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PhD student Olesya Vartanyan briefs U.S. Congress on the political situation in Georgia

Paul Snodgrass — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:53:11 +0000

PhD student Olesya Vartanyan briefs U.S. Congress on the political situation in Georgia Paul Snodgrass Wed, 03/04/2026 - 14:53

On February 11, 2026, Olesya Vartanyan, a first-year PhD student at �鶹��Ƶ's Carter School and conflict analyst with more than 15 years of field experience in the South Caucasus, took part in a congressional briefing on the political situation in Georgia. The event was hosted by the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a bipartisan body bringing together members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In recent years, the commission has been a leading voice in shaping U.S. policy toward Georgia, particularly following the country’s political crisis triggered by the disputed parliamentary elections of 2024.

Olesya Vartanyan. Photo provided

Vartanyan was invited to share her assessment of developments in Georgia and to outline possible pathways toward resolving the protracted political standoff. Her long-standing work on conflict dynamics, negotiation processes, and crisis management in the region formed the basis of her recommendations.

This was not her first engagement with the U.S. Congress. In 2020, she testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the situation in Georgia’s conflict regions, which remain disputed territories following multiple wars involving Russia. In 2024, she also briefed members of Congress on developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan after renewed cycles of violence in their decades-long conflict.

Her most recent appearance came at a particularly sensitive moment. More than a year into Georgia’s political crisis, tensions remain high between the ruling authorities and opposition forces. The Georgian leadership has sought to reset relations with the current U.S. administration, amid ongoing international concerns regarding the 2024 election results in Georgia, the detention of opposition figures, and the adoption of restrictive legislation affecting civil society. At the same time, the European Union has signaled the possibility of additional measures in response to democratic backsliding.

Olesya Vartanyan testifying before a hearing of Helsinki Commission leadership from the House and Senate in 2024.

The congressional event also took place against a broader geopolitical backdrop. The United States has shown increased interest in expanding trade and transport connectivity between Central Asia and Europe through the South Caucasus. Following U.S.-facilitated diplomatic efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2025, Washington has emphasized regional stability as a strategic priority.

In her remarks, Vartanyan structured her recommendations around three core lessons drawn from Georgia’s own political history. She argued that any sustainable reset in U.S.-Georgia relations must be grounded in a genuine political settlement inside the country. She outlined a roadmap centered on inclusive dialogue, compromise across political divides, and a longer-term vision for institutional reform.

“No process will succeed without a real prospect of equal access to power for all political groups,” she stated, arguing that technical reforms alone are insufficient if political actors do not believe that power can change hands peacefully. The process, she suggested, should include elements of transitional justice as well as political agreements capable of restoring public trust.

The United States, she noted, remains uniquely positioned to encourage meaningful dialogue. “No process can succeed without a strong external guarantor,” she said, referencing earlier moments when international mediation helped overcome political stalemate in Georgia.

She also cautioned that U.S. sanctions should be used strategically and paired with diplomacy. Drawing on comparative experience, she observed that punitive measures are most effective when complemented by political engagement; absent diplomatic follow-up, they risk entrenching positions and increasing pressure on vulnerable groups within society.

Linking domestic reform to international strategy, Vartanyan warned that “without meaningful contribution to a political resolution, no reset in U.S.–Georgia relations will be sustainable.” If the structural roots of the crisis remain unaddressed, she argued, Georgia risks entering repeated cycles of instability, with consequences for its sovereignty and for broader regional security.

The briefing attracted considerable attention both in Georgia and among policymakers in the United States and Europe. Broadcast live, it was followed by viewers in Georgia despite the late hour. Local media outlets widely reported on the discussion, and transcripts of Vartanyan’s remarks circulated in both English and Georgian. Commentators across the political spectrum described the proposals as a structured and actionable roadmap for beginning a credible political process.

Although Georgia’s political crisis remains unresolved, the congressional exchange reinforced the central message of her intervention: that stability cannot be achieved through tactical resets alone. By linking domestic political reform to broader regional and strategic considerations, Vartanyan’s remarks positioned crisis resolution not as a concession to one side, but as a prerequisite for Georgia’s long-term resilience and for effective U.S. engagement in the South Caucasus. At a moment of heightened polarization, her intervention introduced a policy framework that moved the discussion from managing crisis to resolving it.

