Spirit Magazine

George Mason sends three to NCAA Wrestling Championship

Katarina Benson — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:18:06 +0000

George Mason sends three to NCAA Wrestling Championship Katarina Benson Thu, 03/20/2025 - 14:18

Three members of �� men's wrestling team will be competing at the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championship, held March 20-22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The student athletes headed to the championship.

The Patriots DJ McGee, Kaden Cassidy, and Malachi DuVall earned bids to compete. McGee and DuVall are returning to the championship, having competed last year as well. McGee heads to the tournament as the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Champion, while DuVall and Cassidy earned third place finishes.

McGee is slotted as the No. 17 seed, while DuVall is 21, and first-time NCAA qualifier Cassidy goes into the tournament in the No. 27 slot. The junior battled his way through wrestle-backs with four straight wins to finish third in the conference.

The three qualifiers were a major reason George Mason finished the season with a 12-6 record, its best finish in the MAC (6-2). This is the team’s third consecutive season with double-digit wins. After back-to-back 11-win seasons, the Patriots won 12 this season. It is the most wins in a season since the 2007-08 season when they finished with a 13-5 record.

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George Mason women’s basketball wins in A-10 Championship

Colleen Rich — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 14:50:38 +0000

George Mason women’s basketball wins in A-10 Championship Colleen Rich Mon, 03/10/2025 - 10:50

The ��’s women’s basketball team delivered a performance for the ages, claiming their first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship with a 73-58 victory over Saint Joseph's at the Henrico Sports and Events Center in Virginia. With the win, the Patriots secured their first NCAA Tournament berth in program history, cementing themselves as a rising power in the conference.

Photo by Art Pittman/Athletics

From the opening tip, George Mason set the tone with suffocating defense and efficient shooting. Led by a stellar 23-point performance from Paula Suárez and a commanding 19-point, 8-rebound effort from Zahirah Walton, the Patriots executed their game plan to perfection. A pivotal third quarter, in which George Mason outscored Saint Joseph’s 26-12 while shooting an astonishing 90.9% from the field, broke the game wide open and left no doubt about the outcome.

The final buzzer signaled not just a championship but a new era for George Mason basketball. With their ticket punched to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, the Patriots are poised to make even more noise on the national stage. For George Mason fans, this victory is the culmination of years of dedication, resilience, and the unwavering Believing BIG that their team was destined for greatness.

George Mason Women's Indoor Track and Field crowned as 2025 A-10 champions

Katarina Benson — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 18:47:44 +0000

George Mason Women's Indoor Track and Field crowned as 2025 A-10 champions Katarina Benson Mon, 03/03/2025 - 13:47

�� has been crowned the Atlantic 10 Women's Indoor Track and Field Champions, claiming the title over VCU at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. The men's team placed second in the championship behind Rhode Island.

The Patriots clinched the championship in dramatic fashion, securing three additional medals on the final day of competition. Senior Abby Weening captured gold in the high jump, delivering a pivotal performance that helped George Mason maintain its lead over VCU. She was also named the Most Outstanding Field Performer, recognizing her stellar meet, which included two gold medals in the pentathlon and high jump. Junior Olamide Enajekpo earned bronze in the shot put, while sophomore Susan Adenitan placed third in the 200m race.

Women's Indoor Track and Field A-10 Championship team. Photo by George Mason Athletics

With the championship hanging in the balance, the 4x400m relay became the deciding event. Holding a slim 2.5-point advantage over VCU, the Patriots needed to outpace the Rams to secure the title. The relay team—Chairely Bido, Simone Hamlar, Helena Santacana, and Ay'rianna Moore—delivered in dominant fashion, sealing the long-awaited victory for George Mason.

"Overall, an outstanding weekend of competition for both genders but, especially for our women. It was just a tremendous effort spread across all event groups," said Head Coach Andrew Gerard. “It really is not an exaggeration to say that we continue to have the best combined men's and women's program in the conference and that is 100% credit to the team of athletes we have assembled and the awesome staff that helps get them onto the line, circle and runway."

This victory marks a historic achievement for George Mason, as the Patriots have claimed their first A-10 Indoor Championship since 2014.

