Department Newsletter (Fall 2020)
Message from the Chair
Dear Friends:
We completed another outstanding year as a department despite the challenges posed by COVID-19. The George Washington University made the decision to switch to a fully online semester for the fall, and our ECE faculty spent a great deal of time over the summer planning for the switch and rising to its challenges, which included the virtualization of labs. I’m happy to note that our students have been largely happy with their online learning experience.
A highlight for the department has been our continued research growth. Nothing reflects our success better than the rapid increase of our research profile, with our research expenditures for FY 20 at $5.63 million, more than double our expenditures just five years ago.
Best wishes for a safe and cheerful holiday season!
Professor and Department Chair
IEEE Fellow
Covid-19: Research and Response
Research: Diagnosing and Tracking COVID-19
Dr. Mona Zaghloul’s team has developed a nano device to diagnose COVID-19 instantly. Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. entered into a Sponsored Research Agreement with GW in September to develop the device
Adapting to COVID-19 Challenges: ECE
Successfully Moves Laboratories Online
When the George Washington University decided to switch to online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ECE department adapted by moving its laboratory and hands-on experiments online, too. Dr. Shahrokh Ahmadi details the process in our highlight article.
Spotlight
Dr. Guru Prasadh
Venkataramani
Dr. Venkataramani conducts research in computer architecture with an emphasis on security and energy efficiency. Among many other awards, he has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award for his research.
Microwave Applications
Laboratory
Dr. Roger Lang’s lab focuses on microwave sensing of environmental variables such as soil moisture, vegetation biomass, sea surface salinity and ice. In particular he has worked extensively with NASA in its aim to measure global open ocean salinities.
Dr. Mahdi Imani
Dr. Imani is an assistant professor whose research interests are focused on machine learning, Bayesian statistics and decision theory, with a wide range of applications from computational biology to cyber-physical systems.
Grant Awards & Publications
Recent Research Awards
ECE research expenditures are up significantly, with grant awards from both federal agencies and corporate partners. Select research awards are highlighted on our Recent Research Awards page.
Recent Publications
ECE faculty have published in a range of journals and in leading conference venues throughout the year. Take a look at our recent publications list.
Awards & Honors
Faculty Awards
The IEEE Computer Society recently awarded Dr. Ahmed Louri the Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award, and they produced this video to honor him “for pioneering contributions to the solution of on-chip and off-chip communication problems for parallel computing and manycore architectures.”
Student Awards
The GW ECE department is proud to recognize our bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students who have earned departmental or university awards and honors since May 2020. The awards include academic, research, and entrepreneurship honors.
Distinguished Lecturers & Dissertations
Distinguished Lecture Series
The ECE department hosts a year-long Distinguished Lecture Series that draws some of the most well-regarded researchers in the sub-fields of electrical and computer engineering. Browse our invited lecturers and topics.
Dissertations
We invite you to read the abstracts of our most recent doctoral dissertations.
Newsletter Archives:
View the past issues of our department newsletters: