Engineering and... News: November 2023

Dear GW Engineering Community,

We have so much for which to be grateful, and I want to express my own gratitude for all of our dedicated faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends who make GW Engineering a world-class school and a supportive community. 

In these uncertain times and with the constantly changing social and political landscape, I am grateful that we have an opportunity to work together to positively impact our students, our fields, and our communities – locally and globally. 

Over the last couple of months, world events have reminded us that life is precious and that we each play a role in contributing to the greater good of larger society. Consistently, I see and hear about our community’s commitment to improving lives and promoting equity and justice everywhere. From improving drinking water and expanding access to education, to leveraging AI advancements to create new job opportunities and supporting underrepresented women in the field of computing, GW Engineering is making a difference.

In collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the Water Tower Institute, Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Assistant Professor Yun Shen is investigating the challenges of drinking water safety and public health. In a $2M project supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency titled Consortium On Disinfection by-products and Opportunistic pathogens in Water Networks (CO-DOWN), they will investigate “the prevalence of opportunistic pathogens (OPs), their free-living amoebae vectors, and (un)regulated disinfection byproducts (DBPs) across a wide variety of sizes and types of drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs)”. Prof. Shen’s lab will work on understanding the occurrence and viability of OPs in drinking water. 

Delivering and creating access to resources like healthy food, clean water, and smart energy to underserved communities is critical to establishing a more equitable world. Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Payman Dehghanian was among 40 participants invited to attend the National Science Foundation sponsored Energy Access Educators Workshop . One of the workshop's primary objectives was to explore sustainable business models for equitable electricity access, including delivering energy in resource-constrained environments often found in developing nations and underserved communities.

The continuing advancements of artificial intelligence (AI) have created uncertainty about the future of the labor workforce both domestically and internationally. However, a recent research study conducted by Engineering Management & Systems Engineering (EMSE) Ph.D. candidate, Leah Kaplan, and co-authors, EMSE Professors John Helveston and Zoe Szajnfarber, demonstrates how, rather than eliminating human labor, automation often transforms it. In the study, “Shifting, Not Shrinking? Exploring Labor Roles in Traditional and Automated Taxi Services”, the team’s research suggests that although vehicle automation may eliminate drivers, autonomous vehicle firms still require human labor for numerous other roles.

Promoting diversity in the STEM workforce is crucial for fostering a more inclusive society and a more innovative industry. During the MobiHoc 2023 international symposium, Jingdi Chen, an ECE Ph.D. candidate, organized the N2Women event, “Mapping Your Academic Path: Insights from Women in Research”. This event aimed to support the research careers of underrepresented women in computer networking and communications by providing valuable perspectives, advice, and (human) networking opportunities.

This month I encourage each of you to recognize the ways in which every project, educational program, research study, community convening, and personal interaction in our school has the potential to impact lives for the better. I am certainly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of those activities and to do them with all of you. 

Please note that this will be the last monthly Engineering And... News newsletter of 2023 until we begin the new year. See you in January!

Raise High Revolutionaries!
John Lach
Dean
GW Engineering

Engineered systems increase in complexity every day, requiring governmental organizations to look to systems engineering experts, like Professor Zoe Szajnfarber from GW Engineering, to aid them in overcoming their associated challenges. As part of its 15th annual research review on November 15, 2023, the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) announced that Szajnfarber will serve as its third Chief Scientist. As Chief Scientist, she will lead the SERC Research Council, composed of senior systems researchers across the country, who inform and drive research and technical strategy.

November 30 - December 1: Athens Roundtable

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December 1 from 12-3pm: NASA Undergrad Interaction Day

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December 1 from 2-5pm: Intro to Printmaking

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December 1 from 5-6:30pm: Action Plan Your Internship

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December 1 from 6-8pm: Open Mic & Visual Art Night

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December 4 from 4:30-6:30pm: I+E Resource Fair & Mixer

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December 4 from 6:30-7:30pm: NVC Info Session

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December 5 from 10-11:30am: Department of Computer Science Colloquium Series

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December 5 from 12-1pm: What Do We Mean By 'Whiteness?'

