Science, Technology & Business
Mason is high tech and high touch. Classroom instruction is enriched by the best that technology offers. Your free MasonLink account lets you e-mail faculty members and friends on campus or off, and is your gateway to the Internet and international reference sources.
The new College of Science (COS), founded July 1, 2006, playsa central role in undergraduate and graduate education and research in the physical, biological, mathematical, and computational sciences at George Mason University.
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The first in the nation to offer a doctorate in information technology and programs in biodefense, Mason continually sets the standard for innovation, preparing students for the challenges of living and working in a dynamic, technologically oriented society. Here, students explore the frontiers of new technology, with many gaining valuable work experience and making professional contacts while completing their degrees.
The 1998 World Congress on Information Technology, which drew information technology professionals from around the world, took place at George Mason University. INFO TECH AND ENGINEERING
Two Science and Technology buildings house classrooms and modern research laboratories for communications and signal processing, semiconductor materials, robotics, and advanced computer architecture. Mason's School of Information Technology and Engineering (IT&E) prepare for successful careers by earning undergraduate degrees in computer science, electrical and computer engineering, systems engineering, and urban systems engineering. A doctorate in information technology and eight master's degree programs are also available, as are various undergraduate and graduate certificates.
Innovation Hall is home to a brand new geographic information systems lab (GIS). Discovery Hall, on the Prince William Campus, is a research and education facility shared with the American Type Culture Collection and serves as a model for integrating basic and applied research in a university setting.
- In Mason's Cryptography and Network Security Implementations Laboratory, faculty and students tackled the problem of speeding up the new national encryption standard and developed a hardware description language code that works at a mind-boggling speed of several gigabytes per second. Not only is their invention fast, it is less expensive than other alternatives.
- The Center for Biomedical Genomics uses the latest microarray technology—the technology used by genetic researchers to map the whole human genome. Undergraduate students are participating in research projects ranging from genotoxicology and development to memory and drug-resistance mechanisms.
- Astronomy instructor Harold Geller leads students and community members in on-campus sky-observing sessions throughout the academic year. Participants view the night sky through the department’s 12-inch computer-controlled Meade telescopes. A new observatory, to be completed in 2006, will feature a high-powered telescope that will increase the number of observable stars students might observe by two billion.
- Mason's Applied Robotics Club is very active. A Mason team won first place in the robotics competition in the 2003 International Council on Systems Engineering Symposium. Participants built robots using Lego® Mindstorms™ robot kits and were graded on cost, configuration management, and performance in a round robin tournament in which the objective was to disable the opposing team's robot.
- Biology research professor Jenefir Isbister was awarded two patents for a new rapid method for testing the sanitary quality of food and water. The testing method detects total coliform contamination in recreational water, drinking water, food-processing operations, and other places where contamination may threaten human health.
- As transportation problems continue to plague major metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C., Michael Bronzini, the Dewberry Chair of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, is studying traffic flow by satellite and plane for the U.S. Department of Transportation. A nationally recognized expert, he was director of the Center for Transportation Analysis for 10 years.
- Once the first deputy chief of the civilian branch of the Soviet Union's offensive biological weapons program, Ken Alibek, MD, now specializes in medical and scientific research dedicated to developing new forms of protection against biological weapons and other infectious diseases. He heads the National Center for Biodefense at Mason.
BUSINESS, INTERNSHIPS AND COOPERATIVE
EDUCATION
Mason combines strong academic disciplines, state-of-the-art facilities, and award-winning faculty with strong corporate, industrial, and government partnerships to break through barriers on the path toward scientific discovery and technological innovation. As a research team from the on-campus Shared Research Instrumentation Facility
tests water samples from the Chesapeake Bay watershed for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a professor from our Physics and Astronomy Department is developing plans to sample Martian atmospheric gases. And our students are encouraged to play a part in such research.
The Washington metropolitan area boasts more than 20,000 information technology companies and has the second-largest concentration of research and development activity in the nation. Our programs support the region by emphasizing the forms of engineering on which information technology depends.
Enterprise Hall is just south of the Science and Technology buildings and is the home of Mason's School of Management, where many business leaders have been trained. Graduates of the School of Management are employed at such companies as Shearson Lehman Brothers and Arthur Andersen, are consulting for government agencies, or own their own businesses.
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