Preston Williams

Largest-ever group of winter graduates encouraged to live the journey of their own truth

Melanie Balog — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 22:01:23 +0000

Largest-ever group of winter graduates encouraged to live the journey of their own truth Melanie Balog Thu, 12/19/2019 - 17:01

Graduates celebrate at the 2019 Winter Graduation ceremony at EagleBank Arena on Dec. 19. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services.

Alumna Zainab Salbi, BIS ’96, encouraged George Mason University graduates to “be the one that believes in someone else’s dreams,” just as Mason faculty had encouraged her.

Salbi, who founded global relief organization Women for Women International while she was a Mason student, addressed the largest group of winter graduates in university history Thursday at EagleBank Arena on the Fairfax Campus.

“My professors believed in me,” said Salbi, who came to Mason as an Iraqi immigrant. “And for that, I cannot tell you the difference they made in my life for believing in this young student’s dreams. ... Mason welcomed me and nurtured me and really supported me to become the woman I am standing in front of you today. For that I am extremely grateful.”

The winter graduating class of 2019 included more than 4,600 graduates and totaled more than 5,000 when counting students earning certificates. They represent 54 countries and 37 states.

Mason Interim President Anne Holton, presiding over the ceremony for the first time, spoke of the graduates using Mason as “a trampoline to life success.”

“May you all bounce high, and may you all bounce far,” she said.

Holton noted that 34% of the bachelor’s degree recipients were in STEM fields, as were 23% of the graduate degree earners. In each ceremony when Holton asked the first-generation graduates—about one-third of the class—to stand and be recognized, warm applause filled the arena.

Salbi spoke at both the morning and afternoon ceremonies, stepping in for the scheduled afternoon speaker, Deborah Willis, PhD Cultural Studies ‘03, University Professor and chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. Willis had to cancel early in the week because of an illness.

Mason Board of Visitors member Lisa Zuccari, BIS ’89, presented Salbi with an honorary doctor of humane letters during the morning ceremony.

Josi Braithwaite, BA Communication, ’19, gave the student address at the morning ceremony, and Tiffany Dawson, BS Management ’19, spoke at the afternoon ceremony.

Salbi encouraged the graduates to resist the material measures of success at the expense of finding something that truly matters to them.

“Live life out of your own truth,” Salbi said. “Live it today. Now. Not tomorrow, not the day after. For if you deny yourself the most important truth of what your heart longs for, that longing shall always find its way and itch in your mind and your brain of why am I not living my truth today? We can live the journey of our truth every single day.”

Virginia invests $235 million in support of Mason's tech talent degree programs

Colleen Rich — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:10:00 +0000

Virginia invests $235 million in support of Mason's tech talent degree programs Colleen Rich Thu, 11/07/2019 - 11:10

A concept design for the Institute for Digital Innovation at Mason's Arlington Campus.

George Mason University will receive $235 million from the state as part of the Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP) announced Thursday by Gov. Ralph Northam. The funding will support Mason’s role as a producer of graduates in high-demand fields and spur the expansion of the Arlington Campus.

"This initiative is an investment in Virginians," said Gov. Northam. “Virginia’s tech sector will continue booming only if we can train the workforce those jobs require. With today’s announcement, we are educating a workforce that will fill jobs at hundreds of tech companies around the commonwealth, including at Amazon, helping boost our economy and quality of life in every corner of Virginia.”

Mason Interim President Anne Holton joined Northam and other university presidents at Virginia State University for the announcement. The commonwealth has signed memorandums of understanding with 11 universities as part of the TTIP.

"Mason’s strategic role in the Tech Talent Investment Program confirms our standing as a significant producer of diverse tech talent in Virginia,” Holton said. “We’re grateful to state officials for their confidence in our ability to continue to deliver high-demand tech talent for decades to come.”

The first of two MOUs that Mason has executed with the commonwealth calls for the state to invest $125 million in Mason to produce a cumulative total of 7,538 master’s graduates in tech fields over the next 20 years. This represents three times more graduates annually than Mason produced in 2019. Mason will match that $125 million, for a total investment of $250 million.

The second MOU calls for the state to invest $110 million in Mason to confer 8,410 undergraduate degrees in tech fields over that same period, about one-third more graduates annually than Mason produced in 2019. Mason is not required to match these funds.

In all, Mason will produce about 30% of 25,000 additional graduates in tech fields over the next two decades to serve region and state employers, including Amazon.

The state funding will support the expansion of Mason’s Arlington Campus, which will include the Mason Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA), the anchor of an “innovation district,” inspired by similar districts established around the country by research universities and their partners. Holton said that IDIA and the innovation district will highlight many of the values that have defined Mason’s success over the past half-century—research, innovation, access and diversity—while also contributing to economic growth and job creation along the Ballston-Virginia Square corridor.

The Mason IDIA will draw on the university’s partnerships with private, public and community organizations in Arlington and house Mason’s tech-related research and education programs, as well as incubator/accelerator programs, start-ups, high-growth businesses of all sizes, and academic and community partners.

“The Mason Institute for Digital InnovAtion will bring together more than 200 faculty from across 10 Mason colleges and schools, uniting related research and innovation and producing thousands of career-ready graduates for the innovation economy each year,” said Deb Crawford, Mason vice president for research, innovation and economic impact. “In addition, the co-location of Mason faculty and student innovators with corporate-sector partners speeds the path to commercialization of university-invented technologies, including through start-ups and established companies.”

The university will share more details about IDIA on Nov. 20 at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Arlington Campus, with state officials and Amazon representatives in attendance. That event will kick off the Arlington Forward speaker series for 2020 that will highlight the university’s role in the innovation district project.

Just as the anniversary celebration will reflect the past and present of the Arlington Campus, so does the state support for the project, Holton said.

“The commonwealth’s investment in Mason is an endorsement both of what this university has achieved and what we can accomplish together as we deepen Mason’s impact throughout the National Capital Region and around the state,” Holton said.

Gov. Ralph Northam met with Mason leadership in October to look at plans for the proposed expansion of the Arlington Campus. From left, Mason Chief of Staff Dietra Trent, Northam, Volgenau School of Engineering Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement Liza Wilson Durant and Vice President of Government and Community Relations Paul Liberty. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Office of Communications and Marketing.

Mason sponsored research spending reaches $149 million

Melanie Balog — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 09:06:53 +0000

Mason sponsored research spending reaches $149 million Melanie Balog Tue, 04/02/2019 - 05:06

George Mason University reported an all-time high of $149 million in sponsored research expenditures for fiscal year 2018, making good progress toward the university’s strategic goal of $225 million by 2024.

Mason’s reported sponsored research expenditures were about 32 percent higher than in the previous year. And expenditures in 2019 are trending even higher.

“With the momentum of the past few years, we are well on our way to achieving the goal we set for ourselves in the strategic plan,” said Deb Crawford, vice president for research, innovation and economic impact. “This continued growth highlights the accomplishments of our faculty and supports Mason’s recognition as one of the nation’s Tier 1 research universities.”

The $149 million total, submitted last month to the National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey, includes funds provided by federal and state government entities, industry, nonprofit organizations and the university itself.

In 2018, the university reviewed its reporting and tracking methods to ensure that the sources of funding and full cost of research were accurately reported. “This adjustment is consistent with other R1 universities and provides a more thorough annual accounting of Mason’s growing research endeavors,” Crawford said.

Mason has a wide range of ongoing research, including with the multidisciplinary Institute for a Sustainable Earth, which involves more than 500 faculty members who are focused on Earth’s future.

Through a 10-year, $40-million grant, Mason heads a multidisciplinary Center of Excellence in Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis for the Department of Homeland Security, leading a consortium of universities and law enforcement agencies to investigate patterns of criminal activities and forensics.

Wendi Manuel-Scott and Benedict Carton led a five-student research team that explored the lives of slaves held by the university’s namesake, providing a fuller account of the contradictory life George Mason IV led.