Carter School News

PhD student Olesya Vartanyan briefs U.S. Congress on the political situation in Georgia
March 4, 2026
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George �鶹��Ƶ PhD student Jessye Gassel captures timelapse of a supernova

Katarina Benson — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:45:31 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD student Jessye Gassel captures timelapse of a supernova Katarina Benson Fri, 02/13/2026 - 10:45

Jessye Gassel has always been fascinated with spinning bodies.

“I grew up figure skating,” said physics PhD student at �鶹��Ƶ. “From 3 years old to 23, I spent all my free time on the ice. And I had a lot of curiosity about how I could do the things I was doing.”

Gassel found herself looking forward to her high school physics class every day and knew, by junior year, that she would pursue it in college. A senior-year astronomy class honed that direction toward astrophysics.

George �鶹��Ƶ doctoral student Jessye Gassel presenting at the American Astronomical Society. Photo provided

Now she is working with Brian Williams, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is also her PhD advisor, and she recently presented a video compilation of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant (SNR) over the course of 25 years and related research at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kepler’s supernova remnant is the result of a Type Ia supernova–a white dwarf star in a binary system that exploded. In fact, it’s a relatively young and nearby celestial object in cosmic terms: only 400 years old and 17,000 light years away. The video was created using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured over more than two and a half decades.

“Type Ia supernovae are super cool but super rare,” said Gassel. “Cosmologists can actually use the behavior of the remnants to measure the expansion of the universe, and glean more information as to its structure, but there is still much unknown about the details of the actual explosion.”

Kepler’s SNR, she found, is expanding at different rates in different directions. The top is moving at 4 million miles per second (.05% of the speed of light), and the bottom is moving at 13.8 million miles per second (2% of the speed of light). This suggests that the top is expanding into a much denser material than the bottom. Part of what Gassel and her team want to explore next is what, exactly, that material is made of.

“The newest observations of Kepler were taken in summer 2025, and we started putting everything together last November for the January conference,” said Gassel, who has a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Gassel and Williams previously investigated Tycho’s supernova remnant in 2024 before moving on to Kepler.

The release of the video brought Gassel and Williams—and Kepler—lots of media attention. While publishing papers is standard for researchers, having a NASA press release about your work isn’t, so Gassel said having this opportunity as a doctoral student has been an honor.

“Seeing a news release on the front page of the NASA website with my name attached to it and reading all of the articles that other outlets published about it has given me a major confidence boost,” she said. “Since high school, I’ve struggled with imposter phenomenon as a woman in STEM, so this has truly felt like a ‘I’ve made it’ moment.”

On the doctoral front, Gassel is still putting together her dissertation committee and hasn’t settled on a project yet, although she is pretty sure it will involve supernova remnants and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Chandra the dog dressed as Chandra the telescope for Halloween. Photo provided

In fact, Gassel named her dog, Chandra, after the telescope that has brought so much meaning to her professional life. Dog Chandra debuted at the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s Halloween party last fall dressed as the Chandra X-ray Observatory and won first prize.

Although Gassel is focused on the stars, she said her terrestrial plans after George �鶹��Ƶ include seeking at teaching position and continuing with her research.

Videos: Supernova Remnant Video From NASA's Chandra Is Decades in Making

Animation courtesy of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory illustrating the supernova studied in this research.

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PhD student’s research addresses how adolescent social media use predicts in-person friendship networks

Shayla Brown — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:03:18 +0000

PhD student’s research addresses how adolescent social media use predicts in-person friendship networks Shayla Brown Wed, 02/04/2026 - 13:03

�鶹��Ƶ doctoral student Caroline Toth looks at how adolescents’ social media use is associated with the structure of their in-person friendship networks. Her research shows that friendships were more likely among youth with similar levels of problematic social media use and digital status seeking.

Photo by Getty Images

“This reflects a social network mechanism known as homophily, which is essentially love of the same, meaning that youth select friends who are similar to themselves in problematic social media use and digital status seeking. By doing this study, we're showing that friendships aren't forming at random, but being shaped in part by digital habits and values that are shared among friendship networks,” said Toth, a graduate research assistant in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Applied Developmental Psychology Program in the Department of Psychology.

Her first paper on the topic was recently published at the Journal of Children and Media.