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December 6 from 12-1pm: Library Resources to Utilize for Job Hunting

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Technological advancements are creating new opportunities for teams of AI agents, such as robots and unmanned ground/aerial vehicles, to be deployed alongside humans to support and augment labor-intensive and/or dangerous manual work. The vision is for robots to do more than free up humans so they can focus on the tasks that they are skilled at, like planning 

and dexterous manipulation, but also work collaboratively with them to solve problems that would be difficult, dangerous, or otherwise impossible. Over the next four years, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Tian Lan will be leading the project, “CHASE: Cultivating Human-AI Synergy via Decentralized Elicitation and Learning,” to tackle the challenging problem of decentralized preference elicitation and learning. The study is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the Office of Naval Research’s Science of AI program.

Biomedical Students Share Novel Research Findings

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Improving Drinking Water Through Research on Opportunistic Pathogens and Disinfection Byproducts

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Introducing Students from Across GW to Careers in Cybersecurity

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Enhancing and Expanding Electricity Access

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Systems Engineering Team Reveals How Automated Vehicles Are Transforming Labor in Taxi Services

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Circulating New Research Findings in Fluid Dynamics

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The assumption among modelers and regulatory bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been that EV owners drive their cars about the same number of miles as owners of gas vehicles. A new study from researchers at the George Washington University suggests that emissions savings from electric vehicles (EV) might be overestimated. The study, “Quantifying Electric Vehicle Mileage in the United States,” was published in Joule. 

In one of the largest studies on EV mileage to date, researchers at GW and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory examined odometer data from 12.9 million used cars and 11.9 million used SUVs between 2016 and 2022. They found that battery electric vehicle (BEV) cars were driven almost 4,500 fewer miles annually than gas cars. The study found a gap for both cars and SUVs: electric cars had traveled 7,165 miles while gas-powered cars had traveled 11,642 miles annually, and electric SUVs traveled 10,587 miles while their gas-powered counterparts traveled 12,945 miles annually. 

Development Assistant Anna Berman engages with alumni to keep them up-to-date on happenings in the school, help them find faculty or access alumni benefits, guide them to recruiting and/or career information, and help them stay or get connected with GW Engineering.

Q: How long have you been working at GW, and what is your position? 
A: I have been working as the Development Assistant for 1 and a half years.

Q: What led you to this career?
A: I enjoy collaborating and working towards one common goal. I started my fundraising career in museums, but I always valued my University experience and wanted to support students in theirs as well.  I find it rewarding to see the results of your work whether that be new chairs or funding for a new program. 

Q: Why did you choose GW?  
A: I appreciated the diverse community at GW. There are also so many opportunities and exciting initiatives  

Since 2015, the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Department has hosted a BME Research Day to celebrate the field and present the incredible research being conducted by its students. This year’s BME Research Day took place on November 13 and welcomed 35 attendees to the Lehman Auditorium. The event kicked off with opening remarks by BME Professor and Department Chair Vesna Zderic, followed by a slew of activities highlighting new research in the field of biomedical engineering. For example, nine graduate and eight undergraduate students presented their research in the Lehman Auditorium.

At GW Engineering, we have world-class faculty who are dedicated to educating our students to be leaders of tomorrow and to creating knowledge & innovating technologies that solve society’s grand challenges. We also have a hardworking set of staff members who are devoted to supporting our school & its departments, faculty, & students in accomplishing their goals. In addition to handing out the annual Engineering Faculty Excellence Awards awards on November 15, Dean Lach presented the first annual Staff Excellence Awards to recognize and celebrate staff members who go above and beyond in their roles.

Discover Boundless Research Opportunities with GWU-PREP

The GWU-PREP is a collaboration with GWU in Washington, DC and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. GWU-PREP provides research opportunities at NIST to students, faculty, research staff, and postdoctoral researchers at GW as well as researchers at SURA-affiliated universities.

We support your ambitions by offering financial support to eligible GW community members, including a monthly stipend, hourly wage, or full tuition reimbursement for qualifying undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff.