Jenn Pocock

New Life Sciences and Engineering Building offers the tools needed to excel

Jennifer Pocock — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:11:29 +0000

New Life Sciences and Engineering Building offers the tools needed to excel Jennifer Pocock Thu, 04/03/2025 - 14:11

In This Story

With state-of-the-art teaching labs and fabrication facilities, George Mason �鶹��'s Life Sciences and Engineering Building (LSEB) lets students and faculty get their hands dirty in this brand-new multiuse active learning space. The ribbon cutting didn’t officially happen until March 27, but LSEB already experienced a housewarming.

Students working in the aviary at the Life Sciences and Engineering Building. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of �鶹�� Branding

The students started arriving just after the winter break, when the building opened on January 21, 2025. One of the first groups to take up residence was Patriot Motorsports, a club for any students (not just mechanical engineers!) who want to explore the inner workings of automotive vehicles. Over the past two months, mechanical engineering seniors have revved it up a notch with their capstone project designing a control system for the club’s Formula SAE race car.

Race cars aren’t the only vehicles in the building...there’s also room for robotics and autonomous vehicles. This new space boasts a high-bay, multistory aviary laboratory where students can test blimps, drones, and anything else that needs extra airspace to move around. One capstone project taking advantage of the lab is an Autonomous Flapping Wing Lighter-than-Air Vehicle developed by Assistant Professor Daigo Shishika’s students.

“�鶹�� capstone teams are also using the prototyping space in room 2100 to meet and jointly work on their projects,” said Charles White, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “So far this has been through team meetings and collaboration. Once the first-floor machine shop is complete, this space will also be used for staging and constructing physical prototypes.”

One of the building’s unique features is the seamless blending of laboratory and teaching spaces. All of the mechanical engineering labs, including the first-floor advanced manufacturing and wind tunnel labs, contain student desks and IT lecture setups so that seminars can turn into hands-on demonstrations and practice in real time.

And these areas barely scrape the surface of what the building has to offer. For mechanical engineers, in addition to the wind tunnel and advanced manufacturing labs, machine shop, robotics lab, and prototype studio, there is a 3D print studio, a materials characterization lab, a sustainable energy and photonics area, and a thermofluids lab. For civil engineers, a dedicated space for their ASCE concrete canoe competitions. Bioengineers have cutting-edge studios as well, including a tissue engineering lab.

The LSEB is still warming up and getting ready for new student cohorts, but one thing is sure: This building will produce brilliant engineers and scientists for generations to come.

Topics

mechanical engineering

Civil Engineering

Bioengineering

Students

Helen Chin receives NIH grant to study associations between air pollution and the onset of puberty

Jennifer Pocock — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:24:57 +0000

Helen Chin receives NIH grant to study associations between air pollution and the onset of puberty Jennifer Pocock Tue, 02/04/2025 - 12:24

Funding will advance research on children’s health using data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program

Helen Chin, Assistant Professor, Global and Community Health

Helen Chin, an assistant professor in Department of Global and Community Health at George Mason �鶹��, received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health’s ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund to study the impacts of air pollution exposure on child development. 

Chin’s work will focus on how exposure to air pollutants before birth and as infants—key developmental periods—might relate to the timing of puberty in children. It will also examine the role childhood body mass index (BMI) may contribute.

“There are growing concerns about how puberty is starting earlier in children and the impacts this might have on childhood and long-term health,” says Chin. She received the grant in November 2024.

The ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund is an NIH-funded grant mechanism to support early career investigators who propose projects that introduce new research, tools, and technologies in the ECHO Program. Chin will collaborate with Global and Community Health professor Michael Bloom and researchers at the Medical �鶹�� of South Carolina ECHO site.

Chin is a recognized expert in reproductive epidemiology and environmental factors that can negatively impact reproductive health. Her work on exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors and reproductive outcomes has earned several awards for research excellence.

ECHO is a national collaborative consortium funded by the NIH that supports long-term research on pediatric health with its mission “to enhance the health of children for generations to come.” It brings diverse participant populations from across the country together to standardize and pool data on a large scale that can then support research at a broader and more nuanced level than individual smaller studies ever could.

Chin’s award adds to the $1.78 million in annual ECHO funding awarded to the college since January 2020, adding to George Mason’s ongoing leadership, innovation, and successful relationships with its participants. George Mason’s School of Nursing has been a collection site for ECHO since 2020.