“Adolescence is a very sensitive time for social processing. Teens are very sensitive to social cues,” said Toth, who earned her master’s degree from the same George �鶹��Ƶ program in 2021.

Caroline Toth. Photo provided.

Toth’s paper, “Problematic social media use, availability distress, and digital status seeking: Links to friendship network structure among U.S. adolescents,” explores how adolescents use social media to feel connected to others and gain social standing.

“Previous research has mainly examined links between social media use and disrupted sleep, anxiety, and depression. However, as a social networks scholar, I'm really interested in how adolescents’ online behaviors and emotional reactions to social media affect the structure of their friendship network,” Toth said.

This research is especially relevant to Generation Alpha, born between 2010 and 2024. When adolescents select friends who engage in similar problematic online behaviors, the resulting shared emotional thoughts, reactions, and behaviors can start to feel expected and encouraged within these friendship groups, said Toth.

This can be especially harmful because teens use social media to gain popularity and approval. The normalization of problematic online behaviors within friend groups makes them appear necessary for social success, explained Toth.

An example of problematic social media use is excessive use of social media to the point that it impacts your ability to focus on school or work. Within friend groups, adolescents are likely to reinforce this problematic usage because it’s what they see their friends doing. Toth emphasizes that algorithms are becoming more sophisticated and increasing adolescents’ exposure to highly engaging, emotionally charged content, keeping them constantly active online.

“It's critical that we continue to examine the constant feedback loop between the demands of the peer group and adolescents’ own emotional reactions to their online activities, so that we can help adolescents develop better coping mechanisms and survival skills for online life,” she said.

Toth states that interventions focused on improving self-regulation of social media use and emotional regulation show promise in helping young people resist algorithmic content manipulation, and take back control of their social media usage.

Olga Kornienko. Photo provided.

Toth and her mentor Olga Kornienko, an associate professor of applied developmental psychology, are collaborating with a public school district in Arizona to understand sources the role of social relationships as sources of risk and resilience in the lives of contemporary youth.

Working out of George �鶹��Ƶ’s Peer Networks and Development Lab, Toth and Kornienko are collecting data from ninth-grade students through a series of questions about their social media use, culture, and psychological well-being.

They are collaborating with scholars from University of California, Davis, and Arizona State University, where Kornienko earned her PhD in 2010.

“Our study is not specific to any one social media platform. We were able to capture the broader digital experience that adolescents have online that reflects their everyday life. We hope it will remain relevant to Gen Alpha and beyond because even as individual platforms go in and out of use or new ones pop up, they're still going to have those core aspects of promoting constant engagement and peer feedback,” said Toth.

Toth said that while she didn’t have much experience with academic publishing before coming to graduate school at George �鶹��Ƶ, she hit the ground running. “We started [this research project] in my very first semester, so it was a very important part of my professional development working with Dr. Kornienko,” Toth said. “[She taught me about] so many different aspects of peer interaction and networks, social media, and how they're all interconnected.”

“It’s been such a pleasure seeing Caro grow as a researcher and academic,” said Kornienko. “She is addressing a very complex topic and contributing to more positive adolescent experiences.”

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Bridging Health and Justice: How Schar PhD Student Loveline Phillips Is Shaping Policy Research

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:30:52 +0000

Bridging Health and Justice: How Schar PhD Student Loveline Phillips Is Shaping Policy Research Andrew J Schappert Mon, 01/26/2026 - 09:30

Loveline Phillips on Schar School faculty: ‘The professors are welcoming, they’re warm, hospitable, and they just want to see you excel as a student.’ Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Loveline Phillips’s path to �鶹��Ƶ has been anything but linear. Born in Nigeria, educated in her homeland and the United Kingdom, and now pursuing a PhD at George �鶹��Ƶ’s Schar School of Policy and Government, Phillips carries with her a global perspective shaped by migration, scholarship, and persistence—and, more recently, motherhood.

Loveline Phillips Photo provided

Her first experience in the United States came in 2017, when she visited from the United Kingdom where she was studying sustainable development on a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, a fund designed to support students from underserved Commonwealth nations to pursue master’s degrees.

Her then-fiancé was a student at Purdue University in Indiana, which brought her to the United States.

Ever the scholar, Phillips completed one year of a master of philosophy degree in Santa Monica, California, at Pardee RAND Graduate School, an institute within the RAND Corporation, where she deepened her training in policy analysis and research.

