Martha Bushong

Georges’ statistics collaboration expands

Teresa Donnellan — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 17:13:21 +0000

Georges’ statistics collaboration expands   Teresa Donnellan Fri, 11/08/2024 - 12:13

In This Story

You may have heard of the Three Tenors (Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras), but have you ever considered the Three Georges (Mason, Washington and ‘town)? Like the tenors’ music, a data science collaboration between these three universities is hitting all the right notes. 

The Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) is North America's “largest annual gathering of statisticians and data scientists.” With collaboration and outreach in mind, Professor Jiayang Sun, Statistics Chair from George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing contacted Professor Judy Wang, Chair of the Department of Statistics at George Washington University (GWU), to discuss a potential joint reception at the 2023 JSM. Wang, who has extensive experience with JSM events, quickly welcomed the idea. Through George Mason Assistant Professor Isuru Dassanayake, Sun invited Purna Gamage, Director of the Data Science and Analytics MS Program at Georgetown University (GU), to join the effort. This led to the first Georges’ Reception at the JSM in Toronto, Canada, co-hosted by the Statistics Departments at George Mason and George Washington, and Georgetown’s MS’ Data Science program!

From left to right: George Mason's Jiayang Sun, GW's Judy Wang, and Georgetown's Purna Gamage at the 2023 Georges Reception.

Attendees included faculty, students, alumni, and friends from other universities, industry, and government. The response exceeded the planner’s expectations. “Our reception was fantastic, and thanks to our staff from three universities who helped with logistics,” said Sun. Her colleagues at GW and Georgetown were as enthusiastic as she was in organizing the reception, which featured food, drinks, and swag for attendees. The result was a great turnout at the first collaborative event between the three institutions at 2023 JSM in Canada.

Since that first reception, the Georges have banded together to meet, share research ideas, and join and host additional events. These include the Evolution of Data Science Conference hosted by Georgetown on September 8, 2023, the first Georges’ STAT DAY 2024 at GW led by GW and cohosted by George Mason, and a second Georges Reception at the JSM in August 2024 in Portland, Oregon. There will be a third Georges Reception in August 2025 at the JSM in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Attendees enjoy the 2024 Georges STAT DAY event.

The popular Georges’ STAT DAY event was partially inspired by the annual Joint Stanford- Berkeley Statistics Colloquium, which started as early as 1960 on the West Coast. George Mason Statistics is a young George on the East Coast. The second STAT DAY will be in March at George Mason and is expected to include GWU, George Mason, Gtown, and the University of Maryland (UMD).

“We may need to change our name to The Georges Plus,” joked Sun, but more appropriately, with UMD, it may change to “DMV STAT Day,” said Stufken, George Mason Stat faculty who will lead STAT DAY’s organization. In addition to these events, there have been successful joint grants and joint proposals, such as a recent one by Lily Wang on “New scalable computing technique will make analyzing Big Data easier.”

GWU’s Statistics Chair Judy Wang echoed “The joint STAT Day has been a fantastic platform for faculty and students to exchange knowledge, engage with industry and government experts, and showcase their work. Our students truly benefited from the inaugural event, and we look forward to continued collaboration and expanding connections across the DMV area.” Gamage added “It has been rewarding to connect with Statistics Departments at George Washington and George Mason Universities. Inviting them as panelists for our Evolution of Data Science Day and collaborating on the Three Georges' Reception at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Toronto allowed us to engage in productive discussions and build stronger connections. I look forward to future initiatives that will further strengthen our shared goals in advancing data science education.”

Topics

Department of Statistics

Statistics Faculty

collaboration

Statistical Graduate Student Association sponsors fun fall mixer

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:17:29 +0000

Statistical Graduate Student Association sponsors fun fall mixer 4429684e-ae8d-… Fri, 10/11/2024 - 11:17

In This Story

Lily Wang

On September 21, Department of Statistics graduate students gathered with faculty in the Nguyen Building Atrium for the first student-organized welcome mixer. From 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., approximately 40 attendees enjoyed games such as Giant Connect Four, cornhole, a "Guess the Number of Candies" challenge, other board games, and poker.

Graduate students (left to right) Chris Rivera, Tiffany Lin, Yang Long, and Tengyu Song cut a cake at the student mixer. Photo provided.

“SGSA is working to build an inviting community for statistics graduate students to showcase the department's focus on collaboration and fostering community building,” said Christopher Rivera, a current master’s student.

The Statistical Graduate Student Association (SGSA) team of PhD students Yang Long and Tengyu Song, and master’s students Christopher Rivera Carvajal and Tiffany Lin worked with faculty members Lily Wang, graduate program director, and Nicholas Rios, the SGSA advisor, to organize the mixer. Amir Hasan, the statistics department office manager, helped with the logistics and setup.

“Our main goal in the SGSA is to foster a supportive and connected community for graduate students as our statistics department grows. We want every student to feel welcomed and valued, while also working to strengthen connections between students and faculty,” said Long. “This event was just the beginning, and we look forward to planning more events.”

The students plan to host events that bring master’s and PhD students together and help first-year PhDs get to know more experienced students and faculty. They believe building these connections will create a supportive community where everyone thrives.

Topics

Department of Statistics

Brett Hunter wins CEC Outstanding Service Award

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Wed, 15 May 2024 19:32:24 +0000

Brett Hunter wins CEC Outstanding Service Award 4429684e-ae8d-… Wed, 05/15/2024 - 15:32

In This Story

Brett Hunter

Dean Ken Ball and Associate Professor Brett Hunter at the CEC's Faculty and Staff Awards. Photo by Tama Moni.

Statistics students and faculty can find Associate Chair Brett Hunter in his office with the door open most every day of the week, and this year, his dedication and many contributions to the department earned him the college’s Outstanding Service Award.

Hunter came to George Mason in 2016 from Colorado State University, and since 2020, he has served as the Associate Chair for Education. As associate chair, he has taken on many responsibilities that ensure the department’s smooth operation of student recruitment, advising, and teaching. Colleagues describe him as a team player and an excellent communicator.

Hunter readily admits that he is the one that students see when they have questions and concerns. “I am around a lot more often than other faculty. The students know to come see me if they have questions,” he said. Hunter shares many advising duties with the undergraduate director.

While his administrative service is diverse and impressive, what he enjoys the most about his work at George Mason, is teaching students. Hunter often teaches new or difficult courses that other faculty do not want to teach. This includes a wide array of classes ranging from software courses to regression courses, but also essential courses such as a university core course on introductory statistics (STAT 250) and its counterpart for engineers (STAT 344).

Hunter taught STAT 334 the first year it was offered and there were only three students enrolled. He doesn’t teach it anymore, but other instructors still use the course material he designed. He said, “I'm the kind of a person who likes to move around in the classes because I get bored if I do the same thing over and over, and over again. I also like sharing knowledge with others and getting them excited about statistics, which is often hard.”

To do this, he describes Statistics as a different way of thinking about things. He said, “I know when I was doing one of the university preview days a prospective student was saying, ‘Oh, I don't like math.’ I said that’s a good thing. Statistics isn't math. Of course, there's math involved....” Then he pointed to two peer mentors at the event and asked them how much math was in the exam they just completed. They said surprisingly, very little,

He finds that the most rewarding students aren’t always the easiest to teach, but this doesn’t discourage him. He said, he taught STAT 350 in the spring, which is the second-level intro course, for all non-majors, but towards the end of the semester, students were asking about possibly minoring in Statistics. It doesn’t happen often, but he said it’s gratifying when it does.

Topics

CEC Faculty Awards

Statistics Faculty

Associate Professor Cliff Sutton retires from Department of Statistics

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 18:32:18 +0000

Associate Professor Cliff Sutton retires from Department of Statistics 4429684e-ae8d-… Sun, 04/28/2024 - 14:32

Associate Professor Clifton Sutton will retire from the CEC Department of Statistics at the end of the spring semester. A long-time faculty member Sutton earned his master’s and PhD from Stanford University. As director of the Statistical Consulting Center at Mason, he worked with researchers from many programs on campus; advising them on experimental design and helping them do their data analysis. Among his more interesting Mason clients was former head men’s basketball coach, Jim Larranaga, who wanted to gain some insight into the effectiveness of various offensive and defensive strategies. With Sutton’s current research interest in online sports betting, basketball still has a role to play. Sutton said that the weeks during March Madness were extremely busy for him as he collected the data he needed.

When Sutton was asked to write something about his time at Mason, he offered reflections about his first years in the late 1980s, when the university was so different.

As I near the end of my 37^th and final academic year at GMU, I often think about my earliest years. When I arrived on campus only several days before classes started, I moved into a small office having a gray metal desk, a gray metal file cabinet and two gray metal bookshelves. The department secretary (that’s what the office help was called back then) thought it looked so dreary that she asked the department chairman if she could buy a red dictionary to put on one of the shelves before I arrived. That dictionary was the only “start-up package” I got.

During my first semester, I was shocked to find that the Engineering building was locked during the weekends, and most faculty were not given keys. Fortunately, that situation soon changed … first illegally, but then finally, legally. I was also shocked that I had to walk to the distant edge of campus to pick up my computer printouts. In 1987 there was no way to view a pdf of your draft produced using TeX; one had to look at a printout. And regarding computers, GMU didn’t see fit to give me one for more than two years! Originally, I had to use a dumb terminal that I had bought during graduate school, which I connected to the GMU mainframes via modem. All of this reminds me of that older relative who talked about having to walk a mile to school when he was a kid, and then a mile back home, with it being uphill both ways.

Fortunately, the challenges I faced during my early years all eventually disappeared, and my work life became more enjoyable. But despite the initial inconveniences, I loved my new job. The older faculty treated me well, and many (but certainly not all) of the students were wonderful, with a few of them becoming friends that I interacted with for many years after they graduated. Now those years have added up to decades.

Sutton says he is proudest of his accomplishments in teaching and service. A Teaching Excellence Award winner, he served as the department’s graduate program coordinator and was instrumental in leadership positions on both the Faculty Senate and the General Education Committee. He was so dedicated to teaching he never missed a class due to illness for 37 years. Sutton says one of his greatest accomplishments was to get the engineering school programs more involved in the university’s general education program, which led to a tremendous increase in enrollment, and subsequently, the growth of two departments within the College of Engineering and Computing.

Topics

College of Engineering and Computing

Department of Statistics

William Rosenberger delivered lecture at Cambridge University

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 18:37:40 +0000

William Rosenberger delivered lecture at Cambridge University 4429684e-ae8d-… Fri, 02/02/2024 - 13:37

In This Story

William Rosenberger

William Rosenberger, distinguished university professor in Mason's Statistics Department, has been named the 41st Fisher Memorial Lecturer.

“Being a Fisher lecturer is a significant recognition, affirming Bill's stature as one of the foremost statistical minds. It's a great honor for GMU, as one of its faculty claims one of the 41 distinguished spots globally among all universities,” said Statistics Department Chair Jiayang Sun.

The 41st Fisher Memorial Lecture is presented in cooperation with the Fisher Memorial Trust (FMT). The FMT was set up to promote interest in the life and work of the great statistician, evolutionary biologist, and geneticist, Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890-1962) Each year, FMT invites an eminent statistician to deliver a lecture in honor of Fisher.

Rosenberger presented 'From Fisher to CARA: The Evolution of Randomization and Randomization-Based Inference' on March 1 at Cambridge University, with international broadcast coverage. This talk gave the historical context of randomization and randomization-based inference from Fisher to the present day, including newer concepts such as response-adaptive, covariate-adaptive, and covariate-adjusted response-adaptive (CARA) randomization.

“It was be challenging to condense a year of material into one hour, but a devoted Fisherian should be able to be efficient and sufficient,” said Rosenberger.

Topics

CEC Faculty Awards

Statistics Faculty

Statistics professor takes on big data challenges with multi-faceted research

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 19:19:36 +0000

Statistics professor takes on big data challenges with multi-faceted research 4429684e-ae8d-… Fri, 11/19/2021 - 14:19

In This Story

Lily Wang

George Mason University’s outstanding location, available opportunities, and growing reputation combined to produce a winning formula that attracted statistics professor Lily Wang to the College of Engineering and Computing Department of Statistics in fall 2021.

“Collaboration is the key for my profession, and the Washington, D.C. area has so many government agencies and top technology companies, and it creates fantastic opportunities. Mason is growing so fast and on an impressive trajectory,” says Wang.

Wang’s primary areas of research are broad and diverse. They include non- and semi-parametric modeling and inference, statistical learning of data objects with complex features, methodologies for functional data, spatiotemporal data, survey sampling, and data reduction methods. Working at the interface of statistics, mathematics, and computer science, she is also interested in general issues related to data science and big data analytics. Her methods have a wide application in engineering, neuroimaging, epidemiology, environmental studies, economics, and biomedical science.

For example, she has been heavily involved with the Centers for Disease Control and spatiotemporal data related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team’s research findings created a dashboard with multiple apps embedded. The dashboard provides a real-time seven-day forecast and a long-term forecast of COVID-19 infection and death count at the county and state level, and the corresponding risk analysis. “We are honored to be one of the teams that the CDC is relying on to better understand and forecast COVID-19 in the United States,” says Wang.

Another area of great interest to Wang is using functional data to learn how to apply statistics to help with early disease diagnosis and disease prognosis prediction. Currently, most existing studies focus on one-dimensional (1D) function. For example, 1D children’s growth charts are commonly used to screen children’s growth. “Modern technologies produce large volumes of multi-modality imaging data that might be used as biomarkers for diseases,” Wang said. So, Wang’s research team uses 2D and higher dimensional medical imaging data and other clinical and genetic data for Alzheimer’s disease research.

The wealth of data presents new opportunities to innovate in science and technology; however, it also requires a parallel effort in statistical method development that enables researchers to make a rigorous inference. She says, “If you think about a high-resolution image, you can have a million pixels for just the one image, and beyond the image, you also have the patient medical and genetic information, so-called ‘big data squared.’ Analysis of these big data can easily go beyond the capability of the traditional methods. Our state-of-art statistical models and powerful learning tools can help to delineate associations among these data.”

Wang is also teaching a split undergraduate/graduate course in applied regression analysis. She really cares about her students, and she always offers various modalities of her classes. She says, “I always try my best to accommodate students’ special needs, especially under the pandemic.”

Whether she is teaching students or working with research collaborators, Wang’s excitement about being a new faculty member at Mason comes through. “Statistics is a thriving and fast-developing discipline in the data science era. Our department at Mason is home to renowned researchers in statistics, biostatistics, and data science/analytics with a bright future. I am so happy to be part of it,” she says.

Topics

Department of Statistics

COVID-19; Research

CEC faculty research

Statistics alum finds rewarding career opportunities

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 20:14:21 +0000

Statistics alum finds rewarding career opportunities 4429684e-ae8d-… Tue, 10/19/2021 - 16:14

In This Story

Kenneth Strazzeri

Tae Song, MS STAT '21. Courtesy photo

For students who are good at math and want a rewarding, interesting profession, statistics offers a great deal of certainty.

“Statistics is about trying to find certainty in uncertain situations,” says Tae Song (MS Statistics, ’21). Song now works as a statistician for the Washington National Tax Office at Grant Thornton, a public accounting and consulting firm. He says, “Many of our clients want us to give them answers, but that’s not really what we do as statisticians. We’re more about interpreting data and saying, ‘Here’s what the data suggests, but you have to make the decision.’”

Several years after finishing his BS in accounting and finance and working as a data analyst in a Washington, D.C. law firm, Tae Song realized that if he wanted to be a statistician, he needed more education. He looked at a variety of different schools and found the best fit at Mason.

“I was an international student at the time, so I wasn't expecting any kind of financial assistance, but the department’s generous offer really surprised me, and I was very, very thankful,” he says. Beyond the financial support, the atmosphere of teamwork was also a big benefit.