ECHO data have already informed research that examines toxic metal buildup in mothers, how school lunches impact obesity in children, and the disparities in sleep patterns in children of different races and ethnicities.

In This Story

Helen Chin, MPH, PhD

Connect with the College of Public Health

Topics

National Institutes of Health

NIH grant funding

Air Pollution

Child and Adolescent Health

Research

Strategic Direction

First-of-its-kind research identifies beneficial prenatal vitamins to reduce risk of infant death

Jennifer Pocock — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 15:19:14 +0000

First-of-its-kind research identifies beneficial prenatal vitamins to reduce risk of infant death Jennifer Pocock Thu, 01/30/2025 - 10:19

Assistant Professor of Global and Community Health Dongqing Wang publishes landmark analysis on the impacts of prenatal vitamins on mothers and newborns in the Lancet Global Health.

Dongqing Wang, PhD, MPH

Dongqing Wang, an assistant professor of Global and Community Health at George Mason’s College of Public Health, is pioneering research in prenatal nutritional interventions. His latest report identifies prenatal supplements that reduce health risks to small and vulnerable babies. This research was published in the prestigious Lancet Global Health journal and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Wang found that compared to folic acid and iron alone, a multiple micronutrient supplement led to a 27% lower risk of giving birth to “small vulnerable newborn types,” or babies who suffered from preterm birth, low birthweight, and small-for-gestational-age birth—the three groups most likely to result in infant death.

In the past, these birth outcomes were all treated as separate conditions. Wang, however, delves into emerging science to look at different combinations across the three outcomes. Low birthweight, for example, can occur because of a short pregnancy, and growth restrictions can lead to babies born too small for their developmental age.

“Small vulnerable newborn types may have distinct mechanisms, health impacts, and intervention strategies,” says Wang. “This work is the first to examine the effects of prenatal multiple micronutrient supplements and small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements on the emerging outcomes of small vulnerable newborns.”

Folic acid and iron have been used to support prenatal health since the 1970s. Wang explored the effects of two additional types of prenatal supplements on women in low- and middle-income countries: prenatal multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), similar to a common multivitamin, and small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS), which provide caloric nutrition and fatty acids in addition to vitamins.

He found that nearly all of these vitamins conferred some type of benefit—and some of them were hugely beneficial.

“This study underscores the important promise of nutritional supplements in prenatal care in low- and middle-income countries,” says Wang. “In particular, the protective effects of prenatal multiple micronutrients on most small vulnerable newborn types, particularly those with the greatest mortality risk, strongly supports switching from iron and folic acid supplements to MMS as the standard care.”

Combining 16 different studies, Wang analyzed how prenatal nutrition correlates to the occurrence of small vulnerable newborns. He believes that the right prenatal supplements can help mitigate them. Since more than 90% of pregnancies resulting in low birthweight occur in low- and middle-income countries, including those in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Wang focused this work on those regions.

The Lancet Global Health published "The effects of prenatal multiple micronutrient supplements and small-quantity lipid- based nutrient supplements on small vulnerable newborn types in low- and middle- income countries: a meta-analysis of individual participant data” in January 2025. Additional authors include Enju Liu, Nandita Perumal, Uttara Partap, Ilana R. Cliffer, Janaína Calu Costa, Molin Wang, Wafaie W. Fawzi, and more than 40 data contributors from all over the world who provided the individual participant data used in this landmark analysis.

In This Story

Dongqing Wang, PhD, MPH

Study Global and Community Health at George Mason

Topics

Prenatal Care

Postnatal Care

Women's Perinatal Health

Maternal Nutrition

GCH Research

public health research

CPH research

Research

College of Public Health

Interprofessional George Mason researchers awarded more than $1 million to improve outcomes for patients with depression

Jennifer Pocock — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:25:35 +0000

Interprofessional George Mason researchers awarded more than $1 million to improve outcomes for patients with depression Jennifer Pocock Tue, 12/10/2024 - 13:25

Researchers Farrokh Alemi and Kevin Lybarger receive George Mason �鶹��’s first Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award to develop innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, including large language models, for improving antidepressant recommendations.

Farrokh Alemi and Kevin Lybarger

AI will soon receive a dose of empathy with the goal of helping to match people with depression to their best-fit medication. A team led by Farrokh Alemi, a professor in the College of Public Health (CPH), and Kevin Lybarger, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received $1,049,998 in research funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to continue their work on developing an AI system that helps patients find the right depression medications.