From there, she set her sights on a PhD in public policy and applied to the Schar School. Acceptance at the school introduced her to a mentor who would shape her work at George �鶹��Ƶ: University Professor Faye Taxman, a health services criminologist and founding director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence, exclamatorily known as ACE!.

The match was not obvious at first. Phillips’s background was in international economic development and health policy, not criminal justice.

“I’d never done anything on criminal justice prior to coming to George �鶹��Ƶ,” she said. Still, she leaned on advice instilled by her parents: “Whatever your hands find to do, do it to the best of your ability.”

At the Schar School, Phillips found a way to connect her prior interests with her new field.

“There’s a health and justice nexus,” she said. “These are vulnerable populations that are prone to health challenges and have poor health outcomes.”

Her published work with Taxman examines probation, reentry, and community supervision through both health and justice lenses—a combination she now sees as central to her academic identity.

Phillips credits the Schar School, and Taxman in particular, with accelerating her development as a scholar.

“Prior to joining the Schar School, I never had a first-authored publication,” she said. “And now I have two, with one book chapter coming out soon.”

Taxman, she added, is “my advisor, she’s my dissertation committee chair, she’s a mentor, and she has really pushed me in my career.”

Beyond mentorship, Phillips said the Schar School has given her rigorous methodological training, including using powerful research tools, such as the qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti. That, mixed with her quantitative and social network analysis skills through coursework, results in a valuable mix of method skills, allowing her to approach problems from multiple angles.

“Using both her qualitative skills and system-theory causal loop diagram methods, she has uncovered patterns of how different systems interconnected,” said Taxman. “From this, she identifies how to improve the functioning of systems and organizations.”

Phillips is, she said, “a remarkable graduate student committed to applying the methods she learns at the Schar School of Policy and Government.”

What has surprised Phillips most about the Schar School is its ethos of real-world policy and public service work as well as its collaborative and experiential culture.

“Seeing how faculty is really invested in students’ development stands out,” she said. “The professors are welcoming, they’re warm, hospitable, and they just want to see you excel as a student.”

Balancing doctoral research with life as a parent to a 14-month-old daughter, Tioluwani, Phillips remains focused on the impact of her work. Her next paper looks at how probation conditions impact probationers, especially as they re-enter society, with the goal, she said, of informing both practitioners and researchers for the public good.

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George �鶹��Ƶ faculty and students host inaugural Qualitative Research Day

Shayla Brown — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:46:15 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ faculty and students host inaugural Qualitative Research Day  Shayla Brown Wed, 01/21/2026 - 09:46

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Supriya Baily

Erin D. Maughan, PhD

�鶹��Ƶ recently held its first-ever Qualitative Research Day, an event for PhD students of all disciplines to engage in hands-on and interactive opportunities with the goal of learning new qualitative research techniques and methodologies. The inaugural event is the latest innovation in George �鶹��Ƶ's ongoing efforts to find new ways to support its PhD students.

The event was a collaboration between faculty and students from the College of Public Health, the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), and the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, including Supriya Baily from Carter School, Erin Maughan from the School of Nursing, Bethany Letiecq from CEHD, PhD students Karthik Ramanujam and Tara Altay, and Fenwick Library team members, including Debby Kermer and Ramanujam.

The team received funding from each of the colleges as well as the Graduate Nursing Organization and the Graduate Division.

Baily, who served as president of the Comparative and International Education Society, an academic association comprising more than 3,500 researchers, analysts, practitioners, and students, used her connections to bring national research experts to the event to deliver keynotes, lead workshops, and guide students through data analysis activities. Students were able to refine their qualitative research skills and network with professional qualitative researchers from across the globe.

Keynote speakers Kevin Roy (left) and Colleen Vesely at Qualitative Research Day. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

"We did this purely because we thought the students needed it. We were determined that this was going to be a hands-on and interactive event to ensure that the students left having learned something new," said Baily, who was previously co-director of the Center for International Education.

"I was very grateful they were willing to come here and share their expertise with the students," Baily said of the guest speakers.

"PhD students need to enhance their skills in this area—be more rigorous, professional, figure out how it's valued—and look at the new methodologies of doing it," she said.

Maughan teaches NURS 920 Qualitative Research in Nursing and Health Care in the School of Nursing where she met students who were passionate about qualitative research, including Altay, her advisee and doctoral nursing student.