As a teaching assistant in the department, Song appreciated the interaction with students and sharing his excitement about the field with them.

“Before the COVID lockdown, I really enjoyed engaging with the students helping them out, especially right before exams,” he says. “They would kind of swarm that room, and we would have four or five TAs helping 20-30 students. I miss that environment, it was very cooperative with a lot of energy. It was rewarding and respectful.”

“Tae was one of the best graduate teaching assistants in my nearly 10 years here at Mason,” says Kenneth Strazzeri, associate professor in the department. “He has the patience and ability to explain difficult concepts in a way that people can understand and use.” Song now uses this same skill set with clients at Grant Thornton.

Song says statistics is a practical and versatile field that he became interested in while pursuing an undergraduate degree at New York University Stern School of Business. As part of a student internship, Song and some other students worked for a local advocacy group, Scenic Hudson. One of their professors, who was also a consultant, had engaged in pro bono work for the group, and he asked some students to do some research.

“It was a great opportunity to do some good work,” says Song. “Scenic Hudson’s mission is to keep the Hudson River and its shorelines as beautiful and pristine as possible. They were concerned about railway tank cars that traveled along the riverside and potential spills. They wanted models about what would happen if there was a spill or leak. We didn’t actually build the models, but the research really opened my eyes to what is possible with statistics.”

Song believes that his degree in statistics has set him up for a great career. “With a degree in statistics, you are extremely marketable. It can be super academic if you want it to be, or super commercial. It’s used in government, finance, healthcare, economics, so many places.”

Topics

Department of Statistics

Graduate Education

career-ready graduates

Engineers Week Kicks Off February 21

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 20:15:14 +0000

Engineers Week Kicks Off February 21 4429684e-ae8d-… Tue, 01/19/2021 - 15:15

Topics

Volgenau School of Engineering

National Engineers Week

Social Media Contest

COVID-19 has laid bare the critical work of engineers in creating a world safe from pandemics, climate change, cyber-attacks, and other daunting global challenges. Engineers Week is a time to celebrate this important work and engage with other innovators. Even with social distancing, you can participate and share in the excitement. This year Mason students will take the lead to organize events that capture the spirit and excitement of the fields of engineering and technology.

Organizers will track student participation for the Engineer's Cup. Be sure to check this page often and keep up-to-date on announcements, events, competitions, and prizes.

Thank you

Thank you to the George Mason Engineer's Week Organizing Leadership Team:

Hayes Makinano, Saira Amjad, Hajrah Choudhry, Rezia Mahmud, Giselle Aparicio, Roozah Sughran Khan, Likhitha Addagatia, Zainab Syed, Keil Eggers, and Said Ahmed

Schedule of Events

Saturday, February 20

11:00 a.m. — ThinSat Virtual Launch Party

The NG-15 ThinSat Virtual Launch Party organized by Virginia Space begins at 11:00 a.m. This event will include presentations from program representatives, a live stream of the launch, and Space Data Dashboard live data monitoring after deployment of ThinSats. Watch as the rocket carrying George Mason University's ThinSats starts its journey to space.

Join here.

Monday, February 22

4:00 - 5:00 p.m. — So You Think You Want to Be an Engineer: Stories and Advice from Current Engineering Students

Engineers have many career paths to explore, and we want to inspire the next generation to choose the path that is right for their interests. In honor of this year’s Engineers Week theme, Imagining Tomorrow, join a student panel to learn more about engineering degrees at the Volgenau School of Engineering. This event is perfect for prospective engineering students who want to hear firsthand from students about their experiences and how they chose their path to an engineering degree.

7:00- 8:00 p.m. — Women in Engineering Panel

Join us to hear about experiences, challenges, highlights, and advice from women working in various engineering fields including electrical, cyber, aeronautical, and systems engineering. Interact with our panelists through a Q&A session.

Tuesday, February 23

12:00 - 1:00 p.m. — Diversity and Equal Opportunity in the Tech Industry

As the tech industry becomes more distinguished and prominent, matters of diversity and equal opportunity are commonly discussed in hopes of promoting inclusion. Join us to learn about the importance of diversity and equal opportunity, along with how the tech industry is addressing these critical topics from our panelists. The discussion will be followed by an opportunity to interact with the panelists through a Q&A session.