The men's team placed second, only behind Rhode Island who have won the Atlantic 10 Championship for the fifth consecutive year.

The men’s 60m hurdles were swept by the Patriots. Freshman Davian Burke won bronze, junior Albert Asare placed silver, and graduate student Joshua Sutton won the gold. Senior Paul McClain earned the gold in the 500m race, and a gold was also won in the 4x400m relays with a young team of Mason Samuels, Lance Koontz, Max Karen, and Jordan Tuck. Sophomore Abdurrazzaq Hassan got the bronze in the heptathlon.

Head Coach Andrew Gerard and his staff were honored as the Coaching Staff of the Year.

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Engineering professors develop human-AI colorization tool for cartoonists

Shayla Brown — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:28:34 +0000

Engineering professors develop human-AI colorization tool for cartoonists Shayla Brown Mon, 03/03/2025 - 12:28

�� professor Sungsoo Ray Hong has always been a huge fan of cartoons, comics, and animations. By combining his passion with his research area of human-computer interaction, he has created a new tool for cartoonists, ShadowMagic.

Hong, his colleague Yotam Gingold, and their PhD students published a paper, “ShadowMagic: Designing Human-AI Collaborative Support for Comic Professionals’ Shadowing,” elucidating the need for the tool, which aims to boost product quality and designer productivity through study-informed human-AI interaction.

The team worked with professional cartoonists to find common workflow of colorization that is shared within the industry as a reference point for their research, which examines the evolution of designing technology as cartoonists transitioned from using PCs in the 1980s to artificial intelligence, said Hong, who is an assistant professor at the Department of Information Sciences and Technology.

Creating a comic book is a team effort as there are many roles throughout the process including story drafting, sketching, colorizing, editing, and sending to a production company, said Hong.

“Professional cartoonists are sometimes producing content every other day,” said Hong, who is also director of George Mason’s Alignment Lab. “You cannot commit to these kinds of deadlines doing everything by yourself. That's why the colorization industry is so helpful to professional cartoonists.”

Colorization is a sequential process of line drawing, flatting, base colorization, shadows and/or lighting, background and other special effects. The tool stems from a previous project, FlatMagic, another AI-driven tool designed to improve the creative process for digital comic professionals.

“This is a fairly standardized process, especially in South Korea and growing throughout the United States as well,” he explained. “The solutions to these network visualizations should be contextualized, but we have the limited resources. We can’t build everything for everybody. That’s my motivation here.”

Gingold also specializes in human-computer interaction and “has always been interested in sketching and how computers can help us express ourselves,” said the Department of Computer Science associate professor.

Yotam Gingold (left) and Ray Hong in Research Hall, presenting their colorization tool. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding.

“We looked at artistic challenges, usually tedious things that aren’t so fun for the artists and break down those problems, so that they can focus more on the creative parts of it,” said Gingold, who is the director of George Mason’s Computational Reality, Creativity, and Graphics Lab.

There are millions of pixels in an image, and if an artist wants to move or change the color of a building for example, they point at one pixel among the millions. The artist wants the rest of the pixels to follow along naturally so the rest of the building should also change, he explained.

“The computers will do the math where we can write formulas to update all the other millions of pixels. Another example would be keeping lines parallel and corners perpendicular, and that’s where a lot of my research comes in,” said.

While a doctoral student at George Mason, Chuan Yan, PhD ’24, was recruited by Gingold for this project and conducted research on sketching and painting. Yan’s area of expertise encompasses computer graphics fundamentals and sketch-related computer vision techniques, which he had learned extensively from Gingold, he explained.

The ShadowMagic tool was built as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in, and since its release, the team “has garnered significant interest from artists inquiring about updates and expressing a strong desire for a tool that could free them from the labor-intensive flatting process,” said Yan, who is currently a postdoc researcher at Stanford University.

“This response is both exciting and humbling. It confirms that our research is addressing a real need in the industry yet also highlights the remaining challenges in making [the tool] ready for widespread adoption.”

Yan believes that as more sophisticated generative AI systems continue to emerge, AI-human collaboration will become increasingly vital.

