CEC Communications

George Mason University researcher Marcos Zampieri has earned a prestigious $800,000 Humanities and AI Virtual Institute Award from Schmidt Sciences to develop AI tools that analyze ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets. 

The Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research celebrated two major faculty achievements this year as Lizhi Wang was named an IISE Fellow, one of the profession’s highest honors, and Shima Mohebbi received the 2026 IISE Sustainable Development Division Excellence in Teaching Sustainability Award in recognition of her innovative and impactful teaching. 

George Mason University students Iamen Ibrahim and Caleb Zerihun won the $10,000 Microsoft and Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Innovation Challenge for Virginia with Last Mile, a disaster recovery platform that combines artificial intelligence and cybersecurity safeguards to help survivors quickly find reliable, location-specific assistance. 

George Mason University researcher Celso Ferreira is helping two Virginia towns prepare for flooding through advanced hazard mapping and resilience planning.

Congratulations to Elise Miller-Hooks on being elected a 2026 INFORMS Fellow, one of the highest honors in operations research and analytics.

Associate Professor Shanjiang Zhu’s Virginia Transportation Research Council–funded research is developing innovative methods to improve traffic forecasting and extract valuable planning insights from privacy-protected connected vehicle data, helping transportation agencies make smarter decisions about future infrastructure and mobility.

George Mason University researchers are leading a National Science Foundation–funded collaboration to develop sustainable, biology-based methods for recovering valuable resources from silicon-rich waste materials, transforming industrial byproducts into reusable resources while reducing energy use and emissions.

Failure-Is-Fun, an initiative developed by Christopher Carr, associate dean for Outreach, Student Success, and Engagement (OSSE) in the College of Engineering and Computing, and Christi Wilcox, OSSE’s Director of Research and Programs, won the 2026 Global Engineering Deans Council Transformative Engineering Award.

As AI transforms computing, George Mason researcher Marcos Zampieri received two NSF grants to help students learn to use AI responsibly, securely, and effectively while strengthening the core skills they need for future careers.

Soccer opened doors for Fernando Carreon Garcia, taking him from elite youth academies in Mexico to George Mason University, where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering.