Faculty News
New Faculty:
SEAS welcomes our seven newest faculty members:
Dr. Gina Adam has joined SEAS as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Adam previously was a research scientist with the Romanian National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies in Bucharest, Romania. She also held the post of visiting scholar at Ecole Polytechique Federale de Lausanne. Her research interests are in the broad field of building artificial neuronal networks that mimic their biological counterparts. Over the past few years she has been studying emerging resistive switching technology (RRAM) – two-terminal analog non-volatile electronic devices that have the potential to achieve high synaptic density comparable to biological neural circuits and with reasonable energy consumption. This includes three-dimensional RRAM crossbars, both stand-alone and monolithically integrated with CMOS circuity and issues related to manufacturability, reliability, and yield. Dr. Adam holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Amir Aslani has joined SEAS as an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Aslani’s primary research interests are in the areas of electromagnetics and nanotechnology. His current research spans magnetic materials and nanoparticles, magnetic devices, MEMS/NEMS, magnetic refrigeration, and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). Dr. Aslani received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the George Washington University.
Dr. Aylin Caliskan has joined SEAS as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. Dr. Caliskan previously was a CITP (Center for Information Technology Policy) Fellow and postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University. CITP is an interdisciplinary nexus of expertise in technology, engineering, public policy, and the social sciences. Her research involves machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision in novel ways to interpret big data, develop privacy attacks with security implications, and gain insights about machines, humans, and society. She specializes in privacy attacks, privacy enhancing technologies, ethics of machine learning, and fairness in AI. Dr. Caliskan received her Ph.D. in computer science from Drexel University.
Dr. John Helveston has joined SEAS as an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering. Dr. Helveston previously was a postdoctoral associate at the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University. His primary research interest is understanding the factors that shape technology change, with a particular focus on transitioning to environmentally sustainable and energy-saving technologies. Within this broader category, he studies consumer preferences and market demand for new technologies as well as relationships between firm innovation, industry structure, and technology policy. Dr. Helveston holds a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Luyao Lu has joined SEAS as an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He previously was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics at Northwestern University. Dr. Lu’s research involves developing unconventional, lightweight, conformal, and soft optoelectronic systems with high performance for advanced healthcare. He focuses on creating organic and inorganic classes of optoelectronic materials and devices such as solar cells, photodetectors, light emitting diodes, and diagnostic devices for various applications. He also has research interests in wearable and implantable biomedical devices using advanced organic electronic and photonic materials, structures, devices, and systems to facilitate personalized medicine design and accurate disease diagnosis. Dr. Lu holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Omur Ozel has joined SEAS as an assistant professor in the Department of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Ozel previously was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Before that, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley. His dissertation research focused on communication and information theoretic models to understand the role of intermittency and management of energy expenditure in energy harvesting communication systems. At Carnegie Mellon he focused on resilient estimation and control of cyber-attack detection in cyber-physical control systems. Dr. Ozel holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from University of Maryland.
Dr. Arkady Yerukhimovich has joined SEAS as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. Dr. Yerukhimovich previously was a research scientist in the Secure Resilient Systems and Technology Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His research focuses on bringing tools from theoretical cryptography into practice, including using techniques such as secure multi-party computation, functional encryption, and cryptographically protected search to build practical, provably secure solutions for real-world applications. Dr. Yerukhimovich received his Ph.D. in computer science from University of Maryland.
Research:
Dr. Emilia Entcheva (BME) and Dr. Vesna Zderic (BME) have been awarded a two-year, $438,625 grant from the NIH-NIBIB (National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering) for their project, “Low-intensity ultrasound for control of cardiac electromechanics: a mechanistic investigation.” The grant will integrate ultrasound stimulation with all-optical interrogation of electromechanics in human heart cells to gain mechanistic insights for potential safe cardio-modulation. Dr. Entcheva is the contact MPI and Dr. Zderic is an MPI on this Multiple Principal Investigators grant.
Dr. Roger Lang (ECE) has received a three-year, $148,000 grant from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to study the combined use of P and L band radiometers to sense root zone soil moisture. Measurements with a new P band radiometer and the L band ComRad truck-mounted radar/radiometer will be made and inversion techniques developed to sense the soil moisture at deeps up to 20 cm.
Dr. Timothy Wood (CS) is principal investigator on a three-year, $532,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s SaTC (Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace) program to support work on “Fine Grained Protection for Scalable Single-use Services.” The project is a collaborative effort with researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. GW's share of the funding is $266,000. The project will explore how to provide scalable security services to networked services at the OS and virtualization layers.
Media Mentions:
In its September 10 article “A new hydrogen-rich compound may be a record-breaking superconductor,” ScienceNews reports on the high-temperature superconductor paper recently posted on arXiv.org by Dr. Russell Hemley’s (CEE) research group. Dr. Hemley announced the discovery last May in Madrid at a symposium on superconductivity and pressure.
Publications:
Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE) has published the following article: Y. Lama, T. Chen, M. Dredze, A. Jamison, S. C. Quinn, and D. A. Broniatowski. “Discordance Between Human Papillomavirus Twitter Images and Disparities in Human Papillomavirus Risk and Disease in the United States: Mixed-Methods Analysis,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(9), e10244.
Conferences & Presentations:
On September 12, Dr. David Broniatowski (EMSE) presented the following talk at the National Vaccine Program Office: Broniatowski, D. A. “Online Exchanges about Immunizations: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,” Invited Presentation presented at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC.
