SEAS Newsletter
Week of November 16-22 2009
Faculty News:
Research:
Prof. Tarek El-Ghazawi (ECE) and an interdisciplinary group of faculty from Georgetown University and the University of Minnesota, spanning computer engineering, physics, computer science and math, have been awarded a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation for a research project to study the many-body physics problem for inhomogeneous ultra-cold atoms. The work requires manipulating matrices of a trillion elements or more. Computational power in the PetaFLOPS (thousands of trillions of calculations per second) range is required for such problems. The project will focus on algorithms and programming methods that can deliver this performance level on modern and future PetaFLOPS architectures. Quantum computing and nanotechnology are among the applications of this research work.
Conferences & Presentations:
Professor Emeritus Lance Hoffman (CS) attended the 2009 Principals Conference for principal investigators of the Information Assurance Scholarship Program. The conference was sponsored by the Defense Department in Tampa, FL, November 8th and 9th.
Other News:
On November 2nd, a team of four GW faculty (Profs. Tom Mazzuchi of EMSE, Lance Hoffman and Shelly Heller of CS, and Eva Vincze of Forensic Sciences in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences) arrived in Morocco to explore how GW and Al Akhawayn University (AUI) in Ifrane, Morocco, could further develop cooperative efforts, specifically in information assurance and computer security and in women’s issues. After meeting with AUI president, Dr. Driss Ouaouicha, the GW team worked with its counterparts from AUI to further develop plans for a Center of Excellence in Computer Security at AUI (like GW’s NSA-designated Center in the Cyber Security and Policy Research Institute), technical and management short courses, and a possible regional conference on cybersecurity in Morocco in Fall 2010.
During this visit, Prof. Hoffman gave a lecture to AUI faculty and students on “Current and Future Issues in Cybersecurity.” The Moroccan team is likely to visit GW in early April, coinciding with the annual Women’s Leadership Conference, to further pursue these initiatives.
Guest Vignette
Prof. Michael Keidar and his Micropropulsion and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MpNL) are active in the experimental and theoretical study of plasmas. Current research areas include advanced propulsion for low-power microsatellites, atmospheric plasma jets for biomedical application, carbon nanotube synthesis and applications, hypersonics, plasma-wall interactions and arc discharges. One project uses plasmas to create a new micro-propulsion device called micro-vacuum arc thrusters, which provide small forces that can be used to correct or sustain satellites in their orbits. The main benefit of this kind of device is that it can operate for very long periods of time without any degradation of performance.
Another project involves usage of a new kind of plasmas-cold plasma for biomedicine. Results on cold plasma interaction with living tissue published recently in a few articles in Applied Physics Letters could lead to advances in nano-surgery. Our findings suggest that cold plasma can kill an individual cell without damaging the neighboring cells, which is helpful in treating skin cancer; they can manipulate a large number of cells and change their properties without damaging them; and they can change cell migration velocity. This might be helpful in slowing down wound healing (to lessen the formation of scar tissue in younger patients) or possibly speed it up in older patients.
MpNL has ongoing collaborative studies with colleagues at GW, other universities, and government laboratories. (Provided courtesy of Prof. Michael Keidar of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)
Upcoming Events
CS Colloquium: Top-k Algorithms and Applications
November 16th
12:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
MAE Colloquium: Measurement Science for Intelligent Manufacturing Robots and Automation Program
November 16th
2:00 – 3:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
GWIBE Colloquium: Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) Ultrasound for Diagnostic Imaging of Atherosclerosis, Subcutaneous Bleeding, and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
November 16th
2:30 – 3:30 pm
309 MPA Building
More info . . .
Alumni Career Networking Night: This event is open to all GW graduate students
November 18th
6:30 – 8:30 pm
Marvin Center Continental Ballroom
More info . . .
CS Colloquium: Pain and Some Other Dangers AI Poses to Itself and to Society
November 30th
4:00 pm
736 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
ECE Colloquium: The Role of Fault-Tolerance in Quantum Computing
December 1st
12:00 - 1:00 pm
640 Phillips Hall
More info . . .
SEAS 125th Anniversary Events
SEAS Seminar Series: Engineering Challenges in the 21st Century: Monday, November 16th
“Sustainability – Water Quality,” Presented by Prof. Rumana Riffat (CEE)
6:30 pm
310 Marvin Center
More info
SEAS Seminar Series: Engineering Challenges in the 21st Century: Monday, November 30th
“Smaller and Faster: Nanomaterials,” Presented by Prof. Martha Pardavi-Horvath (ECE)
6:30 pm
101 Marvin Center
More info . . .
Frank Howard Lecture Series–Dr. Barbara Liskov, Speaker: Wednesday, December 2nd
6:00 - 9:00 pm at 1957 E Street N.W., City View Room
Registration required for this event
More info . . .
Dissertation Defenses:
Name of Student Defending: Jae-Woong Hwang
Title of Dissertation: "A Whiteboard-based Computational Framework for Dynamic Team Coordination”
Wednesday, November 18th at 1:30 pm
736 Phillips Hall
Name of Student Defending: Syed Omair Hasan
Title of Dissertation: "An Organizational Framework of Personal Health Records for Social Networks"
Thursday, November 19th, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Phillips Hall Room 306
Name of Student Defending: Arush Gajendra Gadkar
Title of Dissertation: " Time-Slotted Optical Networks: Architectures and Performance Evaluation”
Thursday, November 19th at 11:00 am
640 Phillips Hall
Name of Student Defending: Francesco deLeo
Title of Dissertation: "Implications of National Culture on Knowledge Management”
Monday, November 23rd at 11:00 am
1776 G Street, NW, Conference Room 120
Name of Student Defending: Richard B. Wallace
Title of Dissertation: "The Relationship of Learning, Knowledge and Sustaining Innovation - A Grounded Theory Approach”
Monday, November 23rd at 2:00 p.m.
1776 G Street, N.W., Conference Room 120
Name of Student Defending: Kai Xing
Title of Dissertation: "Coding-based Channel Assignment in Multi-channel Wireless Networks”
Thursday, December 3rd at 10:00 am
736 Phillips Hall
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