Spirit Magazine

Putting Discoveries to Work

Colleen Rich — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:43:57 +0000

Putting Discoveries to Work Colleen Rich Tue, 12/17/2024 - 12:43

One of the easiest ways to envision the ��AV technology transfer process—that is, the route an idea takes to become a product—is to talk about Gatorade. It’s one of the most famous examples of university tech transfer.

In 1965, a University of Florida football coach met with scientists from the university’s College of Medicine to determine why many of the university athletes were negatively affected by heat. James Robert Cade, MD, and his team of researchers created the now-ubiquitous sports drink to help athletes replace bodily fluids lost during practices and games. The product was named for the team—the Gators.

That early version of the drink wasn't a hit with football players, and it took a multitude of steps to move the drink from prototype to supermarket shelves. But the drink’s formula improved and its popularity grew. By 2015, royalties for those inventors hit $1 billion—and gave other universities something to aspire to.

Not every invention takes off in such a lucrative way, but the goal of all these university-born innovations is the same—to improve people’s lives.

“George Mason is in the business of discovery,” says Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact at George Mason. “We want to get our good ideas out of the laboratory and put to good use.”

Right now, George Mason researchers are working on better diagnostics for Lyme disease, developing a bruise detection system that can be used by clinicians across all skin tones, and creating a decision tool to help U.S. farmers achieve better crop yields, just to name a few.

The National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Congress, and philanthropists are among those who support this important work.

Paula Sorrell, George Mason’s associate vice president of innovation and economic impact, says the university’s competitive advantage lies in the fact that it houses tech transfer under the same umbrella as entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development. These units are all part of Mason Enterprise.

“This allows us to leverage our capacity to provide counseling and education from 23 other programs and strategically plan how technologies will positively impact society and Virginia’s economy,” says Sorrell, who leads Mason Enterprise. “Because our tech transfer office is staffed with an exceptional group of experienced business and technology professionals, we are able to balance the needs of internal and external stakeholders to move products to the market.”

The Business of Discovery

At George Mason, the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), led by David Grossman, senior director of technology transfer and industry collaboration, helps researchers bring these ideas and discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace.

“The Office of Technology Transfer takes great pride in the quality of patented innovations brought forth by our dedicated researchers,” says Grossman. “This collaboration between academia and industry underscores our unwavering commitment to harness the full potential of research for the betterment of society.”

Long before industry becomes involved, Grossman and his team at OTT are there to help researchers protect their intellectual property (IP). All inventions begin with an innovation disclosure, which is a brief summary of the work.

“I say innovation versus invention, because sometimes it's not actually a patentable thing,” says Grossman, who is also a lawyer and has taught patent law. “Sometimes it is a copyright or something else.”

Following the disclosure, the OTT team will meet with the researchers. They try to discern if there is protectable IP, what the necessary steps are to secure that IP, and if there is a pathway to the public.

“Our goal is always to make sure that the results of the research benefit the public somehow,” he says.

Patents Pending and Industry Partners

Being an inventor requires a lot of patience. It can take years to secure a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. To date, George Mason researchers have acquired 296 patents.

Grossman says the number of innovation disclosures by university faculty members continues to grow but not all these innovations will go through the patent process. As he and the OTT staff work with faculty members to safeguard their IPs, they handle all the patent, trademark, and copyright filings.

Grossman says that new innovations are not usually in a position where they can go directly into the marketplace. So the next step in the tech transfer process often involves partnering with a company in that field and licensing the technology. The OTT team helps forge these partnerships and negotiate licensing agreements. Sometimes start-up companies are created to advance the innovation.

One of the most successful university partnerships of this kind is with Ceres Nanosciences, a Northern Virginia bioscience company spun out of George Mason that specializes in diagnostic products and workflows. Ceres and George Mason have worked together since the company’s inception, and Ceres’s first lab was on George Mason’s Science and Technology Campus.

Ceres now has space nearby in Prince William County’s Innovation Park where it has increased its capacity to manufacture Nanotrap Magnetic Virus Particles. The base technology underlying the Nanotrap particle was created by George Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), which is led by codirectors Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin.

These particles improve diagnostic testing for viruses like COVID-19, influenza, and Lyme disease, and this university–industry collaboration was critical to George Mason’s response during the pandemic.

Using a Nanotrap test, CAPMM scientists oversaw George Mason’s surveillance testing, administering more than 155,000 COVID tests to students, faculty, and staff and processing those tests in university labs with results within 24 to 48 hours. The easy access to testing and fast turnaround time meant that those testing positive were quickly identified and isolated, which helped mitigate outbreaks within the campus community.

“It was very fortunate that we had put a lot of energy into developing the technology for viral infections and released a product for it before the pandemic,” says Ceres CEO Ross Dunlap, who serves on the George Mason Research Foundation board. “We were able to rapidly respond and quickly validate our technology for COVID diagnostics, which was done in partnership with George Mason.”

Shared Resources

Some innovations like the NeuroMorpho database are a shared resource available to researchers around the world.

George Mason neuroscientist Giorgio Ascoli created NeuroMorpho.org in 2006 to store the large amounts of data needed to make computational models of neurons. The open-access database of 3D neural reconstructions has grown from 932 reconstructions to more than 180,000, and it is continuously updated with contributions from more than 1,000 labs worldwide.

The reconstructions have been used to investigate Alzheimer’s disease pathways, epilepsy, memory capacity, and the effects of cosmic radiation on astronauts’ central nervous systems.

Ascoli, founding director of the Center for Neural Informatics, Structures, and Plasticity at George Mason, believes this database could pave the way for future breakthroughs, such as new treatments for neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. “I'm a firm believer that in time NeuroMorpho.org will help advance humanity toward a fuller characterization of the mind-matter relationship, and that's something to live for,” he says.

Sometimes the innovation is meant to make the research itself a little easier. Two technologies that came out of George Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media were designed by historians to make humanities research easier to document and share.

Many college students recognize the name Zotero, which is a free, easy-to-use tool designed to help people collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.

Since its release in 2008, Omeka has established itself as a leading open source web publishing platform for digital collections. The software has been downloaded more than 500,000 times and is the content management system for thousands of websites developed by libraries, archives, museums, and scholars.

As the head of George Mason’s research enterprise, Marshall believes it’s the university’s responsibility as a Carnegie Research 1 university to pursue this work and these collaborations.

“This work is ambitious,” says Marshall, “especially when you're trying to bridge the culture between industry, university, and government. And when you add in doing this inclusively and while prioritizing access, it truly is what makes Mason All Together Different.”

Martha Bushong, Mary Cunningham, John Hollis, Katie Maney, Tracy Mason, and Laura Powers contributed to this article.

Uncover more about these discoveries and resulting technologies emerging from the Office of Technology Transfer:

The CropSmart Digital Twin

Colleen Rich — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:24:14 +0000

The CropSmart Digital Twin Colleen Rich Tue, 12/17/2024 - 12:24

The user-inspired CropSmart Digital Twin (CSDT) decision tool will help take the guesswork out of crop management decisions with services that will be easily accessible to users through both web portals and smartphone apps.

Led by George Mason researcher Liping Di, CropSmart is one of seven projects selected to advance to Phase 2 of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Convergence Accelerator, which could provide up to $5 million in funding.

With the Convergence Accelerator, NSF is investing in new technologies that address complex challenges in food and nutrition insecurity. The United States accounts for more than 25 percent of the total grain traded globally, and successful crop production involves smart management decisions.

In Phase 1, Di and his team received $750,000 from NSF to design CropSmart. With Phase 2, they are focusing on an operational release of the tool “so it can be tested and evaluated in a real operational environment and provide services to users,” says Di, director of the Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems at George Mason.

Farmers often depend on their own experience when making decisions, but some will make large investments in commercial instrumentation to measure and collect data on their crops. After making that investment, they must also collect the right data to make a decision. With CropSmart, Di’s team will do this for them, using remote sensing and computer modeling, and covering larger areas at no or very low cost.

The team began testing this year with more than 4,800 end users, Di says. These users represent different agricultural sectors, ranging from individual farmers to farm credit bureaus and other related businesses, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The team is focused on commodity crops, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. Co-principal investigators on the project include Cenlin He at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Jenny Du at Mississippi State University, Haishun Yang at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Juan Sesmero at Purdue University.

Sesmero says the first part of the release—CropSmart 1.0—focuses on certain decision points: irrigation, crop condition and yield prediction for supporting farm loan and crop insurance decision-making, and crop mapping and statistics. Over time, the team plans to add additional decision points and conduct comprehensive field testing before they release CropSmart 2.0.

“We use the results of our testing to refine the technology,” says Sesmero.

CSDT will provide three types of products to users: decision-ready information, a “what if” service, and direct management recommendations. The decision-ready information will be delivered to end users for free. The "what if” and direct recommendation services will be provided for a fee and will help fund additional product development and sustain the operation of the tool.

Discover more research from the College of Science

Lyme Disease Test

Colleen Rich — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:57:48 +0000

Lyme Disease Test Colleen Rich Tue, 12/17/2024 - 11:57

George Mason researchers are working to revolutionize Lyme disease detection and diagnosis with urine testing.

“We have developed a urine test for Lyme disease that detects the [Borrelia burgdorferi] bacteria that causes Lyme disease, making it a direct test to confirm an infection soon after the tick bite,” says coprincipal investigator Alessandra Luchini. “This leads to earlier treatment and could prevent the long-term debilitating effects of the disease.”

The current standard test for potential Lyme disease is an antibody blood test, which measures the body’s immune system response to the Borrelia bacteria. In contrast, the George Mason test detects molecules derived from the bacteria themselves, which has the advantage of high specificity (accuracy) and early detection. In clinical research trials, the urine tests had a 90 percent true positive rate and close to 100 percent specificity.

George Mason recently received $1.2 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of the Army to support development of the test. This three-year study takes place in the George Mason CAP/CLIA Clinical Proteomics Laboratory on the Science and Technology Campus and uses banked samples from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of acute Lyme patients from the Lyme Disease Biobank and from Johns Hopkins University, a recognized leader in clinical Lyme disease research.

Additionally, the study pilots a George Mason invention—a collapsible urine collection cup, which can be shipped to a lab through the mail, making collection and diagnosis easier for more people to access through telehealth.

"A urine cup will offer a private, comfortable, and convenient way to collect the sample at home without compromising the accuracy of the lab test,” says Lance Liotta, codirector of George Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), and coprincipal investigator on the study. “Shipped in a semi-dry state that will preserve target proteins and protects against specimen degradation, this approach will improve specificity, which has been a weakness of previous testing approaches."

George Mason's Lyme disease test started as a student project in the Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program and has continued to gain momentum. In 2022, Luchini, Liotta, and the CAPMM team were one of 10 Phase 1 winners of the LymeX Diagnostics Prize by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation.

In 2023, CAPMM received $820,000 in federal funding to establish a clinic to help combat Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. The project, championed by U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), was part of the federal omnibus appropriations bill signed by President Joe Biden.

Did you know...

George Mason's Lyme disease test started as a student project in the Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program. Watch our original discussion with Temple Douglas on our YouTube channel.

Bruise Detection System

Colleen Rich — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:51:02 +0000

Bruise Detection System Colleen Rich Tue, 12/17/2024 - 11:51

As a forensic nurse and former death investigator for the State of Maryland’s medical examiner’s office, George Mason researcher Katherine Scafide has long served people who fell victim to violence.

Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Since 2017, Scafide has been experimenting with “seeing” bruises using alternate light sources, such as UV light, which are already widely used in forensics to find evidence like blood, hair, or fibers. With grant support from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), she conducted a study that discovered using alternate light was five times better at detecting bruises on victims across a variety of skin tones than using white light.

Now she is working with George Mason colleagues Janusz Wojtusiak and David Lattanzi on a bruise detection system that can be used across all skin tones and leverages artificial intelligence (AI), imaging and light technologies, forensic reports, and clinical expertise to increase data collection and access to care for trauma victims. The tool could become an app on a smartphone that clinicians can use to assess the age of bruises.

One of the goals of the project is to build a data repository that combines images of bruises and other injuries with measurements, clinical and demographic information about the victim, and information inferred by AI.

In 2022, the DOJ gave the team another $988,559 grant to conduct a three-year study pairing forensic bruise analysis with machine learning. Then in 2023, George Mason received an anonymous $4.85 million gift to further advance the groundbreaking research.

A multidisciplinary team of undergraduate students also joined the project through a George Mason Summer Impact Grant. The group from three disciplines—nursing, informatics, and engineering—worked on developing a process to systematically search, analyze, and interpret a large number of available digital bruise images.

"A vital piece to success is ensuring that any AI tool has access to in-depth data from all skin tones and skin characteristics alongside human expert analysis,” says Lattanzi, who teaches in the College of Engineering and Computing.

One in three women worldwide experiences physical trauma at the hands of an intimate partner or stranger. When injuries are accurately documented, survivors are more likely to participate in the criminal justice process, according to recent studies.

"By improving documentation of physical trauma, we hope to address disparities in clinical care, which can lead to improved health care for all, as well as legal recourse for all survivors of violence," says Scafide, who teaches in the College of Public Health.

More information on the study can be found at bruise.gmu.edu.

Learn more about this study

Eight George Mason Inventions You Need to Know About

Katarina Benson — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:16:29 +0000

Eight George Mason Inventions You Need to Know About Katarina Benson Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:16

American inventor Thomas Edison is credited with saying “genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” and many innovators can attest to this. The inventive process requires a lot of grit and determination. It can often take years to bring an innovation from idea to market.

Each year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues patents to ��AV that cover the creation of new or improved products, processes, or machines. The university received its first patent in 1996 for research professor Jenefir Isbister’s invention of a test for microbial contamination. Since then, George Mason has been awarded 296 U.S. and international patents, a quantifiable testament to the university’s bold approach to problem-solving and perseverance in creating solutions.

Alumni often share inventorship of patents with their faculty mentors for work they contributed during their time at George Mason.

In 2023, the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact recognized University Professor Lance Liotta, cofounder and codirector of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), with a George Mason Lifetime Disclosure Award. During his career at George Mason, Liotta has filed more than 120 patent disclosures.

Disclosures to the university’s Office of Technology Transfer are the first step toward a patent for an invention or discovery. Liotta has 100 inventions to date and the prototype of one of these inventions—laser capture microdissection, a method to procure subpopulations of tissue cells under direct microscopic visualization—is in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History collection.

The Office of Technology Transfer at George Mason is the bridge between university researchers and industry visionaries bringing cutting-edge technology to life. Not only are they charged with protecting the university’s and researchers’ intellectual property, but they also negotiate licensing agreements to launch these technologies in the marketplace.

In this feature, we take a look at some of the George Mason patents that are available for licensing.

1. Regulating substance craving in real time

George Mason professors Padmanabhan Seshaiyer of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Holly Matto of the Department of Social Work share a patent for REMind-h, an innovative tool that helps individuals in substance abuse recovery regulate their responses to drug craving cues. Their invention monitors the biobehavioral state of the user and strategically delivers, in real time, personalized recovery cues to prevent the person from relapsing. It is the first patent for the Department of Social Work.

2. Giving rehab a leg up

Liotta and CAPMM research professor Marissa Howard, BS Bioengineering ’17, PhD Biosciences ’22, hold the patent on a wearable device that measures, tracks, and monitors a wearer's physiological conditions during a rehabilitation period. The device collects metrics, such as temperature, patellar shifting, limb circumference, and acceleration, and communicates data through a networked communication system so medical personnel and patients can stay updated with the patient’s rehabilitation progress and make adjustments. Howard and Liotta share the patent with Rachel Naidich, Matthew Luu Trang, Ish Sethi, Rebecca Woodhouse, and Kshamata Neupane, who worked on the device as high school students in George Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program.

3. Keeping the lights on

George Mason alum Eniye Tebekaemi, PhD Information Technology ’18, and College of Engineering and Computing professor Duminda Wijesekera have a patent for a secure overlay communication model for decentralized autonomous power grids. The model is a logic-based system deployed onto computing devices in power grid stations and substations. In response to detecting various power grid faults, such as line failures and overcurrent states, the system can automatically rearrange power line configurations.