“I am excited to witness and contribute to this transformation, helping to shape a future where AI acts as a powerful tool that amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it,” he said.

In This Story

Sungsoo Ray Hong

Yotam Gingold

Discover more Artificial Intelligence research from George Mason

George Mason PhD is living the dream in NYC with Met fellowship

Katarina Benson — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 17:57:26 +0000

George Mason PhD is living the dream in NYC with Met fellowship Katarina Benson Wed, 02/19/2025 - 12:57

�� history PhD candidate Jayme Kurland is living her dream this academic year as the Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

George Mason PhD candidate Jayme Kurland at the Met. Photo provided

Kurland started her college career as a viola performance major at the University of Oregon before earning her BA in music history. She then got a master’s in music history at Arizona State. As a Met fellow, Kurland is working in the musical instruments department and conducting research for her dissertation. “I’m back in my happy place,” she says, “just working with objects and thinking about the stories they can tell us.”

It’s Good to Be Back: Kurland fell in love with museum work as an undergrad when she landed a job at the Musical Instrument Museum in her hometown of Phoenix. “I never planned to move back home, but working as a curatorial assistant blended my music background with my love of museums.” She also worked as a curatorial research fellow in musical instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 2013 to 2017.

Finding Your People: Working at the Met has allowed Kurland the opportunity to connect with scholars in the musical instruments department, as well as throughout the institution. And, of course, the resources the Met offers are unparalleled. “Returning to the museum world at an institution like the Met has been tremendously rewarding. I have been able to complete hands-on work with the museum's guitar collection and really dig into my own research.”

Guitar Heroes: Kurland’s research focuses on a group of Mexican American women who wired amplifiers, wound pickups, and assembled first guitars and amps for guitar manufacturer Fender between 1946 and 1965. In addition to examining instruments in the Met’s collection and conducting oral histories, Kurland is also working with experts at Brooklyn Lutherie, a women-owned guitar and violin repair shop, where they are building a piece of equipment called a pickup winder. “[Winding pickups] is one of the skills of the women I'm studying that was completed by hand. I think that understanding the physical skills [required of the women] is a way to better understand their experience.”

Putting Yourself Out There: In addition to working on her dissertation, Kurland gets to present her research to the public in various ways, including presenting to docents, in public programs, and in a symposium called Research Out Loud, where Met fellows discuss their work. Kurland also started a writing group for fellows that meets twice a week and “holds each other accountable for what we're working on.”

Out on the Town: When not working, Kurland explores the Big Apple. “I am living in NYC full time and really trying to take advantage of the city's music scene. I try to see as much live music as possible!”

Psychology researcher focuses on why theatre education matters

Colleen Rich — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:27:35 +0000

Psychology researcher focuses on why theatre education matters Colleen Rich Wed, 02/19/2025 - 10:27

�� psychology professor Thalia R. Goldstein’s work focuses on children's developing social and emotional skills, and how such skills intersect with imaginative activities. In her latest book, Why Theatre Education Matters: Understanding its Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Benefits (Teachers College Press, 2024), she pulls together the research she’s conducted on social and emotional learning and cognitive development.

George Mason psychology professor Thalia Goldstein. Photo by Office of University Branding

What inspired you to write this book?

I have been doing work on the benefits of theater education and the arts for about 15 years, and I realized that what was missing from the scientific literature was a foundational study of the actual activities that were happening in theater classrooms. The book came from this desire to go back to acting classrooms and look at what was happening and then tie that into all the different things I had learned in my research on social and emotional learning, and cognitive development.

How do you anticipate people using this book?

My hope is that the book will be used by acting teachers, theater teachers, and other educators interested in integrating theater techniques, such as role-playing, into their classrooms. There's research that shows that using these kinds of dramatic and playful techniques can help students be more motivated in different subjects and can help them learn more deeply and retain the information for longer. My hope too is that the book is useful for policy makers and people who are writing curriculum, as well as school administrators who are looking for ways to foster creativity and social emotional skills.

The book has been assigned as a textbook in a class called Acting for Non-Actors so that the students can see they are not learning how to perform Romeo on stage. That's not a thing they may ever do, but they are learning how to release their inhibitions, collaborate with others, and reflect on their behavior. All those things are skills that are useful no matter what your job is.

Was there anything that surprised you while working on the book?

One thing that surprised me was how much emphasis there was in these theatre classes on embodiment and physicality. Obviously, actors use their bodies as the instrument. In theater, there's this dualism where you have to use your body as yourself and as your character. But what surprised me was how much classroom time was spent doing things like pushups and sit-ups, jogging around, and meditation, in order to help students have a sense of their own physical limits and their kinesthetic understanding of where they are in space.

Science is showing more and more evidence that embodiment and understanding your body is the key to a lot of well-being and mental health. Emotion regulation—the ability to understand what you're feeling and then figuring out how to alter it—is a physical process. Emotions are in the body. Knowing what an emotion is is about reading the signals your body is sending you and figuring out what they mean. It makes sense to me that some of the best scientific evidence we have about the benefits of theater are about its benefits for emotional control and emotional understanding because it's an embodied practice, it's a physical practice.

What are you working on now?

Photo by Getty Images

We are collecting data from an elementary school where we're working with students taking their very first theater classes and talking to them about their feelings. We are also looking at how they understand these embodied class processes and then connecting what the students tell us to parent and teacher reports and academic grades. We are looking at the classroom activities and how they're connected to academic, interpersonal, and social outcomes.

Another thing we're doing is we're studying grownup play—like when adults go to cosplay conventions or Renaissance fairs or dress up for Halloween. All the ways in which we do pretend play as an adult. We always talk about how we don't do pretend play anymore when we're done being a kid, but the truth is huge numbers of people engage in these other kinds of pretend play activities. And we're trying to figure out why.

How did you get interested in studying theater?

I was a drama kid growing up. I did theater all through school and double majored in psychology and theater in college. I find that it’s a pretty common double major because both majors are asking the same question, which is ‘why do people do what they do?’ It's all about what are humans and why do they do what they do.

When I graduated from college, I moved to New York City and worked as a professional actor and dancer for a few years. I did some national tours and some small movies. I did some big movies as an extra in the background. Nothing super successful or I'd still be doing it. In the end, I decided that wasn't quite for me.

Because I had majored in psychology, I had done research in college. I find you can do psychological research on basically any question you have. If it has to do with humans, there's psychology behind it. I wanted to figure out the psychology of imagination, creativity, and play. When I applied to graduate schools, that’s the pathway I took.

Reimagining robotics through art and innovation

Colleen Rich — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 21:17:05 +0000

Reimagining robotics through art and innovation Colleen Rich Fri, 02/07/2025 - 16:17

The intersection of art and technology has long been a space for innovation, creativity, and exploration. At ��’s Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) located within the College of Engineering and Computing, this connection has taken center stage with the Integrating Art and Tech Project. This project brings together students from diverse academic backgrounds to create tech-enhanced artwork that highlights MARC’s cutting-edge research in autonomy, embedded artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics.

Project lead Alexia De Costa with Irene Hossain at the exhibition. Photo by Paola Duran/Office of University Branding

The inaugural class began in the fall 2024 semester and met weekly, with artists voluntarily returning on weekends, drawn by the project’s engaging and hands-on nature. Applied computer science major Alexia De Costa, the project’s lead, guided the team of eight students—Irene Hossain, Clarisse Ladaban, Ariel Clemmons, Srikriti Bulusu, Saanvi Munigela, Oluwatomisin Badmus, Adam Alsuezi, and Wanyi Chen (visiting scholar)—who dedicated their time to designing and assembling a collection of interactive artworks.

"Technology has the potential not only to advance autonomous systems, but also to serve as an interactive medium for storytelling and creativity,” said De Costa, who is also an member of the Honors College. "The combination of artistic expression and technological advancement makes the research at MARC more accessible to the public, sparking broader conversations about how these advancements can shape our future."

Their semester-long efforts culminated in an exhibition in December showcasing the innovative projects created through this collaboration.

Exploring the Collection

The collection is divided into three thematic groups: blimps, computer vision, and ground robots, each representing a significant research area at MARC.

