleagues for “Silicon Carbide Synthesis.” This patent, which is a follow up to his previous patent (reported in the August 17 issue of the newsletter), deals with making silicon carbide from agricultural husk, whereas the previous patent deals with more focused agricultural waste not including wheat husk.
On August 25, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent 9,116,145: “Flexible IC/microfluidic integration and packaging” to Profs. Zhenyu Li (BME), Mona Zaghloul (ECE), and Can Korman (ECE) and former SEAS doctoral student Bowei Zhang.
Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber (EMSE) has received a four-year, $999,809 INSPIRE grant from the NSF. INSPIRE is a special grant mechanism designed to support highly interdisciplinary efforts that have unusual transformative potential. The grant “INSPIRE: Expanding Open Innovation Methods to Complex Engineered Systems” is jointly funded by the Systems Science program in the Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) Division in the Engineering Directorate, by the Science of Science and Innovation Policy in the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, and by the Office of Integrative Activities. It is joint work with Hila Lifshitz-Assaf at NYU Stern, who is a co-PI on the project.
Publications:
Prof. Michael Keidar (MAE), his student Xiuqi Fang, and his former post-doc, Research Scientist Alex Shashurin, have published the following paper: “Role of substrate temperature at graphene synthesis in an arc discharge,” Journal of Applied Physics, 118, 103304 (2015).
Prof. Kausik Sarkar (MAE) and his doctoral student, Krishna Nandan Kumar, have published the following peer-reviewed journal paper: “Effects of ambient hydrostatic pressure on the material properties of the encapsulation of an ultrasound contrast microbubble,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 138, 624-634.
Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber (EMSE), her colleague Linda McCabe (MIT Lincoln Lab), and former student Amanda Rohrbach (MIT) have published the following article: “Architecting Technology Transition Pathways: Insights from the Military Tactical Network Upgrade,” in Systems Engineering.
Conferences & Presentations:
Prof. Taeyoung Lee (MAE) was invited to the NSF workshop “Learning, Perception and Control in Robots and Humans,” held August 25-26 in Arlington, VA. In this workshop, 30 control engineers and roboticists selected by NSF discussed what research topics academia and industry should address over the next 10-20 years, and Prof. Lee presented his vision on “Stochastic Analysis on a Manifold.”
On September 4, Prof. Claire Monteleoni (CS) served as an invited panelist on the “Understanding causality and improving prediction for climate and ocean processes” panel at the Climate Change Analytic Requirements Workshop, held at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Prof. Monteleoni participated via Skype. The workshop was hosted by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center of Excellence at UAA.
On September 7, Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber (EMSE) gave an invited seminar at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) Faculty of Technology Management and Policy titled “Encouraging Innovation in Technology-Intensive Government Organizations.”
Student News
On September 9, doctoral student Liping Ai (ECE) presented “Software Simulation of Ka Band HTS System Macro SNIR” at 33 AIAA ICSSC, held in Gold Coast, Australia. Liping is advised by Prof. Hermann Helgert.
Doctoral student Evan Kaufman (MAE) presented two papers at the IMA conference on Robotics and Controls, held September 9-11, at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK: 1) “Geometric Adaptive Control for Aerial Transportation of a Rigid Body;” and 2) “Global Formulations of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics on Embedded Manifolds.” Evan is advised by Prof. Taeyoung Lee.
Doctoral student Shankar Kulumani (MAE) presented the following paper at the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, held August 9-13, in Vail, CO: “Systematic Design of Optimal Low-Thrust Transfers for The Three-Body Problem.” Shankar is advised by Prof. Taeyoung Lee.
Doctoral student Ali Seyfi (CS) has published the following paper: A. Seyfi and A. Patel. “A Focused Crawler Combinatory Link and Content Model Based on T-Graph Principles,” Computer Standards & Interfaces, Vol. 43, January 2016, pp.1-11 (2016) DOI: 10.1016/j.csi.2015.07.001.
Ali is advised by Prof. Mona Diab. The paper discusses the two significant tasks of a focused Web crawler, finding relevant documents and prioritizing them for effective download. For the first task, the authors propose an algorithm to fetch and analyze the most effective HTML elements of the page to predict and elicit the topical focus of each unvisited page with high accuracy. For the second task, they propose a scoring function of the relevant URLs through the use of T-Graph to prioritize each unvisited link.
Other News
EMSE graduate Dr. Sebnem Sener was selected out of a pool of more than 500 applicants to support Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in her role as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) and advancing financial inclusion. Prior to Dr. Sener’s post at the UN, she worked in the Finance and Markets Global Practice at the World Bank, responsible for providing technical, strategic and operational support/services in financial inclusion and advisory services with international experience in strategy and financial sector development. Dr. Sener completed her dissertation, “A Time-Series Integration of Confidence Indices with Input-Output Model,” in May 2013 under the direction of Prof. Rene van Dorp.