"I was helping Tara navigate the resources on campus, and that's when we realized that there's actually a bit of a gap in resources for qualitative research compared to that for quantitative research, which tends to be the more traditional research for many [PhD candidates]," said Maughan.

The team made sure the events really resonated with the students by identifying where they wanted more information. The biggest area of interest for PhD students focusing on qualitative research was analysis.

Qualitative Research Day presentation. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

Guest speaker Jeffrey Lee, former professor of education at University of Massachusetts Global, guided students through best practices in data coding, data analysis, and theme development. His workshop helped students build expertise by framing the complexity of data analysis in an accessible and scaffolded approach.

Lee also categorized reviews from the recent Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere to demonstrate the process for qualitative analysis of audience reception.

Altay, who is working on a PhD in nursing and earned a Qualitative Research Certificate, worked with Maughan and Baily to help make Qualitative Research Day happen.

"To my knowledge, it's rare for students in the School of Nursing to do a full qualitative dissertation, but the nursing faculty have been super supportive of my doing a full qualitative dissertation, which is such a huge thing," said Altay, whose research focuses on the stigma sex workers face with health care providers.

"It's all about students' professional development so they can be the best versions of themselves when they go off and get jobs as researchers and scholars," said Baily. "As the next generation of academics, they'll be able to say 'George �鶹��Ƶ trained me well.'"

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George �鶹��Ƶ PhD champions coral reef conservation through research and mentorship

Katarina Benson — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:36:41 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD champions coral reef conservation through research and mentorship Katarina Benson Thu, 07/24/2025 - 14:36

As a doctoral student at �鶹��Ƶ, Jordan Sims has spent the past several years immersed, literally and figuratively, in the underwater ecosystems of Honduras, where her research is helping solve real-world challenges in coral reef conservation.

Jordan Sims working with coral samples in the lab. Photo provided

As a marine microbial ecologist, Sims studied the invisible world of microbes living in and around coral reefs, exploring how these tiny organisms influence the health of one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth. Much of Sims’s dissertation work involved coral settlement to help conservationists improve restoration techniques. She also investigated genotyping corals in restoration programs to ensure their genetic diversity supports long-term survival.

“It’s good science, and it’s important science,” said Sims, who graduated with a PhD in Environmental Science and Public Policy in May. “But it’s also applicable science. That was really fulfilling to me in my dissertation.”

Sims’s connection to Honduras came about through George �鶹��Ƶ’s SCUBA Club. The club had taken students to Honduras for years, building strong relationships with local researchers and conservationists. When Sims joined the club as a PhD student, a single trip turned into an ongoing collaboration.

“I got to go on a trip and build those relationships, and then I continued working with them independently,” she said.

With her advisor, Environmental Science and Policy professor Jennifer Salerno, Sims nurtured those partnerships beyond the initial group trips, returning to Honduras on her own to work with the Roatán Institute for Marine Sciences, where she mentored undergraduate interns involved in reef research.

Collecting reef samples in Honduras. Photo provided

Sims shared that one of her most memorable experiences at George �鶹��Ƶ was mentoring a student through the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, offered by the university’s Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR). The student developed a passion for reef work during a field trip to Honduras, later joined Sims on a research project, and ultimately returned to George �鶹��Ƶ to pursue a master’s degree. “Watching that journey unfold was incredibly meaningful,” Sims said. “Being part of someone discovering their path was deeply rewarding.”

Sims earned her bachelor’s degree at Rice University, where she first developed an interest in marine biology and coral reefs. When considering graduate programs, she knew she wanted a PhD that combined science with policy. “In coral reef science, applied work is so important,” she explained. “Corals are dying, and we have such limited resources, so everything we do should contribute to the bigger picture.”

In 2022, Sims was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which she credits as a turning point in her academic career. After spending two years as a teaching assistant, the NSF support allowed her to shift to a research assistantship. “I was able to focus fully on my research, and I like to think I helped the reefs more because of that.”

Now, Sims is preparing to take the next step in her career: a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley. “I love doing research. I love mentoring students,” she said. “So, I’m looking for a place where I can be very hands-on with the reef but also help bring up the next generation of scientists.”

