Research
The GW Virginia Science and Technology Campus is a world-class center of collaboration with laboratories, centers and institutes conducting interdisciplinary research in many growing fields. Faculty, graduate students, research scientists, and government and corporate partners conduct advanced research in well-equipped facilities.
The Campus is currently focusing strategic research efforts in the areas of:
- Computational Biology
- Energy Science and Technology
- High Performance Computing
- Transportation Safety
Research Highlights
Professor Hsu Awarded $1 Million Grant to Increase Fuel Economy of Vehicles
GW Researchers Build Model to Better Understand Nuclear Reactor Behavior during Earthquakes
Solving the Proton Radius Puzzle
GW Leader in Regional Big Data Initiatives
GW Researchers Introduce New High-Energy Rechargeable Batteries
Virginia Innovation Partnership Grant Awarded to GW’s Computational Biology Institute
NSF Grants Prestigious CAREER Award to Hamdar
$860K Grant to Study the Effects Earthquakes Have on Nuclear Reactor Cores
$1.67M Grant to Study Solar Cement
Professor Hsu Awarded $1 Million Grant to Increase Fuel Economy of Vehicles
Stephen Hsu, a professor in the GW School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is developing an innovative friction reduction technology with a recently awarded $1 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to increase the fuel economy of vehicles. His new technology will potentially save the United States 140 million barrels of oil per year and help the automobile industry meet new fuel economy regulations. Prof. Hsu is leading a project team consisting of a car manufacturer, an oil company and several additive companies.
GW Researchers Build Model to Better Understand Nuclear Reactor Behavior during Earthquakes
Imagine the scene. A 9.0 earthquake hit Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 and triggered a tsunami with 46-foot high waves. The seawall was overwhelmed and three of its six nuclear reactors melted down due to the loss of electrical power from the flooding, resulting in the largest nuclear incident since Chernobyl. The disaster sparked new interest in the behavior of nuclear reactor cores during earthquakes, leading to an international interdisciplinary research project.
Solving the Proton Radius Puzzle
Three of GW’s physics faculty, Evie Downie, William Briscoe and Andrei Afanasev, are leading the way in solving the “Proton Radius Puzzle,” along with more than 45 researchers from around the globe participating in the MUon proton Scattering Experiment (MUSE) Collaboration. GW was awarded a $277,000, 18-month grant in July 2014 from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
GW Leader in Regional Big Data Initiatives
GW is making a strategic investment in the growing field of big data and analytics. Recently, Ali Eskandarian, dean of GW’s Virginia Science & Technology Campus (VSTC), assumed a leadership role as co-chair of the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s (NVTC) new Big Data & Analytics Committee. The Committee builds on GW’s partnership with NVTC and Attain LLC to sponsor a research report conducted by Chmura Economics & Analytics and released in May at a jointly organized big data symposium hosted at VSTC.
GW Researchers Introduce New High-Energy Rechargeable Batteries
While electric vehicles offer many advantages—including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the country’s dependence on imported petroleum—at least one barrier stands in the way of their large-scale adoption: “range anxiety.”
Virginia Innovation Partnership Grant Awarded to GW’s Computational Biology Institute
GW’s Computational Biology Institute (CBI) has been awarded a grant by the Virginia Innovation Partnership to accelerate innovation and economic growth in Virginia for their proposal “Next Generation Diagnostics.” CBI plans to commercialize new methods of pathogen diagnostics using a novel combination of genomics and informatics.
NSF Grants Prestigious CAREER Award to Hamdar
Young and inexperienced drivers are at higher risk for collisions. Dr. Samer H. Hamdar, an assistant professor in GW’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and director of the Traffic and Networks Research Laboratory, hopes to create a safer driving environment, especially for these young and inexperienced drivers, by applying his research in collision prediction and vehicular control to develop a hazard-based driving behavioral model.
$860K Grant to Study the Effects Earthquakes Have on Nuclear Reactor Cores
Faculty will study the effects earthquakes have on nuclear reactor cores by devising a model for simulating the impact of fuel rod vibrations inside a nuclear reactor. The findings of the research iwll have implications for nuclear reactor construction and analysis well into the future. MORE
$1.67M Grant to Study Solar Cement
After power production, cement production is the largest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers will examine the use of a green electrochemical process to form cement and other useful materials without producing CO2 gas emissions. MORE
Research News
GW Virginia Science & Technology Campus
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45085 University Drive, Suite 303
Ashburn, VA 20147
Phone: 703-726-8200
vstc@gwu.edu