Other research includes work by mechanical engineering professor Jeff Moran, who worked with a team to devise a wetsuit treatment that can triple the survival time for swimmers, even in Arctic waters; work by Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a leading authority on Mexico-U.S. relations, to provide a greater depth of understanding and analysis on organized crime, immigration, border security, human trafficking and gang activity; and a multidisciplinary study led by the College of Health and Human Services to measure the exposure of women—particularly pregnant women—to traffic pollutants during their commutes.

Alexis Bracey (left), Ayman Fatima (center) and Elizabeth Perez-Garcia (right) were three of the students who started with the project in summer 2017, bringing with them their backgrounds in criminology, public health, global affairs and other fields. Photo by Evan Cantwell.

Mason and MITRE: Partners in Research and Education

asailey — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 20:26:35 +0000

Mason and MITRE: Partners in Research and Education asailey Wed, 07/06/2016 - 16:26

For George Mason University and the MITRE Corporation, the talent pipeline flows in both directions. Career-ready Mason graduates join the MITRE workforce each year, and MITRE provides funding for its employees to earn career-related advanced degrees at George Mason.

It’s a natural partnership—the largest public research university in Virginia and a not-for-profit organization that shares Mason’s interest in tackling research and development of national and global significance.

MITRE’s work for the federal government aligns with Mason’s strengths in STEM fields, health care, and many other areas. It’s a boon for the company to have one of the world’s top 200 research universities 10 miles away.

“It’s a fantastic advantage,” said Julie Gravallese, MITRE vice president and chief human resources officer. “We want to invest in George Mason because that really does invest in our future.”

The ties between Mason and MITRE are deep―and deepening—with current research initiatives or likely future projects in cybersecurity, big data analytics, health care, software development and computational social sciences.

In September, Mason president Ángel Cabrera gave a presentation at MITRE about the university’s role as an economic engine in the region. Many of those in attendance were among the more than 450 Mason alumni employed at MITRE. Of MITRE’s 7,500 employees, more earned degrees from Mason than from any other college or university, Gravallese said.

MITRE president and CEO Alfred Grasso visited the Mason campus for an event during the fall. Many of his colleagues regularly make that short drive―MITRE pays for employees to take courses at Mason, and MITRE engineers frequently serve as adjunct professors, sharing their practical experiences with Mason students.

In one collaboration in recent years, Mason and MITRE brought together students, first responders, law enforcement, and the military for a simulation experiment that examined social media’s effectiveness in emergency response.

MITRE representatives also provide recommendations for Mason academic programs. For example, MITRE principal scientist Charles A. Worrell, who received his PhD from Mason in 2003, is a founding member of the Mason Mechanical Engineering Department’s industry advisory board.

In addition, Mason and MITRE are exploring training and development partnerships between George Mason Learning Solutions and the MITRE Institute, MITRE’s internal corporate center for education, training, and development. They also are considering possible collaborations between Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and MITRE’s Technology Transfer Office.

“The collaboration with MITRE reaffirms George Mason University’s commitment to produce a career-ready workforce aligned with the societal and economic needs of the region,” Mason Provost S. David Wu said. “As the largest public research university and an economic development engine for the National Capital region, Mason welcomes committed partners in exploring new opportunities in research, innovation, and economic growth.”

Gravallese, who during her 34 years at MITRE has seen Mason blossom from a small regional school into an international university, is a Mason enthusiast in more ways than one. Her daughter, Jessica Richardson, is an art and visual technology major at Mason.

“I have every reason to want George Mason to thrive and continue to produce the best-educated graduates that it possibly can,” Gravallese said.

A version of this story by Preston Williams originally appeared in Mason’s Business Matters on December 5, 2015.

Flying planes and landing jobs: Mason aviation program takes off

dallen21 — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 21:38:51 +0000

Flying planes and landing jobs: Mason aviation program takes off dallen21 Tue, 08/12/2014 - 17:38

As the son of two State Department employees, Sean Graham grew up around the world―in India, Ghana, West Africa, the Philippines, and the United States. After such a globe-trotting upbringing, who could blame him for wanting to learn to fly a plane?

