List of Announcements (details below):
* Seminar:Bioengineering Dept.:Mar 27, 1pm
* Graduate Student Workshop:Public Speaking Skills: Mar 28, 11am
* Funding Opportunity:Big Data Science & Engineering (NSF)
* Funding Opportunity:Biological Big Data Science (NIH)
* Supreme Court: Software Patents
* Funding Announcements: Sponsors Requiring No Publicity
* Yotam Gingold Receives Funding from Google
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*Seminar:Bioengineering Dept.:Mar 27, 1pm*
/Title:/Micro- and Nano-scale Technologies for Applications in Medicine
and Biology
/Speaker:/Faculty candidate Dr. Hadi Shafiee
Thursday, March 27, 2014
1:00 PM
ENGR 3507
/Abstract/
Micro- and nano-scale technologies can have a significant impact on
medicine and biology in the areas of cell manipulation, diagnostics, and
monitoring. At the convergence of these new technologies and biology, I
research for enabling solutions to the real world problems at the
clinic. Emerging nano-scale and microfluidic technologies integrated
with biology offer innovative possibilities for creating intelligent,
mobile medical lab-chip devices that could transform diagnostics and
monitoring, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This seminar
will outline Dr. Shafiee's work in developing micro-technologies with
applications in disease diagnostics and treatment monitoring at the
point-of-care and primary care settings. Several microchip technologies
developed to detect infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS through CD4
count and viral load monitoring, peritonitis (inflammation of peritoneal
membrane in patients with end stage renal disease failure) through
neutrophil count, and cancer through circulating tumor cells detection
and count in unprocessed fingerprick volume whole blood and serum
samples will be presented. These emerging technologies could shape our
future creating broadly applicable platforms for scientific discovery,
providing clinical solutions for resource-constrained settings in the
developing world as well as for primary care settings in the developed
world.
/Biography/
Dr. Shafiee is a Research Fellow at Harvard-MIT Division of Health
Science and Technology and Brigham and Women's Hospital. His research is
focused on developing micro- and nano-scale diagnostic technologies for
real world problems in medicine such as infectious diseases detection
and treatment monitoring at the point-of-care, and early cancer
diagnosis. Dr. Shafiee is the author of more than 10 journal articles
published in /Nature Scientific Reports, Small, Lab-Chip, Journal of
Haematology, and Electrophoresis/, 1 book chapter, 27 conference
proceedings, and 3 provisional patents. His work has been featured on
the cover of premier journals in the field of micro- and
nano-technologies including /Small, Lab-Chip, and Electrophoresis/. His
research was also highlighted in /NewsWise, Medical News, VT Research
Magazine, Chemical Biology, Small, BWH Clinical Research News, and
Lab-on-a-Chip/ and has been recognized by national awards including
/Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award/ from National
Institute of Health (NIH), /MIT Media Lab, Paul Torgersen Research
Excellence Award, and Liviu Librescu Fellowship/. His publications in
microfluidics have been cited more than 200 times in the past 2 years.
Dr. Shafiee has also been enthusiastic about translational aspect of his
academic research. He conducted his PhD work to develop a microfluidic
technology from proof-of-concept through a commercial licensing
agreement. He has been actively involved in technology transfer and
commercialization in two biotech start-ups through preparing business
plans, SBIR, and STTR grant proposals. He also has several years of
industrial experience as lead engineer in managing a team of engineers
to design the piping routes and equipment arrangement of multiple
petrochemical and power plants. Dr. Shafiee hopes for a day that his
ideas at the interface of engineering and medicine change people's lives
with a better global health, particularly those with urgent and unmet
clinical needs in the developing countries.
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*Graduate Student Workshop:Public Speaking Skills: Mar 28, 11am*
/Being Present in Your Presentation: A Workshop on Public Speaking Skills/
Friday, March 28, 2014
11:00am-1:00pm
Performing Arts Building Room 105
Preparing a talk or presentation for a job interview? Want to feel more
comfortable in front of the classroom or colleagues? Or just wondering
how to feel more confident as a public speaker overall? Join us for an
interactive workshop specially designed for Mason graduate students,
facilitated by renowned faculty from Mason's School of Theatre, Ken
Elston and Edward Gero. This workshop will specifically address removing
jargon when talking about your research and/or professional interests,
communicating with your body in space, and putting on the character or
costume of presence. Lunch will be provided. Sponsored by the College
of Visual and Performing Arts, Graduate Student Life, Center for
Teaching and Faculty Excellence, and the Office of the Provost.
This workshop is free, but pre-registration is required; spaces are
limited. Visit https://beingpresentworkshop.eventbrite.comto sign up.
For more information contact
Julie Choe Kim
Director of Graduate Student Life
George Mason University
Phone: 703-993-4031
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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*Funding Opportunity:Big Data Science & Engineering (NSF)*
On March 12, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a
solicitation entitled Critical Techniques and Technologies for Advancing
Big Data Science & Engineering (BIGDATA). This is the second round for
this program, which supports research to address "critical challenges
for big data management, big data analytics, or scientific discovery
processes impacted by big data." BIGDATA will be supported by five NSF
directorates (Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE),
Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), Education and Human
Resources (EHR), Biological Sciences (BIO), and Engineering (ENG)).
Unlike the previous BIGDATA competition, this solicitation is not in
partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the
Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) is no longer
participating.