3:00 - 4:00 p.m. — CoStar Day in the Life of a Security Engineer

Join to learn about a day in the life of a security engineer with CoStar and learn about employment opportunities.

5:00 - 6:00 p.m. — Cleared Careers in Technology and Engineering

Have questions about working in the cleared space as a career? Join us for a 1-hour interactive panel to hear advice for navigating the clearance process, tips for advancing in the cleared space, the job market and much more.

Wednesday, February 24

12:00- 1:00 p.m. — Supporting Community Resilience by Closing the Digital Divide

George Mason’s Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities (C-RASC) supports communities in creating life-changing social and economic opportunities through locally-led resilience and sustainability initiatives. One of C-RASC’s major thrusts is helping communities close the digital divide. Closing the digital divide is a fundamental enabler for greater equity as underserved communities are able to capitalize on the benefits of “smart” internet-enabled technologies. Achieving this objective involves addressing many engineering challenges, as well as important human challenges in effective implementation in communities. This workshop introduces C-RASC, and poses a socio-technical challenge in bringing digital connectivity to an underserved community. Participants break into groups to work on solutions and reconvene to share.

3:00 - 4:00 p.m. — Introduction to Peace Engineering

Peace Engineering is an exciting new field of study that has emerged to empower engineers to actively support conditions for peace. The Carter School Peace Engineering Lab was recently founded as an experimental space for the Mason community to develop peace engineering approaches. The panel will introduce the Peace Engineering Lab and lab members will share their research and opportunities to get involved.

7:00 - 8:00 p.m. — Cyber in Industry Panel

The need for cybersecurity in the technology sector continues to grow. Join us as guest speakers from Northrop Grumman’s Cyber Team, Verizon Media, and The Media Trust discuss security concepts. Topics will include major security issues such as identifying and remediating security threats, as well as privacy and quality control within an organization. The panel would assist students in discovering experiences, jobs, internships, recommendations, challenges of the cyber industry. The session will include a Q&A portion at the end.

Thursday, February 25

10:30 -11:30 a.m. — Managing for Uncertainty: A Peace Engineering Approach

Peace Engineering seeks to discover how engineering principles can support conditions for peace. Engineers often find themselves on the frontlines of conflict, whether in reconstruction post-conflict or in developing systems and technology that can improve people’s lives. In many contexts, engineers can plan far ahead and feel confident that their work will produce the desired results. Unfortunately, the same conditions don’t apply in a rapidly moving conflict. This presentation will explore how peace engineers can manage uncertainty with the Cynefin Framework and play a role in strengthening anticipatory governance mechanisms through tools like SenseMaker that are being developed by the Carter School Peace Engineering Lab.

1:00 - 4:00 p.m. — Splunk4Rookies

Splunk4Rookies is an opportunity to discover the value of Splunk, hands-on, in a matter of hours. Attendees get an introduction to Splunk, along with live experience creating a Splunk app and dashboard based on multiple use cases. The workshop is designed to take between 2.5 – 3 hours and will guide attendees through creating an App in the Splunk platform, adding data, and performing search, analysis, and dashboarding exercises.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, February 26

12:00 - 12:15 p.m. — Engineers Week Cup

The Volgeanu School of Engineering Department with the most student participants in Engineer’s Week events will be announced and awarded the coveted Engineer’s Week Cup! Winners of the VSE Engineer’s Week Social Media Contest will also be announced.

Mason to lead regional hub for national cybersecurity advanced manufacturing innovation partnership

Melanie Balog — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:05:05 +0000

Mason to lead regional hub for national cybersecurity advanced manufacturing innovation partnership Melanie Balog Fri, 11/20/2020 - 05:05

George Mason University is poised to be named a managing member in the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), a $111 million public-private partnership led by the University of Texas at San Antonio. CyManII will have a five-year corporative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to lead a consortium of 59 proposed member institutions in introducing a cybersecure energy-ROI that drives American manufacturers and supply chains.