Graham is doing just that as one of the first students to emerge from George Mason University's aviation flight training and management minor, based in the Volgenau School of Engineering.

Mason alum Sean Graham with Cessna 172M at Manassas Regional Airport. Photo courtesy of Creative Services.

George Mason students are flying aircraft and earning private pilot licenses from the Federal Aviation Administration, while at the same time gaining experience on the ground and in the classroom that will help them land jobs of consequence in the air transportation industry.

There is a growing demand for aviation professionals who can more efficiently design, operate, and manage the world's airports, airlines, and air traffic control systems.

"I want to fly myself, you know?" Graham, a conflict analysis and resolution major, says with a laugh one afternoon before hopping into the cockpit of a Cessna 172M at Manassas Regional Airport for a quick jaunt to Charlottesville, Va. "I've been on too many commercial flights. You can rent a plane like you can rent a car. Easy transportation."

The value of the 15-credit-hour Mason program, with its combination of flight training and management courses, soars far beyond the cool factor. While other colleges and universities have dropped aviation programs in recent years, and flight schools closed their doors, Mason could foresee job opportunities in the industry.

The demand for air travel is increasing, particularly in China, India, and Africa. Existing pilots are retiring faster than new pilots are entering the profession because there are fewer military-trained pilots to take those jobs and fewer flight schools to train new pilots. And there are few universities that offer an aviation program, particularly in the mid-Atlantic region.

"Those three criteria make this a perfect match for George Mason," says Lance Sherry, an associate professor in Systems Engineering and Operations Research and director of the university's Center for Air Transportation Systems Research. "Students coming out of this program will have a big competitive advantage when they apply for an airline or other transportation job."

Through the Mason program, in conjunction with award-winning flight school Aviation Adventures, students can earn their private pilot's license and decide if they want to train to become commercial pilots. For the minor, flight training hours are flexible to meet students' school and work schedules. Manassas Regional Airport, the facility that Graham and others fly out of, is four miles from Mason's Prince William Campus. There also are regional airports in Warrenton, Leesburg, and Fredericksburg, Va.

The first pilot to come through the Mason program was Harry Newton, a continuing education student and Air Force retiree majoring in applied information technology. Graham will be the second, and Adil Altaf, a biology major, the third. A new student cohort starts this fall.

As a Joint Fires Observer in the Army, Graham was accustomed to working with airplanes. His job, among other duties, was to request, control and adjust surface-to-surface fires such as artillery, mortars, and naval surface gunfire. But learning to fly in the military requires a lengthy time commitment. At Mason, ranked the top school in Virginia for veterans, he could learn to fly courtesy of the GI Bill by enrolling in the aviation minor program.

"It's a fantastic opportunity," says Graham, who in addition to being a Mason student works for a company that preserves foreclosed homes. "It's an ability to learn a whole new skill set. It opens your eyes up to a whole new world. There's a lot of career potential in it, and it's a fun hobby. I'd recommend it to anybody."

Conor Dancy, BS Geology '13, founded a Mason aviation club when he was an undergraduate. His involvement at Mason and at Aviation Adventures helped lay the groundwork for the new minor, and Bob Hepp, the owner of Aviation Adventures, played a key role, working out the details of the program with Mason officials.

Dancy is now the chief flight instructor at Leesburg Executive Airport. In 2013, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association named him the national flight instructor of the year.

Soon, more Mason graduates will be settling into the pilot seat, or operating an Air Traffic Control Command Center, or designing the airport of the future. It's runway as a career path.

"No question that this is a very in-demand job, and the education students get from the Mason program gives them a great foundation for their career," Sherry says. "You look at the demographics and the geography and see this opportunity to serve the regional community with high-quality flight training. We think we're in the right place at the right time."

A version of this story by Preston Williams appeared in Mason News on August 12, 2014.

