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Bridging the Intersections of ScienceFor Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt, complex would foster cross-disciplinary efforts to tackle "big questions" and offer room to grow.GW's proposed Science and Engineering Complex may still exist only on paper—for the next couple months, at least, by current plans—but that hasn't dampened the excitement of faculty members and administrators at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. For them, the proposed building is ripe with possibility. The building promises to nearly double the space on campus available for science and engineering activities, and would bring under one roof an assortment of departments currently housed across a dozen buildings around the Foggy Bottom campus. Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt will move four departments (biology, chemistry, hominid paleobiology and physics) into the new complex from buildings that date as far back as the 1920s and '30s. She took time recently to discuss her vision for the building's long-term impact on science at GW. Q: How transformative would this building be for Columbian College? It's absolutely going to be transformative. Currently, we have a cadre of excellent researchers who are doing great science despite limited space. The new Science and Engineering Complex will provide our faculty and students with the facilities they need to do larger projects and work together across disciplines in new ways. The answers to the big questions—like the environment and energy—require multidisciplinary approaches. The open layout of this new building, with its teaching and research "neighborhoods," will facilitate and encourage collaboration. Also, GW is in the heart of the Washington metropolitan area, which has become a center for world science. With this new building, we have the opportunity to be a node and a convener for scientific research on a global scale. Q: Is there one aspect of the building that you're particularly enthusiastic about? With its high bay facing people who drive down 23rd Street and the façade visible to people who emerge from the Metro, the Science and Engineering Complex will be an iconic visual that announces, "This is GW." I'm also excited about the building's main floor—it's designed to be a pathway across campus. With the glass walls on the main level, people passing through will witness the science and engineering that occurs in our classrooms and labs. Q: How would the new building impact teaching and the student experience in the Columbian College? The larger learning spaces, such as the scale-up labs—which embrace a new hands-on model for teaching large classes—coupled with the teaching and research "neighborhoods," will greatly enhance the way we teach. Also, we'll have the opportunity for new faculty hires, opening up additional avenues for learning and discovery. It's also important to note that all Columbian College students are required to take a course that involves scientific reasoning: how to confront a problem, how to plan and conduct an experiment, and how to interpret results. Students who take these classes in the new building will be learning in a place where real science is being conducted. On the Calendar: Zoning Commission Hearing This WeekGW's building plans for the Science and Engineering Complex are slated to come before the D.C. Zoning Commission this week, on Thursday, March 24. GW Provost Steven Lerman will be among faculty members and students testifying in favor of the building. The public hearing will be held at 441 Fourth St., NW (near the Judiciary Square Metro station), in Room 220 South. Anyone interested in joining the faculty members, staff and students already planning to attend should send an e-mail to talktogw@gwu.edu for more details.
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Doctoral students Can Kirmizibayrak (left) and Mike Wakid, who won first place in the graduate category
Students Compete for Thousands in Prize Money at Research ShowcaseDon't work from home. Be frugal until you find your groove. And prepare for a long battle. Those were some of the tips shared by Eddie Frederick, president and co-founder of D.C. startup LivingSocial, who addressed more than 60 GW students in a keynote speech at the School of Engineering and Applied Science's annual Student Research and Development Showcase. "It's really a great time to be an engineer, and it's an even better time to start a company," he said. "It's a winding road, but it's been traveled before." The event, held last month at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, found the student scientists vying for thousands of dollars in prize money, awarded based on poster presentations detailing their research. In the graduate student category, Can Kirmizibayrak and Mike Wakid, both doctoral students in the Department of Computer Science, won the $5,000 first-place prize. Their winning research, which aims to improve the success rate and accuracy of surgical procedures, involved 3-D image fusion and visualization software. "While the amount of medical information available to medical professionals has grown exponentially, the usage of this information is still dependent on physicians' knowledge and their ability to mentally combine and analyze multiple sources of information," said Mr. Wakid. "Image-guided surgery aims to help this process by fusing different modalities," he said. The software would compile 2-D images, like photographs and videos, as well as 3-D images, such as CT scans and MRIs. The second-place prize of $4,000 in the graduate division went to TaiSen Zhuang, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, who presented a cigarette-sized thruster for propelling small, cube-shaped satellites around space. Chia-Pin Chang, a doctoral student studying electrical and computer engineering, received the third-place prize of $3,000. He presented a compact optical microfluidic uric acid analysis system. The system could help people suffering from gout, a disease caused by the buildup of uric acid in the body. Hannah Stuart, a SEAS senior, won $2,000 for the best undergraduate poster. She presented a method for measuring the formation of water droplets inside one type of fuel cell. (For more details, read the full story in GW Today.) 
SEAS professor Michael Plesniak
Engineering Professor Honored by AAASGW engineering professor Michael Plesniak has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his research and leadership in the area of fluid dynamics. Dr. Plesniak, chair of GW's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has focused his research on biomedical flows, like those involved in speech production and the cardiovascular system. AAAS is the world's largest scientific society, which publishes Science, a weekly peer-reviewed journal. In December, Dr. Plesniak was among 503 AAAS members who were named fellows. "All of us at SEAS are very proud of Professor Plesniak …," says SEAS Dean David Dolling. "This is a significant career achievement for him, and it reflects the respect his peers have for him and his work." Dr. Plesniak says his long-term goal is to develop computer models for surgical planning to help physicians assess preoperatively how surgery will affect a patient's voice or cardiovascular system and plan optimal procedures. He also is director of the Center for Biomimetics and Bioinspired Engineering (COBRE), where he works to engineer devices based on the machinery found in nature, "presumably optimized by millions of years of evolution," he says. (For more details, read the full story in GW Today.) |
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