4. Putting an end to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Researcher Yuntao Wu, a professor in George Mason’s School of Systems Biology and the Center for Infectious Disease Research, has devoted his career to finding a cure for HIV. He’s received several patents for his work in this area, including “Targeting the Cofilin Pathway” and “Method and System for Inactivating Virus Infectivity for Producing Live-Attenuated Vaccines.” In 2013, he founded the biotech company Virongy after licensing an HIV drug-screening technology that was developed in his Science and Technology Campus lab.

5. Making aircraft safer

Professor Lance Sherry, director of George Mason’s Center for Air Transportation Systems Research, and PhD student Oleksandra Snisarevska share a patent for “Systems and Methods for Improved Airline Safety,” a machine learning model that can be trained using historical flight data to generate alerts. When sent to a computing device onboard an aircraft, these alerts can provide information to the flight crew regarding the status of automated aircraft functions.

6. On-demand protection from flood waters

This invention—patented by Professor Emeritus George Donohue and alumni Adel Youssef, BS Systems Engineering ’20; Lucciana Remy, BS Systems Engineering ’20; Faris Masri, BS Systems Engineering ’20; and Murat Gokturk, BS Systems Engineering ’20—provides systems and methods for making dynamic, low-visibility, portable pneumatic cofferdams that can be readily deployed in flood susceptible areas. Created as a senior design project, this inflatable, pneumatic cofferdam system is permanently anchored around a location’s perimeter. It creates a barrier of flood protection that can be deployed instantly in the event of a flood threat. When not deployed, it acts as a functional boardwalk.

7. Wearable device monitors muscle function

While there are wearable sensors for heart rate, skin temperature, and even electrolytes, no commercially available sensors monitor for muscle function. George Mason bioengineering professor Siddhartha Sikdar, director of the Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation, and Professor Parag Chitnis have developed a wireless wearable device that uses ultrasound sensors to monitor for muscle injury, function, and fatigue and can assess muscle recovery. The monitoring technology is ideal for sports medicine, personal fitness, and rehabilitation applications.

8. Promoting wound healing and closure

Inspired by a peptide that was first discovered in Komodo dragons, DRGN-1 is an antimicrobial peptide developed by College of Science researchers Barney Bishop, Monique Van Hoek, and Myung Chung. The peptide has been modified into a cost-effective antimicrobial and anti-biofilm treatment that can be used as an alternative to antibiotics in the treatment of infected wounds. The potential uses of DRGN-1 include antimicrobial sprays, wound dressings, topical gels, and as a coating for catheters.

Discover more technologies with the Office of Technology Transfer

George Mason alum and current student take part in sold out Banana Ball World Tour

Katarina Benson — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:13:28 +0000

George Mason alum and current student take part in sold out Banana Ball World Tour Katarina Benson Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:13

Photo by Lily Plizga/George Mason Athletics

George Mason baseball alum South Trimble, BS Business ’23, (left) and current graduate student Danny Hosley (right) took the field in front of a sold-out crowd as part of the Banana Ball World Tour at Nationals Park in July. Adam Virant (center), who also played baseball at George Mason, is director of baseball operations and an assistant coach for the Savannah Bananas. Hosley, who is pursuing an MS in athletic training, is a utility player on the Bananas and Trimble is a first-year player on the Firefighters, the Bananas’ new third team. Banana Ball, a close approximation of baseball with circus tricks and performance art mixed in, has become a phenomenon, and this was the first year the Banana Bowl included Major League Baseball stadiums on its schedule.

"As a kid, you dream of a moment like this," says Trimble of the game. "Playing in a major league park in front of a sold-out crowd. It's something that is so surreal, and I'm grateful for being able to fulfill this dream of mine at Nationals Park, a stadium I've been to countless times as a kid, watching my favorite ballplayers play, and now I get to experience it firsthand."

See more from George Mason Athletics

George Mason Partners with Local School Systems for Two Lab Schools

Katarina Benson — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:09:25 +0000

George Mason Partners with Local School Systems for Two Lab Schools Katarina Benson Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:09

��AV has received Virginia Board of Education funding for two of 14 lab schools being established around the commonwealth.

In partnership with local employers and community organizations, Virginia lab schools are focused on expanding opportunities for students by exposing them to workplaces that highlight the important role academic success plays in life. The lab schools provide another chance for George Mason to meet students where they are to offer them a distinctive educational path to achieve their goals, while also addressing career readiness objectives in the commonwealth.

