Nov. 30, 2001
A Decade of Research and Development
GW’s Virginia Campus Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary,
Building on Accomplishments and Casting an Eye Toward the Future
By Greg Licamele
GW’s Virginia Campus resembles an academic town
center. A variety of disciplines, from computer science to business,
converge on this once sleepy part of Loudoun County and conduct research
that impacts the world, the country, Virginia, students, and beyond.
This academic storefront of the 21st century, which
prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary Dec. 3, even has a “road”
inside the building called “Technology Avenue” to highlight
one of the primary academic missions. This main hallway, decked in industrial,
but chic design, has been traversed by the feet of technology, business,
government, education, and academic types during the past decade. These
individuals have enriched the research life of GW, building on a foundation
of information technology and transportation. On the horizon is research
in biotechnology studies.
“When the University decided to come to Loudoun
County, everyone viewed it as being so far away,” says Irwin Price,
who has served as executive dean since the campus opened. “There
were still cows out here when I interviewed for the job. But in these
past 10 years, the vision was proven correct and the locus of the technology
industry has moved closer to our campus. The final spike got driven
in when America Online (AOL) came out here within a couple of miles
of our campus. That’s made the success of this campus a certainty.”
One shining jewel in the crown of the campus, and
a prime example of the campus’ close collaboration with the high-technology
community in Northern Virginia, rests behind the doors to America Online’s
Home of the 21st Century, an advanced Internet innovations research
laboratory, set to open Dec. 3.
“Through the AOL/GW partnership, we were able
to build a laboratory that simulates a home environment — with
living room, dining room, kitchen, and even a home office — right
on the third floor of the campus,” says Timothy Tong, dean of the
School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). “GW’s SEAS
students and faculty are equipping this modern abode with a sophisticated
home information system that is truly top of the line.”
This new system and research center enables GW’s
students and faculty to contribute to the exploration of new Internet
technologies that will improve the quality of life at home. AOL and
GW share the common vision that the lab research is guided by: that
entertainment, communications, and information can be accessed easily
and conveniently around the house. Through this vision and the continuing
efforts of the GW researchers, the studies will continue to focus on
ways to enable residents to monitor and run appliances, entertainment
centers, or security systems through an Internet connection.
A few storefronts away from the AOL home resides the
earthquake safety laboratory, the only one of its kind on the east coast
of the United States. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF),
SEAS researchers are exploring the capabilities of new smart building
technologies that can improve structural response to earthquakes. The
lab houses a 9' x 9' Shake Table, with six degrees of freedom of movement,
that can simulate actual or customized earthquake models.
The AOL and NSF partnerships are just beginning, but
the foundations for these relationships were paved in the transportation
research world. The campus’ first and largest research initiative
started in 1992 shortly after the campus opened, when the University
was awarded a grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create
the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC). Today a team of SEAS students
and faculty are hard at work in the NCAC, conducting tests of vehicle
and roadway safety that could save lives and minimize injuries. The
NCAC provides a setting in which to conduct advanced computer modeling
and simulation, and biomechanics and safety research. Scientists have
access to thousands of films and models, accident databases, and powerful,
high-speed computers to analyze information, draw conclusions, and make
policy recommendations that will ultimately make the nation’s roads
and vehicles safer.
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 and GW are about to begin construction of a new facility on campus
that will house the new NTSB Academy, a facility to train accident investigators
from around the globe. 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.
“The growth of our collaborative research has
been one of our greatest successes,” Price says. “This growth
has resulted from our strong relationships with government and industry.”
But research is not the only innovation at the Virginia
Campus, according to Price. The campus also has pioneered new academic
models. To meet the needs of busy high-tech professionals in Northern
Virginia, the campus launched a range of accelerated weekend master’s
and doctoral cohort programs. These innovative programs, primarily focused
on technology and leadership, enable a student to earn a degree in as
few as 15 months. Examples of these innovative programs are highly acclaimed
doctoral leadership programs, the Executive MBA, and master’s programs
in information technology, telecommunications, and engineering. The
campus also has launched innovative graduate certificate programs in
e-business, computer security, and airline management.
In addition to offering world-class research and academics,
the Virginia Campus also has become an active partner in the community.
The Virginia Campus is home to the Loudoun Environmental Indicators
Project (LEIP), headed by Dorn McGrath, professor of geography in the
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. The five-year LEIP study is
monitoring the impact of growth on the environment of Loudoun County.
As the third-fastest growing county in the nation, Loudoun sits as a
clear example of the impact of suburban growth and sprawl.
Growth around the campus is expected to continue in
the next decade. The original 50-acre campus is surrounded by the Potomac
River to the north, technology companies and homes to the east, Route
7 to the south, and the expected construction of the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute to the west.
“With the coming of the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute just a mile away, it will bring a whole new area of potential
partnerships with biotechnology and biomedicine,” Price says. “The
[GW] medical school has plans to have a mini-campus here at some point.”
Price says the foundations have been laid for the
future of the Virginia Campus. He predicts GW’s success in research
and academics and its strong relationships with industry and government
will propel the campus to a new level of growth and opportunity.
“Future relationships will be modeled after our
successes with AOL, the FHWA, the NTSB, and the FAA,” Price says.
“In all of these cases, it’s a collaboration among the University,
private sector, and public sector. That’s the model we think will
continue to be the most successful for us in the future.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