“CyManII represents a great step forward for U.S. and Virginia’s leadership in cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing,” says Volgenau School of Engineering Dean Ken Ball. “Mason’s well-recognized strength in cybersecurity research and its offering one of the largest cybersecurity engineering academic programs in the nation position it incredibly well to support CyManII’s ambitious five-year goals.”

As part of its national strategy, CyManII will focus on four high priority areas where collaborative research and development can help U.S. manufacturers: securing automation, securing the supply chain network, improving energy efficiency, and building a national program for education and workforce development. CyManII’s research objectives will focus on understanding the evolving cybersecurity threats to manufacturing industries, developing new cybersecurity and energy-conserving technologies and methods, and sharing information and knowledge with the broader community of U.S. manufacturers.

Mason anticipates managing and operating CyManII’s East Coast headquarters on its Arlington Campus. The headquarters will house CyManII’s primary offices, meeting space, and training facilities in the National Capital Region.

It will contain lab space and equipment to demonstrate, test, and validate CyManII’s emerging cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing technologies and products. The 13,000-square-foot facility will support robotic platforms to evaluate security vulnerabilities, especially the impact of 5G on autonomous vehicles, the power grid, and smart manufacturing. The space will also host a robotic smart manufacturing testbed.

Mason researchers from the Volgenau School of Engineering will play key roles in CyManII’s first-year projects, including finding ways to protect manufacturing supply chains from cyber threats and designing better security into advanced manufacturing plants.

“CyManII is another step forward in Mason’s rapidly expanding leadership in the National Capital Region,” said Interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact Aurali Dade. “We expect to leverage our many partnerships with the area’s technology leaders to grow advanced manufacturing here.”

CyManII is funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and co-managed with the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).

Mason announces College of Engineering and Computing

Colleen Rich — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 12:40:00 +0000

Mason announces College of Engineering and Computing Colleen Rich Fri, 10/02/2020 - 08:40

Did you know?

Mason has nearly 5,000 undergraduate students majoring in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, information systems and operations management, cybersecurity and systems engineering—substantially more than Virginia’s other public universities. Mason also leads in master’s students with more than 1,100 enrolled in those disciplines. Including other computing-intensive fields, such as data sciences and game design, pushes the number up even higher.

Learn more

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

The George Mason University Board of Visitors voted Thursday, Oct. 1, to house the new School of Computing and the existing Volgenau School of Engineering in a newly formed College of Engineering and Computing led by Ken Ball, the current dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering.

These organizational changes next need to be reviewed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The School of Computing and the Volgenau School will be led by two interim divisional deans until the search for permanent divisional deans is completed.

The School of Computing will provide a wide array of computing and related courses to students from all backgrounds and at all levels. Beginning with Computer Science, Information Sciences and Technology, and Statistics, the school will eventually include multidisciplinary programs created in collaboration with faculty in Mason’s other colleges who have an interest in teaching and conducting research related to computing.

“The Volgenau School of Engineering has greatly benefited over its history from its strong ties to computing,” said Dean Ken Ball. “The visionaries who founded the engineering school at Mason grounded in computing and information technology would be proud of its evolution and growth as it becomes the new College of Engineering and Computing.”

Many see computing and digital fluency as central to every other discipline and every aspect of business and society, and envision endless opportunities for collaboration with experts in the humanities, health care and business.

The launch of the School of Computing leverages investments from the Commonwealth of Virginia that were driven by Amazon’s decision to locate its East Coast headquarters in nearby Crystal City. With these investments, the university has an unprecedented opportunity to play a leadership role in shaping the future of computing regionally, nationally, and globally while also enhancing economic prosperity and the quality of life for residents in the region and beyond.

“Interdisciplinary collaboration in research and education is a key component of our vision and strategic plan for the future,” said Sanjeev Setia, professor and associate dean for computing programs and initiatives in the Volgenau School of Engineering. “The creation of the School of Computing will elevate the profile of computing both within Mason as well as externally. The School of Computing provides an opportunity to strengthen our rich portfolio of computing programs.”