Mason Aims to Fill Jobs Need with Data Analytics Master’s Program

dallen21 — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:33:20 +0000

Mason Aims to Fill Jobs Need with Data Analytics Master’s Program dallen21 Wed, 01/22/2014 - 15:33

This fall George Mason University will become one of only five universities in the country to offer a data analytics engineering master's degree program, a course of study created to meet a burgeoning demand for professionals who can extract insight from the flood of "big data" collected at a higher rate than it is comprehended.

As part of the graduate program, the university's Volgenau School of Engineering will offer concentrations in applied analytics, data mining, digital forensics, predictive analytics and statistics for analytics — or a combination of two or more concentrations — and conclude with a data analytics capstone course. Just about every Volgenau department is represented in the program, enabling students to approach the degree from any number of avenues.

Most data analytics programs are based in schools of management, not engineering schools. Mason will be the only university on the East Coast north of Raleigh, N.C., to offer a data analytics engineering master's program. No university as far west as Chicago has one.

The Harvard Business Review calls data science "the sexiest job in the 21st century." The New York Times calls data scientists "the magicians of the Big Data era." Mason students will be at the forefront of what some experts are calling "the measurement revolution."

"We tried from an education point of view to cover all of the fundamentals, and we think in doing so we've created an approach that is absolutely unique," says Robert Quinn, founding director of Mason's master's in applied information technology program. "You can't do anything in big data unless you understand the impact of the scope of the data, the scale of the data and the shortness of time to process it. Time, scale and scope mean everything. If you drill down, there's a good reason for calling it data analytics engineering."

"The focus here will be graduating people who can go in and technically solve problems versus managing people who can technically solve problems," says Robert Osgood, director of the master's program in computer forensics and electrical and computer engineering and program director for the data analytics program.

In the past few years, corporations and government agencies have been clamoring for graduates who can offer the kind of expertise that students in the 10-course, 30-credit master's program will be able to provide. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia approved the program last fall, and the first students will enroll in fall 2014. Mason previously offered a graduate certificate in data analytics.

Stephen Nash, senior associate dean in the Volgenau School and the driving administrative force behind the new program, says that not only will Mason graduate skilled engineers to help fill the surplus of data analytics jobs, companies will seek to enroll their current employees to afford them a more well-rounded grasp of the field.

A McKinsey Global Institute study projects that by 2018 there might be a 50- to 60-percent gap between "deep analytic talent" supply and demand.

"Companies are desperate because data analytics is so critical to being competitive that they want to be able to apply the data they have and be more nimble and have more foresight," Nash says. "They need these people right now. It's hard to get them because it requires training in a lot of areas. It's four or five different degrees you'd have to pull together."

The goal of data analytics is to make sense of massive amounts of data, culled from every aspect of our lives — from shopping habits (think Netflix suggesting a movie you might like) to health statistics to crime trends to weather patterns to any number of applications — and to draw inferences or conclusions from that data to boost efficiency, production or profitability.

It's more about discovery than confirmation. It's about crunching numbers, but more important, it's about digesting them.

"People think that data analytics is some inhuman process," Osgood says. "It's not. It's all about us as human beings taking advantage of what we know and leveraging that information so we can get the most out of ourselves."

Capturing data is not enough. It must be sifted through and interpreted and its hiding-in-plain-sight secrets revealed. Nash compares it to working a jigsaw puzzle without knowing the picture: All of the pieces are in front of you, but can you quickly find what you need and make the crucial connections?

Starting this fall, Mason engineering students will be prepared more than ever to do that.

"In a big data environment, if you think about a bulldozer going through the city dump, everybody is worried about what's in front of the blade," Quinn says. "What is of equal importance is the stuff beside the blade that you pushed aside. It didn't look like it belonged, but you haven't dug deeply enough. It could be what you're looking for, you just don't know enough about it yet.

"You have the potential to know everything about every little piece that's in the pile."

For more information about Mason's data analytics engineering master's program, contact Robert Osgood at rosgood@gmu.edu.

A version of this story appeared on Mason's Newsdesk January 22, 2014.

Write to Preston Williams at pwilli20@gmu.edu