Martha Bushong

Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to discover new initiatives from the Office of Diversity and Inclusive Learning as the College announces BLAST Off week. Blast stands for belonging, leadership, accessibility, success, and transformation all of which will be part of this week-long event.

The institute is one of 11 new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes that NSF has established in 2021 with a total investment of $220 million. George Mason University professor Aditya Johri will serve as a member of the institute’s education and outreach team.

Leigh McCue, associate professor and interim chair of mechanical engineering is looking to take a deeper dive into her research at the Vessel Dynamics Lab. The recent recipient of the Beck Foundation Faculty Fellow award is building a fleet of maritime robots and will use the funds from the award to expand this work.

PhD students from a variety of disciplines have spent the year engaged in multi-disciplinary research projects as part of Mason’s first-ever National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant.

Ground-breaking research and one-of-a-kind programs helped propel the Volgenau School of Engineering in the top 100 rankings of U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools this year. The school ranked No. 93 nationally, a gain of nine slots from last year, and was No. 55 among public institutions.

George Mason University announced today a grant from Break Through Tech to propel more students who identify as women and non-binary into tech education—and ultimately tech careers—through curriculum innovation, career access, and community building. The goal of the grant is to increase the number of these students graduating with a tech degree at Mason by 12.5 percentage points by 2026.