Social media can be much more than political rants and snapshots of scrumptious meals or furry friends. Statler College researchers have found that social networking platforms can serve as a direct-to-consumer marketing tool for drug dealers to sell illicit drugs. Professor Xin Li in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Chuanbo Hu, post-doctoral fellow, said that detection of online illicit drug trafficking has become critical to combat the drug trade on cyber platforms.

At a U.S. Army base command center, a computer beeps and displays a warning: the power has gone down in one corner of the base. Cybersecurity experts jump into action. They ensure critical systems are on backup generators as they search for the reason for the outage. One of them points to her screen and calls out that the power grid’s information system has been compromised—a cyber attack is likely.

At the beginning of 2022, Amazon announced it would send Alexa to space as part of Artemis I, the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. As a collaboration between Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Cisco, many engineers are integrating Alexa into deep space missions, including a West Virginia University alumnus.

Pedro Mago, Glen H. Hiner dean of the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, announced the winners of the College’s outstanding teaching, advising, research and staff awards for the 2021-2022 academic year on April 1, 2022.

Following four years of implementing energy efficient technologies and placing amongst top performing universities each year as part of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge, the West Virginia University EcoCAR team has been selected to participate in a new four-year competition that will test students’ ability to engineer a next generation battery electric vehicle.

Honored for their innovative work in the field of fast radio bursts utilizing the CHIME radio telescope, the international CHIME/FRB team will receive the 2022 Berkeley prize for its dramatic progress on fast radio bursts (FRBs).

Stark digital transformations of the last quarter-century have brought about unique challenges for people. At no point in human history have data and technology impacted almost every facet of our daily lives. Navigating the digital age is not always easy — our personal information now lives in online accounts and on our devices — and regulations over individual privacy and security are lacking.

At Statler College, our students and researchers are addressing important challenges in biometric technology development and are helping to educate the public about personal privacy and data and new advancements in the latest technology.

In celebration of Black History Month, the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources is honoring students, alumni and faculty from diverse backgrounds to showcase their successes in engineering and beyond and share how they continue to make a difference in society.

Dear friends and colleagues,

As we look forward to May commencement to recognize the accomplishments of our exceptional students, the spring semester witnessed many recognition events to celebrate our outstanding students, faculty and staff. Please take a moment to read the stories in this newsletter highlighting examples of achievements in the Lane Department. Earlier this month, we celebrated the President’s List and Dean’s List students and recognized the College’s teaching, research, advising and staff award winners. Congratulations to all of them. In March, we hosted our first-ever graduate student poster session showcasing all the impactful work done by our brilliant researchers. March also witnessed generous contributions from our friends on WVU’s fifth Day of Giving. Your support is greatly appreciated. Summer brings longer days and blooming flowers. It’s also time to rethink and strategize our efforts for student success and interdisciplinary research programs. We look forward to continued growth and societal impact.

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Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources | West Virginia University
1374 Evansdale Drive | P.O. Box 6070 | Morgantown, WV 26506-6070
PHONE: 304.293.4821 | EMAIL: engineeringwv@mail.wvu.edu

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