SEAS Colonial Cable

Message from Dean David Dolling


Another academic year—my first at SEAS—has drawn to a close, and it was a very good and productive year for SEAS. Our faculty competed for and won numerous research grants, established new research centers or maintained/increased support for existing ones, gave keynote lectures, published new books, and led national workshops and panels. The list is long, and the spectrum of success is broad. What makes all of this the more impressive is that they did it while teaching classes (or developing new ones), advising current students and recruiting new ones, and reading theses and dissertations.

This year was productive on several other fronts as well, including work that many of you, our alumni, are doing. The SEAS National Advisory Council took a lead role this year in establishing working groups that will help build a stronger SEAS community. Two of the groups they established are the alumni-student working group and the school resources working group. The Engineer Alumni Association was also helpful in planning or hosting several successful alumni gatherings, at which I was able to meet and speak with a number of SEAS alumni who are looking forward to being more engaged with the school.

All of these activities and accomplishments—whether by faculty, alumni, or others—are a necessary part of our efforts at building the SEAS community and reputation. This was a year to lay the groundwork for doing that, and I want to thank you for your participation. This is a partnership among us all, and SEAS cannot get to where we want to be without your help.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Signature David Dolling

David S. Dolling, Ph.D.
Dean

News & Events

 

A message from Development . . .

Charley Thompson
Charley Thompson

I am very pleased to announce that Charley Thompson has joined the SEAS Development team as associate director of development and alumni relations. Charley just finished a very successful 25-year career in financial services. In that industry he held positions in sales, sales management, training and development, and ultimately head of sales for ING in Warsaw, Poland.

Charley has a BFA from Syracuse University, an MBA from Babson College, and multiple securities licenses and professional designations, including Chartered Financial Consultant and Chartered Advisor for Senior Living. Charley moved to the D.C. area from his home in Greenville, South Carolina. He is married to LaVerne and is the proud father of a 23-year old daughter named Ashley. He is a passionate nature photographer who particularly enjoys spending time on the trail with his Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Callie.

Charley will be spending much of his time meeting with SEAS alumni and friends. If he calls you, I hope you will take the opportunity to visit and learn more about the exciting happenings here at SEAS.

As always, the SEAS Development staff is pleased to meet and visit with our alumni and friends about ways to participate and support SEAS. We welcome visitors to our Tompkins Hall offices and can also be reached by telephone at 202-994-8474 or by email at seas@gwu.edu.

 


Thank you, and my best regards,
Jim Howard

Assistant Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations
210 Tompkins Hall
jphoward@gwu.edu
Tel: 202-994-4121

~~ SEAS 2009 - Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering ~~

 


 

SEAS Celebrates 2009 Graduation

On Saturday evening, May 16, SEAS celebrated its graduation program—the SEAS Celebration—in the company of a large gathering of family and friends, assembled to honor the achievements of our graduates. With a full complement of parents, siblings, spouses, children, and other relatives and friends present, the 602 engineers and computer scientists individually walked across the stage at the Smith Center to receive their diplomas, handshakes, and congratulations from Dean Dolling and the SEAS faculty.

The ceremony included the presentation of numerous student awards to recognize various forms of student achievement; the keynote address by Mr. Bill Westenhofer (MS '95), an Academy Award winning visual effects supervisor; a student speech by Ms. Naomi Rapp, the winner of the SEAS Celebration speech competition; and the recognition of each graduate.


 

New Research Grants for SEAS Faculty and Researchers

Continuing their research successes from throughout the academic year, several SEAS faculty and researchers from the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering have recently received new grant awards.

Professors Hyeong-Ah Choi, Susan Cheng, Nan Zhang, and Suresh Subramaniam received a nearly $100,000 GW Research Enhancement Fund award for a two-year period. They will use the grant to study cyber-physical systems.

Separately, Professor James Hahn also won a two-year GW Research Enhancement Fund award. Professor Hahn will use the $95,000 award to continue support of GW’s interdisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to capturing and analyzing motion. Professors John Philbeck, of the Department of Psychology, and Brian Richmond, of the Department of Anthropology, are co-principle investigators on this award.

Also receiving a grant are Professor Lawrence Bennett, research assistant Yi Jin, and the GW Institute for Magnetic Research, directed by Professor Edward Della Torre. General Electric Global Research gave them a nearly $100,000 research grant to investigate magneto-caloric materials for magnetic refrigeration with an emphasis on understanding the structure/processing/properties relationships that impact the refrigerator system performance.

 


 

Computer Science Students Develop Tool for American Red Cross

A team of five SEAS undergraduates in Computer Science 147 (Team Project Development and Professional Ethics) recently completed an excellent class project that provides a nationwide shipment visualization tool for the American Red Cross (ARC).

The tool will enable the ARC to track blood supplies at all of its regional centers across the U.S. by blood type and expiration date to enable supplies to be moved quickly to areas of greatest need. The framework that the visualization will be built on is a simple 2D map of the U.S. Using clear, easy to interpret symbols, color coding, and displays, the map depicts the necessary data that the ARC would need to track blood supplies. This includes information about the type and location of each center; the inventory level of the blood products at each center; and the origin, destination, and status of shipments between centers. The aim of this project is to increase the ARC’s ability to plan and prepare for emergencies across the U.S.

The five students who completed this project are Sabrina Patel, Ahmed Mushtag, Valeriya Malobrodskaya , and Matthew Gagen—all of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering—and George Rivara, of the Department of Computer Science.

 


 

CS @ GW Summer Camp 2009

 

Do you know middle or high school students who have an interest in computers? For the second year, the Department of Computer Science at SEAS is offering a summer camp to expose high school and middle school students in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area to interesting topics in the field of computer science. The camp is designed to be a fun and informative experience for the students.

The summer camp will have two sessions: Session I is for beginning students; Session II is for advanced students. Four classes will be offered each session (game development; animation; JAVA; robotics), and the cost of the camp is $100 per session. Session I will run from July 6th – 10th; Session II, from July 13th – 17th. Class instruction is 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, with snacks and lunch included, Monday through Friday. Online registration and more information about the summer camp is available at http://www.cs.gwu.edu/highschool/. This is a day camp with pick up and return at the Foggy Bottom Metro stop.

 


 

Upcoming SEAS Events

GW Alumni Association Annual Meeting and Reception

Date:

 Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Time:

 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Location:

 1957 E Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.

All GW alumni are invited to attend the annual meeting of the George Washington Alumni Association and a special reception immediately following the meeting. The deadline to register is Friday, June 5. (Read more and register. . .)

 

Reception for GW Alumni in the Federal Government

Date:

 Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Time:

 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Location:

 The Mansion
2020 O Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.

Join fellow GW alumni working for the Federal Government for a reception in your honor! We will be joined by President Steven Knapp who will provide an update on the University. (Read more and register. . .)

 

Save the Date: Alumni Weekend: October 1-4, 2009
The George Washington University

Attention members of the classes of 2004, 1999, 1989, 1984, 1970-79, and 1959 and earlier! Please mark your calendars for your class reunions to take place during Alumni Weekend 2009. Your reunion will feature class reunion celebrations; an all-alumni kick-off celebration; “Classes without Quizzes;” Taste of GW, comedy events, an athletic reunion, and sustainability events; tours of Thurston and campus; and much, much more.

We need your help to plan events and recruit classmates to attend. If you would like to nominate yourself or a classmate to serve on a Reunion Committee, please contact Stephanie Medwid, associate director of classes and reunions, at reunion@gwu.edu or 1-800-ALUMNI-7. Don't miss this monumental opportunity to reconnect with classmates, GW, and D.C.! Come back to GW and celebrate good times! (Read more and register. . .)

 

Engineer Alumni Association, Call for Volunteers

Volunteer for our newly structured EAA. We are building new and dynamic alumni programming at SEAS, and we need alumni volunteers who can provide direction and feedback to the Office of Alumni Relations and SEAS to help build alumni engagement with a focus on Alumni Programs, Student/Alumni Programs, and Recruitment and Outreach.

We are asking volunteers to commit to a year of service, during which you will assist in planning SEAS alumni programs, attend three meetings per year, participate on at least on of the focus area committees, and attend at least two SEAS alumni events per year.

If you are interested in participating in this integral part of programming for SEAS alumni, please contact:
Erin Pitts
Associate Director, School Alumni Programs
Alumni House @ 1918 F Street NW
(202) 994-2355 phone
espitts@gwu.edu


Archives: SEAS Colonial Cable

SEAS Colonial Cables from the 2007-2008 Academic Year

SEAS Colonial Cables from the 2006-2007 Academic Year

SEAS Colonial Cables from the 2005-2006 Academic Year