George Mason is working with Northern Virginia Community College and Loudoun County Public Schools on the Accelerated College and Employability Skills (ACCESS) Academy, which will provide students with an alternative education pathway that emphasizes employability skills, innovative teaching and learning methods, and immersive experiences developed with industry partners, researchers, and instructional faculty.

Students in grades 9 and 10 will focus on completing high school graduation requirements while being introduced to problem-based learning. Students in grades 11 and 12 can then earn up to 30 college credits that may be applied toward a two- or four-year degree program upon graduation.

Researchers and industry partners will also work with ACCESS students as part of a new Learning Innovation Lab, where teaching and learning innovations will be applied, evaluated, adapted, and disseminated.

Roberto Pamas of George Mason’s School of Education has been selected to serve as director of ACCESS Academy. In this role, he has been working with lab school partners to develop curriculum and course offerings and assessing staffing requirements and other resource needs. ACCESS Academy is expected to launch in fall 2025.

The Shenandoah Valley Rural Regional College Partnership Laboratory School for Data Science, Computing, and Applications (DSCA) is a collaboration between the university and Laurel Ridge Community College, Frederick County Public Schools, and Mountain Vista Governor’s School, as well as six rural and rural-fringe school districts in the Shenandoah Valley.

Programming will support 10th through 12th graders and cover data science and computing, research opportunities, apprenticeships and internships, experiential and project-based learning, certifications and microcredentials in data analytics, opportunities to earn an associate’s degree and college credits, as well as work-based learning opportunities. Students begin preparing for the lab school during their sophomore year, with programming starting in their junior and senior years.

“The vision is to create a data literate workforce empowered with skills, knowledge, and the mindset necessary to solve problems in a data-driven world,” says George Mason mathematical sciences professor Padhu Seshaiyer, who leads the effort.

The DSCA lab school will officially begin in fall 2025, with online offerings starting during the 2024–25 academic year. The school’s physical location will be in Frederick County. In addition to the students’ regular coursework in their respective districts, lab school courses will take place online through George Mason, Laurel Ridge Community College, and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation.

Laura Powers contributed to this story.

Discover the Mason Virginia Promise

Patriot Profile: Madison Schittig

Priyanka Champaneri — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:13:46 +0000

Patriot Profile: Madison Schittig Priyanka Champaneri Tue, 12/10/2024 - 11:13

Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Year: Junior
Major: Mason LIFE, Photography
Hometown: Warrenton, Virginia

Having a unique perspective on viewing the world is one thing—but it’s another thing to be able to photograph that perspective in a tangible way that can be shared with others. Take a look at the work of student photographer Madison Schittig, a photography intern in George Mason’s Office of University Branding (OUB), and one can immediately see she’s been gifted with the latter. Via Schittig’s striking point of view— including her eye for geometric lines, shapes, and color— familiar places on campus become abstract, and landmarks and buildings well-known to many transform in startling ways.

As a Mason LIFE student, Schittig takes classes and until recently was accompanied during her internship by the program’s student support staff, current undergraduate or graduate George Mason students. The phased support that these students provide is all part of Mason LIFE’s mission of offering a comprehensive transition program for qualified students. As of November, Schittig has progressed to attending her internship independently.

A Quiet Place: Schittig fell in love with photography after she received her first camera from her sister. It quickly became her favorite class in high school, where she found a sanctuary in the dark room. “It’s so calm in there, it’s like a stress relief,” she says. Though she now shoots digital photos for OUB, that love of the art form has continued into her time at George Mason. “It makes me feel like I have a purpose. I also feel like I’m not alone, I have a team.”

Natural Inspiration: Many of Schittig’s photos center around the natural world. “I just feel drawn to nature, because I like the woods, and I used to play in the woods when I was growing up. I like the trees, I like the grass, I even like the river…because it has texture.”

Learning from the Pros: Senior photographers Ron Aira and Evan Cantwell, MA Arts Management '10, serve as Schittig’s mentors and supervise her internship. “With Ron, he taught me how to edit raw photos, and he taught me all these cool tricks and tips. Evan taught me shooting—it’s good to shoot up close for people,” Schittig says. “I like it here, I like the people, I like the team. I really want to stay here one more year.”