With this funding support, Co-PIs Alemi and Lybarger will hone large language models (LLMs) to address known challenges in AI, including mitigating biases, reducing the potential for inaccurate information, and incorporating an empathetic tone, according to Alemi.

The new study will introduce an innovative way for AI to help patients make medication decisions. The AI system will engage patients in natural-language conversations to collect information about their medical history. The system will draw upon more than 10 million patient experiences with 15 different oral antidepressants and a National Institutes of Health All of Us database, which includes records from more than 80,000 participants with major depressive disorders, to help create a plan that is statistically likely to succeed. Alemi and Lybarger believe this will help alleviate the trial and error that can lead to negative patient outcomes.

The researchers will also introduce a first-of-its-kind patient simulator capable of mimicking various medical, linguistic, and behavioral characteristics. This simulator will be used to test and refine the AI system by simulating diverse patient scenarios, including infrequent but critical events such as suicidal ideation, to ensure the system’s recommendations are safe, culturally sensitive, and empathetic.

“This study was selected for its potential to address a high-priority methodological gap in patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook. “We look forward to following the study’s progress and working with George Mason to share the results.”

This is the first PCORI-funded study that George Mason has received. “Depression is a major public health problem and we are excited to see the development of new AI-based decision tools, leveraging the multidisciplinary talents of our college to help tackle it,” said CPH Associate Dean of Research Alison Cuellar.

"This innovative study promises to generate methodologies for using AI for medical decision-support and for empowering patients to make critical health decisions beyond mental health,” says Özlem Uzuner, chair of CEC’s Department of Information Sciences and Technology.

This study is one of the latest funded by PCORI to examine which medical treatments work best, where and when treatment falls flat, and how to address the gaps. These studies deliver results that guide researchers in planning future studies and provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health and health care decisions.

In This Story

Farrokh Alemi, PhD

Kevin Lybarger

Alison Evans Cuellar, PhD, MBA

Özlem Uzuner

Research at George Mason

Topics

grants

Depression

antidepressants

natural language processing

Artificial Intelligence

Strategic Direction

CEC faculty research

Mason Momentum

Online learning expert suggests best practices for promoting academic honesty

Jennifer Pocock — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:44:33 +0000

Online learning expert suggests best practices for promoting academic honesty Jennifer Pocock Tue, 08/13/2024 - 13:44

In This Story

John Cantiello, PhD

The growing popularity of easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) interfaces has reignited discussions about cheating in academics. Academic dishonesty, however, is a long-standing concern for faculty and a burgeoning area of research for online coursework. Whether cheating is more or less prevalent in remote coursework has been the topic of debate since online coursework went mainstream in the early 2000s. While online learning provides access to education for nontraditional students and in nontraditional circumstances (such as the COVID-19 pandemic), it’s important to ensure that students are authentically learning the material.

John Cantiello. Photo provided

To understand the prevalence of cheating and help teachers address it, John Cantiello, a professor of the Department of Health Administration and Policy, reviewed the existing literature on the topic. In the Journal of Health Administration Education, Cantiello, who was honored last year as an online teacher of distinction by the Stearns Center of Teaching and Learning, reports that many methods for preventing academic dishonesty are effective.

Not everyone agrees on what constitutes “dishonesty,” he points out. While some forms of cheating are clear-cut—having others do assignments or take tests in the place of the student, plagiarism, or copying answers, others are not. Up for debate are the use of tools like artificial intelligence, or consulting publications that, in a professional setting, would be available to them while solving problems.

“This paper illustrates varying results on the frequency of cheating in online, college-level courses,” Cantiello said. “Tools and strategies for preventing academic dishonesty vary in effectiveness, but some show significant success.”

Cantiello examined many different interventions to prevent online academic dishonesty, including frequent discussions on what constitutes cheating and plagiarism (e.g., can they use AI tools in this course?), technology (e.g., biometric hardware and software such as Turnitin or Examity), and varied testing strategies (e.g., limiting testing times, multiple versions of tests, and leaking fake answers online).

He suggests that a combination of strategies is the best way to limit cheating. “A holistic approach to course design that incorporates these elements and includes a variety of learning activities fosters an effective learning environment where academic integrity can be upheld,” Cantiello said. However, he says, more research is needed on how often and in what capacity cheating happens.

“Preventing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses: Best Practices to Discourage Cheating” was published online in March 2024 in the Journal of Health Administration Education. Renee Hotchkiss Geschke is co-author on the paper.