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Using virtual reality to prevent falls in older adults

Katarina Benson — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:51:03 +0000

Using virtual reality to prevent falls in older adults Katarina Benson Tue, 07/01/2025 - 14:51

Annually, one in four senior citizens seek emergency care from a fall-related injury. Traditionally, conventional physical therapy rehabilitation approaches have been used to help prevent falls, which are often the result of poor balance. However, many in the physical therapy field now view immersive virtual reality (VR) technology as an intriguing option. While laboratory-based experiments provide promising findings, to date this technology has yet to be translated into clinical settings.

Tiphanie Raffegeau of �鶹��Ƶ ’s School of Kinesiology in the College of Education and Human Development, and Christopher Rhea, Old Dominion University’s associate dean for Research and Innovation in Ellmer College of Health Sciences, envisioned a future where clinicians could use affordable VR technology to outperform traditional diagnostics, therapeutics, and pharmaceutical approaches in fall prevention. They saw an opportunity to develop effective uses of VR technology to detect cognitive-motor function in older adults and identify fall-risk factors for this population. They were awarded a 4-VA grant for the project.

Neuroscience major Sammana Waziri tries out the rehabilitative VR in the lab. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Raffegeau’s prior research focused on inducing anxiety during walking to study the fear of falling with an elevated height VR paradigm, while Rhea has primarily concentrated on examining how people adapt their steps to avoid obstacles in virtual environments. Through a 4-VA partnership, they aimed to increase accessibility to rehabilitative VR technology for interventions focused on reducing older adult fall-risk, while developing a framework for future scalable and fundable research.

Raffegeau hired three student programmers, Trevor Hsu, Chara Canfield, and Micah D Williams, from George �鶹��Ƶ’s Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI) to help. The student programmers were supervised by VSGI research faculty member Jacob Enfield. Two �鶹��Ƶ graduate students are also working on the project: Kelly Poretti and Mackenzie Barrowman.

After a year of research, Raffegeau noted, “Our testing proved fruitful, and we identified a number of important results.”

First, they found that experiencing fall-related anxiety in immersive VR can further impair a senior’s walking performance. Interestingly, they also found that the anxiety response tapers over time, suggesting that experiencing virtual high-elevation settings may reduce fall-related anxiety overall. They also saw that anxiety-provoking VR settings could promote stability-related adaptations during non-VR walking in impaired populations. This suggested that the VR experience could serve as a clinical intervention to improve walking.

Tiphanie Raffegeau, Mackenzie Barrowman, and Kelly Poretti with the poster of their study. Photo provided

They shared their findings at the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society’s annual meeting, the American Society of Biomechanics annual meeting, and the College of Education and Human Development’s Research Symposium.

Poretti, who is working on a PhD in Education, was awarded the Switzer Research Fellowship for Doctoral Dissertation Research by the Administration for Community Living for her dissertation “Using Virtual Reality to Reduce Mobility-Related Anxiety in Lower-Limb Prosthetic Users,” which uses preliminary data from the VR project.

“This 4-VA funding provided crucial funds to support my work as an early investigator, and it has made my future grant applications stronger as evidence of institutional support for my career trajectory,” Raffegeau said.

Raffegeau and Rhea will continue to pursue this line of research. They recently submitted a proposal to the National Institutes on Aging on “Investigating Biobehavioral Responses to Mobility-Specific Anxiety Across the Menopause Transition and the Effects on Mobility and Fall-Risk,” focusing on the effect of VR-induced fall-related anxiety on walking in pre- and post-menopausal older women.

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Blast breakthroughs from Brazil bolster international engineering collaboration

Nathan Kahl — Wed, 21 May 2025 12:14:20 +0000

Blast breakthroughs from Brazil bolster international engineering collaboration Nathan Kahl Wed, 05/21/2025 - 08:14

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A long-standing partnership between the Brazilian Air Force and �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing is supporting a visiting PhD student’s investigation into explosion research, and enabling faculty to gather data that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.

Anselmo da Silva Augusto, a Brazilian Air Force major, is working with Girum Urgessa, an expert in structural engineering and mechanics, in what Urgessa calls a win-win partnership. “We provide the technical advice and mentorship and gather invaluable data from the tests Anselmo has been conducting,” said Urgessa.

This ongoing collaboration has yielded rapid results, with three peer-reviewed journal papers and five conference papers to be presented in the United States, Brazil, and Portugal.