SEAS News
CEE Seminar: “Multi-Hazard Resilience Quantification in Interdependent Civil Infrastructure Systems”
Speaker: Dr. Elise Miller-Hooks, University of Maryland, College Park; Lead Program Officer, CRISP, National Science Foundation
Monday, September 14
2:30 – 3:30 pm
SEH, Lehman Auditorium (B1220)
Alumni Weekend SEAS BBQ
Saturday, September 26
3:00 – 6:00 pm
837 22nd Street NW (lawn across from the SEH)
All SEAS faculty are invited to attend. Please register with Buthaina Shukri.
External Events
GW Cyber Academy Open House
Wednesday, September 16
7:30 am – 12:00 pm
Enterprise Hall, 44983, Virginia Science and Technology Campus
More info
Symposium: “Open edX Universities Symposium”
Wednesday, November 11
8:30 am – 6:00 pm
Milken School of Public Health, Room 100
The symposium will be structured around topics of general concern in online learning: web-enhanced learning and pedagogy; learning analytics; and inter-institutional collaboration. Please visit the symposium website to register and see the list of speakers and panelists, many of whom are top figures in the field. Anyone can attend, but space is limited. The registration fee is $75. This event is hosted by the GW Vice-Provost of Online Learning and Academic Innovation.
Career Center Events
SEAS Ice Cream Social: CIA, DOE, General Dynamics & More!
Wednesday, September 16
4:00 – 6:00 pm
SEH, Ground Floor Commons (L1)
Meet and network with recruiters and employees from Accenture, CIA, the U.S. Department of Energy, General Dynamics IT, and more! Learn more about their internships and jobs and how to join their team, and enjoy some free ice cream.
RSVP at: Gwork > Workshops > SEAS Ice Cream Social
SAP: Mock Interviews
Thursday, September 17
3:30 – 5:00 pm
Colonial Crossroads Lobby - Marvin Center 505
Practice your interviewing skills by meeting with Minha Do, SEAS alumna and Information Systems Security Officer at SAP National Security Services. Students may make a 30-minute individual appointment. She can provide feedback, insight and advice so you are prepared for your professional engineering interview.
RSVP: Gwork > Workshops> SAP: Mock Interviews
SAP: Learn How to Ace the Technical Interview
Thursday, September 17
6:00 – 7:00 pm
SEH, 2000B
Technical interviews are designed to showcase the skills of applicants for positions in computer science, software or web development, or advanced computer modeling and data analysis. The Technical Interview Workshop is designed to introduce students to the concept of the technical interview and how it differs from other types of interviews. It will be conducted by Minha Do, industry expert from SAP, and will be divided into two parts: Part 1 will explain the technical interview process and how students prepare for it; Part 2 will be a practicum experience where students can practice what they have learned and have their practice interviews critiqued. This is a hands-on session, so students should bring their laptops, pads, or other devices.
RSVP: Gwork >Workshops> SAP: Learn How to Ace the Technical Interview
STEM-H Careers & Industry Insights from Employers
Monday, September 21
6:00 – 8:00 pm
SEH, Lehman Auditorium Lobby
Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics & Health (STEM-H) focused students are invited to engage with federal employers who are eager to tap into your specific skills and training. Join us for an evening of conversation, insights and advice directly from employers such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Drug Administration and U.S. Patent & Trade Office.
RSVP: Gwork > Workshops> STEM-H Careers & Industry Insights From Employers
Entrepreneurship Events
The GW Chapter of The Compass Fellowship is looking for Compass Fellows! The Compass Fellowship is the first and largest peer-based social entrepreneurship training program for college students in the U.S. Since 2010, the program has empowered and mentored more than 1,000 Compass Fellows to create meaningful solutions for the world's greatest problems. 15 Compass Fellows from GW will be selected this Fall to participate in a one-year program aimed to develop a social venture. Find out more and apply by September 18. For questions, please email [email protected].
The DC I-Corps Fed Tech program will offer its graduate level class this fall on Saturdays, beginning September 19 and running through November 7. The class provides graduate-level business and engineering students with hands-on experience building successful businesses that commercialize cutting-edge technologies from federal labs like NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory. The course time is 11:00 am to 1:00 pm each Saturday. Please contact Bob Smith at [email protected] or call 540-729-0131 for more information.
GW New Venture Competition Kickoff
Thursday, September 10
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Marvin Center 308
Register
Entrepreneur Workshop: Where Do I Start?
Wednesday, September 16
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Marvin Center 311
Register
Life's a Pitch
Wednesday, September 23
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Duques Hall 453
Register
Entrepreneur Workshop: International Students
Wednesday, September 30
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Marvin Center 405
Register
GWERT 100 Mentor Match-up
Thursday, October 8
5:30 – 8:30 pm
1957 E Street, City View Room (7th Floor)
Register