Faculty News
Research:
Prof. Evan Drumwright (CS) is the PI on a two-year grant from NSF's civil and mechanical engineering program. The grant focuses on models of contact between (ideal) rigid bodies with friction. He and his colleagues have figured out a new model that is solvable much faster and more easily on modern computers, and this grant will help them determine how their model is compatible with natural phenomena. The practical implication of this funding is that they will be able to build dynamic robot simulations that are faster and more robust than those using current state-of-the-art methods. This $300,000 grant will be split among GW, Texas A&M, and Cornell universities.
Prof. Howie Huang (ECE) and his collaborators from Johns Hopkins University have been awarded a multi-year, $1.8 million grant from NSF. This Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) grant, "A New Paradigm in Cyber-Enabled Multiphysical Analysis of Heart Function," aims to develop multi-physics models of ventricles in health and disease that can run efficiently on large-scale, heterogeneous computer systems. At GW, Prof. Huang will lead the efforts for one of the five research thrusts, hardware and software co-design for computational and I/O acceleration of heart function simulation, while at JHU, Prof. Rajat Mittal will lead a team of four professors to develop image-based, biophysically-detailed, multi-scale, multi-physics models. The GW portion of the grant is $350,000 for four years.
Books & Papers:
Prof. Sameh Badie (CEE) and his former doctoral student Kristopher Sribiinma jointly published a paper in the September/October 2011 issue of the American Society of Civil Engineering's Journal of Bridge Engineering. The paper, titled "Full-Scale Testing for Composite Slab/Beam Systems made with Extended Stud Spacing," reported on the full scale testing of composite concrete/steel beams conducted in the NCHRP 12-65 research project sponsored by the National Academies of Science.
In September, the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) published the "State-of-the-Art Report on Full-depth Precast Concrete Bridge Deck Panels." Prof. Sameh Badie (CEE) is the author of Chapter 3 and Appendix D of this report, which deals with the design and analysis of this construction system.
Other:
Prof. Ken Chong (MAE) completed a lecture tour at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, where he presented a seminar on September 12 on nuclear energy mechanics, safety, and challenges. While there, he visited with the dean of the engineering school and faculty and students in the Departments of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, as well as touring some key labs. Prof. Chong was impressed with many transformative and translational research projects at Case and believes there may be possibilities of research collaborations with GW in the future.
Student News
The Energy, Natural Resources and Environment Section (ENRE) of INFORMS has selected Sheng Yu (EMSE-doctoral student) to receive the 2011 ENRE Student Paper Travel Award for his paper, "Computing Supply Function Equilibria via Spline Approximation," co-authored with Prof. Enrique Campos-Nanez (EMSE). This award is given annually to the best paper dealing with energy, environmental or natural resource issues by a student author who is presenting at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.
Other News
The GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering announces the call for proposals for the GWIBE Interdisciplinary Research Fund. Internal funds are available to support pilot projects associated with biomedical computing and engineering. Proposals are due by October 3, 2011.
Guest Vignette
The computer science BS program, which has been accredited for several decades, has just received renewed accreditation by ABET for six years-the longest possible accreditation term that ABET grants to engineering and computer science programs. The success of this accreditation cycle is attributed to many factors such as a sound program, dedicated faculty, an excellent student body, strong institutional support, great diligence in the self-study phase and in the "due process" phase, and thorough cooperation with the accreditation body. The Department of Computer Science is grateful to its faculty for a high-quality undergraduate program; to its alumni and External Advisory Board for their valuable contributions to the program and its students; to Dean Dolling for his strong support and inspired leadership, and for his expert counsel throughout the long and arduous accreditation process; and to the GW Administration for its unwavering commitment to exceptional education and scholarship. Congratulations to CS and SEAS for this achievement. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Abdou Youssef, chair of the Department of Computer Science)
SEAS Events
SAVE THE DATE: "Dare to Dream"
A talk by SEAS alumna Anousheh Ansari
Tuesday, September 27
3:30 pm: Refreshments; 4:00 - 5:00 pm: Talk
307 Marvin Center
CS Seminar: "Parsing the World in 3-D"
Alex Flint, Robotics Research Group at Oxford University
Monday, September 19
2:30 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "Novel Computational Methods with Applications in Life Science and Engineering"
Pinhas Bar-Yoseph, Technion-ITT (Israel)
Tuesday, September 20
1:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "Intelligent Continuum Surgical Slaves"
Nabil Simaan, Vanderbilt University
Monday, September 26
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
GW Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBE) Seminar:
Undergraduate Student Project Presentations
- Xiaolong Jiang (CS): "Digital Analysis and Visualization of Swimming Motion"
- Matthew Wilkins (ECE): "Monitoring Impedance Changes in Cell Monolayers Due to alterations in Intra-cellular and Extra-cellular Spaces"
Tuesday, September 27
1:30 - 2:30 pm
736 Phillips Hall
MAE Seminar: "A Kalman/Particle Filter-Based Position and Orientation Estimation Method Using a Position Sensor/Inertial Measurement Unit Hybrid System"
William Melek, University of Waterloo (Canada)
Thursday, October 27
2:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
Dissertation Defenses
Name of Student Defending: Ahmed Zaid Al-Husain
Title of Dissertation: "Barriers to Knowledge Management in Saudi Arabia With Respect to the Saudi Arabian National Information Technology Plan"
Advisor: Lile Murphree; Co-advisor: Charles Bixler (EMSE)
Thursday, September 22
12:00 noon
1776 G Street, N.W, Conference Room 122