Blimps: Bioinspiration in Motion

Lighter-than-air autonomous vehicles are inspired by marine life, including manta rays, stingrays, jellyfish, and sharks. This influence is captured through a lenticular design, where each blimp morphs into its corresponding sea creature as viewers move past the piece. The interactive visual experience reflects MARC’s aerial robotics research and highlights the way bioinspired designs influence technological advancements.

The student team worked on the artwork throughout the fall semester. Photo provided

Computer Vision: The Watchful Eye

A moving eye follows the viewer, its pixelated iris symbolizing the computational process behind image recognition and illustrating how AI-powered computer vision perceives the world. Surrounding the eye, a realistic depiction of the sky contrasts with bounding boxes that outline detected clouds—one of which is left undetected to highlight the imperfections and limitations of computer vision technology.

The work draws inspiration from René Magritte’s The False Mirror (1928), creating a thought-provoking commentary on perception and machine learning.

Ground Robots: Interactive Autonomy

Evolved from its original concept of free-moving robots responding to human touch, the final design features a hidden George Mason logo embedded in a maze that illuminates when a viewer is detected. The background features native plant species from the university’s campus, grounding the piece in its natural environment while highlighting the fusion of technology and organic elements.

Supported by the Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) through the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP), this project benefited from oversight and guidance of MARC codirectors Missy Cummings and Jesse Kirkpatrick to ensure alignment with the center’s research goals.

“This project highlights just how much creative talent exists in George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing, and also just what student initiative and leadership can accomplish,” said Cummings. “Because of Alexia’s vision, there is now an undergraduate art and technology class that is available to all students.”

The student team with MARC codirectors Missy Cummings and Jesse Kirkpatrick. Photo by Paola Duran/Office of University Branding

Beyond showcasing student ingenuity and dedication, this collaboration between artists and engineers resulted in meaningful outcomes. Additionally, a partnership with World3D allowed the team to produce high-quality prints at a fraction of the typical cost. Pieces that would have cost upwards of $2,500 were fabricated for significantly less, making innovation more accessible.

Exploring New Frontiers in Research

The Integrating Art and Tech Project marks a pivotal step in demonstrating how art can serve as a medium for interpreting and understanding technological advancements. As MARC continues to explore new frontiers in autonomy and AI, initiatives like this will play an essential role in making complex research more tangible and engaging to broader audiences.

“Exemplifying the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, this project demonstrates how engineering and computing merge with artistic expression to create something truly innovative,” said Kirkpatrick. “At MARC, we recognize that autonomy and robotics research aren’t just about advancing technology—they’re about making it impactful, engaging, and meaningful.”

The inaugural class of students has set a remarkable precedent for future cohorts, demonstrating that technology is not only about efficiency and automation—it also has the power to drive innovation in unexpected ways, engage the human experience, and create immersive moments that resonate and inspire.

Learn more about project

In This Story

Missy Cummings

Jesse Kirkpatrick

Topics

Students

Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center

College of Engineering and Computing

Art history students’ museum exhibit unearths four centuries of Indian history

Katarina Benson — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 20:31:06 +0000

Art history students’ museum exhibit unearths four centuries of Indian history Katarina Benson Wed, 01/29/2025 - 15:31

During the fall 2024 semester, �� students had the opportunity to apply their classroom curriculum to a real-world museum environment. The students, led by art history professor Robert DeCaroli, worked directly with objects in the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Asian Art as part of the ARTH 495/595 Curating an Exhibit course.

George Mason students work with pieces of the National Museum of Asian Art collection. Photo by Robert DeCaroli

Through a partnership with the National Museum of Asian Art and the generosity of Debra Diamond, the curator for South and Southeast Asian art, DeCaroli’s students studied painted miniatures and manuscript pages dated 1500-1800 from India’s Rajput and Pahari Courts. Students curated their own online exhibit and designed all of the museum-related materials necessary for their display, including labels, wall texts, catalog entries, educational programming, gallery talks and more.

Senior Charmaine Mapp explained that museum curation begins with the intention of education. “You need to know what this culture is and what story you're trying to tell,” Mapp said.

From there, the students proposed what they wanted to do based on the 14 paintings they had selected.

