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Speaker: Parastoo Chamanrokh, Ph.D.
Language: Farsi

Synopsis:

Dr. Parastoo Chamanrokh will present an overview of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) especially GM foods covering the following topics:

• What is a Genetically Modified Organism?
• History of the GMOs
• Examples of GMOs
• Uses of GMOs
• Controversies of GMOs
• Genetically Modified Foods
• Risks and benefits of GM foods in the environment and wildlife
• Risks and benefits of GM foods to human health

About the Speaker:

Dr. Parastoo Chamanrokh has several years of experience in environmental microbiology such as Vibro cholera and H. pylori coccoid form detection, medical microbiology such as H. pylori diagnosis in stomach cancer, and biotechnology in food and oil industry. She earned her Bachelor and Master degrees in Microbiology. After graduation, she started working in the School of Chemical Engineering and the Research Center for New Technologies in Life Science Engineering at the University of Tehran as laboratory supervisor, instructor and teacher assistant.
In 2011, she started her Ph.D. at Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran while she was working as a Scientific Manager in the Iranian Gene Fanavar Institute (IGF), in Tehran. She was lecturer at the Department of Microbiology, Islamic Azad University, Malard, Iran, and instructed courses in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology in 2013. Dr. Chamanrokh graduated with Ph.D. in Medical and Environmental Microbiology in 2013.
Dr. Chamanrokh has been working as a Post-Doctoral Associate/fellow at the Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park since May 2014. In 2014, she received a scholarship from the Iranian American Academic and Professionals (IAAP) in the Post-Doc category. She has been serving as the President of Iranian Graduate Student Foundation (IGSF) at University of Maryland (UMD) since December 2014.

Please Note: No Dinner is served, only light refreshment is provided

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Speaker: Hassan Salmani, Ph.D.
Language: Farsi

Synopsis:

Digital computer technologies have penetrated to every facet of our lives through smart phones, implantable medical devices, banking, and smart power networks, to name a few. While we are amazed with unprecedented provided capabilities, they also present new threats to our personal and national economics, security, and health. Our visual media can be manipulated with Photoshop; our software and networks may be hacked; and the hardware hosting these capabilities is known to often be counterfeited and compromised. Trust is essential to our way of life; it allows us to work and live together. While what we are more familiar with is about software and internet security, this talk mainly focuses on the impact of globalization in the interested of economy on the hardware security of our computing devices. Whereas software security is on pace to become a $156 billion industry in the next five years, the challenges hardware presents are in many ways more extensive, more dangerous, and more difficult to combat.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Hassan Salmani is currently an Assistant Professor in electrical and computer engineering at Howard University, Washington DC. He got his PhD in electrical engineering from University of Connecticut in 2011. His main research projects are on hardware security and trust. Dr. Salmani has published several papers on hardware security, one book entitled “Integrated Circuit Authentication: Hardware Trojans and Counterfeit Detection”, and one chapter book on hardware Trojans. He has served on the program committee and session chairs at different conferences and as reviewers for conferences and journals. Dr. Salmani is a member of the IEEE and SAE G19-A Tampered Subgroup.

Fee (including dinner): $10 Students, $15 Public

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Speaker: Farid Tayari, PhD.
Language: English

Synopsis:

The long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) via injection into deep geologic formations represents a promising technological pathway for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. This lecture will discuss developing a preliminary assessment of the economic feasibility of storing CO2 in depleted unconventional natural gas-bearing shale formations. Using a surrogate reservoir model (SRM) and a flexible environment for techno-economic analysis, site-scale estimates of long-term CO2 sequestration costs in depleted shale gas formations and the likely major cost drivers will be discussed. This approach couples techno-economic analysis with reservoir simulation models to estimate costs associated with transportation, injection, CO2 separation and post-injection monitoring of CO2 storage permanence from large industrial point sources in depleted shale-gas reservoirs. Developed cost model forms the required structure to study the influential factors in decision making and policy analysis of CO2 storage in shale gas formations, such as CH4 and CO2 price.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Tayari is a postdoctoral researcher in Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. After gaining several years of experience in energy industry during 2005-2010 in Iran, he started his Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University in 2011, where he earned his Ph.D. in Energy Management and Policy in 2014. He received his MBA degree in Marketing from University of Tehran and his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. His research interests include quantitative analysis of complex engineering/economic energy systems, techno-economic modeling, economic feasibility assessment and policy analysis. He served as the President of Iranian Student Association at Pennsylvania State University (ISA) in 2013.

Fee (including dinner): $10 Students, $15 Public

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