Faculty News
Research:
The National Science Foundation’s Navigating the New Arctic program—one of the Foundation’s 10 “Big Ideas” programs—has awarded Dr. Payman Dehghanian (ECE) a two-year grant for "Foundations for Improving Resilience in the Energy Sector against Wildfires on ALaskan Lands (FIREWALL)." The total grant amount is $250,000 (awarded in collaboration with the University of Alaska Anchorage), and the GW portion is $125,000. At GW, Dr. Dehghanian will work with three co-principal investigators: Dr. Donna Attanasio (GW Law School), Dr. Miguel Lejeune (GW School of Business), and Dr. Hana Akselrod (GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences). This project enables creative brainstorming, builds synergistic models, and guides multidisciplinary discussions that will generate knowledge on better understanding, navigating, planning, and adapting to evolving Alaskan wildfire regimes. Through the lens of energy resilience, the project supports building stronger ties and facilitates a two-way dialogue among researchers, local communities, and stakeholders to provide solutions for emergency preparedness, operational endurance, and enhanced resilience to wildfires.
Dr. Kausik Sarkar (MAE), along with his collaborators Drs. Sanku Mallik and Sathish Venkatachalem of North Dakota State University, has been awarded a four-year, $1.25 million, multi-principal investigator grant from the National Institute of General Medicinal Sciences (NIH/NIGMS). The project is titled “Echogenic polymersomes for triggered contents release.” This is a renewal of their previous four-year R01 grant by the same team, and GW’s share is $409,469.
Dr. Vesna Zderic (BME) is the principal investigator (PI) and Dr. Aleksandar Jeremic (Biology) is the co-PI on a newly awarded four-year, $1.96 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The grant is titled “Therapeutic ultrasound for stimulation of insulin release,” and the main objectives of the project are to determine biological mechanisms employed in the therapeutic ultrasound effects on the pancreas and how therapeutic ultrasound may impact the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The project team also includes PhD candidate Andrew Chen (BME), Dr. Anastas Popratiloff (Imaging Center), Dr. Joshua Cohen (Medical Faculty Associates), and Dr. Samuel Simmens (Public Health).
Publications:
Dr. Igor Efimov (BME), postdoc Kedar Aras (BME), and their colleagues from Northwestern University have published this paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering: M. Han, L. Chen, K. Aras . . ., I. R. Efimov, and J. A. Rogers. “Catheter-integrated soft multilayer electronic arrays for multiplexed sensing and actuation during cardiac surgery” (published September 7, 2020). The paper details the research team’s work in developing a new class of medical instruments equipped with an advanced soft electronics system that could dramatically improve the diagnoses and treatments of a number of cardiac diseases and conditions. The new system, which conforms better to the body’s soft tissue than current devices, can perform a variety of functions, including: simultaneous in vitro measurements of temperature; force of contact and electrophysiological parameters; the ability to customize diagnostic and therapeutic functions; and real-time feedback. The new system can also dramatically reduce the length of invasive ablation procedures and exposure of patients and doctors to X-ray radiation.
Dr. Matthew Kay (BME) has published the following article: A. Moreno, G. Kowalik D. Mendelowitz, and M. W. Kay. “Optogenetic Control of Cardiac Autonomic Neurons in Transgenic Mice,” Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 2191, pp. 309–321. The article presents the technical aspects of a cell-specific optogenetic approach for activation of the autonomic nervous system within rodent hearts, providing unparalleled spatiotemporal anatomic-functional probing of the intrinsic cardiac nervous system. Angel Moreno is Dr. Kay’s previous trainee and Grant Kowalik is his current MS student.
Upcoming SEAS Events
BME Seminar: “Flexible, Hybrid Opto-Electro-Chemo Implants for Neural Interfaces”
Speaker: Dr. Wen Li, Michigan State University
Wednesday, December 2
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Join via WebEx
Entrepreneurship News & Events
GW Innovation Center Events:
GWIC Make-A-Thing #1: Design Basics
Friday, September 11
12:00 – 3:00 pm ET
WebEx
Password: PmS2ZdfZ3J2
Learn the first step to bringing your AMAZING ideas to life!
GWIC Make-A-Thing #2: Introduction to Circuits
Friday, September 18
12:00 – 3:00 pm ET
WebEx
Password: KbwMJY63aF3
Join us for our informative session on basic circuits and circuit properties!