“We considered the stories presented in these paintings,” said Mapp, who is a business major. “What did we want to say with our exhibition? What did we want our theme to be, and how would everything connect?”  

DeCaroli’s class ultimately settled on the theme of “Loving Krishna: Four Centuries of Indian Painting,” a title which has a double meaning, referring to the Hindu deity as both a loving god and the object of his followers’ love. The exhibit is currently on view at Fenwick Library until February 15.

"Loving Krishna" runs through February 15 at Fenwick Library. Photo by Charmaine Mapp

For DeCaroli, the course is just as rewarding for him as it is for his students. “It has been a joy watching the students feel connected to their paintings,” he said. “That enthusiasm provides motivation for excellent research into the history and meaning of the artwork.”

With George Mason’s proximity to Washington, D.C., dedicated faculty members and generous community partners, there is so much for students to explore both within and outside of the classroom.

Mapp has been interested in curation for as long as she can remember. “When you walk into a museum or a gallery, you just see the end result. But you often don’t realize that that's created from nothing. So, this was a really good experience, especially being able to go into the archives, work with the actual paintings, and meet people who worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art,” she said.

“If you’re interested in art, history, or any other field, look at the classes available,” said Mapp. “I didn't know that Curating an Exhibition was a class until I looked in the course catalog. Courses like this really allow you to get more hands-on experience, develop relationships with professors, and make connections that lead to special opportunities.” 

“I have been impressed with the class's professionalism and collaborative spirit,” said DeCaroli. “Exhibitions are group efforts and good communication skills are vital to a successful project. This class has been exemplary in that regard.”

Dive into studying art history at George Mason

George Mason scientist identifies 1,000-year-old seedling linked to biblical myrrh

Katarina Benson — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 19:50:37 +0000

George Mason scientist identifies 1,000-year-old seedling linked to biblical myrrh Katarina Benson Wed, 01/08/2025 - 14:50

�� researcher Andrea Weeks played a key role in identifying an ancient seedling linked to the biblical myrrh. The seed, a yellow and fragrant resin from the Commiphora tree, was discovered in the Judean desert and revived by a team of researchers.

The ancient seedling. Photo provided.

Weeks was invited to join the project, led by Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, because of her expertise in the evolutionary biology of Commiphora. Her extensive DNA sequence database played an instrumental role in analyzing the genetic makeup of the ancient specimen. Morgan Gostel, Weeks’ former PhD student and current research botanist at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, also played a critical role in this research.

While the team confirmed the seedling’s genus, they have yet to pinpoint its precise species. “Its exact species remains unclear, highlighting the need for further biodiversity research. No lab has yet tested every species of Commiphora,” said Weeks, who is an associate professor in the Department of Biology in the College of Science and the director of George Mason’s Ted R. Bradley Herbarium.

One of the most puzzling aspects of the discovery is the seed’s location. Found in a Levantine cave, the seed had been preserved for centuries in an area far outside the modern range of Commiphora.

Andrea Weeks. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“Radiocarbon dating reveals that this seed formed long after biblical times, but that doesn’t explain how or why it ended up in a cave in the Judean desert 800 to 1,000 years ago,” said Weeks.

Funding from previous grants awarded to Weeks by the National Science Foundation (NSF) helped lay the groundwork for her involvement and impact in this discovery of the ancient seed, which the researchers selected to call “Sheba.” “The use of NSF-funded data in identifying Sheba shows how foundational research can have lasting, unexpected benefits,” she said.

The study’s findings could significantly influence future research on biodiversity by enhancing our understanding of historical flora and their evolution within current ecosystems.

The interdisciplinary nature of the research, combining archaeology, ethnobotany, chemistry, and plant taxonomy, contributed to the team’s success. Moving forward, Weeks and her lab plan to deepen their exploration of Commiphora diversity. “Like most scientific inquiries, this project leaves us with more questions than answers,” Weeks said. “It sheds light on the complexity of biodiversity and also serves as a reminder of life’s interconnectedness across time.”

Learn more about research at George Mason

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College of Science

Research

Ted R. Bradley Herbarium

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Inquiring Minds

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 �� 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:

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