Nov. 19, 2002
Discovering, Teaching, and Partnering
GW’s Virginia Campus Outlines Strategic Vision,
Prepares to Unveil New Buildings
By Greg
Licamele
John Wilson arrived at GW to find some people still daunted by the physical
distance between Loudoun County and the streets of Foggy Bottom. But
he’s been commuting to the Virginia Campus since his appointment
as executive dean in January and Wilson says this physical distance
is trivial.
Now, Wilson is embarking on a journey to bring the two campus cultures
and resources closer together by clarifying the Virginia Campus’
mission, dramatically increasing the size of the facilities, and bringing
an infectious enthusiasm about the research and education taking place
at the intersections of Routes 7 and 28.
“Our plan is to make what happens here so powerful and attractive
that the distance becomes meaningless,” Wilson says.
Since opening in August 1991, the campus has experienced a tenfold increase
in its student base and grown its annual research funding from $50,000
to more than $7 million. Wilson and the teams of faculty and staff members
will build on this success by focusing on three areas: graduate education,
innovative research, and technology transfer.
Wilson says key faculty members from the School of Engineering and Applied
Science, School of Business and Public Management, and the Graduate
School of Education and Human Development will offer additional classes
to further strengthen the graduate classes offered.
“Our plan is to expand our classroom offerings in our key areas
of current strength to meet the demands of an evolving society,”
Wilson says.
Wilson says success in these areas will be complemented through innovative
research in three fields: transportation safety and security, biotechnology,
and information technology.
“Those three areas of strength accord well with our environment
because in Loudoun County and Northern Virginia, we have some key institutions:
Dulles International Airport, the future Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
AOL, WorldCom, and many others,” Wilson says. “I think we’ve
chosen the right areas of emphasis to do discovery.”
Transportation safety and security will take the next step as an area
of emphasis, Wilson says. Faculty members already have been working
for years on areas of transportation safety crucial to GW’s success
and the safety of the country. Automotive safety is led by Nabih Bedewi
and Azim Eskandarian, associate professors of engineering and applied
science. They lead the National Crash Analysis Center, funded in part
by the Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration. The professors, along with a cadre of colleagues,
also conduct research at the Center for Intelligent Systems Research,
which includes a driving simulator that processes human performance
and pattern recognition for driving tasks.
Other government agencies have taken notice of GW’s growing expertise
in transportation safety, including the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The NTSB
will open its new training academy, which will include the 60,000-pound
fuselage of TWA Flight 800, on GW’s campus in the summer. The FAA
recently awarded GW a grant that could be worth up to $9 million over
three years to develop an international training program to improve
the safety and security of aviation in selected foreign nations. Darryl
Jenkins and Vahid Motevalli lead GW’s Aviation Institute in conducting
research and teaching classes.
“Our thinking about the future has been validated by the main campus,
which has been engaged in a strategic plan for the last year,”
says Wilson, whose initial position at GW focused on the University’s
strategic plan. “Two of the priority academic excellence areas
in the strategic plan accord well with our priorities here — transportation
safety and security and biotechnology.”
To build on these transportation strengths, Wilson says new facilities
will be needed, but his immediate challenge is to make the former PSINet
building (now known as Building Two) an integral part of the 90-acre
Virginia Campus next fall. Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald
Lehman has convened a group that’s mapping what the 204,000-square-foot
facility has, what it needs, and what will be housed in it.
One area of focus on the Foggy Bottom campus that may expand to Loudoun
County is biotechnology research. With the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
planning a $500-million facility next door to the Virginia Campus scheduled
for completion in 2005, Wilson says GW is already exploring partnerships
with the institute.
The Virginia Campus also will focus on information technology and partnering
with companies to conduct research. One shining example of this type
of collaboration is America Online’s Home of the 21st Century Lab,
which explores different ways technology can be implemented in living
rooms, kitchens, and other rooms of the house.
Though the economic climate has changed and companies do not have as
many resources as they did in the late 1990s, Wilson is emphatically
optimistic about the Virginia Campus’ value for Northern Virginia
companies.
“I feel that the value of this campus is in the brainpower that
we have and that we make available to our partners and potential partners,”
Wilson says. “I think we can develop old and new partnerships based
on the brainpower alone. I don’t think it matters what’s going
on in the economy because it’s always a good time for industry
to be strategic.”
Wilson says being strategic means being “connected to the right
kind of brainpower and getting important information about how you are
to approach your future.”
As for the future of the Virginia Campus and the entire University,
Wilson and many others at GW believe in the strategic value of this
once-sleepy farmland and bringing Foggy Bottom and Loudoun County closer
together.
“I believe the University’s strategic plan points to this
campus as a meaningful place to fulfill the University’s potential,”
Wilson says. “I’m confident that we have the areas of expertise
upon which to build.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