The results of the blast, which can be digitally sent from Brazil to Anselmo. Photo provided.

Augusto is a trained civil engineer now pursuing his doctorate, who for nearly 20 years has focused on building protection. His military work led him to study explosives—specifically, how to best protect structures against blasts. The Brazilian Air Force sent him abroad, as part of a partnership with universities worldwide, where their service members study for one year.

Urgessa, a professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, was happy to host him, having met Augusto during a previous visit to Brazil, where Urgessa was a keynote speaker at an international defense symposium.

Augusto’s work examines how steel sheets respond to near-field blasts and investigates protective systems, such as elastomers, rubber-like polymers that stretch. The technical and safety requirements make these tests impossible to conduct at George �鶹��Ƶ.

“You need to be far from urban areas, and you must have appropriate protocol for the safe handling of explosives,” said Augusto, describing the challenges of setting off an explosive roughly the size of an apple. “Also, there are several people involved, including safety experts, engineers, and technicians.”

High-speed cameras record the explosions, allowing the researchers to see the detonation in detail. “With the camera, recording at 10,000 frames per second, we are able to see the sheet deforming, which happens in about one millisecond.”

The team working in Brazil scans the damaged sheets and sends the data to Augusto, who 3D prints a replica, a completely accurate, small-scale version of the results that he can hold in his hands.

Augusto and Urgessa are using the findings to inform best practices for retrofitting structures against human-induced or accidental explosions. “If you have an existing historical building, you can apply this protective material to enhance its capacity," Augusto said. Or, in other applications, you may have a tank or a military vehicle that needs to be as light as possible and use different types of polymer composites for better protection.”

Urgessa said, “When we think about new construction, having this information helps to determine safe stand-off distances. It supports site planning decisions. We can't predict the exact magnitude of the next threat, but field-scale tests supplemented by computational models help us design resilient and secure structures.”

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Criminology, Law and Society researcher studies impact of high school principal-led interrogations

Katarina Benson — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 16:52:39 +0000

Criminology, Law and Society researcher studies impact of high school principal-led interrogations Katarina Benson Mon, 04/07/2025 - 12:52

Wrongful convictions upend lives, particularly those of youth, and can result in students becoming part of the school-to-prison pipeline. Talley Bettens, a doctoral candidate in �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Criminology, Law and Society, seeks to trace this issue to its roots: adolescent behavior and the school environment.

Talley Bettens. Photo provided

Bettens has received a graduate research fellowship from the National Institute of Justice to support her dissertation titled “Schoolhouse Interrogations and Confessions: Perspectives from Principals and Students.” Her research will advance the understanding of school disciplinary practices and provide important insights into the factors that may contribute to wrongful convictions of youth. Allison Redlich, Distinguished University Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, is the chair of Bettens’s dissertation committee.

“This research will help us learn more about how principals investigate misconduct before deciding to discipline students. It will hopefully lead to the development of tools that improve the system and ensure that innocent youth are protected,” Bettens said.

Bettens will examine how high school principals interrogate students about potential misconduct and how these interrogation practices may influence the likelihood of coerced or false confessions from students. Bettens's study has two major phases. The first phase involves a survey of high school principals across the United States. Participants will be asked about the interrogation methods they use when questioning students and their knowledge of adolescents’ vulnerabilities when being interrogated.

The second phase involves direct work with students in Northern Virginia high schools. This phase involves a hypothetical interrogation scenario between the principal and a student. This will lead to more insight into how likely students are to confess under these circumstances. It also examines the problems faced by students in interrogations.

“We aim to gain information from both sides of the interrogation: from the principals and from the students,” Bettens said. “The use of guilt-presumptive, confession-driven interrogation methods when questioning students could increase the chance that students, even innocent ones, fall into the school to prison pipeline. By addressing the root of the issue from both sides, we can better understand how to prevent these numbers from increasing.”

The interdisciplinary approach combines criminal justice studies and psychological studies, finding common ground in how the school-to-prison pipeline may be initiated in these interrogations. Bettens said she takes a special interest in innocence, given an apparent lack of presumption of innocence for students at school, which may affect their view of themselves and their surroundings. This impact could play a large role in the students’ futures. which leads to the question Bettens aims to explore: How do we improve the tools for these educators who investigate misconduct while simultaneously protecting students?

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