Dr. Emilia Entcheva (BME) was an invited speaker at the “The Heart by Numbers: Integrating Theory, Computation and Experiment to Advance Cardiology” meeting, organized by the Biophysical Society and hosted by the Max-Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine. The meeting was held September 4-7 in Berlin, Germany. Dr. Entcheva’s talk centered on the use of high-throughput all-optical cardiac electrophysiology to improve computational models.
Upcoming SEAS Events
CEE Seminar: “Stress and Pore Pressure in Mudrocks Bounding Salt Systems”
Speaker: Dr. Maria Nikolinakou, University of Texas Austin
Monday, September 17
3:00 – 4:00 pm
SEH, B1220
Special SEAS Event: “Live from the International Space Station: Q&A with NASA Astronaut & SEAS Alumna Serena Auñón-Chancellor”
Tuesday, September 18
Program begins at 11:45 am. Doors open at 11:00 am.
Jack Morton Auditorium (GW Media and Public Affairs Building)
SEAS will host a 20-minute NASA downlink from the International Space Station, during which we get to pose questions of astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor (SEAS ’97). Immediately after the downlink, former NASA astronaut Charles Camarda (SEAS ‘80) will be present in the Jack Morton Auditorium for a discussion on the challenges of deep space exploration and a question-and-answer session. A reception will follow. Registration is now closed, but a live stream of the event will be available at: https://go.gwu.edu/facebook.
BME Seminar: “Graphene Biointerfaces for Optical Stimulation of Genetically Intact Cells”
Speaker: Dr. Alex Savtchenko, Nanotools Bioscience
Wednesday, September 19
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Marvin Center, 413-414
CEE Seminar: “The Promise of Smart Materials in Earthquake Resistant Design”
Speaker: Dr. Reginald DesRoches, Rice University
Friday, September 21
3:30 – 4:30 pm
SEH, B1220
CVP Speaker’s Series Event: “Navigating Your Career”
Tuesday, September 25
4:00 – 6:00 pm
SEH, B1270
Register (Register on Handshake)
SEAS Career Services has joined forces with CVP, a business and technology consulting company, to host this timely panel. Anirudh Kulkarni, the CEO and founder of CVP and a double alumnus of GW, will moderate the panel. Joining him will be four guests from different “walks of life” who will present diverse points of view and career insights. Come listen, learn, and ask questions. This event is open to all GW students.
CEE Seminar: “The Long and Winding Road: Predicting Molecular and Material Properties Through Computation”
Speaker: Dr. Giulia Galli, University of Chicago
Wednesday, September 26
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
SEH, 2000B
MAE Seminar: "Bubble Deformation and Breakup in Strong Turbulence”
Speaker: Dr. Rui Ni, The Johns Hopkins University
Thursday, September 27
2:00 - 3:00pm
SEH, B1220
MAE Seminar: “Laboratory-Scaled Experiments on Impulsively Loaded Structures in a Fluid Environment”
Speaker: Dr. Christine Gilbert, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Thursday, October 18
2:00 - 3:00pm
SEH, B1220
CEE Seminar: “Computational Nanoscience: Predicting the Shapes of Nanocrystals Grown in Solution”
Speaker: Dr. Kristen Fichthorn, Pennsylvania State University
Monday, October 22
2:30 – 3:30 pm
SEH, B1220
MAE Seminar: “Material Characterization of Nanostructured Ferretic Alloy through Atomistic Modeling”
Speaker: Dr. Huijuan (Jane) Zhao, Clemson University
Thursday, October 25
2:00 - 3:00pm
SEH, B1220
MAE Seminar: “Unified Mechanics Theory: F=m a ((1-ϕ(s ̇ ))”
Speaker: Dr. Cemal Basaran, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Thursday, November 1
2:00 - 3:00pm
SEH, B1220
External Events
GW Nanofabrication and Imaging Center Workshop: Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy Workshop
Monday, September 24 – Friday, September 28
9:00 am – 5:00 pm each day
SEH, Nanofabrication and Imaging Center
Register
The main theme of this workshop is correlating large-area images of the same sample created with both light and high-resolution electron microscopy. The workshop will be geared toward microscopists who are interested in learning new techniques for special projects or who are in the market for new instruments, particularly neuroscientists or anatomists who are interested in utilizing large area imaging in their research. Numerous vendors will demonstrate their instruments.
Entrepreneurship News & Events
Global Entrepreneurship and the US-China Cooperation
Monday, September 17
4:30 – 6:30 pm
Duques Hall, Room 652
Register
Join us for an exciting presentation and panel discussion with guests from the world-class business organization, Fosun Foundation. Fosun manages one of the largest global startup accelerator programs and competitions. Do you want to see how you can compete on an international stage and take your startup to the next level? Come to this talk!
PITCH-A-PALOOZA
Thursday, September 20
6:00 – 8:00 pm
SEH, B1220
Register
Do you have an idea, or a problem that needs solving? Follow your innovative itch to the GW PITCH-A-PALOOZA! Join us and your peers to hear and vote for your favorite ideas. Did we mention that we're giving out $100 gift cards to the top pitches? Did we also mention that we have pizza? There's that too.
Jumpstart 2-Day Bootcamp
Saturday, September 29, – Sunday, September 30
10:00 am – 5:00 pm (both days)
GW Gelman Library, Room 219
Register
Jumpstart your ideas and passions with this experiential and interactive two-day bootcamp that exposes you to the tools, tactics, and frameworks used by innovators and entrepreneurs to create new startups, businesses, and social enterprises.