Making Memories: Like many other Patriots, Schittig cites friends and clubs as her favorite things about George Mason. But Schittig’s favorite George Mason memory is a bit more personal. Twice, the university’s biweekly email newsletter has featured her work, including her self-professed favorite, a striking scene of colorful origami garlands cascading in front of a white bicycle.

Advice for Future Patriots: “Don’t be nervous. You’ll be nervous at first, but once you get the hang of it then you’ll be fine. But always bring the proper camera.”

View Schittig’s work on YouTube or in accessible PDF format.

Learn more about Mason LIFE

2024 Celebration of Distinction honors alumni leaders

Colleen Rich — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:41:32 +0000

2024 Celebration of Distinction honors alumni leaders Colleen Rich Tue, 10/15/2024 - 12:41

Each year, the ��AV Alumni Association’s annual Celebration of Distinction recognizes outstanding alumni, faculty members, and students.

Here are this year’s honorees:

Hollis Kosco. Photo provided

Hollis Kosco, BA Speech Communication ’94, is Alumna of the Year. She is the senior transportation manager for FIFA World Cup 2026 in Miami, Florida, where she oversees operational planning in three countries at 16 stadiums with 48 participating teams. Kosco was a member of both George Mason’s 1993 NCAA tournament runner-up women’s soccer team and the U.S. national handball team. Her international career in sports management and communications has included seven Olympic games, two Asian Games, the 2015 Pan American Games, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Kimiko Lighty. Photo provided

Kimiko Lighty, MAIS ’10, received the Alumni Service Award. She is the founding executive director of Restorative Arlington (RA). An innovator in peace building and conflict resolution techniques, Lighty has been involved with RA since the initiative began in 2020. She led the design and implementation of RA’s Heart of Safety Restorative Justice Conferencing Program, a diversion program serving Arlington’s public schools, legal system, and community, and continues to serve as a strategic advisor to the organization. In partnership with the non profit Doorways, RA has been awarded a five-year $1.5 million grant award from the federal Office on Violence Against Women to address harms resulting from intimate partner violence, dating and domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault.

Kala J. West. Photo provided

Kala J. West, BA Communication ’15, received the Graduate of the Last Decade (G.O.L.D.) Award. She is an entrepreneur, media production consultant, and host of Sunday Morning Praise and Morning Inspiration on WURD Radio (96.1 FM/900 AM). She is also a media professional for the Penn Sports Network. West has been recognized by George Mason’s Black Alumni Chapter among its 2023 40 Under 40 Distinguished Alumni, as a 2023 20 Under 40 COGIC Achievers Award honoree, and among Funtimes magazine’s 30 Under 30 People to Watch in 2017.

Gabrielle Belle. Photo provided

Gabriele Belle, an instructional associate professor in George Mason’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, is Faculty Member of the Year. She supervises all astronomy and college physics lab courses and teaches physics in the Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program. Belle is also a member of the university’s Nano-IMAGINE Council, which supports the growth of Virginia’s nanotech sector. Her research has included investigating quantum well structures with laser spectroscopy in high magnetic fields, developing new semiconductor devices, and building satellites to explore the GPS signal above the GPS satellites orbiting the Earth, for which she received the Air Force Association’s Citation of Honor and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Special Recognition Award.

Celine Apenteng. Photo provided

Celine Apenteng, BA Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’24, is Senior of the Year. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in international security and expects to graduate in May 2025. As an undergraduate, she served as vice president in Student Government, speaker of the Student Senate, a member of the President’s Student Advisory Board, and co-chair of the Student Advisory Council for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Over the past year, Apenteng interned at the White House in the Office of Public Engagement and for the U.S. Department of State. She also works with the Carter School’s John Mitchell Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race to promote a more informed dialogue on the intersections between historical memory, justice, and racial reconciliation.

In addition to the five honorees, 18 alumni received Distinguished Alumni Awards from their school, college, or affinity alumni chapter at this year’s October event. See the full list of awardees.