GWIC Make-A-Thing #3: Multilevel Design
Friday, October 2
12:00 – 3:00 pm ET
WebEx
Password: KTwTMWEZ523
Learn how to create cool assemblies using circuits from Eagle and models from Fusion360!
GWIC Make-A-Thing #4: Hands-On With Materials
Friday, October 16
12:00 – 3:00 pm ET
WebEx
Password: z55GaGJQMs8
Have a fun, hands-on experience with household materials!
GW Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Events:
Workshop: Introduction to Lean Innovation
Friday, September 18
Friday, October 16
Friday, November 20
1:00 – 4:30 pm ET
Register
Do you hope to solve a global problem, start a new business, develop a new product, or simply have an idea? We're inviting the entire GW community to attend a half-day introductory virtual workshop to learn how savvy innovators start the process.
Event: What is Social Innovation?
Wednesday, September 23
1:00 – 1:45 pm ET
Register
This virtual event will cover the history of social innovation and new techniques used by nonprofits and NGOs to solve global challenges.
Jumpstart Bootcamp: Global Challenge Innovation
Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8
Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15
10:00 am – 12:00 pm ET on each of the four dates
Register
Students will discover and breakdown complex global problems, innovate new solutions, and design a business plan to launch a startup. This virtual event will feature four, two-hour interactive sessions. Guests who register for this event must attend all four sessions.
External Events
Mixed/Augmented/Virtual Reality Innovation Conference Lecture: “Teaching and Learning AR/VR in Academic Settings"
Speaker: Dr. Hurriyet Ok (CS, professorial lecturer)
Friday, September 11
2:40 pm ET
Register
This year, the MAVRIC conference will be coordinated with the Virtual Worlds Forum meetings (XR in the Intelligence Community) and the Chesapeake DHX (Digital Health Exchange) to bring together the major players in healthcare, eldercare, business, art, intelligence, defense, and government. Speakers and attendees will share and explore the ways in which emerging technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality are changing, and will change, the way that training, operations, research, education, and planning are done. The conference will run online September 10-11.
IEEE Washington DC Communications Society (COMSOC) Chapter Lecture: “Introduction to Optical WDM Networking & Its Application to Data Centers”
Speaker: Dr. Suresh Subramaniam (ECE)
Saturday, September 19
10:20 am
ECE’s own Dr. Suresh Subramaniam will present this IEEE COMSOC lecture. It is open to the entire GW community and is free. RSVP by September 18 to Debi Siering. Please include your: name, phone number and email address, whether you are an IEEE student member, and if so, what your IEEE student membership number is. Registrants will receive the URL to connect to the live presentation at approximately 9:00 am on Saturday, September 19.
GW Coders
Every Friday, beginning September 11
11:00 am
Complete this short form to learn more
GW Coders is a new community that brings together students and faculty to apply computational and data analytics skills in research. We will share coding experiences, learn some new skills, and build our professional networks. GW Coders is for everyone, from those just getting interested in coding to those who have years of experience; for undergraduate and graduate students; for faculty in any discipline; for others in the DC community who want to join us.
Office of Research Integrity Seminar: “Responsible Conduct of Research”
Weekly, beginning Thursday, September 3
12:00 – 1:30 pm
Online
Register
This fall 2020 seminar course is designed to develop and strengthen ethical problem-solving skills and foster sensitivity to ethical issues in the conduct of research. Registration is open to the entire campus community but will be capped at twenty participants. Please register early to secure your space. If you have questions about the seminar, please email the Office of Research Integrity.
Postdoc Appreciation Day 2020
Friday, September 25
Join the Webinar
You are invited to celebrate the great work of GW postdocs and advance your career at the GW Postdoc Association (GWPA) Postdoc Appreciation Day. The GWPA will host a set of career development talks with speakers who will advise postdocs on both industry and academic careers. This will be followed by a set of 10-minute presentations (TED talk style) by GW postdocs. Cash prizes will be awarded (1st = $300, 2nd = $200, 3rd = $100) for the best presentations. The deadline to submit topics for the presentations is September 10th.
Human Resources News
This week's HR Corner includes information related to the temporary suspension of employer base and matching contributions to retirement plans, changes to campus access, updates to GW's FY21 holiday schedule, and more. Please visit the HR Corner to read these updates.