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    • Fall 2025 GRASP on Robotics: Jiatao Gu, University of Pennsylvania, “Towards Robust World Models”

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    Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    This event will be in-person ONLY in Wu and Chen Auditorium. ABSTRACT Autonomous agents need a world model that explains observations, predicts what comes next, and chooses actions over long horizons. Think of catching a ball: the robot must infer where it is now and where it will be next—even when it slips out of […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Microscopic Surface Electrochemical Actuators for Voltage-Tunable Optical Elements”

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    Brand Details

    Surface electrochemical actuators (SEAs) harness ion-induced surface stress changes to produce large bending deformations at the microscale. They have previously been applied in microrobot locomotion and microbattery validation, demonstrating their versatility as low-voltage microscopic actuators. Here, we extend their functionality by showing that ultra-thin platinum membranes (10 nm thick, 10–100 µm wide), fabricated via low-temperature […]

    PICS Colloquium: Flow and heat transfer over rough walls: fundamental physics, numerical simulations, and bulk parametrizations with Elie Bou-Zeid

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    PICS Conference Room 534 - A Wing , 5th Floor 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Understanding the physical processes modulating the transport of scalars, such as heat, over very rough surfaces is essential for understanding the thermal environment of cities, how wind and solar farms modify heat and water exchanges between the atmosphere and Earth surface, and parameterizing surface physics in coarser Earth systems models. This talk examines this problem […]

    MEAM Seminar: “Self-assembly of Colloidal Diamond by Multiple Routes”

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    Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    There has been considerable interest in the colloidal self-assembly of photonic crystals with a diamond structure, owing to their exceptional optical properties, such as a wide photonic bandgap and relative insensitivity to disorder. These materials are valuable for applications in optical circuits, low-threshold lasers, sensors, and solar cells. Given the three-dimensional nature of photonic crystals, […]

    CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Exploring Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation Across Length Scales: From Atomistic Bias Potentials To Phase-Field Models” (Alexander M. Johnson)

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    Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 306 3317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Abstract: Liquid–liquid phase separation is a fundamental thermodynamic process that governs structure and function in biological systems, chemical separations, and multiphase materials. Within this broad field, computational studies play a critical role in advancing understanding of this phenomenon by enabling investigation of phase behavior across multiple length scales. In this thesis, liquid–liquid phase separation is […]

    CIS Seminar: “Reliable and Socially Aligned LLMs: Are We There Yet?”

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    Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Large language models (LLMs) are powerful but not yet reliable: they hallucinate, misalign with human values, and struggle with social reasoning. In this talk, I will trace a path from diagnosing failure modes such as hallucinations, to uncovering the pitfalls of aligning models with noisy human preferences and diverse values, and finally to emerging frontiers […]

    Fall 2025 GRASP SFI: Tianjiao Ding, University of Pennsylvania, “Learning Parsimonious Representations for Efficient Analysis and Synthesis”

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    Levine 307 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    This presenter is one of the winners of the 2025 GRASP vote for internal PhD or postdoc SFI Speakers! This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance via Zoom.  ABSTRACT The automatic discovery of structures in data (analysis) and generation of data (synthesis) are two core problems in machine […]

    CBE Seminar: “Using NMR to Probe Functionality at Electrochemical Interfaces in Beyond Lithium Batteries” (Lauren Marbella, Columbia University)

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    Wu & Chen Auditorium

    Abstract: Beyond lithium-ion batteries, like sodium and potassium, are more abundant in the Earth’s crust and alleviate geopolitical concerns surrounding the materials inside of lithium-based batteries. However, both sodium and potassium batteries display unique interfacial chemistry that develops during electrochemical cycling in conventional electrolytes, preventing performances that are on par with current lithium systems. In […]

    The Penn AI Symposium: Global Ideas Shaping Humanity

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    Jon M. Huntsman Hall 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    The inaugural Penn AI Symposium is a landmark event that gathers leading thinkers who will share their explorations at the frontiers of artificial intelligence. The symposium is hosted by Penn AI, a University-wide initiative driving responsible AI innovation at Penn. The launch of Penn AI and the upcoming symposium signal a new chapter in Penn's commitment […]

    Climate Week at Penn

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    Now in its sixth year, Climate Week at Penn offers opportunities for every member of the Penn community to learn about and act on the climate crisis. The theme for 2025 is “Hot Spots,” be they literal (wildfires and extreme heat) or figurative (political, cultural, interpersonal, or scholarly hot topics). The Climate Week core organizing […]