See the full list of awardees

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This George Mason alum can help you sleep better

Colleen Rich — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 16:16:30 +0000

This George Mason alum can help you sleep better Colleen Rich Thu, 09/26/2024 - 12:16

In high school and as an undergraduate student, Dan Gartenberg, MA Psychology ’12, PhD ’16, would stay up late and struggle to wake early, a typical experience for many students. Early on in his graduate studies at ��AV, he took a course on the neuroscience of sleep and was hooked.

Dan Gartenberg. Photo provided

Gartenberg became passionate about the study of sleep, due to his own personal struggles with sleep—including delayed sleep phase syndrome and insomnia. He is now founder and CEO of SleepSpace and a scientific advisor to other companies in the sleep science field, including Wesper, Biostrap, CPAP.com, Perfectly Snug, and MDBiowellness.

“Mason is where I learned to be a scientist, constantly question things, and where I learned the scientific method. That’s an invaluable thing,” he said.

For his dissertation in psychology, Gartenberg worked with the Naval Research Laboratory to develop artificial intelligence (AI) models that could help predict when people, such as pilots, are getting fatigued doing a task for a long period of time by using eye tracking data.

“I was making models of fatigue and using different cognitive tasks to predict when errors would occur,” he said. “You don’t want a pilot to crash a $30 million aircraft, and there are ways to tell when someone is tired based on their [movements].”

Gartenberg published several papers and released his first few sleep apps around this time. He worked closely with the late George Mason professor Raja Parasuraman, an expert in the field who developed one of the main theories of vigilance.

Photo provided

While at George Mason, Gartenberg received grants from the National Science Foundation to test whether playing certain sounds during sleep could encourage deeper sleep. His research team brought people into a lab and hooked them up to polysomnography—like an EEG but used to measure multiple physiological data streams.

They played sounds on the up state of delta brainwaves and showed some evidence that it primes deeper sleep. Gartenberg and his colleagues went on to get more grant funding in that area. But he found having someone wear a device was cumbersome.

“And it wasn’t a great form factor for consumers, so I pivoted a bit toward insomnia,” he said.

Then, in 2020, he received a $2.5 million grant from National Institutes of Health to develop a new digital therapeutic for insomnia. He recently ran a randomized control trial to test this novel therapy. This is the main focus of his company, SleepSpace. He also raised $1.8 million from venture capitalists to build this sleep improvement platform.

First, Gartenberg and team created very accurate sleep trackers. Gartenberg made some algorithms on the Apple watch and using smartphone sensors to track sleep in real time for the purpose of playing sounds to augment sleep and later integrated smart lights.

Gartenberg said that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the treatment for insomnia recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other academies. So the team built a six-week CBT course with collaborators at Penn State University and the University of Arizona. The software also integrates with sound and light devices to promote improve sleep quality, and includes meditations and interactive content driven by an AI chatbot called Dr. Snooze.

“Our software allows the coach or a sleep doctor to see their client’s data from the app and wearable devices, so they can see the perception of sleep alongside what’s happening and create customized sleep programs,” he said.

Gartenberg and colleagues showed that when people experience the treatment as usual plus the software, more people were able to avoid insomnia remission, and it was more effective at treating it on some metrics. Since launching, they have 30 therapists and coaches using the platform and have seen more than 100,000 downloads.

“We’re augmenting the therapist, not replacing them,” Gartenberg emphasized.

He’s currently working on developing a comprehensive package to improve sleep and also launching a new smart topper and bedsheet called the SleepSpace Smart Sheet that will integrate with his current software and be able to control the temperature on either side of the bed. It can help with falling asleep, hot flashes, night sweats, and navigating different temperature needs of partners.

And it all started at George Mason. Gartenberg said the university played a major role in his career as a scientist and entrepreneur.

“George Mason gave me, as a PhD, the freedom to pursue a lot of different interests that weren’t strictly in one field,” he said. “It was a combination of software development, science, and even intellectual property. I worked with Mason’s [Tech Transfer] team on some patents, and I got my first patent granted through that collaboration.”

Gartenberg’s advice for Mason students is to know who you are and what you want. He took the entrepreneur route, but he admits it’s not for everyone, and it can be quite stressful. However, he thinks entrepreneur skills are more important than ever, especially creative problem solving and persistence.

“If you can creatively solve problems, that can be applied to almost anything.”

Learn more about Gartenberg's work

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