List of Announcements (details below):

 

·         This Week at the Volgenau School

·         January ITS Newsletter

·         VSE Stories in Mason Annual Report

·         Mason Curriculum Impact Grant Winners from VSE

·         INSA 2018 Innovators’ Showcase:  Abstract Submission

 

Some of the regular features aren’t available this week, but they will return.

 

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This Week at the Volgenau School

 

May 24 will be my last day as Senior Associate Dean.  On May 25 I’ll begin a two-year transition to retirement.

 

This has long been planned.  The decision was made when I renewed my contract a couple of years ago.  I’m looking forward to it, although it will mark the beginning of the end of a decades-long association with the University.

 

I haven’t made a lot of plans for what I will do after I step down.  In the remaining four months I want to make sure that various projects are well situated, and that the transition to my successor goes smoothly.  Over the coming months I’ll write in detail about some of these things, covering topics such as graduate programs, recruiting, faculty policies, communications, and other things.  I don’t know who my successor will be.

 

One thing that I do have planned is the cycling trip to Italy that I mentioned last week.  I’ll be busy this semester, but after that there will be more time to train.   The Virginia Piedmont offers hilly terrain that should be good preparation for the Italian Piedmont in late summer.

 

Meanwhile I’ll be focused on making sure that my staff and others within the Dean’s office are familiar with all the things that I am doing, and that no major responsibilities are overlooked.  I expect that it will go smoothly.

 

I am already telling myself, at the end of one activity or another, “That’s the last time that I will ever do that.”  For some of the more vexing tasks, this comes as a relief, but I also have a sense of having embarked on something unfamiliar.  I find myself paying extra attention as I go to meetings or walk around campus, thinking back over the past 30 years at Mason, and wondering what I’ll be doing six months from now. 

 

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January ITS Newsletter

 

To foster awareness of current IT security issues, ITS publishes a monthly newsletter on topics of interest to a general audience. The January newsletter is at

    http://itsecurity.gmu.edu/SecurityLiaisons/upload/Jannews18.pdf 

This month’s newsletter discusses two-factor authentication, which will be required sometime next year for PatriotWeb in addition to VPN connections.

Please contact Jonathan Goldman, the VSE Security Liaison, if you have any questions ([log in to unmask]).

 

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VSE Stories in Mason Annual Report

 

President Cabrera just released his latest annual report: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu

 

The report contains a number of stories related to VSE:

·         DHS Center: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu/stories/patterns.html

·         Eclipse: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu/stories/eclipse.html

·         Medal for Jill Nelson: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu/stories/honoring.html

·         Larrie Ferreiro's Pulitzer-nominated book: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu/stories/ferreiro.html

·         Isabella: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu/stories/violin.html

·         TB test: http://presidentsreport.gmu.edu/stories/tb.html

 

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Mason Curriculum Impact Grant Winners from VSE

 

I wanted to share with you the outcome of the first Provost’s Curriculum Impact Grants (CIGs) competition. The committee reviewed 23 highly competitive submissions and selected 16 curricular projects to fund. Out of the 16 projects selected for funding, VSE in conjunction with other schools received 5 of 16 awards which are listed below. Please join us in congratulating all recipients.

 

D(esign) Minor [CHSS, CEHD, VSE, Facilities]

Robert Matz, Carryl Baldwin, Michelle Dacus Carr, Nada Dabbagh, Douglas Eyman, Vivian Motti, Thomas LaToza, Lisa Passaglia Bauman, Elizabeth Long, and William Helton

 

Engineering Global Health [CHHS, VSE]

Corrie Paeglow, Patrice Winter, Nathalia Peixoto, Laura Poms, and Shani Ross

 

Multidisciplinary Engineering Senior Design [VSE]

Laurence Bray, Piotr Pachowicz, Shani Ross, Colin Reagle, Robert Gallo, Liza Durant, and Pelin Kurtay

 

Web Design Minor [CHSS, CVPA, VSE]

Robert Matz, Don Starr, Diana Wang, Douglas Eyman, Lisa Kahn, Sang Nam, and Shanshan Cui

 

Combining Bioengineering, Clinical Medicine and Business Expertise [VSE, CEHD, SBUS]

Laurence Bray, Robert Smith, Derek Horstmeyer, and Mahesh Shenai

 

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INSA 2018 Innovators’ Showcase:  Abstract Submission

 

[This message was sent to me by INSA.]

 

INSA is now accepting abstracts for the 2018 Innovators’ Showcase, which highlights independent research and development (IR&D) projects with national security applications to S&T officials from U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.  Abstracts must be submitted no later than Wednesday, March 14, 2018, and academic institutions may submit abstracts at no cost.

INSA’s Technology and Innovation Council will select up to 24 abstracts and invite the developers to brief leading government S&T members, whose mission and application needs may provide future funding opportunities.  More than 70 government scientists and technologists participated in the 2017 Innovators’ Showcase.  All submitted abstracts will be made available to government audiences via the ODNI’s R-SPACE.

One-page unclassified abstracts will be accepted regarding technologies in the following areas:

·         Internet of Things (IoT)

·         The Evolving Theater of Space

·         Artificial Intelligence, Automation & Augmentation

·         Data Intelligence, Visualization & the Cloud

·         Multi-Mission Solutions

·         Other Game-Changing Ideas

Additional information and guidance on submission requirements can be found in the Call for Abstracts, which is posted online at https://www.insaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Innovators-Showcase-Call-for-Abstracts-2018.pdf.

 

If you have questions, please send your inquiries to [log in to unmask].

 

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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

https://volgenau.gmu.edu/profile/view/10248