Proposals should address critical challenges for big data management,
big data analytics, or scientific discovery processes impacted by big
data. Proposals may include computational, statistical, or mathematical
techniques, technologies, and methodologies, and can focus on
theoretical analysis or experimental evaluation. Proposals are invited
in all areas of science and engineering that fall within the purview of
the participating directorates as outlined above.
The 2014 BIGDATA solicitation invites proposals that fall under two
categories:
* Foundations (F) -- for projects that aim to develop broadly
applicable novel techniques, theoretical analysis, or experimental
evaluation of techniques. Proposals should be highly innovative and
focused on fundamental research.
* Innovative Applications (IA) -- for projects with more specific
applications or adaptations of existing techniques, technologies,
and methodologies to new application areas. Proposals are expected
to be interdisciplinary, and will largely be funded by the
Directorate responsible for funding research in the application area.
In addition to the two categories above, all proposals should identify
one or more themes that the proposal will address (which differ from the
previous solicitation). The three themes are:
* Data and Knowledge Management (DKM)
* Data and Knowledge Analytics (DKA)
* Computational Scientific Discovery (CSD)
Additional consideration will also be given to proposals that include
partnership with other parties such as industry, government, or domestic
or international institutions that would enable access to specific
expertise, resources, or data to test, modify, and refine their
techniques. All proposals must describe how they will address a
critical big data problem, what is novel about the approach, and how the
project will address the NSF Broader Impacts criterion.
NSF encourages researchers interested in this solicitation to consult
the list of related NSF solicitations available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/cise/news/bigdata.jsp. Additional programs that may
be more relevant for specific projects include Data Infrastructure
Building Blocks (DIBBS) and Computational and Data Enabled Science and
Engineering (CDS&E).
Deadline:June 9, 2014.
The NSF BIGDATA program page can be accessed on the NSF website at:
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504767.
The full solicitation is available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14543/nsf14543.htm.
More information on DIBBS is available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504776.
More information on CDS&E is available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504813
<http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504813&org=ENG&sel_org=ENG&from=fund>.
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*Funding Opportunity:Biological Big Data Science (NIH)*
The NIH Big Data to Knowledge initiative (BD2K, http://bd2k.nih.gov/)
recently announced the release of an RFA for software and methods
development in biomedical Big Data Science:
Development of Software and Analysis Methods for Biomedical Big Data in
Targeted Areas of High Need (U01) (RFA-HG-14-020)
(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HG-14-020.html)
This opportunity targets four topic areas of high need for researchers
working with biomedical Big Data:
- Data Compression/Reduction
- Data Provenance
- Data Visualization
- Data Wrangling
The receipt deadline for applications is June 19, 2014, with an optional
letter of intent due May 19, 2014.
BD2K is a new major trans-NIH initiative that aims to support advances
in data science, other quantitative sciences, policy, and training that
are needed for the effective use of Big Data in biomedical research.
Interested applicants are encouraged to join the listserv (on the BD2K
homepage) to receive the most up-to-date information about BD2K events
and funding opportunities.
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*Supreme Court: Software Patents*
From SCOTUSblog: http://shar.es/RM34G
"The Justices have danced around the question for years. Critics
(including a decided majority of academic analysts) have bemoaned the
drag on innovation for decades. But now the Supreme Court will have a
chance to face the question squarely, in /Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank
International/
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/alice-corporation-pty-ltd-v-cls-bank-international/?wpmp_switcher=desktop>:
does the Patent Act authorize patents on software -- more
specifically, on computer-implemented inventions? ...
"The case reaches the Court because the Court's last word on the
subject, the 2010 decision in /Bilski v. Kappos/
<http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/Bilski_v_Kappos_130_S_Ct_3218_177_L_Ed_2d_792_2010_Court_Opinion>,
left the topic in such disarray. The Court in that case invalidated a
patent on a hedging method as presenting an unpatentable subject matter,
too abstract to be claimed by an inventor. The reasoning of /Bilski/,
however, has left the Federal Circuit completely at sea. In this case
<http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/CLS_Bank_Intl_v_Alice_Corp_Pty_Ltd_717_F3d_1269_106_USPQ2d_1696_2/1>,
for example, heard before an en banc panel of ten judges, the court
issued seven separate opinions, none of which garnered the support of a
majority...."
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*Funding Announcements: Sponsors Requiring No Publicity*
Mason's Office of Sponsored Programs sends me an announcement when a
grant or contract is received by a faculty member in the Volgenau
School.I then include the announcement in my weekly notices, and a
notice is placed on the School's website:
http://volgenau.gmu.edu/research-news
Some sponsors insist that there be no public announcement of an award,
but I have no way of knowing this from the information that I am provided.
If you receive such an award, please let me know and I will try to
ensure that no announcement is released.In cases where an announcement
is posted, please contact me ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or
Martha Bushong ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) to have it
removed.
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*Yotam Gingold Receives Funding from Google*
Yotam Gingold of the Computer Science Department received $42K from the
Google Research Awards program for his project, "Diamonds from the
Rough: Improving Creative Performance via Aggregation."
--
===============================================================
Stephen G. Nash
Senior Associate Dean
Volgenau School of Engineering
George Mason University
Nguyen Engineering Building, Room 2500
Mailstop 5C8
Fairfax, VA 22030
[log in to unmask]
Phone: (703) 993-1505
Fax: (703) 993-1633
http://volgenau.gmu.edu/web/volgenau/senior-associate-dean
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